Pagan, Robert

• DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: David S. Macmillan and Roger Nason, “PAGAN, ROBERT,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/pagan_robert_6E.html
• DCB profile notes:
  • Businessman, politician, jp, judge, and militia officer; b. 16 Nov. 1750 in Glasgow, third son of William Pagan and Margaret Maxwell; m. Miriam Pote, daughter of Jeremiah Pote, and they had no children; d. 23 Nov. 1821 in St Andrews, N.B.
  • Robert Pagan emigrated to North America in 1768 or 1769 and was established by his father, a prominent sugar refiner of Glasgow, in the expanding timber and shipbuilding trade of Falmouth Neck, Mass. (Portland, Maine). In partnership with the firm of Lee, Tucker and Company of Greenock, Scotland, Robert undertook to gain a firm position in the lucrative West Indies trade, where his elder brother William had already been apprenticed.
  • Robert expanded his contacts in the business world through another brother, John, who capitalized on the promotion of Scottish immigration to North America. This brother had formed a partnership with Governor William Franklin of New Jersey and the Reverend John Witherspoon, later president of the College of New Jersey, to entice settlers to Boston and Philadelphia in the 1760s. In 1773, under the title of the Philadelphia Company, the same associates and others organized the Hector expedition to Pictou, N.S.
  • Through these family and financial connections Robert Pagan developed one of the largest businesses in general merchandise and shipbuilding in Falmouth during the first half of the 1770s. In October 1775, however, the community of Falmouth felt the first impact of open hostilities in the American conflict. Upon orders from the commander-in-chief of the North American station, Vice-Admiral Samuel Graves, who was responding to rebel activity in the area, Captain Henry Mowat bombarded the harbour front and laid waste many of its commercial establishments. The property of loyalists as well as non-loyalists was destroyed, including the business premises of Robert Pagan.
  • By February 1776 the threats from rebel committees in Falmouth against suspected tory sympathizers forced Pagan and his family to flee to the West Indies. A year later, however, Robert and Thomas were reunited with their brother William, who was then engaged in trade at New York. Prompted by the announcement that a haven for loyalists would be established at the mouth of the Penobscot River, the three brothers soon decided to base their commercial operations there, under the protection of the British garrison at Fort George.
  •  By 1815 Pagan was one of the 12 wealthiest men in the province, and in 1820, he became a founding member and shareholder of the Bank of New Brunswick. The scarcity of timber and shipping in Britain during the Napoleonic Wars and the ability of New Brunswick merchants to trade “on the Line” during the War of 1812 had brought large profits. However, a combination of factors had already begun to undermine St Andrews’s rapidly acquired commercial prominence. Greater competition from the Americans in the West Indies trade, the loss of a major portion of the hinterland behind the town to a crown reserve, and the rise of St Stephen (St Stephen-Milltown) as a rival in shipping and commerce all eroded the influence of the town and its representatives.
• United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=6360
• Find A Grave : https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/184582924/robert-pagan