It is not quite certain when civilized men first pitched their tents at Agamenticus.' Dr. Belknap in his biographical sketches (p. 377) fixes the first settlement as early as 1623. Williamson, in his History of Maine (p. 304), says, “Kittery was settled 1623, and Georgiana or Agamenticus, 1624." Edward Godfrey, once provincial governor of Maine, affirmed that he was "an inhabitant of Agamenticus in 1629 and 30," and the "first that built there." A permanent settlement there was effected before 1630; probably as early as 1624.

Those engaged in it were sent out by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and came prepared to clear away the forests, procure lumber, build mills and ships, and cultivate the ground. As shipcarpenters and mill-wrights, they had the tools of their trades; as agriculturalists, their oxen and implements of husbandry. They built their cabins at the mouth of what was called Agamenticus river, and on its eastern bank, near the ocean; where they found a safe harbor and good anchorage. A fertile valley, partly intervale, from one to two miles wide, extending along the banks of a navigable stream for six or seven miles, and heavily wooded with pine and oak, invited their attention and offered to reward their industry. And Gorges, their patron, was of an ancient family, and had great influence with Charles I. then on the throne of England. Defeated in his attempts to get control of all the New England colonies and make him

1 Agamenticus, the first name of the town a river running through it, and a mountain in the back part of it.

2 Williamson's Maine, p. 231.

self their governor-general, and opposed to the Puritans, he obtained from the king a charter of what was called the "Province of Maine," intending to found a state which would rival Massachusetts. Her charter, covering a territory extending from the Piscataqua to the Kennebec, and some hundred miles inland, "contained," it is said, "more extensive powers and privileges, than were ever granted by the crown to any other individual." Clothed with such authority and enjoying the royal patronage, he made Agamenticus the object of his special favors. Intending to make her the seat of his government in Maine, he gave her, April 10th, 1641, the privileges of an incorporated town.3

Her territory extended three miles each way from the "church chapel or oratory " of the plantation; and her inhabitants had power to elect a mayor and eight aldermen yearly; and they were authorized to hold courts, erect fortifications, and do many other things. After exciting the envy of her less favored sisters, Piscataqua and Saco, for more than ten months, she was crowned with additional honors; for Sir Ferdinando conferred upon her, March 1, 1642, a city charter. And that she might perpetuate his fame and share his glory, he fondly gave her the name of Georgiana; and he enlarged her area, so that she embraced in her limits twenty-one square miles. The Atlantic washed her eastern border for three miles; and the silent and beautiful Agamenticus, her south-western border for about seven miles. Her offi

3 Town Charter in full, Hazard's Coll. p. 470. 4 City Charter, Haz. Coll. p. 480. Streets or lanes of the city still remain.

cers were a mayor,' twelve aldermen, twenty-four councillors, and a recorder. She was to enjoy in general the rights and privileges of the city of Bristol, England.

Bancroft, speaking of her, says: "Agamenticus, though in truth but a poor village, soon became a chartered borough." Referring to her illustrious founder, he says, "Like another Romulus, the veteran soldier resolved to perpetuate his name, and, under the name of Georgiana, the land round York became as good a city, as seals and parchment, a nominal mayor and aldermen, a chancerv court and courtleet, sergeants and white rods, can make of a town of less than three hundred inhabitants, and its petty officers."

"This embryo city," and the early settlements generally of Maine, were under the direction of Episcopalians. And Gorges was instructed, by the court of England, to establish the Episcopal form of worship throughout his province. Thus Georgiana was to be the seat of ecclesiastical power, as well as civil; and the residence of the bishop, and other Episcopal dignitaries. But whether she was ever blessed with a settled minister of that order is quite uncertain. Doubtless she enjoyed Episcopal worship, for she had a "church chapel or oratory," as we hear from her first charter. And we hear of several ministers of the same faith in the province of Maine at that time.

1 The first mayor was Thomas Gorges. The cellar of his residence is still visible near Gorges' point. He went to England in 1643.

2"Our will and pleasure, is, that the religion now professed in the Church of England, and Ecclesiastical government now used in the same, shall be ever hereafter professed, and with as much convenient speed as may be settled and established in and throughout the province." From the Charter of Gorges found in Haz. Coll. p. 442-445, and Sullivan's App. p. 397-408.

