fcalifornia
ional
ility
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
THE GIFT OF
MAY TREAT MORRISON
IN MEMORY OF
ALEXANDER F MORRISON
-
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
,'/. ', BF
JEREMY BELKNAP, D.D.
ADDITIONS AND NOTES,
BY F. M. H UBB ARD.
IN THBKB VOLUMES.
VOL. III.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS.
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1855.
Entered, according to Ac; of Congress, in the year 1641, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New York.
f 7.
CONTENTS
or
THE THIRD VOLUME.
MM
WILLIAM BRADFORD . . . ' . : ' . 7
WILLIAM BREWSTER 53
ROBERT CUSHMAN . . 70
EDWARD WIXSLOW 85
MII.KS STANDISH . 116
JOHN WINTHROP ^... ". "V* ' \ '- . 148
JOHN WINTHROP, JR. . . . '. . i ^ . 185
GEORGE CALVERT, CECILIUS CALVKRT, Lords Baltimore.
LEONARD CALVERT . . . ;"." '.. . . . 206
WILLIAM PENN . . .225
APPENDIX 293
INDEX .305
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
XIX. WILLIAM BRADFORD.
WILLIAM BRADFORD was born in 1588, at
Ansterfield, an obscure village in the north
of England.* His parents dying when he
was young, he was educated, first by his
grand-parents, and afterward by his uncles,
in the practice of agriculture. His paternal
inheritance was considerable, but he had no
other learning than such as generally falls to
the share of the children of husbandmen.
At twelve years of age his mind became
seriously impressed by Divine truth in read-
ing the Scriptures, and, as he increased in
years, a native firmness enabled him to vin-
dicate his opinions against opposition. Being
stigmatized as a Separatist, he was obliged
to bear the frowns of his relatives and the
scoff of his neighbours ; but nothing could di-
vert or intimidate him from attending on the
ministry of Mr. Richard Clifton, and connect-
* Magnalia, ii., 3.
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
ing himself withvthte:- dhirfch over which he
and Mr.'BfibirisQn pjesdded'. ";
When *h"e' Was' eighte'eti ye'ars old he joined
in their attempt to go over to Holland, and
was one of the seven who were imprisoned
at Boston, in Lincolnshire, as has already been
related in the Life of Robinson ; but he was
soon liberated on account of his youth. He
was also one of those who the next year fled
from G rimsby Common, when part of the
company went to sea and part were taken by
the pursuivants.*
After some time he went over to Zealand,
through various difficulties, and was no soon-
er set on shore than a malicious passenger in
the same vessel accused him before the Dutch
magistrates as a fugitive from England. But,
when they understood the cause of his emi-
gration, they gave him protection, and per-
mission to join his brethren at Amsterdam.
It being impossible for him to prosecute
agriculture in Holland, he was obliged to
betake himself to some other business ; and,
being then under age, he put himself as an
* [See Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, ii., Appendix.
Hazard, i., 350, &c. Bradford's own narration, which we have
only in fragments, yet of great interest and value, is the sourca
of all the information we have of these events. H.]
BRADFORD. 9
apprentice to a French Protestant, who taught
him the art of silk-dyeing. As soon as he at-
tained the years of manhood, he sold his pa-
ternal estate in England, and entered on a
commercial life, in which he was not very
successful.
When the Church of Leyden contemplated
a removal to America, Bradford zealously
engaged in the undertaking, and came with
the first company, in 1620, to Cape Cod.*
While the ship lay in that harbour, he was
one of the foremost in the several hazardous
attempts to find a proper place for the seat
of the colony, in one of which he, with oth-
ers of the principal persons, narrowly escaped
the destruction which threatened their shal-
lop.t On his return from this excursion to
the ship with the joyful news of having found
a harbour and a place for settlement, he had
the mortification to hear that, during his ab-
sence, his wife had accidentally fallen into
the sea, and was drowned.t
* [In February, 1619, ho was one of the agents sent to
England to make a bargain with the Virginia Company for the
removal. Prince, 151. H.] t Prince, 76.
t [This was Dec. 7th. Of this lady we know only that het
baptismal name was Dorothy. Prince, 165. From Prince's
list of signers on board the Mayflower, page 308 of volume ii.,
[ suppose she had no children. Roger White's Letter to Brad-
10 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
After the sudden death of Governor Car-
ver, the infant colony cast their eyes on
Bradford to succeed him ; but, being at that
time so very ill that his life was depaired of,
they waited for his recovery, and then in-
vested him with the command. He was in
the thirty-third year of his age ; his wisdom,
piety, fortitude, and goodness of heart were
so conspicuous as to merit the sincere esteem
of the people. Carver had been alone in
command. They confided in his prudence,
that he would not adventure on any matter
of moment without the consent of the peo-
ple or the advice of the wisest. To Brad-
ford they appointed an assistant, Isaac Aller-
ton,* not because they had not the same con-
ford (Mass. Hist. Coll., iii., 43) furnishes ground for a conjec-
ture that her maiden name was May. H.]
* [Isaac Allerton's reputation among the descendants of the
Pilgrims is hardly equal to his deserts. He came over in ths
Mayflower with his wife Mary and five children. Some years
after her death, Feb. 25th, 1621, he married Fear, a daughter of
Elder Brewster. He appears to have been a man of courage,
for the day after the grand reception of Masassoit, " some of
them told us the king would have some of us come to see him ;
Captain Standish and Isaac Alderton went voluntarily."
Mourt's Journal, 231. The planters had much confidence in
his discretion and capacity for business, as they sent him
their agent to England in the fall of 1626, to complete with the
adventurers the negotiation which Standish had begun, to bor-
row money, buy goods, &c. Prince, 239. He returned in the
pring of 1627, having borrowed " 200 at thirty per cent., to'
BRADFORD. 11
fidenoe in him, but partly for the sake of
regularity, and partly on account of his pre-
the great content of the plantation." He brought the adventu-
rers to a composition, signed Nov. 15th, by which they relin-
quished all their interest in the company for the sum of 1800,
to be paid in seven years. Ib., 242, 243. Again, in 1627,
"with the return of the ships," he was commissioned to carry
out the necessary bonds to the adventurers at London, to sell the
company's bearer, and procure a patent for a settlement on the
Kennebec. " Having settled all things in a hopeful way," and
made provision for the passage of some of their friends at Ley-
den, he returned early in the spring of 1628. Ib., 245, 246,
247. Mr. Shirley calls him " your honest, wise, and discreet
agent." Mass. Hist. Coll., iii., 58. He made two voyages to
England in 1629 to procure a new and enlarged patent for the
colony. In his second attempt he was successful. He met
many difficulties in this business ; " many locks," said Shirley,
" must be opened with the silver, nay, with the golden key."
Prince, 265. Mass. Hist. Coll., iii., 70. He did not succeed,
however, in procuring, what was earnestly desired, an exemp-
tion from duties of goods to and from the colony ; and probably
his failure in this particular, and the expense attending the at-
tempt, occasioned his connexion with the company to be dis-
solved : a harsher treatment than his faithful labours had de-
served. He relumed to England in 1631, and Bradford dis-
misses his record of the fact with saying, " being no more em-
ployed by the plantation." Prince, 361. He afterward estab-
lished a trading-house at Machias, and, having suffered repeated
and severe losses at sea, and by fire, removed to New- Haven,
probably in 1647,, and died there in 1659. Mass. Hist. Col.,
xxvii., 243, 301. Mr. Hutchinson says that Point Alderton,
near the entrance of Boston Harbour, was named from him.
In Mourt's Relation (Mass. Hist. Coll., viii., 231), his name i
spelled Aldcrton Such a memorial was due to his enterprise
ami int. -iiu, ,tr;J yet t>ut a, slight oli'set to a toilsome and sor-
rn-,vi,.i kit - H ]
III. B
12 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
carious health.* They appointed but one,
because they were so reduced in number that
to have made a greater disproportion between
rulers and people would have been absurd,
and they knew that it would always be in
their power to increase the number at their
pleasure. Their voluntary combination was
designed only as a temporary expedient, till
they should obtain a charter under the author-
ity of their sovereign.
One of the first acts of Bradford's admin-
istration was, by advice of the company, to
send Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins
to Massasoit, with Squanto for their guide.
The design of this embassy was to explore
the country, to confirm the league, to learn
the situation and strength of their new friend,
to carry some presents, to apologize for some
misbehaviour, to regulate the intercourse be-
tween them and the Indians, and to procure
seed-corn for the next planting season.
These gentlemen found the sachem at Po-
kanoket,t about forty miles from Plymouth.
* Hubbard'sMS. Hist., p. 49. [In the printed copy, 61. H.]
t This was a general name for the northern shore of the Nar-
raganset Bay, between Providence and Taunton Rivers, and
comprehending the present townships of Bristol, Warren, and
Barrington in the State of Rhode Island, and Swanzey in Mas-
sachusetts Its northern extent is unknown. The principal
BRADFORD. 13
They delivered the presents, renewed the
friendship, and satisfied themselves respect-
ing the strength of the natives, which did
not appear formidable, nor was the enter-
tainment which they received either liberal
or splendid. The marks of desolation and
death, by reason of the pestilence, were very
conspicuous in all the country through which
they passed ; but they were informed that the
Narragansets, who resided on the western
shore of the bay of that name, were very
numerous, and that the pestilence had not
reached them.
After the return of this embassy, another
was sent to Nauset,* to recover a boy who
had straggled from Plymouth, and had been
taken up by some of the Indians of that
place. They were so fortunate as to recover
the boy, and make peace with Aspinet, the
sachem, whom they paid for the seed-corn
which they had taken out of the ground at
Paomet in the preceding autumn. t During
seals of the sachem were at Sawams and Kikemuit. The for-
mer is a neck of land formed by the confluence of Barrington
and Palmer's Rivers ; the latter is Mount Hope. See Callen-
der's Century Discourse, p. 30, 73.
* [Now Eastham. Mass. Hist Coll., viii., 159. H.]
t Mourt's Relation in Purchas, iv., 1853. [And in Mass.
Hist. Coll., viii. H.]
14 A M E E i art BIOGRAPHY.
this expedition, an old woman, who had nev-
er before seen any white people, burst into
tears of grief and rage at the sight of them.
She had lost three sons by the perfidy of
Thomas Hunt, who decoyed them, with oth-
ers, on board his ship, and sold them for
slaves. Squanto, who was present, told her
that he had been carried away at the same
time ; that Hunt was a bad man ; that his
countrymen disapproved his conduct, and
that the English at Plymouth would not offer
them any injury. This declaration, accom-
panied by a small present, appeased her an-
ger, though it was impossible to remove the
cause of her grief.
It was fortunate for the colony that they
had secured the friendship of Massasoit, for
his influence was found to be very extensive.
He was regarded and reverenced by all the
natives, from the Bay of Narraganset to that
of Massachusetts. Though some of the petty
sachems were disposed to be jealous of the
new colony, and to disturb its peace, yet their
mutual connexion with Massasoit proved the
means of its preservation ; as a proof of which,
nine of these sachems voluntarily came to
Plymouth and subscribed an instrument of
submission in the following terms, viz. :
BRADFORD. 15
" September 13, Anno Domini 1621. Know
all men by these presents, that we, whose
names are underwritten, do acknowledge our-
selves to be the loyal subjects of King James,
king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland,
Defender of the Faith, &c. In witness
whereof, and as a testimonial of the same,
we have subscribed our names or marks as
followeth :
Ohquamehud, Nattawahunt, Quadequina,
Cawnacome, Caunbatant, Huttamoiden,
Obbatinua, Chikatabak, Apannow."*
* [Judge Davis, in his note to Morton'8 Memorial, gives some
additional information of these chiefs. " Obbatinua, or Obbatin-
owat, was one of the Massachusetts sachems ; his residence was
on or near the Peninsula of Shawmut (Boston). Chikatabak, or
Chicketawbut, was the sagamore of Neponset (Dorchester), and
is frequently mentioned in the History of Massachusetts. [See
especially the early part of Winthrop's Journal.] He died of the
smallpox in November, 1633. These Massachusetts sachems
were not completely independent, but acknowledged a degree
of subjection to Massasoit. Caunbatant, or Corbitant : his
residence was at Mattapuyst, a neck of land in the township of
Swanzey. Mr. Winslow, who had frequent conferences with
him at his wigwam and at other places, represents him as a
hollow-hearted friend to the Plymouth planters, 'a notable poli-
tician, yet full of merry jests and squibs, and never better pleased
than when the like are returned again upon him.' Quindaquina
was a brother of Massasoit. Of the other five sachems who
signed the instrument of submission, no satisfactory account can
be given."
[Cawnacome, or Caunacqm, was sachem of Manomet (Sand-
16 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
Hobbamock,* another of these subordinate
chiefs, came and took up his residence at
wich), and died, it is said, in 1623. Prince, 90S, 214. The
name Apannow has a singular resemblance to Epenow, who
was a native of the southern part of Cape Cod, and returned
from England with Captain Harley in 1614. Prince, 133. Yet
an identity of person is hardly probable.] " In Mourt's Relation,
as quoted by Mr. Prince (196), it is said, ' Yea, Massasoit, in
writing, under his hand to Captain Standish, has owned the King
of England to be his master, both he and many other kings un-
der him, as of Pamet (Truro), Nauset (Eastham), Cummaquid,
Namasket (Middleborough), with divers others who dwell about
the bays of Patuxet and Massachusetts ; and all this by friendly
usage, love and peace, just and honest carriage, good counsel,
&c.' We may add here that Massasoit is supposed to have
died about 1656, a sincere friend of the English to the last." H.]
* [Now commonly written Hobomok. This true friend to
the English deserves a lasting remembrance. He was attached
to them from the beginning, and no threats, or danger, or en-
ticements could seduce him from his faithfulness. They were
often indebted for much of their advantage and safety to the sa-
gacity of his observation and of his counsels. He served them
in every way, as guide, companion, counsellor, and friend, un-
moved by the ridicule and scorn of those whom he had aban-
doned, and unawed by the sworn hatred of the savage and wily
Corbitant. His services were acknowledged by a grant of lands
in the colony. Gentle and guileless in his temper, he was easily
won by the pure and simple truths of religion, and, spite of all
temptation, professed himself a Christian. We are not inform-
ed of the date of his death, but are told in a work published in
1642 (NfiV-England's First Fruits), that " he died amongst them
(the English), leaving some good hopes in their hearts that his
soul went to rest." Note to Morton, 212. Mrs. Child has
written an interesting novel, entitled Hobomok, of which he is
the hero. H.]
BRADFORD. 17
Plymouth, where he continued as a faithful
guide and interpreter as long as he lived.
The Indians of the Island of Capawock,
which had now obtained the name of Mar-
tha's or Martin's Vineyard, also sent messen-
gers of peace.
Having heard much of the Bay of Massa-
chusetts, both from the Indians and the Eng-
lish fishermen, Governor Bradford appointed
ten men, with Squanto and two other Indians,
to visit the place and trade with the natives.
On the 18th of September they sailed in a
shallop, and the next day got to the bottom
of the bay, where they landed under a cliff,*
and were kindly received by Obbatinua, the
sachem who had subscribed the submission
at Plymouth a few days before. He renew-
ed his submission, and received a promise of
assistance and defence against the squaw sa
ehem of Massachusetts, and other enemies.
The appearance of this bay was pleasing.
They saw the mouths of two rivers which
emptied into. it. The islands were cleared
of wood, and had been planted, but most of
the people who had inhabited them either
were dead or had removed. Those who re-
mained were continually in fear of the Tarra-
* Supposed to be Copp's Hill, in the town of Boston.
18 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY*
tenes, who frequently came from the eastward
in a hostile manner, and robbed them of their
corn. In one of these predatory invasions,
Nanepashamet, a sachem, had been slain ;
his body lay buried under a frame, surround-
ed by an intrenchment and palisade. A mon-
ument on the top of a hill designated the place
where he was killed.
Having explored the bay and collected
some beaver, the shallop returned to Ply-
mouth, and brought so good a report of the
place that the people wished they had bepi>
seated there. But, having planted corn and
built huts at Plymouth, and being there in
security from the natives, they judged the
motives for continuance to be stronger than
for removal. Many of their posterity have
judged otherwise.
In November a ship* arrived from England
with thirty-five passengers to augment the
colony. Unhappily, they were so short of
provision that the people of Plymouth wef
obliged to victual the ship home, and then
put themselves and the new-comers to half
allowance. Before the next spring (1622)
the colony began to feel the rigour of famine.
* [The ship was the Fortune, of fifty-five ton*. She arrived
November 9th. Prince, 198. H.)
BRADFORD. 19
In the height of this distress, tne governor re-
ceived from Canonicus, sachem of Narragan-
set, a threatening message, in the emblematic
style of the ancient Scythians, a bundle of ar-
rows bound with the skin of a serpent. The
governor sent an answer in the same style,
the skin of the serpent filled with powder and
ball. The Narragansets, afraid of its con-
tents, sent it back unopened, and here the
correspondence ended.
It was now judged proper to fortify the
town. Accordingly, it was surrounded with
a stockade and four flankarts ; a guard was
kept by day and night, the company being
divided into four squadrons. A select num-
ber were appointed, in case of accidental fire,
to mount guard with their backs to the fire,
to prevent a surprise from the Indians. With-
in the stockade was enclosed the top of the
hill, under which the town was built, and a
sufficiency of land for a garden to each fami-
ly. The works were begun in February, and
finished in March.
At this time the famine was very severe.
Fish and spring-water were the only pro-
vision on which the people subsisted. The
want of bread reduced their flesh ; yet they
had so much health and spirit, that, on hear-
20 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
ing of the massacre in Virginia, they erected
an additional fort on the top of the hill, with
a flat roof, on which the guns were mounted ;
the lower story served them for a place of
worship. Sixty acres of ground were plant-
ed with corn ; and their gardens were sown
with the seeds of other esculent vegetables in
great plenty.
The arrival of two ships* with a new col-
ony, sent out by Thomas Weston, but with-
out provisions, was an additional misfortune.
Some of these people, being sick, were lodg-
ed in the hospital at Plymouth till they were
so far recovered as to join their companions,
who seated themselves at Wessagusset, since
called Weymouth.
The first supply of provision was obtained
from the fishing vessels, of which thirty-fivf
came this spring from England to the coast
In August two shipsf arrived with trading
* [The Charity, of one hundred tons, and the Swan, of thirty.
The Charity, having gone on to Virginia, returned to Wey-
mouth, and thence to England. The Swan remained at Wey-
mouth for the use of the colonists. H.]
t [The Sparrow, Mr. Weston's, sent out on a fishing voy-
age, and the Discovery, on an expedition to explore the coast
from Cape Cod to Virginia, and now homeward bound. " This
ship," says Morton (p. 83), speaking of the latter, " had store
of English beads (which were then good trade) and some knives,
but would sell none but at dear rates, and also a good quantity
BRADFORD. 21
goods, which the planters bought at a great
disadvantage, giving beaver in exchange.
The summer being dry, and the harvest
short, it became necessary to make excur-
sions among the natives to procure corn and
beans Avith the goods purchased from the
ships. Governor Bradford undertook this
service,* having Squanto for his guide and
interpreter, who was taken ill on the passage,
and died at Manamoik. Before his death,
he requested the governor to pray for him,
"that he might go to the Englishman's GOD."
In these excursions Mr. Bradford was treat-
ed by the natives with great respect, and the
trade was conducted on both parts with jus-
tice and confidence. At Nauset, the shallop
being stranded, it was necessary to put the
corn which had been purchased in stack,
and to leave it, covered with mats and sedge,
together ; yet they (the planters) were glad of the occasion, and
fain to buy at any rate ; they were fain to give after the rate of
cent, per cent., if not more, and yet pay away coat beaver at
three shillings per pound," " which a few years after yields
twenty shillings a pound.' Prince, 205. H.]
* [This was in November, and was the first attempt to go
round the cape outside to the southward. He found no passage
through the shoal at the southern extremity of it, and put in at
Manamoik, now Chatham. After the death of Squanto Brad-
ford sailed to Massachusetts, and thence to Nauset, now called
Eastham. H.J
22 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
in the care of the Indians, while the govern"
or and his party came home, fifty miles, on
foot. It remained there from November to
January, and, when another shallop was sent,
it was found in perfect safety, and the strand-
ed shallop was recovered.*
At Namasket [Middleborough], an inland
place, he bought another quantity, which was
brought hqme, partly by the people of the
colony and partly by the Indian women,
their men disdaining to bear burdens.
At Manomet [Sandwich] he bargained
for more, which he was obliged to leave till
March, when Captain Standish went and
fetched it home, the Indian women bringing
it down to the shallop. The whole quantity
thus purchased amounted to twenty-eight
hogsheads of corn and beans, of which Wes-
ton's people had a share, as they had joined
in the purchase.
In the spring (1623) the governor received
a message from Massasoit that he was sick,
on which occasion it is usual for all the
friends of the Indians to visit them or send
them presents. Mr. "Winslow again went to
visit the sachem, accompanied by Mr. John
Hampden,t and they had Hobbamock for
* Winslow, in Purchas, iv., 1858.
t In Winslow's Journal, Mr. Hampden is said to be " a gen-
BRADFORD. 23
their guide and interpreter. The visit was very
consolatory to their sick friend, and the more
so as Winslow carried him some cordials, and
maae him broth after the English mode,
which contributed to his recovery. In return
for this friendly attention, Massasoit commu-
nicated to Hobbamock intelligence of a dan-
gerous conspiracy, then in agitation among
'< ie Indians, in which he had been solicited
tleman of London, who then wintered with us, and desired
much to see the country." I suppose this to be the same per-
so.1 who distinguished himself by his opposition to the illegal
and arbitrary demands of King Charles I. He had previously
(1637) embarked for New-England with Oliver Cromwell, Sir
Arthur Haslerig, and others ; but they were prevented from
coming by the king's " proclamation against disorderly trans-
jiorting his majesty's subjects to the plantations in America."
