USA > Maine > The beginnings of colonial Maine, 1602-1658 > Part 22
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1 Laud was a man of learning and a great patron of learning, but he was intolerant in the highest degree and used his position in enforcing ecclesi- astical and political measures that were extremely obnoxious. These brought upon him popular indignation and popular condemnation, and he was beheaded January 10, 1645.
2 Colonial Papers, Charles I, VIII, No. 12, Public Records Office, London.
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his advisers had reached the conclusion that if the New England colonists were to take to themselves "new forms of ecclesiastical and temporal government", the people of England would be likely before long to insist upon the same rights; and existing tenden- cies were plainly in that direction.
That Gorges not only was in close sympathy with Laud and those who were associated with him in this new movement, but was actively engaged in promoting it, is evident from a letter that he addressed to the king May 12, 1634,1 in which he suggested that New England should be divided into several provinces, to which should be assigned "governors and other assistants and officers for administration of public justice and preservation of the common peace". He also suggested that "both for the honor of his majesty and the satisfaction of such noble and generous spirits as willingly interest themselves in those undertakings that some person of honor may be assigned under the title of lord governor, or lord lieutenant, to represent his majesty for the set- tling of a public state". Among the officers regarded by Gorges as "proper to such a foundation" was one lord bishop, a chancel- lor, a treasurer, a marshal, an admiral, a master of the ordnance and a secretary of state, with such other councilors as might be thought necessary. In other words, "government of the people, by the people, for the people", already established in New Eng- land, was to disappear ; and the several provinces, by which evi- dently was meant the eight divisions of the territory already made by allotment to members of the council, were to be governed by officers of royal appointment, exercising civil and ecclesiastical powers.
These suggestions were favorably received by the king, and in a letter to Charles' secretary, Sir Francis Windebank, dated March 21, 1635,2 Gorges gratefully acknowledged the king's gracious pleasure in assigning him to the governorship of New England ; and made the added suggestion that expedition "be used in
1 Baxter, Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Province of Maine, III, 260-263. 2 Ib., 273, 274.
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repealing of the patents of those already planted in the bay of Massachusetts, that there be not just cause left of contention when I shall arrive in those parts". Evidently when Gorges wrote this letter, he was confidently looking for the fulfil- ment of a long cherished hope in connection with the governorship of all New England. He had made haste in preparing "Consid- erations necessary to be resolved upon in settling the governor for New England"; 1 and all things seemed to be moving in the direc- tion in which he and other advisers of the king with reference to affairs in New England had already marked out in their plan.
Thus far the plan had unfolded in the way contemplated by those connected with it. But the procedure was slow, as Laud found in the affairs of England alone enough to occupy his atten- tion fully ; but before the close of 1634, the lords commissioners issued an order2 placing restrictions on emigration, prohibiting any one of sufficient means to be rated as "a subsidy man" to go to New England without a special license, and all persons of less means without taking the oaths of supremacy and allegiance, and securing a certificate of conformity from the parish minister.
A declaration of the council for New England, giving its rea- sons for the surrender of its charter, followed, May 5, 1635. In this declaration a direct attack was made upon the Massachu- setts bay colonists for excluding "themselves from the public government of the council authorized for those affairs and made themselves a free people and so framed unto them- selves both new laws and new conceits of matters of religion, and forms of ecclesiastical and temporal orders and government".8
The formal act of the council in surrendering its charter to the king occurred June 17, 1635.4 Such legal difficulties as stood in
1 Baxter, Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Province of Maine, 265-268.
2 Gardiner, History of England, VIII, 167.
3 Farnham Papers, I, 199.
4 Ib., 203-205. The humble petition of the council for New England for the act of surrender of the great patent was presented to Charles I, May 1, 1635. Farnham Papers, I, 201, 202. The council took action concerning it as above.
