"■ m^- ^5 i^HE SPAJIKS 1) LIBRARY. If" [AMERICA.] i@ Colleeted by Tp JARED Sparks, LL. D., 'K^ President of Harvard College. fi Purchased by the Cornell University, 1872. CORNELL UNIVERSITY <~ LIBRARY DATE DUE .' : ; t ^ -»- f75ir Mii#Hd Qidimmmat PRINTED IN U.S.A. Cornell University Library F 73 D76 + History & antiquities of Boston : from i 3 1924 028 818 313 olin Overs The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028818313 1^ Is Chelsea trci-1 JinagF: li Gjjndim Iron Works lb> E Bcslon Iron S, Gas Co I Art, .^ i J. i 1 ,4-1. i An ^ Ji III: ^' • U ,/ 1 Eastera R Rriad- 2 BalLers Iron fcjiiruirT' 3 NavrTaril , \ Officers Houses 5 TiTnt"! Sheds 4.50ftLo[ig 6 Rope V/Vi 7 Oravftb r 9 PoltLT. br- io Otj.jr L i. 1350 ff Lpag: B Greert i. 12 PuUinjf Fmut ' 10 fiant Ui East BosronlUofyie's I.) 1'/ f^hip i ^.us.tj 1-! r..lst boir.,i, b.c.'i,, ElouiK^ Mr , i/lil. I.') '.ii.ay iiH-.vi ; If: iij.yai rJL. , ^., L. :;'.-:'. 2f; ' ci 21 Niival Srnrc lioiues SS rlartu.-iiow;! SI .jCWar 23 Slf:.n.i Kri;.iiu. Huns,; aad 26 Fiouililkut ■. I ,;'-a^-V ?»0"ll,,'H. < 1)1...... ;■ 20 Ontri- IkeWs'ei- ■■ 3S\jallop I •■30 lioiu.ri Liybr,. 36 tongl.&Lonfl Light. 41 Cohas :il .'■■.>u.i. ALlriron. 37 Go V3 1.(Ft Wuuhrop.! 42Hull- '■'.2 Oi!oti;>i l.lFi Warren, 38 Cunard SteaineiiS Laiuluig 43 fliiu{li, i:,U^vrlsi 34 NictssVhte. 39 K Boston tony fioat. 44 Raiiwl i^W(&iFi£-5a^B W(U)]3i WMMKl^'B MirSTOMWlfi!\B3(0)^ir'®M,-!18§g . V/l Drj, . •.■t,-K-,'.:t 35 Viallnp I 40 Cheleei IWrry h.ja( .■50 !w.n'.ii l.:;;1i' 36 Long! &Loa)>-| I.ighi 41 Cohassel :j| ;", II, r ^;,1, .i,;i. ■)■/ GorsUFtWiattirop,) 42 HuU - N-inUskot '.'/^ Giu.i;-M t (T' Wflrnni ^Q Curtaii Steauiels" Laiuimg 13 lliiii.^li.iju ):; ;.i,vtls: 34 Micks-, Mato 39 K. B'.swn fen y Boat. 44 h.imsl.jid 1 45 t-nntrks I 131 WoyniDiuli 46 S;,6i.i.ncl'. I 52 She-p I -17 C.i-.iir;I-bi Jndipojidrincp .65 Ouincy 18 fcnyiniT. i 51 Nut I '/) l.lc- i Ijoi -u Bmi. 64 Old Fnns. on Dorchester 6(i f'aneuil R-ill (luiwS Boston) iloights 69 ViecLharUs Y.\jch-in^ Ccniral Wl.f. 7.3 Old Colony R Road 74 IJorchcster 75 SouiiiB.dy 76 Depot Fiti;hhur!jk d 77 Ch^rl*;stown Rndj'e iDm'DrraiJ£)^. ■SBofc-toyjI'! 60 0\uu.ry H.iv 64 OJd Fnris.onUornheater. 68' faneuil HaM ' bl Squ^iDHim (uowS Boston) Hcigh-is, 69 Mertbiats' Kichajig wu Uis.inr- 63 Piiiknr:^ iiTrJiutioii tor tho 65 Savin Rill ^(IfCniTfjaiou . J31indoi) M' Wi'^Kin^i.ou 56 Boscon CuGiura.J-Ioii3i / Aliii:^ ^Ki fj.i ■L".;l.;gTdph i.'euiral V/lif. 67 Quincy Market 70 CoppsHillGLaveraLil 71 Gai: works '12 CharltistijWTi (JcTimion 73 Old ColonyR Road. 74 iJorcliesier 75 Sourh B;iy 76 Depot Kicuhbur|^ti_H-, 77 Cturliistown Rrulj^e 78' 79' 80 81 Q2 rren BndgY? nsion HousG liofcl irlf^stuwii Market ' ['IiMsaiil. Hovljiuy xbiiiy 83 Boston, and Stote Housai 34 Depot. M^in-pRR. 85 Depot.I.owell KR Pv6 riUhbuij^K Road H7 M;H,/n, IlLloH,] fmrreil a^-or/imi/ tvAa fff'0"uirr3i.in rlif pr.irl.7-'^ 88 Lowell li.Ra-id. .93 Prondence R Road 97 Bror.kluio 89 Cradle's Bndgo 91 Back Bat . 98 K.iil-Rnari 90 Canibndgi; I3rhl>^0 O.'j Trpjngjit Huad fj" i ■(■ii!,:i,i.j, Ol Mill LUdi ae oiumiif!-/(aoaft high) at lun K.idf i;.]ui :fe Wucrjsu.Tll it,„.,l , _ MQjrhiiryI.ahoiatory.H(al)iii7 lijl O.^tfe-,'''. Ja^r-^ fjk^xyr£^ THE HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OP BOSTON, THE CAPITAL OF MASSAOHUSETTS AND UETR0F0LI3 OF NEW BNGLAND, FBOM ITS SETTLEMENT IN 1630, TO THE YEAR 1770. ALSO, OP THE DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. WITH NOTES, CEITIOAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE. By SAMUEL G. DRAKE, A.M., MEMBER OF THE ROTAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ANTIQUARIES AT COPENHAGEN, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE NEW ENGLAND HISTOBICAL AND QBNEALOGIOAL SOOIETT, AND HONOKARY AND OORRESFOND- IHG MEMBER OF THE NEW HAMPSHIRE, RHODE ISLAND, CONNEGTIOCT, NEW YORK, PENNSYLVANIA AND MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETIES, ETC. ETC. /"^ ■ ,, BOSTON: '/f' \ PUBLISHED BY LUTHEK STEVENS, ^'^ 186 WASHINGTON STKBBT. /- , ^' - , 1856. '^ ', /0> OKNE * ^ ' t; ylTY ^BSS^ J-ii^ JJU'- JiUU luiB Entered according to Act of Congress, in nuafbers, during the years 1852, 1863, 1854, 1855, and 1856, by SAMUEL a. DBAEE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court ot the District of Massachusetts. ^^^mjLe.c) 'iX,> ^S i |;4^>^"""";"'x I? .s^'^^^ ) r^ Bteteotfpad by HOBART ft BOBBINS, New En^Iuid 'ij^ ul Btwwtypa VvmAiujt BOaiOH. ' '«#^ ' PREFACE. THE History and Antiquities of Boston, to the year 1770, is now completed, and must abide the judgment of posterity. Whatever that judgment may be, the writer will rest conscious of having performed a service which will prove of some value to those who desire to obtain a knowledge of the rise and progress of the Metropolis of New England. Although above five-and-twenty years have passed since the author began to coUect materials for the work, it is but a few years since he determined to draw up a history from them, never before having found a proper time to devote to it. At length, after some changes of circumstances not necessary to be detailed, he was induced, partly through the influ- ence of friends in whose judgment he had much confidence, to enter upon the composition of the work. About four years ago, application was made to the writer to edit an edition of the work of Dr. Caleb H. Snow, and arrangements were accordingly entered into with a bookseller for that purpose ; but, on a cursory examination of the work, it was found to be very far from such a history of the City as ought to be expected at the present day, and that it could not be made at all satisfactory, even by encumbering it with very extensive annotations, owing to the great chasms in the original text. This being represented to the undertaker, he at once changed his plan, and a new History was determined upon. The result is at length before the public, or that part of it previous to, and including a portion of, the year 1770. As unthankful and unprofitable as the task of a local historian is, he cannot always escape the envy of sordid and narrow minds. Even John Stow, the famous Chronicler of England, had his envious tra- ducers ; but it is pleasant to reflect, that, wMle their names are quite forgotten, that of Stow is becoming more and more . renowned IV PEEPACE. and resplendent. Those who would monopolize all knowledge seldom' excel in any of its departments, though they may shine for a time with the borrowed lustre of others. Stow was not deterred by threats and intimidations from occupying ground open to all. Had he been, the world would have been deprived of one of its greatest antiquarian treasures. The author of the History and Antiquities of Boston hopes to fare no worse than did his ancient brother, the Chronicler of London, who had the privilege of dying in poverty, notwithstanding " James, by the grace of God," gave him high-sounding " Letters Patent," allowing him (" then on the verge of his 80th year ") to sell as many of his books as he could ! Fortunately, in the present undertaking, no " Letters Patent " are necessary to give permission to the author or publisher to dispose of his work. How many persons have had it in contemplation to write a History of Boston is unknown to the author ; but the only one, probably, who, within the last thirty years, has seriously thought of it, was Mr. Alonzo Lewis. That gentleman was very competent for the task, and had he been at liberty to prosecute it, agreeably to his announce- ment about twenty-five years ago, it would have rendered this under- taking unnecessary. Respecting those persons who have specially aided the author, by the loan of documents, suggestions, or otherwise, it is very difficult to speak without incurring the charge of partiality, and he would therefore observe that nothing can be further from his intention than to give the slightest ground for such a charge. Several of the gen- tlemen hereafter named, having, perhaps, too much confidence in the author's ability for the undertaking, strongly recommended to him the preparation of a new work, instead of spending time upon one neces- sarily very defective, and which could not be made such a History of Boston as the present time required. These were honest convictions and valid arguments, the author acknowledged, and all without any intention of disparagement to the works which had hitherto appeared upon the historical and descriptive condition of the City ; those works being presumed to have been all that the times would warrant in which they were produced. The names of several of the gentlemen to whom allusion has been made, as encouragers of this work, the author does not feel at liberty to omit, namely, William Whiting, Esq., President of the New Eng- land Historical and Grenealogical Society ; the Hon. Timothy Farrar, Vice-President of the same society ; the Hon. Francis Brinleyi PREFACE. V Recording Sectetary of the same ; Mr. John Dean, its Treasurer ; Hon. George S. Hillard, Frederic Kidder, Esq., Mr. John W. Parker of Eoxbury ; the Hon. David Sears, Mr. John F, Eliot, Mr. Edward Tuckerman, Mr. William B. Trask, Dr. "William Jenks, Dr. Charles Lowell, Nathaniel I. Bowditch, Esq., T. L. Turner, M.D., Mr. James S. Loring, and William G. Brooks, Esq. From these, and likewise from many others, much kindness has been received in vari- ous ways ; and, for their approval and commendation of the work from time to time, as portions of it have appeared, the author tenders to them, one and all, his unfeigned gratitude. To one of those above named, however, a more special acknowledgment is due,- namely, to Mr. John Dean, by whose quick perceptions and ready memory the auth^- has been much benefited throughout his labors. The valuable aid of the friends referred to, although in almost every instance ten- dered unsolicited, is not the less appreciated by the author. Nor should the laborious services of Mr. Isaac Child, upon the extensive Index to this work, be passed over without particular acknowledg- ment. As the work has appeared in parts, or numbers, it may be of use to specify the time of the appearance of those parts, in the event that questions may arise as to the work in which certain facts first appeared. The following statement is therefore given, which can easily be verified by the books of the publisher : Part I., including pages 1 to 48, was issued Sept. 1st, 1852 ; pages 49 to 96, Jan. 6th, 1853 ; 97 to 144, March 22d, 1853 ; 145 to 192, May 26th, 1853 ; 193 to 240, July 25th, 1853 ; 241 to 288, Sept. 23d, 1853 ; 289 to 336, Dec. 10th, 1853 ; 337 to 384, March 17th, 1854 ; 385 to 432, June 13th, 1854 ; 433 to 480, Sept. 18th, 1854 ; 481 to 528, Dec. 12th, 1854 ; 529 to 576, March 13th, 1855 ; 577 to 624, June 11th, 1855 ; 625 to 672, Nov. 14th, 1855 ; 673 to 720, Feb. 11th, 1856 ; 721 to 768, AprU 2d, 1856. Some account of the materials used in compiling the work may be expected ; but, as justice cannot be done to that subject within the compass of a Preface, it is thought best to pass it by with only a remark or two. The Town Records, from the time of their com- mencement in 1634, are the most important, being full and perfect from that date to the present time. To these the author has had free access, granted, in the most obliging manner, by the Mayors of the City for the time being, the City Clerk, and others connected with his office. Beyond the Records in the keeping of the City Clerk, and the author's own collections, very little assistance has been received VI PKEFACB. besides that for wMch due acknowledgment is given in the notes to the work. It will readily he perceived that to give an account of the materials consulted by the author, which have been collected by him through a period of more than a quarter of a century, would be a task not easily performed. As one item, however, his series of pamphlets may be mentioned. These alone number above five thousand, con- sisting of Town and City Documents, Reports of Societies, Historical Discourses, Hand-BiUs, and, in short, everything of a fugitive char- acter, which might in any way illustrate the History of the Town and City. To these, and a large collection of Newspapers, which have been laboriously consulted, the author is much indebted. Respecting the works of the late Dr. Snow, printed and manuscript, put into the author's hands by the original undertaker, it is proper to remark that, having laid aside the plan of a new edition of that author's History of Boston, those materials have been of but very little service in this work. The author has been earnestly urged by numerous friends to con- tinue his work to the present time, and his inclination is to do so ; but, as yet, no definite arrangement has been made for that purpose. It may be said to be in the hands of the public. An immense outlay has been made to produce the present volume, for which no adequate return has yet been realized. To bring the History down to near the present time, another volume of the same size as the present would be required, the materials for which are abundant. As the work has been upwards of three years in passing through the press, some of its patrons may have become impatient to see the end of it, and some may have been misinformed as to the time it would take to complete it. It is therefore proper to state that no time for its completion was set, nor could it be with any degree of cer- tainty. This it is thought necessary to bear in mind, because some of the agents engaged in its distribution may have made promises without any authority. In presenting the History and Antiquities of Boston to the public, the author is far from presuming that it will be found perfect. AH he pretends is, that he has endeavored to make it as near so as the nature of the undertaking, and the limits prescribed, allowed. He is well aware that numerous facts exist of much interest, of which notice could not be taken, notwithstanding there may be those who will wonder that so much has been found, and others may be disposed to complain of the unwieldy size of the volume. To them it may be PREFACE. VII said that the increase in the size of the Histories has not kept pace with the growth of the City, and that it cannot be doubted, but, by the end of another quarter of a century, one will be required much larger than the present. Most readers of local history of the present age are not satisfied with general statements; they want minute details, those which will briag scenes and events home to their minds, and awaken associations enlivened by their own experience. As it respects the commission of errors, the author would expressly state that he is well aware that many exist in his work ; and that, however many, others may detect, he feels quite sure that no one can discover as many as himself. But, at the same time, he believes his work to be quite as free from them as any other historical work of the same magnitude. There are those who sometimes acquire among the superficial a reputation for knowledge and accuracy by carping at every error, or supposed error, pointed out to them in works of this kind ; while the same individual could not produce a single octavo page without such blemishes. Who ever saw a perfect book, — one free from errors ? Curious stories are told about immaculate typog- raphy and amateur printers. Dr. Cotton Mather, in his Magnalia, has some very good hints for those who would have it understood that errors in a book are unpardonable sins. It may incur the charge of vanity for an author to append to his name his honors or titles ; but if a long period of labor in historical fields can be any excuse, that may be offered in this instance ; for it is above thirty years since the writer commenced his historical and antiquarian labors, and he has now reached the fifty-seventh of his age. This may be considered an unnecessary apology for adopting an ancient custom, especially as there are some instances, at the present time, of ostentatious displays of this kind to names in works to which even a claim to editorship may be questionable. ENGRAVINGS. Portraits, 39 Autographs,. 134 Others, 125 Whole number, SpS* Adams (arms\ 675 Adams, Matthew (rT 121 frospec-Hiil 122 Read to^amindgB. 125 Mbr^driock if: 123 Chariestown Neck i26''-We5C Cambridre 1^4 Cau3ewa«ava:ui:!iillDaia. 127 W&nterHiii ^70(3awDw®[Fi©iTr©w«m®K] [BOJKiKEK mu.m(^iruM'Emjmf Exeter," a ship of 200 tons and another of 50 were got ready, and Smith departed again 1615. for New England. But, he says, " ere I had sayled 120 leagues, March, ghe ]3rake all her masts ; pumping each watch five or 6000 strokes ; onely her spret saile remayned to spoone before the wind, tiU we had reaccommodated a iury mast to returne for Plimouth, or founder in the Seas." The smaller ship, commanded by Capt. Thomas Dermer, pur- sued her voyage unharmed, and returned to England in about five months, making a prosperous voyage. As soon as he could refit. Smith put to sea again, but in a short time was taken by pirates, who stripped hun of everything, kept him above three months, and from whom he escaped in the most surprising man- ner ; " far beyond all men's reason, or his expectation." 1617. ■'■^ ^""^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^ fatalist, he would hardly have undertaken, or ■ attempted to have undertaken, another voyage to New England, as he did within two years from his disasters by storms and pirates. But he was one of those whom no success could enervate, or misfortunes discourage, and we find him in the spring of this year ready, with three good ships at Plymouth, and men to begin a settlement in the country. His ill-fortune, however, still pursued him,— he was wind-bound three ] 617-1631.] smith's disappointments and reverses. 25 months, and the voyage was finally abandoned. In consequence of his losses and disappointments about New England, it is said that the Plymouth Company conferred upon him the title of Admiral of that country, which of&ce he was to hold for life. It was thus by a combination of untoward events, which continued for several years, that Captain John Smith was prevented from being the founder of the first colony in New England, and probably the first settler of the peninsula of Boston — for his skilful and practised eye could not have overlooked the most favorable point, and the best harbor in the country, that he had himself denominated the " Paradise of New England."* How Captain Smith employed his time, after the year 1617 to the time of his death in 1631, there is nothing to show farther than is con- tained in his General History ; from which it is certain he had the great object of setthng New England continually in view. The publi- cation of his works gave him some employment. After he had published his " Generall Historic," Sir Robert Cotton and others of his friends found that he ' ' had likewise undergone diuers other as hard hazards in the other parts of the world," requested him " to fix the whole course of his passages in a booke," which he consented to do, because his "fatal tragedies had been acted on the stage, and his relations had been racked at the pleasure" of those who had exhibited no disposition to do him justice, and, to "prevent future misprisons." There is ample evidence that Capt. John Smith was a generous friend, as well as a magnanimous foe. In writing of his own achievements, he never forgets those of others who shared his fortunes. " To speak only of myself," he says, "were intolerable ingratitude. I cannot make a monument for myself, and leave them unburied in the fields, whose lives begot me the title of a soldier ; for as they were companions with me in my dangers, so shall they be partakers with me in this tomb." At the same time he thus remembers his enemies, whose " envie hath taxed me to haue writ too much and done too little ; but that such should know how little I esteem them, I haue writ this." Speaking in the third person, Smith himself says "he was born in Willoughby in Lincolnshire,"! and from a reference already made to one * The names of the men that were to have begun the settlement of Massachusetts, in 1615, are given by Captain Smith, as follows : — lohn Smith, Admirall \or Governor] ' Thomas Dermer Edward Stallings [Rooroft ?] }• Gent. Daniel Cage Francis Abbot lohn Gosling Thomas Digbie Daniel Baker Adam Smith William Ingram ^Soldiers. Bobert Miter Dauid Cooper lohn Patridge and two boies Thomas Watson ) Were to learn Walter Ohisell V to be lohn Hall. ) Sailers. f There can be no mistake in what Smith himself says, so far as his own knowledge went, but it is remarkable that Fuller, who wrote during and after the civil wars, should say in his Worthies, that " Captain Smith was born in the county of Cheshire." This statement of Fuller is the more remarkable, because he unqualifiedly says, "Master Arthur Smith, Capt. Smith's kinsman, and my old school-master did inform me so." But, although Fuller makes up quite a story about Smith, he does not ap- pear to have been very well informed with regard to him, and was unfavorably impressed towards him, as is very evident from the sneer- 26 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1617-1631. of Hs maps, it appears that he was bom in 1579 ; and from a monu- ment to his memory in St. Sepulcher's Church, London, erected by " a friend," it also appears that he " departed this Life, the 21st of June, 1631." And, as the inscription upon his monument has never, to the writer's knowledge, been published in the land for which he made so many sacrifices, it is here presented.* " To the living Memory of his deceased Friend, Capt. John Smith, some time Govemour of Virginia and Admiral of New England, who departed this life the 21st of June, iWl. Accordiamus, vincere est vivere. Here lies one conquer'd, that hath conquer'd Kings, Subdu'd large territories, and done things Which to the world impossible would seem. But that the truth is held in more esteem. Shall I report his former service, done In honour of his God and Christendom? How that he did divide from Pagans Three, Their heads and lives, types of his_ chivalry : For which great service in that climate done. Brave Sigismundus (King of Hungarion) Did give him as a Coat of Armes to wear. Those conquered heades, got by his sword and spear. Or shall I tell of his adventures since. Done in Virginia, that large continent? How that he subdu'd Kings unto his yoke. And made those heathen flee, as wind doth smoke • And made their }and, being of so large a station, A habitation for our christian nation ; Where God is glorified, their wants supply'd. Which for necessaries might have dy'd. But what avails his conquest now he lies Interr'd in earth, a prey to wormes and flyes? O may his soul in sweet Elysium sleepe, TJntill the keeper, that all souls doth keep, Keturu to judgement ; and that after thence, With Angels lie may have his recompence." New England as well as Old owes the memory of Captain Smith a debt which remains unpaid. Let Virginia look to this. Her sons wiU by and by be inquired of for the monument which they have not erected to his memory. So far as books go, we have several that aim at doing him justice,! find paintings and prints are not wanting, but an EDITED edition of his works 1 — there is none ! ing manner in which he speaks of ' ' his ranting * Maitland's Hist. Land. ,p.ll80. 2 v. fol. 1760. Epitaph," as he calls it, and which he did not -j-The neat and classic memoir of Captain think worth his while to copy. That Fuller Smith, by Mr. G. S. Hillard, is creditable to knew little about Smith, is evident from auoth- its gifted author. It forms half of the second er feet, namely, his supposing him to have died volume of Mr. Spark's American Biography ; in old age ; whereas he was but 52 when he but loses its importance by sleeping in the died. This is only one instance among many, same bed with Wilson, the Ornithologist. ' — wherein this curious author bends his facts to Mr. W. G. Siums has given the most elaborate his conceits. He wished to say, that " Smith life of Smith that has yet appeared, but he had a prince's mind imprisoned in a poor does not pretend to give us anything new. It man's purse," which obliged him to add, as he would be difficult, indeed, to find anything in fancied, that "he led his old age in London." the same compass, superior to the memoir of Now Snjith's Life and Travels were common Smith, by Dr. Belknap; although it is to be re- when Fuller wrote, and he has no excuse for gretted that tie part in which we are most in- errors about his birthplace, or age when he terested is so slightly touched upon by his died. able hand. L7-1631.] NEW ENGLAND, 1607 to 1629. 27 Aumong the last labors of Capt. Smith, was probably that of superin- ding the printing of his "Advertisements for the inexperienced inters of New England, or any where."* It bears the date 1631 on title-page, and this was the year "he finished his earthly career," has just been stated. A-bout one year before the settlement of Boston by the company which ne with Winthrop, Captain Smith recapitulated the affairs of New gland, as follows : " When I went first to the north part of Virginia, 1614] where the Westerly Colony [of 1607] had been planted, which i dissolved itself within a yeare, there was not one Christian in all ! land. The country was then reputed by the Westerlings [the Plym- ;h Company] a most rockie, barren, desolate desart ; but the good urn I brought from thence, with the maps and relations I made of the mtry, which I made so manifest, some of them did beleeve me, and sy were weU embraced, both by the Londoners, and Westerlings, for om I had promised to undertake it, thinking to have joyned them together. Betwixt them there long was much contention. The Lon- aers indeed went bravely forward, but in three or four yeares, I and ' friends consumed many hundred pounds amongst the Phmothians, .0 only fed me but with delayes, promises and excuses, but no per- mance of any thing to any purpose. In the interim, many particular ps went thither, and finding my relations true, and that I had not :en that I brought home from the French men, as had beene reported ; ; further for my paines to discredit me, and my calling it New Eng- d, they obscured it and shadowed it with the title of Cannada, till, my humble suit. King Charles confirmed it, with my map and booke, the title of New England. The gaine thence returning did make fame thereof so increase, that thirty, forty, or fiftie saile, went irely only to trade and fish ; but nothing would bee done for a plan- ion, tiU about some hundred of your Brownests of England, Amster- n, and Leyden, went to New Plimouth, whose humorous ignorances, Lsed them for more than a yeare, to endure a wonderful deale of mis- ■, with an infinite patience ; but those in time doing well, divers ers have in smaU. handfuUs undertaken to goe there, to be severall rds and Kings of themselves, but most vanished to nothing ; notwith- ading, the fishing ships made such good returnes, at last it was TOSsed by twenty Pattenties, that divided my map into twenty parts, I cast lots for their shares ; but money not comming in as they ex- ited, procured a proclamation none should goe thither without their jnces to fish ; but for every thirty tunnes of shipping, to pay them ) pounds. Besides, upon great penalties, neither to trade with the ives, cut downe wood for their stages, without giving satisfaction, ugh all the country is nothing but wood, and none to make vse of it This, a tract of some fifty pages, contains be yery justly entitled the " Book of Good )ry, natural as well as civil, and a variety Counsel," as ■well to undertakers as actual set- bings, told in an agreeable way. It would tiers. 28 msTOKY OF BOSTON, [1617-1631. with many such other pretences, for to make this country plant itself, by its owne wealth. Hereupon most men grew so discontented, that few or none would goe ; so that the Pattenties, who never one of them had beene there, seeing those proiects would not prevaile, have since not hindered any to goe that would ; so that, withia these few last yeares, more have gone hither than ever." Thus, how affairs stood, and what influences operated, alternately, to retard and forward settlements in New England, is quaintly, yet graph- ically set forth, by one who lived in and among those affairs and influ- ences ; one who not only knew them better than any other, but also was, unquestionably, better than any other qualified to describe them. And, to do him full justice, his own summary recapitulation of his vari- ous fortunes shall here follow, which would suffer in any hands but his. Although delivered in the third person it is nevertheless his: — "Now to conclude," he writes, "the travels and adventures of Cap- tain Smith, how first he planted Virginia, and was set ashore with about an hundred men in the wild woods ; how he was taken prisoner by the Savages, and by the King of Pamaunke tied to a tree to be shot to death ; led up and down their country to be shown for a wonder ; fatted as he thought for a sacrifice to their idoll, before whom they con- jured him three dayes, with strange dances and invocations, then brought him before their Emperor Powhatan, that commanded him to be slaine ; how his daughter Pocahontas saved his life, returned him to lames towne ; releeved him and his famished company, which was but eight and thirty to possess those large dominions ; how he discovered all the severall nations, upon the rivers falling into the Bay of Chisapeacke ; stung neere to death with a most poysoned taUe of a fish called Sting- ray ; how Powhatann out of his Country tooke the Kings of Pamaunke and Paspahegh prisoners, forced thirty nine of those kings to pay him contribution ; subjected all the Savages : how he was blowne up with gunpowder, and returned for England to be cured. "Also how he brought our new England to the subjection of the Kingdom of great Britaine ; his fights with the Pirats, left alone amongst a many French men of Warre, and his ship ran from him ; his sea fights for the French against the Spaniards ; their bad vsage of him ; how in France in a little boat he escaped them ; was adrift all such a stormy night at sea by himselfe, when thirteene French Ships were split, or driven on shore by the lie of Eee ; the generall and most of his men drowned, when God brought him safe on shore to all their admirations that escaped." * In another place he says, " I have spent five years, and more than five hundred pounds, in the service of Virginia and New England, and in neither of them have I one foot of land, nor the very house I built, nor the ground I digged with my own hands ; but I see those coun- tries shared before me by those who know them only by my descrip- tions." * Gen. Hist. Virginia, ii. 278-9. 1615.] PROMOTERS OP THE SETTLEMENT OP NEW ENGLAND. 29 Such are some of the last words of an honest man, one who shrunk from no responsibilities, and never knew fear ; and, that friends and foes should never differ about what he said and did, he closes by saying " lohn Smith writ this with his own hand." CHAPTER IV. Promoters of New England Settlements. — People early in the Country. — Voyages of Whitboum. — Hawkins. — French Ship surprised by the Indians. — Indians' Idea of an Almighty Power. — De- stroyed by Disease. — Does not affect the English. — Sir F. Gorges. — Sir John Popham. — Origin of the two Virginia Companies. — Discoveries Continued. — Baffin. — Death of Capt. Dermer. — Capt. Rocrofl. — Charter of 1620. — A Settler in Massachusetts Bay. — Settlement of Plymouth. The distinguished men by whose exertions New England had become known, and by whom the minds of the people of England had been pre- pared for the great work of colonization, had chiefly gone, one by one, to the tomb, before any great settlements had been effected in the coun- try. Gilbert had perished in the commencement of his career ; Frobisher was sacrificed to the blindness of those who controlled his services ; Drake had fallen a victim to disease, while in the service of his Queen ; envy and misfortune had paralyzed the exertions of Raleigh, who finally perished upon the scaffold. Smith alone saw the sailing of a frail bark or two, with a feeble colony, for New England ; he did, indeed, live to witness a second governor sent to the country of which he had held the office of Admiral. But death closed his eyes before he had very san- guine hopes that these efforts would found a permanent state. It is true that there were a few fishermen scattered along the coast, who had made lodgments in several places upon islands and on the main land, even from the time of Smith's last voyage ; but who they were, and where they were located, remain in as much uncertainty as the times of their arrival.* Voyages had become so frequent to the northern parts of Amer- ica, that it was no uncommon thing for people to remain in the country, while the ships which brought them returned home and came again to the same coasts. Captain Richard Whitbourn, who made a voyage to Newfoundland this year, says there were then on that coast two hundred and fifty sail of English ships fishing, "greate and smale." He had a commission equal to that of governor, held courts and corrected abuses. In a short time he heard complaints from one hundred and seventy captains or mas- ters of vessels, of injuries committed on their trade ; nor is this to be wondered at, when the fact is considered that there were congregated * "The time when these things happened is controverted more than the things themselves." — Mather's Relation, 3. 30 HISTOEY OP BOSTON. [161b. in those seas " many thousands of English, French, Portuguese, and others." . Sir Richard Hawkins, not long returned out of a Spanish captmty, son of the famous Sir John Hawkins,* was the same year on the coast of New England. He was president of the Plymouth Company, and came over, on its behalf, to search into the nature of the commodities of the country, hut finding a war raging among the Indians along the coast, he judged it unsafe to proceed in his intentions. Sailing hence to Virginia, he returned to England, without accomplishing anything of moment. At least, there appears no record of anything. In the autumn or fall of this year, a French ship was cast away ^^^^' somewhere about Cape Cod,tbut the crew succeeded in getting safely to land. They were soon discovered and made prisoners by the Indians, who treated them in their barbarous manner, and eventually kiUed them aU but three or four. These they sent as curiosities about the country, from one sachem to another. Three years after, when Captain Dermer was at Cape Cod, he found two of them alive, whom he redeemed out of their hands. As an illustration of the ignorance and simplicity of the Indians, it maybe interesting to observe here their ideas of an Almighty power. When the English inquired of them why they killed the Frenchmen, they justified the murders on some frivolous grounds ; and when they were told that the great God was angry with them for their crimes, and would destroy them, they looked significantly on one an- other, and inquired, sneeringly, of the English, if they thought they were such fools as to believe that God could kiU all the Indians 1 It was very remarkable in this case, and the superstitions of the In- dians might well lead them to the belief that the white people truly held their fate in their hands : for, immediately after they had so cruelly treated the poor French mariners, a deadly sickness broke out among them, which, as old authors say, caused them " to die in heaps * I have no authority expressly to this point, pentanoe." This so disturbed Sir Richard that Southey, the biographer of Sir Eichard, makes he would not undertake the voyage in her. no mention that he ever made a voyage to New Among a great many examples of ships with England, nor does the editor of his " Observar unfortunate names, he mentions the " Thun- tions," republished by the Hakluyt Society, derbold of London, who in one voyage had her make any mention of it, or that he was a mem- mast cleft with a thunderbolt." ber of the first parliament of James I. He was f Captain Dermer's letter in Purchas. Der- amost expert seaman ; had served under Drake, mer says the ship was cast away to the "North and was in " the iourney against the Spanish East of Cape Cod," which is not a very definite Armada." His "Observations," a copy of the locality. Morton, of Ma-re-Mount, learned original edition of which is before me, shows some important facts from the Indians relative him to have been a man of learning, and pes- to the French ship, which, he says, was riding " sessing an excellent judgment and great expe- at anchor, by an island, afterwards called Ped- rience in sea affiiirs ; yet he was superstitious, dock's Island, that the Indians set upon the as probably were nearly all seamen of that age. men at disadvantage, killed many of them, and He believed there was much of good or evil to burnt the ship. The captives they distributed happen to a ship, as she had a fortunate or an among five sachems of different territories, unfortunate name. When he had caused an This, so far as it goes, agrees with what Dr. I. elegant ship "to be builded in the river Mather relates of the same tragedy. His in- Thames," for his famous South Sea expedition, formant gave him the name of the Erench- he requested his mother-in-law to give it a man living in his time, which was Monsieur name, " who, knovring what voyage was pre- Finch. tended to be vndertaken, named her the Re- 1606.] PESTILENCE AMONG THE INDIANS. — GORGES. 31 all up and dowa the country, insomuch that the living were in no wise able to bury the dead." What kind of malady this was that swept them off in so fearful a manner was never known. Some have conjectured it was the plague, and others that it was the small-pox ;* but whatever it was, its ravages were very extensive, even several hundred miles along the coast ; probably from the Penobscot to Narraganset Bay ; but nei- ther the Penobscots nor Narragansets were affected by it. The disease that carried off the Indians with such fatality seems not to have affected the English at aU ; for Sir Ferdinando Gorges says his agent, " Mr. Richard Vines, and the rest vnth him," were with the Indians in the time they were " dying mightily," and though they lived and slept in the same cabins with the Indians, yet " not one of them ever felt their heads to ache." To Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who persevered so long and so unsuccess- fiiUy to colonize New England, something more than has yet been said in these pages is justly due. He was an intimate friend of Raleigh, and appears to be first noticed by the English historian in connection with the unfortunate Earl of Essex, with whose conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth he had knowledge, which he communicated to Raleigh. In the latter wars with Spain he served with reputation in the navy, and when James I. came to the throne, and peace was settled, Gorges was appointed governor of Plymouth, in Devonshire. He was of an ancient family, the ancestor of which, as appears by the roll of Battle Abtey, and other ancient records, came over with William the Conqueror. Gorges' interest in New England grew out of the mere accident as he relates, of some Indians happening to be brought into Plymouth, whom he took into his keeping. Having at much pains learnt from them something of the nature of their country, his imagination was soon brilliant with golden harvests to be reaped in the western continent, and, naturally endowed with a sanguine temperament, he pursued his favorite project with a constancy that deserved a better issue than that which happened to him. The high moral standing of Sir Ferdinando Gorges is apparent from the fact of his interesting with him, in his plan of discovery, the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, Sir John Popham ; f by whose ac- quaintance with many noblemen and gentlemen, an interest at Court secured a patent for making settlements in America. 1606. The patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert became void soon after Apru 10. iiis death, f and that to Raleigh, by his attainder, had reverted to * Major Gookin says, in his valuable Histori- were to be numbered about 900,000 persons." cal Collections, th&t "some old Indiana, who — Proceedings in the House of Co7nmons,l&21, i. were then youths, told him, that the bodies of 317. — Chief Justice Popham died on the 10th the sick were all oyer exceeding yillow before of June, 1607, at the age of 76 years. — Har- they died, which they described by pointing to ris in Hubbard's New England, 6»2. a yellow garment." _ J The terms of his patent were, to secure his f In the 30th of Elizabeth (1588) Judge Pop- discoveries to himself forever, provided he made ham did, " by the Queen's command, inquire settlements in the countries discovered, within how many men, women and children there six years from the date of its execution, were in London, and then found that there 32 mSTOEY OF BOSTON. [1616. the crown, after the melancholy death of the former ; therefore, there remained no obstacle in the way for whatever grants of territory the king thought proper to make in North America. The first step was to divide the whole country into two parts, because, " being found, upon experi- ence and tryall," too large for one government. This division being made, the respective territories were named North and South Virginia. The latter of these districts was entrusted to the care of certain noblemen and gentlemen, who styled themselves the London Company, because the principal part of them resided in and about London ; the other was under the direction of gentlemen of Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth. These were called the Plymouth Company, because they held their meet- ings at Plymouth. Of this company. Gorges and Popham were proba- bly the most enterprising members. The proceedings immediately suc- ceeding the procurement of these charters, so far as deemed necessary to a full understanding of their bearing upon this history, have been detailed in the preceding chapter. Notwithstanding the disasters which attended the Sagadehock col- ony, Gorges continued his efforts to further his great object of coloniz- ing New England almost alone ; and although ships in considerable numbers were sent by the London and Plymouth Companies every sea- son, fishing and trade with the Indians seem to have been the only thing aimed at in their voyages. Voyages of discovery, too, were kept up in the North American ■ seas. Sir Thomas Smith, an eminent writer on government, and then Governor of the Virginia Company, with other gentlemen in Eng- land, sent out a ship for the Mth time, named the Discovery, to search for a passage to China by the north-west. WilUam Baffin went as pUot, and the captain's name was Robert Bylot. The Discovery sailed from Gravesend on the twenty-sixth of March. In this voyage. Horn Sound, Cape Dudley Digges, Wolstonholme's Sound, Sir Thomas Smith's Sound, Whale Sound, Hakluyt's Island, Gary's Islands, Alderman Jones Sound, and James Lancaster's Sound, were discovered and named. Thus far Captain Bylot seems to have had no ambition to leave his own name on any of the frozen sounds or gulfs in the north. But when the discoverers entered a great sea or bay in 78°, it was named for the pilot, Baffin's Bay, who was, very likely, the most important man in the voy- age. He is said to have been a great mathematician, and the first of nav- igators who made use of lunar observations for finding longitudes at sea. He was afterwards an engineer in the war against the Portuguese, and was slain at the siege of Ormuz, " as he was trying his mathematicall projects and conclusions," before the year 1629.* 1619 Capt^ii^ Thomas Dermer, one of the noblest of the seamen of these ■ times,t of whom but sUght notice has been taken, was engaged to * Hutton, who professes to notice matheinar who were thought the wisest of their craft de- ticians in his Mathematical and Philosophical cided that no such bay as that laid down by Dictionary, has not the name of Baffin. Per- Baffin existed ! It is somewhere stated that haps the omission may be accounted for from Baffin was killed in 1622. the fact that the geographers of Button's time, fl^'lyard's Naval History, ii. 457. 1619.] DERMER. — ROCROFT — EPENOW'S CONSPIRACY. 33 carry out Sir Ferdinando Gorges' views in his endeavors to colonize New England ; but his death prevented all hopes Gorges may have en- tertained from his tried services and abilities. He was killed by the Indians in the midst of his enterprises in this manner : Being at New- foundland, Gorges prevailed upon the Company to send Captain Ed- ward Rocroft* to New England, with orders to remain there until Cap- tain Dermer should join him. On his arrival Rocroft fell in with a French ship, which he took as a lawful prize, and sailed with it to South Virginia. Here, in some private quarrel, Rocroft was killed and his bark sunk.f Meantime, Captain Dermer returned to England, and having conferred with Gorges and the Company, sailed for New Eng- land in a ship which Gorges owned, expecting to meet Rocroft there ; but, disappointed in this, he ranged the coast and examined it minutely ; and, transmitting the result of his observations to Gorges, sailed for South Virginia, f Here learning the fate of Rocroft, and, disappointed of supplies, he returned again to the coast of New England. At the island Capawock he met with that subtle Indian, Epenow, who escaped so adroitly from Captain Hobson five years before. Suspecting some sinister design upon himself, knowing that Captain Dermer was in the employ of his old master, Epenow conspired with the other Indians to kUl him and those with him, or to make prisoners of them. Watching his opportunity, therefore, when they came on shore to trade, not ex- pecting mischief, he laid violent hands upon Captain Dermer, and his accomplices at the same moment fell furiously upon his men ; and thus was a very desperate fight begun. The English fought only to escape, whUe the Indians fought for victory as well as for revenge of former in- juries. But Captain Dermer, "being a braue, stout gentleman," de- * This person went under the name of Stall- they were worthy of it. Therefore he resolued ings at some period, and some of the old writ- to leave them in the wilderness, not knowing ers say Rocroft alias Stallings. Prince is copious but they might haply discover something which in regard to him and his misfortunes. His name might be advantageous. Accordingly he fur- is written Ricroft, Rocraft, &c. nished them with ammunition and some vict- f Rocroft was expected to winter on the uals for their present subsistence, and turned coast, but his men mutinied, and some of them them ashore to Sacodehock, himself with the left him and went to Monhiggon, where they rest of his company departing to Virginia, spent the winter. Monhiggon then or soon These English mutineers sot over to the island after belonged to Mr. Abraham Jennings, of Monhegin, three leagues from the main, where Plymouth, in Devonshire. These men wereaf- they kept themselves safe from the fury of exas- terwards taken off by Capt. Dermer. Sawgua- perated Indians, until the next spring. One took, the place where Rocroft captured the only having died of sickness." Frenchman, is said by Willis to be baco. See Jin his way thither he sailed through the Prince, 145-6, 151; /. Mather, Rel. 3-4; whole length of Long Island Sound, discovering Willis, Portland, 9 . — Report on Lincoln Difft- the island to be such ; the Indian name of which culties, 40. is rather uncertain ; while it may be said to be The facts collected by Dr. I. Mather concern- quite certain that it had many names ; as Ma- ing Rocroft are thought worthy a place in this touake — the residence of the Manito ; Sawaii- note. He says Rocroft's men " conspired against hake — wampum island, or the place or resi- him,, intending his death, who having secret in- denoe of the wampum-makers, &c. These ap- telligence of this plot against his life, held his pellations were proba,bly conferred by other peace untill the day was come wherein the in- than resident Indians. Montaukett and Mon- tended mischief was to be put in execution, tauk" are probably variations of the original then unexpectedly apprehending the conspira^ name of the east end of the island, whatever tors ; he was loth to put any to death, though the primary name may have been. 5 34 HISTOET OF BOSTON. [1619. fended himself with his sword, and finally escaped though not without fourteen wounds. AH his men who accompanied him on shore were killed, excepting him who kept the boat, and this man, in the last ex- tremity, saved the Ufe of his captain, who, as he regained his boat, was about to receive a fatal blow, which was warded off in a moment of the utmost peril. No mention is made of the number of men killed in the onslaught upon Captaia Dermer, but it put an end to his labors in New England ; for, going to Virginia as soon as he was able, to have his wounds cured, he died there not long after his arrival. He was a very worthy man, whose loss so discouraged Gorges, "that it made him," he says, " al- most resolue neuer to intermeddle again in any of these courses." But soon after this a prospect began to open from a quarter where it was least expected. When Virginia was divided into two colonies, there was this singular proviso, that neither company should settle within one hundred miles of the other. By the regulations of the South Virginia Company, none were allowed to trade or plant within their hmits not authorized by them, while the North Virginia Company had no such restrictions. More effectually to place themselves on equal footing with their rival neighbors, some of the principal members of the North Virginia Company, among whom Gorges was the most active, solicited of the king a new Charter, which after some delay they obtained ; and this is the famous charter of the third of November, 1620, which became the foundation of aU the grants which were subsequently made of territory in New England. Its extent was from the 40th to the 48th degree of northern latitude, and between these parallels from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.* * The charter recites, that," henceforth, there Edward Lord Zoueh, Lord 'Warden of the Cinque Ports, shall be forever hereafter, in our towne of Plym- Edmond Lord Sheffield, outh, in the county of Devon, one body pol- J*^"^ ^"^ Gorges, itique and corporate, which shall have perpet- «?" Edward Seymour,* Knight and Bart. 11 ■ L ■ 1. r 11 V n -^-i ^ 1 »ir Kobert Manselle, uaU succession, which shall be called and Sir Edward Zouoh, Knight Marshall, knowne by the name the Council! established Sir Dudley Diggs,* at Plymouth, which shall have perpetuall sac- Sir Thomas Roe* cession, which shall consist of the number of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, fortie persons and no more, and shall be called ^"' Eranois Popham,* and knowne by the name, the OounciU estab- I?" ™'™ Brook,* lished at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for |S ^ohTd Ha;^,. the planting, rulmg, ordering, and governing Sir Eiohard Edgoombe, of New England m America," &c. Sir AUen Apsley, The names of the forty gentlemen composing Sir Warwick Hale, the council, here follow, as they are printed in Sir Kiohard Catehmay, Hazard's State Papers : |F J?1»? Bonrehier, ' Bu: Nathaniel Rich, Lodowick, Duke of Lenox, Lord Steward of the Sing's Sir Edward Giles,* household. Sir Giles Mompesson,* George, Lord Marquess Buckingham, High Admiral Sir Thomas Wroth, Knights, of England. Matthew Suttcliffe, Dean of Exeter James Marquess Hannlton, Robert Heath, Esq., Recorder of L(;ndon,* William, Earl of Fembrocke, Lord Chamherlaine of the Henry Bourchier, liq. King's household. John Drake, Esq.,* Thomas, Earl of Arundel, Eawleigh Gilbert, Esq., William, Earl of Bath, George Chudley, Esq. Henry, Earl of Southampton, Thomas Hamon, Esq.,' William, Earl of Salisbury, John Argall, Esq. Robert, Earl of Warwick, TV.«o„ i. i_. i_ . . ... John Viscount Haddington, -^"^^^ °a,mes to which a star is added were members of James I.'s third Parliament, of I^tt fl;; ;,. : _ -^ :. iW^SB Bil^^as^^^MJi^^^ ". ;' wo-"- .. _^. d" ' /^ ^ if^^Ki^i^i^E^^^fe^': . j^J^^:;- ^S^^\:" '-^z-f^'' *^ '9 ^P^ ^ft'^^P^^ ^■^K^'4^^^^^^"''^|^^v ^^^■_-^-'z-~ ■ -'-T^^iiA--' ~ Jp-^^w^^i^^^B ""^^^^ ^^^I^V' ^^^^^^^^^^^^B^^Bl ■ ki^--''-' 'S^^^^tf- "^^^^F^^^^^^K^^m A ^^y L^ - ;'.;u^'^^ '■%^^*'^^' ~"^' ^- i '*- ' .jR?'' sbj^^^^^^^K^'^^j^^^^^S^BbB R^:#aw ^H^^^^&^k '^.^S^^SJ^^S BBi^£-^^^^B ^^B^^^H^^^^^^^e ^^^^'C. •^^i^. ~^^^y "'//^Tt'^^bI --; .-? '-I ^^^EBUh^^^^^^^SS^^^ ^sP^^S^ ^^sC "^^^k ^/ f ^ .^Cr^B "'■ ■ 1 ^H^nfT^THn^^^^^^^FS— ^^^^^^ Ai^iV -•■^•- *iV ''7 IT "Tf^^^^StS 1 ■K7 ^^g^^^^^^^^&jj^^^a^ ""^Ea S j^r ^9&& '^^fe, y. jf . i"^*^jB 1 Ig^^'T;^^:^?^^^^^/^^^;^*'^^^ 9^^ i -^fe*' / , ^» 1 ^^^f^ft?3 ^.^^^Sr 1 p "J^^^RBb •^ V .'f ~^^B ^^^^■!:'. - 1 ^^^^"^"^^ " ^'^riMii I'lTTr^ ■ iffiifflfiiini fh il « y^!!/-;^A.^^,^j«IHW^^^ K^Hl^^^S^ '#B "^ ^ J^R /^ . -^-^^^j^&^^^^^^^^^^^hB^ i/ TJ^B '-<^^^<:^ '' A '^^^^^5^^^--?^^^:^^^^'\.-«^^B^HlH^K^ \t i VB ^ly ^ W^^^- F^ T^ i! '-TLjr^^X^ M TMllil *€-^ " :; , M \ vM ji r*^^^^^"^^^^^^^^ H «*^ ^' ^^s^ J -<^*i' fci Pv ^-^^r k^^Y^^^^^. * ^"^ ~^^^5^L^ " --^ ' -^^^^P IT^ ^H '^ ~^N -^=~^W )A^iS*!^ -v/^ Jii.flB w^v ^^^H _;;7Q^suO«L-^^\£i5s;^ j<^^ll fr:,-^^^^E//i ■-- ^^^^"iS^t'-tQ V*^ ^ ii^- ' -^"W^ ^^sjijlrl M v^^^S^^ ^^& ■^sKt ■' Ka ' "^ -:^3SKm ^teil \' ■ ^»i J -I'^ttJs ^^^ '4 • A "-^fli- -3^ ^y.; «R -_■"- ^ -'S ^^ ^ ^^^*S^ '^3B y a 1619.] DAVID THOMPSON. — SETTLEMENT OP PLYMOUTH. 35 1619 W^^l® these apparently more important public affairs were in prog- ' ress, an individual, David Thompson by name, explores the islands in Boston harbor with a view of making some one of them his permanent residence. Having fixed upon one — that which to this day bears his name — he with the Indian Sachem of Agawam, as a witness, takes for- mal possession of it. The name of the Indian chief is believed to be Mascononomo, who says this island was made choice of by Mr. Thomp- son, " because of the smale river, and then no Indians vpon it, or any wigwam or planting, nor hath been by any Bndeans inhabited or clajmed since, but two years agoe, Harmlen, an old Indian of Dorchester."* Thompson did not reside regularly on the island. It is not unlikely that, soon after he took possession of it, he returned to England, and may have influenced the emigration of others. He was afterwards interested in the settlement at Pascataqua, and may have been there to select a location for others before this time. He had a grant of the island.f Meantime, the small number of English families which had fled into HoUand to avoid persecution under the laws enacted against dissenters, having resolved upon a removal to America, obtained leave of the South Virginia Company to settle within its territory. Accordingly they sailed for South Virginia, and probably intended to fix upon some point not far from the mouth of Hudson's river ; but the Dutch, knowing or sup- posing this to be their destination, bribed their pilot ; and the force of circumstances prevented their compelling him to perform his promise of carrying them to Hudson's river, and thus the first permanent settle- ment in New England was made within the bay of Cape Cod, on the Eleventh of November, 1620, 0. S. , eight days after James I. had signed the new patent of New England, of which notice has been taken, but of which they knew nothing. Thus the Pilgrims — as these emigrants were afterwards with much propriety called — found themselves within the North instead of the South Virginia patent ; and thus to an iniquitous and highly criminal act New England became indebted for its first permanent colony. And hence it may with truth be said, that sometimes from accident and sometimes from iniquitous designs the most important and beneficial consequences flow. Notwithstanding their hardships and sufferings, these pious Pilgrims found themselves intruders upon territory to which they had no claim ; but fortunately for them it was very agreeable to the Plymouth Com- pany to learn that there was at length, though very unexpectedly, a set- 1620-1 , or, there were persons in that Parlia- justices of the peace, whose wife, alliances [con- ment of thesame names. The thirteen noblemen nections], or cnildren are papists." — Proceed- fast on the list were probably members of the ings and Debates in House of Commons, i. 314. upper house ; but I haye not a list of that house * Depositions of Miles Standish, Wm. Tre- at hand. In the same Parliament there was a voyre and Mascononomo, in 1650 ; copied from good deal of puritan spirit. Papists were ar- the orimnals, and communicated to me by Wra. raigned and their conduct scrutinized with an Gibbs, Esq., of Lexington, in 1834. The same earnestness that a remembrance of the flames has been since printed by Mr. Thornton in his of Smithfield was calculated to excite in the Examination of Mr. Young's Chronicles of Mas- minds of those whose kindred had suffered. A sachusetts. See Bost. Dai.Cour.,2& Aug. to aember from Devonshire moved that " none be 28 Sept., 1846. f Ibid. 36 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1625 tlement begun within their limits. Therefore, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, ever the friend of New England, caused a patent to be issued for them to Mr. John Pierce, their agent in England. Fortunate it was for the Pilgrims, in another respect, there were no Indians in the place where they settled, nor does it appear that any ever laid claim to it afterwards. The occupants had all died of the pes- tilence before mentioned.* CHAPTER V. Colony of Wessaguscus. — Weston. — Thomas Morton. — Weston's Colony DissolTed. — Standish attacks the Indians. — Pratt's Narrative. — Settlement of Nantasket. — Of Pemaqnid. — First Set^ tier in New England. — Settlements on the Pascataqua. — Robert Gorges. — Capt. West. — First Governor of New England. — Parliamentary Action relative to Trade and Fishing in New England. 1622. There came into the harbor of Plymouth a ship called the Sparrow, May. -vvhich had been on a fishing voyage at Damaris Cove at the east- ward. It was sent thither by Mr. Weston, a merchant of London, and Mr. Beauchamp,and there were then about thirty other ships there upon the same design. In the Sparrow came a letter for Governor Carver, from Mr. Weston, dated the preceding January, in which he informs him that * The following is an exact list of the inhab- itants of Plymouth, or of such as arrived there in the Mayflower, Dec. 1620 ; the Fortune, 9 November, 1621 ; the Ann, &c., July or August, 1623. All these are usually considered as the Adams, John / Alden, John m AUerton, Isaac m Allerton, John 771 Annable, Anthony a Bangs, Edward a Bartlett, Eobert a Bassite, William / Beale, William / Billington, John m Bompasse, Edward /' Bradford, William m Brewster, Fear a Brewster, Jonathan / Brewster, Patience a Brewster, William m Brigges, Clement/ Britterige, Richard m Brown, Peter m Bucket, Mary a Burqher, Edward a Cannon, John / Carver, John m Chilton, James m Clarke, Richard m Clarke, Thomas a Conant, Christopher a Coner, William / Cook, Francis m Grackston, John m Gushman, Robert / Gushman, Thomas / Cuthbertson, Cuthbert a Deane, Stephen / De la Noye, Philip / Dix, Anthony a Dotey, Edward m Eaton, Francis m English, Thomas m Favmce, John a Flavell, Goodwife a Flavell, Thomas / Flavell, son of the above / Fletcher, Moses m Flood, Edmund a Foord, Widow/ Fuller, Bridget a Fuller, Edward m Fuller, Samuel m Gardiner, Richard m Goodman, John m Hatherly, Timothy « Heard, William a Hiokes, Robert/ Hickes, Margaret a Hickes, — her children a Hilton, William'swifeand two children a Pilgrims. For its preparation I am indebted to the excellent little volume, "Guide to Plym- outh, by W. S. Russell, Esq., 1846. The smaU letters at the end of each name refer to the respective ships in which they came over. Hilton, William / Holman, Edward a Hopkins, Stephen m Howland, John m Jenny, John a Kempton, Mana^ses a Leister, Edward m Long, Robert a Margeson, Edmund m Martin, Christopher m Mitchell, Experience a Morgan, Bennet / Morton, George a Morton, Thomas / Morton, Thomas, Jr. a MulUna, William m Newton, Ellen a Nicolas, Austin / Oldham, John a Palmer, Frances o Palmer, William / Perce, Mr., his two ser- vants, a Penn, Christian a, Pitt, William / Pratt, Joshua a Prence, Thomas / Priest, Degory m Rand, James a Battliffe, Robert a Ridgdale, John m Rogers, Thomas m Simonson, Moses / Snow, Nicholas a Soule, George m Southworth, Alice a Sprague, Francis a Standish, Barbara a Standish, Miles m Static, Hugh / Steward, James / Tench, William / Tilden, Thomas a Tilly, Edward m Tilly, John m Tinker, Thomas m Tracy, Stephen a Turner, John m Wallen, Ralph a Warren, Richard m Williams, Thomas m White, William m Winslow, Edward m Winslow, Gilbert m Winslow, John / Wright William / A few of these names have undergone Doten ; Simonson, Simmons; Southworth South- changes ; Bassite is now Bassett; Bompasse, er; and perhaps a few others. —See Guide to Bumpas (originally Bon passe) ; Buroher, Plymouth, 128-31. Burchard ; De la Noye, Delano ; Dotey, Doty, 1622.] SETTLEMENT OF WETMOUTH — WESTOn's COLONY. 37 he is about to begin a plantation near Plymouth, on his own account. The Plymouth settlers are somewhat disturbed at this news, because they had calculated upon his cooperation in their own undertaking. It was afterwards insinuated that he had dealt unfairly in the matter, but those insinuations are so vaguely made, that they do not authorize any unfavorable decision against his honest intentions. He had adventured large sums of money to aid the Pilgrims, and for furthering settlements in New England, and he may have had reason for believing that the community system adopted by the Plymouth settlers did not promise any immediate returns ; and that therefore a plantation for profit was necessary in his affairs, and at the same time the two plantations might be of mutual help to one another. June or Accordingly, there arrived, about one month later, two other ships Jiiiy- of Mr. Weston's, the Charity and the Swan, with about sixty men. These were to begin a plantation, for which Mr. Weston had a patent. Many of them being sick on their arrival, the people of Plym- outh took care of them until they could take care of themselves. In the mean time a place was selected by those who were able, and had the matter in charge, and a settlement was begun at a place called by the Indians Wessaguscusset or Wessagusset,* and afterwards by the white people, Weymouth. Of the affairs of this colony it is necessary to be somewhat particular, as Weymouth was afterwards within the jurisdiction of Boston. Very few of the names of the persons who made up Mr. Weston's company have been discovered, which, perhaps, is not much to be regret- ted, as the good and orderly men who speak of them are unanimous that they were no people "for them," and that "they were not fit for an honest man's company." Even Mr. Weston himself wrote to the gen- tlemen of Plymouth, to prevent their being imposed upon by his colo- nists, " many of whom," he said, " were rude and profane fellows." At or about the same time came to Plymouth Mr. Thomas Morton, " of Clifford's Inn, gentleman," as he styled himself, who, after he had had "ten yeeres knowledge and experiment of the country," made a book about it, " setting forth the originall of the natives, the natural indowments of the countrie, and what people are planted there," which he published in 1632. In this book he gives no very favorable account of the Pilgrims'and other settlers. Nor is this at all to be wondered at, for they had represented him in the most unfavorable Ught possible, for several years before his book appeared ; and though they may not have done him justice in every particular, he certainly has not erred in over justice to them. There are few greater curiosities, among earlier or later books, than this by Morton, and it discovers a good deal of talent ♦Weesagusous and Wessagusquasset are also healthful, very good ground, well timbered, and names of the same place. Morton, who had hath good stoore of hay-ground ; hath a spa- the best means of knowing what the name was, cious harbour for shipping before the towne ; writes it Wessaguscus, New Canaan. In the salt water being navigable for boates and 1633, Wood, speaking of the " severall plantar pinnaces two leagues ; hero is likewise an ale- tions in particular," says, " Wichaguscusset is wife river." — N. Eng. Prospect, 31, ed. 1635. but a small village, yet it is very pleasant and 38 HISTOET OF BOSTON. [1622. as well as learning ; shrewdness of observation, as weU as much graphic description. He was as deeply in love with New England, as Captain John Smith. " The bewty of the place," he says, " with aU her faire indowments," made him think that "it would not be paralel'd in aU the knowne world." Morton arrived in the country in that season which, in New England, is the most delightful part of the year. This will, account for his rap- tures in describing it. According to his own account, which is no doubt correct, "he chauncedto arrive in New England in the moneth of lune. Anno Salutis : 1622, with 30. servants, and provisions of all sorts fit for a plantation : and whiles their howses were building, he did endeavour to take a survey of the country:" and "the more he looked the more he liked it." That he did not change his mind afterwards, is pretty clear, from the title he gave his book, the " New English Canaan." The description of the Indians, as given by Morton, is superior to that of most authors before his time, and though he indulges his imagi- nation sometimes, yet this part of his work is of exceeding great value to inquirers about the primitive inhabitants of New England. The fol- lowing is the concluding paragraph of his first book : — " The Indians may be rather accompted to live richly, wanting nothing that is needful; and to be commended for leading a contented life ; the younger being ruled by the elder, and the elder ruled by the Powahs, and the Powahs are ruled by the Devill, and then you may imagine what good rule is like to be amongst them." This is not offered as a specimen of his ob- servations and conclusions. His belief in the general government of the devU, was not singular ; his neighbors had the same belief, but whUe they reported that there were lions in the country, Morton says distinct- ly, that " there are none."* Though Morton is, by some, supposed to have come over with Mr. Wes- ton's men, it does not appear certain that he was interested with him in his settlement; nor does it appear that he remained at Wessaguscus till the colony of Mr. Weston broke up. The probability is, he spent con- siderable time in viewing the country, but left it before the end of the colony. The larger, of Mr. Weston's ships, the Charity, saUed for England about the end of September, and Morton may have returned in her.f However this may be, there is something of truth, as well as fable, in Morton's own account of the advent of Mr. Weston's colony at Plym- outh ; nor is it at all difficult for the attentive reader of New England history to draw the line between them : it is in these words : — " Master Thomas Weston, a merchant of London, that had been at some cost, to farther the brethren of new Plimmouth, in their designs for these parts, shipped a company of servants, fitted with provisions of * (11 ' It is contrary to the nature of the beast, J Further details of many events, necessarily to frequent places accustomed to snow ; being briefly noticed in this history, will be fully gone like the catt, that will hazard the burning of into in the History of New JEn^fanrf, which the her tayle rather than abide from the fire." — author many years ago proposed to himself to N. Canaan, 56. write. 1623.] Weston's colony. 39 all sorts, for the undertaking of a plantation to be settled there, with an intent to follow after them in person. These servants at first arrived at New Plimmouth where they were entertained with court holy bread by the brethren. They were made very weUcome in shew at least. There these servants goods were landed, with promises to be assisted in the choice of a convenient place, and still the good cheare went forward, and the strong liquors walked. In the meane time the brethren were in consultation, what was best for their advantage, singing the songe, Frustra sapit, qui sibi non sapit." After this significant quotation, Morton insinuates that the Pilgrims were afraid that the new colony would get away their trade for beaver, and become greater than they were ; " besides Mr. Weston's people were no chosen separatists, but men made use of at all adventures,* fit for the furtherance of Master Weston's undertakinges : and that was as much as he need care for. Now when the Plimmouth men began to finde, that Master Weston's men's store of provition grew short with feasting ; then they hasted them to a place called Wessaguscus, in a weake case, and there left them fasting."! The plantation of Mr. Weston was under the care of the brother- in-law of that gentleman, whose name was Kichard Green. He having died at Plymouth in the autumn of the preceding year, the col- ony seems to have soon after gone to ruin. Neglecting their business, the men came to want, robbed the Indians, who would probably have exterminated them, but for the interference of the people of Plymouth. Indeed, the Indians seem to have laid their plans to cut them off, but the plot was revealed and prevented. One John Sanders succeeded Mr. Green as overseer of the colony, which, by the end of February, was reduced to a state of perfect wretchedness. One man, Phinehas Pratt, who lived long afterwards to tell the story, fled from the place, and not knowing "a foot of the way," reached Plymouth in safety, " with a pack at his back," not knowing tiU some time after, that he very narrowly escaped death in the journey. An Indian pursued him for the purpose of killing him, but Pratt, from his ignorance of the paths, missed the direct one, which occasioned his pursuer to miss him, as the Indians confessed afterward.J * Picked up at random. feet that he attempted, unfairly, to obtain a f Morton's New Canaan, p. 71-2, ed. 1632. grant of land, and that "he was choaked at The fact that the author, p. 57, speaks of Mr. Plimmouth," for shooting " a carelesse fellow William Wood's New England's Prospect, that was new come into the land;" "but," shows that his own book has a title-page with a says Morton, " I cannot spie any mention made false date in it, or that Wood printed his Pros- of it in the woodden prospect." By the wood- pcc< before Morton did hia New Canaan. The den prospect,Wooi'a New England's Prospect is former appears the more probable, because unquestionably meant. In another place (Book Wood did not leave the country till August I., ch. r.) he says there is no need of the loood- 15th, 1633, and it is improbable that he had den prospect to prove that the Indians of New his book published before he returned to Eng- England have no religion at all. land, and his first edition is dated 1634. — Mor- | See Morton's Memorial, ed. Davis, 9 ; fiuA- ton is often so enigmatical, that it is impossible bard's N. Eng., ed. Harris, 72-9; Belknap, to guess out his meaning. His dark insinua- Amer. Biog., ii. 333-5. tion against " Odd Woodman," is to the ef- 40 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1623. The Plymouth people immediately sent Standish to the relief of Sanders and his men, who found them in great distress, not only from fear of the Indians, but from famine also. He therefore assists them off for Monhiggon in their small ship, and thus the colony comes to an end. At Monhiggon they expected to meet with Mr. Weston or some of his ships, from whom they hoped relief. Standish did not proceed directly to Wessaguscus, but went to the rendezvous of those Indians who had insulted and threatened, not only Weston's people, but the people of Plymouth also, and against whom the plot or conspiracy was charged of an intention of murdering aU the English. These he found insolent and abusive, which confirmed his suspicions against them. He therefore fell upon them at great advan- tage, killed three chiefs on the spot, hung another, andj Weston's men taking courage thereby, kiUed two others at another place. In aU, seven were killed.* This bloody business has ever since been referred to, as of doubtful justification ; and even then it made the good Robinson ex- claim, " that you had christianized some before you had killed any ! "f Phinehas Pratt left an account of this colony, which he " called a Declaration of the Affairs of the English people that first inhabited New England." He probably had some interest in the patent with Mr. Wes- ton, and did not leave the country with those that went to Monhiggon ; for he says, " We bought the south part of the Bay [of Massachusetts] of Aberdecest, J the Sachem of the Indians." It is not certain how or * They were killed at three different places, peared ; hut his object was to obtain satisfaction The chiefe by Standish, probably at or near Ne- for the corn the English had stolen from them ; ponset river, those by Weston's men, near Wes- that he had a great many times demanded jus- saguscus, and another at a place called Agar tiee, but they had given him none whatever, wam, perhaps in what is since Wareham. — "Hereupon the English took the principal Pratt in Mather's Relation, 19-20. thief," bound him and delivered him to the sar f From Pratt's Relation to Dr. I. Mather, it ap- chem, and requested him to do with him as he pears that when the Indians had determined to pleased, but he would not receive him. " Nay," make an attack on Wessaguscus, " they built says he, " do justice upon him yourselves, and divers of their wigwams at the end of a great let your neighbors do justice upon theirs." He then left the place indignantly ; and in their alarm the English took the thief and executed him in presence of the Indians. Hence, that an execution did take place among the English, as has been reported by the historians (though generally in doubting terms), there is no room for a question ; though there may be a question as to whether the real offender was executed ; for there is no proof that any of the Indians had the inspection of the preparations. They ^ , _|^ ^^^HE^wnrnrr^^ could only witness from the outside of the pal- £e / i^H^P^^Vll^^J^^ isades, that some one was hanged. Very little, iR,iM **MiJm^SHSI^' i^'^tSS probably, would have been thought or said of .Cs «■ — . ^H"^K*-JW,ss««a„.„ this a&ir, had not Butler, by hia Hudibras, given it an importance that it could otherwise never have acquired. INDIAN WIGWAMS X?-^^ ^^ ^^'7 ^^^^^7 ^^^ Baohem who led the , „ ,. , , Indians against Weston's plantation, though swamp, near to the English," that they might Dr. I. Mather speUs the name of that chief effect their object easily; that, at the same time, Aberkiest. Of flie three sachems killed by a squaw informed the people that Aberkiest Standish, Aberkiest was unquestionably one, would soon come and kill them all, and also all Peksuot and Wittuwamet were the others. — those at Plymouth. He soon after actually ap- See Book of the Indians, 100-1. >^< 1622-1623.] weston's settlement. — phinehas pratt. 41 with whom Pratt came to New England ; for he says that he came with ten others, but at the same time (1668) he says, " he was the re- mainder of the forlorn hope of sixty men," who began the settlement of Wessaguscus. By which he is supposed to mean that all his associ- ates of 1622 were dead ; that, before they abandoned their settlement, " ten of them had died of famine ;" to which he adds, " then said the Indians ' Let us kUl them wMlst they are weak, or they will possess our country and drive us away.' Three times we fought with them, thirty miles I was pursued for my life, in times of frost and snow, as a deer chased with wolves."* When Mr. Hubbard wrote that part of his history which records Wes- ton's settlement, he speaks of Pratt as then (1677) living, but says nothing by which it may be inferred that he derived any of his facts from him. He was then eighty-seven years old, and died three years after, at the age of ninety, at Charlestown, where his tombstone is yet to be seen. He died on the since memorable 19th of April.f The safne year that Weston's plantation was begun at Weymouth, ■ one Thomas Gray settled at Nantasket, or Nantaskith. How many followers he had, how or where he came from, nothing appears to be known. He made a purchase of that place of Chikataubut, and there were with him John Gray and Walter Knight. Lyford and Oldham came here afterwards by permission of Thomas Gray. J Before this time, even, there were Englishmen all along the New Eng- land coast. One John Brown lived at New Harbor, not far from Pem- aquid, in 1621. He had a son, John, living in Pramingham, in 1721, at the age of eighty-j&ve, who, with his father, was driven from their lands in the time of the Indian wars. John, the elder, died in Boston, probably not long after Philip's war.§ Mr. Richard Vines came to New England in 1609, and again in 1616. He affirmed that he was in the country several years before any other in- habitant could be found. He was a royalist, and an Episcopalian, and after residing twenty-two years in Saco, he removed to Barbadoes.|| A permanent settlement is this year begun at the mouth of the ' Pascataqua river, and, at the same time, another is established a lit- * Original MS. paper. — ^If my supposition be Pratt, 3d, son of Aaron, 2d, has nine children correct with reference to Pratt's alluding to his whose ages average 76i years. The average of companions being all dead, he must have been the fathers' ages for five generations is nearly 83. the " Old Planter " who gave Dr. Increase Ephraim Pratt, of Plymouth, died in 1804, se. Mather the circumstantial account of the cap- 116. The autograph of the emigrant ancestor ture of the French ship and murder of the crew, in 1668, copied from an original — as stated in the present chapter. ^ See Hist, and G. Reg'r, iv. 250; v. 224. rP6 - P (T> lL Phinehas Pratt is the ancestor of many of the X- "•^'Hft.TUJLS X V»tCt - Pratts of New England. He married at Plym- outh, in 1630, a daughter of Cuthbert Outh- ' t Original Deposition of Waller Knight, MS. bertson. Jlis son, Aaron, died at Cohasset, in ^ Report of Commissioners on Lincoln Co. 1735, ae. 81 ; Aaron Pratt, 2d, died in 1766; Difficulties, 40. se. 76 ; Thomas, son of Aaron Pratt, 2d, died || Williamson's Hist. Maine, i. 696. — See, in 1818, ae. 83. Benjamin Pratt, now living in also, Hazard's Hist. Colls., Hutchinson's Col. Cohasset, ae. 84, has living six brothers and Papers, sisters, whose ages average 76 years. Aaron 42 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1623. tie above on the same river. These were the beginnings of the since important towns of Portsmouth and Dover.* The previous year, Captain -Robert Gorges, son of Sir Ferdinando, ob- tained of the Plymouth Company a patent of a tract of land about Cape Ann, and this year came over with a commission, from the company, of Governor of New England. He arrived at Plymouth in September, with a number of families and passengers, intending to settle them at Weymouth. This is said to be the first attempt to establish a general government in the country. But Captain Francis West had acted before this in a similar capacity, and had resigned because he probably came to the conclusion that to govern a few straggling fishermen upon the water was something like an attempt to govern the fish in it. Whether Captain Gorges came to the same conclusion, or not, certain it is he did not exercise his authority to any great extent, and returned to England within a year from the time he left it. It may be said of him, what in fact can be said of but few colonial governors, he left no enemies behind him. It will have been seen that Captain Smith was by appointment the first Governor of New England, and how by misfortunes he was pre- vented from being its first permanent settler. The appointment of a gov- ernorj, afterwards was, however, from a different motive jfrom that to pay a debt of gratitude to Smith. Many of those who had been fishing and trading on the coast from before Smith's first visit to it, had carried home complaints and charges against one another ; — some for burning the forests, some for obstructing harbors by discharging "ballast and stones " from their vessels, some for wronging the Indians, and other crimes among the natives not fitting to be mentioned ; — until, in 1621, the matter was brought up in Parliament by Sir Edwin Sandys, firom whose observations and explanations it seems that body could not have been very well informed in respect to the relation between Old and New England. Among those who participated with Sir Edwin in his remarks, were Sir George Calvert, Sir Dudley Diggs, Sir John Brooke and Mr. John Guy.f Their remarks were so desultory, that 'one is almost at a loss to understand what was aimed at by the speakers, from the printed report of what has been termed the first debate in Parha- ment upon American affairs. However, no biU to promote or restrain trade and fishing on the coast passed this Parliament, although it is tolerably certain that the grantees intended and hoped to estabhsh a monopoly of both. Monopoly has always been the aim of companies or corporations. That great and important ends have been accomplished by such means, will not probably be denied ; nor wUl it be questioned, perhaps, that corporations belong to that class of things usually denomi- nated necessary evils. *The names of the early settlers at Pascatar f Proceedings and Debates in the House of qua are given in the New Eng. Hist, and Gen. Commons, i. 318-89. Reg., vol. ii. p. 39, from an ancient MS. in the hands of the editor. 1621.] EARLY EXPLORATIONS IN BOSTON BAY. 43 CHAPTER VI. Early Explorations in Boston Bay by Plymouth Men. — They first land in Dorchester — Then at Charlestown. — Ihterooixrse with Indians ahout Medford. — DisooYer Mystic Eiver. — Eetum to Plymouth. — Sir William Alexander. — His Grant of Territory in America. — John Mason. — His Grant of Territory called Mariana. — Laconia. — Weymouth Colony. — Mr. John White. — Settle- ment at Cape Ann. — Conant, Oldham, Lyford. — Capt. Wallaston settles at Braintree. — He soon abandons it. — His Men continue. — Thomas Morton. — Difficulties with him. — He is captured and sent out of the Country. 1621. The people settled at Plymouth, having heard from the Sept. 18. Indians accounts of a place called "Massachusets,"* and though the natives who inhabited thereabouts had " often threatened them," they resolved "to goe amongst them ; partly to see the coun- trey, partly to make peace with them, and partly to procure their trucke." Accordingly ten men, including Miles Standish, captain in the expedition, and probably William Bradford, John Howland, Isaac Allerton, Richard Gardiner, &o. Squanto, or Tisquantum,t was their guide.J Sept. Owing to the tide, , c 1^- they did not sail from /l^l/Jjf /) /) C^lfi r r)A^ Plymouth till ' ' about mid- / ///r^/'T^,'^^ ^ryy-n/yi Ui) TiiVht." Thfiv \^f^.A Tint, n. i ' 'J^ ^""^^ •^J.^^'-(yiriJ night." They had not a f ^ r r ^^^ correct idea of the distance ; /y ^ ^r'"'^ " and, supposing it neerer than it is, thought to be there the next morning betimes : but it proued * A gentleman who has paid much attention ble that the name Squantum, however, had to the language of the New England Indians, nothing to do with this Indian at all. In renders Massachusetts into English thus : — Mass. Col. Records, 7 Nov. 1632, " one hnn- Massa, many; Waschoo, mountain; auke, dred acres of land are granted to Mr. Roger place ; hence, Many-mountain-place. Now in Ludlow, betwixt Musquantum Chapel, and the the Massachusett\a,'api&g&,wadckuut was surely mouth of Naponset." — See Mr. Lunt's Cent, mountain. — See Eliot, Ind. Bible, Matt. xvii. Ser. at Quincy, p. 65. Here for many years 9, Mark iii. 13, &o. Hence the derivation was celebrated " Pilgrim Feast," to which peo- is very obvious. The Indians inhabiting about pie from all parts of the state resorted, and Neponset river, and so around the bay to Mystic, spent the day in social glee, in memory of the were very naturally called the people at, about, Pilgrim Fathers, and their first landing at or among the many mountains, by the Wampar Plymouth. It had been discontinued " many noags and Narragansets, who had no mountains years," when Mr. Whitney published his in their country. When it was not necessary " History of Quincy," which see, pp. 29, 30. to qualify the word mountain, it was simply % " For these ends the Governours chose ten wadchuut ; therefore Wachusett, the mountain, men, fit for the purpose, and sent Tisquantum, f It is a conjecture of long standing, that that and two other Salvages to bring vs to speech well known point in Dorchester received its with the people, and interpret for vs." — A name from this chief. The rustic legend, that Relation of ovr Voyage to Massachvsets, and it was so named because an Indian squaw threw what happened there ; from the work usually herself from the rocks there, in "early times," cited as Mourt's Relation; the only original is not deemed worthy consideration. For authority for this part of the early history of the- want of a better derivation, probably, some Massachusetts. one converted " Squaw tumble" into Squantum. ^ The annexed autograph of Standish is from If named for the Indian before mentioned, the an original document in my possession, dated time when,-and the. circumstances which occar 1631-2. sioned it, are alike unknovm. It is very possi- 44 HISTOKT OF BOSTON. , [1621. well neer twentie leagues from New Plymouth."* They had, however, a fine run, for they arrived before daylight near the " Massachusets." Early in the morning they went on land. Looking about, they came upon a quantity of fresh lobsters. With these they retired under a cliff,t and breakfasted. Having placed " two sentinels behind the cliffe landward, to secure the shallop," and taking four men besides a guide, Capt. Standish proceeded into the country to find inhabitants. They had not gone far when they met a woman going for the lobsters with which they had just made free use ; for which, how- ever, they generously " contented her." By her they learned where the Indians were, and Squanto soon found them. The rest of the com- pany returned to the place of landing, with directions to bring the shaUop to them. They called the place where they now were, " the bottom of the Massachusets Bay," and it probably was the chief settlement of the Massachusetts Indians ; hereabouts, doubtless, were the " Massachusets fields," of those days. J Here lived their Sachem, called Obbatinewat, who received and treated them kindly. He might well have had a double purpose in this, for he lived in daily fear of the Indians on the eastern side of the bay, or Tarratines ; confessing that he dared not continue long in any place, lest they should surprise him ; also that the squaw sachem of Massachusetts was his enemy. The English proposed to Obbatinewat to come under the government of England, to which he readily consented, and then volunteered to conduct them to the squaw sachem, that they might see what success they could have with her. To get to that part of the country where * This is an estimate not much out of the or some one of the Blue Hills, was the site of way, as they must have made a far more indi- Nanepashemet's royal residence, &e. Yet I rect course than was usual afterwards. As a must confess,, that, after a most patieiat and general thing, distances are much overrated in careful examination of the subject, from every the early accounts. This is always the case in point of view, I am unable to find any sufficient new and wild countries. reason for supposing that Standish and his t After this part of ay work was drawn up, companions landed on any part of Siawmut, at my friend, W. T. HakSis, Esq., of Cambridge, this time ; but have come to the oonclusbn that put into my hands a manuscript upon many ' the bottom of the bay,' where they came to passages of the early history of Massachusetts, anchor, was Quincy Bay, and the cliff beneath and paxtioularly upon this voyage of the Pil- which they first landed, no other than the ab- grims. His conclusions agreeing perfectly with rupt pile of rocks known by the name of ' the my own, so far as I had gone, and having been Chapel,' at the north-eaat extremity of the evidently arrived at with just discrimination, I peninsula of Squantum " take great pleasure in giving my readers the JJosselyn.iu speaking of " MoutU-WoUe^ benefit of them, as they ajce more definite than ton," says it is called "Massachnsets-&elis;" I had determined upon, before reading them, that here " Chicatabut the greatest Sagmmre ^i"- ^??^ooAf^'-~^^u- -^i^^Pu (^"^- °^*« countrey lived before the plague: here Bwg., 11. 224) supposed this difr to be Copp's the town of Braintree is seated."l-7W Yoy- Hill, in the north part of Boston, opposite ages, 159-60. "Three miles to the north of Charlestown, adopted by most subsequent writ- Wichaguscusset is mount Wolleston, a very ers has been fiaally sanctioned by no less an fertile 8oyle,and a place very convenient fiir authority than the reverend editor of the Chrou- farmers houses, there beinggreat store of plaine jcles of Plymouth; who also conjectures that ground, without trees, ifeere this place is the party, a,fter leaving Boston recrossed the Massachusets fields, where the greatest saga- harbor (or 'Bay,' as It 18 caUed) to Qumcy more in the couut^y lined before the plalSe, and went ashore at Squantum on the 2l8t; and who caused it to be cleared for himselk"-- that a hiU m this vicinity, perhaps Milton Hill, Wood, New England's Prospect, 31 ed 1635. 1621.] DISCOVERIES ABOUT BOSTON. — IfANEPASHEMET. 45 ,ri^^ she resided, they had to cross the bay,* " which," they say, is "very large, and hath at least fifty islands in it," but the Indians did not pre- tend to know the exact number. " Night it was," says the writer of the voyage, " before wee came to that side of the bay where this peo- ple were. On shore the salvages went, but found nobody." The English slept on board their shallop that night, which " rid at anchor." Sept. The next day, all but two of the men " marched in arms vp in 21- the countrey." When they had gone three miles, they came to a place where corn had just been gathered, " a house pulled downe, and the people gone. A mile from hence, Nanepashemet,t their king, in his lifetime had lived. His house was not like others, but a scaffold was largely built, with pools and plancks, some six foote from the ground, and the house vpon that ; being situated on the top of a hiU."f Not far from this place, " in a bottom," they found a fort, built by the deceased chief, which they thus describe : "There were pools, some thirtie _- -^_ or fortie foote long, stucke in the ground, as thick as they could be set one by another ; and with these they inclosed a ring some forty or fifty , foote ouer ; a trench, breast high, was digged on each side ; one way there was to goe into it with a bridge. In the midst of this pallizado stood the frame of an house, wherein, being dead, he lay buryed." About a mUe from this palisadoed fortification, they found another of similar structure. This is the place where the great sachem, Nanepashemet, was killed. None had lived in it since the time of his death, which, from some circumstances, is supposed to have been in 1619. Here the Plymouth men rested a while, having sent two Indians to see if they could find any inhabitants ; and, if they could, to invite them to a conference. At the distance of about a mile from the place where the English were, the two Indians found " the women of the place to- gether, with their corne on heapes," whither they had fled, as was supposed, from fear of the English ; " and the more, because in diners places they had newly pulled down their houses, and for hast in one *Here is certainly evHence enough that they were not at Shawmut, but evidence enough that they were on the south side of the bay, somewhere. Would going from Oopp's Hill to (Jharlestown be crossing thehajf and elicit- ing in connection observations about its extent and the great number of islands in it? They might well say, as they do, " againe we crossed the Bay," for they had already crossed one bay, or what to strangers could appear no oth- er than a bay, from point Alderton to Squan- tum. f In Roger Williams' Key, Nanepaushat is translated The moon God. J Situated in the vicinity of Mystic Pond, so called, in Medford. MS. of Mr. Harris, ut supra. The reasoning employed by the author in support of his location of Nanepashemet 's fort, for which I have not room, is quite con- clusive. 46 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1621, place had left some of their come couered with a mat, and nobody with it." These women discovered much alarm at first, but their fears were soon overcome by the kind behavior of the intruders ; and they, as is the custom of the Indians, hastened to treat them with such victuals as their wigwams afforded, consisting of boiled codfish " and such other things." The apprehensions of the Indian men were so great, that none would approach the English until they had been "much sent for," and then only one man ventured to come, who " shook and trembled with feare." When he found what the English wanted, that they came in friendship and "to truck," he promised "them his skins also." They endeavored to ascertain by this Indian where the squaw sachem was, but, from what they could learn, they concluded "she was far from thence ; at least they could not see her." On this occasion Squanto showed his propensity for mischief. He proposed to the English to plunder those women of what they had, — those who were then treating them so kindly, — but they rejected the proposal, as all honorable men would, and told Squanto, that though they " were never so bad," and might belong to a bad people, and have threatened the people of Plymouth, as he said, yet they would not wrong them. This excursion occupied the whole day. At evening, as they re- turned to their shallop, accompanied " by almost all the women," who, in their eagerness to truck for the commodities which the English had, " sold their coats from their backes, and tyed boughes about them, but with great shamefastness, (for indeed they are more modest then some of our English women are)." Parting from these people, the voyagers promised to come again, and the Indians to keep their skins for them. They understood the Indians to say that there were two rivers in the bay. One they saw themselves, but had not time to examine it.* They decided that " better harbours for shipping there cannot be then here are. At the entrance of the bay are many rocks ; and in all like- lihood good fishing-ground." They found, as Captain Smith did seven years before, that most of the islands had been inhabited, and that some had been cleared "from end to end, but the people were all dead or removed." Such were the explorations " in and about the bottom of Massachu- setts Bay," around where Boston is, nine years before the arrival of the colony which settled it. The country pleased those so well who made this exploration, that the report they carried to their friends in Plym- outh caused them to express their sorrow " that they had not been seated there." But having planted corn and built huts at Plymouth, •This was unquestionably the Mystic; in locked from their view, and which was doubtless fill! view as they landed upon the peninsula of Charles river. Hence, Charlestown was known Mishawum (Charlestown) ; but the other river before Boston, as well as settled before it. Mr. of which they heard, the intervening wooded Harris, in his MS. before quoted, fully coin- promontories of Shawmut and Cambridge land- oides in these views of the author. 1621-1623.] SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER. CAPT. JOHN MASON. 47 and being there secure from the natives, they judged the motives for continuance to be stronger than for removal.