:iiii||||iii|||lliiil||||l|i
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 SEELEY W. MUDD 
 
 and 
 
 GEORGE I. COCHRAN MEYER ELSASSER 
 
 DR. JOHN R. HAYNES WILLIAM L. HONNOLD 
 
 JAMES R. MARTIN MRS. JOSEPH F. SARTOR! 
 
 to the 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SOUTHERN BRANCH
 
 8 9 6T 
 
 4
 
 HISTORY 
 
 NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN GORHAM PALFREY. 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 Nee mihi materiam [natalis terra] negabat, 
 Et plus est patriae facta referre labor. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 
 
 1865. -^
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 
 
 JOHN GOBHA.H PALFREY. 
 
 in the Clerlt's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 Cambridge: Priotcd by Welch, Bigelow, & Co.
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OP 
 
 NEW ENGLAND 
 
 DURING THE STUART DYNASTY. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN GOKHAM PALFREY. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 
 
 1865.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by 
 
 JOHN GORHAM PALFREY, 
 
 ID the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 Cambridge : Printed by Welch, Higclow, & Co.
 
 < 
 
 
 To JARED SPARKS. 
 
 My dear Sparks ; 
 
 Seven times seven years ago this day, you, coming from Connecticut, 
 and I, from Massachusetts, arrived at the Academy in Exeter, New 
 Hampshire. For two years we were lodged beneath the same roof, and 
 recited our lessons from the same form. Next we were classmates through 
 1,^ the undergraduate course at Cambridge. Next we there pursued to- 
 gether our studies for the profession to which we expected to devote our 
 lives. You went to a distant city ; we kept up a constant intercourse 
 ^ of letters and visits. You came to live in Boston, and we met almost 
 •^ every day. I removed to Cambridge ; you followed soon ; and, since 
 ^ that time, our homes have been side by side. Friendships of such inti- 
 cc macy and duration are rare. It is not chiefly because the reading world 
 so honors you, — still less is it from a wish to involve you in responsi- 
 bility for any of my defects, — that, in coming before the public with an 
 essay in a department of writing in which you have won a wide renown, 
 I desire to associate your name with that of 
 
 
 JOHN GORHAM PALFREY. 
 
 Cambridge, Massachusetts ; 
 September 7, 1858.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO THE PRESENT EDITION, 
 
 The title-page to tins edition is embellished with an engraved 
 copy of what was probably the seal of the Council for New 
 England. When I was in England I took great pains to find an 
 impression of that seal, but without success ; which surprised me, 
 the patents issued by the Council having been so numerous. 
 An impression of the seal in wax is attached to the patent of 
 Plymouth Colony issued in 1629 ; but it has been so broken and 
 defaced, that the device is undistinguishable. Mr, Charles Deane 
 believes that he has discovered this in an embellishment of the 
 title-pages of two of the publications of Captain John Smith. I 
 might do injustice to Mr. Deane's ingenious argument (which 
 I understand will soon be published in a volume of the Proceed- 
 ings of the Massachusetts Historical Society), should I attempt 
 to exhibit it. It will be found to have great force. 
 
 The Index to my work, in the enlarged form which it now 
 bears, is a fruit of the judgment and skill of Dr. John Apple- 
 ton, the learned Assistant-Librarian of the Massachusetts His- 
 torical Society. 
 
 J. G. P. 
 
 Cambridge, Massachusetts ; 
 1865, July 21.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 I PROPOSE to relate, in several volumes, the history of the 
 people of New England. 
 
 In this first volume I treat of the Settlement of New England, 
 meaning by that word, not only the arrival of European colo- 
 nists, but the framing and establishing of that social system, 
 under which, through successive generations, their descendants 
 have been educated for the part which they have acted in the 
 world. 
 
 The founders of the commonwealths of which I write were 
 Englishmen. Their emigration to New England began in 1620. 
 It was inconsiderable till 1630. At the end of ten years more, 
 it almost ceased. A people, consisting at that time of not many 
 more than twenty thousand persons, thenceforward multiplied on 
 its own soil, in remarkable seclusion from other communities, for 
 nearly a century and a half. Some slight emigrations from it 
 took place at an early day ; but they were soon discontinued ; 
 and it was not till the last quarter of the eighteenth century, 
 that those swarms began to depart, which have since occupied 
 so large a portion of the territory of the United States. 
 
 During that long period, and for many years later, their iden- 
 tity was unimpaired. No race has ever been more homogeneous 
 than this remained, down to the time of the generation now upon 
 the stage. With a near approach to precision it may be said, 
 that the millions of living persons, either born in New England, 
 or tracing their origin to natives of that region, are descendants
 
 yiii PREFACE. 
 
 of the twentj-onc thousand Englishmen who came over before 
 the early emigration from England ceased upon the meeting of 
 the Long Parliament, Such exceptions to this statement, as he- 
 long to any time preceding that of tlic present generation, are of 
 small account. In 1652, after the battles of Dunbar and Worces- 
 ter, Cromwell sent some four or five hundred of his Scotch 
 prisoners to Boston ; but very little trace of this accession is 
 left. The discontented strangers took no root. After the 
 revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, about a hundred 
 and fifty families of French Huguenots came to Massachusetts, 
 where, though their names have mostly died out, a considerable 
 number of their posterity are yet to be found. A hundred and 
 twenty Scotch-Irish families came over in 1719, and settled at 
 Londonderry, in New Hampshire, and elsewhere. Great num- 
 bers of foreigners — especially of Irish, and, next to them, of 
 Germans — are now to be reckoned in a census of New Eng- 
 land ; but it is chiefly within the last thirty years that they 
 have come, and they remain for the most part unamalgamated 
 with the population of English descent. 
 
 Thus the people of New England are a singularly unmixed 
 race. There is probably not a county in England occupied by a 
 population of purer English blood than theirs. It is a race still 
 more specially to be characterized as representing a peculiar 
 type of the Englishmen of the seventeenth century. A large 
 majority of the early planters were Puritans. Some of the small 
 English settlements in the eastern part of the country were 
 composed of other elements. ^But, from the early time when 
 these were absorbed by Massachusetts, their anti-Puritan pecu- 
 liarities began to disappear, and a substantial conformity to 
 the Puritan standard became universal. 
 
 Sequestered from foreign influences, the people thus consti- 
 tuted was forming a distinct character by its own discipline, and 
 was engaged at work within itself, on its own problems, through 
 a century and a half. Down to the eve of the war which began 
 in 1775, Now England had little knowledge of the communi- 
 ties which took part with her in that conflict. Till the time of
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 the Boston Port Bill, eighty-four years ago, Massachusetts and 
 Virginia, the two principal English colonies, had with each 
 other scarcely more relations of acquaintance, business, mutual 
 influence, or common action, than either of them had with 
 Jamaica or Quebec. 
 
 This people, so isolated in its pupilage, has now diffused itself 
 widely. I am to tell the early story of a vast tribe of men, 
 numbering at the present time, it is likely, some seven or eight 
 millions. Exactness in such an estimate is not attainable ; but 
 it would probably be coming somewhere near the truth to divide 
 the present white population of the United States into three equal 
 parts ; one, belonging to the New-England stock ; one, the pos- 
 terity of English who settled in the other Atlantic colonies ; and 
 anotlier, consisting of the aggregate of Irish, Scotch, French, 
 Dutch, German, Swedish, Spanish, and other immigrants, and 
 their descendants. According to the United States' Census of 
 1850, the six New-England States had in that year 2,705,095 
 inhabitants, of which number 305,444 were of foreign birth. 
 It would, I suppose, be making a liberal allowance to refer the 
 round number of half a million of the present inhabitants of 
 those States to the modern immigrations from abroad. On the 
 other hand, more than seven hundred and fifty thousand natives 
 of New England — often persons not inconsiderable in respect to 
 activity, property, or influence — are supposed to be now living 
 in other parts of the Union.* The New-England race has con- 
 tributed largely to the population of the great State of New York, 
 and makes a majority in some of the new States further west. 
 Considerable numbers of them are dispersed in distant parts 
 of the world, where commerce or other business invites enter- 
 prise, though they do not often establish themselves for life in 
 foreign countries. I presume there is one third of the people 
 of these United States — wherever now residing — of whom no 
 individual could peruse this volume without reading the history 
 of his own progenitors. 
 
 * Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, XXX. 637.
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 " The principles of Xew England," says a distinguished foreign 
 writer, " spread at first to the neighboring States ; then they 
 passed successively to the more distant ones ; and at length they 
 imbued the whole Confederation." * To allude here to influ- 
 ences exerted by the people of New England on the fortunes of 
 the nation of which it now makes a part, would be to antici- 
 pate later portions of my narrative. But there is one evidence 
 of their efficiency, which admits of the simple and precise illus- 
 tration of figures. The reader of this volume will see how poor 
 was Massachusetts in her early years. Her soil is barren ; and 
 she has no natural staple commodity of great value in the mar- 
 kets of the world. Yet at the present time, a little more than 
 two centuries and a quarter from the date of her foundation, her 
 taxable property — exclusive of property belonging to institutions 
 of religion, education, and benevolence — amounts to a thousand 
 millions of dollars. Equally divided, it would afford more than 
 eight hundred and eighty dollars each to every man, woman, 
 and child within her borders. From the reserved fruits of the 
 labor of eight generations " she could give a dollar to each of 
 the thousand millions of the inhabitants of the earth, and still 
 have all her schools, meeting-houses, towijL-houses, alms-houses, 
 gaols, and literary, benevolent, and scientific institutions, left as 
 nest-eggs to begin the world anew." f The value of the regis- 
 tered products of the labor of her people for the year ending 
 June 1, 1855, — undoubtedly falling far short of the actual 
 amount, — was two hundred and ninety-five million eight hun- 
 dred and twenty thousand six hundred and eighty-one dollars. :j: 
 
 The history and education of a race so numerous, so peculiar, 
 80 widely scattered, and constituting so large an element of the 
 wealth and power of a great nation, present a subject well worthy 
 of attention. When I began to think of it as offering a suitable 
 
 • De Torqueville, Democracy in America, Chap. 11. 
 
 t Christian Examiner, LXV. 34. 
 
 X Stati.stic:al Information relating to certain Branches of Industry in Mas- 
 sachusetts, collected and published by the Secretary of the Commonwealth 
 in 1856.
 
 PREFACE. XI 
 
 employment for what may remain of my life, it had already been 
 long a favorite occupation of my leisure, and I had occasionally 
 treated portions of it in the periodical publications of the day. 
 In the more careful investigations into which I have now been 
 led, I have been gratified to find confirmation of judgments 
 which I had earlier expressed respecting some prominent fea- 
 tures of the theme. 
 
 I persuade myself that I have been both diligent and success- 
 ful in the search for information. Large supplies of original 
 materials for my work lay close at hand in the libraries of the 
 University at Cambridge, of the Boston Athenaeum, and of the 
 Massachusetts Historical Society ; and, on the part of each of 
 those institutions, I have had every accommodation that could be 
 desired. I was also liberally welcomed to the use of different 
 private collections, among which I ought particularly to mention 
 the valuable ones of my neighbor, Mr. Charles Deane, and of Mr. 
 John Carter Brown of Providence. Mr. Deane's books were 
 a constant resource to me ; and Mr. Brown, to whom I am 
 indebted for access to some not to be found elsewhere, carried 
 his generosity so far as to request me to take to my own home as 
 much of his choice and sumptuous collection, as my convenience 
 might require. 
 
 In the spring of 1856 I went to England, for the purpose of 
 obtaining a knowledge of some facts important to my purpose, 
 and of satisfying myself on some questions that had arisen. 
 Mr. Dallas, Minister from the United States, promptly interested 
 himself in my behalf. At his instance, Mr. Labouchere, Secre- 
 tary of State for the Colonies, obligingly gave the necessary 
 directions for my admission to those public offices where much 
 of my quest was to be made. Mr. Merivale, Under Secretary of 
 the Colonial Department, promoted my investigations, and they 
 were facilitated by the kindness of Mr. Reeves, Secretary to 
 the Privy Council, and of Mr. Lechmere and Mr. Lemon, of the 
 State-Paper Office. I would gratefully record my obligations 
 also to Mr. Panizzi, Principal Librarian of the British Museum, 
 and to Mr. Jones, Mr. Watts, and Mr. Major, of that institution,
 
 Xii PREFACE. 
 
 for the useful attentions by which they enabled me to avail 
 myself of its treasures. I employed most of the summer in 
 tiie examination, in London, of records and other manuscripts, 
 and in the consultation of rare books. A large portion of my 
 memoranda, then obtained from the sources which I have indi- 
 cated, and from others, relate to periods of the history more 
 recent than that which is treated in the present volume. Many 
 of the hours when the public establishments were closed, I was 
 enabled, by the hospitality of the Athenaeum Club and the Re- 
 form Club, to employ, advantageously for my object, among the 
 standard books of their excellent libraries. 
 
 I have regarded it as the duty of an historian to rely most upon 
 the evidence of those witnesses (provided they were otherwise 
 trustworthy) who lived nearest in time and place to the events 
 related ; and I have not knowingly rested any statement on 
 authority of an inferior description. Governor Winthrcp's 
 " History of New England," Governor Bradford's " History 
 of Plymouth Plantation," and Nathaniel Morton's " New Eng- 
 land's Memorial," as edited respectively by Mr. Savage, Mr. 
 Deane, and Judge Davis, are rich storehouses of information 
 respecting the events of our primitive times. The thirty-four 
 volumes of published " Collections of the Massachusetts His- 
 torical Society " comprehend numerous treatises, larger and 
 smaller, of the liighest value to the historical student. The less 
 extensive published Collections of the American Antiquarian 
 Society, of the Historical Societies of Maine, New Hampshire, 
 Rhode Island, and New York, of Mr. Force of Washington, 
 and of Messrs. Farmer and Moore of New Hampshire, have 
 materially increased the fund of historical wealth. Single 
 tracts, to which I have had access, now extant in a small 
 number of copies, whether printed or manuscript, have often 
 served a useful purpose. The official Records of Plymouth and 
 of Massachusetts, as recently edited by Dr. Shurtleff, those of 
 Rliodc Island, l)y Mr. Bartlctt, those of Connecticut, by Mr. 
 Trumbull, and those of New Haven, by Mr. Hoadly, are of 
 course documents of the highest authenticity and import, and 
 have been daily in my hands.
 
 PREFACE. XIU 
 
 I have thought that the course of early events in New Eng- 
 land required often to be interpreted by bringing to view their 
 relations to earlier and contemporaneous transactions in the 
 parent country. So far as I have recounted those transactions, 
 I have been dealing with the commonplaces of history. But I 
 have endeavored to secure myself against one-sided represen- 
 tations by constant reference to the views entertained by writers 
 of various affinities, political and religious ; and I have written 
 with the works (among others) of Hume, Lingard, Hallam, 
 Neal, and Mrs. Macaulay constantly before me. Whenever a 
 questionable statement of any fact presented itself, I have re- 
 ferred to the Parliamentary History, and to the Journals of the 
 Lords and of the Commons, as well as to the early books of 
 general history, or to books belonging to some special depart- 
 ment, or treating some particular topic, according to the nature 
 of the case, 
 
 I have not failed to seek instruction and suggestions from 
 those who have preceded me in this line of research. Besides 
 writers who have treated of the origin and progress of New 
 England as a part only of the more comprehensive history 
 of the United States, others — especially Hutchinson, Belknap, 
 and Trumbull — produced works in the last century which will 
 have a durable value in respect to the history of single States ; 
 while, among our contemporaries, Mr. Elliott, Mr. William- 
 son, Mr. Hollister, Mr. Baylies, and Mr. Barry, by their works 
 respectively on the history of New England, of Maine, of Con- 
 necticut, of Plymouth, and of Massachusetts, have secured an 
 honorable reputation for diligence in this field. A History of 
 Bhode Island is announced, from the able pen of Mr. Samuel 
 Greene Arnold of Providence. I regret that it has not appeared 
 in season for me to compare the conclusions which I have 
 reached in that department of inquiry, with those of so well- 
 instructed and judicious a writer. The " Historical Discourse " 
 of Callender — hitherto the principal authority on the subject — 
 does not satisfy curiosity as to the course of events in the 
 Narragansett settlements. 
 
 VOL. I. b
 
 xiv PREFACE. 
 
 Ill treating such a theme, so far am I from any ambition of 
 appearing to have gone on unaided, that I should deem myself 
 blamable, had 1 not sought help in every accessible quarter, 
 and, in particular, had 1 not applied at the best sources for 
 that local and circumstantial information which sometimes is 
 not to be had from books. From Mr. George Folsom, formerly 
 of Maine, Mr. John Langdon-Elwyn of Portsmouth in New 
 Hampshire, Mr. "William S. Russell of Plymouth, Dr. King of 
 Newport, Mr. J. Hammond Trumbull of Hartford, Mr. Charles 
 J. Hoadly, editor of the Records of New Haven, Mr. Sabine, 
 formerly of Eastport, and the Reverend Alonzo H. Quint, for- 
 merly of Dover, I have received material assistance in the treat- 
 ment of those portions of my subject with which these gentlemen, 
 from their respective positions and from the course of their 
 studies, were minutely acquainted. If I have fallen into error 
 in regard to matters of fact on which I have consulted them, it 
 must have been through misapprehension of their statements. 
 
 In the preparation of different parts of my work, I have had 
 assistance from so many sources, that I cannot undertake to 
 enumerate them all. My obligations to Professor Guyot, in 
 respect to the Physical Geography of New England, I have 
 acknowledged in another place. Professor Gray, Professor 
 Cooke, Professor Wyman, and Mr. George B. Emerson, gave 
 me information concerning different branches of its Natural 
 History. Dr. J. G. Kohl, whose return to his own country 
 the scholars of this do not cease to regret, contributed to my 
 knowledge of the movements of the early voyagers to this con- 
 tinent. Count Pulszky (with whom in Europe I was so for- 
 tunate as to renew my acquaintance), and Mr. George Sumner, 
 h('lj)ed me to understand the adventures of Captain John Smith. 
 At different stages in the prosecution of my work, I have found 
 new occasion to appreciate the learning and judgment of Mr. 
 Parsons, Dr. Francis, Mr. Bowcn, Mr. Torrey, and Mr. Lowell, 
 Professors in the University at Cambridge, and of Mr. Cliarles 
 Francis Adams, the Reverend Edward Everett Hale, Mr. Charles 
 Eliot Norton, and other friends, competent and ready to ren-
 
 PREFACE. XV 
 
 der me important aid. Mr. Charles Deane has been indefati- 
 gable in giving me the benefit of his large acquisition of 
 knowledge respecting our early annals. 
 
 To no one am I indebted for more light than to that eminent 
 archaeologist, Mr. Samuel Foster Haven, of Worcester. Espe- 
 cially have I been aided by him in elaborating the view, pre- 
 sented in these pages, of the origin and purposes of the Com- 
 pany of Massachusetts Bay. So long ago as the year 1837,* 
 as well as at different times since, I published my thoughts 
 respecting the political relations of some of those early move- 
 ments of the government of Massachusetts, which have gener- 
 ally been ascribed to religious bigotryT^ I have been greatly 
 assisted in maturing them by Mr. Haven's treatise on the Mas- 
 sachusetts Company, in the third volume of the " Collections of 
 the American Antiquarian Society," and not less by private 
 correspondence with which he has honored me. 
 
 In making up the narrative from materials thus carefully 
 brought together, it is little to say that I have aimed to be 
 veracious and just. I should have been neither, if I had affected 
 to conceal my veneration for the founders of New England. But 
 I hope that I am not disqualified for writing of their conduct 
 without undue bias in their iavor. My ancestors, on the one side 
 and on the other, were in Plymouth and in Massachusetts from 
 the earliest moment of those Colonies ; but they never acted any 
 conspicuous part in the public business. Nor am I in danger of 
 being induced by religious sympathy to judge the leading actors 
 with too much indulgence. My interpretations of the Gos- 
 pel differ widely from those which have ruled in the coun- 
 cils of the New England commonwealths, from the colonization 
 down to a time within the memory of living men. With the 
 belief which I entertain, I could not have been admitted to 
 any church established by the Fathers, if, indeed, an attempt 
 to propagate my belief would not have made me an exile from 
 their society. 
 
 * North American Review, XLIV. 568 et seq.
 
 XVI PREFACE. 
 
 It will not surprise me to leani that I am thought, in the 
 composition of the work, to have indulged myself too freely in the 
 interweaving of quotations. It is however of set purpose, that, 
 especially in relating some parts of the story, I have adopted 
 a method which mere considerations of rhetorical taste might 
 not recommend. The peculiar language of the men whom I 
 describe is a substantive part of their peculiar history. It 
 displays the form and pressure of the place and time. Tbe 
 phraseology of the actors is to the I'eader a constant expositor 
 and reminder of the complexion of the thoughts and sentiments 
 that determined the course of affairs. 
 
 In the journey which I have been pursuing, I have observed 
 some erring steps of writers who have trodden the same path 
 before me. But it would ill become me to point them out with 
 censure. I have learned too well how difficult it is to master 
 such a multiplicity of details as lies within the compass of this 
 narrative. 1 seem to myself to have used extreme diligence 
 in the authentication of facts ; but I shall be svirprised if the 
 accurate knowledge of some who will read what I have written 
 shall not convict me of mistakes. 
 
 In the copper-plate Map of New England prefixed to this vol- 
 ume, the delineation of mountain topography records the personal 
 observations of Professor Guyot, who, with that generosity which 
 always actuates him, communicated them to me for this use. 
 The names affixed to the principal ranges and peaks have, of 
 course, been recently applied, differing in that respect from the 
 names inserted along the coast line, which were in use at the 
 close of the history related in this volume. The " photo-litho- 
 gi-aphed" copy of the Map of Captain Smith represents the 
 first edition of it, published in London in 1G16. The copy of 
 William Wood's Map of New England is taken from the print 
 inserted in his " New England's Prospect," issued in London 
 in 1G36, which is in the Library of Harvard College. John 
 Underhill's " Newes from New England," which has furnished 
 the litliographcd plan of the attack on the Pequot fort, is 
 also in tliat Library. But the plan is there mutilated, and the
 
 PREFACE. XVii 
 
 defect has been supplied from another copy, belonging to Mr. 
 John Carter Brown. 
 
 It only remains for me to avow my obligations to my almost 
 lifelong friend, Mr. Charles Folsom, for the very important favor 
 of a careful revisal of the sheets of this volume as they passed 
 through the press. At every step his critical sagacity and prac- 
 tised judgment have stood me greatly in stead. 
 
 J. G. P. 
 
 6*
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Map of New England in 1620-1644 . . . Before the Title-page. 
 
 Mill at Chesterton in AVarwickshire Page 58 
 
 Round Tower at Newport ......... 58 
 
 Smith's Map of New England in 1614 94 
 
 Wood's Map of New England in 1634 360 
 
 PequotFort 466
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OF THE FIRST VOLUME 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Physical Geography. Page 
 
 Peninsula south of the St Lawrence 2 
 
 Area of New England 2 
 
 Ranges of Highlands .......... 3 
 
 Increase In the Height of Mountains towards the North .... 5 
 
 Sources and Direction of Rivers . .... . . . 7 
 
 The Connecticut . 7 
 
 The Eastern and the Western Rivers 8 
 
 Lakes . . . . • . . 9 
 
 Harbors and Bays . . . ... . . . . . 10 
 
 Meteorology, Climate, A>fD Soil. 
 
 Temperature . ., .. ..... . . . .10 
 
 Rain and Droughts 11 
 
 Lo.cal Diseases 12 
 
 Agriculture ........... 13 
 
 Soil 14 
 
 Natural History. 
 
 Minerals and Botany ........ ... 15 
 
 Fishes and Birds 17 
 
 Insects 18 
 
 Reptiles and Quadrupeds . .19 
 
 Aboriginal Inhabitants. 
 
 Observations of the First Voyagers on the Natives . . . . 19 
 The American Indians a Separate Family of Mankind . . . .22 
 
 Sevenfold Division of the North-American Indians .... 23 
 
 Twofold Division of the New-England Indians 23 
 
 Aboriginal Population of New England 24 
 
 Number ........... 24 
 
 Physical Characteristics 25 
 
 Dress, Houses, and Food 26 
 
 Horticulture and Fishing ........ 27 
 
 Manufactures 28
 
 XX COXTENTS. 
 
 Tools, Arms, Ornaments, and Furniture 29 
 
 Want of Domestic Animals ........ 30 
 
 Domestic Relations 30 
 
 Burials 31 
 
 Trade and ^loney 31 
 
 Indolent Habits, and Love of Gambling and Drunkenness . . 32 
 
 Inventions 83 
 
 Music, Dancing, and Eloquence 33 
 
 "Want of Science .......... 35 
 
 Civil State and Government 36 
 
 Sachems and Sageunores 38 
 
 Languages ........... 40 
 
 Grammatical Forms , . . . . . . .41 
 
 Vocabulary .......... 43 
 
 Religion ............ 43 
 
 Power of Endurance ......... 49 
 
 Inferior Capacity for Civilization 50 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Early Voyages and Explorations. 
 
 Alleged Voyages of Northmen to North America .... 51 
 
 Voyage of Biorne . . . .63 
 
 Voyage of Leif .......... 53 
 
 Voyages of Thorwald and Thorfinn ...... 54 
 
 Dighton Rock 56 
 
 Round Tower at Newport ......... 57 
 
 Alleged Voyage of Madoc ........ 59 
 
 Voyages of the Zeni 60 
 
 John Vas Cortereal 60 
 
 Szkolney, the Pole 60 
 
 Discovery of North America by the Cabots 60 
 
 Voyage of Caspar Cortereal 63 
 
 Voyage of Verazzano . . . . . . . . . 64 
 
 Visita of Fishermen and Others ........ 65 
 
 Gilbert's Voyage, and Project of a Settlement 67 
 
 Further Explorations .......... 69 
 
 Voyage of Gosnold .......... 70 
 
 Voyage of Pring .......... 74 
 
 Voyage of Waymouth ......... 75 
 
 Danger of an Occupation of New England by the French . . .77 
 
 Sir Fcnlinando Gorges ......... 78 
 
 IncorjKiration of the Virginia Companies ...... 81 
 
 Attempted Settlement on the Kennebec ...... 83 
 
 Hudson's Visit ........... 85 
 
 The French on the Penobscot ........ 85 
 
 Captain John Smith .......... 85 
 
 Adventures in Europe, Asia, and Africa ..... 86
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XXI 
 
 Connection with the London Company 91 
 
 Voyage to New England . . , . . . . . 92 
 
 Map of New England 94 
 
 Later Enterprises 94 
 
 Early Maps embracing the Coast of New England 95 
 
 Kichard Vines at Saco 98 
 
 Thomas Dermer at Plymouth 99 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Puritanism in England. 
 
 Free Spirit of the Early English Church 
 
 Discontent with Ecclesiastical Abuses .... 
 
 JohnWickliffe 
 
 Religious Policy of the Lancastrian Kings . 
 
 Beginning of the Reformation from Popery 
 
 Progress of the Reformation in the Reign of Edward the Sixth 
 
 Question of Clerical Costume 
 
 Accession of Queen Mary 
 
 Her cruel Treatment of Protestants 
 
 Accession of Queen Elizabeth ..... 
 
 Act of Supremacy and Act of Uniformity 
 The Queen's Sympathies with Romanism 
 Proclamation for Conformity ..... 
 
 Accession of Archbishop Grindal .... 
 
 Accession of Archbishop Whitgift .... 
 
 His severe Proceedings ..... 
 
 Constitution of the High-Commission Court 
 
 Rise of Separatism ....... 
 
 Robert Brown and the Brownists .... 
 
 Punishment of Separatists ...... 
 
 Character of the Clergy in the Reign of Elizabeth . 
 Emigration of Separatists to Holland .... 
 
 Accession of King James the First .... 
 
 The Millenary Petition 
 
 The Conference at Hampton Court 
 
 Gloomy Prospect of the Reformers .... 
 
 Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury 
 
 101 
 103 
 103 
 106 
 108 
 111 
 112 
 114 
 116 
 116 
 117 
 117 
 119 
 120 
 120 
 121 
 121 
 122 
 123 
 123 
 125 
 126 
 126 
 127 
 129 
 131 
 132 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Founders of Plymouth Colony. 
 
 The Congregation at Scrooby in Nottinghamshire . . . . 133 
 
 Richard Clifton and John Robinson 134 
 
 William Brewster .......••• 135 
 
 William Bradford 136 
 
 Resolution of the Scrooby Congregation to emigrate . . . 137
 
 Xxii CONTENTS. 
 
 Their Rosidcme at Amsterdam 139 
 
 Their llemoval to Lejden 140 
 
 Character of Robinson ......... 143 
 
 Disorders in the Netherlands 144 
 
 Disturbances at Leyden 145 
 
 Project of another llemoval ........ 146 
 
 Doubts about a Place of Settlement 149 
 
 Choice of North Vi'trinia ........ 150 
 
 Mission of Agents t( England 150 
 
 The Seven Articles of the Leyden Church 150 
 
 Negotiation in London 151 
 
 Dissensions in the Virginia Company 152 
 
 Patent from the Virginia Company 153 
 
 Contract of llobinson's Congregation with Merchants of London . 153 
 
 Preparations for Departure from Holland 155 
 
 Embarkation from Delft- Haven in the Speedwell . . . . 156 
 
 Arrival at Southampton . . . 158 
 
 Sailing of the Speedwell and the Mayflower from Southampton . 159 
 
 Failure of the Speedwell, and Return of the Vessels .... 169 
 
 Final Departure of the Mayflower 159 
 
 Origin of Some of the Passengers in the Mayflower .... 160 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Colony of Plymouth. 
 
 The Mayflower at Cape Cod 164 
 
 .^ Compact for Government ......... 165 
 
 Carver chosen Ciovernor . . . . . . . . 167 
 
 First Exploration of the Country . . . . . . .167 
 
 Exposures of the second Week 168 
 
 Second Exploration of the Country ....... 168 
 
 Thin] Expedition for Discovery , . . . . . . 170 
 
 Landing of a Boat's Crew at Plymouth 171 
 
 Arrival of the whole Company at Plymouth 172 
 
 Christmas 173 
 
 First Operations at Plymouth . . . . . . . . 1 73 
 
 Fatal Sickness 174 
 
 AVelcome from Samoset 1 76 
 
 Visit from other Natives . . . . . . . . .177 
 
 Visit from, and Treaty with, Massasoit 178 
 
 Organization, Military and Civil 179 
 
 Return of the Mayflower to England 180 
 
 Death of Carver 180 
 
 Enij)loyment.s and Condition of the Settlers during the first Summer . 181 
 
 Visit to Massasf)it 183 
 
 Voyage to Nauset 184 
 
 Journey to Namasket 185 
 
 Submission of nine Sachems 185
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XXUl 
 
 Voj'age to Boston Bay 185 
 
 Improved Prospects 186 
 
 Arrival of the Fortune 187 
 
 Character of the Colonists 187 
 
 Feuds in, and Ill-Suc(fess of, the London Company . . . .190 
 
 Incorporation of the Council for New England 192 
 
 Existing Portions of its Records . , . . ... 193 
 
 Patent from the Council for New England . . ->^ . , . 194 
 
 Return of the Fortune to England . . . .^ . . .194 
 Cushman's Prophecy ......... 195 
 
 Scarcity of Food ' . . . 196 
 
 Threats of War from the Narragansetts . . . . . . 196 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A 
 
 Renewed Scarcity of Food .... 
 
 Weston's Plantation at Wessagusset 
 
 Second Visit of Winslow to Massasoit 
 
 Conspiracy of Indians ..... 
 
 Dispersion of Weston's Company 
 
 Weston at Plymouth 
 
 -j^Perplexities of the Council for New England . 
 
 Further Attempts at Colonization 
 
 Project for a General Governor of New England 
 
 Proceedings in Parliament ..... 
 
 The Plymouth Patent in Danger 
 
 Continued Scarcity ...... 
 
 Arrival of the Ann and the Little James . 
 
 New Description of Settlers .... 
 '—Plentiful Harvest of the third Year . 
 
 Allotments of Land ...... 
 
 Arrival of Edward Winslow from England 
 
 Faction among the Merchant Adventurers . 
 
 Faction at Plymouth ..... 
 K^onviction of Lyford and Oldham 
 ^'Dissolution of the Partnership of Adventurers . 
 
 Transactions at Mount Wollaston and at Cape Ann 
 
 Prosperous Condition of Plymouth . 
 
 Death of Robinson and of Cushman 
 
 Visit of De Rasieres to Plymouth 
 
 Release from the Merchant Adventurers 
 
 Distribution of Stock and Land 
 
 The Trade of Plymouth farmed by eight Colonists 
 ' Proceedings at Merry Mount .... 
 
 English Planters in and about Massachusetts Bay 
 Neighboring Colonies of France and Holland. 
 
 New France 
 
 New Netherland 
 
 198 
 199 
 201 
 201 
 203 
 203 
 204 
 204 
 206 
 209 
 209 
 211 
 212 
 212 
 213 
 215 
 215 
 216 
 219 
 221 
 221 
 222 
 223 
 224 
 226 
 227 
 228 
 230 
 232 
 233 
 
 234 
 235
 
 XXIV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PuRiTAx Politics m England, ' 
 
 Rise of the Conflict between Arbitrary and Popular Principles 
 Its Relations in England to Religion .... 
 
 Its Progress in the Reign of James the First 
 Loyalty of the Non-conformists .... 
 Restless State of Public Feeling in England 
 Conduct of James at his Accession .... 
 Proceedings of his First Parliament at its First Session 
 Second Session of King James's First Parliament 
 
 Third Session . 
 
 Fourth Session ....... 
 
 Fifth Session 
 
 Parliament dissolved ....... 
 
 State of Opinion among the Courtiers and the Lawyers 
 High-Prerogative Doctrines of the Church 
 Imposition of Illegal Duties on Imports 
 
 Discontinuance of Parliaments 
 
 Expedients to obtain a Revenue ..... 
 Proceedings of King James's Second Parliament 
 Surrender of the Dutch Cautionary Towns . 
 
 Death of Archbishop Bancroft; 
 
 Lenity and Puritanical Tendencies of Archbishop Abbot 
 
 Foreign Relations of England 
 
 King James's Third Parliament 
 
 Proceedings against Monopolies 
 
 Impeachment of Lord St. Albans .... 
 
 Increase of Dissension between the King and the Parliament 
 
 Protestation of the House of Commons 
 
 Dissolution of the Third Parliament 
 
 King James's Fourth Pariiament 
 
 Death of King James .... 
 
 Progress of Popular Principles in his Reign 
 
 Influence of Bishop Williams in tlie Church 
 
 Accession of King Charles the First 
 
 His First Parliament 
 
 Its Patriotic Policy 
 
 Its Dissolution .... 
 
 King Charles's Second Parliament 
 
 Its Dissolution 
 
 War wiih France 
 
 Expedients for a Revenue 
 
 Bishop Laud .... 
 
 King Chario's Thlnl Parliament 
 
 lis Courageous Tone . 
 
 Petition of Right . 
 
 Murder of the Duke of Buckingham 
 
 Wentworth, Eari of Strafl[brd
 
 CONTENTS. XXV 
 
 Advancement of Laud . . . " 272 
 
 Disuse of Parliaments for eleven Years ...... 273 
 
 Full Development of the Puritan System . . . . . .274 
 
 Use of Scripture by the Puritans . . . . . . . 274 
 
 Their Morality 276 
 
 Their public Action .277 
 
 Their Habits and Manners 278 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Colony of Massachusetts. 
 
 Position of Puritans in the Church 283 
 
 The Reverend Mr. White 284 
 
 The Dorchester Adventurers 284 
 
 Plantation at Cape Ann 285 
 
 Removal to Naumkeag ......... 286 
 
 Grant of Massachusetts from the Council for New England . . . 288 
 
 John Endicott's Company at Salem ....... 289 
 
 Charter of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay . . 290 
 
 Organization of the Colony at Salem 292 
 
 Instructions from the ]\Iassachusetts Company 292 
 
 New Emigration to Salem ........ 293 
 
 Samuel Skelton and Francis Higginson 295 
 
 Ecclesiastical Organization 295. 
 
 Expulsion of two Malecontents 298 
 
 Anti-episcopal Policy at Salem 299 
 
 Proposal to carry the Massachusetts Charter to New England . . 301 
 
 Agreement at Cambridge in England 302 
 
 New Officers of the Company of Massachusetts Bay .... 303 
 
 Position and Character of its Members 304 
 
 Right of the Company to convey its Charter to America . . . 306 
 
 Public-spirited and comprehensive Designs of the Company . . 308 
 Arrangement of Financial Affairs . . . . . . .310 
 
 Departure of Winthrop's Company 312 
 
 Their "Humble Request" 312 
 
 Their Voyage 312 
 
 Their Arrival at Salem 313 
 
 Sickness and Want .......... 315 
 
 Examination of the Country 316 
 
 Ecclesiastical Settlement 316 
 
 Courts of Assistants . . . . . . . . . .317 
 
 General Court in Boston 321 
 
 Adoption of new Rules for Election and Legislation .... 322 
 
 Settlements about Boston Bay . . . . . . . . 323 
 
 Sickness and Famine ......... 324 
 
 Renewal of Courts of Assistants . . , . . . . 325 
 
 Visit of Chickatabot 328 
 
 Embassy from Natives on Connecticut River 328 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 XXVI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Return to England of some of the Emigrants 
 Sir Christopher Gardiner .... 
 
 329 
 
 329 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Colony of Plymouth. 
 
 Renewed Emigration from Leyden . . . , 
 ^Third Patent of Plymouth ..... 
 
 Further Emigration from Leyden 
 
 An Execution for Murder ..... 
 
 Increase of Wealth at Plymouth .... 
 
 Visit of Winthrop and Wilson to Plymouth 
 
 Duxbury and Marshfield ..... 
 
 Epidemic Sickness ....... 
 
 The French on the Penobscot .... 
 
 Affray on the Kennebec ...... 
 
 Plymouth Factory on the Connecticut 
 
 Early Legislation at Plymouth .... 
 
 Taxation at Plymouth ...... 
 
 Colony of Massachusetts. 
 
 Religious Qualification for the Franchise . 
 
 Winthrop and Dudley re-elected .... 
 
 Virtual Permanency of the Office of Assistant . 
 
 Difference between Winthrop and Dudley 
 
 Religious Dispute at Watertown .... 
 
 Further Proceedings of the Assistants . . . , 
 
 The Towns taxed by the Assistants .... 
 
 Disf.ontent at Watertown ..... 
 
 The Freemen resume the Right of Election, and appoint Deputi 
 
 Winthrop refuses to receive Presents .... 
 
 Arrivals from England ...... 
 
 Reconciliation between Winthrop and Dudley 
 
 Division of the Boston Church .... 
 
 Town of Boston 
 
 Visit of a Narragansett Sachem .... 
 
 Alarm from the Indians ...... 
 
 Scarcity of Food 
 
 Preparations against the French ..... 
 
 The Colony called in Question before the Privy Council 
 
 Re-election of Magistrates ...... 
 
 Renewal of the Emigration ..... 
 
 John Cotton ........ 
 
 Exj)editions to the Connecticut .... 
 
 Renewal of Complaints at the English Court 
 
 Reform of the Covcrnment of Massachusetts . 
 
 Decline of Winthrop's Popularity .... 
 
 Prweedings of the Fifth General Court . 
 
 Freeman's Oath ........ 
 
 Winthro[)'s Loss of Favor in Boston 
 
 Beginning of Town Organizations ....
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XXVll 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Condition of the Settlers in Massachusetts .... 
 
 Freemen, Magistrates, and Clergy 
 
 Material Prosperity of England at the Time of the Emigration 
 
 Independent Action a Necessity for the Colonists 
 
 Political Rights of the Freemen of Massachusetts 
 
 Important Intelligence from England ...... 
 
 Proposals for an Aristocratic Order ..... 
 
 Colonial Commission and Recall of the Charter .... 
 
 Policy of the King in relation to Massachusetts 
 
 Proceedings of the General Court 
 
 Patents issued by the Council for New England 
 
 Dissolution of the Council for New England .... 
 
 Writ of quo warranto against the Company of Massachusetts Bay 
 
 Roger Williams 
 
 His Banishment ......... 
 
 Providence founded 
 
 383 
 
 384 
 385 
 386 
 387 
 389 
 389 
 391 
 391 
 394 
 397 
 397 
 402 
 406 
 412 
 422 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Mutilation of the English Flag 426 
 
 Israel Stoughton 427 
 
 John Haynes chosen Governor and Richard Bellingham Deputy-Governor 428 
 
 Elections by Ballot 429 
 
 Proceedings in respect to the Flag of England 430 
 
 Legislative Proceedings 431 
 
 Formation of Churches 432 
 
 Functions of Towns 434 
 
 Winthrop the younger 435 
 
 Henry Vane 435 
 
 Hugh Peter 436 
 
 Conference of the Leaders in Massachusetts 437 
 
 Vane chosen Governor ......... 439 
 
 Further Proceedings in respect to the English Flag . . . .440 
 
 Institution of a Council for Life . . . . . . . 441 
 
 Proposal for a Code of Laws . . . . . . . .442 
 
 Military Organization ......... 443 
 
 Colony of Connecticut. 
 
 Scheme of an Emigration to Connecticut 444 
 
 Samuel Stone and Thomas Hooker . . . . . . . 445 
 
 Alleged ^lotives for Emigration to Connecticut ..... 445 
 
 Reasons against it . . . ....... 447 
 
 Question respecting a Veto Power of the Magistre^tes .... 448 
 
 Emigration to Connecticut . • 450 
 
 Foundation of Saybrook 451 
 
 Sufferings of the first Settlers of Connecticut 452 
 
 Renewed Emigration to Connecticut 453
 
 XXVIU 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Government in Connecticut for the first Year 
 
 AVar with the Pequots .... 
 
 Murder of Stone and Norton . 
 
 Murder of Oldham ..... 
 
 Expedition against the Block-Islanders 
 
 Expedition against the Pequots . 
 
 Hostilities of the Pequots 
 
 Captain John Mason ..... 
 
 His Movements against the Pequots 
 
 Assault on the Pequot Fort 
 
 Return of Mason's Expedition 
 
 Conclusion of the Pequot War . 
 
 454 
 
 456 
 456 
 457 
 458 
 460 
 461 
 463 
 464 
 465 
 468 
 469 
 
 CHAPTER XII, 
 
 CoLOXT OF Massachusetts. 
 Llrs. Ann Hutchinson . . . . . . . . .472 
 
 Antinomian Controversy 474 
 
 Interference of the Ministers . . . . . . . .475 
 
 Perplexity of Governor Vane . . . . . . . 475 
 
 Censure of Wilson by his Church 477 
 
 Appointment of a Fast 477 
 
 Increase of the Excitement 478 
 
 Censure of Wheelwright by the General Court for his Fast Sermon . 478 
 
 Disaffection of Boston , 480 
 
 General Court of Elections held at Newtown 480 
 
 Winthrop again chosen Governor ....... 481 
 
 Resentment of Vane 482 
 
 Vane's Return to England 483 
 
 Ecclesiastical Synod at Newtown 484 
 
 Proceedings against the Partisans of Mrs. Hutchinson .... 485 
 
 Proceedings against Mrs. Hutchinson 486 
 
 Political Necessity for the Proceedings against the Antinomian Party . 489 
 
 Obstruction of Emigration from England ..... 502 
 
 INIixed j^Iotives of the victorious Party in the Antinomian Controversy . 505 
 
 Their Moderation . 506 
 
 Their inadequate Defence of Tliemselves ...... 508 
 
 Beneficial Results of their Course 509 
 
 Praiseworthy Course of Winthrop . . . . • . .510 
 
 Rhodk Island. 
 
 Settlement on the Island of Aquetnet (Rhode Island) . . . 511 
 
 Dis.sensions at Aquetnet 512 
 
 Northern Settlements. 
 
 Exeter 516 
 
 Hampton . . . . . . , . . . . .516 
 
 Dover 517
 
 CONTENTS. xxix 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 NORTHEASTERX SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 Plantation at the Mouth of the Piscataqua . . . . . .522 
 
 Slow Progress of Settlement further east 523 
 
 Province of Maine 525 
 
 Agamenticus and Saco ......... 527 
 
 Southwestern Settlements. 
 
 Theophilus Eaton 528 
 
 John Davenport 528 
 
 Emigration to Quinnipiack (New Haven) . . . . . .529 
 
 Plantation Covenant . . . . . . . . . 529 
 
 Organization of a Government 531 
 
 Settlement of Milford 534 
 
 Settlement of Guilford 534 
 
 Colony of Connecticut. 
 
 Frame of Government in Connecticut 535 
 
 Election of Magistrates . . .537 
 
 Early Legislation . . . . 537 
 
 Fairfield and Stratford 538 
 
 George Fenwick at Saybrook ....... 539 
 
 Colony of Plymouth. 
 
 Plymouth Factories on the Penobscot, Kennebec, and Connecticut . 539 
 
 Unsuccessful Expedition against the French on the Penobscot . . 540 
 
 Generous Conduct of the Plymouth People ...... 541 
 
 Winslow in England ......... 542 
 
 Prosperity of Plymouth ......... 544 
 
 Disappointments in Church Affairs ....... 545 
 
 Course of Civil Administration 546 
 
 Treaty with the Indians renewed 547 
 
 Colony of Massachusetts. 
 
 Institution of a College 548 
 
 John Harvard 549 
 
 The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company . . . . 551 
 
 Progress of Organization, Legislation, and Administration . . . 551 
 
 Restriction of the Number of Deputies ...... 554 
 
 Limitation of the Power of the Council for Life 555 
 
 Second Deposition of Governor Winthrop, and Election of Dudley . 555 
 
 Renewed Demand from England for the Charter 556 
 
 Winthrop's Reply to the Recall of the Charter 557 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Puritan Politics in England. 
 
 Despotism of Charles the First 560 
 
 Exaction of Ship-Money 561 
 
 Archbishop Laud 562 
 
 Outbreak at Edinburgh 565
 
 XXX CONTENTS. 
 
 Spread of the Insurrection in Scotland 567 
 
 Advance of the King with an Army to Scotland .... 568 
 
 Proceedings of the Scottish Parliament and Assembly .... 569 
 
 King Charles's Fourth Parliament 569 
 
 Its Dissolution 570 
 
 The Royal Army beaten by the Scots 571 
 
 Council of Peers 571 
 
 Truce with the Scots 571 
 
 King Charles's Fifth Parliament 571 
 
 Its first Measures of Reform 572 
 
 Prorogation of Parliament 573 
 
 Irish Rebellion 573 
 
 Grand Remonstrance . . . . . . . . . .674 
 
 Revival of Loyal Sentiments 574 
 
 The lung's Attempt to arrest Members of the House of Commons . 575 
 
 Procession of the House of Commons to Westminster . . . 576 
 
 Bill to give Parliament the Control of the Militia 576 
 
 The King's Resolution to resist . . . . . . . . 577 
 
 Beginning of the Civil War 577 
 
 Influence of these Events on New-England Politics . . . . 579 
 
 New-England Ministers invited to the Westminster Assembly of Divines 581 
 
 Mission of Massachusetts Men to England 582 
 
 Discontinuance of Emigration from England 584 
 
 Return of Emigrants to England ........ 585 
 
 Colony of Massachusetts. 
 
 Claim of Massachusetts to Territory at the North .... 587 
 
 Disorders in New Hampshire 588 
 
 Thomas Larkham 589 
 
 Accession of the New-Hampshire Settlements to Massachusetts . . 592 
 
 Annexation of Pejepscott (Brunswick) 593 
 
 Remission of Wheelwright's Sentence of Banishment . . . .594 
 
 The Plough Patent 694 
 
 Colony ok Plymouth. 
 
 Boundary Question between Massachusetts and Plymouth . . . 596 
 
 Conveyance of the Patent of Plymouth to the Freemen . . • 697 
 
 Settlement with the London Partners 597 
 
 Death of Brewster 598 
 
 His Character 599 
 
 Colony of New Haven. 
 
 Extension and Consolidation of New-Haven Colony .... 600 
 
 Southhold, Stamford, and Greenwich 601 
 
 Colony of Connecticut. 
 
 Magistrates of Connecticut 603 
 
 Separation of Springfield from Connecticut 604 
 
 Accession of Southampton and Saybrook to Connecticut . . . 605 
 
 The Connecticut Indians 605 
 
 Rhode Island and Providence. 
 
 Pro<'eedings on Rhode Island 606 
 
 Rogir Williams in England ........ 609
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XXXI 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Colony of Massachusetts. 
 Relief Law in Massachusetts ..... 
 
 Government of 1641- 1642 
 
 Unsatisfactory Administration of Bellingham 
 Re-election of Governor Wintbrop in 1642 and 1643 
 Omission of the Oath of Allegiance .... 
 Renewal of the Question about a Council for Life 
 Division of Massachusetts into Counties 
 Division of the Legislature into two Branches 
 The homely Occasion of it 
 
 The Confederacy. 
 
 Alleged Reasons for a Confederation of the Four Colonies 
 French, Dutch, and Swedes in their Neighborhood 
 Preliminary Movements for a Confederation . 
 Change of the Views of Massachusetts in relation to it 
 Consummation of the Measure .... 
 Exclusion of the Maine and Narragansett Settlers 
 Twelve Articles of Confederation .... 
 Parliamentary Commission for Colonial Govermnent . 
 
 610 
 611 
 611 
 613 
 614 
 614 
 617 
 617 
 618 
 
 623 
 624 
 625 
 627 
 629 
 629 
 680 
 633 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 List of New-England Magistrates 
 
 635
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 THE SETTLEMENT.
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 THE SETTLEMENT. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 On the eastern coast of North America, midway be- 
 tween the equator and the pole, is a tract of land prop- 
 erly described as a peninsula, from a physical conforma- 
 tion which has had important relations to its civil history.^ 
 The northern extremity of the Appalachian zone of ele- 
 vated land is separated from the continent by the long 
 bed of the St. Lawrence, and the deep and broad chasm 
 which holds the waters of Lake Champlain, Lake George, 
 and the river Hudson. The series of ridges and plateaus, 
 which, rising from the sandy shore of the Gulf of Mexico, 
 stretches nearly unbroken in a direction parallel to the 
 Atlantic coast, is suddenly interrupted and cut down to 
 its base by a valley sunk thousands of feet between the 
 Katskill Mountains and the lofty chains and table-lands of 
 the Adirondac region on one side, and the long belt of the 
 Green Mountains on the other. The average width of 
 
 1 This geographical feature, though lyn, New England's Rarities, pp. 4, 5 ; 
 
 imperfectly understood, was not over- comp. his Voyages, p. 42.) Cush- 
 
 looked in early times. " New England man (Discourse, ad init.^ and Winslow 
 
 is by some affirmed to be an island, (Good Newes from New England, 62), 
 
 bounded on the north with the river at Plymouth in 1621 and 1623, believed 
 
 Canada, so called from M. Cane; on that it was an island ; Wood, in Massa- 
 
 the south with the river Mohegan, or chusetts in 1633, that it was an island 
 
 Hudson River, so called because he was or a peninsula (New England's Pros- 
 
 the first that discovered it." (Josse- pect, 1). 
 
 VOL. I. 1
 
 2 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [T^ook I. 
 
 this depression is not far from twenty miles. At the north 
 it expands into a broad prairie between Lake Champlain 
 and the St. Lawrence, while among the Highlands near 
 "West Point it is compressed to the dimmished width of 
 the Hudson where that river seems to have broken a link 
 between the two parts of the Appalachian chain. 
 
 The insulation of this tract is all but complete. The 
 tide runs up the St. Lawrence nearly five hundred miles, 
 almost reaching the point where the river Richelieu, or 
 Sorel, discharges the surplus waters of Lake George and 
 Lake Champlain. The surface of Lake Champlain is 
 only ninety feet above the ocean ; the canal which now 
 unites its waters with those of Hudson River running in 
 an opposite direction, scarcely rises fifty more to its high- 
 est level; and at Troy and Albany, a hundred and fifty 
 miles from the sea, the tide is met again, coming up from 
 the south. Of that long depression of nine hundred miles 
 from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the 
 Hudson, the tide-waters cover six hundred and fifty 
 miles ; while for the remaining two hurfdred and fifty the 
 elevation above the ocean is not so great as is reached by 
 ordinary structures reared by the hand of man. A level 
 way was prepared by nature, along which the travel and 
 the commerce of tranquil times have at length succeeded 
 to the incursions of savage or of civilized war. 
 
 The area thus defined as one physical region, and meas- 
 uring with the neighboring islands about a hundred and 
 forty-five thousand square miles, is occupied by the Brit- 
 ish Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, with 
 part of that of Lower Canada ; the six States of the 
 American Union known by the collective name of New 
 I'.ngland ; and a narrow section of the State of New 
 Arcs of New York. New England, covering less than half of 
 E.,ciau.i. ^j^-^ surface, extends from the forty-first degree 
 noarly to tlie forty-eighth degree of north latitude, and 
 from tlic sixty-seventh degree almost to the seventy-fourth
 
 Chap. I.] PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 3 
 
 degree of west longitude. It is bounded by British pos- 
 sessions on the north, northeast, and northwest; on the 
 southeast, east, and south, by the Atlantic Ocean ; and on 
 the west, by Lake Champlain and by the State of New 
 York, which through nearly three degrees of latitude 
 interposes a breadth of some twenty miles, mostly of low- 
 land, between it and Hudson River. It has an area of 
 about 65,000 square miles, of which about 31,700 belong 
 to the State of Maine, 9,300 to New Hampshire, 10,200 
 to Vermont, 7,800 to Massachusetts, 1,300 to Rhode 
 Island, and 4,700 to Connecticut. Maine occupies the 
 northeastern corner. West of the southern half of Maine 
 lie New Hampshire, touching the ocean for only a few 
 miles, and the inland State of Vermont. South of New 
 Hampshire and Vermont, along their whole extent, is 
 Massachusetts, measuring the breadth of Southern New 
 England from east to west, and stretching to a double 
 width on the sea, which it fronts with its entire east- 
 ern border. South of Massachusetts are Rhode Island, 
 exposed on its southern side to the Atlantic, and Con- 
 necticut, lying along the oval-shaped strait known as 
 Long Island Sound. Long Island, with its low plains 
 and sandy beaches, though by nature attached to New 
 England, politically belongs elsewhere. The sea-coast, 
 measured without allowance for interruption by the less 
 considerable inlets, extends about seven hundred miles. 
 
 Only moderate elevations present themselves to the 
 view along the greater part of the line of the New-Eng- 
 land coast. Inland, the great topographical feature is a 
 double belt of highlands, separated almost to their Ranges of 
 bases by the deep and broad valley of Connecti- '''s*''*'"^^- 
 cut River, and running parallel to each other from the 
 south-southwest to the north-northeast, till, around the 
 sources of that river, they unite in a wide space of table- 
 land, from which streams descend in different directions. 
 Thence, separating again, they take a northeasterly course
 
 4 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 through the State of Maine and the Province of New 
 Brunswick, till they come out upon the Gulf of St. Law- 
 rence along both sides of the deep Bay of Chalcurs, 
 which may be considered as the lower extremity of the 
 long depression. At the foot of the eastern belt |Rnd 
 following its curve lies a tract of lowland, gently sloping 
 towards the shore with a surface broken by moderate ele- 
 'sations, and from being forty or fifty miles broad in Mas- 
 sachusetts, gradually spreading in Maine to nearly double 
 that width. In Connecticut, the descent to the sea is by 
 still easier steps. 
 
 To regard these highlands, which form so important a 
 feature of New England geography, as simply two ranges 
 of hills, would not be to conceive of them correctly. 
 They are vast swells of land, of an average elevation of 
 a thousand feet above the level of the sea, each with a 
 width of forty or fifty miles, from which, as from a base, 
 mountains rise in chains or in isolated groups to an alti- 
 tude of several thousand feet more. 
 
 In structure, the two belts are unlike. The western 
 system, which bears the general name of the Green Moun- 
 tains, is composed of two principal chains, more or less 
 continuous, covered, like several shorter ones which run 
 along them, with the forests and herbage to which they 
 owe their name. Between these a longitudinal valley can 
 be traced, though with some interruption, from Connecti- 
 cut to Northern Vermont. In Massachusetts and Con- 
 necticut it is marked by the course of the Ilousatonic, 
 in Vermont by the rich basins that hold the villages of 
 Bennington, Manchester, and Rutland, and further on by 
 valleys of less note. The space between these mountain 
 ranges and the Connecticut is mostly occupied by a rugged 
 table-land measuring in height from a thousand to fifteen 
 hundred feet. In Massachusetts, this is deeply furrowed 
 by transverse valleys, through which torrents like the 
 Westfield and the Deerfield rivers descend to the Con-
 
 Chap. I.] PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 5 
 
 necticut. In Vermont, both heights and streams assume 
 a more gentle character. 
 
 The mountains have a regular increase in elevation 
 from south to north. From a hei^jht of less than , 
 
 '-' Increase m 
 
 a thousand feet in Connecticut, they rise to an tiie height of 
 
 /» n ^ T 1 n • ~\ r i mountains, 
 
 average oi twenty-nve hundred leet m Massachu- towards the 
 setts, where the majestic Greylock, isolated be- 
 tween the two chains, lifts its head to the stature of thirty- 
 five hundred feet. In Vermont, Equinox and Stratton 
 Mountains, near Manchester, are thirty-seven hundred feet 
 high ; Killington Peak, near Rutland, rises forty-two hun- 
 dred feet ; Mansfield Mountain, at the northern extremity, 
 overtops the rest of the Green Mountain range with an 
 altitude of forty-four hundred feet. The rise of the valley 
 is less regular. In Connecticut, its bottom is from five 
 hundred to seven hundred feet above the sea; in South- 
 ern Massachusetts it is eight hundred feet ; it rises thence 
 two hundred feet to Pittsfield, and one hundred more to 
 the foot of Greylock, whence it declines to the bed of the 
 Housatonic in one direction, and to an average height of 
 little more than five hundred feet in Vermont, in the 
 other. Thus it is in Berkshire County, in Western Mas- 
 sachusetts, that the western swell presents, if not the 
 most elevated peaks, yet the most compact and consoli- 
 dated structure. Nowhere else in New England has the 
 locomotive engine to climb to such a height in order to 
 reach the valley of the Hudson. Between Westfield and 
 Pittsfield, the Western Railway attains an elevation of no 
 less than fourteen hundred and seventy-five feet above 
 the surface of the water in Boston harbor. 
 
 The eastern belt has no continuous range of mountains. 
 In Massachusetts, it is a broad, undulating surface, about 
 a thousand feet high, broken by valleys of moderate 
 depth. Numerous smooth and bare summits, like the 
 crests of parallel waves, lift a space of arable land a few 
 
 hundred feet above the general level. Here and there, 
 
 1*
 
 6 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 however, are isolated hills, like Watatick, near the centre 
 of the plateau, and Wachusett, on its eastern edge, with 
 altitudes respectively of eighteen hundred and over two 
 thousand feet. In New Hampshire, the same general 
 character is preserved, but the country is more broken, 
 and the mountains grow higher and more numerous. 
 On a line running, a little west of the centre, along an 
 ascending series of peaks having no immediate connec- 
 tion with each other, the Great Monadnock, Cuba Moun- 
 tain, Carr INIountain, and Mooschillock, respectively thirty- 
 two hundred, thirty-three hundred, thirty-five hundred, 
 and forty-eight hundred feet high, conduct to Lafayette 
 Mountain, which measures fifty-three hundred feet. Be- 
 yond this begins the group of the White Mountains, sep- 
 arate like the rest, and in its highest peak. Mount Wash- 
 ington, with an elevation of sixty-three hundred feet, pre- 
 senting the culminating point of the northern section of 
 the Appalachian range. The regular increase of elevation 
 from south to north, which characterizes the Green Moun- 
 tain range, appears equally in the more easterly system, 
 and the extreme heights of the two are in nearly the same 
 parallel of latitude. 
 
 Beyond the White Mountains, while the peaks are 
 lower, the table-land continues to rise, till it reaches an 
 elevation varying from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred 
 feet. In Maine, the swell expands and sinks, though not 
 enough to lose its importance as the principal water- 
 shed. Along its path are scattered the few high moun- 
 tains of Maine, as Mount Abraham, Mount Squaw, and 
 Katahdin, which last is said to have an altitude of more 
 than fifty-three hundred feet. 
 
 Such are the great geographical features which deter- 
 mine the direction of the water-courses, the amount and 
 distribution of water power, and the capacities of difterent 
 parts of the country for various forms of the industry 
 of civilized man, in agriculture, commerce, and the man-
 
 CuAP. I.] PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 7 
 
 ufactiiring arts. They materially influenced the early 
 march of the settlements, and the establishment of the 
 political centres. 
 
 The region along the northern border of Vermont, New 
 Hampshire, and Maine, where the two belts of ^ 
 
 i •" ' Source and 
 
 highlands meet in a common table-land, supplies direction of 
 
 ^"^ ot rivers* 
 
 the springs of all the important streams of the 
 peninsular country which has been described. The Con- 
 necticut and the Androscoggin seeking the ocean by a 
 southerly course, the feeders of the Kennebec and the 
 Penobscot running towards the east and southeast, those 
 of the St. John towards the northeast, and those of the 
 Chaudiere and the St. Francis towards the northwest, all 
 descend from these heights by rapid plunges into the 
 lower country. With their valleys they take directions 
 and characters according with those of the slopes to 
 which they respectively belong. In New England, they 
 thus arrange themselves in a threefold division. 
 
 To the general descent of the country from north to 
 south corresponds the course of the Connecti- ^^^ p„„. 
 cut River. Its wide and deep valley separates "•^'^"'="'- 
 not only two mountain ridges, but two solid masses of 
 highland. A series of terraces breaks the level of its 
 broad bed. Rarely presenting any sudden changes of di- 
 rection, it obeys the nearly straight course of the parallel 
 walls which confine its valley. Its most rapid descent is 
 that of twelve hundred feet in the first quarter of its 
 course, from its sources to the mouth of the Pasumpsic 
 River, on the parallel of the White Mountains, where 
 its surface is but four hundred feet above the sea two 
 hundred miles distant. In eighty miles, from that point 
 to the long and flat bottom between Windsor and Bel- 
 lows Falls in Vermont, it descends only one hundred 
 feet ; thence it sinks a hundred and sixty feet to the 
 plains of Deerfield ; and at Springfield, eighty miles from 
 its mouth, it is but forty feet above the ocean. The
 
 8 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 smaller streams on the same slope, the Housatonic, the 
 Naugatuck, and others, pursue in like manner the 
 straight course forced upon them by the direction of the 
 ridges which come out in the plains that stretch along 
 the Sound. 
 
 Under the combined influence of the eastern and the 
 The eastern southem slopcs, the Audroscoggiu, the Saco, the 
 rivers. Merrimack, the Blackstone, and other streams, 
 tend in an oblique direction towards the southeast. In 
 Maine, where the highlands turn to the northeast, the 
 compound declivity becomes a southerly slope, and the 
 Kennebec, the Penobscot, and the Passamaquoddy seek 
 the sea in that direction. Unlike the streams further 
 south which hold the same course, those of Maine show 
 considerable irregularity at diflerent points in their 
 progress. Not rolling their waters through a single 
 great hollow, like the Connecticut, they rather stray 
 from valley to valley, alternately following and breaking 
 through the ridges which obstruct them, and indicat- 
 ing, by their frequent windings, the minor sinuosities of 
 the ground they traverse. Their fall is also generally 
 more precipitous. Where they issue from the highlands, 
 at only a moderate distance from the ocean, their aver- 
 age elevation above it, in Massachusetts and New Hamp- 
 shire, is five hundred feet. Their rapids and shallows 
 accordingly unfit them for inland navigation. Towards 
 the east their size increases with the width of the belt of 
 lowland in wliich their course is developed. 
 
 The western declivity, fronting the valley of the Hud- 
 Thcwesten. SOU aud of Lake Cham plain, is too short to allow 
 nvcrn. ^.j^^ formatlou of any considerable river. To- 
 
 ward the south, little im])etuous torrents, like the Hoo- 
 sac, break throufj^h tlie hills into the Hudson. In Ver- 
 mont, Otter Creek, Onion Iliver, and other streams, take 
 a longer and more tranquil way towards Lake Cham- 
 plain. Outside of New England, at the north, the Ca-
 
 Chap. I.] PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 9 
 
 naclian rivers St. Francis and Chaudiere carry to the St. 
 Lawrence a more abundant tribute.^ 
 
 Almost everywhere in New England the masses of water 
 find a sufficient vent, and there are within its bor- 
 
 • T Lakes. 
 
 ders few lakes of any great size. The largest, 
 Moosehead Lake in INIaine, partly drained by the Kenne- 
 bec, and Lake Winnipiseogee in New Hampshire, which 
 yields some of its waters to the Merrimac, are respectively 
 about twenty-five and thirty-five miles long, and each 
 is about ten miles across in its greatest width. 
 
 It will have been seen that the rivers of New England, 
 though several are of considerable length, are of little di- 
 rect use for internal commerce. The broad Connecticut 
 is navigable for vessels of a hundred tons' burden only as 
 far as Hartford, fifty miles above its mouth. The Charles 
 and the Merrimac admit shipping, the former no further 
 than seven miles, and the latter fifteen miles, from the east- 
 ern coast. The best water communications with the in- 
 terior are in Maine. Heavy ships discharge their freights 
 at Bangor, fifty or sixty miles from the mouth of the 
 Penobscot ; on the Kennebec, vessels of light draught 
 ascend forty-five miles from the sea, to Augusta; while 
 sloops or boats ply over long reaches of the Androscog- 
 gin, the Saco, the Piscataqua, and other rivers, where the 
 surface is not broken by falls or rapids. 
 
 But the rivers of New England have rendered excel- 
 lent service to its civilized inhabitants, independent of 
 their liberal contributions of clear and wholesome water 
 at all times, and of necessary food in the period of distress 
 which immediately followed the immigration of English- 
 
 1 In the above delineation of the that distinguished geographer has kind- 
 physical geography of New England, ly communicated to me for this purpose. 
 I have made free use of a manuscript I believe it is Mr. Guyot's intention to 
 memoir by Professor Guyot, of Nassau prepare it for publication in the ]\Ie- 
 Hall, in New Jersey, containing the moirs of the American Academy of 
 results of original observations, which Arts and Sciences.
 
 10 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book L 
 
 men. It is cliiefly within the last forty years that prof- 
 itable use has been made of the abundant facilities of 
 water-power for factories ; but from the beginning the 
 prosperity and wealth of the English settlers were largely 
 dependent upon those secure and capacious basins, at the 
 outlets of some of the rivers, which are now resorts of 
 the commerce of the world. The harbors of 
 
 Harbors. !-»-'■ -i i 
 
 Portland, Boston, and jNewport, accessible, am- 
 ple, deep, with con^•enient landing-places sheltered from 
 storms and defensible against an enemy, leave nothing to 
 be desired for commercial accommodation. Portsmouth, 
 Salem, Bristol, Providence, New London, New Haven, 
 were in early times the starting-places of a vigorous mari- 
 time enterprise ; while an endless number of such com- 
 modious havens as Eastport, Machias, Castine, Belfast, 
 Thomaston, Wiscasset, Bath, and Kennebunk, m Maine, 
 with the long ranges of fishing-towns on Massachusetts 
 Bay, Buzzard's Bay, and Long Island Sound, stud the 
 coast from New Brunswick to New York. 
 
 The shore is indented by numerous estuaries of greater 
 extent. To regard that part of the ocean which 
 
 Bays. ^ ^ 
 
 bears the name of Massachusetts Bay as being 
 enclosed within two promontories so distant from each 
 other as Cape Ann and Cape Cod, requires some aid 
 from the imagination. But spacious inlets like Narra- 
 gansett Bay in Rhode Island, Buzzard's Bay in Massa- 
 chusetts, Passamaquoddy, Frenchman's, Penobscot, Sheep- 
 scot, and Casco Bays, with many others of smaller size, in 
 Maine, impart to a large extent of coast the privileges of 
 proximity to the sea, along witli a portion of the retire- 
 ment and security of an inland site ; while their capes 
 push out the mariner's dwelling towards the scene of his 
 toils. 
 
 The atmospheric temperature in New England is va- 
 Tempera- viablc, uiid licat aud cold are both in extreme. 
 *""• U'lic mercury has ranged in Maine from 98° of
 
 1817, 
 ,22. 
 
 Chap. L] METEOROLOGY, CLIMATE, AND SOIL. 11 
 
 Fahrenheit's thermometer in summer to 34° be ,815. 
 low zero in winter. In Massachusetts and Con- -f*"^!- 
 necticut its common annual limits are 98^ above zero, and 
 15° below. In Massachusetts 102° perhaps indicates the 
 extreme of heat which has been experienced, and 20° 
 below zero the extreme of cold. Once in the 1335^ 
 present century the mercury at New Haven in ^'"'•^• 
 Connecticut has fallen to 25° below zero. The mean tem- 
 perature of the year in Massachusetts varies between forty- 
 four and fifty-one degrees. Great changes are so sudden, 
 that the mercury has been known to range, at 
 Boston, through forty-five degrees within twenty- '^''"'■ 
 four hours.^ In a day within the last forty years, it rose 
 twenty-seven degrees between seven o'clock in jgai, 
 the morning and two in the afternoon, and fell •^""- ^^' 
 thirty-three degrees in the seven hours next succeeding. 
 Nor was this anything more than a singular instance of 
 such fluctuations. The common opinion that the climate 
 has moderated since the time of the European settle- 
 ments is probably erroneous.'^ 
 
 Droughts, though not of unusual occurrence, are not 
 often of great severity. At Cambridge, in Massa- Rain and 
 chusetts, the average annual fall of rain is about '^^"g'^t^- 
 forty-three inches ; at Brunswick, in Maine,^ about forty 
 inches ; and at New Haven, in Connecticut, forty-four 
 inches. The extremes in Massachusetts have ^^.^ ^g^g 
 been a fall of fifty-four and of thirty inches. In 
 Maine, in two diff'erent years, it is recorded that ns-.nea. 
 snow fell to the depth of five feet upon a level."* In twen- 
 
 1 In the evening of March 4, 1856, emy, New Series, L 114 ei seq. — Mr. 
 it fell eight degrees, fi-om 39° to 31°, in Savage (Winthrop, History of New- 
 five minutes. England, I. 119) favors the common 
 
 2 Remarks on the Climate of New opinion. 
 
 England, by ^Ir. .John C. Gray, append- ^ According to "Williamson (History 
 
 ed to the First Annual Report of the of Maine, L 99), the average fall in 
 
 Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, Maine is thirty-seven inches, of which 
 
 147 et seq. Dr. Enoch Hale's Memoir, about one third part is in snow and hail, 
 
 in the Memoirs of the American Acad- ^ Ibid.^ I. lOO.
 
 12 inSTORY OF NEW ENGL^VND. [Book I. 
 
 ty-fivc years the extreme range of the barometer 
 
 1825-1850. "^ . . ° 
 
 at Cambridge, in Massachusetts, "was two inches 
 and sixty-four hundredths. The summer heats are often 
 allayed by tempests of thunder and lightning. Tornadoes 
 occur but rarely.^ There is no appearance of volcanic 
 formation.- But from' time to time there have been earth- 
 quakes, which have created alarm without being destruc- 
 1-55^ tive. The most considerable, in the same month 
 Nov. 18. with the great earthquake at Lisbon, was observed 
 to extend from Halifax, in Nova Scotia, to Chesapeake 
 Bay. It shook down a hundred chimneys in Boston. 
 It was the last that did any damage. 
 
 The great and sudden variations of temperature impair 
 Local dis- the salubrity of the climate, and in other respects 
 eases. ^j^g large features of geographical structure above 
 
 described must be presumed to produce local modifications 
 of its general character. The long winters of the high- 
 lands, their strong and dry northwest winds, and their cool 
 summers, have an effect on the human frame different from 
 that of the damp and chilly airs which, in company with 
 the tides of icy water, descend upon the region that borders 
 the eastern shore. The coast country of Rhode Island 
 and Connecticut, out of the reach of the harsh currents, 
 which are arrested or turned away by the projection of 
 Cape Cod,^ and accessible instead to the softer influence 
 of southern tides and gales, may be supposed to present 
 another class of conditions of health. Yet such diversi- 
 
 1 The most violent known to have the Geology of Massachusetts, 2d edit., 
 occurred was that which passed through p. 208. But eomp. p. 431.) 
 
 the towns of Waltham, West Cam- 3 The importance of this influence 
 bridge, and iVIedford, August 22, 1851. appears in the fact that, to a great ex- 
 An account of it by Professor Eustis is tent, the fishes and mollusks are differ- 
 in the Memoirs of the American Acad- ent on the two sides of the Cape. The 
 emy. New Series, V. 169 e< s*?7. meteorological journals which I have 
 
 2 Professor Hitchcock rejects the consulted for the course of the winds at 
 opinion that " there are traces of vol- Boston and at Providence are both de- 
 canic action at Clay Head," on the Isl- ficient in respect to a few days' obser- 
 and of Marllui's Vineyard. (Report on vations. From that kept at Boston it
 
 Chap. I.] METEOROLOGY, CLIMATE, AXD SOIL. 13 
 
 ties are subordinate to a general uniformity, in which 
 New England gives to all her children the birthright of a 
 fair prospect of health and longevity. The configuration 
 of the surface forbids the stagnation of masses of water, 
 and the tides of the neighboring ocean, the snow on the 
 hills, and the winds which the rapid changes of tempera- 
 ture keep in motion, are perpetual restorers of a whole- 
 some atmosphere. In the absence of marshes diffusing 
 noxious miasmata, intermittent fevers rarely occur.' 
 Among the fatal maladies pulmonary consumption num- 
 bers most victims. Diseases of the nervous system are 
 next in frequency. Malignant epidemic fevers, especially 
 of the typhoid type, are of occasional occurrence. The par- 
 tial returns in Massachusetts of 80,995 deaths, 
 in four years, showed 4,482 persons to have died 
 at an ag^e exceedino^ eighty. Of 20,798 whose 
 
 ^ . ^ . .^ '' 1855. 
 
 deaths were registered m a recent year, ten were 
 more than a hundred years old. 
 
 In less than two centuries and a half a different climate 
 and regimen on this continent have produced in the de- 
 scendants of the English some remarkable physiological 
 changes. The normal type of the Englishman at home 
 exhibits a full habit, a moist skin, curly hair, a sanguine 
 temperament. In the transplanted race the form is often- 
 er slender, the skin dry, the hair straight, the tempera- 
 ment bilious or nervous. 
 
 The agricultural season is short, \yinter lasts throuijh 
 nearly half the year. In Massachusetts, the mean 
 
 n 1 • ^ 11 i"i 1 Agriculture. 
 
 temperature ot the eight cold months is less than 
 
 appears that the course of the winds for Between north and east, 352 days. 
 
 five years was as follows: — Between east and south, 172 " 
 
 North, 40. Northeast, 270. Between south and west, 597 " 
 
 East, 135. Southeast, 65. Between west and north, 690 " 
 
 South, 25. Southwest, 515. l But they were not uncommon in 
 
 West, 155. Northwest, 570. early times. (Holmes, Boylston Prize 
 
 At Providence the record of the same Dissertation on Indigenous Intermittent 
 
 time shows that winds prevailed Fever, pp. 11 - 25.) 
 VOL. I. 2
 
 l-i HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 forty degrees. That of the four warai months is nearly 
 seventy. In storms the aspect of winter is austere. In 
 fair weather it is brilliant, with its radiance of snow and ice 
 reflecting sun or stars through a transparent atmosphere. 
 No verdure but that of evergreens resists the annual cold, 
 and an unmclted mass of snow often covers the ground for 
 months. The late and sudden bursting forth of the spring 
 severely tasks the laborer, while the rapid growth which 
 follows surprises the traveller from a lower latitude. In 
 years of average vernal temperature in Massachusetts, the 
 ground is ready for the plough by the first week in April. 
 The average blossoming of the apple is on the IGtli of 
 May. Grass is cut for drying between the middle of 
 June and the middle of July. Indian corn is ripe in 
 September. By the first week of November the last 
 fruits of the year are gathered in.^ Some of the aspects 
 of nature are of rare beauty. No other country presents 
 a more gorgeous appearance of the sky than that of the 
 New-England summer sunset ; none, a more brilliant 
 painting of the forests than that with which the sudden 
 maturity of the foliage transfigures the landscape of au- 
 tumn. No air is more delicious than that of the warm 
 but bracing October and November noons of the Indian 
 summer of New England. 
 
 The soil generally is not fertile. There is a wide beach 
 of sand alone: the coast; in the interior, rocks 
 
 Soil. ^ . ' . 
 
 and gravel, with occasional vems of clay, cover 
 a large part of the surface. The cultivation of more than 
 two centuries has greatly improved the quality of those 
 portions of the land which have convenient communica- 
 tion M'ith markets. But most of the natural fruitfulness 
 
 1 IIcTO too, however, (lifTi-roncos oc- and snows cover the low lands as well 
 
 casioiicd In- the inequalities of surface as the hills of Berkshire weeks before 
 
 come into the aecount. In the openinjr it is seen, and after it has disappeared, 
 
 of spring, the valley of the Connecticut in the meadows about Mas*"' 
 
 is, on an average, a fortnight in ad- liay. 
 vance of the highlands on its borders;
 
 Chap. I.] NATURAL HISTORY. 15 
 
 of the region was found in the valleys of the great rivers. 
 The borders of the Penobscot, the Kennebec, the Con- 
 necticut, and other streams, enriched in past ages and 
 still reinvigorated by the deposits of the annual overflow, 
 exhibit a fecundity in strong contrast with the stony 
 hill-sides. Massachusetts is the least fruitful of the six 
 States. Maine, skirted by a barren shore, contains in- 
 land the largest proportion of good arable soil. The 
 wide grazing lands of New Hampshire and Vermont 
 send immense herds and flocks to the markets of the 
 sea-coast. 
 
 There is no part of the country which is not well 
 provided with fresh water. Numerous springs bring it 
 to the surface, and an ample supply is everywhere to 
 be procured by dic^orino: a few feet. Mineral 
 
 ■ Ml • n T Minerals. 
 
 wealth is still but partially developed. A lit- 
 tle copper is found, some lead, some graphite, and con- 
 siderable quantities of iron and of manganese. There 
 are beds of an inferior description of anthracite coal. In 
 Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, there are 
 ample quarries of slate, and limestone abounds in Rhode 
 Island and Maine. The granite and sienite of Eastern 
 Massachusetts, the white marble of the western moun- 
 tain range, and the sandstone of the Connecticut valley, 
 are valuable materials for building, while the serpentine of 
 Vermont and the variegated marbles of Connecticut have 
 come into use for architectural embellishment. Here and 
 there are medicinal springs, generally of a chalybeate 
 quality. Salt is only to be had from sea-water. 
 
 The native grasses of the upland were rank, but so 
 little nutritious that the European planters found 
 
 ^ '- Botany. 
 
 it better to fodder their cattle on the salt growth 
 
 of the sea-marshes;^ and this consideration determined 
 
 1 " The natural vipland grass of the good, as barley straw." (Hutchinson, 
 country, commonly called /nrfjan ^ra.w, History, I. 424, 426, 427.) The first 
 is poor fodder, perhaps not better, if so settlers were deceived by its rankness,
 
 16 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 the site of some of tlie early settlements. The tough, 1 
 fibrous bark of an mdigenous plant, a species of dog- 
 bane, well served the purposes of hemp.^ The woods 
 were so vast that the early writers describe them as cov- 
 ering the country." In fact, it was naturally all forest- 
 clad, excepting the bogs and salt-marshes, and the moun- 
 tiiin tracts above the limit of trees. An abundance of 
 the oak, hickory, walnut, ash, elm, maple, pine, spruce, 
 chestnut, cedar, and other forest-trees, afforded supplies 
 for fuel, tools, weapons, utensils, and building.^ The 
 chestnut, hazlenut, beechnut, butternut, and shagbark 
 made their contributions to the resources for winter sup- 
 ply. Wild cherries, mulberries, and plums increased the 
 variety of the summer's diet. Wild berries, as the straw- 
 berry, the gooseberry, the raspberry, the blackberry, the 
 whortleberry, the cranberry, grew in abundance in the 
 meadow and champaign lands. Vines bearing grapes of 
 tolerable flavor flourished along the streams.'* A profu- 
 
 and tliought of it much too favorably. 
 (So Higginson, New England's Planta- 
 tion, in ^lassachusetts Historical Collec- 
 tions, I. 118.) 
 
 1 " A kind or two of flax, wherewith 
 they make nets, lines, and ropes, both 
 small and great, very strong for their 
 quantities." (Smith, in Mass. Ilist. 
 Coll., XXVI. 120.) "We found an 
 e.xcellent strong kind of flax and 
 hemp." (Mourt, Relation, 22.) 
 
 2 " Though all the country be, as it 
 were, a thick wood for the general, yet 
 in divers places there is much ground 
 cleared by the Indians." (Higginson, 
 in Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 117.) "The 
 
 country generally is extremely 
 
 overgrown with wood." (Josselyn, 
 New Kngland's Rarities, 3.) " An 
 uncouth wilderness, full of timber." 
 (Early Records of Charlestown.) 
 
 3 Of indigenous evergreens, the no- 
 ble white-pine was the characteristic 
 
 tree of the region. Tliere were two 
 kinds of pitch-pine, four of fir or 
 spruce, a juniper (commonly known 
 as red cedar), a cypress (known as 
 white cedar), and an arbor vitae. Of 
 deciduous trees, the principal were one 
 kind of chestnut, nearly a dozen spe- 
 cies of oak, one of beech, one of horn- 
 beam, four of liickory, two of walnut, 
 five of birch, four or five of poplar, one 
 of larch, two of elm, three or four of 
 ash and as many of maple, one of lin- 
 den, one of the plane-tree (attaining a 
 great size on the alluvial banks of riv- 
 ers), one of tupclo or sour-gum tree, 
 one of holly along the southern border, 
 and, the most showy in blossom, the 
 flowering dog-wood and the tulip-tree. 
 The two last-named, with the hickories, 
 the tupelo, and the sassafras, were types 
 totally new to the colonists. 
 
 4 There were three kinds of grapes, 
 one of them now considered worthy of
 
 Chap. I.] NATURAL HISTORY. 17 
 
 sion of flowering shrubs and of aquatic, forest, and field 
 flowers, the wild rose, the richly perfumed water-lily, 
 the rhododendron, the azalea, the anemone, the kalmia 
 or mountain-laurel, the cardinal-flower, the fringed gen- 
 tian, the aster, the golden-rod, brought their tribute to 
 the pomp of the year. Among plants especially esteemed 
 for their medicinal qualities were the lobelia, the sarsa- 
 parilla, the ginseng, and the sassafras. Cloven branches 
 of resinous wood afforded a substitute for candles. 
 
 The sea and the rivers swarmed with fishes of kinds the 
 most useful to man. The cod has been an im- 
 
 , Pishes. 
 
 portant article of trade since New-England com- 
 merce began, as have the mackerel and herring in only a 
 less degree. The salmon, the bass, the shad, the halibut, 
 the trout, the eel, the cusk, the smelt, the tautog, the 
 swordfish, the haddock, the pickerel, and many other in- 
 habitants of the fresh and salt water, of inferior considera- 
 tion with the epicure, still abound in their respective sea- 
 sons. Of shell-fish, lobsters and several kinds of clams 
 multiplied on the beaches and among the rock^ of the sea- 
 coast, and it is only of late years that the oyster has ceased 
 to be common at the mouths of the southern New-Eng- 
 land rivers. The unprolific whale, hunted for its oil, has 
 been driven from its ancient haunts about New England 
 to distant seas, till it seems to be drawing near to exter- 
 mination. 
 
 The summer brings a variety of birds prized for food. 
 The most abundant is the pigeon, which former- 
 
 . Birds. 
 
 ly came in such numbers as to fill the air for 
 
 miles.^ Different wild species of the goose and duck resort 
 
 to the sea-shore in the colder months for fish and aquatic 
 
 cultivation ; two species of strawber- i " Pigeons, that come in multitudes 
 
 ry ; several of raspberry and of black- every summer, almost like the quails 
 
 berry ; one or two of haws ; one or two that fell round the camp of Israel in 
 
 of gooseberry ; two of cranberry ; two the wilderness." (Hubbard, History, 
 
 or three of whortleberry, and severed in Mass. Hist. Coll., XV. 25 ; Belknap, 
 
 species of blueberry. History of New Hampshire, HI. 171.) 
 2*
 
 18 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 plants and insects. The qnail and the red-breasted thrush 
 (commonly kno^^^l as the robin) make their nests in the 
 uplands. The woodcock and the ruffed-grouse, or par- 
 tridge, hide in the copses. Various species of the plover 
 and of other birds of passage haunt the meadows and 
 the marshes. The wild turkey, now rarely seen, throve 
 on berries in the woods.^ Of all the feathered tribes, the 
 tiny humming-bird of New England displays the most 
 delicate beauty; few are more gorgeous than the oriole, 
 or golden robin, which comes from the Chesapeake to 
 pass its summer in this region ; the bluebird, the golden- 
 winged woodpecker, the rose-breasted grosbeak, are among 
 the birds conspicuous for their brilliant plumage. The 
 oriole asserts equally his eminence in music. The hermit- 
 thrush, or mavis, charms the woods at nightfall. The 
 song-sparrow pours out its joyous melody all day long. 
 The American starling, or meadow-lark, is pronounced 
 by Wilson to be " eminently superior to the skjdark of 
 Europe in sweetness of voice, as far as his few notes ex- 
 tend." ^ From its close retreat the whippoorwill sends to 
 a long distance its wild and plaintive song. The hawk 
 and horned owl are formidable to poultry-yards. The 
 blue-jay, the crow, and tlie blackbird annoy the husband- 
 man by their inroads upon the just planted and just ripen- 
 ing grain, which they have defended against more de- 
 structive enemies. 
 
 The moist heat of the region favors an exuberance of 
 some kinds of insect life. The short summer 
 
 Insects. 
 
 campaign of the canker-worm leaves devastation 
 behind in the orchards and on the most prized of the or- 
 namental trees within the narrow limits which it infests ; 
 cut-worms and other caterpillars ravage the grain-fields ; 
 borers and other beetles deform the gardens. To the 
 higher animals the insects are for the most part harm- 
 less, though during the heats of summer, especially at the 
 
 1 Iligginson, in Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 121. 2 Aruerican Ornithology, III. 20.
 
 Chap. L] ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 19 
 
 close of the day, and in moist places, the presence of the 
 mosquito perpetually detracts from the comfort of man ; 
 and he has to take care not to disturb the wasp and 
 hornet, which build their nests about his dwelling. The 
 larger kinds of reptiles native to the soil have 
 
 . . 1 , . „ Reptiles. 
 
 been disappearmg with the mcrease of popula- 
 tion. Of those sometimes still seen are the harmless 
 black snake, six or seven feet in length, and the rattle- 
 snake, whose bite, popularly esteemed to be surely fatal, 
 has in fact been known to cause death when meeting with 
 a morbid predisposition in the patient. 
 
 The native quadrupeds of New England, as generally 
 of all America, are of types inferior to those 
 of the other hemisphere.^ The bear, the wolf, 
 the catamount, and the Ijnx or wild-cat, were the most 
 formidable. The moose, which has disappeared except 
 from the secluded portions of New Hampshire and Maine, 
 was the largest, measuring five feet and a third in height, 
 and nearly seven feet in the length of the body. The 
 fallow deer, not quite exterminated at this day, was abun- 
 dant in the woods. Of fur-bearing animals there were 
 the beaver, the otter, the ermine, the raccoon, the mus- 
 quash, the mink, the sable, and the martin, besides the 
 fox and the squirrel, and others less prized. 
 
 In such a territory and amid such circumstances dwelt, 
 in the beginning of the seventeenth century, a few tens 
 of thousands of men. 
 
 The nearest approximation to a knowledge of these 
 people in their primitive condition is of course ^^^^^^^ 
 to be gained from such journals as exist of the tionsofthe 
 
 o mi 1 1 ^^^^ voya- 
 
 early European voyages.^ These supply only su- gersontho 
 perficial information. The natives, when first 
 
 natives. 
 
 1 Guyot, Earth and Man, 193. show " the last ghmmers of savage L'fe, 
 
 2 " These records of the past, like as it becomes absorbed, or recedes ba- 
 the stern-lights of a departing ship," fore the tide of civilization." (Ludewig's
 
 20 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 seen, were observed to be " of tall stature, comely propor- 
 tion, strong, active, and, as it should seem, very health- 
 ful." ^ They were " in color swart, their hair long, their 
 bodies painted." They had clothing of skins of the deer 
 and the seal, with ornaments of quills, feathers, and plates 
 of copper, and collars and ear-rings of that metal and of 
 bones and marine shells. They were armed with bows and 
 arrows. They stole at the first opportunity which offered 
 itself, but were easily frightened into making restitution. 
 The women and children were " clean and straight bodied, 
 with countenance sweet and pleasant," and behavior mod- 
 est and coy. The first English visitor had reason to be 
 satisfied with his reception, when " there presented unto 
 him men, women, and children, who with all courteous 
 kindness entertained him, giving him certain skins of 
 wild beasts, tobacco, turtles, hemp, artificial strings col- 
 ored, chains, and such like things as at the present they 
 had about them." But within a fortnight they shot at 
 two of the strangers who had strayed from their com- 
 pany, and gave other proofs of vmfriendliness." Their 
 way of obtaining fire was to strike two stones together, 
 and catch the spark upon touchwood. They had "strings 
 and cords of flax." That they were "very witty" was 
 thought to be indicated by " sundry toys of theirs cun- 
 ningly wrought." ^ 
 
 These were dwellers about Massachusetts Bay and the 
 Vineyard Sound. Observations made shortly after on 
 the maritime country further east tended to show an iden- 
 tity of appearance and habits among the difierent tribes 
 of New England. Some official persons (such they ap- 
 peared to be) among the Indians about the Penobscot or 
 the Kennebec affected a style of decoration more gaudy 
 
 Litcratureof American Aboriginal Lan- ~ Gabriol Archer, Relation of Cap- 
 
 guapes, xi.) tain GosnoUl's Voyage, Ibid., 73 - 76. 
 
 1 fJosnold in his letter to his father, 3 John Brereton, Brief and True 
 
 in Mass. Hist. Coll., XXVIII. 71. Relation, Ibid., 88-<J3.
 
 Chap. I] ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 21 
 
 than that of their western neighbors, painting their faces 
 "very deep, some all black, some red, with stripes of ex- 
 cellent blue over their upper lips, nose, and chin," and 
 wearing "the white-feathered skins of some fowl round 
 about their head, jewels in their ears, and bracelets of 
 little white round bone, fastened together upon a leather 
 string." ^ 
 
 The earliest French visitor to the Massachusetts In- 
 dians did not secure among them the usual welcome to 
 his nation, but found occasion to report, " They are trai- 
 tors and thieves, and one has need to take care of them."^ 
 Captain John Smith saw more of them than his predeces- 
 sors, and with a more discerning eye, if with some pro- 
 pensity towards a too favorable representation ; and read- 
 ers of the present day regret that in this respect he has 
 provided so little satisfaction for their curiosity. " The 
 country of the Massachusetts," he says, " is the paradise 
 of all those parts." " The sea-coast, as you pass, shows 
 you all along large cornfields, and great troops of well- 
 proportioned people." " We found the people in those 
 parts very kind, but in their fury no less valiant."^ 
 
 In attempting some delineation of the aboriginal inhab- 
 itants of New England, it is necessary to anticipate the 
 observations of later years, when Europeans had become 
 established in their neighborhood. And in using such 
 authorities, it is essential to remember that, from step to 
 step, while the opportunities for maturing an acquaint- 
 ance with the Indian character and habits were extended, 
 the character and habits were themselves becoming modi- 
 fied by the presence of the strangers ; while the lineaments 
 were subjected to study, the lineaments were effaced or 
 changed, and the fidelity of the likeness to the prototype 
 was rendered questionable. 
 
 * Greorge Waymouth, True Relation, 3 Smith, Description of Kew Eng- 
 Ibid., 146. land, 2G (edit. IGIC). 
 
 2 L'Esearbot, Histoire de la Nou- 
 velle France, II. 498.
 
 22 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Few American animals, if indeed any one, whether in- 
 habiting: the earth, the air, or the inland waters, 
 icai. Indians can bo referred to species known in the other 
 fauiiiyof hemisphere. V\ ithout entermg into the question 
 01 an original diversity oi human races, it is sale 
 to say that superficial indications extend the rule from 
 the hiferior sorts to " the paragon of animals." Of the 
 five families into which, according to the most current 
 classification, physiologists distribute mankind, the North- 
 American Esquimaux, who occupy the Arctic region as 
 far down as the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude, are 
 of the Mongolian type ; the same which, most widely dif- 
 fused of all, covers far the greater part of Asia on the 
 one side, and through Greenland touches the confines of 
 Europe on the other. But leaving the region of the Es- 
 quimaux, we find the American continent from Hudson's 
 Bay to Cape Horn to be the native home of races difiering 
 mdeed more or less from one another, but still with an 
 agreement in generic characters, which distinguish them 
 not less from the Mongolian family than from the Cauca- 
 sian, the African, and the Malay. The symmetrical frame, 
 the cinnamon color of the skin, the long, black, coarse hair, 
 the scant beard, the high cheek-bones, the depressed and 
 square forehead set upon a triangular conformation of the 
 lower features, the small, deep-set, shining, snaky eyes, 
 the protuberant lips, the broad nose, the small skull with 
 its feeble frontal development,^ make a combination which 
 the scientific observer of some of these marks in the skel- 
 eton, and the unlearned eye turned upon the living sub- 
 ject, equally recognize as unlike what is seen in other re- 
 gions of the globe." 
 
 Of the seven groups of natives which, at the time of 
 
 1 Tlic contents of the Caucasian era- 2 « j^q other race of man maintains 
 
 nium liave an average measurement of such a striking analogy through all ita 
 
 ninety-tiirec cul)ic inches ; those of the subdivisions, and amidst all its variety 
 
 craniuniofthc! North-American Indian, of physical circumst^inces." (Morton, 
 
 but eighty-four. Crania Americana, Q3.)
 
 Chap. I.] ABORIGLNAL INHABITANTS. 23 
 
 the first authenticated European explorations, oc- <,gyg„foid 
 cupied the country enclosed by the Gulf of Mex- division of 
 
 • 1 Tir-'--i 11 11 o the North 
 
 ico, the Mississippi, the great lakes, and the St. American 
 Lawrence, three, the Natchez, the Uchees, and 
 the Catawbas, possessed but a small space of territory. 
 The range of the Cherokces was wider ; that of the Iro- 
 quois, or Five Nations, wider still. The combination of 
 the Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Creeks (Muskhogees), in 
 the extreme southern region, was yet more extensive. But 
 the largest domain of all was that of the family to which 
 the French gave the name of Algonquin} In the terri- 
 tory roamed over by the Algonquins was included that 
 which extends along the Atlantic Ocean from Pamlico 
 Sound to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and no other race 
 than this occupied any portion of New England. 
 
 A difference in dialect is the basis of a division of the 
 New-England Indians into two classes, one con- „ ,,, 
 
 O ' Twofold 
 
 sistinoj of those who inhabited what is now the division of 
 
 ^ ^ ^ the New- 
 
 State of Maine, nearly up to its western border; England 
 
 the other, of the rest of the New-England na- 
 tive population." Of the Maine Indians, the Etetchemins 
 dwelt furthest towards the east ; the Abenaquis, of which 
 nation the Tarratines were a part,^ hunted on both sides of 
 
 1 ^.Ir. Gallatin's map, attached to his tha's Vineyard, and another from 
 Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, &c., (in Maine, " who at first hardly under- 
 the second volume of Transactions of stood one the other's speech, till after 
 the American Antiquarian Society,) a while I perceived the diiference was 
 exhibits the territories belonging to no more than that as ours is between 
 these tribes respectively. the Northern and Southern people." 
 
 2 Gallatin (Synopsis, 32) ; WilUam- Gookin says (Ibid., I. 149), "The 
 son (History of Maine, I. 4G0). A Indians of the parts of New Eng- 
 comparison of Mr. Gallatin's vocabu- land, especially upon the sea-coasts, use 
 laries (Synopsis, 307, &c.) appears the same sort of speech and language." 
 abundantly to confirm the statement. But under the name New England 
 There are not wanting, however, high Gookin did not include INIaine. In the 
 authorities on the opposite side. (See preceding chapter, entided " Of the 
 Pickering, in Mass. Hist. Coll., XIX. Principal Indians that inhabit New 
 236-239, and Duponceau, Ibid., Ap. England," he says nothing of those 
 VI., YII.) Gorges (Ibid., XXVI. 59) east of the Piscataqna. 
 
 speaks of an Indian of his from Mar- 3 Hutchinson, I. 404. Williamson
 
 24 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 the Penobscot, and westward as far as the Saco, if not 
 quite to the Piscataqua. The home of the Penacook, or 
 Pawtuckct, Indians was in the southeast corner of New 
 Hampshire and the contiguous region of Massachusetts. 
 Next dwelt the Massachusetts tribe, along the bay of that 
 name. Then were found successively the Pokanokets, or 
 Wampanoags, in the southeastern region of Massachusetts 
 and by Buzzard's and Narragansett Bays; the Narragan- 
 setts, with an inferior and probably tributary tribe, called 
 the Nyantics, in what is now the State of Rhode Island ; 
 the Pequots, between the Narragansetts and the river for- 
 merly called the Pequot River, now the Thames; and 
 the Mohegans, spreading themselves as far as the river 
 Connecticut. From the Mohcgan hunting-grounds the 
 country of the Mohawks was understood to begin. That 
 powerful nation never had a permanent residence on New- 
 England soil, but they were accustomed annually to send 
 envoys to collect tribute from the nearest Eastern tribes. 
 In the central region of Massachusetts were the Nipmucks, 
 or Nipnets, and along Cape Cod the Nausets, who appear 
 to have owed some fealty to the Pokanokets. Vermont, 
 "Western Massachusetts, and Northern New Hampshire 
 were almost, if not absolutely, without inhabitants. 
 
 The estimates which have been made of the native 
 Native popu- populatiou of New England at the time of the first 
 NewEn'- EugUsh immigrations are discordant. A probable 
 land. computation places the number not far from fifty 
 
 thousand souls.' Of this aggregate, Connecticut and 
 Rhode Island together may have contained one half, and 
 
 (I. 470) makes the Tarratincs to be- must liavc boon from (liirtv to fortv 
 
 long to the Etctclicmins. Gallatin thousand souls, before the ejiidemic dis- 
 
 (Synopsis, 33) regards the names Tar- case which preceded the landing of the 
 
 ratine and Ahenaqni as equivalent. Pilgrims." The statistics of Daniel Goo- 
 
 1 Mr. Gallatin (Synopsis, 37) con- kin, in 1G74, (Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 147 
 
 eludes "that the Indian population - 149,) would, if admitted, furnish the 
 
 within the present boundaries of the basis of an estimate more than doublino' 
 
 States of New Hampshire, Massachu- this number, 
 setts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut
 
 Chap. I.] ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 25 
 
 Maine less than two thirds of the other half. This was 
 no occupation of a country which, not yet completely 
 occupied, contains at this time three millions of men. 
 
 These people held a low place on the scale of human- 
 ity. Even their physical capacities contradicted 
 
 •' _ J- •' *■ ^ Their physi- 
 
 the promise of their external conformation. Sup- cai cimrac- 
 ple and agile, so that it was said they would run 
 eighty or a hundred miles in a day, and back again in the 
 next two, they sank under continuous labor. The lym- 
 phatic temperament indicated the same preponderance in 
 them of "vegetative nature" ^vhich marked other animals 
 of the same continent.^ They scarcely wept or smiled. 
 Their slender appetites required small indulgence. They 
 could support life on the scantiest quantity of food, and 
 the innutritions stimulus of tobacco seemed almost enough 
 to supply its place ; though at times a gormandizing rage 
 seemed to possess them, and they w^ould be as ravenous 
 in abundance as they were capable of being abstemious 
 under necessity. If they were continent, it can only be 
 to coldness of constitution that this was due ; but no in- 
 stance is recorded of their oifering insult to a female cap- 
 tive or soliciting her familiarity, and the coyness of their 
 women repelled approach on the part of European visit- 
 ors. If there was noticed a remarkable exemption from 
 physical deformities, this was probably not the effect of 
 any peculiar congenital force or completeness, but of cir- 
 cumstances which forbade the prolongation of any imper- 
 fect life. The deaf, blind, or lame child was too burden- 
 some to be reared, and, according to a savage's estimate of 
 usefulness and enjoyment, its prolonged life would not 
 requite its nurture. A sort of compassion would early 
 
 1 Guyot, Earth and Man, pp. 103- gume temperament, by his gayety, by 
 
 195. " There is even in the tropical his lively affections, and by his muspu- 
 
 man of the Old World, in Africa at lar strength, which places him higher 
 
 least, a somewhat of native vigor, of than the Indian of tropical America," 
 
 vital energy, manifested by his sau- &c. Ibid., p. 206. 
 
 VOL. I. 3
 
 26 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 relieve it from wliat would seem, under such disabilities, 
 the misery of existence, or it would die prematurely from 
 neglect, or from mere want of that skilful assiduity which 
 parental affection in civilized society studies peculiarly to 
 bestow upon peculiarly helpless offspring. Their demean- 
 or, so grave when exposed to notice, was apt to be taken 
 for an indication of self-respect, but was equally suscep- 
 tible of being interpreted as betokening a mere stolid 
 vacuity of emotion and thought. 
 
 Supplies for the essential wants of physical life — food. 
 Their shelter, and clothing — were of the rudest kind, 
 
 dress. Undressed skins of deer or of other wild animals 
 furnished the winter's attire; in summer, the men wore 
 about the middle only a piece of deer-skin, from which 
 the fur had been removed by friction. Moccasons reach- 
 ing above the ankle, of thin dressed deer-skin or of the 
 moose's hide according to the season, afforded some pro- 
 tection and support to the foot. 
 
 The wigwam^ or Indian house, of a circular or oval 
 Their shape, was made of bark or mats laid over a 
 
 houses. framework of branches of trees stuck in the 
 ground in such a manner as to converge at the top, 
 where was a central aperture for the escape of smoke 
 from the fire beneath. The better sort had also a linins: 
 of mats. For entrance and egress two low openings were 
 left on opposite sides, one or the other of which was 
 closed with bark or mats, according to the direction of 
 the wind. 
 
 For food the natives had fish and game; nuts, roots, 
 Their and berries, (and, in the last resort, aeorns,) which 
 
 fooj. grew wild ; and a few cultivated vegetables. In 
 
 the winter, they shot, or snared, or caught in pitfalls, the 
 moose, the bear, and the deer ; in the summer, still less 
 trouble procured ^ox tliem a variety of birds; in both 
 seasons, at favorable times, the sea and the rivers afforded 
 some supplies. Having no salt, they could not preserve
 
 Chap. I.] ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 27 
 
 meat except by fumigation, or, for a short time, by bury- 
 ing in the snow. They had not the potato, but in the 
 ground-nut, which they dug in the woods, nature had, to 
 a limited extent, furnished a sort of substitute.^ 
 
 Tobacco they cultivated for luxury, using it only in the 
 way of smoking. For food, they raised maize, Ti.eirhor- 
 or Indian corn,^ the squash, the pumpkin,^ the '''="'^"f»- 
 bean now called Seiva-bean, and a species of sun-flower, 
 whose esculent tuberous root resembled the artichoke in 
 taste. It has been asserted, but without probability, that 
 they had cucumbers and watermelons.^ One tool sufficed 
 for their wretched husbandry; a hoe, made of a clam- 
 shell, or a moose's shoulder-blade, fastened into a wooden 
 handle. Their manure was fish, covered over in the hill 
 along with the seed. When the corn w^as sufficiently 
 advanced, earth was heaped about it to the height of 
 some niches, for support as well as to extirpate weeds, 
 while the bean-vines were held up by the corn-stalk 
 around which they twined. 
 
 Fish were taken with lines or nets, the cordage of 
 which was made of twisted fibres of the dogbane, Their 
 or of sinews of the deer. Hooks were fashioned ''*'""^' 
 of sharpened bones of fishes and birds. 
 
 1 What commonly goes by tliis name in another, from the great god Kau- 
 at the present time (otherwise called tontowit's field in the southwest, from 
 pea-nut) is a kind of bean, not a native whence they held came all their corn 
 of New England. The ground-nut is and beans." 
 
 a tuber, varying in size from that of a 3 De Candolle (Geographle Bota- 
 
 musket-ball to that of a hen's egg, and nique) denies both these vegetables to 
 
 when boiled or roasted is mealy and the New World. But the different tes- 
 
 not unpalatable. tiraony of Chamj^lain as to Maine in 
 
 2 Maize is not indigenous in New 1604 (Voyage de la Nouvelle France, 
 England, but somehow worked its Avay &c., pp. 73, 80, 84) appears decisive, 
 thither from its unascertained native '^ Higginson (New England's Planta- 
 country nearer the sun. According to tion, in Mass. Ilist. Coll., I. 118) gives 
 Hutchinson (I. 420), there was a tra- them the former; Josselyn, the latter, 
 ditiou that a bird brought it. Roger " The watermelon is proper to tlie 
 Williams (Key into the Language of country." (Account of Two Voyages, 
 America, Chap. XV.) reports the In- 74, comp. 130.) L'Escarbot (II. 836) 
 dians as saying that " the crow brought says that in the time of Cartier they 
 them at first an Indian grain of corn in were cultivated in Canada, not that 
 one ear, and an Indian or French bean they were indigenous.
 
 28 HISTOllY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Flesh and fish were cooked by roasting before a fire 
 on the point of a stalce, broiling on hot coals or Their 
 stones, or boiling in vessels of stone, earth, or '^°^^^^y- 
 wood. Water was made to boil, either by hanging the ves- 
 sel over a fire, or by the immersion in it of heated stones. 
 The Indians had not the art of making bread. They boiled 
 their corn either alone into hominy, or else mixed with 
 beans, in which case the compound was called succotash; 
 or they ate the parched kernels whole ; or with a stone pes- 
 tle and a wooden mortar they broke them up into meal, 
 which, moistened with water into a paste, they called 
 nookhilc} AVith a little of this preparation carried in a bag 
 at the girdle, and a similar frugal outfit of tobacco, they 
 were provisioned for a journey. Corn was laid up for 
 winter supply in holes dug in the earth, and lined on the 
 sides, bottom, and top with bark. The Indian did not 
 feed at regular hours, but whenever hunger prompted, 
 or the state of his supplies allowed. He knew no drink 
 but water, except when he could flavor it with the sweet 
 juice for which in spring he tapped the rock-maple tree. 
 
 After the cordage which has been mentioned, the best 
 Their manii- spccimeus of ludiau skill in manufacture were 
 factures. baslvcts, mats, and boats. The last were of two 
 kinds. One, made of birch-bark fastened over a light 
 wooden frame, with seams skilfully and not untastefuUy 
 secured, was not only convenient from its lightness when 
 taken out of the water to be launched in another stream, 
 but c([ually safe and easy to manage in that element, as 
 long as it was kept clear of the collisions for which its 
 frail structure was unfit. The other sort was a log, 
 shaped and hollowed by the application first of fire, 
 and then of rude stone tools acting upon the charred sur- 
 face. A single Indian, it was said, probably with some 
 exaggeration, would finish a boat of this kind, twenty 
 or tliirty feet long, in three weeks from his choice of the 
 
 1 NooKltik, meal, (ICliot's Indi;in Bible,) was corrupted by the English into
 
 Chap. I.] ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 29 
 
 tree to the end of the alternate burnings and scrapings 
 by which it was first felled and then wrought into 
 form. 
 
 His axe, hatchet, chisel, and gouge were of hard stone, 
 brought to a sort of edge by friction upon an- xiieirtoois, 
 other stone. The helve of the axe or hatchet "elus^'aiid 
 was attached either by a cord drawn tight around '""'■'"^"'■^• 
 a groove in the stone, or by being cleft while still unsev- 
 ered from the tree, and left to grow till it closed fast 
 round the inserted tool. Bows were strung with the 
 sinews and twisted entrails of the moose and the deer. 
 Arrows were tipped with bone, with claws of the larger 
 species of birds, or with those artificially shaped trian- 
 gular pieces of flint, which are now often found in the 
 fields. Spears w^re of similar contrivance. Besides the 
 stone hatchet as a weapon of ofience, was the tomahawk^ 
 which was merely a wooden club, two feet or more in 
 length, terminating in a heavy knob. Mats served as 
 hangings for houses, and, with or without skins according 
 to the season, as couches for repose, for which latter use 
 they were laid upon wooden supports a foot or two from the 
 ground. Vessels of basket-work, of baked earth, or of 
 hollowed wood or stone, completed the scanty inventory 
 of household furniture. Personal ornaments consisted of 
 greasy paint laid in streaks upon the skin ; of mantles 
 and head-gear made of feathers ; of ear-rings, nose-rings, 
 bracelets, and necklaces of bone, shells, or shining stones ; 
 and of pieces of native copper, sometimes in plates, some- 
 times strung together so as to make a kind of fringe. 
 The pipe, with its bowl of soft stone set upon a stem of 
 hard wood two feet long, and often elaborately carved 
 and ornamented, was a personal object of special con- 
 sideration. The precious metals were unknown, as well 
 as the preparation of the ores of those employed in the 
 useful arts. 
 
 The Indian of this region had taught no animal to re- 
 3*
 
 30 HISTORY OF NEW EXGLAKD. [Book T. 
 
 liere his labor by its agility, cunning, or strength. Not 
 only had he no workino; cattle : he had no flock 
 
 Their want •' i i • 
 
 of domestic noi* hcixl, noi' any poultry. The only animal he 
 had attached to himself was a sort of native dog, 
 resembling a cross between the fox and the wolf." It 
 was probably only the lazy sharer of his cabin and play- 
 mate of his children, and not trained to be useful either 
 as a sentinel or in the chase.^ 
 
 Generally he had only one wife, though no rule or 
 fixed custom forbade polyf]jamy. If, after trial. 
 
 Their do- , 1 J & ./ ' ^ ' 
 
 mesticreia- tlio counectiou provcd unsatisfactory, it might 
 be dissolved at the will of either party ; nor was 
 there anything disreputable in a frequent repetition of 
 this proceeding. Eut so long as she shared his cabin, the 
 wife was the husband's drudge and slave. She covered 
 and lined the wigwam, and carried away its materials when 
 it was to be set up in another spot. She bore home the 
 game he had taken ; plaited the mats and baskets ; plant- 
 ed, tended, and harvested the corn and vegetables ; and 
 cooked the food. In the frequent migrations, she con- 
 veyed, fastened to a board on her back, the child, which, 
 in consequence of her hardy habits, or of a kind dispen- 
 sation of nature, she had borne, perhaps within a week, 
 with little pain. Her toils were relieved by no sympathy, 
 and requited with no tenderness ; the leavings of the feast, 
 
 1 Of course he had no fleeces to where, and I think he was in error, 
 •wear. And of course he did not vary "When he was first here, in 1638, he 
 liis diet with either milk or eggs, except had Httle time for observation, and be- 
 tlic eggs of wild-fowl. It must have fore his second visit, in 16G3, the set- 
 been of these that Waymouth saw the tiers had largely introduced their own 
 shells. (True Relation, in ]\Iass. llist. arts and customs. Nothing on the sub- 
 Coll., XXVIU. 133.) ject can be inferred from the alarm 
 
 2 So it is described by JosseljTi, who said to have been given by a dog at the 
 was a naturalist. (Account of Two attack on the Pequod fort. And such 
 Voyages, &c., 04.) was the Indian's mode of warfare, that 
 
 3 Josselyn says (Ibid.) that the dogs he would be more fearful of having his 
 were brought up to hunt, and he some- own approaches betrayed by his brute 
 where rejx'ats the statement. But I companions, than desirous to be secured 
 have met with nothing of the kind else- by their vigilance against surprise.
 
 CiiAP. I] ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 31 
 
 the resting-place most exposed to the weather, were what 
 fell to her share. 
 
 Both parental and filial affection were feeble and tran- 
 sient. Where there was no process of education to be car- 
 ried on, and the favorable introduction of the young into 
 life depended little on the care of elders, there was small 
 occasion for solicitude or authority on the one side, or for 
 reverence or gratitude on the other. After the young 
 man was able to hunt and fish for his own living, the tie 
 which bound him to the authors of his being scarcely 
 continued to be recognized on either side. 
 
 It is not known that there were formal ceremonies of 
 burial, any more than of marriage. Bodies were Their 
 placed in the ground in a sitting or a recumbent ''"'■'*'^' 
 posture ; nor was it found that any tribe was distinguished 
 from others by a uniform practice of its own in this re- 
 spect. No method of embalming was in use. With the 
 dead were sometimes interred his arms, his personal orna- 
 ments, and some articles of food. 
 
 No condition of society can be imagined so simple as to 
 afford absolutely no occasion for an exchange of Their trade 
 commodities. Wherever men meet, at least a ^'"i"'0"e>'- 
 rude barter will naturally take place. The hunter return- 
 ing from the woods will give a bear-skin for a basket of 
 corn. But before the arrival of the planters in New Eng- 
 land some of the natives had advanced so far as to use 
 a circulating medium for trade. In the absence of gold 
 and silver, they adopted a currency of what was called 
 ivampum or wanqnimpeag. It consisted of cylindrical pie- 
 ces of the shells of testaceous fishes, a quarter of an inch 
 long and in diameter less than a pipe-stem, drilled length- 
 wise so as to be strung upon a thread. The beads of a 
 white color, rated at half ^ the value of the black or violet, 
 passed each as the equivalent of a farthing in transactions 
 
 I AVilliamson (Histor}' of Maine, I. statement in the text is that of Gookin 
 50G) says just the reverse. But the (Mass. Illst. Coll., I. 152), who had han-
 
 32 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book L 
 
 between the natives and the planters. They were used for 
 ornament as well as for com, and ten thousand have been 
 known to be wrought mto a single war-belt four inches 
 wide. They are said to have been an invention and man- 
 ufacture of the Narragansetts, and from them to have 
 come into circulation among the other tribes. 
 
 Property, and the industry which amasses it and which 
 Their indo- ^^ stimulatcs, are the instruments of civilization, 
 lent habits. ^;Y[^\^ little that could be called property, and 
 little desire for it, the New-England savage was the most 
 indolent of men. An improvidence almost idiotic led to 
 an almost utter sloth. When not engaged in war or 
 hunting, he would pass whole weeks in sleep, or sitting 
 silent with his elbows on his knees. ^ He had not energy 
 to cleanse his wigwam, where was a conglomeration of 
 odious filth, to which the condition of the persons of its 
 occupants was far from presenting a contrast. A game 
 of football, in which he was expert, or of quoits, or a 
 wrestling-bout, or a dance in which women did not min- 
 gle, afforded some occasional variety. The fumes of to- 
 bacco yielded a sort of dreamy exhilaration. But his emi- 
 Theiriove Hcut lesourcc was the same as that of all other 
 and dm'nk^ pcoplc, civiUzcd or savage, who seek escape from 
 enness. intolerable inactivity. He was a desperate gam- 
 bler. He would stake his arms, the wrapping of furs 
 that covered him, his stock of winter provisions, his cabin, 
 his wife, finally his personal liberty, on the chances of 
 play. Destitute of the means of drunkenness till he was 
 tempted by the stranger, he plunged as soon as he had 
 opportunity into desperate excess in drinking. 
 
 died the wampum as a currency. Comp. and the reply •Nvcre as follcn-s : " Xot 
 
 Morton CSi-w Eiiglisli Canaan, Book I. to do any unnecessary work on tlic 
 
 Ch. XII.); Williams (Key, Ch. XXIV.). Sabbath-day, especially within the gates 
 
 1 In 1044, the magistrates of Massa- of Christian towns. — Answer. It is easy 
 
 chusetts took the engagement of some to them ; they liavc not much to do on 
 
 Indians to keep the ten commandments any day, and they can well take their 
 
 of the I)e<alogue. When they came to ease on that day." (Massachusetts 
 
 Uie fourth commandment, the proposal Colonial Records, il. 56.)
 
 Chap. I.] ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 33 
 
 What little there was in him of mental development or 
 action was in harmonious relation with the con- Their inven- 
 diti'ons of his life. A narrow ingenuity effected *'°"^" 
 something in the way of provision for his necessities and 
 convenience. His European neighbors observed the skill 
 of some of his devices for fishing, as that of the scoop- 
 net, the cylindrical basket, and the waving of torches over 
 the water to attract to the surface the larger fish, there to 
 be struck by a spear. His snow-shoes for travelling in 
 winter, and his method of dressing the skins of animals 
 with the brains, were inventions found worthy of adop- 
 tion. His habits as a hunter and a warrior demanded 
 and provided a peculiar discipline for that class of the 
 faculties which the phrenologists call ^wrceptive. His 
 quick sense readily detected changes in the appearance of 
 surrounding objects, and discerned their bearing on the 
 purpose of the hour. He tracked his game or his enemy 
 by indications on the surface of the ground, in the mo- 
 tions of trees, in faint sounds without significance to an- 
 other ear. No wonders of nature or of art stimulated his 
 dull curiosity, or lighted up his vacant eye. But while 
 his own countenance was rarely seen to express emotion, 
 he was skilled to read the passions of others in their 
 aspect. 
 
 Beyond this little range, it is surprising to observe how 
 destitute he was of mental culture or capacity. ^^ . 
 
 ^ -' Their music. 
 
 The proceedings of the second generation before dancing, and 
 
 . eloquence. 
 
 his own were as unknown to him as the events 
 of the ancient world. In ballads, songs, or some other 
 rhythmical form of legend, most communities inherit some 
 kindling traditions of the past. The New-England In- 
 dian had nothing of the kind, nor of any other poetry. 
 He had no instrument of music, till he learned from his 
 invaders to construct a rude drum,^ and it was even 
 hard to detect any measure in his songs of festivity or 
 
 1 Roger Williams, Key, Chap. III.
 
 3-4 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 of war ; they were not so much chants as howls and yells. 
 If he drew lines and figures on trees and rocks, they might 
 be for use in guiding him through the labyrinth of the 
 forest, and possibly, in rare instances, for chronicles and 
 memorials, but never were essays in a fine art. The 
 nearest thing to a work of imagination of which he was 
 observed to be capable was the war-dance, which was not 
 an amusement but a solemnity, consisting of a grotesque 
 dramatic representation of the proceedings of a campaign ; 
 the muster, the march, the ambush, the slaughter, the re- 
 treat, the reception at home, the torture and massacre of 
 prisoners. There has been a disposition to attribute to 
 the red man the power of eloquent speech. Never was 
 a reputation so cheaply earned. A few allusions to fa- 
 miliar appearances in nature, and to habits of animals, con- 
 stitute nearly all his topics for oratorical illustration. Take 
 away his commonplaces of the mountain and the thunder, 
 the sunset and the waterfall, the eagle and the buffalo, 
 the burying of the hatchet, the smoking of the calumet, 
 and the lighting of the council-fire, and the material for 
 his pomp of words is reduced within contemptible dimen- 
 sions. His best attempts at reasoning or persuasion have 
 been his simplest statements of facts, themselves some- 
 times, no doubt, sufficiently affecting. But whatever may 
 be thought of those most favorable specimens of his ora- 
 tory in other parts of North America, which must be 
 allowed to be for the most part of doubtful authenticity, 
 certain it is that there is no recorded harangue of a 
 New-England Indian which can assert a claim to praise. 
 Occasions enough occurred for creditable exhibitions in 
 this field. But the gift of impressive speech was not 
 his.i 
 
 * The host Indian speech on record ginia." But, not to urpe the unccr- 
 
 is Lo^'an's comijlaiiit of (lie murder of tainty as to how much of it is Logan, 
 
 liis family l)y Colonel Cresap at the and how much JefTerson, its pathos is 
 
 mouth of the Kcnawha, as reported by simply that of the ill-treatment which it 
 
 Mr. Jellersori in his "Notes on Vir- relates. Of lied Jacket, the famous
 
 Chap. I] ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 35 
 
 With such vital defects of understanding, we do not 
 expect to find that he had accomphshcd anything T,,g;j 
 in the way of scientific observation or discovery. ^"^"««- 
 The treatment of disease is a matter which forces itself 
 upon attention. The Indians had learned the medicinal 
 virtues of a few simples ; they bound up wounds in bark 
 with mollifying preparations of leaves ; and they practised 
 a cure of fevers by opening the pores of the skin with a 
 vapor-bath. Beyond a few such methods their therapeu- 
 tics consisted of the grossest nonsense and imposture. 
 The nervous system, agitated by physical or moral stimu- 
 lants, is capable of exerting a marvellous action, bene- 
 ficial, neutral, or mischievous, as it may turn out, on the 
 rest of the frame ; and the medicine-man or 2>owoiv, while 
 he acquired the credit of having wrenched with his clam- 
 ors and charms one patient from the jaws of death, could 
 not be confidently charged with having consigned to them 
 another by the same mummery. Of numbers the New- 
 England native scarcely knew more than he could tell off 
 on his fingers ; ^ his frequently recurring rhetoric respect- 
 ing the sands on the beach and the leaves in the forest 
 was the natural shift of his arithmetical unskilfulness. 
 
 Seneca orator, one point for commenda- quarter. Yet even of such poor pro- 
 
 tion was well selected by his eulogist : ducts as these, the mind of the native of 
 
 "There's one rare, strange virtue in thy speeches, New England was barren. 
 
 The secret of their mastery; -they are shun." 1 Wood, however, (New England's 
 
 As to traditionary legends, the beauti- Prospect, Appendix,) gives their num- 
 
 ful verse of Longfellow does but robe bers up to twenty, John Eliot (Mass. 
 
 their beggarly meanness in cloth of Hist. Coll., XIX. 261) up to a thou- 
 
 gold. Of what they owe to that exquis- sand, and Roger Williams (Key, Chap, 
 
 ite poet, it Is easy to satisfy one's self by IV.) up to a hundred thousand. But 
 
 collating the raw material of his work, this last numeration, attributed to the 
 
 as it stands in such authorities as Heck- Narragansetts, is plainly incredible ; 
 
 ewelder and Schoolcraft. The results and I cannot but regard both Williams's 
 
 of the " Algic Researches " are a collec- table, and Eliot's statement of the nu- 
 
 tion of the most vapid and stupid compo- meration of the INIohegans, as framed by 
 
 sitions that ever disappointed a laborious themselves on analogies, known to them, 
 
 curiosity ; but they were the best collec- of Indian etymology, rather than Intend- 
 
 tion that, under the most favorable cir- ed as representations of words actually 
 
 cumstances, was to be made in that in use.
 
 86 IIISTOUV OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Though he passed most of his life under the open sky, 
 it was not ascertained tliat his observations extended to 
 any grouping of the stars.^ He had no approximate for- 
 mula for the year. Tlie lunar changes could not fiiil to 
 be observed, and the months of vegetation were distin- 
 guished by their productions ; but it is not known that 
 the colder months were discriminated in any way, or that 
 there was any division into weekly periods corresponding 
 to tlie quarterings of the moon. Days were so many 
 sleepings and wakings. In the absence of more minute 
 divisions of the day, there were only those that were 
 marked by sunrise, noon, and sunset. 
 
 It cannot surprise the considerate inquirer to find in- 
 consistencies in the testimony from different 
 
 Their civil _ ^ •' 
 
 Btateaiui sourccs rcspcctiug the civil state and govern- 
 
 governiiient. t *' t i i i 
 
 ment oi these savages, it little has been trans- 
 mitted that is dctinite and trustworthy, the main reason 
 is, that little of social order and organization that was 
 definite and durable at any time existed. The Indian 
 did not need much government, and his manner of life 
 did not admit of his being much subjected to its control. 
 In his solitary cabin each head of a family, a patriarch 
 after the type of the Filmer school, was naturally the 
 tyrant of his natural dependents. In his stealthy wan- 
 derings in the woods after game, he rarely met with other 
 wanderers to molest him, or for him to molest. If he fell 
 
 • Waymouth's companion, Rosier, low (Good Newcs, &c., CO) says, "They 
 
 says, " They liave names for many stai's" know divers of the stars by name." But 
 
 (Mass. Hist. Coll., XXVIII. \i>(j) ; and he gives no other instanee than that of 
 
 perhaps he is right. But he is not so the North Star, which he says they call 
 
 good an authority as he would have the Bear. The partial Williams (Key, 
 
 appeared to be but for some other Chap. XII.) says, " They nmch ob- 
 
 statements. For instance, presuming serve the stars, and their very children 
 
 on the small danger of being contradict- can give names to many of them " ; and 
 
 ed, he says (Ibid.), " They make butter he adds that they give to the constella- 
 
 and cheese of the milk they liave of the tion of Ursa ]\Iajor their own name for 
 
 reindeer and fallow deer, which they the bear, and that they designate the 
 
 have tame, as we have cows." It is morning star and two others, 
 much more to the purpose that Wins-
 
 Chap. I.] ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 37 
 
 in with a lonely wigwam, it received him with hospitality 
 (for hospitality is the universal virtue of lazy and unset- 
 tled people), and freely gave him a share in all that it 
 possessed ; and it possessed nothing to tempt his cupidity 
 cither to craft qr to violence. An advanced state of soci- 
 ety requires an elaborate system of laws and administration 
 to protect life, liberty, reputation, and property. In the 
 wilds through which he roamed, the Indian might be left 
 to defend his own life with his own arm, and that of his 
 kindred by fear of his vengeance, without danger of those 
 disorders which would follow on acts of individual vio- 
 lence committed in crowds of men. There could be no 
 motive for restraining his liberty except to make him 
 serviceable, and this design would be manifestly too vis- 
 ionary to call for precautions. Sensibility to reputation 
 is a factitious tenderness, not belonging to his social po- 
 sition or his range of thought. And of property, which 
 occasions most of the litigations of civilized man, he had 
 very little to require protection. Personal ownership of 
 land was a conception which had not risen on his mind, 
 and his few articles of movable wealth were such as 
 would scarcely repay the trouble of a theft, and such as, 
 if stolen, it would be less troublesome to supply anew 
 than to reclaim. 
 
 Under these circumstances, there was small scope for 
 the interior functions of government. An intricate appa- 
 ratus was not needed for the adjustment of disputes which 
 were alike of infrequent occurrence, and of trifling con- 
 sequence, whether to the community or to the parties. 
 Such as arose would be settled by time and accident, or 
 by advice and arbitration ; or they might be left unsettled 
 without serious damage ; or they would be fought out be- 
 tween the disputants. And in fact there is no evidence 
 that the Indians of New England ever possessed what, in 
 the loosest construction of the phrase, might be termed a 
 code of laws, or any set of customs having the force of 
 lec^al oblimxtion.
 
 38 mSTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 But in respect to foreign relations, if of such communi- 
 ties tliat plirase may be used, the case was different. For 
 the protection of life and of hunting-grounds against an 
 enemy, it was necessary that there should be unity of 
 counsel and of action in a tribe, and that there should 
 be some central authority to exercise foresight and over- 
 sight for the common weal. 
 
 The New-England Indians had functionaries for such 
 
 purposes ; the higher class known as sachems, the 
 
 cheinsand subordiuatc, or those of inferior note or smaller 
 
 sagamores. . . , . . . -^^ . i /» i 
 
 jurisdiction, as sagamores.^ How the rank of these 
 chiefs was obtained, it would be fruitless to inquire, with 
 any expectation of finding a uniform rule or principle of ad- 
 vancement. Associations of respect and confidence would 
 naturally gather about the family of the ruling chief, and 
 pride would be saved from offence, and rivalries which 
 the state is interested to escape would be avoided, through 
 a common understanding that an heir of his blood should 
 at his death succeed to his authority. But such consid- 
 erations would not countervail an obvious incapacity to 
 govern. Administration may go on safely and prosperous- 
 ly among a civilized people, though its limited monarch 
 be a child or a fool. The Indian polity had none of the 
 machinery for such a fiction. Whenever it was manifest 
 that the ruler was personally incompetent, it would be 
 manifestly necessary that he should withdraw; and the 
 ready resource would be to fill his place with a person 
 next or near to him in similar advantages of birth and 
 position. Personal popularity, however won, would nat- 
 urally be an element in the choice ; and, in some strong 
 instance of notorious incapacity on the one hand, and of 
 distinguished endowment on the other, it would not be 
 
 ^ This is the distinction commonly with us called, as they are sachems 
 
 made (Hutchinson, ]\Ias9., I. 410). But southward" (that is, in riyniouth) ; 
 
 "Williamson (Maine, I. 494) reverses it; and Gookin (Mass. Ilist. Coll., I. 154) 
 
 Dudley (Letter to the Countess of Lin- speaks of the two titles of oflice as 
 
 coin) says, " Sar/anwre, so are the kings c(iuivalent.
 
 Chap. L] ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 39 
 
 surprising to find the line of hereditary prescription en- 
 tirely overstepped. The difficulty or impossibility of gov- 
 erning such subjects, except with the advantage of their 
 personal good-will, would deter aspirants from seeking an 
 eminence grudgingly accorded ; and in the want of a gen- 
 eral and strong interest in the question of a succession 
 where there were no important rights hazarded and no 
 power of patronage to be seized, and the consequent diffi- 
 culty of rallying a party for his support, the unacceptable 
 candidate would have small inducement to prosecute his 
 claim. Among the many wars of these savages, we hear 
 of no civil war for a disputed succession. 
 
 The sachem was not necessarily the captain of his tribe 
 in war. As far as there was command, it seems rather 
 to have fallen by common consent from time to time to 
 him who was recognized as the most capable and experi- 
 enced warrior. To the sachem it would naturally belong 
 to receive and send envoys, to collect Intelligence, to con- 
 voke assemblies for consultation, to circulate information 
 and directions. Whatever in theory or in pretension 
 might be his authority, its exertion would practically be 
 so dependent on the cheerful acquiescence of his people, 
 that he would be careful to be mainly influenced by their 
 wishes ; and thus the spirit of a democracy would pervade 
 the public counsels. As the honored depositary of a de- 
 gree of power, some private controversies would naturally 
 find their way to him ; and his determination of them, 
 if it did not coerce a settlement, would place the worsted 
 party in a disadvantageous posture for further strife. He 
 expected his maintenance from the free contributions of 
 his subjects, and, when it was not offered, he asserted a 
 right to take it by force. Sometimes sachems were of the 
 female sex. If, as has been supposed, hereditary authority 
 was by a permanent rule transmitted in the maternal line, 
 this could at most have been only a peculiarity of some 
 tribes.
 
 40 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Nothing in the natural history of man is more sur- 
 Theirian- prising than the completeness, artificial structure, 
 guages. ^j^j essential uniformity of the shapes of his lan- 
 guage. From civilized to half brutal, from Greek to 
 Bushman, from English to Esquimaux, every people con- 
 verses with the same general apparatus of the same mar- 
 vellous faculty of vocal expression. Christian missionaries 
 had no sooner learned the dialects of the Cherokee and 
 the Sandwich-Islander, than they digested them into gram- 
 mars conformed to our analogies. 
 
 Comparative philology, in the present state of that 
 science, recognizes three great classes of languages: the 
 monosi/Uabic, the agglutinating^ and the infiecting. Of the 
 first class, which indicates the relations of ideas by the 
 equivocal method of a mere juxtaposition of words in 
 a sentence with their form unaltered, the Chinese is the 
 typc.^ The inflecting languages, which indicate the mod- 
 ifications and relations of ideas by conjugations, declen- 
 sions, and other like forms, and constitute a consummate 
 vehicle of thought, are those which have been perfect- 
 ed in the use of the civilized nations of the Caucasian 
 stock. The agglutinating languages^ occupy a middle 
 place between these two classes. Their peculiarity is that 
 they express relations of ideas by stringing words together 
 in one compound vocable. They are spoken in a large 
 part of Asia, in a small part of Southeastern Europe, and 
 by the aborigines throughout the American continent.^ 
 
 The language of the New-England tribes,'' full of con- 
 
 ^ Diiponceau, Chinese System of have tliis fact from Professor FeUon, 
 
 Writing (in the Transactions of the "who mentioned it in liis leai-ned lectures 
 
 American Pliilosopliical Society for before the Lowell Institute of Boston in 
 
 1838, pp. x.\xi, xxxii ) 18.54. 
 
 2 i\Ir. Dui)onceau and Mr. Gallatin ^ The Iavo preat early authorities for 
 name tlusm pi)l>/sijnllietic, and Wilhelm the dialects of New En<rland are Roger 
 Humboldt iiirnrporatinfj. Williams's " Key " to the Narrapansett 
 
 3 A special type of lanjruarres of this language, and John Eliot's " Indian 
 class has been found by the missionaries Grammar," which relates to the speech 
 in Southern and Western Africa. I of the IMassachusetts family. Eliot's
 
 Chap. I.] ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 41 
 
 sonants, and harsh, like that of the rest of the Algon- 
 quins, proved in the analysis to possess every Their^ram- 
 part of speech which we recognize, except per- '"'-"'cai 
 haps the indefinite article, a want which it shared 
 with the elaborate classical tongues. The adjective, how- 
 ever, generally appeared only as incorporated with the 
 verb, or, to phrase this differently, there was a copious 
 variety of verbs to express various qualities in the subject 
 or object. The characteristic of the class to which this 
 dialect has been referred so pervaded it, that it was not 
 so much rich in compound words as composed of them ; 
 m Eliot's Indian Primer, there are words of fifteen sylla- 
 bles.^ It was flexible and capacious to that degree that 
 it had forms of the verb to express the causative, the fre- 
 quentative, the reflexive, and other modifications of action. 
 On the other hand, it wanted the substantive verb, and so 
 could not convey the idea of existence, independent of 
 some accompanying condition or circumstance. Like our 
 own tongue, it designated the plural number of nouns 
 by a suflix. It did not discriminate the gender of either 
 nouns or pronouns ; the words for he and she were the 
 same, and the words for him and her. But in place of this 
 distinction was one, which languages exact in the discrim- 
 ination of gender have not, answering to the difference 
 between sentient, or personal, and neuter, or inanimate; 
 and this was denoted in both numbers by difterences of 
 termination, analogous to the inflections which mark the 
 masculine and feminine in other languages. This dis- 
 tinction of verbal forms, however, did not without excep- 
 
 translation of the Bible is an im- tury, are of great authenticity and value 
 
 mense storehouse of their language, from his peculiar opportunities of infor- 
 
 A large vocabulary has also been hand- mation. 
 
 ed down, prepared early in the last ccn- l " This is wonderful in their tongue, 
 
 tury, by Josiah Cotton of Plymouth, that sometimes one syllable spreads the 
 
 The " Observations " of Jonathan Ed- virtue of its signification through the 
 
 wards, the younger, on the Mohegan whole sentence." (President Dunster, 
 
 dialect, though belonging to so late a Letter to Professor liavis, in Mass. Hist, 
 
 time as the last quarter of the last cen- Coll., XXXI. 253.) 
 4 *
 
 42 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 tion follow that of nature. The stars and some other in- 
 animate objects belonged verbally to the animate class ; 
 an anomaly similar to Avhat occurs in the application of 
 masculine and feminine forms in inflecting languages. 
 
 Like ourselves, the Indians for the most part marked 
 only one case with a special termination, though occa- 
 sionally a vocative form also appeared. The most com- 
 mon relations they had no means of expressing abstract- 
 ly. They could speak of a hatchet^ as was necessary, 
 because they might not know its owner ; but not of a fa- 
 ther, son, head, or hand, except as w?j/, yoiir^ or his father, 
 and so on. As in a Syriac idiom, before the noun, when 
 introduced as the object of an action, its appropriate pro- 
 noun was inserted ; as, " John loves him Peter." Though 
 there were a past and a future tense, the present was often 
 employed in their place, perhaps for the liveliness of its 
 eftect. With an imperfect resemblance to the dual of 
 the Greek, Hebrew, and other languages, 2i particular plu- 
 ral was used, distinguishing few from many. As in the 
 Shemitic languages, the root of the verb was in the third 
 person singular of the indicative ; but it was in the present, 
 not the p¥eterite tense. There were no relative pronouns.^ 
 The adjective had no degrees of comparison ; its intricate 
 combination with the verb stood in the way of such for- 
 mations. There was an extraordinary absence of struc- 
 tural anomalies. There was an affluence of words indica- 
 tive of distinctions between persons in the same relations 
 of consanguinity ; as between elder and younger brother, 
 paternal and maternal uncle. And, what was more singu- 
 lar, each sex had a separate vocabulary for its own use 
 in speaking of such relations. There was a diminutive 
 form of nouns. 
 
 But, while the grammatical structure of languages ad- 
 
 1 Tliat oarcfiil sdiolar, tlie lato IVIr. vortontly rotifniinded the iuterrogative 
 tTolin I'iik('riii!;r. says otliiTwiso. (]\Iass. pronoun with the relative. 
 Ilist. Coll., XX. 108.) But ho inad-
 
 Cn.vp. I.] ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 43 
 
 mits of an essentially uniform analysis, and the system 
 of declension, conjugation, and syntax presents Their vocab- 
 curious general analogies, as developed in dia- "'"^'• 
 lects the most remote in time and place from each other, 
 the character of their vocabularies will vary indefinitely, 
 presenting in every case a faithful reflection of the com- 
 plexion and extent of the people's thought. A nation, 
 has no names for ideas which it has not entertained ; even 
 Greeks and Romans, the sage nations of antiquity, had 
 no equivalent for the word virtue, the most important in 
 our dictionary. The puerile immaturity of the Indian's 
 mind betrayed itself by the poverty of his language in the 
 class of words which are the index, the result, and the 
 instrument of mental generalizations. As he had not 
 the cultivated reason which classifies, he had few or no 
 names of genera, while he multiplied the names of species 
 without regard to resemblances which to us seem essential 
 and obvious. He attached to different kinds of oak de- 
 nominations as different as those he gave to oaks and wil- 
 lows. The exigencies of discourse lead to the attempt to 
 supply by metaphors the want of abstract terms ; but met- 
 aphorical language can never be that of discussion and 
 study. The Indian w^as no philosopher, and his dialects 
 were miserably barren of abstract terms of every sort.^ 
 He had not so much as named time, space, or substance. 
 
 The subject of their langunge is not without a bearing 
 upon the credit of the transmitted accounts of The 
 what has been favorably styled the religion of 
 the New-England Indians. The considerate inquirer will 
 remark by what means the information was collected, so 
 largely bequeathed to us by contemporary writers. All 
 representations of the opinions of barbarous nations ought 
 to be received with extreme caution ; and, in the compass 
 
 1 I have not overlooked what is sakl loose expression of an enthusiast for his 
 
 by Edwards on this matter (Mass, departmentof study, he will bo satisfied 
 
 Hist. Coll., XX. 96, 118). But if any by a little inspection of the vocabu- 
 
 one has a doubt whether this was the laries. 
 
 tieir re- 
 liiiion.
 
 44 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 of liuman thought, there are no ideas more abstract than 
 those of religion. "Whatever information the European 
 settlers obtained concerning the theories of the natives on 
 this subject, reached them through the treacherous in- 
 strumentality of a language, not only, at best, imperfectly 
 understood by the hearer,' but essentially unsuitable for 
 explanations on such a subject, and, what was worse yet, 
 unsuitable for conducting the speculations by means of 
 which theories are framed. By and by, settler and native 
 came to understand better each other's speech. But step 
 by step, meanwhile, the original ideas of the natives had 
 been modified by this intercourse ; and, in proportion as 
 they were more capable of explaining their meaning, their 
 meaning itself, the subject of their explanation, had been 
 adulterated and confused ; while, from first to last, the 
 observers and writers, themselves men of religious theo- 
 ries, whether Romanist or Puritan, would insensibly be 
 guided by their respective predilections in their expo- 
 sitions of what the Indians told, and would compose a 
 sense of their own out of the unmeaning or enigmatical 
 communications which they received.^ 
 
 The very first process of such an interpretation is illu- 
 sory. The civilized man, having constructed or received 
 some scheme of physics, metaphysics, or theology, imag- 
 ines that every human mind must have some conceptions 
 corresponding with it ; and, when encountered by strange 
 
 ^ " As for the lanauajro, it is ACiy countries," &c. (Gcncrall Ilistorie of 
 
 copious, large, and (liHicult. As yet we Virginia, &c., 214, edit. 1626.) Else- 
 
 cannot attain to any great measure where he forgets this becoming cau- 
 
 thercof." (Winslow, Good Newes, &c., tion. " Some report that the 
 
 CO.) This was written when AVinslow people are so brute, they have no re- 
 had been in coninuinication with the ligion ; wherein surely they are de- 
 Indians two years and a half. ccived ; for my part, I never heard of 
 
 2 Smith, who overlo<jked few things anv nation in the world which had not 
 
 that canu! in his way, saw this, and a religion." (Ibid., 240.) Such was 
 
 rcjKirted his ob.servations witli projicr the .«ort of prepossession with which the 
 
 allowance : " As I gathered from their strangers addressed themselves to the 
 
 niggardly relations in a broken Ian- interjiretation of what they heard and 
 
 guage, during the time I ranged those saw.
 
 Chap. I.] ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 45 
 
 forms of thought, he proceeds to dispose of them by expla- 
 nations founded on that unsafe liypothesis. If the Indian 
 AYord Manitou appeared to denote something above or 
 beside the common aspects and agencies of nature, it 
 might be natural, but it would be rash and misleading, 
 to confound its import with the Christian, Mohammedan, 
 Jewish, Egyptian, or Greek conception of Deitij, or with 
 any compound of a selection from some or all of those 
 ideas. In preaching to the Indians, Cotton of Plymouth 
 was obliged to use the word God for the Supreme Beings 
 for want of any equivalent sign in the language of his 
 hearers,^ and Eliot in his translation of the Bible was 
 driven to a similar expedient." It is on altogether too 
 slender a basis of ascertained facts, that literature, alike 
 of prose and of poetry, has built up a theology for 
 
 " the poor Indian, whose untutored mind 
 Sees God in clouds and hears him in the wind." 
 
 Such an Indian is mainly an imagination of European 
 sentimentalists ; in the current conception of him, he is 
 as fabulous as the griffin or the centaur.^ 
 
 1 Specimens of his sermons are in ject among a few authorities is, that the 
 the Mass. Hist. Coll., XXII. 249. Indians believed, — 1. that there are a 
 
 2 Eliot, however, sometimes adopts good and evil spirit (a god and a devil) ; 
 the word il/«n (Vow, especially in combina- 2. that they or some of them would live 
 tion with Jehovah. — "In the prayers a happy Ufe after death; and 3. that 
 and sermons made by the Indians in the place of that existence would be at 
 their own language, they were taught the southwest. It is obvious how ready 
 to use the word Jehovah, or the English the inquirers were, as to the first two 
 words God or Lord. Roger Williams points, to put their own construction on 
 uses the Indian word Manitou, by which what was said, or what was not said, by 
 word they seemed rather to have ex- the other party, and how easy it was for 
 pressed their admiration at anything them to exalt a eulogium of that south- 
 which excelled, whether animate or in- west country, from which corn and beans 
 animate." (Hutchinson, I. 421.) "It had come, into a description of an 
 is probable the Indians run over a extra-mundane paradise. (See above, 
 number of names to impose upon Mr. p. 27, note 2.) Kautontowit and ^Iiit- 
 Mayhew, or to get rid of his importu- cheshesunnctool, Keitan and Ilobbo- 
 nity, and that, from this authority only, mok, Tantum and S(piantum, — these 
 other writera have mentioned a plural- are pairs of names transmitted to us as 
 ity of gods." (Ibid., 422.) designations of the good and evil spir- 
 
 3 The sum of the statements in which it respectively. The last two appear 
 there is a sort of agreement on this sub- oftenest. But so great is the uncer'
 
 46 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 Several of the early French explorers of North America 
 declared that tribes visited by them were absolutely with- 
 out a notion of religion.^ There is not wanting testimony 
 of the same kind in relation to the New-England tribes.^ 
 The correct perception of some facts obvious to the senses 
 was, at all events, not endangered by that inadequacy of 
 oral communication which renders suspicious so much of 
 the testimony on this subject ; and it is quite certain that 
 the savages of New England had no temples, no pub- 
 lic ritual, nothing which can be called social worship, no 
 order of priests. In short, of the machinery of religion 
 they were destitute. And this fact is a pregnant one. 
 Where there has been preparation of the understanding 
 and affections, the religious sentiment, however subject to 
 be quickened by forms and by sympathy, can unaided by 
 
 tainty of these representations, that one 
 ■writer of almost the earhest English age 
 (Levett, in IL'st. Coll., XXVIII. 177) 
 reverses their positions, and assigns to 
 Tanto the role of Satan and the dwelling 
 at the west. And yet elsewhere (Ibid., 
 1 75) he makes Tanto only the messen- 
 ger of death. 
 
 1 Such was the conclusion of La 
 Salle's company, who had rare opportu- 
 nities for observation : " On pent dire 
 de tous qu'ils n'ont aucune religion ; 
 du moins de tous ceux que nous avons 
 vH." (Joutel, Journal Ilistorique, 225.) 
 " Quant h nos Souriquois, et autres leurs 
 voisins, je ne puis dire sinon qu'ils sont 
 destitues de toute connaissance deDieu." 
 (L'pjscarbot, Ilistoire de la Nouvelle 
 France, II. 6G4. Comp. Ibid., 662. 
 Champlain, Voyages de la Nouvelle 
 France, 4.) 
 
 2 " They are a people without any 
 religion, or knowledge of any God." 
 (Winslow in ^lourt's Relation, 61.) 
 Later, Winslow retracted this state- 
 ment : " Whereas myself and others 
 
 wrote that the Indians about 
 
 us are a people without any religion, 
 or knowledge of any God, therein I 
 
 erred, though we could then gather no 
 better." (Good Newes from New Eng- 
 land, 52.) But his later judgment is 
 subject to uncertainty from the causes 
 explained above. The "better" that 
 he was able to " gather," after two 
 or three years of communication, was 
 not the more authentic. He says also : 
 " Many sacrifices the Indians use, and 
 in some cases kill children." (Ibid., 55.) 
 But this statement is likewise too vague 
 to inspire confidence. W hat he took for 
 sacrifices, and especially human sacri- 
 fices, are quite as likely to have been acts 
 of anentirely diiferent import; and when 
 he comes to specifications, he lays the 
 scene among the Narragansetts, of whom 
 personally he knew nothing. — Morton 
 says : " ]\Iethinks it is absurd to say they 
 have a kind of worship, and not able to 
 demonstrate whom or what it is they are 
 accustomed to worship. For my part, I 
 am more willing to believe that the ele- 
 phants, which are reported to be the 
 most intelligible of all beasts, do wor- 
 ship the moon The natives of 
 
 New England have no worship or re- 
 ligion at all." (New English Canaan, 
 Book L Chap. V.)
 
 Chap. I.] ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 47 
 
 them sustain its life in the solitary breast. But that 
 among a people in a low state of culture anything en- 
 titled to the name can exist without some provision for 
 its public inculcation and expression, is a fact requiring 
 to be established, before the existence of a religion among 
 them can be made credible. 
 
 The early observers fell into the error of regarding the 
 sorceries used among the natives as religious practices. In 
 this there was a mere confusion of ideas. The medicine- 
 man, or poicow, was not a priest, but a reputed conjurer.' 
 The causes of disease are mysterious. Its cure is effect- 
 ed by agents seemingly inadequate. Agitations of the 
 mind often expel or relieve it. He who conquers it by 
 his nostrums or his spells may plausibly lay claim to a 
 control over the powers of nature. To the ignorant, the 
 man who can cool a fever seems likely to be the man that 
 can still a storm. The temptation to such a practitioner 
 to make the most of his power of imposture is great. 
 He may challenge reverence and tribute for himself as a 
 ruler of the elements, and excite a sort of superstition to 
 acknowledge his claim. We may frame a definition of 
 religion such as to include fancies and practices like these. 
 But the definition would be arbitrary, and the use unprof- 
 itable and inconvenient. So the murdering by the In- 
 dians of their captives has been interpreted as a religious 
 sacrifice. But to slay enemies and to offer worship are 
 not intrinsically the same act ; there must be something 
 to bridge the chasm that parts them, before the mind can 
 recognize a relation between the two." 
 
 1 Wood, New England's Prospect, America, Book IV. § 7) was laboring 
 Part II. Chap. XII. — Morton, New painfully all the way throujih this part 
 English Canaan, Book I. Chap. IX. of his task. He began with a theory, 
 
 2 I have been brought to the conclu- and the materials for sustaining it failed, 
 sions which I present by a careful read- He has been much followed by later 
 ing of the original authorities. They writers. Williams (History of Ver- 
 systematized too freely what they heard mont, Chap. VII., THI.) has but 
 and saw, and some of their successors abridged him, constantly copying even 
 have been yet more adventurous. It his language. 
 
 is evident that Kobertson (History of
 
 48 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. (Book I. 
 
 So, between the idea of mere revival after death and the 
 idea of immortality, the difference is no less than infinite ; 
 yet nothing is more common than to deal with them as 
 if they were equivalent. The practice of burying with 
 a man his arms and apparel was not an unnatural ex- 
 pression of the thought that his course "was finished, and 
 that the separation from him was complete. It seemed fit 
 that along with his breathless body the other familiar 
 appendages of his life — his weapons, his ornaments, his 
 utensils, his clothes, the mat which had been his couch — 
 should be put out of the way and out of sight. "We may- 
 further ascribe something of sentiment to the proceeding, 
 as, if we leave the marriage ring on the cold finger, it is not 
 because we expect it will ever again be worn, but because 
 of an aimless reluctance to break so dear an association. 
 If, especially in the particular of the deposit of provisions 
 in graves, the custom imports an intention to furnish the 
 departed with supplies for the wants of another life, still 
 it neither appears that the practice was uniform, nor that, 
 when observed, it was indicative of anything beyond the 
 indulgence of a fond hope or imagination. The natural 
 difficulty of subsiding into the conviction that acts and 
 experiences long blended with our own are at an end, 
 easily slides into a dreamy thought, poorly entitled to the 
 rank of a tenet of religion, that the vanished existence 
 is not extinct.^ But as to any belief in an interminable 
 
 1 " One day we asked a mandarin, a Journey through the Chinese Empire, 
 
 friend of ours who had just ofTcred a II. 213.) A learned friend, who late- 
 
 6unij)tuous repast at the tomb of a de- ly made extensive examinations in the 
 
 ceased colh-ajfue, whether in his opinion larjie Indian ljurying-])iaee at Nantasket, 
 
 the dead stood in need of food. ' How informs me that he did not find remains 
 
 could you possibly suppose I had such of arms in any grave. In some there was 
 
 an ideaV he replied, with the utmost with the skeleton a single utensil, as a 
 
 astonishment; 'we intend to do honor stone pestle. Many contained a quantity 
 
 to the memory of our relations and of fragments of pottery, but in no instance 
 
 friends, to show that they still live in did a careful excavation discover a whole 
 
 our remembrance, and that we like to vessel of any sort, nor did it seem possi- 
 
 serve them as if they were yet with us. ble that any one should have been entire 
 
 Who could bo absurd enougli to believe when deposited in the gnnuid. What 
 
 that the dead need to eat?'" (Hue, use could it have been imagined that the
 
 Chap. L] ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 49 
 
 existence or in a universal retribution on the other side 
 of the grave, the authorities, partial as at best they must 
 be considered, are profoundly silent. The New-England 
 savage was not the person to have discovered what the 
 vast reach of thought of Plato and Cicero could not attain. 
 
 With the Indian, the social attraction was feeble. At 
 the fishing season, he would meet his fellows of the same 
 tribe by the shores of ponds and at the falls of rivers, and 
 enjoy the most that he knew of companionship and fes- 
 tivity. But much of his life was passed in the seclusion 
 of his wigwam and the solitude of the chase. The habit 
 of loneliness and of self-protection made him in- Their stoi- 
 dependent and proud. His pride created an apti- "^"'^ 
 tude for the virtue w^hich constituted his point of honor, 
 and which he cultivated with assiduous attention. This 
 was fortitude under suffering. In war, craft rather than 
 valor stood high in his esteem. Stealth and swiftness com- 
 posed his strategy. He showed no daring and no constancy 
 in the field ; but it Avas great glory to him to bear the most 
 horrible tortures without complaint or a sign of anguish. 
 
 His brave endurance, however studied and scenic, or in 
 whatever degree the symptom of a ruder nervous organi- 
 zation, presented the bright side of his character.^ He 
 
 revivified dead could have for broken ^ De !Maistre (Soire'es do Saint Pc- 
 dishes? Not only bas the imagination tersbourg, I. 77), after quoting Robert- 
 been at work in this matter, but at son's admission, which Robertson often 
 work on materials partly of its own forgot, that it is necessary to distrust 
 creation. " The finciful historians have the representations of all ecclesiastics 
 said much respecting the savage's hope respecting the red men, as being gener- 
 of felicity in fine fields beyond the gates ally too favorable, proceeds : " C'est un 
 of death, where he should meet his an- enfant difforme, robuste, et feroce, en 
 cestors, and be happy in a state of im- qui la flamme de I'intelligence ne jette 
 
 mortality But from any conver- plus qu'une Incur pale et intermittente. 
 
 sations had with the Indians here, or Une main redoutable appesantie sur ces 
 from anything which can be gathered races devouees efface en elles les deux 
 from those who have been most with characteres distinctifs de notre gran- 
 them. there is no reason to believe that deur, la prevoyance et la perfectibilite. 
 the Northern savages ever had ideas of Le sauvage coupe Tarbrc pour cueillir 
 that nature." (Sullivan, History of le fruit, il detellc le bcruf quo les mis- 
 Maine, 105 ) sionaires vlcnneut de lui confier, et lo 
 
 VOL. I. 5
 
 50 HISTORY OF XEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 was without tenderness, and very few instances are re- 
 corded of his appearing capable of gratitude. Cunning 
 and falsehood, the vice§ of the undiscij)lined, the weap- 
 ons of the imbecile, were eminently his. Ilis word was 
 no security. He could play the spy with a perfect self- 
 possession ; and a treaty could not bind him, w^hen he sup- 
 posed it might be broken without danger. Exceptions 
 Their infe- arc to bc allow^cd for in every portraiture of a 
 fi.^dviiLa-^ class of men. Everywhere and in all times there 
 '■""• are happy natures that rise above the moral stand- 
 
 ard of their place. But it remains true of the normal 
 representative of this peculiar race, that his temper w-as 
 sullen, jealous, passionate, intensely vindictive, and fero- 
 ciously cruel. Good faith and good offices can never 
 be w'holly unavailing ; but, if it W'as possible that the 
 red men of New England should ever have become other 
 than bad neighbors, certain it is that all their history 
 shows them to have been a race singularly unsusceptible 
 of the influences of a humane civilization. 
 
 fait cuire avoc le hois de la cliarrue. vipon the face of the earth. Perhaps 
 
 Depuis plus de trois siecles il nous con- the Indians about the Massachusetts 
 
 temple sans avoir rien voulu recevoir Bay -were some of the lowest among the 
 
 de nous, excepte la poudre pour tuer American nations." (Hutchinson, I. 
 
 ses semblables, et I'eau-de-vie pour se 414.) If, on the one hand, we are re- 
 
 tuer lui-meme. Encore n'a-t-il jamais mote from the passions of that day, on 
 
 imagine de fabriquer ces choses ; il s'en the other hand we are remote from its 
 
 repose sur notre avarice." And more knowledge, Hutchinson's portrait of 
 
 follows, of still greater strength. If this the natives is certainly dark. His in- 
 
 is not, as it certainly is not, the Ian- valuable materials for the formation of 
 
 guagc of a calm ])liiIosophy, it is that a judgment are in great part lost. The 
 
 of a writer of vast study and reflection, resentments which might have biassed 
 
 " They that speak most favorably give it could hardly have been transmitted 
 
 but an indifferent idea of the qualities to his time. Callcnder (R. I. Hist. Coll., 
 
 of their minds. Mr. Wilson speaks IV. 140) quotes a manuscript of Roger 
 
 of them but with compassion, as the Williams, to show that Williams thought 
 
 most sordid and contemptible part of more unfavorably of the natives as he 
 
 the human species. IMr. Hooker says knew them better. (Couip. Mass. Hist, 
 
 they are the veriest ruins of mankind Coll., XXIX. 21)9, XXX. 27.)
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 For an unknown length of time the country and peo- 
 ple that have been described had been hidden behind the 
 ocean from the knowledge of civilized man. It is doubt- 
 ful whether they were ever seen by European eyes till 
 nearly five years had passed after Columbus 1493. 
 found his way to the West India Islands. But *^"" ^^' 
 the existence in the North of Europe of a traditional 
 account of visits to the northeasterly parts of North 
 America by Scandinavian voyagers, in the eleventh cen- 
 tury and in the three centuries next following, has long 
 been known to geographers ; ^ and original documents 
 relating to this interesting problem have recently been 
 placed in the possession of the reading world. 
 
 It is no wise unlikely that eight or nine hundred 
 years ago the Norwegian navigators extended Alleged 
 their voyages as far as the American continent. Northmen^ 
 Possessing the best nautical skill of their age, ^o America. 
 
 ^ " La merite," says Humboldt (Exa- ta," and uses the words quoted by Hum- 
 men Critique, H. 1 20), " d'avoir reconnu boldt ; but he explains himself as having 
 la premiere decouverte de I'Amerique in view the fisherman's adventures re- 
 continentale par les Normands, apjmr- ported by Antonio Zeno in the fifteenth 
 tient indubitablement au geographe Or- century. (See below, p. 60.) — Belknap 
 telius, qui annon^a cette opinion des I'an- (American lilography, I. 52) credited 
 nee 1570"; and then he quotes words his information of the discovery by the 
 of Ortehus which, however, are not Northmen to Pontoppidan (History of 
 found in the edition either of 15 75 or Norway), Crantz (History of Green- 
 of 1584. Indeed, it is clear from his Ian- land), and John Reinhold Forster (His- 
 guage (Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, edit, tory of the Voyages and Discoveries 
 1584, p. 5) that as late as the latter date made in the Noi-th), all writers of the 
 he had heard nothing of an ante-Colum- last century. — ]\Ialte-Brun (Precis de 
 bian discovery. In the edition of 1592 la Ge'ographie, I. 395) referred to the 
 (p. 6) he refers to reports of such a spurious chapters (see below, p. 52, 
 discovery as " qusedam hand vulgo no- note) in the Ileimskrinfrja.
 
 52 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 they put to sea in substantial ships, having decks and well- 
 contrived rigging. Iceland they had undoubtedly reached 
 and colonized ; and from Iceland, Greenland. From Cape 
 Farewell, the southern extremity of Greenland, to the 
 nearest point on the American continent in Labrador, the 
 distance is no greater than the distance to Iceland from 
 the point of departure in Norway. It is altogether credi- 
 ble, that the rovers who explored every sea from the Baltic 
 to the ^gean should, by stress of bad weather or by favor 
 of good, have been conveyed a distance of only three or 
 four days' sail from land to land. When they had often 
 prosperously made the passage from their homes to Ice- 
 land, they might well have had confidence for another 
 like adventure, which would have brought them from 
 Greenland to Labrador. And from Labrador, the explora- 
 tion of as much more of the coast of North America as 
 they might be disposed to visit would require only a 
 coasting voyage. 
 
 The historical evidence upon this subject, which has 
 been published from the manuscripts by the Royal So- 
 ciety of Northern Antiquaries at Copenhagen,' is found 
 
 1 Antiquitates Americana?, sive Scrip- chapters appear In full in a manuscript 
 
 tores Septentrionales Rcrum Ante- called, from the place of its preservation, 
 
 Columblanarum in America. — Samling the Codex Flateyensis, and have been 
 
 af de i Nordens Oldskrifter indeholdte ascertained on good evidence to be a 
 
 Efterretninger om de gamle Nordboers work composed within the last fifteen 
 
 Opdagelsesreiser til America, fra det years of the fourteenth century. A 
 
 lOde til det 14de Aarhundrede. — Edi- translation of them is published by 
 
 dit Societas Regia Antiquariorum Sep- Laing in the Appendix to his version of 
 
 tentrionalium. IIafnia9. 1837. 4to. the lieimskringla. Of the discovery of 
 
 In 1007, Peringskiold published the America, Sturleson had himself said no 
 
 " lieimskringla, or Chronicle of the more than that " he [Leif] also found 
 
 Kings of Norway," in the original Ice- Vinland the good." (Laing's Ileims- 
 
 landic of Snorro Sturleson, who was kringla, I. 465.) 
 
 born in 1178 and died in 1241. In The Codex Flateyensis furnishes the 
 
 1 705, Torfaius (Historia Vinlandite first of the narratives lately published 
 
 Antiquas, Praef) pointed out that Pe- by the Danish antiquaries, the same 
 
 ringskiold from some foreign source which was Interpolated Into Sturleson's 
 
 had interpolated eight chapters which text by Peringskiold, and from which 
 
 were not to be found in any genuine the sketch in the text is abridged. The 
 
 manuscript of Snorro's work. These second narrative in the Danish collec-
 
 Chap. II.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 53 
 
 in extracts from compositions of some eighteen writers, 
 most of them Icelandic. Their antiquity and genuine- 
 ness appear to he well estahlished, nor is there anything 
 to bring their credibility into question, beyond the gen- 
 eral doubt which always attaches to the relation of what 
 is new and strange. If they are trustworthy, the follow- 
 ing facts are to be adopted into history. 
 
 About a hundred years before the Norman conquest of 
 Enc'land, one Biorne, or Biarne, sailed from Ice- 
 
 *-' Voy.ige of 
 
 land for Greenland, in search of his father, who siome. 
 had gone thither. Overtaken by fogs, he lost his 
 reckoning. AVhen the Aveather became clear, he found 
 himself sailing in a northeasterly direction, with low and 
 wooded land on the larboard side. He kept on the same 
 course nine days, and at the end of them arrived in Green- 
 land, reaching it in a direction opposite to that with 
 which the voyage had been begun. 
 
 The subject had been pondered several years, when 
 Lcif, with a sin^^le vessel and a crew of thirty- 
 
 o •' Voyage 
 
 five men, sailed from Greenland in quest of the ofi>p'f- 
 land reported to have been seen by Biorne. He 
 found it, went on shore, and gave it the name of Ilellu- 
 land, from a word signifying slate in the Icelandic tongue. 
 Embarking again, and proceeding southwardly along the 
 coast, he came to a country well wooded and level, except 
 as it was broken along the sea by a succession of bluifs 
 of white sand. This he called Markland, in allusion to 
 its ivood. Sailing two days more with a northeasterly 
 wind, out of sight of land, he reached an island, and 
 passed westward along its northern side. He disem- 
 barked, built huts, and wintered on the mainland, which 
 he named Vinland, or Wineland, in consequence of a re- 
 
 tion, the History of ThorfinnKarlsefiio, extracts from different -writers of the 
 
 goes over much of the same ground, but eleventh and twelfth centuries, of more 
 
 with some differences of detail. These or less interest as corroborating the 
 
 two principal pieces are followed by main story, 
 
 5*
 
 5-1 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 port from one of his men, a German, that, wandering in 
 the woods, he had seen abundance of grapes such as wine 
 was made from in his native country. 
 
 On his return to Greenland, Leif gave over his ves- 
 sel to his brother Thorwald, who set sail on an 
 
 Toyajre of 
 
 Tiioruaid. cxpcditiou to explore the new country further 
 
 1003. ^ . . 
 
 towards the south. He passed a wniter in Vm- 
 land, and in the following summer found several uninhab- 
 ited islands. After another winter, he sailed to 
 
 1005. 
 
 the eastward and then to the north. Doubling 
 a cape, which he called Kialarnes (keel-cape), and coasting 
 along the shore of the bay within, he received a mortal 
 wound from some natives by a woody promontory, which 
 he called Krossanes, from the cross which he ordered to be 
 set up at the head of his grave. His companions passed a 
 third winter in Yinland, and then returned to Greenland. 
 The next expedition was planned on a larger scale. 
 
 Thorfinn, surnamed the Hopeful, a person of rank 
 
 Voyage of j »/ ' i 
 
 Thorfinn. aud wcaltli, with a hundred and sixty men in 
 
 1007. . ■' 
 
 three vessels, sailed from Greenland for Vinland 
 for the purpose of establishing a colony. They touched 
 at Helluland and Markland, saw Cape Kialarnes as they 
 steered south, and, passing by a long beach of sand, came 
 to a bay extending up into the country, with an island at 
 its entrance. To the island, which was covered with the 
 eggs of eider-ducks, they gave the name of Straiimoei/ 
 (stream-island), and to the bay, the name of Straumfidrdr 
 (stream-firth). Soutlnvesterly from this island, they en- 
 tered the mouth of a river, and passed up into a lake, upon 
 whose banks Mheat and vines grew wild. The natives, who 
 came about tluun in canoes, were of a sallow complexion, 
 with large, ill-formed faces and shaggy hair. There was no 
 snow, and the live stock which had been landed wintered 
 in the fields. After some conflicts with the savntrcs, Thor- 
 finn relinquished his project of coloiiizatifm, and returned 
 with liis company to (irecnlaiid. Accounts of two more
 
 Chap. II.] EAKLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 55 
 
 voyages to Vinland within the next three or four years 
 make the last of these circumstantial narratives ; but the 
 communication between the countries is represented as hav- 
 ing been not entirely discontinued before the middle of the 
 fourteenth century. When other objects were abandoned, 
 visits may have continued to be made to the American shore 
 on account of its excellent materials for ship-building. 
 
 The name Hellidand may have been given to wliat we 
 call Labrador, or to Newfoundland ; Markland may answer 
 to Nova Scotia; and it has been supposed that Vinland 
 denotes Hhode Island and the southeastern part of Mas- 
 sachusetts, that the island passed by Leif before reaching 
 Vinland was Nantucket, and that Kialarnes, Krossanes, 
 Straumfi'drd)', and Straumoey are respectively Cape Cod, 
 Point Allerton in Boston harbor, Buzzard's Bay, and 
 Martha's Vineyard. But the materials for an argument 
 to identify these spots are insufficient; some of the par- 
 ticular statements are self-contradictory or inconsistent; 
 and the descriptions of the climate and of the native in- 
 habitants are hardly to be reconciled with what is now 
 known of the climate and the aborigines of New Eng- 
 land.^ There is an important statement respecting the 
 length of the day in Vinland at the winter solstice, which 
 has been so interpreted as to identify its latitude with that 
 of Rhode Island. But the meaning of the passage is very 
 doubtfuh^ 
 
 1 As to the natives, however, It must then the sentence imports that on the 
 be owned that the Esquimaux, whom shortest daj' the sun ^rose in Vinland 
 the desei-iption sufficiently Avell suits, at that hour, determining its latitude 
 may, eight hundred years ago, have to be fifty-eight degrees and a half, 
 dwelt as far south as Rhode Island, and or the latitude, not of Rhode Island, 
 have been driven into a higher lati- but of the part of Labrador near Hud- 
 tude by in^ders between the visit of son's Strait, a region to which the de- 
 the Northmen and that of Verazzano. scriptlon of the climate and productions 
 
 2 The sentence contains two words of of Vinland is still more inapplicable, 
 uncertain meaning, eykterstad and dari- The translation of Peringskiold, an ex- 
 malastad. If dcujmalaslad signifies, as pert in the Icelandic language, extracts 
 was thought by Pontopjiidan, the Ice- from the words the sense that the shortest 
 landic breakfast-hour of nine o'clock, winter day in Vinland was of the length
 
 56 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 The history of civilized New England does not call 
 for a determination of the question as to a discovery 
 
 of ton or twelve liours, tlius transporting 
 that c-ountry to the tropics. The inter- 
 pretation of Crantz and of Forster gives 
 the sun a coiinse of eiirht hours above the 
 liorizon, pointing to Newfoundhuul as 
 the place of Vinland ; and Torfa^us hes- 
 itates between this hypothesis and that 
 of six liours. The rendering adopted 
 by Mr. Rafn, the learned editor of the 
 Transactions of the Copenhagen Soci- 
 ety, represents the sentence as declar- 
 ing that, at the Avinter solstice in Yin- 
 land, the hour of sunrise is half past 
 seven, and the hour of sunset half past 
 four, corresponding nearly to the lati- 
 tude of forty-one degrees and thirty 
 minutes, which is the latitude of New- 
 port. "With an easy faith, perhaps due 
 to his Danish birth, ]\Ialte-Brun (Precis 
 de la Geographic, I. 394) has assumed 
 the correctness of this last interpreta- 
 tion. It was, however, also approved 
 by our eminent countryman, Mr. AVhea- 
 ton (History of the Northmen, Chap. 
 11.). And Baron Alexander von Hum- 
 boldt (Kosmos, Band H. ss. 209 etseq^ 
 concludes positively that Leif "came 
 as far as 31° 30' north latitude," and 
 that Vinland " comprehended the coast 
 between Boston and New York, and 
 conserjuently included j)arts of the pres- 
 ent States of ^Massachusetts, Rhode Isl- 
 and, and Connecticut." On the other 
 hand, Laing (IIeim.skringla, I. KJT rt 
 seq.') has largely exposed the weak 
 points of the Icelandic narrative, though 
 (Ibid., 154) he sustains the main fact of 
 vi.sits of Scandinavian vessels to Amer- 
 ica in the eleventh century. 
 
 Other elements which have been 
 brought into the discussion, but which 
 may ])crliap3 be said to be now dis- 
 mi.sised from it, arc the inscription on 
 a ro<.k in the town of Berkeley (oppo- 
 site to Dighton). on Taunton lliver, 
 and tiie rcjund stone tower near the 
 
 Atlantic Hotel in Newport. The Ber- 
 keley inscription, viewed through the 
 spectacles of the imagination, has been 
 variously regarded as composed of Phce- 
 nician, Scythian, or Roman characters, 
 mingled with sketches of men and ani- 
 mals ; and some of the ostensible fac- 
 similes of it which have been made at 
 diflfcirent times, and which, to the num- 
 ber of nine, are published by the Co- 
 penhagen Society, exhibit a very im- 
 perfect resemblance to one another. 
 ]\Ir. Rafn supposes that he finds here 
 a record in Runic letters of an expe- 
 dition of the Icelanders to the spot. 
 
 The inscription, made upon a hard 
 greywacke rock, must no doubt have 
 cost some time and labor; and the work- 
 man must have returned repeatedly to 
 his task, as the tide leaves the sculp- 
 tured face exposed only about three 
 hours at a time. But it has been tor- 
 tured altogether in vain for a confes- 
 sion that it is the work of civilized 
 men. ]\Ir. Schoolcraft has perhaps fur- 
 nished the most probable clew to its 
 origin and meaning. (Ethnological Re- 
 searches, I. 112 et seq., IV. 119 et seq. 
 Comp. S. F. Haven, Archaeology of the 
 United States, p. 133, in the Smithsoni- 
 an Contributions to Knowledge, YIII.) 
 He placed two delineations of it in the 
 hands of an Algon<pnn chief, without 
 accjuainting him with the state of the 
 (juestion. The chief professed to un- 
 derstand it, and exjjlained it as a rec- 
 ord of a battle between two parties of 
 Indians. When I visited the spot in 
 the summer of 1857, it was with the 
 intention of causing an aifthentic rejv 
 rescntation of the lines to be made by 
 tlie daguerreotype j)rocess ; an inten- 
 tion which I rt'linquihhed on learning 
 that I had been anticipated by Mr. 
 Sc'hooleraft (Ibid., IV. 120). 
 
 Jf the (Irplh ot' the incit^ioiis seems to
 
 Chap, n.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 57 
 
 of that country by the Northmen, however interesting 
 as a matter of antiquarian research. If a colony was 
 
 require the supposition of iron instru- 
 ments, there is no proof of their having 
 been made before the time when iron 
 had been largely furnished to the na- 
 tives by the English. The earliest 
 record of any notice of the inscription 
 is in 1G80, after Philip's war, when Mr. 
 Danforth had a drawing made. 
 
 The muse of Longfellow has deter- 
 mined that the round tower at Newport 
 shall never be forgotten ; else it would 
 before now have lost the place in litera- 
 ture to which it was elevated by an- 
 ti(|uarian zeal meeting the universal 
 taste for the marvellous. ]\Ir. Rafn, 
 happy to believe it to be a relic of the 
 Norwegian occupancy of Rhode Island, 
 has been at pains, by engraved delinea- 
 tions, to furnish the readers of the Co- 
 jienhagen Transactions with the means 
 of comparing it with ancient structures 
 existing in the North of Europe, to 
 the end of proving their resemblance. 
 (Transactions of the Society of Northern 
 Antiquaries for 183 G- 3D, p. 365.) The 
 building is about twenty-three feet in 
 diameter, and twenty-four feet and a 
 half high, about half the height being 
 taken up by eight Roman arches with 
 their intervening piers, on which rests a 
 circular wall pierced with four windows. 
 Without doubt it is extraordinary that 
 no record exists of the erection of so sin- 
 gular an edifice by early English inhab- 
 itants of Rhode Island. But it would 
 be much more strange that the first 
 English settlers should not have men- 
 tioned the fact, if on their arrival they 
 had found a vestige of a former civiliza- 
 tion, so different from everything else 
 within their view. 
 
 The first notice of it, known to exist, 
 is in the will of Governor Benedict 
 Arnold, of Newport, dated December 
 20th, 1G77. He therein directs his 
 body to be buried at a certain spot. 
 
 "being and lying in my land in or 
 near the line or path from my dwelling- 
 house leading to mtj slone-huilt vimlmill, 
 in the town of Newport, above men- 
 tioned." And elsewhere in the same 
 instrument that description is used. 
 
 It is known that, in the last century, 
 the building served as a grist-mill, and 
 afterwards as a liowder-house, Edward 
 Pelham, husband of Governor Arnold's 
 granddaughter, called it in his will, 
 dated in 1740, " an old stone mill." A 
 tradition in the Arnold family, vouched 
 by the Governor's great-grandson, who 
 died within the last ten or fifteen years, 
 declares it to have been built by Gover- 
 nor Arnold. Peter Easton, an early 
 settler at Newport, records in his jour- 
 nal, under the date of August 28, 1675, 
 " A storm blew down our windmill." It is 
 natural to suppose that Arnold supplied 
 its jjlace by. the stronger edifice Avhich, 
 making his will two years afterwards, 
 he called " my stone-built windmill." 
 
 That he calls it his, does not prove 
 that he built it. It is supposable that, 
 finding an ancient Scandinavian for- 
 tress, or baptistery, or whatever else, 
 he may have fitted a mill-wheel to it. 
 But at all events nothing of this kind 
 was done in the earliest times, for as 
 late as 1G63 Easton wrote in his journal, 
 " This year we built the first windmill," 
 the same that was blown down in 1675. 
 In 1G75, Governor Arnold was a man 
 of sufficient substance to be able to 
 please his fancy ; and he was sixty years 
 old, an age when men often incline to 
 be sentimental in respect to some object 
 connected with the memories of their 
 youth. The family of Arnold is imder- 
 stood in Rhode Island, though I know 
 not on what authority, to have come 
 from Warwickshire ; and it is a fact 
 worthy of observation, that one piece 
 of the Governor's property is specified
 
 58 
 
 IIISTOKY OF ^'EW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 founded, it perished ; if a communication with Europe was 
 opened, it was disused, till it "was renewed in another 
 
 in his will as his " Lemmington farm," 
 the name bein-; apparently commemora- 
 tive of the well-known place of luxuri- 
 ous summer resort, two or three miles 
 from the English town of Warwick. 
 
 We ha^e here perhaps an explana- 
 tion of what strikes every one as re- 
 quiring to be accounted for, the singu- 
 lar architecture of a building intended 
 for the humble use of a windmill tor 
 a hamlet of humble colonists. Why 
 these stone piers and arches, and this 
 heavy mass of masonry iu the wall 
 above ? 
 
 In the parish of Chesterton, in "War- 
 wickshire, three miles from Leaming- 
 ton, on the property of Lord Willough- 
 by d'Eresby, stands a windmill of the 
 same construction. I describe it from 
 personal inspection, having visited it in 
 the summer of 1856, I was informed 
 by the obliging clergyman who directed 
 me from Tachbi-ook to the spot, that he 
 had been told there were others in the 
 neighborhood, of similar architecture, 
 though he was himself almost a stran- 
 ger there, and had not seen such. 
 This building at Chesterton, known in 
 the vicinity as "the stone windmill," 
 stands on an embankment three feet 
 high, walled around and with a fosse 
 outside. The tower, built of square 
 hammered blocks of stone, is between 
 twenty-three and twenty-four feet in 
 diameter, and, as I judged, (for I had 
 brought no instrument to measure it,) 
 about twenty-six feet high beneath the 
 dome-like wooden roof. Above four of 
 the six Roman arches are square win- 
 dows, in tlie same horizontal plane, in 
 pairs o|>posite to each other. The piers, 
 four feet in dianu^ter, are square, excej)t 
 that they are curved on the inner and 
 outer sides to tlif circular shape of 
 the tower. TIic loft, to which tlu; win- 
 dows admit liglit, is reached from the 
 
 area within the piers by a rude wooden 
 staircase. 
 
 Mill at Cliesterton. 
 
 To this the building in Newport 
 a strong general resemblance, 
 
 bears 
 as is 
 
 Tower at Newport, 
 apparent from a glance at the ac- 
 companying delineations. It is known
 
 Chap. II.] EAELY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 59 
 
 quarter. Still less to the purpose would be a criticism, 
 of the curious tradition of the voyage of Madoc Alleged 
 and his Welsh followers to this continent.^ The ofwfdoo. 
 story is not without important corroboration, fur- ^'^''* 
 nished by recent observations of travellers among the In- 
 dian tribes. But if Welshmen settled in America, it was 
 not in New England. If the Welsh features, complexion, 
 and language are found anywhere on this continent, it is 
 in Florida and among tribes west of the Mississippi.^ Nor 
 is it necessary to consider the mooted question of the au- 
 
 to have had, within a century, a hemi- 
 spherical roof, and a floor above the 
 arcade, though both have disappeared. 
 The cokunns, Avith their bases and capi- 
 tals, differ from those at Chesterton 
 in being circular, and the whole ma- 
 sonry is in a ruder style, as might be 
 expected from the inferior materials 
 and skill afforded by a new settlement. 
 Supposing the uncovered Newport mill 
 to have lost in time a course or two of 
 stones from the top, its diameter and 
 altitude may have been precisely copied 
 from the other. There is a tradition 
 that the Chesterton mill was built after 
 a plan of Inigo Jones, and the story is 
 the more credited, as the design not 
 only may have been an architectural 
 capriccio to gratify some fanciful pro- 
 prietor, but is said also to combine with 
 architectural symmetry the utilitarian 
 merit, by admitting a free passage of 
 air through the arches, of avoiding an 
 eddy, which makes a back sail and les- 
 sens the power of the wind. Jones was 
 more than sixty years old, when Arnold, 
 about twenty years old, came to Amer- 
 ica. If the Chesterton mill was standing 
 at the time of Arnold's emigration, and 
 if he came from \Varwick, he had been 
 acquainted with it as one of the wonders 
 of the shire ; and he knows little of hu- 
 man nature, who does not understand 
 liow the thriving man in the decline of 
 his days should have been moved to 
 
 I'cnew, in the distant continent upon 
 which Providence had thrown him, the 
 likeness of a tenderly remembered ob- 
 ject of his boyish admiration. 
 
 1 will but further suggest, that Arnold 
 did not live on as good terms with the 
 Indians as some of his Rhode Island 
 compatriots ; and it is supposable that, 
 in building a mill, he had in view at 
 the same time to provide what might 
 serve as a strong-hold in case of need, 
 or what might at all events wear the 
 appearance of preparation against mis- 
 chief. 
 
 These facts seem to me to afford the 
 most probable explanation of the origin 
 of this singular building. The prints 
 (that of the English mill slightly altered 
 to conform it to my own observation), as 
 well as many of the facts in this note, 
 are taken from a little treatise entitled 
 '' The Controversy touching the Old 
 Stone Mill," &c., jiublished at Newport 
 in 1851. 
 
 i llakluyt. Book III. Chap. XXI. § 1. 
 — Belknap, Amer. Biog., I. 58. 
 
 2 Mr. Catlin (North American In- 
 dians, I. 126, II. Appendix, A.) became 
 confident of what he at first only pro- 
 posed as a conjecture, that he had 
 found descendants of Welshmen among 
 the INIandans. Mr. Haven has treated 
 the subject sagaciously and learnedly 
 (Archtcology of the United States, pp. 
 26 ctseq.).
 
 60 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 thenticity of the relation of the Venetian brothers, the 
 Voyages of Zeni, since, at all events, no result of the discov- 
 ci're. n'jo, cry therein announced has taken a place in the 
 John vas later history.^ If in the fifteenth century the Por- 
 
 Cortereai, 
 
 1403, tuguese John V as Cortereal,^ or the Pole Szkol- 
 andszkoi- ney,^ reached the American shore, it has never 
 14-c. been supposed to have been at a point further 
 south than Newfoundland. 
 
 The achievement of Columbus did not fail to attract in 
 England the notice which its conception and promise had 
 Discovery soHcitcd witli SO little fruit. Among the mer- 
 AmeHcaby cliauts whoui tlic pcaccful commercial policy of 
 thecabots. jjpi^|.y tiig Seventh had invited to that country 
 was John Cabot, a Venetian settled at Bristol, then, and 
 almost down to the present century, after London the most 
 considerable mart in England. To him and his three sons, 
 one of whom, at least, Sebastian, was a native of 
 Bristol, royal letters-patent were issued (the first 
 English letters-patent for discovery), authorizing them, 
 with such companions as they should select, to " sail to 
 all parts, countries, and seas of the East and of the West 
 and of the North, under our banners and ensigns, with 
 five ships, of Avhat burden or quantity soever they may 
 be, to seek out, discover, and find whatsoever isles, coun- 
 
 149G. 
 March 5. 
 
