In 1853 Spencer Chamberlain told his grandson about the naming of Chamberlain Lake and the clearing of Chamberlain farm.

Chamberlain Lake was mentioned in the first paragraph of a document titled, “Spencer Chamberlain’s Ancestors”. This document presented the best information available about his family when Alonzo C. Phillips wrote it. This undated document was mentioned in a letter from Alonzo Phillips to his Chamberlain cousins in Spencer Iowa. The letter was dated December 21, 1927, when Phillips was 81 years old.

Spencer Chamberlain lived with his daughter Jeanette Phillips and her children in Glover, Vermont in his last illness in 1853. Her son Alonzo Phillips (Spencer’s grandson) was then 8. The document he apparently wrote many years later is an intriguing puzzle from its beginning. The last sentence of the first paragraph clearly shows it was from the memory of Spencer Chamberlain:

“The first Chamberlain that landed in this country of the Spencer Chamberlain family located on the east coast of Maine in 1700. One of the boys went up north in Maine not far from Moosehead Lake on a shore of a rather large lake and put it on the map as Chamberlain Lake. There he cleared up a farm and to this day it is known as Chamberlain Farm. Nothing of any further note is attached to his memory, only the naming of the lake and farm.“¹

This is true. There is a Chamberlain Lake in the Northern Maine Woods. It is 14 miles long and 2 miles wide and covers almost 11,000 acres. Chamberlain Farm is located on the east shore of Chamberlain lake even today, (2017).

Who named Chamberlain Lake?

I searched the history of Chamberlain Lake but had no luck finding how the lake and farm got their names. However, Spencer Chamberlain’s comment to his grandson from the 1850s may hold the answer to that mystery.

A land survey in the Allagash waterway of northern Maine was conducted from 1825 to 1833. They ran a monument line south of Apmoojenegamook Lake, (the lake’s original Indian name). This formed a base line for laying out townships to the north.²  When George W. Coffin published his map in 1835 the lake was labeled “Apmoojenegamook or Chamberlin L.”. (The last few letters are unreadable due to a crease in the map).³ Someone had “put it on the map as Chamberlain Lake”. This is just as Spencer Chamberlain described it!

The earliest white settlers began settling in the Allagash area in about 1837. A number of dams and locks were constructed on the Allagash River and various lakes beginning in 1841. These were built to facilitate the movement of lumber from the woods of northern Maine to the mills in Banger. Ebenezer S. Coe built Chamberlain Farm halfway up the eastern shore of Chamberlain Lake in 1846. The farm provided a source of hay and oats for workhorses, and winter vegetables for lumber crews. It also served as a lumbering depot on Chamberlain Lake.⁴

The Chamberlain who named the Lake was likely a prominent member of the survey crew that was working in the area some twenty years earlier. The survey took eight years. It seems reasonable that this work crew would also need a headquarters and a farm to feed its men and horses while they were working in the wilderness. Spencer said that “one of the (Chamberlain) boys” went up north, “cleared a farm and to this day it is known as Chamberlain Farm.” Eban Coe expanded that farm in 1846 to meet the needs of the lumber industry and kept the name.

Chamberlains settled on the east coast of Maine

Spencer believed that the first of his Chamberlain family line who landed in this country “located on the east coast of Maine in 1700.” This is not exactly correct, because Thomas and William Chamberlain arrived in Virginia in 1635 and re-located to Massachusetts in 1644. Our family’s Y-DNA test results prove that our paternal line through Spencer Chamberlain goes back to one of the Thomas, Edmond or William Chamberlain brothers.

Therefore, to find the time and location of the earliest Chamberlain settlements in Maine, I searched genealogical birth, marriage and death dates and locations.  I found settlements in Lebanon 1751, Hallowell 1767, and Brewer 1793. None of these were satisfactory because they were much later than Spencer’s description and more important, they were not on the coast.

Then I found a Chamberlain settlement in Rye, New Hampshire. It is right on the coast adjacent to the New Hampshire-Maine border. All the early births were recorded in Rye, New Hampshire, but by the 1800s it was evident that the majority of the family lived in York County Maine, just across the river. This is the first Chamberlain family to locate on the east coast of Maine. They located there sometime between 1701 and 1704.

William Chamberlain, of Woburn Massachusetts was the son of the William Chamberlain who emigrated from England. He married Deliverance Ferguson and they had four children. Their third child, Sarah, was born about 1701 in Cambridge Massachusetts. Their fourth child, William, was born in Rye, Rockingham, New Hampshire in 1704.

William Chamberlain (the third) married Mary Rand in Rye, New Hampshire 7 Nov. 1729. They had six children, Lydia, Samuel, William, Mary, John and Thomas. William, John and Thomas died in Pepperelboro, York County, Maine in 1812, 1832, and 1798 respectively. Samuel died in Augusta, Kennebec, Maine in 1811. It is possible that a son or grandson of one of these brothers worked on the survey crew between 1825 and 1833, cleared a farm and literally put Chamberlain Lake on the map.

