Why is Eliot Named "Eliot"?

 

    There are two traditions in the history of Eliot regarding the naming of the town.  The first is that Eliot was named for a Robert Eliot, and the second tradition states that Eliot was named for the Reverend Dr. John Eliot of Boston.  So which of these is correct and who were these potential namesakes?  Unfortunately there is still no overwhelming evidence for either of these traditions but I will provide what information is available and share what I did 11 years ago in an attempt to solve this mystery.  I will also weigh in with my own opinion.

Who was Robert Eliot?  This is the first mention in any publication of a Robert Eliot for whom the Town of Eliot gets its name:

Leighton Genealogy, Tristram Frost Jordan 1885

This implies that this Robert Eliot Jr. graduate of Harvard, 1701 is the person for whom Eliot is named.  This was repeated in an April 1899 volume of Old Eliot submitted by another person named Jordan:

Old Eliot April 1899

I believe this J.F. Jordan got this fact from the Leighton Genealogy.  Robert Eliot Sr. had almost no connection to Kittery or Eliot.  He was a Portsmouth man.  Living in what would become Newcastle, NH.  His son Robert Eliot Jr., Harvard graduate, actually died at sea around 1715:

Harvard Quinquennial Catalogue 1880

While Robert Sr. may have been a man of importance in Portsmouth and Newcastle, his son who died in 1715 barely achieves any historical mention.  I do not find any compelling evidence that these men would have been held in any great esteem among inhabitants of the Upper Parish at the time of Eliot's Incorporation in 1810.  Or at least not enough to have them bestowed with the honor of naming the town after them.  Tristram Frost Jordan wrote two genealogical volumes covering his father's family and his mother's family (Leighton).  He knew all the old family names and probably decided that Eliot must have been named for this Robert Eliot who he found in his research of old families of the Piscataqua Plantations, whose daughters married into many promininent families including the Frosts and Leighton families of whom he was researching.

Second Meeting House at Crams Corner

The second tradition of Eliot's naming states that the Reverend Dr. John Eliot of Boston promised to provide a bell for the meeting house if they would name the new town after him.  The meeting house in use at that time did not have a belfry, and so the bell was never provided.  Dr. Eliot was said to be a close friend of General Andrew Pepperell Fernald who was the person largely responsible for the movement to separate from the Town of Kittery.  He was chosen as the agent charged with presenting the petition for separation to the General Court in Boston.

John Eliot, D.D. 1780

So who was the Reverend Dr. John Eliot?  He was the son of the Reverend Andrew Eliot, who was the Congregational minister of the New North Church in Boston.  He succeeded his father as the pastor of the New North Church after his father's death in 1778.  In 1790 he helped found the Massachusetts Historical Society along with the Rev. Dr. Jeremy Belknap, formerly of Dover, NH, and a few other distinguished persons.   He married a Portsmouth, NH woman named Ann Treadwell and raised his family in Boston.  He died in 1813 just three years after the Incorporation of Eliot, Maine.  

Mass. Historical Society

Could the story of the promise of a bell be true?  It is hard to prove.  But it is possible.  In 2009 ahead of the Bicentennial celebration of the Incorporation of Eliot, I wrote to the Massachusetts Historical Society and asked if I could come to their library to read through Dr. Eliot's diary which was part of the Eliot papers left in the care of the MHS.  They offered to have two college interns perform the investigation.  I asked them to look for any reference to Kittery, Maine, the Incorporation, or Andrew P. Fernald in the 1809-1810 time period.  After a number of weeks they responded that the interns found no reference to the Incorporation of Eliot, and no reference to Andrew P. Fernald.  Their professional research staff double checked the intern's work and also found no references in Dr. Eliot's diary.  

I am unaware of the existence of any evidence that proves that either of these two traditions is true or false.  But I am more inclined to believe the story of the Rev. John Eliot and the gift of a bell.  I believe that Dr. Eliot would have been well informed of the happenings at the General Court regarding the petition of the Upper Parish to separate from Kittery.  He was a man who understood history and understood his time would soon be under the gaze of the historian.  I have no reason to doubt that Andrew P. Fernald was well acquainted with Dr. Eliot even if he does not appear in any of his diary entries.  They were both great men and contemporaries of one another and most likely socialized in the same circles when together in Boston.  Though, until more evidence appears, we must give equal consideration to both traditions for the naming of Eliot.  I will continue to seek answers to this question.