William Clapham

William Clapham (Clappan) was a Captain in the British Army who was stationed in Nova Scotia during Father Le Loutre’s War. He was appointed captain in Boston 1747 and sent to defend Annapolis along with Jedidiah Preble and Benjamin Goldthwait. After the Raid on Dartmouth (1749), Clapham raised a company of 70 men to fight the Mi’kmaq. Clapham relieved Gorham in the Battle at St. Croix. He was involved in the Battle at Chignecto.

The first raid on Halifax happened in October 1750, while in the woods on peninsular Halifax, Mi'kmaq scalped two British people and took six prisoner: Edward Cornwallis' gardener, his son, and Captain William Clapham's book keeper were tortured and scalped. The Mi'kmaq buried the son while the gardener's body was left behind and the other six persons were taken prisoner to Grand Pre for five months.

Ezekiel (Eziekiel) Gilman abandoned the saw mill in the wake of the Raid on Dartmouth and Clapham took charge of it. In the Raid on Dartmouth (1751), Captain Clapham and his company of Rangers were stationed on Blockhouse hill. He and the company are reported to have remained within the block-house firing from the loop-holes during the whole raid. A court martial was called on 14 May, the day after the raid, to inquire into the conduct of the different commanding officers who allowed the village to be destroyed. By June, Clapham's Sergeant had been acquitted.

In the same year, Clapham was tried for killing a prisoner after having gagged him too tightly.

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