AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 425 



and governing of New-England, in America." This company 

 granted New-Hampshire to captain John Mason, and the province 

 of Maine to Gorges. The first permanent settlements in Maine 

 were begun in the year 161Y, in the extreme south-western part 

 of the State, next to New-Hampshire. The colony of Maine, 

 was originally a grant from the Plymouth Council, in Devonshire, 

 England. The colony remained under the Plymouth Company 

 till 1677, when it was sold to the Massachusetts colony, and 

 remained under Massachusetts government till 1820. 



In 1622, Mason went to New-Hampshire, and a son of Gorges 

 to Maine, as governor. Mason established himself at Portsmouth, 

 and Gorges made settlements at various places along the coast, 

 to Machias. Governor Mason imported a large breed of cattle 

 from Denmark, and when he died some of his stock were carried 

 to Penobscot, and some to Nova Scotia. In 1658 Francis Norton 

 drove 100 oxen, a part of Mason's herd, from New-IIampshire to 

 Boston, and sold them for $125 per head. This was the 

 current price for the best cattle in New-England at that time. 

 New Hampshire remained, with but few intervals, under the 

 jurisdiction of Massachusetts till 1749, more than 100 years, 

 when the two colonies were separated. Georges had been an 

 officer in the British navy, under Queen Elizabeth, and James, 

 in 1604, appointed him governor of the island of Plymouth, in 

 England. Mason had been a merchant in London, but became a 

 sea officer. The first people to settle in New-Hampshire came 

 from London, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Shrewsbury and Glou- 

 cester, and was called the Company of Laconia, in England. 



In 1623 Daniel Thompson, a Scotchman, and Edmond and 

 William Horton, fishmongers in London, came over with a colony 

 furnished with all the necessaries to carry on their design in 

 forming settlements in the country. Some of the earliest settlers 

 were of good estates; some of great account in religion. 



In 1638 a company came from Norfolk, England, and settled 

 Hampton, New Hampshire. The Norfolk and Suffolk dun cattle 

 were brought into New Hampshire and Maine at an early date of 

 their history. 



Mount Desert Island, in the county of Hancock, State of 

 Maine, as well as many other islands about the mouth of the 



