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Pejepscot

Region of Colonial Maine

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ114127497
Source-derived summary

Pejepscot is a historical settlement first occupied by a subset of the Androscoggin Native Americans (formerly known as the Anasagunticooks), known as the Wabanaki. The region encompasses the current towns of Brunswick, Topsham and Harpswell, Maine, in Sagadahoc and Cumberland counties and was first settled by English settlers in 1628.

History

Native Americans

Before the European colonization of the Americas, Pejepscot was inhabited by the Wabanaki Native Americans. The word Pejepscot has its roots in the Wabanaki language and has different translations (long, rocky rapids part and crooked like a diving snake). This area refers to a specific section of the Androscoggin River, the major waterway and lifeblood for all who inhabited the region.

Pejepscot is the current towns of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, in Sagadahoc and Cumberland counties.

Colonization

In the year 1620, a charter was granted by King James II of England to forty noblemen, knights, and gentlemen, calling themselves the Plymouth Company. Their territory extended from the fourteenth to the forty-eighth parallel of latitude, and from sea to sea.

Arriving in 1628, the first permanent European settler in Pejepscot was Thomas Purchase from Dorchester, Dorset, England. On June 16, 1632, the Plymouth Company granted a patent to Purchase and his brother in-law George Way for the lands at Pejepscot, in the current towns of Brunswick, Topsham and Harpswell Maine.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Pejepscot” as region of Colonial Maine. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1628, 1620, 1632—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1628. The account is most persuasive where Pejepscot, Region and Colonial can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as region of Colonial Maine. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q114127497. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1628, 1620 and 1632.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
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  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Pejepscot”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Pejepscot primary sources, Pejepscot archive and Pejepscot research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Pejepscot”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Pejepscot” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.