It is believed that Spencer Chamberlain was born about 1786 in Westmoreland, NH. There is no evidence that William (3rd) or any of his sons came to Westmoreland, nor that they are direct ancestors of Spencer Chamberlain. However, Thomas Chamberlain, who was one of the early settlers of Westmoreland, was a nephew of William Jr, the first Chamberlain to settle on the east coast of New Hampshire and Maine.

Thomas apparently lived in Rye Rockingham, NH for a while when he was a child. Records show his younger brother was born there. Therefore, it is likely that Thomas and his parents Daniel and Mary, were among the first Chamberlains who, Spencer Chamberlain said, “located on the east coast of Maine”. Daniel and his brother William may have moved there together with their wives and children to Rye, Rockingham, New Hampshire in 1703 or 1704. Daniel’s family, however, moved back to Billerica between 1708 and 1712 by the time Thomas was nine years old.

Some of Thomas’ family returned and settled in Maine before 1810. Therefore, it is possible that members of his family were the ones who cleared the farm and named the lake.

Family Line of William Chamberlain, Jr.,⁵ (Son of the William Chamberlain who came to America)

William Chamberlain, b. 3 March 1652, Woburn, Middlesex MA, d. 20 Jan. 1734, Lexington MA. Deliverance Ferguson, b. about 1656, Woburn, Middlesex, MA. d. unknown. William and Deliverance m. 20 December 1698. Children:

1- “Child” Chamberlain, b. about 1699 Lexington, MA, d 1703 Lexington, MA.
2- Rebecca Chamberlain, b 1700 Billerica, Middlesex, MA, d. unknown.
3- Sarah Chamberlain, b. about 1701, Cambridge, MA, d. unknown
4- William Chamberlain, b. 1704 Rye, Rockingham, NH. d. 3 June 1781.

William Chamberlain b. 1704 Rye, NH, Married Mary Rand b. 3 Oct 1709, Charleston, Boston, Suffolk, MA., d. 5 May 1753, Hampton Rockingham NH. Children:

1- Lydia Chamberlain, b. 3 April 1738, Rye, Maine, d. unknown.
2- Samuel Chamberlain, b. 18 August 1740, Rye, Rockingham, NH., d.1811, Augusta, Kennebec, Maine.
3- William Chamberlain, b. 17 May 1743, Rye, Rockingham, NH., d. Pepperelboro, York, Maine.
4- Mary Chamberlain, b. 20 July 1746, Rye, Rockingham, NH., d. 1819.
5- John Chamberlain, b. 14 July 1749, Rye Rockingham, NH., d. after 1832, Pepperelboro, York Maine.
6-Thomas Chamberlain, 15 October 1752, Rye Rockingham, NH., d. 1798 Pepperelboro, York, Maine.

Daniel Chamberlain⁶

Daniel Chamberlain b. 27 Sept 1671 Billerica Middlesex, Massachusetts f. William Chamberlain, m. Rebecca Addington, d. 22 November, 1725, Billerica, Middlesex Massachusetts; m. 1694 Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts to Mary Swain 1673-1713.

Children of Daniel Chamberlain and Mary Swain⁶

1- Isaac Chamberlain b. 3 Aug. 1695, Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts.
2- Ebenezer Chamberlain b. 5 September 1698, Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts.⁶
3- Ephraim Chamberlain b. 16 January 1701, Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts.
4- Thomas Chamberlain b. 9 August 1703, Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts.
5- Johnathan b. 21 February 1708, Rockingham, New Hampshire, d. 23 January 1790.
6- Mary Chamberlain b. 1712, Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts, m. 1 December 1732, Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts, to Johnathan Cram.
7- Dorothy b. 25 December 1713, Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts.

To be continued ….

 Chapter 10- The Chamberlain Families of Westmoreland

If you got this far, please click Goodbye or Table of Contents. This will simply tell me that someone looked at this post. Thank you! Dennis Chamberlain

© Dennis D. Chamberlain, The Chamberlain Story, 2017. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the written content of this site without express and written permission from the author and owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that  credit is given to Dennis D. Chamberlain and direction to  www.thechamberlainstory.com.

References:

1. Alonzo Chamberlain Phillips, Spencer Chamberlain’s Ancestors, Unpublished document held by Chamberlain family.
2. Dean B. Bennett, The Wilderness from Chamberlain Farm: A Story of Hope for the American Wild. Shearwater Books, Washington, London 2001, p. 54.
3. George W. Cowen, Plan of the Public Lands of the State of Maine, surveyed under the Instructions from the Commissioners and Agents of the States of Massachsetts (sic) and Maine. 1 August 1835.
4.  Dept. of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, Allagash History, www.maine.gov
5. Familysearch.org, New Hampshire Births and Christenings, 1714-1904, & New Hampshire Marriages 1720-1920.
6. Familysearch.org