Richard Waldron

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Richard Waldron
A woodcut of an older man in traditional sleeping clothes and nightcap confronting armed natives within his home
Major Waldron defends against armed natives in the Cochecho Massacre of 1689
President of New Hampshire
In office
1681–1682
Preceded byJohn Cutt
Succeeded byEdward Cranfield
Personal details
Born
Richard Walderne

(1615-01-06)6 January 1615
Alcester, Warwickshire, England
Died27 June 1689(1689-06-27) (aged 74)
Dover, Province of New Hampshire
Spouse(s)Unknown, Ann Scammon
Parent(s)William Walderne and Catherine Raven
OccupationPresident of colonial New Hampshire, merchant, magistrate, councillor, mill owner, Major of the New Hampshire Militia and speaker of the colonial Massachusetts assembly
Signature

Major Richard Waldron (or Richard Waldern, Richard Walderne; 1615–1689) was an English-born merchant, soldier, and government official who rose to prominence in early colonial

Royal Council after it was first separated from Massachusetts.[1]

Described as an "immensely able, forceful and ambitious"

Puritan family, he left his English home and moved to what is now Dover, New Hampshire. He first came about 1635. He built mills on the Cochecho River, amassed local land holdings that endured in his family for over 170 years,[3][4] controlled much of the local native trade, and was prominent in local politics and as deputy to the Massachusetts General Court for 25 years from 1654. He was speaker several times. When the first president of the colonial New Hampshire council, John Cutt, died suddenly, council member Walderne became the acting president or governor until Edward Cranfield arrived from England. "By the 1670s the portion of Dover known as Cochecho [village] had become something like Waldron's personal fiefdom, and citizens in the other areas of settlement rarely challenged his social authority."[2]

Birth and family

Waldron (or Walderne)[5] was born in Alcester, Warwickshire, England. One of many children of William Walderne and Catherine Raven, he was christened on 6 January 1615.[6] Little is known of his early life. The name of his first wife is unknown. He married second Ann Scammon. He had several children.[7]

Masonian property dispute

Perhaps because he was a prominent landholder, he was singled out

land titles in colonial New Hampshire in favor of the descendants of John Mason, a colonial governor, colonizer, and admiral who was granted a land patent for the Province of New Hampshire by the British crown and planted the first British colonists there.[9]

Quaker persecution

In 1662, three

vagabonds by being bound behind a cart and being made to walk over 80 miles (130 km) in a bitter winter through ten neighboring townships. Beginning in Dover, and on arrival in each township, they were to be publicly stripped to the waist and whipped ten times. Major Robert Pike stopped the torture and released them in Salisbury, the third township in which they were mistreated. There, after urgently required medical assistance from Walter Barefoote, the women left for Maine.[10] These three Quaker women are the subject of the poem How the Women Went from Dover by the 19th-century American Quaker poet, John Greenleaf Whittier.[11]

Trickery against Native Americans

At the end of

Old Jethro (Tantamous) to whom Waldron may have promised amnesty in negotiations with his son Peter Jethro.[12] The rest of the captives were sold into slavery in "foreign parts",[13] mostly Barbados
.

The local Indians were released, but never forgave Waldron for the deception, which violated all the rules of honor and hospitality valued by both sides. Richard Waldron was appointed

Chief Justice for New Hampshire in 1683.[14][15]

Cochecho Massacre

The death of Major Waldron

During King William's War natives took revenge on Waldron for his actions during King Philip's War in the Cochecho Massacre of 1689. At the time local Pennacook women were regularly allowed into the garrisoned homes of the Dover settlers when they requested shelter for the night. Some settlers were concerned about the lack of vigilance and possible danger from this practice, but Waldron mocked their fears: "go plant your pumpkins" (i.e. I will protect you)[16] Their concern was justified, as on the night of 27 June 1689, native women seemingly staying peacefully overnight opened garrison house doors to waiting armed warriors. One historian wrote, "In one bloody afternoon, a quarter of the colonists in what is now downtown Dover, NH were gone – 23 killed, 29 captured in a revenge attack by native warriors."[17] The elderly Waldron, once disarmed, was singled out for special torture and mutilation: the Indians cut him across the belly with knives, each saying "I cross out my account,"[18] and his house burned.[19] Charles Frost was ambushed by natives in 1697 during King William's War for his collaboration with Waldron during the pair's trickery in King Philip's War.

