Gazetteer of the State of Maine With Numerous Illustrations, by Geo. J. Varney
BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL, 57 CORNHILL. 1882. Public domain image from
40 GAZETTEER OF MAINE.
changed it to Goigeana, extending its corporate jurisdiction over a tract of twenty-one square miles. It never had over three hundred inhabitants, and ten years later, it was changed to the town of York. Before long there were conflicts of title and of authority in Maine among so many different claimants. The French made good their claim to the territory east of the Penobscot by bolding possession of it; and upon Gorges death those holding their territory under the Lygonia Patent contended with those who held under the several patents of Gorges. The government of Cromwell during its sway, favored Rigby, the holder of the Lygonia Patent—and a Puritan— against Gorges, who was attached to the Church of England and the royal line. The Massachusetts Bay Government was frequently called upon for protection and adjudication of rights in Maine; and, on re- examining their charter, and making a new survey, the authorities found they could make a plausible claim of jurisdiction over New Hampshire and Maine as far as the Penobscot. This territory was therefore adopted as a part of the commonwealth, under the name of Yorkshire. In 1652, commissioners appointed by Massachusetts came into Maine, and set up her government with very little opposition. The militia of Maine was organized by the General Court, and magis- trates appointed; the people were admitted to suffrage, having the privilege of sending two delegates to the General Court.
Under the Puritan rule in England, the New England colonies, with the assistance of a few vessels and men sent by Cromwell, recov- ered from France the whole of Acadia,—by which term the French at this time designated eastern Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In 1664, Charles II., who had now been called to the throne of Great Britain, made his brother, the Duke of York, Viceroy of New England. The Duke also induced his brother to give the portion of Maine lying between St. Croix and the Penobscot, in addition to that between the latter river and the Kennebec, which he held before. At the request of the Duke, the King appointed three commissioners to assist the deputy-governor, Colonel Richard Nichols, in settling the affairs of New England. When they appeared in Boston, the General Court rejected their authority. They then went to Maine, where in 1665, they overthrew the government of Massachusetts and set up one of their own. The King recalled the commissioners in the following year, and when Governor Nichols returned to England in 1638, Massachu- setts immediately took steps to revive her authority. In 1773, the Dutch recaptured New York, and Governor Lovelace, who had suc- ceeded Nichols, returned to England. There being now no superior authority to oppose, the authority of Massachusetts quickly changed the province of Maine back to the county of York and made the county of Cornwall into the county of Devonshire; and now Maine had three representatives in the General Court.
Then for a short time the settlements were peaceful and flourishing; so that in the beginning of the year 1675, there were thirteen towns and plantations within the present limits of Maine, while the inhabitants numbered between five and six thousand souls. The Indian popula- tion at this time numbered about twelve thousand. In July 1675, King Philips war broke out in Massachusetts; and in September the tribes of Maine commenced hostilities. Their first warlike act was at the plantation of Thomas Purchas, in Pejepscot (Brunswick), which they
PREVIOUS PAGE ... NEXT PAGE
This page was written in HTML using a program written in Python 3.2
|