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motives which induced the first settlers of Maine to leave their native land, and the comforts of civilized life, to dwell amongst savages, have been repeatedly urged against them. But this has been done only by those who err in comparing the first settlers of Maine with the pilgrims; a comparison plainly unjust, since the pilgrims were exceptions to the general rule of emigra tion. The necessity, that existed in their case, did not affect the emigrants to Maine; of course their motives to immigration, could not be similar. But when fairly judged, many of the early settlers of Maine will be found to have been men worthy of profound esteem, and not mere needy adventurers. This part of the Province was not without its share of such estimable

men.

The settlement at Black Point increased more rapidly than the other two, and soon became one of the most flourishing and important places on the coast. The general history of the town is for many years intimately connected with that settlement, and often belongs exclusively to it. The excellent situation both for farmers and fishermen, induced many to settle there in preference to any other part of the town. We have no means of ascertaining nearly the number of planters there until 1671, when, according to John Jocelyn, the number of dwelling houses was fifty.* If we allow six persons to each of these we shall learn nearly the true number of inhabitants. The growth of this settlement was very rapid for those days, and has by no means been equalled in the same place since that time. It was

* "Six miles to the eastward of Saco and 40 miles from Georgiana (York) is seated the town of Black Point, consisting of about 50 dwelling houses, and a magazine or doganne scatteringly built, they have a store of neat and horses, of sheep near upon 7 or 800, much arable and marsh salt and fresh, and a corn-mill. To the southward of the Point (upon which are stages for fishermen) lie two small islands; beyond the point north eastward runs the river of Spurwink" (Jocelyns Voyages p. 200

only thirty-eight years before 1671, that Cammock's house stood alone at Black Point. Few of the early settlements in the country attained so rapid a growth as this, and few can present so striking a contrast to their present condition.

CHAPTER II.

HENRY JOCEYLYN-HIS PUBLIC LIFE, ETC.

We have already noticed the arrival of Henry Jocelyn at Black Point in 1635. He was for forty years the principal man in the town, and one of the most distinguished inhabitants of the province. In order to a proper understanding of the circumstances under which he came, and of his situation and conduct while here, it will be necessary to take a cursory view of the affairs of the Province, both before and after 1635. A brief sketch of the origin and progress of the Province, with which Jocelyn was so long and so favorably connected, will prove to be no episode in the story of the town. In the year 1620 the whole extent of territory between the fortieth and forty-eight degrees of north latitude stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, was placed at the disposal of the Council of Plymouth. The Council now acted independently of the Crown, and granted lands within the assigned limits to whom ever they pleased.Among their grants was one in 1622, to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason, members of the Council, which extended from the Merrimac River to the Kennebec. The territory included in this grant received the name Laconia. During the next year the proprietors of Laconia sent out men to begin a settlement

* For a more complete survey of the Province affairs during this period, see Sullivan's or Williamson's Maine; or chapter 2 of Willis' Portland, which contains all the important matter of both in fewer words.

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on the Piscataqua. In 1629 John Mason received a new patent of that part of Laconia lying west of the Piscataqua. This was the first division of the grant; and Mason named his share New Hampshire. The remainder of Laconia extending from the Piscataqua to the Kennebec was left to Gorges, who soon took a new charter of it under the name of New Somersetshire.

In 1635 Wm. Gorges, a nephew of Sir Ferdinando, was sent over as first Governor of Somersetshire. Soon after Gorges had received a patent of the eastern part of Laconia, the Plymouth Company returned their charter into the hands of King Charles the First. In 1639 the King confirmed Gorges' Patent, changing the name of the Province from New Somersetshire to Maine. The powers confirmed upon Gorges by the King in the charter of Maine are said to exceed all ever before or since granted to a subject of Great Britain. The next year Thomas Gorges, a young lawyer, and cousin of Sir Ferdinando, came over as Governor of Maine, and held the first General Court of the Province at Saco, June 25th 1640. He was the First Governor of this territory after it received the name of Maine; and it is perhaps with reference to this fact that he has been called the "first Governor of Maine." He was not the first governor set over the territory, as Wm. Gorges preceded him in that capacity by five years. In this manner arose the government of the Province of Maine. Although Gorges had obtained the grant of Laconia, in conjunction with Mason in 1622, and Mason's share had been secured to him by a new charter from the Council of Plymouth, thus manifestly leaving the other portion to Gorges, yet the same Council in 1629 issued to sundry

