Colonel Thomas Westbrook (1675–1743/44) was a senior New England militia officer in Maine during Dummer's War. In addition to this senior militia role he was a scout, a colonial councillor, an innkeeper, a mill owner, a land speculator and a King's Mast Agent.Aileen B. Agnew, "Big Timber: the Mast Trade", My Maine Memory accessed 26 December 2010Letter, Thomas Westbrook to William Pepperell, 25 May 1734 Maine Memory accessed December 26, 2010 He is the namesake of Westbrook, Maine.
Early years
During Queen Anne's War, Westbrook became a ranger in a small company of four (1704).
In 1716 the General Assembly of the Province made a grant to Thomas Westbrook, to keep the only public house at the Plains, in consideration that he should lay out six acres of land for the accommodation of drawing up the militia of the town. From at least 1720 he was the owner and proprietor.
Father Rale's War During the years 1721-3 Westbrook became a captain in the militia and, after the fall of Colonel Shadrach Walton from favour with Massachusett's acting Governor William Dummer, became the colonel in charge of the militia in the "East" (Maine)Robert Bayley, The First Schoolmaster in Falmouth (Portland) Maine and Some of His Descendants In: SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY http://files.usgwarchives.net/me/cumberland/portland/school/sj4p196.txt accessed August 21, 2010
A focus during the Father Rale's War was the New England effort to capture Father Sebastien Rale, a Jesuit priest and French national who resided with and, the New Englanders thought, guided the natives to raid and kill or abduct New England colonists. The General Court of Massachusetts in December 1721 directed the militia to apprehend Rale and bring him to Boston to answer these charges.
The Strong Box In January 1722 Colonel Westbrook led a group of militia that, unable to find Rale, seized a strongbox containing his correspondence with Marquis de Vaudreuil, the French Governor in Quebec, and a hand written dictionary of the native Abenaki language. In the minds of New Englanders of the day, the letters proved French complicity in urging Native American tribes to attack New England settlements, and they were conveyed to authorities in Boston.William Goold, Portland in the past (1886), p.181 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4DfmZIJyM2UC&dq=%22thomas+westbrook+waldron%22+elizabeth&pg=PA212 accessed August 21, 2010The dictionary is now in Harvard University's Houghton Library. Dan L. Thrapp (ed)., "Thomas Westbrook", In: Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography, p.1536The strongbox was retained by Westbrook and descended through his family and through the Massachusetts Historical Society until his descendant the Catholic Reverend E.Q.S. Waldron willed it to the Maine Historical Society. (See George E. Hodgdon, Reminiscences and Genealogical Record of the Vaughan Family of America, (1918) pp.6-8 at: https://archive.org/stream/reminiscencesgen00hodg#page/6/mode/2up/search/waldron accessed September 5, 2010Wilfred H. Paradis, Upon this granite: Catholicism in New Hampshire, 1647-1997, p.17 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=EVRUMkz7ndcC&dq=Rasle+OR+rale+strongbox+waldron&pg=PA17 accessed September 6, 2010William Goold, Portland in the past (1886), p.183 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4DfmZIJyM2UC&dq=%22thomas+westbrook+waldron%22+elizabeth&pg=PA212 accessed August 21, 2010"Maine" In: Historical Magazine and Notes and Queries Covering the ..., vol 5, p.76 which recounts the reading of Rev. Waldron's letter within the Maine Historical Society's January 24, 1861 meeting.
He was present at the December 15, 1725 Falmouth peace treaty with the Native American's, Dummer's Treaty, which ended the hostilities, apparently his last act as a militia officer.William Goold, Portland in the past (1886), pp.191,196 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4DfmZIJyM2UC&dq=%22thomas+westbrook+waldron%22+elizabeth&pg=PA212 accessed August 21, 2010
Falmouth, Maine He moved to Falmouth (modern Portland, Maine) "as early as 1719" to enter the lucrative business of providing masts to the British navy as a private contractor. He was one of only a few European-descended residents there at that time.Southgate, History of Scarborough, cited In: William Goold, Portland in the past (1886), p.198 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4DfmZIJyM2UC&dq=%22thomas+westbrook+waldron%22+elizabeth&pg=PA212 accessed August 21, 2010
He was appointed as King's Mast Agent in 1727 and moved the "King's mast business" from Portsmouth to Falmouth.William Goold, Portland in the past (1886), p.199 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4DfmZIJyM2UC&dq=%22thomas+westbrook+waldron%22+elizabeth&pg=PA212 accessed August 21, 2010 The mast agent was charged by the Crown with marking, protecting and providing trees which were suitable for ship's masts in the Royal Navy.Tate House Museum - History of Mast Trade (website) accessed January 7, 2013.
Westbrook "became a citizen" of Falmouth in August 1727. He built his "splendid seat" of "Harrow House" with garrisons on the south side of Stroudwater River on a property.William Goold, Portland in the past (1886), p.204 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4DfmZIJyM2UC&dq=%22thomas+westbrook+waldron%22+elizabeth&pg=PA212 accessed August 21, 2010 It was likely at this home that Westbrook entertained Governor Belcher and other guests.Goold
He built two mills, a gristmill whose stones still surviveScottow's Stockade Fort accessed December 28, 2010William and Rufus King Stone accessed December 28, 2010 as markers of other historical sites, and a papermill.William Goold, Portland in the past (1886), p.205 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4DfmZIJyM2UC&dq=%22thomas+westbrook+waldron%22+elizabeth&pg=PA212 accessed August 21, 2010 Native chief Polin travelled to the governor to protest Col. Westbrook's failure to provide a way for spawning fish to get past his mill."August 10, 1739" in:
Councilor As early as 1710 he was part of the King's Council appointed by the governor, and held his post (though often absent) until 1730 when he resigned voluntarily."Father of City Lived An Exciting Life Indeed", newspaper article, at Westbrook Historical SocietyMinutes of a General Assembly meeting, December 2, 1730 In: Nathaniel Bouton, (ed)., "Journal of General Assembly", Provincial and state papers, New Hampshire Historical Society, vol. 4, pp.769-770 accessed January 2, 2011 In 1733 he was briefly in Boston as a representative to the council from Falmouth and courted by Governor Jonathan Belcher to be a supporter of the Massachusetts government. He showed little interest in these duties and was fined for being absent.Michael C. Batinski, Jonathan Belcher, Colonial Governor (1996), p.99.
