NEW ENGLAND. 



197 



to sea, under the name of New England in America. 

 This name has, ever since, continued to be appro- 

 priated to the country lying east of New York ; and 

 although it has never formed a political whole, yet 

 as the most of the colonies which were planted in it, 

 were founded on the same principles of government, 

 by men of similar political and religious views and 

 character, and have ever been closely associated with 

 each other, and in many respects differed, and still 

 differ, from the other colonies and states, in their 

 institutions and internal organization, we have thought 

 it best to give a connected view of their history, 

 under this general head. The geographical and sta- 

 tistical details will be found under the appropriate 

 heads. The governments of the New England colonies 

 were charter-governments, while those of the other 

 colonies were royal or proprietary ; the government 

 and ownership of the country was in the colonists, 

 while, in the other colonies, they were both in the 

 crown or proprietors, or the government was vested 

 in the former, while the property of the colony was 

 in the latter. The New England colonists were 

 Puritans (q. v.), a party which no less strenuously 

 defended civil than religious liberty ; and the events 

 of the middle of the seventeenth century brought out 

 a large number of republicans to join them. The 

 early and general provision for common education, in 

 New England, was another peculiarity of that part 

 of the country. In ten years after the settlement of 

 Massachusetts Bay, Harvard college was established. 

 In 1647, the legislature of that province passed a 

 law, requiring every town with fifty families to pro- 

 vide a school; and a similar law was adopted in Con- 

 necticut, in 1660. Provisions of the same nature were 

 made in New Haven and Plymouth. These laws laid 

 the foundation of the New England system of free 

 schools. The organization of the church government 

 is entirely democratical, and the municipal system is, 

 in many respects, peculiar. 



, The first settlements on the coast of Maine were 

 among the earliest in New England. Martin Pring, 

 an English navigator, visited its shores in the years 

 1603 and 1606, and obtained some knowledge of its 

 rivers and bays, and of the interior of the country, 

 which he communicated to the patrons of American 

 discovery and colonization. The Plymouth company 

 were, in consequence, led to attempt a settlement at 

 the mouth of the Kennebec, in 1607, which, however, 

 proved abortive, from the occurrence of accidental 

 circumstances of an unfavourable character. One of 

 the most zealous supporters of this enterprise, Sir 

 Ferdinando Gorges, urged his associates to repeat the 

 experiment, but without success. " Finding," says 

 he, " I could no longer be seconded by others, I 

 became an owner of a ship myself, fit for that employ- 

 ment, 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 busi- 

 ness in the usual place." After continuing this pri- 

 vate course of discovery several years, Gorges, con- 

 jointly \yith Mason, in 1622, obtained from the 

 council of Plymouth (of which they both were mem- 

 bers), a grant of the territory lying between the 

 rivers Merrimac and Kennebec. The next year, in 

 connexion with other adventurers, they sent over a 

 number of colonists, who commenced the settlements 

 at the mouth of the Pascataqua. Several patents of 

 inferior extent, comprised within the limits of Gorges 

 and Mason's grant, were issued by the council a few 

 years after. Of these, two were situated at the mouth 

 of Saco river, in 1630, where a permanent colony was 

 planted the same year, under the direction of Richard 

 Vines, one of the patentees, and a former agent of 



Gorges. The following year, a tract, comprehend- 

 ing the peninsula on which the flourishing town of 

 Portland now stands, was conveyed, by the council, 

 to two merchants of Plymouth (Eng.), who established 

 a trading-house on an island near Portland harbour, 

 and promoted the settlement of the neighbouring 

 coast. The colonists came chiefly from the south- 

 west of England, and were accompanied by clergy- 

 men of the established church; whence the settlements 

 found little favour in the eyes of the Massachusetts 

 planters. Farther eastward, without the limits of 

 Gorges, was the Pemaquid patent, issued in 1631, to 

 several persons belonging to Bristol, one of whom 

 was the mayor of that city. This tract, lying about 

 thirty miles east of the Kennebec, had been the sub- 

 ject of an Indian conveyance in 1625, at which date 

 its settlement was commenced. Pemaquid (now 

 Bristol) must be regarded, therefore, as the oldest 

 permanent settlement in Maine. In 1635, the coun- 

 cil conveyed to Gorges a separate title to the portion 

 of the former grant east of the Pascataqua, having 

 previously confirmed Mason in the possession of the 

 western part, from whom it had received the name 

 of New Hampshire. Gorges, in like manner, con- 

 ferred the name of New Somersetshire on his grant, 

 in compliment to the county of his birth, and took 

 immediate measures for organizing a government. 

 Captain William Gorges came over for this purpose, 

 with commissions to several gentlemen resident in 

 the province, seven of whom assembled at Saco, 

 March 25, 1636, received from the inhabitants an 

 acknowledgment of the proprietor's jurisdiction, and 

 attended, for some days, to the hearing of cases in 

 dispute, besides exercising a cognizance of criminal 

 offences. For some reason, there appears not to 

 have been a perfect acquiescence on the part of all 

 the people under this early administration ; for, the 

 following year, governor Winthrop and others, of 

 Massachusetts, received, authority from Gorges, " to 

 govern his province of New Somersetshire, and 

 withal to oversee his servants and private affairs." 

 It is not improbable, however, that this commission 

 resulted from the artful and false representations of 

 a malcontent, who had gone to England with com- 

 plaints of the commissioners, and returned with this 

 order, which the Massachusetts magistrates wisely 

 disregarded. On obtaining a royal charter, confirm- 

 ing the grant of the council, and conferring the 

 powers of lord palatine, as exercised by the bishop 

 of Durham, upon himself, Gorges appointed a new 

 board of counsellors for the government of his pro- 

 vince, the name of which was now changed to Maine. 

 The first general court, under this charter, was held 

 at Saco, June 25, 1640, at which the inhabitants of 

 the several plantations, being summoned, appeared, 

 and renewed their oath of allegiance to the lord pro- 

 prietor. The arrival of Thomas Gorges, Esq., with 

 the commission of governor, occurred the same year. 

 He presided at the second session of the court, in 

 September, and took up his residence at the city of 

 Gorgeana (now the town of York), of which he was 

 likewise mayor. In the mean time, the progress of 

 the civil war in England was becoming ruinous to 

 those who adhered to the side of the crown ; and Sir 

 Ferdinando, in common with other royalists, found 

 himself unable to breast the storm. Being taken 

 prisoner, on the surrender of Bristol to the parlia- 

 mentary forces, in 1645, he soon after died, at fin 

 advanced age, leaving his estate to his son, John 

 Gorges, Esq. The governor returned to England in 

 1643, and was succeeded in his office by Mr Vines, 

 during whose brief administration a title to a large 

 portion of the province, called the Plough Patent, 

 which had been granted by the council of Ply- 

 mouth, in 1R30, was revived by colonel Alexander 



