Early Carlow History

 

By

Thomas W. Bentum, IV

January 2007

 

            The Carlows are a fascinating family with their pre-Revolutionary beginnings in America, choosing sides during and just after the American Revolution, and deciding to either stay east or move west like the rest of America.  These decisions in the midst of major historical events have left the family divided for generations. 

 

            Where did the Carlows originate?  Growing up I was told that they came from Ireland.  That is an easy assumption to make since there is a Carlow County and a Carlow Castle and they are all currently spelled the same as the Carlows in this family currently spell their name.  But spelling is of very little importance, especially in the early years in America.  Sound is what matters.  Often times the early records spell the name "Carlo".  The sound of the name could easily be German or even French (like in Monte Carlo). 

 

            The earliest Carlows, Jacob and Elizabeth, arrived in Pownalborough, Maine (now Dresden) in the spring of 1752.  Charles Allen writes in The History of Dresden, Maine that the people who came that year were both French Huguenots and German.  He is not sure which nationality the Carlows were, but notes that the Anglican pastor serving Pownalborough, Rev. Jacob Bailey, lists them as German.1  Most telling is the fact that those Carlows that were living in Canada in 1851 indicated that their ethnicity was German on the census.  The evidence points to the Carlow name being of German origin, not Irish or French.

 

            The Carlows were part of a plan by the government of the Bay Colony to recruit poor Germans to settle the frontiers.  At that time the frontier was places like Dresden and Waldoboro, Maine, which was the target of this particular settling of people.  It was risky business since there was much hostility between the colonists and the Native Americans.  The Germans would help populate the area and provide a buffer between the sometimes hostile native population and the English. Lucky Germans!

 

            The Carlows came on the ship Priscilla and Jasper Stahl in History of Old Broad Bay has pieced together its voyage.  It began in Rotterdam in May 1751 where it picked up the French and German immigrants brought by transports from the mouth of the Ruhr River.  Because of difficult negotiations the ship did not sail until June when it headed for Cowes, England.  Again there was trouble and it did not sail until the end of July for New England.  All of this delay used up the immigrants' provisions so that when the ship was well out to sea provisions were stopped.  The passengers now had to purchase food from the ship's stores.  They were poor and had no money so the immigrants were forced to go into debt and sell themselves as indentured servants upon arriving in America.  Stahl believes this may have been part of the plan to get the immigrants to be under their control after landing.  To make matters worse, the ship faced head winds and did not land in Boston until October 28.  Winter of course was at hand and they could not continue to the frontier settlements.  Instead they stayed in the Boston area working under forced labor to pay off their debts and living in other people's homes.  In the spring of 1752 the majority of the immigrants were settled by General Samuel Waldo in Dresden and Waldoboro areas.  Some stayed and worked at the New Germantown Glassworks Company in Braintree, rejoining their families eight years later2.

 

            The trip to America must have been particularly difficult for Jacob and Elizabeth Carlow because their first son, John, was born on board ship on 17 October 1751.  That means that Elizabeth was probably four months pregnant when she boarded ship in May of that year.  I am sure her hope was that she would give birth to her child in her new home in America and not at sea.

 

            Just a side note, I discovered in doing my family history that my grandfather, Norman Carlow, is a descendant of three other of these German immigrant families through his mother Alice Simpson.  The three families, Hilt, Ludwig and Reed were settled in Waldoboro.  The Reed family came on the same ship as the Carlows and possibly the Hilts too.

 

            Jacob and Elizabeth had at least 4 more children that lived to adulthood, probably all born in Pownalborough: Margaret (born 17 February 1756), Martin (born 11 October 1757), Catherine (born 14 February 1761) and Thankful (born 14 March 1764) .3   In a local census taken in 1766, the Carlows were living in a one story log home with a single fireplace and the house had four windows with glass.  It did not have a brick chimney or stone cellar.4   Contained in The History of Dresden is a map that shows where the original Carlow lot was.  It was roughly located on the east side of the Kennebec River north of where the Eastern River joins the Kennebec.  Their religious preference is recorded as Lutheran.5   Jacob and Elizabeth lived in Pownalborough at least until 1790 where they are recorded in the census as living there.  No record has been found after that.

