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 74 
 
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 ENl.USH COLLECTION 
 
 THE <;iKT OK 
 
 JAMES MORGAN HART 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ENGUSH 
 
CORNELL UNIVERSITY UBRARV 
 
 3 1924 100 647 795 
 
 Ct)e Naming of ^nll 
 
m 
 
 Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924100647795 
 
THE 
 
 NAMING OF HULL, 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 BY 
 
 ALBERT MATTHEWS. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PRESS OF DAVID CLAPP & SON. 
 
 1905. 
 
A.^'iSToS 
 
 [Reprinted from H'ew-England Historical and Genealogical Register for April, 1905.] 
 
THE NAMING OP HULL, MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 Probably to most persons the study of words seems sheer pedantry^-* 
 doubtless affording harmless amusement to the enthusiast, but of little or 
 no practical value. The enthusiast, needless to say, does not always ac- 
 cept this complacent view, and inclines to the opinion that hig researches 
 are not quite so remote from significant results as is popularly believed. 
 He even goes so far as to think that his drudgery sometimes corrects, 
 or at least modifies, the work of the historian and of the antiquarian. By 
 way of 'illustration, let us consider the question as to when our Massachu- 
 setts town of Hull was first called by that name. 
 
 At a General Court of Election held at Boston May 29, 1644, "It is 
 ordered, that Nantascot shall be called Hull."* This is, so far as is known, 
 the earliest certain allusion to our Massachusetts town by the name of 
 Hull.f So minute has been the study of everything relating to the early 
 history of Massachusetts, that whoever wishes to run counter to the received 
 opinion on any particular point is bound to produce evidence of the strong- 
 est kind. It is perhaps singular that no one hitherto has pointed out that 
 a HuU is plotted on the map " Observed and described by Captayn John 
 Smith" and published in his Description of New England in 1616. Let 
 us not therefore hastily conclude that the historians and antiquarians have 
 
 * Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 74. In 1826 J. Savage wrote : " So called, I 
 suppose, in honour of Joseph Hull of Hinghara, who was admitted to the freeman's oath 
 2 September 1635" (Winthrop's History of New England, ii. 175). Savage later 
 changed his opinion, and in the 1853 edition of Winthrop wrote ! " So called, I think, 
 from Hull in Yorkshire, not in honor of Joseph Hull of Hingham." 
 
 + Bradford several times alludes to Hull, but always as "Natasoo" or "ISTatascoe" 
 (History of Plymouth Plantation, 1856, pp. 195, 241,263). Under date of July 15, 1644, 
 Winthrop writes : " .Natascott being formerly made a town, and having now twenty 
 houses and a minister, was by the last general court named Hull" {History of New 
 England, ii. 175). On the Wmthrop map of about 1632»^4, the place is called (if my 
 reading of the name is correct) "Nataskett." (For this map, see Beoister, xxxviii. 
 342; iProceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, i. 211-214; and Boston Pub- 
 lic Library, Map 32. 1). In 1846 A. Toung pointed out that the name Hull was first 
 adopted in 1644. (Chronicles of Massachusetts, p. 19.) The statement has been repeated 
 by W. H. Whitmore in 1873 (Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, xii. 
 394), by E. H. Goss in 1883 (Reoister, xxxvii. 49), and by others. In the Massachu^ 
 setts Colony Records, in Winthrop, in Wood's New England's Prospect (1634), in the 
 Beqibter for 1853 (vii. 340), in the Memorial History of Boston (i. 234), and elsewhere, 
 there will of course be found previous to 1644 allusions to HuU under the name of Na- 
 tasco or Nantasket; but the burden of proof lies on him who maintains that Hull was 
 so called before 1644. 
 
been mistaken in thinking that our Hull was first so called in 1644. If 
 the map of 1616 is examined, it will be seen that its Hull is in a different 
 place from our Hull. This is certainly disconcerting. And a still closer 
 inspection of the map reveals a Boston. No reader need be reminded of 
 the words, " Bostonia Condita 1 630." Yet here is a Boston on a map pub- 
 lished four years before the sailing of the Mayflower and sixteen years 
 before the founding of the city in which we live ! The renowned Poca- 
 hontas incident may or may not have actually occui'red, but surely the 
 redoubtable Captain displayed a luxuriant fancy in the names showered 
 upon the map of 1616, and that map most assuredly does not constitute 
 " evidence of the strongest kind " with respect to our present town of 
 HuU."» 
 
