Question: Is Harpswell the only town with that name? Are there any other Harpswells in the United States? Where did the name come from?
Bonnie Bailey, Orr’s Island
Answer: According to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Geographic Names Information System, a comprehensive database of domestic place names, the only U.S. community with the name “Harpswell” is the one in Maine.
However, it isn’t the world’s only Harpswell. The Maine town actually took its name from another Harpswell, in the United Kingdom. That Harpswell is a small village in the district of West Lindsey, within the county of Lincolnshire, part of the East Midlands region of England.
An article in the Harpswell (Maine) Historical Society’s summer 2014 newsletter explained that the origin of the English Harpswell’s name is open to debate.
It likely traces to Old English roots meaning “harper’s spring”— either from hearpere (“harp player”) or from a personal name, Hearp (“Hearp’s spring”), according to the article. An alternative theory links it to a contraction of here-paco (“military road”), reflecting the village’s proximity to a Roman road and a prehistoric track.
“There is another, less charming idea that it was derived from a spring having curative properties for herpes,” the article states. “The name appears in the 1086 Domesday Book (a medieval land survey) as ‘Herpeswella.’ In the 1300s, the town name was spelled ‘Harpperswelle.'”
Likewise, historians differ on who named the Harpswell in Maine. Historian George Augustus Wheeler’s 1878 History of Brunswick, Topsham and Harpswell credits emigrants from Harpswell, England, and the Dunning family, who were prominent early settlers.
Historian Miriam Stover Thomas suggested early settlers were descendants of Pilgrims who had worshiped in Harpswell, England, before sailing to Plymouth in 1620.
J. Craig Anderson, Reporter, Harpswell Anchor
Send “Ask the Anchor” questions to joliver@harpswellanchor.org.
