The history of Maine’s territorial ownership is a complex tapestry woven from competing European claims, Indigenous sovereignty, and shifting colonial charters. While many assume Maine was simply an extension of Massachusetts, its origins lie in a distinct series of grants and proprietary colonies that predate its absorption by its southern neighbor. To understand which colony once owned Maine, one must look past the state’s 1820 admission to the Union and even past its long tenure as a district of Massachusetts, back to the early 17th century when Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason secured a patent that launched the Province of Maine as a distinct colonial entity.
The 1622 Charter: The Birth of the Province of Maine
The direct answer to the question of original colonial ownership lies in the Council for New England’s 1622 land grant. On August 10, 1622, the Council granted a vast tract of land between the Merrimack and Kennebec Rivers to two prominent English gentlemen: Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason. They named this territory the Province of Maine Worth keeping that in mind..
This grant was not merely a speculative real estate deal; it was a feudal-style proprietary colony. Gorges and Mason envisioned a hierarchical society mirroring England, complete with manors, lords, and tenants. The name "Maine" itself is widely believed to have been chosen by Gorges to honor the French province of Maine, or perhaps simply to distinguish the "mainland" from the numerous coastal islands.
In 1629, the partners agreed to divide their holdings. Gorges retained the territory north of the river, which kept the name Province of Maine (often called Gorges’ Province or New Somersetshire in early documents). Because of that, mason took the land south of the Piscataqua River, forming the Province of New Hampshire. This division marks the true beginning of Maine as a distinct political unit separate from Massachusetts Bay or Plymouth Colony It's one of those things that adds up..
This changes depending on context. Keep that in mind.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges: The "Lord Proprietor"
Sir Ferdinando Gorges is the central figure in Maine’s early colonial history. A military man and courtier, he never set foot in the territory, but he governed it actively through deputies and agents from England. His vision for the Province of Maine was unique among New England colonies. Unlike the Puritan theocracy of Massachusetts Bay or the Pilgrim separatism of Plymouth, Gorges sought to establish an Anglican, royalist, feudal society.
He issued the "Gorges Charter" of 1639, which established a formal government structure for the province. But this charter created a Governor (his nephew, Thomas Gorges, served as the first resident Governor), a Council, and an Assembly of freemen. The capital was established at Gorgeana (modern-day York), which became the first incorporated city in what would become the United States in 1642.
Under Gorges’ proprietorship, the province struggled. Now, the economy relied on fishing, timber, and the fur trade. Settlement was sparse, confined mostly to the coast and major river valleys (Saco, Kennebunk, York). Crucially, Gorges’ government lacked the population, capital, and military strength to enforce its authority over a vast wilderness populated by the Wabanaki Confederacy and infiltrated by settlers from Massachusetts Bay who often ignored Gorges’ land claims Surprisingly effective..
The Competing Claims: Massachusetts Bay’s Expansion
While Gorges held the legal title via the 1622 patent, the Massachusetts Bay Colony posed the most significant threat to his ownership. Founded in 1629 under a royal charter granting land from "sea to sea" (roughly three miles north of the Merrimack River to three miles south of the Charles River), Massachusetts interpreted its northern boundary aggressively Not complicated — just consistent..
Massachusetts leaders argued that the "three miles north of the Merrimack" clause should be measured from the river’s source (Lake Winnipesaukee), not its mouth. This interpretation extended their claim deep into the heart of Gorges’ Province of Maine, encompassing the vital settlements of Portsmouth, Dover, and eventually the entire coast up to the Kennebec.
Most guides skip this. Don't.
Throughout the 1640s and 1650s, Massachusetts Bay used a combination of legal maneuvering, economic pressure, and outright annexation to absorb Maine settlements.
- 1641–1643: The towns of Kittery, Wells, York (Gorgeana), and Saco petitioned to join Massachusetts for protection against Indigenous attacks and legal stability. On the flip side, * 1652: Massachusetts sent commissioners north to formally extend jurisdiction to the Kennebec River. They forced the submission of existing Maine towns and established a new county: York County.
