Fort Pentagouët (Fort Pentagoet, Fort Castine, Fort Penobscot, Fort Saint-Pierre) was a French fort established in present-day

Castine, Maine Castine ( ) is a town in Hancock County in eastern Maine, United States.; John Faragher. ''Great and Nobel Scheme''. 2005. p. 68. The population was 1,320 at the 2020 census. Castine is the home of Maine Maritime Academy, a four-year institut ...

, which was the capital of

Acadia Acadia (; ) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the The Maritimes, Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. The population of Acadia included the various ...

(1670–1674). It is the oldest permanent settlement in New England. Its commanding position at the mouth of 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 W ...

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

, a lucrative source of

furs A fur is a soft, thick growth of hair that covers the skin of almost all mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an ...

and

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

, as well as a major transportation route into the interior, made the peninsula of particular interest to

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an powers in the 17th century. Majabagaduce (as the

Abenaki The Abenaki ( Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was pred ...

name would be corrupted) changed hands numerous times with shifting imperial politics. At one time or another, it was occupied by the

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Plymouth Colony Plymouth Colony (sometimes spelled Plimouth) was the first permanent English colony in New England from 1620 and the third permanent English colony in America, after Newfoundland and the Jamestown Colony. It was settled by the passengers on t ...

La Tour

Castine was founded in the winter of 1613, when

Claude de Saint-Étienne de la Tour Claude de Saint-Étienne de la Tour ( 1570 – after 1636) was born in the province of Champagne, France and came to Acadia in 1610 after suffering heavy losses as a ship's captain. Claude arrived in Acadia to assist Jean de Biencourt de Poutri ...

established a small

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory in European and colonial contexts, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically a trading post allows people from one geogr ...

to conduct business with the

Tarrantine The Tarrantines were a band of the Mi'kmaq tribe of Native Americans inhabiting northern New England, particularly coastal Maine. The name ''Tarrantine'' is one of the words the Massachusett people used to refer to the ''Mi'kmaq'' people. In the ...

Indians. After the trading post was established at Castine, a raid by English captain

Samuel Argall Sir Samuel Argall ( or 1580 – ) was an English sea captain, navigator, and Deputy-Governour of Virginia, an English colony. As a sea captain, in 1609, Argall was the first to determine a shorter northern route from England across the Atlan ...

Mount Desert Island Mount Desert Island (MDI; ) in Hancock County, Maine, is the largest island off the coast of Maine. With an area of it is the List of islands of the United States by area, 52nd-largest island in the United States, the sixth-largest island in th ...

in 1613 signaled the start of a long-running dispute over the boundary between French Acadia to the north and the English colonies to the south. There is evidence that La Tour immediately challenged the English action by re-establishing his trading post in the wake of Argall's raid.

Captain John Smith John Smith ( – 21 June 1631) was an English soldier, explorer, colonial governor, admiral of New England, and author. He was knighted for his services to Sigismund Báthory, Prince of Transylvania, and his friend Mózes Székely. Followin ...

charted the area in 1614 and referred to French traders in the vicinity. In 1625,

Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour Charles de Saint-Étienne de La Tour (1593–1666) was a Huguenot French colonist and fur trader who served as Governor of Acadia from 1631–1642 and again from 1653–1657. Early life Charles de Saint-Étienne de La Tour was born in France i ...

erected a fort named Fort Pentagouët. English colonists from the

seized it in 1629, and made it an administrative outpost of their colony.Faulkner and Faulkner, p. 219

Aulnay

From 1635 to 1654,

Charles de Menou d'Aulnay Charles de Menou d'Aulnay (''de Charnisay'') (–1650) was a French pioneer of European settlement in North America and Governor of Acadia (1635–1650). D'Aulnay was a member of the French nobility who was at various times a sea captain, a lie ...

de Charnisay defended his private commercial interests at Fort Pentagoet. In 1635, it was retaken by the French and again incorporated into Acadia; Governor

Isaac de Razilly Isaac de Razilly (1587–1635) was a member of the French nobility appointed a knight of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem at the age of 18. He was born at the Château d'Oiseaumelle in the Province of Touraine, France. A member of the French n ...

sent

de Charnisay to retake the village. In 1638, Aulnay built a more substantial fort named Fort Saint-Pierre. While he had other ventures in Acadia, Fort Pentagoet was his major outpost on the frontier with New England.

