1622 patent The first patent establishing the Province of Maine was granted on 10 August 1622 to Sir
Ferdinando Gorges and
John Mason by the
Plymouth Council for New England, which itself had been granted a royal patent by
James I to the coast of
North America between the
40th to the
48th parallel "from sea to sea". This first patent encompassed the coast between the
Merrimack and
Kennebec rivers, and an irregular parcel of land between the headwaters of the two rivers. In 1629, Gorges and Mason agreed to split the patent at the
Piscataqua River, with Mason retaining the land south of the river as the
Province of New Hampshire. Gorges named his more northerly piece of territory
New Somersetshire after his home county of
Somerset in England. Lack of funding and the absence of a royal charter held back development, and only a few small settlements were established. Gorges sought to create a neo-feudal community similar to western England. The colony was Anglican and Royalist, and so sided with the king in the
English Civil War (1642–1651).
1639 patent In 1639, Gorges obtained a renewed patent, the Gorges Patent, for the area between the Piscataqua and Kennebec Rivers, in the form of a royal charter from
Charles I of England. The area was roughly the same as that covered in the 1622 patent after the 1629 split with Mason. This renewed colonization effort was also hampered by lack of money and settlers, but continued to survive even after the death of Gorges in 1647.
Absorption by Massachusetts Beginning in the 1640s, the nearby
Massachusetts Bay Colony began claiming territories north of the
Merrimack River, because the Merrimack's northernmost point was farther north than its mouth. This resulted in its administration of the early settlements of what later became
New Hampshire. After a survey made in the early 1650s, Massachusetts extended its land claims as far north as Casco Bay. By 1658, Massachusetts had completed the assimilation of all of Gorges' original territory into its jurisdiction. In 1664,
Charles II of England made a grant to
James, Duke of York for territories north and east of the Kennebec River. Under the terms of this patent the territory was incorporated into
Cornwall County, part of the duke's proprietary
Province of New York. The territory stipulated in this charter encompassed the areas between the Kennebec and
St. Croix Rivers. This region, which had previously been called the
Territory of Sagadahock, forms the eastern portion of the present-day state of Maine. Charles had intended to include the former Gorges territory in this grant, but the Gorges heirs instead chose to sell their remaining claims to Massachusetts. In 1674-75, the region between the Kennebec River and
Penobscot Bay was administered as
Devonshire County, District of Maine, Massachusetts Bay Colony, overlapping the New York claim. Starting in 1675,
King Philip's War resulted in the abandonment of this area by English settlers until the 18th century. In 1691,
William III and
Mary II issued a charter for the new
Province of Massachusetts Bay that encompassed (in addition to other territories) the former claims of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and those of the Duke of York. The region became
York County, Massachusetts and then the
District of Maine, part of Massachusetts until it achieved
statehood of its own in 1820. ==See also==