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THE DEVONSHIRE ANCESTRY
AND THE
EARLY HOMES OF THE FAMILY
OF
JOHN EXDECOTT.

GOVERNOR JOHN ENDECOTT.
From ihe Original Painting of 1665 in the possession of
W. C. Endicott, Esq., Boston, U S.A,

HANDS ACROSS THE SEA.

THE
DEVONSHIRE ANCESTRY

AND THE

EARLY HOMES OF THE FAMILY

of

JOHN ENDECOTT,
Governor of Massachusetts (-Bay, 1629.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

BY
SIR ROPER LETHBRIDGE, K.C.I.E.,
Ex-President of the
Devonshire Association.

Bt3>b,

e..i-*

" Hands Across the Sea."

INTRODUCTION.
WHEN, in the year iSgg, the Devonshire Association
elected me to be their President for the year of
the Annual ' Week" in Exeter of 1901 down to
the Annual Week " in Bideford of 1902, I resolved that
my Presidential Address should be entitled " Hands Across
the Sea," and should deal with the history of Devonshire
families long settled in America and the Colonies. The
American and Colonial Press gave me most generous help in
making this intention generally known. The result was an
immense mass of correspondence between myself and the
living representatives of more than 300 families of Devon
shire descent now domiciled beyond the sea. The Mayor and
Corporation of Exeter graciously consented to take charge
of this correspondence, for the use of future historians and
genealogists ; and it is now in the safe custody of a most
skilled and suitable guardian, Mr. Tapley-Soper, the librarian
of the Exeter University College.
That correspondence served to illustrate in the most
remarkable way the well-known fact that Devonshire men
and Devonshire women, however far they may wander from
the dear old county — they have always been the pioneers
of exploration and Empire, from the days of Walter Ralegh
and Francis Drake to those of Speke in Australia and Scott
in the Antarctic — have always carried with them a warm
and even passionate love for the old home. Ccelum non
animum mutant qui trans mare currunt.
And now, the happy occasion of the completion of the
" Hundred Years' Peace " between the English-speaking
nations, and the approaching Tercentenary of the voyages
of the Pilgrim Fathers, have imparted fresh interest to
recent researches into the family history of the founders of
the great American Republic The great meeting at the

6 The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott.
IVfansion House of Feb. 4th, in support of the movement
for commemorating the " Hundred Years' Peace," was pre
sided over by the Lord Mayor, and was addressed by the
Duke of Teck, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, by the
Prime Minister, and by Lord Bryce, lately our Ambassador
at Washington ; and messages of sympathy were recei^'ed
from the American Government, from Sir Edward Grey,
from Mr. Balfour, from Mr. Bonar Law, and from many
other representative Englishmen and Americans. At this
meeting it was announced that the Duke of Teck's Com
mittee had purchased Sulgrave Manor, Northamptonshire,
the ancestral home of the family of George Washington,
and were about to restore that interesting old house and to
provide for its endowment as the central museum and home
of the sentiment of Anglo-American brotherhood.
A similar interest is attached to the English ancestry
and the English homes of the great leaders of the Pilgrim
Fathers, who colonised New England some thirty years
before the landing in Virginia of George Washington's iirst
American ancestor. Among these New England- settlers
were many of the progenitors of those Devonian families
long settled in America whose history I sketched in my
Presidential Address, " Hands Across the Sea" — and where
we possess, from American sources, any indications of the
precise locality in Devon from which those progenitors came,
or where they belonged to a family owning land in the
county, it is often possible to piece together the modern
American pedigree and the earlier English one, as I have
shown in my " Hands Across the Sea," For this purpose
the Parish Registers and the other parochial, municipal and
diocesan archives^ — including the churchwardens' accounts,
accounts of guilds, and the registers of wills and adminis
trations in the various Probate Registries in Exeter and
London — are of the first importance. And in the case of
famihes owning land, these sources of information are
supplemented by researches in the archives of the Public
Record Office and the British Museum. In the last-named
category comes the family o*^ John Endecott.
Writing of John Endecjtt in my " Hands Across the
Sea," 1901, I observed: — "I have mentioned Governor

The Devonshire Ancestry of John ENnECOTT. 7
Endecott as a friend and contemporary of Roger Conant
and the earliest New England pioneers and pilgrims. The
first Governor of Massachusetts Bay, John Endecott,
impresses me as perhaps the strongest, morally and intel
lectually, of that band of giants. Before leaving England
he was a follower and disciple of a notable pastor of
Dorchester, the Rev. John White ; and for this reason he
has sometimes been spoken of as a Dorsetshire man, and
the family founded by him in .America, that has held a most
distinguished position there both in Colonial and in Repub
lican times, as Dorset folk. As a matter of fact, there can
be no doubt whatever that Governor Endecott came from
the well-known tin-mining family, whose name was variously
spelt Endicott, Endecott and Endacott, that owned tin-mines
and other lands in Chagford, Throwleigh and Moreton-
hampstead, and belonged to the Stannary of Chagford."

DREWSTON, CHAGFORD.
Home of John Endecott in A.D, 1628.

