p.300 CHAPTER XVII.
SOME UNRELATED MATTERS.
REVEREND RICHARD GIBSON.
Insert: Torry, New England Marriages Prior to 1700.
p.300
Reverend Richard Gibson and wife, Mary Lewis (1619- ) b. 14 Jan.
1638-9, ca 1637, Saco, Maine.
Reverend Richard Gibson remained at Richmond's Island until his con-
tract with Robert Trelawny for three years' service expired. Concern-
him, Winter wrote to Trelawny soon after Mr. Gibson's arrival: "Our
ministeer is a very fair condition man and one that doth keep him-
self in very good order, and instruct our people well, if please God
to give us the grace to follow his instruction."1 Sometime later,
however, Winter's attitude toward Mr. Gibson changed and his ministry
at the island and vicinity henceforth was by no means a happy one.
Ill and even slanderous reports concerning him at length reached
Plymouth, England. Mr. Gibson alludes to them in a letter to
Robert Trelawny dated June 11, 1638. Their source is not stated,
but without difficulty it may be inferred. Having mentioned the
willingness of the people of Richmond's Island and vicinity to in-
crease out of their wages, his allowance from Trelawny, by twenty-
five pounds a year - one-half of the amount he received from Tre-
lawny, Mr. Gibson says Winter opposed it, "because he was not so
sought unto", that is, consulted or solicited, as he expected.2
It is in this connection that Mr. Gilson refers to these defamatory
reports. There were no such reports at the island, he affirms "and
have not been"; and he continues, "It is not in my power what other
men think or speak of me, yet it is in my power by God's grace, so
to live as an honest man and a minister and so as no man shall speak
evil of me but by slandering, nor think amiss by too much credulity,
nor yet aggrieve me much by any abuse." Trelawny even, to whom Mr.
Gibson
Footnotes. 1. Trelawny Papers, 86, 87. 2. Ib., 127.
p.301 THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
SOME UNRELATED MATTERS.
had written concerning these reports, seems to have been influ-
enced by them; and Mr. Gibson appeals to him to seek other testi-
mony than that he had furnished, adding, "You may, if you please,
hear of them that have been here, or come from thence, if they
have known or heard of any such drinking as you talk of, I had
rather be under ground, than discredit1 either your people or
plantation, as you, believing idle people, suppose I do. If you
have any jealousy2 this way (so doubtfully you write), I think it
best you hold off and proceed no further with me, either in land
or service".3
It is altogether probable that Mr. Gibson's marriage to a daughter
of Thomas Lewis of Saco, was not regarded with favor at Richmond's
Island, where Winter had a daughter, who subsequently became the
wife of Reverend Robert Jordan. Gibson makes mention of his marriage
in a letter to Governor Winthrop dated January 14, 1639, in which
he designates it "as a fit means for closing of differences and
setting in order both for religion and government in these planta-
tions". But it did not have that effect. At long length the way
opened for Mr. Gibson to go to Piscataqua, wither, in the summer of
1636, some of the men in the employ of Winter, so dissatisfied with
him that they "fell into a mutiny", had made their way purposing
"to fish for themselves".4 One of these men, mentioned at the time
by Winter as "the leader of them all", was one of the parishioners,
who "founded and built" at Piscataqua, the parsonage house, chapel,
with the appurtenances, at their own proper costs and charges", and
"made choice of Mr. Richard Gibson to be the first parson of the
said parsonage".5
Mention of Mr. Gibson's approaching removal is made in a letter
written at Richmond's Island, July 8, 1639, by Stephen Sargent.
Footnotes. 1. Disgrace. 2. Doubt or question. 3. Trelawny Papers,
129. 4. Ib., 93. 5. In a note (Trelawny Papers, 93) Mr. Baxter
has an interesting account of these men after they left Winter's
service. He says they all probably went to Piscataqua (Portsmouth)
and became citizens of good repute.
p.302 THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
in Trelawny's employ under Winter, and addressed to Trelawny. Mr.