* 1621. Sir William Alexander,! about the same time, through the Sept. 10. friendship of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, shares a portion of the Plymouth Company's patent. Seeing that the English had done but little, or nothing, in fact, directly to establish settlements in New Eng- land, he hoped the Scotchmen might be more successful. The patent to Sir WiUiam was ample, embracing the whole territory of Acadia, which was confirmed to him and his heirs by King James, and erected into a Palatinate, to be holden as a fief of the Crown of Scotland. But the Scotch made out no better than the EngUsh ; one ship after another returned home with tales of misfortunes, till Sir "William, like Sir Fer- dinando, was forced to sit down, with what content he might, under heavy losses and disappointments. The same year. Captain John Mason, Governor of Portsmouth, in Hampshire, who, like Gorges, had been an officer in the navy, and Gov- ernor of Newfoundland, and had by a vacancy become Secretary to the Council of Plymouth, procured a grant' of territory in New England, " of all the land from the river of Naumkeag (Salem) round Cape Anne, to the river Merrimack, and up each of these rivers to the farthest head thereof ; then to cross over from the head of the one to the head of the other ; with all the islands lying within three miles of the coast." To this tract was given the name of " Mariana." ^ The next year another grant was made to Gorges and Mason ■ jointly, of all the lands between the Merrimack and Sagadahock, extending inland to the Great Lakes and to the River of Canada. This was called "Laconia," and thus was laid the foundation of the State of New Hampshire, § which has been briefly noticed in a previous page. Although the colony at Wessaguscus is generally supposed to have ■ been abandoned last year, its abandonment appears to have been temporary ; || for this year it is stated, on good authority, that the ' people there received an accession to their number by emigrants * This was a momentous question in its day, some of the most learned barristers of Scotland and the decision of the pious fathers was no and England ; but owing, perhaps, to the man- doubt weighed by them, as one involving their ner in which he presented his claim, he lost it. existence. But when the grave historian, Dr. The House of Lords decided against its validity Belknap, came to consider it, he CQuld not help in 1762. This, our Lord Stirling married "a remarking, with feigned complacency, that daughter of Philip Livingston, and died at Al- though the Pilgrims thought it not worth while bany, N. Y., 12 Jan. 1782, without male issue, to remove, " many of their posterity have judged The late Earl of Stirling probably found about otherwise !" as much perplexity in establishing his title to t First Earl of Stirling. To this title he was the lands of his ancestors in America, as his raised in 1633. He was born in 1580, died in kinsman did in his fruitless and expensive pur- London, Feb. 1640. His father was Alexan- suit of the Earldom. — See Statement of the der Alexander of Menstrie , who died 1594. His Case of Alexander, Earl of Stirling, 8 vo. , Lon- father's name was Andrew Alexander. John don, 1832. Alexander, uncle of Sir William, was the an- | Belknap's Hist, of New Hampshire, Far- cestor of our Lord Stirling, conspicuous in the mer's edition, p. 4. revolutionary war. He labored long and ardu- § Ibid. ously to substantiate his claim to the Earldom, |{ It is very probable that when the troubles to which he was entitled in the judgment of had assumed a serious aspect, and actual war 48 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1625. from Weymouth in Dorsetshire ; on which account it is supposed to have received the name of Weymouth. There were about fifty EngUsh ships fishing on the coast of New England this year, with better success than ever.* Seeing that the colony of Plymouth was likely to continue and flour- ish, some of those in England who had anxiously watched its progress, — the most conspicuous of whom was the Rev. Mr. John White, a puri- tan minister of Dorchester, in Dorsetshire, — excited several gentlemen to prepare for another settlement in New England. Accordingly " sun- dry persons " are sent over, who begin a plantation at Cape Ann. Among this number were Mr. John Tilley and Mr. Thomas Gardiner ; the former was " overseer of the planting," and the latter was " over- seer of the fishing." Meantime, Mr. White having learned that the Plym- outh people had driven Mr. Roger Conant, Mr. John Lj^ord and Mr. John Oldham from that place in consequence of a disagreement in their religious opinions ; " wherefore that reverend person (one of the chief founders of the Massachusetts Colony) being grieved in his spirit that so good a work should be suffered to fall to the ground," and learning the excellent character of Mr. Conant from Mr. Conant's brother in Eng- land, procured from the company of adventurers his appointment " to be Governor, and to have the managing and government of all their af- fairs at Cape Anne." Lyford and Oldham went to Cape Ann also, but did not remain there long. The former removed to Virginia and died there, and the latter traded between New England and Virginia, and within two years was killed by the Indians, f ^ggg The next year, " one Captain Wallaston " came into the Massa- ■ chusetts Bay, and began a settlement within what was afterwards called Braintree.J With him came several persons of " some emi- nence ;" but the actual number of his followers does not appear to be known ; nor is it stated from what place this colony came, nor has the Christian name of Mr. Wallaston been discovered. Thomas Morton, of whom notice has been taken, returned to New England vdth this company. But Captain Wallaston, not finding things to his liking, removed, with a great part of his servants, to Virginia, in the fall of 1626. A Mr. Rasdale was left in command of the place on Mr. Wal- laston's departure, but he soon proceeded to Virginia also, leading a Mr. Filcher to manage affairs. But nothing further is heard of Filcher, while Morton made himself very conspicuous, and soon became obnoxious had been begun, the people all fled from Wes- of the better sort of people." — CenMry Ser- gaguscus ; bat a few weeks' time proved to them mon, at Braintree 1739 p 18 that they had nothing to fear from the Indians ; f Hubbard's H^ of hka JEngland, ed. Har- the suspicious leaders of whom had all been ris, 106-7. killed by Standish and his wiu>party ; that, J When'a section of Braintree was set off for therefore, theysoon eft their hiding-places and a separate township,, it was called Quinov,— returned to their settlement That they have not in honor of the hig&y respectable femUy wWch been particularly noticed by cotemporary writ- resided there, and of which a branch remains to ers isnot at all strange, as they were few and this day ; Mt. Wollaston was included in this pohticaUy unimportant section, and was within the farm of one of * rrmce, Hubbard, Holmes, Mr. Hancock the Messrs. Quincy. says the emigrants who came in 1624, " were 1628.] COLONY OF WESSAGUSCUS. 49 to his neighbors at Plymouth. They seem to have recognized him as the leader of the plantation, and the author of all the mischief that hap- pened to it after Mr. WoUaston left it. He was, judging independently of what his neighbors say of him, evidently a "merry companion;" and his company, consisting of young men, were ready to enjoy them- selves to-day, come what might to-morrow. Great offence was taken by the Pilgrims at their impiety, as they viewed their conduct to be impious, and Morton and his friends derided them for their overmuch piety and austere manners.* Mutual dislikes at length grew to such a height, that nothing short of the breaking up of the settlement of Mount WoUaston could be likely to satisfy the people of Plymouth. Morton and his party considered themselves an independent community, as in fact they were, and that it was nobody's business to call them to account for erecting a May-pole and dancing about it ; whether they said their prayers as they had been taught to say them, or whether they read them out of a book, or whether they said or read prayers at all. But their neighbors thought otherwise, and, soon after the arrival of Governor Endicott, their opponents feeling themselves strong enough to force a compliance with their wishes, a company was raised among the scattered settlements, which proceeded, under Standish, to Ma-re- Mount, — as Morton had named Mount WoUaston, — captured the unruly party, and thus put an end to a colony f which has given rise to much curious inquiry, and a good deal of speculation ; but of which, hitherto, no satisfactory history has appeared.^ The expense of capturing Morton and some half dozen other men ■ was assessed on a part of the scattered inhabitants of New Eng- land ; but whether with their consent, or whether they actually paid in the amounts assessed upon them, there is nothing to show ; yet it has been said, that even Morton's Episcopal friends contributed towards the * The Rev. Mr. Hancock, with the New Eng- he says, the colonists of Ma-re-Mount had bet- land^s Memorial open before him, says, " But ter success in trading with the Indians than one Mr. Morton, whom Capt. WoUaston left the people of Plymouth had ; and because there with part of the company, fell to great they read prayers after the manner of the licentiousness and profaneness, till the good Episcopal church. The charges brought people in their scattered plantations in the against him are met with everywhere, and re- Massachusetts Bay unite with Plymouth gov- quire no repetition here. They were brought emment, and go and suppress them, and dis- with great gravity, by his namesake, the perse the worst of the company, leaving the author of New England's Memorial, in his more modest here, and sending Morton to Eng- work, from which they have been copied, with land, with a messenger and letters to inform such embellishments as suited the fancies of against him, for his wicked and insufferable their copyists ; while Morton probably consid- behavior." — Century Sermon, p. 18. ered the subject, in the time of it, as one not f An end, so far only, as appears from several worthy of sober consideration ; and hence we accounts, as respects the riotous part of the find it, in his New Canaan, treated only with colony. See Hancock's Ceni. Sermon, ut supra, ridicule. Had he ever imagined that it would Davis in Morton, and Belknap, Amer. Biog- become matter of serious history, he would raphy, ii. 334. doubtless have left us a very different and J In my History of New England, I propose more circumstantial account. In speaking of to go at large into the affairs of this colony, the " tenents " of the people of New England, It 18 indeed a poor question where there is Morton says that they held the use " of a ring nothing to be said, except on one side. As in marriage to be a relique of popery ; a dia- yet the subject has been sketched from one bolical circle for the Devell to daunce in." — point of view only. Morton was originally New Canaan, 118. tried, condemned and transported, because, as 7 50 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1628. expense of the expedition against him ; which circumstance, if true, would go to prove that they, at least, disapproved of his conduct. In justice to them, however, as weU as to Morton, the case should be stated as it actually existed, that posterity may be able to come to a just judgment between all parties implicated.* By the assessment referred to, some opinion may be formed of the state of the settlements ; of their numbers and importance, and where they were situated. Thus, the whole amount assessed was twelve pounds and seven shillings. Of this amount Plymouth has set against it, two pounds and ten shillings ; Naumkeak [Salem], one pound ten shiUiDgs ; Pascataquack [Portsmouth], two pounds ten shillings ; Mr. Jeffrey and Mr. Burslem [Isle of Shoals],! two pounds; Natascot, one pound ten shillings; Mrs. Thomson [Squantum], fifteen shillings; Mr. Blackstone [Shawmut], twelve shillings ; and Edward Hilton [Dover], one pound.J * It is true that Governor Bradford (Prince, — Blackstone, Maverick, Walford, Thompson, 251) speaks of a " meeting of the chief of and perhaps others, were of that faith. See the straggling plantations," to take counsel Mr. Haven's learned and ingenious introduc- about the disorders at the Mount. Those tion to the Records of the Comp. of the Mass. plantations he names as follows : — " Pascato- Bay, &c., vol. iii. Archa. Americana. It is to way, Naumkeak, Winisimet, Wessaguscusset, be noted that the location of Gorges' patent Natasco, and other places." At their meet- has been misunderstood, and will continue to ing, they " agree to solicit those of Plymouth, be, unless the reader considers that "the who are of greater strength than all, to join north-east side " of the Bay has reference to and stop this growing mischief, by suppress- the land of Massachusetts. The land, as do- ing Morton and Company." scribed in the patent, is t' all that part of the •)■ Not much confidence is felt in locating main land called or known by the name of these gentlemen at the Isle of Shoals. At, or Messachusiack. " Hence Gorges, perhaps by before this period, I believe one Jeflrey had a way of distinction, gives a little di&rent name fishing stage there ; and it is certain, that, to to his tract of country, fi^jm " Messachuset," this day, a noted fishing place in the neighbor- by which name the whole was known ; and hood bears the name of Jeffries. That the hence I conclude that this patent covered that Shoals were inhabited at this time seems prob- part of the country where the Massachusetts able, for the ship in which Morton was sent Indians had their chief residence, and which away, sailed from the Isle of Shoals, as ap- has already been described. It was an impor- pears from Bradford (Prince, 252), who says tant object with patentees to have their grants Morton was kept at Plymouth "till a ship cover Indian settlements, because trade with going from the Isle of Shoals to England, he is them for beaver could be carried on advanta- sent in her to the New England Council geously, and without infringing on the rights [Council of Plymouth], with a messenger and of others. Mr. Walford was located in a letters to inform against him. Yet they do place " full of Indians;" and it will be seen nothing to him, not so much as rebuke him, and with what anxiety the Massachusetts Company he returns next year." — There was a "Mr. operated to exclude Mr. Oldham and others JohnBurslin," desiring to be made freeman at from the country about the bottom of the bay. Boston, in 1630; and in 1631, a "Mr. Jo. Mr. Wheelwright's purchase of 1629 included Burslyn." See N. E. Hist, and Gen. Reg., ii. great Indian resorts and settlements. Others 90-1. It is not presumed that the memoran- might be mentioned. dum of Governor Bradford is to be taken as f See Belknap, Amer. Biography, ii. 334.— presenting a complete catalogue of all the The assessment, as given above. Dr. Belknap places occupied about the coast of New Eng- copied from the original Letter-Book of Gov- land. These enumerated might have been ernor Bradford; which assessment, though considered the only ones of whom any assist- copied from that MS., is probably a mere ance was to be expected. It has been con- memorandum by the Governor, as a sort of ex- jecturedthat several of the scattered settlers planation to a copy of a letter sent to England, in and about the harbor of Boston came over containing accusations against Morton. As with Captain Robert Gorges. The conjecture is such, it appears in the original edition of vol. a reasonable one. They were chiefly within iii. Mass. Hist. Colls., p. 63. Why, in the Gorges' patent, which was " 10 miles in reprint of this work, the matter under consid- breadth, and 30 miles into the land, on the eration stands with interpolation marks, there north-east side of the bay called Messachu- is nothing to explain. I have not seen the set." His intended colony was Episcopalian original MS., nor have I inquired whether it 1025-1626.] SETTLEMENT AT CAPE ANN. 51 CHAPTER VII. Colony of Cape Ann. — Settlement of Naumkeag. — Boger Conant Origin of the Massachusetts Company. — Sir Ferdinando Gorges. — His early Prophecy of American Independence. — Rev. John White. — Grovernor John Endicott. — Sails for New England. — Settlement of Charlestown. — Description of the country. — John Oldham. — His Grant. — Thwarted by the Massachusetts Com- pany. — Returns to New England. — Mr. John Wheelwright and others proceed from Massachu- setts and purchase New Hampshire of the Indiana. — Captain Mason's grant of the same territory from the Council of Plymouth. OTICB has been taken in the last chapter of a settlement at Cape Ann. The persons engaged there (" their design not likely to answer their expectations"), sent word to the Adventurers in England — at whose charge the settlement had been begun — how their affairs stood; briefly, that they were not prosperous. A re- linquishment of the undertaking was therefore resolved upon by those Adventurers. " Yet were they so civil," says the historian Hubbard, " to those that were employed under them, as to pay them all their wages, and proffered to transport them back whence they came, if so they desired." The same historian adds, that "Mr. Conant, disliking the place as much as the Adventurers disliked the business," had, " meanwhile, made some inquiry into a more commodious place, called Naumkeak, a little to the westward, secretly conceiving in his mind, that it might prove a receptacle for such as, upon the account of religion, would be willing to begin a plan- tation in this part of the world ;" and therefore he made known his dis- coveries and opinions to some of his friends in England. Accordingly, Mr. "White, before mentioned, who had been grieved at the sudden abandonment of the undertaking by the Adventurers, wrote to Mr. Conant, and urged him not " to desert the business," promising that if he would stay in the country with three others, and occupy Naum- keag, and give him notice of the fact, he would provide a patent for them ; and would send them whatever they should write for ; either men, provisions, or goods. Conant determined to continue. John Woodberry, John Balch, and Peter Jaffrey, who had been employed by the Adventurers, agreed to abide with him. The three last, however, after long waiting for assist- ance, thinking probably that supplies might fail to arrive in season, and their necessities being great ; fearing, too, that the Indians were hostile towards them, came to the conclusion to go to Virginia, especially as their minister, Mr. Lyford, " upon a loving invitation, was thither were preserved after it was used to print from, any longer of service, and that they remained I have understood, incidentally, that many in the printers' hands, and went with their valuable MSS., so used, were not considered worthless paper rubbish .' 52 HISTOKY OF BOSTON. [1625-1626. bound."* They urged Mr. Conant to go with them ; but had he had the heart of an old Roman he could not have shown superior in future ages. " No," he said, " though you all forsake me, I wiU remain." Seeing his firmness, and knowing, from experience, the goodness of his heart, they could not bring their minds to desert him, and thus the breath of life was continued on that sterile side of the Bay of Massa- chusetts, f To the sterling integrity of Roger Conant, therefore, was Salem indebted for its first English inhabitants. Through the agency of Mr. White, great confidence had been reposed in him by the Adventurers, and, as before observed, he proved himself worthy of it. Nor was he mistaken in the promises of Mr. White on his part ; who, exerting him- self among his friends, soon enlisted Sir Henry Rosewell,J Sir John Young, § knights; Thomas Southcoat,|l John Humphrey, H John En- * In Morton's New Canaan, Book iii., chap, viii., may be seen that facetious author's ideas of the reasons of " Master Layford's and John Oldham's" treatment from the Pilgrims. f" Meanwhile, White had projected an asy- lum for the silenced nonconformist clergy, who then thought themselves persecuted, because they "were not allowed to persecute." — Chal- mers^ Polit. Annals, 135. This author omits no opportunity to slur the nonconformists and Puritans. In speaking of the settlement of Plymouth, he says, "The Brownists," who " nestled at Cape Cod." He probably well knew that the followers of Mr. Eobinson al- ways repudiated the name of Brownists, and that they were not of the sect of Robert Brown. % Chalmers, 147, has the following round- about note on Rosewell, or, as he is often written, Rowswell. " In opposition to the pretensions of the truly celebrated Sir Samuel Luke, it has been zealously contended by the partisans of this knight, so famous in the story of Massachusetts, that Sir Henry was assur- edly the great prototype of the incomparable Sir Hudibras. See the subject discussed in the Introduction to Grey's [edition of] Hudibras, find the Sup. to Granger's Biography." Dr. Grey, it should be stated, is not of the opinion that Sir Henry Rosewell is intended by Hudi- bras ; and Granger says Sir Samuel Rosewell, which is no doubt a mistake. When West- cote wrote his Views of Devonshire (about 1620), he says, p. 245, Thorncombe " is now the inheritance of Sir Henry Rowswell, late sheriff of this covmty . ' ' Thorncombe is in Ford Parish. His wife was Mary, daughter of John Drake, Esq., of Ashe. She was interred in the parish church at Musbury, in 1643. Soon after her death, as I judge. Sir Henry sold his estates and went to reside in Somersetshire. See Lysons' Magna Brilan., ccxiii. 360. ^ Said to be of Devonshire. There was a Sir John Young (I think the same) , of Oulli- -toD, in that shire, whose daughter. Jane was the wife of Sir John Drake, of Ashe. She died in 1682. This Sir John Drake was son of the John Drake, Esq., mentioned in the last note. Sir John Young was a member of the Long Parliament, 1640, and a signer of the " Solemn League and Covenant," in 1643 ; a member of Cromwell's second Parliament, in 1654, from Honiton ; and of the third Parliament, 1656. See Mr. Haven, in Archol. Americana. II Supposed by Parmer to be the same person admitted freeman at Boston, 1631 ; but on what authority he comes to that conclusion he does not state ; if no other than that of his bearing the same Christian name, it is quite small. He was, perhaps, of the Southcotes of Mohuns-Otlery, county Devonshire. George, son and heir of Thomas, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Seymour, brother to the Duke of Somerset, and had a son Thomas. — See Westcote. This family was connected with the Pophams. There is a curious account of them in Prince's Worthies of Devonshire. ^ It is to be hoped that the timie is near at hand when we may find such names as Hum- phrey in Biographical Dictionaries. " John Humphreys, Esq.," was a man of great con- sequence in the first days of Massachusetts He was chosen deputy governor at the second meeting of the Massachusetts Company, in England ; came to New England in 1632 ; elected assistant same year, which office he held till 1641. He resided a while at Lynn, then at Salem. Meeting with some severe misfortunes, he left the country in 1641. Although his name usually appears in history and in historical documents, as above written, his own autograph, in my possession, is here fac-similied. Its date is 1637. — See Fanner's Gen. Register, Art. Humfrey. Also, Hazard, Winthrop, Hutchinson ; Lewis and Pelt may be consulted vrith advantage. 1627-1628.] ORIGIN OF the Massachusetts colony. 53 dicotfc,* and Simon Wlietcomb,f gentlemen, "about Dorchester," to make a purchase of territory in New England of the Council of Plym- 1627-8. outh. On application, that corporation conveyed to the above Mar. 19. named gentlemen, their heirs and associates, the country from three miles north of the Merrimack, to three miles south of the Charles Eiver, and to extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. This grant, of course, swallowed up several others previously made. Why the Coun- cil utterly disregarded them does not clearly appear, though it is con- jectured by some historians | that they, being entirely neglected by the grantees, were looked upon as forfeited or void. But it is certain, that if the Council, as a body, so considered those grants, individual mem- bers of it were of a different opinion. § Eef erring to this grant or pur- chase from the Council of Plymouth, Sir Perdinando Gorges says, " Some of the discreeter, sought to avoid what they found themselves subject unto, made use of their friends to procure from the Council for the affairs of New England to settle a colony within their limits ; to which it pleased the thrice-honored Lord of Warwick to write to me, then at Plymouth, to condescend that a Patent might be granted to such as then sued for it. Whereupon I gave my approbation, || so far forth as it might not be prejudicial to my son, Robert Gorges' interest, whereof he had a patent under the seal of the Council. Hereupon there was a grant passed as was thought reasonable ; but the same was after enlarged by his majesty,ir and confirmed under the great seal of England, by the authority whereof the undertakers proceeded so effect- ually, that in a very short time numbers of people of all sorts flocked thither in heaps, that at last it was specially ordered, by the king's com- mand, that none should be suffered to go without license first had and obtained, and they to take the oaths of supremacy and allegiance. So that what I long before prophesied, when I could hardly get any for money to reside there, was now brought to pass in a high measure. The reason of that restraint was grounded upon the several complaints that came out of those parts, of the divers sects and schisms that were amongst them ; all contemning the public government of the ecclesias- tical state. And it was doubted that they would, in short time, wholly ishake off the royal jurisdiction of the sovereign magistrate." ** , * Of Endicott, who came over with a com- Dorchester." It was doubtless true, while mission as Governor in 1628, an excellent his- nearly all of them resided in Devonshire, torical memoir has been printed, prepared by though within a few miles of Dorchester, a descendant, Charles M. Endicott, Esq.,-.of t Hutchinson, Hist. Mciss.,\. 8. Salem. An abstract of this work will be found S See Gorges' Nor., chap, xxvi., B. I. in the first volume of the New Eng. Hist, and \ From this passage, and what we elsewhere Gen. Reg. Chalmers says, with accuracy, find concerning Gorges' disposition towards " He laid the foundation of Salem in 1628, the New England, is it hardly just in an American first permanent' town in Massachusetts ; who, historian of the present day to say of him that in 1629, was confirmed Governor within the he " seemed to favor" this patent? — See Ban- colony, and was honored with new iustruc- croft, Hist. U. S., 138, ed. Lond.,1843. tions." — Political Annals, 136, 142. ^Many early, as well as some late, writers, f Simon Whetcomb never came to this coun- carelessly state that the charter which Gorges try, and nothing of his history or family has here refers to was granted by Parliament, been found, further than his connection with See Prince, New Eng. Chron.,2i9. the Company. These six persons are said, in ** For the accompanying copy of the auto- all the early accounts, to be " gentlemen about graph of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, I am indebted 54 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1627-1G28. In this short passage, by one of the men who had sacrificed so much to settle New England, is contained matter for volumes of history. In the first place, as regards the nature and extent of the grants of the Council of Plymouth. In the second place, as to the persons licensed to transport themselves out of England to reside here. And, thirdly, how they came to give occasion to their rulers for fears, at so early a day, that there was a design on their part to become independent of the crown. True, there was nothing more natural, under a government hke that of England, where the civil and ecclesiastical powers composing it were nearly equal, than that the people who should undertake to deny a part of the authority of that government, should, of necessity, deny the whole ; for they were inseparable ; and, hence, a rebellion or revolution must unavoidably ensue. Those fears, time has shown, were not with- out good foundation.* And Sir Ferdinando Gorges, .so far as anything as yet appears to the contrary, was the first to publish to the world a " prophesie," the fulfilment of which did not probably more astonish those who opposed, than those who accomplished it. As soon as the grant was obtained from the Council of Plymouth, the grantees took the name of "the Massachusetts Company;" which, though composed of a small number of individuals at first, soon became respectable numerically considered. And, although above one hundred individuals, from time to time, are known to have belonged to it, yet it has not been ascertained how many did in reality belong to it, at any particular period.f to the eminent collector of such things, Mr. CsAMiES H. MoKSE, of Cambridge. The origi- nal is attached to a document in the hands of Mellen Chamberlain, Esq., of Chelsea. Al- though sufficient has been said to vindicate Sir Ferdinando Gorges from any iU intentions to- wards the settlers of Massachusetts, 1 cannot forbear citing a passage from the Journal of Mr. Richard Mather, going to show, that, in 1635, Sir Ferdinando professed much interest in the welfare of the colony. When Mr. Mather, in the ship James, lay in King Eoad, " four or five miles below Bristol," ready to sail for New England, " there came three or four more boates with more passengers, and one wherein came Sir Ferdinando George, who came to see the ship and the people. When hee was come, hee enquired whether there were any people there that went to Massachusetts Bay ; whereupon Mr. Maud and jMr. Barnabas Fower were sent for to come before him ; who, being come, hee asked Mr. Maud of his coun- try, occupation, or calling of life, &c., and professed his good will to the people there in the Bay, and promised that, if ever hee came there hee would be a true friend unto them." — Printed in the Colls. Dorchester Antiq. and Hist. Soc, from the original MS. * And thus some recent writers have made the discovery that the American Revolution of 1776 actually commenced with the emigration. Might it not, vrith at least equal propriety, be carried back to the germ of the first thought of liberty of conscience ? t The following is a list of all such as ap pear in the Company's Records, as published in vol. iii.,Part 1., Trans. Amer. Antiq. Soc, amounting to one hundred and fifty. Sjme of them may not have been members of the Com- pany, but, as Mr. Haven, the editor, observes, they were in some way connected with it, as servants or otherwise. After the names of these, I have caused a u to be set, to denote the uncertainty of their membership. Abrie, Ballard, Daniel ■A. C, Baikley, William « Adams, Thomas Eateman, Aldersey, Samuel Beecher, Thomas (cnplain Andrews, Thomas, of the Talboi) « Archer, John Bellingham, Bichard Arnold, Andrew Betts, John u Backhouse, Bilson, 1628.] THE MASSACHUSETTS COMPANY. 55 1628. Soon after a grant was obtained, probably within a few days, March, the members had a meeting, at which they chose Matthew Cra- dock governor, and Thomas Goif deputy governor. Mr. White had, in the mean time, engaged " several other religious persons in and about London," to be of the company, who, from their desire to provide an asylum ''where nonconformists might transport themselves and enjoy the liberty of their own persuasion in matters of worship and church dis- cipline," had, it appears, entered into the views and wishes of Mr. White. The Grovernor and Deputy Grovernor had probably joined the company about the time of its first meeting. They were opulent mer- chants of London; and their influence with other men of wealth made their acquisition to the company of great importance. The sending succor to Mr. Conant seems not for a moment to have been lost sight of, or unnecessarily delayed ; for, within three months from the organization of the Company, a ship had been provided, and all things made necessary for a voyage '' into those remote parts of the earth," as New England was then accounted. There seems to have been some difficulty at first about a proper officer to conduct this enterprise. Captain John Endicott, however, a member of the company, required only to be asked if he would go and reside in New England, and act as governor of the colony, when he promptly answered in the affirmative ; which answer was in conformity with his previous and after history: A man of decision of character, ''whose deep enthusiasm," says Chalmers, " engaged him zealously to promote Boreman, Felix u Bowry, Ilichard u Bradshawe, Job Bradshawe, Joseph. Bradstreet, Simon Brereton, Sir William Brickhead, Thomas u Bright, Francis Browne, John Browne, Saraucl Browne, Kellam Burgess, "William Burnell, [Tobias 1} Bushord, Richard Caron, Joseph Casson, Edward {m^chant tailor) u Charlton, Robert u Churchill, Joseph w Clarke, Claydon, Bamaby w Claydon, Richard {carpen- ter) u Coddington, William Colburn, William Cony, Thomas u Cooke, Edward Coulson, Christopher Cradock, Matthew Crane, Robert Crowther, William Darbie, WUliain Barley, Heni-y Davenport, John Davis, Richard, Downing, Emanuel Dudley, Thomas Durbridge, Mr. w Eaton, Theophllus Edmonds, James {sailor and jishennan) u Endicott, John Fines, Charles Flyer, Francis Forde, Edward Foxcroft, George Gace, John {turner) u Gardener, Mr. u Gauden, Henry {master of the ship Abigail) u Gladwing, John u Glover, John Goffe, Thomas Graves, Thomas u Hanscombe, Thomas u Harwood, George Harrett, Robert u Helme, Gawen u Hewson, George Hewson, John Hewson, Thomas Higginson, Francis Hodsen, Daniel Hubbard, William Humphrey, John Hutchins, Thomas Ironside, Janson, Sir Brian Johnson, Francis u Johnson, Isaac Joyce, Mr. u Kerke, Jarvis u Lewis, Humphrey M Ludlowe, Roger Malbon, Jolm {worker in iron) u Manstreye, Nathaniel Mayo, Mr. u Milburne, Capt. Peter Miller, Sydrach {cooper) u Mitchell, Barnard u Morley, Robert {barber and surgeon) u Moulton, Robert {ship- wright) u Nowell, Increase Nye, Philip Offield, Joseph Palmer, Abraham Pelham, u Perry, Richard Peters, Hugh Phillips, George Pocock, John Pratt, John {surgeon) u Puliston, Thomas Pynchon, William Rfivell, John Roe, Lawrence u Rossiter, Edward Roswell, Sir Henry Rovell, William {ship mas- ter) u Rowe, Owen Saltonstall, Sir Richard Seale, Humphrey Seale, Robert {apprentice)u Sharpe, Samuel • Sharpe, Thomas Sherman, William u Skelton, Samuel Smith, John Southcot, Thomas Spurstow, [William] Stevens, Thomas Tuffneale, Richard Vassall, Samuel Vassall, William Venn, John Wade, ^— Walgrave, Waller, Capfc. Henry Ward, Nathaniel Washborne, John Waye, George Webb, Francis Webb, Thomas West, Nicholas Whitt, John u White, Ralph u Winthrop, John Whetcorab, Simon Whichcote, Charles White, Edmund White, John {minister) White, John {jurist) White, Richard Wise, John {shoemaker) u Woodgate, Wright, Nathaniel Wynche, Young, James Young, Sir John Young, Richard 56 HISTOKY OF BOSTON. [1628. the success of an enterprise which was to gratify the favorite passions of every one." But this historian should have added, " when those passions have for their object purity of life, and the universal good of his fellow-man." John Endicott, hke other great men who have im- mortalized their names, requires the addition of no sounding titles to ennoble his memory. His simple name is a better indication of great- ness than any title that his native country's peerage could confer.* 1628. There was now ^ ^ June 20. riding at anchor in the harbor of Weymouth, a little ship called the Abigail, of about two hun- dred tons burden, Henry Gauden,! master. On the morning of one of the last days of the month of June, 1628, Captain Endicott, with his wife, children, and others of his company, being on board, to the number probably of about one hundred souls, with the last greetings of many friends assembled on the occasion, sails out of Weymouth bay ; and, doubling the noted promontory called Portland Bill, is soon lost sight of in the channel beyond. Whatever were the incidents of the voyage across the Atlantic, there is nothing from which to form an account,J however important they may have been. But they arrived at Naum- keag, their place of destination, after a voyage of two months *^ ■ ■ and " some few odd days." The joy with which they were received by Mr. Conant and his little company, can be conceived by those only capable of imagining what the real condition of the country then must have been, — an immeasurable expanse of lofty forests shrouded in the sable gloom of ages ; separated from the wide Atlantic ocean only by a rugged curtain of fearful rocks and barren sands. The actual number composing the colony of which Mr. Endicott found him- * The early historian of New England, Cap- tain Edward Johnson, the cotemporary of En- dicott, calls him in his history, " The much honoured," — " a fit instrument to begin this wildemesse-worke ; of courage bold, undanted. yet sociable, and of a chearfull spirit, loving and austere, applying himselfe to either, as oc- casion served." Wond.-work. Prov. of Sioii's Sav. in New England, p. 19. The preceding copy of Gov. Endicott's autograph is from a legal paper of 1647. _t Godden, Gooden, Goodin, Godwin, Good- win, Gooding, &c., all probably traceable to the same original. X Endicott wrote a letter to the governor ot the Company, dated one week after his arrival, in which he probably detailed the incidents of the voyage, but that letter has not been pre- served, or, if preserved, it has not come to the knowledge of nistorians. FIRST GOVBENOE. OF MASSACHUSETTS ii^S^ k^a-^ir -^^A^^ Z:Gmc^^ 1629.] SETTLEMENT OP CHARLESTOWN. 57 self governor,* at his arrival at Naumkeag, has never been ascertained; but, judging from the data that are to be found, there could not have been many above one hundred persons in and about that part of the country.f Some time after the arrival of Governor Endicott, several gentlemen, under his direction, crossed the country to Mishawum. The principal persons who went on this discovery were three brothers, Ralph, Richard and William Sprague. The place they "lighted of" was " on the north side of Charles river, full of Indians, called Aberginians. Their old Sachem being dead, his eldest son, by the English called John Sag- amore, was their chief, and a man naturally of a gentle and good dispo- * Half a century ago, or to be more exact, sixty-two years ago (1790), an edition of Gov. Winthrop's Journal was published at Hartford, in the title-page of which the editor or transcriber wrote, after the name of the author, "First Governor of Massachusetts." This is an error which no one will seriously deny. Matthew Cradock, as we have seen, was the first governor of the Massachusetts Company. The Company established a colony at Naumkeag, in 1628, over which Endicott had a commission, executed with all the formalities of those days, constituting him governor. He was exercising the office of governor in the colony at Naumkeag before Winthrop was even Governor of the Com- pany in England. Governors in those days, and even a hundred years later, were not, as it respects the office, what they have been since. Roger Conant was a gpvernor before Endicott arrived, but he was not so by the appointment of the Massachusetts Com- pany, for that company was not formed when Conant was appointed Governor of the Cape Ann Colony. Hutchinson remarks, with regard to Conant's office, that " the superior condi- tion of the persons who came over with the charter, cast a shade upon him, and he lived in obscurity. ' ' It depends altogether upon the number and wealth of a community, whether or not, in after times, those who held offices in it are to be dignified by the titles of such offices ; and that it therefoi'e follows, if of- fices are of more importance, because exer- cised over more or better people, the predeces- sors in the same offices are not entitled to be known by such titles of office ! Such must inevitably be the reasoning warranted by the only inference to be drawn from the passage of Hutchinson. It is of no consequence what- ever whether Conant, Endicott, or Winthrop was the first governor of Massachusetts, fur- ther than to have the facts stated exactly as they existed, and as the original records warrant. f The following is a list of the names of such as are known to have been in Salem and about the north side of the Massachusetts Bay, before and in the year 1629 ; consequently, before the settlement of Boston. They have been collected from Original Papers, the Ans. of Salem, Lewis' Hist, of Lynn, &c. 8 Leach, Lawrence Lyford, John Malbon, John .Maverick, Samuel Meech, John Miller, Sydrach Moalton, Robert Nornian, Richard Norman, Richard, Jr. Palfray, Peter Palmer, Abra Palmer, Walter Patch, Rickman, Isaac Ryall, William Scruggs, Thomas Sharpe, Samuel Sibly, John Skelton, Samuel Sprague, Ralph Sprague, Richard Sprague, William Strickline, John Stileman, Elias Stowers, Nicholas Tillie, Hugh Tillie, John Traske, William Walford. Thomas Waterman, Richard Webb, Erancis Wheelwright, John Wilson, Lambert Woodbury, Humphrey Woodbury, John Wood, William Allan, William Balch, John Beard, Thomas Brackenbury, Richard Brand, Thomas Bright, Francis Brown, Hugh Brown, John Brown, Samuel Button, Matthias Claydon, Barnabas Clay don, Richard Conant, Roger Davenport, Richard Dixy, William Dodge, William Dorrell, John ("?) Edes, William Edmonds, James Endicott, Gov. John Ewstead, Richard Gardner, Thomas Gott, Charles Graves, Thomas Gray, Thomas Hanscombe, Thomas Haughton, Henry Howard, Richard Herrick, Henry Hewes, Mr. Higginson, Francis Higginson, John Hoyte, Simon Ingalls, Edmund IngeraoU, Richard Jelirey, William Knight, Walter An attempt has not been made to determine separately, the names of those whom Endicott found on his arrival at Naumkeag ; the names of those who came with him, or of those who followed him in 1629. From a passage in Hubbard's New England, p, 109, it is pretty plain that Captain William Trask was there before the arrival of Endicott. He was an im- portant man in the colony, and one on whom Gov. Endicott placed much reliance. He was a captain in the Pequot war, and held other offices of distinction. He died in 1666. His descendant, Mr. William B. Trask, of Dor- chester, has furnished the fac simile sub- joined. '58 HISTOKY OP BOSTON. [1629. Sition, by whose free consent they settled about the hill of the same place, by the said natives called Mishawum, where they found but one English palisadoed and thatched house, wherein lived Thomas Walford, a smith, situated on the south end of the westernmost hill of the East Field, a little way up from Charles river side, and, upon survey, they found it was a neck of land generally full of stately timber, as was the main, and the land lying on the east side of the river, called Mystick river, from the farm Mr. Craddock's servants had planted, called Mys- tic, which this river led up unto ; and indeed generally, all the country round about was an uncouth wilderness full of timber." * The discovery and possession of Mishawum was undertaken thus early to prevent the validity of the claims of those who held that part of the Bay under the grant of Captain Robert Gorges. Especially against the claim of Mr. John Oldham, who, with one John Dorrill, held a lease or grant of the lands between Charles and Abousett (Saugus) rivers, extending " by a right line " five miles up Charles and three miles up Abousett rivers. This claim the Company resisted, because, as they say, " it was voyde in lawe." f At what time this grant to Oldham and DorrQl was made does not appear, but it was doubtless before 1628. Seeing that Mr. Oldham was firm in his views, as it re- spected his grant, the Company " left him to his owne way ;" because, probably, that appeared the only way. That he was a man of much energy, and no little importance in the commercial community of that * This interesting record of the earliest ao- they did, there was actual possession. In the count of Charlestown, is not quite contempo- Company's letter to Endicott, dated 17th rary -with the settlement; but, as Mr. Prince April, 1629 (Hazard, i. 258-9), great com- tells us, " Tvas wrote by Mr. Increase Nowell, plaint is made about Oldham, though nothing afterwards town clerk of Charlestown, and like a tangible charge of any sort is brought secretary of the Massachusetts Colony." But against him. They say, indeed, in a kind of Mr. Frotlungham, in his History of Charles- general way, that " they had bin east behind town, says it was written by John Greene, in two months tyme in their voyage, through the the first book of the records of the town, in varyetie of his vast conceipts ;" which " vast 1664. Mr. Nowell having died in 1655, it is conceipts" appear to have been plans for real- clear that Prince fell into an error respecting izing great profits which he had endeavored to the authority of the record in question, and is get the Company to join in. But there were by Mr. Frothingham set right in his history, two insuperable difficulties ; first, Oldham Most New England historians, following Mr. probably demanded, as a condition, that his Prince, have fallen into the same error respect- grant from Gorges should be recognized ; and, ing the date of the emigration to Charlestovm second, that he might trade for beaver with from Salem. The facts and dates are correctly the Indians as he saw fit. But, says the given in Chalmers' Polit. Annals, 142-3. Company's letter, " after long tyme spent in f Among the many unexplained matters of sundry treaties, fynding him a man alto- these times, are the titles of certain grants of geather vnfitt for vs to doale with, wee haue at lands in New England. If the validity of Mr. last left him to his owne way." How long Oldham's title rested on that of another grant, before the date of this letter, he had been as I presume it did, what invalidated it ? If " left to his owne way," does not appear, but, his title was from Robert Gorges, the title of as will be seen, he was in New England on the latter must have been defective, and if de- the 17th of May following. As to the trade fective, wherein? Gorges certainly had a in beaver, " that," they say," wee deny to the grant from the Council of Plymouth. Was it best of our owne planters." This sharp eye ii condition of validity that he should reside to the trade in beaver was doubtless commend- personally upon his grant? No such condi- able, notwithstanding they say, " the propa- tion appears in it. Was it that he should im- gation of the gospele is the thing wee doe pro- prove it by actual settlers ? If this were a fess above all to Dee, o' ayme in settling this condition, Blaekston, Walford, Maverick, and plantacion." others could not have held under him ; for if 1629.] OLDHAM AOT) THE MASS. COMPANY. 59 day, is abundantly shown by the documents under consideration. The Company were in great alarm lest he should " interest others, who," they say, " for ought wee knowe, are never likely to bee benefitiaU to the planting of the country ; their owne prticuler prfitts (though to the overthrewe of the getfall plantacon), being their chiefs ayme and intent." Therefore they direct Mr. Bndicott to " vse the best meanes he can to settle an agreem' with the old Planters, so as they may not harken to Mr. Oldham's dangerous though vaine propositions." They complain also that " he is a man so affected to his owne opinion, as not to bee removed from it, neither by reason nor any perswasion ;" that therefore, they expect, as he had lately gone, or was going for New England again, he would, by drawing, others to his opinions, make trouble there, it was their will that " when faire meanes will not pre- vaQe," such other means might be " vsed to suppresse a mischiefe before it take too great a head, as in yo" discrecons you shall thinke fittest for the gen'"all good and safety of the plantacon, and preservacon of o'' priviledges. And because wee would not omitt to doe anything wch might strengthen o' right, we would have you (as soone as these shipps, or any of them, arrive with you, whereby you may have men to do it), send forty or fifty persons to Massachusetts Bay,* to inhabit there ; which we pray you not to protract, but to doe it with all speede ; and if any of o'' company in perticuler shall desire to settle themselves there, or to send servants thither, wee desire all accommodacon and encourag- m' bee given them theronto, wherby the better to strengthen o'" possession there against all or any that shaU intrude vpon vs, wch wee would not baue you by any meanes give way vnto."t From the tenor of these instructions to Endicott, it is manifest that the defeat of those claiming under Gorges the younger was intended ; and these were " Oldham and his adherents." Being defeated in all his endeavors to effect an arrangement with the Massachusetts Patentees, Mr. Oldham appears to have embarked for New England early in the spring of this year. In what vessel he sailed, or in what company he came, is not discovered ; but soon after his arrival, he is found at a noted Indian place, — probably then long * It was a longtime before places reoeired Massachusetts, of 1780), S«nierfli7/ appears; their appropriate names j owing in a great but, instead of being in Charlestown, it is measure to the want of correct geographical south of Charles river, in Brookline ! Massa- knowledge. It could not be otherwise, under ohusetts Bay does not form a separate article the circumstances. Strictly speaking, the in the early geographical works, down to and Bayof Massachusetts included, anciently, only including those of Dr. Morse. All of those the south-western portion of what is now Bos- who wrote of the country in the times of its ton harbor. It was so named from the prox- settlement, speak of what is now Boston imity of the tribe of Massachusetts Indians, harbor as Massachusetts Bay. The people There does not appear to have been any par- of Salem spoke of going from that place tioular name to that great body of water from to Massachusetts Bay. In the Planter'' s the harbor and Cape Ann to Cape Cod, until Plea (Force), p. 15, the " Mattachusets Bay" a much later period than that now under con- is described as near Salem. In the MS. of Mr. sideration. The precise date when the Great Harris (referred to, ante, p. 44) are curious Bay received the name it now bears, I have facts relating to the early geographical knowl- not attempted to fix. It has stood so inscribed edge of these parts, which it is to be hoped he upon some maps for about one hundred years, win, ere lon^, in some form, give to tha public. On one ndw before me (an English map of f Haaard, i. 260. he contrary, he may have been in the country one, two, long enough, at all events, to fi^d out a good tract of lught not to be included in any patent, exceedingly val- )er and for the fur trade. heelwright, probably by his agents, having assembled ipal Indian Sagamores at Squamscot, they gave him a )f country which, for near fifty years after, embraced w Hampshire.* istanding Captain John Mason procured a patent of the f Plymouth, of nearly the same tract which Mr. I purchased of the Indians, and which, for a time, may him from asserting his claim, yet, eventually, his pos- er a portion of it at least ; for, when the colony from ry, in Ireland, came to New England, in 1718, and had ihoice of a place for settlement, the tract, since Lon- V Hampshire, was selected by them. To obtain a title r had selected, they were referred to Colonel John Wells, grandson of the original grantee, because "he ian title, derived from his ancestors." And, although )r two claimants of the same territory, — which was , — yet the government protected the settlers under Vheelwright.f Wheelwright is styled they at once proceeded beyond the limits of I Bay, late of England ;" that company, and -made the purchase as [Storre], Thomas Wite stated in the text. To prevent any question i''entworth, and Thomas as to their purchase, they took a large number tlso named " of Massa- of witnesses from the eastern settlements, 1 which fact it is evident namely, " George Vaughan, factor, and Am- r somewhere about Bos- brose Gibbons, trader, for the Company of ion, as has been shown, Laconia, Richard Vines, governor, and Richard ly was confined to this Bonighton, assistant, of the plantation at Wheelwright had been Saoo ; Thomas Wiggin, agent, and Edward itable Mavericke, wrhose Hilton, steward of the plantation of Hilton's s married his daughter Point." All these witnessed the acknowledg- Wheelwright, Storre, ment of the deed, and John Oldham, Samuel nd Leavitt, all probably Sharp and two Indians Avitnessed the deed. :_ompany. Oldham may f His deed to those settlers is dated 20 Oct., in England, upon whose 17i9, in which he says he conveys " by virtue their patent swallowed of a Deed or Grant made to his grandfather, iterest in that of Robert a minister of the Gospel," &c. — Parker's Hist. eyond hope of recovery, Londonderry, p. 321. 1629.] FIRST LOCATIONS OF SETTLEES. 61 CHAPTER VIII. Settlements first made on outskirts of a country. — Particularly so in New England. — Why tho Miissacliusetts Company sought a Royal Charter. — How obtained. — Its Boundaries. — Its Gov- ernment. — Its Conditions and Restrictions. — Examination of its Conditions. — Privileges assumed under it whicli it never authorized. — Religious Liberty denied in it. — Case of the Plymouth Settlers. — Origin of Religious Liberty. — Charter Privileges contended for not contained in the Charter. — The times favor the assumption. HE planters of new countries usually locate them- selves at first in such places as accident pro- vides, or some peculiar circumstances make unavoidable ; hence it has happened that the poorest parts have been first improved, and the best localities neglected till the last. It was truly so in the settlement of Plymouth and Massachusetts, as it was also in Canada and Vir- ginia. Cape Cod on the south, and Cape Ann on the north, were among the first resting-places of the devoted men who led the way in the early path, to a mighty empire. From these inhospitable and sterile points a gradual progress was made along the south and north shores of the bay, until the wander&s met in its bosom, among the undulating eminences of Shawmut, the beautiful groves of the Mystic, and the delightful cornfields of the Massachusetts. This will have been seen in the perusal of the previous chapters. Thus, at this time. Englishmen had located themselves in all_ the prominent places around the Massachusetts Bay, and a toler- ably accurate knowledge of the country had been learned by several gentlemen in England who had become immediately interested in its settlement. It remained now to push forward a further occupation of the country embraced in their patent, for many and obvious reasons. Before entering upon a detail of the next great emigration, however, it is deemed necessa^ry to take notice of the charter and its provisions, or conditions under which it was made, as they had a most important bearing upon the affairs of Boston, and consequently upon the whole country ; and hence somewhat of recapitulation may be necessary. The Massachusetts Company, judging from the experience of former colonial companies, doubted partly the validity of the conveyance lately made to them by the Plymouth Company, but more the authority given by it to rule the intended plantation.* They therefore insisted, not 1620. * This is Chalmers' explanation ; but there was a motive back of all this. The Council of Plymouth had been disposing of their ter- ritory in a manner which can be accounted for in two ways only ; — first, that, owing to their extreme ignorance of the geography of the country, they had conreyed parts of the same tracts twice over, to different individuals ; — or, secondly} that they, or those whom they empowered to act for them, dishonorably sold territory whenever piirchasers offered, regard- less of what had been previously sold ; and the most favorable construction that this will admit of is, that they had been deceived by the representations of purchasers, who had been in the country, and knew the value of certain localities which they desired to pos- sess, and were not scrupulous to inquire into 62 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1629. only that a charter should be obtained from the Crown confirmatoiy of the grant from the Council of Plymouth, and authorizing them to gov- ern the colonists, but that their names should be inserted mit, and their affairs transacted at London. Under these considerations, a patenb was applied for, and, by the personal solicitation ot Lord 13or- 1629 Chester, it was obtained of King Charles I.* This patent re- Mar. 4. cited the grant to the Council of Plymouth, of Ib^O, and the subsequent sale of a small portion of its territory before mentioned, and regranted to Sir Henry Rosewell, Sir John Young, Thomas Southcot, John Humfrey, John Endicot, Simon Wh^tcomb,t and their associates, namely. Sir Richard Saltonstall, Knight, Isaac Johnson, Samuel Alder- sey, John Yen, Matthew Cradock, George Harwood, Increase Nowell, Richard Perry, Richard Bellingham, Nathaniel Wright, Samuel Vassall, Theophiks Eaton, Thomas Goff, Thomas Adams, John Brown, Samuel Brown, Thomas Hutchins, William Vassall, WUUam Pynchon, and George Foxcroft,| their heirs and assigns forever, that part of New England which lies between the rivers Merrimack and Charles, being the bottom of a certain bay, there commonly called Massachusetts alias Mattachusetts alias Massatusetts Bay, and also all lands lying within the space of three miles on the south part of the said Charles river, or of any or every part thereof; aijd also of aU lands lying within the space of three miles to the northward of the said river called Mono- mack, alias Merrimack, or to the northward of every part thereof, and through the main lands from the Atlantic and western sea and ocean on the east, to the South sea on the west. To be holden by them, • their heirs, and assigns, in free and common soccage, as of the manor of East Greenwich ; paying, in lieu of all services, one fifth of the gold and silver that should be found. § the rights of others, especially where they * I here follow Chalmers in this matter of could flatter themselves that claims had been the charter, who thus remarks at this point : abandoned or neglected. Therefore, in view " Whether we reflect that this is the only of these facts, ana to possess at least a right charter which Massachusetts possessed prior or claim paramount to all others, nothing to the Revolution [of*1688], which contained short of a patent under the royal seal would its most ancient privileges ; that on this was enable the Massachusetts Company to contend most dexterously established not only the successfully against a swarm of minor paten- original government of that colony, but inde- tees. Though historians have not viewed the pendence itself, a minute discussion of it motives which influenced the Company in this must appear equally necessary and interest- light, they are to me the most satisfactory of ing." — Political Annals, 136. But his " dis- all others together. I am aware that, in a cussion of it " is not to my purpose, moral point of view, the Company, as a body, f Mr. Hubbard called these six persons are somewhat exposed to censure. If astraight- "Gentlemen about Dorchester;" not o/" Dor- forwai-d detail of facts lead to exposures, it is Chester, as a popular historian of the present no fault of the historian. His convictions day cites him as saying. See ante. should always be honestly stated. If he errs | These names of the grantees are taken in judgment, it only proves that he has mis- from Prince's Annals. The spelling of some judged in the particular case under considera- of them differs from those in Hutchinson's tion. Whether the Company possessed all the Collection of Papers. moral rights which they exercised is the ques- § Patent in Hutchinson's Col. Papers, entire, tion. Certain it is they put no particular also in Mauduit's View of the History of New stress on that kind of right,_ while upon their England, and Hazard. Mauduit says it had legd rights they were sufficiently emphatioal. not been printed in England before his time. 1629.] PROVISIONS OF THE CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. 63 The executive power of the corporation was invested in a governor, deputy governor, and eighteen assistants, whose duty was, "for the best disposing and ordering of the lands granted, of the affairs of the plantation, of the government of the people there." The governor and seven or more assistants were authorized to meet in monthly courts "for despatching such business as concerned the Company or settle- ment." The legislative power of the Corporation, however, was invested in "a more solemn assembly." This body was to be composed of the governor, deputy governor, the assistants, and of the whole freemen of the company in person, and was directed to be held " every last Wed- nesday in the four terms," which meetings or sessions were named "the four Great and General Courts." It was empowered to make laws or ordinances for the government of the plantation, which " should not be repugnant to the laws of England." This " Great and General Court" was authorized to elect freemen, a governor, deputy governor, assistants and other ofiicers. The governor and company were enabled to transport to New England " all such of the subjects of King Charles I., as shall be willing to accompany them, and such strangers as will become subjects and live under his allegiance ;" but with this proviso : " that none of the said persons be such as shall be especially re- strained ;" that the emigrants and their posterity were declared "to be natural born subjects, and entitled to the immunities of Englishmen within every other dominion of the Crown as if born within the realm." They were empowered to carry thither warlike stores and merchandises, without paying any customs for the space of seven years ; and, as a further encouragement, they were exempted from the pay- ment of taxes in New England, during the same term of years, and from any duty on commodities imported to England or any dominion of the Crown, or exported from them, for twenty-one years after the expiration of the former term of exemption, except five in the hundred of the value for custom. That the colony which was to be planted " might be so religiously and civUly governed, as the good life and orderly conversation of the inhabitants might invite the natives to the knowledge of the Christian faith ; which, in the royal intention, and in the adventurers' free pro- fession, was the principal end of the plantation," power was therefore conferred on the General Court, and its successors, to establish ordi- nances and instructions, which should not be contrary to the laws of the realm, for settling forms of government for the colonists ; for determin- ing fines, imprisonments, or other legal correction, according to the usages of other corporations in the realm of England ; and for naming necessary officers ; that these ordinances being published under the seal of the Company, were to be duly observed and executed within the plantation. The chief commander and other magistrates who should from time to time be employed by the governor and company in th« government of the colony, were invested with absolute power to punish 64 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [162&, or pardon, to rule the emigrants or colonists, according to the above- mentioned ordinances and instructions. They were authorized to defend themselves against invaders ; but, should they do any injury to foreign states, or to other subjects, without making proper reparation, a right was given to the injured to prosecute them with every act of hostility. Agreeably to the repeated resolutions of the Commons, there was reserved to the other subjects of the Crown a right of free fishing, with the necessary incidents of drying fish on the shores, and of taking tim- ber upon the coasts of New England. In these days of large liberties it is difficult to discern what had been secured by that charter, to cause those who obtained it to feel any special gratitude to those who had the power to bestow it. But civil and religious liberty had not then dawned on the world. It was scarcely an object of speculation in the abstract theories of philoso- phers, or dreamed of by men of ordinary minds. Nevertheless, those who emigrated to New England under that charter professed to look upon it as something which Grod in his benevolence had moved the heart of their king to grant, and they cherished it as a sort of palla- dium of their liberties. In analyzing it, it is not easy to discover what great advantages they had with it, that they would not have had with- out it. It gave them the privilege of emigrating to New England. This was no new privilege. It did not compel them to stay here. They were as much the subjects of the crown of England as though they had remained in England. Their condition in New England was the same as it would have been in any incorporated borough in England, — with this difference, however : they could not be so easily watched over. And in this existed the grand secret in which all their advantages lay hid. They improved those advantages in due time, as light and strength from the nature of their situation clustered around them. As to any important liberties secured to them, it was merely ideal. They grew naturally and spontaneously out of the nature of their circum- stances. True it is, the officers of the colony had the power of making laws, and of executing them ; but around aU this hung the laws of England, which admitted nothing without or beyond them ; aU laws and ordinances must be in accordance with them. There was no opportu- nity for improvement in their laws, unless the improvement originated in the mother country ; or unless, by some revolution at home, the course of its laws became deranged. This, indeed, soon happened. Much was said, even by the emigrants themselves, of their coming into this wilderness to enjoy the privilege of worshipping God accord- ing to their convictions of what he required of them. In fact, to wor- ship God as they were not allowed to do at home ; in other words, contrary to law. Surely their charter granted no such liberty,* nor did it recognize the least departure in religious worship from that of the Church of England. It was the same before, when the people came ' It could not grant any such liberty, because it would be in violation of the common law. Coke, 5 Rep. 1629.] ORIGIN OF EELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 65 to Plymouth. Their agents attempted to procure, under the hand of James, a clause in their charter, allowing them to worship God as they saw fit ; but he would allow of no such liberty ; yet, in a conversational way, he gave the agents to understand, that they were too insignificant to be looked after, unless they made a disturbance by their fanatical practices. It was thus the pious Pilgrims were allowed to break the laws, because they did it at a safe distance from their fountain-head. And thus was the "higher law" successfully put in practice on the barren sands of Cape Cod. The case was difierent on the other side of the bay. There the colonists did not agree upon forms of worship among themselves, and the stronger party forced the weaker to return to England. Those expelled belonged to the Episcopal Church.* This expulsion, says Chalmers,! inflicted a wound on that church from which it never recov- ered. J " And the liberal-minded exclaimed that the same conduct has been invariably pursued at all times, and in every country ; the perse- cuted, when they acquire power, will always persecute. "§ If different sects quarrelled at home, was it not to be expected that they would quarrel elsewhere 1 Those churchmen, forcibly sent to England, com- plained to the Company there, and demanded redress for the wrongs and violence done them. If they ever received reparation of any kind, nothing of record appears to show the fact ; and the country then being on the verge of a civil war, the wheels of jurisprudence were clogged, which may account for the silence with regard to the matter which ensues. There are reckless people in all periods and in all communities, and, whether it be acknowledged or not, much of the liberty enjoyed in this * In the Company's records the following however, were opened and read, but we hear entry is found, under date 19 Sept., 1629 : — nothing of any aspersions contained in them " At this court letters were read from Capt. against New England, as had been alleged. A Bndicott and others from New England ; and sufficient explanation of the whole grounds of whereas a difference hath fallen out betwixt difficulty, I apprehend, is found in the state- the Governor there and Mr. John and Mr. ment in the text. In the "Company's Gen- Samuell Browne, it was agreed by the court, eral Letter of Instructions " to Gov. Eudicott, that for the determinacou of those differences the gentlemen accused are spoken of in the Mr. John and Mr. Samuell Browne might highest terms. " They are men (says the let- choose any three or four of the Company on ter) wee doe much respect, being fully per- their behalf, to heare the said differences, the swaded of their sincere affeccons to the good of Company choosing as many. Whereupon the o' Plantcon. Mr. John Browne is sworne an said Mr. John and Mr. Samuell Browne made Assistant heere, and by vs chosen one of the choice of Mr. Samuel Vassell, Mr. William Oouncell there ; a man experienced in the lawes Vassell, Mr. Symou Whetoombe, and Mr. of o' Kiugdome, and such an one as wee are William PjTichon ; and for the Companie there persuaded will worthylie deserve yo"^ fauo'' ; were chosen Mr. John Whyte, Mr. John Da- and that in the first devision of lands, there venport, Mr. Isack Johnson, and Mr. John may bee allotted to eether of them 200 acres." Wynthropp ; who, with the Governor or Dep- f Political Annals, 145. uty, are to determine and end the business the j Churchmen of our times will hardly allow first Tuesday in the next tearme." this. If at any period a death-blow had been The letters sent by the Brovraes to their inflicted, it was a good deal anterior to this, friends in England had been intercepted, and Chalmers here did not exercise his usual acu- at the next meeting of the Company it was men. His observations and deductions are " considered whether these letters should be generally those of the profound jurist and delivered or detained, and whether they should able expounder of state afeirs. be opened and read, or not." Some of them, ^ Political Annals, 145. 66 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1629. age is owing to that very recklessness. The number of the early emi- grants to New England who renounced allegiance to the mother church was exceedingly small ; for the obvious reason, that it was at the same time a renunciation of their allegiance to the crown. The course of things in New England clearly proves the truth of these positions ; for, when it was safe, or even promised a faint prospect of success in the attempt, to throw ojBf their allegiance, it was done in earnest. The reckless followers of freedom showed themselves everywhere then, and their success was equal to the prize contended for. As though there were real grounds for certain assumptions of the colonists contained in the charter, their agents submitted it to some of the best politicians and ablest lawyers in England for their opinions. They observed, " that, it being originally granted to a great company resident in England, it was wholly inapplicable to the circumstances of a distant colony, because it gave the body politic no more jurisdiction than had every other corporation within the kingdom ! ' ' Such being the opinion of a Somers, a Holt, a Treby and a Ward, what did this boasted charter amount to ? It must, however, be confessed that, in the adroit use made of it by the colonists, it amounted to almost the same thing that they contended it was ; for by a constant appeal to it, and admitting of no construction of its provisions which did not suit them, they gained — what? — what was everything to them, — time and strength, with which to back up their claims. Nothing more was needed, nothing more was required, and nothing more was probably expected. Did the great American Revolution begin here ? The English Revo- lution ? The World's Revolution ? Liberty was a tender plant then, of uncertain age, and no man could say, " I planted it ;" though many hands had now begun to water it, yet none conjectured to what height and extent it would grow and spread. Although there was a period when it was nursed by unskilful hands, and its growth was smothered by its enemies, and it was even cut off to the ground in the land of its origin, yet its roots remained, which soon sent up their branches in all directions. Its growth was still slow ; but in the years of Cromwell it was rapid, — too rapid to sustain itself against the storms which burst upon it. Its great defender was not yet born, though his progenitors were upon the soil of England. They found their way to America, but it required a century more to produce a Washington. His hand it was that cultivated the plant Liberty with success, and his arm it was that shielded it from its enemies, till its strength had become too powerful to fear all its adversaries combined. It made no difference, in fact, whether the corporation remained on the island of Great Britain, or on any other island, or in any country belonging to the Crown of England. Its final remove. Charter and all, whether clandestinely or openly, does not at all affect the main question ; while practically, there was a great difference. A company 1629.] REMOVAL OF THE GOVERNMENT. 67 consisting of many restless spirits, had been got rid of; and whether they conformed to all the laws of Church and State, or not, they were three thwisand miles off, and could not be easily brought to punishment, even if they deserved it, or made to mend the laws if they broke them. The time of the principal emigration was auspicious. The rise of the civil war in England gave its rulers more work than they could do at home, and their King's power soon fell down to the pitiful restrictions of subjecting those of his subjects who wished to emigrate to New England to vexatious oaths of " allegiance and supremacy." This state of things did not last long. Those who chose " disorderly to leave the kingdom," did so ; and thus, what they gained in that kind of lib- erty is lost by their descendants who happen to be antiquaries and genealogists. CHAPTER IX. Bficords of the Massachusetts Company. — Gov. Cradock proposes a removal of the Government to New England. — The Question is discussed. — Decided in the affirmative. — Ways and Means con- sidered to carry it into effect. — Trade and Joint Stock of the Company. — What of the Government to remain in England, and what in New England. — Endicott to be continued Governor. — Ship Eagle. — Arbella. — Agreement for settling the Joint Stock affair. — New Governor and other Offi- cf^s elected. — Case of the Brownes. — Winthrop reports on the Joint Stock. — Proposals for pecu- niary relief. — Disposal of the Joint Stock. — Ships ordered for emigration. — Rates of Passage and Freight established. — Wisdom displayed. — Common Stock proposal. ^ For what service. — Sir Wm. Brereton. — The Company at Southampton. P to this time there appears no intimation that any 1629. of the members of the Corporation (as July 28. the Massachusetts Company was usually called), had even a remote idea of transferring the Government to New England. On this day, namely, July the twenty-eighth, 1629, the Gov- ernor of the Company, Matthew Cradock, Esquire, when the business of the meeting of the Company on that day was presumed to be finished, and the usual routine of matters was gone through with, surprised its members by " reading certaine proposicons conceived by himself," recommending "to transfer the gournment of the plantacon to those that shall inhabite there." Thus taken by surprise, the members had secrecy more than once enjoined upon them, and considerable debate ensued ; and every one was " desired privately and seriously to consider hereof, and to sett downe their prticuler reasons in wry ting pro and contra," and to produce the same at the next meeting, that " the Company may then precede to fynall resolucon therein ; and in the meane tyme to carry this busines secretly, that the same bee not devulged." This meeting was held, as they had generally been of late, at the house of Deputy Governor Goife, in London. 68 HISTOEY OF BOSTON. [1629. Aug. 28. The time for a meeting to discuss the great question about a removal having arrived, " Mr. Deputie acquainted this Court, that the espetiall cause of their meeting was to give answere to divers gentlemen intending to go into New England, whether or noe the chiefe Gou'nm' of the Plantacon, together with the pattent, should bee setled in New England or heere." Accordingly it was ordered, that, in the afternoon of the same day, " Mr. Wright, Mr. Eaton, Mr. Adams, Mr. Spurstowe, and such others as they should thinke fitt to call unto them, whether they were of the Company or not," to consider the arguments against the proposed re- moval ; and on the other side, " Sir Richard Saltonstall,* Mr. Johnson, * From Thoresby's History of Leeds, and an abstract of the will of Gilbert Saltonstall, I am principally able to present the following pedigree. It is enough to add, concerning this family, that they opposed the persecutions in New England, in its early settlement ; denounced with becoming language the proceedings against Quakers, and set a worthy example in the witch- craft delusion. Gilbert Saltonstall, of Halifax, Co. = of York, purchased, besides other lands. Rooks in Hipperholme, 1, Anne, da.of: Mr. Jo. Kams- denjOfLongley gr.-fa. to Sir John Ramsden I : Samuel of= Kooks and Huntick. L 2. Elizabeth, = 3. Elizabeth, Sir Eiohard, Lord Mayor of London ^ Sosaa... dau. of Mr. widow of 1597, (one year only), from whom those of London and Hertfordshire. He was sheriff in 1688, will IGOO. r Thos. Ogden Armine, of Hull, s. p. 1. Grace, da. of ^ Sir Eiohard = 2. , Gilbert, Samuel = Barbara, Seven Samuel Susanna, Ann, mar. Robert Kaye, Knt.J. Peace d. of Ld. d.yng. of Roger- da. Wal- others, (named m. Richard John Harbyo 1 Charles I. Delaware. thorp, ter Ruds- in the Sunderland, of London, Came to N. S.Martha ton, of will of 17 Jac. I. skinner, mer. E. 1630. Wilford. Hayton. his father.) Muscovy, &o. Richard, b. at Woodsome, = 1610, came to New E. 1630, d. at Hulme, England, 29th April, 169i. Muriel, da. Henry, H. 0. Robert Samuel sold laud at Watertown, of Brampton 1642, return'd sells land in 20 : 5 : 1642. Gurden, of to England. Watertown, Assington, 2 Sep. 1642. Co. Suf. Esq. High Holborn, Lond. 1643. !N'athaniel,= b. ab. 1639, d. 1707; lived at Ha- verhill, Ms. of which he is called the father. Elizabeth, da. of Mr. John Ward of Haver- hiU. Richard, d. un- married. Muriel, m. Sir Edward Mosely, of Hulme, Lano., England. Abigail, m. to Thos. Harley, Esq. Elizabeth, m. to Heroules Horsy, : Elizabeth, (onlyda.)m. 1. Mr. John Denison,6th mio. of Ips- wich. 2. Mr. Rowland Cot- ton. Gurdon, ; b. Hav- erhill, 27 March, 1666,Gov. Ct. 1708. d. 1724,' October 1. = Jerusha, Richard,= da. William Haver- Whittingham hill, of Boston. Nathaniel, H. C. 1695, tutor there; d. young. Roswell, eldest = son, b. 1701, d. in New Loudon, 1st Oct., 1768, a. 37. Richard, b. = Mary, da. Nathaniel, = 14th June, 1 of Elisha meroh., grad. H C 1703,d.l756, Cook, 2d. 1727, d. young, a Judge. 1 Physician of Haverhill. Richard, b. 5 April, 1732, ool,, royalist, d. in England 1785, unmar. Hon. Levebeit, d. 8 May, 1845, aged 62. Nathaniel, = Anna, da. Loxcrott, a b. 10 Feb., 1746, d. 10 Feb., 1796. Pa. of Hon. Leverett S, Richard. of Samuol royalist, d. White, Esq. 1782. of the Hav- erhill family. 1629.] QUESTION OF KEMOVAL DISCUSSED. 69 Capt Venn, and sucli others as they should call vnto them," to prepare arguments for a removal ; which arguments were assigned to be heard in a fuU Court on the next day, at nine o'clock. When the hour . arrived, there " were prsent many of the Assistants and gen- "^' ' eralitie, and after a long debate, Mr. Deputie put it to the question, as foUoweth : As many of you as desire to haue the pattent and the Gournment of the Plantacon to bee transferred to New Eng- land, soe as it may bee done legally, hold vp yo' hands. So many as will not, hold vpp yo" hands. Where by ereccon of hands, it appeared by the gen''all consent of the Company, that the Gou'mn' Pattent should bee setled in New England, and accordingly an order to bee drawne vpp." Se t 19 "^* ^^^ ne:&.t sitting of the Court, the records are silent upon the subject of removal ; but, at its session ten days later, " that business being of great and weighty consequence, is thought fitt to bee deferred for determinacon vntil Sir R. SaltonstaU, Mr. Johnson and other gentlemen bee come vpp to London, and may be here present." g 29 Meantime a committee was proposed, which should " take advice of learned counsel, whether the same may bee legally done or noe ; by what way or meanes the same may bee done to corrispond with, and not preiudice the Gou'm' here ; to consider of the tyme when it wilbe fitt to doe it ; to resolve on whom to conferr the Gou'nm', and diuers other circumstances materiaU to bee resolued on, &c." - At the next session of the Court the subject of a removal of the government to New England is but incidentally mentioned ; the " espetiall and only occasion of this meeting beinge to consider and resolue of settling the trade in New England (now vpon transferring the Gou'mnt thither), for the incouragm' as well of the Adventurers in the Joynt Stock heere, as of those who already are, and of others who intend to goe ouer in prson to bee planters there." After a long debate upon the respective claims of the parties, " the Court, in conclusion, fell vpon a moderacon;" that the Company's Joint Stock should have the trade of beaver and all other furrs, solely, for seven years from this day, in consideration of the charge it had undergone, and is yet annually to bear, for the advancement of the Plantation. That for fortifications, the Company's Joint Stock to bear half the expense, and the planters the other half, and the charge for ordnance, munition, &c. That for the charge of ministers now there, and that shall hereafter go to reside there, as also for building churches and other public works, one half to be borne by the Joint Stock, and the other half by the planters, for seven years. The business of this day's session was closed by the appointment of a committee,* who were desired to draw " fitt and conuenyent clauses to bee incerted in articles of agreement, which may bee comodious for * Which a>minittee was to consist of " prt intend to goe ouer." Judging by modem com- of the Adventurers here, and prt of those that mittees, this was a very unwieldy one ; con- 70 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1629. either prt, and to prepare tlie same for a Court of Assistants, appointed that afternoone to determine therof." In the preamble to this, the record reads, "forasmuch as by former order the Pattent and Gou'"nm' to bee transferred to New England." " All which being seu'-all tymes read, was by Mr. Gou'"no^ put to the question, and by gen'll consent, by erreccon of hands, was agreed and concluded on, and ordered accord- ingly." In Court the lext day, the queslbn was considered, " what °''*' ^^' gou'"mn' shalbp aeiC at London, wherby the future charge of the loynt Stock may bee cherished and preserved, and the body politique of the Company remaine and increase. "What persons shall have the charge of the managing of the loynt Stock, both at London and in New England ; wherein it is conceeved fitt that Captain Endicott continue the Gou'mn' there, vnless iust cause to the contrarie" appear. It was finally thought as more " fitt and naturall that the Gournmnt of per- sons bee held there," in New England, and that of "trade and mer- chandizes to bee heere" in London. At the same time the Governor and Treasurer of the Company were appointed to examine the affairs of the loint Stock company, reputed to bee much in debt ; and an order was passed for freighting the ship Eagle,* at Bristol, for New England. sisting of eighteen members ; eight of whom were of those "that intend to goe ouer ;" namely, Sir Ri. Saltonstall Mr. Dudley Mr. Johnson, Mr. Vassall Mr. 'VVinthropeC) Mr. Pinohou Mr. Humfry Mr. Downing The residents were : Mr. Davenport Mr. Adams Mr. Wriglit Mr. Whetcombe Mr. Perry Mr. Young Capt. Waller Mr. spurstowe Oapt. VennlS) Mr. Eevell. * This was a ship of 350 tons, which was purchased for the service of the Company, pur- suant to a motion of the Governor, made at a session of the Court held 28 July, 1629. " But in regard the Company are not now in cash," say the records, several members agreed to advance " cash" sufficient, because they were not willing so good a ship, and such favorable (11 This, I believe, is the first time the name of Mr. Win- throp occui-s in the records of the Company. Five days after, he is elected Governor, as will be seen. He thus wrote his name in 1617 : (2) Capt. John Venn became noted in Cromwell's revolution orrefieWton, — as the great tory, Clarendon, will have it, — though he was now of London, he probably originated at Dorchester, where, in remote ages, the name was De Venn or De Vann. GeofFery De Venn built the church there, and his effigy is supposed to be that "lying at length" in one of the windows of the chancel ; and about whom this tradition is preserved : Geoffery Van His wifo Ann terms should be missed of. Accordingly, Grov, Cradock, Mr. Adams, ISIr. Wright, Mr. Mil- bume, and the Company, each took one eighth of the ship, and Mr. Goffe, ^Ir. Eaton, Mr. Whetcombe, Mr. Revell, Mr. Aldersey and Mr. Huson, took each a sixteenth. As will be seen, the name of the Eagle was afterwards changed to that of Arbella, an abbreviated way of writing Arabella, a name appropriated to females. Whether this name were originally written with two as or three, it is not worth extending a note much to settle the question, especially as writers of the times of the first settlers of Boston often A\Tote their own names differently. Yet it may be well just to state that there can be no question as to how the name ought to be written, in view of its etymology ; aro, altar ; bella, beautiful, fair ; hence, a fair altar. That even a scholar, just out of his classics, should confound the With his maid Nan Built this chui'Ch. It was the daughter of Capt. John Venn, probably, about whom there is a book of 165K, with a preface by Tho. Weld. Like most books of that day and character, it contains very few facts, but details very particularly her " experience,'' inci- dentally giving the date of her birth, about 1627 j her fiither, she says, commanded a regiment in 1642, at Windsor, of which " Master Love was chaplain." The family resided in London several years, but in 1647 they settled in Fulham, near London, on the Thames, where Capt. Venn died on the 28th of June, 1650, This daughter was Anne. In her book she makes frequent mention of many of tlie prominent Pu- ritan divines of the day ; as Mr. Isimc Knight, Mr. Rogers, author of the " Evidences," Mr. Stevens, Mr. Areher, Mr, Barker, Mr. Milborn, Mr. Sidrach Simpson, who lectured in Friday Street, Mr. Smallwood, Mr. Marehall, Mr. Blake, Mr. Price, Mr. Cradock, Mr. Nye, and many others, all of whom she knew and heard preach duriiue *^ the eighteen yeaxs she was Boi*Qly tempted of the IMvell." 1629.] AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE ADVENTURERS aND PLANTERS. 71 Letters which had been prepared to be sent to Governor Endicott were also read.* „ j^ Three days later the Company held another meeting ; the occasion, say the records, "being to resolue of the alteracon of gouerment, and therein to consider" how the debts of the Joint Stock shall be discharged, and other management of that affair. As time could not be spared to debate the subject then, it was proposed that certain committees should be appointed " to raeete and make prposicons each to other, and sett the same downe in wryting ; and, if they can, to agree and conclude of a fitt end to bee made for the good of the plantacon ; and if any difference happen wch they cannot agree on, that then the same be referred to the vmprage and determinacon of some of the preachers to bee chosen to that purpose ; who are desired to sett downe in wryting what they shall thinke in conscience is fitt to bee done. To this end Articles betweene the Planters and Adventurers were nowe drawne by Mr. Whyte, the councellor, read and approved." A Court was to be convened on the next day, when the Articles were to be presented for ratification ; and at the same Court it was appointed that a Governor and Assistants should be chosen for New England. _ There was a very large attendance at the Court held on this day. The Governor acquainted those present that the " espetiall occasion of summoninge them was for the election of a new Governor, Deputie, and Assistants ; the gournment being to bee transferred into New England, according to the former order and resolucon of the Com- pany." But before proceeding to the proposed election, the Articles of agreement between the Adventurers and Planters were read, " and recommended to the Court for their approbacon and for the uominacon name of the place where the immense armies than Edmund Lodge and James Granger, — two contended under Alexander and Darius, with of the most learned biographers England has that of Arabella, is not a matter of the least ever produced, — I will own I have no better, surprise. It is plain enough that the name I have myself an engraved portrait of the lady, became thus corrupted. Numerous instances under which 4rfeZ/a, &c., are written. Every- might be cited of similar corraptions. Even body knows that painters and engravers are the learned Sir Walter Ralegh gave way some- not authority for the orthography of names so times, it is said, to the popular corruption of found. "With one of these before him, Mr. his own name, so far as to write Raleigh. If Granger constantly vreote Arabella; and Mr. the lady Arabella Stuart sometimes conformed Lodge, at the head of the College of Arms, to an error of the sort, it only proves that she vrith old MSS. in his hands, to which Arbella 'lid so conform, and nothing more. The old was signed, constantly wrote Arabella. Names saying, that "the errors of the learned are may, indeed, be somewhat arbitrary, — not so learned errors," is a paradox that had better their origin ; yet it is of small importance if a be dispensed with. The name of the lady Ara- ship bear a nickname, if no one be misled bella Churchill (sister to John, Duke of thereby. To this end I have made this note, Marlborough) , is everywhere printed, so far as and I will only add that good English writers my reading has extended, as it is here. The have always written Arabella. Does any one accurate Prince wrote Arbella, because he presume to write Dolbella ? — another name for found it so written b^ Winthrop (who, in females, — abridged like the one in question, official papers, wrote his own name a letter So of Isabella. Does anybody write Isbella ? short), and perhaps one or two of his asso- * The originals of these letters are preserved ciates. Hubbard wrote it so from the same in the first book of Deeds in the Suffolk Regis- cause. If any better authorities were desired try, Boston. They are printed in the Aram' that the real name of the lady, for whom the ologia Americana, iii. 53^, ship was named, should be written Arabella, 72 HISTORT OF BOSTON. [1629. and appointment of a competent number of Comittees to meete and treat and resolue of these businesses." The articles being approved of, " fiue comittees on either part were thereupon chosen, namely, Sr. Richard Saltonstall, Mr. Winthrop,* Mr. Dudley, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Humfrey, for the Planters ; and for the Adventurers, Mr. Gouemor, Mr. Aldersey, Mr. Wright, Mr. Hutchins, and Capt. Venn." Should these not come to an agreement, " there was chosen for vmpires, Mr. White, the councellor, Mr. Whyte, of Dorchester, and Mr. Dauenport, to whom the desition and determinacon " were left. Any members of the Company were allowed to have access to the committee, " to pro- pound such things as they conceived benefitiall for the business, or to present their opinions in vn-yting, but not to debate with them for inter- rupting their proceedings." " And now the court proceeding to the * Adam Winthbop, of Groton, Co. of Suffolk, Eng., appears to be the first of the name, from whom this = Annis, distinguished family can be traced. He is known to have seated himself at Groton on the dissolution of I who m.2d, prob- monasteries by Henry VHE., and is said to liave been a lawyer of distinction. His burial is recorded ably, Wm. Mild- upon the parish Kegister of Groton, 12 Not., 1562. may, 1563. Adam, like his fother, was bred to the law. Little = Anne concerning him has been preserved. His burial ap- I Browne, pears upon the Register at Groton, 29th March, 1623. (probably,) 20 Feb. 1580. 1. Mary, da. of: John Forth, b. 1588,m. 12 Ap. 1605, buried 26 June, 1615. : JoHH, (gov. Ms.) b. 12 Jan.. 1588, came to N. E. 1630, d. In Boston, 26 March, 1649, aged 61. Thomas, son of Wm. Mild- may (the husband of her mother.) 2. Thomasine, da. =^3. Margaret, d.= 4. Martha, Jane, bp. 1592, m. Wm. Clopton, m. 6 Dec., 1615, d. Dec. 1616. Sir John Tin- dale, Kt., 29 April, 1618, d. 14 June, 1647. (Anne, da. Sir Thos. Egarton, m. 1. Sir Wm. Deane ; 2. Sir John Tindale, fa.of Margaret.) wid.ofTho. Coytmore of Charles- town, 1547. Thos. GosUn,1613. Lncy, b. 1601, m. Emanuel Down- ing, 10 Ap., 1622. Anna, m. Thos. Jones, 1605. = John, (gov. Ct.): b. 12 Feb., 1606, d. Boston, 5 Ap. 1676, a. 70. An early member of the Koyal Soc. of London. 2. Elizabeth. Henry, Forth, Mary, m. A child Adam, b. drowned, d. bef. Ev. Sam. Salem, 1643, a Dudley, 1630, a. wifed. ofExet'r, 22. 1630. N. H. Anna, d. 1614. Anna, d.l615. A. 1616. 7 April, 1620, d. Boston, 1652. \y : Elizabeth Stephen, := Judith Glover, bap. 1619; ab. 1642. recorder of Bost'n, M. P for Scotl'd, Coll. in Cromwell's army. Stephen, John, b. Margaret. b. 1651. 1646. Judith. ■ Elizabeth, Firz Jobs, (Qov.Ct.) b.24July, b. at Ipswich, 14 1636. March, 1639,F.B.S., and d. in Boston, 27 Not. 1707. John, F.B.S. = Anna, da. Wait Still, b. =; Mary, da. of Adam, H. C. = . 27 Feb. 1642, Ch.Jus. Sup. Ct. Ms. &c. d. in Boston, ab. 1688. Wm. Browne 1668, d. 1700. of Salem, d. 14 June, 1690. b. 26 Aug. 1681, N. Lon- don, d. lAug. 1747. Gov. Joseph Dudley, b.27 Aug. 1684. Anna, m. to Thomas Lechmere, surveyor of customs, Boston, bro. of Ld. Lechmere. Shed. 22 Not., 1746. 1. Jane, = John Still, b. 16 Jan. =2 da. Wm. Sheriff only da. Francis Borland, Boston. 1720,d. 6June, 1776. — \/ BasU, d. unmar. Adam, H. C, 1694, = Anne. d. 17^, commander | of Castle William ; lived in Atkinson St. | Adam, H. C, 1724, John, H.C. 1732, LL.D, merch., lived in Prof. H. C, F.R.S., d. Brattle St. 3 May, 1779, aged 65. X . Samuel, I I I William. Nathaniel. A da. m. to Deane, b. ^ Got. Wanton, 1623, d. at | 1627. ofR. I. Pul. Pt., , 1704. Deane, Anne, Joshua, Boston. 1630. (by 4th wife) „y. I L C.,1770. I.Eliza = Francis B. = Phebe Taylor. Thomas Lind all, = Elizabeth, Benjamin, Robert, Elizabeth John, WiUi^TN. Y. Marston. Joseph, Charles- ton, S. 0^.1828. Jane. ^ A/~ ~V^ ofNewTork. One of his wives d. at N. London, 1789. b. 1760, H.C. 1780 It. gOT. Ms. 1826- 1832. LL. D. d. 22 Feb. 1842, aged 81. Atm, mar. David i,,. V ..'^"^^mT' Sears, Esq, Of B., Elizabe^. T. fa. of the present Sarah B. da. Sr Jno. N, York, admiral S., Mid- Temple, by m. Stuy- Eng. dletown, Elizab. da. vesant. navy. Ct of Qov. Bow- doin, d.l825. Eon.I)AviD Sbabs. JIary. Thomas L. Augusta T. Augusta T. 2d. James B., a true antiquary, d. 1833, a. 38. John T. Ann. rancis William, rancis Wm. 2d. Jane. George Edwd. Robert Charlbs, Grenville T. now Hon. R. C, d. 1862. Speaker H. Keps. U.S. 1847-9, Sen- ator U. S. 1860-1. Frii^aved hy Pelton 1629.] CASE OF THE BROWNES. 