Emmanuel Le Borgne Emmanuel Le Borgne de Belle-Isle (1610 – 5 August 1675) was the governor of Acadia in 1657–67 and was the claimant to the estate of Charles de Menou d'Aulnay who had governed Acadia until his death. Le Borgne was a highly successful merc ...

with 100 men raided the settlement in 1653. Major General Robert Sedgwick led 100 New England volunteers and 200 of

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

's soldiers on an expedition against Acadia in 1654. Before taking its capital,

Port Royal Port Royal () was a town located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest and most prosperous city in the Caribbean, functioning as the cen ...

, Sedgwick captured and plundered the French settlement at Pentagouët. The English occupied Acadia for the next 16 years and Fort Pentagouët saw very little use.

Capital of Acadia

From 1670, when Acadia was returned to the French, Fort Pentagouët became the Capital of Acadia under two Governors

Hector d'Andigné de Grandfontaine Hector d'Andigné de Grandfontaine (baptized 17 May 1627; died 6 July 1696) was a French naval officer who served as the governor of Acadia from 1670 to 1673. Grandfontaine was baptised in France and became a Knight of Malta. He was captain of ...

(1670–73) and

Jacques de Chambly Jacques de Chambly (born 1612, died 1687) was from a French military background and became a seigneur in the New World and a governor of Acadia. Chambly arrived in New France in 1665 when he was a captain in the Carignan-Salières Regiment. He ...

(1673-74), both formerly of the

Carignan-Salières Regiment The Carignan-Salières Regiment was a 17th-century French military unit formed by the merging of two other regiments in 1659. Approximately 1,100 men from the regiment were sent to New France in 1665 to deal with the threat of the Iroquois to the ...

. (Saint-Castin had already set up his near-by trading post three years earlier in 1667). Castine hist

During the

Franco-Dutch War The Franco-Dutch War, 1672 to 1678, was primarily fought by Kingdom of France, France and the Dutch Republic, with both sides backed at different times by a variety of allies. Related conflicts include the 1672 to 1674 Third Anglo-Dutch War and ...

(1674), Pentagouët and other Acadian ports were captured by the Dutch captain Jurriaen Aernoutsz who arrived from

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...

, renaming Acadia, New Holland. The Dutch turned the fort's cannon on its own walls and destroyed most of it after the second

siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

. Saint-Castin himself retook it in 1676 and renamed the town Bagaduce, a shortened version of Majabagaduce.

The Habitation of Saint-Castine

BaronDeStCastin1881byWill H Lowe Wilson Museum Archives

From 1667, after the Treaty of Breda, until 1700, Saint-Castin, former ensign at Fort Pentagoet, re-established French authority nearby at a small trading post that formed a nucleus of a new French and Indian habitation. French authorities dispatched the Baron Jean-Vincent de Saint-Castin to take command of Pentagouët. The baron married an Abenaki woman, the daughter of the

sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Alg ...

Modockawando. She adopted the French name Mathilde and bore him 10 children.http://www.acadiansingray.com/Appendices-Acadian%20Marriages.htm White,''Dictionnaire Acadiennes'' The baron became a widower and then married another Abenaki woman named Marie Pidiwammiskwa who bore him two additional children. Castine soon became a force in colonial trade and diplomacy. After 1677, Saint-Castin returned to his trading post within a village of 160 Etchemin Indians - two European buildings within a settlement of thirty-two wigwams.

King William's War

, held in slavery by Madockawando for attempting to escape, were tortured by fire, compelled to eat their noses and ears and then burned to death at the stake" (Se
John Gyles' captivity narrative, p. 10-11
. 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 Allian ...

, Castin's settlement was plundered by English Governor Sir

Edmund Andros Sir Edmund Andros (6 December 1637 – 24 February 1714; also spelled ''Edmond'') was an English colonial administrator in British America. He was the governor of the Dominion of New England during most of its three-year existence. At other ...

in 1688. In response, Saint-Castin led an Abenaki war party to raid the English settlement at Pemaquid (present-day

Bristol, Maine Bristol, known from 1632 to 1765 as Pemaquid (; today a village within the town), is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,834 at the 2020 census. A fishing and resort area, Bristol includes the villages of New ...