Gibson, he wrote, "is going to Piscataqua to live, the which, we
are all sorry, and should be glad if that we might enjoy his com-
pany longer".1 In any such expression of appreciation, Winter had
no share. All that he said to Trelawny concerning the matter is in
a letter written two days later: "Mr. Gibson is going from us; he
is to go to Piscataway to be their minister, and they give him
sixty pounds per year, and build him a house and clear him some
ground and prepare it for him against he com".2 Mr. Gibson him-
self, writing on the same day as Mr. Sargent, and also to Mr. Tre-
lawny, used these words: "For the continuance of my service at the
island, it is that which I have much desired, and upon your consent
thereunto, I have settled myself into the country, and expended my
estate in dependence thereupon; and now I see Mr. Winter doth not
desire it, nor hath not ever desired it but ....hath entertained me
very coarsely and with much discourtesy, so that I am forced to
remove to Piscataway for maintenance, to my great hindrance.....
I shall not go from these parts till Michaelmas, till which time
I have offered my service to Mr. Winter as formerly, if he please,
which, whether he will accept or no I know not; he maketh diffi-
culty and suspendeth his consent thereunto as yet".3 Folsom4
places the date of Mr. Gibson's removal to Piscataqua "at the
close of 1640, or early in the following year". Inasmuch, how-
Footnotes. 1. Trelawny Papers, 158. 2. Ib., 170. 3. Ib., 160. Mr.
Gibson remained at Piscataqua holding church services there, and
at the Isles of Shoals, until 1642, when "being wholly addicted
to the hierarchy and discipline of England", he was brought before
the Court at Boston on a charge of marrying and baptizing at the
Isles of Shoals, the southern half of the islands being at that
time, under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. He was also
charged with disrespect to the authority of the Bay Colony, and
was committed to jail. Having "made a full acknowledgment of all
he was charged with, and the evil thereof, as he was a stranger
and was to depart the country in a few days, he was discharged
without any fine or other punishment". The Journal of John
Winthrop, 2, 66. 4. History of Saco.
p.303 SOME UNRELATED MATTERS.
ever, as he was paid by Winter "for six weeks' service after his
three years expired",1 and he came to this country with Winter,
reaching Richmond's Island May 24, 1636, as is supposed, it
would seem as if his departure from that place is likely to have
occurred in the latter part of the summer of 1639. Between that
time and Michaelmas, he may have tarried with friends at Saco,
the home of his father-in-law.
Concerning the settlements between the Presumpscot and the
Kennebec immediately after Thomas Purchase established his
fishing interests at Pejepscot, there is little information.
Unquestionably a proprietor so capable and energetic as Purchase
drew to the banks of the Androscoggin other settlers, who were
connected in one way or another with his varied business opera-
tions. Doubtless others, too, there were, who at different points
in this part of the Province of Maine established homes for them-
selves and commenced the task of subdoing the wilderness in the
effort to obtain such a living as the country at that time afford-
ed. But the lack of a firm, settled government in the territory
was easily discoverable. The brief administration of provincial
affairs at Saco by Governor William Gorges, extended but a little
way, and soon came to an end. As settlers in larger numbers, how-
ever, came hither from England, and especially as the Massachusetts
Bay colonies in a little while, developed prosperous communities
under governmental regulations that were effectual in securing law
and order, there was naturally in the Province of Maine an in-
creasingly wider recognition of the value and necessity of such
regulations, and a growing demand for their speedy establishment.
THOMAS PURCHASE OF PEJEPSCOT.
