born 1566?, probably at Wraxall, Somerset, Eng.
died 1647, Long Ashton, Gloucestershire
British colonist.
After a military career, he sought royal grants to establish settlements in North America. Believing that colonizing should be a royal endeavour, he obtained a grant in 1620 to all the land in North America between the 40th and 48th parallels. His plan to distribute the land as manors and fiefs to aristocratic members of a Council of New England was thwarted by the development of self-governing English colonies at Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, which received their charters directly from the crown. He received the charter for Maine in 1639 but was unable to effect his plan.