Wessagusset Colony - Second Wessagusset Colony

Second Wessagusset Colony

At approximately the same time, the Plymouth Council for New England was sponsoring a new colony for New England. A patent for a settlement covering 300 square miles (780 km2) of what is now north-east of Boston Bay was given to an English captain and son of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Robert Gorges. This settlement was intended to be a spiritual and civil capital of the council's New England colonies. Gorges was commissioned as Governor-General with authority over Plymouth and presumably future colonies. His government was also to consist of a leadership council, of which Plymouth's Governor Bradford would be a member. Unlike Weston, who had brought only working men, Gorges brought families intending for a permanent settlement. And unlike the Puritans, Gorges brought the Church of England with him, in the form of two clergymen who would oversee the spiritual health of the region.

Gorges arrived in Massachusetts in September 1623, only four months after Weston's colony collapsed. Instead of founding his colony at the location described in the patent, he instead chose the abandoned settlement at Wessagusset for his site. It was rechristened Weymouth after Weymouth, Dorset, the town where the expedition began. Over the following weeks, he visited Plymouth and ordered the arrest of Thomas Weston who had arrived in that colony in the Swan. This was his only official act as Governor-General. Weston was charged with neglect in his colony and with selling weapons were supposed to have been used for the defense of the colony. Weston denied the first charge, but confessed to the second. After consideration, Gorges released Weston "on his word" and he eventually settled as a politician in Virginia and Maryland.

After wintering in Weymouth, Gorges abandoned his new colony in the spring of 1624 due to financial difficulties. Most of his settlers returned to England, but some remained in as colonists in Weymouth, Plymouth, or Virginia. The remaining Weymouth settlers were supported by Plymouth until they were made part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. Massachusetts Bay Governor John Winthrop visited the settlement in 1632. In time, the location of the original settlement was lost to history and development. The location of the original fort was not rediscovered until 1891.