Province of Maine

Last updated

Province of Maine
1622–1652
1680-1686
1689-1692
English Red Ensign 1620.svg
Wpdms province of maine 1622.png
The 1622 grant of the Province of Maine is shown outlined in blue. The 1629 division into the Province of New Hampshire (south of the Piscataqua) and Province of Maine (north of the Piscataqua) is shown by shading. The boundaries of the Massachusetts Bay Company grant are shown in green.
StatusDisestablished
Religion
Anglicanism, Congregationalism
Government Self-governing colony
Governor  
 1636-1638
William Gorges (first)
 1689-1692
Thomas Danforth (last)
Historical era British colonization of the Americas
Puritan migration to New England
 Established
1622
1622
 Gorges Patent
1639
  Duke of York grants
1664
1686-1689
 Dissolved, incorporated into Massachusetts Bay
1652
1680-1686
1689-1692
Succeeded by
Massachusetts Bay Colony Blank.png
District of Maine Blank.png

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 (now Portland, Maine). 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.

Contents

History

Historical population
YearPop.±%
1630400    
1640900+125.0%
16501,000+11.1%
Source: 1630–1650; [1]

1622 patent

The first patent establishing the Province of Maine was granted on August 10, 1622 to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason by the Plymouth Council for New England, which itself had been granted a royal patent by James I to the coast of North America between the 40th to the 48th parallel "from sea to sea". This first patent encompassed the coast between the Merrimack and Kennebec rivers, and an irregular parcel of land between the headwaters of the two rivers. In 1629, Gorges and Mason agreed to split the patent at the Piscataqua River, with Mason retaining the land south of the river as the Province of New Hampshire.

Gorges named his more northerly piece of territory New Somersetshire after his home county of Somerset in England. Lack of funding and the absence of a royal charter held back development,[ citation needed ] and only a few small settlements were established. Gorges sought to create a neo-feudal community similar to western England. The colony was Anglican and Royalist, and so sided with the king in the English Civil War (1642–1651). [2]

1639 patent

In 1639, Gorges obtained a renewed patent, the Gorges Patent, for the area between the Piscataqua and Kennebec Rivers, in the form of a royal charter from Charles I of England. The area was roughly the same as that covered in the 1622 patent after the 1629 split with Mason. This renewed colonization effort was also hampered by lack of money and settlers, but continued to survive even after the death of Gorges in 1647.

Absorption by Massachusetts

Beginning in the 1640s, the nearby Massachusetts Bay Colony began claiming territories north of the Merrimack River, because the Merrimack's northernmost point was farther north than its mouth. This resulted in its administration of the early settlements of what later became New Hampshire. After a survey made in the early 1650s, Massachusetts extended its land claims as far north as Casco Bay. By 1658 Massachusetts had completed the assimilation of all of Gorges' original territory into its jurisdiction.

In 1664, Charles II of England made a grant to James, Duke of York for territories north and east of the Kennebec River. Under the terms of this patent the territory was incorporated into Cornwall County, part of the duke's proprietary Province of New York. The territory stipulated in this charter encompassed the areas between the Kennebec and St. Croix Rivers. This region, which had previously been called the Territory of Sagadahock, forms the eastern portion of the present-day state of Maine. Charles had intended to include the former Gorges territory in this grant, but the Gorges' heirs instead chose to sell their remaining claims to Massachusetts.

In 1691 William III and Mary II issued a charter for the new Province of Massachusetts Bay that encompassed (in addition to other territories) the former claims of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and those of the Duke of York. The region remained a part of Massachusetts, the District of Maine, until it achieved statehood of its own in 1820.

See also

Related Research Articles

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York County is the southwesternmost county in the U.S. state of Maine, along the state of New Hampshire's eastern border. It is divided from Strafford County, New Hampshire, by the Salmon Falls River, and the connected tidal estuary—the Piscataqua River. York County was permanently established in 1639. It is the state's oldest county and one of the oldest in the United States. Several of Maine's earliest colonial settlements are found in the county. As of the 2020 census, its population was 211,972, making it Maine's second-most populous county. Its county seat is Alfred. York County is part of the Portland–South Portland, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mason, New Hampshire</span> Town in New Hampshire, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massachusetts Bay Colony</span> 1630–1691 English colony in North America

The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferdinando Gorges</span> Member of the Parliament of England

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Province of New Hampshire</span> British colony in North America (1629–1641, 1679–1686, 1689–1776)

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.