 J The rolafion of the voyajre of the 
 Zoni was first piibhshcd in 15.J8, from 
 iiiiperf(!ct manuscripts, and was adopted 
 into llamusio's Collection (Navigationi 
 c Viaggi, Tom. II. pp. 2.30 et scrj.) in 
 1.574, and thcnee into Ilakluyt's Collec- 
 tion of Early Voyages, &c. (III. l.')7). 
 The claim of the story to credit has 
 been in recent times more faAorahly 
 viewed, since tlu; discussions of it in 
 1808 and 1818 by the learned Vene- 
 tian, C'ardinal Ziirla. i\Ialte-Rrnn, who 
 believed it, agrees with J. llcinhold 
 Forster (History of Voyages, &c., ir>f) 
 et sc'i ) in thinking that the Estotilund 
 
 therein named was Newfoundland, and 
 DriKjeo, New England, and that the 
 natives described by the fisherman, 
 from wliom Antonio Zeno is repre- 
 sented to have had his account, were 
 " descendants from tlie Scandinavian 
 colonists of A'inland." (Precis de la 
 fieographie Univei"sclle, I. 405.) On 
 the other hand, our learned country- 
 man, I\Ir. Biddle, (Memoir of Sebastian 
 Cabot, pp. .328 -.333,) confidendy con- 
 cludes the whole story to have been an 
 imy)osture. 
 
 2 Humboldt, E.xamen Critique, I. 278. 
 
 3 Ibid., II. 152.
 
 CiiAP. II.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 61 
 
 tries, regions, or provinces of the heathen and infidels, 
 whatsoever they may be, and in what j^art of the world 
 soever they may be, which before this time have been un- 
 known to all Christians." Such regions were to be occu- 
 13ied, subdued, possessed, and governed by them for their 
 own behoof, but in the name of the king of England. The 
 vessels were to return to Bristol, and the king was to 
 have one fifth part of the profits of the enterprise.^ 
 
 In command of three hundred men in two ships, per 
 haps equipped and victualled wholly or partly at 5497 
 the royal charge, and perhaps attended by one or '^''^■ 
 two other vessels," Cabot sailed from Bristol, accompanied 
 by his son Sebastian. The expedition touched at Iceland, 
 and thence spread its sails for the mysterious West. Un- 
 expectedly soon, for the adventurers hoped to come to a 
 harbor in Cathay, on the eastern shore of Asia, 
 
 - . „ . '' 111*. June 24. 
 
 their lurther course was arrested by the American 
 
 coast of Labrador or of Newfoundland. This was more 
 
 than a year before Columbus saw the American continent.^ 
 
 1 The instniment is in Rymer (Foe- Bristow, with ■whom ventured also 
 
 dera, XII. 595), Hakluyt (Collections, three small ships of London merchants." 
 III. 25), and Hazard (Historical Col- (Lord Bacon, History of the Reign of 
 lections, I. 9). John Cabot was " Gov- King Henry the Seventh, 188.) 
 ernor of the company of the merchants 3 A manuscript in the British Muse- 
 of Cathay in the city of London." urn (Additional MSS., 7099) is a copy 
 (Strachey, Histoiy of Travaile into by JMr. Craven Orde from original en- 
 Virginia Britannia, 139. This impor- tries, preserved in the Remembrancer 
 tant tract was edited in 1849, for the Office, of the privy purse expenses of 
 Hakluyt Society, by that accomplished Henry the Seventh. The last of the fol- 
 geographer, Mr. R. H. Major, from a lowing entries for the month of August 
 manuscript in the British Museum.) in the twelfth year of that monarch 
 
 2 " This Gabato procured him may record the king's bounty for the 
 
 [the king] to man and victual a ship at discovery of North America: — 
 
 "Aug. 9 [1497]. For garnishing of a Salette [helmet] . £ 38 IG 
 
 " " 20 Jacquetts of the best sorte . . . 19 6 4 
 
 " " Browdering of the same Jacquetts . . 18 
 
 " " For the King's Horse Harncsse . . . 21 4 10 
 
 " " Garnishing of the King's sword . . 6 10 7 
 
 " 10 " To him that found the new isle . . . 10 0." 
 
 I suppose that on the 10th of August ber. Nor was so small a gratuity as 
 the Cabots were still at sea, and that ten pounds likely to be offered in any 
 tliey did not reach England till Octo- case to so thriving a citizen as John 
 VOL. I. 6
 
 62 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 In vain search of the northwestern passage, the Cabots 
 proceeded northwardly as far as the sixty-seventh degree 
 of north hititude. The cokl, though in July, being such 
 as to discournge the crews, they prevailed on their com- 
 mander to reverse his course, and he ran down the coast 
 as far as the thirty-eighth (perhaps to the thirty-sixth) 
 degree of north latitude, wdience, his provisions failing, 
 and the prospect of an accomplishment of the special 
 object of the voyage appearing as remote as ever, he re- 
 solved to return to Ene^land. He brouo-ht his 
 
 October. . ^ i i • 
 
 vessels into port in safety, and three American 
 savages were presented to the king as trophies of the ex- 
 ploit.^ There is no reason to believe that the Cabots saw- 
 more of New England than some of its headlands, though 
 they probably ran along the coast of INIaine, and may have 
 looked into Massachusetts Bay. 
 
 The insurrection in favor of the pretended Duke of 
 1498 York being quelled, and the king again at lei- 
 
 Feb. 3. sure, a new patent Avas issued, authorizing John 
 Cabot, " by him, his deputy, or deputies sufficient," to 
 " take at his pleasure six English ships," of not more 
 than two hundred tons' burden, and renew the experi- 
 ment. He died presently after ; but it has been supposed 
 that the expedition proceeded, under the command of his 
 son Sebastian. If Sebastian sailed, there is no doubt that 
 he returned in safety, for he is known to have lived fifty 
 years beyond this time. But the fact of a second expe- 
 dition is so uncertain, and the accounts of it are so con- 
 fused with those of the voyage which effected the first 
 discovery of the North American continent, that, while 
 some writers have maintained it to have been in the 
 
 CaV)Ot. It may be that, wlicn the Cab- ^ " Tliis year -wore brought unto the 
 
 Ota turned pouth after the discontents king three men taken in the new found 
 
 among their men, a vessel left tliem, islands by Sebastian Cabato, before 
 
 and returned to England with her re- named, in anno 1498 ; these men were 
 
 port of the great news, and that her clothed in beasts' skins, and ate raw 
 
 commander received this present. flesh." (Stowe, Annates, 483, 484.)
 
 Chap. II.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 63 
 
 second voyage that the exploration towards the southwest 
 was made, others have comprehended the whole course 
 of transactions in the expedition commanded by John 
 Cabot.^ Sebastian subsequently entered the service of the 
 king of Spain. But in the well-nigh inextricable confu- 
 sion of the accounts of his adventures, there ap- 
 
 1 T 1 -11 -. Circ. 1517. 
 
 pears some reason to believe that at a still later 
 
 period he made a third voyage from England to North 
 
 America. 
 
 The discovery by the Cabots laid the foundation of the 
 claim of the British crown to its North American terri- 
 tory.^ It could scarcely have been in ignorance voyage of 
 of their exploit that the Portuguese admiral, Gas- ^^Zi! ^°" 
 par Cortereal, in command of a similar exploring isoo-isoi. 
 expedition, sailed along the same coast six or seven hun- 
 dred miles, probably between Hudson's Strait and Cape 
 E,ace. He returned with glowing reports of the fruitful- 
 ness of the country in herbage and in trees fit for ship- 
 
 1 INIr. Biddle, who, at all events, has phen Burroygh's ship from Gravesend. 
 
 expended more diligence upon the sub- But even on that supposition he was 
 
 ject than any other writer, maintains only twenty-one years old at the time 
 
 the paradox, that, in the first vo}'age, of the first expedition from Bristol, an 
 
 John Cabot, unacquainted with nauti- age altogether too immature for the con- 
 
 cal affairs, and only mentioned in the duct of such an enterprise. Humboldt 
 
 patent because the king meant to have (Examen Critique, II. 445) places bis 
 
 a money-guaranty for his own invest- birth in 1477. Mr. Patrick Frazer Tyt- 
 
 ment, was but the subordinate, or the ler has discussed Biddle's theory of the 
 
 irresponsible companion, of his forward insignificance of John Cabot (Histori- 
 
 son (Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, p. cal View of the Progress of Discovery, 
 
 4detse(j.). The king, however, in the Appendix). A proper treatment of the 
 
 second patent, authorizes John to take questions arising out of the voyages 
 
 six ships, " and them convey and lead of the Cabots would occupy a volume 
 
 to the lands and isles of late found hij rather than a note. New and impor- 
 
 the said John in our name and by our tant light will be thrown upon them by 
 
 commandment." (Original Patent, found the work impatiently expected from 
 
 by Biddle in the Rolls Chapel, as quoted the able hands of Dr. J. G. Kohl, on 
 
 by him. Memoir, &c., p. 76.) Sebastian early voyages to the western continent, 
 
 may have " frisked beneath the burden 2 u Qld John Cabot, the father, from 
 
 of fourscore," when in 1556 (Hakluyt, whom only, indeed, we have our ear- 
 
 I. 306) "he entered into the dance him- liest claim and interest (as we may 
 
 self, among the rest of the young and right well) to this country." Strachey, 
 
 lusty company," on the sailing of Ste- 140.
 
 64 HISTORY OF NEW ENGL.VXD. [Book I. 
 
 building, and with a number of captive Indians, whom he 
 sold as slaves.^ 
 
 An expedition to be followed by consequences much 
 
 more important was that of the Florentine, John 
 ve'razzaiio. Vciazzano. Embarking for Xorth America in 
 
 the service of France, he kept the shore in view 
 at intervals from the thirty-fourth to near the fiftieth de- 
 gree of north latitude. He entered Hudson's Eiver more 
 tlian eighty years before Hudson, and for fifteen days lay 
 at anchor in the harbor of what is now Newport." The 
 natives, who came about him in canoes, and were freely 
 admitted on board, were well formed, with regular fea- 
 tures, clear complexions, and long hair carefully dressed. 
 What attire they had was of skins. The women were mod- 
 est, and never visited the vessels. The seamen gratified 
 their visitors with presents of beads and other trifles, and 
 the parties separated from each other mutually pleased. 
 Verazzano sailed up Xarragansett Bay, and recorded his 
 admiration of its beautiful scenery. Steering thence to- 
 wards the northeast, and keeping the coast of Maine in 
 
 sicrht for the distance of fifty leao^ues, he cast 
 
 Mayo. ® • ^ , , 
 
 anchor next in some harbor apparently of Xova 
 Scotia. Here he found the landscape uninviting, and the 
 inhabitants inhospitable. But partly by stealth, partly by 
 intimidation, he succeeded in making an exploration of the 
 interior country for some miles. He kept on his course 
 amons: the islands to the northeast, till his pro- 
 visions began to fail. After a six months absence 
 he arrived at the port of Dieppe, to report to his master 
 
 1 Purchas. Pilgrims, I. 915. York Historical Society (New Series, 
 
 ' The full narrative of Verazzano's I. 39 et seq.). It presents considerable 
 
 voyage, addressed by him to Francis the verbal variations from that used by 
 
 First, was published by Ramusio (Navi- Ramusio. 
 
 pationi et Viafrei. III. 420 et seq.). A Had the stone tower, so dear to the 
 
 translation by Mr. J. G. Copswell, from Northern Antiquaries, been standing in 
 
 a manuscript copy in the Magliabecchian 1524, it is to the last degree e.xtraordi- 
 
 Library at Florence, has lately been nary that Verazzano should not have 
 
 published in the Collections of the New mentioned it.
 
 Chap. II.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 65 
 
 the important achievement of a survey of scarcely less 
 than two thousand miles of the North American coast. 
 
 Before Verazzano's voyage was kno\Mi in Spain, Ste- 
 phen Gomez, in a caravel of sixty tons' burden, fitted out 
 at the joint expense of the Emperor Charles the Fifth and 
 some merchants, sailed from Coruna in quest of 
 
 , ^ 1524, or 1525. 
 
 the Northwest Passage. Having made the coast 
 of Newfoundland, he steered southwardly, and coasted 
 along "a pretty large extent of countr}',''^ "as far south 
 as the fortieth degree of latitude."^ It is probable that 
 he ran across from Cape Sable to Cape Cod, and then 
 through Lon^: Island Sound to Hudson's River, named 
 by him Rio de San Antonio^ and that he finally left the 
 coast at the Capes of the Delaware.^ 
 
 A large field for industry, and a tempting source of 
 profit, had been opened to the adventurers of Eu- ^..^.^^ ^^ 
 rope. Small fishing-vessels from Biscay, Brit- fishermen 
 
 '■ ^ and others. 
 
 tany, and Normandy had been only three years 
 behind Cortereal. Denvs, a Frenchman, had 
 made a chart of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and 
 of the adioininof coast. Aubert, or Hubert, of 
 
 '' ~ _ _ 1508. 
 
 the same nation, had sailed up the river of that 
 name. The Banks of Newfoundland were visited by 
 fishermen, who may have pursued the cod and mackerel 
 so far as to gain some acquaintance with the convenient 
 harbors of Massachusetts Bay. Only twenty years had 
 passed after the first voyage of the Cabots, when ^^^_ 
 fifty ships, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, were 
 employed in this business. Jacques Cartier, sail- ^^ 
 ing up the St. Lawrence to Hochela^a, now Mon- 
 treal, and building a stockade on the hill at Que- 
 bee, inaugurated what was to become the vast 
 domain of France on this continent. 
 
 1 "Buen pedaco de tierra." Go- cidentales, Dec. III. lib. iv. cap. 20; 
 mara (Historia de las Indias, Cap. 40). lib. viii. cap. 8. 
 
 2 Herrera, Historia de las Indias Oc- 3 The object of liis expedition re- 
 
 6*
 
 66 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 It was half a century after Cabot had found North 
 America for England, before English legislation gave any 
 token of a sense of the value of the acquisition. A fruit- 
 less exploring expedition, conducted with two 
 vessels, was the only proof that the attention 
 of Henry the Eighth was ever turned in that direction. 
 At length an act of Parliament, in the first 
 
 3548. . 
 
 year of King Edward the Sixth, encouraged the 
 fishery at Newfoundland by protecting those engaged in 
 it from exactions which had been practised by the ad- 
 miralty " in the few years now last past." ^ The impulse 
 given to English affairs in all departments from the be- 
 ginning of the reign of Elizabeth did not fail to manifest 
 itself in this form of enterprise. But when there were 
 
 fiftv Enojlish vessels on the Newfoundland Banks, 
 
 1577. 
 
 there were as many from Portugal, twice as many 
 from Spain, and thrice as many from France.^ 
 
 With the last half of the reign of that sovereign began 
 an extraordinary development among her subjects of a 
 passion for distant exploration and settlement, kept up for 
 half a century against the discouragement of an almost 
 unbroken succession of disasters and defeats. Mexico, 
 Peru, Chili, and the AVest India Islands, conquered and 
 colonized by Spain, were pouring immense wealth into the 
 mother country, through the channels of trade as well as 
 by the direct transportation of the precious metals. Lon- 
 don and Bristol could not behold unmoved the strange 
 prosperity of Cadiz ; and nothing better pleased the Eng- 
 lish people of the coast than the prospect of a war with the 
 
 quired him to look into tlie inlets. The and, if Ilakluyt was correctly informed 
 
 best inferences respecting his move- (III. 171), they exacted a sort of tribute 
 
 ments are. to Ik; derived from a map for affordino; protection and keeping the 
 
 published four years afterwards by the peace. Sec on this whole subject the 
 
 cosmographer of the Emperor. important " Report on the Principal 
 
 1 Tlie act is in Hazard, State Papers, Fishcnes of the American Seas," pre- 
 I. 22, 2.'J. pared in 1853, by Mr. Lorenzo Sabine, 
 
 2 Th" English ships, however, were for the Treasury Department of the 
 of »>«ca (^r (^Jajjg and better manned, United States. 
 
 \
 
 Chap. II.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 67 
 
 great Catholic power, involving the plunder of rich galle- 
 ons and the sack of American treasuries. But the genius 
 of maritime adventure could not be always warlike. The 
 same impulse which led Hawkins and Drake by rough 
 ways to fame and fortune in the south, sent Frobisher on 
 a more perilous errand to solve the problem of the polar 
 seas. His wild adventures, begun with a renewed search 
 for a northwest passage to Asia, and continued and ended 
 with a quest for gold ingots under the Arctic Circle, do 
 not connect themselves with the subject of this narrative. 
 But a different fruit of the zeal for maritime exploit which 
 revived in the palmy days of the virgin queen was the 
 voyage of the heroic Sir Humphrey Gilbert,^ the first 
 which was undertaken with a design of permanent oc- 
 cupation of American territory by Englishmen. 
 
 Gilbert, a friend and half-brother of Sir Walter Kaleigh, 
 had been his fellow-soldier in the Protestant ar- ^.,^ , 
 
 Gilbert's 
 
 mies of France, and had served in the EngLish project of a 
 
 ■!-» T XT 1 • 1 • T 1 settlement. 
 
 Parliament. He was versed in geographical and 
 commercial knowledge, and was known as a writer by 
 a " Discourse to prove a Passage by the Northwest to 
 Cathaia and the East Indies." With views more com- 
 prehensive than were indicated by this treatise, he had 
 cordially embraced with Paleigh the scheme of British 
 colonization in North America. The queen gave 1578. 
 him a patent conveying privileges similar to •'""^"• 
 those conferred by her grandfather on Cabot.^ He was 
 empowered to discover, possess, and govern all remote 
 heathen and barbarous countries not occupied by any 
 Christian people. He and his heirs and assigns were to be 
 proprietors of such countries, on paying homage therefor 
 to the crown of England, and one fifth part of any precious 
 metals which might be found. They were to have admi- 
 
 ^ " Vir acer et alacer, belli pacisqiie ^ Jt jg Jq Hakluyt (III. 1 74) and 
 artibus -'--"^ " CCamden, Annales, Hazard (I. 24- 28). 
 367.)
 
 68 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 ralty jurisdiction o^er the neighboring seas ; and all per- 
 sons were forbidden to settle within two hundred leagues 
 of any place which they should occupy within six years. 
 
 Gilbert's first attempt miscarried, through the incon- 
 stancy of some of the associates whom he had engaged, 
 and the loss of one of his ships at sea. Eenewing his 
 1583. preparations with large pecuniary sacrifice, he set 
 June 11. gg^Q ^ second time, with two hundred and sixty 
 men, embarked in five vessels. He approached 
 the American coast on the fifty-first parallel of 
 north latitude ; and, shifting his course, entered 
 in a few days the harbor of St. John's in New- 
 foundland, where he found no fewer than thirty-six ves- 
 sels of diff"erent nations. Pitching a tent on the 
 
 All*'. 5. 
 
 shore, he commanded the presence of all mer- 
 chants and ship-masters, English and Continental. There, 
 his commission being read and interpreted, a turf and a 
 twig were delivered to him in token of investiture, and 
 proclamation was made of his authority to hold and gov- 
 ern the country for two hundred leagues around. He 
 promulgated three laws ; the first establishing the Church 
 of England; the second declaring it treason to call in 
 question the queen's title ; the third making the utterance 
 of words disrespectful to her Majesty a misdemeanor pun- 
 ishable with loss of ears and forfeiture of goods. A pillar 
 was erected, to which were affixed the royal arms graven 
 on lead, and grants of land were made in severalty for 
 stages for the curing of fish. 
 
 The search for precious metals was unavailing. The 
 company were generally unused to hardship. Many sick- 
 ened. Some died. Some deserted with one of the vessels. 
 Some hid in the woods, till they should have an opportu- 
 nity to escape.^ Before a month was out, it was plain 
 
 1 The story in tho, most authentic she went down. (See Ilakluyt, I. 679, 
 
 shape is from the liand of Edward III. 143, 184 -208 ; Purchas, III. 808 ; 
 
 Hayes, captain of the Hind, which was Harris, I. 583.) 
 in company with Gilbert's vessel when
 
 Chap. IL] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 69 
 
 that the heart of the enterprise was broken. Whether m 
 search of provisions or for further discovery, Gil- 
 
 /» 1 . ^"S- 20. 
 
 bert put to sea from St. John with three of his 
 vessels, leaving the other to bring away the sick. Off 
 Cape Breton, one of the squadron was lost, with all but 
 fourteen of her crew. Discouraged by this disaster added to 
 the earlier adverse events, the admiral resolved to return 
 to England. With the constancy which belonged to his 
 character, he chose for his place the place of greatest dan- 
 ger, and refused to leave the less seaworthy vessel, which 
 was but of ten tons' burden, and " overcharged with net- 
 ting: and small artillery." In a violent storm she 
 
 ^ •' . Sept. 9. 
 
 went to the bottom, with all her company. He 
 was sitting on her deck, calmly engaged in reading, the 
 last time he was seen from the companion ship. The last 
 words which had been heard from him were, " We are as 
 near heaven by sea as by land." — And so ended the first 
 attempt at British colonization on this continent. It was 
 destined to have successors in its brave promise, and in 
 its dismal fate. It wanted an element of force which the 
 world could not yet supply. Rank, wealth, royal patron- 
 age, were embarked in it. But the one thing needful was 
 not there. 
 
 The English claim to Newfoundland having been thus 
 formally authenticated, Sir Bernard Drake visited 
 it with an English squadron, and made prize of 
 some Portuguese ships, with their cargoes of fish, oil, and 
 furs. John Davis, in command of two barks, in ^ , 
 
 ' ' Further ex- 
 
 the service of a private association of certain no- piorations. 
 blemen and others, discovered Gilbert's Sound, 
 Cumberland Straits, the Cumberland Islands, and Lum- 
 ley's Inlet. George Waymouth conducted an- 
 other profitless quest for the Northwest Passage. 
 Silvester Wyat sailed up the Gulf of St. Law- 
 
 •' ^ , 1594. 
 
 rence for a cargo of whales' fins and oil. 
 
 But as yet New England had been almost overlooked.
 
 70 ' HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Before the seventeenth century, there was no exploration, 
 properly so called, of any part of that country, nor appar- 
 ently any project for its colonization. Though Verazzano 
 had landed, and not improbably others, Gosnold was not 
 only the first Englishman, but the first European, who is 
 known to have set up a dwelling on the soil of New 
 England. 
 
 After Gilbert's death his patent was renewed to Sir 
 1584. Walter E,aleigh.^ The failure of Raleigh's at- 
 March25. tcmpts to colouizc Virginia does not require to 
 be related in this history. Among those who had sailed 
 Voyage of 1^ ^^^ scrvlcc iu that enterprise was Bartholomew 
 ^'""'"''^- Gosnold, a mariner of the West of England. 
 Under his command, with the consent of Sir Walter 
 Raleigh," and at the cost, among others, of Henry Wri- 
 othesley. Earl of Southampton,^ the accomplished patron 
 of Shakespeare, a small vessel, called the Concord, was 
 equipped for exploration in " the north part of Virginia," 
 with a view to the establishment of a colony. At this 
 time, in the last year of the Tudor dynasty, and nineteen 
 years after the fatal termination of Gilbert's enterprise, 
 there was no European inhabitant of North America, ex- 
 
 1 See Raleigh's patent in Hakluyt Historical Collections, the two foimer 
 (III. 297) or in Hazard (I. 33-38). being reprinted from Purchas's " Pil- 
 
 2 " By the permission of the Honor- grims," the last from the edition pub- 
 able Knight, Sir Walter Raleigh." lishod at the time. Belknap, misled by 
 (Title-page to Brereton's Brief and Purchas, ascribed the " Brief and True 
 True Relation.) The three original au- Relation" to Rosier, who afterwards 
 thorities on the subject of this voyage sailed with Waymouth ; but it is in the 
 are a short letter written by Gosnold to form of a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, 
 his father upon his return to England ; and is subscribed with Brereton's name 
 "The Relation of Captain Gosnold's at length. Strachcy evidently wrote 
 
 Voyage delivered by Gabriel Ar- with Brereton's book in his hands; but 
 
 cher, a Gentleman in the said Voyage" he adds matter, probably obtained by 
 
 (the same person who was afterwards oral information. 
 
 so troublesome to Smith in Virginia); 3 Strachey (Historic of Travaile, &c., 
 
 and the " Brief and True Relation" of 153). Belknap says (Amer. Biog., H. 
 
 John Brereton, "one of the Voyage." 101), " At whose expense he undertook 
 
 These documents are in the twenty- the voyage to the northern part of Vir- 
 
 eighth volume of the ISIa-ssachusetts ginia, does not appear."
 
 1602. 
 March 26. 
 
 Chap. II.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXl'LORATIONS. 71 
 
 cept those of Spanish birth in Florida, and some twenty 
 or thirty French, the miserable relics of two frustrated 
 attempts to settle what they called New France. 
 
 Gosnold sailed from Falmouth with a company of 
 thirty-two persons, of whom eight were seamen, 
 and twenty were to become planters. Taking 
 a straight course across the Atlantic, instead of the in- 
 direct course by the Canaries and the West Indies which 
 had been hitherto pursued in voyages to Virginia, at the 
 end of seven weeks he saw land in Massachusetts 
 
 May 14. 
 
 Bay, probably near what is now Salem harbor.^ 
 Here a boat came off, of Basque build, manned by eight 
 natives, of whom two or three were dressed in European 
 clothes, indicating the presence of earlier foreign voyagers 
 in these waters. Xext he stood to the southward,^ and 
 his crew took great quantities of codfish by a headland, 
 called by him for that reason Cape Cod, the name which 
 it retains. Gosnold, Brereton, and three others, went on 
 shore, the first Englishmen who are known to have set foot 
 upon the soil of Massachusetts, They fell in with a young 
 Indian,^ and observed the unbroken extent of the deep 
 sand-heaps. Sounding his way cautiously along, first in 
 
 1 The description agrees with this in breadth half a foot, for a breastplate ; 
 part of the coast. Brereton says (Mass. the ears of all the rest had pendants of 
 Hist. Coll., XXVIII. 8G) tiiat they copper." (Ibid., 75. Comp. Brereton, 
 made land in the latitude of 43°, which Ibid., 91.) Notices to the same effect 
 is that of the mouth of the PIscataqua. abound in the early voyages. Where 
 But Wa}mouth found Gosnold's chart the aborigines of New England could 
 to be erroneous in this part of the de- have supplied themselves with plates of 
 lineation. copper, remains a question. Perhaps 
 
 2 Archer says they steered loest (Ibid., they were small pieces of virgin ore, 
 74). But this could not have been, picked up here and there. Perhaps 
 Archer's account, owing not improba- they had worked their way from hand 
 bly to errors in the printing, is ex- to hand, from the region of the Great 
 tremely confused. ' Lakes. More probably they were the 
 
 3 He " had certain plates of coppe fruit of traffic with recent foreign vis- 
 hanging to his ears." (Archer, Ibid., Itors. The last is Mr. Haven's opin- 
 74.) Of the natives afterwards seen, ion (Archaeology of the United States, 
 "one had hanging about his neck a 108, in Smithsonian Contributions to 
 plate of rich copper, in length a foot, Knowledge, YIII.).
 
 72 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 a southerly and then in a westerly direction, and probably 
 passinof to the south of Nantucket, Gosnold next 
 
 May 22. ^ ^ 
 
 landed on a small island, now called No Man's 
 Land. To this he gave the name of Martha's Vineyard, 
 since transferred to the larger island further north, the 
 "western extremity of which, now known as Gay Head, he 
 designated as Dover Cliff, in allusion to its resemblance 
 to the chalk bluff bearing that name on his native shore. 
 The island on which the landing was made, was, says 
 Archer,^ " most pleasant, for we found it full of wood, 
 ■\jines, gooseberry-bushes, hurt-berries, raspberries, eglan- 
 tine, &c. Here we had cranes, herns, shoulers, geese, and 
 divers other birds, which there, at that time, upon the 
 cliffs, being sandy with some rocky stones, did breed and 
 had young. In this place we saw deer. Here we rode 
 in eight fathoms, near the shore, where we took store of 
 cod, as before at Cape Cod, but much better. This island 
 is sound, and hath no danger about it." 
 
 South of Buzzard's Bay, and separated on the south 
 by the Vineyard Sound from Martha's Vineyard, is scat- 
 tered the group denoted on modern maps as the Elizabeth 
 Islands. The southwesternmost of these, no\y known by 
 the Indian name of Cuttyhunk, was denominated by Gos- 
 nold Elizabeth Island. It was " overgrown with wood 
 and rubbish ; viz. oaks, ashes, beech, walnut, witch-hazel, 
 sassafrage, and cedars, with divers others of unknown 
 names. The rubbish is wild pease, young sassafrage, 
 cherry-trees, vines, eglantine, gooseberry-bushes, haw- 
 thorn, honeysuckles, with others of the like quality. 
 The herbs and roots are strawberries, rasps, ground-nuts, 
 alexandcr, surrin, tansy, &c., without count."" Here 
 Gosnold found a pond two miles in circumference, sepa- 
 rated from the sea on one side by a beach thirty yards 
 wide, and enclosing " a rocky islet, containing near an 
 
 J Mass. Hist. Coll., XXVIII. 70. 
 
 2 Archer, Ibid., 77. Coinp. Brcreton, Ibid., 88, 89.
 
 Chap. II.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 73 
 
 acre of ground, full of wood and rubbish." This islet 
 was fixed upon for a settlement. In three weeks, 
 
 May 28. 
 
 while a part of the company were absent on a 
 trading expedition to the mainland, the rest dug and 
 stoned a cellar, prepared timber, and built a house, which 
 they fortified with palisades, and thatched with sedge.^ 
 
 Proceeding to make an inventory of their provisions, 
 they found that, after supplying the vessel, which was to 
 take twelve men on the return voyage, there would be a 
 sufficiency for only six weeks for the twenty men who 
 would remain. A dispute arose upon the question whether 
 the party to be left behind would receive a share in 
 the proceeds of the cargo of cedar, sassafras, furs, and 
 other commodities which had been collected. A small 
 party, going out in quest of shell-fish, was attacked by 
 some Indians. AVith men having already, it is likely, lit- 
 tle stomach for such cheerless work, these circumstances 
 easily led to the decision to abandon for the present the 
 scheme of a settlement ; and in the following , 
 
 ' o June 18. 
 
 month the adventurers sailed for England, and, 
 after a voyage of five weeks, arrived at Exmouth. " ^ ^" 
 The first attempt at European colonization in New Eng- 
 land was made within what is now the State of Massa- 
 chusetts, and this was its present issue. Gosnold lived 
 five years longer, to take within that time an important 
 part in the movement which brought about the perma- 
 nent occupation of Virginia. 
 
 1 " To this spot I went on tlie 20th birds. We had the supreme satisfac- 
 
 day of June, 1797 The protect- tion to find the cellar of Gosnold's store- 
 
 ing hand of Nature has reserved this house, the stones of which were evi- 
 
 favorite spot to herself. Its fertility and dently taken from the neighboring 
 
 its productions are exactly the same as beach, the rocks of the islet being less 
 
 in Gosnold's time, excepting the wood, movable and lying in ledges." (Bel- 
 
 of which there is none. Every species knap, American Biography, 11. 114, 
 
 of what he calls rubbish, with straw- 115.) Another party of antiquaries 
 
 berries, pease, tansies, and other fruits identified the spot in 1817. (North 
 
 and herbs, appear in rich abundance, American Review, V. 313 ) 
 unmolested by any animal but aquatic 
 
 VOL. I. 7
 
 74 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 The expedition of Gosnold was pregnant with conse- 
 quences, though their development was slow. The ac- 
 counts of the hitherto unknown country, which were cir- 
 culated by his company on their return, excited an earnest 
 interest. Among others, Richard Hakluyt, a prebendary 
 of Bristol cathedral, already known as a learned cosmogra- 
 pher and author of a copious account of English exploits 
 in navigation,^ engaged actively in the scheme of further 
 exploration in New England, or North Virginia^ as, after 
 Raleigh's designation, it still and for some years longer 
 continued to be called. The consent of Raleigh, which 
 his patent right was thought to make necessary, Avas 
 promptly given. The sum of a thousand pounds sterling 
 was raised by several of the civic governors and principal 
 Voyage of mcrchauts of Bristol ; and under the command of 
 "g"o3" Martin Pring, or Prynne, two small vessels, one 
 
 April 10. q£ ^f^y tons' burden, the other of twenty-six tons', 
 with a crew of forty-four men and boys, sailed from Mil- 
 ford Haven early in the following year, the first year of 
 James the First. They were provisioned for a voyage of 
 eight months ; the lading, w^hich consisted of clothes, hard- 
 ware, and trinkets, designed to procure a return cargo of 
 sassafras," being intrusted to Robert Salterne, who had 
 been a companion of Gosnold in the preceding year. 
 
 Pring approached the North-American coast between 
 the latitudes of forty-three and forty-four degrees, 
 and, steering to the southwest, made some exam- 
 ination about the mouths of the Saco, Kcnnebunk, York, 
 and Piscataqua rivers. Not finding in this region the 
 
 ^ There was a family taste for these provement upon, Gilbert's enterprise, 
 
 studies and undcrtakinjrs. "Mr. Richard It was appended, with several other 
 
 Ilakluyt, the elder, sometime student tracts of similar purport, to the second 
 
 of tlie Middle Temple," hail written, as edition of Brereton's letter to Raleigh, 
 early as 1.58.5, a treatise entitled "In- 2 Sassafras was In great esteem for 
 
 dueements to the T>iking of the Voyage its medicinal virtue, being supposed to 
 
 intended towards Virginia in 40 and 42 be a powerful diuretic, besides possess- 
 
 Degrees of Latitude." This must have ing other useful properties. 
 had reference to a renewal of, and im-
 
 CiiAP. II.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 75 
 
 commodity of which he was in quest, and seeing " goodly 
 groves and woods, and sundry sorts of beasts," but "no 
 people,"^ he turned his course first to Savage Rock, 
 where Gosnold had had his first interview with na- 
 tives the year before, and then to the islands south of 
 Cape Cod, where he found convenient anchorage in a 
 harbor which appears to have been that of Edgartown in 
 Martha's Vineyard. The natives here being numerous, he 
 built a hut with rude defences, and proceeded to collect 
 his lading in the woods. The diminution of his force, by 
 the departure of the smaller vessel when her cargo was 
 made up, was followed by some threatening demonstra- 
 tions on the part of the Indians, which induced . „ 
 
 i Aug. 9. 
 
 him to hasten his embarkation ; and he arrived 
 
 Oct. 2. 
 
 at Bristol in early autumn, after a passage of 
 seven or eight weeks, and an absence from England of 
 less than six months. Some specimens, carried home by 
 him, of the ingenious manufacture of the natives, among 
 others a birch canoe seventeen feet long, helped to sustain 
 the curiosity which had been awakened respecting this 
 strange race of men." 
 
 The peace with Spain, which immediately followed the 
 accession of King James to the throne of England, made 
 the seas more secure for English voyagers. Pring's ad- 
 venture had been only for discovery and traffic, with no 
 design of settlement. Meanwhile Lord Southampton had 
 not lost sight of the larger scheme which Gosnold had 
 failed to carry out. At a charge shared between him and 
 his brother-in-law. Lord Arundel of Wardour, a voyage of 
 vessel with a crew of twenty-eight men, under ^cos""""* 
 the command of George Waymouth;'' who had ^^arciisi. 
 
 1 Belknap suggests that the reason 2 Por Pring's voyage see Purchas, 
 
 of this was, that Pring was here at the IV. 1654 et seq. 
 
 season when the natives were absent at ■^ James Rosier, " a gentleman em- 
 
 their fishing stations up the rivers, ployed in the voyage," wrote " A True 
 
 (Amer. Biog., II. 126.) Relation " of it, extracts from which
 
 76 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 May 14. 
 
 been on the coast twelve years before, was despatched 
 from the Thames, ostensibly perhaps for the discovery of 
 the long-sought Northwestern Passage.^ A six weeks' 
 voyage brought Waymouth in sight of the island 
 of Nantucket. Shifting his course to the north, 
 he entered the Kennebec or the Penobscot E-iver," and, in 
 a shallop " brought, in pieces, out of England," ascended 
 it to a distance of " not much less than threescore miles." 
 He kidnapped and carried away five of the natives.^ 
 Except for this, and for some addition to the knowledge 
 of the local geography, the voyage was fruitless. But the 
 
 ■were published by Purchas (Pilgrims, 
 IV. 1G59). The whole tract is in the 
 Collections of the IMassachusetts Histor- 
 ical Society (XXVUI. 125). 
 
 1 So says Belknap (Amer. Biog., II. 
 135), and after him the exact Holmes. 
 Yet I have not observed their authority 
 for the statement. If this design was 
 professed, it was probably but a precau- 
 tion against the jealousy of the French, 
 whose hope of an occupation of the 
 country began now to be disclosed. 
 This jealousy is cautiously referred to 
 in Hosier's Preface. He had delaj'cd, 
 he says, to publish the journal which 
 Lord Wardour liad employed him to 
 make, "because some foreign nation, 
 being fully assured of the fruitfulness 
 of the coimtry, have hoped hereby to 
 
 gain some knowledge of the place ; 
 
 and this is the cause that I have neither 
 written of the latitude or variation most 
 exactly observed by our captain with 
 sundry instruments." The true purpose 
 of the voyage, as Rosier understood it, 
 is manifest elsewhere : " Because we 
 found the land a place answerable to 
 the intent of our discovery, namely, fit 
 for any nation to inhaliit, we used the 
 people with as great kindness as we 
 could devise, or found them capable 
 of." (Ma.ss. Hist. Coll., XXVIII. 1.38.) 
 *' We supposing not a little jjrcsent 
 private profit, but a pulilic good and 
 
 true zeal of promulgating God's holy 
 Church by planting Christianity, to be 
 the sole intent of the honorable set- 
 ters forth of this discovery," &c. (Ibid., 
 153.) 
 
 2 It was the Penobscot, according to 
 that interpretation of the journal of the 
 voyage which has been approved in this 
 country since Belknap wrote. But 
 Strachey (150) understood the river to 
 be the Sagadahoc, or Kennebec, and 
 this opinion has recently been revived. 
 (McKeen, in Maine Hist. Coll., V., 
 Art. 4.) The Kennebec agrees best 
 with AVajmouth's observation of the 
 latitude. I may add, that the subse- 
 quent choice of the Kennebec by Gorges 
 and his friends, as the site of a plantta- 
 tion, affords a presumption on this side, 
 so much of the information u])on which 
 they proceeded having been derived 
 from Waymouth. 
 
 3 " I opened the box and showed 
 them trifles to exchange, thinking 
 thereby to have banished fear from 
 the other, and drawn him to return ; 
 but when we could not, we used little 
 delay, but suddenly laid hands upon 
 them ; and it was as much as five or six 
 of us could do to get them into the light 
 horseman [the boat], for they were 
 strong, and so naked as our best hold 
 was by their long hair on their heads." 
 (Mass. Hist. Coll., XXVHI. 145.)
 
 Chap. II.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 77 
 
 beauty and convenience of the river had enchanted the 
 strangers. " Many who had been travellers in sundry 
 countries and in the most famous rivers, yet affirmed them 
 to be not comparable to this they noAv beheld." It seemed 
 " the most rich, beautiful, large, and secure harboring 
 river that the world affordeth." Though, by such of 
 them as had made personal observation, the Orinoco, the 
 Rio Grande, the Loire, and the Seine were allowed to be 
 " great and goodly rivers," yet it was " no detraction from 
 them to be accounted inferior to this." After a stay of 
 less than five weeks, they left the coast, and a , 
 
 ' •' ' June 16. 
 
 voyage of the same length brought them to Dart- 
 mouth, where they had set sail from England. 
 
 Meantime, New England was in imminent danger of 
 passing into the hands of French masters. While ^^^ ^^^^^ 
 the discovery by Cabot was the basis of the claim ^""'"^^ °=- 
 
 •^ "^ _ cupation of 
 
 of England to the possession of North- American NewEng- 
 territory, the voyage of Verazzano was relied 
 upon as establishing a similar title for her hereditary 
 rival on the other side of the Channel. A conspicuous 
 member of the Protestant party of France, the jcos. 
 Sieur de Monts, had obtained from King Plenry ^"''•^* 
 the Fourth a patent for the principality of Acadie, defined 
 as the American coast from the fortieth to the forty-sixth 
 degree of north latitude, with provisions for the govern- 
 ment of the country and the control of trade within those 
 limits.^ Setting sail in the following spring with 1C04. 
 four vessels, having Pontgrave and De Poutrin- '*'''«''■'• 
 court for his lieutenants and Champlain for his pilot,^ De 
 INIonts made some explorations in and about Nova Scotia, 
 in the course of which he examined an inviting harbor of 
 the Bay of Fundy, on the north side of that peninsula ; 
 
 1 Hazard (I. 45) reprints the patent 2 Charlevoix, Histoire et Description 
 from L'Escarbot (Histoire de la Nou- Ge'nerale de la Nouvelle France, I. 
 velle France, 432). L'Escarbot, a law- 173,174. 
 yer, went out with De Poutrincourt as 
 his man of business. 
 
 7*
 
 78 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 the same jDOst wliicli, under French and English sway, 
 
 has borne at different times the names of Port Royal and 
 
 Annapolis. Dissatisfied with the rigorous climate of that 
 
 re"^ion, he embarked the next summer for an ex- 
 
 1C05. 
 
 amination of the shores of Maine and Massachu- 
 setts, and was upon that coast nearly at the same time 
 with Wavmouth.^ He proceeded as far as Cape Cod, but 
 the unfriendly disposition of the natives and the inade- 
 quacy of his force combined to discourage him from a 
 further prosecution of the undertaking. In the ensuing 
 year, after his return to France, it was renewed by his com- 
 panions. Pontgrave, following in his track, lost 
 a vessel by shipwreck, and scarcely saved her 
 men and stores. De Poutrincourt went later, and 
 sent a party on shore at Cape Cod to erect a 
 cross and take possession in the name of his sovereign.^ 
 The savages attacked his men, killed two, and wounded 
 others. Bad weather, now coming on, obstructed further 
 movements, and made his situation dangerous ; the French 
 returned to Port Royal, and the enterprise was not re- 
 sumed. New England was to be impressed with the his- 
 tory of another family of men. 
 
 Yet another fruitless attempt to establish a colony in 
 that country was made on a large scale. Among the 
 persons engaged in it. Sir John Popham, Chief Justice of 
 the King's Bench, was the most considerable, and Sir 
 Ferdinando Gorges among the most active. 
 
 Little is known of Gorges previous to the time when 
 Sir Fcrdinan- that agcucy of his began, which has made his 
 doGorues. nauic SO prominent in New-England history. 
 
 ^ Probably "Waymouth had loft the and Chaniplain was the extremity of 
 
 neighborhood a week or two before De Cape Cod, where now is Provincetown. 
 
 Monts came to it. Malabar appears to have been Nauset 
 
 2 L'Escarbot, Liv. IV. Chap. 7 ; Harbor, and Cap Fortune the south- 
 
 Chaniplain, Voyages, Liv. II. chap, easterly point of Chatham. 
 C, 7. The Cap Blanc of L'Escarbot
 
 Chap. H.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 79 
 
 His birthplace, or at least his home, was in Somersetshire.^ 
 His Italian baptismal name is no sign of a foreign extrac- 
 tion. It had somehow come to be much used in England 
 in those times.^ Gorges, or Gorge, was the name of an 
 old family in the West Country. In the fourteenth cen- 
 tury, Eleanor, daughter and heiress of Ralph de Gor- 
 ges, married Sir Theobald Russell. Their eldest son, 
 the ancestor of Sir Ferdinando, took the name of his 
 mother's family, and it is from a younger son that the 
 ducal house of Bedford is descended. Sir Ferdinando 
 had probably some connection by marriage with both 
 Popham and Raleigh.^ 
 
 Of the little which is recorded of the early life of Gor- 
 ges, not all is to his credit. He was a partner 
 in the conspiracy of the Earl of Essex, then con- 
 veyed intelligence of it to Sir Walter Raleigh, and, on the 
 Earl's trial, testified against him. The consequences of 
 this proceeding followed Gorges, as well as Raleigh, to 
 his latest hour. They had frequent occasion for favor in 
 whatever quarter it could be had, but the popular leaning 
 was always against them. For the English people found 
 a strange fascination in Essex, and never forgave any 
 who had harmed him except the queen, who, they be- 
 
 1 " Sir Ferdinando Gorges of Ashton from the first discovery down to tlie 
 Phillips in Somerset " (Josselyn, Voy- civil war; memoirs, journals of voy- 
 age, &c., p. 197.) Few things would be ages, charts, charters, minutes of argii- 
 more gladly welcomed by the student ments, letters, sketches of jjrojects, lists 
 of New-England history than the dis- of partners, — everything to illustrate 
 covery of the papers of Gorges, which the events and their causes, and to dis- 
 it is not extravagant to suppose may, play the actors. 
 
 undreamed of by their possessor, be 2 gji. Ferdinando Fairfax is a familiar 
 
 now feeding the moth in the garret of instance ; but the instances were fre- 
 
 some manor-house in Somerset or Dev- quent. 
 
 on, or in some crypt of London, which 3 Raleigh's mother was of the Devon- 
 vast city has always been the recep- shire familj' of Champernowne. Pop- 
 tacle, often the final hiding-place, of ham's daughter married one of that 
 such treasures. Gorges had among name, and the Champernowne who 
 his papers all sorts of materials for came to Sagadahoc was a nephew of 
 the history of English North America, Gorges (Hazard, I. 458).
 
 80 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 lieved, at heart loved him with an affection beyond their 
 own. 
 
 Gorges served in the royal navy during the war with 
 Spain. At the peace, the king made him Gover- 
 nor of Plymouth. Here he was living the listless 
 life of an officer in garrison, when Waymouth returned 
 from his voyage to North America. The active mind of 
 Gorges now found an object which occupied it nearly to 
 the end of his days. With his uncommon talent for busi- 
 ness and indefatigable love of labor, he would hardly 
 have failed to find a sphere of activity at home, had he 
 not been obstructed by the bad repute of those trans- 
 actions which have been referred to. The soldiers and 
 seamen of the late war had liberty to take service abroad ; 
 but Gorges was one of those who " thought it better be- 
 came them to put in practice the reviving recollection of 
 those free spirits that rather chose to spend themselves 
 in seeking a new world, than servilely to be hired but as 
 slaughterers in the quarrels of strangers. This resolution 
 being stronger than their means to put it into execution, 
 they were forced to let it rest as a dream, till God should 
 give the means to stir up the inclination of such a power 
 able to bring it to life." 
 
 Means were not easily forthcoming to Gorges, for Puri- 
 tanism had a special fondness for Lord Essex, and the 
 money-bags of the city were in Puritan keeping. When 
 1G05. Waymouth brought to Plymouth his Indian cap- 
 •'"'^- tives, he inspired the Governor with the hope of 
 enlisting for his darling scheme allies more able to pro- 
 mote it. " This accident," Gorges says, was " the means 
 under God of putting on foot and giving life to all our 
 plantations." He took three of the natives into his house, 
 caused them to be instructed in the English language, and 
 " kept them full three years." By degrees he obtained in- 
 formation from them of the " stately islands and safe har- 
 bors" of their native country, "what great rivers ran up
 
 tion of the 
 
 jinia 
 companies. 
 
 Chap. II.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 81 
 
 into the land, what men of note were seated on them, 
 what power they were of, how allied, what enemies they 
 had, and the like."^ 
 
 His representations to Sir John Popham^ engaged that 
 eminent person to exert his influence with his friends in 
 high quarters to obtain authority for a renewal of opera- 
 tions in North America. At the same time with this move- 
 ment in the West of England, " certain noble- incorpora- 
 men, knights, gentlemen, and merchants in and y'lrgi' 
 about the city of London" were desiring to renew 
 the attempts which had been abortively made under the 
 auspices of Raleigh in Virginia. A joint application was 
 easily arranged, and they obtained from the king jeoe. 
 an incorporation of two companies, called respec- ^p"' ^°' 
 tively in the patent the First and the Second Colony.^ 
 The suit was facilitated at court by considerations of the 
 expediency of finding harmless employment for the nu- 
 merous active spirits left at leisure by the recent peace. 
 
 Both companies were to be under the supervision of a 
 body, called the Council of Virginia, consisting of thirteen 
 members, appointed from time to time by the crown, and 
 exercising their authority agreeably to royal instructions. 
 
 1 " Briefe Narration of the Original their affairs, all his partners and assigns 
 Undertakings," &c., in Mass. Hist. Coll., may have voluntarily come into the new 
 XXVI. 50, 51. scheme, or have surrendered their rights 
 
 2 Popham had been released by Gor- under the old. Possibly, with a freedom 
 ges when placed in hjs custody by Es- too common in these prerogative trans- 
 sex at the time of that nobleman's mad actions, that clause in Raleigh's patent 
 attempt upon London. (Hume, A. D. (Hazard, I. 36) which gives a power of 
 1601.) government to such of his assigns as 
 
 3 The instrument is in Hazard, I. 50. should become inhabitants within six 
 In justification of this grant, it is common years, may have received a violent con- 
 to say (as in Holmes, Annals, I. 122) struction, such as to make it mean that 
 that Raleigh's rights had been forfeited the patent had conveyed no title except 
 by his attainder. But Raleigh had made to such lands as should be discovered 
 an assignment of them, or at least ad- and possessed within that time. On that 
 mitted others to a partnership, in 1589 construction, the rights which Raleigh 
 (the grant is in Hazard, I. 42), and his and his assigns had obtained by posses- 
 subsequent attainder could not vacate sion had been long lost by non-user, 
 the rights thus conveyed. It is not im- Virginia had been abandoned nearly 
 probable that, in the desperate state of twenty years.
 
 82 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Each colony was in like manner to be governed for the 
 king, and agreeably to his ordinances, by a council of his 
 appointment, residing on the spot. To the First, or Lon- 
 don Colony, -was assigned the territory of South Virginia, 
 extending from the thirty-fourth to the forty-first degree 
 of north latitude, with a breadth of fifty miles inland. 
 The Second, or Plymouth Colony, under the management 
 of " sundry knights, gentlemen, and other adventurers, of 
 the cities of Bristol and Exeter, and of the town of Ply- 
 mouth, and of other places," was to plant in North Vir- 
 ginia, anywhere within the same distance from the shore, 
 and between the thirty-eighth and the forty-fifth parallels 
 of latitude. To prevent mterference as to the territory 
 granted to both alike, it was provided that neither com- 
 pany should make a settlement within a hundred miles 
 of land previously occupied by the other. Colonists and 
 their descendants were to have all the rights of British 
 subjects. The companies might expel intruders, coin 
 money, impose taxes and duties for their own use for 
 twenty-one years, and, for seven years, import goods from 
 other parts of the British dominions, free of duty. On 
 the other hand, they were held to pay into the royal treas- 
 ury twenty per centum of the products of gold and silver 
 mines which might be discovered, and from copper mines 
 one third of that rate. Neither the name of Gorges, 
 nor that of Sir John Popham, appears among the paten- 
 tees. Hakluyt was one of the persons incorporated in the 
 London Company. Of the Plymouth Company, George 
 Popham, brother of the Chief Justice, and Raleigh Gil- 
 bert, son of the earlier navigator and nephew of Sir Wal- 
 ter Paleigh, were original associates. 
 
 A vessel despatched from Bristol by Sir John Popham 
 made a further survey of the coast of New England, and 
 returned with accounts which infused vigorous life into 
 the undertaking;^ and it was now prosecuted with eager- 
 
 1 " Captain Prin brings with him the most exact discovery of that
 
 Chap. II.] EAKLT VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 83 
 
 ness and liberality. But in little more than a year " all 
 its former hopes were frozen to death." Three jgo?. 
 ships sailed from Plymouth with a hundred set- '^^y hi- 
 tlers, amply furnished, and taking two of Gorges's Indians 
 as interpreters and guides. After a prosperous voyage 
 they reached the mouth of the river called Saga- a„„ g 
 dahoc, or Kennebec, in Maine, and on a project- A^'^mpted 
 
 ' ^ i: J settlement 
 
 ing point ^ proceeded to organize their commu- 
 nity. After prayers and a sermon, they listened 
 to a reading of the patent and of the ordinances under 
 which it had been decreed by the authorities at home that 
 they should live. George Popham had been constituted 
 their President, Haleigh Gilbert was Admiral, and Har- 
 low, Robert Davis, Best, Scammon, James Davis, and 
 Carew were invested respectively with the trusts of Mas- 
 
 on the Ken- 
 nebec. 
 
 coast that ever came to my hands since ; 
 and indeed he was the best able to per- 
 form it of any I met withal to this pres- 
 ent, which, with his relation of the 
 country, wrought such an impression 
 in the Lord Chief Justice, and us all 
 that were his associates, that, notwith- 
 standing our first disaster, we set up 
 our resolutions to follow it with effect." 
 (Gorges, Briefe Narration, in Mass. 
 Hist. Coll., XXVI. 53.) This "first 
 disaster " was the capture by the Span- 
 ish of an exploring ship which had been 
 sent out by Gorges, as Prin's was by 
 Popham. In the State Paper Office, in 
 a parcel entitled " America and AVest 
 Indies, 459," there is a letter of Gorges 
 to his captain, whose name was Cha- 
 lons, in which (March 13, 1607) he 
 advises him not to be hasty in accept- 
 ing satisfaction for losses in his recent 
 voyage (comp. Belknap, I. 349), assur- 
 ing him that he will do better to wait. 
 I understand Popham's captain to have 
 been the navigator who had been in 
 New England three years before. Pur- 
 chas (V. 1827) and Harris (Voyages, I. 
 851) say that Thomas Hanham com- 
 
 manded Popham's vessel, and that Mar- 
 tin Prinn sailed with him. Hanham 
 was one of the Plymouth Company, 
 named in the patent. Later writers 
 speak of a Captain Prynne. Gorges's 
 authority is the best, though his differ- 
 ent spelling may be thought to leave 
 some question respecting the identity 
 of Prin. Strachey (163) seems to 
 have been ill informed resj^ecting these 
 transactions. 
 
 1 Probably Cape Small Point, in what 
 is now the town of Phippsburg (Fol- 
 som, Discourse, in 1846, before the 
 Maine Historical Society, 28). "At 
 the mouth of Sagadahoc, in a westerly 
 peninsula," says Purcbas (I. 939), who 
 published in 1616. It has been sup- 
 posed (Williamson, History of Maine, 
 I. 198), but without sufficient evidence, 
 that the adventurers disembarked on 
 Stage Island, and subsequently re- 
 moved to the mainland before winter. 
 On Stage Island, in 1778, Sullivan 
 (History of Maine, 1 70) saw what he 
 thought to be ancient cellars and wells, 
 and the remains of a fort and of chim- 
 neys of English bricks.
 
 84 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 tcr of the Ordnance, Commander of the Forces, Marshal, 
 Secretary, Governor of the Fort, and Revenue Officer. 
 Lilliput had its type hi the stately littleness of Fort St. 
 George. 
 
 The adventurers dug wells, and built huts. More than 
 half of the number became discouraged, and returned with 
 the ships to England. Forty-five remained through the 
 winter, which proved to be very long and severe. In 
 the midst of it their storehouse took fire, and was con- 
 sumed, with great part of the provisions. And when the 
 President sickened and died, and, presently after, a vessel 
 despatched to them with supplies brought intelligence of 
 the death of Sir John Popham, and of Sir John Gilbert, 
 — the latter event calling for the presence of the Admiral, 
 Gilbert's brother and heir, in England, — they were ready 
 to avail themselves of the excuses thus afi'orded for re- 
 treating from the distasteful enterprise. All yielded to 
 their homesickness, and embarked on board of the return- 
 ing ship, taking with them a small vessel which they had 
 built, and some furs and other products of the country. 
 Statesmen, merchants, and soldiers had not learned the 
 conditions of a settlement in New England.^ 
 
 " The country was branded by the return of the planta- 
 tion, as being over cold, and in respect of that not habit- 
 able by Englishmen." Still the son of the Chief Justice, 
 " Sir Francis Popham, could not so give it over, but con- 
 tinued to send thither several years after, in hope of better 
 fortunes, but found it fruitless, and was necessitated at 
 
 1 Of Popham 's colonists Sir William never satisfaction." Strachey (History 
 Alexander says (]\Iap and Description of Travaile, 1(52-180) has a detailed 
 of New England, p. 30), that they journal — the only one, I suppose, in 
 were easily discouraged, because they existence — of the transactions of this 
 " went thither, being pressed to the en- colony. That part which is subject to 
 terprlse, as endangered by the law or a comparison with other authorities con- 
 by their own necessities, no enforced tains some manifest inaccuracies. But 
 thing proving pleasant; discontented they relate to transactions previous to 
 persons sufTcring whileas they act, they the sailing of the fleet, 
 can seldom have good success, and
 
 Chap. IL] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 85 
 
 last to sit clown with the loss he had ah'eady undergone.'* 
 Sir Francis Popham's enterprises were merely commercial. 
 Gorges alone, " not doubting but God would effect that 
 which man despaired of," persevered in cherishing the 
 project of a colony. Chance having thrown in his way 
 a native who had been kidnapped from Martha's Vine- 
 yard, and " been shown in London for a wonder," igi4, 
 he sent him out in a trading-vessel as another "'""®- 
 medium of communication. The savage, who, to secure 
 his return, had told seductive stories of a gold mine which 
 he could point out, no sooner touched the shore than he 
 absconded, though Gorges had given strict orders that he 
 should be closely watched, beside " clothing him with 
 long garments fitly to be laid hold on, if occasion should 
 require." ^ 
 
 The coast still remained open to the occupation of Eng- 
 lishmen, Henry Hudson had visited it in the Hudson's 
 service of the Dutch East India Company ; but 
 though he landed on Cape Cod, it had not de- 
 tained him from his explorations in Delaware Bay and 
 the river which bears his name. A party of The French 
 French, who had intrenched themselves on Mount °\"r/®' 
 
 ' nobscot. 
 
 Desert, near the mouth of the Penobscot, had, ^''is. 
 
 after a few weeks' occupancy, been dislodged by Argal,,^ ^4^^*'*^ 
 
 Governor of Virginia, on a chance visit of his to that 
 
 neighborhood. 
 
 Meanwhile, by strange experiences in other parts of 
 the world, an extraordinary man had been pre- captain 
 paring himself for co-operation with Gorges ; and 
 a movement was made towards New England not less 
 energetic than any that has been described, though des- 
 tined to scarcely better fortune. John Smith j^u. 
 sailed from London for this coast with two ships, ^p"' ^• 
 fitted out by some private adventurers. 
 
 The history of Smith is of that description that its 
 
 1 Gorges, Briefe Narration, &c., in Mass. Hist. Coll., XXYL 5C, GO. 
 
 VOL. I. 8 
 
 visit. 
 
 1G09. 
 August.
 
 86 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 place would seem to be rather among the legends of a 
 mythical age, than m the annals of the prosaic seven- 
 teenth century. He was of a good family in Lincoln- 
 shire. His father's death, when he was thirteen 
 
 1592. 
 
 years old, left him competently provided for, and 
 at the same time interrupted a plan which he had medi- 
 tated. " His mind being even then set upon brave adven- 
 tures," he had " sold his satchel, books, and all he had, 
 intending secretly to get to sea." His guardians appren- 
 ticed him to a merchant, from whose service he soon 
 found his way to France ; his friends " liberally gave him, 
 but out of his own estate, ten shillings to be rid of him." 
 
 An English neighbor fell in with him at Orleans, and 
 furnished him with money for his journey home. But 
 he had another use for it ; and, going to Holland, he took 
 service in the Netherlands army. After three or four 
 years thus disposed of, he returned to Willoughby, his 
 native place, and, " being glutted with too much com- 
 pany, wherein he took small delight, he retired himself 
 into a little woodland pasture, a good way from any town, 
 environed with many hundred acres of other woods. Here 
 by a fair brook he built a pavilion of boughs, where only 
 in his clothes he lay," and employed himself in studying 
 the science of war, and practising military exercises. 
 
 His next appearance in public was in some connection, 
 
 which he does not explain, with Tattersall's in London, 
 
 to which establishment he was attracted by his passion 
 
 for horses. " Desirous to sec more of the world, and to 
 
 try his fortune a<::ainst the Turks," he bent his 
 
 Smitli's ad- •' & _ ' _ 
 
 ventures in coursc towards the Imperial camp, which he 
 found before the fortress of Lymbach in Hun- 
 gary. On the way, he had met with various adventures. 
 He had been robbed of all his effects by his companions 
 on the passage to France. " In a forest, near dead with 
 grief and cold," he had been found and relieved by a 
 peasant. lie had refilled his empty purse by a share in
 
 Chap, n.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 87 
 
 the prize-money of a rich Venetian argosy captured by 
 the French vessel in which he had embarked from Mar- 
 seilles for the Levant. He had hardly saved his life by 
 swimming to an island, after being thrown into the Medi- 
 terranean by a company of pilgrims whom he had joined, 
 and who attributed a storm which had overtaken them 
 to their having received a heretic on board. 
 
 Arrived at the army, Smith speedily recommended him- 
 self by the ingenious management of a telegraph,^ estab- 
 lishing a communication with the garrison which there 
 was an endeavor to relieve. Next he invented two or 
 three new sorts of fireworks, one of them called " fiery 
 dragons," which did good execution. Lymbach was re- 
 lieved, the Turks withdrew, and Smith was made a cap- 
 tain of horse. 
 
 The belligerent hosts being intrenched opposite to 
 each other, three Turkish champions, " to delight the 
 ladies," successively challenged some cavalier of the Chris- 
 tian army to mortal combat. The adventure fell by lot to 
 Smith, w4io encountered them one after another, and cut 
 off" their heads. Made prisoner by a Tartar prince, with 
 many of his countrymen, after a bloody battle, he was 
 sold in a slave-market near Adrianople. A Pacha bought 
 him for his mistress, " the young Charatza Tragabigzan- 
 da." Taking compassion on him, and fearing that he 
 might be sold out of her reach, she sent him for g^ith i^ 
 safe-keeping to her brother in a fortress by the ^^'^' 
 Black Sea. A letter bespeaking for him indulgent treat- 
 ment produced the opposite eff"ect. The Pacha suspected 
 his sister of a tenderer sentiment than pity, and wreaked 
 his displeasure on the captive. " He caused his drub- 
 man to strip him naked, and shave his head and beard 
 so bare as his hand, a great ring of iron, with a long 
 
 1 Smith's method was hardly an in- is the same as that described in the 
 vention. He was probably indebted fragment of the tenth book of Polybius 
 for it to his early classical reading. It (cap. 43-47).
 
 88 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 stalk bowed like a sickle, riveted about his neck, and 
 a coat made of Ulgries hair, guarded about with a piece 
 of an undressed skin. There were many more Christian 
 slaves, and near an hnndved forgados of Turks and Moors, 
 and he, being the last, was slave of slaves to them all. 
 Among these slavish fortunes there was no great choice ; 
 for the best was so bad, a dog could hardly have lived to 
 endure, and yet, for all their j)ains and labors, no more 
 regarded than a beast." 
 
 Smith was not a man to despair in the worst of times. 
 Day by day he performed his task, took his beatings, 
 made his observations, and mused on the means of escape. 
 " All the hope he had ever to be delivered from his thraL 
 dom was only the love of Tragabigzanda." But "God 
 beyond man's expectation or imagination helpeth his ser- 
 vants, when they least think of help, as it happened to 
 him." Profiting by the opportunity of an unwitnessed 
 interview, " he beat out the Tymor's brains with his 
 threshing-bat, for they have no flails, and, seeing his es- 
 tate could be no worse than it was, clothed himself in his 
 clothes, hid his body under the straw, tilled his knaj)sack 
 with corn, shut the doors, mounted his horse, and ran 
 into the desert at all adventure, two or three days thus 
 fearfully wandering he knew not whither. And well it 
 was he met not any to ask the way, being even as taking 
 leave of this miserable world. God did direct him to 
 the great way of Castragan, as they call it, which doth 
 cross these large territories." 
 
 He got back among Christians, and indulged his ruling 
 passion by long wanderings in Russia, Poland, the Aus- 
 trian and other German states, France, and Spain. 
 " Being thus satisfied with Europe and Asia, understand- 
 smitii in ii'ig of the wars in Barbary, he went from Gibral- 
 Africa. ^^j^. ^Q Guta [Couta] and Tangier." Here he 
 acted the part of only a peaceable traveller, being disin- 
 clined to take his usual stirring part in affairs, " by reason
 
 Chap. II.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 89 
 
 of the uncertainty, and the perfidious, treacherous, bloody 
 murders, rather than war, amongst those perfidious, bar- 
 barous Moors." While his further plans were unde- 
 cided, he made a visit on board of an English man-of- 
 war in the harbor of SafFee in Morocco. Its hospitality 
 detained him into the evening, when a storm arose, which 
 made it necessary to slip the anchors and put to sea, and 
 did not cease till the ship was miles away upon the At- 
 lantic. After a short absence, enlivened by a desperate 
 engagement with two Spanish ships of war, the vessel re- 
 turned to her port, and Smith soon sailed for England.^ 
 
 1 The True Travels, Adventures, 
 and Observations of Captain John 
 Smith, Chap. I. - XX. — I presume I 
 am not the first reader "who has been 
 haunted by incredulity respecting some 
 of the adventures of Smith. How far 
 we have his own authority for state- 
 ments printed under his name, is a 
 point remaining to be ascertained. I 
 was not able to learn in England that 
 any autograph of his is in existence. 
 Of course this is not a decisive fact as 
 to his having been a writer, for almost 
 the same thing could be said of Shake- 
 speare. But hack-writers abounded in 
 London at the time. Smith was just 
 such a person as, for the salableness of 
 his narratives, would naturally fall into 
 their hands, and into the hands of their 
 masters, the booksellers. They would 
 be disposed to give large room to the 
 element of the marvellous in his stories; 
 and how strictly they would confine 
 themselves to his representations would 
 partly depend on the degree of control 
 which he could exert over them, and 
 the degree of responsibility wliich he 
 felt for the veracity of what they pub- 
 lished. That he was not himself proof 
 against a traveller's temptation to ex- 
 aggerate, is rendered but too probable 
 by the engravings which illustrate his 
 books, and which it is natural to suppose 
 must, if anything, have passed under his 
 8* 
 
 eye. Among their other remarkable 
 representations, tho.se which exhibit him 
 as taking the kings of Pamunkee and 
 Paspahagh prisoners with his own arm 
 show those monarchs as taller than him- 
 self by more than a head. He seizes 
 the giants by their long hair, which he 
 is scarcely able to reach. 
 
 The subscriptions to some of the 
 tracts, " J. S." and " John Smith writ 
 this with his own hand" (General His- 
 torie of Virginia, &c., 39, 248, et al.), 
 are no more likely to be his own cer- 
 tificate of authorship than an artifice of 
 book-making. Nor can much more credit 
 be claimed for such a statement as that 
 in which Smith, or the writer who per- 
 sonates him, says, " We spent our time 
 about the isles of the Azores, where, to 
 keep my perplexed thoughts from too 
 much meditation on ray miserable es- 
 tate, I writ this discourse, thinking to 
 have sent it to you of his Llajesty's 
 Council by some ship or other." (Ibid., 
 224.) Dedications are more trustwor- 
 thy declarations. According to the 
 Dedication (to the Earl of Pembroke) of 
 the " True Travels, Adventures, and 
 Observations of Captain John Smith," 
 it was he himself who " compiled this 
 true discourse," and " envy had taxed " 
 him " to have writ too nuieh and done 
 too little " ; and the Dedication of the 
 " General History of Virginia, New
 
 90 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 A fugitive slave was to be the founder of Virginia. 
 
 At 
 
 the time of Smith's return to his native country, the inter- 
 est excited by the recent voyage of Gosnold, and by other 
 
 England, and the Summer Isles" to 
 " the Illustrious and most noble Prin- 
 cess, the Lady Finances, Duchess of 
 Richmond and Lenox," is full to the 
 same effect. 
 
 In part the treatises brought together 
 in Smith's volumes are professed]}' ac- 
 counts of the voyages of other persons, 
 related in their own words, and inserted 
 bodily into the narrative without notice 
 of a transition. After stating, for in- 
 stance, the occasion of the voyage of 
 Amidas and Barlow, when Smith was 
 but five years old, he, or the compiler 
 who represents him, presently proceeds 
 without notice to transcribe their jour- 
 nal, " We passed by the sea-side," &c., 
 and so to the end. (Generall Ilistorie, 
 2.) The same course is pursued with 
 Grenville's voyage the year after (Ibid., 
 5), and with various others. Frequent- 
 ly at the close of a narrative is given 
 the name of its author, as, " Written 
 by Mr. lialph Lane, Governor" (Ibid., 
 9) ; " Written by Thomas Ileriot, one 
 of the Voyage" (Ibid., 12); "Written 
 by blaster John AVhite" (Ibid., 10); 
 '' Written by John Brereton " (Ibid., 
 18); "Written by James Rosier" (Ibid., 
 20), &c. The third book of the Gen- 
 erall Historic, though a narrative of pro- 
 ceedings in which Smith was a prom- 
 inent actor, and, in great part, of his 
 personal adventures, professes (Ibid., 
 41) to have been compiled by " William 
 Simons, Doctor of Divinity." The 
 fourth book (Ibid., 105) embodies the 
 " examinations " of the same person. 
 The fifth book, on the Bermudas, in- 
 corporates tlio relations of dilU'rcnt 
 writers. The sixth book relates to 
 New England, and here, appended to 
 the narrative of Smith's own observa- 
 tions and transactions, is an abstract 
 (Ibid., 231 et .sew.) from the journals of 
 
 Bradford and Winslow, as published in 
 London in 1622, in ]\Iourt's Relation. 
 The progress of things in New England 
 is recorded (Ibid., 247) in a brief sketch 
 down to the year 1624. And a later 
 work, " Advertizements for the Unex- 
 perienced Planters of New England," 
 continues the narrative to 1630, the 
 year of the emigration, under Win- 
 throp, of " a great company of people 
 of good rank, zeal, means, and quality." 
 A comparison of Smith's narrative 
 with the authentic history of the South- 
 east of Europe leads to conclusions on the 
 whole favorable to its credit. The route 
 from Capo d' Istria on the Adriatic, by 
 " Lubbiano" (Laybach) and " Grates" 
 (Gratz), to Vienna, is correctly de- 
 scribed. (True Travels, &c., Chap. III.) 
 Smith enhsted in the regiment of Henry 
 Volda, Count of Meldi'i, whom he calls a 
 Transylvanian, and who was probably a 
 Wallachian. Kanisa was surrendered to 
 the Turks on the 20th of October, 1600 ; 
 and, as Smith went immediately after to 
 the army (Ibid., Chap. IV.) which was 
 engaged in the attempt to relieve " Olum- 
 pagh"(Lymbach,on the Mur),thc time of 
 the commencement of his service is ascer- 
 tained to have been early in November 
 of that year. The time of the siege and 
 battle of" Stowlle-Wescnburg " (Stuhl- 
 "Weissenburg) Avas from September 9 to 
 October 15,1601. Smith's description of 
 them (Ibid., Chap. V.) is entirely accord- 
 ant with history. The author says that 
 the Earl of "Rosworme" (Ilussworm) 
 found " means to surprise the Segeth and 
 suburb of the city." Now the key of the 
 j)osition was an island under the town, 
 on which one of its suburbs was built ; 
 and szif/rf is the Hungarian word for 
 island, a fact wliich Smith, hearing in 
 the camp about the importance of szi- 
 get, did not know. Here is a strong
 
 Chap. II.] EAllLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 91 
 
 causes, was taking form in the application for „. 
 
 "-" ^ _ *■ ^ His coiinec- 
 
 the patent of the Council for Virginia, and in the »''^" with 
 
 „ , . , . . 1 ■ 1 ^'^® London 
 
 arrangements lor American colonization which company. 
 
 indication that the narrator was an eye- 
 witness, ignorant of the Hungarian lan- 
 guage. 
 
 " Duke Mercury " is Philip Emanuel 
 of Lorraine, Due de Mercceur, who 
 figures in French history in the time of 
 Henry the Fourth (Sully, Memoires, 
 LIv. XL, Xn.). After the raising of 
 the siege of Kanisa, November 18, 1601, 
 a perplexity occurs in the narrative. 
 Smith, enlisted in the regiment of Mel- 
 dri, is in the service of the Emperor 
 Rudolph, king of Hungary, in a war 
 against the Turks. But suddenly he 
 re-appears as a soldier of Prince Sigis- 
 mund Bathory of Transylvania, the 
 enemy of the Emperor, and the ally of 
 Turks and Tartars. Smith says (Ibid., 
 Chap. VI.) that Meldri was sent with 
 his regiment to Transylvania, to re- 
 inforce the imperial general, George 
 " Busca" (Basta) ; but the Count, being 
 a Transylvanian (Ibid., Cap. VII.), per- 
 suaded his troops to "assist the Prince" 
 (Sigismund Bathory, the Emperor's 
 enemy) " against the Turks " (with 
 whom he was at peace), " rather than 
 Busca" (the imperial general, Basta) 
 " against the Prince." The truth is, 
 that ]\Ieldri went over with his merce- 
 naries from the Emperor to the Prince, 
 and was made his Quartermaster-Gen- 
 eral ; and, while in fact the Count was 
 in the service of the ally and tool of 
 the Turks against the Emperor, either 
 Smith or his editor appears to wish to 
 have it appear that he continued to 
 fight the Turks, unless we prefer to 
 tliink that Smith's editor merely blun- 
 dered, from ignorance of the relations 
 of the subject. 
 
 The Transylvanian names which oc- 
 cur in the narrative cannot be so well 
 identified as the Hungarian. By the 
 land of Zarkam, " where there were 
 
 some Turks, some Tartars, but most 
 bandittoes, renegadoes, and such hke," 
 (Ibid.,) is probably to be understood the 
 Zeckler-land, one of the three divisions 
 of Transylvania, the Magyar-land and 
 the Sachsenland being the others. Of 
 the names of the three champions killed 
 by Smith (Ibid.), only the first is Turk- 
 ish. The other two sound as if Walla- 
 chian. 
 
 The subsequent events, the submis- 
 sion of Prince Sigismund to the Em- 
 peror, and the overthrow of INIoj-ses 
 Tzekely, are correctly related (Ibid., 
 Chap. VIII.) , and it is highly probable 
 that (Ibid., Chap. X.) Basta sent the 
 treacherous regiment against the Wai- 
 lachians beyond the Carpathian range, 
 to take their chance of being cut up or 
 of conquering the country. 
 
 Some chronological statements raise 
 a doubt. Count Meldri went to Tran- 
 sylvania In November, 1601. Prince 
 Sigismund concluded the armistice with 
 Basta, the Emperor's general, i\Iarch 1, 
 1602. Thus Smith's narrative com- 
 presses the siege of Regal and the ad- 
 ventures in Zarkam into three or four 
 winter months, at a period when win- 
 ter campaigns were rarely undertaken. 
 Perhaps, however, instead of the date 
 of SIgismund's armistice, we should 
 assume that of his fonnal abdication, 
 which did not take place till the 1st 
 of July, down to which time Tzekely, 
 and Meldri under him, might have been 
 making war against the loyalists, not- 
 withstanding the truce. 
 
 There is a similar scant allowance of 
 time for Smith's captivity and wander- 
 ings. The battle at " Rottenton" (Ro- 
 then Thurm), where, south of Herman- 
 stadt, the capital of the Saxon-land, is 
 the pass into Wallachia, took place No- 
 vember 18, 1C02. In that action Smith
 
 92 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 were presently made by the London and the Plymouth 
 Companies. Smith, then twenty-seven years old, sailed 
 
 1(300. with the first squadron despatched by the Lon- 
 Dec. 19. (.|q^ Company, in whose service his genius and 
 heroism won for him a name eminent in the catalogue of 
 the founders and benefactors of states. His history for 
 the next three years is the history of the establishment of 
 the Ancient Do7ninion. 
 
 AVhen he came again to America, it was to a more 
 northerly latitude. Pie claims to have then 
 
 Ills voyage '' 
 
 to New Eng- " brouglit Ncw Euglaud to the subjection of the 
 kingdom of Great Dritain." ^ If this is too strong 
 
 is related to have been taken prison- 
 er. (Ibid., Chap. XI.) On the 9th of 
 December, 1C03, he was at "Lipswick" 
 (Lobkortz) with Prince Sigismund, who 
 then and there (though no longer a sov- 
 ereign) is said to have given him a pass- 
 port, and a coat of arms (to be seen in 
 Smidi's book) which quartered the lilies 
 of France. In this last period of less than 
 thirteen months, he had been sold near 
 Adrianople, and sent to Constantinople, 
 and thence by the straits of Kertsch 
 and Theodosia to a hold of the Tartars 
 on the Don. After passing some time 
 there in servitude, he had escaped, and 
 travelled through Southern Russia, ^lol- 
 davia, Transylvania, " high Hungary 
 by Filcck [which docs not lie in the 
 way], Toi'ka [Tokay], Cassovia, and 
 Unduoroway [Unter Arva], by Ulrnicht 
 [Olmiitz] in Moravia, to Prague in Bo- 
 hemia." (Ibid., Chap. XL, XII., XVII.) 
 So long a journey within the time 
 specified cannot bo called impossible. 
 But it argues marvellous despatch. 
 Many of the names can be identified, 
 both in Turkey and in the Crimea. 
 
 On the whole, the reader perhaps in- 
 clines to tlie opinion tliat John Siuitli 
 was not the sole author of his books, 
 but that they passed, for embellishment 
 at least, through the hands of sonic 
 
 craftsman, who was not perfectly pos- 
 sessed either of Smitli's own story, or of 
 the geography or public history to which 
 it related. 
 
 1 " Now to conclude the travels and 
 adventures of Captain Smith, how first 
 he planted Virginia, and was set ashore 
 Avith about an hundred men in the wild 
 woods ; how he was taken prisoner by 
 the savages, by the king of Pamaunke 
 tied to a tree to be shot to death, led up 
 and down their country to be shewed 
 for a wonder ; fatted, as he thought, 
 for a sacrifice for their Idol, before 
 whom they conjured him three days 
 with strange dances and invocations, 
 then brought him before their Emperor 
 Powhatan, that commanded him to be 
 slain ; how his daughter Pocahontas 
 saved his life, returned him to James- 
 town, relieved him and his famished 
 company, which was but eight and 
 thirty to possess those large dominions; 
 how he discovered all the several na- 
 tions upon the rivers falling into the 
 Bay of Cliisapeacke ; stung near to 
 death with a most poisoned tail of a 
 fish called stingray; how Powhatan out 
 of his country took the kings of Pa- 
 maunke and Paspahagh ])riso)iers, forced 
 thirty-nine of those kings to pay him 
 contribution, subjected all the savages;
 
 Chap. II.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 93 
 
 a statement of the success of his endeavors to that end, 
 at all events they were of extreme importance. While his 
 ambition contemplated no less than the ultimate founding 
 of a colony, the object of the partners with whom he had 
 engaged for a voyage, after the relinquishment of his con- 
 nection with the London patentees, was, he says, "to take 
 whales, and also to make trials of a mine of gold and 
 copper." In the last resort, a freight of fish and furs 
 was relied upon to defray the expenses of the 
 undertaking. Sailing with two ships from the March 3. 
 Downs, he made the land at Monhegan, an Apriiso. 
 island lying twenty miles southwest from the mouth of 
 the Penobscot, and already a rendezvous for fishermen. 
 Not meeting with success in the search for whales. Smith, 
 with eight men in a small boat, left the ships and the 
 rest of the party to be employed in fishing, while he 
 ranged the neighboring coast to the southwest in quest 
 of furs. He availed himself of the opportunity to " draw 
 a map from point to point, isle to isle, and harbor to har- 
 bor, with the soundings, sands, rocks, and landmarks " ; ^ 
 and he was the first to give to the country the name of 
 New England^ in the place of North Virginia^ by which 
 name it had hitherto been known. While he was absent 
 on this survey. Hunt, the master of one of the vessels, 
 kidnapped a number of the savages, whom he carried to 
 Spain and sold as slaves.^ 
 
 liow Smith was blown up with gunpow- his men drowned, when God, to whom 
 der, and returned for England to be be all honor and praise, brought him 
 cured ; also how he brought our new Eng- safe on shore to all their admirations that 
 land to the subjection of the kingdom escaped ; you may read at large in his 
 of Great Britain ; his fights with the Pi- general history of Virginia, the Sum- 
 rates, left alone amongst a many French mer lies, and New England." (True 
 men of War, and his ship ran from Travels, &c., 58.) 
 him ; his sea-fights for the French against ^ Generall Historic, 207. 
 the Spaniards ; their bad usage of him ; ^ " One Thomas Hunt, the master of 
 how in France in a little boat he escaped this ship (when I was gone), thinking 
 them; Avas adrift all such a stormy night to prevent that intent I had to make 
 at sea by himself, when thirteen French there a plantation, thereby to keep this 
 ships were split, or driven on shore by abounding country still in obscurity, 
 the He of llee, the general and most of that only he and some few uierchanta
 
 94 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 On his return to England, Smith was permitted to pre- 
 iiis later Sent a copy of his map and of a journal of his 
 enterprises, yoyage to the Iviug's second son, afterwards King 
 Charles the First, who, at his solicitation, gave names, 
 principally of English towns, to some thirty points upon 
 the coast.^ The map was published, with the names 
 attached. Only those of Plymouth, Charles River, and 
 Cape Ann have permanently adhered to the objects they 
 were thus selected to designate. The names of Boston, 
 Hull, Cambridge, and some others, were subsequently 
 adopted, but in connection with different localities from 
 those to which Prince Charles had affixed them. 
 
 Arriving at Plymouth, Smith was immediately ap- 
 proached by Gorges, who engaged him in the 
 service of the Plymouth Company. To this ser- 
 vice, though solicited again by the London Company, he 
 adhered, on the plea that he was pledged ; a considera- 
 tion which was probably enforced by his sense of the ill- 
 treatment he had received from the latter body in respect 
 to his proceedings in Virginia, though he generously or 
 prudently abstained from crimination.- 
 
 " Much labor," he says, " I had taken to bring the 
 Londoners and them to join together, because the Lon- 
 doners have most money, and the Western men are most 
 proper for fishing; yet by no means I could pre- 
 
 morc might enjoy -wholly the benefit of roducod scale, of that published by 
 
 the trade and profit of this country, be- Smith in the first edition of his De- 
 
 trayed four and twenty of those poor scription of New England (161C). 
 
 savages aboard his ship, and most dis- 2 u j f^^^ g^\\\ j^^y refusal incurred 
 
 honestly and inhumanly, for their kind some of their displeasures, whose love 
 
 usage of me and all our men, carried and favor I exceedingly desired 
 
 them with him to Maligo, and there for It is their error, not my fault, that occa- 
 a little private gain sold those silly sav- sions their dislike, for, having engaged 
 ages for rials of eight." (Generall His- myself in this business in the West 
 torie, 205.) According to Mourt's Country, I had been very dishonest to 
 Relation (SS), Hunt's captives were have broken my promise, nor will I 
 twenty from IMyinouth and seven from spend more time in diseovc^ry or fish- 
 Cape Cf)d. ing, till I may go with a company for a 
 1 (lenerall llistorie, 205. The a<'- plantation. For I know my grounds." 
 coiJipanyirig m.ip is a fac-similo, on a (Ibid., 20f!.)
 
 N£WENC 
 
 ^jJU molt rtjaar^ucai'lt varti ti 
 
 
 C^jCktp: are thclMltZ ihttjhtof tfer TaUiliii ^iiff: 
 
 I 
 

 
 1^ -■■^■^ I , 
 
 \\'(TPK 
 
 ^!- 
 
 En-glarLi, 9 4 
 
 -ZTiA^^7-ap7t.aa^3y Z.S.Srt2/£f^rcL .
 
 Chap. II.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 95 
 
 vail, SO desirous they were both to be lords of this fish- 
 ing."^ The Plymouth Company remained embarrassed 
 and discouraged by the ill-success of their undertaking 
 seven years before ; and it was not without " a labyrinth 
 of trouble " that he was enabled to set sail again jgis. 
 for New England with two ships, the one of two ^^"''''• 
 hundred, the other of fifty tons' burden. They had not 
 proceeded far to sea, before they were separated in a 
 storm. Captain Dermer, in the smaller vessel, proceeded 
 on his voyage, but with too little force to accomplish 
 anything beyond obtaining a freight, which he 
 brought to England within a few months. 
 Smith's ship was dismasted, and, returning into port, 
 was pronounced unseaworthy. Never disheartened, he 
 set sail again with thirty men in a bark of sixty tons, 
 but was taken by a French squadron, and after a long 
 cruise, in which he was made serviceable by his captors 
 in engagements with Spaniards, was. set free with empty 
 pockets at Rochelle. 
 
 After a series of other adventures and exploits, such as 
 trod in each other's steps from first to last of his strange 
 career, he made his way back to Plymouth, and 
 
 . . 1G17. 
 
 prepared once more to set sail with three vessels. 
 But adverse winds kept him in port, till other obsta- 
 cles occurred, and the expedition never put to sea. Pie 
 travelled about the South and West of England, distrib- 
 uting books and maps,- and endeavoring to awaken an 
 
 1 General! Historie, 221. me no more good than so much waste 
 
 2 Ibid., 220. " I caused two or three paper, though they cost me more. It 
 thousand of them to be printed, one may be it was not my chance to see the 
 thousand with a great many maps both best." (Ibid., 207.) 
 
 of Virginia and New England." — I have not made diligent search 
 
 " The coast [of New England] is yet for maps delineating the New-England 
 
 still [1624] but even as a coast un- coast, of an earlier date than that of 
 
 known and undiscovered. I have had Smith's visit to it in IG 14. Maps which 
 
 six or seven several plots of those north- I have seen are of the years indicated 
 
 ern parts, so unlike each to other, or as follows : — 
 resemblance of the country, as they did 1500. A copy of the map of John
 
 96 
 
 mSTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book L 
 
 interest in his darling enterprise. "A great many maps" 
 he " presented to thirty of the chief companies in Lon- 
 don at their halls." But " all availed no more than to 
 
 de la Cosa of this year was published 
 by Humboldt (Examen Critique, Tome 
 V.) from the original in the collection 
 of the late Baron Walckcnaer. It is a 
 delineation of the eastern coast of the 
 American continent, and exhibits not 
 ill the cliief features of the West-India 
 Islands and the Spanish Main. An 
 incorrect representation of a country 
 northwest of the Azores bears the name 
 Mar Discuhicrto por Ynglei^cs. Such as 
 it is, it denotes New England. It must 
 have been derived from some draft, or 
 perhaps only some description, of the 
 discoveries of the Cabots. 
 
 1520. The American Antiquarian 
 Society has Peter Apian's ]\Iap of the 
 World bearing this date, and professing 
 to be made after the representation of 
 the cosmogra])her Ptolemy, and the ex- 
 plorations of Americus Ycspucius and 
 others. The equator and the parallels 
 of southern, as well as of northern lati- 
 tude, are represented by large curves, 
 convex towards the south. North and 
 South America are divided from each 
 other by a strait, and North America is 
 represented as not a tenth part as large 
 as Africa. This map, which was pub- 
 lished by Gamers (the Italian Vellini) 
 in his edition of Solinus, is that in which 
 the name America is seen for the first 
 time. (Le Visconte de Santarem, Ilc- 
 cherches sur Amdric Vespuce et ses 
 Voyages, 109.) 
 
 1529. The Spanish map of Diego 
 Ribero, published at Weimar in 1795. 
 It exhibits the eastern coast of America, 
 from Labrador to Cape Horn, with the 
 portion of the western coast extending 
 ten degrees on each side of the equator. 
 I am indebted for a sight of it to Dr. 
 Kohl. As to New England and the 
 parts adjacent, which it calls the Land 
 of Stephen Gomez, it records the obser- 
 
 vations of that navigator (see above, p. 
 C5). Its Cape of Marty Islands is prob- 
 ably Cape Cod. The best part of its 
 delineation in this region is the part 
 between that cape and Hudson River. 
 
 1554. Francisco Lopez de Gomara's 
 " Historia General de las Indias " (Ant- 
 werp, 16mo) contains a rude chart of 
 both coasts of South America, and of 
 the eastern coast of North America. 
 It is on a small scale, and inaccurate ; 
 tolerably good as to South America, of 
 no value for New England. 
 
 15G0. A map of the world published 
 at Venice, in which the outlines of 
 North and South America are well 
 drawn. America, Europe, and Africa 
 occupy the centre of the sheet ; about 
 three quarters of Asia being rejiresented 
 on the right side, and one quarter on 
 the left. 
 
 15CG. A Venetian map of North 
 America, of inferior correctness and 
 execution. The two maps last men- 
 tioned are in the Brilit^h Museum. 
 
 1675. The map of the New World, 
 published by Ortellus in this year, and 
 repeated in the later editions of his 
 book, exhibits no indications of im- 
 proved knowledge as to New England. 
 
 1577-80. The Dutch map of J. 
 Ilondius was compiled to illustrate 
 Drake's voyage in these years, and 
 C^avcndish's voyage in 1586 - 88. The 
 Ilakluyt Society republished it in 1854 
 with their edition of Drake's " World 
 Encompassed." The purpose of the 
 map did not direct attention to the 
 delineation of North America, and no 
 pains were bestowed upon it. 
 
 1582. Ilakluyt's " Divers Voyages" 
 contains two maps ; one engraved from 
 " the fonne of a ]\Iappe sent 1527 from 
 Sivill in Spain to Dr. Ley," ambassador 
 from Henry the Eighth to the Spanish
 
 Chap. II.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXTLORATIONS. 
 
 97 
 
 hew rocks with oyster-shells."^ The suspense attending 
 the fruitless solicitation, he says, " was to me a greater 
 toil and torment, than to have been in New England 
 about my business with bread and water, and what I 
 could get there by my labor ; but in conclusion, seeing 
 nothing would be effected, I was contented as well with 
 this loss of time and charge as all the rest."^ 
 
 court. It has in the northwestern cor- 
 ner an outline of a coast, drawn by 
 mere guess, with the note, " Terra ha3C 
 ab Anglis primum fuit inventa." The 
 other, dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney 
 by Michael Lok, of London, was partly 
 made up from "an old excellent mappe" 
 given by Verazzano to Henry the 
 Eighth, and in the year of Hakluyt's 
 publication was "in the custody of 
 Master Locke." An island on it, called 
 Norumbetja, corresponds to New Eng- 
 land, but the resemblance is very faint. 
 
 1587. Hakluyt's edition of Peter Mar- 
 tyr's book " De Orbe Novo " (Paris) con- 
 tains a map of North and South America 
 of singular beauty and finish of execu- 
 tion, and of remarkable correctness for 
 the sraallness of the scale. There are two 
 copies of the book in the British IMu- 
 seum. The map is in the copy belong- 
 ing to the Grenville Collection. A note 
 in Mr. Grenville's handwriting is, " I 
 should not know where to find another 
 copy of the map." 
 
 1589. The edition of Hakluyt's Nav- 
 igations, &c. of this year contains a map, 
 very well executed, of the western and 
 southern coasts of the old continent, of 
 South America, of the eastern coast of 
 North America, and of the western 
 coast as far as the latitude of 50 de- 
 grees. In respect to the part compre- 
 hending what is now the United States, 
 it is less correct than some earlier de- 
 lineations. 
 
 I know of no niap,including New Eng- 
 land, published between 1589 and 1G12, 
 when L'Escarbot illustrated his History 
 VOL. I. 9 
 
 with a delineation of New France. In 
 1C13, Champlain prefixed another to his 
 " Voyages." Both are on a small scale, 
 and indicate a very rude knowledge of 
 the geography of the region. The map 
 published by Hondius, also in 1613, 
 in his edition of Mercator's Atlas, is 
 scarcely anything more than a copy of 
 that of Ortelius. Smith's map excels 
 in correctness anything of the kind of 
 earlier date. 
 
 1 Advertizements, &c., 25. 
 
 2 Generall Historic, 230. — Smith 
 finds a place for taste and sentiment, as 
 well as for love of profit, among the 
 motives with which he plies his readers. 
 " Here nature and liberty affords us that 
 freely which in England we want, or it 
 costeth us dearly. What pleasure can 
 be more than, being tired with any 
 occasion ashore, in the planting vines, 
 fruits, or herbs, in contriving their own 
 grounds to the pleasure of their own 
 minds, their fields, gardens, orchards, 
 buildings, ships, and other works, &c., 
 to recreate themselves before their own 
 doors in their own boats upon the sea? 
 
 "What sport doth yield a more 
 
 pleasing content than angling with a 
 hook, and crossing the sweet air from 
 isle to isle, over the silent streams of a 
 calm sea, wherein the most curious may 
 find profit, pleasure, and content?" 
 (Ibid., 219.) — In the State Paper Of- 
 fice ("America and West Indies," 441) 
 is a MS. copy of a lettei-, of twelve pages, 
 from John Smith to Lord Bacon, which 
 has not been published, so far as I know. 
 According to a memorandum upon it,
 
 1631. 
 June 31. 
 
 98 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book L 
 
 Several years more passed before his death ; but it does 
 not appear that his designs respecting New Eng- 
 land were ever renewed, though his later publi- 
 cations, after he learned that " some hundreds of Brown- 
 ists" had gone "to New Plymouth, whose humorous 
 ignorances caused them for more than a year to endure 
 a wonderful deal of misery, with an infinite patience,"^ 
 show his affection to it to haA'e been still alive. Smith 
 valued himself on being " not so simple to think that 
 ever any other motive than wealth will ever erect there 
 a commonwealth, or draw company from their ease and 
 humors at home, to stay in New England."^ In this case, 
 more simplicity proved to be superior wisdom. No trading 
 adventurers were so capable and resolute as to be able to 
 plant that soil. 
 
 " Under color of fishing and trade," the indefatigable 
 Gorges sent out Richard Vines with a party, to make 
 observations on the country, and cultivate acquaintance 
 with the natives, while the ship's company should be 
 engaged in collecting a cargo. Vines remained 
 saco. with his companions at a camp on the river Saco, 
 
 through a winter.^ One important piece of in- 
 telligence was . the fruit of his expedition. A great part 
 of New England was almost depopulated by war and 
 
 it was " written in 1618." Annexed to it to the utmost of their power with their 
 it, in double coUimns, is the list of In- purses. And I shall be ready to spend 
 dian and Enfjlish names of places in both life and goods for the honor of my 
 New England, which had been printed country and your Lordship's service, 
 in the " Description of New England." with which resolution I do in all luimil- 
 It sets forth the flattering prospects of ity rest, at your Honor's service," &c. 
 that country, and solicits Lord Bacon's ^ True Travels, &c., 46. 
 approval. " Truth is more than wealth, 2 Generall Historic, &c., 219. 
 and industrious subjects are more avail- ■^ I suppose the first winter of Yines's 
 able to a king than gold." " Had I but residence in Maine to have been that 
 the patronage of so mature a judgment of lClG-17; yet it is singular that 
 as your Honor's, it would not only in- (Jorgcs (Bricfe Narration, Chap. X.) 
 duce those to believe what I know to i)laccs the account before that of trans- 
 be true in this matter, who will now actions of 1C14 and 1G15. (Comp. 
 hardly vouchsafe the perusal of my re- Chap. XU., XUI.) 
 lations, but also be a means to further
 
 Chap. II.] EARLY VOYAGES AND EXPLORATIONS. 99 
 
 pestilence. " The country was in a manner left void of 
 inhabitants." It was afterwards found that the plague 
 had swept from Penobscot River to Narragansett Bay.^ 
 
 " This course," says Gorges, " I held some years to- 
 gether, but nothing to my private profit ; for what I got 
 one way I spent another ; so that I began to grow weary 
 of that business, as not for my turn till better times." ^ 
 He did not weary of it, however, but continued to watch 
 for opportunities of better promise. Rocraft, the com- 
 mander of one of his expeditions, disobeying his 
 orders, went to Virginia, where he was killed in 
 a brawl, and his vessel was shipwrecked. The voyage of 
 Dermer, Smith's former associate, who was to have joined 
 Rocraft, was scarcely more prosperous. It has an interest 
 from the fact that, returning from Virginia, whither he 
 had sailed along the coast from the Kennebec, he trav- 
 ersed part of the country not long after to be Dermer at 
 occupied by the Colony of Plymouth. He was ^'^leaT'* 
 at Nauset on Cape Cod,^ where he had an encoun- •'""^• 
 ter with the natives ; at Namasket, now Middleborough, 
 where he met the two chiefs of the Pokanoket tribe, after- 
 wards well known to the Plymouth colonists ; and at the 
 spot which he recognized as " that place from whence 
 Squanto, or Tisquantum, was taken away, which in 
 Captain Smith's maj) is called Plymouth," and at which 
 Dermer wished "that the first plantation might be seated. 
 
 1 What was the nature of this fright- }'ellow garment they showed me), both 
 ful epidemic has never been ascer- before they died and afterwards." It 
 tained. It has been thought to have was reasonably thought extraordinary 
 been the yellow fever ; but this opinion at the time, that none of Vines's corn- 
 is not approved by the medical science pany, living in the midst of the sick- 
 of the present time. Gookin, who ness, were attacked by it. 
 wrote in 1674, and who places the sick- 2 Briefe Narration, &c.. Chap. X. 
 ness in 1613 or 1G14, says (Mass. flist. 3 The name Cape Cod is equivocal, 
 Coll., I. 148), " I have discoursed with being used for the whole peninsula, 
 some old Indians, that were then youths, sixty miles long, as well as for the 
 who say that the bodies all over were headland in which it terminates, 
 exceeding yellow (describing it by a
 
 \ 
 
 100 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book T. 
 
 if there came to the number of fifty persons or upward."-^ 
 The expression of his hope preceded its fulfihnent by 
 only five months. Dcrmer noticed the ravages of the 
 recent pestilence. " I passed along the coast, where I 
 found some ancient plantations, not long since populous, 
 now utterly void." He was severely wounded in a skir- | 
 misli with the Indians of Martha's Vineyard, and soon 
 afterwards died in Virginia.- 
 
 1 Letter ofDermer, of June 30, 1C20, 2 Gorges, Briefe Narration, &c., 
 in Deane's Bradford, 96. Chap. XV.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A RELIGIOUS impulse accomplished what commercial 
 enterprise, commanding money and court favor, had at- 
 tempted without success. Civilized New England is the 
 child of English Puritanism. 
 
 The spirit of Puritanism was no creation of the six- 
 teenth century. It is as old as the truth and manliness 
 of England. Among the thoughtful and earnest island- 
 ers the dramatic religion of the Popes had never struck 
 so deep root as in Continental soil.^ They had been co- 
 erced into unquestioning conformity as often as the state 
 of public affairs had made it necessary for the Crown to 
 court the Church ; but the government of princes strong 
 in the goodness of their title and in the popular regard 
 had often been illustrated by manifestations of discontent 
 with the spiritual despotism which had overspread West- 
 ern Europe. 
 
 A succession of Saxon versions of the Bible, from al- 
 most the beginning of the Heptarchy to the Nor- Free spirit 
 man Conquest, attests the demand of the times for Eng'li'sr''^ 
 Scriptural knowledge ; and, in the Anglo-Saxon ^''"'■'^*'- 
 ritual of the Mass, the Gospel and the Epistle were read 
 in the vernacular tongue." Under the early princes of the 
 
 1 Hume describes England as "the and clergy in England, and between 
 
 kingdom which of all others had long the English clergy and the court of 
 
 been the most devoted to the Holy See." Rome, had sufficiently prepared the 
 
 (History, Chap. XXX., A. D. 1532.) nation for a breach with the Sovereign 
 
 But his "long" must be interpreted of Pontiif." (Chap. XXXI., A. D. 1534.) 
 
 the time which began with the Lancas- 2 Lingard, Antiquities of the Anglo- 
 
 trian dynasty. Elsewhere he says, that Saxon Church, Chap. VI. § 2. — Sharon 
 
 " the ancient and almost uninterrupted Turner, History of the Anglo-Scixons, 
 
 opposition of interest between the laity Book X. Chap. III. 
 9*
 
 102 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Norman line, the Church, as the natural ally of the people 
 against their lords, easily conciliated the popular senti- 
 ment to an acquiescence in its claims. But, on the other 
 hand, the occasional contumacy of the kings in their rela- 
 tions to the papal power laid up a lesson for the people's 
 use in later times ; while cases were not wanting in which 
 English ecclesiastics themselves, on questions of the priv- 
 ileges of their order, were found practising a doubtful 
 submission to the successor of St. Peter.-^ William the 
 Conqueror had come near to a quarrel with the Holy 
 See, when he forbade his bishops to obey its ci- 
 tation to Rome, and required spiritual causes to 
 be tried in the hundred or the county courts. With the 
 right on his side and the good wishes of his people, Henry 
 the Second appeared to have a fair prospect of ultimate 
 success in his struggle with the clergy, when he lost his 
 advantage by the murder of the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury. The progress made by the lay 
 judges, in the time of the rash but feeble Henry the 
 Third, in narrowing the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical 
 tribunals, emboldened the spirit of the people, while it 
 extended their legal securities. The barons of Edward 
 the First had no scruples as to repelling, in the 
 most positive language, the claim of supremacy 
 set up at Home in the dispute about the crown of Scot- 
 land ; ^ and his Statute of Mortmain was an efficient 
 measure of protection against priestly and monkish cu- 
 pidity. 
 
 National revolutions, religious or political, are never 
 sudden. When they appear to have been so, it is because 
 the agencies that had been preparing them have been at 
 work, where they are most powerful, beneath the surface. 
 
 1 The larger and better portion of III. 42, 328.) There were married 
 
 the flerfry liad wives in the reign of priests in England as late as the fif- 
 
 Ilenrj' the First, and this with the mon- tcenth century. (Wilkins, Concilia, 
 
 arch's approval. (Lyttelton, History of III. 277.) 
 
 the Life of King Henry the Second, 2 Rymer, Fcedera, H. 873.
 
 with eccle- 
 siastical 
 abuses. 
 
 Chap. III.] PURITANISM IN ENGLAND. 103 
 
 A mine does swifter execution than a battery, and takes 
 more time to construct. The English mind, in the first 
 three centuries after the Norman Conquest, was Discontent 
 not eminently apt for speculation of any sort ; but 
 it had had some training to practical wisdom, and 
 its constitutional love of reality and right had not been 
 broken down. The movement connected in history with 
 the name of WicklifFe had its origin in the reflections and 
 resentments of earlier times. The scandal and discontent 
 occasioned by priestly and monastic licentiousness and 
 arrogance had naturally been aggravated by the jealousy 
 felt by Englishmen of Continental interlopers. A palpa- 
 ble cause of oftence was supplied when it was known that 
 year by year immense sums were drawn from England 
 into the coffers of Italian ecclesiastics,^ The local clergy, 
 who bore a large share of the burden, themselves sympa- 
 thized in the disaflfection. The rough hand of Edward 
 the First redressed some of the existing abuses. The 
 hostility to church usurpation excited by his courageous 
 policy was strong enough to live through the distractions 
 which followed in the reign of his son. And the spirit of 
 the nation had been raised to its highest tone by the vic- 
 tories of Edward the Third in France, when 
 
 Wickliffe. 
 
 Wicklifle came forward to direct against the false 
 doctrine of the Church of Rome the indignation which 
 had been provoked by its rapacious and domineering prac- 
 tice. The circumstances and sentiments of the time se- 
 cured him a hearing. Rather, the time had educated 
 him to utter its own voice. 
 
 With all his energy and talent, WicklifFe, like Cranmer 
 in later times, was not more the leader than the follower 
 of the king, court, and people, in the movement which 
 is called by his name. He was still an obscure young 
 scholar at Oxford when the famous Statute of _ ^ 
 
 1351. 
 
 Provisors asserted for the English Church, in an 
 
 1 Matthew Paris, Historia, I. 6G6 - 668, 698 - 702.
 
 104: HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 important particular, independence of the see of Rome.^ 
 He was known only for the courage with which he had 
 conducted a local controversy with some monks, when, on 
 a demand from the Pope for an annual tribute which had 
 been promised by King John, the Lords and Commons in 
 Parliament, in the fortieth year of Edward the 
 Third, unanimously disallowed the claim, and 
 pledged to the monarch the resources of the nation " to 
 resist and withstand, to the utmost of their power." ^ A 
 tract published by Wickliffe on the question, while it 
 presently made him famous, had its influence on his sub- 
 sequent career. Like Luther afterwards, by increasing op- 
 position he was impelled to extended inquiries, and by 
 these to new discoveries and convictions. Determined by 
 political considerations, the favor of the court harmonized 
 with that good-will of the people which is sometimes won 
 by a bold assault upon social wrong ; and Wickliffe went 
 on for ten years in a course of study and of controversy, 
 w^iich brought him with each succeeding year to a wider 
 departure from the orthodox standard. He asserted the 
 sufficiency of the Scriptures as a rule of faith. He denied 
 the Pope's supremacy, the real presence in the eucharist, 
 the validity of absolution and indulgences, and the merit 
 of penance and monastic vows. He protested against 
 the ecclesiastical ceremonies, festival days, prayers to 
 saints, and auricular confession. Finally, he denounced 
 the canonical distinction between priests and bishops, and 
 the use of set forms of prayer. 
 
 WicklifFe had found an effectual security in the friend- 
 ship of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, who, in his 
 father's declining years, had administered the kingdom. 
 "With the fall of that prince from power at the accession 
 of his young nephew, the Reformer was thrown more 
 upon the protection of the people, the native clergy, and 
 the Parliament ; a defence which did not fail him, though 
 
 1 Parliamentary History of England, I. 118. » Ibid., 130.
 
 Chap. Ill] PURITANISM IN ENGLAND. 105 
 
 his occasional timidity gave painful indications that he 
 did not properly confide in its steadiness. The House of 
 Commons, by a large majority, threw out a bill 
 to suppress his translation of the Bible.^ The 
 University of Oxford sustained him in his refusal to ap- 
 pear before the primate to answer to a charge of heresy. 
 A bill which had passed the Lords, requiring sheriffs to 
 execute process issued by the bishops against heretics, 
 was lost in the Lower House. And a yet more signifi- 
 cant step was taken, when, unwillingly yielding to a pe- 
 tition from the Commons, King Richard revoked the 
 licenses which, on the failure of the proposed law, he 
 had granted to the bishops for the same purpose. 
 
 Meanwhile, Wickliffe's numerous writings, many of 
 them in the English tongue, circulated everywhere, and 
 were read with avidity by all sorts of people.^ There was 
 no doubt of the tendency of opinion in England towards 
 religious reform. Nor was its leader even now without 
 support from the most exalted personages. Among his 
 friends, if not thoroughly his disciples, were the queen, 
 and the king's mother, widow of the Black Prince. The 
 recent Great Schism in the Church, occasioned by the dis- 
 puted papal election, had already been not without effect 
 in weakening the Church's hold on the reverence of the 
 faithful. There had begun to be an English literature, 
 and it was on WicklifFe's side. Piers Ploughman's 
 Vision, Tale, and Crede are full of satire on the super- 
 
 1 " The whole Bible was long before 2 " As a writer of those times tells 
 
 his [WickliS'e's] days by virtuous and us, when you met two persons upon 
 
 well learned men translated into the the road, you might be sure that one of 
 
 English tongue, and by good and godly them was a Lollard." (Gilpin, Life of 
 
 people with devotion and soberness well John WickhfTe, p. 54.) The ifs of his- 
 
 and reverently read." (Sir Thomas tory are insoluble; but it seems as if, 
 
 More, Dialogues concerning Heresyes, had the hfe of Edward the Third been 
 
 &c.. Book III. Chap. IV.) Some Eng- prolonged, or had his eldest son sur- 
 
 lish versions of the Psalms made before vived to come to the throne, the Eng- 
 
 Wickliffe's time are still preserved in lish Reformation might have had an 
 
 manuscript. (WicklifFe's Bible, edit, earlier date, and have proceeded mora 
 
 Oxford, 1850, Preface, iii. - vi.) wisely and more radically.
 
 106 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book T. 
 
 stitions of the Church and the lives of the clergy.^ Chau- 
 cer, courtier as he was, is believed to have been Wick- 
 liffe's personal friend. Nothing could have better served 
 the Reformer's purpose than that free dealing of the poet 
 with the Church, the clergy, and the friars, which at the 
 same time indicated and influenced the direction of the 
 cultivated intelligence of England." 
 
 Through many dangers and some shifts, Wickliffe 
 reached the peaceful end of a life of sixty years. 
 
 1384. •' •' 
 
 The chord which he had not struck alone, but 
 only with an eminently cunning hand, did not cease to 
 vibrate when his touch was withdrawn. It was nine 
 
 years after his death when the Statute of Prcemu- 
 
 1393. 
 
 nire prohibited under heavy penalties the bring- 
 ing of papal bulls into the kingdom for the translation of 
 bishops and for other specified purposes. 
 
 The influence of the court took a diflerent direction. 
 Religious when the unsteady throne of an unlineal house 
 LircLlriM required to be propped by the spiritual power, 
 kings. ^j. j^-g accession, Henry the Fourth thought it 
 prudent to make proclamation that he would protect the 
 ecclesiastical unity and purity against the Lollards ; and 
 one of the first acts of his le^fislation, visitin<? her- 
 esy with severe penalties, testified the variance m 
 
 1 A passage in the Vision (vv. C217 of these sonjrs, in Latin, (pp. 27 and 
 -0203) is a sort of prophecy of the 44,) belonging to the beginning of the 
 Reformation. thiiteenth century, a song in Konnan 
 
 2 Chaucer's treatment of this subject French (p. 13 7) of a httle later period, 
 may be one feature of his imitation of and a poem (p. 323) "on the evil times 
 his masters, the Trouveres. But it of Edward IL," •written in the begin- 
 cannot the less be regarded as a re- ning of the reign of his son, may be 
 flection of a style of thought of those referred to as characteristic specimens. 
 Englishmen for whom he wrote. The Of the collection of poems attributed 
 reader who is curious to know how the to ]\Iapes, the editor says (xxi.), "They 
 poets dealt with the clergy in those are not the expressions of hostility of 
 days will do well to look also at the one man against an order of monks, 
 Latin poems of Walter IMapes of the but of the indignant patriotism of a 
 twelfth century, and at Wright's Politi- considerable portion of the English na- 
 cal Songs, j)ublished, as were Mapes's tion against the encroachments of eccle- 
 poems, by the Camden Society. Two siastical and civil tyranny."
 
 Chap. III.] PURITANISM IN ENGLAND. 107 
 
 his opinions, or in his politics, from those of his father.^ 
 In the following reign, Lord Cobham forfeited his high 
 favor at court by avowing in the royal presence his convic- 
 tion that the Pope was " the great Antichrist foretold in 
 Holy Writ," and ultimately paid the price of his heroism 
 at the stake.^ In the infancy of the " meek usurper " 
 who next succeeded, an idle vengeance was taken by 
 the burning of the great Reformer's bones. But it was 
 not without strenuous opposition from a watchful House 
 of Commons that any one of tlie three Lancastrian Henrys, 
 father, son, and grandson, studied to win ecclesiastical 
 support by encroachments on the liberties of English- 
 men. 
 
 The period of the Wars of the Hoses was too much 
 agitated with military violence and political vicissitudes 
 to permit questions of religion to retain their recent prom- 
 inence in the public view. But the Church did not fail 
 to derive advantage from a perilous juncture of affairs 
 which tempted both parties to court its favor; and the 
 crafty prince who inaugurated the new dynasty took 
 care not to hazard the displeasure of the priest on whose 
 bull he relied to heal his defective title. Meanwhile the 
 seed planted in earlier times had not perished, but shot 
 firm root in a congenial soil ; and when the self-will of 
 Henry the Eighth dictated the secession from Rome, the 
 movement was sanctified and secured by an honest re- 
 ligious sense widely diffused among his subjects. 
 
 The reformation from Popery in England would not 
 
 1 This act provided that, upon sen- Cobham as having had a principal hand 
 tence against heretics by the bishop or in giving stability to the opinions he 
 his commissary, the mayors, sheriffs, or embraced. He showed the world that 
 bailiffs should " in some high place religion was not merely calculated for a 
 burn them to death before the people." cloister, but might be introduced into 
 This was the first law for burning in fashionable life ; that it was not below 
 England. There is much doubt, how- a gentleman to run the last hazard 
 ever, whether it ever had the assent of in its defence." (Gilpin, Life of Lord 
 the Commons. Cobham, p. 153.) 
 
 2 " We cannot but consider Lord
 
 108 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 be properly described as the work of tlie king and court. 
 AVhat that rcsokite monarch mii^ht have done 
 
 The refor- 
 
 *&' 
 
 niationfrom in thc fucc of obstaclcs greater than actually 
 confronted him, it would be bootless to inquire. 
 But the principle of more considerable changes than those 
 which took place under his auspices had long been ger- 
 minating. Nothing came to the birth in the sixteenth 
 century that had not lain in embryo, in WicklifFe's time, 
 under the common heart of England.^ 
 
 When, after the convulsions which swept the house of 
 Tudor to the throne, affairs had settled into their former 
 channel, the Commons moved sooner than the king. 
 When the second monarch of that line wrote the book 
 against Luther which earned for thc sovereigns of Eng- 
 land the title of " Defender of the Faith," his immediate 
 aim was the security of his own subjects against the 
 spreading heresy to which he saw them earnestly in- 
 clined. Eight years later, when the impediments thrown 
 by Rome in the way of his divorce had prepared him for 
 a different policy, the action of Parliament in 
 
 1530. ... 
 
 passing several bills unfriendly to the clergy^ in- 
 dicated the temper on which he could rely in that quarter, 
 should he resolve to pursue his quarrel with the Pope ; 
 
 and an enactment which cut off a large source of 
 
 ]532. ^ 
 
 supply to the Papal treasury from the English 
 Church, and commanded disregard of any censures with 
 which the Pontiff might resent that measure, afforded 
 further proof of the determined spirit which had been 
 aroused. Parliament readily seconded, or anticipated, the 
 king's wishes in prohibiting appeals to Pome in 
 cases belonging to the jurisdiction of the eccle- 
 siastical courts ; in subjecting monasteries to his 
 visitation ; in providing for the appointment and 
 
 1 That important work, Froude's (Chap. \J.) thc state of religious senti- 
 
 " History of England from the Fall of ment in England before the Keforma- 
 
 Wolsey," &('., published since this chap- tion. 
 
 ter was written, luminously exhibita 2 Parliamentary History, I. 507.
 
 Chap. III.] PURITANISM IN ENGLAND. 109 
 
 institution of bishops without the Papal sanction ; ^ and 
 in other measures of similar import and of equal bold- 
 ness. The clergy generally were not behind the rest of 
 the people in zeal for these reforms. And when alle- 
 giance to Rome was sundered by the act of Parliament 
 which declared the sovereign of England to be the head 
 of her Church, the popular sympathy and approval sus- 
 tained that momentous measure. 
 
 In looking back upon these events, it is unavoidable to 
 see that, in the public sentiment which preceded, accom- 
 panied, and was stimulated by the emancipation from the 
 authority of Rome, one great element was the desire to 
 become acquainted with, and to be directed by, the sincere 
 truth of the Gospel. But it is no matter of surprise, if 
 the politicians about the throne neither strongly sympa- 
 thized with this desire, nor knew how to estimate its 
 force. For one who regarded the passing change from 
 the point of view of Cranmer, the king's most trusted 
 counsellor, the policy of that eminent prelate was not dis- 
 honest. To conciliate all sorts of men to the new order 
 of things was a reasonable and a rightful aim ; and if he 
 erred in overrating the continued influence of the Romish 
 Church on the public mind, and the consequent impor- 
 tance of obtaining favor by as large concessions to the 
 Romish doctrine and ritual as would be consistent with 
 the practical reforms accounted indispensable, the error 
 was a natural incident of the prejudices of a churchman's 
 education. At all events, relief from the control and the 
 exactions of the Papal See was substantially all that was 
 obtained, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, in the way 
 of religious reformation. 
 
 In the last years of that reign, the reformation re- 
 ceded rather than stood still ; but the severity of the laws 
 found necessary to keep it in check shows the restlessness 
 and wide diffusion of the impatience for further reform. 
 
 1 Parliamentary History, I. 524: -527. 
 VOL. I. JO
 
 110 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 A royal edict, registered by the Convocation, declared 
 the real presence in the consecrated elements, 
 
 1536. . . 
 
 and the obligation of penance, of auricular con- 
 fession, of the invocation of saints, of the use of images, 
 and of the ecclesiastical vestments and observances in 
 general. The Statute of the Six Articles con- 
 demned to forfeiture of estate, and to death by 
 burning, whosoever should deny the doctrine of transub- 
 stantiation ; and denounced imprisonment and confisca- 
 tion for the first offence, and death for the second, against 
 such as should " in word or writing speak against " the 
 celibacy of the clergy, the communion in one kind, vows 
 of chastity, private masses, or auricular confession.^ A 
 later law forbade the using or keeping, in the 
 king's dominions, of the Scriptures in Tindal's 
 recent translation, and of " all other books contrary to 
 the doctrine set forth" in a Body of Divinity published 
 by royal authority under the title of " The Erudition of a 
 Christian Man." ^ " All spiritual persons who preached or 
 taught contrary to the doctrine set forth in that book," 
 were for the first offence to be permitted to recant ; for 
 the second, they were to bear a fagot ; and for the third, 
 to be burned.^ 
 
 Nor was it left doubtful whether the brutal king meant 
 to execute his heinous threats. A gentleman named Bain- 
 ham, accused of Lutheran opinions, after being scourged 
 and put to the rack under the eye of Sir Thomas More, 
 was burned at Smithfield. Bilney, a priest, expiated the 
 same offence by the same fate. Three hurdles conveyed 
 to the place of execution each a Catholic and a Protestant, 
 the former to be hanged for adherence to the supremacy 
 
 1 Parliamentarj' History, I. 538-540. "a select number" of clergymen, act- 
 — Burnet, History of the Reformation, ing " by virtue of a commission from 
 I. 259, edit. 1(581. — Cranmer was at the king confirmed in Parliament." 
 first strongly opposed to this ferocious (Ibid., 286.) 
 
 measure. (Ibid., 205.) 3 Ibid., 322. Parliamentary History, 
 
 2 This was a fruit of the labors of I. 657.
 
 Edward ths 
 Sixth. 
 
 Chap. III.] PURITANISM IN ENGLAND. Ill 
 
 of Rome, the latter to be burned for dissent from its doc- 
 trines. The second year preceding the death of Henry, 
 Ann Askew suffered at the stake for a denial of transub- 
 stantiation. 
 
 The strong tendency of thought in England towards 
 a reformed religion, embarrassed as it was in its natural 
 progress, had still been materially developed by the events 
 of this reign. Whatever had been left undone or ad- 
 versely done, emancipation from the Papal sway had been 
 attained. The accession of Edward the Sixth 
 opened a brighter prospect. Guided by those the"reforma- 
 calculations which, under the most absolute gov- reign "r ^ 
 ernments, politicians never fail to make of the 
 direction of the popular sentiment, and assured by 
 their reliance on the devout Protestant inclinations of the 
 child in whose name they ruled, the Duke of Somerset 
 and his coadjutors proceeded confidently with a 
 different work from any in the contemplation of 
 the late monarch ; and under their better auspices the 
 reformation became too strong to be overcome by the 
 stakes and scaffolds of the one, or the corrupting state 
 caresses of the other, of the next two following reigns. 
 
 The thunder of the Sia; Articles was permitted to die 
 away. Prisoners for heresy were set at liberty, and fugi- 
 tives were allowed to return from the Continent. Church 
 images were destroyed. Preaching, which had fallen much 
 into disuse, was revived. The Bible in English was placed 
 in every church. Before the close of the new king's first 
 year, bills were passed directing the dispensa- 
 tion of both elements of the eucharist to the 
 laity, and repealing the penal laws against the 
 Lollards and the Statute of the Six Articles. 
 Soon followed the important step of providing 1553 
 for the uniformity of public worship by requiring ^p"'* 
 all ministers to use the liturgy which had been prepared 
 under the superintendence of Cranmer, the same substan-
 
 112 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 tially which guides the devotions of the Church of Eng- 
 land at the present day.^ Altars, incense, candles, and 
 holy water were condemned, as instruments of a super- 
 stitious worship. The use of the ecclesiastical habit — 
 the rochet, the cape, and the surplice — was still required. 
 The conflicts of great principles have often taken their 
 , shape from seemin":ly trivial occasions. The 
 
 Question of -•- o •/ 
 
 clerical cos- qucstiou rcspcctiug clerical costume, destined to 
 
 tume. . __. 
 
 dismember the Protestant Church of England, 
 came forward into prominent importance during this 
 reign. The advocates of uniformity in sacred habiliments 
 maintained that it contributed to the seemliness and de- 
 cency of public worship ; that unnecessary departures 
 from the practice of the Romish Church were inexpedient, 
 as giving needless displeasure to its friends ; and that only 
 a factious temper, which deserved no indulgence, could 
 oppose the will of rulers in respect to a matter so indif- 
 ferent. On the other hand, it was contended that in the 
 popular mind the clerical habit was intimately associated 
 with the idolatry of Rome ; that it was represented by 
 the priests, and believed by their dupes, to be essential 
 to the efficacy of the public prayers and ordinances ; that 
 it was part and parcel of the mischievous machinery of 
 the mass ; and that a Christian minister owed it to the 
 simplicity and godly sincerity which became his vocation 
 to abstain from all that might implicate him as a sharer 
 in such imposture. John Hooper, appointed 
 Bishop of Gloucester, resolved to decline the pro- 
 motion sooner than submit to the dishonor of clothing 
 himself in the episcopal robes. His abilities and popular- 
 ity were such that the episcopate could ill spare him. 
 The young king would have had him indulged ; but the 
 pertinacity of Cranmer and Ridley was not to be over- 
 come. They plied their impracticable brother with argu- 
 ment. They put him in gaol. At length, by alternate 
 
 1 Parliamentary History, I. 593, 591.
 
 Chap. III.] PUKITANISM IN ENGLAND. 113 
 
 severity and persuasion, lie was induced so far to abate 
 his scruples as to consent to wear the habit of his order 
 at his consecration, and once afterwards in preaching at 
 court. Thi^ done, he put it on no more. And his exam- 
 ple was presently followed with impunity by some bishops, 
 and by numbers of other clergymen. 
 
 The course of a man like Hooper, taken with such 
 deliberation, is not hastily to be set down as irrational, 
 even had it not been, as it was, pertinaciously defended 
 and followed by thousands of calm and single-hearted men 
 in his own and in later times. The association which 
 in their minds connected a dress with a principle or senti- 
 ment has become faint.-^ The vital point of honor and con- 
 science that belonged to it now attaches to other things. 
 But it is impossible correctly to judge the obligations and 
 necessities of one age by the circumstances and views of 
 another. Undoubtedly honest minds might determine 
 differently the question which was soon to divide the state 
 Church and the Non-conformists. But as certainly the 
 doctrine of the Puritans concerning the connection and 
 mutual influences between forms and opinions, so far 
 
 * A sentiment determined theircourse, sooner have received each others' swords 
 more cogent than all the learned ar- into their bosoms than have exchanged 
 gument they expended on its defence, their decorations. A national flag is a 
 A man of honor will not be bribed to few square yards of coarse bunting ; 
 display himself in a fool's cap ; — yet but associations invest it, which touch 
 why not in a fool's cap as soon as in whatever is strongest and deepest in 
 any apparel associated in his mind, and a nation's character. Its presence com- 
 in the minds of those whom he respects, mands a homage as reverential as that 
 with the shame of mummery and false- which salutes an Indian idol, and tor- 
 hood ? To these men the cape and sur- rents of blood of brave men have age- 
 plice were the livery of Rome. They after age been poured out to save it from 
 would not put on the uniform of that affront. The putting off of the surplice 
 hated power, while they were marshal- was as much the fruit and the sign of 
 ling an array of battle against its ranks, the great reality of a religious revolu^ 
 An officer, French, American, or Eng- tion, as a political revolution was be- 
 lish, would be outraged by the proposal tokened and effected when the cross of 
 to be seen In the garb of a foreign ser- St. George came down from over the 
 vice. The wearers respectively of the fortresses along fifteen degrees of the 
 white and of the tricolor cockades would North American coast. 
 10*
 
 114 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 from being fanciful or fastidious, had foundations as deep 
 as anything in moral truth or in human nature. In- 
 deed, it did but recognize that very principle of intel- 
 lectual association on which the rulers of the Church 
 had proceeded in introducing the occasion of the dis- 
 pute. 
 
 ^' On the one side in this contest were statesmen desiring 
 fet and mainly the order and quiet of the realm. On 
 tefe other side were religious men desirous that, at all 
 ti^'^ards, God might be worshipped in purity, and served 
 ^M'A'^simplicity and zeal. It is easy to understand the 
 ■^^ekities and alarms of the former class, but the per- 
 ^^^tn'ey' of their opponents is not therefore to be accounted 
 •fv^iiii^iM and perverse. It is impossible to blame them 
 teff' ^yitl^c. " If a man believes marriage to be a sacrament 
 m tFe'''^en^ePof the popes and councils, let him symbolize 
 'WWf^'thb^ ^^^'■ng of a ring ; if he believes in exorcism by 
 life '^si^liiii^g'6F the cross, let him have it impressed on his 
 '}maiit^^'^l3'fb'^ ^ih baptism ; if he believes the bread of the 
 feti(3hSftyt' fd'-b^ God, let him go down on his knees before 
 it.^ ^But-^Tf^'IteKeve nothing of the kind, and, as honest 
 men, we will not profess so to believe by act or sign any 
 liiOTe'^htifiifbyf'WOTdi?'' Theirs was no struggle against the 
 tMic)^,Vtlt''p!MM^\'he State's control over it. The State 
 ;piQ¥ied,.fc,t}ie8tis>ei)-,t0pi strong for those who truly repre- 
 ^(?ttt6il';'thd' Ghm-efe'^; Wrlk In the next century their turn 
 .9l{,ttffisi^V<f[ vSJip^^^^^ In the revolutions of thought 
 
 which!' feav-erjfoMowedf eafoh "Other, the ancient ensigns and 
 eh\yi&i's'haVfe''ivffl-ii|iill fo^'the significance which enabled 
 ItUeWotQr^UmwIfictfn'a.iat^tJ^prn contest; and now we are 
 tc'mpted' tO''''W.oiii'd«r''St el"j#Ptift'acity which in its time was 
 
 -m\ TlieratrangciaieiMiy by8i;whi!ih-T.tbE- Princess Mary succeed- 
 '^A.ce^Rlonof'fed''t^'*thfe'<hfdtt6;^A slugular mixture of 
 
 Sfft' '"^y-rAer-^PPpufel^. ^XiAAw ttep,o]tftP elements of author- 
 ity. Irrcspfe€t?vec'bff"fhd-"'q^eiti©n^'^o^cerning her legiti-
 
 Chap. III.] PURITANISM IN ENGLAND. 115 
 
 macy, which the fluctuating decisions of the tribunals had 
 rendered practically insoluble as a question of law, her 
 title was founded on the testamentary settlement of her 
 father, which settlement he had been empowered by act 
 of Parliament to make. Henry the Eighth had be- 
 queathed his kingdom as if it had been personal prop- 
 erty, but the Peers and Commons had consented that he 
 should so bequeath it ; if, on the one hand, there was an 
 amazing departure on the side of prerogative from the 
 principle of hereditary right, there was a no less striking 
 deflection from it, on the other, towards the notion of a 
 discretion vested in the Estates in respect to the succes- 
 sion of the crown. Edward had no such sanction for the 
 settlement by which, in his will, he gave the monarchy of 
 England to Lady Jane Grey. If, with the existing feelings 
 of Englishmen respecting the indefeasible character of the 
 royal dignity, the young legatee had had any chance of 
 being established on the throne, it was forfeited by the 
 extreme unpopularity of the Duke of Northumberland, 
 her champion. To add to the complications of the time, 
 the regard entertained in the Protestant circles for Ann 
 Boleyn, and now transferred to her daughter, Elizabeth, 
 prevented a concentration of the Protestant interest in sup- 
 port of Lady Jane ; for the settlement of Edward, which 
 set aside the claims of the Princess Mary, disposed in the 
 same manner of those of his younger sister, whom, had it 
 taken efiiect, it would have placed for ever out of the line 
 of succession. 
 
 Mary promised the Suflblk malecontents, who were 
 mustering for resistance, that she would " make no altera- 
 tion in religion." When her prospect brightened, 1553. 
 she still assured the Council, that, " though her ^^^' ^ 
 conscience was settled in matters of religion, yet she was 
 resolved not to compel others but by the preaching of 
 the word." Under these circumstances, there seemed no 
 course open to her Protestant subjects but to submit
 
 116 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 themselves to her government, and hope the hcst from 
 
 her indulgence and her integrity. When such hopes were 
 
 dolefully frustrated, the time of oppression was 
 
 Her harJ • _ -"^ ■•■ 
 
 treatment of not loHg cuough to admit of organizing the 
 means of redress. The disastrous failure of the 
 ill-concerted and ill-conducted insurrection in Kent helped 
 to establish the queen's authority. Some time was neces- 
 sary to discover that no mercy was to be expected at her 
 i554_ hands. Ilcr marriage soon followed her acces- 
 •'"'^' '• sion ; and when it became probable that she would 
 be childless, the hope of a better order of things, naturally 
 becoming identified with the hope of the succession of 
 Elizabeth, many years her junior, repressed the idea of 
 obtaining relief by any hazardous proceedings. An easy 
 or terrified Parliament rescinded at a single blow 
 all the laws respecting religion which had been 
 passed in the last reign.^ The history of Protestantism 
 in England under Queen Mary is the history of the suficr- 
 ings of its confessors. Nearly three hundred persons, 
 among them five bishops, were burned ; imprisonments 
 and confiscations followed one upon anotlier ; numbers of 
 dissentients sought safety in exile, and tliose who remained 
 at home were reduced to silence. Members of the Lower 
 House were fined for absenting themselves from Parlia- 
 ment, where they could not with good conscience pro- 
 mote the policy of the court, and could not with safety 
 oppose it. At length this shocking misrule, having lasted 
 ,558. more than five years, was brought to an end by 
 ^"^- '''• . Queen Mary's death. 
 
 The accession of the younger daughter of Henry the 
 Eighth revived the policy of that monarch, with 
 
 Accession of " x ^ 
 
 Queen Eiiz- somc modificatlous, due less to any difference in 
 
 the character of the new sovereign than to the 
 
 altered condition of the times. The temper of Elizabeth 
 
 was as absolute as her father's, and she had, on the most 
 
 1 Parliamentary History, I. 009, GIO.
 
 CnAP. III.] PURITANISM IN ENGLAND. 117 
 
 favorable estimate, a scarcely better sense of religious con- 
 siderations as overruling those of politics. But England 
 was no longer protected, as in Henry's time, by friendly 
 relations with the Continental powers. The most impor- 
 tant of those relations which lately subsisted had been 
 just severed by the death of the queen at once of Eng- 
 land and of Spain, and England had but herself to rely 
 upon in a critical conjuncture of affairs. The Protestant 
 interest in that country had been acquiring strength, by 
 reason both of the natural progress of the sentiment of 
 reform, and of disgust at the cruelties of the late reign. 
 And the queen's maternal parentage and early associations 
 implied influences neutralizing those influences of per- 
 sonal temperament which inclined her to the pageantry 
 and despotism of Rome. 
 
 Her long reign began with the restitution of the Prot- 
 estant order of things by a re-enactment of the laws con- 
 cerning religion which had been passed in her brother's 
 time. Presently followed the two memorable statutes de- 
 nominated the Act of Supremac}/ and the Act of Uniform' 
 it\) ; — the former requiring of ecclesiastics and 
 official laymen an oath of renunciation of the an- pre.nacy and 
 thority, Avhether temjDoral or spiritual, of any for- ^^.1^}!^"' 
 eign priest or prelate, and of recognition of the ^m' 
 sovereign's " supremacy in all causes ecclesiastical 
 and civil " ; the latter forbidding all ministers to conduct 
 public worship otherwise than according to the rubric, un- 
 der the penalty of imprisonment for life for a third oflence. 
 
 Besides those Catholics who were punished by imprison- 
 ment and forfeiture of estates, two hundred suf- ri.e queen's 
 fcred death for their religion in this reign. Still witifRmnan- 
 the queen's sympathies were to a great extent '^"'" 
 with the professors of the old faith, and her resentments 
 the strongest against those of. her subjects who desired to 
 subject it to the most thorough reform. She had an altar, 
 with tapers and a crucifix, set up in her private chapel ;
 
 118 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 she said prayers to the Virgin ; she censured a preacher 
 for denying the real presence ; and she lost no opportu- 
 nity to express her displeasure at marriages of the clergy. 
 At different places on the Continent, to which fugitives 
 from the persecution of Mary had withdrawn, particularly 
 at Frankfort on the Maine, where Cox, afterwards Bishop 
 of Ely, and John Knox, were the opposing champions, 
 there had been a vehement discussion of the questions 
 which divided such as were content with an establishment 
 of religion like that of Henry the Eighth, from others 
 who desired further reforms, and leaned to the simplicity 
 of the institutions of Calvin. The dispute was transferred 
 to England on the return of the exiles to their country 
 after the accession of Elizabeth. The Puritans, as they 
 had come to be called, resisted the impositions of the 
 rubric as to the use of the cross in baptism, of the ring 
 in marriage, of the kneeling posture at the communion, 
 and especially of the ecclesiastical vestments. The cler- 
 gymen eminent for character, ability, and learning were 
 almost unanimously opposed to these observances,^ which 
 accordingly seemed going fast into disuse, the neglect of 
 them by officiating ministers being connived at by the 
 rulers of the Church. A proposal for their formal 
 
 15G3. 
 
 abolition was lost in the Lower House of Convo- 
 cation by a majority of only one in a hundred and seven- 
 teen votes, — a majority determined by the proxies of 
 clergymen who had not heard the debate. 
 
 1 " Except Arclibishop Parker Anglican establishment is ascribed." 
 
 and Cox, Bishoj) of Ely, all the (Ilallam, Constitutional History of Eng- 
 
 most eminent churchmen, such as Jew- land, I. 188.) Even Whitgift, aftcr- 
 
 ell, Grindal, Sandys, Nowell, were in wards Archbishop of Canterbury, then 
 
 favor of leaving off the surplice, and Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at 
 
 what were called the Popish ceremo- Caniljridgc, signed the remonstrance of 
 
 nies. Whether their objections are to that University (November 2G, 1.565) 
 
 be deemed narrow and frivolous or against the use of " the old popish hab- 
 
 otherwi.se, it is inconsistent with veracity its." (Strype, Life of Archbishop Par- 
 
 to dissemble that the queen alone was ker. Appendix, No. 39 ; comp. Strype, 
 
 the cause of retaining those observances Annals of the Reformation, Vol. L 
 
 to which the great separation from the Chap. XLL-XLIV.)
 
 Chap. III.] PUEITANISM IN ENGLAND. 119 
 
 But upon this point the queen was resolute to allow no 
 diversity and no freedom. Parker, the primate, was of 
 the same mind ; — perhaps from conviction ; perhaps from 
 the petulant pertinacity so natural to churchmen in high 
 place; possibly, as has been surmised, from fear that, if 
 the reform should proceed too far, his mistress would 
 lapse into Homanism. A royal proclamation re- Prociama- 
 
 1 • r • , • , 1 o lion for con- 
 
 quired uniiormity m peremptory terms. bum- formuy. 
 moned for contumacy before the Archbishop and ^^"^" 
 Grindal, their diocesan, thirty-seven London ministers out 
 of ninet}-eight, men distinguished among their fellow^s by 
 gifts and graces, were suspended and deprived of their 
 cures. Some of them having proceeded to collect their 
 disciples for worship and the administration of 
 the ordinances at Plumber's Hall, in London, the 
 government broke up the meeting and sent fourteen or 
 fifteen persons to gaol. 
 
 The Non-conformists, however, had the good-will of not 
 a few of the most powerful and trusted courtiers. Besides 
 the prelates, most of whom scarcely disguised their re- 
 spect for a course which they could not make up their 
 minds to follow, no less considerable persons than the 
 Earl of Leicester, Sir Nicholas Bacon, and Secretary 
 Walsingham, either more or less favored their views, or 
 were disposed to treat them with indulgence; and even 
 Burleigh, whose ostensible place was by the primate's 
 side, did not hesitate to express regret for his severity. 
 So manifest was the imprudence of driving from the 
 Church a large number of its most capable servants, and 
 leaving it in the charge of ministers of doubtful fidelity 
 to the Protestant cause, that the queen and her advisers 
 shrank, for the moment, from the severe course on which 
 they had entered. The more earnesf spirits took advan- 
 tage of this hesitation and inactivity. Cartwright, Profes- 
 sor of Divinity at Cambridge, published a treatise 
 against episcopacy and the royal supremacy in
 
 120 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAISTD. [Book I. 
 
 ecclesiastical matters, maintaining presbyteiy to be the 
 original and only rightful form of church government. 
 When the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church, matured 
 ten years before, were submitted to Parliament for ratifi- 
 cation, the Puritan interest was so strong in that body, 
 that the legal obligation of clergymen to subscribe the in- 
 strument was limited to those parts of it which relate to 
 the Christian faith and sacraments, the portions treating 
 of church government and ceremonies being left without 
 that security. 
 
 The contest between Archbishop Parker and the Puri- 
 tans, growing continually more acrimonious, and opening 
 to the discontented party a wider range of inquiry and 
 speculation, was terminated before long by the death of 
 1575 that able prelate. The accession of Grindal to 
 
 May 17. ^.j-^g priuiacy, and of Sandys to the archiepiscopal 
 Archbishop see of York, both of whom proved to be men of 
 moderate temper and principles, encouraged the 
 friends of further reform ; and the danger of a Catholic 
 succession in case of the queen's death deterred the Prot- 
 estant statesmen from outraging a party to which the 
 Protestant cause might presently have to look for defence, 
 and which, counting its adherents and its well-wishers 
 together, was now probably the most numerous, as it was 
 certainly the most resolute and active, of the three parties 
 into which Englishmen were distributed.^ 
 
 At Grindal's death, the austere Whitgift was taken from 
 1583 the cloisters of Trinity College, and from a nar- 
 
 sept.23. j.Q^y and absolute rule over gownsmen, to be the 
 
 Accession of « . ^r^,-, 
 
 Archbishop first peer of England, and governor of its Church. 
 "^' '' The appointment indicated the queen's resolution 
 to keep terms with dissentients no longer. "Whitgift had 
 been formerly a friend of Cartwright, and lately a bitter 
 adversary. Nothing could have been more welcome to 
 him than the royal command to "take resolute order "^ 
 
 ^ Ilallam, Constitutional History, 116. 2 gtrypc, Life of Whitgift, 121.
 
 IS severe 
 eedinss. 
 
 Chap. III.] PURITANISM IN ENGLAND. 121 
 
 for enforcing the discipline of the Church, and the uni- 
 formity established by law. And in the week of his 
 consecration, he issued instructions to the bishops ^ 
 of his province to forbid and prevent preaching, '"■'"' 
 catechizing, and praying in any private family, in the 
 presence of persons not belonging to it, and to silence 
 all preachers and catechists who had not received orders 
 from episcopal hands, or who refused or neglected to read 
 the whole service, or to wear the prescribed clerical hab- 
 it, or to subscribe to the queen's supremacy, the Thirty- 
 Nine Articles, and the Book of Common Prayer. 
 
 The Puritans had counted the cost. The queen and 
 the new primate designed no vain threat, and in Whit- 
 gift's first year two hundred and thirty-three ministers 
 were suspended in six counties of the province of Canter- 
 bury. By the Act of Supremacy in the first year of her 
 reign, the sovereign had been authorized to appoint a 
 " Court of High Commission," with power " to visit, re- 
 form, redress, order, correct, and amend all errors, her- 
 esies, schisms, abuses, contempts, offences, and enormities 
 whatsoever." That act recognized th,e head of the State 
 as at the same time the head of the Church ; and the High 
 Commission Court was the royal tribunal for legal admin- 
 istration in ecclesiastical aff"airs, as the courts in Westmin- 
 ster Hall were for administration in matters of a civil 
 nature. Whit^ift received the queen's direction 
 
 . i . . 1584. 
 
 to put this tremendous engme of despotism into 
 active service. 
 
 Forty-four commissioners, of whom twelve were bish- 
 ops, were empowered to take cognizance of all constitution 
 offences against the Acts of Supremacy and Uni- commission 
 formity ; to make inquisition respecting heretical ^°""' 
 opinions, seditious books, contempts, conspiracies, false 
 rumors or talks, and slanderous words and sayings, for- 
 bidden by those acts ; to punish persons absenting them- 
 selves from church ; to deprive clergymen holding doc- 
 
 VOL. I. 11
 
 122 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 trines contrary to the Thirty-Nine Articles ; to examine 
 suspected persons on oath ; to amend the statutes of col- 
 leges, cathedrals, and schools ; and to exact and adminis- 
 ter tlie oath of supremacy. Clergymen suspected of Puri- 
 tanism were examined under oath by a series of questions, 
 which Burleigh characterized as " so curiously penned, so 
 full of branches and circumstances, as he thought the in- 
 quisitors of Spain used not so many questions to compre- 
 hend and to trap their preys." ^ But the prelate had the 
 queen and the law on his side, and the cautious states- 
 man's discontent effected nothing. By an " Act for the 
 Punishment of Persons obstinately refusing to 
 come to Church," it was provided that such as 
 should absent themselves for a month, or dissuade others 
 " from coming to church to hear divine service or receive 
 the communion according as the law directs, or be present 
 at any unlawful assembly, conventicle, or meeting, under 
 color or pretence of any exercise of religion," should 
 be imprisoned till they should make a prescribed decla- 
 ration of conformity, and, in default of such declaration, 
 should go into perpetual banishment, under penalty of 
 death if they were found within the realm. The law of 
 England declared England to be uninhabitable by Non- 
 conformists. 
 
 The public manifestation of Puritanism, as an element 
 
 in church politics, is properly enough considered to have 
 
 taken place when Hooper refused to be conse- 
 
 3550. , . , 1 • • 1 T Ti 
 
 crated ni the ecclesiastical vestments, in like 
 manner Non-con for mi tu takes its date from the 
 refusal of Bishop Coverdale and other eminent 
 
 churchmen to subscribe to the Liturgy and ceremonies. 
 
 Separatism followed immediately after, when several of 
 the deprived ministers, " seeing they could not 
 
 Eisoofsep- have the word freely preached, and the sacra- 
 ments administered without idolatrous gear, 
 
 1 Strj'pe, Life of Wbitglft, 157, IGO.
 
 Chap. III.] PURITANISM IN ENGLAND. 123 
 
 concluded to break off from the public churches, and 
 separate in private houses."^ 
 
 This was schism, which Puritanism and Non-conformity 
 alone were not. Four years before the appointment of 
 Whitgift's High Commission Court, the great controversy 
 of the time had assumed a new phase and made a further 
 advance. Hobert Brown, a man of honorable de- j^go. 
 scent, a clere^yman of the diocese of Norwich, ^'''"'" 
 
 ' OJ ' Brown 
 
 took to travelling about the country, declaiminsj and the 
 
 ... . ty -I Brownists. 
 
 against the discipline and ceremonies of the 
 Church, and calling upon the people to come out and be 
 separate, and not touch the unclean thing. In many 
 places, he found ready listeners. After a long struggle, 
 in the course of which, as he afterwards boasted, he had 
 " been committed to thirty-two prisons, in some of which 
 he could not see his hand at noonday,"^ he withdrew with 
 some followers to Middleburg, in Zealand, where they es- 
 tablished a cono:reffation. It was dissolved after 
 
 » ^ 1589. 
 
 a few years, and Brown returned to England, 
 where, perhaps under the influence of his relative, Lord 
 Burleigh, he conformed to the Established Church, and 
 was beneficed. He fell into irregular habits, and died at 
 an advanced age. He takes a place in history from his 
 connection with a great religious movement, which he by 
 no means originated, and which he did quite as much to 
 prejudice as to promote. From him the rigid separatists 
 from the Church of England, who advocated the inde- 
 pendence of each Christian congregation in respect to all 
 others, were nicknamed Brownists. 
 
 The temper of the Archbishop, who survived the 
 queen, was too stern, and the measures of the py,,i^j,^g„j 
 High Commission Court were too eners^etic, to ofseparat- 
 admit of opposition, except from such as were 
 prepared for ruin. A fair proportion of such persons 
 appeared. There were some capital punishments. Two 
 
 1 Strype, Life of Parker, 242. 2 Marsden, History of the Early Puritans, 141.
 
 124 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 men, named Thacker and Copping, were hanged 
 for circulating a tract written by Brown ; the 
 heroic John Udal died in prison, under sentence 
 
 1590. f T ^ r t • 
 
 of death tor a rehgious treatise indicted as a 
 libel ; ^ Barrow, a gentleman of Gray's Inn, and Green- 
 wood and Penry, ministers of London, were condemned 
 
 and executed for writino^s of the same descrip- 
 
 1592, 1593. -IT in 
 
 tion, — the last-named for an unpublished com- 
 position found among his papers. There were other in- 
 stances of capital punishment for like transgressions, 
 and many instances of long imprisonment and ruinous 
 fines. But for the most part the ecclesiastical history 
 of the last twenty years of Queen Elizabeth's reign re- 
 cords only the suppression of open manifestations of dis- 
 sent from the state Church, and the intelligent and steady 
 
 jrrowth of dissent in secret. The crisis of the 
 
 1588. 
 
 to' 
 
 Spanish war excited a universal ardor of loyalty, 
 strongest among those in whom the anti-Catholic feeling 
 was most intense, while in return it prompted all the 
 gratitude and tenderness, towards all classes of a united 
 people, of which the queen was capable. Her clemency, 
 which had at no time gone beyond connivance, passed 
 away, indeed, as soon as the worst of the danger was over ; 
 and the most cruel legislative measure of her reign against 
 Non-conformists was taken four years after the defeat of 
 the Armada. But as she grew old, and the succession of 
 a Presbyterian king was looked for, opposition and perse- 
 cution both were checked ; the former from anticipation 
 of a peaceable relief from existing grievances, the latter 
 from a salutary fear, on the part of courtiers, of the retal- 
 iation which it might provoke.^ 
 
 ' " A Domonstration of tlic Disci- Cross Stroot, London, I fell upon a 
 
 j)line wliich Christ hath proscribed in curious collection, in tliree manuscript 
 
 Lis Woi'd for IIk; Government of the volumes, of old letters and various otlier 
 
 Church in all Times and Places untill pieces. Among them arc two papers 
 
 the World's End." entitled, respectively, "Lamentable Es- 
 
 2 hi Dr. AVilllams's Library, in lied- tale of the Ministers in StafFordshire,"
 
 Chap. III.] 
 
 PURITANISM IN ENGLAND. 
 
 125 
 
 In the progress through the House of Commons of the 
 act " for reclucmg disloyal subjects to their ohe- ^^^ 
 dience," Sir Walter Raleigh had said, "I am 
 afraid there is near twenty thousand Brownists in Eng- 
 
 and " View of the State of the Churches 
 in Cornwall." The former is without 
 date, but I believe there can be no 
 hesitation about referring it to the latter 
 half of the reign of Elizabeth. It con- 
 sists of a full list of Staffordshire par- 
 ishes, with the names and ch'aracters 
 of their ministers attached. It closes 
 with this summary : " So that there 
 be 118 congregations which have no 
 preacher, neither have had (for the 
 most) now more than forty years; 
 there be 18 congregations served by 
 laymen, by scandalous, 40." " Lewd," 
 " a bad liver," " of scandalous life," 
 "very ignorant," "drunkard," " a com- 
 mon drunkard," " a grievous swearer," 
 " of a loose life," " a mere worldling," 
 " a gamester," are entries continually 
 occurring against the clerical names. 
 One minister is " a weaver," having 
 been "a gentleman's .household servant 
 many years " ; one is " very famous for 
 his skill in gaming, and especially in 
 bowling." The Cornwall record, which 
 bears the date of 158G, has such descrip- 
 tions of the clergymen named in it as 
 these : " a man careless of his calling," 
 " a very lewd man," " a dicer," " a very 
 lewd fellow," " a pot-companion," " a 
 good dicer and carder both night and 
 day," " a common alehouse-haunter and 
 gamester," " his conversation is most in 
 hounds," " he was lately a serving-man." 
 One is qualified as " a common dicer 
 and burned in the hand for felony, and 
 full of all iniquity " ; one is " the best 
 wrestler in Cornwall"; another, "a very 
 bad man." Very few are favorably 
 represented. The document does not 
 furnish the means of ascertaining its 
 history. But the particularity of its 
 statements, in their appropriate columns, 
 11* 
 
 of the population of the places specified, 
 the value of the cures, the names of 
 patrons, &c., indicate that it was made 
 by intelligent and responsible persons. 
 There is also a petition of the same 
 period from the people of Cornwall to 
 the Parliament " gathered together by 
 the Queen's Majesty's appointment to 
 look to the wants, to behold the miseries, 
 the ruins, decays, and dissolutions of the 
 Church of God and Commonwealth of 
 the Realm of England." The petition- 
 ers say : " We have about eight score 
 churches, the greatest part of which 
 places is supplied by men who, through 
 their ignorance and negligence, are 
 guilty of the sin of sins, of the sin of 
 soul-murder Some ai'e forni- 
 cators, some adulterers, some felons, 
 bearing the marks in their hands for the 
 
 same offence, some drunkards, 
 
 some quarrellers, some spotted with 
 whoredom, and some with more loathe 
 some and abominable crimes than these." 
 Such representations confii'm the 
 complaints Avhich reach us from that 
 time, through various channels, of the 
 wretched provision Avhich remained for 
 the service of the churches, when hun- 
 dreds of exemplary clergymen were 
 displaced by the Act of Uniformity. 
 I presume that they are to be connect- 
 ed with the memorials which in 1584 
 came up to the Privy Council, and in 
 158G to Parliament, from Lincoln, Kent, 
 Oxford, Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Cam- 
 bridge, and other counties, setting forth 
 the mischief done by the enforcement 
 of that act. (See Neal, History of the 
 Puritans, Chap. VII. Marsden, 90, 123, 
 157, et neq.) According to Neal (His- 
 tory of the Puritans, Chap. VII.), a 
 " survey," laid at this time before Par-
 
 12(5 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 land."^ Some of the principal Separatist ministers, with 
 companies of their followers, had withdrawn to Amster- 
 En.igration ^^m and othcr cities of the United Provinces, 
 to Holland, ^vi^ere the success of the insurrection against 
 Spain had provided an asyliun for Protestants. 
 
 The accession of James the Sixth of Scotland to the 
 
 throne of the sister kingdom was generally regarded 
 
 1503 as an event auspicious to the friends of re- 
 
 March. ligious rcform, though the Catholics too were not 
 
 Accession of o ' o 
 
 King James without agreeable expectations from the son of a 
 queen whose cause they had assiduously served 
 through such a season of storms. He had been bred in 
 the straitest sect of Calvinism and presbytery ; after com- 
 ing to man's estate, he had subscribed the Book of Disci- 
 pline of the Kirk ; in the disputations of which he was so 
 fond, he had been the ostentatious champion of the most 
 anti-prclatical dogmas of the Continental churches ; and 
 up to the mature age of thirty-six, at which he had now 
 arrived, he had given little reason to suspect the sincerity 
 of his professions of attachment to the religious settlement 
 of his native kingdom.^ But his constitutional love of 
 
 liament, rcprosontpcl that, "after twenty- tionerl are entered in the Catalogue, if 
 eight years' estabhyhment of the Church the memorandum -which I made is cor- 
 of England, there were only 2,000 rect, at page 14 (11). I am glad of an 
 preachers to serve near 10.000 parish opportunity to express my gratitude to 
 churches." The Privy Counsellors the estimable librarian, Mr. Cogan, for 
 were much disturbed, and remonstrated afibrding me every facility for the ex- 
 with the primate in a paper bearing amination of the treasures in his charge, 
 such signatures as those of Burleigh, i Townshend, Account of the Pro- 
 Warwick, Ilatton, Leicester, and Wal- ceedings of the Four Last Parliaments 
 singham. (.Stryi)e,Lifeof Whitgift,lGG.) of (Jueen Elizabeth, 7G. 
 But they wasted tlieir labor. Elizabeth 2 J,, 1^88, in a speech to the Scottish 
 and Whitgift had their minds made up. Parliament, he said that " he minded 
 " Dr. Williams's Library " was found- not to bring in Papistical or Anglicane 
 cd and endowed by Dr. Daniel Williams, bishops." In the General Assembly at 
 a Presbyterian minister, who died in Edinburgh, in 1590, he praised God 
 London in 1716. Its twenty thousand that he was "born in the time of the 
 printed volumes, and numerous valua- light of the Gospel, and in such a place 
 ble manuscripts, contain rich materials as to be king of such a Cimrch, the sin- 
 
 for the history of Non-conformity and cerest Church in the wni-ld As 
 
 Dissent. The papers which I have men- for our neighbor Ivirk of England, their
 
 Chap. IU.] PURITANISM IN ENGLANT). 127 
 
 despotic rnle, the idiocy of feeble, as it is the frenzy of 
 strong minds, was forced at once into morbid activity by 
 the sudden escape from restraints which at home had 
 vexed him from his cradle. Perhaps a congenital obliqui- 
 ty, due to the unnatural relation between his parents, 
 may be assumed to explain and palliate the portentous 
 absurdities of his character and career. It was by no 
 means owing alone to a figure and presence singularly 
 effectual to excite contempt, that, invested when he left 
 Scotland with an unbounded popularity on the part of 
 his English subjects, he is said to have lost it all before 
 he arrived at London. His impatience to play the tyrant 
 brooked not the delay which would have made his fantas- 
 tic tyranny appear less indecent.^ 
 
 In his progress to the capital, he received the Millena- 
 ry Petition, signed by more than eight hundred TheiMniena- 
 clergymen belonging to twenty-five counties. It ""y^^""""- 
 represented, that " neither as factious men affecting a 
 popular party in the Church, nor as schismatics aiming 
 at the dissolution of the state ecclesiastical, but as the 
 faithful ministers of Christ and loyal subjects to his Ma- 
 jesty, they humbly desired the redress of some abuses." 
 In respect to the Church service, they prayed for a dis- 
 continuance of the use of the cap and surplice, of the ring 
 in marriage, of the cross in baptism, of the rite of con- 
 firmation, and of the reading of the Apocryphal books ; 
 for an abridgment of the Liturgy, and a more edifying 
 
 service is an evil-said mass in English. James had " thanked God that he had 
 
 They want nothing of the mass but the settled both kirk and kingdom, and left 
 
 liftings. I charge you, my good minis- them in that estate which he intended 
 
 ters, doctors, elders, nobles, gentlemen, not to hurt or alter anyways." (Cal- 
 
 and barons, to stand to your purity, derwood, History of the Church of Scot- 
 
 and to exhort the people to do the land, 473.) 
 
 same ; and I, forsooth, as long as I l " I hear our new king hath hanged 
 
 brook my life, shall maintain the same." one man before he was tried. 'T is 
 
 The Baaik^Kov Acopov indeed, printed strangely done. Now if the wind 
 
 in ICOO, contains matter of a different bloweth thus, why may not a man be 
 
 tenor. But it was little known ; and, tried before he has offended ? " (Har- 
 
 on leaving Edinburgh for England, rington, Nugae Antiquae, I. 180.)
 
 128 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Style of sacred music ; for a stricter observance of the 
 Lord's day ; and for dispensation from the observance of 
 other holidays, and from the rule to bow at the name of 
 Jesus. They asked that none but able men should be 
 admitted to the ministry, and that ministers should be 
 required to reside in their parishes and to preach on the 
 Lord's day. They entreated to be relieved from all sub- 
 scriptions except that required by law, which covered 
 only the articles relating to doctrine and to the royal su- 
 premacy. They proposed other measures of reform and 
 security, but nothing adverse to the episcopal government 
 as legally established. And they concluded by saying of 
 the matters of which they complained : " These things we ' 
 are able to show not to be agreeable to the word of God, 
 if it shall please your Majesty to hear us, or by writing 
 to be informed, or by conference among the learned to be 
 resolved." 
 
 The foolish king's first puerile elation at his great ad- 
 vancement was not over, when he published a proclama- 
 
 1Q03. tion " touching a meeting for the hearing and 
 Oct. 24. £q^. ^Yie determining things pretended to be amiss 
 in the Church." The friends of the existing ecclesiastical 
 order had lost no time in approaching and studying him, 
 and that they were installed in his confidence was made 
 evident by the terms of the proclamation. He announced 
 therein his persuasion, " that the constitution of the 
 Church of England was agreeable to God's word, and 
 near to the condition of the primitive Church " ; and he 
 " commanded all his subjects not to publish anything 
 against the state ecclesiastical, or to gather subscriptions 
 or make supplications, being resolved to make it appear 
 by their chastisement how far such a manner of proceed- 
 ing was disagreeable to him ; for he was determined to 
 preserve the ecclesiastical state in such form as he found 
 it established by law, only to reform such abuses as 
 should be apparently proved."
 
 Chap. III.] PURITANISM IN ENGLAND. 129 
 
 In the sad comedy of the conference held at the palace 
 of Hampton Court, the khig was chief actor. 
 
 \ ^ . Theconfer- 
 
 The Puritan cause was represented by four mm- ence at 
 isters, of whom the j^rincipal, Dr. Keynolds, was cm"rr°" 
 reputed to be unsurpassed in scholarship by any j^^^^'^^^'^q ^^ 
 man in England. On the other side were nine 
 bishops and eight other Church dignitaries. The re- 
 quests presented by the ministers embraced four matters : 
 " 1. That the doctrine of the Church might be preserved 
 pure, according to God's word; 2. That good pastors 
 might be planted in all churches, to preach in the same ; 
 3. That the Book of Common Prayer might be fitted to 
 more increase of piety ; 4. That Church government 
 might be sincerely ministered according to God's word." 
 The first day's conference was between the king and a 
 select i^arty of the bishops and deans. Through the last 
 two days the ministers were browbeaten by the coarse 
 annoyance of Bancroft, Bishop of London, and msulted 
 by the king with indecent jesting. 
 
 The deportment of James on this occasion struck the 
 High-Church spectators with joyful surprise. Whitgift, 
 who, now past the age of threescore and ten, had left the 
 chief management of his cause in younger hands, was 
 impelled to exclaim, " Your Majesty speaks by the special 
 assistance of God's spirit " ; and Bancroft fell upon his 
 knees and said, " I protest my heart melteth for joy, that 
 Almighty God, of his singular mercy, has given us such 
 a king as since Christ's time has not been." " No bishop, 
 no king," was the apothegm in which the monarch ex- 
 pressed at once the gratuitous fixedness of his determi- 
 nation respecting the hierarchy, which was not assailed, 
 and the nature of the argument which had satisfied his 
 mind. As to indulgence to private consciences, " I will 
 have," said he, " one doctrine, one discipline, one religion 
 in substance and ceremony; never speak more to that 
 point, how far you are bound to obey." He ended the
 
 130 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 second day's conference by telling Dr. Reynolds, " If this 
 be all your party have to say, I will make them conform, 
 or I Mill harry them out of this land, or else worse." The 
 third day manifested no improvement of his temper or his 
 manners. " I will have none of this arguing ; therefore 
 let them conform, and that quickly too, or they shall hear 
 of it; the bishops will give them some time, but if any 
 are of an obstinate and turbulent spirit, I will have them 
 enforced to conformity." ^ In a letter to a Scottish friend, 
 he boasted that he had " kept such a revel with the Puri- 
 tans these two days, as was never heard the like ; where 
 I have peppered them as soundly as ye have done the 
 Papists They fled me so from argument to ar- 
 gument, without ever answering me directly, as I was 
 forced at last to say unto them, that if any of them had 
 been in a college disputing with their scholars, if any of 
 their disciples had answered them in that sort, they would 
 have fetched him up in place of a reply ; and so should 
 the rod have plyed upon the poor boys." ^ 
 
 An edition of the Book of Common Prayer was pres- 
 ently published, containing some trifling amendments, 
 and accompanied by a proclamation in which 
 
 March 5 i. •/ i. 
 
 the king required all his subjects to conform to 
 the prescribed ritual and discipline, " as the only public 
 form established in this realm," and admonished them not 
 
 1 Barlow, Dean of Chester, printed other account of the Conference, by 
 an account of the Hampton Court Con- Harrington (Nugae Antiqua^, I. 181), 
 ference. A copy is in the Hbrary of the royal buffoon appears to even 
 Harvard College. Reynolds and his greater disadvantage than in Barlow's, 
 associates complained that it represent- " Tlie king rather used upbraid- 
 ed them unfairly. But there was much ings than argument, and told the pe- 
 discontent among the Puritan ministers titioners that they wanted to strip 
 at what they thought a timid and inef- Christ again, and bid them away with 
 
 firient defence of their cause. Some their snivelling Tlie bishops 
 
 of them, while they disputed the cor- said his ]\Iajosty spoke by the power 
 rectnessof Barlow's report, made known of inspiration. I wist not what they 
 their desire for another hearing for rea- mean ; but the spirit was rather foul- 
 sons which implied that that report was mouthed." Yet Harrington was a stout 
 not altogether unjust. But no notice anti-Puritan. 
 was taken of their proposal. In an- ^ Str}pe,Lireof Whitgift, App.!No.46.
 
 Chap. HI.] PURITANISM IN ENGLAND. 131 
 
 to expect any further alterations, inasmuch as his resolu- 
 tions were unchangeable. The proclamation was followed 
 up by the committal to prison of ten of the subscribers 
 of the Millenary Petition, and by a declaration of the 
 Council, that " thus combining in a cause against which 
 the king had showed his mislike, both by public act and 
 proclamation, was little less than treason"^ 
 
 In less than a year, the prospect had been completely 
 changed. The friends of religious reform in Eng- 
 
 >-' . Gloomy pros- 
 
 land had never seen so hopeless a time as that pectofthe 
 which so soon followed the time of their most 
 sanguine expectation. In the gloomiest periods of the 
 arbitrary sway of the two daughters of Henry the Eighth, 
 they could turn their eyes to a probable successor to the 
 throne, who would be capable of more reason or more 
 lenity. Now, nothing better for them appeared in the 
 future, than the probably long reign of a prince wrong- 
 headed and positive alike from imbecility, prejudice, 
 pique, and self-conceit, — to be succeeded by a line of 
 others, born to the inheritance of the same bad blood, 
 and educated in the same preposterous principles. It is 
 true that, as history reveals the facts to us, almost with 
 the reign of the Scottish alien that better spirit began to 
 penetrate the English Parliament which ultimately drove 
 his noxious family into perpetual exile. But, as yet, the 
 steady reaction from old abuses was but dimly apparent 
 even to the most clear-sighted and hopeful minds ; and 
 numbers of devout and brave men gave way to the con- 
 viction, that, for such as they, England was ceasing for 
 ever to be a habitable place, and were considering to what 
 part of the world they might escape to secure freedom of 
 belief and Avorship, and build up a community worthy 
 of the English name. Many passed over at once to the 
 Low Countries, while others for the present sought a 
 precarious safety in concealment, and awaited a more 
 
 1 Winwood, Memorials of Affairs of State, &c., II. 3G, 48, 49.
 
 132 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 convenient season for some more effectual measure of 
 relief 
 
 Six weeks after his great triumph at the Hampton 
 Court Conference, Whitgift died, and Bancroft, Bishop of 
 Bancroft Loudou, a mau equally arbitrary, more enterpris- 
 ^(l^tliet"^ ing by reason of his fewer years, more sycophan- 
 *""'• tic on the one hand and more offensive on the 
 
 other, succeeded to the primacy. He at once followed 
 up with unswerving rigor the advantage supplied by the 
 king's conversion. In the convocation which soon after met, 
 he procured a ratification of a Book of Canons ^ of 
 
 1C04. , ^ 
 
 his own composition. Its one hundred and forty- 
 one articles embodied the loftiest pretensions of the Estab- 
 lished Church, and submission to them was challenged 
 under penalties of deprivation for the clergy, and excom- 
 munication, imprisonment, and outlawry alike for clergy 
 and laity. The number of Non-conformist clergymen in 
 England and Wales at this time is believed to have ex- 
 ceeded fifteen hundred. For further security against the 
 spread of dissent, the importation of religious books from 
 the Continent was prohibited, and printing in England 
 was subjected to the censorship of the bishops. With 
 such extreme jealousy was Non-conformist preaching re- 
 garded, that a man made himself liable to fine and im- 
 prisonment by repeating to his family the substance of 
 sermons which he had heard at church. Numbers more 
 of recusant ministers were silenced or deprived;^ some 
 were sent to prison ; and others escaped abroad. 
 
 1 It was in these Canons that the the Churchmen in occupying the ground 
 
 divine right of episcopacy was first as- of Scriptural authority in defence of their 
 
 serted in the Enghsh Church, having pohty. 
 
 been defended hitherto on the ground 2 Neal says, " above three hundred." 
 
 of its being an orderly system, to the (History of the Puritans, II. 64. His- 
 
 institution of which the authority of the tory of New England, I. 71.) See 
 
 Church was competent. Cartwright also Calderwood, Altare Damascenum, 
 
 and other Presbyterians had anticipated Praef.
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 Among the congregations of Separatists which had 
 been formed while dissension was active in the bosom of 
 the Church, were two near the northeastern corner of 
 Nottinghamshire. One was gathered at Gainsborough, 
 just within the western border of the county of Lincohi. 
 The other held its meetings at a village named congregation 
 Scrooby,-^ in Nottinghamshire, near to the point ^^^"""^y- 
 where it touches the counties of Lincoln and York. Of 
 
 1 For the recent discovery of this 
 fact, which with its relations is so inter- 
 esting, New England history is indebted 
 to the Rev. Joseph Hunter, an assist- 
 ant keeper of Her Majesty's Records. 
 (Collections concerning the Church or 
 Congregation of Protestant Separatists 
 formed at Scrooby, &c. London, 1854.) 
 Morton (New England's Memorial, Da- 
 vis's edition, 1 7) and Mather (Magnalia 
 Christi Americana, Book I. Chap. H. 
 § 1) had told no more than that the 
 Leyden congregation came from " the 
 North of England," except that Mather 
 (Ibid., Book II. Chap. I. § 1) implies 
 that they were of Yorkshire, and says 
 that Bradford was born in " Ansterfield," 
 a place which has been sought by some 
 generations of New England antiqua- 
 ries in vain, and in fact is not known in 
 English geography. Prince (Chrono- 
 logical History, 99), quoting from Brad- 
 ford's History (afterwards lost and very 
 lately recovered), described them as 
 having " lived near the joining borders 
 of Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, and 
 Yorkshire"; and according to a state- 
 ment in a portion of Bradford's His- 
 tory, preserved in the records of the 
 
 VOL. I. 12 
 
 Plymouth church (Young, Chronicles 
 of the Pilgrim Fathers, 4G5), "they 
 ordinarily met at his [Brewster's] house 
 on the Lord's day, which was a manor 
 of the bishop's." At Scrooby, In the 
 hundred of Basset Lawe, a mile and a 
 half southeast of the market town of 
 Bawtry, Mr. Hunter finds that there 
 was at that period a manor, " an ancient 
 possession and occasional residence of 
 the Archbishop of York," and "the only 
 episcopal manor that was near the bor- 
 ders of the three counties." In the As- 
 sessment of Subsidies granted by Parlia- 
 ment In 1571, he meets with a rate of 
 " William Brewster, of the township of 
 Scrooby cum Ranskil " ; and he learns 
 that, In April, 1608, William Brewster 
 and two others, " of Scrooby, Brown- 
 ists or Separatists," were fined by the 
 Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes 
 for non-appearance to a citation. The 
 missing " Ansterfield," the birthplace of 
 Bradford, according to Mather, Mr. 
 Hunter discovers at Ansterfield, — a 
 "sdllage a mile or more northeast from 
 Bawtry, on the other side of that town, 
 — where the church books show the 
 name Bradford to have been common
 
 13-i 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 this congregation, according to the division and nomen- 
 clature of church offices which had come into use in the 
 sect, Richard Clifton was Pastor and John Robinson was 
 Teacher. William Brewster was the most considerable 
 private member. 
 
 Richard Clifton, wlio was fifty years old at the time 
 
 of the queen's death, had seventeen years before 
 been instituted to the rectory of Babworth, near 
 Scrooby. At what time he withdrew, or was ejected, from 
 his place in the Established Church, does not ap- 
 pear. Of the early history of Robinson, nothing 
 
 Clifton. 
 
 1586. 
 July 11 
 
 John Rob 
 inson. 
 
 at that period, and record tlie baptism 
 of "William Bradford, son of William, 
 as having taken place March 19, 1590. 
 The demonstration is complete. The 
 reading A?jsterfield was a mistake of 
 the copyist or of the printer. If Math- 
 er knew the true word, he had no op- 
 portunity to correct the press, as he 
 had his book printed in England. 
 
 Morton (Memorial, 1) dates the ori- 
 gin of the congregation in the last year 
 of Queen Elizabeth, the same year 
 when unconsciously Gosnold was ex- 
 ploring for them a place of retreat. 
 "In the year 1C02, divers godly Chris- 
 tians of our English nation In the North 
 of England, being studious of reforma- 
 tion, and therefore not only witnessing 
 against human inventions and additions 
 in the worship of God, but minding 
 most the positive and practical part of 
 divine institutions, they entered into 
 covenant with God and one with an- 
 other in the enjoyment of the ordi- 
 nances of God," &c. But Bradford says : 
 " After they had continued together 
 ahout a year, and kept their meetings 
 every Sabbath in one place or other, 
 
 they resolved to get over into 
 
 Holland as they could, which was in the 
 years 1G07 and 1608." In the margin 
 of Dr. Young's edition of the extract 
 from Bradford's History in tlu; Plymouth 
 church records, the date 1G02 stands 
 
 against the statement of the gathering 
 of this congregation. But the manu- 
 script has no such marginal entry. The 
 editor added it, I suppose, on the au- 
 thority of Morton. (See Young, Chron- 
 icles of the Pilgrims, 22, note ; and see 
 below, 135, note 1.) 
 
 Austerfield is a hamlet of perhaps 
 thirty brick houses, roofed with tiles. 
 At least two of them look as if they had 
 been standing in Bradford's time. The 
 church, or " chapellerie," as its " Regis- 
 ter Booke " calls it, is large enough to 
 hold only a hundred and fifty pei'sons. 
 Part of it, at least, is as old as the thir- 
 teenth century. It had no other than 
 an earthen floor till the year 1835, and 
 the oaken rail of the chancel is the 
 same before which Bradford was held 
 up to be baptized two hundred and sev- 
 enty years ago. It has two bells, and 
 is entered on one side under a Saxon 
 arch, from a porch with stone benches, 
 where it is natural for the visitor to 
 imagine the New-England governor 
 sitting when a boy, in the group of vil- 
 lagers. The nearest way from Auster- 
 field to Scrooby is by a j)atli through 
 the fields. Unnoticed in our history as 
 these places have been till within a few 
 years, it is likely that when, towards 
 sunset on the 15th of September, 1856, 
 I walked along that ])atli, I was the first 
 person related to the American Ply-
 
 1585. 
 
 Chap. IV.] THE FOUNDERS OF PLYMOUTH. 135' 
 
 is certainly known, except that lie had lived at Norwich.^ 
 Brewster — who "had attained some learning, viz. wnuam 
 the knowledge of the Latin tongue, and some J^''^"'^^"- 
 insight into the Greek, and spent some small time at 
 Cambridge, and there been fu-st seasoned with the seeds 
 of grace and virtue " — at an early age " went to the court, 
 and served that religious and godly gentleman, Mr. Davi- 
 son, divers years when he was Secretary of State, who 
 found him so discreet and faithful as he trusted him above 
 all others that were about him, and only employed him in 
 all matters of greatest trust and secrecy. He esteemed 
 him rather as a son than as a servant, and for his wisdom 
 and godliness in private he would converse with him more 
 like a familiar than a master. He attended his master 
 when he was sent in ambassage by the queen into the 
 Low Countries (in the Earl of Leicester's time), 
 as for other weighty affairs of state, so to receive 
 possession of the cautionary towns." ^ 
 
 mouth -who had done so since Bradford says Robinson in a dedication of the 
 
 trod it last before his exile. I slept in "People's Plea for the Exercise of 
 
 a farm-house at Scrooby, and reconnoi- Prophecy" (Works, III. 287) to his 
 
 tred that tillage the next morning. Its " Christian friends in Norwich and 
 
 old church is a beautiful structure. At thereabouts." When Bradford says 
 
 the distance from it of a quarter of that, " after they had continued together 
 
 a mile, the dike round the vanished about a year, they resolved to get 
 
 manor-house may still be traced, and over into Holland, which was in 
 
 a farmer's house is believed to be part the years 1607 and 1608" (see the last 
 
 of the ancient stables or dog-kennels, note), he is perhaps to be understood 
 
 In what was the garden is a mulberry- as reckoning from the time of their be- 
 
 tree, so old that generations before ing joined by Robinson, whom he had 
 
 Brewster may have regaled themselves mentioned just before. The minister 
 
 with its fruit. The local tradition de- of Scrooby and of Leyden may have 
 
 Glares it to have been planted by Car- been the John Robinson who was ma- 
 
 dinal Wolsey during his sojourn at the triculated at Christ College, Cambridge, 
 
 manor for some weeks after his fall in 1592, and became a Fellow in 1598. 
 
 from power. The property belongs to (Hunter, Collections ; comp. Mass. Hist. 
 
 Richard Milnes, Esq., of Bawtry Hall. Coll., XXXT. 113.) A Memoir of 
 
 There is a bridge over the Idle, at the him by Mr. Robert Ashton is prefixed 
 
 place of a ford by which Bradford used to the edition of his works published 
 
 to cross on his Sunday walk to Scrooby, in 1851 by the Congregational Union 
 
 coming from Austerfield through Baw- of England. In respect to Robinson's 
 
 try. early life, it is barren of facts. 
 
 1 " Even as when I lived with you," 2 Bradford, History of Plymouth
 
 136 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 The conversation of Davison, Avho was one of the emi- 
 nent Puritans of that time, may well have given a bias to 
 the mind of his young dependent. When Davison had 
 fallen into disgrace with the queen, in conse- 
 
 1587. . . . . 
 
 quence of her simulated displeasure at his issue 
 of a warrant for the execution of the Queen of Scots, 
 Brewster appears to have retired to Scrooby, probably his 
 birthplace; not, however, till he had remained with his 
 patron " some good time after, doing him many faithful 
 offices of service in the time of his troubles." Scrooby 
 
 was a post-town on the great road from London 
 
 1594, April 1 ^ i • r- 
 
 -1607, Sept. to the north, and there he held the office of post- 
 master, or, as it was then called, j^ost, for sev- 
 eral years.^ Clifton's congregation " ordinarily met at his 
 
 house on the Lord's day, and with great love he 
 
 entertained them when they came, making provision for 
 them to his great charge." Some such hospitality was 
 the more needful, as they probably came together from 
 William considerable distances. AVilliam Bradford, one of 
 Bradford. Brcwstcr's gucsts aiid fellow-worshippers, was a 
 
 Plantation, 409, 410. This inestimable ford preserved by Morton and Prince, 
 book, after being lost for nearly nine- led to the belief that it was Bradford's 
 ty years, was found in 1855, in the lost History, which on examination it 
 episcopal library at Fulham, and has proved to be. When Prince used 
 since, through the kindness of the late it in 1736, it belonged to the library 
 Bishop of London, been pubhshed by kept in the tower of the Old South 
 the Massachusetts Historical Society, Church in Boston. In 1775, that church 
 under the oversight of that very ju- was occupied as a riding-school for the 
 dicious and learned antiquary, Mr. British cavalry, and then it was, prob- 
 Charles Deanc. The manuscript was ably, that the book was takcu away, 
 known to have been used by ]\Iorton, and carried to England, 
 Prince, and Hutchinson in the com- ^ Hunter, Collections, G5. In the 
 position of their works. "What was its Postmaster-General's Oflice, Mr. Hun- 
 fate after Hutchinson's publication of ter found mcworanda of accounts with 
 his second volume, in 1767, remained "William Brewster, post of Scrooby," 
 unknown. In 1846, Bishop AVilber- from April 1, 1594, to September 30, 
 force, in his History of the Protestant 1607, at which time another person suc- 
 Episcopal Church in America, referred ceeded him. How long Brewster had 
 to a "manuscript history of the Plan- held the office before April, 1594, does 
 tation of Plymouth in the Fulham not appear, as there is no earlier record 
 Library." The identity of his quota- of the names of postmasters on that 
 tions from it with language of Brad- route.
 
 Chap. IV.] 
 
 THE FOUNDERS OF PLYMOUTH. 
 
 137 
 
 young man of decent condition and some little estate. 
 Being of a feeble constitution, and left doubly an orphan 
 in early childhood, he became precociously reflecting and 
 wise; and the preaching of Mr. Clifton determined his 
 character and his course of life.^ 
 
 The annoyances which, under Archbishop Bancroft's 
 vigilant administration, distressed the Non-conformists in 
 every part of England, became so intolerable to Resolution of 
 
 . 1 • C ' "y r I* I, i? the Scrooby 
 
 this company oi simple larmers, or whom lew, congregation 
 it is likely, had ever seen the sea, or till lately «o emigrate. 
 learned anything of other countries, that at length they 
 resolved on the sad expedient of expatriation. They 
 heard that in the Low Countries religious freedom was 
 allowed, and that some of their persecuted countrymen 
 had there found a refuge ; ^ and there they determined to 
 seek a new home.^ 
 
 1 " ^VTien he was about a dozen years 
 old, the reading of the Scriptures began 
 to cause great impressions upon him ; 
 and those impressions Avere much as- 
 sisted and improved when he came to 
 enjoy Mr. Richard Clifton's illuminating 
 ministry, not far from his abode." (Math- 
 er, Magnaha, Book II. Chap. 11. § 2.) 
 It is not my intention to appeal to Math- 
 er's authority in relation to any nice 
 question of fact. But his opportuni- 
 ties for information respecting Bradford 
 were good, his maternal uncle, the sec- 
 ond John Cotton, having been minister 
 of Plymouth, and so pastor of Brad- 
 ford's fixmily. 
 
 Babworth, where Clifton ofBciat- 
 ed while attached to the Established 
 Church, was nine or ten miles fi'ora 
 Austerfield, and Bradford would pass 
 through Scrooby in going thither. 
 
 2 " Holland hath been a cage to these 
 unclean birds." (Baylie, Dissuasive 
 from the Errors of the Time, 8.) 
 
 3 " Some were taken and clapped up 
 in prison, others had their houses beset 
 and watched night and day, and hardly 
 
 12* 
 
 escaped their hands ; and the most were 
 fain to fly and leave their houses and 
 habitations, and the means of their live- 
 lihood Seeing themselves thus 
 
 molested, and that there was no hope of 
 their continuance there, by a joint con- 
 sent they resolved to go into the Low 
 Countries, where they heard was free- 
 dom of religion for all men, as also how 
 sundry from London and other parts of 
 the land, that had been exiled and per- 
 secuted for the same cause, were gone 
 thither and lived at Amsterdam and 
 
 other places of the land To go 
 
 into a country they knew not but by 
 hearsay, where they must learn a new 
 language and get their livings they 
 knew not how, it being a dear place 
 and subject to the miseries of war, it 
 was by many thought an adventure 
 almost desperate, a case intolerable, 
 and a misery worse than death; es- 
 pecially seeing they were not accjuaint- 
 ed with trades nor traffic (by which the 
 country doth subsist), but had only been 
 used to a plain country life, and the 
 iiuiocent trade of husbandry. But these
 
 138 • HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 But even this painful expedient they were not free to 
 choose, and the design had to be prosecuted by stealth. 
 Under color of a royal proclamation which had been 
 obtained by Bancroft, forbidding the king's subjects to 
 transport themselves to Virginia without his special li- 
 cense, or under some other pretence, the embarkation of 
 the Scrooby people was obstructed. A party of 
 them chartered a vessel to receive them and their 
 effects near Boston in Lincolnshire, to which place they 
 travelled by land fifty miles. The master did not keep 
 his engagement, and when, " after long waiting and large 
 expenses," they at last got on board, he betrayed them 
 to " the searchers and other officers," who robbed them 
 " of their money, books, and much other goods," " and 
 then carried them back into the town, and made them a 
 spectacle and wonder to the multitude." There they were 
 kept in prison, till an Order of Council released most of 
 them, while Brewster and six others were detained for 
 trial.i 
 
 " The next spring after, there was another attempt 
 made, by some of these and others." They agreed 
 with a Dutch shipmaster to take them on board 
 at a place on the Humber between Grimsby 
 and Hull, thirty miles distant from their home. The em- 
 barkation was interrupted by the appearance of an armed 
 force of horse and foot ; and the Dutchman, alarmed, put 
 to sea with the movables and such of the party as had 
 come on board. Of the rest, — many of them separated 
 from husbands and parents, and without clothing or 
 money, — those who did not find a wretched safety in 
 fliglit were apprehended, and " hurried from one place to 
 another and from one justice to another, until in the end 
 they knew not what to do with them ; for to imprison so 
 
 things did not dismay tlicm (althougli they rested on his providence, and knew 
 
 they did sometimes trouble them), for whom they had believed." (Bradford, 
 
 their desires were set on the ways of 10, 11.) 
 
 God, and to enjoy his ordinances. But ^ Ibid., 12.
 
