The Portland daily press., 1879-05-17
SIR WILLIAM PHIPS.
An Abstract of the Paper read by Hon.
William Goold Of Windham before the
Maine Historical Society Thursday.

The only reliable account of VIM. Phips' par
entage and birthplace is contained in Cotton
| Mathers Magnolia. He says: "He was born
| Feb. 2nd, 1860, at despicable plantation on
the river Kennebec, and almost the farthest
| village of the eastern settlement of New Eng
land His father was James Phips, a gum
| smith. His fruitful mother had no less than
| 26 children, whereof 81 were sons, but equiva-
| lent to them all was William, one of the young
| est"
| After the death of his father he was bound
| apprentice to a ship carpenter for four years,
| after which he went to Boston and there
| learned to read and write and followed his
| trade there. He contracted with some Boston
merchants to build a ship at Sheepscot and
| load her with lumber, but just as his vessel
was finished the Indians made descent on
| the settlement and the people took refuge on
| board the ship. The buildings were all burned
| and Phips left his lumber and sailed with his
relatives and neighbors to Boston. From the
number of families known to have lived there
| the company must have numbered 250.
Phips married widow Hull, of Boston, who
was daughter of Capt. Roger Spencer, of
| Saco who built the first mill there in 1864.
Phips went to England and obtained in 1858,
from Charles II the command of a frigate to
search at Hispanioa for sunken Spanish treas
ure ship of which he obtained an account from
an old Spaniard
On the second voyage, Phips found the ship
and obtained 800, 900 pounds worth of silver,
gold and Jewels, with which he arrived in Lon
don in 1857
King james II, knighted Capt. Phips
and had a gold medal struck in his hon
or. He was also offered command in the
navy but but refused it. He returned to Bos-
ton and was sent in command of an expedition
which took Port Royal, Nova Scotia, from the
French. While he was away an expedition
against Quebec was decided upon, Of which Sir
William was chosen commander-in-chief Al
ter waiting in vain until August, for an ammuni-
tion vessel from England, he sailed with four
ships of war and 2S transports carrying 1000
soldiers. A force had gone by the lakes to at
tack Montreal but not not finding boats on the
lake they returned, the fleet did not arrive
at Quebec until October, and after an unsuc-
cessful attack, on account of the cold, small
pOX, ana WauU Oh anlluullUlOu. IU6 H66U nur-
red out Of the river for fear of ice
Ito pay the expenses of this expedition in
1890 the first paper money of the province was
issued-Mather says $50 f1ourished and indented
and contrived, as to make it impossible to coun-
terfeit them.'. Mr.. Goold showed one of these
bills for 20 shillings. In 1892 Sir William
Phips arrived from England with new char
ter from Queen Mary, and q commission as
Governor of the consolidated colonies of Mas
sachusetts, Plymouth, Maine, Sagadahock and
Nova Scotia. Two of the twenty-eight coun-
cillors were to be from Maine and one from
Sagadahock The Governor brought instruc-
tions to build strong fortress at Pemaquid,
which he did-a castle of stone and lime 200
feet square with walls Is feet high and feet
thick, with round towers at the angles, and
abrasures supplied with eighteen cannon.
When the Governor arrived in 1892, the jails
of Boston and Salem were full of people sus-
pected of witchcraft. There is no evidence
that Sir William favored these prosecutions,
on the contrary, after while he pardoned all
of them.
There were two parties in the province dur
ing Sir Williams administraton-the opposi-
UIOu gave uiLl lIUuDle ny SCUtlllS UueUl-
selves elected from the large towns to repre-
Sent the small ones, thereby thwarting the
Governors measures. He boldly assailed this
law in the Legislators by his friends and OBJ
tanned its repeal. One of the opposition
was Brenton held an obsolete commssl on
as collector Of customs, without any act of
Parliament establishing custom house. A
naval officer had always entered and cleared
IC ppn,, f4r.,, N%o1 AI.n
and seized two cargoes which brought him in
collision with the Governor, who had hasty
temper, and struck Brenton for insulting
language. Brenton complained to the Gov
ernment, and the Governor was called
to England for an investigation. He
had assurances that he should be returned
Immediately to his government; he was seized
by the then prevailing fever in London, and !
after weeks sickness died in Feb. 1864, aged |
A. He was buried in the church of St. Mary |
Woolnoth, Lombard Street. in vault under the |
organ gallery Lady Phips erected splendid |
monument near with long inscription, a copy |
aud description of which was given. This
monument was not replaced at the rebuilding |
of the church in 1719.
Sir William never forgot his origin. After |
his knighthood, he feasted the ship carpenters
of Boston at his own table. While sailing in
sight of Kennebec in command of fleet, he |
called the young officers on deck and said to |
them son that hill l kept sheep a few years |
ago." and encouraged them to pursue virtu- |
GUS life and to hope for their own promotion.
Mr.. Goold exhibited a copy of Sir Williams |
will and fac-simile of the printed invitations |
to Sir Williams funeral with mourning en- |
blems in the heavy border. An original, sent |
to Gen. Winthrop who was then in London, is |
now in the possession of Hon. Robert c. Win |
throp of Boston.
Lady Phips afterwards married Peter Sar-
geant, whose princely residence was afterwards |
purchased and became the Province House,
Sir William and his lady had no children but |