Two birds with one ... pellet (George Popham and Maine Historical Society)

The Maine Historical Society has been a natural staging point for my search for heraldry in Maine. In a visit to their website I happened to notice in the header a partial watermark of what appears to be a coat of arms of the society itself.

I quickly emailed the society to see if I could get a better image of the symbol and any explanation of its origins or design. Technical glitches got in the way, and I didn't receive their response till just a week ago after I visited the MHS Brown Library in person.

I was surprised and very pleased to see familiar arms in the second quarter. A white field. Gules chief. Two stags heads... this must be related to a Popham of some sort, quite possibly the settler George Popham himself.

In a summer newsletter of 1986 (the year I was born, by the way) the society published the history of the armorial design:

At the heart is a shield, divided into four sections. At the upper left is a chevron taken from the seal used by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, first proprietor of Maine. Across are two stags' heads separated by a crescent, from the seal used by Sir George Popham, early promoter of colonization. Below is the emblem of crosses borne by Edward Godfrey, first Governor of Maine. At lower left is the fleur-de-lis, signifying French attempts to colonize Maine. 

Above is a scroll with four important dates: 1605, the first voyage to Maine; 1649, the first election of a governor by the people; 1678, usurpation of the Territory of Maine by the Government of Massachusetts; and 1820, Maine statehood. The pen behind the scroll indicates that the work of the historian is never completed.

In my explorations of the Brown Library, I found a rendition of the MHS coat of arms on a bookplate that places the dates on an escutcheon of pretense instead of the scroll. I actually prefer this, despite most heraldry enthusiasts' preferences to avoid text on shields.

Nonetheless, it was exciting to find an authoritative use of the arms of George Popham. I was safe assuming before that Popham differenced his arms in some way, but I was never sure exactly how.

To further back this up, I found an interesting book titled, "Memorial Volume of the Popham Celebration" published in 1862 commemorating the "planting of the Popham Colony on the peninsula of Sabino." Amongst other documents and narratives is a collection of letters regarding the planning of the celebration. In one letter, a Rev. Dr. Jenks writes about his research and confirmation that Sir George Popham would have borne the arms of his uncle, the notable and then head of the family, Sir John Popham but "differenced by a crescent."

That's sufficient evidence for my own hobby research. However if anyone has found examples of contemporary uses of these arms by George Popham, I would very much like to see them. The MHS newsletter cited above refers to a "seal used by Sir George Popham." Perhaps a later trip to the Brown Library will reveal it.

Early Explorers of Maine

Giovanni Caboto

Europeans began exploring Maine over one hundred years before George Popham settled and died in what is today Phippsburg. Many of the leaders of these expeditions were men from wealthy families of high standing. It's likely many or all of them were armigerous.

Below is a list of gentlemen who are either soundly confirmed to have explored Maine or may have based on cursory references to the area in contemporary documents.

John Cabot, or rather Giovanni Caboto, was a Venetian and is believed to have explored Maine during his second voyage to the new world in 1497 - though this is not confirmed. Like Columbus, he sailed for a sponsor nation, in this case England.

Giovanni da Verrazzano is considered to be the first European explorer of North America since the Norse expeditions, though his trip was in 1524, 27 years after John Cabots alleged visit. Verrazzano sailed on behalf of the French crown.

Don Estaban Gomez, was a Portugese cartographer. In 1524 or 1525, he explored Nova Scotia and the Maine coast and mistook the Penobscot river for the fabled Northwest Passage. According to one theory, Gomez is also responsible for naming Saco and Casco Bay.

David Ingram, an English explorer has an interesting story I'm going to have to read into more. In 1568 he was found on the coast of Nova Scotia by a French fishing vessel. Before that, his last known location was near what is today the Mexican and Texas border. According to his own accounts, he traversed the interior of North America over an 11 month period.

John Walker from England bombarded a native village in Penobscot in the year 1580.

Samuel de Champlain of France, is second to only John Smith on this list in terms of fame. He was an incredibly accomplished explorer, considered the "Father of New France" or more importantly to this blog, "The Father of Acadia." He is responsible for naming Mount Desert Island (Isles des Monts Desert) and Isle au Haut in Maine.

George Weymouth of England can partially be blamed for the lack of success at Popham Colony. In 1604 he explored the area of Monhegan and Sagadahoc and kidnapped several natives which tarnished future settler-indian relations.

Henry Hudson of England, who has all sorts of places named after him is believed to have passed through Maine in 1609 while captaining the  Dutch Half Moon.

Source

John Smith, of Pocahontas fame explored Maine in 1614 and was responsible for renaming the whole region New England. According to wikipedia (which I will of course verify), before he explored the new world he defeated and beheaded three Ottoman commanders in duels and was awarded a coat of arms by a Transylvanian prince featuring three severed Turks' heads. Preliminary Googling yielded an image of a Gules chevron between the three heads on an Argent field. Another illustration features a Vert field.

Source

I invite readers to share with me any leads you may have regarding these explorers and their potential use of arms. I'm going to start chronologically with the two Giovannis. I'm unaware of any contemporary records of Italian arms, especially any that have been digitized, but I'm in this for the long haul.

Saco Celebrates 250 Years

Last month, the city of Saco reached it's 250th anniversary. Celebrations have been ongoing for a few weeks and will end this Sunday, July 8. I don't get to the deep southern sections of the state as often as I'd like, but quite a while ago I was driving through a town that had a coat of arms on every street sign. I had always planned on going back to figure out which town it was and identify the arms, but I recently stumbled across the news of Saco's Sesquibicentennial and I have a hunch Saco was the armigerous city.