 Chap. IV] THE FOUNDERS OF FLYMOUTH. 139 
 
 many women and innocent children for no other cause 
 (many of them) but that they would go with their hus- 
 bands, seemed to be unreasonable, and all would cry out 
 of them ; and to send them home again was as difficult, 
 for they alleged, as the truth was, they had no homes to 
 go to, for they either had sold or otherwise disposed of 
 their houses and livings."^ 
 
 At last the scattered flock collected at Amsterdam. 
 Clifton made the passage after the unfortunate August, 
 attempts which have been mentioned. Brewster, denceir 
 released from his imprisonment, accompanied or ^'n^^erdam. 
 followed him.^ The heroic wanderer had last traversed 
 the streets of that opulent city in the train of the am- 
 bassador of Elizabeth, and in charge of the keys of Dutch 
 towns pledged to England. With humble associates he 
 was now to earn a living by some humble daily labor. 
 The lot of his companions, with their inferior resources, 
 was harder yet; and, with his fellow-leaders in the en- 
 terprise, it belonged to him to cheer the sorrows of 
 others while he struggled with his own. The imagina- 
 tion is tasked to picture the amazement and conscious 
 helplessness of these north-country peasants, as they 
 gazed on the palaces that bordered and the fleets that 
 choked the long canals, and pushed their way through 
 crowds gathered from all the countries of the globe. 
 " They heard a strange and uncouth language, and 
 beheld the different manners and customs of the people, 
 with their strange fashions and attires ; all so far differ- 
 ing from that of their plain country villages, wherein 
 they were bred and had so long lived, as it seemed 
 
 ^ Bradford, 14, 1.5. " Pitiful it was to little ones hanging about them, crying 
 
 see the heavy case of these poor women for fear, and quaking with cold." 
 
 in this distress ; what weeping and cry- 2 " ^Mien Mr. Robinson, Mr. Brew- 
 
 inc on every side; some for their hus- ster, and other principal members were 
 
 bands that were carried away in the come over, for they were of the last, 
 
 ship ; others not knowing what should and stayed to help the weakest over 
 
 become of them and their little ones; before them," &c. (Ibid., 16.) 
 others melted in tears, seeing their poor
 
 140 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 they were come into a new world. But these were not 
 the thmgs they much looked on, or long took up their 
 thoughts. For they had other work in hand, and an- 
 other kind of war to wage and maintain ; for it 
 
 was not long before they saw the grim and grisly face 
 of poverty come on them like an armed man, with whom 
 they must buckle and encounter, and from whom they 
 could not fly."i 
 
 At Amsterdam they remained a distinct community, 
 though they found there that London congregation which 
 had emigrated some twelve or fifteen years before, and 
 the Gainsborough congregation, their former neighbors in 
 Nottinghamshire. Between these societies there existed 
 some dispute, which Robinson and his people fruitlessly 
 endeavored to compose. Pained to witness it, and fearful 
 of some ill effect from it on their own harmony, they 
 Removal rcsolvcd, after a few months, to remove to Ley- 
 toLeyden. j^j^^ forty mllcs distaut, a place recommended by 
 its " sweet situation," though, " wanting that traffic by sea 
 which Amsterdam enjoyed, it was not so beneficial for 
 their outward means of living and estates."- Clifton, 
 
 ifiin. nearly sixty years of age, " was loath to remove 
 
 May 20. r^^y j^Qre," and finished his life at Amsterdam. 
 On the removal, the church came " under the able minis- 
 try and prudent government of Mr. John Hobinson and 
 Mr. William Brewster, who was an assistant unto him in 
 the place of an elder, unto which he was now called and 
 chosen by the church." 
 
 Lcyden, recovered from the devastations of the siege, 
 which thirty-five years before had attracted to it the won- 
 der of the world, contained at this time a population of 
 
 1 Bradford, 16. on tlie 12th of February of that year, 
 
 2 The conjrren^ation yn-obably re- requesting leave to come durinfj; the 
 moved to Ley den in the spring or sum- ensuing month of May, and reside in 
 mer of 1G09. ]\Ir. George Sumner that city with his congregation of a 
 has a letter of Robinson to the mngis- hundred persons, including men and 
 trates of Leyden, dated at Amsterdam, -vvomeu. Comp. Hist. i\Iag., III. 357.
 
 Chap. IV.] THE FOUNDERS OF PLYMOUTH. 141 
 
 not less than seventy thousand souls, being the chief man- 
 ufacturing town of the Netherlands, and one of the most 
 considerable in Europe. Its famous University, found- 
 ed by William the Silent, in recompense of the 15-5 
 heroism and sufferings of its inhabitants during •'^"•^• 
 the siege, bore upon its rolls such names as those of 
 Grotius, Scaliger, Arminius, Gomar, Heinsius, and Des- 
 cartes.^ The English strangers " fell to such trades and 
 employments as they best could, valuing peace and their 
 spiritual comfort above any other riches whatsoever ; and 
 at length they came to raise a competent and comfortable 
 living, but with hard and continual labor Enjoy- 
 ing much sweet and delightful society and spiritual com- 
 fort together, they grew in knowledge and other 
 
 gifts and graces of the spirit of God, and lived together 
 in peace and love and holiness. And many came unto 
 them from divers parts of England, so as they grew a 
 great congregation."^ Their number can only be con- 
 
 1 " On appellait cette doctissime cite he lived well and plentifully ; for he 
 I'Athenes de TOccident." (Juste, Hi- fell into a way, by reason he had the 
 stoire de I'lnstruction Publlque en Latin tongue, to teach many students 
 Belgique, 95.) Descartes was probably who had a desire to learn the English 
 at Leyden when Robinson's friends, in tongue, to teach them English, and by 
 1619, were preparing to leave it. Sal- his method they quickly attained it with 
 masius and Boerhaave were later. great facility, for he drew rules to learn 
 
 2 Bradford, 17. — Mather (Magnalia, it by, after the Latin manner; and 
 II. Chap. I. § 4) speaks of Bradford's many gentlemen, both Danes and Ger- 
 " serving of a Frenchman at the work- mans, resorted to him, as they had time 
 ing of silks." — Bradford says of Brew- from other studies, some of them being 
 ster (412) : "After he came into Hoi- great men's sons. He also had means 
 land, he suffered much hardship after to set up printing by the help of some 
 he had spent the most of his means, friends, and so had employment enough, 
 having a great charge and many chil- and, by reason of many books which 
 dren, and, in regard of his former would not be allowed to be printed in 
 breeding and course of life, not so fit England, they might have had more 
 for many employments as others were, than they could do." Some of the com- 
 especially such as were toilsome and pany are believed to have been weav- 
 laborious. Yet he ever bore his con- ers. (]\Iass. Hist. Coll., XHI. 171.) 
 dition with much cheerfulness and con- Brewster's printing operations were 
 tentation. Towards the latter part of closely watched by Sir Dudley Carle- 
 those twelve years spent in Holland, ton, the English ambassador. When 
 his outward condition was mended, and he went to England in 1619 to make
 
 142 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 jectured. It may, when at the largest, have counted 
 between two and three hundred adult persons.^ In their 
 constant amity towards one another, and their unanimous 
 affection towards their pastor, they reproduced, as they 
 fondly persuaded themselves, " the primitive pattern of the 
 first churches." Their uprightness, diligence, and sobriety 
 gave them a good name and pecuniary credit with their 
 Dutch neighbors. The magistrates afterwards testified, 
 " These English have lived amongst us now these twelve 
 years, and yet we never had any suit or accusation come 
 against any of them."~ But no public token of good-will 
 
 arrangements for the emigration, Sir 
 Dudley (July 22) sent information to 
 the Secretary of State, and recommend- 
 ed that he should be apprehended and 
 examined. " One William Brewster, 
 a Brownist, -who hath been for some 
 years an inhabitant and printer at Ley- 
 den, is now within these three weeks 
 removed from thence, and gone back to 
 dwell in London." August 20, he wrote 
 again, saying that he had been on the 
 look-out for Brewster, but could not 
 learn that he had returned to Leyden. 
 September 1 2, he reported that " the 
 sellout who was employed by the magis- 
 trates for his apprehension, being a 
 dull, drunken fellow, took one man for 
 another." It may be, that the magis- 
 trates were not anxious to have him 
 taken. As late as January 29, 1G20, 
 Sir Dudley was still hunting for him. 
 It seems that Brewster had been em- 
 ployed by a person named Brewer "to 
 print prohibited books to be vented 
 underhand in his Majesty's kingdom." 
 The printing of the "Perth Assembly," 
 and of a discourse " De llegimine Ec- 
 clesiic Scoticana?," was supposed to have 
 been done l)y him. (Letters from and to 
 Sir Dudley Carleton, Knight, pp. 380, 
 380, 380, 390, 437.) The type of books 
 from Brewster's press (of which there 
 is, or lately was, at Plymouth a copy of 
 
 one, Cartwright's " Commentarii in Pro- 
 verbia Salomonis") has the peculiar 
 form of the type of the Elzevirs. One 
 of their descendants, living at Leyden in 
 1851, assured ]Mr. George Sumner that 
 it must have been obtained from them. 
 
 1 Of AinswQrth's church at Am- 
 sterdam Bradford says (Dialogue, in 
 Young, Pilgrims, 455), " Before their 
 division and breach, they were about 
 three hundred communicants " ; and 
 adds (Ibid., 456), "For the church of 
 Leyden, they were sometimes not much 
 fewer in number." On the other hand, 
 Winslow, in the " Briefe Narration " ap- 
 pended to" Hypocrisie Uuma.<ked" (90), 
 says that when "the minor part, with !Mr. 
 Brewster, their elder, resolved to enter 
 upon this great work, the diiference of 
 number was not great " between them 
 and those who stayed behind. Now 
 the whole company that sailed in the 
 Mayflower and Speedwell was " about 
 a hundred and twenty persons." On 
 the supposition that only one quarter 
 of this number had joined the expe- 
 dition in England, only ninety (includ- 
 ing men, women, and children) had 
 come from Leyden, and the comj)any 
 at Leyden before the division would 
 have amounted to scarcely moi-e than 
 two hundred of both sexes and all age«. 
 
 2 Bradford, 20.
 
 Chap. IV.] THE FOUNDERS OF PLYMOUTH. 143 
 
 could be extended to them, for fear of offence to the 
 English government. 
 
 Robinson was their arbiter in differences, and their 
 judicious adviser in secular affairs, as well as character of 
 their spiritual guide. His writings still extant,^ Robinson. 
 and the influence which he exerted on his associates and 
 others, alike testify to his eminent virtue, capacity, accom- 
 plishments, and wisdom. His friends never wearied of 
 extolling him, and his opponents did not withhold their 
 warm commendation.^ Though involved in controversies 
 from the time of his separation from the Church, he seems 
 to have constantly matured his native calmness of judg- 
 ment and gentleness of temper. It was easy for him to 
 rise above the technicalities of his sect to comprehensive 
 and generous principles and views ; and, if his writings are 
 not free from the strong language which pervaded the 
 religious discussions of the time, they show him to have 
 grown more tolerant, charitable, and hopeful with in- 
 creasing years and harder experience. Recognizing with 
 a magnanimous cordiality the Christian character wher- 
 ever it appeared, he discouraged the use of sectarian 
 names ; and he was so far from pretending to infallibility 
 in religious doctrine, that he cheerfully looked, and taught 
 his followers to look, for "more light to shine from God's 
 holy word." His logical ability and scholarly attainments 
 were such, that a Professor in the University and " the 
 chief preachers of the city " sought his aid in the defence 
 of their Calvinistic theology; and his friends boasted, 
 that, in public disputes, which he had modestly attempted 
 to decline, he signally and repeatedly foiled the famous 
 Arminian champion, Episcopius.^ 
 
 1 The first collection of Robinson's ever that sect [the Separatists] en- 
 Works was published in 1851, in three joyed." 
 
 volumes. See above, p. 135, note 1. 3 Bradford, 21. — Winslow, Briefe 
 
 2 Baylie (Dissuasive from the Errors Narration, 95. — Some examples of com- 
 of the Times, 1 7) calls him " the most mendation of him by Dutch and Ger- 
 learned, polished, and modest spirit that man writers (the earliest dated twenty-
 
 144 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 The twelve years' residence of Robinson's church in the 
 Netherlands nearly corresponds with the twehe years' 
 
 1C09. truce concluded between the United Provinces 
 April 9. j^j^j ^Yie Spaniards in the sequel of Prince Mau- 
 rice's brilliant though checkered military career of twenty- 
 ^ , two years. It was a period disturbed by internal 
 
 Disorders in •' ■•■ •' 
 
 the Netiier- (lisordcrs, aud by the bitterness of political and sec- 
 tarian animosity. The heroic nature of the head 
 of the house of Orange seemed to have departed with the 
 adversity which had revealed it in such favorable lights. 
 He scarcely disguised his ambition for sovereignty. The 
 incorruptible Grand Pensionary, Barneveldt, stood in the 
 way of the usurpation. The religious opinions of that 
 illustrious patriot, opposed to the dominant Calvinism, 
 made it possible to effect his ruin by artful applications 
 to the popular bigotry. The military force, commanded 
 by the Prince, gave no support to that administration 
 of the laws Mhich would have restrained a persecuting 
 1618, Nov. 13 9-nd factious fanaticism. The transactions at the 
 -ici9,May9. gy^od of Dort iuflamcd the prevailing passions. 
 The head of Barneveldt, who was seventy-two 
 years old, was brought to the block, and Grotius 
 was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. The Remon- 
 strants were treated as outlaws. A popular frenzy, as 
 
 eight years after Lis death) have been and was ever desirous of any 
 
 collected by INIr. George Sumner. (See light, and the more able, learned, and 
 
 Mass. Hist. Coll., XXIX. 72-74.) — "A holy the persons were, the more he 
 
 man not easily to be paralleled for all desired to confer and reason with them, 
 
 things, whose singular virtues we shall He was very profitable in his ministry 
 
 not take upon us here to describe and comfortable to his people. He was 
 
 As he was a man learned and of solid much beloved of them, and as loving 
 
 judgment, and of a quick and sharp wit, was he unto them, and entirely sought 
 
 so was he also of a tender conscience, their good for soul and body. In a 
 
 and very sincere in all his ways, a hater word, he was much esteemed and rev- 
 
 of hypocrisy and dissimulation, and ercnced of all that knew him, and his 
 
 would be very plain with his best abilities [were acknowledged] both of 
 
 friends. He was very courteous, aflfa- friends and strangers." (Bradford, Di- 
 
 blc, and sorialjlc in his conversation, alogue, &c., in Young, Pilgrims, 451, 
 
 and towards his own people especially; 452.)
 
 Chap. IV.] THE FOUNDERS OF PLYMOUTH. 145 
 
 senseless as it was fierce, but possessing all classes in 
 society alike, was let loose against men than whom the 
 infatuated country possessed none more worthy of honor 
 for virtue or for public services. 
 
 Leyden was one of the chief theatres of the agitation. 
 The English strangers were witnesses to the strife 
 
 , , , ... Uisturbancea 
 
 which rent its University, where Arminius him- at Leyden. 
 self, the chief heresiarch, was a Professor, and 
 to the bloody conflict which took place in its streets. 
 Vorstius, the successor of Arminius, whom King James, 
 after professing to confute, had proposed to the States- 
 General to burn,^ was their townsman. When Leyden 
 confederated with Rotterdam and other towns to 
 make a last effort for freedom, the counsels of 
 that fruitless league were conducted by their neighbors 
 and municipal governors. It would be interesting to be 
 informed of any relation borne by them to this course of 
 events, and of the light in which they regarded it. We 
 naturally wish to think that they did not share in the 
 cruel hostility which overwhelmed the Remonstrant pa- 
 triots, and that disgust at the outrages which they saw 
 committed by their fellow-believers was among the mo- 
 tives that prompted them to seek another home.^ 
 
 1 Letter to the States-General, in cliurch at Leyden, very interesting re- 
 " Works of the Most High and Mighty suits of an investigation made on the 
 Prince James," &c., 355. spot by our distinguished countryman, 
 
 2 Only two of Robinson's publica- Mr. George Sumner, in 1841, have 
 tions of the years between 1614 and been published in the Massachusetts 
 1624 are preserved. "The People's Historical Collections (XXIX. 42- 
 Plea for the Exercise of Prophecy" 74.) Prince says (Chron. Hist., 160) : 
 (1618) is a defence of lay preaching " When I was in Leyden, in 1714, the 
 against the argument of an Enghsh most ancient people from their parents 
 clergyman. " A Just and Necessary told me that the city had such a value 
 Apology," originally published in Latin for them [Robinson's company] as to 
 (1619), is a refutation of some charges let them have one of their churches, 
 both of illiberality and latitudinarianism in the chancel whereof he lies buried, 
 brought against " certain Christians no which the English still enjoy ; and that, 
 less contumeliously than commonly as he was had in high esteem both by 
 called Brownists or Barrowists." the city and University, for his Iearnin<T, 
 
 As to the condition of Robinson's piety, moderation, and excellent ac- 
 
 VOL. I. 13
 
 146 HISTORY OF N*EW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Though their industry had improved their circum- 
 stances, and their religion taught them content- 
 Project of '_ o o 
 
 another re- mcut with au humblc lot, a few years' experience 
 
 moval. 1 • 1 1 1 
 
 decided tliem aganist a permanent settlement 
 where they were. The hardships which they could endure, 
 they found " to be such as few in comparison would 
 come to them," and " it was thought that, if a better and 
 easier place of living could be had, it would draw many." 
 "Though the people generally bore all these difficulties 
 very cheerfully and with a resolute courage, being in the 
 best and strength of their years, yet old age began to 
 steal on many of them, and their great and continual 
 labors, -with other crosses and sorrows, hastened it before 
 the time." They were anxious both for the health and 
 for the character of their offspring. " Many of their chil- 
 dren that were of best dispositions and gracious inclina- 
 tions, having learned to bear the yoke in their youth and 
 willing to bear part of their parents' burden, were often- 
 times so oppressed with their heavy labors, that, although 
 their minds were free and willing, yet their bodies bowed 
 under the weight of the same, and became decrepit in their 
 
 complishmcnts, the magistrates, minis- Sumner found a record of his inter- 
 ters, scholars, and most of the gentry ment, and a memorandum of the cost, 
 mourned his death as a public loss, and which was small ; — 3. That, as to his 
 followed him to the grave." Mr. Sum- funeral, not only Prince, but Winslow, 
 ner has shown, — 1. That the church Avho had much earlier said (Ibid.) that 
 supposed by Prince to have been occu- "the University and ministers of the 
 pied by Robinson's congregation was in city accompanied him to his grave with 
 fact occupied by the English Prcsby- all their accustomed solemnities," must 
 terian congregation, which, as well as have been in error. Winslow was not 
 llobinson's, was established at Leyden, in Holland at the time ; and there is no 
 and that there is no reason to believe statement ofthe kind in the letters on the 
 that any church was granted to Robin- subject copied into Bradford's Letter- 
 son's people by the magistrates; tliey Book (IMass. Hist. Coll., IH. 39). Un- 
 probably met at his house, which Wins- der common circumstances, Robinson's 
 low (P>ricfe Narration, 90) says was large, funeral might have been attended with 
 and wliich was ])roba))ly taken as adapt- such marks of respect ; but at this time 
 fd (o that use ; — 2. That Robinson was the plague was raging in Leyden, and 
 not buried in the church supposed, but ])ublic; funeral solemnities were Bus- 
 in the cathedral church, where ^Ir. pended.
 
 Chap. IV] THE FOUNDERS OF PLYMOUTH. 147 
 
 early youth, the vigor of nature being consumed in the 
 bud, as it were. But that which was more lamentable, 
 and of all sorrows most heavy to be borne, was that many 
 of their children, by these occasions, and the great licen- 
 tiousness of youth in the country, and the manifold temp- 
 tations of the place, were drawn away by evil examples 
 
 into extravagant and dangerous courses Some 
 
 became soldiers, others took them upon far voyages by 
 sea, and other some worse courses, tending to dissoluteness 
 and danger of their souls, to the great grief of their par- 
 ents and dishonor of God ; so that they saw their poster- 
 ity would be in danger to degenerate and be corrupted."-^ 
 They had not lost their affection for their intolerant na- 
 tive country, and they felt it to be " grievous to live from 
 under the protection of the state of England." They 
 considered "how like they were to lose their language 
 and their name of English, how little good they did, or 
 were like to do, to the Dutch in reforming the Sabbath,^ 
 how unable there to give such education to their children 
 as they themselves had received " ; and, — " if God would 
 be pleased to discover some place unto them, though in 
 America, where they might exemplarily show their ten- 
 der countrymen by their example, no less burdened than 
 themselves, where they might live and comfortably sub- 
 sist," and, " being freed from Antichristian bondage," 
 might "keep their names and nation, and not only be a 
 means to enlarge the dominions of the English state, but 
 the Church of Christ also, if the Lord had a people among 
 the natives whither he would bring them," — "hereby 
 they thought they might more glorify God, do more 
 good to their country, better provide for their posterity, 
 
 1 Bradford, 22-24. under Lutheran or Calvinistic rule, of 
 
 2 Like most of the Puritans, they had a transfer of the obligations of the Jew- 
 adopted the doctrine, then recently ad- ish Sabbath to the weekly recurring 
 vanced in England by Dr. Bound, and day of Christian commemoration and 
 neither then nor yet extensively adopt- worship. 
 
 ed by Continental Protestants, whether
 
 148 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book T. 
 
 and live to be more refreshed by their labors, than ever 
 they could do in Holland, where they were."^ 
 
 There can be no more generous ambition than is dis- 
 closed in these aftecting words. Unenterprising villagers 
 at first, habituated at length to a new home and able to 
 earn a decent living by humble drudgery, some of them 
 now sinking into age, they turn their thoughts to their 
 posterity. With a patriotic yearning, they desire to ex- 
 tend the dominion of the native country which refuses to 
 give them a peaceable home on its broad lands. And 
 through the hardships of a long voyage and an unknown 
 continent, they propose to be missionaries to the heathen. 
 
 The project occasioned much discussion. It offered no 
 certainties on the bright side. The dangers of both sea 
 and land seemed formidable. The cost of the voyage 
 would exceed any means in their possession. Its length 
 might be beyond the endurance of the aged and feeble of 
 their number. Arrived at its end, they would " be liable 
 to famine and nakedness, and the want, in a manner, of 
 all things, with sore sicknesses." Appalling reports had 
 reached them of the ferocity and treachery of the savage 
 people; their hard experience in the removal ten years 
 before was not forgotten ; and the ill success of the earlier 
 attempts at settlement in Maine and in Virginia was a 
 heavy discouragement. 
 
 On the other hand, they considered " that all great 
 and honorable actions were accompanied with great diffi- 
 culties, and must be both enterprised and overcome with 
 
 answerable courages The dangers were great, but 
 
 not desperate, and the difficulties were many, but not in- 
 vincible. For though there were many of them likely, 
 yet they were not certain. It might be, sundry of the 
 things feared might never befall ; others, by provident 
 care, and the use of good means, might, in a great meas- 
 ure, be prevented ; and all of them, through the help of 
 
 1 Winslow, Briefe Narration, 81.
 
 Chap. IV.] THE FOUNDERS OF PLYMOUTH. 149 
 
 God, by fortitude and patience, might either be borne or 
 overcome. True it was that such attempts were not to 
 be made and undertaken but upon good ground and rea- 
 son, not rashly or Hghtly, as many have done, for curiosity 
 or hope of gain. But their condition was not ordinary. 
 Their ends were good and honorable ; their calling lawful 
 and urgent. And therefore they might expect the blessing 
 of God in their proceeding. Yea, though they should lose 
 their lives in this action, yet they might have comfort in 
 the same, and their endeavors would be honorable."^ It 
 is a genuine and trustworthy heroism which can reason 
 thus. 
 
 They pondered, debated, fasted, and prayed, and came 
 to the conclusion to remove. The preparations going on 
 around them for a renewal of the war made them igit. 
 impatient to put their design in execution. In 
 
 ,11. J? 1 c LiA L • • Doubts about 
 
 the choice oi a place oi settlement, opmions were a place of 
 divided. The Dutch made them liberal offers.^ settlement. 
 Some desired to follow their countrymen to Virginia, 
 where the colony planted ten years before had still a fee- 
 ble existence. Others would have gone to Guiana, of 
 which the salubrity and fruitfulness were extolled in 
 glowing terms by Sir Walter Haleigh, who had sailed up 
 the Orinoco twenty years before, and was now there on 
 a second visit.^ But it was feared that the tropical 
 
 1 Bradford, 25, 26. that Robinson's company might be en- 
 
 2 " The large offers the Dutch offered couraged to emigrate to America under 
 to us, either to have removed into Zea- the protection of Holland. 
 
 land, and there lived with them, or, if 3 " We passed the most beautiful 
 
 we would go on such adventures, to go country that ever mine eyes beheld." 
 
 under them to Hudson's River, (Works of Sir Walter Raleigh, H. 191.) 
 
 and how they would freely have trans- " I never saw a more beautiful country, 
 
 ported us, and furnished every family nor more lively prospects." (Ibid., 207.) 
 
 with cattle," &c. (Winslow, Briefe " There is no country which yieldeth 
 
 Narration, 91.) The Dutch proposals more pleasure to the inhabitants." (Ibid., 
 
 were perseveringly renewed. See, in 229.) " For health, good air, pleasure, 
 
 Brodhead's " History of New York," I. and riches, I am resolved it cannot be 
 
 125, an abstract of the Memorial of the equalled by any region either in the 
 
 Amsterdam merchants, (February 12, east or west." (Ibid., 230.) 
 1620,) to the Prince of Orange, praying 
 13*
 
 150 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 climate of that country would ill agree with the English 
 constitution ; and a jealousy was entertained of the prox- 
 imity of the Spaniards, who, though they had been at 
 peace with England for several years, continued to be 
 regarded with aversion and dread. On the other hand, 
 it was considered that, if they attached themselves to the 
 existing colony in Virginia, " they should be in as great 
 danger to be troubled and persecuted for their cause of 
 religion as if they lived in England, and it might be 
 worse ; and if they lived too far off, they should have 
 neither succor nor defence from them. And at length 
 the conclusion was to live in a distinct body by 
 
 Choice of -/J 
 
 North vir- tliemselvcs, under the general government of 
 Virginia " ; ^ that is, of the Virginia Company 
 in England. 
 
 Religious freedom, which they had exiled themselves 
 to enjoy, was the one thing indispensable for the future. 
 But as yet there was no security for it in any land claimed 
 Mission to hy the English crown. Two of their company, 
 England. Robert Cushman and John Carver,- were de- 
 spatched to solicit it from the king, to be enjoyed at some 
 place of settlement for which they were to negotiate 
 with the Virginia Company. They were the bearers of 
 Seven Arti- " Sovcu Articlcs whlch the Church of Leyden 
 Leyd'en'* scut to tho Couucil of England to be considered 
 church. q£" r^^^^ £^.g^ exprcsscs assent to the doctrines 
 of the Church of England ; the second, a persuasion of 
 their practical efficacy, and a desire to maintain commun- 
 ion with Churchmen ; the third, an acknowledgment of 
 the royal authority, and of the rightful obedience of the 
 subject, " either active, if the thing commanded be not 
 
 1 Bradford, 28. Cmhmnn was found by Mr. Hunter or 
 
 2 Of ncithor of these •worthies is any- Mr. Sumner in any of the ])arishes in 
 thing known before this time. There that quarter. In the letter of Kohinson 
 is no reason to suppose that either had and Brewster to Sir Edwin Sandys, 
 belonged to the congregation at Scroo- December 15, ICl 7, Carver is called " a 
 by. Neither of the names Carver and deacon of our church." (Bradford, 32.)
 
 Chap. IV.] THE FOUNDERS OF PLYMOUTH. 151 
 
 against God's word, or passive if it be, except pardon can 
 be obtained."^ The fourth and fifth, in language which 
 at the first reading occasions surprise, but which was 
 carefully chosen and guarded, own the lawfulness of the 
 appointment and jurisdiction of ecclesiastical officers. The 
 sixth and seventh disallow to ecclesiastical tribunals any 
 authority but w^hat is derived from the king, and avow a 
 desire " to give unto all superiors due honor, to preserve 
 the unity of the spirit with all that fear God, to have 
 peace with all men," and to receive instruction wherein- 
 soever they had erred.^ 
 
 The messengers found the Virginia Company favorably 
 disposed to their scheme, and desirous of affording Negotiation 
 it ample facilities.^ The king was less tractable. '"^°"^°"- 
 Through the influence of Sir Edwin Sandys, a person 
 " of great authority," ^ son of that Archbishop of York 
 whose tenant Brewster had formerly been at Scrooby, and 
 soon afterwards Governor of the Company, their case 
 was favorably presented by Sir Robert Naunton, then 
 principal Secretary of State. The most they could obtain 
 from the king was a general encouragement that their 
 separatism would be connived at as long as they should 
 give no public offence. An express engagement even to 
 that effect was denied. 
 
 Thus the question was opened again ; " for many were 
 afraid that, if they should unsettle themselves, put off 
 
 1 This was a distinction familiar to 3 " They were forced, through the 
 Robinson. He had made it, in nearly great charge they had been at, to heark- 
 the same terms, in the " Just and en to any propositions that might give 
 Necessary Apology" (Works, III. 63). ease and furtherance to so hopeful a 
 
 2 This curious paper, referred to in business To that purpose, it was 
 
 a letter of Sir Edwin Sandys to Robin- referred to their considerations how 
 
 son and Brewster (Bradford, 30), has necessary it was that means might be 
 
 been recently published in the " CoUec- used to draw into those enterprises 
 
 tions of the Xew York Historical So- some of those families that had retired 
 
 ciety" (Second Series, HI. 301, 302), themselves into Holland for scruple of 
 
 from a copy obtained by Mr. Bancroft conscience." (Gorges, Briefe Narration, 
 
 from the State-Paper Office in Lon- &c., in Mass. Hist. Coll., XXYI. 73.) 
 
 don. ■* Hume, Chap. XLYI.
 
 152 HISTOrvY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 their estates, and go upon these hopes, it might prove 
 dangerous, and but a sandy foundation." After renewed 
 consultation, it was determined to take the hazard, and 
 to " rest herein on God's providence, as they had done in 
 other things." And again " messengers were despatched 
 jpjr, to end with the Virginia Company as well as they 
 Februarj-. could, aud to procurc a patent with as good and 
 ample conditions as they might by any good means at- 
 tain." An equally important part of their charge was " to 
 treat and conclude with such merchants and other friends 
 as had manifested their forwardness to provoke to, and 
 adventure in, this voyage," to the end of procuring the 
 pecuniary means necessary for the outfit of the expedition. 
 In short, money for the expense of the emigration was to 
 be raised on a mortgage of the labor of the emigrants.^ 
 The negotiation with the Virginia Company was em- 
 barrassed by the dissensions which now distract- 
 
 Parties in •' 
 
 the Virginia ed that body. Its parlor was the scene of a con- 
 flict between the Court and Country parties, 
 which divided the kingdom. It M^as just at the time 
 when Sir Thomas Smith,^ its first Governor, withdrew 
 1619. from his office, and Sir Edwin Sandys, after an 
 April 28. acrimonious canvass, was appointed his successor, 
 
 1 Bradford, 29, 30. The messengers same unto the Council by our agent, 
 
 ■were Cushman and Brewster, as ap- a deacon of our church, John Carver, 
 
 pears from Cushman's letter of May 8, unto whom we have also requested a 
 
 1 CI 9 (Bradford, 3G- 38). Carver and gentleman of our company to adjoin 
 
 Cushman had come back to Leyden himself." (Letter of Kobinson and 
 
 about the end of 1617. "They do Brewster to Sandys, of December 15, 
 
 now return to you." (Letter of Sir E. 1617, in Bradford, 31.) 
 
 Sandys to Robinson and Brewster, of 2 SJi- Thomas Smith was a rich city 
 
 November 12, 1617, in Bradford, 30.) merchant. Governor of the East-India 
 
 Carver seems to have been innnediately Company, the Russia Company, and 
 
 sent again to England, though it was the Company for the Dis<•o^■ery of a 
 
 not till the second year after this that Northwestern Passage. He was in fa- 
 
 the business was concluded by Cushman vor with the court, and in the second 
 
 and Brewster. " We have, with the year of King James had been sent as 
 
 best ."speed and consideration withal minister to Russia. He was one of the 
 
 that we could, set down our requests assignees of Raleigh's patent. (Bel- 
 
 in writing, and have sent the knap, Amer. Biog., H. 9 et scq.')
 
 Chap. IV.] THE FOUNDERS OF PLYMOUTH. 153 
 
 that the Leyden people were making their proposals ; and 
 their agent wrote to them that " the dissensions 
 and factions amongst the Council and Company 
 of Virginia are such, as that since we came up no business 
 could by them be despatched." " These divisions and 
 distractions had shaken off many of their pretended 
 friends, and disappointed them of much of their hoped 
 for and proffered means." A patent, however, was at 
 length obtained under the seal of the Virginia 
 
 '-^ ^ " Patent from 
 
 Company, " not taken in the name of any of their fie Virginia 
 own company, but in the name of Mr. John Win- 
 cob, a religious gentleman then belonging to the Countess 
 of Lincoln, who intended to go with them."^ Neither the 
 original of this, nor any copy, is believed to be extant, nor 
 has its date, or any description of its grants, been pre- 
 served. As the lands conveyed by it were not occupied, 
 it never acquired practical value. 
 
 The negotiation of the Leyden people with the part- 
 ners who were to share the expenses of the voy- contract 
 age and first settlement was still less satisfac- don',ner-' 
 tory; and the hardship of the terms to which *'''*"^^- 
 they were reduced shows at once the slenderness of their 
 means and the constancy of their purpose.- It was agreed 
 
 1 Bradford, 36, 41. posed in the excitement of the quarrel 
 
 2 "Under the influence of this wild with America. Oi" the communisru oi' the 
 notion [the notion of a Scriptural au- Plymouth colonists, enforced for a time 
 thority for the proceeding], the colo- by their necessities, and escaped from 
 nists of New Plymouth, in imitation of as soon as possible, Bradford, their lead- 
 the primitive Christians, threw all their er, wrote (135) : " The experience that 
 property into a common stock." So was had in this common course and 
 wrote Robertson (History of Amer- condition, tried sundry years, and that 
 ica, II. 259), utterly misapprehending amongst godly and sober men, may well 
 the transaction. The tone of Rob- evince the vanity of that conceit of 
 ertson's feeble and erroneous frag- Plato's and other ancients, applauded 
 ment on the History of New England by some of later times, that the taking 
 is taken from Douglas and Chalmers, away of property, and bringing in cora- 
 whom he constantly quotes. They munity into a commonwealth, would 
 were no friends to his great fame who make them happy and flourishing ; as 
 published this posthumous work, com- if they were wiser than God."
 
 154 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 to create a joint-stock company on the following plan and 
 conditions.^ 
 
 1. Colonists sixteen years old and upwards, and persons 
 contributing ten pounds, were each to be owners of one 
 share. 
 
 2. Colonists contributing ten pounds in money or pro- 
 visions were to be owners of two shares. 
 
 3. The partnership was to continue seven years, to the 
 end of which time " all profits and benefits that are gotten 
 by trade, traffic, trucking, working, fishing, or by any 
 other means," w^ere to remain as common stock. 
 
 4. The settlers, having landed, were to be divided into 
 parties to be employed in boat-building, fishing, carpentry, 
 cultivation, and manufactures for the use of the colony. 
 
 5. At the end of seven years, the capital and profits 
 were to be divided among the stockholders in proportion 
 to their respective shares in the investment. 
 
 6. Stockholders investing at a later period WTre to have 
 shares in the division proportioned to the duration of their 
 interest. 
 
 7. Colonists were to be allowed a share for each domes- 
 tic dependant accompanying them (wife, child, or servant) 
 more than sixteen years of age ; two shares for every such 
 person accompanying them, if supplied at their expense; 
 and half a share for every dependant between ten years 
 of age and sixteen. 
 
 1 The contract with Allcrton for a re- to have met witli anythinij to confirm 
 lease, November 15, 1G2G, was signed by his statement as to the number of part- 
 forty-two partners. (Mass. Hist. Coll., ners. Probably the colonists were not 
 III. 48.) — Smith saya (Generall His- curious on the subject, when they made 
 toric, 247): "The Adventurers which their arrangement. They looked to the 
 raised the stock to begin and supply prominent men who transacted the busi- 
 this plantation were about seventy, ness, and whom they believed compe- 
 some gentlemen, some merchants, some tent to fulfil any engagements they 
 handicraftsmen, some adventuring great made for themselves and others. Smith 
 sums, some small, as their esUitcs and adds : " The general stock already era- 
 affection served." Smith was likely to ployed is about seven thousand pounds"', 
 be well informed, but I do not recollect which, I think, must be an exaggeration.
 
 Chap. IV] THE FOUNDERS OF PLYMOUTH. 155 
 
 8. Each child going out under ten years of age was to 
 have, at the division, fifty acres of unmanured land. 
 
 9. To the estates of persons dying before the expiration 
 of the seven years, allowances were to be made at the 
 division, proportioned to the length of their lives in the 
 colony. 
 
 10. Till the division, all colonists were to be provided 
 with food, clothing, and other necessaries, from the com- 
 mon stock.^ 
 
 Two stipulations, supposed by the colonists to have 
 been settled, to the effect that they should have two 
 days in each week for their private use, and that, at the 
 division of the property, they should be proprietors of 
 their houses and of the cultivated land appertaining there- 
 to, w^ere ultimately disallowed by the Merchant Adventurers, 
 to the great disappointment and discontent of the other 
 party. Cushman, who was much blamed for his facility 
 in yielding these points, insisted that, if he had acted difv 
 ferently, the whole undertaking would have fallen to the 
 ground.^ 
 
 This matter being concluded, "they had a solemn meet- 
 ing and a day of humiliation, to seek the Lord preparations 
 for his direction" as to the next proceeding.^ As f*^'' •departure, 
 those who were not to emigrate at present were the larger 
 number, it was determined that the pastor should remain 
 with them, while Brewster should accompany the pioneers, 
 who were without delay to sell their little property and 
 
 1 Bradford, 45, 46. Till the recent AUerton, in Bradford, 49.) Cushman 
 important discovery of the autograph of defended himself with some warmth. 
 Bradford's History, the precise con- (Ibid., 51, 60.) " But these things gave 
 ditions of the partnership were only not content at present." (Ibid., 61.) 
 known from Hubbard (General History 3 (Jq this occasion, Robinson took for 
 of New England, Chap. IX.), who had his text the words from 1 Samuel xxiii. 
 them from Bradford. 3, 4 : " And David's men said unto him, 
 
 2 Not onl}' less reasonable persons, See, we be afraid here in Judah ; how 
 but Bradford and Robinson were se- much more, if we come to Keilah against 
 riously dissatisfied. (Bradford, 45, Rob- the host of the Philistines. Then Da- 
 inson's letter in Bradford, 47, and the vid asked counsel of the Lord again." 
 letter of Fuller, Winslow, Bradford, and (Bradford, 41.)
 
 156 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAKD. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 contribute the proceeds to the common stock on the terms 
 defined in the articles. Thomas Weston, one of the Lon- 
 don partners, came to Leyden for a consultation respecting 
 the details of the outfit ; and Cushman was sent over to 
 London, and Carver to Southampton, " to receive the 
 money, and provide for the voyage." 
 
 At length the time came when they were to leave " that 
 Embarkation S^^^^^Y ^^^ plcasaut city, which had been their 
 from Delft- restiug-placc near twelve years. But they knew 
 
 Haven. -i • iiii i 
 
 they were inlfinms^ and looked not much on 
 those things, but lift up their eyes to the heavens, their 
 dearest country, and quieted their spirits." A little ves- 
 sel which they had purchased, called the Speedwell, lay at 
 Delft-Haven, on the river Maese, fourteen miles off. The 
 voyagers and their friends held their last religious service 
 together, " pouring out prayers to the Lord with great fer- 
 vency, mixed with abundance of tears." -^ " When the ship 
 
 1 Bradford, 59. Robinson preached 
 from these words (Ezra vlii. 21) : 
 " There, at the river Ahava, I pro- 
 claimed a fast, that we might humble 
 ourselves before our God, and seek of 
 him a right way for us, and for our chil- 
 dren, and for all our substance." This 
 sermon has been represented by late 
 writers, not without probability, but 
 without authority, to have been the 
 vehicle of that " wholesome counsel " 
 which Winslow, writing twenty-five 
 years afterwards, reported to have been 
 given by Robinson to his flock "at their 
 departure; from liini to begin the givat 
 work of plantation in New England." 
 The " counsel," whether given in the 
 sermon in question, or otherwise, is 
 instinct with the most enlightened, 
 pure, and gentle Christian philoso])hy. 
 
 " Amongst other wholesome instruc- 
 tions and exhortations he used these ex- 
 pressions, or to the same purpose : — 
 
 " We are now ere long to part asun- 
 der, and the Lord knoweth whether 
 
 ever he should live to see our faces 
 again. But whether the Lord had ap- 
 pointed it or not, he charged us before 
 God and his blessed angels, to follow 
 him no further than he followed Christ ; 
 and if God should reveal anjlhing to 
 us by any other instrument of his, to 
 be as read}- to receive it as ever we 
 were to receive any truth by his minis- 
 try ; for he was very confident the Lord 
 had more truth and light yet to break 
 forth out of his holy word. He took 
 occasion also miserably to bewail the 
 state and condition of the Reformed 
 churches, Avho were come to a period 
 in religion, and would go no further 
 than the instruments of their Reforma- 
 tion. As, for example, the Lutherans, 
 they could not be drawn to go beyond 
 what Luther saw ; for whatever part of 
 God's will he had further imparted and 
 revealed to Calvin, they will rather die 
 than embrace it. And so also, saith 
 he, you see the Calvinists, they stick 
 where he left them ; a misery umch to
 
 ClIAP. IV.] 
 
 THE FOUNDERS OF PLYMOUTH. 
 
 157 
 
 was ready to carry us away," says Winslow, " the brethren 
 that stayed having again solemnly sought the Lord with 
 us and for us, and we solemnly engaging ourselves mutu- 
 ally as before,^ they that stayed at Leyden feasted us 
 that were to go at our pastor's house, being large, where 
 we refreshed ourselves, after tears, with singing of psalms, 
 making joyful melody in our hearts as well as with the 
 voice, there being many of the congregation very expert 
 in music. And indeed it was the sweetest melody that 
 ever mine ears heard. After this they accompanied us to 
 Delft-Haven, where we were to embark, and there feasted 
 us again ; and after prayer performed by our pastor, where 
 a flood of tears was poured out, they accompanied us to 
 the ship, but were not able to speak one to another for 
 the abundance of sorrow to part. But we only going 
 aboard, (the ship lying to the quay, and ready to set sail, 
 
 be lamented ; for though they vreve 
 precious shining lights in their times, 
 yet God had not revealed his whole 
 •will to them ; and were they now liv- 
 ing, saith he, they would be as ready 
 and willing to embrace further light, 
 as that they had received. Here also 
 he puts us in mind of our church cov- 
 enant, at least that part of it whereby 
 we promise and covenant with God, and 
 one with another, to receive whatso- 
 ever light or truth shall be made known 
 to us from his written word ; but withal 
 exhorted us to takre heed what we re- 
 ceived for truth, and well to examine 
 and compare it and weigh it with other 
 Scriptures of truth before we received 
 it. For, saith he, it is not possible the 
 Christian world should come so lately 
 out of such thick Antichristian dark- 
 ness, and that full perfection of knowl- 
 edge should break forth at once." 
 (Briefe Narration, 97, 98.) 
 
 The e^ipression of such sentiments, 
 if it could be traced no further back 
 than to the time of the record which 
 has come down to us, would be a notice- 
 
 VOL. I. 14 
 
 able and an admirable fact ; but on 
 such evidence as Winslow's it may seem 
 that there need be no hesitation in 
 ascribing the general strain of thought 
 to Robinson, though one wishes that 
 there was more proof of the verbal ex- 
 actness of the rejjort. Winslow may, 
 at the time, have written down what 
 he heard. Robinson may have fur- 
 nished it afterwards in writing to his 
 friends, though this is less likely, as 
 Winslow's language is : " He used these 
 expressions, or to the same purpose." 
 Mather (Book I. Chap. HI.), Prince 
 (176), and Neal (History of the Puri- 
 tans, Part II. Chap. II.), all copied 
 from Winslow. 
 
 ^ These engagements were, that, " if 
 the Lord should frown upon our pro- 
 ceedings, then those that went to return, 
 and the brethren that remained still 
 there to assist and be helpful to them ; 
 but if God should be pleased to favor 
 them that went, then they also should 
 endeavor to help over such as were 
 poor and ancient, and willing to come." 
 (Briefe Narration, 90.)
 
 158 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 the wind being fair,) we gave them a volley of small shot 
 and three pieces of ordnance ; and so, lifting up our hands 
 1620 to each other, and our hearts for each other to 
 July 22. ^]^g Lq^.(J q^^j, Qq(J^ ^^g departed."^ 
 
 The Speedwell brought her passengers prosperously to 
 Southampton, where they found the Mayflower, which ves- 
 Arrivai at sel liad come. round from London with Cushman 
 Southampton. ^^^^ othors a wcck before. Weston, on the part 
 of the Adventurers, was there to see them ofl*. The dis- 
 cussion respecting the disputed articles was renewed with 
 him, but to no efliect ; and they had now gone so far that 
 they could neither retreat nor pause.- When about to 
 sail, they were assembled to receive one more proof of 
 the wisdom and affection of their pastor, in a letter full of 
 excellent counsel, urging the obligation of cultivating a 
 
 1 Briefe Narration, 91. — Bradford 
 (60) adds some touches to the pic- 
 ture : " Sundry also came from Am- 
 sterdam to see them shipped, and to 
 take their leave of them." The night 
 before the embarkation "was spent with 
 little sleep by the most, but with friend- 
 ly entertainment and Christian dis- 
 course and other real expressions of 
 true Christian love. The next day, the 
 wind being fair, they went aboard, and 
 their friends with them, where truly 
 doleful was the sight of that sad and 
 mournful parting; to see what sighs 
 and sobs did sound amongst them ; what 
 tears did gush from every eye, and 
 pithy speeches pierced each heart ; that 
 sundry of the Dutch strangers that stood 
 on the quay as spectators could not re- 
 frain from tears. Yet comfortable and 
 sweet it was, to see such lively and true 
 expressions of dear and unfeigned love. 
 But the tide, which stays for no man, 
 calling them away that were thus loath 
 to depart, their reverend pastor falling 
 down on his knees, and they all with 
 him, with watery cheeks commended 
 them with most fervent prayers to the 
 
 Lord and his blessing. And then with 
 mutual embraces, and many tears, they 
 took their leaves one of another." 
 
 2 " This was the first ground of dis- 
 content between them." (Bradford, 
 61.) Weston would make them no 
 advance, and they had to raise money 
 by selling some of their provisions, and 
 to go away " scarce having any butter, 
 no oil, nor a sole to mend a shoe, nor 
 every man a sword to his side, wanting 
 many muskets, much armor," &c. They 
 protested that the objectionable articles 
 Avere " made by Robert Cushman with- 
 out their commission or knowledge." 
 (Letter to the Adventurers, ibid.) — 
 Prince says (under July 22, 1620), 
 " Seven hundred pounds sterling are 
 laid out at Southampton, and they 
 carry about seventeen hundred pounds' 
 venture with them"; and for this he 
 refers to Bradford. But I do not find 
 that Bradford has made the latter state- 
 ment. The former I suppose Prince 
 inferred from Cushman's complaint of 
 ^Martin's mismanagement, in his letter 
 to Edward Southworth (Bradlbrd, 72).
 
 Chap. IV.] THE FOUNDERS OF PLYMOUTH. 159 
 
 generous spirit, and of carefully watching against occa- 
 sions of strife, in the new circumstances which were to 
 put their virtue to the proof The letter " had good ac- 
 ceptation with all, and after fruit with many." ^ 
 
 The vessels put to sea with about a hundred and twen- 
 ty passengers. For each vessel they " chose a governor 
 and two or three assistants, to order the people Departure 
 by the way, and to see to the disposins: of their ^'""^ ^°'"''" 
 
 •' • i o ampton. 
 
 provisions and such like affairs." The May- August 
 
 7, r« 1 • circ. 5. 
 
 flower was of a hundred and eighty tons' bur- 
 den ; the Speedwell, of sixty. Before they had proceeded 
 far on the voyage, the Speedwell proved so leaky that it 
 was thought prudent to return, and both vessels put in 
 at Dartmouth. Repairs having been made, they sailed a 
 second time. But ao^ain, when they were a hun- ^ ., 
 
 c ' •' Failure of 
 
 dred leagues from land, the master of the smaller tiio speed- 
 vessel represented her as incapable of making the 
 voyage, and they put back to Plymouth. This was after- 
 wards believed to be a pretence of the master, who had 
 been engaged to remain a year with the emigrants, and 
 who had repented of his contract. The next resource 
 was to divide the company, and leave a portion behind, 
 while the rest should pursue their voyage in the larger 
 ship. This arrangement was presently made. The Speed- 
 well was sent back to London, and the May- ^ .,. , ^ 
 
 ' •' Sailing of the 
 
 flower " put to sea again with a prosperous Mayflower. 
 wind." " Those that went back were for the 
 most part such as were willing so to do, either out of 
 some discontent or fear they conceived of the ill success 
 of the voyage, seeing so many crosses befall, and the year 
 time so far spent ; but others, in regard of their ow^n weak- 
 ness and charge of many young children, were thought 
 least useful, and most unfit to bear the brunt of this hard 
 adventure, unto which work of God and judgment of their 
 
 1 For this admirable letter, and a private letter to Carver which accom- 
 panied it, see Bradford, 63-67.
 
 IGO HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 brethren they were contented to submit. And thus, like 
 Gideon's army, this small number was divided, as if the 
 Lord, by this work of his providence, thought these few 
 too many for the great work he had to do." ^ 
 
 The colonists, — men, women, and children, — who were 
 now embarked on board the ]\Iayflower, were a hundred 
 Origin of and two in number. Concerning very few of 
 gerin'the'"" ^hcm is it known to this day from what English 
 Mayflower, j^omcs they cauic. Bradford and Brewster alone 
 are ascertained to have been members of the Scrooby con- 
 gregation.- During its residence in Leyden, that com- 
 pany had received numerous accessions of Englishmen, 
 who had either passed over for the purpose of attaching 
 themselves to it, or who, being in Holland for other pur- 
 poses, had come within its attraction. Winslow, who was 
 superior in condition to all or most of his companions,^ is 
 believed to have become acquainted with Robinson while 
 on his travels in Holland ; and at twenty-two years of age 
 he joined the society, three years before the emigration.^ 
 The " cautionary towns " of the Netherlands had been gar- 
 risoned by British regiments for thirty years, and Miles 
 
 1 Bradford, 69, 70. — Among those tions in and about Bawtrj-, found Pnesi 
 ■who now -withdrew " out of some dis- and Soule respectively within three and 
 content" were "Mr. Cushman and his six miles of it, and Tinker and Lister 
 family, whose heart and courage was in the town. The name Lister was on 
 gone from them before." Martin was costly tombs. But Edward Lister, or 
 "•Governor in the bigger ship," and Litster, who came in the Mayflower, 
 Cushman, who was his " assistant," was was Mr. Hopkins's servant, 
 displeased with his administration. (Let- 3 « A gentleman of the best family of 
 ter of Cushman, in Bradford, 72.) Brad- any of the Plymouth planters." (Ilutch- 
 ford, while he found some of Cushman's inson. History of Massachusetts, L 1 72.) 
 conduct to " discover some infirmities, " Of a very reputable family." (Ibid., 
 as who under temptation is free ? " fails IL 408.) 
 
 not to record that " he continued to be ^ " I li\ing three years under his 
 
 a special instrument for their good," ministry, before we began the work of 
 
 and "a loving friend and faithful brother plantation in New England." (Bricfe 
 
 unto thorn." Narration, 93.) Winslow was born at 
 
 2 Of surnames borne by passengers Droitwich, in "Worcestershire, October 
 in the Mayflower, Mr. George Sumner, 17, 1595. (Young, Pilgrims, 274.) 
 who, in 1851, made diligent investiga-
 
 Chap. IV.] TIIE FOUNDERS OF PLYMOUTH. 161 
 
 Standish had probably been employed on this service. 
 He was not a member of the Leyden church, nor subse- 
 quently of that of Plymouth, but appears to have been in- 
 duced to join the emigrants by personal good-will or by 
 love of adventure, while to them his military knowledge 
 and habits rendered his companionship of great value.^ 
 In determining the question as to which portion of the 
 congregation should first emigrate, it was arranged for 
 "the youngest and strongest part to go."^ The youngest 
 and strongest would generally be those who had joined 
 the society most recently, while they who were excused 
 from the first enterprise by reason of their being advanced 
 in years would, on the whole, be the same persons whose 
 more ancient relations to Robinson in England would be 
 a reason for their desiring, and being allowed, to decline 
 a separation from him. The Leyden church had received 
 members of Dutch and French birth, and, among the 
 company in the Mayflower, Margeson was probably a 
 Hollander.^ Warren, Hopkins, Billington, Dotey, and 
 Lister appear to have joined the expedition in England. 
 
 1 Standish gave the name of Dux- twenty years ago, Mr. Frank Hall Stan- 
 bury to the town which he began on dish, " of Duxbury Hall," bequeathed a 
 the north side of Plymouth harbor, and collection of pictures and engravings to 
 an English family of the name of Stan- King Louis-Phihppe. 
 dish has its ancestral seat at Duxbury 2 Briefe Narration, 90. 
 Hall in Lancashire ; from which coinci- ^ " Divers of their members [mem- 
 
 dence it has been inferred, with much bers of the Dutch churches] 
 
 probability, that Miles Standish was of betook themselves to the communion of 
 
 that race. (Young, Pilgrims, 125.) our church, went with us to New Eng- 
 
 Morton (Memorial, 162) says: "He land, as Godbert Godbertson, &c. 
 
 was a gentleman born in Lancashire, One Samuel Terry was received from 
 
 and was heir apparent unto a great es- the French church there into commun- 
 
 tate of lands and livings." By his will, ion with us There is also one 
 
 Standish devised to " his son and heir Philip Delanoy, born of French parents, 
 
 apparent" certain lands given, he says, came to us from Leyden to New Ply- 
 
 " to me as right heir by lawful descent, mouth." (Ibid., 95, 96.) Delanoy, 
 
 but surreptitiously detained from me, since called Delano, came in the For- 
 
 my great-grandfather being a second or tune, in 1621 ; Godbertson, or Cuth- 
 
 younger brother from the house of Stan- bertson, in the Ann, in 1623. 
 dish of Standish." — Some fifteen or 
 U*
 
 162 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Rook I. 
 
 Martin " came from Billerica, in Essex, from which county 
 came several others, as also from London and other places, 
 to go with them."^ Alden was of Southampton." Am- 
 sterdam probably made some contribution to the com- 
 pany.^ " Many of you," wrote Robinson to them while 
 at Southampton, " arc strangers, as to the persons, so to 
 the infirmities, one of another, and so stand in need of 
 more watchfulness this way."^ 
 
 Little is recorded of the incidents of the voyage. The 
 first part was favorably made. As the wanderers ap- 
 proached the American continent, they encountered 
 storms which their overburdened vessel was scarcely able 
 to sustain. Their destination was to a point near Hud- 
 son E,iver,^ yet within the territory of the London Com- 
 pany, by which their patent had been granted. This de- 
 scription corresponds to no other country than the sea- 
 coast of the State of New Jersey. At early dawn of the 
 sixty-fourth day of their voyage, they came in sight 
 of the white sand-banks of Cape Cod. In pursu- 
 ance of their original purpos.e, they veered to the south, 
 but, by the middle of the day, they found themselves 
 "among perilous shoals and breakers," which caused them- 
 to retrace their course.*^ An opinion afterwards prevailed, 
 on questionable grounds, that they had been purposely 
 led astray by the master of the vessel, induced by a bribe 
 from the Dutch, who were averse to having them near 
 
 1 " There waf5one chosen in England Captain Standish witli Priscilla Mulhns, 
 to be joined" Avith Carver and Cushnian. having been rashly sent by the Captain 
 " His name was Mr. Martin. lie came to that lady on the errand of Viola in 
 from Billerica," &c. (Bradford, 5G.) " Twelfth Night." 
 
 2 "John Aldon was hired for a 3 Cushman, in Bradford, 53, 57. 
 cooper, at Southampton, where the * Ibid., CG. 
 
 ship victualled, and, being a hopeful ^ u ^o find some place about the 
 
 vountr man, was much desired, but left Hudson's River for their habitations." 
 
 to his own liking to go or stay when he (Ibid., 77.) 
 
 came here; but he stayed and married . ^ The "perilous shoals" were perhaps 
 
 here." (Bradford, 449.) Tradition re- those of the island of INIonomoy, near 
 
 ports that he was the successful rival of Chatham; perhaps Nantucket Shoals.
 
 Chap. IV] 
 
 THE FOUNDERS OF PLYMOUTH. 
 
 163 
 
 the mouth of the Hudson,^ which Dutch vessels had 
 begun to visit for trade. 
 
 1 " Their putting into this place was 
 partly by reason of a storm, by which 
 they were forced in, but more especially 
 by the fraudulency and contrivance of 
 Mr. Jones, the master of the ship, for 
 their intention, as before noted, and his 
 engagement, was to Hudson's River. 
 But some of the Dutch, having notice 
 of their intentions, and having thoughts 
 about the same time of erecting a plan- 
 tation there likewise, they fraudulently 
 hired the said Jones by delay while they 
 were in England, and now under pre- 
 tence of the danger of the shoals, &c., 
 to disappoint them in their going thither. 
 
 Of this plot betwixt the Dutch 
 
 and Mr. Jones, I have had late and 
 certain intelligence." So, in 1669, wrote 
 the honest but not over-cautious Na- 
 thaniel Morton (Memorial, p. 34), who 
 has often been quoted since. But there 
 is no contemporary statement to this 
 effect, and, had the story been early re- 
 ceived, it would seem that Morton, who 
 was Bradford's nephew, would not have 
 needed to have " late " intelligence of it 
 On the other hand, it seems singular 
 
 that, when the coast had been so long 
 known, the captain, who, if he had not 
 before been upon it, was accompanied by 
 persons who had been (Clark, his mate, 
 and Coppin, if no others), should have 
 unintentionally gone so far out of his 
 way. And it may be, as has been sur- 
 mised, that Morton had his "late" intelli- 
 gence from Thomas Willett, who was in 
 the way of good information. Four 
 years before Morton published his book. 
 New Amsterdam was taken b}' the Eng- 
 lish, and Willett was made its first 
 Mayor, its name being then changed 
 to New York. In the expedition, he 
 had a command in the force raised by 
 Plymouth, where he had been many 
 years a magistrate, and whither he 
 returned about the time of Morton's 
 publication. He is first spoken of by 
 Bradford (260) as " an honest young 
 man, that came from Leyden," where 
 also he might have heard the story. 
 But, as it stands, it certainly docs not 
 rest upon sufficient evidence to entitle 
 it to full credit.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The narrow peninsula, sixty miles long, which termi- 
 nates in Cape Cod, projects eastwardly from the main- 
 land of Massachusetts, in shape resembling the human 
 arm bent rectangularly at the elbow and again at the 
 The May- wrlst. lu tlio baslu enclosed landward by the 
 flower at extromc point of this projection, in the roadstead 
 
 1C20. of what is now Provincetown, the Mayflow^er 
 dropped her anchor at noon on a Saturday near 
 the close of autumn. The exigencies of a position so 
 singular demanded an organization adequate to the pres- 
 ervation of order and of the common safety, and the fol- 
 lowing instrument was prepared and signed : ' — 
 
 1 " This day, before we came to har- 
 bor, observing some not well affected to 
 unity and concord, but gave some ap- 
 pearance of faction, it was thought good 
 there should be an association and agree- 
 ment, that we should combine together 
 in one body, and to submit to such gov- 
 ernment and governors as we should 
 by common consent agree to make and 
 choose, and set our hands to this that 
 follows, word for word." (Mourt's Re- 
 lation, 3.) — " Some of the strangers 
 among them had let fall from them in 
 the ship, that, when they came ashore, 
 they would use their own liberty, for 
 none hatl power to command them, the 
 patent they had ])eing for Virginia, and 
 not for New England, which belonged 
 to another government, with which the 
 Virginia Company had nothing to do." 
 (Bradford, History, 89.) — Morton 
 (Memorial, Davis's edit., 38) appends 
 to the instrument forty-one names. lie 
 
 doubtless took the compact from Brad- 
 ford's History or Mourt's Relation, nei- 
 ther of which contains names of sub- 
 scribers. Bradford's list (447-450) of 
 male passengers in the Mayflower has 
 seven names of males, apparently adults, 
 additional to those of the signers in 
 ^Morton. They are Roger Wilder, Elias 
 Story, Solomon Prower, John Lange- 
 morc, Robert Carter, ^Villiam Holbeck, 
 and Edward Thomson. If to these be 
 added "two seamen hired to stay a 
 year here in the country, "William Tre- 
 vore and one Ely," who, " when their 
 time was out, both returned" (Ibid., 
 450), we have, including the women 
 and children mentioned by Bradford, a 
 hnnilrcd and two for the tot<al number 
 of the company. Tlie same number 
 came to laiul as had left England. One 
 (William Button) died, and one (Ocea- 
 nus Hopkins) was born, on the passage. 
 Mourt's "Relation or Journal," quoted
 
 Chap. V.] PLYMOUTH. 165 
 
 " 111 the name of God, amen. We, whose names are 
 underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sov- compact for 
 ereign lord, King James, by the grace of God, of g"^""'"^"^- 
 Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the 
 Faith, &c., having undertaken, for the glory of God, and 
 advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our 
 king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in 
 the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, sol- 
 emnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one of 
 another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a 
 civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, 
 and furtherance of the ends aforesaid ; and by virtue here- 
 of to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal 
 laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time 
 to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for 
 the general good of the colony ; unto which we promise 
 all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we 
 have hereunder subscribed our names, at Cape Cod, the 
 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our sov- 
 ereign lord. King James, of England, France, and Ire- 
 land the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno 
 Domini 1620." 
 
 •Such was the beginning of the Colony of Plymouth. 
 To the end of its separate history, it continued to be an 
 humble community in numbers and in wealth. When 
 four years had passed, the village consisted of only thirty- 
 two cabins, inhabited by a hundred and eighty persons. 
 The government of the company was prescribed by the 
 majority of voices, and administered by one of its mem- 
 above, contains a detailed account of grims, 113) understands Mourt to have 
 proceedings from the time of the land- been George Morton (brother-in-law of 
 ing to the close of September in the Governor Bradford), who had been one 
 following year. It was sent from Ply- of the Leyden congregation (Bradford, 
 mouth in December, 1621, and pub- 48), and who emigrated to Plymouth 
 hshed in London in 1G22. It takes its in July, 1623. With equally plausible 
 name from a preface signed "G. Mourt," arguments, he attributes the author- 
 a name otherwise unknown. On strong ship of the work to Bradford and 
 grounds of probability, Dr. Young (Pil- Wiuslow.
 
 1G6 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 bcrs, "with another for his Assistant. It was not so 
 much a commonwealth as a factory, of which the head 
 bore the title of Governor. Six years later, it num- 
 bered three hundred persons ; five years after this, it had 
 added two hundred more ; and, at the end of its life of 
 seventy years, its population, scattered through several 
 towns, had probably not come to exceed eight thousand. 
 It is on account of the virtue displayed in its institution 
 and management, and of the great consequences to which 
 it ultimately led, that the Colony of Plymouth claims the 
 attention of mankind. In any other view, its records 
 would be unattractive. The building of log hovels, the 
 turning of sand-heaps into corn-fields, dealings with stupid 
 Indians and with overreaching partners in trade, anxious 
 struggles to get a living, and, at most, the suff"erings of 
 men, women, and children, wasting under cold, sickness, 
 and famine, feebly supply, as the staple of a history, the 
 place of those splendid exhibitions of power, and those 
 critical conflicts of intrigue and war, which fill the annals 
 of great empires. But no higher stake is played for in 
 the largest sphere, than the life of a body politic ; nor can 
 the most heroic man be moved by any nobler impulse 
 than the sense of patriotic and religious obligation ; nor 
 is the merit of that constancy, which makes no account of 
 sacrifice and suffering, to be estimated by the size of the 
 theatre on which it is displayed. And the homely story 
 of the planters of Plymouth will not fail to have interest 
 for those readers who are able to discriminate what is most 
 excellent in human nature from its adjuncts, or for such 
 as delight to trace the method of Providence in educing 
 results of the largest benefit to mankind from the simple 
 element of devotion to right and duty in lowly mcn.^ 
 At the time of the adoption of the compact for a gov- 
 
 1 " Small thinjTS in the hp^inninjr of (Dudley's Letter to the Countess of 
 natural or politic liodies are as remark- Lincoln, in 1G3U.) 
 able as greater in bodies full grown."
 
 Chap. V.] PLYMOUTH. 167 
 
 . 1 
 
 eminent, Carver was chosen Governor of the company. 
 In the afternoon, " fifteen or sixteen men, well ^ 
 
 ' ' Carver 
 
 armed," were sent on shore to reconnoitre and f''0''en 
 collect fuel. They returned at evening, report- 
 ing that they had seen neither person nor dwelling, but 
 that the country was well wooded, and that the appear- 
 ance as to soil was promising. 
 
 Having kept their Sabbath in due retirement, the men 
 began the labors of the week by landing a shal- Nov. 13. 
 lop from the ship and hauling it up the beach fauon'^ofthe 
 for repairs, while the women" went on shore to '=°""'''y- 
 wash clothes. While the carpenter and his men were at 
 work on the boat, sixteen others, armed and provisioned, 
 with Standish for their commander, set off on 
 foot to explore the country. The only incident 
 of this day was the sight of five or six savages, who on 
 their approach ran away too swiftly to be overtaken. At 
 night, lighting a fire and setting a guard, the party biv- 
 ouacked at the distance, as they supposed, of ten miles 
 from their vessel. Proceeding southward next 
 morning, they observed marks of cultivation, 
 some heaps of earth, which they took for signs of graves, 
 and the remains of a hut, with " a great kettle, which had 
 been some ship's kettle." In a heap which they opened, 
 they found two baskets containing four or five bushels of 
 Indian corn, of which they took as much as they could 
 carry away in their pockets and in the kettle. Further 
 on, they saw two canoes, and " an old fort or palisado, 
 made by some Christians," as they thought. The second 
 night, which was rainy, they encamped again, with more 
 precautions than before. On Friday evening, hav- 
 ing lost their way meanwhile, and been amused 
 by an accident to Bradford, who was caught in an Indian 
 
 1 Bradford, 99. eighteen of whom were wives of eml- 
 
 2 Including children, there were grants, 
 twenty-eight females in the company,
 
 168 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Rook I. 
 
 deer-trap, they returned to their friends " both weary and 
 welcome, and delivered in their corn into the store to be 
 kept for seed, for they knew not how to come by any, and 
 therefore were very glad, proposing, so soon as they could 
 meet with any of the inhabitants of that place, to make 
 them large satisfaction."^ 
 
 The succeeding week was spent in putting their tools 
 
 in order and preparing timber for a new boat. During 
 
 this time, which proved to be cold and stormy, 
 
 Exposures of ■■• . 
 
 the second much inconvemeuce was experienced from having 
 to wade " a bow-shot" through the shallow water 
 to the shore ; and many took " coughs and colds, which 
 afterwards turned to the scurvy." On Monday of the 
 Nov. 27. week next following, twenty-four of the colonists, 
 pioTa'tiorof ill the shallop, which was now refitted, set out for 
 the country. ^^^ cxploratiou aloug the coast, accompanied by 
 Jones, the shipmaster, and ten of his people, in the long- 
 boat. That day and the following night they suffered 
 from a cold snow-storm, and were compelled to run in to 
 the shore for security. The next day brouo^ht 
 
 Nov. 28. T . 1 1 T • 
 
 them to the harbor to which the precedmg jour- 
 ney by land had been extended, now named by them 
 Cold Harbor, and ascertained to have a depth of twelve 
 feet of water at flood-tide. Having slept under a shelter 
 of pine-trees, they proceeded to make an exam- 
 ination of the spot as to its fitness for their set- 
 tlement ; in doing which, under the snow-covered and 
 frozen surface, they found another parcel of corn and a 
 bag of beans. These spoils they sent back in the shallop 
 with Jones and sixteen of the party, who were ill, or worn 
 out with exposure and fatigue. Marching inland five or 
 six miles, they found a grave with a deposit of 
 personal articles, as "bowls, trays, dishes," "a 
 knife, a pack-needle," " a little bow," and some " strings 
 
 1 Mourt, 4-8. Pamet Harbor, in Truro, seems to bave been the limit of 
 this expedition. 
 
 Nov. 30.
 
 Chap. V.l 
 
 PLYMOUTH. 
 
 169 
 
 and bracelets of fine white beads." Two wigwams were 
 seen, which appeared to have been recently inhabited.^ 
 Returning to their boat in the evening, the party hastened 
 to rejoin their friends. 
 
 The question was discussed whether they should make 
 a further examination of the coast, or sit down at the 
 harbor which had been visited. The land about it had 
 been under cultivation. The site appeared healthy, and 
 convenient for defence, as well as for taking whales, of 
 which numbers were daily seen. The severity of the 
 winter season was close at hand, and the delay, fatigue, 
 and risk of further explorations were dreaded. But on 
 the whole, the uncertainty as to an adequate supply of 
 water, with the insufficiency of the harbor, which, though 
 commodious for boats, was too shallow for larger vessels, 
 was regarded as a conclusive objection, and it was resolved 
 
 1 Mourt's "Relation" records (12, 13) 
 the first observation by the Plymouth 
 people of the construction, equipment, 
 and provisioning of an Indian wigwam : 
 " The houses were made with long young 
 sapling trees bended, and both ends 
 stuck into the ground. They were 
 made round, like unto an arbor, and 
 covered down to the ground with thick 
 and well-wrought mats; and the door 
 was not over a yard high, made of a 
 mat to open. The chimney was a wide 
 open hole in the top ; for which they 
 had a mat to cover it close when they 
 pleased. One might stand and go up- 
 right in them. In the midst of them 
 were four little trunches knocked into 
 the ground, and small sticks laid over, 
 on which they hung their pots, and 
 what they had to seethe. Round about 
 the fire they lay on mats, which are 
 their beds. The houses were double- 
 matted ; for as they were matted with- 
 out, so were they within, with newer 
 and fairer mats. In the houses we found 
 wooden bowls, trays, and dishes, earthen 
 
 VOL. I. 15 
 
 pots, hand-baskets made of crab-shells 
 wrought together ; also an English pail 
 or bucket ; it wanted a bail, but it had 
 two iron ears. There were also bas- 
 kets of sundry sorts, bigger and some 
 lesser, finer and some coarser. Some 
 were curiously wrought with black and 
 white in pretty works, and sundry other 
 of their household stuff. AVe found also 
 two or three deer's heads, one whereof 
 had been newly killed, for it was still 
 fresh. There was also a company of 
 deer's feet stuck up in the houses, harts' 
 horns, and eagles' claws, and sundry 
 such like things there was ; also two or 
 three baskets full of parched acorns, 
 pieces of fish, and a piece of a broiled 
 herring. We found also a little silk- 
 grass, and a little tobacco-seed, with 
 some other seeds which we knew not. 
 Without was sundry bundles of flags, 
 and sedge, bulrushes, and other stuff to 
 make mats. There was thrust into a 
 hollow tree two or three pieces of ven- 
 ison ; but we thought it fitter for the 
 doffs than for us."
 
 170 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAKD. [Book I. 
 
 to make a further examination of the bay. The mate of 
 the Mayflower had told them of Agawam, now Ipswich, as 
 a good harbor, with fertile land, and facilities for fishing. 
 But, as things stood, it was thought too distant for a visit. 
 
 As soon as the state of the weather permitted, a party of 
 ten, including Carver, Bradford, and others of the princi- 
 
 Dec. 6. pal men, set off with eight seamen in the shallop 
 diti'on ofdiJ- on what proved to be the final expedition of discov- 
 covery. ^^y Tho sovority of tho cold was extrcmo. "The 
 water froze on their clothes, and made them many times 
 like coats of iron." Coasting along the cape in a souther- 
 ly direction for six or seven leagues, they landed and slept 
 at a place where ten or twelve Indians had appeared on 
 the shore. The Indians ran away on being approached, 
 and at night it was supposed that it was their fires which 
 appeared at four or five miles' distance. The next day, 
 while part of the company in the shallop examined the 
 shore, the rest, ranging about the country where are now 
 the towns of AVellflcet and Eastham, found a burial-place, 
 some old wigwams, and a small store of parched acorns, 
 buried in the ground ; but they met with no inhabitants. 
 The following morning, at daylight, they had just ended 
 their prayers, and were preparing breakfast at their camp 
 on the beach, when they heard a yell, and a flisfht 
 
 Dec. 8. J J ■> b 
 
 of arrows fell among them. The assailants turned 
 out to be thirty or forty Indians, who, being fired upon, 
 retired. Neither side had been harmed. A number of the 
 arrows were picked up, " some whereof were headed with 
 brass, others with hart's horn, and others with eagles' 
 claws." 
 
 Getting on board, they sailed all day along the shore in 
 a storm of snow and sleet, making, by their estimate, a 
 distance of forty or fifty miles, without discovering a har- 
 bor. In the afternoon, the gale having increased, their 
 rudder was disabled, and they had to steer with oars. At 
 length the mast was carried away, and they drifted in the
 
 Chap. V.] PLYMOUTH. 171 
 
 dark with a flood tide. With difflculty they brought up 
 under the lee of a " small rise of land." Here a part of 
 the company, suflering from Avet and cold, went on shore, 
 though not without fear of hostile neighbors, and lighted 
 a fire by which to pass the inclement night.^ In the 
 mornino', " they found themselves to be on an 
 
 ^ . . Dec. 9. 
 
 island secure from the Indians, where they might 
 dry their stufl", fix their pieces, and rest themselves ; and, 
 this being the last day of the week, they prepared ^ec. lo. 
 there to keep the Sabbath." 
 
 " On Monday, they sounded the harbor, and found it 
 fit for shipping, and marched also into the land, 
 and found divers corn-fields and little running Landing at 
 brooks, a place, as they supposed, fit for situa- 
 tion ; so they returned to their ship again with 
 
 this news to the rest of their people, which did much 
 comfort their hearts."^ Such is the record of that event 
 which has made the twenty-second of December a mem- 
 orable day in the calendar.^ 
 
 1 The land was Clark's Island, In about to be built, in 1741, Elder Thomas 
 Plymouth harbor, said by Morton to Faunce, then ninety-one years old, came 
 have been afterwards so named from to visit the rock, and to remonstrate 
 the mate of the Mayflower. against its being exposed to injury ; and 
 
 2 Bradibrd, 87, 88. he repeated what he had heard of it 
 
 3 When the practice of celebrating from the first planters. Elder Faunce's 
 the anniversary at Plymouth began, In testimony was transmitted through 
 1769, eleven days were erroneously Mrs. White, who died in 1810, ninety- 
 added to the recorded date, to accom- five years old, and Deacon Ephraim 
 modate it to the Gregorian style, then Spooner, who died in 1818, at the age 
 newly adopted in England. An at- of eighty-three. In 1775, the rock was 
 tempt has been made within a few broken Into two pieces, In an attempt 
 years to substitute the true allowance of to remove It to the town square. The 
 ten days. But the twenty-second day large fragment which was separated was 
 of December has taken a firm hold on In 1834 placed before Pilgrim Hall, and 
 the local thought and literature, which enclosed within an Iron railing. 
 
 the twentij-first will scarcely displace. The tradition does not appear to have 
 
 A trustworthy tradition has preserved unequivocally determined who It was 
 
 the knowledge of the landing-place, nat- that landed on the rock, whether the 
 
 urally an object of Interest both to the exploring party of ten men who went 
 
 Inhabitants and to strangers. It was on shore at Plymouth, December 11 
 
 Plymouth rock. Part of it is now (old style), or the whole company, who 
 
 imbedded in a wharf. When this was came Into Plymouth harbor in the May-
 
 172 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 Dec. Ifi 
 Arrival of 
 the wliulo 
 
 No time was now lost. By the end of the week, the 
 ISIayflower had brought her company to keep 
 their Sabbath by their future home.^ Further 
 romi)any.it examiuatiou confirmed the agreeable impressions 
 which had been received. There was found a con- 
 venient harbor, " compassed with a goodly land." The 
 country was well wooded. It had clay, sand, and shells, 
 for bricks, mortar, and pottery, and stone for wells and 
 chimneys ; the sea and beach promised abundance of fish 
 
 flower on Saturday, December IG, and 
 ■who, or a part of whom, " went a land " 
 two days after. The received opinion, 
 that the same landing-place, as being 
 the most convenient within sight, was 
 used on both occasions, appears alto- 
 gether probable. The question is not 
 without interest, because, if the landing 
 on the rock should be associated only 
 with the event of December 11 (21), 
 it would be disconnected from the de- 
 barkation of the larger portion of the 
 comjiany, including all the women and 
 children; and in representations of it, 
 the Mayflower at anchor in the harbor 
 would have to be omitted, since at the 
 time of the first landing she was still at 
 the end of the Cape. 
 
 During Bradford's absence, his wife, 
 left in the ship, fell overboard, and was 
 drowned. 
 
 1 The precise time of the adoption 
 of the name which the settlement has 
 borne since its first year is not known. 
 Ph/moiith is the name recorded on 
 Smith's map as having been given to 
 the spot by Prince Charles. It seems 
 very likely that the emigrants had with 
 them this map, which had been much 
 circulated, though they came away in- 
 tending to settle at some distance from 
 the place ; or it may have been brought 
 out to them by the Fortune, which sailed 
 from England after intelligence of their 
 wherealjouts had been brought by the 
 Mayflower on her return. Smith un- 
 derstood that they had it, for he says 
 
 (True Travels, &c., 46) they endured 
 " a wonderful deal of misery with an 
 infinite patience, saying my books and 
 maps were much better cheap to teach 
 them than myself." Hubbard says 
 (General History of New England, in 
 Mass. Hist. Coll., XV. 51) that "after 
 they had discovered land, they were 
 altogether ignorant where it was." But 
 this must be an eiTor, for Coppin at 
 least, the mate, " had been in the coun- 
 try before" (Bradford, 8G), and told 
 them of a harbor near, " which he had 
 been in." And they were acquainted 
 with the bearing and distance of Aga- 
 wam, now Ipswich. (Mourt, 14.) The 
 name Neiv Plijmonlh appears in a letter 
 written in December, 1C21, by William 
 Hilton, who had come out in the For- 
 tune. Its use on the spot might be 
 referred to a still earlier time, if its oc- 
 currence in Mourt's Relation (as in pp. 
 49, 53, 57, and 64) could be ascribed 
 with certainty to the writers. But it 
 must be owned that the name may 
 have been introduced by the London 
 editor. Morton (ISIemorial, 66) assigns 
 as a reason for adopting it, that " Ply- 
 mouth in Old England was the last town 
 they left in their native country, and 
 they received many kindnesses from 
 some Christians there." In Mourt, 
 " Plymouth " and " the now well- 
 defended town of New Plymouth " are 
 used as equivalent. Later, the name 
 Plijmouth came to be ajipropriated to the 
 town, and New Pbjmouth to the Colony.
 
 Chap. V.] PLYMOUTH. 173 
 
 and fowl, and " four or five small running brooks " brought 
 a supply of " very sweet fresh water." After prayer for 
 further divine guidance, they fixed upon a spot 
 for the erection of their dwellings, in the neigh- 
 borhood of a brook " and many delicate springs," and of 
 a hill suitable for a look-out and a defence. A storm 
 interrupted their proceeding. When it was past, 
 " so many of them as could went on shore, felled 
 and carried timber, to provide themselves stuff for build- 
 ing." Then came Sunday, when " the people 
 on shore heard a cry of some savages, as they 
 thought, which caused an alarm and to stand on their 
 guard, expecting an assault; but all was quiet." They 
 were still without the shelter of a roof At the sharp 
 winter solstice of New England, there was but 
 
 " A screen of leafless branches 
 Between them and the blast." 
 
 But it was the Lord's hallowed time, and the work of 
 building must wait. Next followed the day sol- 
 
 1.1 . -, « , . Christmas. 
 
 emnized, m the ancient fanes of the continent 
 they had left, with the most pompous ritual of what they 
 esteemed a vain will-worship. And the reader pauses to 
 ponder and analyze the feeling of stern exultation with 
 which its record was made : " Monday, the 25 th day, 
 we went on shore, some to fell timber, some to saw, some 
 to rive, and some to carry; so no man rested all that day^^ 
 The first operations were the beginning of a platform 
 for the ordnance, and of a building, twenty feet First opera- 
 square, for a storehouse and for common occupa- *'°"''- 
 tion. Nineteen plots for dwellings were laid out, on the 
 opposite sides of a way running along the north side of 
 the brook. The number of plots corresponded to that of 
 the families into M^hich the company was now divided ; 
 the appropriation was made by lot ; and the size of each 
 plot was such as to allow half a rod in breadth, and three 
 
 1 Mourt, 24. 
 15*
 
 174 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 rods in depth, for each person included in the family. It 
 was " agreed that every man should build his own house." 
 "The frost and foul weather hindered them much." "Sel- 
 dom could they work half the M'eek." Time was lost in 
 going to and from the vessel, to which in the severe cold 
 they were obliged often to repair for lodging. They were 
 delayed in unloading by want of boats ; and stone, mortar, 
 and thatch were slowly provided. 
 
 These were discouraging circumstances, but far worse 
 troubles were to come. The labor of providing habita- 
 Fataisick- tious had scarcely begun, when sickness set in, the 
 Bess. consequence of exposure and bad food. AYith- 
 
 in four months it carried off nearly half their number. 
 Six died in December, eight in January, seventeen in 
 February, and thirteen in March. At one time during 
 the winter, only six or seven had strength enough left to 
 nurse the dying and bury the dead. Destitute of every 
 provision which the weakness and the daintiness of the 
 invalid require, the sick lay crowded in the unwholesome 
 vessel, or in half-built cabins heaped around with snow- 
 drifts. The rude sailors refused them even a share of 
 those coarse sea-stores which would have given a little 
 variety to their diet, till disease spread among the crew, 
 and the kind ministrations of those whom they had neg- 
 lected and affronted brought them to a better temper. 
 The dead were interred in a bluff by the water-side, the 
 marks of burial being carefully effaced, lest the natives 
 should discover how the colony had been weakened. The 
 imagination vainly tasks itself to comprehend the horrors 
 of that fearful winter. The only mitigations were, that the 
 cold was of less severity than is usual in the place,^ and 
 that there was not an entire want of food or shelter." 
 
 ^ " Some think it to be colder in landing had not been uncommonly mild 
 
 ■winter [than England] ; but I cannot for the plate. 
 
 out of experience so say." (Winslow 2 " That which was most sad and 
 
 in Mourt, C2.) Winslow could not have lamentable was, that in two or three 
 
 written thus, if the first winter after the months' time half of their company died,
 
 Chap. V.] 
 
 PLYMOUTH. 
 
 175 
 
 Meantime, courage and fidelity never gave out. The 
 well carried out the dead through the cold and snow, and 
 then hastened back from the burial to wait on the sick ; 
 and as the sick began to recover, they took the places of 
 those whose strength had been exhausted. There was no 
 time and there was no inclination to despond. The lesson 
 rehearsed at Leyden was not forgotten, " that all great 
 and honorable actions are accompanied with great diffi- 
 culties, and must be both enterprised and overcome with 
 answerable courages." The dead had died in a good ser- 
 vice, and the fit way for survivors to honor and lament 
 them was to be true to one another, and to work together 
 bravely for the cause to which dead and living had alike 
 been consecrated. The devastation increased the necessity 
 of preparations for defence ; and it was at the time when 
 
 especially In January and February, 
 being the deptb of winter, and wanting 
 houses and other comforts ; being in- 
 fected with the scurvy and other dis- 
 eases, which this long voyage and their 
 inaccommodate condition had brought 
 upon them ; so as there died sometimes 
 two or three of a day, in the aforesaid 
 time ; that, of one hundred and odd per- 
 sons, scarce fifty remained. And of 
 these in the time of most distress, there 
 was but six or seven sound persons, 
 who, to their great commendations be it 
 spoken, spared no pains, night nor day, 
 but, with abundance of toil and hazard 
 of their own health, fetched them wood, 
 made them fires, dressed them meat, 
 made their beds, washed their loath- 
 some clothes, clothed and unclothed 
 them; in a word, did all the homely 
 and necessary offices for them which 
 dainty and queasy stomachs cannot en- 
 dure to hear named ; and all this willing- 
 ly and cheerfully, without any grudging 
 in the least, showing herein their true 
 love unto their friends and brethren. 
 A rare example and worthy to be re- 
 membered. Two of these seven were 
 
 Mr. William Brewster, their reverend 
 Elder, and Miles Standlsh, their captain 
 and military commander, unto whom 
 myself and many others were much 
 beholden in our low and sick condition. 
 And yet the Lord so upheld these per- 
 sons, as in this general calamity they 
 were not at all infected either with sick- 
 ness or lameness. And what I have 
 said of these, I may say of many others 
 who died m this general visitation, and 
 others yet living, that, whilst they had 
 health, yea, or any strength continuing, 
 they were not wanting to any that had 
 need of them. And I doubt not but 
 their recompense is with the Lord." 
 (Bradford, 91, 92.) When Robinson 
 heard of this great calamity, he wrote 
 from Leyden (June 30, 1G21): "In a 
 battle it is not looked for but that divers 
 should die. It is thought well for a side, 
 if it get the victory, though with the 
 loss of divers, If not too many, or too 
 great. God, I hope, hath given you the 
 victory after many difficulties, for your- 
 selves and others." (Bradford's Letter- 
 Book, in Mass. Hist. Coll., III. 45.)
 
 176 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 the company was diminishing at the rate of one on every 
 
 i62i._ second day, that a military organization was 
 
 formed, with Standish for the captain, and the 
 
 humble fortification on the hill overlookin": the 
 
 Feb. i21. . . 
 
 dwellings was mounted with five guns. 
 " Warm and fair weather " came at length, and " the 
 birds sang in the woods most pleasantly." Never was 
 sprinor more welcome than when it oi^ened on 
 
 March 3. ,. ^. , 
 
 tins ainicted company. 
 As yet there had been no communication with the 
 natives, though their fires had been observed at a distance, 
 1G20. some tools had been lost by their thievery, and 
 
 Dec. 30. . . 
 
 1C21. two of them had been seen on a neighboring hill, 
 ^^"' ^' and been invited by signals to a conference. At 
 
 Feb. 16, 17. , - f, • „ T T 
 
 length, on " a nne, warm morning, an Indian 
 
 came into the hamlet, and, passing along the row of huts, 
 
 was intercepted before the common house, which he would 
 
 have entered. In broken English he bade the strangers 
 
 . "Welcome," and said that his name was Samo- 
 
 March 16. ' 
 
 Welcome sct, aud that he came from Monhegan, a place 
 distant a day's sail, and five days' journey by land, 
 towards the east, where he had learned something of the 
 language from the crews of fishing-vessels. They gave 
 him food and kept him all day. He told them, that the 
 place where they were was by the Indians called Patuxet, 
 and that it had been depopulated four years before by an 
 epidemic sickness ; ^ that the subjects of a sachem named 
 
 1 See abovo, p. 99, note. — " We and none living near by eiglit or ten 
 
 have })een given certainly to know that, miles." (Cushnian, in Young, Pilgrims, 
 
 within these late years, there hath by 258,259.) — "About twelve years since, 
 
 God's visitation reigned a wonderful they were swept away by a great and 
 
 plague," &c. (King James's Charter to grievous plague, that was amongst them, 
 
 the Council for New England.) — "They so that there are very few left to inhabit 
 
 were very much wasted of late by rea- the country." (Higginson, New Eng- 
 
 son of a great mortality that fell amongst land's Plantation, in Mass. Hist. Coll., 
 
 them three years since." " We found 1.123.) — " The hand of God fell heavi- 
 
 the place where we live empty, the ly u])on them, with such a mortal stroke 
 
 people being all dead and gone away, that they died on heaps," &c. (Morton,
 
 Visit from 
 otlier na- 
 tives. 
 
 Chap. V.] PLYMOUTH. 177 
 
 Massasoit were their next neighbors ; and that at the 
 southeast, on the Cape, was a tribe called the Nausets^ 
 who were exasperated against the English on account of 
 a kidnapping of some of their people.^ Reluctantly they 
 entertained him for the night, not without suspicion of his 
 designs, and sent him away the next morning with the 
 present of a knife, a bracelet, and a ring. At parting, 
 he promised to repeat his visit, and bring some of his 
 friends for a trade in beavers' skins. 
 
 He appeared the following day with five other savages, 
 who returned the stolen tools and brought three or four 
 skins. As it was Sunday, the English would not March is. 
 trade, but gave them hospitable entertainment 
 and some presents, and dismissed them with an 
 invitation to come again with a better supply. Samo- 
 set could not be prevailed upon to depart with them, but, 
 feigning himself sick, remained at the settlement till the 
 third day after, when he was despatched to look for his 
 friends. 
 
 The next day, he came again, accompanied by four 
 
 New English Canaan, Book I. Chap, who understands that there is a divine 
 
 III.) — " About the year 1618, government of human aflairs, and who 
 
 as the ancient Indians report, there be- recalls what has followed upon the oc- 
 fell a great mortaUty among them," &c. cupation of this region by civilized men, 
 (Edward Johnson, Wonder- Working may well hesitate to pronounce that 
 Providence, Book I. Chap. VIII.) — they erred in that belief. 
 " A three years' plague, about twelve i " These people are ill affected to- 
 or sixteen j-ears past, swept away most ward the English by reason of one Hunt, 
 of the inhabitants all along the sea- a master of a ship, who deceived the 
 coast, and in some places utterly con- people, and got them, under color of 
 sumed man, woman, and child, so that trucking with them, twenty out of this 
 there is no person left to lay claim to very place where we inhabit, and seven 
 the soil which they possessed. In most men from the Nausets, and carried them 
 of the rest, the contagion hath scarce away, and sold them for slaves." (Mourt, 
 left alive one person of a hundred." 33 ; see above, p. 93.) Under this provo- 
 (Planters* Plea, Chap. IV.) — Hutchin- cation, according to Samoset's account, 
 son says (History, I. 38) : " Our ances- the Nausets had killed three English- 
 tors supposed an immediate interposition men eight months before. " They were 
 of Providence in the great mortality Sir Ferdinando Gorges's men, as this 
 among the Indians, to make room for savage told us" (Mourt, 33) ; that is, of 
 the settlement of the English." He Dermer's crew (see above, p. 99).
 
 178 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 others, one of ■whom, named Sqiianto, turned out to 
 he one of the Indians stolen seven years hefore 
 hy Hunt.^ They hrought a message from Massa- 
 soit, that he was at hand, and desired an interview with 
 Visit from, the strangers. It took place with suitable for- 
 wil^Massa- uiaUties and precautions. Massasoit appearing 
 *°''- on the top of a hill close by, with sixty of his 
 
 followers, Winslow was sent out with Squanto, and with 
 a present to the king and his brother, consisting of three 
 knives, a copper chain with a jewel attached, an ear-ring, 
 " a pot of strong water, a good quantity of biscuit, and 
 some butter." After a brief parley, Winslow was left 
 behind as a hostage, while the king and twenty unarmed 
 followers met Standish, Williamson,^ and six musketeers 
 at the brook which divided the parties. Massasoit, con- 
 ducted with his men to an unfinished building, where a rug 
 and cushions were spread for them, gave audience to the 
 Governor, who came " with drum and trumpet after him, 
 and some few musketeers." After salutations and feasting, 
 they proceeded to make a treaty with the following stipu- 
 lations : — that Massasoit and his people should offer no 
 injury to the English, and that any offender in this re- 
 spect should be surrendered for punishment ; that, if 
 tools were stolen, they should be restored, and that similar 
 redress should be afltbrded on the other part; that mu- 
 
 1 So say Bradford (95) and INfourt's calls the Indian mentioned in the text 
 
 Journal (35). Dermer, finding in Now- Tisfiuantum. Bradford almost always 
 
 foundland, in 1G18, a Tasrjuantum who, plvos him the name of Si/vanto. 
 
 si.x years before, had been kidnapjjed 2 " ]\Iaster "Williamson." (]\Iourt, 3G.) 
 
 by Hunt, l)roujiht hin\ to England, and There is no Willkanson in Bradford's 
 
 back again to America, (Brief Relation list. There is a Thomas Willknns 
 
 of the President and Council of New (Bradford, 449) ; but liis place in the 
 
 England, 13, 16,) leaving him at Saco, catalogue is such as to make it seem 
 
 whence he seems to have found his unlikely that he would be called Master, 
 
 way to Plymouth. Gorges (Bricfc Nar- and he probably died before the visit of 
 
 ration, Chap. II.) says that the name of Massasoit. (Ibid., 454.) The name may 
 
 one of the tli7-ee natives brought to him ha\(! been a misprint for Allerlon, who 
 
 by Waymouth (see above, pp. 7G, 80) was StandLsh's comj)anion on the same 
 
 was Tasquuntum. Winslow uniformly errand the following day. (IMourt, 38.)
 
 Chap. V.] PLYMOUTH. 179 
 
 tual aid should be rendered against enemies ; that notice 
 should be sent to other neighboring natives, to the end 
 that they might enter into similar engagements ; and that, 
 when visits should be exchanged, the visitors should go 
 unarmed. This business settled, Massasoit was assured 
 that " King James would esteem of him as his friend and 
 ally." 
 
 The treaty — which remained in force fifty-four years — 
 being concluded, Massasoit was conducted by the Governor 
 to the brook, and rejoined his party, leaving hostages be- 
 hind. Presently his brother, Quadequina, came over with 
 a retinue, and was entertained with like hospitality ; after 
 which, the hostages were mutually released. The next 
 day, on an invitation from the kino- Standish and 
 
 A 11 -. 1 • • • T 1 -I • 1 March 2a 
 
 AUerton returned his visit, and were regaled with 
 " three or four ground-nuts and some tobacco." The 
 Governor sent for the king's kettle, and returned it " full 
 of pease, which pleased them well, and so they went their 
 way." Squanto and Samoset remained, and the former 
 gave an earnest of his subsequent usefulness to the English 
 by taking for them a quantity of eels. Their tables would 
 have been better supplied, had they been able to avail 
 themselves of the plenty of the fishing-grounds ; but, by 
 some oversight, they had come unprovided with the proper 
 tackle.^ 
 
 As their New Year's Day approached,^ they " proceeded 
 with their common business, from which they had been so 
 often hindered by the savages' coming, and con- March 21- 
 cluded both of military orders and of some laws ^ ~^-. ,. 
 
 •' Organization 
 
 and orders thoug-ht behooveful for their pres- miutaryand 
 
 civil. 
 
 ent estate and condition."^ At the same time 
 
 they re-elected Carver to be their Governor. They had 
 
 now completed such preparation as was to be made for 
 
 1 Mourt, 26. Winslow, Good Newes 25th of March, called in the church 
 from New England, 294. calendar the Annunciation, or Lady 
 
 2 Till 1752 the years were reckoned Day. 
 
 by the English as beginning on the 3 Mourt, 39.
 
 180 HISTORY OF NEW ENGL^VND. [Book I. 
 
 severing the last tie that bound them to the scenes of their 
 
 earlier life, and the Mayflower set sail on her return 
 
 voyajrc, Avith scarcely more than half the crew 
 
 Aprils. ^ & ' J 
 
 Sailing of the wliicli liad navigatcd her to America, the rest hav- 
 mg lallen victims to the epidemic oi the winter. 
 The delay in landing her passengers and stores had been 
 protracted by a fire, which had destroyed the roof of the 
 storehouse ; and this, with the unwillingness of the colo- 
 nists to part with her while their situation remained so 
 precarious, and the necessity of recruiting the health of 
 her crew, had occasioned her detention through the winter, 
 at a cost which was afterwards complained of by the Ad- 
 venturers.^ She carried back not one of the emigrants, 
 dispiriting as were the hardships which they had endured, 
 and those they had still in prospect. 
 
 Scarcely had she departed, when another calamity oc- 
 curred, as grievous as any that could have befallen the 
 Death of struggling colony. Carver, who at one time had 
 Carver. bccu Icft with uo aid but that of Brewster, Stan- 
 dish, and four others, to nurse their suflering companions, 
 " oppressed by his great care and pains for the common 
 good," came out of the field ^ where he was planting, took 
 to his bed, after a few hours fell into a delirium, and died 
 in a few days. In " great lamentation and heaviness " 
 they laid him in his grave, " with as much solemnity as 
 they were in a capacity to perform, with a discharge of 
 some volleys of shot of all that bare arms." His wife, 
 " being overcome with excessive grief for the loss of so 
 gracious a husband," followed him after a few weeks. 
 Bradford was chosen to the vacant office, with Isaac Aller- 
 
 1 Bradford, 100. sudden fever. But Bradford, not stat- 
 
 2 Belknap (Amer. Biog., II. 215) ing what would have presented an in- 
 says, "on the 5th of April, the day on teresting coincidence, says nierely^(lOO) 
 which the ship sailed for England." If " In this month of April." Perhaps 
 it were so, one might conjecture as to Belknap, who was not acquainted with 
 how much, in Carver's debilitated state Bradford's History, made a hasty infer- 
 and with such anxieties upon him, the ence from the place of the entry in 
 sailing of the ship had to do with his Prince's Chronology.
 
 Chap. V.] PLYMOUTH. 181 
 
 ton, at his request, for his Assistant.-^ Forty-six of the 
 colonists of the Mayflower were now dead, — twenty-eight 
 out of the forty-eight adult men.^ Before the arrival of 
 the second party of emigrants in the autumn, the dead 
 reached the number of fifty-one, and only an equal num- 
 ber survived the first miseries of the enterprise. 
 
 The transmitted history of Carver covers less than four 
 years. A diligent curiosity has failed to discover his birth- 
 place or his early condition. In an unambitious service 
 of religious duty, which in its partially developed results 
 has already changed the face of human affairs, tradition 
 relates that he sacrificed an amj)le estate. He wore him- 
 self out with public labors, and ministrations of private 
 compassion. He was honored to be the earliest chief of 
 the company which unconsciously was laying the foun- 
 dation-stone of the American republic,^ if indeed he did 
 not subscribe the first name affixed, in the annals of 
 mankind, to a fundamental constitution of government.* 
 
 In early spring, the settlers opened the ground near 
 their dwellinofs with the spade, and prepared 
 
 ^ . . , March 19, 20. 
 
 their rude gardens. They sowed six acres with 
 
 barley and pease. Their good fortune m the ^^^^^^_^^^^ 
 
 winter at the subterranean storehouses had given ^nd condition 
 
 , of the settlers 
 
 them ten bushels of Indian corn for seed. This during the 
 sufficed them for the cultivation of twenty acres, ^""""'^ ' 
 Squanto instructing them how to plant and hill it, and 
 
 1 This arrangement had reference to of other colonies near it, is uncertain. 
 
 Bradford's " being not yet recovered of Whether Britain would have 
 
 his illness, in which he had been near had any colonies in America, if religion 
 
 the point of death." (Bradford, 100.) had not been the grand inducement, is 
 
 2 The seven men named above (p. doubtful." (Hutchinson, History, I. 11.) 
 164, note) were all dead. (Bradford, ^ See above, p. 165. " This is per- 
 451, 452.) Martin's hut was emptied ; haps the only instance in human history 
 " he and all his died in the first infec- of that positive original social compact, 
 tion." which speculative philosophers have 
 
 3 « Viroania in its infancy was strug- imagined as the only legitimate source 
 gling for life ; and what its fate would of government." (John Quincy Adams, 
 have been, if the fathers of it in Eng- Oration on the 2 2d of December, 1802, 
 land had not seen the rise and growth p. 17.) 
 
 VOL. I. 16
 
 182 mSTOKY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 manure it with fish. As the season advanced, they found 
 native grapes and berries in abundance ; and they did 
 not omit to record that wild-flowers of various hue and 
 " very sweet " fragrance added a charm to the scene. 
 
 A visitor to Plymouth during this summer, as he land- 
 ed on the southern side of a high bluff, would have seen, 
 standing between it and a rapid little stream, a rude house 
 of logs or planks, twenty feet square, containing the com- 
 mon property of the plantation. Proceeding up a gentle 
 acclivity between two rows of log cabins, nineteen in 
 number, some of them perhaps vacant since the death of 
 their first tenants, he would have come to a hill sur- 
 mounted with a platform for cannon. He might have 
 counted twenty men at work with hoes in the enclosures 
 about the huts, or fishing in the shallow harbor, or visiting 
 the woods or the beach for game ; while six or eight women 
 were busy in household affairs, and some twenty children, 
 from infancy upwards, completed the domestic picture.-^ 
 
 With the variety afforded by wild-fowl, fish, and native 
 fruits, what remained of the stores that had been brought 
 over yielded a sufficient supply of food, and the summer 
 season brought no other want. Vigilance was necessary 
 against hostile neighbors, and a system was to be pursued 
 for securing order and industry ; but the overseer of 
 twenty laborers had no hard task, when one half of them, 
 at least, shared fully in his own public spirit, and as many 
 as might be of a different disposition depended for their 
 daily comforts on the good-will and sense of justice of 
 those who maintained him in his place. Four expeditions 
 during the summer varied the life of the exiles, and ex- 
 tended their knowledge of the country to a few miles' 
 distance on the north, east, and west. 
 
 Winslow and Hopkins, accompanied by Squanto as 
 
 1 Of tlie cliildrcn, two were born on White, while she was anchored in Cape 
 board the INIayflower-, — one, Occaniis Cod Harbor. White lived three years 
 Hopkins, at sea ; the other, Teregrliie into the next century.
 
 Chap. V.] PLYMOUTH. 183 
 
 interpreter, were despatched to visit Massasoit, at his home 
 on Narragansett Bay, in order to ascertain where his peo- 
 ple mifj^ht be found in case of need, to obtain in- 
 
 ■'■ Y June or July. 
 
 formation of his force and of the condition of the visit to Mas- 
 country, to cement the inendship an*eady con- 
 tracted, and to make arrangements for future intercourse. 
 They bore " a horseman's coat of red cotton and laced with 
 a slight lace " for a present, and a copper chain to be the 
 credential of any messenger whom Massasoit might send to 
 the settlement, where, he was to be informed, it would not 
 be convenient, by reason of scarcity of the means of hos- 
 pitality, to receive his people so freely as heretofore. By 
 a walk of fifteen miles, they came in the afternoon to a 
 village called Namasket, in what is now Middleborough, 
 where the natives entertained them with " a kind of 
 bread," and with spawn of shads boiled with old acorns. 
 At night, they lodged in the open air, at a place eight 
 miles further on, where were a number of Indians, who 
 had assembled to fish, but had erected no shelter. Here 
 they saw marks of former extensive cultivation. " Thou- 
 sands of men had lived there, which died in a great 
 plague, not long since." Six savages accompanied them 
 the next day, bearing their arms and clothes, and carrying 
 them over the fords on their shoulders. 
 
 Their errand was happily accomplished, though at the 
 cost of a distressing experience of the poverty and filth 
 of Indian hospitality. The housekeeping of the greatest 
 chief of the tribes between Narragansett Bay and the 
 Piscataqua was at the smallest possible remove above 
 brute life. Massasoit avowed himself well content to 
 renew the alliance, and promised to promote the traffic in 
 skins, to furnish a supply of corn for seed, and to ascer- 
 tain the owners of the underground granaries rifled by 
 the English in the winter, so that restitution might be 
 made. He told them of the Narragansetts, a strong tribe 
 dwelling further to the west, which had not suffered from 
 the recent pestilence, and advised them to arrest the trade
 
 184 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 between that people and "the Frenchmen."^ He had no 
 food to offer the envoys, and their lodging in his sty was 
 of the most comfortless description. The following day, 
 he invited them to a share, with forty Indians, in three 
 small fishes. On the fifth day of their absence from the 
 settlement they returned, faint and giddy for want of sleep 
 and food.^ 
 
 A boy of the company having gone astray in the woods, 
 ten men, accompanied by Squanto and another native. 
 Visit to went in search of him in a boat, to the southern 
 Nauset. coast of tlio bay, whither they had intelligence 
 of his having wandered.^ The first night, they put in at 
 the harbor of Cummaquid, now Barnstable, where they 
 were courteously received by the sachem, named lyan- 
 nough, and were assailed with angry language by a 
 woman whose son had been kidnapped by Captain Hunt. 
 The next day, attended by lyannough, they proceeded to 
 Nauset, now Eastham, the place of the attack upon the 
 exploring party in the preceding autumn. Here the boy 
 was surrendered, and an arrangement was made to pay 
 at Plymouth for the corn which had been taken away. 
 " Not less than a hundred " savages came about them at 
 this interview. On the third day they returned home, the 
 more hastily for a story told them at Nauset, that their 
 ally, Massasoit, had been carried off by the Narragansetts. 
 Their renewed observations, in summer-time, on the place 
 where they had at first proposed to build, afforded them 
 the satisfaction of concluding that its soil was " not so 
 good for corn as where they were." 
 
 1 ]\Iourt, Journal, 45. But I suppose "^ The date of this expedition also is 
 this was a mistake of Winslow's, and inu-prtain, though the account of it be- 
 that Massasoit spoke of the Dutch. gins: " The 11th of June we sot forth." 
 
 2 " We set forward the 10th of June." (i\Iourt, 4f).) This and the previous 
 (Mourt's Ivclation, 41.) But it is prob- date of ^lourt could not both be cor- 
 able, from Bradford's statement (102) rect, as then the expeditions to Nauset 
 and other considerations, that the ex- and to ^lassasoit's country would liave 
 pedition was in the first week of July, been contemporaneous, whereas Squan- 
 The question of this date has no rela- to is said to have been in both. 
 
 tions that make it worth discussing.
 
 Chap. V.] PLYMOUTH. 185 
 
 Their return was welcome, for they were half the force 
 of the colony ; and in their absence information had come 
 of dangerous intrigues on the part of Corbitant, a chief 
 subordinate to Massasoit and supposed to be attached to 
 the Narragansetts. The report was, that he was aiming 
 to detach* Massasoit from the alliance lately made, and that 
 he had threatened violence against Squanto, Hobbamak, 
 and Tokamahamon, counsellors of the sachem friendly to 
 the English. Hobbamak soon after escaped with difficulty 
 to the settlement, bringing intelligence of the apprehen- 
 sion of Squanto. Standish, with some twelve men, well 
 armed, was sent back with Hobbamak to protect 
 their friend, and counteract the plot. At midnight, Expedition 
 alter a rainy day, and a weary march, lengthened 
 by the^ir having strayed from the path, they beset the 
 wigwam of Corbitant at Namasket. Not finding him there, 
 they disarmed his people, who were thrown into conster- 
 nation by the report of their fire-arms. The next day, 
 leaving for him a message of caution against the repe- 
 tition of hostile attempts upon their friends, they 
 returned to Plymouth, accompanied by Squanto, 
 whom they had rescued, a wounded man and woman 
 whom they brought to be treated by their physician, and 
 others who volunteered to carry their arms and knapsacks. 
 They had killed none. The good effect upon their savage 
 neighbors of this prompt action was presently apparent. 
 Nine sachems, representing jurisdictions extending from 
 Charles River to Buzzard's Bay, came into the sept, is. 
 
 / 1 ^ •^ 1 • J.' 1 "I • 1 il Submission 
 
 town, and subscribed a writing by which tney of nine sa- 
 " acknowledged themselves to be loyal subjects of '^'"""^• 
 King James " ; which was but a way of engaging to keep 
 the peace with his subjects at Plymouth.^ 
 
 The last expedition of the season was to the bay on 
 which Boston now stands, called in the contem- visit to 
 poraneous record Massachusetts Baj/. Standish ^o^^onBay. 
 
 1 Morton, Memorial, 67; comp. Bradford, 104. 
 16*
 
 186 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 and nine others, with three Indians to interpret, of whom 
 Snuanto was one, embarked at midni<2:ht with the 
 
 Sept. 20. ^ . . ^ 
 
 ebb-tide, ihe second morning they hmded upon 
 a beach under a cliff,^ and received the submission of a 
 chief on a promise of being a " safeguard from his enemies." 
 They surveyed the "fifty islands" of Boston harbor; and, 
 passing the night on board their boat, went on shore 
 again the following day, and walked a few miles into the 
 country. They observed land which had been cultivated, 
 two forts in decay, untenanted huts, and other tokens of 
 recent depopulation. They noted " the fair entrance " of 
 the river Charles, and "harbors for shipping" than which 
 " better cannot be." They conciliated the few natives 
 whom they met, and traded with them for some skins. 
 They learned that the principal personage in the neigh- 
 borhood was the female chief, or " squaw sachem," of 
 Massachusetts, that it had suffered from hostile incursions 
 of the Tarratines, and that its people owned a certain alle- 
 giance to Massasoit. The third evening, by " a light 
 moon," the party set sail for home, which they reached 
 
 before the followinoj noon. The accounts they 
 
 Sept. sa ° '' 
 
 brought of the place explored naturally made 
 their friends " wish they had been seated there." 
 
 " They began now to gather in the small harvest they 
 had." The husbandry of the year had proved a pros- 
 in.proved porous beginning. The rivers supplied manure 
 prospects. '^^ abuudauce, and the weather had been not un- 
 favorable. " All the summer there was no want." The 
 pease turned out " not Avortli the gathering ; the sun 
 parched them in the blossom"; but the barley was "in- 
 different good," and there was " a good increase of Indian 
 corn." " They had about a peck of meal a week to a 
 person, or now, since harvest, Indian corn to that propor- 
 
 1 Dr. Belknap (Amer.Biog., II. 22-1) afterwards built. This is uncertain; 
 
 understood this clifT to have been Copp's see Drake's "History and Anti(iuitie3 
 
 Hill, the noithernniost eminence of the of Boston," 44, note. 
 three, on and about which Boston was
 
 Chap. V.] PLYMOUTH. 187 
 
 tion/' The cod and bass fishing had aifordcd ample sup- 
 plies. Seven substantial dwelling-houses had been built, 
 " and four for the use of the plantation," ^ while others 
 were in progress. Fowl were so abundant in the autumn, 
 that " four men in one day killed as much as, with a little 
 help beside, served the company almost a week." " There 
 was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, 
 besides venison." The fowlers had been sent out by the 
 Governor, " that so they might, after a special manner, 
 rejoice together after they had gathered the fruit of their 
 labors " ; — the first celebration of the national festival of 
 New England, the autumnal Thanksgiving On that occa- 
 sion of hilarity, they "exercised their arms," and for three 
 days " entertained and feasted " Massasoit and some ninety 
 of his people, who made a contribution of five deer to 
 the festivity.^ Health was restored ; household fires were 
 burning ; and in good heart and hope the lonely company 
 disposed themselves to meet the rigor of another w^inter. 
 
 Before the winter set in, tidings from England had 
 come, to relieve the long year s lonesomeness ; and a wel- 
 come addition was made to the sadly diminished number. 
 The Fortune, a vessel of fifty-five tons' burden, ^^^ ^ 
 reached Plvmouth after a passage of four months, Amv-ai of 
 
 . the Fortune. 
 
 with Cushman and some thirty other emigrants. 
 
 The men who now arrived outnumbered those of their 
 
 predecessors who were still living. 
 
 It would be an error to suppose that the community 
 planted at Plymouth was of a strictly homoge- character of 
 neous character.^ The devoted men, who at Ley- "'^ <:o>on'«ts- 
 
 1 We collect here and there a Mnt and linseed oil for your windows." 
 
 as to the construction of the houses. A (Winslow, in Mourt, 64.) 
 
 storm on the 4th of February (in the ^ Ibid., GO, 61. 
 
 worst of the sickness) " caused much 3 a Our company are for the most part 
 daubing of our houses to fall down " very religious, honest people." (Let- 
 (Mourt, 30) ; this was the clay or other ter of William Hilton, sent from Ply- 
 earth whicli filled the chinks between mouth in December, 1621, and first pub- 
 the logs. Winslow wrote to persons lished in 1622, in the second edition of 
 proposing to emigrate, " Bring paper John Smith's " New England's Trials.")
 
 188 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 den had debated the question of emigration, did not con- 
 stitute the whole company even of the Mayflower. They 
 had been joined in England by several strangers, who, 
 like themselves, had come under engagements to the 
 London Adventurers. That partnership had business 
 objects, and was by no means solely swayed by a re- 
 ligious sympathy with the emigrants from Leydcn. It 
 may be presumed that the persons in England who would 
 volunteer, or be induced, to take part in the transactions 
 with Robinson's congregation, would generally be such as 
 were under similar religious influences ; but there is no 
 proof that the Leyden people had any efl'ectual control 
 over the selection of their companions whom the partners 
 w-ere to send. Certain it is, that Robinson understood the 
 society to be composed of not altogether accordant materi- 
 als, when assembled at Southampton for the embarkation.^ 
 And before the landing at Cape Cod, the manifestation of 
 a disorderly spirit had been the immediate occasion of a 
 compact for the institution of a government. The first 
 half-year was not ended, when John Billington, who ten 
 years later was hung for murder, was " sentenced by the 
 whole company to have his neck and heels tied 
 
 March. L J 
 
 together for contempt of the Captain's lawful 
 command with opprobrious speeches." He " came from 
 London," and Bradford " knew not by what friends shuf- 
 fled into their company."^ Dotey and Lister, for fighting 
 
 a duel "with sword and da2:c:er," were "adjudged 
 
 Juno 18. 1 , • 1 -, T 
 
 by the whole company to have their head and 
 feet tied together, and so to lie for twenty-four hours 
 without meat or drink." They had come over as servants 
 to Mr. Hopkins, and the country did not suit Lister, 
 who, as soon as his time was out, removed to Virginia. 
 
 1 Sec above, p. 1C2. amongst lliom from the first, which 
 
 2 Bradford, 277. Bradford had came out of England, and more after- 
 found him out early. "He is a knave, wards by some of the Adventurers, as 
 and so will live and die." (Letter to friendship or other affections led them." 
 Cushman of June 9, 1625.) "They (Bradford, 214.) 
 
 had some untoward ])crsons mixed
 
 Chap. V.] PLYMOUTH. 189 
 
 Of the twenty men of the Mayflower's company who 
 had survived the first winter, eleven are favorably known. 
 The rest are either known unfavorably (as Billington, 
 Dotey, and Lister), or else only by name.^ The advantage 
 in number, and the authority of superior character, deter- 
 mined that events should proceed at Plymouth according 
 to the policy of Bradford, Brewster, and their friends. But 
 internal tendencies to disturbance are not to be left out of 
 view in a consideration of the embarrassments wdth which 
 they had to struggle.™ The arrival of a ship with passen- 
 gers was not an occasion of unmingled pleasure. In the 
 urgent need that existed for a reinforcement, the Adven- 
 turers could not be fastidious, nor is it improbable that 
 they would freely use the opportunity to rid themselves of 
 troublesome dependents. Of the twenty-five men brought 
 out by the Fortune, some were old friends of the colonists, 
 at Leyden.^ Others were persons Avho added to the moral 
 as well as to the numerical strength of the settlement. 
 But there were not wanting such as became subjects for 
 anxiety and coercion.^ 
 
 1 In respect to six, however, of those 2 a j^ these hard and difficult begin- 
 
 whom I have placed in the last class, nings, they found some discontents and 
 
 it may be inferred, from Bradford's murmurings arise among some, and mu- 
 
 subsequent mention of Cooke, Eaton, tinous speeches and can-iage in other ; 
 
 Brown, and Soule, (4.51, 453, 454,) but they were soon quelled and over- 
 
 that they were orderly persons at least ; come by the wisdom, patience, and just 
 
 while " Gardiner became a seaman, and and equal carriage of things by the 
 
 died in England, or at sea," and Gil- Governor and better part, which clave 
 
 bert Winslow, Bradford says (454), faithfully together in the main." (Ibid., 
 
 "after divers years' abode here, re- 91.) 
 
 turned into England, and died there." 3 Winslow (Brief Narration,InHypoc- 
 
 Besides the "twenty," there were Tre- risie Unmasked, 393) mentions two of 
 
 vor and Ely, of whom we only know the Fortune's passengers, Simonson and 
 
 that they were " seamen hired to stay a Delano (De la Noye, a person of French 
 
 year in the country," and that, "when extraction), as having been members of 
 
 their time was out, they both returned." the Leyden church. Thomas Prince, 
 
 In the eleven " favorably known " I afterwards (xovernor, came in this ves- 
 
 have included Isaac AUerton, who at sel, and John Winslow, a brother of 
 
 this time was entirely trusted, though Edward. Cushman brought hia son, 
 
 at a later period he incurred much and there was a son of Brewster, 
 
 reproach. 4 u Lusty young men, and many of
 
 190 HISTORY OF KEW EXGLAXD. [Book I. 
 
 The patent from the London Company, under which the. 
 
 emigrants had expected to possess their American home, 
 
 was rendered useless by their landinof so far to 
 
 111 success of •^ ... 
 
 the London tho uorth. That branch of the Virginia corpora- 
 tion had never prospered. Successive charters, 
 with extended privileges, had failed to infuse energy into its 
 management.^ The operations of its heroic officer, John 
 Smith, had been thwarted, till he withdrew discouraged 
 from its service ; and the colony at Jamestown seemed 
 flickering to its extinction, when it took new life from 
 the example of the settlement at Plymouth. At home, 
 the counsels of the Company had been paralyzed by in- 
 ternal dissension and by the king's hostility, excited both 
 by his relations to the Spanish court, which desired to 
 repel neighbors from its settlement in Florida, and by 
 his pique against some of the principal men of the Com- 
 pany, who were popular leaders in Parliament. The 
 J620. Leyden congregation were just preparing for their 
 April. I'emoval, when the king forbade the re-election of 
 their friend, Sir Edwin Sandys, as Governor and Treas- 
 urer of the Company. His mandate was obeyed; but, 
 instead of his nominee, the Earl of Southampton was 
 
 them wild enough." (Bradford, 106.) openly, some pitching the bar, and 
 
 " The plantation was glad of this ad- some at stool-ball, and such like sports, 
 
 ditionofsti-ength, but could have wished So he went to them and took away 
 
 that many of them had been of better their implements, and told them that 
 
 condition, and all of them better fur- was against his conscience, that they 
 
 nished with provisions; but that could should play and others work. If they 
 
 not be helped." (Ibid.) " On the day made their keeping of it matter of devo- 
 
 called Christmas Day, the Governor tion, let them keep their houses, but 
 
 called them out to work, as was used ; there should be no gaming or revelling 
 
 but the most of this new company ex- in the streets. Since which time noth- 
 
 cused themselves, and said it went ing hath been attempted that way, at 
 
 against their consciences to work on least openly." (Ibid., 112.) 
 that day. So the Governor told them ^ The three charters of ICOC, 1609, 
 
 that, if they made it matter of con- and 1612 are in Hazard, I. 50, 58, 72. 
 
 science, he "would spare them till they The first included both the London and 
 
 were better informed. So he led away Tlymouth Companies, or Colonics, as 
 
 the rest, and left them ; but when they they were called. (See above, pp. 81, 
 
 came home at noon from their work, 82.) The last two conferred powers 
 
 he found them in the street at play on the London branch only.
 
 Chap. V.] 
 
 PLYMOUTH. 
 
 191 
 
 chosen, a statesman equally obnoxious to the royal dis- 
 pleasure.^ 
 
 1 The troubles of the Virginia Com- 
 pany, in its contest with the court, are 
 set forth at large in Peckard's " Life of 
 Nicholas Ferrar," the Protestant monk, 
 who, before his seclusion, had, as Dep- 
 uty-Governor of the Company, shown 
 extraordinary ability in the manage- 
 ment of its affairs. I have only an 
 abridgment of that work, published by 
 Joseph ]\Iasters (London, 1852). The 
 story is therein told, in pp. G7-91, 94, 
 95. 
 
 The friendliness of Sir Edwin Sandys 
 to Robinson's congregation has been 
 already mentioned. (See above, pp. 
 151, 152.) Hume (Chap. XLVIIL) 
 commemorates " his activity and vigor 
 in discharging his duty as a member of 
 Parliament." In 1614, the king had 
 committed hira to the Tower for some 
 freedoms in debate. He was known as 
 a man of letters, having published met- 
 rical versions of some portions of Scrip- 
 ture, and written a work entitled " Eu- 
 rope Speculum, or a View or Survey 
 of the State of ReHgion in the AVestern 
 Parts of the World," wherein he record- 
 ed the results of personal observations 
 in all the countries of Southern Europe, 
 except Spain. The copy Avhich I have 
 read is of an edition published at the 
 Hague in 1G29. From the Preface it 
 appears that Sir Edwin was not known 
 to have deceased (though he died in 
 that year), and that the publication was 
 unauthorized by him. The Preface also 
 declares, that there had been an earlier 
 edition, in 1G05, from " a spurious stolen 
 copy, in part epitomized, in part ampli- 
 fied," and that, " since that time, thci-e 
 had been another impression of the 
 same." I know no book which conveys 
 so lively an idea of the state of mind 
 of a large class of reflecting Protestants 
 at that period. The author's reason is 
 fully satisfied of the necessity of the 
 
 Reformation from Romanism. But the 
 influences of early training still embar- 
 rass him. He is full of anxiety for the 
 result of the contest. And he inclines 
 much to the opinion, that the methods 
 of the Papists for winning and securing 
 disciples should be adopted by their 
 opponents. The struggle within him 
 between the old feeling of conservatism 
 and the conviction of a need of change 
 is curiously manifest. 
 
 While the treaty for a marriage be- 
 tween Prince Charles and the Infanta 
 was pending, Spain exerted great con- 
 trol over the EngHsh councils, — part- 
 ly, it was believed, through money 
 used for corruption. Gondomar, the 
 Spanish ambassador, had helped to in- 
 fluence King James against Sandys, by 
 representing him as hostile to the pro- 
 posed match. In a MS. volume in the 
 State-Paper Office, entitled " America 
 and West Indies," at page 507, is a 
 letter, of June 7, 1621, addressed by 
 Sandys to " the Right Honorable my 
 most honored good Lord, the Marquis 
 of Buckingham, Lord High Admiral of 
 England." In it he says: "I under- 
 stand, by the last boastings of Sir 
 Thomas Smith and his partisans, of 
 their sedulous endeavors by a cloud of 
 untruths to make a fresh interposition 
 between the most joyful sight of his 
 Majesty's favor, and the darkness where- 
 with myself and my service rest yet ob- 
 scured, an attempt of strange malignity." 
 He represents, that, by God's blessing 
 his labors, " more hath been done in 
 one year, with less than eight thousand 
 pounds, for the advancement of that 
 Colony [Virginia] in people and store 
 of commodities, than was done in Sir 
 Thomas Smith's twelve jears with ex- 
 pense of near eighty thousand pounds." 
 He declares himself willing to give one 
 more year's service to it, if the king de-
 
 192 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 The king showed his resentment by favoring the inter- 
 incorporation csts of thc rivul Company, and of this disposition 
 Gorges did not fail to take advantage. Reviving 
 from their recent discouragement,^ he and his as- 
 sociates sohcited, and with no difficulty obtained, a new 
 incorporation, under the title of " The Council 
 established at Plymouth, in the County of Devon, 
 for the planting, ordering, ruling, and governing of New 
 England in America."" Most of the forty patentees of 
 
 of the Coun- 
 cil for New 
 Eniiland. 
 
 1G20. 
 Nov. 3. 
 
 sires. If not, he will gladly retire, and 
 avoid offering offence to his Majesty. 
 
 Loixl Southampton, Sandys's friend, 
 who succeeded him as Governor of the 
 Virginia Company, continued in that 
 office till its dissolution, which took place 
 in June, lG24,by judgment of the Court 
 of King's Bench on a writ of quo tvar- 
 ranto issued in November of the pre- 
 vious year. These measures against 
 the Company had been preceded by 
 sharp disputes within it. " Tliere is a 
 great faction fallen out in the Virginia 
 Company," &c. " The last week, the 
 Earl of Warwick and the Lord Caven- 
 dish fell so foul at a Virginia or Ber- 
 mudas court, that the he passed and 
 repassed, and they are got over to try 
 their fortune." (Letters of Chamber- 
 lain to Sir Dudley Carleton, April ID 
 and July 2G, 1623, in Birch's "Court 
 and Times of James the First," IL 389, 
 413.) 
 
 On the dissolution of the Company, 
 Mr. Ferrar, the Deputy-Governor, is 
 said (Life of Nicholas Ferrar, 98) to 
 have " seen the attested copies of all 
 the books and papers belonging to 
 them delivered into safe custody in thc 
 Dorset family." It is these copies, I 
 suppose, which, having come into the 
 possession of Mr. Jefferson, now belong 
 to the Law Library at Washington, in 
 consequence of the purchase by t"he 
 government of the papers of that states- 
 man. When Dr. Peckard wrote his 
 Life of Ferrar, about 1790, he applied 
 
 for them to the Duke of Dorset, but 
 they were not to be found. Before 
 that time, it seems, thoy had been con- 
 veyed to this country. Stith (His- 
 tory of Virginia, Preface, v., vi.) says 
 he was informed by Colonel B}Td of 
 Virginia that his father purchased them 
 in England of the executors of the Earl 
 of Southampton for sixty guineas. 
 Those which Stith saw, and lai-gely 
 used for his work, were in three vol- 
 umes, two of which contained a regular 
 journal of proceedings from April 28, 
 1C19, the time of Sandys's election as 
 Governor, to the time of the dissolution 
 of the Company. They were at one 
 time in the possession of the Randolph 
 family. 
 
 1 See above, p. 98. 
 
 2 Gorges, Briefe Narration, Chap. 
 XVI. The petitioners had asked 
 (March 3, 1620) "that their territory 
 may be called, as by the Prince his 
 Highness it hath been named, Neio 
 Englaiul." The patent is in Hazard, I. 
 103. The royal warrant for its prep- 
 aration had been issued, July 23. 
 (Hazard, I. 99.) Acquainted with this 
 movement, W^eston and others had, be- 
 fore the embarkation at Leyden, rec- 
 ommended the taking of a patent from 
 the Council for New England, rather 
 than from the Virginia Company. 
 (Bradford, 44.) 
 
 Of the records of the Council for New 
 England, two portions survive among 
 the documents in the State-Paper Office
 
 Chap. V.] 
 
 PLYMOUTH. 
 
 193 
 
 this Council were men of distinguished consequence. 
 Thirteen were peers, some of them of the highest rank. 
 It was empowered to hold territory in America, extending 
 westward from sea to sea, and in breadth from the for- 
 tieth to the forty-eighth degree of north latitude. 
 
 Upon lands of this corporation Bradford and his com- 
 panions had sat down without leave, and were of course 
 liable to be summarily expelled. Informed of their po- 
 sition by the return of the Mayflower to England in the 
 spring, their friends obtained from the Coun- 
 cil a patent which was brought by the For- 
 tune.^ It was taken out in the name of "John Pierce, 
 
 1621. 
 Nov. 9. 
 
 in London. The first (consisting of 
 forty pages, if my memorandum is cor- 
 rect) is bound in the beginning of the 
 first volume of the series entitled "Board 
 of Trade." Its title, " A Journal of the 
 Council of Trade from the last of May, 
 1622, to the 21st of June, 1623," which 
 is in a much more modern handwriting, 
 and was prefixed, as I think there can 
 be no doubt, by some person who did 
 not understand the character of the doc- 
 ument, has concealed it from the knowl- 
 edge of inquirers in later times. It has 
 been injured by fire. Mr. Felt, who 
 had seen it, quotes it (Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory, &c., I. 68) under the title of" Coun- 
 cil Records of London." Mr. Deane, in 
 his edition of Bradford (209), and Mr. 
 Haven (Archasol. Amer., III. 54), more 
 precisely recognize the memoranda of 
 Mr. Felt as being from " the Records 
 of the Council for New England." 
 
 The other fragment is the tenth par- 
 cel in the file, in the State-Paper Office, 
 designated by the number 485. It is, 
 I suppose, no part of the original Jour- 
 nal, but of a copy, made probably in 
 the year 1674, when the project to send 
 Randolph to New England was matur- 
 ing. It extends over the time between 
 November, 1631, and November, 1638. 
 It seems that, not long before the 
 VOL. I. 17 
 
 commission of Colonel Nichols and oth- 
 ers, in 1664, the Journal was placed in 
 the hands of the first Lord Clarendon, 
 from which time it was lost sight of. 
 In May, 1678, "the Lords of the Com- 
 mittee " (that is, the Privy Council's 
 Committee of Trade, &c., estabhshed 
 March 12, 1675) applied by letter to 
 the second Lord Clai'endon for "a large 
 book in folio, bound in parchment, of 
 the Records of the Council for New 
 England from 1620 to 1635," which, as 
 they had learned from Robert Mason, 
 was in 1662 delivered by him to the 
 Earl's father, " wherein, among other 
 things, are contained all the grants made 
 from the said Council." (Original Pa- 
 pers in the State-Paper Office, II. 151.) 
 In a subsequent letter, Southwell, Sec- 
 retary of the Committee, informs Lord 
 Clarendon (Ibid., 162) that, on an ex- 
 amination of the Records of the Privy 
 Council, he finds that Mason's claim 
 cannot be substantiated, unless Lord 
 Clarendon can find the book lately 
 applied for. 
 
 1 The original of this instrument, 
 after a long disappearance, came to 
 light, within the present century, in the 
 Land-Office of Massachusetts, and had 
 been seen by Judge Davis when he pre- 
 pared his edition of Morton's " Memo-
 
 194 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 citizen and cloth worker of London, and his associates," 
 with the understanding that it shoukl be held in trust for 
 Patent from tlic Advcnturcrs, of whom Pierce was one. It 
 flTxeT'" ^^lowed a hundred acres of land for every colonist 
 England. gouc aud to go to Ncw England, at a yearly rent 
 
 of two shillings an acre after seven years. It 
 granted fifteen hundred acres for public uses, and liberty 
 to "hawk, fish, and fowl"; to "truck, trade, and traffic 
 with the savages " ; to " establish such laws and ordinances 
 as are for their better government, and the same, by such 
 officer or officers as they shall by most voices elect and 
 choose, to put in execution"; and to "encounter, expulse, 
 repel, and resist by force of arms" all intruders, and other 
 persons who should " enterprise or attempt destruction, 
 invasion, detriment, or annoyance to the said plantation." 
 The number of colonists was to be reported to tlie Coun- 
 cil from time to time, and they were to " apply them- 
 selves and their labors in a large and competent manner 
 to the planting, setting, making, and procuring of good 
 and staple commodities in and upon the land granted 
 unto them, as corn and silk-grass, hemp, flax, pitch and 
 tar, soap-ashes and pot-ashes, iron, clapboard, and other 
 the like materials." The instrument was signed for the 
 Council by the Duke of Hamilton, the Duke of Lenox, 
 the Earl of Warwick, Lord Sheffield, and Sir Ferdinando 
 Gorges. 
 
 At the end of five weeks after her arrival, the Fortune 
 
 sailed aijain for England. She had brought out a 
 
 Dec. 13. ^ O .... 
 
 Sailing of letter from Weston, complaining in harsh terms 
 that the Mayflower had returned without a 
 
 rial." (Davis's Morton, p. 73.) Again Dcane, of Cambridge. A copy, ccrti- 
 
 it was lost sight of, and was given up fied by Samuel Wells of Boston, July 
 
 by the antiquaries (Young, Pilgrims, 28, 1743, to have been exactly taken 
 
 235), till once more discovered, in 1854, from the original, then in his custody, 
 
 among Judge Davis's papers. It has probably for an examination of some 
 
 since been published in a beautiful title, has been in the librarj'^ of the 
 
 edition by that accomplished New- American Antifjuarian Society at Wor- 
 
 England arclueologist, !Mr. Charles cester for more than twenty years.
 
 Chap. V.] PLYMOUTH. 195 
 
 freight. " That you sent no ladmg in the ship is won- 
 derful, and worthily distasted. I know your weakness 
 was the cause of it, and, I believe, more weakness of 
 judgment than weakness of hands. A quarter of the time 
 you spent in discoursing, arguing, and consulting would 
 have done much more." He desired a fair engrossment 
 of the contract with the Adventurers, subscribed with the 
 names of the principal planters ; ^ and he abounded in 
 protestations that he would adhere to the engagements, 
 though all the other Adventurers should be discouraged.^ 
 The dignified reply of Bradford is penetrated with an 
 unconscious pathos. On the side of the settlers, he says, 
 there had been disappointments far more serious. " The 
 loss of many honest and industrious men's lives cannot be 
 valued at any price. It pleased God to visit us with death 
 daily, and with so general a disease that the living Avere 
 scarce able to bury the dead, and the well not in any 
 measure sufficient to tend the sick. And now to be so 
 greatly blamed for not freighting the ship doth indeed 
 go near us, and much discourage us."^ 
 
 The Fortune carried homeward " two hogsheads of 
 beaver-skins, and good clapboards as full as she could 
 hold ; the freight estimated at five hundred pounds." 
 But the remittance failed through her capture and pil- 
 lage, near the coast of England, by a French privateer. 
 Cushman, who had come in that vessel, returned in her, 
 as had been arranged in England, to make a personal 
 report to the Adventurers. While at Plymouth, he had 
 exercised his gifts in a " prophecy," which was cushman's 
 printed on his return to London ; ^ an interesting ^''^p'^ecy- 
 memorial of the transactions which he witnessed and 
 
 1 It seems that the indenture had 2 "Weston's letter, in Bradford, 107. 
 never been executed, in consequence 3 Bradford's letter, in Bradford, 
 
 of the dispute about the two articles 109. 
 
 last inserted (see above, p. 158). The * Dr. Young has reprinted it (PU- 
 
 emigrants now yielded, and sent the grims, 262 et seq.). 
 contract by the Fortune.
 
 196 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 took part in, of the spirit of the actors, and of the intelli- 
 gence and character of the speaker. 
 
 "We know too well how the first winter had heen 
 passed hy the settlers. Respecting the employments of 
 the second, we have less information. In the absence of 
 domestic animals, a great part of the farmers winter 
 occupation was wanting to them. Fishing, hunting, and 
 the collection of fuel and timber, may be supposed to 
 have made their chief business, varied by occasional 
 traffic with Indian visitors. One care was urgent for the 
 passing time, and must have weighed on their spirits as 
 they looked into the future. Not only had the Fortune 
 Scarcity brought uo suppUcs to America, but the colonists 
 of food. j^g^jj Yiixd to straiten themselves to supply her for 
 the return voyage. " Upon her departure, the Governor 
 and his assistants disposed the late comers into several 
 families, found their provisions would now scarce hold 
 out six months at half allowance, and therefore put them 
 to it, which they bore patiently." 
 
 A new cause for solicitude arose. After the departure 
 of the Fortune, in the depth of winter, came a rumor, 
 Threats of tlirougli thc neighboring Indians, of hostilities 
 Narraga"n- '^ mcditatcd agaiust the plantation by the powerful 
 setts. tribe of Narragansetts. It was confirmed when 
 
 a messenger from Canonicus, their chief sachem, brought 
 a bundle of arrows tied with a snake-skin, which Squanto 
 interpreted as a declaration of war. Against the English 
 force of about fifty men, the Narragansetts, as they had 
 heard, could muster five thousand warriors. The Gover- 
 jnoo. nor sent back the snake-skin full of powder and 
 February. \)q\\^ which the savagcs, aflfrighted, refused to 
 keep. It was passed for a Avhile from hand to hand 
 among them, and at length came back to Plymouth. 
 The English " built a fort with good timber, both strong 
 and comely, which was of good defence, made with a flat 
 roof and battlements, on which their ordnance were
 
 Chap. V.] PLYMOUTH. 197 
 
 mounted. It served them also for a meeting-house, and 
 was fitted accordingly for that use. It was a great work 
 for them, in this weakness and time of wants. But the 
 danger of the time required it, and also the hearing of 
 that great massacre in Virginia made all hands willing to 
 despatch the same."^ The dwellings were barricaded; the 
 whole settlement, with the fort, and space for a garden 
 for each family, was enclosed with a paling; a military 
 organization was completed; and watch and ward were 
 constantly kept. These precautions, and the attitude of 
 defiance which had been assumed, appear to have discon- 
 certed the plan of invasion, and the winter passed quietly 
 away. Early in the spring, a native, of Squanto's 
 family, renewed the alarm of a projected inroad 
 of the Narragansetts, in alliance with Massasoit ; and the 
 Governor, by signal-guns, recalled a party which had 
 just sailed with Standish for Boston Bay. But the report 
 proved to be unfounded, and was afterwards attributed to 
 unfriendliness on the part of Squanto towards the Poka- 
 noket chiefs 
 
 1 Bradford, 126. tract by Edward Winslow was published 
 
 2 Winslow, Good Newes from New in London in 1624. It is the most co- 
 England, or a True Relation of Things pious authority for the events of the 
 very Remarkable at the Plantation of two years next succeeding those em- 
 Plymouth in Kew England, 1 - 9. This braced in Mourt's Journal. 
 
 17*
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 It was but a transient gleam of prosperity that had 
 cheered the exiles at the close of their first summer in 
 
 America. Through nearly the whole of the next 
 Scarcity two ycars, they were struggling with hardship in 
 
 one of its direst forms. " A famine began to 
 pinch," which was not wholly relieved till the second 
 harvest after the departure of the Fortune. 
 
 In the former of the two summers that intervened, " had 
 they not been where were divers sorts of shell-fish, they 
 must have perished." They had planted nearly sixty acres 
 with corn, and in their gardens they had some vegetables ; 
 but " the crop proved scanty, partly through weakness, 
 for want of food, to tend it, partly through other business, 
 and partly by much being stolen," before it ripened, by 
 an unruly rout of Englishmen lately arrived in vessels 
 of Mr. Weston. Some small supplies of corn were pro- 
 cured, in short expeditions by sea and land, from the coast 
 further to the north, and more from the neighboring 
 natives. From vessels "fishing at the eastward" AVins- 
 
 low obtained " as much bread as amounted to a 
 
 May. 
 
 quarter of a pound a person a day, till harvest." 
 As winter came on, they were "helped with fowl and 
 ground-nuts." The Governor got twenty-seven or twcnty- 
 
 eicfht honrshcads of corn and beans, in a visit to 
 
 November. On ' ^ 
 
 Boston Bay and Cape Cod, from which latter 
 region he returned fifty miles on foot, " receiving all re- 
 spect that could be from the Indians in his journey." 
 ]r,o-3. Another supply he brought later from the head 
 January. q£ what is uow Called Buzzard's Bay.-^ 
 
 1 Bradford, 1 2 1 - 1 29. — WIn.slow, Cood Newcs, 11-21.
 
 Chap. VI.] PLYMOUTH. 199 
 
 Standish, on errands of the same kind, had less satisfac- 
 tory intercourse with the natives, who appeared to him to 
 have treacherous designs, and witli whom he was obliged 
 two or three times to resort to threats to obtain restitution 
 of stolen property. On one occasion, at Manomet (Sand- 
 wich), he fell in with a Massachusetts Indian, whose 
 errand he understood to be to raise a general conspiracy 
 against the English, and whose design of causing his 
 assassination on the spot he had to use both address and 
 courage to defeat. 
 
 Indian corn, boiled or roasted in the green ear, is in its 
 season a palatable article of diet, much used in New 
 England at the present day. The persons who weston's 
 pilfered the unripe grain from the fields of the at\vel'sT- 
 settlers in the second summer w^ere of a party ^'''®*'* 
 sent out by Mr. "Weston of London, whose activity in the 
 early period of the partnership has been repeatedly men- 
 tioned. Soon after writing to Plymouth that he legj. 
 would " never quit the business, though all the """'^ °' 
 other Adventurers should,"^ Weston had withdrawn from 
 them, and engaged in speculations on his own account. 
 He now wrote to the settlers, "I have sold my ad- 1C22. 
 venture and debts unto them, so as I am quit of ^p"^ ^^' 
 you, and you of me" ; and two vessels of his, the Charity 
 and the Swan, brought fifty or sixty men " to settle a 
 plantation for him in the Massachusetts Bay, for 
 
 ,.,,,, , ... -lune or July. 
 
 which he had procured a patent," as his private 
 property.^ The Plymouth people took them to their 
 homes, gave them " the best means the place afforded," 
 
 1 Bradford, 107. Ibid., 123.) — "I will not deny but 
 
 2 " Xhe people wliicli they carry are there are many of our people rude 
 
 no men for us, wherefore I pray you fellows, yet I presume they 
 
 entertain them not." (Cushman to will be governed by such as I set over 
 
 Bradford, in Bradford, 122.) — " As for them. And I hope not only to be able 
 
 Mr. Weston's company, I think them to reclaim them from that profaneness 
 
 so base in condition, for the most part, that may scandalize the voyage, but by 
 
 as in all appearance not fit for an honest degrees to draw them to God," &c. 
 
 man's company." (Pierce to Bradford, (Weston to Bradford, Ibid., 121.)
 
 Its disorders 
 
 and distress 
 
 November. 
 
 200 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book T. 
 
 and nursed several of them who were sick. While some 
 went in search of a place of abode, the rest made them- 
 selves extremely troublesome guests ; so that it was with 
 great satisfaction that at length their hosts saw most of 
 them depart to begin a plantation at Wessagusset (now 
 '\Ye}Tnouth), leaving the infirm of their number to be 
 gratuitously cared for at Plymouth. 
 
 By disorder and waste, Weston's people presently fell 
 short of provisions, and, as winter approached, they became 
 
 anxious for a further supply. They proposed to 
 • their Plymouth friends to join them in purchases 
 
 from the Indians ; and it was in their smaller 
 vessel that Governor Bradford made the expedition, which 
 has been mentioned, to Boston Bay and Cape Cod. But 
 their irregular habits were not corrected, and thev could 
 no longer expect any voluntary relief from the neighbor- 
 ing natives, whom they had incensed by depredations on 
 their cornfields and by other annoyances. At length, their 
 1003. extremity became such, that Sanders, their chief 
 Februar>'. jj^^n, scut to iufomi Govcmor Bradford of his 
 intention to get some corn from the Indians by force to 
 subsist his men, while he, with a party, should sail to the 
 eastward for a supply from the European fishing-vessels. 
 The Plymouth people remonstrated in the strongest terms 
 against his plan of robbery. They advised him to make 
 shift to live, as they did, on ground-nuts, clams, and 
 muscles, and sent him some corn from their own scanty 
 store for his voyage.^ 
 
 In his absence, affairs took an alarming aspect for both 
 settlements. Intelligence had come to Plymouth that 
 Massasoit was desperately ill, and that a Dutch vessel was 
 lying stranded on the Narragansett shore near his dwell- 
 ing. Both these matters engaged the attention of the 
 colonists. They owed a visit of sympathy to their friend, 
 and they desired a conference with the Dutch seamen. 
 
 1 WInslow, Good Newes, 11 - 25, 34 - 37. — Bradford, 132.
 
 Chap. VI.] PLYMOUTH. 201 
 
 Winslow, who by his residence in Holland was qualified 
 for the latter office, was sent on the errand with March. 
 " Master John Hambden, a gentleman of Lon- orwinsllw 
 don." ^ Before they reached their destination, the *" '^^**'''^°"- 
 vessel had been got off, and had sailed away. Massasoit, 
 found lying in destitution and filth, apparently at the 
 point of death, was relieved and at length restored to 
 health under the treatment of Winslow, who condescended 
 to the most humble offices of nurse and cook. In the 
 overflow of his gratitude, the savage revealed the exist- 
 ence of a plot, among the tribes scattered over the conspiracy 
 country from Boston Bay to Martha's Vineyard, °'"^'"^'=^"*- 
 for the extirpation of the Avhites. The provocation was, 
 he said, the outrages committed by Weston's people at 
 W^essagusset ; but the meditated destruction would in- 
 clude the colonists at Plymouth, because of the appre- 
 hension that they would attempt to protect or avenge 
 their countrymen. 
 
 The messengers returned with these tidings of alarming 
 import. Other circumstances confirmed the truth of the 
 disclosure. In Standish's recent forage on the Cape, con- 
 ferences of the natives there with Indian visitors from the 
 north, and other significant movements, had not escaped 
 his vigilance. A less circumstantial warning, but from a 
 
 1 It is a natural feeling tliat lias Dr. Young (Pilgrims, 314, note) has 
 made our historians desire to identify suggested other considerations which 
 this person with the great statesman of alone would seem decisive against the 
 the civil war. But such a supposition supposition of a visit to Plymouth by 
 will not bear scrutiny. John Hamp- the John Hampden of history, 
 den could not have spared the time to Winslow's companion was probably 
 be absent from England at the critical some passenger in one of Weston's 
 junctureof affairs between King James's ships. Hobbamak was their guide, 
 third and fourth Parliaments ; when after- Squanto had died in the previous No- 
 wards he became conspicuous, our early vember, while in attendance on the 
 writers could not have failed to notice Governor in his expedition to Cape 
 the fact of a visit from him, had it been Cod. (Winslow, Good Newes, 18.) 
 made ; and the name borne by the He had been a useful friend to the 
 stranger is inconsistent with the idea of settlers, though sometimes troublesome 
 an incognito of the illustrious patriot, and sometimes suspected. (Ibid., 8.)
 
 1G22. 
 Marcli 27. 
 
 202 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 trustworthy source, had come from Boston Bay to the 
 settlement during Wmslow's absence.^ On his return to 
 Plymouth, he found there an Indian of Cape Cod, whom 
 Standish had known as one of the plotters at Manomet, 
 and who was now endeavoring to prevail upon the Captain 
 to make another visit to that region.- It was not forgot- 
 ten that the Indian conspiracy in Virginia had 
 been unsuspected till it broke out in the mas- 
 sacre of three hundred and fifty settlers. 
 
 The time for the " yearly Court Day " presently came 
 round. The exigency seemed urgent. " The Governor 
 1C23. communicated the intelligence to the whole com- 
 Marchss. p^ny, and asked their advice." The company re- 
 ferred the matter back to the Governor, the Assistant, and 
 the Captain. These consulted among themselves and with 
 others, and concluded that the preservation of the settle- 
 ment depended upon energetic measures. Being guiltless 
 of injury, they had no peaceable way to accommodation 
 and security ; having done nothing to provoke the assault 
 which impended, they could only escape by anticipating 
 it. To strike a blow such as their little strength was 
 equal to, and such as would at the same time be widely 
 known and make an effective impression, Standish was 
 despatched by water with eight men to the cen- 
 8i..nof tral point of discontent at Wessagusset. Here 
 the plot. ^^ found Wituwamat, the emissary who, as 
 he believed, had intended to murder him at Manomet. 
 Encountering this savage and three others, Standish and 
 two of his men put them to death, after a closely contested 
 fight without fire-arms. One of the four they hanged. 
 
 1 rhinehas Pratt, one of AVcston's been met by " Ur. Ilamdin " outside of 
 
 company, had come to Plymouth, from the town. He lived afterwards for 
 
 Wessaausset, to pive the alarm. Ho twenty-five years at Plymouth, and 
 
 had been pursued by the Indians, and then removed to Massachusetts, where, 
 
 had escaped by losin'p his way. In his in 1CG2, the General Court granted 
 
 "Declaration," &c. (Mass. Ilist. Coll., him three hundred acres of land. 
 XXXIV. 484), he mentions having 2 "Winslow, Good Newcs, 25 - 34, 37.
 
 Chap. VI] PLYMOUTH. 203 
 
 Not far oiF they killed another, and Weston's men two 
 more.^ The object was accomplished. The rest of the 
 natives in terror dispersed into the woods. A prisoner 
 made full confession of the plot. 
 
 Wituwamat's head was brought to Plymouth, and set 
 up on the fort. The courage of Weston's men gave out, 
 and the settlement was abandoned. Some of them „. 
 
 Dispersion 
 
 came to Plymouth with Standish ; the rest, wish- otweston's 
 ing to join their friends at the Eastern fisheries, 
 received from him gratuitously for their voyage all his 
 corn except what sufficed to bring his own party home.^ 
 And " this was the end," so mused the Plymouth Gover- 
 nor, " of those that sometime boasted of their strength, 
 being all able, lusty men, and what they would do and 
 bring to pass in comparison of the people here, who had 
 many women and children and weak ones among them. 
 
 But a man's way is not in his own power. God 
 
 can make the weak to stand." 
 
 Mr. Weston, coming over soon afterwards for a better 
 examination of his affairs, was shipwrecked between the 
 Piscataqua and the Merrimack, , and pillaged by weston at 
 the Indians, even to the clothes he wore. In P'J"n°"^i'- 
 this plight he found his way to Plymouth. They " pitied 
 his case, and remembered former courtesies." Though of 
 late he had been only an enemy and a nuisance to them, 
 and though, in their scarcity of food, they could ill spare 
 anything that was salable, they supplied him with a hun- 
 dred and seventy pounds of beaver to trade with. " But 
 he requited them ill ; for he proved after a bitter enemy 
 unto them upon all occasions, and never repaid them 
 anything for it but reproaches and evil words." ^ Lately 
 a prosperous London merchant, he was now a ruined man. 
 
 1 " Concerning the killing of those been, if you had converted some before 
 
 poor Indians," wrote Robinson (Decern- you had killed any !" (Bradford, 164.) 
 
 ber 19, 1623), " of which we heard first 2 Winslow, Good Newes, 37-47. 
 
 by report, and since by more certain 3 Bradford, 132-134. 
 relation, O how happy a thing had it
 
 20 i HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 After this year, he disappears from the history of Ply- 
 mouth. 
 
 Though no fatal issue, like that of the colony at Wes- 
 sagussct, had followed other similar undertakings of the 
 same period, still none yet gave promise of prospering. 
 Gorges continued to be indefatigable, but to little effect. 
 The corporation, of which he was the soul, had scarcely re- 
 perpiexities ccivcd Its chartcr, when it was assailed by the hos- 
 cu'I^r New tlUty of tho rival company of Virginia, the former 
 England. propped by the favor of the king, the latter be- 
 friended by the patriotic leaders in Parliament. Remon- 
 strances against the claim of the Council for New England 
 to a dominion of its seas having proved ineffectual with 
 the Privy Council, the question was transferred to the 
 House of Commons, which passed a bill " for the 
 
 1C21. . . . 
 
 freer liberty of fishing and fishing voyages to be 
 made and performed in the sea-coasts and places of New- 
 foundland, Virginia, New England, and other the sea- 
 coasts and parts of America." It was arrested by the 
 Lords or by the king, and did not become a law.^ 
 
 When King James's fifth Parliament was dissolved, and 
 
 its proceedings against the Council had come to no legal 
 
 issue, Goro^cs took courac^e acrain to prosecute his 
 
 Further at- ^ . n b I 
 
 tenipt,iat plaus. Captaiu John Mason "had been some 
 
 coluiiization. , ^ , . . - -.-,- p ■. 
 
 tmie governor oi a plantation m the JNewiound- 
 land." He had been previously a merchant and a naval 
 officer, and was now Treasurer of the royal navy, and 
 Governor of Portsmouth in Hampshire. He " was him- 
 self a man of action," and well qualified for the vigorous 
 co-operation with Gorges in which he now became en- 
 1G22 g^D^'^- ^^^ obtained from the Council a grant of 
 March 9. ^\^q lauds lylug between the little river which 
 discharges its waters at Naumkeag, now Salem, and the 
 
 1 Gk)ro:eR, Brief Narration, in Mass. Journal of the Commons, I. 591, 592, 
 Hist. Coll., XXVI. 65, 6G. — Chalmers, 602, 654. 
 Political Annals, 83, 84, 100-102.—
 
 Chap. VI.] PLYMOUTH. 205 
 
 river Merrimack, To this tract, extending inland to the 
 sources of those streams, he gave the name of Mariana. 
 In the same year the Council j^ranted to Gor^res 
 
 •' ® ° . Aug. 10. 
 
 and Mason the country bounded by the Merri- 
 mack, the Kennebec, the ocean, and " the river of Can- 
 ada " ; and this territory they called Laconia. Sir Wil- 
 liam Alexander, by Mason's intervention with Gorges, 
 had obtained from the Council a patent for Nova iggi. 
 Scotia, or New Scotland, afterwards confirmed by ^"ptember. 
 a grant from the king under the seal of his northern 
 kingdom. But attempts in this quarter amounted at 
 present to no more than a hasty visit of two vessels to the 
 coast.^ Saco, a few miles up the river of that name, and 
 Agamenticus, afterwards York," may have received their 
 first English inhabitants, under the auspices of Gorges, 
 within three or four years after the plantation at Ply- 
 mouth. In the service of Gorges, Mason, and others, 
 a small party, some from the parent country, some re- 
 cently arrived at the American Plymouth, attempted set- 
 tlements on the Piscataqua. David Thompson, a 
 Scotchman, was in charge of the company at the 
 mouth of that river, where is now Portsmouth ; William 
 and Edward Hilton, "fishmongers of London," were, with 
 others, higher up the stream, at Cochecho, now Dover. But 
 all these undertakings languished for a long time after. 
 What was soon to become a permanent planta- 
 
 ^ ^ 1625. 
 
 tion, at Monhegan, was as yet only a rendezvous 
 for fishermen and traders ; ^ and the settlement at Pema- 
 quid, twelve or fifteen miles from it, on the mainland, was 
 undertaken two years later than those on the Piscataqua. 
 
 1 Gorges, Briefe Narration, Chap, an inhabitant of this place [Agamenti- 
 XVII. - XXIV. cus], the first that ever built or settled 
 
 2 Ibid., Chap. XXV. — Belknap, there." (See Maine Hist. Coll., I. 295.) 
 American Biography, I. 377, 378. — And nothing is certain as to Saco be- 
 Williamson, I. 227, 231. — But Edward fore 1630, except the residence of Vines 
 Grodfrey, in a petition, in 1654, to the in its vicinity, about 1617. See above, 
 General Court of Massachusetts, says p. 98. 
 
 that he had been "twenty-four years 3 gee above, pp. 93, 176. 
 VOL. I. 18
 
 206 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Captain Eobert Gorges, son of Sir Fcrdinando, with 
 " sundry passengers and families," revived the attempt to 
 
 1C23. plant a colony at Wessagusset.^ Captain Gorges 
 Pr^rr't for"' ^^^^ been appointed by the Council for New Eng- 
 a general Jand " Gcucral Governor of the country," to be 
 
 government. . . .^ . . n -r^ • -i-rr 
 
 assisted by a council, consisting of Francis u est, 
 Christopher Levett, the Governor of Plymouth for the 
 time being, and such others as the General Governor 
 should appoint. Captain Gorges and his assistants, or 
 any three of them, he being one, were " to do and execute 
 what to them should seem good, in all cases, capital, crim- 
 inal, and civil." An Episcopal clergyman, named Morrell, 
 came with them, invested with an ecclesiastical authority, 
 which he found no opportunity to exercise. AYhile the 
 object of this movement was to secure to the patentees the 
 monopoly of the New-England territory and waters, it 
 had for its ostensible purpose to correct " the abuses com- 
 mitted by several the fishermen and other interlopers, 
 who, without order from them, frequented these coasts, 
 
 tending to the scorn of our nation, to the overthrow 
 
 of our trade, and dishonor of the government."" 
 
 Levett, who appears to have come over before Gorges, 
 made some examination of the country cast of the Piscata- 
 qua, and on his return published a journal of his voyage.^ 
 
 1 'riie patent of Robert Gorges did rived from it, and gives direetions for 
 not inehide "Wcssagusset. (Sec Hazard, the conduct of the emigrant. " I was 
 I. 152.) His territory extended ten never at the Massachusett, which is 
 miles " upon the northeast side of the counted the paradise of New Enghmd, 
 bay " ; that is, from Charles River to nor at Cape Ann, but I fear there hath 
 Nahant. been too fair a gloss set upon Cape 
 
 2 Gorges, Briefe Narration, Chap. Ann." " Neither was I at New Ply- 
 XXIII. — Bradford, 149. mouth, but I fear that place is not so 
 
 3 This is reprinted in the IMass. Ilist. good as many others." "Neither was 
 Coll., XXVIII. 1.59. It is made up of I ever farther to the west than the Isle of 
 observations on the country, its ad- Shoal.s." (Il)id.,180,181.) "Imustcon- 
 vantages for agriculture, trade, and fish- fess,"hesays(Ibid.,185),"Ihave studied 
 ing, and its climate, soil, productions, no art, a long time, but the mysteries of 
 and inhabitants. It answers objections New-England trade," — a hint which 
 to emigration from England, shows the perhaps justifies what is said in the text 
 benefits, private and public, to be de- of the object of his being placed on the
 
 Cii.vp. VI.] PLYMOUTH. 207 
 
 The work shows that he was at once a man of sense and 
 a man of business, and that the particular trust committed 
 to him by the Council was to ascertain the encourage- 
 ments which the country offered for colonization. Captain 
 Gorges came to Plymouth and passed a fortnight. Here 
 he met Weston, whom he called severely to account on 
 two charges. One was for the misconduct of his men at 
 Wessagusset ; the other, " for an abuse done to his father. 
 Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and to the state; the thing was 
 this : He used him and others of the Council of New Eng- 
 land to procure him a license for the transporting of many 
 pieces of great ordnance for New England, pretending 
 great fortification in that country ; the which when he 
 had obtained, he went and sold them beyond seas for his 
 private profit; for which (he said) the state was much 
 ofiended, and his father suffered a shrewd check." ^ Wes- 
 ton, who was a rogue, was by turns abject and insolent. 
 Gorges was pacified by Bradford's mediation. Weston 
 went to Virginia, and thence to England. Gorges set off 
 by land on an exploration to the North, sending his ves- 
 sel to Virginia with passengers, part of whom she had 
 brought from Europe, while a few were of those who had 
 earlier arrived at Plymouth.^ 
 
 commission. He is angry "with somebody 2 Bradford, 149-153. — In the first 
 whom he does not name (Ibid., 172). I of the fragments wliich remain of the 
 think it was not Weston (comp. 182). — Journal of the Council for New Eng- 
 Samoset, the first Indian friend of the land (see above, pp. 192, 193, note) are 
 Plymouth people, reappears in Levett's the following minutes : — 
 Journal. At a place, which he calls " Petition to be made to the king for 
 Capemamcagan, near the Kennebec, forfeiture of the ships and goods of Mr. 
 he fell in with " Somerset, a sagamore, Weston." This was in May, 1622, 
 one that hath been found very faithful " It is thought fit that there shall be 
 to the English, and hath saved the an order procured from the Lords of 
 lives of many." (Ibid., 170.) his Majesty's Council for sending for 
 1 Perhaps this is what is indicated in such as have, in contempt of authority, 
 the following entry in the Journal of the gone for New England this last year, 
 Privy Council for February 17, 1622: as also to procure a further warning to 
 " License to Thomas Weston to send be given to them from further attempt- 
 munitions and ordnance by the Char- ing, by proclamation." Accordingly, 
 ity." there was issued an " Order to the
 
 208 
 
 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 West, with a commission as " Admiral of New Eng- 
 land," M'as to "restrain such ships as came to fish and trade 
 without license from the Council for New England." Tliis 
 proved to be beyond his power. The fishermen eluded 
 
 Attorney-General, on a petition of tlie 
 Council for New England, to i)repare a 
 proclamation for his INIajesty's signature, 
 prohibiting all persons to resort unto 
 the coasts of New England, contrary to 
 his Majesty's said royal grant." (Jour- 
 nal of the Privy Council for October 
 23, 1G22.) 
 
 " The patents already granted to be 
 confirmed, and order is given for patents 
 to be drawn for the Earl of Warwick 
 and his associates, the Lord Gorges, Sir 
 Robert INIansell, Sir Ferdinando Gor- 
 ges." This, I conceive there is no doubt, 
 relates to a partition to be mentioned 
 hereafter. (Sec below, pp. 222, 285.) 
 
 " As touching the Governor, Sir Fer- 
 dinando Gorges is elected. The par- 
 ticulars are reserved till another meet- 
 ing." 
 
 Tlie following entries are under their 
 respective dates : — 
 
 "Nov. 8 [1C22]. Captain Francis 
 "West to go to New England as Admiral 
 for that coast. 
 
 "It is agreed that a commission be 
 granted unto Arthur Champernowne, 
 Esq., for the sending out of a ship called 
 
 the Chudley, of the burden of tons, 
 
 to fish in New England this year." This 
 shows the strictness of the monopoly 
 asserted. 
 
 Jan. 21, 1G23. "Forasmuch as it 
 was now propounded that a strength 
 must be settled in New England," it 
 was determined that " there ought to 
 be three sorts of men ; — 1. gentlemen, 
 to bear arms and attend upon the Gov- 
 ernor; 2. handicraftsmen of all sorts; 
 3. husbandmen, for the tilling and ma- 
 nuring of the lands; — these to be em- 
 ployed by the public, and accounts to 
 be taken of them every week." Gorges 
 
 was present at the meeting, and this 
 looks like a scheme from the Gorges 
 mint. 
 
 " ]\Iay 31. It is thought convenient 
 to admit young youths from jjarishes, 
 that have not been tainted with any 
 villany or misdemeanor, to be sent to 
 New England, and there to be placed 
 out and bound apprentices to such as 
 shall have occasion and means to cm- 
 ])loy them." 
 
 " July 24. The country to be called 
 Nova Albion." 
 
 " Aug. 6. Forasmuch as it hath been 
 ordered by the Lords of his JMajesty's 
 Privy Council that the patent for New 
 England shall be renewed, as well for 
 the amendment of some things therein 
 contained, as for the necessary supply 
 of what is found defective," &c. I can 
 find nothing satisfactory respecting this 
 abortive scheme. Perhaps it was but a 
 pretence of the Council and the cour- 
 tiers, to pacify the existing clamor. A 
 record of earlier date (March 11, 1G23) 
 must, I presume, be understood with a 
 similar reference. " Touching the gov- 
 ernment of these territories by the pres- 
 ent patent, it is limited to be ' as near as 
 may be to the laws of England.' For 
 many reasons it is propounded that 
 those words may be omitted in the new 
 patent." Sir Henry Spclman was the 
 Council's legal adviser. — In the " Brief 
 Relation " of the President and Council 
 of New England, published in 1622, the 
 same plan is probably referred to (18, 
 20), where they speak of " our patent 
 which we were by order of state as- 
 signed to renew, for the amendment 
 of some defects therein contained." 
 (Comp. Gorges, Briefe Narration, Chap. 
 
 xvm.)
 
 Chap. VL] PLYMOUTH. 209 
 
 him till Parliament had time again to interfere. In the 
 House of Commons, Sir Edward Coke, for the Committee 
 on Grievances, reported against the claim of the 1C04. 
 patentees, " for the clause that none shall visit „ ^^"y- 
 
 i- ' Proceedings 
 
 with fishins: upon the sea-coast." " This," he ar- '" Piriia- 
 gued, IS " to make a monopoly upon the sea, which 
 wont to be free, a monopoly attempted of the wind and 
 the sun by the sole packing and drying of fish." Gorges 
 was heard, at three different times, by himself and by coun- 
 sel. The result was, that, in a list of " public grievances of 
 the kingdom, that of the patent for New England was the 
 first." ^ No further prosecution took place. But Gorges 
 " thought better to forbear for the present, in honor and re- 
 spect of what had passed in so public a manner between 
 the king and his House of Commons " ; the rather, because 
 " this public declaration of the House's dislike of the cause 
 shook .oif all the adventurers for plantation, and made 
 many of the patentees to quit their interest." Robert 
 Gorges, " not finding the state of things to answer his 
 quality," returned to England with some of his compan- 
 ions. Morrell and others, who remained, were assisted 
 with supplies from Plymouth. At length Morrell was 
 discouraged, and a second time the scheme of a considera- 
 ble settlement at Wessagusset was abandoned,^ though 
 a few persons remained, and before long were joined by 
 others, till a permanent community was formed. 
 
 Yet another occasion for anxiety on the part of the 
 Plymouth settlers had arisen from the bad faith of Pierce, 
 to whom the grant of land had been made for the benefit 
 of the Adventurers. Becoming satisfied of the auspicious 
 prospects of the plantation, he conceived the Danger of 
 scheme of securing it for his private advantage, patent!"'""^'* 
 and contrived to supersede the patent by another 1692, 
 which he obtained from the Council for New ""^ 
 
 1 Parliamentary History, I. 1490. — 2 Bradford, 154. — Morrell described 
 
 Gorges, Briefe Narration, &c., Chap, the country in a Latin and an English 
 
 Xvill. -XXI. poem (Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 12G). 
 18*
 
 210 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 Oct. IG. 
 
 England, with provisions which, as the settlers construed 
 them, would " hold them as his tenants, and to sue to his 
 courts as chief lord."^ Pierce sailed for Plymouth, 
 but by tempestuous weather was twice driven back 
 with heavy loss. Informed of the fraud which had been 
 practised, the Adventurers made a complaint. The ques- 
 tion was considered at different meetings of the Council ; 
 and the issue was, that Pierce's new patent was cancelled, 
 and the Adventurers were reinstated in their rights.^ 
 
 1 Bradford, 139 ; see above, p. 193. 
 
 2 Following Morton (Memorial, pp. 
 95 - 97) and Prince (I. 136), recent his- 
 torians have said that the Adventurers 
 bought Pierce's patent for five hundred 
 pounds. But this, I suppose, was but a 
 hasty interpretation of language in a 
 letter from one of the Adventurers, 
 who (Bradford, 140) speaks of Pierce's 
 " unwillingness to part with his royal 
 lordship, and the high rate he set it at, 
 which was £ 500." Though this was 
 what he began with asking, I have seen 
 no proof that he ever got it. The follow- 
 ing extracts from the manuscript Jour- 
 nal of the Council for New England 
 perhaps tell the whole story, as far as 
 it can be now recovered : — 
 
 "18 May, 1G23. Touching the pe- 
 tition exhibited to the Council by the 
 Adventurers of New Plymouth in New 
 England against Mr. John Pierce, the 
 patentee with whom they are associates, 
 Mr. Pierce and the associates met and 
 made several projiositions each to other, 
 but agreed not. "WHiereupon they were 
 appointed to give meeting each to other, 
 and then certify the Council Avhat they 
 concluded on, that then such further 
 course might bo taken as should be 
 meet." 
 
 "Tuesday, 25 May. Present, Sir 
 Ferdinando Gorges, Sir Samuel Argal, 
 Sir Henry Sijclman = ]\Ir. Jo. Pierce 
 and his a.s.sociates. After a long dis- 
 cussion of the difference between !Mr. 
 Jo. Pierce and his associates, it appeared 
 
 that Mr. Jo. Pierce obtained from the 
 Council an indenture purporting a grant 
 of certain lands in New England ibr 
 the settling of a plantation there, dated 
 the first day of June, 1C21. 
 
 " It further appeared, that upon the 
 20th day of April, 1C22, Mr. Pierce 
 granted letters of association unto the 
 said Adventurers, whereby he made 
 them jointly interested with lym in the 
 lands granted by the abovesaid inden- 
 ture. 
 
 " ]\Ioreovcr it appeared that upon the 
 said 20th day of April, 1C22, after the 
 said ]\Ir. Pierce had interested the said 
 Adventurers in the lands passed unto 
 him by the said indenture, that he 
 yielded and surrendered up the said 
 indenture, and received the counterpart 
 thereof, and took a patent or deed-pole 
 of the said lands to himself, his heirs, 
 associates, and assigns for ever, having 
 date the said 20th of April, 1622, with 
 which surrender and new grant the 
 Adventurers affirmed that they were 
 not privy unto, and therefore conceived 
 they were deceived by Mr. Pierce, 
 which was the cause of their complaint. 
 At length, by the mutual consent of 
 ]\Ir. Pierce and the said Adventurers, it 
 was ordered as followeth : — 
 
 " AVhcreas there were several differ- 
 ences between John Pierce, citizen and 
 clothworkcr of London, and the Treas- 
 urer and other the associates of him the 
 said John Pierce that were undertaken 
 with him for the settUng and advance-
 
 Chap. VI.] . PLYMOUTH. 211 
 
 Meanwhile the distress from scarcity of food had con- 
 tinued at Plymouth. When the settlers had planted in 
 the third spring, "all their victuals were spent, 
 and they were only to rest on God's providence, continued 
 
 . T •I'll scarcity. 
 
 at night not many times knowing where to have 
 
 a bit of anything the next day Yet they bore these 
 
 wants with great patience and alacrity of spirit 
 
 Some time, two or three months together, they neither 
 
 had bread nor any kind of corn They were divided 
 
 into several companies, six or seven to a gang or com- 
 pany, and so went out with a net they had bought, to take 
 bass and such like fish, by course, every company knowing 
 
 their turn Neither did they return till they had 
 
 caught something, though it were five or six days before, 
 for they knew there was nothing at home, and to go home 
 empty would be a great discouragement to the rest. Yea, 
 they strove who should do best. If the boat stayed long 
 or got little, then all went to seeking of shell-fish, which at 
 
 low water they digged out of the sands Also in the 
 
 summer they got now and then a deer ; for one or two of 
 the fittest was appointed to range the woods for that end, 
 and what was got that way was divided amongst them."^ 
 When a second party of recruits joined them, " the best 
 dish they could present them with was a lobster, or a piece 
 of fish, without bread, or anything else but a cup of fair 
 spring water. "^ 
 
 This new reinforcement came in the Ann and the Little 
 
 ment of the plantation at Plymouth, in continue tenants unto tlie Council es- 
 
 the parts of New England, said difFei'- tablished for the managing of the afore- 
 
 ences, after the full hearing and debat- said affairs of New England, notwith- 
 
 ing thereof before us, were finally con- standing a grant, bearing date the 20th 
 
 eluded upon by the offer of the said of April, 1622, by said Pierce obtained 
 
 John Pierce and mutual adoption of the without the consent of the said asso- 
 
 said Treasurer and Company then pres- ciates, from the said Council, contrary 
 
 ent, in behalf of themselves and the to a former grant to the said Pierce 
 
 rest of the said Company, that the said made in behalf of himself and his said 
 
 associates with their undertakers and associates, dated the 1st of June, 1G21." 
 servants now settled or to be settled in ^ Bradford, 13G, 137. 
 Plymouth aforesaid should remain and 2 Ibid., 1-16.
 
 212 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 James, the latter of which vessels, of forty-four tons' bur- 
 August, ^en, was "built to stay in the country." The 
 Arrival of Qarlier settlers, Avith those who had now arrived, 
 
 the Aim ' ' 
 
 and tiio were afterwards distinguished from later emigrants 
 
 Littlo James. ,,., f t i t /> /> i n 
 
 by the titles or old-comers and forefathers. " oome 
 few of your old friends," wrote Cushman at this time, 
 " are come ; they come dropping to you, and by degrees 
 I hope erelong you shall enjoy them all." And a com- 
 mercial partnership Imd a glimpse of the immortal renown 
 to which its humble agents were destined : " Let it not 
 be grievous to you," wrote the Adventurers, " that you 
 have been instruments to break the ice for others who 
 come after with less difficulty ; the honor shall be yours 
 to the world's end; we bear you always in our breasts, 
 and our hearty affection is towards you all, as are the 
 hearts of hundreds more which never saw your faces, 
 who doubtless pray for your safety as their own, that the 
 same God which hath so marvellously preserved you from 
 seas, foes, and famine, will still preserve you from all 
 future dangers, and make you honorable among men, and 
 glorious in bliss at the last day." -^ 
 
 A few of the passengers in the two vessels now arrived 
 had come at their own charge, and free to seek their own 
 
 employments, " yet to be subject to the general 
 
 New descnp- i. .1 ■> j u o 
 
 tionofset- government." The rest, about sixty in number, 
 were "for the general," that is, under contract 
 with the Adventurers. The settlement was not to be 
 immediately relieved from its mixed character; some of 
 the recently arrived were " very useful persons, and be- 
 came good members to the body ; and some were the 
 
 1 Bradford, 115, 146. Among the anotlior the wife of Standish. Alice 
 
 persons who camo at this time were Southwortli, Bradford's second wife, is 
 
 Cuthbertson, a member of the Leydea said to have been his first love. Both 
 
 church, the wives of Fuller and Cooke, being widowed, a correspondence took 
 
 and two daughters of Brewster. There place, in the sequel of which she came 
 
 were at least twelve females. One of out from England, and married him at 
 
 them became the wife of Bradford, and Blymouth.
 
 Chap. VI.] PLYMOUTH. 213 
 
 wives and children of such as were here already ; and 
 some were so bad as they were fain to be at charge to 
 send them home again the next year." The arrival of 
 persons who came " on their particular," as it was called, 
 introduced into the society a new element, which before 
 long " caused some difficulty and disturbance." The colo- 
 nists received them on an agreement consisting of four 
 articles, namely: — 1. "That they, on their parts, be subject 
 to all such laws and orders as are already made, or hereafter 
 shall be, for the public good"; 2. "That they be freed and . 
 exempt from the general employments of the company, 
 except common defence, and such other employments as 
 tend to the perpetual good of the colony " ; 3. That, for 
 every male above sixteen years old, they should make an 
 annual contribution of a bushel of Indian corn, or its 
 value, towards the maintenance of the Governor and other 
 public officers ; 4. That, till the expiration of the partner- 
 ship between the Colony and the Adventurers, they should 
 abstain from traffic with the natives for furs and other 
 commodities.^ 
 
 Another year was now drawing to a close, and the 
 first terrible hardships of the enterprise were over. " By 
 this time harvest was come, and instead of fam- pig^j^^^, ^^^^ 
 ine, now God grave them plenty, and the face oiy<^^io{uw 
 things was changed to the rejoicing of the hearts 
 of many ; and the effect of their particular planting was 
 well seen, for all had, one way and other, pretty well to 
 bring the year about, and some of the abler sort and more 
 industrious had to spare, and sell to others, so as any gen- 
 eral want or famine hath not been amongst them since to 
 this day." ^ Thus it was that the Governor, looking back 
 to this autumn from later times, recorded the altered pros- 
 
 1 Bradford, 143, 147, 148. Cushman -without my consent, but the importu- 
 
 alluded in his letter to the mixed char- nity of their friends got promise of our 
 
 aoter of the party (Ibid., 143), and Treasurer in my absence." 
 
 specified persons, who, he said, "came ^ Ibid., 147.
 
 214 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 pect. This year was the first hi which a stimulus of indi- 
 vidual interest had quickened the activity of toil. To 
 each family, in place of the partnership labor hitherto 
 maintained, had been assigned in the spring the cultiva- 
 tion and profit of a separate parcel of land, the single 
 persons being each attached to some family, and a provision 
 being added, that each cultivator should at harvest " bring 
 in a competent portion for the maintenance of public offi- 
 cers, fishermen, &c." The plan " had very good success, 
 for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more 
 corn was planted than otherwise would have been ; and it 
 gave far better content. The women now went willingly 
 into the field and took their little ones with them to set 
 corn, whom to have compelled would have been thought 
 great tyranny and oppression."-^ 
 
 A drought had followed the planting season, and con- 
 tinued with severity till the middle of summer. " The 
 most courageous were now discouraged." It was resolved 
 to set apart a day " to humble themselves together 
 before the Lord by fasting and prayer." The re- 
 ligious services lasted " some eight or nine hours." When 
 they began, " the heavens were as clear and the drought 
 as like to continue as ever." Before they closed, the sky 
 was overcast. The rain began to fall, as the thankful 
 worshippers withdrew, and for fourteen days there fell 
 " such soft, sweet, and moderate showers as it was hard to 
 say whether their withered corn or drooping affections 
 were most quickened or revived."- In the autumn, by the 
 carelessness of " some of the seamen that were roystering 
 in a house," or, as was suspected, by the design of some 
 mischievous person among those recently arrived, a fire 
 broke out " right against their storehouse, in which 
 were their common store and all their provisions, 
 the which if it had been lost, the plantation 
 
 1 Bradford, 134-13G, 151.— Wius- 2 Winslow, Good Newes, 49, 50. 
 low, Good Ncwes, 47.
 
 Chap. VI.] PLYMOUTH. 215 
 
 had been overthro^ATi." But by great exertions it was 
 saved; and no want was felt during the winter, though 
 three or four houses had been consumed, and all the goods 
 and provisions in them, to the value of five hundred 
 pounds.^ In the preservation of the magazine, as well as 
 in the seasonable showers, was confidently recognized the 
 intervention of a special providence. 
 
 Bradford, who had been chosen Governor at the begin- 
 ning of each year, and who would have declined a fourth 
 election, was prevailed on to accept the charge, 1004. 
 with a council of five Assistants, instead of one ^^'"'''''' 
 as heretofore. He had correctly estimated the favorable 
 operation of the division of labor introduced the preceding 
 year; and the plan was now extended so as to Allotments 
 allot to each householder an acre of land near ""*"''• 
 the town, to be held in severalty till the expiration of the 
 seven years' partnership with the Adventurers. The quan- 
 tity of land thus distributed was small, to the end " that 
 they might be kept close together, both for more safety 
 and defence."" 
 
 Winslow, who had gone in the Ann to England to 
 make a personal report to the Adventurers and procure 
 supplies, returned in the Charity after an absence Amvaiof 
 of eight months. " He brought three heifers from^Eil^. 
 and a bull, the first beginning of any cattle of '''"'^• 
 that kind in the land, with some clothing and other neces- 
 saries." He also brought a carpenter to build " two 
 ketches, a lighter, and some six or seven shallops," who 
 died soon, but not till he had rendered himself very use- 
 ful ; a " salt-man," who proved " an ignorant, foolish, self- 
 willed fellow," and only made trouble and waste; and 
 " a preacher, though none of the most eminent and rare," 
 to whose transportation Cushman wrote that he and "Wins- 
 low consented only " to give content to some in London." 
 With Winslow came a sad " report of a strong faction 
 
 1 Bradford, 151, 152. 2 aid., 1G7, 1G8.
 
 216 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 among the Adventurers against the planters, and especially 
 against the coming of the rest from Leyden."^ 
 
 It has not escaped the reader's attention, that the Lon- 
 don Adventurers were engaged in a commercial specula- 
 tion. Several of them sympathized more or less 
 
 Faction ^ ^ . . 
 
 among the in rcligious sentiment with Robinson's followers ; 
 
 Adventurers. . r* i • i 
 
 but even with most oi those persons considera- 
 tions of pecuniary interest were paramount, and they were 
 also a minority when opposed to the aggregate of those 
 who favored the English Church and those who had no 
 mind to interest themselves in rcligious questions to the 
 damage of their prospect of gain. Under such circum- 
 stances, the policy of the English partners would be to 
 keep in favor with the court and with the Council for 
 New England, in which Sir Ferdinando Gorges and other 
 Churchmen were leaders. Here we see an occasion for 
 the embarrassments which were interposed to frustrate 
 Robinson's wish to collect his scattered flock in America. 
 Neither the Virginia Company, nor the London Adven- 
 turers as a body, — nor, especially, the Council for New 
 England, — would have preferred to employ Separatists in 
 founding a colony, and giving value to their land. But 
 the option was not theirs. At the moment, no other 
 description of persons was disposed to confront the an- 
 ticipated hardships, and none could be relied upon like 
 them to carry the business through. This was well un- 
 derstood on both sides to be the motive for the engage- 
 ment that was made.^ 
 
 If Separatists were perforce to undertake the enter- 
 
 1 Bradford, 158, 160, 1G7. tion "whereof we make great conscience." 
 
 2 " We are well weaned from the " It is not with us as with other men, 
 delicate milk of our mother country, whom small things can discourage, or 
 and inured to the difficulties of a small discontentments cause to wish 
 strange and hard land, which yet in a themselves at home again." (Letter of 
 great part we have by patience over- llobinson and Brewster to Sir Edwin 
 come." "We are knit together as a Sandys, December 15, 1617, in Brad- 
 body in a most strict and sacred bond ford, 31, 33.) 
 
 and covenant of the Lord, of the viola-
 
 Chap. VI.] PLYMOUTH. 217 
 
 prise, it was desirable that they should be persons not 
 individually conspicuous, or obnoxious to displeasure in 
 high quarters; and when Brewster, and not E.obinson, 
 accompanied the emigrants to America, it was a result, if 
 not due to any arrangement of the Adventurers, certainly 
 well according with their policy. Brewster was forgotten 
 in England; nor had he ever been known as a literary 
 champion of his sect. The able and learned Robinson 
 was the recognized head of the English Independents. He 
 had an English, if indeed it may not be called a European, 
 reputation. No name could have been uttered in the 
 courtly circles with worse omen to the new settlement 
 than his. The case was still stronger when, having lost 
 their way, and in consequence come to need another pa- 
 tent, the colony was made a dependency of the Council for 
 New England, instead of the Virginia Company. In the 
 Virginia Company, laboring under the displeasure of the 
 king, and having Sandys and Wriothesley for its leaders, 
 there was a leaven of popular sentiment. The element 
 of absolutism and prelacy was more controlling in the 
 counsels of the rival corporation. 
 
 From these circumstances, the quick instinct of trade 
 took its lesson. To the favor of the Council for New Eng- 
 land, with Sir Ferdinando Gorges at its head, and the king 
 taking its part against Sir Edward Coke and the House of 
 Commons, the Adventurers were looking for benefits which 
 some of them had no mind to hazard by letting their set- 
 tlement exhale any offensive odor of schism. Here it 
 seems that we have an insight into the policy of that 
 action to which Robinson referred, when, in a letter to 
 Brewster, now brought by Winslow, he wrote : "I igsa. 
 persuade myself that, for me, they of all others are ^®'^" "°' 
 unwilling I should be transported, especially such of them 
 as have an eye that way themselves, as thinking, if I come 
 there, their market will be marred in many regards. And 
 for these adversaries, if they have but half the wit to their 
 
 VOL. I. 19
 
 218 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 malice, tliey will stop my course when tbey sec it in- 
 tended." ' 
 
 Here also we may find an explanation of the selection 
 of a minister " not the most eminent," and such as Cush- 
 man and Winslow agreed to take only " to give content 
 to some in London." To send a clergyman avowedly of 
 the state Church was a course not to be thought of The 
 colonists could not be expected to receive him. The best 
 method for the purpose in hand was to employ some one 
 of a character and position suited to get possession of their 
 confidence, and then use it to tone down their religious 
 strictness, and, if circumstances should favor, to disturb 
 the ecclesiastical constitution which they had set up. 
 