73 eleccon of a new Gouernor, Deputie and Assistants ; and haYing re- ceived extraordinary great commendacons of Mr. John Wynthrop, both for his integritie and sufficencie, as being one every way well fitted and accomplished for the place of Grouernor, did put in nominacon for that place the said Mr. John Wynthrop,* Sr. R. Saltonstall, Mr. Is. Johnson, and Mr. John Humfry ; and the said Mr. Wynthrop was, with a gen'all vote and full consent of this Court by ereccon of hands, chosen to bee Gouernor for the ensuing yeare, to begin on this present day ; who was pleased to accept thereof, and thervpon tooke the oath to that place apprtaining. In like manner, and with like free and full consent, Mr. John Humfry was chosen Deputy Gouernor." „ At the meeting of the Court of Assistants, Mr. Wynthrop pre- sided as Governor. The chief business before them was to devise ways and means " for bringing in of monyes," with which to pay mari- ners' wages, freight of ships, " and other debts." Mr. Cradock informed the Court " what somes he had disbursed for accompt of the Company, and what more was owing for maryner's wages vpon the shipps Tal- bot, Mayflower, and Four Sisters, and for the fraight of those shipps, amounting to ^61200 and upwards." Power to grant warrants for the payment of money was conferred on the Governor and Deputy, as for- merly, and they thereupon drew one on treasurer Harwood in favor of Mr. Cradock for .£800, to be paid "soe soone as mony shaU come to his hands." At the same court a complaint, brought by Mr. John and Mr. Samuel Browne, was taken up, and "some debate was had" concerning it. These gentlemen had been forcibly sent out of New England, as has already been mentioned, and had sued for redress to the Company. This is another complaint. The authorities in New England had sold or appropriated their effects there, and they now complained that their goods had been undervalued, and that " divers things had been omitted to bee valued," and they desired relief and justice. The Court de- cided that if they could bring proof of what they complained, they should have relief ; otherwise the case to be suspended for settlement when the new Governor should arrive in New England, f * The Assistants at the same time chosen had never been attended to ; and now, judging were : from the journal entry of the Company, they Sir R. Saltonstall Mr. Thomas Sharpe had little to expect. They were told "that if Mr. Is. Johnson Mr. John Revell they would come under written obligation to Mr. Iho. Dudley Mr, Matt. Cradock abide the decision of the Company, Mr. Mr. J. Endeoott Mr. Thomas Golf iir • i,i. j ivj tti j. u A ■' i V Mr. [Increase] Noell Mr. [Saml.]Aldcrsey Wright and Mr. Eaton would, on the part of Mr. Wm. Vassall Mr. John Venn tn6 Company, inform them what they thought Mr. Wm. Pinchon Mr. Nath. "Wright requisite for their "pretended damage." Mr. Sam. Sharpe Mr. Theoph. Eaton Whether the Browns gave up the matter here, Mr. Edw. Rossiter Mr. Tho. Addams. or whether they ever received any remuuera- f At one of the last courts held by the tion, nothing of record appears. It must Company in England, 10 February, 1630, " a have been a pretty serious business for those wryting of grevauces of Mr. Samuell and gentlemen, in those times, to have been ex- John Browne was presented,'' asking remu- pelled the country almost immediately after neration for their damage and losses in New reaching it. An entire suspension of their England, by which it appears that if they business, their outlays for a plantation resi- ever had any claim, as specified, that claim dence.and twolongvoyages across the AtUntic. 10 74 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1629. The General Court met on this day, it being one of the quar- ter days appointed for holding courts by the charter. The general business of the Plantation, being the chief object ; "but by reason of the small appearance (few attending) and the shortness of tyme, nothing was done therin." " The Governor, however, made a relacon of the proceedings of the ioynt comittee concerning the setling of the Ioynt Stock ;" from which it appeared that there was a balance on the books against that stock of upwards of ^3000. Against that amount there was due in subscriptions ^61900 ; and on freight of ships about .£900 more. After some propositions about the management of the Joint Stock aifairs, the Court was adjourned to the thirtieth of the same month. " Lastly, vpon the mocon of Mr. Whyte, to the end that this business might bee proceeded in with the first intencon, which was chiefly the glory of God ; and to that purpose that their meetings might be sanctifyed by the prayers of some faithfuU ministers resident heere in London, whose advice would bee likewise requisite vpon many occa- sions, the Court thought fitt to admit into the freedome of this Com- pany, Mr. Jo. Archer, and Phillip Nye,* ministers heere in London, who, being heere present, kindly accepted therof ; also Mr. "Whyte did recomend vnto them Mr. NathanieU Ward, of Standon." Agreeable to adjournment, the General Court met at Mr. Goff's. For the relief of the Company from its present liabili- ties it was proposed that the Adventurers should double their former subscriptions ; but this was not agreed to. It was then proposed that ten persons should take the Joint Stock at its real value, and assume its responsibilities, for which they were to have these privileges, for seven years, namely, half the beaver trade, and aU other furs ; the sole making of salt ; the furnishing of a magazine at set rates ; and the sole transpor- tation of passengers and goods at certain rates. Five of the ten persons above-named were to be of the Adventurers, the other five planters. A committee was appointed to value the Stock, who were requested to report on the next day. This committee consisted of ]\Ir. Whyte of Dorchester, Mr. Thomas Goff", Mr. Webb, and Mr. Increase Nowell. Dee 1 '^^^ decision of the committee was, that, owing to the nature of the undertaking, there was a depreciation in the value of the Stock to the amount of two thirds of aU adventured ; "which value, vpon due examination and long debate, was allowed by all the court." And * There is a more Ml account of Mr. Nye lives? Considered and Affirmatively resolved." in Palmer's Calamy than in any of our books, Whether the Philip Nye of our text were the yet some who have used the larger part of his author of this tract (which is now before me), facts, give others credit for them. Though I cannot say. However this may be, for the Dr. Oalamy says he died in 1672, I had been sorrow of all good men, — antiquaries, —Dr. led to think he was alive in 1677, as in that Calamy informs us that Mr. Nye " left behind year, according to Dr. Increase Mather, "Mr. him a character of a man of uncommon depth, P. Ny ' published " A Case of Great and who was seldom or never outreaohed ;" and Present Use. Whether we may lawfully hear that " a compleat history of the old Puritan the now Conforming Ministers, who are re- Dissenters by him, in MS., was burnt at Al- ordained,and have renounced tlie Covenant, and derman Claikson's, in the fire of London;'' some of them supposed to he scandalous in their 1666, of course. 1629.] SHIPS ORDERED FOR EMIGRATION. 75 hereupon the following ten gentlemen were desired to take the Stock agreeably to the above proposal ; namely, Mr. John Winthrop, the gov- ernor, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Kt., Isack Johnson, Esq., Mr. Thomas Dudley, Mr. John Revell, Mr. Matt. Cradock, Mr. Nathaniel Wright, Mr. Theophilus Baton, Mr. Thomas Goflf, and Mr. James Young ; which gentlemen, upon much entreaty of the Court, accepted accordingly. These were usually denominated the Undertakers. At the same court it was ordered that the Undertakers should pro- vide a sufficient number of ships of good force, for transporting of passengers, at the rate of five pounds each, and four pounds a ton for goods. These ships were to be ready to sail from London by the first day of March, 1630. That the ships should touch at the Isle of Wight, and take in any passengers which might desire to embark there, having first registered their names at London, " with forty shillings towards their fraight, to one of the said Vndertakers abyding in London, in the Michaelmas tearme before ; and shall deliuer their goods on shipp- board before the twentieth of Februarie following ; and shall giue security for the rest of their fraight as they can agree with the said Vndertakers, either for mony to bee paid here, or for comoditie to bee deliured in the Plantacon." In the charge for passage, children at the breast were not to be reckoned ; those under four years of age, three were to be counted as one ; under eight, two for one ; under twelve, three for two. And that a ship of two hundred tons should be allowed to carry not more than one hundred and twenty passengers ; and in this proportion ships of other tonnage were restricted. Freight on goods sent "home" to be, for beaver, three pounds per ton, and for other commodities, forty shillings per ton. Goods "assured" to pay five pounds per hundred pounds' value. Concerning the " Magazine," it was agreed " that the Vndertakers should furnish the Plantacon with all such comodities as they shall send for ;" the planters to take and sell them as they pleased, allowing the Undertakers =625 in the hundred, above all charges ; the planters to have the liberty to dispose of their part of the beavers as they chose to do. Such were the proceedings preparatory to the settlement of Boston ; which, considering all the circumstances, it must be confessed were dictated by sound judgment, wisdom, and that care for the ultimate good of all concerned, which wiU ever command the gratitude and ad- miration of an enlightened posterity. And though there may be few, even in this day of light and knowledge, who care to look back to these times, that number must increase, through future ages, in proportion to the improvement of the human mind, and as true benevolence takes the place of a sordid selfishness. These transactions of an ancestry of a posterity spread over the fairest part of the world, lie hid in no mist of uncertainty ; their acts, plain and simple, written with their own hands, are everywhere to be read, and, it is to be hoped, will be for ages to come. 76 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1630. JOHN DAVENPORT. Some members of the Company not present at the last meet- ing of the coart, now appeared and complained that so great a redaction had been made in the property of the Joint Stock, and the matter received "a large discussion ;" but the present court would not reconsider the matter; only, according to a former provision, and a mutual consent, the consideration of the case was committed to Mr. Davenport,* Mr. Nye, and Mr. Ar- cher, three ministers there present. 1630. It was proposed, at this Feb. 10. meeting of the General Court, to create a common stock in the Com- pany, because of " a great and con- tinuall charge in the furtherance of the plantacon, which cannot with con- venyence bee defrayed out of the loynt Stock of the Company." This stock " should bee raysed from shuch as beare good afifeccon to the planta- con and the propagacon thereof," to be employed ' ' only in defrayment of publique charges ; as maintenance of ministers, transportacon of poore famy- lies, building of churches and fortyfycacons," and other occasions in the plantation. To those advancing fifty pounds in this new stock, two hundred acres of land were to be allotted, and so on, in that proportion. Of this new Company Mr. George Harwood was chosen treasurer. At the same court a motion was made on behalf of Sir William Brereton, who, it appears, had a claim to lands under some Patent, which lands were now covered by the Patent of the Massachusetts Company. His claim is spoken of in the records of the Company, as held " by vertue of a late pretended Pattent." He proposed to waive his claim, provided " a proportionable quantitie of land might be allot- ted vnto him for the accommodacon of his people and servants now to be sent over." But the Court, after due " consideracon," did not think proper to enter into any " prticuler capitulacon with him therein," and informed his messengers that the Company did not acknowledge that "anything was due vnto him as of right by vertue of his said Pat- tent," nor would they "give any consideracon in case hee" should relinquish it. Six hundred acres being due to him as one of the Ad- venturers, "they are well content hee should ioyne with them in the prosecucon of this business, according to their Charter ;" and any ser- vants he might send over to settle in the Plantacon should receive all * Of aU the early emigrants to New Eng- Conqueror. It is only necessary to refer to land, Mr. John Davenport, probably, could " A History and Genealogy" of the family, trace his lineage to the highest antiquity, — by A. Benedict Davenport, Esq. (of the twenty- seventeen generations, his own included, — fourth generation), published in New York'm to Orme de Davenport, born 20th William the 1851. 1630.] COMPANY AT SOUTHAMPTON. 77 courteous respect, and be accommodated with land, as other the servants of the Company. Captain Waller and Mr. Eaton were desired " to signifie the Companye's affection and due respect vnto him ; he hauing written to them about this business."* Ma 18 '^^^ Assistants held a court at Southampton, at which was present the Governor, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Dudley, Mr. Humfrey, Mr. Nowell, Mr. Pynchon, and Mr. Groffe. " It was ordered and concluded by erreccon of hands, that Sir Brian Jan- son, Kt., Mr. William Coddington and Mr. Simon Bradstreete, gent., shall be chosen in the roomes and places of Assistants of Mr. Wright, merchant, Mr. Theophilus Eaton, and Mr. Thomas Goffe, of London, merchants." y, 23 This was the last court held by the Company in England, and was " aboard the Arbella ;" at which Mr. Coddington, Mr. Tho. Sharpe, Mr. William Vassall, and Mr. Simon Bradstreete ap- peared, instead of Humfrey, Nowell, Pynchon and Goffe. Nothing appears to have been recorded of any transactions at this session, only it is noted that " Mr. John Humfrey (in regard hee was to stay behinde in England), was discharged of his Deputyshipp, and Mr. Thomas Dudley chosen Deputy in his place." * It is not unlikely that Sir Wm. Brereton Major Qenerai, of Cheshire, Staffordshire, intended to settle in New England ; indeed, it and Lankashire." is highly probable that such was the fact ; The relation of Sir William Brereton to the but his rights, or what he considered his rights, Massachusetts Company was no doubt the being disregarded, or not acknowledged by the same as Mr. Oldham's. There is in the Mass. Massachusetts Company, no doubt caused him Archives, Lands, i., p. 1, a document explain- to remain in England, the affairs of which ing the nature and extent of his claim. The soon gave him an opportunity to act a dis- reason why it was so unfavorably regarded tinguished part therein. There is a portrait may be found in the note, p. 58, ante. See of him to be seen in the celebrated work of Hutchinson, i. 6, 18. Frothingham's Hist. Mr. John Vickers, published in 1647 ; and Charlestowri, 13 and 14. He is said to have who, according to that trustworthy author, been one of the judges at the trial of the gained seventeen victories over the armies of King. It is true that he was appointed to be Charles I., one of which was commanded by of the number of the triers of Charles, but Prince Rupert himself. There is another por- his name does not appear upon the warrant trait oT him in the curious work of Josiah for the execution. My slight researches in Ricraft, published also in 1647, "-A Survey regard to him, furnish nothing beyond the of Englan, 2„ for sea, sails out of Plymouth Sound, ,-_-J^^^ p iAiiYWriy ^- • ijound for the Massachusetts Bay, in New "^^^^^^^^^s^ England. Of this ship " one Captain Squeb '?^^'^::f^^''^=^^^' "^- ^as master," and among his passengers were " the reverend Mr. Warham and Mr. Maverick, with many godly fami- lies and people under their care, from Devonshire, Dorsetshire and Somersetshire." In the same ship were also Mr. Rossiter and Mr. Ludlow, two assistants of the Massachusetts Company, and a young man in humble circumstances then, named Roger Clap, but who be- came in New England a gentleman of high consideration. " Riding at Cowes, near the Isle of Wight," it being Mon- day, there were now the " Arbella," of three hundred and fifty tons. Captain Peter Milbourne, master and part owner, with tweniy- eight guns and fifty-two seamen ; the Ambrose, Captain John Lowe, master ; the Jewell, Mr. Nicholas Hurlston, master ; the Talbot, Mr. Thomas Beecher, master. The two last-named ships belonged to Mr. Cradock, the captains of which, with their owner, came on board the Arbella, early in the morning. The wind serving, Mr. Cradock advised them to improve it. Accordingly they weigh their anchors, and at ten o'clock set sail, saluting their venerable late Governor with sev- eral pieces of ordnance, as he took his leave of them. Running up Solant Sea, they come to anchor again near Yarmouth, which lies over against Lymington, in Hampshire. Meanwhile there were lying at Hampton, not quite ready to sail, the Mayflower, the Whale, the William & Francis, the Trial, the Charles, the Success, and the HopeweU. In these eleven ships there were about seven hundred souls, besides the " people" of the ships, and this has been appropriately styled "the great emigration." They were long in getting clear of the English coast, the weather being unfavorable, as though it had compassion on the hundreds of unwilling minds, and kept them lingering near their 1630.J white's famous letter. 79 beloved friends and kindred ; as if sensible it was the only and last adieu tbey would ever pay to their native land. . ., „ As the ships lay windbound at Yarmouth, Captain Burleigh,* ■ of the Castle there, " a grave and comely gentleman, and of great age," paid those on board a friendly visit, breakfasted with them, and was honored with a salute, at his departure, from four pieces of cannon. He had commanded in the navy of Queen Elizabeth, against the Spaniards, and had been a prisoner three years in Spain. After that, himself and three of his sons were captains in Sir Thomas Eoe's famous voyage t to the empire of the Great Mogul. . .. „ WhUe lying in Yarmouth harbor, an important letter was addressed by some of the principal emigrants to their brethren of the Church of England ; a letter which has given occasion for some reflections upon their conduct, by those who desired to find such an occasion ; as though therein they professed to be of the Church of England, while, in fact, their real intentions were to separate from it entirely. There is no ground for controversy, as to the meaning of the letter, among historians. It is a simple, intelligent epistle, in many works extant, and every one can read it and form his own judgment upon the points at issue. There is a vein of holy melancholy running through it, plainly showing that they felt that they were about to enter upon a new theatre, that they desired to be remembered as members of the same great Christian family, acknowledging those to whom they were writing " as those whom Grod had placed nearest his throne of mercy." " Consider us," they say, " we beseech you, by the mercies of the Lord Jesus, as your brethren, and the principals and body of our Company, as those who esteem it our honor to call the Church of Eng- * So Winthrop has the name, or rather his meat note in his time ; a son of Robert Roe, transcribers ; but it should probably be Bmrley. Esq., of Low Layton, "Wanstead, Essex. He In Higginson's Journal it is Borley. There died in November, 1644. His widow, who sur- was a family of this name, both ancient and vived him, was the lady Eleanor, daughter of respectable, which had long been estabhshed Sir Thomas Cave, Bart., ot Stanford, County of in that island. But I can hardly suppose that Northampton. The facetious and learned Ful- the aged Capt. Burleigh, whom Winthrop saw, ler dedicated a portion of his " Church His- was the same who, eighteen years afterwards, tory " to her. The embassy of Sir Thomas endeavored to raise an insurrection there in continued from 1614 to 1618. From 1621 to favor of Charles I. when confined in Caris- 1628 he was an ambassador to the Ottoman brook Castle, and for which, by order of Par- Porte, during which time ho kept a journal of liament, he was executed. This Capt. Burley all transactions there. This laid in MS. till had been thrown out of office when the navy 1740, when it was published in part, with a changed masters, and his aittempt to rescue beautiful engraving of the ambassador, in the king was the result of chagrin which broke folio. He possessed great learning, and made out in rashness. He may have been one of extensive collections of oriental MSS. during those three sons who had been captains under his residence in the East, which, in 1628, he Sir Thomas Roe. — See Buller's Isle of Wight, presented to the Bodleian library. To show — Clarendon's Rebellion, — and Heath's Chron- his respect for Sir Thomas, Captain Lucas Fox, icle. who made a voyage of discovery to the north, f Winthrop, in his Journal, says merely, in 1631, named the main land in 64° 10', N. "Roe's voyage ;" and, from the events in the in Hudson's Bay "Sir Thomas Roe's Wel- life of Sir Thomas Roe, I have no doubt that come." — See Granger's Biographical Hist. his " famous voyage to the dominions of the Eng. — FuUer's Church Hist. Brit. — Brit. Great Mogul" is that to which Winthrop Cyclop. — Forster's Discov. in the North, p. refers. His name appears before in my pages. 363, ed. 4to. — Churchill's Collection of Yoy- See ante, p. 34. He was a gentleman of ages, vol. i. 696, &o. 80 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1630. and, from whence we rise, our dear mother ;* be pleased therefore, reverend fathers and brethren, to help forward this work now in hand." The names found to the printed letter are "John Wjnthrope, Charles Fines, f George Phillipps, Richard Saltonstall, Isaac Johnson, Thomas Dudley, WiUiam Coddington, &c. &c."J About six of the clock in the morning, the wind having ^ " hauled to the northward and eastward," the ships began to get under way, spreading their sails for the broad Atlantic Ocean. With the Admiral ship ahead, they passed Hurst castle, and running over Cowel and Totland bays, before ten the same morning they had cleared the " Needles;" but the wind shortening, they had to come to anchor in the English Channel. However, before ten at night, the wind, which had been light and variable, settled in to the north, so they weighed again and stood on through the night, and by daylight next morning they were abreast Portland. It was found that the rest of ^" ■ the ships could not hold way with the Admiral, which caused her to lie to for them to come up. Meantime, to lessen her speed, she clewed up her mainsail, and then they all " went on with a merry gale." Early in the morning of the same day, a man from the mast- * Was this separating from the Church of England in the light some have considered it? Certainly not. A later date must be assigned to the real separation which gradually and actually did take nlace. SAILUIQ FKOM THE ISLE Or TTIGHT. I" Tliat tins gentleman Delonged to a branch of the ancient Norman family of the name of De Fynes, De Finnes, &c., whose ancestors, from the time of the Conquest to the reign of John, were hereditary constables of Dover Castle, there may be no doubt ; but that he was a brolJier of a cotemporary Sir William " Fiennes," I find no proof whatever. The family of Finnes, besides its own titles to no- bility, became connected with that of Dudley, Lord North ; Lord Dacre ; Earl Bourchier, Lord Berners ; &o. It is presumed that though Charles Fines signed the famous "Humble Request," he may not have come to New Eng- land. There are, in the history of nearly every family, facts of great interest ; we meet with one in this of Finnes, for digressing to notice which, the author will probably be pardoned. Sir James Fienes perished in " Jack Cade's rebellion." William Crowmer, son of Sir William Crowmer, Lord JIayor of London, married the only daughter of Sir James Fienes (Viscount Say and Sele). The rebels beheaded both Sir James and his son-in-law ; ' ' whose heads, pitched upon high poles, were carried through the streets of London, whose bearers caused their truukless faces (in spite and mockery) to kiss one the other at every street corner, as they marched along in this their damnable triumph and hellish ovations ; which horrid act avus committed the 3d of July, 1450." — Weevers Fun. Monuments. Henry Fiennes, the grandson of this first Lord Say and Sele, married Anne, daughter of Sir Rich- ard Harcourt, of Stanton-Haroourt, Knt. Richard Fiennes, the nephew of Lord Say and Sele, married the daughter and heiress of Thomas, Lord Dacre. — Guillim's Banner Dis- played, 437. J The original edition of the famous letter was printed at London soon after the sailing of " the fleet," in a small 4to, of 12 pages. Those who had not seen the original edition, but had sighed to do so, believing that the two '' &C.S " at the end, in our old transcripts of it, would reveal other names, sighed in vain. They are &c.s and nothing else, in the editio princeps. It is entitled ' ' The Humble Request of his Majesties loyall Subjects," &c. It might well have been entitled their " Fare- well Address," as its tone throughout is truly the language of men bidding a final fareweU to the world. 1630.] INCIDENTS OF THE VOTAGB. 81 head descried eight sail of ships astern. This discovery threw all on board into consternation, believing the strangers to be enemies ; for they had been told at Yarmouth that ten sail of Dunkirkers were ly- ing in wait for their sailing, and Captain Lowe, of the Ambrose, said he saw suspicious-looking vessels lying at Dunnose the evening before.* However, orders were given to clear the ships for action, and, though they were " four to eight," they determined to fight. " The ordnance were loaded, powder-chests and fireworks were made ready, the land- men were quartered among the seamen, and every man written down for his quarter." "And, for an experiment. Captain Milborne shot a ball of wild-fire, fastened to an arrow, out of a cross-bow, which burnt in the water for a good time. The Lady Arbella and the other women and children were removed into the lower deck, that they might be out of danger." Prayer was then had on deck, after which " it was much to see how cheerful and comfortable all the company appeared ; not a woman or child that showed fear, though aU did apprehend the danger to have been very great." The supposed enemy, having more wind than the pursued, " came up apace." It was near one o'clock, however, before they had approached within a league, when Captain Mil- bourne, " because he would show he was not afraid of them, and that he might see the issue before night should overtake them, tacked about and stood to meet them ; and when they came near they perceived them to be" some of their own countrymen and friends. Though this great peril proved to be imaginary, its relation serves to set in a strong light the immense hazards to which those were exposed, as they were upon their embarcation for a naked wilderness. It would have been nothing out of the ordinary course of the events of that day, had their worst fears been realized. These poor Pilgrims might have overcome their adversaries after a bloody battle ; but their voyage would have been ruined ; or they might, like Captain Smith, but few years before, have been captured, carried into an enemy's port, plun- dered and cast into prison, and thus their intended settlement brought to an end. Being thus happily delivered from their fears, the colonists ^^^ ' proceeded on their voyage, having the wind at east-by-north, a "handsome gale with fair weather." By seven of the clock in the morning, they were "over against Plymouth," and about noon, the Lizard, that noted promontory of Cornwall, was in view. About eight the next morning, they passed the Isles of SciUy, which lie about nine leagues to the westward of the Land's End, it blowing " a very stiff gale " from the north-by- west, and, having laid their course west-south- west, they stood off into the main ocean, and were soon out sight of land. * There may be no error as to Dunnose ; treme east end of the Isle of Wight ; while but how Captain Lowe could have seen ships the Needles through which our fleet had sailed at that place, is quite surprising, because the are at the extreme west end, certainly above only Dunnose that I can hud i^ near the exr twenty miles from Dunnose- 82 mSTORT OF BOSTON. [1630. All thoughts were now turned on their present condition, whither they were going, the strange things they were to meet with in the New World, and what they would do when they should arrive there ; with occasional misgivings of many, as to the propriety of the hazardous step they had taken ; the probable long time that must pass before they could so much as hear from dear fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters. From these reflections, though often awakened by the sudden plunging, heaving, and rolling of the ship, the roaring of the winds, and break- ing of the billows around them, it was only to return to them again with a willing sadness, as their little bark righted and seemed to leap with more steadiness from sea to sea. The voyage thus proceeded without anything uncommon or extraor- dinary, and soon became monotonous, till even an accident might have been welcome, if of sufficient importance to break in upon the irksome hours. Very few of these happened, or, if they happened, they were not recorded. There are, indeed, notes of " two men falling at odds, and fighting, contrary to orders," and how they were punished withal; and how one, "for using contemptuous speeches" before the high officers and gentlemen, " was laid in bolts till he submitted himself, and promised open confession ;" though whether he did anything more than promise, is not recorded.* Notwithstanding such events, — the " seamen sometimes playing wags with children," a great storm which split some of their sails to pieces, and the separation of the ships, — " the wind put them on to the west amain," where, in their approach to the summit of the Atlantic Ocean, it may be weU to leave them, for the present, to take a view of the Company which sailed before them. „ 20 ^^® ^^^P ^^^y ^.iid John, as has been before recorded, sailed from Plymouth for New England, on the twentieth of March. She seems to have had a very prosperous voyage, passing " through the deeps comfortably." The " captain of that great ship of four hundred tons " was named Squeb, who arrived at Nantasket on the ^^ ■ thirtieth of the following May, and " here he turned his passen- gers and their goods ashore the next day, leaving them to shift for themselves in a forlorn place in this wilderness." f But there were * " A servant of one of our company had taken with allowance, for reasons already bargained with a child to sell him a box, worth stated. [See ante, p. 22.] At the time of 3d., for three biscuits a day, all the voyage, their arrival, I have no doubt the Captain sup- and had received about forty, and had sold posed himself at the entrance of Charles them and many more to some other servants. River, and that by bringing them there he We caused his hands to be tied up to a bar, had performed his voyage. It appears that he and hanged a basket of stones about his neck, was urged to carry them up further into the and so he stood two hours." — Winthrop, river, and that he declined to do so, and a dif- Joumal, i. 18. This extract is made as a ficulty arose thereupon, which was not settled specimen of punishments practised in those till the 17th of June, after the arrival of days. Winthrop, who, in his Journal, says, " as he t Captain Koger Clap wrote this, many and othej^s of his Company were returning years after these events, but he recorded what from jSIr. Maverick's [on Noddle's IslandJ, he knew and what he saw, for he was one of they came by [way] of Nataskott, and sent the efficient men of the Company. But his for Captain Sqmb ashore, and ended a difier- pensures of Captain- Squeb's conduct are to be ence between him and the passengers." Am- [1630. DOECHESTER PEOPLE ARRIVE. 83 " some old planters " there and in the neighborhood, who, kindly assist- ing them with a boat, they loaded it with goods, and some able men, well armed, went in her to Charlestown, where they found some wig- wams and one house.* They did not make much stay here, but proceeded up Charles Eiver until it grew narrow and shallow, and there they landed their goods with much labor and toil, the bank being steep, and they not above ten in number. At the approach of night, they were informed that there were not far off, three hundred Indians, which caused the English to apprehend trouble ; but an old planter, who had kindly accompanied them, went out and met the Indians, and, being acquainted with their language, made them understand that the English did not wish them to come to them in the night, and they readily consented to keep away. Sentinels were set for the night, of which Roger Clap was one, and here Englishmen slept for the first time on the banks of Charles River. Of this little company was Mr. Richard Southcot, ' ' a brave Low Coun- try soldier," who did not continue long in the country, but in about a year returned to Bngland.f , , The next Jane 1. morning a few of the Indians =_ ^i= came and looked at the strangers "at a distance off," but after while they came and held out a great bass towards them. One of the English took a bis- cuit, and approach- ing^ the Indians, offered it for the bass, which they accepted. With this a friendly intercourse commenced, and the Com- pany got a supply of bass at the same easy rate for some time after. The place where the landing was effected, and where the interview with the Indians took place, is believed to be at or very near the point, icably, we may suppose ; because, when the Governor and his company left him., the Cap- tain gave them a salute of five guns. This seems hardly to countenance what Trumbull, in his Connecticut, i. 23, says, namely, that the said Captain " was afterwards obliged to pay damages for his conduct ;" but Trumbull may have had good authority for his state- ment. The impossibility of a ship of 400 tons, deeply laden, going up Charles Eiver, must have been well known to Captain Clap when he wrote his Memoirs. * That of Mr. Walford, before mentioned, no doubt, " situate on the south end of the westernmost hill of the East Field, a little way up from Charles River side." — Charlestown Records. See Frothingham, 14. " And in the house there was a man, which had a boiled bass, but no bread that we see ; but we did eat of his bass, and then went up Charles River," &o. — Clap's Mems. f He had liberty from the Court, in July, 1631, " to go for England, promising to return with all convenient speed." — Prince, 358. 84 HISTORY Of BOSTON. [1630. in what was soon after Watertown, on which the United States Arsenal now stands. Here, while some were preparing shelters for their goods, others proceeded to select the most suitable place for their future abode. It was soon discovered that a noted Indian resort, called Matapan, offered good grazing for their cattle, and other advantages for settle- ment, which they considered superior to those where they now were, and they accordingly removed to Matapan, since called Dorchester Neck, and afterwards South Boston. The name Dorchester was given to their residence, in memory of the "famous town" of the same name in Dorsetshire, whence many of the first settlers came.* They gave the same name to the place where they first encamped upon Charles Kiver, and a place thereabouts is known as " Dorchester Fields " to this day.f Meanwhile, the " Arbella" and her two consorts — the Ambrose and the Jewel — are ploughing the wide Atlantic Ocean, sometimes in company, and sometimes apart ; separated by the violence of storms, the darkness of high northern nights, and the dense fogs swept by the broom of heaven from innumerable fields of ice over the polar seas. For several days together they could make no headway within many points of their true course; and sometimes they could only "lie at hull," with just sail enough to steady the ships, and keep them from foundering in the " trough of the seas." After having been above three weeks at sea, they found ^ ^^ ■ themselves but about one third of their voyage onward, and, by contrary winds and currents, were driven to the forty-sixth degree of northern latitude ; but, notwithstanding cold, stormy weather continued, and often accompanied by sleet and snow, the three ships were all in company on the sixth of May ; and, on the previous night, it having come fair, and the wind "large," they were able to lay their course west by south, " with a merry gale in all their saUs;" so that they soon ran down to the parallel of forty-four degrees north ; but, so unfa- vorable was the weather for many days following, that they changed their latitude scarcely half a degree, though their course was nearly south. June 6 "^^ length, at two o'clock in the afternoon of June the sixth, and in forty-three degrees and a quarter north, soundings were had, " and, the mist then breaking up," land was descried on the star- board bow, about five or six leagues off, which was supposed to be Cape Sable. The wind soon after hauled south-easterly, and the ships bore * I have given, in the N. Eng. Hist. Gen. Watertown], " several yeats ago, with Maj. Begr., vol. lii., p. 389, &o., a somewhat ex- Winship, a respectable inhabitant then living tended account of the early beginnings of " Old near by it, he pointed to a pasture, and told Dorchester," the origin of its name, its early me it was called "Dorchester Fields." — See inhabitants, &c., to which the reader is re- American Annals, i. 203. — Both the excellent ferred. I would also refer to Blake's Annals annalist and his informant sleep with those of Dorchester, and the Hist, of Dorchester now of whom they spoke and wrote. Dr. JHolmes in course of publication, by Mb. David Clapp. died at Cambridge, 4 June, 1837 ; Mr. "Winship f " In walking over the grounds at the a few years later, place of landing," says Dr. Holmes [m 1630.] VOYAGE OF WINTHKOP. 85 away west by north, intending to make the well-known point in ™^ " York called Agamenticus. The next day, being becalmed, they had splendid fishing, on thirty fathom ground, "taking, in less than two hours, sixty-seven codfish, most of them very great, some a yard and a half long, and a yard in compass." This supply was very sea- sonable, their salt-fish being spent, and their other provisions were run- ning short. Thus, with the usual attendants on the coast of New England, — head winds, storms and calms, — the ships were one day able to keep near their course, and the next only to lie off and on, without making any headway at all. Stretching cautiously towards the coast, on "" ■ the eighth of June they saw Mount Desert, then generally called Mount Hansel, after Sir Robert Mansel;* and they were able to run all the next day with the welcome coast in sight of the sea-worn passen- gers.! On the tenth they made other land, which appeared to them at a great distance off. This was, not unlikely, the since well-known White Hills. Boone Island, the Isles of Shoals (where a ship was riding at anchor), and the Three Turks' Heads, were all recog- nized before the close of this day. All the next day they were obliged to beat against a head wind, in sight of Cape Ann and the Isles of Shoals, and "five or six shallops under sail, up and down." About four in the morning, it being Saturday, being near their port, they shot off two pieces of ordnance, and, soon after, sent a boat on board a ship J which lay at anchor in the harbor, which they knew belonged to Captain WiUiam Peirce.§ That ship had arrived some time before. "About an hour after," says Winthrop, "Mr. *A distinguished gentleman, one of the French of it, and its name was changed to patentees of 1620, whose name will be found Mount Mansell. This proceeding of Argall in a previous page (34) of this work. The was an outrage upon the IVenoh, for which no name is often written Maunsell, and is traced attempt at justification will avail anything in to remote ages in England. John Maunsell unprejudiced minds. was named one of the chaplains in the will of f " We had now fair sunshine weather, and Henry ni., 1253 ; but to whose dishonor noth- so pleasant a sweet air as did much refresh ing need be said beyond the fact of his being us, and there came a smell off the shore, like in the interest of that rapacious monarch, the smell of a garden." — Winthrop, Jowr., i. The worthy Knight, the subject of this note, I 23. — The same day, June 8th, " there came a take to be a younger son of Sir Edward Man- wild pigeon into our ship, and another small sel, knighted in 1572, Chamberlain of Chester, bird." — Ibid. — "Noah could hardly have " and a man of great honor, integrity and been more gratified to behold his dove, with courage." He was knighted by the Earl of the olive-leaf in its mouth." — Snow. Essex, for his valor in the taking of Cales, { The Lyon. She belonged to Bristol. — 1596 ; and, having signalized himself in sev- Dudley to the Countess of Lincoln. — She sailed eral other encounters, was made Vice-Admiral from that port in February, and arrived at of the fleet by James I., in which station he Salem in May ; but the day of the month has was continued by Charles I., and lived to a not been ascertained. Mr. Hubbard says she very old age, much esteemed for his " great " was some days arrived there before " Win- integrity, personal courage, and experience in throp. — Hist. N. England, 130. maritime affairs." — Kimber & Johnson's -Bar- § Captain Peiroe had been often on this onetage, i. 236. — The island was named coast, and had many times crossed the Atlan- Mount Desert by Ohamplain in 1608. It is tic. He belonged to London, and Captain about twelve miles broad, and fifteen in length, Michael Peirce, of Scituate, was his brother. and is about three hundred and thirty-five I shall have occasion to say more of him. — See miles from Boston. In 1613, Sir Samuel Ar- News from N. England, a rare tract of 1676, gall went from Vir^ia, and dispossessed the re-published by me. 4to, 1850. 86 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1630.' Allerton came aboard us in a shallop, as he was sailing to Pemaquid. As we stood towards the harbor, we saw another shallop coming to us ; so we stood in to meet her, and passed through the narrow strait between Baker's Isle and Little Isle, and came to an anchor a little within the islands. After, Mr. Peirce came aboatrd us, and returned to fetch Mr. Endecott,* who came to us about two of the clock, and with him Mr. Skelton and Captain Levett. We that were of the Assistants, and some other gentlemen, and some of the women, and our captain, returned with them to Nahumkeak, where we supped with a good veni- son pasty and good beer, and at night we returned to our ship, but some of the women stayed behind, f In the mean time, most of our people went on shore upon the land of Cape Ann, which lay very near us, and gathered store of fine strawberries ;" J " with which, in those times, the woods were everywhere well furnished, and it is like, as merry as the gentlefolks at their venison pasty and strong beer."§ The "ArbeUa" was immediately visited by Indians. Mas- conomo, "the sagamore of that side of the country towards Cape Anne," with one of his men, came on board in the morning, and bid the English welcome, and stayed all day, and another Indian had slept on board the previous night. In the afternoon of the same day, the Jewel, Captain Low, came in sight, and was soon after moored in the harbor. The Ambrose, Captain Hurlstone, arrived five days later, and the Talbot, Captain Beecher, did not get in until the second of July. J , . Two ships only had arrived at Salem, but on this day the passengers made a kind of formal landing, upon which occasion a salute of five pieces was given. June 17 ■^^^ Governor and others of the principal men of the Company set out, on the since memorable seventeenth of June, to explore * I take pleasure in transferring to this descendant ; and one pear-tree planted by the page Mr. Savage's note upon Endicott, as it is governour on it is said still to repay his care." one of the best written notes in his edition of This was in 1824. In 1848 I received a num- Governor Winthrop's Journal. The italicized ber of fine pears from the same tree. — See N. words have been so italicized in this use of E. H. Gen. Regr., ii. 402. Since 1757, the the note, for reasons which will be apparent pear-tree has been included in Danvers. — See to the reader of my previous pages. The Edi- JFelt's Annals of Salem, i. 180 ; Hanson's Hist. tor of Winthrop says: "This distinguished Danvers, 26. father of Massachusetts had, two years before, f " Who, like Noah's dove, finding sure been sent to found the plantation, which was footing on the firm land, returned no more to efiected by the settlement of Salem, the oldest their ark, floating on the unstable waves." — town in the colony. He had a commission from RuhhaxA, Hist. New England, liO. the company to act as governour, which was, of J I am sorry not to be able to give these course, superseded by the arrival of Winthrop extracts from Winthrop's Journal as Winthrop with the charier. With the history of his wrote them ; having only a modernized copy adopted country that of Endecott is inter- of them must be my excuse. The quaint old 7^17,?° TT *^® ^f% °^ '"^ ^®'^*^' '^^ March, orthography of that day, so refresWng to the lbb5. He served four years as deputy gov- genuine antiquary, would have rendered that ernour and sixteen as governour ; being at the work incalculably more valuable ; but, as most head of administration a longer time than any of Winthrop 's original work has been destroyed other under the old patent ; exceeded under by fire, any hopes of a restoration are beyond the new charter by Shirley alone, and that the effects of lamentations, even with the pros- only by one year. The farm which he culti- pect of a new edition in view, rated remains in possession of an honorable § Hubbard, Hist New Eng 130 1630.] OTHER SHIPS ARRIVE. 87 the bottom of the bay, which might very properly then have been denominated the Disputed Territory. They were in pursuit of a suita- ble place for settlement ; and, before returning, they went several miles up Mistick River, stayed one night at the hospitable dwelling of Mr. Samuel Maverick, probably paid a visit to Mr. Walford,* and per- haps to Mr. Blacksfcone, on Shawmut, and returned to Salem by-way J of Nantasket, after an absence of about three days. A difficulty had arisen between Captain Squeb and the passengers who came over with him, as has before been noticed. Squeb was still at Nantas- ket ; and Mr. Winthrop's business there at this time was no doubt owing to that unpleasant affair. He sent for the Captain to come to him on shore, which request being at once complied with, the difficulty seems to have been adjusted without delay. Captain Squeb had been charged with not performing his voyage ; and some called him " a mer- ciless man," for " turning his passengers on shore at Nantasket, in a forlorn place," when he was to land them in Charles River. Mr. Win- throp and his council, having made themselves personally acquainted with the bay, and seeing the difficulty of getting into Charles River with a ship of four hundred tons, very probably saw no cause to censure Captain Squeb, and thus the difficulty was amicably ended ; and when they left him, he saluted them with five guns. J J " The Mayflower and Whale arrived safe in the harbor of Charlestown ; the passengers being aU in health, but most of their cattle dead. If Jacob himself had been there, he could not have, with all his skill and care, prevented the over-driving of cattle, shut up in the narrow room of those wooden walls, where the fierceness of the wind and waves would often fling or throw them on heaps, to the mis- chiefing and destroying one another."! J , 2 I^ ^^ Talbot, which arrived this day, there had been great distress, owing to the passengers having been ' ' sore visited with the small pox in her passage, whereof fourteen died in the way." In * The reader will have met with this name sev- regretted the severity exercised towards him, eral times before in this history. Thomas Wal- while for others, very similarly dealt with, rOKD was the first known English inhabitant of they withhold their sympathy altogether ; Charlestown, then called by its Indian name, thus showing that historians have their favor- Mishawmn ; concerning whom, in the Charles- ites among the dead as well as among the liv- town records, it is said that those who settled ing. in the same place in 1629 " found him living Mr. Walford removed to New Hampshire, in an English house, palisadoed and thatched, and became an inhabitant of Portsmouth, situate on the south end of the westernmost From certain court papers at Exeter, it is hill of the East Field, a little way up from ascertained that he had the following children : Charles Eiver side." Mr. Prothingham says Mary, wife of William Brookin, and that she he has not been able to locate the residence of was bom 1635 ; Martha, wife of West- Mr. Walford beyond a doubt, but that it was brook ; Elizabeth, wife of Savage ; Jer- probably on Breed's Hill, a short distance emiah, wife Mary,j)erhaps daughter of Alex- from the water. — Hist. Charlestown, 14, 23, ander and Ann Bachelder, of Portsmouth; 24. — Two years after, he was driven away by Hannah (probably the oldest), as she married the authorities of Massachusetts, probably for Pease, before 1648. Will proved 25 his heretical opinions, or, perhaps, more prop- June, 1667 ; wife Jane, who survived him, erly to speak, for his minority opinions. The and was sat. 69 in 1667. — MS. of Mr. A. W. act by which he was banished will be noticed Brown, in its chronological order. Some writers have f Hubbard, Hist. N. Eng., 131. 88 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1630. one of the late ships " came Mr. Henry Winthrop, the Governor's second son, accidentally left behind at the Isle of Wight, or Hampton, whither he went to provide further supply of provisions for the gentle- men in the Admiral. A sprightly and hopeful young gentleman he was, who, though he escaped the danger of the main sea, yet was unhappily drowned in a small creek, not long after he came ashore, even the very next day, July second, after his landing, to the no small grief of his friends and the rest of the company."* By the sixth of July there had arrived eleven ships of those ^^^ ^' employed to bring over the colonists to Massachusetts Bay, ex- clusive of the Mary and John, which brought the Dorchester people, already mentioned. " So as now," says Mr. Hubbard, " all the ^ whole fleet being safely come to their port, they kept a pubhc day of thanksgiving, through all the plantations,! to give thanks to Almighty God for all his goodness and wonderful works, which they had seen in their voyage." Thomas Dudley, now deputy governor, afterwards governor, came over with Winthrop, and like him wrote an account of their settling in the country. His account is of great interest ; but as he did not write at the precise time in Which events occurred, he has committed several mistakes ; yet these are not of much account. He says " seuenteen shipps arriued J all safe in New England, for the increase of the plan- * Hubbard, Hist. N. Eng., 131. f Here is evidence of many settlements exist- ing in the country when Winthrop arrived. This is on the authority of Mr. Hubbard, who wrote fifty years after the settlement of Bos- ton. If other evidence be necessary, that of Governor Dudley will not be questioned by anybody, for he recorded the same year (1630) the events which I am now detailing. Dud- ley, speaking of the settlements on the south side of the bay, as Plymouth, Weymouth, and Mount Wallaston, says, " Also diverse merchants of Bristow, and some other places, have yearly, for this eight years or there- abouts, sent shipps hether at the fishing times, to trade for beaver, where their factors dis- honestly for their gaines, have furnished the Indians with guns, swords, powder and shott." — Letter to the Countess of Lincoln, in Force's Tracts, ii. J Chiefly from Mr. Prince I give the following list of the seventeen ships ; whence they sailed, time of sailing, masters' names, where and when they arrived. Ships' names. From Bristol Plymouth Isle of Wight Isle of Wight Isle of Wight Isle of Wight Southampton Southampton Southamptx)n Southampton Southampton Southampton Southampton A French ship Not known London Sent out by a private merchant The only authority for several of the above facts is contained in Dudley's Letter to the Countess of Lincoln. — See Prince's N. Eng. Chron., 329. Among the ships which sailed the preceding ysar for New England were the George Boua- 1 Lyon 2 Mary and John 3 Arbella 4 Jewell 5 Ambrose 6 Talbot 7 Mayflower 8 Whale 9 Hopewell 10 Wm. and ]?ranois 11 Tryal 12 Charles 13 Success 14 Gift 15 Not named 16 Handmaid 17 Not named 1630. Masters. 1630. Arrived at February Wm. Pierce May Salem 20 March Squeb 30 May Nantasket 8 April Peter Milbome 12 June Salem 8 April John Lowe 13 June Salem 8 April Nicholas Hurlstone 18 June Salem 8 April Thomas Beecher 2 July Salem May Not known IJuly Charlestown May 1 July Charlestown ^^y 3 July Salem May 3 July Salem JJ^y 5 July Charlestown ^^y 5 July Salem May 6 July Salem EndotMaj Brook 2 August Charlestown June Not known Unknown Unknown 6 August John Grant 29 October Plymouth venture, Thomas Cox, master ; the Talbot, Thomas Beecher, master ; the Lyon's Whelp, John Gibbs, master. — See Company's Second Lett, of Instructs, to Endicott. — Archeol. Amer., dQ. 1630.] HARDSHIPS OF THE SETTLERS. 89 tacon here theis "yeare, 1630, but made a long, a troublesome, and costly voy'ge, being all wind-bound long in England, and hindred with contrary winds after they set saile, and so scattered with mists and tem- pests, that few of them arriued togeather. Our four shipps which sett out in Aprill arriued here in June and July, where wee found the colony in a sadd and unexpected condition, aboue eighty of them being dead the winter before, and many of those aliue weake and sicke ; all the come and bread amongst them all hardly sufficient to feed them a fort- night ; insoemuch that the remainder of one hundred and eighty servants wee had the two years before sent ouer, comeing to vs for victualls to sustaine them, wee found ourselves wholly unable to feed them by reason that the p'visions shipped for them were taken out of the shipp they were put in, and they who were trusted to shipp them in another failed us, and left them behind ; whereupon necessity enforced us, to our extreme loss, to give them all libertie, who had cost about sixteen or twentie pounds a person, furnishing and sending ouer. " But bearing theis things as wee might, wee beganne to consult of the place of our sitting downe ; ffor Salem, where wee landed, pleased vs not. And to that purpose some were sent to the Bay, to search vpp the rivers for a convenient place, who, vppon their returne, reported to haue found a good place vppon Mistick. But some other of us second- ing theis to approoue or dislike of their judgement, wee found a place liked [of] vs better, three leagues vp Charles River. And therevppon vnshipped our goods into other vessels, and, with much cost and labour, brought them in July to Charles Towne. Bat there receiving advertise- ments by some of the late arriued shipps from London and Amsterdam of some French preparations against us (many of our people brought with vs beeing sick of IFeavers and the scurvy, and wee thereby vnable to carry vp our ordinance and baggage soe farr), wee were forced to change counsaile and for our present shelter to plant dispersedly ; some at Charles Towne, which standeth on the north side 'of the mouth of Charles Riuer , some on the south side thereof, which place we named Boston (as wee intended to haue done the place wee first resolued on) ; some of vs vppon Mistick, which we named Meadford ; some of vs westward on Charles Eiver, four miles from Charles Towne, which place wee named Watertoune ; others of vs two miles from Boston, in a place wee named Roclisbury ; others vppon the riuer of Sawgus, betweene Salem and Charles Towne ; and the western men four miles south from Boston, at a place wee named Dorchester. " This dispersion troubled some of vs, but help iit wee could not, wanting ability to remoue to any place fit to build a Toune vppon, and the time too short to deliberate any longer least the winter shpuld sur- prise vs before wee had buUded our houses. The best counsel wee could find out was to build a fort to retire to, in some conuenient place, if any enemy pressed therevnto, after wee should haue fortifyed ourselues against the iniuries of wett and cold. So, ceasing to consult further for that time, they who had health to labour fell to building, wherein 12 90 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1630. many were interrupted with sicknes, and many dyed weekley, yea, almost dayley. Amongst whom were Mrs. Pinchon, [lady of the Hon- orable WiUiam Pinchon],* Mrs. Coddington [lady of the Honorable William Coddington], Mrs. Phillips [wife of Mr. George PhiUips, first minister of Watertown], Mrs. Alcock, sister of Mr. Hookers [wife of Deacon John Alcock]. Insomuch that the shippes beeing now vppon their returne, some for England, some for Ireland, there was,. I take it, not much less than an hundred (some think many more), partly out of dislike of our government, which restrained and punished their excesses, and partly through feare of famine, (not seeing other means than by their labour to feed themselves), which returned back [to England] again. And glad were wee so to bee ridd of them. Others, also, afterwards hearing of men of their owne disposition, which were planted at Piscataway, went from vs to them, whereby, though our numbers were lessened, yet wee accounted ourselues nothing weakened by their remouall. " Before the departure of the shipps, we contracted with Mr. Peirce, master of the Lyon, of Bristow, to returne to vs with all speed, with fresh supplies of victuaUs, and gaue him directions accordingly. With this shipp returned Mr. Revil, one of the fiue vndertakers here for the joint stock of the Company ; and Mr. VassaU, one of the Assistants, and his family ; and also Mr. Bright, a minister sent hether the yeare before, f * Though the name of this important and dated 15 July, 1636. His son, the Hon. John worthy gentleman is Tery often found written Pynchon, became an eminent man in New Pinchon, his own signature in my possession England. In 1675 he owned the ship John^s is Pynchon, as the fac-simile here inserted Adventure, which sailed out of Boston, and of shows. which Captain John Walley was master. — See _ ^ Old Indian Chronicle, 34. ^ ' 'L'^t iC^ Ct,*pt /^ 'yM^>t©»-f t H'^'^t)^^*^' i"! 1^'^ characteristic manner, ^- / thus remarks upon the return of Mr. Bright, mi,. • ■ jr • • 1 J- ii whom he denominates a " eodly minister " : — -, I I'fi'^nT T "^^.o^gi^al paper of the .. g^ ^ ^ ^ew stonef in the mountains date 1650. farmer has given a pedigree of his therewith to build ; but when he saw all sorts wri^p^f+lf f;^ f^«°%- ^'S- He of stones would not suit in the buUding, as he was one oi the lathers oi Koxburv, and after- ji i i-it i-aj r ii. wards of Springeeld.-See wdmst. Rooo- ^-^PPO^ed, he not unlike Jonah fled from the A,™,, „r,;i fti;„=> V t T\ 7 i i 7 J presence of the Lord, and went down to Tar- Hp^wnTt^hLw iff;, • fr^^f''^- i^h."-Hist. New England, 113. This, He was very hianly respected m the colonv, i, • i • j. and is unifdi-mly ientioned in the Springfield ^r^J^' I' ^^ ^^ ™FOvement upon a pas- records, as the "Worshipful Mr. WiSiam sage of Johnson.- See Wonrfer-W-tn^ Prof., Pynchon," &c. In these pages his name often ?' "*^V ^'^^^'""^ Johnson maybe regarded as occurs, and always in honorable connection, ^contemporary^ historian, being one of those His family was one of distinction in England. J^" "^^v, Z^^ l^ ^.?^' '""^ ""^^ ** f The father of Henry Chichele, Archbishop of *°'^ T^^ Winthrop the s^e year, and was Canterbury, married Agnes, daughter of Wil- T i, "^ ^f^^}^^ "l ^y,"''"''"' T.''"''j liam Pynihon, Gent. *The father, Thomas *uTf , represented in the General Court Chichele, of Higham Ferrers, in Northampton- fZ ^^^f *y-eiS'^t jeaxs from 1643. He used shire, died 25 February, 1400. -See Wood's *°* v,nyiia.i^io. ^.^^ ,,^-j±^ yet no table, nor other room to write in than by the consists m its extent of about 150 dwelhng fireside, upon my knee, in this sharp winter; to houses." — Wonder-working Prov., 40, 41. which my family must have leave to resorte, though f ' ' But to goe on with the story, the 12 of they break good manners, and make mee many tunes July or thereabout, 1630, these souldiers of forget what I would say, and say what I would not." Christ first set foote one this western end of There was published, in 1848, a volume the world; where arriveing in safety, both containing a Genealogy of the Dudley Family, men, women and children. On the north side by Mr. Dean Dudley. of Charles River they landed," &c. — Johnson, * "This towne of Charles," says Johnson, Wond.-work. Prov., 37. Prince, Chronology, about 1650, "is situated one the north side 240, oH ef^tiion, seems a little in doubt whether of Charles River, from whence it tooke its Johnson meant this date for the time of the name ; the river being about five or six fathom removal to Charlestovm, or the arrival at deepe. Over against the town, many small Salem just a mouth before. I am clearly of islands lieing to the seaward of it, and hUls the opinion that he means just what he says, one either side. By which meanes it proves and for several reasons, not necessary to be a very good harbor for ships, which hath stated. caused many seamen and merchants to sit J rrothingham, from Charlestown Town Sec- down there. The forme of this towne in the ords. 1630.] GKEAT DISTRESS FIRST CHURCH FORMED. 93 take care of the sick as their cases required ; and thus many ' ' perished and died," and were buried about the Town Hill. * Fewer dismal and darker days did the first settlers of Boston witness than those which they passed at Charlestown, and which soon deter- mined them to remove to this since famous peninsula. "In almost every family, lamentation, mourning and woe were heard, and no fresh food to be had, to cherish them. It would assuredly have moved the most lockt up affections to tears, had they past from one hut to another, and beheld the piteous case these people were in ; and that which added to their present distresse was the want of fresh water. For, although the place did afford plenty, yet for present they could finde but one spring, and that not to be come at, but when the tide was down."| This want of water, as wiU presently be seen, was a principal cause of a removal to Shawmut. In consequence of the great sickness and mortality at their ^ ■ new place of abode, a fast had been recommended by Mr. Win- throp to be kept there on the thirtieth of July ; and Mr. Isaac Johnson came up from Salem to join in the solemnity. The same day a church was formed, a covenant J entered into ; and this was the foundation of the First Church of Boston. The first members were, Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Dudley, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Wilson, afterwards their minister. § Two days after, five others joined the same church, namely : August 1. ^^ No^eU, Mr. Thomas Sharp, Mr. Bradstreet, Mr. WiUiam Gager, and Mr. "William Colborn, " who, with others, quickly added, chose Mr. Wilson for their pastor." The settlement of Charlestown was now progressing, and Mr. Winthrop was diligently preparing timber for a house for himself and family. Meanwhile, it was resolved to have an election of officers at "^" ' the new settlement of Charlestown, notwithstanding Mr. Win- * Prothingham, from Charlestown Town Rec- § The biographical dictionaries of Eliot and ords. Allen are sufficiently full on this eminent man, ■f Johnson, Wonder-working Providence, 38. and Farmer has some account of his pedigree. 39. His father, William Wilson, D. D.,was pre- J The first Church Covenant of Charlestown bend of Eochester, and his mother was niece and Boston may very properly be looked for in to Edmund Grindal, the famous Archbishop this history. It therefore follows. I have of Canterbury. He was born at Windsor, taken it as it stands in Mr. Foxcroft's Century County of Berks, in the year of the Spanish Ar- Sermon, preached to the First Church " Aug. mada, 1588. He married Elizabeth, daughter 23, 1730. Being the last Sabbath of the first of Sir John Mansfield. John Mansfield, who Century since its settlement." settled in Charlestown, was her brother, and " We whose names are here under vrritten, Ann, wife of Capt. Robert Keayne, of Boston, being by his most wise and good Providence was her sister. Mr. Wilson died in Boston, brought together into this part of America, in 7 August, 1667. The Eev. John Wilson, of the Bay of Massachusetts, and desirous to Medfield, was his son ; he died 23 August, unite ourselves into one Congregation or Church 1691, set. 70. — See N. E. Hist, and Gen. under the Lord Jesus Christ our Head, in such Reg., vi. 156. sort as becometh all those whom he hath re- The following fao-simile of the autograph deemed and sanctified to himself, DO hereby of Mr. Wilson is from that published by Mr. solemnly and religiously (as in his most holy Frothingham. Presence) promise and bind ourselves to walk in all our ways according to the Rule of the Gospel, and in all sincere Conformity to his holy Ordinances, and in mutual Love and Re- spect, each to other, so near as God shall give us grace.'" ^^%y<')fy\g^^. 94 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1630. throp and his associates had before been elected to office by the Com- pany in England. * But now everything wore a new aspect ; many of the people here, as well as the immediate emigrants, probably, desired the formality of an election, as a matter which they could much readier realize than they could the action of a Corporation in England, about which they may not have had any very satisfactory urderstanding, or whose authority they may have thought would be questionably exercised in this distant land. However this may be, an election was held " aboard the ArrabeUa, the twenty-third of August, when the much honoured John Winthrope, Esq., was chosen Governour for the remain- der of the year, 1630 ; also the worthy Thomas Dudly, Esq., was chosen Deputy Grovernour, and Mr. Simon Brodestreet, Secretary."! This being over, a court was organized, which proceeded to consider how the ministers were to, be maintained ; when it was ordered that houses should be built for them at the public charge. Mr. Wilson and Mr. Phillips only were provided for at this time. The former was to have twenty pounds a year until his wife should come over, and the lat- ter to receive thirty pounds a year. It was further ordered by the same court that Thomas Morton, of Mount Wollaston, be sent for presently ; and that carpenters, joiners, bricklayers, sawyers and thatchers, take no * I can see no possible grounds for explain- ing away this election, so circumstantially recorded by Johnson, in his Wonder-working Providence. Mr. Winthrop undoubtedly con- sidered it of no legal importance, and hence only wrote in his journal, "Monday we kept a court." He may have been somewhat dis- pleased on finding it necessary to submit to such an election. This may account for his neglect to make entries in his journal ; for neglect it he did, an entire week, with the ex- ception of the single entry above extracted. It is not altogether improbable, perhaps, that a removal to Boston may have had some spe- cial influence in bringing about the election. In a letter which Winthrop wrote at Charles- tovm, and which Mr. Johnson received at Salem on July 25th, he speaks of the people being in "three distinct bodies," (by which Prince thinks he means Charlestown, Dorches- ter and Salem,) " not then intending rashly to proceed to the choice of officers," &c. I appre- hend that this refers to the election stated by Johnson ; but it is not very clear what is meant, nor is the letter in other respects at all intelligible ; — very different from Winthrop's writings generally. There is another consid- eration : before this election, very little busi- ness appears to have been ordered or executed under the special direction of Winthrop. We hear of no reading of commissions, assuming the government, &e. The real state of the case doubtless is, that Winthrop modestly declined all interference with the affairs under Bndicott ; there being no cause of dissatisfac- tion with him among those under his govern- ment. This was the plain course of a mag- nanimous mind, and well accords with the unassuming character of Winthrop. But, on removing to Charlestown, it became necessary that the people should know who were their leaders, and whom they were to obey. Hence the necessity of an election. Had Mr. Win- throp assumed the government on his arrival at Salem, he would, in all probability, have recorded so important an event in his journal ; nor would his induction into office have been overlooked, in days when formalities were con- sidered of great importance. Besides, even the charter may have been referred to, as authority for this election of officers. See ante, p. 63. And then it must be considered that, only the preceding April [1629], the Company thus instructed Mr. Bndicott: — " Wee haue, in prosecution of that good opin- ion wee haue alway had of you, conhrmed you Gouernour of our plantacon ;" and on the 28th of the next May, wTiting him again, this lan- guage is held: — "Wee haue sithence our last, and according as wee then advised, at a full and ample Court assembled, ellected and established you, Captaine John Bndicott, to the place of present Gouernour in our Planta- con there." And, after the election of Mr. Winthrop as governor of the Company, and a removal of the government had been settled, it does not appear, from the Company's rec- ords, that Mr. Endioott's government was to be interfered with. See ante, p. 70. The rec- ords expressly say, " It is oonceeved fitt that Captain Bndicott continue the Gouernment there [in N. England] vnless iust cause to the contrarie " appear. t Johnson, Won.-work. Prov., 38-9. 1630.] WILLIAM BLACKSTONE. 95 more than two shillings a day, wages. By non-observance of this order, the parties each subjected themselves to a fine of ten shillings. Notwithstanding the resolution of the principal men to build their chief town at Charlestown, the discouragements attendant on sickness and death caused many to be restless, and to think of other localities.* And, in the mean time, Mr. William Blackstone, who lived on Shaw- mut, became acquainted with their distresses, and, going over to their relief, advised them to remove to his peninsula. His advice was kindly received, and began to be followed soon after ; so that, before the end of August, many of those at Charlestown had passed over to Shawmut, and began to make improvements and preparations for the rest to fol- low, f This Mr. Blackstone, of whom mention has before several times been made, appears to have lived here alone, having come over, probably, with Captain Robert Gorges, or about 1623, and may have possessed Shawmut by lease or purchase from Grorges.| It is not, however, very important when he came, or how he came to be possessed of lands here, so long as it is certain that he had a good title to what he had, which was acknowledged by the settlers under Winthrop, who, in due time, bought his lands of him, and he removed out of the jurisdiction of Mas sachusetts. Blackstone had a house or cottage, in which he lived ; and the nature of his improvements was such as to authorize a belief that he had resided here seven or eight years. He was one of those people who preferred solitude to society, and his theological notions corresponded with those habits of life. When he invited Winthrop to come over to his side of the river, he probably had no thought of a removal himself ; for he did not remove until about four years later. His selling out and leaving Boston were no doubt occasioned by his desire to live more retired, as well as to a dislike of his Puritan neighbors,§ whom, it is * " This caused several to go abroad upon And, as will be shown by the records here- discovery; some went without the Neck of after, ho had lands set off to him, which this town, who travelled up into the main till would not have been the case had his owner- they came to a place well watered, whither ship of the peninsula been fully acknowledged. Sir Richard Saltonstall, Knt., and Mr. Phil- His case was precisely that of Oldham, Sir lips, minister, went with several others, and WiUiam Brereton, and others, with this differ- settled a, plantation, and called it Watter- ence : Blackstone was ore his ground in per- towne. Others went on the other side of son. He doubtless made the best terms he Charles River, and there travelled up into the could with a power he could not resist success- country, and likewise finding good waters, fully. His grant of territory here was supe- settled there with Mr. Ludlow, and called the rior to others, or to the most of those who plantation Dorchester." — Charlestown Records, came with Winthrop. It consisted of fifty f "The Peninsula," says Shaw, "was, in acres, which was about one fifteenth of the all respects, the most eligible site for a forti- whole of Shawmut. It will be remembered fled town in the country ; and it is strange that Sir William Brereton was offered a ' ' share that Dudley, who was a soldier by profession, with the rest," if he came over ; but as to any and had served as a Captain at the siege of right, derived from others, of ter^-itory in Mas- Amiens, under Henry Iv., did not prefer it " sachusetts, none was acknowledged, at first. — Descript. of Boston, 40. ^ Lechford, in his Plain Dealing, says that { This is extremely probable ; and why he Blackstone removed from Boston " because he was not driven off, as Vvalford afterwards was, would not join with the Church. He lives was doubtless owing to the kind ofiices which near Mr. Williams, but is far from his opin- he extended to those in authority, and not ion." Lechford was a churchman, making himself in any way obnoxious to them. 96 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1630. said, he told that " he left England because of his dislike of the Lord- Bishops, but now he did not like the Lord-Brethren."* He is sup- posed to have been a graduate of Emanuel CoUege, Cambridge, A. B 1617, A M 1621, t and some have denominated him a clergyman of the Church of England. J In 1634 he removed to Kehoboth, where he lived till the twenty-sixth of May, 1675, the date of his death ; and he was also the first settler within the original limits of Rehoboth, since Attleborough Gore, on the banks of Blackstone River, so named for him. A hill to which he used to resort, at certain seasons, for study and con- templation, still bears the name of Study HiU ; a few rods from the base of which were lately to be seen the remains of his well, its stomng nearly entire ; and, a few rods from the well, the grave of this singular man. The place of Blackstone's retreat, on the banks of the noble nver which bears his name, was as secluded as at Shawmut, before the arrival of Winthrop. And here, as at Shawmut, he had fine gardens, orchards and meadows ; and here, as at that place, his were the first apples ever produced in these respective places. In 1765, several of his apple-trees remained, and bore fruit ; and, in 1836, three trees were standing, in appearance very old, and "probably grew from the sprouts of those planted by Blackstone." § WiUiam Blackstone was not only the first known white settler of Boston, but to him is due the credit of the settlement under Winthrop. This was acknowledged in the lifetime of the former, as shown in the records of Charlestown, in these words : || "Mr. Blackstone, dwelUng on the other side of Charles River, alone, to a place by the Indeans called Shawmutt, where he only had a cottage at, or not far ofi" the place called Blackstone's Point,1[ he came and acquainted the Governor * Mather, Magnalia, B. iii., p. 7, who thus concluding that nothing satisfactory could he introduces Blackstone: — "There were also found. some godly Episcopalians ; among whom has % This would rather appear from Edward been reckoned Mr. Blackstone ; who, by hap- Johnson's notice of him, who, speaking of pening to sleep first in an old hovel upon a Mr. Bright and Blackstone in connection, says, point of land there, laid claim to all the ground derisively, " The one betooke him to the seas whereupon there now stands the Metropolis again, and the other, Mr. Blaxton, to till the of the whole English America, until the inhab- land, retaining no simbole of his former pro- itants gave him satisfaction." fession, buta canonical cote." — Wonder-work. f He married Mary Stevenson, 4 July, 1659. Prov., 20. — With this before him, Mr. Hub- She was the widow of John Stevenson, of Bos- bard makes considerable improvement. He ton, and they were married by Gov. Endicott. calls him a clergyman, and says " he betook Mrs. Blackstone died two years before her hus- himself to till the ground, wherein probably band, namely, June, 1673. Mr. Blackstone he was more skilled, or at least had a better left one son, whose posterity, I am informed faculty, than in the things pertaining to the by gentlemen of credibility ia Rhode Island, house of God," &c. — Hist. N. Eng., 113. are somewhat numerous in that state at the § For many of the above facts I am indebted present day. It is said that the late Presi- to Mr. Bliss' excellent History of Rehoboth, dent Kirkland was in some way related to the and to Jlr. Daggett's valuable History of Altle- family of Blackstone, and that, a few years borough. before his death, he made a journey to Cum- 1| I use Mr. Erothingham's transcript of berland, for the purpose of finding his grave, those invaluable records, in all cases, with the and placing upon it a suitable monument ; most perfect confidence. but that the residents of whom he sought in- ^f As to the precise locality of Blackstone's formation being entirely ignorant of any such house, and his spring, not far from it, opin- person, or his grave, he gave up his search, ions of people differ. But I am pretty well 1630.] WILLIAM BLACKSTONE. 97 of an excellent spring there, withal inviting him and soliciting him thither. Whereupon, after the death of Mr. Johnson, and divers others, the Governor, with Mr. Wilson and the greatest part of the church, re- ^ moved thither. Whither also, the frame ^ of the Governor's house was carried, P when people began to build their houses 7 against winter, and this place was called ^^ Boston."* % To this "memorable man," as to others before his time as well as since, justice will eventually be done. And though the noble City, whose foundation he laid, be the last to honor his name, it will one day, it is not to be doubted, pay the debt which it owes his memory with in- terest. Should not the principal street in the City bear his name ? Mr. Blackstone having died a month before the breaking out of Philip's War, he was spared the witnessing of the horrors of that dis- tressing period ; but the Indians ravaged his plantation, burnt up his buildings, and, what will ever be deeply deplored, his library, also. This was large and valuable for those days, and its loss to the history of Boston and to New England can never be known, f Four days after the first court was held at Charlestown, "^" ' the first ordination took place. J Mr. Wilson was ordained Pastor, or teaching Elder, over the church there, and also over that part of the the same church which had removed to Mr. Blackstone's side of the river. MR. biackstonb's residhsxb. convinced that Blackstone's Point was that afterwards called Barton's Point, now near' the northern termination of Leveret Street, and the Depot of the Lowell Rail Road. His point is easier located than his house or his spring. That there were many springs on this part of Shawmut, has always been demonstra- ble. House No. 19, Poplar Street, covers a large spring, which, in 1838, afforded abun- dance of water a considerable part of the year. This writer then occupied that house ; and this spring, it is not unlikely, was the identical spring near which Blackstone lived. What Shaw says in his Description of Boston, 103, agrees very well with this. " Black- stone's Spring,-?' he observes, "is yet to be seen [about 1800] on the westerly part of the town, near the bay which divides Boston from Cambridge." * These records also say, that Mr. Win- throp's removal to Shawmut was " to the dis- content of some ;" of those probably who had begun to build, and to whom a removal would have been a serious loss. A further proof that this place was not thought of for a town until 13 Blackstone urged it, appears in the fact, that Winthrop had engaged to settle at Newtown, and had a house in process of building there at this time, which he also removed to Boston afterwards. f From the inventory of his effects, taken immediately after his decease, 28 May, 1675, a copy of which may be. seen in Mr. Bliss' History of Rehoboth, p. 8, the inference in the text is drawn. The " ten paper books" enu- merated in the schedule, are conjectured to have been MSS. of great value, and that they might have thrown fight on his whole history, as well as that of the country for the fifty years in which he resided in it. — See Dr. tfsher Parsons, in Holmes^ Annals, i. 377. % " We of the congregation kept a fast, and chose Mr. Wilson our teacher, and Mr. Nowell an elder, and Mr. Gager and Mr. Aspinwall deacons. We used imposition of hands, but with this protestation by all, that it was only as a sign of election and confirmation ; not of any intent that Mr. Wilson should renounce his ministry he received in England." — Win- throp's Journal, i. 31 — 3. 98 HISTOKY OP BOSTON. [1630. Many people having, by the seventh of September, taken up ^^ ■ ■ their residence on Shawmut,* a court was held on that day, which is called the Court of Assistants ; and this was the second court held at the new settlement of Charlestown. There were present the principal men from Sa- lem, Dorchester, and Watertown, though at the opening of this court the two last mentioned places were not so named. Among the orders passed, were the fol- lowing : — "Thomas Morton, of Mount WoUaston, shall presently be set in the bilbows, and after sent prisoner to Eng- iland, by the ship called the Gift, now re- turning thither ; f that all his goods shall be seized to defray the charge of his transportation, payment of his debts, and to give satisfaction to the Indians for a canoe he took unjustly from them ; and that his house be burnt down to the ground in sight of the Indians, for their satisfaction for many wrongs he has done them. Ordered, that no person shall plant in any place within the limits of this Patent, without leave from the Governor and Assistants, or major part of them ; J that a warrant shall presently be sent to Agawam to command those who are planted there, forthwith to come away ; And, that Trimountain § be called Boston ; || Mattapan, JOHN WILSON. * The circumstance of the &st party who landed in Boston from Charlestown, in 1630, is thus related by Mr. Loring in his Hundred Boston Orators, p. 365 : " The ancestor of the Pollard family, of Boston , was William Pol- lard, whose wife, Anne, died 6th Dec, 1725, aged one hundred 'and five years, leaving of her offspring one hundred and thirty. She used to relate, that she went over in the first boat that crossed Charles river, to what has since been called Boston, and that she was the first that jumped ashore. She described the place as being at that time very uneven, abounding in small hollows and swamps, covered with blueberry and other bushes." Mrs. Pollard's portrait, taken in 1723, when she was one hundred and three years old, has for some years past hung in a room over the Savings Bank in Tremont-street, in the occupation of the Mass. Hist. Society, and was there depos- ited by Isaac Winslow, Esq. — Ibid. f But he did not go in the Gift. The cap- tain of that ship, says Hubbard, not being '■'gifted that way, nor his ship neither." — Hist. N. England, 137. J This order was especially to prevent peo- ple from settling in so scattered a manner as to render themselves weak and unserviceable as a whole, in the event of invasion. § " So called, I suppose," says Prince, " on the account of the three contiguous hills ap- pearing in a range to those at Charlestown." — Another author, Shaw, says, "These were not, however. Beacon, Copp's and Fort Hills, as generally supposed, but three little rising hills on the top of a, high mountaip, at the north-west side of the town." — Description of Boston, 50. " The high mountain," he ob- serves, " as Wood calls it, is the high ground extending from the head of Hanover-street, south-westerly to the water, beyond the new State House, the summit of which was since called Beacon HiU, now [1800] almost levelled to its base." II " Being now become a distinct town of themselves, and retaining Mr. Wilson for their minister, afterwards called their plantation Boston, with respect to Mr. Cotton, who came from a town in Lincolnshire so called, when he came in to New England." Dudley, as has been seen, assigns the same reason for naming Shavnnut Boston. " And from the late Judge Sewall, in comparison with the Charlestown records, I learn that this town was settled under the conduct of Mr. Johnson." — Prince, 316. 1630.] DEATH OF MR. ISAAC JOHNSON. 99 TKIllOrmTAIN. Dorchester ; and the town upon Charles river, Watertown." * This last was called Pigsgusset, by the Indiaas.f ^^ Although the seventh of September, Old Style, is justly regarded as the date of the first settlement of Boston, J yet it was not till a month or more that the gov- ernment was removed from Charlestown, g g where, on the twenty- eighth of ' September, the third Court of Assistants was held. In the mean time, among other things, probably fortifica- tions had been considered necessary to be at once erected; for at this court an order passed for raising fifty pounds for the use of Mr. Patrick and Mr. Underbill, who were military men.§ The Indians may have shown signs of dis- satisfaction. In fact, if they did not manifest any jealousy at seeing their country overrun by such a singular race of people as the emigrants must have appeared to them to be, they must have been void of such feelings as were exhibited five-and-twenty years' later by their neigh- bors bordering on the south of them. But merely common prudence may have caused the same court to order, that if any person permit an Indian to use a gun, on any occasion, he should pay a fine of ten pounds ; and that no person be allowed to give or sell any corn to an Indian, without license from the court. Amidst the numerous trials which now beset this devoted people, no single blow had ever been witnessed which had cast such a gloom over them, as did the death of Mr. Isaac Johnson. He died at Boston, about two of the clock on the morning of this day. He was able to attend the court on the seventh of the month, but that was his last earthly court. It was Mr. Johnson who first favored Black- stone's proposal for a removal to this side of the river ; and his improve- ments in the settlement, at the time of his death, were doubtless supe-- rior to any other's on the place. His lot had been selected, and was that comprehended by School, Washington, Court and Tremont streets, at this time ; of course comprehending the Chapel burying-place. In the upper end of this lot, when on his death-bed, he desired to be buried ; and he was accordingly buried there. This was the first place of interment of the English at Boston, and it continues to be used as a Sept. 30. * Prince's Chroiwhgy, 315. f Wood's New England's Prospect, 88. j Hence the second centennial anniversary of the settlement of Boston was celebrated on Friday, the 17th of September, 1830. § The fifty pounds were thus apportioned to be raised in the settlements : 1. Charlestown, £7 2. Boston, 11 3. Dorchester, £7 i. Koxbary, 5 5. Watertown, 11 6. Medford, 3 7. Salem, 3 8. Wessagasous, 2 9. Nantasket, 1 From which the relative importance of these places may be seen. But it can hardly be supposed that the above rate was based on the property of the respective places ; for, assum- ing that to have been the basis, Salem could scarcely have stood so low, or Boston so high. 100 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1630. place of sepulture to this day.* "He may be said to have been the idol of the people, for they ordered their bodies, as they died, to be buried round him ; and this was the reason of appropriating for a place of burial, what is now [1760] the Old Burying-place, adjoining to King's Chapel."! By Mr. Johnson's will, a copy of which was " on the Massachusetts files" when Hutchinson wrote his history, executed on the twenty- eighth of April, in the fifth of Charles I. [1629] it is shown that he was of Clipsham, in the county of Rutland, son of Abraham Johnson, Esq., and grandson of Eobert Johnson. Dr. Chaderton was his mother's father. His estate was much the largest of any of the undertakers. It lay in the counties of Rutland, Northampton and Lincoln. His New England adventure he valued at six hundred pounds. Having no chil- dren, he gave legacies to a great number of his friends, and to pious and charitable uses. His lands he gave to his father and brothers. To Mr. Cotton he gave thirty pounds and a gown-cloth. The advowson and right of patronage of the parish church of Clipsham, he gave to Mr. Dudley and Mr. Cotton. His funeral charges he limited at two hun- dred and fifty pounds ; but a small part of which, however, was re- quired. His heart was set on the New England settlement, and he ordered his executors to carry on his share in it. In another wUl, made before his death, he appointed John Hampden, Esq., v\dth Winthrop and Dudley, executors.J g In the midst of the removal from Charlestown to Boston, *^ ■ ■ death continued his work. Mr. WiUiam Gager died on the twentieth of September. He was the chief physician of the infant set- tlement, and consequently a great loss to it. He was also a high officer in the church at its first organization in Charlestown, being its deacon. A house was ordered to be built for him at the public charge, and he was to be paid twenty pounds for the first year, and be furnished with a cow ; and after that he was to receive thirty pounds per annum. He left a family. John Gager, his son probably, resided in Boston until 1645, about which time he settled in New London, and finally in Nor- wich, where he died in 1703. § Soon after the death of Mr. Gager, Mr. "William Colbum was chosen deacon of the same church. He was " invested by imposition of hands of the minister and elder." One who lived amidst these scenes writes, as he had just cause to do: " The first beginning of this worke seemed very dolorous ; first, for the death of that worthy personage, Izaac Johnson, Esq., whom the Lord had indued with many pretious gifts, insomuch that he was held in high esteeme among all the people of God, and as a chiefe pillar to * This is the substance of what Chief- Justice f Hutchinson, Hist. Mass. i. , 16. Samuel Sewall told the Rev. Thomas Prince. tlbid. So that few things in our history can be better § See Hinman's Genealogy of the Puritans, substantiated than the circumstances of the p. 134, and Caulklin's Hist, of New London, death and the place of burial of Mr. Isaac 159. ^William Gager grad. at Yale 1721, Johnson. and Charles A. 1835. 1630.] ORIGIN OF THE NAME BOSTON. 101 support this new erected building. He very much rejoiced, at his death,, that the Lord had been pleased to keepe his eyes open so long, as to see one Church of Christ gathered before his death ; at whose departure there was not onely many weeping eyes, but some fainting hearts, fear- ing the faU. of the present worke."* CHAPTER XII. Origin of tlie name Boston. — Traditions and Superstitions of St. Botolph. — Boston in England. — St. Botolph's Church. — Mr. John Cotton. — Splendor and Magnificence of St. Botolph's. — The First Church in Boston. — Extravagance in Buildings and Dress discountenanced. — Profligacy of the English Clergy. — Legislation upon Fashions. — Drinking of Healths discontinued. HE original name of Boston is supposed to *be derived from an old British saint, of the name of Botolph, who lived along the middle of the seventh century of the Christian era.f As of other saints of early times, there is doubtless much of fiction hanging about St. Botolph's his- tory. It was a common thing to ascribe the performance of miracles to saints while living, and, when dead, even their bones were believed to be not entirely divested of that power, although they had been of flesh. The termination of this saint's name seems to #»a^T indicate a German origin ; but that is a matter too remote to ^ ' merit attention here. However, it is said that the remains of the "holy man" were entombed in St. Edmund's Monastery, at Bury, concerning whom it was superstitiously told that the monks of that place, when they wanted rain, carried about a coffin in procession, con- taining the bones of St. Botolph. How soon this practice fell into dis- use is not mentioned ; but it probably did after a few failures of certain well-known signs of rain, in the observance of which the first movers were, or might have been, better skilled than their immediate suc- cessors. From the earliest accounts that can be found of the English Boston, it is supposed to have been founded by St. Botolph, whom Bede, who was nearly cotemporary with him, denominates a pious Saxon, about A. D. 650. J For a long series of ages little is known about it. For * Johnson, Wonder-working Providence, 38. f The name of Botolph, with variation of spellings, is met vrith in many old vrriters, and, according to Camden, it is derived from the Saxon noun boat, and ulph, help, because Botolph was the tutelar saint of mariners. — See Thompson's CoUections, p. 223. Rish- anger, who wrote about 1312, speaks, in his Chronicle, of " Thomas filius Jordani de Bo- tolestone." — See Pub. Camd. Soc. xv., p. 72. Lambarde, who wrote about or before 1577, a little earlier than Camden, says it was then called Bostonstow, though "commonly and corruptly called Boston." — Alphabetical De- script., &o., p. 38, 4to, 1730. J He also founded a priory at Colchester, in Essex, the ruins of which are still [1810] to be seen, though its " principal demolition" occurred in 1648, during the siege of Colches- ter by Sir Thomas Fairfax. — Brayky and Brit- 102 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1630. near a thousand years succeeding its foundation, few of the vicissitudes attending it through that dark period have been recorded. Indeed, its history had hardly been attempted until its daughter on this side of the Atlantic had, in most respects, far outgrown her mother city.