One of those who recognized the need of like regulations, because
of existing conditions in the Province of Maine, was Thomas
Purchase of Pejepscot. For aid in improving these conditions in
so far as his own proprietary interests extended, he now turned
toward the Province of Massachusetts Bay; and in the negotiations
that followed, Massachusetts, through him, acquired her first right
of jurisdiction within the limits of Sir Ferdinando
Footnote. 1. Trelawny Papers, 299.
p.304 THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
Gorges' original Grant. Doubtless from an early period after his
arrival in the country, Purchase was recognized as a man of im-
portance not only within the limits of his own domain, but through-
out the Province. As has already been mentioned, Sir Ferdinando
Gorges, in 1636, made him a member of his Court of Commissioners
under Governor William Gorges. He may also have been one of the
commissioners including Winthrop, Cleeve and others, whose names
are not now known, whom Sir Ferdinando Gorges, after the return
of Governor William Gorges to England early in 1637, appointed
to govern his colony of New Somersetshire, in accordance with a
scheme of Gorges which, Winthrop says "was passed in silence" and
which he designates "as a matter of no good discretion".1 At all
events, in the failure of Gorges to establish within his juris-
diction such an administration of civil government as was necess-
ary for the proper protection of life and property, Purchase deemed
it imperative to make an effort in some direction, and he made his
appeal to the Governor of the colony of Massachusetts bay. John
Winthrop evidently listened sympathetically to a description of
conditions among the settlers along the Androscoggin River, and as
a result of the interview, by an indenture executed August 23,
1639, Purchase conveyed to "John Winthrop and his successors, the
governor and company of the Massachusetts, forever, all that tract
of land at Pejepscot....upon both sides of the river of Androscoggin,
being four miles square, towards the sea, with all liberties and
privileges thereunto belonging". The right to plant there "an
English colony" was included in the rights conveyed, as also, "full
power forever to exercise jurisdiction there as they have in the
Massachusetts"; while Purchase, his heirs and assignees, together
with all other inhabitants within the limits of the Pejepscot Grant,
were to be given that "due protection of the said governor and
company" as was enjoyed by the inhabitants of the Bay Colony.2.
Footnotes. 1. Journal, 1, 276. 2. Farnham Papers, I, 243, 244. The
original deed in connection with this transaction was entered in
the "Records of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts,
p.305 SOME UNRELATED MATTERS.
however, made no effort to assume the obligation set forth in this
agreement. Sir Ferdinando Gorges' commission to Sir Thomas Josselyn
and his councilors "for the government of the Province of Maine,
according to his ordinances", issued September 2, 1639 1 - only
eleven days after this conveyance of land at Pejepscot - indicated
a purpose on the part of Sir Ferdinando to meet within his terri-
torial limits the need Purchase and others so strongly felt; and
the colony of Massachusetts Bay wisely determined to hold matters
in abeyance awhile and await the development of movements already
in progress.
Reverend Richard Gibson's place at Richmond's Island was filled by
the coming thither of Reverend Robert Jordan, a kinsman of Thomas
Purchase, with whom Mr. Jordan had lived at Pejepscot about two
years. Winter made mention of him in a letter to Trelawny dated
August 2, 1641.2 "Here is one Mr. Robert Jordan, a minister,
which hath been with us this three months, which is a very
honest religious man by anything as yet I can find in him. I
have not yet agreed with him for staying here, but did refere
it till I did hear some word from you. We were long without a
minister, and were in but a bad way, and so we shall be still,
if we have not the word of God taught unto us sometimes." In
these last words there is doubtless a reference to the fact
mentioned by Winter that negotiations had already been commenced
with settlers at Pemaquid indicating a desire on the part at
least, of some of them to secure Mr. Jordan's services one-half
of the year, Richmond's Island to have them the other half. "I
know not how we shall accord upon it as yet", adds Winter, but
an agreement was not reached, and Mr. Jordan remained at Rich-
mond's island, identifying himself prominently with matters there
and in the vicinity. A student at Baliol College, Oxford, and a
graduate of the University of Oxford,1
Footnotes continued from previous page: the Massachusetts Bay
in New England", and is found in the printed "Records", I, 272,
273. There is an early manuscript copy in the possession of the
Maine Historical Society, Pejepscot Papers, VII, 489. 1. Farn-
ham papers, I, 245. 2. Ib., 288.
p.306 THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
he became a clergyman of the Church of England and doubtless
had held religious services at Pejepscot during his residence
there. Not long after his removal to Richmond's Island, he
married Sarah Winter, John Winter's daughter, and by his en-
dowments, education and wide interest in provincial matters,
long occupied a place of large influence.2
Reverend Robert Jordan.
