Forty-nine of the states have documented histories telling where
their names originated. One state’s name origin has always remained shrouded
in mystery: the state of Maine.
The origin of "Maine" has baffled historians since "Ye
Province of Maine" had its birth in the 10 August 1622 charter, during
the reign of England’s King James I. A reconfirmed and enhanced 1639 charter
from England’s King Charles I gave Sir Ferdinando Gorges increased powers
over his 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…"
It would appear that Sir Ferdinando Gorges of Somersetshire, England,
chose the name of Maine for his new province as affirmed in the charters. However,
historians have speculated wildly as to why he chose that name. Maine schoolchildren
have always been taught that the land was named by early sailors, who often
referred to that coast as the Maine or Mainland or the Meyne or the Maine Land.
Writing in the Bangor (Maine) Daily News, Carol B. Smith Fisher
offers another suggestion. Fisher contacted the Somerset and Dorset Family History
Society in England to see if they could offer any further clues to the origin
of Maine. The Somerset and Dorset Family History Society should be quite familiar
with Sir Ferdinando Gorges’ home town in the late 1500s and early 1600s.
Fisher wanted to see if one of Sir Ferdinando’s ancestors might be connected
with the name Maine since he named Lygonia for his mother, Cecily (Lygon) Gorges.
Instead, Mrs. Horsfall, of the Somerset and Dorset Family History
Society, offered a very different possibility. In the area of an ancient ancestral
estate of the Gorges family, known as Shipton Gorges in Dorset, lies a small
village called Broadmayne. Sir Ferdinando Gorges is a direct descendant of Ralph
de Gorges, who came from Coutances of Normandy, France, during the time of William
the Conqueror, in 1066. His family’s English roots took hold near a small
Anglo-Saxon village today called Broadmayne.
You can read a lot more about this story here.
Dick Eastman Online