The Early Endecotts.
THE ancient Devonshire family of Endecott took its
name and origin from the estate of Endicott, parcel
of the Majior ofTtton, alias South Tawton, in the
sub-Dartmoor parish of South Tawton. The present
homestead — of which I give a photograph at page ii, by
the kind permission of my friend Mr. Richard Quance, who
now lives there — has been partially rebuilt as a modern farm
house, but includes part of the ancient house. It is situated
about a mile south of the North Tawton Station of the
London and South Western Railway. The name is spelt
by the Post Office and the neighbours, "Endacott"; but
it appears on the six-inch Ordnance Survey map as
" Hendicott," and on the ancient Tithe-map as Yendicott."
The last spelling is the nearest to the original. In the Court
. Roll of the Manor of Itton, alias South Tawton, for 17 19
(see Devonshire Association Transactions, Vol. xxxiv,
page 616), mention is made of ' Endicott's hedge" at Itton
Green ; and from the Court Roll of 1725, it appears that the
last of the Endicott family had died in that year, and
his estates of Itton and Taw Green had passed to ' John
Eastchurch, his next heir."
In a charter of the year 1262,' granting the Manor of
Itton to William de Mohun with his wife Giliana (see D. A.
Transactions, Vol. xxxiv, page 599), the estate of ' Yonde-
cote" is stated to pay an annual chief-rent of los. 6d. to
the Manor; and this is probably the earliest form of the
name. The affix cot," cote," or cott," meaning home
stead, is found in place-names, and in personal names
derived from them, in nearly every parish in Devonshire —
often in correlative pairs like Northcote and Southcott,
Escot and Westcote, Upeoft- and Nethercott, and so forth.
" Yonder-cote," the " further homestead," may be the correla
tive of " Hither-cote" or Heathcote, the nearer homestead."
In the year 1327 (ist Edward III.) the Devon Lay
Subsidy Rolls in the Public Record Office show that Johannes
de Ynndecote was assessed to the subsidy in that year for

IO The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott.
his lands in South Tawton at lod.— the largest assessment
being that of the lady of the Manor, Alicia de Moelys, who
was assessed at 2s. This Johannes de Ynndecote is the
earliest member of the family of whom I have traced
individual mention in the Records. But as the family took
its name from the estate it owned and on which it lived —
a parcel of the manor of Itton, alias South Tawton, which

ANCIENT FIREPLACE WITH OAK MANTEL,
DREWSTON, CHAGFORD

was a " King's Manor" in the Domesday Survey of William
the Conqueror, and which in Saxon times had formed part
of the dowry of Githa, wife of Earl Godwin, sister of King
Svend of Denmark, and mother of King Harold — it is
probable that further research in the Records would disclose
earlier members of the family in possession of " Yondecote."
In the year 1448 (27th Henry VI.), by a charter that
is now preserved in the Exeter University College Museum
(Brooking-Rowe Bequest, Deed No, 16), Ricardus Waterman

The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott. i i
conveyed to John Yendecote, alias Bittbeare, and Alicia his
wife and Henry their son, the copyhold of the estate of
Wode Tirell and a arcel of land called Gosselandonne in
the Manor of Holecombe Purramor in the parish of Wynke-
legh. The parish of Winkleigh is nearly adjacent to that of
South Tawton on the north ; and in it is the Manor of Holcomb
or Hollacombe Paramore — Paramore being a corruption of de
Portu Mortuo, the name of the family that owned the manor

ENDICOTT, SOUTH TAWTON.
Home of Endecott Family in A.D. 1262.

in the reign of Henry III. In Sir George Carew's " Scrol
of Arms," 1558 {Devon Notes and Queries, Vol. i., part 2
page 119), the coat of arms of the family of Waterman is
gi\en "or, a buck's head cabossed gules"; and Carew
adds " Wood Tirrell and Hole Tirrell were his, temp
Henry V.," 1413-1422.
In this charter of 1448 " John Yendecote, alias
Bittbeare " is doubtless a descendant of the Johannes de
Ynndecote of 1327. Bittbeare or Bidbere is now a farm
in the south of the parish of Winkleigh, and about midway

12 The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott.
between Endicott in the parish of South Tawton and Wood
Tirrell in the north of the parish of \Vinkleigh. The
purchaser of Wood Tirrell is called in the charter " John
Yendecote, alias Bittbeare," because, at the time of the
purchase he owned both Yendecote and Bittbeare — and the
nomenclature is interesting, as illustrating the fact that at
this very period, 1448, was growing up the custom of place-
names being adopted as surnames. The view of Wood

WODE TIRELL (now WOOD TERRELL) IN WINKLEIGH,
Home of Endecott Family in 1448,

Terrell, this early purchase of the Endicott family, as it
now exists is from a photograph by Mr. E. J. Saunders,
of Winkleigh. The copyhold tenure of Wood Terrell was conveyed to
John Yendicote on the three lives of himself, his wife Alicia,
and their son Henry, as customary in Devon — the heriot on
the renewal of a life being the best beast," and the copy
holders were to be entitled to housebote, haybote, and
iirebote." And this branch of the Endecott family in
Winkleigh, thus established by John Yendicote, alias

