District of Maine
The
District of Maine was a legal designation for what is now the
U.S. state of
Maine from American independence until the
Missouri Compromise on
March 4,
1820, when it gained its independence from
Massachusetts and became the 23rd state in the Union.
Originally settled in 1607 by the
Plymouth Company, the coastal areas of western Maine first became the
Province of Maine in a 1622 land patent. In 1677, the
Province of Maine was sold to
Massachusetts Bay Colony for the sum of £1250 (and later incorporated into the territory of the
Province of Massachusetts Bay), and the area was known as the
Province of Maine of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
As divided by the
Continental Congress in 1778, the District of Maine was the northernmost of three districts in Massachusetts. At the time, the district was composed of
York,
Cumberland and
Lincoln Counties, the area having been
York County, Massachusetts until the creation of Cumberland and Lincoln in 1760. (By 1820, the time of its statehood, Maine would add
Hancock,
Kennebec,
Oxford,
Penobscot,
Somerset and
Washington Counties.) During the
War of 1812 the
British conquered a large portion of Maine including everything from the
Penobscot River east to the
New Brunswick border. This contributed to the ultimate division of Maine from Massachusetts in 1820.
Maine became the 23rd state on
March 4,
1820, as part of the
Missouri Compromise.
*
Willis, William, History of Portland, 1865. (Ch. 24: Separation of Maine from Massachusetts)
