Col. Wm. Pepperell, Sr., of early New England, was he awarded an English coat-of-arms for his service at Fort Louisburg, Nova Scotia? If so, did he wed Margery Bray and have (Andrew?) Pepperrell who wed Jane Eliot, the daughter of Robert and Sarah Fryer Eliot. Possibly a daughter Miriam Pepperell wed Joseph Gilman of Exeter, N.H.?
According to Burke’s Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies, Sir William Pepperell, Baronet (of Massachusetts), Merchant, Public Servant and Colonel in the Militia of New England, later appointed Lieutenant General to assault Louisberg was married to Mary, daughter of Samuel Hirst, of Boston. Sir William died on the 22nd August 1759, aged 63 leaving only one child, a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Nathaniel Sparhawk, Merchant, of New England and had issue.
The baronetcy that was conferred upon Sir William after his successful siege of Louisberg was created on the 15th November 1746. Sir William’s baronetcy became extinct upon his death. He also received a grant of arms, the blazon of which is as follows:
Arms: Argent a chevron gules between three pinecones vert with the augmentation of a canton of the second charged with a fleur-de-lys of the first
Although, Burke’s Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies does not cite Sir William’s use of a crest it would appear that in Burke’s General Armory, the same arms appear under Pepperell (London), save that the canton is now Azure and not Gules and the fleur-de-lys is now Or and not Argent. This entry also cites the blazon for a crest, as follows:
Out of a mural crown argent with three laurel leaves proper in the embrasures an armed arm holding a banner argent.
This entry cites the use of the motto: ‘Peperi’.
It may well be that the difference in the tincturing of the canton and fleur-de-lys, as well as the use/grant of a crest may well have occurred when Sir William’s grandson, William Sparhawk (2nd son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Sparhawk) succeeded the property of his maternal grandfather. In doing so, William Sparhawk took the surname of his grandfather. In his own turn, William (Sparhawk) Pepperell was created a Baronet (of Boston in the Province of Massachusetts) on the 9th November 1774. He married on the 12th November 1767, Elizabeth, daughter of the Honourable Issac Royall. They had one son (William-Royall) who died aged 23 in 1798 and three daughters, Elizabeth-Royall, Mary and Harriett all whom appear to have married and lived in England as the American estates of the family as cited by Burke were confiscated during the War of Independence. The second Pepperell baronetcy became extinct on the death of Sir William on the 18th December 1816.
Trusting that the above is of assistance.
Yours aye,
John
From further delving upon the web it would appear that Sir William Pepperell’s (the hero of Louisberg) parents were William Pepperell and Margery Bray, of Kittery, Massachusetts (now in Maine). Sir William’s parentage is not cited in Burke’s Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies at all. It is interesting that Burke states that Sir William is Cornish by descent when you consider that the Eliots whom focusoninfinity mentioned could also be of Cornish extraction in that the estates of the Earls of St Germans - family name Eliot - lie in the county of Cornwall in the south west of England. It could be that the portion of New England where the Pepperells settled were peopled by settlers from England’s West Country in general and from Cornwall in particular?
Yours aye,
John