Founded 1636
County Seat: Alfred
The first patent establishing the Province of Maine was granted on August 10, 1622 to Ferdinando Gorges and John
Mason by the Plymouth Council for New England, which itself had been granted a royal patent by James I to the coast
of North America between the 40th to the 48th parallel "from sea to sea". This first patent encompassed
the coast between the Merrimack and Kennebec rivers, as well as an irregular parcel of land between the headwaters
of the two rivers. In 1629, Gorges and Mason agreed to split the patent at the Piscataqua River, with Mason retaining
the land south of the river as the Province of New Hampshire.
Gorges named his more northerly piece of territory New Somersetshire. This venture failed, however, because of
lack of funds and colonial settlement. Also failed was a venture by Capt. Christopher Levett, an agent for Gorges
and a member of The Council for New England. With the King's blessing, Levett embarked on a scheme to found a colony
on the site of present-day Portland. Levett himself was granted 6,000 acres (24 km²) of land, the first Englishman
to own the soil of Portland. There he proposed to found a settlement named "York" after the city of his
birth in England. Ultimately, the project was abandoned, the men Levett left behind disappeared, and Levett died
aboard ship on his return to England from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630.
The first known and recorded deed for a purchase of land in York County, Maine is in 1668, when Francis Small traded
goods with the Newichewannock tribe of this area. Their Chief Wesumbe, also known as Captain Sandy, was friendly
with Small and warned him of a plot against his life. A group of renegade tribesmen planned on murdering Small
instead of paying him with the furs that were owed to him. Small escaped after watching his house in what is now
Cornish, Maine, burn to the ground. Small returned and rebuilt. The Chief made up the loss by selling Small all
the lands bounded by the Great and Little Ossipee Rivers, the Saco River, and the New Hampshire border. Known now
as the five Ossipee towns, the tract included all of Limington, Limerick, Cornish (formerly named Francisborough),
Newfield, and Parsonsfield.
After a series of further permutations, the former Province had become, by the 18th century, part of the Province
of Massachusetts Bay, later the state of Massachusetts. The region of Maine achieved statehood of its own in 1820.
Cities and Towns
* Acton * Alfred * Arundel * Berwick * Biddeford * Buxton * Cornish * Dayton
* Eliot * Hollis * Kennebunk * Kennebunkport * Kittery * Lebanon *
Limerick * Limington * Lyman * Newfield * North Berwick * Ogunquit
* Old Orchard Beach * Parsonsfield * Saco * Sanford * Shapleigh
* South Berwick * Waterboro * Wells * York
CDP's
* Acton * Alfred * Arundel * Berwick * Biddeford * Buxton * Cornish * Dayton * Eliot * Hollis * Kennebunk * Kennebunkport
* Kittery * Lebanon
* Limerick * Limington * Lyman * Newfield * North Berwick
* Ogunquit * Old Orchard Beach * Parsonsfield
* Saco * Sanford * Shapleigh * South Berwick * Waterboro * Wells * York |
