Nathaniel Meserve

Background

Nathaniel Meserve was the son of Clement Meserve (spelled variously), a carpenter of Newington, New Hampshire, and of his wife, Elizabeth Jones.

Career

In 1725, Nathaniel moved to Portsmouth, and during the next twenty years acquired a considerable fortune, a reputation as a prominent shipwright, and a character for probity and honesty which caused him to be named on numerous occasions as appraiser and executor. In 1746 he was one of the twelve chief inhabitants who purchased from Mason's heirs their claims to New Hampshire territory. Meserve turned his carpentry training to good account in the siege of Louisbourg in 1745, when, as lieutenant-colonel of Moore's New Hampshire regiment, which he had helped to raise, he constructed sledges for the transportation of artillery across Cape Breton marshes. In compensation for his services, he was selected, through the instrumentality of Sir Peter Warren and Sir William Pepperrell, to build a British frigate, one of the rare occasions when the British navy employed colonial shipyards. This vessel, the America, 44 guns, was launched from Portsmouth in 1749. In the trying summer of 1756 he served at Fort Edward as colonel of the New Hampshire regiment, and his readiness to obey all orders, the vigor which he instilled into his men, not scrupling himself to wield an axe when work did not progress to his satisfaction, his skill in constructing blockhouses, and perhaps his good-natured simplicity, marked him out definitely from the majority of provincial officers and gained him the esteem of his British superiors. Loudoun wrote of him in highest terms to Governor Wentworth and to the secretary of state, made him a present of a valuable piece of plate, properly inscribed, and later, with Pitt's authority, expressed to him "the gracious sense the King has of the Zeal and Diligence he has shewed the Service. " In 1757 he was commissioned as captain of an independent company of sixty carpenters, paid, as were the ranging and Indian companies, out of British contingencies, and in that capacity, though still a New Hampshire colonel, he accompanied Loudoun to Halifax in the summer, where he built barracks and storehouses. Though Loudoun reengaged him in 1758 for duty in New York, Pitt expressly ordered that he collect eighty carpenters to serve under Amherst at Louisbourg and that he be urged to resign the command of the New Hampshire troops in order to devote his whole attention to the more essential service. Of his company of 108 men, ninety-two caught the smallpox at Louisbourg, and he and his son Nathaniel died there of the disease; "a very great loss, " wrote Amherst, "to this Army. " Another son, George, who as distributor of stamps was the target of Portsmouth rioters in 1765, petitioned for lands on account of his father's services and put in claims as a Loyalist during the Revolution.

Achievements

• Meserve was hired by the Royal Navy to build a 50 gun warship HMS America at his shipyard. His shipbuilding experience allowed him to build sleds to transport the cannon over the marshy ground. During the French and Indian War Colonel Meserve led the New Hampshire Provincial Regiment in 1756 to Fort Edward New York and in 1757 to garrison Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Works

• book

  • King of this hill

Connections

In 1725, Meserve married Jane Libby. After the death of his wife Jane on June 18, 1747, he married Mary (Odiorne) Jackson, a member of a leading Portsmouth family. He had eleven children, ten of whom survived him.

Father:

Clement Meserve

Mother:

Elizabeth Jones

Wife:

Mary (Odiorne) Jackson

Wife:

Jane Libby Meserve

1699 - 18 June 1749

References

• Annals of Portsmouth