 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(November 2021) |
Lygonia was a proprietary province in pre-colonial Maine, created through a grant from the Plymouth Council for New England in 1630 to lands then under control of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. The province was named for his mother, Cicely (Lygon) Gorges. It was one of the early provinces of Maine and was absorbed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony by 1658.
Geographical interpretation of the grant's bounds is that it encompassed some 1,600 square miles (4,100 km2) between Cape Porpoise and today's Kennebec River, [1] so large that its size may have been unintended, since it took in a large part of Gorges' own grant for his Province of Maine. But it was never repudiated, and survived later challenges in English courts.
In 1630, the Plymouth Council for New England granted lands from Sir Ferdinando Gorges to the Province of Lygonia, named after his mother, Cicely (Lygon) Gorges.
The original patent establishing Lygonia has been lost, but from a 1686 abstract of title, it assigned
...unto Bryan Bincks, John Dye, John Smith & others their Associates their heirs & Assigns for Ever, Two Islands in the River Sagedahock, near the South Side thereof about 60 miles (97 km) from the Sea & also all the Tract containing 40 miles (64 km) in Length & 40 miles (64 km) in breadth upon the South side of the River Sagadahock, with all Bayes, Rivers, Ports, Inletts, Creeks, etc. together with all Royalties & Privileges within the Precincts thereof calling the same by the Name of the Province of Ligonia with power to make Laws etc. [2]
Assignees of the patent were members of the Plough Company of London, set up by the Council for New England to encourage settlement within the northeasterly portion of Gorges' domain. The intention was to support Gorges' scheme for permanent settlements with a mixed economy of farming and production of forest products for trade to augment the fishing enterprises already established along the Maine seaboard. The would-be settlers of the Plough Company were classified by John Winthrop as members of a small religious sect known as Familists, most of them farmers, and associated as the Company of Husbandmen. They chose as their minister Stephen Bachiler, who although himself of more Puritan leanings supported the undertaking. He and Richard Dummer, another Puritan, financed much of the expedition. They left England in 1631 on the ship Plough, but for unknown reasons failed to take possession of their Maine patent, and instead continued on to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, settling in communities there. Winthrop suggested that the group had investigated the Lygonia territory and, "not liking the place", had moved on.
The Plough Patent lay fallow until 1642, when it became known to George Cleeve, an early settler in the Portland area of Maine who had been an agent for Gorges within his Maine province. A falling-out between Gorges and Cleeve precipitated the latter's return to England, where he located Dummer, holder of the original patent, and engineered its sale to Parliamentarian Colonel Alexander Rigby in 1643. [3] Cleeve returned to New England with both a large land grant of his own from Rigby and a commission as Deputy President of the Province of Lygonia – the unusual title from Parliament’s approval of a constitution for the new jurisdiction.
Cleeve convened a General Assembly and courts for its towns – today's Portland, Scarborough and Saco. Because its area included a large part of Gorges' Province of Maine, Lygonia's jurisdiction was vehemently protested by settlers whose deeds and titles now came under new governance and possible dispute. Cleeve's first court at Casco in 1644 was resisted with threats and arrests, and armed confrontation was narrowly avoided. Both provinces pleaded for support and assistance from Massachusetts, which however refused to align itself with either, deferring judgment to English courts. In 1647, the Puritan Parliament affirmed Rigby's contested title to Lygonia lands over Gorges' own, and the two Maine provinces coexisted with some cooperation in settling issues of overlapping jurisdiction. In 1648, a Lygonia court ratified and confirmed an administrative judgement from a Province of Maine court.
When Alexander Rigby died in 1650, Lygonia's governance continued under Cleeve without direction from England, despite the exhortations and plans, never acted on, of Rigby's son and heir Edward. In 1651 the neighboring and now-reconciled Maine provinces aligned together in a petition to Parliament, taken to England by Cleeve, asking for independence from the proprietors and membership within the English Commonwealth. This was thwarted by Massachusetts, which by now had interpreted its own boundaries as cutting across Maine at Portland, with intent to absorb both proprietorships. By 1653, the Province of Maine towns had submitted to Massachusetts jurisdiction, and although holding out until 1658, Lygonia's towns then followed suit. Following the Restoration in 1660, Ferdinando Gorges, Esq. (grandson of Sir Ferdinando) won a judgment in 1664 confirming the validity of titles he inherited to the original bounds of the Province of Maine. Cleeve and others petitioned King Charles II to declare themselves satisfied with governance under Massachusetts. In 1665, the Royal Commission for Regulating Plantations finally declared Edward Rigby's authority null and void, but because of the Massachusetts action Lygonia had already ceased to exist.
