Ferdinando Gorges

Sir Ferdinando Gorges , the Father of English Colonization in North America, was an early English colonial entrepreneur and founder of the Province of Maine in 1622, although Gorges himself never set foot in the New World.

Sir Ferdinando Gorges was born in July 1565 in Clerkenwell, Middlesex, England, the son of Edward Gorges, Esquire and Lady Cicely Lygon. He was born only a few weeks before his fathers death. He is named for his mothers brother, Ferdinando Lygon. Very little documentation exists regarding his early life and education. He was brought up at Nailsea Court at Kenn near Wraxall. He is descended from a cadet branch of the Russells of Kingston Russell, Dorset, which had changed its name to the matronymic Gorges, which family had died out in the male line on the death of Ralph de Gorges of Knighton, Isle of Wight, 2nd Baron Gorges, in 1331.

Source: Wikipedia