Popham Colony
 |
The site of the 1607 Popham Colony in present-day Maine is shown by "Po" on the map. The Jamestown Settlement is shown by "J" |
The
Popham Colony was a short-lived
English colonial settlement in
North America that was founded in
1607 and located in the present-day town of
Phippsburg, Maine near the mouth of the
Kennebec River. It was founded in the same year as its more successful rival, the
Jamestown Settlement and was the first English colony in the region that would eventually become known as
New England. The colony was abandoned after only one year and the exact site of the colony was lost until its rediscovery in 1994.
Popham was a project of the
Plymouth Company. Plymouth Company was one of two competing parts of the
Virginia Company that
James I chartered in
1606 in order to settle "Virginia"; at the time the name applied to the entire northeast coast of North America from
Spanish Florida to
New France in the modern-day
Canada. At the time that area was technically under the claim of
Spanish crown but not occupied.
The Plymouth Company was granted a
royal charter and the rights to the coast between 38° to 45° N, whereas the rival
London Company was granted the coast between 34° and 41°N. The overlapping area between 38° and 41° was to go to the first company that would prove "strong enough" to colonize it.
First Plymouth Company ship,
Richard, sailed in August 1606 but the Spanish intercepted and captured it near
Florida in November. The next attempt was more successful; About 120 colonists left
Plymouth on
May 31,
1607 in two ships. They intended to trade precious metals, spices, furs and show that the local forests could be used to build English ships.
Colony leader,
George Popham sailed in the
Gift of God and second-in-command
Ralegh Gilbert in the
Mary and John. Captain of the latter ship, Robert Davies, kept a diary that is one of the main contemporary sources of the information about the Popham colony.
George Popham was the nephew of one of the financial backers of the colony, Sir
John Popham, the
Lord Chief Justice of England, while Gilbert was the half nephew of Sir
Walter Raleigh. Other financiers included Sir
Ferdinando Gorges, the military governor of Plymouth; much of the information about the events in the colony comes from his letters and memoirs. Settlers included nine council members and 6 other gentlemen when the rest were soldiers, artisans, farmers and traders.
The
Gift of God arrived at the mouth of the Kennebec (then called the Sagadahoc River) on
August 13 and
Mary and John three days later. The Popham Colony was settled on headland of area named Sabino. Quickly the colonists began construction of large star-shaped Fort St. George. Fort St. George included ditches and ramparts and contained nine
cannons that ranged in size from demi-
culverin to falcon.
On
October 8,
1607, colonist John Hunt drew a map of the colony showing 18 buildings including the admiral's house, a chapel, a storehouse, a cooperage and a guardhouse. Hunt was listed in the colony register as "draughtsman". It is not known if all the buildings were completed at the time. Hunt's map was discovered in 1888 in the Spanish national archives. A spy had sold it to a Spanish ambassador who had sent it to Spain. It might be a copy of now-lost map, and is the only known plan of the original layout of any early English colony.
Popham and Gilbert sent survey expeditions up the river and contacted the
Abenaki tribe. In a letter to the King, Popham wrote that the natives had told them that the area was full of easily exploitable resources. However, the colony failed to establish cooperation with the tribe; they were suspicious because earlier expeditions had captured natives to show at home.
Late summer arrival meant that there was no time to farm for food. Half of the colonists returned to
Great Britain in December 1607, aboard the
Gift of God. Others faced a cold winter during which the Kennebec River froze. Fire destroyed at least the storehouse and its provisions. Later excavation has hinted that there might have been other fires.
Colonist divided to two factions, one supporting George Popham and the other Ralegh Gilbert. George Popham died in
February 5 1608, possibly the only colonist to die - a contrast to Jamestown which lost half its population that year. Ralegh Gilbert became "colony president" on
February 5,
1608 at age 25.
The colonists completed one major project; the building of a 30-ton ship, a
pinnace they named
Virginia, the first ship built in America by Europeans. It was meant to show that the colony could be used for
shipbuilding. They also finally managed to trade with Abenaki for furs and gather a cargo of
sarsaparilla.
When a supply ship came in 1608, it brought a message that Sir John Popham had died. Gilbert sent the
Mary and John to England with cargo. When the ship returned later in the summer, it brought news that Gilbert's elder brother John had died. Gilbert was therefore an heir to a title and estate of
Compton Castle in
Devon. He decided to return to England. The 45 remaining colonists also left, sailing home in the
Mary and John and
Virginia. (The
Virginia would make at least one more Atlantic crossing, going to Jamestown the next year.)
The colony had lasted almost exactly one year. Later colonists in the area, building on the experience of the original colonists, settled further up the Kennebec river, at the site of the present day
Bath, where the winter storms and tides were not as severe.
French colonist
Jean de Biencourt visited the abandoned site in 1611. In 1624,
Samuel Maverick of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony also visited the site and reported that it was "over-grown".
During the
American Civil War, Union army built a
Fort Popham in the area. Afterwards some farmers moved to the area and it became farmland until 1905. Then US Army built up the area of Fort St. George to supply
Fort Baldwin. The state of Maine bought the area in 1924 and Fort Baldwin was reactivated during the
World War Two.
Today much of the area that made up the Popham Colony is part of
Popham Beach State Park, a popular beach and recreation area.
First excavations of the area in the 1960's were unsuccessful. In 1994
Jeffrey Brain of the
Peabody Essex Museum discovered the site of the colony using the Hunt's map as a guide. He begun larger excavation in 1997 and later uncovered the Admiral's house, the storehouse and a liquor storage building. He also proved that Hunt's map was very accurate. Parts of the fort, probably including the chapel and graveyard, lie on private property not open for digging and the Fort's southern portion is under a public road. The excavation was concluded in 2005.
* Richard L. Pflederer -
Before New England: The Popham Colony (
History Today January 2005)
* Tom Gidwitz -
The Little Colony That Couldn't (
Archaeology magazine March/April 2006)
*
Popham Colony*
Maine's First Ship, a project to build a re-creation of the
Virginia
