Maine Memory Network

Francis Waldo, who was born at Boston May 1, 1728, continued the line of Harvard lads (Class of 1747) to hold and covet the directorship of the Falmouth Cutsom House.

Even though an heir to one of Maine’s greatest land grants (Waldo Patent), Francis did not cut a commanding figure. Once fined for “trifling and indecent behavior in Hebrew class” and a source of worry to his father, Brigadier-General Samuel Waldo, he was probably appointed through the latter’s influence.

According to Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, Vol. II, “The decision to establish a (more active) Custom House at Falmouth gave Waldo a chance to settle down”, and in 1758 he obtained the appointment of Collector, Surveyor of the port of Falmouth and Naval Officer.

He moved into his father’s home on Falmouth Neck, became part of the community, and in 1760 completed his own grand residence in Stroudwater Village (pictured at left in 1940). He bought the first Royal Custom House, which he leased to the Board of Trade. Waldo was the very model of an absentee office holder, specifically during a period when the British government pressed to clamp down on smuggling to pay for the Seven Years War in Canada. On his long watch (1758-1775) Francis often travelled to Boston or London leaving lesser officials to handle a deteriorating, often dangerous situation, on the waterfront. Early in 1775, he fled to Boston, and England was where he eventually died on June 9, 1784.