grace for you all, and rest your humble servants. George Cleeves for and in behalf of the people of Ligonia.”1

This letter produced no alteration in the policy of Massachusetts, and in October following, Vines held his court as usual, assisted by Richard Bonighton, Henry Jocelyn, Francis Robinson, Arthur Macworth, Edward Small, and Abraham Preble.? It being represented at this court, "that not having heard from Sir Ferdinando Gorges of late for establishment of government,' they proceeded to elect Richard Vines, Esq., deputy-governor for the year, and "if he should depart, Henry Jocelyn to be deputy in his place." They also laid a tax for the charges of the general court; in which Casco is assessed ten shillings, Saco eleven shillings, Gorgiana3 one pound, Piscataqua, which included Kittery and Berwick, two pounds ten shillings. The certificates before referred to, respecting the articles exhibited against Vines by Cleeves, were offered, and his practices censured; but some allowance is undoubtedly to be made by us for the unfavorable light in which Cleeves appears in this transaction, since we receive the representation of it from bitter and prejudiced opponents, who acted under the highest degree of excitement; and having no opportunity to hear the exculpation of the accused party.

Vines sold his patent to Dr. Child, in October, 1645, and soon

1 From files in secretary's office, Mass.

2 Robinson lived in Saco, Macworth in Casco, Preble in Agamenticus. These persons may be supposed to be the leaders in their respective plantations of the party of Gorges.

3 Agamenticus, now York, was incorporated as a city by Gorges in 1641, by the name of Agamenticus; the next year a new charter was granted, giving it the name of Gorgiana; Thomas Gorges was appointed the first mayor, by the charter. This tax exhibits the relative value of the settlements in Maine at that time, if Casco were fully taxed, of which from its having a separate government there may be some doubt.

after left the province;* Henry Jocelyn succeeded to the of fice of deputy-governor. The contest had increased to such a height, that in the beginning of 1646, Cleeves was threatened with personal violence; he therefore once more appealed to Massachusetts, to aid him in this emergency. The other party also making their representations to the same power, that gov ernment addressed a letter to each of them, persuading them to suspend their hostilities, and live in peace until the arrival of the next ships, by which it was expected that an order would come from the commissioners of the colonies to adjust the controversy. On receiving these letters, both parties came to the determination of referring the subjects of contention between them, to the arbitration of the court of assistants of Massachusetts, to be held at Boston, June 3d, 1646. At the time appointed Cleeves and Tucker appeared in support of Rigby's title, and Henry Jocelyn and Mr Roberts for Gorges.2

The result of this arbitration was inconclusive and unsatisfactory. Winthrop3 says, "upon a full hearing, both parties

1 Vines must have had one daughter at least. I find a petition to Andross, on Massachusetts Files, from Vines Ellicott for Cousins' Island in Casco bay, in which he styles himself a grandson of Capt. Richard Vines. [Savage says Ellicott came to Boston in the Supply in 1679. Ellacott or Ellicott was a respectable family in Devonshire, England, and still is. Vines went to Barbadoes, where he and his family were comfortably settled in 1648. He was there in the practice of physic. He addressed from there, two letters to Gov. Winthrop, one dated July, 1647, the other April, 1648.- Hutchinson's Papers.]

* '[Dr. Robert Child came from the county of Kent, England; was educated at Cambridge, England, from which he took his first degree in 1631, second in 1635. He afterward studied medicine at Padua, in Italy. It does not appear that he made any use of his purchase of Vines. The next year he got into a furious quarrel with the authorities of Massachusetts, whom he petitioned for further freedom in religion and civil government. He returned to England in 1647 and never came back.]

2 I think there must be some mistake in this name; I find no such person in the province at that time; a Giles Roberts subsequently lived at Black Point. I have thought it probable that Francis Robinson was intended; he was a respectable magistrate of Gorges' court at this period, and lived at Saco.

3 Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 256.

failed in their proof. The plaintiff (Cleeves) could not prove the place in question to be within his patent, nor could derive a good title of the patent itself to Mr. Rigby, there being six or eight patentees, and the assignment from only two of them. Also the defendant had no patent of the province, but only a copy thereof attested by witnesses which was not pleadable in law. Which so perplexed the jury that they could find for neither, but gave in a non liquet. And because both parties would have it tried by a jury, the magistrates forebore to deal any further in it."

