| Personal | Pedigree | |
|
Alexander Shapleigh was born ABT 1574 in Kingsweare, Devon, England. He died BEF 1650.
Alexander Shapleigh's wife is not known. They had one known child named Catharine Shapleigh (1600-1676).
ALEXANDER SHAPLEIGH(1), the pioneer of the American Branch of theFamily, was born apparently at Kingsweare, Devon, England, about 1574,and was probably the son of Nicholas Shapleigh, of that place, but of thiswe are not quite sure. His beautiful residence at Kingsweare was calledKittery House. A name that had come down in the Shapleigh family forseveral generations, and the name, followed the family to America andfinally gave name to the Town of Kittery, Maine.
From the testimony of Katherine Treworgy, we learn that AlexanderShapleigh was alive May 26, 1642. We hear nothing more about him, andwe learn from the court records that he was dead previous to July 5,1650.
We do not know the name of the wife of Alexander Shapleigh, when theywere married, or when or where she died.
Alexander, merchant, ship owner, was interested in the primitiveplantations and trading establishments in Maine and New Hampshire,where he was also an agent for Sir Fernando Gorges, and it is veryprobably that he visited this country at an early date, but his largeinterests in Kittery were looked after by James Treworgye and his son,Nicholas Shapleigh(2), whose transactions in his name and depositions ofservants would make it appear that he was here at times when actuallyhe was in England. However, he was in Kittery in person on 26 May1642, when he made over his entire estate to his son-in-law, JamesTreworgye, although by record Treworgye had deeded this sameproperty to Nicholas Shapleigh on 2 April 1641. (York Deeds, vol. 1, fol.1, 7: vol. 7, fol. 236, 237).
In 1635 he purchased through the agency of his son-in-law a large tractof land extending from the Piscataqua River halfway to York River,perhaps the same lands now possessed by his descendants. (Sandy Hill,once owned by Albert Shapleigh, was undoubtedly part of his early estateand has been always owned by some member of the family (through1941). Here was formerly a fort or garrison house and mill, and here itwas that Nicholas Shapleigh, son of Alexander Shapleigh(1), received andprotected the Quaker preachers. (See "New England Judged by the Spiritof the Lord, George Bishop, 1703)), and in 1638 he added a tract of 500acres at Kittery Point.
In October 1650 a statement was made that "the house where Mr. WilliamHilton now dwelleth at the River's mouth was the first house built there,and was where Mr. Shapleigh's father first built and Mr. Shapleigh nowintends to rebuild and enlarge."
In May 1674 his daughter Katherine, pleading for her brother, stated thatabout 38 years since, in a time of great scarcity, her father laid out agood estate for the supply of the country.
In 1679 John White deposed that about 42 years before Mr. AlexanderShapleigh and Mr. James Treworgye agreed with the neighbors dwellingat and about Sturgeon Creek (now Eliot, Maine).
By a deposition of Elizabeth Trickey, it is made to appear that he died atKittery not long before 6 July 1650, when the question to whom theestate belonged was brought before Godfrey, who ruled that Mrs.Treworgye was in no way possessed of the estate or responsible for anyof the debts as her father had conveyed everything before he died andno will was proved, he evidently considering the deeds of AlexanderShapleigh to James Treworgye and of the latter to Nicholas Shapleighcovered the same property and that the latter was the later deed. (SeeRegister, vol. 5, p. 345).