and finding neither sufficient, in any tolerable degree of comfortable order, to maintain and support the grandeur of authority, like those mentioned in the prophet, they took hold of the skirt of the Massachusetts, expecting that under their wings they might find an healing of their breaches, which, in some measure, the more sober part of the inhabitants were willing to think they had obtained; but of late time they have met with some changes, whether for the better or the worse, future time will best discover. But as for the Plantation begun on the west side of Pascataqua River, immediately after the decease of Captain Mason, none appearing to keep things in good order, or that had power to call the agents and servants to an account, therefore they shared the land and stock that were taken into, and left in, their possession, among themselves, for the arrears of wages, or on some such like accounts, until Mrs. Anne Mason, sole executrix of Captain John Mason her husband, sent over her husband's kinsman, one Mr. Joseph Mason,' to look after her interest there; who, finding little encouragement to proceed further therein, returned soon after himself to those that sent him, with the sad report of the ruins of a fair estate, that had been laid out upon an unprofitable design, which all the rest of the partners had experience of, as well as those that remained of the rest of that gentleman's family. There were other attempts by him, which failed in like manner, for want of means to carry them on, or for want of faithful agents; for some who are yet surviving, do affirm that Captain Mason did, in the year 1634, send over agents to set up a saw-mill about Newichawanuck,2 upon an agreement betwixt himself and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who had both of them taken a Patent together for the land between Merrimack River and Sagadehock, bearing date November 17, 1629.3 And by mutual agreement afterwards, Captian Mason was to have that part of the Province of Maine allotted to him as his share of the division. Much other estate was sent over by him, which by ill management came to little. 1 In 1652.- -H. 2 See Farmer's Belknap, pp. 428-31, 15.- -H. It hath been affirmed likewise by Mr. Josselin, who first came over into New England on Captain Mason's account, that there was the same agreement made betwixt Mr. Matthew Cradock and Captain John Mason, that the bounds of the Massachusetts should reach to three miles to the northward of Merrimack, and the remainder of the land betwixt that line and Pascataqua River should be left for Captain Mason's Patent; which it hath been credibly affirmed that he consented unto.' But he dying in the latter end of the year 1635, all that he had done before came to little or nothing. Neither had he opportunity to send over the seventy families, which some to this day affirm he engaged to do, and which is judged very probable he did; because by his last will and testament he gave about a thousand2 acres of land to the town of Lynn, in Norfolk, where himself was born, upon condition that they should send over a certain number of families within a time prefixed; but his death happening so soon after gave a supersedeas to all such promises and purposes of his; and his successors not attempting to carry on the designs which he had begun, the whole tract of land, included within those grants of his, was soon after possessed by his servants and others, as was said before, as a kind of "vacuum domicilium;" which is the true estate of those places, challenged at present by his successor. Of all the persons who were concerned in the business of New England, or whose names were inserted in the Grand Council thereof, Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason were the more active, and probably had the greatest interest therein. Possibly they might, one or both of them, bear some office in an about that Council, either as Secretary or Treasurer. But having spent much time and cost, and taken a great deal of pains, and perceiving nothing like to come to perfection, and fearing that they should ere long be forced to resign up their Grand Charter into the hands of the King, they adventured upon a new project in the latter end of the year 1634, and beginning of the year 1635, which was to have pro 'Hutchinson, Coll. Papers, pp. 3, 423.-н. Two thousand. See Farmer's Belknap, p. 15.-н. 3 Belknap says that Gorges was President, and Mason Secretary, of the Council of Plymouth. In April, 1635, Mason's name appears, as Vice-President of the Council. See Hazard, i. 390.-H. See pp. 88-9.-H. cured a General Governor for the whole country for New England, to be forthwith sent over, and to reduce the whole country into twelve provinces, from St Croix to the Lord Baltimore's Province in Virginia; and because the Massachusetts Patent stood in their way, (which Province was then well peopled and planted) they endeavored to get that Patent revoked, and that all might be reduced to a new form of government, under one General Governor. For in June, 1635, it was certified by letters from the Lord Say, and by the report of divers passengers, that such petitions were put up to the King, and to the Lords of the Council, the copies of which were sent then over. They were put up under the hands of the Duke of Lenox, Marquis Hamilton, the Earl of Arundel, Earl of Carlile, Earl of Sterling, the Lord Gorges, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and Captain John Mason, though it