 It is different, however, with our next witness. In his New English 
 Canaan the notorious Thomas Morton, who caused such 'trouble at Mount 
 "Wollaston, wrote as follows : 
 
 The Separatists, (after they had burned Ma-re-Mount they could not get any 
 shipp to undertake the carriage of mine Host [i. e. Morton himself] from thence, 
 either by faire meanes or fowle,) they were inforoed, (contrary to their expec- 
 tation,) to be troubled with his company : and by that meahes had time to con- 
 sider more of the man, then they had done of the matter: wherein at length it 
 was discovered that they . . . had runne themselves headlonge into an error, 
 and had done that on a sodaine which they repented at leasure, but could not 
 tell which way to help it as it stood now. ... So that it seems (by theire dis- 
 course about the matter,) they stood betwixt Hawke and Bussard : and could 
 not tell which hand to incline unto. . . . Now, (whiles this was in agitation* 
 and was well urged by some of those partys to have bin the upshot,) unex- 
 pected, (in the depth of winter, when all shipps were gone out of the Itod,) in 
 comes M'. Wethercock, a proper Mariner; and, they said, he could observe the 
 winde : blow it high, blow it low, hee was resolved to lye at Hall rather than 
 incounter such a storme as mine Host had met with : and this was a man for 
 their turne-f 
 
 In this passage we seem to have a clear allusion to our town of Hull. 
 The New English Canaan, published in 1637, was brought out by the 
 Prince Society in 1883 and edited by Charles Francis Adams. " It would 
 appear from the text," Mr. Adams says, that " it [Hull] had been locally 
 known by that name among the ' old planters ' before the settlement of 
 Boston." Again, he speaks of " Hull, so called in 1628." t And finally 
 he writes, "At Hull, already known by that name, there were the Grays 
 
 * The names of Boston, Hull, etc., do not appear in Smith's text but only on his 
 map, and their presence there can be easily explained. On the map itself are the 
 words : " The most remarqueable parts thus named by the high and mighty Prince 
 CHARLES, Prince of great Britaine." On an extra leaf, not found in some copies, 
 Smith says : " Because the Booke was printed ere the Prince his Highnesse had altered 
 the Names, I intreate the Reader, peruse this schedule ; which willplainely shew him 
 the correspondence of the old names to the new." And he states tnat the old names 
 Accominticus and Passataquack have been changed to Boston and Hull, respectively. 
 In Smith's text we read ; " As you passe the Coast still Westward, Accominticus and 
 Passataquack are two conuenient harbors for small barlcs ; and a good Countrie, within 
 their craggie cliffs " (p. 2o). It thus appears that the Boston and the Hull plotted on 
 Sinith's map are our present York and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Of the twenty- 
 nine names given by Prince Charles and of the three given by Smith, scarcely one was 
 adopted by the colonists : a striking instance of the foUy of an arbitrary attempt to im- 
 pose names at a distance of three thousand miles. 
 
 t Prince Society edition, pp. 336, 337. 
 
 X In assigning this passage to the year 1628, Mr. Adams has apparently made a slight 
 error. At the beginnmg of the chapter, Morton speaks of the burning of his house at 
 Mount Wollaston. The order for this was given September 7, 1630. (Massachusetts 
 Colony Records, i. 7d.) 
 
and a few other, settlers." * Morton ei'tter did or di<i not refer to I'ilan- 
 tasket.' If he did, then Mr. Adams's View is the correct one and there is 
 of course nothing more to be said. But is it not possible that the passage 
 is capable Of a mffereht interpretation ? The purpose of this paper is to 
 suggest such an in'terpretatioh. 
 
 No one caiji read extensively the plays of Shakspere and of his contem- 
 poraries without having his attention arrested by two striking features. 
 One is the lavish way in which ,legail terms are scattei,'ed through these 
 plays. Those unfamilia!" with the drama of that period, impressed by the 
 freqiienpy with' which Shakspere employs legal phrases, have rashly as- 
 sumed that the author of the Shaksperean plays must have been a lawyer 
 — was, perhaps, the Lord Chancellor himself. In view of the prevalence 
 of legal terms at that time, and of the fact that Shakspere's use of them is 
 sometimes erronieous, such a conclusion must be pronounced fantastic in 
 the extreme.t Exactly why legal terms should have been so common at 
 that time, I confess I do not know. 
 
 The other striking feature is the freqiiency with which sea terms are 
 found ik the literature of the same period.,, Here, of course, thQexplahap 
 tion is simple. In the days when every Englishman who left the island 
 was obliged tip takia what now would be regarded by many persons as a 
 respectable sea voyage ; in thp days 0|f Gilbert, of Frobisher, of Hawkihs, 
 of Drake, of Davis, of Ralegh ; in the days of the seamen who rounded 
 the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, who, sought the Northwest pass- 
 age, who brought ^spices jfrom the East and, fu^s from the ^est ;, in tho?© 
 days, it was inevitable that every one should, have been familiar with sea 
 terms. It mlay be wondered why no one has attempted to prove that 
 Shakspere was an able seaman. 
 
 The word hvM, as applied to, a vessel, is of obscure origin, and was ap- 
 parently unknown until about the middle of the sixteenth century. Once- 
 started on its career, however, it rapidly spread, acquiring new meanings," 
 sftid soon beconie one of the commonest of sea terms. Our concern is with 
 the verb "to hull" and with the phrase "to lie at hull," — or, as it is 
 vari6u8ly found, "to lie hull," "to lie a hull or ai-hull," "to lay it a hull 
 of on hull or t6 hull," " tb lie on hull," "to lie to hull^" " to strike hull," 
 "to try'h'tfll," eic.% The following extracts will show the application of 
 the terms and their wide distribution. 
 
