Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 07.pdf/496

 The Supreme Court of Maine.

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THE SUPREME COURT OF MAINE. I. By Charles Hamlin. THE first organized government within the limits of Maine exercising judicial powers appears to have been established by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who, under his nephew, William Gorges, set up a court at Saco in 1636. The members of the court, seven in number, were styled commissioners, and resided in different parts of the province styled New Somersetshire, extending beween the Piscataqua and Kennebec rivers. Of these commissioners, Purchase was from Brunswick, Cammock and Josselyn from Scarboro, Bonithorn and Lewis from Saco, and Godfrey from York. The court thus established by William Gorges assumed gen eral jurisdiction, and exercised governmental as well as judicial authority, endeavoring to introduce good order among the detached settlements along the coast from the Piscata qua River to Pemaquid. An early step thus taken by this court was an order, dated Feb ruary 7, 1636, directed to Thomas Lewis, requiring him to " appear the next court day at the new dwelling-house of Thomas Williams (Winter Harbor), there to answer his contempt, and to show cause why he will not deliver up the combination [regula tions of government adopted by the compa nies settled at Agamenticus and other places] belonging to us, and to answer to such actions as are commenced against him." The records of this time are fragmentary, but there remains enough to show that the forms of procedure were simple and free from technicalities — due to the absence of lawyers. Actions of trespass, slander, incontinency, for drunkenness and " rash speeches" occurred frequently. The name of the territory was changed to

the Province of Maine under the patent is sued to Sir Ferdinando, dated April 3, 1639, and he was empowered, among other things, to establish courts of justice, ecclesiastical, civil and temporal, and to appoint magis trates, judges and officers, with the right of appeal to the Lord Proprietor. Under this charter he appointed an executive council. The board, consisting of able men, was com posed of Thomas Gorges, deputy governor, and his councillors, Vines, Champernoon, Jos selyn, Bonithorn, Hooke and Godfrey. In the records of their courts they are styled com missioners. Besides the usual civil and crim inal powers, the court was also invested vith admiralty and probate jurisdiction. The first session of the court was held June 25, 1640, when Roger Garde was sworn in as register, and Robert Sankey as provost marshal. Eighteen civil actions and nine complaints were then entered. At the Sep tember term, the deputy governor presided, and there were pending twenty-eight civil actions, nine of which were tried before a jury, and thirteen indictments. The council ordered one general term to be held annu ally, on the twenty-fifth day of June, at Saco, and divided the province into two districts; the dividing line being the Kennebec River, with three terms of court in each district to be held by an inferior court. At the same term, letters of administration upon the es tate of Richard Williams were granted to Payton Cooke, gent., being the first granted in the Province of Maine. Besides these courts, commissioners were appointed from time to time, in the different towns with powers similar to trial justices of the present day. Their jurisdiction in civil