 As the financial prospects of the colony faded, the 
 more anxious were the unsympathizing London partners 
 to relieve it and themselves from the stigma of religious 
 schism. The taunt that their colonists were Brownists 
 depressed the value of their stock. It was for their inter- 
 est to introduce settlers of a different religious character, 
 and to take the local power, if possible, out of the hands 
 of those who represented the obnoxious tenets. To this 
 end, it was their policy to encourage such internal dis- 
 affection as already existed, and to strengthen it by the 
 infusion of new elements of discord. A part even of the 
 passengers in the first vessel, without religious sympathy 
 with their superiors, and jealous of the needful exercise 
 of authority, were fit subjects for an influence adverse to 
 the existing organization.- The miscellaneous importa- 
 tion in the Fortune followed, and the whole tenor of the 
 discourse of Cushman, who came and went in her, shows 
 that there were " idle drones " and " unreasonable men " 
 mixed with the nobler associates of the infant settlement. 
 The Ann and her partner, the last vessels despatched by 
 the Adventurers, brought new fuel for dissension in those 
 
 1 liradfon], 1C6. "vvas to be bclievod, Billingtori was cue 
 
 2 If Lyfonl, the factious mmistcr, of Lis allies. (Ibid., 181.)
 
 Chap. VI.] PLYMOUTH. 219 
 
 of her company who came "on their particular." Nor 
 docs it seem hazardous to infer, alike from the cir- 
 cumstances of the case, and from developments which 
 speedily followed, that some of these persons, in concert 
 with the " strong faction among the Adventurers," came 
 over on the errand of subverting the existing government 
 and order.^ 
 
 Lyford, the minister, began with ostentatious profes- 
 sions of sympathy with his new companions. "He sa- 
 luted them with that reverence and humility as is seldom 
 
 to be seen ; yea, he wept and shed many tears, 
 
 and blessed God for this opportunity of freedom and 
 
 liberty to enjoy the ordinances of God in purity among his 
 people." He was received as a member of their church, 
 provided with a more liberal support than any other per- 
 son, and invited by the Governor, as Brewster had been, 
 to consultations with him and the Assistants. John Old- 
 ham, who had come over in the Ann, and had experienced 
 similar generous treatment, was "a chief stickler in the 
 former faction among the particulars." With him, as it 
 soon appeared, Lyford was engaged " in plotting ruction at 
 against them, and disturbing their peace, both in i''y'"°"^^- 
 respect of their civil and church state." When the Charity 
 set sail for England, Bradford followed her a few 1624. 
 miles to sea, exammed letters put on board by 
 Lyford and Oldham, and brought back to Plymouth copies 
 of such as expressed their disaffection. He kept them 
 private till " Lyford, with his complices, without ever 
 speaking one word either to the' Governor, church, or 
 elder, withdrew themselves, and set up a public meeting 
 apart, on the Lord's day, with sundry such insolent car- 
 riages, too long to relate."^ 
 
 1 " Some of those that still remained dry of them did depend, by their pri- 
 
 here on their particular began privately vate whispering they drew some of the 
 
 to nourish a faction, and being privy weaker sort of the company to their 
 
 to a strong faction that was among the side." (Ibid., 157.) 
 
 Adventurers in England, on whom sun- 2 Ibid., 1 71 - 1 75.
 
 220 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 The Governor then summoned a General Court, and 
 arraigned Lyford and his confederate. They denied the 
 charge of moving sedition or conducting a calumnious 
 correspondence, and the letters were produced to their 
 confusion. Lyford's letters complained, that " the church 
 would have none to live here but themselves " ; that " if 
 there came over any honest men that were not of the sepa- 
 ration [Separatists], they would quickly distaste them " ; 
 that " they utterly sought the ruin of the particulars, as 
 appeared by this, that they would not suffer any of the 
 general to buy or sell or exchange with them " ; that the 
 weekly distribution of provisions was unequal and unjust; 
 that there was " exceeding great waste of tools and ves- 
 sels " ; and that " the faction here might match the Jesuits 
 for polity." And among other measures he advised, " that 
 the Leyden company, Mr. E,obinson and the rest, must still 
 be kept back, or all would be spoiled " ; that " such a num- 
 ber" should be " provided as might oversway them here"; 
 and that a fit person should be sent over to supersede Cap- 
 tain Standish, who " looked like a silly boy." The con- 
 tents of Oldham's letters are not particularly described. 
 A third confederate, not named, informed his correspond- 
 ent, that " INIr. Oldham and Mr. Lyford intended a refor- 
 mation in church and commonwealth." Oldham, before 
 the disclosure, had refused to do his military duty, drawn 
 a weapon on the Captain, insulted the GoAcrnor, " and 
 called them all traitors, and rebels, and other such foul 
 language " ; and it was not till " after he was clapped up 
 awhile, he came to himself." 
 
 On the discovery of his clandestine relations to the 
 hostile movement in England, Oldham tried to raise a 
 mutiny on the spot ; " but all were silent, being struck 
 with the injustice of the thing." Lyford " was struck 
 mute, burst out into tears, and confessed he feared he was 
 a reprobate." Both were ordered to leave the colony. 
 The sentence was remitted to Lyford, on his humble pe-
 
 Chap. VI,] PLYMOUTH. 221 
 
 tition for forgiveness, accompanied with a passionate ac- 
 knowledgement of the falsehood of what he had 
 
 *-' Conviction 
 
 written, and of the lenity of his sentence. Old- «<■ lj ford 
 
 • 1 f 11 -\-r 1 1 ^'^'^ Oldham. 
 
 ham, with some followers, went to IN antasket, the 
 southern cape of Boston Bay, where the Plymouth people 
 had built a trading-house for their convenience in visiting 
 the Indians of that region. 
 
 Lyford was not reclaimed. In a letter to the Adven- 
 turers he repeated his iniurious representations 
 respecting the state of things at Plymouth. It 
 was brought to the Governor by the person to whom it 
 had been intrusted for conveyance. Bradford took no 
 notice of it till the following spring, when Wins- jcas. 
 low returned from a second visit to England, with ^^^'"'^' 
 information, that, while there, he had ascertained and dis- 
 closed to the Adventurers certain discreditable facts in 
 Lyford's early life, which " struck all his friends mute, 
 and made them all ashamed." He was now deposed from, 
 the ministry, to Avhich on his professions of penitence 
 he had been restored, and went to join Oldham at Nan- 
 tasket.^ Oldham had lately ventured on a visit to Ply- 
 mouth, whence, having indulged himself there in op- 
 probrious language, he was expelled with ignominious 
 ceremony.^ 
 
 Winslow brought further discouraging accounts of the 
 sta,te of affairs among the Adventurers. " As there had 
 been a faction and siding amongst them now more Disruption 
 than two years, so now there was an utter breach LrVhip "r 
 and sequestration." The amount of money due Adventurers. 
 in London was not less than fourteen hundred pounds 
 sterling.^ Some of the partners remained friendly to the 
 colony, and wrote in terms of confidence and cheer ; though, 
 with the cattle, tools, and clothing which they sent, orders 
 
 1 From Nantasket Lyford went for ^ Bradford, 171-196. 
 
 a little time to Cape Ann, and tbence 3 Letter of Shirley and others (Brad- 
 
 to Virginia, where he shortly after died, ford, 199). 
 19*
 
 222 HISTORY or new England. [Book i. 
 
 came for their sale at "what the planters considered an 
 exorbitant advance. From this time, the original part- 
 nership of the company of Adventurers to Plymouth was 
 dissolved, two thirds of those in London withdrawing 
 from their connection with the colonists. 
 
 Two other settlements had meanwhile been attempted ; 
 one by a Captain Wollaston, with some thirty or forty 
 
 persons, on a bluff which still bears his name, on 
 Transactions tlic sea-sliorc iu wliat is now the town of Quin- 
 woiras"on cy ; ^ the other, as much as a year earlier, on the 
 Md^at Cape pi;omontory known, since Captain Smith's voyage, 
 
 as Cape Ann. * Of the spasmodic experiments 
 made by the Council of New England for giving value to 
 their property, one had been a distribution of its territory 
 
 amonjj individual members of the corporation. 
 
 1622. " , , '■ 
 
 Twenty noblemen and gentlemen divided among 
 themselves in severalty the country along the coast from 
 the Bay of Fundy to Narragansett Bay." The region 
 about Cape Ann fell to the lot of Edmund, Lord Sheffield, 
 J624. who sold a patent for it to Cushman and Wins- 
 jan. 1. jQ^y and their associates at New Plymouth.^ It 
 was probably in the summer before this transaction,'* that 
 
 1 Bradford, 235 ; Dudley's Letter to fishing ships made such good returns, 
 the Countess of Lincoln. at last it [New England] was engrossed 
 
 2 This project is sketched in the by twenty patentees, that divided my 
 " Briefe Relation " of the " President map into twenty parts, and cast lota 
 and Council of New England," quoted for their shares." And Purchas (IV. 
 above (p. 208, note). " Two parts of the 1872) has a map representing this 
 ■whole territory," they say (31, 82), division. 
 
 "is to be divided between the paten- 3 The indenture between Lord Shef- 
 tees into several counties, to be by them- field, of the one part, and Winslow and 
 selves or their friends planted, at their Cushman of the other, has been recent- 
 pleasure or best commodity ; the other ly brought to light by JNIr. John Win- 
 third part" was to afibrd a "revenue for gate Thornton, who has illustrated it in 
 defraying of public charge." Connect- a printed treatise, accompanied by an 
 ed with this plan was (Ibid.) that of the cngra,\ed fac-smile. 
 appointment of a General Governor, 4 u j^ijo^,t |^)jg yg^r 1G23, some West- 
 which has been mentioned in its place em merchants bethought themselves" 
 (see above, pp. 20G, 208, note). Smith of this undertaking. " The next year" 
 says (True Travels, &c., 4C), " The they bought and repaired " a Flemish
 
 Chap. VI.] PLYMOUTH. 223 
 
 a few persons from the West of England sat down at 
 Cape Ann for purposes of planting and fishing. They 
 appear to have acknowledged the rights of the Plymouth 
 people, when made known to them ; ^ and the fishermen of 
 the two parties carried on their operations amicably side 
 by side, till Lyford brought his disturbing presence among 
 them from his retreat at Nantasket. A London vessel in 
 the service of those Adventurers who were friendly to him 
 having arrived at the place, the crew took possession of 
 a fishing-stage belonging to the Plymouth settlers, and 
 " would not restore the same except they would fight for 
 it." Contrary to the wish of Standish, who had come 
 from Plymouth to set things right, pacific counsels pre- 
 vailed, and the dispute was quieted by an engagement of 
 the crew to help in building another stage for the owners, 
 in place of that which had been in question. 
 
 Plymouth was now in a thriving condition, if its pros- 
 perity was on no imposing scale. A year earlier, ac- 
 cording to what Smith had learned, there were ic24. 
 " about a hundred and eighty persons ; some cattle coTdhToTof 
 and goats, but many swine and poultry; thirty- p'j™""^''- 
 
 two dwelling-houses ; the town impaled about half a 
 
 mile compass ; in the town, upon a high mount, a fort well 
 built with wood, loam, and stone ; also a fair w^atch-tower ; 
 
 and this year they had freighted a ship of a hundred 
 
 and eighty tons." ^ Fifty English ships were on the coast 
 
 fly-boat " for the voyage. And " the weary of the sea, and enamored with the 
 
 third year, 1G25," they despatched two beauty of the bounds that first offered 
 
 vessels to Cape Ann. (Planters' Plea, itself unto them, gorgeously garnished 
 
 Chap. VII., VIII.) with all wherewith pi-egnant nature, rav- 
 
 1 Smith, Generall liistorie, 247. ishing the sight with variety, can grace 
 
 2 Ibid. Captain John Smith was a a fertile field, did resolve to stay." 
 more careful inquirer or reporter than (Map and Description of New England, 
 Sir AVilliam Alexander, who In the same 30.) — Gorges had received accounts 
 year wrote : " Four years since, a ship of the same too partial character : 
 going for Virginia coming by chance to " They landed their people [at Ply- 
 harbor in the southwest part of New mouth], many of them weak and fee- 
 En2;land near Cape Cod, the company ble through the length of the naviga- 
 whom she carried for plantation, being tlon, the leakiness of the ship, and want
 
 224: HISTORY OF NEW ENGLA^fD. [Book I. 
 
 engaged in fishing, and every ship was an enlargement of 
 their market for purchases and sales. " It pleased the 
 Lord to give the plantation peace and health and 
 contented minds, and so to bless their labors as 
 they had corn sufficient, and some to spare to others, with 
 other food ; neither ever had they any supply of food but 
 what they first brought with them." Returning from a 
 voyage made " to the eastward, up a river called Kenne- 
 bec," in an open boat, " Mr. Winslow and some of the old 
 standards, for seamen they had none, brought home seven 
 hundred pounds of beaver, besides some other furs, having 
 little or nothing else but this corn, which themselves had 
 raised out of the earth," to trade with.^ 
 
 The brightening prospect of the colonists, on the one 
 
 hand, and the unsatisfactory state of their affairs Avith the 
 
 remaining English partners on the other, encouraged a 
 
 desire to rid themselves of a connection which had been 
 
 so fruitful of inconvenience, and Standish was despatched 
 
 to England to obtain a supply of goods, and learn what 
 
 terms could be made for a release. He returned the 
 
 162C. following spring, having " taken up a hundred 
 
 ■*^P"'* -N and fifty pounds (and spent a good deal of it in 
 
 expenses) at fifty per cent, which he bestowed in trading 
 
 goods and such other most needful commodities as he 
 
 knew requisite for their use." ^ lie brought the mournful 
 
 1C25. intelligence of the death of Hobinson at Leyden 
 
 "' ■ in the year before ; and of that of Cushman, 
 
 whom they had been expecting presently to welcome. 
 
 The loss of Cushman was painfully felt. He had been 
 Death of "as their right hand with their friends the Adven- 
 amiTr" turers, and for divers years had done and agitated 
 Cushman. ^^l thclr busluess with them to their great advan- 
 
 of many other necessaries such under- and fowl, willi plenty of -wholesome 
 
 takings reciuired. But they Tvere not roots and herbs the country affbnled," 
 
 many days ashore before they had got- &c. (Briefe Narration, Chap. XXII.) 
 ten both health and strength, through ^ Bradford, 204. 
 the comfort of the air, the store of fish *• Ibid.
 
 Chap. VI.] PLYMOUTH. 225 
 
 tage." ^ Such Avas Bradford's tribute to his old friend, 
 though Bradford as well as others had been greatly dis- 
 satisfied with his management and concealment of that 
 part of the negotiation by which they lost the benefit of 
 two favorite stipulations.- But Robinson was mourned 
 with a peculiar sorrow. His powerful ascendency over 
 the minds of his associates, acquired by eminent talents 
 and virtues, had been used disinterestedly and wisely for 
 their good. With great courage and fortitude, he had 
 equal gentleness and liberality ; and his accomplishments 
 of understanding and the generosity of his affections in- 
 spired mingled admiration and love. Though he passed 
 his life in the midst of controversy, it was so far from 
 narrowing his mind, that his charity towards dissentients 
 distinguished him among the divines of his day, as much 
 as his abilities and learning. It is less remarkable that 
 he became constantly more tolerant as he grew older. 
 
 The recent competition in the fishery, on the part both 
 of their English associates and of others, having led the 
 colonists to regard that investment of their labor as less 
 profitable,^ they turned their attention to " trading and 
 planting," and were so successful, that, before the close of 
 the year, they had nearly extricated themselves from debt, 
 including the obligation lately incurred for them by Stan- 
 dish, and had stored " some clothing for the people and 
 some commodities beforehand," In conjunction with the 
 planters at Piscataqua, they made purchases of a quantity 
 of merchandise from some English at Monhegan, and from 
 a French ship wrecked near that island,"* to the amount of 
 five hundred pounds. During the winter, they had the so- 
 ciety of the passengers and crew of a vessel bound to Vir- 
 ginia, which, falling short of provisions, had put in at the 
 south side of Cape Cod, and had sent to them for succor ; ^ 
 
 1 Bradford, 207. fishing, a thing fatal to this plantation." 
 
 2 See above, p. 155. (Bradford, 158.) 
 
 3 "The ship [a vessel in the employ ^ Ibid., 208-210. 
 of some of the Adventurers] came on 5 Ibid., 217-221.
 
 226 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 1627. 
 March 9. 
 
 and a communication, opened by a letter from the Dutch 
 Governor of Fort Amsterdam, now New York, 
 led to mutual expressions of good-will, and offers 
 of business intercourse and neighborly good offices. After 
 two letters had passed each way, Isaac De Rasieres, the 
 Dutch " upper commis or chief merchant, and second to 
 the Governor," made a visit to Plymouth of " some few 
 days."i 
 
 1 He came up Buzzard's Bay, " ac- 
 companied with a noise of trumpeters, 
 and some other attendants," and landed 
 at Manomet, whence (October 4) he 
 sent a messenger to the English. " So 
 they sent a boat to Manonscussett [in 
 Sandwich] and brought him to the 
 plantation, with the chief of his com- 
 pany." He sold his guests some sugar, 
 linen, and stuffs, for tobacco. "But 
 that which turned most to their profit 
 in time was an entrance into the trade 
 of wampumpeag. For they now bought 
 about fifty pounds' worth of it of them ; 
 and they [the Dutch] told them how 
 vendable it was at their Fort Orania, 
 and did persuade them they would find 
 it so at Kennebec. And so it came to 
 pass in time, though at first it stuck ; 
 and it was two years before they could 
 2)ut off tills small quantity, till the in- 
 land people knew of it, and afterwards 
 they could scarce ever get enough for 
 them, for many years together." (Brad- 
 ford, 222-225, 233, 234.) 
 
 To a letter of De Rasieres, written 
 after his return, we are indebted for 
 some interesting facts respecting the 
 colony of Plymouth in the seventh year 
 from its foundation. The letter was 
 obtained by ^Ir. IJrodhead fi-om tlie 
 archives at the Hague, and published 
 by him in the New York Historical 
 Collections, Second Series, II. 343 et seq. 
 De llasiercs writes of Plymouth : — 
 
 " At the south side of the town there 
 flows down a small river of fresh water, 
 very rapid, but shallow, which ttikes its 
 
 rise from several lakes in the land above, 
 and there empties into the sea ; where 
 in April and the beginning of May 
 there come so many herring from the 
 sea, which want to ascend that river, 
 that it is quite surprising. This river 
 the English have shut in with planks, 
 and in the middle with a little door, 
 which shdes up and down, and at the 
 sides with trellis-work, through which 
 the water has its course, but which they 
 can also close with slides. At the mouth 
 they have constructed it with planks, 
 like an eel-pot with wings, where in the 
 middle is also a sllding-door, and with 
 trellis-work at the sides, so that be- 
 tween thfe two [dams] there is a square 
 pool, into which the fish aforesaid come 
 swimming in such shoals, in order to 
 get up above where they dejiosit their 
 spawn, that at one tide tliore are ten 
 thousand to twelve thousand fish in it, 
 which they shut off in the rear at the 
 ebb, and close up the trellises above so 
 that no more water comes in ; then the 
 water runs out through the lower trel- 
 lises, and they draw out the fish with 
 baskets, each according to the land he 
 cultivates, and carry them to it, depos- 
 iting in each hill three or four fishes, 
 and in these they plant their maize, 
 which grows as luxuriantly therein as 
 though it were the best maiuire in the 
 world ; and if they do not lay these 
 fishes therein, the maize will not grow, 
 such is the nature of the soil. 
 
 " New Plymouth lies on the slope of 
 a hill stretching east towards the sea-
 
 Chap. VI.] 
 
 PLYMOUTH. 
 
 227 
 
 Mr. Allerton, who had been sent to England for the 
 purpose of pursuing the negotiation with the Adventurers, 
 in which Standish had made some progress, as 
 well as for other business, brought back a grati- 
 fying account of his success. He had " taken up 
 two hundred pounds, which he now got at thirty ^jer cent.^ 
 and brought some useful goods Avith him, much to the 
 comfort and content of the plantation." And he had 
 
 Release 
 from the 
 Adventurers. 
 
 coast, with a broad street about a can- 
 non shot of eight hundred [feet] long, 
 leading down the hill, with a [street] 
 crossing in the middle, northwards to 
 the rivulet, and southwards to the land. 
 The houses are constructed of hewn 
 planks, with gardens also enclosed be- 
 hind and at the sides with hewn planks, 
 so that their houses and court-yards are 
 arranged in very good order, with a 
 stockade against a sudden attack ; and 
 at the ends of the streets there are 
 three wooden gates. In the centre, on 
 the cross-street, stands the Governor's 
 Louse, before which is a square enclos- 
 ure, upon which four patereros [steen- 
 stucken] are mounted, so as to flank 
 along the streets. Upon the hill they 
 have a large square house, with a flat 
 roof, made of thick sawn planks, stayed 
 with oak beams, upon the top of which 
 they have six cannons, which shoot iron 
 balls of four and five pounds, and com- 
 mand the surrounding country. The 
 lower part they use for their church, 
 where they preach on Sundays and the 
 usual holidays. They assemble by beat 
 of drum, each with his musket or fire- 
 lock, in front of the captain's door ; they 
 have their cloaks on, and place them- 
 selves in order, three abreast, and are 
 led by a sergeant without beat of drum. 
 Behind comes the Governor, in a long 
 robe ; beside him, on the right hand, 
 comes the preacher, with his cloak on, 
 and on the lefl hand the captain, with 
 his side-arms and cloak on, and with 
 a small cane in his hand ; and so they 
 
 march in good order, and each sets his 
 arms down near him. Thus they are 
 constantly on their guard night and day. 
 
 " Their government is after the Eng- 
 lish form. The Governor has liis coun- 
 cil, which is chosen every year by the 
 entire community by election or pro- 
 longation of term. In the inheritance 
 they place all the children in one de- 
 gree, only the eldest son has an ac- 
 knowledgment for his seniority of birth. 
 
 " They have made stringent laws and 
 ordinances upon the subject of fornica- 
 tion and adultery, which laws they 
 maintain and enforce very strictly in- 
 deed, even among the tribes which Uve 
 amongst them. They [the English] 
 speak very angrily, when they hear 
 from the savages that we should live so 
 barbarously in these respects, and with- 
 out punishment. 
 
 " Their farms are not so good as ours, 
 because they are more stony, and, con- 
 sequently, not so suitable for the plough. 
 They apportion their land according as 
 each has means to contribute to the 
 eighteen thousand guilders which they 
 have promised to those who had sent 
 them out ; whereby they have their 
 freedom without rendering an account 
 to any one; only, if the king should 
 choose to send, a Governor-General, 
 they would be obliged to acknowledge 
 him as sovereign chief. 
 
 " The maize seed which they do not 
 require for their own use is delivered 
 over to the Governor, at three guilders 
 the bushel, who, in his turn, sends it in
 
 228 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 adjusted witli the Adventurers the preliminaries of an 
 arrangement for discharging the phanters from their con- 
 tract of service and partnership. For the sum of eigliteen 
 hundred pounds, payahle in nine equal annual instalments, 
 beginning in the following year, the Adventurers were to 
 convey to the planters " every their stocks, shares, lands, 
 merchandise, and chattels." The speculation was a haz- 
 ardous one for the planters. " They knew not well how 
 to raise the payment, and discharge their other engage- 
 ments, and supply their yearly wants, seeing they were 
 forced for their necessities to take wp moneys or goods at 
 such high interest. Yet they undertook it, and seven or 
 eight of the chief of the place became jointly bound for 
 the payment of this eighteen hundred pounds, in the 
 behalf of the rest, at the several days; in which they 
 ran a great adventure, as their present state stood, having 
 many other heavy burdens already upon them, and all 
 things in an uncertain condition." ^ 
 
 A new organization and distribution were now adopted, 
 to meet the anticipated change of affairs. With a gener- 
 ous wisdom, the occasion Avas used to compose the 
 
 Distribution , 
 
 of stock and feud between the " generals " and the " particulars." 
 A partnership was formed of all the men on the 
 
 sloops to the north for the trade in skins small-legged birds, which are in great 
 among the savages. They reckon one abundance there in the winter. The 
 bushel of maize against one pound of tribes in their neighborhood have all 
 beaver's skin. In the first place, a divis- the same customs as already above de- 
 ion is made according to what each has scribed, only they are better conducted 
 contnl)uted, and they are credited for than ours, because the EngHsh give 
 the amount in the account of what each them the example of better ordinances 
 has to contribute yearly towards the re- and a better life ; and who, also, to a 
 duction of his obligation. Then with certain degree, give them laws, by 
 the remainder they purcliase what next means of the respect tlicy from the 
 they recjuire, and which the Governor very first have established amongst 
 takes care to provide every year. them." 
 
 "They have better means of living i Bradford, 211-214. The English 
 than ourselves, because they have the Adventurers who executed this cove- 
 fish so abundant before their doors, nant were forty-two in number. (See 
 There are also many birds, such as Bradford's Letter-Book, in INIass. Hist, 
 geese, herons, and cranes, and other Coll., IIL 48.) Six of them, namely.
 
 Chap. VI.] PLYMOUTH. 229 
 
 spot, of suitable age and prudence, under an agreement 
 that the trade should " be managed as before to help to 
 pay the debts " in the way of a joint-stock company, and 
 that every freeman should have a single share, and " every 
 father of a family also be allowed to purchase a share for 
 his wife, and a share for every child that he had living 
 with him."^ A division followed of the stock and land, 
 hitherto the joint property of the Adventurers and of their 
 associates on the soil. One cow and two goats were as- 
 signed by lot to every six persons or shares, " and swine, 
 though more in number, yet by the same rule. Then 
 they agreed that every person or share should have twenty 
 acres of land divided unto them, besides the single acres 
 they had already. ..... But no meadows were to be laid 
 
 out at all, nor were not of many years after, because they 
 were but strait of meadow grounds, and if they had been 
 now given out, it would have hindered all addition to 
 them afterwards ; but every season all were appointed 
 where they should mow, according to the proportion of 
 cattle they had." The houses became private property by 
 an equitable assignment.^ The vassalage to the foreign 
 merchants was over. Henceforward there were to be 
 New-England freeholders. 
 
 The first coveted luxury of their emancipated state 
 was a reunion with their ancient companions. Hither- 
 to the pleasure of others might decide who should join 
 them. That embarrassment was now withdrawn. Their 
 tender mutual recollections had naturally been refreshed 
 by their common mourning for their " loving and faithful 
 pastor." To put the financial affairs in a more manage- 
 
 White, Pocock, Goffe, Sharpe, Revell, taken away ; therefore they resolved to 
 
 and Andrews, were afterwards members take in all amongst them that were 
 
 of the Massachusetts Company. either heads of families, or single young 
 
 1 " Except peace and union were men that were of ability, and free, and 
 
 preserved, they should be able to do able to govern themselves with meet 
 
 nothing, but endanger to overthrow all, discretion," &c. (Bradford, 214.) 
 
 now that other ties and bonds were 2 Bradford, 214- 217. 
 
 VOL. I. 20
 
 230 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 able shape, eight of the settlers ^ entered into an cngage- 
 
 j„,^. mcut with the colony to farm its trade for a term 
 
 The trade of six Yoars. In consideration of the sole right of 
 
 fanned by •' ^ ^ t • ri 
 
 eight coio- trading, of an annual payment by each colonist oi 
 three bushels of corn or six pounds of tobacco, and 
 of the transfer to them of three vessels, with " the whole 
 stock of furs, felts, beads, corn, wampumpeag, knives, &c. 
 that was now in the store, or any way due upon account," 
 the eight agreed to make the annual payments due from 
 the colony in London ; to discharge the other debts of the 
 plantation, amounting to about six hundred pounds more; 
 and to bring over, every year, fifty pounds' worth of hose 
 and shoes, and sell them for corn at six shillings a bushel.^ 
 AUerton was despatched again to England to conclude the 
 transaction there, and attend to other business, which he 
 prosperously completed. On his return, the fol- 
 lowing spring, " he brought a reasonable supply 
 of goods " ; and reported that he had paid the first instal- 
 ment to the Adventurers, delivered the bonds for the resi- 
 due of the debt, and obtained the due conveyance and 
 release; that he had discharged all other debts, except 
 those due to four friends,^ who agreed to take an interest 
 and become partners in the six years' hire of the trade, 
 and to charge themselves with the transportation of a 
 company from Lcyden ; and lastly, that he had obtained 
 from the Council for New England a patent for land on 
 the Kennebec.'* The patent was immediately turned to 
 account by the erection of " a house up above in that 
 river, in the most convenient place for trade." ^ 
 
 1 Thf-y were Bradford, Brewster, glue of tlie company " (Cushman's Ict- 
 
 Winsluw, SUmdish, Prince, Alden, tcr in ]\Iass. Hist. Coll., III. 34), wrote, 
 
 llowland, and AUerton. Prince bad that some of the Adventurers liad fallen 
 
 come over in the Fortune ; all the oth- out with him, because, adds he, "I 
 
 crs, in tlie Mayflower. would not side with them against you, 
 
 s P.radfonl, '>2o - 228. and the going over of the Leydeu peo- 
 
 3 They were James Shirley, John pic" (Bradford, 2^0.) 
 Beauchamp, Piichanl Andrews, and "^ Ibid., 2.'J2. 
 
 Timotliy Ilatherlty. Shirley, " the 5 Jbid., 233.
 
 Chap. VI.] 
 
 PLYMOUTH. 231 
 
 Allerton also, of his own motion, " brought over a young 
 man for a minister ; liis name was Mr. E,ogers." Except 
 during the short time of Lyford's service, Brewster had been 
 the spiritual guide of the colony, preaching to them and 
 leading in their devotions, though not dispensing the sacra- 
 ments. From undertaking this last service he was discour- 
 aged by Robinson, who wrote to him that he judged it "not 
 lawful for a ruling elder, nor convenient, if it were lawful."^ 
 While Robinson lived, the colonists expected to be joined 
 by him. When he died, they had for a long time no suc- 
 cess in attempts to supply his place. Rogers proved to be 
 " crazed in his brain ; so they were fain to be at further 
 charge to send him back again the next year."~ Mean- 
 while, Brewster " taught twice every Sabbath, and that 
 both powerfully and profitably, to the great contentment 
 of the hearers and their comfortable edification. Yea, 
 many were brought to God by his ministry. He did more 
 in this behalf in a year, than many that have their hun- 
 dreds a year do in all their lives." ^ 
 
 An incident., which occurred this spring, illustrates the 
 condition of the settlements on and about Massachusetts 
 Bay. It has been mentioned that a Captain Wollaston 
 attempted a plantation on a spot which still bears 
 his name, near Boston harbor.'* " Not finding 
 things to answer his expectations," he withdrew with part 
 of his company to Virginia, and presently sent for a por- 
 tion of the rest. In his absence, one Thomas Morton, 
 " who had been a kind of pettifogger, of Furnival's Inn," 
 obtained an ascendency among them,^ and displaced the 
 
 1 Robinson, letter in Young's " Pil- the year since the incarnation of Christ 
 grims," 477. 1C22, it was my chance to be landed in 
 
 2 Bradford, 243. the parts of New England." " In the 
 
 3 Ibid., 413. month of June, anno salutis 1622, it 
 
 4 See above, p. 222. was my chance to arrive in the parts 
 
 5 Bradford (23G) understood IMorton of New England." If this is true, he 
 to have come over with Wollaston. But may have come with Weston's people 
 ^Morton (New English Canaan, Book I. in the Charity. According to his title- 
 Chap. II., Book U. Chap. I.) says, " In page, he was " of Clifford's Inn."
 
 0;^2 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAXD. [Book I. 
 
 person left hy Wollnston in charge. The habits of shame- 
 less license and revelry -which he introduced at Merry* 
 Mount, — as he called his hold, — drunkenness, 
 
 Procpcdings 
 
 at Mero-- gambling, dancing about a maypole, singing rib- 
 ald songs, debauching the Indian women, and 
 other " beastly practices of the mad Bacchanalians," were 
 a sore offence to their sober neighbors. By enticing away 
 their servants, he increased his rabble rout. But what 
 made his presence intolerable was, that, to support this 
 wild course of life, Morton sold fire-arms and ammunition 
 freely to the natives. It had been done before by the 
 French, and by transient fishermen ; but the extent to 
 which the traffic was now carried on excited serious 
 alarm, and messen":ers from the neighboring' set- 
 
 1G28. p ^ & & 
 
 tlements, after deliberation upon the danger, so- 
 licited the Plymouth people to interfere. 
 
 The messenger despatched to Morton, " in a friendly 
 and neighborly way, to admonish him, to forbear these 
 courses," was sent back with affront. A second remon- 
 strance was of no more avail. The third messenger was 
 " Captain Standish, and some other aid with him." Mor- 
 ton barricaded his house, defied the invaders, and fortified 
 his comrades with drink. But they Avere disarmed and 
 dispersed without bloodshed, and their leader was con- 
 ^^ ducted to Plymouth, whence he was sent to Eng- 
 land, with letters to the Council and to Sir 
 Ferdinando Gorges, setting forth the danger of his prac- 
 tices.^ lie went in the custody of John Oldham, who, by 
 large professions of repentance for his past miscarriages, 
 had become reconciled Mith the Plymouth peoi^le.^ 
 
 1 r.radfonl, 235-213. The letters as described by Lis adversaries. He 
 
 Fcnt witli Morton arc in the IMass. Hist, writes precisely like what his American 
 
 Coll., III. 02-04. lie Jias made his neighbors took him for, a witty and 
 
 own report of these proceedings in his knowing, but shiftless, reckless, grace- 
 
 " New Knglish Canaan " ; with no little less, shameless rake. 
 wit, it must bo allowed, but not in such 2 Bradford, 101. 
 a way as to mend the aspect of his case.
 
 Chap. VI.] SETTLEMENTS NEAR PLYMOUTH. 233 
 
 The contributions to the expense of this expedition, 
 from settlements and individuals, are on record.^ The set- 
 tlements were Plymouth and Piscataqua (Ports- English piam- 
 mouth), which paid each two pounds ten shil- about ILsa- 
 lings, and Naumkeag and Nantasket, each as- "="""«"^ ^^y- 
 sessed one pound ten shillings. Nantasket, now Hull, 
 was the seat of Oldham's party. Of Naumkeag, now 
 Salem, an account will be more appropriately given in 
 another place. The share of " Mr. Jeffrey and Mr. Burs- 
 lem " was two pounds. Their cottages probably stood 
 at Wilinisimmet, now Chelsea. Edward Hilton, Mrs. 
 Thompson, and Mr. Blaxton contributed respectively one 
 pound, fifteen shillings, and twelve shillings. Edward 
 Hilton was seated at Cochecho on the Piscataqua Piver ; 
 William Blaxton on the peninsula of Shawmut, afterwards 
 Boston; and jNIrs. Thompson, widow of David Thompson, 
 formerly of Piscataqua, on the island called by his name 
 in Boston harbor.^ AVithin the same circuit, there were 
 perhaps solitary planters, whose names do not appear in 
 the transaction. Thomas Walford may have been already, 
 where he was found presently after, on the peninsula of 
 Mishawum (since Charlestown), and Samuel Maverick on 
 Noddle's Island, hard by. Cape Ann, lately a dependency 
 of Plymouth, and Wessagusset (Weymouth) had probably 
 a few inhabitants. Some of the individuals who have 
 been named may have been of the company dispersed 
 after the unsuccessful attempt of Robert Gorges to make 
 a settlement at the latter place. Plymouth had extended 
 itself w^estwardly to Buzzard's Bay by an outpost on Ma- 
 nomet River, kept by " some servants, who planted corn, 
 and reared some swine." ^ 
 
 Besides the settlements scattered from Plymouth on the 
 one side to the river Piscataqua on the other, a few begin- 
 nings, and attempts at beginnings, of English plantations 
 
 1 See Bradford's Letter-Book, in 2 Mass. Col. Rec, 11. 245. 
 Mass. Hist. Coll., IIL G3. 3 Bradford, 221. 
 
 20*
 
 20J: HISTORY OF XEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 beyond tliat river, have been mentioned.^ Similar under- 
 takings of Frenchmen on the same line of coast still fur- 
 ther east had as yet been attended with small success. 
 AMien half a century had elapsed after those 
 frustrated expeditions which immediately fol- 
 lowed the discovery of the St. Lawrence, the Marquis 
 de la Eoche conducted forty convicts from the 
 
 1598. 
 
 French prisons to the Isle of Sable, fifty miles 
 southeast from Cape Breton. At the end of seven years, 
 a vessel came to convey them back to France, and 
 found only twelve alive. When De Monts, on the revo- 
 cation of his monopoly, abandoned his designs 
 upon Acadie- (the name given to the penin- 
 sula now called Nova Scotia, and to an indefinite extent 
 of territory around it), his friend, De Poutrincourt, still 
 remained with some companions at Port Royal. From 
 this place, two Jesuit missionaries from France proceeded, 
 with twenty or thirty companions, to found a 
 colony on the island of Mount Desert, at the 
 mouth of the Penobscot. It was broken up almost imme- 
 diately by Captain Argall, from Virginia, as has already 
 been related.^ In the same or the following year, Argall 
 visited Port Poyal, destroyed its fortification, and carried 
 away a part of its inhabitants, while the rest dispersed them- 
 selves mto the interior. It was six or seven years after this 
 time, when the playwright, William Alexander, who began 
 life as travelling companion to the young Earl of Argyll, 
 and was subsequently raised to the Scottish peerage as 
 Earl of Stirling^, obtained from the Council for 
 
 1C2I. ^ 
 
 New England his patent for Nova Scotia, a coun- 
 try defined in that instrument as extending from the St. 
 Croix to the St. Lawrence. The party which he sent out 
 to take possession found Port lloyal again occu- 
 pied by Frenchmen, and returned without at- 
 
 > Sro. a1)ovo, pp. 205, 230. 3 See above, p. 85. 
 
 '■^ S<;o alj<j\e, pp. 7 7, 78.
 
 Chap. VI.] NEW FRANCE AND NEW NETHERLAXD. 235 
 
 tempting its reduction. But in the war which broke out 
 in the second year of Charles the First, it was 
 
 •^ , ^ ' 1C28. 
 
 taken by an expedition commanded by Sir Wil- 
 liam Kirk. The capture of Quebec by the same 1029. 
 force followed in the next year, and for a little ^"'^ ^^" 
 time New France disappeared from the map of America. 
 On the western border of New England another nation 
 seemed to have established itself with better prospects. 
 It was in the service of the Dutch East India NewNeth- 
 Company that Henry Fludson, an Englishman, "'''"'^' 
 bound on the usual search for a northwestern passage to 
 the Indies, had entered the river since called by jcog. 
 his name, and explored its length for more than September. 
 a hundred and fifty miles. Other navigators from the 
 Netherlands, allured by his report, soon followed for 
 traffic with the natives ; and, within three or four years 
 after his visit, they had erected some huts on the island 
 of Manhattan,^ and a warehouse and stockade 
 
 . 1614. 
 
 near the spot where now stands the city of Al- 
 bany. Adriaen Block, in a vessel of sixteen tons, built at 
 Manhattan, explored Long Island Sound and Narragan- 
 sett Bay, and probably sailed forty or fifty miles up Con- 
 necticut River, and into Massachusetts Bay as far as the 
 promontory of Nahant." 
 
 1 In Plantagcnet's " New Albion," tented them for their charge and voy- 
 
 pubhshed in 1G48, is a story that Argall age, and by his letter, sent to Virginia 
 
 and his party, on their return from and recorded, submitted himself, com- 
 
 Mount Desert to Virginia, in 1013, pany, and plantation to his Majesty, 
 
 "landed at Manhatas Isle, in Hudson's and to the Governor and government 
 
 River, where they found four houses of Virginia." This story is adopted 
 
 built, and a pretended Dutch Governor as true by Smith (History of New York, 
 
 under the W^est-India Company of Am- 2), and generally by recent histori- 
 
 sterdam, who kept trading-boats, and ans. But Mr. Brodhead (History of 
 
 trucking with the Indians ; but the said New York, I. 754, 755) gives weighty 
 
 knights told him their commission was reasons for accounting it a mere fiction, 
 to expel him and all alien intruders on 2 X)e Laet, in N. Y. Hist. Coll., I. 
 
 his Majesty's dominions and territories, 291-297. — It is from this navigator 
 
 this being part of Virginia, and this that Block Island, lying eastwardly 
 
 river an English discovery by Hudson, from Long Island, takes its name, 
 an Englishman. The Dutchman con-
 
 230 UISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Block carried home an account of his discoveries, and 
 some merchants of Amsterdam obtained from the States- 
 General a charter for three years' monopoly of the 
 
 j^,!- trade of New Netherland (as it was now called), 
 
 Jail. 1. defined as extending, between New France and 
 ^'irginia, from the fortieth to the forty-fifth degree of 
 north latitude. But the region appears as yet to have 
 been visited only for trade, and not to have received any 
 permanent Dutch inhabitants. In his last voyage from 
 Virginia to New England, Captain Dernier^ had "met 
 with some Hollanders that were settled in a place we call 
 Hudson's Iti\ er, in trade with the natives ; who forbade 
 them the place, as being by his Majesty appointed to us. 
 Their answer was, they understood no such thing, nor 
 found any of our nation there, so that they hoped they 
 had not oftendcd."^ Bursuing his way, Dermer had passed 
 through Long-Island Sound, probably the first English- 
 man who ever sailed on its waters. 
 
 At the expiration of the time limited in the charter of 
 the Amsterdam merchants, the government refused to re- 
 new it, having in view more extensive operations in which 
 its purpose would be embraced. The charter of the Dutch 
 
 1C21. West-India Company followed, in six months, that 
 
 June 3. Q^ ^|-^j2 Council for New England. It was while 
 this measure was pending, that the merchants of Amster- 
 dam had proposed to Robinson's congregation to emigrate 
 under their patronage,^ and that, adopting a dificrent plan, 
 the colonists of the ]\layflowcr had sailed for the vicinity 
 of the Hudson, and, missing their way, had arrived at 
 Cape Cod. 
 
 New Netherland was not named in the charter of the 
 Dutch West-India Company, but the powers conferred 
 by it were construed to extend to operations on that 
 
 1 .S<'C a1)ovp, pp. 99, 100. Prosidont and Council of New Eng- 
 
 ^ OorgcH, IJriefc Narration, Cliap. land, 17. 
 XXI. Comp. Briefc llelalion of the 3 See above, p. 149, note 2.
 
 Chap. VI.] NEW NETHERLAND. 237 
 
 coast; and, regarding it in connection with the expedi- 
 tions to Hudson's River, the English court took alarm, 
 and Sir Dudley Carleton was instructed " to remonstrate 
 with the States-General against intrusions in New Eng- 
 land." ^ The States promised to look into the question, 
 and there, for the present, the matter rested. The Dutch 
 continued their trade with the natives at and about Man- 
 hattan, and extended it eastward as far as Buzzard's Bay. 
 More than two years had passed from the date of its 
 charter, when the West-India Company took 
 
 1622. 
 
 possession of New Netherland, and yet another 
 year, when the first permanent colony was there 
 established. Mey, who for ten years had been 
 familiar Avith the place, and who in one of his coasting 
 voyages had discovered that cape of Delaware Bay which 
 preserves his name, was made Director. He retained his 
 office but a year, and his successor, Verhulst, for only the 
 same period. Peter Minuit was next invested 
 with the government, which he still administered 
 at the time to which the history of Plymouth has now 
 been brought down. He purchased the island of Man- 
 hattan from the natives for a consideration about equiva- 
 lent to twenty-four dollars," and began the erection of a 
 fort at its southern end, which he called Fort Amsterdam. 
 It was in his time that De Pasieres came to Plymouth.^ 
 A letter which preceded that messenger by six 1027. 
 months informed Bradford of the establishment of ^'"'"'^ ^' 
 the Dutch colony, and assured him of their wish to culti- 
 vate relations of commerce and friendship with him and 
 his associates. In his replv, the Governor recip- 
 rocated these professions, but used the occasion to 
 warn the Dutch against attempts at encroachment on any 
 of the territory north of the fortieth degree of latitude,"* 
 
 1 Journal of the Prhy Council for 3 gee above, pp. 226-229. 
 December 15, 1621. ■* This part of Bradford's letter is 
 
 2 Brodhead's Address to the New omitted from the copy in bis History 
 York Historical Society, in 1844, p. 26. (224), but is preserved, as well as the
 
 238 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAIfD. [Book I. 
 
 claimed, as it was, by the Council for New England. The 
 answer Avas "very friendly, but maintaining their 
 right and liberty to trade in those parts," derived 
 from the autliority of " the States of Holland." Bradford 
 next presented the case with more fulness and 
 more decision, but recommended a submission of 
 it to the superiors of both parties in Europe, and request- 
 ed a visit from some of the Dutch, for conference on 
 their affairs of business. This invitation, coupled with a 
 desire to deprive the Plymouth people of a motive for ex- 
 peditions to the west,-' brought De Rasieres to their town, 
 whence, on his return, he bore another remon- 
 
 Oct. 1. ' , ' 
 
 strance against w^hat w^as understood to be intru- 
 sion on the English domain. In informing the Council 
 for Xew England of the movement, Bradford wrote, " We 
 understand that, for strength of men and fortification, they 
 far exceed us, and all in this land." In the following 
 
 year, Xew Amsterdam received its first cler^^v- 
 
 1G28. o . . . 
 
 man.- It is believed to have had at that time 
 a population of two hundred and seventy persons.^ 
 
 letters •which followed, in his Letter- if -we will not leave off dealing with 
 
 Book. (]\Iass. Hist. Coll., III. 51 -5G). that people, they will be obliged to use 
 
 1 " They have built a shallop [at other means. If they do that now, 
 
 ^Linomet] in order to go and look after while they are yet ignorant how the 
 
 the trade in sewan [the Dutch name for case stands, what will they do when 
 
 wampum] in Sloup's Bay [an inlet of they do get a notion of it V " (Letter of 
 
 Jsarragansctt Bay], which I have De Rasieres, cited above, p. 226, note.) 
 
 prevented for this year by selling them 2 jjjg name was Jonas Michaelius. 
 
 fifty fathoms of sewan, because the The fact of the existence, so early, of 
 
 seeking after sewan by them is preju- a church at New Amsterdam, has just 
 
 dicial to us, inasmuch as they would, by been brought to light by !Mr. ^lurjjhy, 
 
 60 doing, discover the trade in furs ; Minister of the United States at the 
 
 which if they were to find out, it would ILigue. 
 
 be a great trouble for us to maintain; ^ Brodhead, History of New York, I. 
 
 for they already dare to threaten that, 183.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The emigration of the Englishmen who settled at Ply- 
 mouth had been prompted by religious dissent. In what 
 manner Robinson, who was capable of speculating on 
 political tendencies, or Brewster, whose early position had 
 compelled him to observe them, had augured concerning 
 the prospect of public affairs in their native country, no 
 record tells ; while the rustics of the Scrooby congrega- 
 tion, who fled from a government which denied them lib- 
 erty in their devotions, could have had but little knowl- 
 edge, and no agency, in the political sphere. The case was 
 widely different with the founders of the Colony of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay. That settlement had its rise in a state of 
 things in England which associated religion and politics 
 in an intimate alliance. 
 
 The decline of the military system of the Middle Ages 
 had brought about a necessity for new political organiza- 
 tions. The power of the great feudatories ceas- 
 ing to be the controlling clement in affairs, the conflict be- 
 
 1 • -I J T • • 1 i tween arbi- 
 
 monarchical and popular prmciples Avere to con- ,raryand 
 front each other in open field. France took the p^'P"^.''' 
 
 i- principles. 
 
 lead among the states of Western Europe in 
 bringing to a settlement the question, which of the two 
 opposing forces was to prevail. AVhen the necessities of 
 the invasion from England excused Charles the Seventh 
 for establishino^ "the first standinor army in mod- 
 ern Europe," they enabled him to found a des- 
 potism. In Spain, whose constitutions were more popular 
 
 1 Ranke, Civil Wars and Monarchy in France, Chap. IV.
 
 240 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. , [Book I. 
 
 than those of llic other kingdoms of the West,^ the con- 
 troversy came to a decision in the following century, and, 
 under the auspices of Cardinal Ximenes and the Emperor 
 Charles the Fifth, was determined with the same issue. 
 In England, the dynasty of the Tudors was far from 
 wanting the vigor of character required to bring about 
 an equally calamitous result. But in two respects the 
 sovereigns of that line were at a disadvantage as compared 
 with the Continental monarchs. One was, that the insular 
 position of their realm withheld from them all excuse 
 for the creation of that necessary instrument of arbitrary 
 rule, a body of mercenary soldiers. The other was, that, 
 when the claims of prerogative and the claims of a devel- 
 oped love of freedom were approaching a collision, re- 
 lio-ious questions had complicated themselves with 
 
 Its relations o a j- 
 
 in England thc poHtical dlsputc, and the courage of the peo- 
 ple had been exalted by the enthusiasm of re- 
 ligious reform. 
 
 The last of the Tudors left the controversy pending ; 
 and a gracious Providence, which had great things in 
 store for England, and through England for the world, 
 was pleased at this momentous juncture to place a learned 
 fool upon thc throne of that kingdom.^ The reign of 
 Its progress Jamcs tlic Flrst is the period of the vital struggle 
 oHaLls'the between popular and arbitrary principles, though 
 ^"^'' the open conflict and the fruits of victory did not 
 
 come till later. 
 
 The pretensions and severities of Archbishop Bancroft, 
 after the Conference and the Convocation at the beginning 
 of this reign, rendered more distinct the positions of the 
 two classes of religious malecontents. While the Sepa- 
 ratists^ of whom were the emigrants to Plymouth, re- 
 
 ' Proscott, History of the Reign of age, who had given him Greek and 
 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, I. Ixxix. Latin in great waste and profusion; but 
 
 ^ "He liad been bred up under Bu- it was not in his power to give him good 
 
 ehanan, one of the brightest geniuses sense." (Stitb, History of Virginia, 
 
 and most accomplished scholars of that Pref., vii.)
 
 Chap. VII.] PUEITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND, 241 
 
 linqiiished the communion of the Established Church, 
 and set up distinct assemblies, the more numerous Non- 
 conformists "svere scrupulous about the sin of schism, and 
 chose rather to continue their protest against the prelati- 
 cal ceremonies and discipline from a position within the 
 pale of a Church which they owned to be pure in doctrine.^ 
 This position would naturally be preferred to that of sep- 
 aration, by such as were from temper more hopeful of im- 
 provement, or from circumstances more competent to at- 
 tempt it, or, from repugnance to the forfeiture of social 
 advantages, more inclined to a course of postponement or 
 compromise. And accordingly, for a considerable period 
 longer, the great conflict of the High-Churchmen and their 
 royal coadjutor was not with Separatists, but with Non- 
 conformists. By intimidation for the weak and banish- 
 ment or harder measures for the resolute, dissent under 
 the former phase was almost extirpated for the time in 
 England. Under the latter, it maintained itself, with 
 many defeats, but on the whole with a steady persever- 
 ance ; and in the strife which followed, engaging men of 
 the best ability on both sides, an attentive observer 
 might discern a constant advance of the Non-conformist 
 party towards an occupation of the Separatist ground. 
 The argument, as it widened and warmed, drove the dis- 
 putants further apart ; and the harsh discipline, by which 
 the Church sought to enforce the reasonings of her cham- 
 pions, had its natural effect on men who meant to be 
 temperate, but who were liable to be provoked by injus- 
 tice and presumption. 
 
 Meanwhile, none but the most loyal language was used 
 by the disaffected clergy. " Let the bishops," wrote 
 the Non-conformist ministers of Devon and Corn- 1607. 
 wall, " sift well our courses since his Majesty's S'on°^ 
 hapgy entrance in among us, and let them name ^°^^°™''^^- 
 wherein we have done aught that may justly be said ill 
 
 1 See above, p. 118. 
 
 VOL. I. 21
 
 240 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND [Book I. 
 
 to bcoomc the ministers of Jesus Christ? Have we 
 drawn any sword ? Have we raised any tumult 1 Have 
 we used any threats "? Hath the state been put into any 
 fear or liazard through us ? Manifold disgraces have been 
 cast upon us, and we have endured them. The liberty 
 of our ministry hath been taken from us, and, though 
 with bleeding hearts, we have sustained it. We have 
 been cast out of our houses, and deprived of our ordinary 
 maintenance, yet have we blown no trumpet of sedition. 
 These things have gone very near us, and yet did we never 
 so much as entertain a thought of violence. "VVe have 
 petitioned the king and state; and who hath reason to 
 deny us that liberty ? We have craved of the prelates to 
 deal with us according to law ; and is not this the com- 
 mon benefit of every subject? We have besought them 
 to convince our consciences by Scripture. Alas ! what 
 would they have us to do ? " ^ Such submissive deport- 
 ment did but embolden the insolence of power. Nothing 
 short of the total eradication of dissent would satisfy the 
 rulers in church and state. Dissent was not even permit- 
 ted peaceably to betake itself to flight. A proclamation 
 prohibited all persons from transporting them- 
 selves to Virginia, without special license from 
 the king ^^ and it appears to have been under an author- 
 ity professedly thus obtained, that the fugitives of Scrooby 
 were arrested in their meditated flight to Holland. 
 
 Yet the morning of King James's reign was not one of 
 
 unbroken sunshine. Before his predecessor's death there 
 
 had been tokens of the risin<2r of that cloud which 
 
 of|M.i,iicHcn- was destined to darken his own day, and burst in 
 
 liinoiit. , •' 
 
 ruin on his children. Elizabeth had outlived her 
 Aast popularity. Thoughts, threatening, if as yet unde- 
 fined, Avcre stirred, by her arrogant obstinacy, in the minds 
 of numbers of the best of her subjects. After the oitecu- 
 tiou of Lord Essex, her uncontrolled ill-temper had be- 
 
 1 Ncal.IIistor}- of the Puritans, A'ol. 2 i{^^pi„^ History of England, II. 
 II. Cliap. I. 17G.
 
 Chap. VII.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 243 
 
 come a misery to herself and a terror to those about her 
 person.^ Her death scarcely occasioned a superficial and 
 transient sorrow ; to those who knew her best, it was 
 rather a relief from gloomy apprehensions, both personal 
 and public. There were now needed a capacity and a res- 
 olution at least equal to her own, to quell men who had 
 grown impatient of her rigid sway, and who were not 
 incapable of being instructed by the overthrow of free 
 institutions in Spain, and their more recent creation in 
 the Low Countries. 
 
 It was perhaps unfortunate for the influence of James 
 with his Parliament, that it was necessary to postpone its 
 first meeting for a year from his accession, by jgo^, 
 reason of an epidemic sickness then raffinsf in '^^'■'^''ig. 
 
 . /T* 1 • 1 Conduct of 
 
 London, which carried off thirty thousand per- jamesathis 
 sons, one fifth part of the population. The in- 
 terval gave opportunity for his ridiculous peculiarities of 
 mind, person, and manners to make their impression, and 
 to reassure the popular energies, which had almost learned 
 to confront the majestic severity of the late sovereign. 
 To whatever height his ulterior views aspired, good pol- 
 icy evidently recommended to him a modest deportment 
 on ascending the English throne. In him it would have 
 been graceful and conciliating to abstain from the present 
 assertion of claims which, of however questionable valid- 
 ity, Elizabeth could not perhaps have yielded with dig- 
 nity. But as, in his treatment of the Millenary Petition 
 and his management of the Conference at Hampton Court, 
 he had lost the most favorable opportunity for harmoniz- 
 ing the Protestant interests, so, on the occasion which 
 soonest presented itself, at his first meeting with the great 
 council of the realm, he gave alarm to the friends of civil 
 liberty by enormous pretensions of prerogative.^ 
 
 1 Her godson Harrington told more 2 King James's Speech, in the Jour- 
 
 on this subject than has got into the nals of the House of Commons, I. 142 
 
 graver histories. (Nugae Antiquae, I. - 146. 
 317-323.)
 
 244 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Parliament, it is true, responded in a subservient strain ; 
 for the vague expectations from a new reign repressed the 
 spirit of fault-finding, and as yet there was no 
 Proceedings Organized opposition to utter a potent voice of 
 pariumen't disscut. Courtiors, too, were diligent in estab- 
 at its fir.t lishinff their interest with the new monarch : and 
 
 •ession. O ' 
 
 Cecil, who had to ratify by services the peace 
 secretly made with him after incurring his displeasure by 
 the prosecution of the Earl of Essex, had great weight 
 with the House of Commons. Parliament passed what 
 was called an " Act of Pecoj^nition," in which, 
 overlookmg earner precedents m English history, 
 as well as that settlement in the reign of Henry the 
 Eighth in violation of which James now ascended the 
 throne, they asserted that " the imperial crown of the 
 realm of England did, by inherent birthright and lawful 
 and undoubted succession, descend and come to his most 
 excellent Majesty, as being lineally, justly, and lawfully 
 next and sole heir of the blood royal of the realm"; — 
 language regarded by some learned writers as the first 
 authoritative declaration in England of an indefeasible 
 hereditary right belonging to its royal line.^ 
 
 Yet even James's first Parliament did not prove itself 
 obsequious up to the measure of his desire or his expec- 
 tation. In opposition to a clause in the king's proclama- 
 tion for convoking them, the House of Commons asserted 
 witli some spirit their privilege of deciding on the election 
 returns. They made bold to tell him, through their 
 Speaker, that " new laws are to be instituted, imperfect 
 laws reformed, and inconvenient laws abrogated, only by 
 the power of the high court of Parliament," — that is, "by 
 the unity of the Commons' agreement, the Lords' accord, 
 and his Majesty's royal and legal assent " ; that to him 
 belonged the right " either negatively to frustrate or af- 
 
 ' Ilall.-im, Constittitional History of era of licroditary right." (Bolinghroke, 
 England, Chap. VI. — " This is the Dissertation on Parties, Letter 11.)
 
 Chap. VII.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 245 
 
 firmatively to confirm, but not to institute." ^ They pre- 
 sented to the House of Lords a list of various griev- 
 ances ; aniong others, the canons recently established in 
 the Convocation of the Clergy, They complained of the 
 abuses of the ancient right of purveyance^ by which car- 
 riages and food might be impressed, at insufficient prices, 
 for the royal service. And they were so slow in preparing 
 an expected bill for a subsidy, that the king, apprehensive 
 of their intending the affront of withholding it altogether, 
 sent a message that he should find no fault with their 
 passing it by. They took him at his word, and vindicated 
 their course of proceeding in a vigorous address, which 
 they called " A Form of Apology and Satisfaction to be 
 delivered to his Majesty."^ 
 
 The king had rated altogether too low the power which 
 he ventured to disgust. It was to a Parliament, which, 
 with some exaggeration, perhaps, but not without a sem- 
 blance of truth, the French ambassador had represented 
 to his court as being " composed mostly of Puritans," that 
 the new monarch said, in his opening speech, " I ac- 
 knowledge the Roman Church to be our mother Church, 
 although defiled with some infirmities and corruptions ; 
 I wish not the downthrowing of the temple, but that it 
 might be purged and cleansed from corruption " ; " the 
 Puritans and Novelists " are " a sect unable to be suffered 
 in any well-governed commonwealth."^ High-born and 
 well-nurtured men, who listened to such a menace against 
 themselves and what they regarded as the treasure of 
 divine truth in their keeping, could not be expected to do 
 more than suppress and suspend their discontent. And 
 at times it would send out flashes, portending the confla- 
 gration at hand. It was at this session that, in a con- 
 ference of the Lords with a committee of the Lofv^er 
 House, the remarkable language was used : " A people 
 
 1 House Journal, I. 146. 3 House Journal, I. 144. 
 
 2 Parliamentary History, I. 1030. 
 
 21*
 
 246 IIISTOKY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 may be without a king ; a king cannot be without a 
 pcopk\" ^ 
 
 The next session opened with the announcement of 
 the discovery and defeat of the Gunpowder Plot. But 
 
 1C05. even this narrow escape did not so soften the 
 ^*"''^' hearts of the Commons, but that they voted to 
 
 Second _ _ •' ^ 
 
 session. delay proceeding to the business of a subsidy 
 for the king's supply, till the grievances which they had 
 presented should have received consideration.^ Nor were 
 they likely to be quickened by that clause in the speech 
 from the throne, which declared " the cruelty of the Puri- 
 tans worthy of fire, that will admit no salvation to the 
 Papists."^ The question of a legislative union with Scot- 
 land, pressed ineffectually by the king at the previous 
 session, was again discussed.'* His precipitancy in assum- 
 ing the style of " King of Great Britain," making Scotch 
 coin a legal tender in England by proclamation, quarter- 
 ing the royal arms of Scotland with those of the sister 
 realm, and demolishing the gates of the frontier towns, 
 had occasioned jealousy and irritation. But the real ques- 
 tion, understood, at least on one side, probably on both, 
 to lie at the bottom of this discussion, M'as that of the 
 extension or confinement of the royal prerogative. While 
 Parliament were intent on restricting or defining the tra- 
 ditional rights of a king of England, they had no mind 
 to admit, with the laws and customs of another realm, a 
 new element of contradiction and uncertainty. They 
 could not even be prevailed upon to assent to the king's 
 doctrine of the naturalization in England of his subjects 
 born in Scotland after the union of the crowns, implying, 
 as it did, that the crown carried with it all attributes and 
 relations of nationality.'^ They again presented a list of 
 grievances in church and state, but consented to make 
 
 1 House Journal, I. 15G. 4 l\)\±^ 10G9. 
 
 2 I'arliaiiicntary Illstorj-, I. 10C9. 5 Hjjj.^ lObl-1009. 
 
 3 Ihid., 1057.
 
 Chap. VII.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 247 
 
 a grant of money, to the amount of three suhsidies and 
 six fifteenths, or about four hundred thousand pounds.-^ 
 
 Inspired with a delusive confidence by this slow liberal- 
 ity, the king urged his wishes in a bolder stram. In his 
 speech at the next meeting with his Parliament, leoe. 
 he advised them not to be " like Icarus the son Tiiw 
 of Daedalus, who soared so near the sun with his session. 
 wings of wax, that his wax melted, and his wings failed, 
 and down he fell." He recommended to them, " if any 
 plebeian tribunes should incur any offence, or commit any 
 error, to correct them for it, ..... that the whole body 
 receive not a wound by one ill member thereof" And 
 he gave them to understand, that, if they should prove 
 contumacious in respect to his favorite scheme of uniting 
 the kingdoms, he had authority to carry it into effect 
 without their aid.^ A later speech, in which, complaining 
 of their obstinacy, he told them that after the prorogation 
 they would be amenable to the courts of law, had no ten- 
 dency to close the widening breach. " I am your king," 
 he said ; " I am placed to govern you, and shall answer 
 for your errors ; I am a man of flesh and blood, and have 
 my passions and affections as other men ; I pray you do 
 not too far move me to do that which my power may 
 
 1 A subsidy was a direct tax on land " The whole amount of a tenth and 
 
 or movables, of a specified proportion a fifteenth throughout the kingdom, or 
 
 of their value, ■which proportion was a fifteenth, as it is often more concisely 
 
 different in different levies. Kffteentli called, was about twenty-nine thousand 
 
 meant a tax on movables to the amount pounds. The amount of a subsidy was 
 
 of that proportion of their rated worth, not invariable, Uke that of a fifteenth. 
 
 In corporate towns, the assessment was In the eighth of Elizabeth, a subsidy 
 
 half as much more, or a tenth. But amounted to one hundred and twenty 
 
 both fifteenths and tenths were collected thousand pounds ; in the fortieth, it 
 
 upon the basis of an ancient valuation, was not above seventy-eight thousand ; 
 
 so that their real was much less than it afterwards fell to seventy thousand, 
 
 their nominal amount. The estimate, and was continually decreasing." Hal- 
 
 in the text, of the value of three sub- lam (Constitutional History, Chap. 
 
 sidles and six fifteenths is that of VI.) expresses the opinion that Hume 
 
 Hume, who quotes for it a speech of undervalued the suhsidy. 
 Lord Bacon in the House of Lords 2 Parliamentary History, I. 1072- 
 
 (Chap. XLVI.) Hume says elsewhere 1074. 
 (Appendix to the Reign of James I.) :
 
 Feb. 9 
 Fourth 
 session, 
 
 04.8 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND, [Book I. 
 
 tempt me imto."^ Some years earlier, such language, 
 from the lips of the daughter of 
 
 " the majestic lord 
 That broke the bonds of Rome," 
 
 might have intimidated. From those of her "slobbering" 
 cousin, it could only exasperate and estrange. The feel- 
 ing of the Lower House was significantly expressed by 
 its passing a bill making void all ecclesiastical canons 
 adopted by the Convocation without the consent of Parlia- 
 ment, even though they should be ratified, as those of the 
 recent Convocation had been, by the king's letters-patent 
 under the great seal. 
 
 The next meeting of Parliament (previous to which 
 the humble flock of Robinson, smarting under their own 
 
 icio. griefs, but little knowing the signs in the upper 
 political sky, had escaped to Holland) was post- 
 poned as long as the necessities of the treasury 
 allowed. The opponents of the court — 'the Country 
 Interest^ as they began to be called — came together in a 
 more determined mood, Avith increased mutual confidence 
 and more definite conceptions of the common object. 
 Cecil, now Earl of Salisbury and prime minister, told the 
 House of Commons, when he asked a supply, that " it was 
 a mark of esteem which could not be denied to a king, 
 wlio was not only the wisest of kings, but the very image 
 of an angel." But they took time to consider, and pro- 
 ceeded first to the question of the public grievances. A 
 message of disapprobation from the king was delivered 
 by the Speaker, who in reply received a reprimand from 
 the House 'for his officiousness. A royal speech, full of 
 high-prerogative doctrines, drew out a vigorous address 
 in assertion of the rights of the Commons of England and 
 of their representatives in Parliament.^ A negotiation was 
 entered into, proposing so much annual revenue on one 
 side, for so much relinquishment of doubtful or oficnsive 
 
 1 House Juurnal, 1. 3G7, 3G8. 2 Ibid., 430, 431.
 
 Chap. VII.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 249 
 
 claims upon the other. But the parties could not agree 
 upon terms, and the undertaking proved abortive, a pro- 
 rogation being ordered as soon as the king had secured 
 himself for the present by obtaining the scanty grant of a 
 hundred thousand pounds.^ His recent experience had 
 not encouraged him to hope anything from this piftj, 
 Parliament ; and after another short session, in ^''^''°°' 
 which it discovered no easier temper, it was dis- 
 solved in its seventh year. The dissolution was rariiument 
 hastened by disgust conceived by the king at a 
 petition of the House of Commons for the relief of Puri- 
 tan ministers from the obligations of subscription and of 
 conformity to the ceremonies, and at a remonstrance 
 against not only the oppressions, but the jurisdiction, of 
 the High-Commission Court. Among other matters of 
 complaint were the royal pretension to give to proclama- 
 tions the force of law ; the issue of patents of monopoly ; 
 and some trifling impositions, by the crown, of duties on 
 foreign merchandise, chiefly important for the precedent 
 they might establish. 
 
 The tone of the House of Commons aflforded a partial 
 indication of the progress of popular principles in the 
 nation at large, and not least in the circles of intelligence 
 and rank. On the other side were the courtiers, state of opin- 
 the Hifrh-Churchmen, and the lesral tribunals, '""^m""? 
 
 *-' '-' the courtiers 
 
 The Common-Law courts, however, were far from ^"^ ^^^ J^^- 
 being uniformly sycophantic. Though not sel- 
 dom biassed, and sometimes even corrupted, by power, the 
 instincts of legal science have always been among the 
 main safeguards of the liberties of the English race. The 
 king, indeed, obtained the opinion of the judges, that "the 
 deprivation of Puritan ministers by the High-Commission- 
 ers, for refusing to conform to the ceremonies appointed 
 by the last canons, was lawful," and that the framing of 
 
 1 " One subsidy and one fifteenth, dred thousand pounds." (Hume, Chap. 
 which would scarcely amount to a hua- XLVI.)
 
 250 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAJfD. [Book I. 
 
 petitions " as the Puritans had done, with an intimation 
 to the king that, if he denied their suit, many thousands 
 of his subjects would be discontented, was an offence 
 finable at discretion, and very near to treason and felony 
 in the punishment ; for it tended to the raising sedition, 
 rebellion, and discontent among the people."-^ But, on 
 the other hand, when the arrogant archbishop, in what 
 were called the Artlculi Cleri. claimed for the 
 
 1605. 
 
 ecclesiastical courts jurisdiction independent of 
 that of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, 
 the judges, under the lead of Sir Edward Coke, repelled 
 and silenced the pretension. And at a later period they 
 
 informed the monarch, throuo^h the same great 
 
 ICIO. . . 'Ob 
 
 jurist, that he could not by proclamation create 
 any new offence, and that he possessed no prerogative 
 whatever except by the law of the land.~ 
 
 The ecclesiastics of the Iligh-Church party, nursing the 
 follies of the king, were unconsciously the main agents in 
 Highprerog- Icadiug ou liis family to its destruction, and his 
 "ixuLluhQ subjects to their higher destinies. The canons 
 Church. framed by the Convocation had inculcated the 
 obligation of unlimited obedience to the sovereign. One 
 Blackwood, a clergyman, published a book, in which he 
 maintained, that, by virtue of the Conquest in the 
 eleventh century, William of Normandy and his 
 heirs were absolute and unrestricted masters of the realm 
 of England; and Cowell, vicar-general to Bancroft, in a 
 " Law Dictionary," dedicated to that prelate and under- 
 stood to be produced under his auspices, asserted the 
 doctrines, that " the king is above the law by his absolute 
 power," and that " he may alter or suspend any particular 
 law that secmeth hurtful to the public estate." The House 
 
 1 Neal, PuriUins, Vol. II. Chap. I. James for tolling Iiim that "his Iligh- 
 
 2 Lord Cami)bcll, Lives of the Chief ness -vvas tlcfciuled by his laws." Ilis 
 Justices, Chap. VIII. — At another time, Highness told him that "he spoke fool- 
 tlnj Chief Ju-licc, liul "a very sharp ishly, and said that he was not defend- 
 reprehcuhion " adiuiai.-ilerciJ to hiiu by cd by his laws, but by God."
 
 Chap. VII.] PURITAN TOLITICS IN ENGLAND. 251 
 
 of Commons took high offence, and asked a conference 
 with the Lords, when James was prudent enough to parry 
 their resentment by a proclamation forbidding the circula- 
 tion of the book. 
 
 The king's experience for six years had naturally disgust- 
 ed him with Parliaments, and his mind was inclining to 
 . expedients for governing without them. It was not easy 
 to dispense with their provisions for the treasury ; but, on 
 the other hand, the doctrine that supplies for the service 
 of the crown are a voluntary grant of the Commons, was 
 by no means yet cleared from all uncertainty. The " Act 
 for a Subsidy of Tonnage and Poundage," customary at 
 the beginning of a reign, and giving the new monarch 
 authority for life to collect certain customs, had been 
 passed at the first session of the preceding Parliament. 
 James had exceeded the power therein conferred, , . . , 
 
 ■•■ Imposition of 
 
 by layino: an additional duty of five shillings a 'I'lg;^' duties 
 hundred-weight on imported currants. A London 
 merchant, named Bates, contested the payment 
 
 . ' . ^ •' 1C05. 
 
 at law. The question, of which the momentous 
 significance Avas already apparent to some minds, having 
 been adjudged in the Court of Exchequer in favor of the 
 crown, James proceeded, in what was called the " Book of 
 Rates," to impose duties, by his own authority, jeos. 
 on various articles of merchandise. These impo- •'"'^* 
 sitions, after receiving some cursory attention at an earlier 
 time, had been vigorously protested against in the last 
 session but one of the recent Parliament ; but a bill which 
 the House of Commons had been bold enough to pass for 
 correcting the abuse, had been thrown out by the Peers. 
 
 For the next ten years, there was scarcely anything of 
 the nature of legislative action to denote the tendencies 
 of thouijht in Ens^land. Only one Parliament ^ 
 
 •-''--' "^ Discontinu- 
 
 was convoked ; it sat only two months, and enact- ^"^6 of Par- 
 
 1 '1-1 T 1 r ^ • liaiiients. 
 
 ed not a single law. in the poverty oi his ex- 
 chequer, it might have seemed natural for the king to add
 
 Qo2 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 to those illegal exactions from commerce which, notwith- 
 standing the discontent they had occasioned, had escaped 
 rebuke from the estates of the kingdom. But it seems 
 that, after all his bluster, his courage was not equal to 
 the continuance of the experiment, or that more prudent 
 counsels on the part of those about him prevailed. Such 
 expedients as a public lottery, excessive fines in' 
 
 Expedients *^ ■*• *' 
 
 to obtain a flic Court of Star-Cliambcr, and the sale of timber 
 from the crown forests, of monopolies, of investi- 
 tures of baronetcy and knighthood, and of patents of no- 
 bility, afforded an inadequate supply. In the existing 
 state of the public mind, that fear of royal vengeance 
 which in former times had made benevolences a convenient 
 resource, could no longer be so much relied upon. Crown 
 lands were set up for sale, but found no purchasers, from 
 distrust of the goodness of the title; and the Corporation 
 of London refused to lend money. 
 
 During the ten years of this unsatisfactory provision 
 for the public expenses, the king's reluctance to meet a 
 Parliament was once overcome by an engagement of some 
 of his courtiers, thence called undertakers, so to manage 
 the elections as to return a House of Commons favorable 
 to prerogative. From the moment when the Houses as- 
 sembled, it was manifest that the scheme had 
 April 15. failed. " I protest," he said, when he met them. 
 
 Proceedings of ,, Tin •, kt ' i j~^ •% i 
 
 King James's as i suali auswer it to Almighty God, that my 
 «jcond Pariia- intcgHty ig Hko tho whiteucss of my robe, my 
 purity like the metal of gold in my crown, my 
 firmness and clearness like the precious stones I wear, 
 and my affections natural like the redness of my heart." ^ 
 They endured his rhetoric, and took time to consider his 
 demands. They disputed the right of his Attorney-General, 
 Sir Francis Bacon, to a seat in the House, and only con- 
 ceded it Avitli a proviso that it should not be a precedent 
 for incumbents of the same office in future Parliaments. 
 
 1 Parliamentary Ilistorj-, I. 1150.
 
 Chap. VII.] PURITAN TOLITICS IN ENGLAND. 253 
 
 One of the undertakers was expelled for tampering with 
 the recent elections. A resolve against the king's power 
 of imposing taxes was now carried by a unanimous vote ; a 
 remarkable homage, apparently, to an aroused public feel- 
 ing. A full list of grievances was prepared, the severities 
 exercised towards Non-conformists being prominent among 
 them ; and the whole course of proceeding indicated that 
 the consideration of these would have precedence of any 
 grant of money, though it was known that the king was 
 more than a million of pounds in debt. Neale, Bishop 
 of Lincoln, having in debate reflected on the policy of the 
 Commons, that body sent up a message complaining of 
 the insult, and were only appeased by a reply from the 
 Lords that the Bishop had disavowed, with prayers and 
 tears, all intention of the kind imputed. After a dissolu- 
 tion, by which James relieved himself from the 
 
 . . . Juno 17. 
 
 vexation of a hopeless contest, he gratified his 
 spleen by sending some of the leading patriots to the 
 Tower ; but good advice prevailed with him speedily to 
 release them, and the outrage had no other effect than to 
 produce an exasperation, which encouraged a still more 
 prompt and steady refusal of benevolences. 
 
 The financial exigencies were now greater than ever. 
 A temporary supply was obtained by a measure which 
 added another weight to the king's burden of surrenderor 
 unpopularity. A sum of money, lent by Eliza- cau,t'!,aljr 
 beth to the Netherlanders in their insurrection *°'''"^' 
 against Spain, had been secured to England by the 
 occupation of what were called the cautionari/ toiv?is. 
 Flushing, the Brille, and Rammekins. The Grand Pen- 
 sioner, Barne veldt, saw the advantage of the time, and 
 easily induced James to surrender the towns for 
 a payment of two hundred and fifty thousand 
 pounds, about one third of the amount due. With this 
 help, added to his permanent means, he struggled on a 
 few years more. But at length further supplies seemed 
 
 VOL. I. 22
 
 254 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 indispensable, and again the unwelcome expedient of a 
 Parliament was perforce adopted. 
 
 Tlic impulse which moved all this energetic resistance 
 was too obvious to escape even the king's slow percep- 
 tions ; at all events, it was too apparent to elude the 
 notice of his ministers. Protestant religion was educating 
 the English people for civil liberty. " Plead not," said 
 James in the Star-Chamber, " upon Puritanical principles, 
 which make all things popular, but keep within the an- 
 cient limits." Puritanism experienced (as for its best 
 training it needed) the alternate discipline, on the part 
 of the court, of extreme and of relaxed severity. The 
 hardship brought it to try and understand its power; 
 the relaxation helped it to advance its claims, and gain 
 a stronger position for the next contest. Archbishop 
 icio. Bancroft died just at the time of the dissolution 
 Nov. 2. Qf James's first Parliament. Plis six years' ad- 
 
 Death of -^ 
 
 Arriiiii^hop ministration was terribly harsh, and not unskilful 
 
 liancroft. „ . i 1 • 
 
 for its purpose ; though it was a mere exaggera- 
 tion of Lord Clarendon to say that " he had almost rescued 
 
 the Church out of the hands of the Calvinian party, 
 
 and, if he had lived, would quickly have extinguished all 
 that fire in England which had been kindled at Geneva."^ 
 If non-conformity was restrained, discontent was not at all 
 abated. Perhaps it was even extended, by a natural re- 
 pugnance to coercion in many minds of that sort which 
 attaches little importance to theories. 
 
 The successor of Bancroft in the primacy was Dr. 
 George Abbot, previously Bishop of Lichfield and Cov- 
 Lcnityand <^ntry, aud thcn of London. A weakness of the 
 ruritanicai j-jj^^^ scrvcd, at this critical iuncture, the Puri- 
 
 tciiileiicies of O ' J ' 
 
 Arri.bi«imp tan and popular cause. Nothing was more im- 
 portant to his objects than the aid of an arch- 
 bishop, enterprising, courageous, and severe, a bigot to the 
 state religion and to the royal prerogative. To oblige, it 
 
 1 Clarendon, History of the Rebellion, Book I.
 
 Chap. VII.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 255 
 
 is said, one of his favorites, the Earl of Dunbar, he 
 selected for this momentous trust a churchman of benevo- 
 lent temper, of indolent habits, and in sentiment (if his 
 enemies told the truth) a semi-Puritan. Abbot speedily- 
 showed himself inclined to no further strictness in en- 
 forcing the discipline of the Church, and obedience to the 
 Articles and Canons, than was required by express ob- 
 ligation, or the obvious decencies of his place; and his 
 inert and indulgent administration emboldened the Non- 
 conformists as much as it embarrassed and annoyed the 
 king. The Archbishop was charged with a signal in- 
 stance of disaffection, in forbidding the promulgation, at 
 a residence of his in Lancashire, of a royal proclamation 
 for the encouragement of Sunday sports and recreations. 
 Papists abounded in Lancashire, and it had been ordered 
 that the proclamation should be read in all the churches 
 of that county. 
 
 The occasion for convening the next Parliament had a 
 relation to foreign politics. James had espoused Foreign 
 his eldest child, the Princess Elizabeth, to Fred- ofEngUnd. 
 eric. Count Palatine of the Rhine. The Protes- ^^^^• 
 tants of Bohemia, in arms against their sovereign, of- 
 fered the crown to Frederic, who, accepting the 
 
 i- O 2619. 
 
 doubtful boon, became immediately involved in a 
 war against a league of Catholic princes of the empire. 
 They not only dispossessed him of his ephemeral throne 
 in Bohemia, but overran his patrimonial posses- 
 
 ■ 111* 1 1 1620. 
 
 sions, and drove mm to seek an asylum m the 
 Low Countries. The religious sympathies of Englishmen 
 were naturally enlisted in his behalf James did not share 
 in them. He had watched the whole proceeding of his 
 son-in-law with apprehension and displeasure. He prided 
 himself on his pacific disposition. His high notions of 
 prerogative forbade him to countenance insurgents ; and 
 the course of Frederic embarrassed his negotiation with 
 the king of Spain, long pursued with a fond solicitude,
 
 2oG HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 for the marriage of an Infanta with his son. The most 
 he could be prevailed upon to do, by the clamor which 
 surrounded him, was to send four thousand volunteers on 
 an unavailing enterprise to protect the authority and 
 person of Frederic in his inherited dominions. 
 
 This charge he had been able to meet by the proceeds 
 of a voluntary contribution of some of the more zealous 
 English Protestants, and of a loan on usurious interest. 
 The general enthusiasm was wrought up to a higher pitch 
 by Frederic's overthrow; and the ministry advised their" 
 master to profit by it to obtain the supplies of money of 
 which he was desperately in want. It -was with much 
 difficulty that they brought him to that step, and per- 
 suaded him to disarm the contumacious spirit which he 
 dreaded, by proposing some not costly concessions of points 
 hitherto in dispute. 
 
 In his speech at the opening of his third Parliament, 
 he bewailed the little influence which hitherto he had 
 
 jj.<,j been able to exert over the public deliberations. 
 
 Jan. 30. u J j^^y trulv," Said he, " say I have often piped 
 
 King James's J J ^ ^ J i 1 
 
 third I'ariia- uuto you, but you have not danced ; I have often 
 
 incnt 
 
 mourned, but you have not lamented." ' He com- 
 pared his condition, on account of his accumulated necessi- 
 ties, to an approach to the time of parturition ; "only," he 
 said, " instead of months, myself have gone ten years, and 
 therefore it is full time that I should be delivered of my 
 wants." He complained of the uncharitable constructions 
 which had been put upon his conduct. He unfolded some 
 of his plans of economy, executed and projected. He vin- 
 dicated his apparent lukewarmness in the cause of his 
 son-in-law, and of Protestantism on the Continent. He 
 left " to the Jesuits to make religion a cause to take away 
 crowns"; and he professed himself "not a fit judge, for 
 they might say, as one said to Moses, ' AVho made thee a 
 judge over us T " Finally he enacted the coaxing parent : 
 
 ' rarliamcntary History, I. 1176.
 
 Chap. VII.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 257 
 
 " How happy a fame will it be, that I am reverenced by 
 my people, and reciprocally love them ! How shall I be 
 honored by my neighbor princes ! " 
 
 The courtiers pressed for immediate supplies ; but the 
 House of Commons understood its position and took its 
 time. After some measures for the further restraint of 
 Popish recusants, it represented to the king the 
 breach of its privileges in the imprisonment of 
 members at the close of the last Parliament. James re- 
 plied with an earnest protestation of his purpose 
 to maintain liberty of speech, and was immedi- 
 ately rewarded with a grant of two subsidies, or 
 
 •' * ^ Feb. 16. 
 
 about a hundred and fifty thousand pounds, an 
 extremely measured liberality, which, however, he deemed 
 it prudent to recognize as a token of restored good under- 
 standing. 
 
 The House next turned its attention to an abuse which 
 had grown up, consisting in grants of monopolies by royal 
 patent. There was one for the licensino: of inns : 
 
 ■•• _ o ' Proceedings 
 
 another for the exclusive manufacture of gold and against 
 silver lace. The patentees, who were knights, 
 were sentenced by the Lords to imprisonment, heavy fines, 
 and degradation from their order ; and the king was fain 
 to conceal his chagrin, and even to increase the severity 
 of their punishments, under the pretence that they had 
 imposed upon him by false representations. 
 
 The Chancellor, Sir Francis Bacon, now Viscount 
 St. Albans, had rendered himself odious by the prostitu- 
 tion of his vast genius to the mercenary service of impeach- 
 the court. The Commons revived an ancient right st^ Aibans. 
 of theirs by impeaching him before the Upper ^'^^^* 
 House for bribery and corruption. He made a full con- 
 fession, and was sentenced to pay a fine of forty thousand 
 pounds, to be imprisoned during the king's pleasure, and 
 to be incapable of sitting in Parliament, or holding any 
 place of trust or profit. Other cases of impeachment, of 
 
 22*
 
 058 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 inferior importance, showed the confident temper which 
 possessed the grand inquest of the realm. 
 
 The king became uneasy. Four months' deliberation 
 had brought the hoped-for supplies no nearer. He in- 
 formed the Houses by message, that he intended their 
 present session should last only another week. He kept 
 his word, and the parties separated with less mu- 
 tual satisfaction than ever. 
 During the recess, which lasted five months, the two 
 popular leaders, Coke and Sandys, were molested by a 
 prosecution, ostensibly for official misdemeanors. When 
 Parliament again came together, the sergeant-at-arms was 
 ordered to take the accusers of Coke into cus- 
 
 Nov. 14. 
 
 tody, and measures were adopted to establish the 
 charge of a conspiracy on their part against him, in re- 
 venge for the part which he had taken in the House. 
 As to Sandys, the king declared that he had not punished 
 him for anything done in his place in Parliament, but at 
 the same time vindicated his right to do so at his dis- 
 cretion. 
 
 This dispute was eminently inauspicious to future har- 
 mony. The House lost no time in drawing up a petition, 
 Increase of ^^ which, amoug othcr things, they prayed that an 
 dissension amiv mi^flit be forthwith desi^atched to Germany, 
 
 between the . . 
 
 king and the aud that tlic heir apparent might be betrothed to 
 a Protestant princess. Nothing could exceed the 
 bewildered exasperation of the king, on being informed of 
 this proceeding. " We have heard," he said in a letter to 
 the Speaker, " by divers reports, to our great grief, that 
 our distance from the Houses of Parliament, caused by 
 our indisposition of health, hath emboldened some fiery 
 and popular spirits of some of the House of Commons to 
 argue and debate publicly matters far above their reach 
 and capacity, tending to our high dishonor, and breach of 
 prerogative royal. These are therefore to command you 
 to make known, in our name, unto the House, that none
 
 Chap. VII.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 259 
 
 therein shall presume henceforth to meddle with any- 
 thing concerning our government or mysteries of state ; 
 namely, not to speak of our dearest son's match with the 
 daughter of Spain, nor to touch the honor of that king, 
 
 or any other our friends and confederates And if 
 
 they have already touched any of these points, which we 
 have here forbidden, in any petition of theirs which is 
 to be sent unto us, it is our pleasure that you shall tell 
 them, that, except they reform it before it comes to our 
 hands, we will not deign the hearing or answering of it."-^ 
 
 The House replied by a new remonstrance, respectful 
 in language, but in a tone of unprecedented firmness. 
 They repeated their dissuasion from the Spanish match, 
 and their recommendation of a Continental policy of oppo- 
 sition to the Catholic interest ; they asserted their privilege 
 to advise the crown on all occasions which to their judg- 
 ments should seem fit ; and they claimed in the most un- 
 qualified terms, as an inheritance from their ancestors, a 
 right to freedom of debate, and an exclusive right to pun- 
 ish any member who should abuse that freedom.- 
 
 The king's reply helped on the quarrel. " We cannot 
 allow," he said, " of your style in mentioning your an- 
 cient and undoubted right and inheritance, but could 
 rather have wished that ye had said that your privileges 
 were derived from the grace and permission of our ances- 
 tors and us ; for most of them grow from precedents, 
 which shows rather a toleration than inheritance." " The 
 difference is no greater in your pretending to advise us on 
 our reasons for demanding a supply, than if we should tell 
 a merchant that we had great need to borrow money from 
 him for raising an army, that thereupon it would follow 
 that we were bound to follow his advice in the direction 
 of the war, and all things depending thereupon." " And 
 touching your excuse of not determining anything con- 
 cerning the match of our dearest son, but only to tell your 
 
 1 Parliamentary History, I. 1326, 1327. 2 jbid., 1333-1336.
 
 260 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 opinion, and lay it down at our feet, first, we desire to 
 know, how you could have presumed to determine in that 
 point, without committing of high treason ; and next, you 
 cannot deny but your talking of his match after that 
 manner was a direct breach of our commandment and 
 declaration out of our own mouth." ^ 
 
 Apprehending a speedy dissolution, the House of Com- 
 mons caused to be entered upon their Journal a Protesta- 
 tion, conceived in firm but measured and tem- 
 
 rrotestation 
 
 of the House perate language, in which were incorporated the 
 pretensions that had been brought into contro- 
 versy. The king, hearing of it, came to London in a 
 rage, sent for the Journal book, and tore from it the 
 Protestation with his own hand. He then prorogued the 
 Dissolution Parliament; and, in the proclamation by which 
 of tiie third ^i^gy were soon after dissolved he made known 
 
 Parliament. • 
 
 1(22. hig reasons for that course, alleging himself to 
 have been enforced to it "by the undutiful behav- 
 ior of the Lower House." Lastly, he indulged his resent- 
 ment by committing to the Tower, to the Fleet, and other 
 prisons, some of the most conspicuous opposition members, 
 among them Sir Edward Coke, from whose masculine un- 
 derstanding the free spirit of the Common Law had now 
 fully prevailed to root out the severity of his earlier pre- 
 dilections. No act had been passed at this session except 
 an act for a grant of two subsidies. An incidental indica- 
 tion of the Puritan spirit which prevailed was the expul- 
 sion of a member of the Lower House, for maintaining, 
 in the debate upon a bill for the stricter observance of 
 Sunday, that that day was erroneously identified with the 
 Jewish Sabbath, and that relaxations and sports did not 
 profane it. In this Parliament, for the first time since the 
 Reformation, several distinguished noblemen placed them- 
 selves in opposition to the court. They were the first 
 fruits of a large secession. 
 
 1 Parliamentary Historj-, I. 1338-1344.
 
 Chap. VII.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 261 
 
 The freedom with which political affairs were now can- 
 vassed is evinced by the royal proclamations, repeatedly 
 issued, to prohibit " excess of lavish speech of matters of 
 state," and the " disorderly printing, uttering, and dispersing 
 of seditious. Popish, and Puritanical books and pamphlets." ^ 
 
 The definitive failure of the long-protracted negotiation 
 with Spain for the marriage of the Prince of Wales, as it 
 involved the loss of the dowry which had been expected 
 with the Infanta, presented an inducement to James for 
 the convocation of another Parliament. At the same 
 time it promised a better mutual understanding, now 
 that Parliament would be relieved of its apprehensions 
 of Spain and Romanism. The event corre- Kingjames's 
 sponded to that promise. The new views of '^'"""' ^"''^" 
 the favorite, Buckinojham, who, since his breach '^24. 
 
 Feb. 12. 
 
 with the Spanish court, had been in communica- 
 tion with the Puritan leaders, gave a tone to the king's 
 opening speech. " The properties and causes of calling a 
 Parliament," he said, " are to confer with the king, and 
 give him their advice in matters of greatest weight and 
 importance " ; and he solicited their counsel respecting 
 his relations to Spain. " For matters of privileges, liber- 
 ties, and customs," said he, " be not over curious. I am 
 your own kindly king. Ye never shall find me curious 
 in these things. Therefore, do what you ought, and no 
 more than your lawful liberties and privileges will per- 
 mit, and ye shall never see me curious to the contrary. 
 I had rather maintain your liberties, than alter them in 
 anything. Show a trust in me, and go on honestly as ye 
 ought to do, like good and faithful subjects ; and what 
 you have warrant for, go on with, and I will iiot be 
 curious, unless you give me too much cause." ^ The 
 Speaker, one of those who had fallen under the royal 
 displeasure in the last Parliament, replied in loyal terms, 
 taking care, however, to make prominent the importance 
 
 J Rymer, Fcedera, XVII. 275,522, 2 Parliamentary History, I. 1373- 
 616. 1376.
 
 2(52 msTORY OF new England. [Book l 
 
 of some bills which had failed through the late dissolu- 
 tion, and the propriety of the king's depending on his 
 Parliament for supplies. 
 
 The account which Buckingham gave of the perfidy of 
 the Spanish court added a profound sense of insult to the 
 displeasure with which the alliance had always been 
 viewed by the Puritan patriots. The Houses united in a 
 declaration to the king, that, on the dissolution of the 
 treaties, they would "be ready in a Parliamentary man- 
 ner, with their persons and abilities, to assist him." ^ De- 
 lighted with this novel cordiality, he asked a grant of five 
 subsidies and ten fifteenths to meet the expenses of a war, 
 besides an annual allowance of one subsidy and two fif- 
 teenths for the discharge of his debts. But the Commons 
 had not got over their distrust, and had no mind to make 
 their sovereign independent, nor to part with so much 
 money till they had some assurance as to its use. After 
 full debate, they voted three subsidies and three fifteenths 
 for a present supply ; ^ subject, however, to the unprece- 
 dented condition, that it should be lodged for disburse- 
 ment in the hands of a committee of Parliament. An 
 Act " concerning Monopolies " declared that kind of priv- 
 ilege to be contrary to English law and to the liberties of 
 the English people. Little other business of importance 
 was concluded at this session, except that the House of 
 Commons, by the prosecution of the Earl of Middlesex, 
 the Lord Treasurer, confirmed the precedent of its right 
 of impeachment, which had been revived after long disuse 
 in the case of Lord St. Albans. There was a wide range 
 and great freedom of discussion on various matters of 
 
 * Parliamentary History, I. 1377, noss in liis rourse witli Parliament, and 
 
 1395. tells him that, until he can resolve " once 
 
 2 " Less than three hundred thou- constantly to run one way," he (the 
 Band pounds." (Hume, Chap. XLIX.) Duke) means to keep away from him. 
 — Mrs. Macaulay (History of Kng- It is signed " Your IMajesty's most hum- 
 land, &o., I. 229, note) prints a letter ble slave and dog, Stcenie," and ad- 
 fnnn the Duke of Buckingham, in dressed to the writer's " Dear dad and 
 which he rebukes the king for fickle- gossip."
 
 Chap. VII.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 263 
 
 domestic and foreign policy. And for the first time in 
 this reio^n, the monarch and his Parliament part- 
 
 1 • 1-11 T 1 May 29. 
 
 ed m apparent mutual good humor, it was the 
 last time that their harmony was to be brought Death of 
 to a test. Early in the next year, James sickened ^'1625!'"^^' 
 of a fever, which proved fatal after a few days. ^^'""^^ ^^• 
 
 His wretched reign marked the transition from a scarce- 
 ly disturbed acquiescence in arbitrary government to the 
 incipient triumph of popular principles in Eng- progress of 
 land. The history of legislation faintly indicates dpiesTnTu" 
 the progress which had been made. Parliament '''''^"' 
 had abolished monopolies, and had maintained its free- 
 dom of debate, and its exclusive right to levy duties at the 
 custom-houses. The House of Commons had recovered 
 its privilege of impeachment, and secured that of deciding 
 questions respecting the election of its members. Little 
 else had been effected in the form of Parliamentary action. 
 But the spirit and courage of men in public and private 
 life had been raised ; and the exigencies of the time had 
 led to investigations into the principles of politics, which 
 were destined to bear abundant fruit. 
 
 The mild temper of Archbishop Abbot was hindered 
 in softening the rigor of ecclesiastical authority by the 
 despotic policy of the Lord Keeper, Williams, i„fl„ence 
 Bishop of Lincoln, the first churchman who had "''"''^''"p 
 
 *■ _ Williams 
 
 presided in the chancery since the deposition of ■" <i'e 
 Wolsey. Williams was a sycophant rather than 
 a bigot; his imputed bigotry disappeared, when he lost 
 court favor ; but till that time it was active. " As the 
 sun," said he, in a letter defending the king's instruction 
 to the justices to release recusant Papists, — "as the sun 
 in the firmament appears to us no bigger than a platter, 
 and the stars are but as so many nails in the pommel of a 
 saddle, because of the enlargement and disproportion be- 
 tween our eye and the object, so is there such an unmeas- 
 urable distance between the deep resolution of a prince
 
 201 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 and the shallow apprehensions of common and ordinary 
 people." ^ James's " deep resolution " the pliant but able 
 minister set himself vigorously to carry out, which he was 
 enabled to do with less embarrassment in consequence of 
 the inaction of his ecclesiastical superior. The good- 
 natured primate had withdrawn from court, partly in dis- 
 gust at the sentiments which prevailed there, partly be- 
 cause of an occurrence which was liable to be construed 
 as creating a canonical disability. By accident, in hunting, 
 he had shot a gamekeeper, inflecting a mortal wound. 
 
 The accession of a new sovereign invited the friends of 
 
 freedom in the English church and state to mark out a 
 
 definite policy for the future. The experience of 
 
 Accession . 
 
 of Charles thc last rcigu had alike shown the need and the 
 practicability of strong proceedings, and afforded 
 encouragement as to their happy effect. Whether the 
 patriots had been more or less admonished by their ob- 
 servations of the character of the young successor to the 
 throne, at any rate his close ties with the corrupt courtier 
 who had swayed his father's counsels were enough to 
 make him liable to their extreme distrust, — a distrust 
 aggravated by the disappointment of the hopes into which 
 the favorite had recently beguiled them. The accession 
 of Charles was greeted with none of the enthusiasm which 
 is wont to welcome a young king. The transient popu- 
 larity with the Puritans, won for him and his minister by 
 the rupture of the Spanish match, had been lost at once 
 by his matrimonial contract with a daughter of France, 
 which was fulfilled immediately on his coming to the 
 throne. 
 
 Owing to the expenses of the Spanish war and the 
 extravagance of his father's civil list, he found the crown 
 HiHnrstrar- "^ ^^^^^ ^° ^^^^ amouut of more than seven hun- 
 liamcr.t. tli'ed thousaud pounds. To the Parliament, 
 
 Juno 18. 1 . , 1 . 
 
 which he speedily convoked, he communicated 
 
 1 Ilushworth, Historical Collections, I. C3.
 
 Chap. VII.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 265 
 
 no details of his pecuniary embarrassment; an omissioa 
 which may have served as an excuse for their parsimony, 
 when they voted him only a supply of two subsidies, 
 amounting to about one hundred and twelve thousand 
 pounds.^ But, in truth, this was only an indication of a 
 resolve which had been deliberately taken, to control the 
 new monarch through the emptiness of his exchequer. 
 The wise men, whom the time had raised up, understood 
 that, while the Commons of England kept the purse, they 
 could arrest the sword. As long as their king could be 
 made to look to them for money, they could enforce a 
 good administration of the government ; if he should 
 prove able to get it without their consent, he was a despot 
 and they were slaves. This issue they had now made up 
 their minds to try. As yet, there was not, properly speak- 
 ing, an English Constitution. They were resolved ^^ ^^^^^y 
 that there should be. They saw that the time °f''«'"°™- 
 had come for determining whether the English people 
 should live in future under an absolute or under a lim- 
 ited and balanced monarchy ; and they launched upon the 
 course of measures which was to decide that momentous 
 question.^ 
 
 Shutting his eyes to the motive of the mortification 
 which had been inflicted on him, Charles flattered him- 
 self that further acquaintance with his necessities would 
 make Parliament more generous ; and, abandoning the 
 delicacy of his first application, he caused a detailed state- 
 ment of his financial situation to be presented to them, 
 and asked immediate relief to the amount of no less than 
 five hundred thousand pounds. It was of no avail. The 
 House of Commons replied by representations of the 
 growth of Popery, and by requesting a stricter adminis- 
 
 1 So Hume (Chap. L.). But Hallam other reasons to give for the conduct of 
 (Chap. TIL) values these two subsidies this Parliament; but he has to recog- 
 at £ 140,000. nize this as one "of considerable mo- 
 
 2 Hume (Chap. L.) has plenty of ment." 
 VOL. I. 23
 
 0(36 mSTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 tration of the laws for its suppression, and more indul- 
 gence to the Non-conformist clergy. Disgusted with their 
 impracticablencss, the king made the prevalence of an epi- 
 demic sickness an excuse for dissolvins^ his first 
 
 Its dissolu- ^ 
 
 tion. Parliament. The Lower House had not only 
 
 Aug. 12. . , , . , , 
 
 been penurious as to an immediate supply, but 
 had made the important innovation upon the practice of 
 two centuries, of voting the grant of tonnage and pound- 
 age for one year only, and not for the king's life ; a re- 
 striction which caused the Lords to reject the bill, and 
 leave the royal treasury without legal right to that re- 
 source. The patriots had been highly irritated at this 
 juncture by the discovery of a treacherous design on the 
 part of the king and the duke to employ an English fleet 
 in the service of Louis the Thirteenth against the Protes- 
 tants of Rochelle.^ 
 
 By a forced loan, the king obtained suflicient money 
 for an attempt to retrieve his affairs by an attack on a 
 rich Spanish fleet in the harbor of Cadiz. The expedition 
 failed, and he was compelled to have recourse to a new 
 Parliament. It met in no better temper than the last. 
 His second tliougli dcpiivcd of several leaders by the artifice 
 *' iGac" of an appointment which they received to be sher- 
 Feb. 10. -^g Q^ their counties. The House of Commons 
 came to a resolution to gratify the king with four sub- 
 
 1 The prctonon was, that the fleet was ordered it back again, and succeeded 
 to act with the French against the Gen- in creating a belief that the king of 
 oese, who Avere alhes of Spain. AV' hen France had made peace willi liis Prot- 
 it arrived at Dieppe, the sailors, who cstant subjects. On arriving a second 
 had become convinced that they were time at Dieppe, the officers and men 
 to be employed against their fellow- found that they had been again de- 
 Protestants, prepared a remonstrance ceived ; upon which Sir Ferdinando 
 m the form of a round-rohin, and had Gorges, who commanded a shij), weighed 
 it laid under the prayer-book of Pen- his anchor and returned home, though 
 iiington, the Admiral. Pennington said the Admiral opened a fire upon him. 
 that, sooner than fight against French The court did not venture to bring him 
 Protestants, lie would go home and be to trial for this act of nuitiny. (Rush- 
 hanged ; and innnediately returned to worth. Collections, I. 17G, .325, 326, 337. 
 England with the fleet. Buckingham Fairfax, Correspondence, I. 20, 21.)
 
 Chap. VII.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 267 
 
 sidies and three fifteenths, but refused for the present to 
 give to the grant the form of law, clearly intimating that 
 its consummation would be contingent upon compliances 
 of the court. They then proceeded to frame articles of 
 impeachment against the Duke of Buckingham, whom, 
 while this measure was pending, the king, as if to express 
 contempt for it, recommended to the University of Oxford 
 as its Chancellor. A royal message threatened them that, 
 if ample supplies were not soon provided, Parliament 
 would be dissolved, and the king would try " new coun- 
 sels." He imprisoned two members who had been ap- 
 pointed managers of the impeachment, and released them 
 only when the House declared that it would do no busi- 
 ness while they were detained. The House set to work 
 upon a remonstrance against levying tonnage and pound- 
 age without the authority of Parliament ; and upon a 
 petition for a removal of the favorite from the king's per- 
 son and service, instead of the impeachment which had 
 been proposed at first. Compelled to see that he could 
 do nothing with this Parliament, the king announced its 
 dissolution in unj^racious terms : but not till the , , 
 
 *-" Its dissolu- 
 
 House of Commons had completed the prepara- tion. 
 
 f, f . 1 • 1 .1 June 1. 
 
 tion 01 their remonstrance, winch was m the na- 
 ture of a popular appeal in justification of their course. 
 
 When the king was thus left destitute of means for 
 military enterprise, the commonest prudence would have 
 dictated to him to hasten the conclusion of a peace with 
 Spain, and so gain time to devise measures for a system 
 of administration accordant with his temper and his theo- 
 ries. But his rashness was the security which Providence 
 furnished to his people against the encroachments of his 
 perfidious ambition. As if there were not business enough 
 already upon his hands, he immediately plunged into a 
 war with France, under the pretence of a pur- war with 
 pose to become the protector of the French Prot- ^''^"''^' 
 estants, but probably from no better motive than to gratify
 
 2G8 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 a personal pique of the favorite. He extorted the pay- 
 Eipedients niciit of custoiiis, as if the grant of them had 
 for a revenue. ]jqqj^ duly made. Ho encumbercd the crown 
 lands. He rigorously enforced fines for religious delin- 
 quency. He exacted loans, among others one of a hun- 
 dred and twenty thousand pounds from the city of Lon- 
 don. He compelled the ports to provide armed vessels, 
 and instructed the lord-lieutenants of the counties to bring 
 the militia into an efficient condition. His arrogant pre- 
 tensions kept even pace with his outrages. By responsible 
 persons they were frankly announced to be not his neces- 
 sity, but his system. A court chaplain preached, that 
 " the king is not bound to observe the laws of the realm 
 concerning the subjects' rights and liberties, but that his 
 royal will and command in imposing loans and taxes, 
 without common consent in Parliament, doth oblige the 
 subjects' conscience upon pain of eternal damnation " ; 
 and another ecclesiastic taught, that " the prince, who is 
 the head, makes his court and council ; it is his duty to 
 direct and make laws ; he doth whatsoever pleases him, 
 and who may say unto him, ' What dost thou ? ' " ^ For 
 refusing to license the sermon which contained this lan- 
 guage. Archbishop Abbot was suspended from his office, 
 1C27. which was put in commission." The presiding 
 ''"'"'""'"• commissioner was Laud, Bishop of Bath and 
 Wells, who now assumed a conspicuous place in the 
 administration. 
 
 But this heyday of absolutism was not to go on un- 
 checked. Buckingham, with a powerful fleet 
 and army, was driven back disgracefully from the 
 
 Oct. 30. 
 
 ^ Ncal, Vol. II. Chap. HI. — Parlia- cribcs (p. 78) the di.«gracc of Abbot to 
 
 mentary ili.-tory, II. .389. his refusal to be concerm-d in the pro- 
 
 2 A curious little contemporaneous ceedings in the case of the Earl of Som- 
 
 tra<:t, entitled " Tiie Court and Char- erset and Lady Essex. The tract was 
 
 acter of Kiiirr James, written and taken reprinted by Sir Walter Scott in a col- 
 
 by Sir A. W. [Sir Anthony Weldon], lection called " Secret History of tho 
 
 being an Eye and Ear Witness," as- Court of James the First"
 
 Chap. VII] PUKITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 269 
 
 coast of France. The exchequer was bankrupt. Charles's 
 counsellors represented to him the extreme danger of fur- 
 ther attempts to obtain money by illegal exactions, and 
 prevailed on him to convoke a Parliament. He retracted 
 his consent after the summons had been issued. But a 
 clamor not to be defied immediately reached his ears, and 
 he reluctantly yielded to the necessity of his helpless con- 
 dition. 
 
 He addressed his third Parliament, at its opening, in 
 that tone of ungracious assumption which scarcely in any 
 exigencv of his fortunes could he consent to sup- 
 press. " I have called you together," he said, March 17. 
 "judging a Parliament to be the ancient, speedi- charies's 
 
 est, and best way to give such supply as to [famem?" 
 
 secure ourselves and save our friends from immi- 
 nent ruin. Every man now must do according to his con- 
 science ; wherefore, if you (which God forbid) should not 
 do your duties in contributing what this state at this time 
 needs, I must, in discharge of my conscience, use those 
 other means which God hath put into my hands, to save 
 that which the follies of other men may otherwise hazard 
 to lose. Take not this as a threatening (for I scorn to 
 threaten any but my equals) ; but an admonition from him 
 that, both out of nature and duty, hath most care of your 
 preservations and prosperities." ^ 
 
 In the new Parliament, the king found a fixedness of 
 purpose which should not have taken him by surprise. 
 The House of Commons came to a resolution to nscoura- 
 grant five subsidies within a year, but delayed to ^*"'"^ '°"®- 
 put it in the shape of a bill. Having thus signified their 
 policy, they proceeded to other matters. They passed 
 unanimous votes denying the power of the king or his 
 Council to imprison or restrain the person of the subject 
 without lawful cause, or to levy a tax, loan, or benevo- 
 lence without authority of the Estates of the realm ; and 
 
 1 Parliamentary History, II. 218. 
 23*
 
 June 2. 
 
 270 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 while the former of these questions was before the Lords, 
 
 where it was strenuously contested by the court party, the 
 
 Commons followed it up by the famous Petition 
 
 Petition of ' ^ r -i ^ 
 
 Rigiit. of Rights praymg that forced loans, commitments 
 *'''^^' without cause assigned, quartering of soldiers in 
 private houses, and proceedings of military tribunals in 
 cases cognizable by the courts of law, might thencefor- 
 ward be discontinued, as being " wholly and directly con- 
 trary " to the rights and liberties of the subject, and " the 
 laws and statutes of the realm." ^ 
 
 The king was infinitely perplexed. Money was indis- 
 pensable ; but a price was demanded for it which he 
 could not easily bring himself to pay. He tried a half- 
 way measure. In place of the customary brief expression 
 of royal assent to legislative acts, he substituted the follow- 
 ing form : " The king willeth, that right be done 
 according to the laws and customs of the realm, 
 and that the statutes be put in due execution; that his 
 subjects may have no cause to complain of any wrong or 
 oppression contrary to their just rights and liberties, to the 
 preservation whereof he holds himself, in conscience, as 
 well obliged, as of his own prerogative."^ The ominous 
 silence, with which this annunciation was received by the 
 Commons, was followed by a stormy debate of three days' 
 duration, with closed doors. The king's courage wavered. 
 He came into the House, and ordered the usual reply to 
 be recorded, " Let right be done as is desired " ; adding, 
 " Now I have done my part ; wherefore, if this Parlia- 
 ment hath not a happy conclusion, the sin is yours; I 
 am free of it." ^ Thus far all was well, and the bill for 
 subsidies was immediately passed."* 
 
 But the grants of tonnage and poundage were still in 
 reserve, and they were the main permanent reliance of the 
 crown. It was believed that a wise use of the power of 
 the Commons in respect to them might extort further 
 
 > Parlianu-ntary History, 11.374-377. 3 Ibid., 409. 
 
 ^Il^iJ, 377. 4 Ibid., 410.
 
 Chap. VII.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 271 
 
 concessions, and a remonstrance was presented, setting 
 forth the evils which oppressed the civil and religious 
 interests of the kingdom, ascribing them mainly to the 
 malign agency of the Duke of Buckingham, and praying 
 his removal from the royal councils. But Charles had 
 made up his mind not to be so constrained. Having given 
 his assent to the subsidy bill, he prorop^ued the 
 
 n . . (, June 26. 
 
 Parliament, after a few words in explanation of 
 the construction put by him on the Petition of Right. 
 " As for tonnage and poundage," he said, " it is a thing 
 I cannot want, and was never intended by you to ask, 
 never meant (I am sure) by me to grant." ^ 
 
 The assassination of the Duke of Buckingham shortly 
 after, by an obscure enthusiast named Felton, was an 
 indication of the excitement which had reached Aug. 23. 
 all ranks of the EnHish people.- That event left TtT\ 
 
 O^ 11 the Duke of 
 
 the king without his accustomed guidance, and Bucking- 
 for a while he was his own chief counsellor. The 
 Duke received his death-blow at Portsmouth, whence he 
 was preparing to sail with a fleet to retrieve the disasters^ 
 of the English arms at E-ochelle. Under the feeble com- 
 mand of the Earl of Lindsay, who succeeded him, the 
 expedition, provided at immense cost, utterly miscarried. 
 
 Against the re-assembling of Parliament, the king made 
 the new experiment of corrupting some of the leaders 
 of the popular party. One accession to the court inter- 
 est was of especial importance. Sir Thomas 
 
 *■ •"■ Wentworth, 
 
 Wentworth belonged to that class of men of rare Eari of 
 
 -,•,.■.. ^ r • • 11 Strafford. 
 
 energy and ability, who irom time to time shock 
 
 the moral sense of the world by deserting for some price 
 
 the great service of humanity for Avhich they seem marked 
 
 1 Parliamentary History, II. 433. peared, which tells volumes respecting 
 
 2 "On June the 18th, Dr. Lamb, the spirit of the people : — 
 
 a favorite of his [Buckingham's], lost < Let Charles and George do what they can, 
 Ills life by injuries received from a The Duko shall die like Doctor Lamb.' " — 
 
 mob who had collected for that pur- Autobiography of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, 
 
 pose. On that occasion a couplet ap- I. 378, note.
 
 272 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 out by nature. From the beginning of his early public 
 life he had been among the most conspicuous opponents 
 of royal usurpation. He watched his time to make terms 
 with the favorite, between whom and himself there had 
 existed an intense personal hostility ; and his defection 
 July 22. ^"^'^s proclaimed by his elevation to the peerage as 
 a baron, which was soon followed by his advance- 
 
 Dec. 10. 
 
 mcnt to a higher rank ; " the first Englishman 
 to whom a peerage was not an addition of honor, but a 
 sacrament of infamy."-^ While the civil and military 
 administration passed into his hands, that of the High- 
 Commission Court, and of ecclesiastical affairs in general. 
 Advancement dcvolvcd upou his fricud, the intolerant and 
 of Laud. narrow-minded Laud. With Laud, conformity 
 gave little protection, where there was the suspicion of a 
 taint of Puritan opinions. His rigor was one of the sub- 
 jects of discontent set forth in the Parliamentary Remon- 
 strance, which complained of " the discountenancing or- 
 thodox and painful ministers, though conformable and 
 peaceable in their behavior." And he obtained from the 
 king a proclamation against " unnecessary disputations, 
 which may nourish faction in the church or common- 
 wealth," " the main end of which declaration " was con- 
 strued by the House of Commons to be, " to suppress 
 the Puritan party, and yet to give liberty to the contrary 
 side." ^ " The counter-reformation of Laud " was fully 
 inaugurated.^ 
 
 The new session was opened by a demand from the king 
 for an immediate consideration of the bill for tonnage 
 1C29. and poundage, those duties having now been lev- 
 jau. 20. ^p J nearly four years without Parliamentary au- 
 thority. The House of Commons had other business to 
 
 1 Edinburgh Review, XLVm. 114, masterly "Introductory Lectures" by 
 in an article ascribed to Lord Macaulay. the Reverend Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, 
 
 2 Rushworth, Collections, L G.5.3. Rogiije Professor of Ecclesiastical Ilis- 
 >* I take tlic expression fioin the tory at Oxford.
 
 Chap. VII.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 273 
 
 transact first. It had become known to them, that to the 
 copies of the Petition of Right which had been sent out 
 in print, Charles, with that treachery which was his ruling 
 instinct, had caused to be appended the ambiguous form 
 of assent which he had at first proposed, and not the 
 simple and customary one which he had ultimately been 
 compelled to adopt, — a fact naturally destructive of what- 
 ever might still exist of confidence in his integrity. They 
 learned, that, in violation of the terms of that instrument, 
 one Savage had been mutilated under a decree of the Star- 
 Chamber Court ; and that the clergymen whose high-pre- 
 rogative principles had incurred their rebuke had been 
 pardoned and promoted. They raised committees to in- 
 vestigate the causes of the feeble administration of the 
 laws against Popery, and, proceeding to the business of 
 the revenue, deliberated on a remonstrance against the 
 levying of tonnage and poundage without authority of law. 
 The Speaker, who had instructions from the kinsr 
 not to take the vote, would have risen to break 
 up the House, but he Avas forcibly detained in his seat 
 by two members ; while a further motion was made to 
 declare every one who should advise or assist in the illegal 
 imposition to be " a capital enemy to the kingdom and gov- 
 ernment," and whoever should pay it, " a betrayer of the 
 liberties of England and an enemy to the same." The king, 
 provoked beyond bounds by this intelligence, sent a mes- 
 sage by an officer. He was denied admittance, and was 
 about to force the door, when the House adjourned for 
 a week. 
 
 It met again only to be dissolved, and from that day 
 England was an absolute monarchy for eleven March jo. 
 vears. With what confidence the roval resolu- ^'^"/^^of 
 
 •' ^ Parliaments 
 
 tion had been taken, was not left to be matter of for eleven 
 conjecture. Scarcely had the members dispersed, 
 before several of the most eminent were committed to the 
 Tower or other prisons. When they were claimed by a writ
 
 March 27 
 
 274 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I, 
 
 of habeas corpus, the Lieutenant of the Tower was forbidden 
 to produce his prisoners in court. At length, they were 
 condemned to pay fines, to be detained during the king's 
 pleasure, and to make submission to him before they 
 should be discharged. One of them. Sir John Eliot, the 
 very head of the patriot movement, lingered in prison 
 three years, and then died. All hope of legislative as well 
 as of judicial relief was at an end for the present. " By 
 our frequent meeting with our people," said Charles in a 
 proclamation, — he had now reigned less than four 
 years, — " we have showed our love to the use of 
 Parliaments ; yet the late abuse having for the present 
 driven us unwillingly out of that course, we shall account 
 it presumption for any to prescribe any time unto us for 
 Parliaments, the calling, continuing, and dissolving of 
 which is always in our own power ; and we shall be more 
 inclinable to meet in Parliament again, when our people 
 shall see more clearly into our interests and actions." ^ 
 
 So stood the contest between the liberties of England 
 and the crown at the dissolution of the third Parliament 
 of King Charles the First. The chief actors on one side 
 were, and were to be, the Puritan religionists. The sys- 
 Fuii devriop- tem of faith and politics which overruled the 
 Puritan sys- courso of EugUsh aftairs for the remainder of the 
 
 tem 
 
 century, and brought about the establishment of 
 constitutional freedom in England, had now definitely 
 assumed its main characteristics. 
 
 The Puritan was a Scripturist, — a Scripturist with all 
 his heart, if, as yet, with imperfect intelligence. Poman- 
 itsusoof ism he detested as a fiction of human coniriv- 
 Pcripturo. ance. In extreme opposition to it, he cherished 
 the scheme of looking to the word of God as his sole and 
 universal directory. That word had been but lately made 
 common property by the lleformation. The preparation 
 for interpreting it possessed by the best scholars of the 
 
 1 Rymer, XIX. 63.
 
 CiiAP. VII] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 275 
 
 day was inadequate, and the judicious application of such 
 learning as existed was disturbed by the rashness of enthu- 
 siasm and novelty. The Puritan searched the Bible, not 
 only for principles and rules, but for mandates, — and, 
 when he could find none of these, for analogies, — to guide 
 him in precise arrangements of public administration, and 
 in the minutest points of individual conduct. By it he 
 settled cases of conscience, and in this casuistry his learn- 
 ing and ingenuity were largely employed. His objections 
 to the government of the Church by bishops were founded, 
 not so much on any bad working of that polity, as on the 
 defect of authority for it in the New Testament; and he 
 preferred his plain hierarchy of pastors, teachers, elders, 
 and deacons, not primarily because it tended more to edifi- 
 cation, but because Paul had specified their ofiices by 
 name. He took the Scriptures as a homogeneous and 
 rounded whole, and scarcely distinguished between the 
 authority of Moses and the authority of Christ. The po- 
 sition of violent antagonism, into which he was brought 
 by passing circumstances, led him to resort for guidance 
 even more readily to the Old Testament than to the New. 
 The opposing party in the state was associated in his mind 
 with the Philistine and Amorite foes of the ancient chosen 
 people ; and he read the doom of the king and his wanton 
 courtiers in the Psalm which put the " high praises of 
 God " in the mouth of God's people, " and a two-edged 
 sword in their hand, to bind their kings with chains and 
 their nobles with fetters of iron." His theory of munici- 
 pal law aimed at the emendation of the traditional system 
 of his country by an adoption of provisions promulgated 
 to a people of peculiar position and destiny, in a distant 
 age and land ; he would have witchcraft, Sabbath-breaking, 
 and filial disobedience weighed in the judicial scales of a 
 Hebrew Sanhedrim. His forms of speech were influenced 
 by this fond reverence for the Bible. The history of the 
 Israelitish tribes was his favorite storehouse for topics of
 
 276 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 argument and eloquence, and he named his children after 
 the Christian graces, still oftener after the worthies of 
 Palestine, or, with yet more singularity, after some signifi- 
 cant clause of holy writ.^ 
 
 The Puritan was a strict Moralist. lie might be ridi- 
 culed for being over-scrupulous, but never reproached for 
 laxity. Most wisely, by precept, influence, and 
 
 Its morality. * • i i , i i i 
 
 example, — unwisely by too severe law, when he 
 obtained the power, — he endeavored to repress prevailing 
 vice, and organize a Christian people. His error was not 
 that of interfering without reason, or too soon. When 
 he insisted on a hearing, villanous men and shameless 
 women, whose abominations were a foul offence in the 
 sliiht of God, and of all Avho reverenced God, were flaunt- 
 ing in the royal drawing-rooms. The foundations of pub- 
 lic honor and prosperity were sapped. The influences 
 which descend from high life into the mass of society 
 were poisoned at their source. It is not from the Puri- 
 tan's representations alone that we learn the political cor- 
 ruption, and the impurity of private manners, that dis- 
 gusted him with the court and its retainers. Writers 
 who assailed his religious position, at the same time 
 echoed his complaints of the prevailing immorality. The 
 drama of that period, imported from Catholic Italy, sur- 
 vives to testify to the tastes and character of the audiences 
 which welcomed it, and which in turn it educated with its 
 seductive lessons of wickedness.^ The Puritan's mistake 
 
 ^ This practice began at least as had received their baptismal names in 
 
 early as the beginning of the century, the reign of Elizabetli. 
 
 It is ridiculed in Ben Jonson's '' Alche- 2 " Xhe court of this king [James the 
 
 mist," first acted in IGIO, and in his First] was a nursery of lust and intcni- 
 
 " Bartholomew Fair," acted in 1614. perance To keep the people 
 
 Characters in the former are "Tribula- in their deplorable security, till ven- 
 tion Wholesome, a pastor of Amster- geance overtook them, they were enter- 
 dam," and " Ananias, a deacon there " ; tained with masks, stage-plays, and all 
 and in the latter, "Zeal of the Land sorts of ruder sports. Then began mur- 
 Bnsy." Men who were forty years old der, incest, adultery, drunkcnness,swear- 
 when the Long Parliament assembled, ing, fornication, and all sort of ribaldry,
 
 Chap. VII.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 277 
 
 at a later period was, that he undertook by public regula- 
 tion what public regulation can never achieve, and, by 
 aiming to form a nation of saints, introduced hypocrites 
 among them to defeat their objects and bring scandal on 
 their cause, while the saints were made no more numer- 
 ous and no better. But,' at the time to which the preced- 
 ing narrative relates, nothing in his course was apparent 
 but the eminently upright and Christian purpose. What 
 there was of practical indiscretion and error, was to be 
 made manifest in the experiment of a later period. 
 
 In politics, the Puritan was the Liberal of his day. If 
 he construed his duties to God in the spirit of a narrow 
 interpretation, that punctilious sense of religious itspubuc 
 responsibility impelled him to limit the assump- ^"'°"- 
 tions of human government/ In no stress, in no delirium, 
 of politics, could a Puritan, have been brought to teach, 
 that, for either public or private conduct, there is some 
 law of man above the law of God. Penetrated with the 
 opposite conviction, he found himself enforced, at last, 
 to overset the Stuart throne. Service which he believed 
 the authority of God to claim, he saw himself forbidden 
 by human authority to pay. That issue, presented to 
 
 to be no concealed, but countenanced folio volume of the "Works of Joseph 
 
 vices, because they held such conform- Hall, Bishop of Exeter. The Bishop's 
 
 ity •with the court example." (Mrs. " Censure of Travel " may be taken as 
 
 Hutcliinson,Memoir3of Colonel Hutch- instar omnium. Massinger, Webster, 
 
 inson, I. 117, 118.) This is the Ian- Shirley, — not Shakespeare, and scarce- 
 
 guage of a dissenter, indeed, but of a ly Jonson, or Beaumont and Fletcher, 
 
 hi"-h-bred and delicate woman. Any — were the favorite play-writers of the 
 
 one who would see how the same sub- time. It was of a play of Shirley, un- 
 
 ject is treated by a courtier, not too far surpassed, if surpassable, in indecency, 
 
 gone to have kept his sense of decency, that King Charles the First is recorded, 
 
 may look at Harrington's sketch of a not only to have said " it was the best 
 
 drawing-room scene during the visit play he had seen for seven years," but to 
 
 of the king of Denmark to London have himself furnished the plot. — The 
 
 in 1G06. (Nugaj Antiquaa, I. 348.) North British Review (XXV. 1-46) 
 
 And to know how it was looked upon treats this subject with admirable wis- 
 
 by a plain-spoken man, — no dissenter dom and learning, in an article entitled 
 
 at all, but a prelate of the Church, — " Plays and Puritans," said to be from the 
 
 one may turn over a few pages of the pen of the Reverend Charles Kingsley. 
 VOL. I. 24
 
 278 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 him, made him in politics a casuist, an innovator, the 
 architect of a new system. From the time when the 
 problem, with which for a while he struggled, was worked 
 out, governments over the British race were to rest on the 
 public consent, and to be administered for the public bene- 
 fit. Such was the brightness of the light to which he 
 made his way through many scenes of darkness. 
 
 "When, after the restoration of the Stuart line, an un- 
 bridled licentiousness of manners had succeeded to his 
 Its habits austerity, — when an ornate beastliness was the 
 and manners, faghiou of tlic mcu aud womcu in high places, 
 and such writers as Wycherley and Mrs. Behn expressed 
 and formed the morals of so many clamorers for Lord 
 Clarendon's creed, — the ribald wits of the time so grossly 
 marred the record of the Puritan, that it is difficult even 
 for those who sympathize with his views in religion and 
 politics to recover a just conception of his dignified and 
 manly character, as it existed in the days which must be 
 referred to for a true delineation. Nor has this been 
 wholly the result of injustice on the part of writers de- 
 picting what they wanted the moral capacity to estimate 
 with justness. The character had itself degenerated, in 
 reaching the time when it came under their observation. 
 Puritanism, from the outbreak of the Great Rebellion, 
 was subjected to the infelicities and abuses which neces- 
 sarily attend a formidable and successful party. "When 
 it clothed itself with the associations of power and gran- 
 deur, vulgar men, without being sordid or ambitious, fol- 
 lowed its modes, and by their vulgarity exaggerated and 
 degraded them. ^Vhen it came to have honors and for- 
 tunes to bestow, base men attached themselves to it for 
 the promotion of their base ends ; and the excesses of the 
 dishonest pretender brought into discredit and ridicule the 
 practices of the sincere devotee, i 
 
 But, whatever may have talrch place later, the Puritan- 
 ism of the first forty years of the seventeenth century was
 
 Chap. VII ] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 279 
 
 not tainted with degrading or ungraceful associations 
 of any sort. The rank, the wealth, the chivalry^ the ge- 
 nius, the learning, the accomplishments, the social refine- 
 ments and elegance of the time, were largely represented 
 in its ranks. Not to speak of Scotland, where soon 
 Puritanism had few opponents in the class of the high- 
 born and the educated, the severity of Elizabeth scarcely 
 restrained, in her latter days, its predominance* among 
 the most exalted orders of her subjects. The Earls 
 of Leicester, Bedford, Huntington, and Warwick, Sir 
 Nicholas Bacon, his greater son, AValsingham, Burleigh, 
 Mildmay, Sadler, Knollys, were specimens of a host of 
 eminent men more or less friendly to, or tolerant of it. 
 Throughout the reign of James the First, it controlled the 
 House of Commons, composed chiefly of the landed gentry 
 of the kingdom ; and, if it had less sway among the Peers, 
 this was partly because the number of lay nobles did not 
 largely exceed that of the Bishops, who were mostly crea- 
 tures of the crown. The aggregate property of that Puri- 
 tan House of Commons whose dissolution has been just 
 now related, was computed to be three times as great as 
 that of the Lords.^ The statesmen of the first period of 
 that Parliament which by and by dethroned Charles the 
 First, had been bred in the luxury of the landed aris- 
 tocracy of the realm ; while of the nobility, Manchester, 
 Essex, Warwick, Brooke, Fairfax, and others, and of the 
 gentry, a long roll of men of the scarcely inferior position 
 of Hampden and Waller, commanded and officered its 
 armies and fleets. A Puritan was the first Protestant 
 founder of a college at an English University. Among the 
 clergy, representing mainly the scholarship of the country, 
 nothing is more incontrovertible, than that the permanent 
 ascendency of Puritanism was only prevented by the se- 
 verities of the governments of Elizabeth and her Scottish 
 kinsmen, under the several administrations of Parker, 
 Whitgift, Bancroft, and Laud. 
 
 1 Hurae, Chap. LI.
 
 OgO HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 It may be easily believed that none of the guests whom 
 the Earl of Leicester placed at his table by the side of his 
 nephew, Sir Philip Sidney, Avere clowns. But the suppo- 
 sition of any necessary connection between Puritanism and 
 what is harsh and rude in taste and manners, Will not even 
 stand the test of an observation of the character of men 
 who figured in its ranks, when the lines came to be most 
 distinctly drawn. The Parliamentary general, Devereux, 
 Earl of Essex, was no strait-laced gospeller, but a man 
 formed with every grace of person, mind, and culture, to 
 be the ornament of a splendid court, the model knight, — 
 the idol, as long as he was the comrade, of the royal sol- 
 diery, — the Bayard of the time. The position of Man- 
 chester and Fairfax, of Ilollis, Fiennes, and Pierrepont, was 
 by birthright in the most polished circle of English society. 
 In the Memoirs of the young regicide, Colonel Hutchinson, 
 recorded by his beautiful and high-souled wife, we may look 
 at the interior of a Puritan household, and see its graces, 
 divine and human, as they shone with a naturally blended 
 lustre in the most strenuous and most afflicted times.' 
 The renown of English learning owes something to the 
 sect which enrolled the names of Selden, Lightfoot, Gale, 
 and Owen.~ Its seriousness and depth of thought had lent 
 their inspiration to the delicate muse of Spenser.^ Judg- 
 
 ^ The following contemporaneous por- kinds; he took great delight in perspec- 
 
 trait of an ollicerof'the Puritan Common- tive glasses, and, for his other rarities, 
 
 wealth corr(!sponds little with the ideal was not so much affected with the an- 
 
 which has since been received. Colonel tiquity as the merit of the work ; he 
 
 Ilutchinsoa " could dance admirably took much pleasure in improvement of 
 
 well, but neither in youth nor riper grounds, in planting groves and walks 
 
 years made any practice of it; he had and fruit-trees, in opening si)rings, and 
 
 skill in fencing, such as became a gen- making fish-ponds." (IMemoirs of the 
 
 tleman ; he had great love to music, and Life of Colonel Hutchinson, I. 33, 34.) 
 often diverted himself with a viol, on 2 The "i)ainful ' Owen, carrying with- 
 
 which he played masterly ; he had an in his broad forehead the concentrated 
 
 exact ear and judgment in other music ; extract of a thousand folios, was consid- 
 
 lic shot excellently in bows and guns, ered in his time something of a cox- 
 
 and much used them for his exercise ; comb in personal appearance. (Tay- 
 
 he had great judgment in paintings, Icr, Religious Progress in England, 95.) 
 graving, sculpture, and all liberal arts, 3 See the Fifth Eclogue of Spenser, 
 
 and had many curiosities of value in all and his " ^lother llubberd's Tale,"
 
 CUAP. VII.] 
 
 rUMTAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 
 
 281 
 
 ing between their colleague preachers, Travers and Hook- 
 er, the critical Templars awarded the palm of scholar- 
 ly eloquence to the Puritan. When the Puritan lawyer 
 "Whitelock was ambassador to Queen Christina, he kept 
 a magnificent state, which was the admiration of her 
 court, perplexed as they were by his persistent Puritanical 
 testimony against the practice of drinking healths.^ For 
 his Latin secretary, the Puritan Protector employed a 
 man at once equal to the foremost of mankind in genius 
 and learning, and skilled in all manly exercises, proficient 
 in the lighter accomplishments beyond any other English- 
 man of his day, and caressed in his youth, in France and 
 Italy, for eminence in the studies of their fastidious schol- 
 ars and artists.^ The king's camp and court at Oxford 
 had not a better swordsman or amateur musician than 
 John Milton, and his portraits exhibit him with locks as 
 flowing as Prince Rupert's.^ In such trifles as the fashion 
 
 verses 484 et seq. His relations to the 
 Earl of Essex may well have brought 
 him under Grindall's influence. 
 
 1 " How could you pass over their 
 very long winter nights?" the Protector 
 asked Whitelock at the audience of re- 
 turn from his embassy. " I kept my 
 people together," was the reply, " and 
 in action and recreation, by having 
 music in my house, and encouraging 
 that and the exercise of dancing, which 
 held them by the ej'es and ears, and 
 gave them diversion without any offence. 
 And I caused the gentlemen to have 
 disputations in Latin, and declamations 
 upon words which I gave them." And 
 t'le dialogue proceeded : — Cromicell. 
 " Those were very good diversions, and 
 made your house a little academy." 
 Whitelock. " I thought these recreations 
 better than gaming for money, or going 
 forth to places of debauchery." Crom- 
 icell. " It was much better." (White- 
 lock, Embassy to Sweden, II. 438, 439. 
 The book, lately republished, is very 
 24* 
 
 interesting for its illustrations of man- 
 ners in the time of the Commonwealth, 
 as well as for its other contents.) 
 2 " Haste then, nymph, and bring with theo 
 Jest, and youthful Jollity, 
 
 Sport, that wrinkled Care derides, 
 And Laughter, holding both his sides." 
 Such verses do not express the morbid- 
 ness of any Malachi ]\Ialagrowther. 
 
 3 The " prick-eared knaves " to whom 
 Sir Geoffrey Peveril gave the credit of 
 trowling his Cavalier friends down " like 
 so many ninepins, at Wiggan Lane," 
 certainly did not set the fashion of hair- 
 dressing to all their party. " King 
 Pym," for a time the representative 
 Roundhead, wears, on the canvas of 
 Iloubraken, the same moderate cheve- 
 lure as is now thought becoming for a 
 chamberlain of Queen Victoria. But 
 Avhcn the body of Hampden, the " Great 
 Brother," as Strafford called him, (Lord 
 Nugent, Life of Hampden, I. 150,) was 
 disinterred, twenty-five years ago, it was 
 thought at first to be a woman's, from
 
 282 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 of apparel, the usage of the best modern society vindi- 
 cates, in characteristic particulars, the Roundhead judg- 
 ment and taste of the century before the last. The 
 English gentleman now, as the Puritan gentleman then, 
 dresses plainly in " sad " colors, and puts his lace and em- 
 broidery on his servants. 
 
 the profusion of long hair. Mrs. Hutch- handsome, so that it was a great oma- 
 
 inson sajs (Memoirs, 181), that her ment to him"; and in his portrait, it 
 
 husband, " liaving naturally a veiy fine rolls in curls down his shoulders and 
 
 thick-set head of hair, kept it clean and over his mail.
 
 CHAPTEH VIII. 
 
 Years had passed since the severity of the government 
 had overcome the Separatists, forcing them either to dis- 
 band their congres^ations, or flee from the kins- 
 
 O O, ' _ ^. . Position of 
 
 dom. From the time when Bishop Williams Puritans in 
 was made Keeper of the Great Seal, four years 
 before the death of King James, the High-Com- 
 mission Court again became active, and the condition of 
 Puritans in the Church was day by day more uneasy. 
 While some among them looked for relief to a happy 
 issue of the struggle which had been going on in Parlia- 
 ment, and resigned themselves to await and aid the slow 
 progress of a political and religious reformation in the 
 kingdom, numbers, less confident or less patient, pondered 
 on exile as their best resource, and turned their view to a 
 new home on the Western continent. There was yet a third 
 class, who, through feeble resolution or a lingering hope 
 of better things, deferred the sacrifices which they scarce- 
 ly flattered themselves that they should ultimately escape, 
 and, if they were clergymen, retained their preferments by 
 a reluctant obedience to the canons.^ The coquetry of 
 Buckingham with the Puritans, inspiring false hopes, was 
 not without efl'ect to excuse indecision, and hinder a com- 
 bined and energetic action. 
 
 1 "We have feared a judgment a circulated in England in 1629, and was 
 
 longtime. But yet we are safe. There- probably from the pen of AVinthrop. It 
 
 fore it were better to stay till it come, is printed in Dr. Young's " Chronicles of 
 
 And either we may fly then, or, if we Massachusetts," 271. It contains preg- 
 
 be overtaken in it, we may Avell be con- nant hints as to the object of the emitrra- 
 
 tent to suffer with such a Church as tion proposed in it. Of course, to pub- 
 
 ours is." Such was one of the " Objec- hsh the plan in plain language, and in its 
 
 tions " replied to in a paper, which was full extent, would have been to defeat it
 
 2G-i HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAXD. [Book I. 
 
 Among the eminent persons Avho had reconciled them- 
 selves to the course of compromise and postponement was 
 Mr. John White, an important name, which at 
 
 The Rever- ' , ^ . ^ ' 
 
 end Mr. this point takcs its place in New-England his- 
 tory. White, who, since the second year of King 
 James's reign, had been rector of Trinity Church in Dor- 
 chester, was a man widely known and greatly esteemed, 
 alike for his professional character and his public spirit.^ 
 The subject of New-England colonization, much canvassed 
 everywhere among the Puritans, who were numerous in 
 the part of the kingdom where he lived, was commended 
 to his notice in a special form. Dorchester, near the Brit- 
 ish Channel, the principal town of the shire, furnished 
 numbers of those who now made voyages to New Eng- 
 land for fishing and trade ; and they were often several 
 months upon the coast without opportunity for religious 
 worship or instruction. Mr. White interested himself / 
 with the ship-owners to establish a settlement where the 
 mariners might have a home when not at sea, where sup- 
 plies might be provided for them by farming and hunting, 
 and where they might be brought under religious influ- 
 ences. The result of the conferences was the formation- 
 of an unincorporated joint-stock association, under the 
 name of the " Dorchester Adventurers," which collected a 
 capital of three thousand pounds. 
 
 /The Dorchester company turned its attention to the 
 spot on Cape Ann where now stands the town of Glouces- 
 ThoDorches- ^cr. It lias been mentioned that the Council for 
 tcr company, ^v^j^.^^ England, perpetually embarrassed by the 
 oppugnation of the Virginia Company and the reasonable 
 jealousy of Parliament, had recourse to a variety of ex- 
 pedients to realize the benefits vainly expected by its pro- 
 jectors. In carrying out one scheme, that of a division of 
 
 1 " ^Ir. Jolin Wliitc, a famous Piiri- prpat gravity, presence, and inflncnce 
 tan divine, usually called the J'atriarch in his party for several years." (Echard, 
 of Dorc/iester. ...... He was a man of History of England^ C53.)
 
 Chap. VIIL] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 285 
 
 the common property among the associates, the country 
 about Cape Ann was assijjnecl to Lord Sheffield, 
 
 , , . . 1622- 
 
 better known as a patriot leader under his later 
 title of Earl of Mulgrave.^ Of him it was pur- 1^24. 
 chased for the people of New Plymouth by Ed- •'^"- ^• 
 ward "Winslow, when in England on the business of that 
 colony ; and they in turn conveyed to White and his 
 associates such a site as was wanted for their purposes of 
 fishing and planting." 
 
 The Dorchester company had probably anticipated this 
 arrangement by despatching a party of fourteen persons to 
 pass the winter. They carried out live stock, and 
 erected a house, with stages to dry fish, and vats Plantation at 
 for the manufacture of salt. Thomas Gardner 
 was overseer of the plantation, and John Tilley had the 
 fishery in charge. Everything went wrong. Mishaps 
 befell the vessels. The price of fish went down. The'' 
 colonists, " being ill chosen and ill commanded, fell into 
 many disorders, and did the company little service." An 
 attempt was made to retrieve afiairs by putting 
 the colony under a different direction. The 
 Dorchester partners heard of " some religious and well- 
 affbcted persons that were lately removed out of New 
 Plymouth, out of dislike of their principles of rigid sepa- 
 ration, of which number Mr. Roger Conant was one, a 
 religious, sober, and prudent gentleman," ^ He was then 
 at Nantasket, with Lyford and Oldham.^ The partners 
 
 1 See page 222. 3 Hubbard, History of New England, 
 
 2 " There hath been a-fishing this Chap. XVHI. — It is not known when 
 year upon the coast about fifty English Conant came over, or to what part of 
 ships. And by Cape Ann there is a New England. Nothing appears in any 
 plantation a-beginning by the Dorches- of the Plymouth documents to confirm 
 ter men, which they hold of those of Hubbard's statement that Conant was 
 New Plymouth, who also by them have one of the party of Lyford and Oldham 
 set up a fishing-work. Some talk there at Plymouth. But there is no improb- 
 is of some other pretended plantations, ability in the statement of his havin^ 
 all whose proceedings the eternal God been there, and Hubbard was likely to 
 protect and preserve." (Smith, Gen- be well informed upon that point, 
 erall Historic, 247, edit. 1624.) 4 See above, p. 221.
 
 286 HISTORY OF new ENGLAKD. . [Book I. 
 
 engaged Conant "to be their govemor" at Cape Ann, with 
 " the charge of all their affairs, as well fishing as plant- 
 ing." "With Tiyford they agreed that he should " be the 
 minister of the place," while Oldham, "invited to trade 
 for them with the Indians," preferred to remain where he 
 was, and conduct such business on his own account. 
 The change was not followed by the profits that had 
 been hoped, and the next year " the adventurers were so 
 far discouraged, that they abandoned the further prosecu- 
 tion of this desira, and took order for the dissolv- 
 
 1G2C. 
 
 ing of the company on land, and sold away their 
 shipping and other provisions." ^ Another seemed added 
 to the list of frustrated adventures in New England. 
 
 But Mr. White did not despair of its renewal. All 
 along, it is likely, he had regarded it with an interest 
 different from what had yet been avowed. At his in- 
 stance, when " most part of the land-men returned," " a 
 few of the most honest and industrious resolved to stay 
 behind, and to take charge of the cattle sent over the year 
 before. And not likinsr their seat at Cape Ann, 
 
 Removal to c ^ 
 
 Nau.nkcag. clioscn cspccially for the supposed commodity of 
 , fishing, they transported themselves to Nahum- 
 keike, about four or five leagues distant to the southwest 
 from Cape xVnn."~ 
 
 White wrote to Conant, exhorting him " not so to de- 
 sert the business, faithfully promising that, if himself, 
 with three others, whom he knew to be honest and pru- 
 dent men, viz. John Woodbury, John Balch, and Peter 
 Palfrey, employed by the adventurers, would stay at 
 Naumkeag, and give timely notice thereof, he would pro- 
 vide a patent for them, and likewise send them whatever 
 
 1 Hubbard, Chap. XVIII. — Planter's pers," &c. Its authorship is, on satisfac- 
 
 Plea, Chap. VII., VIII. The Planter's tory grounds, attributed to Mi\ White. 
 
 Plea, published anonymously in London, It urges, for encouragement to coloni- 
 
 in 1G.30, -was rcprintcil,in 18.38, by Mr. zalion, the example of the Plymouth 
 
 Force, of Washington, in the second colony (Chap. VII.). 
 volume of his " Tracts and other Pa- 2 fbid.^ Chap. IX.
 
 Chap. VIIL] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 287 
 
 they should write for, either men, or provision, or goods 
 wherewith to trade with the Indians." ^ With difficulty 
 Conant prevailed upon his companions to persevere. They 
 " stayed to the hazard of their lives." ^ Wood- 
 
 . 1627. 
 
 bury was sent to England for supplies. 
 
 " The business came to agitation afresh in London, and, 
 being at first approved by some and disliked by others, 
 by argument and disputation it grew to be more vulgar ; 
 insomuch that, some men showing some good affection to 
 the work, and offering the help of their purses if fit men 
 might be procured to go over, inquiry was made whether 
 any would be willing to engage their persons in the voy- 
 age. By this inquiry it fell out that among others they 
 lighted at last on Master Endicott, a man well known to 
 divers persons of good note, who manifested much will- 
 ingness to accept of the offer as soon as it was tendered, 
 which gave great encouragement to such as were upon 
 the point of resolution to set on this work of erecting a 
 new colony upon the old foundation."^ 
 
 The scheme on foot was no longer one of Dorchester 
 fishermen looking for a profitable exercise of their trade. 
 It had "come to agitation in London," where "some men" 
 had offered " the help of their purses," and a man of con- 
 sequence, Humphrey, probably from a county as distant as 
 Lincoln, was already, or very soon after, Treasurer of the 
 fund.^ Matters were ripe for the step of securing a do- 
 main for a colony, and the dimensions of the domain 
 show that the colony was not intended to be a small one. 
 A grant of lands extending from the Atlantic to the 
 Western Ocean, and in width from a line of latitude three 
 miles north of the River Merrimac to a line three miles 
 
 1 Hubbard, Chap. XVIII. ciates when Conant was first written to : 
 
 2 Conant's petition of May 28, 1671, "Mr. White engaged Mr. Humphrey, 
 in the Massachusetts archives. the Treasurer of the joint adventurers, 
 
 3 Planter's Plea, Chap. IX. to write to him in their names," &c. 
 
 4 Hubbard (Chap. XVHI.) makes But I should not think it entirely safe 
 Humphrey the Treasurer of the Asso- to rely upon this.
 
 Orant of 
 Massacliii- 
 
 288 HISTORY OF new England. [Book i. 
 
 south of the Charles,^ was obtained from the Council for 
 
 Xew England by " Sir Henry Roswell and Sir 
 
 March 19. Joliu Youug, kuights, and Thomas Southcote, 
 
 John Humphrey, John Endicott, and Simon 
 
 the coiTcii ^^'hitcomb, gentlemen," for themselves, " their 
 
 for New heirs, and associates." Roswell and Yomi": were 
 
 England. ^ 
 
 gentlemen of Devon, Southcote was probably of 
 the same county, and Whitcomb is believed to have been 
 a London merchant. 
 
 Gorges, though not in the counsels of the patentees, 
 supposed himself to understand their object. Having men- 
 tioned the angry dissolution by King Charles of his second 
 Parliament, and his imprisonment of some of the patriot 
 leaders, he proceeds to say, that these transactions " took 
 all hope of reformation of church government from many 
 not affecting episcopal jurisdiction, nor the usual practice 
 of the Common Prayers of the Church ; whereof there 
 were several sorts, though not agreeing among themselves, 
 yet all of like dislike of those particulars. Some of the dis- 
 creeter sort, to avoid what they found themselves subject 
 unto, made use of their friends to procure from the Coun- 
 cil 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 con- 
 descend 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 E-obert 
 Gorgcs's interests, whereof he had a patent under the seal 
 of the Council. Hereupon, there was a grant passed as 
 was thought reasonable." ^ 
 
 1 The patentees among whom the the Secretary shall write out a copy of 
 eastern coast of New England had been the foniier grant to the Earl of War- 
 partitioned six years before, surrendered wick and others, which was by them 
 their claims (see above, pp. 222, 285). resigned to this company, to be pre- 
 I confidently put this construction on sented to his Lordship." (Massachu- 
 the ff)llowing record of the meeting of setts Colony Records, I. 53.) 
 the Company, September 29, 1629, 2 Gorges, Briefe Narration, &c., 
 viz. : " It is thought Gt and ordered that Chap. XXVI.
 
 Chap. VIII.] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 289 
 
 After three months, Endicott, one of the six patentees, 
 was despatched, hi charge of a small party, to su- 
 persede Conant at Naumkeag as local manager.^ 
 Woodbury had preceded them. They arrived at the close 
 of summer. The persons quartered on the spot, the re- 
 mains of Conant's company, were disposed to joimEndi- 
 question the claims of the new-comers. But the ^""'^com- 
 
 T- pany at 
 
 dispute was amicably composed, and, in commem- ^aiem. 
 oration of its adjustment, the place took the name 
 of " Salem," the Plebrew word for peaceful. The colony, 
 made up from the two sources, consisted of " not much 
 above fifty or sixty persons,"" none of them of special im- 
 portance except Endicott, who was destined to act for near- 
 ly forty years a conspicuous part in New England history.^ 
 Before the winter, an exploring j)arty either began, 
 or made preparations for, a settlement at Mishawum, now / 
 Charlestown.^ With another party, Endicott, during 
 Morton's absence in England, visited his diminished com- 
 pany at Merry-Mount, or, as Endicott called it. Mount 
 Dago7i^ " caused their May-pole to be cut down, and re- 
 
 1 Mr. Haven has satisfactorily shown own charge " ; from which it has been 
 that the first page of the Records of inferred that they were not of Endi- 
 the Company of Massachusetts Bay re- cott's company. (Everett, Address at 
 lates to preparations for the voyage of Charlestown, June 28, 1830.) The 
 Endicott. (Arch^eologia Americana, visitors found at Mishawum " an Eng- 
 III. 3.) lish pahsaded and thatched house, 
 
 2 Planter's Plea, Chap. IX. wherein lived Thomas Walford, a 
 
 3 Gott, Davenport, Trask, and Ralph smith." — It is greatly to be regretted, 
 and Richard Sprague, companions of that for this brief but very interesting 
 Endicott, as well as Conant, Palfrey, and period we have so little information 
 Woodbury, of the " old planters," were except from the unsatisfactory narra- 
 afterwards Deputies to the General tive of Hubbard. It is an important 
 Court. Davenport was a lieutenant in fact, however, that he must have con- 
 the Pequod war, and subsequently cap- versed much with Roger Conant, who 
 tain of the fort in Boston harbor. lived to old age and was his neighbor. 
 
 4 According to the Charlestown rec- It would be curious to point out traces 
 ords, — which, however, are not a docu- of his adoption of Conant's prejudices, 
 ment of the first authenticity, not hav- as well as other tokens of the state of 
 ing been made till more than thirty mind in which he wrote, if the discus- 
 years afterwards, — some of the emi- sion were worth the space which the 
 grants of 1628 had come over " at their necessary citations would occupy. 
 
 VOL. I. 25
 
 290 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 buked them for their profaneness, and admonished them 
 to look there should be better walking," The winter 
 proved sickly ; an " infection that grew among the passen- 
 gers at sea, spread also among them ashore, of which many 
 died, some of the scurvy, other of an infectious fever." 
 Endicott sent to Plymouth for medical assistance, and 
 Fuller, the physician of that place, made a visit to Salem.^ 
 
 The new Dorchester Company,^ like that which had 
 preceded it, and like the company of London Adventur- 
 cimrteroftiio crs coucemed in the settlement at Plymouth, was 
 Governor and ^^^ ^ voluutary partnership, with no corporate 
 
 Company of ^ a. l ' x 
 
 Massachu- powcrs.^ Tho extensive acquaintance of Mr. 
 
 setts Bay. ■"■ . 
 
 1C29. White with persons disaffected to the rulers in 
 church and state was probably the immediate oc- 
 casion of advancing the business another step. Materials 
 for a powerful combination existed in different parts of the 
 kingdom, and they were now brought together for united 
 action. The Company having been " much enlarged," ^ 
 a royal charter was solicited and obtained, creating a 
 corporation under the name of the " Governor and Com- 
 pany of the Massachusetts Bay in New England."^ This 
 
 1 Bradford, History, 238, 203. ing of a reasonable sum of money, a 
 
 2 I follow usage in employing this patent was granted with large encour- 
 namc in relation to Roswell and his five agements every way by his most ex- 
 associates, though I am more than doubt- cellent INIajesty." The fact that five 
 ful as to the correctness of the applica- persons joined Endicott in securing the 
 tion to them. Their patent is lost. It territory of Massachusetts by a deed 
 docs not appear that any one of the from the Council, while measures were 
 patentees was a Dorchester man. Nor in progress for obtaining the royal char- 
 do I know any other authority than ter, is passed over as immaterial. 
 Hubbard's for the statement of their ^ Cradock's Letter of Februarj' 16, 
 being persons " about Dorchester." 1G29, to Endicott. 
 
 •^ The silence of the "Planter's Plea" ^ Bolh these proper names were used 
 
 respecting the patent from the Council in early times in dilFerent senses. Gov- 
 
 for New England to Sir Henry Koswell ernor Winthrop, when he entitled his 
 
 and his five associates, favors the idea work a " History of i\ew England" in- 
 
 that it was taken simply as a transiliou tended by that name to denote the 
 
 step. Its language, next following the ^Massachusetts Colony, and this appears 
 
 mention of the engagement of Endi- to have been the prevailing use for some 
 
 cott, is (Chap. IX.) : "Hereupon divers years after its settlement. In 1G44, 
 
 persons having subscribed for the rais- Eoger Williams's colony was called in
 
 Chap. VIII.] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 291 
 
 is the instrument under ^yhich the Colony of Massachu- 
 setts continued to conduct its affairs for fifty-five years. 
 The patentees named in it were Roswell and his five asso- 
 ciates, with twenty other persons, of whom White was 
 not one.^ It gave power for ever to the freemen of the 
 Company to elect annually, from their own number, a 
 Governor, Deputy-Governor, and eighteen Assistants, on 
 the last Wednesday of Easter term, and to make laws and 
 ordinances, not repugnant to the laws of England, for 
 their own benefit and the government of persons inhabit- 
 ing their territory. Four meetings of the Company were 
 to be held in a year, and others might be convened in a 
 manner prescribed. Meetings of the Governor, Deputy- 
 Governor, and Assistants were to be held once a month, 
 or oftener. The Governor, Deputy-Governor, and any 
 two Assistants, were authorized, but not required, to ad- 
 minister to freemen the oaths of supremacy and allegiance. 
 The Company might transport settlers not " restrained 
 by special name." They had authority to admit new asso- 
 ciates, and establish the terms of their admission, and elect 
 and constitute such officers as they should see fit for the 
 ordering and managing of their afiairs. They were em- 
 powered to " encounter, repulse, repel, and resist by force 
 of arms, as well by sea as by land, and by all fitting ways 
 and means whatsoever, all such person and persons as 
 should at any time thereafter attempt or enterprise the 
 destruction, invasion, detriment, or annoyance to the said 
 plantation or inhabitants." Nothing was said of religious 
 liberty. The government may have relied upon its power 
 to restrain it, and the emigrants on their distance and 
 obscurity to protect it.^ 
 
 its charter " Providence Plantations in mouth. At least five others of those 
 
 New England." Anciently, by Massa- Adventurers, viz. White (of London), 
 
 chusetts Baij was commonly meant what Pocock, Sharp, Revell, and Andrews, 
 
 is now often called Boston Bay, within were subsequently members of the Mas- 
 
 Nahant and Point AUerton. sachusetts Company. (Mass. Hist. Coll., 
 
 1 One of the twenty, GofTe, had for- III. 48.) The charter is said to have 
 
 merly been among the Adventurers in cost £2,000. (Hutch. Hist., II. 1.) 
 
 partnership with the planters at Ply- ^ The charter is in Hazard, I. 239.
 
 292 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 The lirst step of the new corporation was to organize a 
 government for its colony. It determined to place the local 
 April 30. administration in the hands of thirteen Counsel- 
 TZ'ZTy lors, to retain their offices for one year. Of these, 
 at Salem. scvcn bcsidcs the Governor (in which ofRce Endi- 
 cott was continued) were to be appointed by the Company 
 at home ; these eight were to choose three others ; and the 
 whole number was to be made up by the addition of such 
 as should be designated by the persons on the spot at the 
 time of Endicott's arrival, described as " old planters." ^ 
 A proposal had iust been accepted from certain 
 
 March 2 ^ ^ ^ i i • i i 
 
 "Boston men," to interest themselves m the adven- 
 ture to the amount of five hundred pounds, being a hun- 
 dred pounds in addition to what, it appears, they had pre- 
 viously promised, "and to provide able men to send over."^ 
 Unfortunately, no letter has been preserved of those 
 sent by Endicott to England at this interesting juncture. 
 
 There are, however, two letters addressed to him 
 
 Instructions 
 
 fronitho by the Company, and one by Cradock, appointed 
 
 Company. • ^ ^ ^ • f r~\ -itr* i 
 
 m the charter to be its first Grovernor. With 
 various directions as to the details of his administration, 
 they speak of the " propagation of the Gospel " as " the 
 thing they do profess above all to be their aim in settling 
 this plantation." They enjoin the keeping of " a diligent 
 eye over their own people, that they live unblamable and 
 without reproof." They forbid the planting of tobacco, 
 except under severe restrictions. They order satisfaction 
 
 ^ Records in Arohacologia Ameri- Tvitli often negotiation, so ripened that, 
 
 cana, III. SO"", 30?. in the year 1628, we procured a pa- 
 
 2 Mass. Colonial Records, I. 28. — tent," &c. (Letter to the Countess 
 Dudley, perhaps one of these Boston of Lincoln.) From the language, 
 men, says: "About the year 1G27, "about the year 1G27," I think it is 
 some friends, being together in Lincoln- natural to infer, that the subject was 
 shire, fell into discourse about New canvassed in Lincolnshire as well bc- 
 Eiigland, and the planting of the Gos- fore as after that year. It was in 1G27 
 I)el there ; and after some deliberation, that White wrote from Dorsetshire, 
 we imparted our rea.sons, by letters and urging Conant to remain where he was. 
 messages, to some in London and the According to the old style, which Dud- 
 West Country, where it was likewise ley used, the patent was procured, as 
 deliberately thought upon, and at length, he says, " in the year 1C28."
 
 Chap. VIII.] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 293 
 
 to be given to the " old planters," by the offer of incorpora- 
 tion into the Company and of a share in the lands. They 
 speak of unsnccessful negotiations with Oldham, who as- 
 serted a claim nnder the patent of Robert Gorges, and give 
 orders for anticipating him in taking possession of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay. They direct that persons who may prove 
 " not conformable to their government," or otherwise dis- 
 agreeable, shall not be suffered " to remain within the 
 limits of their grant," but be shipped to England. They 
 prescribe a distribution of the servants among families, 
 with a view to domestic order and Christian instruction 
 and discipline. They enjoin a just settlement with the 
 natives for lands. And they transmit a form of oaths to 
 be taken by the Governor and members of the Council. 
 
 After the organization under the charter, no time was 
 lost in despatching a reinforcement of colonists. Six ves- 
 sels were prepared, and license was obtained from jcog. 
 the Lord Treasurer for the embarkation of " eigh- ^p'" ^^• 
 ty women and maids, twenty-six children, and three hun- 
 dred men, with victuals, arms, and tools, and necessary 
 apparel," and with " one hundred and forty head of cattle, 
 and forty goats." A committee of the Company were care- 
 ful " to make plentiful provision of godly ministers." Mr. 
 Skelton, Mr. Higginson, and Mr. Bright, members of the 
 Council, with Mr. Smith, another minister, sailed jj^y 4^ u, 
 in the first three vessels, which reached Salem nigginson's 
 about the same time, and were soon followed by sa"em7^' 
 the residue of the fleet. Mr. Graves, another of •'""^* 
 the Counsellors, was employed by the associates as an 
 engineer. Immediately on arriving, he proceeded with 
 " some of the Company's servants under his care, and some 
 others," to Mishawum, where he laid out a town.^ Bright, 
 
 1 This very prompt movement to- a similar meaning. The patent of 
 
 wards Charlestown was connected with Robert Gorges which brought him to 
 
 the claim of Oldham. And not im- Weymouth in 1G23 (see above, p. 206) 
 
 probably the visit made to that pe- was for ten miles "on the northeast 
 
 ninsula in the previous autumn had side of Massachusetts Bay," according 
 
 25*
 
 294. HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Avho was one of his party, returned to England in the 
 following summer, dissatisfied, probably, with the eccle- 
 siastical proceedings which had taken place. Smith went 
 for the present to the fishing station at Nantasket. 
 
 Hisrofinson wrote home : "When we came first to Naum- 
 keag, we found about half a score houses, and a fair house 
 newly built for the Governor. AVe found also abundance 
 of corn planted by them, very good and well-liking. And 
 ■vve brought with us about two hundred passengers and 
 planters more, which, by common consent of the old plant- 
 ers, were all combined together into one body politic, under 
 the same governor. There are in all of us, both old and 
 new planters, about three hundred, whereof two hundred 
 of them are settled at Naumkeag, now called Salem, and 
 the rest have planted themselves at Masathuset's Bay, 
 beginning to build a town there, which we do call Char- 
 ton, or Charlestown But that which is our great- 
 est comfort and means of defence above all other is, that 
 we have here the true religion and holy ordinances of 
 Almighty God taught among us. Thanks be to God, we 
 have here plenty of preaching and diligent catechizing, 
 with strict and careful exercise and good and commenda- 
 ble orders to bring our people into a Christian conversa- 
 tion with whom we have to do withal. And thus we 
 doubt not but God will be with us ; and if God be with 
 us, who can be against us ] " ^ 
 
 Of the new-comers, Skelton and Higginson, who had 
 been Non-conformist clergymen of the Church of England, 
 were the only persons that exerted a material influence on 
 the affairs of the infant colony.^ Of the early life of the 
 
 to n. contemporaneous meaning of that Jolm Oldliam, tlic other to Sir William 
 
 name ; that is, for a territory extending Brereton. The JMassaihusctts Coni- 
 
 from Cliarlcs River to Nahant. At the pany always maintained that Kobcrt 
 
 death of llobert Gorges, his right, better Gorges's patent was not good in law. 
 or worse, was inherited by his brother, l Higginson, New England's Flanta- 
 
 John, who, two months before the char- tion, 123, 121. 
 
 Utr of the Massa<.-husetts Company, sold 2 Of the five persons associated with 
 
 it iu two j)arts, one to John DorrcU and them by the Company as Counsellors to
 
 Chap. VIIL] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 295 
 
 former, scarcely anything is known ; he had been edu- 
 cated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and Endicott had samuei 
 " formerly received much good by his ministry." ^ '^'^'^"°"- 
 Higginson, of Jesus College and St. John's, Cam- piancis 
 bridge, and subsequently rector of one of the "'-s'"son. 
 churches of Leicester, had been deprived of his benefice 
 for non-conformity. After the practice of the time, he 
 became a lecturer^ and was so employed among his former 
 parishioners when he received the application of the Mas- 
 sachusetts Company to proceed to their colony.^ 
 
 A day within four weeks from their arrival was ap- 
 pointed for the choice of a pastor and a teacher ; and, after 
 prayer, fasting, and a sermon, Mr. Skelton was Ecciesiasti- 
 cliosen to the former office, and Mr. Higginson 2^01^"' 
 to the latter. Having accepted the trust, they •'"'>'-°- 
 were set apart to it with simple solemnity. Mr. Hig- 
 ginson and three or four of the gravest men laid their 
 hands on Mr. 'Skelton's head and prayed, and then, for 
 the consecration of Mr. Higginson, the same service was 
 repeated by his colleague. The next step was to gather 
 a church, or society of communicants. Mr. Higginson 
 drew up " a confession of faith and church covenant, ac- 
 
 Endicott, only Samuel Sharpe is known tans, Vol. 11. Chap. IV.) Laud broke 
 
 to have remained in the colony. John uj) the system in 1633. He said the 
 
 and Samuel Browne were sent home lecturers were " the most dangerous 
 
 after only five or six weeks, under cir- enemies of the state." 
 
 cumstances presently to be related. 3 '» 23d of March, 1628 [1629]. At 
 
 Bright, as has been mentioned, re- this meeting, intimation was given by 
 
 mained scarcely a year, and Graves Mr. Nowell, by letters from Mr. Isaac 
 
 soon disappears from the documents. Johnson, that one Llr. Higgeson, of 
 
 1 Cradock's letter to Endicott, April Leicester, an able minister, proffers to 
 17, 1629. go to our plantation; who being ap- 
 
 2 One method taken by the Puritans proved for a reverend, grave minister, 
 to supply the deficiency of evangehcal fit for our present occasions, it was 
 preachers, of which they complained, thought by those present to entreat Mr. 
 was to employ lecturers to preach on John Humphrey to ride presently to 
 Sunday afternoons and market-dajs. Leicester, and, if Mr. Higgeson may 
 They were supported from funds raised conveniently be had to go this present 
 by voluntary contribution, and held by AW'age, that he should deal with him." 
 trustees. (Neal, History of the Purl- (Mass. Col. Kec, I. 3 7.)
 
 296 msTORY OF new England. [Book i. 
 
 cording to Scripture," of which copies were delivered to 
 thirty persons, and an invitation Avas despatched to the 
 churcli at Plymouth to send messengers to witness the fur- 
 ther proceeding. The day appointed for it having 
 arrived, the two ministers prayed and preached ; 
 thirty persons assented to the covenant, and associated 
 themselves as a church ; the ministers, whose dedication 
 to the sacred office had appeared incomplete till it was 
 made by a church constituted by mutual covenant, were 
 ordained to their several offices by the imposition of the 
 hands of some of the brethren appointed by the church ; 
 and Governor Bradford " and some others with him, com- 
 ing by sea," and being " hindered by cross winds that 
 they could not be there at the beginning of the day, came 
 into the assembly afterward, and gave them the right hand 
 of fellowship, wishing all prosperity and a blessed success 
 unto such good beginnings." -^ 
 
 How much of the church system thus introduced had 
 already been resolved upon before the colonists of the 
 Massachusetts Company left England, and how long a 
 time, if any, previous to their emigration such arrange- 
 ments were made, are questions which we have probably 
 now insufficient means to determine. Thus much is cer- 
 tain; that, when Skclton^ and Pligginson reached Salem, 
 they found Endicott, M'ho was not only their Governor, 
 but one of the six considerable men who had made the 
 first movement for a patent, fully prepared for the eccle- 
 siastical organization which was presently instituted. In 
 1029. the month before their arrival, Endicott, in a let- 
 May n. ^^^, ^Q Bradford, thanking him for the visit of 
 Fuller,^ had said : " I rejoice much that I am by him sat- 
 isfied toiicliing your judgments of the outward form of 
 God's worship ; it is, as far as I yet gather, no other than 
 is warranted by the evidence of truth, and the same which 
 I have professed and maintained ever since the Lord in 
 
 ' Morton, Memorial, IIG. '•' Sec Vol. II. p. 83, note 5. ^ Bradford, 205.
 
 Chap. VIII.] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 297 
 
 mercy revealed himself unto me." And the promptness 
 with which the system was adopted in Salem favors the 
 idea of previous concert respecting it, at least on the part 
 of the leading men. 
 
 But whether distinctly preconcerted in England or not,^ 
 and whether anticipated by a greater or smaller portion 
 of the emigrants, some such system, under the circum- 
 stances, could scarcely have failed to grow up on the soil. 
 To persons with minds so prepossessed, a six weeks' voy- 
 age away from familiar scenes must needs have opened 
 a long religious experience." In a North American 
 wild, the power of conventional associations was broken. 
 The minds of the serious exiles could find nothing to 
 repose upon but the naked simplicity of evangelical 
 truth. Sincerely desirous, above all things else, to know 
 and to do God's will, they had heretofore found their in- 
 quiries and their service obstructed and restrained. They 
 had long led a troubled life for conscience' sake. They 
 had now made well-nigh the last sacrifice, placing a wide 
 ocean between themselves and most earthly objects of 
 their love. Having paid the heavy price, why should they 
 not fully enjoy the purchase] Withdrawn beyond the 
 reach of persecutors, why leave the strange liberty unused 1 
 Why not betake themselves at once to the letter of Scrip- 
 
 1 Cotton Mather relates that, "tak- Ha, Book III. Part II. Chap. I.) It is 
 ing the last look at his native shore, Hig- not necessary here to raise the general 
 ginson said, ' We will not say, as the question of the trustworthiness of the 
 Separatists were wont to say at their testimony of Cotton Mather. It is 
 leaving of England, " Farewell, Baby- enough to say, that, in this instance, he 
 Ion ; fiirewell, Rome ! " But we will say, is testifying, in 1697, to words repre- 
 Farewell, dear England! Farewell, sented to have been uttered in 1G29, 
 the Church of God in England, and all on the other side of the Avater. 
 the Christian friends there. We do not ^ On the voyage, Higginson had en- 
 go to New England as separatists from joyed some prelibations of his liberty 
 the Church of England, though we can- " with singing a psalm, and prayer that 
 not but separate from the corruptions was not read out of a book." (Relation 
 in it. But we go to practise the positive of the Last Voyage, &c., in Hutchin- 
 part of church reformation, and propa- son's Collection, &c., 46.) — See Win- 
 gate the Gospel in America.'" (Magna- throp, in Hutchinson's Collection, 130.
 
 298 HISTORY OF new England. [Book i. 
 
 ture, and as freely as the primitive disciples, as freely as 
 if neither mitre nor canon had ever been made, erect 
 their religious institutions after what they understood to 
 be the pattern in the authentic Gospel ? In their position, 
 such words as Non-conformity and Separatism ceased to be 
 significant. It was of great moment that they should 
 conform to the Bible. It was of very little moment if, in 
 doing so, they should be found to be separated in dis- 
 cipline and usages from a Church thousands of miles 
 away. As one party after another of earnest men came 
 to confer together on New England soil, it is striking to 
 observe to what an extent they had grown to be of one 
 mind respecting the duty of rejecting the whole constitu- 
 tion of the English Establishment. If scruples presented 
 themselves, they were dismissed with summary decision ; 
 not a fragment of the hierarchical order found a place 
 in the fabric of the New England churches. 
 
 The transaction which determined the religious constitu- 
 tions of New England gave offence to two of the Counsel- 
 ^ , . , lors, John and Samuel Browne. Considerinoj the 
 
 Expulsion of c 
 
 two male- late proceedings, as well they might do, to amount 
 
 cements. . " •T1T1 
 
 to a secession from the national establishment, they, 
 with some others of the same mind, set up a separate wor- 
 ship, conducted according to the Book of Common Prayer. 
 Endicott and his friends were in no mood to tolerate this 
 schism. The brothers, brought before the Governor, said 
 that the ministers " were Separatists, and would be Ana- 
 baptists." The ministers replied, " that they came away 
 from the Common Prayer and ceremonies, and had suffered 
 much for their non-conformity in their native land, and 
 therefore, being in a place where they might have their 
 liberty, they neither could nor would use them, because 
 they judged the imposition of these things to be sinful 
 corruptions in tlie worship of God." There was no com- 
 posing such a strife ; " and therefore, finding those two 
 brothers to be of high spirits, and their speeches and prac-
 
 Chap. Vni.] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 299 
 
 tices tending to mutiny and faction, the Governor told 
 them that New England was no place for such as they, 
 and therefore he sent them both back for England at the 
 return of the ships the same year."^ The brothers made 
 their complaint to the Corporation at home, who 
 agreed to submit to referees the adjustment of the 
 difference. The Company wrote letters of caution to En- 
 dicott and the ministers. "It is possible," they 
 said, " some undigested counsels have too sudden- 
 ly been put in execution, which may have ill construction 
 with the state here, and make us obnoxious to any adver- 
 sary."^ This language, with more of the same tenor, ap- 
 pears to have been prompted, not so much by Avant of 
 sympathy with the course of the colonists, as by an ap- 
 prehension of the unfavorable effect which might be pro- 
 duced by it in high quarters in England. 
 
 This proceeding had first raised, and for the present issue 
 had decided, a question of vast magnitude. The right of 
 the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay 
 
 •^ •' •' Anti-Episco- 
 
 to exclude at their pleasure dangerous or dis- pa' p^i'cy at 
 agreeable persons from their domain, they never 
 regarded as questionable, any more than a householder 
 doubts his right to determine who shall be the inmates 
 of his home.^ No civilized man had a right to come, 
 
 1 For -want of a detailed contempo- Chap. XLIII.), whose object did not 
 raneous account, I take this from Mor- distinctly require him to observe it. It 
 ton's Memorial (148). The transac- appears to be equally unknown to Mr. 
 tion was one of special interest to the INIarsden (History of the Early Puritans, 
 Plymouth people, and it may be pre- Chap. XL). And Mr. Anderson, in 
 sumed that they were correctly in- his learned and not uncandid " History 
 formed concerning it. It is not un- of the Church of England in the Colo- 
 likely that some, who had come to the nies" (I. 3G2 et seq.), charges the treat- 
 ordination, remained long enough to ment of the Brownes, above described, 
 witness the consequent proceedings. to the Plymouth people, and founds 
 
 The difference between the Massa- upon this mistake some strictures on an 
 
 chnsetts and Plymouth Colonies has not American writer, 
 been understood by English students of ^ Mass. Col. Rec, I. 408. 
 our histo]'y. Not only is it overlooked ^ " We have thought fit to give you 
 
 by so good and so recent a writer as this order, that, unless he [Ralph Smith] 
 
 Lord Mahon (History of England, &c., will be conformable to our government,
 
 300 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 or to bo, within their chartered limits, except themselves 
 and such others as they, in the exercise of an absolute 
 discretion, saw fit to harbor. The policy of such a use 
 of their right as was now made by their officer and rep- 
 resentative, it is easy to understand, would, in exist- 
 ing circumstances, appear to him equally evident. The 
 English hierarchy was immensely powerful, both in its 
 own resources and in the favor of an absolute monarch. 
 Of its vigilance and cruelty the colonists had had a well- 
 nigh ruinous experience. If it could keep its arms about 
 them, they thoroughly knew from the past what they had 
 to expect from it in the future. They had fled from it 
 to the wild solitude of another continent. Should they 
 sufl"er it to follow them, if they were able to keep it off? 
 A conventicle of a score of persons using the Liturgy 
 might be harmless ; but how long would the conventicle 
 be without its surpliced priest, and when he had come, 
 how far in the distance would be a bishop, armed with 
 the powers of the High-Commission Court 1 
 
 Religious intolerance, like every other public restraint, 
 is criminal wherever it is not needful for the public safe- 
 ty ; it is simply self-defence, whenever tolerance would 
 be public ruin. It may be, no doubt, that the danger, 
 supposed to demand it, is overrated by a timid imagina- 
 tion. But where it is strictly true that two sets of people 
 cannot live with security in each other's presence, it is 
 an idle casuistry which condemns the earlier comer and the 
 stronger possessor for insisting on the unshared occupation 
 of his place of residence. He may not only, through 
 cowardice or ill-temper, too easily persuade himself that 
 exclusiveness is essential to possession ; he may further 
 use unnecessary harshness in vindicating his exclusive 
 
 you siifTer liim not to remain within the correction ; and if any prove incorrigi- 
 
 limits of our grant." (Letter of tlie Com- ble, and will not be reclaimed by gen- 
 
 pany to Endicott, April 17, 1C29.) — tie correction, ship such persons liome." 
 
 "We desire, if it may be, that errors (Ibid.) — Comp. Winthrop, I. 45,under 
 
 may be reformed wilh lenity or mild the date of November 11, 1G30.
 
 Chap. VIII.] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 301 
 
 claim to his own. But it is preposterous to maintain 
 that, in the supposed circumstances, the right to ex- 
 clude is not his, or that its exercise is not his bounden 
 duty. And the right becomes of yet more value, and the 
 duty more imperative and inevitable, when the good in 
 question is one of such vast worth as religious freedom, 
 to be protected by the possessor, not only for himself, but 
 for the myriads, living and to be born, of whom he as- 
 sumes to be the pioneer and the champion. 
 
 Meanwhile, a movement of the utmost importance, prob- 
 ably meditated long before, was hastened by external pres- 
 sure. The state of public affairs in England in the spring 
 and summer of this year had brought numbers to the 
 decision which had been heretofore approached with sor- 
 rowful reluctance, and several persons of character and 
 condition resolved to emigrate at- once to the New World. 
 It was necessary to their purpose to secure self- Transferor 
 government, as far as it could be exercised by loyewEng. 
 British subjects. Possibly events might permit ''■""^* 
 and require it to be vindicated even beyond that line. At 
 any rate, to be ruled in America by a commercial corpo- 
 ration in England, was a condition in no sort accordant 
 with their aim. At a General Court of the Com- ^^^ 
 pany, Cradock, the Governor, " read certain propo- ■'"'^ ^^• 
 sitions conceived by himself; viz. that for the advancement 
 of the plantation, the inducing and encouraging persons 
 of worth and quality to transplant themselves and families 
 thither, and for other weighty reasons therein contained, 
 [it is expedient] to transfer the government of the planta- 
 tion to those that shall inhabit there, and not to continue 
 the same in subordination to the Company here, as now 
 it is." ^ The Corporation entertained the proposal, and, 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 49. — "Mr. gis whom he had been talking with for 
 
 Governor read certain propositions con- two or three years, or even that Burgis 
 
 ceived by himself." So writes Mr. felt called upon to record all that he 
 
 Secretary Burgis in the Journal. But might know of the preparations behind 
 
 it is not likely that Cradock told Bur- the scene. Hubbard says (Chap. 
 
 VOL. I. 26
 
 302 msTor.Y of new England. [Book i. 
 
 in view of " the many great and considerable consequences 
 
 thereupon depending," reserved it for deliberation. Two 
 
 days before its next meeting, twelve gentlemen,^ assembled 
 
 at Cambridge, pledged themselves to each other 
 
 Agreement at o j. o 
 
 cai.ibri<i2c. to cmbark for New England with their families 
 for a permanent residence, provided an arrange- 
 ment should be made for the charter and the administra- 
 tion under it to be transferred to that country.^ Legal 
 advice was obtained in favor of the authority to make the 
 transfer; and on full consideration it was deter- 
 
 Aug. 29. 
 
 mined, " by the general consent of the Company, 
 that the government and patent should be settled in New 
 England." The old officers resigned, and their places 
 were filled with persons of whom most or all were ex- 
 pecting to emigrate.^ John Winthrop was chosen Gov- 
 ernor, with John Humphrey for Deputy-Governor, and 
 eighteen others for Assistants. Humphrey's departure 
 was delayed, and, on the eve of embarkation, his place 
 was supplied by Thomas Dudley. 
 
 XVni.), that, -when Endicott was de- ilies as are to go with us, to embark for 
 
 Bpatched, in 1G28, "he was fully in- the said plantation by the first of" March 
 
 structcd with power from the Company next, to pass the seas, under God's pro- 
 
 to order all affairs, in the name of the tection, to inhabit and continue in New 
 
 patentees, as their agent, until them- England. Provided always, that, before 
 
 selves should come over, which was at the last of September next, the whole 
 
 that time intended, but could not be ac- government, together with the patent 
 
 complishcd till the year 1630." for the said plantation, be first legally 
 
 1 Six of them are known to have transferred." (Agreement at Cam- 
 been already members of the Massachu- bridge, August 26, 1629, in Hutchin- 
 setts Company, viz. Saltonstall, Vassall, son's Collections, 25, 26.) 
 
 Xowell, Pynchon, Johnson, and Hum- 3 Cradock, the former Governor, was 
 
 phrey, the name of the last of whom chosen one of the Assistants ; but I do 
 
 suggests the means of communication not know that he ever intended to come 
 
 between the Dorchester and the Cam- oyer. The same may be said of Samuel 
 
 bridge confederates. (See above, p. Aldersey, Thomas Goffe, and Nathaniel 
 
 287, note 3.) Of the rest, Winthrop Wright, the last of whom opposed the 
 
 and Dudley first appeared at a court transfer of the charter. Cradock, Goffe, 
 
 of the Company, October 15, 1629, and and Wright were three of the five per- 
 
 Thomas Sliarpe, October 20. sons in England intrusted soon after 
 
 2 " "NVc will so really endeavor the (December 1st) with the care of the 
 execution of this work as, by God's as- joint stock, of which Aldersey was also 
 Bistaoce, we will be ready in our per- Treasurer ; and this may have been tlie 
 eons, and with such of our several fam- reason for choosing them to be Assistants.
 
 Chap. VIII.] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 303 
 
 Winthrop, then forty-two years old, was descended from 
 a family of good condition, long seated at Groton in Suf- 
 folk, where he had a property of six or seven 
 
 Li-'' New officers 
 
 hundred pounds a year, the equivalent of at least ofthecom- 
 two thousand pounds at the present day. His 
 father was a lawyer and magistrate. Commanding un- 
 common respect and confidence from an early age,^ he 
 had moved in the circles where the highest matters of 
 English policy were discussed, by men who had been asso- 
 ciates of Whitgift, Bacon, Essex, and Cecil. Humphrey 
 was " a gentleman of special parts, of learning and activ- 
 ity, and a godly man " ; ^ in the home of his father-in-law, 
 Thomas, third Earl of Lincoln, the head, in that day, of 
 the now ducal house of Newcastle, he had been the fa- 
 miliar companion of the patriotic nobles. Of the Assist- 
 ants, Isaac Johnson, esteemed the richest of the emigrants, 
 was another son-in-law of Lord Lincoln, and a land- 
 holder in three counties. Sir Richard Saltonstall, of Hali- 
 fax, in Yorkshire, was rich enough to be a bountiful 
 contributor to the Company's operations.^ Thomas Dud- 
 ley, with a company of volunteers which he had raised, 
 had served, thirty years before, under Henry the Fourth 
 of France ; since which time he had managed the estates 
 of the Earl of Lincoln. He was old enough to have lent 
 a shrill voice to the huzzas at the defeat of the Armada, 
 and his military service had indoctrinated him in the lore 
 of civil and religious freedom. Theo23hilus Eaton, an 
 eminent London merchant, was used to courts, and had 
 been minister of Charles the First in Denmark. Simon 
 Bradstreet, the son of a Non-conformist minister in Lin- 
 colnshire, and grandson of " a Suffolk gentleman of a fine 
 
 1 Cotton Mather says (Book n. Chap. ^ j do ^ot know how the name of 
 IV. § 3), that Winthrop was "made, at Kichard Saltonstall, mentioned by Sir 
 the unusually early age of eighteen, a Simonds D'Ewes (Autobiography, I. 
 Justice of the Peace." But the state- 121, 140) as his contemporary at.Cam- 
 ment wants better evidence. bridge in 1G18 and his "very entire 
 
 2 Winthrop, History of New Eng- friend," is to be connected with this 
 land, I. 332. gentleman.
 
 30-4 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 estate," had studied at Emanuel College, Cambridge. 
 William "\^assall was an opulent West-India proprietor. 
 " The principal planters of Massachusetts," says the preju- 
 diced Chalmers, " were English country gentlemen of no 
 inconsiderable fortunes; of enlarged understandings, im- 
 proved by liberal education ; of extensive ambition, con- 
 cealed under the appearance of religious humility." ^ 
 
 But it is not alone from what we know of the position, 
 character, and objects of those few members of the Massa- 
 chusetts Company who were proposinof to emi- 
 
 Position and . x i o 
 
 character of grato at tlio carly period now under our notice, 
 that we are to estimate the power and the pur- 
 poses of that important corporation. It had been rapidly 
 brought into the form which it now bore, by the political 
 exigencies of the age. Its members had no less in hand 
 than a wide religious and political reform, — whether to 
 be carried out in New England, or in Old England, or 
 in both, it was for circumstances, as they should unfold 
 themselves, to determine. The leading emigrants to 
 Massachusetts were of that brotherhood of men who, by 
 force of social consideration as well as of intelligence and 
 resolute patriotism, moulded the public opinion and ac- 
 tion of England in the first half of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury. While the larger part stayed at home to found, as 
 it proved, the short-lived English republic, and to intro- 
 duce elements into the English Constitution which had 
 to wait another half-century for their secure reception, 
 another part devoted themselves at once to the erection of 
 free institutions in this distant wilderness. 
 