 ^pd f(jrssmoche as tlje, wynde contynuepg yet strs^yjpabjy at est north est;, Ijhat 
 by no mean'es, as yet, we can plye no furder towardes the Narowe Sees, then 
 
 * Prince Society edition, pp. 24, 937, 370. In 1878 Mr. Adams wrpte : "In addition, 
 hbwever, to ttlbse who h'^vjs been named, and whfl ri(i,ay bo designated as the Weymouth 
 old planters, the Massachusetts Colony, in 1630, t'onnd a( least three other distinct 
 groups of jsettlers on the shores of Boston Bay. Qne of these was at Thompson's Island 
 aAd Squahtdm ; aiibtlier, at M^t. Wbllaston ; wjtiile the third was at Hull, or Hatasco, 
 aS|it was theu called." .{Proaeedinga qf the Ma^aachuaeits Hiatoricai Soqietp,^vi„W3, 
 204.) Mr. Adams's chahge in view between 1878 and 1883 was apparently due solely 
 to the passage in Norton. ,,,,.,, , • i 
 
 t An interesting discussion of this subject will be found in the late Charles Allen's 
 Notea on the j^aconr^/uilfespeare Queatipn (1900), pp. 22-\S3. , , 
 
 1 The earliest dictionai-y to recognize A«i/, appears to have been E. Phillips's Nevi 
 World of Wiirda, 1668, where this inadequate definition is found :, " SuUing,, is when a 
 ship' at sea hath taken in all' h6r sailes in cairn weather^" In J. Howell's X^e^i^'con 
 Tetraglotton, \^0, -we read: "/Bulling,^ viz. taking in all aayta in a cairn; Estre 
 encfllmi": 'Siorin'ionamo; Estar.en bonanQa. . • ,. A wholavme tite a^ip thqi will try 
 Sull] , and ride well at anchor; 'NaTire qui est friand ala.voile, et ancrebien ; Nave 
 gdghard'a; Baxel loginb," The vprb J'tq hull, as use^ in our extracts, appears to 
 nave become obsolete in tite eigGl;eenth century. For meanings of hull other than, 
 those discussed in this paper, the reader is referred to the Oxford Dictionary, 
 
twbart of Beanchief, wher thole armye lyeth a hullyng in the sea (as this berer 
 can shewe you) , I have thought good to send the saied Maistres back into 
 Portesmouth.* 
 
 The third we had sight of Cauo Mattapan [Greece], and all that day by rea- 
 son of contrary Windes, which blew somewhat hard, we lay a hull vntiU 
 morning. t 
 
 In the end we concluded to hasten towards cauo de tre puntas to haue-put 
 them from the castle, if by any meanes wee might ; and when wee were come 
 to the Cape, we lay a hull one night and two dayes.J 
 
 Betweene Frisland and the straights we had one great storme, wherein the 
 Michaell was somewhat in danger, hauelng her Stirrage broken, and her toppe 
 Mastes blowen oner boord, & being not past 50 leagues short of the straightes 
 by our account, wee stroke sayle & lay a hull, fearing the continuance of the 
 
 storme. § 
 
 But that foresaile continued not aboue two howres, before it was blowen 
 from the yard with a f reat, and then we were forced to lie a hull againe.jl 
 
 10 If it fall out so thicke or mistie that we lay it to hull, the Admiral shall 
 giue warning with a piece, and putting out three lights one ouer another, to the 
 end that eueiy man may take in his sailes, and , at his setting of sayles againe 
 doe the like, if it be not cleere."^ ' 
 
 The winde came up to the S.S.B. and did blow a great gale, and the weather 
 waxed- thick and foggy, and therefore all the night we layde yt a hull. . . . We 
 did strike our sayles and did lye a hulling, so that the flud did port us in towards 
 the shore again.** 
 
 There arose a sodaine and terrible tempest. . . . The most part of the Pleete 
 which were further shot vp within the straights, and so farfe to the leeward, 
 as that they could not double the land, following the course of the Generall, 
 who led them the way, tooke in their Sayles, atid layde it a hull amongst the 
 ice.tt 
 
 And fro that time forwards continually (if your shm be lose, vnder saile, a 
 hull or trie) do you at the end of euery i. glasses at ttie least (except calme) 
 sound with your dipsln lead, tt 
 
 At 9 in the night there came down so much winde by the Westsouthwest, that 
 we were faine to lay it a hnll.§§, 
 
 4t Item, if the AdmiraH shall happen to hull in the night, then to make a 
 wauering light ouer his other light, wauering the light vpon apple. . . .6 Item, 
 If it shall happen a great f ogge to fall, then presently euery shippe to beare vp 
 with the admirall, if there be winde; but if it be a calme, then euery ship to 
 hull, and so to lie at hull till it be cleere.i||| 
 
 * 1545, August 20, Viscount Liale, in StatePapers, Henry VIII., i. 820. By the Nar- 
 row Seas is meant the English Channel, Beauchief being Beaphy Head, "maistres " 
 was a ship called the Great Mistress. 
 
 t 1553, August 3, J. Locke, in Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1699), ii. i. 104. 
 Taken from the Century Dictionary. An attempt has been made to locate the places 
 mentioned in these extracts, bat frequently this is difficult and sometimes impossible. 
 
 t 1563, August 6, W. Butter, in Hakluyt, ii. ii. 54. 
 
