VINES, Richard, colonist, born near Bideford, Devonshire, England, about 1585; died on the island of Barbadoes 19 April, 1651. He was educated as a physician, and was sent, with others, to Maine in 1609, to explore the country and effect a settlement, by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who appointed him his confidential agent and steward-general of the province. The settlement was established at Winter Harbor, near the mouth of Saco river, in 1616-'17. In 1629 Vines and John Oldham received a patent of lands, that are now occupied by the town of Biddeford, Maine, from the council of Plymouth, England. He was the principal superintendent of the plantation until the arrival in 1635 of William Gorges, who appointed him a councillor, and left the government in his hands once more on returning to England in 1643. In 1645 the general court, not having heard from the proprietor for more than a year, constituted a provisional government, making Vines deputy-governor, with authority to take possession of the property of Gorges and to pay his debts. The rival claims to the proprietorship of the province raised by Alexander Rigby, a lawyer from England, who belonged to the party of parliament, caused Vines such trouble that before the close of 1645 he resigned his office and returned to England. Soon afterward he settled in Barbadoes, where he became a planter and practised his profession.