Brian Pendleton, born in 1599 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, belonged to the ancient Pendleton family of Manchester, England -- several of whom were prominent merchants and churchmen during the 16th century. He married Eleanor Price in 1619 at St. Martin's Church, Birmingham, England. In 1625, a householder in London when Charles I was crowned, he belonged to the parish of "St. Sepulchre's without Newgate." Captain John Smith, adventurer and explorer, was a communicant of this church at the time. Hugh Peters (b. 1598), a lecturer and "apostle of righteousness with reformer's zeal" in this church, emigrated to New England in 1635.
Brian Pendleton, with his wife and children, probably crossed the Atlantic in Governor Winthrop's fleet of eight ships in 1630. They sailed from Southampton to Salem and the mouth of the Charles River (later Boston) settling at Dorchester, Roxbury, and Watertown.
Brian quickly became a leader. In 134 the first record of Watertown proceedings states three persons were chosen to order civil affairs: William Jennison, John Eddy, and Brian Pendleton. They were known as Selectmen. In 1635 Watertown increased its Selectmen to eleven. Their duties included dividing the land among the inhabitants. Brian Pendleton held at least one public office each year and sometimes held as many as five or six public offices at once.
Some landholders became Freemen, or stockholders in the company, and thus gained a voice in the colony's government. However, Massachusetts and New Haven, Connecticut, in 1631 imposed restrictions on Freemen, requiring them to be church members. Only a fourth of the inhabitants were church members, enabling them to be Freemen with a vote.
In 1635 Watertown decided to limit immigration: 1) no more free land to new arrivals and 2) new arrivals henceforth shall purchase land. Brian Pendleton, who served as a Deputy to the Court of Massachusetts from 1636 to 1638, had to enforce these new rules. Deputies to the Court were chosen by towns. Assistants to the Court were elected by Freemen. During Brian Pendleton's time, the Massachusetts Bay General Court dealt with the following matters:
1. Levy general tax for building stockade around Newtown (Cambridge).
2. Fine or imprisonment for those absent from church services.
3. Banishment of John Smith for "diverse dangerous opinions".
4. Banishment of Roger Williams for antagonism to Government ("free thinking and pugnacious").
5. No new churches established without Magistrate approval and approval of the majority of elders of existing churches.
6. Empower Freemen to dispose of their own lands, choose their own officers, make such local ordinances as might be necessary.
In 1638 the more liberal inhabitants of Watertown (fifty four families) migrated up the Charles River en route to Concord and established Sudbury. They sold their homes and improved land in Watertown, establishing a new settlement. The local Indian chieftain, Cato (Karte), gave them a deed in 1639. The Pendletons built their home east of the river on Pendleton Hill, now Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.
Sudbury grew quickly. A grist mill was established in 1639 by giving 40 acres of land, frame and planking to the mill operator. In 1640 a church was organized with Edmund Brown as pastor. A meeting house was built in 1643, erected by the house holders themselves as a community project. In 1640 the first bridge was built across the river to facilitate commerce in the community.
A "train band" was organized for defense and all able-bodied men were enrolled except magistrates, clergy, and workers in fisheries and ship-building. Weekly military drills were held as well as contests in marksman-ship. Lieutenant Brian Pendleton was one of the founders of the Military Company of Massachusetts, according to the 1648 records. He was appointed by the General Court to drill the military company of Sudbury. He served as Selectman and as Commissioner of Sudbury to 1646, then returned to Watertown where he served as Deputy in 1647 and 1648. He moved to Topsfield, Massachusetts, and served in civil affairs 1648 and 1649.
Next he moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he was appointed Associate Justice from 1651 to 1665. He also served as Selectman from 1652 to 1662 and Commissioner and Commander of the military company. He was also selected as Justice at Kittery, Maine. He served on the "annexation commission" to Maine from Massachusetts and was Deputy to the General Court of Massachusetts from 1653 to 1663. He was town treasurer of Portsmouth from 1654 to 1663.
After giving his goods, houses, warehouses, wharves, and lands in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Westerly, Rhode Island, and Sudbury, Massachusetts, to his son James, Brian Pendleton moved to Winter Harbor (Saco) Maine, in 1665 where he was chosen Selectman 1666 and 1667, elected a Burgess to General Court of the Province of Maine in 1667, appointed surveyor of highways, served as Major of York County regiment in 1668, Associate Justice of the Province of Maine 1668 to 1676, town clerk of Saco in 1672, and assessor of taxes at Saco in 1676, and became deputy president of the Province of Maine in 1680.
He returned to Portsmouth in 1676 with his wife because of the Indian War. He remained in Portsmouth 1677 to 1678 then returned to Saco to review the devastation wrought by the Indians. He died the winter of 1680-1681 at the age of 81.
Brian Pendleton was an active and energetic man, acquisitive and generous, devout and pragmatical in every sense of the word with a long career in public affairs. He was somewhat inclined toward liberality in his earlier days, but later became an ardent partisan, a typical Puritan, and engaged in enforcing the laws. He became involved in maintaining authority over the non-Puritan settlements which Massachusetts absorbed "at the Eastward" -- Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Maine. During these years he became engaged in foreign commerce by sailing ships, including exporting timber and importing rum and sugar from Barbados.