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In the year 1629, the Rev. Mr. Wheelwright (a brother-in-law of the celebrated Anne Hutchinson, who was banished from the Massachusetts colony on a charge of sedition, in 1637) purchased from the Indians the wilderness between the Merrimac and the Piscataqua, and founded Exeter. The same year Mason obtained from Gorges exclusive ownership of that same portion of LACONIA. He named the domain NEW HAMPSHIRE, and in 1631 built a house upon the site of Portsmouth, the name which he gave to the spot. Other settlements upon the Piscataqua, and along the present coast of Maine, as far as Portland, were attempted. At the latter place a company had a grant of land forty miles square, and formed an agricultural settlement in 1631, called LIGONIA. Pemaquid Point was another settlement, which remained an indopendent community for almost forty years. Trading houses were established as far east as Machias, but they were broken up by the French, and the western limits of Acadie were fixed at Pemaquid Point, about half way from the Penobscot to the Kennebec. The several feeble and scattered settlements in New Hampshire formed a coalition with the flourishing Massachusetts colony in 1641, and remained dependencies of that province until 1680, when they were separated by order of the king, and New Hampshire became a royal province. Its first government consisted of a governor and council appointed by the king, and a house of representatives elected by the people. Then was founded the commonwealth of NEW HAMPSHIRE.

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A LARGE portion of the American colonies were the fruitful growth of the seeds of civil liberty, wafted hither by the fierce gales of oppression in some

1 Mason had been governor of Portsmouth, in Hampshire County, England, and these names were given in memory of his former residence.

2 The people of these eastern settlements, which formed the basis of the present commonwealth of MAINE, did not like the government attempted to be established by the proprietor, and, taking political power into their own hands, placed themselves under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts in 1652. The territory was erected into a county, and called Yorkshire. In 1621, king James, as sovereign of Scotland, placed the Scottish seal to a charter granting to Sir William Alexander, afterward [1633] earl of Stirling, the whole territory eastward of the State of Maine, under the title of Nova Scotia, or New Scotland. The French had already occupied places along the coast, and called the country Acadie. The Scotch proprietor never attempted settlements, either in this territory or in Canada which Charles the First had granted to him, and the whole country had passed into the hands of the French, by treaty. The earl died in 1640, and all connection of his family with Nova Scotia ceased. His title was held afterward by four successors, the last of whom died in 1739. In 1759, William Alexander (General Lord Stirling during our War for Independence) made an unsuccessful claim to the title. The next claimant was Alexander Humphrey, who commenced operations in the Scottish courts in 1815, and by forgeries and frauds was partially successful. The whole was exposed in 1833. Humphrey was in this country in 1852, pressing his claims to the monopoly of the Eastern Fisheries, by virtue of the grants of kings James and Charles more than two hundred years ago!

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form. Maryland, occupying a space between North and South Virginia,' was first settled by persecuted Roman Catholics from England and Ireland. While king James worried the Puritans on one hand, for non-conformity, the Roman Catholics, at the other end of the religious scale, were subjected to even more severe penalties. As the Puritans increased in numbers and influence, their cry against the Roman Catholics grew louder and fiercer; and, while defending themselves from persecution with one hand, they were inflicting as severe a lash upon the Romanists with the other. Thus subjected to twofold opposition, the condition of the Roman Catholics became deplorable, and, in common with other sufferers for opinion's sake, their eyes were turned toward free America. Among the most influential professors of Catholicism was George Calvert, an active member of the London Company, and Secretary of State at the time when the PILGRIMS were preparing to emigrate to America. He was so much more loyal in action to his sovereign than to his faith, that he did not lose the king's favor, although frankly professing to be a Roman Catholic; and for his services he was created an Irish peer in 1621, with the title of Lord Baltimore. He also obtained from James, a grant [1622] to plant a Roman Catholic colony on a portion of Newfoundland. He called the territory AVALON, but his scheme was not successful. The barren soil, and French aggressors from Acadie, were too much for the industry and courage of his colonists, and the settlement was abandoned.