Gorges, aging and distracted by the English Civil War, could do little to resist. The Puritan Commonwealth in England (1649–1660) was sympathetic to Massachusetts, leaving the royalist Gorges without recourse to the Crown Easy to understand, harder to ignore. Practical, not theoretical..
The Interregnum and the "Royal Province" (1660–1691)
The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 brought King Charles II to the throne. Ferdinando Gorges’ grandson, also named Ferdinando, petitioned the Crown to restore the family’s proprietary rights. In 1664, a royal commission investigated Massachusetts’ usurpation. The King ordered Massachusetts to relinquish control, and for a brief period (1665–1668), the Province of Maine was re-established as a royal province under a governor appointed by the Crown (Thomas Danforth, followed by Joseph Dudley) That's the whole idea..
That said, Massachusetts refused to fully comply. They lobbied aggressively in London, arguing that the Gorges patent was invalid or surrendered. In 1677, Massachusetts delivered a fatal blow to the Gorges claim: they purchased the proprietary rights from the Gorges heirs for £1,250 sterling That's the whole idea..
This transaction effectively ended the existence of the Province of Maine as an independent colony. Maine became the private property of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, governed as a territory. In 1691, the new Province of Massachusetts Bay charter (issued by William and Mary) formally consolidated Maine, Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Nova Scotia (briefly) into a single royal colony. From this point until 1820, Maine was legally the "District of Maine" within Massachusetts.
The Indigenous Perspective: The Wabanaki Homeland
It is critical to acknowledge that throughout this entire period of European paper-shuffling—charters, deeds, annexations, and purchases—the land was not "owned" by any European colony in the Indigenous understanding. The territory known as Maine is the ancestral homeland of the Wabanaki Confederacy (People of the Dawnland), comprising the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, Abenaki, and Penobscot nations Turns out it matters..
European "ownership" was a legal fiction imposed on a landscape governed by complex Indigenous diplomatic, subsistence, and territorial systems. The Wabanaki engaged in treaty relationships (often misunderstood by Europeans as land sales), resisted encroachment through decades of conflict (King Philip’s War, King William’s War, Queen Anne’s War, Dummer’s War), and maintained sovereignty over vast interior regions long after colonial maps drew borders. Any history of colonial ownership in Maine is incomplete without centering the fact that European colonies were essentially squatters on Wabanaki land until military force and disease shifted the demographic balance.
Why the Confusion Exists: Massachusetts vs. The Province of Maine
The reason many people answer "Massachusetts" when asked which colony owned Maine is simple: Massachusetts owned Maine for the vast majority of the colonial period (1652–1820) and the entire early statehood period.
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1622–1652: The Province of Maine (Gorges’ proprietary colony) exists legally but controls only scattered coastal settlements And that's really what it comes down to..
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1652–1664: **Massachusetts
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1664–1691: Following the restoration of the Gorges patent under English rule after the Cromwellian Interregnum, Massachusetts again asserted control over Maine, though the Province of Maine nominally existed under proprietary rule. Settlement remained sparse, and Massachusetts governed the territory directly through its own institutions.
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1691–1820: The District of Maine was fully integrated into the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Residents of Maine had no separate colonial assembly and were represented in Massachusetts’ government. Growing tensions over representation and taxation would later fuel the push for statehood.
Conclusion
Maine’s colonial identity is a layered story of competing claims, Indigenous sovereignty, and political consolidation. Understanding this history requires recognizing both the legal maneuvers of European colonizers and the foundational role of Indigenous nations in shaping the land’s true narrative. Practically speaking, while Massachusetts dominated Maine’s governance for over 150 years, the myth of continuous Massachusetts ownership overlooks the brief but significant existence of the Province of Maine and the enduring presence of the Wabanaki peoples. Maine’s eventual separation from Massachusetts in 1820—and its admission as a state—marked the culmination of decades of resistance to colonial subordination, echoing the earlier struggles of the Wabanaki to maintain their ancestral homeland against foreign encroachment.
