Person:Ruggles Colby (1)

Ruggles Colby was a Shipwright in Edgecomb, Lincoln County, Maine. The family lived in Amesbury, East Parish and settled in Wiscasset, Maine in 1749. He served in the militia in 1757.

The record of baptisim of the First Amesbury Church, gives Mary as the name of Ruggles' wife at marriage, but Hoyt says this is probaly a mistake as Abigail wife of Ruggles' was baptized and owned the covenant at the First Church in Amesbury 16 May 1736. He was a shipwright and one of the early settlers on the Sheepscot River, Maine. On 26 January 1774 he signed a petition for the incorporation of a new town called Freetown, later Edgecomb, Maine. He signed a petition for protection as one of the inhabitants of Kennebec River on 22 April 1755. Ruggles sold half of 1800 acres to Elijah Packard of Bridgewater, Mass. on 10 October 1765; 102 aacres to Joseph Huff on 22 March 1782 and to Moses Huff 50 acres on 1 October 1789. A number of his grandchildren were living at Wiscasset, Edgecomb, and other nearby places, and we suppose them to be the children of his son Edmund Colby.

Ruggles Colby signed the petition to the "Honble Spencer Phips Esqr" on 22 March 1749, seeking recognition for the settlement east of Georgetown "at a Place Called Whiscasick." They seek for the area to be called Whitehaven. The settlement was not incorporated until 1760, when it was called Pownalborough, in honor of Gov. Pownall.^[3]. Ruggles Colby also signed the 22 Apr 1755 "Petition of the Inhabitants of Kennebec River" with his mark, as "Rogels Colbee."^[4]

SOURCES:

1. ↑ "Colby Family", in Hoyt, David W. The Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts. (Providence, RI, 1897-1919)
   p. 659.

   "Ruggles Colby (Samuel, Samuel, Anthony) of Amesbury, E. Parish and Wiscasset, Me., "shipwright," b 1711; m. March 15, 1732-3...Abigail Davis of [Newbury]; liv. 1747. [Abigail] owned covenant and bp... chh., May 16, 1736."

2. ↑ Colbey, in Amesbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States. Vital records of Amesbury, Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849. (Topsfield, Massachusetts: Topsfield Historical Society, 1913)
   Vol 1 p. 56.

   "Rouggles, s. Samuel and Dority, June 10, 1711"

3. ↑ New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Trask, William B, "Materials for the History of Wiscasset, Maine." (28:410-411), citing Mass Archives, Book 115, fol 573-5
4. ↑ New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Trask, William B, "Petition of the Inhabitants of Kennebec River for Protection" (44:202-208)

(1) "The Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury Massachusetts" by David W. Hoyt; (2) "The Colby Family in Early America" by Frederick Lewis Weis, Caledonia, The Colonial Press, pub 1970; (3) "History of the Colby Family" by James W. Colby, pub 1895.