New English Canaan is a three-volume work of history, natural history, satire, and poetry by the lawyer and New England colonist Thomas Morton (l. c. 1579-1647 CE) published in 1637 CE. The book developed out of legal briefs Morton prepared for a lawsuit against the Massachusetts Bay Company and its settlement, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, to revoke their charter in New England and replace the existing government with one presided over by Sir Ferdinando Gorges (l. c. 1565-1647 CE), Morton's employer, who held the patent for the colonization of present-day Maine and part of Massachusetts.
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Definition
Timeline
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c. 1579 - 1647Life of poet, writer, lawyer, and colonist Thomas Morton, founder of Merrymount Colony in North America.
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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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1630 - 1633Thomas 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.
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1637Publication of Thomas Morton's 3-Volume work New English Canaan.
