NEW HAMPSHIRE AND MAINE
(1653-1658)
After the charter granted to the Council for New England in 1620, Sir
Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason procured, August 10, 1622, a
patent for "all that part of y^e maine land in New England lying vpon
y^e Sea Coast betwixt y^e rivers of Merrimack & Sagadahock and to y^e
furthest heads of y^e said Rivers and soe forwards up into the land
westward untill threescore miles be finished from y^e first entrance
of the aforesaid rivers and half way over that is to say to the midst
of the said two rivers w^ch bounds and limitts the lands aforesaid
togeather w^th all Islands and Isletts w^th in five leagues distance
of y^e premisses and abutting vpon y^e same or any part or parcell
thereoff."[1]
Mason was a London merchant who had seen service as governor of
Newfoundland, and was, like Gorges, "a man of action." His experience
made him interested in America, and his interest in America caused him
to be elected a member of the Council for New England, and ultimately
its vice-president.[2] The two leaders persuaded various merchants in.
England to join them in their colonial projects; and in the spring of
1623 they set up two settlements within the limits of the present
state of New Hampshire, and some small stations at Saco Bay, Casco
Bay, and Monhegan Island, in the present state of Maine.
Of the settlements in New Hampshire, one called Piscataqua, at the
mouth of the river of that name, was formed by three Plymouth
merchants, Colmer, Sherwell, and Pomeroy, who chose a Scotchman named
David Thompson as their manager. They obtained a grant, October 16,
1622, for an island, and six thousand acres on the main, near the
mouth of Piscataqua; and here Thompson located in the spring of 1623.
He remained about three years, and in 1626 removed thence to an island
in Boston harbor, where he lived as an independent settler.[3] The
other plantation, called Cocheco, was established by two brothers,
Edward and William Hilton, fish-mongers of London, and some Bristol
merchants, and was situated on the south side of the Piscataqua about
eight miles from the mouth of the river.[4]
November 7, 1629, Captain Mason obtained a patent[5] from the Council
for New England for a tract extending sixty miles inland and lying
between the Merrimac and Piscataqua rivers, being a part of the
territory granted to Gorges and himself in 1622. He called it New
Hampshire in honor of Hampshire, in England, where he had an estate.
Seven days later the same grantors gave to a company of whom Mason and
Gorges were the most prominent merchants, a patent for the province of
Laconia, describing it as "bordering on the great lake or lakes or
rivers called Iroquois, a nation of savage people inhabiting into the
landward between the rivers Merrimac and Sagadahoc, lying near about
forty-four or forty-five degrees." And in 1631 Gorges, Mason, and
others obtained another grant for twenty thousand acres, which
included the settlement at the mouth of the Piscataqua.
Under these grants Gorges and Mason spent upward of £3000[6] in making
discoveries and establishing factories for salting fish and fur
trading; but as very little attention was paid to husbandry at either
of the settlements on the Piscataqua, they dragged out for years a
feeble and precarious existence. At Piscataqua, Walter Neal was
governor from 1630 to 1633 and Francis Williams from 1634 to 1642, and
the people were distinctly favorable to the Anglican church. At
Cocheco, Captain Thomas Wiggin was governor in 1631; and when, in
1633, the British merchants sold their share in the plantation to Lord
Say and Sele, Lord Brooke, and two other partners, Wiggin remained
governor, and the transfer was followed by the influx of Puritan
settlers.[7]
After the Antinomian persecution in Massachusetts some of Mrs.
Hutchinson's followers took refuge at Cocheco, and prominent among
them were Captain John Underhill and Rev. John Wheelwright. Underhill
became governor of the town in 1638, and his year of rule is noted for
dissensions occasioned by the ambitious actions of several
contentious, immoral ministers. Underhill was the central figure in
the disturbances, but at the next election, in 1639, he was defeated
and Roberts was elected governor of Cocheco. Dissensions continued,
however, till in 1640 Francis Williams, governor of Piscataqua,
interfered with an armed force. Underhill returned to Boston, and by
humbly professing repentance for his conduct he was again received
into the church there.[8] He then joined the Dutch, but when
Connecticut and New Haven were clamorous for war with the Dutch in
1653 he plotted against his new master, was imprisoned, and escaped to
Rhode Island,[9] where he received a commission to prey on Dutch
commerce.
