County of marker: Cumberland County
Location of marker: India St., mounted on CN R.R. Terminal, Portland
Marker erected by: The Daughters of the American Colonists
Date marker erected: November 6, 1936
Marker Text:
THE SITE OF FORT LOYAL
Erected by the Colinists in 1680 captured by the French and Indians in 1690. Entire English settlement destroyed.
Interesting reading: Site of Fort Loyal, Wikipedia, rootsweb, ancestry.com
"On May 16, 1690, the French leaders of the attack demanded that the English surrender the fort. Captain Thaddeus Clark shouted back in reply, “We shall defend ourselves to the death.”
"Then, according to Sylvester, the marauding French and Indians looted the homes that stood outside the walls of Fort Loyal. Here and there flames broke through the roofs “and the air was thick with smoke and war-whoops, and the booming of the fort cannon. And so it was throughout the first day.
"On the second day, the French heaped an ox-cart with combustibles, ignited it, and pushed it up to the wooden wall of the fort, which was soon ablaze. Captain Clark then raised the white flag of surrender shouting, “Are there any French among you, and will you give quarter?”
“Yes,” was the reply, “and we will give good quarter.”
"Captain Clark then surrendered to a Frenchman named Burneffe who was in charge of the combined forces, but Burneffe did not keep his word and most of the English settlers in the fort were massacred.
"Only 10 or 12 were left alive and they were taken captive. Everything was burned to the ground. The French and their Indian allies then returned to Quebec with their captives.
"The fall of Fort Loyal ended this chapter in the tale of disaster to this region of the Province of Maine for, after this, all of the garrisons east of Wells, Maine, were abandoned. It is said, however, that a hermit named Ingersoll remained in Portland living amid the ruins.
"King Louis XIV and his court in Paris were corrupt and heartless. King William III and his court in London were stubborn and indifferent. Both were greedy and selfish. It was the colonists and the Indians on both sides that bore the brunt of the suffering. The Treaty of Ryswick, signed in 1697, ended the war, but provided neither peace nor safety for the settlers in the New World. And then, with the advent of the Spanish succession in 1700, came Queen Anne’s War." ~ Portland Maine History Blog