Merrymount Colony (1624-1630 CE) was a settlement first established in New England as Mount Wollaston in 1624 CE but renamed Mount Ma-re (referred to as Merrymount) in 1626 CE by the lawyer, writer, and colonist Thomas Morton (l. c. 1579-1647 CE), best-known, primarily, from his book New English Canaan (a treatise on the Native Americans of the region, natural history, and satiric critique of his colonist neighbors) and the work Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford (l. 1590-1657 CE), second governor of Plymouth Colony, in which he is referred to as the “heathen” who established a “school of Atheism” at Merrymount.
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Definition
Timeline
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1626Thomas Morton drives Captain Wollaston from the colony of Mount Wollaston; founds new colony of Merrymount.
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1626 - 1628Merrymount Colony, under Thomas Morton, becomes the most lucrative and fastest-growing settlement in New England.
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1626 - 1630Merrymount Colony thrives as a trade center. .
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1627Thomas Morton has an 80-foot Maypole erected at Merrymount; conflict with Plymouth Colony increases. .
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1630Merrymount is burned by the puritans; Thomas Morton is arrested and deported. .