* One hundred years before the period now referred to, namely, in 1719, a writer said it was, and long had been, a famous and flourishing town, built on both sides of the river Witham, which is here enclosed on both sides with artificial banks, over which was a high wooden bridge.! ^t ^ fa,r more remote period it had become a great mart for wool, " which very much enriched and invited thither the merchants of the Hanse towns, who fixed their Guild there." The inhabitants in 1719 were chiefly "merchants and graziers." J At the same date it had a commodious and weU-frequented haven, admitting ships of two hundred and fifty tons up to the town, while, only thirty years later, even a small sloop of but forty or fifty tons, drawing but six feet of water, could get up only at spring tides. § This was caused by the river being choked up with silt. Not long after, however, its usual navigation was restored by cutting a new channel from the town to Dogdike, an extent of twelve miles. || To an inhabitant of Boston in New England it may appear scarcely credible for places elsewhere to remain nearly the same for a hundred years together ; yet such was the case with the mother of Boston,1[ ton's Essex, 315. St. Botolph's church, in Boston people have had some influence on Mr. Aldersgate, London, was dedicated to this Thompson, as he is now engaged on a new edi- saint ; but how early founded does not appear, tion of his work. In a Lincolnshire newspa- Its first benefactor, recorded by Maitland, bears per, called the "Boston, Stamford and Lincoln- the name of John Thornton, and date, 1393. shire Herald," of 16 Nov., 1852, containing Judging from the prevalence of the name of the proceedings of the government of the bor- Botolph, the saint who bore it must have had ough of Boston on the 9th of the same month, in his day, and even long after, an extraordi- Mr. Noble, one of the aldermen, after giving nary reputation. In those days, as now, a notice of Mr. Thompson's design, requested name of renown was tacked upon everything that that gentleman might have liberty to that would bear it. But it has, in some in- inspect the deeds and other documents in their stances, been so varied or corrupted as not to keeping for that object, which was grsinted. be recognized ; thus. Bottle Bridge, in Hunt- For the use of a copy of Mr. Thompson's book ingdonshire, was once Botolph-bridge, or so I am indebted to Mr. Charles Deane, whose says Camden. But whether our Buttolphs are excellent library is no unintelligible monu- descendants of the same family as the Saint ment of a taste and judgment worthy the imi- we are ignorant, while it is very probable that tation of all young men. the ancestors of persons bearing the name of f One of iron has since been substituted, Boston took that name from their having re- constructed upon a single arch, 86 feet in sided in ancient Boston. span, 39 feet wide, at an expense of about * Boston is 34 miles S. E. of Lincoln, 117 £22,000. N. from London, and about five miles from the t Magna Britannia, Antigua et Nova, ii. sea. In 1820 there was published in London, 1407-8. rather a handsome large octavo, of between § Thompson's Collections, 122. four and five hundred pages, entitled "Collec- f Dugdale, iii. 602. tions for a Topographical and Historical Account ^ In 1698, Dr. Cotton Mather, writing of of BoiToi^, and the Hundred of Skirbeck, in the Boston, very aptly observed: "The Town County of Lincoln. With Engravings. By hath indeed three elder Sisters in this Colony, PisHET Thompson." This work has tor some but it hath wonderfully outgrown them all; time been scarce, even in its place of publica- and her mother. Old Boston, in England, also." tion; and, as I am informed by my friend. By the "three elder Sisters " he probably CoL. T. B. Lawrence, he found it difficult to meant Salem, Charlestown and Dorchester; procure a copy in Old Boston itself. It is not or, possibly, Charlestown, Dorchester and unlikely that inquiries for the work by our Roxbury See Magnolia, B. i. Zl. 1630.] ST. botolph's church. 103 judging from the following facts : The parish register of Old Boston shows that in 1614 there were thirty marriages, eighty-four baptisms, and eighty-three burials ; while in 1714, just one hundred years later, there were thirty-one marriages, ninety-nine baptisms, and one hundred and thirty-one deaths. * One of the most famous and interest- ing objects of ancient Boston is St. Bo- tolph's church, rendered doubly famous to the people here for its having been the church of which Mr. John Cotton was vicar twenty-one years ;] and from which he was obliged to fly to New England. This church was described one hundred and thirty-four years ago J as "beautiful and large, the tower of which is so very high as to be the won- der of travellers, and the guide for mar- iners at a great distance. It is looked upon as the finest in England, and is 280 foot high, or better, and was begun to be built at midsummer, 1309, dame ' Margaret Tilney laying the first stone. The length of the church is equal to the height of the steeple, ninety-four yards. There are 365 steps, fifty-two windows, and twelve pillars, which are designed to parallel the days, weeks and months, of the year." Its handsome tower was built after the model of that of the great church at Antwerp. At the summit of this tower is a beautiful lantern, for a guide to seamen, which can be seen forty miles. It was a figurative saying of some of the pilgrims who settled this Boston, that the lamp in the lantern of St. Botolph's ceased to burn when Cotton left that church, to become a shining light in the wilder- ness of New England. II St. Botolph's has no galleries, and yet it will contain five thousand persons, as estimated at the obsequies of the late Princess Charlotte. The nave is lofty and grand ; the ceiling, representing a stene vault- ing, is said to be of Irish oak. It consists of fourteen groined arches, with light spandrils, which, by their elegant curves, intersections and embowments, produce a beautiful effect. The upper part of the nave is lighted by twenty-eight clerstory windows, between the springs of ST. botolph's church, boston, englamb.^ * There was a return of the population in 1768, 3470 ; in 1801, 6926 ; in 1811, 8113 ; in 1831, 11,240 ; in 1841, 34,680. —Dugdale, ut supra, City Doc. No. 63. Note by Hon. J. P. Bigelow, and Gorton's Topog. Diet. t From 1612 to 1633. — Thompson's Collec- tions, p. 86. J In the Magna Britannia, Antigua et Nova, nt supra. § From a splendidly engraved view in Thompson's work. II "Both Bostons have reason to honor his memory ; and New England-Boston most of all, which oweth its name and being to him, more than to any one person in the world." — Dr. Increase Mather. 104 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1630. the arches. The chancel, which is spacious and lofty, has on each side ranges of stalls, the seats of which are ornamented with grotesque carv- ings ; over these formerly were canopies, highly embellished with foli- age and fret-work. The altar is of oak, in the Corinthian order. Such was the splendid and magnificent church of St. Botolph's, in which many of the fathers of " New England-Boston" had been wont to worship, and which they had looked upon with pious reverence, and which they justly remembered as one of the chief glories of their native land. But at the period of their emigration a great change had com- menced ; they be- gan to consider extravagance in architecture and dress as very wick- ed, and disap- proved of by the God they intended to honor by such extravagance. In order to appreci- ate, in some de- gree, the change spoken of, people of these times can contrast St. Bo- tolph's, not with the rude church prepared for Mr. Wilson, but with most New England churches before the American Eevoluticn. The =^ =^ ^_i Friends of modern times are not more opposed to show and ostentation than were the early Pilgrims of New Eng- land. These, indeed, very nea,rly ap- proached the Quakers in all matters of dress, buildings, furniture and equip- ages. Soon after the Puritans became detached from the established church, their dress designated them ; as much so as did the dress of the Friends dis- tinguish them afterwards from the Puri- tans. Many regard some of the fashions in dress of this century as highly ridiculous and absurd ; but extremes in these matters are nothing A CATHOLIC GENTLEMAN.* A PROTESTANT GENTLEMAN. Wilson's church.j * This and the opposite engraving are accu- rate copies from prints in the exceedingly rare work of Bishop Carleton, " A Thankfcll Re- MEMBKANCE OF God's Mercies," 4to, London, 1626. ■f This view of the first church erected in Boston is, of course, from such descriptions and intimations as can be gathered from the early writers. It is said to have had mud walls and a thatched roof, which is about the extent of all that has been said about it. As to its length, breadth and height, there is not a Bjyllable which I remember to have seen. Its location will be described hereafter. 1630.] THE ENGLISH CLERGY. 105 now compared with what they were in those days, when shoes were twice the length of the foot, or so long as to prevent "kneeling at devotions in Grod's house," as one of those times is reported to have said. Fashions in all times probably began among the rich, and with those in high official stations. The practice was, of course, imitated by the common people ; and, though very natural, it was, on the whole, a very detrimental imitation. Even the clergy rendered themselves obnoxious by their foppery in dress, which was one object of complaint among the Puritans ; and many of their other practices were in keeping with minds influenced by such frivolity. To notice but a single instance, — the investigations at Belvoir Castle, by a committee of Parliament, in 1650-1 ; — that committee reported upon the incumbents of the church to this effect : "Weak and negligent;" — "no preacher;" — ' ' negligent and scandalous ; " — " negligent, and suspected of popery ; ' ' — "corrupt in doctrine;" — "a bare reader, and no minister;" — "weak pluralitan, non-resident, altogether negligent and scandalous." This is probably a specimen of the reports for the whole commonwealth of England. But Episcopalians, even of this age, pronounce the judg- ment of the parKamentary committee more unjust than the practices they condemned. But it must not be denied that there was much to be complained of, and which even the profligacy of Charles the Second could not overlook.* All experience has shown that to legislate upon apparel is idle and futile ; yet there may be other matters quite as futile which now occupy the time of legislators, and which will, in a few years, be viewed as wild and extravagant as it was for the early legislators of Boston to prescribe, by solemn enactments, the length which ladies might wear their hair, and how much of their necks and arms should be exposed to the gaze of the other sex. Good example, emanating from the good and great, wUl always exert a wider and a better influ- ence, in matters of customs and habits, than all the compulsory laws that can be made. Thus Governor Winthrop says that, upon consider- ation of the inconveniences which had grown in England by drinking one to another, he restrained it at his own table, and wished others to do the like, so as it grew into disuse by little and little, f Winthrop had judgment, mildness and penetration ; and it is hardly to be doubted that his own opinion disapproved of many acts which his station com- pelled him to sanction at a later period. * " Wlen he was at Newmarket, Nathaniel University, to cause the statutes concerning Vincent, D. D., Fellow of Clare Hall, and decency of apparel among the Clergy to be put chaplain to his Majesty, preached before him in execution, which was accordingly done." in a long periwig, and Holland sleeves. This — Strutt's Dresses and Habits, in The Book of foppeiy displeased the king, who commanded Costume, &o., p. 126. the Duke of Monmouth, then Chancellor of the f Journal, i. 37. 14 106 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1630. CHAPTER Xin. First Greneral Court at Boston. — How constituted. — Privileges of Freemen. — Simon Bradstreet. — Reasons for Stringency in respect to Freemen. — Small Affairs comparatively Great. — Accidents from Fires, Wolves, &o. — A Murder and Execution at Plymouth. — Com obtained of the Indians at Narraganset. — The People in Danger of Famine. — Their Wants and Privations. — Capt. Soger Clap. — Arrival of a Ship with Provisions. — Arrival of the Handmaid. — Her severe Passage. — B«ward for killing Wolves. — Ferry to Charlestown. — Order to support Ministers. — Fines and Penalties. — Measures for a fortified Town. — Determine upon Newton. — Extreme Weather. — Disastrous Voyage of Richard Garret. — Kindness of Indians. — Thomas Morton's Return to New England. — A Prisoner at Boston. — Again sent to England. ITHERTO, the Courts had been held at Charles- town, probably in the "Great House" before mentioned ; but now " the first General Court of the Massachusetts Colony" is held at Boston. In what kind of a building no mention is made ; it must have been in some very rude structure, as sufl&cient time had not elapsed to allow of the preparation of any shel- ter very commodious or complete. The per- sons composing this court were, Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Dudley, Sir R. Saltonstall, Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Endicott, Mr. Nowell, Mr. Pynchon and Mr. Bradstreet.* The denomination or title of the Court was, "The Governor, Deputy Governor, and Assistants."! I* was now proposed that the Freemen should have the power of choosing Assistants, and the Assistants, from among themselves, to choose the Governor and Deputy Governor, who, together with the Assistants, were to have the power of making laws, and of choosing officers to exe- cute them. To all of which the people agreed. J At this court about one hundred and eight persons applied to be admitted as Freemen ; § and the greater part of them probably were admitted to that station among their feUows in the Colony, which allowed * Bradstreet lived to be " the Nestor of Now England ;" dying at Salem in 1698, aged 95. There is an excellent biography of him in Dr. Eliot's New Eng. Biographical Diction- ary. Joshua Scottow dedicated his " Narra- tive of the Planting of the Massachusetts- Colony," &c., to him, in 1694. In this dedi- cation he says : " The long experience of your being the only surviving antiquary of us Nov Angles, the prime "Secretary and Register of our civil and sacred records, and the bifronted Janus who saw the closure of the Old, and the overture of this New Albion world." He calls him one of the " nursing fathers of this out- cast Sion, whose name is embalmed to eter- nity ; that he had, through nine hard appren- ticeships of above 60 years' durance, in the service of his generation, and faithful dis- charge of that trust for so long a season, as hath rendered him a MOOT-MAN, to be dig- nified with the highest honor this people were capable to confer." Bradstreet was then 91 years of age, when Scottow dedicated his book to him ; and well he might, as he did, style him " Our New England Nestor." Scottow spells the name Broadstreet, which was agree- able to the pronunciation of it. t See ante, p. 63 ; also Prince, 320. j Speaking of the acts of the first court, in which an attempt was made to regulate the rate of wages, &c., Mr. Hubbard observes, " It being commonly found, that men gotten from under the reins of government, are but like cattle without a fence, which are thereby apt to run wild and grow unruly, without good laws."— /fo;. New Eng., 146-7. § The most full and complete list of Free- men anywhere to be found is contained in the N. Eng. H. and Gen. Regr., vol. iii. In the same volume will also be found the oath pre- scribed for those admitted, &a. 1630.] MURDER AND EXECUTION AT PLYMOUTH. 107 them a voice in the concerns of government. No special qualifications for the rank of Freeman had yet been adopted, or, at least, pone are recorded ; but before the May election of 1631, a regulation was estab- lished which required that, to be eligible for the rank of Freeman, all candidates must be joined in fellowship with one of the churches. This condition respecting Freemen was perhaps occasioned by an early appre- hension that too many might be admitted to elective privileges who were opposed to Puritan principles. This appears probable, because, in the first list of proposed Freemen, the names of many of the " first plant- ers"* appear. In this early beginning of Boston, things and events were taken notice of, and considered of much moment, which, had they happened a few years later, no one would have thought worthy to be recorded for future attention. It is necessarily so in the beginning of all new g^ settlements. Thus it is noted by Governor Winthrop, in his Jour- nal, kept upon the spot, that "the wolves killed six calves at Salem," and the best retaliation the people could make was to kiU one wolf. A man at " Watertown had his wigwam burnt, and all his goods." It is uncertain whether the suiferer were an emigrant or a native. At the same time, Mr. Phillips, the minister of Watertown, and others, had their hay burnt ; the wolves attacked and killed some hogs at Saugus, a cow died at Plymouth, and a goat at Boston, with eating Indian corn. These are indeed trifling occurrences, when compared with events of 1853 ; but were they not as much to the people then as a railroad acci- dent now, or the launching of a ship of two thousand tons ? „ At this time a circumstance happened which shocked the little communities of Boston and its neighboring settlements to a degree probably beyond any other which had befaUen them. It was a premeditated murder ; and although it was committed at Plymouth, and the account of it would not legitimately come within these pages, but that the execution of the criminal was the result of the ' ' advice of Mr. Winthrop, and others, the ablest gentlemen in the Massachusetts Bay, who aU concurred with us that he ought to die, and the land be purged from blood." f The authorities of Plymouth did not apply to * This is according to Johnson, Wonder^w. tioes against the country, made an order of Prov. 39. By "first planters" he doubtless Court to take trial of the fidelity of the people, had reference to those persons who were found not by imposing upon them, but by offering to settled about Boston Bay when Winthrop them an Oath of Fidelity, that in case any came. By this it seems that their number should refuse to take it, they might not be- was more considerable than it would other- trust them with Place of publick charge and wise appear. There were on the first list of command." proposed Freemen, Blackstone, Maverick, Jef- f Bradford, era Prince, 319-20. "The first fries. Gibbons, and several others, known to execution in Plymouth Colony, which is a be Episcopalians. matter of great sadness to us, is of one John After the text and this note, so far, were Billington, for waylaying and shooting John written, I met with the following confirmation Newcomen, a young man, in the shoulder, of my convictions relative to the qualifications whereof he died. This said Billington was of Freemen, in Cotton's BUmdy Tenent washed, one of the profanest among us. He came from &c., p. 28-9. "The Magistrates and other London, and I know not by what friends shuf- members of the General Court, upon intelli- fled into our company." — Prince, ib. If gence of some Episcopal and malignant prac- there were any palliating circumstances attend- 108 fflSTORY OF BOSTON. [1630. those of Massachusetts because they had any doubt of the guUt of the culprit, but because they had some fears as to jurisdiction. About the end of this month an expedition wa,s undertaken of much importance. It was no less than a voyage by sea to the country of the Narraganset Indians, for the purpose of procuring a supply of com ; for, among all the privations and sorrows by the scythe of death yet encountered, the settlers of Boston began to be admonished that others might be near at hand ; even the monster Famine was to be guarded against. It will not be forgotten that the colonists arrived too late to prepare ground for planting this year ; that they found those akeady at Salem, where they hoped to find relief if they required it, ahnost destitute of food themselves ; and Captain Peirce had not yet arrived with the sup- plies he was upon a voyage to England to procure. * Thus situated, Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Dudley, and the benevolent Mav- erick, fitted out a pinnace to obtain corn, if they could, of the Indians.! The attempt succeeded. The little vessel returned, in due time, freighted with one hundred bushels of corn. It stood them in about four shillings the bushel.J Johnson draws a picture of the situation and condition of Boston pre- vious to and pending this voyage to Narraganset, without which an adequate idea cannot well be formed of the straits to which the inhabit- ants were reduced. At this early day the general good was much obstructed " by certain persons in their greedy desire for land ;" and "let such take notice," he says, "how these were cured of this dis- temper ; some were taken away by death ; and then, to be sure, they had land enough ; others, fearing poverty and famishment, supposing the present scarcity would never be turned into plenty, removed them- selves away, and so never beheld the great good the Lord hath done for his people ; but the valiant of the Lord waiteth with patience." § ing this murder, they are not stated ; on the from sharp frosts ; having only one entrance other hand, much appears to prove that the into it by a navigable river ; inhabited by a perpetrator vras a " hardened sinner." Gov- few Indians, who, for a trifle, would leave the ernor Bradford said " he was a knave, and so island, if the English would set them upon would live and die." This he said in 1625. the main. — Durffey's Letter. Mr. Prince A pond about three miles from Plymouth, dis- takes it for granted that this "first harbor" covered by John BUlington's son, Francis, in was really in the Narraganset country, and January, 1621, is known to this day as Bil- that the island four leagues to the eastward Ungton's Sea. There was another son, named was " Aquetneck." Now I have no such an John ; and there are respectable families at idea ; and have very little doubt that some this day of the name of Billington in New Eng- point not beyond the west side of Buzzard's land, descended from the unfortunate passen- Bay was the extent of the outward voyage, ger of the Mayflower of 1620. — See Davis" | Dudley's Le«er to iAe Countess of Lincoln, Morton, Colls. Ms. H. S., and Hubbard's IRst. 11-12. Winthrop omits to mention this im- New Eng., for other particulars. portant event in his Journal. His entries all * See ante, p. 89-90. along, from his arrival to this time, are very I After doubling Oape Ood, the pinnace put brie^ and often inaccurate as to date, occa- into the first harbor she found, and there sioned, no doubt, from his continual cares and meeting with Indians, traded with them for avocations, which did not allow of his putting corn. Trom the coast where they traded they down events as they occurred. saw a very large island four leagues to the § Wonder-working Providence, 48-9. It is east of them, which the Indians commended not strange that many were discouraged ; for as a fruitful place, full of good vines, and free not only were provisions scarce here, but it 1630.] WANTS AND PKIVATIONS. 109 When such liquors as they had brought with them failed, and the rich as well as the poor had nothing but water to drink, they thanked the Lord that they were not only allowed this, but that they could drink as much of it as they desired. When their bread was exhausted, they feasted themselves with fish. The women would, " once a day, as the tide gave way," gather muscles and clams on the shore, " which are a fish as big as horse-mussells." This they cheerfully did, day after day. One woman said her husband walked to Plymouth, about forty miles, " and had with great toil brought a little corn home with him. Another would say her last meale was in the oven ; while many said they had nothing left. One said her husband had been far among the Indians for corn, but he could get none. In his charity and kindness, the Governor had so far parted with his own store to the people, that a day or two more would consume all he had."* Captain Koger Clap, who arrived a little before Winthrop, speaks also of the want of provisions he and others experienced. Planting- time being past when he arrived, " provision was not to be had for money." And, though he wrote to his father in England to send him provisions, " before this supply came, and after, too, many a time," he suffered from hunger, and longed for such crusts of bread as he used to see upon his father's table ; and he thought, when he occasionally could get " meal and salt and water boiled together," it was a luxury indeed, t During these hardships, the worthy ministers encouraged their fol- lowers, who, with Christian confidence, encouraged one another ; and, as they stood steadfastly in the belief that relief would come, "they lifted up their eyes and saw two ships coming in, and pres'ently the newes came to their eares," says one among them, " that they were come from Ireland full of victualls." J „ „ The ship Handmaid arrived at Plymouth almost a complete wreck. She lost aU her masts, and had a passage of near three months. In this ship came about sixty passengers, who all arrived in good health. On board were also twenty-eight young cows when she sailed, but, in the terrible tempests which beset them on the way, ten was also a time of great scarcity in Europe ; f Ca|pt. Roger Clap's Memoirs, 20. at Boston " evrery bushel of wheat meal stand- j Wonder-working Providence, 49. I sup- ing them in 14s. sterling, and every bushel of pose the " two ships" here mentioned to have peas 10s., and not easy to be procured nei- been the Lyon, Capt. Pierce, who, it will be ther." — Hubbard, flisZ. N. Eng. remembered, was despatched to Ireland for * When Boston had been settled sixty-eight proyisions. See ante, p. 90, and Prince, p. years. Dr. Cotton Mather, in reviewing its 313. The Lyon did not sail, probably, till progress, observed that " within a few years towards the end of July, and her return could after the first settlement, it grew to be The not reasonably be looked for until about this Metropolis of the whole English Empire. " time, which is a little anticipated by Johnson ; And, he says, "little was this expected by for, according to Winthrop, i. 41, she did not them that first settled the Town, when for a arrive until 5 Feb., 1631. The other ship while Boston was proverbially called Lost- may have been the Handmaid ; but she arrived town, for the mean and sad circumstances of the beginning of November. Or the ship No. it." — Magnolia, B. i. 31. It contained in 17, in the table at p. 88, ante, without a name, 1698, " seven thousand Souls of us at this may have been the other, hour living on the spot." — lb. 110 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1630. of them were washed overboard, or otherwise lost. Soon after, Captain Grant, master of the Handmaid, Captain Standish, and two gen- tlemen who came passengers in the Handmaid, arrived at Bos- ton, The two gentlemen intended to settle here ; but, says Winthrop, " having no testimonials, we would not receive them." * ., - At a Court of Assistants, at which were Winthrop, Dudley, Ludlow, Endicott, Coddington, Pynchon and Bradstreet, it was ordered that every Englishman who should kill a wolf withm this Patent " shall have one penny for every beast and horse, and one far- thing for every weaned swine and goat, in every plantation, to be levied by the constables of said plantations." At the same Court it was pro- posed that whoever would first give in his name to the Governor " that he wiU undertake to set up a ferry between Boston and Charlestown, and begin the same at such time as the Governor shall appoint, shall have one penny for every person, and one penny for every hundred pound weight of goods he shall so transport."! Again, at the next Court of Assistants, present only the Gov- ^°''' ^"" ernor. Deputy, Sir Richard SaltonstaU, Mr. Ludlow, Nowell, Pynchon, Coddington and Bradstreet. The first business transacted was to fine one of the Assistants five pounds, for whipping two persons without another of the Assistants being present, contrary to an act of Court formerly made ; in the next place a man was ordered to be whipped for shooting at a fowl on the Sabbath day ; and, thirdly, that sixty pounds be collected for the maintenance of Mr. Wilson and 'Mr. Phillips. J The Governor and most of the Assistants held a meeting at ^"^ ■ Roxbury, " and there agreed to build a town fortified upon the Neck, between that and Boston." A Committee was appointed "to consider aU things requisite." Eight days after, they met again at the same place, when the Committee reported that Roxbury was *"■ ■ not suitable for a fortified town. " First, because men would be forced to keep two families. Second, there was no running water ; and if there were any springs they would not suffice the town. Third, the most part of the people had bidlt already, and would not be able to build again." The attention of the authorities was next turned to Water- town, and they met there according to an appointment at their last meeting ; and, as first at Roxbury, so now here, " all agreed it a fit place for a fortified town," but did not take any measures to begin • It would be interesting could we know % In this amount Boston was assessed £20, who the " two gentlemen" were that, at this Watertown, £20, Charlestown, £10, Roxbury, time, were refused a residence in Boston. All £6, Medford, £3, and Winnesemet, £1. — I am able to do is to imitate the silence of Prince, ib. I have seen it somewhere stated Winthrop 's annotator. that, at the time of the removal to Boston t Prince, 323-4, from Mass. Col. Res. — from Charlestown, there were but seventeen This, though the fourth meeting, or "Court inhabitantsleft at the latter place. The above of Assistants," was the Jirst of these Courts assessment would hardly warrant such conclu- held in Boston — Ibid. The next was held on sion. the last day of November. 1630.J FORTIFIED TOWN. — DISASTROUS VOYAGE. Ill jjg ng it. Finally, after many consultations at Boston, Watertown and Eoxbury, it was decided to fortify a place on the north- west side of Charles river, about three miles west of Charlestown ; and all except Mr. Endicot and Mr. Thomas Sharp* engaged to buUd houses there in the spring of 1631, and to remove their ordnance and munition thither. This place they called Newton, f It was a time of despondency with many, but they were reminded of the constancy and firmness of their neighbors of Plymouth. Their troubles about a fortified town had put them back In their building, and other necessary labors, nearly six months. The leaders of the peo- ple were of the opinion that, by erecting fortifications, and removing into them all the warlike stores, and binding all the Assistants to remove to the fortified place, those who had settled about in different places would be obliged to concentrate themselves there also, for their own personal safety. In the course of the third week in December, Captain Walter Neale and some other gentlemen came to Boston from Pascataqua. Their object was probably only a friendly visit. Mr. Neale arrived at Pascat- aqua last summer, in the bark Warwick ; having been sent over by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, as Governor of his Patent. ^ ^ Up to this time the season had been, as it usually is at this day, mild and open, with no heavy frosts ; but now it comes on intensely cold, which was heightened by a previous fall of snow. The wind blowing at the same time powerfully from the north-west endan- gered those who ventured abroad. During this extreme weather, a shallop, in which were three of Governor Winthrop's servants, coming down from Mistick for Boston, was driven upon Noddle's Island, and the men were forced to remain there aU night, without fire or the means of making any. The next day, however, they succeeded in reaching Boston ; but two of them were badly frost-bitten. The following Sunday the rivers were frozen up, and the peo- ple of Charlestown were prevented from coming to the sermon in Boston as usual, till high water in the afternoon. Two days before the cold weather came on, Mr. Richard Gar- ret, of Boston, sailed for Plymouth in a sort of shallop or open boat. Though it is said he undertook the voyage against the advice of his friends, no reason for such advice is assigned. With Mr. Garret went his daughter, a young girl, and a Mr. Harwood,J and three oth- ers. § When they arrived at or near the Garnet's Nose, the north-west * Mr. Endicott lived at Salem, and Mr. Garret and Henry Harwood are names in the Sharpe was to sail for England in the next first list of freemen of the colony. — The title ship. — Dudley's Letter. of Mr. (Master) at this time in New England f It took the name of Cambridge in 1638. was far more honorable than that of Esquire J Though Winthrop, my authority, does not two hundred years later. People in ordinary Mr. these two men, I have assumed the re- circumstances were called Good-man and sponsibility to do so. Garret was a shoe- Good-wife. maker, and Harwood " was a godly man of § Gov. Dudley says there were " 6 men and the congregation of Boston." Both Richard agirle." 112 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1630. wind drove them from their course, in spite of all they could do.* They expected to be driven out to sea; and their vessel began to fill with water; they at length became exhausted in their endeavors to free it. Believing themselves lost, some of the company disposed them- selves to die ; one of them, however, with more courage than the rest, espied land at a distance, to which it seems the wind was driving them. This animated those who had not lost the power of motion by the be- numbing cold and frost, partially to spread a sail, and they were dnven through dangerous rocks and shoals on to Gape Cod. Thus some got to land, but others had their legs so frozen into the ice which made in the boat, that they were forced to be cut out. Having at last all got on shore, they were not without the means of kindling a fire, but it was in a place where scarcely wood enough could be procured to make it of much service to them, and they were without even a hatchet with which to help themselves. In this extremity these poor people passed a most wretched and dismal night.t In the morning, two of them started for Plymouth, supposing it to be within seven or eight miles, whereas it proved to be near fifty ; and but for the kindness of the Indians, every one must have perished. Those who started for Plymouth were discovered in their wanderings by two squaws, who immediately reported their discovery to their husbands. The Indian men pursued and soon overtook them, conducted them to thejr wig- wam, refreshed and entertained them.J The next day, one of the Indians set out to guide the two men to Plymouth, and the other sought out the rest of the distressed company, which were seven mUes off. Garret died the same day, and the others could scarcely be kept alive. After doing what he could for them, the Indian returned to his wigwam and got a hatchet, with which he hewed a hole in the fi:ozen earth, and buried Garret as well as he could, piling wood upon his grave to protect his body from the wolves. He then built them a wig- wam, and made them as comfortable as it was possible for him to do in such a desolate place and with the means he had. Governor Bradford, of Plymouth, learning by the faithful Indian before mentioned that oth- ers were yet left suffering on the coast, immediately sent three men to them, who brought them to Plymouth. § Though they came comfort- ably, and with a fair wind, another of them died there soon after. One of the two men who went for Plymouth with the Indian, died in the * " But the wind then coming strongly from J These Indians belonged to the tribe of Nau- the shore, kept them from entring and drove set. It will be remembered that it was this them to seawards, and they having po better tribe which was so outraged by one Capt. meanes to help themselves, let down their kil- Hunt, in 1614. — See ante, p. 20. lick, that soe they might drive the more slowly, ^ " The govemour and counsell of Plymouth and bee nearer land when the storm should liberally rewardinge the Indian, and took care cese. But the stone slipping out of the kil- for the safety of our people, who brought them lick, and thereby they driveing faster than they all alive in their boate thither, save one man, thought all the night, found themselves out of who, with a guide chose rather to goe over sight of land in the morninge." — Dudley. land, but quickly fell lame by the way, and t "The stronger heljied the weaker out of the getting harbor at a trucking house the Plym- boate, and takeing their p-'.ile on shore, made otheans had in those parts, there hee yet a shelter thereof." — Dudley, ibid. abides." — Dudley, ibij. 1630.] THOMAS MORTON TRANSPORTED. 113 way, and the other died afterwards from the effects of the frost. The girl suffered the least of all ; * and though Mr. Harwood recovered, he laid a long time under the surgeon's hands.f This was a serious calamity to Boston in its early days. The loss of five or six active and useful citizens must then have been very heavily felt. To realize the magnitude of such a loss at that time, it is neces- sary to consider what one of a similar magnitude would have been at any given time since. Thus, when the population of Boston was sixty thousand, a loss of fifteen hundred men from their midst would have been nearly in the proportion to its population as the loss of five in 1630 was to the inhabitants then. Notice of Thomas Morton's apprehension in 1628 has been before taken, | and of his being sent out of the country, and of his return again * " Hannah Garret, a fatherless child, dyed (12.) im2."— Boston Records. Whether this was the sufferer named in the text is not known. James Garret and wife Deborah had children born in Boston, Mary, 4 : 3 : 1638 ; Priscilla, 28 : 4 : 1640 ; James, 6:6: 1643. — See N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg., iv. 184. Gov. Dudley is very particular respecting this disastrous voyage of early Boston men, " because," he says, " the first man that dyed was a godly man of our congregacon, one Rich- ard Garrad a shoemaker, who, at the time of his death, more feared hee should dishonor God than cargd for his own life." f Winthrop, i. 39^0, who is also very mi- nute and circumstantial about this melancholy affair. % See ante, pages 49, 50, and 94. Follow- ing Morton the Memorialist, I there stated the capture of Morton the Disturber as ' ' after the arrival of Gov. Endicott." But, from certain fragments of Gov. Bradford's Letter-book (re- ferred to in note %, p. 50, ante), I am aware that a conclusion must be drawn that prepara- tions were made to send Morton out or New England in June, 1628 ; consequently, before the arrival of Gov. Endicott at Naumkeag. If arrangements for sending the Disturber away were made before he was caught, then it may be that the statement of the Memorialist is true. But the accounts of the capture of Morton are destitute of dates, and Prince was no better off in his time in this respect, ac- knowledging (Chron. 244) that he was obliged to place it "by guess." Capt. Oldham was certainly in England early in the spring of 1629, and with him Morton was sent to Eng- land {Colls. Ms. His. Soc. iii. 62-^); but what time he sailed, or when he arrived there, nothing yet appears to show. — See Bradford in Prince, 252. Judge Davis supposed (in Morton, Mem. 141) that the Disturber was sent away in a ship called the Whale. This may have been the name of Oapt. Oldham's ship, but we know that when Morton speaks about being " in the Whale's belly," he refers to his confinement in the Handmaid. He makes 15 his case a parallel one to that of Jonah ; and , therefore, in running out his parallel, he must necessarily run into a whale's belly. He does not mention the name of any ship, but the captain of the Handmaid he calls Mr. Wether- cock. His real name was Grant, as stated in page 88, ante. Morton says this captain sailed without having " vittells but for a moneth, be- sides the vessell was a very slugg, and so un- serviceable ; so that in fine the Master and men were all at their wits end about it." That " nine moneths they made a shife to use her, and shifted for supply of vittells at all the islands they touched at." Finally, " with all those helpes," he says, " and short allow- ance of a bisket a day, and a few lymons taken in the Canaries," they came in view of the Land's End. Further, he says it was through the great mercy of God they had not all per- ished, ' ' for when they let drop an anchor neere the Island of St. Michael's, they had not one bit of foode left." This eventful voy- age he records in the last chapter of his " New Canaan," styling himself " Mine Host of Ma-re-Mount," who, he says, "after hee had bin in the whales belly, was set ashore to see if hee would now play lonas, so metamor- phosed with a longe voyage, that he looked like Lazarus in the painted cloth ; but Mine Host thought it fitter for him to play lonas in this kinde [making a book] than for the Sepe- ratists to play lonas in that kinde as they doe. Hee therefore bid Wetheroook tell the Seperat- ists that they would be made in due time to repent those malitious practices, and so would hee too ; for he was a Seperatist amongst the Seperatists as farre as his wit would give him leave." This Morton published in 1632. Two years later, when Charles I. was carrying on his high-handed measures about " ship- money," &c., and Bishop Laud was prosecut- ing his Conformity designs, Morton wrote to Mr. William Jeffery (perhaps the same men- tioned ante, p. 50) that " the Massachusetts Patent, by order of the Council, was declared, for manifest abuses, to be void ; that the king had re assumed the whole business into his 114 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1630. in 1629.* ' He had an interest at Mount WoUaston, and there again he took up his residence, and there he was when Boston was settled. Hence his Patent, if he had one, was covered by the Charter Brought over by the Massachusetts people. f It was therefore the duty of Gov- ernor Winthrop, as he conceived, to put an end to a colony within the bounds of his government, particularly as that colony did not acknowl- edge his authority ; and hence the order of Court for Morton's punish- ment and transportation, as stated in a previous chapter. J The order of Court that " Thomas Morton, of Mount Wollaston, shall presently be set in the bilbowes,"§ was dated on the seventh of Sep- tember of this year (1630). He had already been taken into custody,|| and was held a prisoner in Boston, until an opportunity should offer to send him again to England. There seems to have been some difficulty in finding any vessel the captain of which would receive him.lT At length, " in the end of December," writes Deputy-Governor Dudley, own hands, and given order for a general Gov- ernor to be sent over." And, in his exultar tion he vaunted that " he should soon see his desire upon his enemies ; ' ' and as to John Grant (Wethercock), "had he not betaken him to flight, lie would have been taught to sing clamavi in the Fleet before that time." — Winthrop, Journal, ii. 191. This letter was dated on the first of May (1634), the very day on which the ' ' Commission passed the privy seal." [I suppose the quo warranto of which Holmes speaks {Annals, i. 227) under 1635, and the " great ship which fell asunder in launching" should be under 1634. The story about the new ship " which in the very launching fell all in pieces, no man knew how," is given with superstitious satisfaction by Sir Simon D'Ewes, in his Autobiography, ii. 118, among the events of 1634. The quo warranto may be seen in Hutchinson's Col. Papers, 101, but not in its chronological order.] The turn of times in England, and not the accidental falling over of a ship in launching, saved New England at this time from the serious calamity with which Morton and his associates had so eiFectually prepared to visit it. * Mr. Isaac Allerton was sent over to Lon- don in 1628, probably in the fall (Prince, Chron., 252), as agent for Plymouth about the Kennebec Patent. He returned the next year (1629), perhaps towards August (see Prince, zA., 265), and, to the surjprise of everybody, Morton came with him, being employed as his scribe. _ To quiet the people, Mr. Allerton was obliged to discharge Morton, who repaired at once to his old quarters at Ma-re-Mount. Here he remained till August, the next year, as stated in the text. f See Bradford, in Colls. Ms. Hist. Soc, iii. 61, who says when his government was applied to by the other Plantations, " they were told that we had no authority to do any- thing" against Morton's colony ; " but seeing it tended to the utter ruin of all the whole country, we would join with them against so public a mischief." But, on the arrival of the Massachusetts Colony, want of jurisdic- tion was out of the question ; and, when Mor- ton urged it, the charter was referred to with an air of confidence that admitted of no appeal ; at which his resentment was unbounded, and he labored for its abrogation after he arrived in England, and not without success. At this time he exultingly wrote, " Repent you cruell Seperatists repent, there is yet but 40 dayes if love vouchsafe to thunder. Charter and the kingdome of the Seperatists will fall asunder. Repent you cruel Schismaticks repent," &c. — New Canaan, B. iii. chap. 31. Fortunately for New England, the government in Old Eng- land "falling asunder," Morton's projects fell to the ground, as already mentioned. t See ante, pages 95 and 98. 5 " Bilboes, a sort of punish- ment at sea, when an offend- er is laid in irons, or set in a kind of stocks." — Phillips and Ker- sey. It is quite probable that a ship's stocks was made use of on this occasion, be- cause time and bilboes. hands could not be well spared to build wooden stocks. I See ante, page 94. *![ In his New Canaan, Morton entitles the 29th chapter of his third book " How mine Host was put into a whale's belly," and then proceeds: "The Seperatists (after they had burned Ma-re-Mount, they could not get any shipp to undertake the carriage of mine Host from thence either by faire meanes or fowle), 1631.] ENEMIES IN ENGLAND. 115 who was one of those prominent in office at the time, " departed from TS the shipp Handmaide of London, by which wee sent away one Thomas Morton, a proud insolent man, who had lived here divers yeares, and had beene an Atturney in the "West Countryes, while he lived in Eng- land. Multitude of complaintes wee received against him for iniuries doone by him both to the English and Indians ; and amongst others, for shootinge hail shott at a troope of Indians for not bringing a can- nowe vnto him to cross a river withall ; whereby hee hurt one, and shott through the garments of another. For the sattisfacon of the Indi- ans wherein, and that it might appear to them and to the English that wee meant to doe iustice impartially, wee caused his hands to bee bound behind him, and sett his feete in the bill-bowes, and burned his howse to the ground, all in the sight of the Indians, and soe kept him prisoner till wee sent him for England;* whether wee sent him, for that my Lord Cheife Justice there soe required that hee might punish him cap- pitally for fowler misdemeaners there perpetrated, as wee were in- formed." f CHAPTEE XIV. Deaths. — A Fast turned into a Thanksgiving. — Incidents of the Voyage of the Lyon. — Arrival of Mr. Roger WUliams and others. — Melancholy Fate of young Way. — Arrival of distinguished Men. — Disasters to returning Ships. — Feeling in England against New England. — Banishments. — Indians complain of Wrongs. — Flight of Birds ominous. — Fire. — Artificers' Wages regulated. — Visits of Indians. — Return of Gentlemen to England. — Other Indians visit Boston. — Roger Wil- liams. — Precautions against the Mohawks. — Walfoi'd banished. — Chikataubut. — A General Court established. — Ferry to Charlestown. — Philip Ratoliff. N the third of January there died at Boston a young lady, who, by her amiable conduct, had so endeared herself to all that it was declared that Boston " had not received the Hke loss of any woman" since it began to be settled. She was the daughter of Mr. Thomas Sharp, one of the Assistants ; but her Christian name and her age are not mentioned, or the disease of which she died ; only that she had had " a long sickness." they were inforoed (contrary to their expecta- ,mouthe8 like Balam's Asse, and made them tion) to be troubled with his company; and speake in his behalfe, sentences of unexpected by that meanes had time to consider more of divinity, besides morrallity ; and tould them the man, than they had done of the matter." that God would not love them, that burned * It is not unlikely that Morton may have this good man's howse ; and plainely sayd, had difficulties with some of the neighboring that they who were new come would find the Indians, but many circumstances show that he want of such a howses in the winter." — New was rather a, favorite with them in general. Canaan, B. iii., chap. 23. In his own account it appears that when the f That Morton was greatly misrepresented, " devellish sentance against him was passed there is not much room to doubt, while there at Boston, the harmeles salvages (his neigh- may be no doubt that he was a reckless and boures) came the while, grieved poore silly misguided man. The " fowler misdemeaners" lambes, to see what they went about [when darkly hinted at by Dudley, are openly Said to the Authoreties put him in the bilboes] ; and be " murther besides other miscarriages," by 'did reproove these eliphants of witt for their Morton's namesake, the Memorialist. — See inhumane deede ; the Lord above did open their Memorial, (1st ed.) p. 72, or Ed. Davis, 140. 116 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1631. One other death is recorded this month, which was that of a girl, a daughter of John Euggels, only eleven years old.* Her demise was specially noticed on account of her having given such extraordinary evidences " concerning the things of another world." j,^^ g The situation of the settlers of Boston was becoming every day more trjdng ; as the winter advanced, provisions grew scarcer ; muscles, groundnuts and acorns, the chief dependence now of many, the snow and frozen state of .the earth rendered hard to be procured ; and Captain Peirce was looked for in agonizing despair, especially as the perils of the ocean, danger from pirates, and the hostility of known belligerent powers, were taken into view. Under these distressing cir- cumstances, a Fast is ordered to be kept ; when, to the great surprise and greater joy of the people, the very day before the Fast was to take place, Captain Peirce, in the Lyon, is announced as arrived at Nantas- ket, laden with provisions. Whereupon, to express their joy and grat- itude, the Fast is ordered to be changed to a Thanksgiving, and to be celebrated on the twenty-second of the same month, " in all the planta- tions." Not having heard anything from the Lyon, it is reasonable to suppose that the people would be wrought up to a mental excitement not easUy conceived of by observers at this distance of time, but easily arrived at by those whom starvation had been approaching with slow but certain strides, and was now not only in the very presence of many, but actu- ally staring them in the face. Nor was this state of things confined to the poor people of Boston, but even the Governor himself had seen his last grain of meal go to the oven. New life was put into every one by this acquisition of provisions ; even the sick, which were many at this time, began to improve in health ; especially those suffering from the scurvy, who received great benefit from the juice of lemons, of which Captain Peirce had taken care to bring a quantity. The Lyon sailed from Bristol on the first of December, and, as usual in a western voyage over the Atlantic in the midst of winter, she had a tempestuous passage of sixty-four days. About two hundred tons of goods, chiefly provisions, were received by her, and an accession of great importance besides, consisting of " about twenty passengers," f who all, save one, came safe. This one, a young man, son of Mr. Henry Way, of Dorchester, " fell from the spritsail yard in a tempest, and could not be recovered, though he kept in sight near a quarter of an hour." J Thus the fond hopes of one family were turned into deep affliction on the arrival of the long-looked-for ship. And, after all, he does not seem to have been f According to Gov. Dudley, there were in general discredit in England ; so that it about twenty-six which came at this time, may pretty safely be concluded that, as bad J " Who, in a tempest, haueing helped to as the " Merry-Mount rioter" was, he was not take in the spritt saile, lost his hold as hee so bad as his enemies_ would have us believe, was comeinge downe, and fell into the sea, * " Of whose family and_ kindred dyed so where after long swiming hee was drowned, to many, that for some reason, it was matter of the great dolour of those in the shipp, who be- observacon amongst vs." — Dudley. held soe lamentable a spectacle, without bee- 1631.] EOGER WILLIAMS. 117 Among the passengers who came to Boston now in the Lyon were Mr. Roger Williams,* with his wife, Mr. John Throgmorton, [Mr. John ?] Perkins, and [Mr. Francis ?] Onge, with their wives and chil- dren.! Many letters were received from friends by this arrival ; and though the news contained in them must have been a great relief to the people here, it caused a sorrowful mixture of pleasure and pain to haunt their minds, until other arrivals with later accounts, in a measure, took their place. Three of the ships which returned for England in the end of the last summer were attacked by several men-of-war from Dunkirk, on the English coast, and though they were not taken, they suffered extremely in a very severe contest, losing some thirteen or fourteen men. The Charles — " a stout ship of three hundred tons " — one of the three ships, " being soe tome that shee had not much of her left whole aboue water." The Success and Whale were the other two ships. They " allso vnderstood the death of many of those who went for Old England the last year, as likewise of the mortality there, whereby graves are seen in other places as well as here." J " To increase the heape of our sorrows," continues Dudley, " wee received advertisement from our friends in England, and by the reports of those who came hither in this shipp to abide with vs, that those who went discontentedly from us the last year, out of their evill affections towards us, have raised many false and scandalous reports against vs, ing able to minester help to him. The sea 18 years of age ; hence he was born 1606, and was soe high and the ship droue so fast before was indeed " a young minister" on his arrival the wind, though her sailes were taken doun." at Boston, as Winthrop observes. On his * Mary was the name of his wife, but of \A ^ what family she came has as yet eluded the c/jL-— ^-$^ ^-^ /x'/l'n J vigilance of genealogists ; nor have they sue- C L^ ^ tj J 0''Jy^ ceeded much better in ascertaining her hus- band's ancestry. Professor Romeo Elton has, banishment from Massachusetts, in 1635, he at length, after a long and praiseworthy search, went to a place which he named Providence, discovered, and this year (1853) published his and there became the founder of Rhode Island, discoveries respecting the parentage of Roger in 1636. His children were, Mary ; Freeborn ; Williams. He was the son of William Wil- Providence, b. 1638 (the first white children liams, of Oonwyl Cayo, in South Wales, and born in that state); Mercy; Daniel and Jo- was born on an estate which had been the seph. This last-named child lived in Cranston, seat of his ancestors for many generations, R. I., and died there at the age of 81, as ap- called Maestroiddyn fawr, in the- hamlet of pears by the inscription on his gravestone, as Maestroiddyn. He entered the university of follows : Oxford 30 April, 1624, at which time he was ** Here lies the Body of In King Philip's war courageously went through, Joseph Williams, Esq., And the native Indians he bravely did subdue ; who was the first white And now he 's gone down to the Grave, and he will be no more, man that came to Provi- Until it please Almighty Qod his body to restore, dencc* He was Born Into some proper shape as he thinks fit to be, 1644, be died au. 17, Perhaps like a Grain of Wheat, as Paul sets forth you see. 1724, in the Slst year of Corinthians, 1st Book, 15 Chapter, 37 v." his age. The above autograph of the founder of Rhode \ Dudhy. — '"Of those which went back in Island is from a fragment without date. the ships this summer [1630], for fear of death f Winthrop's Jour, and his editor's notes ; or famine, many died by the way and after Harris' Memorials of Dorchester; Francis' they were landed, and others fell very sick and Hist, of Watertown, low." — Winthrop, i. i&. * A slight error, occasioned by confounding him with his father. 118 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1631. affirming vs to be Brownists in religion, and ill affected to our state at home ; and that their vile reports have wonne creditt with some who formerly wished vs well."* Against such imputations Dudley protests in clear and strong terms, saying he hoped their friends who had known them would give no credit to any such reports ; as that they had turned from the professions they had so long made in their native country ; that he knew not even one person that came over the last year who was altered in his judg- ment and affection, " eyther in ecclesiasticall or civill respects since their comeing hither." " Let our friens therefore," he writes, "give noe creditt to such malicious aspersions, but bee more ready to answer for us, then we heare they have beene. Lett, therefore, this be suf- ficient for vs to say, and others to heare in this matter." Until this time, the frost had enchained the rivers and harbor, but now there was a relaxation, and the ice broke up, and did not make again as before. And it was remarked that " ever since this Bay was planted by Englishmen, namely, seven yeara, that at this day the frost hath broken up every year."f It would be curious to institute an inquiry extending from 1630 to this or any late period, relative to the breaking up of the harbor. J, Mr. Robert Welden died at Charlestown, "a hopeful young gentleman, and an experienced soldier." He died of consump- tion. " In the time of his sickness he was chosen to be captain of one hundred foote, but before he tooke possession of his place hee dyed." J, jj jg His affectionate companions gave him a soldier's funeral, bury- ing him under arms at Boston, " with three voUies of shott."J j^^^ ^ A Court of Assistants is held at Boston, which is the first this year. There were present, Winthrop, Dudley, Saltonstall, Lud- low, Endicott, Pynchon, Nowell, Sharp, Coddington,§ and Bradstreet. * " Oapt. Levet, about this time returning lished in 1628, and recently reprinted by the for England, died at sea ; by which occasion, Mass. Hist. Soc, and also by the Maine Hist. some letters, sent from indiscreet persons, fell Society. There does not appear to be anything into the hands of them that had no good will added to these editions throwing any light on for the Plantation ; and by that means clam- the path of the author of the voyage, ore were raised against them, which furnished f Winthrop, Journal, i. 43. their enemies with matters of complaint against J Dudley and Wivihrop ; the annotator on the them, which their petitions were stuffed with- latter finds Elizabeth Welden, church member, a' ~~5"^^*"^^' ^' ^^■' ^^^- ^°- ^^' " S°^^ to Watertown." He thinks she At a Court on the 6th of September of this may have been the widow of this Capt. Wel- year, "one Henry Linne [of Boston] was den. His conjectures in this line average better whipped and banished for writing letters into than most men's. England lull of slander against our government and orders of our churches." — Winthrop, i. ^_^ ''^— /^2X^ * 61. Mr. Savage, from the Colony Records, i. QUfM^fl' I /)jA At^jpU^r-v, 59, says " Linn " was not banished ; that be- t_y ^i^ 1 /.^ „ Christopher's,andreturnedinaboutthree weeks I' wZZZt 9. t ?■ ^^^^L^.r I in'" to Charllestown, " so broke she could not return z. Wesagascus, 2 7. JJorchester, 4 10 , ,, t- ? • co r-A + ti-j 3. Saug,^, 1 8. Roxbary, 3 home." — Journal, 1. 58, 60. Vj . 4. Nantasket, 10 9. Salem, 3 9 A milch cow at this tjme was valued at 5. Watertown, 5 10. Charlestown, 4 10 from £25 to £30, sterling. — fiwicfeVisore. 17 130 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1631. each month a general training of Captain Underhill's company is to be held here and at Roxbury. At the same Court, Captain Southcot has liberty granted him to go for England, under a promise " to return with all convenient speed." He did not, however, return any more to New England ; but why he did not is not known. Perhaps, like many other adventurous men of that day, he took part in the civil war that ensued. A good deal of apprehension and alarm was occasioned in ^"^' ^' Boston, about this period, by an inroad of the Tarratines among the Indians on this side of Merrimack river, in which they perpetrated a bloody massacre upon the Agawams, a small tribe in friendship with the English.* Seven of these were kiUed, several wounded, and others carried into captivity. Among the wounded were Wonohaqueham and Montowampate, who belonged in the vicinity of Boston, but who were upon a visit to Masconomo, the Sachem of the Agawams, at that time.f They also rifled a camp or wigwam at which some of Mr. Cradock's men were stationed, employed in catching sturgeon. With those car- ried away prisoners was the wife of Montowampate, from whom they heard about a month afterwards. The war-party of Tarratines carried her to Pemaquid, and Mr. Abraham Shurte,f who lived there, learmng the circumstances, ransomed her and sent her home.§ In aU or nearly all of the Government's transactions with the ^^ ■ ' Indians, not only justice appears to have been done them, but a commendable liberaUty is also observable towards them. At a Court * Some who had read Winthrop's Journal ofthose Tarratines' families, and therefore was before the late Editor, namely, Mr. Hubbard, the less pitied of the English." — Hubbard, Mr. Prince and Mr. Noah Webster,* aU agree Hist. N. Eng., 145. He nad been, by order that the reading, " The Tarratines came in of Court, 5 July previous, forbid " coming 30 canoes" upon this expedition, is the true into any Englishman's house." reading ; but the late Editor, though he is not % Often -mritten Shurd, while his own signa- sure his predecessors read wrong, substitutes ture was Shurte. He was Hying in the end of 3 for 30, because he found that the Indians of the year 1662, aged " fourscore years, or there- New York had great canoes, capable of carry- abouts." He was the Roger Conant of those ing 80 persons. This may have been a conclus- parts ; and I will take the liberty to advise the ive argument with him, while it is extremely gentlemen of the Maine Historical Society, that doubtful whether it will be so with his succes- every day they neglect his history, the greater sors. We hear of no such great canoes among will be the charge against them, and the more the Tarratines, while the number of them that difficult it will De for them to meet it. The fell upon the Agawams must have been large. Shurte family probably came from Bideford, Quartermaster John Perkins, living at Aga- Co. of Devon. — See 'Wa.t'kiaa' History of Bide- wam (Ipswich), at that time, told Mr. Cobbet, ford. See, also. Commissioners^ Report, (^-c. of a few years after the affiiir happened, that he the Difficulties in Lincoln County, Me. He himself saw 40 birch canoes full of Indians in came to N. England in 1626. — See his deposi- one fleet, which came on an apparently hostile tion. Ibid., p. 40. design, but being discovered, made ofl without ^ " About this time the Indians that were effecting their object. — See Book op the In- most conversant among them [the English] DiANS, B. ii., 110. came quaking and complaining of a barbarous I " This Sagamore of Agawam (as was and cruell people called the Tarratines, who, usually said), had treacherously killed some they said, would eat such people as they ^„^ „. .^. , . , caught, alive ; tying them to a tree, and gnaw- * The edition of Winthrop's Journal, published in Hartford, in> x i. Txr J— .n and there inserted." No name of Editor or Transcriber was °^® to the Jlinglish." — JohnsOn, Wonder-lO. printed in that Impression. Prov., p. 50, 1631.] CONTROV£KSY WITH PLYMOUTH. 131 of Assistants now convened at Boston, on complaint of Chikataubut and his men, that Mr. Josias Plaistowe had stolen four baskets of corn from them, he was ordered to return them- eight baskets, pay a fine of five pounds, and hereafter to be called Josias, and not Mr. Josias, as for- merly, and thus "be degraded from the title of a gentleman." Two of his servants, being accessary, were ordered to be whipped. Their names were William Buckland and Thomas Andrew. But a short time previous, the Court entertained a complaint made by an Indian and his squaw, that a young white man had attempted to disturb their family relation by some overtures to the latter of an unjus- tifiable character. He was sentenced to be whipped, and was whipped accordingly, in the presence of the injured party, who " were very well satisfied." Governor Dudley writes* that, soon after the arrival of the colonists which came over in 1630, with Winthrop, himself, and other chief men of that company, for want of provisions to support their servants, many of them were allowed to go free, and maintain themselves as well as they could. Now, the want of those servants had become of serious inconvenience to those who had advanced some twenty pounds apiece to enable them to come to New England, and their masters were becom- ing every day better able to employ and support them. The Govern- ment at Boston had, or thought they had, reason to believe that many of those servants had gone to Plymouth, and were harbored by the peo- ple there ; therefore Mr. Winthrop, by virtue of his office, wrote to Mr. Bradford, the Governor of Plymouth, complaining that the people of Plymouth had entertained and were harboring the servants which be- longed to the people of Boston, f Out of this letter of Winthrop and his Council may have originated the ill-feeling and jealousy which existed at this period at Plymouth, and caused its Governor to deny the people of Massachusetts the privilege of trading for com with the Indians at Cape Cod, J as they had done the previous year. However this may be. Governor Bradford wrote in answer to that letter of Winthrop, after considerable delay, § for which he apologizes, and says that they of Plymouth are willing to correspond with the authorities of Boston upon " this or any other naborly course, so farr as may no way be prejudiciall to any, or swarue from y* rules of equitie." The Boston gentlemen intimated in the letter of complaint that an agreement or understanding had been made with Mr. Winslow ; but Mr. Winslow had gone to England, || and could not then be consulted ; therefore Bradford says they of Plymouth know nothing about any agreement with Mr. Winslow ; that their meaning and former practice * See ante, p. 89. & Date of Bradford's letter is " Feb. 6, t See WintBrop's Journal, i. 60. 1631." [1632, N. S.] J Inferences drawn from Gov. Bradford's || He sailed about the middle of July, 1631. reply to Winthrop. The letter of the latter — See Prince, 357. which occasioned the reply I know not to be in existence. Winthrop's letter was dated July 26th, 1630. 132 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1631. " was and hath been, only such as come to dwell and inhabit, whether as seruants or free men, and not of sojoumours, which come but for a seasone, with a purpose to returne." Yet, he says, "if any abuse should grow hereby, we shall agree to any good order for the preuent- ing or redressing of the same ; prouided the way be left open for pore men to releue their wants, and for mutuall help to both plantations. We have therefore giuen warning in open courte to aU our people, not to receiue any as seruants or dwellers with them, but to acqvainte vs first therewith, that we may inquire of their certificates or dismisseons ; but we haue sett no penealtie vpon it as yett, because we hope ther shall be noe need, if ther be, we haue libertie to punish such things at our discretions. If that will not serue, when we vnderstand what pen- ealtie you appointe in the case, we shall doe y° like, or y' which shall be equivelente vnto it. As for the instances you giue, we find that John Philips, when he came, was sicke, and if he had not been by some received to house, he had been in danger to haue perished. He aledged he was sent by his maister to seeke a seruise ; yet as a seruente he was not entertained by any, till his maister came and sould his time ; not to him y' gave him house roame, but to him that would giue most. So he had no cause to complaine. [As] for John Pickworth, he came but as a sojournour, to worke for a few weeks, in which time he goate a wife ; and so is longe since returned duble, and hath no cause to complaine, except he hath goot a bad wife. Eichard Church* came likewise, ass a sojournour, to worke for y present ; though he is still hear residente, longer then he purpossed ; and what he will doe, neither we, nor, I think him selfe, knowes ; but if he resolue here to setle, we shall require of him to procure a dismission ; but he did affirme to vs at y* first, that he was one of Mr. Webb'sf.men, and freed to goe for England, or whither he would ;| y" which we y° rather beleued, because he came to vs frome Wessagusscusett upon y° faling out with his parttner. § [As] for others intimated, we know none, though we haue inquired, but they had a dismission, either to come hither, or goe for England. Now ther are diuerce goone from hence, to dwell and inhabite with you ; as Clement Brigges, John Hill, John Eedy, Daniel Eay, &c. ; the which, if either you, or they desire thir dismission, we shall be redy to giue them, hope- ing you will doe the like, in the like cases, though we haue heard something otherwise." || / t - This letter was signed by ^./^^^^^A-Z^f- * This was the father of Col. Benjamin Dudley speaks, as set at liberty because their Church, one of the most noted captains in the masters could not provide for them. — See Indian wars. For a very satisfactory note anie, p. 89. upon the father, see the N. Eng. Hist, and § Thomas Morton ? Church probably went Gen. Reg., ii. 243. to Plymouth while Morton was in power at t Mr. Francis Webb? As is observed in the Mount Wollaston. Winthrop wrote in July Gen. Regr., ut supra, this name in the origi- about the runaway servants, and in August nal stands " Welbs," but I think it was in- (1630) Morton was carried a prisoner to Bos- tended for " Webb's ;" and who but Francis ? ton. % That is, he came over at the charge of || Taken from the original letter, all in Mr. Webb, and was one of those of whom Bradford's own hand. reae . 1631.] A FEUD IN THE GOVERNMENT. 133 Myles Standish, Thomas Prence, Samuel Fuller, and John Alden. The four last were Assistants, and answered to the Governor and Council of later times. Mr. Winslow was another of the Assistants, whose name would no doubt have followed that of the Grovernor, had he been at home. As no more is heard about harboring runaway servants, the matter probably ended with Mr. Bradford's letter. It had been agreed, in December last, after a good deal of anxious deliberation among the ofi&cers of the government, to build a fortified town at Newton, as in its proper place has been mentioned. Accord- ingly, several of the gentlemen built houses there this spring. * Mr. Winthrop probably saw that a fortified town in that place would be no advantage to the Colony whatever, and that Boston was daily increasing in importance. Therefore, about the beginning of November, the Gov- ernor caused his house at Newton to be taken down, conveyed to Bos- ton, and set up there. It appears not to have been finished, which is evidence that he did not intend to live in it at the former place, while Dudley had his finished, and his family actually in it. This proceeding of Mr. Winthrop caused Mr. Dudley to censure him for a want of good faith, and the other gentlemen were likewise dissatisfied with the rea- sons which Mr. Winthrop gave for not taking up his residence at New- ton ; and it must be confessed, that those reasons do, even now, look a little obnoxious to the charge of insincerity. He said he had performed his promise, inasmuch as he had a house up, and servants occupying it by the time appointed ; and hence, if he did remove it elsewhere, imme- diately, it did not affect his agreement ; and, besides, he had been reminded by the people of Boston, that he had promised them, when they settled with him here, that he should not leave them, and even Mr. Dudley himself had discouraged the people of Boston from settling at Newton, f Thus matters stood for a time ; the Governor and Deputy having suspended friendly intercourse. J At length, their mutual friends got * " On this spot a town was laid out in them are very rich, and well stored with cat- squares, the streets intersecting each other at tell of all sorts ; having many hundred acres right angles. All the streets were named, and of ground paled in with one generall fence, a square reserved for a Market Place, though which is about a mile and a halfe long." — not used for that purpose, remains open to this New England's Prospect, 33-4. day." — Rev. Dr. Holmes, Annals, i. 210. f See Hubbard, Gen. Hist, of New England, Mr. William Wood, who came to New Bng- 136. land probably in 1629, and left it in 1633, thus J The curious reader .may desire to find, in speaks of " New-Towne, which is three miles this history, an account of some of the steps by land from Charles-Towne, and a league and taken in this singular case, by which he may a halfe by water. This place was first intended discern more clearly the real actions of the for a City, but upon more serious considera- actors in it. I therefore extract as follows tions it was not thought so fit, being too farre from Winthrop, giving him thereby the ad- from the Sea, being the greatest inconvenience vantage of ea; ;)arte testimony. He says, "At it hath. This is one of the neatest and best a Court at Boston, 3 April, 1632 [held, I compacted Towns in New England, having believe, in the Governor's own house], the many faire structures, with many handsome Deputy, Mr. Dudley, went away before the contiived streets. The inhabitants most of Court was ended, and then the Secretary deliv- 134 HISTOEY OF BOSTON. [1031. them to submit the matter to Arbiters ;* these— though they determined that the Governor's conduct was, in some measure excusable, especially as he was ready to acknowledge his error — the Arbiters, therefore, de- cided that Mr. Winthrop should pay Mr. Dudley twenty pounds towards his expenses in building, or provide a minister for Newton, and con- tribute towards his maintenance. The Governor chose the former, and soon after forwarded the twenty pounds to Mr. Dudley. The Deputy-Governor, although proverbial for driving good bargains, in this affair gave a proof of his magnanimity, which will worthily ac- company his name through the wilderness of ages. He refused to take Mr. Winthrop's money ; saying that he was satisfied that the Gov- ernor's intentions were good, and that if the award had been five times as much, he would have returned it in the same manner. Whereupon a sort of business-understanding was restored. Before dismissing this case, it may be well to notice an occurrence or two in the progress of it. Mr. Dudley looked upon the conduct of the Governor in so unfavorable a light, that he determined not to serve any longer in the government with him, and much of crimination ensued between them. Dudley labors under a disadvantage in the recital, because he can be heard only through his adversary. Winthrop accused him of extortion and usury, because " he had sold seven bushels and an half of corn, to receive ten for it after harvest." In answer, Dudley pointed to a law made by themselves against usury, to which was this proviso added : " That nothing in that law was to prohibit the letting of cattle, or other usages of a like nature, in practice amongst farm- ers." But this vindication did not satisfy the Governor, or he pre- tended that the clause in favor of farmers' affairs did not extend to this case. Dudley seems now to have lost his temper in some degree, and with warmth affirmed that he had done nothing illegal ; and that he never knew any man of understanding of other opinion ; and that if the Governor thought otherwise, it was his weakness ; and, among other " hot words about it," he said to the Governor, " that if he had thought he had sent for him to his house to give him such usage, he would not have come there." Winthrop, no doubt, feeling that his own was the hard side of the case, says, " He took no notice of these speeches, and bore them with more patience than he had done upon a like occasion at another time." But he did not let the Deputy-Gov- ernor go at this stage of the controversy, though he did not succeed any better, if so well, in his next accusation against him. Mr. Winthrop complained that Mr. Dudley was extravagant in building his house at Newton; that he had set a bad example for people to follow, who ered the Governor a letter from him, directed ham, •vrho met at Charlestown on the 3 AagnBt, to the Governor and Assistants, vrherein he 1632. By continuing the narrative of this declared a resignation of his Deputyship and afiFair under this year (1631), the time in place of Assistant ; but it was not allovred." which much of.it took place, is, of course, — Jour., i. 72. anticipated, and some events which transpired * The gentlemen were Mr. Nowell, Mr. Wil- during its progress, fell in after it. son, Mr. Weld, Mr. Maverick, and Mr. War- 1631.] A FEUD m THE GOVERNMENT. 135 could not afford to do so ; particulariziug " wainscoting and adorning his house." This charge, without Mr. Dudley's reply, would indeed seem of some validity. But when he says that the extravagance com- plained of, was only " for the warmth of his house, and the cost small ; and that the wainscoting consisted only of clapboards nailed to the wall in the form of wainscoting," this charge has a little the appearance of being made for the want of a better one ; and whether it were prompted by jealousy, because the Deputy-Governor was better able to build a handsomer house than the Grovernor could afford to, it is not undertaken to decide. It was objected by Mr. Dudley, that the Governor had exercised too much authority, and demanded of him how he had derived such an assumption of power, — whether from the Patent or otherwise ? The Governor smartly replied, that he had not transcended his authority ; " and speaking somewhat apprehensively," as he himself says, " the Deputy began to be in a passion, and told the Governor, that if he were so round, he would be round too." What this being "round" meant, is easier to be understood, perhaps, than " speaking somewhat appre- hensively." Notwithstanding the Governor's usual mildness, he did, by his own candid confession, suffer himself to get a little "round" on this occasion ; and in that spirit he told Mr. Dudley he might get round too, for aught he cared. " So the Deputy rose up in great fury and passion, and the Governor grew very hot also, so as they both fell into bitterness." All this appears to have taken place in the presence of the reverend arbitrators, who, interfering, stayed the further progress of the wordy warfare ; and both, when they had time to reflect, were no doubt satis- fied that, by the storm they had raised, the " ship of state," though not in any great danger, had not advanced any during the continuance of the tempest. Proceeding with his allegations, Mr. Dudley inquired by what right Mr. Winthrop had removed certain cannon, which were public property ; and by what authority he had caused a fort to be erected in Boston 1 The Governor replied, that the cannon laid rusting on the beach ; that he had often called the attention of the Court to their spoiling con- dition, and nothing had been done ; that now they were mounted, and placed where they might be of service, and all without any charge to the public. The Deputy next desired to know on what authority he had licensed .Captain Edward Johnson " to sit down at Merrimack" 1 The Governor said he had only licensed him to trade with the Indians, " as he had done divers others," which was within his authority. It was then demanded why he had given the people of Watertown leave to erect a wear in Charles river ; and why he had " disposed of lands to divers" ? Why he had allowed Rateliff and Gray, who had been ban- ished, to remain within the jurisdiction 1 It is pretty clear, judging from the Governor's answers to the latter inquiries, that if he had slightly overstepped the bounds of his author- 136 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1631 ity, he gave very plausible reasons for doing so. The key to much of the difficulty unquestionably was a jealousy on the part of the Deputy- Governor, If he refused, or was otherwise prevented cooperating with Winthrop, the latter was, as a matter of course, obliged to assume responsibiUties. Being a more popular man than Mr. Dudley, the peo- ple clustered around him, and were at all times ready to sustain him ; and thus similar cases will always have a similar issue. They are easily discerned through all periods of history. There had been several orders of Court passed of an extremely arbi- trary character,* to which Mr. Dudley, as one of the Court, made no objection at the time, and perhaps would not have objected to them, or the exercise of them, had he been consulted afterwards ; but the cause, whatever it was, that interrupted his intercourse with Winthrop, left the latter in a sort of dilemma. He must either carry out those orders on his own responsibility, as Governor, or let them' remain a dead letter. He very properly might have thought it was not his duty to go out of Boston to consult the Deputy-Governor, when cases came up requiring immediate action. Notwithstanding the difficulties between the two highest officei-s of the government, neither of them appears to have suffered much in his popularity. Of the two, Winthrop was, no doubt, the more liberal ; and, if he did deviate a little sometimes, the people took little or no notice of it ; while Dudley, precise and exact, doing always as he agreed to do, demanded the same of others. Sometimes, perhaps, he may have been a little too rigid in his exactions, allowing not hardly enough for human frailties and uncontrollable circumstances ; hence he was not likely to be quite so popular as one of a somewhat differently constituted mind. Nov 2 Governor Winthrop's popularity was strikingly manifest dur- ing the progress of the difficulty with Mr. Dudley, though the extraordinary demonstrations about to be detailed must not be entirely claimed for the former. Captain William Peirce, their former deliverer from famine, now sailed into Boston harbor. His arrival at any time was a sufficient cause for feasts and rejoicings ; but he brought, with him at this time about sixty passengers, whom he landed safe, after a voyage of two months and a half. Among these passengers came Mrs. Winthrop, the Governor's lady, his oldest son, John Winthrop, Jr., and his wife, and others of his children ; and Mr. John Eliot, afterwards so famous for his labors to christianize the Indians. Two children had died during the voyage, one of which was the Governor's daughter, aged about one year and a half. Nov. 4. '^^^ ^^'**^ °f ^^^ weather was such that the Lyon could not get up to the town for two days ; then, coming to anchor before Boston, the passengers went on shore. Captain Peirce accompanied the Governor and his lady in his own boat, at whose departure the ship • See under 14 June, 1631, ante. 1632.] EXPLORATIONS OF ADJACENT COUNTRY. 137 gave them seven guns, and the captains at the head of their train-hands on shore stood ready to escort them from the hoat to the dweUings pro- vided for them. " Divers vollies and three drakes" saluted them on their landing, " and divers of the Assistants, and most of the people of the near plantations came to welcome them," who brought and sent, for many days, all sorts of provisions, as "fat hogs, kids, venison, poultry, geese, partridges, &c. ; so as the like joy and manifestation of love had never been seen in New England ; and it was a great marvel that so many people, and such store of provisions could be gathered together at so few hours' warning." * jj^ jj^ This rejoicing and festivity was followed in a few days by a Thanksgiving. J, ^ Governor Bradford, of Plymouth, came on a visit to Boston, and, what is rather remarkable, he lodged at night on board the Lyon, with Captain Peirce. It may be that accommodations were bet- ter there than in the town, owing to the arrival of so many emigrants of late. Mr. Eliot, immediately after his arrival, began to preach in Mr. Wil- son's place, who was yet absent. He left his wife in England, at his first coming over, as did also many others. J, „, Captain Peirce did not make a very long stay at this time, and sailed for England by way of Virginia, and many went home with him ; among others, Sir B.ichard Saltonstall's eldest son. They were six weeks in reaching Virginia. CHAPTER XVI. Explorations of the adjacent Country. — Spot Pond. — Indian Alarms. — Great Arrival of Corn. — Organization of the General Court. — House of Representatives. — Fort built. — Return of Mr. Wilson. — Importation of Cows. — Arriral of Ministers. — Troublesome Questions. — Visit of Nar- raganset Indians. — Some punished. — Windmill set up. — The first Meeting-house. — Fears from the Indians. — Complaints and Grievances. — Punishment for Profaneness. — Mr. Stephen Bache- lor. — A House of Correction ordered. — Distinguished Strangers. — The Governor entertains them. — Accompanies them to Plymouth. — Account of their Journey. — Trouble about Mr. Eliot. — He leaves Boston. OME of the gentlemen of Boston improved a portion Jan 27 ^^ ^^^^^ *™® during the second winter of their settlement in making excursions into the sur- rounding wilderness. The Governor, Mr. John Mas- ters, Mr. Robert Feake, and Adam Winthrop, a son of the Governor, were among a party who went up Charles river, " about eight miles above Watertown," as they judged. On coming to " a fair brook on the north side of the river, they named it Beaver brook, because the beavers had shorn down divers great trees there, and made divers dams * Winthrop, Prince. 18 138 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1632.' across the brook. This brook came from a pond a mile from the river." A little further onward they came " to a great rock, upon which stood a high stone, cleft in sunder, that four men might " pass through the fissure ; this they called Adam's chair, in compliment to the youngest person in the company. Further up the river, they came to another brook, larger than the former, which they named Masters' brook, be- cause Mr. Masters was the oldest in the company. A high, pointed rock, not far off, they named Mount Feake, Mr. Feake having married the daughter-in-law of the Governor. On the west of Mount Feake, from a very high rock, they could " see all over Neipnett ;"* and also Wachuset mountain, which they supposed to be about forty miles dis- tant, and other mountains about sixty miles oiF, in the north-west. In another excursion, in which there went with the Governor Mr. Nowell and Mr. Eliot, they discovered the since interesting body of water called Spot Pond. It " having in the midst an island of about one acre, and very thick with trees of pine and beech ; and hav- ing divers small rocks standing up here and there in it, they therefore called it Spot Pond;" and, says Winthrop, "they went all about it upon the ice." Not far off they named a certain rock Cheese rock, because " when they went to eat somewhat," they found they had noth- ing but cheese to eat ; " the Governor's man, for haste, forgot" to put in the bread. Seven days after, the Governor and some others explored the country as far as Neponset river ; but no mention is made of anything remarkable having been discovered. At a Court of Assistants it was ordered that Courts, which had been held every three weeks, should, in future, be held on the first Tuesday in every month. During the winter no mention is made of any trouble from the A ril 12 I'^'^i^^^ '■> ^^^ early in April startling intelligence is brought to Boston of a war between the Narragansets and Pokanokets, and that the Narragansets had sent for the Indians about Boston to go and fight for them, and that Sagamore John had gone with thirty men, and Chikataubut with many of his. The messenger who brought this news came from Plymouth with letters detailing the circumstances, and requesting a quantity of ammunition. The Governor put bim up twenty- * As to what was formerly meant by the coast. The name Netxrp signified /nenfi among Nipmuck or "Neipnelt" country there is much these tribes, and hence the origin of the name of uncertainty. This is not at all strange, in- of those inland Indians; the different tribes asmuch as there never was a time, probably, slightly differing in their pronunciation of it. when anybody, Indian or Englishman, could Not taking these facts into account, writers, truly define its boundaries. — See Book of the both early and late, have puzzled themselves Indians, Book ii., p. 82 (eleventh edition), and perolexed their readers in attempts to The Nipmuok or Nipnet Indians consisted of locate the "Nipmuck Country." When the such as preferred living in the interior to liv- king's commissioners, in 1.741, settled the ing on the sea-coast, and such as withdrew boundarybetween Plymouth and Rhode Island, from the tribes about the coast from some dis- they satisfied themselves that " this Nipmug affection on their part or that of the tribes to territory could not be ascertained." — See which they belonged. The Nipnets were, Douglass, i. 398. The commissioners were therefore, the friends and relatives of the led to investigate the matter because, by the Wampanoags, Narragansets, and other tribes Grant to Plymouth Colony in 1629, the Nip- about the arms and inlets of this part of the muck country was a boundary. 1632.] HOUSE OF BEPRBSENTATIV-ES FORT. 139 seven pounds of powder ; that being " as much as he could carry." , _., -g However, a few days after, intelligence came, that the Narra- gansets, who were reported to have attacked the Pokanokets, at Sowams, had gone in pursuit of the Pequots, and thus the excitement was allayed. At this time, a Dutch ship arrived from Virginia, with two thousand bushels of corn, which brought four shillings and sixpence the bushel. Thus it is seen that provisions of this sort were now at a fair price. ,j g At a General Court, it was agreed that the Governor, Deputy- ^^ ■ Governor, and Assistants, should be chosen by the whole Court ; that the Governor shall always be chosen out of the Assistants chosen for the year ensuing. At tlais Court Wintfirop and Dudley were re- chosen. Ludlow, Nowell, Pynchon, Bradstreet, Endicott, Humfrey, Coddington, and John Winthrop, junior, were chosen Assistants. Mr. Humfrey and Mr. Coddington were chosen, though out of the country, being daily expected. The Court passed an order that there should be two persons elected in every plantation, to confer with the Court about raising a public stock. Thus, in matters of revenue at least, it was found necessary that the people should have a voice, and hence this provision for a sort of House of Representatives.* Hitherto some of the measures of the govern- ment had been complained of as arbitrary and oppressive, which may have been the occasion of this new branch in the government. The idea of fortifying Newtown having been laid aside, it was thought that fortifications should not be dispensed with altogether, and, according to some previous arrangements, it was agreed to build a fort in that part of Boston called Corn Hill. Boston people commenced it on this day. Charlestown men came and worked on it the following , day, Eoxbury men the next day, and Dorchester next. The ^^ ' name of the hill on which it was built was changed to Fort Hill, which it still retains, f All was now bustle and stir in Boston, and many a heart ^ ' leaped for joy. The ship Whale, Captain Graves, being an- nounced as in the harbor, and on board of her was the beloved Wilson, who went for England the last year for his wife ; also Mr. Richard Dummer, and about thirty passengers, all in health. Of seventy cows sent in the same ship, two only were lost on the passage. For these blessings, and especially for the signal victories gained by Gustavus Adolphus, in Germany, by which he rescued * The towns accordingly chose the following Again we meet with several names before gentlemen pursuant to the order : duly honored in the preceding pages. But, 1. Mr. Oldham and Mr. Masters, for Watertown. ' "O* 'o wait for 2. Robert Coles and John Johnson, for Eoxbury. A . another opportu- 3. Mr. William Colborn and William Gesbrough, for J^^^^y^ ^f^ O^yieM^jL nity , we here in- Boston. / ^^ Bert a fac-simile 4. Richard Wright and , for Saugus. • pf j j,g autograph 5. Mr. Lookwood and Mr. Spencer, for Newton. „f ij-s^™ n„„.,™ tT,„ fi,n,o,. /^f cjulom 6. Mr. Gibbons and Mr. Palmer, for Charlestown. 0^ KoGER CoNANT, the father ot balem. 7. Mr. Conant and Peter Palfrey, for Salem. t There can be no mistake m locatmg this 8. William Felps and John Gallard, for Dorchester, first fort in Boston. Mr. Wood says, " ihis 140 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1632. that country from the Popish yoke, a thanksgiving was ordered to be celebrated throughout all the Plantations. Some inconvenience had begun to be experienced by the colonists from an over-familiarity of the natives, who, under pretence of trade, would intrude at all times and seasons into private houses. Therefore, at this Court, it was agreed that every plantation should set up a truck- ing house. This, it was thought, would abate the difficulty. On the same day this Court was held, there arrived the ship William and Francis, Captain Thomas, with about sixty passengers ; among whom came Mr. Thomas Weld, and " old Mr. Stephen Bachelor, being aged seventy-one, with their families, and many other honest men." The same day, also came in the Charles of Barnstaple, and in her was Mr. Timothy Hatherly, who afterwards laid the foundation of Scituate. There were about twenty passengers. She also brought an important accession of "near eighty cows, and six mares, all safe and in health." The former ship sailed from London on the ninth of March, and the Charles, from Barnstaple, on the tenth of April, and they met near Cape Ann. Mr. Edward Winslow, of Plymouth, was a passenger in the WiUiam and Francis. Few thanksgivings have happened in Boston, probably, more heartily celebrated than that appointed to take place on the morrow. To make it still more joyous, however, another ship is added to the large number of late arrivals, — the James, near eight weeks from London, Captain Grant, with twelve passengers. She sailed with sixty-one heifers, but by what fataUty she lost forty of them on the voyage, is not mentioned. The " Congregation at Boston" were in considerable trouble, about this time, respecting the following matters, namely : whether one per- son might be a civil magistrate and a ruling elder at the same time ? If not, then which should he lay down 1 Whether there might be divers pastors in the same Church ? These questions weighed so heavily on the Church of Boston, that the members wrote to the neighboring Churches for advice in what appeared to be an alarming difficulty. The Churches addressed returned an unanimous answer to the first question, in the negative ; but on the second and third, they did not presume to adventure an opinion ; and how the Boston Church finally extricated itself, does not appear. Aug. 3. ^^^^_ ^ heard of annoyance from the many Indians which must have visited Boston, probably every day, than could reasonably be expected, when it is considered that they could not have had any adequate idea of the white people's laws, and their rules of propriety in intercourse. At this time, Mecumeh, afterwards known as Mian- tunnomoh, or Miantonomo,* with his wife and twelve attendants, or Necke of land," on which Boston is situated, is planted a Fort, which can command any " IS not above foure miles in compasse, in ship as she sayles into any Harbour withiu forme almost square, havmg on the South- the hill Bay." — New England's Prospect, 52. side at one corner, a great broad hill, whereon • This orthography of the great Chiefs 1632.] FIEST PLACE OF WORSHIP. 