 § 1577, Julj^, Frobisher's second voyage, in Hatliiyt, iii. 62. See also, iii. 74. Fro- 
 bisher Strait is now called Frobisher Bay. 
 
 II 1577, October 16, W. Towrson, in Hakluyt (1589), p. 130. He was in the English 
 Channel. A fret was a gust, or squall o^ wind. 
 
 H 1578, May 31, "Articles and orders to be observed for the Fleete, set downe by 
 Captaine Frobisher," in Hakluyt, iii. 76. 
 
 ** 1578, July 6, 18, E. Sellman, in Frobisher's Three Voyages (Hakluyt Society), pp. 
 295, 297 ; see also pp. 294, 296, 311, 312. Near Frobisher Bay. 
 
 t+ 1578, July 26, G. Best, in Hakluyt, iii. 83. Near Probisber Bay. See also, iii. 86. 
 
 t+ 1580, W. Burrough, in Hakluyt, i. 435. 
 
 46 1580, September 2, H. Smith,' in Hakluyt, i. 452. Near the North Capo, Norway. 
 
 fill 1583, " Orders agreed vpon by the Captaines and Masters to be obseraed by tl 
 
 ^, . , I voyage, 
 
 the most considerable ship. 
 
At sixe a clocke In the afternoone, it began to snow, and ao contlntied all flight, 
 With f oule weather, and mnch wlnde, so that we were constrained to lie at hull 
 all night fine leagues off the shore.* 
 
 The 21. . . . This Frenchman carried a letter from vs to Mr. Newton : wee 
 layd it on hull while we were writing of our letter. . . . The 28. we lay sixe 
 glasses a hull taryiug for the pinesse.f 
 
 By reason of this great scarcitie of drinke, and contrariete of winde, we 
 thought to put into Ireland, there to relieve our wants. But when wee came 
 neere thither, Iwng at hull all night, ... we were driven so farlre to lee-ward, 
 that we could fetch no paTt of Ireland.l 
 
 Soe, passlnge alongstthis iland [Puerto Rico] this night, wee stroke saileand 
 lay at hull untell mornlnge, beinge most mightelie troubled for halfe the night 
 with a most tempestuous gust, afterwardes contiuuinge our course untell 
 Thursday, sometimes lyinge at hull stayinge for our prize. § 
 
 From ten a cloclie that night till three a clocke in the morning, our Gaptaine 
 tooke in all sailes and lay at hull, being desirous to fall In with the land in the 
 day time, because it was an unknowen coast. . . . Much maruelling because 
 we saw no land, he sent one to the top, who thence descried a whitish sandy 
 cliffe, which bare West-North- West about sis leagues off from vs.|| 
 
 The one and twentieth day, about fine a clocke at night there began a vehe-" 
 ment tempest, which lasted all the night, with winds, raine, and thunders in a 
 terrible manner. Wee were forced to lie at Hull that night, because we thought 
 wee had beene neerer land then wee were. . . . The sixth and twentieth of 
 Aprill, about f oure a clocke in the morning, wee descried the Land of Virginia.% 
 
 Then about eight this Eeuening, we strucke a Hull, and it proned the hard- 
 est storme that we had in this Voyage.** 
 
 This daye wee stood in for the Land but Could nott recover ytt beffor the 
 night tooke us so we stood a Lyttell from ytt & thear strok a hull untill the next 
 daye beinge the Laste of July hear Lyeinge as hull We tooke great stor of 
 cod fyshes.ft 
 
 Then Sir George SQmers sent me word, that he would set saile, and stand in 
 for the Bluer of Sagadalioc ; whose directions I followed. Before two of the 
 clocke we set saile, and stirred away North-west by North, the wind South 
 South-west, and the weather continued very foggy. At eight of the clocke wee 
 tooke in all our sailes, and lay at Hall that night.|| 
 
 I would very gladly have had command over him for that he would never 
 come. ... to visit Sir H. Middleton but found he escaped from me, where- 
 fore I gave them one shot, and stood with the other ship who seeing us stand' 
 with the great ship, struck a hull, thinking to lose us.§§' 
 
 About twelue of the clock the wind veered to the South, and on a sudden vp 
 at the North-east againe. Our sailes were split, so as we hulled till morning. || | 
 
 * 1686, August 19, J. Davis, in Hakluyt (1589), p. 785. Near Resolution Island, at 
 the entrance to Hudson Strait. 
 
 t 1588-89, January, J. Welsh, in Hakluyt, ii, ii. 126. 
 
 t 1589, E. Wright, in Hakluyt, ii. ii. 163. 
 
 J 1594-96, March 18-20. Voyage of Robert Dtfdley to the West Indies (Hakluyt Socie- 
 ty ), pp. 49, 50. See also, pp. 6, 21. 
 
