Thomas Purchase

{{Infobox person

| name = Thomas Purchase

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_date = 1577

| birth_place = Dorchester, Dorset, {{awrap|Kingdom of England}}

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1678|1577}}

| death_place = Lynn, Massachusetts, {{awrap|Massachusetts Bay Colony}}

| years_active = 1628–1678

| occupation = Trader

| known_for = First settler of Pejepscot (1628)

| era = Colonial (U.S.)

| spouse = {{plainlist|

{{Marriage|Mary Purchase|1631|1656}}
{{Marriage|Elizabeth Blaney|1657|1677}}

}}

Thomas Purchase (1577–1678), also known as Thomas Purchis and Thomas Purchas, was the first English settler to occupy the region of Pejepscot, Maine in what is now Brunswick, Topsham and Harpswell. In 1628 he set up a trading post at the site of Fort Andross to barter with the local Wabanaki Native Americans.

Early life

File:Captain Daniel Stone House.png (Picture of Daniel Stone House, ca. 1920)|Approximate location of Purchase's house and fishery (picture of Daniel Stone House, {{ca.|1920}})]]

Thomas Purchase was born in 1577 at Dorchester, Dorset, England, to Oliver Purchase and Thomesin (Harris) Purchase.

On August 6, 1613, a fire broke out in Dorchester, burning down 170 homes, setting the impetus for the future colonization movement of Massachusetts that led to the Massachusetts Bay Company. In the years after the first fire, the town was plagued with overpopulation. By the time of the next fire in 1622, John White, a Puritan minister, convinced the people of Dorchester to start a new company and head to the New World. The name of this group of investors was called the Dorchester Company. When the company failed, the original investors were part of the group that formed the Massachusetts Bay Company.{{cite book |last=Ridgel |first=Anna |date=2005 |publisher=Pejepscot Historical Society |title=The Forgotten Founders of Pejepscot |place=Curtis Memorial Library (Brunswick, Maine)}}{{rp|23–24}}

Settling in Maine

File:Trade with indians 1820.jpg

Although it is unknown which ship carried Purchase to North America or the exact date, it is documented that he made a return trip from England in 1629. He boarded the ship The Lyon (not to be confused with Lyon's Whelp), leaving Bristol England on April 5, along with five other ships, arriving in Salem, Massachusetts.{{cite web |url=https://www.packrat-pro.com/ships/lyon1.htm |title=The Lyon 1629/1630 |first=Anne |last=Stevens |access-date=12 September 2022}} He was 53 years old.{{cite web |url=https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Great_Migration_Study_Project_Sketches |title=Great Migration Study Project Sketches |author= |website=werelate.org |access-date=12 September 2022}}

Purchase was the first English settler in what is now called Brunswick, Maine. Before it was incorporated into a town in 1739,{{cite web |url=https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistory/167 |title=Brunswick, Town of, History of Brunswick Maine |author= |date=2019 |publisher=University of Maine |access-date=12 September 2022}} the region was known by the Wabanaki Native Americans as Pejepscot (long, rocky rapids part), encompassing the current towns of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine.{{cite web |url=https://pejepscothistorical.org/local-history |title=A Brief History of the Pejepscot Region |author= |date= |publisher=Pejepscot Historical Society |access-date=12 September 2022}}

In 1628, Purchase settled in Saco, Maine, then in Pejepscot. He became acquainted with the value of the land which he afterward acquired. On June 16, 1632, the Plymouth Company granted a patent to Purchase and his brother-in-law George Way.{{cite book | last1 = Wheeler | first1 = George Augustus |author-link1=George Augustus Wheeler | last2 = Wheeler | first2 = Henry Warren | name-list-style = amp | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=AmSFIvLGjLoC | year = 1878 | title = History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine | location = Harvard Library | via = Google Books | publisher = A. Mudge & Sons, Printers | quote-page = Inside Front Cover - Pejepscot Historical Society 2nd ed. (1974) | quote = (This book) has long been considered the authoritative text on the three towns through 1878.}}{{rp|789–790}}

With this new deed, Purchase set up a trading post, where the natives already had one,{{cite web |url=https://pejepscothistorical.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/From-the-Falls-to-the-Bay.pdf |title=From the Falls to the Bay |author= |date=1980 |publisher=Pejepscot Historical Society |access-date=21 September 2022}} to buy and sell goods, mainly salmon, sturgeon and furs on a section of the Androscoggin River known as Pejepscot Falls, adjacent to the Site of Fort Andross.

The location of Thomas Purchase's residence in Brunswick is unclear, but one of his homes where he cured fish may have been located near a lot on Water Street in Brunswick, located near Captain Daniel Stone's estate.{{cite web |url=http://pinegrovebrunswick.blogspot.com/2010/08/businesswoman-narcissa-stone.html |title=The Businesswoman: Narcissa Stone |author= |date= 21 August 2010|publisher=Pejepscot Historical Society |access-date=9 September 2022}}{{rp|790–791}}

On August 22, 1639, he made a legal conveyance to John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts, of all his land and put himself under the jurisdiction of that colony.{{rp|794}}

Throughout his time at Pejepscot, Purchase was a fisherman, hunter, trader and raised cattle. He bartered with the natives and other settlers with a rich stock of salmon, sturgeon, and shad, as well as wildlife game. Purchase had a monopoly on the area and would cure and pack fish for export to London. He was also a farmer cultivating soil and had enough maize to store for the winter.{{rp|793}}{{rp|72}}

King Philip's War

File:Indians Attacking a Garrison House.jpg

In 1675, King Philip's War between Native Americans and New England colonists broke out. By September of that year, hostilities commenced at Pejepscot. A party of twenty natives went to Purchase's house and pretended to his wife that they wished to trade. Discovering that her husband and son were absent, they robbed the house. Purchase's son returned home while this happened and fled for his life. The following year Purchase's house was burned by the natives.{{rp|49–50}}

With the destruction of his home, Purchase lost the only copy of the patent that held his property. The original had been left with Mr. Francis Ashley in England. Soon after this fire, along with other settlers, he moved to a nearby island where they waited for a ship to take them to Lynn, Massachusetts, where he lived the rest of his life.{{rp|793}}{{rp|75}}

Family and death

Thomas Purchase was married twice. His first wife was Mary Gove. The marriage occurred in 1631; Gove died in Boston on January 7, 1656. His second marriage, in 1657, was to Elizabeth Williams; they had five children together, four daughters and one son. Their children were Thomas Purchase Jr., Jane Purchase, Elizabeth Purchase, and two unnamed daughters.{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/familyhistoryanc00hitc/page/69/mode/2up?q=%22Thomas+Purchase%22 |title=Family history: Ancestors of Russell Snow Hitchcock |last=Russell Snow |first=Hitchcock |date=1947 |website=archive.org |access-date=18 September 2022}} Thomas Purchase, Jr. was reported lost at sea in 1685.{{rp|792}}

The Probate court at Lynn, Massachusetts, dates Thomas Purchase's death to 1678, at 101 years old.{{rp|788}}

Thomas Purchase

Early life

Settling in Maine

King Philip's War

Family and death

References

Further reading