With his appointment as Royal Mast Agent, Captain George Tate (1700-1794) emigrated to colonial Portland in 1751 to oversee timbering operations in support of the British Navy. In this prominent position, he helped shape the economic and social affairs of Falmouth in Casco Bay (as Portland was known until 1786).  

His sons--both American patriots and English Tories--lived both famous and ordinary lives. Their networks established through marriage and business helped advance the family legacy here and abroad. In the early twentieth century, descendants supported the preservation of the George Tate House, a National Historic Landmark.

Prior to emigrating, Tate captained mast ships, transporting timbers from the Baltic Sea to the Thames River in London. When the British Admiralty reassigned him to Maine, Tate, his wife, Mary, and their four children sailed from their home in Rotherhithe, a seafaring neighborhood in South London, to Maine.

Upon his arrival, Tate built a wharf and a warehouse where he lived and ran his business until the family's new house was ready in 1755.

Learn more in Maine Memory Network's newest online exhibit The Life and Legacy of the George Tate Family, created by Elizabeth Hopkins, Laura Fecych Sprague, and Grace Batsford of the Tate House Museum.