the country with no result, and was followed by some exploring and fishing parties sent out by Gorges.*

About 1618 several scattering fishing stations were planted, the fisheries soon drawing 600 or 700 vessels every season. The principal fishing stations were at the mouth of the Kennebec River and at Monhegan Island and Smith's Isles, the vessels coming in January and February and returning in the fall with cargoes worth approximately £5,000. Realizing the value of this section, Gorges and his companions in 1620 besought a charter from James I., and in his endeavors enlisted the aid of the rich Captain John Mason, treasurer of the royal navy and military governor of Hampshire. The Virginia Company, however, exerted every influence to prevent the grant of the charter, but the king, wishing to curb somewhat the powers of the London Company and to spite the Sandys faction, decided in favor of Gorges and Mason, and in 1620 incorporated "The Council Established at Plymouth in the County of Devon, for planting, ruling, ordering and governing New England in America." This grant gave the company control, subject to the laws of England, over the land, the waters and the trade of the entire continent situated between the 48th and 40th parallels.†

* For these early expeditions see Doyle, English Colonies in America, vol. ii., pp. 16-26 and the authorities there cited.

Adams, Three Episodes of Massachusetts His

Gorges was made governor-general, but was unable to leave home and therefore sent the second of his sons, Captain Robert Gorges, as lieutenantgovernor,* together with a number of colonists, two clergymen, and a staff of officers to establish a church government which was ernment which was especially designed to embrace the fugitives at New Plymouth.† Robert Gorges had patents to any 300 miles of territory he might desire. This colony, however, did not last long, becoming extinct within a year, those who did not return making their homes at various points on Massachusetts Bay.t

tory, vol. i., pp. 121–125; Bancroft, vol. i., p. 215; Osgood, American Colonies, vol. i., p. 98 et seq., and authorities cited. See also Gorges, The Briefe Relation of the Discovery and Plantation of New England, reviewing the efforts of the patentees up to this time. The charter will be found in Thorpe, Federal and State Constitu tions, vol. iii., pp. 1827-1840. See also Appendix I. at the end of the present chapter.

* Baxter, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, pp. 11, 49 et seq.

Among those whom Gorges brought with him was a clergyman of the Church of England named William Morrell who had been appointed commissary of ecclesiastical affairs by the archbishop of Canterbury. The Puritans did not look upon his mission with favor, and within a year or so he returned to England without having attempted to interfere with the colonists or with their religious views or practices. In 1624 another clergyman by the name of John Lyford was recommended for the pastoral office vacant at New Plymouth by the partners in London, but he was as little acceptable as Morrell. Soon after his arrival he was brought before the authorities under the charge of practicing against the colony, and he and a few of his adherents were expelled. Migrating to Nantasket at the entrance of Boston harbor, the expelled colonists established a settlement at that point. Adams, Thres Episodes, vol. i., pp. 183–190.

Young Gorges died not long after his return to England, leaving the territorial claims which

Francis West had also come with this expedition as admiral of New England for the purpose of collecting the fees from unlicensed fishermen, but he too was unsuccessful.*

In 1622 the council granted the territory of Acadia (later Nova Scotia) to Sir William Alexander, afterward Earl of Stirling, Viscount of Canada and patentee of Newfoundland. On August 10, 1622, Gorges and Mason obtained a grant of the territory and adjacent islands from Naumkeag (now Salem) to the Kennebec, and thence to Canada. This grant was named Lygonia in honor of Gorges' mother, Cicely Lygon.† In Lygonia a tract of land was given to Captain David Thomson, who in 1623 established a post at the mouth of the Piscataqua, which later formed the beginnings of Mason's province of New Hampshire. Later in the same year, Dover, N. H., was founded.‡ Another grant of 6,000 acres was given to Captain Christopher Levett, who in the same year settled on the peninsula called Quack by the In

had arisen from his unimproved grant, to his brother, from whose hands it passed to John Oldham and Sir William Brereton. Massachusetts and Its Early History, Lowell Institute Lectures, p. 154. See also Adams, Three Episodes, vol. i., p. 153 et seq.

* Doyle, English Colonies in America, vol. ii., pp. 76–77; Adams, Three Episodes, vol. i., p. 136.

