WEBVTT NOTE 26. The Seizure of New England 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.120 Volume 1, Chapter 26, The Seizure of Northern New England 2 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:14.320 By the 1650s then, five colonies were established in New England as virtually self-governing 3 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:21.980 entities, Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth in central New England, and Rhode Island, Connecticut 4 00:00:21.980 --> 00:00:24.640 and New Haven in the South. 5 00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:34.720 The estimated total population of these colonies in 1650 was Plymouth 1500, Rhode Island 800, 6 00:00:34.720 --> 00:00:43.360 Connecticut and New Haven combined 4100, Massachusetts Bay with twice as much as the others combined 7 00:00:43.360 --> 00:00:46.760 14,000. 8 00:00:46.760 --> 00:00:52.800 Of the distribution of population in the Rhode Island settlements, the breakdown in 1655 9 00:00:52.800 --> 00:01:03.920 was approximately Newport 38%, Portsmouth 29%, Providence 17%, Warwick 16%. In short, 10 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:11.000 two-thirds of the Rhode Islanders lived in Equidneck and one-third on the mainland. 11 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:17.920 What, however, of northern New England, the region north of Massachusetts Bay? The first 12 00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:33.920 The settlements there had been made by unauthorized private groups of fishermen. In 1621, a group settled at the mouth of the Piscataqua River, near the site of what is now Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the main border. 13 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:40.920 Two years later, another fishing group settled at Dover, up the bay from Portsmouth. 14 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:48.080 More formal colonizing came later, when in August 1622, the Council for New England jointly 15 00:01:48.080 --> 00:01:53.480 granted to John Mason, a friend of the Duke of Buckingham, a favorite of King Charles 16 00:01:53.480 --> 00:02:02.480 I, and Sir Ferdinando Gorgias all the land between the Merrimack and the Kennebec Rivers. 17 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:07.240 The former is now approximately at the New Hampshire-Massachusetts border, the latter 18 00:02:07.240 --> 00:02:09.440 is in western Maine. 19 00:02:09.440 --> 00:02:17.320 Small special sub-grants of land were now made in 1622 to David Thompson, who the following 20 00:02:17.320 --> 00:02:24.080 year founded the settlement of Rye, south of Portsmouth on the coast. In 1623, Christopher 21 00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:30.160 Levitt received a small grant and founded a settlement at the mouth of the Casco River, 22 00:02:30.160 --> 00:02:36.920 west of the Kennebec in Maine. And the following year, John Oldham and Richard Vines settled 23 00:02:36.920 --> 00:02:50.520 In 1629, Mason and Gorgias agreed to divide their granted territory, Gorgias obtaining 24 00:02:50.520 --> 00:02:57.000 all the land north of the Piscataqua, which he called Maine, and Mason all the land to 25 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:04.200 the south, now called New Hampshire. In the early 1630s, Walter Neal founded two settlements 26 00:03:04.200 --> 00:03:11.080 on the Piscataqua expanding Portsmouth further to the south and adding the Rye Settlement 27 00:03:11.080 --> 00:03:17.360 and South Berwick on the north side. Gorgias concentrated his colonizing in the area of 28 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:24.360 York a bit north of the border. By the mid 1630s then northern New England was split 29 00:03:24.820 --> 00:03:31.660 in two with small settlements along the coast, Casco, Bidford, South Berwick and especially 30 00:03:31.660 --> 00:03:38.660 New York, Maine, Portsmouth, Dover, New Hampshire. John Mason had every intention of becoming 31 00:03:39.060 --> 00:03:45.120 Lord Proprietor of New Hampshire. Asserting that all the land was his own, he gave orders 32 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:52.120 to arrest or shoot any persons daring to hunt animals on his territory. Mason also intended 33 00:03:52.540 --> 00:03:59.180 to establish the Anglican Church in New Hampshire and to outlaw dissenters. Stern resistance 34 00:03:59.180 --> 00:04:05.980 by the populace thwarted his designs and when Mason died at the end of 1635, the colonists 35 00:04:05.980 --> 00:04:12.980 rebelled and announced the vacating of Mason's claims. They declared Mason's lands appropriated 36 00:04:13.420 --> 00:04:19.560 and from then on they refused to recognize the sovereignty of his heirs. New Hampshire 37 00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:26.560 territory was now, like Rhode Island, a vacuum for free and unhampered settlement. Two years 38 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:49.560 Two years later, Rev. John Wheelwright, the first Hutchinsonian to be expelled from Massachusetts, walked northward through the snows to found the town of Exeter, New Hampshire. Wheelwright and his followers drew up the Exeter Compact in founding the town. It was modeled after the original Mayflower Compact. 