Hampden was born in 1594, and was 29 years old at the time
of Irs being at Plymouth in 1623. See Neal's Hist. N. E.,
vol. i., 151. Hazard's State Papers, vol. i., 421. Northouck's
biographical Dictionary, HAM.*
* [I can hardly believe that John Hampden ever came to
America. His late biographer, Lord Nugent, does not allude to
it, which is a strong negative proof. The narrative in the text
is the only early New-England writing in which it is mentioned.
Yet, when Hampden's fame became great in England, would not
those whose solitude he had shared have sometimes referred to
it in thankfulness, if not in boasting \ He could have come only
in some fishing vessel, and would he have chosen such a convey-
ance ! He had but just entered on public life in Parliament,
and why should he have left his ambition and his n
home for a winter's sojourn in a desert? H.)
24 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
to join. Its object was nothing less than the
total extirpation of the English, and it was
occasioned by the imprudent conduct of "Wes-
ton's people in the Bay of Massachusetts.
The Indians had it in contemplation to make
them the first victims, and then to fall on the
people of Plymouth. Massasoit's advice was,
that the English should seize and put to death
the chief conspirators, whom he named, and
said that this would prevent the execution of
the plot. Hobbamock communicated this se-
cret to Winslow as they were returning, and
it was reported to the governor.
On this alarming occasion the whole com-
pany were assembled in court, and the news
was imparted to them. Such was their con-
fidence in the governor, that they unanimous-
ly requested him, with Allerton his assistant,
to concert the best measures for their safety.
The result was to strengthen the fortifica-
tions, to be vigilant at home, and to send
such a force to the Bay of Massachusetts, un-
der Captain Standish, as he should judge suf-
ficient to crush the conspiracy. An Indian
who had come into the town was suspected
as a spy and confined in irons. Standish,
with eight chosen men and the faithful Hobba-
mock, went in the shallop to Weston's planta-
BRADFORD. 25
tion, having goods, as usual, to trade with the
Indians. Here he met the persons who had
been named as conspirators, who personally
insulted and threatened him. A quarrel en-
sued, in which seven of the Indians were
killed. The others were so struck with ter-
ror that they forsook their houses and retreat-
ed to the swamps, where many of them died
with cold and hunger ; the survivers would
have sued for peace, but were afraid to go to
Plymouth. Weston's people were so appre-
hensive of the consequences of this affair, that
they quitted the plantation ; and the people
of Plymouth, who offered them protection,
which they would not accept, were gjad to
be rid of such troublesome neighbours.
Thus, by the spirited conduct of a handful
of brave men, in conformity to the advice of
the friendly sachem, the whole conspiracy
was annihilated. But, when the report of
this transaction was carried to their brethren
in Holland, Mr. Robinson, in his next letter
to the governor, lamented with great concern
and tenderness, " O that you had converted
some before you had killed any!"*
The scarcity which they had hitherto ex-
perienced was partly owing to the increase
* Prince, 146.
26 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
of their numbers and the scantiness of their
supplies from Europe,* but principally to
* [This scarcity sometimes reduced them to extreme distress.
For the first year they eked out the stock of provisions they
brought with them by fishing and fowling, roots and clams. The
first ship that came from England, November, 1621, brought
them thirty-five new settlers, and no supply of provisions. " They
never had any supply to any purpose after this time, but what the
Lord helped them to raise by their own industry among them-
selves ; for all that came afterward was too short for the passen-
gers that came with it." Morton, 79. ''About the end of May
(1622) our store of victuals was wholly spent, having lived long
before with a bare and short allowance ; and, indeed, had we not
been in a place where divers sorts of shellfish are, that may be
taken with the hand, we must have perished, unless God had
raised up some unknown or extraordinary means for our preser-
vation." Winslow's Relation, Mass. Hist. Coll., viii., 245, 246.
Winslow was sent to the fishing-vessels at Monhiggon, on the
coast of Maine, to seek supplies, and procured enough to give
each person a quarter of a pound of bread a day till harvest.
Prince, 202. This year they planted nearly sixty acres of corn,
but the harvest proved a scanty year's supply for the colony,
" partly by reason they were not yet well acquainted with the
manner of the husbandry of the Indian corn .... but chiefly
their weakness for want of food." Morton, 83. Hence the
governor's voyages, already mentioned, for the purchase of corn.
They had not all and always " trading-stuffs," and were forced
to borrow of the natives, and were sorely tempted, like Weston's
men, to steal. In 1623, Governor Bradford says (Prince, 216),
" By the time our corn is planted our victuals are spent ; not
knowing at night where to have a bit in the morning, and have
neither bread nor corn for three or four months together, yet
bear our wants with cheerfulness and rest on Providence." In
August of this year sixty new settlers arrived, of whom he says
(Ib., 221), " the best dish we could present them with is a lob
BRADFORD. 27
their mode of labouring in common, and put-
ting the fruit of their labour into the public
store ; an error which had the same effect here
as in Virginia. To remedy this evil, as far
as was consistent with their engagements,* it
was agreed, in the spring of 1623, that every
family should plant for themselves on such
ground as should be assigned to them by lot,
without any division for inheritance ;t and
that, in the time of harvest, a competent por-
tion should be brought into the common store,
for the maintenance of the public officers,
fishermen, and such other persons as could
not be employed in agriculture. t This regu-
lation gave a spring to industry ; the women
and children cheerfully went to work with
the men in the fields, and much more corn
ster or piece of fish, without bread, or anything else but a cup of
fair spring water ; and the long continuance of this diet, with
our labours abroad, hath somewhat abated the freshness of our
ccmplexions." After this their harvests were plentiful, and com
Became soon an article of export. H.]
* [They were compelled to put the produce of their labours
into a common stock, by their agreement with tne adventurers
in England. See page 307, vol. ii., for the articles. H.]
t Prince, 133. Purchas, iv., 1866.
t [This, says Morton (Memorial, 93), " was thought the best
way, and accordingly given way unto." The later departures
/rom the original plan will be found loted in the Life of Cush-
/nan, p. 75 of this volume. H.]
III. C
28 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
was planted than ever before. Having but
one boat, the men were divided into parties
of six or seven, who took their turns to catch
fish ; the shore afforded them shellfish, and
groundnuts served them for bread. When
any deer was killed the flesh was divided
among the whole colony. Water-fowl came
in plenty at the proper season, but the want
of boats prevented them from being taken in
great numbers. Thus they subsisted through
the third summer, in the latter end of which
two vessels arrived with sixty passengers.
The harvest was plentiful, and after this time
they had no general want of food, because
they had learned to depend on their own ex-
ertions rather than on foreign supplies.
The combination which they made before
their landing at Cape Cod vas-the first found-
ation of their government ; but, as they were
driven to this expedient by necessity, it was
intended to subsist no longer than till they
could obtain legal authority from their sover-
eign.* As soon as they knew of the estab-
lishment of the Council of New-England, they
applied for a patent, which was taken in the
name of John Peirce,f in trust for the colony.
* Morton, 45. Prince, 136. Mag , i., 12.
t [Of Peirce I have no other information than that given by
BRADFORD. 29
When he saw that they were well seated, and
that there was a prospect of success to their
undertaking, he "went without their knowl-
edge, but in their name, and solicited the
council for another patent of greater extent,
intending to keep it to himself, and allow
them no more than he pleased, holding them
as his tenants, to sue and be sued at his
courts. In pursuance of this design, having
obtained the patent, he bought a ship, which
he named the Paragon, loaded her with goods,
took on board upward of sixty passengers,
and sailed from London for the colony of
New-Plymouth. In the Downs he was over-
taken by a tempest, which so damaged the
ship that he was obliged to put her into dock,
where she lay seven weeks, and her repairs
cost him one hundred pounds. In Decem-
ber, 1622, he sailed a second time, having on
board one hundred and nine persons ; but a
Dr. Belknap. The patent which was taken in his name was
dated June 1, 1621. It gave to the patentee and his associates
one hundred acres of land each, and one hundred for each per-
son settled in the proposed colony, to be taken in any place not
inhabited by the English, and subject to a rent to the council of
two shillings for every hundred acres : a free fishery also wa
given, freedom of trade with England and the Indians, and au-
thority to defend them by force of arms against all intruders.
Morton's Memorial, Appendix F. H.]
30 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY
series of tempestuous weather, which contin-
ued fourteen days, disabled his ship, and for-
ced him back to Portsmouth. These repeat-
ed disappointments proved so discouraging to
him, that he was easily prevailed upon by the
company of adventurers to assign his patent
to them for five hundred pounds. The pas-
sengers came over in other skips.
In 1629, another patent of larger extent
was solicited by Isaac Allerton, and taken
out in the name of "William Bradford, his
heirs, associates, and assigns."*! This pat-
ent confirmed their title (as far as the crown
of England could confirm it) to a tract of
land bounded on the east and south by the
Atlantic Ocean, and by lines drawn west from
the Rivulet of Conohasset, and north from the
River of Narraganset, which lines meet in a
* Hazard, i., 298.
t [This patent was dated January 13th, 1630 (N. S.). Be-
sides confirming their title to their lands, this charter conferred
on them liberty to fish, to trade with the natives, to make laws
not contrary to those of England, and to " seize and make prize
of all who attempt to inhabit or trade with the natives within
the limits of their plantation, or attempt their detriment or an-
noyance." Hazard, as cited above, gives the charter ; see also
Prince, 269. It also gave, what they could hardly have suppo-
sed themselves to enjoy, a just and legal ground to their govern-
ment and laws, and relieved them from the uncertain force of
their own compact. The labours of Mr. Allerton in procuring
this patent have been briefly noticed in a former note. H.]
BRADFORD. 31
point, comprehending all the country called
Pokanoket. To this tract they supposed they
had a prior title from the depopulation of a
great part of it by a pestilence, from the gift
of Massasoit, his voluntary subjection to the
crown of England, and his having taken pro-
tection of them. In a declaration published
by them in 1636, they asserted their " lawful
right in respect of vacancy, donation, and
purchase of the natives,"* which, together
with their patent from the crown, through the
Council of New-England, formed " the war-
rantable ground and foundation of their gov-
ernment, of making laws and disposing of
Iands."f
* Hazard, i^ 404.
t In 1639, after (he termination of the Pequod war, Massa*-
oit, who had then changed his name to Woosamequen, brought
his son Mooanam to Plymouth, and desired that the league
which he had formerly made might be renewed and made invi-
olable. The sachem and his son voluntarily promised, " for
themselves and their successors, that they would not needlessly
uor unjustly raise any quarrels or do any wrong to other native*
to provoke them to war against the colony ; and that they would
not give, sell, or convey any of their lands, territories, or pos-
sessions whatever, to any person or persons whomsoever, with-
out the privity or consent of the government of Plymouth, other
than to such as the said government should send or appoint.
The whole court did then ratify and confirm the aforesaid league,
and promise to the said Woosamcqucn, his son and successors,
that they would defend them against all such as should unjustly
rise up against tbero, to wrong or oppress them." Morton's
memorial 159.
32 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
In the same patent was granted a large
tract bordering on the River Kennebec,
where they had carried on a traffic wilhj;he
natives for furs, as they did also at Connecti-
cut River, which was not equally beneficial,
because they there had the Dutch for rivals.*
The fur-trade was found to be much more
advantageous than the fishery. Sometimes
they exchanged corn of their own growth
for furs; but European coarse cloths, hard-
ware, and ornaments were good articles of
trade when they could command them.
The company in England with which they
were connected did not supply them in plen-
ty. Losses were sustained by sea ; the re-
turns were not adequate to their expecta-
tions ; they became discouraged, threw many
reflections on the planters, and finally refu-
sed them any farther supplies ;f but still de-
manded the debt due from them, and would
not permit them to connect themselves in
trade with any other persons. The planters
complained to the Council of New-England,
but obtained no redress. After the expira-
tion of the seven years (1628) for which the
* Hutch., ii., 469. Prince, 157.
t Bradford's Letters in the Collections of the Historical So-
iety, vol. iii., p. 29, 36, 60.
BRADFORD. 33
contract was made, eight of the principal per-
sons in the colony, with four of their friends
in London, became bound for the balance,*
* [The company of adventurers began to grow dissatisfied as
early as 1622, and were speedily discouraged. And not with-
out good reason. The most of them had entered into the
scheme purely as a commercial speculation. In 1624, their ex-
penses had already exceeded seven thousand pounds, for which
they had received a very slight return. They became anxious,
as prudent men might well be, to escape from their connexion
with an enterprise which had thus far proved a failure, and of the
future success of which they could have no assurance. In the
course of this year a large number of them refused all farther
partnership, which Mr. Cushman formally announced to Govern-
or Bradford, in a letter dated December 18. The colonists at
Plymouth were hardly less willing to abandon a connexion
which depressed industry among them, exhausted the profits of
their labour, and now held out to them little prospect of a rec-
ompense for their past services, or of aid for the future. When
they learned that the adventurers were beginning to withdraw,
Governor Bradford wrote, in reply to Cushman, " Our people
will never agree any way again to unite with the company, who
have cast them off with such reproach and contempt, and also re-
turned their bills and all their debts upon their heads
Nay, they would rather ruin what is done than they should pos-
sess it." Mass. Hist. Coll., iii., 29, 36. Accordingly, in the
summer of 1625 they sent Captain Miles Standish to England,
" as agent in behalf of the plantation, in reference unto some
particulars yet depending betwixt them and the adventurers."
The plague, then raging in London, prevented the completion of
his business, and he only " left things in a fair way for future
composition." Morton, 125. Allerton was sent the next year,
and, after two more voyages (see note to page 10), consumma-
ted a bargain with the adventurers. They assigned to the colo-
nists all their property in the stock of the company foi the sura
34 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
and from that time took the whole trade into
their own hands. These were obliged to
take up money at an exorbitant interest, and
to go deeply into trade at Kennebec, Pe-
nobscot, and Connecticut ; by which means,
and their own great industry and economy,
they were enabled to discharge the debt, and
pay for the transportation of thirty-five fami-
lies of their friends from Leyden, who arrived
in 1629.*
of eighteen hundred pounds, and Bradford, with eight others,
gave their several bonds for the payment of it, in annual instal-
ments ef 200 every Michaelmas. These nine undertakers, as
they were called, also agreed with the colonists to pay all their
other debts in England, amounting to six hundred pounds.
Mass. Hist. Coll., iii., 46-51, 58. So poor, however, was their
credit in the money market in London, that Mr. Allerton, on the
joint order and obligation of the principal men of the colony,
raised only 200, "at thirty in the hundred interest." H.]
* [They were obliged to take up money at thirty, forty, and
even fifty per cent. These thirty-five families, says Governor
Bradford, " we were fain to keep eighteen months at our
charge ere they could reap any harvest to live upon ; all which
together fell heavy upon us." Mass. Hist. Coll., 58, 74. So
severe were their pecuniary troubles. Yet their engagements
were all faithfully discharged.
lo enable themselves to pay the debts they had thus assumed,
the undertakers obtained of the colonists an exclusive right to
the trade of the colony for six years from the end of September,
1627. Ib., 59-61. Prince, 245. The progress and extent of
the trade of the colony deserves a more particular notice than
the allusion in the text. On the return of the Fortune in 1G21,
they sent home a cargo of furs, clapboards, and sassafras, vaU
BRADFORD. 35
The patent had been taken in the name of
Mr. Bradford, in trust for the colony ; and the
ued at 500. This was taken by the French, and lost. In
1623, September 10, they sent a similar cargo in the Ann.
Their trading voyages thus far were confined to one or two, by
Winslow and Standish, to the fishermen " down East," and to
the Indians of Massachusetts Bay for furs ; and their exchanges
were few, and on hard terms, with the vessels that now and
then touched on their coast. In 1624 a carpenter was sent out
by the company, who built "two very good and strong shallops,
with a great and strong lighter." Their own pinnace had been
stranded on the cape. In 1625 one of these was first used,
in a voyage to the Kennebec, to dispose of the surplus corn
of that year's abundant harvest. Governor Bradford gives an
interesting account of the manner of this expedition. " We
laid a deck over her midship to keep the corn dry ; but the men
were forced to stand in all weathers without any shelter, and
the time of year begins to grow tempestuous, but God preserves
and prospers them, for they bring home seven hundred weight
of beaver, besides other fur, having little or nothing but our
corn to purchase them. This voyage was made by Mr. Wins-
low and some old standards, for seamen we have none."
Prince, 235. See also Hubbard, 94. They were also engaged
in fishing, and had erected buildings for this purpose at Nan-
tasket and Cape Ann ; but it was less profitable than trading.
In 1626 corn was worth six shillings the bushel. The shallops
being found inconveniently small and open, they employed a
housewright, the ship-carpenter being dead, to saw the largest
across the middle, lengthen her five or six feet, and put on a
deck. She was then fitted with sails, &c., and did service
seven years. Ib., 240. They seem to have made but one, and
that an unsuccessful, attempt to sail round Cape Cod to the
south, which has been referred to in a previous note. What
extent of trade they had with the region southwest of the cape
we are not precisely informed, but it must have been consider*.
o6 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
event proved that their confidence was not
misplaced. When the number of people was
ble. For early in the summer of 1627, to avoid the shoals of
the cape, they built a pinnace on the south side of the peninsula
on the sea, at Manomet, not far from Sandwich, where also
they built a house, and kept some men stationed. At this
place two small creeks, one running into the ocean and the oth-
er into Cape Cod Bay, have their source within a few miles of
each other. Having brought their goods up one of them, they
carried them over land four or five miles, and down the other to
the ocean, where their pinnace lay. Ib., 244. This route was
both shorter and safer, and has been used somewhat in later
times, and, indeed, is the route of the proposed and much-talked
of cJhial to connect Buzzard's and Cape Cod Bays. This same
year, so profitable was the trade, that Bradford wrote to the
council, June 15, complaining of " many who, without license,
trade and traffic, and truck, to get what they can, whether by
right or wrong, and then be gone." Mass. Hist. Coll., iii., 56.
The first direct knowledge which the Plymouth settlers had
of their Dutch neighbours at Manhattan seems to have been by
the driving ashore of one of their ships in Narraganset Bay, in
March, 1623. Prince, 211. Their first intercourse with them
was in March, 1627, when a letter was received from Isaac de
Razier, agent of the Dutch Company, and " second to the gov-
ernor," proposing to open a traffic with them. Governor Brad-
ford made a courteous reply, consenting to deal with them, but
informing them of their commission to expel intruders on their
limits (40 south), and especially desiring them to "forbear tra-
ding with the natives in Plymouth Bay, and the Narraganset
River, and Sowames." The Dutch rejoined, affirming their
right to trade in those parts, by commission from the States of
Holland, " which they would defend." Governor Bradford
proposed a conference, and in September De Razier came to
Plymouth, and they made some arrangements towards a mutu-
ally advantageous commerce. He first acquainted them with
BRADFORD. 67
increased, and new townships were erected,
the General Court, in 1640, requested that he
wampum, of which they afterward made much profit. Brad-
ford still insisted that the Dutch should " clear the title of their
planting in those parts," significantly adding, that thereafter it
might be settled " not without blows." See the correspond-
ence, &c.,Mass. Hist. Coll., iii., 51-57.
It is probable from what has been said, as well as from the
earlier date and commercial character of the settlement at
New- York, that the Dutch were first used to traffic on the Con-
necticut River. Indeed, Morton says expressly that they told
them of Plymouth of it as a good place for planting and trade ;
but " their hands being full otherwise, they let it pass." They
were afterward induced to think seriously of it by the repre-
sentations of some Indians, who had been driven from their
country by the Pequods. Memorial, 171. The settlers at
Massachusetts Bay, in 1631, declined entering into the scheme
(Winthrop's Journal, 52), and Plymouth undertook the planta-
tion alone. The expedition was conducted by Lieutenant
Holmes, who carried with him the frame ol a house, and, pass-
ing up the river, in defiance of the Dutch, who had a fort with
ten pieces of cannon a little above Hartford, erected and forti-
fied his house at Windsor October 25, 1633. Trumbull, Hist,
of Conn., i., 21. Prince, 435, 436. The question of the prior
discovery of the river, it seems, therefore, must be decided in
favour of the Dutch, though Trumbull (1. c.) asserts the con-
trary. The question of prior occupancy, which was then a
vexed one, and now possesses some historical interest, is one
of words, as the Dutch had a fort there first, and the Plymouth
people a trading-house first ; or else, by their own showing,
those of Plymouth have the worst of the case. There is no
evidence, and it is highly 'improbable, that, as Smith asserts
(Hist, of New- York, 19, 8vo ed.), the Dutch built a fort there
in 1623. The title to the lands, by purchase of the Indians,
was clearly in the English. They claimed through the heredi-
7449
38 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
would surrender the patent into their hands.*
To this he readily consented ; and, by a writ-
ten instrument under his hand and seal, sur-
rendered it to them, reserving for himself no
more than his proportion, by previous agree-
ment. This was done in open court, and the
patent was immediately redelivered into his
custody.
"While they were few in number, the whole
body of associates or freemen assembled for
tary lord of the soil, the Dutch through a usurper. See Haz-
ard, ii., 262. Hutch., Mass., ii., 416, 417. Winslow's Letter
to Winthrop in 1643. There can be no doubt of the course o
trade after the river was settled by the English. Winthrop, i.,
138. It was a capital market for furs, otter, and beaver, and
formed a route to Canada by water, saving a few miles only of
land carriage. Trumbull, i., 23.
