
Captain Christopher Levett (15 April 1586 – 1630) was an English writer, explorer and naval captain, born at
York
York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...
, England. He explored the coast of
New England
New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...
and secured a grant from the
king
King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
to settle present-day
Portland, Maine
Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...
, 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 in 1623 and a close adviser to Capt.
Robert Gorges in his attempt to found an early English colony at
Weymouth, Massachusetts
Weymouth is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is one of 13 municipalities in the state to have city forms of government while retaining "town of" in their official names. It is named after Weymouth, Dorset, a coastal town ...
, which also failed. Levett was also named an early governor of
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
in 1628, according to Parliamentary records at
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It ...
.
Life
Levett
Levett is a surname of Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman origin, deriving from eLivet, which is held particularly by families and individuals resident in England and British Commonwealth territories.
Origins
This surname comes from the village of ...
was the son of Elizabeth and
Percival 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, 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
Somerset
Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...
shire to King
James I, and wrote a tract on
timber harvesting that became the standard for selection of trees for the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
.
Later, operating from his adopted home in
Sherborne
Sherborne is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo (South Somerset), River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish include ...
, Dorset, in the shadow of Sir
Walter Raleigh and other adventurers, Levett became interested in the colonisation of
New England
New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...
. Levett became associated with Sir
Ferdinando Gorges and was appointed to the
Council for New England. He was granted of land by King
James I of England
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 unti ...
for a settlement in present-day
Maine
Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
, which Levett proposed to call "York" after his birth city.
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." The king proclaimed that
Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
churches across England should take up collections to aid 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, 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.
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."
Oblivious to the high-flying spiritual message of early Puritan founders of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of M ...
, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, his partner John Mason and other merchant adventurers 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 ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
.
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 is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...
, 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 year round.
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. 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
Cadiz. 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
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
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 ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...
merchants as Levett's attention was diverted to more pressing Naval matters. Eventually Levett returned to the
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of M ...
, where he met with Governor
John Winthrop in 1630, and he died aboard the return voyage home. The body of the early adventurer was buried at sea, and his wife was forced to appear at a Bristol court the following year to recover his effects.
Fort Levett on
Cushing Island, Maine in Portland Harbor is named for this early explorer. Present-day
York County, Maine, 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
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
rector in
Guiseley, Yorkshire. 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 is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...
, and became the rector of
Leyton, Essex. His daughter Sarah married the Right Rev. Robert Hitch, Rector of
Normanton,
West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...
and later
Dean of York.
References
Further reading
Christopher Levett, 1586–1631, The Maine Reader: The Down East Experience from 1614 to the Present, Charles E. Shain, Samuella Shain, 1997
External links
Grant to Levett, A Bibliography of the State of Maine from the Earliest Period to 1891, Joseph Williamson, Maine Historical Society, 1891 The Beginnings of Colonial Maine: 1602–1658, Henry Sweetser Burrage, 1914 A Voyage into New England, Christopher Levett, reprinted by James Phinney Baxter, 1893 History of the Town of Rye, New Hampshire: From Its Discovery and Settlement, Langdon Brown Parsons, 1905 A Documentary History of Chelsea: Including the Boston Precincts, Mellen Chamberlain, Massachusetts Historical Society, 1908Christopher Levett of York, the Pioneer Colonist of Casco Bay, NewEnglandAncestors.org, New England Historic and Genealogical SocietySale of Capt. Christopher Levett "Voyage into New England," Sotheby's, The New York Times, 23 July 1916 Christopher Levett, The First Owner of the Soil of Portland, James Phinney Baxter, Maine Historical Society, 1877"> Christopher Levett, The First Owner of the Soil of Portland, James Phinney Baxter, Maine Historical Society, 1877Christopher Levyt, York, Frances Lottisham, Farrington, Somerset, Pedigree, The Visitation of the County of Somerset in the Year 1623, Samson Lennard, 1876The King Judges Well, Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, Great Britain Public Record Office, William Noel Sainsbury, 1860 Colonization in Maine, 1623, Original Documents (State Paper Office, London), The Historical Magazine and Notes Concerning the Antiquities, History and Biography of America, John Gilmary Shea, New York, London, 1860
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levett, Christopher
English explorers of North America
1586 births
1630 deaths
People from colonial Massachusetts
English sailors
English travel writers
Royal Navy captains
People from Sherborne
Writers from York
People who died at sea
Burials at sea
16th-century English writers
16th-century English male writers
17th-century English writers
17th-century English male writers
17th-century English explorers
Military personnel from York
17th-century Royal Navy personnel