Popham Colony facts for kids
The Popham Colony, also known as the Sagadahoc Colony, was an early English settlement in North America. It was started in 1607 by the Plymouth Company, a group of investors. The colony was located in what is now Phippsburg, Maine, near the mouth of the Kennebec River.
This colony was founded just a few months after the more famous Jamestown colony in Virginia. Jamestown was started on May 4, 1607, by a different group, the Virginia Company of London.
Popham was the second English colony in the area that would later be called New England. It came five years after a short French camp on Cuttyhunk Island. The Popham Colony lasted only 14 months. It was abandoned mainly because its leaders and financial supporters died, not because it was failing in the New World. In fact, fewer people died at Popham than at Jamestown during the same time.
An important achievement at Popham was building the first ocean-going ship by the English in the New World. This ship, a small vessel called the Virginia of Sagadahoc, sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to England. It was a strong ship and even survived a big storm in 1609 while sailing to Jamestown.
The exact spot of the Popham Colony was lost for many years. It was rediscovered in 1888 when a map of the site was found in Spain. This map perfectly matched the location at Sabino Head, near Maine's Popham Beach State Park. Later digs by archaeologists in 1994 confirmed the site and the map's accuracy. Today, the site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Contents
History of the Popham Colony
Starting the Settlement
The Popham Colony was a project of the Plymouth Company. This company was one of two groups that King James I allowed to raise money to settle "Virginia" in 1606. At that time, "Virginia" meant the entire east coast of North America, from Florida to Canada.
The Plymouth Company was given rights to the coast between 38° and 45° North. The other group, the London Company, got the coast between 34° and 41° North. The first company to successfully settle the overlapping area (between 38° and 41°) would claim it.
The Colonists' Journey
The first ship sent by the Plymouth Company in August 1606 was captured by the Spanish. But their next try was more successful. About 120 colonists, all men and boys, left Plymouth, England, on May 31, 1607. They sailed on two ships: the Gift of God and the Mary and John.
Their goals were to trade for valuable metals, spices, and furs. They also wanted to show that English ships could be built using the local forests. George Popham was the colony's president. Raleigh Gilbert was second in command.
The Gift of God arrived at the mouth of the Kennebec River on August 13, 1607. The Mary and John arrived three days later. They quickly started building a large, star-shaped fort called Fort St. George.
Building Fort St. George
Fort St. George was named after Saint George, England's patron saint. It was built on a piece of land called Sabino, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of what is now Bath, Maine.
On October 8, 1607, a colonist named John Hunt, who was a "draughtsman" (someone who draws plans), made a map of the colony. His map showed a star-shaped fort with ditches and walls. It also showed 18 buildings, including the admiral's house, a chapel, a storehouse, and a guardhouse. The map also showed nine cannons of different sizes. It's not clear how much of this was actually built, as the map was drawn when construction was just starting.
Hunt's map was secretly sold to the Spanish ambassador in London. It then went to King Philip III of Spain in 1608. The map was found in the Spanish national archives in 1888.
Fort St. George was left empty after 14 months. Most of the site is privately owned today. However, part of it is within the Fort Baldwin State Historic Site. Between 1994 and 2013, archaeologists explored the site. They found some of the buildings shown on the map and shallow ditches where defensive trenches were planned.
Challenges and Leaving the Colony
Popham and Gilbert sent groups to explore the river and nearby areas. They met the Abenaki, a local Indian tribe. Popham wrote to the King that the area had many resources. However, the colonists could not build a good relationship with the tribe.
Because they arrived late in the summer, there was no time to plant food. With not enough supplies, half of the colonists went back to England in December 1607. They almost starved on the way home.
The remaining colonists faced a very cold winter. The Kennebec River froze. Historical records say a fire destroyed parts of the storehouse. But archaeological digs suggest other buildings burned instead. George Popham died on February 5, 1608. He was the only colonist known to have died. In contrast, Jamestown lost half its people that year. Raleigh Gilbert became the new president of the colony at age 25.
The colonists did complete one big project: they built a 30-ton ship called the Virginia. This was the first English ocean-going ship built in the Americas. The Virginia was meant for exploring the area. Later, it was used to take some colonists back to England when the colony was abandoned. This marked the start of 400 years of shipbuilding in the Bath, Maine area.
In May 1608, a supply ship brought news that Sir John Popham, the main financial supporter, had died. When the Mary and John returned in September 1608, it brought more bad news: Gilbert's older brother had died. This meant Gilbert inherited a title and an estate in England. He decided to return home. Since no other leader was found, the remaining colonists decided to leave. They sailed home in the Mary and John and the Virginia.
The Popham Colony lasted only 14 months. It likely failed due to several reasons:
- Lack of money after Sir John Popham died.
- No new strong leader after Gilbert left.
- Problems with the native people and the French.
- The harsh winter.
Sir Frances Popham, Sir John's son, tried to restart the colony many times but could not get the money. The settlement of New England was delayed until new groups of people, seeking refuge, came to settle.
Later Discoveries at the Site
French colonist Jean de Biencourt visited the empty site in 1611. In 1624, Samuel Maverick also visited. He reported that the site was "overgrown" but garden herbs could still be seen. In the 1700s, the site became farmland, and several houses were built there.
During the American Civil War, the Union army built Fort Popham nearby. In 1905, the US Army built Fort Baldwin on Sabino Head, just west of the site. Parts of the Popham Colony site were used for transport and storage. The state of Maine bought some of the area in 1924. Fort Baldwin was used again during World War II. After the war, it became part of the Fort Baldwin State Historic Site. Most of the Popham Colony site is still privately owned.
Modern Digs and Finds
The first attempts to dig at the site in the 1960s were not successful. In 1994, Jeffrey Brain of the Peabody Essex Museum confirmed the colony's location using Hunt's old map. He started a bigger excavation in 1997. He found the Admiral's house, the storehouse, and a building for storing liquor. He also showed that Hunt's map was very accurate for the buildings that were actually built.
Parts of the fort, like the chapel and graveyard, are on private land and cannot be dug up. The fort's southern part is under a public road. A major discovery in later digs was that iron was being made at the Popham Colony. This might have been the earliest iron smelting in what is now the United States. The excavation finished in 2013.
Images for kids
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Site of Fort George in 2018
