1579 CE - 1647 CE: Life of poet, writer, lawyer, and colonist Thomas Morton, founder of Merrymount Colony in North America.

1617 CE - 1622 CE: Thomas Morton marries Alice Miller; is engaged in lawsuit brought by her son.

1622 CE - 1623 CE: Thomas Morton abandons his wife and his life in accepting a mission from Sir Ferdinando Gorges to go to North America.

1624 CE: Thomas Morton leaves England to found a colony in North America along with Captain Richard Wollaston at the direction of Sir Ferdinando Gorges.

1626 CE: Thomas Morton drives Captain Wollaston from the colony of Mount Wollaston; founds new colony of Merrymount.

1626 CE - 1628 CE: Merrymount Colony, under Thomas Morton, becomes the most lucrative and fastest-growing settlement in New England.

1628 CE: Thomas Morton is arrested by Myles Standish of Plymouth Colony and marooned on an island; he later makes his way back to England.

1629 CE: Thomas Morton returns to North America as a clerk for Isaac Allerton of Plymouth Colony; he is arrested and sent back to England.

1630 CE - 1633 CE: Thomas Morton sues Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay Colony to have their charters revoked; legal briefs of the lawsuit become the drafts of his book New English Canaan.

1637 CE: Publication of Thomas Morton's 3-Volume work New English Canaan.

1642 CE - 1644 CE: Thomas Morton returns to the English colonies of North America; is arrested and jailed at Boston.

1645 CE: Thomas Morton is released from prison owing to declining health.

1645 CE - 1647 CE: Thomas Morton lives among friends in York, Maine until his death.