United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
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]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account