Many state that this was named Laconia, but the Laconia Company was an entirely dif ferent affair. The text of the grant will be found in Thorpe, Federal and State Constitutions, vol. iii., pp. 1621–1625. See also Appendix II. at the end of the present chapter.

Doyle, vol. ii., p. 201 et seq.

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dians, Falmouth by later settlers, and now the city of Portland. Levett attempted to found there a great religious and commercial settlement to be called York, and, to obtain further colonists and larger grants, returned to England; but before much had been done in this direction he died. In 1623 a new arrangement was entered into by the members of the council by which New England was laid out into twenty plots, each member drawing for his plot which he was supposed to colonize, but nothing came of the plan. In 1628 a patent was issued to the Puritan party for fishing and fur-trading on Massachusetts Bay, the patent overlapping a special grant to John Mason and the Gorges patent, and thus laying the foundation of the claim by which Massachusetts controlled all of Maine and part of New Hampshire for nearly a century.

The British merchants now turned their attention to New France, from the fur business of which over £30,000 profits were being derived each year. With Gorges, Mason and Alexander, they formed the Canada Company, and in 1629 sent Sir David Kirke with an armed fleet for the purpose of conquering New France. This Kirke easily did, capturing Quebec, Port Royal and the fishing posts on Cape Breton. But the captured territory was restored to the French, and the efforts of the Canada Company came

*

to naught. These merchants were not to be turned aside from their course so easily and in November, 1629, they united with Gorges and Mason in forming the Laconia Company. Captain Walter Neil was made lieutenant-governor of New England and director of the operations of the Company, but further than making some important explorations and founding settlements, later known as Kittery and South Berwick, Maine, nothing was accomplished. Neil returned to England in 1633, and the members of the Laconia Company sold out and divided their assets. Gorges and Mason divided Lygonia, the former selecting the region north of the Piscataqua, renaming it New Somersetshire, while the latter took the territory between the Piscataqua and Merrimac and adjoining a separate grant which he held to the Naumkeag, renaming the entire tract New Hampshire. In February, 1635, the

council decided to surrender their charter, and deeds were accordingly drawn up and signed, the king then declaring his royal dominion over New England and appointing Sir Ferdinando eral.‡

Gorges governor-gen

Meanwhile the colony at New Plymouth, though still feeble, had given encouraging signs of life and energy, for while the colonists as yet had no luxuries, still there was plenty of wholesome food and a good supply of pure water to drink. "The nonexistence of private property, the discontent and unwillingness to labor thence arising, and the exorbitant interest, as high as forty-five per cent. paid for money borrowed in London, were, however, serious drawbacks to the prosperity of the colony. It was found necessary, indeed, to enter into an agreement that each family should plant for itself; and an acre of land was accordingly assigned to each person in fee. Under this stimulus, the production of corn soon became so great, that, from buyers, the colonists became sellers to the Indians. At the end of the fourth year after its settlement, Plymouth had thirty-two dwelling houses and a hundred and eightyfour inhabitants. The general stock, or whole amount of the investment, personal services included, amounted to £7,000 or $34,000. The London partners were very unwilling to make any further advances. John Robinson died in Holland, and several years elapsed before his family, and the rest of the Leyden congregation could find means to transport themselves to New Plymouth. Those already there

*

patents see Osgood, American Colonies, vol. i., pp. 123-127.

* Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation, Pp. 134-167.

-passengers by the Mayflower, the Fortune, the Anne, and the Little James were afterward distinguished as the old comers,' • comers,' or 'forefathers.' Six or seven years seven years elapsed before the colony received any considerable addition to its numbers."'*

In 1627, at which time the agreement between the Plymouth colonists and the London merchants terminated, the latter agreed to sell out their interest for $9,000,† eight of the principal men of the colony, known as "undertakers," binding themselves on behalf of the colony to pay the debt. They abandoned the joint-stock principle and donated to each colonist about 20 acres of land nearest the town.‡ The common stock of domestic animals was divided as was also the meadow land in 1633.§ Although in 1630 the number of colonists at New Plymouth did not total 300, yet they considered that the settlement had been firmly established. To use their own language, "It was not with them as with other men whom small things could discourage, or small discontents cause to wish themselves at home again. By

* Hildreth, History of the United States, vol. i., p. 171. See also Doyle, English Colonies in America, vol. ii., pp. 61-62; Palfrey, History of New England, vol. i., pp. 79-83.