January 13th, 1630, a patent was granted by the Council for
New-England to the colonists at Plymouth, of a tract of fifteen
miles on each side of the Kennebec. About the same time
Mr. Shirley and others took out a patent for lands on the Pe-
nobscot, and sent out Edward Ashley, one of their number, to
superintend their operations there. In this enterprise those of
Plymouth were induced, though reluctantly, to join, and a tra-
ding-house was built. Mass. Hist. Coll., iii., 70-74. Win-
throp, i., 166. This establishment was soon after taken by the
French, who retained it, in spite of all efforts to dislodge them,
till 1654. The trade to the Kennebec seems to have been
quite profitable. " Our neighbours of Plymouth," says Gov-
ernor Winthrop (Journal, i., 138), "had great trade this year
(1634) at Kennebec, so as Mr. Winslow carried with him to
England about twenty hogsheads of beaver." H.]
Hazard, i., 298, 468.
BRADFORD. 39
legislative, executive, and judicial business.*
In 1634 the governor and assistants were
constituted a Judicial Court, and afterward
the Supreme Judiciary.f Petty offences, and
actions of debt, trespass, and damage, not
exceeding forty shillings, were tried by the
selectmen of each town, with liberty of ap-
peal to the next Court of Assistants. The
first Assembly of Representatives was held
in 1639, when two deputies were sent from
each town, and four from Plymouth. In
1649 Plymouth was restricted to the same
number with the other towns. These depu-
ties were chosen by the freemen ; and none
were admitted to the privilege of freemen
but such as were twenty-one years of age, of
sober and peaceable conversation, orthodox
in the fundamentals of religion, and possessed
of twenty pounds rateable estate.
By the former patent the colony of Ply-
mouth was empowered " to enact such laws
as should most befit a state in its nonage, not
rejecting or omitting to observe such of the
laws of their native country as would conduce
to their good."t In the second patent the
power of government was granted to William
* Hutch., ii, 467. t Plymouth Lavm
t Preface to Plymouth Laws, by Secretary Morton.
40 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
Bradford and his associates in the following
terms :* " To frame and make orders, ordi-
nances, and constitutions, as well for the bet-
ter government of their affairs here [in Eng-
land], and the receiving or admitting any to
his or their society, as also for the better
government of his or their people at sea, in
going thither or returning from thence ; and
the same to be put in execution by such offi-
cers and ministers as he or they shall author-
ize and depute ; provided that the said laws
be not repugnant to the laws of England, or
the frame of government by the said presi-
dent and council hereafter to be established."
At that time, a general government over
the whole territory of New-England was a
favourite object with the council which
granted these patents ; but, after several at-
tempts, it finally miscarried, to the no small
joy of the planters, who were then at liberty
to govern themselves/}-
* Hazard, i., 302.
t [One essay towards it was made as early as 1623. In
./une of that year Captain Francis West came to Plymouth,
" who had a commission to be Admiral of New-England, lo re-
strain interlopers, and such fishing ships as came to fish and
trade without license ; but, finding the fishermen stubborn fel-
lows," he sailed away to Virginia. Prince, 218. Morton's
Memorial. 97, 98. In September of the ^ame year Robert
BRADFORD. 41
In the formation of the laws of New-Ply-
mouth, regard was had, "primarily and prin-
cipally, to the ancient platform of God's
law." For, though some parts of that sys-
tem were peculiar to the circumstances of the
sons of Jacob, yet " the whole being ground-
ed on principles of moral equity," it was the
opinion of our first planters, not at Plymouth
only, but in Massachusetts, New-Haven, and
Connecticut, that " all men, especially Chris-
tians, ought to have an eye to it in the fra-
ming of their political constitutions."* A
secondary regard was had to the liberties
granted to them by their sovereign and the
laws of England, which they supposed " any
impartial person might discern, in the peru-
sal of the book of the laws of the colony."
At first they had some doubt concerning
their right of punishing capital crimes. A
murder which happened in 1630 made it ne-
cessary to decide this question. It was de-
Gorges, son of Sir Ferdinando, arrived, with " a commission to
be governor-general of the country." He returned the same
year and relinquished his commission, " rinding the state of
things not to answer his quality and condition." Morton, 104,
108. In July, 1637, Sir Ferdinando Gorges was appointed by
King Charles governor-general over all New-England, though
he never exercised the powers of that office. Chalmers, 162.
For the scheme of twelve governors, 'see Winthrop, i., 161.
H.] * Preface to Plymouth Laws.
42 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
cided by the divine law against shedding hu-
man blood, which was deemed indispensable.*
In 1636 their Code of Laws was revised, and
capital crimes were enumerated and defined.
In 1671 it was again revised, and the next
year printed, with this title : " The Book of
the General Laws of the Inhabitants of the
Jurisdiction of New-Plymouth ;"f a title very
similar to the codes of Massachusetts and
Connecticut, which were printed at the same
time, by Samuel Green, at Cambridge.
* [Their doubt arose probably on the question whether their
charter gave them this power. The question was decided by
the advice of their " neighbours of Massachusetts," by higher
considerations, " that the land might be purged from blood."
Hutch., Mass., ii., 413. Winthrop's Journal, i., 36. H.]
t Governor Hutchinson, with unaccountable carelessness,
has asserted (vol. ii., 463) that they " never established any dis-
tinct code or body of laws ;" grounding the assertion on a pas-
sage in Hubbard's MS. History, which implies no such thing.
The quotation, imperfectly given by Hutchinson, is correctly as
follows (p. 50):
" The laws they intended to be governed by were the laws
of England, the which they were willing to be subject to,
though in a foreign land ; and have, since that time, continued
hi that mind for the general, adding only some particular muni-
cipal laws of their own in such cases where the common laws
and statutes of England could not well reach, or afford them
kelp in emergent difficulties of the place ; possibly on the same
ground that Pacavius sometimes advised his neighbours of Ca-
pua not to cashier their old magistrates till they could agree on
better to place in their room. So did these choose to abide by
the laws of England till they could be provided of better."
BRADFORD. 43
The piety, wisdom, arid integrity of Mr.
Bradford were such prominent features in
his character, that he was annually chosen
governor as long as he lived, excepting three
years when Mr. Winslow,* and two when
Mr. Prince,! were chosen ; and even then
Mr. Bradford was the first in the list of assist-
ants, which gave him the rank of deputy-
governor. In 1624 they chose five assistants,
and in 1633 seven, the governor having a
double vote. These augmentations were
made at the earnest request of Mr. Brad-
ford, who strongly recommended a rotation
in the election of a governor, but could not
obtain it for more than five years in thirty-
five, and never for more than two years in
succession. t His argument was, " that if it
were any honour or benefit, others besides
himself should partake of it ; if it were a
burden, others besides himself should help
* [Edward Winslow was chosen for the years 1633, 1636,
and 1644. H.]
t [Thomas Prince (he spelled his name Prence) was choen
in 1634 and 1638. H.]
J [The Plymouth colonists were not office-seekers. They
had other more important cares than the show of place. In 1632
they enacted a law, that whoever should refuse th office of
governor, unless he were elected for two successive years,
should be fined 20. In like manner, a fine of 10 was im-
posed on those who refused to serve as magistrates. H.]
III. D
44 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
to bear it."* Notwithstanding the reason-
ableness and equity of his plea, the people
had such a strong attachment to him, and
confidence in him, that they could not be
persuaded to leave him out of the govern-
ment.
For the last twelve years of his life he
was annually chosen without interruption,
and served in the office of governor. His
health continued good till the autumn of
1656, when it began to decline, and, as the
next spring advanced, he became weaker,
but felt not any acute illness till the begin-
ning of May.
After a distressing day, his mind was in
the following night so elevated with the idea
of futurity, that he said to his friends in the
morning, " God has given me a pledge of
my happiness in another world, and the first
fruits of eternal glory." The next day, be-
ing the ninth of May, 1657, he was removed
from this world by death, in the sixty-ninth
year of his age, to the immense loss and grief
of the people, not only in Plymouth, but the
neighbouring colonies, fourt of which he
* Morton, p. 53.
t These four colonies were Massachusetts, Connecticut,
New- Haven, and Rhode Island.
BRADFORD. 45
lived to see established, besides that of which
he was one of the principal founders. '':.
In addition to what has been said of Mr.
Bradford's character, it may be observed
that he was a sensible man, of a strong mind,
a sound judgment, and a good memory.
Though not favoured with a learned educa-
tion, he was much inclined to study and wri-
ting; The French and Dutch languages
were familiar to him, and he attained a con-
siderable knowledge of the Latin and Greek ;
but he more assiduously studied the Hebrew,
because he said that " he would see with his
own eyes the ancient oracles of God in their
native beauty."*
He had read much of history and philoso
phy, but theology was his favourite study.
He was able to manage the polemic part of
it with much dexterity, and was particularly
vigilant against the sectaries which infested
the colonies, though by no means severe or
intolerant as long as they continued peacea-
ble ; wishing rather to foil them by argu-
ment, and guard the people against receiving
their tenets, than to suppress them by violence,
or cut them off by the sword of magistracy.
Mr. Hubbard's character of him is, that, he
* Mather's Magnalia, ii., 5.
46 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
was " a person of great gravity and prudence,
of sober principles, and, for one of that per-
suasion (Brownists), very pliable, gentle, and
condescending."
He wrote " A History of Plymouth People
and Colony,"* beginning with the first forma-
tion of the church in 1602, and ending in
1646. It was contained in a folio volume of
270 pages. Morton's Memorial is an abridg-
ment of it. Prince and Hutchinson had the
use of it, and the manuscript was carefully
deposited, with Mr. Prince's valuable Collec-
tion of Papers, in the library of the Old
South Church in Boston, which fell a sacri-
fice to the unprincipled fury of the British
army in the year 1775, since which time it
has not been seen. He also had a large
book of copies of letters relative to the af-
fairs of the colony, a fragment of which was,
a few years ago, recovered by accident,! and
published by the Historical Society. $ To
this fragment is subjoined another, being a
" Descriptive and Historical Account of New-
England," in verse, which, if it be not graced
* Preface to Prince's Annals, p. vi., ix.
t It was accidentally seen in a grocer's shop at Halifax, No-
va Scotia, by James Clarke, Esq. , a corresponding member of the
Historical Society, and by him transmitted to Boston.
t Collections of Hist. Soc., vol. iii., p. 27, 77.
BRADFORD. 47
with the charms of poetry, yet is a just and
affecting narrative, intermixed with pious and
useful reflections.* Besides these, he wrote,
as Dr. Mather says, "some significant things,
for the confutation of the errors of the times,
by which it appears that he was a person of
a good temper, and free from that rigid spirit
of separation which broke the Separatists to
pieces."
In his office of chief magistrate he was
prudent, temperate, and firm. He would
suffer no person to trample on the laws or
disturb the peace of the colony. During his
administration there were frequent accessions
* [It may not add materially to the governor's reputation, but
I am disposed to insert a passage from " certain verses left"
by him, " declaring the gracious dispensations of God's prov-
idence towards him," &c., as a specimen of the verse and of
the man.
" From my years young in days of youth,
God did make known to me his truth,
And call'd me from my native place
For to enjoy the means of grace.
In wilderness he did me guide,
And in strange lands for me provide.
In fears and wants, through weal and wo,
A pilgrim pass'd I to and fro ;
Oft left of them whom I did trust
How vain it is to rest on dust !"
The rest may be found by the curious in Morton's Memorial.
S64, 265. H.]
48 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
of new inhabitants, some of whom were at
first refractory, but his wisdom and fortitude
obliged them to pay a decent respect to the
laws and customs of the country. One par-
ticular instance is preserved. A company
of young men, newly arrived, were very un-
willing to comply with the governor's order
for working on the public account. On a
Christmas day they excused themselves un-
der pretence that it was against their con-
science to work. The governor gave them
no other answer than that he would let them
alone till they should be better informed. In
the course of the day he found them at play
in the street, and, commanding the instru-
ments of their game to be taken from them,
he told them that it was against his con-
science to suffer them to play while others
were at work, and that, if they had any reli-
gious regard to the day, they should show it
in the exercise of devotion at home. This
gentle reproof had the desired effect, and
prevented a repetition of such disorders.
His conduct towards intruders and false
friends was equally moderate, but firm and
decisive. John Lyford had imposed himself
upon the colony as a minister, being recom-
mended by some of the adventurers. At first
BRADFORD. 49
his behaviour was plausible, and he was treat-
ed with respect ; but it was not long before
he began, in concert with John Oldhara, to
excite a faction. The governor watched
them ; and, when a ship was about sailing for
England, it was observed that Lyford was
very busy in writing letters, of which he put
a great number on board. The governor, in
a boat, followed the ship to sea, and, by fa-
vour of the master, who was a friend to the
colony, examined the letters, some of which
he intercepted and concealed. Lyford and
Oldham were at first under much apprehen-
sion ; but, as nothing transpired, they conclu-
ded that the governor had only gone on board
to carry his own letters, and felt themselves
secure.
In one of the intercepted letters Lyford had
written to his friends, the discontented part
of the adventurers, that he and Oldham in-
tended a reformation in Church and State.
Accordingly, they began to institute a separ-
ate church ; and, when Oldham was summon-
ed to take his turn at a military watch, he not
only refused compliance, but abused Captain
Standish, and drew his knife upon him. For
this he was imprisoned, and both he and Ly-
ford were brought to trial before the whole
50 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
company. Their behaviour was insolent and
obstinate. The governor took pains to con-
vince them of their folly, but in vain. The
letters were then produced, their adherents
were confounded, and the evidence of their
factious and disorderly conduct being satis-
factory, they were condemned, and ordered
to be banished from the plantation. Lyford
was allowed six months for probation ; but his
pretences proved hypocritical, and he was
obliged to depart. After several removals
he died in Virginia.* Oldham having re-
turned after banishment, his second expulsion
was conducted in this singular manner: "A
guard of musketeers was appointed, through
which he was obliged to pass ; every one was
ordered to give him a blow on the hinder
parts with the butt end of his musket ; then
he was conveyed to the water side, where a
boat was ready to carry him away, with this
* [This unhappy man came to New-England in 1624. Mr.
Cushman, in a letter written at the time (January 24th), speaks
of him as " a preacher, though not the most eminent, for whose
going Mr. Winslow and I gave way, to give content to some at
London." Prince, 226. Bradford says he was " sent by a
faction of the adventurers to hinder Mr. Robinson." Ib., 228.
For some previous immoralities, when a minister in Ireland, he
had been forced to leave that country. He went from Plymouth
to Nantasket, and thence to Cape Ann. H.]
BRADFORD. 51
farewell, Go, and mend your manners."* This
discipline had a good effect on him ; he made
his submission, and was allowed to come and
go on trading voyages. In one of these he
was killed by the Pequod Indians, which
proved the occasion of a war with that nation, t
Mr. Bradford had one son by his first wife,
and by his second, Alice Southworth,1: whom
he married in 1623, he, had two sons and a
daughter. His son William, born in 1624,
was deputy-governor of the colony after his
father's death, and lived to the age of 80, as
appears by his gravestone in Plymouth church-
yard. One of his grandsons and two of his
great-grandsons were counsellors of Massa-
chusetts. Several others of his descendants
* Morton, 81.
t [Oldham is supposed to have come to Plymouth in the sum
mer of 1623. Previous to bis connexion with Lyford he had
been highly esteemed at Plymouth, where he had been even
" called to council in chief affairs without distrust." A passion-
ate man, and of rude speech. Prince, 228, 229. Leaving Ply-
mouth, he went to Nantasket, where he remained till his sen-
tence of banishment was in effect remitted. In the settlement
at Cape Ann he was appointed to manage the trade with the
Indians. He was a man of much energy, industry, and enter-
prise. His death took place in August, 1636.' H.]
J [She was a widow, with two children. The marriage, which
was the fourth in the colony, was solemnized August 14th.
Prince, 221. Morton. 103, note. H.]
111. K
52 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
have borne respectable characters, and have
been placed in stations of honour and useful-
ness. One of them, William Bradford, has
been deputy-governor of the State of Rhode
Island, and a Senator in the Congress of the
United States. Two others, Alden Bradford
and Gamaliel Bradford, are members of the
Historical Society.
BREWSTER. 53
XX. WILLIAM BREWSTER.
THE place of this gentleman's birth is un-
known. The time of it was A.D. 1560.* He
received his education at the University of
Cambridge, where he became seriously im-
pressed with the truth of religion, which had
its genuine influence on his character through
his whole life.
After leaving the University he entered into
the service of William Davison, a courtier of
Queen Elizabeth, and her ambassador in
Scotland and in Holland, who found him so
capable and faithful that he reposed the ut-
most confidence in him. He esteemed him
as a son, and conversed with him in private,
both on religious and political subjects, with
the greatest familiarity ; and, when anything
occurred which required secrecy, Brewster
was his confidential friend.
When the queen entered into a league with
the United Provinces (1584), and received
* [Mr. Young says 1564. Chronicles of the Pilgrims, p.
469, note. This work, received while these volumes are going
through the press, is characterized by singular learning, research,
and exactness. H.]
54 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
possession of several towns and forts as secu-
rity for her expenses in defending their liber-
ties, Davison, who negotiated the matter, in-
trusted Brewster with the keys of Flushing,
one of those cautionary towns ; and the States
of Holland were so sensible of his merit as to
present him with the ornament of a golden
chain.*
He returned with the ambassador to Eng-
land, and continued in his service till Davi-
son, having incurred the hypocritical displeas-
ure of his arbitrary mistress, was imprisoned,
fined, and ruined. Davison is said to have
been a man of abilities and integrity, but easy
to be imposed upon, and for that very reason
was made secretary of state. f When Mary,
the unfortunate Queen of Scotland, had been
tried and condemned, and the Parliament of
England had petitioned their sovereign for
her execution, Elizabeth privately ordered
Davison to draw a death-warrant, which she
signed, and sent him with it to the chancellor
to have the great seal annexed. Having per-
formed his duty, she pretended to blame him
for his precipitancy. Davison acquainted the
council with the whole transaction ; they knew
the queen's real sentiments, and persuaded
him to send the warrant to the Earls of Kent
* Morton's Memorial, p. 154. f Hume, vol. v., ch. 42.
BREWSTER. 55
and Shrewsbury, promising to justify his con-
duct, and take the blame on themselves.
These earls attended the execution of Mary ;
but, when Elizabeth heard of it, she affected
surprise and indignation, threw all the blame
on the innocent secretary, and committed him
to the Tower, where he became the subject
of raillery from those very counsellors who
had promised to countenance and protect
him. He was tried in the Star Chamber,
and fined ten thousand pounds, Avhich, being
rigorously levied upon him, reduced him to
poverty.*
During these misfortunes Brewster faith-
fully adhered to him, and gave him all the
assistance of which he was capable. When
he 'could no longer serve him, he retired into
the north of England,! among his old friends,
and was very highly esteemed by those who
were most exemplary for religion.^ Being
possessed of a handsome property, and hav-
* For a particular account of Davison, and a full vindication
of his conduct, the reader is referred to the fifth volume of Bio-
graphia Brilannica, published by the late learned and candid
Dr. Kippis, where the character of Elizabeth is drawn in its
proper colours, p. 4-13.
t [Secretary Davison was displaced in 1587, and Brewster's
retirement to the north of England is supposed to have taken
place the same year. H.]
t Cotton's Appendix, in the Collections of the Historical So
ciety, vol. iv., 114.
56 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
ing some influence, he made use of both in
promoting the cause of religion, and procu-
ring persons of good character to serve in the
office of ministers to the parishes in his neigh-
bourhood.
By degrees, he became disgusted with the
impositions of the prelatical party, and their
severity towards men of a moderate and
peaceable disposition. This led him to in-
quire critically into the nature of ecclesiasti-
cal authority; and, having discovered much
corruption in the constitution, forms, ceremo-
nies, and discipline of the Established Church,
he thought it his duty to withdraw from its
communion, and join with others of the same
sentiments in the institution of a separate
church, of which the aged Mr. Clifton and
the younger Mr. Robinson were appointed
pastors. The newly-formed society met on
the Lord's days at Mr. Brewster's house,
where they were entertained at his expense
with much affection and respect, as long as
they could assemble without opposition from
their adversaries.
But when the resentment of the hierarchy,
heightened by the countenance and authority
of James, the successor of Elizabeth, obliged
them to seek refuge in a foreign country,
Brewster was the most forward to assist them
B R E W S T E R. 57
in their removal. He was one of those who
went on board a vessel in the night at Bos-
ton, in Lincolnshire (as already related in the
Life of Robinson) ; and, being apprehended
by the magistrates, he was the greatest suffer-
er, because he had the most property. When
liberated from confinement, he first assisted
the weak and poor of the society in their
embarcation, and then followed them to Hol-
land.
His family was large,* and his dependants
numerous ; his education and mode of living
were not suited to a mechanical or mercantile
life, and he could not practise agriculture in
a commercial city. The hardships which he
suffered in consequence of this removal were
grievous and depressing ; but, when his finan-
ces were exhausted, he had a resource in his
learning and abilities. In Leyden he found
employment as a tutor ; the youth of the city
* [In 1620 he bad sii children, four of them with him in Ply-
mouth, and two daughters remaining in Leyden. These two
daughters came over in 1623, and the next year one of them,
Patience, was married to Thomas Prince. Prince, 224. The
other, Fear, was afterward married to Isaac Allerton. Judge
Davis, in his note to Morton's Memorial (p. 221), has inadver-
tently given Fear to Prince, and Patience to Allerton. Two of
his sons were named Love and Wrestling. He appears to have
had two children after his arrival in New-England. H.J
58 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
and University came to him for instruction in
the English tongue ; and by means of the
Latin, which was common to both, and a
grammar of his own construction, they soon
acquired a knowledge of the English lan-
guage. By the help of some friends he also
set up a printing-office, and was instrumental
of publishing several books against the hie-
rarchy which could hot obtain a license in
England.
His reputation was so high in the church
of which he was a member, that they chose
him a ruling elder, and confided in his wis-
dom, experience, and integrity, to assist in
conducting their temporal as well as ecclesi
astical concerns, particularly their removal t<
America. With the minority of the churck
he came over, and suffered all the hardships
attending their settlement in this wilderness,
He partook with them of labour, hunger, and
watching ; his Bible and his arms were equal-
ly familiar to him ; and he was always ready
for any duty or suffering to which he was
called.
