Portland is the largest city in Maine, and the county seat of Cumberland County. The city of Portland, Oregon, was named for Portland, Maine.
The city seal depicts a phoenix rising out of the ashes, and its motto, Resurgam, is Latin for "I will rise again," in reference to the city's recoveries from four devastating fires.
The first European settler in the region was Captain Christopher Levett, an English Navy captain who as granted 6,000 acres from the King in 1623 to found a permanent settlement in Casco Bay. He proposed to name the new settlement York, after the town of his birth in England. Leaving a small colony behind, Levett returned to England, where he was a member of the Council for New England and an agent for Sir Fernando Gorges, and wrote a book about his voyage in the hopes of finding support for the settlement, but he never returned to Maine. It is not known what became of the men he left behind.
The next settlement by the English was in 1632, when a fishing and trading post was established in the region, and named Casco. In 1658, its name was changed to Falmouth.
In 1675, the village was completely destroyed by the Wamponoag during King Philip's War and was rebuilt, only to be destroyed by the same people several years later. On October 18, 1775, the community was destroyed again, this time by bombardment by the British Royal Navy during the Revolutionary War.
Following the war, a section of Falmouth called "the Neck" was developed as a commercial port, and rapidly grew to be a shipping center. In 1786, a separate town was formed in Falmouth Neck, and named Portland.
In 1820, Maine became a state and Portland was selected as its capital; but in 1832, the capital was moved to Augusta.