Christopher Levett - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Capt. Christopher Levett (1586 – 1630) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

writer, explorer and naval captain, born at York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

, England

England

. He explored the coast of New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

and secured a grant from the King

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

to settle present-day Portland, Maine

Portland, Maine

Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...

, the first European to do so. Levett left behind a group of settlers at his Maine plantation in Casco Bay

Casco Bay

Casco Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine on the southern coast of Maine, New England, United States. Its easternmost approach is Cape Small and its westernmost approach is Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth...

, but they were never heard from again. Their fate is unknown. As a member of the Plymouth Council for New England

Plymouth Council for New England

The Plymouth Council for New England was the name of a 17th century English joint stock company that was granted a royal charter to found colonial settlements along the coast of North America....

, Levett was named the Governor of Plymouth in 1623 and a close adviser to Capt. Robert Gorges

Robert gorges

Robert Gorges was a Captain in the English navy and briefly Governor-General of New England from 1623 to 1624. He was the son of Sir Ferdinando Gorges...

in his attempt to found an early English colony at Weymouth, Massachusetts

Weymouth, Massachusetts

The Town of Weymouth is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, Weymouth had a total population of 53,743. Despite its city status, it is formally known as the Town of Weymouth...

, which also failed. Levett was also named an early governor of Virginia in 1628, according to Parliamentary records at Whitehall

Whitehall

Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...

Life

Levett

Levett is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Ancestors of the earliest Levett family in England, the de Livets were lords of the village of Livet, and undertenants of the de Ferrers, among the most powerful of...

was the son of Percival Levett

Percival Levett

Percival Levett was an early merchant and innkeeper of York, England, Sheriff of the city, member of the Eastland Company and father of English explorer Capt. Christopher Levett....

, a York merchant and innkeeper, and was admitted a freeman of York as a merchant himself. Levett was also admitted to the Company of Merchant Adventurers in the City of York

Merchant Adventurers' Hall

The Merchant Adventurers' Hall is a medieval guildhall in the city of York, England, and was one of the most important buildings in the medieval city. The majority of the Hall was built in 1357 by a group of influential men and women who came together to form a religious fraternity called the...

, along with his brother Percival. There is evidence that the English attempts to colonize the North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

caught Levett's interest even while a York merchant. Rev. Alexander Whitaker

Alexander Whitaker

Alexander Whitaker was a Christian theologian who settled in North America in Virginia Colony in 1611 and established two churches near the Jamestown colony, and was known as "The Apostle of Virginia" by contemporaries....

, an early Anglican minister and English immigrant to the Virginia Colony made note in his will of 1610 that he owed a debt of some £5 to "Christopher Levite, a linen draper of the city of York."

Perhaps Levett's contact with Whitaker and other Englishmen stoked his zeal to become an explorer. Levett apparently grew restless, and instead turned his sights towards a career as an explorer. He served as His Majesty's Woodward of Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

shire to King James I

James I of England

James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

, and wrote a tract on timber harvesting

Logging

Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...

that became the standard for selection of trees for the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

.

Later, operating from his adopted home in Sherborne

Sherborne

Sherborne is a market town in northwest Dorset, England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The A30 road, which connects London to Penzance, runs through the town. The population of the town is 9,350 . 27.1% of the population is aged 65 or...

, Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, in the shadow of Sir Walter Ralegh and other adventurers, Levett became interested in the colonization of New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

. Levett became associated with Sir Ferdinando Gorges

Ferdinando Gorges

Sir Ferdinando Gorges , the "Father of English Colonization in North America", was an early English colonial entrepreneur and founder of the Province of Maine in 1622, although Gorges himself never set foot in the New World.-Biography:...

and was appointed to the Council for New England

Plymouth Council for New England

The Plymouth Council for New England was the name of a 17th century English joint stock company that was granted a royal charter to found colonial settlements along the coast of North America....

. He was granted 6000 acres (24.3 km²) of land by King James I of England

James I of England

James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

for a settlement in present-day Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

, which Levett proposed to call "York" after his birth city.

