The Isles of Shoals: A Geo-Anomoly

Twelve Mile Circle has a nice account of the Isles of Shoals—an archipelago Maine shares with New Hampshire.

Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. John Mason received a joint land patent that included the Isles of Shoals along with a large tract on the mainland in 1622. A few years later they decided to divide the grant and each negotiated a portion of the Isles as part of the transaction. Mason retained the southern portion to form New Hampshire. Gorges retained the northern portion and associated it with land that would later become Maine. Thus the geo-anomaly exists primarily because two parties split fishing rights nearly four hundred years ago.

Those islands belonging to Maine fall within the jurisdiction of the town of Kittery.