THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
1602-1658.
BY HENRY S. BURRAGE, D.D.
State Historian.
To re-create any period of the past for our own minds, to understand it as it was, unlike what went before it, unlike what came after it – this is the chief aim of history - and for this purpose one must study not only the masses of men, but also individual men, their ideas and beliefs,their enjoyments and their aspirations. James Bryce, University & Historical Addresses, p.362.
Printed for the State
1914.
By Henry S. Burrage, D.D.
Marks Printing House, Portland, Maine.
PREFACE.
In the following pages an attempt is made to record the prominent facts with reference to the beginnings of colonial Maine. To the earlier part of these beginnings, neither Sullivan in his History of the District of Maine (1795), nor Williamson in his History of the State of Maine (1832), devoted much space. When they wrote, the known and accessible sources of information concern those earlier undertakings were exceedingly scanty. Careful research, however, especially in the last century, has brought to light valuable materials for the history of that earlier period, and the discovery of these materials has greatly enlarged our knowledge with references both to facts and persons.
Among these new sources of information is a manuscript which was discovered in 1876 in the library of Lambeth Palace, London, by the late Reverend Dr. B. F. De Costa of New York. Its great value arises from the fact that it is the original record both of the voyage of the Popham colonists in making their way to our coast, and of the earlier undertakings connected with the planting of the colony at the mouth of the Kennebec. The manuscript is entitled, The Relation of a Voyage unto New England, Began from the Lizard, the first of June, 1607, by Capt. Popham in the ship, the Gift, and Captain Gilbert in the ship, Mary and John: Written by _______ and found amongst the papers of the truly worshipful Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Knight, by me, William Griffith.
But especially important, in this addition to the sources, was the discovery of the manuscript material now known as the Tre-
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lawny Papers. These constitute a treasure-house of information with reference to business interests and other matters at Richmond's island and vicinity for quite a number of years beginning with 1631. In the grant of land on Cape Elizabeth obtained in that year by Robert Trelawny and Moses Goodyear, merchants of Plymouth, England, Richmond's island was included; and on it, not long after the grant was made, John Winter, as the agent of Trelawny and Goodyear, established a large fishing and trading station. Goodyear died March 26, 1637, and Robert Trelawny became the sole proprietor of the patent. Fortunately the correspondence between Winter and Trelawny was continued about ten years, and their letters, with other valuable papers, accounts, etc., connected with Robert Trelawny's business affairs on this side of the sea were, until about the year 1872, carefully preserved at Ham, Robert Trelawny's residence in the vicinity of Plymouth.
JOHN WINGATE THORNTON.
The discovery of this manuscript material by the late John Wingate Thornton, Esquire of Boston, Mass., its presentation to the Maine Historical Society and its arrangement and publication by the Honorable James P. Baxter of Portland, Maine, in a volume of more than five hundred pages, with many valuable notes, supply us with much information not only concerning life and transactions at Richmond's Island in that early period of our colonial history, but also with reference to other places and events upon the coast of Maine.
Mr. Baxter's own painstaking researches in England, with reference to this same period, begun about the same time, were also richly rewarded. The results we have in three works of very great interest and value. The first of these is his George Cleeve of Casco Bay, 1630-1667, with collateral documents, a volume that gives us an admirable portraiture of the founder of Portland, bases upon such manuscript materials and early records as Mr. Baxter was able to obtain at home and abroad. The volume was published
(1) An account of the discovery of these papers by Mr. Thornton, and of their subsequent history, will be found in a note on pp. 211 & 212 of this volume
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published in 1885 by the Gorges Society, Portland - a first sheaf of Mr. Baxter's historical gleanings in widely scattered fields. It was followed by his "Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Hist Province of Maine" in three volumes, published in 1890 by the Prince Society, Boston. The 1st volume contains a valuable biography of Gorges, and is in fact, the only extended biography of Sir Ferdinando that has yet appeared, either in this country or in England. The 2nd & 3rd volumes contain Gorges' Brief Narrative, his Brief Answer to Certain False, Slanderous and Idle Objections made against Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Knight - the Charter of Georges' Gorges family, etc., the two volumes comprising many hitherto unpublished materials found in the Public Records Office, London, the library of the British Museum, various other public collections like the Bodleian Library, Oxford, also great private collections including that of Sir Robert Cecil, the chief secretary of Queen Elizabeth and of King James I. Still another work by Mr. Baxter relating to colonial beginnings in Maine, and one likewise prepared from original sources, is his "Christopher Levett of York, the Pioneer of Casco Bay. In addition to the interesting biography of Levett, the volume contains Levett's own narrative of "A Voyage into New England begun in 1623 and ended in 1624. This work was published by the Gorges Society, Portland, in 1893.
