Note 209 — NEW ENGLISH CANAAN OR NEW CANAAN.

Sir Ferdinando Gorges, of Ashton Phillips in Somerset, has already been frequently referred to in the introductory portions of this volume. Of an old West Country family and pure English descent, he was born about the year 1560 (IV. Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. vii. p. 329). He early devoted himself to a military and naval life, and in 1591 served under Essex at the siege of Rouen. Subsequently he is said to have been wounded, either at Amiens, or during the siege of Paris by Henry IV. In consequence of his services he was appointed by Queen Elizabeth royal governor of Plymouth, and in 1597 was designated as one of the staff of Essex in the Ferrol expedition, with the title of Sergeant-Major. In 1601 he was concerned in Essex’s insurrection, and was one of the principal witnesses against the Earl at his trial. After a considerable period of imprisonment he was released, and, on the accession of James I., was reappointed governor of Plymouth. In 1605 he became interested in American discovery and colonization, and in 1607 he was one of the projectors of the Popham colony in Maine. During the next thirteen years he was engaged in fishing and trading ventures to New England, and indefatigable in collecting information as to America. (Palfrey, vol. i. p. 79.) In 1620 he procured from James I. the great patent of the Council for New England. In 1623 he sent out the Robert Gorges expedition which settled itself at Wessagusset. (Supra, 2-4.) His subsequent connection with Morton, and his intrigues against the Massachusetts colony and charter, have been sufficiently referred to in this volume. During the Civil War Gorges espoused the royal side, and was made a prisoner when Fairfax captured Bristol in August 1645. He died probably about the 10th of May 1647, as he was buried on the 14th of that month.

In regard to Gorges, see Belknap’s American Biography; Folsom’s Catalogue of Original Documents in the English Archives relating to the Early History of the State of Maine; Williamson’s Maine; Palfrey’s New England (vol. i.); Poole’s Introduction to Johnson’s Wonder Working Providence; Devereux’s Earls of Essex (vol. i.); and the Briefe Narration (III. Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. vi. p. 44), and Gorges’s own letters, to Winthrop and others, in the Winthrop Papers. (IV. Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. vii.)