Our Pioneers

This section of our website is devoted to our pioneers who settled in the Piscataqua region of New Hampshire and Maine. The biographies and maps are excerpted from our Piscataqua Pioneers : Selected Biographies of Early Settlers in Northern New England, Portsmouth, N.H., 2000. The visuals are provided by members. The visuals are provided by members. Use the sidebar menu at left to locate biographies of individual Pioneers.

We begin with William and Humphrey Chadbourne. Humphrey was an early settler of Dover, NH, Sturgeon Creek, Kittery, ME and also Portsmouth, NH.

CHADBOURNE, WILLIAM, bap. 30 Mar 1582, Church of St. Editha, Tamworth, Warwickshire, son of Robert and Margaret [Margery](Dooley) Chadbourne. He came to Kittery, Maine arriving aboard the Pied Cow 8 July 1634 along with James Wall and John Goddard.

House wrights and master carpenters, Chadbourne, Wall, and Goddard were under contract with Capt. John Mason, dated 16 Mar 1633/34, to build mills in Berwick and run them on shares. The men began to build the first water-powered saw mill and grist mill in New England on 22 Jul 1634. The agreement was to work for five years, after which they were to have fifty acres of land on lease for the term of three lives (or generations) by the payment of three bushels of corn annually.

Chadbourne built a house on his land which he gave to his son-in-law Thomas Spencer. His wife was Elizabeth Sparry, m. Tamworth, England 8 Oct 1609. No record of when she came to America, but there were 22 unidentified women on the Pied Cow in 1634.

Sources: Chadbourne Genealogy First Generation. NLD; NHGR, v.10, 1993; Chadbourne Family Genealogy by E. C. Bacon, p.1-3. jfg,kc,sfg

Home site: Part of its foundation is under the present house on the NW corner of Battle and Vine Streets on the road from the Lower Landing (Hamilton House) to the orig. mill site at Great Works Falls, kc

Children:
1. William, bap. Tamworth, Engl. 30 Sep 1610, bur. there 18 Apr 1616.
2. Patience, bap. Tamworth, Engl. 8 Nov 1612, m. Thomas Spencer, 7 ch.
3. Humphrey, bap. Tamworth, Engl. 23 Apr 1615, m. Lucy Treworgye, 7 ch. See
separate entry under Chadbourne, Humphrey.
4. Susannah, bap. Tamworth, 22 Feb 1617/18, bur. there, 26 Apr 1618.
5. William, bap. 15 Oct 1620, m. Mary —. At least 1 dau. Mary, b. Boston Dec
1644 who m. John Fost.
6. Robert, bap. 1 June 1623, bur. Tamworth 19 Jan 1626/27.

CHADBOURNE, HUMPHREY, son of William and Elizabeth (Sparry) Chadbourne, bap. Tamworth, England 23 Apr 1615, d. Kittery, Maine 1667 (will 25 May - 13 Sep 1667). He bought his first land from the Sagamore Rowles in 1643, and built his homestead there on neck of land where the Newichawannock and Asbenbedick Rivers converged. Later was an Indian trader and in close relations with them.

Grants of 300 a. in 1651 and 1652. He purchased a farm in Dover from Robert Nanny. Also land at Sturgeon Creek, Kittery, from Nicholas Shapleigh, marrying Shapleigh's niece, Lucy Treworgye, dau. of James and Katherine (Shapleigh) Treworgye (NLD). Secondary sources (ADM, p.19 and RP1, p.18) credit Humphrey with construction of the Great House in Portsmouth.Other sources feel that the contract for its construction was given to William Chadbourne and that his son Humphrey "helped to build it" (Chadbourne Family Assn.).

By occupation, Humphrey was a miller, but he held several significant public offices as well. Humphrey held several significant public offices in Kittery, serving as town clerk in 1650 and "often thereafter." He was appointed a deputy to the General Court in 1657, 1659-60. He signed the petition against the claims of the Gorges heirs in 1662, and was an associate judge in 1662-63. In her novel The Tory Lover, Sarah Orne Jewett described Judge Chadbourne "as a man or singular dignity" and "the law-giver of Kittery."

