Lt. Tobias Lord (1748-1808) was a shipbuilder and one of the most prominent men of Wells/Kennebunk. He had 4 "All Other Free Persons" listed with his family in the 1790 Census for Wells. These people may have previously been enslaved. Capt. Tobias Lord (1724-1809), the father of Lt. Tobias Lord, also has an entry in this database.
"Lord was commissioned as Lieutenant, and went into service in the Revolutionary War. He was in the company of Capt. James Littlefield at the time of the surrender of Burgoyne. In 1778, he came to Kennebunk and settled on Water Street, building a small house opposite the saw-mill ... Here he engaged in ship-building on the Mousam River ... but [later] judging the Landing on Kennebunk River to be a more convenient place for his business, he transferred it to that place. There he enlarged his operations....He abandoned his business and moved to Alfred in 1803," returning to Kennebunk before his death in 1808. - Bourne pp. 757-758
"Lieut. Tobias Lord (1748-1808) began building small vessels on the Mousam River in Kennebunk around 1780, and later moved his business to the 'Kennebunkport River.' In 1803, he moved to Alfred and opened a 'narrow red store.' He also held varying interests in the brigs DOLPHIN (1793), VENGEANCE (1800), MERCHANT, ATLANTIC, and the schooner FORTUNE. He also owned over 1,000 acres of land in the Kennebunk-Alfred region. He held interests in a saw mill, a pier and wharf, and he sold ship timber. During hard times he received financial assistance from William Gray, the prominent ship owner from Salem, Massachusetts. He married Mehitable Scammon (1753-1781) in 1772, and Hepsibah Conant in 1781. He fathered at least 4 sons: Samuel, George, Tobias, and Nathaniel. Lieut. Lord died on January 16, 1808." - Mystic Seaport Museum
"At this day, even after an interval of one hundred years, he is spoken of by one who frequently heard his name mentioned when a boy, as one of the Noblemen of York County. Thus the child born in a log-house, after a career of honorable activity, was the possessor of estates widespread, comprising the two home-lots at Kennebunk and Alfred of 190 acres of land with buildings thereon, quite 1,000 acres in out-lying wood-lots and farms with buildings in nearby towns, a saw-mill, 19/60 of a school house, a pew in the Alfred meeting-house and a privilege for another in its gallery, interests in a profitable pier and wharf on Kennebunk river, personal property, cattle of various descriptions including horses, oxen, sheep, etc., to the number of nearly one hundred upon his various properties, ship timber, ownership in the brig 'Alliance' with her apparel, the principal interest in the brig 'Merchant,' her outfit and inward cargo of 14,906 gallons of molasses, etc., etc. But the legacy most prized by his descendants must have been that lettered by his contemporaries, and yet to be seen on the mossy, marble headstone, hard by the old, now First Parish Church, with which he was identified, and reading in this fashion: Sacred To The Memory of MR. TOBIAS LORD OBT. Jan. 16, 1808, Aet 59. A distinguished merchant who rose to eminence by virtuous industry, the fruit of which he liberally distributed to assist the enterprising yeomanry. Kennebunk, the scene of his activity, will long mourn the loss of a patron, and society regret the departure of one OF God's noblest works - an honest man." - The Ancestors and Descendants of Lt. Tobias Lord, pp. 175-76
Bibliography:
The History of Wells and Kennebunk from the Earliest Settlement to the Year 1820 - by Edward Bourne (1875)
The Ancestors and Descendants of Lt. Tobias Lord - Charles Edward Lord (1913)
Mystic Seaport Museum, Lord Family Collection, Manuscripts Collection 140, https://research.mysticseaport.org/coll/coll140/
1790 US Census for Wells
