Radio Script #1205

Little Talks on Common Things
May 27, 1979

More than once on this program I have referred to the first English attempt to plant a colony in New England, the Popham settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec, where a later Fort Popham now stands. It was that colony, set up in 1607, but abandoned in 1608, that preceded the landing of the Pilgrims thirteen years later. Of course the Plymouth colony became much more important because it became a permanent settlement, while the Popham Colony lasted for only one year.

Today I want to tell you more about that Popham settlement, especially the background of events that led to the venture. After the several voyages of Columbus at the end of the 15th century, various nations claimed ownership of different parts of North and South America by virtue of discovery and planted their flags in different parts of what soon was considered a new world, not outlying parts of Asia, as Columbus had thought. England laid claim to what is now New England by virtue of the voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot in the last years of the 15th century. Nearly a century later, in 1580, the British government laid down a broad claim to a vast territory from Virginia to Nova Scotia and decided to verify the claim by establishing settlements, something that the Spanish had already done, not only in the West Indies, Central and South America, but in St. Augustine, Florida and in part of the North American southwest north of the Rio Grande.

In fact, England had already turned attention to the Atlantic seaboard of what is now the United States. In 1574 Sir Humphrey Gilbert had petitioned Queen Elizabeth I for a charter “to plant our people in America.” Nothing came of it except an abortive attempt to make a settlement in Newfoundland, and ten years passed before the Queen, in 1584, gave a charter to Sir Walter Raleigh to start a colony in a part of America called Virginia, in honor of Elizabeth, the virgin queen. Raleigh made two vain attempts to found a colony, and the second one at Roanoke had a mysterious disappearance – late
comers finding only a sign attached to a tree.

In 1603, as a result of further reports by explorers along the coast, a new attempt was made, but not until 1606 did King James grant a charter to George Popham and seven associates, granting this right to settle at a place of their selection in North America in an undeveloped territory to be under their control between the 34th and 45th parallels of latitude, and extending 100 miles inland. The 45th parallel pushes each and west almost through the middle of what is now the State of Maine. That charter is the basis of all British possessions in North America. Under the charter, there was set up in England a corporation called the Council of Virginia, which was soon divided into two companies, one for the South, the other for the North. It was the former that set up the colony at Jamestown in 1607, and the latter sponsored the Plymouth Colony in 1620.

More than a decade before the Mayflower sailed, that northern company made another attempt under the auspices of Sir John Popham, Chief Justice of England. A record in the British archives states: “Sir John Popham sent the first English colony to America for the purpose of inhabiting land near the Sagadahoc River.”

What was the Sagadahoc? At that time the Androscoggin and the Kennebec were both known only a short distance above Merrymeeting Bay, the Androscoggin only as far as the falls at Brunswick, the Kennebec certainly not above Augusta. Though the two rivers were known to meet at the Bay, they were known, as they still are, by the two names, but instead of considering the Androscoggin as flowing into the Kennebec at the Bay, the river down from the Bay to the ocean was thought of as a distinctly new river, and they called it the Sagadahoc. All early 17th century maps distinguish those three streams.

So when Sir John Popham sent his colonists to build homes at the mouth of the Sagadahoc, we know he meant in the vicinity of what are now the towns of Georgetown, Arrowsic and Phippsburg at the mouth of the Kennebec. On May 21, 1607, a group of colonists left England in two ships, the Gift of God and the Mary and John, under command of the redoubtable, already experienced explorer, Sir Humphrey Gilbert. On board the two ships were 120 prospective settlers, all men. It was their intent to get houses built in what was known to be a formidable wilderness, then later have women join
them.

It took more than a month to cross the Atlantic, but at last on July 31 they anchored off Monhegan Island, a place that had already been known to European fishermen for more than a century. On August 15 they entered the mouth of the Sagadahoc. Three days later they staked out a place for their plantation. After a sermon by their accompanying minister, they listened to a reading of the detailed provisions of their charter from the British company. Among those provisions were requirements that all religious observances should be according to the rites of the Church of England, that land allotted to individual settlers should descend to their heirs under British law, that trial by jury should be honored, and a local government set up under a governor and council loyal to the British crown, to whom they must take oath of allegiance.