Stephen Bachiler was an English clergyman who was an early proponent of the separation of church and state in American Colonies. He is also known for starting such settlements as Hampton, New Hampshire.
Cape Elizabeth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The town is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine, metropolitan statistical area. As of the 2020 census, Cape Elizabeth had a population of 9,535.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally The Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The lands of the settlement were in southern New England, with initial settlements on two natural harbors and surrounding land about 15.4 miles (24.8 km) apart—the areas around Salem and Boston, north of the previously established Plymouth Colony. The territory nominally administered by the Massachusetts Bay Colony covered much of central New England, including portions of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges was a naval and military commander and governor of the important port of Plymouth in England. He was involved in Essex's Rebellion against the Queen, but escaped punishment by testifying against the main conspirators. His early involvement in English trade with and settlement of North America as well as his efforts in founding the Province of Maine in 1622 earned him the title of the "Father of English Colonization in North America," even though Gorges himself never set foot in the New World.
The Province of New Hampshire was a colony of England and later a British province in North America. The name was first given in 1629 to the territory between the Merrimack and Piscataqua rivers on the eastern coast of North America, and was named after the county of Hampshire in southern England by Captain John Mason, its first named proprietor. In 1776 the province established an independent state and government, the State of New Hampshire, and joined with twelve other colonies to form the United States.
The Province of Maine refers to any of the various English colonies established in the 17th century along the northeast coast of North America, within portions of the present-day U.S. states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick. It existed through a series of land patents made by the kings of England during this era, and included New Somersetshire, Lygonia, and Falmouth. The province was incorporated into the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the 1650s, beginning with the formation of York County, Massachusetts, which extend from the Piscataqua River to just east of the mouth of the Presumpscot River in Casco Bay. Eventually, its territory grew to encompass nearly all of present-day Maine.
Thomas Danforth was a politician, magistrate, and landowner in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. A conservative Puritan, he served for many years as one of the colony's councilors and magistrates, generally leading opposition to attempts by the English kings to assert control over the colony. He accumulated land in the central part of the colony that eventually became a portion of Framingham, Massachusetts. His government roles included administration of territory in present-day Maine that was purchased by the colony.
George Cleeve was an early settler and founder of Portland, Maine. He was Deputy President of the Province of Lygonia from 1643 until the final submission of its Maine towns to Massachusetts authority in 1658.
The history of the area comprising the U.S. state of Maine spans thousands of years, measured from the earliest human settlement, or approximately two hundred, measured from the advent of U.S. statehood in 1820. The present article will concentrate on the period of European contact and after.
Capt. Christopher Levett was an English writer, explorer and naval captain, born at York, England. He explored the coast of New England and secured a grant from the King to settle present-day Portland, Maine, the first European to do so. Levett left behind a group of settlers at his Maine plantation in Casco Bay, but they were never heard from again. Their fate is unknown. As a member of the Plymouth Council for New England, Levett was named the Governor of Plymouth in 1623 and a close adviser to Capt. Robert Gorges in his attempt to found an early English colony at Weymouth, Massachusetts, which also failed. Levett was also named an early governor of Virginia in 1628, according to Parliamentary records at Whitehall.
Wessagusset Colony was a short-lived English trading colony in New England located in Weymouth, Massachusetts. It was settled in August 1622 by between fifty and sixty colonists who were ill-prepared for colonial life. The colony was settled without adequate provisions, and was dissolved in late March 1623 after harming relations with local Indians. Surviving colonists joined Plymouth Colony or returned to England. It was the second settlement in Massachusetts, predating the Massachusetts Bay Colony by six years.
Richard Dummer was an early settler in New England who has been described as "one of the fathers of Massachusetts".
Thomas Gorges was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1654 and 1660. He was a colonial governor of the Province of Maine from 1640 to 1643 and served as an officer in the Parliamentary Army during the English Civil War.
Richard Vines was an English colonial explorer of northern New England, and an early administrator and deputy governor of the Province of Maine.
The Bevis, also known as the Bevis of Hampton, was a merchant sailing ship that brought "Emigrants" from England to New England in 1638, this at a time when thousands of Puritans left England seeking freedom of religious practice.
Richard Bonython (1580–1650) was an English magistrate and early settler and landowner in New England. The second son of a Cornish landowner, he served as a military officer before emigrating to the Province of Maine in 1630 with his family. He co-owned a portion of land adjacent to the Saco River and was appointed a magistrate. During his judicial career his son John was brought before the court and was eventually outlawed, for which he was mentioned in an 1830 poem of John Greenleaf Whittier. Bonython later served as a councillor to the deputy governor of Maine Thomas Gorges.