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the way of the transaction were easily removed before the end of the year; and on the application of the attorney general, the court of King's Bench declared the charter of the Massachusetts bay colony to be null and void.1
This last action, the Massachusetts bay colonists had already foreseen. In the various transactions leading up to it, reports of which soon reached them, they had received more than intima- tions of the peril threatening their infant liberties. Opposition was awakened, and this not only found expression in words, but in deeds. As early as March 4, 1635, the general court of the colony passed an order "that the fort at Castle island, now begun, shall be fully perfected, the ordnances mounted and every other thing about it finished"; and to this end the deputy governor was authorized "to press men for that work for so long time as in his discretion he shall think meet".2 A military commission, also, was appointed, consisting of the governor, deputy governor and other prominent colonists, who were empowered "to dispose of all military affairs whatsoever". May 6, the commission was given additional powers such as "to appoint the general captain"; to order out the troops "upon any occasion they think meet; to make any defensive war as also to do whatsoever may be further behoofful for the good of the plantation in case of any war".3 September 3, a second order to press men "to help towards the finishing of the fort at Castle island" was passed ; and March 3, 1636, fortifications on Fort Hill in Boston, also in Charlestown, were authorized. The spirit of the colonists was aroused, but to an extent of which the colonial records make no mention.
In this uncertain state of affairs both at home and in New Eng- land, Sir Ferdinando Gorges was not unmindful of his Maine pos- sessions, and gave them such consideration as was in his power. Doubtless again and again representations had been made to him by Vines and others that there was need of some kind of govern-
1 Gardiner, History of England, VIII, 167.
2 Records of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay in New England, I, 139.
8 Ib., I, 146.
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mental organization in the province for the proper administration of justice between man and man. In the existing condition of political matters in England, on account of a feeling of loyalty Gorges could not make arrangements that would take him out of the country ; but he gave his nephew, William Gorges, a commis- sion as governor of the Province of New Somersetshire (the new name by which the province was known),1 and sent him hither as his representative.
Upon his arrival on the coast in the early part of 1636, he seems to have taken up his residence in Saco, where he proceeded with- out delay to organize the institutions of civil government. Espe- cially was the province in need of a legal tribunal for the trial of such breaches of law and order as the increase of settlers upon the coast now urgently demanded. Gorges accordingly estab- lished at Saco a court of commissioners, which was composed of Governor Gorges, Captain Richard Bonython of Saco, Captain Thomas Cammock and Henry Josselyn of Black Point, Thomas Purchase of Pejepscot, Edward Godfrey of Agamenticus and Thomas Lewis of Winter Harbor.2 The commissioners were sum- moned to meet at Saco, March 21, 1636, and court was opened on that day. Some simple form of government may have been insti- tuted previously at Saco by the settlers themselves; but the gov- ernment established by Governor William Gorges was the first authorized organization attempted in the province.
In the administration of the affairs of the province, the gov- ernor seems to have made a favorable impression. He remained in the country, however, a very short time, returning to England early in 1637. In all probability, like Robert Gorges, who came over in 1623 as governor and lieutenant general of New England, William Gorges did not find the position he was to occupy in any way congenial to him, and so sought an early release from the task to which he had been assigned.
1 Winthrop, in his mention of the new province, makes its boundaries from "Cape Elizabeth to the Sagadahoc". Journal, I, 176.
2 Early Records of Maine, I, 1.
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When Winter arrived in England in the summer of 1635, the council for New England had surrendered its charter. When he returned to Richmond's island in May of the following year, the plans of Laud and his associates with reference to a general gov- ernment of New England were shaping themselves gradually. Sharing the views of Trelawny and the royalist and prelatical parties, Winter probably saw no peril in the movements in this direction which he must have seen were already in progress. To him these suggested an order of things, which doubtless he looked upon as making for the general advancement of colonial interests in New England. As to what Winter on his return said concern- ing these matters, there is no information; but he hardly could have remained silent with reference to them. In all probability something directly or indirectly reached Cleeve from this source. At all events such information must have reached him from other sources, especially from the Massachusetts bay colonists, with whom settlers on the coast of Maine were now in frequent com- munication. Not only his own private affairs, therefore, had determined Cleeve in his resolutions to make his way at once to England, but a better understanding with reference to future prospects as to governmental relations here could hardly have been absent from his purposes. Possibly, too, he may have been moved by the thought that in such new relations he would be able to secure for himself some official position that would be help- ful to him in connection with his interests at Machegonne. In this he was much more successful than his ambitions, which now were beginning to dominate him, had even suggested. He soon learned that the movement to place Gorges at the head of the government of New England was still unaccomplished.1 It had encountered obstacles that under existing circumstances were formidable, if not insurmountable. While not relinquishing further endeavors
1 Winthrop says, "The Lord frustrated their designs". Journal, 1630-1649, edited by J. K. Hosmer, I, 153. Several events indicated to Winthrop divine interpositions. One of these was that the strong new-built ship, that was to bring Gorges to New England as lord governor, fell to pieces in
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Gorges was as ready as ever to make any added attempt to advance the interests of New Somersetshire that seemed to prom- ise success.