 

            Jacob took on some leadership responsibilities in the town of Pownalborough.  At the town meetings of 9 March 1762 and 26 March 1782 he was elected as a tythingman.6   A tythingman acted like a policeman over a group of families in the community reporting misconduct or crime.  Historically a tythingman covered ten families, in other words a tythe of families.  In 1783 he was a warden and in 1790 he was a surveyor of highways.  They were all probably voluntary position and like most town positions, many people took turns doing them.

 

            The coming of the Revolution to Pownalborough was devastating to the community.  It split the town into those loyal to England and those opposed and it caused extreme economic hardship.  The Loyalists were lead by the Anglican pastor Rev. Jacob Bailey whose congregation was made up mainly of the ethnic groups in town who were poor and English was their second language.  Bailey was a strong supporter of the king and refused to read the Declaration of Independence to his congregation as well as speaking out in other ways.  Needless to say this got Bailey in trouble as well as those in his congregation, which included the Carlows.  In a letter dated 10 July 1779 from Bailey to British General McLean he includes Jacob Carlow as a loyal British subject to be counted on.

 

            In 1776 when the colonies declared their independence, Jacob was about 51 years old, Elizabeth aged about 46, John aged 24, Martin aged 23, Catherine aged 15 and Thankful aged 12.  It is presumed that they all went to the British fort in Bagaduce (now Castine, Maine) by 1779 for protection during the war.  John and John Martin were active in the war helping to build the fort at Bagaduce. Lorenzo Sabine records in Biographical Sketches of the American Revolution, "[John and Martin Carlow] set out to travel by land in 1778 and, after enlisting with the 'Rebels' to avoid detection, and various other adventures, they arrived in Nova Scotia.  The year following, Martin was in Lunenburg, in that Colony, and John at the British post at the mouth of the Penobscot, [Castine].  In 1782 Martin had 'gone to live at home in peace."7

 

            The largest naval battle of the Revolution took place in the bay outside the fort in August 1779.  Thirty-seven vessels brought twenty-six hundred troops to lay siege to the fort.  However, a British fleet appeared under Sir George Collier and destroyed the American fleet and ended the siege.  I find it interesting that Martin's son James married Clarrissa Fickett whose father, Zebulon Fickett was on the American side during the siege.  It is but one of many examples of how quickly the people in Maine intermarried with once opposing families and settled down to creating a home in an often harsh land.

 

            The British intended to hold Bagaduce and have it become the capital of a new colony called New Ireland.  Its western border would be the Penobscot River.  However, The Treaty of Paris made the St. Croix River the boundary for the United States and the British quietly gave up their town and fort.  The Loyalists were compensated for their losses and were given land to resettle in St. Andrews, New Brunswick.  The Penobscot Association was formed, which included John and Martin Carlow, and the people of Bagaduce were moved to St. Andrews between October 1783 and January 1784.  Each family was given a house lot in town and one hundred acres to develop outside of town.8

 

            As indicated above, Jacob and Elizabeth moved back to their home in Pownalborough.   Son John appears to have lived in St. Andrews for a time and then moved on to St. John, New Brunswick.  Son Martin moved back to Maine for about 20 years and then came back to St. Andrews until around the War of 1812.  Some of his descendants stayed in St. Andrews.  I do not know what became of daughters Catherine and Margaret except that Margaret married a Moses White.  Thankful married Peter Fisher and moved to Wayne, Maine and started a family. 

 

           

 

 

 

End Notes                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

1. Charles Edwin Allen, History of Dresden, Maine (Augusta, Maine: Kennebec Journal Print Shop, 1931), p. 153.

 

2. Jasper J. Stahl, History of Old Broad Bay and Waldoboro, Vol. 1 (Portland, Maine: The Bond Wheelwright Company, 1956), pp. 165-170.

 

3. Allen, p. 153.

 

4. Ibid, p. 209.

 

5. Ibid, p. 349.

 

6. Ibid, pp 261 and 329.

 

7. Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (Port Washington, N.Y., Kennikat Press, 1966), p. 297

 

8. Theodore C. Holmes, Loyalists to Canada: the 1783 settlement of Quakers and others at Passamaquoddy (Camden, Maine: Picton Press, c1992), pp. 151-155.