Lygonia was a
proprietary province in pre-colonial
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
, created through a grant from the
Plymouth Council for New England
The Council for New England was a 17th-century English joint stock company that was granted a royal charter to found colonial settlements along the coast of North America. The Council was established in November of 1620, and was disbanded (althou ...
in 1630 to lands then under control of
Sir Ferdinando Gorges
Sir Ferdinando Gorges ( – 24 May 1647) was a naval and military commander and governor of the important port of Plymouth in England. He was involved in Essex's Rebellion against the Queen, but escaped punishment by testifying against the mai ...
. The province was named for his mother, Cicely (Lygon) Gorges. It was one of the early
provinces of Maine and was absorbed by the
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...
by 1658.
Geography
Geographical interpretation of the grant's bounds is that it encompassed some between
Cape Porpoise
Cape Porpoise, Maine is a small coastal village in the town of Kennebunkport, Maine, United States, and was the original English settlement of the town. It is northeast of Dock Square and southwest of Goose Rocks Beach. The village occupies the ma ...
and today's
Kennebec River
The Kennebec River (Abenaki language, Abenaki: ''Kinəpékʷihtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 30, 2011 river within the U.S. state of Maine. It ri ...
, so large that its size may have been unintended, since it took in a large part of Gorges' own grant for his
Province of Maine. But it was never repudiated, and survived later challenges in English courts.
Original grant
In 1630, the
Plymouth Council for New England
The Council for New England was a 17th-century English joint stock company that was granted a royal charter to found colonial settlements along the coast of North America. The Council was established in November of 1620, and was disbanded (althou ...
granted lands from
Sir Ferdinando Gorges
Sir Ferdinando Gorges ( – 24 May 1647) was a naval and military commander and governor of the important port of Plymouth in England. He was involved in Essex's Rebellion against the Queen, but escaped punishment by testifying against the mai ...
to the Province of Lygonia, named after his mother, Cicely (Lygon) Gorges.
The original patent establishing Lygonia has been lost, but from a 1686 abstract of title, it assigned
''...unto Bryan Bincks, John Dye, John Smith & others their Associates their heirs & Assigns for Ever, Two Islands in the River
Sagedahock, near the South Side thereof about from the Sea & also all the Tract containing in Length & in breadth upon the South side of the River Sagadahock, with all Bayes, Rivers, Ports, Inletts, Creeks, etc. together with all Royalties & Privileges within the Precincts thereof calling the same by the Name of the Province of Ligonia with power to make Laws etc.''
[''Farnum Papers'', p. 128.]
History
Assignees of the patent were members of
the Plough Company
Lygonia was a proprietary province in pre-colonial Maine, created through a grant from the Plymouth Council for New England in 1630 to lands then under control of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. The province was named for his mother, Cicely (Lygon) Gorges. ...
of London, set up by the Council for New England to encourage settlement within the northeasterly portion of Gorges' domain. The intention was to support Gorges' scheme for permanent settlements with a mixed economy of farming and production of forest products for trade to augment the fishing enterprises already established along the Maine seaboard. The would-be settlers of the Plough Company were classified by
John Winthrop as members of a small religious sect known as
Familists, most of them farmers, and associated as the ''Company of Husbandmen''. They chose as their minister
Stephen Bachiler, who although himself of more
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
leanings supported the undertaking. He and
Richard Dummer Richard Dummer (158914 December 1679) was an early settler in New England who has been described as "one of the fathers of Massachusetts".
He made his fortune as a trader, operating out of the port of Southampton, England. He was a Puritan, which ...
, another Puritan, financed much of the expedition. They left England in 1631 on the ship ''Plough'', but for unknown reasons failed to take possession of their Maine patent, and instead continued on to the
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...
, settling in communities there. Winthrop suggested that the group had investigated the Lygonia territory and, "not liking the place", had moved on.
The Plough Patent lay fallow until 1642, when it became known to
George Cleeve
George Cleeve (–after November 1666) was an early settler and founder of today's Portland, Maine. He was Deputy President of the Province of Lygonia from 1643 until the final submission of its Maine towns to Massachusetts authority in 1658.
L ...