George Popham, a relation of Sir John, who had accompanied the expedition, was made governor. The record in the London archives states: “In 1607 Sir John Popham and others settled a plantation at the mouth of the river Sagadahoc. There they built a fort and called it Fort George. The savages seemed to be much affected by our men’s devotion and they said, ‘King James is a good king, and his God is a good God.’ In January, in a space of a few hours, they had thunder, lightning, hail, snow and rain, all in very great abundance.”

On February 5, 1608, there in the new colony of a few cabins and a crude fort, George Popham died, and there to this day his remains lie buried. The winter proved too tough for the little band. Perhaps the compelling reason why they gave up, was the lack of women. In 1620 and 1630, both the Plymouth and the Boston colonies had the wisdom to bring entire families for their original settlements. Without families, the Popham Colony found it only too easy to return to England.

Though it lasted only a year, the Colony did establish British title by actual occupancy of the land, and the title was subsequently held valid by the British company and its successors through all the following years, until all English settlements in this part of the New World passed to the new United States of America.

As important as was the Popham family in that first English settlement, behind the movement was a man who proved to be an even more significant figure in New England development. He was Sir Ferdinando Gorges, born in Somersetshire in 1573. Thus he, as a cotemporary of Shakespeare, saw most of the reign of Elizabeth I and all of King James’s. Under James, Sir Ferdinando was made governor of the Port of Plymouth in England. He was a close friend of Sir Walter Raleigh, and through Raleigh he became interested in settlements in America. In 1632 the King granted to Gorges a charter giving him formal control of all land between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec, and named it the Province of Maine.

Gorges divided his land into shires or counties, and set up a government centered at York, with courts held at other settlements, such as Kennebunk, Saco and Falmouth (now the City of Portland). Gorges was not only a loyalist, standing by King Charles, who was overthrown and executed by the Commonwealth revolution under Oliver Cromwell, but he was also a devoted adherent of the Church of England. The provincial government at Boston, which gradually absorbed the Plymouth government into its own, supported the Commonwealth and were dissenters from the Church of England. We can thus understand that no love was lost between the officers of Ferdinando Gorges sent from England to enforce the provisions of Gorges’ charter, and the Massachusetts authorities who laid claim to the same Maine land. Not all Maine settlers were by any means attached to the Gorges interests.

In Kittery, York and Wells, and especially along Casco Bay and the settlements at the mouth of the Kennebec, during the 17th century there was much dispute, many contests over small land titles, numerous squatters, and constant timber robbing. Neither Boston nor Gorges’ government could protect private property and neither would acknowledge decisions made in the other’s court.

Finally in 1678, the Province of Massachusetts Bay purchased the interest of Gorges’ heirs in all their Maine lands, and from that time until 1820, when Maine became a separate state, all Maine was a legal part of Massachusetts. One Maine historian has written: “Sir Ferdinando Gorges ended his life in 1647. His countrymen should have placed over his grave the epitaph, ‘”Gorges saved North America for England.”

All the time that was going on, we should remember that another long and bloody conflict was under way. While England was making its New England settlements, the French had not been idle. Their settlement on an island in the St. Croix River had actually preceded the Popham Colony. From their largest town on the St. Lawrence that became the City of Quebec, they managed, through the work of French Jesuit missionaries, to gain the sympathy and support of the Indian tribes especially the Kennebec and the Norridgewocks. When repeated wars broke out in Europe between England and France, the American colonies were severely affected. The result was a succession of conflicts in Maine known as the Indian War, all part of the larger conflict. For more than a century after Ferdinando Gorges’ death, that conflict delayed settlements in Maine.

Year: 1979