Lieutenant John Patten

     Lieutenant John Patten was born circa 1717 in Northern Ireland.¹ He was the son of Hector Patten and NN Suter.¹ Marriage intentions for Lieutenant John Patten and Mary Means, daughter of Robert Means and Jean Armstrong, were published on 19 June 1742 in Biddeford, York County, Maine.^2,3 They married on 12 August 1742 in First Congregational Church, Scarborough, Maine.⁴ He died on 7 April 1795 in Topsham, Lincoln County, Maine, from injuries received in falling from his horse.⁵ Administration on his estate was granted to his son David on 17 April 1795, at the written request of his widow Mary and sons Robert, Thomas, Joseph and Actor. John Fulton and John Reed of Topsham acted as David Patten's sureties. The inventory of the estate amounted to £2004.⁶
     
     His name appears on the Biddeford tax lists from 1746 to 1748.¹ In 1749, in partnership with his brother William, his brother-in-law Thomas Means and Gowen Fulton, he purchased from Dr. Belcher Noyes and William Skinner of Boston a tract of land in Bowdoinham known as Cathance Point, lying between Merrymeeting Bay and the Cathance River and containing six hundred and sixty-one acres.⁷ The Patten brothers and Fulton settled on this property but Means, who had in the meantime gone to North Yarmouth, sold out his interest to William and John Patten in 1755.⁸ In 1756, John purchasd from Samuel Tebbets of Topsham one-quarter of a mill on Cathance River and sixty-two acres of land adjoining it.⁹ The Cathance property was divided between the Pattens and Fulton in 1759, a well-drawn map being recorded with the instrument of division.¹⁰ Lincoln deeds record his purchase of over eight hundred acres in Topsham and Bowdoinham between 1760 and 1785, of which he sold but little.⁵

     Lieutenant John Patten was a lieutenant in Capt. Adam Hunter's company of militia, being so set down in the "alarm list" of 1757.⁵ He was selectman of Bowdoinham in 1765, 1766, 1769, 1770 and 1771.⁵ He was a blacksmith and a farmer.⁵ In addition to his trade John Patten built the first ship constructed at Cathance, the Merrymeeting, a sloop of ninety tons, and the forerunner of a long series. His partners in this venture were John Fulton and Robert Hunter, and his brother Capt. William Patten was the sloop's master. Later he built the Defiance and in 1772 the Industry, owned by himself, his son Robert and his sons-in-law Fulton, Jameson and Harwood, and captained by his son-in-law Maxwell. The Industry made the first voyage from Bowdoinham to the West Indies.⁵

     On his tombstone appears the following inscription: "Sacred to the memory of Mr. John Patten, a Deacon of the Congregational Church in Topsham, a valuable member of civil and religious society, and an affectionate husband and parent. Dyed April ye 7th, 1795. Blessed are ye dead, who die in ye Lord."⁵

     John and Mary Patten had fourteen children.⁶