The Devonshiri-: Ancestry of John Endecott. 13
Bittbeare and his wife Alicia and their son Henry, was
seated at Wood Tirrell certainly for over a century as copy
holders of the manor ; for in 1563, in the Registry of the
Archdeaconry of Barnstaple, we have the will of Thomasine
Endicott of Wynkleye, widow — shown by her son Robert's
will, mentioned below, to be the daughter-in-law of the above
named Henry — mentioning her sons, Robert and John
Endicott. And this will of the said Robert Endicott, alias
Byttabear, of Winkleighe, was proved in the Registry of
Barum (or Barnstaple), 16 Feb., 1574 — mentioning his
grandfather," the above-named Henry Yendicote, also his
brother John Endacott, alias Byttabear. There is also the
Administration of Thomas Endacott, or Endecot, of Wem-
worthy (the adjacent parish) in 1579 as an intestate; and
the will of John Endacote, of Wemworthy, in 1579-80,
mentioning only wife and daughters — with whom possibly
ended the line of Endecotts of Winkleigh in the male line.
In the Early Chancery Proceedings at the Public
Record Office we find the record of a suit brought by Alice,
the widow of Richard Yendecote, of South Tawton (undated —
but clearly belonging to the time of Edward IV., 1460 to 1483),
to recover an estate of 360 acres in South Tawton from one
William Stonman and Alice his wife. The proceedings
show that the land in dispute was parcel of the manor of
Itton, alias South Tawton, which is stated to be ancient
demesne." So it was doubtless the estate of Endicott
with the annexed estate now called Justment (formerly
" Agistment," the pasturage land of Endicott), and the
Richard Yendecote mentioned was probably the son and
heir of the John Yendecote, of 1448.
In the year 1528, nearly 50 years later — and exactly 100
years before the sailing of Governor John Endecott from
Weymouth in the Abigail — the Churchwardens' Accounts
of Chagford show that John Endecote had just become the
owner of Myddell Parke in that parish, and that he united
with one Henry Verden (the occupier) to give one-eighth
share of this land to the Wardens of St. Katherine's Store
in Chagford Parish Church. In the accounts of the Wardens
of the Hoggeners of the High Cross in Chagford Parish
Church for the year 1523, John Yoldon is shown as the

14 The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott.
owner of Myddelcott ; and in the same accounts for 1525
(16 Henry VIII.) John Yoldon appears again as the owner
of Middelcote. But in the year 1527 John Yoldon is entered
as owner of Wycke in Chagford — from which it appears
that he had sold Middlecott to John Endecote between the
years 1525 and 1527. And this property long remained in
the possession of the Endecott family — in the year 1636 it

MIDDLECOTT, CHAGFORD.
Formerly Midelcote Manor, Home of Endecott Family in A.D. 1528.

was left by John Endecott by his will to his third son
Richard, the occupier of Middlecott at that time being John
Endecott's sister-in-law, Anne Endecott; and his nephew
Henry Endecott.
Middlecott was a Saxon Manor and appears in the
Domesday Survey as Midelcote. It was held, in the time
of Edward the Confessor, by a Saxon thane named Alwin ;
and it was one of the very few manors — only, 27 out of over
1,500 in all Devonshire — which were retained by their Saxon

The Devonshire i^NCgswsy of John Endecott. 15
lords after the Norman Cos^ue^t. It is thus described in the
Exchequer Domesday Book : —
"Alwinus tenet Midelcote Ipse tenebat tempore regis
Edwardi et geldabat pro dimidio ferling terrae. Terra est i carucas
qiire ibi est cum i servo. Ibi ij acrae silvse minutce. Valet v
solidos." Westcote {Viexv of Devonshire in 1630, page 433) states
that this manor belonged in jgariy times to the families of
Rushford and Crispin successively — from them it appears
to have passed to Yolden, and from Yolden to Endecott in
1525 or 1527.
In the Chagford Churchwardens' Accounts, Myddell
Parke is described as containing a Tynne-worke. At the
period when John Endecott became its owner in 1528
Chagford was one of the four Stannary Towns of Devon,
with a Stannary Court held at the Guildhall, where tin-
mining causes were heard, and the blocks of smelted tin were
coined" and stamped by the officials after payment of
dues. The stannators had great privileges under various
royal charters (see the Transactions of the Devonshire
Association, passim, and especially a valuable paper by
Mr. Ormerod in Vol. I., v., page no) from John, Edward I.,
Edward III., and Charles I. ; and each Stannary Court
returned 24 jurors to serve in the Stannary Parliament, held
sub Jove frigido on Crockern Tor in Dartmoor. In 1528,
and for many years afterwards, the tin-streaming industry on
Dartmoor was a most lucrative one ; and its extent is shown
by the fact that in the reign of Henry VIII. great com
plaints were made by the people of Teignmouth and Dart
mouth that their harbours were being silted up by the soil
washed down from the tin works. The Endecott wills show.
that the family in this way became very wealthy. The
parishes of Chagford, Throwleigh, Drewsteignton j and
Moreton Hampstead, on the upper Teign river, where the
Endecott estates were situate, contain some of the most
beautiful scener.y in the world ; and are also extremely
interesting, as possessing a wealth of relics of the pre-historic
ages in Britain — earthworks, cromlechs, manhirs, stone
avenues, hut circles, and early stone crosses. In the folk
lore of the country most of these remains used to be associated