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Foiled in his projects in the east, Lord Baltimore went to Virginia in 1628, with a view of establishing a colony of his brethren there. But he found the Virginians as intolerant as the crown or the Puritans, and he turned his back upon their narrow prejudices, and went to examine the beautiful, unoccupied region beyond the Potomac. He was pleased with the country, and applied for a charter to establish a colony there. The London Company was now dissolved, and the soil had become the property of the monarch. King Charles the First, then on the throne, readily granted a charter, but before it was completed, Lord Baltimore died. This event occurred on the 25th of April, 1632, and on the 20th of June following, the patent was issued to Cecil, his son and heir. In honor of the queen, Henrietta Maria, the province was called MARYLAND. The territory defined in the charter extended along each side of Chesapeake Bay, from the 30th to the 45th degree of north latitude, its western line being the waters of the Potomac.

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It is believed that the Maryland charter was drawn by the first Lord Baltimore's own hand. It was the most liberal one yet granted by an English monarch, both in respect of the proprietor and the

settlers. The government of the province was inde- CECIL, SECOND LORD BALTIMORE.

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2 Note 2, page 76.

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Page 63.

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Page 107.

* She was a Roman Catholic, and sister of Louis the Thirteenth of France.

pendent of the crown, and equality in religious rights and civil freedom was secured to every Christian sect. Unitarians, or those who denied the doctrine of the Trinity, as well as all unbelievers in Divine revelation, were not covered by this mantle of toleration. The king had no power to levy the smallest tax upon the colonists, and all laws were invalid until sanctioned by a majority of the freemen, or their deputies. Under such a wise and liberal charter the colony, when planted, flourished remarkably, for those persecuted by the Puritans in New England, and the Churchmen in Virginia, there sought refuge, and found peace.

Emigration to Maryland commenced in 1633. The first company, mostly Roman Catholics, sailed for America on the 2d of December of that year, under Leonard Calvert, brother of the proprietor, and appointed governor of the province. They arrived in March, 1634, and after sailing up the Potomac, as far as Mount Vernon, they descended the stream, almost to its mouth. They landed upon an estuary of the Chesapeake, purchased an Indian village, and laid the foundation of a town [April, 1634], which they named St. Mary.' The honesty of Calvert, in paying for the land, secured the good will of the Indians; and, unlike the first settlers of most of the other colonies, they experienced no sufferings from want, or the hostilities of the Aboriginals.

Popular government was first organized in Maryland on the 8th of March, 1635, when the first legislative assembly was convened at St. Mary. Every freeman being allowed to vote, it was a purely democratic legislature. As the number of colonists increased, this method of making laws was found to be inconvenient, and in 1639, a representative government was established, the people being allowed to send as many delegates as they pleased. The first representative assembly made a declaration of rights, defined the powers of the proprietor, and took measures to secure to the colonists all the civil liberties enjoyed by the people of Old England. Then was founded the commonwealth of MARYLAND.

CHAPTER VI.

CONNECTICUT. [16 3 2 — 1639.]

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ADRIAN BLOCK, the Dutch navigator, discovered and explored the Connecticut River, as far as the site of Hartford, in 1614, and named it Versche,

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Trading posts were established a little earlier than this, within the Maryland province. In 1631, William Clayborne obtained a license from the king to traffic with the Indians; and when Calvert and his company came, he had two settlements, one on Kent Island, nearly opposite Annapolis, and another at the present Havre de Grace, at the mouth of the Susquehannah. He refused to acknowledge the authority of Baltimore, and trouble ensued. He collected his people on the eastern shore of Maryland in 1635, with a determination to defend his claims by force of arms; and in May quite a severe skirmish ensued between his forces and those of the colonists. Clayborne's men were taken prisoners, and he fled to Virginia. He was declared guilty of treason, and sent to England for trial. His estates were forfeited; but, being acquitted of the charge, he returned to Maryland and incited a rebellion. See page 151. Page 72.

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