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Trelawny Black Point Deed

Trelawny Black Point Deed, 1631
Trelawny Black Point Deed, 1631
Maine Historical Society

European monarchs granted various portions of the Americas to explorers and settlers, who then parceled out land to their countrymen for settlement and control of natural resources.

This deed grants to Robert Trelawny land in the area of Scarborough. It is signed by Ferdinando Gorges and his brother Edmund.

Trelawny operated a fishery in the Richmond Island area.

Gorges (1565–1647) founded the Province of Maine in 1622, operating from England with assistants in Maine. Gorges was one of the backers of George Weymouth's explorations at the Kennebec River in 1605 and the Popham Colony experiment in 1607.

He had a royal grant for all of New England, but could not carry out his plans to develop it because Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies received their own charters. He received the charter for Maine in 1639, but also failed to develop the area as planned.