The Popham/Sagadahoc Colony and Other Adventures on the Coast of New England 1602-08 Part 1

The History of the Americans

The English established a colony on the coast near today’s Phippsburg, Maine in 1607, only a couple of months after the founding of Jamestown. It would survive just over a year. The Popham or Sagadahoc Colony was the culmination of several exploratory missions along the New England coast from approximately Cape Cod to Maine between 1602 and 1605. In 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold, who would eventually die at Jamestown, led the first of those missions to the New England coast and gave several famous places names that we use today, including Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard. His expedition would stay in the Elizabeth Islands, which shelter Buzzard's Bay in Massachusetts, for more than three weeks, and have extensive encounters with local indigenous peoples. The Gosnold narrative of those encounters has all sorts of interesting stuff! Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Selected references for this episode Henry Otis Thayer, The Sagadahoc Colony: Comprising the Relation of a Voyage Into New England Warner F. Gookin, "Who was Bartholomew Gosnold?", The William and Mary Quarterly, July 1949. A briefe and true relation of the discouerie of the north part of Virginia being a most pleasant, fruitfull and commodious soile: made this present yeere 1602, by Captaine Bartholomew Gosnold, Captaine Bartholowmew [sic] Gilbert, and diuers other gentlemen their associats, by the permission of the honourable knight, Sir Walter Ralegh, &c. Written by M. Iohn Brereton one of the voyage.