Thomas Westbrook (1675-1744)

Colonel Thomas Westbrook (1675-1743/1744) was a military figure in colonial America. The City of Westbrook, Maine is named after him. Thomas Westbrook's varied career included the role of senior New England militia officer in Maine. He was active during the French and Indian Wars. In addition to this senior militia role he was a scout, a colonial councillor, an innkeeper, a King's Mast Agent, a mill owner, and a land speculator.

"One of the most energetic and useful men of New England during the first half of the [eighteenth] ... century was Thomas Westbrook. Colonel Westbrook's services in the wars with the Indians, and as a leading inhabitant and business man of old Falmouth, render everything with which he was connected of interest to the present residents of the towns whose territory once formed a part of that ancient jurisdiction. He was the foremost public man of the town.  His daring expedition to Norridgewock in winter, for the capture of Father Rasle and the private papers of the priest, which were brought off, has been the theme of all writers of the annals of his time. He was a native of New Hampshire and early came into public life as a councilor."

Family
Born in 1675, he was the son of John Westbrook and Martha Walford of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His siblings included Mary who married Nathan Knight, and whose family continues to own and operate the "Smiling Hill" farm.

Thomas married Mary Sherburne, daughter of the mariner John Sherburne and his wife Mary Cowell. The restored Sherburne house at Portsmouth, New Hampshire's Strawbery Banke, has been identified as theirs. Their only child, Elizabeth, married Richard Waldron (Secretary) of a prominent colonial New Hampshire family.

Though he had no sons, he was the namesake for several descendants all bearing the name "Thomas Westbrook Waldron". A great-great-grandson of this name, a US consul who died in 1844 at Macau, was commemorated in a 1 May 2009 Washington DC ceremony by Secretary of State Clinton. The names "Thomas Westbrook" or merely "Westbrook" as given names were in use among descendants well into the twentieth century.

Early adulthood
"Thomas was the Administrator of his father's estate in 1697, [including a] ... 100 acre farm and contents ... in that year the farm was sold to Nathan Knight who wed Thomas's sister Mary Westbrook".

In his youth (1704) he applied for a commission as scout and "Indian fighter" and had three men to accompany him while scouting during Queen Anne's War. From at least 1720 he was the owner and proprietor. He moved to Falmouth (near modern Portland, Maine) "as early as 1719" to enter the lucrative business of providing masts to the British navy as a private contractor. He was one of only a few European-descended residents there at that time.

Captain and colonel
During the years 1721-3 Westbrook became a captain in the militia and, after the fall of Colonel Shadrack Walton from favour with Massachusett's acting Governor William Dummer, became the colonel in charge of the militia in the "East" (Maine)

A focus of the conflict was the New England effort to apprehend Father Sebastien Rale, a Jesuit priest and French national who resided with and, the New Englanders thought, guided the natives to raid and kill or abduct New England colonists. The General Court of Massachusetts in December 1721 directed the militia to apprehend Rale and bring him to Boston to answer these charges.

In January 1722 Colonel Westbrook led a group of militia that, unable to find Rale, seized a strongbox containing his correspondence with Marquis de Vaudreuil, the French Governor in Quebec, and a hand written dictionary of the native Abenaki language. In the minds of New Englanders of the day, the letters proved French complicity in urging native American tribes to attack New England settlements, and they were conveyed to authorities in Boston. The dictionary is now in Harvard University's Houghton Library The strongbox itself was retained by Westbrook and descended through his family and through the Massachusetts Historical Society until his descendant    the Catholic Reverend E.Q.S. Waldron willed it to the Maine Historical Society. An expandable colour image is on the Mainememory.com website. .

Westbrook was not present during an August 1724 raid which culminated in the death of Rasle and the slaughter of fleeing native villagers. He was present at the December 15th, 1725 Falmouth peace treaty with the Indians, "Dummer's Treaty", which ended the hostilities, apparently his last act as a militia officer.

King's Mast Agent
He was appointed as King's Mast Agent in 1727 and moved the "King's mast business" from Portsmouth to Falmouth. The mast agent was charged by the Crown with marking, protecting and providing trees which were suitable for ship's masts in the Royal Navy.

Harrow House
Westbrook "became a citizen" of Falmouth in August 1727. He built his "splendid seat" of "Harrow House" with garrisons on the south side of Stroudwater River on a 69 acre property. It was likely at this home that Westbrook entertained Governor Belcher and other guests.

Mills
He built two mills, a gristmill whose stones still survive as markers of other historical sites, and a papermill. Native chief Polin travelled to the governor to protest Col. Westbrook's failure to provide a way for spawning fish to get past his mill.

Councilor
As early as 1710 he was part of the King's Council appointed by the governor, and held his post (though often absent) until 1730 when he resigned voluntarily. In 1733 he was briefly in Boston as a representative to the council from Falmouth and courted by Governor Jonathan Belcher to be a supporter of the Massachusetts government. He showed little interest in these duties and was fined for being absent.

Prosperity and bankruptcy, death
With the young Brigadier General Samuel Waldo (pictured at right) he became a land speculator of as much as 15,000 acres in the Falmouth area (near present-day Portland, Maine). The two partners prospered until, for reasons that are not entirely clear, Waldo "[who had] led him into large land speculations ... then struck upon him in an unfortunate time." "Waldo by unscrupulous or ruthless means divested Westbrook of his lands and much of his wealth by 1743..."

"In 1743, Waldo recovered judgement against him for ten thousand five hundred pounds, which he levied upon his property, and swept it nearly all away."

A copy of one of his later letters, desperately seeking a loan, survived and was transcribed near the end of Trask's Letters of Colonel Thomas Westbrook. Unlike most of his letters, this one was probably not dictated and captures Westbrook's choice of spelling as well as his desperation.

"July 29, 1740. Sir my desterse is so grat I know not how to Turn myself for Want of money. If you cold any Ways helpe me I shall tack it as a favor. Mr. Robrds is going to Portsmouth, and I want to send sum money to Plastd.  Pray consider the hard case of your frind and sarvant ...                   THO. WESTBROOK."

He died heavily in debt on 11 Feb 1743/1744 "of a broken heart caused by Waldo's Acts". He expired in a smaller cottage adjacent to his beloved Harrow House, which had been lost to his creditors. Despite his bankruptcy his estate was valued at seven thousand, three hundred and two pounds. In contrast, his probate inventory totalled £1052/14/5 and included a house, a pew in Rev Smith's meetinghouse, and books.

Secret burial
"[H]is family was forced to spirit his body away in the middle of a nighttime snowstorm in order to prevent the Waldo family from claiming Westbrook's remains and holding them "hostage" until debts were paid". The burial location was unknown until the 1976 bicentennial celebrations except to descendants of his sister Mary (Westbrook) Knight. The gravesite has been marked by the Daughters of Colonial Wars in Maine and is pictured on the Knight family farm's website.

City named for him
In 1814 the town of Stroudwater was created from Falmouth. Within a couple of months, the town was renamed Westbrook in honour of the Colonel. "...[I]t was a member of the Knight family -the descendants of Westbrook['s sister] who were holding the secret of his burial place - who proposed naming the town after him." It became a city in 1891. In 2006 the population was estimated at 16,524.

Letters of Colonel Thomas Westbrook
His reports of activities as a militia captain and colonel to Governor Dummer were a series in the New England Historic & Genealogical Register (including vol 44, 1890 to vol 45, 1895) and then published in a book: Letters of Colonel Thomas Westbrook and others relative to Indian affairs in Maine, 1722-1726. This work is often cited as a primary source in histories of that time.