74
The Green Bag.
hail and1 frost, Smith, Mass. for seven Hist. Soc. hours vol. 18, inp.awful 115. suc cession overwhelmed with cyclonic winter rigors the colonial hamlet at Sagadahoc. It survived the climatic rigors, but encoun tered the death of its godly chief on Feb ruary 5, 1608, further to experience catas trophe in the selfishness, irresolution and caprice of the Gilbert succession to the man agement of the life issues of the new begin nings. Popham was no doubt a victim to the climatic convulsion of the January storm. The spring brought timely supplies from England. Captain Davis reported " he found all things at Sagadahoc in good condition : — many furs stored, and the "Virginia," a pretty thirty- ton vessel, built, launched, ready for service." Nevertheless Admiral Gilbert planned a return to London; and having the sympathy of the London faction of the colonists, set sail in the London ship " Mary and John," with the pretty "Virginia" and her master-builder, Digby of London, laden with colonists in sympathy at least with Gilbert, — abandon ing the colonial Sagadahoc river site. " The colonial president was dead, and Admiral Gil bert had sailed away on or about the eighth of October, 1 608, with all but ' forty-five ' of the colonists, "! is the story of Captain John Smith. So it is not certain there was entire consent to the return of all the colonists on the official abandonment. It is certain the Popham flagship, the "Gift of God," and her fly-boat or tender, are not mentioned in the return. But the Lord Chief Justice of England, Sir John Popham, had died, and his son Francis had succeeded to his father's estate; and by him it seems this abandonment was pro tested. It is certain the Popham interest in the colonial adventure did not concur in the Gilbert movement. Sir Francis withdrew his father's ships and interest from the corpora tion, and put them in service on the same coast in the fur trade and fisheries, out of which a " Port " was created and opened at
Pemaquid; and of such influence, importance and extent, that the great historian of our co lonial life in New England, Strachy, recorded "that to the north in the height of (lat.) 440 lyeth the country of Pemaquid : — A kingdom wherein our western colony upon the Sagadahoc was some time settled." History so connects Pemaquid and Saga dahoc in the Popham colonial planting of English life, law, and civilization here and within the ancient jurisdictional limits of Lincoln Bar. The settlements were of the same colon ial parentage; we must now turn to Pem aquid in further search of colonial court procedure. Prior to 1625, the Popham interest at Pemaquid had grown to an expansion as well as a concentration of commercial indus tries, absorbing the entire trade of Indian peltries on the main; and population had increased at and about Popham's " Port," described on John Smith's great map of New England, and sketched at the head of John's Bay, named " St. Johnstown," so that land had become valuable for speculative purchase. In 1614, when Smith made his surveys from Monhegan Island, for the great map of New England, he found the Popham "Port" and describes and sketches it at the head of John's Bay; and gave it the name of "St. John's Town." Here one John Brown, a mason, had settled, and began the purchase of large bodies of land, under In dian titles, "Sa-ma-a-set"1 the "Lord of Pemaquid;" favored Brown's greed for land. Popham's port of" St. Johnstown," had now become " New Harbor," in the annals of the day. Robert Aldworth, mayor of the city of Bristol, England, had established a trade plantation at the mouth ofPemaquid River, and transferred a branch of the mercantile firm of Aldworth & Elbridge, of that city, 1M. Historical Collection, vol. 5, pp. 168, 186, Samosset of Plymouth History.