Home Site: No record that Humphrey ever lived on the "Plott of Mr. Humphrey Chadbournes Farm at Sturgeon Creek," shown 1701 surveyed for town of Kittery for tax purposes. Chadbourne Family Association says the Sturgeon Creek Farm was an investment where his son James later lived. Humphrey and Lucy's home site was on a neck of land where the Newichawannock and Asbenbedick Rivers orig. converged (the land purchased from Sagamore Rowles). Evidence of the foundation of a home has been found by archaeological dig once conducted at the site. It is on a nice rise of land overlooking Leigh's Mill Pond in a field behind the Yeaton-Varney farm stand on Vine Street in South Berwick. Evidence dates the original structure c.1644, burned by Indians 1690.

Children:
1. Lt. Humphrey, b. c.1653, d. c.1694, m. Sarah Bolles, ch: Humphrey Esq., b. 2
Sep 1678 (not in 1699/1700 will of grmo.), m. Hannah Abbott; Mary, b. 1680, m. William Dyer; William, b. c.1683, m. Mary Nason, 10 ch.; Elizabeth, b. c.1687, m. Amos Fernald; Capt. Joseph, b. c.1690, m. Sarah Phipps, 9 ch.

2. James, b. c.1655, m. Elizabeth Heard/Hurd, ch.: Lucia, b. 1681, m. Jeremiah
Calef; James, b. 29 Sep 1684, m. Sarah (Hatch) Downing, 7 ch. Elizabeth (Heard) Chadbourne m. 2nd Samuel Small.

3. William, b. c.1657, d. bef. 8 Jan 1699/1700.

4. Lucy, b. c.1659, m. 1st — Landall, m. 2nd Michael Hicks, m. 3rd Peter Lewis. (NLD questions Landall mar. However, Lucy (Treworgye) Chadbourne Wills Stileman names grson Thomas Landel in 1699/1700 will.)

5. Alice, d. 18 June 1744 in 81st yr., m. 1st Hon. Samuel Donnell, 8 ch. She m.
2nd Jeremiah Moulton, Esq. of York.

6. Katherine, b. c.1665; m. 1st Edward Lidden [Litton/Lidston(e)], 2 daus. She
m. 2nd James Weymouth, 3 daus.

7. Elizabeth, b. aft. 25 May 1667 (posthum.) m. Capt. Samuel Alcock; 1 son.

Sources: Chadbourne Genealogy First Generation. NLD; NHGR, v.10,1993; Chadbourne Family Genealogy by E. C. Bacon, p.1-3. jfg,kc,sfg

The Humphrey & Lucy Chadbourne Archaeology Site

Earline Chadbourne, our President, 2009-10, asked Emerson W. "Tad" Baker, Ph.D., Professor of History Salem State College to be our guest speaker for the 2010 Annual Meeting. The pictures below are related to his presentation about the Chadbourne settlement site and include relics found in the archaeological digs that Dr. Baker and his crew have performed in recent years at the site. We are indebted to him for permission to use them here.

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2007 marks the thirteenth season of excavation at the Chadbourne Site (ca. 1643-1690) in South Berwick, Maine. This project of the Old Berwick Historical Society and the Chadbourne Family Association is directed by Emerson W. Baker, Ph.D., Professor of History at Salem State College. Since the site was discovered in 1995 every summer a team of archaeologists and volunteers return to work on the well-preserved remains of this early homestead.

These two artifacts were uncovered at the archaeological site that was the manor home of Humphrey and Lucy Chadbourne. This front door key and a corresponding door lock are examples of the many artifacts recovered from the site that are building materials and hardware.

As the dig website notes, the site was discovered in 1995 and excavations continued through 2007. Lab work continues, in preparation for an exhibit and publication. This project of the Old Berwick Historical Society and the Chadbourne Family Association was directed by Emerson W. Baker, Ph.D., Professor of History at Salem State College. More information about the dig can be found here on the Old Berwick Historical Society website.