Colonists from Bristol, England, had settled an…

Colonists from Bristol, England, had settled an area first called Agamenticus, meaning "beyond-the-hill-little-cove," the Abenaki name for the York River; they name the new settlement after their city of origin.

Envisioning a great city arising from the wilderness, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Lord Proprietor of Maine under the Plymouth patent, names the capital of his province Gorgeana.

By charter of King Charles I, Gorgeana—now York, Maine—becomes in 1642 the first incorporated city in America.