) in August 1689. During the

Siege of Pemaquid (1689) The siege of Pemaquid (August 2–3, 1689) was a successful attack by a large band of Abenaki Indians on the English fort at Pemaquid, Fort Charles, then the easternmost outpost of colonial Massachusetts (present-day Bristol, Maine). The F ...

, one of the captives the

Maliseet The Wolastoqiyik, (, also known as the Maliseet or Malecite () are an Algonquian-speaking First Nation of the Wabanaki Confederacy. They are the Indigenous people of the Wolastoq ( Saint John River) valley and its tributaries. Their terri ...

took back to their main village, Meductic, was

John Gyles John Gyles (1680 at Pemaquid, Maine1755 at Roxbury, Boston) was an interpreter and soldier, most known for captivity narrative, his account of his experiences with the Maliseet tribes at their headquarters at Meductic Indian Village / Fort Medu ...

, who created one of the few

captivity narratives Captivity narratives are typically personal accounts of people who have been captured by an enemy, generally a enemy with a foreign culture. The best-known captivity narratives in North America are those concerning Europeans and Americans taken ...

to come out of Nova Scotia/Acadia. John Gyles' brother James was also captured by the Penobscot and eventually taken back to Fort Penobscot where he was tortured and burned alive at the stake. In 1692 the village was again seized by the English, when Major

Benjamin Church Benjamin Church may refer to: * Benjamin Church (physician) (1734–1778), effectively the first Surgeon General of the U.S. Army * Benjamin Church (ranger) (1639–1718), considered the father of the U.S. Army Rangers * Benjamin Church (carpenter) ...

destroyed the fort and looted the settlement. With the return of Baron de Saint-Castin and his sons to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, the settlement became sparsely occupied.

Queen Anne's War

During

Queen Anne's War Queen Anne's War (1702–1713) or the Third Indian War was one in a series of French and Indian Wars fought in North America involving the colonial empires of Great Britain, France, and Spain; it took place during the reign of Anne, Queen of Gr ...

, in response to the French

Raid on Deerfield The Raid on Deerfield, also known as the Deerfield Massacre, occurred during Queen Anne's War on February 29, 1704, when French and Native American raiders under the command of Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville attacked the English colonial ...

in February 1704, New England Colonel

raided Castin's settlement (then known as Penobscot) before moving on to raid other Acadian villages at present-day St. Stephen, New Brunswick,

Grand Pré Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation), ...

Pisiguit Pisiguit is the pre- expulsion-period Acadian region located along the banks of the Avon River (known as the Pisiquit River to the Acadians) from its confluence with the Minas Basin of Acadia, which is now Nova Scotia, including the St. Croix Ri ...

(present-day

Windsor, Nova Scotia Windsor is a community located in Hants County, Nova Scotia, Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a service centre for the western part of the county and is situated on Nova Scotia Highway 101, Highway 101. The community has a history d ...

), and Chignecto. St. Castin's daughter was taken in the raid.Benjamin Church, Thomas Church, Samuel Gardner Drake. The history of King Philip's War ; also of expeditions against the French and Indians in its Eastern parts of New England, in the years 1689, 1692, 1696 AND 1704. With some account of the divine providence towards Col. Benjamin Church.p. 261

References

;Endnotes ;Texts * Faulkner, Alaric, and Gretchen F. Faulkner. 1994. Fort Pentagoet and Castin's Habitation: French Ventures in Acadian Maine, Chapter 10 in Norumbega: Maine in the Age of Exploration and Settlement, Emerson W. Baker, Edwin A. Churchill, Kristine L. Jones, et al. editors, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, pp. 217–240.
Fort Pentagouet. Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Vol. 4, 1893. p. 113

External links

*
Images of Fort Pentagoet
* Roberts, Robert B., Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: The Military, Pioneer, and Trading Posts of the United States, Macmillan, New York, 1988, 10th printing, {{ISBN, 0-02-926880-X, page 369
George Augustus Wheeler. Fort Pentagoet and the French occupation of Castine. Maine Historical Society, 1893, p. 113
Acadian history Pre-statehood history of Maine Military history of Acadia Pentagouet 1613 establishments in the French colonial empire Pentagouet King William's War