Here was Cleeve's opportunity for reaching such a position of influence as he had hoped would open to him in connection with his visit, and he at once entered into close relations with Gorges, who received him cordially and had an open ear for latest infor- mation concerning affairs in New Somersetshire. Of course Cleeve did not forget the business that was the occasion of his visit, and he had no difficulty in obtaining a grant of Machegonne ; 1 but having secured the ear of Gorges, Cleeve advanced to other matters.
Possibly, before leaving home, he had learned of the purpose of William Gorges to resign the governorship of New Somersetshire and return to England. But even if he had not received such information, he must have been informed of the governor's intended resignation soon after his arrival by Sir Ferdinando him- self ; for we know that the future government of the province was one of the matters to which they gave consideration. And here Cleeve added to the favorable impression he had made upon Gorges by a suggestion that the government of the province should be placed in the hands of a commission that should include in its membership representative men of New England. Gorges already had urged such a joint government for all New England, but evidently his scheme was not acceptable to the leaders of the prelatical party in England, and it failed of adoption. But Gorges was supreme in his own Province of New Somersetshire, and he not only welcomed the suggestion but he gave Cleeve a place on
launching. Another was the death of Captain John Mason, who had been more active than Gorges in the movement for establishing a vice-regal gov- ernment in New England. Concerning Mason, Winthrop wrote : "The last winter Captain Mason died. He was the chief mover in all the attempts against us, and was to have sent the general governor, and for this end was providing shipping ; but the lord in mercy, taking him away, all the busi- ness fell on sleep." Journal, I, 181.
1 Trelawny Papers, 110.
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the commission, associating him with Winthrop and four promi- nent men in New England outside of the province.
Cleeve had now achieved a degree of success in advancing his personal interests that must have exceeded largely his highest anticipations on leaving his home; and in the closing days of March, 1637, he set sail from Bristol on his return, bearing with him his grant of Machegonne, also papers for the establishment of the government of New Somersetshire, and a commission, dated February 25, 1637, for letting and settling all or any part of Gorges' "lands or islands lying between the Cape Elizabeth and the entrance of Sagadahock river, and to go into the main land sixty miles". Cleeve reached his home late in May, or early in June,1 for June 8, Arthur Mackworth ;2 as duly authorized, placed Cleeve and Tucker in legal possession of the territory upon which they had located a little more than four years before. It was a proud day for Cleeve and the little company3 that witnessed the ancient "turf and twig" delivery in the clearing that had been made on the harbor shore, and their celebration of the happy event could not have lacked enthusiastic expression.
In one way or another information with reference to the new order of things in the province soon reached the scattered settlers on the coast of Maine. Doubtless Winter, at Richmond's island, received such information as early as any of the New Somerset- shire colonists. Writing early in July to Trelawny, his employer, he informed him that Cleeve's grant from Gorges of fifteen hun-
1 Baxter, George Cleeve of Casco Bay, 69.
2 He was a near neighbor of Cleeve, having settled at the mouth of the Presumpscot before Cleeve took up his residence at Machegonne. In 1637, he married Jane Andrews, widow of Samuel Andrews, who, with her hus- band probably, came hither from London in the same vessel with Mackworth. Mackworth died in 1657. For a fuller reference see Trelawny Papers, 213.