Meanwhile, Mr. Wheelwright left Cocheco, and in 1638 established
southeast of it, at Squamscott Falls, a small settlement which he and
his fellow-colonists called Exeter.[10] In October, 1639, after the
manner of the Rhode Island towns, the inhabitants, thirty-five in
number, entered a civil contract to "submit themselves to such godly
and Christian lawes as are established in the realm of England to our
best knowledge, and to all other such lawes which shall, upon good
ground, be made and enacted among us according to God." This action
was followed in 1641 by their neighbors at Cocheco, where the contract
was subscribed by forty-one settlers; and about the same time, it is
supposed, Piscataqua adopted the same system.[11]
This change of fishing and trading stations into regular townships was
a marked political advance, but as yet each town was separate and
independent. The next great step was their union under one government,
which was hastened by the action of Massachusetts. In the assertion of
her claim that her northern boundary was a due east and west line
three miles north of the most northerly part of the Merrimac,
Massachusetts as early as 1636 built a house upon certain salt marshes
midway between the Merrimac and Piscataqua. Subsequently, when Mr.
Wheelwright, in 1638, proposed to extend the township of Exeter in
that direction, he was warned off by Governor Winthrop, and in 1641
Massachusetts settled at the place a colony of emigrants from Norfolk,
in England, and called the town Hampton.
Massachusetts in a few years took an even more decided step. At
Cocheco, or Dover, as it was now called, where the majority of the
people were Nonconformists, the desire of support from Massachusetts
caused the policy of submission to receive the approval of both
contending parties in town; and in 1639 the settlers made overtures to
Massachusetts for incorporation.[12] The settlers at Piscataqua, or
Strawberry Bank (Portsmouth), being Anglicans, were opposed to
incorporation, but submitted from stress of circumstances. After the
death of Captain Mason, in 1635, his widow declined to keep up the
industries established by him, and sent word to his servants at
Strawberry Bank to shift for themselves.[13]
Several years later Lord Say and Sele and Lord Brooke, who were the
chief owners of Dover, obtained from Mason's merchant partners in
England the title to Strawberry Bank, and being in sympathy with
Massachusetts they offered, in 1641, to resign to her the jurisdiction
of both places. The proposal was promptly accepted, and two
commissioners, Symonds and Bradstreet, went from Massachusetts to
arrange with the inhabitants the terms of incorporation. The towns
were guaranteed their liberties, allowed representation in the
Massachusetts general court, and exempted from the requirements of the
Massachusetts constitution that all voters and officers must be
members of the Congregational church.[14]
In 1643 Exeter followed the example of Dover and Strawberry Bank by
accepting the protection of Massachusetts, but it thereby lost its
founder. Being under sentence of banishment, Mr. Wheelwright withdrew
to the territory of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, where, having obtained a
patent, he founded the city of Welles. In 1644 he applied to Winthrop,
and was permitted on a slight submission to take charge of the church
at Hampton.[15] After several years he visited England, where he was a
favorite of Cromwell. At the Restoration he returned and settled at
Salisbury, in Massachusetts, where he died in 1679. He is perhaps the
single bright light in the ecclesiastical history of early New
Hampshire.[16]
The four towns--Dover, Strawberry Bank, Exeter, and Hampton, with
Salisbury and Haverhill on the northern banks of the Merrimac--were,
in 1643, made to constitute the county of Norfolk, one of the four
counties into which Massachusetts was then divided.[17]
A similar fortune at a later date overtook the townships to the north
of the Piscataqua. The origin of the name "Maine," applied to the
regions of these settlements, has never been satisfactorily explained.
Possibly it was a compliment to Henrietta Maria, the French wife of
Charles I.; more probably the fishermen used it to distinguish the
continent from the islands. The term "Maine" first occurs in the grant
to Gorges and Mason, August 22, 1622, which embraced all the land
between the Merrimac and the Sagadahoc, or Kennebec. By Mason's patent
in 1629 the country west of the Piscataqua was called New Hampshire,
and after that Maine was a name applied to the region between the
Piscataqua and Kennebec. In more modern times it was extended to the
country beyond, as far as the St. Croix River.
