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Lygonia


Lygonia was a proprietary province in pre-colonial Maine, created through a grant from the Plymouth Council for New England in 1630 to lands then under control of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. The grant was named for his mother, Cicely (Lygon) Gorges. The original patent has been lost, but from a 1686 abstract of title, it assigned

...unto Bryan Bincks, John Dye, John Smith & others their Associates their heirs & Assigns for Ever, Two Islands in the River Sagedahock, near the South Side thereof about 60 miles (97 km) from the Sea & also all the Tract containing 40 miles (64 km) in Length & 40 miles (64 km) in breadth upon the South side of the River Sagadahock, with all Bayes, Rivers, Ports, Inletts, Creeks, etc. together with all Royalties & Privileges within the Precincts thereof calling the same by the Name of the Province of Ligonia with power to make Laws etc.

Geographical interpretation of the grant's bounds is that it encompassed some 1,600 square miles (4,100 km2) between Cape Porpoise and today's Kennebec River, so large that its size may have been unintended, since it took in a large part of Gorges' own grant for his Province of Maine. But it was never repudiated, and survived later challenges in English courts.

Assignees of the patent were members of the Plough Company of London, set up by the Council for New England to encourage settlement within the northeasterly portion of Gorges' domain. The intention was to support Gorges' scheme for permanent settlements with a mixed economy of farming and production of forest products for trade to augment the fishing enterprises already established along the Maine seaboard. The would-be settlers of the Plough Company were classified by John Winthrop as members of a small religious sect known as Familists, most of them farmers, and associated as the Company of Husbandmen. They chose as their minister Stephen Bachiler, who although himself of more Puritan leanings supported the undertaking. He and Richard Dummer, another Puritan, financed much of the expedition. They left England in 1631 on the ship Plough, but for unknown reasons failed to take possession of their Maine patent, and instead continued on to Massachusetts, settling in communities there. Winthrop suggested that the group had investigated the Lygonia territory and, "not liking the place", had moved on.


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