The above reference to negotiations having in view the estab-
lishment of religious services at Pemaquid, under the direction
of Reverend Robert Jordan, is the only recorded fact concerning
such services in English settlements east of the Kennebec,
throughout the whole period under review in this volume, except
in connection with the Popham colonists at St. George's harbor
at the time of their arrival on the coast. Such services un-
doubtedly were held in private and probably in public assemblies
increasingly as the settlements enlarged; but there was no or-
dained minister in those parts, and none came hither for a long
time afterward.
GILES ELBRIDGE.
ABRAHAM SHURT.
THOMAS ELBRIDGE.
On the death of Robert Aldworth of Bristol, England, which
occurred in 1634, Giles Elbridge, Aldworth's co-partner in
the Pemaquid patent, became his heir and the executor of his
Will. His, now, were the large business interests at Pemaquid,
where Abraham Shurt had his residence and acted as his agent.
With Giles Elbridge's death, which occurred February 4, 1644,
the Pemaquid patent came into the possession of his oldest son,
John Elbridge, who by his last will and testament, dated Septemb-
er 11, 1646, bequeathed the patent to his brother, Thomas Elbridge,
second son of Giles, who not long after, probably having settled
his
ROBERT JORDAN.
Footnotes. 1. Farnham Papers, I, 269. 2. Mr. Baxter (Trelawny
Papers, 270) says concerning Robert Jordan: "He was a man of
ability and under other conditions might have perhaps ranked
among the leading divines of the New World; but at this time,
the church for which he belonged found an unkindly soil in
New England, and would not take root, toiled the husbandman
never so faithfully. Hence discouraged by opposition, and the
word within him, perhaps becoming choked by the deceitfulness
of riches, he finally gave up the ministry and devoted himself
to his private affairs." 2. Johnston, History of Bristol and
Bremen, 77, 78, 96, 112, 465, has interesting references to
Thomas Elbridge.
p.307 SOME UNRELATED MATTERS.
affairs in England, and perhaps on account of the continued dis-
turbed state of the country, made his way to Pemaquid and took
possession of his inheritance. The time of his arrival is not
known. Johnston considers it probable that he came about 1647;
but as he was appointed executor to the Will of his brother, it
could not have been earlier and probably it was somewhat later.
He was certainly her ein 1650, for November 5, in that year, he
mortgaged the islands of Monhegan and Damariscove to Richard
Russell of Charlestown, Mass., by a deed in which he described
himself as "Thomas Elbridge of Pemaquid in New England, merchant"
.1.
INSERT.
RICHARD RUSSELL.
Torry, New England Marriages Prior to 1700.
p.644
Richard Russell, (1611-1676) & 1st wife, Maud Pitt?
(-1652) married in England, before 1638; of Charlestown,
Massachusetts.
He is represented as a man of small stature and insignificant
appearance", 2, and it is evident that he possessed little, if
any, ability for the management of his Pemaquid estate. Appar-
ently he made no attempt whatever to improve conditions, moral
or religious, among the settlers at Pemaquid, or in any part of
his large land possessions. Although he "called a Court, unto
which divers of the then inhabitants"3 repaired, it was not an
institution of civil government, but merely a proprietory office
for the collection of rents and the conveyance of rights and
privileges. His business transactions evidently were not large.
While his opportunities for exerting helpful, beneficent in-
fluences in all parts of his domain were wide, he seems to have
been lacking in those qualities that would have enabled him to
grasp and use them; and easily and speedily he allowed his ex-
tensive inherited lands to pass into other hands,4 and himself
at length, to drop out of sight. In 1659, he was either plaint-
iff or defendant in several cases at a
Footnotes. 1. Water's Genealogical Gleanings in England, I, 635,
says the deed was to Shurt. 2. Johnston, History of Bristol and
Breman, 78. 3. Ib., 465. 4. February 5, 1652, Thomas Elbridge
sold one-half of the patent to Paul White, who in May, 1653, con-
veyed it to Richard Russell and Nicholas Davison of Charlestown,
Mass. Still another change in the ownership of the patent occurr-
ed in July, 1657, when Russell sold his quarter to Davison; while
Elbridge, about two monts later, sold the half he had retained,
to Davison, who now became the sole possessor ot the Pemaquid
patent. Johnston, History of Bristol and Bremand.
