William Pepperrell
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William Pepperrell (1696 - 1759)

Sir William Pepperrell
Born in Kittery, York, Massachusetts Baymap
Ancestors ancestors
Husband of — married 16 Mar 1723 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colonymap
Descendants descendants
Died at age 63 in Kittery, York, Massachusetts Baymap
Problems/Questions Profile managers: Nace Few private message [send private message] and Phillip Pepperrell private message [send private message]
Profile last modified | Created 28 Mar 2013
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Contents

Biography

Notables Project
William Pepperrell is Notable.
This profile is part of the Pepperrell Name Study.

Sir William Pepperrell of Kittery Point, Maine (1696-1759), was perhaps the most famous colonial hero few people remember. It is said that when George Washington was a boy, he wanted to be Sir William Pepperrell. Husband, father, the richest man in colonial America, land baron, ship builder, judge, military hero, politician, owner of enslaved people. This is his unvarnished story Sir William Pepperrell: His Unvarnished Story a video created, and released on YouTube, by Jim White of Spruce Creek TV.

Early Life

William was born on June 27, 1696[1] the son of William Pepperrell and Margery Bray.[2]

Family

William married Mary Hirst, the daughter of Grove and Elizabeth (Sewall) Hirst of Boston, on the 16 March 1723[3] in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony. They had four children but only the first two survived infancy.

  1. Elizabeth Pepperrell
  2. Andrew Pepperrell
  3. William Pepperrell
  4. Margery Pepperrell

Military

William was a Colonel of the militia and following the declaration of war between France and England in 1744 it was agreed that Louisburg must be captured from the French to provide safety to trade and navigation. Governor Shirley appointed Col. Pepperrell as Commander of the expedition with the promotion to Lieutenant-General. The expedition sailed on 24 March 1745 with the fall of Louisburg happening in the following July. He was created a Baronet of Great Britain, the first native of America to receive the patent, in 1755 he was commissioned Major-General by King George II, in 1756 he was appointed Commander of Castle William in Boston Harbour, and of the whole military forces of Massachusetts, with the rank of Lieutenant-General.[4]

Death

General Sir William Pepperrell died at his home, in Kittery, on 6 July 1759 in his 63rd year, notice in the New York - Mercury. [5]

Will

Written fourth Day of July 1759. To wife Mary the Income of the Half of my real Estate to Hold for the Term of her natural Life. Named Daughter Elizabeth Sparhawk. Grandson William Pepperrell Sparhawk. Grandson Andrew Pepperrell Sparhawk. Grandson Nathaniel Sparhawk Jr. Grandson Samuel Hirst Sparhawk. Son in Law Nathaniel Sparhawk Esq. Sister Miriam Tyler. Sister Dorothy Newmarch. Sister Mary Prescot. Sister Margery Gunnison. Kinsmen Iohn & Andrew Philips. kinswoman Sarah Frost my Dec'd Brother's eldest Daughter. Children of my kinswoman Margery Wentworth Dec'd et al. Nominated Wife Mary, Jeremiah Moulton Jr Esq. & Mr Benjamin Greenleaf, Executors. Probated 24 July 1759; 14 July 1759 Mr. Greenleaf declines the trust. [6]

Research Notes

He is widely remembered for organizing, financing, and leading the 1745 expedition that captured the French garrison at Fortress Louisbourg during King George's War.[7]

For published sources

  • Browne-Wilkinson, Virginia. Pepperrell Posterity. Florence, Italy: V. Browne-Wilkinson, 1982.
  • Howard, Cecil Hampden Cutts. The Pepperrells in America. Salt Lake City, UT: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1986.
  • Fairchild, Byron. Messrs. William Pepperrell Merchants at Piscataqua. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Pr., 1954.
  • Parsons, Usher. The Life of Sir William Pepperrell: the Only Native of New England Who Was Created a Baronet during Our Connection with the Mother Country. Boston: Little, Brown and company, 1856.

Sources

  1. Howard, Cecil Hampden Cutts. The Pepperrells in America, citing from the Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, volumes XXXVII-XLII, 1906, digital reproduction created at the Library of Congress, page 5.
  2. Everett S. Stackpole; Old Kittery and Her Families;1902; page 364[1]
  3. Howard, Cecil Hampden Cutts. The Pepperrells in America, citing from the Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, volumes XXXVII-XLII, 1906, digital reproduction created at the Library of Congress, page 8.
  4. Howard, Cecil Hampden Cutts. The Pepperrells in America, citing from the Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, volumes XXXVII-XLII, 1906, digital reproduction created at the Library of Congress, page 10.
  5. Genealogical Data from Colonial New York Newspapers: A Consolidation of ... edited by Kenneth Scott. https://books.google.ca/books?id=ftIhNIvRp3IC&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=drowned+on+14+Apr+when+he+was+knocked+overboard+by+the+main+boom.&source=bl&ots=AcmusmjtVO&sig=ACfU3U10JnvL2DP_2KrEsJ_zBcgJR4eLwQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjMv4njzvLyAhVBFjQIHXmCBjwQ6AF6BAgfEAM#v=onepage&q=drowned%20on%2014%20Apr%20when%20he%20was%20knocked%20overboard%20by%20the%20main%20boom.&f=false
  6. http://www.mainegenealogy.net/maine_wills.asp?source=probatecourtvol10&testator=SirWilliamPepperrell
  7. Wikipedia: William_Pepperrell (accessed June 5, 2017)




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Comments: 4

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Activists in Saco Maine is trying to remove William Pepperell's name from A square in Saco because he owned slaves.. a heads up

https://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/2623/slideshow/1620/display?format=list&prev_object_id=4227&prev_object=page

posted by Betty Jo Bunker
Pepperell-8 and Pepperrell-2 appear to represent the same person because: William Pepperrell the younger (27 June 1696-6 July 1759) was the son of William Pepperrell the Elder and his wife Margery (formerly Bray) and married Mary Hirst on 16 March 1723.

The profile Pepperrell-2 was an orphan profile that I have adopted as part of my Pepperrell Surname Study.

posted on Pepperell-8 (merged) by Phillip Pepperrell
Pepperrell-21 and Pepperell-8 appear to represent the same person because: Pepperell-8 is the only William b. to William & Margarey, although when his profile was created, it was created missing a 2nd letter r, as in Pepperrell. That needs to be changed. The dates for Pepperrell-21, appear to be made up, as the reference to Old Kittery and Her Families, page 364, does not mention the given birth & death. In fact, in that reference, page 649, it states that William Pepperrell(Pepperell-8) was b. 1690. It makes no reference to a William b. c. 1660.
posted on Pepperell-8 (merged) by Nace Few
Pepperell-68 and Pepperell-8 appear to represent the same person because: same father, no indication of two sons with the same name
posted on Pepperell-8 (merged) by Robin Lee

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