It's possible there were human Haddocks in Maine well before the Puritans settled Massachusetts, according to SeacoastNH.com historian J. Dennis Robinson. In an article first published in 2003, he checks the surprising claim that four brothers from Scotland with the last name Haddock may have come to the New World in 1610 searching for timbers to use for the English navy's ships. A Haddock family tale says the four spent a horrible winter in a rock-lined cave on the shore of the Piscataqua River somewhere in South Berwick. While no direct evidence survives, Robinson puts together some good circumstantial information, including the fact that some early New England settlers lived in shelters that were at least partially underground. And there's the tempting possibility that the Haddock brothers could have been part of the failed Popham colony that fell apart in 1608 and either never left Maine (some persistent legends claim not everyone went home to England) or did go home and then returned to Maine.
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, Maine, fishing, fish
