Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 07.pdf/52

 An Early Case of Trespass in Maine.

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AN EARLY CASE OF TRESPASS IN MAINE. , By Geo. J. Varney. THE number of distinct governments more or less inimical to each other that have been endured by the southwestern section of Maine is uncountable, —■ less from the number (nearly a dozen) than from their often coincidence, resulting in confusion of authority and jurisdiction. There had been governments by local association from the first settlement of a group of families; but in 1636, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, having had his grant of the province of Maine confirmed, with rights of government, sent over a governor and es tablished the first court in Maine, — the province being, under this organization, New Somersetshire. This territory ex tended from the Piscataqua River to that of the New Plymouth colony on the Ken nebec. His governor stayed only until the next year; but it was not until 1640 that the lord-proprietor sent another to represent him, — this time his "trusty and well-be loved cousin, Thomas Gorges, Esq.," — who, like himself, was of the established church. At a session of court held in September of that year there were tried an action for drunkenness, another for the sale of the liquor that was its cause, one for debt, one for slander, two for swearing oaths, two for profanation of the Sabbath, and the one we are to consider, — the case of Richard Tucker, proprietor of the Presumpscot lands, against Thomas Purchas, proprietor of the broad peninsula of Pejepscot, occupying the area between the Androscoggin River and the sea, from the lower falls to the mouth of the river. The court record runs thus : — "Richard Tucker cometh into this court and declareth that nine years since, or thereabouts, there came one Sir Christopher Gardiner to plaintiff in the name of the defendant, Thomas

Purchas, and borrowed of him a warming-pan, which cost here in this country 12s. 6d., which the defendant hath all this time and still doth wrongfully detain from the plaintiff. And also the said Sir Christopher did six months after or thereabouts, buy of the plaintiff a new fowlingpiece for 40s. which he promised to pay within a month after, which money, both for the warm ing-pan and the piece, the plaintiff hath often times demanded of the defendant, who doth still refuse to pay the same, to the damage of the plaintiff at least $j£ sterling, for which the plain tiff commenceth his action of trespass on the case against the defendant in this court, and humbly desireth a legal hearing according to law." The Sir Christopher Gardiner here re ferred to is that picturesque personage who arrived at Boston in 1630, — whose dudish debut and indecorous doings in the Puritan precincts are described and narrated in Longfellow's " Rhyme of Sir Christopher," the landlord's contribution to the Tales of the Wayside Inn. As there delineated, — "His rapier dangling at his feet, Doublet and hose and boots complete, Prince Rupert hat with ostrich plume, Gloves that exhale a feint perfume, And superior manners now obsolete, —" he is a strikingly attractive figure, and must have caused a sensation among the Puritan maidens, — until certain other things were learned that properly rendered him ob noxious to all good citizens. Sir Christopher was a traveled man, hav ing penetrated the Orient as far as Jerusa lem, — where he was made a knight of the Holy Sepulchre. Moreover he was of the family of the persecuting bishop, Stephen Gardiner, in the reign of the bloody Mary. These things gave him a decided Roman Catholic flavor to the taste of the Bay people; besides which, letters surreptitiously opened by the authorities on the way to