 Jl 1605, May 14fJ.Kosier, T^e Relation (Gorges Society)^, pp. 90, 91 ; Purchas, His 
 Pilffrimea U626), iv. 1659. The land sighted was Sankaty Head, on the eastern ex- 
 tremity of Nantucket. 
 
 H 1607, April, G. Percy, in Purchas, iv. 1686. 
 
 •* 1607, June 29,. J. Playse and H. Hudson, in Purchas, ii. 569. In latitude 78<> 42'< 
 
 tt 1607, July 30, Relation of a Voyage unto New England, in The Sagadahock Colony 
 (Georges Society), p. 42. Near Halifax, Nova Scotia. See aisb, W. Strachey's Histo- 
 rie of Travaile into Virginia (Hakluyt Society), p. 185. 
 
 XX 1610, July 26, S. Argal, in Purchas, iv. 1760. The coast of Maine. The expres- 
 sion occurs four times on this page. 
 
 6^ 1612, May, N. Downton, in Lietters received by the East India Company (1896), i. 
 163. Capt. Downton anchored "4 leagus within the Bab," i.e. Strait of Bab-el- 
 Mandeb. 
 
 nil 1613, April 2, B. Wilson, in Purchas, i. 487. Somewhere between Mauritios and 
 Ascension Island. 
 
8 
 
 The ISth dky at midnight; our ttilss and lUtiia hftiy^rds bi'eak, our nlaln bon- 
 httt split, our main course rent' out of the bolt rdp^, a growing Sea', and fdr 
 want of fit sail to carry, forced to lie a hull'.* 
 
 From midnight befofe vlntlU t^S dsiy nodrie, he drove on jHwZi 3 leagues 
 8.S.E., the weattiter foggy, raine atld wind.f 
 
 9. Item. If the Admiral strike sail iil the hl^ht or life a-try or a-huU, he will 
 put out two lights, one upon the poop and another as far forward as tlie fore- 
 castle, if he set sail.l 
 
 The sea oftentlihjis buer-rafced our ship, and'. . . then about onfe a' clodkb 
 we were forced to take in our fore coursie, and to lye a-'htlirf or flae houres.§ 
 
 In the af ternoone it blew Very hard, being close hasie weather, that about tWo 
 a clocke this af ternoone wee tookfe in our sailes and hulled with our ship till the 
 nest morning at foure a clock. {| 
 
 A storme, hull, lash sure the helme a ley, lye tb try out drlffclt 
 
 This day at noone I had a little cleare, and stood in to the S.W. ward when 
 it fogged againcj I lay tb Hull, two times.** 
 
 It is thus seen that the terms are found in every part of the world to 
 which English mariners had jienetrated. The above extracts are takfein 
 from the writings of seamen, but those which follow show that the terms 
 were well established in the literary language of the'sixteentb and seven- 
 teenth centuries. 
 
 JEolus setting his winds at libertie, hurled such a gaje into the (jceari, that 
 euery surge was ready to ouertake oiir ship, and the barke ready to founder 
 with euery Waue : such and so miserable was our estate, that wee shooke all 
 our Sailes, weighed our Ankers, and let the ship hull at winde and W6ath6r, 
 from our handy labours falling to heartie praiers-ft 
 
 They steared therefore as neere thetherward as they could : but when they 
 
 came so neere as their eies were ful masters of the obiect, they saw a sight 
 
 full of piteous strangenes : a ship, or rather the carkas of the shippe, or rather 
 
 some few bones of the carkas, hulling there, part brqken, part burned, part 
 
 drowned : death hauing vsed more than one dart to that destruction.|t 
 
 TIs thought thatBichmond.is their admir^U, 
 
 And there they hull, expecting but the aide, , 
 
 Of Buckingham, to welcome them a8hore.§§: 
 
 The ninth day towards night, . . . not daring to enter the Eiuer Elve before 
 next morning, wee strucke all sayles, and suffered our shipto bee tossed too 
 and fro by the wanes all that night, (which Marriners call lying at Hull.)|||| 
 
 In sundrie of these stormes the wiflds were so feirce, aiid y^ seas so high, as 
 they could not beare a knote of saile, but were forced to Hull, for diuerce days 
 togither; And in one of thein, as they lay at Hull in a mighty storme', a lustie 
 yohge man (called John Howland) coming Upon some occasion before y« grat- 
 tings, was with a seele of y» shipe throwne into [the] sea.f T 
 
 * 1613, April 13, N. Downton, in Letters received by the East India Oompany, i. 243. 
 Somewhere between Bantam, Java, and the Cape pf Good Hope. 
 
