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Sir Ferdinando Gorges (July 1565 – May 24, 1647), the "Father of English Colonization in North America",〔John Franklin Jameson, Henry Eldridge Bourne, Robert Livingston Schuyler, The American historical review, Volume 4:P683〕 was an early English colonial entrepreneur and founder of the Province of Maine in 1622, although Gorges himself never set foot in the New World. ==Biography== Sir Ferdinando Gorges was born in July 1565 in Clerkenwell, Middlesex, England, the son of Edward Gorges, Esquire and Lady Cicely Lygon. He was born only a few weeks before his father's death. He is named for his mother's brother, Ferdinando Lygon. Very little documentation exists regarding his early life and education. He was brought up at Nailsea Court at Kenn near Wraxall.〔University of Toronto Press, and the Royal Military College of Canada, 1953, Preston, Richard Arthur, GORGES OF PLYMOUTH FORT, The Life of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Captain of Plymouth Fort, Governor of New England, and Lord of the Province of Maine, pp. 19–20〕 He is descended from a cadet branch of the Russells of Kingston Russell, Dorset, which had changed its name to the matronymic Gorges, which family had died out in the male line on the death of Ralph de Gorges of Knighton, Isle of Wight, 2nd Baron Gorges, in 1331. He entered the army at an early age and had obtained the rank of captain at the siege of Sluys in 1587, was a prisoner at Lisle in 1588, wounded at the siege of Paris in 1589 and knighted at the siege of Rouen in 1591. He was rewarded for his services by the post of Governor of the Fort at Plymouth, which he held for many years.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://biography.yourdictionary.com/sir-ferdinando-gorges )〕 In 1601, he became involved in the Essex Conspiracy and later testified against its leader, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. His interest in colonisation was invoked when Captain George Weymouth presented him with three captured American Indians.〔Wikisource:Gorges, Ferdinando (DNB00)〕 In 1607, as a shareholder in the Plymouth Company, he helped fund the failed Popham Colony, in present-day Phippsburg, Maine.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.mpbn.net/homestom/timelines/bios/gorges.html )〕 In 1622, Gorges received a land patent, along with John Mason, from the Plymouth Council for New England for the Province of Maine, the original boundaries of which were between the Merrimack and Kennebec rivers.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/grant-of-his-interest-in-new-hampshire-by-sir-ferdinando-gorges-to-captain-john-mason/ )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/me01.asp )〕 "Ye Province of Maine" had its birth in this charter, dated August 10, 1622 in the reign of England's King James. A reconfirmed and enhanced 1639 charter from England's King Charles I, gave Sir Ferdinando Gorges increased powers over this new province and stated that it "shall forever hereafter, be called and named the PROVINCE OR COUNTIE OF MAINE, and not by any other name or names whatsoever..."〔Fisher, Carol B. Smith, "Who Really Named Maine", Bangor Daily News, 26 Feb. 2002, pg. A9; Burrage, Henry S., GORGES and The Grant of the Province of Maine 1622 A Tercentenary Memorial, pp. 167–173.〕 In 1629, he and Mason divided the colony, with Mason's portion south of the Piscataqua River becoming the Province of New Hampshire.〔 Gorges and his nephew established Maine's first court system. Capt. Christopher Levett, early English explorer of the New England Coast, was an agent for Gorges, as well as a member for the crown's Plymouth Council for New England.〔(York Deeds, Maine Historical Society, Maine Genealogical Society, John T. Hull, Portland, 1887 )〕 Levett's attempt to establish a colony in Maine ultimately failed, and he died aboard ship returning to England after meeting with Governor John Winthrop in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630.〔(History of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford, Massachusetts Historical Society, 1912 )〕〔(Portland in the Past, William Goold, 1886 )〕 Ferdinando Gorges's son was Robert Gorges, Governor-General of New England from 1623–1624. But Robert Gorges was seen with some suspicion by American colonists, who were skeptical of Gorges' almost feudal idea of governance and settlement, and ultimately Gorges returned to England. In the 1630s Gorges attempted to revive the moribund claims of the Plymouth Company. In concert with colonists banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he formally questioned the issuance of its royal charter in 1632, and forwarded complaints and charges made by the disaffected colonists to the Privy Council of Charles I. His efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.mpbn.net/homestom/p9massbaycolony.html )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ferdinando Gorges」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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