POPHAM
COLONY
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The Virginia Colonies
The Popham Colony was planted at the mouth of the Sagadahoc River, today's Kennebec River in the State of Maine. The principal installation of the colony, Fort St. George, was placed at the tip of a headland named Sabino. This particular place was carefully selected for the purpose of initiating English colonization in the north. Nevertheless, the venture failed after a year and Fort St. George was abandoned. The failure had a discouraging effect upon English colonization in northern Virginia, and it was not until after the promotions of John Smith (for the land he renamed New England) and the success of the Pilgrims that the impetus was renewed.
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On April 10, 1606, James I signed
the first charter granting a newly formed joint stock company the right to
establish colonies on those shores of North America known to the English since
the days of Sir Walter Raleigh as Virginia. The so-called Virginia Company was
divided by the royal charter into two ventures, named the London Company and the
Plymouth Company. The London Company was granted that part of Virginia lying
between 34° and 41°N, while the Plymouth Company was assigned the more
northerly latitudes of 38° to 45° N. Each company was to plant its initial
colony within the nonoverlapping portions of the respective grants. The degrees
of overlap between 38° and 41° were to be claimed by the first colony that was
strong enough to do so. The London Company Colony, also known as the Southern
Colony or the First Colony—and ultimately to history as the Jamestown
Colony—was to become the first permanent English settlement in North America.
This distinction has obscured the fact, fame, and fate of the Northern, or
Second, Colony which is more popularly called the Popham Colony.