The First Enslaved Person in Arundel

The First Enslaved Person in “Arundel” was paid for by the Town.

“In August 1729, the town by their vote dismissed Mr. Eveleth from his relation to them as a Minister, and he ceased preaching. In the beginning of the next year Mr. Thomas Prentice was engaged as a preacher, received a regular call in June, and was ordained in November following. At this time a Church was duly organized.”[1] Prentice was “the first settled minister in town.”[2]

This was the town of Arundel, what is now Kennebunkport. More specifically, it was in the settled area that is now Cape Porpoise.

After preaching three months, the town, June 27 [1730], voted to give him “a call to be a settled Minister in the town of Arundel; and at the same time, voted to give the said Thomas Prentis £115 as a Standing Salary yearly, and Every year while he is a Settled minister in this Town… and as a farther Incouragement, at the above said meeting, then given and granted unto the said Thomas Prentis one hundred acres of Land which the town had …. and £1OO towards building in the Town, provided he is a settled and an ordained minister in said Town. A committee was chosen to carry the proposals to Mr. Prentice, to whom he returned the following answer.”[2]

Prentice was clearly confident in his negotiating position, as he did not shy from making additional requests.

“Gentlemen, I cannot but acknowledge myself obliged to you for the regard you have shown for me in the general invitation you have given me to settle in the ministry amongst you. And now having as impartially as I could, considered of the affair, and having sought what direction and advice I thought proper, in such an important concern, I have at last concluded to accept of your call, upon condition you will grant the following articles and additions to the proposals which you have already made to me; viz. 1st. That the salary shall be advanced to £120 a year, and shall remain so five years; and on the sixth year, that it shall be advanced to £125; and on the tenth year it shall be advanced to £130….[and] That the town shall take the £1OO which they have voted to me towards my building in the town, and build and suitably finish a house 38 feet in length, and 18 feet in breadth, having four rooms and a garret; and also that they build a kitchen on the back side of the house; which house shall be given to me, my heirs or assigns….[and] That the proprietors of the town of Arundel shall at their next meeting, grant me 200 acres of land, to he laid out where it can he clear of former grants, besides the 100 acres of land which the town has already voted me, which land shall he to me, my heirs or assigns forever; and also, that they shall make me a proprietor in the town.”

“The town acceded to his terms, and a fast was appointed preparatory to his ordination; he being the first settled minister in the town.”[3]

Four years later, “Mr. Prentice had gained the affections of his people, who appeared to treat him with much consideration. They gave him £20 a year, in addition to his salary, to furnish him with fuel, and £10 ‘more a year, and Every year for six years to Com{sic] to make up ye badness of his Sallery[sic] by Reson[sic] of his Complaining the money was Not so good as it was when he and the Town made their agreement.’ After a long debate, they gave him £30 towards buying him a servant.”[4]

Bradbury later notes “A few of the inhabitants of Arundel were able to hold slaves. Mr. Prentice bought the first one owned in town, in 1734.”[5]

Joyce Butler wrote “In 1734, when peace with the Indians again seemed uncertain, the townspeople voted to garrison the house of the then minister, Thomas Prentiss, and to fund a servant for him. The servant was a Negro slave – the first to live in Arundel. The minister’s house stood at the head of Folly Harbor (#1CP Pier Road). When Prentiss left in 1738, the house remained the property of the town and was lived in by subsequent ministers, including John Hovey, who came in 1741. He, also, owned a slave.”[6]

Quite a few enslaved people were brought to the town in subsequent years, but it remains striking that the first one was paid for by the Town itself, as part of the compensation paid to its minister.

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1 Jonathan Greenleaf, Pastor of a Church in Wells, Sketches of The Ecclesiastical History of the State of Maine, From the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time (Portsmouth: Harrison Cray, 1821), 60
2 Charles Bradbury, History of Kennebunk Port from its First Discovery (1602-1837), (Kennebunk: 1837), 124
3 Charles Bradbury, 126
4 Charles Bradbury, 137
5 Charles Bradbury, 158
6 Joyce Butler, Kennebunkport – The Evolution of an American Town (Volume I – 1603-1923), (Kennebunkport: Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library, 2013), 28

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Research & written by Bill Grabin

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