Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/288

 264

��Lieiit.-Gen. Sir WilUavi Pepperrcll, Bart.

��the celebrated Judge Sewall of the su- preme court. She had many attrac- tions, not the least of which was a fine education. He soon fell in love with her, and, after a short but assiduous courtship, they were married March 1 6,

1723-

A.D. 1726 he was chosen to repre- sent the town of Kittery (it also then included Elliot), and the next year he was appointed a councillor. He was re-appointed to the latter office for thirty-two years, until his death. He was president of the board during eighteen years.

In 1729 he added to some purchases of land he had made several years be- fore, on the banks of the Saco River : and he thus became the owner of the greater part of the towns of Saco and Scarborough. The mill privileges made the property especially valuable.

During the past few years, he had been made successively a captain, major, lieutenant-colonel : and he was commis- sioned a colonel on reaching the age of thirty years. This rank gave him the command of all the militia in Maine.

In 1730 Gov. Belcher, "my own and my father's friend," as he affectionately describtd him in one of his letters to an acquaintance, appointed him chief justice of the court of common pleas ; and he held this high office until his death in 1759.

He now appears to have had quite enough for such comparatively young shoulders to bear. There were his offi- cial duties as a justice of the peace, chief justice of the court of common pleas, member of the governor's coun- cil, and colonel of a regiment. His business also demanded much of his time, to say nothing of his family cares.

Although their home was in Kittery, Col. Pepperrell and his wife spent much

��of their time in Boston, as his duties often called him here.

France declared war on the 15 th of March, 1 744 ; and about six months prior to that. Gov. Shirley sent a let- ter to Col. Pepperrell, desiring him to hold his regiment in readiness to protect the frontier against the Indians. He accordingly sent copies of it to each of his captains, and also added the following spirited sentence : "I hope that He who gave us our breath will give us the courage and prudence to behave ourselves like true - born Englishmen."

Having glanced at Col. Pepperrell's early history, let us now turn to the great act of his life, which will hand his name down to posterity, — the cap- ture of Louisburg, the " Gibraltar of America." It was the leading event in our Colonial history ; but it was followed so closely by the Revolution, that it is somewhat obscured in the light of that great struggle. The town of Louisburg, named after " le gratid monarque,^'' is situated in the south-eastern part of Cape Breton Island, adjoining Nova Scotia, and controls the entrance to the Gulf and River St. Lawrence. It com- manded the fisheries by its position. The island also produced large quanti- ties of excellent ship timber. That ripe scholar, the Rev. Jeremy Belknap, in his exhaustive description of its capture, says the town of Louisburg " was two and a half miles in circumference, for- tified in every- accessible part, with a rampart of stone from thirty to thirty- six feet high, and a ditch eighty feet wide. . . . On an island at the entrance to the harbor, which was only four hun- dred yards wide, was a battery of thirty cannon, carrying twenty - eight pound shot ; and at the bottom of the harbor, directly opposite to the entrance, was

�� �