141 sannaps, as these were called by Chiefs, visited Boston. Two days, after, it being Sunday, Miantonomo, being at meeting with the Eng- lish, three of his sannaps went in the mean time, and broke into a house. After the meeting, complaint being made to the Governor, he complains to the Chief. It was required by the Governor that the offenders should be punished, and that the Chief should make one of the sannaps beat the others. Indians do not believe in corporeal pun- ishment, and hence it was with some difficulty that the beating operation was brought about. However, it was at length performed ; after which the offenders were sent out of town ; but the Governor took Miantonomo and the rest of his company to his house, "and made much of them." They, however, left for home the same evening. It might have been difficult for the Chief to understand which of the two was the greater offence, prying into an empty house, or whipping Indians on a Sunday. At a Court not long before, some of Chikataubut's men had been " con- vented and convicted" for assaulting some English at Dorchester. They were set in the bilboes, and Chikataubut made to beat them himself. Some time in the month of August, a windmill, which had been erected near Newton, was taken down and brought to Boston. It was set up on the hill in the north part of the town, * which hill afterwards received the name of Copp's Hill, from an inhabitant named William Copp. The windmill was removed from the country, "because it would not grind but with a westerly wind." Although there had been regular meetings on Sundays, in "^"^ ■ Boston, for about two years, no Meeting-house ] had been built. Private houses had been the places for public worship as soon as they were built, and before they were provided, the branches of the neigh- boring trees had been the only shelter for minister as well as people. J But Mr. Wilson had now returned ; the place was becoming prosperous, and funds had been raised to the amount of one hundred and twenty pounds, which were to be applied to the erection of a Meeting-house, and a house for the minister. The sort of building first erected for divine service in Boston, has been mentioned in a former chapter, § and such representation there given as the known facts about it seemed to justify. This first name gives pretty truly its pronunciation, the Sea-coast." — y^ooA, New England's Pros- probably. In Danforth's Almanack, for 1649, pect, 33. there is this distich or epigram : — •)• Many of the Puritan fathers carefully , , , ^, . „ . ii Ti ,• ■ avoided the term Church, when speaking of See Book op the Indiass, ». 697. Churches ; the Protestants had Meeting- houses. Quakers have no Churches to this * " Equall in bignesse," to Fort Hill, day, though they have Meeting-houses. " whereon stands a Winde-mill. To the North % " Before they could build at Boston, they west [of Fort Hill] is an high Mountain, with lived many of them in tents and wigwams at three little rising hills on the top of it, where- Charlestown ; their Meeting-Place being abroad fore it is called the Tra-mount. From the top under a tree ; where I have heard Mr. Wilson of this Mountain [since Beacon Hill] a man and Mr. Phillips preach many a good Ser- may overlooke all the Islands which lie before mon." — Clap, Memoirs, 42. the Bay, and discry such ships as are upon ^ See page 104, ante. 142 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1632. rude stracture, according to the best information Mr, Wadsworth* ^^._^ _ . could collect, stood " about nine or ten years." In 1640, it was replaced by asu- perior edifice, in which the first sermon was preached on the twenty-third of August, of that year. The ' ' Old Meeting-house ' ' stood, according to Mr. Wadsworth, "near where the Town House now [1713] is, at a small distance from the south-east cor- ner of it. This indicates the precise spot to be that on which now, 1853, Brazer's Block stands, on the south side of State Street. The house erected in 1640, was of wood, and stood on the site now occupied by Joy's Building, in Washington Street, a little to the south of, and opposite to the head of State Street. When it had stood sev- enty-one years, it was destroyed by fire. The last sermon preached in it before it was burned, was preached by Mr. Wadsworth, on the thirtieth of September, 1711, and two days after, namely, October the second, it was consumed. Mr. Wadsworth says, " Considering the place where it was, and how many wooden buildings were near it, 'twas a wonder of Providence it stood so long. 'Twas by many tho't not convenient to build another Meeting-House with wood, in that place, where other buildings would probably be near and thick about it, for fear of fire ; and the winter [of 1711 — 12] coming on, brick-work could not be engag'd in till the following spring ; and when the season did allow, the work was diligently set about. The stone foundation was begun April the fourteenth, 1712. They begun their brick-work. May twenty-ninth, and finished it fit for the roof, September the eigh- teenth, the same year. So that the brick-work was begun and finished in less than four months. They began to raise the roof, October second, 1712, just that day twelve month after the former house was burnt. 'T was about a year and seven months from the burning of the former, to our meeting in the present Meeting-House." Mr. Wadsworth supposed the cost of the house would be " not far short of four thousand pounds;" and "that there had been no essay to raise one penny" towards the cost of it " by rate or tax. All that had been done was done voluntarily and without restraint. Of all that were chosen of any committees," he continues, " referring to this whole affair, I don't remember that any to this day [November, 1713] has been removed by death, except one worthy gentleman, Mr. Thomas Brattle t (who had a principal hand in modelling this house), yet he * The Rev. Benjamin Wadsworth. He was College, in 1725, and died in 1737, aged 67. son of Capt. Samuel Wadsworth, of Milton, He was the author of many sermons, who, with his company, was cut off by the f He died 18 May, 1713. He was theprin- Indians, at Sudbury, 21st Aprfl, 1676. Mr. cipal founder of Brattle-street Church. From Wadsworth begun to preach in the " First his family the Church and Street take their Church " in 1696 — fifteen years before it was name. The Rev. William Brattle, of Cam- burned. He was chosen President of Harvard bridge, was his brother. He wrote an account 1632.] FEARS FKOM INDIANS. 143 lived till we met here for public worship ; and once, if not oftener, he was here for that purpose." Speaking of the progress of the building, Mr. Wadsworth says, — ' ' There has been much hard work, heavy work, and some work high and lofty ; and so the more dangerous, yet in the whole managing this work hitherto not one person has by any hurtful accident lost his life ; not one has lost any one limb, nor has one bone been broken." , Among other acts of a Court at Boston, Mr. William Pyn- chon was chosen Treasurer for the year ensuing, or till another shall be chosen. , This summer had been wet and cold, and crops were very poor, which was discouraging to many. Corn, on which they depended much, having no other grain, came in so light, that ' ' great want threatened them." Besides, there were fires, and alarms by the Indians. Mr. John Oldham had a small house burnt down at Water- town, "made all of clapboards." . An express came to Governor Winthrop, that "ten Saga- ^"^ ■ mores and many Indians were assembled at Muddy River," but what design they had, nobody knew. The Governor thought it best to ascertain whether their assembling at that point portended evil, and therefore ordered Captain UnderhiU to proceed to that neighborhood, with twenty musketeers, to reconnoitre. When the Captain arrived at Eoxbury, he learned that the Indians had dispersed, and this was the only news that could be obtained about them. g There had been complaints from Indians of injuries to their crops from the domestic animals belonging to the English. This could not be avoided, because the Indians were the very last people in the world that would think of making fences ; besides, it was very diffi- cult for them to see why such labor should be required of them, because the animals which intruded upon them belonged, not to them, but to the English. However, the Court made Sagamore John (Wonohaqiuaham) promise that, " the next year, and forever after, he would fence his corn against all kinds of cattle." At the same Court, a man was or- dered "to be severely whipped, for cursing, swearing, then justifying the same, and glorying in it." Another man, who had sold a gun, pistol, and powder and shot, to Sagamore James, (Montowampate) was sentenced to be whipped, and branded in the face with a hot iron. The late strange assembling of Indians at Muddy-river, and several other circumstances, caused the people to apprehend that the natives were plotting to cut them off. They were led to this apprehension, because, by some of them, " divers insolent speeches were used, and they did not frequent the houses of the English as they were wont ; and one of their Powaws told them that there was a conspiracy among the of the Witchcraft in the County of Essex, We might reasonably expect to see a minute ■which is printed in the 5th volume of the account of this gentleman and his family, in a Mass. Hist. Colls. Several of his communi- history of the Church of which he was a cations were inserted in the Transactions of principal founder. the Royal Society, of which he was a member. 144 ' HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1632 Indians." Upon receipt of this intelligence, "a camp was pitched at Boston, in the night, to exercise the soldiers, apprehending need might be." To try the valor of his soldiers, Captain UnderhiU caused an alarm to be given upon their quarters. The result was anything but creditable to their courage. Most of them were paralyzed with fear, and their conduct was disgraceful to soldiers. Hence the people thought, if such men must be depended upon to defend their wives and children, their chance of safety was poor indeed. Fears from the Indians still increased ; and the Governor Sept. 14. ^^^^ ^^^ „^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ Sagamores" to come immediately to Boston ; but whether they obeyed the summons or not, is not men- tioned. Meantime the arrival of the favorite old ship, the Lyon, Cap- tain Peirce, had a tendency to divert the public mind from ^^*' ■ fancied rumors of hostile Indians ; especially as he brought one hundred and twenty-three passengers with him, most of whom were, doubtless, near friends or relatives to many in Boston, and its immediate vicinity. The Lyon was eight weeks from the Land's End. The alarms from the Indians could not have sunk very deep ^^ ■ ■ into the minds of the Authorities, at least, for they had ordered a Thanksgiving for the safe arrival of the Lyon, which is now kept. In the same proclamation, however, " the prosperous success of the King of Sweden" was comprehended. Among several stringent orders of a Court now held, were the following: — "Mr. Bachelor, of Lynn, was required to for- bear exercising his gifts until some sandals be removed." A man is sentenced "for theft on the Indians, at Damaril's Cove, for drunken- ness and fornication," to pay a fine of five pounds to the Court, ten pounds to Henry Way and John Holman, to be " scA-^erely whipt, branded on the hand with a hot iron, and banished ; with penalty to be put to death if he ever return." That no persons should take any tobacco publicly ; if they did, for every time they took it, they should be fined one penny. At this Court, it was by general consent determined, that Boston was the fittest place for public meetings of any in the Bay ; and it was therefore ordered, that a House of Correction, and a House for the Beadle, should be built here " with speed." Oct 18 ^^ ^^ worthy of note, that, notwithstanding settlements had been forming upon the Pascataqua, about ten years, yet they brought their corn to be ground at Boston, this year. Captain Thomas Camock and Mr. Edward Godfrey, a merchant, afterwards Governor of Maine, brought up in Mr. Neal's pinnace at one time, sixteen hogsheads of com, which was ground at the windmill. Whether it took from this time " to November" to grind that quantity of corn, is not known, though it is recorded that Captain Camock and Mr. Godfrey did not return till November. This, however, is not a very important question to be settted, especially as the two gentlemen, doubtless, enjoyed the fine autumnal weather as guests of the Governor, Captain Peirce, of 1632.] EXPEDITION TO PLYMOUTH. 145 Q^^ 2g the Lyon, Mr. Wilson, and others. Having been waited upon by Mr. Winthrop and Mr. Wilson, on board the Lyon, the Cap- tain of her took them all into his shallop, and proceeded to Wessagus- cus. Thence Captain Peirce returned to his ship, "being about to sail for Virginia, while the rest of the company "proceed on foot to Ply- mouth," to pay Grovernor Bradford a visit. They did not arrive there till " within the evening." By some means, not mentioned, their approach to Plymouth was known to the authorities there, "and the Governor, Mr. Bradford, a very discreet and grave man, with Mr. Brewster, and some others, went forth and met them without the town," conducted them to the Grovernor's house, where they were "together entertained." They were likewise " feasted everyday at several houses." On Sunday they partook of the sacrament with the church, " and in the afternoon, Mr. Roger Williams, according to their custom, proposed a question, to which the pastor, Mr. Smith, spoke briefly. Then Mr. Williams prophesied. After that, the Governor of Plymouth, who had studied the Hebrew language, and antiquities, spoke to the question. After him, the elder [Mr. Brewster], a man of learning ; then two or three more of the congregation ; then the elder, agreeable to Acts xiii. 14, 15, desired Governor Winthrop and Mr. Wilson to speak to it, which they did. When this was ended, the deacon, Mr. Fuller,* put the congregation in mind of their duty of con- tribution ; whereupon, the Governor and all the rest went down | to the deacon's seat, and put it in the bag, and then returned." J About five of the clock, on Wednesday morning, Governor ' Winthrop and his company left Plymouth ; Mr. Bradford, Mr. Smith and others accompanying them. " near half a mile out of town in the dark. Lieutenant Holmes § and others went with them to the Great Swamp, about ten miles ; when they came to the Great river, || they were carried over by one ■Ludham,ir as they had been when they went ; so they came that evening to Wessaguscus, where they were * Dr. SAinjEL FuLLBK, who came in the interior of old school-houses, no explanation is Mayflower. He died the next year. His au- necessary. tograph is so rare, that I was assured not J There is nothing to be found, certainly long since it was not known at Plymouth, nothing is known to the author, which gives The subjoined fac-simile of it is copied from so true, simple, and beautiful a picture of 1^ the manner in which the Pilgrims performed ^K'^ their devotions, as this. If a little foreign to /A >/* It ^^ History of Boston, no one, I think, will I ^ li^riJAU' wish it had been omitted. ) h^ // " jfi & John Holmes was taxed in Plymouth, in "T/ **-'*»^ 1633 and 1634. The name has always been *^<' common in Duxbury. Lieut. William Holmes the letter extracted ante, p. 132. For an ac- was admitted a resident of Plymouth, 1634. count of this early physician, see N. Eng. He was an officer in the Pequot war, — See Hist, and Gen. Beg. ii. 240. His will is con- Mr. Winsor's Hist. Duxhury, 267-8 ; N. E. tainedin the same work, vol. iv. 33. — See, also, H. and Gen. Reg. iv. 253-4. Morton'sAfenjonaZ, Eliot, Allen, Thacher(iWe(i. || Mr. Prince, Chronology, 407, supposes £iag.), and Russell's Guide to Plymouth. this was what was afterwards called North f By this phraseology, the manner in which river, between Pembroke and Hanover, the floor of the house was constructed is easily Tf The name of Ludden occurs on the Wey- conjectured. To those acquainted with the mouth records, 1680. 19 146 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1632. WINTHROP CROSSING THE KIVER. comfortably entertained, as before, with store of turkies, geese, ducks, &c., and next day came safe to Boston." To go from Boston to Plymouth in the middle of the nineteenth century is too small a matter to be mentioned, though if one were obliged to walk over the ground, even now, on a good road, it would be talked about some, probably; especially if per- formed by a citizen of the Metropolis ; and it is more than probable that the circum- stance would be " talked about " in the newspapers. But to go through forty miles of wilderness in 1632, be obliged to tarry over night on the way, and be carried over a river on a man's back,* is a different affair altogether. A voyage to Iceland or Cape Horn would not excite half the curi- osity to the people of Boston now, as the journey to Plymouth did then to the inhab- itants of that day. In this "progress" of the great Boston chief, he obserA^es, in the excellent account of it which he has left for posterity, that, after he and his company had passed the Great river, and he had named the passage " Luddam's Ford," thence, he says, "they came to a place called Hue's Cross." That the Governor, "being displeased at the name," changed it to " Hue's Folly ;" because, he said, if it were suf- fered to go by that name, it might give the Papists grounds to claim for their religion that it had been planted in these parts before that of the Protestants. Eeaders hereafter may smile at this, but they should remember that the fathers of New England were far from smiling at anything that reminded them of the Church of Rome. They had lived too near the times of the fires of Smithfield to think lightly of anything that brought that dreadful period of their country's history to their minds. Many of the good people of Boston were disturbed, about this period, because the reverend Mr. John Eliot had made up his to leave them and settle at Roxbury. They had intended to him to be their teacher, but Roxbury had also called him ; " and though Boston labored all they could " to prevent it, " yet Nov. 2. mind " call Nov. 5. he could not be diverted, so they of Boston dismissed him." * Those who have heard of the anecdote, how some young men from the City, a few years since, meeting with the late Mr. Web- ster about his grounds in Marahfield, and not knowing him (being dressed in his country garb, with high fishing-boots on), were, at their urgent request, ferried over a creek on the great statesman's back, -^ those, of course, who have heard that anecdote, can fancy how the Governor of Massachusetts looked on the neck of John Ludham, fording the Great river, "the water being up to the crotch." "Win- throp's annotator gives the name of the /erry- man, Luddam, but I follow Prince, who fol- lowed or used Winthrop in the original. For the ■poetical part of the name I am responsible. 1632.] FIRST PIRATES. 147 j^^^ „ By an order of court, it was declared " that tl^ie captains ' shall train their companies but once a month ; that Sir Richard Saltonstall shall give Sagamore John a hogshead of corn, for the hurt his cattle did his corn ; that the neck of land between Powder Hill and PuUen Point* shall belong to Boston forever." „ Among the afflictions of the people of Boston, that of " piracy now finds a place. Governor Winthrop received a letter from Captain Walter Neal of Pascataqua, informing him that Dixy Bull (who, it seems, was a man of note upon the coast) had turned pirate, and had induced fifteen others to join him, and with them he had rifled Pemaquid, and taken several boats in that region. On receipt of this intelligence, the Governor and Council decided to send an armed vessel with twenty men, who were to join others at Pascata- qua, and then to proceed in quest of the piratical crew. " But snow, frost, and contrary winds" prevented the sailing of the vessel. The following May, however, a " pinnace " was despatched to the eastern coast, which returned after a cruise of several weeks, or two months, whose commander, Lieut. Mason,t reported that the pirates were not to be found, though it was conjectured they had "gone to the French." This is the first account of pirates on the coast of New England, and the mischief done by them does not appear to have been of much amount, or not so much as was at first apprehended.J The check they met with about the' time, or soon after they commenced their career, at Pema- quid, no doubt had the efiect to dishearten them, and put a stop to their' ravages ; for as they were about to depart from the last-named place, Mr. Abraham Shurt's men attacked them, killing one of the ringleaders on the spot. They took one Anthony Dix or Dicks, master of a vessel, and endeavored to persuade him to pilot them to Virginia, which he refused to do, and they fled to the eastward. These facts Mr. Dix told to Captain Roger Clap ; and the latter adds, " Bull got into England, but God destroyed this wretched man." By this it may be inferred that he was executed there for piracy. § * " The chiefe ilands which keepe out the were now in New England. Is it at all likely winde and the sea from disturbing the har- that this " brave soldier who had served in the hours, are, first, Deare Hand, which lies with- Low Country wars under Sir Thomas Fairfax," in a flight shot of PuUin-point. This iland is so as specially to attract the attention of that so called because of the deare which often general, should not be honored with a commis- swimme thither from the Maine, when they sion above that of a lieutenant in New Eng- are chased by the woolves : Some have killed land % Is it not more than probable, that so sixteeue deare in a day upon this iland. The prominent a character as Capt. John Mason opposite shore is called PuUin-point, because would have been found among the freemen that is the usuall channel! boats vse to passe before 1635 % In that year his name is found thorow into the bay ; and the tyde being very entered " Captain John Mason." strong, they are constrained to goe a-shore f See Prince, 409, 431. — • Winthrop, i. 96, and hale their boates by the seasing, or 104. roades ; whereupon, it was called Pullin- - ^ In the Treasurer's accounts there are point." — Wood, N. Eng. Prospect, 84-5. these items which relate to the expedition for 1 1 am not in possession of sufficient evi- the suppression of piracy. " Paid Mr. Aloock dence to admit of my unqualifiedly stating for a fat hog to victual the pinnace for the that this Lieut. Mason was the same who taking [attempt to take] Dixie Bull, £3 10s. afterwards went to Connecticut, and led its Paid Goodman Lyman for a fat hog for the forces in the destruction of the Pequots. It same use, £3 10*. Paid Mr. Shurd, of Pem- may be doubted whether Capt. John Mason aquid, for provisions for the pinnace, 26i lb; 148 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1632. ^ A fast is kept at Boston, but the particular occasion of its ^ "''' "' appointment is not mentioned, though it was probably held on account of choosing a pastor and ruling elder in the church ; as Mr. Wil- son, formerly their teacher, was chosen pastor, and Mr. Thomas Oliver ruling elder. They were both ordained "by imposition of hands ; first by the teacher and the two deacons, in the name of the congregation, upon the elder, and then, by the elder and the deacons, upon the pastor." * Johnson calls this year " a yeare of sad distresses," which, he says, " was ended with a terrible cold winter, with weekly snowes, and fierce frosts betweene while, congealing Charles river, as well from the town to seaward as above, insomuch that men might frequently passe from one island to another upon the ice." f Of the three ministers that arrived this year, mention has been made of one of them, Mr. Stephen Bachelor, who was the first. The second was Mr. Thomas Welde, and the third, Mr. Thomas James. Mr. Welde settled in Eoxbury ; the " diUgent people thereof early preventing their brethren of other churches by calling him to be their pastor." The same writer says he was "valiant in faith, both in the pulpit and by his pen ; and wading through the cares and toils of this wUdemess for seven years, returns to his native country." He came from Terling Place I in Essex, England, and arrived in Boston on the fifth of June, and about a month after was settled over the first church in Roxbury. Mr. John Eliot was afterwards his colleague. "In 1639, he assisted Mr. Mather and Mr. Eliot in making the tuneful New England version of the Psalms. In 1641 he was sent with Mr. Hugh Peters to Eng- land as an agent for the province, and never returned. He was settled at Gateshead, but was ejected in 1660, and died the same year." § Mr. Welde was interested in the Antinomian controversy which agi- tated not only Boston, but the whole country, and no doubt was as far from sympathizing with Mrs. Hutchinson and her friends in that unhappy affair, as were Mr. Wilson and Mr. Win'throp ; while at the same time much injustice has been done him by attributing to him the authorship of that book of " malignity," entitled " A Short Story of the Rise, Reign, and Ruin of the Antinomians, Familists, and Libertines, that infected the Churches of New England," &c. ; it now fully appearing, from its own internal evidence, that Winthrop had a principal hand in it. II That Mr. Welde introduced it with a preface, is true, and it is beaver, £13 2s. 6d. Lieut. Mason for his be substituted, which 1 have accordingly service in the pinnace, £10. Paid by a bill done. from Mr. Samuel Maverick, being husband ', ?^^^' Winthrop of was committed when " he was in drink," records that btone earned himself very dis- rendered a verdict " ignoramus ; " a very rieht- eolutely in drawing company to drink, ko. ;" eous judgment, no oni can deny, namely, that Z w-f» f"" "^^ ° ^^' ?S;4 '=°"'i'^=t " ^i* a drunken man is a fool. However, "for his w„» w. r^ Barcroft [smoe Bancroft], he other misdemeanors he was fined £100 ;" but, Ttnt J I- I ^g'^'"8t' and " his pinnace instead of exacting the fine, the Court ordered fiZh'pwo'tt'^M T^A^ *° T^'l" ^^^'^ him to leave the jSrisdiction, and, "upon pain Te wa^onf Vh ■ ^"^^°^' ^h" h|id issued of death, to comt no more here," &c^ If the At thffTli. l^ -^ a"^ ^''""™ language, curious reader desires to know other parti- him into P^fitn^ ™T '""^^ company " took culars of Stone's ofience, he may consult *Hub- Gowrnt wh^^'H . f™!'^ ^'"^ ^^.^°''^ ^^"^ ^'^^'^ Hi^t. of New Eng. 156. ^ According to andtraw^^th.r--™*^^?,"'^'^ Norton, 175, " Capt. Itone had sometimes f°ons however Ltfr ^^ j'itCourt. His lived at [St.] Christopher's, in the West In- A? thV rlT t'j, 'y f° "^ ^I'l ?'""' "^^y- « ^''J "f commendation, but rather less satished that the impropriety complained the contrary." 1633.] TRADING AT THE CONNECTICUT. 155 pounds." A man, for being drank "on the Sabbath day" at Marble- head,* is fined thirty shillings. No person to be allowed to sell strong water to an Indian, without leave of the Governor. " Any man allowed to kill any swine that comes into his corn, but the owner may have the swine, if he pay the damage." The Authorities of Plymouth having fixed upon making a trading es- tablishment on Connecticut river, the people of Boston proposed to them to take a part in it. They entertained the proposition favorably, and a J j„ meeting of those interested was held here to organize a com- pany to carry out the measure. Groveruor Winslow and Mr. Bradford attended on the part of Plymouth ; but, after six days' stay at Boston, they returned without effecting the object. The Boston gentlemen had somehow or other previously ascertained that the object was in no wise a practicable one, as there were, they argued, three or four thousand hostile Indians in the vicinity, and insuperable obstacles in the river itself, as shoals, bars, and ice. At first view these objec- tions seem plausible enough, taking the want of a thorough knowledge of the country into account, under which they may reasonably be sup- posed to have labored. But when it is known that, not long after, they took possession of the same territory themselves, there may be a suspicion, very honestly entertained, that the decision against uniting with Plymouth was dictated by a disposition to overreach their. neigh- bors ; or, as would be said in modern times, their decision was " based upon political considerations." f A ship came in from "Weymouth. She had about eighty " ^ ■ passengers on board. Having sprung a leak, she was forced to put into the Western Islands, where she lay three weeks. Owing to the " continual rain and extremity of the heat," sickness broke out among the passengers, which resulted in the death of several. Who they were, or what their condition, no record remains ; thus it is in almost all such cases recorded in the early annals. Had there been any " of rank" among them, their names would doubtless have found a place in history ; but they were probably the poor and destitute of the company, — the "forlorn hope" of a great empire, — whose names, like their bodies, lie hid beneath the waves of the Atlantic Ocean ! " Eemarkable Providences" are everywhere to be met with in the age of the infancy of Boston ; accidents and events, whether calami- tous or fortunate, were regarded as special manifestations of the Deity * Hitherto called Marbleharbor in the rec- 'vrent up the said river and reared their said ords. — Prince, house, and fenced about with a -^-—^~ f We may suppose that Mr. Morton speaks which was done with great difficulty, not on)y the sentiment of the Plymouth people with of the Dutch but also of the Indiana ; not- regard to this transaction in what follows, withstanding, the place they possessed them- from his Memorial, p. 172, ed. Davis. After selves of was such as the Dutch had nothing stating that the Massachusetts men " cast in to do with, and likewise was bought of the the way many fears of danger and loss, and Indians which they carried with them. And did not proceed therein," concludes : "Where- this was Plymouth's entrance there, who de- upon those of Plymouth went alone, and pre- served to have held it, and not by friends pared a frame of an house, and stowed it into [Massachusetts] have been thrust out, as in a a bark, ready to rear at their landing, and sort they afterwards vrere." 156 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1633. to those whom such providence immediately affected. At this period two men were drowned in the harbor, under circumstances August 6. ^^^^^ caused particular notice to be taken of it by Governor Winthrop in his Journal.* Their names are not mentioned, but they were the " servants," or men in the employ, of John Moody of Rox- bury. They went " in a boat to the Oyster bank" on the previous evening ; but this " morniag early, when the tide was out, leaving their boat unfastened on the verge of the channel, the tide quickly carried it beyond their reach, and they are both drowned, although they might have waded out on either side ; but it was an evident judgement of God upon them."t This was unquestionably the stucere belief ef Winthrop, because one of the men, he says, " a little before, being reproved for his " conduct, and reminded that he was in danger of hell- fire, answered, " that if Hell were ten times hotter, he had rather be there " than in his present ser^dce. For this foolish expression, and perhaps a reckless disrespect for himself, it was honestly believed by his religious and virtuous cotemporaries, that he had been thus cut off and sent to everlasting misery. A " great scarcity of corn" is noticed this autumn, " by reason," says Winthrop, "of the spoil our hogs had made at harvest; there being no acorns ; yet people lived well with fish and the fruit of their gardens." This scarcity caused the Court to order that " no man should give his hogs any com, but such as, being viewed by two or three neighbors, shall be judged unfit for man's meat ; that every plantation shall agree how msiny swine every person may keep, winter and summer." These orders were to take effect ten days after they were made. Such minute and fatherly legislation can scarcely be conceived of in this age, and, were it not well attested by the legis- lators themselves, it might be viewed as a fiction. A small ship, of about sixty tons, was built this year at Medfi)rd, and named th« Rebecca. She is often mentioned in the business of the Bay for several succeeding years, and was probably principally owned in Boston. Her first voyage mentioned is to Narraganset Bay, to receive a thousand bushels of com of the Indians, which they had promised to * By what rule or ordeal the Annotator of an account of both has recently been published Winthrop charges a particular belief of our in the New Eng. Historical and Gen. Register. fathers as a vice, it might be difficult for him — See vol. v. p. 375, &c. This note is made to explain. Some, we apprehend, will more simply to bear testimony to the merits of a justly charge, that he has fallen into precisely most ingenious author, and to apprize the the same vice when he asserts that certain reader that this Sun of history no longer "judgments " favored one party or sect more shines upon us. He vrill be further noticed than another. when we come down to the period in which f Thus far in this history I have had the he lived. The following facsimile is copied aid and light of the Sun of New England his- from an autograph letter, and was his usual tory ; nor will the attentive reader need be closing salutation, told that I refer to the Rev. Thomas Prince, who truly is, to all that went before him as t,l^f yM H VC k^C t/Lll the sun to the stars. His New England Chro- -i r > / nology, in the Form of Annals, is a model Ui^ ^^i liy-v^uvuT work, which nothing ever can supply the place "^ of. It is unnecessary here to say anything y^~~ o - further relative to the author or his work, as C (vi^l^ci^ 1633.] AEKIVAI. OF ME. JOHN COTTON. 157 give Mr. John Oldham ; but she returned with five hundred bushels only, that being all the Indians could spare, as " their store was less than they expected." The same year she was sent on a voyage to England. The next year, 1635, she was employed coastwise ; and, in 1636, she brought " 30,000 weight of potatoes from Bermuda," besides " store of oranges and limes." CHAPTBE XVIII. ft Arrival of Mr. John Cotton. — Mr. Hooker. — Mr. Stone. — Mr. Peiroe. — Mr. Haynes. — Family of Cotton. — Neglect of Family Pedigrees. — Cotton's Career. — His Cotemporaries in England. — — Dr. Sibbs. — Dr. Preston. — Mr. Perkins. — Cotton's Marriage. — A Second Marriage. — Mr. Thomas Leverett. — Cotton is informed against, and flies from Boston to London in disguise. — Here conTerts Dr. Goodwin, Mr. Nye, Mr. Davenport. — Determines to come to New England. — His Voyage. — Son Sea-born. — Invitations to Settle. — His Ordination. — Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone. — Ordained at Newtown. — The Ship Bird arrives. — Oldham's Journey to Connecti- cut. — Workmen's Wages regulated. — Association of Ministers. — Trouble about the Fort in Boston. — Small-pox mortal among the Indians. ^^^^/V^ THE arrival of Mr. John Cotton at Boston marks an /g^^ ^^N important era in its history. But it was not his f%fJ^k ^ I arrival alone ; there came with him, at the same time, J ^ft^J*^^ I some of the best and ablest men that had hitherto set 1 ^^=^v f feet on these shores. Their arrival is thus recorded ^ ^ ^^ift^ ^^ Governor Winthrop, the man who was then on the ^k— ^ ^^m spot to receive and welcome them. ^^''^S^^^S'^ " The Griffin, a ship of three hundred tons, arrived, having been eight weeks from the Downs. This ship was *^ ' ' brought [piloted] in by John Gallop, a new way, by Lovell's Island, at low water, now called Griffin's Gap. She brought about two hundred passengers, having lost some four ; whereof one was drbwned two days before, as he was casting forth a line to take mackerel. In this ship came Mr. Cotton, Mr. Hooker, and Mr. Stone, ministers, and Mr. Peirce, Mr. Haynes (a gentleman of great estate), Mr. HoiFe, and many other men of good estates. They got out of England with much difficulty, all places being belaid to have taken Mr. Cotton- and Mr. Hooker, who had been long sought for to have been brought into the high commission ; but the Master being bound to touch at the [Isle of] Wight, the Pursuivants attended there, and, in the mean time, the said ministers were taken in at the Downs. Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone went presently to Newtown, where they were to be entertained, and Mr. Cotton stayed at Boston." The family to which Mr. Cotton belonged may be easily traced to a high antiquity,* and it was long ago widely spread over England. He * "About the latter end of Edward III." ter and heirof Walter deEidware of Hampstall- (1371), says Guillim, in his Banner Displayed, Eidware in the County of Stafford, had a son William Cotton, having married Agnes, daugh- John, who laid off the ancient arms of Cotton 158 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1633. was bora in the town of Derby, and in the county of, the same name. His father's name was Kowland Cotton,* a lawyer of some note,t and the Christian name, Rowland, was long, if not to the present time, perpetuated both in Old and New England. It is often difficult to trace the ancestry of even very distinguished men, because, being younger sons of younger sons, their hope of ever becoming heirs to a remote progenitor is not strong enough to cause them to preserve theur pedigree ; while their older relatives neglect the younger branches of the family tree from- another and more apparent motive. Mr. John Cotton was bom in 1585, entered Trinity College, Cam- bridge, 1598, being then but twelve years of age. He soon became noted for his acquirements, and was admitted to the degree of Master of Arts in 1606. Soon after, he received the appointment of head lecturer, dean, and catechist, of Emmanuel College. Such was the briUiancy with which he discharged his duties, and such were the mildness and gentleness of his temper, that he was greatly beloved by the students. In fb08 he gained great applause by a sermon which he delivered in the Church of the University, and, among others, attracted the attention of Dr. Richard Sibbs and Dr. John Preston, men whose works soon after moved the whole age of the Puritans.J and adopted that of Ridware. That of Cotton was, Argent, a bend sable between three pel- lets ; while that adopted was Azure, an eagle displayed argent. When Weever wrote his Antient Funeral Monuments (in 1631), he saw a pedigree of the Cottons in possession of Ed- mund Cotton, Esq., of Necton Hall in Bramble Barton, alias Barton magna juxta Bury St. Edmunds, about which he says, " The antient seat of the Cottons in Cambridgeshire is Lan- wade-hall ; many descents were higher, and before the father to the elder Sir John Cotton, Knt., who died near the beginning of Queen Elizabeth. This Sir John being the elder, had three brothers, whereof Edmund was the third from Sir John aforesaid, and sisters they had, &c. This elder Sir John had one son called by his father's name. Sir John Cotton, Knt., who, dying in the time of King James, left to inherit his estate, the only son," by Anne, daughter of Sir Richard Hoghton of Hoghton tower in the County of Lancaster, living in 1631, also named John. Edmund Cotton, the third brother above mentioned, married Ela, daughter and heiress of John Coniers, the only son of Robert Coniers, Knt., nearly allied to Lord Coniers of Hornby Castle, County of Richmond. This Edmund Cotton " had divers children " by his wife, Ela. George was his eldest son, " who had issue many children," of whom Edmund was the eldest, who, " in like manner, had issue, divers sons and daugh- ters," whose oldest sou and heir was Edmund of Necton Hall, above mentioned, who fur- nished Weever with the familv pedigree. It is to a branch of this family of Cotton, that John Cotton of Boston is believed to belong. But the means of showing to which branch is not known to be in this country. * There was a Sir Rowland Cotton, Sheriff of Shropshire, 1616. Admiral Rowland Cot- ton died at Plymouth, Eng., 1794. I " Our John Cotton," says his grandson, Dr. Cotton Mather, " besides the advantage of his Christian profession, had a descent from honorable progenitors, to render him doubly honorable. His immediate progenitors being by some injustice deprived of great revenues, his father, Mr. Rowland Cotton, had the edu- cation of a lawyer, bestowed by his friends upon him, in hopes of his being the better capacitated thereby to recover the estate where- of his family had been wronged." — Magnolia, B. iii. 14. J Dr. Sibbs was a friend of, and intimate with, many of the fathers of New England. His name with that of our John Davenport is signed to several prefaces of the old Puritan quartos. They accompanied some of Dr. Pres- ton's works : " The Saints Daily Exercise," now before me, is one. I have also before me, " Two Sermons " of his, in a 4to tract, " Preached to the honourable Society of Grayes Inne, lune the 21 and 28, 1635. Who the next Lord's day following, died, and rested from all his labours." A knowledge of these sermons would have been important to Mr. Neal, who places his birth in 1579, at Sud- bury in Suffolk. Mr. Neal, and those who have followed him in their accounts of Dr. Sibbs, write his name SMes; but in the titles of all his books which I have seen (and they are many) his name is printed Sibbs. Enrj ■" 'by H W ShiuIl ftom the Paiming Itj. poss^^^i.;^ Jciha-B.TiiaTeT. JKOHIM €®^^lP(n)H. 1633.] cotton's marriage. 159 It was under the preaching of the Reverend Mr. William Perkins,* a strict follower of Calvin, that he became convinced of the errors of the Established Church ; " but he for a time resisted and smothered those convictions, through a vain persuasion that if he became a godly- man it would spoil him for being a learned one ;" and while he could not forego his attendance on such preaching, from his great natural love of truth, yet, " when he heard the bell toll for the funeral of Mr. Perkins, his mind secretly rejoiced in his deliverance. But Dr. Sibbs completed the work which Mr. Perkins had begun upon the youthful mind of Cotton. For a remembrance of which, and his thank- fulness to Dr. Sibbs, he procured his portrait, which ' ' he placed in that part of his house'where he might oftenest look' upon it." Mr. Cotton had become somewhat obnoxious to many on account of the change in his principles before leaving the University ; and he was elected to settle at Boston only by a mistake of the Mayor, who voted for, while he intended to have voted against, him. Probably few, if any others, could have been found, who, under such circumstances, would have held a place so long as Mr. Cotton did his at Old Boston ; but he had a most happy way of dealing with his opposers, whom he would often silence without offending. Thus he was continued in his office for what, in these days,* would be considered a very long term of years. Soon after Mr. Cotton was settled at Boston, " his dear friend, holy Mr. Bayns," recommended a lady to him, whom subsequently he mar- ried ; " one Mrs.f Elizabeth Horrocks, the sister of Mr. James Hor- rocks, a famous minister in Lancashire." On the day of his marriage he- said, and no doubt truly, that " he first received the assurance " of his spiritual redemption ; and hence it was a day of double marriage to him. With his first wife he lived eighteen years. She was then taken off by a sickness which likewise severely afflicted her husband, and incapacitated him from performing his ministerial duties a year or more ; and within the compass of about a year he married a second wife, " one Mrs. Sarah Story, a vertuous widow, very dear to his former wife." He had all his children by this lady. The storm which eventually burst upon the head of Mr. Cotton had been some time in gathering ; and though delayed by " the discretion and vigilance of Mr. Thomas Leverett J (afterwards a doubly-honored- elder of the Church in another land), yet, when the sins of the place had ripened it," he saw no other safety but such as flight might afford. Complaint being entered at the High Commissioned Court that *' the Magistrates did not kneel at the Sacrament," and that some * Though Mr. Perkins died at the early age - J Mr. Leverett was an Alderman of Old of forty-six (in the year 1602), yet he found time Boston, and came to New England with Mr. to compose works, which it takes three pon- Cotton. He was the father of Governor John derous folios to contain. Leverett, who came with his father to Boston, t Writers in Dr. Cotton Mather's time had at the age of about 17. The Christian name not generally adopted the distinction since of his wife only is known. — See N. Eng. made between Mrs. and Miss. Hist, and Gen. Reg. iv. 121, &o. 160 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1633. other ceremonies were unobserved also, "letters missive were de- spatched incontinently to convent Mr. Cotton " before that " infamous " Court. When Mr. John Rogers of Dedham heard that Mr. Cotton had been thus brought into trouble, " he spoke of it in his sermon with jast lamentation," and predicted that the informer would " die under an hedge, or something else, more than the ordinary death of men, should befal him ;" and this fate, it is related, actually happened to the " debauched" informer.* Therefore, to escape " a perpetual imprisonment, as had already murdered such men as Bates and Udal, he concealed himself as well as he could from the raging Pursevants." Meantime application was made to the Earl of Dorset, to fulfil some engagement of protection which he had formerly made for Mr. Cotton ; but, from some inter- ference from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Earl returned answer, " that if Mr. Cotton had been guilty of drunkenness or uncleanness, or any such lesser fault, he could have obtained his pardon ; but, inasmuch as he had been guilty of Nonconformity and Puritanism, the crime was unpardonable, and therefore he must fly for his safety." Accordingly Mr. Cotton travelled in disguise to London, and there concealed himself. Up to this time he had not fixed upon New England as a place of exile. In London he had intercourse with several " conforming" ministers, whose conformity was, as they viewed it, a necessary deception, and they endeavored to induce Mr. Cotton to conform in the same manner. They therefore held a friendly con- ference with him upon the subject, in which the matter was freely debated. The arguments of Mr. Byfield, Mr. Whately, and Mr. Sprint were brought forward by Mr. Cotton's friends as unanswerable ; but, when he replied to them, " the issue whereof was, that instead of bringing Mr. Cotton back to what he had now forsaken, he brought them off altogether from what they had hitherto practised ; every one of those eminent persons. Dr. Goodwin, Mr. Nye, and Mr. Davenport, now became all he was, and at last left the kingdom for their being so."t * This was noted at or near the time of its Rogers of Dedham, mentioned in the text, and occurrence by Mr. Nathaniel Rogers ; which settled in Ipswich, N. Bng., 1636. in the original MS. record is still preserved, f There is yet a conjecture among some ■ in a branch of the Rogers family in New Eng- antiquaries, that Mr. Goodwin may have come land. It is contained, with a great many to New England; as, by the above passage other reminiscences, in a very small MS. from the Mignalia, it is certain he left Eng- volume, procured for me by my friend J. H. land; but Mr. Neal, in his Hist, of the Puri- FoGG, M. D., of South Boston, about three tans, ii. 716 (ed. 4°. 1754), clearly shows that years since. The record is as follows : — "he went into Holland, and became pastor " A Joyner y was y« principall Persecut'of of an independent congregation at Arnheim. Mr. Cotton and his people of Boston, wby y He went in 1639, and returned about the be- Congreg: was so broken and changed, dyed ginning of the Long Parliament." He was in (1637) under an hedge of y« plague ; it strik- great favor with the Protector, whom he at- ing first into his house, of all y town, and at tended on his death-bed. He died in 1679-80, length vpo himself, who in a rage went out in the eightieth year of his age. There was an and sate him [down] and dyed." The account edition of his works in 5 vols, folio, the third in the Magnaha does not materially differ from of which, now by me, is dated 1683. I sup- thia ; the author may have had his account pose it is to this Dr. Thomas Goodwin that from Mr. Rogers, who was a son of Mr. John "Mr. lohn Lawrence " refers in his preface 1633.] MR. JOHN COTTON. 161 After determining in his own mind between Holland, Barbadoes, and New England, he set sail for the latter place. In this decision he was doubtless influenced very much by the pressing invitations of friends here, and " letters procured from the Church of Boston, by Mr. Win- throp, the Governor of the Colony." It has been very happily observed, " that the God that had carried him through the fire of persecution was now graciously with him in his passage through the water of the Atlantic Ocean, and he enjoyed a comfortable voyage over the great and wide sea." His arrival was hailed with exceeding joy by the "poor people in this wilderness;" who used to say of him, and the other two who came with him, that now their great necessities were supplied, " for they had cotton for their clothing, hooker for their fishing, and stone for their building." * During the voyage of the Gtiffin, Mrs. Cotton was delivered of a son, to whom was given the name of Seaborn, and this was his first child. Arrived now in " New Boston,-" the history of the city becomes iden- tified with that of Cotton,f and they must of necessity be continued together. " The new place of his adoption, especially upon the holy wisdom, conduct, and credit of our Mr. Cotton, upon some accounts of growth, came to exceed Old Boston in everything that renders a town to his " Golden Trvmpet sounded at Pauls Cross," 1624, when he says, "I wish to live to requite some part of your courtesies," &c. There was a Mr. John Goodwin, a contempo- rary of Dr. Thomas. He had a large family, some of whom may have come to this country. Like Dr. Thomas, he was a learned Divine, and was the author of several works ; one, now before me, entitled " The Divine Authority of the Scriptures Asserted," 4°. London, 1648, is accompanied by his "Efigie," from which his age is learned, namely, 47 in 1641. He wrote, a book in defence of the execution of the king, which, after the Restoration, experienced the honor of being burnt with that of Milton's upon the same subject. Cotton's " Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven," London, 1644, was " published by Thomas Goodwin and Philip Nye." That famous work by Mr. Jere- miah Burroughs, " Gospel Reconciliation; or, Christ's Trompet of Peace to the World," was "Published (with a Testimony) by Thomas Goodwin, William Bridge, William Greenhil, Sydraeh Sympson, Philip Nye, John Yates, and William Adderley." Peter Cole was the " Printer and Bookseller," who advertised, in 1657, " Eleven new books of Mr. Thomas Hooker, made in New England, attested in an epistle by Mr. Thomas Goodwin, and Mr. Philip Nye," and many other works by N. Eng. men, as Ward, Eliot, Mayhew, Stone, &e. * Joshua Scottow was the first I have met with who published this play upon these names ; but Mather, from whom the text is 21 taken, leaves out his grandfather Mather's name. " A quaternion," saysSoottow, " viz., Mr. Cotton, eminent for spiritual clothing, and Mather for celestial dying. Hooker for soul fishing, and Stone for building up in the holy faith." — Narrative, &c., 23. ■j- There have been many lives of Mr. Cotton printed, all, or nearly all, of which are based upon that excellent piece of biography of him in the Magnolia ; of which it may not be too much to say, perhaps, that it is the best in that curious work. Norton's life of him is of no value in point of fact, or very little indeed. It is, probably, all its author intended it to be, a work to perpetuate the Christian prin- ciples of this eminent father. A very excel- lent pedigree of the Cotton family may be seen in the first volume of the New Eng. Hist, am! Gen. Register, prepared by Mr. J. Win- gate Thornton. In another work, not yet published, the same gentleman notes the fol- lowing families descended from Cotton : — . " BrLES, Brooks, Bradbury, Bourne, Gush- ing, Everett, Frothingham, Grant, Gookin, Hale, Jackson, Lee, Mather, Swbtt, Storer, Thaver, Thornton, Tufts, Tracy, Upham, Walter, Williams, Whiting, and many others." O 4 (^^<>^ 162 HISTOKY OF BOSTON. [1633. considerable." This, though in a strain of highly- wrought eulogy, is adopted by the sober judgment of other and later writers.* After about a month Mr. Cotton was ordained teacher of the 0<"- 10- j,.^g^ Church ; and, at the same time, Mr. Thomas Leverett was chosen a Euling Elder, and Mr. Giles Firmin f was chosen Deacon. On the occasion of the ordination of Mr. Cotton, besides the " impo- sition of hands," the people were notified that they might sanction by their election the choice of the Teacher ; or, in the words of one of the chief of the performers t at the ordination, " he was chosen by all the Congregation testifying their consent by erection of hands." The same informer proceeds to describe the ceremonies at this early ordina- tion, in these words : — " Then Mr. Wilson, the Pastor, demanded of him, if he did accept of that call ? He paused, and then spake to this effect ; that, howsoever he knew himself unworth and unsufficient for that place, yet, having observed all the passages of God's providence (which he reckoned up in particular) in calling him to it, he could not but accept it. Then the Pastor and the two Elders laid their hands upon his head, and the Pastor prayed ; and then, taking off their hands, laid them on again ; and, speaking to him by his name, they did thenceforth design him to the said office, in the name of the Holy Ghost, and did give him the charge of the Congregation, and did thereby (as a sign from God) endue him with the gifts fit for his office, and, lastly, did bless him. Then the neighboring ministers which were present did (at the Pastor's motion) give him the right hands of fellowship, and the Pastor made a stipulation between him and the Congregation." § Thus it was that Mr. Cotton came into his minis- terial office in Boston, and thus are the peculiar exercises circum- stantially detailed, which cannot fail to be gratifying to all those of succeeding generations who would know their obligations to the early fathers. „ The next day, after the imposing ceremonies by which Mr. Cotton was placed at the head of the Church of Boston, there was a great assemblage at Newtown, from all the settlements adjacent, for the purpose of ordaining Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone at that place, which was done " in such a manner as before at Boston ; " the former * Hubbard calls him " that miracle of several valuable facts of a genealogical char- learning and meekness." — Hist. N. Eng. 158. acter. This son (of the same Christian name), Hutchinson says, Cotton' is supposed to have who came over vfith his father, after about been more instrumental in the settlement of seven years returned to England, and died in their civil as vfell as ecclesiastical polity, than 1697, at Ridgvrell, in Essex, aged 80 years. — any other person." Some have gone much Calamy,i. 517, &c., where there is apartic- further than this ; that " liia suggestions and ular account of him. Deacon Giles Firmin recommendations in the pulpit were observed died before 6 Oct., 1634. and adopted by the Church, while the magis- t Winthrop, Journal, i. 114. tr'ates were ready to adopt his private political ^ Winthrop, i. 6. Hutchinson says, " The counsels as the law of the land." — See Eliot, circumstances and order of proceeding in Mr. Hist. First Church, 21. Cotton's ordination were intended as a pre- f Father of the author of that well-known cedent, and the congregational churches in work (to the last generation), "The Real New England have generally conformed thereto Christian ;" in the preface to which there are ever since." — Hist. Mass. i. 34. 1633.] WAGES. MERCHANDISE. 163 as Pastor, and the latter as Teacher. At this ordination the gentlemen of Boston performed a conspicuous part. gg . The same day that the Griffin arrived, arrived also the ship ^ ■ ■ Bird, Captain Yates. She brought passengers, but how many- is not known ; she likewise brought some cows and four mares. She had a boisterous voyage, was driven far to the north, and was nearly three times as long at sea as the Grriffin. Whence she sailed is not mentioned. Meantime the adventurous John Oldham, with only three attendants, travelled by land from Boston to Connecticut. He followed the paths of the Indians all the way, and lodged with them in their huts by night ; aU of them treating him with kindness, and the Sachems making presents of beaver, in exchange probably for trifles. At his return he brought some hemp, " much better than the English, which grew there in great abundance ;" also " some black lead, whereof the Indians told him there was a whole rock." J By the arrival of the ship James at Salem, Master Graves, a considerable accession was made to the inhabitants of Boston. The same ship, with the same commander, had been here before ; and then, as now, the time occupied in the voyage was eight weeks. He sailed from Gravesend, and, of his eighty passengers, twenty were for Boston, " and some sixty cattle." The wages of workmen is this year again made an object of legis- lation, as also was merchandise. Three shillings a day for a carpenter, and two shillings and sixpence for a laborer, were thought to be " excessive rates," and the trader who charged for his goods double their cost in England was considered exorbitant ; therefore the Court ordered that " carpenters, masons, &c.," should take but two shillings a day, and laborers but eighteen pence, and that no commodity should be sold at above four pence in the shilling more than it cost for ready money in England." One of the reasons urged for this order may excite a smile at this day, and amazement a hundred years hence. It was said that by such high wages many could earn enough in four days to keep them a week, consequently they had two days to spend in idleness ! That this promoted indulgence in the use of tobacco and liquor, " which was a great waste to the Commonwealth." That, as the course of things had been, corn was now at six shillings the bushel, a cow at twenty pounds, some twenty-four, and some even twenty-six pounds ; a mare thirty-five pounds, an ewe-goat from three to four pounds, &c. Inhere was a custom adopted this year, among the ministers, of meeting at each other's houses for the purpose of discussing questions of moment. These meetings have been considered by some * as the origin of the " Boston Association of Congregational Ministers." * See Emerson's Hist. First Church, 20, 21. for prayer, theological discussion, and social This Association "continues, every second intercourse." — Hist. Mass. i.Z^. Monday, in the afternoon, to hold a meeting 164 fflSTORY OF BOSTON. [1633. Some part of the work appointed to be done on the fort in Boston yet remained undone,* owing, it appears, to the neglect of the people of Salem, Newtown, and Saugus, to do the parts allotted to them. The Newtown people had been " warned," but Mr. Dudley " would not suffer them to come, neither did he acquaint the Governor with the cause." But the "cause" was, "that Salem and Saugus had not brought in money for their parts." When this was understood by the Governor, he wrote the Deputy a letter, stating the intent of the Court to be, that the work should be done by those in the Bay, and that the money assessed on the Salem and Saugus men was for another purpose. On receipt of this explanatory letter, Mr. Dudley wrote an answer, and despatched Mr. Haynes and Mr. Hooker with it to the Governor, who were authorized to treat upon the matter. On opening the Deputy's letter, the Governor found it "full of bitterness and resolution not to send till Salem had done its part." Mr. Winthrop returned the letter to Mr. Hooker, saying, " he would not keep such an occasion of pro- vocation by him." A little time before this, Dudley had proposed to buy "a fat hog or two of Winthrop, being somewhat short of pro- visions." In this case, certainly, the Governor exercised the virtue of overcoming evil with good. He sat down and wrote to Dudley, offering him a hog as a present, and saying he would have sent it before if he had known when it would have been acceptable to him. However hoggish Dadley may have felt before the receipt of this letter, there was not much of that feeling left when he had read it ; for he immediately returned answer, to Winthrop, " that [Winthrop had], in overcoming himself, overcome him ;" and though he declined receiving the hog as a present, he would gladly purchase it, " and so very loving concluded." And thus the affair seems, for the present, at least, to have ended, jjg^ ^ The cold seems to have been severe very early this fall. The snow was " knee-deep " on the fourth of December, and vessels were frozen up in the harbors.f At the same time, the small pox was ^^^ g making dreadful ravages among the natives. Sagamore John, a great friend of the whites, often mentioned before, died on the fifth of December, and his people died so fast, that Mr. Samuel Maverick of Winiseraet buried above thirty in one day ; for whose labors to alleviate their sufferings, his name " is worthy of a perpetual remembrance. Himself, his wife, and servants, went daily to them, ministered to their necessities, and took home many of their children." The people of the neighboring towns also took many of their children away, but most of them died soon after. Of all those who assisted the * In September previous the Authorities of that plantation, because they had yet no made a requisition that " every hand, except minister. Whilst he was there, December 4, Magistrates and Ministers, should assist m there fell such a snow (knee deep) as he could finishing the fort in Boston. " — Snouj, 63. not come back for several days, and a boat t "Mr. Wilson, by leave of the Oongre- which went thither was frozen up in the river." gation of Boston, whereof he was Pastor, —Winthrop, Joar., i. 118. Such weather is went to Agawam [Ipswich] to teach the people uncommon at this day, so early in December. 1633.] SMALL POX AMONG THE INDIANS. 165 Indians in their sickness, but two white families were infected by it. At or about the same time, Sagamore James died, and most of his peo- ple also, of the same disease. It extended to the Pascataqua eastward, sweeping almost every native in the way. At what place the small pox broke out first, the writers of the time do not state, but it was probably at some point to the westward of Boston, for it is certain that Chikataubat died of this disease about a month before Sagamore John. He had long been acquainted with the English ; in 1621 he went to Plymouth, and signed a treaty with the Pilgrims. The territory over which he was Sachem is not distinctly bounded ; it extended, probably, from Wessaguscus to Neponset. A son of his, named Wampatuck, gave a deed of Braintree to the English in 1665, and a grandson deeded Boston in 1695 ; but of this hereafter. How far from the sea-board the pestilence spread, no certain informa- tion appears ; nor is there much certainty how long it continued. It probably raged as long as there were new subjects for attack. Late in January, one John Seales returned to Boston from ' ' a place twelve miles off," where he had been living with a small company of seven Indians. He reported, that, up to the time of his leaving, four of the seven had died of the disease. This man had run away from his master, with whom he had become dissatisfied, and he was now glad to run away from the Indians. He continued with them, probably, as long as they could be of service to him, but when his services were required for their benefit, the case was altered. Such examples have not been lost from that time to the present. Some Pequots, who visited Boston several months later, reported that many of that nation had died of the small pox, and about the same time it was reported, that, of the great nation of the Narragansets, seven hundred had died. Also one Hall and two others, who went to Connecticut in the beginning of November, returned to Boston on the twentieth of January following, and reported that the small pox ' ' was gone as far as any Indian plantation was known to the West, and much people dead of it." These men had been on a trading expedition, but the sickness ruined their enterprise. Of the Indian children attempted to be rescued from the malady by the people in and about Boston, all were dead but three before spring. One of the three had the singular name of Know God; which Winthrop says was given him because the Indians made such constant use of this phrase when accosted, " Me know God." This was a kind of countersign, which doubtless grew out of the constant importunity of their white brethren, inquiring " if they knew God ? " 166 HISTOEY OF BOSTON. {1634. CHAPTER XIX. Murder of Capt. Stone and others. — Market Day appointed. — First Tafem, and Store. — Thursday Lecture begun. — Lecture against Veils. — Cross cut out of the Colors. — Survey of the Town ordered. — Eepresentatives first Chosen. — Great increase of Inhabitants. — First Election Sermon. — John Humfrey. — Mr. Andrew's Gift. — Enemies to the Colony in England. — The Patent de- manded. — Emigrant Ships stopped at London. — Earl of Warwick. — Preparations for a Fort on Castle Island. — Some propose to remove to Connecticut. — First Entries on the Records of Boston. — Description of the first Book. — Origin of Select Men. — Various early Regulations. — The Tri- angular Warehouse. — Arrival of Eminent Men. — Opposition to the Removal to Connecticut. THE year now commenced is one of thrilling interest in the history of New England, and to the people of Boston especially ; as the. centre of all undertakings, the fountain head of counsel and direction in the aiTairs of the country. This year was committed, or the knowledge of certain murders first reached Bos- ton, which finally brought on the war with the Pequots, and which eventuated in their destruction, as a nation, or tribe of importance. Captain John Stone, who had created some dis- turbance in Boston, the particulars of which have been detailed, sailed soon after to the eastward. At Agamenticus he was joined by Captain Walter Norton;* thence, in the autumn of 1633, he proceeded southward on his way to Virginia, and does not appear to have been heard from until the following winter. Then news was brought to Plymouth, that he had been murdered by the Pequots, as he was in a course of trade with them in the mouth of the Connecticut River. No steps, however, appear to have been immedi- ately taken to investigate the affair, nor does it appear that any of the murdered men belonged to Boston, or any part of the Bay, as the settlements around the inner harbor were then termed. jj^ . Meanwhile the business of Boston progressed, and a regular ' market was judged to be necessary. Accordingly the Court passed an order for the erection of a Market,! and for its being kept on Thursdays, on which days the public Lecture was held. At the same time a tavern was opened by Samuel Cole, and John Coggan opened a shop of merchandise. This was the first tavern and first shop opened in Boston. Hitherto every house was a house of entertainment, as well as a shop or store for the sale of merchandise. It was a long time, however, before stores became generally separated from houses of resi- dence. * Of the Christian name of Capt. Norton, there may be a question ; but from some cir- cumstances I am of the opinion that it is as I have given it in the text — Walter. As will be seen in our list of Freemen, Gen. Reg., vol. iii., p. 90, Capt. Walter Norton is among those recorded 19 Oct., 1630. He probably went with others, not long after, to PascataqulEi. t " Erection of a mercate " is the language of Winthrop as rendered by his Editor. The true meaning I have no doubt is the " estab- lishment" of a Market; for it is not very probable that a building for a market was con- templated at this early day. As will be seen from the records hereafter, reference is made to the " Market Place." 1634.] THURSDAY LECTURE. 167 The Thursday Lecture,* which had its beginning in Boston, soon after the arrival of Mr. Cotton,t has, with some intermissions, been kept up until the present generation.^ It was an excellent institution, and early- exercised a good influence. Many of the discourses at this lecture were printed during the last century, and constitute a valuable portion of its ■ literary history. § At these lectures subjects were sometimes discussed which were of too secular a nature, as was then thought, for the pulpit on Sundays. Thus, Mr. Cotton took occasion at one of these early lec- j. „ tures to discuss the propriety of women's wearing veils. Mr. ' Endicott being present, he spoke in opposition to Mr. Cotton's views; and, " after some debate, the Grovernor, perceiving it to grow to some earnestness, interposed, and so it break off." What effect, if any, the lecture had to bring the veil into disuse here at that time, no men- tion is made. But about this time, whether before or after, is not quite certain, but probably before, Mr. Cotton lectured at Salem on the same grave question, with great effect. His arguments against veils were so conclusive to the females of the congregation, that, though they all wore them in the forenoon, in the afternoon they all came without them. This may have taken Governor Endicott by surprise, and he may have come up to Boston to counteract this wholesale, and, as he believed, unscriptural denunciation of a necessary appendage to the attire of all modest women, especially, as Mr. Williams and Mr. Skelton had proved conclusively from Scripture, that it ought to be worn in public assemblies. || For females to wear veils, they maintained, was no badge of superstition, while the Cross in the King's colors was evidently of that character ; or so Mr. Endicott considered it, and he forthwith proceeded to cut it out. Roger Williams is accused of agitating this matter, and there- fore accountable for the trouble that it occasioned ; and as it was done in accordance with his views, it was of course condemned by all those who had denounced him as promulgating heretical doctrines.TT Upon * Under date 11 Dee. , 1633, Winthrop vrrites, the Church on that day are almost bare, and con- " The lectures at Boston and Newtown returned sequently, in winter, extremely cold. Some de- again to their former course, because the sire its discontinuance ; but, while others are weather was many times so tedious as people attached to it by old associations, and the com- could not travel, &c." forts and facilities of brotherly and ministerial f It may be said rather, that his lectures intercourse which it affords, it is not likely that were renewed on his arrival here, for he had it will soon be given up." Vol. xvi. 129. held such lectures before he left England. See § I have never heard of a complete collection Magnolia, iii. 18. — At the end of two centu- of these, and very much doubt whether one ries, the Rev. Mr. N. L. Frothingham preached could be easily made. Some thirty, only, ex- a sermon which he entitled, " The Shade of the tending over just one hundred years, 1714 to Past. — For the Celebration of the Close of the 1814, are in my own collection. Second Century since the Establishment of the \\ Dr. Bentley asserts that Mr. Endicott had Thursday l,ecture ;" and the Rev. Mr. R. C. introduced the practice before the arrival of Waterston, on the 14 Dec, 1843, preached " A Mr. Williams, and that the latter supported it Discourse in the First Church on the Occasion more to gratify Mr. Endicott and Mr. Skelton, of Resuming the Thursday Lecture.'^ See Chr. than that he felt any interest in it himself. Examiner, March, 1834, and Jan. 1844. But this does not agree exactly with the well- J " Of late years," says the Christian Ex- known character of Roger Williams, as we un- aminer, " attendance on the Thursday Lecture derstand it. See Knowles' Life Williams, 61. has dwindled down almost, as it were, to non- ^ His cotemporary, Capt. Scottow, says, attendance, except on the part of the liberal " This Child of Light walked in darkness about clergy of Boston and its vicinity. The walls of forty years, yet the root of the matter abode 168 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1634. ENDICOTT CUTTING OUT THE CROSS. this Mr. -Hubbard sarcastically adds, " What that good maa would have done with the Cross upon his coin, if he had any left, that bore that sign of superstition, is uncertain." Mr. Endicott cut out the red Cross from an entire conscientious conviction, that it was idolatrous to let it remain ; arguing, and truly, that it had been given to the King of England by the Pope ; and that it was a relic of Antichrist. Mr. Richard Browne, Ruling Elder of the church of Watertown, complained of the act to the Court of Assistants, as a high-handed pro- ceeding, which might be coastrued, in England, into one of rebellion. To con- clude the account of this matter by antici- pating the order of events, it may be briefly stated, that the Court issued an attachment against Ensign Richard Davenport, then the ensign-bearer of Salem, whose Colors had been mutilated, to appear at the next Court. When that Court came together, which was a year after the Cross was cut out, " Endicott was judged to be guilty of a great offence ;" inas- much as he had, " with rash indiscretion, and by his sole authority," committed an act, " thereby giving occasion to the Court of England to think ill of them ;" that, therefore, " he was worthy of admonition, and should be disabled from bearing any public ofi&ce for one year." This affair of the Cross would hardly have been noticed, probably, but for the opportunity it afforded the people of Boston to punish those of Salem for their adherence to Roger Williams. And thus early is seen that spirit of dictation, which has ever since been conspicuous in this metropolis ; and though it has, in a measure, made it what it is, it also shows, that, what Boston undertakes, Boston will do. Meanwhile it probably occurred to the Authorities that they might delay further proceeding safely for the present ; inasmuch as the same Authorities " being doubtfuf of the lawful use of the Cross in an Ensign." However, when it was thought the time had arrived in which some excuse should be sent over, and money had been raised to build a fort, to be employed in case excuses failed, the Governor and Assistants met ^^^ 27 ^^^ agreed to write to Mr. Downing, their friend in England, ■ " of the truth of the matter, under all their hands, that, if occa- sion were, he might show it in their excuse ; for therein they expressed their dislike of the thing, and their purpose to punish the offenders, because the fact, as concerning the manner, was very unlawful." That Winthrop, and perhaps Cotton, were willing to connive at the depreda- tion on St. George's Cross, is very manifest from several circumstances ; only one, however, will be mentioned, Winthrop, about the same time, in him:— Thus the LorS disposed of Satan's A Narrative of the Planting of the Mas. Col., malice, so he was out-shot in his own bow." — tj-c, p. 21. 1634.] FIRST REPRESENTATIVES. 169 offered as great an insult to the King's Calendar, as Endicott had to his Colors; by utterly rejecting its "heathenish Roman nomenclature;" without even an apology for his conduct.* Had there been no fear of a Royal Governor, little would probably have been heard about a mutilation of the Colors. For not above two months after this, " all the Ministers except Mr. Ward, of Ipswich, met at Boston, being requested by the Governor and Assistants," to consider what they should do, if a General Governor should be sent over ? Also whether it was lawful to carry the Cross in their Banners ? It was de- cided that they ought not to accept a General Governor ; and, as to wearing Crosses in their Banners, they were divided, and were obliged to defer the matter to another meeting^. At that meeting, which was in the following March, " Mr. Endicott being called to answer," the Court agreed no better than before ; only it was agreed that for the present no Colors at all should be used. K -.^ Why the following order was made does not fully appear ; it was, that an oath should be administered "to aU house-keepers and sojourners, being twenty years of age and not freemen, and for making a survey of the houses and lands of all freemen." Up to this time all the Freemen in the Province had been, or had the privilege of being, present at the General Courts, and of participating in making the laws by which they were to be governed. They had now become so numerous, that the attendance of all was quite impracticable. This state of things, however, was not contemplated in their Charter, but the propriety of having a less numerous body to transact the general business of the Commonwealth could not reasonably be questioned ; though, according to Mr. Hubbard, the measure occasioned considerable disturbance, which, by the wisdom and prudence of " some private gentlemen, the trouble was prevented." Perhaps Mr. Winthrop's agency to jsring 9,bout the proposed change may have been a reason that he was left out of the government, as he was. It was, however, agreed by concert beforehand, that two deputies from each town should "meet and consider of such matters as they were to take order in at the" next General Court. Mr. Hubbard's plausible pretext for Mr. Winthrop's being ^^ ' dropped, is thus expressed : — " The Freemen, that they might not always burthen one person with the yoke of the government, nor suffer their love to overflow in one family, turned their respects into another channel ;" and so elected Mr. Dudley Governor, and Mr. Roger Ludlow Deputy Governor. Mr. Haynes was chosen one of the Assist- ants, and Mr. Coddington Treasurer. At this Court it was determined that there should be four General Courts yearly, and that it should be * Winthrop's Editor takes rather a strange time, of the ;absiirdity of following " Komish .view of this act. He says it " arose from' a Superstitions," is a very natural conclusion, weai scruple," &o. He might as well have That their opinions gained strength in a free argued that the Reformation was founded wilderness, faster than they would have done upon "a weak scruple." That the convic- under the restraints of arbitrary and sanguin- tions of our fathers were strengthened by ary laws, is quite natural also. 22 170 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1634. lawful for the Freemen of each Plantation to choose two or three before every General Court to confer of, and to prepare, such business for, the next Court as they judged necessary to be acted upon ; and that persons so selected by the Freemen should be fully empowered to act in the General Court for all the Freemen of the Commonwealth, in making laws, granting lands, in short, everything, excepting the elec- tion of Magistrates and other officers. Other reasons were given why the people should legislate by their representatives, instead of a general attendance of the whole. By such general attendance they were sub- jected to a great loss of time ; * and, all the men being drawn from the border settlements, would leave them exposed to attack by the Indians. The inhabitants of Boston and its vicinity had unprecedentedly in- creased since the emigration of 1630 ; " near twenty considerable ships every year, since the second," had arrived, " with such a number of passengers, that the inhabitants were forced to look out for new places of settlement, so that, in these four years, " every desirable place fit for plantation on the sea-coast was taken up." The places so occupied and named are recorded in this order by the early historian, Mr. Hub- bard : — Salem, Charlestown, Boston, Dorchester, Eoxbury, Water- town, Newtown, Lynn, Ipswich, Newbury, Hingham, Weymouth, " and, last of all. Concord, about twelve miles westward from Water- town, right up into the woods." f At the late Election Mr. Cotton preached a sermon, J and the practice was continued in succeeding years. They soon became as necessary a part of Election Day as any other of its ceremonies ; and this was the first of the series of Election Sermons which, with few exceptions, has been kept up to this day. Whether there would have been a sermon by Mr. Cotton at this time, but for his wish to make known to the Freemen his disapprobation for their turning out the old officers, is not certain ; but certain it is, he protested in strong terms " that a Magis- trate ought not to be turned into the condition of a private man with- out just cause ;" forgetting, in his warmth, that the Freemen were the * The election this year occupied three days. Mr. [William] GoodwinO Mr. [John] TaloottO' — Winthrop,'i.l52. The principal ofiBcers of the Mr. [■William] Spenoer(i) Mr. [Robert] FeakesP) Government residing at Newtown, that town *^'"" [^''iol'ard] BrownW Mr. [GJeorge] AloookW now became the seat of Government. But this ^'^ ti?''°l Oldham W Mr. Israel Stoughtonm Election was held in Mr. Cotton's meeting- Mr' fltXin P°?''"?i 5'""*'"Jl!r'^ linnoo ;n Ttncfrvr, «!.. ="io<;i,iug Mr. [Abraham] Palmer^ George HuUW house m Boston. — S!«ou7 Robert MoultonW Capt. [Nath'l.] TumerP) t -"«'• of •"««' ^ng. , 158. Two of the towns Mr. [John] CoxeallC) Mr. [Thomas] WillisCT here named were not settled, however, till Edmund Quinseyl*) Mr. [Edward] Tomlinsl^ about a year later, yet there would be enough '^"'P'- •^°^'^ UnderhillC) Mr. [John] HolgraveW without them to substantiate the text of Win- J"''" JohnsonW Mr. [Roger] ConantW throp's Journal, i. 128, namely, that two Depu- William Heath(5) Mr. Francis Weston(S) ties from each town attended the General Court Thus Agawam, Hingham, Weymouth, Med- of 14 May, of this year (1634), though his f^d, Marblehead, &c., do not appear to be Commentator thinks that his Author should represented. But the Record does not state have written three, and not two, from each what towns were represented, town ; because heis of opinion that but eight 1 1 have been led to suppose that this ser- towns_ sent Deputies ; the names of whom he ™on was preached after the Election, and not has given as follows from the Colony Records, before it, as some have unhesitatingly stated, and I have added the parts in brackets. A (l) Cambridge. (6)Roxbarr. membership in the General Court did not then (2) Watertovm. (6) Dorchester. confer the title of Mr. ® Charlestown. m Lynn (Saugos.) (4) Boston. (8)" ■ l^'^S^f.rh^s^ 5 <^1'^:i} w I (4 ). i^ ^^>4, 4 ^ ^ fin '^ ^. V:^5^r4^^'^^e^^*'^ 4 1634.] JOHN HUMFEEY. 171 judges of what might constitute " a just cause," and that rulers might be changed for very gOod reasons, without any imputation upon their integrity or 'ability to perfoum their office.* During the month of June this year there arrived at Boston " four- teen great ships, and one at Salem." , Among the gentlemen of special j^j note who now arrived was John Humfrey, Esquire, of whom mention has before been made.f He was the first Deputy- Governor of the Massachusetts Company, and was hindered from coming over in 1630 by the situation of his private affairs. This hindrance proved a fortutiate thing for Boston ; for, being a gentleman of high standing at home, he had great weight in counteracting the evil designs of the enemies of the Colony. His wife came with him ; another proof of woman's fortitude and voluntary sufferings in a " forlorn wilderness," to encourage and uphold the pioneers of a vast undertaking for the good of posterity. Her sacrifices must have been greater than most others. She came out of the protection of an Earl- dom to accompany her husband here, with the full knowledge that the same undertaking had cost the life of the Lady Arabella Johnson, her sister, J whom she did not expect to be a partaker of her privations, or a companion in her solitude. Mr. Humfrey had a large grant of land at Lynn, and there he settled soon after his arrival. At the end of about seven years' residence in the country, he returned with his wife to England. Through Mr. Humfrey's influence, Boston received essential aid by contributions in money and other substantial gifts. One gentleman, Mr. Richard Andrews, § of London, gave sixteen heifers, one of which he directed ,to be given to each of the ministers, and the rest to the poor. He afterwards made other donations. Mr. Humfrey brought ordnance, muskets, and powder, for the Colony, "bought for the public by moneys given to that end." Mr. Humfrey brought, also, propositions from many of the Nobility to become settlers in New England. These "propositions" aimounted to questions of inquiry touching religious privileges. Some of the ships lost many cattle ; but of two that came from Ipswich, with above one hundred and twenty head, seven only were los^t. At the same time, one ship only lost passengers. This was the Elizabeth Dorcas; which being "very ill victualled, and being hurt upon a rock at Scilly," which was the occasion of a long passage to * Curious and interesting statistics about melancholy picture of the situation of the election sermons may be found appended to Lady Susan at Lynn, in his history of that that of 1849, by Dr. John Pierce of Brookline, ancient town. See p. 115-16, where will be which he preached in the 76th year of his age, found some account of the family, and which was among the last of the services § There was a Thomas Andrews, an Alder* of a long life. He died the same year. man of London, who, in 1648, was appointed t See ante, p. 52. In some early copies of one of the Judges at the trial of Charles, that part of this work, 1632 was printed as Richard Andrews may also have been an the date of Mr. Humfrey's arrival, which is , alderman. Thomas was Lord Mayor in 1651, an error. not 1551, as printed in Mr. Young's collection J Mr. Lewis has dravm a beautiful though, of early matters about Massachusetts. 172 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1634. her, and one of extreme sufferings to the passengers, " whereof sixty perished at sea! " The people of Boston were a good deal alarmed, about this time, from certain information, which they received from England, of movements prejudicial to their liberties. It appeared that a growing jealousy of the importance of the settlements had influenced " the Archbishops and others of the Council " to attempt to put a stop to emigration, and actually sent out warrants to stay the ships then ready to sail. They also commanded Mr. Cradock* to surrender the Patent, he being, or having been, the only legal Governor of the Massachusetts' Company. Mr. Cradock accordingly wrote to the Grovernment here to send home the Charter. Meantime, the masters of the embargoed ships in the Thames, by good and prudent management, succeeded in being allowed to proceed on their voyage, for that time. And thus came Mr. Cradock's order for the return of the Charter, which was accompanied by a copy of the Council's Order f to him. This was a matter for serious con- sideration, and much of anxiety must have shown itself in the counte- nances of the Fathers of Boston. But as in other cases, so in this, they displayed the most consummate wisdom. It was in their power to pro- crastinate ; they exercised that power, and thus is opened a portion of the sequel to what has already been premised.^ Governor Dudley and his Council, " upon long consultation," first, whether they should return any answer to Mr. Cradock at all, and, secondly, if any, what it should be, finally agreed to write him, stating that they could not act in the matter without the authority of the General Court, and that there would be no General Court till next September. Thus, how much is due to the wisdom of the Authorities, and how much to the safety which three thousand miles of ocean afforded, may pretty satis- factorily be settled in the minds of all such as give the subject their attention. About the same time, the Earl of Warwick, a great friend of New England, wrote an encouraging letter to Mr. "Winthrop, in which he congratulated him on the prosperity of the settlement, and offered his services for its advancement. § July 29. What the preliminary steps had been for erecting a fort on Castle Island does not appear ; but now Governor Dudley and his Council repair to that island, with " divers Ministers and others," and there agreed upon erecting two platforms and one small forti- fication, and the Deputy-Governor, Mr. Ludlow, was appointed to oversee the work. * He was member of Parliament for London, t See ante p 64 1640, and died the same |ear. --See Parlia- \ Several ofthe Puritan fathers' books, ded- E ri^™£if"^- V^- f-i> }>'''^^ !T ^ "^*«^ *° *!>'« Earl, are in possession of the MaMhew Cradock, member oparhament from writer. He diedl9 April, 16^8, ». 71, and was Stafford, in the time of Phihp and Mary, and buried in Folstead cWoh, Es^ex. " He wm was one of the members who " left it in die- not content with hearing the long sermons of ?rifi4n lih^rMnflS the same Parliament the Puritan divines, but he woufd have them of 1640, with OUT Matthew Cradock, " Samuel repeated at his own house." — CaUmy, Fun. vassell. : rr ■.. A< TT-. r ,r ^- in Granger. His residence is said to e1 W 153 Hubbard's ISst. of New have been the finest in England. 1634.] FIRST BOOK OF RECORDS. 173 gg J ^ The time having arrived for the meeting of the General Court, ^ ' ■ it accordingly assembled at Newtown. It held a long and excited session ; many subjects came up of great moment, among which a removal to Connecticut of an important part of the inhabitants of the Bay was one. This and other questions occupied the Court for a week, and then an adjournment for fourteen days was moved and carried. How much of the time of the Court was taken up in dis- cussing the evils arising from the use of tobacco, " costly apparel, and immodest fashions,'' does not appear ; but " pains and penalties " were prescribed for the special benefit of all such as presumed to indulge in them beyond specific bounds. „ J The first book of the Kecords of Boston begins here ; that is to say, what there is left of it, for the number of leaves torn off and lost is not known, nor when they were torn off and lost. The first entries now in being are in the autograph of Governor Winthrop.* It is probable that the first portion of the Records was occupied chiefly in the distribution and allotments of the lands of the peninsula,! ^^^ i' may be that a list of the names of the residents was contained in the opening pages ; but speculations of this nature are of small account. It is sufficient to state, that what now remains appears to be an entire book, J the firs^ entry beginning at the top of the page, and is in iihese words : — " Whereas it hath been founde that muche damage hath allreadye happnd by laynge of stones and loges neere the bridge and landinge place, whereby diverst boats have been much brusd; ibr p"Tiention of such harmes for tyme to come, it is ordered that whosoevier shall w^nlade any stones, lumber, or logges, where the same may not be plainely scene at highe water, shall sett vp a pole or beacon to give notice thereof, upon paine that whosoever shall faUe so to doe shall make full recompence for all such damage as shaU happen : being only declarative of y^ com. lawe herein." § Against the above first paragraph in the Records are set in the margin the names of those persons who had the direction of the affairs of the town for the year, but how they were appointed does not appear. It will be seen in process of time, however, that similar officers received the name of Select Men. The following names, occupying the left- hand margin of the original Record, are presumed to have been present * The first two parasraphs are written with ularly through the book (from 1 to 161 )_ it blue ink, which is yet bright. appears to be complete. The accompanying t It is Mr. Quinoy's opinion, that " the as- fac simile has been prepared at great cost, and signment of house-lots within the peninsula, is a faithful representation of half of the first and the allotting farms to succeeding emi- page of the first volume, grants, formed the chief business of the town § Upon this last sentence Mr. Quincy re- authorities for nearly half a century." — Mu- marks, " The persons passing this order, how- nidpal Hist, of Boston, p. 2. That was, very ever, seem to have been under some appre- probably, one of their chief concerns ; but hension lest their authority might be ques- they had several others which they thou^t of tioned." — Municipal History, p. 3. And well equal, if not of greater, moment. they might, for it will be remembered that, % It contains 161 pages, on foolscap paper, not many days before, their Charter had been The paging and indexing was a comparatively demanded. That the future looked very crit- modern labor, and from the pages running reg- ical to them is pretty certain. 174 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1634. when it was made ; namely, John Winthrop, William Coddington, Capt. John Underhill, Thomas Oliver, Thomas Leverett, Giles FiRMiN, John Coggeshall, William Peirce, Robert Hardinge, and William Brenton.* The Record proceeds : — "It is also ordered, that no person shall leave any fish or garbage neare the said bridge or common landing-place, between the creeks, whereby any annoyance may come to the people that passe that way, vpon payne to forfeit for every such offence five shillings, the same to be levied by distress of the goodes of the offender. And for the better execution of these orders, the aforesaid Giles Firmin is appointed over- seer of said landing-place, to give notice to suche strangers and others as come hither with hoats, and to take knowledge of all offences com- mitted, and to levye the penalties which shall be forfeited. And if, after notice shall be given by the said overseer to any person that shall have any timber, logges, or stones, being without such pole or beacon, the said offender shall (after making recompence to the person damni- fied, if any damage happen) forfeit to the towne, for every daye the same offence shall continue, five shillings, to be levied by distresse."t These extracts are supposed J to establish the fact, that a narrow point or tongue of land projected into the harbor between Mill Creek and the Town Dock, and that upon and around this the principal business of Boston was at first done THE TRIANGUI.AE WAREHOnSE. The Triangular Warehouse, till 1824 an object of antiquarian curiosity, was built upon this point, though not until about sixty years after the period now treated of It being thus introduced, it may not be improper in this con- nection to give an account of it. For many years before the Tri- angular Warehouse was demol- ished it was an object of much in- terest, as a relic of ancient times, and as representing the style of * There is one name in the MS. not entirely written out. This was crossed out apparently at the time it was written. I presume it was intended for Edmund Quincy. This person, whoever he was, may have been appointed one of the Town Officers, but not accepting the office, or otherwise prevented from being present. " Edmond Quinsey " was, at this time, an inhabitant of Boston, had been ad- mitted a freeman 4 March, 1634. f Nothing of a municipal character would be more natural, in a community associated for mutual benefit, than the choice or appoint- ment of a few of their number to manage the general concerns of the whole. The missing portion of our Records would probably show this to have been among the first piroceedings of the town. The name select men, which they eventually received, was easily, naturally, and almost necessarily, acquired ; for men selected for any specific object were select men. The number of these select men may have varied from time to time before the time reached by the Records. There was a Town Meeting on the 8th of the 6th month, at which were chosen Richard Bellingham, Esq., J. Cogan, merchant, in place of Giles Firmin, deceased, and Robert Harding, now in Virginia, to make up the ten to manage the afiairs of the town." Such officers first received the name Select Men in the Records in 1642. J See Shaw's Topog. and Hist. Descript. of Boston, 73. Mr. Shaw is pretty good author- ity for facts of this nature, generally. 