Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pepperell, William
PEPPERELL, Sir WILLIAM (1696–1759), the ‘hero of Louisburg,’ was born at Kittery Point, Maine, on 27 June 1696. His father was a native of Tavistock, Devonshire, who emigrated to the Isle of Shoals, Massachusetts, in early life, and from a penniless fisherman became a great shipowner and merchant. He died in 1734. His mother was Margery Bray, whose parents emigrated to escape religious persecution. Taking a personal share in his father's timber and warehousing trade, he grew up robust and hardy. Accustomed from his infancy to the alarms of Indian warfare, he was bred to the use of arms and trained to face danger.
Pepperell and his brother rapidly improved their father's business. His earlier years were devoted to building vessels and planning voyages to Europe and the West Indies. But he was an active officer in the Maine militia, of which he was a colonel by 1722. He was by that time a foremost man in the colony, and soon was almost sole proprietor of the towns of Saco (which for a time was called Pepperellboro') and Scarboro', with large properties in Portsmouth, Hampton, and elsewhere. In 1727 he was first elected to the council of Massachusetts, and was annually re-elected till his death.
The New England colonies had been constantly annoyed by the depredations of the French, acting from their base at Louisburg, and in 1745 they decided to make an effort to capture the place. It was a bold enterprise for a force of colonial militia, aided by a few British ships, to attack one of the strongest fortresses in the world—the ‘Dunkirk of America.’ Pepperell was appointed to command the expedition, and the choice of the government was approved by the ‘united voice of the provinces.’ On 29 April 1745 the fleet of one hundred vessels—all, except the men-of-war, quite small—sailed into the harbour of Louisburg right under the guns of the fortress, effected a landing, and commenced a siege which illustrated the resource, pluck, and determination of the colonists. On 16 June the fortress capitulated, and the Maine militia marched into it. Their success created consternation and chagrin in France, and a great expedition was at once planned for the recovery of the place, which was, however, held till the termination of the war in 1748. Pepperell next projected the conquest of Canada; he was made a colonel of the king's army, and commissioned to raise a regular regiment, but was not called upon to carry out any important operation. On 15 Nov. 1746 he was for his great service created a baronet by the style of Pepperell of Massachusetts.
In 1747 he built in his yard one frigate and two other vessels for the British navy. In 1749, having retired from business, he resolved to visit England, and embarked for London, where he was cordially received by George II and presented by the city of London with a service of plate. On the renewal of war with France in 1755 he took the field with a regiment of a thousand men, but saw no active service. He was, however, in February 1759, promoted lieutenant-general in the British army. He died at Kittery on 16 July following.
Pepperell married, on 6 March 1723, Mary, daughter of Grove Hirst of Boston, who survived him thirty years, and by her had two children—a son, who died in his lifetime, in 1751, and a daughter Elizabeth, who married one Sparkway, and had a son, who took the name of Pepperell, and was created a baronet in 1764, in compliment to the grandfather, but died without male issue.
[Life of Sir W. Pepperell, bart., by Usher Parsons, Boston, 1855; Collections of Massachusetts Hist. Soc.; Withrow's History of Canada, p. 188; Bourinot's Cape Breton.]