p.308 THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
court held at York,1 and in 1672, his name appears with other
residents at Pemaquid on a petition to the General Court in
Boston, to be taken under its government and protection.2 With
this record he passes from our view. The names of other children
Giles Elbridge are found on the elaborate Elbridge monument in
St. Peter's Church in Bristol, England - but the name of Thomas
Elbridge is not there, and the time and place of his death are
unknown.
INSERT - THOMAS ELBRIDGE.
TORRY, NEW ENGLAND MARRIAGES PRIOR TO 1700.
p.245 Thomas Elbridge died 1684; & wife, Rebecca ___?
Pemaquid, Maine.
Fishing and traffic with the Indians continued to be the chief
business of the colonists on the Maine coast. But as the political
troubles in England affected more and more all the industrial and
commercial affairs, the supplies which the settlers had been accus-
tomed to receive from that source began to fail. Winter, writing
July 19, 1642, not only records a scarcity of money at Richmond's
Island, but adds, "cloth of all sorts very scarce; both linen and
and woolens are dear"3. It is significant with reference to this
scarcity of money in the province that at this time, Deputy Govern-
or Thomas Gorges and Richard Vines made their way to the White
Mountains,4 passing through Pegwackit, in search of "precious
metalic substances", a lure that had expoited the coast regions
from the first arrival of explorers and colonists, but which now
led Gorges and Vines into the distant recesses of the Whit Mount-
ain range, glimpses of whose fair outlines are afforded here and
there from places along the coast, in the vicinity of Saco.
Thither they made their way safely, but their pospecting for gold
and silver was without success. Their toil, however, could not
have failed of rich reward in the experiences of the journey conn-
ected with what they saw of the beauty of the valley of the Saco as
they traveled toward the river's source and of the glory of the
White Mountain scenery that still, with each recurring season,
irresistably attracts visitors from near and far.
Footnotes. 1. Baxter, George Cleeve of Casco Bay, 176-179.
2. Johnston, History of Bristol and Bremen, 112. 3. Trelawny
papers, 321. 4. Winthrop, Journal, 266.
p.309 SOME UNRELATED MATTERS.
THE SETTLEMENT AT WELLS.
The settlement at Wells, which occurred during the deputy
governorship of Thomas Gorges, is traceable to the action
of the Massachusetts authorities with reference to theolo-
gical differences.
Anne Hutchinson.
Reverend John Wheelwright, a brother-in-law of the cele-
brated Anne Hutchinson, had made his way from England to
New England in the great emigration that followed the esta-
blishment of the Bay colony. Williamson refers to him1 as a
"pious and learned" preacher; but apparently he was in sym-
pathy with Mrs. Hutchinson's peculiar theologicial views,
at least to some extent. Among other opinions he is said
to have, held that "the Holy Spirit dwells personally in
a justified convert, and that sanctification can in no
wise evince to believers their justifications".
Anne Hutchinson by John Winthrop.
Source: The Journal of John Winthrop, 1630-1649.
p.105
Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) was the daughter of the Rev.