1634;] WILLIAM HUTCHINSON. 175 architecture in an early period of the history of Boston. The researches which have been made into its antiquities have not furnished data to establish the exact time of its foundation, but Mr. Shaw says it was "about the year 1700." In a "ledger-book" of the owners, that writer found some items * relative to the subject, but nothing concerning its time of building ; though he says it was built by London merchants for a warehouse, and was subsequently improved for different purposes, both public and private. It stood opposite the Swing Bridge, so well known one hundred years ago, and at the head of the Town Dock, and measured forty-eight feet upon it ; on Roebuck passage it measured forty-one feet, and on the back side fifty-five feet. Its foundation was of stone, and its walls of brick. These were of a larger size than the bricks of the country in later times. Its roof was slated. " There were two principal stories, with a good cellar underneath. The lower story appeared to have been arched, with very many doors and windows. On each corner and in the centre of the roof there was a tower, topped with a ball. The centre ball was of wood, the others of stone ; all fixed on iron spires, set in lead." f There was a period in its history* when it was the central point of the heaviest business done in the town, and here, for a long time, the public scales were kept. But, like every other structure of human art, it was doomed to sink into insignificance, as Time's heavy hand continued its pressure upon it ; until its great agent. Improvement, came to its relief, and saved it from the mortification of crumbling to dust with the weight of years, g jg In the midst of the stirring affairs which occupied the General Court now in session, there came in the ship Griffin, with about two hundred passengers, and one hundred cattle. Among the passengers were Mr. John Lathrop, Mr. Zachariah Synmes, and Mr. William Hutchinson. Of the trials and misfortunes of the latter gentle- man notice will be taken in the order of their occurrence. His wife and several children came with him. He resided in Boston until the Antinomian controversy compelled him to remove to Rhode Island, over which colony he was the first Governor. Alford, in Lincolnshire, about twenty miles from Boston, was the place whence this family emigrated. Ann Hutchinson, who gave rise to the ' ' Antinomians and Famalists " in New England, was the wife of this William Hutchinson. Her maiden name was Marbury, a daughter of Mr. Edward Marbury,J " a godly minister of Lincolnshire," and also of London. These were the ancestors of one of the most distinguished Governors of Massa- chusetts, Governor Thomas Hutchinson. Mary, the sister of Mr. Wil- liam Hutchinson, married Mr. John Wheelwright, also involved in the Antinomian troubles. Susannah, the mother of Mr. William Hutchin- * " 1714. To Cash for ground rent two f " It was constructed with great strength, years, £2 4s. — To Benjamin Hallowell, lis. and the foundation stood upon a sandymarsh, 94rf. — To Cash for a ladder, 17s. — Paid Mr. beneath which there is found a solid blue clay, Manly for repairing the tiles and slates. — at about thirteen feet below the level of Ann Cash for extraordinary charges when the cellar Street. ' ' — Snow. % See Bise, Reign and ■wiisoveT&owed,15s."~-Descript.qfBoston,7S. Ruin of the Antinomians, &o., p. 33. 176 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1634. son, probably came with him to Boston. The fame of Cotton, no doubt, had induced them to follow his fortunes into " these goings down of the sun." Among the acts of the General Court, six hundred pounds was ordered to be raised " towards fortifications and other charges ; which were the more hastened," says Winthrop, because, by one of the ships just arrived, there came over a copy of the commission for taking away their Patent.* Thus this act can only be construed as intended to resist the power of England. To return to the Eecords of the Town : " At a generall meeting vpon publick notice. Imp'. It was l>s<=- lO- ordered that Mr. WUlson, the Pastor (in lieu of his land granted him at the North river, by Mestick, wch he should passe ouer to the towne of Boston), should have so much land at Mount Wooleston at his election. And after so much as shall be his portion of other lands belonging to the towne, to be laid him out so neere his other lands at Mount Wooleston as may be for his most conveniency." f At a meeting eight days after, J " vpon publique " notice, it was agreed that " Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Coddington, Mr. Belling- ham, § Mr. Cotton, Mr. OUyver, Mr. Colborne, and William Balstone, shall have power to divide and dispose of all such lands belonging to y* towne (as are not yet in y"= lawfuU possession of any pticular prsons) to the inhabitants of y° towne, according to y* orders of Court ; leaving such portions in comon for y^ vse of newe comers, and y* further benefitt of y° towne, as in theire best discretions they shall thinke fitt ; the ilands hyred by y^ towne to be also included in this order." The project of a removal to Connecticut of many distinguished settlers in and about Boston, caused great agitation in the town and * See ante, p. 172. doings of which comprise the next entry on t It waa judged proper to introduce a few the records, namely, Dec. 18th. The choice of the early entries from the Records, exactly made the preyious lecture day is not recorded, as they are recorded, that the reader may except by Winthrop in his Journal, have a just understanding of the manner in ^ Some very interesting original letters, by which the early public business of Boston was a relative in England, are published in the transacted. New England Hist, and Gen. Reg. for April, J Winthrop, in his Journal, i. 151, speaks 1853. His name is prominent in our history of a Town Meeting on the 11 Dec, " to choose for a long period, and though the Quakers seven men who should divide the town lands handle his name without ceremony, if not with- among them." From the same source we out mercy, and while it must be confessed learn that the seven men were chosen by they had reason to do so, yet he was not written ballots ; or, to use his words, "by without eminent virtues. A town in the papers." At this meeting they left out Win- State perpetuates his name. A Henry Belyng- throp, Coddington, " and other of the chief ham was Proctor of New College, Oxford, men ; only they chose one of the Elders and a 1598. — Gulch's Apx. to Wood. A Sir Henry Deacon, and the rest of the inferior sort." Bellingham was High Sheriff of Yorkshire, (But the names of the " inferior sort " are not 1596. He married a daughter of Francis given.) This they did, " as fearing that the Boynton (a family traceable to Bartholomew jicher men would give the poorer sort no de Bovington, living at the beginning of the great proportions of land, but would rather 12th century). Our Richard was, no doubt, leave a great part at liberty for new comers of the Yorkshire Bellinghams. Much of in- and for common, which Mr. Winthrop had oft terest may be found concerning branches of persuaded them unto, as best for the town." the Bellinghams in Fuller's WortAies and Nich- — Ibid., 1&1-2. However, Mr. Cotton inter- ola' Progresses. Gov. Bellingham died 7 Dec, fered, and influenced the people to reconsider 1672, in his Slst year. He was the last of the their election of the 11th, and to hold another Patentees. — Int.-leaued AVck of Judge Sewali, on the next lecture day, which they did, the in the hands of Mr. Frederic Kidder. 1634.] REMOVAL TO CONNECTICUT. 177 vicinity. It was a subject of legislation, and was debated with much earnestness in the session of September, and also at the adjourned meeting, fourteen days later. The chief argument against a removal was, of course, made by those in authority residing in Boston and its immediate neighborhood. They very reasonably argued that, without a division, they were weak, and exposed to invasion ; from the French by sea, and the Indians by land. But Mr. Hooker, as head of the Church at Newtown, urged their straitened circumstances for want of land. They had had from Captain Oldham and others glowing accounts of beautiful meadows along the Connecticut, and this was an important consideration, as they had many cattle to be provided for in an ap- proaching winter ; and while nothing is said about the meadows here- about having been taken up and appropriated before their arrival ; that Boston had already or might soon exercise an undue influence over the adjacent towns ; that the ofi&ces had begun to be pretty sharply con- tested ; that so many men of acknowledged ability and capacity, in one small community, afforded but a distant prospect of a just appreciation of them all, and hence the prospect of their being called into exercise being small and remote ; — that all these considerations were taken into acc'ount may be more than probable.* However, those who ad- vocated a removal were bound to abide the decision of the General Court. They did abide it ; and when the day came to take the question, they got a majority of votes for removal.f From the time of this decision until October of the next year, preparations went steadily on for a removal ; and, though no doubt some went in the mean time, it was not till the twentieth of October, 1635, that the main body of the settlers, consisting of ' ' about sixty men, J women, and children, with their horses, cattle, and swine," set off, like the ancient Israelites, for their Land of Promise, upon a journey through a dense wilderness, which occupied them fourteen days in its accom- plishment. § Though the loss of so many worthy inhabitants from this * Hubbard says, " two such eminent stars, the owners of lots were entered in a book. — such as were Sir. Cotton and Mr. Hooker, See Dr. Joel Hawes' Centennial Discourse at both of the first magnitude, though of differing Hartford, 9 Nov., 1834, to which is appended influence, could not well continue in one and a list of the names here referred to. See also the same orb." — Hist. New Enff., 173. "Mr. elaborate Historical Notes on Connecticut, by Cotton had such an insinuating and melting Mr. W. S. Porter, 12mo, 1842. way in his preaching, that he would usually § " Hearing of a very fertill place," says carry his very adversary captive after the tn- Johnson, " upon the river of Canectico low umphantchariot of his rhetoric." — Ibid. ,175. land, and well stored with meddow, — this f While the matter was thus in debate in people, seeing that tillage went but little on, the General Court, some of Watertown took resolved to remove and breed up store of the opportunity of seizing a brave piece of cattell, which were then at eight and twenty meadow aimed at by those of Newtown, which, pound a cow, or neare upon. But these men, as was reported, proved a bone of contention having their hearts gone from the Lord, sooue between them, &c. — Hubbard, N. Eng. ,\77. tooke dislike at every little matter ; the plow- X Some idea of the individuals composing able plaines were too dry and sandy for them, this company may be had (that is, the names and the rocky places, although more fruitfi\ll, of the men) from a list of those who owned yet to eat their bread with toile of hand, and land in Hartford in 1639, four years after the how they deemed it insupportable. And they great emigration. Until this year (1639) no only waited now for a people of stronger faith catalogue of the inhabitants appears; then than themselves were, to purchase their houses the Town Records of Hartford begin, or then and land ; accordingly they met with Chap- 23 178 HISTOKY OP BOSTON. [1634. theu weak and feeble community was heavily felt at the time, it was more than made up, in numbers at least, by immediate arrivals from England, as will be marked in the sequel. Meantime there was httle satisfaction in the consideration, that those friends who had thus buried themselves in the wilderness had lost much in security, whatever they might gain in lands and Hberty. CHAPTER XX. Pequot Messengers visit Boston. — Fail in their Object. — Others arrive, — and are successfuL — Their Detail of Stone's Death. — Some Narragansets appear in the Neighborhood. — Pequots fear being intercepted by them. — They conclude a Treaty. — Their Diplomatic SkilL — Not so Treacherous as represented. — Incident in the Life of John Eliot. — Ship Regard arrives. — John Mansfield. — Casualty. — Town Meeting Proceedings. — Orders about allotting out the Land. — About Fences and Gates. — School Master. — B^gulation about Litigations. — Apprehensions from the French. — La Tour's Gasconade. — Severity of the Winter. — Israel Stoughton. — Bullets pass for Money. — Roger Williams. — Election. — Governor Haynes. — Manner of Election. — Captain Hurlstoue. — Captain Graves. — Many Ships arrive. — Terrible Storm. — Richard Mather. — Ship Angel Gabriel lost. — Another, with many Lives. — Arrival of distinguished Men. — Vane, Peters, Shepard. — Further Trouble about Roger Williams. — His Banishment. — Arrival of Capt Lyon Gardiner. THE affair of the murder of Captains Stone, Norton, and others, by the Pequot* Indians, seems not to have occupied much of the attention of the Authorities in Boston since their occurrence until the present ^ time, and would not probably now, had not the Pequots themselves moved in it. This they hardly would have done had they been innocent. But being desirous to be thought so by the people here, Sassacus, their chief Sachem, sent a messenger to conciliate them. He brought two bundles of sticks to designate how many beaver and other skins, and how much wampum, he would pay to have the matter passed over without further notice. After exchanging a few presents with Mr. Ludlow, he was dismissed with this message to his Chief, " that he men, a people nevr come, who having bought their possessions, they highed them away to their new plantation." — Wonder-working Providence, 75-6. * The following are a few of the variations of the spelling of this name : — PEQrOTS. — OooMn, Mason, I. Mather, Williams, TVinthrop, Johnson, C. Mather. Pbqtjods. — Hubbard, Gookin, fVinthrop, Hutckiiison, Douglass. Pequakts. — Wood, VincetU. Pequets. — Vincent, Pynchon, Underhill. Pequins. — Winthrop, Recs. U. Cola. Pequeats. — Vn,derhill. Pequits.— Goriimer, MS. Letters, Short Story. Pekods. — Winthrop. PEgoiDS. — Stoughton in Winthrop, MS. Letter. Pecoats. — WiTislow. Pecoits. — Doc. in Hazard. Pecoates. — Gov. Dudley. Pequts. — Roger WUliams. Paqdoats. — TVeoty o/'1638. Pecquots. — MS. of B. RjuBson. Peqditt. — Gookin, Denison. Pecotts. — Recs. U. Cols. Pbacotts. — Recs. U. Cols. Peaqdods. — Johnson. Other variations might be found, but these win suffice to show even the curious, probably, that the early writers considered the orthog- raphy of Indian names as a matter of no con- sequence. Pequot signifies grey fox, hence the Grey Fox Indians. 1634.] PEQUOT NEGOTIATIONS. 179 must send persons of greater quality," and then the Governor would treat with them. jj^ g Two other messengers soon appeared. They brought a present of wampum, and, it being lecture day at Boston, the Assistants and Ministers held a sort of Council with the Indians. They were told that the English were willing to be friends with them, but that they must first give up those Indians who had murdered their countrymen. The Pequots seem to have been well prepared to defend their cause, and to justify what had been done by their people. They said that their Sachem, who was alive when the Englishmen were killed, was dead ; that he had been killed by the Dutch ; and as to the men engaged in the murder, they had all died of the small pox but two. These two, if worthy of death, they said they would move their Sachem to have them delivered up ; but " they had no authority to do it." Respecting the killing of the Englishmen, it was done in self-defence ; or this was th6 sum of the argument of the Pequot messengers. They said that Captain Stone and his men took two Indians, and, binding them hand and foot, made them show him up the river ; that they were watched by nine Indians, and when they came on shore, and were, asleep, they killed them ; that then going towards the pinnace, it suddenly blew up. " This," says Winthrop, "was related with such confidence and grav- ity, as, having no means to contradict it, we inclined to believe it." However, Grovernor Dudley not being present, nothing was decided. Within a day or two, it appears that the Indians had an inter- view with Governor Dudley and his Council, and a treaty was concluded.* In the mean time, news reached Boston that two or three hundred Indians of the Narraganset tribe were lying about Neponset, and were waiting to intercept the Pequot ambassadors. This created a great sensation. The soldiers seized their arms and rendezvoused at Roxbury without loss of time. There also assembled the officers of Government, who at once despatched a messenger to the Narragansets, with a request that they would meet them at their camp without delay. The Indians attended the summons immediately. The English were somewhat surprised when they found that instead of three hundred, no more than two Chiefs and about twenty others were all that were in the company ; and, that, instead of a hostile expedition, they were upon a hunting excursion only. The English, not fully understanding their design, probably, began to treat for the privilege of a safe return of the Pequots. They were told that these Indians had promised them a large amount of wampum, in a treaty just concluded, and that, if they would not molest the Pequots, they should have a part of it, — when they got it. The Narragansets were a magnanimous people, and they very readily agreed to the proposal, " and in all things showed them- selves very ready to gratify the English, and departed well satisfied," and the Pequots returned in safety. Thus affairs with the Indians remained for the present. • Particulars in The Book of the Indians, Book ii. 166-7. 180 mSTORT OF BOSTON. [1634. But it afterwards appeared that the Pequots had got both the Dutch- men and Narragansets against them, and they had concluded to make some sacrifices to secure the friendship of the English. This was the key to their solicitude to adjust the affair of Captain Stone's death. Whoever in after times shall have the curiosity to investigate the politi- cal history of the Pequots, cannot faU to come to the conclusion, that if they had, learned diplomacy in the schools of Europe, they could not have managed this matter with better success, thus far. The Pequots were accused of treachery in their proceedings ; but it would not be difficult to soften this charge into one merely of retalia^ tion. Circumstances have a thousand times occurred, in which indi- viduals as well as nations have mistook the one for the other. The Pequots had " treacherously " killed some Indians who came to the Dutch settlement on the Connecticut to trade. Is there any proof that this was not an act of retaliation ? The Dutchmen had killed Toto- bam,* the Pequot Chief. Is there satisfactory proof that this was not an act of treachery on the part of the former ? Mere assertion on the part of a historian will not settle cases like these. A circumstance, amusing if not instructive to the present generation, grew out of the treaty with the Pequots. Mr. Eliot, of Roxbury, took occasion in a sermon to censure the Ministers, who had participated in making the treaty, for doing so without the advice of the people. Per- haps Mr. Eliot had not been consulted ; however, the people began to reiterate Mr. Eliot's sentiments, which, coming to the ears of the Authorities, order was taken that " he should be dealt with." Accord- ingly Mr. Cotton, Mr. Hooker and Mr. Weld were appointed " to deal with him," which they proceeded to do ; the result was, he was brought to see his error, and did " acknowledge, that for a peace only, the Magistrates might conclude plebe inconsulto,\ and so promised to express himself in public next Lord's day." Nov 13 -^ ^^^P '^^'^^'^ ^^ Regard, of about two hundred tons, arrived at Boston. She came from Barnstaple, and had on board twenty passengers, and about fifty cattle. One passenger is mentioned by name, John Mansfield, "a poor godly man of Exeter," who "being very desirous to come to New England, and not able to transport his family, a Mr. Marshall of that city being troubled in his dreams about the said poor man, could not be quiet till he had given him fifty pounds to enable him to go, and lent him one hundred pounds more." This man was the son of a knight, Sir John Mansfield, " Master of the Minories" and who had been one of Queen Elizabeth's Surveyors. His sister Eliza- beth was the wife of Mr. John Wilson, the first Minister of Boston, and Anne, another sister, was the wife of Captain Robert Keane, of Boston.J ^^^ 21 I'l ^"^^ of ^os>& severe north-east storms, so common on all the ■ coast of New England, a boat was lost in the harbor, and John * Broadhead, Hist. State of N. York, 234, % Notes to Capt. Keane's Will, by Mr, Las his name Tatoepan. _ John Dean, in ivf I>ng. Hist. Gen. Reg., vi. f Thatis,withouttakingadviceof therabble. 156. 1634.] TOWN MEETING PROCEEDINGS. 181 Willys,* " a godly man, one Dorety, an honest man, and two boys " were drowned. Three days after, their boat was found at Muddy River, overturned." They had been to Noddle's Island for wood, with which probably they had overloaded their boat, and attempting to return in the night, " and none of them having any skill or experience," were thus unha,ppily lost. Feb 12 ^^ ordered, in Town Meeting, that " all the inhabitants ' shall plant, eyther vpon such ground as is alreadie broken vp or inclosed in y" Neck,f or else vpon ground at Noddles Island, from Mr. Maverakes graunt;" able men to have two acres each, and "able youth one each, to be allotted out by Mr. Hutchinson,J Mr. Cogan,§ Mr. Sampford,l| William Cheesbrough IT and Mr. Brenton,(*) or any three of them." Every man to make his fences sufficient for all his planting ground on the Neck, " vpon paine, y' if any losse doe come for defect therein," the owner of such fence to make it good, "vnlesse it doe come by vnruly cattell." "All y* fences bee made sufficient before y seventh day of y^ second month, and they to bee looked vnto by our brother Grubb,(t) and brother Hudson, (|) for y^ New Field ; o' brother Pennyman,(§) and brother Colborne,(||) for j' field by him ; our brother Penn,(1[) and brother Belcher, [*] for y^ Fort Field." ^ "Att" another " getfall" meeting, it was agreed that over- ■ seers of fences should see that " such Styles and Grates as may bee needful!," should be put up: " brother Wilebore, [f] to see to y° Gate and Style next vnto Roxburie." And " whereas y" wood vpon y° Neck of land towards Roxburie, [f] hath this last winter beene disorderly * Mr. Jo. Willust, freeman, 6 Nov., 1632. (Tf) James Pen, freeman, 19 Oct., 1630. f By the Neck, as used here, the whole of the [*] Mr. Edward Belohar, freeman, 18 May, Peninsula was meant. More recently, that 1631. part only which connects Boston with Roxbury [f] Samuel Wilboare, freeman, 4 March, was so denominated. Wood, in his iV. jErag-. 1634. — This name has lindergone various Prospect, p. 32, says, " This Necke of land is changes of orthography ; some families not above foure miles in compasse," &c. — See adopting one spelling, and some another. It ante, p. 139-41. is sometimes written Wildbore, Wilbur, Wil- t William Hutchinson, freeman, 4 March, bore, &c. 1635. — See a».<>,.ofniv> /.^r,. He therefore con- cludes that the bark came down from among the Norwegians ! Now, though she may not have come from Noseley, where one of her owners lived, it would be quite as easy to derive the name given by Winthrop from Noseley, in the county of Leicester, as it would be to derive it from the Black Sea, though its name were expressed in French. t The same persons designated before under the names Hough, Hoffe, Hough, &c. There may be male descendants of Atherton Hough under different names at this day. The name does not appear in the firat Boston Directory. I Windmill Point. In the early records of other towns milne is often written for mill, but I do not find it so spelled in any of the old dictionaries to which I have recurred. The location of the "Milne Point" is suffi- ciently indicated by the extract from the Rec- ords. 1636.] OVERSEERS OF TOWN CONCERNS CHOSEN, 189 To improve the important services of Captain Gardiner, before his departure for Connecticut, the town " agreed y', for y' raysing of a new worke of fortification vpon y' ffort hill, about y' wh"'' is there alreaddy begune, the whole towne would bestowe fourteene dayes' worke " a man. For this end Mr. Deputie, Mr. Henry Yane, Mr, John Winthrop, sen'., Mr. WiUiam Coddington, Mr. John Winthrop, iu'., Captain John VnderhiH, and Mr. William Brenton," were chosen Commissioners. They were directed to " sett downe how many dayes worke would be equal! for each man to doe, and what money * such should contribute, beside their worke, as were of greater abilities and had fewer servants, that therewith provisions of tooles and other neces- saryes might bee made, and some recompence given to such of y* poorer sort as should be found to bee overburdened with their fourteene dayes' worke ; and Mr. John Cogan is chosen treasurer, and Mr. Wil- liam Dyer, clarke, for y* furtherance of this worke ;" which " worke is to be gone in hand with soe soone as y' weather wUl pmitt, in regard y' y' ingineere, Mr. Lyon Garner, who doth soe freely offer his help there vnto, hath but a short time of stay." j,^j^ jg The town chose Mr. John Cogan and William " AspinneU " as Grand Jurors, and Richard Fairbanks, William Hudson and James Pennyman to serve as " pettie " Jury. A week later there was a J, , 27 Town Meeting " vpon pryvate warning," at which it was agreed ■ "y' there shalbe a Watch taken vp and gone around with from the first of the second month next, for y° summertime from sunne sett, an houre after y° beating of y° drumbe, vpon penaltie, for every one wanting therein, twelve pence for every night." There was another " gen'all meeting vpon priuate wamipg," ' in which Thomas Oliver, Thomas Leveritt, William Hutchinson, William Colborne, John Coggeshall, John Sampford, Richard Tuttell, William Aspenall, William Brenton, William Balston, Jacob EUyot and James Penne, were authorized to be overseers "from this day to oversee and looke vnto and sett order for all the aUottments within vs, and for all comers in vnto vs, as also for all other y' occasions and busi- nesses" of the Town, excepting matters of Election and the General Court. As several persons who had had lands lotted out to them had ■ not improved them according to the prescribed conditions, it was now ordered in Town Meeting, that the lots laid out to them were free to be otherwise disposed of. Their names were "Mr. Atherton Haulghe, Zachie Bosworth, Richard Truestayles, Richard Oakes, Na- thaniell Woodwarde, Thomas Meakins y° elder, Thomas Meakins y° younger, Mr. Greene, Mr, MuUyns, Richard Walker, John Palmer, James Johnson, Richard Brackett, Thomas Blott, Richard Tuttell, * In the margin of the Town Records are Vane, Wintheop, sen., Coddington, Win- arranged in a coliunn the following names, thkop, jun. , Katne, Hutchinson, Cogan, Lev- and against each is set £5 ; yiz., Bellingbau, erett, and Harding. 190 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1636. Barnabie Darryfall, Thomas Savage, [John] Bushnall,* Mr. Wood- warde, Mr. Stanley, Eobert Houlton, Anthony Harker, [George] Grrigges y" carpenter, and Richard Wrighte." Some of these persons had, perhaps, gone to Connecticut, some to other places, and some had failed to build on their lots from other circumstances. At this meeting provision was made to have "suflacient fences to y= Corneaelde, before y" fourteenth of y° next second month;" that, for every defective rod then found, five shillings penalty : " The feild to- wards Rocksberry to be looked out by Jacob EUyott and Jonathan Negoose ; the Fort FeUd, by James Penn and Richard Gridley ; the Mylne Feild, by John Button and Edward Bendall ; and the New Feild, by John Audley and Thomas Faire weather." If hogs were found running at large after a certain day, John Samp- son and William Balstone were ordered to seize them, and they were declared forfeited by their owners. If any inhabitants entertained strangers over fourteen days, without leave "from those y' are *^ ■ appointed to order the Towne's businesses," they were liable to be " dealt with" by those " Overseers," as they thought advisable. Twelve days before the meeting of the General Court, there ^ *^ ■ was a Town Meeting, at which Mr. William Hutchinson, Mr. John Coggeshall, and Mr. William Brenton were chosen "for Deputyes or Comittees for the service " of that Court.f A few weeks before, . " at a General Court, it was ordered, that a certain number of ^" ■ Magistrates should be chosen for life;" and at the General Elec- tion, three persons were actually chosen to be Magistrates during their lives. Thes'e were Winthrop, Dudley and Vane. It does not appear that the people approved of such a disposal or assumption of offices, and they were soon abandoned ; for they very justly reasoned, that by such a course of proceeding, all ofiices might be disposed of, and nothing left for their choice. The Town had been free from accidental fires for some time past, but about this time the house of Mr. John Benjamin was burnt down, sub- jecting him to a loss of one hundred pounds in goods.J . ., j2 The ship Charity, of Dartmouth, came near being cast away ^" ' as she sailed into the harbor with a heavy north-west wind. She was of one hundred and twenty tons burthen, and brought a timely supply of provisions, which were at this time much needed. To pre- vent speculators oppressing the poor, by buying up the provisions, and holding them at extravagant prices, Mr. Peters § bought up the whole * A John Bushnell appears afterwards at { This fire is recorded by Winthrop, Jour- Saybrook, Ct. He is probably the same per- nal, i. 185, but he does not state where Benja- Bon in Boston in 1636. — See N. E. H. Gen. min lived. He was admitted freeman, 6 Nov., ■ Reg., iv. 19. 1632, and is said to have lived at Watertown. f This is the first .mention in the Town He may have gone there after this, though I Records of the choice of Representatives, or do not find his name in the list of the early " Deputyes," as they are called, for the Gen- settlers of that town, as published by Rev. Dr. eral Court. It is not unworthy of note, that Francis. Mr. Hamblen finds Joseph Benjamin at this time London sent but four members to among the inhabitants of Barnstaole, 1662-6. Parliament ; only one more than Boston sent — See N. E. H. Gen. Beg., ii. 64r-5. to the General Court. ^ This distinguished man, I presume, wrote 1636.] TROUBLES ABOUT THE FORT. 191 cargo; by which operation, "he saved the Country two hundred pounds."* It was then distributed "to all the towns, as each town needed." He had been laboring for some time to induce the people to estabUsh a sort of magazine, by buying up necessary articles when they were cheap, which should be well husbanded and dealt out when they were scarce, at reasonable rates ; but it does not appear to have been brought about, notwithstanding he had set this distinguished example. May 15 Considerable uneasiness was felt in the town, about a month later, which happened on the arrival of the Ship St. Patrick, Captain Palmer. All ships were to observe certain regulations on passing the fort at Castle Island, but since the trouble about the Colors, or rather the Red Cross in it, the Fort presented the awkward appear- ance of a captured garrison ; no Flag to signify its real character. Under these circumstances, however, the St. Patrick was brought too, and, by Lieutenant Morris, the officer of the Fort, made to strike her Colors. Captain Palmer complained to the Authorities ; alleging the conduct of the commander of the Fort to be a flagrant insult both to his Flag and Country. Now the St. Patrick belonged to Sir Thomas Wentworth, who, up to this time, was claimed as a friend to New Eng- land ;t and, therefore, it was neither wise nor just to give, unneces- sarily-, any offence on such occasions. They, therefore, ordered the officer of the Fort before them, and in the presence of the Master of the ship proclaimed that their officer had no authority to do as he had done ; and he was ordered to make such atonement for his conduct as Captain Palmer should demand. The Captain was very lenient, requir- ing only an acknowledgment of his error, on board his ship, " that so all the ship's company might receive satisfaction ;" this was submitted to, and thus all parties became quieted. But within a few days an- other circumstance occurred respecting the Fort, with a somewhat different result. One Thomas Millerd or Miller, mate of the ship Hec- tor, then lying in the harbor, being probably emboldened by the pro- ceedings against the officer of the Fort, or from some other cause not reported, pronounced aU the people here traitors and rebels, because they had discarded the King's Colors. On complaint being made to Captain Feme, the Master of the Hector, Millerd was brought before the Court, and there made to acknowledge his offence, and to sign a paper to that effect. He was then discharged. These occurrences gave the Authorities considerable concern, lest reports should be carried to England that they had rebelled here, in his name Peter, but usaze has added an s to it. Southwark, " the King's brewer, and divers His brother Thomas, who was also for a time others,',' £500. Mr. Houghton and Mr. Wil- in New England, wrote his name Peters. — See liam Hiccock had before, with some others, at N. Eng. Hist, and Gen. Reg., ii. 58 — 64. the " motion of Capt. Underbill," given ten * Mr. Peters had in several ways shown his barrels of powder, benevolence to the country. By his influence f Wentworth (afterwards Earl of Strafford) with a gentleman of Saua>s, he gave £300 to was at this time " Lord Deputy of Ireland," in the colony. With Mr. Weld, he procured, at which country he boasted he had made his Mas- another time, £500 in London; and in 1641, ter "as absolute as any Prince in the world." they procured of Mr. Robert Houghton, of The St. Patrick was, perhaps, an Irish ship. 192 HISTORY OF BOSTON. » [1636. fact, and were playing false, and that their contempt of the English Flag was evidence of the allegation. Therefore, to counteract such representations, Mr. Vane, now * Grovernor, called the Captains of the ships f together, and desired to know how they felt towards the Govern- ment and people here, and if they were offended at what had happened, and if so, what they required in satisfaction. They frankly told the Governor, that if they should be questioned, on their return to England, in regard to " what Colors they saw here," a statement of the bare facts in relation to it might result to their disadvantage. Therefore, they would recommend that the King's Colors might be set up on the Fort The Governor and his Advisers seem to have come pretty well over to the same conclusion, but there was a difficulty in the way, — " they had no King's Colors;" by which confession of theirs it is pretty clear that others, besides Mr. Endicott, had been making war on St. George's Crosses. To remedy this difficulty, two of the ship-masters offered to present them with Colors. But so fearful were these conscientious people lest they should tolerate a symbol of idolatry, that they declined receiving the Colors thus offered, until they had first taken the advice of Mr. Cotton in regard to it. It was finally concluded, that although they were of the decided opinion that the Cross in the Ensign was idolatrous, and, therefore, ought not to be in it ; nevertheless, as the Fort was the King's, and maintained in his name, his Colors might be used there. So the Governor accepted the Colors of Captain Palmer, and promised they should be set up on the Fort at Castle Island. Ac- cordingly the Governor, with the consent of Mr. Dudley, directed Lieutenant Morris, J by warrant, to " spread" the King's Colors there, which was accordingly done. While these events were passing in Boston, the General Elec- ^ ^^ ' tion of officers for the present year took place, which resulted in the choice of Henry Vane, Esquire, for Governor, and John Winthrop, Esquire, Deputy Governor. To show their respect for the new Gov- ernor, all the Masters of ships in the harbor (and " there were fifteen great ships "), gave him a salute with their ordnance. § The next week he invited all the Captains on shore, and gave them a dinner. After dinner, he proposed the following regulations to be observed by ships on their arrival at Boston : — First, that aU ships should come to an * By carrying on the narrative of the trans- that he might be discharged of it, and so was, actions which grew out of the indignity offered whereby he gave offence to the Congregation to the St. Patrick, the order of time is, of of Boston; so as, being questioned, and con- course, necessarily anticipated. A8_ will be vinced of sin in forsaking his calling, he did seen presently, the event here detailed took acknowledge his fault ; and, at the request of place after Mr. Vane was elected Governor. the people, was by the magistrates chosen f There were ten in the harbor at this time. Lieutenant to the same Company ; for he There were fifteen but a few days before, as was a very stout man, and an experienced will be seen. soldier." X This person appears to have been the ^ The language of Winthrop is, in noticing commander of the fort, and the same who was this election, "The ships congratulated his Ensign to Captain Underbill, and who, accord- election with a vwley of great shot, because ing to Winthrop, i. 127, " taking some dis- he was son and heir to a Privy Counsellor taste to his oflSce, requested the Magistrates, in England." Toumal,i. 187. 1636.] OWEN ROWE. 193 anchor before reaching the fort, or to send their boats with an officer who should satisfy the commander of it that they were friends ; second, that before any goods were oiFered for sale, an invoice should be deliv- ered to the Governor, who should have the privilege of purchasing ; tiiird, sailors not to be allowed to remain on shore after sunset, " except upon necessary business." To all which, the Captains of the fifteen ships " willingly condescended unto." Ships this season had made quick passages across the ocean ; " divers, both out of the Downs and from Holland, came in five weeks ;" and Mr. Ball's ship, which sailed hence on the sixteenth of January last, made the English coast in eighteen day§. Meanwhile, the internal concerns of the town are not neglected. ■ In a regular meeting of those with whom all matters, except elections, had been entrusted,* it was agreed that there should be " a sufficient foot-way made from William Colborne's field end, unto Sam- uell Wylebore's field end, next Roxbury, by the surveyors of high-ways, before the end of the next month." At this meeting it appeared that Richard Fairbanks had sold two houses, "in Sudbury End," that were William Balstone's, to two strangers, contrary to a former order, and, therefore, the sale was declared void ; and for which he was fined ten pounds. Also that " Isaacke CuUymore, carpenter," had sold his house to a stranger, and he was fined ten pounds. At a meeting "it was agreed that, Mr. Owyn Roe, of Lon- don, having a house and townes lott amongst vs, and certaine cattell, shall have layd out for him two hundred acres att Mount Wool- lystons, for the present releife of his cattell, and for him to inioy when as he shalbecome an inhabitant amongst vs, and not otherwise." But Mr. Rowe never came to New England ; though, as late as the eigh- teenth of February of this year, in a letter to Mr. Winthrop, he said his heart was with the people here ; that he had given up his business, and as soon as he could get in his debts and settle his affairs, he in- tended to come ; for he desired to see the glory of the place, " and to behould the bewttye of God in these gowenings [gowings-in] of his in his tempel." This he wrote in answer to one from Mr. Winthrop, dated on the tenth of the preceding December. In the same letter, Mr. RoAve requested that " Mr. Ransford " might be accommodated with a farm, on which the stock of cattle he had sent over might be preserved ; for he had lost near five hundred pounds, " as Mr. Wilson could certifye." f He was one of the early members of the Massachusetts Company, and had also been an early benefactor to the colony, as Winthrop shows. The troubles which led to the " Civil War," diverted him from becom- ing a resident of Boston, in all probability, for he was employed in the military service in that contest ; and when the King was brought to ♦Namely, "Thomas Oliver, Thomas Ley- Richard Tuttell, John Sampford, and James eritt, William Hutchinson, Willyam Coul- Penne." borne, John Coggeshall, William Aspenall, f See Hutchinson's Cott. of Orig. Papers, 59. 25 194 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1636. trial, he was one of the Judges in that " High Court of Justice," and among those who signed the warrant for his execution.* ^^ „ Mr. Samuel Maverick, who had been in Virginia about a year, ^' ■ returned to Boston with two vessels. He brought with him some fourteen heifers, and about eighty goats ; of the latter, he lost twenty on his voyage. He gave an account of great sufferings in that colony ; that above eighteen hundred people had died there within the year, and chiefly of famine ; and that corn was at twenty shillings the bushel. , ,- The regulators of the town's affairs appointed John Sampford "^' ■ and William Hudson, " Waterbalies, to see y' noe annoying things, eyther by fish, wood or stone, be left about y" sea shore," con- trary to an order made the first of September, 1634. And on the , „ twenty-second of the same month, at a General Town Meeting, "^' " ■ Mr. William Hutchinson, Mr. John CoggeshaU, and Mr. William Brenton, were chosen for " Deputyes or Comittyes for the service of this next General Court." And " att this assembly, Mr. John New- gate is chosen for one of j" Constables within this towne, for one whole year." g -g At the general meeting of the town now held, ten men were selected for the "same businesses and occasions," and with the same powers as their predecessors had for the management of the town's affairs.f They were chosen for six months only. At a meeting ten days later, ' ' it was founde y' William Hudson hath sould an housplott and garden vnto one William Mawer, a strainger, w^out" consent, and was fined twenty shillings. Also, "William Aspenall hath sold a housplott and a garden vnto one Mr. Tinge, "J and is fined five pounds. " Mr. Samuel Cole " was charged with sell- ing a lot to one Mr. Greenfield, and is let off with a small fine. „ . It was ordered in town meeting that " no house at all " should be built near to any of the streets or lanes, unless by consent and advice " of y^ Overseers of y'' Townes occasions." This regulation was declared to be to prevent disorderly building, "to y° inconvenience of streetes and laynes." For non-observance of which a fine not exceeding ten shillings was to be imposed. At the next meeting, it was ordered * The fac simile of his autograph, here pre- f As some new names appear, they are all sented, is copied from a beautiful engraving given: — "Thomas Olyver, Thomas Leveritt, of the " Death Warrant," accompanied by the William Hutchinson, Robert Keayne, John names of those Judges who signed it. Copies Newgate, William Coulbome, John Cogges- of this curious instrument are common, but hall, John Sampford, William Brenton, and generally of vrretched execution. I am in- William Balstone;" all mw^ertrf in the records, debted to Mr. John Dean for the liberty to except Thomas Leveritt, which omission was make a tracing for the subject of this note, of course accidental. from the copy which he possesses. % His Christian name was probably William. He had a brother Edward here in 1638, who came over in the same ship with Mr. John Josselyn. These names will be often met with in the progress of the History. William and Edward Tynge were brothers. The former died 18 Jan., 1653. OjmA^i 1636.] OKIQINAL STREETS. 195 Q ,», that all the timber in the market place, not taken away before the first of next month, should be forfeited. William Brenton and John Sampford were appointed to look to the matter ; which, if they neglected to do, the Town would not neglect to look to them for a fine of ten shillings, as the record says. It was further ordered, at this meeting, that "John Gallop shall remove his payles at his yarde ende within fourteen dayes, and to rainge them even with the corner of his house, for y° preserving of y' way vpon y° sea bancke ; that William* Wilkes, Isaac CuUymore, Henry Lynne, and Mr. Greensmyth,t shall raynge theire payle vpon each of their grounds, streight from y" corner of WiUiam Wilkes his house, or from y° vpper poast of his garding gap, and to preserve a path- way of a rod breadth betweene payle and payle, betweene this and y" first of next second moneth ; and soe to goe.all along vnto John Pem- berton's house in y^ same range." Also there shall be a street between Henry Lynn and Mr. Samuel Coles' ground, to run up from the water side to the next great cross street, one and a half rods wide. Also another lane to go up from the water by John Gallop's, to the same cross way, a pole in breadth. Also another "layne to be left to goe from y^ water side vp y° balke, or neare y' goes vp from y° end of John Mylams house next William Aspenalls ground, to goe along to y' mylne cove, a rod and a half broade." Also, " y' the streete way from y" gates next James Everills towards y° mylne, is to runne streight along in an even lyne to John Pemberton's house, and to raynge betweene Thomas Marshalls house and Sergyant Savages house, and to be within y" streete between payle and payle on eyther syde, two pole " in breadth. Also a lane to run from cove to cove, between Thomas Paynter and Thomas Marshall, one and a half poles wide. An order was passed, that for every rod of planting ground not fenced by the first of the next April, ten shillings a rod should be paid, or the ground forfeited. And several persons paid fines J "vpon their houses, selling contrary to a former order." Also Richard Fairbanks was chosen " Hog Reeve. "|| Robert Harding was ordered to remove a "little house in his yard, and take it away from thence, before the first of next May." It was also ordered, that those inhabitants who were in want of wood, might get it at " Deare Island ;" that if they left any felled which they did not take away, others were at liberty to take it. The town chose John Coggeshall, William Coulborne and Wil- liam Brenton, to serve as Deputies in the General Court. Eight persons § were also chosen " to consider of Mount Woolistone businesse, * Usually written in the records Willm. Aspenall xxv.", and Samuel Cole xx." ; all paid f At the General Court, 3d August, 1637, into the hands of Mr. Robert Keayne. '' one Greensmith " was imprisoned for say- {| About three years later he was appointed ing, "that all the Elders, except two, did a sort of Post Master, as will be seen. He was preach a covenant of work. " The two minis- made a freeman 14 May, 1634. ters were Mr. Cotton and Mr. Wheelwright. ^ Vane, Winthrop, Oliver, Keayne, New- He was fined £40. gate, Coulborne, Coggeshall and Brenton, were J They were, William Hudson v.", William those made choice of. 196 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1636. and for y* ripening thereof ; how there may bee a Towne and Church there w* y° consent of this Towne's inhabitants." At the next meeting Deo 12 ^* ^^^ agreed that Edward Belchar, William Talmage, Thomas Snowe, William Deninge and John Arratt [?], servants of Wil- liam Brenton, should have their " great allotments " at Muddy Kiver ; "and also our brother Robert Hull and Thomas Wheeler."* At the J. „, next meeting leave was granted Thomas Mount f to fence in a piece of marsh before his house, "for the making of brick, at the pleasure of y° overseers of y* Towne." Before the close of this year, there arrived a ship at Barnstaple with eighty heifers, and one from Bristol with passengers ; but much of her freight and most of her passengers were sent out by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, for his Plantation at Agamentacus.J And by the 17th of „ J November, two other ships arrived from London, " full of pas- sengers, men, women and children." One of them had been out twenty-six weeks, and was reduced to great extremity. The pas- sengers, though in a state of starvation, " yet came all safe on shore, and most of them sound, and well liking." Among those who now arrived at Boston, were Mr. Nathaniel Rogers, afterwards of Ipswich, and Mr. Ralph Partridge, afterwards minister of Duxbury. There was another windmUl erected this year at Boston, and one at Charlestown ; a water-mill at Salem, one at Ipswich, and one at Newbury. Cattle, notwithstanding they had been constantly brought in, were at a high price. A good cow was worth about thirty pounds ; a pair of bulls or oxen, forty pounds ; corn, five shillings a bushel ; boards, about ten shillings the hundred feet ; carpenters, three shillings a day. II * Perhaps the same who, in 1675, fell des- of the ship. This is often the case in Gtov. perately ■wounded at Wickabaug Pond, in Winthrop's Journal ; an omission seriously felt Philip's war. He survived, but Oapt. Edward at this day. Hutchinson died of wounds received at the || The facts in this paragraph I take from same time. Mr. Webster's edition of Winthrop^s Journal; fThe name is written in the margin of the some of them not being intelligible in Mr. Record, Munt. Savage's edition. % No names of passengers are given, or name CHAPTER XXII. Pequot Indians. — Their Jealousy of the English. — Its Origin. — They kill Mr. Oldham Discov- ery by Capt. Gallop. — His Desperate Fight near Block Island. — Returns to Boston with a Cap- tive. — Roger Williams. — Miantonimo. — Lieut. Gardiner. — Gov. Vane sends Commissioners to the Narragansets. — Forces sent to Block Island. — They ravage the Country. — Sail to the Pe- quot Country. — Effect little. — Result unfavorable. — Complained of by Plymouth and Connecti- cut. — The English in much jeopardy. — Deputation of Narraganset Indians visit Boston. — League between them and the Pequots prevented. — Roger Williams. — Pequots commit more Murders. — Bloody Fight at Saybrook. — Narragansets make War on the Pequots. — They bring Trophies to Boston. — Company under Underhill sent to Saybrook. — Pequots attack Wethersfield. — War declared against them. — March of Capt. Mason. — Blindness of the Pequots. — Mohegans and Narragansets march with the English. — The principal Pequot Fort stormed and taken. — The Army returns to Saybrook. ALTHOUGH there had been some serious pas- sages between the Pequot Indians and the Eng- lish hitherto, they did not so materially affect the people of Boston, as to cause any very deep animosity to remain in their minds. The Pequots had committed murders, but the sufferers did not belong to Boston, nor to Massachusetts ; nor was it certain that those who were murdered had not brought down vengeance upon their own heads, by their imprudence. Since the outrages here alluded to, the English had increased in numbers, and a few had gone and occupied lands in the immediate neighborhood of those Indians. Suspicions and jealousies are always the offspring of ignorance. The natives could not comprehend much of the system which governed the conduct of their new neighbors, and hence a jeal- ousy of what they could not understand was the natural result ; they saw there was a great difference between their own and their neighbors' condition, which they were ready at once to attribute to their superior endowments. This naturally excited envy, and this a desire on the part of the Indians to triumph over them. The Pequots were similarly situated with respect to their neighbors on the west, — the Dutch, — with whom no good understanding had prevailed for some time. However, it is not at all probable that they contemplated a general war with the white people at any time. They thought they had pacified them about the murder of Captain Stone and his company ; and they may have thought that if a few others hap- pened they coald as easily be passed over. They had no idea, prob- ably, that by killing a man belonging to Boston, any more trouble would arise than though he belonged to any other place ; but here their reasoning, if they reasoned at all, failed them ; for Captain Stone belonged to Virginia, and that country was too far off to redress the injury or to inquire into the cause of it. This was the actual state of things when news came to Boston ^' that one of its active business community had been murdered by 198 HISTOKT OF BOSTON. [1636. the Indians of Block Island. This was Captain John Oldham, who had occupied a conspicuous place during the whole period of the existence of the Colony of Massachusetts ; and although he did not reside per- manently on the peninsula of Shawmut, yet his principal business was here. It proved that Captain Oldham was killed by some Narraganset Indians who happened to be at Block Island at the time of his visit. The discovery of the murder and its perpetrators was acci- " ^ ■ dental, and happened in this way. Captain John Gallop, an intrepid mariner of Boston, being upon- a trading expedition, put into Block Island to traffic with the natives. He had with him his son ,John,* another son not mentioned by name, and a servant, who is described as a "strong, stout feUow." As they approached the island, they discovered a vessel making oif from the shore, under sus- picious circumstances ; for those on board of it managed the sails in an awkward manner. Immediately after, they saw that it was full of Indians.! Though his men numbered but four, including himself, J Captain GaUop determined to capture the piratical vessel, as he now conceived her to be such. He therefore fired upon her as soon as he was near enough, and then stood off to ascertain what effect his fire had upon the pirates ; for, owing to their numbers, he was afraid to board them at once, as " they stood ready armed, with guns, pikes and swords." To attempt their capture under these circumstances was certainly desperate ; but Gallop had the advantage of being able to manoeuvre his vessel, while his enemies were such sorry sailors that * He was killed at the great swamp-fight, blood ! ' And then, taking his dagger to the in Narraganset, 19 Dec, 1675, being then scuttle-hole, in which the Indians were quog- captain of one of the Connecticut companies, ged, as thick as they could stand, head by He had a grant of land on Mistick river in head, he jobbed his dagger very often with aU 1653, " in consideration and with respect unto his strength upon them. Upon which one the services his father hath done for the coun- Indian first got out and begged quarter for his try." He married Mrs. Margaret Lake, and left life, and he would teU how many were in the posterity. — See Miss Caulkin's Hist. New hold, and who they were, and what they had London, 98, 291-2. done ; they granted him that quarter," &c., t Fourteen in all, says Winthrop,!., 189. as in the text. "Presently after, another j Winthrop says, " one man more and two very proper fellow got out, and got to them, little boys." The " little boys " were doubt- and desired like quarter for his life ; but they less the sons of the Captain. How old they considering if they spared and bound him also were at this time does not appear ; but John, in their hold, they might in the night unbind jun.,hada daughter married in 1672. Rev. each other and do them mischief, being but Mr. Cobbet, in his Narrative, says he had his four persons, and much tired ; whereupon, account from him. — See N. Eng. Hist, and without further debate, they chopped off his Gen. Reg., vii., 211-12. From the part they head, and heaved his carkas overboard ; upon acted in this tragedy they could not have been which the other Indian confessed to them, wiat very young. Mr. Cobbet relates, that Gal- he was their Sachem whom they had killed ; lop, on finding the seine in the enemy's ves- and that it was he who had stirred up the sel, was about to " take it with him to catch Block Islanders to take that English vessel basse withal, and then perceived a dead body and cram the men in it. Now the wind under it with the head cutoff;" that when waxing higher and contrary, they could not he entered the vessel, " he bid his two sons tow the other vessel any further, cut the rope follow him, and stand by him with their guns and let her drive, and hastened to Saybrook re.T,dy charged, which they did; and he, taking fort with their captive Indian; whereupon the bloody head and washing it, knew it to that just war was commenced against the be Mr. Oldham's, and said, ' Ah ! brother Old- bloody Pequots and their associates." ham, is it thee ? I am resolved to avenge thy 1636.] ORIGIN OF PEQUOT WAR. — CAPTAIN GALLOP. 199 they appear to have had little or no control over their craft. Gallop, therefore, having drawn off to a fair distance, made all sail, with the prow of his vessel aimed directly against the quarter of the enemy. There being a good breeze, he struck her with such force that she was almost overset by the collision ; and this so frightened the Indians, that six of them jumped into the sea and were drowned ; yet the English captain did not dare to board her, but stood off again to prepare for another broadside of the same kind. His success increased. The next time he drove the fluke of his anchor through the bows of the pirate, and remained fast to her. In the mean time he raked her fore-and-aft with his small shot, till every Indian had hid himself below. The Eng- lish might now have boarded her, but the Captain concluded to continue his successful broadsides, as his anchor had broken its hold, and his bark was drifting from his antagonist. As soon as the Indians saw him hauling off, four or five more of them leaped overboard and were drowned. Seeing this. Gallop came alongside and boarded them. The Indians, by this time, if not before, being satisfied that all was lost, one came out of the hold and surrendered ; and being bound, was put into the hold. Then another came up, and he was bound likewise ; but not daring to put him into the hold with the other, fearing one might unloose the other, they threw him bound into the sea. There were still two left in the hold, and these defended themselves so bravely with swords, that Gallop resolved to secure them there, and to sail away with his prize. He therefore made her fast to his own vessel and pro- ceeded on with her in tow ; but in the night the wind came on to blow, and he was forced to cut her adrift, and thus he lost her. He soon after arrived at Saybrook with the Indian captive, and in due time returned with him to Boston. When Captain GaUop got possession of the enemy's vessel, he found the body of Captain Oldham under an old seine, yet warm ; and though the head was dissevered and disfigured, he knew him well, and ex- claimed, " Ah, brother Oldham ! is it thee ? I am resolved to avenge thy death ! " Thus being sure that he had engaged the murderers of his friend, his naturally strong arm was doubly nerved by the justice of his cause. There were with Mr. Oldham two boys and two Narraganset ^ ^ ' Indians, and there was a suspicion that the latter were acces- sory to Captain Oldham's death. However this may be, neither of the four in company with him were killed. Mr. Roger Williams, recently driven from Salem to escape persecution, being situated in the vicinity of the Narragansets, learned at once all the particulars relative to Mr. Oldham's death, and communicated it by letter to Governor Vane, at Boston. He also sent for and obtained the two boys that were with Captain Oldham when he was killed, and they were, soon after, by Miantonimo sent to Boston. The messengers who brought Mr. Wil- liams' letter to the Governor, were the same who were with Mr. Oldham when he was killed ; and whether they were implicated in that murder 200 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1636. or not, they did not very satisfactorily acquit themselves before the Governor and Council at Boston ; and had they not been charged with messages from Canonicus, they would no doubt have been dealt with as enemies. The Indian captured by Captain Gallop, had, on his exam- ination, accused these Indians as having been concerned in Captain Oldham's death, and this was the grounds of suspicion against them. Some of the people began to be clamorous because the Government had not moved at once to revenge the death of Mr. Oldham ; meanwhile, the great Narraganset Sachems, Canonicus and Miantonimo, were exerting themselves to find out the murderers, and the latter had actually gone against Block Island with two hundred men, in less than one week after the murder was committed. Among those disposed to complain against the Government for delaying to do " justice " upon the Indians, was Lieutenant Gardiner, of the fort at Saybrook. He tauntingly said, that not only himself, but " many more with him wondered that the Bay did not better revenge the murdering of Mr. Oldham, an honest man of their own, seeing they were at such cost for a Virginian." Notwithstanding, Governor Vane acted with prudence ; he used all means at his command to learn the actual state of the case. On the eighth of August he sent a deputation into the Narraganset coun- "^' ' try to hold a personal conference with Canonicus,* who, it was well known, was a just man, and a friend to the English. The embassy consisted of Lieutenant Edward Gibbons f of Boston, and Mr. John Higginson of Salem.| Kutshamokin, a chief of the Massachusetts In- dians, accompanied them as interpreter. From this negotiation they , ^ returned on the thirteenth of the same month, having been =■ ■ " very well accepted, and good success in their business. They observed in the Sachem much state, great command over his men, and much wisdom in his answers and the carriage of the whole treaty ; clearing himself and his neighbors of the murder, and offering assistance for revenge of it, yet upon very safe and wary conditions." It was pretty soon settled, by advice of the Magistrates and Minis- * A man, says Johnson, " tlien well stricken dating with the people of Salem, a " saving in years," had therefore " caused his nephew, work" was commenced upon him, and he Miantinomo, to take the government upon " afterwards was the chieftane and flower of him, who was a very sterne man, and of Very New England's militia, and an eminent in- great stature ; of a cruel nature, causing all strument both in church and commonwealth ; his nobility, and such as were his attendance, he being the younger brother of the house of to tremble at his speech. The people under an honorable extract." —His iVarra^itig, p. 10. his government were very numerous, besides Captain Johnson says, (in 1644), " He is a the Niantiok Indians, whose Prince was of man of a resolute spirit, bold as a lion, a neare alliance unto him. They were able to Major-General, very forward to promote all set forth, as was then supposed, 30,000 [3000] military matters ; fiis forts all well contrived, fightingmen." — Won. Worh.Prov.,'&odkn., and batteries strong and in good repair, hia chap. 6. artillery well mounted and cleanly kept." — f Mr. Gibbons was in New England when Won. Work. Prov., 191. Governor Endicott arrived, and rendered much J In Johnson's W. W. Providence, Book ii., service in organizing his Government at Salem, chap. 6, will be found a most excellent de- What time he came over does not appear, but scription of the proceedings at the council with he was at Mount Wollaston for a time, and the Indians in their country. No one can probably came over with the founder of that read it without believing Johnson was himself colony. Joshua Scottow says, that, on asso- on the spot. 1636.] PEQUOTS. — BLOCK ISLAND EXPEDITION. 201 ters, that the Block Island Indians should be chastised, and that an expedition for the purpose should forthwith be dispatched to that Island. Such was the state of the public mind, that men enough volun- teered for the service as soon as they were wanted. It was decided that the expedition should consist of ninety men ; that the former Grov- ernor, John Endicott, Esq., should have the chief command, as Gren- eral ; that the whole should be divided into four companies, under the immediate charge of Capt. John Underhill, Capt. Nathaniel Turner, Ens. William Jennison,* and Ens. Kichard Davenport, of Salem. General Endicott' s instructions were to put to death the men of Block Island, but to spare the women and children and bring them away, f This was to revenge the death of Captain Oldham. When this part of their commission should be executed, they were to proceed against the Pequots on the Main, and to demand of them the murderers of Captain Stone and others, a thousand fathom of wampum for damages, and some of their children as hostages. J£ they refused to comply, force was to be employed against them. ^^ 3j Thus appointed, the expedition sailed from Boston, and on the last of August arrived at Block Island. Owing to the surf, a landing was effected with difficulty. About sixty Indians rushed to the shore to encounter them; aU " able, fighting men, as straight as arrows." They began the attack with fury, says Captain Underhill, " as though they had meant to have made an end of us all in a moment. They shot one young man in the neck, through a collar, for stiffness as if it had been an oaken board, and entered his flesh a good depth.J Myself received an arrow through my coat-sleeve, a second against my helmet on the forehead ; so as if God in his providence had not moved the heart of my wife to persuade me to carry it along with me (which I was unwilling to do), I had been slain." Having effected a landing, the Indians at once dispersed and hid * Winthrop, whom I follow here, does not f These were indeed sanguinary orders, but give Jennison's Christian name. He was they were in strict accordance with the usages among the first freemen of the colony, and was of those times. It strikes the writer that it entitled to the distinction of Mr. He settled would be extremely unjust to charge Governor in Watertovm, and held important offices Vane with originating them, as is not very there. In 1633 he went to Bermuda, where faintly hinted in a note to their record in he had formerly resided. He went in a vessel Winthrop's Journal. If by such insinuation named the 'Wiunder, as pilot. She had been others were supposed to be held less blame- sent there to procure provisions ; but not less, the satisfaction gained can be but mo- being able to obtain any, " for the weavils had mentary. The reader having conned the note taken the corn before they came there," they referred to on page 192, let him read in con- proceeded to Virginia. At that colony they nection Winthrop's text, six pages forward, obtained corn and goats, and returned to Bos- page 199. ton June 1st, 1634. Mr. Jennison related that % In October of this year the General Court there had been a great change in Bermuda granted George Munnings £5, for the loss of since he lived there; "divers lewd persons an eye, " in the voyage to Block Island." — being become good Christians." That there Savage's Note in Winthrop, i., 195. Among were three ministers, " who had lately, by those made freemen, 4 March, 1635, is George fasting and prayer, dispossessed one possessed Munnings. He died at Boston, 24 August, with a devil." Upon this " miracle " Mr. 1658. He had a son George. Perhaps with Savage has an amusing note. — Journal, i. some the name may have slid into Manning. 134. 26 202 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1636. themselves as well as they could.* In the course of two days, how- ever, they found and killed " some fourteen," destroyed large fields of corn, burnt up all the wigwams they could find, and then reembarked, to see what could be effected among the Pequots. The expedition touched at Saybrook. Captain Gardiner was displeased at an attempt upon those Indians. He believed the Narragansets only were to be chastised, and he said to General Endicott, "you come hither to raise these -wasps about my ears, and then you wiU take wing and flee away." The Authorities both of Connecticut f and Plymouth J thought the expe- dition an unadvised one also.§ gg J, „ From Saybrook Endicott proceeded to Pequot river, now called the Thames. He landed on both sides of the river, had several parleys with smaU parties of the Indians, but could get no satisfaction whatever. He therefore destroyed everything he could find of a destructible character, and succeeded in killing two Indians. || Two days were employed in this work, and he then embarked for Boston, where the " fleet" arrived on the fourteenth of September, not having lost a man, and but two wounded. The expedition had on the whole a bad effect. The ability of the Indians to make atonement for offences was not then well understood by the English. It is evident, from the light since thrown upon the condition of the Indians of that day, that they could not comprehend the justice of the English in demanding satisfaction for wrongs committed by straggling Indians, even though they were of the same tribe with those of whom the demand was made. Hence for the aggrieved to retaliate was only to put themselves in the same barbarous circumstances with the murderers. It is not at all likely that the principal part of the in- habitants of Block Island had anything to do with the murder of Captain Oldham ; and yet it was out of their power, if they would, to deliver up those who were actually concerned in it. Nor is it probable that there was any contrived plan beforehand to murder him, and hence but * Block Island was then described as being went not to make war, but to do justice ; and ten miles long, four broad, full of small hills, having killed thirteen of them for four or five and all overgrown with brushwood of oak ; no of ours, which they had murdered, &c., we were good timber. There were two plantations, not much behind them." three miles apart, and about 60 wigwams ; ^ Oapt. Johnson calls it a " bootelesse some very large and fair ; and above 200 acres voyage," which he says, " encouraged the In- of corn ; some gathered in heaps and some dians very much, and made then! Doast that standing. The Indians called it Manisses, they had deluded the English, " and withall, which may admit of the interpretation of the they blasphemed the Lord, saying ' Bnglish- " Island of the Little God." It was after- man's God all one flye, and En^ishman all wards owned by Boston men. one squawe.' " — Wond. Work. Prov., iii. I See Trumbull, Hist. Connecticut, i. 77. || " They obtained some little speech with Mr. Winslow wrote to Deputy Gov. Win- a great number of them at a distance, but after throp to that effect, as appears from the Jour- they understood what was propounded to naloi the latter, p. 199, in which he justifies them, first cunningly getting behind a hill, the action, and says " he took it ill " that they presently ran away into the woods and Gov. Winslow should accuse " us that we had swamps, where there was no pursuing them : occasioned a war by provoking the Pequots ;" however, one discharging a gun among them, and he answered him that, " as much had as they were taking their flight, stayed the been done in the expedition as could be ex- course of one, which was all that could be pected, considering they fled and could not be done against them for that time." — Hubbard, followed by the men in armor. That they Ind. Wars, 120. 1636.] PEQUOT WAR. — MIANTONIMO AT BOSTON. 203 few could be accessory to it. There may have been a quarrel, or, more probably, a few wicked roving Indians, meeting with him accidentally, thought it a good opportunity to possess themselves of his goods and money ; for he had a considerable amount of the latter with him. The Connecticut and Plymouth people were right in their conjecture about the mischief that might be expected to ensue from so indecisive a blow as that aimed at the Pequots was. For the expedition had scarce left their shores before they besieged the fort at Saybropk in considerable numbers, and cut off many that ventured abroad. Among these was a Mr. Samuel Butterfield,* "a godly young man,"f whom they took prisoner and roasted alive. Complaiuts were soon as loud against the war as they had been for it, and great fears began to be entertained that the Pequots would over- come the Narragansets by negotiation, and cause them to unite against the Settlers. No times could be more critical for the English than those which were now veiled in the future. Boston, although at considerable distance from both the Narragansets and Pequots, trembled for its own safety. Connecticut had just began to be settled ; scarcely one hundred and fifty Englishmen could be found in it. Eoger Williams, with about half a dozen men, had just made a beginniug at Providence. Hence there was no barrier between the hostile Indians and Boston. Mr. Williams was fully aware of the actual state of things. He saw that if these two powerful nations of Indians were united, the English must, in aU probability, be swept from the country ; and though he did not, perhaps, fear for his own personal safety, for wherever he went he was greatly beloved by the Indians, yet he labored night and day for the good of the whole. His value to the community from which he had been forced to fly, soon became very apparent. He kept the people of Boston constantly advised of the plans of the Indians. „ Governor Vane having meanwhile invited Miantonimo to visit Boston, he came here soon after. There came with him another Sachem, two sons of Canonicus, and about twenty men. The Governor * I learn his Christian name from Niles' /n- tion Butterfield byname, but says the man tak- dian and French Wars, in which is given a very en vras a brother of "Mr. Mitchell , the minis- different account of the affair in which he vras ter of Cambridge." By which, it must be killed, from our other authors. How that understood, "minister of Cambridge " when author got his information does not appear. Gardiner vrrote (1658). " Old Mr. Michell" This work of the Rev. Mr. Niles lay in manu- here mentioned, was Mr. Matthew Mitchell, script from 1762, the time of the author's who came over With Mr. Richard Mather in death, till 1834 ; about this_ latter year, I 1635, as recorded ante, p. 185. Mather, called the attention of the Publishing Commit- Magnolia, B. iv., 167, has, by one of his vain tee of the Mass. Hist. Soc, in whose l:eep_ing_ it pedantic flourishes, misled others besides was, to some circumstances connected with it, Fakmbk, in regard to the Christian name of and they began to print it in a volume of their the father of Jonathan Mitchell, of Cam- Colls. Why it was cut off in the middle of a bridge. Butterfield had probably married a sentence, perhaps they could have explained, sister of Mr. Mitchell, which explains what Certain it is they promised to print the rest of Gardiner says, and likewise what Mather it. That promise has not been performed, says. " Old Mr. Michell," the father-in-law though almost twenty years have expired since of Butterfield, was with him when he fell into it was made, and some of those who made it the hands of the Indians, but he himself es- are yet living. " caped. Three were killed on the spot, one f Winthrop, i. 118. — He was son-in-law of had five arrows shot into him, and yet reoov- " Old Mr. Michell." Gardiner does not men- ered. 204 HISTORY OP' BOSTON. [1636. being notified by Kutshamokin of their coming, the day before they arrived, sent twenty musketeers to Roxbury, who escorted them into town about twelve o'clock. Preparations had been made to enter into a treaty, and the most of the Magistrates and Ministers were assembled to give counsel and advice in the proceedings. It being dinner time, the Sachems and their Council dined by themselves in the same room with the Governor, but the Chief's attendants were dined at the inn of Mr. Cole.* After dinner Miantonimo was requested to propound terms on which he would enter into a treaty, which he did, and then they adjourned till the next day. Accordingly they went in the morning, and a treaty was drawn up, and signed by the Gov- ernor and the Indians. The English confessed that they did not think the Indians quite understood it, though Kutshamokin interpreted it to them as well as he could ; therefore they agreed to send a copy of it to Mr. Williams, with a request that he would explain it to them."]- This being finished, Miantonimo was escorted out of town after dinner, and dismissed with a volley of shot. Treaties thus made could at best afford but faint hopes of security under their provisions, whatever they might be. And in the present state of existing relations, distrust continued, and reasonable fears were entertained that possibly the Pequots might succeed in wanning over the Narragansets to their interest j and it will ever remain a question whether they would not have succeeded, had it not been for the inter- position of Roger Williams. He received pressing letters from the Governor and others of Boston, urging him to prevent a peace, if pos- sible, between the Narragansets and Pequots. Thus importuned he renewed his exertions, though at the utmost peril of his life. " The Lord helped me," he says, " immediately to put my life into my hand, and scarce acquainting my wife, to ship myself, aU alone, in a poor canoe, and to cut through a stormy wind with great seas, every minute in hazard of life,> to the Sachem's house. Three days and three nights my business forced me to lodge and mix with the bloody Pequot ambassadors, whose hands and arms, me thought, wreaked vnth the blood of my country- men, and from whom I could not but nightly look for their bloody knives at my own throat also ; when God wonderfully preserved me, and helped me to break in pieces the Pequot's negotiations and de- signs." From this time until the Pequots were subdued, there was not even a wavering among the Narragansets, and they served the English faithfully throughout the war ; notwithstanding the Pequots used the most powerful of human arguments to bring them to see what they conceived to be their vital interests ; namely, their own preservation.! And so confi- * See ante, p. 166. _ _ ished towards the Pequots, and Mr. Hubbard, f The Treaty may be seen in Winthrop's as usual, improves upon Johnson's ideb^, in Journal, i. 199. the following passages : " Machiavel himself," J Captain Johnson was not probably^ aware he says, " if he had sat in council with them, of the labors of Mr. Williams in preventing the could not have insinuated stronger reasons to league, and attributes the ruling motive of the have persuaded them to a peaice. " — Narrative, Narragansets to an ancient hatred they cher- 121, ed. 4to, London, 1677. 1636.] PEQUOT WAE. — NEW MURDERS. 205 dent were the Pequots that they should enlist the Narragansets against the Settlers, that they continued their depredations, wherever they Q „. found an opportunity. About the time Miantonimo was making a treaty at Boston, they took and murdered Mr. John Tilly* in a manner too revolting to be related.f TiUy went from Boston, or some place about the " Bay," in a small bark for the Trading House at Suckiag (Hartford), and as he was coming down the river, he carelessly went on shore, and thus fell into the cruel hands of the Pe- quots. When he arrived at Saybrook on his way out, Captain Gardiner cautioned him aganst the danger to which he would be exposed in his passages ; but " Mr. TiUe" took it ill of him, because the Captain would exercise some authority over all such as went up the river. But Tilly being " a stout man," had great confidence in himself, and that confi- dence cost him his life, and the country the services of a brave and active man. He was killed on a point of land within view of the fort, F b 22 ^^i^^ Gardiner named Tilly's Polly. Notwithstanding great watchfulness was observed at Saybrook all winter, yet there happened a desperate and bloody fight but a short distance from it. Captain Gardiner with ten men was ambushed while performing some necessary labor, and escaped only by cutting their way through a great body of Indians with their swords ; several were killed and others badly wounded, among whom was Captain Gardiner hiraself.J About the same time Governor Vane wrote to Gardiner, requesting his opinion as to the best means of quelling the Pequots. With his answer Gardiner sent a man's rib-bone half shot through with an arrow. The Pequots thought they had killed Gardiner in the late fight, and a swarm of near three hundred of them immediately after beleaguered the fort ; but on finding out their mistake they fell back to their old modes of operation. Pretty soon, however, the Narragansets began the war upon them, as they had agreed to do, and they drew off alto- ^ gether from Saybrook to oppose them. Having had some success against the Pequots, Miantonimo sent twenty-six of his men to Boston with a present of twenty-six fathoms of wampum, and a * The residence of Tilly is not pointed out. do execution with their arrows. He says he There was a John Tilly early at Dorchester. " found one of the dead men with an arrow There were Hugh and John " Tille" about the shot entirely through him, except half a rib on north side of the Bay, some time before Boston the opposite side of his body, from that in was settled. — See ante, p. 57. Whether that which the arrow entered. This he preserved, John Tille were the same with him killed by and also the rib, intending to send it to Boston, the Pequots, is not quite certain. There were to let the Authorities know there, that Indian Edward and John Tilly of the Mayflower ; arrows were not to be spoken so lightly of as they were both dead before the end of March, some had done." Dr. I. Mather says, there 1620-1, but they both had families; and there were about 70 Indians who fought Gardiner, were Tillies in several places in the Colony of and that they killed four of his men ; that a Plymouth about the time of the Pequot war. fifth was sorely wounded, but recovered, and f Some further particulars may be read in lived to cut off the head of the very Indian the Book op the Indians, 169, Wth edition. — who wounded him, the next year. — Relation, See also Winthrop, i. 200 ; Gardiner, (in 45. About 300 Pequots came a few days Mass. H. C, vol. 23, p. 147) ; Underhill (in after and challenged the English to come out idem, 26, p. 15.) and fight, mocking them by imitating the cries J It seems, from Gardiner's own account of of those they had tortured ; but a discharge the affair, that some of the Boston people had of grape-shot caused them to make a sudden spoken lightly of the ability of the Indians to adjournment. — Ibid. 46. 206 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1637. Pequot's band to show that he had kept his word by fighting the ene- mies of the English. In return presents were made to four of the chief of the deputation, which consisted of a coat for each, worth fourteen shillings apiece. A '1 10 Owing partly to the complaints from Connecticut, the Author- ^" ■ ities at Boston concluded to send twenty men to Saybrook. They were now dispatched for that place, under the command of Captain Underbill, but at the charge of Connecticut. A ril 23 Grovernor Haynes had, on the third of April, left Boston for ^" ■ Connecticut, his future residence. On his arrival at Saybrook he wrote back* " that the Pekods had been up the river at Wethers- field, and had killed six men, being at their work, and twenty cows and a mare, and had killed three women, and carried away two maids."t The "maids" were not long after liberated through the exertions of the Dutch ; the Governor of whom, Wouter Von Twitter, Esq., at New Amsterdam, ordered his men to rescue them at all hazards, even to the breaking of the Peace with the Indians. A Dutch sloop was sent into the mouth of the Thames for the purpose, but the Pequots would hear to no terms of ransom, and stratagem alone succeeded. Several Pequots, having been seduced on board the vessel, were seized and held till the captive girls were produced. „ J The feeble settlements on the Connecticut held a General Court ^ ' at Hartford, and resolved " on an offensive warr against the Pe- quoitt." Ninety men were immediately assembled and put under the command of Capt. John Mason. This was almost the entire strength of the Colony ; but they had secured the interest of the Mohegans, who to the number of about eighty warriors marched with them against their own countrymen. A glance now at the state of the country shows that the Pequots had rushed headlong to the very brink of destruction. They had done all they could to irritate their adversary, and had effected nothing by way of alliance with other tribes. They now stood single-handed against four nations, as it were, two of their own countrymen, and two of the English. J. In less than ten days. Mason had collected his forces together, and in three frail barks fell down the river to Saybrook ; and here, with Captains Gardiner and Underbill, future proceedings were * To whom the letter was directed, Win- revenge it, he secretly drew in the Pequots, throp, my authority, does not say. During who came up the river, and killed six men," the administration of Gov. Vane, Winthrop &c. — Lothrop's Cent. Ser. at W. Springfield, often speaks of the Government as " we ; " 1796, p. 23-4. Winthrop, i. 260. See also and now, "we received a letter." It was Mr. Goodwin's Geneal. of the Foote Fam. Int. prohahly directed to Mr. Vane. p. xxi-ii., in which are found the names of two f "Sequin, a head man of the River In- of the men that were killed, namely, Abraham dians, gave lands on the river to the English, and John Finch, but the names of the others that he might sit down by them and be pro- do not appear ; one of the girls taken was a tected. But when he came to Wethersfield daughter of William Swaine. — Other facts [then called Watertown] and set up his wig- of great interest may be seen in Gardiner's, wam, the people drove him away by force. Underhill's, Vincent's, Hubbard's and Ma- Kesenting the wrong, but wanting strength to ther's histories. 1637.] PEQUOT WAR. — MASOK SAILS. 207 arranged. The few sick and feeble men were sent home, and their places supplied from the men at the fort, and to Mason's "Army" Underhill and*his twenty men were added. jyj^ 21 The Pequots had watched narrowly all the movements thus far, and well knew themselves were the object of them ; but this morning. May the twenty-first, when they saw the transports sail out of the mouth of the Connecticut, they supposed that they were upon some other design. They watched them closely, however, by runners from hill to hill and from point to point on the coast, until they saw the vessels sail by the mouth of their river, since called the Thames. They then confidently believed that they had nothing further to fear from them ; for they most naturally concluded, that, if they were to be attacked, the march would be by land directly across the country from Saybrook ; and this, indeed, was the very order of the Council of War at Hartford. But, as in the sequel will be seen, this breach of orders, if it did not prove the salvation of the "Army," proved the destruc- tion of the Pequots. Thus completely deluded, the short-sighted Pequots set up joyous shouts, as though they had gained a victory ; and they sent runners about the country to caU their people together, that they might have a season of rejoicing. Meanwhile, Mason proceeded on his voyage for Narraganset ^^ ' Bay, which he was two days in performing. Owing to a strong north-west wind, he could not land his men till the evening of the twenty-third of May. He then proceeded directly to the residence of Miantonimo, who received him respectfully, and showed a willingness to assist him ; but he expressed astonishment that the English should presume to go against Sassacus with such a small number of men. „ Proceeding on their march, the English were joined by about ^^ ' four hundred Narragansets, and, after a fatiguing travel of about twenty miles, reached the fort of the Nianticks, on the borders of the territories of the Pequots. Twelve miles further brought them ^^ ■ to a fording place in Paucatuck river, and at night they en- camped in hearing of the nearest Pequot fort. This was the fort at Mistick. Here a great number was assembled, and this was the very night they had set to celebrate their deliverance from invasion. Ac- cordingly, until near midnight, they were distinctly heard, giving unre- strained utterance to their joy, in boisterous festivity. Having wearied themselves, and in the fatal confidence that no enemy was near, they all fell into a sound sleep at a late hour of the night ; and thus were found an easy prey by their more wily adversary. By the light of a splendid moon, the little Army was formed ^^ ■ for the march about one o'clock in the morning. The Indians had ceased their shouts of joy, and were, many of them, in their last sleep, as it proved. Moving on, the Indian guides soon brought the English by intricate paths to the foot of the " great hill " on which the fort was. Here, halting his men, Captain Mason inquired of Uncas, 208 HISTORY OP BOSTOK. [1637. the leader of the Mohegans, where the Indians, his allies, were, for they were not to be seen ; and was told they were fallen in the rear, and were " exceedingly afraid." The English were prepared for this, although during the march the Indians had boasted of the great things they would do to the enemy, and how many they would kiU ; and at the same time " sneered at the Englishman's courage, and said he durst not look a Pequot in the face." Yet now nearly half of the Narragan- sets had deserted and run away. The most of the rest would have followed, Mason says, had he not promised them that they need not come within shot of the fort, and that they might surround it at a distance, to seize fugitives. The fort to be attacked had two entrances, at opposite points, and covered a space of twenty acres, which space was so thick set with wigwams, " that the English wanted foot room to grapple with their adversaries ;" and the entrances were blocked up with boughs or bushes. Mason, having divided his force, led up the first division in person, the other was led by Captain Underbill. One marched against the western entrance, the other against the eastern. At a few rods' distance, a dog barked, and an Indian, who happened to be outside of the fort, discov- ered the English when they were about to discharge their guns upon it. He had only time to cry. Englishmen ! Englishmen ! and that in his own tongue, — Owanux ! Owanux ! when the work of death begun. " Every man," says Underbill, " being bereaved of pity, fell upon the work without compassion, considering the blood they had shed of our native countrymen — having slain, first and last, about thirty persons." In attempting to force an en- trance, " one Mas- ter Hedge was shot through both arms, and more wounded. Cap- tain Mason and myself," says Un- derbill, " entering into the wigwams, he was shot, and received many ar- rows against his head-piece. My- self received a shot in the hip, through a sufiicient buff coat, which, if I had not been supplied with, the arrow would have pierced through me. Another I received between neck and shoulders." The odds was too great. The English seeing they would be beat out of the fort, Mason with his STORMING OP THE PEQUOT POUT. 1637.] PEQUOT WAR. 209 own hands set fire to the wigwams,* which in a moment enveloped the whole in flames.f This decided the day. The English with their Indian friends surrounded the burning fort, and shot down those that attempted to escape.J Thus, in "about one hour's -space," was the power of the Pequots almost annihilated. Between six hundred and seven hundred perished by the sword or the flames ; seven only escaping, and seven were taken prisoners. But two of the assailants were killed ; one of Mason's company, and one of Underhill's, and twenty wounded. The vessels which had brought the troops to Narraganset, were ordered to proceed to Pequot to receive them again when they had finished the work for which they came. They arrived within a few hours of the time, and thus Captain Underbill and the Narragansets returned in them to Saybrook, and Captain Mason and his men pro- ceeded to the same place by land, destroying whatever they met with belonging to the Pequots in their march. As the English were upon their march, after they had destroyed the fort at Mistick, a great body of Pequots from another fort pursued them ; frantic with rage for the loss of so many friends, they rushed upon them repeatedly, with the utmost fury ; but the troops, facing about, fired their muskets in their faces, by which movements they were as often put to flight. In this retreat of a few miles, one hundred more of the Pequots were supposed to have been killed. On Captain Mason's return to Hartford there was a day of rejoicing, and he was hailed as a great conqueror. * " So entring one of their wigwams," says Arthur Smith, was so wounded he could not Mason, " I took a fire-brand, and suddenly move out of the place, but who was happily kindled a fire in the mats," &c. — Mason in rescued from the flames by Lieut. Thomas Hiibhard, 125. — "At which time, an Indian Bull." — Mather''s Relation, 32. drawing an arrow, had killed him, but one % Winthrop records the Fight under 25 May, Davis, his Sergeant, cut the bow-string with and adds, " Presently came news [to Boston] his courtlace." — Hubbard, 125-Q. from Narraganset, that all the English, and f Their wigwams were substantial, and cov- 200 of the Indij^ns [friends] were cut off in ered with mats of grass, which being very dry, their retreat ;" and that three days later " this and the fire being set on the " windward side, was confirmed by a Post from Plimouth, with did swiftly overrun the whole fort," out of such probable circumstances, as it was gener- which the English then retreated, " only one, ally believed." — Journal, i. 225. 27 210 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1637. CHAPTER XXIII. Pequot War continued. — Negotiations with Plymouth. — Letter of Edward Winslow upon the Sub- ject. — Winslow comes to Boston. — States the Beasons why Plymouth should not engage in the War. — Election. — Great Excitement. — Seat of Government removed from Boston to Newtown. — Preparations for the War. — March of Capt. Patrick. — Other Forces raised. — Thanksgiving. — March of Capt. Stoughton. — Letter of Jolin Humfrey. — Stoughton arrives at Pequot. — Pursues the Indians. — His Dispatches. — Surprises a large Number. — Puts many of them to Death. — . Some protected by the Niiintioks, whose Chief is cited to Boston. — Appears and gives Satisfiic- tion. — Death of Pequot Chiefs, Sassacus, Mononotto. — Swamp Fight. — Many Prisoners taken. — Stoughton proceeds to Block Island. — Close of the War. ^ ^jj J ABOUT the first of April, Mr. Winthrop ^ ■ wrote to the Governor of Plymouth for ad- vice respecting proceedings against the Pequots, and probably hinting something about the propriety of that Colony's taking a part in the war, by famishing men or means, or both. This letter was answered on , . the seventeenth following, by Mr. Winslow, by direction of the Governor. In this he says, " Concerning your present busnies, we conceive it will be simply necessary for you to proceed in the war begun with the Pequots, otherwise, the natives we feare wUl grow into a stronger confederacy, to the further prejudice of the whole Eng- lish. We are very glad to heare that the Munheges are fallen from the Pequots, and brought to a professed war with them, knowing their in- veterate hatred ; and, desire it may be nourished by all good meanes." — " But there is one thing of ill consequence, which we heare from Connecticut, viz., that there are some English there that furnish the enemy by way of trade, having made a league with them. If you inquire of Mr. Jesop* who came in the barke with Mr. Harding, you may receive particular information thereabout. That this will be ill taken I doubt not, yet durst doe no other than inform you. Tet, let me commend one thing to your consideracon ; how dangerous a thing it may prove, if the Dutch, who seek it, and they, should close by reason of the Pequots' necessity. I speak not this as desiring the benefit of their trade, for we are weary of the worke, as we are dealt withall."t * John Jessop, of Connecticut, had an inter- was a John Jessop, Deputy to the General est in the affairs of Captain Oldham. There Court of Ct., 1664, at which time he repre- '^ sented Westchester. See Ptiblic Recs. of Ct., 12, •i^^ 60-1). It is exceeding strange that Hutchinson dated, namely, June 5th, and at the same time should print this letter antedated a year. He has ^ trusty Indian runner arrived at Plymouth done the same by one of Captain Stoughton's, ib. from Nemasket, with the news of the over- 61-2. throw of the Pequots at Mistick. 