The Lincoln County Courthouse is located at 32 High Street, Wiscasset, ME 04578; phone: 207-882-7431.
Photo: Fisherman's Co-op copyright © 2018, Philip H. Krugler, photographer. The South Bristol Fisherman's Co-op, located in a beautiful village on the tip of the South Bristol Peninsula, has been a cornerstone of this small fishing community since the 1970s.
Lincoln County was incorporated June 19, 1760. Its land area is approximately 450 square miles. It has also 450 miles of coastline. In 1760, the county covered about 60% of the land area of the State of Maine. Thirteen new counties were subsequently taken from its territory. The county is named for Thomas Pownal, colonial governor of Massachusetts from 1757-1768, who was born in Lincoln, England.
Beginnings [1]
The rugged shores of Lincoln County were among the very first on this continent to be visited and explored by modern Europeans. As early as 1605, De Monts, a French navigator, having wintered near the present site of Calais on the St. Croix, cast anchor in the mouth of the Kennebec and took possession of the shores of this, and of the adjacent territory. This French voyager described the region as a country of remarkable features and left on its rocks the national emblem of French dominion.
This same year, Captain George Weymouth, of the "Archangel," sailing northward from Cape Cod, on the 17th of May, came in sight of, and shortly afterward touched at, that prominent landmark of voyagers on this coast, Monhegan, an island about six miles from shore, and some six miles in circumference, and which was soon destined to become the most prominent point of traffic on the coast of Maine.
- Reverend R. H. Howard, A.M. and Professor Henry E. Crocker, editors, A History of New England containing Historical and Descriptive Sketches of the Counties, Cities and Principal Towns of the Six New England States, Volume II, Crocker & Company Publishers, Boston, 1881.