For some time after their arrival they were
destitute of a teaching elder, expecting and
hoping that Mr. Robinson, with the remain-
der of the church, would follow them to
BREWSTER. 59
America. Brewster frequently officiated as a
preacher, but he never could be persuaded to
administer the sacraments or take on him the
pastoral office ; though it had been stipulated
before their departure from Holland, that
" those who first went should be an absolute
church of themselves, as well as those who
stayed ;"* and it was one of their principles,
that the brethren who elected had the power
of ordaining to office.
The reason of his refusal was his extreme
diffidence, being unwilling to assume any
other office in the church than that with
which he had been invested by the whole
body. This plea might have some force du-
ring Robinson's life, by whose advice he had
been prevailed upon to accept the office of a
ruling elder ; but after his death there wad
less reason for it, and his declining to offici-
ate was really productive of very disagreea-
ble effects.
A spirit of faction and division was exci-
ted in the church, partly by persons of differ
ent sentiments and character, who came over
from England, and partly by uneasy and assu-
ming brethren among themselves. Such was
the notoriety and melancholy appearance of
* Prince, 66.
60 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
these divisions, that their friends in England
seriously admonished them,* and recommend-
ed to them " to let their practice in the
church be complete and full ; to permit all
who feared God to join themselves to them
without delay ; and to let all divine ordinan-
ces be used completely in the church, with-
out longer waiting upon uncertainties, or
keeping a gap open for opposites."f
With this salutary advice they did not
comply, and one great obstacle to their com-
pliance was the liberty of " prophesying,"
which was allowed not only to the elders,
but to such private members as were " gift-
ed." In Robinson's Apology,:}: this principle
* [This was so early as 1624. The rumours of these dis
sensions spreading into England, increased the alarm and dis-
content which existed among the adventurers. In April of
that year they wrote to Governor Bradford, among other admo-
nitions, " that you freely and readily entertain any honest men
into your church, estate, and society, though with great infirmi-
ties and difference of judgment; taking heed of too great strait-
ness and singularity even in that particular." Bradford's Let-
ter-book, Mass. Hist. Coll., iii., 28. H.]
t Bradford's Letters in Collections of the Historical Society,
vol. iii., 33.
t " We learn from the Apostle Paul (1 Cor., xiv., 3), that he
who prophesieth speaketh to men to edification, and exhorta-
tion, and comfort ; which, to perform conveniently, comes within
the compass of but a few of the multitude, haply two or three in
each of our churches. Touching prophecy, then, we think the
BREWSTER. 61
is explained in a very cautious manner ; the
exercise of the gift was subject to the judg-
ment of the minister, and, while they were
under his superintendence, their prophesyings
were conducted with tolerable regularity;
but when they came to practise on this prin-
ciple where they had not that advantage, the
consequence was prejudicial to the establish-
ment of any regular ministry among them.
" The preachments of the gifted brethren
same that the Synod of Embden (1571) hath decreed in these
words : ' Let the order of prophecy be observed according to
Paul's institution. Into the fellowship of this work are to be
admitted, not only the ministers, but the teachers, elders, and
deacons, yea, even of the multitude, who are willing to confer
their gift, received of God, to the common utility of the
church, but so as they be first allowed by the judgment of the
ministers and others.' " Robinson's Apology, chap. viii.
Governor Winthrop and Mr. Wilson, minister of Boston,
made a visit to Plymouth in October, 1632, and kept Sabbath
there. The following account of the afternoon exercise is
preserved in Winthrop's Journal, p. 44.
" In the afternoon, Mr. Roger Williams, according to theii
custom, propounded a question, to which the pastor, Mr. Smith,
spake briefly ; then Mr. Williams prophesied ; and after, tho
Governor of Plymouth [Bradford] spake to the question ; after
him the elder [Brewster], then two or three more of the congre-
gation. Then the elder desired the Governor of Massachusetts
and Mr. Wilson to speak to it, which they did. When this was
ended, the deacon, Mr. Fuller, put the congregation in mind of
their duty of contribution, upon which the governor and all the
rest went down to the deacon's seat, and put into the bag, and
then returned."
62 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY
produced those discouragements to the min-
isters that almost all left the colony, appr -
bending themselves driven away by the neg-
lect and contempt with which the people on
this occasion treated them."* This practice
was not allowed in any other church of New-
England except that of Plymouth.!
* Math., Mag., i., 14.
t [The practice of " prophesying" was not confined to Ply-
mouth, as the text intimates. When the Rev. Mr. Wilson, of
Boston, was on the eve of sailing for England in 1631, he met
several of the congregation, and " commended to them the ex-
ercise of prophecy in his absence, and designed those whom he
thought most fit for it." Winthrop's Journal, i., 50. The Gov-
ernor of Massachusetts himself sometimes exercised in this way
in his own precinct. "The governor went on foot to Agawam,
and, because the people there wanted a minister, spent the Sab-
bath with tlietn, and exercised byway of prophecy." Ib., 130
The "prophesy ings" which had prevailed to some extent in the
Church of England, and were warmly supported by Archbishop
Grindal, and afterward approved by Lord Bacon, and as earnest-
ly opposed by the queen, were on a different plan, being an ex-
ercise in which laymen were not allowed to participate. Fuller
gives " the model and method," in his Church History, book
ix., sect, iv., 2. At a meeting of ministers of the same pre-
cinct, the junior divine went into the pulpit, and treated for-
about half an hour on a text previously assigned ; four or
five more, observing seniority, followed on the same text. A
grave divine made the closing sermon, more at length, prais-
ing the pains or mildly reproving the mistakes of those who
had gone before him. Then all was ended with a solemn
prayer. The exercise, he says, though long, was seldom te-
dious. See also Strype's Life of Grindal, fol. 176, 180, 220,
&c. H.J
BREWSTER. 63
Besides the liberty of prophesying and pub-
lic conference, there were several other pecu-
liarities in their practice which they learned
from the Brownists, and in which they differ-
ed from many of the reformed churches.*
They admitted none to their communion with-
out either a written or oral declaration of their
faith and religious experiences, delivered be-
fore the whole Church, with liberty for every
one to ask questions till they were satisfied.
They practised ordination by the hands of the
brethren. t They disused the Lord's Prayer
and the public reading of the Scriptures.
They did not allow the reading of the Psalm
before singing, till, in compassion to a brother
who could not read,t they permitted one of
* Baylie's Dissuasive from the Errors of the Times, p. 22.
t Cotton's Appendix, in Collections of the Historical Society,
iv., 127, 136, &c.
$ [Cotton, in his Appendix, speaking of the origin of this
custom, says it was done in " compassion to a brother who, it
is supposed, could not read." I think both Belknap and Cotton
are mistaken in supposing the practice to have originated in
Plymouth. It prevailed somewhat extensively, then and before,
in the meetings of the Puritans in England, for want of suitable
Hymn-books enough, or for the sake of the more ignorant breth-
ren. I find what I believe to have been merely declaratory of
the existing usage in the "Directory for Public Worship," pre-
pared by the Assembly of Divines which met at Westminster
June, 1643, and set forth by Act of Parliament November, 1644 :
" Every one who could read was to have a Psalm book, aixl all
64 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
th elders or deacons to read it line by line,
after it had been previously expounded by
the minister.* They admitted no children
to baptism unless one, at least, of the parents
were in full communion with the church ; and
they accounted all baptized children proper
subjects of ecclesiastical discipline. While
in Holland they had the Lord's Supper every
Sabbath ; but, when they came to America,
they omitted it till they could obtain a minis-
ter, and then had it monthly. Most of these
practices were continued for many years, and
some are yet adhered to, though others have
been gradually laid aside. t
were to be exhorted to learn reading, that the whole congrega-
tion might join in psalmody. But for the present, when many
could not read, it was convenient that the minister or some oth-
er fit person should read the Psalm line by line before the sing-
ing thereof." Southey's Book of the Church, Am. ed., ii., 441.
Vaughan's Memorials, ii., 156. H.]
* Ainsworth's translation of the Psalms was used in the
Church of Plymouth till 1692, when the New-England version
was introduced. Cotton's Appendix, 126, 127.
t [Cotton, in his Appendix (Mass. Hist. Coll., iv., 133, seqq.),
adds some particulars besides those given in the text respecting
the opinions and usages of the Plymouth Church. In doctrine
they professed a strict adherence to the Confession of the Prot-
estant churches of France drawn up by Calvin, and which was
the same, for substance, with that of the Westminster Assem-
bly. They were strenuous Protestants, maintaining the Bible
to be the only infallible rule of faith and obedience. In the
B R E W S T E R.
65
The Church of Plymouth had no regular
minister till four years after the death of Mr.
Robinson, and nine years after their coming
to America. In 1629 they settled Ralph
Smith, who continued with them about five
years, and then resigned. He is said to have
been a man of " low gifts," and was assisted
three years by Roger Williams, of " bright
accomplishments, but offensive errors." In
1636 they had John Reyner, " an able and
godly man, of a meek and humble spirit,
sound in the truth, and unreprovable in his
life and conversation." He continued with
them till 1654,* when he removed to Dover,
point of ecclesiastical order they were strictly congregational,
" holding the equality of pastors and churches, and the distinct
right each church had of ordering its own affairs without control
from any superior authority." They had, before they left Eng
land, utterly separated themselves from the Established Church,
on account, among other reasons, of its alleged laxness of dis-
cipline. They naturally maintained the purity of their own with
great watchfulness. Especially careful were they in watching
over the children of church members, in case of scandal " requi-
ring a public confession, when the offence was public." When
the church voted on any matter, the elders never called for the
negative voices, "judging it would be using the axe or hammer
in temple work." H.]
* The succession of ministers since that time has been as fol-
lows : After a vacancy of fifteen years,
In 1669 John Cotton was ordained, and in 1697 resigned, and
removed to Carolina, where he died in 1699.
66 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
in New-Hampshire, where he spent the re-
mainder of his life.
During his ministry at Plymouth, Elder
Brewster, having enjoyed a healthy old age,
died on the sixteenth of April, 1644, being
then in the eighty-fourth year of his age. He
was able to continue his ecclesiastical func-
tions and his field-labour till within a few
days of his death, and was confined to hif?
bed but one day.*
He had been remarkably temperate through
his whole life, having drank no liquor but wa-
ter till within the last five or six years. For
many months together he had, through ne-
cessity, lived without bread, having nothing
but fish for his sustenance, and sometimes
was destitute of that. Yet, being of a pliant
In 1699 Ephraim Little was ordained, and died at Plymouth
in 1723, being the only minister of that church who died there.
In 1724 Nathaniel Leonard was ordained, and in 1757 remo-
ved to Norton.
In 1759 Chandler Robbins, D.D., was ordained, and died June
30, 1799, aged 61. Cotton's Appendix.
[In 1800 James Kendall, D.D. H.]
* [" His speech continued until somewhat more than half a
day before his death, and then failed him, and about nine or ten
of the clock that evening he died, without any pangs at all. A
few hours before he drew his breath short, and some few min-
utes before his last he drew his breath long, as a man fallen int
a sound sleep, and so sweetly departed this life into a better. "
Morton's Memorial, p. 220. H.]
BREWSTER. 67
and cheerful temper, he easily accommodated
himself to his circumstances. When nothing
but oysters or clams were set on his table, he
would give thanks with his family that they
could " suck of the abundance of the seas,
and of the treasures hid in the sand."*
He was a man of eminent piety and devo-
tion ; not prolix, but full and comprehensive
in his public prayers,f esteeming it his duty
to strengthen and encourage the devotion of
others, rather than to weary them with long
performances. On days of fasting and hu-
miliation he was more copious, but equally
fervent. $ As an instance of this, it is observ-
ed, that in 1623 a drought of six weeks hav-
ing succeeded the planting season, in July a
day was set apart for fasting and prayer.
The morning was clear and hot, as usual, but,
after eight hours employed in religious exer-
cises, the weather changed, and before the
next morning a gentle rain came on, which
continued, with intermissions of fair and warm
* Deuteronomy, xxxiii., 19.
t [The Records of the Church of Plymouth (copied in Davis's
edition of Morton, p. 222-224) say, " He had a singular good
gift in prayer, both public and private, in bringing up the heart
and conscience before God in the confession of sin, and begging
the mercies of God in Christ for the pardon thereof." H.]
t Morton, Prince, and Winslow.
III. F
68 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
weather, fourteen days, by which the languish-
ing corn revived. The neighbouring Indians
observed the change, and said that " the
Englishman's God was a good God."
In his public discourses Mr. Brewster was
very clear and distinguishing, as well as pa-
thetic ; addressing himself first to the under-
standing, and then to the affections of his
audience, convincing and persuading them
of the superior excellence of true religion.
Such a kind of teaching was well adapted,
and in many instances effectual, to the real
instruction and benefit of his hearers. What
a pity that such a man could not have been
persuaded to take on him the pastoral office !
In his private conversation he was social,
pleasant, and inoffensive ; yet, when occasion
required, he exercised that fortitude which
true virtue inspires, but mixed with such ten-
derness that his reproofs gave no offence.*
His compassion towards the distressed was
an eminent trait in his character, and, if they
were suffering for conscience' sake, he judged
* [The same Records say " he was well-spoken ; having a
grave, deliberate utterance, inoffensive and innocent in his life
and conversation, which gained him the love of those without
as well as of those within. Yet he would tell them plainly of
their faults and vices, both publicly and privately, but in such a
manner as usually was well taken from him " H.]
BREWSTER 69
them, of all others, most deserving of pity and
relief. Nothing was more disgusting to him
than vanity and hypocrisy.
In the government of the Church he was
careful to preserve order and purity, and to
suppress contention. Had his diffidence per-
mitted him to exercise the pastoral office, he
would have had more influence, and kept in-
truders at a proper distance.
He was owner of a very considerable li-
brary, part of which was lost when the vessel
in which he embarked was plundered at Bos-
ton, in Lincolnshire. After his death his re-
maining books were valued at forty-three
pounds in silver, as appears by the Colony
Records, where a catalogue of them is pre-
served.*
* [The number of volumes was two hundred and seventy-
five, of which sixty-four were in the learned languages. Da-
vie's note to Morton, 221. H.J
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
XXI. EGBERT CUSHMAN.*
" ROBERT CUSHMAN was a distinguished
character among that collection of worthies
who quitted England on account of their re-
ligious difficulties, and settled with Mr. John
Robinson, their pastor, in the city of Leyden.
Proposing afterward a removal to America,
in the year 1617 Mr. Cushman and Mr.
John Carver (afterward the first governor of
New-Plymouth) were sent over to England
as their agents, to agree with the Virginia
Company for a settlement, and to obtain, if
possible, a grant of liberty of conscience in
their intended plantation from King James.
" From this negotiation, though conducted
on their part with great discretion and abil-
ity, they returned unsuccessful to Leyden in
May, 1618. They met with no difficulty in-
deed from the Virginia Company, who were
willing to grant them sufficient territory, with
as ample privileges as they could bestow;
but the pragmatical James, the pretended
* This account of Mr. Cushman was published in 1785, at
Plymouth, as an Appendix to the third edition of his Discourse
on Self-Love. It was written by John Davis, Esq.
CUSHMAN. 71
vicegerent of the Deity, refused to rrant them
that liberty in religious matters which was
their principal object. This persevering peo-
ple determined to transport themselves to
this country, relying upon James's promise
that he would connive at, though not ex-
pressly tolerate them ; and Mr. Cushman was
again despatched to England in February,
1619, with Mr. William Bradford,* to agree
with the Virginia Company on the terms of
their removal and settlement.
" After much difficulty and delay, they ob-
tained a patent in the September following ;
upon which, part of the Church at Leyden,
with their elder, Mr. Brewster, determined
to transport themselves as soon as possible.
Mr. Cushman was one of the agents in
England to procure money, shipping, and oth-
er necessaries for the voyage, and embark-
ed with them at Southampton, August 5th,
1620. But the ship in which he sailed pro-
ving leaky, and, after twice putting into port
to repair, being condemned as unfit to per-
form the voyage, Mr. Cushman, with his fam-
ily, and a number of others, were obliged,
though reluctantly, to relinquish the voyage
* [Wilham Brewster. not Bradford. Young's Chronicle*,
67, note, an 1 68 H:J
72 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
for that time and return to London. Those
in the other ship proceeded and made their
settlement at Plymouth in December, 1620,
where Mr. Cushman also arrived, in the ship
Fortune, from London, on the 10th* of No-
vember, 1621, but took passage in the same
ship back again, pursuant to the directions of
the merchant adventurers in London (who
fitted out the ship, and by whose assistance
the first settlers were transported), to give
them an account of the plantation. He sail-
ed from Plymouth December 13th, 1621 ; and,
arriving on the coast of England, the ship,
with a cargo valued at d500 sterling,! was
taken by the French. Mr. Cushman, with the
crew, was carried into France, $ but arrived
in London in the February following. Du-
ring his short residence at Plymouth, though
a mere lay character, he delivered a Dis-
course on the Sin and Danger of Self-Love,
which was printed in London (1622), and af-
terward reprinted in Boston (1724), and again
* [See Prince's Chronology, 198. H.]
t [" Laden," says Prince (Chronology, 199). "with two hogs-
heads of beaver and other skins, and good clapboards as full as
she can hold ; the freight estimated near five hundred pounds."
-H-]
t [Where the ship was " robbed of all she had worth taking."
Ib., 1. c. H.]
C U S H M A N. 73
at Plymouth (1785). And though his name
is not prefixed to either of the two former
editions, yet unquestionable tradition renders
it certain that he was the author, and even
transmits to us a knowledge of the spot
where it was delivered.* Mr. Cushman,
though he constantly corresponded with his
friends here,t and was very serviceable to
their interest in London, never returned to
the country again, but, while preparing for
it, was removed to a better, in the year 16264
The news of his death and Mr. Robinson's
arrived at the same time at Plymouth, by
Captain Standish, and seem to have been
* ["It was at the common house of the plantation, which is
understood to have been erected on the southerly side of the
bank, where the town brook meets the harbour." Morton, 74,
note. H.]
t [Several of his letters are preserved in Bradford's Letter
book. Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. iii. H.]
t [I cannot doubt that Cushman died in 1625. His last let-
ter to Governor Bradford was written Dec. 22d, 1624, in which
he commended his young son, then at Plymouth, to him, and
expressed his intention of coming to Plymouth in the next ship.
Bradford's reply is dated June 9th, 1625, and was carried prob-
ably by Standish, who was sent to England that summer. Gov-
ernor Bradford minuted at the bottom of his copy, " Mr. Cush-
man died before this letter arrived ;" probably not later than Au-
gust. Mass. Hist. Coll., iii., 29, 35. Standish brought the
news of his decease in April, 1626. In the year 1625 more than
40,000 persons died in London of the plague. Prince, 236,
237, 235. H.]
74
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
equally lamented by their bereaved and suf-
fering friends there.* He was zealously en-
gaged in the prosperity of the plantation, a
man of activity and enterprise, well versed
in business, respectable in point of intellectu-
al abilities, well accomplished in scriptural
knowledge, an unaffected professor, and a
steady, sincere practiser of religion. The de-
sign of the above-mentioned discourse was to
keep up that flow of public spirit which, per-
haps, began then to abate, but which was
thought necessary for their preservation and
security. The policy of that entire commu-
nity of interests which our fathers establish-
ed, and which this sermon was designed to
preserve, is, nevertheless, justly questionable.
The love of separate property, for good and
wise purposes, is strongly implanted in the
heart of man. So far from being unfavour-
able to a reasonable generosity and public-
spirit, it better enables us to display them,
and is not less consistent with the precepts of
Scripture, rightly understood, than with the
dictates of reason. This is evidenced by the
* [Bradford, in writing of his death, says, "who was our
right hand with the adventurers, and for divers years has man-
aged all our business with them, to our great advantage." His
correspondence with the colonists shows zeal, good sense, and
much knowledge of affairs. H.~l
CUSHMAN. 75
subsequent conduct of this very people, In
f1 .e year 1623, departing a little from their
f . *st system, they agreed that every family
should plant for themselves, bringing in a
competent portion at harvest for the mainte-
nance of public officers, fishermen, &c., and
in all other things to go on in the general
way (as they term it) as before ; for this pur-
pose they assigned to every family a parcel
of land, for a year only, in proportion to their
number. Even this temporary division, as
Governor Bradford, in his manuscript histo-
ry, observes, ' has a good effect ; makes all
industrious ; gives content ; even the women
and children now go into the field to work,
and much more corn is planted than ever.'
In the spring of the year 1624, the people
being still uneasy, one acre of land was giv-
en to each in fee simple ; no more to be given
till the expiration of the seven years. In the
year 1627, when they purchased the interest
of the adventurers in England in the planta-
tion, there was a division and allotment of
almost all their property, real and personal ;
twenty acres of tillage land to each, besides
what they held before ; the meadows and the
trade only remaining in common.
