\nA man who had much to do with the first permanent settlements in Maine was Christopher Leverett. Not much was known about his background until about 80 years ago.<\/p>\n
J. P. Baxter, father of Gov. Percival Baxter, found in England an old book published in London in 1628. It was entitled “A Voyage into New England begun in 1623 and ended in 1624, performed by Christopher Leverett, His Majesty’s Woodward of Somersetshire and one of the Council for New England. Printed at London by William Jones and sold by Edward Brewster at the sign of the Bill in St. Paul’s Churchyard, 1628.”<\/p>\n
Christopher Leverett was born in York, England, in 1586 and married Mary More in 1608. When this book was published, he was living in Dorsetshire. In the preface to the account which Baxter wrote, based on the old 17th century book, he said: “The author has now gathered enough to throw considerable light on the first, hitherto almost unknown owner of Portland soil.” Baxter’s book carried the simple title, “Christopher Leverett of York.”<\/p>\n
In 1623, Leverett planned a voyage to New England, and received from the Council of which he was a member a grant of 6,000 acres of land, not otherwise granted, within the limits of the territory chartered to the Council by King Charles I. The plan was for Leverett to be one of the Councilors of the colonial government he would set up in the New World, associating thus with Robert Gorges, nephew of Ferdinando Gorges, the principal proprietor of the Maine lands about to be parcelled out.<\/p>\n
In the autumn of 1623, Leverett landed on one of the Isles of Shoals, near the present city of Portsmouth. There he found Robert Gorges and a few others already established. Knowing that others sent to New England by Gorges, including Gorges’ close henchman, Richard Vines, were further east on the Saco River, Leverett stayed only four months at the mouth of the Piscataqua, then moved on to the Saco. In his ship he explored Cape Porpoise, Old Orchard Beach, and Biddeford Pool; left his ship and rowed up the Fore River near the future city of Portland. Then he pushed on past Munjoy Hill to the mouth of the Presumpscot River. He was much attracted by Portland Harbor, but sailed east along the coast to the mouth of the Kennebec, that part of the river then being called the Sagadahoc. Everywhere he found the Indians friendly.<\/p>\n
He finally decided that the region around Portland Harbor was the best site for his envisioned New England city, which he foresaw as a maritime port and proposed to call York. On one of the islands in Portland harbor, Leverett proceeded to build a log house. There he left ten of his men and returned to England.<\/p>\n
While he had been away from his homeland, war had broken out with Spain, and on his return Leverett became captain of a ship against the Spanish. Englishmen had not forgotten the defeat of the great Spanish Armada nearly half a century earlier in the times of Good Queen Bess.<\/p>\n
When the new war was over in 1626, Leverett showed that he had not forgotten New England. He wondered what had become of the little garrison house he had built and manned on the island in Portland Harbor. He told his acquaintances on the Council, most of them knights and peers of the realm, “There is no man who knows better than I what benefit could accrue to England from New England, if it were settled and fortified.”<\/p>\n
In 1627, Leverett’s persistence was rewarded. The King issued a proclamation directing the authorities of the Church of England to take up a contribution in behalf of Leverett’s colony on Casco Bay. The order stated that Leverett was ready to risk his life and his estate to establish the colony, and that the enterprise had the King’s enthusiastic approval. The contribution was duly collected in the British churches and the proceeds handed over to Leverett. But the amount was insufficient. So he decided to raise more money by publishing an account of his previous voyage to New England and his taking over an island in Casco Bay. The result was the book of 1628, the copy of which J. P. Baxter discovered a century and a half later.<\/p>\n
About the same time, John Endicott had founded Salem in 1629, followed by Winthrop at Boston in 1630. On his way, Winthrop stopped first at Salem, and of that stop he wrote in his journal: “Mr. Prescott came aboard us and returned to fetch Mr. Endicott, who came to us about two o’clock, and with him Mr. Shelton and Capt. Leverett.”<\/p>\n
How did Leverett happen to be in Salem at that time? Perhaps he had been brought along by Endicott because of his knowledge of the coast. He seems already to have disposed of his patent to 6,000 acres on Casco Bay because that was now the property of merchants in Plymouth, England. In fact, when Winthrop encountered Leverett at Salem, the latter was about to take his ship back to England. He started to do just that, but died on the voyage and was buried at sea.<\/p>\n
So Christopher Leverett never developed his colony on Casco Bay, and the old records are completely silent as to what happened to the ten Englishmen he left there in 1623.<\/p>\n
We may well note, however, what Leverett said about Maine in that book of 1628. We quote: “Between the mainland and certain islands lies a place I have named York. It is almost two leagues east of Cape Elizabeth. There are four islands that make a good harbor, there is very good fishing, much fowl, and on the main is as good ground as one can desire. This River (he referred to the Fore River) I boldly called by my own name Leverett River. Entering the same bay is another river (this time he meant the Presumpscot) up which I went three miles and found a great fall, bigger than the fall at London Bridge at low water. Above the fall the river runs smooth again.”<\/p>\n
