Rare Sir Wm. Pepperell 1718 ADS 10X, Maj. Gen. French Indian War, hero of Louisb

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Rare Sir Wm. Pepperell 1718 ADS 10X, Maj. Gen. French Indian War, hero of Louisb:
$69.99

Sir William Pepperrell, 1st Baronet (1696-1759). Soldier in Colonial Massachusetts. He is widely remembered for organizing,financing, and leading the 1745 expedition that captured the French garrison atFortress Louisburg during King George\'s War. During his day Pepperrell was called \"thehero of Louisburg,\"

Autograph Document Signed 10 times,3 times in full (one ofthese on separate lines), 3 times as“Wm. Pepperell” and 4 times as “Said [or Sd.] Pepperell,” 2 pages folio, Nov.8, 1718. A complicated document wherebyPepperell seems to give John Stagpole [Stackpole]permission to take timber from Pepperell’s property in Kittery, Massachusetts[later Maine]. The document has beentorn with the loss of some text on the left of the first page and right of thesecond page and there are two small internal holes, but otherwise it is indecent condition for a 298 year old document.Autographs of Pepperell are scarce because most have long since beenabsorbed into institutional collections.

William Pepperrell was a native of Kittery, Maine, then apart of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and lived there all his life. Bornto William Pepperrell, an English settler of Welsh descent who began his careeras a fisherman\'s apprentice, and Margery Bray, daughter of a well-to-do Kitterymerchant, William Pepperrell studied surveying and navigation before joininghis father (a shipbuilder and fishing boat owner) in business. Young WilliamPepperrell expanded their enterprise to become one of the most prosperousmercantile houses in New England with ships carrying lumber, fish and otherproducts to the West Indies and Europe. The Pepperrells sunk their profits intoland, and soon they controlled immense tracts. Pepperrell served in themilitia, becoming a captain (1717), major, lieutenant-colonel, and in 1726colonel. He also married well, to the granddaughter of Samuel Sewall of Boston.In short, the rise of the Pepperrells within two generations was meteoric. Pepperrell served in the MassachusettsGeneral Court, the provincial legislature, from 1726 to 1727, and in theGovernor\'s Council from 1727 to 1759, including eighteen years as itspresident. Although not a trained lawyer, he was chief justice of the Court ofCommon Pleas from 1730 until his death. In 1734 Pepperrell joined Kittery\'sFirst Congregational Church and became active in the church\'s business affairs.

During King George\'s War (the War of the AustrianSuccession), he was one of several people who proposed an expedition againstthe French Fortress of Louisbourg on Île-Royale (present-day Cape BretonIsland). He gathered volunteers, financed and trained the land forces in thatcampaign. When they sailed in April 1745, he was commander-in-chief, supportedby a British naval squadron under Captain Peter Warren, appointed Commodore ona temporary basis. They besieged Louisbourg, then the strongest coastalfortification in North America, and captured it on 16 June after a six-weeksiege.

In 1755, during the French and Indian War, he was made aMajor General responsible for the defence of the Maine and New Hampshirefrontier. Throughout that war he was instrumental in raising and trainingtroops for the Massachusetts colony. Two regiments were raised locally withfunds supplied by the British Crown, entering the army list as the 50th(Shirley\'s) and 51st (Pepperrell\'s) Regiments of Foot. Both regiments took partin the disastrous British campaign of 1755/56. Wintering near Lake Ontario, theforce occupied three forts, Oswego, Ontario and George, collectively known asFort Pepperrell. Surrounded and besieged by a French force under Montcalm, bothregiments surrendered after the local commander was killed. Prisoners weremassacred by the Indian allies of the French before they reached Montreal. Bothregiments were subsequently removed from the army list.

Between March and August 1757, he was acting governor ofMassachusetts. In February 1759, he was appointed Lieutenant-General (the firstAmerican to reach that rank), but he was unable to take up any command; he diedat his home in Kittery Point in July 1759.