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One of the explorers of the New England coast was Capt. John Smith (of Pocahontas fame) of the Jamestown Colony in 1614. On March 3, 1614, Capt. John Smith set sail with two ships for Monhegan Island, a rocky outcrop ten miles off the coast of Maine. This area was called “Northern Virginia” at the time. The spot was known for fishing and the funders of his voyage expected whale oil on his return. The difficulty in whaling resulted in the men fishing and trading for furs while Smith and eight men explored the coast, likely in a shallop (a 30 foot boat with two sails and oars). Smith’s intention was to map the coast as they traveled from the Bay of Fundy in Canada, to Cape Cod (about 350 miles. Smith returned to England with 11,000 beaver skins and 100 each of martins and otters.
Smith published a map in 1616 based on the expedition which was the first to bear the label “New England”. Smith had used many of the names used by the natives. Capt. John Smith recorded York river as “Accominticus”, the native name for the river. The Abenaki meaning of name was likely ‘on the other side of the river” or “river across the sandbar”. The name has had at least 8 different spellings as the English tried to interpret the word that the Abenaki used. The name we use is Agamenticus. However, Smith also used names along the coast that were familiar to him from England but only three remain to this day - Plymouth, Charles River and Cape Ann. In Smith’s discussion of his expedition and mapping of New England with 16 year old Prince Charles, Smith changed the name of Accomniticus to Boston (likely to gain favor of the prince), so it became to be known by that name in 1617.
By 1638, numerous merchants from Bristol, England had settled in York and the common name for the town became Bristol. However, with an early name for Dover, NH being Bristol, it is likely that in order to avoid confusion, Agamenticus was routinely used.
In 1642, the Charter of Gorgeana, changed the the name of the town to Gorgeana in honor of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the founder of Maine.
Under pressure from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1652, the town submitted to pressure and changed the name to York, becoming part of Massachusetts.