212 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1637. election this year ; but when they saw that he had lost his election, they laid down their halberds and went home, leaving the new Governor to appoint others or go without any. " And," says Winthrop, " whereas they had been wont to attend the former Governor to and from the meetings on the Lord's days, they gave over now, so as the new Gov- ernor was fain to use his own servants to carry two halberds before him ; whereas the former Governor had never less than four." * Boston had omitted to choose its Representatives till after the *^ ■ General Election, and thereupon the Town chose " Mr. Henry Vane, Mr. William Coddington and Mr. Atherton Haulgh;" but they were refused seats as members, by the majority of the court, J. and were sent home again, and an order to the Town for a "^ ■ new election. The next day the voters assembled and chose the same gentlemen.f The people of Boston were not without almost daily advices of what was passing in and about Connecticut river, and though the late excit- ing election had diverted them somewhat from immediate action in the war, yet, within a week after that matter was settled, a company of ^ forty men was put under the command of Capt. Daniel Patrick, ^^ "" of Watertown. These were hastened away, because intelligence had just been received from Miantonimo, that the Pequots, seeing they could not escape from a war, had sent away their women and chil- dren "to an island." This was only a rumor probably, though it may have been true to some extent ; for there were some hundreds of " women, children and old men " that perished in the fort at Mistic. While Mason lay with his forces at Narraganset, he received a letter from Captain Patrick, stating that he was arrived at Roger Williams' plantation, and should join him with his force as soon as pos- sible. But Mason and Underbill concluded it unsafe to delay, as there was a communication between the Narraganset women and the Pequots, and hence there was great danger that their design might be discoA^ered and frustrated ; therefore they marched without delay to attack the Pequots, the result of which has just been recounted. In the mean time Patrick arrived at Narraganset in time to embark in the same vessels which had brought Mason, and returned in them to the mouth of the *" The former Governor and Mr. Coddington, vres, practised by Mr. Wilson and the old being discontented that the people had left Governor, had not an undue effect in bringing them out of all public service, gave further it about. I offer no opinion upon it, but merely proof of it in the congregation, for they state the facts as they are. A knovfledge of refused to sit in the Magistrates' seat, where subsequent preceedings is necessary to form a Mr. Vane had always sitten from his first judgment. — See N.E. Hist. Gen. Beg., ii., arrival, and went and sate with the deacons, 133, &c. although the Governor sent to desire them f Winthrop says, Jowrnal, i., 220, " The to come in to him. And upon the general Court being grieved (at the first choice) found Fast, they went from Boston to keep the day means to send them home again, for that two at the Mount with Mr. Wheelwright." — of the freemen of Boston had no notice of the Winthrop, Journal, i. 224. The only ques- election. So they went all home, and the next tion, or at least the first question to be set- morning they returned the same gentlemen ; tied, in considering the result of the election, and the court not finding how they might re- is, whether it was really done by a majority ject them, they were admitted." — See, also, of the legal voters, or whether certain manoeu- Town Records. 1637.] PEQUOT WAR. MARCH OP CAPT. STOUGHTON. 213 Thames. Thence he marched with Mason from Pequot to Saybrook.* Both Underhill and Mason seem to have had a dislike of Patrick.f It had been agreed at Boston, before the march of Captain Patrick, that two hundred men should be raised by Massachusetts to assist Con- necticut in carrying on the war. But before the remaining one hun- dred and sixtyj could be got ready, news was brought of the fall of Mis- tick. It was therefore thought needless to send so large a force. But some of the people began to murmur against a reduction of the original number, § and sent a deputation to remonstrate with the Governor, accompanied by three ministers. " The Grovernor took it ill." How- ever, " it was thought fit to send about forty || men more, which was yielded, rather to satisfy the people, than for any need that appeared." Yet it was generally believed that the Pequots were still formidable. The much-dreaded Sassacus had not been killed or taken, and he held a strong fort at a few miles from that destroyed at Mistick. Therefore vigorous efforts were considered to be yet necessary. J J There was a day of thanksgiving kept throughout Massachu- setts, and about the same time Capt. Israel Stoughton, of Dor- chester, sailed from Boston for the Pequot country. He was Command- er-in-chief of the expedition. Capt. William Traske, of Salem, led the Essex men, and Richard Davenport was his Lieutenant. Mr. Wilson, of Boston, went as Chaplain. IT Notwithstanding the principal power of the Pequots was broken, the stern cry of vengeance was continued, and Captain Stoughton em- barked with one hundred and twenty men for the Pequot country. Amidst the preparations to crush those Indians, no voice of compas- sion is heard for even such of them, as, from their age or other circum- stances, could merit no retributive scourge from the hand of a foe. AU seemed of one opinion, namely, that the " sins of the fathers should be visited upon their children," in the most literal sense of the language of inspiration. There is, indeed, a solitary letter in existence, in which the writer * Compare Mather's Relation, Hubbard, Un- not this [the news of the fall of Mistick] dis- derhill and Mason's Histories, by which the courage the sending of your 160 men, but take author has been able to show the Proceedings suchrevenge as may be a service to after times," of Patrick, hitherto unexplained. &c. — Hutchinson, Coll. Orig. Papers, 61. f " And although Captain Mason told him || From what will elsewhere appear, what he did not delight in his company, yet he Winthrop means by this is, that the ititend- would and did march along with him." — ed 160 men were to be reduced forty; for Mason in /. Mather, 35. Mason says, that 120 arrived in the Oonnecti- J The 160 men were thus assessed on the cut, under Stoughton, to join in prosecuting the war. — See Mason in Hist. Colls. Mass., 18 vol., p. 145. Same in I. Mather's Rela- tion, 36. T[ Lots were caSt to determine which should go, Mr. Wilson or Mr. Eliot, and the lot fell to the former. — Col. Recs. " I think I have heard that reverend man of God, Mr. Wilson, say, that he was, before he went out, as certain that God would give the English the victory as & And Mr. Winslow, writing by authOTity if ^ had seen it already obtained."— I. Mather, of the Court of Plymouth, 5 June, says, " Let Relation, 54. towns : — Soston, 26 Koxbury, 10 Salem, 18 Newtown, 9 Ipswich, 17 Newbury, 8 Saugus, 16 Hingham, 6 Watertown, 14 Weymouth, Medford, 5 Dorchester, 13 3 Charlestowu, 12 Marblehead, 3 160 214 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1637. J ventures to suggest to the Magistrates of Boston, in the time of their energetic preparations to send out Captain Stoughton, whether it would not be better to make peace with the Pequots, who probably now would be glad of almost any terms ; even to the " deliv- ering up of these men or their heads, who had wrought and brought so much miserie upon themselves and theirs ; or, if not so, whether, if they gave good assurance by hostages, the blood shed by them might not seem to be sufficiently expiated ; "* with much more upon the subject of the war, in the same benevolent strain. But it had no visible effect. By an order of the General Court of Connecticut it appears that the squadron under Stoughton had arrived in the mouth of the river before the twenty-sixth of June ; f as on this day Mr. Haynes and Mr. Ludlowe were directed to repair thither to treat with Captain Stoughton about prosecuting the war. Meanwhile Sassacus and another distinguished Chief, Mononotto, with the greater part of the remaining Pequots, had fled westward along the coast, and Captain Mason being joined with the Massachusetts forces, with about forty men, pursued on after them. But the aspect of the war was now changed. The enemy at once became wanderers in strange places, with extremely precarious means of subsistence ; " owing to their children and want of provisions," their flight was slow, and they became an easy prey wherever they could be found. Their own country- men were cruel enemies to them, who were as much to be avoided as the now desperate and exulting Englishmen. Stoughton made several dispatches to the Government, of his operations, but very few of them are preserved. From one,J hitherto unpublished, received at Boston on the sixth of July, it appears he was then lying with his "^ ' forces in " Pequid" river, and Captain Mason had joined him with thirty men. Mr. Haynes and Mr. Ludlow were also with them. He said " there was yet good tuff work to be done, and how deere it would cost was unknown ; for Sasaco' was resolued to sell his life as deere as he could," and so was " Momowattuck, another great chief." A third great Chief § had been delivered into their hands, but him they de- tained to be " serviceable to them," though they would not promise him his life. Forty-eight other prisoners, by a pinnace, " being Giggles," || were shipped for Boston, where they arrived at the date above men- tioned. Stoughton's dispatch came with them. He further says, " we * Autograph letter of the Hon. John Hum- the text. Captain Stoughton's autograph ia FRET, dated June 7th, 1637, never published, here truly represented, in possession of the author. f Mason says Stoughton arrived there in / AJf / ^ ' " about a fortnight after his soldiers returned I, [Y\tct^ ^V*"Y^^tt.. y home from Mistick fight." They probably / / I . Pjf^ soon after, as will be seen. — See life of Q-ehn TAJ'^^^^^'^^M*^^^ Knollys, icWtten i^ AimseZ^, 18-25. j fi n n f P ^ " He was desired by many to be their t %^ - 0\t~Vs. C kt*^^^A o/- teacher with Mr. Cotton and Mr. Wilson, lOlL^^a "^^ ^J y but the Church being so well supplied, ■' I the Church by vote, on Oct. 30th, 1636, ^ I • fhU. XA/' allowed him to preach to some of their ) eiA^J ' / members removed to Braintree," &c. — — ' *^ See Hancock's Cent. Ser., 19. 1637.] CHURCH FAST. 221 Governor Vane supported the doctrines maintained by Mr. Wheel- wright, and carried on a controversy in writing with "Winthrop ; and Mrs. Hutchinson held a " double weekly lecture," to which a large number of persons constantly resorted, " to the number of fifty, sixty, or eighty at once," * At these lectures she was able to repeat from memory the sermons that she had heard preached, and as she went along would make her own commentaries upon them. In this manner she brought great numbers to her way of thinking. As soon as there was an organized opposition to the " new doctrines," measures began to be talked of, by which a stop might be put to them, and the Commonwealth saved from ruin ; for it was said that the dif- ference between the doctrines maintained by either party was "as great as between Heaven and Hell." Winthrop's party do not seem to have ever had the remotest idea that they could be wrong, or that the other party could be sincere and honest in their opinions. Charity is not heard of among the oppressors ; and when those of the " new doctrines " spoke charitably of them, they were spurned the more. That Mr. Wheelwright and his followers believed sincerely that the other party were "under a covenant of work," is quite as clear now, as that a difference existed between the parties. J 2 A Fast was kept "in all the Churches," to lament the troubles that seemed to be about to overwhelm the country ; among others, danger from the Indians, and the dissensions in the Churches are particularly mentioned. In his Fast sermon Mr. Wheel- wright " inveighed against all that walked in a covenant of works, called them antichrists, and," according to Winthrop, "stirred up the people against them with much bitterness and vehemency. For this he was called into the Court, and his sermon being produced, he justified it. Whereupon the Elders of the rest of the Churches were called, and being asked, if in their ministry they did walk in such a way, they aU acknowledged they did. So, after much debate, the Court adjudged him guilty of Sedition, and also of Contempt,f for that the Court had appointed the fast as a means of reconciliation of the differences, and that he had purposely set himself to kindly and increase them." Grovernor Vane " and some few more," at onoe protested against the decision of the Court, in which they " wholy justified Mr. Wheel- * " But the last and worst of all," says Mr. ecclesiastical factions." Being descended from Welde, in a tone of deep lamentation, " which one of the chief leaders of the party corn- most suddenly diffused the venom of these plained of, namely Mrs. Hutchinson, Mr. Sav- opinions into the very veins and vitals of the age excuses himself for not giving a more par- people, was Mistress Hutchinson's double ticular account of her than he has done. I weekly-lecture," &c. do not object to this, inasmuch as he has de- •f This much talked of sermon has been pre- fended the other party, Mr. Wheelwright, served (in manuscript). Mr. Savage, in a from whom I am descended, in a very satisfac- note to Winthrop, thus remarks upon it : — tory manner. All the defence Mrs. Hutohiu- " I unhesitatingly say, that it was not such as son requires, I trust I have made for her, and can justify the Court in their sentence for that consists in truly narrating the rise and sedition and contempt, nor prevent the present progress of the unhappy controversy in which age from regarding that proceeding as an ex- she was so large a sharer and sufierer. ample and a warning of the usual tyranny of 222 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [IBST. Wright;" and the ChiBreh of Boston tendered a petition in his behalf, and justified his sermon also. Seeing he had so many and such strong friends, the Court concluded to suspend sentence upon him until the next Court; meantime he was " commended to the Church of Boston to take care of him," and ordered to appear at the next Court. Boston was favorable to the cause of Mr. Wheelwright, and the Court was unwilling to sit where its doings were pretty likely to be condemned by the people.* It was therefore voted that it should be held next at Newtown. Mr. Vane showed his dislike of the proceed- ing by refusing to put the vote, which was done by Mr. Endicott. The result of this day's election has been stated in detailing *^ ■ the progress of the Pequot war, so far as the election of officers was concerned.! So well had the plans of the opposition to the " Antinomians " been concerted, that the result was aU they could wish for ; yet the Court was not prepared to sentence Mr. Wheel- wright, although he appeared as he was ordered to do ; so it gave him a respite till the next session, which was to be in August ; that in the interim he might " bethink himself and retract his error, otherwise he must expect no favor." To this proposition of clemency, he said, if he were guilty of Sedition he was worthy of death ; but if they pro- ceeded against him, he would appeal to the King, and that he had nothing to retract. In the mean time an ecclesiastical Council was con- vened, to discuss the matter. J That an Assembly, or Synod, formed for a specific object, and of materials of one faith, should find much difficulty in agreeing in con- demning those of a different faith, is not to be expected. Under these circumstances " an Assembly of the Churches § at New- Town," "^' ■ drew up a " Catalogue of erroneous opinions," to the number * " A great part of the body of the people, It was customary, when the GoTemor returned and I am apt to think, at the first, the major- from Court, for the inhabitants to turn out ity of the Town of Boston, were of the same and escort him to his house ; but when he re- side the question with those people who after- turned to his house in Boston, from Newtown, wards came here." [To Rhode Island.] — See after the passage of this law, there was no Callender's Hist. Disc, 26. welcome of the kind from the people, t See ante, page 211. § " There were all the Teaching Elders j " An extraordinary act made by the Gen- through the country, and some new come out eral Court this session, very much heightened of England, not yet called to any place here, the discontent." Many persons of Mr. Wheel- as Mr. Davenport," &c. — Winthrop, Journal, Wright's opinions in Boston, were expecting i. 237. This " Assembly " was " three weeks their friends from England ; a penalty there- together at Cambridge, then called New Town, fore was laid on all persons against entertain- Mr. Hooker and Mr. Bulkley, alias Buckley, ing strangers who came with intent to reside, being chosen Moderators or Prolocutors, the without special liberty from the Government. Magistrates sitting present all that time, as "This," says Hutchinson, "was a very se- hearers, and speakers also when they saw fit." vere order, and was so disliked by the people — Preface to the Short Story. Johnson says of Boston, that upon the Governor's return that at this " first Synod held in New Eng- from Court, they all refused to go out to meet land, there were present about 25 Reverend him, or shew him any Ks^^oi." — Hist. Mass. and Godly Ministers," who were to " assist i. 62-3. " Mr. Cotton was so dissatisfied in cutting downe those cursed errors." There with this law, that he says [in his Answer to was that " bright shining light, Mr. Daven- Baiky\\iei iptended to have removed out of port, the cheerfiiU, grave, and gracious soldier the jurisdiction to Quinnypiack, since called of his (the Lord Christ's), Mr. Allen, also New Haven ; but finding the law was not im- Mr. Tompson, Mr. Browne, Mr. Fish, the proved to exclude such persons as he feared it much honoured Mr. Eaton, and Mr. Hopkins " would be, he altered his mind." — iiid., 63. [both of whom had just come over]. — Wonder See also Hutchinson's Coll. of Papers, 67-100. Working Prov., 117. 1637.] BANISHMENT OF WHEELWRIGHT. 223 of eighty-two, " as were found brought into New England, and spread under hand there," all of which were found to he heretical. Q^j. 2 Thus fortified hy synodical authority, the General Court pro- ceeded to pronounce sentence against the accused, * first calling upon him to state " how his mind stood, whether he would acknowledge his offence or abide the sentence of the Court ? His answer was, in effect, that he had committed no Sedition nor Contempt, and had de- livered nothing but the truth of Christ." Among a great many other things which the Court urged against him was " the difference which he hath raised amongst men, by a false distinction of a Covenant of Grace, and a Covenant of Works ; whereby one party is looked at as friends to Christ, and the other as his enemies," by which " all things are turned upside down amongst us." The first day of the Court was finished with the record, that Mr. Wheelwright was guilty of " wilfully neglecting all means of light, in that he would not vouchsafe to read a very brief writing, which much concerned him ; " and " although the cause was now ready for sen- tence, yet night being come, the Court arose, and enjoined him to appear the next morning." Q " The next morning he appeared, but long after the hour ap- pointed." When he came, " the Court demanded what he had to allege why sentence should not proceed against him ? " He merely asked the Court to point out on what page or leaf of his sermon he had said that of which he was accused.f This the Court evaded by a sort of subterfuge, and sentenced him " f o be disfranchised and banished our Jurisdiction, and to be put in safe custody, except he should give sufficient security to depart before the end of March. Upon this he appealed to the King's Majesty ; but the Court told him an appeal did not lie in this case," for they had full jurisdiction, as expressed in their Charter. As he declined giving " security for his quiet departure," he was com- mitted to the custody of the MarshaLJ The next day he was permitted * " It was conceived by the Magistrates and tion hath been made against its proceedings, others of the country, that the means which as if Mr. Wheelwright had not a lawful trial, had been used proving ineffectual, the case as not being put upon a Jury of Freemen ; but was now desperate, and the last remedy was the answer to this is easie, it being well known to be applied, and that, without farther delay, to all such as have understanding of matters lest it should be attempted too late, when of this nature, that such Courts as have power fitter opportunity might be offered for their to make and abrogate laws, are tyed by no advantage, as they had boasted, and did cer- other orders but their own, and to no other tainly expect upon the return of some of their rule but truth and justice ; and why thrice chief supporters, who by a special providence twelve men, sitting as Judges in a Court, were now absent from them." — Short Story, should be more subject to partiality than 23. twelve such called as a jury to the bar, let f When he was before the former Court he others judge." — If Henry the VIIL ever pro- demanded whether he were sent for as an inno- mulgated anything more arbitrary than this, cent or as a guilty person? and the Court said the writer is ignorant of it. That such'law- " neither, but as suspected only;" then he givers should fear the abrogation of their asked for his accusers ; and was answered. Charter is very reasonable. No one will " his Sermon, which was there in Court." — wonder, if, as Welde says, some of the perse- Skort Story, 49. cuted did cry out to their oppressors, that Jin its "Bi- " ' -^ Short Story, 48 t In its"^ " Brief Apology," printed in the " they were blinded in their legal ways, and '" to 64, the Conrtsays, " Objec- would stumble and fall, and in the end break 224 HISTOET OF BOSTON. [1637. " to go home, upon his promise that if he were not departed out of this Jurisdiction within fourteen days, he would render himself at the house of Mr. Staunton, one of the Magistrates, there to abide as a prisoner, till the Court should dispose of him." * Such were the proceedings which drove Mr. Wheelwright to leave the jurisdiction of Boston. He was not at a loss probably for a place of refuge. He had a tract of land in New Hampshire, notice of the purchase of which in 1629, has been taken ;t to that he removed, and thus became the founder of Exeter.J It might have been hoped, but may not have been expected, that by a disposal of the " leader" of the " heretics," the rest of them would be silenced, or forced to believe against their convictions ; but hopes and expectations, under such circumstances, are generally delusive ; " for Mr. Wheelwright's party persisted in their opinions, and the principal of them were as busy as before in nourishing contentions." § -J. At the same time the dominant party seem to have been equally busy to devise means to rid itself of these also. They were prominent persons, many of them, and had signed a petition || in Mr. their necks into Hell. ' ' — Preface. The ' ' Brief Apology " above cited is the same, probably, which Winthrop says the " Magistrates set forth," and afterwards appeared in the " Short Story." — See Winthrop, Journal, i. 221. * Short Story, 29. f See ante, p. 59-60. % " In the " SAort Story," 45, the writer says this controversy " was the Masterpiece of the old serpent, that the leaders were scat- tered and the brood broken up. Mr. Wheel- wright is gone to Pascal " [Pascataqua], &c. Mr. Wheelwright, in his Answer (he writes in the third person), says, " for him to goto Pas- cal : where is the wonder? I confesse it was marvellous he could get thither, when they expelled him, by reason of the deep snow in which he might have perished." — Mercurius Americanus, 24. He no doubt went by water to Pascataqua river. This was in the winter of 1637-8. In about four years he removed to Wells, because his territory had been annexed to Massachusetts. In 1647 be settled in Hampton. He went to England before the restoration, and did not return to New Eng- land till after that event. He was intimate with Oliver Cromwell, having been at the same University with him. After his return to N. England he settled at Salisbury, and succeeded the Rev. William Worcester in the ministry there. He died 15 Nov., 1679, " being then the oldest minister in New England." He left a will, dated 25 May, 1679. His pos- terity are numerous and respectable. His son, grandson, and great-grandson were Counsel- lors of Massachusetts. — Eliot, Farmer. The names of those dismissed from the Boston Church, and who went with Mr. Wheelwright to Exeter, were " Richard Merrys, Richard Bulgar, Philemon Purmot, Isaac Qrosse, Chris- topher Marshall, George Baytes, Thomas War- dell, William WaideW." — Belknap, N. H., i. 37. See Hutchinson, Coll. Papers, 316. See ante, p. 219-20, note. § Winthrop, i. 244-5. II Readers of the History of Boston will not be satisfied with the simple fact that a mere petition in favor of Mr. Wheelwright, had subjected its signers to banishment, without having the document laid before them. I therefore give the substance of it jfrom the " Short Story." " We whose names are underwritten, have diligently observed this Honoured Court's pro- ceedings against our dear and reverend Brother in Christ, Mr. Wheelwright, now under cen- sure of the Court for the truth of Christ, we do humbly beseech this Honourable Court to accept this Remonstrance and Petition of ours, in all due submission tendered to your Wor- ships." The Petitioners then " desire the Court to consider the sincere intention of their Brother," who, they say, by his Sermon on the Fast day, " did, to his best strength, labor to promote " the end for which that Fast was appointed, namely " the publick peace of the Churches ; and therefore deserves no such cen- sure " as that bestowed upon him. Secondly. As to his " being culpable for Sedition," they could not see how such charge could be sus- tained, as there was no witness " of any sedi- tious fact." Thirdly. His preaching "had not stirred up his hearers to commit any sedi- tious act," " not so much as by accident, and none of them had drawn the sword, as some- times Peter did, rashly ; neither had they rescued their innocent Brother, as sometimes the Israelites did Jonathan, and even they did not seditiously. The Covenant of Free Grace which he held forth, rather taught them to 1637.] PETITION OF REMONSTEANTS. 225 "Wheelwright's favor, which was presented to the same Court * that had declared him guilty of sedition. This Court, therefore, decided to pro- ceed against them, as it " aiforded a fair opportunity." The name of William Aspinwall stood first upon the Petition. The same gentleman being a Member of the General Court, f " it was propounded ■whether he was fit to be a member ; " and being called upon to say " whether he would justify the matter contained in the said writing," " peremptorily affirmed " that he did ; whereupon he was presently expelled. Next, Mr. John Coggeshall, though he had not signed the writing, being a Deputy to the Court when it was promulgated, yet he " spake very boldly to the Court, and told them, that seeing they had put out Mr. Aspinwall they were best make one work of all ; that though his hand were not to the Petition, yet he did approve of it ; but his hand was to a Protestation which was to the same efiect ; whereupon he was dismissed," and word sent to Boston to choose two others. Then Mr. Coddington, by an order from the Town, moved that the censure against Mr. Wheelwright might be reversed ; of course it did not prevail. „ „ These proceedings vexed the people of Boston, and they per- sisted at first in returning Mr. Aspinwall and Mr. CoggeshaU to the General Court again. " But Mr. Cotton coming amongst them, and perceiving their rash and contemptuous behaviour, by his wisdom diverted them from that course ; " J and they chose " Mr. William Coulborne and John Olyvar." The Court had Mr. Coggeshall and Mr. Aspinwall before it, soon after, and something of asperity was exhibited on both sides. Then Mr. " William Baulston" and Mr. Edward Hutchinson were called up. Mr. Baulston told the Court, " That he knew if such a petition had been made in any other place in the world, there would have been no fault found with it." Mr. Hutchinson said, " turning himself in a five patiently their cheeks to the smighters." truth of Christ, with diversotherscandalousand 'hat, therefore, both Teacher and Hearers seditions speeches." Upon which his Editor " were most free from Sedition." They then remarlcs : — " Unless my opinions be as much called upon the Court in a becoming, though perverted by prejudice as those of the majority supplicating manner, that it would, " for its of the Court appear to me, this account of the own Honour, make it appear wherein the Se- remonstrance is very unjust. " — Journal,!. 2i5. dition lay, or else acquit their Brother ; for a * It will be borne in mind that all kinds of knowledge of their proceeding would come to cases were tried in the General Court, and all the World." Further, that the Court that Attorneys were unknown in it. would remember that " Satan was the ancient f The " Deputies or Committees " for this enemy to Free Grace ; " that Elijah was called Court were chosen by the Town October 16th. the troubler of Israel, 1 Kings 18 : 17, 18 ; They were " Mr. William Coddington, Mr. Amos was charged for conspiracy, Amos 7: John Coggeshall and Mr. Willm. Aspemall." 10. Paul was counted a pestilent fellow, a — Town Records. Mr. Aspinwall's autograph mover of Sedition, and a Eing-leader of a sect, at this date is here copied : — Acts 24 : 5, and Christ himself was charged with being a teacher of new doctrines. — "The /> /u1 danger of meddling against the Prophets " ^ fj^' »♦£, was also suggested, and the danger of giving ij/trt ' *^ * offence to the followers of Jesus, citmg to the < Court Zech. 2 : 8, and Mat. 18 : 6. \ "Winthrop's Short Story, 26, which com- Winthrop says that this " Remonstrance " pare with his Journal, i. 246. See also p. charged " that the Court had condemned the 248-9. 29 226 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1637- scornful maimer, that if they took away his estate, they must keep his ■wife and children," * The Court showed its exasperation by disfran- chising both, and fining the first twenty and the other forty pounds. On another day were ordered before the Court Thomas Marshall, Wil- liam Dynely, William Dyer and Richard Gridly, "four more of the principal stirring men, who had subscribed to the Petition. Thomas Marshal, the ferryman," would acknowledge no fault, and was disfran- chised and turned out of his place. Dynely and Dyer '' had little to say for themselves, and were disfranchised ; likewise Eichard Gridly, an honest poor man, but very apt to meddle in publick affairs, beyond his calling or skiU." "All these," says Winthrop, "except Mr. Wheelwright, were but young branches, sprung out of an old root. The Court had now to do with the head of all this faction.f A woman had been the breeder and nourisher of all these distempers, one Mistris Hutchison, the wife of Mr. William Hutchison of Boston, a very honest and peaceable man, of good estate, and the daughter of Mr. Marvary [Marbury] sometimes a preacher in Lincolnshire, after of London ; a woman of haughty and fierce carriage, of a nimble wit and active spirit, a very voluble tongue, more bold than a man, though in understanding and judgment inferior to many women. This woman had learned her skUl in England, and had discovered some of her opinions in the ship, as she came over, which had caused some jealousie of her, which gave occasion of some delay of her admission, when she first desired fellowship with the Church of Boston, but she cunningly dissembled and coloured her opin- ions, as she soon got over the block, and was admitted into the church ; then she began to go to work, and being a woman very helpful in the time of child-birth, and other occasions of bodily infirmities, and well furnished with means for those purposes, she easily insinuated herself into the afiections of many ; and the rather, because she was much in- quisitive of them about their spiritual estates." J The Court having disposed of several of the men, as is above sum- marily stated, proceeded to " confute and confound " Mrs. Hutchinson, the account of which occupies many close CLuarto pages in the " Short * Ibid, 32. Mr, Wheelwright gives a dif- What is here said of the Hutchinson family ferent coloring to Mr. Hutchinson's manner, shows the writer to have had such a knowledge in his " Answer " to the '' Short Story." He of it as Mr. Wheelwright must have had, hav- says, p, 4, " I wonder Mr. Edward Hutchin- ing married a sister of Mr. Edward Hutchin-. son is amongst the orowde, when as ha did son. not use to be factious or opinionate : indeed f And here the author interpolates a quo^ the genius of that family hath not much in- tation from Virgil to give more force to hia clined tO subtilties, scarce any of the Hutch- own forcible language — Duxfceminafcu^i. insons have been sectaries, unlesse & latere, % Short Story, 33. The above extract is and indirectly, by reason of which, me thinks, made because it contains nearly all that is he might have been placed more obliquely in known of " the celebrated Mrs. Hutchinson," this predicament ofFamilisme,&c., than he is. until her banishment from Boston. Making This man said in the Court (which through allowance for the writer's enmity against her, Christian libertie he thought he might very and his deep-seated prejudice, and the whole ■well say) that if the Court took away his becomes very important to inquirers into the means, he would not be able to maintain his personal history of these times. Here seems wife and children." — Mercurius Americanus. to be a fitting place to introduce a brief 1637.] PEDIGREE OF THE HUTCHINSON FAMILY. 227 Story." An analysis of the strange notions advanced on both sides might afford entertainment, but perhaps no great instruction, in this age. It is equally unimportant to attempt to show which party had the advantage in the controversy ; but for fluency and apt quotations of Scripture, Mrs. Hutchinson certainly seems to have held a decided superiority over the whole Court ; and, when it had nothing further to say, Mr. Cotton was called upon " to deliver his judgment" upon the matter at issue. He may have enlightened the parties by what he delivered, though Moderns wiU not probably be able to discover in what way it was effected.* pedigree of tlie Hutchinson family ; by the clue may be obtained to many otherwise un- connection with which of other families, a explained circumstances. The Christian name of the father of Wiluam Hdtohinsoh : haa not been ascertained. His widow came with her chil- dren to Boston, as before stated, from Alford in Lincolnshire. Arms the same as the Hutchinsons of Co. of Durham. Rich- ard, 4th son of Thomas Hutchinson, Esq., liYing 1670. ^ ' ■ , ., "William arrived in Boston in the ship = Anne, da. of Ber. Samuel, lived Edward, Boston, Susannah, widow of Hutchinson, was admitted to the 1st Church of Boston, 12 June, 1636. Dismissed with Bev. John Wheelwright and his wife to go to the Falls at Ex- eter, 3 March, 1639-40. She died at York, Maine, about 1640. Griffin, 18 Sept., 1634, joined Cb. 26 Oct. freem. 4 March, 1634-5. Rep. Gen. Ct., rem'd to R. I., where he was its 1st Gov., d. at Newport, ab. 1642, — See N. Eng. Hist, and Gen. Regr. i., 302. Edwd. Marbury of Lincolnshire & London, joined in Boston, un- joined 1st Ch. mar., d. 1667. Oct., 1633, free- ■SeeMercu. man Mar., 1633- Richard, Lon- Mary, wf. of don ; had son Revd. John Edward, old- Wheelwright est of 8 sons *, joined 1st ch. 1st Ch. in Boston Americanus , 4, wife Sarah, Wm. of Ja- in Bos. 1636, 2d Nov. ,1634, ex- p. 4-6. pelled 22 March, 1638-9, removed to R. I., thence to New Nether- land, kUled 1643. children, John, 1634, Ichabod, 1637. Returned to London. dismissed to Eliakim, bom go to Exeter, 1640,d. inBos- 3 Mar., 1639- ton, 1718, a. 40. 77 j wf. Mary, da. Henry Shrunpton, d. 13 Feb., 1720-1 1. Katherine= Hamby of Ips. wicll, Eng., Ist Ch. Bos- ton, 10 Feb., 1638. = Edward, b. ^2. Abigail, Erancis, 1st Richard, Bridget, Faith, 1st Susannah, Zuryell, A dan. Samuel, 1608,1st Cb Boston, and freeman,1634, died 19 Aug- ust, 1676, of wounds from the Indians. wid.of Rob. Ch. & free- 1st Ch., Ist Ch., Ch., 1634, taken by baptii'd m.Col- Button, & man, 1634; 1634, fr. i634,m. m. Thom- Indians, Boston, lins, " ' WilUs, as Savage, 1648, re- 1636. both Bridge- 1652, had deemed killed water. 7 children, after three by Ih- yrs. cap- dians, tivity ; m. Jno. Cole, Dec. 1651. da.ofAUce kUledbyIn- 1634-6. Fermase,d. dians, 1643. 1639. had son Rich- ard. Elisha, bap. = 1. Hannah, : da. of Cap. ThcHawk- ins, d. ab. 1676. : 2. Elizabeth, da. of Maj. Tho. Clarke, and wid. of Jno. Preake, d. 1712-13. Anne, bap. 19 Novem., 1643; m. lst,Dyer, 2d, Danl. Vernon. William, bap. 18 Jan'y, 1645-6, died young. Katherine, bap. 14 May, 1648, died young. Susannah, Edward, bap. 10 born 30 June, 1649, m.Nat. Godding- ton of Newport. January, 1660-1, a. 1692. ""V"^ ^v^ 1 Oct., 1676. Mary, b. Elisha, b. Elizabeth, Hannah, Katherine, Thomas, b. 30 = Sarah, da. Mary, b. Edward, b.=Lydia Mehitable, Foster, b. 6 Feb., sister 1679-80. .'''. BlishaTb. Sarah, ^g j^y^ 1681, d. 1739. 11 Oct., 16 March, b. 24 Feb.', b.'20 Jan., b. 24 Feb., Jan., 1674-6, 1666, d. 1667-8, 1669-70, 1671-2, m. 1672-3. d. 3 Dec., young, d. young, m John Ruck. 1739,aged 65, Richard- leaving a son. great estate Colonel Jn. Fos- ter. — See Bial.Mae. ii., 190. 18 June, 1678, Judge of Probate. Thomas, b. 9 Sept.,= Margaret, da. Foster, Hannah, m. 1711, H. C. 1727, Gov. & Historian of Mass. m. 16 May, 1734 ; d. at Brampton, Eng., 1780, a. 68. of Wm., and gr. da.ofHon. Feleg Sanford, of Newport, R.I. H. C. 1721. Rev. Saml Mather, son Welsted. He of Bev. Cot- ton Mather, D.D. Sarah, wf. of Abigail, wf. of John Bev. Wm. Davenport, son of Addington Daven- port, m. 24 August, 1733. d. 26 AprU, 1753. Lydia, wf. of Geo. Rogers, merchant, of Boston, son of Nath. Rogers, of Ports- mouth, N. H. He died be- fore 20 Feb., 1748. William, d. 1780, in Eng. Thomas, d. at Heavitree, near Exeter, Eng., 1811, a. 71. Elisha, d. at Blur ton Parsonage, 1824, a. 80. = A da. d. 'Katherine, b. 13 Benjamin, b. 2 Hannah, b. 16 May, 1771. Feb., 1662-3; m. June, 1656 ; d. 1658 ; m. Peter Henry Bartholo- before his Walker of Taunton, mew of Salem. father. Bev. John Hutchinson, of BInrton Parsonage, published the third vol. of his grandfather's History of Mass., 1828. • " The Court saw now an inevitable neoes- banishment was pronounced against her, and she was committed to the Marshal till the Court should dispose of her." — SAort Story, 43. 228 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1637. The trials and troubles which Mrs. Hutchinson met with, together with an over-exertion to fathom unfathomable mysteries, had unhinged her mind, and, in that state, incoherencies and contradictions could not but abound in her conversations. She thus became an object of pity, instead of legal severity.* But it was far otherwise. Governor Win- throp issued a warrant, early in 1638, ordering her " to depart this jurisdiction" without delay. She thought at first to have gone with her brother-in-law to New Hampshire, but her husband and some of his friends having in the mean time purchased lands on Rhode Island, she journeyed thence by land. Here she resided until after the death of her husband, about 1642. In the mean time her family had collected around her, and one or two of her daughters had married. In the summer of the year last named, Mrs. Hutchinson and her family re- moved into the Dutch territory of New Netherland, and settled near what is since called New RocheUe, a few miles to the eastward of Mr. Throgmorton's settlement, where a small river, separating her lands from the present town of East Chester, still bears the name of Hutchin- son's River.f In the Dutch and Indian war, which raged the following year, she, and such of her family as happened to be with her, fell victims to the enraged Indians, who knew no difference, in their re- vengeful fury, between friend and foe.J After the Court had disposed of Mrs. Hutchinson by a sentence of banishment, § Captain Underbill, who had this year done such service * Writers, even of modem timea, have made the manner by which Mrs. Hutchinson's the same mistake with respect to Mrs. Hutch- daughter was liberated. The maids obtained inson as the Court of 1637 did, in one very by reprisal were of another family, and their important particular; namely, in that they liberation at an earlier date. — See OTi^e, p. 206. treat her as one perfectly sane. Her mind § The proceeding of the Court in passing was completely bewildered ; and though she the sentence of banishment was as follows, may have been able to attend to the ordinary The question was put to the Court by Win- occupations of life, yet no one, it is believed, throp thus : " If it be the mind of the Court can read even what her persecutors have re- that Mrs. Hutchinson, for these things that corded of her sayings, without unhesitatingly appear before us, is unfit for our society, and coming to the same judgment. if it be the mind of the Court that she shall In condemning the proceedings against Mrs. be banished out of our Liberties, and im- Hutchinson, I am not prepared to go quite as prisoned till she be sent away, let them hold far as Mr. Ellis does in his Life of that perse- up their hands." Hands were all up but cuted woman. There are some palliating ou^- three. " Those that are contrary minded, hold cumstances on the side of the Court. And, up yours." Two only held up their hands, while I cannot go quite so far as Mr. Ellis, I namely, Mr. Coddington and Mr. Colburn. admire his impartiality, and thank him for Mr. Jeimison declined voting either way, and the good service he has done in the cause of said he would give his reasons if required by New England history. His justification of the Court. Then Winthrop proceeded :" Mrs. VS^inthrop, however, will not probably be Hutchinson, ' The sentence of the Court you adopted by future_ historians. Mr. Winthrop hear is, that you are banished from out of our was, no doubt, sincere, and believed he was jurisdiction, as being a woman not fit for our doing the will of God, for he plainly records society, and are to be imprisoned till the Court his own actions. However much he may Have shall send you away.'" Mrs. Hutchinson been influenced or spurred on by others, one then said : " I desire to know wherefore I am thing is certain, he seems willing to bear the banished." To which Winthrop replied : whole, which is a pretty good evidence of his " Say no more. The Court know wherefore, sincerity. and is satisfied." She was thereupon put t See Bolton's West Chester, i. 514-15. into the custody of Mr. Joseph Welde, of j For further particulars and authorities, Eoxbury, there to wait the further order of see Book of the Indians, 132, eleventh edition, the Court. This Mr. Weld was brother of The author was misled there, however, as to Thomas, who published the ShaH Story. 1637.] PETITIONEES DISARMED. 229 against the Pequots, was required to show cause why he had put his name to the obnoxious Petition. His defence was similar to that of others, namely, that he could not see wherein oflfence should be taken at the Petition.* " The Court pittied him much, and were grieved at his obstinacy." So he was disfranchised, and his commission taken from him.f The same sentence was passed upon " five or six more of the principal, whose hands were to the said petitio.n."| There were nearly twenty § of those who had signed it, who compromised by a sort of recantation ; these, and some others who had been chief stirrers in these contentions, were ordered to be disarmed. Thus, it would seem, the Government had become very uneasy, and did not consider itself safe while the other party had arms in their pos- session. This disarming operation was a very serious affair, and much blood has flowed from far less causes. The peaceable manner in which it was submitted to, ought to have convinced the Eulers of the sin cerity of the motives of those to whom the indignity was offered. The names of the Boston men thus disarmed are as follows : " Captain John Underbill, Mr. Thomas Oliver, William Hutchinson,^ || William Aspin- wall,^''^ Samuel Cole, William Dyer,^''^ Edward Rainsfoard, John Button, John Sanfoard,^'^ Richard Cooke, Richard 'Fairbanks, Thomas Marshall, Oliver Mellows, Samuel Wilbore,^"'^ John Oliver, Hugh Gunnison, John Biggs, Richard Gridley, Edward Bates, William Dinely, William Lith- erland, Mathewe lyans, Henry Elkins, Zaccheus Bosworth, Robert Rice, William Townsend, Robert Hull, William Pell, Richard Hutchin- son, James Johnson, Thomas Savage,^"^^ John Davy, George Burden, John Odlin, Gamaliel Wayte, Edward Hutchinson,^"'^ William Wilson, Isaack Grosse, Richard Carder, ^'^ Robert Hardings, Richard Wayte, John Porter,^'^ Jacob Eliot, James Penniman, Thomas Wardell, William Wardell, Thomas Matson, William Baulston,^'^ John Compton, Mr, Parker, William Freeborne,^ Henry Bull,^'^ John Walker,w William Salter, Edward Bendall, Thomas Wheeler, Mr. Clarke,^ Mr. John Cog- geshall.«"ir * "He urged the libertie allowed to soul- the number of the converts." — Winthrop, i. diers, instanced in the freedoms of speech he 247. had to Count Nassau." — Wheelwright's Mer- {( The M designates those who fled to Rhode cwius Americarms, p. 4. There is a copy of Island, and they constituted the Colony of the this curious book m H. Col. Library. Mr. Island. There were two others in the oom- Ellis thinks our Mr. John Wheelwright could pany which " incorporated themselves a Body not have written it, while I must profess the Politick," namely, Philip Sherman and Ed- opposite opinion, namely, that he could, and ward Hutchinson, jun., being in number eigh- very probably did, write it. It is true there teen; every one of Boston, except Sherman, is the circumstance that it is " by John Wheel- who was among the disarmed, and lived in Wright, junior," in its title-page, but its dedi- Eoxbury. This little Colony was organized cation is signed I. W., and the Preface bj on the 7th of March, 1637-^8, and chose for "John Wheelwright." Why "junior" iB their Governor Mr. William Hutchinson, who used in one ease, and not in the others, I had hitherto been one of the most prominent shall not undertake to explain. men in the town affiiirs of Boston. — See Gal- t Short Story, 43-4. lender's Hist. Disc, p. 30. Their enemies in i Winthrop, i. 247. the Bay said, sneeringly, that they had gone 5 This is Winthrop's statement, but Savage to the " Island of Errors." — See Short Story says he does not find but ten names on the {Preface). Court records of that session. He therefore Tf These were not all who signed in favor thinks " the Govemour " may have " enlarged of Mr. Wheelwright ; a few, who were not so 230 HISTORY OF BOSTON, [1637. All these were ordered to deliver their arms " at Mr. Cane's Nov. 30. i-g-gg^j^g.g-] jjQ^gg g^t Boston, before the thirtieth of November, under penalty often pounds " for every default to bee made thereof." The order extended to " gans, pistols, swords, powder, shot and match;" and that none of those men above named should buy or borrow any guns, swords, pistols, powder, shot or match ; otherwise they would be subjected to the same penalty.* The Church of Boston were highly offended at the course taken by Governor Winthrop, in thus carrying the warfare with an exterminating hand, until the homes of many of their most beloved friends had been made desolate ; and there was danger that serious trouble might in consequence ensue. It was proposed to call him to account for what he had done ; and, had he not been a most skilful manager, and pos- sessed of a mind of singular flexibility, he would hardly have escaped universal censure. And, although he finally gained Mr. Cotton over to his measures, yet so strong was the Church of Boston attached to Mr. Wheelwright and his doctrines, that a vote for his expuli^ion from it could never be obtained, and he was in due time regularly dismissed from it, as has been before stated. From the following very sensible remark of Mr. Callender,t one hundred years after these troubles, few will dissent probably at this day. " Mr. Wheelwright was banished for what was then called sedition, by the same rule which wUl make every dissent from, or opposition to, a majority, in any religious affairs, to be sedition, and an iniquity to be punished by the Judge. The minor part must always be seditious, if it be sedition to defend their own religious opinions, and endeavor to confute the contrary." strong in the faith, and having ' ' repented of nection with an account of the dissolution their sin," were not disarmed; as William of the Court, which met in September pre- Larnet, Ralph Mousall, Ezekiel Richardson, ceding ; which Court, after Mr. Wheel- Richard Sprague, Edward Oaring, Thomas wright was ordered to appear at the next Ewar, Benjamin Hubbard, William Baker, Ed- Court, was " dissolved," because, as Mr. ward Mellows, and William Prothingham. Backus says, a vote could not be obtained And Mr. Ellis, who has taken much pains in in this Court to execute the decrees of the this matter in his Life of Mrs. Hutchinson, Synod. — Ibid. These were the members for and to good purpose, very justly remarks, that November: — Boston, Wm. Coddingion, Wm. ' ' even with these additional names we have Cotbome ; Roxbury, Joseph Welde, George not all the adherents of Mrs. Hutchinson and Alcock, Wm. Parks ; Dorchester, NcUhl. Dun- Mr. Wheelvrright." He then adds : Mr. Phil- can, Richard CalUcott, John Glover; Wey- emon Pormont, the first schoolmaster of Boston, mouth, Thos. White, Richard Adams ; Concord, accompanied Mr. Wheelwright to Exeter in Si'moTi Willard, Thos. Underwood; Sagus, 1638. The Rev. Daniel Maud went to Dover. Saml. Ward; Watertown, Richd. Brown, He was also a schoolmaster here. These are Capt. Wm. Jennison, Thos. Mayhew ; Cam- at the head of the catalogue of the Masters of bridge, Joseph Cooke, Richd. Jackson, John the Boston Latin School. Bridge; Charlestown, Capt. Robt. Sedgwick, * It may be well to append here a list of Lt. Ralph Sprague, Ens. Abraham Palmer; the members which composed the memorable Lynn, Lt. Daniel Howe, Timothy Tomlins ; Court of Nov. 1637. Concerning which Court Salem, Wm. Hathome, Townsend Bishop, Mr. Backus remarks, "It was customary to Edwd. Batter; Ipswich, Cap*. Danl. Denni- elect their deputies twice a year, namely, in son, Wm. Bartholomew ; l^ievrhuTj, Lt. Edwd. the spring and fall ; but to choose them twice Woodman, John Woodbridge. In all, 31. in one fall was an unprecedented act, of which, Gov. and Deputy, Winthrop and Dudley ; As- I believe, no parallel can be found from the sistants, En(Ucott, Humfrey, Bellingham, Har- foundation of the county to this day." — Hist, lakenden, Stoughton, Bradstreet, Nowell. of New Eng., i., 84. This remark is in con- t Century Sermon, 27. 1637.] ARKTVAL OF SHIPS. 231 CHAPTER XXV. Gibbon's Voyage — Arrival of Ships. — Davenport, Eaton, Hopkins, Lord Ley. — Governor Vane returns to England. — The People show him great Kespect. — Governor Winthrop and Lord Ley. — Other Arrivals. — Execution of Murderers. — Allotments of Lands. — Women forbidden to hold Meetings for expounding Scripture. — An Indian Deputation. — Accident at Spectacle Island. Ammunition removed from Boston. — Origin of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. Tribute received from the Indians of Block Island. — Mr. Davenport and others proceed to settle New Haven. — A Fast. — Mohegan Indian Deputation. — Mr. Coddington removes to Khode Island. — Sickness of the Governor. — Arrival of many Ships and Passengers. — Mr. John Josselyn. — His Account of Boston. — Captain Underbill banished. — Extravagance in Dress a cause of Trouble. — An Execution. — A Fast. June 20. I APTAIN Edward Gibbons returned to Bos- ton. He had been gone so long upon a voyage to Bermuda, that he was supposed to have been lost. His vessel was a ' pinnace of thirty tons. Among the commodities which he brought home was an alligator, probably the first ever seen here. The Captain made a present of it to the Governor. Three ships arrived from Ipswich, having in them three hundred and sixty passengers. As one of the ships passed the Castle, she was carelessly fired into by the gunner, by which an honest passenger was killed.* Within a week after, three other ships came J „„ in from London. In one of them, named the Hector, came Mr. John Davenport, Mr. Theophilus Eaton, Mr. Edward Hop- kins, son-in-law of Mr. Eaton, and Lord James Ley, a young man about nineteen years of age, who had come to see the country.f , „ The time having now arrived which Mr. Vane had set for his departure for England, the people assembled to show him re- spect upon the occasion. The ship in which he was to saU was riding at Long Island, in the harbor. Many accompanied him in boats to the ship with their arms, and saluted his departure with " divers volKes," * Wmthrop, i. 227. t For an exceedingly interesting account of this young man, I must refer the reader to Mr. W. T. Harris' edition of Hubbard's New England, p. 695, &c. Though bis name stands out in bold relief on the pages of history after- wards, I cannot forbear extracting a few words of what the noble historian Clarendon says of him. He observes : " The Earl of Marlborough [that being Lord Ley's title] was a man of wonderful parts in all kinds of learning, which he took more delight in than his title ; and, having no great estate descended to him, he brought down his mind to his fortune, and lived very retired, but with more reputation than any fortune could have given him." Such is the character of that modest young gentleman, who came so early to Boston, drawn by the hand of a master. But his end, how- ever glorious it was then considered, was one to be lamented with myriads of others. It was his fate to be sacrificed on the altar of blind ambition. He became an eminent naval com- mander, and perished in that almost un- paralleled battle off Lowestoft, on the 3d of June, 1665, in which it is said the Dutch lost 4000 men. Then also perished the Earls of Falmouth and Portland, Lord Muskerry, Ad- miral Lawson. The Duke of York led the English, and Admiral Opdam the Dutch. 232 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1637^ ■while others on the shore gave him five discharges from a piece of artillery, " and he had five more at the Castle." Mr. Winthrop did not honor his departure with his presence, though "he left order with the Captain [of the Castle] for their honorable dismission." * Lord Ley went with Mr. Vane for England. Of this young nobleman Gov- ernor Winthrop became jealous soon after his arrival, occasioned by his preferring the society of Mr. Vane and his friends to his. The time of his arrival was unfortunate, as then the agitation was extremely great, occasioned by the proceedings against Mr. Wheelwright and others, as has before been narrated. It was usual for distinguished strangers to be entertained at the Governor's house ; and no doubt Lord Ley would have been entertained there on his first coming to Boston, but Mr. Winthrop was then on a journey to Lynn and Salem, and did not return to Boston till two days after. In the mean time his Lordship was entertained at Mr. Cole's inn,f and this Mr. Cole was one of Mr. Wheelwright's friends. On the Governor's return to town, however, Lord Ley politely called upon him, and " the Governor offered him lodging, &c. ; but he refused, saying he came not to be troublesome to any, and the house where he was was so well governed that he could be as private there as elsewhere." J An incident occurred a few days after, which shows the feeling between the late Governor and Mr. Winthrop, which caused the latter to make an entry in his journal, which is as follows : " The differences grew so much here," referring to the religious troubles, " as tended fast to a separation ; so as Mr. Vane, being, among others, invited by the Governor to accompany the Lord Ley at dinner, not only refused to come, alleging by letter that his conscience withheld him, but also, at the same hour, he went over to Noddle's Island to dine with Mr. Maverick, and carried the Lord Ley with him." § Jul 12 There now " came over a brother of Mrs. Hutchinson, and " ^ ' some other of Mr. Wheelwright's friends ; ' ' but Governor Win- throp would not allow of their "sitting down" in Boston, excepting * Governor Vane, while in Boston, resided character in English history. Joining the but a few rods from where I now write. On Parliament against the King, he was, with his arrival he went to the house of Mr. Cotton, many others, declared a traitor at the Eestor- in which, or an addition which he made to it, ation, and executed on Tower Hill, June 14th, he continued to reside during his stay here. 1662, aged about 50 years, and all his estates When he went away, he gave that addition to were confiscated. These, however, were re- Mr. Cotton. The house, or the body of it, stored to his family by the restored King, he was standing within the memory of the writer, fearing its popularity might cause him trouble, though with its exterior much modernized. Sir Henry Vane left ten children, four sons It stood on the westerly side of what is now and six daughters. The family is now repre- Tremont-street, a few rods to the south-west sented by his lineal descendant, Henry Vane of the passage thence to Pemberton Square. Duke op Clevelanb. To those who remember the venerable mansion -j- This inn stood " on the west side of Mer- of Lieutenant-Governor Phillips, it will be easy chants' Row, midway from State street to to fix the spot in their imaginations, as it was Faneuil Hall." — Hist. Ancient and Hon. Art. next, north-easterly, to that. Co., p. 45, 2d ed. Governor Vane came no more to New Bug- J Winthrop, i. 230-1. land, and henceforth he becomes a prominent § Ibid. 232. I63T.] AELOTMEOTS OP LANKS. 233 upon a trial of four months, to see which party in the controversy they would join.* This gave much offence to their friends. The business of allotting out the lands to the inhabitants was a great and important concern, of the Town.f Captain John Underhill had j^^ g one hundred acres at Muddy Eiver. Mr. John Oliver had "his great allotment" of forty acres at PuUen Point. Mr. William. Hutchinson had six hundred acres between Dorchester bounds and Mount Wollaston. Mr. Isaac Grosse to have a great allotment at Muddy River, and " brother Hugh Gunnyson " at the Mount " for three heads." Mr. William Brenton, in lieu of his land at Hog Island, " to have twenty acres more added to his at PuUen Point Neck." Mr. Ed- ward Gibbon eighty acres at PuUen Point, " if there to be had." John Oliver fifty acres there, " and y" rather in regard of his father's resign- ing his right at Hog Island to y° Towne." J n 23 BushnaU, widow, George Harwood and Johfa Lowe, the wheelwright, to have lots and gardens, " vpon y" vsuall condition of inoffensive carryage." Thomas Alcock, " a great lot " at p Muddy Eiver. Mr. John Wheelwright two hundred and fifty at Mount Wollaston, " where may be most convenient, without preiudice to setting vp a Towne there," to, be laid out by "Mr. Cod- dington and Mr. brother Wright." " Willyam Wardall, Willyam Coale, and Sampson Shelbon," two acres each there for present plant- ing. The same to Nicholas Needham. "Brother Thomas Savage seaven acres of the Marsh" at Muddy Eiver, to keep his five cattle on. Thomas Joyes had leave to buy a piece of ground of " brother Robert Turner, provided his carryage was inoffensive." " Thomas Scottqe y" sonne of our sister Thomasine Scottoe," has leave to build a house on his mother's ground. William Balstone to have the ' ' remayning swampe on y" backside of Mr.' Cod- dingfcon's swampe, vnto y° widdow Purton's Corner payle, leaving out two rodde and a half, for eyther of y° high ways y' are aganst it ; y" one being y" way to y° milne, and y* other to y° Cove next vnto Mr. Coddington's." The men chosen for the ' ' Townes occasions as formerly hath been," at this time were "Mr. Thomas Olyvar, Thomas Lev- eritt, Mr. Willyam Hutchinson, Mr. Willyam Coulbourne, Mr. John Coggeshall, Mr. Eobert Harding, Mr. John Sanford, Mr. William Bren- ton, Mr. Willyam Balstone, James Penne and Jacob Ellyot, for these next six monethes."J Thomas Grubbe and Jonathan Negoose werO * Winthlrop does not tell who they were, or of whom William Aspinwall came in. As where they went to. before, they were chosen for six months, or ' f 'rhose chosen at this time by the town " vntill new ones be made choise of. Their to assign the lots to the settlers were " Thom- charges at theire meetings to be borne by the as Olyvar, Thomas Leveritt, William Hutch- Towne in generall." inson, Robert Keayne, John Coggeshall, April S. — Alexander Winchester to have a William Brenton, John Sanford and VVilliam garden plot next Wm. Dyneley's and William Balstone." — Town Records, -p. 11. Wilson's gardens, on the condition that he J The next election of officers for the build a house on it " when it shall come to lye " Tbwne's occasions " was on the 16th Oct. in a streete-way." Those authorized to lay following, when the same gentlemen were out lands for Mr. Wheelwright at Mount WoIt chosen, excepting William Brenton, instead laston, reported that they had laid out for him 30 234 HISTORr OP BOSTON, [1637. chosen surveyors for the Highways towards Roxbury, and Thomas Mar- shall and John Button for the part towards the miU.* A union of the Colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth and "^" ■ Connecticut was first talked of at Boston this year, but as Plym- outh could not attend it was deferred.f Two men were hanged here for murder, — John Williams ^^*' ■ and WUUam Schooler. The murders were both of an aggra- vated character, but that in a special manner by Schooler, of a helpless female. Though he was convicted upon circumstantial evidence, and died protesting his innocence, posterity wiU hardly reverse the decision.J Meetings of women, for " expounding scripture in a prophetical way," as "some sixty or more " now did, was by the Authorities " agreed to be disorderly and without rule."§ Miantonimo came to Boston, agreeably to former treaty stipu- °^' ' lations, and preferred a complaint against the Niantick Sachem and another Chief. The government gave him liberty to " right him- self," and in return he " acknowledged that all the Pequod country and Block Island belonged to Massachusetts. About thirty persons of Boston having gone to Spectacle ^' ■ Island for wood, " the town being in great want," there came 40 acres " in the Sunke Marsh," south-east of Mr. Wm. Coddington, 5 acres for his house lot and 205 at the end of it. Stephen Kinsley, laborer, to have a house plot next Alex' Win- chester. April 17. — " All the field fences and gates to be made up ; Sergeant Hutchinson and Richard Gridley to look after the Fort Field ; John Button, James Everitt and Isaac Grosse, the Mill Field ; "Wm. Coulbome and Jacob Ellyott the field next Eoxburie. Eichard Sher- man's wife to haye a house plot next Stephen Kinsley's or Mr. Daniel Mawd's garden. Also, Mr. Daniel Mawd, schoolmaster, to have a garden plot next said Kinsley's on condition of building as above. Edmund [Edward ?] Hutchinson to have a garden at the south end of Mr. Robert Keayne's great garden." May 13 . — Richard Fairebancke to be Pound Keeper " for the residue of this our half year time." June 2. — James Penniman to have theHil- steade and marsh under it at Charles River, he giving 7 acres at Mount WoUaston for five. Xhomas Flint, 24 acres of Marsh at Muddy River. June 12. — George Woodward, " sope boyl- ar," for " vnlawfull entry upon some of the Towne's ground, and for digging holes and annoying the High Way with fish," is fined iij lb. vj s. viij d. Mr. William Peirce to have one hundred acres at Pullen Point neck. Mr. Edward Gibbon four-score acres ; John Oly- var 50 ; Mr. William Brenton 60 ; Edward Bayts 14, all at the same place. George Ruggle a house lot near the new mill. • The lists of Town officers will hereafter be given, but not generally in the text. The allotments of lands, though of exceeding great interest, must be introduced in a condensed form. I Jitli/ 1. — Ralph Hudson to have a garden at the end of Thomas Mekin's garden ; Samuel Wilbore a garden at the side of Bamabie Dor- ryfalls house and garden. August 7. — Richd. Fairbanke, allowed to sell his shop to Saunders, " a booke- bynder ;" probably the first in the Town. August 28. — Richd. Hull, carpenter, may sell his house and ground near John Galloppe to Philip Sherman of Roxbury. Sept. 25. — Thomas Makepeace to have a house lot ; Edward Dennys a house lot and gardenstead towards the new mill ; Richd. Wayte " the like thereabout ;" Robert Gil- lam, mariner, may buy a house lot where he can ; Henry Webbe may buy the house where he now lives ; James Penne, a garden towards the new mill, " to lay to the house that was widdowe Shelley's ; Valentine Hill a garden there also ; Wm. Cheesbrough ^ rods square, of the marsh next Mr. Belling- ham's, to build on ; John Lowe, wheelwright, the same, next to bro. Cheesbrough." Oct. 30. — John Hansett has granted a great lot at the Mount " for 3 heads." Dec. 4. — John . Bibbles has a house lot next Richd. Woodhouse. Dec. 18. — John and Robert Woodward, the sons of Nathaniel W., allowed house lots. Edward Bendall to " keepe a sufficient ferry- boate to carry to Noddle's Island, and to the shippe ryding before the Towne ; taking for a single person ij d., and for two 3d." t See Winthroii, i., 241-3. 9 The Authorities were probably apprehen- sive that another Mrs. Hutchinson might rise up among them. — See Ibid., 240. 1638.] ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ARTILLERY. 235 on such severe weather, that in two days the bay was all frozen up except a little channel. In this twelve of the men succeeded in reach- ing Governor's Island, but seven others in a small skiff were carried into the outer Bay. Palling among Bruster's Rocks, they were kept two days without food or fire. The wind then abated, so that they were able to recover Pullen Point, where they found shelter in a little house of Mr. Aspinwall. Three of them got to Boston the next day, on the ice, with their feet and hands frozen. The rest reached Spectacle Island. One man died, and several lost their fingers and toes.* The same causes which led to the disarming of certain resi- dents of Boston, now operated probably to cause the powder and arms belonging to "the country," to be removed from Boston to Roxbury and Newtown.f J, , An association of Boston men requested to be incorporated into a military Company. They were allowed to be a Company, but subordinate to all authority. This was the origin of the " Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company," which, with various changes of name and regulations, continues to this time. The associates were at first denied part of what they asked for ; having, it may be inferred, requested to be made independent of the civil authority. However, Jan. 16. * Jan. 8. — John Martyn, shipcarpenter, allowed a house lot ; Thomas Pettit, having served bro. Olyver Mellowes three years and a half, to have a house lot toward the new mill. Erasmus Bullocke, " having been this 5 years in Towne," the same. At the same time, the following persons had their lots bounded at Muddy River : — Edward Brovrae, Rich" Bul- far, Benj" Ward, John Gramme, Rob' Houlton, arrat Bourne, John Bjgge, W^Beamsly, Tho- masyne Scottua, widow, Alex' Becke, Raphe Route, laborer, Robert Reade, Mathew Ines, Jn. Pemmerton, Ajithony Harker, Geo. Griggs, James Fitch, Richard Eitch, Edward Jackson, Anne Ormesby, widow, Nath' Woodward the elder, James Johnson, Nath' Heaton, Elizabeth Purton, widow, W" Salter, W" Wilson, W" Townsend, W™ Dyneley, Rich" Tappin, Francis Bushnall, Henry Elkyn, Rich" Pairlbanoke, John Mylam, Rob' Walker, James Davisse, William Pell, Rob' Reynolds, John Oranwell, Geo. Baytes, Philemon Pormont, Rob' Meare, Edw" Bendall, Tho- Wardall, Mr. W-" Black- stone, Rob' Tytus, W" Courser, Alex" Win- chester, Henry Burchall, Rob' Turner, W'" Denning, Joseph Arratt, John Arratt, Capt. John Underbill, W"" Talmage, Tho» Snow, Isaac Grosse, s', W" Coulbome, Mr. John Cot- ton, Mr. Tho' Leveritt, Mr. Tho" Oliver. Those who had " great allotments at Rum- ley Marsh and PuUen Point," now had their bounds described : — Mr. Henry Vane, Esq. , Mr. John Winthropp the elder, James Penn, Mr. John Newgate, Mr. John Sanford, Thomas Marshall, Thomas Matson, Benj" Gillam, John Gallopp, Mr. Bob' Keine, Mr. John Cogges- hall, Mr. John Cogan, Mr. Bob' Hardmg, Nicholas Willys, John Odlin, W" Stidson, Edw" Bayts, Thomas Matson, Mr. Bdw" Gib- ones, Mr. Rich" Tuttell, Mr. Glover, Mr. W" Dyar, Mr Samuel Cole, Mr. W" Brenton, Mr. W" Aspinwall, Tho" Buttalph, Elias Mavericke, Raph Hudson, Tho' Fayreweather, W'" Peiroe. f Jan. 29. — These are named as having lots at Mount Wollaston : — Isaacke CuUymore, for four heads, Francis East, for two heads, Francis EUyott, for four heads, Rich" Wayte, for five headfs, Mr. Henry Webb, for ten heads, Samuel Wayte for four heads, George Hunne, for five heads. Feb. 12. — Mr. John Clarke, for ten heads ; John Love, for a house lot at Muddy River ; Abel Porter, same at the Mount, " having served our bro. Tho' Grubbe foure yeares ; Richard Award, same (place not mentioned) condition, inoffensive carriage ; Tho' Scot- toe, a great lot at Muddy River, for three heads ; W" Mawer, lot at the Mount, for nine heads ; Henry Gray, tailor, house lot on east side Samuel Wilbore — condition as above ; James Hawkins, for four heads at the Mount ; Thomas Hawkins for four ; Martha Mushnall, for five ; Edw" Dennys, for three, all at the same place ; Isaac Perry, a house lot near Rob' Walkins, at Muddy River, for three heads ; Tho' Bell, at the Mount, for three; John Jackson, carpenter, for three ; John Crabtree, for two ; Silvester Saunders, at Muddy B., for two ; Samuel Howard, tailor, at the Mount, for three ; Geo. Burdon, for 5 ; W™ Ward- all, for 3 ; William Browne, for_ three ; Edw" Hutchinson, the younger, for six head, all at the Mount ; Rob' Scott for 12 ; Anthony Stannyon, for 11 ; John Lowe, for 4 ; Steven Kinsley, for 9 ; Mathew Chafey, for 4, all at the Mount also ; Raph Mason, for 6, at Muddy River. 236 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1638. jj^^ J " the Military Company of Boston " had the liberty soon after ■ " to present two or three of their number to the Council to choose a Captain out of them," and Robert Keayne received the appointment of Captain. The Court was jealous of some of those which composed the Company, because they had been followers of Mr. Wheelwright and Mrs. Hutchinson ; but, with Keayne for their Captain, not much was to be apprehended from them, as he had been appointed keeper of the arms taken from that faction. The Court ordered that " Robert Keayne, Nathaniel Duncan, Robert Sedgwick, William Spencer, gentlemen, and such others as are already joined with them, and such as they shall from time to time take into their Company, shall be called " the Military Company of Massachu- setts ;" that they should have liberty to choose their ofi&cers, but the Captain and Lieutenant to be subject to the approval of the Court. The Company were to meet on the first Monday of every month, and it was ordered that no other training in the particular towns " nor other ordi- nary Town Meetings should be appointed on that day." It was also ordered that this company should have a thousand acres of land " for providing necessaries for their military exercises, and defraying of other charges." The first Monday in June following, the Company was regu- larly organized ; Daniel Hough was chosen Lieutenant, and Joseph Welde, Ensign, under Captain Keayne. This was not originally an Artillery Company ; but, in 1657, the General Court recognized it by that name, as about that time, prob- ably, they used a field-piece in their exercises. The title "Ancient and Honorable " first occurs in their records on tlie second of Sep- tember, 1700. It doubtless assumed the distinction "Honorable," from the circumstance that its Captain had belonged to " The Honor- able Artillery Company" of London, and time naturally gave the addi- tion "Ancient." The Company was dispersed by the Revolution, but revived in 1789, and the Legislature confirmed its name and privileges.* * Hist. Ancient and Hon. Artillery Co., by Z. G. Whitman, 2d edition, 1842. The fol- lowing is a list of the original, or charter members of the company, as found in that work : — Oakebread, Thomas Cole, Samuel CoUeoott, Richard Gibbons, Edward Hardinge, Robert Haugh, Daniel Holman, John Hucken, Thomas jennisou, William Johnson, Edward Keayne, Robert Morris, Richard Sermons do not appear to have been regu- larly preached before the Company till 1659 ; and the first record as printed was that by Urian Oakes in 1672. John Norton preached that of 1659 ; Samuel Whiting, sen., 1660, Oliver, John Pendleton, Joseph Savage, Thomas Sedgwick, Robert Spencer, William Stoughton, Israel Tomlins, Edward Turner, Nathaniel Underbill, John Upshall, Nicholas Weld, Joseph. Saml. "Ward, 1661; Jn. Higginson, 1662 ; Thos. Shepard, 1663 ; James Allen, 1664 ; Increase Mather, 1665 ; Edmund Brown, 1666 ; Samuel Danforth, 1667 ; John Wilson, 1668 ; Samuel Torrey, 1669; John Oxenbridge, 1670 ; Thomas Thatcher, 1671 ; Seaborn Cotton, 1673 ; Joshua Moody, 1674 ; Samuel Phillips, 1675 ; Samuel Willard,* 1676 ; Josiah Flint, 1677 ; Samuel NoweU,* 1678 ; Edward Bulkley,1679 ; William Adams, 1680 ; John Richardson,* 1681 ; Samuel Whiting, 1682 ; John Hales, 1683 ; Samuel Cheever, 1,684 ; Joshua Moody, 1685 ; then, there were none for five years — under Andros^ government. Cotton Mather,* 1691 ; John Bailey, 1692 ; John Danforth, 1693 ; Moses Fiske, 1694 ; Peter Thatcher, 1695; Michael Wigglesworth, 1696; Nehe- miah Walter, 1697 ; Joseph Belcher,* 1698 ; Samuel Willard,* 1699 ; Benjamin Wads- worth,* 1700 ; Eben'rPemberton,* 1701 ; Benj. Colman, 1702. Those with a * were printed. — See Lothrop's Artillery Election Ser. for 1838. .1638.] SICKNESS OF THE. GOVERNOR. EARTHQUAKE. 23? March 27 "^^^ Indians of Block Island sent three men to Boston, with ten fathoms of wampum, as a part of the yearly tribute which they had formerly promised to pay. Not long after the arrival of Mr. Davenport at Boston, a favorable account was brought by the soldiers who had been pursuing the Pe- quots, of a fine country for settlement beyond Connecticut River. This was Quinnipiak, explored toward the end of the last year, and possession taken of it by a few persons. Accordingly, this spring, Mr. Daven- j, „ port, Mr. Prudden, Theophilus Eaton, Esquire, and Samuel Eaton, sailed from Boston for that region, and this was the beginning of another Colony, by Boston people, or people who would no doubt have continued here, or in this vicinity, had it not been for the religious perplexities which they had witnessed, and in which they could not well avoid being somewhat implicated.* , .. Being in continual fear that they should be called to an account by the Grovemment in England, the Fathers now ap- pointed a Fast " for seeking the Lord to prevent the evil, and for the safe arrival of many friends soon expected." . .. 2^ A deputation of Indians came from Mohegan. The Chief of it was named Owsamekin, who was Sachem of Acoemeck. They had heard that the people here were angry with them, and they came to learn whether it were so, and if so, the occasion of it. They appear to have been imposed upon by some mischievous persons, for there was nothing alleged against them. They brought a present of eighteen beaver-skins, which the Governor took, telling them that if they had done nothing they had nothing to fear ; and, giving them a letter to this effect to the Magistrates of Connecticut, dismissed them. ; . Mr. Coddington removed with his family to Rhode Island. ^" ■ He had been an Assistant from the first coming over of the Boston Colony. Thus another excellent and valuable man was lost to Boston. .-, „ Mr. Winthrop is again chosen Governor. The night following ^^ ■ "he was taken with a sharp fever, which brought him near death." His sickriess continued for a month. To this General Court, Boston sent Mr. Atherton Hough, Mr. Robert Keayne and John Oliver. At the March term preceding, Mr. John Newgate was in the place of Captain Keayne, the others were the same as at this time. Between three and four of the clock, in the afternoon of the ' first day of June, being clear, warm weather, and the wind west- erly, there was a great Earthquake. It came with a noise Uke contin- ued thunder, or the rattling of coaches in London, but was presently gone. It extended to Connecticut, Narraganset, Pascataqua, " and aU • April 2. — " Mr. Atherton Haulgh, Mr. Coulbome, Mr. John Newgate, James Penne Robte Keayne, and Mr. John Olyrar " are and Jacob Elyott. chosen deputies to the General Court. And Aug. 21). — The same Deputies were again " for y' Towne's occasions," Thomas Olyvar, chosen to the General Court, excepting Mr. Thomas Leyeritt, Mr. Eob' Keayne, Mr. W"" Oliver, and Mr. Newgate was chosen in his stead. 238 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1638. the parts round about." It shook the ships which rode in the harbor, and all the Islands. The noise and the shakings continued about four minutes, and the earth was unquiet at times for twenty days after.* "It came from the westeme and uninhabited parts of this wilder- nesse." f Uncas, Chief of the Mohegans, comes to Boston, accompanied "'^'^ ■ by thirty-seven men. He was in trouble about harboring Pe- quods. He tendered the Governor twenty fathoms of wampum, but the Council decided that it should not be received till he had given satis- faction about the fugitives. This apparently disturbed him exceed- ingly, and in this state he desired they would kill him. He made the request in perfect safety, and he knew it, or he would not have made it, for he was one of the most unprincipled Indians with whom the white people had any concern. He was at this time accompanied by Mr. Haynes. After making great promises and the most impressive protest- ations to keep them, "he was dismissed with a fair red coat given him by the Governor, and corn to relieve them homeward, and a letter of protection to all men." Governor Winthrop at this date records in his Journal the arrival of " many ships this year, with people of good quality and estate," but he makes no mention of the names of persons or ships. In one of the ships here referred to, no doubt, came " John Josselyn, Gen.," a name well known in New England history. The ship in which he came was called the " New Supply, alias the Nicholas of London, Robert Taylor, Master, the merchant or undertaker, Mr. Edward Tinge, with one hundred and sixty-four passengers, men, women and children." Sev- eral of the passengers died during the voyage, chiefly of the Small Pox.J The Nicholas came to anchor in the inner Bay before "^ ^ ■ Boston. On the tenth of July, Mr. Josselyn says he went on shore upon Noddle's Island to Mr. Samuel Mavereck, who was " the only hospitable man in all the country ; giving entertainment to all comers gratis." He then describes his visit to Boston in these words : — " Having refreshed myself for a day or two upon Noddle's Island, I crossed the Bay in a small boat to Boston ; which then was rather a * Winthrop, Journal, i., 265. — See also and run, with ghastly terrified lookes, to the J oaaeljn, New Eng. Rarities, 109. — In 1755, next company they could meet withall." — this was reckoned one of the five great earth- Ibid. quakes which had shaken New England. The J "Two ships, which came over this year, other four were 1658, 1663, 1727 and 1755. much pestered, lost many passengers, and Prof. 'Winthrop's Led. on Earthquakes, p. 16, some principal men, and many fell sick after 4to. 1755. Morton says, "it came from the they were landed, and many of them died." northward, that people were afraid of their — Winthrop's Journal, i. 267. The ship in houses ; and it was so, as that some, heing which Mr. Josselyn came was probably one without doors, could not stand, but were fain of these. A little further on he makes this to catch hold of posts and poles to prevent entry. There came over this summer twenty them from fu,ll.ing." — N. E. Memorial, 209. ships, and at least 3000 persons, so as they f Johnson, Wond. Work. Prov., 131, who were forced to look out new plantations. One adds, " the motion of the earth was such, was begun at Merrimack [Salisbury] and an- that it caused divers men that had never knovfne other four or five miles ahove Concord, and an earthquake before (being at worke in the another at Winnicowett [Hampton, N. H.] — fields), to cast down their working-tooles, lbid.,26&. 1638.] MK. JOHN JOSSELYN IN BOSTON. 239 village than a town, there being not above twenty or thirty houses. And presenting my respects to Mr. Winthrope the Grovernor, and to Mr. Cotton the Teacher of Boston Church, to whom I delivered, from Mr. Francis Quarles the poet, the translation of the Psalms into English meeter, for his approbation ; being civilly treated by all I had occasion to converse with. I returned in the evening to my lodging." Mr. Henry Josselyn was at this time living at Black Point. He was the only brother of John, and it was, no doubt, one object of the latter, by this voyage, to pay a visit to his brother. Therefore he sailed for thie Eastern Coast on the twentieth of July. There he continued ram- bling about the country to his infinite amusement and admiration ; clambering up precipitous rocks " upon all four," with his gun hung to his back, shooting wolves which had been killing goats worth five pounds apiece, breaking up nests of great snakes, some of which snakes being as big as the small of his leg, and three yards long, with a sharp horn two inches long on the end of their tail ; until the twenty- fourth of September, when he sailed for Boston again. He arrived on the twenty-seventh following, it being Friday. After going on board a ship of 500 tons, of which Mr. Hinderson was master, and another called the Queen of Bohemia, a privateer, Captain Jackson, lying in the harbor, he landed in the town, and refreshed himself at the ordi- nary. The next morning he went by invitation to a fisherman's house, somewhat lower within the Bay. There the fisherman's wife gave him a " handfuU of small pearl, but none of them bored nor orient." Thence he crossed to Charlestown. There, in " one Long's ordinary," he found Captain Jackson and some others. They concluded to take a stroll ; and "walking on the back side " they soon came upon more snakes. One, a rattle-snake, " was a yard and a half long," though its "neCk seemed no bigger than one's thumb," and yet it "swallowed a live chicken, as big as one they give fourpence for in England." Being on board his ship in the afternoon, he had " the sight of an Indian pinnace, sailing by, made of birch bark, sewed together with roots of spruce and white cedar (drawn out into threads), with a deck, and trimmed with sails, top and top gallant, very sumptuously." On the thirtieth of September he went on shore at Noddle's Island again. Here Mr. Maverick made him welcome, and kept him till his ship was ready to sail for England. Meantime, in rambling about in the woods, " on the back side of the house," he discovered a wasps' nest ; and, mistaking it for " a fruit like a pine apple," though it was "plated with scales, and as big as the crown of a woman's hat," he proceeded to gather it ; but no sooner had he touched it, than hundreds of wasps were about his head. He escaped, however, with being stung but by one of them in his upper lip. This caused such a swelling in his face, that when he returned to the house the people did not know him ex- cept by his clothes ; and yet he thought he escaped remarkably well. In a few days he sailed for England. The ship laid at Nantasket some days, as she proceeded to sea, and the Master, Captain Luxon, having 240 HISTOET OF BOSTON. [1638. been oh shore at Governor's Island, returned with a quantity of pippins, of which he gave Mr. Josselyn half a score. At this time he remarks, " There is not one apple-tree, nor pear-tree yet planted in no part of the country, but upon that island." * J. Captain Underbill had lately returned from England, and ^ ' ' was making preparations to remove to Mr. Wheelwright's set- tlement. He therefore petitioned the Court now in session to fulfil a promise it had formerly made him, which was, that for his services he should have three hundred acres of land. The Court, however, having learned from a " godly " female that he had spoken against some of them, he was called before the Court and charged with saying, when he was " in the ship lately," that "they were as zealous here as the Scribes and Pharisees were," &c. To this and other words quite as inoffensive in themselves, the female before mentioned testified. He was then questioned about signing the remonstrance in favor of Mr. Wheelwright formerly, and, not being satisfied with his answers, the Court sent him to jail first, and afterwards banished him. There now arrived a ship from Barnstaple, having on board ^^ ' " about eighty passengers, nearly aE of whom were from the- western coast f of England. In this ship came Mr. Marmaduke Mat- thews. Among the many troubles with which the Country in com- ^ ■ "'' mon with Boston was disturbed at this period, were the " cost- liness of apparel," and the " new fashions." The Court undertook to interfere in these matters, and sent for " the Elders of the Churches," and laid the subject before them. The Elders were told by the Court that it was their business to redress the evil, and they promised to do 60. But neither the preaching nor the practice of the Elders could eradicate the difficulty, "for divers of their own wives," says Winthrop, " were in some measure partners in this general disorder." A woman was hanged at Boston for the murder of her own child, a daughter, about three years of age. This was a deeply affecting and deplorable case, as the act was unquestionably committed * An .\ccount of Two Voyages to New Eng- Inns in 1637, he probably included the one in land. The account above extracted is from Charlestown. He says, " In 1637 there were his First Voyage. His Second was not made not many houses in the Town of Boston, till 1663. In that he again takes notice of amongst which were two houses of entertain- Boston. They were published in a volume ment, called Ordinaries, into which if a together in 1675. Second edition. From Dr. stranger went, he was presently followed byt Snow's notice of the visit of Josselyn, it would one appointed to that office, who would thrust be inferred that he derived his information himself into his company uninvited, and if he from " New England's Rarities," a work by called for more drink than the officer thought in the same " John Josselyn, Gent.," printed in his judgment he could soberly bear away, he, 1672. I shall notice the " Rarities " here- would presently countermand it, and appoint after. In the details of the second voyage, he the proportion, beyond which he could not speaks of Boston in connection with the date get one drop." — Pages 172-3. 1637, from which he is generally understood f What was understood by the " West to say that at that date there were two Inns Country " has been explained in the early' or Ordinaries in Boston ; when as, in the rec- pages of this History. Tlie people about Lon-, ords there is nothing to show that there was don thus denominated the country about more than one. Winthrop speaks of "the Plymouth. — See page 22, ante. Inn." If Josselyn meant that there were two 1638.] HARVARD COLLEGE. 241 when the mother was deranged. She confessed what she had done, and said she killed the child to prevent its being miserable hereafter. But it was believed that the Devil had caused her to do it, and that by taking away her life a punishment would be indirectly inflicted upon him. Mr. Peters and Mr. Wilson went with her to the place of execu- tion, " but could do no good with her." The name of the wretched woman was Dorothy Talbye. Dec 13 Soon after this a Fast was kept, on the request of the Elders to the Governor and Council, for " the apparent decay of the power of religion, the general declining of professors to the world, and the much sickness throughout the country." Things had gone on so badly, as the Fathers then really believed, that they daily expressed their convictions, " that the DevU would never cease to disturb their peace ; " that " at Providence he was not idle," and was stirring up the people of Connecticut against the people here ; and that he had really carried off, from a place near Ehode Island, five Indians alive.* This is generally regarded as the year in which Harvard College was founded, although the General Court had about two years before taken some order about a " Public School," and the next year directed that it should be at Newtown ; at the same time appointing a Committee to carry the order into effect. This School might, and very probably would have remained without being dignified by the name of a College • March 12. — Waters Sinnott, fisherman, to have a house lot. Olyvar Mellowea, Na- thaniell Chappell, and William Hudson, eldest son of bro. Wm. H. , have leave to take in the corner between the last year's nevr impaled planting ground and the N. E. corner of Mr. Wm. Blackstone's pales. April 2. — James Johnson, John Davisse, Geo. Burden and Nath. Chappell, to have gar- dens " on the back side of the lotts in ye long streete." To Mr. John Mansfield a house lot, he having served his bro. Mr. Eobt. Keayne ; Wm. Hudson to be cow-keeper this year ; Thos. Sellen, a house at the Mount ; Edmund Oremsby, one at Muddy R. for 3 heads ; Thomas Wheeler, the same for 3 heads ; Jacob Wilson, same ; Maudit Inge, the same ; Wm. Coursar, a garden, vphen a place can be found ; John Cranwell and Wm. Salter to see to the fences of the field "by them," Richd. Gridley and Benjamin Gillam the Fort field, and Olyvar Mellowea, Thos. Marshall and Jona. Negoose, the Mill field and the New field ; Geo. Grigge may " sell his house and garding vnder it, and 20 aoress of his great lott to Mr. Tuttell of Ipswich and Mr. Tuttell of Charlestowne for his redeeming out of theire debts." Geo. Harwood, carpenter, a lot at the Mount for 3 heads ; Wm. Hudson, the younger, one at Muddy E. for 3; Wm.. Davisse, " y« lock- smyth," a house lot near the new mill, con- dition, inoffensive carriage. June 1 . — Richard Brockett may sell his house and garden next Wm. Hudson the younger to " one Jacob Legar ;" Saml. Wil- 31 bore may sell his to " one Mr. Offley," and his (house and ground) next Roxbury to Saml. Sherman ; John Spoore, late of Clapton [near Portbury], in Somersetshire, may buy Mr. Wilkes' house and ground, and that his bro. James Mattocke, a cooper, may live with him, or in some other place in this town, and that he may also buy a little house of Geo. Burdon near the Cove next Edward Bendalls. Aug. 7. — Leave is granted Francis Lyall to become an inhabitant. Aug. 20. — Thomas Cornnell may buy bro. Wm. Balstone's house and become an inhab- itant. Sept. 17. — "A stray sow that had been often taken in ye come," and no owner-found, is prized and sold for 40s., of which " Sam- uell Qryme is to have ZOs. towards his losses in his come." The residue to go to Richd. Fairbank for the charges of her keeping. Nov. 2. — Richd. Rawlings, plasterer, may buy Peter Johnson the Dutchman's house, and inhabit. Nov. 5. — Mr. John Cogan and Richard Tuttle, constables for this year. Geo. Barrill, cooper, bought house and land of Thos. Pain- ter, and is admitted to inhabit. Dec. 10. — Arthur Pen^e to have allowed him yearly " for drummmg to ye Company vpon all occasions," £5. Dec, 24. — William Tefie, a tailor, admit- ted to inhabit, and to buy Jacob Wilson's house ; Esdras Reade, tailor, admitted to in- habit, and allowed a lot at Muddy River for 4 heads. 242 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1639. for some years, but for the Hberality of Mr. John Harvard, who, dying this year, gave a large sum " to the Public School at Newtown." Thus endowed, it took the name of its benefactor, and this was the origin of Harvard College.* Mr. Henry Dunster was its first President.! CHAPTER XXVI. Quiet Restored. — First Printing Press. — New Meeting-house Agitation. — Committee appointed to select a Location. — Proceedings thereupon. — Population of Boston. — Case of Capt. Keayne. — Absurd Legislation. — Stocks. — Rev. William Tompson. — Church gathered at Braintree. — First Post Office. — Number of Ships and People Arrived from the Beginning. — Apprehension from the Indians. — Thomas Georges. — Ship blown up in the Harbor. — Capt. Underhill Banished. — Mian- tonimo. — Hugh Bewit Banished. — Ships Built. — Mission to England. — To Rhode Island.— Hanserd Knollys. MANY of the people who had disturbed the peace of Boston by daring to express their opinions, were, by the beginning of the year 1639, gone out of its jurisdiction, so that tranquillity was in a measure restored, and it was a year of general quiet. It is a noted year, however, on several accounts. A printing press was established at Cam- bridge. The first thing printed was the Freeman's Oath, the next was an Almanack for New England, [made by Captain William Peirce, the mariner, 'jthe next was the Psalms, "newly turned into meter." | In the course of the year there was a good deal said about erecting a new Meeting-house. The old one was far from being suitable, or capable of accommodating the inhabitants. This occasioned much difficulty ; not that the people diifered about the necessity of having a ^ March. EARLY FEINTING FRBSS. * In 1640, the General Court granted the income of the Ferry between Boston and Charlestown as a perpetual revenue to the Col- lege ; and the Ma^strates with the Ministers of the Colony chose the Rev. Henry Dunster "to be the President of their New Harvard College." — Magnaliu, iv. 127. f Mr. Lechford, writing of New England in 1642, having just left Boston, says, " Master Dunster, at Cambridge, had divers young schol- ars there under him, to the number of almost twenty." — Plain Dealing, or News from New England, p. 37. J Winthrop's Journal, i. 289. — The " print- 'ng-house was begun by one Daye, at the charge of Mr. [Joseph] Glover, who died on sea hitherward." — Ibid, See Thomas, Ss<. Print- ing, i. 227. Quincy, ffist. H. U., i. 187. Timperley's Encyclop. of Printers and Printing, 586, &o. — The Psalm-book "newly turned into meter" was printed in 1640. Copies of it are to be met with, at this day, only in the libraries of the curious. Daye continued to Erint until 1649, though he was a poor printer. 