The Lumber Trade in Neiv England. 113 



taken away, he wrote wrathfully, "His Majesty's prerogative 

 would shine bright.''^ 



The "levelling people" of Alassachusetts now began to assert 

 an even bolder claim against the king. During the years 1718 

 and 1719, the settlement of Maine had begun to increase rap- 

 idly. This province contained even finer mast trees than New 

 Hampshire, and since the laying out of new towns meant the 

 erection of new saw-mills, Bridger, as surveyor, protested 

 against what he deemed a flagrant oltense against the rights of 

 the Crown. The champion of the Alassachusetts Assembly was 

 Elisha Cooke, whom the governor had put out of the Council,- 

 but who had continued to be returned to the legislature from 

 Boston. Cooke attacked Bridger with great insolence, assert- 

 ing that the king had no sort of right to the woods in Maine, 

 for that province had been a private grant to Sir Ferdinand 

 Gorges, with no reservation of woods. The heirs of Gorges 

 had granted it to Mr. Usher, of Boston, who sold it to Massa- 

 chusetts for £1,250.^ Bridger contended that the charter gave 

 Massachusetts no right whatever to purchase Maine; at that 

 rate, they might buy up Rhode Island or Connecticut, if they 

 chose. 



When this new phase of hostility w'as reported to the Board 

 of Trade, they at once sought legal counsel on the subject.* 

 Mr. West, His Alajesty's counsel, submitted his opinion that 

 there was no license to purchase lands granted, by express 

 words, in the charter of Charles I.; but, in any case, since that 

 patent had been reversed in chancery, in 1684, by a judgment 

 upon a scire facias, the province had thereby reverted to the 

 Crown. Therefore, the inhabitants could have no claim to 

 Maine, except by some new title which had accrued to them 

 since their incorporation by W^illiam and Alary, — which was 



iMr. Bridger to the Board of Trade, B. T. New Eng., Entry Bk. G, 

 May 22, 1711. 



^Letter from Mr. Bridger to the Board of Trade, July 14, 1718. 



^Ibid. 



^Record that the Board had sent :\Ir. Bridger's letter of July 14, and 

 other papers to Mr. West, B. T. New Eng., Entry Bk. I, Oct. 7, 1718. 



