Under the grant to the Plymouth Company the Earl of Stirling claimed land on the coast of Maine which was afterward granted to the Plymouth Company. and by order of James I that company issued a patent °for a tract of the main land of New England, beginning at Saint Croix and from thence extending along the seacoast to Pemaquid and the River Kenne beck.* Stirling's heirs sold this to the Duke of York in 1663. In 1622 the Plymouth Com pany granted to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. John Mason a tract called Laconia be tween the Merrimac and Kennebec rivers, which included New Hampshire and all the western part of Maine. In 1629 Mason and Gorges divided their territory in two by the Piscataqua, Gorges taking the territory east of the river and calling it Maine. In 1639 Charles I granted to Gorges a charter which virtually confirmed the Plymouth patent of 1622. Grants of part of Maine were made to the Duke of York in 1664 and 1674; on 19 Sept. 1686, Pemaquid and its dependencies forming Cornwall County, under the of New York, were an nexed to the New England government ; and in 1691 the provinces of Maine and Acadia (or Nova Scotia) were incorporated with the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth into the royal province of Massachusetts Bay.
The right of government thus acquired over the district of Maine was exercised by Massa chusetts until 1819 when Maine took steps to be admitted as a State.
The northern and eastern boundaries of Maine were settled by the United States and Great Britain (see subtitle Northeastern Boundary) but the western boundary was a source of contention with New Hampshire, which had been erected into a province in 1679. In 1731 commissioners from New Hampshire and Massachusetts failed to settle the dispute, but in 1837 commissioners appointed by neigh boring provinces fixed the boundary substan tially as it is to-day: "Beginning at the entrance of Pascataque Harbor and so to pass up the same to the River Newhicbawack and thro' the same into the furthest head, thereof and thence run north 2 degrees west till 120 miles were finished. from the mouth of the Paacataqua Harbor or until it meets with His Majesty's other governments." On 5 Aug. 1740, this was confirmed by the King, but after Maine's admission as a State in 1820 a dispute arose and in 1829 commis sioners surveyed the line which was accepted by both States. Between 1828 and 1858 the forest lands through which the boundary line ran were cleared and forest fires swept large tracts of territory, resulting in the obliteration of the line markers. Hence in 1858 the two States provided for a new survey from Frye burg to the Canada line. In 1874 the line was surveyed and marked.
The dispute over the boundary between Maine and New Hampshire involved also the settlement of a dispute regarding the boundary between the latter province and Massachusetts. Commissioners being unable to agree in 1731, another board of commissioners met in 1737 and submitted a report to the King who in 1740 declared " That the northern boundary of the province of Massa chusetts be a similar curve line pursuing the course of the Merrimac River. at three miles distance, on the north side
thereof, beginning at the Atlantic Ocean and ending at a point due north of the Pautucket Palls, and a straight line drawn from thence, due west, till it meets with His Majesty's other governments." New Hampshire claimed as her southern boundary a line due west from a point on the sea three miles north of the mouth of the Merrimac, but Massachusetts contended that the King meant three miles north of any part of the river. In 1741-42 New Hampshire pro ceeded to run and mark the line, but in 1774 an investigation, based on actual surveys, showed that the previous line had run so far north of west as to deprive New Hampshire of a large tract of land. In 1825 commissioners were appointed to run the line and monuments were erected accordingly. In 1885 the line was resurveyed and marked, but a dispute arose over the boundary west of Pawtucket Falls. In 1742 Richard Hazen had marked this part of the boundary, running the line from a point three miles north of Pawtucket Falls, across the Connecticut River to the supposed boundary line of New York, on what he believed to be a due west course from the place of beginning. When the matter was adjusted in 1894 the Hazen line was settled upon and re-marked from Pawtucket Falls to the northwest corner of Massachusetts.
New Hampshire also asserted her ownership of the territory now embraced within the State of Vermont, coming into conflict with New York, which colony claimed all the country west of the Connecticut River under the Duke of York's charters of 1664 and 1674. On appeal to the King an order in council was issued 20 July 1764 declaring "the western banks of the river Connecticut, from where it enters the province of Massachusetts Bay, as far north as the forty-fifth degree of northern to be the boundary line. Despite this ruling the controversy continued, but the line was finally accepted and now constitutes the boundary be tween Vermont and New Hampshire.
On 15 Jan. 1777, Vermont declared herself independent of New York and claimed all territory west to the Hudson, and from its source north to the international boundary, in cluding a tract along the west shore of Lake Champlain. A part of New Hampshire, too, sought to join Vermont at one time. Massa chusetts assented to Vermont's independence in 1781, in 1782 Vermont settled her differences with New Hampshire, on 6 March 1790 New York passed an act assenting to Vermont's ad mission to the Union and defining her bound aries, and in 1791 she was admitted. In 1814 the line between New York and Vermont was surveyed and marked by a joint commission, but in 1876 the line was changed (and ratified by Congress 7 April 1880) by a cession of a small tract from Vermont to New York com prising that part of Fairhaven, Rutland County, west of the middle of Poultney River.