The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-04-24

From a paper on the origin of the names OF
the States of the American Union, read by Mr..
Hamilton 3. Staples before the American Anti
quarian Society, we take the following interest
ing facts and suggestions;
The origin of the name of New Hampshire is
yery simple The original territory, conveyed
by patent of the Plymouth Company to John
Mason in 1929, was named by him after Hamp-
shire county in England.
The,life of Massachusetts,, as an autonomic State
begins with the charter of 1851, which merged
into one province the Plymouth and the Mas
sachusetts Bay jurisdictions and also the Prov
ince of Maine The present name of the State
is derived from the bay of that name. Iu fact,
the word EBAY" was part of the name OF the
Younger colony which alone had received
charter from the Crown, and was retained in
the name of the new province, and afterward
in the name of the State, till the Constitution
of 1880 went into operation. The Massachus-
etts Bay received its name from the Massa-
chusetts Indians, who peopled its shores at the
time of John Smiths visit in 1914. The word
Massachusetts, is an Anglcized plural of Mas
sachusett, meaning, sat or near the great
hills "at or near the great hill country"
from massa 'great," wadchu lin composition)
adchu-plural wadchuash mountains or
"hills," and the sufix ct sat or near.s
The origin of the name of Rhode Island is
quite obscure A writer in the Providence
journal says: "Some ancient authors write
the name Island of Rhodes. Some have be-
lieved that the name was to be derived from
the Dutch Roode Eylandt, which signifies Red
Island, and which the first Dutch explorers of
the Bay sometimes gave to the Island Others
have written the name Rod Island Perhaps
it could also be Road Island the Island of the
Roadstead or harbor island. In the early his
tory of the State persons of the family name
Rhodes are also mentioned. Gould not one Mr..
Rhodes have been among the first English set
tlers?" Mr.. Schoolcraft, in his history of the
Indian tribes, adopts the Dutch origin of the
NAME Mr.. Arnold, in a note to his valuable
History of Rhode Island. says that the cele-
brated Dutch navigator Adrian Block, sailed
into Narragansett Bay i'where he commence
rated the fiery aspect of the place, caused by
the red clay in some portion OF its shores, by
giving it the name OF Roode Eylandt, the Red
Island, and by easy transpsition, Rhode Island"
In support of the theory that the State was
named after the island in the Mediterranean
Sea, we have the authority of Peterson'S His
tory of Rhode Island We have also the COM
manding authority OF the public act by which
the name was given.
The name Connecticut spelled Quin-neh-tuk-
out signifies Gland on long tidal river" The
name is so spelled in 'Cotton's Vocabulary
and in the Cambridge Records it appears as
Quinetukquet. This explanation rests upon
the authority of DIR. Trumbull.
The territory of New York was comprised in
all the land "from the west side of the Connec-
ticut River to the east side of the Delaware
Bay" In 1864 the Duke fitted out an expedi-
ton which took possession of New Amsterdam,
and the place was thereafter called New York,
in honor of the Duke. The same name was ap-
piled to the State. By strange caprice of his
tory the greatest State in the Union bears the
name of the last and the most tyrannical of the
Stuarts.
The State Of New Jersey, granted by the
Duke of York to Sir George Carteret and Lord
Berkeley in 1864, received its name in the grant
in commemoration of the brave defence of the
Isle of Jersey by Carteret, its Governor, against
the Parliamentary forces in the great Civil
War.
Pennsylvania owes its name to its founder,
William Penn. The name given by Penn him
self was Sylvania, but King Charles II. insisted
that the name of Penn should be prefixed. 1t
is the only State ia the Union named after its
founder.
The counties of Newcastle, Kent. and Sussex
upon the DelaW are" granted by the Duke of
York to Penn in 1882 were known as the terri
tories of Pennsylvania In 17Ol Penn granted
them certain autonomy. The State was
named after the bay of that name, and the
bay after Lord De-la-war who explored it. 1t
has been claimed that the bay and the river
were named after the Delaware Indians, who
in 1900 dwelt upon their shores. This claim
is unfounded. The Delaware name of the
River was Lenapehittuk, meaning Lenape
River.
