Popham Colony
Popham Colony was a British colony in North America that was founded in 1607 along with the more successful Jamestown Colony. It was the first English colony in New England located in present-day Maine.
In 1606, King James I had granted a charter to the Virginia Company to start colonies in North America. The company was divided into two groups, London Company and the Plymouth Company. The London Company had the area between 34° and 41°N, while the Plymouth Company was assigned the latitudes of 38° to 45° N. Each company was to plant its first colony in the non-overlapping portions of their grant. The overlapping area between 38° and 41° was to go to the first company proven strong enough to colonize it.
Popham was the Plymouth Company's first colony. It was located on the Kennebec River (then called the Sagadahoc River) on a headland named Sabino. About 100 colonists had left Plymouth, England on May 31, 1607 i two ships. Colony leader, George Popham sailed in the Gift of God and second-in-command Ralegh Gilbert sailed in the Mary and John. Popham was the nephew of the financial backer of the colony, Sir John Popham while Gilbert was the nephew of Sir Walter Raleigh.
The major construction of the colonists was a star-shaped fort called Fort St. George, begun in August of 1607. It included ditches and ramparts and contained nine cannon that ranged in size from demi-culverin to falcon. On 8 October, 1607, colonist John Hunt drew a map of the colony showing 18 buildings including the Admirals house, a chapel, a storehouse and guardhouse. It is not known if all the buildings were completed. Hunt's map was discovered in 1888 in the Spanish national archives, possibly brought to Spain by a spy, and is the only known plan of the original layout of any early English colony.
John Hunt's map of Popham Colony
Half of the colonists returned to Great Britain in the fall of 1607. Popham died in the early 1608, possibly the only colonist to die - a contrast to Jamestown which lost half its population that year. Raleigh Gilbert became colony president on 5 February, 1608 at age 25.
The colonists completed one major project the building of a 30-ton ship, a pinnace they named Virginia. When a supply ship came and told Gilbert that he had inherited a title and estate, he decided to return to England. The 45 remaining colonists also left, sailing home in the 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.
The site of the colony was discovered in 1994 by Jeffrey Brain of the Peabody Essex Museum. Larger excavations began in 1997 and have uncovered the Admiral's house, the storehouse and a liquor storage building. Parts of the fort probably including the chapel and graveyard lie on private property not open for digging.
External Links
Referenced By
British America/History | British colonization of the Americas | History of British North American Colonies
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