Why Livermore Was Called Port Royal An early history of the town

by Charles Francis

When Livermore was incorporated as the ninety-ninth town in Massachusetts on February 29, 1795 it was named for Deacon Elijah Livermore, one of the first settlers of the township and one of its proprietors. That is a well-known and established fact. It is also fairly well-known that before its incorporation, Livermore was known as Port Royal. The details of the origins of that earlier name are, however, somewhat misunderstood and confused.

References to Livermore’s earlier name generally state that the name Port Royal relates to a battle fought at that

Acadian town sometime in the 1700s. Old histories of Livermore, such as the one found in Varney’s A Gazetteer of the State of Maine, say the expedition to Port Royal took place in the middle of the eighteenth century. Others are even less precise, stating that the name Port Royal was chosen because some of the early grantees of the township fought in the battle when Port Royal was taken from the French. The implication is that Elijah Livermore and other early settlers of the township like Major Thomas Fish or Isiah Manly fought at Port Royal.

The capture of Port Royal took place in 1710. Elijah Livermore was not present when the French fort there fell to forces from Massachusetts. He couldn’t have been. Elijah Livermore was born in 1731. The same is true of Fish and Manly. They were born after the battle occurred. There is, of course, a link between that 1710 battle in what was then the French province of Acadia and the township that was to become the town of Livermore.

Some of the early settlers of Port Royal, including Elijah Livermore, came from Waltham, Massachusetts. The link between Livermore, Maine, Waltham, Massachusetts, the township (cont. on page 36

(cont. from page 35) of Port Royal and Port Royal, Acadia is that a good number of the soldiers who fought at Port Royal against the French came from Waltham.

In the spring of 1710, Colonel Francis Nicholson was placed in command of a force of fifteen hundred Massachusetts militiamen. Nicholson, who was regarded as one of the most able military commanders in New England of the period, was charged with taking the French capital of Acadia at what is now known as the Annapolis Basin in present-day Nova Scotia. The troops under Nicholson were augmented by some British regulars as well as a few marines. The force gathered in Boston and was transported downeast to Port Royal in a combination of British naval vessels and local merchant vessels. From the organization and numbers involved, it is clear that the expedition was an important undertaking, which it was. A number of attempts had been made in the past to drive the French from their stronghold. The successful completion of the expedition is why the township that would become Livermore was granted to veterans who served at Port Royal.

Francis Nicholson’s force landed at Port Royal on October 5, 1710. Five days later the French surrendered. The name Port Royal was subsequently changed to Fort Anne to honor Queen Anne, the British monarch at the time. Port Royal would, however, live on in the District of Maine, at least for a time. This isn’t quite the end of the story, however.

Nicholson went back to Boston with the bulk of his forces. Four hundred and fifty men were left at Port Royal, or more properly, Fort Anne. The four hundred and fifty had an awful time that winter. They lacked proper cloth- ing for the cold, had no money as their pay was in arrears and in many cases actually came close to starving as neither Boston nor London sent supplies and they couldn’t buy any from the locals without money. In part because of this, a grateful Massachusetts General Court awarded the township that would become Livermore to the Port Royal veterans. Some of their descendants were the ones who actually became the township’s early settlers and proprietors.

In the summer and autumn of 1772 Elijah Livermore, Ebenezer Learned, and Richard Woodward surveyed what would become the town of Livermore, dividing it into lots. It was the original proprietors who first chose the name Port Royal to honor the men who had fought and endured that battle and the following horrible winter.

The name Livermore was chosen to honor Elijah Livermore, the most prominent of the township’s proprietors. Elijah Livermore was a member of an important family. A brother, Samuel, was Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court as well as a United States Senator, and two nephews were New Hampshire Supreme Court Justices as well as Congressmen.

As for Elijah Livermore, besides being one of the township’s proprietors, he was important in the township’s early development. Among other things, Livermore built the first mill in the community and helped raise money for the first church.