On May 5, 1623, records for the Council on New England say, "Christopher Levett to be a principal patentee; and to have a grant of 6000 acres (24.3 km²) of land." The next month, on June 26, 1623, the records note "the King judges well of the undertaking in New England, and more particularly of a design of Christopher Levett, one of the Council for settling that plantation, to build a city and call it York." The King proclaimed that Anglican churches across England should take up collections to add Levett in his settlement attempts.

Levett was helped with his settlement ambitions, according to some historians, thanks to a deepening friendship with George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham KG was the favourite, claimed by some to be the lover, of King James I of England. Despite a very patchy political and military record, he remained at the height of royal favour for the first two years of the reign of Charles I, until he was assassinated...

, the favored courtier who acted as advocate for the young Yorkshireman. Levett's alliance to a powerful patron probably accounted for Levett's move to Sherborne and his appointment in the Royal forest in Somersetshire, putting him closer to Gorges and other early adventurers.

On June 26, 1623, Secretary of State

Secretary of State (England)

In the Kingdom of England, the title of Secretary of State came into being near the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I , the usual title before that having been King's Clerk, King's Secretary, or Principal Secretary....

Lord Conway

Edward Conway, 1st Viscount Conway

Edward Conway, 1st Viscount Conway PC was an English soldier and statesman.-Life:He was the son and heir of Sir John Conway of Arrow, and his wife Ellen or Eleanor, daughter of Sir Fulke Greville of Beauchamp's Court, Warwickshire....

wrote to Lord Scrope

Emanuel Scrope, 1st Earl of Sunderland

Emanuel Scrope, 1st Earl of Sunderland, 11th Baron Scrope of Bolton was an English nobleman. He was Lord President of the King's Council in the North.-Family:...

, President

President

A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

of the Council of the North

Council of the North

The Council of the North was an administrative body originally set up in 1484 by king Richard III of England, the third and last Yorkist monarch to hold the Crown of England; its intention was to improve government control and economic prosperity, to benefit the entire area of Northern England...

, urging him to assist Levett in his plan to settle a plantation in New England with a company of Yorkshiremen and found "a Citty and call it by the name of Yorke." Noted the historian Charles Herbert Levermore: "So the first New York that was planned for America was to be located in Portland harbor."

Oblivious to the high-flying spiritual message of early Puritan founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...

, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, his partner John Mason and other merchant adventurers—the rock stars of the age—zeroed in on profit. From what we know of Levett, he seems more nuanced: his dealings with Native Americans seem solicitous, especially given the era, and his first wife was the daughter of a prominent Puritan rector.

Nevertheless, either out of an explorer's zeal or a businessman's gimlet eye, Levett forged ahead. To further his plans, the Naval captain embarked from England on a trip to explore the coast of New England, paying particular attention to present-day Maine and New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

.

When he returned to England, he wrote a book called "A Voyage into New England, Begun in 1623, and Ended in 1624, Performed by Christopher Levett, His Majesty's Woodward of Somersetshire, and One of the Council of New England." It was Levett's hope to stir settlement in the New World, and he hoped as the principal patentee (and first settler) of present-day Portland, Maine

Portland, Maine

Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...

, to benefit financially from the arrangement.

On the surface, Capt. Levett seemed ideally placed to push such settlement. "When A Description of New England was published in London in 1616," write Charles and Samuella Shain of Capt. John Smith's book, "it was only a question of time before another enterprising spirit would arrive who would realize Captain John Smith's plans for founding a permanent settlement on the Maine coast.... Better placed socially and therefore politically than John Smith, Levett was also richer."

Levett apparently had his eye on New England's thriving fisheries, which English merchants had exploited for years. The naval captain reported to Gorges that with the region's best fishing in the winter months, settling a permanent colony would enable the merchant adventurers to double their profits, by enabling the ships to fish yearround.

But despite his better connections, the tide of history was not in his favor. His salesmanship fell short. Public interest waned, as new settlements in Virginia and elsewhere took center stage. King Charles I's growing problems ate away at interest in colonization. The King's appeal for money in Yorkshire parishes to support the Levett scheme never yielded much. The gathering storm of Roundhead rebellion put Levett's benefactors under strain.

