Colonial Document Includes John Waite And Other Pioneers In District History For Sale

Offering a highly interesting, 4 pp, 6 x 7 1/4, 1760 manuscript accounting document involving payments for various items and actions among several individuals of prominent early Maine families mainly focused on pews in the Meeting House to Messrs. Pearson and Waite.

Though somewhat terse in detail, the itemizations include a payment toward a lawsuit and other payments to and from several individuals who were part of Maine’s early history as a district, such as John Waite and Messrs. Cotton and Longfellow.

Reference notes in pencil from a previous collector state that “The Waite family was among the seceders from First Parish (1768?). It was on this occasion of their departure that Mr. Smith expressed a melancholy foreboding for the old [church] Society. He said the First Parish was like a clock. When the Waites are off, it will stop.”

John Waite appears to be the sea captain who was born in Newbury, Massachusetts, and commanded one of the transports of Gen. James Wolfe’s expedition against Quebec in 1759. He was later a member of the Provincial Congress in 1776 and was appointed sheriff of Cumberland County, Maine, an office he held until 1809. He was also a Colonel of the First Regiment.

While the document doesn’t mention the location of the church, it seems likely that this was The First Congregational Church in Cumberland.

We also find the name of Longfellow listed as part of a lawsuit. This was likely an elder relative of Stephen Longfellow, was born in 1749 in Gorham, Maine, and graduated from Harvard in 1773. He was a lawyer, legislator and civic leader.

Mr. Cotton is also referred to in the document, which was likely Rev. Ward Cotton (1708-1781), son of Rev. John Cotton of Newton, MA. Ward Cotton graduated from Harvard College in 1730 and was the Minister of the First Congregational Church in North Yarmouth Maine, serving from 1735 into the 1760s.

Folds, expected toning and a fine example of early Maine, which became a state in 1820.

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