The state of Maine isn’t the only one celebrating a big anniversary this year. While Maine looks forward to our 200th Anniversary as a state, Massachusetts is gearing up to celebrate the town of Plymouth’s 400th anniversary as the first permanent settlement in New England. While Plymouth may have won the race to colonize New England, it wasn’t for lack of trying by early visitors here in Maine. In fact, in 1607, the same year in which Jamestown was settled in Virginia, there was an attempt to establish a permanent English colony in Maine called Popham.
Many of the details of the Popham colony have been lost to history. Until recently even it’s exact location in what is now Phippsburg, Maine, was unknown. However, what we do know is in 1606 King James I granted the Virginia Company a charter to establish permanent settlements in the New World. The Virginia Company, which was composed of two factions, one based in London and one in Plymouth, immediately began planning expeditions to the coast of North America. The London Company focused their attention on colonizing the area of what is today the state of Virginia. While the Plymouth Company was given what is now New England to establish roots. On May 14, 1607 the first settlers of Jamestown landed in Virginia. A few weeks later on May 31, 1607, 120 sailors, soldiers, carpenters, merchants and farmers set sail to establish their own colony in what later would be known as Maine.
In August of 1607, two ships, the Gift of God and the Mary and John, dropped anchor at what is now the mouth of the Kennebec River. After giving thanks for surviving the journey, the men immediately got to work establishing Popham. Popham was named after its principal financial backer, Sir John Popham, and his nephew, George Popham, who served as the colony’s leader. Although little is known about how much of the original colony was built, a map drawn by John Hunt depicts how they envisioned their fort. We do know that while working on that they also constructed the first British vessel constructed in North America. They eventually used that 50-foot pinnace, named the Virginia of Sagadahoc, to abandon Popham and return to England!
As you can probably guess, things didn’t go exactly as expected for these settlers. Popham colony had been established primarily as a trading settlement, but their interactions with the Native Americans didn’t go very well. The Native Americans were hesitant to trust these men, and with good reason. Earlier explorers to the area mistreated them. According to Colin Woodard in The Lobster Coast, in 1603, Martin Pring’s crew often terrorized friendly Wampanoag Indians by releasing their dogs to chase them. Even more horrific, in 1605, George Waymouth kidnapped five Pemaquid natives. However, the Native Americans also had positive experience with early explorers, including Samuel de Champlain who during this period established a friendly trading relationship with the Penobscot. Therefore, it is little wonder the Native Americans had mixed feelings when they saw these men setting up camp. It also didn’t help that George Popham incorrectly assumed that rumors of a large body of water nearby was no doubt a route to China, where he could obtain untold spices, gold and other riches.
What they did find though was that winter in Maine could be difficult to say the least. Previous explorers had only visited during the summer months, and the settlers anticipated weather similar to that of England. Samuel Purchase’s account from January 1608 described the settlers enduring “thunder, lightning, rain, frost, snow all in abundance, the last continuing.” It didn’t take the settlers long to realize that they were poorly equipped, with improper clothing and supplies running precariously low. In fact in December 1607, approximately 50 of the settlers returned to England. After enduring a grueling winter, that included the death of their leader George Popham, and another summer full of setbacks, by September 1608 the remaining settlers headed back to England abandoning their attempt to establish the first permanent settlement in Maine. As one of Popham’s sponsors, Sir Ferdinando Gorges reflected, “All our hopes have been frozen to death.”
Today although there is no trace of the original settlement, you and your dog can visit the location of the Popham Colony at the Civil War era Fort Popham in Phippsburg, Maine. Please note that dogs must be leashed, and that dogs are not allowed on Popham State Beach April 1st through September 30th. To learn more about this ill-fated attempt to be the first settlement in New England, we recommend Pat Higgin’s Popham Colony: A Slice of Time.
