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Our Maine Ancestors:
Pre-Revolutionary Maine |
Between 1675 and 1763 there was a nearly continuous series of wars in Maine between the British and the French/ Native Americans. Both groups wanted Maine’s land and resources. The wars were related to conflicts in Europe at the same time.
In King Philip's War (1675-78), the English fought French and Indians for Castine.
During King William's War (1688-99), French and English fought over Acadia—included Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and much of Maine. The treaty ending this war resulted in the Natives deeding more land to the English. It caused a long-lasting misunderstanding between Indians and non-Indians.
Queen Anne's War (1703-1713) : In 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht between France and England gave all of Acadia to English. This caused more disputes between the English and the Indians over land. The French still held Quebec.
More wars resulted over the next 50 years: Dummer's War (1722-1727), King George's War (1744-1751), and the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Maine’s Old Fort Western was built in 1754.
These years were devastating to settlers and Indians alike. From 1689 to 1713, not a single English home stood in Maine north of Wells.
English treatment of the Indians aggravated the situation. They forced tribal leaders to sign land deeds that were misunderstood. The French encouraged the Indians to attack English settlers. English retaliation against the Natives included bounties on scalps.
The French encouraged Maine’s Indians to form the Wabanaki Confederation, making the English even more worried about protecting their settlements in Maine.
The English captured French Quebec in 1759, and the subsequent signing of the Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian Wars. It also ended the French presence on the Maine coast, resulting in slow, but increased settlement of midcoast and downeast Maine after 1760. All of Canada was given to England. The British issued a proclamation promising Indian tribes the right to keep all the lands they held at the end of the war. Bad feelings between the English and the Indians still existed, however, because the English continued to encroach on Indian lands for farming and hunting.
Throughout these wars, Europeans on the coast of Maine created sparse but determined settlements of fishermen, traders, and lumbermen who paid little attention to official developments and proclamations of the English and French nobility. These small settlements of Scotch-Irish fishermen and farmers were the origins of Maritime Maine.
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