In his research work in England, Mr. Baxter discovered a manuscript volume of three hundred and twenty pages entitled The Jewell of the Arts. It is in the King's Library in London, and on examination was found to be the work of Captain George Waymouth, who commmanded the ship Archangel in her now well-known voyage to the coast of Maine in 1605. Before Mr. Baxter's discovery of this manuscript, it was supposed that Captain Waymouth was a competent English shipmaster only. But the Jewell of Artes disclosed the fact that he was also an accomplished engineer and draughtsman, and proficient in the art of ship and fortification building. Very generously, Mr. Baxter placed this manuscript in my hands for use in my preparation of Rosier's Relation
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of Waymouth's Voyage to the Coast of Maine in 1605, published by the Gorges Society, Portland, 1887. My estimate of Waymouth was enlarged by this manuscript at that time, and its influence I have felt in my references to him in the present volume.
In matters pertaining to the Popham colony, I have derived much assistance from the Reverend Henry O. Thayer's excellent work entitled The Sagadahoc Colony, Comprising the Relation of a Voyage into New England,(Lambeth Manuscript), and published by the Gorges Society, Portland, 1892. Mr. Thayer's introduction and notes leave nothing to be desired, while in the appendix, covering one hundred pages, there is a full and
satisfactory discussion of many points of interest with reference to the colony. Mr. Thayer's valuable contributions to the Collections of the Maine Historical Society with reference to the same period, have also been found very helpful.
Piscataqua and Agamenticus.
Edward Godfrey.
Colonel Alexander Rigby.
Dr. Charles E. Banks, who has made a special study of Edward Godfrey's life and services in connection with the development of colonization efforts, first at Piscataqua and afterward Agamenticus (later Gorgeana and York), has a biographical sketch of Edward Godfrey in the Collections of the Maine Historical Society (First Series, IX, 297-384) to which is added an appendix containing letters and various papers by Godfrey, from which I have derived valuable aid; also from his extended papers on Colonel Alexander Rigby in the second volume of the Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder.
Much assistance also I have received from the Farnham Papers, a collection of documents pertaining to Maine history, compiled in two volumes by Miss Mary Frances Farnham, and published by the Maine Historical Society. To bring these many documents together in this way, making them easily accessible, was an achievement worthy of recognition and generous appreciation.
In connection with the preparation of Rosier's Relation of Waymouth's Voyage, my interest in the beginnings of colonial Maine was greatly quickened. Study of the original sources of information
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concerning these beginnings not only revealed but emphasized the importance of a restatement of our earlier history in a connected narrative, based upon authoritative records and documents of various kinds critically used. In subsequent years, as opportunities for added research opened from time to time, my interest was deepened, and espially in 1912, when I had the pleasure of visiting Bristol and Plymouth, England, places in which Gorges and Aldworth and Elbridge and Jennings and Trelawny were such prominent figures, and from which, because of these men, proceeded influences so closely connected with the beginnings of our colonial history.
In modern forms, throughout these pages, I have made much use of the words of the original writings on which the narrative is so largely made to rest. During the first half of the seventeenth century, not only the great masters of the English language were at their best, but the people of the middle classes, including tradesmen and officials in the humbler places, exhibited a directness and vigor of expression of which we do well not to lose sight.