3 The delivery was made by Thomas Lewis, John Bickford and George Frost. Lewis was associated with Captain Bonython on the northern bank of the Saco. Bickford, who lived at Oyster River, N. H., chanced to be in the vicinity of Machegonne. Frost was a resident of Winter Harbor. Michael Mitton, who accompanied Cleeve on his return from England, was also pres- ent and subsequently married Cleeve's daughter, Elizabeth.
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dred acres of land from Casco bay to the falls of the river of Casco, was an infringement upon Trelawny's territorial rights, as he and others thought. "You may please to advise Sir Ferdinando Gorges of it, to know if it be so or no", he added, in his indigna- tion at such a thought. Winter's attitude toward Sir Ferdinando evidently had somewhat changed, and his state of mind because of Gorges' recognition of Cleeve probably finds explanation in his added words to Trelawny: "Sir Ferdinando Gorges hath made Cleeve governor of his province, as he reports; now he thinks to wind all men to his will.'' 1
But the affairs of the colony were not in such a desperate condi- tion as Winter supposed. Having settled his own matters at Machegonne, Cleeve proceeded to Boston for consultation with Winthrop, having in his possession the papers he had received from Gorges relating to the government of New Somersetshire. Under date of June 26, 1637, Winthrop2 made this record : "We had news of a commission granted in England to divers gentle- men here for the governing of New England, etc.,3 but instead thereof we received a commission from Sir Ferdinando Gorges to govern his Province of New Somersetshire, which is from Cape Elizabeth to Sagadahoc, and withal to oversee his servants and private affairs; which was observed as a matter of no good dis- cretion, but passed in silence." Winthrop's silence, evidently, was toward Gorges. To Cleeve, however, he made courteous explanation, mentioning some technical reasons for declining to have any part in the proposed government of New Somersetshire -such as the discovery of an error in the name of one of the com- missioners, another had removed to Connecticut, etc. ; and besides he questioned Gorges' authority to appoint such a commission.
1 Trelawny Papers, 111.
2 Journal, Hosmer's Ed., I, 222.
3 We have no details concerning the commission to which reference is here made. It was evidently appointed by the king during the earlier part of Cleeve's presence in England, and it is thought that Cleeve may have been given a place on it ; but it encountered strong opposition both from the Bay colonists and their friends in England and failed as Winthrop records.
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In all probability, however, other and stronger reasons influenced Winthrop in declining the position tendered to him. The affairs of the Bay colony, both because of hostility in England and of differences existing among the colonists themselves, were in such a condition that Winthrop might well hesitate to turn his atten- tion to matters with which he had no concern, and to hold steadily and firmly to that singleness of purpose which characterized all his efforts in connection with New England colonization.
It must have been a great disappointment to Cleeve to witness so soon the disappearance of the bright vision that had awakened within him hopes of new and larger successes in connection with his return to Machegonne. Still further must Cleeve have been chastened in spirit, when, after his return homeward, he learned that notwithstanding his grant of Machegonne from Sir Ferdi- nando Gorges, the rightfulness of his possession was denied by Winter as strongly as heretofore. Winter carried the matter to Trelawny, calling attention to a house built on the peninsula "a little above Cleeve", 1 which he claimed was within the limits of Trelawny's patent-a claim that was wholly without foundation, even as Winter's own statements concerning Trelawny's boun- daries show. In another letter, dated July 29, 1637, Winter wrote, "I have given him [Cleeve] warning to depart betwixt this and Michaelmas". Apparently this interview, which was held July 26, was without much heat. While it was in progress, Cleeve produced a letter from Sir Ferdinando Gorges containing a sug- gestion that the matters in dispute between Cleeve and Winter should be referred to three "indeferent men". According to Winter's own account, he expressed no opinion upon this matter of arbitration, but left the decision with Trelawny. "I do desire to know," he wrote, "how I shall be freed from Cleeve for his first house before I enter upon his second; and though I have given him warning to depart, I am desirous to live quiet here among the neighbors hereabout, if I may, considering we live