Francis Marbury, a silenced Lincolnshire (England) minister
and the wife of a merchant, William Hutchinson of Alford, Lincs.,
England. She came to Boston with her husband and eleven children
in 1634 and settled in a house across the street from John Win-
throp. "One Mrs. Hutchinson, a member of the church of Boston,
a woman of ready wit and bold spirit, brought over with her,
two dangerous errors: 1. That the person of the Holy Ghost dwells
in a justified person. 2. That no sanctification can help to evid-
ence to us our justification -from these two grew many branches;
as, 1. Our union with the Holy Ghost, so as a Christian remains
dead to every spiritual action, and hat no gifts nor graces, other
than such as are in hypocrites, nor any other sanctification but
the Holy Ghost, himself. There joined with her in these opinions
a brother of hers, one Mr. Wheelwright, a silenced minister, some-
times in England. Footnote. 66. With this paragraph, John Win-
throp introduces the most dramatic chapter in his narrative, the
Antimonian controversy that wracked Massachusetts from October,
1636 to March, 1638. Like Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson was a
religious radical who found John Winthrop's brand of Puritan
orthodoxy to be spiritually dead, but she posed a more serious
challenge to John Winthrop because her stronghold was in his
Boston church, her supporters included Cotton and Vane and she
held religious meetings in her house that rivaled, in influence
the clerical conferences of ministers and elders. By October,
1636, Hutchinson's weekly religious exercises had generated a
public crisis and John Winthrop realized that if he could not
defeat her, he might well be forced out of the colony himself.
REVEREND WHEELWRIGHT SENTENCED TO BANISHMENT 1637.
It was a period of theological speculation as well as of Bible study
and uniformity in religious matters was regarded by the General Court
of Massachusetts as desirable as it was by Archbishop Laud in England
and the ecclesiastical Court in England. Mr. Mr. Wheelwright, in mak-
ing his way across the sea, because of oppressive, intolerable condi-
tions in religious matters, expected to find at least toleration if
not liberty. He soon learned, however, that he was mistaken; and hav-
ing been called to account by the General Court, for his theological
opinions, and being "extremely pertinacious" of them, he was sentenc-
ed by the Court November, 2, 1637, to banishment from the colony.2
Reverend Wheelwright accordingly, removed to Exeter, in the Province
of New Hampshire, where he established a church to which he minister-
ed until, by the political union of New Hampshire with the Province
of Massachsuetts Bay, he found that again, he was within the reach of
the Bay authorities. Then, in search of another refuge, he turned his
footsteps toward the Province of Maine, and April 17, 1642, Deputy
Governor Thomas Gorges, out of the grant he had received from his
uncle, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, conveyed to Wheelwright "a tract of
land lying at Wells in the county of Somerset", in all, about four
or five hundred acres of land on or
Footnotes. 1. History of Maine, I, 293. 2. Records of the Colony
of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, I, 207.
p.310 THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
JOHN WHEELWRIGHT, HENRY BOND & OTHERS.
near the Ogunquit river, and along the seashore. Another tract of
land, also conveyed by Gorges and in the same year, was secured by
John Wheelwright, Henry Bond and others, greatly enlarging the terri-
tory of which Mr. Wheelwright had obtained possession, and constitut-
ing the township of Wells, Maine.1
REVEREND WHEELWRIGHT AND HIS FRIENDSHIP WITH OLIVER CROMWELL.
Here Mr. Wheelwright established a church. But his theological
opinions still removed him from the fellowship of other ministers
and Christian people, who had been his early friends, and whom he
still held in high esteem; and in December, 1643, he addressed a
communication to the Governor and the Assistants of the colony of
Massachusetts Bay, in which he made confession that in the matter
of justification, his differences had been magnified by the "glass
of Satan's temptations", and distorted by his own imagination. In
this way, his differences had secured an importance in his thinking
that was unwarranted. "I am unfeignedly sorry", he wrote, "I took so
great a part in those sharp and vehement contentions, by which the
churches have been disturbed; and it repents me that I gave en-
couragement to men of corrupt sentiments, or to their errors, and I
humbly crave pardon"2 The communication, because of its frankness
and the excellent spirit that characterized it throughout, made a
very favorble impression upon those to whom it was addressed; and
Mr. Wheelwright not only was given a safe conduct to Boston, but in
the summer of 1644, that action was followed by the revocation of
the sentence of banishment.3 At a later period he made his way
back to England, where he remained a few years during the Puritan
rule, possessing, it is said, the friendship of Oliver Cromwell,
and then returned to New England.4
Footnotes. 1. Sullivan, History of the District of Maine, 408.
