As the materials of many of the early houses were brought from England, it is probable that in the liberal provision made for the plantation, those of this house were also. The Manor house was a little north of the hillock, which was between it and the ocean, - and on that elevation there was a small fort built, to protect it from savage incursions. Fishing being one of the objects of the settlement, salt works were early erected in connection with the establishment. During the first few years of the existence of the colony, remarks Potter, the people suffered every hardship, and not being acclimated, many of them were carried off by disease. The graves of such are still to be seen a few rods north of the site of the fort, and it is worthy of remark, that the moss-covered cobble stones at the head and foot of the graves, still remain as placed by mourners of two hundred and thirty years since, while a walnut and a pear tree, each of immense size, and possibly of equal age with our State, stand like sturdy sentinels, extending their ancient arms over the sleepers below.
Evidence is now apparent that a smith's shop was erected near the house.
There were between three and four thousand acres regarded as attached to this branch of the plantation. The provisions of the grant were ample for carrying out the idea of the proprietors, which was to establish a Manor here agreeably to the English custom - the occupants of the land to be held as tenants by the proprietors of the soil. The most interested and active men of the Laconia Company were Fernando Gorges and John Mason. Gorges held his possession in Maine, and founded there the first city in New England, called Gorgiana. The city form of government was observed for only two years, when the Mayor, Thomas Gorges, returned to England.