In the meantime Levett was assigned to more pressing matters in England. On October 5, 1625, Capt. Levett was at the helm of HMS

Her Majesty's Ship

Her or His Majesty's Ship is the ship prefix used for ships of the navy in some monarchies, either formally or informally.-HMS:* In the British Royal Navy, it refers to the king or queen of the United Kingdom as appropriate at the time...

Susan and Ellen as part of Lord Wimbledon

Edward Cecil, 1st Viscount Wimbledon

Edward Cecil, 1st Viscount Wimbledon was an English military and naval commander.-Life:The third son of Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter and grandson of Queen Elizabeth's great minister Lord Burghley, Cecil served with the English forces in the Netherlands between 1596 and 1610, becoming a captain...

's fleet of 80 English and 16 Dutch vessels sailing against the Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

fleet at Cadiz

Cádiz

Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....

. The expedition, mounted by King Charles I who pressured his subjects to fund it, was an abject failure, and the fleet returned to England in disgrace. Levett later complained bitterly of the experience, claiming that even as a Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

captain, he'd been treated "no better than a meare slave" by those in charge.

Levett never returned to Maine, and the small group of men he left behind in a stone house were never heard from again. Levett's patented lands eventually passed to a group of Plymouth

Plymouth

Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

merchants as Levett's attention was diverted to more pressing Naval matters. Eventually Levett returned to the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Massachusetts Bay Colony

, where he met with Governor John Winthrop

John Winthrop

John Winthrop was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of...

in 1630, and he died aboard the return voyage home. The body of the early adventurer was buried at sea, and his wife forced to appear at a Bristol court the following year to recover his effects.

Fort Levett

Fort Levett was a former U.S. Army fort built on Cushing Island, Maine, in 1898. Located in Cumberland County, Maine, in the middle of Casco Bay near Portland, Maine, the fort was heavily fortified with cannons for coastal defense...

on Cushing Island, Maine

Cushing Island, Maine

Cushing Island, or Cushing's Island, is a privately owned island in Casco Bay in the U.S. state of Maine. Part of the city of Portland, Maine, roughly 45 families live there seasonally....

in Portland Harbor is named for this early explorer. Present-day York County, Maine

York County, Maine

York County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. In 2010, the population was 197,131. Its county seat is Alfred.Founded in 1636, it is the oldest county in Maine and one of the oldest in the United States....

, derives its name from Capt. Levett's early appellation for his Maine settlement.

Even in death, Capt. Levett could not avoid the controversies roiling the age. Letters he carried aboard the vessel Porcupine, addressed by John Winthrop and other leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to sympathetic friends in England, fell into the hands of Puritan foes in England, apparently after Levett's possessions were searched after his death. The letters stirred up some measure of controversy in England for the unfavorable stance the writers took toward the English church.

Capt. Levett had six children, four by his first wife Mercy More, who was the daughter of Rev. Robert More, a Puritan

Puritan

The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

rector in Guiseley

Guiseley

Guiseley is a small town in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Situated south of Otley and Menston, it is a suburb of north west Leeds. At the 2001 census, Guiseley together with Rawdon had a population of over 21,000. The A65, which passes through the town, is the...

, Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

. He married a second time to Frances Lottisham, daughter of Oliver Lottisham of Somersetshire, and by her he had another two children. A son, Jeremiah (Jeremy), graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

, and became the rector of Leyton

Leyton

Leyton is an area of north-east London and part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, located north east of Charing Cross. It borders Walthamstow and Leytonstone; Stratford in Newham; and Homerton and Lower Clapton in the London Borough of Hackney....

, Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

. His daughter Sarah married the Right Rev. Robert Hitch, Rector of Normanton, West Yorkshire

Normanton, West Yorkshire

Normanton is a town and civil parish within the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It is northeast of Wakefield and southwest of Castleford, and at the time of the 2001 Census, the population was 19,949.-History:...

and later Dean of York

Dean of York

The Dean of York is the member of the clergy who is responsible for the running of the York Minster cathedral.-11th–12th centuries:* 1093–c.1135: Hugh* c.1138–1143: William of Sainte-Barbe...

External links

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Life

Further reading

External links