One Robert Jordan' of Casco, conducted Episcopal worship in different places for nearly thirty years. Rev. Richard Gibson, a scholarly man, and popular preacher, labored also at Casco, Portsmouth, and Isles of Shoals, for six or seven years - beginning 1637. He probably visited Georgiana frequently; for at Portsmouth, he was only eight miles distant, and at the Isles of Shoals, but nine; and he attempted to make the Islanders revolt from Massachusetts, and come under Gorges' government. Other Episcopal clergymen preached at times in the early settlements of Maine. Consequently that form of worship must have been frequently, if not statedly observed at Georgiana, the principal seat of power.

We hear, also, of the labors of Puritan ministers in this proud little city,

Married

3 Williamson, i. 299 and 395. Savage says, he "came as a preacher before 1641, probably having deacon's or priest's orders. Sarah, daughter of John Winter, the great teacher of all that coast, and slid easily into civil life, but was not cautious enough to conciliate the Massachusetts chief men, who imprisoned him in 1654, but in 1658 he was sworn a freeman. His estate was on the Spurwink, now Scarborough." Removed to Portsmouth in 1675; died there, in 1679, in his 68th year, and left a will providing for widow, and children, John, Robert, Dominicus, Jedediah, Samuel, and Jeremiah.

4 Williamson, i. 291 and 395.

5" One Richard Gibson, a scholar, sent some three or four years since (perhaps in April, 1637) to Richman's Island, to be a minister to a fishing plantation there, belonging to one Mr. Trelawney, of Plymouth, in England. He removed from thence to Pascataquach, and this year, 1642, was entertained by the fishermen at the Isle of Shoals to preach to them. Wholly addicted to the hierarchy and discipline of England." Savage's Winthrop, ii. 66. Savage adds "No just ground of complaint, I suppose, appeared against Gibson." But after trouble with the Massachusetts authorities, he returned to England in 1642. Bred at Magdalen college, Cambridge, had his A. B. 1636." Savage's Dictionary, under "Gibson."

or among the good people of Agamenticus before it was founded. Honorable mention is made of Rev. Mr. Thompson, a "pious and learned” minister who came to this country, 1637, and was afterward installed first pastor of the church in Quincy, then Braintree. He did good service, it is supposed, at Agamenticus. But the wily, corrupt George Burdett made his appearance as a clergyman after Mr. Thompson left. He turned up in Salem, 1634, and, under the pretense that he had been persecuted by a bishop in England, gained admission to the church in Salem. He soon left for Dover, N. H. But the friends of virtue and order, learning what his character was, pursued him. He fled to Agamenticus, where he was secure from their power, and there he did much mischief, and filled up the measure of his iniquity. Indicted, convicted of breaches of the peace, adultery, and slanderous speeches, he was fined, and soon left for England, "denouncing vengeance against his judges. A Mr. Hall, an excommuni

1 The first colonists are represented as very reckless and licentious. See Belknap's Biog. of Gorges.

William Thompson, a native of Lancashire, matriculated at Brazen Nose College, Oxford, 28 Jan. 1620, aged 20; preached in Winwick, Lancashire; came over in 1637; was first at Kittery, or York; ordained at Braintree, in company with Henry Flint, in 1639; died 10th Dec. 1666. See Savage's Dictionary, which refers to authorities. Savage's Winthrop, i. 313, "a very gracious, sincere man." very holy man who had been an instrument of much good at Acomenticus."

324,"a

8 Williamson, i. 284; also Winthrop's Hist. ii. 11. Burdett had had trouble in England, as appears in Bloomfield's History of Norfolk county, England. After much trouble, ecclesiastical, in Yarmouth, the king had given permission to the corporation of that place to nominate their own "lecturer," they paying his stipend; that is, the corporation was to present to the lords of the council two or more names, one of which the council was to select. Mr. Burdett was appointed, at a salary of £100 per year. The

times he was to preach, his duty to "assist the curate," &c., are all given in document by Bloomfield. For the final determination of the difference lately agitated between the town and the dean and chapter of Norwich, Matthew Brooks, minister, and George Burdett, lecturer, "of great Yarmouth aforesaid," appeared before the Bishop of Norwich, March 19, 1633, and agreed to a division of labor, &c. In July following, Mr. Brooks cited Mr. Burdett before the Chancellor of Norwich, for not bowing at self by asserting that he did bow, and was ready to do so; but he was suspended. A month later, the suspension was removed on the intercession of the bailiffs. But in April, 1635, Mr. Burdett, having been again suspended by the high commission court, left soon precipitately, and went to New England, leaving behind him a distressed wife and family, to whose support the corporation generously allowed an annuity of twenty marks.

the name of Jesus. The latter defended him

Coming to Salem, he was admitted freeman September 2, 1635, and being "an able scholar, and of plausible parts and carriage" (Hubbard), was employed to preach to the church there, of which he was received a member. Finding the discipline of the church too strict for his loose conscience, he went to Dover, N. H. probably in 1637, where he continued for some time in good esteem; preached there for awhile, then succeeded in removing from authority, Mr. Thomas Wiggans, who had been placed there by the English proprietors, and became governor. In 1638, Captain John Underhill served Burdett in the same manner.

