Maine History (1527) from The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America’s First Thirteen States (Amerisearch, Inc., 2009):
<John Rut was the first Englishman to set foot upon American soil in Maine, the territory being called Norumbega.
Accounts of exploration of the coast of Maine begin with St. Brendan’s enchanted voyages between 512-530. In 990, Biarne sailed from Iceland for Greenland, but driven by storms discovered an unknown land covered with forests.
Leif and Thorward Ericson, sons of Eric the Red, made voyages to the coast of “Vineland,” followed by other Norsemen in 1000 AD to Vinland.
In 1497, John Cabot and his son Sebastian in 1498, thought they were would find the passage to China- “far-off Cathay.”
In 1524, Italian explorer Verrazano, sailing for the French Government, visited “on the gulf of Maine.”
In 1525, Estevan Gomez, sailing for the Spanish Government, explored the coast of Maine and for years Spanish maps called the area the “Country of Gomez.”
In 1541, Diego Maldonado visited the coast of Maine, searching for Ferdinand De Soto.
In 1556, André Thevet, on board a French vessel, landed with others on the banks of the Penobscot.
In 1565, Sir John Hawkins explored the coast, and Sir Humphrey Gilbert perished on the way to establish an English colony at Norumbega on the Penobscot.
In 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold landed near where Portland would later be founded, and in 1603, Martin Pring entered Penobscot Bay.
The French were the first to attempt a colony, with Sieur de Monts being granted a charter to colonize “Acadia” by King Henry IV of France in 1603. In 1604, he sailed with Samuel de Champlain and 120 colonists. In a quickly erected chapel on De Monts Island, Catholic Mass was offered for the first time on the soil of New England by Reverend Nicholas Aubry of Paris.
From this little colony the Gospel spread among the Abenakis tribe, the first Indians on this part of the continent to embrace the Christian faith. The colony was transferred the following year to Port Royal on Annapolis Bay.
English Captain George Weymouth explored the southwest coast of Maine in 1605. He kidnapped five Indians and carried them to England, where three of them lived with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who later founded Maine.
On April 10, 1606, James I of England granted the Charter of Virginia, which included the area of Maine. George Popham and Raleigh Gilbert, son of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, sailed with 120 colonists and settled at the mouth of the Kennebec river.
A small colony was established at Fort Popham on the Sagadahoc peninsula in 1607. Finding insufficient supplies, most returned to England in a few months and the colony was abandoned.
In 1609 the French Jesuits, Father Biard and Father Masse, established a fortified mission on Mount Desert Island.
In 1613, Antoinette de Pons sent out an expedition from France which landed on the southeastern shore of Mount Desert. Missionaries planted a cross, celebrated Mass, and gave the place the name of St. Sauveur, but that same year Captain Samuel Argall sailed up from Jamestown, Virginia, in a small man-of- war and destroyed it. Father Masse and fourteen Frenchmen were set adrift in a small boat, and others were taken prisoner to Virginia. Captain Argall also destroyed the French settlements of the St. Croix and Port Royal colonies, though French Catholic missionary work continued among the Indians into the next century.
In 1614, Captain John Smith found a few settlers left on the island of Monhegan and around Pemaquid Bay. Conflicting land claims between French Catholics and British Anglicans began a long and bloody rivalry in which the religious element was ever present.
From 1616 to 1677, Maine’s English settlement was led by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, his son Robert, and his nephew. In 1622, Gorges received a royal patent from the English king and the next year sent his son Robert as governor of the Province of Maine. He was accompanied by a minister of the Church of England and several councilors.
In 1629, part of Gorge’s land was divided, with Captain John Mason’s portion becoming New Hampshire. Maine’s first court was convened at Saco on March 21, 1636.
In 1639, the King’s charter made the Province of Maine the personal possession of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. French and Indians almost destroyed the English settlements in 1675.
After much negotiating with the heirs of Gorges, Maine became part of the Royal Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1691. French Acadia was conveyed to the Duke of York, King James II of England, the last Catholic monarch of England. The English put down the French and Indians, capturing Port Royal in 1690 and Louisburg in 1745.
French Acadians fled down the Mississippi to Louisiana, where Acadian came to be pronounced “Cajun.”
In 1704, Massachusetts sent expeditions to destroy the mission stations in Maine, resulting in Churches being burned and priests killed. For the next seventy years, the remnant of Catholic Indians were ministered to by the occasional visits of Catholic missionaries from Canada.
At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the Abenakis Indians took sides with the patriots and after that, all persecution ceased. The Council of Massachusetts desired to furnish them a priest, but could not find one until Father Ciquard went, remaining until 1794. The current Catholic Church in Maine dates from the arrival of Father Cheverus from Boston in July of 1797, who took charge of the two Indian missions at Pleasant Point.
During the War of Independence, Falmouth (now Portland) was burned by the British, and in 1775, Benedict Arnold followed Maine’s Kennebec and Dead rivers in an attempt to capture Quebec.
As Maine was part of Massachusetts at the time of the Revolutionary War, troops from Maine served in the Massachusetts regiment and fought at Bunker Hill.
The first naval battle of the Revolution was at Machias, July 11, 1775, where Jeremiah O’Brien and his five sons captured the British ship, Margaretta. During the War of 1812, the British captured Maine’s cities of Eastport, Castine, Hampden, Bangor and Machias.
In 1820, Maine was admitted into the Union as a separate free state as part of the Missouri compromise, Missouri entering as a slave state. Dispute over the exact location of Maine’s border with British Canada led to many battles, which were eventually resolved through treaties.
Irish immigration of the 1850’s, caused the Catholic population in Maine and New Hampshire grow, resulting in its own Diocese being formed in 1853.
An anti-Catholic backlash movement, called Knownothingism, resulted in a Church being burned at Bath on July 8, 1854, and the tarring, feathering, and riding on a rail of Father John Bapst at Ellsworth, October 15, 1854. The persecution ended only after many Catholics of Maine fought courageously for the Union during the Civil War. As of 2006, Maine had 10 synagogues.> 1527ME001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1527ME001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Maine History, beginning in 1527. William J. Federer, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America’s First Thirteen States (St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc.).
This post originally appeared at https://americanminute.com/blogs/todays-american-minute/maine-history-1527