 + 1613, August 8, Sir T. Button in Voyages of Foxe and James (Hakluyt Society) , 
 i. 187. See also, i. 181. . , 
 
 1 1613-14, March 14, in Letters received hy.the East India Oompany, ii. 24. 
 § 1614, Septetpber 1 1, R. Fotherbye, in Purchas, iii. 728. On homeward voyage from 
 Greenland to England. 
 Jl 1615, May 26, W. Baffin, in Purchas, ill. 837. In latitude 60° 50'. 
 11 1626, Capt. J. Smith; Accidence, in Works (Arber), p, 799. 
 ** 1631, June 19, L. Fox, North-West Fox (1635), p. 178; ,, Near Frobisher Bay. 
 ++ 1589, R. Greene, Alcida: Greene's Metamorphosis, Wpr^s (Grosart), ix. 16. The 
 word is apparently here used in a different sense than usual, but perhaps Greene did not 
 thoroughly understand its meaning. 
 
 tt 1590, Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, p. 4 b. Cited, but without exact reference, in John- 
 soS^s Dictionary (1755). 
 
 tl597, Shakspere, Richard III., iv, iv. 438. 
 1617, F. Moryson, Itinerary, p. 2. 
 W. Bradford, History of Plymoth Plantation (facsimile edition), p. 46. Aseelisa 
 roll or pitch. Though writing about 1630, Bradford was referring to the voyage of the 
 Mayflower. 
 
9 
 
 Master. I saw a Dolphin hang l' the horns o' th' moon 
 
 Shot from a wave, hey day, hey day. 
 
 How she kicks and yerks? 
 
 Down with the Main Mast, lay her at hull, 
 
 Farle up all her Linnens, and let her ride it out.* 
 In the night the wind abated, and by morning the sea was well assuaged, so 
 as we bare our foresail again, and stood W.S.W. ; but all the time of the tem- 
 pest we could make no way, but were driven to the leeward, and the Ambrose 
 struck all her sails but her mizzen, and lay a hull. . . . We had still cold weather, 
 and our people were so acquainted with storms as they were not sick, nor 
 troubled, though we were much tossed forty-eight hours together, viz., twenty- 
 four daring the storm, and as long the next night and day following, Wednes- 
 day, 12, when as we lay as it were a hull, for want of wind, and rolling con- 
 tinually in a high grown sea.f 
 
 Antonio. ... In our tedious passage 
 Towards Malta — I may call it so, for hardly 
 We had lost the ken of Sicily, but we were 
 Becalm'd and huU'd so up and down twelve hours.J 
 
 Qonsalvo. Then the Boat which seem'd 
 To lie by chance. Hulling not far from shore, 
 Was plac'd by your direction there? 
 
 Captain. It was.§ 
 
 It must be admitted that Morton's language is very nautical and that the 
 interpretation suggested in this paper is at least a possible one. Perhaps, 
 however, it will be urged that in all the above quotations the terms are 
 used in a literal sense, while Morton is clearly speaking figuratively. Here, 
 too, evidence is not far to seek, and the following extracts show how com- 
 monly the t6nns were employed in a transferred or figurative sense. 
 
 MiTis. As how? what name doe you give him first? 
 
 CORDATUS. He hath shift of names, sir : some call him Apple John, some 
 Signior Whipfb, marry, his maine standing name is Cavalier Shift: the 
 rest are but as cleane shirts to his natures. 
 
 MiTis. And what makes hee in Paules, now? 
 
 CoRDATUS. Troth, as you see, for the advancement of a Siquis,- or two; 
 wherein he has so varied hlmselfe, that if any one of 'hem take, he may hull 
 up and downe in the humorous world, a little longer. || 
 
 Now It fell out so; that Flavianus the ProconsuU . . . perfumed and be- 
 smeared this Dolphin upon a time With a sweet ointment : but the fish (as it 
 should seem) smelling this new and strange smell, fell to be drowsie and sleepie, 
 and hulled too and fro with the waves, as if he had beene half e dead.f 
 
 Maria. Will you hoyst sayle sir, here lies your way. 
 
 Viota. No good swabber, I am to hull here a little longer. Some mollifica- 
 tion for your Giant, sweet Ladle.** 
 
 * 1622, J. Fletcher, Sea-Voyage, i. i., in Mfty Comedies and Tragedies (1679), p. 339. 
 Farl is a contraction for fardel, meaning to furl. The play opens " On board a ship 
 at sea. A tempest, thunder and lightning." 
 
 t 1630, May 3, 12. J. Winthrop, History of New England, i. 15, 17. This was on 
 Wiuthrop's voyage from England to Salem. 
 
 1 1634, P. Massinger, A Very Woman, v. iv., Plays (1803), iv. 338. 
 
 J 1664, J. Dryden, Rival Ladies, v. iii., in Comedies, Tragedies, and Operas (1701), 
 i. 105. In 1667 Milton wrote: "He looked, and saw the ark hull on the flood" \Para- 
 dise Lost, xi. 840). 
 
 || 1599, B. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, ii. vi., Workes (1640), p. 103. The 
 middle aisle of St. Paul's Cathedral, or "Paul's walk" as it was then usually called, 
 was the resort of the idle and the profligate. A satirical description of it written in 
 1628 will be found in J. Earle's Micro-Cosmographie (Arber), p. 73. Cavalier Shift 
 went there for the purpose of setting up a si quis, an advertisement or public notice. 
 Thus, by an odd chance, the passage contains both a legal and a sea term. 
 
