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The Popham Colony (also known as the Sagadahoc Colony) was a short-lived English colonial settlement in North America that was founded in 1607 and located in the present-day town of Phippsburg, Maine near the mouth of the Kennebec River by the proprietary Virginia Company of Plymouth. It was founded a few months after, and in the same year as, its more successful rival, the colony at Jamestown, which was established on May 4, 1607 by the Virginia Company of London in present-day James City County, Virginia. The Popham Colony was the first colony in the region that would eventually become known as New England, coming five years after a short encampment on Cuttyhunk. The colony was abandoned after only one year, apparently more due to family changes in the leadership ranks than lack of success in the New World. The loss of life of the colonists in 1607 and 1608 at Popham was far lower than that experienced at Jamestown. The first ship built by the English in the New World was completed during the year of the Popham Colony and was sailed back across the Atlantic Ocean to England. The pinnace, named ''Virginia of Sagadahoc'', was apparently quite seaworthy, and crossed the Atlantic again successfully in 1609 as part of Sir Christopher Newport's nine vessel Third Supply mission to Jamestown. The tiny ''Virginia'' survived a massive three day storm en route which was thought to have been a hurricane and which wrecked the mission's large new flagship ''Sea Venture'' on Bermuda. The exact site of the Popham Colony was lost until its rediscovery in 1994. Much of this historical location is now part of Maine's Popham Beach State Park, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. ==Founding== Popham was a project of the Plymouth Company, which was one of the two competing parts of the proprietary Virginia Company that King James had chartered in 1606 to raise private funds from investors in order to settle Virginia. At the time, the name "Virginia" applied to the entire northeast coast of North America from Spanish Florida to New France in modern-day Canada. At the time that area was technically under the claim of Spanish crown, but was not occupied by the Spanish. The Plymouth Company was granted a royal charter and the rights to the coast between 38° and 45° N; the rival London Company was granted the coast between 34° and 41° N. The colonists were to plant first within their respective non-overlapping areas; the overlapping area between 38° and 41° would then go to the first company that proved "strong enough" to colonize it. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Popham Colony」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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