The government of Massachusetts was undoubtedly quite willing that the cause should take this direction, they preferred to keep neutral and not identify themselves with either party until they could safely do it under the decision of the commissioners for the plantations, in England. This decision arrived soon after, and declared Rigby to be the "rightful owner and proprietor of the province of Ligonia, by virtue of conveyances, whereby the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing the said province is settled." The commissioners further ordered that all the inhabitants of said province should yield obedience to Rigby; and the government of Massachusetts was required, in case of resistance, to render support to his authority.1

Winthrop says that the decision of the commissioners brought the bounds of the patent to the sea-side, when, by the language of it, it fell twenty miles short; this explains what he before said in speaking of the evidence adduced by Cleeves in support of Rigby's title, that the grant did not cover the disputed territory.

This decree was the result of political events in England; the republican party was now triumphant, and Gorges, who had been taken prisoner at the seige of Bristol in 1645, and imprisoned, was probably now dead; 3 although, why the title

1 Sullivan, p. 314, who cites an ancient British manuscript.

2 Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 320.

3 In June, 1647, Gorges' friends in the western part of the State, addressed a letter to his heirs. [He died in 1647.]

to the province of Ligonia was not good, as to the soil at least, may be difficult to comprehend. The patent bears date previous to the title of Gorges, setting aside the grant of 1622, which appears never to have been executed; the proprietors came over and took possession, and no evidence remains that the patent was ever relinquished, or the title revoked. But the sovereignty or the right of government is placed on a different ground, and not having been transferred to the proprietors that we have any evidence of, must have reverted to the king, with the surrender of the grand patent by the council of Plymouth. The question then arises, whether the charter of the king to Gorges, conveyed the right of government to him within the province of Ligonia, which was then held under another and distinct title. But this question we shall not stop to discuss.*

Cleeves, now triumphant over his adversaries, assumed undisputed sway in the whole province of Ligonia, extending from Cape Porpus to Cape Elizabeth, including both. Under this government were the settlements at Cape Porpus, Winter Harbor, and Saco, Black and Blue Points, now Scarborough, Spurwink, Richmond's Island, and Casco. Saco was the largest, and the next, those of Spurwink and Richmond's Island. He immediately commenced making grants in his newly-acquired territory; as early as May, 1647, he granted to Richard Moore four hundred acres in Cape Porpus, and in September of the same year, he conveyed to John Bush a tract "in the village of Cape Porpus;" he also made grants in Scarborough and Falmouth, all of them as the agent of Col. Alexander Rigby, president and proprietor of the province of Ligonia.1

* [In January, 1656, Edward Rigby petitioned the Lord Protector to aid in the settlement of his plantation in New England, called the province of Laconia, granted by patent from the king to his father. Referred to the Commissioners or plantations.

Sainsbury.]

1 Rigby was a sergeant at law, and one of the Barons of the Exchequer in the kingdom of England; Cleeves was styled deputy-president.

Records of only three courts held by Cleeves are now to be found, and these are very imperfect; one relates to a court held at Black Point, by George Cleeves, Henry Jocelyn, and Robert Jordan, in which merely the appointment of an administrator is noticed; and the others held at Casco in September and December of the same year, exhibit the proceedings which took place on the petition of Robert Jordan, the executor of John Winter, for the allowance of his claim against Trelawny. These are presented in the appendix. The style of the court, as we learn from Jordan's petition, was the "General Assembly of the Province of Ligonia." We owe the preservation of this record to the vigilance of private interest, and not to the care of public officers. The repeated changes in government, the confusion of the times, but most of all, the desolation spread over the whole eastern country by Indian hostilities, have been fatal to the preservation of any perfect records either of the courts or towns.

'After the decision which separated Ligonia from the province of Maine, and the death of Gorges, the people in the western part of the State, in 1649, formed a combination for their own government, and elected Edward Godfrey their governor ;1 the first general court under this combination was held at Gorgiana (York) in July of that year. In consequence of the state of affairs in England; which deprived them of the aid of their chief proprietor, they petitioned parliament in 1651, to take them under their protection and confirm their independent government; but parliament not regarding their petition, they were obliged in 1652, to submit to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. Hutchinson, speaking of this period and this province, says, the people were in confusion and the authority of government at an end.3

1 Sullivan, p. 320. Massachusetts Historical Collections, vol. i.

2 Sullivan, p. 322.

3 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 163.