194. Dr John⁵ Calef (Robert⁴, Mary³ Ayer, Cornet Peter², Capt John¹ Ayers) (#1217) was born in Ipswich, Essex, MA 30 Aug 1726.⁽⁷⁰⁶⁾ Individual flags: Loyalist. John died Oct 1812 in St. Andrews, Charlotte, New Brunswick, CAN, at 86 years of age.⁽⁷⁰⁷⁾ age 87 His body was interred in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, CAN, St. Andrews Place Loyalist Cemy.

He married twice. He married Dorothy Jewett 18 Jan 1753.⁽⁷⁰⁸⁾ aft 1727 and bef 1759 (Dorothy Jewett is #1748.)

Dorothy was born 2 May 1736 in Rowley, Essex, MA.⁽⁷⁰⁹⁾ Dorothy was the daughter of Rev Jedediah Jewett and Elizabeth Dummer. He married Margaret Rogers 1759.⁽⁷¹⁰⁾ (Margaret Rogers is #5142.) Margaret was born 1729.⁽⁷¹¹⁾ Margaret was the daughter of Rev Nathaniel Rogers and Margaret Crane. Margaret died 27 Mar 1751 at 21 years of age.⁽⁷¹²⁾ She was baptized 14 Dec 1729.⁽⁷¹³⁾

He resided in Brooksville and Castine, Hancock, ME. He made a will in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, CAN, 6 May 1811.⁽⁷¹⁴⁾ Note: poss daughter Martha/Patty who m William Wentworth, is not named in his will Abstract from Loyalists of the American Revolution, Vol. 1, p 286:

CALEF, JOHN. Of Ipswich, Massachusetts. Physician. Son of Robert Calef, and Margaret, daughter of Deacon John Staniford. He was born in Ipswich, 1725, and represented that town in the General Court several years. Driven into exile by the Revolution, he became surgeon of one of the regiments stationed at Castine, Maine, and a part of the time officiated as chaplain. At the peace he settled at St. Andrew New Brunswick, and died there in 1812, aged eighty-seven. His wife was a daughter of Rev. Jedediah Jewett of Rowley, Massachusetts.

Abstract from Maine Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 2, Fall 1979, p73:

CALIF: New Ireland Men in Pursuit of a Forlorn Hope Castine; settled for a haven or refuge for American Loyalists fleeing from rebel prosecutors. The Penobscot and St. Croix Rivers were intended to be boundaries of this New Ireland. The three people who originated the idea included two Americans, Loyalists John Calef and John Nutting, and one Englishman, William Knox, Undersecretary of State for the Colonies in the British Cabinet, headed by Lord Frederick North. Calef and Nutting, though they did not know each other prior to the establishment of New Ireland, had much in common. Both had homes near Boston, Mass, which they had lost because they were Loyalists. Both had developed connections with Eastern Maine before the war, and each of them, separately, contacted the British Government regarding the future of that region. Calef contacted them first.

Calef, a doctor of medicine and former representative of the Massachusetts Provincial Assembly, first became linked with the Penobscot Bay Area in 1772, when Thomas Hutchinson, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, sent him to England to represent settlers at Penobscot who wanted their land claims confirmed by Royal grant. Calef presented their case and returned home. The land confirmations were not yet completed when the rebellion began, and, in the meantime, three months before Lexington and Concord, Dr. Calef wrote to Sir Francis Bernard, former Governor of Massachusetts, now in London, that the Penobscot people desired the establishment of a separate government for the area.

(page 78) Then in June 1780, Dr. John Calef made another appearance in London. As he had twice already past, Calef came to England as a representative of the Penobscot inhabitants to petition the Royal Government for confirmation of prewar land grants. This time he had other requests as well. Calef stressed the great needs of the people - distitute of law and gospel - and asked for two things for them: a very loyal people who lived in an area of exceptional economic potential. He wrote in his petition, desired that a government separate from Massachusetts Bay be established at Penobscot and that a minister of the Church of England be sent to them.

In brief, it was a fine appeal for God, King, and good government, and it gave Germain's office substantial reasons to persuade the rest (See note #16 page 88) of the government to establish a new Royal colony. (page 80) In the meantime, Dr. Calef and John Nutting became involved in the new arrangement. Calef attempted to gain support for the colony from William Petty, Earl of Shelbourne, former Secretary of State for the Southern Department, which had been in charge of American Colonial affairs.