39 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:57.560 More orthodox Puritans sent from Massachusetts Bay shortly afterward founded Hampton in New Hampshire. 40 00:04:57.560 --> 00:05:02.560 Maine, however, was not that lucky with its proprietary feudal overlord. 41 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:11.560 In 1639, Gorgias obtained a royal charter that confirmed his position as proprietor and governor of Maine. 42 00:05:11.560 --> 00:05:16.560 Gorgias sent his cousin Thomas Gorgias to Maine to rule the colony, 43 00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:31.560 and he established a provincial court at York. But if New Hampshire territory was a vacuum, it was again a vacuum that invited seizure by the ambitious expansionist Massachusetts power. 44 00:05:31.560 --> 00:05:45.560 Massachusetts not only was impelled by the territorial drive endemic to all states, but also was attracted by the rich prospect of timber, fur and fishing resources in the north. 45 00:05:45.560 --> 00:05:51.560 Unlike Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine had no influential Puritan friends in England. 46 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:57.560 Indeed, Mason and Gorgeous had been royal favorites and the settlers were largely Anglican. 47 00:05:57.560 --> 00:06:07.560 Hence, when the Puritans came to power in England, northern New England was looked upon as a ripe plum for Massachusetts' designs. 48 00:06:07.560 --> 00:06:10.560 The New Hampshire towns were the first to go. 49 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:22.560 Hampton, founded as an outpost of Massachusetts Bay, had always been under its jurisdiction and had been sending a representative to the Massachusetts General Court. 50 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:38.560 The other towns, beginning with Dover, were appropriated by Massachusetts during 1641-43, a circumstance forcing Reverend Mr. Wheelwright to flee once more, this time to Maine. 51 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:51.560 Also appropriated were scattered New Hampshire towns far to the west of the Piscataqua towns, Merrimack and Salisbury on the Merrimack River and Haverhill far to the northwest. 52 00:06:51.560 --> 00:07:04.560 Fortunately, Massachusetts' rule over the New Hampshire towns was relatively enlightened, due partly to the religious diversity of the towns and the numerous Anglicans living there. 53 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:08.760 A large measure of home rule was allowed. The towns governed 54 00:07:08.760 --> 00:07:13.520 their local affairs in town meetings and elected deputies to the general court 55 00:07:13.520 --> 00:07:17.520 at Boston. Significantly, the New Hampshire men 56 00:07:17.520 --> 00:07:21.660 were exempt from the church membership qualification for voting, 57 00:07:21.660 --> 00:07:25.520 a qualification strictly enforced in Massachusetts proper. 58 00:07:25.520 --> 00:07:28.920 Massachusetts grab of Maine 59 00:07:28.920 --> 00:07:33.200 came a decade later and encountered stiffer resistance. 60 00:07:33.200 --> 00:07:41.200 Gorgias's death in 1647 coupled with the rise of Puritanism in England left a vacuum in Maine. 61 00:07:41.200 --> 00:07:52.200 The three towns at the southern tip of Maine, York, Wells and Kittery, attempted to form a free and independent union like that in Rhode Island, 62 00:07:52.200 --> 00:07:56.200 but Massachusetts did not permit it to come to fruition. 63 00:07:56.200 --> 00:08:04.000 Ignoring an appeal by Maine to Parliament, Massachusetts seized the towns in 1652 and 64 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:09.320 then proceeded to annex the Sacco and Casco settlements as well. 65 00:08:09.320 --> 00:08:16.160 Fortunately the Maine towns received the same home rule privileges as the towns of New Hampshire. 66 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:24.440 Thus both New Hampshire and Maine had by the 1650s been swallowed up by Massachusetts Bay.