First of all we investigated the Pepperell connection. This search took us a long way from Froyle and back in time over two hundred years to before the American Declaration of Independence. The first Sir William Pepperrell was born in 1696 at Kittery Point, Maine (then part of Massachusetts). A wealthy merchant, landowner, and businessman, he became a colonel in the colonial militia, was a delegate to the Massachusetts General Court and a member of the governor’s council, and was appointed chief justice in 1730. In 1745 he commanded the land forces that, with a British fleet under Sir Peter Warren, captured the French fortress of Louisburg, on Cape Breton, Canada and became known as ‘The Hero of Louisburg’. In recognition of this service, he was the first Native American to be created baronet in 1746 and briefly governed Massachusetts between 1756 and 1757. He died in 1759.
The first Sir William had been what is called a “self-made man”, and had raised himself from the ranks of the soldiery through native genius backed by strength of will. The mansion now seen in Kittery Point, Maine, was built partly by him, and partly by his more eminent son. The building was once much more extensive than it now appears, having been some years ago shortened at either end. The lawn in front reached to the sea, and an avenue a quarter of a mile in length, bordered by fine old trees, led to the neighbouring house of Colonel Sparhawk, east of the village church. The first Sir William, by his will, made the son of his daughter Elizabeth and of Colonel Sparhawk, his residuary legatee, requiring him at the same time to relinquish the name of Sparhawk for that of Pepperell. Thus it was that the baronetcy, extinct with the death of the hero of Louisburg, was revived by the king, in 1774, for the benefit of this grandson.

Mary & Elizabeth Royall by John Copley c1758 Photograph by Lady Palmer of original picture in Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

In England, Sir William was allowed £500 per annum by the British government, and was treated with much deference. He was the good friend of all refugees from America, and entertained hospitably at his pleasant home. His private life was irreproachable, and he died in Portman Square, London, in December, 1816, at the age of seventy. His vast possessions and landed estate in Maine were confiscated, except for the widow's dower enjoyed by Lady Mary and her daughter, Mrs. Sparhawk.

On July 4th 1776 Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence and everything changed.

His father-in-law, Isaac Royall (pictured left with his family in 1741), though he acted not unlike his son-in-law, Sir William, has, because of his vacillation, far less of our respect than the younger man in the matter of his refusal to cast in his lot with that of the Revolution. In 1778 he was publicly proscribed and formally banished from Massachusetts. He thereupon took up his abode in Kensington, Middlesex, and from this place, in 1789, he begged earnestly to be allowed to return ‘home’ to Medford, declaring he was “ever a good friend of the Province”, and expressing the wish to marry again in his own country, “where, having already had one good wife, he was in hopes to get another, and in some degree repair his loss.” His prayer was, however, refused, and he died of smallpox in England in October 1781. By his will, Harvard College was given a tract of land in Worcester County, for the foundation of a professorship, which still bears his name. But, what is the connection between these two famous names from American history and Froyle?