Also in my work I have endeavored to keep in mind contemporaneous events in England during the period under review. Indeed, events then in progress on this side of the sea cannot be rightly understood unless one gives attention to movements in England at the same time, which had as their aim better social and political conditions than had obtained hitherto in the mother country.
In my visit to Bristol, England, the librarian of the Central Municipal Library opened to me freely the large and very valuable collection of books relating to the history and antiquities of the city. This collection, brought together in a most attractive room in Bristol's beautiful library building, is under the charge of Miss Ethel E. Sims, who not only gave to me intelligent assistance whil I was in Bristol, England, but also after my departure, continued her efforts in my behalf with such painstaking interest that at length she was able to furnish me with the proof that the Thomas Hanham who accompanied Pring to the coast of Maine in 1606, was not the Thomas Hanham who married Penelope, a daughter of Sir John Popham, as some have
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supposed, but his son, Thomas Hanham, and therefore a grandson of Sir John. Mr. John Tremayne Lane, treasurer of Bristol, place in my hands the priceless early records of the city; and I was greatly assisted in my examination of them by Dr. Edward G. Cuthbert Atchley.
Abraham Jennings, of Monhegan.
At Ashton Court, by the courtesy of Lady Smith, Mr. Lewis Upton Way showed me to the Gorges papers still in the possession of the Smyth family, to which Sir Ferdinando was related by marriage. At Plymouth the public library is one of great excellence, and I found it helpful. The town clerk extended to me, generous courtesies, and Mr. A. C. Simmonds, assistant conveyancing clerk in the town clerk's office, was of great help to me in my examination of the town records, especially with reference to Abraham Jennings, the first owner of Monhegan. In this connection, also, I desire to make mention of my indebtedness to the great library of the British Museum and to the collections of the Public Records Office, London, where my researches were continued and ended.
The Maine State Library and the Maine Historical Society.
The Boston Anthenaeum, State Library, NEHGS & Boston Library.
The writing of these pages was commenced at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in November, 1912. Until June 1913, I was generously supplied with books by the Maine State Library at Augusta, and the library of the Maine Historical Society in Portland. At the same time, the libraries in Cambridge - that of Harvard University and the Cambridge Public Library - opened wide their doors to me, as also did the great libraries at Boston, namely, that of the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Boston Anthenaeum, the State Library, the library of the City of Boston and the library of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society.
THE JOHN HAY LIBRARY & JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY.
Valuable assistance also was received from the John Hay Library and the John Carter Brown Library of Brown University, Providence, R.I. In the summer of 1913, in Camden, Maine, where the work of writing was continued, and in the fall and winter of that year at Portland, Maine, where it was completed and the book was printed, the Maine libraries already mentioned,
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THE PORTLAND, MAINE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
still rendered valuable assistance, as also did the Portland Public Library. For that part of the Simancas map of 1610 which includes the coast line of what is now the State of Maine, I am indebted to the Houghton, Mifflin Company, Boston, publishers of Alexander Brown's "Genesis of the United States," in which the whole map is found.
The John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, courteously responded to my request for a fac simile of the title page of its valuable copy of Rosier's True Relation of Waymouth's voyage to the coast of Maine in 1605. For the photograph of the Popham monument in the parish church, Wellington, Somerset, I am indebted to the Reverend W. W. Pulman, vicar of the parish. For illustrations connected with recent tercentenary celebrations, that in 1904 of the de Monts colony at St. Croix Island, that in 1905 of Waymouth's discoveries on the Maine Coast and that in 1907 of the landing of the Popham colonists at the mouth of the Kennebec, I am indebted to the Maine Historical Society; also for the use of its copy of Johnston's map of the Pilgrim Grant on the Kennebec in securing a photographic copy of the same; and also for a like use of original letters and other writings from the Society's invaluable collection known as the Trelawny Papers. The other illustrations are from originals in the author's possession. |
