It was later included in a similar grant to the Massachusetts Bay Colony nevertheless, in 1681 the heirs of John Mason petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts for possession of the grant, now colonized by several communities. Mason, then governor of Newfoundland, never acted on the grant. The island was to be named the Isle of Mason. The Hampton suggestions were later put to use, but farther north.Ī grant in 1621 by the Plymouth Council for New England, acting under a charter from James I of England (not then reigning) to colonize New England, deeded the land between the 'Naumkeag' and Merrimack rivers to Captain John Mason. The map shows an imaginary English town (the insertion of Charles I of England) of the then-future 'South Hampton', about where Newbury is. 'Morish' is now 'marsh', and the high gardens of 'mulberry' trees may be beach plum, which prefers the crowns of the dunes, although today can be seen on only a few.

On the east is an Ile two or three leagues in length the one halfe, plain morish grass fit for pasture, with many faire high groves of mulberry trees gardens and there is also Oaks, Pines and other woods to make this place an excellent habitation, being a good and safe harbor. He describes a harbor at 'Angoam' (elsewhere 'Aggawom', the Anglicised Native American name for the native village that preceded Ipswich, Massachusetts, and was destroyed by smallpox) as having 'many sands' at its entrance. Various scholars have speculated on the nature of the earlier accounts of European explorers in the New World, with particular focus on the latter's surveys of the coastlines of Massachusetts, but Smith's account identifies Plum Island. Plum Island appears as an unnamed island as early as Captain John Smith's map of New England. A larger-than-life, unlabeled island is shown to the north of it. Captain John Smith's 1616 map, in which he names New England.

Plum island book