Maryland was settled under charter granted
in 1852 by King Charles l. to Lord Balti-
more. The State was named after Queen
Henrietta Maria. In the charter the conn
try is called TERRA Mari@-Anglice, Mary
land
The first step in the colonization of America
by England was the charter granted in 1884 by
Queen Elizabeth to Sir Walter Raleigh. Under
this charter Raleigh took possession of the
country west of the Roanoke, and called it Vir-
ginia in onor of the Virgin Queen. This is the
only State in the Union whose name appears in
literature associated with the royal title. Spen-
ser dedicated the Faerie Queen to Elizabeth,
by the Grace of God, Queen of England, France
and Ireland and of Virginia The nearest
approach to this in public act is the order of
the English Privy Council to the Virginia col
ony after the revolution of 1858 to proclaim
William and Mary as "Lord and Lady, of Vir-
ginia"
The name Of Vest Virginia, new State
formed within tie jurisdiction Of Virginia,
needs no separate consideration.
North Carolina and South Carolina may be
considered under one head. Allen, in his His
tory of Kentucky, ascribes the origin of the
name Carolina to the French settlers of Port
Royal who named it after Charles TX. of France
This is the popular impression, but there is
reason to question its accuracy. In the charter
of Carolina granted to the Lords Proprietors
by Charles II. in 1868, the name of Carolina
is recognized. More than thirty years before,
Charles 1. had granted a tract of territory
south of the Chesapeake to Sir Robert Heath,
naming it Carolina after himself. This grant
became forfeited by non-use. The name,
however, so given to the territory, was doubt
less revived in the new charter of 1868. 1t
would not be pleasant reflection that two
States of the Union derived their name from
the King who commanded the massacre of St.
Bartholomew.
The name of Georgia, after King George II,
was by the terms of the charter conferred upon
the territory granted to the company organized
by Oglethorpe in 1892.
Maine owes its name to its being supposed to
be the main or chief portion of the New Eng
land territory. The origin of the name is dis
closed in an extract from the grant of Charles
I. to Sir Fernando Georges. in 1859, comfrma-
tory of a patent given by the Plymouth Com
pany in 1922, which grant the grandson of
Gorges, through John Usher, assigned to the
Massachusetts Bay Colony ''all that Parte
Purparte and Porcon of the Mayne Lande of
New England aforesaid, beginning att the en-
trance of Pascatwsy Harbor" Chen follows
the description), call which said Part, Purpart
or Porcon of the MaYne Lande and all and
every the premises hereinbefore named wee
doe for US, our heires and successors create and
incorporate into one Province or Countie. And
wee doe name, ordeyne and appoint that
the Porcon of the Maync Lande and Premises
aforesaid shall forever hereafter bee called
and named The Province or Countie OF
Mayne."
The territory of Vermont was SO named from
the French words yerd mont Green Noun
tain, the sd being dropped in composition.
The legal history of the name is a curious one.
At convention of the people held at Westinin-
ster January 10, 1777, itswas declared that the
district was State $50 be- forever hereafter
called, known, and distinguished by the name
of New Connecticut alias Vermont" The con-
vention met by adjournment July 2, 1777, and
having, in the meantime ascertained that the
name of New Connecticut had been already
applied to district on the banks of the Sus-
quehana, it was declared that instead of New
Connecticut, the State should lever be known
by the name of Vermont. Hall in his Early
History of Vermont appendix No. 8, claims
that the words "alias Vermont" did not be-
long in the name as adopted in January and
that they must have been inconsiderately added
to the journal, or an early copy of it, by way of
explanation after the name Vermont had been
adopted in lieu of New Connecticut and after
ward in transcribing, enormously taken as
part of the original. Mr.. Hall gives various
reasons in support of this claim. In opposition
to Mr.. Halls theory the words are found in
SHADES State Papers, page TO- in Williams's
History of Vermont and in a manuscript
COPY of the journal of the convention, the origi-
nal being lost, in the possession of James lei.
Phelps. Further, all accounts concur that the
name of Vermont was given to the State by DR..
Thomas Young, and we find letter of his
dated IL April, 1777 addressed to ''the inhabi-
tants of Vermont, free and independent
State" which implies that at that date the
State had already received its name of Vermont