36 fore;st commissione;r's report. 



HISTORY OF THE WILD LANDS OF MAINE. 



In arriving at a correct solution of the ancient grants and 

 land titles in what, before the Act of Separation in 1820, was 

 the District of Maine, and is now the State of Maine, it is neces- 

 sary to outline early history. 



From the very earliest times the territory of the District of 

 Maine was in contention, and it would seem to be not too far a 

 stretch of the imagination to assert that, from one time to 

 another, there was a conflict over every foot of land in the 

 District. 



The part of this report which deals with these early titles and 

 grants was taken from the chapter on "Grants and Sales of 

 Lands," in a book entitled "Survey of Maine," written by Moses 

 Greenleaf, Esq., and published in 1829, and from a composition 

 in the Fourth Revision of the Maine Statutes upon the "Sources 

 of Land Titles in Maine," of which the Hon. Charles W. God- 

 dard of Portland, an eminent jurist and scholar, was the author. 



In the year 1606 James I, of England, granted all the lands 

 from the 40th to the 48th degrees of north latitude to the coun- 

 cil established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the 

 planting, ruling, ordering and governing of the affairs of New 

 England. The first exercise of the powers of the council as 

 respects any of the lands within the present territory of Maine, 

 appears to be a grant in the year 1624, of all the lands between 

 the rivers Merrimack and Sagadahock, to Sir Ferdinando Gorges 

 and John Mason. 



From a misunderstanding of this grant, or some other cause, 

 the council made a number of other grants, and some of them 

 as clearly outside. Most of them, however, conflicted with the 

 Gorges and Mason rights, and long disputes were caused which 

 retarded the settlementof the lands many years. 



