Historian Bud Warren will give an illustrated talk on the failed Popham Colony of 1607, at the Camden Public Library on Tuesday, April 23, at 7:00 pm. “Before the Pilgrims: The 1607 English Colony on the Kennebec” tells the story of the first attempted settling of the New World by the English, in what is now Phippsburg. The presentation is part of the library’s Maritime Month celebration of our maritime history and culture.
The Popham Colony lasted only fourteen months on the coast of Maine, while its sister colony hung on at Jamestown and became America’s first permanent settlement. This talk will explore what motivated 17th century entrepreneurs to finance, manage, and operate an overseas base in Maine. Hear the fascinating story of the ten-season archaeological effort that documented the colony’s existence, and learn how and why they built the pinnace “Virginia,” the first English ship constructed on the North American continent.
The colonists arrived in August, and thus were not able to plant and harvest any food for the winter. The coming of winter exposed some problems. Relations with the local natives were polite but not cordial — the tribes perhaps remembering an earlier English expedition that had kidnapped their people. About half the settlers returned to England in early December, leaving the remainder to survive the brutally cold winter, and as factions developed among those who stayed.
Speaker Bud Warren grew up in Maine, lobstered as a young man, and has rowed much of the Maine coast. After Yale he taught school and worked at Bath Iron Works. For more than 40 years he has researched and lectured about the heritage of the region. He is a favorite presenter at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, and formerly was president of Maine’s First Ship, the organization building a reconstruction of “Virginia,” the Popham colonist’s vessel built in 1607/8.
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