Radio Script #1312

Little Talks On Common Things
May 2, 1982

During recent weeks this prog~m has left its customary subject of Maine history to comment on such current problems as inflation. mounting national debt. and waste and extravagance in government. Then we called attention to the two great documents of American history, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the U.S.

Today we return to our favorite subject of Maine history. We have often, on this program, referred to Ferdinando Gorges, the British financier, who spent a lot of his own money advancing settlements in Maine when our state was inhabited only by Indians. But we have never told you what Gorges himself wrote in his own long account of his American ventures. So that is our topic for today.

In 1658 there was published in London a little book with. the title “A Brief Narrative of the Original Undertakings for the Advancement of Plantations in America, especially that part called New England. By Ferdinanda Gorges, Knight and Governor of the Fort of Plymouth in Devonshire.”

In the preface Gorges wrote that he felt it his duty to help future generations understand the ways by which English settlements had been made in the New World. He said,

“If the result of my undertakings and the expenditure of my fortune has done anything to advance the honor and happiness of my nation, perhaps the laborer may be worthy of his hire.”

Starting the narrative itself. Gorges pointed out that King James II of Scotland had become King of England on the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. and had made a treaty with Spain giving British ships the right to sail the high seas without fear of Spanish capture. Now let us have the brief following passage in Gorges’ own words.

“In July. 1.605. there came into the Harbor of Plymouth one Captain ~eymouth. who had been ~mployed by Lord Arundel· to seek a passage through North America to China, but he fell short of that  accomplishment. But he did happen upon a river called Penobscot, from which he brought five natives whom he turned over to me. That incident was the means of giving life to all settlement in America.

“As those natives came to know a little of our language, I was able to converse with them. The longer I did so the better hope they gave me that the country from which they came was proper for our use. I learned that it had goodly rivers, stately islands, and safe harbors in abundance. They told me of rivers reaching far up into the land, and of the chiefs who ruled there.

“Heartened by this information, in the summer of 1606 I fitted out a ship and crew, committed to Captain Henry Challong to take a northern passage. as high as Cape Breton, til he reach the mainland, then sail to the southwest until he came to the land where the natives who would return with him should declare to be the land from which they came.

“Unfortunately, in the Atlantic the captain was taken sick, and the crew kept to the more usual southern route toward the Spanish islands. They met with a Spanish fleet from Havana, and despite our King’s treaty with Spain, were taken captive.”

Then Gorges tells us how the next move was made by Chief Justice Popham who obtained from the King authority to establish two plantations in America called the First and Second Colonies. The first was set up at Jamestown in Virginia in 1607. The second was to be farther north in the land from which the captive Indians had come. The place selected for settlement was at the mouth of the Kennebec River, where 100 men arrived in the summer of 1607, the same year as the settlement at Jamestown.

There the men built cabins and stayed through the winter, intending to bring their families the next summer. But because of a very severe winter, causing much loss of life, they became discouraged and returned to England. That colony, though not permanent, was the first settlement in Maine, called the Popham Colony. Gorges wrote:

“Although I was set back by these misfortunes, I refused to believe that the country was too cold and too inhospitable for England settlement. I would not despair.”

 But Gorges found others less optimistic. His former supporters refused further help. What Gorges then did is best told in his own words.

“Finding I could no longer be supported by others, I became the sole owner of a ship. Under cover of fishing and trade, I got a master and crew for her. With provisions for trade. I sent Captain Vines and several of my own servants on a voyage of discovery, having the help of the three natives who were still with me. I had to hire men to stay there for the winter at high wages, with no prospect of profit for myself.

“Several years went by, with more expenditures and no settlement until 1620. when I felt the time had come to make a determined effort, supported by the King. So I secured a royal charter for our Plymouth Council on July 23, 1620. That resulted in the plantation of New Plymouth, ‘which delayed my plans for a settlement farther north.

“In 1623 the Plymouth Council sent my son Robert to the plantation at New Plymouth. Unable to gain confirmation of that colony to the Gorges claim of land to the north, he urged me to secure a more definite patent from the crown.” Ferdinando did get that document, which said:

“Whereas the King’s Most Excellent Majesty has granted to us, the Council for the Affairs of New England in America, all the land of New England lying between the 40th and the 45th degrees of latitude, from sea to sea, with all profits, privileges and liberties thereto; We. the Council f or New England, have given to Robert Gorges, his heirs and assigns forever. all that part of New England commonly known as Massachusetts that lies on the northeast side of Massachusetts Bay, with all shores and coasts for ten miles in a straight line to the northeast’, and thirty miles into the mainland, together with all rights and powers of government over the same, according to the Great Charter of England and laws of Parliament. Granted December 16, 1623.”

The territory thus granted to Robert Gorges included what are now the towns of Kittery and York, and in that region he decided to start his settlement. In fact, he had grandiose plans for a city to be called Georgeana. But Robert soon returned to England and his place was taken by Sir Ferdinando’s nephew William Gorges, who was accompanied by Sir Ferdinando’s grandson. Also sent was the Knight’s servant Richard Vines, who took land in the Gorges name near the Saco River.

Then in 1639 came a new Royal Charter. The old charter of 1620, held by the Plymouth Council was surrendered to the King, who was then Charles I. He at once made grants to a number of men of land from the mouth of the Hudson River to the Kennebec. The two most northern of those grants were to John Mason, who got land between the Merrimac and the Piscataqua, and to Ferdinando Gorges who got the territory betwen the Piscataqua and the Kennebec. Gorges’ land extended inland for 120 miles.

Gorges himself never left England to see his Maine lands, but he immediately made plans for their government. A court was set up to deal with both civil cases and crimes. As proclaimed by Magna Carta, trial by jury was guaranteed. Other officers to manage militia, handle finances, and make terms with settlers, together with the magistrates, made up the governing body called the Council for the Province of Maine.

Of the Red Men already on the land, Gorges wrote:

“We find the coast populous with stout and warlike people, but eager to trade their furs for British goods. In fact, before my charter of 1639, the Plymouth Plantation had set up a trading post on the Kennebec River, just beyond the eastern border of my lands.”

After Gorges’ death and following long dispute with the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Gorges’ heirs in 1678 sold their rights to Massachusetts, which thereafter controlled all of Maine until it became a separate state in 1820.

There is no question that today Maine owes much to the zeal and determination of that British Knight who never stepped f·oot on Maine soil. Despite repeated discouragements and the loss_ of considerable money, he would not give up. His indefatigable endeavors resulted in permanent settlement all the way from the Piscataqua to Casco Bay, and by 1700 Maine was on the way to becoming well settled and prosperous.