Major Charles Frost (1631–1697) was an English-born military leader in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

during

King William's War King William's War (also known as the Second Indian War, Father Baudoin's War, Castin's War, or the First Intercolonial War in French) was the North American theater of the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), also known as the War of the Grand All ...

Biography

Frost was born in

Tiverton, Devon Tiverton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Devon, England, and the commercial and administrative centre of the Mid Devon district. The population in 2019 was 20,587. History Early history The town's name is conjectured to derive from "Twy-fo ...

, England. He married Mary Bolles in 1660. They had a daughter, Sarah Frost, born in 1666. Frost was stationed in

Kittery, Maine Kittery is a town in York County, Maine, United States. Home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery includes Badger's Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, and part of the Isles of Shoals. The southernmost town i ...

(present-day

Eliot, Maine Eliot is a town in York County, Maine, United States. Originally settled in 1623, it was formerly a part of Kittery, Maine, to its east. After Kittery, it is the next most southern town in the state of Maine, lying on the Piscataqua River across f ...

). He was the highest-ranking military leader in Maine during

until he was killed by Indians, along with a number of other local residents at Ambush Rock. He was reportedly killed for his role in Richard Waldron's subterfuge against several hundred Indians during

King Philips War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England coloni ...

. Aggrieved natives never forgot. According to Everett Stackpole's "Old Kittery and Her Families":

"The night after Frost's burial the Indians opened his grave, took out the body, carried it to the top of Frost's hill and suspended it upon a stake. His resting place was marked some years later with a flat stone, on which is a rudely chiseled inscription, "Here lyeth intrrd ye body of Mj. Charles Frost ager 65 years Decd July ye 4th 1697." The spot where he was slain is near a large boulder, on which is a suitable inscription. It is known as Ambush Rock."

On 4 July 1897, the newly forme
Eliot Historical Society
held a commemoration ceremony as their first public event, marking the 200th anniversary of the natives' killing of Frost. Charles Frost was the 5th great-grandfather of American poet Robert Frost.

Legacy

* Namesake of Frost Hill, Eliot, Maine (Natives dug up Frost's body and hoisted it upon a pole at the top of Frost's Hill) * Honored on a plaque at Ambush Rock in Eliot, where he died in an Indian attack

References

Sources

Exercises Of The Eliot Historical Society On Monday The Fifth Of July, 1897: In Commemoration Of Major Charles Frost On The Two Hundredth Anniversary Of His Massacre By The Indians, Sunday, July Fourth, 1697Memoir of Charles Frost (1888)

"Old Eliot: a monthly magazine of the history and biography of the Upper Parish of Kittery, now Eliot" Vol. II., 249-262; X., 30; XII., 139 and 258
* "Maine Wills;" Maine Hist. Soc. * Stackpole
Old Kittery and Her Families, p. 414 (1903)
Military history of Acadia History of Maine People in King William's War 1631 births 1697 deaths Military personnel from Tiverton, Devon 17th-century English military personnel {{England-mil-bio-stub

Biography

Legacy

See also

References

Sources