A bit farther on in the book, Leverett wrote: “From my harbor to the Sagadahoc is about nine leagues, and on the way are many harbors where at least 1,000 sail can ride safely. ”<\/p>\n
“Casco Bay is between my York and the Sagadahoc. I am persuaded that all the land between Cape Elizabeth and the Sagadahoc is excellent for plantation and will accommodate twenty good towns.”<\/p>\n
As I have said, Leverett wrote this book to encourage further colonization. So he put into it this statement: “People say the New England country is good for nothing but to starve the people who come to it. If any there have starved, the fault is not in the country, but in themselves. Now consider these benefits to the Commonwealth of such plantations. 1. England is overburdened with people. (That is the argument that in the First World War the Germans called Lebensraum, “space to expand for living. “) 2. Plantations enlarge the King’s dominion. 3. England needs timber for ships. 4. Plantations afford pasturage for cattle and fields for grain. 5. English fishermen need employment, and off New England there are plenty of fish. 6. The more fish caught, the more ships are needed.” Leverett concluded his appeal: “By adventuring 100 pounds, a man can get as much back every year for 20 years without further investment.”<\/p>\n
Leverett cautiously laid down directions if prospective settlers wanted to succeed. “1. In New England one must himself be a laborer, not merely pay others to work for him. 2. If a man has a wife and many small children, he needs one worker for every non-worker, or he cannot survive. 3. If a man has as many workers as non-workers, he will prosper in New England better than anywhere else. 4. Let no man go there without taking 18 months provisions, so he will have enough for two seasons before he has to depend on crops from his colonial land. 5. Let as many as possible plant a settlement together, both for comfort and for security.”<\/p>\n
And that is the story of Christopher Leverett, who tried to found a settlement on Casco Bay within three years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago on this program, I told something of the history of the Blaine House, the Governor’s Mansion at Augusta. Now let me tell you of a few humorous incidents that have occurred in that house through the years of its occupancy.<\/p>\n
James G. Blaine, like many prominent men, was absent-minded. One evening his wife went out to a woman’s party. When she returned late in the evening she encountered her husband pulling on his rubbers ready to go out. He had earlier thought that Mrs. Blaine had already come home, so he locked the doors and started for bed. He was about to get into bed when he noticed that his wife was not there. He rushed downstairs and was preparing to go out and look for her when she entered the door.<\/p>\n
During the occupancy of Gov. Brewster, his boys had an Eskimo dog. They bathed him in a solution to make his hair white. One day he entered the family dining room just before dinner and lapped up every butter ball on the table.<\/p>\n
When Tudor Gardiner was Governor, an officer of the Brookings Institute, in Maine as a consultant on government reorganization, borrowed an overcoat from the Governor. When he took it off later in the State House, a mouse jumped out of the pocket.<\/p>\n
When Clyde Smith was on the Governor’s Council, his wife, who later became U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, often helped Mrs. Louis Brann entertain. Once Mrs. Smith arranged the silver plates from the Battleship Maine in the center of the table. She took off the cover of the soup bureen and put in it a beautiful arrangement of flowers. When Mrs. Brann saw it, she said, “It’s lovely, but is it right to use that battleship tureen for flowers?” But Mrs. Smith persuaded Mrs. Brann to let the flowers stay, and long afterward that tureen regularly contained flowers at state dinners.<\/p>\n
When Vice President Calvin Coolidge came to the Blaine House in 1920, the Milliken girls had picked a bouquet for his room. But Coolidge, a sufferer from hayfever. was allergic to flowers. When he stepped into the room, he ordered: “Take those flowers right out of here.” When the Millikens drove Coolidge to Bates College the next day, it was terrifically hot, but Silent Cal insisted on keeping the car windows closed. He just couldn’t stand the smell of new-mown hay. Nellie Milliken declared Coolidge was stuffy and finicky, but Mrs. Coolidge was a charming lady.<\/p>\n
One of the Hildreth children thought the Blaine House meals lacked variety. One day the Governor’s press secretary arrived with a luncheon party and asked the Hildreth daughter what was for lunch. She replied, “Same old fish.”<\/p>\n
One Sunday morning the governor in residence found two French Canadians in the doorway. They explained they were on their way back to Canada after a visit to New York City with their wives. Those wives, said the men, had a desperate craving for champagne, and they couldn’t get any at the Augusta House on Sunday morning. Could the Governor help them? He could and did, and they set off happily with a bottle of Blaine House champagne.<\/p>\n
Year: 1975<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #1054, Broadcast on June 1, 1975<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42942,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9561"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}