Captain Christopher Levett (15 April 1586 – 1630) was an English writer, explorer and naval captain, born at York, England.The Levett family from which Christopher Levett derived came from Bolton Percy, Yorkshire. But this York family shared a coat-of-arms with the Levetts of Normanton and High Melton, Yorkshire, sort of an early DNA assay, indicating that the two families had common roots. Christopher Levett's coat-of-arms appeared in an early survey of Sherborne, Dorset, where was residing. He explored the coast of New England and secured a grant from the king to settle present-day Portland, Maine, the first European to do so. Levett left behind a group of settlers at his Maine plantation in Casco Bay, but they were never heard from again. Their fate is unknown. As a member of the Plymouth Council for New England, Levett was named the Governor of Plymouth New-England's Memorial, Nathaniel Morton, William Bradford, Thomas Prince, Edward Winslow, Congregational Board of Publication, Boston, 1855 in 1623 and a close adviser to Capt. Robert Gorges in his attempt to found an early English colony at Weymouth, Massachusetts, which also failed.Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, 1606–1646, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1920The length of Levett's service as Governor of Plymouth is unknown, but he returned to England the year following his appointment (1624), and during his time in New England seems to have been constantly on the move. Also unclear are what Levett's duties were as Governor of Plymouth, in which capacity he is referred to as the 'chief judicial officer,' with 'Esquire' appended to his name. Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony refers to the explorer as "Christoper Levite." Nathaniel Morton, Bradford's nephew and the colony's secretary, calls him "Christopher Levet." Record-keeping in the early days of the colony was sometimes sporadic. Levett was also named an early governor of Virginia in 1628, according to Parliamentary records at Whitehall.Calendar of State Papers, Great Britain Public Record Office, Vol. 6, Colonial Series, William Noel Sainsbury, John William Fortescue, Cecil Headlam (eds.), Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1860
Life Levett was the son of Elizabeth and Percival Levett, a York merchant and innkeeper, and was admitted a freeman of York as a merchant himself.Xpoferus Levett, marcer, fil. Percivalli Levett, gent., Admissions to the freedom of York, Temp. James I (1603–1625), British History Online Levett was also admitted to the Company of Merchant Adventurers in the City of York, along with his brother Percival. There is evidence that the English attempts to colonise North America caught Levett's interest even while a York merchant. Rev. Alexander Whitaker, 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 Somersetshire to King James I, and wrote a tract on timber harvesting that became the standard for selection of trees for the Royal Navy. Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Second Series, Vol. IV, Published by the Society, Portland, 1893
Later, operating from his adopted home in Sherborne, Dorset, in the shadow of Sir Walter Raleigh and other adventurers, Levett became interested in the colonisation of New England. Historical Addresses, James Baxter Phinney, 1831–1921, Portland, Maine Levett became associated with Sir Ferdinando Gorges and was appointed to the Council for New England. Provincial and State Papers, New Hampshire Colony Probate Court, 1895 He was granted of land by King James I of England for a settlement in present-day Maine, which Levett proposed to call "York" after his birth city.Forerunners and Competitors of the Pilgrims and Puritans Or, Narratives of Voyages Made by Persons Other Than the Pilgrims and Puritans of the Bay Colony to the Shores of New England During the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century, 1601–1625, with Especial Reference to the Labors of Captain John Smith, Vol. 2, Charles Herbert Levermore, New England Society of Brooklyn, N.Y., Published by The Society, New York, 1912
On 5 May 1623, records for the Council on New England say, "Christopher Levett to be a principal patentee; and to have a grant of 6,000 acres of land." The next month, on 26 June 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." History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine, 1623–1905, Francis Byron Greene, 1906 The king proclaimed that Anglican churches across England should take up collections to aid Levett in his settlement attempts.Coming Over: Migration and Communication Between England and New England in the Seventeenth Century, David Cressy, Cambridge University Press, 1987
Levett was helped with his settlement ambitions, according to some historians, thanks to a deepening friendship with George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, the favoured 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. Christopher Levett: The First Owner of the Soil of Portland, James Phinney Baxter, read before the Maine Historical Society, 26 February 1891, Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Brown Thurston Company, Portland, Me., 1893
On 26 June 1623, Secretary of State Lord Conway wrote to Lord Scrope, President of the Council of the North, 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."Forerunners and Competitors of the Pilgrims and Puritans: Or, Narratives of Voyages Made by Persons Other Than the Pilgrims and Puritans of the Bay Colony to the Shores of New England During the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century, 1601–1625, with Especial Reference to the Labors of Captain John Smith, Vol. 2, Charles Herbert Levermore, New England Society of Brooklyn, N.Y., 1912
Oblivious to the 'city upon a hill' spiritual messaging of early Puritan founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, his partner John Mason, and other merchant adventurers zeroed in on profit.Many historians point to the efforts of Gorges and Mason, as well as their fellow Council member Levett, as attempts to plant the Church of England on the northern border of the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. From what we know of Levett, he seems more nuanced: his dealings with Native Americans seem particularly solicitous, especially given the era, and his first wife, Mercy More, 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. The Isles of Shoals, John Scribner Jenness, 1873
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." Christopher Levett of York: The Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay, James Phinney Baxter, 1893 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, 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."The Maine Reader, Charles Shain, Samuella Shain, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1991
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 year round. Fish on Fridays: Feasting, Fasting, and the Discovery of the New World, Brian M. Fagan, Basic Books, 2006, SBN 0465022847
But despite his better connections, the tide of history was not in his favour. 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 colonisation.Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Published by the Society, Portland, 1904 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 5 October 1625, Capt. Levett was at the helm of HMS Susan and Ellen as part of Lord Wimbledon's fleet of 80 English and 16 Dutch vessels sailing against the Spanish fleet at Cádiz. 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. Christopher Levett, of York, the Pioneer Colonist in Casco Bay, James Phinney Baxter, The Gorges Society, Portland, Me., 1893 Levett later complained bitterly of the experience, claiming that even as a Royal Navy captain, he'd been treated "no better than a meare slave" by those in charge. History of Plymouth Plantation, 1620n–1647, Vol. 1, William Bradford, Worthington Chauncey Ford (ed.), Massachusetts Historical Society, Published for the Society by Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1912