" Thus it is observable how men, in spite
76' AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
of their principles, are naturally led into that
mode of conduct which truth and utility,
ever coincident, point out. Our fathers de-
serve the highest commendation for prosecu-
ting, at the hazard of life and fortune, that
reformation in religion which the Church of
England left imperfect. Taking, for this
purpose, the sacred Scriptures as their only
guide, they travelled in the path of truth,
and appealed to a most noble and unerring
standard ; but when, from their reverence to
this divine authority in matters of religion,
they were inclined to esteem it the only
guide in all the affairs of life, and attempted
to regulate their civil polity upon church
ideas, they erred, and involved themselves
in innumerable difficulties.*
* [The learned author saw reason afterward to alter the judg-
ment expressed here of the reason of the peculiar policy of the Pil-
grims touching a community of goods and interests. In the Ap-
pendix (I.) to his valuable edition of Morton's Memorial, he says,
" The conditions required by the adventurers in England, and to
which the settlers at Plymouth found it necessary to consent,
sufficiently repel the suggestion made by Dr. Robertson, and by
some other writers, that these people, misguided by their reli-
gious theories, and in imitation of the primitive Christians, vol-
untarily threw all their property into a common stock. The ed-
itor is here bound to acknowledge that he had once embraced
the same opinion, and precipitately indulged in remarks founded
on such a conviction, which, though they may be abstractly
true, farther inquiry convinced him were in that instance misap-
C U S H M A N. 77
" The end of civil society is the security
of the temporal liberty and prosperity of man,
not all the happiness and perfection which he
is capable of attaining, for which other means
are appointed. Had not our fathers placed
themselves upon such a footing, with respect
to ^operty, as was repugnant to the nature
of man, and not warranted by the true end
of civil society, there would probably have
been no just ground of complaint of a want
of a real and reasonable public spirit, and the
necessity of the exhortation and reproof con-
tained in Mr. Cushman's discourse would
have been superseded. Their zeal, their en-
terprise, and their uncommon sufferings in the
prosecution of their arduous undertaking ren-
der it morally certain that they would have
ever cheerfully performed their duty in this
respect : Their contemporaries might censure
them for what they did not, but their posterity
must ever admire and revere them for what
they did exhibit."
After the death of Mr. Cushman, his fam-
plied.'' The conditions referred to may be found in the Life of
Carver, in vol. ii. H.]
* [His son Thomas was already in New-England. When
the rest of his family came over I have not been able to ascer-
tain. In the list of those to whom cattle were distributed in
1627, I find no one of the name except Thomas. H.]
78 AM*, i. I CAN BIOGRAPHY.
fly came over to New-England.* His son,
Thomas Cushman, succeeded Mr. Brewster
as ruling elder of the Church of Plymouth,
being ordained to that office in 1649. He
was a man of good gifts, and frequently as-
sisted in carrying on the public worship,
preaching, and catechising. For it was one
professed principle of that churchy in its first
formation, " to choose none for governing el-
ders but such as were able to teach." He
continued in this office till he died, in 1691,
in the eighty-fourth year of his age.
The above-mentioned discourse o/ Mr.
Robert Cushman in 1621 may be considered
as a specimen of the " prophesyings" of the
brethren. The occasion was singular ; the
exhortations and reproofs are not less so, but
were adapted to the then state of society
Some specimens may not be disagreeable,
and are therefore here inserted.*
" Now, brethren, I pray you rememoer
yourselves, and know that you are not in a
retired monastical course, but have given
your names and promises one to another,
and covenanted here to cleave together in
* [Cushman was also the author of a tract printed as a part
of Mourt's Relation (iii., Mass. Hist. Coll., ix., 64-73), and
headed " Reasons and Considerations touching the Lawfulness
f removing out of England into the parts of America." H.]
C U S H M A N. 79
the service of God and the king. What,
then, must you do ? May you live an retiree
hermits, and look after nobody ? Nay, you
must seek still the wealth of one another, ari4
inquire, as David, how liveth such a man !
how is he clad ? how is he fed ? He is my
brother, my associate ; we ventured our lives
together here, and had a hard brunt of it ;
and we are in league together. Is his labour
harder than mine ? surely I will ease him.
Hath he no bed to lie on ? I have two ; I'll
lend him one. Hath he no apparel ? I have
two suits ; I'll give him one of them. Eats
he coarse fare, bread and water ? and have I
better ? surely we will part stakes. He is as
good a man as I, and we are bound each to
other ; so that his wants must be my wants,
his sorrows my sorrows, his sickness my sick-
ness, and his welfare my welfare ; for I am as
he is. Such a sweet sympathy were excel-
lent, comfortable, yea, heavenly, and is the
only maker and conserver of churches and
commonwealths.
" It wonderfully encourageth men in their
duties when they see the burden equally
borne ; but when some withdraw themselves,
and retire to their own particular ease, pleas-
ure, or profit, what heart can men have to go
80 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
on in their business ? When men are come
together to lift some weighty piece of limber
or vessel, if one stand still and do not lift,
shall not the rest be weakened and disheart-
ened ? Will not a few idle drones spoil the
whole stock of laborious bees ? So one idle
belly, one murmurer, one complainer, one
self-lover, will weaken and dishearten a whole
colony. Great matters have been brought to
pass, where men have cheerfully, as with one
heart, hand, and shoulder, gone about it, both
in wars, buildings, and plantations ; but where
every man seeks himself, all cometh to no-
thing.
" The country is yet raw; the land untill
ed ; the cities not builded ; the cattle not
settled. We are compassed about with a
helpless and idle people, the natives of the
country, which cannot, in any comely or com-
fortable manner, help themselves, much less
us. We also have been very chargeable to
many of our loving friends which helped us
hither, and now again supplied us : so that,
before we think of gathering riches, we must
even in conscience think of requiting their
charge, love, and labour ; and cursed be that
profit and gain which aimeth not at this. Be-
sides, how many of our dear friends did here
CUSHMAN. 81
die at our first entrance ! many of them, no
doubt, for want of good lodging, shelter, and
comfortable things ; and many more may go
after them quickly, if care be not taken. Is
this, then, a time for men to begin to seek
themselves ? Paul saith that men in the last
days shall be lovers of themselves (2 Tirn.,
iii., 2) ; but it is here yet but the first days,
and, as it were, the dawning of this New
World. It is now, therefore, no time for men
to look to get riches, brave clothes, dainty
fare, but to look to present necessities. It
is now no time to pamper the flesh, live at
ease, snatch, catch, scrape, and hoard up ;
but rather to open the doors, the chests, and
vessels, and say, Brother, neighbour, friend,
what want ye ? anything that I have ? make
bold with it ; it is yours to command, to do
you good, to comfort and cherish you ; and
glad I am that I have it for you.
" Let there be no prodigal son to come
forth and say, Give me the portion of lands
and goods that appertaineth to me, and let
me shift for myself. It is yet too soon to put
men to their shifts ; Israel was seven years
in Canaan before the land was divided unto
tribes, much longer before it was divided unto
families ; and why wouldst thou have thy
82 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
particular portion, but because thou thinkest
to live better than thy neighbour, and scorn-
est to live so meanly as he ? but who, I pray
thee, brought this particularizing first into the
world ? Did not Satan, who was not content
to keep that equal state with his fellows, but
would set his throne above the stars ? Did
not he also entice man to despise his general
felicity and happiness, and go try particular
knowledge of good and evil ? Nothing in
this world doth more resemble heavenly hap-
piness than for men to live as one, being of
one heart and one soul ; neither anything
more resembles hellish horror than for every
man to shift for himself; for if it be a good
mind and practice thus to affect particulars,
mine and thine, then it should be best also for
God to provide one heaven for thee, and an-
other for thy neighbour.
" Objection. But some will say, ' If all men
will do their endeavours, as I do, I could be
content with this generality ; but many are
idle and slothful, and eat up others' 1 labours,
and therefore it is best to part, and then every
man may do his pleasure. ,'
" If others be idle and thou diligent, thy
fellowship, provocation, and example may
well help to cure that malady in them, being
CUSHMAN. 83
together ; but, being asunder, shall they not
be more idle, and shall not gentry and beg-
gary be quickly the glorious ensigns of your
commonwealth ?
" Be not too hasty to say men are idle and
slothful. All men have not strength, skill,
faculty, spirit, and courage to work alike. It
is thy glory and credit that thou canst do so
well, and his shame and reproach that he can
do no better ; and are not these sufficient re-
wards to you both ?
" If any be idle apparently, you have a law
and governors to execute the same, and to
follow that rule of the apostle, to keep back
their bread, and let them not eat ; go not,
therefore, whispering, to charge men with
idleness ; but go to the governor and prove
them idle, and thou shalt see them have their
deserts.
" There is no grief so tedious as a churlish .
companion. Bear ye one another's burdens,
and be not a burden one to another. Avoid
all factions, frowardness, singularity, and with-
drawings, and cleave fast to the Lord, and
one to another, continually ; so shall you be
a notable precedent to these poor heathens,
whose eyes are upon you, and who very bru-
tishly and cruelly do daily eat and consume
III. G
84 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
ohe another, through their emulations, ways,
and contentions ; be you, therefore, ashamed
of it, and win them to peace, both with your-
selves and one another, by your peaceable
examples, which will preach louder to them
than if you could cry in their barbarous lan-
guage : so also shall you be an encourage-
ment to many of your Christian friends in
your native country to come to you, when
they hear of your peace, love, and kindness.
But, above all, it shall go well with your souls
when that God of peace and unity shall come
to visit you with death, as he hath done many
of your associates, you being found of him,
not in murmurings, discontent, and jars, but
in brotherly love and peace, may be transla-
ted from this wandering wilderness unto that
joyful and heavenly Canaan. AMEN."
W I N S L O W 85
XXII. EDWARD WINSLOW.
THIS eminently useful person was the el-
dest son of a gentleman of the same name,
of Droitwich, in Worcestershire, where he
was born in 1594.* Of his education and
first appearance in life we have no knowl-
edge. In the course of his travels on the
Continent of Europe he became acquainted
with Mr. Robinson and the church under his
pastoral care at Leyden, where he settled
and married. To this church he joined him-
self, and with them he continued till their re-
moval to America. He came hither with the
first company, and his name is the third in
the list of those who subscribed the Covenant
of Incorporation before their disembarcation
at Cape Cod. His family then consisted of
his wife and three other persons. He was
one of those who coasted the Bay of Cape
Cod and discovered the Harbour of Ply-
mouth ; and when the sachem Massasoit came
to visit the strangers, he offered himself as a
hostage while a conference was held and a
treaty was made with the savage prince.
* [More exactly, he was born October 19, 1595. Young'*
Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 274. note. H.]
86 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
His wife died soon after his arrival, and in
the following spring he married Susanna, the
widow of William White, and mother of
Peregrine, the first English child born in
New-England. This was the first marriage
solemnized in the colony* (May 12, 1621).
In Junef he went, in company with Stephen
Hopkins, to visit the sachem Massasoit at
Pokanoket.J The design of this visit is rela-
ted in Bradford's life. The particular cir-
cumstances of it may properly be detailed
here, in the very words of Winslow's origi-
nal narrative.il
" We set forward the 10th of June,H about
nine in the morning, our guide [Tisquantum]
resolving that night to rest at Namasket,** a
town under Massasoit, and conceived by us
to be very near, because the inhabitants
flocked so thick on every slight occasion
* Prince, 105.
t [Morton says, "The second of July this year (1621) they
sent Mr. Edward Winslow and Mr. Stephen Hopkins unto the
great sachem Massoit," &c. Memorial, p. 69. H.]
t Purchas, iv., 1851.
[See page 11 of this volume. H.]
II [This extract is taken from " Mourt's Journal of a Planta-
tion settled at Plymouth," which was printed in 1622 ; proba-
bly written by Winslow. Mass. Hist. Coll., viii., 232. H.]
IT Mr. Prince thinks this is a mistake, and that it ought to
have been the 3d of July.
** [I. e., Middleborough. H.]
WIN SLOW. 87
among us ; but we found it to be fifteen Eng-
lish miles. On the way we found ten or
twelve men, women, and children, which had
pestered us till we were weary of them ;
perceiving that (as the manner of them all is)
where victual is easiest to be got, there they
live, especially in the summer ; by reason
whereof, our bay affording many lobsters,
they resort every spring-tide thither, and now
returned with us to Namasket. Thither we
came about three in the afternoon, the inhab-
itants entertaining us with joy, in the best
manner they could, giving us a kind of bread,
called by them Mazium, and the spawn of
shads, which then they got in abundance, in-
somuch as they gave us spoons to eat them ;
with these they boiled musty acorns, but of
the shads we eat heartily. They desired one
of our men to shoot at a crow, complaining
what damage they sustained in their corn by
them ; who shooting and killing, they much
admired it, as other shots on other occasions.
" After this, Tisquantum told us we should
hardly in one day reach Pakanokick,* moving
us to go eight miles farther, where we should
* The same with Pokanoket. Indian words are spelled dif-
ferently by different writers. I here follow the author from
whom I copy
88 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
find more store and better victuals. Being
willing to hasten our journey, we went, and
came thither at. sunsetting, where we found
many of the men of Namasket fishing at a
ware which they had made on a riverf Avhi.ch
belonged to them, where they caught abun-
dance of bass. These welcomed us also,
gave us of their fish, and we them of our
victuals, not doubting but we should have
enough wherever we came. There we lodg-
ed in the open fields, for houses they had
none, though they spent the most of the sum-
mer there. The head of this river is report-
ed to be not far from the place of our abode ;
upon it are and have been many towns, it be-
ing a good length. The ground is very good
on both sides, it being for the most part
cleared. Thousands of men have lived there,
which died in a great plague not long since ;
and pity it was and is to see so many goodly
fields and so well seated without men to dress
the same.
" The next morning we brake our fast, and
took our leave and departed, being then ac-
companied with six savages. Having gone
about six miles by the river's side, at a known
shoal place, it being low water, they spake
* [Taunton River. H.]
W I N S L O W. 89
to us to put off our breeches, for we must
wade through. Here let me not forget the
valour and courage of some of the savages
on the opposite side of the river ; for there
were remaining alive only two men, both
aged. These two, spying a company of men
entering the river, ran very swiftly, and low
in the grass, to meet us at the bank, where,
with shrill voices and great courage, stand-
ing, charged upon us with their bows, they
demanded what we were, supposing us to be
enemies, and thinking to take advantage of
us in the water ; but, seeing we were friends,
they welcomed us with such food as they
had, and we bestowed a small bracelet of
beads on them. Thus far we are sure the
tide ebbs and flows.
"Having here again refreshed ourselves,
we proceeded on our journey, the weather
being very hot, yet the country so well wa-
tered that a man could scarce be dry but he
should have a spring at hand to cool his
thirst, besides small rivers in abundance.
The savages will not willingly drink but at a
spring-head. When we came to any small
brook where no bridge was, two of them de-
sired to carry us through of their own ac-
cord ; also, fearing we were or vrould be
90 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
weary, they offered to carry our pieces [guns] ;
also, if we would lay off any of our clothes,
we should have them carried ; and as the one
of them had found more special kindness
from one of the messengers, and the other
savage from the other, so they showed their
thankfulness accordingly in affording us all
help and furtherance in the journey.
" As we passed along, we observed that
there were few places by the river but had
been inhabited, by reason whereof much
ground was clear, save of weeds which grew
higher than our heads. There is much good
timber, oak, walnut, fir, beech, and exceed-
ing great chestnut-trees.
" Afterward we came to a town of Massas-
oit's, where we eat oysters and other fish.
From thence we went to Pakanokick, but
Massasoit was not at home. There we stay-
ed, he being sent for. When news was
brought of his coming, our guide, Tisquan-
tum, requested that at our meeting we would
discharge our pieces. One of us going to
charge his piece, the women and children,
through fear, ran away, and could not be
pacified till he laid it down again, who after-
ward were better informed by our interpreter.
" Massasoit being come, we discharged our
WIN SLOW. 91
pieces and saluted him, who, after their man-
ner, kindly welcomed us, and took us into
his house, and set us down by him, where,
having delivered our message and presents,
and having put the coat on his back and the
chain about his neck, he was not a little proud
to behold himself, and his men also to see
their king, so bravely attired.
" For answer to our message, he told us
we were welcome, and he would gladly con-
tinue that peace and friendship which was
between him and us ; and for his men, they
should no more pester us as they had done ;
also, that he would send to Paomet, and help
us to seed-corn, according to our request.
" This being done, his men gathered near
to him, to whom he turned himself and made
a great speech ; the meaning whereof (as far
as we could learn) was, that he was com-
mander of the country, and that the people
should bring their skins to us. He named
at least thirty places ; and their answer was
confirming and applauding what he said.
" He then lighted tobacco for us, and fell
to discoursing of England and of the king,
marvelling that he could live without a wife.
A.lso he talked of the Frenchmen, bidding
us not to suffer them to come to Narrowhi-
III H
92 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
ganset, for it was King James's country, and
he was King James's man. It grew late,
but he offered us no victuals ; for, indeed, he
had not any, being so newly come home.
So we desired to go to rest. He laid us on
the bed with himself and his wife ; they at
the one end, and we at the other ; it being
only planks, laid a foot from the ground, and
a thin mat upon them. Two more of his
chief men, for want of room, pressed by and
upon us, so that we were worse wearied of
our lodging than of our journey.
" The next day being Thursday, many of
their sachems or petty governors came to
see us, and many of their men also. They
went to their manner of games for skins and
knives. We challenged them to shoot for
skins, but they durst not, only they desired
to see one of us shoot at a mark ; who, shoot-
ing with hail-shot, they wondered to see the
mark so full of holes.
" About one o'clock Massasoit brought
two fishes that he had shot ; they were like
bream, but three times so big, and better
meat. [Probably the fish called Tataug.]
These being boiled, there were at least forty
that looked for a share in them ; the most
eat of them. This meal only we had in two
W I N S L O W. 93
nights and a day ; and had not one of us
brought a partridge, we had taken our jour-
ney fasting. Very importunate he was with
us to stay with him longer ; but we desired
to keep the Sabbath at home, and feared we
should be light-headed for want of sleep ; for
what with bad lodging, barbarous singing (for
they use to sing themselves to sleep), lice,
and fleas within doors, and moschetoes with-
out, we could hardly sleep all the time of our
being there, and we much feared that, if we
should stay any longer, we should not be able
to recover home for want of strength.
" On Friday morning, before sunrising,
we took our leave and departed, Massasoit
being both grieved and ashamed that he
could not better entertain us. Retaining
Tisquantum to send from place to place to
procure truck for us, he appointed another
[guide], Tokamahamon, in his place, whom
we found faithful before and after upon all
occasions."
This narrative gives us a just idea of
the hospitality and poverty of the Indians.
They gladly entertain strangers with the best
they can afford ; but it is familiar to them to
endure long abstinence. Those who visit
them must be content to fare as they do, or
94 AMERICAN BIOGKAPHY.
carry their own provision and share it with
them.
Mr. Winslow's next excursion was by sea
to Monahigon, an island near the mouth of
Penobscot Bay, to procure a supply of bread
from the fishing-vessels, who resorted to the
eastern coast in the spring of 1622. This
supply, though not large, was freely given to
the suffering colony, and, being prudently
managed in the distribution, amounted to one
quarter of a pound for each person till the
next harvest.* By means of this excursion the
people of Plymouth became acquainted with
the eastern coast, of which knowledge they
afterward availed themselves for a beneficial
traffic with the natives.!
In the spring of the year 1623,$ Mr. Wins-
low made a second visit to the sachem, on
account of his sickness, the particular cir-
cumstances of which are thus given in his
own words :
* [The straits to which the settlers were reduced may be
judged of from Winslow's Relation : " I found," he says, on hia
return, " the state of the colony much weaker than when I left
it ; for till now we were nevei without some bread : the want
whereof much abated the strength and flesh of some, and swell
ed others." Mass. Hist. Coll., viii., 246. H.]
t Prince, 119. Purchas, iv., 1836.
t [This second expedition was in March. H.]
$ Purchas, iv., 1860.
W I N S L O W. 95
" News came to Plymouth that Mass'asso-
wat* was like to die, and that, at the same
time, there was a Dutch ship driven so high
on the shore before his dwelling, by stress of
weather, that, till the tides increased, she could
not be got off. Now it being a commenda-
able manner of the Indians when any, espe-
cially of note, are dangerously sick, for all
that profess friendship to them to visit them
in their extremity, therefore it was thought
meet that, as we had ever professed friend-
ship, so we should now maintain the same
by observing this their laudable custom ; and
the rather, because we desired to have some
conference with the Dutch, not knowing
when we should have so fit an opportunity.
" To that end, myself having formerly
been there, and understanding in some meas-
ure the Dutch tongue, the governor [Brad-
ford] again laid this service on myself,t and
fitted me with some cordials to administer to
him ; having one Mr. John Hampden, a gen-
tleman of London, who then wintered with
us, and desired much to see the country, for
my consort, and Hobbamock for our guide.
So we set forward, and lodged the first night
* Thus it is spelled in Winslow's narrative.
f See note to pag/e 2. of this volume. H.]
96 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
at Namasket, where we had friendly enter-
tainment.
" The next day, about one of the clock,
we came to a ferry in Conbatant's* country,
where, upon discharge of my piece, divers
Indians came to us from a house not far off.
They told us that Massassowat was dead and
that day buried, and that the Butch would
be gone before we could get thither, having
hove off their ship already. This news struck
us blank, but especially Hobamock, who de-
sired me to return with all speed. I told him
I would first think of it, considering now,
that he being dead, Conbatant or Corbitant
was the most likely to succeed him, and that
we were not above three miles from Mat-
tapuyst,f his dwelling-place. Although he
were but a hollow-hearted friend to us, 1
thought no time so fit as this to enter into
more friendly terms with him and the rest of
the sachems thereabout, hoping, through the
blessing of God, it would be a means in that
unsettled state, to settle their affections to-
wards us ; and though it were somewhat dan-
* His name is spelled Corbitant, Conbatant, and Conbutant.
This ferry is probably the same which is now called Slade's Fer-
ry, in Swanzey.
t A neck of land in the township of Swanzey, commonly
pronounced Mattapoiset.
W I N S L O W.
gerous, in respect of personal safety, yet es-
teeming it the best means, leaving the event
to God in his mercy, I resolved to put it in
practice, if Mr. Hampden and Hobbamock
durst attempt it with me, whom I found will-
ing. So we went towards Mattapuyst.