 In an important sense, the associates of the Massachu- 
 setts Company were builders of the British, as well as of 
 the New-England Commonwealth. Some ten or twelve 
 of them, including Cradock, the Governor, served in the 
 Long Parliament. Of the four commoners of that Parlia- 
 ment distinguished by Lord Clarendon as first in influence, 
 
 1 Ilistory of tlic Revolt of the American Colonies, I. 58.
 
 Chap. VIII.] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 305 
 
 Vane had been Governor of the Company, and Hampden, 
 Pym, and Fiennes, (all patentees of Connecticut,) if not 
 members, were constantly consulted upon its affairs. The 
 latter statement is also true of the Earl of Warwick, the 
 Parliament's Admiral, and of those excellent persons, 
 Lord Say and Sele and Lord Brooke, both of whom at 
 one time proposed to emigrate. The Company's meetings 
 placed Win throp and his colleagues in relations with numer- 
 ous persons destined to act busy parts in the stirring times 
 that were approaching ; — with Brereton and TIewson, 
 afterwards two of the Parliamentary Major-Generals ; with 
 Philip Nye, who helped Sir Henry Vane to "cozen" the 
 Scottish Presbyterian Commissioners in the phraseology of 
 the Solemn League and Covenant ; ^ with Samuel Vassall, 
 whose name shares with those of Hampden and Lord Say 
 and Sele the renown of the refusal to pay ship-money, and 
 of courting the suit which might ruin them or emancipate 
 England ; with John Venn, who, at the head of six thou- 
 sand citizens, beset the House of Lords during the trial 
 of Lord Strafford, and whom, with three other Londoners, 
 King Charles, after the battle of Edgehill, excluded from 
 his offer of pardon ; with Owen Powe, the " firebrand of the 
 city"; with Thomas Andrews, the Lord Mayor who pro- 
 claimed the abolition of royalty. Sir John Young, named 
 second in the original grant from the Council for New Eng- 
 land, as well as in the charter from King Charles, sat in 
 Cromwell's second and third Parliaments, Others of the 
 Company, as Vane and Adams, incurred the Protector's 
 displeasure by too uncomplying principles. Six or seven 
 were members of the High Court of Justice for the king's 
 trial, on which occasion they gave a divided vote. Four 
 were members of the Committee of Peligion, the most 
 important committee of Parliament; and one, the Coun- 
 sellor John White, was its Chairman.^ 
 
 1 Rushworth, Historical Collections, 2 J^ the third volume of Archaeo- 
 
 V. 466, 467. — Clarendon, History of logia Americana (xlvii. et seq.) the 
 
 the Rebellion, II. 232, 292. learned Secretary of the Americau 
 26*
 
 306 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 A question has been raised, whether the Company had 
 a rii^ht, and was legally competent, to convey the charter 
 across the ocean, and execute on a foreign soil the pow- 
 Rigbtoftho ers conferred by it. Certain it is that no such 
 Company to pi'oceedinc: is forbidden by the letter of the in- 
 
 convey its -l- ~ , . . , 
 
 charter to strumcnt ; and a not dismgenuous casuistry might 
 inquire. If the business of the Company may be 
 lawfully transacted in a western harbor of Great Britain, 
 why not under the king's flag in a ship at sea, or on the 
 opposite shore 1 It cannot be maintained that such a dispo- 
 sition of a colonial charter would be contrary to the perma- 
 nent policy of England ; for other colonial charters, earlier 
 and later, were granted, — Sir William Alexander's, Wil- 
 liam Penn's, Lord Baltimore's, those of Rhode Island and 
 Connecticut, — to be kept and executed without the realm. 
 As to the purpose of the grantor, those were not times 
 for such men as the Massachusetts patentees to ask Avhat 
 the king wished or expected, but rather how much of 
 freedom could be maintained against him by the letter 
 of the law or by other righteous means ; and no jninciple 
 of jurisprudence is better settled, than that a grant is to 
 be interpreted favorably to the grantees, inasmuch as the 
 grantor, being able to protect himself, is to be presumed 
 to have done so to the extent of his purpose.-^ The emi- 
 nent Puritan counsellor, John White, the legal adviser of 
 the Company in all stages of this important proceeding, 
 instructed them that they could legally use the charter in 
 this manner. Very probably it had been drawn by his 
 own hand, in the form in which it passed the seals, with 
 
 Antiquarian Society, Mr. Haven, has ^ This is the general doctrine of the 
 presented a body of most curious infor- common law. There is an exception 
 niation, from which I have borrowed for royal grants. (Plowden, 243.) But 
 alx)ve, in respect to the early freemen to exclude this exception, it is sometimes 
 of the Company. His catalogue exhib- provided that grants shall be construed 
 its 110 names. He says (Ibid., cxxi.) " mo?t favorably on the behalf " of the 
 that it " contiiins, doubtless, the greater grantees ; and this provision is made in 
 proportion of memliers, and all who the charter of the IMassachusetts Corn- 
 were at all prominent or influential." Jiany. (Hazard, I. 255.)
 
 Chap. VIII.] 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 
 
 307 
 
 a care to have it free from any phraseology which might 
 interfere with this disposition of it. Certainly Winthrop 
 and his coadjutors may be pardoned for believing that it 
 was legally subject to the use to which they put it, since 
 such was the opinion of the crown lawyers themselves, 
 when, in the second following generation, the question 
 became important. In the very heat of the persecution 
 which at length broke down the charter, the Chief Jus- 
 tices, Rainsford and North, spoke of it as " making the 
 Adventurers a corporation upon the place," and Sawyer, 
 Attorney-General in the next reign, expressed the same 
 opinion ; — " The patent ha\dng created the grantees and 
 their assigns a body corporate, they might transfer their 
 charter, and act in New England." ^ 
 
 1 Chalmers, Annals, 173. — In treat- 
 ing this subject, Grahame (History of 
 the Rise and Progress of the United 
 States, I. 259) says: " An English cor- 
 poration, appointed hi/ its charter to re- 
 side in London, resolved itself, by its 
 own act, into an American corporation, 
 and transferred its residence to IVIassa- 
 chusetts." On the contrary, the ab- 
 sence from the charter of any limitation 
 of residence appears to me to be one 
 of the important points in the case. 
 The Council for New England, char- 
 tered to hold and govern territory there, 
 had been constituted " one body politic 
 and corporate," " in our town of Ply- 
 mouth, in the county of Devon." (See 
 Hazard, I. 107.) The Massachusetts 
 Company had not been " appointed by 
 its charter to reside " anywhere. 
 
 And if this omission seems significant, 
 there is express language which ap- 
 pears not less so. The charter em- 
 powers the Company and their assigns, 
 not to '■'■send, carry, and trai^port," but, 
 " out of any our realms and dominions 
 whatsoever, to take, lead, carry, and 
 transport, for and into their voyages, 
 and for and towards the said plantation 
 in New England, all such and so many 
 
 of our loving subjects, or any other, 
 strangers, that will become our loving 
 subjects and live under our allegiance, 
 as shall willingly acco?n/)on^ them in the 
 same voyages and plantation." (Ibid., 
 Ill, 112.) Edward Johnson, who was 
 one of the emigrants of 1630, says 
 (Wonder- Working Providence of Sion's 
 Saviour, Chap. VII.) : "It was thought 
 meet a pattern [patent] should be 
 procured, comprised after the manner 
 of a corporation company or brother- 
 hood, with as large liberty for govern- 
 ment of this association as could be got 
 under the broad seal of England, which 
 accordingly was done by advice of one 
 Mr. White, an honest counsellor at 
 law, as also further by the honored 
 Mr. Richard Bellingham." Both of 
 these gentlemen were deeply interested 
 in the movement. The former was the 
 counsellor who has been mentioned as 
 having been consulted upon the inter- 
 pretation of the instrument; the latter 
 was afterwards Governor of the Com- 
 pany and the Colony. "Whether Johnson 
 had been correctly informed or not, I 
 incline strongly to the opinion that the 
 charter was drawn by some one who 
 had its ultimate transfer to America in
 
 308 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. {Book I. 
 
 lie who well weighs the f^xcts which have been pre- 
 sented in connection with the principal emigration to 
 Massachusetts, and other related facts which will 
 ep"rit'cd and ofFcr tliemsclvcs to notice as we proceed, may find 
 conii.rohen- j^jjjjggjf conductcd to tho conclusion, that, when 
 
 61V0 design ' ' 
 
 oftiiemovo- "Wintlirop and his associates prepared to convey 
 across the water a charter from the king, which, 
 they hoped, would in their beginnings afford them some 
 protection both from himself and through him from the 
 powers of Continental Europe, they had conceived a pro- 
 ject no less important than that of laying, on this side of 
 the Atlantic, the foundations of a nation of Puritan Eng- 
 lishmen, foundations to be built upon as future circum- 
 stances should decide or allow. It would not perhaps be 
 pressing the point too far to say, that, in view of the thick 
 clouds that were gathering over their home, they contem- 
 plated the possibility that the time was near at hand when 
 all that was best of what they left behind would follow 
 them to these shores ; when a renovated England, secure 
 in freedom and pure in religion, would rise in North 
 America; when a Transatlantic English empire would 
 fulfil, in its beneficent order, the dreams of English patriots 
 and sages of earlier times.^ 
 
 If such were the aims of the members of the INIassachu- 
 setts Company, it follows that commercial operations were 
 a merely incidental object of their association. And, in 
 fact, it docs not appear that, as a corporation, they ever 
 
 view, and that the project of that trans- the discernment of Burke. " This col- 
 
 fer was no afterthought, as it has been ony received its principal assistance 
 
 considered. It is worthy of remark, from the discontent of several great 
 
 that Johnson's omission, as well as men of the Puritan party, who were its 
 
 White's (sec above, p. 290), to notice protectors, and who entertained a de- 
 
 the patent obtained from the Council for sign of settling amongst them in New 
 
 New England, confinns the idea that England, if they should fail in the meas- 
 
 the obtaining of tliat patent was OTily a ures they were pursuing for establishing 
 
 suljordiiiatc transition step towards the the liberty and reforming the religion 
 
 royal charter which had been already of their mother country." (Account of 
 
 in contemplation. the European Settlements in America, 
 
 1 Few things worth notice escaped II. 145.)
 
 Chap. VIII.] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 30^ 
 
 held for distribution any property except their land ; or 
 that they ever intended to make sales of their land in 
 order to a division of the profits among the individual 
 freemen ; or that a freeman, by virtue of the franchise, 
 could claim a parcel of land even for his own occupation ; ^ 
 or that any money was ever paid for admission into the 
 Company, as would necessarily have been done, if any 
 pecuniary benefit was attached to membership. Sev- 
 eral freemen of the Company — among others, the three 
 who were first named in the charter,^ as well as in the 
 patent from the Council for New England — appear to 
 have never so much as attended a meeting. They were 
 men of property and public sj)irit, who, without intend- 
 ing themselves to leave their homes, gave their influence 
 and their money to encourage such as were disposed to 
 go out and establish religion and freedom in a new coun- 
 
 try- 
 
 The Company had no stocky in the sense in which that 
 word is used in speaking of money corporations. What 
 money was needed to procure the charter, to conduct the 
 business under it, and carry out the scheme of coloniza- 
 tion, was obtained neither by the sale of negotiable secu- 
 rities, nor by assessment, but by voluntary contributions 
 from individuals of the Company, and possibly from oth- 
 ers, in such sums as suited the contributors respectively. 
 
 1 John and Samuel Browne were free- cote, Ilutcliinson says (History, I. 16) : 
 men of the Company, named as such in " It is very hkely the three persons first 
 the charter ; but when they were " pro- named in this grant had nothing more 
 posing to take their passage in the Com- in view by the purchase than a settle- 
 pany's ships for New England," where ment for trade with the natives, or for 
 they were to be Counsellors, it was fishing, or for other advantageous pur- 
 " agreed by those present that for their poses. As soon as a colony for religion 
 passage and diet they should pay five was projected, we hear no more of 
 pounds each, and that for their encour- them." The fact is, we never hear of 
 agement land should be allotted to them them till a colony for religion was pro- 
 there, as if they had subscribed fifty jected, and then we hear of them at the 
 pounds in the general stock." (Mass. head of the movement in its first two 
 Col. Rec, I. 34.) important public stages. 
 
 2 Of lloswell. Young, and South-
 
 310 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 These contributions made up what is called in the rec- 
 ords the Joint Stock, designed to be used in providing 
 vessels and stores for the transportation of settlers. It is 
 true that these contributors, called Adventurers, had more 
 or less expectation of being remunerated for their outlay ; 
 and for this purpose two hundred acres of land within the 
 limits of the patent were pledged to them for every fifty 
 pounds subscribed,^ in addition to a proportional share 
 of the trade which the government of the Company was 
 expecting to carry on. But a share of the profits of trade, 
 as of the land, was to be theirs, not because they were 
 freemen, but because they were contributors, which many 
 of the freemen were not, and perhaps others besides free- 
 men were.^ 
 
 When the transfer of the charter and of the govern- 
 ment to America had been resolved upon, it was agreed, 
 that at the end of seven years a division of the 
 
 Arrangement '' 
 
 of financial profits of a proposcd trade in fish, furs, and 
 other articles should be made among the Adven- 
 turers agreeably to these princij)les ; and the management 
 of the business was committed to a board consisting of 
 five persons who expected to emigrate, and five who were 
 to remain in England. But this part of the engagement 
 appears to have been lost sight of; at least never to have 
 been executed. It is likely that the commercial specula- 
 tion was soon perceived to be unpromising ; and the outlay 
 had been distributed in such proportions, that the loss was 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Roc, I. 42, 43. effectual motive for contributions was 
 
 2 In respect both to object and to a public one. For years after the es- 
 methods, there is a resemblance, render- tablishment of the colony in ]\Iassachu- 
 ing them mutually illustrative, between setts, it continued to be benefited by 
 the Company of Massachusetts Bay and the bounty of its English patrons, 
 the Kansas Aid Society, separated from (Winthrop, II. 342.) And as this 
 each other in time by two centuries must have been principally bestowed 
 and a quarter. The latter society, as by the friends of the Assistants and 
 well as the former, had a conditional other leading men, it must have oper- 
 arrangement for reimbursing the con- ated as a means of sustaining their in- 
 tributors to its funds. But the only flucnce in the internal administration.
 
 Chap. VIII.] 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 
 
 311 
 
 not burdensome in any quarter. The richer partners sub- 
 mitted to it silently, from public spirit; the poorer, as a 
 less evil than that of a further expense and risk of time 
 and money.^ 
 
 From the ship Arbella,^ lying in the port of Yarmouth, 
 the Governor and several of his companions took leave of 
 
 1 Appropriations of land in the plan- 
 tation, on the principle which has been 
 explained, were made, not only to resi- 
 dent contributors, but equally to non- 
 residents, the lands to be occupied by 
 their servants ; as at Maiden, Ipswich, 
 and Marblehead to Cradock, who never 
 came over, and at Watertown to Sir 
 Richard Saltonstall, who stayed but a 
 year. The question of a method of 
 reimbursement to the contributors was 
 frequently under deliberation dui'ing 
 the last five or six months before the 
 departure of the expedition. (Mass. 
 Col. Rec, I. 54 - G7.) A reduced val- 
 uation of claims was agreed to, and the 
 scheme, as finally matured, authorized 
 the ten Trustees to accumulate funds 
 for their redemption, at the expiration of 
 seven years, from half the trade in furs, 
 and from monopolies of the manufacture 
 of salt, of the transportation of passengers 
 and freight, and of the providing of mag- 
 azines for storage. On the other hand, 
 the Adventurers so privileged were to 
 be charged with half the expense of 
 churches and ministers, and of fortifi- 
 cations and other public works. These 
 were mutual liabilities, which probably, 
 after a little experience, it was thought 
 to be for the interest of both parties to re- 
 lease. An indication of a tendency to- 
 wards this conclusion appears in a A'ote 
 of a court of the Company, held Decem- 
 ber 1st: "That if those that intend to 
 inhabit upon the plantation shall, before 
 the first of January next, take upon 
 them all the said engagements and oth- 
 er charges of the joint stock, then the 
 power and privileges of the undertakers 
 to determine, and all the trade, &c., to 
 
 be free." (Ibid., 55, 56, 59, G2-66.) 
 Samuel Aldersey was chosen, Decem- 
 ber 1st, to be Treasurer of the Trustees. 
 (Ibid., 65, 69.) But we hear nothing 
 of him after the embarkation. In 
 February, 1630, a few weeks before 
 Winthrop sailed, another appeal to 
 benevolence was made. " It was pro- 
 pounded that a ' common stock ' [so to 
 be called in distinction from the "joint 
 stock "] should be raised from such as 
 bear good aSection to the plantation 
 and the propagation thereof, and the 
 same to be employed only in defray- 
 ment of public charges, as maintenance 
 of ministers, transportation of poor fam- 
 ilies, building of churches and fortifica- 
 tions, and all other public and necessary 
 occasions of the plantation." (Ibid., 
 68.) Of this fund George Ilarwood 
 was chosen Treasurer. The contrib- 
 utors to it were to look for their re- 
 imbursement to the fixed allowance 
 of two hundred acres of land for every 
 fifty pounds, and were to have no in- 
 terest with the previous Adventurers 
 in the profits of the trade. In 1634 
 (Ibid., 128) and 1638 (Ibid., 238) 
 the General Court called on Ilarwood 
 for his account. In 1635, the Colony 
 paid Cradock fifty-five pounds (Ibid., 
 165), and in 1647 (Ibid., II. 226) his 
 executrix made a claim for six hundred 
 and eighty pounds. 
 
 2 Formerly Tlte Eagle. She was of 
 three hundred and fifty tons' burden, 
 carried twenty-eight guns, and was nav- 
 igated by fifty men. She had been 
 bought by the Company, and received 
 her new name in compliment to Lady 
 Arbella (wife of Isaac) Johnson.
 
 312 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 their native country by an address, which they entitled 
 Departure of " Thc Ilumble llcqucst of his Majesty's I.oyal 
 winthrop's Subjects, the Governor and the Company late 
 
 1C30." gone for New England, to the Hest of their Breth- 
 ^''"'^' ren in and of the Church of England." They 
 Their "Hum- asked a favorable construction of their enter- 
 bio Request." pi-isc, and good wishes and prayers for its suc- 
 cess. With a tenacious affection which the hour of parting 
 made more tender, they said : " We esteem it our honor 
 to call the Church of ]^'n gland, from whence we rise, 
 our dear mother,' and cannot part from our native coun- 
 try, where she specially resideth, without much sadness 
 
 of heart, and many tears in our eyes AVishing our 
 
 heads and hearts may be as fountains of tears for your 
 everlasting welfare, when we shall be in our poor cottages 
 in the wilderness, overshadowed with the spirit of sup[)li- 
 cation, through the manifold necessities and tribulations 
 which may not altogether unexpectedly, nor, we hope, 
 unprofitably, befall us, and so commending you to the 
 grace of God in Christ, we shall ever rest your assured 
 friends and brethren." The address is said to have been 
 drawn up by Mr. White of Dorchester. 
 
 The incidents of the voyage are minutely related in a 
 
 journal begun by the Governor on shipboard off the Isle 
 
 March 29. of Wight. Prcachiug and catechizing, fasting 
 
 and thanksgiving, were duly observed. A record 
 
 Their voyage. „, ., ,.. -, . ■, • 
 
 of the writers meditations on the great design 
 which occupied his mind while he passed into a new 
 world and a new order of human affairs, would have been 
 a document of the profoundest interest for posterity. But 
 the diary contains nothing of that description. On the 
 
 1 Tliis profession of attadimcnt to tlier one nor tlio otlior was tlio Church, 
 
 the Chun-li of England lias been con- nor W(;re both. The question u])on their 
 
 btrued as a profession of atta(!hrnent to fonns was then in agitation in England, 
 
 its government and ritual. But what as well as in Scotland. As to Scotland, 
 
 the government and ritual would ulti- it was ultimately determincid in one 
 
 mately be, was then uru-ertain, and nei- way ; as to England, in another.
 
 Chap. VIII.] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 313 
 
 voyage Winthrop composed a little treatise, which he 
 called "A Model of Christian Charity." It hreathcs the 
 noblest spirit of philanthropy. The reader's mind kindles 
 as it enters into the train of thought in which the author 
 referred to " the work we have in hand. It is," he said, 
 " by a mutual consent, through a special overruling Provi- 
 dence, and a more than an ordinary approbation of the 
 churches of Christ, to seek out a place of cohabitation 
 and consortship under a due form of government both civil 
 and ecclesiastical.'"^ The forms and institutions under 
 which liberty, civil and religious, is consolidated and 
 assured, were floating vaguely in the musings of that 
 hour. 
 
 The Arbella arrived at Salem after a passage of nine 
 weeks, and was joined in a few days by three vessels 
 which had sailed in her company. The Assist- j„noi2. 
 ants, Ludlow and Rossiter, with a party from '^''^''' """"*'• 
 the west country, had landed at Nantasket a fortnight 
 before, and some of the Leyden people, on their way to 
 Plymouth, had reached Salem a little earlier yet. Seven 
 vessels from Southampton made their voyage three or 
 four weeks later. Seventeen in the whole came before 
 winter, bringing about a thousand passengers.^ 
 
 It is desirable to understand how this population, des- 
 tined to be the germ of a state, was constituted. Of 
 members of the Massachusetts Company, it cannot be 
 ascertained that so many as twenty had come over. That 
 
 1 Mass. Hist. Coll., XXVIT. 45. riymouth [Ludlow's, tlic IMaiy and 
 
 2 For the common rcc-koning oC Jif- John] carried about one hundred and 
 teen huiulred I suppose there is no forty pci-sons, and the ship which goes 
 earlier or better authority than the from Bristowo carrieth about eighty 
 Charlestown Records, compiled in 1664. persons." These eighty persons, liow- 
 Winthrop, in a letter to his wife from ever, were destined for riymouth, leav- 
 Cowes, says (Winthrop, I. 368) : "We ing eight hundred and forty for the 
 are, in all our eleven ships, about seven number of emigrants to INIassaohusetts 
 Itundred persons, passengers, and two Bay; and the four other vessels of the 
 hundred and forty cows, and about si.\- seventeen did not so much convey pas- 
 ty horses. The ship which went fi'om scngers as stores and goods for trading 
 
 VOL. I. 27
 
 314 HISTORY or NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Company, as lias been explained, was one formed mainly 
 for the furtherance, not of any private interests, but of a 
 great public object. As a corporation, it had obtained the 
 ownership of a large American territory, on which it de- 
 signed to place a colony which should be a refuge for 
 civil and religious freedom. By combined counsels, it had 
 arranged the method of ordering a settlement, and the 
 liberality of its members had provided the means of trans- 
 porting those who should compose it. This done, the 
 greater portion were content to remain, and await the 
 course of events at home, while a few of their number 
 embarked to attend to the providing of the asylum which 
 very soon might be needed by them all. It may be safely 
 concluded that most of the j)ersons who accompanied the 
 emigrant members of the Company to New England, sym- 
 pathized with them in their object. It may be inferred 
 from the common expenditures which were soon incurred, 
 that considerable sums of money were brought over. And 
 almost all the settlers may be presumed to have belonged 
 to one or another of the four following classes : — 1. Those 
 who paid for their passage, and who were accordingly 
 entitled on their arrival to a grant of as much land as if 
 they had subscribed fifty pounds to the " common stock " 
 of the Company ; ' 2. Those who, for their exercise of some 
 profession, art, or trade, were to receive specified remuner- 
 ation from the Company in money or land ; ~ 3. Those who 
 paid a portion of their expenses, and, after making up the 
 
 1 ]\Iass. Col. Rec, I. 34, 35. This qnary, tlie Revcrenrl INIr. ITuntor, sajs 
 
 liberality, however, was perhaps pecu- (Mass. Ilist. Coll., XXX. 171) that it 
 
 liar U) the ease of individuals, whom it "consisted A'cry niueh of ])crsons avIio, 
 
 was thought desirable to tempt to make though not of the very first rank, were 
 
 the voyage. The allowance of land yet men of sul)stance and good alliances, 
 
 afterwards set against passage-money will-making families, families 
 
 was only fifty acres instead of two hun- high in the subsidy-books, while some 
 
 dred. Compare Anhrcol. Amer., III. of them, as the Winthrops, were among 
 
 28. — Of the emigration which " fol- the principal gentry of the county." 
 
 lowed Governor Winthrop from his ^ Mass. Col. llec, I. 29, 30, 37. 
 own county," that learned English anti-
 
 Chap. VIIL] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 315 
 
 rest by labor at the rate of three shillings a day, were to 
 receive fifty acres of land ; ^ 4. Indented servants, for 
 whose conveyance their masters were to be remunerated 
 at the rate of fifty acres of land for each.^ All English- 
 men were eligible to the franchise of the Massachusetts 
 Company ; but, until elected by a vote of the existing free- 
 men, no one had any share in the government of the plan- 
 tation, or in the selection of its governors. 
 
 The reception of the new-comers was discouraging. 
 More than a quarter part of their predecessors at Salem 
 had died during the previous winter, and many sickness 
 of the survivors were ill or feeble. The faith- ^"''^^^'"• 
 ful HigTijinson was wastin"^ with a hectic fever, 
 
 ^^ '^ ^ . Aug. 6. 
 
 which soon proved fatal. There was a scarcity 
 of all sorts of provisions, and not corn enough for a fort- 
 night's supply after the arrival of the fleet. " The re- 
 mainder of a hundred and eighty servants," who, in the 
 two preceding years, had been conveyed over at a heavy 
 cost, were discharged from their indentures, to escape the 
 expense of their maintenance. Sickness soon began to 
 spread, and, before the close of autumn, had proved fatal 
 to two hundred of this year's emigration.^ Death aimed 
 at the " shining mark " he is said to love. Lady Arbella 
 Johnson, coming " from a paradise of plenty and pleasure, 
 which she enjoyed in the family of a noble earldom, into a 
 wilderness of wants," ^ survived her arrival only a month ; 
 and her husband, singularly esteemed and beloved by the 
 colonists, died of j^rief a few weeks after. "He 
 
 . , . . Sept. 30. 
 
 was a holy man and wise, and died in sweet 
 peace." ^ 
 
 Giving less than a week to repose and investigations at 
 Salem, AVinthrop proceeded with a x^^i'ty in quest of some 
 more attractive place of settlement. He traced the Mys- 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 35. 4 Hubbard, 133. 
 
 2 ArchtEol. Amer., III. 28. 5 AVintlirop, I. 3i. 
 
 3 Dudley to the Countess of Lincoln.
 
 31G HISTOKY or NEW ENGLAXD. [Book I. 
 
 Examination 
 of the couu- 
 
 ti-y- 
 
 tic River a few miles up from its mouth, and, after 
 a three days' exploration, returned to Salem to 
 Juno 17. keep the Sabbath. AVhcn ten or eleven vessels 
 had arrived, a day of public thanksgiving was 
 ^"'^^" observed in acknowledgment of the Divine good- 
 ness M"hich had so far prospered the enterprise. 
 
 After a sufficient pause for deliberation and conference 
 
 concerning the forms of organization of the new society, 
 
 the subject of an ecclesiastical settlement was the 
 
 Ecclesiastical «' 
 
 setticnieiit. ^irst mattcr to receive attention. On a day sol- 
 emnized with prayer and fasting, the E-everend 
 Mr. AVilson, after the manner of proceeding in the year 
 before at Salem, entered into a church covenant with 
 Winthrop, Dudley, and Johnson.^ Two days after, on 
 Sunday, they associated with them three of the Assistants, 
 Mr. Nowell,Mr. Sharpe, and Mr. Bradstreet, and two other 
 persons, Mr. Gager and Mr. Colburn.~ Others were pres- 
 ently added ; and the church, so constituted, elected Mr. 
 AVilson to be its teacher, and ordained him to 
 
 Aug. 27. 
 
 that charge at INIishawum. At the same time, Mr. 
 Nowell was chosen to be ruling elder, and Mr. Gager and 
 Mr. Aspinwall to be deacons. From the promptness of 
 these measures, it is natural to infer that they had been 
 the subject of consideration and concert before the landing.^ 
 
 1 For this Covenant, see Drake's in the Bay ; but, blessed be God, more 
 
 History of Boston, 93, or Emerson's friends. The Governor lialh had confcr- 
 
 Ilistorical Sketi h of the First Church, 11. encc with me, both in pri\atc, and before 
 
 - Letter of Fuller and ^Vinslow to sundry others. 0])poscrs there is not 
 
 Bradford, in Bradford, 277-279. wanting, and Satan is busy ; but, if the 
 
 3 Before Phillips, presently minister Lord be for us, who can be against us ? 
 of AVaf ertown, had been on shore a fort- The Governor hath told me he hoped we 
 night, he told Fuller that, " if they would will not be wanting in helping them, so 
 have him stand minister by that calhng that I think you will be sent for. Here 
 which he received from the prelates in is a gentleman, one ^Ir. Cottington, a 
 England.hewotdd leave them." (Fuller's Boston man, who told me that Sir. 
 LetU-r to Bradf(jrd, June 28, in ISIass. Cotton's charge at Hampton was that 
 Hist. Coll., HI. 74.) Yet Phillips had they should take advice of them at Ply- 
 been one of the signers of the " Humble mouth, and sliould do nothing to offend 
 Request." (See above, p. . 31 2.) Fuller them. Captain Kndicott, my dear friend 
 wrote : " We have some privy enemies and a friend to us all, is a second Bar-
 
 Chap. VIIL] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 317 
 
 But there was some lingering scruple respecting the inno- 
 vation on accustomed forms ; and either for the general 
 satisfaction, or to appease some doubters, " the imposition 
 of hands " was accompanied with " this protestation by all, 
 that it was only as a sign of election and confirmation." ^ 
 
 In the choice of a capital town, attention was turned to 
 Mishawum, already called Charlestown. Here, ten weeks 
 after the landing, the first Court of Assistants 
 
 ^ Courts of 
 
 on this side of the water was convened. The Assistants. 
 Assistants present were Saltonstall, Ludlow, Kos- 
 siter, Nowell, Sharpe, Pynchon, and Bradstreet. Three 
 others were in the country ; Johnson, Endicott, and Cod- 
 dington. The question first considered was that of pro- 
 vision for the ministers. It was " ordered that houses be 
 built for them with convenient speed at the public charge. 
 Sir Richard Saltonstall undertook to see it done at his 
 plantation [Watertown] for Mr. Phillips, and the Gov- 
 ernor at the other plantation for Mr. Wilson." Allow- 
 ances of thirty pounds a year to each of these gentlemen 
 were to be made at the common charge of the settle- 
 ments, " those of Mattapan and Salem exempted," as being 
 already provided with a ministry.^ Provision was also 
 
 row." All this evidently expresses Ful- may be considered decisive. Besides, 
 ler's solicitude respecting the pending this was only a Court of Assistants, and 
 question of the ecclesiastical constitu- the Assistants had no power of such elec- 
 tion of the new colony. Fuller, as has tion by the charter, nor, as yet, by any 
 been related, had secured Endicott's order of the Company, though an order 
 sympathy and concuri'ence in the pre- to that effect was made soon after. That 
 ceding year learned antiquary, Mr. Drake, (History 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 31 -33. of Boston, 94,) argues very ingeniously 
 
 2 Johnson (Wonder-Working Prov- in defence of Johnson's statement, but 
 idence. Chap. XVII.) says that the I cannot come to his conclusion. 
 Court was holden on board of the Ar- ^ Eosslter and Ludlow, who, " with 
 bella, and that it chose Winthrop and many godly families and people from 
 Dudley to be respectively Governor Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and Somerset- 
 and Deputy-Governor The former shire," had set sail from Plymouth two 
 statement may be correct, but scarcely or three weeks before Winthrop, in a 
 the latter. Winthrop and Dudley had vessel of four hundred tons, were ac- 
 been ah-eady chosen in England for the companied by two ministers, Mr. War- 
 year. The public records say nothing of ham and Mr. Maverick. The proceed- 
 an election, which in such a matter ings in respect to these gentlemen are 
 
 27*
 
 318 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAOTD. [Book I. 
 
 made for Mr. Gager as engineer and Mr. Penn as bea- 
 dle. It was ordained " that carpenters, joiners, brick- 
 layers, sawers, and thatchers should not take above two 
 shillings a day, nor any man should give more, under pain 
 of ten shillings to taker and giver " ; and " sawers " were 
 restricted as to the price they might take for boards. The 
 use or removal of boats or canoes, without the owner's 
 leave, was prohibited, under penalty of fine and imprison- 
 ment. Saltonstall, Johnson, Endicott, and Ludlow were 
 appointed to be Justices of the Peace, besides the Gov- 
 ernor and Deputy-Governor, who were always to have 
 that trust by virtue of their higher office. And " it was 
 ordered that Morton, of Mount AVoolison, should pres- 
 ently be sent for by process."^ Morton had lately 
 been brought back to Plymouth by Allerton (who 
 incurred much censure on that account),^ and, repairing 
 to Mount Wollaston, had resumed his old courses. 
 
 A recital of the action of the Board of Assistants at 
 their first meetings on this continent will explain the 
 early exigencies of their administratioa, and the view en- 
 tertained by them of their duties and powers. At a sec- 
 ond Court, held at Charlestown, the following business 
 
 remarkable, exhibiting no less than the day ; and in the latter part of the day, 
 adoption by ]\Iassachusetts emigrants, as the people did solemnly make choice 
 before leaving England, of the congre- of and call those godly ministers to be 
 gational model of church government, their ofHccrs, so also the Reverend Mr. 
 and that too with the countenance of AVarham, a famous preacher at Exeter, 
 !Mr. AMiite of Dorchester, who for this and Mr. ISIaverick did express the 
 occasion seems to have set light by his same." Clap, who records this trans- 
 relation to the Established Church, action (iNIemoirs of Captain Roger Clap, 
 "These godly people resolved to live 21), appears to represent himself as an 
 together; and therefore, as they had eyewitness to it. — Prince (Chron. Hist., 
 made choice of those two reverend ser- 200), on the authority of a manuscript 
 vants of God, Mr. John "Warham and letter, says that Warham and IMaverick 
 Mr. John ^laverick to be their minis- were "at the same time ordained." — 
 ters, so they kept a solemn day of fasting Rossitcr's compan}', having landed at 
 in the new hospital at I'lymouth in Eng- Nantasket (IMay 30), first proceeded to 
 land, speniliiig it in preaching and pray- the site of Watertown, and then to that 
 ing; where tliat worthy man of God, the of Dorchester (iNIattapan), where they 
 Reverend ^Ir. John White of Dorches- concluded to fix themselves. 
 t<3r, in Dorset, was present, and preached 1 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 73, 74. 
 tlie word of God in the fore part of the 2 Bradford, 252, 253.
 
 Chap. VIII.] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 319 
 
 was transacted. It was agreed " that every third Tuesday 
 there should be a Court of Assistants held at 
 
 Sept. 7. 
 
 the Governor's house." It was " ordered that 
 Thomas Morton of Mount Wollaston should presently be 
 set into the bilboes, and after sent prisoner to England by 
 the ship called the Gift, now returning thither ; that all 
 his goods should be seized upon to defray the charge of his 
 transportation, payment of his debts, and to give satisfac- 
 tion to the Indians for a canoe he unjustly took away from 
 them ; and that his house should be burned down to the 
 ground, in sight of the Indians, for their satisfaction for 
 many wrongs he hath done them from time to time." Mr. 
 Clarke was directed to pay to John Baker the sum of 
 thirty-eight shillings, for cheating him in a sale of cloth. 
 A stipend was granted to Mr. Patrick and Mr. Underbill, 
 as military instructors and officers. The names of Boston, 
 Dorchester, and Watertown were assigned to the places 
 which still bear them. And it was ordered that no plan- 
 tation should be made within the limits of the patent, with- 
 out permission from a majority of the board of Governor 
 and Assistants, and that " a warrant should presently be 
 sent to Agawam [Ipswich], to command those that are 
 planted there forthwith to come away." -^ 
 
 At a third Court, also held at Charlestown, regulations 
 
 1 The friends of tlie colonists at home tion. The Board, being always ready- 
 were meanwhile exerting themselves to give their best assistance to works of 
 successfully in their behalf. 1630, Sep- this kind, which aim at the propagation 
 tember 29, the Lords of the Privy of the Christian religion, the honor of his 
 Council received a petition from the Majesty, and increase of trade, thought 
 Governor and Company of the Massa- fit, and ordered, that his INIajesty's Attor- 
 chusetts Bay, praying, — 1. leave to ney-General shall be prajed and re- 
 transport provisions (which was grant- quired to call unto him the Governor or 
 ed) ; 2. a stopping of the disorderly such Assistants of the said Company as 
 trade of fishermen and other interlopers, are here in England, and, upon confer- 
 by enforcement of the proclamation of ence with them, to insert them into a 
 the twentieth year of James, November draft of a proclamation, and prepare a 
 6, " with some other needful and benef- bill fit for his ]\Iajesty's signature." 
 icent additions, which might tend to the (Journal of the Privy Council.) Secre- 
 safety and prosperity of the said planta- tary Coke was present at the meetinn-.
 
 320 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 were enacted against allowing the Indians the use of fire- 
 arms, and against parting with corn to them, 
 or sending it out of the jurisdiction, without 
 a license. Constables were appointed for Salem and 
 Dorchester. The wages of common laborers were fixed 
 at sixpence a day, and those of mechanics who were em- 
 ployed in building at sixteen pence, in addition to " meat 
 and drink." Order was given for the seizure of " Eichard 
 Clough's strong water, for his selling great quantity there- 
 of to several men's servants, which was the occasion of 
 much disorder, drunkenness, and misdemeanor." The 
 execution of a contract between certain parties for the 
 keeping of cattle, was defined and enforced. Sir Hichard 
 Saltonstall was fined four bushels of malt for absenting 
 himself from the meeting. Thomas Gray, for "divers 
 things objected against him," was ordered " to remove 
 himself out of the limits of this patent before the end of 
 March next." " For the felony committed by him, where- 
 of he was convicted by his own confession," John Goul- 
 buni, as principal, and three other persons, as accessaries, 
 were sentenced " to be whipped, and afterwards set in the 
 stocks." Servants, " either man or maid," were forbidden 
 to " give, sell, or truck any commodity whatsoever, with- 
 out license from their master, during the time of their 
 service." An allowance was made to Captains Underbill 
 and Patrick for quarters and rations ; and, for their main- 
 tenance, a rate of fifty pounds was levied, of which sum 
 Boston and AVatertown were assessed eleven pounds each, 
 Charlestown and Dorchester seven pounds each, Roxbury 
 five pounds, and Salem and Mystic each only three 
 pounds, — a sort of indication of the estimated wealth of 
 those settlements respectively. 
 
 The public business proceeded at the next two Courts 
 
 after the same manner. A restriction, which it seems had 
 
 existed under Endicott's administration, on the 
 
 Nov. 9. . •• 
 
 price of beaver, was removed. A bounty was of-
 
 Chap. VIIL] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 321 ' 
 
 fered for the killing of wolves, to be paid by the owners 
 of domestic animals in sums proportioned to the amount of 
 their stock. Encouragement was given, by a legal rate of 
 toll, to the setting up of a ferry between Charlestown and 
 Boston. A servant of Sir Richard Saltonstall was sentenced 
 to "be whipped for his misdemeanor towards his master" ; 
 and bonds were taken for good behavior in a case of " strong 
 suspicion of incontinency." Sir Richard Salton- 
 
 *' . . Nov. 30. 
 
 stall was fined five pounds for whipping two per- 
 sons without the presence of another Assistant. A man 
 was ordered to be whipped for fowling on the Sabbath- 
 day ; another for stealing a loaf of bread ; and another for 
 breaking an engagement to pilot a vessel, with the privi- 
 lege, however, of buying off the punishment with forty 
 shillings. The employers of one Knapp, who was indebted 
 to Sir Richard Saltonstall, and of his son, were directed to 
 apply half of their wages to the discharge of the debt. An 
 assessment of sixty pounds was laid on six settlements for 
 the maintenance of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Phillips, of which 
 sum Boston and Watertown were to pay twenty pounds 
 each, and Charlestown half as much ; and Roxbury, Mys- 
 tic, and Winnisimmet were charged with six pounds, 
 three pounds, and one pound respectively.^ 
 
 An epidemic sickness at Charlestown was ascribed to 
 the want of good water.- An ample supply of it being 
 found in Boston, a portion of the people removed General 
 to that peninsula ; ^ and there, for the first time BoJon." 
 after their arrival on this continent, was held one ^'''* ^^' 
 of those quarterly General Courts of the Company of 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 75 - 78, 81, 82. these people -were in. And that which 
 
 2 " Almost in every family lamenta- added to their present distress was the 
 tion, mourning, and woe was heard, and want of fresh water." (Johnson, Won- 
 no fresh food to be had to cherish them, der- Working Providence, Chap. XVII.) 
 It would assuredly have moved the 3 Blaxton is said to have invited 
 most locked-up affections to tears, no them across the channel. He had prob- 
 doubt, had they passed from one hut to ably come to Boston Bay with Robert 
 another, and beheld the piteous case Gorges in 1623. (See above, p. 206.)
 
 322 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Massachusetts Bay, -which were proscribed in a provision 
 of the charter. 
 
 A hundred and eighteen persons, inchiding several of 
 the earUer planters, gave notice at this Court of their de- 
 sire to be admitted to the freedom of the Company. Per- 
 haps it was in anticipation of the doubtful result of such 
 Adoption of an irruption of strangers, that a rule was adopt- 
 "leTtiotand'' ^d, materially differing from that of the charter, 
 legislation. £qj. ^jjg cholcc of thc liighost magistrates, the 
 enacting of laws, and the appointment of ministerial 
 officers. The Company delegated important attributes of 
 their power to the Assistants. It was ordered that As- 
 sistants only, " when there are to be chosen," should in 
 future be chosen by the Company at large ; and that the 
 Assistants, with a Governor and Deputy-Governor, to be 
 elected by them from their own number, " should have 
 the power of making laws and choosing officers to exe- 
 cute the same." The arrangement soon proved to be out 
 of harmony with the spirit of the time and the place. It is 
 not difficult to understand why it was speedily abandoned ; 
 but neither is its adoption under the circumstances matter 
 of surprise. By the time the emigrants had been four 
 months on shore, the vastness of their enterprise must 
 have begun to reveal to them its difficulties, and to be 
 contemplated with profound solicitude. It had become 
 evident that occasions were to arise, such as would call for 
 great experience, capacity, and firmness in the govern- 
 ment. It was not unnatural that the less qualified of the 
 Company should shrink from such a trust, and should be 
 inclined to repose it in such of their number as were es- 
 teemed the most competent, as well as that they should de- 
 sire to obtain a degree of security against persons about to 
 become their associates. But while considerations like 
 these may have conciliated to the measure the approba- 
 tion of disinterested men, whether possessing or not pos- 
 sessing thc franchise, a further explanation of what took
 
 Chap. VIII.] 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 
 
 323 
 
 place may be thought to present itself in the fact, that, in 
 this general meeting which reposed such trust in the 
 Magistrates, the eight Magistrates who were present per- 
 haps constituted the majority of legal voters,^ though it 
 seeans that on so important an occasion they thought it 
 expedient to seek the concurrence of others who mio-ht 
 presently be admitted to the Company, and the measure 
 " was fully assented unto by the general vote of the peo- 
 ple, and erection of hands." ^ 
 
 The plantations through which the Massachusetts set- 
 tlers were scattered were now eight in number ; namely, 
 Salem, Charlestown, Dorchester, Boston, Water- 
 
 -p., - -n/r-r-* Settlements 
 
 town, Koxbury (where Mr. Pynchon, one of the about Boston 
 Assistants, had sat down with a party). Mystic ^^^' 
 (assigned to Mr. Cradock, and occupied for him by some 
 
 ^ Johnson and Higginson were now 
 dead, and Vassall, Bright, Revell, and 
 Thomas Sharpe had returned to Eng- 
 land. So that, besides the Governor, 
 Deputy-Governor, and Assistants, I 
 think it cannot be positively shown that, 
 in October, 1 G30, there was in Massachu- 
 setts a single freeman of the Company, 
 except John Glover of Dorchester, who, 
 from his having been a Deputy in the 
 General Court, without being made a 
 freeman on this side of the water, and 
 from his subscription to the stock in 
 May, 1628 (Felt, Annals of Salem, 509), 
 may be concluded to have possessed the 
 franchise before he emigrated. Samuel 
 Sharpe of Salem, Abraham Palmer of 
 Charlestown, William Colburn of Bos- 
 ton, and the ministers, Skelton and 
 Phillips, had been variously connected 
 with the Company in England ; but it 
 seems that they had not actually ob- 
 tained its franchise there, since we find 
 them to have applied for it in IMassachu- 
 setts in October, 1G30, (Mass. Col. Pec, 
 I. 79, 80,) and to have received it accord- 
 ingly, — Sharpe in July, 1632, the rest 
 
 in May, 1631. (Ibid., 366, 367.) When 
 Sharpe was chosen an Assistant in Eng- 
 land, in October, 1629, (Ibid., 60,) it 
 must have been only in anticipation of 
 his becoming a freeman. And we read 
 that, in February, 1630, "Mr. Roger 
 Ludlow was chosen and sworn an As- 
 sistant in the room of ]\Ir. Samuel 
 Sharpe, who, by reason of his absence, 
 had not taken the oath." (Ibid., 69.) 
 He, as well as Palmer and Skelton, came 
 over -svith Higginson almost immediately 
 after the charter was in the Company's 
 hands, and probably before arrange- 
 ments were made for the admission of 
 new associates. Phillips first appears 
 in the records of the Company when the 
 Arbclla was off the Isle of Wight, ready 
 to sail. Colburn signed the " Agree- 
 ment at Cambridge," but his name does 
 not otherwise occur in connection with 
 the Company's doings in England, un- 
 less (which is altogether uncertain) he 
 was the " Mr. Colbrand " who was pres- 
 ent at two meetings in August, 1629. 
 (Ibid., 50.) 
 2 Ibid., 79.
 
 32-1 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 servants), and Saugus (Lynn), to which place some 
 emigrants of the last year had probably strayed from 
 Salem. ^ Before winter, the Governor and several of the 
 principal persons had erected and occupied some rude 
 temporary habitations on the peninsula of Boston. A 
 fortification was projected, and the narrow isthmus which 
 connects Boston with Roxbury was fixed on for 
 
 Dec. C. . . "^ 
 
 its site ; but before anything Avas done further 
 
 than to collect some materials, the spot which is now Old 
 
 Cambridge was preferred, and the Governor and 
 
 Dec. 28. ^ '■ 
 
 all but two of the Assistants engaged together 
 to build houses there in the following year.^ 
 
 AVith the wretched shelter which was all that most of 
 the recent emigrants had been able to provide, the winter, 
 Sickness and fi'om thc last weok in December, when the cold 
 famine. ggj. ^^^^ ^q ^j^g middle of February, proved griev- 
 ously severe. Many died of the scurvy, w^hich disease, 
 Winthrop thought, especially aftiected " such as fell into 
 discontent, and lingered after their former conditions in 
 England." ^ Suffering from want of food was added to the 
 distresses of the time. Shell-fish had to serve for meat ; 
 ground-nuts and acorns for bread. It was a welcome re- 
 lief when a vessel sent to the southern side of 
 
 November. 
 
 Cape Cod procured a hundred bushels of com. 
 
 The scarcity of bread-stuff's in England w'as such, that for 
 
 every bushel of imported flour, when it was to be had, 
 
 the colonists had paid fourteen shillings sterling. A fast 
 
 1631. had been appointed to be kept throughout the 
 
 Feb. 5. settlements, to implore Divine succor. Thc day 
 
 1 Lewis, Ilistor}' of Lynn, pp. GO, Gl. understood to be what is now Old Cam- 
 
 2 Dudley, Letter to the Countess of bridge or Watertown ; but this could 
 Lincoln. They had, he says, before not be, for Dudley says that the reason 
 thought of a place " three leagues up of their sitting down at Watertown and 
 Charles River." This would correspond other near places was that they were 
 to wliat is now Waltham or Weston, too much disabled by sickness to carry 
 and I think it very likely to have been their "ordnance and baggage so far" as 
 near thc mouth of Stony Brook, which " three leagues up Charles River." 
 divides those two towns. It has been 3 Winthrop, L 45.
 
 Chap. Vm.l 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 
 
 325 
 
 before that which was to be thus solemnized, a vessel 
 arrived from England with supplies, and a pub- 
 
 ^ . , Feb. 22. 
 
 lie thanksgiving was substituted. 
 
 For three months, there is no record of Courts of As- 
 sistants after those whose proceedings have been related. 
 They were probably suspended because of the cold weath- 
 er. When resumed, they were generally held with ^^^^^^^ ^j. 
 regular intervals of three weeks, their business counsof 
 
 1 n -I' •\' ' 11 i'i* Assistants. 
 
 being that or adjudicatmg as well as legislatmg 
 upon matters of organization, criminal and civil jurispru- 
 dence, probate, and police. An order was passed for re- 
 shipping to England six persons, of whose offence 
 nothing more is recorded than that they were 
 " persons unmeet to inhabit here," and for sending Sir 
 Christopher Gardiner and Mr. "Wright " prisoners into 
 England by the ship Lion, now returning thither." The 
 constable of Dorchester was fined five pounds "for taking 
 
 March 1. 
 
 1 Mather says (]\Iagnalia, Book 11. 
 Chap. IV. § 6) that, -when this vessel 
 appeared, the Governor " was distribut- 
 ing the last handful of the meal in the 
 barrel unto a poor man distressed by 
 the wolf at the door." Contemporary 
 relations are more to the purpose, as 
 those of Clap and Johnson, who came 
 with Winthrop's fleet. " O the hun- 
 ger that many suffered ! " writes Clap 
 (Memoirs, p. 14), "and saw no hope 
 in an eye of reason to be supplied, only 
 by clams, and mussels, and fish." " In 
 the absence of bread," says Johnson, 
 " they feasted themselves with fish ; the 
 women once a day, as the tide gave 
 way, resorted to the mussels, and clam- 
 banks, which are a fish as big as horse- 
 mussels, where they daily gathered their 
 families food with much heavenly dis- 
 course of the provisions Christ had 
 formerly made for many thousands of 
 his followers in the wilderness. Quoth 
 one, ' My husband hath travelled as 
 far as Plymouth,' (which is near forty 
 
 VOL.1.' 28 
 
 miles,) ' and hath with great toil brought 
 a little corn home with him, and be- 
 fore that is spent, the Lord will as- 
 suredly provide.' Quoth the other, 
 ' Our last peck of meal is now in the 
 oven at home a-baking, and many of 
 our godly neighbors have quite spent 
 all, and we owe one loaf of that little 
 we have.' Then spake a third, 'My 
 husband hath ventured himself among 
 the Indians for corn, and can get none, 
 as also our honored Governor hath dis- 
 tributed his so far, that a day or two more 
 will put an end to his store, and all the 
 rest ; and yet methinks our children are 
 as cheerful, fat, and lusty with feeding 
 upon those mussels, clam-banks, and oth- 
 er fish, as they were in England with 
 their fill of bread; which makes me 
 cheerful in the Lord's providing for us, 
 being further confirmed by the exhor- 
 tation of our pastor to trust the Lord 
 with providing for us, whose is the earth 
 and the fulness thereof.' " (Wonder- 
 Working Providence, Chap. XXIV.)
 
 326 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 upon liini to marry" a couple. The employment of In- 
 dians in families, without license from the Court, and pay- 
 ments to them in silver or gold coin, were forbidden. A 
 quack was sentenced to pay a fine, besides being made 
 liable to an action for damages, for pretending " to cure 
 the scurvy by a water of no worth nor value, which he sold 
 at a very dear rate." A " surveyor of the ordnance and 
 cannoneer" was appointed, with an annual stipend of 
 ten pounds. Sir Richard Saltonstall was ordered 
 to satisfy two Indians for the loss of their wig- 
 wams, burned by his careless servants. "Thomas Fox, 
 servant of Mr. Cradock," was sentenced to be whipped, 
 for uttering scandalous speeches against the Court. 
 
 The charter required the presence of seven Assistants 
 with the Governor or Deputy-Governor to give legal force 
 to the action of a Court of Assistants. A departure from 
 this provision seemed to be demanded by the necessity 
 of the case ; and a Court of Assistants, " in regard the 
 number of Assistants were but few, and some of them go- 
 ing for England," adopted the rule, " that, whensoever the 
 number of Assistants resident within the limits of this ju- 
 risdiction should be fewer than nine, it should be lawful for 
 the major part of them to keep a Court ; and whatsoever 
 orders or acts they made should be as legal and authentical 
 as if there Avere the full number of seven or more."^ Sooner 
 than keep up the legal number of Assistants by an elec- 
 tion of inferior men, they did not scruple to disregard the 
 restrictions of their fundamental and constituent law. 
 
 The rule which had limited the wages of artificers and 
 
 workmen was rescinded. Towns were ordered to take care 
 
 to have every person within their limits, " except 
 
 March 22. . . . 
 
 magistrates and ministers," provided with arms, 
 those of ability at their own expense, others at that of the 
 town. Such as had "cards, dice, or tables in their houses," 
 were to " make away with them before the next Court, 
 
 1 Mass. Col. lice, I. 82-84.
 
 Chap. Vm.] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 327 
 
 under pain of punishment." Three men were sentenced 
 to be " whipped for stealing three pigs." Patrols of four 
 men were appointed to be kept every night at 
 Dorchester and at Watertown, the southern and 
 western outposts ; and military companies were to be 
 trained every Saturday. The amount of ammunition to 
 be kept by each soldier was prescribed ; and the firing of 
 a gun after the night watches were set was made punish- 
 able by whipping, and a second offence by measures more 
 severe. Travellers to Plymouth were never to go single 
 or unarmed. A servant of Mr. Plumphrey was 
 
 May 3. 
 
 ordered to be "severely whipped" at Boston and 
 Salem for striking an overseer " when he came to give 
 him correction for idleness in his master's work." To a 
 servant of Mr. Pelham was awarded a whipping for 
 " unjust selling of his master's tools." John Norman was 
 "fined for his not appearing at the Court, being sum- 
 moned." Rules were made for restraining stray cattle and 
 swine, and for compensating any damages done by them. 
 The indentures of a servant were transferred from one mas- 
 ter to another. Walford, the smith, found at Charlestown, 
 was fined forty shillings, " for his contempt of authority 
 and confronting officers," and was enjoined to depart with 
 his wife " out of the limits of this patent before the twen- 
 tieth day of October next, under pain of confiscation of 
 his goods." The Court entertained a charge against Endi- 
 cott for assault and battery, and caused a jury to be im- 
 panelled Avhich amerced him in forty shillings.^ 
 
 1 On this occasion, Endicott, -writing -with such daring of me witli Ills arms 
 
 from Salem to Winthrop on other busi- on kembow, &c. It -would have pro- 
 
 ness, said : " Sir, I desired the rather to voked a very patient man. But I -will 
 
 have been at Court, because I hear I -write no more of it, but leave it till -we 
 
 am much complained on by goodman speak before j'ou face to face. Only 
 
 Dexter, for striking him. I ackno-^vl- thus far further, that he hath given out, 
 
 edge I -^vas too rash In striking him, if I had a purse he Avould make me 
 
 understanding since that it is not la-wful empty it, and if he cannot have justice 
 
 for a justice of peace to strike. But if here, he will do -wonders in England, 
 
 you had seen the manner of his carriage, and if he cannot prevail there, he -svill
 
 328 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 There were very few natives in the neighborhood of the 
 
 new settlements. Chickatabot, said to have been then chief 
 
 sachem of the Massachusetts, visited Governor 
 
 Visitor . f. , . . . 
 
 Chickatabot. Winthrop with an attendance of his prnicipal 
 
 March 23. i,i- • i • ' n -i-i 
 
 men and their wives, bringing irom his home on 
 Neponset River the present of a hogshead of Indian corn.-^ 
 Pleased with his hospitable reception, he repeat- 
 ed his visit in a few weeks, and a communication 
 of good offices was established." The Massachusetts In- 
 dians were interested to make the English their protectors 
 against the Tarratines, of whose hostility they were in 
 constant dread. 
 
 A visit from another native had after a time more im- 
 portant consequences. An Indian from Connecticut River 
 Embassy Came to the Governor, with a request " to have 
 from Con- somo Englishmen to come plant in his country, 
 
 necticut ^ '■ ^ '' 
 
 E'ver. and offered to find them corn, and give them year- 
 ly eighty skins of beaver; and that the country 
 was very fruitful, &c., and wished that there might be two 
 men sent with him to see the country." The object ap- 
 peared to be to obtain an alliance with the English against 
 the Pequots. "The Governor entertained them at dinner, 
 but would send none with him." ^ 
 
 At the opening of spring, several of the emigrants went 
 to England ; some, as Wilson and Coddington,'' to bring 
 their families ; others, discouraged or for other reasons, 
 
 try it out ■wltli mc here at blows. Sir, the old quarrel between him and those 
 
 I desire that you will take all into con- of Plymouth, wherein he lost seven of 
 
 sideration. If it were lawful to try it his best men." (See above, pp. 202, 203.) 
 
 at blows, and he a fit man for me to 2 Winthrop, I. 49, 54. 
 
 deal with, you should not hear me com- 3 Ibid., 52. 
 
 I)lain ; but I hope the Lord hath br()ujj;ht 4 Jn Jjig u Demonstration of True 
 me off from that course." (Hutchinson, Love unto you the Rulers of the Col- 
 Collections, 51, 52.) ony of the Massachusetts," ])ublished in 
 1 Dudley says of Chickatabot (Let- 1G74, Coddington says: "Before Bos- 
 
 tcr, &c.) that he "hath between fif- ton Avas named, I built the first 
 
 ty and si.xty subjects. This man least pood house, in which the said Governor 
 
 favorcth the English of any sagamore [Bi'llingham] and merchant Braxel now 
 
 we arc acquainted with, by reason of dwell." (p. 4.)
 
 Chap. VIII.] MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 829 
 
 not designing to return.^ A number of the congregation 
 assembled at the Governor's house to bid their Return of 
 teacher farewell. There was a magistracy on the emigrants.^ 
 spot, and the civil order could proceed; but in '^^"''iso. 
 the teacher s absence, some provisional arrangement was 
 necessary for the well-being of the church. Mr. Wilson, 
 " praying and exhorting the congregation to love," com- 
 mitted to Winthrop, Dudley, and Nowell the ruling 
 elder, the trust of conducting public worship ; and, at 
 his request, the Governor commended him and his fellow- 
 voyagers to the Divine protection with prayer.^ 
 
 It had been intended that the vessel in which Wilson 
 sailed for England should carry a passenger of very differ- 
 ent character. Christopher* Gardiner was one of ^. ^^ . 
 
 ^ Sir Christo- 
 
 those mysterious visitors whose appearance in re- phercardi- 
 mote settlements so easily stimulates the imagina- 
 tions of men of more staid habits, and better mutual 
 acquaintance. Who he was, and whence and why he 
 came to New England, which he did just before the ar- 
 rival of Winthrop, was never known with certainty.^ It 
 is not improbable that he was an agent, or spy, of Sir 
 Ferdinando Gorges, with whom he is known to have cor- 
 responded.^ Perhaps he was only one of those eccen- 
 tric lovers of roaming and adventure who are attracted 
 
 1 After several months' experience of I thank God, I like so well to be here, 
 the country, Dudley had written : " If as I do not repent my coming. And if 
 any come hither to plant for worldly I were to come again, I would not have 
 ends, that can live well at home, he altered my course, though I had fore- 
 commits an error of which he will soon seen all these afflictions." 
 
 repent him; but if any godly 2 Winthrop, I. 50. 
 
 men, out of religious ends, will come ^ " He came into these parts under 
 over to help us in the good work we are pretence of forsaking the world, and to 
 about, I think they cannot dispose of live a private life in a godly course ; 
 themselves nor of their estates more to not unwilling to put himself on any 
 God's glory and the furtherance of their mean employments and take any pains 
 own reckoning." (Letter to the Count- for his living, and sometime offered 
 ess of Lincoln.) Winthrop had written himself to join to the churches in sun- 
 to his wife (I. 453) : " We here enjoy dry places." (Bradford, 294.) 
 God and Jesus Christ. Is not this ^ Winthrop, History, I. 57. 
 enough ? What would we have more ? 
 28*
 
 330 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 by newly opened regions and new forms of life. He 
 called himself Sir Christopher Gardiner; and that he 
 was entitled to the designation may be inferred from its 
 being given to him in some proceedings of the Privy 
 Council.^ Among other particulars of the ill repute which 
 followed him, one was, that he was a Knight of the Holy 
 Sepulchre, and another that he was a " nephew " (a kins- 
 man at some remove) of Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester 
 in Queen Mary's day. Governor Dudley wrote,^ that, ac- 
 cording to information received by the magistrates, he 
 had been a great traveller in Europe and the East, and 
 had now two wives living in England, while in Massa- 
 chusetts he was attended by a female companion whom 
 he gave out to be his cousin, but who, when examined, 
 appeared to know but little of his position or his objects. 
 His incognito^ his apparent immorality, and his imputed 
 Popery (afterwards ascertained from some papers dropped 
 by him at Plymouth) were so many causes of the disfavor 
 under which he labored, and united to make his presence 
 undesirable. The wives, or one of them, sent a complaint 
 against him to the Governor, who set on foot measures 
 for his apprehension, which coming to his -knowledge, he 
 took to flight, and wandered about for a month among the 
 Indians. At length, he was given up by them at Ply- 
 mouth, from which place Captain Underbill, in the service 
 of the Massachusetts magistrates, brought him to Boston,^ 
 two months after the passage of the order which has been 
 mentioned for his transportation to England. The master 
 of the Lion could not be persuaded to take charge of 
 him, and it was some months longer before he could be 
 gotten rid of Arrived in England, where he does not 
 appear to have been restrained of his liberty, he 
 soon found out the enemies of the colony, and 
 engaged actively in intrigues to its prejudice. 
 
 1 Soe below, p. 305, note 2. 3 Bradford, History, 295. — Win- 
 
 2 Letter to the Countess of Lincoln, ibrop, History, I. 55, 57.
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 It has been mentioned, that, at the time to which the 
 history of the Massachusetts Colony has been brought 
 down, the older settlement at Plymouth had increased 
 to the number of about three hundred persons, and 
 that, about the time of the discharge from their engage- 
 ments to the London partners, they had extended their 
 trading operations both to the east and to the west. The 
 place of the crazy Hogers, the minister brought over by 
 Allerton, and soon sent back, was supplied by jcog. 
 Smith, who had come with Higginson's fleet. ^""^- 
 Some of the Plymouth people found him at Nantasket, 
 " weary of being in that uncouth place, and in a poor 
 house that would neither keep him nor his goods dry. 
 So seeing him to be a grave man, and understood he had 
 been a minister, though they had no order for any such 
 thing, yet they presumed and brought him. He was here 
 
 accordingly kindly entertained and housed, and 
 
 exercised his gifts among them, and afterwards was chosen 
 into the ministry, and so remained for sundry years." ^ 
 
 A few weeks before the new minister came, thirty-five 
 members of the Leyden church had joined their friends, 
 accomplishing a long-deferred hope of both par- Au-ust. 
 ties. The poor people at Plymouth, just in- eJi^mln 
 volved in new pecuniary obligations to an op- ^'"'" ^'^y^^'^- 
 pressive amount, were but too happy, not only to defray 
 all the expenses of the new-comers, but to give them 
 dwellings, and supply them with food for more than a 
 
 1 Bradford, 3G3. — Smith probably left riymouth in 1G35. (See Mass. Ilist. 
 Coll., IV. 108.)
 
 332 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 year, till there was time for them to make provision for 
 themselves.' 
 
 Allerton, who on his late visit to England had endeav- 
 ored without success to obtain an amendment of the pa- 
 tent, prospered better in a second attempt. The Coun- 
 Third patent cil for Ncw England conveyed to AVilliam Brad- 
 " ^'irao.""' ford, his heirs, associates, and assigns, a tract of 
 
 Jan. 13. \^Yi^ includiug New Plymouth, and another on 
 the Kennebec, — both of which, however, for want of 
 geographical knowledge, were imperfectly defined. The 
 patent recites, that it is given " in consideration that Wil- 
 liam Bradford and his associates have for these nine years 
 lived in New England, and have there inhabited, and 
 planted a town called by the name of New Plymouth, at 
 
 their own proper costs and charges ; and now, by the 
 
 special providence of God and their extraordinary care 
 and industry, they have increased their plantation to near 
 three hundred people, and are upon all occasions able to 
 relieve any new planters or other his Majesty's subjects 
 who may fall upon that coast." It empowers Bradford, 
 "his associates, his heirs, and assigns, at all times here- 
 after, to incorporate, by some usual or fit name and title, 
 him or themselves, or the people there inhabiting under 
 him or them, with liberty to them and their successors 
 from time to time to frame and make orders, ordinances, 
 and constitutions," not contrary to the laws of England, 
 or to any frame of government established by the Council, 
 " and the same to put or cause to be put in execution by 
 such officers and ministers as he and they shall authorize 
 and depute" ; and, " for their several defence, to encounter, 
 expulse, repel, and resist by force of arms, as well by sea 
 
 as by land, by all ways and means whatsoever, and 
 
 to take, apprehend, seize, and make prize of all such per- 
 sons, their ships and goods, as shall attempt to inhabit or 
 trade with the savage people of that country within the 
 
 1 Bradford, 245 - 248.
 
 Chap. IX] PLYMOUTH. 333 
 
 several precincts and limits of his and their several plan- 
 tation, or shall enterprise or attempt, at any time, de- 
 struction, invasion, detriment, or annoyance to his and 
 their said plantation." In short, the patent invested 
 Bradford and his associates, in respect to the granted 
 territory, with all the power which the Council, by its 
 charter, was made capable of conveying to its assigns. 
 A royal charter, with the same powers as that of the Mas- 
 sachusetts Company, was much desired by the Plymouth 
 people. At Allerton's solicitation, orders were given by 
 the Privy Council for the preparation of such an instru- 
 ment; and the business seemed proceeding prosperously, 
 when a clause for exonerating the colony from the pay- 
 ment of customs for seven years, which appears to have 
 been inserted by Allerton without instructions,^ occasioned 
 objections, delay, and finally complete disappointment. 
 New Plymouth Colony, though soliciting it often, and at 
 no small expense, was never able, before its annexation to 
 Massachusetts, to obtain any better foundation for its gov- 
 ernment than the patent of the Council for New England.^ 
 Another party of Leyden people presently came over. 
 The two cost their American friends five hundred and 
 fifty pounds sterling for their outfit and transpor- May. 
 tation from Holland, in addition to the expense gratLTfrom 
 of their reception and of their support till the ^^y''^"- 
 second following harvest ; " and this charge of maintain- 
 ing them all this while was little less than the former 
 sum." But the burden was more than willingly borne ; 
 " a rare example," writes the reasonably complacent Gov- 
 ernor, •' of brotherly love and Christian care in performing 
 
 1 Bradford, 252. Bradford thought a charter for Plymouth. (INIass. Hist, 
 
 that Allerton raised the question for a Coll., III. 71, 72.) 
 selfish purpose, " to have an opportunity ^ Xhe patent is in Hazard, I. 298 
 
 to be sent over again, for other regards." et seq. The original instrument, Tvith 
 
 Shirley supposed that not only Sir Fer- the signature of the Earl of "Warwick, 
 
 dinando Gorges, but Cradock, Win- and what remains of the seal of the 
 
 throp, and others of the Massachusetts Council, is kept at Plymouth, in the 
 
 Company, interested themselves against office of the Register of Deeds.
 
 334 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 their promises and covenants to their brethren, and in a 
 sort beyond their power." ^ The consequence of this gen- 
 erosity was eminently beneficial. In proportion as mem- 
 bers of the Leyden congregation became numerous at Ply- 
 mouth, the better party there — the party of Bradford, 
 Brewster, and their compeers — was strengthened, and the 
 colony was made to conform more to its original design.^ 
 
 Soon after this increase of numbers, an incident occurred 
 which occasioned much unhappiness. John Billington, 
 An execution o^ Plymoutli, — a troublcsome associate from the 
 for murder, beginning, — having been convicted of wilful 
 murder after trial by a jury, the magistrates consulted " Mr. 
 Winthrop and other the ablest gentlemen in the Bay of 
 the Massachusetts," respecting their competency to inflict 
 the penalty of that crime. They advised, with unani- 
 mous consent, that the murderer " ought to die, 
 
 September, 
 
 and the land be purged from blood " ; and he was 
 executed accordingly.'"' It was the first instance of capital 
 punishment in New England. The colonists might well 
 question their right to inflict that penalty. But it was 
 idle to think of finding the needed protection for their 
 lives in courts three thousand miles away. And the ne- 
 cessity of the case seemed to impose upon them the re- 
 sponsibility of administering Avhat they esteemed the law 
 of nature and of God. 
 
 For four or five years from this time, the business rela- 
 tions between the partners at New Plymouth and those at 
 London became more and more complicated and unsatisfac- 
 tory. Allerton, who passed back and forward between them 
 as agent for the Plymouth associates, fell under their serious 
 displeasure for transactions implicating them without their 
 authority, as well as for other alleged misconduct, and was 
 
 1 Bradford, 2-18, 249. that they were not of the most consid- 
 
 " " They ■vvere such as feared God, crable persons left at Leyden, nor of 
 
 and were both weleomc and useful," such as ■were best able to provide for 
 
 •wrote Bradford (Letter-Book, in ]\Iass. themselves. 
 
 Ilist. Coll., III. 70), though he regretted 3 Bradford, 276.
 
 Chap. IX.] PLYMOUTH. 335 
 
 continued in liis trust only through tenderness for Brew- 
 ster, Avhose daughter was Allerton's wife. In two years 
 he had raised their debt from four hundred to four thou- 
 sand pounds. Still, under the honest and wise conduct 
 of Bradford and his associates, affairs prosjjered on the 
 small scale which belonged to them. " Though the part- 
 ners were plunged into great engagements, and oppressed 
 with unjust debts, yet the Lord prospered their trading, 
 
 that they made yearly large returns Also the 
 
 people of the plantation besran to j^row in their 
 
 -■^ •• ^ . Increase of 
 
 outward estates, by reason of the flowino^ of many ■'veauh at 
 
 ,. , .-,.",_,*^ Plymouth. 
 
 people into the country, especially into the Bay 
 of the Massachusetts, by which means corn and cattle 
 rose to a great price, by which many were much enriched, 
 and commodities grew plentiful." ^ 
 
 A party of Narragansett I-ndians having pursued some 
 Pokanoket allies of Plymouth to an English outpost, 
 Winthrop sent twenty-seven pounds of powder 1^30. 
 to Standish, who had been despatched to their ^p''^^-- 
 relief; upon which the Xarragansetts withdrew. An 
 event of no little interest was a visit of Governor October. 
 Winthrop to Plymouth, accompanied by his pas- al.nvnron 
 tor, Mr. Wilson. The journey took two days '^^^^y^^^'^- 
 each way.- 
 
 1 Bradford, 255, 256, 279, 280, 286, in the Province of New Netherlands." 
 
 289-291,302, 309. — Allerton was dis- In 1643, Winthrop (II. 9G) speaks of 
 
 charged from his agency for the planta- him as being at New Amsterdam, but 
 
 tion in 1630. (Ibid., 276.) But he was calls him "Mr. Allerton of New Haven." 
 
 chosen to be one of the Assistants as He was at New Plaven in February, 
 
 late as 1633. In the spring of 1635, he 1645 (Ibid., 210), and is occasionally 
 
 was at ]\Iarblehead, as appears from an mentioned in its Records during the 
 
 order of the Massachusetts Assistants next seven years. He died there in 
 
 passed March 4, for his removal from February, 1659, and lies buried in the 
 
 that place. (Mass. Col. Rec, I. 142.) public square. (Dr. Bacon's Letter, in 
 
 Marblehead was part of Salem, and Aller- Mass. Hist. Coll., XX\T[I. 242.) He 
 
 ton may have followed Roger Williams had " built a grand house on the creek, 
 
 thither from Plymouth. A writing of his with four porches." (Stiles, History of 
 
 is preserved (Plym. Rec, II. 133), in Three of the Judges, 65.) 
 which, under the date of Oct. 27, 1646, ^ Such an incident should be related 
 
 he styles himself " of New Amsterdam in Winthrop's own words (I. 91 -93) :
 
 33G 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 As property and a sense of security increased, the people 
 at Plymouth showed a disposition to disperse, for the con- 
 venience of more pasturage and other accommodations. 
 " The town, in which they lived compactly till now, was 
 left very thin, and in a short time almost desolate. And 
 if this had been all, it had been less, though much. But 
 the church must also be divided, and those that had lived 
 so long together in Christian and comfortable fellowship 
 must now part and suffer many divisions." A separate 
 Duxbury and cliurcli aud towu, with the name of Duxhiiry, were 
 Marsiiiicid. establislicd on the north side of the harbor, and 
 pastures were assigned at Marshjield to such as engaged 
 to keep them by servants, and not remove themselves 
 
 " The GoTemor, with Mr. Wilson, pastor 
 of Boston, and the two captains, &c., went 
 aboard the Lion [October 25], and from 
 thence Mr. Peirce carried them in his 
 shallop to Wessaguscus. The next 
 morning Mr. Peirce returned to his 
 ship, and the Governor and his compa- 
 ny went on foot to Plymouth, and came 
 thither within the evening. The Gov- 
 ernor of Plymouth, Mr. William Brad- 
 ford, (a very discreet and grave man,) 
 ■with Mr. Brewster, the elder, and some 
 others, came Ibrth and met them with- 
 out the town, ami conducted them to 
 the Governor's liouse, where they were 
 very kindly entertained, and feasted 
 every day at several houses. On the 
 I^ord's day there was a sacrament, 
 which they did partake in ; and in the 
 afternoon Mr. lloger Williams (accord- 
 ing to their custom) propounded a ques- 
 tion, to which the pastor, Mr. Smith, 
 spoke briedy ; then !Mr. Williams proph- 
 esied ; and after, the Governor of Ply- 
 mouth 8|Kjke to the question ; after him 
 the elder ; then some two or three more 
 of the congregation. Then the elder 
 desired tlie Governor of ^Massachusetts 
 and Mr. Wilson to speak to it, which 
 they did. When this was ended, the 
 deacon, Mr. Fuller, put the congrega- 
 
 tion in mind of their duty of contribu- 
 tion ; whereupon the Governor and all 
 the rest went down to the deacon's seat, 
 and put into the box, and then returned. 
 About five in the morning [Oc- 
 tober 31], the Governor and his com- 
 pany came out of Plymouth ; the Gov- 
 ernor of PljTiiouth, with the pastor and 
 elder, &c. accompanying them near 
 half a mile out of town in the dark. 
 The lieutenant. Holmes, with two oth- 
 ers, and the Governor's mare, came 
 along with them to the great swamp, 
 about ten miles. When they came to 
 the great river, they were carried over 
 by one Luddam, their guide (as they 
 had been when they came, the stream 
 being very strong, and up to the crotch) ; 
 so the Governor called that passage 
 Luddum's Ford. Thence they came to 
 a place called Hue's Cross. The Gov- 
 ernor, being displeased at the name, in 
 respect that such things might hereafter 
 give the Papists occasion to say that 
 their religion was first planted in these 
 parts, changed the name, and called it 
 Hue's Folly. So they came, that even- 
 ing, to Wessaguscus, where they were 
 bountifully entertained, as before, with 
 store of turkeys, geese, ducks, &c., and 
 the next day came safe to Boston."
 
 1C33. 
 Jeinic 
 sickness. 
 
 Chap. IX.] PLYMOUTH. 337 
 
 from the original settlement.^ In the year following this 
 
 dispersion, Plymouth was afflicted by the spread 
 
 of " an infectious fever, of which many fell very Epwe 
 
 sick, and upwards of twenty persons died, men 
 
 and women, besides children, and sundry of them of their 
 
 ancient friends who had lived in Holland ; and in 
 
 the end, after he had much helped others, Samuel Fuller, 
 who was their surgeon and physician, and had been a 
 great help and comfort unto them, as in his faculty so 
 otherwise, being a deacon of the church, a man godly and 
 forward to do good, being much missed after his death ; 
 and he and the rest of their brethren much lamented by 
 them, and caused much sadness and mourning amongst 
 them." 2 
 
 Plymouth w^as the first of the English settlements to 
 sufi'er from French depredation. The Plymouth partners, 
 in connection with four of their London friends, had re- 
 luctantly consented to establish a trading-house on the 
 Penobscot, under the charge of one Edward Ashley, with 
 whom Allerton had treated for that purpose in 
 London. Ashley did not remain long in Amer- 
 ica, and the post fell under the care of Allerton.^ The 
 third article of the treaty of St. Germain's ceded 1032. 
 back to France the American territory lately con- »'="''='' 29- 
 quered by England, including " all the places occupied in 
 New France, Acadia, and Canada by subjects of his Ma- 
 jesty of Great Britain." ^ The extent of Acadia to the 
 west was long a subject of dispute. Claiming the Eng- 
 lish post on the Penobscot as within the domain ^^^ ^^^^^^ 
 of their sovereign, a party of French, in a small «> t"« ^^• 
 
 O ^ L J ^ ' nobscot. 
 
 vessel, attacked and rifled it, carrying ofl" three 
 hundred pounds' weight of beaver and other goods, to the 
 
 1 Bradford, 302, 304. The Governor and will provoke the Lord's displeasure 
 
 contemplated this beginning of a dis- against them." 
 persion with much uneasiness: "This, 2 Ibid., 314. 
 I fear, will be the ruin of New England, 3 Ibid., 257 - 259, 267, 275. 
 at least of the churches of God there, * The article is in Hazard, I. 319. 
 
 VOL. I. 29
 
 338 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 value of more than five hundred pounds sterling.^ The fol- 
 lowing year an assault, accompanied with greater violence, 
 was made upon a factory established by Ashley 
 and others at what is now Machias. Not only 
 was the property there deposited stolen, but two English- 
 men were killed, and three were carried away prisoners.^ 
 Their other eastern trading-house, on the Kennebec, 
 gave occasion to a disaster of a different nature. Under 
 Affray on the thcir patcut Hglit to territory on this river, the 
 Kennebec, piymouth pcoplo claimcd the monopoly of its 
 Indian traffic. A person named Hocking, in command 
 of a vessel from the Piscataqua belonging to Lord Say 
 1C34. and Sele, insisted on going up the river to trade. 
 April. Howland, the Plymouth commander, after un- 
 availing remonstrance, ordered his men to cut the cable 
 by which the ship was anchored. Hocking shot one of 
 them, and was himself shot dead in return. The business, 
 as threatening mischief to all the colonies, was taken up 
 bv the General Court of Massachusetts. Alden, 
 
 May 14. ' /. , 
 
 one of the party and a principal person of Ply- 
 mouth, coming presently after on a visit to Boston, was 
 detained to answer to the charge ; and the Massachusetts 
 Magistrates were scarcely induced to desist from a prosecu- 
 tion of it by explanations which Standish first, and after- 
 
 1 Winthrop, 79. — Bradford, 293, 294. Bagaduce, Castine] . Their connection 
 
 Bradford erroneously places this inci- with him was unfortunate. He turned 
 
 dentin 1631. Holmes says (Annals, out as ill as they had augured from the 
 
 I. 21 7) : " The French had rifled beginning. (Bradford, 259.) On the 
 
 the trading-house, belonging to Ply- 31st of December, 1G31, the Attorney- 
 mouth, at Penobs(;ot." But in a note he General was ordered to proceed against 
 refers to the factory established on the him in the Star Chamber for furnishing 
 Kennebec in 1628 (see above, p. 230), arms and ammunition to the savages; 
 and adds : " Whether they had set up and on the following 1 7th of February 
 another at Penobscot, or whether these he was discharged from the Fleet 
 neighboring places were sometimes Prison, (his oflTenee having been corn- 
 called by the same name, does not ap- mitted before the royal proclamation 
 pear." I think there is no doubt that the forbidding it,) under a bond "not to 
 trading-house robbed by the French was offend in the like kind hereafter." 
 the same which the Plymouth people (.Journal of the Privy Council.) 
 had joined with Ashley iu establishing • Winthrop, 117, 154; Bradford, 291, 
 on the Penobscot, at Peutagoet [Point 292, 328.
 
 Chap. IX.] PLYMOUTH. 339 
 
 wards Bradford, Winslow, and Smith, the minister, were 
 sent to make in person. At last, at a conference in Bos- 
 ton, to which the Plymouth people invited all " the neigh- 
 bor plantations," — but at which " none appeared, but 
 some of the magistrates and ministers of the Massachu- 
 setts and their own," — it was agreed that, " though they 
 all could have wished these things had never been, yet 
 they could not but lay the blame and guilt on Hocking's 
 own head." ^ Winslow soon after went a third time to 
 England, partly on the errand of satisfying and conciliat- 
 ing Lord Say and Sele. 
 
 While these events occurred on the Eastern rivers, the 
 enterprise of the Plymouth people had been taking a dif- 
 ferent direction. Though as yet their humble piymomh 
 circumstances had kept them admonished of the th^cTnnect- 
 necessity of cautious movements, they had not '""*• 
 been inattentive listeners to information, brought from 
 time to time by native and by Dutch visitors, of a river to 
 the west of them, called the Fresh River and the Connecti- 
 cut River, " a fine place both for plantation and trade." 
 The descriptions of it by parties who had occasionally 
 visited it, " not without profit," confirmed the favorable 
 impressions which had been made. They had been in- 
 formed of the visit made to Winthrop, in the first jcaj. 
 spring after his landing, by a chief and others, '^p"'''" 
 who had offered him a settlement on the Connecticut, 
 with a yearly tribute of corn and beaver." At length, the 
 plan was conceived of a partnership among individuals of 
 the two colonies in a trade to that region, and Winslow, 
 who had himself visited' it, repaired with Bradford 1033. 
 to Boston for a conference. By building a forti- "^"'^ ^" 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 131, 136. — Mass. Col. occasion to the king to send a General 
 
 Rec, I. 116. — Bradford, 316-322. Governor over, and besides had brought 
 
 Bradford calls this " one of the saddest us all, and the Gospel, under a common 
 
 things that befell them since they reproachof cutting one another's throats 
 
 came." Winthrop says (131) it had been for beaver." 
 feared that the transaction " would give 2 gee above, p. 328.
 
 340 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 fied trading-liouse, they proposed to anticipate the Dutch, 
 who were rcpoited to have the same scheme in view.^ 
 
 Discouraged by what they had heard of the shallow- 
 ness of the river, and the number of warlike Indians on 
 its banks, the Massachusetts people concluded to take no 
 part in the project. Those of Plymouth then prosecuted 
 it alone, and sent a vessel wdth the frame of a 
 house, and workmen and materials for its con- 
 struction. At some distance up the river (where now is 
 Hartford), they were challenged by a party of Dutch, 
 W'ho had thrown up a rude work, and mounted two small 
 cannon. After a parley and mutual threats, the English 
 j)assed on without being assailed, landed at what is now 
 the town of Windsor, put up, fortified, and provisioned 
 their house, and then separated, a part to hold it, the 
 rest to return as they came. A company of seventy 
 Dutch, who in the following year came from New Am- 
 sterdam to expel the intruders, having made their obser- 
 1C34. vations on the spirit and the dispositions of the 
 December. \[^iIq garrisou, wcrc prevailed on to retire without 
 violence.- It was not by Dutchmen that the Plymouth 
 people were to be dispossessed of Connecticut. 
 
 All that is extant of what can properly be called the 
 legislation of the first twelve years of the Colony of Ply- 
 Eariy logis- moutli suffices to cover in print only two pages of 
 latio.iat r^jj octavo volume.^ That of the first five years 
 
 Plyiiioutli. •' 
 
 1C23. consists of the single regulation, " that all criminal 
 facts, and also all manner of trespasses and debts 
 between man and man, shall be tried by the verdict of 
 twche honest men, to be impanelled by authority in form 
 of a jury upon their oath." For seven years more, the 
 only standing laws which appear to have been found 
 necessary were some simple prohibitions of the employ- 
 
 1 "Wintlirop, 10.5. 3 Biigham, Compact, -with the Char- 
 
 2 Bradford, 311 -314. —Wintlirop, tor and Laws, of the Colony of New 
 I. 10.5, 113.— Brodhead, History of riymouth, 28-30. 
 
 New York, I. 234, 235, 210-242.
 
 Chap. IX.] PLYMOUTH. 341 
 
 ment of handicraftsmen by " any strangers or foreigners 
 till such time as the necessity of the Colony jcoc. 
 be served," of the exportation of timber, corn, ^archag. 
 beans, or pease " without the leave and license of the 
 Governor and Council," and of the covering of icss. 
 dwelling-houses " with any kind of thatch " ; with J»""="'y ^• 
 some arrangements respecting the division of lands and 
 the accompanying rights of way, and respecting the gath- 
 ering of fuel, fishing, hunting, and fowling. 
 
 In the thirteenth year of the settlement, a penal pro- 
 vision had to be adopted to protect the public weal 
 against the prevailing absence of ambition for public 
 office ; and " it was enacted, by public consent of ^-33. 
 the freemen of this society of New Plymouth, that •^''"' '• 
 if now or hereafter any were elected to the office of Gov- 
 ernor and would not stand to the election, nor hold and 
 execute the office for his year, that then he be amerced in 
 twenty pounds sterling fine; and, in case refused to be 
 paid upon the lawful demand of the ensuing Governor, 
 then to be levied out of the goods or chattels of the said 
 person so refusing. It was further ordered and decreed, 
 that if any were elected to the office of council and re- 
 fused to hold the place, that then he be amerced in ten 
 pounds sterling fine, and in case refused to be paid, to be 
 forthwith levied. It was further decreed and enacted, that 
 in case one and the same person should be elected Gover- 
 nor a second year, having held the place the foregoing 
 year, it should be lawful for him to refuse without any 
 amercement ; and the company to proceed to a new elec- 
 tion, except they can prevail with him by entreaty." ^ 
 
 At his urgent request, Bradford was now for the first 
 time excused from the office of Governor, and Edward 
 Winslow, who some months before had returned j^go 
 from his second visit to England, was chosen his •'""«5- 
 successor, Bradford taking his place as one of the Assistants. 
 
 1 Plymouth Colony Records, I, 5. 
 29*
 
 342 msTORY OF new England. [Book i. 
 
 Their number was at the same time raised from five to 
 seven, and so remained during the separate existence of the 
 Colony. At the end of Winslow's year of service as chief 
 magistrate, Thomas Prince was made Governor. Perhaps 
 "Winslow pleaded the privilege of exemption allowed to him 
 by the recent statute ; perhaps the visit to England, which, 
 in the public service, he made in the following year, w'as 
 already contemplated. It had been " by full consent agreed 
 1G33. upon and enacted, that the chief government be 
 
 Oct. 28. |.-gj ^Q ^j^g town of Plymouth, and that the Gover- 
 nor for the time being be tied there to keep his residence 
 and dwelling, and there also to hold such courts as concern 
 the whole." ^ The elections were made, as they had been 
 heretofore, in the first week of January ; but at the elec- 
 
 1C34. tion of Prince it was ordered, that " the Governor 
 
 •'^"•^" and other officers . . . should not enter upon 
 their offices till the twenty-seventh of March," and that 
 the political year thenceforward should begin on that day.- 
 
 There is no original public register of Plymouth Colony 
 of an earlier date than its seventh year, at which time 
 Governor Bradford made a record of some of the princi- 
 pal transactions. The minutes of the Court at which 
 Winslow was first made Governor begin a journal which, 
 under the name of Court Orders, exhibits thenceforward 
 the miscellaneous proceedings both of the General Courts, 
 consisting of the body of freemen, and of the Courts of As- 
 sistants, in the threefold character corresponding to their 
 legislative, judicial, and executive functions. The General 
 Courts conferred the franchise, and appointed not only 
 the magistrates, but also inferior officers, such as consta- 
 bles and assessors ; but, with these exceptions, the courts 
 of both kinds appear to have exercised generally the same 
 
 ^ It was at this time that so mucli that the next choice of Governor would 
 
 fear was entertained of a dispersion fall on Prince, since in fact he subse- 
 
 from riyrnouth (see above, p. 33G). quisntly removed to Duxbury, and 
 
 There may have been a sjiecial reason afterwards to Eastham. 
 
 for the law, if it was already expected 2 pi^m. Col. llec , I. 21.
 
 Chap. IX.] PLYMOUTH. 34:3 
 
 powers, according as a meeting of the one or the other 
 occurred most seasonably in reference to the business to 
 be disposed of. By registration in their own Journal, 
 they recognized marriages, and other private contracts, as 
 of sale,^ hire, labor, and the like. With the help of a 
 jury, they heard and determined disputes about property, 
 claims for service and for wages, complaints of assault, 
 and all the miscellaneous controversies which social life 
 creates. They apprenticed orphans, and enforced the good 
 treatment of apprentices and other servants. They pun- 
 ished slanderers, runaways, libertines, drunkards, and dis- 
 turbers of the peace, by fines and whipping. They as- 
 signed lands for cultivation and for permanent possession, 
 and apportioned from year to year the common meadow 
 grounds for mowing. They superintended the probate of 
 wills and administration on estates. They took order for 
 the building and maintenance of fences and highways. 
 They regulated commerce by restrictions upon the export 
 of necessary articles. They made rules for the alewife 
 and herring fishery, and for hunting and fowling. They 
 prescribed bounties for the destruction of hurtful animals, 
 and defined damages for trespasses by cattle, and for in- 
 jury by fires. They provided for the sealing of the meas- 
 ures used in trade. They established the pay of jurors, 
 and restricted entertainment in public houses. And they 
 gave diligent heed to arrangements for the military de- 
 fence of the Colony.^ 
 
 1 One of the minutes is curious, as 2 " Whereas our ancient work of for- 
 indicatiiig the value of real estate at tification by continuance of time is de- 
 Plymouth in the second decade : "1G33, cayed, and Christian wisdom teacheth 
 Oct. 7. Richard Higgins hath bought us to depend upon God in the use of 
 of Thomas Litde 'lis now [present] dwell- all good means for our safety, it is fur- 
 ing-house and misted [homestead ?], for ther agreed by the Court aforesaid, that 
 and in consideration of twenty-one a work of fortification be made .... by 
 bushels of merchantable corn, whereof the whole strength of men able to labor 
 twelve bushels to be paid in hand, and in the Colony." (Plym. Col. Rec, I. 6.) 
 the remainder at harvest next ensuing." At the same Court (January 1, 1633), 
 (Plym. Col. Ilec, I. 16 ; comp. 33.) it was " further ordered, that every free^
 
 344 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAKD. [Book I. 
 
 At the lime of Prince's accession, a colonial tax of 
 fifty-eight pounds and seventeen shillings was assessed on 
 Taxational sovcnty-seven men and four women.^ This fact 
 Plymouth. ^y-^Yi not warrant any precise inference respecting 
 the amount of the adult male population, inasmuch as 
 there can be no doubt that there were servants and others 
 who were exempt, and, indeed, names of men occur in the 
 Court-Orders which do not appear on the tax-list. The 
 list of the next preceding year, the earliest which is ex- 
 tant, contains the names of eighty-six men and three 
 women.^ When the Court- Orders registry was 
 begun, the freemen were sixty-eight in number.^ 
 
 While Plymouth was advancing in its slow and quiet 
 growth, the younger but more robust Massachusetts set- 
 tlement was engaged with high questions of policy. The 
 charter of the Massachusetts Company had prescribed no 
 condition of investment with its franchise, — or with what 
 under the circumstances which had arisen was the same 
 thing, the prerogatives of citizenship in the plantation, — 
 except the will and vote of those who were already free- 
 
 1C31 men. At the first Cisatlantic General Court for 
 
 May 18. elcctiou, " to the end the body of the commons 
 
 man or other inhabitant of this Colony Bradford, Brewster, and five others 
 
 provide for himself, and each under whose names are not historical, paid 
 
 him able to bear arms, a sufficient mus- each £1.7; and Ilowland, Alden, and 
 
 ket and other serviceable piece for war, Jonathan Brewster, each £1.4. It is 
 
 with bandeleroes, and other appurte- matter of some surprise to see Standish 
 
 nance, with what speed may be; and rated in both years at only £0. 18. 
 
 that, for each able person aforesaid, he But perhaps this was in consideration 
 
 be at all times furnished with two of his public services. Collier, one of 
 
 pounds of powder, and ten pounds of the two on whom the largest assessment 
 bullet." was made, had lately arrived, and had 
 1 Plym. Col. Rcc, I. 27-29. — The been admitted to the franchise in the 
 lowest rate, nine shillings, was that of preceding January. He had been one 
 forty-five persons, including the four of the London Adventurers. (Brad- 
 women, who were all widows. The largest ford, 201, 213.) lie had now come 
 sum (£ 2. 5) was assessed on p]dward over to reside, and was henceforward 
 Winslow and on William Collier ; the one of the most important men in the 
 ne.xt largest (£ 1 . 1 G), on Isaac Allerton, Colony. 
 
 who, the year before, had been assessed ^ Plym. Col. Rec, I. 9-11. 
 £3.11. Stephen Hopkins paid £ 1 . 10. 3 Jbid., 3, 4.
 
 Chap. IX.] MASSACHUSETTS. 345 
 
 may be preserved of honest and good men," it was " or- 
 dered and agreed, that, for the time to come, no „ ,. . 
 
 O ' ' ' Religious 
 
 man shall be admitted to the freedom of this test for the 
 
 franchise. 
 
 body politic, but such as are members of some 
 of the churches within the limits of the same." ^ 
 
 The men who laid this singular foundation for the 
 commonwealth which they were instituting, had been 
 accustomed to feel responsibility, and to act upon well- 
 considered reasons. By charter from the English crown, 
 the land was theirs as against all other civilized people, 
 and they had a right to choose according to their own rules 
 the associates who should help them to occupy and govern 
 it. Exercising this right, they determined that magistracy 
 and citizenship should belong only to Christian men, as- 
 certained to be such by the best test which they knew 
 how to apply. They established a kind of aristocracy 
 hitherto unknown. Not birth, nor wealth, nor learning, 
 nor skill in war, was to confer political power ; but per- 
 sonal character, — goodness of the highest type, — good- 
 ness of that purity and force which only the faith of 
 Jesus Christ is competent to create. 
 
 The conception, if a delusive and impracticable, was a 
 noble one. Nothing better can be imagined for the wel- 
 fare of a country than that it shall be ruled on Christian 
 principles ; in other words, that its rulers shall be Chris- 
 tian men, — men of disinterestedness and integrity of the 
 choicest quality that the world knows, — men whose fear 
 of God exalts them above every other fear, and whose con- 
 trolling love of God and of man consecrates them to the 
 most generous aims." The conclusive objection to the 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 87. same. Their liberties, among others, 
 
 2 " None are so fit to be trusted with are chiefly these : — 1 . To choose all 
 the liberties of the commonwealth as magistrates, and to call them to account 
 church-members; for the liberties of at the. General Courts; 2. To choose 
 the freemen of this commonwealth are such burgesses, every General Court, 
 such as require men of faithful integrity as, with the magistrates, shall make or 
 to God and the state, to preserve the repeal all laws. Now both these liber-
 
 346 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 scheme is one which experience had not yet revealed, for 
 the experiment was now first made. ( It is, that the scheme 
 is incapable of being carried out, because there are no 
 tests of religious sincerity which will guard the weak 
 judgment of man against erroi;. / AVhen power is appro- 
 priated to the religious character, the external signs of 
 the religious character will be aftected by the insincere 
 and undeserving. Hypocrisy will manage to pass the 
 barrier designed to turn back all but eminent virtue. A 
 test of this nature may exclude scandalous vices, but cer- 
 tainly not the common workings of selfishness and passion. 
 A trial will be sure to prove that such a project is but a 
 generous dream. A government so constituted will not 
 fail, before long, to show itself subject to the operation of 
 the same disturbing causes as afi"ect other forms of polity, 
 through the frailty of those by whom they arc adminis- 
 tered. 
 
 Regarded in another point of view, the plan was at 
 once less novel and more feasible. It has been no unusual 
 thing for communities to regard the common welfare as 
 requiring the exclusion from political trusts of persons 
 professing spiritual subjection to a foreign power. It is 
 only within a few years that the old realm of England has 
 felt strong enough to dispense with this security ; and a 
 numerous party has lately arisen in America to insist that 
 its institution is needful for the maintenance of freedom on 
 this continent. O^hen the fathers of Massachusetts estab- 
 lished their religious test of citizenship^ it was matter of 
 fearful uncertainty what the faith and ritual of the Church 
 of England would turn out to be. It was too painfully 
 certain what had been the Church's treatment of themselves, 
 and how hardly, without any further backsliding of its 
 own, it Mas prepared to treat them again, should it come 
 
 ties are eudi as carry along niiicli pow- " Answer to Lord Say and Sele, Lord 
 cr with tlicm, citlicr to est;il)li.sli or sub- Unjoki", and other PcM-sons of (Quality/ 
 vert the commonwealth." (John Cotton, iu Hutchinson, L 430.)
 
 Chap. IX.] MASSACHUSETTS. 347 
 
 into power on their own soil. They were in error in sup- 
 posing that, by the apphcation of a religious test, they 
 could exclude all but good men from their counsels. They 
 were not so far from the truth, when they expected, by the 
 application of such a test, to shut out from their counsels 
 the emissaries of Wentworth and Laud ; and, in their early 
 weakness, nothing was more indispensable than this for 
 their protection. They had lately set up a religious pol- 
 ity. The hopes and aims with which they had established 
 it were of vital consequence to them. They knew that they 
 could not maintain it, and the momentous interests, civil 
 and religious, with Avhich it seemed to them connected, 
 should the council-chambers of their infant community 
 admit the creatures of the English court and church. 
 
 The special circumstances of the time at which this 
 condition of franchise was imposed, were probably thought 
 to call for a prompt decision. Till then, there had been 
 no freemen of the Company except those who had become 
 such in England, and might be supposed to be solicitous 
 to promote the generous objects of its institution. At 
 its first Cisatlantic meeting, more than a hun- 1530. 
 dred persons had presented themselves as candi- °"" ^^• 
 dates for admission. An irruption of strangers was im- 
 pending, and it could not fail to be a subject of grave 
 anxiety to those now in possession of the power, what 
 would be the character and purposes of associates who, 
 once received into the Corporation, would be able to con- 
 trol its action, and to carry out or defeat the designs for 
 which it had been formed, and had been conducted hith- 
 erto at great cost and sacrifice. The social elements al- 
 ready collected on the spot were very diverse. What 
 method should dispose them for harmonious and be- 
 neficent action ? --<Among those to be now received were 
 not a few " old planters," doubtfully sympathizing in the 
 views of the more public-spirited new-comers, and not 
 improbably cherishing the recent grudge, and so prepared
 
 348 IITSTOUY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 for faction. Oldham's disturbing practices at Plymouth 
 could not have been unknown, and he had just been dis- 
 puting the title of the Company to its lands. Men of 
 condition, like Blaxton, Maverick, Jeffries, and Burslem, 
 had a similar adverse interest. Edward Gibbons, lately 
 parted from the irregular adventurers at Blount WoUas- 
 tou, Mas as yet a suspicious friend. Others, like Coles 
 and Wignall, who soon afterwards gave trouble,^ may 
 have been already regarded with distrust. How many like 
 Morton of Merry-Mount there might prove to be among 
 the yet untried multitude, or of the class of the Brownes 
 and others who in the last two years had tasked the pru- 
 dence and vigor of Endicott, it was still for time to dis- 
 close ; and it was the office of a wise forethought, to 
 provide some security against damage from them to the 
 public weal. From such as, on due advisement, should 
 be admitted into covenant with the church, some security 
 would be obtained. Sincere professors would be earnest 
 fellow-workers in the great enterprise; insincere profes- 
 sors, if there were such, would be hampered and re- 
 strained. 
 
 A hundred and eighteen persons took the freeman's 
 oath, and were admitted to the franchise.- Winthrop 
 
 1C31. ^^'^^ re-elected Governor, " by the general consent 
 wimhmjf' of the Court, within the meaning of the patent,"^ 
 and Dudley Dudlcy bciug again associated with him in the 
 second office. 
 
 1 Mas-s. Col. Pvc-o., I. 90, 91,9.1, 107. OUiors did so subsequently. It must 
 
 2 It would be interesting to ascertain be remembered that the rule of May 
 what proportion of these new freemen 18, 1C31, was prospective. 
 
 were cliurch-members, but the imper- 3 This language is ambiguous. It 
 
 fection of the early records of the may be interpreted to mean that the 
 
 churches prevents a precise answer to vote passed in October for the choice 
 
 this question. An examination of the of the Governor by the Assistants had, 
 
 list of tlie freemen admitted at this time on roHection, not met with aj)proval, 
 
 leads to the conclusion, that perhaps and that, notwithstanding that Aote, the 
 
 three quarters of them, certainly as method prescribed by the charter, of a 
 
 many na one half, had previously con- choice by the freemen, was now fol- 
 
 ncctcd themselves with some church, lowed. But I think the words " within
 
 Chap. IX] MASSACHUSETTS. 349 
 
 Down to this time, and a little longer, while the free- 
 men were without much mutual acquaintance, and so 
 without preparation either for administration of the gov- 
 ernment or for combined resistance to encroachment on 
 their charter rights, the Assistants appear to have been 
 consolidating power in their own hands. As at 
 
 ^ Permanency 
 
 the first General Court it had been determined to <'fiiio(ffire 
 transfer the power of choosing the Governor and 
 Deputy-Governor from the freemen to the Assistants, at 
 the second it was determined, "with full consent of all 
 the commons then present, that once in every year, at 
 least, a General Court shall be holden, at which Court it 
 shall be lawful for the commons to propound any person 
 or persons whom they shall desire to be chosen Assistants ; 
 and, if it be doubtful whether it be the greater part of the 
 commons or not, it shall be put to the poll ; the like 
 course to be holden when the said commons shall see 
 cause, for any defect or misbehavior, to remove any one 
 or more of the Assistants."^ In the form of a grant of 
 privileges to the freemen, this was clearly a substitution 
 of the invidious and difficult process of removal for the 
 irresponsible freedom of that annual election de novo 
 which was contemplated by the charter. And, accord- 
 ingly, there is no record of an election of Assistants this 
 year. Without doubt, as many of the old Assistants as 
 remained in the country retained their office ; and so far 
 a precedent w^as created for their permanent continuance 
 in power. 
 
 The plan of establishing the capital at Xcwtown was 
 relinquished. The site had been laid out, with lines for 
 a fortification, and streets at right angles; the Difference 
 
 ..., IT- M^ • between 
 
 Deputy-Governor had established him self m a wmthrop 
 newly-built house ; and the Governor had set up '""' ""'"^^' 
 
 the meaning 0^ i\iQ patent" rather de- instrument, thoi:gh not to its letter, 
 
 note that the election was now made The early formal repeal of the rule of 
 
 in the manner lately decided on, which election of October, 1630, will be men- 
 
 the Court and its Secretary considered tioned in its place (below, p. 354). 
 
 to be agreeable to the spirit of that ^ Mass. Col. Kec, I. 87. 
 VOL. I. 30
 
 350 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 the frame of one ; when the tranquil aspect of relations with 
 the natives seemed to render a concentration of the Colony 
 less important, the superior advantages of the neighboring 
 peninsula for residence and commerce had made themselves 
 apparent, and Winthrop at last resolved to yield to the 
 importunity of his neighbors, who urged him to remain 
 in Boston. Dudley conceived a displeasure, which the 
 Governor was not immediately able to pacify by the most 
 friendly overtures. 
 
 (^In another quarter, an ecclesiastical question threatened 
 discord. It was reported that Phillips and Brown, the 
 Religious pastor and the elder of Watertown, had spoken 
 vvTtenown. of " tlio churches of Rome " as " true churches." 
 July 21. Winthrop, Dudley, and Xowell visited the place 
 to make inquiry. " The doctrine was debated before a 
 number of members of the Boston and Watertown congre- 
 gations, and, against a minority of only three, was voted to 
 be an error/' But the matter was not put at rest till after 
 
 a second visit of the same dimitaries. Brown 
 
 Dec. 8. . . ^ . , . , . , 
 
 appears to have been pertmacious m his heretical 
 
 laxity. The final issue was, that, " after much debate, at 
 length they were reconciled, and agreed to seek God in a 
 day of humiliation, and so to have a solemn uniting, each 
 party promising to reform what had been amiss ; and the 
 pastor gave thanks to God, and the assembly t)rake vqD."/ 
 It may be presumed that the importance attached to this 
 matter was incident to the political relations which were 
 understood to be involved. If church-members, who were 
 rulers in Massachusetts, should esteem the church of 
 Home a true church, where would be the safety of Massa- 
 chusetts should England become Catholic ] Thus out of 
 political exigencies a union of church and state in Massa- 
 chusetts was already dawning. 
 
 A movement of the Tarratine Indians occasioned a mo- 
 mentary uneasiness. A hundred of these people 
 came up the Merrimack in canoes by night, and, 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 58, 07.
 
 Chap. IX.] MASSACHUSETTS. 351 
 
 killing several of the friendly natives, stole down as far 
 as Saugus, whence they retraced their steps, terrified by 
 a discharge of the English alarm-guns.^ This was the first 
 disturbance from the natives in the new Colony. 
 
 At the same time with those measures of permanent 
 administration which have been mentioned, minute regula- 
 tions of police engaged the attention of the great council 
 of freemen. A ferry was established between Winnisim- 
 met and Charlestown. A uniform standard w^as appointed 
 for weights and measures. A prohibition was issued 
 against the unlicensed killing of " wild swine." Fines 
 were imposed on individuals for refusing or neglecting 
 " to watch," and memoranda of private agreements were 
 placed upon record.^ As the social system proceeded to 
 take form, the business conducted by the Assist- j^„^ 14. 
 
 ants of course extended more into detail. The hire f'""'ie'- pro- 
 ceedings of 
 
 of servants by any other than " a settled house- '^e Assist- 
 
 '' •' ants. 
 
 keeper," was ordered to be for not less time than 
 a year. No person was to leave the jurisdiction, by sea 
 or land, or to buy provisions from any vessel, without per- 
 mission from some magistrate. Philip Ratclifie was sen- 
 tenced to " be whipped, have his ears cut off", fined forty 
 shillings, and banished out of the limits of the jurisdic- 
 tion, for uttering malicious and scandalous speeches 
 against the government and the church of Salem," 
 Chickatabot, the Neponset sachem, was " fined a skin of 
 beaver for shooting a swine of Sir Richard Saltonstall's." ^ 
 An assessment of thirty pounds was levied on ten 
 
 •^ . July 5. 
 
 plantations, for " the making of the creek at the 
 
 NeAV Town twelve foot broad and seven foot deep." All 
 
 1 Winthrop, 59. — Hubbard, Chap, liim "indemnity for the past and secu- 
 XXV. — Johnson, Wonder- Working rity for the future," was milder than the 
 Providence, Chap. XXV. last resort of kings, and more advanta- 
 
 2 Mass. Col. Rec., I. 87. geous to both parties; and its principle 
 
 3 Chickatabot was no subject of the was the same as that of contrihutions 
 Enijlish. But the course, which on a levied upon foreign aggressors, or the 
 small scale they took, to obtain from issue o? letters of reprisal.
 
 352 HISTORY or new England. [Book i. 
 
 islands within the patent were to be held in trust by the 
 magistrates, to provide a revenue for public uses. Assist- 
 ants were empowered " to grant warrants, summons, and 
 attachments, as occasion should require." The sagamore 
 of Agawam was " banished from coming into any English 
 house for the space of a year, under the penalty of ten skins 
 of beaver." The time for burning over " ground 
 
 July 2G. . 
 
 for corn " was prescribed. Charlestown and liox- 
 bury were required to furnish part of the night-watch of 
 Boston. A day in every month was appointed for " a 
 general training of Captain Underhill's company at Bos- 
 ton and Roxbury," and another for " the training of them 
 who inhabit at Charlestown, Mystic, and the New Town, 
 the training to begin at one of the clock of the 
 
 afternoon." Offenders were fined " for abusing 
 
 Aug. Ifi. ... , 
 
 themselves disorderly with drinking too much 
 strong drink." Henry Lyon was " whipped and banished 
 
 the plantation, for writing into England falsely 
 
 and maliciously against the government and exe- 
 cution of justice here," and John Dawe was "severely 
 whipped" for tempting the chastity of an Indian woman. 
 
 Josias Plastowe, " for stealinc: four baskets of 
 
 Sept. 27. ^ 
 
 corn from the Indians," was ordered to make 
 twofold restitution, to pay a fine of " five pounds, and 
 hereafter to be called by the name of Josias, and not Jij*., 
 as formerly he used to be." The price of boards was 
 
 fixed. Adultery was made punishable with 
 
 Oct. 18. •' .1111 
 
 death. Corn was constituted a legal tender at 
 the market price, " except money or beaver be expressly 
 named." It was ordered, " that no planter, within the 
 limits of this jurisdiction, returning for England, 
 shall tarry either money or beaver with him, 
 without leave from the Governor, under pain of forfeiting" 
 the property ; that Courts of Assistants " shall be held 
 every first Tuesday in every month," instead of once in 
 three weeks, as heretofore ; and that, " if any single per- 
 
 ic3a 
 
 March C.
 
 Chap. IX.] MASSACHUSETTS. 353 
 
 son be not provided of sufficient arms allowable by the 
 
 captain or lieutenants, he shall be compelled to 
 
 serve by the year w^ith any master that will retain hini, 
 for such wages as the Court shall think meet to appoint." 
 "Thomas Knower was set in the bilboes for 
 
 April 3. 
 
 threatening the Court that, if he should be pun- 
 ished, he would have it tried in England whether he 
 was lawfully punished or not." ^ So minute and so multi- 
 farious were the cares of the primeval magistrates of Mas- 
 sachusetts Bay. 
 
 The plan of fortifying Newtown had not been aban- 
 doned when it ceased to be thought of as the capital 
 town; and a tax of sixty pounds to defray the 
 expense was levied on twelve jDlantations. On -rl^ftM^..^ 
 the reception at Watertown of the warrant for t-i^eJ ''y the 
 
 . Assistants. 
 
 payment of the proportion of this tax due from 
 
 that town, " the pastor and elder, &c. assembled Discontent at 
 
 ... . Watertown. 
 
 the people, and delivered their opinion that it was 
 not safe to pay moneys after that sort, for fear of bringing 
 themselves and posterity into bondage." It was the Eng- 
 lish jealousy of taxation imagined to be illegal. Water- 
 town had paid its proportion of two general taxes before ; 
 but one had been for the stipend of the two captains 
 charged with the common defence, the other for the sup- 
 port of two ministers, of whom Watertown had one," while 
 the present appropriation might be alleged to be for a 
 local object, in which that town was but little interested. 
 The malecontents, summoned to Boston, were in- 
 formed by Winthrop that " this government was 
 in the nature of a Parliament, and that no Assistant could 
 be chosen but by the freemen, who had power likewise to 
 remove the Assistants, and put in others " ; whereupon 
 they were " fully satisfied," and " their oifence was par- 
 doned, a recantation and submission under their hands " 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 88-95. 2 ibid., 77, 82. 
 
 30*
 
 354 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 having been first made, which they " were enjoined to 
 read in the assembly the next Lord's day." ^ 
 
 At the next General Court, the freemen resumed the 
 right of making a direct election of their two highest 
 
 j^jaj. 9 magistrates. " It was generally agreed upon, by 
 
 The freemen ei-gptiou of liands, that the Governor, Deputy- 
 resume the ' 1. J 
 
 right of eiec- Govomor, and Assistants should be chosen by 
 a|ip<!int Dep- the wholo Court of Governor, Deputy-Governor, 
 Assistants, and freemen," though the freemen ac- 
 quiesced in a limitation of the power which they pos- 
 sessed by their charter, when they added a provision 
 " that the Governor shall always be chosen out of the 
 Assistants," which can only be understood as relating to 
 the Assistants of the next preceding year. At the same 
 time, they took the further important step of ordering 
 the choice of " two of every plantation to confer with 
 the Court about raising a public stock," a measure which 
 proved to be the germ of a second house of legislature. 
 Neither of these movements appears to have been opposed 
 by the Magistrates, though the former, at least, did not 
 take them by surprise ; - and for the latter, it would seem, 
 they must have been equally j^repared, for the charter 
 gave no power to the Assistants to assess even the free- 
 men, still less to lay taxes on others living on the Com- 
 pany's lands.^ The recent opposition at Watertown had 
 been lawful and reasonable, and, however apparently 
 checked, may be presumed to have been neither subdued 
 in that spot, nor confined to it. The list of sixteen dep- 
 uties from the eight towns, " to advise about the raising of 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 70. of the As?istants, but lio continued stiff 
 
 2 Winthrop told them, a week before, in his opinion, and protested he would 
 that he had heard of the freemen's in- then return back into England." (Win- 
 tention to repeal the rule made at the first throp, I. 74 ) 
 
 General Court (see above, p. 322), at 3 The Assistants, at their next Court, 
 
 which "Mr. Ludlow grew into passion, laid a duty of a shilling on every pound 
 
 and said that then we should have of beaver bought of an Indian, "to- 
 
 no government." The proceeding was Avards the defraying of public charges." 
 
 "cleared in the judgment of the rest (Mass. Col. Rec, L 5)G.)
 
 Chap. IX.] MASSACHUSETTS. 355 
 
 a common stock," is suggestive. It appears to comprise 
 the elements of a party of opposition to the Magistrates. 
 Oldham, from Watertown, was an active and able man, 
 disaffected towards the existing state of things. His col- 
 league, Masters, had been conspicuous in the late move- 
 ment in Mr. Phillips's church, and was still contumacious.^ 
 Edward Gibbons, of Charlestown, had been of the company 
 at Merry-Mount. Conant and Palfrey, of Salem, were of 
 the "old planters" there, over whom the charter officers 
 had assumed control. Robert Coles, of Roxbury, unless 
 there were two of the same name, was a person con- 
 stantly coming under the censure of the Magistrates. 
 
 It was from no discontent with their rulers, but from 
 just sensibility as to their charter rights, that the freemen 
 had vindicated their own prerogative of election. Their 
 vote placed Winthrop and Dudley again in the highest 
 offices, and re-elected the Assistants, adding to them John 
 Humphrey and William Coddington,^ their ancient asso- 
 ciates, who were expected from England, and John Win- 
 throp, the Governor's son, who had lately arrived. " The 
 Governor, among other things, used this speech to winthrop 
 the people, after he had taken his oath : ' That he ll"ewe '° 
 had received gratuities from divers towns, which p"^^^^"'^- 
 he received with much comfort and content ; he had also 
 received many kindnesses from particular persons, which 
 he would not refuse, lest he should be accounted uncour- 
 teous, &c. ; but he professed that he received them with 
 a trembling heart, in regard of God's rule, and the con- 
 sciousness of his own infirmity, and therefore desired 
 them that hereafter they would not take it ill, if he did 
 refuse presents from particular persons, except they were 
 from the Assistants, or from some special friends.' To 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 81. person of that name who had been so 
 
 2 Coddington had gone to England active in the business of the Colony 
 a year before. (See above, p. 328.) from the first. (See above, pp. 287, 
 John Humphrey was the distinguished 302, 317.)
 
 356 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Book L 
 
 "which no answer was made ; but he was told after, that 
 many good people were much grieved at it, for that he 
 never had any allowance towards the charge of his place." 
 It was a natural and amiable feeling on the part of the 
 " good people." But Winthrop's thorough uprightness 
 made him incapable of being cheated by any such fallacy. 
 Even without the fate of the Great Chancellor fresh in 
 his memory, his was a spirit capable of feeling the dan- 
 ger and the ignominy of the reception of private gifts by 
 a public servant. 
 
 Dudley " accepted of his place again, and, the Governor 
 and he being reconciled the day before, all things were 
 carried very lovingly amongst all." ^ It was not without a 
 conflict with himself that Dudley came to this decision. 
 His disgust had been so serious, that, as his second year of 
 office was drawing to an end, he had sent to 
 
 Aprils. . ^ . . 
 
 the Assistants a letter of resignation. At a pri- 
 vate meeting they refused to accept it, but he 
 persisted in his purpose for the present." The 
 reader is tempted to wonder, that causes so trivial should 
 have disturbed a man with cares and aims so comprehen- 
 sive and generous. But such are the inconsistencies of 
 human nature ; and occasions no more dignified have in- 
 volved passionate monarchs in war, and changed the his- 
 tory of nations. 
 
 A fortification was erected in Boston, men of the 
 
 neighboring towns laboring on it in succession.^ Several 
 
 ^^^ vessels arrived with passengers and stock, the 
 
 Arrivals from cmiOTation, tliouffh not yet renewed with activity, 
 
 England. *^ ' ^. ^ . t n 
 
 bcnig more considerable than in the year before. 
 A day of thank sofiving was kept for their safe 
 
 June 13. -^ & & 1 
 
 passage, and for the intelligence which they 
 brought of the prosperity of the Protestant interest in 
 the successes of Gustavus Adolphus against the Emperor. 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 7G. 3 u Qn the Corn Hill " ; probably 
 
 2 Ibid., 72, 73. that since known as Fort Hill.
 
 Chap. IX.] ^lASSACHUSETTS. 357 
 
 Wilson returned to liis parochial charge in Boston. 
 John Eliot,^ destined to win the name oi Apostle, 
 had arrived there in the preceding autumn, since which 
 time he had supplied Wilson's place. After an earnest 
 struggle on the part of the Boston people to retain him 
 as their teacher, a church was organized in Roxbury under 
 his ministry and that of Thomas Welde, who had come 
 a week after AVilson's return ; and the Deputy-Governor 
 removed from Newtown to place himself under their 
 spiritual charge. A company from Braintree in 
 England sat down at Mount Wollaston, but be- 
 fore long, in conformity to an order of the Magistrates, 
 removed to Newtown.^ 
 
 Wilson's return was soon followed by a gratifying in- 
 cident. By his good offices, and those of Mr. Welde, Mr. 
 Nowell, and the Dorchester ministers, a better un- September. 
 derstanding was established between the Governor Reconciiia- 
 and the Deputy-Governor. They had continued wimhrop 
 to meet each other, on occasions of business, with ^^'^ ^"'"ey- 
 the usual reciprocations of courtesy, and "without any ap- 
 pearance of any breach or discontent." But Dudley, who 
 had a stubborn temper, had been deeply offended by the 
 Governor s course in relation to the settlement at Newtown, 
 and had hitherto received coldly the overtures for an ac- 
 commodation which the generosity of the other party perse- 
 vered in making. A conference between them, in 
 the presence of their friends who have been named, 
 was " begun with calling upon the Lord." Dudley opened 
 his private grievances, and added strictures on the public 
 
 1 Eliot was now in the twenty-eighth other Puritans at the time, he arrived 
 year of his age. His birthplace is not in Boston, November 3, 1631. His 
 known. He was graduated in 1622 election to be teacher of its church ore- 
 as Bachelor of Arts, at Jesus College, ates a presumption against the tradition 
 Cambridge, and was afterwards assist- that it was in compliment to Cotton, 
 ant to Thomas Hooker (presently to be whom they are said to have been ex- 
 mentioned) in a private school near pecting, that the emigrants gave the 
 Chelmsfoi'd, in Essex. Leaving England name of Bostoji to their chief town, 
 from the same motives which Impelled ^ Winthrop, I. 87.
 
 358 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 administration; and the Governor partly justified his con- 
 duct, and partly " acknowledged himself faulty." A dis- 
 cussion took place, in which " they both fell into bitter- 
 ness"; after which, "the meeting breaking up without any 
 other conclusion but the commending the success of it by 
 prayer to the Lord, the Governor brought the Deputy 
 onward of his way, and every man went to his own home." 
 The censure of the arbiters appears to have been limited 
 to the injury which Dudley had received from the Gov- 
 ernor's not fixing his residence at the place which had 
 been understood to be agreed upon. " The ministers 
 afterward, for an end of the difi'erence, or- 
 
 Sept. 4. • ' 
 
 dered that the Governor should procure them a 
 minister at Newtown, and contribute somewhat towards 
 his maintenance for a time; or, if he could not, by the 
 spring, effect that, then to give the Deputy, towards his 
 charges in building there, twenty pounds." Dudley im- 
 mediately returned the money, " with this reason to Mr. 
 Wilson, that he was so well persuaded of the Governor's 
 love to him, and did prize it so much, as, if they had 
 given him one hundred pounds instead of twenty pounds, 
 he would not have taken it." And the good men " ever 
 after kept peace and good correspondency together, in 
 love and friendship,"-^ their alliance being subsequently 
 cemented by an intermarriage of their children. 
 
 A transaction of material interest to the Colony, as well 
 as to Wilson's religious charge, took place a few months 
 _. . . , after his return. His church, originally formed 
 
 Division of ' o .< 
 
 the Boston at Charlcstowu, had soon transferred itself for 
 
 church. 
 
 worship to the opposite peninsula, where the 
 greater part of its members gradually settled. The 
 portion left behind, thirty-three in number, finding the 
 passage over the river inconvenient in bad weather, and 
 having opportunity to secure the services of a minister 
 of their own, it was determined that they should con- 
 
 1 Wintlirop, I. 82-80, 88, 89.
 
 Chap. IX.] MASSACHUSETTS. 859 
 
 stitute a separate congregation. Mr. James, recently ar- 
 rived from England, was placed in charfje of it, 
 while Mr. Wilson, who had hitherto been teacher 
 of the original church, was now chosen to be its 
 
 . Nov. 22. 
 
 pastor, and a meeting-house was built for him 
 at what was thought a liberal expense.^ Following the 
 manner used at Salem for the induction of Higginson and 
 Skelton to office, Wilson, and Oliver, his ruling elder, as- 
 sisted by two deacons, prayed for each other mutually 
 with imposition of hands. 
 
 Boston was taking the character of the capital town. 
 It was "thought by general consent" to be "the fittest 
 place for public rneetings of any place in the Town of 
 Bay." ~ Blaxton's claim from pre-occupancy was ^''^'™- 
 quieted by " fifty acres of ground set out for him near to 
 his house in Boston, to enjoy for ever."^ It was "ordered 
 that there should be a market kept at Boston, upon every 
 Thursday, the fifth day of the week." ^ The Assistants 
 directed the building of a house of correction 
 there for the Colony's use, and of a dwelling-house 
 for a beadle.^ Boston now contains a population of a hun- 
 dred and seventy thousand souls. The property of its citi- 
 zens equals two hundred and sixty millions of dollars. Its 
 imports in a recent year amounted to nearly forty- 
 five millions of dollars, its exports to more than 
 twenty-eight millions, and its shipping to nearly half a 
 million of tons.*^ Its citizens tax themselves annually 
 more than two millions of dollars, of which amount one 
 
 1 It is said to have had mud walls 3 Ibid., 104. 
 and a thatched roof. It stood on the ^ Ibid., 112. 
 south side of State Street, probably at ^ Ibid., 100. 
 
 the easterly corner which it makes with ^ Report of the Secretary of the 
 
 Devonshire Street. (Mass. Hist. Coll., Treasury on the Commerce and Navi- 
 
 IV. 189 ) " For which [the meeting- gation of the United States for the 
 
 house] and Mr. Wilson's house, they Year ending June 30, 1857, pp. 324, 
 
 had made a voluntary contribution of 868, 486, 620. The exact amounts 
 
 about one hundi'ed and twenty pounds." were as follows; namely, imports, 
 
 (Winthrop, I. 87.) S 44,840,083 ; exports, $28,326,918; 
 
 2 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 101. shipping, 447,996 tons.
 
 3G0 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 seventh part goes to the support of public schools. A 
 partial collation of the facts belonging to the subject, 
 made at the end of the first forty-five years of the present 
 century, exhibits a result of voluntary contributions of 
 citizens of Boston within that time to purposes of educa- 
 tion and charity, and some similar miscellaneous objects of 
 public usefulness, amounting to not less than five millions 
 of dollars.^ Boston, when its first meeting-house was 
 building, showed only a few cabins, on the eastern decliv- 
 ity, and at the foot, of a hill which sloped towards the sea. 
 At high water, its primitive area, of about two square 
 miles, looked like two islands. A drawbridge was soon 
 thrown across the narrow channel which separated them, 
 and nature had provided for their connection with the 
 mainland by a narrow isthmus, a mile in length. The 
 uneven surface was divided among thiiee hills, since known 
 by the names of Beacon Hill, Fort Hill, and Copp's Hill, 
 with their intervening valleys. Beacon PI ill was a con- 
 spicuous object from the sea and the surrounding coun 
 try, its highest peak rising to an elevation of a hundred 
 and eighty feet above the water.^ 
 
 1 American Almanac, XVII. 163, return shortly." (Ibkl, Pref.) On the 
 
 2 The greatest length of the penin- opposite page is a fac-dmile, on a re- 
 sula of Boston, from Eoxbury line to ducedscale,ofa map prefixed to his book, 
 the M-ater, is a little over two miles and "Boston," he says (37, 38), "is 
 three quarters; its greatest width, a little two miles northeast from Roxberry. 
 over one mile. It contained about seven His situation is very pleasant, being 
 hundred acres o'" land, before it was en- a peninsula, hemmed in on the south 
 larged by embankments. The follow- side with the bay of Boxberry, on 
 ing description of it, as it appeared in the north side with Charly River, the 
 1G33, is from "New England's Pros- marches on the back side being not 
 pect," by William Wood, published at half a quarter of a mile over; so that 
 London in 1G34. Nothing, I believe, is a litUe fencing will secure their cattle 
 known of Wood, except that, in August, from the wolves. Their greatest wants 
 1C33, (New England's Prospfect, 38,; be wood and meadow-ground, which 
 he left this country, where, he says in never were in that place, being con- 
 his Preface, he had "lived these four strained to fetch their building tini- 
 years." It is probable, therefore, that ber and firewood from the islands in 
 lie came over with Iligginson's fleet, boats and their hay in lighters. It be- 
 " Tiie end of his travel Avas obscrva- ing a neck, and bare of wood, they arc 
 tion" (Ibid., 47), and he " intended to not troubled with three great annoy-
 
 The Soutlipartof NewEn^land as it is 
 Planted this yeare,l634. 

 
 Chap. IX.] 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 361 
 
 The colonists had few natives in their vicinity, and they 
 had little opportunity to acquaint themselves with the 
 more formidable tribes of the interior. A Narragansett 
 chief, named Miantonomo, destined afterwards to visit of a 
 act a conspicuous part in this history, came to s^ichem!"'*" 
 Boston with his wife and several attendants, -'^"s-^--'^- 
 The Governor " brought the sachem and the rest of 
 the company to his house, and made much of them, 
 which he seemed to be well pleased with"; but he was 
 " with some difficulty " induced to chastise three of his fol- 
 lowers, Avho had broken into a dwelling.^ Nothing took 
 place to indicate the design of his visit, but it was thought 
 soon after that there were symptoms of general disaffec- 
 tion on the part of the natives. Those in the neighbor- 
 hood of the settlements made quarrels about the Alarm from 
 bounds of their lands, and ceased to visit the '"^ Indians. 
 English houses as had been their custom. The Narra- 
 
 ances, of wolves, rattlesnakes, and mos- 
 quitos. Those that live here upon their 
 cattle must be constrained to take farms 
 in the country, or else they cannot sub- 
 sist ; the place being too small to con- 
 tain many, and fittest for such as can 
 trade into England for such commodi- 
 ties as the country wants, being the 
 chief place for shipping and merchan- 
 dise. This neck of land is not above 
 four miles in compass ; in form almost 
 square, having on the south side, at one 
 corner, a great broad hill, whereon is 
 planted a fort, which can command any 
 ship as she sails into any harbor within 
 the still bay. On the north side is an- 
 other hill, equal in bigness, whereon 
 stands a windmill. To the northwest 
 is a high mountain, with three little 
 rising hills on the top of it; wherefore 
 it is called the Tramount. From the 
 top of this mountain a man may over- 
 look all the islands which lie before the 
 bay, and descry such ships as are upon 
 the sea-coast. This town, although it 
 be neither the greatest nor the richest, 
 VOL. I. 31 
 
 yet it is the most noted and frequented, 
 being the centre of the plantations, 
 where the monthly Courts are kept. 
 Here likewise dwells the Governor. 
 This jjlace hath very good land, afford- 
 ing rich cornfields and fruitful gardens; 
 having likewise sweet and jjleasant 
 springs." The highest of the " three 
 little rising hills" on the top of the 
 "high mountain," was directly behind 
 the present State House. It was not 
 levelled till about the year 1810. 
 
 By an order of the Assistants, Novem- 
 ber 7, 1632, the Boston people were 
 allowed to take wood from Dorchester 
 Neck (now South Boston) for twenty 
 years. (Mass. Col. Rec, I. 101.) At 
 the time of Wood's departure, Boston 
 was not the richest of the settlements. 
 When the sum of £ 400 was raised for 
 public uses, in the autimin of 1633, 
 Boston and four other towns were as- 
 sessed £ 48 each, while Dorchester 
 had to pay £ 80. (Ibid., 110.) 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 86.
 
 3G2 nisTORY OF new England. [Book i. 
 
 gansetts were known to have meetings, with a ^iew, as 
 they gave out, to an expedition against the Nipnets. A 
 friendly pou'ow sent information that a plot was on foot ; 
 and, as a measure of precaution, a camp was formed in 
 Boston.^ The small-pox, which spread widely among the 
 Indians about this time, was thought by some to have 
 been the main protection of the feeble colony. 
 
 The Indians had had no provocation.^ Not a foot of 
 land previously in their occupation had been appropriated 
 by the colonists, except by purchase.^ The region around 
 Massachusetts Bay, almost depopulated by the epidemics 
 which had prevailed before the arrival of the English, was 
 for the most part vacant for their possession, without in- 
 terference with the rights of any earlier inhabitant. The 
 English Company had been scrupulously tender of the 
 claims, and thoughtful for the welfare, of the aborigines 
 1029. of the soil. " Above all," they wrote to Endicott 
 April 17. -j^ their instructions to him and his Council, " we 
 pray you be careful that there be none in our precincts 
 permitted to do any injury, in the least kind, to the 
 heathen people; and, if any offend in that way, let him 
 receive due correction If any of the salvages pre- 
 tend right of inheritance to all or any part of the lands 
 granted in our jDatent, we pray you endeavor to purchase 
 their title, that we may avoid the least scruple of intru- 
 sion." " The earnest desire of our whole company," 
 wrote Cradock in their behalf, " is that you have 
 
 Feb. IC. 1^1 1 
 
 a diligent and watchful eye over our own people, 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 89. tice of " restricting savages within the 
 
 2 Tlicy were tenderly cared for in narrowest limits," says : " We cannot, 
 the ravages of that terrible disease however, fail to applaud the niodcra- 
 which p(!rhaps frustrated their hostil- tion of the English Puritans, who first 
 ity. " When their own people forsook established themselves in New Eng- 
 them, yet the English came daily and land, and who, though furnished with a 
 ministered unto them." (Ibid., Hi); charter from their sovereign, bought 
 comp. lie.) from the savages the land which they 
 
 3 Vattel (Law of Nations, Book L wished to occupy." — Chahners bears a 
 Chap. XVIII. ), in maintaining the jus- like testimony (Revolt, &c., I. 8G).
 
 Chap. IX] MASSACHUSETTS. 863 
 
 that they live unblamable and without reproof, and de- 
 mean themselves justly and courteously towards the In- 
 dians." There was much more to the same effect. And 
 through the whole period of the colonial history, the legisla- 
 tion respecting the natives was eminently j ust and humane.^ 
 The last harvest raised by the English in and about 
 Boston had been scanty, by reason of cold and wet weath- 
 er through the summer. Inadequate supplies scarcity 
 came from England, and, the winter which sue- °'^'^^'"'- 
 ceeded proving a severe one, the settlers suffered scarcely 
 less than in that which immediately followed their arrival. 
 The hardship of the time did not prevent energetic action 
 when intelligence arrived of the concentration of ^^23. 
 a French force at Port Royal in Nova Scotia, •'^'"•i^- 
 .accompanied by " divers priests and Jesuits." The Gov- 
 ernor convened the Assistants, with " the minis- 
 
 Preparations 
 
 ters, and captains, and some other chief men," to against the 
 consult upon measures proper to be taken for 
 security against neighbors so unwelcome. And it was 
 determined to build a fort at Nantasket, " to be some 
 block in an enemy's way, though it could not bar his en- 
 trance " ; to finish that which had been laid out at Bos- 
 ton ; and to see " that a plantation should be begun at 
 Agawam [Ipswich], being the best place in the land for 
 tillage and cattle, lest an enemy, finding it void, should 
 possess and take it from us." ^ 
 
 It was fortunate, in respect to the deficient supply of 
 
 ^ " It is agreed that Sir Richard Sal- limits of the said patent, he shall be put 
 
 tonstall shall give Sagamore John a to death." (Ibid., 100; comp. 121, 133.) 
 
 hogshead of corn for the hurt his cattle That specimens of this kind of legislation 
 
 did him in his corn." (Mass. Col. Eec, are not more frequent, is owing to the 
 
 I. 102.) "It is ordered that Nicholas determination which it expressed, to 
 
 Frost, for thefl committed by him at the effect of its severity upon disorder- 
 
 Damarill's Cove upon the Indians, ly pei-sons, and to the right feeling to- 
 
 shall be severely whipped, and branded wards the natives which was generally 
 
 in the hand with a hot iron, and after entertained, 
 banished out of this patent, with penal- 2 Winthrop, I. 99. 
 ty that, if ever he be found within the
 
 3G-4 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 food, that there had been but little addition to the num- 
 ber of the immigrants since the arrival of Governor Win- 
 thro2:)'s company.^ Persons in England who were medi- 
 tating a removal were naturally willing further to watch 
 the experiment as it was made by those who had gone 
 before ; and what they had learned respecting it had not 
 been highly encouraging. The accounts which had been 
 received of sickness and famine, and the return of some 
 whose resolution had not held out, could not fail to give 
 a check to the enterprise. Representations injurious to 
 the Colony had been made by the Brownes, Morton, Gar- 
 diner, RatclifF," and others, and were backed by the great 
 interest of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and of John Mason, 
 who was concej-ned with him in the Eastern grants. 
 These had not been without effect upon the minds of* 
 men in power ; and well-founded apprehensions were 
 now felt of annoyance from the home government. 
 
 The malecontents had actually prevailed to have their 
 complaints entertained by the Privy Council ; " among 
 Tho Colony mauy truths misrepeated," writes AYinthrop, "ac- 
 forTtirrrivy cusiug US to intcud rebellion, to have cast off our 
 Council. allegiance, and to be wholly separate from the 
 Church and laws of England ; that our ministers and peo- 
 ple did continually rail against the state. Church, and 
 bishops there, &c." Saltonstall, Humphrey, and Cradock 
 (RatclifF's master) appeared before a committee of the 
 Council in the Company's behalf, and had the address or 
 the good fortune to vindicate their clients, so that, on the 
 termination of the affair, the kinc: said "he would 
 
 Jan. 19. . . 
 
 have them severely punished who did abuse his 
 Governor and the plantation " ; and from members of the 
 Privy Council it was learned, says Winthrop, " that his 
 Majesty did not intend to impose the ceremonies of the 
 Chuif li (jf England upon us, for that it was considered 
 
 ^ The number of immigrants in IC.'U ~ S(!C above, pp. 298, 310, 330, 
 had been about 90; and 250 in 1G32. 351.
 
 Chap. IX.] MASSACHUSETTS. 365 
 
 that it was the freedom from such things that made peo- 
 ple come over to us ; and it was credibly informed to the 
 Council, that this country would in time be very bene- 
 ficial to England for masts, cordage, &c., if the Sound 
 [the passage to the Baltic] should be debarred." ^ 
 
 The reasons for dismissing the complaint were alleged 
 in the order adopted by the Council to that effect : " Most 
 of the things informed being denied, and resting to be 
 proved by parties that must be called from that place, 
 which reqiiired a long expense of time, and at the present 
 their lordships finding that the adventurers were upon 
 the despatch of men, victuals, and merchandises for that 
 place, all which would be at a stand if the adventurers 
 should have discouragement, or take suspicion that the 
 state here had no good opinion of that plantation, — their 
 lordships, not laying the fault, or fancies (if any be), of 
 some particular men upon the general government, or 
 principal adventurers, which in due time is further to be 
 inquired into, have thought fit in the mean time to de- 
 clare that the appearances were so fair, and the hopes so 
 great, that the country would prove both beneficial to this 
 kingdom and profitable to the particular adventurers, as 
 that the adventurers had cause to go on cheerfully with 
 their undertakings, and rest assured, if things were carried 
 as was pretended when the patents were granted, and 
 accordingly as by the patents it is appointed, his Majesty 
 would not only maintain the liberties and privileges here- 
 tofore granted, but supply anything further that might 
 tend to the good government of the place, and prosperity 
 and comfort to his people there." ^ 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 100, 108. "upon long debate of the whole car- 
 
 2 Journal of the Privy Council. — riage of the plantations of that coun- 
 The business had been brought before try," twelve Lords, with authority to 
 the Lords of the Privy Council, Decern- call to their assistance any persons 
 ber 19, 1632, by "several petitions of- whom they should see fit, were directed 
 fercd by some planters of New Eng- to " examine how the patents for the 
 land, and a written declaration by Sir said plantations have been granted, and 
 Christopher Gardiner, Knt." ; when, how carried," and " the truth of the 
 
 31*
 
 3G6 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 At the annual election in the following spring, for a 
 
 fourth time Winthrop was made Governor and Dudley 
 
 Deputy-Governor, and the eicrht Assistants of the 
 
 May 29. 1 ^ ' _ O 
 
 Rc-oiection of last year were re-chosen, with the addition of Sir 
 Richard Saltonstall, who was expected soon to 
 
 return from England. By an appointment of the magis- 
 trates at their first meeting, " a day of thanksgiv- 
 ing was kept in all the congregations for their 
 
 deliverance from the plots of their enemies " ; and they 
 made a grant of " one hundred and fifty pounds 
 to the Governor, for this present year, towards 
 
 his public charges and extraordinary expenses." 
 
 Juno 19. 
 
 July! 
 
 aforesaid informations, or such other 
 informations as shall be presented to 
 them," and to " make report thereof to 
 this Board, and of the true state of the 
 plantations as they find them now to 
 stand ; for ■which purfwse they are to 
 call before them such of the patentees 
 and such of the complainants and their 
 witnesses, or any other persons, as they 
 shall think fit." (Ibid.) 
 
 Emanuel Downing, father of the 
 more famous Sir George Downing, and 
 brother-in-law of Winthrop, proved a 
 good friend to the [Massachusetts plant- 
 ers on this occasion. Thomas W^iggin, 
 of Piscataciua, was another. There is 
 in the State-Paper Office a letter from 
 him, dated November 19, 1C.32, to " Sir 
 John Cooke, Knt., Principal Secretary 
 to his IVIajesty." He had " lately been 
 in New England in America." The 
 English " in the INIassachusetts " were 
 " about two thousand people, young 
 and old," and were " generally most in- 
 dustrious and fit for such a work." He 
 says : " I have observed the planters 
 there, by their loving, just, and kind 
 dealing with the Indians, have gotten 
 their love and respect and drawn tliem 
 to an outward conformity to the Eng- 
 lish, so that the Indians repair to the 
 English Governor there and his depu- 
 ties for justice. And for the Governor 
 
 himself, I have observed him to be a 
 discreet and sober man, giving good 
 example to all the planters, wearing 
 plain apparel, such as may well be- 
 seem a mean man, drinking ordinarily 
 water, and, when he is not conversant 
 about matters of justice, putting his 
 hand to any ordinary labor with his 
 servants, ruling with much mildness ; 
 and in this particular I observed him 
 to be strict in execution of justice upon 
 such as have scandalized this state, 
 either in civil or ecclesiastical govern- 
 ment, to the great contentment of those 
 that are best affected, and to the terror 
 of offenders." He gives a dismal re- 
 port of Morton, Gardiner, and llatcliff, 
 and says he is informed that tliey " do 
 address themselves to Sir Fcrdinando 
 Gorges, who by their false informations 
 is now projecting how to deprive that 
 plantation of the privileges granted by 
 his Majesty, and to subvert their gov- 
 ernment." " Being none of their plan- 
 tation," he says, "but a neighbor by, 
 I have done this out of that respect I 
 bear to the general good." Wiggin 
 had been superintendent of the upper 
 plantation on the Piscatacpia, and was 
 continued in the same trust by Lord Say 
 and Sele, Lord Brooke, and tlieir two 
 partners, who purchased tliat territory 
 in 1G32. See below, p. 517.
 
 Chap IX.] MASSACHUSETTS. 367 
 
 The death of Archbishop Abbot, making way for the 
 accession of the furious Laud to the primacy, was nearly 
 contemporaneous with the renewal of emigration 
 
 ^ _ '-' Renewal of 
 
 to New England. Several parties of colonists^ thoemigra- 
 now arrived at Boston, in one of which came John 
 Haynes, an opulent landholder of the county of 
 Essex, and three famous divines, Thomas Hooker, 
 Samuel Stone, and John Cotton. They were men of emi- 
 nent capacity and sterling character, fit to be concerned in 
 the founding of a state. In all its generations of worth 
 and refinement, Boston has never seen an assembly more 
 illustrious for generous qualities or for manly culture, than 
 when the magistrates of the young colony welcomed Cot- 
 ton and his fellow-voyagers at Winthrop's table. 
 
 Hooker and Stone went to Newtown, and were chosen, 
 the former to be pastor, and the latter to be teacher, of a 
 church established there. In the sequel of a conference 
 between the " Governor and Council " and " the ministers 
 and elders of all the churches,"" Cotton, much coveted by 
 other plantations, was associated with Wilson as teacher 
 of the Boston church. The new ministers were severally 
 inducted to their offices with solemnities similar to those 
 which had been first adopted at Salem. 
 
 The borough of Boston in Lincolnshire, which perhaps 
 had already furnished to Massachusetts some of its emi- 
 nent settlers,^ stands low upon the river Witham, five 
 
 1 The number, in 1633, was about Iingham,Leverett, and Hutchinson came 
 seven hundred. (Winthrop, I. 100, later. The Reverend Mr. AVhiting, of 
 102, 104, 105, 108, 111, 115.) Saugus, had been rector of the church 
 
 2 Ibid., 112. at Skirbeck, a mile from Boston. 
 
 3 As early as March, 1629, ten "Bos- It isfrom Cotton Mather (Magnalla, 
 ton men" had proposed to take a large Book II. Chap. V.) that we have the 
 interest in the Company (see above, p. particulars of Dudley's early life ; and I 
 292). Of distinguished early emigrants do not see that he had a motive for 
 to Massachusetts, commonly referred to misstating them, or that, situated as he 
 the English Boston (see Young, Massa- was, he could have been mistaken in 
 chusetts, 48, note 3), Dudley and Cod- them. Yet, contrary to his testimony, 
 dington came over with the charter ; Thomson (History and Antiquities of 
 Hough accompanied Cotton, and Bel- Boston, 427) says: "Boston has no
 
 368 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 miles from the eastern coast of England. At the end of 
 the thirteenth century, its commercial importance was 
 such, that it is said to have " paid twice as much duty 
 upon the great articles of export of the time as London 
 did, and more than a third of the entire duty paid upon 
 those articles hy the whole kingdom." ^ At present, it 
 contains about seventeen thousand inhabitants. Its name 
 was derived from its ancient church of St. Botolph, per- 
 haps the most stately parish church in England, a cathe- 
 dral in size and beauty. It was from this superb temple 
 that John Cotton came to preach the Gospel 
 within the mud walls and imder the thatched 
 roof of the meeting-house in a rude New-England hamlet. 
 He was rector of St. Botolph's for nearly twenty years 
 before Winthrop's emigration to America.- The son of a 
 barrister in easy circumstances, he had been successively 
 an undergraduate at Trinity College, and a Fellow and 
 Tutor at Emmanuel College, in the University of Cam- 
 bridge, where he had acquired a distinguished reputation 
 for ability and learning. In Boston, his professional 
 labors had been of astonishing amount, and the sanctity 
 and mingled force and amiableness of his character had 
 won for him a vast influence. At the departure of Win- 
 throp's company, he made a journey to take leave of 
 them at Southampton.^ The Lord Keeper, Williams, his 
 diocesan, was his personal friend, and desired to deal 
 gently with his non-conformity. But the Archbishop was 
 not to be eluded. The dogs of the High-Commission 
 
 claim to Thomas Dudley." " Nor," he i Ibid., 347. 
 
 adds, "has this district any better claim 2 Cotton Avas not at Boston till five 
 
 to William Coddington ; he was prob- years after the attempt of the Scrooby 
 
 ably a resident of Alford or its neigh- people to sail thence for Holland. See 
 
 borhood." Belli ngham also, though Re- above, p. 138. 
 
 corder of Boston, Thomson thinks ^ Scottow, Narrative of the Planting 
 
 never resided there. (Ibid., 428.) of the Massachusetts Colony, 13. — 
 
 Hutchinson was of a Boston family, but See above, p. 310, note 3. 
 
 his residence was in the neighboring 
 
 town of Alford. (Ibid., 431.)
 
 CiiAP. IX.] MASSACHUSETTS. 369 
 
 Court were set upon Cotton, and with difficulty he es- 
 caped to London, where for a time he was concealed by 
 John Davenport, then vicar of St. Stephen's, and by other 
 friends. His design to get out of the kingdom was 
 suspected, and pursuivants were sent to arrest him and 
 Hooker at the Isle of Wight, where it was supposed they 
 would embark. But they went on board in the Downs, 
 and, avoiding discovery, arrived at their destination. 
 
 After another harvest, there was still " great scarcity of 
 corn, yet people lived well with fish and the fruit of their 
 gardens." ^ The urgency of the case had shown, for the 
 time, the folly of laws restricting the terms of sale for the 
 necessaries of life : and " the price of corn, for- 
 
 . . ApriH, 
 
 merly restrained to six shillings the bushel, was 
 now set at liberty to be sold as men could agree." The 
 supplies of the year, though insufficient for comfort, were 
 thought to be enough for gratitude ; and, " in regard of 
 the many and extraordinary mercies which the Lord had 
 been pleased to vouchsafe of late to this plantation, name- 
 ly, a plentiful harvest, ships lately arrived with persons 
 of special use and quality, &c.," a day was ap- 
 pointed for " public thanksgiving through the 
 several plantations."^ 
 
 Enterprises of discovery and trade began to be under- 
 taken. The restless John Oldham, with three compan- 
 ions, found his way by land to Connecticut September. 
 Hiver, which on their return they reported to be toTo"" c'oT 
 about one hundred and sixty miles distant from "«•=''•="'• 
 the Bay. They had " lodged at Indian towns all the 
 way," and brought back some beaver, some " hemp, which 
 grows there in great abundance, and is much better than 
 the English," and " some black lead, whereof the Indians 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 108. and November 28, 1639 (Ibid., 277)5 
 
 2 Similar festivals in recognition of but it does not appear that in the earli- 
 the bounties of the year were held Oc- est times there was always an autumnal 
 tober 8, 1638 (Mass. Col. Rec., I. 241), thanksgiving. (See above, p. 187.)
 
 370 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 told him there was a whole rock." ^ A vessel of sixty 
 tons, the Blessing of the Bai/, which had been built by 
 the Governor at Mystic, coasted Long Island (where the 
 natives were " a very treacherous people "), looked into 
 the Connecticut River, and visited the Dutch settlement 
 at the mouth of the Hudson, where her people found a 
 courteous reception, and bartered their commodities for 
 some beaver. They protested against any attempt of the 
 Dutch upon Connecticut, and were answered by a request 
 that all controversy upon the subject might be referred to 
 the home governments of the rival parties.^ 
 
 The example of men of such note as had recently come 
 over, and the desire of being associated with them, had 
 a favorable effect on further emigration. The renewal of 
 the movement attracted the attention of the English court, 
 and secured a more favorable hearing for the representa- 
 Renewaiof ^ious of disaffcctcd persons, if indeed we are not 
 rompiaints rathcr to suppose that the injurious representa- 
 
 at court. , . . , , Till 
 
 tions were invited and rewarded by the govern- 
 ment at home. The spirit of the court had now reached 
 its height of arrogance and passion. It "was at this time 
 that ship-money was first levied, and the Star Chamber 
 was rioting in the barbarities which were soon to bring 
 an awful retribution. The precedent by which, in dis- 
 regard of the chartered privileges of the Virginia Com- 
 pany,^ the government of A'irginia had been taken into 
 the king's hands, was urged in relation to the Massachu- 
 setts Company. An Order in Council was obtained, re- 
 1031. citing that " the Board is given to understand of 
 Feb. 21. ^j^g frequent transportation of great numbers of 
 his Majesty's subjects out of this kingdom to the planta- 
 tion called New England, amongst whom divers persons 
 known to be ill-affected, discontented not only with civil 
 but ecclesiastical government here, are observed to resort 
 thither, whereby such confusion and distraction is already 
 
 i Wintbrop, I. 11. 2 Hjij.^ 133^ 134. 3 See above, p. 192, note.
 
 Chap. IX.] 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 371 
 
 grown there, especially in point of religion, as, beside the 
 ruin of the said plantation, cannot but highly tend to the 
 scandal both of church and state here." Thereupon it 
 commanded the detention of "divers ships now in the 
 river of Thames, ready to set sail thither, freighted with 
 passengers and provisions " ; the attendance of the masters 
 before the Council, on an appointed day, " with a list of 
 the passengers and provisions in each ship"'; and the 
 production before the board, by Mr. Cradock, of the char- 
 ter of the Massachusetts Company. Cradock's reply, that 
 the charter had gone to America, perhaps first apprised 
 the government of that important fact.^ 
 
 Intelligence of the threatening state of affairs in Eng- 
 land had not reached the Colony, when a transaction took 
 place of the utmost importance in relation to its Reform of the 
 internal order. It now contained three or four go^^nn^ent. 
 
 1 Journal of the Privy Council. The 
 proceeding began and ended as follows. 
 
 1634, February 10. The bailiffs and 
 officers of customs of Ipswich were or- 
 dered to stay a ship bound for New 
 England with passengers. 
 
 February 14. An order was de- 
 spatched to the marshals of the Admi- 
 ralty, and to all officers of the navy and 
 customs, to stop ten ships in the Thames 
 bound for New England. 
 
 February 28. The masters of the 
 vessels detained were called before the 
 Council, and, for " reasons best known 
 to their Lordships," it was " thought fit 
 that for this time they should be per- 
 mitted to proceed on their voyage," 
 after giving bonds, — (1.) To cause all 
 persons on board their ships "that should 
 blaspheme, or profane the holy name of 
 God," to " be severely punished " ; (2.) 
 To " cause the prayei's contained in the 
 Book of Common Prayers established 
 in the Church of England to be said 
 daily, at the usual hours for morning 
 and evening prayers," in the presence 
 of " all persons aboard these said ships " ; 
 
 (3.) To "receive aboard or transport " 
 no passenger not certified by the offi- 
 cers of the port of embarkation to have 
 " taken both the oaths of allegiance and 
 supremacy"; (4.) To certify, "upon 
 their return into this kingdom, the 
 names of all such persons as they should 
 transport, with their proceedings in the 
 execution of the above articles." 
 
 1635, January 21 and February 18. 
 The shipmasters' bonds were cancelled. 
 
 2 Hutchinson (I. 36,37) erroneously 
 supposes the Orders for detaining ships 
 to have been made in 1633, and to have 
 preceded the large emigration in the 
 summer of that year. For he goes oq 
 to say : " It is certain a stop was not 
 put to the emigration. There came 
 over, amongst many others in this year, 
 Mr. Ilaynes," &c. The Orders are 
 dated in February, 1633, but this was 
 by the reckoning of the Old Style, ac- 
 cording to which the year began oa 
 Lady Day, or the 25 th of March. 
 Hutchinson also (37) confounds the ac- 
 tion of the Council in this year with that 
 in the year before (see above, p. 365.)
 
 372 HISTORY OF new ENGLAXD. [Dook I. 
 
 thousand inhabitants, distributed in sixteen towns. ^ The 
 settlements had so extended, that the most distant, Ips- 
 wich, "was thirty miles from the capital, and it was not 
 convenient or safe for the freemen all to travel to Boston 
 at the same time. Everything tended to a chango in 
 the organization of the government, and the considera- 
 tions which manifested its necessity at the same time dic- 
 tated its form. The freemen, by some previous concert, 
 the method of which is not recorded, determined to do 
 by representation a part of the office which belonged 
 to them in the management of the corporate business ; 
 and, at the fifth General Court held in Massachu- 
 
 May 14. 
 
 setts, twenty-four persons appeared, delegated by 
 eight towns ^ " to meet and consider of such matters as 
 they [the freemen] were to take order in at the same Gen- 
 eral Court." This great step was an easy extension of the 
 proceeding of the General Court of the second year be- 
 fore, when deputies had been sent from the towns with 
 a power limited to the assessment of taxcs.^ 
 
 Having assembled, the Deputies " desired a sight of the 
 patent, and, conceiving thereby that all their laws should 
 be made at the General Court, repaired to the Governor 
 to advise with him about it." "* lie told them, that, when 
 
 1 Wood, New England's Prospect, above, p. 302.) Certainly neither the 
 44. "These [the sixteen which he had legal existence of a corporation, nor the 
 described] be all the towns that were validity of its votes, depends on the 
 begun when I came for England, Avhich presence in one place rather than an- 
 was the fifteenth of August, 1G33." other of the signed and sealed instru- 
 
 2 Namely, three each from New- mont which gave it being. But, in cases 
 town, Watertown, Charlestown, Boston, rcijiilring an appeal to public instru- 
 Roxbury, Dorchester, Saugus, and Sa- ments, originals always have necessarily 
 lem. The towns are here arranged in an authority superior to copies. The 
 the order of the lists of their delegates emigrants to IMassadiusetts wisely an- 
 on the record. (Mass. Col. llec, I. lie.) ticipated that occasions for such appeal 
 
 3 Winthrop, I. 128. See above, p. might arise, and they prudently desired 
 854. to have the highest evidence in their 
 
 ^ The reader may have felt at a loss own hands, both to save it from being 
 
 to account for the stress laid by Win- corrupted, and to be able to produce it 
 
 throp and his friends on the transfer of whenever they desired. In the present 
 
 the original cliarter to America. (See instance, when a question of rights un-
 
 Chap. IX.] MASSACHUSETTS. 373 
 
 the patent was granted, it was supposed that the number 
 of freemen would be no larger than could conveniently 
 assemble ; that such was no longer the fact, and that they 
 could best act by representatives, in making as well as 
 in executing laws ; that whatever might be hereafter, " for 
 the present they were not furnished with a sufficient num- 
 ber of men qualified for such a business, neither could the 
 commonwealth bear the loss of time of so many as must 
 intend it ; — yet this they might do at present : namely, 
 they might at the General Court make an order, that, 
 once in the year, a certain number should be appointed, 
 upon summons from the Governor, to revise all laws, &c., 
 and to reform what they found amiss therein ; but not to 
 make any new laws, but prefer their grievances to the 
 Court of Assistants" ; — and that, finally, in regard to pub- 
 lic supplies and the distribution of lands, it was right that 
 they should have a decisive voice, and "that no assess- 
 ment should be laid upon the country without the con- 
 sent of such a committee, nor any lands disposed of" ^ 
 
 Abundant cause as they had to revere and love Win- 
 throp, the democratic jealousy of the freemen had become 
 aroused by his long continuance in office ; — the more 
 when Cotton, lately arrived as he was, had laid down the 
 doctrine in his Election Sermon, that "a magistrate ought 
 not to be turned into the condition of a private man with- 
 out just cause, and to be publicly convict, no more than 
 the magistrates may not turn a private man out of his 
 freehold without like public trial."" The freemen quietly 
 expressed their judgment as to the theory of public office 
 being of the nature of a freehold, by abstaining for four 
 years from a re-election of any person to be Governor at 
 the end of his official term. 
 
 We are not, however, to suppose, that disgust at Cot- 
 
 der the charter occurred, if only a copy authenticity would have been subject 
 
 could have been produced, though cer- to suspicion and to cavil, 
 
 tified like that which had been sent to i Winthrop, I. 128, 129. 
 
 Endicott (Mass. Col. Rec, I. 186), its .2 Ibid., 132. 
 VOL. I. 32
 
 374 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 \ 
 
 ton's doctrine respecting permanence in office was even 
 the main cause of the tcm])orary alienation from 
 
 Decline of . . 
 
 winii.rop's Winthrop of the confidence of his constituents. 
 ^^^'^ Rather, Cotton's injudicious interference was the 
 result of observations, which a little time had sufficed him 
 to make, of the decline of the Governor's popularity. In 
 fact, a party hostile to Winthrop had been forming. It 
 was impossible that a ruler should undertake so untried 
 a task as that which had devolved on him on his arrival 
 here, and execute it with the vigor which the circum- 
 stances required, without creating vindictiveness in some, 
 disaffection and distrust in many, uneasiness and doubt 
 even in minds not disposed to be censorious. Any ques- 
 tionable exercise of authority, however necessary at the mo- 
 ment, would excite alarm. Every practical question has 
 two sides ; the preferable side is not always evident, and 
 the honest judgment which is honestly overruled is tempt- 
 ed to suspect a selfish bias in the successful party. In the 
 transactions at Watertown, Winthrop might appear to 
 have assumed a somewhat overbearing tonc.-^ The " old 
 planters" might naturally be jealous of him. He had had 
 " some differences " with Coddington, as well as with Dud- 
 ley ; ~ and one effect of these perhaps appeared in the elec- 
 tion, by the Court which displaced him, of Dudley to be 
 his successor, and of Coddington to be Treasurer.^ And, 
 in fine, the new policy of introducing Deputies into the 
 
 1 See above, pp. 350, 353. overcome me.' " He desired, " without 
 
 2 Winthrop, I. 118. — " Some differ- offence, to refuse the offer," and rather 
 ences fell out still, now and then, be- to buy, " and so very lovingly con- 
 tween the Governor and the Deputy, eluded." (Ibid., 118.) — Bradstreet 
 which yet were soon liealcd." Soon was now elected Secretary (Mass. Col. 
 after one of them, Winthrop "wrote Ilec, I. 118), the fii-st Secretary chosen 
 to the Deputy, who had before desired on this side of" the Avater. 
 
 to buy a fat hon; or two of him, being 3 Coddington was put by the free- 
 
 Bomcwhat short of provisions, to desire men in the place of Pynchon, who 
 
 him to send for one, and to ac- (Ibid., 99) had been appointed Treas- 
 
 cept it as a testimony of his good will, urer by the Assistants, the second year 
 
 The Deputy returned this an- before. Pynchon was the first Treas- 
 
 8wer : ' Your overcoming yourself hath urer appointed in the Colony.
 
 Chap. IX.] MASSACHUSETTS. 375 
 
 General Court was not unnaturally inaugurated by the 
 deposition of the highest representative of the old policy, 
 the head of the Magistrates. This is the first instance of 
 an election by ballot.^ It would have been hard for the 
 freemen to nerve themselves to the point of displacing 
 their old benefactor by the customary " erection of hands." 
 The administrative reform, which had evidently been 
 well considered beforehand, was carried out in a business- 
 like manner. It was resolved, " that none but Proceedings 
 the General Court hath power to choose and ad- GeL^rai' 
 mit freemen"; or "to make and establish laws; ^"""^ 
 or to elect and appoint," remove, or determine the duties 
 and powers of, civil or military officers ; or " to raise 
 moneys and taxes, and to dispose of lands." ~ A fine was 
 imposed upon the Court of Assistants for consenting to 
 the " breach of an order of Court against employing 
 Indians to shoot with pieces." It was probably appre- 
 hended that resentment at these proceedings might tempt 
 the Assistants to withdraw from their duties ; and accord- 
 ingly, " if any Assistant, or any man deputed by the free- 
 men to deal in public occasions of the Commojiwealth, 
 should absent himself without leave in time of public 
 business," his negligence was made punishable by fine, at 
 the discretion of the Court. A series of laws of the Assist- 
 ants "concerning swine" had occasioned dissatisfaction and 
 quarrels. They were now repealed ; and it was " agreed that 
 every town shall have liberty to make'such orders about 
 
 1 " Chosen by papers." (Mass. Col. Governor, and Assistants had authority 
 Kec, I. 132.) by the charter "to take care for the 
 
 2 At their Court six weeks earher best disposing and ordering of the gen- 
 (Mass. Col. Rec, I. Ill), the Assistants eral business and affairs of, for, and 
 had made some lavish distributions of concerning the said lands." (Ibid., 10.) 
 land, giving, for instance, a thousand The equitable principle of taxation was 
 acres to Mr. Haynes, five hundred acres now adopted, "that, in all rates and pub- 
 to the Deputy-Governor and the same to lie charges, the towns shall have respect 
 Mr. Oldham, and so on. And this may to levy every man according to his estate, 
 have moved the freemen to restrict the and with consideration of all other his 
 right of the Assistants in this respect, abilities whatsoever,andnotaccordinT to 
 But in fact the Governor, Deput)'- the number of his persons." (Ibid., 120.)
 
 376 HISTORY OF NEW EKGLAXD. [Book I. 
 
 swine as they shall judge best for themselves." The judicial 
 power of the Magistrates was abridged by an order " that 
 no trial shall pass upon any for life or banishment, but 
 by a jury summoned, or by the General Court," the jurors 
 to be designated by the freemen of the several plantations. 
 The charter had provided for four General Courts in a year. 
 Since the first summer of its administration in New Eng- 
 land, only one in each year had been convened, the annual 
 spring Court of Elections. It was now " ordered, that 
 there shall be four General Courts held yearly, to be sum- 
 moned by the Governor for the time being, and not to be 
 dissolved without the consent of the major part of the 
 Court." And finally, to give permanence to the repre- 
 sentative power of the Commons, it was enacted, " that 
 it shall be lawful for the freemen of every plantation to 
 choose two or three of each town before every General 
 Court, to confer of and prepare such public business as 
 by them shall be thought fit to consider of at the next 
 General Court, and that such persons as shall be hereafter 
 so deputed by the freemen of the several plantations to 
 deal in their behalf in the public affairs of the Common- 
 wealth, shall have the full power and voices of all the 
 said freemen, derived to them for the making and estab- 
 lishing of laws, granting of lands, &c., and to deal in all 
 other affairs of the Commonwealth wherein the freemen 
 have to do, the matter of election of Magistrates and other 
 oflficers only excepted, wherein every freeman is to gi"\'e his 
 own voice." ^ 
 
 This General Court " held three days, and all things 
 were carried very peaceably." ~ It did not confine its at- 
 tention to methods for securing the popular authority 
 which it vindicated. The new democracy proved as little 
 loyal to England as the magistracy which had hitherto 
 held iiiK'liecked sway. In the preceding month, an oath 
 engaging allegiance to the government of the Colony, 
 
 I Mass. Col. Rec, I. 117-120. 2 -Wintlirop, I. 132.
 
 Chap. IX.] MASSACHUSETTS. 377 
 
 but saying nothing of the government of the king, had 
 been prescribed by the Assistants, to be taken, under 
 penalty of banishment, by " every man of or above tlie 
 age of twenty years, who hath been, or shall hereafter be, 
 resident within this jurisdiction by the space of six months 
 as an householder or sojourner, and not enfranchised." ^ 
 A form of oath, modelled upon this, was now appointed 
 by the General Court, to be taken by the freemen; and 
 " it was agreed and ordered, that the former oath of free- 
 men shall be revoked, so far as it is dissonant from the 
 oath of freemen hereunder written, and that those that 
 received the former oath shall stand bound no further 
 thereby, to any intent or purpose, than this new oath 
 ties those that now take the same." It was as follows : — 
 " I, A. B.j being, by God's providence, an inhabitant 
 and freeman within the jurisdiction of this commonwealth, 
 do freely acknowledge myself to be subject to the Freeman's 
 government thereof, and therefore do here swear, "'''''• 
 by the great and dreadful name of the ever-living God, 
 that I will be true and faithful to the same, and will ac- 
 cordingly yield assistance and support thereunto, with my 
 person and estate, as in equity I am bound, and will also 
 truly endeavor to maintain and preserve all the liberties 
 and privileges thereof, submitting myself to the wholesome 
 laws and orders made and established by the same ; and 
 further, that I will not plot nor practise any evil against 
 it, nor consent to any that shall so do, but will timely 
 discover and reveal the same to lawful authority now here 
 established, for the speedy preventing thereof. Moreover, 
 I do solemnly bind myself, in the sight of God, that, when 
 I shall be called to give my voice touching any such 
 matter of this state, wherein freemen are to deal, I will 
 give my vote and suffrage as I shall judge in mine own 
 conscience may best conduce and tend to the public weal 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Kec, I. 115. 
 32*
 
 378 HISTORY OF new England. [Book i. 
 
 of the body, without respect of persons, or favor of any 
 man. So help me God, in the Lord Jesus Christ." ^ 
 
 Thus, after an administration of four years under the 
 charter, the freemen took a share in the government out 
 of the hands of the oHgarchy of Assistants into their own. 
 The popular representative body which they established 
 was the second, in point of time, on the American conti- 
 nent, the House of Burgesses of Virginia having preceded 
 it by fifteen years. In their measures at this period, the 
 freemen seem to have intended a significant and decisive, 
 but not needlessly offensive, exercise of power. Their re- 
 served and moderate action may have been partly owing to 
 the influence of prescription and habit. It may have been 
 enforced by a sense of the expediency of keeping on good 
 terms with opulent friends of the Magistrates, who, both 
 here and in England, continued their bounties to the set- 
 tlement.^ But it is more satisfactory to refer it to a sense 
 of justice towards upright and public-spirited men, and to 
 a wise discernment of the importance of their services to 
 the common weal. Before parting, they remitted the fine 
 which had been imposed on the Assistants of the last year. 
 And they re-elected the old Board, with the addition of the 
 affluent Ilayncs, lately arrived, and the substitution of 
 Winthrop, the deposed Governor, for Ludlow, who was 
 promoted to the second office.^ 
 
 Yet there were not wanting to AVinthrop the mortifica- 
 tions with which the popular mood is wont to follow su- 
 ,... , perscded favorites. In the first vear after his depo- 
 
 vv intlirop's ••■ ^ J. 
 
 lossoffiivor sition, " the inhabitants of Boston met to choose 
 
 in Boston. 
 
 seven men who should divide the town lands among 
 
 ^ Mass. Col. Rec, 117. cys given to that end; for godly people 
 2 For instance, i\Ir. Ilayncs gave fifty in England began now to apprehend a 
 pounds towards the construction of a special hand of God in raising this plan- 
 floating batteiy (Tbid., 100) ; and when, tation." (Winthrop, I. 135. Conip. 
 in July, 1G;J4, "Mr. IIumi)hrey and the ibid , 136 ; Mass. Col. llec, I. 128.) 
 Lady Susan, his wife, one of the Earl 3 " Xiie new Governor and the As- 
 of Lincoln's sisters, arrived here, he sistants were together entertained at the 
 brouglit niorc ordnance, muskets, and house of the old Governor, as before." 
 powder, bought lor the public by mon- (Winthrop, I. 158.)
 
 Chap. IX.] MASSACHUSETTS. 879 
 
 them." It seems, there existed an apprehension "that the 
 richer men would give the poorer sort no great propor- 
 tions of land, but would rather leave a great part at lib- 
 erty for new-comers and for common, which Mr. AVm- 
 throp had oft persuaded them unto, as best for the town." 
 The consequence was, that, in a vote by ballot, the citi- 
 zens " left out Mr. Coddington and other of the chief 
 men," and elected Winthrop only " by a voice or two," 
 with " one of the elders and a deacon, and the rest of the 
 inferior sort." As the most effectual way of rebuking the 
 error, Winthrop refused to serve, "telling them that, 
 though for his part he did not apprehend any personal 
 injury, nor did doubt of their good affection towards him, 
 yet he was much grieved that Boston should be the first 
 who should shake off their magistrates, especially Mr. 
 Coddington, who had been always so forward for their 
 enlargement." -^ The people, on a sober second thought, 
 saw their proceeding in the same light, and corrected it 
 by a new election. It is probably owing to this reconsid- 
 eration that the richer and the poorer sort have now the 
 joint enjoyment of the beautiful park still called Boston 
 Common. 
 
 Another transaction touched him more nearly. The 
 General Court, which had chosen Dudley to supersede 
 him, had appointed a committee " to receive his account of 
 such things as he had received and disbursed for pub- 
 lic use." He presented it at the next General 
 
 ^ Sept. 4. 
 
 Court, which, agreeably to the new regulation, 
 was held within the following four months. He would 
 have " rested satisfied " with his disbursements for the 
 public, he says in that dignified paper, "but that, being 
 called to account," he was compelled to mention them. 
 After showing them to have exceeded his receipts by more 
 than a thousand pounds, " It repenteth me not," he pro- 
 ceeded, " of my cost or labor bestowed in the service of 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 152.
 
 880 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 this Commonwealth, but do heartily bless the Lord our 
 God, that he hath pleased to honor me so far as to call 
 for anything he hath bestowed upon me for the service of 
 his Church and people here, the prosperity whereof and 
 his gracious acceptance shall be an abundant recompense 
 to me. I conclude with this one request, which in justice 
 may not be denied me, that, as it stands upon record that 
 upon the discharge of my office I was called to account, 
 so this my declaration may be recorded also ; lest here- 
 after, when I shall be forgotten, some blemish may lie 
 upon my posterity, when there shall be nothing to clear 
 it." ^ And on the record it stands, accordingly. 
 
 For half a century, down to the abrogation of the char- 
 ter, the only changes in the arrangements respecting the 
 legislature now constituted, were its division into two 
 branches, sitting apart, with a negative each upon the 
 other, and the practice of two annual sessions instead of 
 four.^ The Magistrates were chosen by joint vote of the 
 freemen of the Colony. The Deputies were elected by 
 the freemen of their respective towns. The treatment 
 
 of that remarkable peculiarity in the social con- 
 Towns. , . . 
 
 dition of New England which is presented in 
 its municipal system, belongs to another part of this 
 work. What is appropriate here is to call attention to 
 its early origin. The name toivii first occurs in the rec- 
 1C30. ord of the second colonial meeting of the Court 
 Sept. 7. q£ Assistants, in connection with the naming of 
 Boston, Charlestown, and Watcrtown. The assessment, 
 in the same month, of fifty pounds, in prescribed propor- 
 tions, to be "collected and levied by distress out 
 
 Sept. 28. ... 
 
 of the several plantations,"^ implies some organi- 
 zation within each plantation for apportioning its share 
 of the assessment among its inhabitants. In the follow- 
 1C31. ing spring, "every town within this patent" was 
 March 22. ^'cquired to "provide its inhabitants with arms,"^ 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 1.30 - 132. 3 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 75, 77. 
 
 2 Sec below, p. 431. * Ibid., Si.
 
 Chap. IX] MASSACHUSETTS. 381 
 
 a requisition which also supposes some arrangement in 
 each for corporate action within itself. A rude pattern of 
 a frame of town government was shaped by Dor- 1^33. 
 Chester, when, in place of the earlier practice of ^"^ ^• 
 transacting business at meetings of the whole body of its 
 freemen (the grants of lands being certified by a committee 
 consisting of the clergymen and deacons), it designated cer- 
 tain inhabitants, twelve in number, to meet weekly, and 
 consult and determine upon public affairs, — without 
 any authority, however, beyond other inhabitants who 
 should choose to come and take part in their consulta- 
 tions and votes.^ About the same time, at Watertown, 
 it was " agreed by the consent of the freemen, that there 
 should be three persons chosen for the ordering of the civil 
 affairs." ~ In the fourth year from the settlement of Bos- 
 ton, at which time the earliest extant records were 1634. 
 made, three persons were chosen " to make up the '^"=' ^* 
 ten to manage the affairs of the town." ^ The system of 
 delegated town action was there perhaps the same JC35. 
 which was defined in an " Order made by the in- ^"^^ ^^■ 
 habitants of Charlestown, at a full meeting, for the govern- 
 ment of the town by Selectmen,'"'^ — the name presently 
 extended throughout New England to the municipal gov- 
 ernors. That order was as follows : " In consideration of 
 the great trouble and charge of the inhabitants of Charles- 
 town by reason of the frequent meeting of the townsmen 
 in general, and that, by reason of many men meeting, 
 things were not so easily brought into a joint issue; it is 
 therefore agreed by the said townsmen jointly, that these 
 eleven men whose names are written on the other side 
 (with the advice of pastor and teacher desired in any case 
 of conscience) shall entreat of all such business as shall 
 
 ^ Clapp, History of Dorchester, 32. ^ Drake, History and Antiquities of 
 
 2 Bond, Genealogies, &c. of Water- Boston, 174, note f. 
 town, II. 995. — The precise date of ^ Frothlngham, History of Charles- 
 
 this vote is not preserved, but it was at town, 50. 
 least as early as 1634.
 
 382 HISTORY OF new England. [Book i. 
 
 coiicem the townsmen, the choice of officers excepted ; and 
 what they or the greater part of them shall conclude of, 
 the rest of the town willingly to submit unto as their 
 own proper act, and these eleven to continue in this em- 
 ployment for one year next ensuing the date hereof." 
 
 The orders, passed at the important assembly of the 
 freemen whose proceedings for reform have been de- 
 scribed, to the effect " that every town should be at 
 liberty to make such orders about swine as they should 
 judge best," and that, "in all rates and public charges,"-' 
 the towns should levy on their inhabitants, are natural 
 expressions of the desire to avoid consolidation, and to 
 vindicate the importance of the municipal democracies. 
 The form of their government, which, dictated by ob- 
 vious convenience, came easily into use, was presently 
 1636. recognized by the General Court,^ with proper 
 March 3. pi-Qvisious for its efficiency and limitation; and 
 so became permanent, receiving from time to time ex- 
 tensions and amendments fit to accommodate it to the 
 public needs and convenience. The towns have been, on 
 the one hand, separate governments, and, on the other, 
 the separate constituents of a common government. In 
 Massachusetts, for two centuries and a quarter, the Depu- 
 'ties in the General Court — or Rejjrescntatives, as they 
 have been named under the State Constitution — contin- 
 ued to represent the municipal corporations. In New 
 Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, that 
 basis of representation still subsists. Maine, at its sepa- 
 ration from the parent State, substituted the Dis- 
 trict system, involving a union of small towns for 
 the choice of a Eepresentative ; so as to proportion repre- 
 sentation more strictly to numbers. 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, 1. 119, 120. fore, at Tvliich, among other things, it 
 
 2 Perhaps this action is to be traced had been agi-eed " that trivial things, 
 to an iinofTicial fonfcrencc of some &c. should be ended in towns." (Win- 
 ma"istrates and ministers six weeks be- throp, I. 178.)
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 Four years had now passed since the arrival of Win- 
 throp's company in Massachusetts Bay. The worst hard- 
 ships of a new plantation had been outlived. The infant 
 society had been organized into coherence, symmetry, and 
 a capacity of self-preservation and growth. The emigra- 
 tion had been recently renewed, and between three and 
 four thousand Englishmen were distributed among twenty 
 hamlets along and near the sea-shore. 
 
 They were settling into such employments as their sit- 
 uation dictated. They cultivated the ground, and took 
 care of herds and flocks.^ They hunted and ]C34. 
 fished for a part of their food. They were build- condition of 
 
 i •' the settlers 
 
 ino^ houses, boats, and mills ; enclosing land with »» ^'^ssa- 
 
 „ 1 ' • 11 1 ^ r cliusetts. 
 
 fences ; and cutting roads through the lorest to 
 connect their towns. Their exports of cured fish, furs, and 
 lumber bought them articles of convenience and luxury 
 in England, and they were soon to build ships to be sold 
 abroad. The customs of daily life were taking the new 
 shapes impressed upon them by the strangeness of a con- 
 dition so novel, and the course of public administration 
 was beginning to be made regular by precedents. 
 
 The freemen of the Company were now about three 
 hundred and fifty in number.^ More than two thirds of 
 
 1 " For four thousand souls there are Col. Eec, I. 366 - 369.) Allowing for 
 fifteen hundred head of cattle, besides deaths on the one hand, and for the im- 
 four thousand goats, and swine innu- migration of persons who had been ad- 
 merable." (^Vood, New England's mitted to the franchise in England on 
 Prospect, 49.) the other, the number of three hundred 
 
 2 Three hundred and forty-six free- and fifty in May, 1634, cannot be far 
 men had been admitted in Massachusetts from the truth. 
 
 before the summer of 1634. (Mass.
 
 3S4: HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 them had been admitted to the franchise since the estab- 
 Freemen and Hshmcnt of thc rcligious test, and a majority of 
 Magistrates, ^^le rcsiduo wcre also members of churches. As 
 }et, all the Magistrates were persons who had first been 
 appointed in England, with the exception of Haynes, and 
 John Winthrop the younger, the Governor s son. Not a 
 few others of thc freemen, from both position and char- 
 acter, had good pretensions to be admitted to the body 
 charged with the executive and judicial administration ; 
 but, though the charter authorized the choice of twenty 
 Magistrates, for several years only about half as many 
 were elected, the vacancies being kept for the men of 
 rank who were expected to come over. 
 
 The clergy, now thirteen or fourteen in number, consti- 
 tuted in some sort a separate estate of special dignity.^ 
 Though they were excluded from secular office. 
 
 Clergy. .,,.,,. . . 
 
 the relation of their functions to the spirit and 
 aim of the community which had been founded, as well 
 as their personal weight of ability and character, gave 
 great authority to their advice. Nearly all were gradu- 
 ates of Oxford or Cambridge, and had held livings in the 
 Established Church of England. Several had been emi- 
 nent among their fellows for all professional endowments. 
 It is impossible to estimate too highly the strength of 
 that devotion to liberty, civil and religious, which induced 
 men and women, tenderly bred, used to comfort and abun- 
 dance, and in a condition still to command them, to leave 
 home and kindred, and every attraction of dignified and 
 luxurious life, and become the pioneers of a new society 
 in a distant and rude wilderness. In justice to the great 
 body of the emigrants, another fact should be remembered. 
 There was no economical distress in England to prompt 
 
 1 "Wilson and Cotton were ministers Phillips, of Watcrtown ; James, of 
 
 of Boston ; Skelton and Williams, of Charlestown ; and Batchelor, of Sau- 
 
 Salem ; Warham and ^laverick, of gus. William Leverich came over in 
 
 Dorchester; Welde and Eliot, of Rox- October, 1G33, but was not jet exer- 
 
 bury ; Hooker and Stone, of Newtown ; cising the clerical office.
 
 Chap. X.] MASSACHUSETTS. 385 
 
 the enterprise of colonization. There had never been a 
 time when English subjects might live so tran- j^j^j^^.;^, 
 quilly and prosperously, if they would but con- prosperity of 
 sent to resign liberty of thought and speech. 
 " This kingdom," says Lord Clarendon, " enjoyed the 
 greatest calm, and the fullest measure of felicity, that 
 any people, in any age, for so long a time together, have 
 been blessed with, to the wonder and envy of all the 
 other parts of Christendom." ^ And Hume draws the 
 same picture of the visible face of affairs : " The griev- 
 ances under which the English labored, when consid- 
 ered in themselves, without regard to the constitution, 
 scarcely deserve the name Peace, industry, com- 
 merce, opulence, nay, even justice and lenity of adminis- 
 tration (notwithstanding some very few exceptions), all 
 these were enjoyed by the people, and every blessing of 
 government, except liberty, or rather the present exercise 
 of liberty, and its proper security." ^ 
 
 But there was a portion of the people incapable of har- 
 boring so un-English a thought as that of selling their 
 self-respect for an easy life. ^Peace, opulence, and a lenient 
 administration of government, even had it been more le- 
 nient than it was, could not satisfy them, without " the 
 present exercise of liberty," and its proper securities for 
 themselves, their country, and posterity ; nor could they 
 endure a government which forbade what they considered 
 as belonging to the character of a good Christian./ The 
 general prosperity and comfort of their condition dis- 
 play and enhance the merit of their willingness to sub- 
 mit to enormous sacrifices of external well-being, rather 
 than to the loss of those rights of the mind, of which re- 
 flecting and religious minds perceive the incomparable 
 worth. The experience of all ages shows, that, in times of 
 ease and affluence, public virtue is least firm, encroach- 
 ments of arbitrary rule are easiest made, and the resistance 
 
 • History of the Gieat Eebellion, Chap. I. 2 History of England, Chap. LIL 
 
 VOL. I. 33
 
 386 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 of patriots is most discouraged and embarrassed. And if 
 men like Clarendon and Hume — men certainly not with- 
 out humanity, however biassed by false theories — could 
 see in the material prosperity of England a balance for 
 the forfeiture of more ideal blessings, a judgment differ- 
 ent from theirs will award especial honor to the wisdom 
 and determination of those prosperous Englishmen, who 
 refused to put quiet and abundance in the scale against 
 possessions estimable only by reason, sentiment, and con- 
 science. 
 
 The difficulties of their undertaking were by no means 
 yet over. The freedom which they had attained by heroic 
 sacrifice, they had now to secure by practical wisdom. 
 Its permanence was exposed to two dangers. It was 
 threatened by the hostility of thq English government, 
 and by dissensions in the new communityy And in cir- 
 cumstances likely to occur, each of these dangers would 
 increase the other. 
 
 Of the reality and nearness of the former, the colonists 
 had had warning in the recent complaints against them to 
 the Privy Council. In those proceedings they had been 
 charged with an ambition to be independent of the parent 
 country;^ and already there were not wanting facts to 
 give a color of truth to the charge, and such facts could 
 not fail to accumulate in future. Wliatever may be 
 Independent tliouglit of tlic plaus aud hopcs entertained by 
 cesl'ity'f,"r'' Wiuthrop aud his coadjutors before they left their 
 the colonists, jjomc, ccrtalu it is that an essential independence 
 forced itself upon them in the place of their retreat. The 
 responsibility of a government presently cast itself upon 
 their shoulders. They had a large number of associates 
 to protect by the exercise of all the functions of foreign 
 and domestic administration. They had Indians to look 
 after within their borders, and Indians, French, and Dutch 
 
 ^ See above, pp. 3G4, 370. — "It was of the povcrci^n mncri^trate." (Gorges, 
 doubted tlioy -would, in a short time, Briefe Narration, Chap. XXVI.) 
 wholly shake olF the royal jurisdiction
 
 Chap. X.] MASSACHUSETTS. 387 
 
 without. They could not wait till they could send to 
 England, and get authority from a Secretary of State, 
 likely to be too busy with other matters to give them 
 his attention, before they should hang a murderer, or de- 
 fend a town against an inroad of savages. If it was indis- 
 pensable for such offices to be performed, they could not 
 suffer themselves to be disabled from performing them, 
 either by direct opposition to their government, or by 
 interference with their arrangements for organizing the 
 requisite authority and force. And while, on the one 
 hand, every exercise of power in this direction w^ould 
 confirm in them the habit, and stimulate the feeling, of 
 independence, it would, on the other, be a new occasion 
 of distrust on the part of the government at home. 
 