 H 1601, P. Holland, translation of Pliny's Natural! Historie, ix. viii. 239. Taken 
 from the Oxford Dictionary. 
 
 ** 1601, Shakspere, Twelfth Night, i. v. 217, in Comedies, Histories, § Tragedies (1623) , 
 
10 
 
 Feliche. Stand away : here's such a company of flibotes, hulling about this 
 galleasse of greatnesse, that there's no boarding him. 
 Doe you heare yon thing call'd, Duke? 
 
 Piero. How now blunt Feliche, what's the newes? 
 
 Feliche. Yonder's a Knight hath brought Andnigio's head, and craves ad- 
 mittance to your chair of state.* 
 
 Captain. How do you like this my Lord Prince, these are mad boys, I tell 
 you, these are things that will not strike their top-sayles to a Foist. And let a 
 man of war, an Argosie hull and cry Cockles, t 
 
 Massinissa. . . . And since this torrent 
 Warres rage admits no Ancor : since the billow 
 Is risen so high we may not hull but yeelde 
 This ample state to stroke of speedy swords 
 
 What you with sober hast hath well decreed 
 Weele put to suddaine armes.J 
 
 King. . . . Thus hulling in 
 The wild Sea of my Conscience, I did steere 
 Towards this remedy, whereupon we are 
 Now present heere together.§ 
 
 You know well Sir at sea, the first entertainment of a storme is, with, downe 
 with top sailes : The Lord mercifully helpe us to loare, and make us truly more 
 and more low, humble, contented, thanckf uU for the least crums of mercie : But 
 the storme increaseth, and trying with our mainsayles and misens will not doe, 
 we must therefore humbly beg patience from the Father of lights and God of 
 all mercies to lye at hull, in hope. || 
 
 Stephana. A Mariner had e'en as good be a Fish as a Man, but for the 
 comfort we get ashore : O for any old dry Wench now I am wet. 
 
 Mustacho. Poor heart ! that would make you soon dry again ; but all is bar- 
 ren in this Isle : here we may lye at Hull till the Wind blow Nore and by South, 
 e'er we can cry a Sail, a Sail, at sight of a white Apron.lf 
 
 With this evidence in mind, let us return to Morton. He says : 
 Unexpected, (in the depth of winter, when all shippes were gone out of the 
 land,) in comes M'. Wetliercock, a proper Mariner; and, they said, he could 
 observe the winde : blow it high, blow it low, hee was resolved to lye at Hull 
 rather than inoounter such a storme as mine Host had met with : and this was 
 a man for their turne. Hee would doe any office for the brethren, if they (who 
 hee knew had a strong purse, and his conscience waited on the strings of it, if 
 all the zeale hee had) would beare him out in it ; which they professed they 
 would. Hee undertakes to ridd them of mine Host by one meanes or another.** 
 They gave him the best meanes they could, according to the present condition 
 of the works, and letters of credence to the f avoures of that Sect in England ; 
 
 p. 259. Viola, disguised as Cesario, visits Olivia on behalf of Duke Orsiuo, and is ac- 
 costed by Maria, Olivia's woman. " The Swabber," vrrote Capt. J. Smith in 1626, " is 
 to wash and keep cleane the ship and maps " {Works, p. 791). 
 
 * 1602, J. Marston, Antonio and Mellida, v. i., Workes (1633), signature B4. A fly 
 boat was a fast-sailing vessel, a galliass a heavy, low-built vessel. 
 
 t 160.5, Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster, v. iv., in Fifty Comedies and Tragedies 
 (1679), p. 37. A foist was a light galley, an argosy a large merchant vessel. To cry 
 cockles has been explained as meaning to " crow over them." 
 
 1 1606, J. Marston, Wonder o/ Women, i. i., signature B 4. 
 
 ^ 1613, Shakspere, Henry VIII., ii. iv. 199, in Comedies, Histories, S; Tragedies (1623), 
 p. 217. Shakspere was a better seaman than some of his commentators. In a note on 
 this passage, Steevens wrote : " A ship is said to hull when she is dismasted, and only 
 her hull, or hulk, is left at the direction and mercy of the waves." 
 
 JJ 1660, October 7, E. Williams, in 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, x. 41. 
 
 "il 167i', J. Dryden, Tempest, ii. i., in Comedies, Tragedies, and Operas (1701), i. 239. 
 In addition to the extracts and references given in this paper, other examples of the 
 terms will be found in the Oxford Dictionary. See also the Register for January, 1890, 
 xliv. 115. 
 
 ** Writing long after the event, S. Maverick declared that Morton refused " to goe 
 into the shipp, as havinge no buisiness there, [and] was hoisted by a tackle." {Col- 
 lections of the New York Historical Society of 1889, p. 40.) 
 
11 
 
 with which, (his busines there being done, and his shipp cleared,) hee hoyst 
 the Sayles and put to Sea. 
 
