The next spring James Davis arrived, bringing with him news of the death of Chief Justice Popham and of Sir John Gilbert, Raleigh Gilbert's brother. The death of two of the colony's chief sponsors and the hardships of the past winter caused the colonists to abandon the settlement and return to England. In 1609 the French Jesuits, Biard and Masse, established a fortified mission station on the island of Mount Desert ; and although this, as well as the remnant of De Monts' settlement at the mouth of the St. Croix, was taken in 1613 by Sir Samuel Argall (d. 1626), acting under the instructions of the English at Jamestown, Va., some of these colonists returned later. In 1620 the Council for New England, the successor of the Plymouth company, obtained a grant of the country between 4o° and 48° N., extending from sea to sea; and two years later Gorges and John Mason (1586– 1635) received from the council a grant of the territory between the Merrimac and the Kennebec rivers for 6om. inland, under the name of the "Province of Maine." In 1629 they divided their possession, Gorges taking the portion between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec. Numerous grants of land in this vicinity followed within a few years; and permanent settlements at York, Saco, Biddeford, Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth (now Portland) and Scarborough were established in rapid succession. The Council for New England surrendered its charter in 1635. In the division of its territory Gorges retained the portion previously granted to him. The region between the Kennebec and the St. Croix north to the St. Lawrence, though still claimed by the French as part of Acadia, was conveyed to Sir William Alexander (1567?--1640) ; and in 1664, to the Duke of York, afterwards King James II.
Gorges named his tract the "County of New Somersetshire," and immediately began the administration of government, setting up in 1635 or 1636 a court at Saco under the direction of his kinsman, William Gorges. In 1639 he procured for his province a royal charter modelled on that of Maryland, which invested him with the feudal tenure of a county palatine and vice-regal powers of government. But east of the Piscataqua his charter was in conflict with the other (mutually conflicting) grants of the Council for New England ; and Gorges and his agents met with a determined opposition, led by George Cleeve, the deputy-president of the Lygonia or "Plough" patent. This patent extended along the coast from Cape Porpoise to Casco and had been granted governmental as well as territorial rights. Moreover, Puritan Massachusetts, which was naturally hostile to the Anglicanism of Gorges and his followers, interpreted her charter so as to make her northern boundary run east and west from a point 3m. north of the source of the Merrimac river, and on this basis laid claim to practically the whole of Maine then settled. The factional quarrels there and with the Commonwealth Government in Eng land made it easy for Massachusetts to enforce this claim at the time, and between 1652 and 1658 Maine was gradually annexed to Massachusetts. In 1672 Massachusetts extended her boundary eastward as far as Penobscot bay. Ferdinando Gorges, a grandson of the original proprietor, brought before parliament his claim to Maine, and in 1664 a committee of that body decided in his favour ; but Massachusetts successfully resisted until 1677, when the king in council decided against her. She then quietly purchased the Gorges claim for £1,250 and held the province as a proprietor until 1691, when, by the new Massachusetts charter, Maine was extended to the Saint Croix river and was made an integral part of Massachusetts.
The French still claimed all territory east of the Penobscot, and so Maine was not only an exposed frontier but a battle ground during the long struggle of the English against the Indians and the French. Its citizens also bore a conspicuous part in the expeditions beyond its borders. Port Royal was taken in May 1690 by Sir William Phipps, and Louisburg in June 1745 by Sir William Pepperell, both these commanders being from Maine. These expeditions were such a drain on Maine's popula tion that Massachusetts was called upon to send men to garrison the little forts that protected the homes left defenceless by men who had gone to the front. During the War of Independence the town of Falmouth (now Portland), which had ardently resisted the claims of the British, was bombarded and burned, in 1775.
In the same year Benedict Arnold followed the course of the Kennebec and Dead rivers on his expedition to Quebec ; and from 1779 to 1783 a British force was established at Castine. The embargo and non-intercourse laws from 1807 to 1812 were a severe blow to Maine's shipping, and in the war of Eastport, Castine, Hampden, Bangor and Machias fell to the British.
Maine, as a part of Massachusetts, was in general well governed, but a geographical separation, a desire to be rid of the burden of a large State debt, and a difference of economic interests as well as of politics (Maine was largely Democratic and Massa chusetts was largely Federalist) created a desire for an inde pendent commonwealth. This was felt before the close of the War of Independence, and in 1785-87 conventions were held at Falmouth (Portland) to consider the matter, but the opposition prevailed. The want of protection during the war of 1812 re vived the question, and in 1816 the general court, in response to a great number of petitions, submitted to a vote in the towns and plantations of the district the question : "Shall the legislature be requested to give its consent to the separation of the District of Maine from Massachusetts, and the erection of said District into a separate State?" The returns showed 10,393 yeas to 6,501 nays, but they also showed that less than one-half the full vote had been cast. Acting upon these returns the legislature passed a bill prescribing the terms of separation, and directed another vote of the towns and plantations upon the question of separation and the election of delegates to a convention at Brunswick which should proceed to frame a Constitution, in case the second popular vote gave a majority of five to four for separation ; but as that vote was only 11,969 yeas to 10,347 nays, the advocates of separation were unsuccessful. A large source of opposition to separation was removed in 1819 when Congress rearranged the customs districts so that coasting vessels from Maine, as a separate State, would not have to enter and clear on every trip to or from Boston. As a consequence, the separation measures were carried by large majorities that year, a Constitution was framed by a convention which met at Portland in October, and ratified by town meetings in December, and Maine applied for admission into the Union. Owing to the peculiar situation in Congress at the time, arising from the contest over the admission of Mis souri, the question of the admission of Maine became an im portant one in national politics. By an act of March 3, 1820, Maine was finally admitted into the Union as a separate State, her admission being a part of the Missouri Compromise (q.v.).