Major Richard Waldron (or Richard Waldern, Richard Walderne; 6 January 1615 – 27 June 1689) was an English-born merchant, soldier, and government official who rose to prominence in early colonial Dover, New Hampshire. His presence spread to greater New Hampshire and neighboring Massachusetts. He was the second president of the colonial New Hampshire Royal Council after it was first separated from Massachusetts."Richard Waldron" in: "Brief Notices of Councilors", Collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society, Volume 8 By New Hampshire Historical Society, pp.337–338. His descendants remained prominent in Dover for several generations.
Described as an "immensely able, forceful and ambitious"Colonial New Hampshire – A History, by Jere Daniell, p. 60 member of a well-off Puritan family, he left his English home and moved to what is now Dover, New Hampshire. He first came about 1633. He built mills on the Cochecho River in what is now downtown Dover, amassed local land holdings that endured in his family for over 170 years,Cutts Genealogy, pp 536-7, which quotes Historical Memoranda by Rev. A.H. Quint controlled much of the local native trade, and was prominent in local politics and as deputy to the Massachusetts General Court for 25 years from 1654. He was speaker several times. When the first president of the colonial New Hampshire council, John Cutt, died suddenly, council member Walderne became the acting president or governor until Edward Cranfield arrived from England. "By the 1670s the portion of Dover known as Cochecho [village] had become something like Waldron's personal fiefdom, and citizens in the other areas of settlement rarely challenged his social authority."
Birth and family Waldron (or Walderne)He and his ancestors spelled his name as Walderne but subsequent generations wrote it as Waldron. See for example The New England Magazine Volume 0023 Issue 1 (Sept 1897) "Old Dover, New Hampshire" Garland, Caroline Harwood, In: New England Magazine, p.99 as found at https://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=newe;cc=newe;idno=newe0023-1;node=newe0023-1%3A1;frm=frameset;view=image;seq=107;page=root;size=s was born in Alcester, Warwickshire, England. One of many children of William Walderne and Catherine Raven, he was christened on 6 January 1615."Pedigree of Waldron from parish registers", H.G. Somerby, New England historical and genealogical register, viii 78. Little is known of his early life. The name of his first wife is unknown, but he married her in 1640 and they had ten children together.A Genealogical Dictionary of The First Settlers of New England, Before 1692, by James Savage, Volume #4, at http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/newengland/savage/bk4/wait-wale s.htm but also as found at http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=glencoe&id=I42065
Their children were Paul (b. 1642), Timothy (b. 1646), Richard (b. 1650), Anna (b. 1654), Elnathan (b. 1659), Esther (b. 1660), Mary (b. 1663), Eleazer (b. 1665), Elizabeth (b. unk), Maria (b. 1668).Person Record. Portsmouth Athenaeum. https://athenaeum.pastperfectonline.com/byperson?keyword=Waldron%2C%20Richard%20%28Maj.%29%2C%201614-1689
In 1670, at age 55, he married Ann Scammon; they had no children together. She died February 7, 1685.Person Record. Portsmouth Athenaeum. https://athenaeum.pastperfectonline.com/byperson?keyword=Waldron%2C%20Richard%20%28Maj.%29%2C%201614-1689
Arrival in Dover Richard Waldron first appears on a list of principal Puritan families brought to Dover by Governor Thomas Wiggin in 1633 during the Great Migration. He then appears as a signatory on the Combination of the People of Dover to Establish a Form of Government in 1640. Several months later, in March 1641 appears on a petition to the General Court of Massachusetts objecting to Dover coming under Massachusetts rule. Both petitions were also signed by a William Waldron, which suggests he may have had a brother emigrate with him. Wadleigh, George H. Notable Events in the History of Dover, New Hampshire, from the first settlement in 1623 to 1865 The Tufts College Press. Dover, NH. 1913 Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/notableeventsinh00wadl/page/20/mode/2up Despite the prior objections, William accepted appointment as magistrate for Dover, along with Edward Hilton and Thomas Wiggin, after union with MassachusettsAdams, Nathaniel. Annals of Portsmouth : comprising a period of two hundred years from the first settlement of the town ; with biographical sketches of a few of the most respectable inhabitants. Portsmouth, NH. 1825. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/annalsofportsmou00ad/page/20/mode/2up
In 1647, William Waldron died and his estate went to the General Court for probate. It was determined that his estate should be divided among his creditors.
Richard Waldron focused the next several decades focusing on his sawmills and political career. Dover granted him the privilege of cutting down 1500 town owned trees for his sawmill in exchange for a payment of 3 pence per tree. By 1650, he was paying the highest level of tax in the town.
Political Career
In 1657, he is first mentioned as representing Dover at the Massachusetts General Court. He would represent Dover for over 20 years. Wadleigh, George H. Notable Events in the History of Dover, New Hampshire, from the first settlement in 1623 to 1865 The Tufts College Press. Dover, NH. 1913 Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/notableeventsinh00wadl/page/40/mode/2up In 1661 he and Edward Hilton were selected as "Associates of the Court." The next year he was also selected as a Justice of the Peace and empowered to marry.
