Samuel Waldo

Samuel Waldo (August 7, 1696 – May 23, 1759) was a wealthy merchant, land speculator, soldier and political figure in the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

This article is about the colonial Massachusetts merchant. For the painter, see Samuel Lovett Waldo.

Samuel Waldo
Brigadier General Samuel Waldo (c. 1748–1750) by Robert Feke
Born(1696-08-07)August 7, 1696
Boston, Massachusetts
DiedMay 23, 1759(1759-05-23) (aged 62)
near Bangor, Maine
Resting placeFort Point, Cape Jellison, Maine (until 1760)
King's Chapel Burying Ground, Boston (since)
Spouse(s)Lucy Wainwright
Parent(s)Jonathan Waldo
Hannah Mason
Military career
Allegiance British America
Service/branch Massachusetts Bay Colonial Militia
Years of servicec.1742–1759
RankBrigadier-General
Battles/warsSiege of Louisbourg (1745)
Other worknamed Mount Waldo
Signature

Biography

He was born in Boston, the son of Jonathan Waldo and Hannah Mason. In 1722, he married Lucy Wainwright.[1] In 1730, he purchased a 17th-century title to a large tract of land in Nova Scotia with the intent of establishing a colony there; the title did not stand up when he proposed this plan to the authorities in England. A one-time business partner of Colonel Thomas Westbrook, Waldo acquired a large tract of land between the Penobscot and Muscongus Rivers in what is now Maine where he settled Irish and German immigrants.

During King George's War, he served as brigadier-general in the attack on Fortress Louisbourg in 1745 and served on the temporary council that administered the settlement until Peter Warren was named governor. In 1757, during the French and Indian War, he submitted a plan to William Pitt which served as a basis for the second capture of Louisbourg from the French the following year. Waldo died of apoplexy near present-day Bangor, Maine in 1759 while participating in a military expedition with Governor Thomas Pownall.[2] He was initially buried at Fort Pownall (at Cape Jellison), but his remains were transported to Boston in 1760 and interred at the King's Chapel Burying Ground.[3]

The Maine towns of Waldo and Waldoboro, together with Waldo County, are named for their early proprietor.[4]

His son-in-law Thomas Flucker was royal secretary of Massachusetts and later Provincial Governor. His granddaughter, Lucy Flucker Knox, married Revolutionary War hero and founding father Henry Knox. The Knox's built the impressive Montpelier on Waldo's tract of land in Thomaston, Maine.

See also

References
  1. Charles H. Browning, The American Historical Register; The Historical Register Publishing Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1895
  2. Rawlyk, George A. (1974). "Waldo, Samuel". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. III (1741–1770) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
  3. Collections of the Maine Historical Society
  4. Chadbourne, Ava H. (April 20, 1949). "Many Maine towns bear names of military men". Lewiston Evening Journal. pp. A-2. Retrieved October 17, 2015.
  • The Lithgow Family-Descendants of John Bridge, 1884, by William Frederick Bridge
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