"In the way, Hobbamock, manifesting a
troubled spirit, brake forth into these speech-
es. Neen womasu Sag-amus, &c. : ' My lov-
ing sachem ! many have I known, but never
any like thee !' Then turning to me, he
said, while I lived, I should never see his
like among the Indians. He was no liar, he
was not bloody and cruel like other Indians ;
in anger and passion he was soon reclaimed ;
easy to be reconciled towards such as had of-
fended him ; ruled by reason, in such meas-
ure as he would not scorn the advice of mean
men ; and that he governed his men better
with few strokes than others did with many ;
truly loving where he loved ; yea, he feared
we had not a faithful friend left among the
Indians, showing how often he restrained
their malice. He continued a long speech,
with such signs of lamentation and unfeign-
ed sorrow as would have made the hardest
heart relent.
" At length we came to Matlapuyst, and
98 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
went to the sachem's place ; Conbatant was
not at home, but at Pokanokick, five or six
miles off. The squaw sachern gave us friend-
ly entertainment. Here we inquired again
concerning Massassowat ; they thought him
dead, but knew no certainty. Whereupon I
hired one to go with all expedition to Poka-
nokick, that we might know the certainty
thereof, and, withal, to acquaint Conbutant
with our being there. About half an hour be-
fore sunsetting the messenger returned, and
told us he was not yet dead, though there
was no hope that we should find him living.
Upon this we were much revived, and set for-
ward with all speed, though' it was late with-
in night when we got thither. About two of
the clock that afternoon the Dutchman had
departed, so that in that respect our journey
was frustrate.
" When we came thither, we found the
house so full of men as we could scarce get
in, though they used their best diligence to
make way for us. They were in the midst
of their charms for him, making such a hell-
ish noise as distempered us that were well,
and therefore unlike to ease him that was
sick. About him were six or eight women,
who chafed his arms and legs to keep heat
W I N S L O W. 99
in him. When they had made an end of
their charming, one told him that his friends
the English were come to see him. Having
his understanding left, though his sight whol-
ly gone, he asked who was come ; they told
him Winsnow (for they cannot pronounce
the letter L, but ordinarily N in place of it) ;
he desired to speak with me. When I came
to him and they told him of it, he put forth
his hand to me, which I took; then he said
twice, though very inwardly, ' keen Wins-
now ?' ' art thou Winslow ?' I answered
' ahlie,' that is, ' yes.' Then he doubled
these words, ' Malta neen wonckunet namen
Winsnow /' that is to say, ' O Winslow, I
shall never see thee again !' Then I called
Hobbamock, and desired him to tell Massaso-
it that the governor, hearing of his sickness,
was sorry for the same ; and though, by rea-
son of many businesses, he could not him-
self come, yet he had sent me, with such
things for him as he thought most likely to
do him good in this extremity; and whereof,
if he pleased to take, I would presently give
him, which he desired ; and, having a con-
fection of many comfortable conserves on
the point of my knife, I gave him some,
which I could scarce get through his teeth;
100 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
when it was dissolved in his mouth, he swal
lowed the juice of it, whereat those that were
about him were much rejoiced, saying he had
not swallowed anything in two days before.
Then I desired to see his mouth, which was
exceedingly furred, and his tongue swelled
in such a manner that it was not possible for
him to eat such meat as they had. Then I
washed his mouth, and scraped his tongue,
after which I gave him more of the confection,
which he swallowed with more readiness.
Then he desired to drink ; I dissolved some
of it in water, and gave him thereof, and
within half an hour this wrought a great al-
teration in him, and presently after his sight
began to come to him. Then I gave him
more, and told him of a mishap we had by
the way, in breaking a bottle of drink which
the governor also sent him, saying, if he would
send any of his men to Plymouth, I would
send for more of the same ; also for chickens
to make him broth, and for other things
which I knew were good for him, and would
stay the return of the messenger. This he
took marvellous kindly, and appointed some
who were ready to go by two of the clock in
the morning, against which time I made rea-
dy a letter, declaring our good success, and
WINS LOW. 101
desiring such things as were proper. He re-
quested me that I would the next day take
my piece and kill him stxue- fowl, ano make
him such pottage as, h,e hajd eaten, at Ply-
mouth, which I pronrrisied ; bat his sxo&Kieh
coming to him, I must needs make him some
without fowl before I went abroad. I caused
a woman to bruise some corn and take the
flower from it, and set the broken corn in a
pipkin (for they have earthen pots of all si-
zes). When the day broke, we went out to
seek herbs (it being the middle of March), but
could not find any but strawberry leaves, of
which I gathered a handful and put into the
same, and, because I had nothing to relish it,
I went forth again and pulled up a sassafras
root, and sliced a piece and boiled it, till it
had a good relish. Of this broth I gave him
a pint, which he drank and liked it well ; af-
ter this his sight mended, and he took some
rest. That morning he caused me to spend
in going among the sick in the town, request-
ing me to wash their mouths, and give them
some of the same I gave him. This pains I
took willingly, though it were much offensive
to me.
" When the messengers were returned,
finding his stomach come to him, he would
102 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
not have the chickens killed, but kept them
for breed. Neither durst we give him any
physic,- ibecause <he :\?as .SQ- much altered, not
doubting of his recovery if he were careful.
Upjin ih:is- rco.very :be brake forth into these
speeches : ' Now I see the English are my
friends, and love me ; while I live, I will
never forget this kindness they have showed
me.' At our coming away, he called Hobba-
mock to him, and privately told him of a plot
of the Massachusetts against Weston's col-
ony, and so against us. But he would nei-
ther join therein nor give way to any of his.
With this he charged him to acquaint me by
the way, that I might inform the governor.
Being fitted for our return, we took leave of
him, who returned many thanks to our gov-
ernor, and also to ourselves, for our labour
and love ; the like did all that were about
him. So we departed."
In the autumn of the same year Mr. Wins-
low went to England,* as agent for the colony,
to give an account of their proceedings to the
adventurers, and procure such things as were
necessary. While he was in England he
published a narrative of the settlement and
transactions of the colony at Plymouth, under
* [In the ship Ann, which sailed September 10th. H.J
WJNSLOW. 103
this title. " Good News from New-England ;
or, a Relation of Things remarkable in that
Plantation, by E. Winslow."*
This narrative is abridged in Purchas's Pil-
grims, and has been of great service to all
succeeding historians. To it he subjoined
an account of the manners and customs, the
religious opinions and ceremonies of the In-
dian natives, which, being an original work,
and now rarely to be found, is inserted in the
Appendix.
In the following spring (March, 1624) Mr.
Winslow returned from England, having been
absent no longer than six months, bringing a
good supply of clothing and other necessa-
ries, and, what was of more value than any
other supply, three heifers and one bull, the
first neat cattle brought into New-England. f
The same year$ he went again to England,
where he had an opportunity of correcting a
mistake which had been made in his former
voyage. $ The adventurers had then, in the
* [This work, an abridgment of which was published by Pur-
chas, begins in January, 1622, and continues till Winslow's first
voyage to England, September, 1623. It may be found in Mass.
Hist. Coll., viii., 239-276. Dr. Belknap has farther abridged it
by some unimportant omissions. It is printed entire in Young's
Chronicles, 271-375. H.]
t Prince, 146. t [Probably in July. -H.] $ Prince, 188.
104 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
same ship with the cattle, sent over John Ly-
ford as a minister, who was soon suspected
of being a person unfit for that office. When
Mr. Winslow went again to England, he im-
parted this suspicion ; and at a meeting of the
adventurers, it appeared on examination that
Lyford had been a minister in Ireland, where
his conduct had been so bad as to oblige him
to quit that kingdom, and that the adventu-
rers had been imposed upon by false testimo-
ny concerning him. With this discovery Mr.
Winslow came back to Plymouth in 1625,
and found the court sitting on the affair of
Oldham, who had returned after banishment.
The true characters of these impostors being
thus discovered, they were both expelled from
the plantation.
About the same time, Governor Bradford
having prevailed on the people of Plymouth
to choose five assistants instead of one, Mr.
Winslow was first elected to this office, ii?
which he was continued till 1633, when, by
the same influence, he was chosen governor*
1br one year.
* The following note from Governor Winthrop's Journal is
worthy of observation :* " Mr. Edward Winslow was chosen
governor of Plymouth. Mr. Bradford having been governor
about ten [twelve] years, and now by importunity got off."
* Winthrop's Journal, 47.
W I N S L O \V. 106
Mr. Winslow was a man of great activity
and resolution, and therefore well qualified
to conduct enterprises for the benefit of the
colony. He frequently went to Penobscot,
Kennebec, and Connecticut Rivers on trading
voyages, and rendered himself useful and
agreeable to the people.
In 1635 he undertook another agency in
England for the colonies of Plymouth and
Massachusetts, partly on occasion of the in-
trusions which were made on the territory of
New-England by the French on the east, and
by the Dutch on the west, and partly to an-
swer complaints which had been made to the
government against the Massachusetts colo-
ny by Thomas Morton,* who had been twice
expelled for his misbehaviour.
At that time the care of the colonies was
committed to a number of bishops, lords, and
gentlemen, of whom Archbishop Laud was at
the head.f It was also in contemplation to
This singular trait in Bradford's character, of which there is
the fullest evidence, sufficiently invalidates an insinuation of
Hutchinson, that Winslow's " employment abroad prevented a
competition between Bradford and him for the governor's place,"*
* [For a more particular account of Morton, see the Life of
Stand ish, and notes. H.]
t Cotton's Appendix. Collections of the Historical Society,
Tol. iv., 119.
* Hntchinson's History, ii., 457.
106 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
establish a general government in America,
which would have superseded the charters of
the colonies.
Wirislow's situation at that time was criti-
cal, and his treatment was severe. In his
petition to the commissioners he set forth the
encroachments of the French and Dutch, and
prayed for " a special warrant to the English
colonies to defend themselves against all for-
eign enemies."* Governor Winthrop cen-
sured this petition as " ill-advised, because
such precedents might endanger their liber-
ties, that they should do nothing but by com-
mission out of England."!
The petition, however, was favourably re-
ceived by some of the board. $ Winslow was
heard several times in support of it, and point-
ed out a way in which the object might have
been attained without any charge to the
crown, by furnishing some of the chief men
of the colonies with authority, which they
would exercise at their own expense, and
without any public national disturbance. This
proposal crossed the design of Gorges and
Mason, whose aim was to establish a general
government ; and the archbishop, who was
engaged in their interest, put a check to
* Hutch., ii., 458. t Journal, 89. t Morton. 94
W 1 N S L O W. 107
li* . "
Winsldw's proposal by questioning him on
Morton's accusation for his own personal
conduct in America. The offences alleged
against him were that he, not being in holy
orders, but a mere layman, had taught pub-
licly in the church, and had officiated in the
celebration of marriages. To the former
Winslow answered, " that sometimes, when
the church was destitute of a minister, he had
exercised his gift for the edification of the
brethren." To the latter, "that, though he
had officiated as a magistrate in the solemni-
zing of marriage, yet he regarded it only as
a civil contract ; that the people of Plymouth
had for a long time been destitute of a min-
ister, and were compelled by necessity to have
recourse to the magistrate in that solemnity ;
that this was not to them a novelty, having
been accustomed to it in Holland, where he
himself had been married by a Dutch magis-
trate in the Statehouse." On this honest
confession, the archbishop pronounced him
guilty of the crime of separation from the
National Church, and prevailed on the board
to consent to his imprisonment. He was
therefore committed to the Fleet Prison,
where he lay confined seventeen weeks.
But after that time k on petitioning the board,
he obtained a release.
108 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
At his return to New-England, the colony
showed him the highest degree of respect by
choosing him their governor for the succeed-
ing year (1636). In this office he conducted
himself greatly to their satisfaction. In 1644
he was again honoured with the same ap-
pointment, and in the intermediate years was
the first on the list of magistrates.
When the colonies of New-England enter-
ed into a confederation for their mutual de-
fence in 1643,* Mr. Winslow was chosen one
of the commissioners on behalf of Plymoutn,
and was continued in that office till 1646,
* [The four colonies, Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut,
and New-Haven, presented an extensive and almost defenceless
frontier to the incursions of the Indians, whose friendship was
always doubtful, and whose enmity was certainly fatal. Con-
necticut and New-Haven were also annoyed by the vexatious
claims of the Dutch, and suffered much hinderance in their trade
by their interference. This state of things suggested the expe-
diency of a confederacy of the colonies for mutual succour and
defence, which, after five years of deliberation, was established
in May, 1643. The affairs of the United Colonies were com-
mitted to two commissioners from each colony, who met once a
year till 1664, and once in three years afterward till 1686, when
the charters of all the colonies were vacated by King James.
The league into which they entered was one " of friendship and
amity, for offence and defence, mutual advice and succour, upon
all just occasions ;" and the commissioners were empowered to
frame orders " in general cases of a civil nature, wherein all the
plantations were interested." Hazard, ii., and Hutchinson's
Hist, of Mass., i., 120, seqq. H.l
W I N S L O W. 109
when he was solicited by the colony of Mas-
sachusetts to go again to England to answer
the complaints of Samuel Gorton and others,
who had charged them with religious intoler-
ance and persecution.*! The times being
* Hutch., i., 145, 149.
t [The court made choice of Winslow, says Governor Win-
throp (Journal, ii., 283), as a fit man to be employed in our pres-
ent affairs in England, in regard of his abilities of presence,
speech, courage, and understanding. He set sail about the
middle of October, 1646. Ib., 317. Besides the complaints
of Gorton and his company, he was specially charged to answer
the complaint of want of religious freedom in Massachusetts,
preferred against that colony by William Vassal, of Scituate,
and others. (See notes to the Life of Winthrop, of Mass.) He
had several hearings before the commissioners for the affairs of
New-England, among whom were the Earl of Warwick and Sir
Henry Vane, both zealous Puritans, and friendly to New-Eng-
land, by whose influence, doubtless, the colony escaped censure.
One of the partisans of Vassal, if not Vassal himself, had pub-
lished in a pamphlet, entitled " New-England's Jonas cast up at
London," a statement of the case designed to the prejudice of
the colony. Mr. Winslow wrote a reply, entitled "New-Eng-
land's Salamander discovered," vindicating the colony, and re-
torting their accusations. The two tracts may be found, ii.,
Mass. Hist. Coll., iv., 107-120, and iii., Ib., ii., 110, seqq.
The case of Gorton is one of the difficult passages of the
early history of Massachusetts. It is no easy task to separate
the truth of his opinions from the mass of contemporary preju-
dice and misrepresentation. We cannot doubt that he was cru-
elly persecuted, and that the cause of it lay in certain singular
theological opinions mystically expressed, and in a bold freedom
which sometimes degenerated into insolence and contempt. He
was arrested bv order of court, and in 1643 condemned to be
110 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
changed, and the Puritans being in power,
Mr. Winslow had great advantage in this bu-
siness, from the credit and esteem which he
enjoyed with that party. We have no ac-
count of the particulars of this agency, but
only in general, that " by his prudent man-
agement he prevented any damage, and clear-
ed the colony from any blame or dishonour."
One design of the confederation of the col-
onies was to promote the civilization of the
Indians, and their conversion to the Christian
religion. In this great and good work Mr.
Winslow was, from principle, very zealously
engaged. In England he employed his in-
terest and friendship with members of the
Parliament, and other gentlemen of quality
and fortune, to erect a corporation there for
the prosecution of the design.* For this pur-
pose an act of Parliament was passed (1649),
incorporating a society in England " for prop-
agating the Gospel in New-England."! The
" confined at Charlestown, and there set on work, and to wear
such bolts or irons as may hinder his escape," with the farther
condition that, if he should maintain " any of his abominable
heresies," he should be, on conviction, put to death. Seven of
his associates were also confined in separate towns. Win-
throp's Journal, ii., 147, note. H.J
* Hazard's State Papers, ii., 145, &c.
t [The charter of this society bears date July 27th, 1 649. The
WINSLOW. Ill
commissioners of the United Colonies were
constituted a board of correspondents, and
distributers of the money which was supplied
in England by charitable donations from all
the cities, towns, and parishes in the king-
dom.* By the influence and exertions of
both these respectable bodies, missions were
supported among the Indians of New-Eng-
land ; the Bible and other books of piety
corporation consisted of sixteen persons. The impulse to its
formation, as may be inferred from the agency of Mr. Winslow
in it, was mainly derived from New-.England. The hope of be-
ing useful in the conversion of the Indians had cheered the
hearts of many of our pious fathers, who yet were never permit-
ted to engage in that good work. They have been charged with
neglecting it. But they seem to have deferred it for a time only
from the necessities of their own condition, and till they could
enter upon it with a reasonable prospect of success. From the
earliest years of New-England might be found here and there
one, like Hobomok, who had embraced the Christian faith. The
holy labours of John Eliot were begun with the approval of his
brethren, and the General Court added their sanction by a spe
cial act. The society in England greatly aided these pious ef
forts. Large collections were made to defray the expense of
them, which were judiciously applied by the commissioners.
The labours of Eliot, of the Mayhews, of Pierson, and Cotton,
and Bourne, are worthy of a perpetual memorial in the hearts of
those who love Christian fortitude and heroic self-denial. In
aid of the formation of the society, a tract, entitled " The Glo-
rious Progress of the Gospel among the Indians of New-Eng-
land," written by Eliot and Mayhew, was published in London in
1649, with a preface by Mr. Winslow. H.]
* Hazard's Collections, i , 636.
112 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
were translated into the Indian tongue, and
printed for their use ; and much pains were
taken by several worthy ministers and other
gentlemen to instruct the Indians, and reduce
them to a civilized life. This society is still
in existence, and, till the late revolution in
America, they kept up a board of corre-
spondents at Boston, but since that period it
has been discontinued. Of this corporation,
at its first establishment, Mr. Winslow was a
very active and faithful member in England,
where his reputation was great, and his abili-
ties highly valued by the prevailing party,
who found him so much employment there
and elsewhere that he never returned to
New-England.*
When Oliver Cromwell (1655) planned an
expedition against the Spaniards in the West
Indies, and sent Admiral Penn and General
Venables to execute it, he appointed three
* [Mr. Winslow was one of the commissioners appointed to
determine the value of the English ships seized and detained by
the King of Denmark, and for which restitution was to be made,
according to the treaty of peace made with the Protector, April
5th, 1654. The commissioners were required to meet at Gold-
smith's Hall, London, in the month of June ; and, in case they
should not agree by a certain day in August, were to be shut
up in a chamber, without fire, candles, meat, or drink, or any
other refreshment, until they should agree. Pavis's note to
Morton's Memorial, p. 261. H.]
WINS LOW. 113
commissioners to superintend and direct their
operations, of which number Winslow* was
the chief; the other two were Richard Hoi-
drip and Edward Blagge.f Their object
was to attack St. Domingo, the only place of
strength which the Spaniards had in Hispan-
iola.
The commanders disagreed in their tem-
pers and views, and the control of the com-
missioners was of no avail. The troops, ill
appointed and badly provided, were landed
at too great a distance from the city, and lost
their way in the woods. Worn with hunger
and thirst, heat and fatigue, they were routed
by an inconsiderable number of Spaniards ;
six hundred were killed, and the remnant
took refuge on board their vessels.
To compensate as far as possible for this
unfortunate event, the fleet sailed for Jamai-
ca, which surrendered without any resistance.
But Mr. Winslow, who partook of the chagrin
of the defeat, did not enjoy the pleasure of
the victory. In the passage between Hispan-
iola and Jamaica the heat of the climate
* [See two letters from Edward Winslow to Secretary Thur-
loe OB the state of affairs in the West Indies, dated March 16tb
and 30th, 1654, '5, in Thurloe's State Papers, iii., 249, 325.--H.J
+ Hume, chap. Iri.
114 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
threw him into a fever, which, operating with
the dejection of his mind, put an end to his
life on the eighth of May, 1655, in the sixty-
first year of his age. His body was commit-
ted to the deep with the honours of war, for-
ty-two guns being fired by the fleet on that
occasion.
The following well-meant but inelegant
verses were written by one of the passengers
on board the same ship in which he died.
" The eighth of May, west from 'Spaniola shore,
God took from us our grand commissioner,
Winslow by name ; a man in chiefest trust,
Whose life was sweet and conversation just ;
Whose parts and wisdom most men did excel ;
An honour to his place, as all can tell."*
Before his departure from New-England
Mr. Winslow had made a settlement on a
valuable tract of land in Marshfield,'to which
he gave the name of Careswell, probably
from a castle and seat of that name in Staf-
fordshire.! His son, Josiah Winslow, was a
magistrate and governor of the colony, and
general of the New-England forces in the
war with the Indians, called Philip's war.
He died in 1680. Isaac, the son of Josiah
Winslow, sustained the chief civil and mili-
tary offices in the county of Plymouth after
* Morton's Memorial. t Sec Camdcn's Britannia, 534.
WINSLOW. 115
its incorporation with Massachusetts, and was
president of the provincial council. He died
in 1738. John Winslow, the son of Isaac,
was a captain in the unfortunate expedition
to Cuba in 1740, and afterward an officer in
the British service, and major-general in sev-
eral expeditions to Kennebec, Nova Scotia,
and Crown Point. He died in 1774, aged
71. His son, Dr. Isaac Winslow, is now in
possession of the family estate at Marshfield.
By the favour of this gentleman, the letter-
books and journals of his late father, Major-
general Winslow, with many ancient family
papers containing a fund of genuine informa-
tion, are deposited in the library of the His-
torical Society. There are several other rep-
utable branches of this family in New-Eng-
land and Nova Scotia.
116 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
XXIII. MILES STANDISH.
THIS intrepid soldier, the hero of New-
England, as John Smith was of Virginia,
was a native of Lancashire, in the north of
England, but the date of his birth is not pre-
served. Descended from the younger branch
of a family of distinction,* he was " heir-appa-
* All which I have been able to collect relative to the family
of Standish is as follows :
Henry Standish, a Franciscan, D.D. of Cambridge, bishop
of St. Asaph before the Reformation, was a bigot to popery.
Falling down on his knees before King Henry VIII., he petition-
ed him to continue the religiods establishment of his ancestors.