 Annoyance from the home government was therefore 
 to be expected by the colonists. For protection against it 
 they were to look to their charter, as long as the grants 
 in that instrument should continue to be respected. 
 Against internal dissensions, they had an easy remedy. 
 The freemen of the Massachusetts Company had a right, 
 in equity and in law, to expel from their territory all per- 
 sons who should give them trouble. In their corporate 
 capacity, they were owners of Massachusetts in fee, by a 
 title to all intents as good as that by which any freeholder 
 among them had held his English farm. As pomicai 
 ao^ainst all Europeans, whether Eui^lish or Conti- '■'shtsofthe 
 
 <-j i- o freemen of 
 
 nental, they owned it by a grant from the crown of wassachu- 
 England, to which, by well-settled law, the dispo- 
 sal of it belonged, in consequence of its discovery by an 
 English subject. In respect to any adverse claim on the 
 part of the natives, they had either found the land un- 
 occupied, or had become possessed of it with the con- 
 sent of its earlier proprietors. For the purpose of being 
 at liberty to follow their own judgment and inclination in 
 respect to matters regarded by them with the profoundest 
 interest, they had submitted to an abandonment of their
 
 388 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 homes, and to the extreme hardships incident to settle- 
 ment in a distant wilderness. They thought they had 
 acquired an absolute right to the unmolested enjoyment 
 of what had cost them so dear. Having withdrawn across 
 an ocean, to escape from the interference of others with 
 their own management of their own affairs, they conceived 
 that they were entitled to protect themselves from such 
 interference for the future by the exclusion of disturbing 
 intruders from their wild domain. And that privilege 
 they regarded as further assured to them by the letter of 
 English law ; for the royal charter, under which they 
 held, gave them express power to " expulse all such per- 
 son and persons as should at any time attempt or enter- 
 prise detriment or annoyance to their plantation or its 
 inhabitants." In this, as in other respects, their charter 
 was their Palladium. To lose it would be ruin. What- 
 ever might imperil their possession of it, required to be 
 watched by them with the most jealous caution. 
 
 Accordingly, the associate who could sympathize with 
 them, and join his hand with theirs in building up the new 
 institutions in church and state, was welcome. Whoever 
 had views and objects so different from theirs, that his 
 presence among them would be an occasion of weakness 
 or of strife, had, in their judgment, no claim to fasten 
 himself upon them. It would be better for both parties 
 that he should establish himself, with others like-minded, 
 in some solitude of his own, as they had done. It would 
 be no hardship to him to be refused a home on soil only 
 as yet begun to be redeemed from the wildness of nature. 
 There was no want of vacant spots, and those close at 
 hand, at least as attractive as that which they had chosen. 
 At all events, having paid so dearly for quiet, they claimed 
 its unobstructed enjoyment. Their poor home was their 
 own ; no one had rights there but themselves ; it was for 
 them to judge in what cases hospitality would be consistent 
 with security and quiet. The right of self-preservation, for
 
 Chap. X.] MASSACHUSETTS. 389 
 
 commonwealths as for individuals, involves almost unlim- 
 ited immunities. In both, an excessive caution may dic- 
 tate needlessly rigid measures of defence; but, when the 
 life of either seems in peril, the privilege of counteraction 
 is large enough to justify severer measures than the mere 
 removal of an assailant from the place where the danger 
 of his presence has been disclosed. 
 
 However distasteful to the Magistrates the action of the 
 fifth General Court had for the moment been, they found 
 reason to rejoice in it before the next four years were 
 passed. A suspended question of power between them 
 and the freemen, with its attendant disputes and jeal- 
 ousies, would have disabled both parties for the action 
 which events were about to require ; and the extension of 
 the responsibility of government to a considerable number 
 of persons, with a great interest in common, and capacity 
 to understand it, proved to be an opportune element of 
 strength. The Court had scarcely been dissolved, when 
 tidings came from England of a nature to impress ie34. 
 the minds of the rulers in Massachusetts, more i.nporfant 
 seriously than ever before, with a sense of the f^ol^nKngr 
 magnitude of the task they had undertaken. ^*'"*' 
 
 On the one hand, new cause for encouragement ap- 
 peared. Mr. Humphrey, who came over with a quantity 
 of arms and ammunition, presented by friends of the Col- 
 ony in England, reported that " godly people began noAv 
 to apprehend a special hand of God in raising this plan- 
 tation, and their hearts were generally stirred to come 
 over." Intelligence to the same effect came from Scottish 
 settlers in the North of Ireland ; and " Mr. Humphrey 
 brought certain propositions from some persons of great 
 quality and estate, and of special note for piety, whereby 
 they discovered their intentions to join the Colony, if they 
 misfht receive satisfaction therein." ^ The Earl of War- 
 
 1 Wintlirop, I. 135; comp. 172. — by Hutchinson in liis History (I. 433), 
 
 Tiiesc "propositions" wera i)iil)!isliL'J under tlie title of " Certain Proposals 
 33*
 
 390 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 wick, in a letter to Winthrop, " congratulated the pros- 
 perity of the plantation, eneouraged their proceedings, and 
 offered his help." -^ 
 
 On the other hand, Mr. Humphrey brought tidings of 
 
 made by Lord Say, Lord Brooke, and 
 other persons of quality, as conditions of 
 their removing to New England." The 
 jjrojjosals are there accompanied by the 
 answers to each, which, from a letter of 
 Cotton to Lord Say and Sele, appear to 
 have been sent in 1636. The document 
 m extremely curious on many accounts, 
 and not least so for the relation which 
 it bears to the opinion I have offered 
 respecting a vision, in the minds of the 
 Puritan leaders, of a renovated Eng- 
 land in America. (See above, p. 308.) 
 The Proposals contemplated a govern- 
 ment by two houses of legislature, each 
 with a negative on the other, the first 
 to consist of an hereditary peerage. 
 Divested of some of their details, they 
 ■were to this effect: "That the com- 
 monwealth should consist of two dis- 
 tinct ranks of men, whereof the one 
 should be, for them and their heirs, 
 gentlemen of the country; the other, 
 for them and their heirs, freeholders"; 
 "that the Governor should ever be chosen 
 out of the rank of gentlemen"; "that, 
 for the present, the Eight Honorable 
 the Lord Viscount Say and Sele, the 
 Lord Brooke, who had already been 
 at great dislnirscments for the public 
 works in New England, and such other 
 gentlemen of approved sincerity and 
 worth as they, before their personal re- 
 move, should take into their number, 
 should be admitted, for them and their 
 heirs, gentlemen of the country ; but, 
 for the future, none should be admitted 
 into this rank but by the consent of 
 both Houses"; " that the rank of free- 
 holdei-s should be made up of such as 
 should have so much personal there as 
 should be thought fit for men of that 
 condition, and have contributed some fit 
 
 proportion to the public charge of the 
 country, either by their disbursements 
 or labors." 
 
 To comply with such " proposals" was 
 impossible. To lose such friends as had 
 made them would have been a great 
 misfortune. It was a misfortune at all 
 events to be postponed ; and the An- 
 swers, it seems, were deferred nearly 
 two years. These Answers arc a model 
 for address, but the paper is too long to 
 copy here. To the Proposal of the lords 
 for themselves and their heirs to be legis- 
 lators in New England, the Answer is : 
 " The great disbursements of these noble 
 personages and worthy gentlemen we 
 
 thankfully acknowledge But, 
 
 though that charge had never been 
 disbursed, the worth of the honorable 
 persons named is so well known to all, 
 and our need of such supports and 
 guides is so sensible to ourselves, that 
 we do not doubt the country would 
 thankfully accept it, as a singular favor 
 from God and from them, ii" he should 
 bow their hearts to come into this wil- 
 derness and help us When 
 
 God blesseth any branch of any noble 
 or generous family with a spirit and 
 gifts fit for government, it would be 
 a taking of God's name in vain to put 
 such a talent under a bushel, and a sin 
 against the honor of magistracy to neg- 
 lect such in our public elections. But. 
 if God should not delight to furnish 
 some of their posterity with gifts fit 
 for magistracy, we should expose them 
 rather to reproach and prejudice, and 
 the commonwealth with them, than ex- 
 alt them to honor, if we should call 
 them forth, when God doth not, to 
 public authority." 
 
 1 Winthrop, L 137.
 
 Chap. X.] MASSACHUSETTS. 391 
 
 serious danger impending from abroad. The jealousy of 
 the royal government, carried on for the last five years with- 
 out a Parliament, and growing every day more despotic in 
 church and state, had been revealed in the Order 
 
 Feb. 21. 
 
 of the Privy Council to detain ten vessels about to 
 sail from London with passengers for New England.^ The 
 attempts against the charter, baffled a year before, were re- ^ 
 newed, and an order had been obtained from the Lords of 
 Council for its production at their board.^ The alarm in 
 Massachusetts reached its height when intelligence came of 
 a design to send out a General Governor,^ and of the crea-- 
 tion of a special commission for the management ^prii lo. 
 of all the colonies and for the revocation of their <^"'""'^' 
 
 commission, 
 
 charters, with Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, at andrecaiiof 
 its head. Mr. Cradock transmitted a copy of the 
 Order of Council requiring the production of the patent. 
 For the present the Magistrates simply replied, that they 
 had no power to do anything of the kind without the 
 direction of the General Court, which would not meet for 
 two months. They sent letters, " to mediate their 
 
 ,, "^ July. 
 
 peace," by Mr. Winslow, on whose personal agency 
 it may be presumed that they also placed reliance. 
 
 There is no matter of surprise in the vigorous assault 
 now made upon the charter of Massachusetts by the coun- 
 sellors of King Charles. The difficult questions Poiicyofthe 
 are, how it came to be originally granted, and 
 why, when assailed only a year before the pres- 
 ent hostile movements, it had been treated with so much 
 favor.^ Considering the character of the king on the one 
 hand, and the provisions of the charter on the other, it 
 seems necessary to conclude, either that its tenor was not 
 well known to him when it received his assent, or else 
 
 1 See above, pp. 370, 371. Morton to "Mr. Jeffery, an old plant- 
 
 2 AVinthrop, I. 135. — The Order is er," who carried it to the Governor, 
 in Hazard, I. 341. (Winthrop, I. 138.) 
 
 3 This news came in the first week ^ Ibid., 137. 
 
 of August, in a letter from Thomas ^ See above, pp. 3G4, 305. 
 
 court in rela- 
 liun to Mas- 
 sacliusetts.
 
 392 HISTORY OF new England. [book i. 
 
 that his purpose in granting it was to encourage the de- 
 parture of Puritans from England, at the time when he 
 was entering upon measures which might bring on a dan- 
 gerous conflict with that party. The former supposition 
 is scarcely to be reconciled with what appears to be a well- 
 authenticated fact, that the charter was procured through 
 the intervention of that vigilant courtier and sensitive 
 churchman, Lord Dorchester/ The latter supposition 
 derives some plausibility from the tortuous policy of the 
 king, a policy to which his experienced diplomatist was 
 in no wise averse. 
 
 The charter of the Massachusetts Company had passed 
 the seals almost simultaneously with the king's annuncia- 
 tion, after an exciting controversy with three Parliaments, 
 of his purpose to govern without Parliaments in future. It 
 might well appear to him, that, in the contests which per- 
 haps were to follow, his task would be made easier if 
 numbers of the patriots could be tempted to absent them- 
 selves from the kingdom ; and when he should ha^se suc- 
 ceeded, and the laws and liberties of England should be 
 stricken down, there would be nothing in his past grants 
 to embarrass him in his treatment of the exiles, and his 
 arm would be long enough to reach and strong enough 
 to crush them in their distant hiding-place. Or, if no 
 scheme so definite as this was entertained, the grant of 
 the charter, inviting attention to a distant object, might 
 do something for his present relief, by breaking up the 
 dangerous concentration of the thoughts of the Puritans 
 on the state of affairs at home." 
 
 ^ Sec in Chalmers's " Annals" (117) having brouglit English versification to 
 
 "the docket of the grant," as preserved its modern refinement, wrote a masque 
 
 in the Privy-Seal Office. — Lord Dor- entitled " Crelum Britannicum," which 
 
 Chester was the Sir Dudley Carleton was performed at Whitehall, February 
 
 who, in the capa<nty of King James's 18, 1633, the king himself taking a part 
 
 ambassador, had worried lirewster in in it. Momus, one of the speakers, pro- 
 
 theXctlicrlands. See above, p. 141, note, poses to transport the Vices to New 
 
 2 Tliomas Carcw, whose name con- England : " I shoulii conceive it a very 
 
 tests with that of ^Vallcr the praise of discreet course to embark them
 
 Chap. X.] MASSACHUSETTS. 393. 
 
 Whatever was the king's design in granting the char- 
 ter, nothing occurred to change his course of action in 
 respect to it for the next four years. Within that time 
 there had been only one large emigration; and, if he 
 heard anything of the Colony, he must have heard that it 
 seemed languishing. There was therefore no motive to lay 
 a heavy hand on it ; and accordingly the complaint of Ma- 
 son and others at the end of the fourth year was carelessly 
 dismissed. In the fifth year, things took a different turn. 
 Eight or nine hundred Englishmen went to Massachu- 
 setts, some of them important men. The Colony had got 
 through its first difficulties, and was vigorous. If the 
 king and his Archbishop had heard of all that it had been 
 doing, they knew that its progress could not be stopped 
 too soon for their advantage. On the other hand, Charles 
 seemed to have surmounted the first difficulties of his 
 career as an absolute monarch. More than five years had 
 passed of government without a Parliament, and England 
 was not yet in arms. Subservient courts of justice, and 
 the parasites about his person, may well have persuaded 
 him that England was at his feet. He had just come 
 from his coronation in Scotland, elated with his loyal re- 
 ception in the dominion of his fathers. The Star Cham- 
 ber was in unopposed activity. Laud had just been made 
 the first clergyman, peer, and counsellor of the realm ; 
 and Laud, at the ear of his sovereign, was not a man to 
 forget the claims of the Church, or to postpone the harsh 
 exercise of power. We may find it hard to satisfy our- 
 selves of the reason for granting the charter of Massachu- 
 setts Bay ; but, as to the causes of the early proceedings 
 for its destruction, there is no perplexity. 
 
 all together in that good ship called the bodies of this kingdom." (Chalmers, 
 
 Argo, and send them to the plantation English Poets, V. 629.) Considering 
 
 in New England, which hath purged the intimate relations of Carew to the 
 
 more virulent humors from the politic court, this may fairlv be interpreted as 
 
 body, than guaiacum and all the West- an indication of the supposed policy of 
 
 Indian dru2;s have from the material the king.
 
 394 msTORY OF new England. [Book i. 
 
 The General Court of Magistrates and Deputies came 
 together, and on their table lay a copy of the instrument 
 which gave power to eleven courtiers to ruin them and 
 theirs. The Commissioners were found to be the two 
 Archbishops, six lay peers, and three other high function- 
 aries. They, or any five of them, were invested with 
 " power of protection and government " over all English 
 colonies. They had authority " to make laws, orders, and 
 constitutions"; to provide for the maintenance of a cler- 
 gy " by tithes, oblations, and other profits " ; " to inflict 
 punishment, cither by imprisonment or other re- 
 straints, or by loss of life or members " ; to remove and 
 appoint governors and other officers ; to establish eccle- 
 siastical courts ; to hear and determine complaints, " either 
 
 against the whole colonies, or any private member 
 
 thereof," and for that purj^ose " to summon the persons 
 before them " ; and finally, to call in all letters-patent, 
 and, if any were found to convey privileges hurtful to the 
 " crown or prerogative royal," to cause them to be legally 
 revoked.^ 
 
 Since the tidings came from England of the alarming 
 measures in train, the members of the Court had had time 
 for conference with their neighbors, and were probably 
 well agreed as to what business they should transact. A 
 determined spirit does not closely calculate resources. It 
 easily believes that the way will appear, when the will 
 
 Sept. 3. is constant. The first orders adopted were for 
 ofurceT the erection of fortifications on Castle Island in 
 crai Court. i^Qstou liarbor, and at Charlestown and Dorches- 
 ter. Next the captains were authorized " to train unskil- 
 ful men so often as they pleased, provided they exceeded 
 not three days in a week." Dudley, Winthrop, Ilaynes, 
 Humphrey, and Endicott w-ere appointed " to consult, di- 
 rect, and give command for the managing and ordering 
 of any war that might befall for the space of a year next 
 
 1 The commission is in Hazard, I. 344.
 
 Chap. X.] MASSACHUSETTS. 395 
 
 ensuing, and till further order should be taken therein." 
 Arrangements were made for the collection and custody of 
 arms and ammunition. Then various small matters of com- 
 mon legislation were despatched as usual. Swine, weirs, 
 ordinaries, and ferries were regulated ; the public use of 
 tobacco, and the making, buying, and wearing of " slashed 
 clothes," were forbidden ; and, after appointing " a day of 
 public humiliation throughout the several plantations," 
 the General Court adjourned.^ During the winter, no new 
 alarm came from abroad. The ministers were in- 1535, 
 vited by the Governor and Assistants to a consul- •'''"• ^^• 
 tation at Boston on the existing state of affairs. All came 
 but one, Mr. Ward, who was lately arrived ; and the 
 unanimous advice of those present was : " If a General 
 Governor were sent, we ought not to accept him, but de- 
 fend our lawful possessions, if we were able; otherwise 
 to avoid or protract." ^ It might prove that the king of 
 England was able to coerce these people by force ; to co- 
 erce them by intimidation was beyond his power. 
 
 The great subject of anxiety presented itself again at 
 the next General Court. An order was passed, 
 
 Marcli 4, 
 
 " that the fort at Castle Island, now begun, shall 
 be fully perfected, the ordinances mounted, and every 
 other thing about it finished"; and the Deputy-Governor, 
 who had it in charge, was empowered " to press men for 
 that work."^ By another vote, it was directed "that there 
 should be forthwith a beacon set on the sentry hill at Bos- 
 ton, to give notice to the country of any danger, 
 
 and that, upon the discovery of any danger, the beacon 
 should be fired." To secure a supply of musket-balls, 
 they were made a legal tender for payments, at the rate of 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 123-128. ure. (Winthrop, I. 137.) Maverick 
 
 2 Winthrop, I. 154. was directed to remove from his island, 
 
 3 " The Governor and Council, and which was opposite to Castle Island, 
 divers of the ministers and others," had into the town. (Mass. Col. Rec, I. 
 just before made a reconnoissance of 140.) This must have been on account 
 Castle Island, with a view to this meas- of his doubtful loj'alty to the Colony.
 
 396 HISTORY OF new England. [Book i. 
 
 a farthing apiece, instead of the coin, the circulation of 
 which was forbidden. Further rules were made for the 
 enforcement of a strict military discipline ; and the " Free- 
 man's Oath " of fidelity to the local government was re- 
 quired to be taken fey every man " resident within the 
 jurisdiction," and being " of or above the age of sixteen 
 years." Finally, a military commission was established 
 with extraordinary powers. The Magistrates and Mr. 
 Bellingham were the commissioners. They were author- 
 ized "to dispose of all military affairs whatsoever"; "to 
 ordain and remove all military officers " ; " to do whatso- 
 ever might be behooveful for the good of the plantation, in 
 case of any war that might befall"; " to imprison or con- 
 fine any that they should judge to be enemies to the com- 
 mouAvealth ; and such as would not come under command 
 or restraint, as they should be required, it should be lawful 
 for the commissioners to put such persons to death." -^ 
 
 The demand from England for a transmission of the 
 charter had received no other notice from the General 
 Court than what these proceedings imply. The govern- 
 ment of Charles the First was pressed with too much 
 business to follow up a policy of consistent vigor against 
 the contumacious Colony. But the Lords Commissioners 
 
 made the provisional experiment of an Order pro- 
 December. ... 
 
 hibiting the emigration of all persons of the degree 
 of " a subsidy man" without a special license, and of all per- 
 sons beneath tliat degree without evidence of their having 
 taken the oaths of supremacy and allegiance, and of their 
 " conformity to the orders of discipline of the Church of 
 England." " This was while another measure of better 
 promise was in train. As fiir as the Order took effect, 
 it would enfeeble the resistance of the Massachusetts Com- 
 pany, now doomed to be overthrown by an abuse of law. 
 The Council for New England, having struggled through 
 nearly fifteen years of maladministration and ill-luck, had 
 
 1 Mass. Col. llec. I. 135-143. 2 The Order Is in Hazard, I. 347.
 
 Chap. X.] 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 397 
 
 yielded to the discouragements which beset it. By the 
 royal favor, it had triumphed over the rival Vir- Dissolution 
 ginia Company, to be overwhelmed in its turn by "[i for nIw' 
 the just jealousy of Parliament, and by dissen- J^"g'a"c'- 
 sions among its members. The Council, having, by profuse 
 and inconsistent grants of its lands,^ exhausted its com- 
 
 1 The following is a list of grants 
 made, or alleged to have been made, 
 by the Council for New England, be- 
 fore the final partition. 
 
 1621. June 1. To John Pierce, of 
 lands at Plymouth. For the particulars 
 of this transaction, see above, p. 194. 
 
 1621. To Sir William Alexander, of 
 the peninsula of Nova Scotia. This 
 grant was confirmed by a royal charter 
 of September 10 of the same year. 
 See above, p. 234. 
 
 1622. March 9. To Captain John 
 Mason, of a tract, called Mariana, ex- 
 tending from Naumkeag to the river 
 Merrimack. See above, pp. 204, 205. 
 
 1622. April 20. To John Pierce, 
 of the lands of the Plymouth planters. 
 See above, p. 209. 
 
 1622. May 31. Patents were or- 
 dered " to be drawn for the Earl of 
 Warwick and his associates." Tliis 
 transaction I understand to have be- 
 longed to the partition of the territory 
 from the Bay of Fundy to Narragan- 
 sett Bay among twenty associates. See 
 above, pp. 222, 285. 
 
 1622. August 10. To Gorges and 
 Mason, o^ Laconia, extending along the 
 coast from the Merrimack to the Ken- 
 nebec. See above, p. 205. 
 
 1622. November 16. " To Mr. 
 Thompson " (Journal of the Council for 
 New England). This may well have been 
 David Thompson, afterwards resident on 
 the Piscataqua and in Boston harbor. 
 
 To the same year must be referred 
 the patent to Thomas Weston, by virtue 
 of which he attempted the plantation at 
 Wessagusset. See above, p. 199. 
 
 1622. December 30. To Robert 
 
 VOL. I. 34 
 
 Gorges, of lands on Boston Bay. See 
 above, p. 206. 
 
 1623. To Ferdinando Gorges (grand- 
 son of Sir Ferdinando) and Colonel Nor- 
 ton, of twenty-four thousand acres, at 
 Agamenticus. See Gorges, Ch. XXV. 
 
 1625. If Wollaston had a patent, it 
 belongs to this or an earlier year. See 
 above, p. 222. 
 
 1627. To the Plymouth people, of 
 lands on the Kennebec. See above, 
 p. 230. 
 
 1628. March 19. To Sir Henry 
 Roswell and his five associates, of the 
 tract between the Merrimack and the 
 Charles, and three miles bej'ond each 
 liver. See above, p. 288. 
 
 1629. Nov. 7. To John Mason, of 
 New Hampshire, from the Piscataqua to 
 the Merrimack. See Hazard, I. 291. 
 
 1630. January 13. To the Ply- 
 mouth Colony, of the lands occupied by 
 it, and of lands on the Kennebec. See 
 above, p. 332. 
 
 1630. February 12. To Thomas 
 Lewis, Elchard Boaj'thon, Richard 
 Vines, and John Oldham, of lands on 
 Saco River. 
 
 1630. March 13. To John Beau- 
 champ, of London, and Thomas Lever- 
 ett, of Boston, of a tract of a hundred 
 square leagues to the west of Penobscot 
 Bay. This commonly goes by the name 
 of the Muscongus or the Waldo Patent, 
 the latter being the name of a subse- 
 quent purchaser. 
 
 To the same year belongs the Lygonia 
 or Plough Patent, of sixteen hundred 
 square miles between Cape Porpus and 
 Cape Elizabeth, to John Dy and others. 
 
 1631. March 12. To Edward Hil-
 
 398 
 
 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book T. 
 
 mon property, as well as its credit with purchasers for 
 keeping its engagements, had no motive to continue its 
 oriranization. Under these circumstances, it determined 
 on a resignation of its charter to the king,^ and a surren- 
 
 ton, of a tract Inchuling the present 
 towns of Dover, Durham, and Stratham, 
 •with part of Newington and Greenland, 
 in New Hampshire. 
 
 1G31. November 1. To Thomas 
 Cammock, of lands now included in 
 the town of Scarborough, in Maine. 
 
 1G31. November 3. To Gorges 
 and Mason, and their associates, Henry 
 (Gardner, George Griffith, and Thomas 
 Eyer, of lands on the Piscataqua. 
 
 1C31. December 1. To Robert 
 Trelawny and JMoses Goodyeare, mer- 
 chants of Plymouth, of lands bounded 
 on the east by those of Cammock. 
 
 To this or to an earlier year must be 
 referred the patent to the Earl of War- 
 wick which was the foundation of his 
 grant, March 19, 1632, to Lord Say 
 and Sele and others, of the lands of 
 Connecticut. See Hazard, I. 3 18. 
 
 1G3'2. February 29. To Robert 
 Aldsworth and Giles Elbridge, mer- 
 chants of Bristol, of twelve thousand 
 acres (with certain rights of extension), 
 constituting the Pomaquid Patent. 
 
 1G33. December G. The Council 
 confirmed a partition of lands made 
 among themselves by the patentees of 
 November 3, 1G31. 
 
 The irregular manner of transacting 
 the business of the Council is apparent. 
 Nor, in the defective state of the evi- 
 dence, is it possible to say that this enu- 
 meration of alleged grants is complete, 
 or otherwise exact. Shirley wrote to 
 the Plymouth people in 1C29 (Mass. 
 Hi.st. Coll., HI. 71), "I am persuaded 
 Sir Ferdinando (how loving and friend- 
 ly soever he seems to be) knows he 
 can, nay, purposes to, overtlirow, at his 
 pleasure, all the patents he grants." 
 They could not all have stood together. 
 
 1 The reader may find in Hazard 
 (I. 390-394) the "Declaration of the 
 Council for New England for the Resig- 
 nation of the Great Charter, and the Rea- 
 sons moving them thereto," adopted April 
 25, 1G35, in a meeting "at the Earl of 
 Carlisle's chamber at Whitehall " ; their 
 Petition to the king for patents to the 
 members to hold their lands in several- 
 ty (]\Iay 1) ; and their Act of Surren- 
 der of the Gi-eat Charter of New Eng- 
 land to his Majesty (June 7). The 
 Declaration recites, as reasons for the 
 surrender, the great expenses which 
 had been incurred, attended with loss 
 of " near friends and faithful servants " ; 
 the intrigues and vexations of the rival 
 Company of Virginia, which King James 
 had not been able to correct ; and, above 
 all, the interference of the charter of 
 the Massachusetts Company, which is 
 alleged to have been " surreptitiously 
 gotten," in derogation of the rights of 
 Captain Robert Gorges and others. 
 The Council made its contribution to 
 the aims of the king and the Arch- 
 bishop by representing, that the IMassa- 
 chusetts colonists " made themselves a 
 free people, and for such hold of them- 
 selves at present," and that there was 
 no way to reduce them except " for his 
 Majesty to take the whole business into 
 his own hands." 
 
 I referred above (p. 193, note) to a 
 copy, in the State-Paper Office in Lon- 
 don, of a portion of the Journal of the 
 Council for New England, embracing 
 the period from November, 1G31, to 
 November, 1G38. It preserves inter- 
 esting particulars connected with the 
 dissolution of that body. 
 
 At the time of the adoption of the 
 " Declaration," Lord Gorges Avas Presi-
 
 CriAP. X.] 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 399 
 
 der of the administration of its domain to a General Gov- 
 ernor of his appointment, on the condition that all the ter- 
 ritory, a large portion of which by its corporate action had 
 
 dent of the Council, having been elect- 
 ed a week before, April 18, 1G35. John 
 Mason had been Vice-President two 
 years and a half, since a few months 
 after the appearance of a dispute with 
 the Earl of Warwick. Probably the 
 key to the state of parties in the Coun- 
 cil at this time would be found in the 
 d.lTerences of sentiment as to the ten- 
 dency of affairs in Massachusetts. 
 
 " A meeting at Warwick House in 
 Ilolborn," June 29th, 1632, was the sec- 
 ond from which Lord AVarwick was 
 absent, of those registered in the extant 
 portion of the Journal of this period. 
 There was evidently some disagreement 
 with him. " The Lord Great Chamber- 
 lain and the rest of the Council now 
 present sent their clerk unto the Earl 
 of Warwick for the Council's great seal, 
 it being in his Lordship's keeping. His 
 Lordship's answer was, that, as soon as 
 his man W^illiams came in, he should 
 bring it unto them." And " it was now 
 agreed that the place of meeting for the 
 Council of New England shall be here- 
 after at Cajjtain JMason's house in Fen- 
 church Street," instead of Warwick 
 House, as it had hitherto been. At the 
 second meeting before this, dissatisfac- 
 tion had been expressed with a warrant 
 given by Lord Warwick and Lord 
 Arundel to one Ashley, " for his going 
 into New England and being assisted 
 there." Ashley was, I suppose, the same 
 person who became associated with Al- 
 lerton and the Plymouth people in 
 their trade to the Penobscot (see 
 above, p. 337). Lord Warwick's name 
 does not appear at any subsequent 
 meeting of the Council till the last of 
 those recorded. 
 
 November 6, 1632, "It was ordered 
 that the Council's great seal, which now 
 reraaineth in the Earl of Warwick's 
 
 hands, should be called for, that so it 
 might be ready for sealing of patents, 
 as there should be cause." At the same 
 meeting it was determined, " that a new 
 patent from his INIajesty be obtained," 
 and that Lord Baltimore's patent should 
 be examined as a model. And " cei^ 
 tain propositions were read and pro- 
 pounded concerning New England's 
 affairs, as things necessary for the 
 Council to take into present considera- 
 tion, which were as followeth, viz. : that 
 the number of the Committee be with 
 all convenient speed filled ; that all pa- 
 tents formerly granted be called for and 
 perused, and afterwards confirmed, if 
 the Council see it fit; that no ships, 
 passengers, or goods be permitted to be 
 transported for New England, without 
 license from the President and Council, 
 or their deputy or deputies ; that fish- 
 ermen be not pennitted to trade with 
 salvages, nor the servants of planters, 
 nor to cut timber for their ships, with- 
 out license ; that letters from his Majes- 
 ty to the lords of shires, for setting forth 
 their poorer sort of people to New Eng- 
 land, be procured ; that a surveyor 
 speedily be sent over for settling the 
 limits of every plantation according to 
 the patent; also, commissioners to be 
 sent over to bear and determine all 
 differences, and relieve all grievances 
 there, if they can ; if not, to certify the 
 President and Council here in whom 
 the fault is, that speedy order for re- 
 dress may be taken." Finally, " the 
 Dutch plantation " was " to be consid- 
 ered of" 
 
 November 26, 1632. " Li regard the 
 Company's great seal remained in the 
 Earl of Warwick's hands, the Lord 
 Great Chamberlain was entreated to 
 move the said Earl of Warwick effectu- 
 ally for the delivery of it unto Sir Fer-
 
 400 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 already been alienated to other parties, should be granted 
 in severalty by the king to the members of the Council. 
 Twelve associates accordingly proceeded to a distribution 
 
 dinantlo Gorges, in whose hands it 
 ought to remain; also Sir Ferdinando 
 Gorges promised to desire the Lord 
 ]\Iarshal to join with the Lord Great 
 Chamberlain in showing the Earl of 
 AVarwick the necessity of having the 
 seal delivered fortliwith." " Captain 
 John Mason was this meeting chosen 
 Vice-President." This, I suppose, was 
 an arrangement for having, in the un- 
 satisfactory relations to Lord Warwick, 
 a leader of the opposite party perma- 
 nently in the chair in the President's 
 absence. 
 
 June 2C, 163-p-. Mr. Humphrey this 
 day complained to the President and 
 Council for not permitting shijis and 
 passengers to pass from hence for the 
 Bay of Massachusetts, without license 
 first had from the President and Coun- 
 cil or their deputy, tliey being free to 
 go thither and to transport passengers, 
 not only by a patent granted unto them 
 by the President and Council of New 
 England, but also by a confirmation 
 thereof by his ]\Iajesty, under his Ma- 
 jesty's great seal. Hereupon some of 
 the Council desired to see the patent 
 which they had obtained from the Gov- 
 ernor and Council, because, as they al- 
 leged, it pre-indicted former grants. 
 Mr. Humphrey answered, that the said 
 patent was now in New England, and 
 that they had oftentimes written for it 
 to be sent, but as yet they had not re- 
 ceived it." 
 
 February 3, 1635, "At a meeting 
 at the Lord Gorgcs's house, [at which 
 were present the ^Marquis of Hamilton, 
 the Earl of Arundel and Surrey, the 
 Earl of Carlisle, the Earl of Sterling, 
 Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and Captain 
 John ^lason,] was an agree- 
 ment made for the several divisions 
 upon the sea-coast of New England," 
 
 to take effect simultaneously with the 
 surrender of the charter. And an entry 
 in these words is annexed : " Mem. The 
 18th day of April following, leases for 
 three thousand years were made of the 
 several divisions to several persons in- 
 trusted, for their benefits." — For the 
 grant made to Mason, conformably to 
 this agreement, see Hubbard's History, 
 Chap. XXXL This clause occurs in 
 it: "in whose presence, February 3, 
 1G34 [1G35 by change of style], lots 
 were drawn for settling of divers and 
 sundry divisions of lands." The learned 
 editor of the second edition of Hubbard 
 considers the words in iv/tose presence 
 to refer to King James, who is men- 
 tioned in the next preceding clause; 
 and as that monarch died nine years 
 before 1634, the editor has thought it 
 necessary to change the date, and has 
 accordingly altered it to 1G24, so as to 
 identify the partition spoken of with 
 that by which Lord Sheffield obtained 
 his title to Cape Ann (see above, pp. 
 2-22,285). But, 1. the partition to which 
 I^ord Shefheld was a party took place, 
 not in 1624, but in 1622; 2. in the 
 manuscript of Hubbard, the date 1634 
 is twice very plainly written, once in 
 the text, and once in the margin. The 
 mere construction of the sentence would 
 naturally refer the wonls in ichose pres- 
 ence to the king. But, in view of the 
 facts, I think there can be no doubt 
 about referring them to "the Council 
 of New England," who are mentioned 
 just before the mention of the king. 
 In the " Declaration," a partition (that 
 of 1622) is spoken of as having taken 
 place " in his late Majesty's presence " 
 (Hazard, I. 391) ; but from this use of 
 the phrase in one case in reference to 
 the king, no inference whatever can be 
 drawn, that in the other case also the
 
 Chap. X.] 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 401 
 
 of New England among themselves by lot ; and nothing 
 was wantmg to render the transaction complete, and to 
 transfer to them the ownership of that region, except to 
 
 reference must be to him. Lots might 
 be as fitly drawn in the Council's pi-es- 
 ence as in his. The question is mate- 
 rial, because the proposed emendation 
 of Hubbard's text would unsettle the im- 
 portant date of that distribution of the 
 country, in which Lord Sheffield, and 
 through him the Plymouth people, had 
 a part. 
 
 April 26, 1635. " At a meeting at 
 the Earl of Carlisle's chambei-s at AVhite- 
 hall." " The Marquis Hamilton, being 
 in physic, sent word to this meeting by 
 John Winnington, that he would agree 
 to whatever they should resolve on." 
 They resolved on a petition praying for 
 eejiarate patents according to their 
 agreement, and they listened to a 
 " Declaration " from the king respect- 
 ing a General Governor, of Avhich the 
 following was part. " Forasmuch as we 
 have understood and been credibly in- 
 formed of the many inconveniences and 
 mischiefs that have grown and are like 
 more and more to arise among our sub- 
 jects already planted in the parts of 
 New England, by reason of the several 
 opinions and differing humors springing 
 up between them, and daily likely to 
 
 increase, we have resolved with 
 
 ourself to empower our servant. Sir 
 Ferdinando Gorges, as well for that our 
 gracious father of blessed memory as 
 we have had of long time good expe- 
 rience of his fidelity, circumspection, 
 and knowledge of his government in 
 martial affairs and civil, besides his un- 
 derstanding of the state of those coun- 
 tries, wherein he hath been an imme- 
 diate mover, and a principal actor, to 
 the great prejudice of his estate, long 
 troubles, and the loss of many of his 
 good friends and servants." 
 
 May 5, 1635. "Thomas Morton [I 
 suppose, of Merry IMount] is now enter- 
 34* 
 
 tained to be Solicitor for confirmation 
 of the said deeds under the great seal, 
 as also to prosecute suit at law for the 
 repealing of the patent belonging to the 
 Massachusetts Company ; and is to 
 have for fee twenty shillings a term, 
 and such further reward as those who 
 are interested in the affairs of New 
 England shall think him fit to deserve 
 upon the judgment given in the cause." 
 
 November 26, 1635. Orders were 
 made for the passing of the particular 
 patents, " to be expedited with all con- 
 veniency " ; for an apphcation to the 
 Attorney-General "to agree upon the 
 liberties thereof, to be obtained of his 
 Majesty"; and for a petition for allow- 
 ance to be made " for the maintenance 
 and supportation of the Governor in 
 such estate as might sort with the honor 
 thereunto belonging." 
 
 From this day it appears that the 
 meetings of the Council ceased for a 
 time. Yet it was not formally dis- 
 solved ; for there is a record of two later 
 meetings, held March 22 and November 
 1, 1638. In the last record, the place 
 usually filled with the names of the 
 members present is blank, except that 
 the Earl of Warwick is recorded to 
 have been present as President, and 
 Sir Ferdinando Gorges as Treasurer. 
 The last entry is, " It is likewise agreed, 
 that the Lord Goi-ges and Sir Ferdi- 
 nando Gorges shall either of them 
 have sixty miles more added to their 
 proportions further up into the main- 
 land." 
 
 Among the manuscripts in the State- 
 Pajjer Office entitled Ainerica and West 
 Indies, is here and there a document 
 not without interest in connection with 
 this course of events. March 21, 1635, 
 Sir Ferdinando Gorges, in anticipation 
 of his appointment to be Governor-
 
 402 
 
 HISTORY or NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 oust the previous patentees, of whom the most powerful 
 body were colonists in Massachusetts Bay.^ 
 
 To effect this, Sir John Banks, Attorney-General, brought 
 
 a writ of quo ivarranto in Westminster Hall against the 
 
 1635 Massachusetts Company. Sir Henry Roswell, 
 
 September, gjj, JqIiu Youuf]^, aucl twclve others of the origi- 
 
 Quo warranto o O 
 
 against the nal assoclatcs, " came in and pleaded that " they 
 
 Company of .,,.,. 
 
 Massacim- " hau uever usurped any the said liberties, priv- 
 
 aj. iipgQs^ r^ji(j franchises in the information, nor did 
 
 use or claim any of the same " ; and judgment was given 
 
 General, wrote to Secretary Winde- 
 bank, urging upon the Privy Council 
 the importance of prompt action for a 
 repeal of the Massachusetts charter, and 
 of giving him authority for a temporary 
 administration of part of his duties by 
 deputy. — October 1 of the same year. 
 Secretary "Windcbank conveyed to Sir 
 Henry JSIartin, Judge of the Admiralty 
 Court, the king's pleasure " that Cap- 
 tain John Mason, Treasurer to his Ma- 
 jesty's late armies, shall be Vice-Admiral 
 of New England in America," from the 
 fortieth to the forty-eighth degree of 
 latitude ; and he directed a patent to be 
 drawn accordingly. — The following is 
 part of an anonymous letter " to Mr. 
 Comptroller, from New England," of 
 July 28, 16-36. It contains the first 
 threat I have seen that the colonists 
 would remove to some more distant place, 
 in case they were disturbed Avhere they 
 were : " TJie conmion report is, the pa- 
 tent is damned ; in which regard much 
 unsettlement is like to grow amongst 
 ourselves, and great discouragement to 
 the whole plantation ; for those that are 
 truly sincere and are come out to ad- 
 vance the kingdom of the Lord Jesus 
 must either suffer in the cause, or else 
 labor for such retreat as God shall di- 
 rect them to. In either of which cases, 
 I do not doubt but that witliin two years 
 this phmtation, wjiich is now flourishing, 
 would become desolate, and either pos- 
 
 sessed again with Indians or emptied by 
 pestilence. For it is not trade that God 
 will set up in these parts, but the pro- 
 fession of his truth, and therefore, if 
 God's ends be not followed, man's ends 
 will never be blessed nor attained." 
 
 1 That this measure was taken by 
 the Council for New England in collu- 
 sion with the court, and in reference to 
 the measures in progress for vacating 
 the charter of JNIassachusetts, is not mat- 
 ter of conjecture merely. From the 
 petition of the Council for New Eng- 
 land to the Privy Council (Hazard, I. 
 381) relative to the ^surrender, it ap- 
 pears that the latter body had pi-evious- 
 ly given " order to Sir Ferdinando Gor- 
 ges to confer with such as were chiefly 
 interested in the plantations of New 
 England, to resolve Avhether they would 
 resign wholly to his Majesty the patent 
 of New England," &c. — It is not known 
 that the distribution now made by the 
 Council was ever confirmed by the king 
 in any other instance than that of the 
 grant to Sir Ferdinando Gorges. (See 
 Chalmers, Annals, 2!)9 ; Hubbard, in 
 JNIass. Hist. Coll., XV. 232.) Of the 
 pretended confirmation, by the king, 
 of the grant to Mason, the Attorney- 
 General and the Solicitor-General, Ry- 
 der and Murray, said in 1752, "No 
 such charter as this appears upon rec- 
 ord." (Chalmers, Opinions of Eminent 
 Lawyers, &c., I. G2.)
 
 Chap. X.] MASSACHUSETTS. 403 
 
 that they " should not for the future intermeddle with 
 any the liberties, privileges, or franchises aforesaid, but 
 should be for ever excluded from all use and claim of the 
 same and every of them." Cradock, the former Governor, 
 made default; and, in his case, "judgment was given that 
 he should be convicted of the usurpation charged in the 
 information, and that the said liberties, privileges, and 
 franchises should be taken and seized into the king's 
 hands, the said Matthew not to intermeddle with and be 
 excluded the use thereof, and the said Matthew to be 
 taken to answer to the king for the said usurpation." •■• 
 Of the eleven remaining original patentees, Humphrey, 
 Endicott, Nowell, Bellingham, Pynchon, and William 
 Vassall were then in New England, and Johnson had died 
 there. 
 
 It seemed that, when a few more forms should be 
 gone through, all would be over with the presumptuous 
 Colony. In the view of English law, the Englishmen 
 who had gone to Massachusetts had no rights and no 
 property there. Divided into provinces, Massachusetts 
 belonged to Gorges, Mason, the Marquis of Hamilton, 
 and whoever else had won by lot any of its dismembered 
 parts. In the regular course of proceeding, nothing re- 
 mained but for the local government voluntarily to abdi- 
 cate, and for the people to abandon their homes, or else for 
 the king to send out his Governor, backed by a sufficient 
 force, and turn over the land to its new masters. But 
 neither of these things took place. In Massachusetts, the 
 whole proceeding was a nullity. Everything went on, as 
 if Westminster Hall had not spoken. " The Lord frus- 
 trated their design." ^ 
 
 1 The writ and the judorment may but to the due exercise of powers ex- 
 be seen in Hazard (I. 423-425), and in pressly given by the charter; so that 
 Hutchinson's " Collection of Original the complaint against the Company 
 Papers" (101-104). The charges, four- rested partly upon a pretence that its 
 teen in number, relate, not only to the charter was ah initio invalid, 
 alleged usurpation and abuse of powers, 2 Winthrop, I. 161.
 
 404: HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Eook I. 
 
 The disorders of the mother country were a safeguard 
 of the infant Hbcrty of New England. Laud was busy 
 with his more important plan of prclatizing the Church 
 of Scotland, England was in a rage on the question 
 of ship-money. An unsuccessful attempt to launch a 
 vessel intended to bring over the General Governor, and 
 the decease at this juncture of John Mason, were re- 
 garded by Winthrop as eminent interpositions of God 
 in behalf of his chosen people.^ The death of the able 
 and energetic Mason was, at all events, a great relief to 
 the leaders of affairs in Massachusetts. As a principal 
 member, and Secretary, of the Council for New England, 
 and as holder of patents with which the Massachusetts 
 charter interfered, he had been mdefatigable in his en- 
 deavors for the annullins: of that instrument. Disaffected 
 persons, returning from the Colony, had steadily resorted 
 to him as the standing agent of their revenge; and, with 
 whatever influence he could exert, he had promoted the 
 schemes of a Commission for the Plantations and of a 
 General Governor. Though the more generous Gorges 
 lived to render good service to his master in the great 
 civil war,- he was already growing old, and was dispirited 
 by the thirty years' ill-success of projects which had 
 wasted his fortune and involved him in infinite discom- 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 187. — "One Ferdi- fatal danger, nor hath since suffered 
 nando Gorges was nominated for Gov- them as yet to come under the hke 
 emor, and there was a consultation had fear." (Autobiography and Correspond- 
 to send him thither with a thousand sol- ence of Sir Siuiouds D'Ewes, Bart., II. 
 diers; a ship Avas now in building and 118.) 
 
 near finished to transport him by sea, ^ In Bell's " IMemorials of the Civil 
 
 and much fear there was amongst the War" (I. 299) is an interesting letter 
 
 godly lest that infant commonwealth of thanks from Gorges to Lord Fairfax, 
 
 and church should have been ruined dated June 1, 1G4G. This was after he 
 
 by him ; when God, that had carried so had met with " untimely sufferances," 
 
 many weak and crazy ships thither, so being taken prisoner, when in arms for 
 
 provided it, that this strong, new-built the king. lie represents himself as 
 
 ship in the very launching fell all in having been " fearful to side with either 
 
 pieces, no man knew how, this spring party, as not able to judge of so trau- 
 
 ensuing, and so preserved his dear chil- scendeut a difference." 
 drcn there at this present from that
 
 Chap. X.] 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 405 
 
 fort. It was perhaps owing not a little to tlie decay of 
 his former activity, that the proceedings under the quo 
 warranto against the Massachusetts Company proved fruit- 
 less. 
 
 While the events which have been now related wore 
 their most alarming phase, domestic embarrassments add- 
 ed to the terrors of foreign encroachment. In the midst 
 of a crisis calling for all the energy and wisdom of the 
 colonists to avert the ruin that seemed to impend, a char- 
 acter prominent in New England history interposed by a 
 course of action which complicated the existing difficulties. 
 
 Roger AVilliams,^ after some residence at the University 
 
 1 In the librar}'' of Trinity College, 
 Cambridge, are six original letters which 
 passed between ]\Irs. Sadleir, daughter 
 of Sir Edward Coke, and Williams, 
 when the latter was in London on the 
 business of his plantation in 1652. He 
 had just come, he says, " from some parts 
 of New England, with some addresses 
 to the Parliament." Prefixed to the 
 letters is the following note by Mrs. 
 Sadleir's hand, which must have been 
 written after the Restoration. 
 
 " This Roger Williams, when he was a 
 youth, would in a short hand take ser- 
 mons, and speeches in the Star Cham- 
 ber, and present them to my dear father. 
 [Comp. " George Fox digged out of his 
 Burrowes," 84.] He, seeing him so hope- 
 ful a youth, took such a liking to him that 
 
 he sent him to Sutton's Hospital 
 
 Full httle did he think that he would 
 have proved such a rebel to God, the 
 king, and his country. I leave his let- 
 ters, that, if ever he has the face to re- 
 turn unto his native country, Tyburn 
 may give him welcome." In Williams's 
 first letter, he says : " The never-dying 
 honor and respect which I owe to that 
 dear and honorable root and his branch- 
 es have emboldened me once 
 
 more to inquire," &c. " That man of 
 honor and wisdom and piety, your dear 
 
 father, was often pleased to call me his 
 son ; and truly it was as bitter as death 
 to me, when Bishop Laud pursued me 
 out of this land, and my conscience was 
 persuaded against the national Church 
 and ceremonies and bishops beyond the 
 conscience of your dear father, — I say 
 it was as bitter as death to me, when I 
 rode Windsor way to take ship at Bris- 
 towe, and saw Stoke House, where that 
 blessed man was, and durst not acquaint 
 him with my conscience and my flight." 
 Professor Elton's researches in Eng- 
 land have ascertained that Williams was 
 a native of the county of Caermarthen, 
 in South Wales, and that he was entered 
 as a pupil at Sutton's Hospital (the 
 Charter House), June 25, 1621, and at 
 Jesus College, Oxford, April 30, 1624, 
 being then, according to the record, 
 eighteen years old. (Elton, Life of 
 Roger Williams, 9, 10.) He had been 
 understood by our historians to be 
 seven years older. In 1673, he wrote, 
 " From my childhood, now above three- 
 score years." (" George Fox digged 
 out of his Burrowes," Pref.) In a let- 
 ter written in 1679, he described him- 
 self as " near to fourscore j'ears of age." 
 (Backus, History of New England, I. 
 421.) But this is not inappropriate 
 language for a man of seventy-three.
 
 406 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Booi I. 
 
 of Oxford, perhaps under the patronage of Sir Edward 
 Coke, is believed to have been admitted to orders in the 
 ji„g„ Established Church. He had subsequently sepa- 
 
 wiiiiams. pated himself from that communion, and, sympa- 
 thizing with the hopes of other non-conformists, had ar- 
 ic3i_ rived at Boston the next year after the transpor- 
 ^^^■^- tation of the charter, being then probably in the 
 twenty-fifth year of his age. A reputation for talents and 
 piety had preceded him; and a few weeks only passed 
 before the church at Salem invited him to succeed Hig- 
 frinson as their teacher.^ He had made the most of his 
 short time in becoming obnoxious to the government; 
 and " a letter was written from the Court to Mr. 
 
 April 12. 
 
 Endicott to this effect, that, whereas Mr. Williams 
 had refused to join with the congregation at Boston be- 
 cause they would not make public declaration of their 
 repentance for having communion with the churches of 
 England while they lived there, and besides had declared 
 his opinion that the magistrate might not punish the 
 breach of the Sabbath, nor any other offence as it was a 
 breach of the first table, therefore they marvelled they 
 would choose him without advising with the Council, and 
 withal desiring them that they would forbear to proceed 
 till they had conferred about it." " 
 
 It would be hard to denounce these objections as un- 
 
 1 A curious letter of Roger "Williams them to be." It is hard to suppose that, 
 
 to John Cotton, of Plymouth, dated when "Williams made this statement, 
 
 " Providence, 25 ]\Iarch, 1671 (so (forty years after the transaction, and 
 
 called)," has just come to lijxht amonj]; -when he was sixty-five years old,) his 
 
 the papers of the late Dr. Belknap, and memory was misled by his imagina- 
 
 is now in the possession of the ]\Iassa- tion. But, on the opposite supposition, 
 
 chusetts Historical Society, by whose it is very extraordinary that the fact is 
 
 kind permission I use it. In it "W^illiams not mentioned in any record of the 
 
 says, " In New [England] being un an i- time. Therecordsof the Boston church 
 
 moushj chosen teacher at Boston (before cannot be appealed to in the case. The 
 
 your dear father came divers years), only entry they contain previous to 
 
 I conscientiously refused and withdrew Oclober, 10.32, is that of the covenant 
 
 to Plymouth, because I durst not ofTici- of clnirch-mcnibers. 
 ate to an unseparated peo[)le, as upon 2 "Wiuthroj), I. 53. 
 examination and conference 1 I'ound
 
 Chap. X.] MASSACHUSETTS. 407 
 
 reasonable, judging them even by the standard of the 
 sentiments and practice of the present day. To assume 
 at once an attitude of opposition to th^ churches which 
 with so much pains had been followed to a distant coun- 
 try, argued an eccentricity unprom^jsing of usefulness in 
 the pastoral office, as well as of the exertion of a harmo- 
 nizing influence in the new society. To refuse communion 
 with all but such as would D^ake proclamation of their 
 repentance for having formerly partaken the elements with 
 communicants of the Church of England, was to occasion 
 offence at once superfluous, and dangerous in powerful 
 quarters at home. The " first table " of the Decalogue, 
 consisting of the first four precepts, was understood to 
 forbid four offences, idolatry, perjury, blasphemy, and 
 Sabbath-breaking. Of these the last two stand as penal 
 offences on the statute-book of Massachusetts at the pres- 
 ent day ; the second, there is no government that does not 
 punish; while, in the judgment of the age and the place 
 now treated of, a denial of the right to suppress idolatry 
 was a denial of the right to provide securities against an 
 irruption of Komanism. It should not excite surprise that 
 the Magistrates thought it would be hazardous to good 
 government and the public peace to have their authority 
 in matters of such moment' denounced, by a hot-headed 
 young man, from the first pulpit of the Colony. 
 
 The Salem church, however, proceeded, and Williams 
 had already become their teacher when the remonstrance 
 reached them. Precisely how long he remained in that 
 place is unknown ; but some time in the same, or perhaps 
 in the following year, he withdrew to the more benignant 
 atmosphere of Plymouth Colony, and became assistant to 
 the pastor of the church there, the separatist, Mr. Smith. 
 The affection of his Salem flock still followed him, and 
 he was persuaded to retrace his steps, and resume 
 a home among them. The mild Brewster, loving 
 his virtues, but weary of his restless and disputatious
 
 408 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 spirit, was anxious to be rid of him.^ lie returned to 
 Salem with more confidence in himself from the position 
 which he had occupied while absent, and the popular 
 favor which invited him back. 
 
 At Salem, Williams was not immediately called to cler- 
 ical office, but exercised his gifts by way of " prophecy," 
 as it was called, for about a year. His first outbreak 
 after his return was against the practice, then beginning, 
 and continued to the present day, of associations, 
 
 November. 
 
 as they are called, of neighboring clergymen 
 meeting at fixed intervals, and passing part of a day to- 
 gether in theological discussion and neighborly and fra- 
 ternal intercourse. Against this practice "Williams in- 
 veighed, as being what " might grow in time to a presby- 
 tery or superintendency, to the prejudice of the Church's 
 liberties." ~ But this complaint did no public harm, and 
 nobody seems to have troubled himself about it. 
 
 While at Plymouth, he had presented to the Governor 
 and Assistants of that Colony a treatise, in which, accord- 
 ing to Winthrop's account, " among other things, he dis- 
 puted their right to the land they possessed here, and con- 
 cluded, that, claiming by the king's grant, they could have 
 no title ; nor otherwise, except they compounded with the 
 
 natives." At the request of the Maj^istrates of 
 
 Doc. 27. . ^ . ^ 
 
 Massachusetts, it was subjected to their examina- 
 tion, and was found to contain matter for serious uneasi- 
 ness, both as tending to bring into question the titles to 
 estates, and to occasion high displeasure at the English 
 court, the more as it was accompanied with language of 
 studied affront to the late and to the reigning king. Being 
 
 1 Morton, Memorial, 151. — Brad- ford «ays (ibid.) that it was " with some 
 ford (310), after the experience of a caution to them concerning him, and 
 year or two, describes him as " a man what care they ouglit to liave of liim." 
 godly and zealous, having many precious AVinthrop's interview Avith him at Ply- 
 parts, but very unsettled in judgment." mouth has been mentioned above (p. 
 When he was dismissed from Plymouth 335). 
 to go back to the Salem church, Brad- ~ Winthrop, I. 117.
 
 Chap. X.] MASSACHUSETTS. 409 
 
 summoned to appear before the Court " to be censured," 
 Williams did what is perhaps without a parallel on any 
 earlier or later occasion of his public life. He made sub- 
 mission. He declared himself penitent, if he had com- 
 mitted any wrong, and with his consent the obnoxious 
 manuscript was burned.^ 
 
 • An exciting local question, on which Williams is related 
 next to have pronounced himself, respected the duty of 
 women to wear veils in all public assemblies. Cotton, of 
 Boston, took the negative side in the argument, and, in 
 a sermon preached at Salem, handled it so convincingly, 
 that the ladies came to church in the afternoon unveiled, 
 and Williams, though unconvinced, desisted.^- A more 
 serious movement of his, if the allegation w^as well found- 
 ed, was that of interesting himself with Endicott to cut 
 out the red cross of England from the colors of the 
 train-bands under his command, as being an idolatrous 
 symbol. Endicott did thus mutilate the flag, and by 
 so doing raised a critical question. But the agency of 
 Williams on the occasion, however probable, is perhaps 
 not altogether proved.^ 
 
 It was in the year of his reappearance at Salem that the 
 courage and policy of the colonists became their only pro- 
 tection, under God, against that wrong-headed and bad- 
 hearted churchman, of whose viciousness only the most 
 harmless side was shown when he was described as worthy 
 of " more unmitigated contempt than any other character 
 in English history." "^ Only a few months had passed since 
 the petition of Gorges and Mason to the Lords of the 
 Privy Council had been dismissed through what the colo- 
 nists esteemed little short of a miraculous interposition 
 of Providence. And late in the same year, an answer to 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 122. dington (Letter to George Fox, in 
 
 2 Hubbard. 204, 205. Backus, I. 445). 
 
 3 Hubbard, however, (205,) confi- ^ Lord Macaulav, Critical and His- 
 dently imputes it to him ; and Cod- torlcal Essays, L 159. 
 
 VOL. I. 35
 
 410 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 the charges which had been produced in England was 
 still under debate among the Magistrates.-^ 
 
 Such being some of the circumstances in which the 
 
 Massachusetts Magistrates had their renewed experience 
 
 of Williams, it is not surprising if they interfered again 
 
 with their advice when it was proposed to appoint him 
 
 to the place lately vacated by the death of Mr. Skelton,^ 
 
 But the Salem church persisted, and he was for- 
 
 nially installed. A little time only passed before 
 
 the Magistrates found cause to complain of him for having 
 
 " broken his promise in teachinp^ publicly against 
 
 November '^ . . , ? . 
 
 the king's patent, and our great sni ni clannmg 
 right thereby to this country, &c., and for usual terming 
 the churches of England Anticliristian." ^ Next, the Gov- 
 1635. ernor and Assistants sent for him to answer to a 
 '^P"' charge of having " taught publicly that a magis- 
 trate ought not to tender an oath to an unregenerate per- 
 son, for that they thereby have communion with a wicked 
 man in the worship of God, and cause him to take the 
 name of God in vain " ; "* a doctrine which, besides the 
 embarrassment it offered to the common administration 
 of justice, had special political significance at a time when 
 it had been thought necessary to pass the acts prescrib- 
 ing the " Freeman's Oath " and the " Resident's Oath," 
 measures for securing allegiance to the Colony, in oppo- 
 sition, if that should prove needful, to the king. 
 
 Williams " was heard before all the ministers, and very 
 clearly confuted." A few days after, the annual Court of 
 Elections met, and, by a further application of the new 
 principle of rotation in office, Mr. liaynes was chosen 
 Governor, with Mr. Bellingham, who had arrived }n the 
 last year, as Deputy-Governor, and the same Assistants as 
 
 1 Wiiitlirnp, I. lOG, 107. not observed tliat it is ri'lated by any 
 
 2 I suppose this second interference earlier ■vvritei'. 
 
 of the Magistrates rests on the au- ^ "Wintlirnp, I. 151. 
 thority of Hubbard (201). I have ^ Ibid., 158.
 
 Chap. X.] MASSACHUSETTS. 411 
 
 formerly, except that Mr. Hough and Mr, Dummer were 
 added, and that Mr. Ludlow and Mr. Endicott w^re 
 left out, havmg given offence. It was perhaps because 
 the Magistrates were disposed to avoid the sole responsi- 
 bility of the controversy with Williams, that, at an ad- 
 iourned meeting:, it was taken up by the General 
 
 '' ^ . Julys. 
 
 Court. Part of the charges which had been be- 
 fore made against him were restated with some amplifica- 
 tion, and " time was given to him and the church of Sa- 
 lem to consider of these things till the next General Court, 
 and then either to give satisfaction to the Court, or else 
 to expect the sentence." ^ While the matter was thus 
 pending, the town of Salem applied to the Magistrates for 
 a grant of land. " But because they had chosen Mr. 
 Williams their teacher, while he stood under question of 
 authority, and so offered contempt to the Magistrates, 
 their petition was refused." Williams struck back. He 
 caused his church to " write to other churches, to admon- 
 ish the Magistrates of this as a heinous sin, and likewise 
 the Deputies.^ When little attention was paid to this 
 missive, Williams addressed a letter to his own church, 
 moving them to renounce all communication with the 
 other churches of the Colony ; an act of isolation, of 
 which he presently set an example by ceasing to com- 
 mune with them because they rejected his advice,^ and by 
 refusing to join in family prayers or grace at table with 
 his wife, because she continued to frequent their com- 
 munion.^ While the imputed intolerance of others pro- 
 voked Williams's vehement displeasure, he indulged him- 
 self in the largest liberty of being exclusive in ways of 
 his own. 
 
 The next General Court unseated the Deputies 
 from Salem, till their constituents should apolo- "^'"* 
 
 1 I relate this on the authority of 3 Ibid., 1G6, 171. 
 
 Winthrop (I. 162, 163)-. The public ^ Hubbard, 207, Morton, Memo- 
 record has nothing of it. rial, 153. 
 
 2 Ibid., 164.
 
 412 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 gize for having " exceedingly reproached and vilified the 
 Magistrates and churches," ^ which was presently done. 
 The Magistrates and Deputies had now brought to their 
 meeting a persuasion that Williams and their constituents 
 could not advantageously live together ; which being as- 
 sumed, it was clear that he could much more easily re- 
 move than they. Accordingly they passed the following 
 Banishment ordcr '. " "Wliercas Mr. Roger Williams, one of 
 wimams. the elders of the church of Salem, hath broached 
 
 Sept. 3. r^j-^^ divulged divers new and dangerous opinions 
 against the authority of magistrates, as also writ letters 
 of defamation both of the Magistrates and churches here, 
 and that before any conviction, and yet maintaineth the 
 same without retraction, it is therefore ordered, that the 
 said Mr. AYilliams shall depart out of this jurisdiction 
 within six weeks now next ensuing ; which if he neglect 
 to perform, it shall be lawful for the Governor and two 
 of the Magistrates to send him to some place out of this 
 jurisdiction, not to return any more without license from 
 the Court."' ~ 
 
 The liberty to remain for six weeks was extended to 
 the next spring, when, profiting by the friendly relations 
 he had established with the Indians during his residence 
 at Plymouth, AVilliams intended to form a settlement on 
 Narragansett Bay. It was not in his nature, however, — 
 at least till years had chastened it, — to take any vaca- 
 tion from controversy. The excitement Avhich he still 
 kept up at Salem seemed to the Magistrates to justify the 
 opinion that he would not be a safe neighbor even at the 
 proposed distance ; and they sent Captain Underhill from 
 Boston to put him on board a vessel about to sail for 
 ]03r,. England.^ Getting intelligence of this, Williams 
 
 januar)'. ipf|- <^alem aud his family three days before that 
 officer's arrival, and took to the woods. 
 
 The case of Williams was not a novel one in the juris- 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rcc, I. 156. 2 ibid., IGO, IGl. ^ W'lnthrop, I. 209, 210.
 
 Chap. X.] MASSACHUSETTS. 413 
 
 diction. From considerations of the public quiet less 
 immediately urgent than those which determined his dis- 
 mission, the Brownes had been shipped back in the first 
 year of the Company's occupation of its property in Mas- 
 sachusetts Bay. The Brownes were men of business ; the 
 one a lawyer, the other a merchant. They considered 
 themselves to have suffered injustice, and they made a 
 demand upon the Company for damages. But, though 
 the cause of their expulsion was religious dissent, we do 
 not read of their having rested their claim on the inviola- 
 bility of conscience, v Gardiner, Stone, Walford, Gray, 
 Lynn, Smith, and various others, named and unnamed, 
 had been sent away,^ for various reasons, resolving them- 
 selves into the persuasive reason that their presence was 
 found inconvenient and dangerous by men who had a 
 right to choose their company ; but they had not the 
 faith and the ability of Williams, to convince others that 
 a great principle was outraged in their persons. The 
 Brownes were officers of the Company. Williams was 
 not even a freeman of it. He had not been so false to 
 his principles as to take the oath for admission to its 
 franchise.^ By mere sufferance he had been^ a sojourner 
 upon land for which the Magistrates, and others hereto- 
 fore and now associated with them and represented by 
 them, had given their money, in order to the promotion 
 of a great public object. 
 
 The sound and generous principle of a perfect freedom 
 of the conscience in religious concerns can scarcely be 
 shown to have been involved in this dispute. There was 
 no question upon dogmas between Williams and those 
 who dismissed him. At a later period he was prone to 
 capricious changes of religious opinion^ But as yet there 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 61, 111 ; Mass. Col. Bnt he was a Dorchester man, who had 
 Ree., I. 77, 82, 83, 86, 91, 108, 159. given notice of his intention in the pre- 
 
 2 Among tlie freemen admitted in ceding October (Ibid., 80), before the 
 May, 1631, there was a Roger 'Williams, minister of Salem was in the country. 
 
 35*
 
 414 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 was no development of this kind. As long as he was in 
 Massachusetts, he was no heretic, tried by the standard of 
 the time and the place. He was not charged with heresy. 
 The questions which he raised, and by raising which he 
 provoked opposition, were questions relating to political 
 rights and to the administration of government. 
 
 Liberty in religion is a doctrine so consonant to reason, 
 that it is spontaneously recognized by those to whom its 
 enjoyment is denied, though, as soon as they acquire pow- 
 er, they are tempted to be impatient of contradiction, and 
 to allow their perception of the right to become confused. 
 Roger Williams in England had had some acquaintance 
 with the Baptists, who, for many years before his de- 
 parture, had stated and maintained the doctrine in the 
 most unqualified terms.^ When he recrossed the water 
 
 1 It " hath been spoken by some emi- 
 nent sectaries," says Tliomas Edwards 
 (Gangrasna, 17), that, "if it be men's 
 consciences, the magistrate may not 
 punish for blasphemies, nor for denying 
 the Scriptures, nor for denying there is 
 a God." — "The magistrate is not to 
 meddle with religion, nor matters of 
 conscience, nor to compel men to this 
 or that form of religion, because Christ 
 is the King and Lawgiver of the Church 
 and conscience." (Baptist Confession 
 of Faith in ICll, in Crosby's "History 
 of the English Baptists," I. Append., 
 71 .) — " The King and Parliament may 
 please to permit all sorts of Christians, 
 yea, Jews, Turks, and Pagans, so long 
 as they are peaceable and no malefac- 
 tors." (Religion's Peace, printed in 
 London in 1014, and reprinted by the 
 Hansard Knollys Society, in their vol- 
 ximc entitled "Tracts on Liberty of 
 Coni^cience," 33, comp. 301. Comp. 
 Price's History of Non-conformity, I. 
 519 -.523; Hanbury, Historical Memo- 
 rials, &c., L 224, 225.) — Earlier than 
 the Baptists, Bobert Brown (see above, 
 p. 123) had written: "To compel re- 
 
 ligion, to plant churches by power, and 
 to force a submission to ecclesiastical' 
 government by laws and penalties, be- 
 longeth not to them [the magistrates], 
 neither yet to the Church." (Treatise 
 of Reformation without Tarrying (12), 
 Middelburgh, 1582.) —In his "Bloody 
 Tenent of Persecution " (Chap. LXL), 
 Williams refers to persons before him 
 (three Christian kings among others), 
 who had denied all right of rulers over 
 the conscience. To bis list of such 
 rulers he might have added the more 
 modern name of William the Silent. 
 (See Prescott, History of Pliilip the 
 Second, I. 491 ; Brandt, History of the 
 Reformation, &c., I. 382 ; INIotley, Rise of 
 the Dutch Republic, HI. 206, '348.) — 
 Lord Bacon liad reflected upon the sub- 
 ject : " Optime ct prudentissime obser- 
 vatum est ab uno ex patribus, profundaB 
 
 sapientije viro, eos qui conscientias 
 
 premi, iisque vim inferri suadent, sub 
 illo dogmate cupiditates suas subtexere, 
 iliamc^ue rem sua interesse putare." 
 (Sermo de Unitate Ecclesi^. Comp. 
 Strype, Life of Whitgift, I. 72;" Motley, 
 United Netherlands, II. 226.)
 
 Chap. X.] MASSACHUSETTS. 415 
 
 after the outbreak of the Civil War in England, he came 
 before the English world in a learned discussion, with 
 Cotton, on the extent and sacredness of freedom of con- 
 science ; in which he maintained correct opinions on that 
 greEit theme, and defended them, allowing for the rhe- 
 torical fashions of the day, with clearness and ability.^ 
 But this was eight years after his expulsion from Massa- 
 chusetts; and from Massachusetts he had been warned 
 away, not by Cotton and the ministers, but by the voice 
 of a majority, at least, of ten Magistrates and twenty- 
 eight Deputies assembled in General Court. And their 
 decree formally recited its ground to be, not theological 
 dissent, but civil turbulence, — proceedings hostile to the 
 authority of magistrates, and defamation of Magistrates 
 and churches. 
 
 Should it be believed that other considerations had their 
 weight in prompting the decree, still its terms would show 
 the important fact that a claim to control the faith of 
 the citizen was one which the rulers could not venture 
 to avow. But it would be unjust to regard the ground of 
 the General Court as disingenuously taken. There is no 
 reason whatever to doubt, that, correctly or otherwise, they 
 considered themselves to be proceeding in the way which 
 
 Mn 1643, Williams published in Lon- and exclusive. In the following year 
 don his book entitled " Mr. Cotton's Williams published in London his 
 Letter, lately printed, examined and " Bloody Tenent of Persecution." Cot- 
 answered." This, it seems, was a ton replied, three years later, in the 
 private letter of Cotton, addressed to " Bloody Tenent washed and made 
 Williams soon after his departui-e from White in the Blood of the Lamb " ; and 
 Salem. How it came to the press, nei- Williams rejoined, in 1652, in the 
 ther Williams nor Cotton knew. Cot- " Bloody Tenent yet more Bloody," 
 ton's Letter and Williams's Reply are &c. The same year, Williams pub- 
 arguments upon the question " whether lished the " Hireling Ministry none of 
 those ought to be received into the Christ's," and " Experiments of Spirit- 
 church who are godly, though they do ual Life and Health and their Preser- 
 not see, nor expressly bewail, all the vatives." In 1676, he issued at Boston 
 pollutions in church fellowship, minis- a book against the Quakers, with a 
 try, worship, and government." Upon long title, of which the first clause is, 
 this thesis, Cotton takes the affirmative, " George Fox digged out of his Bur- 
 or liberal side ; Williams, the negative rowes."
 
 •416 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 the safety and well-being of the Colony, as a civil commu- 
 nity, required. The statement of Cotton is entirely credi- 
 ble, where he says : "Two things there were, which, to my 
 best observation and remembrance, caused the sentence of 
 his banishment, and two others fell in, that hastened it." 
 As the first of these, he specifics AVilliams's " violent and 
 tumultuous carriage against the patent," the inestimable 
 foundation, as he proceeds to show in some detail, of the 
 privileges and property of the colonists.^ As the second 
 cause, he names the strictly political one, that " when the 
 Magistrates and other members of the General Court, 
 upon intelligence of some episcopal and malignant prac- 
 tices against the country, made an order of Court to take 
 trial of the fidelity of the people, not by imposing upon 
 them, but by offering to them, an oath of fidelity, that, in 
 case any should refuse to take it, they might not betrust 
 them with place of public charge and command, this oath, 
 when it came abroad, he vehemently withstood it, and dis- 
 suaded sundry from it, partly because it was, as he said, 
 Christ's prerogative to have his office established by oath, 
 partly because an oath was a part of God's worship, and 
 God's worship was not to be put upon carnal persons." 
 The occasions which " hastened " the proceeding against 
 him. Cotton represents to have been Williams's appeal to 
 the churches against the Magistrates, and his renouncing 
 
 1 " This he pressed upon tlic magis- ished thence for differing from us, being 
 
 trates and people, to be humbled for a man of good report, &(\, I answer, 
 
 from time to time in days of solemn I know that Mr. Williams 
 
 humiliation, and to return the patent held forth in those times the unlawful- 
 back again to the king." (Reply to nessofour letters patent from the king, 
 Mr. Williams his Examination, 27.) &c., would not allow the colors of our 
 " This was still pressed by him as a nation, denied the lawfulness of a pub- 
 national sin, to holil to the patent, yea, lie oath And truly I never heard 
 
 and a national duty to renounce the but he was dealt with for these and such 
 
 patent, which to have done had sub- like points." (Hypocrisie Unmasked, 
 
 verted the fundamental state and gov- G6.) Robert Baylie, who knew Wil- 
 
 ernment of the country." (Ibid., 28.) liams, says (Dissuasive, &c., 126), " Mr. 
 
 — To the same effect was the later testi- Williams's opposition to the oath [to 
 
 mony of Winslow : " Whereas he [Gor- maintain the patent], as he allegeth, 
 
 ton] said that ]\Ir. AVilliams was ban- was the chief cause of his banishment."
 
 Chap. X.] MASSACHUSETTS. 417 
 
 communion with the church of Salem on account of its 
 refusal to proceed with him in his disorganizing meas- 
 ures.^ 
 
 In fact, the young minister of Salem had maae an issue 
 with his rulers and his neighbors upon fundamental points 
 of their power and their property, including their power 
 of self-protection against the tyranny from which they had 
 lately escaped. Unintentionally, but effectually, he had set 
 himself to play into the hands of the king and the Arch- 
 bishop. He was not the sort of person whom the leaders 
 could expect to dissuade by taking him into their counsels. 
 Nor on other accounts could that course have seemed to 
 them prudent, considering his volatile character. But it 
 was not to be thought of by the sagacious patriots of Mas- 
 sachusetts, that, in the great work which they had in hand, 
 they should suffer themselves to be defeated by such ran- 
 dom movements. 
 
 Williams had great virtues, and some of them were of 
 that character which peculiarly wins and attaches. He 
 was eminently courageous, disinterested, and kind-hearted. 
 If (in his early days, at least) he belonged to that class 
 of men who have no peace for themselves except in sharp 
 strife with others, — if the ce7'ta?ninis gaudia^ the joy of 
 quarrel, made an indispensable condition of his satisfac- 
 tion of mind, — he was incapable of any feeling of malice 
 or vindictiveness towards opponents.^ Though in his con- 
 troversies he uses strong language, as was his wont on all 
 occasions, a tone of friendliness is scarcely ever aban- 
 doned. Differ and contend he must. For him a stagnant 
 life was not worth living. When he had made a few 
 proselytes to his last novelty, and so far prevailed to have 
 his own way, he would start off on some new track, im- 
 
 1 Reply to Mr. Williams his Exam- that Winthrop once •wrote to him, " Sir, 
 ination, 27-30. we have often tried your patience, but 
 
 2 In the manuscript letter quoted could never conquer it." 
 above (p. 406, note 1), Williams says
 
 418 IIISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 pelled by his irresistible besetting hunger for excitement 
 and conflict. But with all this he had a sweetness of 
 temper, and a constancy of benevolence, that no hard 
 treatment could overcome, and no difficulties or dangers 
 exhaust or discourage. 
 
 Yet Williams had no such virtues as would have made 
 it virtuous in the rulers of Massachusetts to indulge him 
 in obstructing their work. Every good man whose con- 
 victions bring him into trouble is to be compassionated, 
 apart from the consideration of his convictions being de- 
 liberate, reasonable, ajid salutary to the public, or of an 
 opposite character. \ But the man who, with the most 
 generous intentions, takes upon himself the responsibility 
 of disturbing the order of a community, with a view to 
 some greater good than in the existing state of things is 
 attainable without disturbance, must not look to his vir- 
 tues to protect him from the consequences of his daring. 
 His virtues give him an advantage in the pursuit of his 
 object, and will enhance his fame, if he wins it. But they 
 will properly make him only a more conspicuous object of 
 assault while the conflict is pending, and a more exposed 
 victim, if it goes against him. In civil controversies, as 
 in war, it is not the worthless among its adversaries that 
 power does and should chiefly strike at, but those who, 
 from their personal qualities, — their courage, capacity, 
 resolution, and fitness to attach, combine, and animate, — 
 are the natural heads of that opposition which, for the 
 public safety, must be overcome. 
 
 For his busy disaffection AVilliams was punished, rather 
 he was disabled for the mischief it threatened, by banish- 
 ment from the jurisdiction. He was punished much less 
 severely than the dissenters from the popular will were 
 punished throughout the North American Colonies at 
 the time of the final rupture with the mother country. 
 Virtually, the freemen said to him : " It is not best that 
 you and we should live together, and we cannot agree to
 
 Chap. X.] MASSACHUSETTS. 419 
 
 it. We have just put ourselves to great loss and trouble 
 for the sake of pursuing our own objects uninterrupted, 
 and we must be allowed to do so. Your liberty, as you 
 understand it and are bent on using it, is not compatible 
 with the security of ours. Since you cannot accommodate 
 yourself to us, go away. The world is wide, and it is as 
 open to you as it was just now to us. We do not wish to 
 harm you, but there is no place for you among us." Ban- 
 ishment is a word of ill sound ; but the banishment from 
 one part of New England to another, to which, in the 
 early period of their residence, the settlers condemned 
 Williams, was a thing widely different from that banish- 
 ment from luxurious Old England to desert New England, 
 to which they had just condemned themselves. There was 
 little hardship in leaving unattractive Salem for a residence 
 on the beautiful shore of Narragansett Bay, except as the 
 former had a very short start in the date of its first culti- 
 vation. Williams, involuntarily separated from Massachu- 
 setts, went with his company to Providence, the same year 
 that Hooker and Stone and their company, self-exiled, 
 went from Massachusetts to Connecticut. If to the for- 
 mer the movement was not optional, it was the same that 
 the latter chose when it was optional, and it proved ad- 
 vantageous for all the parties concerned.^ 
 
 To urge that religious zealots, in and out of the pulpit, 
 had their part in exciting a displeasure against Williams, on 
 
 ^ " In some cases, banishment is a forts as change them. And as for spir- 
 just punishment, if it be in proper itual Hberties (liberty of Church ordi- 
 speech a punishment at all in such a nances), they were a burden and bond- 
 country as this is, where the jurisdiction age to his spirit here, and therefore he 
 whence a man is banished is but small, cast them off, before they left bun." 
 and the country round about it large (Cotton, Reply, &c., pp. 8, 9.) — It is 
 and fruitful, where a man may make his true that, after what they thought new 
 choice of variety of more pleasant and provocation, the Magistrates decided, or 
 profitable seats than he leaveth behind threatened, to send Williams back to 
 him. la which respect, banishment in England ; but this was no part of their 
 this country is not counted so much a oriffinal purpose, and, once out of their 
 confinement as an enlargement, where neighborhood, there is no sign of their 
 a man doth not so much lose civil com- having wished to molest him.
 
 420 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAISD. [Book I. 
 
 grounds independent of the political mischief threatened 
 by his course, would be to say little towards invalidating 
 the considerations which have been presented. There is 
 no community free from narrowness, prejudices, and pas- 
 sions; and it is no strange thing in political action for 
 those who are charged with the burden of affairs to allow 
 sentiments which prevail around them, but in which they 
 do not share, to relieve them of part of a hard duty, and 
 sustain them in it ; and this, without proceeding in their 
 measures a step beyond what their deliberate convictions 
 dictate, and without any conscious compromising of the 
 magnanimity of their own course. Nor is it to be for- 
 gotten, that, as to the narrowness which repels dissen- 
 tients from sympathy and communion, it was Williams 
 that maintained the exclusive side in this controversy, and 
 the Magistrates and ministers that maintained the liberal 
 side. It was he, not they, that refused communion with 
 good Christians of the Church of England, and not only 
 this, but refused fellowship with those who practised that 
 communion, and even with those who would not pub- 
 licly proclaim their repentance for having ever practised it. 
 Williams has been deservedly praised for his freedom 
 from personal rancor during and after these transactions. 
 His opponents merit similar commendation. His generous 
 candor cordially acknowledged their uprightness and their 
 personal kindnesses, and justly attributed their proceed- 
 ings against himself to their sense of public duty. He 
 " always honored " these men, he says, " when they were 
 pleased to afflict him." His subsequent correspondence 
 with Winthrop is full of endearments. His "ancient 
 friend^ Mr. Winslow," and "the prudent and godly Gover- 
 nor, Mr. Bradford, and others of his godly council," are 
 remembered with the same kindness. He records with 
 touching gratitude the bounty of " that great and pious 
 soul, Mr. Winslow," who "kindly visited him at Provi- 
 dence, and put a piece of gold into the hands of his wife
 
 Chap. X.] MASSACHUSETTS. 421 
 
 for their supply." ^ And his intervention with the Indians 
 at the instance of those from whom he thought he had 
 suffered injustice, while it proves his own magnanimity, 
 also proves indirectly his sense of their deserts.^ 
 
 While, among those whose dismission from Massachu- 
 setts was from time to time required by the necessities of 
 the public safety, the personal merit of Roger Williams 
 has caused him to be selected for the special notice of 
 history, the same result has followed from his having be- 
 come the founder of a State, whose citizens feel an honor- 
 able pride in commemorating his achievements and char- 
 acter.^ 
 
 Thirty years after his departure from Salem, Williams 
 related how he was " sorely tossed for fourteen weeks in a 
 bitter winter season, not knowing what bread or bed did 
 mean." He appears to have passed the winter in the 
 country of the Pokanoket Indians, to whom he had en- 
 deared himself during his residence at Plymouth.^ He 
 had been advised, he says, by " that ever-honored Gov- 
 ernor, Mr. Winthrop, for many high and heavenly and 
 public ends, to steer his course to the Nahigonsett Bay 
 and Indians," there to find an unchallenged home. Tak- 
 ing " his prudent motion as a hint and voice from God," 
 Williams determined to proceed upon it, but went no 
 further than Seekonk, where, being joined in the spring 
 by a few of his Salem friends, he " first pitched and began 
 to build and plant." ^ This plan, however, was not to 
 
 1 Letter to Major Mason, In Mass. equitable manner in which the Rhode 
 Hist. Coll., I. 275. — Williams, when Island writers, with feelings, as waa 
 he wrote thus, had had no such contro- natural, warmly enlisted in this contro- 
 versy with the Plymouth people as with versy, have generally treated it. 
 
 those of Massachusetts. But with them, 4 « !„ wilderness, in great distress, 
 
 too, he had had his disagreements, as These ravens iiave fed me." 
 
 will be seen hereafter. ' (Key to the Indian Languages, Chap. II.) 
 
 2 See below, p. 460. Tlie remark in ^ Tradition points out a spot in See- 
 the text holds good, though Williams's konk, just " above the central bridge, 
 plantation too would have been endan- and on the east side of the cove, on 
 gered bv a "-eiieral vising of the Indians, what is called Manton's Neck," as that 
 
 3 Kiiowk's's Ijife of linger Williams where Williams "began to build and 
 is a "oo 1 specimen of the fair and plant." (Bliss, History of lichoboth, 17.) 
 
 VOL. I. 3G
 
 422 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 prosper. " I received a letter," he says, " from my ancient 
 friend, Mr. Winslow, then Governor of Plymouth, profess- 
 ing his own and others' love and respect for me, yet lov- 
 ingly advising me, since I was fallen into the edge of 
 their bounds, and they were loth to displease the Bay, to 
 remove but to the other side of the water ; and then, he 
 said, I had the country before me, and might be as free 
 as themselves, and we should be loving neighbors to- 
 gether." 1 
 
 Accordingly, with five companions," Williams launched 
 his canoe on the Seekonk River to look for another home. 
 
 irao. He landed on the high point which divides that 
 rrovuknco strcaui from the uppermost inlet of Narragansett 
 founded. 'Bay, and, by a spring of water, laid the foundation 
 of what is now the beautiful city of Providence. If the 
 reputation of Williams had not spread so far among the 
 natives,^ his knowledge of their language gave him an 
 
 1 Mass. Ilist. Col., I. 276. them that, -when he consented to that 
 
 2 Thov were WilHam Harris, John ordtT, he never intended it sliould ex- 
 Smith, Joshua A^'erin, Thomas Anael, tend to the breach of any ordinance of 
 and Francis AVickes. The humble- God, such as the subjection of wives to 
 ness of these names is one indication their husbands, and gave divers solid 
 of the little influence which Williams reasons against it. Then one Greene 
 
 had been able to exert. — Harris was replied, that, if they should re- 
 
 afterwards charged by "Williams with strain their wives, all the women of the 
 
 high treason. (Rhode Island Colony country Avould cry out of them 
 
 Records, T. 3G1.) A^erin became a In conclusion, when they would have 
 
 Quaker (Hutchinson, I. 187), and in censured Ycrin, Arnold told them that 
 
 time he was one of those who at Provi- it was against their own order, for A^c- 
 
 dence reduced to one of its practical rin did that he did out of conscience; 
 
 tests the sweeping principle which had and their order was, that no man should 
 
 brought him away from Salem. Some be censured for his conscience." (AVin- 
 
 religious meetings having been cstab- throp, I. 283.) The reformers were 
 
 lished, Verin " refused to let his wife getting puzzled by some corollaries to 
 
 go to ISIr. AVilliams so oft as she was their proposition. 
 
 called for." (AVinthrop, I. 283.) Uj)on ^ H^ haJ gat down, however, on 
 
 this, " it was agreed that Joshua A'erin, ground of the Narragansetts, whose 
 
 upon the breach of a covenant, for the chiefs, Canonicus and Miantoiiomo, 
 
 restraining of the liberty of conscience are said to have promised him, a year 
 
 shall be withheld from the liberty of or two before, a grant of land, of which, 
 
 voting till lu! shall declare the contrary." during the early period of his contro- 
 
 (11. I. Col. llec, I. IG.) "There stood versy with tlie Magistrates, he had 
 
 up one Arnold, a witty man of their thought of availing himself. (See 11. I. 
 
 owa company, and withstood it, telling Col. Rec, I. 22.)
 
 Chap. X.] PROVIDENCE. 423 
 
 advantage for intercourse with them, by which his benev- 
 olence and address did not fail to profit; and he easily 
 agreed with them for leave to occupy the lands ^gsa 
 " lying upon the two fresh rivers, called Moos- ^^""""^ ^^' 
 hausick and Wanasquatucket." The bargain, with its 
 avails, was his own ; ^ he fulfilled it with money borrowed 
 on a mortgage of his house and land in Salem ; but he 
 freely gave lands to all comers. 
 
 The government, established first, was the simplest de- 
 mocracy.- " AVe do promise," such was the compact, " to 
 subject ourselves, in active and passive obedience, to all 
 such orders or agreements as shall be made for public 
 good of the body in an orderly way by the major consent 
 of the present inhabitants, masters of families, incorpo- 
 rated together into a township, and such others ivhom 
 they shall admit into the same, only in civil things." ^ 
 For four years a town treasurer was the only officer. It 
 had been thought necessary to recognize in the compact, 
 just recited, the same right as to the selection of associates 
 which had been exercised in the expulsion of the leader 
 by the Massachusetts people. But experience alone could 
 refute some more exalted theories, which a generous en- 
 thusiasm had so confidently embraced.. Roger Williams 
 was not the first man, nor the last, to discover that it is 
 one thing to conduct an opposition, and another thing to 
 carry on a government. The time came when he was fain 
 
 1 Forty-five years later, "Williams de- deed in 1637 (Ibid., 18), and Williams's 
 
 posed: "I declare to posterity, that. Initial Deed in 1638 (Ibid., 19), make 
 
 were it not for the favor that God gave the same representation. Probabl}- all 
 
 me with Canonicus, none of these parts, that WiUiams meant to say, at the later 
 
 no, not Rhode Island, had been pur- periods, was, that the purchase-money 
 
 chased or obtained ; for I never got alone would not haAe induced the In- 
 
 anything out of Canonicus, but by gift." dians to make the sale. 
 
 (R. I. Col. Rec, 25.) The Cunjirma- 2 For a little while, everybody in 
 
 tory Deed in 1661 (Ibid., 23) uses simi- Providence seems to have been neigh- 
 
 lar language. But in the latter instru- hor (Ibid., 17), as everybody afterwards 
 
 ment W^illiams also recites (Ibid., 22) was citizen in France, and is friend 
 
 that the lands were " purchased" by him among the Quakers. 
 
 ofCanonicus and Mlantonomo; and their 3 Ibid., 14.
 
 424 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 to proclaim his abhorrence of " such an infinite liberty of 
 conscience " ^ as was claimed by some who had followed 
 his steps, and taken up their lot with him in the new 
 plantation. And he well illustrated the case by the con- 
 dition of a ship at sea, requiring, for the common safety, 
 authority on one part and submission on the other. 
 
 Scarcely any records of the settlement at Providence for 
 the first ten years are extant. Such as were made arc be- 
 lieved to have been mostly destroyed when the 
 
 1C7G. , ... 
 
 Indians set fire to the town in Philip's war. 
 Among the fragments which remain, two, besides what 
 have been already referred to, are of principal importance. 
 1638. One is a grant, to thirteen associates, of " the 
 Oct. 8. meadow ground at Pawtuxet," lying west of the 
 original settlement, on the other side of the Bay ; a pro- 
 ceeding which was followed by important consequences, 
 to be explained hereafter. The other exhibits the " Form 
 1C40. of Government," devised by four " arbitrators " 
 July 27. chosen for the purpose, and subscribed by thirty- 
 nine freemfen as the rule of their association. It contains 
 scarcely anything except a provision for the adjustment of 
 disputes through a permanent board of " five disposers," 
 to be chosen by the inhabitants, and the subsidiary ar- 
 rangements suitable for carrying this plan into efi'ect. 
 In his new home Williams's own restless career took 
 i(,39. new directions. He became dissatisfied with his 
 March, baptism, and was baptized anew. In a few 
 months, he distrusted the last administration of that ordi- 
 
 1 Letter of Williams to the Town of temptuous unto all their superiors, in 
 
 Providence, in Knowles's IMenioir of using thou to everybody I have 
 
 Roger Williams (279). — When the therefore publicly declared myself, that 
 Quakers came in AVilliams's way, he was a due and moderate restraint and pun- 
 very impatient of what he thought their ishing of these incivilities, though pre- 
 ill-manners. " These simple reformers tending conscience, is so far from per- 
 are extremely ridiculous in giving thnu secution, properly so called, that it is a 
 and thee to everybody, which our nation duty and command of God unto all 
 commonly gives to familiars only, and mankind." (George Fox digged out 
 they are insufferably proud and con- of his Burrowes, pp. 199, 200.)
 
 Chap. X.] 
 
 PROVIDENCE. 
 
 425 
 
 nance, and waited for a new apostolic commission to give 
 it validity.^ But the vital part of religion never deserted 
 him. However his theories shifted, he never ceased to 
 be a single-hearted lover of God and men. 
 
 1 " Mr. Williams was rebap- 
 
 tized by one Ilolyman, a poor man, late 
 of Salem. Then Mr. AVilliams rebap- 
 tized him and some ten more." (Win- 
 throp, I. 293.) " At Providence, mat- 
 ters went after the old manner. Mr. 
 Williams and many of his company, a 
 few months since, were in all haste re- 
 baptized, and denied communion with 
 all others; and now he was come to 
 question his second baptism, not being 
 able to derive the authority of it from 
 the Apostles, otherwise than by the 
 ministers of England, whom he judged 
 to be ill authority, so as he conceived 
 God would raise up some apostolic 
 power; therefore he bent himself that 
 
 way." (Ibid., 306.) — " I walked with 
 him in the Baptists' way about three or 
 four months, in which time he brake 
 from the society, and declared at large 
 the ground and reasons of it, — that 
 their baptism could not be right, be- 
 cause it was not administered by an 
 apostle. After that, he set himself 
 upon a way of seeking (with two or 
 three of them that had dissented with 
 him) by way of preaching and praying ; 
 and there he continued a year or two, 
 till two of the three left him." (Let- 
 ter of Richard Scott in George Fox's 
 " New-England Fire-Brand Quenched," 
 247.) 
 
 36*
 
 CHAPTEH XI. 
 
 The change of rulers in Massachusetts at the depo- 
 sition of Winthrop had consisted merely in the promo- 
 tion of two of his associates in the magistracy, while he 
 was still their colleague in the Board of Assistants. The 
 government continued to be conducted according to the 
 same principles and methods as during the four years of 
 his wise and upright administration. While the intelli- 
 gence from England caused great uneasiness, the means 
 and the confidence of the colonists were increased by the 
 
 i(-34. arrival of large numbers of their friends.^ " Five 
 September, i^^^ndrcd pouuds more was raised towards fortifi- 
 cations,"- almost immediately after the first large ex- 
 penditure for that purpose. 
 
 The question which has been referred to, respecting the 
 obliteration of the cross of St. George from the royal en- 
 Mutiintionof slgu, aroso during the year of Dudley's adminis- 
 the^EMghsh ^^.r^^^Qj^^ j^^ r^ Court of Assistants, " complaint 
 
 Nov. 5. -vvas made by some of the country, that the 
 
 ensign at Salem was defaced ; namely, one part of the red 
 cross taken out. Upon this an attachment was awarded 
 against Richard Davenport, ensign-bearer, to appear at 
 the next Court to answer. INIuch matter was made of 
 this, as fearing it would be taken as an act of rebellion, 
 or of like high nature, in defacing the king's colors; 
 though the truth were, it was done upon this opinion, 
 that the red cross was given to the king of England by 
 the Pope, as an ensign of victory, and so a superstitious 
 thing, and a relic of Antichrist." ^ 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 135, 143, 149, ICl, ~ Ibiil, 144. 
 1C4, 109, 190, 205. 3 Ibid., 146. Sec above, p. 409.
 
 Chap. XL] MASSACHUSETTS. 427 
 
 In the existing state of relations with England, the busi- 
 ness was critical. The next step taken in relation to it is 
 thus recorded : " The Assistants met at the Gov- 
 
 Nov. 27. 
 
 ernor's, to advise about the defacing of the cross 
 in the ensign at Salem, where, taking advice with some 
 of the ministers, we agreed to write to Mr. Downing in 
 England of the truth of the matter, under all our hands, 
 that, if occasion were, he should show it in our excuse ; 
 for therein we expressed our dislike of the thing, and our 
 purpose to punish the offenders, yet with as much wari- 
 ness as we might, being doubtful of the lawful use of the 
 cross in an ensign, though we were clear that fact, as 
 concerning the matter, was very unlawful." ^ After three 
 months' further deliberation, " Mr. Endicott was 1035. 
 called to answer for defacing the cross in the en- ^^^""^ ^• 
 sign ; but because the Court could not agree about the 
 thing, whether the ensigns should be laid by, in regard 
 that many refused to follow them, the whole cause was 
 deferred till the next General Court, and the Commission- 
 ers for Military Affairs gave order in the mean time that 
 all the ensigns should be laid aside."- It is worthy of 
 remark, as an indication of the sense entertained of the 
 delicacy of the question, that in the j)ublic record no 
 notice is taken of these proceedings. 
 
 The eccentricity of another prominent citizen troubled 
 for a short time the quiet of Dudley's government. Israel 
 Stouofhton was a member, for Dorchester, of the , , 
 
 O ' ' Israel 
 
 first General Court that admitted Deputies, hav- stoughton. 
 
 , , - ,_ , - 1634. 
 
 mg probably come to Massachusetts the year 
 before. A fortune, exceeding that of most of his neigh- 
 bors, may have made him impatient of his inferior of- 
 ficial position. At a Court of Assistants, " he 1635. 
 was questioned for denying the magistracy among '^'"'''' ^ 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 150. — Emanuel setts Company, and came to Massachu- 
 Downing, who had married Winthrop's setts in 1G37 or 1638. 
 sister, was a member of the Massachu- 2 Ibid., 15G.
 
 428 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAKD. [Book I. 
 
 US, affirming that the power of the Governor was but 
 ministerial, &c. He had also much opposed the Magis- 
 trates, and slighted them, and used many weak arguments 
 against the negative voice, as himself acknowledged upon 
 record." ^ Having, moreover, " written a certain book 
 which had occasioned much trouble and offence to the 
 Court, he did desire of the Court that the said book might 
 forthwith be burned, as being weak and offensive." But 
 his submission did not save him from being " disenabled 
 for bearing any public office in the commonwealth, within 
 this jurisdiction, for the space of three years, for affirming 
 the Assistants were no Magistrates."^ Those were no 
 times for allowing the authority of the local government 
 to be called in question. 
 
 Dudley did not possess the qualities which attract 
 popular favor, so much as those which justify confidence. 
 John Haynes But pi'obably it was not owing to this defect that 
 
 ehosen Gov- i • • /~i 1' -j. i j_ 
 
 grnor. his service as (jovernor was limited to one year. 
 
 May 6. q^j-^g freemcu intended to make it evident, that 
 they did not forget Cotton's lesson concerning the right 
 of permanence in office. It has been mentioned that the 
 Governor now chosen was John Haynes, a person des- 
 tined to fill an important place in the primeval history of 
 New England. Little is recorded of him before his emi- 
 gration, except that he was a gentleman of large estate in 
 the county of Essex. He had come to America in company 
 with John Cotton, and at the first election after his arrival 
 had been chosen an Assistant, in Avhich office he had now 
 served a year.^ Richard Bellingham, who had arrived still 
 Richard more recently, was elected to the second place. 
 Dpp.'ty/"'' Bellingham, who had been educated a lawyer, 
 Governor, j^^^^ ^|j^^j ^^^ ^f^^^ ^f Recordcr in the English 
 
 Boston, and was one of the twenty-six freemen named in 
 the charter, which he was thought to have hatl a hand in 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 155. 3 Scc above, pp. 3G/, 378, 410. 
 
 2 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 135, 136.
 
 Chap. XL] MASSACHUSETTS. 429 
 
 framing. Atherton Hough, who had come over with 
 Haynes, and Richard Dummer, who had been at Roxbury 
 three years, were chosen Assistants. The other Magis- 
 trates were the same as in the preceding year, except that 
 Endicott and Ludlow were dismissed to private life, the 
 former on account of his proceeding in relation to the 
 king's flag, the latter because of his having indiscreetly 
 resented the promotion of Haynes over him. " He pro- 
 tested against the election of Governor as void, for that 
 the Deputies of the several towns had agreed upon the 
 election before they came," &c. His objections to such 
 electioneering were thought worthy of consideration. 
 " This was generally discussed, and the election adjudged 
 good."^ He had yet another way to show his sense of 
 wrong, and " at his own request was dismissed from the 
 charge of overseeing the fortification on Castle Island." 
 He was still for the present one of the Military Commis- 
 sioners, but from this place also he was discharged after a 
 few months.^ 
 
 The elections at this Court had been made " by papers." 
 The names of candidates for the two highest places were 
 written on the ballots. For the choice of Assist- Elections 
 ants, the names were successively announced by ^^ ''^"°^ 
 the Governor, and the freemen signified their approbation 
 by an inscribed vote, and their dissent by a blank. After 
 a short experience of Deputies in the General Court, it 
 seemed desirable that the freemen should have the largest 
 liberty in their selection, and it was ordered that thence- 
 forward they should " be elected by papers." ^ The rich 
 and liberal Governor, " in his speech to the people after 
 his election, declared his purpose to spare their charge 
 towards his allowance this year, partly in respect of their 
 love showed towards him, and partly for that he observed 
 how much the people had been pressed lately with public 
 charges, which the poorer sort did much groan under." ^ 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 158. 3 Ibid., 157. 
 
 2 Mass. Col. Kec, I. 145, 161. * Winthrop, I. 159.
 
 430 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 " Mr. Endicott was called into question about defacing 
 
 the cross in the ensign." The business was taken up with 
 
 crreat solemnitv. A committee, composed of four 
 
 Proceedings " •' i 
 
 in respect of tlic Magistrates and of one freeman from each 
 
 to tlie flag. 1 Ti 
 
 town, was directed to deliberate and report upon 
 it. " They found his oifence to be great, namely, rash and 
 without discretion, taking upon him more authority than 
 he had, and not seeking advice of the Court, &c. ; unchar- 
 itable, in that he, judging the cross, &c. to be a sin, did 
 content himself to have it reformed at Salem, not taking 
 care that others might be brought out of it also ; laying 
 a blemish also upon the rest of the Magistrates, as if they 
 would suffer idolatry, &c., and giving occasion to the state 
 of England to think ill of us ; — for which they adjudged 
 him worthy admonition, and to be disabled for one year 
 from bearing any public office ; declining any heavier sen- 
 tence, because they were persuaded he did it out of tender- 
 ness of conscience, and not of any evil intent." ^ The 
 sentence of incapacity was accordingly passed. The rea- 
 sons assigned for it disclose a singular embarrassment in 
 the minds of the committee. They were evidently per- 
 plexed between their apprehension of the effect in Eng- 
 land of Endicott's act, and a consciousness of sympathy, 
 on their own part and on that of their constituents, with 
 the feelings which had prompted it. Nor is it unreason- 
 able to believe, that, at this important juncture, political 
 considerations, quite as much as religious which could 
 more conveniently be avowed, occasioned the scruples 
 about the use of the royal flag. 
 
 The question was not to be immediately settled. For 
 the present it was postponed, "it being proiiounded to turn 
 the cross in the ensign to the red and white rose, &;c., 
 and every man was to deal with his neighbors, to still 
 their minds who stood so stiff for the cross, until we 
 should fully agree about it, as was expected, because the 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 158. Mass. Col. Rec, I. 146.
 
 Chap. XI.] 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 431 
 
 ministers had promised to take pains about it, and to 
 write into England, to have the judgments of the most 
 wise and godly there." -^ In the course of the year, a com- 
 promise was made. " It was referred to the Military Com- 
 missioners to appoint colors for every company, who did 
 accordingly, and left out the cross in all of them, appoint- 
 ing the king's arms to be put into that of Castle Island."^ 
 At Castle Island, the royal colors would be seen by the 
 shipping, which accordingly would be less likely to carry 
 a damaging report to England. The castle, nevertheless, 
 continued to assert the local dignity. " A ship belong- 
 ing to Sir Thomas Wentworth, deputy of Ireland," was 
 coming into Boston harbor, when "the lieutenant of the 
 fort went aboard her, and made her strike her flag." The 
 master complained to the Magistrates, who, on the ground 
 that " the fort had then no colors abroad," directed their 
 officer to make an apology.^ 
 
 The tendency to well-defined and settled institutions 
 was indicated by several measures adopted towards the 
 close of Haynes's administration. The shape and Legislative 
 limits to be assumed by the Colony were provided p'"^^^*^'"^^- 
 for by a rule empowering the majority of the March 3. 
 Magistrates " from time to time to dispose of the sitting 
 down of men in any new plantations," and forbidding new 
 settlements to be made without their consent.^ " Whereas 
 the most Aveighty affairs of this body" were now "brought 
 into such a way and method as there would not hence- 
 forth be need of so many General Courts to be kept as 
 formerly," their number was reduced to two in each year.^ 
 It was necessary to lighten the pressure of judicial duty 
 upon the Magistrates, and in addition to quarterly courts, 
 to be held by the whole board in Boston, local courts 
 were appointed to be held also four times in each year, 
 
 1 Wintln-op, I. 160. 
 
 2 Il)i(l., 180. 
 
 3 n.id., 186. 
 
 * ]\rass. Col. Rec, I. 167, 
 
 5 Ibid., 169. Tliis usage continued 
 till 1831, -when one annual session was 
 substituted by an amendment of the 
 State Constitution.
 
 432 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 the places being Ipswich, Salem, Newtown, and Boston. 
 These tribunals were to consist of " such Magistrates as 
 should be dwelling in or near the said towns, and such 
 other persons of worth as should from time to time be 
 appointed by the General Court " from a list of candidates 
 to be nominated by the several towns within the judicial 
 jurisdiction. They had power to " try all civil causes where- 
 of the debt or damage should not exceed ten pounds, and 
 all criminal causes not concerning life, member, or banish- 
 ment." Each of them was constituted of five judges, and 
 an appeal lay from them to the next quarterly court of 
 
 1635. Magistrates.^ Another improvement of the legal 
 Sept. 1. administration had recently been made, in the in- 
 troduction of presentments by a grand jury.^ 
 
 A rule was adopted to control the formation of church- 
 es. To reflecting minds their theoretical independence, 
 Formation both of cach othcr and of any authority over 
 of churches, ^ji^jji ^11, could uot liavo failed to present itself 
 in new lights from the time when the franchise ofthe 
 commonwealth was attached to church-membership. Per- 
 sons were received to the several churches by the con- 
 sent of the officers and members, on a relation of their re- 
 ligious experience, or other satisfactory evidence of their 
 Christian character. They were then admitted to the 
 Lord's Supper, and their children to baptism. Thus it 
 belonged to the several churches to confer the franchise of 
 the state, for no person could be a freeman without being 
 a church-member ; and though, to make a man a freeman, 
 a form had still to be gone through with, — an oath to be 
 taken, and a vote of the General Court to be passed, — 
 yet, in point of fact, it would very rarely hapj)en that a 
 communicant in a church would fail to be a freeman of 
 the Company.^ 
 
 This being so, the question must have soon occurred, 
 what safeguard for political integrity existed at the source 
 
 J Mass. Col. Rec, I. 169. 3 See Cotton's Answers to " Certain 
 
 2 Wintbrop, I. 198. Proposals," &c., in Hutchinson, I. 435.
 
 Chap. XL] MASSACHUSETTS. 433 
 
 of political power. "Who was to keep the keepers 1 That 
 by the law of franchise a close relation had been estab- 
 lished between church and state was undeniable, however 
 little of the extent of that relation had been discerned at 
 the time. A law forbidding the formation of any church 
 without the public approbation conveyed through the 
 Magistrates, would tend to secure an accordance between 
 the sentiments of the church-member and what were es- 
 teemed the vital principles of the commonwealth. It 
 would thus be but a fit complement of the previous en- 
 actment which had invested the church-member with 
 political power. The freemen intended that their body 
 should be a numerous corporation. But they intended 
 that it should be also a close and self-renewing corpora- 
 tion. They saw not how in any other way it could achieve 
 the beneficent purposes for which it was created. If a 
 church should be formed of persons alien to those pur- 
 poses, it would subsist in the commonwealth only as a 
 nursery of internal foes. Amidst the public dangers of 
 the period, the subject could not fail to force itself upon 
 attention ; and, after a year's consideration,-^ a ic3r. 
 law was passed, the special intent of which is ^'"=''3- 
 manifested by its last provision. It was as follows : — 
 
 " Forasmuch as it hath been found by sad experience, 
 that much trouble and disturbance hath happened both 
 to the church and civil state by the officers and members 
 of some churches which have been gathered within the 
 limits of this jurisdiction in an undue manner, and not 
 with such public approbation as were meet, it is therefore 
 ordered, that all persons are to take notice that this Court 
 doth not, nor will hereafter, approve of any such com- 
 
 1 " This Court [March 4,1635] doth and then to consider how far tho Magis- 
 
 entreat of the elders and brethren of trates are bound to interpose for the 
 
 every church within the jurisdiction, preservation of that uniformity and 
 
 that they will consult and advise of peace of the churches." (Mass. Col- 
 
 one uniform order of disciphne in the Rec, I. 142, 143.) 
 churches, agreeable to the Scriptures^ 
 VOL. I. 37
 
 434 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 panics of men as shall henceforth join in any pretended 
 way of church-fellowship, without they shall first acquaint 
 the Magistrates, and the elders of the greater part of the 
 churches in this jurisdiction, with their intentions, and 
 have their approbation herein. And further it is ordered, 
 that no person, being a member of any church which 
 shall hereafter be gathered without the approbation of 
 the Magistrates and the greater part of the said churches, 
 shall be admitted to the freedom of this commonwealth." 
 
 Another measure of the same General Court was a 
 definition of the powers of towns, giving the first legis- 
 lative authority to that municipal system of New Eng- 
 land which has survived with such happy results to the 
 Functions prcscut day. In consideration of the fact, that 
 of towns. u particular towns have many things which con- 
 cern only themselves, and the ordering of their own af- 
 fairs, and disposing of business in their own town," it was 
 " ordered, that the freemen of every town, or the major 
 part of them, shall only have power to dispose of their 
 own lands and woods, with all the privileges and appurte- 
 nances of said towns, to grant lots, and make such orders 
 as may concern the well-ordering of their own towns, not 
 repugnant to the laws and orders established by the Gen- 
 eral Court." They were authorized to impose fines "not 
 exceeding the sum of twenty shillings," and " to choose 
 their own particular officers, as constables, surveyors for 
 the highways, and the like." ^ To keep these communi- 
 
 1G35. ties compact, for their greater security, it had bc- 
 sept. 3. £Qj,g been ordered, "that hereafter no dwelling- 
 house should be built above half a mile from the meeting- 
 house, in any new plantation " ; ^ and the rule was soon 
 after extended to all the towns in the jurisdiction.^ In 
 the following year, the right of representation was roughly 
 1C3G. apportioned to the towns, according to the amount 
 Sept. 8. Qf their population. "It was ordered, that herc- 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 172. 2 ma., 157. 3 Ibid., 181.
 
 CiiAP. XL] MASSACHUSETTS. 435 
 
 after no town in the plantation that hath not ten freemen 
 resident in it shall send any Deputy to the General Court ; 
 those that have abo\'t ten and under twenty, not above one ; 
 betwixt twenty and forty, not above two ; and those that 
 have above forty, three if they will, but not above " ; and 
 the towns were directed to " take care to order and dispose 
 of all sinofle persons within their town to service, 
 
 , . , . . , ^ Dec. 13. 
 
 or otherwise," subject to a right of parties ag- 
 grieved by their action " to appeal to the Governor and 
 Council, or the Court." ^ 
 
 In the autumn v/hich followed the election of 1535. 
 Haynes to be Governor, three persons of special *^'^'' '^• 
 note arrived in Massachusetts. A previous visit of John 
 Winthrop the younger to this country has been men- 
 tioned.^ When he first came over, in the year ig3i 
 after his father, Avith others of the family who had wimjirop 
 been left behind, he Avas twenty-five or twenty-six "'° younger- 
 years old. After an exemplary and studious youth, passed 
 partly at Trinity College in the University of Dublin, he 
 had accomplished himself by travelling on the continent of 
 Europe. He was chosen an Assistant at the election next 
 following his first arrival, and continued to be annually 
 rechosen to that place, even when he had gone back to 
 Europe, as he did after more than two years' resi- 1633. 
 dence, in which time he had begun a plantation at ^^^''''^^ 
 Ipswich. During his absence, he had now " passed into 
 Scotland, and so through the North of England ; and all 
 the way he met with persons of quality, whose thoughts 
 were towards New England, who observed his coming 
 among them as a special providence of God." ^ 
 
 One of Winthrop's companions was a person destined 
 for a short time to exercise an important agency in the 
 affairs of New England, and subsequently to act a 
 
 , . , . Henry Vane. 
 
 scarcely secondary part on a much more conspic- 
 uous theatre. This was the young Henry Vane. His 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 178, 186. 3 Winthrop, I 173. 
 
 2 See above, p. 355.
 
 436 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 father, the representative of an ancient line, and himself 
 experienced in high public employments in the present 
 and the late reign, was at this j^eriod^a Privy Counsellor 
 and one of the Secretaries of State. The son, now twenty- 
 three years old, "being a young gentleman of excellent 
 parts, had been employed by his father, when he was am- 
 bassador, in foreign affairs, yet, being called to the obedi- 
 ence of the Gospel, forsook the honors and preferments 
 of the court, to enjoy the ordinances of Christ in their 
 purity here. His father, being averse to this way (as no 
 way savoring the power of religion), would hardly have 
 consented to his coming hither, but that, acquainting the 
 king with his son's disposition and desire, he commanded 
 him to send him hither, and gave him license for three 
 years' stay here." ^ 
 
 The third personage in this distinguished trio was the 
 minister, Hugh Peter. He had been educated at Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, and had subsequently been 
 lecturer at St. Sepulchre's church, in London, 
 whence he had been driven, by the persecution under 
 Laud, to Holland. After six years' service as pastor of a 
 church in Rotterdam, he was induced by annoyances from 
 the English ambassador to resolve to join the Colony in 
 Massachusetts, with which he was the better acquainted 
 from having been a member of the Company before leaving 
 England, and a liberal contributor to its stock. He was 
 soon inducted into the place lately vacated by Williams in 
 the church at Salem. He was a man of great talents, and 
 of restless and various activity. He saw at once the com- 
 mercial capacities of the country, and set himself to work 
 to develop them.^ 
 
 An incident presently occurred which illustrates the 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 1 70. sum of money to be raised to set on 
 
 2 lie •♦ went from place to place, la- foot the fishing business, and wrote into 
 boring both publicly and privately to England to raise as nmch more." (Win- 
 raise up men to a public frame of spirit, throp, I. 173, 17G ; couip. 185.) 
 
 and so prevailed as he procured a good
 
 Chap. XI.] MASSACHUSETTS. 437 
 
 characters of a group of important men. Vane and 
 Peter had scarcely been three months in the conference 
 country, before they undertook to revise the ad- ff^'^ lead- 
 
 ers. 
 
 ministration of the government. " Findinor some i^se. 
 
 ^V.,V,..^^.V..XV. ^ ..XVX.^Xj^ 
 
 Jan. 18. 
 
 distraction in the commonwealth, arising from 
 some difference in judgment, and withal some alienation 
 of affection, among the Magistrates and some other per- 
 sons of quality, and that hereby factions began to grow 
 among the people, some adhering more to the old Gov- 
 ernor, Mr. AVinthrop, and others to the late Governor, 
 Mr. Dudley, — the former carrying matters with more 
 lenity, and the latter with more severity, — they procured 
 a meeting, at Boston, of the Governor, Deputy, Mr. Cot- 
 ton, Mr. Hooker, Mr. Wilson, and there was present Mr. 
 Winthrop, Mr. Dudley, and themselves ; where, after the 
 Lord had been sought, Mr. Vane declared the occasion of 
 this meeting." And he " desired all present to take up a 
 resolution to deal freely and openly with the parties, and 
 they with each other, that nothing might be left in their 
 breasts which might break out to any jar or difference 
 hereafter ; which they promised to do." 
 
 Winthrop was self-possessed and at the same time con- 
 ciliating, as usual. He said, " that when it pleased Mr. 
 Vane to acquaint him with what he had observed, of the 
 dispositions of men's minds inclining to the said faction, 
 &c., it was very strange to him, professing solemnly that 
 he knew not of any breach between his brother Dudley 
 and himself, since they Avere reconciled long since." He 
 knew of no alienation from him, " save that, of late, he 
 had observed that some new-comers had estranged them- 
 selves from him, since they went to dwell at Newtown, 
 and so desired all the company, that, if they had seen 
 anything amiss in his government or otherwise, they 
 would deal freely and faithfully with him ; and, for his 
 part, he promised to take it in good part, and would en- 
 deavor, by God's grace, to amend it." Dudley said, " that, 
 
 37*
 
 438 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 for his part, he came thither a mere patient, not with any 
 intent to charge his brother Winthrop with anything; for 
 though there had been formerly some differences and 
 breaches between them, yet they had been healed, and for 
 his part he was not willing to renew them again, and so 
 he left it to others to utter their own complaints." 
 
 Haynes professed his unwillingness to give offence to 
 Winthrop ; " and he hoped that, considering what the end 
 of this meeting was, he would take it in good part, if he 
 did deal openly and freely, as his manner ever was. Then 
 he spake of one or two passages, wherein he conceived 
 that he dealt too remissly in point of justice. To which 
 Mr. Winthrop answered, that his speeches and carriage 
 had been in part mistaken ; but withal professed that it 
 was his judgment, that, in the infancy of plantation, jus- 
 tice should be administered with more lenity than in a 
 settled state, because then people were more apt to trans- 
 gress, partly of ignorance of new laws and orders, partly 
 through oppression of business and other straits ; but, if 
 it might be made clear to him that it was an erro^-, he 
 would be ready to take up a stricter course. Then the 
 ministers were desired to consider of the question by the 
 next morning, and to set down a rule in the case." 
 
 The ministers differed from Winthrop. Their judg- 
 ment, delivered the next morning, was, " that strict dis- 
 cipline, both in criminal offences and in martial affairs, 
 was more needful in jilantations than in a settled state, 
 as tending to the honor and safety of the Gospel. Where- 
 upon Mr. AVinthrop acknowledged that he was convinced 
 that he had failed in overmuch lenity and remissness, and 
 would endeavor, by God's assistance, to take a more strict 
 course hereafter. Whereupon there was a renewal of love 
 amongst them, and articles drawn " to regulate the future 
 course of administration. It was resolved, " that there 
 should be more strictness used in civil government and 
 military discipline; that the Magistrates should, as far as
 
 Chap. XL] MASSACHUSETTS. * 439 
 
 might be, ripen their consultations beforehand, that their 
 vote in public might bear as the voice of God ; that, in 
 meetings out of court, the Magistrates should not discuss 
 the business of parties in their presence, nor deliver their 
 opinions, &c. ; that trivial things should be ended in 
 towns " ; ^ that certain rules of order should be observed 
 in public meetings ; that the Magistrates should cultivate 
 a frank, friendly, and familiar intercourse with each other ; 
 that a more distinct precedency should be given to the 
 Governor in the conduct of the public business ; that 
 Assistants should refrain from embarrassing each other's 
 proceedings ; that the Magistrates should " grace and 
 strengthen their under officers in their places " ; and 
 finally, that " all contempts against the Court, or any of 
 the Magistrates, should be speedily noted and punished, 
 and that Magistrates should appear more solemnly in pub- 
 lic, with attendance, apparel, and open notice of their 
 entrance into the Court." ~ 
 
 At the first election after his arrival, Vane was chosen 
 Governor, with Winthrop for his Deputy. It 
 
 ^ i. ./ Vane chosen 
 
 is likely that the resentment of the freemen Governor. 
 against Cotton's doctrine of a vested estate in the 
 highest offices was not yet exhausted. It may have been 
 believed that Haynes intended to leave Massachusetts. 
 And the remarkable personal qualities of Vane, set ofi^ 
 by his eminent social position, required no long time to 
 make themselves felt.^ The Assistants now chosen were 
 
 1 There was one good fruit, at least, bad been here less than two montbs,] at 
 of tbis conference, if it led to the law a general meeting upon public notice, it 
 
 respecting towns, which was passed at is agreed that none of the mem- 
 
 the next General Court, six weeks after- bers of this congregation or inhabitants 
 
 ward (see above, p. 434). amongst us shall sue one another at the 
 
 2 "Winthrop, I. 177-179. law before that Mr. Henry Vane and 
 
 3 In Boston, indeed, he had been the two elders, Mr. Thomas Oliver and 
 welcomed with expressions of a confi- Thomas Leverett, have had the hearing 
 dence which, considering his youth, and deciding of the cause, if they can." 
 seems almost like infatuation. " No- (Town Records of Boston.) 
 
 vember 30, 1635, [at which time Vane
 
 44:0 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 the same as in the last year, except that Hough, for some 
 reason whicli is not apparent, was left out, and the Gov- 
 ernor and Deputy-Governor of that year were added to 
 the list, with Endicott, whose term of penance had ex- 
 
 1535. pired, and Roger Harlakenden, a young man of 
 
 August. gQod family and fortune, who had arrived in the 
 preceding autumn. 
 
 The accession of Vane was greeted with unusual pomp. 
 " Because he was son and heir to a Privy Counsellor in 
 England, the ships congratulated his election with a vol- 
 ley of great shot." The enthusiasm awakened in his be- 
 half he had the good sense to turn to account for the 
 public advantage. " The next week, he invited all the 
 masters (there were then fifteen great ships) to dinner." 
 And he profited by the interview to make them agree that 
 vessels bound to Boston should anchor below the castle, 
 till their friendly character should be ascertained ; that 
 the Magistrates should have the first offer of commodities 
 which they brought ; and " that their men might not stay 
 on shore, except upon necessary business, after sunset." ^ 
 
 The king's mutilated flag flapped forthwith in the face 
 of the son of the king's Privy Counsellor and Secretary. 
 A seaman " spake to some of our people aboard his 
 The royal sliip, that becausc we had not the king's colors at 
 ''^^"icnfi 0^11* fort,, we were all traitors and rebels." The 
 
 May 31. Magistrates apprehended and committed him. 
 " He acknowledged his offence, and set his hand to a 
 submission, and was discharged. Then the Governor de- 
 sired the masters that they w^ould deal freely, and tell us 
 if they did take any offence, and what they required of 
 us." They replied that, as they should be questioned 
 when they got home, they should like to see the national 
 flag displayed at the castle. And now a singular fact ap- 
 peared. In an English colony, six years old, the royal 
 ensign was not to be found. " It was answered, that we 
 
 1 Wlnthrop, I. 187.
 
 Chap. XL] MASSACHUSETTS. 441 
 
 had not the king's colors." The shipmasters offered to 
 furnish them, and they were hoisted accordingly over the 
 fort, but not till after solemn consultation, and, as far as 
 some of the Magistrates were concerned, with no other 
 consent than connivance, Winthrop, who was evidently 
 dissatisfied, says : " We had conferred over night with Mr. 
 Cotton, &c., about the point. The Governor and Mr. 
 Dudley and Mr. Cotton were of opinion that they might 
 be set up at the fort upon this distinction, that it was 
 maintained in the king's name," and so " that his own 
 colors might be spread there." " Some others, being not 
 so persuaded, could not join in the act, yet would not 
 oppose, as being doubtful." ^ 
 
 In plain defiance of the charter, a new order of magis- 
 tracy was instituted at the General Court which elected 
 Yane to be Governor. Winthrop " was chosen , 
 
 *- Institution 
 
 to be one of the Standing Council for the term of of a council 
 his life." The same dignity was conferred upon 
 Dudley at the same time, and upon Endicott in the follow- 
 ing year; and never upon any other person. The ap- 
 pointments were made in fulfilment of a vote, passed at 
 the General Court two months before, " that the General 
 Court to be holden in May next, for election of Magis- 
 trates, and so from time to time, as occasion shall 
 
 . ^ . March 3. 
 
 require, shall elect a certain number of magis- 
 trates, for term of their lives, as a standing council, not 
 to be removed but upon due conviction of crime, insuf- 
 ficiency, or for some other weighty cause, the Governor 
 for the time being to be always President of this Council, 
 and to have such further power out of Court as the Gen- 
 eral Court shall from time to time endue them withal." ^ 
 This attempt was a revival of Cotton's doctrine of perpe- 
 tuity in ofln.ce, as well as probably a concession to the pro- 
 posal of Lord Say and Sele to introduce an aristocratical 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 187-189. Comp. 2 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 167. 
 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 176, 178.
 
 442 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 element into the government.-' But the plan v,vls not 
 
 pressed; it acquired no favor with the people, and came 
 
 to nothing. 
 
 At the same General Court a committee was raised " to 
 
 make a draught of laws agreeable to the word of God, 
 
 which may be the fundamentals of this common- 
 March 25. •' , 
 
 Proposal for a Wealth, aud to present the same to the next Gen- 
 code of laws. . ' 1 r ^ 
 eral Court. llie committee consisted oi the 
 
 Governor and Deputy-Governor, the Assistants Dudley, 
 Haynes, and Bellingham, and the ministers Cotton, Peter, 
 and Shepard." The General Court of the preceding year 
 had given a like charge to Haynes, Bellingham, AYin- 
 throp, and Dudley.^ But it was several years before this 
 object, diligently pursued by the freemen, was accom- 
 plished. The Magistrates and ministers, who did not 
 favor it, knew how to interpose embarrassments and de- 
 lays. 
 
 " The people thought their condition very unsafe, 
 
 while so much power rested in the discretion of jNIagis- 
 tratcs." At first view, their apprehensions and their de- 
 mand appear unquestionably just ; yet reasons " which 
 caused most of the Magistrates and some of the elders 
 not to be very forward in this matter," were not without 
 weight. The practical and cautious habit of thought of 
 the more influential minds led them to the opinion, that 
 a code of statute law, which must be framed, would not 
 prove so fit and safe as a system of Common Law, which 
 could only grow; they reflected on the "want of sufficient 
 experience of the nature and disposition of the people, 
 
 1 Cotton wrote to Lord Say and Selc, to choose more, till they see what fur- 
 that "the General Court had already ther better choice the Lord will send 
 condescended unto " one of his Propo- over to them, that so they may keep an 
 sals, " in establishinji a Standinjr Conn- open door for such desirable gentlemen 
 oil, who, durinfr their lives, should assist as your Lordship mentioncth." (.lohn 
 the Governor in manajring th(! chicfest Cotton to Lord Say and Sele, in Ilutch- 
 aflTairs of this little state. They have inson, L, App. TIL) 
 chosen for the present only two, Mr. ^ ;^fass. Col. llec., L 174. 
 ■\yintlirop and Mr. Dudley, not willing 3 Ibid., 14 7.
 
 Chap. XL] MASSACHUSETTS. 443 
 
 considered with the condition of the country and other 
 circumstances, which nlade them conceive that such laws 
 would be fittest for us which should arise i)ro re natd, upon 
 occasions." Their patriotic vigilance discerned another 
 material difficulty. A formal code, with provisions such 
 as were needed or desired, "would," said Winthrop, "pro- 
 fessedly transgress the limits of our charter, which pro- 
 vides we shall make no laws repugnant to the laws of 
 England, and that we were assured we must do ; but to 
 raise up laws by practice and custom had been no trans- 
 gression ; as, in our church discipline and in matters of 
 marriage, to make a law that marriages should not be sol- 
 emnized by ministers, is repugnant to the laws of Eng- 
 land ; but to bring it a custom by practice for the Magis- 
 trates to perform it, is no law made repugnant."^ The 
 subject will repeatedly recur hereafter. 
 
 A General Court convened by Vane towards the close 
 of his term, " taking into consideration the great dan- 
 2jer and damap^e that mif^ht accrue to the state 
 
 Dec. 13. 
 
 by all the freemen's leaving their plantations to 
 come to the place of elections," passed an order making it 
 " free and lawful for all freemen to send their votes for 
 elections by proxy the next General Court in May, and 
 so for thereafter " ; " an approach to the mode of local 
 voting in use at the present day. At the same Court, a 
 military organization was matured. It was "or- Mnitary or- 
 dered, that all military men in the jurisdiction g-'^n'^^''""- 
 should be ranked into three regiments," according to a 
 division which subsequently became the basis of counties. 
 The elder Winthrop was provisionally appointed Colonel, 
 and Dudley Lieutenant-Colonel, of the troops of the 
 southern district ; Haynes and Harlakeuden received the 
 like appointments for Charlestown and the western set- 
 tlements ; and Endicott and Winthrop the younger for 
 Saugus, Salem, Ipswich, and Newbury. After this first 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 322, 323. 2 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 188.
 
 444 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 organization, the regiments were respectively to elect their 
 field-officers ; " and for the captains and lieutenants to the 
 several companies, the several towns " were to " make 
 choice of some principal man, or two or three, in each 
 town, and present them to the Council, who should ap- 
 point one of them to the said office in each company." 
 The officers were all to be freemen ; but, in the nomina- 
 tion of company officers, privates who were not freemen 
 might vote. The Governor for the time being was always 
 to be Commander-in-chief^ 
 
 Simultaneously with the foundation of Providence by 
 Roger AVilliams, a more important movement had taken 
 place towards the region further to the west. To follow 
 the progress of this transaction, and observe its connection 
 with its important incidents in Massachusetts, it is neces- 
 sary first to retrace our steps. 
 
 The establishment of a factory by the Plymouth people 
 on Connecticut River, and the visits to it of John Old- 
 ham and of a vessel of Governor Winthrop, have been 
 related in a former chapter." Intelligence which from 
 time to time arrived of the fertility of that region led 
 manv to desire to transfer themselves to it from 
 
 Scheme of an •' 
 
 emigration to tlic Icss productivo soll upou which they had at 
 
 Connecticut. • -\ r i ^ ' M 
 
 first sat down m Massachusetts; and especially 
 the project was entertained by the inhabitants of Dorches- 
 ter, Watertown, Newtown, and Poxbury. It was favored 
 at Poxbury by Pynchon, one of the Assistants, and at 
 Dorchester by Ludlow, the principal lay citizen. But at 
 the head of the enterprise, in the shape which it finally 
 took, were Hooker and Stone, ministers of Newtown, and 
 their parishioner, John Haynes. 
 
 It has been mentioned that these three eminent persons 
 came over in the ship which also brought John Cotton ; 
 and the reader is acquainted with the prominent part at 
 once taken by Ilaynes in the aff'airs of the Colony. Sam- 
 
 1 Mass. Col. lice, I. 18G, 187. 2 See above, pp. 339, 309, 370.
 
 Chap. XI.] MASSACHUSETTS. 445 
 
 uel Stone, educated, like so many others of our founders, 
 at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, had been a samuei 
 lecturer in Northamptonshire before his flight into ^^™'' 
 America. Thomas Hooker, student and Fellow Thomas 
 
 Hooker. 
 
 of the same College, had acquired a high reputa- 
 tion in the same employment at Chelmsford, in Essex. 
 He had also taught a school, in which John Eliot was 
 his assistant. From the threats of the High-Commission 
 Court he escaped to Rotterdam, where he became pastor 
 to the congregation served by Dr. Ames as teacher. The 
 intention of some of his Essex friends to emigrate having 
 been made known to him, he returned to England, and, 
 managing to get on shipboard in disguise, joined them, a 
 year after the arrival of their most numerous com- 1^33. 
 pany, at Newtown, where he was presently estab- ^''^' ^^' 
 lished as their pastor, Mr. Stone being associated with 
 him as teacher. 
 
 It was at the first annual General Court after their 
 arrival, and after the rejection of the proposal from Ply- 
 mouth to plant upon Connecticut E-iver,^ that the New- 
 town people presented their application for leave 1034. 
 " to look out either for enlargement or removal." ^ ^^^^ ^'^• 
 If their plan was already matured, it was not understood 
 by the Court, and the request, preferred in such general 
 terms, was readily consented to.^ At the next 
 
 ' •' , Sept. 4. 
 
 meeting, the purpose "to remove to Connecticut" 
 was avowed. " This matter was debated divers days, and 
 many reasons alleged pro and con. The principal reasons 
 for their removal were, — 1. Their want of ac- ,„ ^ 
 
 ' Alleged mo- 
 
 commodation for their cattle, so as they were not tivesfor 
 
 ...... IT emigration. 
 
 able to mamtam their mmisters, nor could re- 
 ceive any more of their friends to help them ; and here 
 it was alleged by Mr. Hooker, as a fundamental error, 
 that towns were set so near each to other. 2. The fruit- 
 fulness and commodiousness of Connecticut, and the dan- 
 
 1 See above, p. 340. 2 Winthrop, I. 132, 3 Mass. Col. Eec, 1. 119. 
 
 vor,. I. 38
 
 446 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 gcr of having it possessed by others, Dutch or English. 
 3. The strong bent of their spirits to remove thither." ' 
 
 The first of these reasons does not seem suitable to have 
 much influence on those who, though just joined by a recent 
 emigration of some hundreds, had behind and beside them 
 the whole territory of Massachusetts, supporting at this day 
 more than a million of inhabitants. The second divides it- 
 self into two branches, the latter of which is a consideration 
 of public advantage, apparently calculated not so much 
 to prompt the design entertained, as to promote its favora- 
 ble reception by the authorities. The former branch, relat- 
 ing to " the fruitfulness and commodiousness of Connecti- 
 cut," may well have entered as a large element into that 
 " strong bent of their spirits to remove thither," which was 
 specified as the third reason. Yet another reason for this 
 "strong bent" has been found by some writers in a sup- 
 posed jealousy of Mr. Winthrop on the part of Mr. 
 Haynes, and of Mr. Cotton on the part of Mr. Hooker, 
 impelling the two chief pioneers of Connecticut to seek 
 a sphere where their influence would cease to be con- 
 trolled, and their consequence eclipsed, by rivals earlier 
 possessed of the public confidence.^ But the hypothesis 
 is not sustained either by definite facts, or by anything in 
 the character of those eminently imselfish persons. If 
 motives of this description had weight with any of the 
 projectors, they are more likely to have influenced Ludlow 
 of Dorchester, whose ambitious and uneasy temper^ was 
 sufficiently evinced both before and after his departure. 
 In respect to the Watertown people, it would be no mat- 
 ter of surprise, if, after the suppression, by the calm pru- 
 dence of Winthrop, of Avhat may be called a mutiny 
 among them,'* some fire had still slumbered among the 
 
 1 "Winthrop, I. 110. (Winthrop, I. 141.) But the next 
 
 2 Iliildj.inl, Chap. XLT. yoar, when he had been left out of the 
 
 3 Ludlow was against the measure in magistracy, he altered his mind. 
 1634, when he was Deputy-Governor. ^ ggc above, p. 353.
 
 Chap. XL] MASSACHUSETTS. 447 
 
 ashes. As the Connecticut emigrants did not adopt in 
 their own settlement that radical feature of the social sys- 
 tem of Massachusetts which founded the ciyil franchise on 
 church-membership, we may not unnaturally suppose that 
 dissatisfaction with it. and apprehension of the results of 
 that union between church and state which had already 
 been partially developed out of it, may have been among 
 theij motives for seeking a separate home. And it may 
 have been. that, in the existing relations between Massa- 
 chusetts and the mother country. Haynes and Hooker and 
 their associates were disposed to seek the security of a 
 residence more remote ; — a motive which is known to 
 have had a part in prompting the next emigration towards 
 the west. 
 
 " Against these it was said. — 1. That, in point of con- 
 science, they ought not to depart from us, being knit to 
 us in one body, and bound by oath to seek the Ke*«s 
 welfare of this commonwealth. "2. That, in point »?»™^*- 
 of state and civil policy, we ought not to give them leave 
 to depart. — (1.) Being we were now weak, and in danger 
 to be assailed ; (2.) The departure of Mr. Hooker would 
 not only draw many from us, but also divert other friends 
 who would come to us ; (3.) "We should expose them to 
 evident peril, both from the Dutch (who made claim, to the 
 same river and had already built a fort there) and fix)m 
 the Indians, and also from our own state at home, who 
 would not endure they should sit down without a patent 
 in any place which our king lays claim to. 3. They 
 might be accommodated at home by some enlargement 
 which other towns offered. 4. They might remove to 
 Merrimack, or any other place within our patent 5. The 
 removing of a candlestick^ is a great judgment" 
 
 TMien the matter came to a vote, the two branches of 
 the legislature, if we are already so to call them, dis- 
 agreed. Fifteen of the twenty-five Deputies were in favor 
 
 1 This figure is borroired fitim Berelation i. 11 - 13, 20, etc.
 
 448 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 of granting the permission desired, while of the Magis- 
 trates all but the Governor and two Assistants dissented. 
 The Magistrates were the responsible pilots of the young 
 commonwealth through the difficulties of its relation to 
 the mother country, and to them the consideration of the 
 danger to be apprehended from the " state at home, which 
 would not endure that they should sit down without a 
 patent in any place which the king laid claim to," sug- 
 gested yet other thoughts. It could scarcely occur to 
 their minds, without exciting an alarm, lest that attention 
 to American colonies and charters, which it was so much 
 their interest to avoid, should be revived at court by the 
 proposed movement, and lest the investigation should be 
 favored even by those patentees of Connecticut whose 
 rights would be encroached upon, and who had hitherto 
 been so much their friends. 
 
 The important question had thus arisen whether a ma- 
 jority of the Magistrates possessed an effectual negative 
 auestion re- voico lu tlic govemmcnt. " Upon this grew a 
 spcciinga prreat difference." All other methods failing; to 
 
 veto power o o 
 
 ofthemagis- composc it, " tho whole Court agreed to keep a 
 day of humiliation to seek the Lord, which ac- 
 cordingly was done in all the congregations." The Gen- 
 eral Court re-assembled after a fortnight's adjournment, 
 and listened to a sermon from Mr. Cotton, " upon Mr. 
 Hooker's instant excuse of his unfitness for that occasion." 
 From the text, " Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith 
 the Lord, and be strong, O Joshua the son of Josedeck, 
 the high-priest, and be strong, all ye people of the land, 
 saith the Lord, and work, for I am with you, saith the 
 Lord of hosts," ^ Cotton " laid down the nature or strength 
 (as he termed it) of the magistracy, ministry, and people ; 
 namely, the strength of the magistracy to be their author- 
 ity ; of the people, their liberty ; and of the ministry, their 
 purity ; and showed how all of these had a negative voice, 
 
 1 Haggal iL 4.
 
 Chap. XI] MASSACHUSETTS. 449 
 
 &c., and that yet the ultimate resolution, &c. ought to be 
 in the whole body of the people, &c." His address, if it did 
 not close the question against future agitation, answered 
 the present purpose. "Although all were not satisfied 
 about the negative voice to be left to the Magistrates, yet 
 no man moved aught about it, and the congregation of 
 Newtown came and accepted of such enlargement as had 
 formerly been offered them by Boston and Watertown, 
 and so the fear of their removal to Connecticut was re- 
 moved." ^ 
 
 When, at the next annual General Court, Haynes was 
 made Governor of Massachusetts, it was perhaps partly 
 with the intent of detaching him from the en- 1(535, 
 terprise. But the Magistrates appear now to ^^^^^' 
 have determined to refrain from harshly pressing their 
 objections. Perhaps because they had become satisfied 
 that further opposition would be fruitless,^ or that it was 
 not the time to assert a claim which had been so vigor- 
 ously contested, or that it was not worth the contention 
 it would revive,^ they consented to a vote couched in these 
 ambiguous terms : " There is liberty granted to the inhab- 
 itants of Watertown to remove themselves to any place 
 they shall think meet to make choice of, provided they 
 continue still under this government." ^ In the course of 
 
 1 Wintlarop, I. 140 - 142. and obtained liberty to remove," &c. 
 
 2 There is a tradition (see Trumbull, His accuracy is in general unimpeach- 
 Ilistory of Connecticut, I. 59) that some able ; but I do not find that he is right 
 stragglers from Watertown had already in the present instance. As I under- 
 wintered at the spot where is now stand it, there was no further action of 
 Wethersfield. the General Court on the subject of the 
 
 3 " Divers jealousies that had been removal of the Newtown church till the 
 between the Magistrates and Deputies grant, in March, 1636, of the "Com- 
 were now cleared, with full satisfaction mission to Several Pei-sons to govern 
 to all parties." (Winthrop, I. 160.) the People at Connecticut," the pream- 
 
 4 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 146. A simi- ble to which reads thus: ""Whereas, upon 
 lar vote was passed as to Roxbury. some reasons and grounds, there are to 
 (Ibid.) Trumbull says (I. 59) : " The remove from this our commonwealth 
 next May, the Newtown people, deter- and body of the Mattachusetts in Amer- 
 mining to settle at Connecticut, renewed ica, divers of our loving friends, neigh- 
 their application to the General Court, bors, freemen, and members of New- 
 
 38*
 
 450 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 the summer, a party from Dorchester found their way to 
 the neio:hborhood of the spot where the Plymouth 
 
 Emigration '-' i. ^ 
 
 to Connect- factory had been planted/ and a few explorers 
 from Watertown established themselves where 
 Wethersfield at length grew up." Probably these expe- 
 ditions were preparatory to a more important one which 
 took place in the autumn, when a party of sixty persons, 
 including women and children, driving cattle before them, 
 set off for the infant settlements.^ The unexpect- 
 ed length of their difficult journey abridged their 
 time for making preparations for the winter, which came 
 on unusually soon, and proved to be of distressing sever- 
 ity. In six weeks from the time of their depart- 
 
 Nov. 2G. -' . -■■ 
 
 ure, twelve of their number had struggled back to 
 Eoston. They reported that they had left the river already 
 frozen over, excluding all supplies by water carriage, and 
 that " they had been ten days upon their journey, and 
 had lost one of their company, drowned in the ice by the 
 way, and had been all starved, but that, by God's provi- 
 dence, they lighted upon an Indian wigwam." "* 
 
 When John Winthrop the younger came to New Eng- 
 land the second time, he bore a commission from Lord 
 
 Say and Sele, Lord Brooke, and others their asso- 
 
 Oct. 6. . *' . ^ 
 
 ciates, patentees of Connecticut."" It constituted 
 him Governor of that territory for a year, with instruc- 
 tions to build a fort at the river's mouth, for which pur- 
 town, Dorcliestcr, Watertown, and other "Warwick, President of the Council for 
 places, who are resolved to transplant New England. Lord Warwick's as- 
 themselves and their estates unto the signmcnt to the new proprietors, with a 
 river of Connecticut, there to reside description of the boundaries, &c., under 
 and inhabit, and to that end divers are the date of March 19, 1632, may be 
 there already, and divers otiiers shortly found in Hazard (I.« 318), as well 
 to go," &c. (Mass. Col. Rec, I. 170.) as in other places. — Winthrop's com- 
 
 1 See above, p. 340. mission, sigue<l by Sir Arthur Hazel- 
 
 2 Trumbull, I. 59. rigg, George Fenwick, who subsequent- 
 
 3 Winthrop, I. 171. ly came over, and three others, as a 
 * Winthro|)'s Journal, I. 1 73. committee of the patentees, is in the 
 5 They were proprietors of that ter- Appendix (No IT.) to the first volume 
 
 ritory as assigns of Robert Rich, Earl of of Trumbull's History.
 
 Dy,iii-,. fJvm.tfuO'itnnaJjT'ictun 6y J.RJ>rui. 
 
 riRST aovEBJsroit of massacbjisjetts .
 
 Chap. XI.] CONNECTICUT. 451 
 
 pose he came provided with men and ammunition, and with 
 two thousand pounds in money. He was further directed 
 to employ a party of fifty to erect the fort, and to Foundation 
 put up houses, " first for their own present ac- "^ ^aybrook. 
 commodations, and then such houses as may receive men 
 of quality," the latter to be within the circuit of the fort ; 
 and he Avas to take care that all settlers for the present 
 should " plant themselves either at the harbor, or near the 
 mouth of the river," for the purpose of more effective mu- 
 tual defence. He forthwith despatched a partv 
 
 1-1 • r. Nov. 3. 
 
 01 twenty men, who, Avith two pieces of cannon 
 which they had mounted, drove off a vessel sent from 
 New Netherland to assert the Dutch claim to the posses- 
 sion of the river. Something was done towards the main- 
 tenance of the English right when a small work was first 
 erected and then commanded by Lion Gardiner, an engi- 
 neer whom Winthrop had brought over for the purpose.^ 
 
 Vane and Peter were associated with Winthrop, by the 
 patentees of Connecticut, in the agency for the manage- 
 ment of their estate. The three made proclamation of 
 the rights of their principals, and required a recognition 
 of them on the part of the emigrants to that region.- The 
 matter was adjusted by an agreement of the emigrants, 
 either to withdraAV entirely on being remunerated for their 
 expenses, or to give up such portion of the ground they 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 1 70, 1 73, 1 75 ; Trum- Winthrop the younger, though it is 
 bull, 1.497. — In his " Relation of the barely possible that the Governor is 
 Pequot Warres" (Mass. Hist. Coll., indicated. Winthrop the younger is 
 XXIII. 13(5), Gardiner qvialifies him- spoken of in the body of the paper ; but 
 self as " Engineer and Master of what seems to me more than counter- 
 Works of Fortification in the Leaguers vailing evidence that he, not his father, 
 of the Prince of Orange in the Low was the signer, is the language in which 
 Countries." the Connecticut people are challenged to 
 
 2 The document is in the Appendix declare " under what right and pretence 
 to Savage's Winthrop, I. 477. "The they have lately taken up their planta- 
 agents of the patentees," mentioned in tions"; a challenge which Winthrop the 
 it, I understand to be the subscribers, elder, after his agency in the transac- 
 Vane, Winthrop, and Peter ; and the tion, could scarcely have made. Comp. 
 second subscriber I understand to be Winthrop, I. 1 70.
 
 452 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 had occupied as should be satisfactory to the patentees. 
 But further reflection must have shown that their presence 
 was no disadvantage, but a benefit ; and they were exposed 
 to no further molestation from the proprietors. The dispute 
 with Plymouth Colony, arising out of the occupation, by 
 the emigrants from Dorchester, of lands Avhich the former 
 had purchased of the Indians and defended against the 
 Dutch,^ lasted longer; but Mas at length amicably com- 
 posed, on the payment, by the Dorchester people, of fifty 
 pounds, with a surrender of forty acres of intervale, and 
 a large tract of upland.^ The pain occasioned by the re- 
 cent quarrel at the eastward had its influence in peaceably 
 determining this dispute. " To make any forcible resist- 
 ance was far from their thoughts ; they had had enough 
 of that about Kennebec." ^ 
 
 Those of the adventurers who persevered in attempting 
 Sufferings to wiutcr ou Conuecticut E-iver underwent ex- 
 settiersof trcmc hardship. The vessels in which they had 
 Connecticut, j^jpj^ grcat part of their household supplies and 
 furniture were detained by the freezing over of the river. 
 The ground Avas covered deep with snow, and the cattle 
 suffered for want of shelter and provender. Impelled by 
 the fear of famine, seventy persons struggled 
 down to the river's mouth, in fruitless search 
 of the expected ships. They fell in with another vessel, 
 which took them back to Boston. Acorns, with some 
 malt and grain, added to the precarious products of the 
 chase, furnished scanty means of subsistence to those who 
 stayed behind. The loss of the Dorchester settlement 
 alone, in cattle that died, was estimated at two thousand 
 pounds sterling."* 
 
 ' Bradford felt very sore about this to invade. Winslow conducted tlic 
 
 transaction. (History, 338-342.) The treaty. (Winthrop, I. 181.) 
 reason, or pretence, of the persistence 2 Trumbull, I. C6, on the authority 
 
 of the Dorchester people was, that of nianuscrij)ts of Governor Wolcott 
 
 they were, or mifrht be, within the lim- Comp. Bradford, 342. 
 its of the Massachusetts patent, which 3 Bradford, 341. See above, p. 338. 
 those of Plymouth had had no right * Winthrop, I. 175, 184.
 
 Chap. XI.] CONNECTICUT. 453 
 
 At length came the movement which gave permanent 
 vitality to Connecticut. Among the numerous colonists 
 who had recently arrived was a company attached ic35. 
 to Thomas Shepard/ formerly of Emmanuel *^''^-^- 
 College, and more recently a lecturer at Earl's Cone, in 
 Essex.^ Shepard and his friends arranged with the mem- 
 bers of the Newtown church for the purchase of their 
 houses and other immovable property. The plan of re- 
 moval being thus facilitated, Hooker and Stone, with 
 the members of their congregation, a hundred in num- 
 ber, of both sexes and all aijes, took advantag^e 
 
 o 
 
 1636. 
 
 of the pleasantest of the New England months June 
 to make their emigration. They directed their c.ni'gmion 
 march by the compass, aided by such local in- |°„^°""^*'*" 
 formation as they had derived from previous ex- 
 plorers. Their herd of a hundred and sixty cattle, which 
 grazed as they journeyed, supplied them with milk. 
 They hewed their difficult way through thickets, and 
 their simple engineering bridged with felled trees the 
 streams wliich could not be forded. Tents and wagons 
 protected them from the rain, and sheltered their sleep. 
 Early berries, which grew along the way, furnished an 
 agreeable variety in their diet ; and the fragrance of sum- 
 mer flowers, and the songs of innumerable birds, beguiled 
 the weariness of their pilgrimage. It occupied a fortnight, 
 though the distance was scarcely a hundred miles. Mrs. 
 Hooker, by reason of illness, was conveyed in a horse litter. 
 At a spot, on the right bank of the Connecticut, just 
 north of the Dutch stockade,^ the caravan reached its 
 journey's end. The little settlements above and below 
 were enlarged in the course of the summer by the emi- 
 gration of the churches of Dorchester and Watertown. 
 
 1 In the year 1G35, twenty ves- ~ Shepard, Memoir of his own Life, 
 
 sels brouglit three thousand colonists to in Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts, 
 
 ^lassachusetts, including eleven miu- p. 514. 
 
 isters. ^ See above, p. 340.
 
 45 -i HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 The former ^yas accompanied by Mr. AYarham, 
 February, ^j^. Mavcrlck having lately died. The latter 
 engaged a new pastor, Mr. Henry Smith, instead of Mr. 
 Phillips, who, from dissatisfaction on his own part or on 
 theirs, remained behind. To the spots selected for their 
 habitation the emigrants gave, for the present, the names 
 of the Massachusetts towns which resj)ectively they had 
 left. Pynchon and seven other persons from E,oxbury 
 had pitched upon a beautiful site higher up the river, 
 afterwards called Springfield.-^ The political constitution 
 of the four plantations was the singular one of a " Com- 
 le^^. mission granted " by the General Court of Mas- 
 warch. sachusetts to Ludlow, Pynchon, and six others, 
 " to govern the people of Connecticut for the space of a 
 year now next coming." " The Massachusetts Magistrates 
 knew that at least the lower towns on the Connecticut 
 were beyond their border. But their course seemed to 
 them to be justified by " a necessity that some present 
 government might be observed " ; and something of the 
 English doctrine of an indefeasible allegiance adhering 
 to their friends in their new abode may have been floating 
 in their minds. 
 
 Local business had been transacted at town meetings^ 
 from the beginning of the plantations. The general ad- 
 ministration for the first year continued entirely 
 
 Governniont -' ' 
 
 for the lir.t in tlic liauds of the Commissioners. It was direct- 
 ed, for the most part, to the establishment of po- 
 lice and military regulations, the collection of a revenue 
 (for which purpose a Treasurer was chosen), and arrange- 
 
 1 "They entered into a covenant "Jolin Wintlirop, Jr., Esq., Governor, 
 •with each other, [1G.3C,] May 11." The appohiteil by certain noble pcrsonajres 
 Reverend George !Moxon, their first and men of qiiahty interested in the 
 minister, was with them as early as tiic said river, which are yet in England." 
 following year. (Brock, Century Scr- (]\Iass. Col. Rec, I. 170.) 
 
 mon at Springfield, 15, IC.) 3 "One, the earliest, bearing date 
 
 2 The preamble, however, declares 1G.35." (Hartford iu the Olden Time, 
 that this was done in concert with 50.)
 
 Chap. XL] CONNECTICUT. 455 
 
 meiits for the settlement of estates and for the procuring 
 of ^Drovisions. The trespasses of swine made constant 
 trouble for the founders of Connecticut, as well as for the 
 legislators of the community they had left. Before the 
 year expired, new names were given to the three ics?. 
 lower towns. Newtown was called Hartford, ^"''''•^^• 
 after the English birthplace of Mr. Stone; Watertown 
 took the name of Wethersfield, and Dorchester that of 
 Windsor.! 
 
 The government of the Connecticut towns by Com- 
 missioners of Massachusetts had been but a provisional 
 arrangement, and in practice was found to be inconven- 
 ient. The sense of allegiance, such as it was, had been 
 weakened by the short time of absence ; and there ap- 
 peared no good reason why one primitive settlement 
 should owe its laws to another, from which it was sepa- 
 rated by the distance of a fortnight's journey through the 
 woods. Accordingly, the Massachusetts commission w^as 
 not renewed ; and, in the second month after the expira- 
 tion of the year to which it was limited, a Gen- 
 
 , . May 1. 
 
 eral Court was held at Hartford. In it the aggre- 
 gate community was represented by six persons, five of 
 whom had been Commissioners, while nine others ap- 
 peared as " committees " from the several towns.^ Almost 
 at the same time, the new Colony received the welcome 
 accession of John Haynes.^ 
 
 The population of the three lower towns on the Con- 
 necticut is estimated to have been now about eight hun- 
 dred, including two hundred and fifty adult men. There 
 were besides twenty of the younger Winthrop's men, under 
 
 1 Connecticut Colony Records, 7. March 7 (INIass. Col. Rec, I. 193), thus 
 
 2 Ibid., 9. performinn; the last public service to 
 
 3 " Third month [May], 2. Mr. which his official term as Assistant ex- 
 Haynes, one of ourMagistrates, removed tended. "jVIr. Haynes is now come to 
 with his family to Connecticut." ('Win- Hartford." (Letter of Ludlow to Pyn- 
 throp, L 2G0.) Haynes was in his place c'hon, May 17, in Mass. Hist. Coll., 
 at a Court of Assistants of Massachusetts, XVUI. 235.)
 
 456 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Gardiner, in the fort at the river's mouth. ^ The colonists 
 early had cause for extreme uneasiness, and they had not 
 been a year in their new home, before they waged a san- 
 guinary war for their existence. 
 
 It has been mentioned that the Pequots, the most for- 
 midable tribe of New England, occupied the country be- 
 warwith tween the Pawcatuck River, now the western 
 the Pequots. boundary of Rhode Island, and the river then 
 bearing their name, now called the Thames. Their west- 
 ern border was some thirty miles distant, in a straight 
 line, from the nearest of the recent English settlements. 
 Sassacus was their chief, and twenty-six subordinate sa- 
 chems acknowledged his sway. It was the encroachments 
 of these people which had led the neighboring tribes to 
 send an embassy to invite an English settlement for their 
 protection." The Narragansetts, whose hunting-grounds 
 lay to the eastward of theirs, and who had hitherto been 
 able, with difficulty, to escape subjection to them, re- 
 garded the Pequot chief with a superstitious awe. The 
 !Mohegans, who had been tributary to the Pequots, were 
 now irritated against them, and ready for rebellion. 
 
 Some three years before, two traders, named Stone and 
 Norton, having sailed from New England for Virginia, 
 with a crew of six other persons, had steered 
 their vessel up the Connecticut River for traffic 
 Norton. ^^ ^^Q Dutch trading-house. Stone admitted 
 twelve of the natives on board his vessel, and engaged 
 others to pilot two of his men higher up the stream in a 
 boat. The guides, at night, murdered these men, and the 
 Indians on board the vessel rose upon her company while 
 most of them were asleep, and put them also to death. 
 Intelligence of the transaction came by the way of Ply- 
 mouth to Boston, where the Magistrates " agreed to 
 write to the Governor of Virginia, because Stone was one 
 of that Colony, to move him to revenge it, and upon his 
 
 1 Mason, History of tbe Pequot War, ix. 2 Qqq above, pp. 24, 328. 
 
 1C33. 
 Murder of 
 Stono and
 
 Chap. XI] CONNECTICUT. 457 
 
 answer, to take further counsel." The murderers belonged 
 to a tribe subject to Sassacus.^ 
 
 The business slept for several months, when a messen- 
 ger came to Boston from the Pequot chief, with friend- 
 ly professions and overtures. By a number of 1034. 
 sticks, brought in two bundles, he signified the ^'=''''^"- 
 number of beaver and otter skins which he would give 
 as the price of a treaty. He was told that his master 
 ought to be represented by "persons of greater quality"-; 
 and, a fortnight after, two such messengers appeared. 
 When questioned about the death of Stone's people, they 
 protested that the affair was in part accidental, and in 
 part a revenge for ill-treatment from Stone ; the latter 
 branch of which allegation was thought not unlikely to be 
 true, as Stone had conducted himself ill in Massachusetts, 
 and had gone away under a sentence of banishment, with 
 the threat of being put to death if he should return.^ 
 The envoys agreed, however, to surrender the only two 
 of the murderers that survived, the rest, as they pretend- 
 ed, having been all killed since, some by the Dutch, others 
 by the small-pox ; and they engaged to pay smart-money 
 in the form of wampum and furs, and to cede a further 
 space for settlement. The reason for this submissiveness 
 afterwards appeared to be, that the Pequots were just then 
 in trouble and apprehension on account both of the Nar- 
 ragansetts and the Dutch.^ The treaty was concluded, 
 but the savages broke their word as to every part of it; 
 and during the following winter their suspicious conduct 
 kept the little garrison at the mouth of the Connecticut 
 in constant alarm. 
 
 Some further negotiation followed, which came to noth- 
 ing. The murder of John Oldham, of Watertown, ex- 
 cited fresh alarm. He had early set on foot a Murder of 
 commerce with the Rhode Island and Connect- °i'"i*'"- 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 123. Mason, Brief Bradford, 323; Brodhead, History of 
 History of the Pequot War, ix. New York, 237. 
 
 2 Winthrop, I. 104, 111. Comp. 3 Winthrop, I. 148. 
 VOL. I. 39
 
 458 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 icut Indians, and sailed on a trip of this kind in the sum- 
 mer of the English emigrations to that quarter. A Mas- 
 1C3G. sachusetts fisherman, John Gallup, of Boston, in 
 July 20. r^ |jQ^{. -yyith another man and two boys, was 
 driven soon after, by a head wind, out of his course, which 
 was from Connecticut to Long Island. In the neighbor- 
 hood of Block Island, his attention was attracted by the 
 awkward management of a little vessel, which he recog- 
 nized as belonging to Oldham, of whom he had heard as 
 being on the coast with only two white boys and two 
 Indians. Approaching, he saw a canoe put off from her, 
 and her deck covered with natives. The chances in a 
 conflict were unequal. The savages had greatly the ad- 
 vantage in numbers, and were well armed with pikes, 
 guns, and swords. But Gallup was an English sailor. 
 He had two guns, two pistols, and some duck-shot. With 
 these he kept up so brisk a fire, that the Indians retreated 
 below. He then ran against their vessel with his own, 
 striking so severe a blow that six of the Indians, in their 
 fright, jumped overboard. Repeating this manoeuvre, — 
 in unconscious imitation of Athenian naval tactics, — he 
 saw four more Indians follow their companions, leav- 
 ing but four on board. When he sprang on the deck, 
 two of these came up and surrendered themselves, and 
 were bound hand and foot ; the other two were shut under 
 the hatches. The body of Oldham was on board, still 
 warm, the head cloven, the hands and feet cut ofF.^ 
 
 When the intelligence reached Boston, it occasioned the 
 greater uneasiness on account of the unsettled state of 
 relations with the Pequots, with whom also it was feared 
 that the Narragansetts would be induced to conspire. 
 A.ip. 24. After consultation with " the Magistrates and min- 
 Expedition jstcrs," Govcmor Vane despatched ninetv men to 
 Block-I^<land- Loug Islaud Sound, in three small vessels, under 
 the command of Endicott of Salem, and of four 
 
 1 Wintbrop, I. 189, 190. 
 
 ers.
 
 Chap. XI.] CONNECTICUT. 459 
 
 company officers, one of whom, Captain John Unclerhill, 
 has written an account of this expedition, and of the more 
 important one which followed. A sort of Friar Tuck, — 
 devotee, bravo, libertine, and buffoon in equal parts, — 
 Underhill takes a memorable place among the eccentric 
 characters who from time to time break what is altogether 
 too easily assumed to have been the dead level of New- 
 England gravity in those days. He had been a soldier in 
 Ireland, m Spain, and more recently in the Netherlands, 
 where he " had spoken freely to Count Nassau."^ He was 
 brought over by Governor Winthrop to train the people 
 in military exercises, and was one of the Deputies from 
 Boston m the first General Court. 
 
 It was Endicott's earliest trust of this kind, and the 
 manner in which he acquitted himself of it does not con- 
 stitute one of the most creditable portions of his history. 
 He killed or wounded some of the Block-Islanders, burned 
 their houses, staved their canoes, and cut down their corn.^ 
 
 1 Antinomians and Familists, &c., 41. bis wife, though she be a ■woman. It 
 
 2 Underhill says (Newes from Amer- was strange to nature to think a man 
 ica, 8) that fourteen of the Block- should be bound to fulfil the humor of 
 Islanders were killed. But perhaps he a woman, what arms he should carry ; 
 was romancing. According to Winthrop but you see God will have it so, that a 
 (I. 194), "they could not tell what men woman should overcome a man. What 
 they killed, but some were wounded, with Delilah's flattery, and with her 
 and carried away by their fellows." He mournful tears, they must and will have 
 afterwards learned (Ibid., 196) that only their desire, when the hand of God goes 
 one Block-Islander was killed outright. along in the matter Therefore 
 
 Underhill (Newes, &c., 5, C) relates let the clamor be quenched I daily hear 
 
 his own experiences on this occasion : in my ears, that New-England men 
 
 " Myself received an arrow through my usurp over their wives, and keep them 
 
 coat-sleeve, a second against my helmet in servile subjection. The country is 
 
 on the forehead, so as if God in his prov- wronged in this matter, as in many 
 
 idence had not moved the heart of my things else. Let this precedent satisfy 
 
 wife to persuade me to carry it along the doubtful, for that comes from the 
 
 with me (which I was unwilling to do), example of a rude soldier. If they be 
 
 I had been slain. Give me leave to so courteous to their wives as to take 
 
 observe two things from hence : first, their advice in warlike matters, how 
 
 when the hour of death is not yet come, much more kind is the tender, affec- 
 
 you see God useth weak means to keep tionate husband to honor his wife as 
 
 his purpose unviolated ; secondly, let the weaker vessel. Yet mistake not. 
 
 no man despise advice and counsel of I say not that they are bound to call
 
 460 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book 1 
 
 E,e-embarking, he j)roceedecl westward, and delivered his 
 message to the Pequots, includino: a demand for 
 
 Expedition & M ' O 
 
 against the thc surrcndei* of the murderers of Stone, the 
 payment of a thousand fathoms of wampum, 
 and the deUvery of hostages for future good conduct. 
 He was answered with what he thought treacherous ex- 
 cuses, and could get no hearing from the chiefs. When 
 the party with whom he conferred had thus gained the 
 time they wanted for preparation, they discharged their ar- 
 rows at his men, and took to flight. He burned some 
 wigwams and canoes, collected a quantity of corn, and re- 
 turned to Boston without loss. It was afterwards reported 
 by the Narragansetts " that thirteen of the Pequots were 
 killed, and forty wounded." ^ 
 
 The movement, instead of intimidating, as had been 
 hoped, did but irritate that warlike nation. Both the Con- 
 necticut and the Plymouth people complained of it, as hav- 
 ing been ill-conducted. Sassacus made the most vigorous 
 endeavors to engage the Narragansetts, the hereditary ene- 
 mies of his tribe, in an alliance for exterminating the Eng- 
 lish in all their settlements. There was great probability 
 that these endeavors would succeed ; and, had he been 
 able to conciliate the Narragansetts, and to enlist or over- 
 awe the Mohegans, there was no power in the colonists 
 to make head against him, and the days of civilized New 
 England would have been numbered and finished near 
 their beginning. The ancient hostility of the Narragan- 
 setts to their savage rivals prevailed, enforced by the 
 diplomacy of Roger Williams, who, at the hazard of his 
 life, visited their settlements to counteract the solicitations 
 with which they were addressed." Determined by his 
 
 their wives in council, tlioufrh they are ^ Wintlirop, I. 190. 
 
 bound to take tlieir private advice (?o ~ " Three (hiys and nights my busi- 
 
 far as they see it n)ake for their advan- ness fomed me to lodge and mix with 
 
 tagc and their good) ; instance Abra- the bloody Pequot ambassadors, whose 
 
 ham." The parenthesis leaves a pretty hands and arms, methought, reeked 
 
 wide margin for domestic insubordina- with the blood of my countrymen, mur- 
 
 tion. dered and massacred by them on Con-
 
 CiiAP. XL] CONNECTICUT. 461 
 
 influence, some of the Narrajransett chiefs came to Boston 
 in the autumn, and concluded a treaty of peace and alli- 
 ance with the colonists. The furious and formidable Pe- 
 qiiots were to fight their battle alone. 
 
 They spared no measures of a nature to spread conster- 
 nation and provoke resentment. In the autumn, they 
 caught one Butterfield near Gardiner's garrison, 
 and he was never heard of more. A few days 
 after, they took two men out of a boat, and murdered 
 them with ingenious barbarity, cutting ofl" first the hands 
 of one of them, then his feet.^ All winter, a marauding 
 party kept near the fort, of which they burned Hostilities of 
 the out-buildings and the hay, and killed the "'j^.g^''"''^'" 
 cattle.^ Towards spring, Gardiner went out with r^-i'-sa. 
 ten men for some farming work. They were waylaid by 
 the Indians, and three of them were slain.^ Soon after, 
 two men, sailing down the river, were stopped and horri- 
 bly mutilated and mangled ; their bodies were cut in two 
 lengthwise, and the parts hung up by the river's bank.^ 
 A man who had been carried off from Wethersfield was 
 roasted alive.^ All doubt as to the necessity of vigorous 
 action was over when a band of a hundred Pequots 
 
 necticnt River, and from -whom I could worse. His captors " tied him to a 
 not but nightly look for their bloody stake, flayed his skin off, put hot era- 
 knives at my own throat also." (Roger bers between the flesh and skin, cut off 
 Williams's Letter to Major Mason, in his fingers and toes and made hat- 
 Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 277.) — In Mass. bands of them." (Underbill, Newes, 
 Hist. Coll., XXT. 159 - 161, is a letter &c., 23.) " Many honest men had their 
 from Williams to Winthrop, communi- l)lood shed, yea, and some flayed alive, 
 eating to him the views of the Narra- others cut in pieces, and some roasted 
 gansetts respecting the best manner of alive." (Lion Gardiner, Relation of the 
 conducting a campaign against the Pequot Wars, in Mass. Hist. Coll., 
 Pequots. XXHL 151.) 
 
 1 The victim was John Tilley, for- 2 Winthrop, I. 198. 
 
 mcrly overseer for the Dorchester Com- 3 Qardiner, Relation, &c , in Mass. 
 
 pany at Cape Ann; — "a very stout Hist. Coll., XXHL 143. 
 
 man, and of great understanding." ^ Trumbull, History of Connecticut, 
 
 (Winthrop, I. 200.) " He lived three I. 76. 
 
 days after his hands were cut off." ^ Gardiner, Relation, &c., in Mass. 
 
 (Ibid.) Tilley's companion fared yet Hist. Coll., XXIII. 143. 
 39*
 
 462 IIISTOllY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 attacked that place, killed seven men, a woman, and a 
 child, and carried away two girls. They had now put to 
 death no less than thirty of the English. 
 
 The two hundred and fifty men in the Connecticut 
 towns were surrounded by Indian tribes, who, from their 
 huntinji-arGunds between Hudson Kiver and Narrac^ansett 
 Bay, could, if united, have fallen upon them with a force 
 of at least four or five thousand warriors. The Pequots, 
 already engaged in open hostility against them, numbered 
 not fewer than a thousand fighting-men. It was but too 
 probable that the friendship of the other tribes would not 
 long be proof against the seductions by which they con- 
 tinued to be plied. There seemed no alternative for the 
 distressed colonists except their own speedy extermination 
 or a sudden exercise of courage and conduct that should 
 crush the assailant. "Women and children were not to be 
 abandoned to savage cruelty, the new light of civilization 
 in Connecticut was not to be extinguished, if the desper- 
 ate valor of a few stout men could save them. And, if a 
 bold movement should succeed, it migbt be expected to 
 impress a salutary lesson, to break up the dangerous ne- 
 gotiations which had been on foot, to settle for the future 
 the relations of the parties, and to entail a lasting enjoy- 
 ment of security and peace. 
 
 Massachusetts and Plymouth were solicited for aid. At 
 an extraordinary session of the General Court of Massa- 
 chusetts, " assembled for the special occasion of 
 
 April 18. '. . 1 T^ 
 
 prosccutmg the war aganist the requots, it was 
 agreed and ordered, that the war, having been undertaken 
 on just ground, should be seriously prosecuted," and that 
 for this purpose there should be a levy of a hundred and 
 sixty men, and the sum of six hundred pounds.-^ Ply- 
 mouth in like manner determined to make a levy of forty 
 men.~ But no time could be spared for waiting till these 
 troops should come up. A Connecticut force of ninety 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 192. 2 p]ym. Col. Rec, I. 60-62.
 
 Chap. XL] CONNECTICUT. 463 
 
 men, forty-two of whom were funiished by Hartford, thirty 
 by Wmdsor, and eighteen by Wethersfield, was placed un- 
 der the command of Captain John Mason.^ This May j. 
 officer had served in the Netherlands under Sir captain 
 Thomas Fairfax, who had such esteem for him, 
 that, when he was General, several years after, of the forces 
 of Parliament, he wrote to urge him to return to England, 
 and help the patriot cause." Comin^ over to 
 
 ^ ^ ^ 1632. 
 
 ISIassachusetts and joining Ludlow's settlement, 
 he was employed with Gallup, who has just been men- 
 tioned, in an unsuccessful cruise after a piratical vessel, 
 and was a member of a committee to direct fortifications 
 at Boston, Charlestown, Dorchester, and Castle Island.^ 
 He was two years a Deputy from Dorchester to the Gen- 
 eral Court,** before he accompanied his fellows-townsmen 
 to the bank of the Connecticut. 
 
 Mason was first despatched W'ith twenty men to re- 
 inforce the garrison at the river s mouth ; but meeting 
 Underbill there, who had just arrived with an equal force 
 from Massachusetts, he returned with his detachment to 
 Hartford, whence he proceeded down the river a 1637. 
 second time, taking with him now all his levy, ^'=»yi"- 
 besides seventy friendly Indians. The whole were em- 
 barked in three small vessels. The Reverend Mr. Stone, 
 chaplain of the expedition, acted a part in it second only 
 in importance to that of the commander. Uncas, the 
 Mohegan chief, led the Indian allies. An apprehension 
 of their treachery weighed heavily on the spirits of the 
 troops ; but they proved faithful, though they rendered 
 no effective service. 
 
 From the fort. Mason took along with him Underbill 
 with his twenty men, sending back twenty of his own 
 
 1 The preparations for this war con- 2 Prince's Introduction to Mason's 
 
 stituted the business of the first General History of the Pequot War. 
 
 Court held in Connecticut. (Conn. Col. 3 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 106, 124. 
 
 Rec, 9, 10.) 4 Ibid., 135, 156.
 
 464 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 party for the better security of the exposed settlements. 
 
 Here a question of great importance divided the 
 
 ments against opinious of thc couucil of officers. Mason's or- 
 
 the Pequots. i i -r» -r» • t 
 
 ders were express to land at requot liiver, and 
 attack the enemy on their western frontier. He knew 
 that to be the side from which they were expecting to be 
 invaded, and which they had strengthened accordingly, 
 and he was desirous of approaching them through the 
 Narragansett country, in their rear. His officers shrank 
 from taking the responsibility of disobeying the instruc- 
 tions, and leaving their homes so long undefended as 
 the protracting of the campaign through several days 
 would require. Mason, finding himself left alone, pro- 
 posed to defer the decision till the next morning, and that, 
 during the night, the chaplain should seek Divine direc- 
 tion in prayer. Without doubt the devout Stone prayed 
 earnestly ; it may be supposed that he also took care to 
 inform himself, and make up an opinion, on the merits of 
 the case. Early in the morning, he went on shore to 
 head-quarters, to declare that the Captain's plan of the 
 campaign was the correct one. A council of war was 
 forthwith called, which unanimously determined on its 
 prosecution. 
 
 Accordingly, the little squadron set sail from the fort, 
 and arrived on the following evening at its destination, 
 near the entrance of Narragansett Bay, at the foot 
 of what is now called Tower Hill, which overlooks 
 Point Judith. The next day, the party kept their Sabbath 
 quietly on shipboard ; and then came a storm which pre- 
 vented them from disembarking till Tuesday evening. 
 Mason had an interview with the sachem of the friendly 
 Narragansetts, who engaged to reinforce him with two 
 hundred men of his own and as many of the neighboring 
 Nyantic tribe. Hei-e, too, Mason received a message from 
 Providence, informing him of the arrival of a Massachusetts 
 party at that place under Captain Patrick, and requesting
 
 Chap. XI.] CONNECTICUT. 465 
 
 him to wait till it could come up. But a rapid move- 
 ment was thought to be of even more consequence than 
 an augmented force. 
 
 On the day following his debarkation, Mason, at the 
 head of seventy-seven brave Englishmen (the rest being 
 left in charge of the vessels), sixty frightened Mohegans, 
 and four hundred more terrified Narragansetts and Ny an- 
 tics, marched twenty miles westward towards the 
 
 -r» r -11 May 24. 
 
 requot country, to a tort occupied by some sus- 
 pected neutrals. For fear lest intelligence should be con- 
 veyed, this fort was invested for the night. On Thursday, 
 after a march of about fifteen miles, to a place lying five 
 miles northwest of the present principal village of Stoning- 
 ton, they encamped, an hour after dark, near to a hill, upon 
 which, according to information received from their al- 
 lies, (who, "being possessed with great fear," had now 
 all fallen behind,) stood the principal strong-hold of the 
 Pequots. It was evident that no alarm had been given, 
 for the sentinels could hear the noisy revelling within 
 the place, which was kept up till midnight. The savages, 
 who from the heights had seen the vessels pass to the 
 eastward along the Sound, supposed that the settlers had 
 abandoned their hostile intentions in despair. 
 
 Their fort was a nearly circular area of an acre or two, 
 enclosed by trunks of trees, twelve feet high or there- 
 abouts, set firmly in the ground, so closelv as 
 
 1 ., , . Assault on 
 
 to exclude entrance, while the interstices served the Pequot 
 as port-holes for marksmen. Within, arranged 
 along two lanes, were some seventy wigwams, covered 
 with matting and thatch. At two points for entrance, 
 spaces were left between the timbers, these intervals being 
 protected only by a slighter structure, or loose branches.^ 
 
 1 I recently walked over this ground. Mystic River. The site of the fort, two 
 
 Porter's Rocks, among which the party or three miles down the western side of 
 
 lay hid over night, make a picturesque the river towards Mystic Village, is a 
 
 feature of the scenery at the head of gentle elevation near the road-side, —
 
 466 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 At these points, Mason and Undeihill were to force an 
 entrance, each at the head of half the Englishmen, while 
 those of the Indian allies who remained (the Nyantics and 
 Narragansetts having mostly disappeared) should invest 
 the fort in a circle, and arrest the fugitives. The anxie- 
 ties of a night, which was to be succeeded by a fierce and 
 momentous conflict, did not prevent the weary soldiers 
 from sleeping so soundly, that, when the commander 
 roused himself and l^hem, he feared that the propitious 
 hour for a surprise had been lost. But still, before break- 
 ing up their camp, they took time to join in prayer. Two 
 hours before dawn, under a bright moonlight, the little 
 band was set in motion towards the fort, two miles dis- 
 tant. Mason had come within a few feet of the sally- 
 port which he was seeking, when a dog barked, and 
 the cry of Owanux ! Oivanux ! " Englishmen ! English- 
 men !" which immediately followed, showed that the 
 alarm was given. With sixteen men, he instantly 
 pushed into the enclosure. Underbill did the same on 
 the opposite side. The terrified sleepers rushed out of 
 their wigwams, but soon sought refuge in them again 
 from the English broadswords and fire-arms. Their 
 number w^as too great to be dealt with by such weapons. 
 Snatching a live brand from a wigwam, Mason threw it 
 on a matted roof, Underbill set fire in his quarter with 
 a train of powder, and the straw village was presently in 
 flames. All was over in an hour. The muskets of the 
 English brought down those who escaped the confla- 
 gration, and most of the stragglers who avoided this 
 fate fell into the hands of the native allies, who had 
 kept cautiously aloof from the conflict, but had no mercy 
 on the fugitives. " It is reported by themselves," says 
 
 a mowing field -when I saw it, — on the tion of the fort, accompanied with a rude 
 
 farm of the Widow Fish. Captain engraved representation of the fight, of 
 
 Underhill, in his tract, " Newcs from wliich the annexed i)late is a reduced 
 
 America," has given a minute descrip- facsimile.
 
 .^^•n."<^ \J Wis 
 
 6 
 
 • w/^^' ipfhA'&w^nfla^id, ccracc/'a^i^-^lh'-'
 
 Chap. XL] CONNECTICUT. 467 
 
 Underhill, " that there were about four hundred souls in 
 this fort, and not above five of them escaped out of our 
 hands." ^ According to other accounts, seven hundred per- 
 ished. Of the English only two men were killed, but the 
 number of wounded was more than a quarter of the force.^ 
 
 The reader is impatient to turn from a scene so distress- 
 ing to humanity. Never was a war so just or so neces- 
 sary, that he who should truly exhibit the details of its 
 prosecution would not find the sympathy of gentle hearts 
 deserting him as he proceeded. Between right public 
 policy and the sufibring which sometimes it brings upon 
 individuals there is a wide chasm, to be bridged over by an 
 argument with which the feelings do not readily go along. 
 When, for urgent reasons of public safety, it has been de- 
 termined to take the desperate risk of sending scores of 
 men into the field to encounter as many hundreds, and 
 to be set upon, if they should be worsted, by as many 
 thousands, the awful conditions of the case forbid being 
 dainty about the means of winning a victory, or about 
 using it in such a manner that the chance shall not have 
 to be tried again. At all events, from the hour of that 
 carnage, Connecticut was secure. There could now be 
 unguarded sleep in the long-harassed homes of the set- 
 tlers. It might be hoped that civilization was assured of 
 a permanent abode in New England.^ 
 
 Mason had a narrow escape. An Indian close by had 
 taken deliberate aim at him, when Mason's orderly made 
 a spring at the savage just in time to cut the bow-string.'* 
 There was another Indian fort four or five miles further 
 west, near the way to Pequot Harbor, where he had ap- 
 
 1 Newes from America, 39. revenge, they shall never hear of more 
 
 2 Mason, Pequot War, 141. harm from them." (Vincent, Mass. Hist. 
 
 3 " They are assured of their peace Coll., XXVI. 42.) The recent havoc 
 by killing the barbarians, better than committed by the savages in Virginia 
 our English Virginians -were by being was not likely to be out of their minds, 
 killed by them. For having once terri- ^ Hubbard, Narrative of the Indian 
 fied them by severe execution of just Wars, 38.
 
 468 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 pointed to meet his vessels. He did not know the way out 
 of the country. His movements were encum- 
 
 Return of •' 
 
 Bias.^n's borcd by his wounded, who, with their bearers, 
 amounted to full half his force ; his scanty sup- 
 ply of ammunition and food was spent ; ^ his surgeon had 
 been left behind at the Narragansett landing; and the 
 heat of the weather was overpowering. As the party 
 kept on their slow way, they saw approaching more than 
 three hundred savages from the other fort, who, informed 
 of the morning's work, were tearing their hair, stamping 
 on the ground, and clamoring for revenge. Hiring his 
 allies to carry the wounded, Mason managed to keep up 
 the spirits of his exhausted men, and to hold the assail- 
 ants at bay while he pursued his impeded march. Fifty 
 of his Narragansetts, set upon by the Pequots, took to 
 flight, and he had to detach Underbill with a party for 
 their rescue. At length, as he reached an eminence, at 
 ten o'clock in the morning, his eyes were gladdened by 
 the sight of Pequot Harbor, and of his vessels coming to 
 anchor within it. The weary conquerors thanked God 
 and took courage, owning, in the spirit of the time, the 
 special Providence that sent them such relief. Their ap- 
 pearance on the heights, " with colors flying," gave the sea- 
 men the first notice of their approach, their drum having 
 been "left at the rendezvous the night before." At even- 
 ing they went to rest on board the vessels, in which they 
 found the company from Massachusetts under Captain 
 Patrick ; it had arrived at Point Judith after the depart- 
 ure of the land expedition, and been taken on board. 
 
 1 " Our commons were very short, the bottle would presently recover such 
 
 there beinj; a general scarcity through- as fainted away, which haj)j)ene(l by 
 
 out the Colony of all sorts of provision, the extremity of the heat)." One 
 
 We had but one pint of strong doubts whether the arrangements of 
 
 liquors among us in our whole march, the Connecticut commissariat (Conn, 
 
 but what the wilderness afforded (the Col. llec, I, 9, 10) arc more provoca- 
 
 bottle of lifjuor V)eing in my hand, and tive of smiles or tears, 
 ■when it was empty, the very smelling to
 
 Chap. XL] CONNECTICUT. 469 
 
 The first care was to despatch the greater part of the 
 force for the protection of the towns. Then, sending 
 round the wounded by sea, and scouring the intervening 
 country with what remained of his command, Mason led 
 them by land to the fort, where they were " nobly enter- 
 tained by Lieutenant Gardiner, with many great guns," 
 and where they rested for their Sabbath. The next week 
 saw the whole dispersed to their homes in the three 
 towns. The imagination easily pictures the welcome 
 which greeted the deliverers.^ 
 
 The remnant of the doomed nation collected in the west- 
 ern fort. After stormy debate on the question whether 
 they should fall upon the Narragansetts or upon the Eng- 
 lish, or seek safety by flight, they resolved on the conclusion 
 last course ; and, burning their wigwams and their "^^ ">«"'"• 
 supplies, they set off to join the Mohawks on the Hud- 
 son. Giving new provocation by putting to death some 
 Englishmen on the way, they were pursued by Mason 
 with forty men, who were joined by one hundred and 
 twenty from Massachusetts, under Stoughton. A party 
 of them, some three hundred in number, was overtaken 
 a little west of where now stands New Haven, encamped 
 in a spot surrounded by quagmires, which rendered it 
 difficult of access. The English sent an interpreter, 
 with a proposal, which was accepted, for a surrender of 
 the old men, women, and children, whom they were 
 " loath to destroy." In the foggy morning which fol- 
 
 1 The special contemporaneous au- the gratification of curiosity, with ■which 
 
 thorities for this carapaisrn are Under- purpose he had travelled extensively 
 
 hill's "Newes from New England"; "A elsewhere. (See Hunter's Letter, in 
 
 True Relation of the Late Battle," &c., Mass. Hist. Coll., XXXL 186.) Some 
 
 (London, 1638,) by P. Vincent ; Cap- of the Latin verses prefixed to Vincent's 
 
 tain Mason's " Brief History of the Pe- tract contain just reflections upon this 
 
 quot War " ; and Lieutenant Gardiner's war, not ungracefully expressed. 
 " Relation of the Pequot Warres." Vin- A detailed and elegant history of the 
 
 cent was a clergyman of the Church of Pequot War is given by Dr. Ellis in his 
 
 England, who passed a little time in this Life of Captain Mason (Sparks's Amer- 
 
 country, simply, as far as appears, for ican Biography, Vol. XIIL). 
 
