The Popham Colony : $b a discussion of its historical claims, with a bibliography of the subject — John Shaqi
The Popham Colony : $b a discussion of its historical claims, with a bibliography of the subjectPoole, William Frederick
History
The Popham Colony : $b a discussion of its historical claims, with a bibliography of the subject
Poole, William Frederick
Maine -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
Yet this is not all. The same Charter of 1606 expressly provides:
"that all and every the Persons being our subjects, which shall dwell
and inhabit within every or any of the said several Colonies or
Plantations, and every of their Children, which shall happen to be
born within any of the Limits and Precincts of the said several
Colonies and Plantations, shall HAVE and enjoy all Liberties,
Franchises and Immunities, within any of our other Dominions, to all
Intents and Purposes, as if they had been abiding and born, within
this our Realm of _England_, or any other of our said Dominions." Now,
if the Popham Colony was composed of convicts, how enviable their
condition! The sentence of the law did not touch them, except in
words! They still had all the "Liberties" of the most innocent
Englishman on his native soil! They were "subjects,"--"loving
subjects," as the same class of "willing" emigrants were called in the
Charter of 1609. What "convicts" ever had such "Franchises and
Immunities" since the world began? Their state was nothing less than
perfect freedom! They were, therefore, _no convicts at all_; and so
could return home safely, and with "new hopes," just as soon as they
deemed the change desirable.
In double confirmation of this fact, we may go to the Charter of 18
James, Nov. 3, 1620, which speaks of the efforts made in divers years
past, in the Northern Colony, by former grantees, who had "taken
actual possession of the Continent," and had "settled already some of
our People in Places agreeable to their Desires in those parts." This,
certainly, is very far from sustaining the opinion, that the occupants
of Sagadahoc were convicts. For they were settled in a place
"agreeable to their Desires," until calamities darkened all their
prospects. It is worth noting here, that Lord Campbell says nothing
about Popham in connection with convicts and the colony. This omission
is significant.
A question is proposed, with an air of confidence, as if its answer
must demolish the positions of my former article. It is this: "Will
'Sabino' please point out the 'law' under which James sent off a
hundred convicts in 1619, that did not exist in 1606?" The demand is
adroitly made, but not pertinently. To make it touch the point, it
should have been 1607. My reply is readily given.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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