This prelate died A.D. 1535, at a very advanced age.
John Standish, nephew to Henry, wrote a book against the
translation of the Bible into the English language, and present-
ed it to the Parliament. He died in 1556, in the reign of Queen
Mary.*
Sir Richard Standish, of Whittle, near Charley. In his
grounds a lead-mine was discovered not long before 1695, and
wrought with good success. Near the same place is a quarry of
mill stones. t
The village of Standish, and a seat called Standish Hall, are
situate near the River Douglass, in Lancashire, between the
towns of Charley and Wigan, which are about 6 miles distant.
Wigan is 9 miles north of Warrington, on the southern side of
the county. J See Camden's Map of Lancashire.
* Fuller's Worthies of England, 109, 114.
t Gamden's Britannia, 802.
t ["So late as 1707, I find that Sir Thomas Standish lived
STAN DISH. 117
rent to a great estate of lands and livings, sur-
reptitiously detained from him," which com-
pelled him to seek subsistence for himself.
Though small in stature, he had an active
genius, a sanguine temper, and a strong con-
stitution. These qualities led him to the pro-
fession of arms ; and the Netherlands being
in his youth a theatre of war, he entered into
the service of Queen Elizabeth in aid of the
Dutch, and after the truce settled with the
English refugees at Leyden.
When they meditated a removal to Amer-
ica, Standish, though not a member of their
church, was thought a proper person to ac-
company them. Whether he joined them at
their request or his own motion does not ap-
pear, but he engaged with zeal and resolution
in their enterprise, and embarked with the
first company in 1620.
On their arrival at Cape Cod he was ap-
pointed commander of the first party of six-
teen men who went ashore on discovery ; and
when they began their settlement at Ply-
mouth, he was unanimously chosen captain
or chief military commander. In several in-
terviews with the natives he was the first to
at Duxbury, the name of the family-seat in Lancashire." An-
cient Vestiges, quoted in Morton's Memorial, 263, note. H.]
118 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
meet them, and was generally accompanied
with a very small number of men, selected by
himself.
After the league was made with Massaso-
it, one of his petty sachems, Corbitant, be-
came discontented, and was meditating to
join with the Narragansets against the Eng-
lish. Standish, with fourteen men and a
guide, went to Corbitant's place [Swanzey]
and surrounded his house ; but, not finding
him at home, they informed his people of
their intention of destroying him if he should
persist in his rebellion. Corbitant, hearing of
his danger, made an acknowledgment to Mas-
sasoit, and entreated his mediation with the
English for peace. He was soon after [Sept.
13, 1621] admitted, with eight other chiefs,
to subscribe an instrument of submission to
the English government.
In every hazardous enterprise Captain
Standish was ready to put himself foremost,
whether the object were discovery, traffic, or
war, and the people, animated by his exam-
ple and confiding in his bravery and fidelity,
thought themselves safe under his command.
When the town of Plymouth [1622] was
enclosed and fortified, the defence of it was
committed to the captain, who made the most
STANDISH. 119
judicious disposition of their force.* He di-
vided them into four squadrons, appointing
those whom he thought most fit to command,
and ordered every man, on any alarm, to re-
pair to his respective station, and put himself
under his proper officer. A select company
was appointed, in case of accidental fire, to
mount guard, with their backs to the fire,
that they might prevent the approach of an
enemy during the conflagration.
Being sent on a trading voyage to Mata-
chiest [between Barnstable and Yarmouth,
Feb., 1623], a severe storm came on during
the first night, by which the harbour was filled
with ice, and Captain Standish with his party
were obliged to lodge in one of the huts of the
savages. They came together in a consider-
able number, and under the mask of friend-
ship promised to supply him with corn.
Standish, suspecting, by their number, thai
their intention was hostile, would not permit
* [" By this time" (March, 1622), says Bradford, " our town
is impaled, enclosing a garden for every family." " This sum-
mer" (1622), says Morton (p. 81, 82), " they built a fort with
good timber, both strong and comely, which was of good de-
fence, made with a flat roof and battlements, on which fort
their ordnance was mounted, and where they kept constant watch,
especially in time of danger. It served them also for a meet-
ing-house, and was fitted accordingly for that use." H.]
120 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
his men to lie down all at once, but ordered
them to sleep and watch by turns. In the
morning a discovery was made that some
things had been stolen from his shallop. The
captain immediately went with his whole
force, consisting of six men, surrounded the
house of sachem lanough, and obliged him
to find the thief and restore the stolen things.
This resolute behaviour struck them with
awe ; the trade went on peaceably, and, when
the harbour was cleared, the shallop came off
with a load of corn, and arrived safely at
Plymouth.
This was the first suspicion of a conspira-
cy which had for some time been forming
among the Indians to destroy the English.
In the following month [March] he had an-
other specimen of their insolence at Mano-
met,* whither he went to fetch home the
corn which Governor Bradford had bought
in the preceding autumn. The captain was
* Manomet is the name of a creek or river which runs through
the town of Sandwich, into the upper part of Buzzard's Bay,
formerly called Manomet Bay. Between this and Scusset
Creek (into which Standish went and received his corn) is the
place which, for more than a century, has been thought of as
a proper place to be cut through, to form a communication by a
navigable canal from Barnstable Bay to Buzzard's Bay. Prince,
126.
STANDISH. 121
not received with that welcome which the
governor had experienced. Two Indians
from Massachusetts were there, one of whom
had an iron dagger, which he had gotten from
some of Weston's people at Wessagusset
[Weymouth], and which he gave to Cana-
cum, the sachem of Manomet, in the view
of Standish. The present was accompanied
with a speech, which the captain did not then
perfectly understand, but the purport of it
was, " That the English were too strong for
the Massachusetts Indians to attack without
help from the others ; because, if they should
cut off the people in their bay, yet they fear-
ed that those of Plymouth would revenge
their death. He therefore invited the sachem
to join with them, and destroy both colonies.
He magnified his own strength and courage,
and derided the Europeans because he had
seen them die, crying and making sour faces
like children." An Indian of Paomet* was
present, who had formerly been friendly, and
now professed the same kindness, offering his
personal service to get the corn on board the
shallop, though he had never done such work
before, and inviting the captain to lodge in
his hut, as the weather was cold. Standish
* [Now Tniro. H.J
122 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
passed the night by his fire ; but, though ear-
nestly pressed to take his rest, kept himself
continually in motion, and the next day, by
the help of the squaws, go f his corn on board
and returned to Plymouth. It was afterward
discovered that this Indian intended to kill
him if he had fallen asleep.
About the same time happened Mr. Wins-
low's visit to Massasoit in his sickness, and
a full discovery of the plot which the Indians
at Massachusetts had contrived to destroy
the English. The people whom Weston
had sent to plant a colony at Wessagusset
were so disorderly and imprudent, that the
Indians were not only disgusted with them,
but despised them. These were destined to
be the first victims. Their overseer, John
Sanders, was gone to Monhegan to meet the
fishermen at their coming to the coast, and
get some provisions. During his absence the
Indians had grown more insolent than before ;
and it was necessary that some force should
be sent thither, as well to protect the colony
as to crush the conspiracy. Standish was the
commander of the party ; and as this was his
capital exploit, it may be most satisfactory
and entertaining to give the account of it, as
related by Mr. Winslow in his narrative :*
* [See Mass. Hist. Coll., viii., 265-271 Winslow's narra-
STAN DISH. 123
" The 23d of March [1623] being a yearly
court-day, we came to this conclusion, that
Captain Standish should take as many men
as he thought sufficient to make his party
good against all the Indians in the Massa-
chusetts Bay ; and because it is impossible
to deal with them upon open defiance, but to
take them in such traps as they lay for oth-
ers ; therefore, that he should pretend trade,
as at other times, but first go to the English
and acquaint them with the plot and the end
of his own coming, that, by comparing it with
thei^ carriage towards them, he might better
judge of the certainty of it, and more fitly
take opportunity to revenge the same ; but
should forbear, if it were possible, till such
time as he could make sure of Wittuwamat,
a bloody and bold villain, whose head he had
orders to bring with him. Upon this, Captain
Standish made choice of eight men, and would
not take more, because he would prevent jeal-
ousy. On the next day, before he could go,
jcame one* of Weston's company to us with
tive is slightly abridged, and the language altered by Dr. Bel-
knap. H.]
* His name was Phinehas Pratt. An Indian followed him to
kill him ; but, by missing his way, he escaped and got into Ply-
mouth. This man was living in 1677, when Mr. Hubbard wrote
bis history. The Indian who followed him went to Manomet,
III. K
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
a pack on his back, who made a pitiful narra-
tion of their lamentable and weak estate, and
of the Indians' carriage, whose boldness in-
creased abundantly, insomuch as they would
take the victuals out of their pots, and eat
before their faces ; yea, if in anything they
gainsayed them, they were ready to hold a
knife at their breasts. He said that, to give
them content, they had hanged one* of the
and on his return visited Plymouth, where he was put in irons
Hubbard's MS. [In the printed copy, p. 78. H.]
* Mr. Hubbard's account of this matter is as follows : " The
company, as some report, pretended, in way of satisfaction, to
punish him that did the theft, but in his stead hanged #poor
decrepit old man that was unserviceable to the company, and
burdensome to keep alive. This was the ground of the story,
with which the morry gentleman that wrote the poem called
Hudibras did, in his poetical fancy, make so much sport. The
inhabitants of Plymouth tell the story much otherwise, as if the
person hanged was really guilty of stealing, as were many of the
rest. Yet it is possible that justice might be executed, not on
him that most deserved it, but on him that could best be spared,
or who was not likely to live long if he had been let alone."
The passage of Hudibras above referred to is in part ii., canto
ii., line 403, &c. :
" Though nice and dark the point appear,
Quoth Ralph, it may hold up and clear;
That sinners may supply the place
Of suffering saints, is. a plain case.
Justice gives sentence many times
On one man for another's crimes.
Our brethren of New-England, use
Choice malefactors to excuse,
STANDISH. 125
Company who had stolen their corn, and yet
diey regarded it not ; that another of them
And hang the guiltless in their stead,
Of whom the churches have less need ;
As lately happen'd. In a town
There lived a cobbler, and but one,
Who out of doctrine could cut, use,
And mend men's lives as well as shoes.
This precious brother, having slain
In time of peace an Indian,
Not out of malice, but mere zeal
Because he was an infidel,
The mighty Tottipotimoy
Sent to our elders an envoy,
Complaining sorely of the breach
Of league held forth by brother Patch
Against the articles in force
Between both churches, his and ours ;
For which he craved the saints to render
Into his hands, or hang th' offender.
But they, maturely having weigh'd,
They had no more but him of the trade ;
A man that served them in a double
Capacity, to teach and cobble,
Resolved to spare him ; yet to do
The Indian Hogan Mogan, too,
Impartial justice, in his stead did
Hang an old weaver that was bedrid.
Then wherefore may not you be skipp'd,
And in your room another whipp'd 1"
The story is here most ridiculously caricatured as a slur upon
the churches of New-England. I do not find that the people of
Weston's plantation had any church at all ; they were a set of
needy adventurers, intent only on gaining a subsistence. Mr.
Neal says that " he obtained a patent under pretence of propaga-
126 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
had turned savage ; that their people had
mostly forsaken the town, and made their
rendezvous where they got their victuals, be-
cause they would not take pains to bring it
home ; that they had sold their clothes for
corn, and were ready to perish with hunger
and cold, and that they were dispersed into
three companies, having scarcely any powder
and shot. As this relation was grievous to
us, so it gave us good encouragement to pro-
ceed ; and the wind coming fair the next day,
March 25, Captain Standish being now fit-
ted, set forth for Massachusetts.
" The captain being come to Massachusetts,*
went first to the ship, but found neither man
nor dog therein. On the discharge of a mus-
ket the master and some others showed them-
selves, who were on shore gathering ground-
nuts and other food. After salutation, Cap-
tain Standish asked them how they dared so
leave the ship, and live in such security. They
answered, like men senseless of their own
misery, that they feared not the Indians, but
lived and suffered them to lodge with them,
not having sword nor gun, or needing the
ting the discipline of the Church of England in America." Hist.
N. E., ch. iii., p. 102.
* [I. e., Weymouth. H..]
S T A N D I S H. 127
same. To which the captain replied, that if
there were no cause, he was glad. But, upon
farther inquiry, understanding that those in
whom John Sanders had reposed most confi-
dence were at the plantation, thither he went,
and made known the Indians' purpose and
the end of his own coming, and told them
that, if they durst not stay there, it was the
intention of the governor and people of Ply-
mouth to receive them till they could be bet-
ter provided for. These men answered that
they could expect no better, and it was of
God's mercy that they were not killed before
his coming, desiring that he would neglect
no opportunity to proceed ; hereupon he ad-
vised them to secrecy, and to order one third
of their company that were farthest off to
come home, and on pain of death to keep
there, himself allowing them a pint of Indian
corn to a man for a day, though that was
spared out of our seed. The weather proving
very wet and stormy, it was the longer before
he could do anything.
" In the mean time an Indian came to him
and brought some furs, but rather to get what
he could from the captain than to trade ; and
though the captain carried things as smoothly
as he could, yet at his return the Indian re-
128 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY
ported that he saw by his eyes that he was
angry in his heart, and therefore began to
suspect themselves discovered. This caused
one Pecksuot, who was a Pinese* [chief], be-
ing a man of a notable spirit, to come to Hob-
bamock [Standish's Indian guide and inter-
preter], and tell him that he understood the
captain was come to kill himself and the rest
of the savages there : * Tell him,' said he,
' we know it, but fear him not, neither will
we shun him ; but let him begin when he
dare, he shall not take us * at unawares.'
Many times after, divers of them, severally or
a few together, came to the plantation, where
they would whet and sharpen the point of
their knives before his face, and use many
other insulting gestures and speeches. Among
the rest, Wittuwamat bragged of the excel-
lency of his knife, on the handle of which was
pictured a woman's face. ' But,' said he,
' I have another at home, wherewith I have
killed both French and English, and that hath
a man's face on it, and by-and-by these two
must be married.' Farther he said of that
knife which he there had, Hinnaim namen,
hinnaim michen, matta cuts ; that is to say, by-
and-by it should see, by-and-by it should eat,
* [Winslow spells this word Paniese. H.]
STANDISH. 129
but not speak. Also Pecksuot, being a man
of greater stature than the captain, told him,
' though you are a great captain, yet you are
but a little man ; though I be no sachem, yet
I am a man of great strength and courage.'
These things the captain observed, but for
the present bore them with patience.
11 On the next day, seeing he could not get
many of them together at once, but Pecksuot
and Wittuwamat being together, with an-
other man and the brother of Wittuwamat, a
youth of eighteen, putting many tricks on the
weaker sort of men, and having about as
many of his own men in the same room, the
captain gave the word to his men ; and the
door being fast shut, he begun himself with
Pecksuot, and, snatching the knife from his
neck, after much struggling killed him there-
with ; the rest killed Wittuwamat and the
other man ; the youth they took and hanged.
It is incredible how many wounds these men
received before they died, not making any
fearful noise, but catching at their weapons
and striving to the last. Hobbamock stood
by as a spectator, observing how our men de-
meaned themselves in the action, which be-
ing ended, he, smiling, brake forth and said,
* Yesterday Pecksuot bragged of his own
130 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
strength and stature, and told you that, though
you were a great captain, yet you were but
a little man ; but to-day I see you are big
enough to lay him on the ground.'
" There being some women at the same
time there, Captain Standish left them in the
custody of Weston's people at the town, and
sent word to another company to kill those
Indian men that were among them. These
killed two more : himself, with some of his
own men, went to another place and killed
another ; but, through the negligence of one
man, an Indian escaped, who discovered and
crossed their proceedings.
" Captain Standish took one half of his
men, with one or two of Weston's and Hob-
bamock, still seeking them. At length they
espied a file of Indians making towards
them ; and, there being a small advantage in
the ground by reason of a hill, both compa-
nies strove for it. Captain Standish got it ;
whereupon the Indians letreated, and took
each man his tree, letting fly their arrows
amain, especially at himself and Hobbamock.
Whereupon Hobbamock cast off his coat, and
chased them so fast that our people were not
able to hold way with him. They could
have but one certain mark, the arm and half
STAND I SH. 131
the face of a notable villain, as he drew [his
bow] at Captain Standish, who, with another,
both discharged at him and brake his arm.
Whereupon they fled into a swamp : when
they were in the thicket they parlied, but got
nothing but foul language. So our captain
dared the sachem to come out and fight like
a man, showing how base and woman-like he
was in tonguing it as he did ; but he refused
and fled. So the captain returned to the
plantation, where he released the women,
and took not their beaver coats from them,
nor suffered the least discourtesy to be offered
them.
"Now were Weston's people resolved to
leave the plantation, and go to Monhegan,
hoping to get passage and return [to Eng-
land] with the fishing ships. The captain
told them that, for his own part, he durst live
there with fewer men than they were ; yet,
since they were otherwise minded, according
to his orders from the governor and people
of Plymouth, he would help them with corn,
which he did, scarce leaving himself more
than brought them home. Some of them
disliked to go to Monhegan ; and, desiring to
go with him to Plymouth, he took them into
the shallop; and, seeing the others set sail,
III.-L
132 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
and clear of Massachusetts Bay, he took leave
and returned to Plymouth, bringing the head
of Wittuwamat, which was set up on the
fort.*
" This sudden and unexpected execution
hath so terrified and amazed the other peo-
ple who intended to join with the Massa-
cheuseucks against us, that they forsook their
houses, running to and fro like men distract-
ed, living in swamps and other desert pla-
ces, and so brought diseases upon themselves,
whereof many are dead ; as Canacum, sa-
chem of Manomet ; Aspinet, of Nauset ; and
lanough, of Matachiest. This sachem [la-
nough], in the midst of these distractions, said,
' the God of the English was offended with
them, and would destroy them in his anger.'
From one of these places, a boat was sent
with presents to the governor, hoping thereby
to work their peace ; but the boat was lost,
and three of the people drowned ; only one
* This may excite in some minds an objection to the human-
ity of our forefathers. The reason assigned for it was, that it
might prove a terror to others. In matters of war and public
justice, they observed the customs and laws of the English na-
ion. As late as the year 1747, the heads of the lords who
^rere concerned in the Scots rebellion were set up over Tem-
ple-Bar, the most frequented passage between London and
Westminster.
S T A N D I S H. 133
escaped, who returned ; so that none of them
durst come among us."
The Indian who had been confined at Ply-
mouth, on his examination, confessed the
plot, in which five persons were principally
concerned, of whom two were killed. He
protested his own innocence, and his life was
spared on condition that he would carry a
message to his sachem, Obtakiest, demanding
three of Weston's men whom he held in cus-
tody. A woman returned with his answer,
that the men were killed before the message
arrived, for which he was very sorry.
Thus ended Weston's plantation, within
one year after it began. He had been one of
the adventurers to Plymouth, but quitted
them and took a separate patent, and his
plantation was intended to rival that of Ply-
mouth.* He did not come in person to Amer-
* [Weston's patent covered a tract lying along the southern
shore of Massachusetts Bay. In the summer of 1622 he sent
over three ships, the Charity, the Sparrow, and the Swan, " on
his own particular interest," partly for fishing, and partly to make
a permanent settlement. The Sparrow was sold in Virginia ;
the Charity, returning from Virginia, landed the company at
Weymouth, and went on to England ; the Swan remained at
Weymouth. Prince, 202, 3, 5, 6. Mr. Weston was singular-
ly unfortunate in the choice of his men. He himself testifies
that " many of them are rude and profane fellows." They were
trangelv destitute of suitable control. Mr. Green, brother-in-law
134 AMERICAN BIOGKAPHY.
ica till after the dispersion of his people,
some of whom he found among the eastern
of Weston, who was the superintendent of the expedition, with
authority to enforce discipline, died before they reached Wey-
mouth. Sanders, who succeeded him, was necessarily much
absent. Whether Weston designed to found a planting, or a
fishing and trading settlement, we do not certainly know ; prob-
ably the latter, though the settlers were but scantily furnished
with the means of traffic with the natives. They seem to have
fished little, to have traded only enough to procure provisions to
sustain life, and to have planted none at all. They were waste-
ful of the little they had ; and, when that was gone, what they
could not beg, they stole, for the natives speedily put an end to
all attempts at borrowing. They were soon reduced to the ex-
tremest necessity, so that some " would cut wood for the In-
dians, or fetch them water, for a cap full of corn ;" and " when
night came, whereas possibly some of them had a snug blanket
or such like to lap themselves in, the Indians would take it, and
let the other lie in the cold." Morton, 78, 9, 84, 7, 8. They
were dependant on the colony at Plymouth for the care and
healing of their sick. The whole expedition seems to have been
unwisely planned or ill appointed. Weston himself laid the
blame of the miscarriage on his own absence, and declared to
Robert Gorges that " he left them sufficiently provided, and
conceived they would have been well governed." In his eager-
ness for gain, he probably overlooked or neglected the most im-
portant means of success. Indeed, he was not over- scrupulous
as to the means he used. He purchased a large quantity of
cannon, under a license from the council for New-England to
transport them to America, " pretending great fortification here,"
which he sold in England contrary to his agreement. Morton,
104, 105. This writer adds, " The said Mr. Thomas Weston
was a man of parts, and a merchant of good account in London.
Some time after these passages he went for London, and died in
the city of Bristol." H.]
STANDISH. 135
fishermen, and from them he first heard of
the ruin of his enterprise. In a storm, he
was cast away between the rivers of Piscata-
qua and Merrimac, and was robbed by the
natives of all which he had saved from the
wreck. Having borrowed a suit of clothes
from some of the people at Piscataqua, he
came to Plymouth, where, in consideration
of his necessity, the government lent him
two hundred weight of beaver, with which he
sailed to the eastward, with such of his own
people as were disposed to accompany him.