1 6 The Devonshire .Ancestry of John Endecott.
with the semi-mythical legends about the Druids. Drewston,
the chief seat of the Endecotts, was supposed to be the town
of the Druids, as the neighbouring parish of Drewsteignton
was supposed to be the town of the Druids on the Teign —
but both names were probably derived from Drogo or Dru,
who was lord of the manor in the time of Henry III.
The view of Middlecott farmhouse, which now represents

1 1 ' "
THE DRUIDS WELL, MIDDLECOTT, CHAGFORD.

the ancient Middlecott Manor, at page 14, is from a photo
graph by Mr. Wilfrid Evans, of Ashburton. Near Middle
cott there used to be a beautiful ancient British cross, incised
on a slab of granite ; and there is also the " Druid's W^ell,"
of which a view is given above, from a photograph by
Mr. J. Pope, of Chagford. From this time forward the
headquarters of the Endecott family were in Chagford.
But cadet-branches were seated in all the neighbouring
parishes, Throwleigh, South Tawton, Moreton Hampstead,
Drewsteignton, Bridford, Dunsford, Ilsington, and later in

The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott. 17
Exeter, St. Thomas, and Alphington (close to Exeter), and
Stdke-in-Teignhead and Marldon, between Teignmouth and
Torquay, and Kenn, Kenton, and Kentisbeare, all near Exeter.
And as the family name is unknown in the records of any
other county than Devon — and in these early times was also
unknown in any other part of Devon than the parishes here
named — we have herein closely indicated the birth and
parentage of Governor John Endecott.

The Immediate Family of the Governor.
The sons of John Endecote of Middlecott in Chagford,
named above in 1528, were undoubtedly Henry (probably
the great-grandfather of the Governor) and John. I take
the younger first.
The Churchwardens' Accounts of Chagford for the years
1558 to 1562 show that " John Endycott '' held a leading
position in the parish. In 1558 he was elected one of the
" four men," in succession to John Prows, lord of the manor
of Chagford, and three others, who had held that office in
1556-7. In 1559, in 1560, and again in 1562, the accounts
of the " stores " in the Parish Church show receipts from
John Endycott ; and in the last-named year he is descrijped
as one of the "ale-wardens and receivers of gifts for the
reparation of Chagford Church." His will, proved in Exeter
in 1584 (26 Elizabeth), shows that he was a large owner
of tin-mines in Throwleigh and the adjacent parishes, in
cluding the great Bradford mine, and that he left to his wife
for her life the mansion-house of Waye, which had been for
centuries the home of the Prows family, lords of the manor
of Chagford — see Transactions of the Devonshire Associa
tion, Vol. viii., page 76, for an account of Waye, which still
contains a carved and highly-decorated chamber of this
period. This John Endycott left an elder son John — born
before 1563, and therefore an old man at the time of the
sailing of the Abigail in 1628 — and a younger, Henry, who
was a minor in 1584, and was assessed to the Subsidy in
1624. Another son of John Endecott of Waye — not men
tioned in the will, because he had died at Oxford two years

i8 The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott.
before its date — was, almost certainly,- William Endecdtte,
born in 1558, who matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford
(see Boase's Register of that College), on Dec. 20, 1577, at
the age of 19. He was elected a " Devon " Fellow of the
College on June 30, 1579, admitted July 8, 1579, and full
Fellow, July 17, 1580, in place of John Batt, and died in
1582. The " Devon " Fellowships of Exeter College are (like
the Stapeldon scholarships, of which the present writer held
one) on the original Foundation of Walter de Stapeldon,
Bishop of Exeter, and can only be held by men born in
Devonshire, or of a family bond fide domiciled in that county.
This will is particularly interesting, as illustrating the tin-
mining industry that ilourished at that time in the parishes
adjacent to Dartmoor. It is only one of a great number of
Endecott wills preserved in the Exeter Registries, for the
family was a wealthy one, and most of its members seem
to have had property to dispose of at their death.
To return to John Endecote of Middlecott Manor in
Chagford, his eldest son was undoubtedly Henry Endecott
(probably great-grandfather of the Governor), for Middlecott
was one of the many landed estates devised under the will of
Henry's son, John, in 1635, and left by the latter to his son
Richard (probably uncle of the Governor).
We have no means of ascertaining the exact date of
Henry Endecott — but as his younger brother died at a good
old age in 1584, it must have been approximately 1515 to
1585. We have, however, numerous references to incidents
in his life. He was living in 1584, for in that year his
younger brother John left him one-eighth share in a tin-mine
called Torredown.
His place in the Endecott pedigree is definitely fixed in
the Chancery Proceedings of 12 Charles I. (25 Nov., 1636) —
see page 26 — where he is shown to be the father of John
Endecott, senior, the grandfather of Thomas, Robert, William,
and Richard Endecott, and of Mrs. Wilmote Nosworthy, and
the great-grandfather of John Endecott, who was, I believe,
the Governor. The same Proceedings show that Henry Endecott,
having inherited Middlecott Manor from his father, was also