Under Gorges' influence Christopher Levett made a settlement in 1623
on an island in Saco Bay which has been called "the first regular
settlement in Maine."[18] The same year some Plymouth merchants
planted a colony upon Monhegan Island, which had been long a place of
general resort for fishermen.[19] And about the same time Gorges made
a settlement on the "maine" at Saco,[20] under the management of
Richard Vines. By two patents, both dated February 12, 1630, this
settlement was divided into two parts--one to Vines and Oldham, one to
Lewis and Bonighton--each extending four miles along by the sea-shore
and eight miles along the river-banks. These two tracts formed the
township of Saco, a part of which now bears the name of Biddeford. In
1625 the settlement of Pemaquid is known to have occurred, but it was
not patented till February 14, 1631, by the Bristol merchants
Aldsworth and Elbridge. Next in order of settlement was probably the
trading-post of the Plymouth colony at Kennebec, for which a patent
was obtained in 1628.
Many other patents were issued by the Council for New England. Thus,
March 13, 1630, John Beauchamp and Thomas Leverett obtained a grant of
ten leagues square, between Muscongus and Penobscot Bay upon which
they set up a factory for trading with the Indians; while the modern
city of Scarboro, on Casco Bay, occupies a tract which was made the
subject of two conflicting grants, one to Richard Bradshaw, November
4, and the other to Robert Trelawney and Moses Goodyear, December 1,
1631.[21]
Three other patents issued by the Council for New England, and having
an important connection with subsequent history, remain to be
mentioned. The first, December, 1631, granted twenty-four thousand
acres ten miles distant from Piscataqua to Ferdinando Gorges (son and
heir of John Gorges), Samuel Maverick, and several others. Many
settlers came over, and the first manager was Colonel Norton, but in a
short time he appeared to have been superseded by William Gorges,
nephew of Sir Ferdinando Gorges.[22]
After the division in 1635, by which his title between the Piscataqua
and the Kennebec was affirmed, Sir Ferdinando Gorges erected the coast
from Cape Elizabeth, a few miles north of Saco, as far as Kennebec,
into a district called New Somersetshire.[23] Two years later Gorges
obtained from King Charles a royal charter constituting him proprietor
of the "province or county of Maine," with all the rights of a count
palatine.[24] The provisions of this charter are more curious than
important. The territory granted, which included Agamenticus, was
embraced between the Piscataqua and Kennebec, and extended inland one
hundred and twenty miles. The lord proprietor had the right to divide
his province into counties, appoint all officers, and to execute
martial law. But while his rights were thus extensive, the liberties
of the people were preserved by a provision for a popular assembly to
join with him in making laws.
The charter certainly was out of keeping with the conditions of a
distant empire inhabited only by red savages and a few white
fishermen; but Gorges' elaborate plan for regulating the government
seemed even more far-fetched. He proposed to have not only a
lieutenant-governor, but a chancellor, a marshal, a treasurer, an
admiral, a master of ordnance, and a secretary, and they were to act
as a council of state.[25]
To this wild realm in Norumbega, Thomas Gorges, "a sober and
well-disposed young man," nephew of the lord proprietor, was
commissioned in 1640 to be the first governor, and stayed three years
in the colony.[26] Agamenticus (now York) was only a small hamlet, but
the lord proprietor honored it in March, 1652, by naming it Gorgeana,
after himself, and incorporating it as a city. The charter of this
first city of the United States is a historical curiosity, since for a
population of about two hundred and fifty inhabitants it provided a
territory covering twenty-one square miles and a body of nearly forty
officials.[27]
The second of the three important patents led to the absorption of
Maine by the government of Massachusetts. The claim of Massachusetts
to jurisdiction over the settlements in New Hampshire as readily
applied to Maine; and, in addition, the patent granted in June, 1632,
by the Council for New England, to George Way and Thomas Purchas, gave
a tract of land along the river "Bishopscot" or "Pejepscot," better
known as the Androscoggin.[28] In 1639 Massachusetts, by buying this
property, secured her first hold on the land within Gorges'
patent.[29] The revival in 1643 of another patent, believed to have
been abandoned, but with rights conflicting with the patent of Gorges,
both prompted and excused the interference of Massachusetts.