, an early settler in the
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
area of Maine who had been an agent for Gorges within his Maine province. A falling-out between Gorges and Cleeve precipitated the latter's return to England, where he located Dummer, holder of the original patent, and engineered its sale to
Parliamentarian Colonel
Alexander Rigby
Alexander Rigby (1594 – 18 August 1650) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1640 and 1650. He was a colonel in the Parliamentary army in the English Civil War.
Life
Rigby was the son of Alexander Rigby ...
in 1643.
Cleeve returned to New England with both a large land grant of his own from Rigby and a commission as Deputy President of the Province of Lygonia – the unusual title from Parliament’s approval of a constitution for the new jurisdiction.
Cleeve convened a General Assembly and courts for its towns – today's Portland,
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
Places Australia
* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
* Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong
* Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...
and
Saco. Because its area included a large part of Gorges' Province of Maine, Lygonia's jurisdiction was vehemently protested by settlers whose deeds and titles now came under new governance and possible dispute. Cleeve's first court at
Casco Casco may refer to: Places in the United States
*Casco, Maine, a town
** Casco (CDP), Maine, a census-designated place within the town
*Casco Bay, a bay on the coast of Maine
* Casco, Missouri, a ghost town
* Casco, Wisconsin, a village
*Casco (town ...
in 1644 was resisted with threats and arrests, and armed confrontation was narrowly avoided. Both provinces pleaded for support and assistance from Massachusetts, which however refused to align itself with either, deferring judgment to English courts. In 1647, the Puritan Parliament affirmed Rigby's contested title to Lygonia lands over Gorges' own, and the two Maine provinces coexisted with some cooperation in settling issues of overlapping jurisdiction. In 1648, a Lygonia court ratified and confirmed an administrative judgement from a Province of Maine court.
When Alexander Rigby died in 1650, Lygonia's governance continued under Cleeve without direction from England, despite the exhortations and plans, never acted on, of Rigby's son and heir Edward. In 1651 the neighboring and now-reconciled Maine provinces aligned together in a petition to Parliament, taken to England by Cleeve, asking for independence from the proprietors and membership within the English Commonwealth. This was thwarted by Massachusetts, which by now had interpreted its own boundaries as cutting across Maine at Portland, with intent to absorb both proprietorships. By 1653, the Province of Maine towns had submitted to Massachusetts jurisdiction, and although holding out until 1658, Lygonia's towns then followed suit. Following the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
in 1660, Ferdinando Gorges, Esq. (grandson of Sir Ferdinando) won a judgment in 1664 confirming the validity of titles he inherited to the original bounds of the Province of Maine. Cleeve and others petitioned
King Charles II to declare themselves satisfied with governance under Massachusetts. In 1665, the
Royal Commission for Regulating Plantations finally declared Edward Rigby's authority null and void, but because of the Massachusetts action Lygonia had already ceased to exist.
See also
*
List of colonial governors of Maine
The territory that became the United States state of Maine has a tangled colonial history. After the failed Popham Colony of 1607–08, portions of Maine's territory were styled the Province of Maine and Lygonia, and subjected to colonial governm ...
References
{{reflist
Bibliography
*Charles E. Banks, ''Colonel Alexander Rigby: Proprietor of the Plough Patent and President of the Province of Lygonia'' (1885). (Privately printed; Collections Maine Historical Society)
*James Phinney Baxter, ''George Cleeve of Casco Bay 1630-1667'' (The Gorges Society, 1885).
*Mary Francis Farnham, compiler, ''The Farnham Papers''
xtracts from Grants and Patents1603-1688 (Vol. VII, Documentary History of the State of Maine (Maine Historical Society, 1901).
*Maine Historical Society, ''Provincial and Court Records of Maine'' (1991).
*Gerald E. Morris, Editor, ''The Maine Bicentennial Atlas An Historical Survey'' (Maine Historical Society, 1976)
*Sybil Noyes,
Charles Thornton Libby
Charles Thornton Libby (September 28, 1861 – May 23, 1948) was an American author, genealogist, historian and lawyer. He wrote five known books: ''The Libby Family in America, 1602–1881'' (1882), ''Cash, Panics and Industrial Depressions'' (1 ...
and Walter Goodwin Davis, ''Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire'' (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1996).
History of the Thirteen Colonies
Pre-statehood history of Maine