The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott. 19
the owner of the fee-simple of the important estate of
Drewston in Chagford. The Chagford Churchwardens'
Accounts show that Drewston — also spelt Dreuiston, Throsv-
styn, Throuston, Throosun — was owned in 1521 by Symon
Taverner, and in 1525-1529 by William Benett. So it was
probably bought by Henry Endecott about the year 1530. It
is now owned and occupied by my friend, Mr. S. Lethbridge
Dicker. Between the years 1560- 1580 a daughter of Henry
Endecott was married — according to the Heralds' Visitation
of Devonshire in 1620 — to Edward Knapman, fourth son of
WilHam Knapman by Alicia Hore of Rushford in Chagford.
The connection of the Knapman, family with the tin-mining
industry is shown by their coat-of-arms — " Or on a cross gules,
betiveen four choughs proper five blocks of tin marked ¦with
the letter W." The eldest brother of Edward Knapman, Alex
ander, was married to Anna, daughter of Sir John Whiddon
of Throwleigh ; and Alexander's daughter Alice was married
to Robert Lethbridge of Nymet Tracy, These four families
— Whiddon, Endecott, Knapman and Lethbridge — owned
most of the tin-mining land in the Stannary of Chagford. It
may be added that Henry Endecott was an overseer of the
will of his younger brother John (mentioned above), having as
liis colleagues Alexander Knapman (his daughter's brother-in-
law) and John Hore of Rushford in Chagford, his cousin.
From undated Chancery Proceedings at the Public
Record Office of the time when Sir Nicholas Bacon was
Lord Keeper, 1558-1579, it appears that Henry Endecott
married Margery, daughter of William Hals or Halse of
Crediton, and that he subsequently brought a Chancery suit
against his father-in-law for the recovery of estates in South
Tawton and Spreyton, which he alleged were the dower of
his wife Margery. The father-in-law pleaded that he had given
the young couple the estate of Nethercott in Spreyton — which,
curiously enough, at the present day is in the possession of
Mr. Joseph Endacott — but that he had promised and given
the lands in dispute as the dowry of.another daughter, married
to William Oxenham of Oxenham Manor in South Tawton.
The records do not show theTesuit of this suit ; but after the
death of his daughter Margery, William Halse brought

20 The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott.
another suit against his grandson, Henry Endecott the
younger, to recover money lent to Margery on the occasion
of the marriage of her daughter Elizabeth to John Downe
of Chagford. From the three above-mentioned Chancery Proceedings,
and from the wills of John Endacott (1636) and of William
Endacott (1630), we find that this Henry Endecott of Middle
cott Manor and Drewston in Chagford had, besides his eldest
son John Endecott, who succeeded him (of whom presently),
two younger sons, William and Henry. The latter, men
tioned above, probably pre-deceased him. The former died
in 1630, leaving a widow, Anne Endecott (who was buried at
Chagford, Feb. 13, 1637-8), and an only son, Henry, who had
six young children — William, Henry, Edward, Elizabeth,
Mary and Johan — and all these were living at Middlecott
Manor at the time of the death of W^illiam's elder brother
John in 1635-6, and had to surrender that estate to John's
younger son Richard. There were also two daughters,
Elizabeth Endecott (mentioned above), married to John
Downe of Chagford, and Johane or Joan Endecott, who
died as an elderly spinster in 1620, and left a legacy to
her brother John.
We now come to John Endecott (probably the grand
father of the Governor), who inherited Drewston and
Middlecott Manor in Chagford from his father, Henry
Endecott, and who appears to have acquired other large
tin-mining properties in the neighbourhood — including Cran-
brook Farm and Cranbrook Castle in Moreton Hampstead,
and Pafford or Parford, partly in Drewsteignton and partly
in Moreton Hampstead. He appears to have been born
about the year 1541, and died in extreme old age in 1635-6 —
his will is dated May 9, 1635, and was proved on April 5,
1636, in the Bishop's Registry at Exeter, and disputed in
a Chancery suit, 1636 to 1638.
His eldest son and heir, Thomas Endecott, predeceased
him, and was buried at Chagford, Dec. 20, 1621, leaving a
widow, Alice Endecott, an elder son John (probably the
Governor, of whom hereafter), a younger son Gregory, and
a daughter Margaret. The widow Alice Endecott seems to

The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott. 21
have been a lady of considerable landed property in the parish
of Stoke-in -Teignhead, where, after her husband's death, she
"was assessed to the Lay Subsidy of 1624 (see Subsidy Roll
for that year), as well as her younger son Gregory. She
administered her husband's intestate estate in 1621, and in
the letters of administration he was called ' Thomas
Endeoott, of Stoke-in-Teignhead," and later on, in the

CRANBROOK FARM, MORETONHAMPSTEAD,

Chancery Proceedings of 1636-1638, her son, John Endecott:
was described as " of Stokentynhead, Devonshire" (see below,
page 26).
By his will of May 9, 1635, John Endecott left money
for the Church of Chagford, and also for the poor of the
parish. He left the mansion of Drewston, in Chagford,
" where I now dwell," with all lands, houses, 'etc., etc., " to
the same belonging, or in any wise appertayning," to his
second son, Robert, to whom also he bequeathed South