The third great patent was a grant made by the Council for New
England, in June, 1630, for a tract extending from Cape Porpoise to
Cape Elizabeth, and hence taking in Gorges' settlement at Saco.[30]
This patent was known as the Lygonian, or "Plough patent," the latter
commemorating the name of the vessel which brought over the first
settlers, who after a short time gave up the settlement and went to
Boston in July, 1631. For twelve years the patent was neglected, but
in 1643 the rights of the original patentees were purchased by
Alexander Rigby, a prominent member of Parliament.[31] He sent over as
his agent George Cleves, but when he arrived in America in 1644 his
assumption of authority under the Plough patent was naturally resisted
by the government of Sir Ferdinando Gorges.
Cleves set up his government at Casco, and Vines, his rival, organized
his at Saco. When Cleves sent his friend Tucker to Vines with a
proposal to settle the controversy, Vines arrested the envoy and threw
him into prison. Both parties appealed to the government of
Massachusetts, who gave them advice to remain quiet. The contention
continued, however, and at last the Massachusetts court of assistants,
in June, 1646, consented to refer the case to a jury. Then it appeared
that there were six or eight patentees in the original Plough patent,
and Mr. Rigby's agent could only show an assignment from two. On the
other hand, Vines could not produce the royal patent of Sir Ferdinando
Gorges, which was in England, and had only a copy attested by
witnesses. On account of these defects the jury declined to bring in a
verdict.
Cleves had better fortune with the parliamentary commissioners for
foreign plantations, to whom he carried the dispute, since before this
tribunal the veteran Gorges, who had taken the king's side, had little
chance to be heard. In March, 1646, they decided in favor of Rigby,
and made the Kennebunk River the boundary-line between the two rival
proprietors, thus reducing Gorges' dominions in Maine to only three
towns--Gorgeana, Welles, and Kittery, which had grown up at the mouth
of the Piscataqua opposite to Strawberry Bank.[32]
The year following this decision Gorges died, and the province of
Maine was left practically without a head. The settlers wrote to his
heirs for instruction, but owing to the confusion of the times
received no reply.[33] In this state of doubt and suspense the general
court was, in 1649, convoked at Welles, when Edward Godfrey was
elected governor. Then another address was prepared and transmitted to
England, but it met with no better fortune than the first.
Accordingly, in July, 1649, the settlers of the three townships met at
Gorgeana and declared themselves a body politic. Edward Godfrey was
re-elected governor, and a council of five members were chosen to
assist him in the discharge of his duties.[34]
In this state of affairs, deserted by their friends in England, the
Maine settlements looked an inviting prey to Massachusetts. In
October, 1651, three commissioners were appointed to proceed to
Kittery to convey the warning of Massachusetts "against any further
proceeding by virtue of their combination or any other interest
whatsoever."[35] Godfrey declined to submit, and in behalf of the
general court of the colony addressed a letter, December 5, 1651, to
the Council of State of Great Britain praying a confirmation of the
government which the settlers had erected. Cleves, at the head of the
Rigby colony, made common cause with Godfrey and carried the petition
to England, but he met with no success. The death of Rigby rendered
Cleves's influence of no avail against the Massachusetts agent, Edward
Winslow, who showed that Cleves's mission had originated among
American royalists.[36]
This opposition, in fact, served only to hasten the action of
Massachusetts. In May, 1652, surveyors were appointed by the general
court who traced the stream of the Merrimac as far north as the
parallel of 43° 40' 12".[37] Then, despite the protests of Godfrey,
commissioners were again sent to Kittery, where they opened a court,
November 15, and shortly after received the submission of the
inhabitants.[38] They next proceeded to Gorgeana, where the like
result followed, Governor Godfrey reluctantly submitting with the
rest. Gorgeana was made a town under the Massachusetts jurisdiction,
by the name of York, and all the country claimed by Massachusetts
beyond the Piscataqua was made into a county of the same name.[39]
Next year, 1653, commissioners were sent to Welles, the remaining town
in the Gorges jurisdiction, to summon to obedience the inhabitants
there and at Saco and Cape Porpoise, in the Lygonian patent, and the
conditions made resistance unlikely. Disregarding the Rigby
claims,[40] the settlers in southern Maine accepted the overture of
the Massachusetts commissioners. Accordingly, Welles, Saco, and Cape
Porpoise followed the example of Kittery and Gorgeana, and came under
the government of Massachusetts.
