Some More on Abel Willard Atherton

From the July 2, 2021, Vita Brevis site "July 4 and My Family" by Scott C. Steward.

He was looking around for something to write about things happening to his family on  or around July 4.

"On my father's side,  my great-great-great-great grandfather Abel Willard Atherton was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts on the first anniversary of Independence Day:  July 4, 1777.

"Willard Atherton was in Portland, Maine to marry the widowed  Margaret Duncan in 1809, and he died in Castine, Maine in 1821.  His daughter, my ancestor Eliza Robinson Atherton, married Samuel Henry Foster of Boston in Portland in 1830; they later lived in New York...."

Footnote:  Colonel Abel Willard Atherton (1777-1821) married  Margaret (Weeks) Duncan in 1809.

--Brock-Perry

The Coast of Maine in the War of 1812 and a Threat to Portland

With the end of the war against Napoleon, the British had more resources to use against the United States which had essentially been on the back burner for efforts as Napoleon posed a much worse threat to Britain.

By August 1814, the British were blockading Portland Harbor in earnest.  By September they captured Castine and held the Maine coast east of the Penobscot.  Rumors abounded in Portland warning that "a large fleet with troops" under  the flagship HMS Bulwark had left Castine headed for Portland.

Daily, the British would sail up to the lighthouse, but the mighty fleet never materialized.  Even so, Governor Strong  called up six to seven hundred militiamen from Cumberland and Oxford counties to defend Portland.

Portland also appropriated  $10,000 for  public defense.

It was during this scare that the former HMS Boxer was pressed into service.  The battery of the prize ship San Jose Indiano was  ordered to be mounted on her.  (The Boxer's cannons had been removed to the privateer Hyder Ally.)  The Boxer was then hauled into position so as to command the approaches to Vaughan's Bridge.

The ship's gunners amused themselves by  firing into the steep bankings on Bramhall's Hill.  All this went on for about two weeks, but since nothing happened, everyone was sent home.

Fun and Games in Portland.  --Brock-Perry

Abel Willard Atherton

From Wikitree.

Was he the one that was stationed temporarily at Fort Burrows in Portland, Maine?

BORN: 4 July 1777 in Lancaster,  Worchester, Massachusetts.

HUSBAND of Margaret (Weeks) Atherton.  Married  3 July 1809 in Portland, Cumberland County, Maine.

DIED:  16 August 1821 in Castine, Hancock, Maine

*******************************

There is a gravestone in Castine Cemetery in Castine, Maine, for Abel Willard Atherton.  

He is listed as Colonel Abel Willard Atherton.

He is listed as Col. Abel W. Atherton on Find-A-Grave.  The gravestone is in very bad shape.

So, did he get as high as a colonel in the Maine militia?

--Brock-Perry

How the British Invasion of Maine in 1814 Led to Statehood-- Part 3: Bet You're Wondering When I Was Going to Talk About This

Even as the war was flaring up in 1814, its end was being negotiated in Ghent, where American and British officials were meeting in secret.  It ended with the Treaty of Ghent in December 1814.

The following spring 1815, the British left Castine and Down East Maine shore.

The war had pitted the young United States against its former master, but it left divisions between what today is Maine and Massachusetts of which it was a territory.

The reluctance of Maine to come to the aid of its far eastern territory  during the war led to calls for secession from the Bay State, which weren't strongly resisted in Boston.  In 1820, five years after the British left, Maine became the 23rd state as part of the Missouri Compromise.

So, Now You Know How the War of 1812 Caused Maine to become a State.  --Brock-Perry

How the British Invasion of Maine in 1814 Led to Statehood-- Part 2

In Castine, prior to its eight month occupation by the British, town officials had condemned  the declaration of war and held a dim view of President James Madison and his predecessor, Thomas Jefferson.  They were Democrat-Republicans whom they felt were "anti-commerce" and "anti-New England."

The War of 1812 interrupted New England trans-Atlantic trade.

After Napoleon's defeat in 1814, the British ramped up their efforts in North America and sailed into several Maine ports with no opposition.

In early July, British ships, including the bomb ship HMS Terror sailed into Passamaquoddy Bay and took control of Fort Sullivan, Eastport and all the islands and towns along the bay.  In September, the HMS Terror took part in the Battle of Baltimore which led to "The Star-Spangled Banner."

--Brock-Perry

How the British Invasion of Maine During the War of 1812 Led to Statehood-- Part 1

From the March 9, 2020, TV 13 CBS News by Bill Trotter.

The War of 1812 came to Maine in 1814 in a big way.  That's when the powerful British Navy descended upon the towns of Eastport, Machias and Castine.  What is today Maine, was at the time a part of Massachusetts.

The British controlled much of the Maine coast between Penobscot and Cobscook bays for most of a year, raiding towns along the Penobscot River and attacking Hampden and Bangor before returning to Castine.

The war had been going on for two years already, but divided support in the United States as well as the British being more involved with Napoleon had kept the fighting away from Maine.  That is, other than a sea battle between the USS Enterprise and the HMS Boxer which the American ship won.

Initial support for the war was weakest in New England, where the Federalist Party favored strong ties with England and merchants conducted significant trade with the British colony of Canada.  The New Englanders went so far as to almost have secession, something they opposed when the Southern states did so some fifty years later.

--Brock-Perry

200 Years Ago: British Establish Customs Office at Castine, District of Maine

SEPTEMBER 21, 1814:  This customs office was designated as the commercial headquarters of the occupied territory.

The announcement that trade with the enemy through Castine was music to the ears of the mercantile communities of Saint John, New Brunswick, and Halifax, Nova Scotia.  And since imports and exports through the Maine port were taxed, customs officials amassed a tidy 10,000 pounds in the eight short months they were there.

After the war, the British government directed that this "Castine Fund" must be used for public improvements in Nova Scotia, and it eventually covered the new library for the British garrison, and of Dalhousie College (now Dalhousie University).

New Brunswickers were consoled in November 1817 when a boundary commission appointed by the Treaty of Ghent awarded them most of the disputed Passamaquoddy islands and Grand Manan Island.

Ezra Dean was involved in making the border between Maine and New Brunswick.

--Brock-Perry

200 Years Ago: USS Wasp Captures HMS Avon, British Plattsburg Campaign Begins

SEPTEMBER 1ST, 1814:

The USS Wasp captures the HMS Avon.

The British capture Castine, Maine.

The British Army, with a force of over 10,000 men and led by Governor General Sir George Prevost, begin crossing the border into New York on their way to Plattsburg.

--Brock-Perry

American and British Bases Around Maine-- Part 2

PRIVATEER PORTS

Wiscasset, Maine
Castine, Maine
Salem, New Hampshire
Machias, Maine


AMERICAN SECONDARY BASES

Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Portland, Maine


BATTLES

HMS Shannon-- USS Chesapeake June 1, 1813
Battle of Hampden September 3, 1814
HMS Boxer-- USS Enterprise September 5, 1813


BRITISH EXPEDITIONS

Penobscot Expedition Sept. 1, 1814
Machias Expedition September 10, 1814
Moose Island  July 18, 1814

More Going On Than You'd Think.  --Brock-Perry