Burdett wrote to Archbishop Laud, late in 1638, in vigorous terms against the Massachusetts government, that it "was not discipline that was now so much aimed at as sovereignty;' and asking that the disorders he redressed. Early in 1639, the Archbishop replied, thanking him for his care of His Majesty's interests, &c. Both letters, or their contents, came into the hands of the governor at Boston. (See Winthrop's Journal.) "Being detected in some loose actions" (Belknap), he hastily removed to Agamenticus, as above. In the trials there, his cattle were seized for payment of fines. There is a record of a suit regarding these cattle, at Exeter, N. H. He appealed to the king, but his appeal was not allowed, and he left for England, full of enmity. Arriving there, in the commencement of the revolution of 1640, he joined the royalist forces, was

entertained" by the people of Georgiana. Other ministers who could not find protection in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, doubtless visited the place; for all the settlements in Maine, were open to the incursions of "wolves in sheep's clothing," who led the people away from the fold of Christ.

In the light of such facts it is not difficult to see what the moral and religious condition of Georgiana and the Province of Maine, in general, must have been in those times. There were, probably, a few faithful Episcopal clergymen, who did their part to promote good morals, and correct religious views. And here and there a Puritan minister, like Mr. Thompson, scattered seeds of truth which took root, and blossomed into piety and virtue. The most of the communities, though, planted as they were, largely by adventurers in pursuit of a fortune, visited by outlaws from Europe, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, must have been moral and religious deserts, with now and then a clear fountain and fruitful vine.

But the civil authorities did much to restrain vice and crime, and something to encourage religion and morality. The charter under which they acted required them to establish religious worship. And in their zeal, they “ordered all parents in the western country to bring their unbaptized children to that ordinance."

taken prisoner by the parliamentary party, and was put in prison, which is the last we hear of him.

1 This was probably Benjamin Hull, a minister at Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1635; of Beverly soon after, of York as above, and of Oyster river (now Durham), N. H. in 1659-61. He had a son born in York, and his daughter Elizabeth married John Heard, of Dover. Cotton Mather (Magnalia) calls him "a revered minister." So says Savage; but there is confusion somewhere between Benjamin and Joseph. Joseph was of the Isles of Shoals. 2 Williamson, i. 286.

Severe laws stood on their statutebooks, frowning upon various immoralities. And the guilty were made to feel their force in some instances; for one of the persons implicated in Burdet's crime-a Mrs. Gouch (Ruth, wife of John) — was compelled to stand two Sabbaths in the congregation, and one day in general court, arrayed in a white sheet. And a profane man had to pay two shillings for two oaths; a drunkard one shilling for a fit of intoxication; and another individual was whipped by order of court for abusing and running away from his master. Several persons were fined for slander. The fine in one case was £5; in another, £6 68. 67.; and one John Winter was prosecuted under a law that would fit speculators now pretty snug "for taking a premium of more than 5 per cent. on the cost of articles sold. Such laws, made necessary by the corrup tion of the times, were flaming swords

3 John Winter, "a grave and discreet man," was sent over in 1632, by Trelawney and other fishermen of Cornwall, to Richman's Isle; acquired large estate. See Willis; Gen. Reg. v. 264; Savage's Dict.,- for history and family.

A curious petition, presented at one of the

courts, gives us some insight into the severity

of the times. It is as follows: "The humble

petition of R. Cutts and T. Cutting sheweth, That contrary to an order of court, which says no woman shall live on the Isles of Shoals, John Reynolds has brought his wife hither, with an

intention to live here and abide. He also hath brought upon Hog Island a great stock of goats and swine, which by destroying much fish do great damage, ... and also spoil the spring of water on that island. ... Your petitioners pray, therefore, that the act of court may be put in execution for the removal of all women inhabiting there; that said Reynolds may be ordered to remove his goats and swine from the islands without delay." The court ordered Reynolds to remove his goats and swine from the islands within twenty days. But as to the "removal of his wife," the court decided, "If no further complaint come against her she may enjoy the company of her husband." Williamson, i. 304; Records of York Co. Courts; also, Williamson, i. 283-5.