Province of Maine | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1622–1691 | |||||||||
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 The 1622 grant of the Province of Maine is shown outlined in blue. The 1629 division into the Province of New Hampshire (south of the Piscataqua) and the Province of Maine (north of the Piscataqua) is shown by shading. The boundaries of the Massachusetts Bay Company grant are shown in green. | |||||||||
| Status | Disestablished | ||||||||
| Religion | Anglicanism, Congregationalism | ||||||||
| Government | Self-governing colony | ||||||||
| Governor | |||||||||
• 1636-1638 | William Gorges (first) | ||||||||
• 1689-1692 | Thomas Danforth (last) | ||||||||
| Historical era | British colonization of the Americas Puritan migration to New England | ||||||||
• Established | 1622 | ||||||||
• Council for New England patent | 1622 | ||||||||
• Gorges Patent | 1639 | ||||||||
• Duke of York grants | 1664 | ||||||||
| 1686-1689 | |||||||||
• Dissolved, incorporated into Massachusetts Bay | 1691 | ||||||||
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The Province of Maine refers to any of the various English colonies established in the 17th century along the northeast coast of North America, within portions of the present-day U.S. states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick. It existed through a series of land patents made by the kings of England during this era, and included New Somersetshire, Lygonia, and Falmouth (now Portland, Maine). The province was incorporated into the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the 1650s, beginning with the formation of York County, Massachusetts, which extended from the Piscataqua River to just east of the mouth of the Presumpscot River in Casco Bay. Eventually, its territory grew to encompass nearly all of present-day Maine.