Our Early Pioneers

This section of our website is devoted to our pioneers who were among the first settlers 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.

WILLIAM (1582-1652) and HUMPHREY CHADBOURNE.
William came to Kittery, Maine, arriving aboard the Pied Cow in July1634 along with James Wall and John Goddard. It is not clear when other members of William's family arrived. The three were under contract with Capt John Mason of London's Laconia Company, a joint-stock company seeking profits in the new world. Read more > >

Humphrey Chadbourne (1615-1657), William's son, was an early settler of Dover, NH, Sturgeon Creek, Kittery, ME and also Portsmouth, NH. Humphrey may have arrived in New England with his father in 1634, although some unconfirmed reports credit his arrival earlier. 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. . Read more > >

DREW (Drewe), WILLIAM (1627-1669) was born in Devon,England. He was fisherman at Isles of Shoals, keeping his family at Oyster River. Had his house built there by Thomas Beard in 1648. Read more > >

FROST, NICHOLAS (1585-1663) was born in Tiverton, England. He first appeared in America at Damariscove, Maine in 1632. In c.1634 he was given land in Kittery (now Eliot) by Thomas Wannerton. He was appointed constable by the General Court in 1640. Read more > >

FROST, WILLIAM (Abt. 1657 -1690) was the son of George Frost of Winter Harbor, and brother of John Frost of York. He had a grant of land in Crooked Lane, Kittery in 1658. In 1673 he bought land in Saco, from William Phillips. In King Phillip's War, he fled to Salem where he lived from 1675-79. He was killed by Indians and his son Nathaniel was taken captive when his father was killed. Nathaniel's fate is unknown. Read more > >

PEPPERELL, COLONEL WILLIAM (1648-1733). He came to the Isles of Shoals c.1676 and was engaged in a fishing business with Ambrose Gibbons. (His house site on Appledore Island is marked by a bronze tablet.) In 1680 he moved to Kittery. He became a shipbuilder, the owner of one of the great colonial shipping firms from which he accumulated much wealth. Read more > >

WIGGIN, CAPT. THOMAS (1601–1666) arrived at Salem on the James with a complement of 30 Puritans and went directly to Piscataqua. While at Salem he was allied with John Winthrop. He became a strong supporter of Massachusetts' claims over the New Hampshire plantations and he helped in extending their power. He became the first governor of what is now know as New Hampshire. For a long time his lands in what became Stratham were outside the bounds of any settled town. Read more > >