2. John Winthrop, his Journal, J.K. Hosmer's Ed., II, 165-167.
3. Records of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay in New England,
II, 67; III, 6. 4. William son, History of Maine, I, 294. On his
return, Mr. Wheelwright settled at Salisbury, Mass., where, accord-
to Williamson (I, 293) he died in 1679 aged 80 years. (History of
the District of Maine, 234) says that he died in 1680.
p.311 SOME UNRELATED MATTERS.
Matters connected with the settlement of Wells, Maine were among the
last that received the attention of Thomas Gorges in his wise admini-
stration of the affairs of his uncle's province. That administration
was now drawing to a close. Unlike his uncle, the Deputy Governor was
in sympathy with Parliament, rather than with King Charles, in the
breach between the King and the House of Commons; and as things in
England, while he was here, had gone from bad to worse, and the Civil
War of England had opened, in which was to be decided the great issue
as to which of the contending parties should rule England, Thomas
Gorges regarded his place of duty there in England and not here; and
he began to make preparations to leave the province and return home
to England.
REVEREND GEORGE BURDETT.
From the first, his management of affairs as Deputy Governor strongly
commended him to all those who longed for the establishment of law and
order in the Province of Maine. At Agamenticus, which he made his place
of residence at the time of his arrival, he at once had his attention
called to a scandal that, in his treatment of it, illustrated in a most
striking manner Gorges' administrative ideals as well as the low condi-
of the morals of the community. The affair required boldness, as well
as firmness, in its proper handling. The man involved, Reverend
George Burdett, was a prominent resident at Agamenticus, yet was known
to be grossly immoral in life and had assumed an attitude of brazen
defiance to just requirements, human and divine. Williamson says,
"Pride and abilities had given him self-confidence and obstinacy, and
he regarded no law otherwise than to wrest it and make it sanction or
excuse his iniquities".1 On being made acquainted with the facts of
the case, Thomas Gorges at once ordered Burdett's arrest and he was
promptly brought before the Court instituted by Gorges, at Saco. The
accused was found guilty not only of immoralities but of "slanderous
speeches", and
Footnote. 1. History of Maine, I, 284. Baxter (Trelawny Papers, 249)
says Burdett, "Instead of leading his flock into paths of righteous-
ness, he proved to be a wolf among them, and the records of his mis-
deeds stain the pages of history."
p.312 THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
received sentence accordingly. Evidently Burdett had expected to
manage matters at the Court as he had at Agamenticus; but as he
was adjudged guilty, he appearled from the decision in an out-
burst of indignation, claiming the right of a rehearing in England.
The Charter of the Province, however, contained no provision for
such a re-hearing; and the deputy governor, denyinng the appeal,
ordered execution to be levied on the property of Burdett for the
payment of the fines imposed when sentence was pronounced. Railing
against the Deputy Governor and the Court, Burdett returned to Aga-
menticus and soon after made his way to England, threatening a re-
opening of the Court proceedings, there. Failing in this, he joined
one of the two great parties in the conflict then raging in the King-
dom, and while thus engaged, falling into the hands of teh party to
which he was opposed, he was thrown into prison, and while there he
passed into such obscurity that his subsequent career is unknown.
With the same firm adherence to high moral standards, Thomas Gorges
conducted the affairs of the Province of Maine throughout his adminis-
tration. From first to last, he had the respect of all law-abiding
citizens, and his manifest aim in the management of public interests
was to proceed along the same lines that were so strictly followed
in the administration of the government of the affairs of the Bay
Colony by Governor John Winthrop, whom Gorges visited upon his arriv-
al in New England, and from whom he wisely sought counsel and advice.
The three years he spent here, from 1640 to 1643, were passed in a
way not only exceedingly creditable to himself, but helpful to the
settlers in their desires to secure better conditions; and his name
deserves to be accorded high honor for the services he rendered at
an important period in the beginnings of Colonial Maine. It is not
too much to say of Thomas Gorges that his was by far the one con-
spicuously attractive personality in the Province in all its early
history.2
Footnotes. 1. Hubbard, New England, 316. Journal of John Winthrop,
207. 2. Baxter, Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Province of Maine,
II, 186-190.
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