DCB/DBC Mobile beta
+

As part of the funding agreement between the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and the Canadian Museum of History, we invite readers to take part in a short survey.

I’ll take the survey now.

Remind me later.

Don’t show me this message again.

I have already taken the questionnaire

DCB/DBC News

New Biographies

Minor Corrections

Biography of the Day

LESAGE, DAMASE – Volume XV (1921-1930)

b. 28 March 1849 in Sainte-Thérèse-de-Blainville (Sainte-Thérèse), Lower Canada

Confederation

Responsible Government

Sir John A. Macdonald

From the Red River Settlement to Manitoba (1812–70)

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

Sir George-Étienne Cartier

Sports

The Fenians

Women in the DCB/DBC

The Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences of 1864

Introductory Essays of the DCB/DBC

The Acadians

For Educators

The War of 1812 

Canada’s Wartime Prime Ministers

The First World War

GOLDTHWAIT, BENJAMIN, military officer; b. in Boston, Massachusetts, 25 Nov. 1704 (o.s.), son of John Goldthwait and Sarah Hopkins; m. 10 Oct. 1726 to Charity Edwards; d. 10 May 1761.

Benjamin Goldthwait began his varied career as a saddler and then a chaise-maker. He was first elected to civic office in 1735 when he was sworn in as a town constable of Boston; in 1742–43 he held the office of clerk of the market. When the government of Massachusetts decided to launch an expedition against Louisbourg, Île Royale (Cape Breton Island), Goldthwait enlisted and on 9 Feb. 1744/45 was commissioned a captain in Samuel Waldo’s 2nd Massachusetts Regiment. He was placed in command of the 4th Company and served in that capacity during the siege of Louisbourg. By 1746 he had been appointed commissary agent for Waldo’s regiment, a position he held for at least two years.

In the fall of 1746 Goldthwait was sent to Annapolis Royal as part of a New England reinforcement for Nova Scotia. That winter the New Englanders were dispatched to the Minas area under the command of Arthur Noble, in an attempt to rout the French forces in that region. Goldthwait was present at Grand Pré on 31 Jan. 1746/47 when the French launched a surprise attack against the New England forces. On the death of Noble, Goldthwait assumed command of the troops, but seeing the hopelessness of their situation, he agreed to surrender to the French commander, Nicolas-Antoine Coulon de Villiers, and formal terms of capitulation were drawn up and signed. Goldthwait then returned with his men to Annapolis Royal, where he apparently remained as a company commander until 1748.

In 1755 Goldthwait was once again on active service, as a major in the company raised by Colonel John Winslow* to attack Fort Beauséjour (near Sackville, N.B.). He was an active participant in the siege of that fort and was present at the council of 16 June 1755 which deliberated on the terms of surrender. He later assisted in the deportation of Acadians from the Chignecto region to the American colonies.

In 1756–57 Goldthwait was actively engaged in military service in Massachusetts and New York and in 1758 he served as a major in the second Louisbourg expedition. He died in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1761; he was declared insolvent, and his estate was divided among his creditors. He had at least five children.

Barry M. Moody

AN, Col., C11A, 87, ff.314–61; C11D, 8, ff.130–34. BM, Add. mss, 19071. Mass., Archives, Military records, 73, f.474; 75, ff.405–6; 77, ff.52–53. Mass. Hist. Soc., Winslow papers, 61.E1.88; 61.E1.103; 61.E2.9. PAC, MG 18, F10. PANS, RG 1, 13, nos.38, 39; 13 1/2, nos.19, 23, 24; 357, pp.1–247 (Winslow’s journal at Beauséjour; printed in N.S. Hist. Soc. Coll., IV (1884), 113–246; see especially pp.119, 124, 137, 143, 157). Boston, Registry Dept., Records (Whitmore et al.), [12], [19]. Boston Evening-Post, February, March 1747. Charlotte Goldthwaite, Goldthwaite genealogy: descendants of Thomas Goldthwaite, an early settler of Salem, Mass. . . . (Hartford, Conn., 1899), 78–81. New Eng. Hist. and Geneal. Register, XXIV (1870), 370; XXV (1871), 253.

General Bibliography

Cite This Article

Barry M. Moody, “GOLDTHWAIT, BENJAMIN,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 3, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 28, 2024, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/goldthwait_benjamin_3E.html.

The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:


Permalink:   http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/goldthwait_benjamin_3E.html
Author of Article:   Barry M. Moody
Title of Article:   GOLDTHWAIT, BENJAMIN
Publication Name:   Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 3
Publisher:   University of Toronto/Université Laval
Year of publication:   1974
Year of revision:   1974
Access Date:   March 28, 2024