 Incoherent, metaphorical, and difficult to follow as Morton often is, yet 
 in this instance his account is tolerably clear. On September 7, 1630, the 
 General Court ordered " that Thomas Morton, of Mount Wolliston, shall 
 presently be sett into the bilbowes, & after sent prisoner into England, by 
 the shipp called the Gifte, nowe returneing thith[er]." * For reasons 
 which do not appear, Capt. Brook of the Gift refused to take Morton on 
 board, and the Gift sailed without him.f On October 29 the Handmaid 
 arrived at Plymouth, reaching Boston on November 11, and so another 
 opportunity of getting rid of Morton presented itself, J Would Capt. 
 Grant of the Handmaid also refuse to take Morton, or would he prove 
 more compliant than had Capt. Brook of the Gift ? The " storm " that 
 Morton had met with was not at sea, but at Mt. "Wollaston ; and the storm 
 feared by Capt. Grant was not in Boston Harbor, but in Boston itself. 
 Rather than encounter the resentment of " the brethren " and run the 
 chance of treatment at their hands similar to that accorded Morton, " Mr. 
 Wethercock " chose, in Morton's figurative language, to trim his sails to 
 the political winds and to " lie at hull." He was ready to " doe any office 
 for the brethren if they would beare him out in it," and it was only after 
 he had protected himself by obtaining " letters of credence to the f avoures 
 of that Sect in England " that, late in December,§ he consented to carry 
 off Morton. II 
 
 It is not easy to know precisely what thought was passing through the 
 mind of a man who wrote nearly three centuries ago. But when a phrase 
 can be interpreted in two different senses, one of which was common 
 and the other either unknown or at least rare, we are safe in accepting 
 the common use and in rejecting the uncommon use. As already stated,. 
 no certain allusion to our Massachusetts town by the name of Hull is 
 known before 1644, while it has been abundantly proved in this paper that 
 as a sea term "to lie at Hull" was a commonplace in the literature of the 
 period. In the opinion of the writer, the evidence forces us to the conclu- 
 sion that Morton did not have our Massachusetts town of Hull in mind, 
 but was merely employing the well-known sea term. 
 
 The interpretation offered in this paper is strengthened by the reading 
 of the original edition of Morton's book, published in 1 637. For the Prince 
 
 * Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 75. The Gift reached Charlestown August 20. 
 (Winthrop, i. 30.) 
 
 + Under date of September 30, Winthrop writes : " Thomas Morton adjudged to be 
 imprisoned, till he were sent into England. . . . Capt. Brook, master "of tlie Gift, 
 refused to carry him " (i. 34, 35). 
 
 X Under dates of October 29 and November 11, Winthrop writes: "The Handmaid 
 arrived at Plimouth. . . . John Grant, master. . . . The master came to Boston " 
 (i. 37, 38). 
 
 § Under date of March 12, 1630-31, J. Endicott writes: "In the end of this Decem- 
 ber departed from us the ship Handmaid, of London, by which we sent away one 
 Thomas Morton, a proud, insolent man." (In A. Young, Chronicles of Massachusetts, 
 p. 321.) 
 
 11 Morton is nothing if not fanciful in the names he emjiloys : Winthrop is " Joshua 
 Tempeiwell," Endicott is " Captain Littleworth," etc. It is often impossible to know 
 whom Morton means. Mr. Adams makes no attempt to identify " Mr. Wethercock," 
 but that he was John Grant is shown in our notes. Morton complains of ill treatment 
 on his voyage home, and in a letter written May 1, 1644, he says : " I have staid long. 
 
 Fleet before this time ; and if he return before I depart, he will pay dear for his pre- 
 sumption." (In Hubbard, General History of New England, p. 429.) 
 
12 
 
 Society reprint, Mr. Adams used a copy of the original edition that for- 
 merly belonged to John Quincy Adams. It is well known that variations 
 sometimes occur in different copies of the same edition of a book printed 
 in the seventeenth century. It is possible, therefore, that in the copy of 
 Morton's book belonging to John Quincy Adams the word "Hull" occurs, 
 as printed by Mr. Adams in the Prince Society edition. But in the copy 
 of the 1637 edition in the Boston Public Library, the reading is as fol- 
 lows : " In comes M^ Wethercock a proper Mariner ; and they said ; he 
 could observe the winde ; blow it high, blow it low, bee was resolved to 
 lye at huU rather than incounter such a storme as mine Host had met 
 with." * 
 
 * Page 181. At the close of his sketch of Morton, Mr. Adams siLvs : " There is some 
 reason to think that the fancy for exact reproduction in typography has of late.yeiars 
 been carried to an exti-eme. . . . Yet, this notwithstanding, there is no good reason 
 why gross and manifest blunders, due to the ignorance of compositors and the careless- 
 ness of proof-readers, should be jealously perpetuated as if they were sacred things. 
 . . . The rule followed, therefore, in the present edition has been to reproduce thp 
 New Canaan as it appeared in the Amsterdam edition of 1637, correcting only the 
 punctuation, and such errors of the press as are manifest and unmistakable. V&e^ 
 few changes hare been made in the use of capitals, and those only where, it is obyious 
 that a letter of one kind in the copy wasmistak;en,by the compositor for a letter of 
 another kind " (pp. 103, 104).