1 Trelawny Papers, 111.
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here among the heathen".1 These words were written three days after the interview between these two neighbors, and on the part of the writer give evidence of subdued feelings that seem to have been occasioned by the fact that Cleeve, before leaving Richmond's island, served a warrant upon Winter to appear before the king in England October 11, to answer for the wrong he had suffered in being ejected from his house at Spurwink.2
Cleeve soon found that there were persons in the province beside Winter who were unfriendly to his interests. Vines and others, near neighbors of Winter and having like religious sym- pathies, wrote to Gorges in their displeasure because of the prom- inence he had given to Cleeve in connection with the affairs of New Somersetshire; and their communications made such an impression upon Gorges that he addressed a letter to Vane, Win- throp and others in the Bay colony,3 asking their aid in settling troubles in his province. Vane, however, had returned to Eng- land; Winthrop saw no reason why he should depart from the position he had taken not to interfere in matters outside of the Province of Massachusetts Bay; the other parties also had excuses ; and the New Somersetshire colonists were left to attend to their own concerns. But though in the truce that followed, Cleeve remained in undisturbed possession of his grant, he must have felt somewhat insecure on account of the number and prominence of his opponents ; and he awaited further developments.
1 Trelawny Papers, 118.
2 Baxter, George Cleeve of Casco Bay, 75-77.
3 Ib., 224-226.
CHAPTER XIV.
ADDED SETTLEMENTS AND GENERAL CONDITIONS.
M ENTION has already been made of Thomas Purchase of Pejepscot, one of the commissioners associated with Wil- liam Gorges in the government of the Province of New Somersetshire.1 It is supposed that he came to this country from
1 Purchase was born in England about the year 1577. According to the record in the probate office at Salem, Mass., Thomas Purchase died in Lynn, May 11, 1677, aged one hundred and one years. There is no known relation- ship between him and the well-known author of Purchas' Pilgrimes; but John Winter of Richmond's island stated in a letter, dated August 2, 1641, that Purchase was a kinsman ( Trelawny Papers, 288) of Rev. Robert Jordan, who subsequently married Winter's daughter. Purchase was twice married. It is not known that he had any children by his first wife, Mary Gove. By his second wife, Elizabeth Williams, he had five children, of whom the names of only three have been preserved, Thomas, Jane and Elizabeth. In 1675, Purchase added to the grant made by the council for New England a large tract, which he is said to have purchased from the Indians. About the year 1659, Nicholas Shapleigh of Kittery purchased of like parties Harpswell Neck and the island of Sebascodegan. July 4, 1685, the grant to Purchase and Way, and the land obtained by Nicholas Shapleigh, came into the pos- session of Richard Wharton, a Boston merchant. Also October 10, 1685, Eleazer Way of Hartford, Conn., son and heir of George Way, co-partner with Thomas Purchase, sold to Richard Wharton his inherited rights in the Pejep- scot patent. For fuller information see the biographical sketch of Thomas Purchase in Wheeler's History of Brunswick, Topsham and Harpswell, 788- 797. July 7, 1684, Worumbo and other Indian sagamores deeded additional lands on the Androscoggin river to Richard Wharton. It was Wharton's purpose by these various purchases to establish for himself a "manory" in New England. He died insolvent, however, in 1689. Captain Ephraim, as the administrator of Wharton's estate, sold his lands to the Pejepscot pro- prietors November 5, 1714, and the deed was recorded at York during that month. See Farnham Papers, I, 361. The Pejepscot "records" and "papers" are in the archives of the Maine Historical Society, Portland, Maine.
16
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England about the year 1626, landing at Saco. He was there June 25, 1630, with Isaac Allerton, Captain Thomas Wiggin and others, when Richard Vines took legal possession of his grant on the south side of the Saco river. Doubtless after his arrival in the province, Purchase spent some time in seeking a favorable location for a settlement. From the eastern part of Casco bay there was an Indian thoroughfare that led to the falls of the Pejepscot in what is now the town of Brunswick. Skirting the shores of Casco bay and journeying by this well-known route, Purchase probably reached the falls; or he may have made his way thither by the Sagadahoc to Merrymeeting bay, and thence by the waters of the Pejepscot river. However this may be, by one route or the other, he discovered a very favorable location for trade with the Indians as they descended the river in passing from their villages to the mouth of the Sagadahoc, or to the pleasant camping grounds on the shores or islands of Casco bay.
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