was probably conceived that it was the project of Sir Ferdinando Gorges himself only. That to the Lords was after this manner. "MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LORDSHIPS, Whereas it pleased your Lordships to give order to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, to confer with such as were chiefly interested in the Plantations of New England to resolve whether they would resign wholly to his Majesty the Patent' of New England, and to leave to his Majesty and his Council the sole managing of the public affairs, with reservation of every man's right formally granted, or whether they would stand to the said Patent, and prosecute the business amongst themselves, and to have the said Patent renewed, with the reformation, or addition, of such things as should be found expedient: " Then it followed, "We whose names are here underwritten, being interested in the business, do humbly submit to his Majesty's pleasure to do therewith as he pleaseth. "But withal we humbly desire, that upon our resignation of our said Patent, his Majesty being ||to dispose of the whole country, severally, and immediately from himself, those divisions upon the seacoast, that are here-under || disposer || See Gorges's America, Part 2, p. 44; the "Act of Surrender" is in Hazard, i. 393-4, and the "Reasons moving thereto," ibid. 390-2.-H. designed, may be instantly confirmed, and bestowed, by new grants from his Majesty unto us, to be holden of his Majesty, paying the fifth part, &c., and with the privilege of the said Patent, and such further royalties, as the Lord Baltimore hath in his Patent for the country of Maryland, saving only that we should submit ourselves to the General Governor, now presently to be established by his Majesty for the whole country, and after his decease, or other determination of his office, that then from the Lords of his Province there may be an election of three by lot, which said three persons, so elected, shall be presented to the King, that out of that number one may be chosen by his Majesty, to succeed in the place of the General Governor; who shall in person, or by his sufficient Deputy, reside in the country during the space of three years only, and so from three years to three years, another Governor to be chosen successively and the old Governor to be left out of the lot of choice." The several divisions of the twelve provinces next followed after. The first was from St. Croix to Pemaquid. The second, from Pemaquid to Sagadehock. The third contained the land between the Rivers Androscoggin1 and Kennibeck. The fourth, along the sea coast from Sagadehock to Pascataqua. The fifth, from Pascataqua to Naumkeek. The sixth, from Naumkeek round the sea coast by Cape Cod to Narrhaganset. The seventh, from Narrhaganset to the half way bound betwixt that and Connecticut River, and so fifty miles up into the country. The eighth, from the half-way bound to Connecticut River, and so fifty miles up into the country. The ninth, from Connecticut River along the sea coast to Hudson's River, and so up thirty miles, &c. The tenth, from the thirty miles end, to cross up forty miles eastward. The eleventh, from the west side of Hudson's River, thirty miles up the country towards the 40th degree, where New England beginneth. The twelth, from the end of the thirty miles up the said River northward, thirty miles further, and from thence to cross into the land forty miles. 'Ambross Coggin in the MS.-H. And out of every one of these|| Provinces was five thousand acres to be granted to certain persons there named, in lieu of some former grants made to each of them in those divisions which they were now to surrender, and to hold each man his five thousand acres in fee of the Lord of the Province; and the Lord of every one of these twelve Provinces was to send the same year ten men with the General Governor, well provided. To all which it is added, in the last place: "It is humbly desired that your Lordships would be pleased to order these things following. "1. That the Patent for the Plantation of the Massachusetts Bay may be revoked, and that all those who have any other grants within any of these Provinces, whether they have planted or not, upon any part of the same, yet they shall enjoy their lands, laying down their jura regalia, if they had any, and paying some reasonable acknowledgment as freeholders to the Lord of the Province, of whom they are now to take new grants of their said. lands; and in case any of their lands shall be found having exorbitant bounds, to have been unlawfully obtained, they shall be reduced to a lesser proportion, as may be fit for the grantor, who is undertaker at the direction of Sir Ferdinando Gorges; and if the grantee shall be any ways refractory, and refuse to surrender, and hold anew of the said Lord of the Province, that then your Lordships would take order, by such course as law will permit, to make void the same. "2. that every river, that parts two Provinces, shall equally belong, half way over, to that Province it lies. contiguous to. "3. That the islands upon the sea coast, or within the river of any Province, being not here named, shall belong to the Province they lie nearest unto. "4. That there is offered to your Lordship's considerations, the building of a City for the seat of the Governor; unto which City forty thousand acres of land may be allotted, besides the divisions above-mentioned. And that every one that is to have any of these Provinces, those |