Updated on Apr 13, 2021
Our spacious house, Biscay Repose, sits on a secluded hillside overlooking the west shore of Biscay Pond on a one acre tranquil location among the trees.The main living area boasts an open, airy...
Bristol , known from 1632 to 1765 as Pemaquid . The village, however, was English and the New Englanders considered it the northern boundary (See Benjamin Church. The History of King Phillips War. 1825. p. 181).
Once territory of the Wawenock (or Walinakiak, meaning "People of the Bay") Abenaki Indians, early Bristol was one of the most important and embattled frontier settlements in the province. Beginning with seasonal fishing, as early as 1625 the English established at Pemaquid Point a year-round trading post for fur trading. In 1631, the area was granted as the Pemaquid Patent by the Plymouth Council to Robert Aldsworth and Gyles Elbridge, merchants from Bristol, England.
A village and palisade fort were constructed.
In 1632, Pemaquid was raided and plundered by the pirate Dixie Bull.
The Great Colonial Hurricane on August 15, 1635 sank the galleon Angel Gabriel while anchored off the settlement, drowning some crew and passengers.
In 1664, the Duke of York (the future King James II) claimed Pemaquid was within his patent, which also included Sagadahoc and recently acquired New Amsterdam. To help anglicize the latter into New York City, Governor Sir Edmund Andros had some of its Dutch inhabitants transported to Pemaquid, now called Jamestown for its royal owner. By 1665, the village had approximately 30 houses.
During King Philip's War, in 1676 Indians attacked and burned English settlements up the coast, including Pemaquid. The following year, a new wooden defense called Fort Charles was built.
During King William's War—the first of four French and Indian Wars—Fort Charles and the village were attacked and destroyed in 1689 by the French from Castine, Maine. The inhabitants of Pemaquid were either killed or taken prisoner.
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By 1692, the English regained control of the region, and Sir William Phipps ordered construction of Fort William Henry, named after King William III of England. This time built of stone.
On August 14–15, 1696, the famous Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville captured and destroyed the fort along with a combined force of French and Indians from present-day Castine. Commander of the fort, Captain Pascoe Chubb surrendered the fort. Iberville killed three of the soldiers and sent the other ninety-two back to Boston. In response to this raid Benjamin Church was sent from Boston to attack Acadia.
In early May 1717, a sloop under the command of a Captain Carr was captured by ten pirates on a 25-ton sloop (formerly owned by a Colonel Stephen Minot) in Pemaquid. The pirate sloop had come from Monhegan to the south, where on April 29, the Snow (a type of two masted vessel) Anne arrived. The Anne had originally been captured off the Virginia Capes in April by the pirate Samuel Bellamy in the Whydah , which wrecked in a storm on the night of April 26, 1717 off of Cape Cod. The Anne made it through the storm with another captured vessel, the Fisher (which was soon abandoned and the pirates aboard her transferred to the Anne ). The pirates arrived at Monhegan on April 29, and waited for the Whydah , for the pirates had not seen nor heard about the Whydah 's wrecking in the storm of the night of April 26. The pirates eventually realized the Whydah was lost, and proceeded to attack vessels in the area, including Matinicus Island (which is where the sloop the pirates used at Pemaquid was captured from). The attack at Pemaquid was described in a deposition as follows:
...[the pirates] went after Capt. Carr's sloop, lying at Pemaquid, which they alsoe took a little distance from said Pemaquid, but finding the Mast and Bowspreat not serviceable [to repair the snow] they left her there, and brought the Master thereof aboard the Snow then at Menhagen [Monhegan]...
The pirates soon left the area, abandoning all the other vessels (including the Anne ) they had captured and most of their prisoners at Matinicus on or about May 9, 1717 on Minot's sloop.
During Father Rale's War, the location was a rendezvous for Natives and French to return inhabitants of Pemaquid and vicinity that they had taken prisoner during the war.
Colonel David Dunbar, Surveyor-General of the King's Woods, rebuilt the fort in 1729–1730, renaming it
More about BRISTOL under "Town Info"
This page uses material from the Wikipedia article Bristol, Maine , which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.