(page 81) In 1782, after Yorktown, the administration of Prime Minister Frederick North fell - a blow to the colony; but Calef persisted in his dream. Once again, as soon as the Earl of Shelbourne had been installed in office, Calef presented him with an imposing packet of information dealing with the Penobscot. (See Note #27, The Shelbourne Papers 66:195; British Headquarters Papers 2:407) There were letters recommending the doctor and also a document written by Calef and entitled, "The State of the Inhabitants of the District of Penobscot, March 1782." Also a memorandum by Calef praising the potential of growth and development in Eastern Maine; a memorial from the people of Penobscot requesting a "Royal Grant," and suggested several methods for bettering the military situation against Massachusetts, a supporting document, written by Colonel Goldwaite, and Calef added three more papers: a survey he'd made in 1772, an account of the yearly exports of the Bagaduce area for the period 1772 - ?, and a copy of an opinion (dated 18 Dec 1717) listing the Crown restrictions on the granting of land east of the Penobscot River. (See Shelbourne Papers 66:165-168, 176-179, 197-213, 214-215, 222)

Before sailing back to America in April, Calef made several last minute efforts for support of the colony. He met numerous times with General Guy Carleton, who was to replace General Clinton as commander of the British forces in America, and discussed with him the future of Maine. He again got the support of Nutting, who wrote to Lord Shelbourne on Calef's behalf and stressed the importance of Penobscot's retention and finally had a last audience with Shelbourne before he and Nutting departed from England. Calef's endeavors were complicated by changes in government. Rockingham died 1 July and Shelbourne replaced him.

(page 86) The most conspicuous person (for the colony) was Dr. John Calef. His motive was singular, his efforts consistent. He strove for the inclusion of New Ireland in the future of things British and he devoted the war years to its fulfillment. To him, New Ireland was never a vain hope.

(page 88 Note #16) Memorial of Petition of John Calef, 12 July 1780, Shelbourne Papers 66: 183-185. As a further inducement for sending an angelican minister, Calef added that the indians were fond of ministers and forms of devil worship. See also letter Captain Henry Mowatt to Lord Germain Albany Majabigwaduce, May 9, 1780 ibid 66:180-185.

Dr. Calef was one of the puritan gentry of Massachusetts. Source: Winslow Papers 455, "Life of Dr. John Calef, Acadenses, Vol 11, 201.

Source: St. Croix by Guy Murchie page 165, 179:

Dr. John Calef, an important man in St. Andrews. Was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1725 and was related by birth or marriage to several leading Massachusetts families. He had been a surgeon in the Louisburg Expedition of 1745. His account of the seige is a rare manuscript at the Harvard College Library. He served in the Massachusetts Legislature, but, being one of seven famous rescinders, he had to leave the colony during the Revolution. From Castine, he went to London as a Loyalist agent. At St. Andrews, he was responsible for stopping a smallpox epidemic.

Dr. Calef's father-in-law was Reverend Jedediah Jewett of Rowley, Massachusetts. He was a pallbearer at Whitefield's funeral. A relative once remarked that Dr. Calef attended a shipmaster whose leg was broken. His bill, which was for the sum of a little over a pound of the then currency, was sent to the Office of the Ship's Agent in St. Andrews, where one of the clerks put a cipher after the one, making it 10 pounds. The .....was about paying it when he was told of the joke....

Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada Census: Vol 2, page 16 Califf (page 43):

Jedediah J. 73 American widower farmer Sarah 33 N.B. daughter Eliz Daley 15 Irish lodger Ammand McMullin 8 N.B. lodger

Source: The Hammatt Papers, pp 47-48:

John(3), son of Robert(2), was born in 1725; married Margaret, daughter of Rev. Nath'l Rogers, baptized Dec. 14, 1729, died March 27, 1751. He was a physician and surgeon, and was in 1755, and several years after, representative of the town in the General court. In 1755, Oct. 25, the town instruct him to oppose "the distressing and ruinous measures taken by Parliament against Ameria," and "to do all he can to repeal the acts passed or may be passed." When in 1768, the Earl of Hillsborough required the House of Representatives to rescind a vote respecting a union of the colonies, the House, June 30, resolve not to rescind by a vote 92 to 17. Doctor Caleff voted in the minority, and incurred the displeasure of his constituents by so doing.

Oct. 3, 1774, having been waited on by a committee of Ipswich, so that his views of the late acts of Parliament might be known, gives them leave to have it published in the Essex Gazette of Salem, that he regretted voting, June 30, 1768, in favor of the royalists, that his purpose is to maintain the charter rights against the late acts of Britain. But being convinced against his will, it appears he reamined "of the same opinion still," for he continued attached to the royalist party, and when the revolutionary war broke out left the country and settled in the British province of New Brunswick, where at the town of St. Andrews, he died in 1812, aged 87 years. He had a son Robert who died at Norfolk, VA in 1801, at the age of 41. (Sabines American Loyalist).

His house stook upon the site of the residence of the late Col. John Heard. It was sold about 1802 to Capt. Samuel Caldwell, and removed some rods east of the South Meeting House, where it now stands. - Printer.

Resided in Brooksville, ME

Dr John Calef and Margaret Rogers had the following child:

290 i. Robert⁶ Calef (#5143) was born 1760.⁽⁷¹⁵⁾ Robert died 1801 in Norfolk, Norfolk, VA, at 41 years of age.⁽⁷¹⁶⁾ at age 41 Extract from Loyalists of the American Revolution, Vol. 1, p 286:

CALEF, ROBERT. Son of John Calef. Died at Norfolk, Virginia in 1801, at the age of forty-one.

Dr John Calef and Dorothy Jewett had the following child:

+ 291 ii. Martha (Patty) Calef was born 18 Oct 1768.

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