193 



NEW ENGLAND. 



Rigby, a member of the long-parliament, from 

 Lancashire, who had purchased it from the paten- 

 tees. This claim embraced a tract forty miles square, 

 in the most settled part of the province, and respect- 

 ed not only the soil, but also the jurisdiction of 

 the towns comprehended within its limits. Colonel 

 Rigby sent over, as his agent and deputy-governor, 

 Mr George Cleaves, who had been long a resident 

 in the province, and was probably the cause of the 

 resuscitation of this obsolete title. Cleaves sum- 

 moned a court at Gasco (now Portland), in 1644. in 

 the name of Rigby, as " lord proprietor and president. 

 of the province of Lygonia," as the Plough Patent 

 was denominated by its new proprietor. The 

 inliabitants seem generally to have opposed the 

 pretensions of Rigby ; but Mr Vines, yielding to the 

 storm, and gaining no intelligence from Gorges, 

 resigned his commission, and removed, with his 

 family, to the island of Barbadoes, to which great 

 numbers of royalists flocked, at that period. Soon 

 after (in 1646), the claims of Rigby were recognised 

 by the commissioners for foreign plantations, in 

 England, and the government of Lygonia became 

 regularly established. The small number of towns 

 and plantations remaining within the limits of Maine, 

 as now restricted, elected Edw. Godfrey, Esq., of 

 Gorgeana, their governor; and, in 1650, fearing 

 they should fall into the hands of the Puritan 

 colonies, petitioned parliament to constitute them a 

 distinct jurisdiction, " a part of the commonwealth of 

 England, that they and their posterity might enjoy 

 the immunities and privileges of freeborn English- 

 men," but without success. Their apprehensions 

 were soon realized : in 1652, the colony of Massa- 

 chusetts Bay laid claim to the greater part of Maine, 

 under the pretence that it was embraced within 

 the limits of their patent, and proceeded to exer- 

 cise jurisdiction over the towns, notwithstanding 

 the well-founded and manly protests of governor 

 Godfrey. Lygonia, likewise, being left, by the 

 death of Rigby, in a defenceless condition, was 

 brought within the Massachusetts charter, although 

 its towns were not all reduced to submission until 

 1658. The royal commissioners, who were sent to 

 New England soon after the restoration of Charles 

 II., visited Maine in the summer of 1665, and issued 

 a proclamation, declaring the province to be under 

 the protection and government of the king, and 

 designating several gentlemen as magistrates for the 

 administration of affairs, until the further pleasure of 

 the crown should be known. Scarcely, however, 

 had the commissioners left New England, before 

 the authorities of Massachusetts, with the aid of a 

 military force, resumed their sway in the province, 

 to which the inhabitants were compelled to yield an 

 unwilling submission. The legal proprietor, F. 

 Gorges, Esq., a grandson of the original patentee, 

 at length succeeded in obtaining a restitution of his 

 title, by a formal adjudication at the palace of 

 Whitehall, where agents appeared on the part of 

 Massachusetts Bay, in obedience to a royal order; 

 but, unwilling to renounce her hold upon the pro- 

 vince, the colony had instnicted her agents to pur- 

 chase the title from Gorges, in case the decision was 

 in his favour ; and accordingly, contrary to the 

 wishes of the inhabitants, and not without exciting 

 the displeasure of the crown, the proprietor was 

 induced to part with his title to the province for the 

 sum of 1250. This transaction took place March 

 15, 1677 8. After the purchase, instead of con- 

 tinuing possession under the colour of a right 

 derived from their patent, the governor and council 

 of Massachusetts Bay, by a proclamation addressed 

 to the freeholders of the province of Maine, dated at 

 York, March 17, 167980, declared themselves to 



be the lawful assigns of Sir F. Gorges, Kt., am. 1 , 

 "to the end that the above-named province miglit 

 be protected in the enjoyment of their just rights and 

 privileges, according to the rules of his majesty's 

 royal charter, granted unto the above-named Sir F 

 Gorges, Kt.," proceeded to organize a provincial juris 

 diction. The government established at that time 

 was composed of a president, a deputy-president, an 

 assistant, eight justices, and an elective general 

 court, which continued to be exercised, with the 

 exception of the period of Andros's administration 

 over New England, until 1692, when, by the new 

 charter of Massachusetts, Maine was constituted a 

 county, with the name of York, or Yorkshire. This 

 arrangement lasted, without any change, till 1760, 

 when the counties of Cumberland and Lincoln were 

 incorporated, and the county of York was reduced 

 to nearly its present limits. After the independence 

 of the colonies was established, Maine was styled a 

 district, although its connexion with Massachusetts 

 remained the same, until it was erected into an inde- 

 pendent state, in 1820. The extent of the province 

 of Gorges was probably about one third of the terri- 

 tory of the state, the other portions being derived to 

 Massachusetts by the charter of 1692. The ancient 

 settlement of Pemaquid (now Bristol), long regarded 

 as the ultima Thule of New England, was almost the 

 only post of importance, east of the Kennebec, before 

 that date. The French province of Acadie, so 

 indefinite in its original asserted limits, was finally 

 restricted, on the west, to the river Pemaquid ; but 

 even this reduced demand of territory was resisted 

 by the English government; and, in the year 1664, 

 the country from Pemaquid to the river St Croix was 

 included in the well-known patent of Charles II. to 

 his brother, the duke of York (afterwards James 11.) 

 This part of Maine was thus united, in its govern- 

 ment, with New York, and received the name of the 

 county of Cornwall. A strong fortress was built at 

 Pemaquid, for the protection of the inhabitants ; and 

 considerable numbers of emigrants, encouraged by 

 the governors of New York, established themselves 

 on different points of the coast. The settlements 

 were chiefly about the river Sheepscot; but the 

 ravages of the Indians prevented their growth, and 

 finally occasioned the total dispersion of the inhabi- 

 tants, for a considerable period. The duke of York's 

 title ceased on his dethronement as king of England ; 

 and, as already stated, the charter of king William 

 vested the territory in Massachusetts. After the 

 termination of Indian hostilities, and the reduction 

 of Canada, these lands were again taken up by 

 numerous settlers, and, from that period to the 

 present, this portion of Maine has been constantly 

 advancing in improvement and cultivation, notwith- 

 standing the perplexities and serious difficulties, 

 occasioned, for a long time, by conflicting and unset- 

 tled titles to the right of the soil. Such is a brief 

 view of the civil history of Maine, concerning which 

 the little information to be gleaned from writers on 

 New England, is lamentably defective in accuracy, 

 as well as amount. A personal and careful inspec- 

 tion of unpublished records and documents, enables 

 the writer to speak of this subject with confidence. 



The next colony was that of Plymouth, founded by 

 a small body of Puritans, who had left England in 

 1608, on account of the persecutions to which they 

 were there exposed, and taken refuge in Holland. 

 During a residence of eleven years in Leyden, their 

 number was increased by other emigrants from Eng- 

 land ; and, finding themselves subject to many incon- 

 veniences, on account of their ignorance of the lan- 

 guage and aversion to the manners of the Dutch 

 they determined to remove to America. They 

 accordingly obtained a patent from the South Vir- 