Waldron is buried in the Cochecho Burying Ground, Dover, which is also known as Waldron Cemetery.

Family legacy

Coat of Arms of Richard Waldron

His son

Captain John Sherburne, and great-granddaughter of one of the Laconia Company factors and "assistant governor"[22] Ambrose Gibbins.[23] However, "With the disappearance of an old and illustrious family, the release of a third of our central territory to the uses of a new population and the whirl of machinery, old Dover passed away and new Dover began its life."[24]

The family did not entirely disappear after the transfer of the extensive Waldron lands. A Thomas Westbrook Waldron, grandson of Colonel Thomas Westbrook Waldron, moved north to found a Canadian branch of the family in

United States Marines Corps
, and yet another a college principal.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Richard Waldron" in: "Brief Notices of Councilors", Collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society, Volume 8 By New Hampshire Historical Society, pp.337–338.
  2. ^ a b Colonial New Hampshire – A History, by Jere Daniell, p. 60
  3. ISBN 978-0-7884-4382-4
    .
  4. ^ Cutts Genealogy, pp 536-7, which quotes Historical Memoranda by Rev. A.H. Quint
  5. ^ He and his ancestors spelled his name as Walderne but subsequent generations wrote it as Waldron. See for example The New England Magazine Volume 0023 Issue 1 (Sept 1897) "Old Dover, New Hampshire" Garland, Caroline Harwood, In: New England Magazine, p.99 as found at http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=newe;cc=newe;idno=newe0023-1;node=newe0023-1%3A1;frm=frameset;view=image;seq=107;page=root;size=s
  6. ^ "Pedigree of Waldron from parish registers", H.G. Somerby, New England historical and genealogical register, viii 78.
  7. ^ A Genealogical Dictionary of The First Settlers of New England, Before 1692, by James Savage, Volume #4, at http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/newengland/savage/bk4/wait-wale s.htm but also as found at http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=glencoe&id=I42065
  8. ^ John Scales and Alonzo Quint, Historical Memoranda Concerning Persons & Places in Old Dover, N.H., p. 218 accessed 6 January 2012
  9. ^ "Richard Waldron" in: "Brief Notices of Councilors", Collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society, Volume 8 By New Hampshire Historical Society, pp..338–9
  10. ISBN 978-1300785774
    .
  11. ^ The Whipping of the Quaker Women. Dover Public Library. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  12. ^ Brooks, Lisa, Our Beloved Kin (Yale University Press, 2018), "Peter Jethro and the Capture of Monoco"
  13. ISBN 9780595391417
    .
  14. ^ Stackpole, Everett Schermerhorn; Thompson, Lucien; Meserve, Winthrop Smith (1913). History of the town of Durham, New Hampshire : (Oyster River Plantation) with genealogical notes. University of New Hampshire Library. [Durham? N.H.] : Published by vote of the town.
  15. ^ Belknap, The History of New Hampshire, volume 1, Source of Science Series [reprint], pp. 75–6.
  16. ISBN 9781596292192
    .
  17. ^ Cochecho Massacre. SeacoastNH. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  18. ^ The Cochecho Massacre. Dover Public Library. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  19. ^ Caroline Harwood. Old Dover, New Hampshire. The New England Magazine. p. 103. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  20. ^ The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. New England Historic Genealogical Society. 1865.
  21. ^ "Letter from Thomas W. Waldron to Meshech Weare" Dover, N. H., 19 August 1776, In: http://www.stanklos.net/advSearchParaDet.php?pid=16531&psname=CORRESPONDENCE%2C%20PROCEEDINGS%2C%20ETC.
  22. ^ Rambles about Portsmouth: Sketches of persons, localities, and ..., Volume 2 by Charles Warren Brewster, William Henry Young Hackett, Lawerence Shorey, p. 51
  23. ^ 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. 227–9
  24. ^ Historical Memoranda Concerning Persons and Places in Old Dover, New Hampshire By Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, p. 408

Works consulted

"Richard Waldron" in: "Brief Notices of Councilors", Collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society, Volume 8 By New Hampshire Historical Society, pp. 332–341 gives a comprehensive biography

Government offices
Preceded by President of the Province of New Hampshire (acting)
1681–82 		Succeeded byas Governor of the Province of New Hampshire
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