 VOL. I. -40
 
 470 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [EOOK I. 
 
 lowed, the warriors made a sally, and seventy broke 
 through and escaped. Stragglers of the tribe were put to 
 death in considerable numbers by neighboring Indians, 
 who all seem to have owed the Pequots an ancient 
 grudge. Sassacus was killed by the Mohawks, to whom 
 he had fled. The Pequot nation became extinct, the sur- 
 vivors being merged, under English mediation, in the 
 Narragansett, Mohegan, and Nyantic tribes. And from 
 savage violence the land had rest forty years} 
 
 1 " An aboriginal coalition, first sug- 
 gested by the Pequod chief and aftcr- 
 wai'ds carried into such terrible effect 
 by King Philip, at this early period 
 might have resulted in the extermina- 
 tion of the English ; and some solitary 
 ship, afterwards touching at Massachu- 
 setts Bay, would have beheld the still- 
 ness of the wilderness where was ex- 
 pected the busy hum of life, and have 
 earned home the startling news that 
 Transatlantic Puritanism had disap- 
 peared." Such is the just reflection of 
 a recent writer. (The Puritan Com- 
 monwealth, 118, 119.) If I do not 
 often refer to his interesting work, it is 
 not lor want of a thorough acquaintance 
 with it. It is one of the marvels of our 
 time. But for its references to later 
 events, it might have been written by a 
 chaplain of James the Second. Its key- 
 note is sounded in its first sentence : 
 " When King Charles the Martyr," &c. 
 Whoever wishes to be resolved respect- 
 ing its historical value may look at the 
 account (114-118) of the transactions 
 above described ; or at the chronology 
 of the attack on the Narragansett fort 
 (132, 142) i or at the statement (192) 
 
 of the time when " the question whether 
 the civil magistrate may lawfully pun- 
 ish for heresy, first arose " ; or at the 
 commemoration (419) of" Samuel Mav- 
 erick, a clergyman of the Church of 
 England, already settled on a flourishing 
 plantation at Noddle's Island." " The 
 Indians," according to this writer (111, 
 112), were " a race proverbial for fidel- 
 ity in keeping their treaties," &c. And 
 for this characteristic of theirs he refers 
 to "Hutchinson, Vol. I. p. 61," where 
 Hutchinson had written " Indian fidel- 
 ity is proverbial in New England, as 
 Punic was at Rome." In speaking of 
 the time after Philip's war in 1675-6, 
 he says (144, 145) : " Not a family 
 remained in Massachusetts or Ply- 
 mouth but mourned the death of a rel- 
 ative or friend ; after having caused 
 a loss of property to the amount of 
 nearly a million of dollars, the (jrealcsi 
 7nisfortune of all to the tlirifty inhabilants, 
 Philip had finished the work of divine 
 retribution," &c. It is not necessary to 
 believe that he who could write such 
 words had a strangely bad heart. The 
 composition was hasty, and the pub- 
 lication was posthumous.
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 The war against the Pequots had been waged by the 
 English on the Connecticut at such extreme disadvantage, 
 that nothing short of a conviction of its necessity can be 
 supposed to have induced them to engage in it. The settle- 
 ments which undertook to equip and victual^ a force con- 
 sisting of more than one third of their adult males, were 
 themselves not far from starvation. In the summer of the 
 principal emigration, the labors of husbandry had been 
 interrupted by those of making roads and erecting and 
 fortifying habitations. In the autumn there were only 
 thirty ploughs in Massachusetts," and it is not likely 
 that there was a quarter of that number in Connecticut. 
 In the winter which followed, the cattle suffered from 
 insufficiency of food and shelter ; and farming stock, 
 and provisions, both meat and grain, bore an enormous 
 price, while hunting and fishing were made dangerous 
 occupations by the near neighborhood of watchful sav- 
 ages. Nor did the struggle, successful as it had been, fail 
 to bring heavy burdens of its own. While so large a 
 proportion of the able-bodied men were in the field, 
 production was stinted on the one hand,^ and debt in- 
 curred on the other. Indian corn was sold for twelve 
 
 1 Votes of the first General Court of those that remain are not able to sup- 
 Connecticut fixed the proportions of ply our watches, ■which are day and 
 supplies to be furnished to the troops night, that our people are scarce able to 
 by the three towns respectively ; there stand upon their legs. And for plant- 
 was to be " one hogshead of good beer ing, we are in the like condition with 
 for the captain and minister and sick you. What we plant is before our 
 men." (Conn. Col. Rec., I. 9.) doors; little anywhere else." (Letter 
 
 2 W^inthrop, I. 206. of Ludlow to Pynchon at Springfield, 
 
 3 " Our plantations are so gleaned May 17, 1637, in Mass. Hist. Coll., 
 by that small fleet we sent out, that XVIII. 235.)
 
 472 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 shillings a bushel, at the time ^vhen a tax of five hundred 
 and fifty pounds was levied to pay the expenses of the 
 war, and the towns were required to furnish themselves 
 with military stores, and the individual citizens to keep 
 themselves provided with arms and ammunition. 
 
 "While the Pequot campaign was going on, still more 
 serious embarrassments of a difi"erent description were 
 crippling the energy of the settlement in the Bay. When 
 Patrick and Stoughton were despatched to Connecticut, 
 they left the elder colony rent by faction, and in imminent 
 danger of civil war. 
 r Scarcely were the Massachusetts Magistrates rid of 
 / Roger Williams, when they found themselves engaged 
 again in a much more threatening contest than what he 
 had raised, and much more difficult for them to conduct, 
 for various reasons, one of which was, that the head of 
 Mrs. Ann opposltiou was a capable and resolute woman. 
 Hutchinson, rj^j^g name of Mrs. Ann Hutchinson is dismally 
 conspicuous in the early history of New England. She 
 perhaps well-nigh brought it to an end very near to its 
 beginning. 
 
 She had come to Massachusetts in the same vessel which 
 bore the copy of the commission, to the two Archbishops 
 
 je3i, and nine others of the Privy Council, to regulate 
 
 Sept. 18. foreign plantations and call in charters, — a co- 
 incidence suited to render internal agitations doubly un- 
 welcome.^ She had accompanied her husband from their 
 home at Alford, near Boston, in Lincolnshire, where they 
 had enjoyed a good estate. He is described by Win- 
 throp as " a man of a very mild temper and weak parts, 
 / and wholly guided by his wife." ^ She had spirit and tal- 
 ent enough for both. In England, she had found no 
 satisfactory ministrations of religion but those of John 
 Cotton, and of John Wheelwright, her brother-in-law ; 
 and her unwillingness to lose the benefit of Cotton's 
 
 1 WInthrop, I. 143. 2 Jbid., 295.
 
 Chap. XII.] MASSACHUSETTS. 473 
 
 preaching induced her to emigrate. On the voyage, some 
 eccentric speculations of hers, and pretensions to direct 
 revelation, had given displeasure to her fellow-passenger, 
 Mr. Symmes, who soon after their arrival became minister 
 of Charlestown, and, in that capacity, one of her active 
 opponents. Small causes have often great results ; contra- 
 diction on one part leads to extravagant assertion on the 
 other; and it is not impossible that the accidental petu- 
 lances of that uncomfortable voyage may have had some- 
 thing to do with the crisis in the fortunes of Massachu- 
 setts which followed. As early as the time when Mrs. 
 Hutchinson and her husband were nominated 
 
 October. 
 
 as members of the Boston church, Symmes gave 
 some information of her vagaries, which occasioned her 
 admission to be delayed. She soon recommended herself 
 widely as a kind and serviceable neighbor, especially to 
 persons of her own sex in times of sickness ; and by these 
 qualities, united with her energy of character and vivacity 
 of mind, she acquired esteem and influence. 
 
 The first mention of her by Winthrop is in these words : 
 " One Mrs. Hutchinson, a member of the church of Bos- 
 ton, a woman of a ready wit and bold spirit, brought 
 over with her two dangerous errors : first, that the person 
 of the Holy Ghost dwells in a justified person ; second, 
 that no sanctification can help to evidence to us our justi- 
 fication. From these errors grew many branches ; as, 
 first, our union with the Holy Ghost, so as a Christian 
 remains dead to every spiritual action, and hath no gifts 
 nor graces, other than such as are in hypocrites, nor any 
 other sanctification but the Holy Ghost himself." -^ 
 
 Mrs. Hutchinson attached importance to her doctrines 
 and expositions, sufficient to lead her to undertake a sort of 
 public ministration of them. It had been the practice of 
 the male members of the Boston church to hold meetings by 
 themselves, for recapitulating and discussing the sermons 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 200. 
 40*
 
 474 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 of their ministers. Mrs. Hutchinson instituted similar 
 assembhes for her o^\ti sex, which, at one time, were held 
 twice a week. In the want of social meetings of other 
 sorts, it is not matter of surprise that they were attended 
 by nearly a hundred females, some of whom were among 
 the principal matrons of the town. Her bold criticisms 
 were set off by a voluble eloquence, and an imposing 
 familiarity with Scripture. Slie bestowed unqualified 
 approbation upon Cotton and Wheelwright,^ whom she 
 declared to be " under a covenant of grace." Of the 
 other ministers of the Colony, she spoke more and more 
 distrustfully and slightingly, till by and by she came to 
 pronounce them in downright terms to be " under a cov- 
 enant of works." 
 
 When the strife broke out in public action, Mrs. 
 Hutchinson had been two full years in the country. The 
 principal proceedings of the dispute with Williams had 
 passed before her eyes, without any evidence, now ex- 
 tant, of its having attracted her attention ; from which 
 fact a not unnatural inference is, that it had not all the 
 prominence at the time which has been since ascribed to 
 it. Meanwhile, Mrs. Hutchinson had secured tlie cham- 
 Antinomian piouship of uo Icss a pcrsouagc than Vane, the 
 controversy, youug Govcmor of Massachusctts,^ besides that 
 of Dummer and Coddington, eminent among the Magis- 
 trates, and of other influential persons. The country 
 towns and churches proved to be, on the whole, strongly 
 opposed to her, while all the members of the Boston 
 church were her partisans except five. Of these five, 
 however, were Wilson, the pastor, and Winthrop, lately 
 
 1 AVheelwright was admitted a mcni- he left the country. It remained as 
 ber of the Boston church, June 12, jiart of a building which was removed 
 1636, seventeen days after his arrival, only about thirty years ago. It stood 
 He had been "a silenced minister some- upon the side of the hill, several feet 
 times in England." (Winthrop, I. back from the western side of Tremont 
 200.) Street, its front fence beginning some 
 
 2 Vane was lodged with Cotton, in a thirty feet from the corner which Tre- 
 housc which he gave to Cotton when mont Street made with Pemberton Hill.
 
 tlie minis- 
 ters. 
 
 Chap. XII.] MASSACHUSETTS. 475 
 
 advanced again so far as to the second place in the gov- 
 ernment. Old friends were estranged, and offensive lan- 
 guage was freely used. Mrs. Hutchinson went out of 
 church as the hitherto venerated Wilson rose to speak, 
 and others followed her example of affront in the pres- 
 ence of other preachers. 
 
 " The other ministers in the Bay, hearing of these 
 things, came to Boston at the time of a General Court, 
 and entered conference in private with them, to interference 
 the end they might know the certainty of these "^ 
 things, and, if need were, they mi^ht write to the 'cse, 
 
 Oct. 25. 
 
 church of Boston about them, to prevent, if it 
 were possible, the dangers which seemed hereby to hang 
 over that and the rest of the churches." ^ For the present, 
 Cotton gave them satisfaction. Wheelwright was not so 
 explicit. A proposal was made in the Boston 
 
 1 1 .,.. „ -i. Oct. 30. 
 
 church to associate mm in ofnce with its pastor 
 and teacher. Winthrop, acting with the concurrence of 
 Wilson, whom the delicacy of his position compelled to 
 reserve, with difficulty succeeded in parrying this blow.^ 
 But the transaction did not fail to leave heart-burning's. 
 Wheelwright was presently invited to a church gath- 
 ered at Mount Wollaston. 
 
 These annoyances, together with that of the impend- 
 ing Indian war, and perhaps others of a more personal 
 nature, disturbed the mind of the young and inexperi- 
 enced Governor. He had scarcely finished half his term 
 of service when he " called a Court of Deputies, 
 
 J- ' Dec. 10 
 
 to the end he might have free leave of the coun- Perplexity 
 try," having received "letters from his friends in 
 England, which necessarily required his presence there." 
 In answer to the dissuasive considerations which were 
 urged, " the Governor brake forth into tears, and professed 
 that, howsoever the causes propounded for his departure 
 were such as did concern the utter ruin of his outward 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 201. 2 ibid., 202.
 
 476 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Rook I. 
 
 estate, yet he would rather have hazarded all than have 
 gone from them at this time, if something else had not 
 pressed him more; viz. the inevitable danger of God's 
 judgments to come upon us for these differences and dis- 
 sensions which he saw amongst us, and the scandalous 
 imputations brought upon himself, as if he should be the 
 cause of all, and therefore he thought it best for him to 
 give place for a time, &c." This explanation did but 
 cause more earnest remonstrances ; and though they were 
 withdrawn, and the Court finally consented to his de- 
 parture, further expostulations on the part of the Boston 
 church, to which he " expressed himself to be an obedient 
 child," finally turned him from his design.^ 
 
 A meeting of Magistrates and elders was held, " to ad- 
 vise about discovering and pacifying the differences among 
 the churches in point of opinion." Dudley and " another 
 of the Magistrates " urged the expediency of a frank decla- 
 ration of sentiments. The discussion which followed was 
 mainly between the English Commonwealth's future min- 
 ister for naval affairs, and Cromwell's future chaplain. 
 The Governor expressed displeasure that the clergy had 
 been meeting for consultation " without his privity." 
 Hugh Peter, who may have apprehended coercive meas- 
 ures on his part, " with all due reverence " reproved him, 
 and told him " how it had sadded the ministers' spirits, 
 that he should be jealous of their meetings, or seem to 
 restrain their liberty, &c.," and " that before he came, 
 within less than two years since, the churches were at 
 peace, &c.," and " besought him humbly to consider his 
 youth, and short experience in the ways of God, and to 
 beware of peremptory conclusions, which he perceived 
 
 1 Winthrop, T. 207, 208. WinUirop nor). The learned editor of Winthrop, 
 
 says that Vane first laid his letters be- however, apparently with better reason, 
 
 fore " the eoiincil," by which Hubbard considers " the council " here spoken of 
 
 (Chap. XXXV.) understood the Assist- to have been the whole board of Magis- 
 
 ants for life lately chosen (viz. Win- tratcs. (Winthrop, I. 207, note.) 
 throp and Dudley, besides the Cover-
 
 Chap. XII.] MASSACHUSETTS. 477 
 
 him to be very apt unto." By " all the Magistrates ex- 
 cept the Governor and two others, and all the ministers 
 but two," it was agreed that there was an " inevitable 
 danger of separation, if these differences and alienations 
 among brethren were not speedily remedied," the blame 
 of which they " laid upon these new opinions risen up." ^ 
 For "a very sad speech" made by Mr. Wilson, in main- 
 tenance, as we should say, of this Resolve, he was called 
 to account by the Boston church, " and there the 
 
 •' (ensure of 
 
 Governor pressed it violently against him, and all wiisonby 
 
 ■ . 1 -r>v 1 '"'^ church. 
 
 the congregation except the Deputy and one or 
 two more, and many of them with much bitterness and 
 reproaches ; but he answered them all with words of truth 
 and soberness, and with marvellous wisdom." The pres- 
 ent conclusion of the matter was, that Cotton, who dis- 
 suaded any stronger measure against his colleague, " gave 
 him a grave exhortation." ^ 
 
 Hitherto the Hutchinson party had been the movers. 
 Their censure of Wilson was the only formal proceed- 
 hig, ecclesiastical or civil, which had yet been had in the 
 progress of the controversy ; for the meeting at which 
 the passage occurred between Vane and Peter appears to 
 have been unofficial, and is not noticed in the Court 
 records. Matters were tending to assume another phase. 
 At the next General Court, the ministers " all 1C37, 
 assembled at Boston, and agreed to put off all ^^^'"''^^' 
 lectures for three weeks, that they might bring things to 
 some issue." ^ Meantime, " other opinions broke out 
 publicly in the church of Boston," of a character to occa- 
 sion further scandal ; the ministers had corresponded with 
 Mr. Cotton, to their partial satisfaction only ; and a fast, 
 appointed by authority, had been kept in all the 
 
 ^ ^ •' •' ^ Appointment 
 
 churches, on account of "the miserable estate of cfafas^t. 
 the churches in Germany; the calamities upon 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 209. 3 Ibid., 213. Mass. Col. Rec, I. 187. 
 
 2 Ibid., 209, 210.
 
 478 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 our native country, the bishops making havoc in the 
 churches, putting down the faithful ministers, and ad- 
 vancing popish ceremonies and doctrines ; the 
 
 dangers of those at Connecticut, and of ourselves also by 
 the Indians ; and the dissensions in our churches." -^ 
 
 The fast had not done its office. That necessity for 
 
 union which the selection of topics to be considered on 
 
 the occasion was intended to enforce, had not made itself 
 
 felt. " The differences in the said points of re- 
 
 Increase of -•• 
 
 the excite- ligiou incrcascd more and more; every 
 
 occasion increased the contention, and caused 
 
 great alienation of minds ; and it began to be as 
 
 common to distinguish between men by being under a cov- 
 enant of grace or a covenant of works, as in other coun- 
 tries between Protestants and Papists." The Court found 
 or believed it necessary to take up the matter in earnest. 
 The ministers, being consulted, gave their advice, " that, 
 in all such heresies or errors of any church-members as 
 are manifest and dangerous to the state, the Court may 
 proceed without tarrying for the church." A person of 
 some consequence, " Stephen Greensmith, for af- 
 
 March 9. . in, • - t. r /-i 
 
 nrmmg that all the mmisters, except Mr. Cotton, 
 Mr. Wheelwright, and, he thought, Mr. Hooker, did teach 
 a covenant of works, was for a time committed to the 
 marshal, and after enjoined to make acknowledgment to 
 the satisfaction of every congregation, and was fined forty 
 pounds." ~ A more serious matter presented itself " when 
 Mr. Wheelwright was to be questioned for a sermon which 
 seemed to tend to sedition." Wheelwright, " preaching at 
 , the last fast, inveighed against all that walked in 
 
 Censure of ' O D 
 
 Wheelwright a covcuant of works, as he described it to be, viz. 
 
 by the Court. . . . ^ . . , n 
 
 such as maintam sanctmcation as an evidence ot 
 justification, &c., and called them Antichrists, and stirred 
 up the people against them with much bitterness and 
 vehemency. For this he was called into the Court, and, 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 212. 2 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 189. Winthrop, I. 214.
 
 ClIAP. XII.] 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 479 
 
 his sermon being produced, lie justified it So, after 
 
 much debate, the Court adjudged him guilty of sedition, 
 and also of contempt, for that the Court had appointed 
 the fast as a means of reconciliation of the differences, 
 &c., and he purposely set himself to kindle and increase 
 them." 1 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 215. — Both the 
 original (or what seems to be so) of 
 Wheelwright's sermon, and an ancient 
 copy, are in the possession of the Mas- 
 sachusetts Historical Society, by whose 
 kindness I have been permitted to use 
 them. The original, which appears to 
 have once been in the possession of 
 John Coggeshall, "Wheelwright's con- 
 temporary and adherent, wants a few 
 pages at the beginning. The copy is 
 complete. The composition is of that 
 character which is common with skilful 
 agitators. Along with disclaimers of 
 the purpose to excite to physical vio- 
 lence, it abounds in language suitable 
 to bring about that result. The follow- 
 ing passage may serve as a specimen : 
 " The way we must take, if so be we 
 will not have the Lord Jesus Christ 
 taken from us, is this : we must all pre- 
 pare for a spiritual combat ; we must 
 put on the whole armor of God (Ephes. 
 vi.), and must have our loins girt, and 
 be ready to fight. Behold, the bed that 
 is Solomon's ; there is threescore valiant 
 men about it, valiant men of Israel ; 
 every one hath his sword in his hand, 
 being expert in war, and hath his sword 
 girt on his thigh, because of fears in the 
 night. If we will not fight for the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, Christ may come to be 
 surprised. Solomon lieth in his bed, 
 and there is such men about the bed of 
 Solomon ; and they watch over Solo- 
 mon, and will not suffer Solomon to be 
 taken away. And who is this Solomon 
 but the Lord Jesus Christ ; and what is 
 the bed but the Church of true believ- 
 ers ; and who are these valiant men of 
 Israel, but all the children of God ? 
 
 They ought to show themselves valiant ; 
 they should have their swords ready. 
 They must fight a fight with spiritual 
 weapons. The weapons of our warfare 
 are not carnal, but spiritual (2 Cor. x. 
 4), and therefore, wheresoever we live, 
 if we would have the Lord Jesus Christ 
 to be abundantly present with us, we 
 must all of us prepare for battle, and 
 come out against the enemies of the 
 Lord. And, If we do not strive, those 
 under a covenant of works wiU pre- 
 vail. We must have a special care, 
 therefore, to show ourselves courageous. 
 All the valiant men of David, and all 
 the valiant men of Israel, Barak, and 
 Deborah, and Jael, all must out and 
 fight for Christ. Curse ye Meroz, be- 
 cause they came not out to help the 
 Lord against the mighty (Judges v. 23). 
 Therefore, if we will keep the Lord 
 Jesus Christ and his person and power 
 In and amongst us, we must fight." 
 (Page 22 of the MS. copy.) 
 
 It was perhaps well that this sermon 
 was delivered at Braintree, and that the 
 angry men whom It stimulated did not 
 pass Winthrop's house In returning to 
 their homes. Another art of dema- 
 gogues Wheelwright perfectly under- 
 stood. By exhorting his hearers to 
 prepare themselves to be martyrs, he 
 gave them to understand that they were 
 in danger of being so, and that, if they 
 preferred not to be, they must take their 
 measures accordingly : " If we will over- 
 come, we must not love our lives, but 
 
 be willing to be killed like sheep 
 
 We must be willing to lay down our 
 lives, and shall overcome by so doing. 
 Samson slew more at his death than in
 
 480 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. fBooK I. 
 
 The Governor, joined by a few other members of the 
 Court, offered a protest against this proceeding ; but the 
 Court refused to receive it. The Boston church also 
 petitioned in AVheelwright's behalf The Court deferred 
 Disaffection hls senteuce. Contumacious Boston was thought 
 of Boston. ^Q |-)g jjqj. ^ suitable place for its meetings under 
 present circumstances, and a motion was made that it 
 should next assemble at Newtown. The Governor refused 
 to take the vote ; the Deputy excused himself from doing 
 it, on account of the delicacy of his position as a Boston 
 man. Endicott took the office upon himself, and the 
 measure was carried.^ 
 
 Had the calm and able Winthrop been at the head of 
 the government during these transactions, they might 
 General Court havc had a different issuej As it was, they caused 
 at Newtown, tho uccd of his rcstoratiou to be felt. At the 
 
 May 17. j^Q^t Court, tho exaspcratiou was at its height. 
 One who considers well the elements that were in conflict, 
 may not unreasonably believe that the fate of New Eng- 
 land was trembling in the balance, " So soon as the 
 Court was set, about one of the clock, a petition was pre- 
 ferred by those of Boston." Vane M'ould have read it 
 at once. Winthrop interposed, and insisted that it was 
 out of order till after the transaction of the first business 
 of the annual Court, the election of Magistrates. On 
 
 his life ; and so wc may prevail more for from this that the sermon continued 
 
 by our deaths than by our lives." (Ibid., to circulate for many years. On pages 
 
 25.) 14 and 15 of the " Glass " is a passage 
 
 A Quaker tract, entitled " A Glass ascribed to Mr. Wheelwright, which 
 
 for the People of New England," writ- however does not appear in the ser- 
 
 ten by a person who had been in this mon, but is in fact the conclusion of 
 
 country, and published in England in Vane's " Briefe Answer" to Winthrop 
 
 1G7G, contains a description of Wheel- (see Hutchinson, Collection, &c., 82, 
 
 Wright's sermon, and two extracts from 83). The " Briefe Answer" may have 
 
 it of considerable length. One (on been attributed by the author of the 
 
 page 5) corresponds to page 24 of the " Glass " to the pen of Wheelwright 
 
 manuscript of which I have spoken See below, p. 483, note 1. 
 above, the other (on pages 19-21) to ^ Winthrop, I. 216. 
 pages 26, 27 of that copy. We may in-
 
 Chap. XII.] MASSACHUSETTS. 481 
 
 Winthrop's motion, it was decided by a large majority to 
 proceed first to the election; but the Governor still re- 
 fused ; " whereupon the Deputy told him, that, if he 
 would not go to election, he and the rest of that side 
 would proceed." They did so ; and the result was, that 
 the old order of things was restored. Winthrop was 
 chosen Governor, and Dudley Deputy-Governor ; ^.^^^^^^ 
 Endicott was joined to them as one of the Magis- again chosen 
 trates for life ; " Mr. Israel Stoughton and Mr. 
 Hichard Saltonstall [son of Winthrop's ancient colleague] 
 were called in to be Assistants ; and Mr, Vane, Mr. Cod- 
 dington, and Mr. Dummer, being all of that faction, were 
 quite left out. There was great danger of a tumult that 
 day, for those of that side grew into fierce speeches, and 
 some laid hands on others, but, seeing themselves too 
 weak, they grew quiet." ^ In the height of the fray, Wil- 
 son climbed a tree and made a speech,- the meeting being 
 held in the open air, on Newtown common. 
 
 At an election the next day, Boston returned Vane and 
 Coddington, with Hough, formerly an Assistant, as its 
 Deputies. In the proceedings there had been a trifling 
 informality, of which the Court availed itself to refuse 
 them seats ; but on a re-election the following day, " the 
 Court not finding how they might reject them, they were 
 admitted." Winthrop ran the gantlet of daily slights 
 from his neighbors. When he went back to 'Boston, no 
 escort met him, as had been usual. The four Boston ser- 
 geants, who had been accustomed to attend the Governor 
 to and from public worship, "laid down their halberds 
 and went home." " The country, taking notice of this, 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 219, 220. — "They and it seems the Boston people hoped 
 
 [the Hutchinson party] expected a that, in consequence of it, the freemen 
 
 great advantage that day, because the from the country towns would not come 
 
 remote towns were allowed to come in in to outvote them, 
 by proxy." (Ibid.) This arrangement ^ go says Hutchinson (I. 60, note), 
 
 had been made two months before (see on the authority of a manuscript Life of 
 
 above, p. 443 ; Mass. Col. Rec, 1. 188); Wilson in his possession. 
 
 VOL. I. 41
 
 482 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 offered to send in some from the neighboring towns, to 
 carry the halbei'ds by course ; and, upon that, the town of 
 Boston offered to send some men, but not the sergeants ; 
 but the Governor chose rather to make use of two of his 
 own servants." ^ 
 
 Vane did not bear his defeat with the dignity which 
 his riper character displayed. Before he was Governor, 
 Resentment ^^^ had bccu uscd to sit at pubUc worship in the 
 of Vane. Magistrates' seat, a distinction yielded to his high 
 birth ; he now. left it with Coddington, and repelled the 
 Governor's invitation to return. The son and heir of the 
 Earl of Marlborough, a boy in his teens, having come 
 to Boston " to see the country," the Governor, 
 
 June 26. . 
 
 whose guest he had declined to be during his 
 stay, invited Vane with others to meet him at dinner. 
 Vane " not only refused to come, alleging by letter that 
 his conscience withheld him, but also at the same hour he 
 went over to Nettle's Island to dine with Mr. Maverick, 
 and carried the Lord Leigh with him." ^ 
 
 His only further conspicuous agency in the pending 
 difficulties related to an order of that Court by which he 
 had been displaced, to the effect of excluding, till the 
 next annual Court, " all such persons as might be danger- 
 ous to the commonwealth, by imposing a penalty upon all 
 such as should retain any, &c. above three weeks, which 
 should not be allowed by some of the Magistrates."^ The 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 220. tent, he would resist it," -which the 
 
 2 Ibid., 224, 232. — While here, Gov- Governor thought very orthodox doc- 
 ernor Vane's young friend was unbe- trine, and so " did openly declare in 
 comingly forward in his loyalty. "Being the Court"; and the conclusion was, 
 told that one Ewre had spoken treason that there was no " ollence which de- 
 against the king," he sent for a witness served punishment, seeing it is lawful to 
 who " told him that Ewre had said, resist any authority which was to over- 
 about twelve months before, that, if the throw the lawful authority of the king's 
 king did send any authority hither grant." (Ibid., 234, 235.) Winthrop's 
 against our patent, he would be the legal studies had not been fruitless, 
 first should resist him." On inquiry, Here was law worthy of the sages of 
 Ewre's language turned out to have the Long Parliament. 
 
 been, " that, if there came any author- ^ Ibid., 224. Comp. Mass. Col. Rec., 
 ity out of England contrary to the pa- I. 194.
 
 Chap. XII.] MASSACHUSETTS. 483 
 
 obvious purpose of the measure was to prevent the in- 
 crease of the defeated party by recruits from abroad. It 
 was an Alien Law. Winthrop circulated a defence of it, 
 to which Vane replied, and the controversy terminated 
 with a rejoinder from the former.^ Before the end of the 
 summer, in company with his youno: friend. Vane 
 
 ' r J J n ' ^ Vane's return 
 
 left the country for ever, to pass on to higher to England. 
 and harsher fortunes. At parting, his adherents 
 made an ambitious display of their respect and regrets. 
 " Those of Mr. Vane's party were gathered together, and 
 did accompany him to the boat, and many to the ship; 
 and the men, being in their arms, gave him divers volleys 
 of shot, and five pieces of ordnance, and he had five more 
 at the Castle ; the Governor was not come from the Court, 
 but had left order with the captain for their honorable 
 dismission." ^ Abandoned by their great patron, the fac- 
 tion henceforward acted at disadvantage. 
 
 The Court had again deferred the sentence of Wheel- 
 wright, in the hope that so " their moderation and desire 
 of reconciliation might appear to all." Often things 
 seemed strongly tending to an amicable settlement. " Di- 
 vers writings were published." The Magistrates issued 
 a defence of their course against Wheelwright, and his 
 friends replied. " Mr. Wheelwright also himself set forth 
 a small tractate," and the ministers retorted, " confuting 
 the same by many strong arguments." But Cotton "replied 
 to their answer very largely, and stated the differences in 
 a very narrow scantling, and Mr. Shepard, preaching at 
 the day of election, brought them yet nearer, so as, except 
 
 men of good understanding, few could see where 
 
 the difference was." ^ Matters seemed in so good a train 
 
 1 These important papers are in relied upon. Still the " Answer " may 
 
 Hutchinson's Collection (67-100). I have been somehow a joint production 
 
 am not aware that there is any earlier of Vane and Wheelwright. (See above, 
 
 testimony to the authorship of these p. 480, note.) 
 
 tracts than that of Hutchinson. (Ibid., 2 "Winthrop, I. 235. 
 
 67.) But his is positive, and, I think, in 3 Ibid., 221, 222. 
 the circumstances, may be substantially
 
 484 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 that it was hoped a satisfactory accommodation would be 
 effected in a synod, which had been summoned by the 
 ministers, " with consent of the Magistrates." ^ 
 
 It met in Mr. Shepard's church, at Newtown. " There 
 were all the teaching elders through the country, and 
 Ecclesiastical somc ucw comc out of England, not yet called to 
 Kewtown. ^^^J placc hcrc, as Mr. Davenport."^ The Magis- 
 
 Aug. 30. tj-atgg i^iad seats. The moderators were Hooker, 
 of Hartford, and Bulkeley, of Concord, from whose recent 
 ordination Cotton had absented himself, conceiving him 
 to be one of the " legal preachers." The discussions, 
 which on the whole appear to have been conducted with 
 much moderation, continued through three weeks. Eighty- 
 two opinions, each represented to have had some un- 
 named advocate, were with great unanimity condemned 
 as erroneous, even Cotton giving his scarcely qualified 
 consent to the decree. Prominent among them of course 
 were the peculiar tenets of Wheelwright and Mrs. Hutch- 
 inson. Some practical questions of church discipline, bear- 
 ing upon the recent proceedings, were next " debated and 
 resolved." On the last day, the Governor proposed that, as 
 " matters had been carried on so peaceably, and concluded 
 so comfortably in all love," a similar meeting should be 
 held the next year, and every year ; and that " it might be 
 agreed what way was most agreeable to the rule of the 
 Gospel for the maintenance of ministers." " But the 
 elders did not like to deal in that, lest it should be said 
 that this assembly was gathered for their private advan- 
 tage " ; and neither proposal was adopted.^ 
 
 More than a year had now passed since the strife be- 
 gan, and three months since Vane returned to England. 
 There had been great provocation and excitement; but, 
 down to this time, John Greensmith, fined for slander, 
 was the only one of the disturbers who had been punished 
 
 ^ Winthrop, I. 236. shall hear much more of him further on. 
 
 2 Mr. John Davenport had arrived Sec above, p. 369, and below, p. 528. 
 on the 26th of the preceding June. We 3 Winthrop, I. 237-241.
 
 Chap. XII] MASSACHUSETTS. 485 
 
 in any way. " There was great hope that the late general 
 assembly would have some good effect in pacifying the 
 troubles and dissensions about matters of religion ; but it 
 fell out otherwise." Whether it was, that, with or without 
 authority from Yane, it was hoped on the one side and 
 feared on the other that he would assert in England 
 those doctrines of allegiance which in America he had 
 urged in controversy with Winthrop, — or from some oth- 
 er cause, — the dispute was revived with such acrimony, 
 that the General Court, " findinsr upon consul- 
 tation that two so opposite parties could not con- 
 tain in the same body without apparent hazard of ruin to 
 the whole, agreed to send away some of the principal." ^ 
 
 The petition, presented nine months before by members 
 of the Boston church in favor of Wheelwright, was con- 
 sidered as showing the necessity of this measure, „ .. 
 
 O J ' Proceedings 
 
 in the new ferment" which was prevailini^. It re- ag^'n't^'e 
 
 *• "-" _ partisans of 
 
 ferred, in ambiguous terms of approbation, which Mr?. Hutch- 
 the Court construed as of seditious intent, to the 
 conduct of Peter in drawing his sword, and to that of 
 the Israelites in rescuing Jonathan from Saul. William 
 Aspinwall, a signer of the petition, (and its author, though 
 this was not known till afterwards,) was now a Deputy 
 from Boston ; he was sentenced first to dismission from 
 the Court, and then to disfranchisement and expulsion 
 from the territory. John' Coggeshall, another Deputy, 
 who declared in Court his approbation of the petition, 
 though he had not signed it, escaped with dismission and 
 disfranchisement.^ AVheelwright, "refusing to leave either 
 the place or his public exercisings," was also disfranchised, 
 and was banished. He aggravated his oifence by an appeal 
 to the king ; but " the Court told him that an appeal did 
 not lie, for, by the king's grant, we had power to hear and 
 determine without any reservation." He was allowed to 
 withdraw to his house, under an engagement to surrender 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 244, 245. 2 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 207. 
 
 41*
 
 486 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 himself to a Magistrate at the end of a fortnight, unless 
 he should previously retire from the jurisdiction. It was 
 probably before the expiration of this time that he went 
 with a few adherents to the Piscataqua River, as will be 
 by and by related, 
 
 Mrs. Hutchinson was next sent for, and was charged, 
 
 among other things, with railing at the ministers, and with 
 
 continuing: her semi-weekly public lectures, in de- 
 
 Proceedings '-' '' '■ 
 
 a-aiiif^t Mrs. fiauce of determinations of the recent synod. In 
 her defence, she laid claim to prophetical inspira- 
 tion, and declared that among its communications "this 
 was one : that she had it revealed to her, that she should 
 come into New England, and should here be persecuted, 
 and that God would ruin us and our posterity and' the 
 whole state for the same." ; Her trial lasted two days. 
 Two reports of it survive.^ They contain evidence that 
 her judges did not escape the contagion of her ill-temper. 
 When some of the ministers were to give their testimony, 
 she demanded that they should be sworn. It was done, 
 but not till after objection and delay. \ She may have 
 meant the claim as an aftront, but that was not to be as- 
 sumed; and, even if known, it did not bar her of her 
 right, which, for every reason of policy and dignity, as 
 well as of justice, should have been promptly allowed. 
 " So the Court proceeded, and banished her ; but, because 
 it was winter, they committed her to a private house, 
 where she was well provided, and her own friends and 
 the ciders permitted to go to her, but none else." ~ 
 
 1 One was printed by Hutchinson the same way. The other is in the 
 (History, II. 423), from "an ancient "Short Story," &c. (33-41). The 
 manuscript," of which he gives no former, which has some breaks, is the 
 further account. Of the proceedings more iull and the less unfavorable to 
 against Wheelwright in March, it is re- Mrs. Hutchinson. But the reader de- 
 lated, that " three or four of Boston sires an account of the transaction more 
 (being Mr. AVheelwright his special complete in some respects than is con- 
 friends) took all by characters." (Anti- tainod in either. 
 
 nomians and Familists,4G.) It is likely - Winthrop, I. 24G. Mass. Col. Rec, 
 
 that the report, which came into Hutch- I. 207.— Two Deputies, Coddington 
 
 inson's hands, of the arraignment of Mi-s. and Colburn, dissented; another, Jen- 
 
 Hutchinson in October, was prepared in nison, declined to vote.
 
 Chap. XII.] MASSACHUSETTS. 487 
 
 When the Court met agam, after an adjournment for a 
 few days, it did not find the agitation at an end, 
 
 / ' n -, Nov. 15. 
 
 though more than a quarter part of the signers 
 of the petition in Wheelwright's behalf had recanted and 
 apologized. John Underhill, the Captain in the Pequot 
 war, besides being cashiered, was now disfranchised, with 
 six or seven other subscribers to the obnoxious paper.^ 
 The rest, with " some others, who had been chief stirrers 
 in these contentions," received an order to surrender their 
 arms, which " when they saw no remedy, they obeyed." ^ 
 For further security, " the powder and arms of the coun- 
 try, which had been kept at Boston, were carried to E,ox- 
 bury and Newtown." ^ 
 
 The " private house," to which Mrs. Hutchinson had 
 been committed for the winter, was that of Joseph Welde 
 of Roxbury, Deputy in the General Court, and brother 
 of the minister. Her conversations there with the elders 
 occasioned such offence, that, at their instance, she was 
 cited to answer to a charge of "gross errors" be- iggg, 
 fore the church of Boston, so lately her devoted ^^"^i^^- 
 partisans. One of the errors which were specified, name- 
 ly, that the soul is not naturally immortal, she was pre- 
 vailed upon, after a long discussion, to retract and con- 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 208. taken place a century before ; but the 
 
 2 Winthrop, I. 247. Mass. Col. Rec, remembrance of them had been re- 
 I. 211. The preamble to this order is vived in England, at the period of which 
 as follows : " Whereas the opinions and I am writing, by the spread of Anabap- 
 revelations of Mr. Wheelwright and tist principles in that kingdom. The 
 Mrs. Hutchinson have seduced and led feeling of the time may be gathered 
 Into dangerous errors many of the peo- from a tract, reprinted in the Ilarleian 
 pie here in New England, insomuch as Miscellany (VII. 361), with the title, 
 there is just cause of suspicion that " A Warning for England, especially for 
 they, as others in Germany, in former London, in the Famous History of the 
 times, may, upon some revelation, make Frantic Anabaptists, their "Wild Preach- 
 some sudden irruption upon those that ings and Practices, in Germany. Print- 
 differ from them in judgment, therefore ed in the Year 1G42, 4to, containing 
 it is ordered," &c. — For an account of twenty-eight Pages." 
 
 the transactions "in Germany," here ^ "Winthrop, I. 251. Mass. Col. Rec, 
 alluded to, see Motley, "Rise of the I. 209. 
 Dutch Republic," I. 79, 80. They had
 
 488 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 demn ; but, as she persisted in the others, the church 
 " agreed she should be admonished." The vote to that 
 effect would have been unanimous, but for the dissent of 
 her two sons, who, for their contumacy, " were admon- 
 ished also." The meeting was opened about noon, after 
 the weekly Thursday lecture, which had taken place an 
 hour earlier than usual. It " continued till eight at night, 
 and all did acknowledge the special presence of God's 
 spirit therein."^ Several of her friends, however, were 
 absent, on the search for another home. 
 
 This was simply an ecclesiastical proceeding. On the 
 part of the government there was still a desire to be 
 lenient, and at all events to avoid provoking a 
 reaction by unnecessary offence ; and Mrs. Hutch- 
 inson was " licensed by the Court, in regard she had given 
 hope of her repentance, to be at Mr. Cotton's house [in 
 Boston], that both he and Mr. Davenport might have the 
 more opportunity to deal with her." The result was, that 
 " she made a retractation of near all " the obnoxious opin- 
 ions imputed to her, and "declared that it was just with 
 God to leave her to herself as he had done, for her slight- 
 ing his ordinances, both magistracy and ministry." But 
 she marred all by insisting that the doctrines attributed 
 to her were partly such as she had never maintained. 
 This raised a question of veracity, which was decided 
 against her ; and " the church with one consent cast her 
 out," or excommunicated her, for having "impud{^ntly 
 persisted " in untruth. Cotton acquiesced in the verdict. 
 Her unhappy deportment on this occasion dissipated what 
 was left of her party. " IMany poor souls, who had been 
 seduced by her, by what they heard and saw that day 
 were through the grace of God brought off quite from 
 her errors, and settled again in the truth." " The sen- 
 tence was denounced by the pastor [Wilson], matters 
 of manners belonging properly to his place." Cotton, 
 
 1 Wlntlirop, I. 255.
 
 JIarcli 28. 
 
 Chap. XIL] MASSACHUSETTS. 489 
 
 it is likely, ^70uld be naturally averse to that service, 
 from his past relations to the convict. The approach of 
 spring having brought the time for carrying into effect 
 the order of the Court, " after two or three days the 
 Governor sent a warrant to Mrs. Hutchinson to depart 
 this jurisdiction before the last of the month " ; which she 
 did accordingly, visiting "her farm at the Mount" 
 [Braintree] on her way.^ 
 
 /It would be an unjust representation of the case of 
 Mrs. Hutchinson and her partisans to allege that they 
 were punished for entertaining^ opinions distaste- 
 ful to their associates on dark questions of theol- cessity for 
 ogy./ It is not enough to object to that view, that [.'.'gs' against" 
 it would not accord with the recoo^nized habit of "\«^"""°- 
 
 ~ nil an party. 
 
 the time and place.^ ' Reasoning on any obvious 
 principles of human nature, — especially of the nature of 
 such men as then had the trust of the common weal in 
 Massachusetts, — it is impossible, for one who takes due 
 note of the existing state of things, to justify that in- 
 terpretation of their proceedings. (They stood between 
 two great perils ; — on the one hand, a rupture with the 
 most formidable of the native tribes, accompanied by the 
 imminent danger of its becoming allied with the tribe 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 257-259. as hitherto they do, we will leave them 
 
 2 " The next aspersion cast upon us," to God, ourselves havinrr performed the 
 said Winslow in 1646, "is, that we will duty of brethren to them." (Ibid., 101.) 
 not suffer any that differ from us never — "If he [Coggeshall] had ke{)thisjudg- 
 80 Uttle to reside or cohabit with us. ment to himself, so as the public peace 
 
 To which I answer, our prac- had not been troubled or endangered 
 
 tice witnesseth the contrary." (Hypoc- by it, we should have left him to him- 
 risy Unmasked, 99.) And he specifies self, for we do not challenge power over 
 some instances of Presbyterians, min- men's consciences." (Antinomians and 
 isters and others, living in Massachu- Familists, &c., 28.) — "Your conscience 
 setts undisturbed and in good esteem, you may keep to yourself: but if in this 
 (99,100.) " Against Anabaptists," he cause you shall countenance and en- 
 says, " it is true, we have a severe law, courage those that transgress the law, 
 but we never did or will execute the you must be called in question for it; 
 rigor of it upon any, and have men and that is not for your conscience, but 
 living amongst us, nay, some in our for your practice." (Ibid., 34. The 
 churches, of that judgment ; and, as language cjuoted was addressed by the 
 long as they carry themselves peacefully Court to Mrs. Hutchinson.)
 
 490 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 next in force, and consequently with all the tribes of less 
 consideration ; — on the other hand, the threat of invasion 
 from the parent country, a danger requiring to be parried 
 by a concentration of their own resources, and by further 
 accessions of strength from abroad, if such could be ob- 
 tained. It is extravagant to suppose, that, in such cir- 
 cumstances, the fathers of the state would have allowed 
 themselves to be diverted into a mere distracting contest 
 of speculative polemics. Men about them might look 
 upon such questions as the real matter in controversy ; 
 and possibly the leaders m.ight be willing to avail them- 
 selves of the surrounding excitement for the aid it gave 
 to their counsels for the common security. But it is as- 
 suming little for them to say, that their own discernment 
 was clearer, and their aim more practical. 
 
 In the simplest form in which the controversy presents 
 itself, the active adherents of Mrs. Hutchinson had made 
 themselves amenable to public censure, on principles rec- 
 ognized by all civilized communities. 'When Greensmith, 
 the only sufferer for more than a year after the beginning 
 of the troubles, was fined forty pounds "for saying that all 
 the ministers, except Cotton, Wheelwright, and, he thought, 
 Hooker, did teach a covenant of works," the common case 
 of a slander had occurred. A charge of this tenor, if 
 made in the present state of sentiment, might be regarded 
 by many as untrue and unkind, but it would scarcely be 
 felt as an intolerable affront and wrong ; while, to the men 
 of whom we are speaking, life would not be worth hav- 
 ing, if prolonged under the liability of being met at every 
 corner with that accusation, (in the limited vocabulary 
 of which the use is now forbidden by the law of defama- 
 tion and libel, there is no word more injurious than was 
 then and there the stigma of being a legalist} At this 
 
 1 " Now the faithful ministers of Seribcs, Pharisees, and opposers of 
 
 Christ must have dung cast on their Christ himself." (Welde, Preface to 
 
 faces, and be no better than legal the Short Story of the Rise, Reign, 
 
 preachers, Baal's j^riests, Popish factors, and Ruin of the Antinomians, &c.)
 
 Chap. XII.] MASSACHUSETTS. . 491 
 
 day, a denunciation of a clergyman as a drunkard or knave 
 would rightly be matter for public animadversion, as be- 
 ing prejudicial to his interest and usefulnes's, and threat- 
 ening to the public peace. Equally so, and by force of 
 the same reasons, was in those days the denunciation of 
 him as a legal preacher. By dissensions that expressed 
 themselves in such language, some of the English congre- 
 gations in Holland had been speedily brought to nothing. 
 Such dissensions might be reasonably thought a social dis- 
 ease, which no immature civil society could survive.^ 
 
 In the process of superseding a despotism by free polit- 
 ical institutions, the most critical period is often that of 
 the reconstruction of the emancipated society. While the 
 overthrow of arbitrary rule, or escape from it, is in ques- 
 tion, a zeal for change, and the utmost liberty and bold- 
 ness of thought and action, serve the movement, and are 
 encouraged by its leaders. When freedom has been won, 
 and a new order is to be set up, the revolutionary spirit 
 requires to be suddenly checked ; and it is naturally the 
 more impatient of restraint for the license in which it has 
 been indulging. It would have been reasonable beforehand 
 to expect that the new commonwealth in Massachusetts 
 would have to go through this trial, though the particular 
 form in which the trial would present itself could not have 
 been foreseen. ^The disputes introduced by Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son threatened no less than immediate anarchy, y They had 
 already produced some of its fruits. They had weakened 
 the arm of government at a moment when government 
 especially needed to be strong. An invasion from the 
 mother country was not unlikely, in the apprehension of 
 
 1 " The wars in Germany for these the minds of the people were once set 
 
 hundred years arose from dissensions in on fire by reproachful terms of incen- 
 
 religion ; so it was among the diary spirits, they soon set to blows, 
 
 confederate cantons in Helvetia, which and had always a tragical and bloody 
 
 were so many towns as nearly com- issue." (Antinomians and Famllists, &c., 
 
 bined together as ours here ; so was it 54.) 
 
 also in the Netherlands ; when
 
 492 HISTORY OF new England. [Book l 
 
 which costly military preparations had been made. A war 
 with the most powerful of the native tribes was flagrant, 
 a war which might probably bring about a universal 
 league of the New-England savages. And when a force 
 was ordered to take the field for the salvation of the 
 settlements, the Boston men refused to be mustered be- 
 cause they suspected the chaplain, who had been desig- 
 nated by lot to accompany the expedition, of being under 
 a covenant of works.^ 
 
 There even appears to have been imminent danger of a 
 direct armed resistance to authority. Certainly nothing 
 short of this was apprehended by those intrusted with the 
 safety of the state. It is not necessary that we should 
 yield our judgments to theirs as to the grounds of the 
 apprehension they express, when they say that the asser- 
 tion, by Mrs. Hutchinson and her partisans, of the obliga- 
 tion to follow their supernatural light, made them fear a 
 repetition of the horrors of Munster," But when, in a 
 memorial signed by more than sixty freemen of Boston, we 
 find examples of forcible resistance to rulers adduced from 
 Scripture, and spoken of as not seditious ; ^ and when, in a 
 highly fevered state of the public mind, the chief clerical 
 heresiarch uses in the pulpit language capable of being 
 interpreted as inviting either to bloodshed or to the use of 
 
 1 "Whereas in former expeditions ~ See above, p. 487, note 2; comp. 
 
 tlie town of Boston was as forward as Antinomians and Familists, &c. (-10), 
 
 any otliers to sc nd of tlieir choice mem- and Dudley's remarks at tlie trial of 
 
 bers, and a greater number than other ]\Irs. Hutchinson (Hutchinson, Ilistorj'-, 
 
 towns in the time of the former Gov- II. 443,444). 
 
 ernor, now in this last service they sent •^ " We have not drawn the sword, 
 
 not a member, but one or two whom as sometimes Peter did, rashly, neither 
 
 they cared not to be rid of, and but a have we rescued our innocent brother, 
 
 few others, and those of the most refuse as the Israelites did Jonathan, and yet 
 
 sort, and that in such a careless man- they did not seditiously." (Boston 
 
 ner as gave great discouragement to the Petition, in Antinomians and Fami- 
 
 scrvice." (Antinomians and Familists, lists, &c., 22.) " In pretending Iheir 
 
 &c., 25.) "The same difTercnce hath moderation, they put arguments in the 
 
 been observed in town lots, rates, and people's mouths to invite them to vio- 
 
 in neiglibor meetings, and almost in all lence." (Antinomians and P'amilists, 
 
 affairs." (Ibid.) &c., 29 )
 
 Chap. XII.] MASSACHUSETTS. 493 
 
 spiritual weapons, according to the temper brought by 
 hearer or reader to the interpretation of his words ; ^ 
 and when presently, at the principal popular meeting, 
 the parties come together so inflamed that " some lay 
 hands on others," — we are fain to own that moderate 
 governments have often been moved to adopt far more 
 vigorous measures of self-protection by no plainer symp- 
 toms of danger. Wc are prepared to rest on what the 
 mild and reasonable AVinthrop, at the close of the busi- 
 ness, announced as " a ground for his judgment ; and 
 that was, for that he saw, that those brethren, &c. were 
 so divided from the rest of the country in their judgment 
 and practice, as it could not stand with the public peace 
 that they should continue amongst us. So, by the exam- 
 ple of Lot in Abraham's family, and after Hagar and Ish- 
 mael, he saw that they must be sent away." ^ 
 
 But a wider view should be taken of the subject. In 
 order to do it justice, we must recur to such consid- 
 erations as were formerly presented respecting the po- 
 litical position of the Colony, and the designs of the 
 leading men among its founders. The reader has been 
 reminded, that, when Winthrop and his associates lield 
 their meeting, so pregnant with events, at the English 
 Cambridge, the Parliament which the infatuated king 
 had proclaimed to be perhaps his last had been dissolved, 
 and Laud, as Bishop of London and virtually primate, 
 had had three years' time to develop his odious policy. 
 Despotism, ecclesiastical and civil, seemed destined to 
 carry the day in England. Some wise and religious Eng- 
 lishmen proposed to save the treasure they had no mind to 
 part with, by abandoning what seemed to them a sinking 
 ship. To all the sharers in the enterprise — peculiarly to 
 some of them — expatriation was a heavy ransom to pay 
 for the rights of their minds and souls. They easily con- 
 
 1 See above, p. 479. — "The angels sound of rattling drums." (Johnson, 
 
 of the churches, sounding forth Wonder- Working Providence, &c., 96.) 
 
 their silver trumpets, heard the jarring 2 Winthrop, I. 250. 
 
 VOL. I. 42
 
 494 msTORY OF new England. [Book l 
 
 eluded that the purehase was fully worth the price ; but 
 certainly they had no intention to pay so great a price 
 for nothing, or to encounter the tremendous hardships of 
 a wild continent, to be no more free, after all, than if they 
 had remained at home. It is not to be imagined, that the 
 Massachusetts founders ever lost sight of the persecutors 
 from whom they had fled, or ceased to fear a renewal of the 
 oppressions from which for the present they were relieved. 
 Partially protected, as yet, by distance and obscurity, they 
 never forgot, that, as hereafter they should emerge into 
 consequence and notice, it would be necessary for them to 
 compensate the immunities of insignificance by the secu- 
 rity of power. 
 
 The heroic pioneers hoped soon to have their tasks 
 lightened, and their wisdom vindicated and rewarded, by 
 a large increase of numbers. If they could make the 
 experiment seem promising in the eyes of those whom 
 they had left behind, feeling the same wants and the same 
 longings as themselves, its later steps would be facilitated, 
 and its ultimate success made probable. In the circum- 
 stances, it would have been no extravagant hope of 
 theirs, that whatever in England was most worth saving 
 from a social wreck would before long be transferred to 
 American soil, — that a new England would more than 
 revive on another continent the jjlories of the doomed and 
 
 &' 
 
 dying empire. The first steps of the experiment had been 
 on the whole not discouraging. Among those expected 
 to engnge in it, if things went on in England in the an- 
 ticipated way, was a full representation of that class to 
 which, from wealth and hereditary position as well as 
 from personal qualities, belonged in England an eminent 
 agency in the conduct of affairs. By some such the de- 
 sign is known to have been followed near to the point of 
 execution ; and it would probably have been persevered 
 in, notwithstanding the denial of a condition which was 
 proposed, had affairs continued much longer to appear des-
 
 Chap. XII.] 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 495 
 
 perate at liome.^ Depending, as the young colony did, 
 on the good word and active patronage of its Puritan 
 friends in England, and looking to them anxiously for an 
 increase of numbers, and so of power, it could ill bear to 
 be represented to them as already rent and disabled by fac- 
 tious.^ Nothing more intimately concerned its welfare than 
 
 1 See above, p. 389, note. — The 
 " Proposals," there described, afford 
 striking evidence of the existence of a 
 persuasion, on the part of the " persons 
 of quality," that it would belong to the 
 emigrants to New England to set up just 
 tlie government they might themselves 
 choose. They were made while the 
 question of Ship-Money was agitated ; 
 and very probably the project of emi- 
 gration which they implied had refer- 
 ence to that question. 
 
 •2 " There being, 12 month, 3, [Feb- 
 ruary 3, 1637,] a ship ready to go for 
 England and many passengers in it, 
 Mr. Cotton took occasion to speak to 
 them about the differences, &c., and 
 ■willed them to tell our countrymen, that 
 all the strife amongst us was about raaT- 
 nifying the grace of God, one party 
 seeking to advance the grace of God 
 ■within us, and the other to advance the 
 grace of God towards us (meaning by 
 the one justification, and by the other 
 sanctification) ; and so bade them tell 
 them, that, if there were any among 
 them that would strive for grace, they 
 should come hither." (Winthrop, I. 
 213.) — The two subjects of anxiety 
 which took precedence of others in 
 March, 1633, the month in which Mrs. 
 Hutchinson was sent away, are indi- 
 cated in an order for a day of fasting 
 (Mass. Col. Hec, I. 226), "to entreat 
 
 the help of God to divert any 
 
 evil plots which may be intended, and 
 to prepare the Avay of friends which we 
 hope may be upon coming to us." — 
 Winthrop says (I. 248), — referring 
 to the Court of November, 1637, when 
 some of the malecontcnts had been dis- 
 
 franchised and others disanned, — " All 
 the proceedings of this Court against 
 these persons were set down at large, 
 with the reasons and other observa- 
 tions, and were sent into England to 
 be published there, to the end that 
 all our godly friends might not be dis- 
 couraged from coming to us." The 
 exposition thus made I believe to be 
 that which is contained (pp. 21 et seq.^ 
 in the little volume, often quoted above, 
 which was printed in London, in 1644, 
 under the title, " Antinomians and 
 Familists condemned by the Synod of 
 Elders in New England," &c. In it, a 
 " Catalogue of Erroneous Opinions 
 
 condemned by an Assembly of 
 
 the Churches at Newtown, August 30, 
 1637," is followed (I.) by the treatise 
 just mentioned, with the title, " The 
 Proceedings of the General Court hold- 
 en at New Town in the Massachusetts 
 in New England, October [sic] 2, 1637," 
 and (2.) by " A Brief Apology in De- 
 fence of the General Proceedings of 
 the Court, holden at Boston the Ninth 
 Day of the First Month, 1636 [March 
 9, 1637J." The occasion of this "Apol- 
 ogy" — which (in the original form, 
 consisting of its first thirteen, or its first 
 eighteen, pages) was written before the 
 Proceedings first mentioned (25, comp. 
 Winthrop, I. 221) — was, that it was 
 " thought needful to make public decla- 
 ration of all the proceedings, with the rea- 
 sons and grounds thereof, so far as con- 
 cerneth the clearing of the justice of the 
 Court." (Antinomians and Familists, 
 &c.,46.) I am uncertain whetheritisthe 
 last three or the last eight pages of the 
 volume, that constitute the " additions "
 
 496 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 the creation within it of such a state of things as would 
 justify a report in England suited to encourage a large 
 emigration of men of the desired character and means. 
 
 It might not he safe to say, that an absolute political 
 independence of England was distinctly intended in the 
 scheme of which the conveyance of the Massachusetts 
 charter across the water was a part. Thinking men 
 and competent statesmen as the leading founders were, 
 they could not fail to see that the fulfilment of such a 
 vision must be left to the chances of the future, or rather, 
 as they would more truly have said, to the arbitration of 
 a gracious and almighty Providence. But, unless cir- 
 cumstances at home should change, they could not but 
 regard this consummation as possible, and as one ear- 
 nestly to be desired, and with all perseverance and skil- 
 ful treatment of events to be watched and striven for. 
 The charter was valuable to them for two things. It 
 gave them a claim (of no great practical value, perhaps, as 
 matters stood) to English protection against the hostility 
 of European powers, — the French, Dutch, and Spanish 
 sovereigns of their neighbors on the north and the south ; 
 — and to a considerable extent it tied the king's mischief- 
 making hands in respect to interference with them, while 
 they were using means to consolidate and develop their 
 order and their power, and obtain the validity of pre- 
 scription for those interpretations of the instrument 
 which sorted with their large and long-sighted purpose. 
 
 which, in liis Address " to the Reader," signed with Weldc's initials, while the 
 
 the editor (Thomas Weldc, then in Eng- other, entitled " Antinomians and Fam- 
 
 land) says that, "in a strait of time, not ilists," &c., is without this introductory 
 
 having had many hours," ho made " to matter. Differing, with great reluc- 
 
 the conclusion of the book." The Prof- tance, from Winthrop's learned editor, 
 
 ace and conclusion aj)pcar to have been I ascribe the "Proceedings," as well as 
 
 written while the press waited. Two cdi- the " Apology," to "Winthrop's hand. — 
 
 tions were printed, from the same types, The " Proceedings" were written while 
 
 except that they had different title- Mrs. Hutchinson was " confined in a 
 
 pages, and that one of them, entitled the private house" (-13), in the winter of 
 
 " Short Story," &c., had the Preface, and 1037 -8. 
 the short Address " to the Header "
 
 CiiAP. XII.] MASSACHUSETTS. 497 
 
 It was a great task of statesmanship to play hopefully 
 this game of prospective independence of England. It 
 Avas a policy only to be carried out by much address, and 
 a dexterous use of events, as well as much constancy and 
 courage. All care was to be taken, from the beginning, 
 that the government of the parent country should acquire 
 no control over the government of the plantation, and no 
 foothold within it. At the same time, internal administra- 
 tion was to be so conducted as to strengthen the young 
 community by the energy of an harmonious and zealous 
 public spirit, as well as by the abundance of its material 
 resources. A healthy consolidation of the social system 
 would be obstructed by the disputes of enthusiastic the- 
 orists. It was only to be effected through such fellow- 
 feeling and joint action as could hardly sustain the 
 wear and tear of an irritating discussion of novel opinions 
 and passionate censure of influential men. That there 
 might be readiness for a vigorous advance whenever the 
 time for it should come, it was needful that youth should 
 be trained under the influences of a resolute authority and 
 of a concentrated local patriotism, both of which would 
 be enfeebled by unchecked strife. 
 
 Certain it was, that dissensions within the Colony had 
 an important relation to the danger which continued to 
 menace it from enemies beyond its borders. It required 
 protectio'n as much against pretences for assault on the 
 part of foes in the parent country, as from what would 
 give offence to friends, or subject them to discouragement 
 or to reproach. Any plausible report that the local au- 
 thority had proved incompetent, and that the settlement 
 was falling into the ruin of anarchy, would have been but 
 too welcome to the court as a pretext for what was so 
 repeatedly threatene^ds' from the first, an abrogation of its^ 
 charter, and a resumption of its government into the hands 
 of the king. 
 
 The party of Winthrop, generally dominant in the in- 
 
 42*
 
 498 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 fant commonwealth, put upon the charter an interpreta- 
 tion acquiesced in without dispute by succeeding gen- 
 erations. In their construction of that instrument, as 
 long as the Governor and Company did not violate its 
 provisions, they held the entire, unshared control of their 
 territory and of its European inhabitants ; in other words, 
 they owed no submission to England whatever, except 
 such as was comprehended in those charter provisions 
 which forbade the enactment of laws contrary to the 
 laws of the English realm, and required the payment into 
 the English exchequer of one fifth part of precious met- 
 als. Such was their claim and their right, as they con- 
 strued the bargain. No doubt they expected their con- 
 struction to be contested, when they should emerge into 
 importance, should the English government, in the mean 
 while, not be reformed. But they intended not to yield it 
 except to force, nor to yield it to force, if that was such, as 
 they should have grown strong enough to defy. To lose 
 the charter, the title-deed to their lands, was to lose the 
 little property on this side of the water by which they had 
 struggled partially to compensate their sacrifices on the 
 other. Far more ; to lose their charter, or to come under 
 a General Governor, was to be reduced again under that 
 uncontrolled despotism of the king and his creatures, from 
 which at such cost they had escaped. 
 
 By a short clause in an order passed at the first annual 
 1031. meeting of freemen on this continent, they had 
 May 18. yggte^i permanently the administration of the cor- 
 porate property — in other words, the ultimate powers of 
 government in Massachusetts — in the hands regarded by 
 them as suitable to carry out this policy. No Romanist 
 or Episcopalian was to possess a franchise enabling him 
 .to meddle with their affairs or balk their aims ; nor even 
 any other unsympathizing religionist, who might make 
 common cause with prelatical malecontents on the ground 
 of a common hostility to the dominant ecclesiastical svs-
 
 Chap. XII.] MASSACHUSETTS. 499 
 
 tern, or whose admission to citizenship would expose them 
 at court to the charge of making offensive distinctions be- 
 tween different classes of dissentients. 
 
 They had begun immediately to call themselves, not a 
 colony, but a "body politic," a "jurisdiction," and pres- 
 ently a " commonwealth " ; ^ and Henry • Vane, coming 
 over in the sixth year after the charter, found this last 
 designation already so established and current, that he 
 constantly uses it,^ though he cannot be positively said 
 to have belonged to the local school in politics whose 
 doctrines it symbolized. The English Oaths of Allegiance 
 and Supremacy were not administered, while the oath 
 actually prescribed to be taken on admission to the fran- 
 chise not only contained no recognition of the royal gov- 
 ernment, but seems to have been devised to engage the 
 freemen in resistance to that government, should occasion 
 for resistance arise. Its meaning is further illustrated 
 by its having been prescribed at the time when some 
 movement might naturally be expected in the nature of 
 that Order in Council, — requiring the charter to be sent 
 back, — which actually arrived two months afterwards.^ 
 It has been related how that Order, and the commission 
 to the Archbishop* and others to regulate plantations, 
 which presently followed, were received.'' 
 
 So appeals to the king, as by Morton, by Williams, by 
 AVheelwright,^ and by many others, w^ere not only uniform- 
 ly disregarded, but were taken as additional proof that the 
 appellant was a person dangerous to the public w^eal, and 
 needed rigorous treatment. 
 
 On the other hand, no little prudence was exercised to 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, I 87, 88, 118. Court, to take trial of the fidelity of the 
 
 2 See his " Briefe Answer," in Hutch- people," &c. (Cotton, Bloody Tenent 
 inson's Collection of Papers, 71 et seq. Washed "White, &c., 28, 29.) 
 
 3 W^inthrop, I. 137.— "The Magis- ^ See above, 391, 394. 
 
 trates and other members of the Gen- ^ gee above, p. 485. — " He hath 
 
 eral Court, upon intelligence of some threatened us "with an appeal, and 
 
 episcopal and malignant practices urged us to proceed." (Antinomians 
 
 against the country, made an Order of and Familists, 25, comp. 27.)
 
 500 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 avoid unnecessarily provoking an explosion of wrath in 
 England, which as yet there was not strength enough to 
 cope with. Accordingly, when Iloger Williams — in the 
 same argument in which he raised questions respecting 
 their right to their lands — "charged King James to have 
 told a solemn public lie because in his patent he blessed 
 Gt)d that he was the first Christian prince that had discov- 
 ered this land," and " charged him and others with blasphe- 
 my for calling Europe Christendom or the Christian world" 
 and " personally applied to King Charles three places in 
 the Hevelation, &c.," the Magistrates were nothing loath to 
 impose upon him the Oath of Allegiance, thus at the same 
 time silencing cavil against themselves at court, should 
 the scandal reach so far, and disarming him for the fur- 
 ther prosecution of these disturbing speculations respect- 
 ing the sufficiency of chartered rights.^ So, when the 
 royal ensign was defaced by Endicott, it is plain that there 
 was a struggle between the inclination, on the one hand, 
 of some of the Magistrates to encourage a superstitious 
 scruple which would have the salutary political effect of 
 driving into disuse a symbol of loyalty, and their appre- 
 hension, on the other, of offering premature offence. 
 
 The expulsion of the Brownes for setting up Episcopal 
 worship had taken place before the transmission of the 
 charter, or the foundation, properly so considered, of the 
 government." It was a high-handed act on the part of 
 Endicott ; but the doubtful rebuke which it incurred 
 showed that he did not much misconceive the purposes 
 already tai-iing shape, out of their rudiments, in the coun- 
 sels of his masters. Morton was a rollicking vagabond, 
 whose presence it was impossible to endure, were it only 
 for the peril which he brought on the settlement by his 
 misconduct to the Indians.^ Gardiner was believed to be 
 a Romanist, an adulterer, and a spy, and was sent home 
 to be tried for bigamy.^ Philip RatclifFe was here as a 
 
 1 "Wiiitlirop, I. 122, 123. 3 Ibid., p. 319. 
 
 2 See above, p. 298. •* Ibid., p. 32D.
 
 Chap. XII.] MASSACHUSETTS. 501 
 
 servant of Mr. Cmclock, who, in his capacity of Governor, 
 had enjoined the strictest dealing with that class of emi- 
 grants, as being of doubtful fitness fqr the association into 
 which they were brought.^ All these persons had made 
 loud complaints in England of their expulsion from Mas- 
 sachusetts ; but the position of no one of them bore any 
 great likeness to that of the partisans of Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son. The case of Roger Williams much more nearly re- 
 sembled it ; but, compared with the disturbance which 
 followed her proceedings, that occasioned by Williar^s 
 was limited, superficial, and transient.^ Had it not 
 been for later transactions, which revealed him in more 
 favorable lights, and for the connection of his exile with 
 the origin of a State, his exile, instead of taking the place 
 in history in which it presents itself to us, might have 
 been recorded simply as the expulsion of one among sev- 
 eral eccentric and turbulent persons. His controversy 
 speedily narrowed down to a merely personal dispute ; not 
 a half-score of friends followed when he went away, nor 
 were they of a character to show that he inspired confi- 
 dence in the best and soberest men ; scarcely a larger 
 number of persons who remained behind adhered to his 
 peculiarities ; ^ and the returning waters presently closed 
 over the track his dashing bark had made. Mrs. Hutch- 
 inson's party comprehended several of the most important 
 men in the infant commonwealth, and its business was 
 conducted with a determination and skill well worthy to 
 have been more usefully employed. 
 
 The difficult task which was upon the hands of the 
 rulers of Massachusetts has been partially indicated. At 
 a critical period of their prosecution of it, the disturbance 
 made by Mrs. Hutchinson and her friends threatened 
 
 1 See above, p. 351. Comp. Mass. by him "Little Foxes," in allusion, I 
 Col. Ilec., I. .393. suppose, to Solomon's Song, ii. 15. 
 
 2 The (•hai)ter in whieh Cotton IMath- 3 u "Phree men and eight ■women," 
 er treats of Williams and others (Mag- says Winthrop (I. 196). 
 
 nalia, Book VII. Chapter II.) is entitled
 
 502 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 to disable and defeat them. The fanatics habitually 
 assailed the hitherto revered governors of the state with 
 language of studied and stinging opprobrium. They re- 
 fused to do military duty, when the savages, already in 
 active hostility, might at any moment be at their doors in 
 formidable force. They had excited such passions, that, 
 on an election day, there was a demonstration of violence. 
 "Fierce speeches" were spoken, and " some laid hands on 
 others." These things would have been serious enough at 
 any time. But they occurred at the moment when the 
 numerous emigration, which was expected, and which they 
 would probably discourage, was greatly needed for the 
 reinforcement of the young colony ; ^ when its legal se- 
 
 1 In the State-Paper Oflice in Lon- ing the state, best known unto their 
 
 don, among the papers entitled " Amer- Lordships, that the Lord Treasurer of 
 
 ica and West Indies," is a letter of Lord England should take speedy and efiect- 
 
 Maynard to the Arehbishop of Canter- ual order for the stay of eight shij)s now 
 
 bury, dated March 17, 1G38. In it his on the river of Thames, prepared to go 
 
 Lordship says: "I hear daily of incred- for New England, and should likewise 
 
 ible numbers of persons of very good give order for the putting on land of all 
 
 abilities in several counties hereabouts, the passengers and persons therein in- 
 
 who have sold their lands and are upon tended for that voyage"; and, April 1, 
 
 their d(!parturc into New England, in- it was ordered that the same course 
 
 somuch as it is apprehended as an occa- should be taken with " all that should 
 
 sion of so great an impoverishment in thereafter be discovered to be prepared 
 
 divers parishes as it is feared that those or to intend to go thither." (Journal 
 
 inhabitants who remain behind will not of the Privy Council.) 
 
 be possibly able to employ and relieve April G, 1638. "His Majesty and 
 
 their ])Oor, and discharge other duties; the Board, taking this day into consid- 
 
 besides, it is conceived that they do wation the frcfpient resort to New Eng- 
 
 carrv a great deal of wealth over with land of divers persons ill-afrected to the 
 
 them, and some of good understanding religion established in the Church of 
 
 do doubt that they do now carry over England and to the good and i)eaceable 
 
 so much corn as that thei-e will hardly government of this state," though he 
 
 enough be left behind in this great had been "graciously pleased, at this 
 
 scarcity to feed us till harvest time, to free them from a late restraint, 
 
 I am credibly informed that there are nevertheless his Majesty, — well 
 
 fourteen ships in the river of Thames knowing the factious disposition of the 
 
 presently to go their voyage." On the jjcople (or a great part of them) in that 
 
 letter is indorsed by Laud : " Read, plantjUion, and how unfit and unworthy 
 
 March 21, 1C37 [N. S. 1038] they are of any support or countenance 
 
 I niove'l it the same day to the Board." from hence, in respect of the great dis- 
 
 Manh 30, 1C38, it was ordered by orders and want of government amongst 
 
 the Privy Council, " for reasons import- them, whereof sundry and great com-
 
 Chap. XII.] 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 503 
 
 curities were loudly menaced by a usurping power in Eng- 
 land ; and when the course of affairs in that country was 
 showing the vital necessity of measures of self-protection 
 on the part of the colony, such as prolonged internal 
 dissensions would be sure to frustrate. Between the time 
 when the vessel, which brought Mrs. Hutchinson to Amer- 
 ica, conveyed also the intelligence of the appointment of a 
 commission for governing the colonies, and the time of her 
 
 plaints have been presented to the 
 Board and made appear to be true by 
 those that, being well-affected both for 
 religion and government, have suffered 
 much loss in their estates by the unruly 
 and factious party, — did think fit, and 
 order, that Mr. Attorney shall forthwith 
 draw up a pi'oclamation expressing his 
 Majesty's royal pleasure to prohibit all 
 merchants, masters and owners of ships, 
 from henceforth to set forth any ship 
 or ships with passengers for New Eng- 
 land, till they have first obtained special 
 license on that behalf from such of the 
 Lords of his Majesty's most honorable 
 Privy Council as are appointed for the 
 businesses of foreign plantations by 
 special commission." (Ibid.) 
 
 Four days after, it was ordered that 
 ships then under restraint might be 
 released, and proceed. (Ibid.) The 
 surveillance, however, continued to be 
 strict. The same day, a pass was 
 granted " to Nathaniel Bourne, of the 
 parish of White Chapel, baker, to trav- 
 el into the parts of America." (Ibid.) 
 Miy 10, a similar pass was granted to 
 " Thomas Hawkins, of White Chapel, 
 carpenter." And, June 20, William 
 Pierce, master of the ship Desire, pre- 
 sented a petition, showing that " the 
 petitioner, with divers others inhabiting 
 in New England, did lately arrive in 
 the port of London in the same ship, 
 being lately built in New England," 
 and was permitted to return thither on 
 condition of transporting " no other 
 passengers or provisions but such as 
 
 should be allowed." (Ibid. See also the 
 king's "Proclamation" of April 30,1637, 
 " against the disorderly transporting his 
 Majest}''s subjects to the plantations 
 within the parts of America," in Rjmer, 
 Foedera, XX. 143.) 
 
 Cotton Mather says (Magnalia, &c., 
 Book I. Chap. V. § 7), that among the 
 persons thus prevented by the govern- 
 ment from emigrating to New England 
 were Hazelrigg, Hampden, and Crom- 
 well. Hutchinson (I. 44) repeats the 
 statement, and adds Pym to the party. 
 Hume (Chap. LII.) singularly speaks 
 of Hutchinson as having " put the fact 
 beyond controversy," though Hutchin- 
 son's cautious language was, that Crom- 
 well and the rest were "said to have 
 been prevented," &c. Lord Nugent 
 (Life of Hampden, I. 256), Hallara 
 (Constitutional History, Chap. VIII.), 
 and Chalmers (Political Annals, Book 
 I. Chap. VII.), all adopt the story. But 
 neither Winthrop (I. 266), nor any other 
 contemporary writer (so far as I know), 
 appears to have been informed that any 
 persons who had intended to come over 
 were ultimately detained ; and the con- 
 trary seems a natural inference from 
 the Order of the Privy Council, dis- 
 charging the shipmasters. (Rushworth, 
 Collections, II. 409.) Miss Aikin 
 (]\Iemoii's of the Court of King Charles 
 the First, Chap. XIII.) concludes against 
 the credibility of the story. — At all 
 events, " there came over, this summer, 
 twenty ships, and at least three thou- 
 sand persons." (Winthrop, I. 268.)
 
 50-4 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 banishment, demands were twice made for the surrender of 
 the charter. Within three weeks after AVinthrop's resto- 
 
 1637. ration to power " came the copy of a commission, 
 June 3, fi-om the Commissioners for New England, to 
 divers of the Magistrates here, to govern all the people of 
 New England till further order, &c., upon this pretence, 
 that there was no lawful authority in force here, either 
 mediate or immediate, from his Majesty." -^ And it was 
 at the very moment when the indispensableness of an en- 
 ergetic union against the king had been proved by those 
 decrees of the Star-Chamber against Burton and Bast- 
 wick, and that decision of the twelve judges against 
 Hampden, which had placed the persons and property 
 of Englishmen at the king's mercy, that the Antinomian 
 malecontents Avere insisting on ajopeals to him from the 
 Massachusetts Court.^ 
 
 It was in connection with this last point, probably, that 
 Vane's position was regarded with such peculiar uneasi- 
 ness by Winthrop and his friends. They did not distrust 
 his Puritan principles in religion ; but it may well be 
 doubted whether, at that early period of his life when he 
 
 1 See above, p. 391 ; below, p. 559 ; setts Bay], did this day order that Mr. 
 Winthrop, I. 225; comp. 231. — The Attorney-General be hereby prayed 
 proceedings against the charter under and required to call for the said patent, 
 the quo warranto (see above, p. 402) and present the same to this Board, or 
 had just now been brought to a close, to the Committee for Foreign Planta- 
 They had lasted from Trinity Term of tions." (Journal of the Privj' Council.) 
 the eleventh year of Charles the First — In the "Board of Trade" papers 
 (September, 1G35) to Easter Term of (I. 5G) is a draught of a proclamation 
 his thirteenth year (April, 1G3 7), when of the king, dated July 23, acceptmg 
 " judgment was given for the king, that the surrender of the Council for New 
 the liberties and franchises of said cor- England, and notifying his intention to 
 poration should be seized into the king's appoint Sir Ferdinando Gorges as Gen- 
 hands, and the said Cradock's body to eral Governor, and to secure the lands 
 be taken into custody for usurping the to individual proprietors as distributed 
 said liberties." (Record in " Board of by the Council. But the jiroclama- 
 Trade" papers, I. 65, in the State- tion is not in Rymcr, and I presume it 
 Paper Office ) — May 3, 1637. "Their never was issued. See above, p. 402, 
 Lordships, taking into consideration the note. 
 
 patent granted to said government [the ^ Antinomians and Familists Con- 
 Governor and Company of Massachu- demned, &c., 25, 27; Winthrop, I. 246.
 
 Chap. XII.] MASSACHUSETTS. 505 
 
 was in America, he had clearly recognized the relations 
 of those principles to the patriot movement on either side 
 of the water, and whether his fellow-magistrates had any 
 reason whatever to trust him for aversion to the claims of 
 prerogative. Next to Laud (if after him), Straiford and 
 Vane's father were at this time the most powerful sub- 
 jects in the realm of England, the former highest in the 
 king's favor, the latter in the queen's ; and when he who, 
 of all the Englishmen that had been in New England, could 
 most easily approach the throne, had just gone home under 
 the vexation of a defeat, of wdiich he had not attempted to 
 conceal his keen resentment, it is no wonder that there was 
 thought to be occasion for the most serious alarm, and for 
 all the precautions that were j)ossible.-^ The repeatedT^ 
 suggestions, in Vane's " Briefe Answer " to Winthrop's 
 " Declaration," of a power in the king to control the 
 colonial proceedings,^ with Winthrop's vigilant though 
 guarded caveats against them,^ are of great significance. 
 Much of what Winthrop said in that controversy could 
 not be better said. There were other things which he, 
 exposed to the wrath of England, was compelled to sup- 
 press, or to be content with hinting, but which the histo- 
 rian, who (thanks to Winthrop, more perhaps than to 
 any other man) is under no such restraint, should take 
 into the account. 
 
 In attempting to set the course of the governoi's of 
 Massachusetts at this period in the right point Mixed mo- 
 of view, it is not necessary to show that meas- |,7c^^j 
 ures of the strong character required by such a ''"'^' 
 
 lives of tlie 
 
 i:toriou3 
 
 1 Soon after his return to England, 86, 91. — Clarendon (History, &c., I. 
 Vane took office as Treasurer of the 149) thought that Vane in early life was 
 Rayal Navy. a friend of prerogative. If Clarendon, 
 
 2 See Vane's " Briefe Answer," in correctly or otherwise, believed this, so 
 Hutchinson's " Collection of Original might Winthrop. At all events, in the 
 Papers," 72, 73, 76-78, 83. controvei-sy between him and Vane, car- 
 
 3 See Winthrop's " Reply to an An- ried on in these treatises, there can be no 
 swer," in Hutchinson's Collection, 85, question that such was Vane's position. 
 
 VOL. I. 43
 
 506 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 crisis ■were pursued without any alloy of private passion. 
 This would be to suppose something aside from the con- 
 ditions of human nature. No good man can assure him- 
 self, that, while with virtuous energy he pursues a great 
 public object, he shall do it with uniform prudence in 
 the means, and with all the gentleness which is consist- 
 ent with the demands of the occasion. It would in- 
 deed be a new thing if, in such a pursuit, a statesman 
 should place his sole reliance on the cool reason of those 
 whose help he needed to engage, and should refuse to be 
 aided in any degree by more questionable impulses which 
 he found acting on the minds of his friends. 
 
 On the other hand, supposing the exigency to have 
 been such as has been described, it was certainly dis- 
 T-jjpir posed of with no needless or extreme severity, 
 
 moderation, 'j^j^gi-e "was a trial of strength between two excited 
 parties, as there was on the same soil at the beginning of 
 the American war of the last century. The only possible 
 issue was, for one of those parties to maintain itself, and 
 the other to be overcome. In Mrs. Hutchinson's time, 
 as at the later time of the Stamp Act, the patriots disabled 
 the recusants because their power was believed to be in- 
 consistent with the safety of the state. In the former 
 case, that object required not only the expulsion of Mrs. 
 Hutchinson, but the reclaiming of those of her followers 
 who xemained ; and the ecclesiastical censures, by which 
 she continued to be pursued after the defeat of her faction, 
 may have been employed as the natural expedients for 
 withdrawing from her that sympathy which had been the 
 occasion of so much alarm and trouble. But there was 
 no confiscation, no imprisonment except for safe keeping, 
 and no danger to life or limb. A fine, readily remitted on 
 assurances of peaceable behavior for the future, or deg- 
 radation from the franchise, or deprivation of the arms 
 which were thought to be no longer safely intrusted in 
 hostile hands, was the mild punishment of the less dan-
 
 Chap. XII.] MASSACHUSETTS. 507 
 
 gerous offenders. Upon a very small number, who were 
 more feared, the harsUest infliction was banishment from 
 the society in which they could not be prevailed on to live 
 in peace. They were required to do nothing worse than 
 what the settlers in Connecticut had just been doing of 
 their own accord ; and, in choosing a new home, they 
 had regions close at hand not less eligible than what 
 they would relinquish. The number of persons disarmed 
 
 was seventy-six.^ " Two of the sergeants of Boston 
 
 were disfranchised and fined ; William Balston, twenty 
 pounds ; Edward Hutchinson, forty pounds."" Coggestiall, 
 Underbill, and six others were disfranchised.^ Wheel- 
 wright, Aspinwall, and Mrs. Hutchinson were banished.^ 
 Coddington and ten others, having " desired and obtained 
 license to remove themselves and their families out of the 
 jurisdiction," were ordered to carry their professed wish 
 into effect within seven weeks, or else " to appear at the 
 next Court, to abide the further order of the Court." ^ 
 It may well be doubted whether an exasperating civil 
 commotion was ever composed at less cost to the unsuc- 
 cessful side. 
 
 In point of moderation and good temper, it cannot be 
 maintained that the malecontents compared favorably with 
 that which proved to be the predominant party. But it is 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 211, 212. — (Antinomians and Familists, 2G.) — 
 The order for disarming took effect only " The Court intended only to have dis- 
 
 upon such as should refuse to apologize, franchised him [Aspinwall] ; but 
 
 (Ibid., 212.) And in due time (No- his behavior was so contemptuous and 
 
 vember 5, 1639), " It was ordered, that his speeches so peremptory," &c. (Ibid., 
 
 all that were disarmed, remaining 30.) — Roger Williams, when in Eng- 
 
 amongst us, carrying themselves peace- land, told Robert Baylie, that W^inthrop 
 
 ably, shall have their arms restored endeavored to prevail on the Antino- 
 
 unto them." (Ibid., 278.) mians voluntarily to remove to the 
 
 2 Antinomians and Familists, 30. country on Narragansett Bay, as a 
 
 3 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 207, 208. measure for the advantage of both par- 
 
 4 Ibid., 207. — "He [Wheelwright] ties. (Baylie, Dissuasive from the Er- 
 refused to depart voluntarily from us, rors of the Times, 63, 72.) 
 
 which the Court had now offered him, ^ Mass. Col. Rec, I. 223. 
 and in a manner persuaded him unto."
 
 508 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAKD. [Book I. 
 
 not necessary to deny to them meritorious qualities of 
 character, in order to prove the substantial rectitude of 
 the course taken for their overthrow. The natural leaders 
 in an insurrection are the ablest men, and sometimes the 
 most virtuous men, of those embarked in it. And it is 
 almost too obvious to bear to be repeated, that the duty 
 of a government, supposing it to have right on its side, 
 is to secure the public safety by putting doM-n the move- 
 ment, and that the movement is most effectually, and 
 at the same time most mercifully, put down, by striking 
 at tffose who lend to it its greatest strength. It is not 
 the camp-follovvTrs who enlist sympathy, but the men of 
 thought and resolution at the head of the array. The 
 desire is natural that they, rather than others, should be 
 saved from the adversary's aim. But such is not the con- 
 dition of civil, any more than of martial conflict. If it is 
 right and necessary that opposition be subdued, it is emi- 
 nently right to assail its chief strength. When extreme 
 danger threatens a community, and martial law is pro- 
 claimed, private respects, as well as the maxims and pro- 
 cesses which are the ordinary securities of liberty, yield to 
 the overruling emergency of the time. 
 
 It may further be freely allowed, without im.pcachment 
 of the substantial wisdom or integrity of the course of 
 ^ . . , the o-overnment on this occasion, that its expo- 
 
 TliPir made- c« '1 
 
 quale defence siti on aud defeuco of its course sometimes failed 
 
 ol'tliemseivcs. , . . -^ „ . • •\ ^ ^ 
 
 to do it justice. If, misguided by an erroneous 
 system of Scriptural interpretation, the rulers sometimes 
 attempted, with very imperfect success, to rest their case 
 on the authority of single texts in the Bible, this should 
 not deprive them of the benefit of the real justification 
 which they had, — and which they equally put forward, 
 — resting on the grounds of political duty and common 
 sense. And if sometimes slender reasons seem to be al- 
 leged in place of those reasons, of a weighty and compre- 
 liensive character, which in our judgment must have de-
 
 Chap. XIL] MASSACHUSETTS. 509 
 
 termiiied the action of the time, we are not to forget that 
 while silence respecting some of the objects in view was 
 essential to the final attainment of those objects, the 
 necessity for such reserve also constituted one of the 
 chief embarrassments of their prosecution. 
 
 If it should be said, that, by their strenuous proceed- 
 ings, the rulers of Massachusetts impaired the public 
 strength which they aimed to consolidate, the 
 
 ~ •' Beneficial re- 
 
 subsequent history would refute the stricture, suiisoftiieir 
 
 ni 11 • • 1 • I'll course. 
 
 bile scarcely lost a citizen whom it was desirable 
 to retain, and the later course of not a few who took final 
 leave of her showed that it was well for her quiet and cred- 
 it that they had departed. Edward Hutchinson, AVheel- 
 wright. Savage, Aspinwall, — almost every considerable 
 member of the discomfited party, — after making a suf- 
 ficient experiment of absence from Massachusetts, found 
 that, after all, hers was the best society to live in, and 
 came back to lead a quiet life. Among the exiles of this 
 time, only four men of much importance can be named, 
 that permanently stayed away. These were Coddington, 
 Clarke, Coggeshall, and Easton. When two scores of 
 years passed before the recurrence of any serious internal 
 dissension in Massachusetts, the substantial wisdom of 
 the course now pursued may be deemed to be vindicated 
 by the event. If the treatment was harsh, it was effec- 
 tive. As the Pequot war prevented a repetition of In- 
 dian hostilities for forty years, so the defeat of Mrs. 
 Hutchinson's party introduced a long term of internal 
 tranquillity. 
 
 Few passages in our early history are of more impor- 
 tance than that which has now been treated of. The 
 received accounts of it have gone far to confirm some 
 unjust impressions of the character of the early New- 
 England people, while its true interpretation illustrates 
 their position and designs, in a way harmonizing them 
 with other great features, better understood, of that pub- 
 
 43*
 
 510 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 lie action of theirs which has so mightily influenced the 
 destinies of America and the world, and colored the poli- 
 tics of the present age. For this reason it has been here 
 dwelt upon at such length. If by unchecked internal 
 dissension, or by foreign force introduced by it,* the little 
 colony of Massachusetts had been broken up two centu- 
 ries and a quarter ago, where would have been the Amer- 
 ican devolution of the last century, with its influence 
 on the authority of free principles of government in the 
 Christian world? 
 
 It was after the troubles introduced by Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son had reached their height, that Winthrop, as has been 
 related, was restored to the chief magistracy. While it is 
 nakiral to suppose, that, had he been continued in that 
 office, his calm wisdom might have checked them at an 
 earlier stao:e and at less cost, certainly his admira- 
 
 Praiseworthy '~' '' 
 
 roursoof ble qualitics never shone more brightly than dur- 
 ing the period when he held subordinate positions. 
 When Dudley had failed to have his policy prevail, he 
 was hardly persuaded not to withdraw from office.^ W^hen 
 Ludlow heard of a proposed popular encroachment, " he 
 protested he would then return back into England " ; ^ and 
 when he could not be Governor, he would not be captain 
 of the Castle.^ When Vane found himself thwarted as to 
 a favorite object, he "thought it best for him to give place 
 for a time." ■* No such petulance swayed the firmly bal- 
 anced self-respect of the first Governor. When deposed 
 from the chief office, he persevered with undiscouraged 
 diligence in watching over the public weal in the inferior 
 places in which it pleased the people to employ him ; and 
 he never served them more industriously or heartily, than 
 when deprived of the highest tokens of their regard. 
 
 On the defeat of the Antinomian party, a portion of its 
 members, expelled or voluntarily departing, dispersed in 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 73. 3 ]\lass. Col. Rec, I. 145. 
 
 2 Ibid., 1\. 4 Winthrop, I. 207.
 
 Chap. XII.] RHODE ISLAND. 511 
 
 different directions, to the north and the south. Several 
 went to AVilliams's settlement at Providence, where, not 
 changing their mind with their cHmate, they took part in 
 disturbances, to be recorded hereafter. A more consider- 
 able number established themselves together at a lower 
 point on Narragansett Bay. 
 
 When Mrs. Hutchinson left Boston, it was her inten- 
 tion to join her brother-in-law on the Piscataqua. At 
 Mount WoUaston, however, she changed her plan, in 
 consequence of hearing of an arrangement of her hus- 
 band with some friends to make a settlement in a differ- 
 ent quarter. Before the final action of the government, 
 Hutchinson, Coddington, John Clarke, and others, — ap- 
 parently satisfied that, if it should be left to their option, 
 it would be best for them to remove, — had been looking 
 out for a suitable habitation. " By reason of the suffo- 
 cating heat of the summer before," Clarke, with a party, 
 first " went to the north, to be somewhat cooler ; but the 
 winter following proved so cold, that they were forced in 
 the spring to make towards the south." They had in 
 view Long Island or the shore of Delaware Bay, " having 
 sought the Lord for direction"; but, taking Providence in 
 their way, they were induced by the representations of 
 Poger Williams to turn their attention to the beautiful 
 island of Aquetnef, which the Plymouth people, 
 
 -* Txr-iT • i I ' Settlement 
 
 whom Clarke and Williams, with two others, on uie island 
 made a journey to consult, told them was beyond ° i"^'"^^- 
 the bounds of the Plymouth patent.^ There, ac- jcss. 
 cordingly, nineteen persons associated themselves '^'''■'='^^- 
 in a body politic,^ and chose Coddington to be their 
 
 1 Clarke, in the " Brief Discourse," follo-ws : " We whose names are under- 
 prefixed to " 111 Newes from New Eng- written do here solemnly, in the pres- 
 land." He had arrived in Boston in ence of Jehovah, incorporate ourselves 
 November, 1637. He says that it was into a body politic, and, as He shall 
 he who made the proposal to look for help, will submit our pereons, lives, and 
 another residence. estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the 
 
 2 Their engasrement to";ether was as King of kings and Lord of lords, and
 
 612 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 "Judge," and Aspinwall to be Secretary. With Williams's 
 mediation, they entered into a treaty with the native in- 
 habitants, and bought the island from Canonicus 
 
 Marcli 24. , 
 
 and Miantonomoh for the consideration of "forty 
 fathom of white beads." ^ At almost the earliest moment 
 of deliberation, they found it necessary to adopt the sys- 
 tem which had occasioned them so much offence in Mas- 
 sachusetts ; and they ordained " that none should 
 
 May 13. .,.,,. f. i -i i 
 
 be received as mhabitants or ireemcn, to build or 
 
 plant upon the island, but such as should be received in 
 
 by the consent of the body." " The place took at a later 
 
 JG44, time the name of " the Isle of Rhodes, or Rhode 
 
 ]viarch'i3. Inland." ^^ 
 
 The refugees had brought thither their propensity to 
 
 faction ; and, before the year was ended, they had new 
 
 trouble anions themselves. Mrs. Hutchinson 
 
 1638. _ ^_ 
 
 Dissensions could iiot williiigly bc quiet, or be second, any- 
 where. The materials for this portion of the 
 history are defective ; but it is apparent that a serious 
 commotion took place in the new settlement, in the sequel 
 of which several of its founders were driven away. " At 
 Aquiday," says Winthrop, " the people grew very tumult- 
 uous, and put out Mr. Coddington and the other three 
 magistrates, and chose Mr.' William Hutchinson only, a 
 man of very mild temper and weak parts and wholly 
 guided by his wife, who had been the beginner of all the 
 
 to all those perfect and absolute laws of ton and one of the Hutchinsons, were 
 
 his, given us in his holy word of truth, among the persons who had been re- 
 
 to be guided and judged thereby. Exod. quired to give up their arms. Several 
 
 xxiv. .3,4; 2 Chron. xi. 3 ; 2 Kings xi. of them must have been on Aquetnet 
 
 17." (R. I. Col. Rec., I. 52.) Among Island when Mrs. Hutchinson was ex- 
 
 the signers were William Hutchinson communicated. 
 
 and his sons Edward and William, ' The conveyance (for which see 
 
 William Coddington, John Clarke, R. I. Col. Rec, I. 45) bears the same 
 
 John Coggeshall, William Aspinwall, date as the conveyance of the Provi- 
 
 and ^Thomas Savage, the last of whom dence lands to Williams. 
 
 married the elder Hutchinson's daugh- 2 R. j. Col. Rec, I. 53 ; see above, 
 
 ter. Twelve were members of the Bos- p. 482. 
 
 ton church, and all but two, Codding- 3 R. I. Col. Rec, I. 127.
 
 Chap. XII.] EHODE ISLAND. 513 
 
 former troubles in the country, and still continued to 
 breed disturbance." ^ 
 
 This statement supplies a key for the interpretation of 
 the imperfect public records of the time. From them it 
 appears, that, before a year had passed after the iggg, 
 election of Coddington to be Judge, it was deter- J^"-i^- 
 mined to choose three persons " to the place of Eldership, 
 to assist the Judge in the execution of justice and judg- 
 ment," and to share with him " the whole care and charge 
 of all the affairs" of the plantation. Those conspicuous 
 persons, Aspinwall and the Hutchinsons, father and sons, 
 were passed over, and the choice fell upon Nicholas Eas- 
 ton, John Coggeshall, and William Brenton. At the 
 same " General Meeting of the Body," the magistrates 
 were directed " to deal with William Aspinwall concern- 
 ing his defaults." ^ A few days later, it was re- 
 
 ° •' Jan. 24. 
 
 solved to choose two new officers ; a Constable, 
 " to see that the peace be kept, and that there be no 
 unlawful meetings, or anything that may tend to civil 
 disturbance practised," and a Sergeant, " to inform of all 
 breaches of the laws of God that tend to civil disturb- 
 ances," and " to keep the prison, and such who shall be 
 committed unto his custody, with all safety and dili- 
 gence."^ Two weeks after this, Mr. Aspinwall 
 was proceeded against as "a suspected person, for 
 sedition against the state." ^ And before two months were 
 passed, it was " thought meet that an alarum be 
 appointed to give notice to all who inhabit the 
 place, that they may forthwith repair and gather together 
 to the house of the Judge for the defending of the island, 
 or quelling any insolences that shall be tumultuously 
 raised within the plantation."^ 
 
 It may be presumed, that, in the controversy thus indi- 
 
 1 Winthrop writes thus (I. 356) un- 3 Ibid., 65. 
 der the date of May 11, 1639. 4 ibid., 66. 
 
 2 R. I. Col. Rec, I. 63, 64. 5 ibid., 68.
 
 514 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 cated, a party, headed by the Hutchinsons and Aspinwall, 
 got the better of Coddington and his friends, and that 
 that revolution in the government took place, of which 
 Winthrop had been informed. For presently we read of a 
 new civil compact at the existing settlement,^ and, 
 
 April 30. t f. ■, in ■ r i 
 
 at the same time, oi the removal irom it oi the 
 Judge, the Elders, and others, under an engage- 
 
 April 28. 1 • • 1 
 
 ment together " to propagate a plantation m the 
 midst of the island or elsewhere."^ The party left behind 
 proceeded at once to choose a " ruler or judge." The rec- 
 ord is defaced in this part, and the name of the person so 
 chosen is illegible. But there can be no reasonable doubt 
 that it was William Hutchinson, whose signature stands 
 at the head of those of the twenty-nine persons united 
 in the new organization. Aspinwall was placed on a 
 
 committee raised to lay out lands. And it was 
 
 July 1. "^ 
 
 " agreed upon, to call the town Portsmouth'' ^ 
 Coddington and his friends betook themselves to the 
 magnificent harbor at the southern end of the island, 
 
 and gave to their new settlement the name of 
 
 Newport} During the summer they had an ac- 
 cession of numbers, including forty or fifty adult males.^ 
 Acknowledging themselves " natural subjects to their sov- 
 ereign lord. King Charles, and subject to his laws," they 
 
 appointed a committee " to inform Mr. Vane by 
 
 Nov. 25. , . . 
 
 writing of the state of things, and desire him to 
 treat about the obtaining a patent of the island from his 
 Majesty." ^ But the division which had taken place con- 
 tinued only a short time. The last meeting which is re- 
 1640. corded of the separate jurisdiction of Portsmouth 
 Feb. 18. ^^,g^g held within a year after the first.^ A nego- 
 tiation which had been entered into with a view to a re- 
 
 1 R I. Col. Rcc, I. 70. 5 Ibid., 92. 
 
 2 Ibid., 87. 6 Ibid., 93, 94. 
 
 3 Ibid., 72. 7 Ibid., 73. 
 
 4 Ibid., 88.
 
 Chap. XII.] MASSACHUSETTS. 515 
 
 union ^ having proved successful, William Hutchinson and 
 nine of his confederates, " presenting of themselves 
 
 '1^ ^ March 12. 
 
 and desiring to be reunited to the body, were 
 readily embraced." Others of the Portsmouth settlement, 
 not present in person, were " received as freemen, fully to 
 enjoy the privileges belonging thereto." It was " agreed 
 by the body united, that, if there were any person found 
 meet for the service of the same in either plantation, if 
 there were no just exception against him, upon his orderly 
 presentation, he should be received as a freeman " ; " that 
 the chief Magistrate of the island should be called Gov- 
 ernor, and the next Deputy-Governor, and the rest of the 
 Magistrates Assistants " ; " that the Governor and two 
 Assistants should be chosen in one town, and the Deputy- 
 Governor and two other Assistants in the other town " ; 
 " and that the Governor and Assistants should be invested 
 with the offices of the Justices of the Peace." ^ Codding- 
 ton was chosen to be Governor for a year, and William 
 Hutchinson to be one of the Assistants. It was probably 
 the last time that Hutchinson ever held office.^ 
 
 Mr. Wheelwright, on leaving Boston, went, with thirty- 
 five companions, to a river called the Swamscot, tributary 
 to the Piscataqua, and on its banks began a settlement 
 which they called Exeter} They established a church 
 
 1 R. I. Col. Rec, I. 94. get at the exact truth, it would be found 
 
 2 Ibid., 100, 101. The 12th day of to be, that Mrs. Hutchinson disUked for 
 ]\Iarch had been fixed upon as the per- her husband, not office, but secondary 
 manent day of annual election. (Ibid., office. 
 
 98.) ^ The genuineness of a deed, pur- 
 
 3 " Mr. Williams related to me that porting to be a conveyance to Wheel- 
 Mrs. Hutchinson, with whom he was wright by the Indians, nine years be- 
 familiavly acquainted, and of whom he fore, of land including that on which 
 spake much good, after she had come he now sat down, has been matter of 
 to Rhode Island, and her husband had learned controversy. It is generally 
 been made Governor there, she per- believed to be a forgery, executed not 
 suaded him to lay down his office upon far from the year 1700. It is given 
 the opinion, which newly she had taken in full by Belknap (Histoiy, I., Append, 
 up, of the unlawfulness of magistracy." I.), who did not suspect it. (Ibid., 36.) 
 (Baylie, Dissuasive from the Errors of I may recur to it hereafter. In the 
 the Time, 150.) Perhaps, if we could mean time, I refer those who may be
 
 516 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 and a body politic, committing the enactment of laws to 
 mcetino's of the whole body, and their administra- 
 
 Exeter. ^ ♦ . 
 
 1(39. tion to a Governor and two Assistants, to be chosen 
 
 annually. Of the persons concerned in the recent 
 
 disturbances, no portion proved afterwards more quiet and 
 
 orderly than this. But its independent organization lasted 
 
 only three years. ^ 
 
 Seaward from Wheelwright's settlement lay extensive 
 salt marshes, covered with a native grass much valued 
 before a better herbage was raised in sufficient quantity 
 upon the uplands. Here, for the purpose of asserting 
 their jurisdiction, the authorities of Massachusetts had 
 Hampton, crcctcd a house, which subsequently acquired im- 
 
 103G. portance in connection with a question of boun- 
 
 1G38. dary.^ To this place, Mrs. Hutchinson's adherent, 
 
 May 16. ^icholas Eastou, first bent his steps; but, being 
 
 presently warned away,^ he went to join his friends on 
 
 JG39. Rhode Island. Here, the next year, Massachusetts 
 May 22. j^'j q^^|. j-^gj. fowuship of Hamptou,'* the fourth 
 settlement within the present territory of New Hampshire, 
 and the last for more than half a century. Its fifty or 
 sixty inhabitants, recognizing their relation to Massachu- 
 setts, established no other than a municipal government. 
 
 Others yet of the dispersed party of Mrs. Hutchinson 
 betook themselves to Cochecho, on the Piscataqua. The 
 
 curious respecting it to the able discus- 2 Mass. Col. Rcc, I. 167; comp, 
 
 sion in Savage's Winthrop (I. 405). Winthrop, I. 290. 
 
 The other side of the argument is pre- 3 " it Jg ordered, that the magistrates 
 
 sented in the New Hampshire Ilistori- of Ipswich shall have power to discharge 
 
 cal Collections (I. 29!)). Mr. Easton and Mr. JoiTrey from build- 
 
 1 Their " Combination," with the ing at Winnacunnet [Hampton], and 
 
 names of the signers, is in Hazard, I. if they will not take warning, to clear 
 
 4G3. It includes a pledge of allegiance the place of them." (Mass. Coll. Ilec, 
 
 to the king, expressed in rather profuse I. 231.) Jeffrey was, I suppose, the 
 
 terms of loyalty. — Wheelwright, Phi- same person who was early in Boston 
 
 lemon Pormont, and seven other men, Bay. (See above, p. 2.33.) 
 
 of no special consideration, received a ^ Mass. Col. Rec, I. 23G, 259. The 
 
 dismission from the Boston church to grant of Hampton for a settlement was 
 
 " the church at the falls of Piscataqua," made by the General Court, September 
 
 Jan. G, 1639. 8, 1638.
 
 Chap. XII] MASSACHUSETTS. 517 
 
 settlement at that place has been mentioned as one of the 
 most ancient in New England.^ When it had languished 
 seven or eight years, the Hiltons sold their right in Do^er. 
 it to some merchants of" Bristol." The new owners ^''^'* 
 sent over Thomas Wiggin to look after their affairs, who 
 found only three houses on the spot. These had probably 
 been occupied by the two Hiltons and Thomas Roberts. 
 After about a year's residence, AViggin returned to Eng- 
 land, where he found that the patent had been again sold, 
 in his absence, to Lord Say and Sele, Lord Brooke, and 
 two other partners, who made an engagement with him as 
 their factor. In that capacity he came a second 1G33. 
 time to America, bringing with him a company <^"^'-i°- 
 of about thirty persons from the West of England, a part 
 of whom are said to have been of " some account for re- 
 ligion." ^ One of them was Mr. William Leverich,* who, 
 after officiating as their minister about a year and 1535. 
 a half, was obliged to leave them for want of a •'"'^• 
 competent support. 
 
 Two years after his departure, another clerical person, 
 named George Burdet, found his way to Cochecho. 
 He came thither from Salem, where during a year 
 or two he had preached at different times to the satisfac- 
 tion of the people. Whether he was then playing a part, 
 or whether he afterwards changed his mind, is not alto- 
 gether certain ; but he turned out at last to be a spy of 
 Laud. At Cochecho, he immediately became an agitator 
 both in civil and in church affairs. Addressing himself to 
 the anti-Puritan interest, he prevailed on a majority of 
 the planters, first to receive him as their minister, and 
 then to make him their ruler, after deposing AViggin. 
 
 While Burdet was in the enjoyment of this double au- 
 thority at Cochecho, John Underbill came to seek a retreat 
 there. After being disarmed and disfranchised in the 
 
 1 See above, pp. 205, 233. 3 Hubbard, 221. 
 
 2 See above, p. 397, note. * Winthrop, I. 115. 
 VOL. I. 44
 
 518 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 sequel of the Antinomian controversy, Underhill had 
 gone first to England for a short time. On his return, 
 he was banished from Massachusetts for retracting his 
 apology and submission made the year before. A charge 
 of adultery, brought against him at the same time, was 
 not sufficiently proved.-^ Betaking himself to Cochecho, he 
 1C38. ^^^^ followed thither by a letter which Winthrop, 
 September. ^^ ^^le part of tlic Gcncral Court, addressed to 
 Burdet and others, complaining that they had received 
 one lying under sentence of banishment from Massachu- 
 setts, and intimating an intention to survey and take pos- 
 session of all lands within the chartered limits of that 
 Colony." An offensive answer was returned by Burdet; 
 and Winthrop would have had him brought to Boston to 
 answer for a contempt, but was dissuaded by Dudley, on 
 the ground of its being inexpedient to exasi^erate him at 
 a time when he was known to be furnishing Laud with 
 representations to the prejudice of Massachusetts.^ Win- 
 
 1 A charge of having used seditious eratc use of the creature called tobacco." 
 
 language on his voyage was "proved (Winthrop, I. 270.) — He confessed 
 
 to his face by a sober, godly woman," that his habit of private interviews with 
 
 who had come to America in the same the person implicated with him in the 
 
 vessel, and whom, for a while, he had charge of adultery " was ill, because it 
 
 "drawn to his opinions" — "Among had an appearance of evil in it ; but his 
 
 other passages, he told her how he came excuse was, that the woman was in great 
 
 to his assurance, and that was thus : he trouble of mind and sore temptations, 
 
 had lain under a spirit of bondage and and that he resorted to her to comfort 
 
 a legal way five years, and could get her, and that, when the door was found 
 
 no assurance, till, at length, as he was locked upon them, they were in private 
 
 taking a pipe of tobacco, the Spirit set prayer together ; but this practice was 
 
 home an absolute promise of free grace clearly condemned by the elders." 
 
 with such assurance and joy, as he (Ibid., 271.) 
 
 never since doubted of his good estate, 2 Ibid., 276. 
 
 neither should he, though he should fall 3 Jn the State-Paper Office (" Amer- 
 
 into sin." This was thought both levity ica and AVcst Indies") is a letter from 
 
 and heresy ; and he did not mend his Burdet to Laud, dated " Piscataqua, 
 
 case when, "the Lord's day following, November 29, 1638." He writes: "My 
 
 he made a speech in the assembly, Lord, the truth is, it is their court 
 
 showing that, as the Lord was pleased [curt?] conclusion, long since decreed, 
 
 to convert Paul as he was in perse- to spend their blood in opposing all 
 
 cuting, &c., so he might manifest him- countermands to their present way and 
 
 self to him as he was taking the mod- humor ; to which purpose they use all
 
 Chap. XII.] MASSACHUSETTS. 519 
 
 throp wrote to Hilton at Cocheclio, " intimating how ill it 
 would relish, if they should advance Captain Underhill." 
 But this warning came too late. " Pascataquack men had 
 chosen him their Governor before the letter came 
 
 October. 
 
 to them." ^ He had probably been aided in sup- 
 planting Burdet by some Antinomian allies whom he had 
 brought with him. Relieved from public station, and, 
 moreover, being detected in some debaucheries, Burdet 
 before long withdrew to Agamenticus. 
 
 With Underhill, or more probably a little sooner, Han- 
 sard KnoUys came to Cochecho. He had in England been 
 a minister of the Established Church ; but, falling under 
 censure for adopting Puritan principles, he determined to 
 seek his fortune in America.^ After a few weeks passed, 
 in Boston,^ he accepted an invitation to go to Cocliecho. 
 Burdet forbade him to preach there ; but on Burdet's de- 
 parture, very soon after, "the people called Mr. 
 
 T 1 • -111 r September. 
 
 Knollys, and m a short tune he gathered some of 
 
 diligence to fortify themselves." " The inform himself of the state of the people 
 
 day before the writing hereof, I was here in regard to allegiance ; and that 
 
 credibjy informed that Massachusetts it was not discipline that was now so 
 
 Magistrates have from England received much aimed at, as sovereignty ; and 
 
 copies of my first two letters to your that it was accounted perjury and trea- 
 
 Grace, which, themselves say, Mr. Vane son in our General Courts to speak of 
 
 procured from your Grace's chaplain, appeals to the king." (Ibid., 298.) 
 If this was without your Grace's con- i Ibid., 277. 
 
 sent, it will much concern your Grace ; 2 Brook, Lives of the Puritans, III. 
 
 if with it, which I cannot believe, it 491, 492. 
 
 will behoove me to consider of it." 3 u j^ being very poor, was necessi- 
 
 About the same time, (December 13, tatcd to work daily with my hoe, for 
 
 1638,) Winthrop records (I. 281) : the space of almost three weeks. The 
 
 " They [Burdet and Underhill] wrote Magistrates were told by the ministers 
 
 presently into England against us, dis- that I was an Antinomian, and desired 
 
 covering what they knew of our com- they would not suffer me to abide in 
 
 bination to resist any authority that their patent. But within the time lim- 
 
 should come out of England against us." ited by their law in that case [see above, 
 
 And again (May 6, 1639) : " One of p. 482], two strangers coming to Bos- 
 
 Pascataquack, having opportunity to go ton from Piscataqua, hearing of me by 
 
 into ]\Ir. Burdet his study, and finding mere accident, got me to go with them 
 
 there the copy of his letter to the Arch- to that plantation and preach thoie." 
 
 bishops, sent it to the Governor, which CKnolly=, Aocouni, oi' Lis Own Life, as 
 
 ..CO ^^ ii.;^ ^«v.L,L. lUaL He am delay to quoted by Backus, in his History of 
 
 go into England, because he would fully New England, &c.', I. 102.)
 
 520 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 the best-minded into a church body, and became their 
 pastor." ^ In the competition between Churchmen and 
 Antinomians in that remote settlement, the latter party 
 for the present had its way. 
 
 There might have been a question, from which of the 
 two Massachusetts was likely to experience most hostility. 
 
 1C39. Before a year had passed, " there was sent to the 
 
 ''"'^- Governor," says Winthrop, " the copy of a letter 
 written into England by Mr. Hansard Knolles of Pascata- 
 quack, wherein he had most falsely slandered this govern- 
 ment, as that it was w^orse than the High Commission, 
 &c., and that here was nothing but oppression, &c., and 
 not so much as a face of religion. The Governor acquaint- 
 ed one of Pascataquack, Mr. Knolles's special friend, with 
 it. "Whereupon Mr. Knolles became very much perplexed, 
 and wrote to the Governor, acknowledging the wrong he 
 had done us, and desired that his retractation might be 
 published." ^ Afterwards, having " desired a safe-conduct, 
 
 jg4o_ he came, and upon a lecture-day at Boston 
 
 Feb. 20. (^niost of the Magistrates and elders in the Bay 
 being there assembled) he made a A^ry free and full con- 
 fession of his offence, with much aggravation against him- 
 self, so as that the assembly were well satisfied." ^ 
 
 Meantime, Underbill was not less busy. Presently 
 after his accession to the government of the plantation at 
 Dover (as at that time it began to be called),^ he "wrote a 
 letter to a young gentleman who sojourned in the house" 
 of Winthrop, " wherein he reviled the Governor with re- 
 proachful terms and imprecations of vengeance upon them 
 alL"^ This communication, and at the same time a second 
 charge of dissolute conduct, having been laid before the 
 church in Boston (of which he was still a member), they 
 sent to him to come to that place and clear himself He 
 would have disregarded the summons ; but, finding that his 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 326. 4 ibid., 392. 
 
 2 Ibid., 306, 307. 5 Ibid., 291. 
 
 3 Ibid., 326.
 
 Chap. XII.] MASSACHUSETTS. 521 
 
 friends were not prepared to stand by him, his " courage 
 was abated " ; -^ he " wrote divers letters to the Governor 
 and Deputy, &c., bewailing his offences and craving par- 
 don " ; ^ and at length, coming before the Boston church, 
 he acknowledged himself to be guilty of adultery and 
 other miscarriages. He had hoped that his abject expres- 
 sions of penitence would avert the threatened penalty ; 
 but the church, believing his confession, and distrusting 
 his remorse, " presently cast him out," and he 1540. 
 returned to Dover, humiliated and incensed.^ March 5. 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 292. 2 ibid., 306. 3 Ibid., 326. 
 
 44
 
 CHAPTEH XIII. 
 
 The settlements north of Massachusetts, which last 
 engaged our attention, were more or less connected with 
 the Antinomian dispersion. The principal of those which 
 had been made further towards the east belonged as yet 
 to Churchmen. David Thompson, who, under the aus- 
 
 1623. pices of John Mason, attempted a plantation at 
 Plantation at |.]^g mouth of thc Piscataoua, soon became dis- 
 
 tlie mouth of -^ 
 
 thoPiscata- couraged, and removed to an island in Boston 
 
 qua. - 
 
 harbor.-^ A new patent having been solicited 
 from the Council for New England" by Gorges, Mason, 
 and others, the enterprise was resumed, and a party of 
 
 some fifty men was sent out to be employed in 
 
 1C30. . •' 11- ^ • 
 
 fishing, trade, salt-making, and farming, under 
 the superintendence of Captain Walter Neal.^ He re- 
 1C33. turned to England after about three years, and, 
 August. ^|-jg other partners having withdrawn themselves, 
 the settlement fell into the hands of Mason, who re- 
 inforced it with a new supply of men and means, 
 1C34. . . \ . . . 
 
 and gave it in charge to Francis Williams. Not- 
 withstanding the judicious management of this agent, the 
 undertaking still continued to be unprosperous. Mason 
 made too free an outlay for stores, tools, arms, ammu- 
 nition, and live stock, of the last of which he imported 
 costly specimens from Denmark. His death put a sudden 
 end to the measures on foot for retrieving his 
 
 1C3G. . , , *=• 
 
 affairs in the plantation. 
 
 1 See cabove, pp. 205, 233. 3 See Lettere of Ambrose Gibbons 
 
 2 Thc patent was the one dated No- and othci>, ;.. Fa.,.mor's edition of 13el- 
 vember 3, 1631. See above, p. 398, knap's New Hampshire, I. 42ii-4oz. 
 note. Hubbard (21.5, 21 C) has preserved 
 
 what he understood to be a copy of it.
 
 Chap. XIII.] NORTHEASTERN SETTLEMENTS. 523 
 
 By his will, his two grandsons, John and Robert Tuf- 
 ton, inherited his American property, which he estimated 
 at ten thousand pounds sterling. In the hands of Fran- 
 cis Norton, sent over by his widow and executrix 
 
 •^ . 1638. 
 
 as her attorney, it ran down. Supplies ceased 
 on the one hand, and remittances on the other. Some 
 settlers went away, and those who remained ceased to pay 
 rent for the houses and lands they occupied, which at last 
 they came to look upon as their own. From the disorder 
 into which the plantation fell, it recovered only through 
 some voluntary combination of the inhabitants, the tenor 
 and date of which are alike unknown, no records of the 
 time having been preserved. The fact of the combination 
 is known from a reference to it in an arrangement, 2040. 
 subsequently made at an unpropitious moment, for ^^""y-^- 
 the maintenance of a clergyman of the Church of England.-^ 
 The country east of the Piscataqua was still almost 
 without English inhabitants. After the capture of the 
 factories on the Penobscot and at Machias by siowpro- 
 the French,^ there was probably no English post fieTent^^^" 
 eastward of the Plymouth trading-house on the f""''"east. 
 Kennebec, except that at Pemaquid,^ an offshoot from 
 the fishing-station which had been established on the 
 island of Monhegan within six or seven years after 
 Smith's exploration."* Perhaps, however, some fishermen 
 may have collected on Muscongus Bay,^ where land had 
 been granted by the Council for New England to Thomas 
 Leverett of the English Boston, associated with the four 
 
 1 Francis Williams, Ambrose Gib- been speexlily expelled for " contempt 
 
 bons, and eighteen others, " inhabit:ints of authority and confronting officers." 
 
 of the lower endof Paseataquack," made (See above, p. 327.) Perhaps the epis- 
 
 an appropriation of land for a glebe, and copal zeal which ultimately led to his 
 
 money for building a church and par- promotion on the Piscataqua was too 
 
 sonage, to Thomas W^alford and Henry demonstrative at the earlier period. 
 Sherburne, churchwardens, and their 2 See above, pp. 337, 338. 
 successors. Walford was apparently 3 Winthrop, I. 61, 79. 
 the smith who had been found at ]\Ii- ■* See above, p. 205. 
 shawum by Wiuthrop's company, and ^ Williamson, I. 267.
 
 524 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 London merchants whose partnership had occasioned so 
 much trouble to the New-Plymouth contractors.^ In 
 settling the country between the Kennebec and the Pis- 
 cataqua, which was claimed by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, 
 scarcely greater progress had been made. William Gorges, 
 Sir Ferdinando's nephew, had attempted to revive 
 the settlement at Agamenticus, but he had proba- 
 bly remained there less than two years.^ After his de- 
 parture, the Massachusetts Magistrates " received a com- 
 
 1C37. mission from Sir Ferdinando Gorges to govern 
 
 June. jj|g province of New Somersetshire, which is from 
 Cape Elizabeth to Sagadahoc, and withal to oversee his 
 servants and private affairs ; which was observed as a 
 matter of no good discretion, but passed in silence," for 
 other reasons as well as " that it did not appear what au- 
 thority he had to grant such a commission." ^ Josselyn, 
 ic3g. who, on his first visit to America, sailed along 
 
 "^"'^- the coast from Boston to within less than thirty 
 miles of the Kennebec, has recorded, that the country 
 was "no other than a mere wilderness, here and there 
 by the sea-side a few scattered plantations, with as few 
 houses."'* The little settlements which had been made 
 ten or fifteen years before'' had acquired no importance, 
 and possessed no orderly organization. 
 
 The hope by which Gorges had long been allured, of 
 being at the head of an energetic and magnificent govern- 
 ment, was doomed to be signally frustrated. As affairs 
 now stood at home, he could indulge small expectation 
 of immediately realizing his scheme to be made General 
 Governor of New England. But his ambition contracted 
 itself slowly, and its next aim was to establish a minia- 
 ture sovereignty on his private estate. To this end, he 
 obtained from the king a charter, constituting him Lord 
 
 1 See abovp, pp. 334, 397, note. 3 Winthrop,!. 231 ; sec above, p. 402. 
 
 2 Gorges, Bi'iefe Narration, Chap. ^ Ac-fount of Two Voyages, &o., 20. 
 XXV. ; sec above, p. 205. 5 ^(.y above, p. 205.
 
 Chap. XIIL] NORTHEASTERN SETTLEMENTS. 525 
 
 Proprietary of the Province of Maine/ with extraordinary 
 powers of legislation and government, transmis- icsd. 
 sible, with the property, to his heirs and assigns. rrovLe 
 The boundaries were the ocean, the Piscataqua °f'*'^'"«- 
 and Kennebec rivers, and a line drawn from one river to 
 the other at a hundred and twenty miles' distance from 
 their mouths. The Proprietary was made ruler in church 
 and state, except so far as his prerogative was limited by 
 the essential rights of the crown. He had the patronage 
 of churches, which were to be instituted agreeably to the , 
 hierarchical model. In concurrence with representatives 
 of the freeholders, he might establish laws, with penalties 
 extending to liberty, property, and life. By his sole au- 
 thority, he could erect courts with civil, ecclesiastical, and 
 admiralty jurisdiction ; appoint and remove judicial, mili- 
 tary, and ministerial officers ; prescribe the forms of liti- 
 gation ; and hear appeals. He could make war, and raise, 
 organize, train, and command troops ; erect manors and 
 municipal corporations ; regulate markets and tolls ; des- 
 ignate ports of entry, and exact duties on merchandise. 
 No one could reside or trade within his province, except 
 by his consent ; and all freeholders and tenants were to 
 hold of him and his heirs and assigns, as feudal lords of 
 the soil. 
 
 Here was a monarchy, near enough — had it been sub- 
 stantial enough — to blight with its unwholesome shadow 
 the bourgeoning democracy of Massachusetts Bay. What 
 
 1 The instrument is in Hazard, I. General! Historic, 19 ; Hazard, I. 
 442-455. It calls the territory grant- 385); and thus perhaps it was that 
 ed " the Province or County of Maine." Gorges's province obtained its name. 
 It was the same as that assigned to I know of nothing to confirm the state- 
 Gorges at the surrender of the charter ment of Sullivan (History, &c., 307), — 
 of the Plymouth Council in 1G35 (see though it is adopted by Holmes (An- 
 above, pp. 400, 401), and then named nals I. 254, note 5), — that "the terri- 
 New Somersetshire, from Gorges's Eng- tory was called the Province of Maijne 
 lish home. This eastern country had by way of a compliment to the Queen of 
 
 been commonly called the JSIayne Charles the First, who owned, 
 
 [main] land, in distinction from the as her private estate, a province then 
 
 numerous islands on its coast, (Smith, called the Province of Meyne."
 
 526 HISTORY OF NEW ENGL-AND. [Book L 
 
 was wanting to the completeness of its dignity was a suf- 
 ficiency of subjects ; and these were not to be had. Even 
 if, under sufficiently favorable circumstances, the system of 
 polity set up might have proved attractive to the sort of 
 men who are disposed to seek their fortunes in distant 
 wilds, the experiment was now to be made at just the 
 time when cavaliers and their followers were wanted for 
 different business at home. Gorges flattered himself with 
 being "seized of what he had travailed for above forty 
 years, together with the expenses of many thousand 
 pounds, loaded with troubles and vexations from all 
 jDarts." ^ But he was too late, though he lost no time in 
 the institution of his government. By an instru- 
 ment twice executed, — the second time in an 
 i'^^''- amended form, — he appointed his son Thomas 
 
 March 10. ^ ^ 
 
 Gorges to be Deputy-Governor of his domain, with 
 six persons, residents on the 'spot, for Counsellors. He 
 accompanied their commission with detailed instructions 
 respecting their official duty. The Counsellors, who were 
 severally to fill the offices of Secretary, Chancellor, Field- 
 Marshal, Treasurer, Admiral, and Master of Ordnance, 
 were jointly to constitute a Supreme Court of Judicature, 
 to meet every month, and to be served by a Registrar and 
 a Provost-Marshal. The Province was to be divided into 
 counties or bailiwicks, hundreds, and tithings. To form 
 a Legislature, eight Deputies, " to be elected by the free- 
 holders of the several counties," were to be associated with 
 the Counsellors. Each county was to have its court, con- 
 sisting of a lieutenant and eight justices, to be appointed 
 by the Council.^ 
 
 The first step towards putting this machinery in opera- 
 
 1 Bricfe Narration, Book III. Cliap. Laconia, " he having hitherto paid only 
 
 III. — He had been recently put to un- five pounds." (Journal of the Privy 
 
 pleasant straits. June 27, 1G38, he was Council.) — Similar proceedings against 
 
 ordered to pay two hundred and fifty- him were had, February 22, March 20, 
 
 four pounds to John Mitchell, minister, and October 30, 1C39. 
 
 and others, " poor people," — arrears due ^ Gorges, Bricfe Narration, Book IL 
 
 from him on account of his adventures to Chap. III., IV.
 
 Chap. XIIL] NORTHEASTERN SETTLEMENTS. 527 
 
 tion was made at a court held by four of the Counsel- 
 lors. They took the oaths of office and of alle- 
 
 1 X 1 -r» • • June 25. 
 
 glance to the Lord Proprietary, appointed subor- 
 dinate officers, and disposed of some causes, criminal and 
 civil. The Deputy-Governor, arriving soon after, found 
 the official residence at Agamenticus scarcely sufficient to 
 give him shelter, and " nothing of the household stuff 
 remaining but an old pot, a pair of tongs, and a couple of 
 cob-irons." ^ George Burdet, formerly the mischief-maker 
 at Dover,^ now a person of consequence in the capital of 
 Maine, was arrested by Gorges under a charge of adul- 
 tery and other offences. The demagogue, convicted and 
 fined, set sail for England with threats of ven- 
 
 . *=" . September. 
 
 geance, which^ on his arrival there, he saw ihe 
 futility of attempting to execute. 
 
 The Province was divided into two counties, of one of 
 which Agamenticus [now York] was the principal settle- 
 ment ; of the other, Saco. The annual General Agamenticus 
 Courts were appointed to be held at the latter '""^^'"'°- 
 place, while the former was distinguished both by being the 
 residence of the Deputy-Governor, and by the dignity of 
 incorporation as a borough, under the hand of the i64i. 
 Lord Proprietary himself The greatness of Aga- '^p"'^*'- 
 menticus made it arrosrant ; and it sent a deputa- 
 tion ot aldermen and burgesses to the General 
 Court at Saco, to save its metropolitan rights by a solemn 
 protest. The Proprietary was its friend, and before long ex- 
 alted it still more by a city charter,^ authorizing it 1642. 
 and its suburbs, constituting a territory of twenty- 
 one square miles, to be governed, under the name of Gorge- 
 ana, by a Mayor, twelve Aldermen, a Common Council of 
 twenty-four members, and a Recorder, all to be annually 
 chosen by the citizens. Probably as many as two thirds 
 
 ^ AVilliamson, I. 283. cus a city (Ibid., 481), he of course 
 
 2 See above, p. 517. meant it to be the seat of a bishop, for 
 
 ^ The chaj'ters are in Hazard, I. 470, the word city has no other meaning in 
 
 480. — When Gorges made Agamenti- English law.
 
 528 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 of the adult males were in places of authority. The forms 
 of proceeding in the Recorder's Court were to be copied 
 from those of the British Chancery. This grave foolery 
 was acted more than ten years. 
 
 We pass to the opposite extremity of New England, 
 where, simultaneously with the settlement at Aquetnet, 
 another community was erected, of a different character 
 from any of those which have been mentioned in this or 
 the last chapter. Theophilus Eaton has already been 
 Tiieophiius named as a member and Assistant of the Massa- 
 Eaton. chusetts Compauy.^ The son of a clergyman at 
 Stony Stratford in Buckinghamshire, he had risen to 
 opulence in London, and had attracted the notice of the 
 government, by which he was sent in a diplomatic ca- 
 pacity to Denmark. He was a parishioner of John Dav- 
 enport, minister of St. Stephen's Church, in Coleman 
 Street, London. Davenport, son of a Mayor of Coventry, 
 in Warwickshire, was an Oxford graduate, and a 
 
 John Daven- o 
 
 port. clergyman of so much eminence as to have at- 
 
 1C34. tractcd the special notice of Laud, who mentions 
 ^' ■ him in a letter to the king. Driven by the pro- 
 ceedings of that prelate to resign his cure, he was for 
 some time preacher to an English congregation at Am- 
 sterdam. By John Cotton, with whom he had kept up 
 a correspondence, he was induced to turn his thoughts 
 towards America; and at Davenport's instance — at all 
 events, in his company — Eaton came to New England, 
 1637. arriving there, with a number of friends, " in two 
 juno2G. si^ips;' at the height of the troubles of the Anti- 
 nomian controversy and the Pequot war. 
 
 The habits of thought of this fraternity led them to 
 carry out to its last results the idea which had fascinated 
 so many thinking persons at that period, of finding in 
 Scripture a special rule for everything of the nature of 
 civil as well as of ecclesiastical order and administration ; 
 
 1 See above, p. 303 ; comp. 484, note 2.
 
 CiiAP. XIII.] NEW HAVEN. 529 
 
 and, for tlie experiment, they desired a more unoccupied 
 field than was to be found at that late hour in Massachu- 
 setts.^ Having taken some months for inquiry and delib- 
 eration, they in early spring set forth by water to Emigration 
 Quinnipiack, — an inviting site, on a commodious ^°3^j|"'""' 
 harbor of Lono:-Island Sound, thirty miles west of ic^a. 
 
 . '' March 30. 
 
 the mouth of Connecticut River. Ihe company 
 included two ministers besides Davenport, namely, Samuel 
 Eaton and Peter Prudden. 
 
 Their voyage occupied a fortnight. Under the shelter 
 of an oak, they kept their first Sabbath, listen- 
 
 •^ April 15 
 
 mg to a sermon from Davenport on the leading 
 up of Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. A few 
 days later, " after fasting and prayer," they formed their 
 political association by what they called a " plantation 
 covenant," " to distinguish it from a church cov- plantation 
 enant, which could not at that time be made, a '=°^«'nant. 
 church not being then gathered." In this compact they 
 resolved, " that, as in matters that concern the gathering 
 and ordering of a church, so likewise in all public offices 
 which concern civil order, as choice of magistrates and 
 officers, making and repealing of laws, dividing allot- 
 ments of inheritance, and all things of like nature," they 
 would "be ordered by the rules which the Scriptures hold 
 
 1 In their letter, however, to the frustrated by our scattering so far ; and 
 
 Magistrates (Winthrop, I. 484), who such as were now gone that way were 
 
 had strongly urged them to remain in as much in the eye of the state of 
 
 the neighborhood of Boston, they put England as we here." (Ibid., 2G0.) 
 
 their decision on the ground of want Eaton had been to view Quinnipiack, 
 
 of satisfactory accommodation there, with others, the second month after 
 
 Winthrop says (Ibid., 259) that an his arrival (Ibid., 237), and appears 
 
 opinion of "more safety from danger to have left a small party to winter, 
 
 of a General Governor, who was feared perhaps for a trial of the climate, 
 
 to be sent this summer," had its influ- Stoughton had become acquainted with 
 
 enc-e in swelling the number of the Quinnipiack in the Pequot campaign 
 
 party. W^inthrop, however, hoped that (Letter of Stoughton, in Winthrop, I. 
 
 the dispersion would be useful "for 478, comp. Mass. Hist. Coll., XXVI. 
 
 diverting the thoughts and intentions 13), and his favorable representations 
 
 of such in England as intended evil to the Governor probably directed the 
 
 against us, whose designs might be attention of Eaton's party to the place. 
 
 VOL. I. 45
 
 530 HISTORY OF NEAV ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 forth." ^ It had no external sanction, and comprehended 
 no acknowledgment of the government of England. The 
 company consisted mostly of Londoners, who at home 
 had been engaged in trade. In proportion to their num- 
 ber, they were the richest of all the plantations. Like 
 the settlers on Narragansett Bay, they had no other title 
 
 Nov 24. to their lands than that which they obtained by 
 
 Dec. 11. pm-cliase from the Indians.^ 
 
 AVith a wiser judgment of the safe way of proceeding in 
 such affairs than Gorges exercised when he planned a 
 government beforehand for his j^rovince, or Locke when 
 he made a constitution for those who might people South 
 Carolina, the settlers at Quinnipiack gave themselves a 
 year to learn from experience the arrangements suitable to 
 a social organization for persons so circumstanced. They 
 Avere " cast into several private meetings, wherein they 
 that dwelt nearest together gave their accounts one to 
 another of God's gracious work upon them, and prayed 
 together and conferred to their mutual edification." ^ By 
 this intercourse they matured a unity of sentiment, and 
 became prepared for the selection of those whom they 
 were to intrust with office. 
 
 In early summer, " all the free planters " met in a bam, 
 
 " to consult about settling civil government according to 
 
 1C39. God." ]Mr. Davenport prayed, and preached from 
 
 Juno 4. ^Yie text, " AVisdoni hath buildcd her house ; she 
 hath hewn out her seven pillars." "* He proved in his 
 
 1 New Haven Col. Rec, 12. Rec, 11. 517; comp. Bacon, Hist. Dis- 
 
 2 Trumbull supposed othenvisc. He courses, 359) was written in 1664, when 
 says (History, Chap. VH.) : " The colo- the Colony was endeavoring to avoid a 
 nists, both in Connecticut and New union with Connecticut. It contains 
 Haven, were the patentees of Lord Say a full recital of the early transactions, 
 and Sele, Lord Brooke, and the other It declares the soil to have been " pur- 
 gentlemen interested in the old Con- chased of the Indians, the true proprie- 
 necticut patent." But I ])resumc he tors thereof," and is entirely silent as to 
 was in this instance, as ho very rarely any grant from English patentees, 
 was, in error. I can find nothing to au- 3 ;>J. n, (Jol. llec, 15. 
 
 thorize his statement. " New Haven's ^ Prov. ix. 1. 
 Case Stated " (which see in N. II. Coll.
 
 Chap. XIII.] NEW HAVEN. 531 
 
 discourse the fitness of designating seven competent men 
 to construct the government which was contemplated. 
 After a solemn exhortation to his hearers to act 
 
 Organization 
 
 deliberately and conscientiously on the great mat- ofagovem- 
 ters before them, he proposed four fundamental 
 articles for their adoption. They were as follows : — 
 
 1. That " the Scriptures do hold forth a perfect rule 
 for the direction and government of all men in all duties 
 which they are to perform to God and men, as well in 
 the government of families and commonwealths as in 
 matters of the church." 
 
 2. " That, as in matters that concern the gathering 
 and ordering of a church, so likewise in all public offices 
 which concern civil order, as choice of magistrates and 
 officers, making and repealing of laws, dividing allotments 
 of inheritance, and all things of like nature, they would 
 all of them be ordered by those rules which the Scrip- 
 ture holds forth." 
 
 3. That they were " settled in the plantation with a 
 purpose, resolution, and desire, that they might be ad- 
 mitted into church fellowship according to Christ, as 
 soon as God should fit them thereunto." 
 
 4. That " they held themselves bound to establish 
 such civil order as might best conduce to the securing 
 of the purity and peace of the ordinances to themselves 
 and their posterity according to God." 
 
 These articles having been discussed, and accepted by 
 unanimous votes, Mr. Davenport proposed, and the com- 
 pany adopted, two others, designed to reduce the theory 
 to practice. They were, — 
 
 5. " That church members only should be free bur- 
 gesses, and that they only should choose magistrates and 
 officers among themselves, to have the power of trans- 
 acting all the public civil affairs of the Plantation, of 
 making and repealing laws, dividing of inheritances, de- 
 ciding of differences that might arise, and doing all things 
 or businesses of like nature."
 
 532 IIISTOKY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Rook I. 
 
 6. "That twelve men should be chosen, that their 
 fitness for the foundation work might be tried. How- 
 ever, there might be more named ; yet it might be in 
 their power, who were chosen, to reduce them to twelve, 
 and it should be in the power of those twelve to choose 
 out of themselves seven, that should be most approved 
 of the major part, to begin the church." 
 
 These articles — free, like the " plantation covenant " 
 of the previous year, from all acknowledgment of alle- 
 giance or subjection to the parent country — were on 
 the day of their adoption subscribed by sixty-three j^er- 
 sons, and soon after by about fifty more. 
 
 The fifth article, establishing the same condition of 
 franchise as that in force in Massachusetts, may be pre- 
 sumed to have been recommended by the same reasons 
 as had there prevailed. After its adoption, " one man " 
 (probably the minister, Samuel Eaton, brother of The- 
 ophilus Eaton) " stood up, and expressed his dissenting 
 from the rest in part"; but he did not press his objec- 
 tions.-^ The twelve men chosen under the last article, 
 after due time for reflection, elected the " seven pillars," 
 
 jn39. and, after another pause, the " pillars " proceeded 
 
 Aug. 22. ^Q their ofiice of constituting the body of church 
 members. Next, at a meeting held by them as a " court," 
 all former trusts were pronounced vacated and null ; their 
 associates in the church, nine in number, were 
 recognized as freemen ; and Eaton, elected by the 
 sixteen as " Magistrate " for a year, and four other per- 
 sons chosen with him to be " Deputies," were addressed by 
 Mr. Davenport in what was called a charge.^ A " public 
 
 1 N. II. Col. Itcc, 11-18. — In 1G7.3 ing that Davenport was its ■writer, and 
 
 was published at Cambridge " A Dis- that it was composed by him while the 
 
 course about Civil Government in a question of the New Haven constitu- 
 
 new Plantation whose Design is Rclig- tion was pending, with a view to satisfy 
 
 ion." The title-page attributes it to his doubting colleague, Samuel Eaton. 
 John Cotton. But Dr. Bacon (Thir- 2 Jt -was grounded upon Deut. i. 
 
 teen Historical Discourses, &c., 289 - IG, 17. (N. II. CoL Ilec, 21). 
 292) offers strong reasons for belie v-
 
 Chap. XIII.] NEW HAVEN. 533 
 
 notary," or Secretary, was also appointed, and a " mar- 
 shall," or Sheriff. The " Freeman's Charge," which stood 
 in the place of an oath, pledged no allegiance to the king, 
 nor to any other authority than " the civil government 
 here established." ^ The little state of Quinnipiack was 
 as yet independent of all the world. 
 
 It was resolved that there should be an annual Gen- 
 eral Court, or meeting of the whole body, in the month 
 of October ; and " that the word of God should be the 
 only rule to be attended unto in ordering the affairs of 
 government."^ By the authority thus constituted, orders 
 were immediately made for the building of a meeting- 
 house, for the distribution of house-lots and pastui-age, 
 for precautions against attacks from the savnges, and for 
 regulation of the prices of commodities and of labor. And 
 the general course of administration proceeded thencefor- 
 ward in the same manner as in the earlier well-organized 
 plantations. Like the people of the other settlements, the 
 planters of Quinnipiack claimed the right to choose their 
 company, and at an early moment they passed an 
 order " that none should come to dwell as planters 
 without their consent and allowance, whether they came in 
 by purchase or otherwise." ^ In its second year, ig4o. 
 they gave their town the name of New Haven} ^'''"- ^• 
 
 Distress from want of food was never felt within the 
 limits of the colony of which the foundation had here 
 been laid. Nor did it ever have a war with the natives. 
 It studied to treat them with equity and indulgence. 
 At the same time, it took care to make them understand 
 its vigilance and its power. A straggler of the 
 Pequot tribe, named Nepaupuck, convicted on 
 full evidence of having killed an Englishman at Wethers- 
 field, and of having taken part in the murder of three 
 others in a boat on Connecticut Hiver, confessed the 
 
 1 N. H. Col. Rec, 19. 3 Ibid., 25. 
 
 2 Ibid., 20, 21. 4 Ibid., 40. 
 
 45* 
 
 1639. 
 Oct 29.
 
 534 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book L 
 
 crime ; and " his head was cut off the next day, and 
 pitched upon a pole in the market-place." ^ 
 
 The Englishmen at Quinnipiack had not fully arranged 
 their own social system before they began to swarm ; and 
 others, of similar sentiments and objects, came presently 
 to seek homes in their neighborhood. Among the new- 
 comers were the E-everend Henry "Whitefield ; AVilliam 
 Leet, destined to act a distinguished part in the colony ; 
 and Samuel Desborough, brother of Cromwell's general 
 of that name. A company of two hundred persons, 
 some of them from Quinnipiack, some from Wethers- 
 field, were led by the Eeverend Mr. Prudden to a 
 harbor on Long Island Sound, near the mouth of the 
 
 Housatonic, which they bought of the Indians, 
 
 ofMiiford. ^ncl, after a year's occupation, called by the name 
 
 Au^foo of M'dford. Another party, fresh from England, 
 
 under the conduct of Mr. Whitefield, went some- 
 what further in the opposite direction, and established 
 
 themselves, also on the shore of Lone: Island 
 
 Settlement ^^ 
 
 of Guilford. Sound, at a place named by them Guilford^ after 
 ^^^' ~ ' the English town from which several of them 
 had come. Leet, then a young man, and Desborough, 
 were of this company. 
 
 The founders .both of Milford and Guilford, taking for 
 their model the proceedings at the recent settlement, 
 erected their church and state on a foundation of " seven 
 pillars." The original magistrates of Guilford were Eobert 
 Kitchel, William Chittenden, John Bishop, and William 
 Leete. At Milford, William Fowler, Edmund Tapp, 
 
 Nov. 20. , , ' ' i i ' 
 
 Zechariah Whitman, John Astwood, and Richard 
 Miles, were elected to be "judges in all civil afiairs, to 
 try all causes between man and man, and as a court to 
 punish any ofience and misdemeanor." They were to 
 hold office till the next annual court in October," and 
 
 1 N. II. Col. Rcc, 22-24. 
 
 2 Lambert, History of the Colony of Nuw Haven, 92.
 
 Chap. XIIL] CONNECTICUT. 535 
 
 were probably re-elected from year to year, except Miles, 
 who soon removed to New Haven. Departing from the 
 method of organization which had been pursued in Ply- 
 mouth, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, the settlement 
 at New Haven, and those which had made it their 
 model, continued, for the present, independent of each 
 other. ^ They preferred what, in Greek history, has been 
 called the system of autonomy. Perhaps the incentive 
 to this scheme was an idea of extending to civil institu- 
 tions the Separatist theory of an absolute independence 
 of churches. 
 
 When the Pequot war had been concluded, the most 
 urgent business demanding the attention of the General 
 Court of the towns on Connecticut River was to defi-ay 
 its expenses (for which purpose a special tax of six hun- 
 dred and twenty pounds was levied) ; ^ to make iggg. 
 arrangements for future security, including meas- ^®'''^' 
 ures for protecting the Indians against everything that 
 might be reasonable ground of offence ; and to purchase 
 from them supplies of food till the new fields should 
 become productive.^ These first cares disposed of, the 
 planters of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield 1^2% 
 met, to constitute a " public state or common- •^*" "• 
 wealth " by voluntary combination, and to settle its frame 
 of government. Their object they declared to be, " to 
 maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the Gospel 
 of the Lord Jesus which they professed, as also Frame of 
 the discipline of the churches, which according- government 
 
 •■■ '^ in Connect- 
 
 to the truth of the said Gospel was now practised 'C"t- 
 
 among them ; as also, in their civil affairs, to be guided 
 
 and governed according to such laws, rules, orders, and 
 
 decrees, as should be made, ordered, and decreed." "* 
 
 The instrument framed by them has been called " the 
 
 1 " Every plantation intended a pe- 2 Conn. Col. Eec, 12. 
 culiar government." (Winthrop, I. 3 ji^id.^ 11 _20. 
 306.) 4 Ibid., 21.
 
 536 HISTOKY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 first example in history of a written constitution, — a dis- 
 tinct organic law, constituting a government, and defining 
 its powers." ^ Containing no recognition whatever of any 
 external authority on either side of the ocean, it provided, 
 that all persons should be freemen who should be ad- 
 mitted as such by the freemen of the towns, and take 
 an oath of allegiance to the commonwealth ; — that there 
 should be two general meetings of the freemen in a year, 
 at one of which, to be holden in April, should be elected 
 by ballot a Governor (who must be a member of some 
 church), and as many Magistrates (not, however, fewer 
 than six), and other public officers, as should " be found 
 requisite" ; — that at the same times there should be meet- 
 ings of Deputies, four to be sent from each of the existing 
 towns, and as many as the General Court should deter- 
 mine from towns subsequently constituted ; — and that the 
 General Court, consisting of the Governor and at least 
 four Magistrates and a majority of the Deputies, should 
 have power to make laws for the whole jurisdiction, " to 
 grant levies, to admit freemen, dispose of lands undis- 
 posed of to several towns or persons, to call either court 
 or Magistrate or any other person whatsoever into ques- 
 tion for any misdemeanor," and to " deal in any other 
 matter that concerned the good of the commonwealth, 
 except election of Magistrates," which was to " be done 
 by the whole body of freemen." The Governor was not 
 re-eligible till a year after the expiration of his term of 
 office. In the absence of special laws, " the rule of the 
 word of God " was to be followed.- Neither the oaths of 
 
 1 Bacon, Early Constitutional Ilis- Colony of Connertiout," for an abstract 
 tory of Connecticut, 5, 6. of a sermon deciphered by liini from a 
 
 2 Conn. Col. Rec, 20-25. The manuscript in short-hand, preserved in 
 instrument, drawn with great care and the Library of the Hartford Historical 
 knowledge, seems to bear marks of the Society. This sermon, preached by Mr. 
 statesmanlike mind of Ilaynes, and the Hooker to the General Court in May, 
 lawyerlike mind of Ludlow, T am in- 1638, may probably have been intend- 
 debted to my learned friend, Mr. J. H. ed to prepare the people for the great 
 Trumbull, editor of the " Records of the step which was soon after taken. Its
 
 Chap. XIII.] CONNECTICUT. 537 
 
 officers nor of freemen promised any allegiance except to 
 " the jurisdiction."^ The whole constitution was that of 
 an independent state. It continued in force, with very 
 little alteration, a hundred and eighty years, securing, 
 throughout that period, a degree of social order and hap- 
 piness such as is rarely the fruit of civil institutions. 
 
 At the first election, Haynes, formerly Governor of 
 Massachusetts, was chosen Governor. Roger Ludlow, 
 of Windsor, formerly Deputy-Governor of Mas- j,,gp,i„„^f 
 sachusetts, and Edward Hopkins, formerly an magistrates. 
 
 April 11. 
 
 opulent merchant of London,- were two of the 
 six Magistrates, Ludlow having precedence as Deputy- 
 Governor. William Phelps, another Magistrate, had, as 
 well as Ludlow, heen one of the Commissioners of Mas- 
 sachusetts for the manaofement of the Connecticut towns 
 in the year of their settlement. 
 
 The government having heen thus organized, the ad- 
 ministration proceeded in substantially the same manner 
 as in the earlier governments of Massachusetts Eariy 
 and Plymouth, except that in Connecticut the legislation. 
 Court of Magistrates confined itself more to judicial busi- 
 ness. In the first year a general law was passed, of an 
 elaborate character, for the incorporation of towns, 
 on the model of those in Massachusetts, each with 
 a government, for municipal afiairs, of " three, five, or 
 seven of their chief inhabitants," chosen annually by 
 themselves. A public registry was established in each 
 town for conveyances of real estate, Avith the provision, 
 
 doctrines (drawn from Deut. i. 13) are power also to set the bounds and lim- 
 
 tliefoUowing: — "1. The choice of pub- itations of the power and place unto 
 
 lie magistrates belongs unto the peo- which they call them." 
 
 pie, by God's own allowance. 2. The ' Conn. Col. Rec, 25, 2G, 54. 
 
 privilege of election which belongs to ^ He was the husband of Theophilus 
 
 the people must not be exercised ac- Eaton's stepdaughter (Kingsley, Histori- 
 
 cording to their humors, but according cal Discourse, &c., 76), and had come to 
 
 to the blessed will and law of God. Boston in 1637, in the same vessel with 
 
 3. They who have power to appoint Eaton (see above, p. 528) and Lord 
 
 officers and magistrates, it is in their Leigh (see above, p. 482).
 
 538 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book L 
 
 that " all bargains or mortgages of land whatsoever should 
 be accounted of no value until they were recorded." "For 
 the better keeping in mind of those passages of God's 
 Providence which had been remarkable since the first 
 undertaking these plantations," six principal men were 
 " desired to take the pains severally in their respective 
 towns, and then jointly together, to gather up the same," 
 to be recorded ; and their office was made permanent " for 
 future times," with provisions for such superintendence as 
 might prevent errors from finding their way into history. 
 But the plan does not appear to have been carried out.^ 
 At the second election under the constitution, Edward 
 Hopkins was chosen Governor, and John Haynes Deputy- 
 Governor. Ludlow was made a Magistrate, and the four 
 other Magistrates of the last year were rechosen. 
 
 Connecticut had in the course of the year interposed 
 itself, by two new plantations, between New Haven and 
 the Dutch. Mr. Ludlow, with eight or ten families from 
 Windsor, began a settlement at an inviting spot called 
 by the Indians Uiicoa, and by the English Fairjield, at 
 the head of a small inlet from Long Island 
 
 Fairfield. . . , , ^ 
 
 Sound. ihey were jouied by a party irom 
 "Watertown in Massachusetts, and before long by another 
 from Concord ; and after some questions, in which Mr. 
 1(340. Ludlow did not escape censure, their Deputies 
 June 11. ^vere admitted to the General Court of Connec- 
 ticut." East of Fairfield, between it and the Housatonic, 
 and near the mouth of that river, a number of persons — 
 several recently arrived from England, several from Bos- 
 ton and other parts of Massachusetts, and a few from the 
 Connecticut towns — collected on an expanse of meadow- 
 land, known then by the names of Cupheage and Pequan- 
 nock, and since by that of Strafford. The General Court 
 Stratford, rocognizcd them by setting out their bounds and 
 Juno 15. providing for the administration of justice within 
 
 1 Conn. Col. Rec, 35-40. 2 Ibid., 36.
 
 Chap. XIIL] PLYMOUTH. 539 
 
 tliem.^ They had bought then' lands of the Indians, and 
 pretended no other title.^ 
 
 The post at the mouth of the Connecticut, which Gardi- 
 ner had commanded in the Pequot war, had as yet, and 
 for four or five years longer, no political connection with 
 the upper towns. It was nothing but a fort, occupied by 
 some twenty men, and surrounded by a few buildings 
 and a little cultivated land, till George Fen- 
 
 ' o George Fen- 
 
 wick, " and his lady and family, arrived to make « ick at say- 
 a plantation." ^ Fenwick, " a worthy, pious gen- iggg. 
 tleman, and of a good family and estate," ^ had •^"'^• 
 been a barrister of Gray's Inn.^ His wife was a daugh- 
 ter of Sir Edward Apsley.*^ He was interested in the 
 Connecticut patent, and to explore its territory had made 
 a short visit to this country three years before.^ He 
 now came as agent for the patentees, and, fixing on the 
 site at the river's mouth as his residence, gave it the 
 name of Sai/hrooJc, in honor of the two noblemen who 
 were the most distinguished members of the company 
 which he represented. 
 
 The reader has seen how the spirit of commercial en- 
 terprise, which in later times has so distinguished the 
 inhabitants of Plymouth Colony, was early manifested in 
 the establishment of distant trading-houses on the Penob- 
 scot and Kennebec to the northeast, and on the Plymouth 
 Connecticut to the southwest.® In both direc- factories, 
 tions the adventures were attended with little profit and 
 with no little annoyance. The seizure and robbery of 
 
 1 Conn. Col. Rec, 53. 5 Winthrop, I. 460. 
 
 2 Mr. Hopkins and Mr. Goodwin 6 This lady was, I suppose, of the 
 purchased from the Indians all the family of the wife of Colonel Hutch- 
 land between Milford and Hudson's inson. (See above, p. 280, note 1.) 
 River, John Higginson, of Hartford, Fenwick's second wife, espoused after 
 acting as their interpreter. (Records his return to England, was a daughter 
 of Stratford, as quoted by Goodwin, of Sir Arthur Hazelrigg. 
 Genealogical Notes, &c., 2, note.) ' AVinthrop, I. 470. 
 
 3 Winthrop, I. 306. 8 See above, pp. 230, 337, 340. 
 * Hutchinson, I. 97.
 
 540 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 the Penobscot factory by a party of French, soon after its 
 establishment, has akeady been related.^ An attempt at 
 a re-establishment of it proved no more prosperous. On 
 the strength of the cession to the French, by the treaty 
 
 1G32. of St. Germains, of the territory of New France 
 March 29. capturcd by the English three years before, Ra- 
 silli, the French commander at Cape Breton, claimed for 
 his master the country as far to the southwest as Pema- 
 quid.^ Charles de Menou d'Aulnay and Charles Eti- 
 enne de la Tour were his subordinates in its government. 
 The former was in charge of the division west of the 
 
 1C35. St. Croix. He came by sea to the Plymouth 
 August. Jiouse on the Penobscot, helped himself to the 
 goods there deposited, with a promise of future payment 
 at his own valuation, warned off the Plymouth traders 
 as trespassers,^ and occupied their house for his own 
 residence. The intelligence of this proceeding natu- 
 rally occasioned great exasperation at Plymouth. The 
 Magistrates in vain solicited the government of Massa- 
 unsuccessfui cliusctts for aid to recapture the post ; the Bay 
 iSstThe exchequer was too empty. The most they could 
 French. obtaiu was permission to engage at their own 
 cost one Girling, master of a ship then lying at Boston, 
 to undertake the conquest. The enterprise miscarried 
 through his incompetency, which he refused to have sup- 
 plied by the superior courage and conduct of Standish, 
 who had been sent along with him. It had cost too 
 much to be renewed, and the Penobscot remained in 
 unfriendly hands."* 
 
 In respect to the wrong which the Plymouth people 
 conceived themselves to have suffered from the English 
 planters on the Connecticut, their generosity did not 
 limit itself to mere forbearance from retaliation.^ Three 
 
 1 See above, p. 337. ■* Bradford, 333, 336; Winthrop, I. 
 
 2 See above, p. 205, 1G8, 169. 
 
 3 Bradford, 332. Winthrop, I. 1G6. 5 See above, p. 452.
 
 Chap. XIIL] PLYMOUTH. 541 
 
 vessels, " going to Connecticut with goods from the 
 Massachusetts of such as removed thither to plant," 
 havins^ been cast away near Plymouth, " the 
 
 ^ J J ^ Generous 
 
 Governor caused the goods to be gathered up, conduct of 
 
 J , , , . - tlie Plymouth 
 
 and drawn together, and apponited some to people. 
 take an inventory of them, and others to wash ^*^^'^* 
 and dry such things as had need thereof, by which 
 means most of the goods were saved and returned to 
 their owners." ^ Their Dutch rivals in that quarter they 
 had before treated with no less humanity. A party of 
 these " went up at the beginning of winter to live Avith 
 the Indians, to get their trade, and prevent them 
 from bringing it to the English, or to fall into 
 amity with them." The small-pox broke out and made 
 great ravages among the natives. The Dutchmen, " al- 
 most starved before they could get away, for ice and snow, 
 got with much difficulty to the Plymouth trading-house, 
 whom they kindly relieved, being almost spent with 
 hunsrer and cold." ^ Nor were the sufFerino^ Indians 
 neglected. " Those of the English house, though at first 
 they were afraid of the infection, yet, seeing their woful 
 and sad condition, and hearing their pitiful cries and 
 lamentations, they had compassion of them, and daily 
 fetched them wood and water and made them fires, got 
 them victuals whilst they lived, and buried them when 
 they died."^ 
 
 This was before the Pequot war. In another trans- 
 action with the Indians after that event, considerations 
 of equity were enforced by reasons of prudence. Some 
 natives brought three Englishmen to Rhode Island, 
 charging them with having waylaid, robbed, and 
 fatally wounded one of the Pokanoket tribe. 
 
 1 " Such crosses they [the INIassa- place. But I dare not be bold -with 
 chusetts interlopers] met with in their God's judgments in this kind." (Brad- 
 beginnings, which some imputed as a ford, 348, 349.) 
 correction from God for their intru- 2 Ibid., 325. 
 sion, to the wrong of others, into that 3 Ibid , 326. 
 
 VOL. I. 46
 
 542 HISTORY OF new England. [Book i. 
 
 While they were detained as prisoners, Roger Williams, 
 taking with him a physician, found the wounded man, 
 who died after fully confirming the report. Williams 
 wrote to consult the Governor of Massachusetts, who 
 advised that the Plymouth people should assume juris- 
 diction of the matter, if they would, the prisoners being 
 of that colony,' " but pressed by all means that justice 
 might be done in it, or else the country must rise and see 
 justice done, otherwise it would raise a war." They were 
 accordingly sent to Plymouth, where, on their confession, 
 they were convicted by a jury, and executed in 
 the presence of several natives. " But it was a 
 matter of much sadness to them here, and was the second 
 execution which they had since they came."- The Gov- 
 ernor of Plymouth felt some hesitation about proceeding, 
 " especially for that he heard they intended to appeal into 
 England." But Winthrop, on being consulted by him, cut 
 that knot. " The Governor returned answer of encourage- 
 ment to proceed notwithstanding, seeing no appeal did lie."^ 
 The perplexities incident to the commercial connec- 
 tion with the English partners were still far from being 
 „,. , unravelled. Among the objects of Winslow's 
 
 Winslow O J 
 
 in England, misslon to England, one has been already men- 
 tioned ; "* another was the defence of the char- 
 ter rights of Massachusetts before the Privy Council ; 
 and another still, the final adjustment of the mercantile 
 affairs of Plymouth.^ One of his first measures after 
 arriving incurred the disapprobation of the far-sighted 
 Governor of Massachusetts. In a petition to the Lords 
 Commissioners for Foreign Plantations, in which were set 
 
 1 If Plymouth should refuse, "Win- "Williams in Mass. Ilist. Col., XXI. 
 throp advised (I. 267) that the princi- 171-173. 
 
 pal offender should be given up to the 3 "Winthrop, I. 268. 
 
 Indians, since "they at the Island" 4 See above, p. 339. 
 
 (Aquetnet) had not " any government 5 He took with him to the partners a 
 
 established." remittance of furs valuc<l at four thou- 
 
 2 Bradford, 362 - 365. — Letter of sand pounds sterling. (Bradford, 323.)
 
 Chap. XIIL] PLYMOUTH. 543 
 
 forth the ambitious designs of the French and Dutch, he 
 prayed the Commissioners, " on the behalf of the planta- 
 tions in New England," to "either procure their peace 
 with those foreign states, or else to give special warrant 
 unto the English to fight and defend themselves against 
 all foreign enemies " ; ' — a step, says Winthrop, " under- 
 taken by ill advice, for such precedents might endanger 
 our liberty, that we should do nothing but by commission 
 out of England." - 
 
 Winslow flattered himself prematurely that his business 
 was prospering. At the time of his arrival the appoint- 
 ment of a General Governor was seriously meditated. 
 When, in a hearing before the Council, he had successfully 
 parried the charges made by Morton under the instigation 
 of Gorges and Mason, the Archbishop, taking him to task 
 for officiating in religious ministrations, and for marry- 
 ing in his capacity of magistrate, browbeat the Commis- 
 sioners into ordering his committal to the Fleet prison, 
 where he lay four months.^ When the business with 
 Shirley, Beauchamp, and Andrews, the London partners, 
 was resumed,'' it was under some disadvantage from this 
 delay. The Plymouth people believed that they had 
 already made remittances of merchandise more than suf- 
 ficient to discharge their obligations. But they had re- 
 posed a degree of confidence, such as in transactions be- 
 tween the most upright men does not tend to the highest 
 ultimate satisfaction ; barter accounts had gone on un- 
 stated from year to year ; questions arose upon mutually 
 conflicting claims of the English associates ; and the com- 
 plicated embarrassments became distressing to persons who 
 could not consent to fall short of their engagements, but 
 
 1 Bradford, 328. uate. (Bradford, 301.) He came in 
 
 2 AVinthrop, I. 172. 1632. In 1633 lands at Scituate were 
 
 3 Bradford, 329, 330. granted by the Court to him and his 
 
 4 Hatherley, the fourth partner, (see three associates. (Plym. Coh Rec, 
 above, p. 230, note 3,) was now in I. 13,81.) — Scituate (at first spelled 
 America, at his new plantation of Scit- Saluit) was an Indian name.
 
 1638. 
 
 544 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 who could not aiford to go much beyond them.' Re- 
 peatedly, after seeming to themselves to have already 
 done more than discharge their debt, they were moved 
 by some new complaint to send to England all the later 
 accumulations of their hard labor. 
 
 But, notwithstanding such discouragements, prosperity 
 could not fail at last to come in the train of industry and 
 intelligence such as were exercised at Plymouth. The 
 Prosperity of large emigration to Massachusetts created a prof- 
 piynioutii. itable market. " It pleased God, in these times, 
 so to bless the country with such access and confluence of 
 people into it, as it was thereby much enriched, and cattle 
 of all kinds stood at a high rate for divers years together." 
 A cow was sold for twenty pounds, sometimes 
 even as high as twenty-eight pounds ; a goat for 
 three or four pounds ; and corn for six shillings a bushel ; 
 " by which means the ancient planters which had any 
 
 stock began to grow in their estates, so as other 
 
 trading began to be neglected." The commerce with the 
 Indians on the Kennebec, which had been likely to be 
 abandoned, was farmed by the colony to a new company, 
 for the rent of a sixth part of the profits, " with the first 
 fruits of which they built a house for a prison."" This 
 was one sign of the permanency of the settlement, which 
 hitherto had been matter of uncertainty. When the Dor- 
 chester planters came to the Connecticut, their 
 Plymouth rivals complained of being deprived 
 " of that which they had with charge and hazard pro- 
 vided, and intended to remove to, as soon as they could 
 1G38. and were able." ^ Three years later, it was re- 
 june 1. niarked of " a great and fearful earthquake " 
 which M'as felt at Plymouth and the other settlements, 
 
 1 Bradford, 331, 344 - 318, 3C1, 3G2, "that they Avcrc upon a barren place, 
 
 3G5-3G7. -where they were by necessity cast; 
 
 ~ Ibid., 3G5; Plym. Col. Rec, I. 115. and neither they nor theirs could long 
 
 3 Bradford, 341. "It was well continue upon the same." (Ibid.) See 
 
 known," the Plymouth people said, above, p. 452.
 
 Chap. XIIT.] PLYMOUTH. 545 
 
 that " it fell out at the same time divers of the chief of 
 this town were met together at one house, conferring 
 with some of their friends that were upon their removal 
 from the place, as if the Lord would hereby show the 
 signs of his displeasure in their shaking a pieces and 
 removals one from another." ^ 
 
 One reason of their unsettled state was the continued 
 ill-success of their endeavors to obtain a minister who 
 should in some measure supply to them the place Disappoim- 
 of their venerated Robinson. Smith was soon XurcVaf- 
 seen to be a man of mean abilities, and, after six ^'""' 
 or seven years' patient endurance of him by the colony, he 
 " laid down his place of ministry, partly by his 
 own willingness, as thinking it too heavy a burden, 
 and partly at the desire and by the persuasion of others." ^ 
 To assist him, Winslow had brouo^ht over from 
 
 ^ , 1635. 
 
 England Mr. John Norton, who " was well liked 
 of them, and much desired by them." ^ But he remained 
 at Plymouth only through a winter, and then departed, 
 to enter on a conspicuous career in Massachusetts. On 
 Smith's retirement, " it pleased the Lord to send them," 
 in Mr. Rayner, " an able and a godly man, and of a meek 
 and humble spirit, sound in the truth, and every way un- 
 reprovable in his life and conversation " ; but not, it ap- 
 pears, of commanding abilities or character. Two years 
 after Norton's departure, Mr. Charles Chauncy, 
 
 _ _ - 1C38. 
 
 " a reverend, godly, and very learned man," as he 
 afterwards fully proved himself, was brought to Rayner's 
 aid. He soon announced himself to be a behever in the 
 doctrine of baptism by immersion. Indisposed to have 
 any variance with him on that account, the congregation 
 offered to respect his conscience, if he would but tolerate 
 theirs, and to allow the rite to be performed by the 
 two ministers in whichever way they and the subjects 
 of it should prefer. " But he said he could not yield 
 
 1 Bradford, 366. 2 Ibid., 351. 3 Jbid., 343. 
 
 46*
 
 5-lG HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 thereunto " ; and, after unsuccessful attempts at accommo- 
 dation, he withdrew from his relation to the Plymouth 
 church, at the end of nearly three years.^ 
 
 For almost sixteen years from the beginning of the 
 Old Colony, the scanty record which remains of the 
 public administration exhibits it as principally occupied 
 with police and military regulations, and rules and orders 
 
 for the division of lands and the settlement of 
 
 civuTdmin- estates. In the sixteenth year, a committee was 
 
 istration. j^aiscd, cousistiug of four freemen of Plymouth, 
 
 1C3G. ^^YQ of Scituate, and two of Duxbury, to aid the 
 
 Governor and Assistants in codifying the laws, of 
 which " divers were found worthy the reforming, others 
 the rejecting, and others fit to be instituted and made."^ 
 
 Besides a system of general jurisprudence, such 
 
 as suited the simple wants of the colony, their 
 report included a revisal of the Constitution of govern- 
 ment.^ It provided that annual elections of a Governor, 
 seven Assistants, a Treasurer, a Coroner, a Clerk, Consta- 
 bles, and other inferior officers, should be made by the 
 freemen on the first Tuesday of March ; and it defined the 
 very narrow powers of those functionaries, reserving to 
 the body of freemen the chief share both of legislation and 
 of administration. The oaths prescribed to be taken by 
 freemen and residents, as well as by officers, — unlike those 
 in use in Massachusetts and in the western settlements, — 
 comprehended an engagement of loyalty to the king ; and 
 the Courts were ordered to be held in his name. Laws 
 and ordinances were to be made only by the freemen, who 
 were cautioned to be just in laying taxes upon others. 
 The same policy, by which in Massachusetts the holders 
 
 1 Winthrop, T. 330; Bradford, 351, Laws, of the Colony of New Plymouth," 
 382, 3«3. 36 et seq. No vote of the General 
 
 2 Plym. Col. Rec, T. 43. Court, adoptinrr it, has been preserved, 
 
 3 It has been printed from the orijri- though the subsequent rerord, from time 
 nal at Plymouth by Mr. Brigham, in to time, of proceedings conformable to 
 his " Compact, with the Charter and it, shows it to have gone into effect.
 
 Chap. XIIL] PLYMOUTH. 547 
 
 of the soil selected their associates, was adopted in a 
 supplementary rule, " that no person or persons 1637. . 
 thereafter should be permitted to live and inhabit '^*"'=''''- 
 within the government of New Plymouth without the 
 leave and liking of the Governor, or two of the Assistants, 
 at least." ^ The frame of government was before long 
 completed by the creation of a second class of legislators. 
 On a " complaint that the freemen were put to 
 
 . , , . 1638. 
 
 many inconveniences and great expenses by their 
 continual attendance at the Courts," it was " enacted by 
 the Court, for the ease of the several colonies and towns 
 within the government, that every town should make 
 choice of two of their freemen, and the town of Plymouth 
 of four, to be Committees or Deputies to join with the 
 bench to enact and make all such laws and ordinances as 
 should be judged to be good and wholesome for the 
 whole." Laws might, however, be enacted or repealed 
 by the whole body of freemen, convened in their Courts 
 of Election. The Deputies — who w^ere to be freemen — 
 were to be paid by their towns ; and tax-paying " masters 
 of families," though not freemen, were to have a vote 
 in their election. Deputies found to be " insufficient or 
 troublesome " might be " dismissed " by their associates 
 and the Assistants, in which case their town should 
 " choose other freemen in their place." ^ At a General 
 Court in the next year. Deputies appeared from 1639. 
 seven towns, namely, Plymouth, Duxbury, Scit- ^""®^" 
 uate, Sandwich, Cohannet, Yarmouth, and Barnstable.^ 
 In the same year " Ussamequin [Massasoit] and Mooa- 
 nam, his son, came into the Court in their own Indian treaty. 
 proper persons," and, at their request, "the an- ^^p'-^^- 
 cient league and confederacy, formerly made," and now 
 
 1 Brigham, Compact, &c. 57. — Mas- •' keep them whilst they stayed, and re- 
 
 ters of vessels bringing passengers into carry them and their goods to the place 
 
 any plantation without leave " either from whence they came." (Ibid., 62.) 
 
 from the government or committees of 2 Ibid., 63. 
 
 the place," were further obliged to 3 piym. Col. Rec, I. 126.
 
 548 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 enlarged by some further stipulations, was renewed, and 
 ordered to " stand and remain inviolable." ^ 
 
 In Massachusetts, the thoughts of the freemen had not 
 been engrossed by the pressing distractions of the troubled 
 times through which they were passing. They still had 
 attention to bestow on the wants of posterity ; and no 
 men better understood what were the necessary foun- 
 dations for the permanent well-being of a com- 
 
 Institnfion of . , ,-p,, . , . 
 
 a college. monwcalth. ihe seventh year since the trans- 
 1G36. portation of the charter had iust beerun, when 
 
 Oct. 28. ^ . ^ 
 
 " the Court agreed to give four hundred pounds 
 towards a school or college, whereof two hundred pounds 
 to be paid the next year, and two hundred pounds when 
 the work is finished, and the next Court to appoint 
 where and what building." " That IMassachusetts assem- 
 bly, over which Henry Vane presided, has been said to 
 be " the first body in which the people, by their repre- 
 sentatives, ever gave their own money to found a place 
 of education." ^ Their College preceded the next oldest 
 in British America (the College of William and Mary in 
 Virginia) by more than fifty years. Provision had hardly 
 been made for the first wants of life, — habitations, food, 
 clothing, and churches. Walls, roads, and bridges were 
 yet to be built. The power of England stood in attitude 
 to strike. A desperate war with the natives had already 
 begun, and the government was threatened with an Anti- 
 nomian insurrection. Through and beyond these dark 
 complications of the present, the New-England founders 
 looked to great necessities of future times, which could 
 not be provided for too soon.'* 
 
 1 Plym. Col. Rec, I. 133. See houses, provided necessaries for our 
 above, p. 178. livelihood, reared convenient places for 
 
 2 Mass. Col. Rec., I. 183. God's worship, and settled the civil 
 
 3 Edward Everett, Speech at the government, one of the first things we 
 Celebration in 1836, in Quincy's His- longed for and looked after was to 
 tory of Harvard University, II. 654. advance learning and perpetuate it to 
 
 4 " After God had carried us safe to posterity, flreading to leave an illiterate 
 New England, and we had builded our ministry to the churches, when our pres-
 
 CiiAP. XIIL] 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 The appropriation was equivalent to the colony 
 . a year. Regarded in that point of view, a mill . 
 ' dollars would at the present day inadequately repre- 
 it. Newtown was fixed upon for the site 1037. 
 oi the College,^ and a committee of seven Magis- ^°''- ^^• 
 trates and six ministers, men of the first distinc- 
 tion in their respective classes, were directed " to 
 take order" for it.^ The generous project engaged the 
 svmpathv of John Harvard, a crraduate of Em- 
 
 J ^ J ' ° . , .- , John Har- 
 
 manuel College, Cambridge, who, dymg childless vara. 
 within a year after his arrival at Charlestown, be- if-^s- 
 
 . . . Sept. 14. 
 
 queathed his library and " the one half of his es- 
 tate, it being in all about seven hundred pounds,^ for the 
 erecting of the College." In just gratitude, the 1039. 
 Court ordered it to be called by his name.* New- 
 town had just before received the name of Cambridge.^ 
 
 Nov. 29. 
 
 ent ministers should lie in the dust." 
 (New England's First Fruits, 12.) 
 
 " The early establishment of your Col- 
 lege," said the Marquis Wellesley to a 
 Massachusetts man in India, " hastened 
 the American Revolution half a cen- 
 tury." (Knapp, Biographical Sketches, 
 &c., 180.) The Governor-General did 
 not know how far short this came of the 
 truth. The College, for more than its 
 first century, did not a little to preserve 
 a British America to be revolutionized. 
 
 1 Mass, Col. Rec, I. 208. — This 
 was with a view, says Johnson, — but 
 perhaps Johnson did not know, — to 
 securing for the youth " the orthodox 
 and soul-flourishing ministery of Mr. 
 Thomas Shepheard." (Wonderwork- 
 ing Providence, 1G4.) The town of 
 Shepard's ministry, " a place very pleas- 
 ant and accommodate " (New Eng- 
 land's First Fruits, 12), gave two acres 
 and two thirds of land. The site, a 
 level ground on a river's bank, resem- 
 bles the sites of houses of religion and 
 education in England, and was natu- 
 rally recommended by that association. 
 
 2 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 21 7. 
 
 ^ New England's First Fruits, in 
 Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 242 ; comp. Win- 
 throp, II. 87, note 2. The statement is 
 ambiguous ; and the amount of Har- 
 vard's bequest (that is, whether the 
 whole or the half of his property 
 amounted to " about seven hundred 
 pounds") is not ascertained from other 
 sources. The question is discussed by 
 President Quincy, in his Aaluable His- 
 tory of the University (I. 460, &c.). 
 The library, of two hundred and sixty 
 volumes, consisting of classical and pa- 
 tristical works, as well as modern Avrit- 
 ings in theology and general literature, 
 was, with the building containing it, 
 all consumed by a fire in 1764, with 
 the exception of a single volume. This 
 book, so precious from its association 
 with the founder, is John Downame's 
 " Christian Warfare against the Devil," 
 a folio volume published in London 
 in 1034, three years before Harvard's 
 emigration. 
 
 4 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 153. 
 
 5 Ibid., 228 ; comp. 180.
 
 550 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 When the Indian war was over, and the movers of 
 sedition had been quelled, everything within Massa- 
 chusetts began to wear the aspect of a new prosperity. 
 The vigor of the rulers had in England inspired con- 
 fidence, and no fewer than three thousand set- 
 
 1638. . 1 1 rm 
 
 tiers came over m three months. ihe govern- 
 ment was indulgent as soon as it was safe ; and the arms 
 which had been taken from nearly a hundred excited 
 persons were restored to as many of them as re- 
 mained in the colony " carrying themselves peace- 
 ably." Probably it was the remembrance of the recent 
 alarm that caused the government to hesitate, when 
 " divers gentlemen and others, out of their care of the 
 public weal and safety by the advancement of the 
 military art and exercise of arms, desired license of 
 
 1G39. 
 Nov. 5. 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 268. Settlers came, 
 not only from England, but from Vir- 
 ginia and the West Indies. " Those 
 countries, for all their great wealth, 
 have sent hither, both this year and 
 formerly, for supply of clothes and 
 other necessaries, and some families 
 have forsaken both Providence, and 
 other the Caribbee Islands and Vir- 
 ginia, to come and live here 
 
 Our people saw what meagre, unhealth- 
 ful countenances they brought hither, 
 and how fat and well-liking they be- 
 came soon." (Ibid., 331.)— In 1640, 
 Winthrop was annoyed " by divers 
 letters and reports, that the Lord Say 
 [with \'iews altered by the new career 
 now opened to him in England] did 
 labor, by disparaging this country, to 
 divert men from coming to us, and so 
 to draw them to the West Indies"; 
 and that to that end he, and his asso- 
 ciates in the project of a plantation 
 there, " finding that godly men were 
 unwilling to come under other governors 
 than such as they should make choice 
 of themselves, &c., condescended to ar- 
 ticles somewhat suitable to our form of 
 
 government, although they had for- 
 merly declared themselves much against 
 it, and for a mere aristocracy, and an 
 hereditary magistracy to be settled 
 upon some great persons, &c." W'in- 
 throp remonstrated with him by letter, 
 and " showed his Lordship how evident 
 it was that God had chosen this coun- 
 try to plant his people in, and therefore 
 how displeasing it would be to the 
 Lord, and dangerous to himself, to 
 hinder this work To this let- 
 ter his Lordship returned answer, not 
 denying the evidence of the Lord's 
 owning the work, but alleging that this 
 was a place appointed only for a pres- 
 ent refuge, &c., and that, a better place 
 being now found out, we were all 
 called to remove thither." (Ibid., I. 
 333.) "Many sold their estates here 
 to transport themselves to Providence, 
 among whom the chief was John 
 Ilumphroy," who Avent out to be Gov- 
 ernor. (Ibid., 331.) But the scheme 
 proved a failure. The island was soon 
 after taken by the Spaniards, and most 
 of the New-England adventurers, who 
 could, came back.
 
 1 min- 
 istration. 
 
 Chap. XIII.] MASSACHUSETTS. 551 
 
 the Court to join themselves in one company, and 
 to have liberty to exercise themselves at such TheAncict 
 times as their occasions would best permit." ^ bH Arti"uJ^ 
 But, for the present, few occasions arose for any ^""^p^^y- 
 extraordinary legislation ; and the record exhibits for the 
 most part only the details of the common administra- 
 tion, as it has been already described, varied here and 
 there with the introduction of some improvement in the 
 transaction of the public business, or by some action 
 which is interesting as throwing light on the sentiments 
 and manners of the time. 
 
 As, with the increase of population, the original pro- 
 visions became inadequate for a speedy and con- progress of 
 venient dispensation of justice, courts additional "JfjXtion""' 
 to those at the seat of government were estab- andadn 
 lished at Salem, Ipswich, and Newtown ; ~ and 
 in the following year, to the end of bringing May n. 
 legal relief near to every man's door, other tribu- icss. 
 nals, for the determination of controversies for ^^''^^' 
 small amounts, were instituted in the respective towns.^ 
 A public registration of births, marriages, and ic39. 
 deaths ^ was established, as well as that excellent ^^^^- ^• 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 251. "Divers of every June, according to ancient 
 of our chief military officers had de- usage, it parades on Boston Common, 
 clared themselves favorers of the fami- that its officers, annually chosen, may 
 listical persons and opinions." (Ibid., receive their commissions from the 
 256.) The petition of the "gentle- Governor's hands, finds himself troubled 
 men and others " was granted, March by none of the apprehensions of two 
 13, 1639, with a careful proviso, "that hundred and twenty years ago, when 
 this order or grant, or anything therein " the Council, considering, from the 
 contained, shall not extend to free the example of the Pretorian Band among 
 said company, or any of them, their the Romans, and the Templars in Eu- 
 persons or estates, from the civil gov- rope, how dangerous it might be to 
 ernment and jurisdiction here estab- erect a standing authority of military 
 lished." This company, called for the men, which might easily in time over- 
 last hundred and twenty years llie An- throw the civil power, thought fit to 
 cient and Honorable Artillery Company, stop it betimes." (Winthrop, I. 253.) 
 is the oldest corporation existing in Mas- 2 Mass. Col. Rec., I. 197. 
 sachusetts, except the College and a few 3 Ibid., 239. 
 towns. The pleased spectator of its 4 Ibid., 276. 
 proceedings, when, on the first Monday
 
 552 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAKD. [Book L 
 
 system of registration of deeds and of testamentary instru- 
 ments which has rendered the conveyance of property in 
 New England so safe. A rule was made for the puhlication 
 of intentions of marriage.^ A post-ofRce for for- 
 eign correspondence was set up.^ " That abom- 
 inable practice of drinking healths " was forbidden, under 
 a penalty of twelve pence for each offence, as being " a 
 mere useless ceremony," and " also an occasion of much 
 waste of the good creatures, and of many other sins, as 
 drunkenness, quarrelling, bloodshed, uncleanness, 
 misspense of precious time, &c., which, as they 
 ought in all places and times to be prevented carefully, 
 so especially in plantations of churches and commonweals, 
 wherein the least known evils are not to be tolerated by 
 such as are bound by solemn covenant to walk by the 
 rule of God's word in all their conversation." ^ Prohibi- 
 tions, addressed to both possessor and purveyor, were 
 aimed against " the excessive wearing of lace and other 
 superfluities, tending to little use or benefit, but 
 to the nourishing of pride and exhausting of 
 men's estates, and also of evil example to others." '^ To a 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rcc, I. 275. also the ordinarywcaringof silver, gold, 
 
 2 Ibid., 281. and silk laces, girdles, hat-bands, &c."; 
 
 3 Ibid., 272 ; comp. Wlnthrop, I. 324. and "ordered that no person, either 
 This was a great point with Win- man or woman, should hereafter make 
 throp, whose own example had discoun- or buy any apparel, either woollen, silk, 
 tenanccd the practice. or linen, with any lace on it, silver, 
 
 4 Mass. Col. Rcc, I. 274. The con- gold, silk, or thread, under the penalty 
 templated extirpation included other of forfeiture of such clothes, &c.; also, 
 enormities of the same kind, as " short that no person, either man or woman, 
 sleeves, whereby the nakedness of the should make or buy any slashed clothes, 
 arm may be discovered in the wearing other than one slash in each sleeve, 
 thereof," " sleeves more than half an and another in the back ; also all cut- 
 cU wide in the widest place thereof," works, embroidered or needlework 
 " imnioderate great breeches, knots of caps, bands, and rails, were forbidden 
 ribbon, broad shoulder-bands and rails, hereafter to be made and worn, under 
 silk rases, double ruffs and cuffs, &c." the aforesaid penalty; also all gold or 
 (Ibid.) A law of the same character had silver girdles, hat-bands, belts, ruffs, 
 been passed five years before, Sept. 3, beaver hats, are prohibited to bo 
 1634. It took notice of the appearance bought and worn hereafter, under the 
 of " some new and immodest fashions, as aforesaid penalty, &c." "Men and
 
 Chap. Xm.] MASSACHUSETTS. 553 
 
 sentence of banishment was added — what, however, was 
 no novelty^ — the injunction "to return no more, upon 
 pain of death." ~ William Andrews, for having " con- 
 spired against the life of his master, and not only so, but 
 also against the peace and Avelfare of the whole common- 
 wealth, was censured to be severely whipped, and deliv- 
 ered up as a slave to whom the Court should appoint." ^ 
 " For going to a jury and pleading with them out of 
 Court," Thomas Lechford, of Lincoln's Inn, the only pro- 
 fessional practitioner, as yet, before the New-England 
 tribunals, was " debarred from pleading any man's cause 
 hereafter, unless his own, and admonished not to presume 
 to meddle beyond Avhat he should be called to by the 
 Court," and " not to meddle with controversies." "* 
 
 In all the riper business of organization and adminis- 
 tration, as well as in its first stages, the orderly and 
 enlightened genius of Winthrop was active. Since his 
 restoration to the chief magistracy from the inferior place 
 into which the democratic spasm had cast him, he had 
 continued to be aided by his former counsellors. In each 
 of these three years Dudley held the second office ; and all 
 of the former Assistants who remained in the colony, ex- 
 cept Dummer, retained their position in the government. 
 
