Background
He was born in Boston, the son of Jonathan Waldo and Hannah Mason.
He was born in Boston, the son of Jonathan Waldo and Hannah Mason.
During King George"s War, he served as brigadier-general in the attack on Fortress Louisbourg in 1745 and served on the temporary council that administered the settlement until Peter Warren was named governor. In 1757, during the French and Indian War, he submitted a plan to William Pitt which served as a basis for the second capture of Louisbourg from the French the following year. Waldo died of apoplexy near present-day Bangor, Maine in 1759 while participating in a military expedition with Governor Thomas Pownall.
He was initially buried at Fort Pownall (at Cape Jellison), but his remains were transported to Boston in 1760 and interred at the King"s Chapel Burying Ground.
The Maine towns of Waldo and Waldoboro, together with Waldo County, are named for their early proprietor. The Knox"s built the impressive Montpelier on Waldo"s tract of land in Thomaston, Maine.
In 1730, he purchased a 17th-century title to a large tract of land in Nova Scotia with the intent of establishing a colony there. The title did not stand up when he proposed this plan to the authorities in England.
