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Colonel Arthur Noble was one of the heroic men of Maine, who was an
officer under Sir William Pepperell, at Louisburg, and served with
distinction in the French and Indian wars of the eighteenth century.
He was a brother of James Nobel, who was one of the proprietors of a
tract of land which included what is not the town of Nobleborough, and about which there was much controversy during the first part of that century.
Just when or where he was born has never been made entirely clear by
historians. In a sketch of his life by William Goold, in 1877 (Coll. Me. Hist. Soc. vol. 8, p. 114) appears the following:
The descendants of Col. Noble have a tradition that he was born at
Enniskillen, County of Fermanagh, and Province of Ulster, Ireland, and that the family emigrated to that place from Scotland. Arthur Noble is
supposed to have come to America in about 1720, with his brother Francis
and James.
He was commissioned by Gov. Shirley as Lieutenant Colonel under Colonel
Samuel Waldo, in the Louisburg expedition, and also held a commission as
captain of one of the companies of the same regiment which was the second Massachusetts.
At one time he was a trader at Arrowsic Island, and a farmer and large land
owner at Pleasant Cove. He owned a tannery and was a successful business man.
After the capture of Louisburg, the French took more vigorous means to defend
Canada. Governor Shirley induced the Duke of Newcastle to authorize him to
equip an expedition to Nova Scotia to aid Lieutenant Gov. Mascarene who was commandant at Annapolis, in holding that province against French invasion.
About 1,000 New England troops were raised and Noble was appointed commander.
He was killed in his first engagement with the French and Indians at Minas in February, 1747.
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