160

NEW ENGLAND CHARACTER.

communities which sprang up around them. It displayed itself in all the transactions with the aborigines, as well as with the mother country, from their earliest exercise of chartered rights up to the period when those rights were violated beyond endurance, and the children of the pilgrims became the Fathers of the Revolution.

In later times the spirit of the pilgrims has actuated their descendants in all that relates to the great interests of religion and education, and has pervaded their whole political and social system, preserving its moral soundness, and giving it the health and vigour which belongs only to institutions planted in the firm soil of independence, and flourishing in the bracing air of civil and religious freedom.

Canonicus's Challenge

T

scurity in the early history of the extensive territory now constituting the States of Maine and New Hampshire, arising from the numerous and conflicting grants made by the Council of Plymouth for New England. The extensive powers conferred upon this company by the crown were a source of discontent in the mother country, and of litigation in the colonies. Their claim to the exclusive enjoyment of the fisheries was opposed in the House of Commons; and their attempt to establish this claim, by despatching Francis West, with a commission as admiral of New England, to protect their monopoly by the presence of a naval force was entirely nugatory; nor was the grant of a patent for a tract extending ten miles on Massachusetts Bay, which they made to Robert Gorges, with power "to restrain interlopers," attended with any better success. These failures discouraged the council; and their subsequent operations were chiefly confined to the granting of patents for tracts of land in New England of various extent, without much

L-21

162

SETTLEMENTS BY GORGES.

regard to the inevitably conflicting claims of the patentees. Under some of these patents the settlements on the coast of Maine and New Hampshire were commenced.

Among the earliest settlements in New England were those on the coasts of Maine. Its shores, as we have seen, were visited by Martin Pring in 1603 and 1606, and the knowledge which he obtained of the interior of the country was communicated to the patrons of American colonization. This led the Plymouth Company to attempt the unfortunate settlement under Popham, at the mouth of the Kennebec, in 1607, whose failure followed so speedily after its commencement. One of the most zealous supporters of this enterprise was Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who vainly urged his associates to repeat the experiFinding," says he, "I could no longer be seconded by others, I became owner of a ship myself, fit for that employment, and, under colour of fishing and trade, I got a master and company, for her, to which I sent Vines and others, my own servants, with their provisions, for trade and discovery, appointing them to leave the ship and the ship's company to follow their business in the usual place."

ment. 66

Gorges continued this private course of discovery for several years; and in 1622, uniting his fortune with that of the wealthy John Mason, they obtained conjointly from the Plymouth Company-of which they were both members—a grant of the territory called Laconia, lying between the Merrimac and Kennebec rivers. A number of colonists were sent over the next year, and these commenced settlements near the mouth of the Piscataqua. Here a part of them erected the first house, calling it Mason Hall; the remainder proceeding farther up the river, settled at Cocheco, afterwards called Dover. Fishing and trade were the chief objects of these emigrants; and consequently, their settlement increased slowly. Portsmouth had no more than sixty families in thirty years after its settlement. The council issued several patents of inferior extent a few years after, and some of these were comprised within the limits of Mason and Gorges's grant. Two of these were situated at the mouth of the Kennebec,

where a permanent colony was planted in 1630, under the direction of Richard Vines, a former agent of Gorges. The year following a tract, comprehending the peninsula on which Portland is built, was conveyed by the council to two merchants, who erected a trading-house on an island near Portland harbour, and thus promoted the settlement of the neighbouring coasts. The colonists were principally from the south-west of England, and being accompanied by clergymen of the establishment, they found little favour with the Massachusetts planters.

The Pemaquid territory, lying without the limits of Gorges's patent, and to the eastward, extended about thirty miles from the Kennebec. This tract had been the subject of an Indian treaty in 1625, at which time the settlement was commenced there. Pemaquid must therefore be regarded as the first permanent settlement in Maine. In 1635, Gorges obtained from the council a separate title to that portion of their former grant which lies east of the Piscataqua, while Mason was confirmed in the possession of the western part. Gorges conferred on the tract, thus acquired the name of New Somersetshire, in compliment to his native county in England.

164

SETTLEMENT OF EXETER.

In like manner Mason gave to his portion the name of New Hampshire. He sent agents to dispose of his lands, and take care of his interests; but he soon after died, leaving his affairs in so disordered a state that his family derived little benefit from his proprietorship, and the colonists were left to take care of themselves. Gorges took immediate measures for organizing a government, and to this end, sent over Captain William Gorges to his colony, with commissions to several gentlemen resident in the province. Seven of these commissioners assembled at Saco in 1636, received from the inhabitants an acknowledgment of the jurisdiction of the proprietary, and attended some days, hearing cases in dispute and exercising a cognizance of criminal offences.

There appears not to have been entire satisfaction on the part of the colonists, with this early administration; for the next year Gorges gave authority to Governor Winthrop and others of Massachusetts, to govern the province and oversee his servants and private affairs. But this order was entirely disregarded by those to whom it was addressed: and, not long after, the proprietary obtained a royal charter, confirming the grant of the council, and creating him lord palatine, with powers similar to those exercised by the Bishop of Durham. Gorges thereupon appointed a new board of councillors for the government of his province, the name of which was now changed to Maine. The first general court under this charter assembled at Saco, in 1640, at which the inhabitants of the several plantations renewed their oaths of allegiance to the proprietary. Thomas Gorges arrived with the commission of governor the same year, and presided at the second session of the court, held in September. He resided at the city of Gorgeana-now the town of York-of which he was created

mayor.

Previous to the date of Mason's patent for New Hampshire, the Rev. John Wheelwright, an emigrant from Massachusetts, for causes which we sha!! hereafter notice, had purchased lands of the Indians, and laid the foundation of Exeter; but it was not till 1630, that the inhabitants combined and established