The Popham Colony

Transcriber's Note:
The following Contents list was not present in the original. It has been added for the convenience of the reader.
Remaining transcriber's notes are at the end of the text.
WITH A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE SUBJECT
BOSTON J. K. WIGGIN AND LUNT 13 SCHOOL STREET 1866
Edition, Three Hundred Copies.
BOSTON: PRESS OF ALFRED MUDGE & SON.

In the following discussion, the arguments for and against the historical claims of the English Colony that landed at the mouth of the Kennebec River, August 19, (O. S.) 1607, are presented in an able and comprehensive manner. The articles, when they appeared in the columns of a daily newspaper, attracted much attention; and, as they contain matter of permanent historical interest, we have deemed them worthy of preservation in a collected form.
The writers can have no further motive for withholding their names. We therefore state that P. is Mr. William Frederick Poole, Librarian of the Boston Athenæum; that Sabino is Rev. Edward Ballard, D. D., of Brunswick, Me.; and that Orient and Sagadahoc are the signatures of Mr. Frederic Kidder, of Boston.
Each year, since the first Popham Celebration in 1862, memorial services have been held on the Anniversary of the Landing in 1607. Public addresses have been delivered on these occasions, and these have usually been printed. Mr. John A. Poor, of Portland, Me., delivered the Oration in 1862; Mr. George Folsom, of New York, in 1863; Mr. Edward E. Bourne, of Kennebunk, Maine, in 1864; and Prof. James W. Patterson, of Dartmouth College, in 1865.
This discussion arose from a notice by Mr. Poole, in the Boston Daily Advertiser of April 11, 1866, of Prof. Patterson's Address which appeared about that time in print. In this notice the writer sharply assailed the claims for the Popham Colony, as set forth by the orator, and also by Mr. Kidder in a Letter which the Publishing Committee of the Celebration had printed as an Appendix to the Address. Dr. Ballard replied in the Boston Daily Advertiser of April 21; and Mr. Kidder in the Portland Advertiser of April 26. From this point, the disputants came into close quarters on the general merits of the question.