224 .T. G. BOUEINOT 



as he wished for his purpose. Cobb made another tack, and as they went about the Gen- 

 eral remarked, "Well, Cobb, I shall not doubt that you will carry me near enough." 

 Cobb went back to Plymouth after the campaign, but he was heard of subsequently at 

 Li-rerpool, in Nova Scotia, where he is said to have built a house. He died of a prevalent 

 epidemic at the siege of Havana in 1*762, expressing his regret that he had not met a sol- 

 dier's fate at the cannon's mouth.' 



The leader of the New England forces, without whose personal popularity, excellent 

 judgment, and cool courage the expedition could never have been successful, was 

 rewarded by the English government with a baronetcy, the first distinction of the kind 

 ever given to a colonist. His subsequent public career until his death at the age of sixty- 

 three, on the 6th of July, 1759— only a few years before the outbreak of the war of 

 independence — was distinguished by the same fidelity to the British crown and affec- 

 tion for his native country, that had induced him to attach himself to the expedition of 

 1745 He gave up his time and expended much of his money in assisting his country- 

 men in their effort to drive France from America, and through his instrumentality one of 

 the finest frigates in the British navy, the America, was built in a shipyard of New Eng- 

 land and a royal regiment raised to assist in the operations in North America. No man ever 

 died more universally regretted in the English colonies than this eminent representative 

 of the sturdy and resolute New England character. He died before he saw his country 

 precipitated into a war with England which ho loved and revered. His only son had 

 died in early manhood, and his once great possessions, which stretched for nearly thirty 

 miles from the Piscataqua to the Saco, were scattered by confiscation and sale among 

 those who did not bear his name. His grandson, William Pepperrell Sparhawk, whose 

 mother wa.s the only daughter of Sir William, and who had been adopted by his grand- 

 father as heir to his estate, on condition of dropping the name of Sparhawk, was permit- 

 ted eventually to bear the title, as a reward for having remained faithful to England during 

 the trying times before the war of independence." He lived the greater part of his life in 

 England— from 1775 to 1816, when he died— where he received a pension from the govern- 

 ment, and was always noted for his kindness and hospitality to all his countrymen who 

 claimed his aid and sympathy. Two of the older Sir William's descendants — his 

 dau"-hter's grandsons — in later times were "only saved from the poorhouse by the bounty 



*o 



' His only daughter married Colonel W. Freeman of Liverpool, N.S. ; their descendants are well known in 

 the western part of that province. His younger brother, Jabez, also settled at the same place. See Bissell's 

 "History of Plymouth," 189; Murdoch, " Nova Scotia," ii. 318; Akins's "Archives of N.S.," 182 n. 



- In more than one American account of Sir W. Pepperrell there is an error as to the way the grandson 

 obtained his title. Parsons (p. 337) writes of the old baronet, on the death of his son Andrew, having adopted his 

 grandson " as heir to his estate and title," and adds that the latter actually succeeded to the title in October, 1774. 

 As Sir William's only son died unmarried, and his grandson, William Sparhawk, was only the second son of his 

 daughter the title became extinct on his death, since it could descend by heirs male alone. If the grandson 

 had had a legal riglit to the title, it would have descended to him in 1750, when his grandfather died, and not, as 

 Parsons says, in 1775. The fact is, he received the title fifteen years after Sir William's death as a reward for his 

 fidelity to English connection. He inherited the estate in accordance with his grandfather's will, and assumed 

 the name of Pepperrell by an act of the Massachusett's legislature. See Ward's account of the Pepperrells in the 

 appendix (p. G19) to ".Journals and Letters of Samuel Curwen" (ed. of 18G4). In Appleton's "Cycle, of Am. 

 Biog."it is actually stated that the grandson assumed his grandfather's title by an act of the colonial legislature, 

 when not even the imperial parliament could have conferred such a dignity— it is a prerogative of tlie sovereign, 

 " the fountain of honour " under the English constitution. 



