17th Century

Town of York, Maine Mural – 1600s

Overview

In the early seventeenth century, the land that would become York was home to Wabanaki farmers whose communities were devastated by newly introduced European diseases. English settlers under the authority of Sir Ferdinando Gorges (1568–1647) began establishing permanent settlements here in the early 1630s. They named the settlement Agamenticus, later renaming it Gorgeana in honor of their governor.

Governance and Early Settlement

Sir Ferdinando’s cousin, Thomas Gorges (c. 1618–1670), effectively governed the Province of Maine from the Gorges manor at Point Christian until his departure in 1643 to serve in the English Civil War. Following Sir Ferdinando’s death in 1647, the Massachusetts Bay Colony asserted control over the region in 1652, renamed the town York, and designated it as the shire town of York County—the administrative center of government in Maine.

Conflict and Raids

Peaceful relations between the Wabanaki and the English did not last. The northern expansion of King Philip’s War (1675–78) brought violence to Maine, and York endured numerous raids in the final decades of the century. During King William’s War (1688–97), a Wabanaki raiding party attacked York on January 25, 1692, destroying much of the town, killing approximately fifty colonists, and taking more than one hundred captives to Canada.

1. Wabanaki Mother and Child, Wigwams Behind
2. Charter of Gorgeana and signature
3. English fisherman, shallop and bark behind
4. York's original rough boundary with Kittery and Wells
5. First tidal mill in York, perhaps in New England
6. Native encampment below Mt. Agamenticus during 1692 raid
7. Beaver, symbolic of the fur trade
8. Wabanaki fisherman
9. Sassafras

Seventeenth Century of York History

The following timeline is by Town of York Historian James Kences.

1610–1629

April 1614 – Capt. John Smith surveyed the region and observed Mount Agamenticus.
November 3, 1620 – Council of New England chartered by Gorges and others.
Autumn 1623 – Christopher Leavitt reached the Isles of Shoals and explored the immediate coast.

1630–1639

1630 – Edward Godfrey constructed a house at Point Bolleyne.
1631 – Edward Johnson arrived—Col. Walter Norton.
December 2, 1631 – Twelve Thousand Acre Patent granted by the Council of New England.
1634 – Gorges’s steward Thomas Bradbury erected a manor house at Point Christian.
1635 – Charter of the Council of New England dissolved; Gorges established the province of New Somerset. Godfrey obtained 1500 acres near Cape Neddick and transferred part to William Hooke.

1640–1649

June 1640 – Thomas Gorges arrived and took residence at Point Christian. Brief appearance of Rev. George Burdett.
April 10, 1641 – Borough charter of Agamenticus established. Division of the Twelve Thousand Acres.
March 1, 1642 – Charter of Gorgeana. Arrival of the “Scituate Men”: Preble, Twisden, Bankes, Curtis. The wife of Richard Cornish tried and executed for his murder.
1646 – Francis Raynes obtained a grant at Brave Boat Harbor.
May 24, 1647 – Death of Sir Ferdinando Gorges.

1650–1659

1650 – First reference to John Davis, advocate of Massachusetts takeover.
1651–1652 – Edward Godfrey challenged Massachusetts claims.
November 22–23, 1652 – Massachusetts commissioners ordered submission of Gorgeana’s government.
December 8, 1652 – Town of York convened its first meeting to elect officers.
1655 – Thomas Moulton and Henry Sayward took up residence.
1657 – Thomas Moulton sold land to Alexander Maxwell, a Scotch war prisoner—beginning of “Scotland” in western York.

1660–1669

1660 – Restoration of King Charles II; Gorges heirs petitioned for rights.
1661–1662 – Formal restoration of Gorges government.
1663–1664 – Royal commissioners sent to New England.
June 23, 1665 – Commissioners took possession of the province in the name of the King.
1665 – Beginning of Rev. Shubael Dummer’s ministry.
1667 – Second meetinghouse constructed.
July 1668 – Massachusetts commissioners ordered surrender of local government for a second time.
1670 – Malcom McIntire, a Scotch prisoner, arrived.

1670–1679

1675–1677 – General Indian War in New England.
September 25, 1675 – Attack on James Jackson farmstead at Cape Neddick.
April 1677 – Two local attacks documented.
1678 – Maine patent sold to Massachusetts by Gorges heirs.
1679–1680 – Massachusetts organized government with a president and deputy president.

1680–1690

March 1680 – Thomas Danforth presented his commission; Major John Davis appointed deputy. Local petition sent to King Charles II for restoration of royal government.
1686–1689 – Dominion of New England under King James II.
1688–1689 – Violence with Indians; beginning of King William’s War.
1690–1691 – Indian attacks documented.

1691–1699

January 25, 1692 – The Candlemas Attack: Indian war parties attacked York, inflicting casualties and taking prisoners to Canada.
1694 and 1696 – Indian attacks documented.
1696 – Capt. John Pickering proposed mills at Mill Creek.
May 1698 – Beginning of Rev. Samuel Moody’s ministry.
May 1699 – Four roads formally ordered by the selectmen.