Historian - March 2008

Lake George is located just southeast of the Adirondack Mountains in upper New York State. It’s a narrow lake, 1 to 3 miles wide, and it runs for 32 miles north to south. It is named for King George II of England. The area around Lake George is quite famous for what happened there back in 1755 during the French and Indian War (1754-1763).

In the mid 1700’s, the British were battling royal French forces and various American Indian tribes, that were allied with the French, in an effort to expel the French from North America. On August 28, 1755, Sir William Johnson, a Major General in the Provincial Army, led his British troops to Lake George and occupied the land. On September 8, 1755, 1,500 French and Indian forces were defeated by Johnson’s colonial forces in what was called the Battle of Lake George.

Serving under Sir William Johnson’s command were several regiments including the 3rd Massachusetts Regiment commanded by Col. Moses Titcomb. During the Battle of Lake George, Col. Titcomb was killed and Lt. Col. Jonathan Bagley assumed command.

Following that famous battle, Johnson had a new fort built on the shores of Lake George. It would serve various military purposes including as a staging area for Roger’s Rangers and as a key starting position for future attacks on Fort Ticonderoga. Johnson named the new garrison Fort William Henry after King George II’s youngest son, William, and the King’s grandson, William Henry. The fort was modest in size and well built by the colonial forces under Johnson’s command. In fact, much of the labor was provided by the 3rd Massachusetts Regiment and its commanding officer, Jonathan Bagley. Bagley’s Regiment consisted of very skilled carpenters and boat builders from Amesbury and Newbury, Massachusetts. Bagley was reportedly Fort William Henry’s first Commanding Officer.

In August 1757, the French attacked Fort William Henry with a force of 8,000 men and Indians. The 1,500 colonial forces that were in and around the Fort held it for as long as they could until they were forced to surrender. Under the terms of surrender, the British were allowed to withdraw unmolested. Those terms didn’t sit well with the Indians and, on there own, they attack the British as they retreated, taking many lives and scalps. The Fort William Henry Massacre as it is known was a low point in the War. It is the subject of a famous novel you may have read – The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, published in 1826.

Col. Jonathan Bagley continued to serve with the 3rd Massachusetts for a few more years, commanding Fort Edward in New York, participating in the attack on Ticonderoga, and later serving at Louisbourg (Nova Scotia) following the Siege of Louisbourg (1758).

Following his military service, Col. Jonathan Bagley returned home to Massachusetts. On January 28, 1768, he and Moses Little of Newbury were granted a large parcel of land in the Province of Maine by a Boston-based land company. The deal was that they had to get fifty families to settle on the land within six years or they would lose their holding. The land is a beautiful piece of property on the eastern shores of the Androscoggin River at Twenty-Mile Falls, about 80 miles north of Portsmouth and just off what is now the Maine Turnpike. Bagley called his township – Lewiston.

I’d have to say that Jonathan Bagley was a very interesting fellow. What makes him of particular interest to us is that Bro. Bagley was Raised a Master Mason in St. John’s Lodge on October 18, 1770.

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