Capt Richard Jacques (1704, Newbury, Massachusetts – 1745, Louisbourg, Cape Breton); an American colonial officer who served during
Father Rale's War
Dummer's War (1722–1725) (also known as Father Rale's War, Lovewell's War, Greylock's War, the Three Years War, the Wabanaki-New England War, or the Fourth Anglo-Abenaki War) was a series of battles between the New England Colonies and the Waban ...
. He was responsible for the death of Father
Sébastien Rale
Sébastien Rale (; also Racle, Râle, Rasle, Rasles, and Sebastian Rale; January 20, 1657 – August 23, 1724) was a French Society of Jesus, Jesuit missionary and lexicographer who preached amongst the Abenaki and encouraged their resistanc ...
in the
Battle of Norridgewock
The Battle of Norridgewock was a raid on the Abenaki settlement of Norridgewock by a group of colonial militiamen from the New England Colonies. Occurring in contested lands on the edge of the American frontier, the raid resulted in the massacr ...
.
Jacques was the son-in-law of the leader of the expedition
Johnson Harmon
Colonel Johnson Harmon (or Harman; c. 1675 – 1751) was an army officer in colonial America. He led the expedition during Father Rale's War that killed Father Sébastien Rale in the Battle of Norridgewock. Harmon was heralded as a hero upon hi ...
.
Jacques married Harmon's daughter five months before they served together at Norridgewock.
[Harmon Genealogy. MARY HARMON (Col. Johnson, John, James), b. Mar. 23, 1704–05, York, Me., m. 1st, April 23, 1724, Lieut. Richard Jacques, of Newbury, Mass. Richard Jacques, son-in-law of Col. Johnson Harmon, personally killed Father Sebastian Raise', in the expedition against the Indians at Norridgewock. Me., in 1724. Harmon and Jacques moved to Harpswell. Me. in 1727.]
See
He settled in
Harpswell, Maine at Merriconeag Neck (1727). 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 Succ ...
.
He was the commander of the 8th Company of the Second Massachusetts Regiment under
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, ...
.
Family oral tradition indicated that he returned from Louisbourg and died in battle in Maine.
However contemporaneous sources indicate that he did not return from Louisbourg, and that on May 18, Mi'kmaw forces killed Capt. Jacques there.
Legacy
* He is the namesake of
Jaquish Island (Harpswell, Maine) (Jaquesh Island, Jaques's Island); south of
Bailey Island (Maine)
Bailey Island is an island in Casco Bay, and a part of the town of Harpswell, in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bailey Island had a year-round population of 363 people.
Geography
Bailey Island is part of an ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacques, Richard
1704 births
1745 deaths
People of Dummer's War
British colonial army officers
History of Maine
British military personnel of the War of the Austrian Succession