[In early May,
with the lockdown closing in around us a bit, my sons and I took a daytrip up
to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where we walked around the historic
waterfront area (masked and at a social distance from fellow visitors,
natch). This week I’ll highlight a handful of histories from this multi-layered
New England community, leading up to a special post on other NE historic
daytrips!]
I learned a
great deal about the Sheafe
Warehouse, one of America’s oldest preserved commercial buildings, from this post
on the Walk Portsmouth blog. Here I wanted to use three generations of
Sampson Sheafes to highlight three stages of 18th century New
Hampshire and America:
1)
Sampson
I (1646-1725): The elder Sampson was born in London and immigrated to New
England around 1668, where he lived in multiple towns before settling in New
Castle, New Hampshire (the state’s easternmost town and one also known as
Great Island as it is located entirely on islands). He represents what I would call
the first truly commercial generation of New England settlers, and alongside
starting the family’s influential shipping business (and possibly building the
Portsmouth Warehouse, although as the aforementioned blog post indicates that
fact is disputed), he also served in important civic roles such as Deputy
Collector of Customs, Clerk of the Superior Court, and Provincial Councilor and
Secretary. But despite those commercial and civic developments, New England was
far from stable during this turn of the 18th century period, as
another of Sampson’s roles reflects: he helped lead the region’s military
forces (as Commissary) in a failed 1711
invasion of Quebec (part of the larger conflict known as Queen Anne’s War).
2)
Sampson
II (1683-~1772): The elder Sampson and his wife Mehitable had five children,
and they named their fourth (and second son) Sampson. Sampson II (they
apparently didn’t actually use roman numerals to differentiate the generations,
so that’s just my own usage for clarity) reflects a next stage in the family’s
New England development, as he attended Harvard College, graduating in 1702. He
subsequently extended the Sheafe merchant shipping trade, and was possibly the
Sampson who built the Portsmouth Warehouse (the blogger seems to think this is
the most likely scenario, which would put the construction at about 1740, near
the outset of what would be known as
the “Great Age of Sail”). In the final decades of his life he attained a
particularly high status, serving
on the King’s Council from 1740 to 1762. But the region’s colonial wars with
France likewise continued, and in 1745 Sampson II served as Commissary for the New
England armed forces during the siege of Louisbourg
(capital of the French colony on Cape Breton Island), part of the conflict
known as King
George’s War.
3)
Sampson
III (1713-unknown): Sampson II and his wife Sarah had ten children, and
they named their second son (and oldest surviving child) Sampson. For whatever
reason (perhaps that large number of siblings), less seems to be known about
Sampson III; but if the family Warehouse was indeed built around 1740, the 27
year-old Sampson III was likely involved in its construction (and if so, given
its endurance for nearly three centuries, he did a good job!). Sampson III also
reflects in two ways a very different colonial war, the Revolutionary one with
England: he may have participated in the December 1774
raid on the English Fort
William and Mary on New Castle Island; and his son
Sampson (duh), born in 1750 and a merchant sailor, was impressed by the English
and held
at Dartmoor Prison for at least a portion of the Revolution. Four
generations of an influential New Hampshire, New England, and American family,
all tied to this one historic waterfront building.
Next Portsmouth
post tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other historic sites or daytrips you’d highlight?
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