*It is generally supposed that Province was so called in honor of the Queen Henrietta Maria, who is represented as having been the proprietor of the Province of Maine in France. This opinion, however, is incorrect; at least that part of it which assigns the French Province to Henrietta. It belonged exclusively to the crown; nor is it known that she had any interest in it at all.

citizens of London a grant including the greater part of Gorges' share of Laconia, and covering lands granted during the same year to the patentees of Saco and Biddeford. The cause of this singular proceeding on the part of the Council has never been discovered. It is generally attributed to their ignorance of the situation of this part of the country, of which the best informed in England at that time knew little. This strange grant of lands already held under former grants, was made to John Dy and others of London, and is distinguished by the name of the "Plough Patent ;" and is supposed to have taken its name from the ship "Plough," in which the grantees, or per. sons sent by them, came over from England. The tract granted extended from Casco Bay to Cape Porpoise on the seaboard, and forty miles into the country; thus it fell wholly within the former grant to Mason and Gorges. It was styled the "Prov. ince of Lygonia." There is no satisfactory evidence that any of the original owners of the Plough Patent ever visited their new Province. It is even doubtful who they were. Gorges was not disturbed in his possessions and government of the territory by any of the proprietors of Lygonia until 1643, when it was sold to Alexander Rigby, a member of the famous Long Parliament. Rigby immediately claimed jurisdiction over the territory already occupied by the government of Gorges, and commissioned George Cleeves of Falmouth to act as his deputy in the Province. Gorges stoutly resisted the claim of Rigby, but with no better effect than was to be expected under existing circumstances; for Gorges was a royalist, Rigby was a republican, and the republicans were in the seat of power. It was indeed an unfavorable occasion for a royalist to urge even his just claims. Gorges died in 1647 leaving Rigby to proceed undisturbed in his plan of governing Lygonia. This he did by the establishment of a General Assembly of which Cleeves, the deputy president of the Providence, was the acting head. In

1650 Rigby died. And now the distracted province that had suffered so much from these contests about itself enjoyed a pleasing repose. But it proved of brief duration; for soon after this dissension, almost before the noise of it had died. away, the colonists of Massachusetts' Bay, by a wonderful stretching of the limits of their charter, declared themselves the rightful proprietors of the Province of Maine. This was an astounding discovery to the people of Maine, and one which they were by no means prepared for. So Maine again became a bone of contention.

Before 1659 all the towns in the Province had submitted to the authority of Massachusetts, and for a short time continued in their submission.

During 1660 however, a change took place in the government of England, which wrought a corresponding change here. At that time, Charles the Second ascended the throne of England, thus confounding the hopes of the republicans at home and abroad, and reviving the fainting spirits of the royalists. About this time a son of Sir John Gorges petitioned King Charles to restore to him the lost Province of his ancestors. The King soon required of the Governor of Massachusetts to make immediate restitution of the Province to Gorges, or to show good reason for their occupation of it. They did neither. Gorges did not effect a complete restoration of his rights until 1676, when the Massachusetts Colony yielded up the Province to him by the positive command of the King. The next year she bought back the Province for £1250 sterling. And thus ended the long contest for a jurisdiction, which after all, was esteemed of no more value than a few hundred pounds.

Henry Jocelyn was the son of Sir Thomas Jocelyn Knight,

*This name is now commonly called Josselyn, but we have adopted the spelling invariably found in original papers bearing the signature of this gentleman.

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