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The Council for New England was a 17th-century English joint stock company that was granted a royal charter to found colonial settlements along the coast of North America. The Council was established in November of 1620, and was disbanded in 1635. It provided for the establishment of the Plymouth Colony, the Province of New Hampshire, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the New Haven Colony, and the Province of Maine. It was largely the creation of Sir Ferdinand Gorges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Mason (governor)</span> Canadian politician

Captain John Mason (1586–1635) was a sailor and colonist who was instrumental to the establishment of various settlements in colonial America. Born in 1586 at King's Lynn, Norfolk, and educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1610, he was appointed by James I to help reclaim the Hebrides. As a reward, he was granted exclusive fishing rights in the North Sea. This was ignored by the Dutch and he was treated as a pirate by the Scots. In 1615, he was arrested, but soon released after the seizure of his ship. He was appointed the second Proprietary Governor of Newfoundland's Cuper's Cove colony in 1615, succeeding John Guy. Mason arrived on the island in 1616 and explored much of the territory. He compiled a map of the island and wrote and published a short tract of his findings.

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Yorkshire County, Massachusetts was a county in what is now the U.S. state of Maine. It was established in 1652 to include the area of the proprietary province of Lygonia when the Massachusetts Bay Colony first asserted territorial claims over the settlements in the southern parts of the Province of Maine, extending from the Piscataqua River to just east of the mouth of the Presumpscot River in Casco Bay. The county eventually grew to encompass effectively all of present-day State of Maine, although the interior was claimed by various Abenaki peoples, and the territory east of Penobscot Bay was claimed as part of French Acadia. Massachusetts Bay Colony renamed Yorkshire County, Massachusetts to York County, Massachusetts in 1668. However, the land was assertedly Cornwall County, Province of New York from September 5, 1665, until 1692 when it was turned over to the Dominion of New England. By 1760 most of the Abenaki had either been wiped out or retreated northward toward the Saint Lawrence River, and New France had been conquered in the French and Indian War.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern boundary of Massachusetts</span> Boundary between Massachusetts and the states to its north

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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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Levett</span> English writer, explorer and naval captain

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.

Henry Josselyn was an early settler of northern New England. He was first retained by John Mason, the proprietor of the territory that later became New Hampshire, to administer his holdings. Arriving at the Piscataqua River in 1634, he administered Mason's settlement until Mason's death in 1635.. He thereafter moved further up the coast, settling in what is now Scarborough, Maine. He briefly acted as deputy governor of the Province of Maine in the colonial administration of Thomas Gorges, before the area came under the control of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was opposed to Massachusetts rule, and was arrested on one occasion for his resistance. When the area was granted to James, Duke of York in 1664, it became part of the Province of New York, and Josselyn was appointed a magistrate.

Walter Neale was an English military officer and an explorer and colonial administrator in the territory of New England that later became New Hampshire.

Edward Godfrey was the first governor of the Province of Maine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Thompson (New Hampshire settler)</span>

David Thompson or David Thomson (1588–1628) was the first governor of Massachusetts under the 1622 Council for New England grant to Robert Gorges. He also held the 6000-acre 1622 Piscataqua grant under the Council and is considered the founder and first non-native settler of New Hampshire. In addition, Thomson was granted a patent for Thompson Island in Boston Harbor which to this day bears his name. According to Burke's Landed Gentry (2010) the Thomsons of Corstorphine are direct descendants of a great-grandson of King Robert II, namely, Sir Thomas Stewart, Master of Mar.

References

  1. "Colonial and Pre-Federal Statistics" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. p. 1168.
  2. Colin Woodard (December 20, 2020). "Maine can finally get out of Massachusetts' shadow". The Boston Globe .