In 1662, three Quaker missionaries, Ann Coleman, Mary Tompkins and Alice Ambrose, arrived in Dover from England. Within weeks, their ministry became the subject of a public petition by the Puritan townsfolk, 'humbly craving relief against the spreading and the wicked errors of the Quakers among them'. Waldron, as the local crown magistrate, ordered them to be punished as vagabonds by being bound behind a cart and being made to walk over in a bitter winter through ten neighboring townships. Beginning in Dover, and on arrival in each township, they were to be publicly stripped to the waist and whipped ten times. Major Robert Pike stopped the torture and released them in Salisbury, the third township in which they were mistreated. There, after urgently required medical assistance from Walter Barefoote, the women left for Maine. These three Quaker women are the subject of the poem How the Women Went from Dover by the 19th-century American Quaker poet, John Greenleaf Whittier.
Around 1665, the heirs of John Mason began a petition to have Dover secede from Massachusetts. It was known that their purpose was to turn Dover into a proprietary colony with themselves as the proprietors. The town of Dover sent a signed petition to the General Court urging it not to dissolve the union. Waldron was one of those opposed to separation.
Waldron was later involved in an attempt to settle Concord, New Hampshire. He built a truckhouse, likely the first house in the area, along with Peter Coffin and his son Paul. However in June 1668, a Thomas Dickinson was found murdered by a drunken Indian. Waldron and his son were accused of illegally selling alcohol to the Indian. They denied it under oath and Peter Coffin later confessed that the alcohol came from his store. This caused the plan to fall apart and Concord would not be settled until 1725. Wadleigh, George H. Notable Events in the History of Dover, New Hampshire, from the first settlement in 1623 to 1865 The Tufts College Press. Dover, NH. 1913 Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/notableeventsinh00wadl/page/75/mode/2up
In 1669, he was appointed a member of a commission to determine a location for the church in Kittery, Maine. He would later represent that town in Boston in 1679.Bouton, Nathaniel. (1867). Provincial papers. Documents and records relating to the province of New-Hampshire, from the earliest period of its settlement: 1623- Concord : G. E. Jenks, state printer [etc.]. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/provincialpapers00boutrich/page/370/mode/2up?q=waldron(1897).Old Eliot: a monthly magazine of the history and biography of the Upper Parish of Kittery, now Eliot. Eliot, Me.: Augustin Caldwell, publisher. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/oldeliotmonthlym1898elio/mode/1up?q=Waldron.
Activities During King Philip's War When King Philip's War broke out in Plymouth Colony in June 1675 and then spread to the rest of New England, Richard Waldron supported the war effort by issuing a commission to his nephew William Waldron. The commission was "to pursue, kill and destroy and by all ways and means to annoy the said Indian enemies..." Waldron Commission. Private Collection. Retrieved from https://ourbelovedkin.com/awikhigan/machias-1 On behalf of his uncle, William engaged the ship Endeavor and sailed the coast of Maine as part of the Northeast Coast Campaign (1675).
While the war was ongoing in the rest of New England, Major Waldron attempted to bring peace to Dover, New Hampshire by signing a non-aggression pact with the local Pennacook Indians. In June 1676, he invited representatives of the Pennacooks to Dover to negotiate a peace.
He succeeded in the negotiations and he, along with Nicholas Shapleigh and Thomas Daniels, signed the Treaty of Cocheco on 3 July 1676. It was ratified on behalf of the Pennacook by Chief Wonalancet, Sampson Aboquecemoka, Mr William Sagamore, Chief Squando of the Pequawket, Robin Dony of the Canibas, Serogumba, Samuel Numphow, and Warockomec.Treaty at Cocheco. Collections of the Massachusetts State Archives Vol 30 Document 206b. Retrieved from https://ourbelovedkin.com/awikhigan/cocheco-treaty
At the end of the war, a number of Indians fleeing from the Massachusetts Bay Colony militia took refuge with the Abenaki tribe living around Dover. This was a violation of Article 2 of the Treaty of Cocheco. Since Dover was a part of Massachusetts at the time, the Massachusetts General Court ordered Waldron to attack these natives and turn any refugee combatants over to them.
Waldron believed he could capture the natives without a pitched battle by resorting to subterfuge and so, on 7 September 1676, he invited the natives—about 400 in total, half local and half refugees—to participate in a mock battle against the militia. After the natives had fired their guns, Waldron, aided by Charles Frost, took them prisoner. Waldron then sent both the refugee combatants and those locals who violently objected to this forced breach of hospitality to Boston, where seven or eight leaders were convicted of insurrection and executed, including Monoco, Muttawmp, Matoonas, and Old Jethro (Tantamous) to whom Waldron may have promised amnesty in negotiations with his son Peter Jethro.Brooks, Lisa, Our Beloved Kin (Yale University Press, 2018), "Peter Jethro and the Capture of Monoco" The rest of the captives were sold into slavery in "foreign parts", mostly Barbados.
The local Indians were released, but never forgave Waldron for the deception, which violated all the rules of honor and hospitality valued by both sides. Belknap, The History of New Hampshire, volume 1, Source of Science Series [reprint], pp. 75–6.