Charles Frost (military officer)

Major Charles Frost (1631–1697) was an English-born military leader in Maine during King William's War.

Biography

Frost was born in Tiverton, Devon, England. He married Mary Bolles in 1660. They had a daughter, Sarah Frost, born in 1666.

Frost was stationed in Kittery, Maine (present-day Eliot, Maine). He was the highest-ranking military leader in Maine during King William's War until he was killed by Indians, along with a number of other local residents at Ambush Rock. He was reportedly killed for his role in Richard Waldron's subterfuge against several hundred Indians during King Philips War.

Aggrieved natives never forgot. According to Everett Stackpole's "Old Kittery and Her Families":

On 4 July 1897, the newly formed Eliot Historical Society held a commemoration ceremony as their first public event, marking the 200th anniversary of the natives' killing of Frost.

Charles Frost was the 5th great-grandfather of American poet Robert Frost.

Legacy

• Namesake of Frost Hill, Eliot, Maine (Natives dug up Frost's body and hoisted it upon a pole at the top of Frost's Hill)
• Honored on a plaque at Ambush Rock in Eliot, where he died in an Indian attack

See also

• Winthrop Hilton
• Richard Waldron

References

Sources

• Exercises Of The Eliot Historical Society On Monday The Fifth Of July, 1897: In Commemoration Of Major Charles Frost On The Two Hundredth Anniversary Of His Massacre By The Indians, Sunday, July Fourth, 1697
• Memoir of Charles Frost (1888)
• "Old Eliot: a monthly magazine of the history and biography of the Upper Parish of Kittery, now Eliot" Vol. II., 249-262; X., 30; XII., 139 and 258
• "Maine Wills;" Maine Hist. Soc.
• Stackpole, Old Kittery and Her Families, p. 414 (1903)