Pictured on every street sign (if I'm right) are the arms of William Pepperrell. (The illustration on the left is from the American Heraldry Society Roll of Early American Arms.) The Municipal website of Saco does a fine job telling the tale of the city's formation, but in short it used to be called Pepperrellborough in honor of the town's benefactor. The arms are blazoned: Argent a chevron Gules between three pine-apples Vert.

Unfortunately on the municipal website they've posted an image of the arms as produced by a bucket-shop which is erroneously emblazoned with the tropical fruit pineapple. At the time these arms were likely created, "pine-apples" were the English name for what we now call pine cones. I sincerely hope that when I visit Saco again, that all the street signs with Pepperrell's coat of arms depicts them as pine cones instead of pineapples.

Today, the City of Saco's official seal (right) incorporates heraldry. If you pretend the bordure is a decorative border and that the gradient background is in fact Argent, it's actually quite a nice derivative. My guess or recommendation would be: Argent a chevron cottised Azure between three pine-apples Vert. I suppose they could be pine trees, which would also be appropriate.

Congratulations, Saco on your 250 years and your fine heraldic heritage.

The Arms of George Popham

Possible arms of George 
Popham.
Argent on a chief gules,
two bucks' heads
caboshed or

I began researching Maine Heraldry twenty minutes down the road from my home town in the small village of Phippsburg, a heavily forested coastal hamlet which hasn’t changed much in the past two hundred years. There stands Fort Popham. It’s a stone fort built during the Civil War which is really fun to play on as a child who loves medieval themes of knights and castles. Just up a goat-path of a road is a small grass field overlooking the same body of water. There isn’t much there, just a plaque describing the field’s brief story. This is where the English built their first New England colony, Popham, also known as Sagadahoc Colony after the native name for the southern end of the Kennebec River on which it sits. It is also known as Fort St. George. It was settled in 1607, just months after Jamestown and more than a decade before Plymouth.

The leaders of the expedition that founded Popham colony were George Popham (elected President) and Raleigh Gilbert (Admiral) who sailed to Maine and captained the Gift of God and Mary and John, respectively. Both gentlemen came from prestigious families. Popham’s uncle was Sir John Popham, an important lawyer who presided during the trials of Sir Walter Raleigh and Guy Fawkes. Gilbert’s father was Sir Humphrey Gilbert, another explorer of the Americas and half brother to Sir Walter Raleigh.

Despite being an important experience for English colonists, Popham colony is not very well known because it didn’t thrive and was abandoned. The colonists were unable to establish trade relations with the native Abenaki tribe. Aboriginals of the area had grown suspicious of Europeans who had, in the past, kidnapped natives to show at home. A late summer arrival meant no time for planting food. Winter was brutally cold. Diaries claimed that the Kennebec (salt water) River froze, which is a major feat. I grew up on the Kennebec and the coldest winter in my life didn’t come close to freezing that beast. Fires destroyed the storehouse. Popham died at the colony in 1608. It’s entirely possibly that he was the only person to die, unlike the Jamestown expedition which lost half its population at the same time.

The rest of the colonists returned to England shortly after. Gilbert himself rushed back to claim an inheritance which included a title and estate after his brother John died. The colony only lasted just over a year. Diaries described the land as barren, and ill-suited for colonization. But more importantly it lacked gold. The colonists also built a ship which would be the first English vessel constructed on American soil, the Virginia. It was a very sturdy pinnace and continued to sail between the colonies for about twenty years.

The Complete American Armoury and Blue Book by John Matthews has the following on arms attributed to the name Popham.

This is of course a different George Popham, but the George in question is from the Huntworth branch of Pophams in Somersetshire and was also John's nephew. It's possible these were the arms born by our President of Popham Colony and the first English arms born in Maine.

Hello world.

Heraldry is a subject matter that I've been fascinated with since I was a child. It's the marriage (marshaling?) of my interests in medieval history with art and design. There are few things more aesthetically pleasing to me than seeing several colorful flags flapping in the wind, or a kaleidoscope of knights' shields and banners charging forward.

There's also something fascinating about the "science" side of heraldry. Yes, science. To newcomers of the subject, you'll be surprised to learn that behind those seemingly arbitrary designs, there is a world of traditions and archaic rules governing not only the design of shields and their accouterments, but also their uses. In fact in order to catalog them, there's even a unique language (called "blazon") devised to describe in text the designs.

This is not my first blog. I've written quite a bit in the past. My first endeavor was to update family and friends while studying abroad in France. Since then, I've written extensively about politics. I'm less interested in that these days.

With "Maine Heraldry" I plan to exhibit my minor research in historical and contemporary uses of arms in the state of Maine. Actually, I shouldn't even call it research. It degrades the years of tedious work completed by scholars before me. I'm mostly just exploring.

I don't plan on writing much about the basics of heraldry. I don't think I could do any better than the countless efforts before me. There is lots of material out their for the nascent heraldry enthusiasts among you. If you're new to the subject, I recommend starting with wikipedia. Admittedly, it only glances over the subject, but it features an extensive References section for further study. For Americans, the next best place (actually, maybe the best starting point) would be visiting the American Heraldry Society website.