(1565 1647) along with Captain John Mason, was granted ownership of land, to be called The Province of Maine, in 1622 by the Great Council of New England.
Earlier, he had taken care of three Indians who had been kidnapped by George Waymouth (Weymouth) in 1605, returning them to America in 1607.
In 1629, Mason and Gorges divided their property, Mason taking the land west of the Piscataqua River and naming it New Hampshire. Gorges named his land, to the east, New Somersetshire.
In 1635 he was named Governor-General of all New England. Later, in 1639, he was granted an exclusive grant in the Province of Maine by King Charles. Gorges made the city of Gorgeana (now the town of York) the capital of his province in 1641.
After his death in 1647, the British parliament declared his grant invalid, contributing to a period of confusion regarding landownership in the province.
Additional resources
Baxter, James Phinney. Sir Ferdinando Gorges and His Province of Maine. Boston. Printed for the Prince Society. 1890.
Burrage, Henry S. Gorges and the Grant of the Province of Maine, 1622: A Tercentenary Manual. Printed for the State. 1923.
Preston, Richard Arthur. Gorges of Plymouth Fort: a life of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Captain of Plymouth Fort, Governor of New England, and Lord of the Province of Maine. Toronto. University of Toronto Press. 1953.