Business With the young Brigadier General Samuel Waldo (pictured at right) he became a land speculator of as much as 15,000 acres in the Falmouth area (near present-day Portland, Maine). The two partners prospered until, for reasons that are not entirely clear, Waldo "[who had] led him into large land speculations ... then struck upon him in an unfortunate time."Judge Freeman, compiler of Smith's Journal, as quoted in Portland in the Past at Google Books, p.208 "Waldo by unscrupulous or ruthless means divested Westbrook of his lands and much of his wealth by 1743..."
"In 1743, Waldo recovered judgement against him for ten thousand five hundred pounds, which he levied upon his property, and swept it nearly all away."William Willis, The History of Portland, from 1632to 1864; with a notice of a previous ..., p.355, footnote at: https://books.google.com/books?id=ZMsrAAAAYAAJ&dq=richard+waldron+portsmouth&pg=PA355 accessed August 26, 2010
A copy of one of his later letters, desperately seeking a loan, survived and was transcribed near the end of Trask's Letters of Colonel Thomas Westbrook. Unlike most of his letters, this one was probably not dictated and captures Westbrook's choice of spelling as well as his desperation.
Death He died heavily in debt on 11 February 1743/1744 "of a broken heart caused by Waldo's Acts".Judge Freeman, compiler of Smith's Journal, as quoted in Portland in the Past at Google Books, p.208. He expired in a smaller cottage adjacent to his beloved Harrow House, which had been lost to his creditors. Despite his bankruptcy his estate was valued at seven thousand, three hundred and two pounds.William Goold, Portland in the past (1886), p.209 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4DfmZIJyM2UC&dq=%22thomas+westbrook+waldron%22+elizabeth&pg=PA212 accessed August 21, 2010 In contrast, his probate inventory totalled £1052/14/5 and included a house, a pew in Rev Smith's meetinghouse, and books.Maine Probate Abstracts "Vol Viii: 1749 -1753" page 331 His Globe Tavern later appears among the property owned by his grandson Thomas Westbrook Waldron though the date of transfer of this property and of his son in law's house is unknown.
"[H]is family was forced to spirit his body away in the middle of a nighttime snowstorm in order to prevent the Waldo family from claiming Westbrook's remains and holding them "hostage" until debts were paid". The burial location was unknownWilliam Goold, Portland in the past (1886), p.211 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4DfmZIJyM2UC&dq=%22thomas+westbrook+waldron%22+elizabeth&pg=PA212 accessed August 21, 2010Westbrook Historical Society, "Col. Westbrook burial plot" at: http://www.westbrookhistoricalsociety.org/Cemeteries/Col.%20Westbrook.pdf accessed August 21, 2010 until the 1976 bicentennial celebrations except to descendants of his sister Mary (Westbrook) Knight.Isabel T. Coburn, "The Westbrook Secret: A Skeleton in the Woods Solves A 232-Year Old Mystery", Portland Evening Express, Tues, July 27, 1976, (with photo of Westbrook's partially exhumed skeleton) copy at Westbrook Historical Society The gravesite, located at Smiling Hill Farm, has been marked by the Daughters of Colonial Wars in Maine and is pictured on the Knight family farm's website."Smiling Hill Farm History" http://www.smilinghill.com/Dairy_Farm_history.html accessed August 21, 2010
Family
Born in 1675, he was the son of John Westbrook and Martha Walford of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His siblings included Mary who married Nathan Knight,Myrtle Kittridge Lovejoy, Earle G. Shettleworth, and William David Barry, This was Stroudwater: 1727-1860, (1985) p.5 as cited by Craig Bryant at http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=peru1812&id=I31136 accessed August 23, 2010 and whose family continues to own and operate the "Smiling Hill" farm."Smiling Hill Farm History" at http://www.smilinghill.com/Dairy_Farm_history.html accessed August 21, 2010"Our 12th Generation" http://www.smilinghill.com/about-us.html accessed August 21, 2010
Thomas married Mary Sherburne, daughter of the mariner John Sherburne and his wife Mary Cowell.Edward Raymond Sherburne & William Sherburne, "Henry Sherburne of Portsmouth, N.H., and some of his Descendants" In: New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1904, pp. 228-9 The restored Sherburne house at Portsmouth, New Hampshire's Strawbery Banke, has been identified as theirs. Their only child, Elizabeth, married Richard Waldron (Secretary) of a prominent colonial New Hampshire family.William Blake Trask (ed)., Letters of Colonel Thomas Westbrook .... (1901), p.5, at: http://library.umaine.edu/wabanaki/Letters_of_Colonel.pdf accessed August 22, 2010William Goold, Portland in the past (1886), p.208 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=4DfmZIJyM2UC&dq=%22thomas+westbrook+waldron%22+elizabeth&pg=PA212 accessed August 21, 2010