1 1641, the General Court ordered that, " Steeven Day, being the first that sett vpon printing, is granted 300 acres of land." — Thomas, SSst. Printing, i. 227. See Boston Courier, 15th and 29th July, 1847. Mr. Thom- as made the very easy and natural conjecture, that Stephen Day might be a descendant of the then hitherto most famous printer of Lon- don, whose Christian name was John. Cer- tainly it is reasonable, for the said John Day had by two wives 26 children, as his last wire herself says, who had 13 of them ; thus equally dividing the honor with the first. This is learned from a monument to his memory, erected by this dutiful widow. It vrould have been lamentable, indeed, if the man, who was the cause that moved John Foxe to erect such a monument to the Martyrs, had lain without one himself. He died 23d July, 1584.— See Johnson, Typographia, i. 534. 1639.] NEW MEETING HOUSE LOCATION. 243 new and more commodious house, but the place on which to build it caused some delay in the proceedings. Then the chief business of the town was transacted in the vicinity of the Meeting-house, as it is in many country towns at the present day. Traders had located them- selves about it, at much cost in building, and they of course were strenuous that the new building should be on or very near the site of the old one ; it was also the vicinity of the Market. At length the Church chose a Committee of five of their number, and gave them power to fix upon a location as they saw fit. The Commit- tee consisted of Governor Winthrop, Mr. [William] Colbome, Mr. [Edward] Gibbons, Mr. [Eobert] Keayne, and Mr. [WUham] Ting. While these gentlemen had the matter in charge, a paper * was drawn up and signed by a considerable number of the influential inhabitants, strongly urging that the most preferable site for the new house was at the Green. This place is pretty clearly designated in this document, and is very nearly that on a part of which the Old South now stands. The paper containing the argument for this locality is a very able performance, and it is difficult now to understand how the Committee could come to a decision adverse to it.f The signers of the document say, the Green "hath singular accommodation to the ayre, the want of the free accesse whereof hath bin deeply found in the Ould Meeting- house, making burdensome the ordinances to many, specially weake hearers, by faynting their spirits in the summer time, when there is most concurse of people. And we feare a greater defect hereof if the house stand in Mr. Harding's J ground, where the easterly and south- * This instrument would be very properly entitled, " Arguments showing the Advantages of locating the Meeting-house at the Green." The following are the most exact copies of the signatures to the paper that oui artists, Messrs. ut^f*^ \ Perhaps it was thought quite too far from the town or main setuement. It may be remembered that there were not at this time scarcely any houses so far south as the present Milk Street. X This gentleman, I presume, was Mr. Rich- ard Harding. Hence the lot which he owned in Boston was on Comhill Square, where the Baker, Smith & Andrew, can make. The ori^nal is in the hands of the Author, and has never been published. It is dated Decem- ber 10th, 1639. JdnCfim.. Meeting-house was finally built; presuming that the " Mr. Harding's ground " was im- proved for the purpose. He was one of the " disarmed," and went to Rhode Island, and was a prominent man in that Colony. The name is one of respectability there and else- where at this day. 244 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1639- east wind is much more debarred. If it is said Mr. Harding's is higher ground than the Greene, and so more obvious to the ayre, it is answered, though it be higher (which is but little), yet this hath a farre greater advantage, for the aire by reason of the sudden descents of the earth neare to it, and it standeth open, ready to entertayne every coole breath of aire in the summer, whereas the other place is so muffled, and over- topped with chimnyes on every side almost, that it playnly confesseth its own disadvantage." * Notwithstanding these and many other arguments, the house was finally erected in what was afterwards ComhiU ; the account of which and its erection have been given.f The opposition to that site appears to have ceased when the decision was made known, and the idea of having a new house at once, seems to have quieted all parties, and the work went on with harmony and activity the next year. And, besides, Mr. Cotton, whose reputation had been a little obscured by the cloud of Antinomianism, but who now had, by his great tact and prudence, dispelled that cloud, and regained, in a great measure, his former splendor, came forward in favor of the spot in ComhUl ; arguing that it would be unjust to those who had purchased estates in that vicinity, because they were situated near the Meeting-house. But this argu- ment of Mr. Cotton was met by those in favor of the Green in a most conclusive manner, as was another, the import of which was, that a house would be exposed to the cold winds more in the winter at the Green, and therefore very uncomfortable. The Petitioners answered, that the cold in a house was easily obviated, J — while there was no remedy for the suffocating heat of summer in a location near the Market, but at the Green the cool breezes would come in from all parts unob- structed. However, the decision was in favor of the other locality, as before stated, and there was in a little time a general acquiescence. § Some idea of the populousness of Boston and its vicinity at this ^^ ' time may be had from the following facts recorded by Governor Winthrop : — " The two regiments in the Bay were mustered at Boston, to the number of one thousand soldiers, able men, and well armed and exercised." At the head of these Winthrop appeared as General, and Deputy-Governor Dudley as Colonel. The captains and other officers ' ' showed themselves very skUful and ready in divers sorts of skirmishes and other military actions, wherein they spent the whole day." 1| • It is more difficult to reconcile Mr. Josse- at this time, though they be in many places lyn's statement of " twenty or thirty houses " in our day, as the vmter has had painful with this, than anything else I have seen, experience. Dr. Savage inclines to the opinion that Josselyn 9 It was finished the next year, 1640 ; " its must have dropped a cipher from his figures, cost about £1000, which was raised out of the somehow, and so instead of writing 200 he weekly voluntary contribution without any wrote 20. But how Josselyn or anybody else noise or complaint." — Winthrop, ii. 24. could drop ciphers out of that number when | The following items are from the Town they were spelling it out and not using figures Records ; in which names are generally spelled to express it, is rather a hard question. as they are recorded, and so of what has gone ■f See ante, pages 141 and 142. before. j By this it would seem that fires in Meet- Jan. 21. — John Odlyn allowed a piece of ing-houses in cold weather were not unknown marsh at Muddy River, until otherwise ordered 1639.] NEW MEETma HOUSE LOCATION. 245 jj^ 22 •^^ ^^^ General Election, Mr. Winthrop and Mr. Dudley were ■ reelected, and Boston sent two deputies instead of three as formerly. These were Captain Keayne and Major Gibbons. The by the To-wn. Nicholas WiUys * sold (27 : 10 : 1638) his great lot of 49 acres at ".Romely Marsh" to Richard Tuttell* of this /town for £30, 13s. 6d. James Hawkings sold (9 Nov 1638) for £15, one dwelling in this Town, wherein Geo. Ruggle lived, which he bo't of Mr. Brenton, to one Henry Garrold, tanner. Jacob Wilson, sawyer, sold (24 Dec. last) to Wm. Teffe, tailor, a house and lot, now in the use of said Teffe. Richard Tuttell to be re- sponsible to the Town for " one Dorothie Bill, widdowe, a soioumer in his house," and " for anything about her." Robert Scott sold land at Muddy River that was Richard Fairebanck's to Thos. Savage. William Hyrick allowed to be an inhabitant. The " owners of the Wharfe and Crayne " are granted 100 acres of land at Mount WoUaston towards keeping them in repair. Feb. 18. — Richard Wright to have a nar- row piece of land at the Mount, "to y° fur- therence of a water mylne building there, in regard of his redy serviceablenesse to the Townes occasions." Same Richard W., fined the sum of £6 for seUing land at the Mount " to one Mr. Pane, of Concord," without license. Brother Henry Pease may mow the marsh against his house. Bro. Edward Jack- son * may mow the marsh bro. Balstone for- merly mowed. Bro. James Pennyman may mow the marsh in the New field as heretofore. Sister widow Purton may mow the marsh in the same field under bro. Robert Turner's garden pales. William Balstone sold (5 Aug. last) his house, yards, gardens, and one close on the backside of Mr. Ooddington's (one acre more or lesse), and two acres more or less in the Mill field, bordering on Water Merryall's house, and three acres at Hogg Island, and 80 at the Mount, to Thomas Connell. Ordered that Edward Hutchinson, Samuel Cole, Robert Turner, Mr. Robert Harding, Mr. Wm. Parker, and Richard Brackett, make a cart-way against Mr. Hutchinson's bouse, under which they drayne their gardens, before the 11th of the next Ist month. Thomas Scottow, joiner, sold all his 6 acres at Muddy River to Thos. Qvahhe, and said G. resigned his right to his three acres in the New field in Boston ; it having Isaac Grosse's lot on one side, and widow Pur- ton's on the other. Mr. Benjamin Keayne, son of bro. Mr. Robt. K. , to have a great lot at Monottinott river in Mount Wollaston. March 25. — Brother Mr. Gryffen Bowen to have a great lot at Muddy River, also bro. Richard Holledge a great lot there for three heads. Bro. Valentine Hill may build a house and shop on the lot he bo't of bro. Mr. W"- Aspinwall, and let it to Francis Lysle, barber. John Hord, tailor, having served Mr. W™ • See his autograph, p. 243 ante. Willis' is the fourth. Hutchinson in this Town divers years, is al- lowed to be an inhabitant. Bro. Henry Pease having promised to fence out a highway thro' his ground, where he dwelleth, 25 feet broad, from against the Cove near his house, unto the cross highway, by bro. James Everills, must do it before the 1st of April, 1640, or pay £5. Mr. JohnUnderhill, 1st Aug. last, surrendered to Mr. Thos. Makepeace of Dorchester his house in Boston, his land at Muddy River, and woodland in the islands, " with garding and house, and another behind Mr. Parker's house, and neare half an aker upon the Fort Hill, for £ 100 . " Bro . Robert Walker to be cow-keeper this year. No goat to go on the Neck with- out a keeper ; and " old Wing to looke to this order." Hogs running at large after the 8th of April to be impounded ; " in case any shall take y™ vp into their yard, then forthwith eyther lett y' owners knowe of y m , or to sett a note of yra vpon y» whipping-post." Henry Shrimpton, brasier, allowed to be an inhabit- ant. April 29. — With the consent of Mr. Wil- liam Peirce there is to be a passage way of 7 feet wide, from the lower part of Mr. Keayne's garden, at his mud-wall house, to the Creek near Edward Bendall's new house. Samuel Graine allowed to be an inhabitant. Mat/ 13. — Mr. Robert Keayne and Capt. Edward Gibbons were chosen deputies to the General Court. May 27. — Mr. William Hibbins is admitted an inhabitant. July 2. — William Needham, cooper, to have a house plot at the Little Island at Mount Wollaston, and Stephen Kinsley, husbandman, to have the rest of the Island for his house plot. John Jepsop, shoemaker, a great lot at the Mount for three heads. Richard Carter, carpenter, may buy a house and ground of W" Hudson the younger, next Thos. Oliver's new house plot ; condition, inoffensive carriage. " Gabryell Fallowell may sell his house and ground in the New field to one Richard Bidg- good, late of London, cloth-worker, on same condition." July 2^. — Bro. John Smith to have a lot at Muddy River for three heads. Bro. Edw? Hutchinson the younger, in behalf of his father, W"" H., may sell his house in this town to Mr. Richard Hutchinson of London, linen- draper. John Hurd to have a lot for three heads at the Mount. John Leverett a lot for ten heads at Muddy River. Aug. 6. — Capt. Edward Gibbons and Mr. W" Tyng are chosen for Deputies to the Gen- eral Court. Aug. 26. — Mr. Anthony Stoddard, linen- draper, allowed to become a townsman ; also John Seaborne, tailor, having served three years in town, is allowed to be an inhabitant. 246 HISTORT OF BOSTON. [1639. number of Deputies had been teduced to two in each town. This was to prevent the Court's consisting of too large a number, in the growing state of the country.* Captain Kobert Keayne was an industrious and wealthy merchant, and, being more prosperous than many of his neighbors, their envy was excited in consequence. A complaint was preferred against him in the General Court at ^°^' Boston for excessive charges on his foreign goods. And being con- victed "hereof, he was fined two hundred pounds." He was finally let off with half the amount ; the other half " respited to farther considera- tion of the next General Court." It appears to be true that Mr. Keayne had broken certain laws previously made, regulating the prices of com- modities, though it is quite probable others were equally guilty of the same offence, and that they were passed unnoticed, owing to their busi- ness being smaller. It appeared at his trial that he had been known to take " above six pence in the shilling profit, and even eight pence ; and in some small things, above two for one." After the Court had censured him, he was handed over to the Church, in which there was an attempt made to excommunicate him ; he escaped, however, with an ad- monition.f From all that can be learned of Captain Keayne it does not appear that he was a bad man, but that on the contrary he was a very good man ; yet he was one of that peculiar mind and temperament, which rather invited than repelled the insults from a class common in all com- Bro. Nath' Williams to have a lot at the Mount for four heads. Bro. John Leyerett a house lot and gardenstead next bro. Robt. Hull's. Alex' Pluinley, who was Mr. Col- houme's man, a lot at the Mount for three heads. Sept. 30. — Thomas Poster, the gunner at the Castle, a lot at the Mount for six heads. Cleoment Cole, who served with Mr. Robert Keayne four years, a lot for seven heads at same place. Thomas Millard, husbandman, a lot for five heads, at same place. Mr. David Offley a great lot at Muddy River for 15 heads. Mr. Richard Parker and Mr. Thomas Fowle admitted inhabitants. Oct. 28. — Samuel Sherman may let his cow-house stand till spring-time, on the Com- mon by the gates next Roxbury. Bro. Nath' Woodward to have a lot at Muddy River for three heads. John Robinson, late servant to bro. M' Newgate, a house lot where it may be had. Nov. 25. — Bro. Thomas Wheeler to have a house lot and gardenstead next bro. Saving. Mr. Edward Tinge allowed to be an inhabitant. Francis Lysle a lot for five heads at the Mount. John Seaberry, seaman, with leave bought bro. Water Merry's house and lot in the Mylne field, so is allowed for an inhabitant. * Among other acts of the General Court, to warn people against excessive charges for wages and commodities, there is this example : THE STOCKS. Edward Palmer had been employed to erect Stocks in which to punish offenders. Having brought in his bUl for the woodwork, amount- ing to £1, 13s. & 7d., the Court decided that it was exorbitant ; and, instead of drawing an order on the Treasurer for its payment, they ordered him to be set in said Stocks for an hour, and to pay a fine of £5. It is difficult at this day to understand on what ground Edward Palmer was subjected to an ignomin- ious punishment. He probably found the materials for the Stocks, and not less than two days must have been taken^ up in making them. — Hubbard, Hist. N. Eng., 248 ; Win- throp. Savage's Note, ii. 85. t The Rulers had not yet learned the ab- surdity of endeavoring to bring compulsory laws to bear upon what a man should ask for his goods, or his time, when ^ther was under- 1639.] CAPTAIN KEAYNE POST OFFICE. 247 munities. He was deeply religious, but, like nearly all men who buy and sell, his interest in his business was so strong, that he could not well help losing sight of his conscientious scruples at times. But when abstracted from his business he relented and condemned himself. He appears to have been of a forgiving disposition, and more ready to re- ceive an injury than to give one, and could be oppressed with impunity. Notwithstanding Captain Keayne's fines, losses, trials and perplexi- ties, he died leaving a considerable estate.* In his will, which is probably the longest one on record, he enters into a defence of the con- duct for which he had suffered in reputation as well as estate, which renders it an object of considerable curiosity. Mount WoUaston yet remained a part of Boston, " and many *^ ■ ■ poor men having lots assigned them there, and not able to use those lands and dwell still in Boston," and Mr. Wheelwright having been driven away from them, petitioned to have a Minister there, which being granted, the Reverend Mr. William Tompson is ordained Pastor, and, in March following, Mr. Henry Plynt is ordained Teacher.f What arrangements there had been in Boston previous to this for the safe conveyance and delivery of letters does not appear. But the General Court having the business in charge, the following rec- ord is made of its proceedings : — " For the preventing the miscarriage of letters, it is ordered, that notice bee given, that Richard Fairbanks his house in Boston is the place appointed for all letters, which are brought from beyond seas, or to be sent thither ; are to bee brought unto him, and he is to take care that they bee delivered, or sent accord- ing to their directions ; and hee is alowed for every such letter one penny, and must answer all miscarriages through his own neglect in this kind ; provided that no man shall bee compelled to bring his letters thither except hee please. "J There is nothing met with for several years to show what succeeding regulations were, if any. stood to be in the market, or subject to nego- Tompson, one of the best scholars in New tiation. And notwithstanding the light and England in his time. Another of his sons experience of two hundred years, some of the was named Samuel, who was ordained Deacon same kind of legislation remains on our statute of the same church, 2 Nov. 1679, and he was books, and finds as strenuous supporters as the father of the Rev. Edward Tompson of those were who enforced the laws against Marshfield. — See ibid, and the Antiq. Journal,* witchcraft: The evil of a law setting a price vii. 278. The Eev. William Tompson was on a man's time, or wages, which is the same a native of Winwick in Lincolnshire, and grad- in this case, was now first cured. The law- uate of Oxford, came to N. Eng. before 1637, makers, finding that men could withhold their died 10 Dec. 1666, aged 68. In connection services altogether, could remove to other with Mr. Richard Mather he published " An places, and engage in planting and other em- Answer to Mr. Charles Herle his Book against ployments, in due time left the subject to its thelndependency of Churches," &c.,4to. 1664. natural course. His first wife, Abigail , died in 1643, dur- * He died 23 March, 1655-6. His will, or ing his absence in Virginia ; he married, sec- an historical and genealogical abstract of it, ondly, Anna, widow of Simon Crosby of Cam- may be seen printed in the Genealogical Reg. bridge. By his first wife he had all his and Antiqu. Journal, vol. vi. 89-92, 152-8. It children except one, which was a daughter by occupies 158 pages in the folio volume in which the second. it is recorded, Being the longest I have ever J Mass. Hist. Sac. Colls., xxvii. 48. heard of. .. ^ ■ t See Mr. Hancock's Century Sermon, 20. — * The n. Eng. Hist, and Gen. Regr. mu be thus desig- Mr. Tompson waa the father of Benjamin >^ted, for tee^ty. 248 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1640. jj^ g Boston is complained of "for defect of their ways^ between Powderhom Hill and the Written Tree, and is fined twenty shillings and enjoined to mend them."* jj^ ^g The Court of Election was held in Boston, and Thomas Dudley, Esq., elected Governor, and Kichard BeUingham, Esq., Deputy Governor.f Mr. Winthrop took his place among the Assistants, some- what disturbed by the result. He had held the place of Governor so long that he was regarded by many as holding it by inheritance. " Some trouble there had been," he writes in his journal, " in making way for this election, and it was obtained with some difficulty ; that many of the Elders labored much in it, fearing lest the long continuance of one man in the place should bring it to be for life." But he was consulted before the election by the leaders, and agreed with them that it might be well to choose another in his stead. Especially as his " outward estate " had suffered much of late, owing to the management of an unfaithful steward, named Luxford, and consequently required more of his attention than he could well bestow upon it, with the weight of the Government upon him also. Mr. Winthrop soon after had a substantial proof of the attachment of the people to himself, in their coming forward to relieve him in his em- barrassments. Even the General Court would have voted him money if there had been any in their treasury ; but as it was, it voted Mrs. Winthrop 3000 acres of land, " and some of the towns sent in liberally " for his relief. However, of about five hundred pounds so contributed, ' ' near half came from Boston. ' ' One individual, Mr. Eichard Dunimer | of Newbury, gave him one hundred pounds. There came over this year provisions in large quantities, both from * Nov. 25. — Richard Storer, son of Elizabeth f The Boston Deputies were Capt. Gibbons Hull, wife of bro. Robert Hull, allowed to be and Mr. W" Tinge. They were chosen 20 an inhabitant, and a lot at the Mount for three April, and on 28 Sept. Tyng and Hibbins were heads. Bro. Arthur Perry may sell his house chosen for the remamder of the year as usual, to Silvester Saunders, long a servant in this At the May f«rm of the Court, the inhabitants Town. Nicholis Baxter, fisherman, admitted of Mount WoUaston petitioned to become a an inhabitant. Bro. John MUles sold 4 acres Town, and their request was granted, " ac- at Hogg Island to Tho. Savidge, and all his cording to the agreement with Boston'" and planted ground in the Newfield. Thos. Clarke, that the Town be called Bramtree. — Hancock, locksmith, allowed to be an inhabitant. Cent. Ser. 19. Dec. 30. — Richard Sherman to have a lot at j It is singularly remarfsable tha* the very Muddy R, ^^ aaTTar. Tianrln . /!«»»».... T>.^1 «1 1_ _ 1_ _ jPv . *i • n -.^ . . . !* 52 acres i Potters ^_ _^ „„„„„,,- ricke a great lot at Muddy R. for four heads ; tors. ' Nothing'can exceed "the kindness"of bro. Geo. Curtys a lot for two heads ; Wm. Roger Williams to him, and Mr. Dummer Blanton, carpenter, admitted an inhabitant ; proved himself a friend in time of need It is also Leonard Buttle and Edmund Grosse. true the cases of these two genUemen were Richard Wooddas, fisherman, a lot at the Mount very difierent ; Mr. Dummer retired because he for three heads. The Town has 300 acres set would not enter into the Antinomian contro- apart at Muddy R. for " perpetual common- veray, being himself one of the fast friends of age." Francis Dowse, servant to bro. George Mr. Vane ; whereas Mr. Williams was forced Burdon, allowed to be an inhabitant. Mr. to fly to the wilderness to escape a worse fate. Edward Tmge 250 acres at the Mount. John Mr. Dummer was the grandfether of Jere- Crabtree a lot at the Mount for five heads, in- miah Dummer, who wrote and published the stead of two as formerly. Bro. Arthur Perry able " Defence of the New England Charters," a lot at the Mount for seven heads. 1721. 1640.] THOMAS GORGES. 249 England and Ireland, but as to passengers or settlers but few came ; and according to some, emigration entirely ceased during the year.* And above one hundred years later it was observed, that more people had removed out of New England to other parts of the world, than had come from other parts to it.f And now it may be said, at another hundred years' distance, that, notwithstanding the immense emigration from all parts of Europe to New England, far more go from than emigrate to it. So great had been the importation of provisions and other things, that people before the close of the year found themselves almost entirely without money, and the Authorities were obliged to pass a law making corn receivable in payment for all new debts ; Indian at four shillings the bushel, rye at five, and wheat six ; for old debts the creditor might take goods or land, at a value to be fixed by three men. By letters from some of Plymouth, who had had advices from Connecticut, disturbances were apprehended from the Indians. Miantonimo was believed to be in treaty with the Mohawks, with evil intentions towards the English. The Government here did not think the fears of Plymouth and Connecticut very well grounded ; however. Captain Jennison was sent from Boston, with only three men besides an Indian interpreter, to the Narragansets, to ascertain the truth with regard to the rumors. The messengers were kindly entertained, and they returned well satisfied that no mischief was intended. It was a part of the busi- ness of Captain Jennison to invite Miantonimo to Boston. He said he would come provided Mr. Williams might come with him ; and as to remaining at peace with the English, the Narragansets, he said, had no other purpose, unless the English begun first. The English thought it rather strange that Miantonimo would not communicate through their Pequot interpreter, while they refused to allow Roger Williams to ac- company him to Boston. Some time this summer Mr. Thomas Gorges J arrived at Boston, on his way to his Government of New Somersetshire ; "a young gentle- * Hutchinson, Kist. Mass., i. 93. — " They," f Dr. Franklin said before 1760, " There has observes the same Author, " who then pro- not gone from Britain to our Colonies these fessed to be able to give the best account, say, twenty years past to settle there, so many as that in 298 ships, which were the whole num- ten families a year." — Stiles' Christian Union, ber from the begining of the CoUony, there 111. arrived 21,200 passingers, men women and J Probably son of Oapt. William Gorges, and children, perhaps about 4000 familes." — Ibid, had a son, Henry, living in Barbadoes in 1686. " This sudden stop to emigration had a sur- He had also a son, Ferdinando, residing in prising effect upon the price of cattle, the Maine the same year, as agent for his father, demand for which increased as the inhabitants who leased to John Littlefleld for 21 years cer- multiplied, and the price of a milch cow had tain lands, mills, &o., on Oguncot river. If kept from 25 to £30, but fell at once this year Ferdinando Gorges, Esquire, the Author of to 5 or £6. A farmer who could spare but one "America Painted to the Life," printed in cow in a year out of his stock, used to clothe 1659, be the same Ferdinando in Maine, 1686, his family with the price of it at the expense said Ferdinando was grand-son of Sir Ferdi- of the new comers ; when this failed they were nando. However, the Ferdinando of Maine, put to difficulties, although they judged they 1686, was son of Thomas and brother of Henry had 12,000 neat cattle, yet they had but about of Barbadoes, as original papers under his own 3000 sheep in the Colony." — Ibid. See also hand in my possession certify. Ferdinando, Johnson's Wonder Work. Prov., 31, Stiles' Esquire, speaks of his "uncle Capt. Robert Christian Union, 110, Dummer's Defence of the Gorges," and of his " couzen, Captaine William New Eng. Charters, 9. Gorges, who had been his grand-father's Lief- 32 250 mSTOEY OP BOSTON. [1640. man of the Inns of Court, kinsman " of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. His stay was short, and he left a very favorable impression on the minds of the best people here. One of the ships that arrived this season met with an accident which came near occasioning its loss. She was struck by a whale, the wind blowing heavy, which stove in her bows above water, breaking " the planks, six timbers and a beam, and staved two hogsheads of vinegar." Something of terror overspread the town on this day, caused ^' ' by a great explosion of gun-powder in a ship lying in the harbor, the Mary Eose of Bristol. There were twenty-one barrels of tenant in the fort ofPlymouth . " — See ' ' Amer- ica Painted to the Life" p. 24. There was living at Wraxall, C° of Somerset, in 1673, Edward Gorges, Esq. In Hazard's Collections, i. 392, there is a petition of " Edward Lord Gorges," 1635, concerning lands in New Eng- land. By Lechford's Plain Dealing, it appears, that " Master Thomas Gorges ' ' was the ' ' sonne of Capt. Gorges of Batcombe, by Chedder in Somersetshire." Hence, I suppose, Thomas Gorges was a son of Capfc. William Gorges, as before stated. The note of Hutchinson, that he was son of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, was an error easily made. — See 'Bwks, Extinct and Sorment Baronetcies. Jan.Zl. — William Needham is granted a lot for two heads at the Mount ; Robert Hew- stead for 8 heads ; Geo. Wright for 3 ; bro. Henry Shrimpton for 3 ; bro. Richard Hogge for 5 ; bro. John Spoor for 5 ; Edmund Grosse " ye square peece " next William Lether- land's ; Richard Critchley for 5 heads ; bro. John Gallopp* the meadow on Long Island ; Thomas Clarke, smith, for 8 heads at the Mount; bro. Edward Bendall to bestow all goods without owners ; Samuel Grame a great lot at the Mount for 4 heads ; Robert Mears sold to Dorothy Bill, widow, and her son James Bill, his house and garden, " where they now live ; " Robert Bradford, tailor, allowed to in- habit ; bro. Anthony Stoddard a lot of 100 acres ; Thos. Poule 600 acres ; Saml. Mavericke 600 ; Henry Messenger for 2 heads at Muddy River ; bro. Joshua Seotto * a lot there for 3 heads ; Thos. Painter, joiner, for 4 heads ; bro. Robert Hull 6 acres at Hog Island ; Benj. Negoose allowed to inhabit ; Mr. W" Tomp- son 120 acres at the Mount ; Mr. Henry Flint 80 ; John Lugg a lot for 9 heads ; John Uyall [Viall] weaver, allowed to inhabit ; Mr. Benj. Keayne 200 acres at the Mount ; to the Can- oneer of Boston 500, and 2000 to the Tovm. Feb. 24. — Mr. Richard Parker 400 acres at the Mount ; to Lewys Kidby a house lot next John Lowes two rods towards the sea ; W™ Blanton, carpenter, a lot for 3 heads at Muddy R., and a house lot on the Neck; Leonard Buttles, bricklayer, lot for 4 at Mud. R. ; Edward Fletcher may be an inhabitant, and have a house lot ; bro. Rich"" Bracket may mow the marsh in the New field ; bros. Arthur * See his autograph, p. 243 ante. Perry, Rich'' Hogg and John Hard, each a house lot ; W" Bnscoe, tailor, may inhabit, and have a lot at the Mount for 8 heads ; John Marshall, husbandman, having served bro. Edward Hutchinson, ' is allowed to inhabit; Robt. Wing a lot at Mud. R. for 4 ; Lewys Kidby, fisherman, same for 2; John Moore, the Governor's servant, same for 3 ; bro. Tho. Mekyns, the younger, for 7 ; Geo. Bairell, cooper, for 9 ; W"" Kirkby, fisherman, for 3 ; John Amould, plasterer, for 2 ; Rich'' Carter, sawyer, for 3 ; Waters Sinnott, fisherman, 3 ; Thos. Jewell, of the Mount, miller, 12 acres ; the like to Mr. Daniel Welles for 20 heads, 80 acres ; Peter Brackett for 12 heads, 48 acres ; Saml. Allen, 28 acres for 7 heads ; to W'° AUyce 12 acres for 3 heads ; Jacob Wilson 16 acres for 4 ; John Reade 44 acres for 11 ; Robt. Stephens 12 acres for 3 ; Geo. Rose 20 acres for 5 ; Henry Addams 40 acres for 10 ; Thos. Place 20 acres for 5 ; John Harbar 12 acres for 3 ; Benj. Albye 12 do. for 3 ; Thos. Simons 40 do. for 10 ; John Marchant 8 do. for 2 ; Geo. Pofier 20 do. for 5 ; John Pafflyn 8 do for 2 ; Robt. Sharpe 16 do. for 4 ; John Dassett 28 do. for 7 ; Thos. Blysse, 36 for 9 ; Thos. GHbert 28 for 7 ; Henry Neal 12 for 3 ; Henry Maudsley 12 for 3 ; James Covey 16 for 4 ; Saml. Bitfeild 20 for 5 ; James Clarke 8 for 2 ; James Wiseman 12 for 3 ; John Col- lyns, of Monanlicott, 12 for 3 ; Christopher CoUyns 8 for 2 ; Geo. Aldrich 20 for 5 ; An- thony Newton 12 for 3 ; Matthew Smith 20 for 5 ; John French, of Monoticott, 40 for 5 ; John Mills, of the same, 44 for 6 ; Rich'' Rockett, of same, 40 for 5 ; Nicholas Hath- way, of the same, 36 for 4 ; Thos. Bird 36 for 4 ; Geo. Sheppard 18 for 2 ; Thomas Tayer 40 for 9 ; Danyell Lovell and his mother 12 for 3 ; David Rogers 8 for 2 ; John Onyon 8 for 2. All these at Mount WoUaston. From Lewys Kidby to Waters Sinnott, all probably resided in Boston proper. Those from Thos. Jewell to John Onyon resided already at the Mount, or in that part of it called Monoticott, or Monan- ticott. William Mawer, late of Boston, hus- bandman, sold Capt. Edward Gibbon a house and garden, now occupied by W"> Teffe, tailor ; date of sale 12 Feb. 1640. Brethren Edward Randsford and Wm. Hudson ordered to accom- pany the surveyor to lay out the planting ground at Long Island. 1640.] underhill's repentance — miantonimo. 251 powder, and all on board lost their lives, being fourteen or fifteen per- sons, excepting one man, whose preservation was very remarkable; "bteing carried up in the scuttle, and so let fall in the same into the water, and being taken up in the ferry boat, near dead, he came to him- self the next morning, but could not tell anything of the blowing up of the ship, or how he came there," Some of the goods were saved, but the loss was estimated at two thousand pounds. Captain UnderhiU who had been banished, and since lived at ^^ ■ Pascataqua, was, at his request, allowed to come to Boston for the purpose of making confessions of faults and miscarriages, to the Church. He was a man of strong passions, and, though a firm believer in religion, had been carried away by them on many occasions, and had committed great improprieties. Now the firmness of the soldier seems to have forsaken him, and he appeared before the Church more like an ignorant, simple chUd than like a man. " He came in his worst clothes," says Winthrop, though usually " accustomed to take great pride in his bravery and neatness. Without a band, in a foul linen cap pulled close to his eyes, and standing upon a form, he did, with many deep sighs and abundance of tears," confess his wicked course. Such was the man who, so lately, was not " afraid to meet the enemy in the gates," and to carry fire and sword into the midst of the strong holds of the Indians.* The next distinguished visitor in Boston was Miantonimo, who had been invited by Captain Jennison as previously stated. Gov- ernor Dudley gave him entertainment at Roxbury, but being displeased at the Governor's employment of a Pequot interpreter, he came ofi" ab- ruptly to Boston. He, no doubt, thought the English intended him an insult. He had assisted in destroying that nation, and the English themselves had been a means of causing the Narragansets to look upon a Pequot as too vile a being to be allowed to occupy a place among the * About the time of his banishment, Under- and here he got up a rebellion against the hill wrote to the Governor of New Netherland Dutch Authorities, and they banished him. for permission to settle in his province. Gov. The difficulty was in time settled, and he pur- Kieft at once granted his request, on condition chased a large tract of land of the Indians on of his taking the oath of allegiance to the Long Island, a part of which remained in his States General. — Brodhead's N. York, 291. family nearly 200 years. He died at his estate However, in the time of the government of called Killingworth, in 1672, in the town of Thomas Gorges, Esq., at Pascataqua, he left Oyster Bay, and there lies buried, but whether Dover and settled at Stamford, in Connecticut, any monument marks the spot, I am not in- near the residence of Oapt. Patrick, another formed. He left a will, witnessed the 18 Sept. of the Captains who had served against the 1671. There is a very elaborate pedigree of Pequots. Here, at the head of 50 other Eng- his descendants in Mr. Bolton's Hist. ofWest- lishmen, Underbill was gladly taken into the Chester, ii. 228. His will is a curiosity, of service of the Dutch, whose total annihilation which there is a copy in Thompson's Long was then threatened by the Indians. This was Island, ii. 361. His first wife was Mary in September, 1643. To the employment of Mosely, who came over from Holland with Underbill and his company of English, the him ; and his second was Elizabeth Feeks, who Dutch probably owed tjieir preservation, but it survived him. In his will he names "my was not in time to save the unfortunate Mrs. brother John Browne, Henry Townsend, Mat- Hutchinson; she and her family were cut off a thew Pryer, son John Underbill, son Nathan- little before Underbill took the field. After iel to live with his mother till 21." Nathaniel fighting valiantly for the Dutch until the In- settled in Westchester, and thus the family dians were subdued, he settled on Long Island, became the historical property of Mr. Bolton. 252 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1640. living. The same insult had been lately offered him in his own cojintry, and he probably regarded the new Governor as one of doubtful author- ity, which may account for his conduct at Roxbury. But at Boston he found no better regard paid him, the Authorities refusing to have any conference with him till he had submitted to their way of proceeding. He very justly complained that he should be subjected to the English customs, when they were allowed to use their own when they came to his country. The interview did not give much satisfaction to either party. Miantonimo had received an insult, and the English were in some doubt what the return might be to them. One Hugh Bewett was banished for maintaining that he was ^' ' free from original sin, and that true Christians could live without committing any sin. By the order of the Court, he was to be gone in fifteen days upon pain of death, and if he returned he should be hanged. There was a mode of punishment, practised at this period, which may be mentioned for its peculiarity ; it was by inserting the tongue of cer- tain offenders in a cleft stick, and was probably employed chiefly upon the tongues of females. One Mrs. Oliver was whipped for reproaching the Magistrates. " She stood without tying, and bare her punishment with a masculine spirit, glorying in her suffering." Some time after " she had a cleft stick put on her tongue half an hour for reproaching the Elders." This kind of punishment was soon abandoned, the oases doubtless becoming too numerous to be attended to.* Affairs had taken such a turn in England, that a general want of foreign commodities began to be felt here, and the people saw that they must build their own ships and do their own business at sea. Mr. Hugh Peters stirred up some to join him at Salem in building a ship of three hundred tons, and this example was followed at Boston, and one of half the dimensions was built here. The work was accomplished with diffi- culty, owing to the want of money, but the ship-wrights received for their wages such articles as the country produced. The King of England having been driven to relinquish much of his arbitrary power over the Parliament, some friends there wrote over that it was now thought a favorable time for the Colony to apply to the Par- liament for privileges, and that by applying they might gain much ; but the nature of what was to be gained is not mentioned. But the Government did not think very favorably of an application at first, and their view taken of it should be added by way of a note to the Decla- ration of Independence of the American Congress of 1776. It was said, though indirectly, that they were now free, but if they put themselves * Among the First Church exoommunicants ren ; and being dealt withal, did deny and in 1638, is mentioned Anne Walker, wife of forsware the same." Sister Temperance Richard Walker, who was " cast out " for Jewett is admonished for having " entertained " sundry scandals." Brother Richard Wayte is disorderly company, and ministring unto them " cast out " for " purloyning buckskin leather" wine and strong waters even unto drunkenness, out of some entrusted to him, so much as and that not without some iniquity in the would make three men's gloves, " to the scan- measure and practice thereof." This was in dal of many without, as well as of his breth- 1640. — See Shaw's Descript., &c., 239-40. 1640.] MISSION TO ENGLAND. 253 under the protection of Parliament, they might be subjected to any laws Parliament might make. Notwithstanding these scruples, the Court of Assistants being assem- bled, the advice of the Elders was sought, and in the end it was determined that the providence of God seemed to favor the sending Agents to England, for a ship belonging to Boston and bound thither was then ready to sail. Accordingly, Mr. Peters of Salem, Mr. Welde of Roxbury, and Mr. Hibbins of Boston, were fixed upon for the service ; but the Church of Salem would not allow Mr. Peters, their Pastor, to leave them, and so for the present the mission was laid aside. The next year, however, encouraged by the continued success of Parliament, the Church of Salem consented, though with reluctance, for Mr. Peters to go. But there was no ship bound from these parts for England, and the Commissioners were obliged to go to Newfoundland, to seek pas- sages among the returning fishermen, and in this way accomplished their journey, at a great expense of time. Mr. Peters and Mr. Welde did not return to New England, but Mr. Hibbins came back in 1642, " with divers others who went over" with him. It does not appear that anything of immediate importance was effected by the Commission- ers, with the exception of the procurement of some valuable presents.* * Mar. 30. — Edward Gibbon sold tbe house ■vrhich he bot of Mawer (some time W" Hud- son's the elder) to Teffe the occupant ; John Freind, carpenter, now dwelling here, allowed to remain and inhabit, ; John Palmer the same, if he can get a house, or land to set one on — " it being not ppr. to allow a man an inhabit- ant without a habitation." — Ordered that no more land be granted in the Town, out of the open ground, or common field, which is left between Sentry Hill and Mr. Colborn's end, except 3 or 4 lots to make up the street from bro. Robt. Walker's to the Round Marsh; Edward Baytes being at Isle Sables, shall have 6 months to build on his lot. Ordered that the street from Mr. Atherton Haulghe's to Sentry Hill be laid out, " and soe be kept open forever ;" W" Davis, gunsmith, to have 20 acres at the Mount ; W'" Hudson recommended to keep an Ordinary; W" Briscoe, tailor, to have a lot between Robt. Walker's and the Round Marsh ; to look to the fences ; Rioh"* Fairbanks and W" Salter, the field towards Roxbury; Benjn. Gillam and Edmd. Jacklyn,* the Fort field ; W"" Hudson and Edwd. Bendall, the New field ; Mr. Valentine HUl and John Button, the Mill field. April 27. — Saml. Sherman allowed a lot at the Mount for 15 heads ; John Scarlett and Ed. Goodwine for 2 each ; Saml. Sherman may let his house stand near Roxbury Gate, where it now is, but must set his fence straight " as he do not incroch vpon the High-way ; " good- man Marshall, and goodm. Raynolds, and B. Gridley may buy the marsh at Hogg Island ; Peter the Dutchman allowed one acre at Long * See hia autograph, ante^ p. 243. Island ; John Robertsonne to have the lot granted to Bibble, which he forfeited by not building on it ; John Woodward a house lot next Henry Gray, if he build on it in 5 months ; Ed. Goodwine a lot next W. Briscoe's, same conditions ; Natha. 'Willis is spared clearing half an acre at Spectacle Island, " in regard his servant did scald hia legg;" W" Hibbins chosen Treasurer, except of the taxes ; Ben. Gillum to have the ungranted land at Long Island. May2Z. — Ed. Ting may dig turf on the island among the flats by Mill Field, going to Charlestown ; Christopher Stanley may buy 6 acres on Hog Island, " yf it be here to be sould." June 29. — Cotton Flack a house lot in the way from Mr. Colborn's to the sea, next goodm. Briscoe's ; Robt. Howen a great lot near Braintree for 4 heads ; John Riall a lot at the Mount for 4 also ; Geo. Barrell may have that acre at Spectacle Island passed over to him by goodm. Smith. Aug. 31. — W" Douglas may be a towns- man, " he behaving himself as beoometh a Christian man." Theodore Atkinson a great lot at Mud. R. for 2 heads, if to be had. Sept. 28. — The townsmen chosen for the next 6 months were, Mr. Bellinghara, Win- throp, senr.. Ting, Gibbons, Colbum, Eliot, Newgate, Atherton, " Hough," and W"" Hib- bins ; Mr. Newgate and bro. Jona. Negus, f surveyors of Highways, and W™ Courser, Town Crier. Henry Webb to have 200 acres at the Mount, beyond Monotooott river, adjoining the farms of Mr. Edwd. Ting and Edwd. Hutohin- t See his autograph, ante^ p. 243. 254 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1640. Whatever difficulties happened about the country, Boston was the point where they were to be settled ; and though the people of this Town are accused of minding other people's business as well as their own, there is generally some grounds, on which a pretty good defence may be set up for their seeming officiousness. They had given them- selves a great deal of trouble about the religious aberrations of the peo- ple of Ehode Island, ever since a part of the Church of Boston had been settled there.* It was very unsatisfactory to some here, to know that many members of the Church, who had not been excommunicated, were in full communion with others who were under that anathema. At this time the case of Mr. Hanserd Knollys was under special notice. This gentleman, according to his own account, had been per- secuted and prosecuted in the High Commission Court, about five years before, and, being ap- prehended in Boston in Lincoln- shire, was for some time kept a prisoner in the house of the war- rant officer. At length he so terrified the conscience of that officer, that he set open his doors and let him escape. Proceeding immediately to London, he there waited to find a ship to take him to New England. But it was so long before an opportunity offer- ed, that he had " neither silver nor gold left," but only " six brass farthings." His wife, more provident than himself, however, had, unknown to him, Thus embarking in want and dis- HANSERD KNOLLTS. five pounds, which she gave him. Bon ; bro. Robt. Scott 200 do., next bro. Webb's — no allowance for " rookieneas or Bwampe." Oct. 26. — Bro. Peter Oliver may have 60 acres at Mud. R., if to be had ; bro. Jas Oliver 40 there. Mr. Colbum, Mr. Eliot, and Mr. Peter Oliver, to see that a bridge be made at Mud. R. as ordered ; Mr. Cogan to see that the bridge ordered to be built at Romney Marsh be " donne vpith all speede." John Biggs sold 4 acres at Mud. R. at 4s. the acre ; Bro. W" Talmage to have 5 acres added to his at same place, a former grant conferred to bro. Ed. Fletcher ; Euan Thomas to be con- sidered of for a resident ; Leonard Buttall asks leave to set up a lime kiln at Fox hill. Nov. 30. — Bro. Edmond Jackline to mowe the marsh formerly mowed by bro. Pease. Dec. 28. — Miles Tame to have land at Long Island, and to be considered in regard to a lot for 5 heads at Mud. R. " Bro. Day " to be considered on the same request. Bro. Alexr. Beck to mow marsh in the New field near where " Mr. Hough takes boat." The rate this year made by the Townsmen, amounting to £179, " for the discharge of the country levy, was delivered to Mr. Henry Webb, constable." Bro. John Button chosen Constable in place of Mr. John Cogan. * Marchlst, 1640. —" The Church of Boston sent three brethren, viz. — Capt. Edward Gib- bons, Mr. [William] Hibbins, and Mr. Oliver, with letters to Mr. Coddington and the rest of our Members at Aquiday, to understand their judgments in divers points of religion, formerly maintained by all, or divers of them, and to require them to give account to the Church of their unwarrantable practice in communica- ing with excommunicated persons, &c. When 1641.] HANSERD KNOLLYS. 255 tress, sickness and death, and a protracted voyage of twelve weeks, all conspired to try the fortitude of this conscientious Puritan. In the midst of the ocean their water became nauseous, their bread rotten, and other provisions were in a like condition. They sailed from Gravesend on the twenty-sixth of April, 1638, in a ship commanded by a Captain Goodlad, in company with the Nicholas of London, and several others.* From this ship they were separated in a very dark and stormy night, after they had kept company twenty-one days. They, however, arrived at Boston about the twentieth of July following, having lost one child on the voyage, which died of convulsion fits. " But," says Mr. KnoUys, " God was gracious to us, and led us through those great deeps, and ere we went on shore, came one and enquired for me, and told me a friend that was gone from Boston to Rhode Island had left me his house to sojourn in ; to which we went and two families more with us, who went suddenly to their friends and other relations in the country ; and I, being poor, was necessitated to work daily with my hoe, for the space of almost three weeks. The Magistrates were told by the Ministers that I was an Antinomian, and desired they would not suffer me to abide in their district. But, within the time limited by their law in that case, two strangers coming to Boston from Piscattuah, hearing of me by a mere accident, got me to go with them to that plantation, and to preach there, where I remained about four years. Being sent for back to England by my aged father, I returned with my wife and one child about three years old, and she was then great with another ; we came safe to London on the twenty-fourth of December, 1641." f People should be cautious in passing judgment condemnatory of the actions of those who for conscience sake endured such hardships, and suffered so many privations, even though cotemporary evidence may seem to favor such judgment. The intolerance of the Rulers of those times, as in all other times, doubtless, warped their decisions, and caused them to lend a wUling ear to scandals of doubtful foundation, when they tended to degrade the objects of their suspicion. Mr. Knollys went to reside in a part of the country where the people were they came, they found that those of them who Gospel, Mr. Hansekd Knollts, who died in dwell at Newport, had joined themselves to a the 93d year of his age," 19th Sept., 1691. church there newly constituted, and thereupon " Written with his own hand to the year 1672, they refused to hear them as messengers of and continued in general, in an Epistle by Mr. our Church, or to receive the Church's letter." William Kutin." 12mo. : London, 1812. — — Winthrop, i. 329. Thus this Author dis- Concerning this curious book I will just re- patohes the result of the Mission in a very mark, that the author probably had not the summary manner. He adds that, " the Elders remotest idea when he wrote his "Life and and most of the Church [of Boston] would Death," that ever anybody would consult it have cast them [of Rhode Island] out, but all for anything but the edification they might being not agreed, it was deferred." — Ibid. derive in a purely spiritual point of view ; nor * The time of his sailing, the name of the does " Mr. William Kiffin " enter at all into captain with whom he sailed, and several the ;wopAaree history of Mr. Knollys, though he other facts here stated, are not found in Mr. pretends to have done so " in general." Not- Knolly's Life, cited in the next note, but are withstanding what I have here said of this derived from a comparison of Josselyn and book, should any of my readers consult it, Winthrop with Knolly's own account. they will not probably complain that I have t "The Life and Death of that Old Disciple over-estimated it. But one copy of it is known of Jesus Christ, and Eminent Minister of the by me to be in this country. 256 HISTOKY OF BOSTON. [1641. in a very unsettled state, for the want of a due administration of good government.* In such a community, under such circumstances, it is very difficult for a person, however well-disposed he may be, to escape entirely all causes of censure. Such was Mr. KnoUys' case at Dover, the place over which Captain UnderhUl was Governor. The latter had been a means of giving him a place which provided him support, and he thus became under obligation to him. This led him into difficulty with the Authorities at Boston ; for, at his instigation, he had written letters into England unfavorable to them, in one of which he said, " they were more arbitrary than the High Commission Court, and that there was no real religion in the country." But before he left New England he came to Boston, and openly confessed himself in error, and this was supposed to have been one cause which moved Captain UnderhUl to come and do likewise afterwards, as previously related. Whatever may have been the acts of Mr. KnoUys in New England, certain it is he became a man of distinction in his own country after his return there ; and his memory is held in the greatest esteem to this day, by a highly respected class of people, who have honored it by instituting a learned society bearing the name of Hanserd KNOLLYS.f * The Court at Boston, taking advantage of and " signed in the presence of the General this situation of affairs, had intimated its in- Court, by Geo. Willys, Robt. Saltonstall, Wil- tention to extend its jurisdiction beyond the Ham Whiting, Edwd. Holiock and Thomas Merrimack — "three miles to the northward Makepeace, in behalf of themselves and the of it and every part thereof," by a line to be other partners of the two Patents." — See drawn from the most eastern to the most west- Belknap, N. H., i. 52-6. ern point. This put in execution would have f I ^^ completed thus far this History, swallowed up the whole of New Hampshire, when a new edition of Winthrop's Journal and no inconsiderable part of Maine ; thus made its appearance. It had been looked for leaving Gorges' and Mason's Patents "no- with some anxiety, presuming its notes would where." The pretensions of this government be greatly improved, and that by their aid I were strengthened, owing to the unsettled might make my work more valuable. Suffice state of the settlements on the Pascataqua. it to say, that my anticipations of advantage These settlements, which were four in number, from the new edition will be but very partially had each its Governor, and were under no in- realized. The Editor, so far as I can discover, Btructions from the Government in England ; from not a very thorough examination, has hence the continual feuds and contentions been content to issue the work without much among them. And, owing to the internal dis- additional matter, and with very slight oor- tractions in that country, present relief could rections. It was thought proper thus specially not be expected ; therefore, some of the most to notice Winthrop's Journal at this time considerate among them applied to the Gov- (July, 1853), as it has been, and will yet be, ernment at Boston to be annexed to Massachu- one of my best authorities, for the period it setts. After about a year's negotiation, Arti- covers ; and its notes are often appropriate, cles, dated in April, 1641, were agreed upon, and the result of great research. 1641.] EMIGRATION TO THE WEST INDIES. 257 CHAPTER XXVII. Expedition to the Isle of Sable. — Some Families emigrate to the West Indies. — Disaster and Eeturn. Death of Capt. Peiroe. — Rhode Island People taken and imprisoned. — Great Training Thanks- giving. — Destructive Tempest. — Proceedings against Mr. Maverick. — Body of Liberties. — Accident from Lightning. — Severe Winter. — Remarkable Hog Case. — Capt. Keayne. — Mrs. Sherman. — George Story. — A Fast. — Osamekin visits Boston. — Edward Bendall. — A Diving Bell successfully employed. — Cotton's Seven Vials. — Alarm from the Indians. — Proceedings against them. — They are Disarmed. — Miantonimo. — Comes to Boston to repel Charges against him. — His magnanimous Conduct. — How entertained. June 2. DITING BELL, AT the General Election Mr. Belling- ham * is chosen Governor, and Mr. Endicott Deputy-Governor. Mr. Nathaniel Ward preached the Sermon.f Among other things the Court ordered, "that the Elders should be desired to agree upon a form of catechism which might be put forth in print." A very successful business is carried on to the Isle of Sable this summer, by some of the enter- prising men of Boston. A vessel with twelve men went there provided to continue a year. Their return was in oU and the teeth of the morse, One John "Webb, alias Evered," was the conductor of or walrus. the enterprise. J Some families went from Boston to settle at Providence in the West Indies. They went in two small vessels, to the number of thirty men, five women, and eight children. Captain William Peirce conducted the enterprise — the same gentleman who had been of such service to the Colony from its beginning ; but in this expedition he fell a sacrifice to Spanish barbarity, being killed by a cannon shot as he was entering the port of his destination. No explanation is given for the outrage. * See ante, p. 176. The autograph of Gov. Bellingham at this ,7, • ,0 , - ,- period is here rep- 71* £3 t^^-^'*9lt-eC€<^ resented. f Winthrop has an agreeable criticism upon that performance, but whether a just one or not, is a matter of not much consequence now. Winthrop was displeased, because " some of the Freemen " had chosen Mr. Ward without asking leave " of the Magistrates or Governor," and " seeing he had cast off his pastor's place at Ipswich, and was now no minister by the received determination of our Churches ; and, among other things, he advised the people to keep all their Magistrates in an equal rank, and not give more honor or power to one than to another." — Journal, ii. 35. Mr. Wardrec- ommended also, " that Magistrates should not give private advice, and take knowledge of any man's cause before it came to public hearing." — lUd., 36. This was taken as in- 33 direct advice for the employment of Attorneys in legal questions. But Lawyers were held in abhorrence by the Puritan fathers. Winthrop brings six arguments against receiving that advice. A little later than this, Mr. John Rogers, the famous Puritan preacher of Lon- don, thus speaks of tjie " incredible wicked- nesse of that profession, their guiltinesse of all manner of sinnos which the nation lyes under, as blood, theft, oppression, injustice, contentions, hatred, cozenage, and fraud, re- bellion, lying, perjury, and what not." — Heavenly Nymph, &c. 4to, 1653, p. 221. This being the current opinion of those days, it is no wonder the people of Boston were determined to exclude them from a footing here. Indeed, up to the time of our great Revolution, Lawyers were looked upon as a class unsuited to good society, by a considera- ble portion of the community ! % Lechford, Plmn Dealing, 45. 258 HISTOEt OP BOSTON. [1641. At the time the vessel was fired upon, " the deck was full of pas- sengers," yet none were hurt except Captain Peirce and one Samuel Wakeman. The latter was mortally wounded. He belonged to Hart- ford, and may have been the same who was a Freeman of Massachusetts, 1632, and three years later a Deputy to the General Court from Rox- hury. He was upon a trading design, and did not belong to those who intended to settle on the island. The others returned to New England soon after this calamitous outrage. In the course of the summer very unfavorable accounts were brought from Rhode Island ; that Mrs. Hutchinson was constantly broaching new heresies ; that many were turned Anabaptists, would not wear any arms, denied all magistracy among Christians, and " divers " other opinions quite as alarming as these. So that the conscientious Rulers of Boston were much grieved, if not angry, at what they considered bold presumption, And why an armed expedition was not dispatched into that Colony to break up the obnoxious nursery of errors, it is difi&- cult to imagine. Perhaps they had too much business to attend to at home. However, they soon had an opportunity of showing the Islanders that it was not very safe for any of them to make their appearance in Boston ; for Mr. WiUiam Collins, the same before no- ticed,* and Francis Hutchinson, son of Mrs. Hutchinson, coming here on business, were taken up, imprisoned and fined.f They would not pay the fine, however, and were eventually discharged.^ A " great training " commenced in Boston, which continued ^ " ' two days. The number of the trainers is set down at 1200, and it was remarked " that there was no man drunk," though liquors abounded ; and that no man swore an oath, nor was there any fighting. This certainly was remarkable, but there may be those who will ques- tion the fact, presuming that the Governor and Council might not hear all that was said during those two days of trainings. § Notwithstanding the harsh usage dealt out here to those who differed from them in opinions, the Rulers appointed a thanksgiving to be kept in all the Churches " for the good success of the Parliament in Eng- land," which was kept accordingly, on the second of September. * Ante, ■page 227. duct of the Government: — "Because the ■j- Mr. CoUina was fined £100, and Hutchin- winter drew on, and the prison was incon- son£50. " We assessed the fines the higher," venient, we abated them [their fines] to £40, says Winthrop, " partly that by occasion and to £20. At last we took their own bonds thereof they might be the longer kept in from for their fine, and so dismissed them. They doing harm (for they were kejjt close prison- refused to come to the church assemblies, ex- ers), and also because that family had put the cept they were led, and so they came duly." country to so much charge in the Synod and — Journal, ib. I suppose? "coming duly" other occasions, to the value of £500 at least." means that they were forced duly to the at- Upon this proceeding, Winthrop's commenta- tendance at meetings. This was a practice in tor remarks : — " Such arbitrary conduct can- other cases. Backus, from the Colony Records, not be overlooked by faithful history in silence ; says they were "banished upon pain of yet nothing can be more clear than that our death." Magistrates thought they were doing God ser- § Lechford says, " Profane swearing, drunk- vice." — Journal, ii. 40. enness, and beggers, are but rare in the com- J Winthrop makes this excuse for the con- passe of this Patent." — Plain Dealing, 29. 1641.] SAMUEL MAVERICK — SEVERE WINTER. 259 jj^^ j2 There was a remarkable tempest of above two days' continu- ance. It was " as fierce as a hurricane." " Divers boats and a bark were cast away in the harbor," but fortunately no houses were blown down nor lives lost. The tide rose to a fearful height, higher than it had been known since the Town was settled. About this time Mr. Samuel Maverick was put to some trouble on account of his having shown hospitality to some accused persons. One Thomas Owen, and Sarah, wife of William Hale, had been imprisoned under the charge of illicit conduct. They found means to escape from custody, and it was ascertained that Mr. Maverick had admitted them to his house. Nothing appears to show why he harbored them. He may have allowed them refuge as any other humane person would have done, seeing them in great distress. Whatever the circumstances may have been, he was fined one hundred pounds for such benevolent hos- pitality, but it was remitted in part afterwards. Several other persons were fined in small sums for being accessory to the escape of those persons, as Mr. Chedley, Mr. Ducket, Mr. WoUaston, Mr. Oateley, William Cope, and Mary Wilbee. Mr. Dutchfield, Mr. Williams, and Mr. Hale, " were admonished to take heed of the like concealment." A code of laws, called " The Body of Liberties," was adopted by the General Court this year.* It consisted of one hundred laws, and was originally drawn up by Mr. Nathaniel Ward of Ipswich, the Author of that curious book entitled " The Simple Cobler of Agawam."f The winter of the years 1641-2 was exceedingly severe. From their own observations and the accounts of the Indians, the people of * These laws are printed in Hutchinson's agree with a cowkeeper for the summer. Bro. Collection of Orig. Papers, 161, &o. Everill and bro. Burden may sink a pit at the f Jan. 25. — The Townsmen chosen were upper end of the wharf before bro. Burden's Bellingham, Winthrop, Hough, Ting, Gibbons, house, and put a vessel therein to water their Newgate, Oolbume, Eliot and Hibbins. Abra- leather ; and if it be found an annoyance they ham Warren had formerly a grant at Hogg are to fill it up again. Island. Evan Thomas and Henry Dawson July'ify. — Robt. Wing to have 20 bushels admitted inhabitants. Mr. Bworne [Bourne?] of Indian corn for looking to the low water desires a place next his house " for building mark in Sentry Field this year. Anthony the ship." Edward Ainoll proposed for a Stanyan admitted an inhabitant. Bro. John resident. Richd. Bennett and Thomas Stan- Oliver* chosen Treasurer, and to keep the burie admitted inhabitants. " Towne's bookes." Thus a Town Clerk was Feb. 22. — Abraham Hagbume and Richd. chosen. Henry Stevens to have a lot for 5 Sanford admitted residents ; Abra. Perrie sells heads at " Brayntry." his house. Philip Rice admitted an inhabitant. Sept. 27. — David Phippen admitted a towns- Mar. 29. — Bro. John Leveret to have a man, and may have a house lot if he can find little plot of marsh in the New field — about 3 one. Job Judkin a lot for 5 heads at the rods. A street to "go up to the New field by Mount " als Braintry." John Search a house Sentry Hill," for the Town's use. lot near Robt. Walker. John Bigs, for work April 26. — Bro. Wentworth Day to have "done about the Magistrates seat," to have 100 acres at Mud. R. Bro. James Johnson,* the marsh in Sentinel-hill Field, about one bro. Button and Goodm. Tame, may use a rod and a half acres, for 40i. a piece "adjoining Mr. Hibbins his garden iVoc.29. — Sampson Shore admitted a towns- pale, and so over towards Elder Oliver's little man, also Edwd. Arnold. Granted to Valen- house, and down to the Creek eastward, and tine Hill, merchant of Boston, and his asso- up to the Highway westward, for dressing his ciates, all the waste ground from the point of leather." the marsh between Wm. Ting's pale and John MayZ. — John Search admitted an inhab. Lowe's house, &o., for a term of years, for Bro. John Davis * and bro. Thos. Buttolph to wharfing and warehousing purposes. * See hia autograph, ante, p. 243. * See his autograph, ante, p. 243. 260 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1642. Boston judged that the cold had not been so intense for forty years. The ice was so strong in the harbor that " horses and carts went over in many places where ships had sailed," and it extended " to sea so far as one could well discern * Captain Gibbons and his wife, with divers on foot by them, came riding from his farm at Pullen ^ ■ Point, right over to Boston, when it had thawed so much as the water was above the ice half a foot in some places ; and they passed with loads of wood and six oxen from Muddy Eiver to Boston. When it thawed it removed great rocks, of above a ton or more weight, and brought them on shore. The snow was likewise very deep." There came many letters by a ship from England which arrived at the Isle of Shoals this winter. These letters were dispatched to Boston by a footman, who remarkably escaped drowning at Salem. The per- son who piloted him across the river upon the ice, fell in and was drowned, while the bearer of the letters extricated himself as the ice gave way under his feet. The letters of which he was the bearer, it may be inferred, were of great moment to the people of Boston, for Winthrop says, God preserved the bearer of them more on account of the letters "than for any goodness of the man" who had them in charge ! f The wind-miU at the north end of the Town was struck by lightning, shattering the " upper sail in many pieces, and, miss- ing the stones, entered the standard, rived it down in three parts to the bottom, and one of the spars ; and the main standard being bound about with a great iron hoop, fastened with many long spikes, it was plucked oiF, broken in the middle, and thrown upon the floor, and the boards upon the sides of the mill rived off, the sacks in the mill set on fire, and the miller, being under the mill upon the ground chopping a piece of board, was struck dead ; but company coming in found him to breathe, and within an hour or two he began to stir, and strove with such force, as six men could scarce hold him down. The next day he came to his senses, but knew nothing of what had befallen him, but found himself very sore. His hair on one side of his head and beard was singed, one of his shoes torn off his foot, but his foot not hurt." At the General Court now in session, there feU out, says "Winthrop, " a great business upon a very small occasion." This " great business " had its beginning as far back as 1636,J and may be thus briefly stated. A hog had been found running at large, contrary to a Town order. It * " To end this year 1641," says Johnson, low, says expressly that' it had its rise in " the Lord was pleased to send a very sharp 1636. — See his Journal, ii. 69. There was a winter, insomuch that the harbor, where ships hog taken up in 1638, as has been noticed in ordinarily anchor, was frozen over of such a an extract from the Town records, ante, page thickness that it became passable both for 241, but nothing appears in the original rec- horse, carts, and oxen, for the space of five ords authorizing a belief that it was the same weeks." — Wonder-Work. Prov. ,170. hog about whiSi this difficulty arose. It is f His name is not mentioned, nor is the true that in both cases the animals were of the name of the ship given. See Journal, ii. 60. feminine gender, but this is hardly sufficient J Dr. Snow refers the origin of the hog con- evidence that the cases are identical, troversy to 1638, but Winthrop, whom I fol- 1642.] A HOG CASE — ORIGIN OF THE SENATE. 261 was taken up and delivered to Captain Keayne, and the Captain used the prescribed means to find its owner, but none appeared. He put it into an enclosure with one of his own, and there it remained many- months. Meantime, having occasion, he killed his own hog. Not long after, a woman appeared, wife of one Sherman, her husband being in England, who, having lost a hog, averred that the one killed was the hog she had lost ; her claim not being sustainable upon the one left, because it had other marks than those she alleged were upon hers. Whereupon Mrs. Sherman* immediately noised it abroad that Captain Keayne had thus deprived her of her real property. In such cases, as has been heretofore intimated. Captain Keayne stood a poor chance for justice, however good his cause might prove to be ; for the common people were prejudiced against him because he had been, as was com- monly reported, a sharp dealer with them. However, the accusation against the Captain was soon made a Church matter of; but upon inves- tigation, in which "many witnesses were examined," he was fully acquitted ; the Church being satisfied no doubt that the charge was made through a mistake, if it were not a piece of knavery. In aU probability the affair would have rested here, but for the popu- lar clamor, of which one George Story, a young merchant from London, was a leader. He lodged in the house with Mrs. Sherman, and may have been the prime mover in the first instance ; but of this there does not appear to be any evidence. Story had a grudge against Captain Keayne, because he had been ordered before the Grovernor, at some previous period, to answer to a charge of living in the house of Mrs. Sherman under suspicious circumstances, and that it was Captain Keayne who was the cause of his being thus dealt with. However this may have been, Story caused an action to be brought in the Superior Court, where, upon a full hearing. Captain Keayne was again cleared, and costs allowed him. He also recovered twenty pounds damages, for having been falsely, as the Court believed, accused of stealing a hog.f Story became exceedingly exasperated at this decision, and sought revenge in the most persevering manner. In " searching town and country to find matter against Captain Keayne about this stray" hog, he at length procured a witness, who had testified at the late trial in favor of Keayne, who now pretended that he had on that trial forsworn himself. Upon this discovery. Story petitioned the General Court, in the woman's name, for a rehearing of the cause. This being granted, the " best part of seven days " was spent in the new trial. Even then it was not determined, for there were nine Magistrates and thirty Depu- ties, and a verdict could not be obtained without the greater number of * She did not belong to that class of females his claim to the fine of £20, which, though authorizing the significant prefix Mrs. to her awarded him, had not been paid, excepting name, but I have lent it to her on the present perhaps £3 for the charges of witnesses. He occasion, to avoid a harshness of language. was at any time ready to remit the whole, if •j- In the progress of this " sow business," Mrs. Sherman would acknowledge her error of as Winthrop calls it, the next year, for the falsely accusing him. — Winthrop, /owrna?, ii. sake of peace, Captain Keayne relinquished 117. 262 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1642. both, which neither had. The present state of the case was partly owing to " cross witnesses," and " some prejudices which blinded some men's judgments that they could not attend the true nature and course of the evidence." Notwithstanding, it was finally determined in favor of Captain Keayne, there being for him seven of the Magistrates and eight Deputies, and against him two Magistrates and fifteen Deputies, and there were seven Deputies " which stood doubtful." Things stand- ing thus in a clear case, there was somewhat of contention among the members of the Court. This contention did not cease until 1644, and then the General Court was divided into two branches ; and thus originated the present Senate and House of Representatives ;* and thus truly did " a great business grow out of a very small occasion."! In the case of Captain K.ea.jne it is strikingly manifest how men of narrow minds and vindictive spirits were ready to show themselves as soon as he was accused. It was sufficient for their wicked purposes that he was accused, and their prejudiced judgments were ready to pervert all circumstances to his disadvantage. Unfortunately, the ex- istence of people with such minds did not cease with the trial of Captain Keayne. This singular trial must have perplexed and mortified all the better part of the community, and the expense accruing was no small item at that day .J There was a general Past kept, occasioned principally for the ^^ ' danger England was conceived to be in, and the " foul sins " of this country. Massasoit, the " great Sachem of Pokanoket," now called "^ ■ Osamekin, came to Boston, accompanied by many men and other Sagamores. Winthrop says he entertained them kindly ; but the nature of his business is not mentioned. By the enterprise and skill of Edward Bendall, the hull of the Mary Rose, which was blown up in August of the last year and sunk, was raised, and the harbor cleared of the obstruction which it occasioned. The owners had been allowed a year by the Court to weigh the wreck, but they had made no effort to do so. Bendall was encouraged to undertake the labor, having been offered all he could realize if he fully succeeded, and half of what he could get if he succeeded but partially. * Though the case of Captain Keayne was lose their effect by the non-concurrence of the one of great vexation to him in its time, it has former, who were so much fewer iu number ; often since afforded lyceum orators and their but, by the firmness of Mr. Winthrop, the auditors much amusement. One said recently. Assistants maintained their right at this time, when the General Court was in session, that and the Deputies not being able to prevail, "Mrs. Sherman's pig was the origin of the moved that the two houses might sit apart." present Senate, and he hoped the members of For a most lucid and excellent view of the it would not disgrace their progenitor." Government and Laws of Massachusetts, see t See Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., i. 142-3, its Judidal History hj the a,h\e hand of Judge who, under date 1645, has reference probably Washburn, 8vo. Boston, 1840. to this case. He says, " About this time J The next year the Town " allowed Wm. there was a struggle for power between the Courser 20s. for his service about the swine, Assistants, or Magistrates, and the Deputies, which tooke him up (as he sayeth) about The latter could not bear their votes should three weekes time." 1642.] FEAES FROM THE INDIANS. 263 He made use of the Diving Bell, which was probably the first ever used in the harbor of Boston,* though it does not appear to have been known by that name until long after, f The knowledge of its principle, however, is coeval with the first and simplest branches of mechanics.J Two ships arrived from England about this time "but brought not above five or slk passengers. There came in one of them some copies of Mr. Cotton's book entitled the Seven Vials. It was printed from notes taken in characters, without the author's consent, and he was dis- pleased that it should appear not having a proper revision by himself." § The people of Connecticut were greatly alarmed by a discovery ^^' ' which they had made, that the Indians, "all over the country," had entered into a conspiracy to cut oiF the English throughout New England. A message to this effect being received at Boston, measures for security were at once taken. Kutshamokin was visited by an armed force, at Braintree, and ordered to appear at Boston, which he did without hesitation, and his men were disarmed. Bat, on examination, nothing suspicious could be f(Jund against the chief or his men, and he was dismissed. Notwithstanding, orders were sent to Newbury, Ipswich, and Rowley, to disarm Pasaconaway and other Indians on the Merrimac ; and yet it did not appear that there was any evil design intended by the Indians towards the English at all. But the proceeding had the bad effect of vexing the Indians, and serving the undertakers of it no good purpose whatever. It was probably the case that some of the evil-disposed Indians had circulated the report to annoy some of their own countrymen ; for they always had feuds among themselves. || Their history, like that of the white people, is fuU of similar examples. * Beckman, in his History of Inventions, of water for endangering him, &c." — Journal, tells us of a Diving Bell successfully em- ii. 73. ployed at Toledo in the presence of the Em- § A copy of this is in the library of the peror Charles V. Hence its use is carried ■writer. Mr. Humfrey caused it to be printed, back prior to 1558, the year of that Emperor's for the copy of which he received 300 of the death. They were employed at various times books. He wrote the preface to it, from which not long after the destruction of the " Inviu- it appears he viewed it to be of great impor- cible Armada," but with what success is not tance that it should be circulated at that time known. in England. This was his apology for printing f I think it is not to be found in Diction- it " before the author had afforded him more aries before the time of Dr. Noah Webster. liberty and leisure to have fyled over his J Winthrop's description of Bendall's con- owne notions." In the close of his preface trivance for submarine operations is worth Mr. Humfrey prays "for the most desired extracting. " He made two great tubs, bigger ruine and speedy begunne dovraefall of that than a butt, very tight, and open at one end, most cursed kingdome of Antichrist, according upon which were hanged'so many weights as to the scope and drift of that Prophisie, ex- would sink it to the ground (600 reet). It was pressed in the pouring out of these Seven let down, the diver sitting in it, a cord in his Vials." hand to give notice when they should draw || According to the account received from him up, and another cord to show when they the authorities of Connecticut, the people of should remove it from place to place, so he that colony had some cause of alarm. It was could continue in his tub near half an hour, stated that three different Indians, "near and fasten ropes to the ordnance, and put the about the same time, and in the same manner, lead, &c., into a net or tub. When the tub one to Mr. Eaton, of New Haven, another to was drawn up, one knocked upon the head of Mr. Ludlow, and the third to Mr. Haynes ;" it, and thrust a long pole und!er water, which that this last named Indian " being hurt near the diver laid hold of, and bo was drawn up by to death by a cart, &c., sent after Mr. Haynes, it ; for they might not draw the open end out and told him that Englishman's God was 264 HISTORY OF BOSTON. [1642. However, messengers were sent to Miantonimo to acquaint him with what was suspected of the Indians, and to request him to come to Boston. The messengers, as on all former occasions, found him above suspicion, and he soon after came to Boston, as he was requested. There is no record of any New England Indian superior to ''^ ' ■ Miantonimo. Indeed there is none which will compare with him for wisdom, magnanimity and justice ; and, had not a mistaken and wicked policy been adopted towards him by his EngUsh neighbors, his biography would, ere this, have shone as one of the brightest gems in the annals of New England. But in this history, he can only be spoken of incidentally. His memory claims a special treatise, which, one day, it will no doubt receive. May it be worthy of him. When he came to Boston agreeably to the request before stated, the court was assembled, " and before his admission," says Governor Win- throp, " we considered how to treat with him, for we knew him to be a very subtile man, and agreed upon the points and order, and that none should propound anything to him but the Governor, and if any other of the Court had anything material to suggest, he should impart it to the Governor." Such were the precautions taken by the wisest and most learned men in the country, to enter into a negotiation '^'^th a single Indian who never knew schools nor courts of law — nothing but the school of nature and the natural laws of man, as taught by his own native genius. Here was truly a Nobleman of Nature, in the presence of men who would have been great in any age — men supported by aU the learning afforded by the Universities of England, and the experience of years. These were taking counsel how they should proceed in a treaty with a single unlettered Savage from the depths of the wilderness ! Where can there be found an instance parallel to this ? Who is there that would not be proud of this position of Miantonimo ? AU things being arranged, Miantonimo was assigned a place at the foot of the Council table, " over against the Governor ; " but he would not proceed on any business excepting in the presence of some of his own Counsellors, observing, that they should bear witness on their return to his people of all his sayings. And it was noted by the Eng- lish, that in all his answers he was very deliberate, and showed a good understanding in the principles of justice and equity, and great inge- nuity. He called upon the English to produce his accusers, but they could bring nothing but vague rumors and hearsay statements, and they thus found themselves in a most awkward and unpleasant pre- dicament. He had come to Boston to answer to a capital charge, and he probably believed that the authorities stood in the light of accusers if they did not produce others ; and he remarked, that if the charge angry with him, and had set Englishman's foot, but they were doubtless abused by some cow [oxen] to kill him, because he had con- of their mischievous countrymen, 'whose aim cealed such a conspiracy." These Indians it was to bring about a war. — See Winthrop's may have believed there was such a plot on Journal, ii. 79. 1642.] MIANTONIMO. 265 were proved against him, he came prepared to suffer the consequences ; and now if he had been accused falsely, he expected that the authors of such accusation would be subjected to the same penalty.* He thought it a strange course for the English to pursue upon a mere rumor, for they acknowledged they knew none of the parties who had accused the Narragansets, and he asked why they had taken away the arms of the Indians upon such an occasion. The Grovernor excused the English as well as he could, and the chief relieved his embarrassment by expressing himself satisfied with his explanation. He gave the Court to understand that he believed Uncas to be at the root of aU the mischief, for it was evident he was in an underhand manner using every wUe he could to discredit the Narragansets with the English. This was the most important negotiation which had ever been held with the Indians in New England.f It lasted two days. Miantonimo said he had been dissuaded from going to Boston, for that the English would put him to death ; he replied that, inasmuch as he had done them no wrong, he did not in the least fear to come here ; and, more- over, that he would come at any time to meet Uncas face to face, and that he would prove his treachery if he durst come. "While in Boston the Indians were furnished with their meals at a table by themselves, Miantonimo did not seem pleased with thus being denied the Governor's table, and did not readily partake his food in this way, but on the Governor's sending him meat from his own table, he accepted it, and made no farther objection. When he was ready to leave the town, a coat was given him, and one to each of his counsellors. After taking his leave of the Governor and such of the magistrates as were present, he took a second leave for those magis- trates which were not present, by returning and giving his hand to the Governor again, saying that was for the absent ones. Notwithstanding, the Connecticut people reiterated their complaints and suspicions, and had some new grounds for them, yet the authorities at Boston wisely refused to make war upon the Indians. They kept up watches and guards, however, until near the end of October, and meantime returned the Indians all their arms. * Had he studied in the same schools with f On some accounts, perhaps, that of Roger Michael Servetus he could not have employed Williams with the Narragansets may be arguments more like those made use of by thought to be of as great moment. — See ante, that martyr than he did. — " Pourquoy Mes- p. 204. In the next chapter the story of the seigneurs, je demande que monfmdx accusateur melancholy sacrifice of Miantonimo to envy soil puni poena talionis," et cet. — Rosoo, Leo and interest will be given — to the envy of the X. iv. 437. Mohegans and the interest of the English. 34 266 HISTOKT OF BOSTON. [1645 CHAPTER XXVni. Few Emigrants from England. — Mr. Humfrey and Others leave New England. — Commercial Enter- prise. — Thomas Lechford. — Some Account of him and his Stay in Boston. — His " Plain Dealing " about it. — Appalling News from England. — Baging of the Civil War. — Capt. Coytmore's Voyage to Fayal. — An Endeavor to defeat Winthrop's Reelection as Governor. — Union of the Colonies. — Arrival of emigrant Children. — Arrival of a French armed Ship. — Mons. La Tour. — His Enter- tainment at Boston. — Beceives Aid to go against D'Aulnay. — Government censured for allow- ing it. — Inhabi.tants begin to manufacture Cotton Goods. — Censurable Conduct of the Rulers t(?ward3 the Indians. — They cause a War between the Mohegans and Narragansets. — Case of Miantonimo. — Adjudged to die by the English. — His Execution. — Interference with the Shawmut Settlers. — Case of Samuel Gosten and Others. SO few people had come over from England, of late, that there was very little demand for land ; cattle had fallen in value ; the present season was unfavorable to crops ; all of which, added to the fears from the Indians, caused several gentlemen to leave the country and return to their native land, ^fe Among them were Mr. Humfrey, four ministers, [and a schoolmaster. Under these circumstances, ^ s 22 ^ ^^^ ^^^ ordered to be kept. Among ^ *^ ■ ■ the occasions for its appointment, was the AHciENi sp.N»i»a.wHEEL. j]^ ^g^g q^^. jjf Euglaud, conccming the breach between the King and Parliament, and the unseasonableness of the weather, which changed, says Winthrop, "so soon as the fast was agreed upon." A little before this, ten ships had sailed from Boston, laden with pipe staves and other produce of the country. Four of these ships were built hereabouts the present year. Soon after, there arrived a small ^ ship from Madeira with wine and sugar. She belonged to a Mr. ' Parish, who came in her. He exchanged his cargo for pipe staves, and thus the commerce of Boston begun to advance in a small and almost imperceptible way. In the course of the present year, Mr. Thomas Lechford published a book about this country, which he entitled " Plain Dealing, or, Newes from New England." * He returned to England about the close of last year, "having been forth of his native country," as he expresses it, " almost for the space of foure yeeres last past." He appears to have left Boston on the third of August, 1641, in company with the commis- sioners who went for England by the way of Newfoundland.f He probably came over with the intention of taking up his residence here in Boston, and to introduce the practice of law, that being his pro- * Mr. Savage, I suppose, has reference to this poor lawyer. Perhaps he had evidence of hia work in his notes to Winthrop's Journal, poverty ; if so he has kept it to himself. He though he calls it News from England. It is probably did not have reference to his abilities, so in both of his editions of that work. If But little is known of Mr. Lechford. Lechford made a book of this title I have fSee an^e, p. 253. Mr. John Winthrop, Jr. never met with it. He says Lechford was a went in the same company. 1642.] ■ THOMAS LECHFORD. 267 fession. He was the first lawyer that made the attempt, and he failed in it, owing to the circumstances already stated.* The time for tol- erating lawyers had not yet arrived. The governor and magistrates thought themselves competent to decide all matters of difference be- tween man and man. Mr. Lechford was a man of good understanding, and his book upon the institutions of the Country is of great value, inasmuch as it gives an insight into many things which could not otherwise be obtained. His statements are honestly and accurately made, and must ever be con- sulted by all who desire minute and authentic information upon the civil and religious state of the country at the time he was here. He appears to have known many of the prominent men of Boston and the neighboring country before they came over; mentions his "old ac- quaintance. Master Roger Ludlow, Mr. Frost, sometime of Notting- ham, and his sonnes, John and Henry Grey." Bailey cited Lechford's work in his " Disswasive," against Cotton, which occasioned the latter to censure the Plain Dealing. From Cotton, it appears that Lechford died soon after he had published his work, and that he had defended the celebrated Prynne in his trials. While in Boston he was employed in a cause between William Cole and Francis Doughty, but whether he was allowed to appear in Court as Counsel, there is some uncertainty.! When he was here, he says "the Generall and great Quarter Courts, were kept in the great Church Meeting-house at Boston, which is as faire a Meeting-house as they can provide ; to which every Sabbath or Lord's Day they come by wringing of a bell, about nine of the clock, or before." J Mr. Lechford at this time says, " Master BeUingham" is Governor, Mr. Endicot Deputy Governor, Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Dudley, Mr. Hum- frey, Mr. Saltonstall, Mr. Bradstreet, Mr. Stoughton, Mr. Winthrop, Jr., Mr. No well. Assistants ; Mr. Nowell, Secretary ; Mr. Stephen Winthrop, Recorder, whose office is to record all judgments, marriages, births, deaths, wills and testaments, bargains and sales, gifts, grants, and mortgages. There is a Marshall who is a Sheriff or Bailiff, and his deputy is the Jailer and Executioner." § * See ante, -p. 257. a generall Towne-meeting." Capt. Gibbons, •f Possibly it was in the case of Cole vs. Val. Hill, Henry Webb and Anthony Stodder Doughty (3:7: 1840) to which the Colony appointed to trade with the Indians, records refer, 1 Dec. 1640. The words of the Jan. SI. — John Gutteridge, Riohd. Taylour, record are — " Mr. Thomas Lechford, acknowl- Edwd. Weeden, Richd. Knight, and James edging he had overshot himselfe, and is sorry Hudson, admitted townsmen, for it, promising to attend his calling, and not Feb. l2. — The high-way from John Lowe's to meddle with controversies, was dismissed." house by the Cove to Geo. Burden's house, to — Savage's Extract. What " calling " he had continue as " this dar laid out." assumed does not fully appear. Feb. 28. — Hugh Gunnison proposes to keep J Whether the bell were hung in the Meet- an " Ordinary with a cook's shop." John ing-house may admit of a question. Peirce and Richd. Dexter admitted inhabitants. ^ Jan. 10. — Deer Island ordered to be im- Dorchester men " forwilrned " not to cut tim- proved for the maintenance of a Free School for ber on any of the hills of upland in the marsh the Town, and " such other occasions as the beyond Naponset river, and to make satisfac- Townsmen shall think meet." No more land tiou for what they had cut already, to be granted to new inhabitants, " unlesse at Mar. 4. — The remaining Town's land to be 268 HISTORY OP BOSTON. [1643. It was remarked that the winter of 1642-3, though there fell more snow than had fallen in any winter since the settlement of the country, was not so hard and frosty as some others had been. „ Early in the year, news was received from England, of a char- acter which caused the people of Boston great uneasiness ; that the Parliament had lost 500 men at Brentford, and yet it had 24,000 men completely equipped in the field; that the King had fled to Eeading and set the 500 prisoners free, they having taken an oath not to serve against him, and yet they had been absolved from that oath by those two Puritan Divines, Dr. Downing and Mr. Marshall ; these, with many other items of intelligence of battles and contests in which their friends and kinsmen were engaged, caused the Churches to keep ' ' Di- uers days of humiliation." The ship Trial, which had made a voyage to Fayal, Captain ■ Coytmore, now arrived. He took out pipe-staves and fish, and found an excellent market for them ; thence he went to St. Christo- pher,* where he not only had a successful trade, but he recovered consider- able valuable property from some ships which had been cast away there. In this last business he employed the diving-bell with good success. He had license to prosecute this enterprise by the Governor of the Island, Sir Thomas Warner, and to have half of what he could get. By this voyage of Captain Coytmore, wine, sugar, and cotton were " made very plentiful and cheap" at Boston. Several other vessels returned soon after, making successful voyages also, ' ' though some of them went among the Turks." divided among the present inhabitants, and other remote place for the slaughter of beasts, such as shall be admitted in two months. that such loathsome smells might be avoided. Mar. 28. — Ralph Gulthorp, Jacob Chap- — Qoodm. Basse and goodm. Backster, both man, Wm. Fay, Benj. Thvring, John Baker, of Braintrey, may buy the overplus in the Wm. Burnell, James Hudson,Robt. Williams, Three HUl-marsh there. Wm. Franklin, Jr., Daniel Briscoe, and Thos. Dec. 26. — Thomas Joy, carpenter, may set Blott, admitted townsmen. — Robert Turner up a house by the water side, by his dwelling- to be paid 18s. for diet, beer and fire, for the house in the Mill Field. — Harman Atwood selectmen. admitted a tovrnsman. Apl. 25. — Wm. Philpot and Robt. Turner All parents are ordered to bring in a note of admitted inhabitants. — John Ruggle cow- the names and date of births of all their chil- keeper in the Town. dren " unto the Clarke of the Writs, within a May 2. — Mr. Wm. Ting and Oapt. Gibbons week after their birth, under the poenaelty of chosen Deputies to the General Court. — Si- 6