Maine Memory Network

English ship Captain Waymouth recommended Ferdinando Gorges and John Popham place their settlement, known as the “Popham Colony” at the mouth of the Penobscot River. Without proper maps or guides, George Popham and Raleigh Gilbert mistook modern Phippsburg, on the mouth of the Kennebec River, as the suggested site, and constructed Fort St. George there in 1607.

The winter of 1607 was cold, and supplies ran short. Relations with the Wabanaki were poor and became worse after George Popham died, leaving the Raleigh Gilbert, then about 24, in charge. In the spring of 1608, news arrived that Gilbert had inherited his family estate through the death of his older brother. By the summer of 1608, the entire crew sailed home with Gilbert, many aboard the Virginia, a 30-ton pinnace the colonists built to help with their explorations and trading. The Virginia, was the first English vessel built in North America.

The full title of this plan of Fort St. Georges reads, "The draught of St. Georges Fort erected by Captayne George Popham Esquire one entry of the famous river Sagadahock in Virginia taken out by John Hunt the viii day of October in the yeare of our Lord 1607."

This map is a 19th century facsimile of the original held at the Spanish archives in Simancas, Spain.

In 1622, Ferdinando Gorges sought and received a grant for a huge parcel of land in New England from King James I of England, which he named the “Province of Maine.” Gorges spent much of his time and money trying to develop this English colony in Maine.

This deed from Ferdinando Gorges and Edmund Gorges transferred ownership of land in the area of Scarborough to Robert Trelawny, and is one of the oldest surviving deeds in Maine.

Deed, 1634 May 1, by which Sir Ferdinand Gorges and Captain John Mason confirm a grant of land on the Piscataqua River made by their agent, Walter Neal to Thomas Cammock.

George Cleeve and many others signed this petition to the Parliament of Great Britain complaining of the governance of Ferdinand Gorges over the Somersetshire Plantation in New England.

In 1629, Englishman Ferdinando Gorges and his partner John Mason divided the Province of Maine, with Gorges taking the land east of the Piscataqua River, calling it New Somersetshire, and Mason creating the Province of New Hampshire to the south.

Richard Vines, an English colonist worked as Gorges's agent to advance settlement in Maine. In this indenture, Vines, along with agents Henry Joselin and Thomas Wannerton, leased about 100 acres to Francis Matthews. This document obligated Matthews and his descendants to pay Gorges and his heirs 2 shillings per year for rent, up to 1000 years.

English King Charles disliked the name “New Somersetshire” and decreed the land be called the “Province or County of Mayne and not by any other name or names whatsoever." Despite the decree, Somerset County continues to carry this early name.