[Footnote 17:  Winthrop, New England, I., 368.]

[Footnote 18:  Trumbull, Connecticut, I., 507-510.]

[Footnote 19:  Palfrey, New England, II., 377.]

[Footnote 20:  Winthrop, New England, I., 283, 312, 484.]

[Footnote 21:  New Haven Col.  Records, I., 12.]

[Footnote 22:  Trumbull, Connecticut, I., 98.]

[Footnote 23:  New Haven Col.  Records, I., 11-17.]

[Footnote 24:  Trumbull, Connecticut, I., 107; Doyle, English Colonies, II., 196.]

[Footnote 25:  New Haven Col.  Records, I., 69.]

[Footnote 26:  Ibid., 112.]

[Illustration:  MAINE IN 1652]

CHAPTER XVI

NEW HAMPSHIRE AND MAINE

(1653-1658)

After the charter granted to the Council for New England in 1620, Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason procured, August 10, 1622, a patent for “all that part of y^e maine land in New England lying vpon y^e Sea Coast betwixt y^e rivers of Merrimack & Sagadahock and to y^e furthest heads of y^e said Rivers and soe forwards up into the land westward untill threescore miles be finished from y^e first entrance of the aforesaid rivers and half way over that is to say to the midst of the said two rivers w^ch bounds and limitts the lands aforesaid togeather w^th all Islands and Isletts w^th in five leagues distance of y^e premisses and abutting vpon y^e same or any part or parcell thereoff."[1]

Mason was a London merchant who had seen service as governor of Newfoundland, and was, like Gorges, “a man of action.”  His experience made him interested in America, and his interest in America caused him to be elected a member of the Council for New England, and ultimately its vice-president.[2] The two leaders persuaded various merchants in.  England to join them in their colonial projects; and in the spring of 1623 they set up two settlements within the limits of the present state of New Hampshire, and some small stations at Saco Bay, Casco Bay, and Monhegan Island, in the present state of Maine.

Of the settlements in New Hampshire, one called Piscataqua, at the mouth of the river of that name, was formed by three Plymouth merchants, Colmer, Sherwell, and Pomeroy, who chose a Scotchman named David Thompson as their manager.  They obtained a grant, October 16, 1622, for an island, and six thousand acres on the main, near the mouth of Piscataqua; and here Thompson located in the spring of 1623.  He remained about three years, and in 1626 removed thence to an island in Boston harbor, where he lived as an independent settler.[3] The other plantation, called Cocheco, was established by two brothers, Edward and William Hilton, fish-mongers of London, and some Bristol merchants, and was situated on the south side of the Piscataqua about eight miles from the mouth of the river.[4]