In 1606, King James I of England assigned land rights to the Virginia Company for the purpose of spreading Christianity from modern day Florida to Maine. The King provided a new charter in 1620, giving rights of settlement to the Plymouth Company for land previously held by the Virginia Company.

The new land disposition was for “our well disposed Subjects, that intended to make several Plantations in the Parts of America”—including Ferdinando Gorges who held the charter for the Province of Maine and Lygonia. The colored borders on the map represent Gorges’s patent in yellow, the Kennebec Patent—a later incarnation of the Plymouth Company—in green, and the “Ancient Province of Maine” in blue.

Some names mentioned on the map include Ferdinando Gorges, George Cleeve, Robert Trelauny, Josselyn, John Stratton, Thomas Cammock, Richard Bonython, Thomas Lewis, John Oldham, Richard Vines, Robert Aldsworth, and Giles Elbridge.

James P. Baxter, copied this map in 1885. The original outline was drawn November 3, 1620 with a scale of [1:633600] 1 inch to 10 miles.