22 The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott.
Tynnel in Pafford, an estate in Moreton Hampstead lying"
between the estates of Francys Courtney, Esq., on the
south, of John Dunnynge on the west, and of Rowland
Whiddon, Esq., on the north and east ; also all my Tyn-
workes and partes of Tynworkes lyinge and beinge within
the County of Devon, to have and to hold all the aforesaid
Tynworkes and parts of Tynworkes unto the said Robert
Endacott, his heires and assignes for ever, according to the
custom of the Stanyrie of Devon aforesaid." He left to
his third son, William, the estate of Cranbrook, in Moreton
Hampstead, " wherein the said William nowe dwelleth."
And to his fourth son, Richard, the estate of Middlecott, in
Chagford, " nowe in the tenure or occupation of my sister-
in-lawe, Anne Endacott (she was buried at Chagford in
1637), and Henry Endacott, my kinsman" {i.e., nephew).
He left sundry small gifts in money or kind to his wife,
Johane, to his daughter, Mrs. Wilmote Nosworthy, and to
each one of his numerous grandchildren — including 40s. to
John, the eldest son and heir of his deceased eldest son
Thomas, who was thus practically disinherited, and who
subsequently disputed the will in Chancery.
The reason for the disinheriting of the younger John
Endecott by his grandfather, the elder John Endecott, can
only be guessed. It was probably due to the religious
differences that, at the period in question, caused so much
dissension in many families in England. For whilst the
family wills and the Churchwardens' Accounts of Chagford
show that the older John Endecott and the family generally
were strong churchmen, it is clear that the younger John
Endecott, the grandson — probably under the influence of
the famous Puritan divine, the Rev. John White, M.A.,
of Winchester, and Fellow of New College, Oxford, who
was Rector of St. Peter's and of Holy Trinity, Dorchester,
frqm 1606 to 1648 — became imbued with equally strong
Puritanical convictions. The eminent Dorsetshire antiquary,
the Rev. R. Grosvenor Bartelot, M.A., Rector of Fordington
St. George, Dorchester, has shown very good grounds for
the belief that much of the early life of Governor John
Endecott was passed in Dorchester or the neighbourhood.
And this view has been, endorsed by no less an authority

The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott. 23
than Mr. A. M. Broadley, of The Knapp, Bridport, to whose
initiative we are indebted for the Weymouth celebration.
In the inventory of the household effects at Drewston
on the death of the elder John Endecott, there is found,
among numerous quaint belongings, " one Corslett," and
this probably was a relic of the military service of the
younger John Endecott against the Spaniards in the Low
Countries. During the long life of John Endecott, the grandfather,
1 54 1 to 1635, the family flourished greatly, and spread into
all the adjacent parishes of Devon, as is shown by the
following list of wills bequeathing property in addition to
those already mentioned. The spelling of the name varies
greatly, but I here adopt the common spelling, Endecott : —
1547, William Endecott, of Kenton; 1617, Richard Endecott,
of Dunsford; 1622, Alexander Endecott, of Throwleigh;
1623, John Endecott, of Exeter ; 1624, James Endecott, of
Dunsford; 1624, John Endecott, of Bridford; 1634, Alice
Endecott, of Exeter ; 1636, John Endecott, of Bridford.
Of these wills, the two most important for present
purposes were those of John Endecott, of Exeter, in 1623,
and of John Endecott, of Bridford (between Chagford and
Exeter), in 1624. The former was administered by the
widow, Alice Endecott, with John Gower {alias Gore), as
one of her sureties, and presumably her father or brother-
The latter was administered by the widow (unnamed), with
George Gower [alias Gour) as a witness and overseer, and
presumably the widow's father or brother.
Of the life of Thomas Endecott, father of the Governor,
we know comparatively little, as he died four years before
his father. He appears to have been born about 1560,
brought up at Drewston, in Chagford, as the heir of the
family, and married to a lady of considerable landed
possessions in the parish of Stoke-in-Teignhead, a few
miles away. Her name was Alice — and presumably Alice
Westlake, for when she administered her deceased husband's
estate in 1621, her chief surety was William Westlake,
gentleman, of Combe-in-Teignhead, the parish adjoining
Stoke-in-Teignhead, presumably her father or brother. The

24 The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott.
eldest son of this marriage was, as shown both in the will
of John Endecott, the grandfather, in 1635, and in the
Chancery Proceedings of 1636, John Endecott, doubtless
the Governor. In the King's Subsidy of 1624, both Alice
Endecott, the widow, and Gregory Endecott were assessed
in considerable sums on land in Stoke-in-Teignhead — Gregory

CRANBROOK CASTLE.
Ancient British Earth-work ol the Bronze Age, commanding the
Teign Valley, on Cranbrook Farm.

being probably either a younger son of Thomas and Alice
Endecott, or perhaps more likely a son of Alice Endecott
by an earlier marriage with another member of the Endecott
family. In the will of John Endecott, senior (tbe grand
father), neither Alice (the widow) nor Gregory is mentioned,
only John and his sister Margaret, children of " my son
Thomas, deceased."