 But the public confidence in Winthrop, so well merited 
 and generally so constant, did not blind the electors to 
 the danger of the precedent that might grow out of a 
 too long continuance in office of one favorite public ser- 
 
 women," however, had " liberty to wear i See above, p. 457. There had 
 
 out such apparel as they were now pro- been still other instances, 
 
 vided of, except the immoderate great 2 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 234. 
 
 sleeves, slashed apparel, immoderate ^ Ibid., 247. This was a sentence, 
 
 great rails, long wings, &c." (Ibid., after conviction of crime, to confine- 
 
 12G.) Connecticut adopted similar pro- ment and labor under private superin- 
 
 visions, though less stringent. (Conn, tendence, instead of in a penitentiary, 
 
 Col. Rec, I. 64.) I do not recollect which was not yet provided. (Comp. 
 
 any legislation of the kind either at ibid., 284.) Andrews was afterwards 
 
 New Haven or at Plymouth. Plymouth " released upon his good carriage." 
 
 was perhaps too poor to need it, New (Ibid., 269.) 
 
 Haven too rich to like it. 4 ibid., 270, 310. 
 VOL. I. 4 7
 
 554 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 vant. His second election after that when he succeeded 
 1C39. Vane, had not been carried with universal satis- 
 May 22. faction. " Somc laboring had been, by some of 
 the elders and others, to have changed, not out of any dis- 
 like to him, for they all loved and esteemed him, but out 
 of their fear lest it might make way for having a Gov- 
 ernor for life, which some had propounded as most agree- 
 able to God's institution and the practice of well-ordered 
 states." ^ The same jealousy was evinced on the part of 
 the freemen when Emmanuel Downing, the Governor's 
 brother-in-law, was nominated by the Magistrates to be an 
 Assistant, " which they conceived to be done to strengthen 
 his [the Governor's] party; and therefore, though he were 
 known to be a very able man, &c., and one who had done 
 many good offices for the country for these ten years, yet 
 the people would not choose him." ^ Another temporary 
 cause of discontent with the existing administration was, 
 that " the Court, finding the number of Deputies to be 
 much increased by the addition of new plantations, 
 Restriction thought fit, for thc usc both of the country and 
 ofthenum- ^|-^g Court, to rcduco all towns to two Deputies. 
 
 ber of Depu- ' ^ '• 
 
 ties. This occasioned some to fear that the Magistrates 
 
 intended to make themselves stronger and the Deputies 
 weaker, and so in time to bring all power into the hands 
 of the Magistrates." " By force of reason," the question 
 about the number of Deputies was settled to the general 
 satisfaction ; ^ and for forty years from this time there was 
 a uniform delegation of two representatives from every 
 town in the jurisdiction. 
 
 The aristocratical element of the society had been ex- 
 tended to its utmost limit in the institution of a Council 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 2!)9. "One of the the practice of all the best common- 
 elders, beinjT present with those of his wealths in Europe, and especially that 
 church, when they were to prepare of Israel, by God's own ordinance." 
 their votes for the election, declared (Ibid., 301.) 
 his ju(l;iment that a Governor oupjht to ^ Ibid., 300. 
 be for his life, alleging for his authority ^ Ibid.
 
 Coun- 
 for Life. 
 
 CiiAP. XIIL] MASSACHUSETTS. 555 
 
 for Life.^ Without doubt, that measure had reference to 
 the expected immigration of some men of high rank ; and, 
 with the decline of this expectation, whatever reason 
 there had been for the arrangement was done away. 
 It had never enjoyed the popular favor ; and only three 
 Counsellors appear ever to have been elected. It had 
 been in force but three years, when, at the Court Restriction 
 of Elections, the Deputies proposed " an order ^[j'J.!^"^ 
 
 drawn to this effect, that no person i^gg. 
 
 chosen a Counsellor for Life should have any ^^''y-- 
 authority as a Magistrate, except he were chosen in the 
 annual elections to one of the places of magistracy estab- 
 lished by the patent." The Magistrates concurred in the 
 order, after an alteration of its phraseology, bringing it 
 into the form of an explanation, instead of a repeal, of 
 the act. " That which led those of the Council to yield 
 to this desire of the Deputies was because it concerned 
 themselves, and they did more study to remove these 
 jealousies out of the people's heads, than to preserve any 
 power or dignity to themselves above others."^ 
 
 After the third year of Winthrop's second period of ser- 
 vice as Governor, the personal question relating to him was 
 disposed of in the best way possible, as things stood, both 
 for him and for the country. Dudley was elected 
 in his place, — " a man," says his magnanimous pre- ^^"^ 
 decessor, " of approved wisdom and godliness, and ^^<^°"A depo- 
 
 •^ ^ . " sition ofGov^ 
 
 of much good service to the country ; and there- cmor win- 
 fore it was his due to share in such honor and eiect'i'onof 
 benefit as the country had to bestow. The elders, °"'^'''y- 
 being met at Boston about this matter, sent some of their 
 company to acquaint the old Governor with their desire, 
 and the reasons moving them, clearing themselves of all 
 dislike of his government, and seriously professing their 
 sincere affections and respect towards him, which he kindly 
 
 1 See above, p. 441. 2 Winthrop, I. S02. 
 
 1640. 
 13.
 
 556 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 and thankfully accepted."^ In the new election, he had 
 the satisfaction of seeing still better evidence of the public 
 approbation of that government of which he had been 
 the head. It was no further changed than by the pro- 
 motion of Dudley and Bellingham each one step in 
 official station, while he himself took Bellingham's place 
 as an Assistant." 
 
 In the second period of Winthrop's administration of 
 the chief magistracy, yet another attempt had been made 
 — the final one for the present — to get possession of the 
 charter of Massachusetts. A " very strict order " 
 maiHifortho cauio froui the Commissioners of Plantations for 
 its instant transmission to England.^ The Gen- 
 eral Court, after a pause of some months, " agreed that a 
 1C38. letter should be written by the Governor in the 
 Sept. c. name of the Court, to excuse our not sending of 
 it; for it was resolved to be best not to send it, because 
 then such of our friends and others in England would 
 conceive it to be surrendered, and that thereupon we 
 should be bound to receive such a Governor and such 
 orders as should be sent to us, and many bad minds, 
 yea, and some weak ones, among ourselves, would think 
 it lawful, if not necessary, to accept a General Gov- 
 ernor. * 
 
 1 Winthrop, II. 3. Winthrop also been one of the actors and sufferers in 
 expressed " his unfeigned desire of more the Antinomian emeute. 
 freedom, that he might a little intend ^ Jt may, however, be mentioned as 
 his private occasions." He had lost a fact, which possibly had some rela- 
 property, and become embarrassed, tion to this rotation in office, that Win- 
 through the roguery of his bailiff, throj), nearly a year before, had had 
 Hearing of this, some of the towns a trilling difference with Bellingham, 
 made voluntary contributions for his who was then Treasurer. (^Vinthrop, 
 I'elief, and the General Court gave his I. 320.) 
 
 wife three thousand acres of land. 3 Xhe order, dated April 4, 1638, 
 
 " One gentleman of Newbury, ]\Ir. is in Hubbard, 2G8, and in Hazard, 
 
 Richard Dummer, propounded for a I. 432. 
 
 supply in a more private way, and, 4 W^inthrop, I. 2G9 ; romp. 274. — 
 
 for example, himself disbursed a hun- The importance of the Puritan estabhsh- 
 
 dred pounds." (Ibid., 4.) This is a ment in New England had by this time 
 
 touching incident, for Dummer had atti-acted general attention in the par-
 
 Chap. XIIL] MASSACHUSETTS. 557 
 
 Winthrop's letter addressed to the Commissioners for 
 Plantations, under this order, is a document worthy of 
 all remembrance, as displaying the sj)irit and 
 policy of the time. It begins with a refusal to reply to mo 
 transmit the patent, expressed in the form of chrner" 
 a petition for a further consideration of the de- 
 mand, and in the style of diplomatic courtesy appro- 
 priate to such communications. It declares, that, had 
 notice been received of the prosecution under the quo 
 warranto, there would have been " a sufficient plea to put 
 in." The material part of the manifesto then follows : — 
 
 " It is not unknown to your Lordships, that we came 
 into these remote parts with his Majesty's license and 
 encouragement, under his great seal of England ; and, in 
 the confidence we had of the great assurance of his favor, 
 we have transported our families and estates, and here 
 have we built and planted, to the great enlargement and 
 securing of his Majesty's dominions in these parts, so as, 
 
 ent country. In " this present year, from her eyes, to behold so many of 
 
 1638," the quidnunc Sir Simonds her cliildren exposed at once, and 
 
 D'Ewes understood that "their nam- tlirust from things of dearest necessity, 
 
 bcrs there did now amount to some because their conscience could not as- 
 
 fifty thousand, and most of them truly sent to things which the bishojis thought 
 
 pious; and every parish supplied with indifferent ? What more binding than 
 
 such able, painful, preaching ministers, conscience ? What more free than in- 
 
 as no place under heaven enjoys the differency? Cruel, then, must that 
 
 like." (Autobiography, &c., II. 117, indifferency needs be, that shall vio- 
 
 118.) Three years later, Milton wrote : late the strict necessity of conscience ; 
 
 " What numbers of faithful and free- merciless and inhuman that free choice 
 
 born Englishmen and good Christians and liberty, that shall break asunder 
 
 have been constrained to forsake their the bonds of religion ! Let the astrolo- 
 
 dearest home, their friends and kin- ger be dismayed at the portentous blaze 
 
 dred, whom nothing but the wide ocean of comets, and impressions in the air, 
 
 and the savage deserts of America as foretelling troubles and changes to 
 
 could hide and shelter from the fury states ; I shall believe there cannot be 
 
 of the bishops ? O sir, if we could a more ill-boding sign to a nation — God 
 
 but see the shape of our dear mother turn the omen from us ! — than when 
 
 England, as poets are wont to give a the inhabitants, to avoid insufferable 
 
 personal form to what they please, how grievances at home, are enforced by 
 
 would she appear, think ye, but in a heaps to forsake their native country." 
 
 mourning weed, with ashes upon her (Reformation in England, Book II.) 
 head, and tears abundantly flowing 
 47*
 
 558 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 if our patent should be now taken from ns, we should be 
 looked at as runagates and outlaws, and shall be enforced 
 either to remove to some other place, or to return to our 
 native country again, either of which will put us to insu- 
 perable extremities; and these evils (among others) will 
 necessarily follow : — 
 
 " 1. Many thousand souls will be exposed to ruin, 
 being laid open to the injuries of all men. 
 
 " 2. If we be forced to desert the place, the rest of 
 the plantations about us (being too weak to subsist 
 alonej will for the most part dissolve and go along 
 with us, and then will this whole country fall into the 
 hands of French or Dutch, who would speedily embrace 
 such an opportunity. 
 
 " 3. If we should lose all our labor and cost, and be 
 deprived of those liberties which his Majesty hath granted 
 us, and nothing laid to our charge, nor any failing to be 
 found in us in point of allegiance, (which all our country- 
 men do take notice of, and do justify our faithfulness in 
 this behalf,) it will discourage all men hereafter from the 
 like undertakings, upon confidence of his Majesty's royal 
 grant. 
 
 " 4. Lastly, if our patent be taken from us, (whereby 
 we suppose we may claim interest in his Majesty's favor 
 and protection,) the common people here will conceive 
 that his Majesty hath cast them off, and that hereby they 
 are freed from their allegiance and subjection, and there- 
 upon will be ready to confederate themselves under a new 
 government, for their necessary safety and subsistence, 
 which will be of dangerous example unto other planta- 
 tions, and perilous to ourselves of incurring his Majesty's 
 displeasure, which we would by all means avoid." ^ 
 
 1 Hubbard, History, 269, 270. Hub- -where it is still preserved. The scarce- 
 bard, from whom Hazard copied, (I. ly covert threats contained in it were 
 435, 436,) printed this paper from the suited to have effect, not only on the 
 original in the Massachusetts archives, temper of the imperilled government
 
 Chap. XIII.] 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 559 
 
 Here, after a little more empty threatening from the 
 Commissioners/ the business slept for the present. There 
 was more serious matter for concern nearer home. The 
 Scots were in arms. Hutchinson thought that, if the 
 settlers in Massachusetts had now been pushed to ex- 
 tremity, " it is pretty certain the body of the people 
 would have left the country," either betaking themselves 
 to the Dutch on Hudson's River, or seeking some unoc- 
 cupied spot out of the reach of any European power.^ 
 But a combination with the Dutch, while it would have 
 secured their liberty of worship, might not even have 
 involved a necessity for their change of residence. As 
 things stood, the great maritime power of the United 
 Provinces, had it been engaged to come in aid of what 
 they could do for themselves, might fairly be supposed 
 competent to protect them in their Massachusetts homes. 
 
 at home, but on further machinations 
 of Gorges, who, however some of his 
 interests might clash with those of the 
 chief adjacent colony, could not but 
 contemplate the probable contingencies 
 which might make him desire its pro- 
 tection for his domain against his French 
 neighbors on the other border. See 
 Thomas Gorges's letter in Hutchinson's 
 Collection, &c., 114. 
 
 1 " The Governor [May 6, 163D] re- 
 ceived letters from Mr. Cradock, and in 
 them another order from the lords com- 
 missioners, to this effect : That, whereas 
 they had received our petition upon 
 their former order, etc., by which they 
 perceived that we were taken with 
 some jealousies and fears of their in- 
 tentions, etc., they did accept of our 
 answer, and did now declare their in- 
 tentions to be only to regulate all plan- 
 tations to be subordinate to the said 
 Commission ; and that they meant to 
 continue our liberties, etc., and there- 
 fore did now again peremptorily require 
 the Governor to send them our patent 
 by the first ship ; and that in the mean 
 
 time they did give us, by that order, 
 full power to go on in the government 
 of the people until we had a new patent 
 sent us ; and, withal, they added threats 
 of further course to be taken with us, if 
 we failed. This order being imparted 
 to the next General Court, some advised 
 to return answer to it. Others thought 
 fitter to make no answer at all, because, 
 being sent in a private letter, and not 
 delivered by a certain messenger, as 
 the former order was, they could not 
 proceed upon it, because they could 
 not have any proof that it was delivered 
 to the Governor ; and order was taken, 
 that Mr. Cradock's agent, who delivered 
 the letter to the agent, etc., should, in 
 his letters to his master, make no men- 
 tion of the letters he delivered to the 
 Governor, seeing his master had not 
 laid any charge upon him to that end." 
 (Wintlirop, I. 298, 299.) 
 
 2 History, I. 86, 87. — " If the earth 
 will not help the woman, let her go 
 into another wilderness." Such was 
 the language of the times, borrowed 
 from Rev. xii. 6, 14, 16.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 It was while events were ripening for the overthrow of 
 the English throne and church, that the ten years had 
 passed since the arrival of Winthrop's company in Massa- 
 chusetts Bay. From the time of the dissolution of his 
 third Parliament, King Charles had ruled with absolute 
 authority. After reducing his expenses by a 
 
 Despotism *^ , . . 
 
 of Charles suddcu aud inglorious peace with both France 
 and Spain, still he wanted money, which he pro- 
 ceeded to raise by illegal impositions. Duties on im- 
 ported merchandise were exacted, in contempt of the 
 denial of a Parliamentary grant ; and customs were levied, 
 unknown to former practice. Compositions with Papists 
 for breaches of the laws became a permanent resource of 
 the exchequer. Titles to crown lands anciently alienated 
 by the crown were scrutinized, and, on pretence of some 
 defect, fines were extorted from the possessors. A law, 
 long obsolete, had required landholders to the amount of 
 twenty pounds' yearly rent to receive knighthood when 
 summoned for that purpose ; Charles so far revived it as 
 to oblige all persons with twice that rental to buy a re- 
 lease from the liability. The charter of London was de- 
 clared forfeit, for some alleged irregularity of administra- 
 tion ; and the city only saved its legal existence by the 
 payment of a fine of seventy thousand pounds. In other 
 quarters enormous mulcts were exacted by the Star-Chamber 
 Court, on various pretexts. Monopolies were sold for the 
 manufacture and vending of necessary articles.^ Custom- 
 
 ^ " Salt, starch, coals, iron, -wine, lace, meat dressed in taverns (the vint- 
 pens, cards, dice, beavers, belts, bone- ners of London gave the king £ 6,000
 
 Chap. XIV.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 561 
 
 house officers were empowered to search warehouses and 
 dwellings. An early practice of requiring seaport towns 
 to furnish vessels for the king's service — which was the 
 same thing as for their own protection — had, for the con- 
 venience of both parties, led to a pecuniary com- Exaction of 
 mutation by what was called Ship-money. The s'''p-'""°pj'- 
 sovereign's right in respect to it had never received any 
 stricter definition than was furnished by the obvious con- 
 ditions of the case. Profiting by this vagueness, 1034. 
 Charles assessed ship-money on the whole king- O'^'"''^'"- 
 dom. By a fiction of state, the central counties were 
 held to bound upon the Channel, and Derbyshire and 
 Oxford were summoned to pay coin in the place of a 
 despatch of squadrons from their docks. 
 
 The spirit of Englishmen was not broken down to an 
 acquiescence in the encroachments of prerogative. But 
 where to find means of redress? There was no Parlia- 
 ment to provide new securities for the violated or threat- 
 ened liberties of the subject. There were no honest 
 tribunals to give him the benefit of those securities which 
 were his by ancient law. Prostitute officials did thor- 
 oughly the work of an insolent court. The twelve judges 
 endeavored to forestall public opinion by an extra-judicial 
 
 for freedom from this horrible imposi- pollers of the people. Like the frogs 
 
 tion), tobacco, wine-casks, game, brew- of Egypt, they have gotten the posses- 
 
 ing and distilling, lamprons, weighing sion of our dwellings, and we have 
 
 of hay and straw in London, gauging scarce a room free from them. They 
 
 of red herrings, butter<'asks, kelp and sup in our cup, they dip in our dish, 
 
 seaweed, linen cloth, rags, hops, but- they sit by our fire. We find them in 
 
 tons, hats, gut-string, spectacles, combs, the dye-fat, the wash-bowl, and the 
 
 tobacco-pipes, sedan chairs, and hack- powdering-tub. They share with the 
 
 ney-coaches (now first invented), salt- butler in his box. They have marked 
 
 petre, gunpowder, down to the privl- and sealed us from head to foot. ]\Ir. 
 
 lege of gathering rags exclusively, — all Speaker, they will not bate us a pin. 
 
 these things were subject to monopolies, "VVe may not buy our own clothes 
 
 and all heavily taxed." (John Forster, without their brokage." (Ibid., 64 ; a 
 
 Historical and Biographical Essays, I. quotation from a speech of Culpepper, 
 
 59.) — " It is a nest of wasps, or swarm — afterwards King Charles's Chancel- 
 
 of vermin, which have overcrept the lor of the Exchequer, — at the opening 
 
 land, — I mean the monoiwlers and of the Long Parliament.)
 
 562 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 argument of their own in favor of the legality of ship- 
 money. Some men of fortune and consequence, among 
 whom were Lord Say and Sele, William Vassall, and 
 John Hamj)den, were resolved to bring the question to 
 a trial. The case of Hampden, who was assessed twenty 
 shillings on a small property of his in a parish of Buck- 
 inghamshire, chanced to stand first of the three 
 
 1G37 
 
 on the docket. The Attorney-General and So- 
 licitor-General argued for the crown ; the Sergeants St. 
 John and Holborne were of counsel for Hampden. Finch, 
 the infamous Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and six 
 other judges, agreed in a judgment for the king. Bramp- 
 ston and Davenport, the heads respectively of the Courts 
 of King's Bench and of Exchequer, gave a qualified opin- 
 ion of the same tenor. The remaining three dissented, 
 notwithstanding their discreditable committal of themselves 
 before the trial. A decision, accompanied with all the 
 solemnities, had been pronounced by the highest English 
 tribunal. If it was necessarily good English law, then 
 had the king of England the unlimited power of the 
 purse, as well as of the sword. 
 
 The abuses of ecclesiastical authority were not less 
 exasperating and intolerable. William Laud, who, from 
 the time of the sequestration of the indulgent Arch- 
 bishop Abbot, had been virtually at the head of church 
 affairs, was able, when, on the death of that prelate, 
 he succeeded to the primacy, to pursue with 
 
 Archbishop _ •*- _ •' '■ 
 
 Laud. increasing facility his arbitrary course. He was 
 ^^^^' united in strict intimacy and harmonious policy 
 Avith Thomas Wentworth, now Earl of Strafford and 
 President of the Council of York, — before which tribu- 
 nal the northern counties were placed out of the protec- 
 tion of the courts in Westminster Hall ; and the friends 
 dedicated their joint forces to the ambition of the mon- 
 arch and the subjugation of the realm. Laud's special 
 province lay in the enforcement of severe laws of uni-
 
 Chap. XIV.] TURITAN TOLITICS IN ENGLAND. 563 
 
 formity, which his moderate predecessor had suffered to 
 go into neglect, and of new ecclesiastical ceremonies of 
 his own device ; in the exaltation of the sacerdotal char- 
 acter and power, and of the authority of the fathers 
 of the early Church ; ^ and in the prohibition of the 
 preaching of the doctrines of the Genevan Reformer. 
 A few specimens of his administration may indicate its 
 general tone. 
 
 One Lilburne was arraigned before the Star-Chamber 
 Court for publishing seditious writings. Refusing to an- 
 swer on oath certain interrogatories designed to make him 
 criminate himself, he was punished for contempt by being 
 whipped- and set in the pillory. From that stage 
 he addressed the by-standers, and scattered pam- 
 phlets among them, for which new offence he was 
 gagged, and imprisoned in irons.^ A book of a thou- 
 sand pages in quarto, against the amusements of the 
 theatre and the ball-room, written by William Prynne, 
 a barrister, had been licensed for publication by Ab- 
 bot's chaplain,^ It came to Laud's knowledge, who 
 thought he detected in it some allusion to the king and 
 queen. He certainly might have read in it some sharp 
 animadversions on the hierarchy, and on his own recent 
 innovations in the ritual ; and at his instance J634. 
 Prynne was sentenced by the Star-Chamber Court ^^^- ''' 
 to be degraded from the bar, to stand in the pillory at 
 two places in London and lose an ear at each, to be 
 branded on the forehead, to pay a fine of five thousand 
 
 1 It is now known — what at the time was informed, but perhaps without good 
 could only be surmised — that negotia- authority — Laud, with other prelates, 
 tions were carried on by Windebank, was prepared to be a party. See Hal- 
 Secretary of State, and Cottington, lam, Constitutional History, &c., Chap. 
 First Lord of the Treasury, with Pan- VIII. 
 
 zani, the Papal nuncio in London, for 2 Rushworth, Collections, &c., II. 
 
 a reconciliation of the English Church 4G6. 
 
 with that of Rome, and the acknowledg- 3 it -was entitled " Histrio-Mastix, the 
 
 ment of a sort of supremacy of the Holy Players' Scourge, or Actors' Tragedie," 
 
 See ; a measure to which — as Panzani &c.
 
 564 insTor.Y of new England. [Book i. 
 
 pounds, and to be imprisoned for life.* Prynne em- 
 ployed his prison leisure in another essay of the same 
 kind, for which he had to submit his ears a second 
 JC37. time to the hangman's knife, to be branded on 
 June 14. ]jQ^\^ cheeks, and to pay another fine of the same 
 amount. Burton, a clergyman, and Bastwick, a phy- 
 sician, both men of honorable repute, now suffered with 
 him the same mutilation and fine, for what were called 
 schismatical libels upon the ritual and government of the 
 1(^30. Church." Leighton, a Scotchman, for a simi- 
 Noven.ber. jg^j. offencc, was sentenced to be severely whijDped 
 twice, to be set in the pillory, to have his nose slit, his 
 cheeks branded, and his ears cut ofi", and then to be im- 
 prisoned for life.^ A person named Allinson, 
 
 1C34. 
 
 convicted of reporting that the Archbishop of 
 York had solicited the king for some toleration to the 
 Catholics, was fined a thousand pounds, whipped, set in 
 the pillory in four different towns, and bound to good 
 behavior for life.'' 
 
 Laud aimed at a higher quarry. Williams, Bishop of 
 Lincoln, formerly Lord Keeper, had abandoned his arbi- 
 trary principles, and provoked the displeasure of the pri- 
 mate, whose early patron he had been. On some trifling 
 1C37. pretence that he had attempted to suborn evi- 
 Juiy. clence, he was sentenced in the Star-Chamber 
 Court to suspension from his episcopal duties, to a fine of 
 ten thousand pounds, and to committal to the Tower dur- 
 ing the king s pleasure.'^ The officers employed to levy 
 the fine found in Williams's house some letters, thrown 
 by as waste-paper. One of them, addressed to him by 
 the master of Westminster School, contained references 
 to " a little hocus-pocus," and " a little urchin." On the 
 presumption that this language denoted Laud, the Bishop 
 
 1 Rushworth, Collectiona, &c., II. 3 Ibid., 57. 
 220-233. ^ Ibid., 26!). 
 
 2 Ibid., 382. 5 Ibid., 416 - 449.
 
 Chap. XIV.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 565 
 
 was sentenced to pay eight thousand pounds more, and 
 the writer of the letter ten thousand pounds, 1039. 
 besides having his ears nailed to a pillory set ^«''''"*'7- 
 up in front of his school, and then being imprisoned 
 during the king's pleasure.^ Impudent abuses of the 
 criminal law were paraded to the view of all classes of 
 Englishmen, to break them down by terror into uncon- 
 ditional submission to the arbitrary will of courtiers, and 
 so to the ulterior despotic projects of the court. 
 
 As yet there had been no effectual check to the down- 
 ward tendency of things. Without the combination of a 
 Parliament, the patriotic party was powerless against the 
 parasites of the council-chamber, the tribunals, and the 
 Church, and against the "divinity doth hedge a king." 
 There remained only the hope that an exchequer still 
 unprovided, after all the illegal expedients that had been 
 used, would sooner or later compel the infatuated mon- 
 arch to convene the estates of his realm. But the hope, 
 long deferred, had as yet little to reanimate it, when an 
 event occurred, but for which, in the opinion of wise 
 j udges, the liberties of Englishmen might for an indefinite 
 period have remained prostrate on their own soil." 
 
 No object was nearer to the hearts of the king and the 
 Archbishop than to establish the episcopal hierarchy and 
 ritual in Scotland, in uniformity with the system of the 
 southern kingdom, and to the exclusion of the outbreak at 
 Presbyterian order, which had been rooted in Edinburgii. 
 Scotland since the time of John Knox. It is not 
 within the purpose of this work to rehearse the meas- 
 ures which had been pursued with that aim. The day 
 arrived on which a liturgy, prepared by Laud and other 
 prelates, and only differing from the English ser- 1637, 
 vice-book in a nearer resemblance to the Romish •'"'>■ 2^- 
 missal, was appointed to be used in the great church 
 
 1 Rushworth, Collections, &c., 11. 2 Hume. Chap. LITL ; Hallam, Con- 
 803-817. stitutional History, Chap. VIII. 
 
 VOL. I. 48
 
 566 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 of St. Giles in Edinburgh. The vast space, now divided 
 among four churches, was filled with anxious and angry 
 men and women. The Chancellor and others of the 
 Privy Council, the two archbishops and other bishops of 
 Scotland, the dignitaries of the law, and the magistrates 
 of Edinburgh, were present in their robes. The Dean of 
 St. Giles's began the service. Instantly an outcry arose 
 about the mass, the Pope, and Antichrist. A woman, 
 Jenny Geddes by name, threw a stool at the Dean's 
 head,^ which scarcely missed him. A shower of stones 
 and cudgels followed. The Bishop of Edinburgh mount- 
 ed the pulpit, but could get no hearing. The magistrates, 
 commanded by the chancellor to interpose, succeeded in 
 ejecting the most noisy of the rioters. But the service 
 was with difficulty concluded, amidst the hooting of those 
 within, and the breaking of windows from the street ; 
 and the prelates were reviled and pelted as they passed on 
 foot from the church, — the Bishop of Edinburgh, it was 
 said, being placed in peril of his life. The Lord Privy 
 Seal, who, later in the day, conveyed the Bishop in his 
 coach, was scarcely protected by a party of armed ser- 
 vants. 
 
 Though as yet there was no proof that any persons 
 of consequence had patronized this violence, the court 
 thought it unsafe to repeat the experiment till the temper 
 of Scotland should be ascertained and soothed. But as 
 time passed, and credible indications showed that the 
 delay was only for the advantage of better opportunity, 
 
 1 Such is tho commonly received if not lost." (Larfje Declaration con- 
 version of the story. The king, how- cerning the Late Tumults in Scotland, 
 ever, says that it was a mitred head &c., 23.) Chambers says, in one work 
 ■which was the mark of this famous (History of Scotland, Vol. II. Chap, 
 missile. " If a stool, aimed to be II.), that the person so irreverently 
 thrown at him [the Bishop of Edin- treated was the Bishop of Edinburgh: 
 burgh], had not, by the providence of in another (History of Rebellions, &c., 
 God, been diverted by the hand of Chap. HI.), that it was the Dean of 
 one present, the life of that reverend St. Giles's. 
 Bishop had been endangered.
 
 Chap. XIV.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 567 
 
 the excitement was renewed, and now manifested itself 
 over a wider extent and in a more elevated sphere. There 
 was a great resort to Edinbnrgh. The populace, spread of the 
 in chase of the Bishop of Galloway, clamored at irscoUMd. 
 the door of the chamber where the Privy Council October. 
 were met, and threatened to force an entrance; and the 
 City Council had to apply to some popular noblemen for 
 protection. Petitions began to come in, each set bearing 
 signatures of more consideration than the last. 
 
 The king's fierce obstinacy, or evil fate, made him im- 
 movable against the representations urged by his own 
 creatures as to the critical state of affairs ; and before 
 long he had to hear that an extra-constitutional gov- 
 ernment was set up, consisting of four houses, called 
 The Tables. They w^ere composed respectively of nobles, 
 of gentry, of clergymen, and of burgesses. The move- 
 ment was no longer an aimless tumult of " base and 
 unruly people " ; ^ it was henceforward to be conducted 
 with equal dignity, order, address, and energy. The 
 " Covenant " — the first fruit of the new combination — 
 w^as subscribed with enthusiasm by persons of 
 
 '' ^ . 1638. 
 
 both sexes and all ranks throughout the king- 
 dom. Crowds pressed into the churchyards of Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow, to affix their names to it in characters 
 traced with their blood on parchment spread out upon 
 gravestones. It bound them together " until death," in 
 resistance to religious usurpation. 
 
 The mining and countermining of state contests suc- 
 ceeded ; — reluctant, insufficient, and suspected conces- 
 sions on the king's part, more comprehensive and reso- 
 lute demands on the other. At length his malignant 
 
 1 " These base and unruly people, Balaam's ass, to the upbraiding of all 
 
 •who were so much out in their first the rest of the land, when they should 
 
 act of rebellion, though they have cried and brayed as they did." 
 
 were but asses, yet they were cried up (King Charles, Large Declaration, &c., 
 
 for having their mouths opened im- 31.) 
 mediately by God, as the mouth of
 
 568 HISTOKY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 star led him to the North, to chastise the insolent re- 
 1639. bellion. In his army, of twenty thousand foot 
 Advance of and three thousand horse,-^ there was a halting 
 ln''a''rn,y to''' affection for tlio cause, and accordingly little 
 Scotland. Stomach for the fight. It was no mercenary 
 host, but composed of men who, from high to low, 
 had been outraged by the tyrannical conduct of the 
 reign. The king had not taken the rebels by surprise. 
 The Scottish general, Alexander Leslie, an experienced 
 soldier of the Continental wars, met him with a hasty 
 levy, but one scarcely less numerous than his own, — in- 
 spired with an ardor of purpose which was wholly 
 wanting to the royal troops,^ and officered by veterans 
 who had learned their art under Gustavus Adolphus, 
 and whom the danger of their country had now called 
 home. After some bloodless manoeuvring, in which 
 the king had the worst, he granted the insurgents a 
 " pacification " ; rather, we should say, they 
 granted it to him, for, with all their excite- 
 ment, they had leaders capable of seeing, that, at this 
 juncture, moderation on their part was policy. 
 
 Returning to London, the king at once found cause 
 to revise the decision to which the manifold perplexi- 
 
 1 This is Hume's estimate, in Chap, reconciled to such a sovereign ? " (Duke 
 Lin. According to Clarendon (Book of Argyll, Presbytery Examined, an 
 II.) the force consisted of about twelve Essay Critical and Historical on the 
 thousand men, half of them cavalry. Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, 1G8. 
 
 2 " It was an army full of ministers — My subject does not involve a retiu- 
 of religion, accoutred with swords and ??)e'of the religious politics of Scotland, 
 pistols; an army which assembled, at But I cannot refrain from professing 
 i)eat of drum, to engage in prayer ; an my obligations to a treatise, of which 
 army which was within itself a church, the reader hesitates whether most to 
 of which every corps possessed a presby- admire the thorough knowledge, the 
 tery, — and whose regiments were rep- sagacious discrimination, or the gen- 
 resented in a General Assembly ; an erous and religious tone. Such calm 
 armv encamped under a forest of ban- and wise surveys of an excited period 
 ners, on each of which was written in are among the gems of historical htera- 
 golden letters, ' For Christ's Crown ture.) 
 
 and Covenant.' Could such men be
 
 Chap. XIV.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 569 
 
 ties of the hour had brought him, for the dismission 
 of his array. The Parliament and the General Proceedings 
 Assembly of the northern kingdom, which had °^l^'^,^^°^' 
 been convened agreeably to a stipulation with "lentand 
 
 ^ •' . ^\ Assembly. 
 
 its army, proved contumacious. The Assembly 
 voted that episcopacy was unlawful in Scot- 
 land, that the Church canons and liturgy w^ere Popish, 
 and that the High-Commission Court was a tyranny ; 
 decisions which only a speedy prorogation prevented the 
 Parliament from confirming. Again the bewildered mon- 
 arch concluded that he must have recourse to arms. 
 But, the second time, it required to be done under more 
 painful conditions. The recent fruitless expedition had 
 exhausted the scanty accumulation of past years. The 
 illegal methods of obtaining revenue had proved insuf- 
 ficiently productive, and to strain the prerogative fur- 
 ther at such a time of general discontent was too perilous. 
 There remained no resource but the dreaded one of con- 
 voking a Parliament. The existence of a rebellion, and 
 that on the part of Scotchmen, with whom the feud of 
 past ages was not yet quieted, would afford strong 
 ground for appeals to the loyalty of the Commons of 
 England ; and some gracious concessions, fair words, and 
 dexterous management might do the rest. At all events, 
 in the circumstances, the measure was an apparent ne- 
 cessity. 
 
 After the longest vacation that it had ever witnessed, 
 the old Palace at Westminster gathered again ,,. 
 
 o o King 
 
 within its walls the lords, knights, and bur- <"i''ifies's 
 
 ^ Fourth 
 
 gesses of England. They proved to have come Parliament. 
 together in a wonderfully placid temper, con- i64o. 
 sidering the provocations which were uppermost '"' 
 in every man's thoughts. The business of the lower 
 House was opened by Mr. Pym with a recital of public 
 grievances,^ in which he was followed by other mem- 
 
 1 Parliamentary History, 11. 546-551. 
 48*
 
 570 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 bers. The relation of Puritan religion to English liber- 
 ties broke forth at once. " They have so brought it 
 to pass," said Sir Benjamin Kudyercl, " that under the 
 
 name of Puritan all our religion is branded 
 
 Whosoever squares his actions by any rule, either di- 
 vine or human, he is a Puritan. Whosoever would be 
 governed by the king's laws, he is a Puritan. He that 
 will not do whatsoever other men would have him do, 
 he is a Puritan." ^ When, at the end of a week, the 
 other House, on the instigation of the court, pressed for 
 an immediate supply, the Commons resented the intru- 
 sion. But the king made a personal appeal for twelve 
 subsidies ; and the money seemed on the point of being 
 given, had not his own arbitrary humor determined other- 
 wise. While things were in this posture, and it ap- 
 peared that a day's action might put them in a train 
 of permanent peace, he suddenly dissolved the 
 its^dissoiu- pai-iiament, to the consternation of his wisest 
 „ , friends, and the infinite content of those who 
 
 May 5. ' 
 
 already carried their distrust of him so far as 
 to hope that his perversity w^ould bring about his ruin. 
 Patriotic but loyal men went away, disgusted afresh 
 with the impracticable arrogance of a sovereign, whose 
 errors they had had but too much reason to condemn 
 . and deplore, but had not yet become indisposed to for- 
 give. 
 
 This error was repented of as soon as it was irre- 
 parable. The king consulted whether he could not con- 
 strue the dissolution as a prorogation merely, and, being 
 advised that this was impossible, complained impotently 
 of the malign influence which had misguided him into 
 such a fault." 
 
 It w^as with no discouragement as to the prospect of 
 future Parliaments, that the popular leaders saw him 
 
 1 Rushworth, Collections, IV. 24 ; May, 2 Clarendon, Book II. 
 History of the Long Parliament, 73.
 
 CnAP. XIV.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 571 
 
 collect from private lenders the sum of three hundred 
 thousand pounds for another campaign. It was much * 
 to have reduced him to that resource, which they well 
 knew was one to be speedily exhausted, leaving none 
 in its place but that public treasury which the Com- 
 mons would supply in their own time and on their 
 own terms. His spiritless and disaffected army was 
 beaten by the Scots at Newburn in a skirmish 
 which cost little blood, compared with its impor- army beaten 
 tance as a political indication. Having crossed ^^ "'" ^''°''' 
 the river Tyne, the victors continued to ad- ^"s-ss. 
 Vance, sending apologies and assurances of loyalty to 
 their retreating king. His money was spent. His ill- 
 paid and undisciplined troops were not far from a 
 general mutiny, while some of those about his person 
 murmured the more from mortification at their own 
 misconduct in the field. Again he consented to treat. 
 Meanwhile, intensely dreading a House of Commons, 
 he revived a custom long disused, and convoked o.uncii of 
 at York a Council of Peers. But the peers saw ^''"'• 
 nothing better to advise than submission to the hated 
 necessity of another Parliament : and, before the 
 
 . Sept. 24. 
 
 year was out, it was assembled, the last with 
 which the infatuated monarch was to contend. Mean- 
 while, a truce for two months with the invaders Tmcewith 
 
 1 1 r» 1 i ,1 the Scots. 
 
 was arranged on snamelui terms, — among others, 
 that, during its continuance, they should re- ^"^^ ^^' 
 ceive eight hundred and fifty pounds a day, and that, in 
 default of payment, they might force it from the north- 
 ern counties, where they were also provided with winter 
 quarters. 
 
 The history of the assembly known as the Lone/ Par- 
 liament is too familiar for even a brief recital Kin? 
 of it in this place. After so much wrons^ en- !;''"'®^'^. 
 
 i- S> Fifth Parha- 
 
 dured, so much alarm, and so much patience, ^ent. 
 the recovery and security of the liberties of Eng- ^°^- ^-
 
 572 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 lishmen seemed to require that the false and headstrong 
 king, and some of the foremost of his incorrigible ac- 
 complices, should be severely dealt with. The king, 
 through the Lord Keeper, one of his most hated tools, 
 communicated his wants, and made gracious promises. 
 The patriotic party knew the extent of the embarrass- 
 ments, and the worth of the professions. Following a 
 precedent which they affirmed to be of immemorial au- 
 thority, the House of Commons took up the 
 
 Nov. 9. . . 
 
 subject of grievances before that of grants. They 
 impeached of high-treason the Archbishop of Canterbury ; 
 Wren, Bishop of Norwich ; Finch, Lord Keeper ; and 
 the Earl of Strafford. Finch fled to Holland; Wren 
 lay twenty years in the Tower; Laud went from it, 
 after four years, to execution ; Strafford, condemned 
 1G41. by a bill of attainder, was presently beheaded, 
 May 12. -^^^-iJej. a warrant from his faithless master. 
 Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick, discharged from prison, 
 and reimbursed for their fines by a fine laid on the Lords 
 who had condemned them in the Star Chamber, were 
 escorted into London by an exulting cavalcade of five 
 thousand men and women decked with rosemary and 
 bays,^ followed by a vast throng on foot. Numbers of 
 less conspicuous sufferers from the abuses of recent times 
 were released and indemnified. 
 
 The assessment of ship-money and compositions for 
 knighthood were condemned by Parliament, as contrary 
 to law and justice. The patents of .monopoly 
 meai^nres aud tho judgmcut against Hampden were can- 
 o reorm. ^^|j^^| r^^^^ absoluto coutrol of thc Commons 
 over tonnage and poundage was affirmed in peremptory 
 terms. The Council of York and the Courts of Star- 
 Chamber and High-Commission were abolished by unani- 
 mous votes of both Houses ; and with the Star-Chamber 
 
 1 Clarendon, Book III. ; I\Iay, 79.
 
 CuAP. XIV.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 573 
 
 fell the authority of royal proclamations, the function of 
 enforcing them belonging to that court. Patents of judi- 
 cial office were to run henceforward during good behavior, 
 and not, as had been the practice, during the royal pleas- 
 ure. Parliament assumed the payment of the armies of 
 both England and Scotland, while they should be con- 
 tinued on foot. Officers professing the Catholic religion 
 were discharged. " Scandalous " ministers were censured 
 and displaced. Deprived and imprisoned clergymen were 
 released, and restored to their cures. The forest laws were 
 revised and expurgated. Provision was made for triennial 
 Parliaments, with curiously elaborate securities for their 
 convocation, and with the unprecedented privilege of 
 exemption from being adjourned, prorogued, or dissolved, 
 except by their own consent. It was enacted that no Privy 
 Counsellor, officer of state, or iudjje, should be 
 
 ' O n ' Its proroga- 
 
 appointed without the Parliament's approbation. t'^>"- 
 At the adjournment of this eventful session, a ^^p'-^' 
 committee was raised to sit during the recess, clothed 
 with almost sovereign powers. 
 
 Before its close, the hing set off for Scotland, ostensibly 
 to superintend the measures, to which he had 
 been brought to consent, for the settlement of 
 that kingdom and the disbanding of the armies. The 
 Lords and Commons reassembled but three days 
 
 •' Irish re- 
 
 before the breaking out of that sanguinary Po- beiuon. 
 pish rebellion in Ireland, which the king, in the 
 exasperation of the time, did not escape the charge of 
 having contrived or favored. Parliament assumed the 
 conduct of the war, which in a letter from Scotland he 
 had "wholly committed to their care and wisdom";^ and 
 they proceeded to levy money for its j)rosecution, and to 
 take arms from the royal magazines. The committee, 
 raised at the close of the preceding session, reported 
 
 1 Clarendon, Book IV.
 
 574 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 what was called a Remonstrance, reviewing with severe 
 Grand Re- animadvcrsion the administration of public affairs 
 monstrance, through the fifteen years from the beginning of 
 the reign to the existing Parliament.^ All the influence 
 of the Court, and all parliamentary devices, were employed 
 
 to prevent its approval by the House of Commons. 
 
 But it was adopted, presented by a committee to 
 the king, and then printed for effect upon the people.^ 
 
 In this course of measures, if the Commons had taken 
 the lead, they had for the most part carried the concur- 
 rence of the Lords, and, with their help, had obtained 
 
 the hard wruns^ consent of the sorely embar- 
 
 Revival of ... 
 
 loyal senti- rasscd klug. Reaction is always to be expected 
 from such excitements of the public mind; and 
 the king, had he been wiser, might have taken the flood 
 of a loyal sympathy at the turn of tide. When he came 
 from the north, the city, which had of late abounded in 
 expressions of resentment, welcomed him with a 
 
 Nov. 25. . 
 
 magnificent feast at Guildhall, with a numerous 
 
 1 A flood of light has just now been and Illustrations of the Great Rebel- 
 thrown on the character and relations lion." A glance at its contents makes 
 of this great measure, in the " Essay on me regret that I was not earlier ac- 
 the Grand Remonstrance," in the first quainted with a work so promising of 
 volume of Mr. John Forster's " HIstori- instruction. 
 
 cal and Biographical Essays." The - The measure was carried, at the 
 
 materials for this new illustration have end of a session of fourteen hours, by 
 
 been drawn by Mr. Forster, with great only 159 A'otes against 148. After the 
 
 industry, from notes which were taken division Cromwell told Lord Falkland, 
 
 from day to day by Sir Simonds d'Ewes, as they passed together from the House, 
 
 a member of the Parliament, and which that, if it had been lost, " he would 
 
 are preserved in manuscript in the Brit- have sold all he had the next morning, 
 
 ish Museum. Li mental structure and and never have seen England more." 
 
 tastes Sir Simonds bore some rescm- (Clarendon, Book IV.) 
 blance to the best and most absurd of From a sentence in the Remonstrance, 
 
 biographers; and by force of qualities it appears that the value of a siihsithj 
 
 which thoy had in common, he drew (see above, p. 247, note 1) was at this 
 
 almost as life-like an image of the Long time fifty thousand pounds. " Six sub- 
 
 l^arliament, as Boswell produced of his sidles have been granted, and a bill of 
 
 hero. poll-money, which, if it be duly levied, 
 
 While this sheet is in the composi- may equal six subsidies more, in all six 
 
 tor's hands, I obtain my first sight of lumdred thousand pounds." (Parlia- 
 
 Mr. John Langton Sanford's " Studies mentary History, 11. 95G.)
 
 Chap, XIV.] PUEITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 575 
 
 attendance on his way to Westminster, and -with other 
 unwonted tokens of respect. ISIany, who had been act- 
 ing against him, now thought, and some said freely and 
 angrily, that he had been dealt with rigo-rously enough 
 for punishment, and had been sufficiently disarmed of 
 power to do further mischief ; and that the E,emon- 
 strance was an unnecessary and vindictive measure. He 
 chose this time to do an act to confound his friends, and 
 prove to doubters that they who most severely judged 
 him knew him best. 
 
 Singling out Lord Kimbolton, afterwards Earl of Man- 
 chester, and five commoners, HoUis, Hazelrigg, Hamp- 
 den, Pym, and Strode, as objects of his special 
 vengeance for the part taken by them in the re- attempt to 
 cent measures, he sent the Attorney-General to ^erronhr' 
 the House of Lords to arraiojn them for hi*]:!!- Housoof 
 
 ^ *-' Commons. 
 
 treason, and a sergeant-at-arms to demand the 
 five members of the House of Commons. Instead of 
 surrendering them, the House resolved that the attemjot 
 to apprehend them was a breach of its privileges, and 
 passed a vote for the security of their persons and prop- 
 erty. Transported beyond all bounds of prudence, the 
 king undertook their arrest in person. He came 1(340 
 the next day to the House of Commons with •''^"•^• 
 two or three hundred armed attendants. The Countess 
 of Carlisle, a lady about the court, had sent intelligence 
 of his purpose to the persons accused, just in time for 
 them to escape by one door as the king reached the other. 
 Leaving his guard outside, he passed up the hall, while 
 the members stood uncovered. The Speaker came down 
 from his chair, and the king, standing before it, in- 
 quired whether any of the members whom he had im- 
 peached were present. The Speaker, dropping on his 
 knee, asked pardon for saying that in that place he 
 had no eyes to see, nor tongue to speak, except as the 
 House, whose servant he was, should direct. Glancing
 
 576 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 around the room, the king said in a short speech, that 
 he had come to serve the process which yesterday, in the 
 hands of his officers, had been evaded ; but that, since he 
 saw " the birds were flown," he should expect them to be 
 sent to him by the House as soon as they should return. 
 As he passed from the hall, there was a cry from the 
 members of " Privilege ! privilege ! " The House imme- 
 diately adjourned to the next day, and the five members 
 withdrew to the city, which had its train-bands under 
 arms all night. 
 
 Nothing could have more exasperated and at the same 
 time emboldened the Commons, than this display of pas- 
 sionate impotence. When they met again, they raised 
 a committee to report on the recent transaction, then ad- 
 journed, and repeated their adjournments from day to 
 day. At length, at the end of a week, they entered St. 
 Stephen's Chapel in procession, having been es- 
 
 Procession i i • i i i • i t 
 
 oftiieiiouso corted thither, partly on the river by armed ves- 
 ^owZTZZ sels and city barges, partly along the thorough- 
 ^'"jan. n. f^i'cs of London and Westminster by the city 
 train-bands under Philip Skippon, whom they had 
 made Major-General. The king had withdrawn from 
 Whitehall to Hampton Court the night before, at once to 
 escape so disagreeable a neighborhood, and to digest his 
 intense mortification for the issue of his folly. He had 
 departed alive from his metropolitan palace for the last 
 time. 
 
 The vexation and discouragement of the king's friends 
 facilitated the measures of opposition. Acts passed the 
 Houses for the exclusion of the Bishops from the House 
 of Peers, and for the pressing of troops, both which re- 
 ceived the royal sanction. At len^rth the decisive 
 
 Kill to cive •' o 
 
 Parliament g^Qp -^yas takcu of DassincT a bill for nominat- 
 
 tbe control of "^ i o 
 
 the militia, ing thc Commanding officers of the militia in the 
 
 February, g^^y^^^.j^j countics, and making them responsible 
 
 to Parliament and not to the king. This was seizing
 
 Chap. XIV.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 577 
 
 the power of the sword, as that of the purse had ah-eady 
 been secured. 
 
 Down to this time, it may be presumed that Charles 
 had flattered himself with the idea of having made no 
 important concessions but such as under future 
 more favorable circumstances he might revoke, resolution 
 But now he was called upon to surrender the 
 
 March. 
 
 instrument needful for the recovery of what had 
 been resigned. Here then he turned, and stood at bay. 
 First he temporized and argued. Next, taking his two 
 sons, he moved northwards to York, whither he was fol- 
 lowed by numerous nobles and gentlemen. When, from 
 this distance, he retorted the charges of the Parliament in 
 a bolder tone, they proceeded to measures for officering 
 the militia, and taking possession of the garrisons. At 
 Hull was a magazine of military stores, which the king 
 would have seized ; and he presented himself be- 
 fore the town for that purpose. But the Gov- 
 ernor held it for the Parliament, and denied him en- 
 trance. Messages, declarations, popular appeals in proc- 
 lamations and counter-proclamations, succeeded to each 
 other. The king rejected a basis of settlement offered 
 him by Parliament in nineteen " propositions." Beginning of 
 At last, feeling strong enough for the final * ^ j^^^^ ^"" 
 arbitrament of Avar, he set up his standard at Aug. 22. 
 Nottingham, and called on all good subjects to rally to 
 the rescue of the throne. 
 
 For nearly a year and a half his affairs went on not 
 unprosperously, and England was in serious danger of be- 
 ing reduced to the condition of Spain. The Earl of AVar- 
 wick, the Parliament's Admiral, got possession of the fleet 
 with little difficulty, and kept the sea with good security 
 against aid to the royal cause from the ports of France and 
 Holland. But the Earl of Essex, general-in-chief for the 
 Parliament, though a man of eminent probity and cour- 
 age, had neither military genius nor diligent enterprise. 
 
 VOL. I. 49
 
 578 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 His levies were not of a character to be opposed, on equal 
 terms, to the dashing spirits that gathered round the royal 
 standard. Nor was there wanting a suspicion, on the part 
 of the more ardent patriots, that he did not desire a vic- 
 tory over the king more decisive than would suffice to dis- 
 courage and humble him. The battle of Edgehill, fought 
 against Essex by the king's nephew, the German 
 Prince Rupert, was claimed as a triumph by the 
 royal party. After more than one abortive attempt at 
 pacification, — in which Parliament abated little of the 
 rigor of its demands, — and not a few fluctuations of 
 1C43. unimportant success and failure at York, at Staf- 
 May-juiy. {q^.^^ ^^ Bradoo Down, at Stratton, at Lansdown, 
 at Roundway Down, and elsewhere, the king took 
 Bristol, then the second most considerable city in 
 the kingdom, by storm ; and, according to a reasonable 
 opinion of that day, as well as of times more recent, he 
 might have occupied London and ended the contest, had 
 he pushed on while the panic from the great disaster in 
 the West was fresh. 
 
 Rupert, however, or the king, determined not to leave 
 Gloucester in the rear. That city was held for the Par- 
 liament by a resolute and skilful officer. During the 
 slow progress of the siege which followed. Parliament 
 had time for new arrangements, till Gloucester, after be- 
 ing reduced to the last extremity, was at length relieved by 
 a reinforcement, which reached Lord Essex, of militia from 
 London ; and the campaign closed with the battle 
 of Newbury, contested stoutly with large forces, 
 but with undecisive success. The great event of the sea- 
 son was the death of Hampden, from wounds 
 
 June 18-24. . r i i l 1 J 
 
 received by him on Chalgrave field, at the nead 
 
 of a small force of cavalry, which he had suddenly raised 
 
 to intercept Prince Rupert. When Pym died, six months 
 
 later, the patriotic party had lost the guides who, 
 
 by general consent, were most competent to con-
 
 Chap. XIV.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 579 
 
 duct it through the difficulties of the undertaking in 
 which it was engaged. 
 
 The progress of the royal arms in the West had been 
 partially counterbalanced in the North by the successes 
 of Sir Thomas Fairfax at Wakefield, and of Oliver Crom- 
 well at Gainsborough ; and the victory won at Atherton 
 Moor by the royalist Earl of Newcastle over Lord Fair- 
 fax, and that of Cromwell and Sir Thomas Fairfax at 
 Horncastle, alternately raised and depressed the trem- 
 bling scales. When the armies wen.t into winter quar- 
 ters, Parliament applied itself with diligence to rousing 
 again the spirit of the Scots. In the result of the nego- 
 tiation, mainly due, as was thought, to the energy and 
 address of Sir Henry Vane, the former Governor of 
 Massachusetts, a " Solemn League and Covenant " was 
 subscribed by the Convention of Scotland and by the 
 English Parliament, both of which bodies also imposed 
 it on all office-holders, civil, ecclesiastical, and military. 
 And a second time a Scottish army crossed the 1044. 
 border, now twenty-one thousand strong, and ''*°"'"'^- 
 again under the command of the same experienced soldier 
 of the Continental wars, recently ennobled by Charles as 
 Earl of Leven. It was destined not to retrace its march 
 till it should have obtained the disposal of the person 
 of its king. 
 
 Of this course of events in the mother country the 
 guides of New-England politics were no un- ^^^^^^^^^^f 
 concerned observers ; nor is it possible to ffet a ""'"' 'f""^- 
 
 ■•■ " ^ artioiis on 
 
 correct view of some of their proceedings with- NewEng- 
 
 . 1-1 1 i. ^^nd politics. 
 
 out attention to what was taking place about 
 the same time on the other side of the water. When 
 Massachusetts, on the news of the appointment of a Gen- 
 eral Governor, spent a few hundreds of pounds to put 
 her plank forts in order, the scheme and the means of 
 resistance provoke a smile of surprise. But, among their 
 observations on the state of things in the parent country,
 
 580 HISTORY or NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 the Massachusetts fathers did not overlook the fact, that 
 English ships would he manned from Puritan ports, — 
 those same ports, whose sailors not long hefore had re- 
 fused to serve against the Huguenots of Rochelle,^ and 
 not long after, when the civil war broke out, turned over 
 the king's fleets to the Parliament's Admiral. And when 
 they sent their bold denial of the last demand made in 
 King Charles's reign for the transmission of the charter,^ 
 it may be presumed that it was not without considera- 
 tion of those pregnant transactions in Scotland, which 
 for more than a year had fixed the attention of Eng- 
 lishmen in every region of the globe. 
 
 The reader is aware, that, while some of the asso- 
 ciates in the Massachusetts Company emigrated to this 
 continent to carry out its plan, others, who had either 
 never contemplated that step, or who had been led by 
 the later course of events to reconsider it, acquired distinc- 
 tion at home in the civil or the military service during 
 the struggles of the Long Parliament and the Common- 
 wealth.^ How far the leaders in New England had 
 active participation in those transactions which preceded 
 and attended the overthrow of the hierarchy and the 
 throne, is a question which does not fail to arrest the 
 thoughts of the attentive observer of that period. There 
 is manifest reason for supposing that, under circumstances 
 so interesting to them in common, there would be free in- 
 terchange of thought between the patriots on the opposite 
 shores ; and the intimate personal relations, which many 
 of them had mutually sustained, convert this probability 
 into a sort of certainty. It would be interesting. in the 
 highest degree to know the communications which, during 
 the first three decades of years after the transfer of the 
 
 ^ It has been noticed (sec above, those whose rehgious overpowered their 
 
 p. 2G6, note) that even the loyal political affinities on this occasion. 
 
 Gorges, whose shadow so haunted the 2 See above, p. 556. 
 
 Massachusetts worthies, was one of 3 gee above, pp. 304, 305.
 
 Chap. XIV.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 581 
 
 charter of Massachusetts, passed across the water between 
 men aUied by personal confidence and by a common de- 
 votion to the noblest objects.^ But, as yet, curiosity as 
 to such intercourse has very partial gratification. In the 
 alarm of the Restoration, there was a large destruction of 
 papers in families connected with the resistance to the 
 king ; ^ and, though treasures of this kind survived, for 
 the most part they were presently lost sight of, and it is 
 probable that many exist, which have not yet found their 
 way again to the light.^ 
 
 A singular recognition of the relation of New Eng- 
 land to the parent country appeared soon after NewEng- 
 the Long Parliament addressed itself to the ref- ^l"^ i""",gj 
 ormation of religious affairs. A letter from »" t''" ^^est- 
 
 '-' minster As- 
 
 five peers and thirty-four other persons (mem- sembiyof 
 
 1 r» 1 X TT 1 • • \ Divines. 
 
 bers ot the Lower House and ministers) was 1043. 
 received by Cotton of Boston, Hooker of Hart- '^«i'^«'"»'"- 
 ford, and Davenport of New Haven, urging them " to 
 come over with all possible speed, all or any of them," 
 to give their help " for the settling and composing the 
 affairs of the church." "* The Act of* Parlia- ,043. 
 ment convoking the Westminster Assembly of •'""'' ^'- 
 Divines was not passed till the following summer. But 
 the measure had been proposed several months 1C4,. 
 before the invitations were despatched, and there December. 
 
 1 The Idem scntire de repuhllcd. 3 Lady Whitelocke burned quantities 
 
 2 A friend Avho made the inquiry of of her husband's manuscripts. (Lord 
 a near relative of the Duke of Cleve- Campbell, Lives of the Chancellors, 
 land, the representative of Sir Henry III. 386.) The recent publication of 
 Vane, informed me that Vane's papers the Fairfax Papers inspires the hope 
 of the period in question bad not been that more of the same kind may be 
 preserved. I had similar information forthcoming. Thev were found, in 
 from the family of Lord Say and Sele, 1822, at Leeds Castle, in an old chest, 
 in respect to their ancestor; and less under a heap of Dutch tiles, which 
 directly I was told the same thinp; re- seemed to fill it. 
 
 specting the archives of the houses of ^ Hutchinson (I. Ill) has printed 
 Warwick and Kensington, representing this letter, with the names of the si"n- 
 respectively Greville Lord Brooke, and ers. 
 Rich, Earl of Warwick. 
 
 49*
 
 582 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 can be little doubt that they had reference to it, and 
 were prompted by the desire of eminent persons, disposed 
 to the most radical reforms in church government, to re- 
 sist the Presbyterian influence, which was expected to 
 prove strong in that body.^ Oliver Cromwell, Nathaniel 
 Fiennes, Sir Arthur Hazelrigg, and Oliver St. John were 
 among the signers of the letter. 
 
 Davenport would have gone, but could not obtain the 
 consent of his church. Cotton was of the same mind, 
 but was not inclined to go alone. And Hooker, who 
 at the time was engaged upon a plan of church govern- 
 ment for New England on the Congregational or Inde- 
 pendent model, " liked not the business, nor thought 
 it any sufficient call for them to go three thousand 
 miles." " There was no doubt an apprehension of getting 
 involved in the ecclesiastical politics of the mother coun- 
 try, whatever might there be the ultimate turn of events. 
 Presbytery would never take root in New England. A 
 feeble attempt to introduce it at Boston, after the meet- 
 ing of the Assembly of Divines, by some persons from 
 abroad, only served to show how alien the system was 
 from the sentiments and habits of the place.'"' 
 
 It was certainly far from being through any indis- 
 position to influence the great aflairs then in progress 
 in England, that the invitations addressed to the minis- 
 ters were declined. Little time had passed, after the 
 temper of Kins: Charles's last Parliament be^an 
 
 Mission to ^ . . ° 1 -!-» ^ o 1 
 
 England, to maulfcst Itsclf, when Hugh Peter of Salem 
 1641. and Thomas Welde of Roxbury, with William 
 Hibbens, a merchant of Boston, were appoint- 
 ed " to go for England upon some weighty occasions 
 for the good of the country, as was conceived."^ It 
 
 1 Winthrop, II. 7G; comp. 137. 4 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 332. — "With 
 
 2 Il)i(l.. II. 76. them went one of the magistrates, 
 
 3 Hutchinson, I. 112. I have ob- Mr. John Winthrop, Jr." (Winthrop, 
 served no mention of this transaction II. 31.) 
 
 earlier than Hutchinson's.
 
 Chap. XIV.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 583 
 
 is perhaps not owing to accident that their instructions 
 have not been preserved. Winthrop says : " They [the 
 General Court] thought fit to send some chosen men 
 into England to congratulate the happy success there, 
 and to satisfy our creditors of the true cause why we 
 could not make so current payment now as in former 
 years we had done, and to be ready to make use of any 
 opportunity God should offer for the good of the coun- 
 try here, as also to give any advice, as it should be re- 
 quired, for the settling of the right form of church 
 discipline there; but with this caution, that they should 
 not seek supply of our wants in any dishonorable way, 
 as by begging or the like, for we were resolved to wait 
 upon the Lord in the use of all means which were 
 lawful and honorable." ^ It may be presumed to have 
 been through the influence of these envoys, that 1C43. 
 an Act of Parliament was passed relieving all ^'"'^^lo. 
 commodities carried between England and New Eng- 
 land from the payment of " any custom, subsidy, taxa- 
 tion, imposition, or other duty," till the further order 
 of the House of Commons.^ It is also known, that 
 
 1 Winthrop, II. 31; comp. 25, 2G. did not like to have the question moved, 
 
 — It is probable that AVinthrop (II. 42) or to have anything done which could 
 
 refers to a proceeding of these agents, be construed as a recognition, on the 
 
 •when he writes, in September, 1641: part of Massachusetts, of foreign au- 
 
 " Some of ouji people, being then in thority. On this point his vigilance 
 
 London, prere^'red a petition to the never relaxed. "Some of our friends 
 
 Lords' House, for redress of that re- there [in England] wrote to us advice 
 
 straint which had been put upon ships to send over some to solicit for us in 
 
 and passengers to New England ; where- the Parliament, giving us hope that we 
 
 upon an order was made that we should might obtain much, &c. But, consult- 
 
 enjoy all our liberties, &c., according ing about it, we declined the motion, 
 
 to our patent; whereby our patent, for this consideration, that, if we should 
 
 which had been condemned, and called put ourselves under the protection of 
 
 in upon an erroneous judgment in a the Parliament, we must then be sul>- 
 
 quo loarranto, was now implicitly re- ject to all such laws as they should 
 
 vived and confirmed." While com- make, or at least such as they might 
 
 memorating the benefit, he is, however, impose upon us." (Winthrop, II. 25.) 
 
 careful to add: "This petition was 2 gge Hazard, I. 494. — In the use 
 
 preferred without warrant from our of a remarkable phraseology, this Act 
 
 Court." (Comp. above, p. 643.) He calls New England "that kingdom," as if
 
 584 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 part of their business was to collect funds for the preach- 
 ing of the Gospel to the natives.^ On the trial of Hugh 
 Peter after the Restoration, a witness testified to having 
 heard him say, that he had been sent from New Eng- 
 land " to promote the interest of reformation, by stirring 
 up the war, and driving it on " ; ^ and, "vvith due allowance 
 for the language, this cannot be deemed unlikely to have 
 been true. Neither Peter nor his clerical companion ever 
 returned to America. For twenty years the former was 
 a busy actor in the revolutionary movements of the 
 time, till the restoration of Charles the Second brought 
 him to the block. Welde, whose agency was less promi- 
 nent, though not inconsiderable, was, on the resti- 
 tution of the old order of things, ejected from a 
 church which he had been serving, and is believed to 
 have died soon after. 
 
 One all-important consequence of the meeting of the 
 Long Parliament had been immediately apparent in rela- 
 tion to New England. It put a final stop to the 
 uMcTo" emigration.^ At the end of ten years from A¥in- 
 emigration. .ti^j-op's arrlval, about twenty-one thousand Eng- 
 lishmen, or four thousand families, including the 
 few hundreds who were here before him, had come over, in 
 three hundred vessels, at a cost of two hundred thousand 
 
 pounds sterling.'* During the century and a quarter that 
 
 ■i. 
 
 acknowledging it to be an independent ^ Account of the TrL t of Twenty- 
 power. The preamble recites, that " the nine Regicides, 170. 
 plantations in New England have, by 3 " The Parliament of England set- 
 the blessing of Almighty God, had good ting upon a general reformation both 
 and prosperous success, idthout any of church and state, the Earl of Straf- 
 jmhlic charge to tJtls stain." ford being beheaded, and the Archbish- 
 1 In the Bodleian Library at Oxford op, our great enemy, and many others 
 is a collection of manuscript papers of of the great officers and judges, bishops 
 Welde, chiefly relating to this part of and others, imprisoned and called to 
 liis commission. A copy is in the Li- account, this caused all men to stay 
 brary of Harvard College. The read- in England in expectation of a new 
 er of them infers that the business of world." (Winthro|), 11. 31.) 
 evangelizing the Indians was not prom- "* " The number of ships," says John- 
 inent among Welde's objects, and still son, " that transymrted passengers in this 
 less among those of Peter. space of time [" fifteen years' space to
 
 Chap. XIV.] PURITAN POLITICS IN ENGLAND. 585 
 
 passed between that time and the publication of the first 
 volume of Hutchinson's History, it is believed that 
 " more had gone from hence to England, than had come 
 from thence hither";^ nor did anything that can be called 
 an immigration occur again till after Boston was two 
 hundred years old. From the day of the summoning of 
 Charles's fifth Parliament, there was the prospect of a fair 
 field to fight out the battle of freedom at home, and the 
 expatriation of patriotic English ceased with the existence 
 of its motive. 
 
 Nor did the tide of emigration merely stop flowing. It 
 turned back. The ranks of opposition, civil and military, 
 in the parent country, were swelled by accessions from 
 New England. Stephen Winthrop, son of the 
 
 #0 ^ 1^ ' ^ Return of 
 
 Governor, became one of the Parliament's Major- emierants 
 Generals ; Robert Sedgwick, of Charlestown, one 
 of Cromwell's ; and John Leverett (subsequently Gov- 
 ernor of Massachusetts) one of his subalterns, having 
 left the colony for that purpose at an early period of the 
 troubles. Stoughton, the Massachusetts leader in the 
 Pequot war, and George Fenwick, of Saybrook,~ went 
 over to command reo:iments in the Parliament's ser- 
 
 'O 
 
 the year 1 043"], as is supposed, is 298. expense was approved, in the third 
 
 Men, women, and children, passing over following generation, by that very in- 
 
 this wide ocean, as near as at present telligent and well-informed writer, Jer- 
 
 can be gathered, is also supposed to be emiah Dummer. (Defence of the New- 
 
 21,200, or thereabout." (Wonder- England Charter^, 13; comp.Oldmixon, 
 
 Working Providence, Chap. XIV.) British Empire, &c., I. 81 ; Hutchinson, 
 
 The whole sum expended in their estab- History, I. 91.) Dummer restricts the 
 
 lishment in New England, including tlie estimated expenditure to " the single 
 
 transportation of themselves and of their province of the Llassachusetts Bay." 
 effects, and the cost of their arms and i Hutchinson, Preface, vii. 
 amraunition,of their materials for build- 2 Fenwick attained various honors, 
 
 ing, and of their food till they had time He was one of the Board of Commis- 
 
 to produce it, was estimated in that sioners for Plantations ; a Commissioner 
 
 generation at "one hundred ninety- for the treaty with Scotland in 164G; 
 
 two thousand pound, besides that which a Commissioner for regulating the af- 
 
 the Adventurers laid out in England." fairs of Scotland in 1651; and Gov- 
 
 (Ibid., Chap. XIII.) This estimate of ernor of Berwick in 1G52. In 1G56 he
 
 586 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 vice. Samuel Desborough, of Guilford, was, by the 
 Protector, made Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. 
 Hugh Peter and Thomas Welde, sent over by Mas- 
 sachusetts to look after its affairs, both rose to in- 
 fluence with Cromwell, and the former, as his chaplain, 
 walked by the Protector's Secretary, John Milton, at his 
 funeral,' Edward Hopkins, Governor of Connecticut, 
 became a member of Parliament, Warden of the Fleet, 
 and Commissioner for the Navy and Admiralty. Edward 
 Winslow, of Plymouth, was made one of the Commis- 
 sioners in command of the naval force sent by the Pro- 
 tector against Jamaica, and lost his life in that service. 
 George Downing, one of the nine graduates at the first 
 Commencement of Harvard College, became Scoutmaster- 
 General of the English army in Scotland, and afterwards 
 ambassador of Cromwell to the Low Countries, perhaps 
 the most important civil post in the public service. 
 Benjamin Woodbridge, another of the academical first- 
 fruits of New England, was made chaplain to Charles 
 the Second, when that prince, in the time of his troubles, 
 professed to have renounced Episcopacy. Of other New- 
 England ministers, John Woodbridge, of Newbury, was 
 chaplain to the Commissioners of Parliament sent to 
 the Isle of Wight to treat with King Charles ; and AVil- 
 liam Hook, of New Haven, was one of the chaplains of 
 Cromwell. Hoadly, of Guilford, grandfather of the much 
 more famous Bishop Hoadly, became chaplain to Crom- 
 well's garrison in Edinburgh Castle, when chaplains of 
 garrisons were men of some trust and power. Other per- 
 sons, already or afterwards ministers, returned to England 
 to be employed in less important spheres.^ Between 
 
 ■was returned to Parliament, and was 2 Among them may be named Sam- 
 excluded from it by the Protector. He ucl ]\Iathcr, John Knowles, John Allen, 
 died soon after. Thomas Allen, John Bulkley, Giles 
 1 Diary of Thomas Burton, Esq., Firmin, Henry Whitefield, Henry But- 
 &c., U. 524. ler, Nathaniel Brewster, William Ames,
 
 Chap. XIV.] MASSACHUSETTS. 587 
 
 such persons and the friends whom they had left in 
 New England, it is inconceivable that there should not 
 have been a frequent interchange of information and 
 advice. 
 
 Effects followed of less general importance than the 
 arrest and refluent tide of emigration, but such as were 
 not without influence on the condition of the new country. 
 It was no time for measures in England to secure Territorial 
 the claim of Mason's heirs in New Hampshire ; ^j'!^',"'a'J,„. 
 and Lord Brooke and Lord Say and Sele had no ^^tis. 
 longer leisure for attention to their afiiiirs in the same 
 quarter.^ With the more freedom Massachusetts pushed 
 its boundary in that direction. The charter of the Mas- 
 sachusetts Company, literally interpreted, endowed it 
 witli nearly all the territory of the present State of New 
 Hampshire ; for the most northerly source of the waters 
 of the Merrimack is in the White Mountains. And even 
 at this 6arly time it was well known that a parallel of 
 latitude drawn three miles north of every part of that 
 river enclosed the settlements at and near the mouth 
 of the Piscataqua.^ Massachusetts had had some regard 
 to this pretension, in building her house at Hampton ; ^ 
 but the course of events determined that she should 
 have no occasion to make a forcible assertion of the 
 claim. 
 
 On Underhill's return to Dover after his submission 
 to the Boston church, he set himself to defeat a nego- 
 tiation which had been on foot for annexing- 
 
 1640, 
 
 that settlement to the jurisdiction of Massa- 
 
 Jeremiah Holland, Jolin Birden, and Clarendon, however, -who knew the 
 
 Abraham AValver. More than half of man, though he liked his politics no 
 
 these were graduates of Harvard Col- better than the poet did, could say : 
 
 lege in its first six years. " They who were acquainted with him 
 
 1 Lord Brooke was killed while be- believed him to be well-natured and 
 
 sieging the Cathedral close of Lichfield just." (History, Book VI.) 
 
 in 1G43. Scott says(Marmion,cant.6): ^ gee above, p. 287. 
 
 " Fanatir Brooke ^ ScB above, p. 51G. 
 
 The fair Cathedral stormed and took."
 
 588 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book L 
 
 chusetts ; ^ and some treacherous proceedings of his to 
 this effect became known at Boston. At Exeter, 
 
 Disorders in • i • i zt' » 
 
 New iiamp- " onc Gabricl Fish was detanied m the oincers 
 hands for speaking against the king." The 
 magistrates of that feeble settlement had probably felt 
 obliged to take this step for appearances' sake ; but, in 
 view of the Puritan tendencies of the time, they had seen 
 at once the responsibility which they assumed, and had 
 gone to " the Bay to take advice what to do." Underbill 
 seized upon this occasion to display his lately conceived 
 loyalty, by a measure for preventing that release of Fish 
 which he anticipated that the advisers in the Bay would 
 recommend. " To ingratiate himself with the state of 
 England, and with some gentlemen at the river's mouth, 
 who were very zealous that way, and had lately set up 
 Common Prayer,^ &c., he sent thirteen men armed to 
 Exeter to fetch" the prisoner to Dover. This, and the 
 part he had taken in obstructing the movenient for 
 a union with Massachusetts, gave offence to the ma- 
 jority of his neighbors, who began " consulting to 
 remove him from his government." Hearing of their 
 purpose, "he could not refrain, but came and took his 
 place in the Court," which they had desired him not 
 to do ; " and, though he had offered to lay down his 
 place, yet when he saw they went about it, he grew 
 passionate, and expostulated with them, and would not 
 stay to receive his dismission, nor would be seen to ac- 
 cept it, when it was sent after him. Yet they proceeded 
 and chose one Roberts to be President of the Court, and 
 soon after they returned back Fish to Exeter, which," 
 says Winthrop, "was considerately done of them." ^ 
 
 1 " Whereas he himself was the Mr. Emmanuel Downing, and Cap- 
 mover of them to break off their tain Edward Gibbons Avore ajjiiointed 
 agreement with us, he had written to to treat with the three Connnittees from 
 our Governor, and laid it upon the the town of Dover upon Piscataqua." 
 people, especially upon some among (Mass. Col. Rec., I. 276 ) 
 them." (Winthrop, I. 327.) — Novem- 2 See above, p. .52.3, note 1. 
 ber 5, 1G39, "The Deputy-Governor, 3 Winthrop, I. 327.
 
 Chap. XIV.] MASSACHUSETTS. 589 
 
 " Soon after this the captain came by water into the 
 Bay, to tender (as he said) satisfaction to the church. 
 But the church, not being satisfied of his re- 
 pentance, would not admit him to public speech. So, 
 after one week, he returned home." ^ Before the end 
 of many months, however, " being brought, by the bless- 
 ing of God on the church's censure of excommunica- 
 tion, to remorse for his foul sins," he obtained leave to 
 come to Boston, where, " upon the lecture-day, 
 after sermon," he made a full avowal of his 
 offences,^ and was relieved by the church from his ex-, 
 communication, and by the General Court from his 
 sentence of banishment. 
 
 In the month after this transaction, and perhaps through 
 apprehension of its influence on Underhill's mind, certain 
 planters at Dover, to the number of forty-one, entered 
 into the first formal compact which had there been 
 made, confederatino^ to^^ether to be s^overned by 
 
 Oct. 22. 
 
 the laws of England, and by other laws to be 
 enacted by a majority of the settlers, till such time as 
 the king's government should prescribe some diflerent 
 organization.^ Among the names subscribed to this docu- 
 ment, the first is that of Thomas Larkham, who had just 
 come with a new contribution to the ferment- Thomas 
 ing elements at Dover. He " had been a minis- ^^f'^'is"'- 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 328. appeared as a man worn out with 
 
 2 " He came in his worst clothes, sorrow, and yet he could find no 
 (being accustomed to take great pride peace ; therefore he was come now to 
 in his bravery and neatness,) without seek it in this ordinance of God. He 
 a band, in a foul linen cap pulled close spake well, save that his blubbering, 
 to his eyes ; and, standing upon a form, &c. interrupted him." (Winthrop, II. 
 he did, with many deep sighs and abun- 14.) 
 
 dance of tears, lay open his wicked 3 Por this " Combination," see 
 
 course, his adultery, his hypocrisy, his Hutchinson, I. 102, or Farmer's edition 
 
 persecution of God's people here, and of Belknap, 433. The subscribers say 
 
 especially his pride (as the root of all, that they find it expedient to confed- 
 
 which caused God to give him over erate, "his most gracious INIajesty hav- 
 
 to his other sinful courses) and con- ing settled no order for them, to their 
 
 tempt of the Magistrates He knowledge." 
 
 VOL. I. 50 •
 
 590 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 ter at Northam near Barnstable in England.^ Being 
 
 a man of good parts and wealthy, the people were soon 
 taken Avitli him, and the greater part were forward to 
 cast off Mr. Knollys, their pastor, and to choose him." 
 " He received into the church all that offered them- 
 selves, though men notoriously scandalous and ignorant, 
 
 so as there soon grew sharp contention between 
 
 him and Mr. Knollys, to whom the more religious still 
 1C41. adhered." ^ The renewed strife between Church- 
 ^^^^- man and Antinomian was not merely a war of 
 words. ^ "Mr. Knollys and his company excommuni- 
 cated Mr. Larkham, and he again laid violent hands 
 upon Mr. Knollys." Larkham's party undertook to 
 arrest Underbill, who, by his recent favorable reception 
 at Boston, had been converted back again from his 
 unwonted sympathy with the " gentlemen at the river's 
 mouth " ; and, on his part, " he also gathered some of 
 the neighbors to defend himself and to see the peace 
 kept ; so they marched forth towards Mr. Larkham's, 
 one carrying a Bible upon a staff for an ensign, and 
 Mr. Knollys with them armed with a pistol." Seeing 
 that they were likely to be worsted, Larkham's party 
 " sent to Mr. Williams, who Avas Governor of those 
 in the lower part of the river." Williams " came up 
 with a company of armed men, and beset Mr. Knollys's 
 house, where Captain Underbill then was, and there 
 they kept a guard upon him night and day." Lark- 
 ham's friends " called a court, and, Mr. Williams sitting 
 as Judge, they found Captain Underbill and his com- 
 pany guilty of a riot, and set great fines upon them, 
 and ordered him and some others to depart the plan- 
 tation. The cause of this eager prosecution of Captain 
 Underbill was," if Winthrop judged rightly, "because he 
 had procured a good part of the inhabitants there to 
 
 ^ From this circumstance Dover took, 2 Winthrop, II. 27. 
 for a little while, the name of Northam.
 
 Chap. XIV. ] 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 591 
 
 offer themselves again to the government of the Massa- 
 chusetts." ^ 
 
 Underhill and his friends applied to Massachusetts 
 for help, and the magistrates " gave commission to Mr. 
 Bradstreet, ..... Mr. Peter, and Mr. Dalton,^ to go thither 
 and to endeavor to reconcile them ; and, if they could not 
 effect that, then to inquire how things stood, and to 
 certify, &c. They went accordingly, and finding both 
 sides to be in fault, they brought matters to a peace- 
 able end. Mr. Larkham was released of his excom- 
 munication, and Captain Underhill and the rest from 
 their censures." A different result of the investisration 
 was, that " Mr. Knollys was discovered to be an un- 
 clean person."^ On the whole, Dover was in no hope- 
 ful way. 
 
 1 Winthrop, II. 27, 28. — Tliomas 
 Lechford, in bis " Plain Dealing," &c. 
 (P ^"^)' g'^'^s an account of the same 
 transaction. " Master Larkham," he 
 says, " flying to the magistrates, Master 
 K. [Knollys] and a Captain [Underhill] 
 raised arms and expected help from 
 the Bay, Master K. going before the 
 troop with a Bible upon a pole's top, 
 and he, or some of his party, giving 
 forth that their side were Scots, and 
 
 the other English Nine of 
 
 them were censured to be whipped, 
 but that was spared. Master K. and 
 the Captain, their leaders, were fined 
 a hundred pounds apiece." Knollys's 
 calling his party Scots and the oth- 
 er party English will be understood 
 when it is remembered that the battle 
 of Newburn-upon-Tyne (see above, 
 p. 571) had lately been fought. Ac- 
 cording to Hubbard (p. 362), Larkham 
 " laid violent hands on Mr. Knollys, 
 taking the hat from his head, pretend- 
 ing it was not paid for ; but he was so 
 civil as to send it him again." 
 
 2 The Reverend Timothy Dalton, 
 who was now,, or soon after, teacher 
 of the church of Hampton. (Johnson, 
 
 Wonder-working Providence, Book 
 II. Chap. XIII.) 
 
 3 Winthrop, II. 28 -— Underhill re- 
 turned to Boston the following year; 
 but, partly, perhaps, because he was, 
 after all, in no good credit there, he 
 "found no employment that would 
 maintain him and his family." The 
 Dutch on Hudson's River, and the 
 English at Stamford, having made him 
 proposals, the Boston church advised 
 him to take service with his country- 
 men at the latter place, and gave him 
 a passage and a liberal outfit accord- 
 ingly ; " but, when he came there, he 
 changed his mind, or at least his 
 course, and went to the Dutch." 
 (Ibid., II. 63.) He signalized him- 
 self in wars between them and the 
 Indians (Ibid., 157) ; and at length 
 died, in 1672, on Long Island, hav- 
 ing, in the interval, been for some 
 time a resident in New-Haven Col- 
 ony, and a Deputy to its General 
 Court from Stamford. (N. H. Col. 
 Rec, 85.) Both Larkham and Knol- 
 lys, in 1641, went back to England, 
 where they lived many years in good 
 repute.
 
 592 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Experiences of this kind taught the Piscataqua set- 
 tlements that they were not in a condition to go on 
 Accession comfoi'tably by themselves; the territorial claim 
 Hampsiurl ^f Massachusctts was always hanging over their 
 settlements j^g^ds : tlio stato of affairs in Eng-land precluded 
 
 to Massa- ' o l 
 
 chusetts. the expectation of any present attention from 
 that quarter ; and the communities were too dissimilar 
 from each other, as well as singly too feeble and hetero- 
 geneous, to find sufficient strength in a union together. 
 The natural and prudent resource was to seek the protec- 
 tion of Massachusetts. At the end of more than a year's 
 1C41. negotiation, Strawberry Bank ^ and Dover placed 
 June 14. themselves under the jurisdiction of that colony,^ 
 with careful reservations of the rights of the English 
 patentees to their property in the soil. Two Deputies 
 were allowed to be sent " from the whole river to the 
 Court at Boston"; and in all respects the persons now 
 admitted were to have the privileges of settlers in Mas- 
 sachusetts. The freemen and deputies (the settlers at 
 Strawberry Bank, and many at Dover, not being of the 
 Puritan persuasion) were exempted from the obligation 
 
 1 The earliest use of tliis name, that particular from the jurisdiction of the 
 
 I have observed, as a designation of JNIassachusetts Bay, for the 
 
 the town at the mouth of the Piscata- avoiding of such insufferable disorders, 
 
 qua, was in September, 1G42. (Mass. whereby God had been much dishon- 
 
 Col. Kec, II. 32.) " Strawberry Bank ored amongst them." The patentees 
 
 Creek," however, is referred to in reserved to themselves " one third part 
 
 the grant of the parsonage glebe in of the land " in the Dover patent, and 
 
 1C40. (Sec above, p. 523.) Slrawhemj all the land in the other. The trans- 
 
 Bank continued to be the name of the action was completed by an Act of 
 
 town till lGo3. (Mass. Col. liec., III. the General Court, of October 7,1641 
 
 30Q.) (Mass. Col. Rec, I. 342), tlie preamble 
 
 2 Thcinstrumentofcession, which was of which recites both the claim of Mas- 
 executed by the patentees, is in Mass. sachusetts by patent to the jurisdiction 
 Col. Rec, I. 324. (Comp Ibid., I. 332. assumed, and the consent of the in- 
 AVinthrop, II. 38,42.) It recites that habitants. It creates a provisional gov-* 
 the inhabitants residing at present with- ernment, to have authority "till the 
 in the limits of both the said grants had ne.xt General Court," and appoints six 
 of late and formerly complained of the magistrates to administer justice, with 
 wantof some good government amongst "the same power that the Quarter 
 them, and desired some help in this Courts at Salem and Ipswich have."
 
 CiiAP. XIV.] MASSACHUSETTS. 593 
 
 of being church-members, Massachusetts havmg 1643. 
 now become strong enough to admit of this ^^^y^°- 
 limited deviation from her fundamental policy.^ Exeter^ 
 before long followed the example of accession ;^ and Wheel- 
 wright, still jealous of the power of Massachusetts, besides 
 being yet under her sentence of banishment, withdrew 
 himself to the territory of Gorges. The three towns — 
 with Hampton, which had been planted by avowed subjects 
 of Massachusetts, and with the neighboring settlements 
 of Salisbury and Haverhill, on the northern bank of the 
 Merrimack — were made to constitute one of the four 
 counties into which Massachusetts was now divided.* 
 And for forty years this relation of the New Hampshire 
 towns continued, greatly to their satisfaction and advan- 
 tage. 
 
 Meanwhile, reasons similar to those which satisfied 
 the groups of planters about the Piscataqua had influ- 
 enced a party of settlers on the remote border of the 
 patent of Gorges ; and Thomas Purchas and his 
 
 . Annexation 
 
 company, who had sat down on the convenient ofPcjepscot. 
 spot called by the natives Pejepscot (now Bruns- i^-''^- 
 wick), sought the protection, and by a formal in- 
 strument submitted themselves to the jurisdiction, of the 
 Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay.-^ Wheel- 
 wright, on leaving Exeter to escape from that govern- 
 ment, betook himself, with some adherents, to 1^43, 
 a tract adjoining to Agamenticus, which he ^i^"'^'''- 
 had bought of Gorges, and gave it the name of Wells.^ 
 In the quiet of his new solitude, his past course pre- 
 sented itself to his reflections under a diflerent aspect 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, II. 29. deed to Richard Wharton of his right 
 
 2 See above, pp. 515, 516. as son and heir to George "Way, 1683, 
 
 3 Mass. Col. Rec, II. 37, 38, 43. alleged, that Way and Purchas had a 
 
 4 See below, p. 617. grant of the territory from the Coun- 
 
 5 The act of surrender is in Hazard, cil of Plymouth." (Willis, History of 
 I. 457. — How long Purchas had been Portland, 41 ; comp. Ibid., 14, and 
 on this land, or what was his title to it, Williamson, I. 266, 290.) 
 
 is not known. " Eleazer Way, in a ^ The deed of it is in Sullivan, 408. 
 50*
 
 594 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 from what it had worn in the ardor and pride of con- 
 flict. He had been there but a little time before he 
 resolved to seek a reconciliation with the Massachusetts 
 Sept. 10. Magistrates and elders ; and he Avrote to the 
 Remission Govcmor, avowing that he had been misled by 
 wr^htwn- liis " own distempered passions." He professed 
 tence. hlmsclf " uufcigncdly sorry that he had such 
 
 a hand in those sharp and vehement contentions"; that 
 he " did so much adhere to persons of corrupt judgment, 
 to the countenancing of them in any of their errors or 
 evil practices " ; and that he " did appeal." He " con- 
 fessed that herein he had done very sinfully, and he 
 
 1(544. humbly craved pardon." To a letter offering 
 March 1. i^^j^^ safe-conduct to Boston he sent a dignified 
 reply, distinguishing between the offences which he ac- 
 knowledged and those which he disavowed.^ He was 
 answered with respect and courtesy; and at the next 
 session of the General Court his sentence of banishment 
 was revoked, "without his appearance." lie continued, 
 however, to reside with his new community a short time 
 till it had taken root, and then returned to the neighbor- 
 hood of his former residence, and lived seven years at 
 Hampton. Next he sailed for England, where, like 
 other ministers from New England, he enjoyed the 
 special regard of Cromwell.^ 
 
 The Lygonia, or Plough,^ patent now emerged into 
 The piou h ^°^^ little importance. It covered a territory, 
 Patent. forty milcs square, including the lower part 
 
 ^^^'- of the river Saco, and extending northeastward- 
 
 1 The letters are in "Winthrop, II. of sanctity. The chief part of his prop- 
 1C2, 163. erty, which was considerable, had re- 
 
 2 He is said to have had a college mained at Wells. 
 
 friendship or acquaintance with the ^ The latter name, according to some 
 
 Protector. After the Restoration, he authorities, commemorated the agricul- 
 
 returnod to America, and was minister tural pursuits of the first colonists ; ac- 
 
 at Salisbury, where, having lived to be cording to others, it was the name of 
 
 the oldest minister in New England, he the vessel which brought tlveni over, 
 
 died, November 15, 1679, in the odor See above, p. 397, note.
 
 CHAr. XIV.] MASSACHUSETTS. 595 
 
 ly along the coast, nearly to Casco Bay. The patentees 
 without delay made some attempts at settlement/ but 
 met with difficulties, and were soon discouraged.^ At 
 length, after the turn of affairs in England, the 1043. 
 patent was purchased from the holders by Alex- ^p"' ^• 
 ander Higby, a patriot member of Parliament, who ap- 
 pointed George Cleaves to take possession and adminis- 
 tration of his property. Cleaves had lived some years 
 upon it, and it was probably at his instance (for he was 
 then in London) that the purchase was made. A col- 
 lision between Cleaves and the government of Gorges 
 was naturally expected, as the two grants conflicted 
 with each other. Cleaves, arrivinc^ at Boston, 
 
 . ' ^ ' 1644. 
 
 solicited the intervention of the Massachusetts 
 General Court, who, however, declined to interfere. Pro- 
 ceeding next to organize a government upon the place, 
 he was interrupted by a remonstrance from Richard 
 Vines, who had been left at the head of Gorges's 
 government, on the recent departure of the Deputy- 
 Governor for England. Cleaves sent a proposal to Saco, 
 to submit the question provisionally to the arbitration, 
 of the Massachusetts Magistrates ; but Vines refused to 
 listen to it, and threw the messenger into prison. Cleaves 
 then wrote to Boston, repeating his application for aid, 
 and Vines came thither to represent his case in per- 
 son ; ^ but neither could obtain more than advice to re- 
 main quiet till further instructions should arrive from 
 England. The parties were not strong enough, or near 
 enough, to threaten each other with serious harm ; 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 58. proceedings. It is signed by John 
 
 2 Richard Dummer was intrusted Dye, John Roch, Grace Hardwin, 
 by the patentees with the management Thomas Inppe, whom Hubbard (Nar- 
 of their business, when he came over in rative of Indian Wars, Part II. p. 9) 
 May, 1632. Mr. Charles Deane has mentions as patentees, and by eight 
 an original letter from them to Win- others. It was brought over by Aller- 
 throp, dated December 1 of that year, ton. 
 
 in which they complain of Dummer's 3 Winthrop, U. 154, 155.
 
 596 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 neither probably was disposed, by the rejection of the 
 counsel, to supply a reason for the inhabitants of the Bay 
 to interpose to keep the peace between them ; and here 
 the controversy rested for the present. The loyal and 
 hearty proprietor of Maine was now involved in his 
 king's affairs ; and when, if not before, he died, as he 
 did soon after his capture by the Parliamentary forces at 
 Bristol, his Transatlantic rights fell to the management 
 of hands less diligent and able. 
 
 While affairs were still so unsettled on the northeastern 
 outskirts, the religious and thrifty people of Plymouth 
 were keeping the even tenor of their way. Earnestly 
 seeking peace and order, they arrived at an adjustment of 
 some questions which, if left open, would have been 
 a disturbance to their posterity. Their first pa- 
 tent had defined no boundaries. The second 
 
 1622. 
 
 never took effect, having been surrendered by 
 Pierce in the sequel of a dispute with the Associates. 
 The grant in the third furnished the rule for determining 
 
 the line between the jurisdictions of Massachu- 
 
 1630. " 
 
 Jan. 13. setts and Plymouth. If the patents conflicted 
 Boundary in the dcscriptious of the territory conveyed, the 
 
 question ^ • n -mt ^ ^ ^ • 
 
 between claim 01 Massachusctts was best, as benig prior 
 BeuTand" i^ tlmo ; but it was maintained by Plymouth, 
 riyraouth. ^^^^^ the other colony gave an unjustifiable inter- 
 pretation to the name Charles River, in holding it to 
 extend as far south as the most southerly of its tribu- 
 taries. The Plymouth planters had assigned partly to 
 their London associates, and partly to actual settlers, cer- 
 tain lands at a place called Scitiiafe, contiguous to the 
 IMassachusetts town of Hingham, but understood by the 
 Plymouth people to lie within their own northeastern 
 border. A dispute which ensued between the neighbors 
 was taken up by their respective governments. Commis- 
 1R40. sioners, two on each side, met, and came to an 
 juneiG. agreement, which proved mutually satisfactory
 
 Chap. XIV.] PLYMOUTH. 597 
 
 for the present,' though, under a change of cir- 
 
 1G64. 
 
 cumstances, it ^vas revised at a later time.^ 
 
 The patent from the Council for New England, under 
 which the lands continued to be held, was a grant to 
 " William Bradford, his heirs, associates, and assigns." 
 The freemen, being now dispersed through seven ^ towns 
 in addition to Plymouth, desired legal possession of the 
 common property ; and Bradford executed an in- conveyance 
 strument, bv which, after certain reservations for o*" "'e patent 
 
 " of Plymouth 
 
 the "Purchasers or Old Comers,'"* he surren- tothefree- 
 dered " into the hands of the whole Court, con- ^"g^j 
 sisting of the freemen of the corporation of New ^^^^""^^ 
 Plymouth, all that other right and title, power, authority, 
 privileges, immunities, and freedoms, granted in the said 
 letters patents by the said Right Honorable Council for 
 New England." 
 
 The vexatious business with the English partners was 
 brought to a partial settlement by their consent to give 
 a full discharge on the receipt of twelve hundred settlement 
 pounds.^ One of them, Andrews, "a haberdasher "'"'"''« 
 
 ^ London 
 
 in London, a godly man," presented five hundred partners. 
 pounds, his share of the proceeds, to the Massa- °"''' ^^' 
 chusetts Colony, " to be laid out in cattle, and other 
 course of trade for the poor."*^ The eight men of Ply- 
 mouth,^ having made a scrupulously high valuation, on 
 oath, of the effects in their hands, had not only been 
 
 1 Bradford, 3G7-372. — The com- who had purchased from the original 
 mission of Plymouth to W^inslow and Adventurers at the end of the seven 
 Bradford is in the ^Massachusetts Ar- years' partnership. (See above, p. 
 chives (III. 432). The plan of Wood- 228.) In this he differs from Baylies 
 ward and Saffery, surveyors, is in the (Hist, of Plym. Col., 308) and from 
 same collection (Ibid., 1). Judge Davis (Morton's Memorial, 403). 
 
 2 See Mass. Col. Pvec, TV. Part II. 5 Bradford, 379-382; comp. 323, 
 114-116. 327, 331, 343, 348, 361, 365, 374. 
 
 3 See above, p. 547. 6 Winthrop, II. 75. — Beauchamp, 
 
 4 They were fifty-eight in number, however, continued to make difficulties, 
 (Hazard,! 4GG.) Mr. Deane (Bradford, and his claim was not set at rest till 
 372) gives good reasons for understand- ten years later. 
 
 ing " Old Comers " to denote the persons "^ See above, p. 230.
 
 598 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book L 
 
 great losers, but considered themselves to have been very 
 hardly treated.^ And the case turned out still worse than 
 their fears, when, in consequence of the arrest of emigra- 
 tion occasioned by the altered state of affairs in the par- 
 ent country, the value of their salable property was ex- 
 cessively depressed. The price of a cow fell in a month 
 from twenty pounds to five, and of a goat from three 
 pounds to ten shillings ; ^ and the prospect was so dark, 
 that thoughts of removal were again entertained,^ which 
 probably nothing short of a local attachment matured 
 imder the severest experiences could have overcome. 
 
 And the strength of this sentiment was tried at the 
 critical moment by an event, which, if suited to weaken 
 Death of it in one class of minds, would be likely to give 
 " \m3 ^^ double force in another. " Their reverend 
 April 18. elder," writes Bradford, " and my dear and loving 
 friend, Mr. William Brewster," died ; " a man that had 
 done and suffered much for the Lord Jesus and the Gos- 
 pel's sake, and had borne his part in weal and woe with 
 this poor persecuted church above thirty-six years, in 
 England, Holland, and in this wilderness, and done the 
 Lord and them faithful service in his place and call- 
 ing. And, notwithstanding the many troubles he passed 
 through, the Lord upheld him to a great age. He was 
 near fourscore years of age, if not all out, when he died. 
 He had this blessing added by the Lord to all the rest, to 
 die in his bed in peace, amongst the midst of his friends, 
 who mourned and wept over him, and ministered what 
 help and comfort they could unto him, and he again re- 
 comforted them whilst he could. His sickness was not 
 long, and till the last day thereof he did not wholly keep 
 his bed. His speech continued till somewhat more than 
 
 1 " That which made them so de- selves to sustain the greatest wrong, 
 
 sirous to bring things to an end, was and had most cause of coni])laint." 
 
 partly to stop the clamors and asper- (Bradford, 37G ; comp. 378, 371). ) 
 
 sions raised and cast upon them here- ^ Ibid.^ 376. 
 
 about, though they conceived them- 2 Ibid., 384.
 
 Chap. XIV.] PLYMOUTH. 599 
 
 half a day, and then failed him ; and about nine or ten 
 o'clock that evening he died without any pangs at all. 
 A few hours before, he drew his breath short, and some 
 few minutes before his last he drew his breath long, as 
 a man fallen into a sound sleep, without any pangs or 
 gaspings ; and so sweetly departed this life unto a better." 
 
 " I should say something of his life," the bereft friend 
 continues, " if to say a little were not worse than to 
 be silent." But he cannot dismiss the theme, Hischarac- 
 and pauses with a fond detail, too earnest to '"■ 
 admit a word of ambitious eulogy, on the series of dis- 
 tant and long past scenes through which the writer 
 and the departed had walked hand in hand. Then the 
 record passes off into what is not so much a delineation 
 of his character, as a thanksgiving to God, who, for the 
 joy of all who knew him, and the good of all whom 
 he could serve, made him so brave and gentle, so faith- 
 ful and generous, so frank and sympathizing, so " peace- 
 able, sociable, and pleasant," so wise, modest, devout, 
 and useful ; and it comes to a fit close with discourse 
 on the high tendencies by which strength is unfolded 
 from infirmity, and trouble blossoms into joy. Through 
 the sorrows and struggles of these upright men, " it was 
 God's visitation that preserved their spirits." ^ 
 
 Brewster had retired from courts before he became 
 known to the associate of his later eventful years. When 
 Brewster died, Bradford was fifty-three years old. The 
 boy, walking on Sundays along an English hedge-row 
 path to seek unlicensed edification at the lips of Robin- 
 son and Clifton, had first looked on Brewster with the 
 veneration which a neophyte feels for the veteran who 
 may soon be a martyr. Then, in a company of men 
 and women devoted like themselves, they had passed 
 
 1 Bradford, 408-415. — Brewster's two hundred and seventy-five volumes, 
 library was the principal part of the sixty-four of them being in the learned 
 estate which he left. It consisted of languages.
 
 600 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 over the sea, through and towards many sufFenngs, and 
 for ten years had earned a hard liveUhood by unaccus- 
 tomed labor. Next, coming to this " outside of the 
 world," they had survived cold, famine, and a pesti- 
 lence which through three months had employed them 
 in nursing and burying as many of their associates as 
 it left alive. With others worthy of confidence and 
 esteem, they had given their harmonious direction to 
 the common counsels, — themselves the most trusted and 
 revered of all, — and had lived to see the issue of their 
 generous cares in the establishment of an humble but 
 prosperous commonwealth. All that had happened be- 
 tween the first meeting at Scrooby Manor and the present 
 hour rose to the mind of the writer, who, from laying 
 in the earth the form longer familiar to his eyes than 
 any they could ever look upon again, turned back to 
 duties thenceforward to be fulfilled with less experi- 
 enced companionship. 
 
 All this time New Haven and Connecticut lay secure 
 from England behmd the shield of Massachusetts. AVhat 
 relations they in their obscurity and remoteness sustained 
 to the parent country were subject to the influences of 
 a transmission^ through the older colony. 
 
 The settlers at New Haven had intended to employ 
 
 themselves in the commercial industry to which 
 
 and consoii- tlicy had been used, and had chosen their site 
 
 JjewVaven with referouce to its convenience for this pur- 
 
 coioiiy. g^^^^ With the same view, they also purchased 
 
 1641. lands and established a plantation on Delaware 
 
 Aug. 30. 1 • 1 1 1 1 1 
 
 Bay, near to a tort which had been erected 
 by some Swedes. But their commercial undertakings 
 did not prosper; and as, one after another, agricultural 
 communities grew up around them, their employments 
 came to assimilate themselves to those of the rest of 
 
 1 N. II. Col. Rec, 57, 106.
 
 Chap. XIV.] NEW HAVEN. 601 
 
 the country.^ They had obtamed their lands of the na- 
 tives by a payment of clothes, tools, and uten- ic^g. 
 sils, added to a promise of protection from hostile ^"''' ^'^' 
 tribes ; — a process which was repeated from time ^^''' ^^' 
 to time, in successive extensions to the immediate neigh- 
 borhood, and in detached settlements. Thus, under the 
 auspices of the government at New Haven, South- souuihoid. 
 hold was established near the eastern end of Long 'f "• 
 
 tJ October. 
 
 Island, by a company from Norfolk in England ; Stamford. 
 Stamford was founded, fifteen miles west of the ^'^■*^- 
 Connecticut town of Fairfield, chiefly by a party who had 
 taken offence at Wethersfield ; and an attempt Greenwich, 
 was made at Greenwich, still nearer to the New- ^''■*"- 
 Netherland border. This frontier town was, however, for 
 some time in revolt. Captain Patrick, from Watertown,^ 
 the principal person among its settlers, took advantage of 
 an alarm which prevailed of a rising of the Indians, to 
 induce his neighbors to submit themselves to the Dutch; 
 and, goino: to Fort Amsterdam, he, for himself 
 
 ' O O ' April 9. 
 
 and them, took an oath of allegiance to the 
 States-General.^ 
 
 It was ordered that semiannual General Courts in 
 April and in October should be "held at New 1640. 
 Haven for the plantations in combination with ^p"^''^- 
 this town," ^ which as yet (if indeed Greenwich is ito be 
 
 1 " They laid out too much of their he was admitted a member of the 
 
 stocks and estates in building of fair church of Watertown and a freeman, 
 
 and stately houses, wherein they, at But he grew very proud and vicious. 
 
 the first, outdid the rest of the coun- And, perceiving that he was 
 
 try." (Hubbard, 334.) discovered, and that such evil courses 
 
 ■2 See above, pp. 319, 464. would not be endured here, and being 
 
 3 Brodhead, Ilistory of New York, withal of a vain and unsettled dispo- 
 
 330. — Patrick had lived in the Nctli- sition, he went from us, and sat down 
 
 erlands, Avhere he married a Dutch within twenty miles of the Dutch, and 
 
 wife. Winthrop says (II. 151) : "This put himself under their protection." 
 
 captain was entertained by us out He did not live there long. InlG43, a 
 
 of Holland (where he was a com- Dutchman shot him dead, in a quar- 
 
 mon soldier of the Prince's guard) to rel, in Underbill's house at Stamford, 
 
 exercise our men. AVe made him a (Ibid) 
 
 captain and maintained him. After, •* N. H. Col. Bee, 70. 
 
 VOL. I. 51
 
 October. 
 
 602 HISTOEY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 included) were only the three that have been just men- 
 tioned. The next year Guilford determined to renounce 
 an independence which experience had shown to be more 
 dignified than convenient, and was received into the 
 1C43. " combination " ; and, in the record, the descrip- 
 "'"'^ *^- tion of the General Court as being held " for 
 the plantations within this jurisdiction " now first occurs.' 
 Three months later, Milford annexed itself, and 
 the colony of New Haven was fully consti- 
 tuted. On this occasion a difficulty occurred. Milford 
 had " formerly taken in, as free burgesses, six planters 
 who were not in church-fellowship." New Haven could 
 consent to no alliance on such a basis. She agreed that 
 " the six freemen already admitted might con- 
 
 Oct. 23. . . . 
 
 tinue to act in all proper particular town busi- 
 ness wherein the combination was not interested," and 
 might " vote in the election of Deputies to be sent to 
 the General Courts for the combination or jurisdiction." 
 But this was on condition that those Deputies should 
 " always be church-members " ; that " the six free bur- 
 gesses who were not church-members should not at any 
 time thereafter be chosen either Deputies, or into any 
 public trust for the combination " ; that they should 
 " neither personally, nor by proxy, vote at any time in 
 the election of Magistrates " ; and that none should " be 
 admitted freemen or free burgesses thereafter, at Mil- 
 ford, but church-members." ^ By the next " Gen- 
 
 Oct. 27. .... 
 
 cral Court for the jurisdiction " this arrange- 
 ment was confirmed. 
 
 At the same time, rulers were chosen for the newly 
 constituted community. Theophilus Eaton was elected 
 Governor, with Stephen Goodyearc, of New Haven, for 
 Deputy-Governor, and Thomas Gregson of the same 
 town, William Fowler and Edmund Tapp of Milford, 
 
 1 N. II. Col. Rec, 96, 97. See above, 2 N. n. Col. Kec, 110. 
 p. 535.
 
 Chap. XIV.] CONNECTICUT. 603 
 
 and Thurston E.ayner of Stamford, for Magistrates. A 
 system of judicial administration was instituted. Each 
 plantation was to choose for itself " ordinary judges, to 
 hear and determine all inferior causes." From the 
 " Plantation Courts " was to lie an appeal to the " Court 
 of Magistrates " (consisting of the Governor, Deputy- 
 Governor, and Assistants), who were also to have origi- 
 nal jurisdiction in " weighty and capital cases, whether 
 civil or criminal " ; and from the latter tribunal appeals 
 and complaints might be made, and brought to the Gen- 
 eral Court as the highest for the jurisdiction. In the 
 determination of appeals, " with whatsoever else should 
 fall within their cognizance or judicature," the Courts 
 were to " proceed according to the Scriptures, which is 
 the rule of all righteous laws and sentences." ^ 
 
 A list, taken in the same year, of " the planters " in 
 the town of New Haven, exhibits the names of a hun- 
 dred and twenty-two persons, including eight w^omen. 
 A reckoning of their family dependents swelled the num- 
 ber to four hundred and sixteen ; but it is known that 
 some of these never came to America. The aggregate 
 property of the planters was rated at thirty-six thou- 
 sand three hundred and thirty-seven pounds sterling,^ 
 
 In Connecticut, whose constitution did not permit the 
 immediate re-election of a Governor, the choice Magistrates of 
 for that office in three successive years fell Connecticut. 
 upon John Haynes, George Wyllys,^ and John 
 
 1 N. li. Col. Rec, 112- IIG. (Collections of the New York Historl- 
 
 2 Ibid, 91-93. — De Vries roman- cal Society, Second Series, I. 2G1.) 
 ces oil New Haven. In the Journal of 3 George Wyllys was the possessor 
 his Third Voyage, he writes: " We ar- of a good landed property in Warwick- 
 rived the next evening [June 4, 1639] shire. In 1636 he sent over twenty 
 at Roodeherg \_Red Hill, New Haven], servants, to prepai-e a residence for him 
 a fine harbor, and found that the Eng- at the place soon afterwards called 
 lish were building a fine town, having Hartford. In 1638 he came over, and 
 already erected upwards of three hun- in the next two years was chosen a 
 dred houses and a handsome church." Magistrate. In 1641 he was Deputy-
 
 GOl EISTOKY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 Haynes again, while Wyllys, Ludlow, and Hopkins 
 successively filled the second place. These four gen- 
 tlemen were always Assistants when they occupied no 
 higher position; and their colleagues in the magistracy 
 were mostly the same from year to year. The connection 
 of Pynchon's settlement^ with the lower towns was of 
 brief duration, and had not been well defined even while 
 it lasted.^ There had been disagreements with him from 
 the first,^ and Massachusetts had always regarded his plan- 
 tation as lying within her territory as described by the 
 charter.^ At length, on a petition of Pynchon and his 
 
 company to the General Court at Boston, Spring- 
 separation ,, ni- 1 r A 1 
 of Springfield field (as it was now called, instead or Agawam, the 
 
 necucu"." Iiidiau name which it had hitherto borne) was 
 
 ^^'"- reconjnized as fallinc: within the iurisdiction of 
 Junes. -,, , . . 
 
 Massachusetts ; and commissioners were appoint- 
 ed " to lay out the south line" of that Colony, to be joined 
 by such as Connecticut might designate for the pur- 
 pose.^ 
 
 After three years, this loss to Connecticut was more 
 than made up by two additions. A company consisting 
 of " about forty families," from Lynn in Massachusetts, 
 
 " findiui? themselves straitened," ° had boufrht 
 
 1G40-1G41. ^ ^ . 
 
 land of the Indians on the south side of Long 
 Island, near its eastern end, and there begun a plantation 
 which they called Southampton. For a while they formed 
 an independent community ; but, learning from expe- 
 
 Governor; in 1G42, Governor; and in 3 IbiJ., 13, 10. 
 1643 and 1G44, a Magistrate again. ^ W'intlirop, I. 285. 
 March 9, 1645, he died, leaving a 5 ]\iass. Col. Kec, I. 320, 323. I be- 
 greatly honored name. lieve that the petition of Pynchon and 
 
 1 See above, p. 454. his friends is tlie earliest document in 
 
 2 For establishing the constitution which the name Sprinffjield occurs, 
 in 1639, it was only "the inhabitants Hutchinson says (I. 95), that Pynchon's 
 and residents of AVindsor, Hartford, English home had been at Springfield, 
 and Wcthersfield" who came together, near Chelmsford, in Essex. 
 
 (Conn. Col. llec., 21.) 6 Wiuthrop, II. 4.
 
 Chap. XIV.] CONNECTICUT. 605 
 
 rience the disadvantages of this condition, they entered into 
 an agreement to "associate and join themselves Accession of 
 to the jurisdiction of Connecticut " ; and their °"^^'|^^'"p'°"- 
 Deputies were admitted to the General Court of o". 25. 
 that colony.' A more important accession was that of 
 the settlement at Saybrook. On condition of receiving 
 the avails, for ten years, of certain duties to be collected 
 from all vessels passing out of the river, and of certain 
 taxes on the domestic trade in beaver and on live stock, 
 Fenwick conveyed the fort, with its armament and " ap- 
 purtenances," and the "land upon the river," except such 
 as was already private property, to "the jurisdic- orsaybrook. 
 tion of Connecticut." ^ He further covenanted to "^''•^' 
 obtain for that jurisdiction the property of " all the lands 
 from Narragansett Eiver to the fort of Saybrook, men- 
 tioned in a patent granted by the Earl of Warwick to 
 
 certain nobles and gentlemen, if it came into his 
 
 power." ^ 
 
 The government of Connecticut w^as not less tender 
 than that of New Haven of the rights of the Indians. 
 Strict laws protected them from ill treatment on Theconnect- 
 the part of the whites ; and, to disabuse them of '"'' ^"'"''"'• 
 imaginary grounds of dissatisfaction, purchases of the 
 same tracts were often repeated. Still they were restless, 
 and from time to time occasioned alarms. The Connect- 
 icut people were hardly dissuaded by those of 1G39. 
 New Haven from sending a hundred men to ^"s^^t- 
 
 1 Conn. Col. Kec, 112. For a or for the old patent of Connecticut." 
 " Copy of the Combination of South- And in this statement he has been too 
 ampton with Hartford," see Ibid., 566. confidingly followed by recent writ- 
 
 2 Ibid., 119, 266, 568. ers. Indeed, he had been preceded by 
 
 3 For this important clause of the Hutchinson, who says (I. 9 7, note) : 
 agreement, see Conn. Col. Rec, 268. "The Connecticut people purchased 
 It has been greatly misunderstood, the title of the Lords of Mr. Fenwick." 
 Trumbull, generally so exact, says The truth is, no such purchase was 
 (History, I. 150, comp. 118, 237): made; and that there was none, was 
 " The colony, on the whole, paid Mr. the occasion of much subsequent, incon- 
 Fenwick sixteen hundred pounds ster- venience and litigation. 
 
 ling, merely for the jurisdiction right, 
 
 51*
 
 606 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book T. 
 
 chastise some disorderly natives, complained of by the 
 planters at Wethersfleld.' Some Pequots, returning to 
 their old home, were dispersed by Mason at the head of 
 forty men, with a party of Mohegan allies ; but he care- 
 fully abstained from bloodshed, contenting himself with 
 destroying their wigwams and carrying off their corn.^ 
 The local disorders, which occurred afterwards, proved to 
 be not too serious to be readily quelled by a due mixture 
 of vigor and conciliation. 
 
 The plantations about Narragansett Bay were still but 
 loosely organized. Their quarrels with each other, and 
 those of the several plantations within themselves, had 
 relations sq large and durable, that the recital of them 
 cannot be conveniently begun in this volume. It has 
 been mentioned, that, the first fervor of indignation 
 over, several of the Antinomian fugitives to Aquetnet re- 
 turned to Massachusetts,^ where some of them were to 
 resume their natural position as influential citizens. Mrs. 
 Hutchinson, having become a widow,"* removed, •with 
 most of her family, to a spot within or near the Dutch 
 Proceedings bordcr.^ Coddiugton was rechosen Governor of 
 Island! ° the Island, and Brenton Deputy-Governor, from 
 
 1 Conn. Col. Rec, 31, 32. ■* Governor Hutchinson (History, I. 
 
 2 Ibid. — jNIason, History, &c., 18. 72) says that William Hutchinson died 
 
 3 See above, p. 509. — Aspinwall, it "about the year 1642." 
 
 so.ems, was no better satisfied with 5 jJer descendant says (Hutchinson, 
 
 Hutchinson's government (see above, ibid.) that she removed from Rhode 
 
 p. 514) than he had been with Cod- Island, because she was "dissatisfied 
 
 dington's. In October, 1G41, he had with the people or place." — " Mis- 
 
 " a safe-conduct granted him to come tress Hutchinson, being Aveary of the 
 
 and satisfy the Council " of ^lassachu- Island, or rather the Island weary of 
 
 setts. (]\Iass. Col. Rec, I. 338.) A few her, departed from thence with all her 
 
 months after, " upon his petition and family, her daughter and her children, 
 
 certificate of his good carriage," he was to live under the Dutch, near a place 
 
 " restored again to his former liberty called by seamen, and in the map, Hell- 
 
 and freedom" (Ibid., II. 3), and was Gate." (Welde, Short Story, &c., Pref- 
 
 " reconciled to the church of Boston, ace.) — Mr. Brodhead (History of New 
 
 He made a very free and full acknowl- York, I. 334) supposes — I presume 
 
 edgment of liis error and seduccmcnt, correctly — that he has identified the 
 
 and that witli much detestation of his spot, 
 sin." (Winthrop, H. C2.)
 
 Chap. XIV.] EHODE ISLAND. 607 
 
 year to year.^ General Courts were at first ordered to 
 be holden in every ^larch and October, alter- 1040. 
 nating, as to place, between Newport and Ports- ^"^•^• 
 mouth.^ After two years' trial, one General 1542. 
 Court in each year was thought sufficient.^ It ^'"'''• 
 was " ordered, and unanimously agreed upon," as follows : 
 " That the government which this body politic doth attend 
 unto, in this island and the jurisdiction thereof, in favor 
 of our prince, is a democracy, or popular government ; 
 that is to say, it is in the power of the freemen orderly 
 assembled, or the major part of them, to make or consti- 
 tute just laws by which they will be regulated, 
 and to depute from among themselves such min- 
 isters as shall see them faithfully executed between man 
 and man." "* 
 
 The early laws for the most part related to matters of 
 police, to the extirpation of noxious wild animals, and to 
 military preparations for defence against the Indians.^ It 
 was ordered that the Colony seal should be " a sheaf of 
 arrows bound up, and in the liess or bond this motto 
 indented : Amor vincet omnia.'' ^ The provision for liberty 
 of conscience was, " that none be accounted a delin- 
 quent for doctrine, provided it be not directly repug- 
 nant to the government or laws established." ^ After the 
 Long Parliament met, the loyalty of the Colony expressed 
 itself less explicitly than it had before done, in the order 
 " that, if any person or persons on this island, 
 whether freeman or inhabitant, shall by any 
 means, open or covert, endeavor to bring in any other 
 
 1 R.I. Col. Rec, I. 101, 112, 120, among Christians." — The removal of 
 126, 127. Coddington and his friends to the south- 
 
 2 Ibid., 106. ern end of the island had brought them 
 
 3 Ibid., 123. into close proximity to the Narragan- 
 
 4 Ibid., 112. setts, whose dispositions they watched 
 
 5 Yet AVinthrop heard (11. 40) that -with solicitude. 
 
 "divers of them would not wear 6 J^. I. Col. Rec., I. 115. 
 
 any arms, and denied all magistracy "^ Ibid., 113;comp. 118.
 
 G08 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 power than what is now estabhshed, (except it be from 
 our prince by lawful commission,) he shall be accounted 
 a delinquent under the head of perjury." ^ By the end 
 1G42. of another year, the hope that the time had come 
 Sept. 19. £q^. obtaining Transatlantic protection for the in- 
 fant settlement had revived," and led to an order for 
 the appointment of a committee " to consult about the 
 procuration of a patent for this island and islands and 
 the land adjacent, and to draw up petition or petitions, 
 and to send letter or letters for the same end to Sir 
 Henry Yane." ^ 
 
 The planters at Providence entertained the same de- 
 sign. They too felt strongly the desirableness of a recog- 
 iiition in England, on account of their want of any title 
 to their lands except what was derived from the natives, 
 their dissensions among themselves, their isolation from 
 the more flourishing colonies around them, and the dis- 
 trust with which they felt themselves to be regarded 
 by their compatriots in America. The character of 
 Koger Williams, no less than his personal relations to 
 Henry Vane, recommended him for employment in the ser- 
 vice proposed ; and he embarked for England, sailing from 
 New Amsterdam because still under the sentence of banish- 
 ment from Massachusetts. While awaiting the departure 
 of the vessel that was to convey him, he is said to have 
 found occasion for his distinctive office as a peacemaker 
 with the Indians, and to have had the happiness to 
 allay their fury against the Dutch settlers in that re- 
 gion.'* He employed the leisure of his outward 
 voyage in writing his "Key into the Language 
 
 1G43. 
 March. 
 
 1 R. I. Col. Rec, I. 118. I am not by tlie mediation of Mr. Williams, who 
 sure tliat this was not a measure of Avas then there to go in a Dutch ship 
 I)rec'aution against apprehended en- for England, were pacified, and peace 
 croachment from Massachusetts. re-established between the Dutch and 
 
 2 See above, p. 514. them." — Williams, hoAvever, referring, 
 
 3 R. I. Col. Rec., I. 125. in a Memorial to the General Court of 
 
 4 Winthrop says (II. 97): "These, Massachusetts, October 5, 1654, to this
 
 Chap. XIV.] 
 
 PROVIDENCE. 
 
 609 
 
 of America." In England, whither he came just after 
 the death of Hampden, he was well received in j^^^^^yj, 
 the his:!! quarters to which his mission direct- i'»ms'n 
 
 O ^ . , England. 
 
 ed him, and was for a time the guest of Henry 
 Vane. Here he immediately published his " Key," and 
 his treatise entitled " Mr. Cotton's Letter, lately printed, 
 examined and answered." The views respecting free- 
 dom of conscience, which he so prized, now fell in with 
 a current of thought in the elevated circles in which 
 he moved,^ and were sure of favorable attention ; and his 
 first publications were followed in the next year by that 
 of his " Bloody Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Con- 
 science." ~ 
 
 visit of his to New Amsterdam, speaks 
 of the war with the Indians as going on 
 when he sailed from that port, and says 
 nothing of any mediation of his to arrest 
 it. (R. I. Hist. Col., III. 155 ) At 
 all events, the strife was not composed ; 
 for in September, 1G43, some six months 
 after Williams's departure, j\Irs. Hutch- 
 inson, in an inroad of the Indians into 
 the Dutch country, lost her life. With 
 her they murdered all of her household, 
 except a daughter eight years of age, 
 whom they carried into captivity. The 
 General Court of IMassachusetts took 
 measures to recover the child, (Mass. 
 Col. Ree., II. 52,) who, after four years, 
 was obtained from the Indians by the 
 Dutch, and restored to her friends in 
 Boston. (Winthrop, II. 2G7.) 
 
 1 " Mine own ears were glad and late 
 witnesses of a, heavenly speech of one 
 of the most eminent of that high as- 
 sembly of Parliament ; viz. ' ^Vliy 
 should the labors of any be suppressed, 
 if sober, though never so different ? 
 "We now profess to seek God ; we de- 
 sire to see hght,' &c." (^Villiams, 
 Preflice to Mr. Cotton's Letter, lately 
 printed, &c.) 
 
 2 See above, p. 415, note. The 
 " Bloody Tenent of Persecution," first 
 issued anonymously, was in answer to 
 a reply by Cotton to a tract entitled, 
 " Scriptures and Reasons written out 
 long since by a Witness of Jesus 
 Christ, close Prisoner in Newgate, 
 against Persecution in Cause of Con- 
 science."
 
 CHAPTEE Xy. 
 
 Massachusetts was settling steadily on her well-laid 
 foundations. The great decline in the value of prop- 
 erty, incident to the discontinuance of immigration, bore 
 heavily upon her people ; but the habit of hard work 
 and careful saving, which necessity had enforced in the 
 earlier stages of the settlement, enabled them to live 
 above want, while it sowed the seeds of a future af- 
 fluence. And the lull, which succeeded to the storm 
 of controversy lately so furious, was favorable to the 
 dispassionate determination of the important practical 
 questions which were constantly arising in the infancy 
 of the state. It may even be thought, that the arrest 
 of the increase of the colony by accessions from abroad 
 was at this stage happily ordained to facilitate an orderly 
 arrangement of its elements, already sufficient as they 
 w^re, both in amount and variety, for the composition of 
 a vigorous body politic. 
 
 In Dudley's second administration of the chief magis- 
 tracy,^ the scarcity of money was such as to lead to a 
 Relief law 1^"^^ authoriziug the satisfaction of debts by pay- 
 in Massa- ^icut " iu com, cattle, fish, or other commodi- 
 
 chusetts. ' ' 
 
 J640, ties, at such rates as the Court should set down 
 Oct. 7. fi-oni time to time, or, in default thereof, by 
 appraisement of indiff"erent men." The law was not to 
 have effect as to debts existing at the time of its pas- 
 sage, or contracted within the next three weekf^.~ But, 
 so restricted, it was not thought to afford sufficient re- 
 lief ; and, by a further provision, creditors were com- 
 
 1 See above, p. 554. - IVIass. Col. Rec, I. 304.
 
 Chap. XV.] MASSACPIUSETTS. 611 
 
 pelled to accept payment of all dues in personal prop- 
 erty of the debtors, such as they should themselves select ; 
 and, if this should prove insufficient, then in real estate, 
 at a valuation to be determined " by three understand- 
 ing and indifferent men." ^ 
 
 At the expiration of Dudley's year of office, Richard 
 Bellingham was chosen his successor," with Endicott for 
 Deputy-Governor, and a Board of Assistants composed 
 of the other Magistrates of the last year.^ The 
 election of Bellingham, which was made by a mem of 
 majority of only six votes when there were some 
 fourteen hundred voters, took the General Court by sur- 
 prise, and was received by them with a displeasure which 
 they testified significantly and without delay. The gov- 
 ernment was no sooner sworn in, than they passed a vote 
 to repeal " the order formerly made for allowing a hun- 
 dred pound per annum to the Governor." '* This period 
 of Bellingham's life was not the most creditable. He 
 occasioned scandal by an unsuitable matrimonial con- 
 tract, by neglecting to have it published according to 
 law, and by performing the marriage ceremony himself; 
 and, when called to account before the Board of Magis- 
 trates, he indulged himself in disrespectful and disorderly 
 behavior.^ The General Court " was full of un- unsatisfac- 
 comfortable agitations and contentions," by rea- !l',n„bnof' 
 son of his unfriendliness to " some other of the ^'^"'"8''«'"- 
 Magistrates." " He set- himself in an opposite frame 
 to them in all proceedings, which did much retard all 
 business, and was occasion of grief to many godly minds, 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 307. A law of election, Winthrop wrote, in the mar- 
 tbe next year ordered wampumpeag to gin of his manuscript, "JMr. B. chosen 
 " pass current at six a penny for any unduly." " There had been much 
 sum under ten pounds," in payment of laboring," he says, " to have Mr. Bel- 
 debts subsequently contracted. (Ibid., lingham chosen"; and some persons, 
 329.) he thought, were improperly denied 
 
 2 See above, pp. 307, note, 428. the privilege of voting, because of al- 
 
 3 Mass. Col. Rec, I. 319. leged informality. 
 
 4 Ibid. — In recording Bellingham's 5 Winthrop, II. 43.
 
 612 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 and matter of reproach to the wliole Court in the mouths 
 of others, and brought himself low in the eyes of those 
 with whom formerly he had been in honor." The can- 
 did Winthrop, who gives some instances of Belling- 
 ham's maladministration, found himself compelled to im- 
 pute it to " an evil spirit of emulation and jealousy, 
 through his melancholic disposition." ^ Dudley's disgust 
 was such, that he could scarcely be prevailed upon not 
 to withdraw from office. " Being a very wise and just 
 man, and one that would not be trodden under foot of 
 any man," he " took occasion (alleging his age, &c.) 
 to tell the Court that he was resolved to leave his place. 
 
 The Court was much affected, and entreated him, 
 
 with manifestation of much affection and respect towards 
 
 him, to leave off these thouglits The Governor 
 
 also made a speech, as if he desired to leave his place 
 of magistracy also ; but he was fain to make his own 
 answer, for no man desired him to keep or to con- 
 sider better of it."^ Before his official year was out, 
 he had so incurred the disapprobation of the Deputies, 
 with which branch of the government he was commonly 
 a favorite, that they proceeded to the extreme step of 
 sending a committee " to give him a solemn admonition, 
 which was never done to any Governor before." ^ Per- 
 haps it was with a view to provide some check to what 
 was apprehended from his overbearing disposition, that 
 an able man, John Humphrey, was advanced to 
 
 June 2. ' • ^ 
 
 the new trust of " Sergcant-Major-General " of 
 all the military force of the colony.^ 
 
 Whenever the ship of state was laboring, the natural 
 resource was to call Winthrop to the helm ; and he was 
 
 1 Winthrop, II. 50. and gratify Humphrey, who had just 
 
 2 Ibid., 54, 55. now returned disappointed from the 
 
 3 Ibid., 52. West Indies (see above, p. 550, note), 
 
 4 Mass. Col. Rec., I. 329. — A mo- and had met with grievous domestic mis- 
 tive to this step, independent of its fortunes. 
 
 public objects, may have been to soothe
 
 Chap. XV.] MASSACHUSETTS. 613 
 
 again made Governor at the end of Bellingliam's year of 
 office. Endicott was continued in the second Re-eiection 
 place/ and probably the Board of Magistrates ^^l;,";,""''"" 
 consisted of the same members as in the last 'ni642and 
 year," except that Thomas Flint of Concord^ was 
 substituted for Mr. Humphrey, who had taken his final 
 departure for England,** and that the place usually filled 
 by John Winthrop, the younger, was vacant.^ In the 
 following year, the same persons were invested again 
 with the same trusts, and the Board of Assistants was en- 
 larged by the accession of John Winthrop, Jr., William 
 Pynchon, Samuel Symonds, and William Hibbens. Hib- 
 bens had eight months before returned from his mis- 
 sion to England.^ Symonds, " a gentleman of an an- 
 cient and worshipful family, from Yeldham, in Essex," ^ 
 was now an inhabitant of Ipswich.^ Pynchon's planta- 
 tion at Springfield had lately been brought under the 
 government of Massachusetts.^ The sermon preached 
 
 1 Wintlirop, IT. 63. — The first vol- Winthrop,) with the language of Gov- 
 ume of the Records of the Colony of ernor Winthrop (II. 47) :" There were 
 Massachusetts closes with the proceed- now in all nine Magistrates." Possibly, 
 ings of December 10, 1641. The first however, by "Magistrates" in this 
 pages of the second volume, embracing place Winthrop meant Assistants, and 
 that portion in which were recorded then Pynchon and young Winthrop 
 the elections of 1642, are lost. would make up the number. But I sup- 
 
 2 I gather this from the list of Assist- pose the latter had not returned from 
 ants present at the Court of Septem- Europe before the election. See above,^ 
 ber 8, 1642. (Mass. Coll. Rec., II. 22.) p. 582, note 4 ; Winthrop, II. 76, 212. 
 
 3 AVinthrop, II. 47. Thomas Flint 6 Winthrop, II. 76. See above, p. 582. 
 had been made a freeman in 1637. Hibbens was in the colony as early as the 
 (Mass. Col. Rec., I. 374.) He brought springof 1639. (Winthrop, I 320.) He 
 to New England a property amounting was admitted a freeman in IMay of the 
 to £ 2,000, and died, at the end of six- next year (Mass. Col. Rec, I. 377), and 
 teen years, after a " great decay of his in the following autumn was a Deputy 
 estate." (Mass. Hist. Coll., XXI. 48.) in the General Court (Ibid., 301). 
 
 4 Winthrop, II. 85, 86. Humphrey ' Hubbard, 372. 
 
 had gone away broken-hearted by rea- 8 He was admitted a freeman in 
 
 son of family troubles. (Ibid., 45, 46.) March, 1638 (Mass. Col. Rec., I. 374), 
 
 5 I infer this from a comparison and took his place as a Deputy in the 
 of the list referred to above, in note 2, General Court two months afterward 
 (which contains the names of nineMagis- (Ibid., 227). 
 
 trates, and omits that of the younger 9 See above, p. 604. 
 VOL. I. 62
 
 614 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 to the General Court before this election had proved as 
 little persuasive as that in. which Cotton, on the same 
 occasion, nine years before, had enforced an opposite 
 doctrine.^ " Mr. Ezekiel Rogers, pastor of the church in 
 Rowley, described how the man ought to be quali- 
 fied whom they should choose for their Governor ; yet 
 dissuaded them earnestly from choosing the same man 
 twice together." - 
 
 At this time, " there arose a scruple about the oath 
 
 which the Governor and the rest of the Magistrates were 
 
 to take, viz. about the first part of it, ' You shall 
 
 Disuso of the ■*■ ^ 
 
 oathofaiie- bcar true faith and allegiance to our sovereign 
 lord. King Charles,' seeing he had violated the 
 privileges of Parliament, and made war upon them, and 
 thereby had lost much of his kingdom and many of his 
 subjects ; whereupon it was thought fit to omit that part 
 of it for the present."^ And here was an end, for many 
 years, to all public recognition of royal authority in 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 The question which had been entertained respecting 
 the Council for Life might seem, as to its practical bear- 
 Renewai of higs, to havc bccu disposcd of by the recent vote."* 
 the question j^^f. jj. ^ygg ^q havo auothcr momentary revival. At 
 
 auoiit a •' 
 
 Council for tlic time when Winthrop succeeded Bellingham, 
 ]C42. " a book was brought into the Court, wherein the 
 ^^''^' institution of the Standing Council was pretended 
 to be a sinful innovation," It was a time of jealousy 
 and irritation. Bellingham's party, w^hich had scarcely 
 prevailed the year before, was now defeated. He was a 
 man wlio could not contentedly fill an inferior place. He 
 Avas tliought to be disgusted at " finding that some other 
 of the Magistrates bare more sway with the people than 
 himself, and that they were called to be of the Standing 
 Council for Life, and himself passed by." ^ Richard Sal- 
 
 ^ Scfi above, p. 373. ■* See above, p. 555. 
 
 2 "NVintlirop, II. 90. 5 Winthrop, II. 50. 
 
 3 Ibid, I. 101.
 
 Chap. XV.] MASSACHUSETTS. 615 
 
 tonstall was his close friend and devoted adherent, and, in 
 the disputes of the time, they together sided with the pop- 
 ular party against their brother Magistrates. 
 
 Now that the Council for Life had been disarmed by 
 the order which deprived its members of all power except 
 as they were also members of the government annually 
 chosen, the interest felt in an argument against it must 
 have been mainly due to the sensibility occasioned by the 
 existing state of parties, and to animadversions, express or 
 implied, on the eminent men who had accepted the ob- 
 noxious trust. But things so stood, that, on its being 
 " brought into the Court," " the Governor moved to have 
 the contents of the book examined, and then, if there 
 appeared cause, to inquire after the author." The motion 
 was opposed and defeated, " the greatest part of the Court 
 having some intimation of the author, of whose honest 
 intentions they were well persuaded." The majority, 
 however, allowed a reading of the treatise, and an inquiry 
 " how it came into the Court." It proved to have been 
 written by Mr. Saltonstall; to have been communicated 
 by him to a friend of his, Mr. Hathorne, a prominent 
 Deputy ; and to have been subsequently in the hands of 
 Mr. Dudley, who had composed an answer to it. 
 
 The Governor now moved that the character of its con- 
 tents should be taken into consideration ; " but the Court 
 could not agree to it, except Mr. Saltonstall were first 
 acquit from any censure." " Upon that, some passages 
 very offensive and unwarrantable were mentioned, about 
 which also the Court being divided, the Governor moved 
 to take the advice of the elders concerning the soundness 
 of the propositions and arguments. This the Court would 
 not allow neither, except the whole cause were referred." 
 At last, " when no further proceeding was otherwise like 
 to be had, it was agreed that — in regard the Court was 
 not jealous of any evil intention in Mr. Saltonstall," and 
 considered that in offering his advice to a Deputy he had
 
 616 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAOT). [Book I. 
 
 only used a freeman's right — he should be- "discharged 
 from any censure or further inquiry about the same." ^ 
 
 On the next consideration of the vexatious treatise, a 
 
 disposition Avas evinced to heal the wounds which it had 
 
 made. " It was voted by the Court to vindicate 
 
 June 14. 
 
 the office of the Standing Council, and the 
 
 persons in whom it was vested, from all dishonor and re- 
 proach cast upon it or them in Mr. Saltonstall's book " ; 
 and " it was ordered, that the book now in Court, con- 
 taining arguments against the Standing Council, should 
 be commended to the elders, who were desired to return 
 their judgment and advice about the matter thereof to the 
 next Court." ^ Here was the end of the public proceed- 
 ings on the subject.^ The elders " took into con- 
 
 Oct. 18. ^ . , , 1 1 • 1 -1 
 
 sideration the book which was committed to them 
 by the General Court," but " were much different in their 
 judgment about it." The statement of the result, at which 
 they arrived in a conference begun in this state of mind, 
 was wordy and unimportant, and, if it was communicated 
 to the General Court, it is not known to have at all en- 
 gaged the attention of that body."* 
 
 The second year of Winthrop's third service in the 
 chief magistracy was signalized by the perfecting of the 
 system of internal administration in two respects, and 
 
 1 Winthrop, 11. 04, 65 ; comp. Mass. special commission. The difficulty 
 Col. Rec, II. 5. — The reader of "Win- -which the chief men found in disposing 
 throp finds some explanation of the re- of this must alone have satisfied them 
 sentment occasioned by this tract, when of the futility and danger of any fur- 
 he is told of its having alleged " that the ther attempt to revive the offensive 
 Council was instituted unwarily, to sat- institution of the Standing Council. 
 isfy Mr. Vane's desire." " Other pas- "* An abstract of it is preserved by 
 sages there were also, which were very "Winthrop (II. 89, 90). — They oper- 
 unsound, reproachful, and dangerous," ated to more purpose, however, in an- 
 in Winthrop's judgment. other way. " By the wisdom and faith- 
 
 2 Mass. Col. Rec, II. 20, 21. fulness of the elders, Mr. Saltonstall 
 
 3 A counter-claim was before long was brought to see his failings in that 
 set up by the Deputies (Winthrop, II. treatise, which he did ingenuously ac- 
 167-169) to supersede the authority knowledge and bewail, and so he was 
 of the Board of IMagistrates in certain reconciled with the rest of the Magis- 
 vital particulars, and transfer it to a trates." (Ibid., 116.)
 
 Chap. XV.] MASSACHUSETTS. 617 
 
 by the maturing of a measure which materially changed, 
 and fixed for a long period, the relations of the colonies 
 of New England to one another, and to the world abroad. 
 One of the improvements now made was a distribu- 
 tion of the towns of Massachusetts, thirty in number, 
 into four counties, which took their names, 
 Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, and Middlesex, from Massacim- 
 the English shires from which probably the countL! 
 greater number of immigrants had come.^ A leia. 
 framework for this organization already exist- "^ 
 ed in the institution of Quarterly Courts held at four 
 principal places,^ and in the organization of the mili- 
 tary force into regiments according to a local divis- 
 ion.^ The armed levy of each county was presently 
 after placed under the command of a " Lieuten- 
 
 •^ . , Sept. 7. 
 
 ant," an officer corresponding to the Lord-Lieu- 
 tenant of an English shire, and inferior only to the Gov- 
 ernor and the Sergeant-Major-General of the colony. In 
 each county there was to be a sergeant-major, second in 
 command to the Lieutenant."^ 
 
 The same year witnessed the adoption of that great 
 security of constitutional governments, which, late in the 
 following century, was to be maintained by John Adams ^ 
 against the argument of Turgot and the judgment of 
 Eranklin,*^ and which now makes a part of the organic law 
 of each one of the United States of America, as well as 
 of the federal government that unites them. A division 
 
 1 Mass. Col. Rec, II. 38. The of Salisbury, Hampton, Haverhill, 
 
 counties -were constituted as follows: Exeter, Dover, and Strawberry Bank. 
 
 Suffolk, of Boston, Roxbury, Dorohes- 2 gee above, p. 431. 
 
 ter, Dedham, Braintree, Weymouth, 3 gee above, p. 443. 
 
 Hingham, and Nantasket ; Essex, of 4 ]\l£iss. Col. Rec., II. 42. 
 
 Salem, Lynn, Enon (Wenham), Ip- ^ gee Adams's Defence of the Con- 
 
 swich, Rowley, Newbury, Gloucester, stitutions of Government of the United 
 
 Cochickawick (Andover) ; Middlesex, States of America, and Works of John 
 
 of Charlestown, Cambridge, Water- Adams, Vols. IV., V., and YL, ;)n.W2/n. 
 
 town, Sudbury, Concord, TVoburn, 6 gee " Queries and Remarks," in 
 
 Bedford, and Reading; and Norfolk, Sparks's edition of Franklin, V. 165. 
 
 52*
 
 618 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 of the legislature into two co-ordinate branches termi- 
 Divisionof nated a controversy between the Magistrates and 
 uvVdepIrt- Deputies which had been running on for sev- 
 '"""'• eral years. ^ 
 
 " There fell out a great business," writes Winthrop, 
 
 " upon a very small occasion," which he proceeds to 
 
 relate. " There was a stray sow in Boston, 
 
 1636. . , 
 
 which was brought to Captain Keayne," a man 
 of property and consequence, but unpopular for alleged 
 hardness in his dealings. He gave public notice of it 
 by the town-crier and otherwise ; but no claimant ap- 
 peared " for near a year," nor till after he had killed 
 a pig of his own, which had been kept along with the 
 stray. Then a woman named Sherman came to see it, 
 and, not being able to identify it with one which she had 
 lost, alleged that the slaughtered pig was hers. The 
 matter was examined into by the elders of the church 
 of Boston, who, after hearing the parties and their wit- 
 nesses, exonerated Captain Keayne. Mrs. Sherman was 
 dissatisfied, and brought her case to trial before a jury, 
 who took the same view of it, and gave the defendant 
 " three pounds for his cost." Thus fortified, Keayne 
 turned on the other party with a suit for defamation 
 in charging him with theft, and recovered forty pounds' 
 damages. Mrs. Sherman was not satisfied yet, and ap- 
 pealed to the General Court. Of that body, in which 
 1642. ^s yet Magistrates and Deputies sat and voted 
 June, -j-^ the 'Same chamber, the prejudices against 
 Keayne had weight with the popular portion ; and, after 
 a re-hearing of the case, which occupied " the best part 
 of seven days," two Magistrates and fifteen Deputies voted 
 for a reversal of the previous decision, against the judg- 
 ment of seven Magistrates and eight Deputies, who ap- 
 proved it, while " the other seven Deputies stood doubt- 
 ful." Thus a large majority of the superior officials was 
 
 1 See above, p. 448.
 
 Chap. XV.] MASSACHUSETTS. 619 
 
 for one party, while on a joint vote the majority of the 
 Court would be for the other. The division standing 
 thus, the case " was not determined " ; but, in circum- 
 stances which enlisted a popular feeling, it had brought 
 up distinctly the fundamental question of the relation of 
 the two classes of representatives to each other. 
 
 " Much contention and earnestness there was." The 
 losing party was pertinacious, and labored to create an 
 impression that injustice had been done out of respect to 
 wealth and social standing. The affair " gave occasion 
 to many to speak unreverently of the Court, especially 
 of the Magistrates ; and the report went, that their nega- 
 tive voice had hindered the course of justice, and that 
 these Magistrates must be put out, that the power of 
 the negative voice might be taken away. Thereupon it 
 was thought fit by the Governor and other of the Magis- 
 trates to publish a declaration of the true state of the 
 cause, that truth might not be condemned unknown."^ 
 
 The elders, on " a view of all the evidence on both 
 parties," approved the sentence of the Court; but the 
 bilious Mr. Bellingham took actively the part of the 
 unsuccessful suitor, and " would have the Magistrates 
 lay down their negative voice." The complainant, " too 
 much countenanced by some of the Court, preferred a 
 petition at the Court of Elections for a new ic43. 
 hearing," and obtained the report of a commit- ^''^' 
 tee in favor of re-opening the question. To the disap- 
 
 ^ Winthrop, 11. 69-71. — Accord- Robert Keayne, defen. caboutc tlie title 
 
 ingly " one of the Magistrates published to a straye sowe supposed to be brought 
 
 a declaration." (Ibid , 72.) The paper from Deare Island about O^er, 1G3G." 
 
 thus circulated — probably in several It covers six compactly written pages, 
 
 copies — is in the Library of the Amer- of small size, and is in AVinthrop's 
 
 ican Antiquarian Society at Worces- handwriting, with his signature at the 
 
 ter. It bears the title, " A Breaviate end. It contains full minutes of the 
 
 of the Case betwene Richard Sheare- evidence and arguments, stated with 
 
 man [Mrs. Sherman's husband, who lawyer-like precision. It is dated "at 
 
 had been abroad at the beginning of Boston, this 5 [July], 15, 1642," — 
 
 the dispute] pi. by petition, and Capt. Comp. Mass. Col. Rec, II. 12.
 
 620 HISTORY OF KEW ENGLAND. [Book T. 
 
 proving Governor " two things appeared to carry men 
 on in this course, as it were in captivity. One was, 
 the Deputies stood only upon this, that their towns were 
 not satisfied in the cause (which, hy the way, shows 
 plainly the democratical spirit which acts over Depu- 
 ties, &c.). The other was, the desire of the name of 
 victory." A more generous, but not more defensible 
 sentiment, prompted by a consideration of the respective 
 circumstances of the defendant and the claimant, had, 
 he thought, a more extensive influence. " He being ac- 
 counted a rich man, and she a poor woman, this so 
 wrought with the people, as, being blinded with un- 
 reasonable compassion, they could not see or not allow 
 justice her reasonable course." ^ To satisfy this feeling, 
 Keayne was advised to return a part of what had been 
 adjudged him; and the question was once more dismissed. 
 The Governor, however, was informed that his expo- 
 sition of it had occasioned displeasure, "which he being 
 willing to remove," so as to " begin his year in a recon- 
 ciled state with all," he made a speech upon the subject 
 " so soon as he came into the General Court." As to "the 
 matter," he said he was sustained by " the concurrence of 
 his brethren, both Magistrates and Deputies," and " had 
 examined it over and again by such light as God had 
 afforded him from the rules of religion, reason, and com- 
 mon practice, and truly could find no ground to retract 
 anything in that, and therefore he desired he might enjoy 
 
 his liberty therein For the manner, "whatever he 
 
 might allege for his justification before men, he now 
 passed it over," and " set himself before another judgment- 
 seat." He confessed he " was too prodigal of his brethren's 
 reputation," and " did arrogate too much to himself, and 
 ascribe too little to others." He " acknowledged his fail- 
 ings, and humbly entreated those who had been displeased 
 
 1 It is surprising that Winthrop did not (juote Exodus xxiii. 3, as pertinent 
 to the case.
 
 Chap. XV^] MASSACHUSETTS. 621 
 
 to pardon and pass them by " ; and he hoped he " should 
 be more wise and watchful thereafter." 
 
 So magnanimous a course could not but dispose of the 
 personal complaint ; but the question which had arisen, 
 " about the Magistrates' negative vote in the General 
 Court," was not to be so easily determined. " One of 
 
 the Magistrates wrote a small treatise, showing 
 
 thereby how it was fundamental to the government, which, 
 if it were taken away, would be a mere democracy. He 
 showed also the necessity and usefulness of it by many 
 arguments from Scripture, reason, and common practice, 
 &c. Yet this would not satisfy, but the Deputies and 
 
 common people would have it taken away An 
 
 answer also was written (by one of the Magistrates, as 
 was conceived) to the said treatise." The Deputies 
 " pressed earnestly " for an immediate decision ; " but 
 the Magistrates told them the matter was of great con- 
 cernment, even to the very frame of the government." 
 At length, it was agreed that there should be further 
 opportunity for consideration, and "that the elders should 
 be desired to give their advice before the next meeting of 
 the Court. It was the Magistrates' only care to gain 
 time, that so the people's heat might be abated, for then 
 they knew they would hear reason." ^ 
 
 The Magistrates' confidence in the people was not mis- 
 placed. The people did hear reason ; and, when the next 
 action was had upon the subject, the negative vote was 
 not " taken away," but duplicated.^ Without opposition, 
 so far as is known, the following preamble and JG44. 
 vote were passed by the General Court. ^^^'"^^ ^• 
 
 1 "Winthrop, II. 115-119; comp. lingham. A copy of "Wlnthrop's tract 
 Mass. Col. Rec, II. 51. is in the Hutchinson collection of 
 
 2 Winthrop had, in the mean time, manuscripts in the Library of the 
 written and circulated " A Reply to Massachusetts Historical Society (pp. 
 the Answer" mentioned above, which 59-66). It bears the date, 4 [June], 
 answer there can be no doubt that he 4, 1643, and is signed "Jo. Win- 
 understood to be from the pen of Bel- throp. Gov."
 
 622 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 " Forasmuch as, after long experience, we find divers 
 inconveniences in the manner of our proceeding in Courts 
 by Magistrates and Deputies sitting together, and account- 
 ing it wisdom to follow the laudable practice of other 
 states who have laid groundworks for government and 
 order in the issuing of business of greatest and highest 
 consequence, — 
 
 " It is therefore ordered, first, that the Magistrates may 
 sit and act business by themselves, by drawing up bills and 
 orders which they shall see good in their wisdom, which 
 having agreed upon, they may present them to the Depu- 
 ties to be considered of, how good and wholesome such 
 orders are for the country, and accordingly to give their 
 assent or dissent ; the Deputies in like manner sitting 
 apart by themselves, and consulting about such orders 
 and laws as they in their discretion and experience shall 
 find meet for common good, which, agreed upon by them, 
 they may present to the Magistrates, who, according to 
 their wisdom having seriously considered of them, may 
 consent unto them or disallow them ; and, when any or- 
 ders have passed the approbation of both Magistrates and 
 Deputies, then such orders to be engrossed, and in the 
 last day of the Court to be read deliberately, and full 
 assent to be given; provided, also, that all matters of 
 judicature, which this Court shall take cognizance of, shall 
 be issued in like manner." ^ 
 
 "This Order," not by hurtfully withdrawing a power 
 
 I IMass. Col. llec, II. 58, 59 ; comp. momvealtli as authentic, and to be 
 "Winthrop, II. IGO. — The original draft obeyed by all the country." After the 
 of this important Order is in the ar- word " manner," at the end, the fol- 
 chlves of the Commonwealth. In this lowing words are added, in Winthrop's 
 draft, as it was first made, between the handwriting, viz. "Nor shall this or- 
 words " given " and " provided," in the der hinder but that both Magistrates 
 last line but two of the Order as printed and Deputies may sometimes meet to- 
 above, stood the following words, viz. gethor to consult upon any special case 
 " without alteration by the major vote or affair, when either party shall desire 
 of both, of Magistrates and Deputies to- it." Both these clauses are crossed 
 gether, which vote shall issue and con- out with a pen. 
 firm all laws and orders of this Com-
 
 Chap. XV.] THE CONFEDERACY.. 623 
 
 from the Magistrates, as had been attempted, but by bene- 
 ficially conferring an equal power upon the Deputies, 
 " determined the great contention about the negative 
 voice," ' and completed the frame of the internal govern- 
 ment of Massachusetts, destined to undergo no further 
 organic change for forty years. 
 
 A measure of still greater moment had been consum- 
 mated some months earlier. This was no less , ^ . 
 
 Confederation 
 
 than a political confederation of the four princi- offourcoio- 
 pal Colonies of Xew England. 
 
 This measure, the scheme of which had perhaps been 
 derived from the Confederacy of the Low Countries, had 
 been conceived several years before. Such of the rea- 
 sons finally availing for its adoption, as seemed fit to be 
 committed to a formal record, are set forth in the pre- 
 amble to the Articles - : — 
 
 " Whereas we all came into these parts of America 
 with one and the same end and aim, namely, to advance 
 the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to enjoy the 
 liberties of the Gospel in purity with peace ; — and where- 
 as in our settling (by a wdse providence of God) we are 
 further dispersed upon the sea-coasts and rivers than was 
 at first intended, so that we cannot, according to our de- 
 sire, with convenience communicate in one government 
 and jurisdiction ; — and whereas w^e live encompassed with 
 people of several nations and strange languages, which 
 hereafter may prove injurious to us, or our posterity ; — 
 and forasmuch as the natives have formerly committed 
 sundry insolences and outrages upon several plantations 
 of the English, and have of late combined themselves 
 against us ; — and seeing by reason of those sad distrac- 
 tions in England which they have heard of, and by which 
 they know we are hindered from that humble way of 
 seeking advice, or reaping those comfortable fruits of pro- 
 tection, which at other times we might well expect: — We 
 
 1 Winthrop, II. ICO. 2 The instrument is in Hazard, II. 1-6.
 
 624 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 therefore do conceive it our bounden duty without delay- 
 to enter into a present consociation amongst ourselves, 
 for mutual help and strength in all our future concern- 
 ments ; that, as in nation and religion, so in other re- 
 spects, we be and continue one." 
 
 Of the five specifications here made, it was the third 
 particularly that expressed the original occasion of the 
 movement. The " people of several nations and strange 
 languages " were the French upon the eastern frontier of 
 the English colonists, the Dutch upon the western, and 
 the Swedes on Delaware Bay. Six years after the fall of 
 Gustavus Adolphus on the field of Liitzen, a small com- 
 pany of this nation, following up a plan of colonization 
 in America which had been favored by that hero, plant- 
 ed what proved to be the crerm of the present 
 
 1638. '^ . 
 
 State of Delaware. They were too distant and 
 too few to be formidable to New England. The French 
 did not seem likely for the present to attempt the use 
 of any force, beyond what Massachusetts, which alone 
 was exposed to it, was amply competent to cope with. 
 But Connecticut and New Haven, from the first, had 
 sufiered annoyance from the Dutch settlement at the 
 mouth of the Hudson. 
 
 When Minuit^ was superseded as Director-General 
 
 of the colony of New Netherland, it did not continue to 
 
 thrive as before. But under the administration 
 
 1C33. 
 
 of his successor, Walter Van Twiller, a trading- 
 house was erected on the Delaware, or South River, five 
 years before the arrival of the Swedes; while another, 
 
 1 See above, p. 237. — !Minuit, on his representation to Sir John Coke, Secre- 
 
 ivay back to Holland, in 1G32, was tary of State. TJie Dutch ambassador 
 
 driven by stress of weather into the remonstrated, and a correspondence 
 
 Englir^h port of riymouth. Here Cap- took place, in whicli the English gov- 
 
 tain ]\Iason had his ship libelled, for ernment peremptorily maintained its 
 
 carrying on an unlawful trade in a right to the territory about Hudson's 
 
 country belonging to the king of Eng- Kiver, though, as an act of favor, j\Iinu- 
 
 land, and followed up that step by a it's vessel was released.
 
 Chap. XV.] THE CONFEDERACY. 625 
 
 established by him on the Connecticut, gave occasion to 
 the disputes which have been mentioned, with the Ply- 
 mouth people in the first instance, and afterwards with 
 the planters from Massachusetts.^ 
 
 Van Twiller, after an administration of four years, was 
 succeeded by William Kieft, a man of resolution 
 
 . . 1637. 
 
 and ability, though not worthy of esteem. AVhen 
 New Haven came to be planted, the settlements of Eng- 
 lish and Dutch, with fickle Indians between them, 
 
 1638. 
 
 were drawing too close to each other for mutual 
 satisfaction ; and Kieft protested against the approach of 
 his new neighbors, as an intrusion upon his masters' 
 domain. There was a standing feud between the few 
 Dutchmen at Hartford, and the later comers by whom 
 they were surrounded ; and it sometimes led to blows, in 
 which the Dutch were worsted. Kieft drove off 
 
 1642. 
 
 a party of English who attempted to plant at the 
 western end of Long Island.^ He broke up a factory which 
 the New Haven people had established on the Delaware, 
 destroying the property and making prisoners of the peo- 
 ple. Various other proceedings of his were thought to 
 indicate a wide reach of unfriendly designs, and a pur- 
 pose to rouse the hostility of the natives. He neglected 
 complaints made against the Dutch for harboring fugi- 
 tives from justice and runaway servants; for furnishing 
 the Indians with arms and ammunition ; and for dealing 
 with them for goods stolen from the English. 
 
 1 Sec above, pp. 340, 451. sent men to take possession of the place, 
 
 2 This was the party, from Lynn in and set up the arms of the Prince of 
 Massachusetts, which ultimatel}', near Orange upon a tree. The Lynn men 
 the east end of the island, founded sent ten or twelve men with provisions, 
 the town of Southampton (see above, &c., who began to build, and took down 
 p. C04). They had obtained a tract at the Prince's arms, &c., and, in place 
 the west end, on the north side, by thereof, an Indian had drawn an un- 
 purchase from the Indians and from handsome face. The Dutch took this 
 one Forrett, who pretended to author- in high displeasure, and sent soldiers 
 ity to sell it as agent for the Earl of and fetched away their men," &c. 
 Stirling, patentee of the Council for (Winthrop, II. 6.) 
 
 New England. " The Dutch 
 
 VOL. I. 53
 
 626 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 The original movement towards a confederation pro- 
 ceeded from the western colonies ; and this harassing 
 state of their relations with their Dutch neighbors is 
 recorded as its cause. The first proposal came from 
 Connecticut, before the planting of New Haven. The 
 people of that colony were right in withdrawing from 
 subjection to Massachusetts ; they were equally right in 
 desiring the continued protection of her alliance. " Some 
 1G37. of the Magistrates and ministers of Connecticut 
 Aug. 31. i^gii^g " at Boston, " there was a day of meeting 
 appointed to agree upon some articles of confederation, 
 and notice was given to Plymouth that they might join 
 in it; but their warning was so short as they could not 
 come."-^ When next the scheme obtained a formal consid- 
 eration, it was thought by Massachusetts that the 
 apprehensions of Connecticut dictated such ex- 
 treme reserve in relation to grants of power to the pro- 
 posed confederacy, as to make its further prosecution 
 1G39. undesirable.^ It was revived in Connecticut 
 May. -^vhcn the vigorous policy of Kieft disclosed itself. 
 
 1C38. 
 June. 
 
 1 Winthrop, I. 237, apparent causes of offence •which they 
 
 2 " The ground of all was, their shy- had given." Winthrop also wrote (Au- 
 ness of coming under our government," gust 28, 1638) a letter to Hooker, of 
 Bays Winthrop (Ibid., 284). He adds, Avhich he has preserved an abstract 
 however, that " the differences between (Winthrop, II. 340). He conceived the 
 us and those of Connecticut were di- " miscarriages in point of correspond- 
 verse." Massachusetts at this time (Ibid., ence " of the Connecticut people " to 
 285, comp. Mass. Col. Rec, I. 321) re- arise from two errors in their govern- 
 claimed Springfield, with the privilege ment"; namely, their elections to office 
 of passing from it down the river to the of " men who had no learning nor judg- 
 Sound. Winthrop wrote to Connect- ment which might fit them for those 
 icut on this subject, and, "after a long afiairs, though otherwise men holy and 
 time, ]\Ir. Ludlow, in the name of their religious"; and their allowing "the 
 Court, returned answer, which was main burden for managing of state 
 very harsh." It was so harsh, the Mas- business " to fall " upon some one or 
 
 sachusetts Magistrates thought, as to other of their ministers, who, 
 
 have " tied their hands, in a manner, though they were men of singular wis- 
 
 from replying"; and Winthrop was dom and godliness, yet, stepping out of 
 
 fain to write " a private letter to Jlr. their course, their actions wanted that 
 
 Haynes, wherein ho laid open their blessing, which otherwise might have 
 
 mistakes, as he called them, and the been expected." (Ibid., I. 2SC.)
 
 Chap. XV.] THE CONFEDERACY. 627 
 
 Haynes and Hooker " came into the Bay, and stayed near 
 a month," to confer upon it ; ^ and the Connecticut Court 
 sent a committee from Hartford to Saybrook to 
 
 •' Aug. 8. 
 
 engage the good offices of Mr. Fenwick.^ 
 
 Hitherto, and for a considerable time later, Massachu- 
 setts seems to have been indifferent to the measure ; — 
 perhaps from unwillingness to be invested with a share 
 in the joint administration equal only to that claimed 
 by sister communities less populous and powerful. At 
 length, her course in respect to it w^as changed. A con- 
 currence of circumstances at that point of time deserves 
 notice. " The propositions sent from Connecti- 1642, 
 cut about a combination, &c. were read, and ^^p*--''- 
 referred to a committee to consider of after the Court." 
 The Court, " with advice of the elders," had just " ordered 
 a general fast," of which the specified occasions were, — 
 " second, the danger of the Indians ; third, the unseasona- 
 ble weather " ; but first and chiefly, " the ill news we had 
 out of England concerning the breach between the king 
 and Parliament." ^ The war that had begun in England 
 in the previous month had been impending through all 
 the summer. Puritanism and civil liberty were to try 
 their issue at the sword's pbint against despotism and 
 prelacy. If the right were doomed to be stricken down 
 on the other side of the water, it would only the more 
 need a refuge upon this ; and, as long as the balance 
 was trembling, the encouragement of friendship, though 
 neither powerful nor near, might add a weight to deter- 
 mine which way it should incline. At all events, when 
 tyrannical king and patriotic Parliament were in arms 
 against each other, it was prudent for distant English- 
 men to be likewise in panoply to meet all occasions;* 
 
 1 WIntlirop, I. 299. 4 Mass. Col. Rec, IT. 61; comp. 
 
 2 Conn. Col. Rec, 30, 31. Winthrop, II. 160.— Virginia "was like 
 
 3 Winthrop, II. 85 ; comp. Mass. to rise in parties, some for the king, and 
 Col. Rec, II. 16, 31. others for the Parliament." (Ibid.)
 
 628 
 
 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 [Book I. 
 
 when their numbers were lessened by the drawing off of 
 reinforcements to a remote field, it was wise in those 
 who were left to fortify themselves with the strength 
 of union ; and he reads the avowed reasons for the New- 
 England confederacy with superficial observation, who 
 does not single out from the rest " those sad distrac- 
 tions in England" as having had a special efficacy in 
 bringing about the measure. 
 
 At the next General Court, commissioners presented 
 ic43_ themselves at Boston from each of the three col- 
 May 10. qiiIqs, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven.^ 
 Mr. Fenwick of Saybrook was a party to the consulta- 
 tions.^ The Governor, Avith two Magistrates and three 
 
 1 Plymouth was represented by 
 Winslow and Collier (Plym. Col. llec,, 
 II. 53, 5G) ; Connecticut by Ilaynes 
 and Hopkins (Conn. Col. Eec, 82, 
 91) ; and New Haven by Eaton 
 and Gregson (N. H. Col. Rec, 87, 
 
 2 Winthrop says (II. 99 ) : " At this 
 
 Court came the Commissioners 
 
 from Connecticut, Mr. Haynes and Mr. 
 Hopkins, with whom Mr. Fenwick of 
 Saybrook joined." I was perplexed by 
 the relation of J\Ir. Fenwick to this 
 business, and applied to Mr. Trumbull, 
 of Hartford, for an explanation. That 
 with wliich he was so good as to fur- 
 nish me is so lucid, that I should do it 
 injustice if I gave it in any other than 
 his own words. Mr. Trumbull writes 
 as follows : 
 
 " jNIr. Fenwick's position was a pecu- 
 liar one, — and it would perhaps have 
 been very difficult for himself to de- 
 cide how far he was to be regarded 
 as a separate party ; yet I think he 
 came to discuss the proposed Confed- 
 eracy as the representative of his em- 
 ployers, ' the lords and gentlemen ' 
 interested at Saybrook under the Earl 
 of Warwick's grant. These, however, 
 had already abandoned their purpose 
 
 of emigration, and, with it, all real in- 
 terest in Connecticut. In 1C41, Mr. 
 Fenwick proposed to wait ' one year 
 longer, in expectation of his company, 
 at least some of them.' The time had 
 long since elapsed, and there remained 
 only a possibility of their coming. 
 There was now a good understanding 
 between him and Connecticut, and he 
 was perhaps already negotiating the 
 sale of the fort, &c., which he con- 
 cluded the next year. 
 
 " But, to preserve this understanding, 
 it was necessary to waive any present 
 examination of titles. The Court could 
 hardly admit the validity of the Say- 
 brook patent, without abandoning its 
 own claim to jurisdiction, — as against 
 IMassachusctts for instance, or the 
 Dutch ; and there were strong reasons 
 for not openly calling in question the 
 authority of the patent, — -which they 
 were about purchasing, and looked to 
 as the safeguard of their own author- 
 ity. So Mr. Fenwick took just so much 
 part in the pioceedings as to enable 
 him to interpose a salvo jure for the 
 patentees. In proof of this, though 
 Haynes and Hopkins were sent by the 
 Court ' to conclude a union ' (IMarch 
 27, 1643, Conn. Col. Rec, I. 82), the
 
 Chap. XV.] THE CONFEDERACY. 629 
 
 Deputies, was authorized to treat on the part of Massa- 
 chusetts.^ " These, coming to consultation, encountered 
 some difficulties ; but, being all desirous of union and 
 studious of peace, they readily yielded to each other in 
 such things as tended to common utility, &c., so as in 
 some two or three meetings they lovingly accorded."^ 
 Their deliberations issued in an agreement upon twelve 
 articles, and created what, for important purposes, was for 
 many years a Federal Government of the New Eng- 1643, 
 land Colonies. Receiving at once the signatures of ^'"^ ^^• 
 all the commissioners except those of Plymouth, who had 
 not brought authority to sign, they were soon 
 ratified by the government of that Colony also. 
 
 The settlements of Gorges, and the plantations about 
 Narragansett Bay, were denied admission to the Con- 
 federacy ; the former, says Winthrop, " because they ran 
 a different course from us, both in their ministry and 
 civil administration." ^ Neither had yet been able to 
 institute a government, such as could be relied on for 
 the fulfilment of the stipulations mutually made by the 
 four Colonies. The Narragansett settlers were at such 
 variance among themselves, that three years passed after 
 they had obtained an advantageous charter from the Par- 
 liamentary Commissioners, before they could come to a 
 sufficiently good understanding to put it in operation ; 
 and even that system in their hands speedily came to the 
 
 articles were signed, in May, by Hop- the assent, but not by the appoint- 
 
 kins and Fenicick, and the records of ment, of the Court." 
 
 the Commissioners (Hazard, II. 7) refer i Winthrop, II. 99. Mass. Col. 
 
 to an order of the Connecticut Court Rec, II. 35. The persons delegated 
 
 of July 5th, appointing them Commis- to this trust, on the part of Massachu- 
 
 sioners for Connecticut. But by refer- setts, were " the Governor, and Mr. 
 
 ring to the Court records (I. 90) it ap- Dudley and Mr. Bradstreet, being of 
 
 pears that ' ]\Ir. Hopkins is desired to the Magistrates ; and of the Deputies, 
 
 perform the service to be one of the Captain Gibbons, Mr. Tyng (the Treas- 
 
 comraittee for this river,' &c., nothing urer), and Mr. Hathorn." 
 
 being said of the other. Mr. Fenwick 2 "Winthrop, II. 99. 
 
 went as Mr. Hopkins's colleague, with 3 Ibid., 101. 
 53*
 
 630 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 ground, and had to be renewed. The people of Providence 
 were united by an association the most lax that can possi- 
 bly assert a title to the name ; those of an outlying settle- 
 ment, which had become detached from it, were in the 
 most disorderly condition ; and even those of Rhode Island 
 were in such bad credit, not only in Massachusetts, but 
 with the quiet people of Plymouth, who had no quarrel 
 with them, as to cause the kind and candid Brewster 
 
 1542. to write, " Concerning the Islanders, we have no 
 
 Mayj7. couvcrsing with them, nor desire to have, fur- 
 ther than necessity or humanity may require." ^ The 
 oath taken by the freemen of Rhode Island contained 
 an engagement of fealty to the king^; and Gorges, the 
 proprietary of Maine, was in arms for him. It was by 
 no influence proceeding from such sources, that the ob- 
 jects of the confederacy were to be carried out. 
 
 The confederation was no less than an act of abso- 
 lute sovereignty on the part of the contracting states. 
 The first two articles bound together the four Colonies 
 and their dependencies, under the name of " The United 
 Colonies of New England,'' in " a firm and perpetual 
 league of friendship and amity for offence and defence, 
 mutual advice and succor, upon all just occasions, both 
 for preserving and propagating the truth and liberties of 
 the Gospel, and for their own mutual safety and welfare." 
 
 The third provided, that, for purposes of internal 
 administration, each Colony should retain its inde- 
 pendence, and that no new member should be received 
 
 1 Bradford, 388. — The feelinfj against either for themselves or the people of 
 
 them in Massachusetts was such, that the the island where they inhabit, as their 
 
 General Court, in October, 1640, having case standeth." (Mass. Col. Kec., I. 
 
 considered a letter from the authorities 305.) 
 
 of New Ebiven, Connecticut, and Rhode 2 Jt ig true that also in Plymouth 
 
 Island, ordered " that the answer should oaths of allegiance to the king were in 
 
 be directed to Mr. Eaton, Mr. Hopkins, use. (See above, p. 646.) But no un- 
 
 and Mr. Haynes, only excluding Mr. friendliness to the Puritan establish- 
 
 Coddington and Mr. Brenton, as men ments of New England could be ap- 
 
 not to be capitulated withal by us, preheuded from the people there.
 
 Chap. XV.] THE CONFEDERACY. 631 
 
 into the league, nor any two present members be con- 
 solidated into one jurisdiction, without " consent of the 
 rest." 
 
 By the fourth, levies of men, money, and supplies 
 for war, were to be assessed on the respective Colonies, 
 in proportion to the male population of each between 
 the ages of sixteen and sixty, as ascertained by a census 
 to be made from time to time for each Colony by its 
 Commissioners ; and the spoils of war were to be distrib- 
 uted to the several Colonies on the same principle. 
 
 According to the fifth, upon notice, by three Magis- 
 trates, of an existing invasion of any Colony, the rest 
 were forthwith to send it relief; — Massachusetts to the 
 number of a hundred men, if so many were needed, and 
 each of the others to the number of forty-five, " suffi- 
 ciently armed and provided for such a service and jourr- 
 ney." The nearest confederate alone was to be sum- 
 moned, if the occasion required no more ; and then the 
 men were " to be victualled, and supplied with powder 
 and shot for their journey, (if there were need,) by that 
 jurisdiction which employed or sent for them." If 
 more than the whole stipulated, amount of aid was 
 demanded, then the whole body of Commissioners was 
 to be convened, to order a further enlistment, should 
 they see cause; or, if in their judgment the invaded 
 Colony was in fault, then to condemn it to give satis- 
 faction to the invader, and to defray the charges in- 
 curred. In the case of " danger of any invasion ap- 
 proaching," three Magistrates (or if in the threatened 
 jurisdiction there were no more than three, then two) 
 might summon a meeting of the Commissioners. 
 
 By the sixth, a board Avas constituted for the manage- 
 ment of the business of the Confederacy, to consist of 
 two Commissioners from each Colony, all of them church- 
 members, with power to " determine all aflfairs of war 
 or peace, leagues, aids, charges, and numbers of men for
 
 632 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 war, division of spoils, and whatsoever was gotten by con- 
 quest, receiving of more confederates for plantations into 
 combination with any of the confederates, and all things 
 of like nature which were the proper concomitants or 
 consequents of such a confederation for amity, oifence, 
 and defence." The concurrence of six Commissioners 
 was to be conclusive; in fault of this, the matter was 
 to be referred to the General Courts of the several 
 Colonies, and the concurrence of them all was to be bind- 
 ing. The Commissioners were to meet once a year, on 
 the first Thursday of September, and as much oftener as 
 occasion should require; the meetings, until some per- 
 manent place of meeting should be agreed upon, were 
 to be held in succession at the principal towns of the 
 Colonies respectively, except that two meetings out of 
 five were to be at Boston. 
 
 The seventh authorized the Commissioners, or six of 
 them, at each meeting, to choose a President from their 
 own number, who was to be " invested with no power or 
 respect," except " to take care and direct for order, and a 
 comely carrying on of all proceedings." 
 
 The eighth directed the Commissioners to " endeavor 
 to frame and establish agreements and orders, in general 
 cases of a civil nature wherein all the plantations were 
 interested, for preserving peace among themselves, and 
 preventing, as much as might be, all occasions of war 
 or difi*erence with others," as by the securing of justice 
 to the citizens of other jurisdictions, and a firm and 
 equitable course of proceeding towards the Indians ; and 
 it stipulated the extradition of runaway servants and 
 fugitives from justice. 
 
 By the ninth, the confederates mutually engaged them- 
 selves to abstain from all war not inevitable, and from 
 all claim to reimbursement for military charges, except 
 with the approbation of the Commissioners. 
 
 The tenth permitted a preliminary action by four Com-
 
 Chap. XV.] THE CONFEDERACY. 633 
 
 missioners, in cases of exigency, when a larger number 
 could not be convened. 
 
 The eleventh, in case of any breach of the terms of 
 the alliance by any Colony, invested the Commissioners 
 of the other Colonies with authority to determine the 
 offence and the remedy. 
 
 And the twelfth was a ratification of the eleven pre- 
 ceding, which were to go into effect either with or with- 
 out the expected concurrence of Plymouth,^ whose rep- 
 resentatives had brought " no commission to conclude." 
 
 Of this confederation, which " offers the first example 
 of coalition in colonial story, and showed to party lead- 
 ers in after times the advantages of concert,"^ it was 
 not without apparent reason that an unfriendly his- 
 torian remarked, that its " principles were altogether 
 those of independency, and it cannot easily be sup- 
 ported by any other." ^ It had scarcely been formed, 
 when the English Parliament, turnino^ its at- 
 
 , . 1-41 • Parliamen- 
 
 tention to the American colonies,'' and assuming tarycom- 
 the same authority over them that had been ciToniTi 
 pretended by the king, instituted a commission ^"''j^™^"^ 
 for their government, consisting of six lords 
 
 Nov. 2. 
 
 1 Hazard, II. 1. was concluded, but referred to next 
 
 2 Chalmers, Revolt of the American Court, and, in the mean time, that let- 
 Colonies, 87. " From the era of that ters should be written to the other 
 famous league, Masssachusetts acted Colonies to advise with them about it." 
 merely in pursuance of her principles, (Winthrop, II. 160.) — "The general 
 when she conducted herself wholly as covenant for matters of religion and 
 an independent state." Ibid., 88. civil liberties was [March 7, 1644] 
 
 3 Chalmers, Annals, 178. — There taken into consideration, and ordered 
 would seem to have been a vague that letters should be written to the 
 scheme, about the same time, for a still other United Colonies to advise with 
 further consolidation. " A proposition them about it." (Mass. Col. Rec, II. 
 was made this Court [1644, March] for 61.) 
 
 all the English within the United Colo- 4 The government of the English 
 
 nies to enter into a civil agi'eement for colonies was first lodged in the Privy 
 
 the maintenance of religion and our Council. The machinery next devised 
 
 civil liberties, and for yielding some for the purpose was that of the commis- 
 
 more of the freeman's privileges to such sion of which Laud was the head. (See 
 
 as were no church-members that should above, p. 391.) The next was the au- 
 
 join in this government. But nothing thority now instituted by Parliament.
 
 634 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book I. 
 
 and twelve commoners, with the Earl of Warwick, the 
 Lord Admiral, at its head. The commissioners were au- 
 thorized " to provide for, order, and dispose all things 
 which they should from time to time find most fit and ad- 
 vantageous to the well governing, securing, strengthening, 
 and preserving of the said plantations," and especially 
 to appoint and remove " subordinate governors, counsel- 
 lors, commanders, officers, and agents."^ The Ordinance 
 of Parliament was too late for New England, if indeed it 
 was intended for anything more than to provide for the 
 suppression of the king's party in the other dependencies 
 of the empire. The New-England Colonies had taken 
 their affairs into their own hands. By the counsels of 
 brave men, and by the progress of events, a self-governing 
 association of self-governing English commonwealths had 
 been founded in America; and the manifestation which 
 they had just now made of confidence in themselves and 
 in one another may well have had its place, along with 
 the sympathies which allied them to those who had 
 come into power in the parent country, in preventing 
 interference from abroad with the local administration. 
 
 1 The Commission is in Hazard (I. petitions could have been sent. I think, 
 533). Lord Say and Sele, Sir Arthur not from New England, unless it -were 
 Hazelrigg, Henry Vane the younger, from some of the Maine or Narragan- 
 Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, Pym, Cromwell, sett settlers. Perhaps they went from 
 and Samuel Vassall were members of Clayborne's discomfited party in Mary- 
 thc Board. The ordinance establishing land, or from those Virginians Avho Avere 
 it refers to petitions from some of the disaffected to the government of Sir 
 plantations, that " they might have William Berkeley. (Winthrop, II. 
 some such governor and governments 159, 160.) A law of Virginia, ban- 
 as should be approved of, and confirmed ishing Non-conformist ministers from 
 by, the authority of both Houses of Par- that colony, had been passed in March 
 liament." I know not whence those of the same year.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 MAGISTRATES OF THE NEW-ENGLAND COLONIES. 
 
 The fifth New-England Colony, that of the "Providence Plantations," was not 
 orfranizcd till after the time with which this volume closes, though its constituent parts 
 had an earlier date, like several settlements in New Hampshire and Maine. Accord- 
 ingly, no names of its rulers are here inserted. So the lists of Magistrates in the juris- 
 dictions of Massachusetts and of New Haven begin with the permanent organization. — 
 The figures in the following table indicate the times of the election of Magistrates. 
 
 PLYMOUTH. 
 
 In this Colony there was no Deputy-Governor. At first there was only one Assist- 
 ant, the office being filled (for precisely how many years is not known) by Isaac Aller- 
 ton. In 1624, the number of Assistants was increased to five, and in 1G33 to seven; 
 and at tiiis latter time the record of the names of Assistants begins. In this Colony, 
 till 1637, the elections took place in January, and afterwards in March. 
 
 1620, 1G2I. John Caiwer. 
 1621 - 1632. William Bradford. 
 
 1633. Edward Winslow. 
 
 1634. Thomas Prince. 
 
 1635. William Bradford. 
 
 William Bradford, 1633, 1634, 1636, 1638. 
 Miles Standish, 1633-163.5, 1637-1641. 
 John Howland, 1633 -.1635. 
 John Alden, 1633-1639. 
 John Doane, 1633. 
 Stephen Hopkins, 1633-1636. 
 William Gilson, 1633. 
 Edward Winslow, 1634, 1635, 1637, 1638, 
 1641-1643. 
 
 Gov: 
 
 ERNORS. 
 
 
 
 1636. 
 
 Edward Winslow. 
 
 
 1637. 
 
 William Bradford. 
 
 
 1638. 
 
 Thomas Prince. 
 
 
 1639- 
 
 1643. William Bradford. 
 
 Assi 
 
 STANTS. 
 
 
 Isaac Allerton, 1634. 
 
 William Collier, 1634 - 1637, 1639 - 1643. 
 
 Thomas Prince, 1635 - 1637, 1639 - 1643. 
 
 Timothy Hatherly, 1636, 1637, 1639-1643. 
 
 John Brown, 1636, 1638-1643. 
 
 John Jenny, 1637 - 1640. 
 
 John Atwood, 1638. 
 
 Edmund Freeman, 1640- 1643. 
 
 William Thomas, 1642, 1643. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 In this Colony the annual elections took place in May. 
 Governors. Deputy-Governors. 
 
 1 630 - 1 633. John Winthrop. 
 
 1634. Thomas Dudley. 
 
 1635. John Hnynes. 
 
 1636. Henry Vane. 
 
 1 637 - 1 639. John Winthrop. 
 
 1640. Thomas Dudley. 
 
 1641. Richard Bnllingham. 
 
 1642. 1643. John Winthrop. 
 
 1630-1633. Thomas Dudley. 
 
 1634. Roger Ludlow. 
 
 1635. Richard Bellingham. 
 
 1636. John Winthrop. 
 
 1637 - 1639. Thomas Dudley. 
 1640. Richard Bellingham. 
 1641 - 1643. John Endicott.
 
 636 MAGISTRATES OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES. 
 
 Assistants. 
 
 Simon Bradstrcct, 1630-1643. 
 William Coddington, 1630-1636. 
 John Endicott, 1630-1634, 1637, 1639, 
 
 1640. 
 Isaac Johnson, 1630. 
 Roger Ludlow, 1630 - 1633. 
 Increase Nowell, 1630-1643. 
 William Pynchon, 1630-1636, 1643. 
 Edward Rossiter, 1630. 
 Richard Saltonstall, 1630, 1631, 1633. 
 Thomas Sharjie, 16.'!0. 
 AVilliam Vassall, 1630. 
 John Humphrey, 1632-1641. 
 
 John Winthrop, Jr., 1632-1641, 1643. 
 
 John Haynes, 1634, 1636. 
 
 John Winthrop, 1634, 1635, 1640, 1641. 
 
 Atherton Hough, 1635. 
 
 Richard Dumraer, 1635, 1636. 
 
 Thomas Dudley, 1635, 1636, 1641-1643. 
 
 Richard Bellitigham, 1 636 - 1 639, 1 642, 
 
 Roger Harlakcnden, 1636-1638. [1643. 
 
 Israel Stoughton, 1637-1643. 
 
 Richard Saltonstall, Jr., 1637-1643. 
 
 Thomas Flint, 1642, 1643. 
 
 Samuel Symonds, 1643. 
 
 William Hibbcns, 1643. 
 
 CONNECTICUT. 
 In this Colony the elections took place in April. 
 
 GOVEKNOES. 
 
 1639. John Haynes. 
 
 1640. Edward Hopkins. 
 
 1641. John Haynes. 
 
 1642. George Wyllys. 
 
 1643. John Haynes. 
 
 1639. 
 1640. 
 1641. 
 1642. 
 1643. 
 
 Magistrates. 
 
 Deputy-Goveenobs. 
 
 Roger Ludlow. 
 John Haynes. 
 George Wyllys. 
 Roger Ludlow. 
 Edward Hopkins. 
 
 Edward Hopkins, 1639, 1641, 1642. 
 William Phelps, 1639 - 1642. 
 George Wyllys, 1639, 1640, 1643. 
 Thomas Wells, 1639 - 1643. 
 John Webster, 1639- 1643. 
 Roger Ludlow, 1640, 1641, 1643. 
 
 William Hopkins, 1641, 1642. 
 John Haynes, 1642. 
 William Whiting, 1641 - 1643. 
 John Mason, 1642, 1643. 
 Henry Wolcott, 1643. 
 Samuel Swayne, 1643. 
 
 NEW HAVEN. 
 
 In this Colony the elections took place in October. 
 
 GOVEKNOK. DePUTY-GoVEBNOE. 
 
 1643. Thcophilus Eaton. 1643. Stephen Goodycare. 
 
 Magistrates. 
 
 Thomas Grcgson, 1643. 
 William Fowler, 1643. 
 
 Edmund Tapp,1643. 
 Thurston Rayner, 1643. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 8 9 6 7 4
 
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 OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 
 
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