African Enslavement
The Tates are believed to have enslaved at least one person known as Bet/Bett. Her name appears in a court record from 1772, a witness summons for an accidental murder. Bet was probably a domestic servant working in the house. Enslaved Africans in Maine did a wide variety of labor including domestic work, farming, fishing, smithing and producing barrels. It was common for a family to own a single enslaved individual to help them run their farm or business. Most enslaved Africans were brought to Maine through the “second middle passage.” This was a voyage from the West Indies to New England instead of directly from Africa. Enslaved Africans who had spent time in the British West Indies were preferred. They were referred to as “seasoned” because they spoke some English and had knowledge of European cultural norms.

Stroudwater Village
The Stroudwater village area was developed by Colonel Thomas Westbrook who held the title of mast agent before George Tate. In the 1730s he built a residence, sawmill, and paper mill along the Stroudwater River. Masts would be collected at Stroudwater landing before they were “twitched” into the Fore River and floated to the mast port located near Clark’s Point. George Tate built a wharf and a warehouse which contained a store soon after his arrival in 1751. According to Tate House, Crown of the Maine Mast Trade, “At the heart of the Casco Bay mast trade was the bustling, rough-and-ready outpost with few substantial buildings. Here, tough, seasoned mariners met equally hardened woodsmen from the interior.”

The Mast Trade
The British Empire in the 18th Century projected much of its global power through a robust Navy. Essential to their fleets were large quantities of lumber. The British needed large “sticks,” or logs, that could be turned into ship’s masts and spars; pieces of wood that were a-fixed horizontally to masts from which sails hung. Most of the large old growth trees in Great Britain had already been harvested. The British turned to lumber in the Baltic for a time but these trees became hard to procure due to changing politics in the Baltic region. The British came to realize that White Pine trees, which grew prolifically in the colony of New Hampshire and the province of Maine, made ideal masts. These first growth trees grew as high at 200 feet with a width at their trunks of four feet. The protected and deepwater harbor at Falmouth (later renamed Portland) had access to large stands of old growth trees. The streams and rivers that emptied into the harbor provided further access to suitable trees. The White Pine, the Maine State tree, grows tall and straight, making it the ideal choice for masts. Furthermore, being a soft wood, the masts made from White Pine bent and flexed in the wind. A harder wood like oak was more likely to snap or shatter in high winds at sea. Trees deemed suitable to become masts were marked with the “Kings Broad Arrow.” Below is the “King’s Broad Arrow,” a marking chopped into a tree trunk that signified that the tree was now the King’s property and could only be cut for the express purpose of delivering it to the mast port.

Site history provided by Seth Goldstein.