The inhabitants north of Saco about Casco Bay remained independent for
several years after. Cleves and other leading inhabitants would not
submit, and they tried to secure the interference of Cromwell. When
they failed in this attempt, the people of Casco Bay, in 1658,
recognized the authority of Massachusetts. It was at this time that
the plantations at Black Point, at Spurwink, and Blue Point were
united and received the name of Scarboro and those at Casco Bay
received that of Falmouth.[41]
Whatever judgment we may pass on the motives of Massachusetts in thus
enlarging her borders to the farthest limits of settled territory
north of Plymouth, it must be acknowledged that her course inured to
the benefit of all parties concerned. The unruly settlements of the
north received in time an orderly government, while each successive
addition of territory weakened the power of the religious aristocracy
in Massachusetts by welcoming into the body politic a new factor of
population.
[Footnote 1: Maine Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 2d series, VII., 65-72.]
[Footnote 2: _Cal. of State Pap., Col._, 1574-1660, p. 210.]
[Footnote 3: Mass. Hist. Soc, _Proceedings_ (year 1876), 358.]
[Footnote 4: Belknap, _New Hampshire_, 20.]
[Footnote 5: Maine Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 2d series, VII., 96-98.]
[Footnote 6: Maine Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 2d series, VII., 98-107,
143-150.]
[Footnote 7: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 137.]
[Footnote 8: Ibid., I., 394, II., 33, 49, 76.]
[Footnote 9: _Plymouth Col. Records_, X., 31, 32, 426.]
[Footnote 10: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 349.]
[Footnote 11: N.H. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 1st series, I., 321,
324.]
[Footnote 12: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 349, 384.]
[Footnote 13: _N.H. Col. Records_, I., 113.]
[Footnote 14: _Mass. Col. Records_, I., 332, 342, II., 29.]
[Footnote 15: _Mass. Col. Records_, II., 67; Winthrop, _New England_,
II., 195.]
[Footnote 16: Palfrey, _New England_, I., 594.]
[Footnote 17: _Mass. Col. Records_, II., 38.]
[Footnote 18: Doyle, _English Colonies_, II., 215.]
[Footnote 19: Williamson, _Maine_, I., 226.]
[Footnote 20: Gorges, _Description of New England_, 79; Doyle,
_English Colonies_, II., 215.]
[Footnote 21: Maine Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 2d series, VII., 125,
150, 160, 163; Doyle, _English Colonies_, II., 324.]
[Footnote 22: Gorges, _Description of New England_, 79.]
[Footnote 23: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 276.]
[Footnote 24: Maine Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 2d series, VII.,
222-243.]
[Footnote 25: Gorges, _Description of New England_, 83.]
[Footnote 26: Winthrop, _New England_, II., 11.]
[Footnote 27: Hazard, _State Papers_, I., 470.]
[Footnote 28: _Cal. of State Pap., Col._, 1574-1660, p. 152.]
[Footnote 29: _Mass. Col. Records_, I., 272.]
[Footnote 30: Maine Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 2d series, VII.,
133-136.]
[Footnote 31: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 69, II., 186.]
[Footnote 32: Winthrop, _New England_, II., 186, 313, 390.]
[Footnote 33: Maine Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 2d series, VII., 266,
267.]
[Footnote 34: Maine Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 2d series, VII., 266,
267; Williamson, _Maine_, I., 326.]
[Footnote 35: _Mass. Col. Records_, IV., pt. i., 70.]
[Footnote 36: Williamson, _Maine_, I., 336.]
[Footnote 37: Maine Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 2d series, VII., 273.]
[Footnote 38: Ibid., 274; _Mass. Col. Records_, IV., pt. i., 122-126.]
[Footnote 39: _Mass. Col. Records_, IV., pt. i., 129.]
[Footnote 40: Williamson, _Maine_, I., 340, 341.]
[Footnote 41: _Mass. Col. Records_, IV., pt. i., 157-165, 359-360.]