The Devonshire Ancestry of JoHn Endecott. 25
Governor John Endecott.
In the foregoing notes I have assumed that Governor
John Endecott was the eldest son of Thomas Endecott, of
Chagford, by his wife Alice, of Stoke-in-Teignhead,
and grandson and rightful heir-male of John Endecott,
of Drewston and Middlecott Manor in Chagford. I now
proceed to show that this is practically certain.
The life of John Endecott, from the date of his sailing
from Weymouth in the good ship Abigail, Henry Gauden,
master, on June 20, 1628, for Naumkeag (afterwards Salem)
in New England, down to his death on March 15, 1665, when
he was with great honour and solemnity interred at Boston"
on the 23rd of the same month — and the history of the
distinguished family descended from him in New England
down to the seventh generation in Mr. Secretary Endicott,
Secretary for War in President Cleveland's first Adminis
tration, and to the eighth generation in Mr. W. C. Endicott,
of Boston, and Mrs. Chamberlain, wife of Great Britain's
most eminent statesman — do not come within the scope of
the present paper.
I have already noticed the fact that the family was
always confined, except as occasional sojourners, to one
English county, Devonshire — and in early times to that part
of Devonshire that lies within a radius of about 12 or 15
miles from South Tawton and Chagford. The wills -a-nd
other records of this family show that, at the time o^ the
departure of the Governor for New England in 1628, there
were at least five members of the family bearing the nari\e
of John — and of course there may have been others whose
names happen not to appear in the wills. But of those that
appear, all, with the exception of the heir of Drewston,
were either minors or men over sixty years of age. More
over, it is known that the Governor must have been a man
of some fortune before leaving home, as shown by his
purchase of a large share of the Patent of Settlement — and
-undoubtedly the Drewston branch of the family, being the
senior, was considerably more wealthy than any of the
.others.

26 The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott.
Governor Endecott, when he died in 1665, left behind
him a vast mass of correspondence and other records,
including numerous letters to Governor Winthrop. Many,
possibly all, of these have been printed. in America; but it
is a curious fact that, so far as I know, there is not a single
reference in any of these papers to any of the members of
his family in England — a fact that points to some such family
differences as those to which I referred at page 22. There
are, however, two documents referring to affairs in England ;
and these seem to me to be alone sufficient to identify Governor
Endecott with the disinherited heir of the Drewston Endecotts.
I. In Lechford's Note-Book, page 113, we learn that
on 3 September, 15th Charles (1639), "John Endicott, Esq.,
one of the Councill for the Jurisdiccon of Mattschusetts Bay
in New England," obtained from the then Governor, John
Winthrop, Esq., a life-certificate, obviously for use in
Chancery or other law proceedings in England. The
Certificate is as folloAvs: —
" John Winthrop, Esq., Governor of the Jurisdiccon of
Mattschusetts Bay in New England to all manner of persons whom
it may concern Greeting. Know ye that John Endicott, Esq., one
of the Councill for the Jurisdiccon aforesaid is Blessed be God at
this present in full life and health, wch. at the request of the
said John Eudicott I have thought good to certifye. In testimony
etc., 3 Septr., 15 Charles, 1639."
Now, all this is perfectly, explained by reference to the
records of the Court of Chancery in the Public Record Office.
From Chancery Bills and Answers, Charles I., Ee 30, no. 53,
we learn that (as already mentioned at page 18) on November
25, 1636— shortly after the will of John Endecott (senior) of
Drewston had been admitted to probate — the grandson and
heir-male of the testator (described by himself in his Bill of
complaint as "John Endecott of Stokentynhed," which simply
gives his English domicile) brought a suit in Chancery against
his uncle Robert Endecott, his grandmother Johane Endecott,
a,nd their co-executor Henry Hooper of Chagfofid. In his Bill
— which does not seem to have been sworn in England at all —
he denied the existence of a will, stating that John Endecott,
the grandfather had been too old and too weak to be competent
to make a will, claiming the estates as next heir-male, and

The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott. 27
praying the Court to order the alleged executors of the will to
come into Court and produce the documents under which they
claimed. By an order of the Court of Chancery of May 13,

CHAGFORD PARISH CHURCH.
Burial place of Endecott Family.

1637, this prayer was granted. The executors evidently
brought the will into Court and proved their case — for the
complainant offered no replication, and indeed ' did not
appear at all — and on Nov. 20 in Michaelmas Term, 163S,
judgment was given in default of replication. From the
Decrees and Orders of that date, we learn that the final decree

