Jedidiah Preble (1707–1784) was Captain of Infantry in
Samuel Waldo
Samuel Waldo (August 7, 1696 – May 23, 1759) was an American merchant, land speculator, army officer and politician in the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
Biography
He was born in Boston, the son of Jonathan Waldo and Hannah Mason. In 1722, h ...
's Regiment, whom he brought land from and settled in
Falmouth, Maine
Falmouth is a New England town, town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 12,444 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It is part of the Portland, Maine, Portland–South Portland, Maine, South Portland&ndas ...
(present-day
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...
).
He served in the
Siege of Louisbourg (1745)
The siege of Louisbourg took place in 1745 when a New England colonial force aided by a British fleet captured Louisbourg, the capital of the French province of Île-Royale (present-day Cape Breton Island) during the War of the Austrian Suc ...
. He also fought in the
Battle of Grand Pre
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
(1747). He accompanied John Winslow on his expedition up the Kennebec River and participated with him the following year in the
Battle of Fort Beauséjour
The Battle of Fort Beauséjour was fought on the Isthmus of Chignecto and marked the end of Father Le Loutre's War and
the opening of a British offensive in the Acadia/Nova Scotia theatre of the Seven Years' War, which would eventually lead to t ...
(1755) where he was wounded. He then participated in the
Cape Sable Campaign, part of the
expulsion of the Acadians
The Expulsion of the Acadians, also known as the Great Upheaval, the Great Expulsion, the Great Deportation, and the Deportation of the Acadians (french: Le Grand Dérangement or ), was the forced removal, by the British, of the Acadian pe ...
. After the British took control of the
Saint John River, they took control of the final river the Penobscot. Preble became commander at the newly built
Fort Point (formally Fort Pownal) on the
Penobscot River
The Penobscot River (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 22, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Maine. Including the river's We ...
(1759).
He was also active in the American Revolution.
He was the father of
Edward Preble
Edward Preble (August 15, 1761 – August 25, 1807) was a United States naval officer who served with great distinction during the 1st Barbary War, leading American attacks on the city of Tripoli and forming the officer corps that would la ...
, after whom Preble Street in Portland and
Fort Preble
Fort Preble was a military fort in South Portland, Maine, United States, built in 1808 and progressively added to through 1906. The fort was active during all major wars from the War of 1812 through World War II. The fort was deactivated in 1950 ...
in South Portland are named.
References
Sources
George Henry Preble. Brigadier General Jedidiah Preble and his descendants. Boston. 1868Letters of PreblePreble letter re: Mowatt* Bell, Winthrop Pickard. ''Brigadier General Jedidiah Preble (1707-1784) and his participation in Nova Scotia history''. Halifax, N.S. : Halcraft Printing, 1954., 39 p
{{Authority control
People of Father Le Loutre's War
1707 births
1784 deaths
British America army officers
People from York, Maine