extensive, the liberties
of the people were preserved by a provision for a popular assembly to
join with him in making laws.

The charter certainly was out of keeping with the conditions of a
distant empire inhabited only by red savages and a few white
fishermen; but Gorges' elaborate plan for regulating the government
seemed even more far-fetched. He proposed to have not only a
lieutenant-governor, but a chancellor, a marshal, a treasurer, an
admiral, a master of ordnance, and a secretary, and they were to act
as a council of state.[25]

To this wild realm in Norumbega, Thomas Gorges, "a sober and
well-disposed young man," nephew of the lord proprietor, was
commissioned in 1640 to be the first governor, and stayed three years
in the colony.[26] Agamenticus (now York) was only a small hamlet, but
the lord proprietor honored it in March, 1652, by naming it Gorgeana,
after himself, and incorporating it as a city. The charter of this
first city of the United States is a historical curiosity, since for a
population of about two hundred and fifty inhabitants it provided a
territory covering twenty-one square miles and a body of nearly forty
officials.[27]

The second of the three important patents led to the absorption of
Maine by the government of Massachusetts. The claim of Massachusetts
to jurisdiction over the settlements in New Hampshire as readily
applied to Maine; and, in addition, the patent granted in June, 1632,
by the Council for New England, to George Way and Thomas Purchas, gave
a tract of land along the river "Bishopscot" or "Pejepscot," better
known as the Androscoggin.[28] In 1639 Massachusetts, by buying this
property, secured her first hold on the land within Gorges'
patent.[29] The revival in 1643 of another patent, believed to have
been abandoned, but with rights conflicting with the patent of Gorges,
both prompted and excused the interference of Massachusetts.

The third great patent was a grant made by the Council for New
England, in June, 1630, for a tract extending from Cape Porpoise to
Cape Elizabeth, and hence taking in Gorges' settlement at Saco.[30]
This patent was known as the Lygonian, or "Plough patent," the latter
commemorating the name of the vessel which brought over the first
settlers, who after a short time gave up the settlement and went to
Boston in July, 1631. For twelve years the patent was neglected, but
in 1643 the rights of the original patentees were purchased by
Alexander R