?8 The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott.
was to the effect that " the plaintiff is adjudged to pay to the
defendants 46s. 8d. costs for want of a replication, and the
matter of the plaintiff's Bill is from henceforth clearly and
absolutely dismissed out of this Court." It is worthy of note
that the Answers " of the defendants were sworn at Chag
ford — but there is no mention of the place where the plaintiff s
Bill had been sworn, or whether it was sworn at all. And
after that Bill, the plaintiff appears to have done nothing
whatever to prosecute the suit. Whether it was owing to the
lengthy time occupied in communications between England
and New England, or whatever may have been the cause, it
appears that the life-certificate obtained by the Governor on
Sept. 3, 1639, came too late to be of any use in the suit — and
indeed the grandfather's will obviously destroyed this case,
which seems never to have been seriously intended, except to
force disclosure of the will.
2. — On the 27th of August, 1651, fourteen years before
his death. Governor John Endecott addressed a long letter to
the President of the Corporation for Propagating the Gospel
amongst the Indians in New England." In it he thanked the
Corporation for the liberal help they had afforded in money,
gave some most interesting accounts of the methods and
progress of the proselytising work among the indigenous tribes
of New England, and invoked further pecuniary assistance.
It is a most striking fact that the response to this appeal from
Chagford Parish was instantaneous. Among the Church
wardens' Accounts and parochial archives of Chagford, which
I have been permitted to peruse by the courtesy of the Rector,
the Rev. Hubert Studdy, M.A., I find the original list of all
the subscribers, 65 in number, with the amount of their sub
scriptions, to a Fund stated to be for the ' Propagation of the
Gospel in New England," in the handwriting of " John
Coplestone, Clarke," the Rector of Chagford — the date was
January 25, 1652, only five months after the date of Governor
John Endecott's letter written in Boston ! And among the
subscribers I find the r>ame of his cousin Henry Endecott (who
had doubtless promoted this collection) and of other cousins,
including John Nosworthy, Mary Nosworthy, Thomas Nos
worthy, and John Dunning — also the executor of his grand
father's will, Henry Hooper, and his son, Henry Hooper the

The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott. 29
younger — and such well-known freeholders of Chagford as
John Northcott, Gilbert Northcott, Oliver Cullacott, William
Woollacott, John Whyddon, John Prouz, and John Hore.
This seems clearly to indicate that Governor Endecott, so late
as 1652, was still in direct communication with the Parish of
Chagford — and that he and his cousin Henry Endecott of
Chagford were at that time on terms of personal friendship.
The Records of the " Governor and Company of the
Massachusetts Bay in New England" contain this entry on
Feb. 23, 1628 : —
"This day a Warrant, etc., in part of the freight of the . .
Henry Gawden, Master, from Waiiiiouth to Xahumkeke . . besides
ye chargdge of Capten John Endecott, his wiffe . . . and persons
his company, their passage aud dj-ett."
And in a paper in the Neiv England Historical aiul
Genealogical Register," vol. I., page 335 (1847), it is stated
that according to family tradition, the Governor had married
Anne Gouer before leaving England, and that she died in 1629,
sine prole. Also that the Governor married again, on August
1 8, 1630, a lady named Elizabeth Gibson, who had probably
come over from England with Governor Winthrop — the
marriage ceremony being celebrated by the latter, aided by the
Rev. Mr. Wilson, afterwards pastor of the first church in
Boston. This lady was probably a widow, the daughter of
Piiilibert Cogan, Esq., of Chard in Somerset, whose other
daughter was married to Roger Ludlow. It is also stated that
Governor John Endecott — who is always styled " Captain " in
the early American records — had probably held the rank of
Captain when fighting against the Spaniards in the Low
Countries, and his corslet had evidently been preserved at
Drewston, for it was appraised at £1 in the Inventory of the
household effects of John Endecott, senior.
The marriage of young John Endecott to Anne or Anna
Gower or Gouer must, of course, have been celebrated in the
parish church of the lady — so no register of it has yet been
found, for lack of any information as to her domicile. But we
have seen above, page 23, that at least two members of the
family of the Drewston Endecotts had married, or been
associated with, members of the Gower or Gore family — a
fact that strongly corroborates the family tradition.

30 The Devonshire Ancestry of John E.vdecott.
It may, therefore, from all these considerations be
fairly assumed that Governor John Endecott was born either
at Drewston, in Chagford, or at Stoke-in-Teignhead, not
far away, about the year 1589, the eldest son and heir of

CHAGFORD MARKET HALL.
Formerly Stannary Court House, now re-built.

Thomas Endecott, of Drewston and Stoke-in-Teignhead, by
his wife Alice, the said Thomas, who was buried at Chag
ford in 1621 (seven years before the sailing of the Abigail),
having been the eldest son and heir of John Endecott,
of Drewston, in Chagford, by his wife Johane. That the
young John in early life came under the influence of the

' The Devonshire Ancestry of John Endecott. 31
great Puritan divine, the Rev. John White, of Dorchester,
and that ultimately he became, probably on this account,
alienated from his grandfather, and was disinherited by him.
Perhaps for the same reason he fought for the Protestant
religion against the Spaniards in the Low Countries, and
after his return to England very probably married Anna
Gower. Early in the year 1628 he joined with five other
wealthy Puritans — Sir Henry Roswell, Sir John Young,
Simon Whetcomb, John Humphrey, and Thomas Southcote
— ^in the purchase of a grant for the settlement of the
Massachusetts Bay from the Plymouth Council, a grant
afterwards confirmed by the Charter of Charles I. To
carry out this grant, he embarked at Weymouth on June 20,
1628, with his wife and a considerable band of planters,
and arrived at Naumkeag (Salem), in New England, on
September 6 in the same year. His strong, righteous rule
in New England has been well described in the lines of
Whittier :—
" In his Council chamber and oaken chair
Sat the worshipful Governor Endecott :
A grave strong man, who knew no fear
111 the Pilgrim-land — where he ruled in fear
Of God, not man — and for good or ill,
Held his trust with an iron will."

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