↑ Bradford, Plymouth Plantation, pp. 203, 210, 212, 214, 226, 373n.

‡ Doyle, vol. ii., p. 63 et seq.; Palfrey, vol. i., pp. 85-87; Bradford, p. 216; Hazard, Historical Collections, vol. i., pp. 180-181; Records, vol. xii., p. 13.

§ Records, vol. i., p. 14.

217

degrees, also, the colonists had assumed the responsibility and exercised all the prerogatives of government, even to capital punishment; they enacted all the laws necessary in a general assembly of the colonists, and in religious matters were exceedingly liberal. Anyone whom the spirit moved might address the congregation on Sundays, and for many years there was no regular pastor or minister at the settlement.* In January, 1630, a new patent was granted to Bradford and his associates by which they were given all the land bounded on the north by the Cohasset River, on the south by the Narragansett River and on the west by the Pokanoket. They were also given a tract of land 15 miles in breadth on each bank of the Kennebec for fishing purposes. The patent also gave the colonists a monopoly of trade with the Indians within the prescribed limits.†

In the meantime other settlements had been made in nearby territory. The settlements at Wessagusset by Weston and at Nantasket by Lyford have already been mentioned. Captain David Thomson also left the Piscataqua and settled his family on the island which bears his name (although spelled with a "p"); ‡ Wil

* On the government of Plymouth see Osgood, American Colonies, vol. i., pp. 290-300.

+ Palfrey, vol. i., pp. 141-145. For text of patent see Thorpe, Federal and State Constitutions, vol. iii., pp. 1841-1846. See also Appendix III. at the end of present chapter.

Adams, Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, vol. i., pp. 191-193.

liam Blackstone (or Blaxton) whom Gorges had sent out to use his influence as a "clerk of Holy Orders" for the Church of England at New Plymouth, settled on Shawmut peninsula; Mr. Jeffrey and Mr. Burslem" settled at Winnisimmett, now Chelsea, as did also Samuel Maverick; Thomas Walford, a blacksmith of the Gorges Company, settled at Mishawum (now Charlestown) at the mouth of the Mystic; Edward Helton settled at Cochecho on the Piscataqua; and some fishermen had erected dwellings, storehouses, a church and other buildings on Cape Anne.*

These were the forerunners of the second and more extensive Puritan colony established on the shores of Massachusetts Bay. In England, King Charles was using every endeavor to make the position of the Puritans less and less comfortable, and it was but natural that the Puritans should turn to America as a place of refuge from trial and persecution. On March 19, 1628, a grant was obtained from the New England Company of Plymouth to a tract of land across the continent from three miles north of the Merrimac River to three miles south of the Charles River, thus embracing Massachusetts Bay and the entire country to the west. The grantees were Sir Henry Roswell, Sir John Young, Thomas

Southcott, John Humfrey, John Endicott, and Symon Whitcombe. This grant was not wholly legal, because it included some of the territory which the New England Council had already granted to Robert Gorges in 1622. Nevertheless, Sir Ferdinando Gorges gave his consent to its issuance "so far forth as it might not be prejudiciall" to the interests of his son Robert.*

In September, 1628, Endicott, a Puritan of the sternest sort, first established himself at Naumkeag and was followed shortly after by a strong body of colonists who came chiefly from Boston, Lincolnshire. In March, 1629, Charles I. granted a patent, though very reluctantly, incorporating the adventurers as the "Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England." The affairs of the colony were to be administered in monthly court meetings and the stockholders were annually to elect a governor, deputy governor, and eighteen assistants. For the transaction of public affairs four general courts of the whole body of freemen were to be held; no laws or statutes were to be enacted contrary to the laws of England; but the supreme power resided with the Company in England. As the patent was considered as being chiefly in the interests of trade, no specific provision was made regarding religion.† The

*Baxter, Gorges, vol. ii., pp. 51, 59.

Doyle, English Colonies in America, vol. ii., p. 90; Fiske, Beginnings of New England, pp. 92