Samuel Waldo

Who was Samuel Waldo?

Brigadier-General Samuel Waldo was a wealthy merchant, land speculator, soldier and political figure in the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

He was born in Boston, the son of Jonathan Waldo and Hannah Mason. In 1722, he married Lucy Wainwright. 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. A one-time business partner of Colonel Thomas Westbrook, Waldo acquired a large tract of land between the Penobscot and Muscongus Rivers in what is now Maine where he settled Irish and German immigrants.

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.