It is observed that he never repaid the debt
but with enmity and reproach.*
The next adventure in which we find
Captain Standish engaged was at Cape Ann,
where the fishermen of Plymouth had in 1624
erected a stage, and a company from the west
of England in the following year had taken
possession of it. Standish was ordered from
Plymouth with a party to retake it, but met
a refusal. The controversy grew warm, and
high words passed on both sides. But the
prudence of Roger Conant, agent for the
west countrymen, and of Mr. Pierce, master
of their ship, prevented matters from coming
to extremity. The ship's crew lent their aa-
* Prince, p. 135.
136 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
sistance in building another stage, which the
Plymouth fishermen accepted in lien of the
former, and thus peace and harmony were
restored.* Mr. Hubbard, who has preserv-
ed the memory of this affair, reflects on Cap-
tain Standish in the following manner : " He
had been bred a soldier in the Low Countries,
and never entered into the school of Christ
or of John the Baptist ; or, if ever he was
there, he had forgot his first lessons, to offer
violence to no man, and to part with the cloak
rather than needlessly contend for the coat,
though taken away without order. A little
chimney is soon fired ; so was the Plymouth
captain, a man of very small stature, yet of a
very hot and angry temper. The fire of his
* [The "company from the west of England" was the one
formed by the influence of the famous Rev. Mr. White, of Dor-
chester, the firm and judicious friend of colonization in New-
England. Oldham, who had been banished from Plymouth, was
invited to manage the trade with the Indians : Mr. Lyford was
appointed their minister ; and Roger Conant, " a pious, sober,
and prudent gentleman," to superintend the fishing and planting.
" The master of their ship" was " one Mr. Hewes," who, in-
stead of acting the peacemaker, "barricadoed his company with
hogsheads," and prepared for a stout defence. Hubbard's New-
England, iii. Mr. William Pierce, by whose good offices the
quarrel was settled, and " who lay just by with his ship," was
now from Plymouth, to which place he had brought Edward
Winslow from England. Prince, 232. This company in 1627
removed to Salem. Felt's Annals of Salem, 1, 2. H.]
S T A N 1) I S U. 137
passion, soon kindled, and blown up into a
flame by hot words, might easily have con-
sumed all had it not been seasonably quench-
ed."*
When the news of the transactions at Wes-
sagusset, where Standish had killed the In-
dians, was carried to Europe, Mr. Robinson
from Leyden wrote to the Church of Ply-
mouth, " to consider the disposition of their
captain, who was of a warm temper.f He
hoped the Lord had sent him among them
for good, if they used him right ; but he
doubted whether there was not wanting that
tenderness of the life of man, made after
God's image, which was meet ; and he
thought it would have been happy if they
had converted some before they had killed
any."
The best apology for Captain Standish is,
that, as a soldier, he had been accustomed to
discipline and obedience ; that he considered
himself as the military servant of the colony,
and received his orders from the governor
and people. Sedentary persons are not al-
ways the best judges of a soldier's merit or
feelings. Men of his own profession will ad
* Hubbard's MS., p. 84.
f Hutchinson, ii., 461.
138 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
mire the courage of Standish, his prompti
tude and decision in the execution of his or-
ders. No one has ever charged him either
with failure in point of obedience or of wan-
tonly exceeding the limits of his commission.
If the arm of flesh were necessary to estab-
lish the rights, and defend the lives and prop-
erty of colonists in a new country, surround-
ed with enemies and false friends, certainly
such a man as Standish, with all his imperfec-
tions, will hold a high rank among the wor-
thies of New-England. Mr. Prince does not
scruple to reckon him among those heroes of
antiquity "who chose to suffer affliction with
the people of God ; who through faith sub-
dued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, ob-
tained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
waxed valiant in fight, and turned to flight
the armies of the aliens ;"* and even Mr.
Hubbard, in another part of his history, says
that Captain Standish " was a gentleman very
expert in military service, by whom the peo-
ple were all willing to be ordered in those
concerns. He was likewise improved [em-
ployed] to good acceptance and success in
affairs of the greatest moment in that colony,
to whose interest he continued firm and stead-
* Preface to Mason's History of Pequod War.
STANDISH. ' 139
fast to the last, and always managed his trust
with great integrity and faithfulness."*
Two ships which had come with supplies
to the colony, the same year (1625) returned,
in the autumn, with cargoes of fish and furs.f
In one of these Standish embarked as agent
for the colony,:}: and arrived safely in Eng-
land ; the other was captured by a Turkish
ship of war, and the loss of her valuable car-
go was a severe blow to the colony. He ar-
rived in a very unfortunate time ; the plague
raging in London, carried off more than forty
thousand people in the space of one year.
Commerce was stagnated, the merchants and
members of the Council of New-England
were dispersed, and no meeting could be
holden. All which Captain Standish could
do was by private conference to prepare
* Hubbard's MS., p. 50.
t [One of them, which was ordered to Bilboa, had on board
.1800 worth of fish. H.]
$ ["Both to the remaining adventurers for more goods, and
to the New-England Council, to oblige the others to come to a
composition." Prince, 234. The colonists had formed a higher
estimation of his capacity for war than for business. Governor
Bradford wrote to Mr. Cushman, June 9, 1625, "I pray you, be
as hfilpful to him as you can, especially in making our provis-
ions, for therein he hath the least skill." Bradford's Letter-
Book, in Mass. Hist. Coll., iii., 36. See p. 36 for his commis-
sion. H.]
140 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
the way for a composition with the company
of adventurers, and by the help of a few
friends, with great trouble and danger, to
procure a small quantity of goods for the col-
ony, amounting to 150, which he took up at
the exorbitant interest of 50 per cent. With
this insufficient but welcome supply, he re-
turned to Plymouth in the spring [April] of
1626, bringing the sorrowful news of the
death of Mr. Robinson and Mr. Cushman.
Several attempts were, about this time,
made to form plantations within the Bay of
Massachusetts, at Cape Ann, and Piscata-
qua.*t Among these adventurers was one
* Morton's Memorial, 68.
t [The attempted settlements in Massachusetts Bay and at
Cape Ann have been referred to. The first settlement on the
Piscataqua was made under a patent granted in 1621 to Captain
John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, of a tract lying between
the Merrimac and Sagadahock, and called by them Laconia.
They entered into partnership with sundry merchants of Lon-
don and elsewhere, under the title of " the Company of Laco-
nia," and in the spring of 1623 sent over David Thompson,
and William and Edward Hilton, and others, provided with ne-
cessaries for a colony and a fishery. The settlers were divided
into two companies, one of which was stationed at the mouth
of the river, and the other on its banks about eight miles above,
at a place since called Dover. The enterprise was successful,
and the plantation proved permanent, though its increase was
not so rapid as that of Plymouth. Belknap's History of New-
Hampshire, 6, 7. H.]
STAN DISH. 141
Captain Wollaston,* " a man of considerable
parts, and with him three or four more of
some eminence, who brought over many ser-
vants and much provisions." He pitched on
the southern side of the bay, at the head of
the creek, and called an adjoining hill Mount
"Wollaston [Quincy]. One of his company
was Thomas Morton, " a pettifogger of Fur-
nival's Inn," who had some property of his
own, or of other men committed to him.
After a short trial, Wollaston, not finding his
expectations realized, went to Virginia, with
a great part of the servants ; and, being bet-
ter pleased with that country, sent for the
rest to come to him. Morton thought this a
proper opportunity to make himself head of
the company ; and, in a drunken frolic, per-
suaded them to depose Filcher, the lieuten-
ant, and set up for liberty and equality.
Under this influence they soon became li-
centious and debauched, t They sold their
goods to the natives for furs, taught them the
* [Wollaston came to America, with about thirty persons, in
1625, and finally left Quincy in 1626. H.]
t [" Quaffing," says Morton (137), " and drinking both wine
and strong liquors in great excess ; as some have reported, ten
pounds' worth in a morning ; setting up a Maypole, drinking
and dancing about it, and frisking about it as so many fairies, or
furies rather. H.]
142 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
use of arms, and employed them in hunting.
They invited and received fugitives from all
the neighbouring settlements, and thus en-
dangered their safety, and obliged them to
unite their strength in opposition to them.
Captain Endicott. from Naumkeag,* made
them a visit, and gave them a small check
by cutting down a Maypole which they had
erected as a central point of dissipation and
extravagance ; but it was reserved for Cap-
tain Standish to break up their infamous
combination. After repeated friendly admo-
nitions, which were disregarded, at the re-
quest and joint expensef of the scattered
planters, and by order of the government of
* [Salem. Endecott was afterward for many years governor
of Massachusetts. H.]
t From the bill of expense sent to the Council of New-
England, may be seen the number and ability of the plantations
in 1628.
Plymouth contributed . . . . 2 : 10
Naumkeag [Salem] . . . . 1:10
Pascataquack [Mason's company] . 2 : 10
Mr. Jeffery and Mr. Burslem . . 2
Nantascot 1 : 10
Mr. Thomson [Squantum Neck] ... 15
Mr. Blackston [Boston] .... 12
Mr. Edward Hilton [Dover] . . . 1
12 : 7
See Gov. Bradford's Letter-Book in Coll. Hist. Soc., iii., 63.
S T A N D I S H. 143
Plymouth, he went to Mount Wollaston, and
summoned Morton to surrender. Morton
prepared for his defence, armed his adherents,
heated them with liquor, and answered Stan-
dish with abusive language. But when he
stepped out of his door to take aim at his an-
tagonist, the captain seized his musket with
one hand and his collar with the other, and -
made him prisoner. The others quietly sub-
mitted. No blood was shed, nor a gun fired.
They were all conducted to Plymouth, and
thence sent to England, where Morton was
treated with less severity than he deserved,
and was permitted to return and disturb the
settlements till the establishment of the Mas-
sachusetts Colony, when he retired to Piscat-
aqua, and there ended his days.*
* [No better account of this transaction and of the history of
Morton can be easily given than that in Judge Davis's learned
note to Morton's Memorial, p. 141. We give the substance of it.
From the order of occurrences in this narrative, it would be in-
ferred that the Maypole was cut down by Mr. Endecott before
Morton was arrested by Captain Standish ; but letters from Ply-
mouth to the Council for New-England, and to Sir Ferdinando
Gorges, written to be sent to England with the prisoner, bear
date June 9th, 1628, which was more than two months before
Mr. Endicott's arrival at Salem. See Gov. Bradford's Letter-
Book, Mass. Hist. Coll., Hi., 62, 63. Morton was arrested in
the spring or early in the summer of 1628, and sent to England
a prisoner soon afterward, by a ship going from the I;le of
Shoals. Mr. Oldham had so acquired the confidence of the Ply-
144 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
After this encounter, which happened in
1628, we have no particular account of Cap-
mouth people since their reconciliation, that the prisoner was
delivered to his charge. Mr. Endecott arrived in August, and
very soon made his visit to the unruly people at Mount Wollas-
ton. In August, 1629, Morton returned, being employed by
Mr. Allerton as his scribe, which gave great offence. Mr. Al-
lerton was required to dismiss him. " Upon which," says Gov-
ernor Bradford, "he goes to his old nest at Merry Mount." In
September, 1631, Governor Winthrop having arrived, Morton
was adjudged to be " imprisoned till he were sent into England,
and his house burned down for his many injuries offered to the
Indians, and other misdemeanours." Winthr. Jour., 20. He
was sent to England soon afterward in the ship Whale. [In 1632
he published a "scurrilous book," entitled " New English Ca-
naan, or new Canaan, containing an Abstract of New-England,
composed in three bookes." In the titlepage, he styles himself
"of Clifford's Inn, Gent.," and says it was written " upon ten
yeares knowledge and experiment of the country." This work
has been very rare, but has been republished in Force's Histor-
ical Tracts, vol. ii.] That part of the book which relates to the
Plymouth planters is full of invective and misrepresentation,
calculated to gain a degree of indulgence, however, with some
readers, from the air of pleasantry he adopts. He abounds in the
vulgar wit of nicknames : Standish he calls Captain Shrimp ;
Endecott is styled Captain Littleworth ; Mr. Fuller is Dr. Nod-
dy. His letter to his friend Jeffries in 1634, published in Haz-
ard's Historical Collections, and in Hutchinson's History, i., 35,
shows the taste and temper of the man, and his inveterate re-
sentment against the New-England plantations and their lead-
ers. The name of the ship [the Whale'] in which he was con-
veyed from Boston to England exercises his punning genius.
To this he alludes in his letter to Jeffries : "Now, Jonas being
set ashore, may safely cry, Repent, ye cruel shipmates, there are
but 110 days." The party which arrested him he calls the Nine
STANDISH. 145
tain Standish. He is not mentioned in the
account of the Pequot war in 1637. He
was chosen one of the magistrates or assist-
ants of Plymouth Colony as long as he lived.
As he advanced in years, he was much af-
flicted with the stone and the strangury : he
died in 1656, being then very old, at Dux-
bury, near Plymouth, where he had a tract of
land, which to this day is known by the name
of Captain's Hill.*
Worthies of New Canaan, and affects to represent the name
Merry Mount as a blundering acceptation of Mare Mount.
His last return to New-England was in 1643. Hutchinson
says that he was called to account for the letter to Jeffries, as
well as for his book [having been kept in prison about a year.
Winthrop's Journal, ii., 192] ; that he was fined 100, which
he was unable to pay, and that nothing but his old age [Win-
throp says, " being old and crazy"] saved him from the whip-
ping-post. [Winthrop, 1. c., adds, that, having been set at liber-
ty, he " went to Acomenticus (York), and, living there poor and
despised, he died within two years after."] H.]
* [Judge Davis, to whose researches we are already so
largely indebted, has collected probably all that can be ascer-
tained of this " primitive hero." We copy the greater part of
his note on Morton's Memorial, p. 262.
" Captain Standish was one of the first settlers of Duxbury,
but resided occasionally at Plymouth, especially in the winter
months. Dr. Belknap observes that we have no particular ac-
count of him after his seizure of Morton at Merry Mount in
1628, and that he is not mentioned in the account of the Pequod
war in 1637. Had the Plymouth troops, which were in prepar-
ation at that crisis, been employed, there is no doubt Stan-
dish would have been at their head; but, as ia related [Morton],
146 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
He had one son, Alexander, who died in
Duxbury. The late Dr. Wheelock, founder
p. 188, their march was countermanded. In 1645, when war-
like movements were commenced against the Narragansets,
Standish commanded the Plymouth troops. [Ib., p. 203, note.]
In 1653, when hostilities with the Dutch at Manhattan were
apprehended, a council of war was appointed in Plymouth Colo-
ny, of which Standish was one. Warrants were issued for the
impressment of sixty men, and Standish was appointed to com-
mand them. It thus appears that he continued active in milita-
ry employments, on every necessary occasion, until within three
years of his death. He was uniformly one of the board of As-
sistants.
"After the death of his wife [Rose, January 29. Prince, 184],
1621, he soon married again. In the assignment of lands in
1623, the name of Mrs. Standish is on the list. We know not
the previous name of the lady, but it appears she came in the
ship Ann. In 1625, when the cattle were divided, he stands at
the head of the third lot, with his wife Barbara. [Morton's Me-
morial, 382.] Charles, Alexander, and John, his children, are as-
sociated with him in that assignment. Alexander married Sa-
rah Alden, daughter of John Alden.
"The Rev. Timothy Alden, Jun., in his Collection of Epi-
taphs (vol. iii., 265), gives an amusing traditionary anecdote rel-
ative to the connubial pursuits of Captain Standish and his friend
John Alden. The lady who had gained the captain's affections is
said to have been Priscilla Mullins, daughter of William Mul-
lins. John Alden was sent to make proposals in behalf of Stan-
dish. The messenger, though a Pilgrim, was then young and
comely, and the lady, with perfect naivete, expressed her pref-
erence by the question, Prithee, John, why do you not speak for
yourself 1 The captain's hopes were blasted, and the frank over-
turn soon ended in the marriage of John Alden and Priscilla
Mullins, from whom, we are informed, are descended ' all of the
name Alden in the United States.' The captain, it is added,
S T A N D I S H. 147
of Dartmouth College, and Mr. Kirkland,
missionary to the Indians, were descended
from him. One of his grandsons was in pos-
session of his coat of mail, which is now
supposed to be lost ; but his sword is preserv-
ed in the cabinet of the Historical Society,
of which one of his descendants, John Thorn-
ton Kirkland, is a member. His name is still
venerated, and the merchants of Plymouth
and Boston have named their ships after him.
His posterity chiefly reside in several towns
of the county of Plymouth.
never forgave his friend till the day of his death. As he was
so soon afterward united to another lady of his choice, we may
hope that the traditionary account of his inveterate resentment
has been exaggerated.
" This anecdote has often been repeated in the old colony in
fireside chat about the Pilgrims, but with circumstances which
would refer the incident to a later period." H.1
III. M
148 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
XXIV. JOHN WINTHROP,
FIRST GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS.,
THIS worthy gentleman was descended
from a family remarkable for its attachment
to the reformed religion from the earliest pe-
riod of the Reformation. His grandfather,
Adam Winthrop, was an eminent lawyer and
lover of the Gospel in the reign of Henry
VIII., and brother to a memorable friend of
the Reformation in the reign of Mary I., in
whose hands the martyr Philpot left his pa-
pers, which make a considerable part of the
History of the Martyrs. His father, Adam
Winthrop, was a gentleman of the same pro-
fession and character. Governor Winthrop
was born at the family-seat at Groton, in Suf-
folk, June 12, 1587,* and was bred to the
law, though he had a very strong inclination
to theological studies. At the age of eigh-
teen he was made a justice of the peace, and
his virtues became conspicuous. He was ex-
* [This date is given by Mather and others. There was,
perhaps, some clerical error. See Savage's note to Winthrop's
Journal, i., 63, and ii., 338, from which it appears that he wa
born January 12th, 1588. H.]
W I N T H R O P. 149
emplary in his profession as an upright and
impartial magistrate, and in his private char-
acter as a Christian. He had wisdom to dis-
cern, and fortitude to do right in the execu-
tion of his office ; and as a gentleman, was
remarkable for liberality and hospitality.
These qualities rendered him dear to men of
sobriety and religion, and fitted him to en-
gage in the great and difficult work of found-
ing a colony.
When the design of settling a colony in
New-England was by some eminent persons
undertaken, this gentleman was, by the con-
sent of all, chosen for their leader. Having
converted a fine estate of six or seven hun-
dred pounds sterling per annum into money,
he embarked for New-England in the forty-
third year of .his age,* and arrived at Salem
with the Massachusetts charter, June 12,
1630.1 Within five days, he, with some of
* [See the preceding note. H.]
t [The Council for New-England, March 19th, 1628, granted
to Sir Henry Roswell, Sir John Young, Thomas Southcoat,
John Humfry, John Endecott, and Simon Whetcomb, and theix
heirs and associates, a portion of the territory of New-England,
extending three miles north of the Merrimac River, and three
miles south of the Charles, and within these limits from the At-
lantic to the South Sea ; reserving to the crown a fifth part of all
the gold and silver ore discovered in it. The three first-named
patentees soon sold out their interest in the company to several
150 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY
the principal persons of the colony, travelled
through the woods* twenty miles, to look out
" religious persons in and about London," who were anxious to
secure a place of retreat for oppressed Nonconformists. On
the 20th of June the same year this company sent out Captain
John Endecott, with suitable companions and provisions for
commencing a settlement at Naumkeag, now Salem. The pat-
ent from the New-England Council was confirmed by charter
from King Charles I., March 4th, 1629. Matthew Cradock, the
governor, proposed, July 28th, to transfer the government to
those who should go to reside in Massachusetts. The proposal
was committed, discussed, and, August 29th, " the generality of
the company vote that the patent and government of the planta-
tion be removed to New-England." October 20th, at a meet-
ing of the company for the election of a new governor, &c., " the
court having received extraordinary great commendation of Mr.
John Winthrop, both for his integrity and sufficiency, as being
one very well fitted for the place, with a full consent, choose
him governor for the year ensuing." Preparations were made
for the removal of a large number of colonists, and in the spring
eleven ships were ready with about fifteen hundred passengers.
The fleet sailed early in April ; and the Arbella, in which was
Governor Winthrop, arrived off Cape Ann, Friday, June llth,
and the next day entered the harbour of Salem. The begin-
nings of Massachusetts were small and feeble. Though the
colony was numerically respectable, a slight share of this world's
goods fell to the share of the most of them. They were con-
tent to suffer privations, if they might enjoy present security
and a fair hope for the future. They dwelt in tents and booths,
and their place of worship was the shade of a large tree in the
open air. H.]
* [It may be thought needless accuracy to suggest that prob-
ably they went by water, and not " through the woods." At all
events, they returned "by way of Nantaskot." Journal, i., 28.
The position of Charlestown was already well known. A few
WINTHROP. 151
a convenient situation for a town in some part
of the Bay of Massachusetts. Some of them
built their huts on the north side of Charles
River [Charlestown] ; but the governor and
most of the assistants pitched upon the Pen-
insula of Shawmut,* and lived there the first
winter, intending in the spring to build a for-
tified town, but undetermined as to its situa-
tion. On the sixth of December they resolv-
ed to fortify the isthmus of that peninsula ;
but, changing their minds before the month
expired, they agreed upon a place about three
miles above Charlestown. which they called
first Newtown, and afterward Cambridge,
where they engaged to build houses the en-
suing spring. The rest of the winter they
suffered much by the severity of the season,
and were obliged to live upon acorns, ground-
nuts, and shellfish.f One of the poorer sort
days after, July 2d, the governor suffered a severe affliction in
the loss of his second son Henry, " a sprightly and hopeful young
gentleman," who was accidentally drowned the day after his
landing. H.]
* [The Indian name of Boston. It was called at first by the
English Trimountain (whence Tremont), " on account of three
contiguous hills appearing in a range, to those at Charlestown."
The name Boston was given it out of regard to the famous Mr.
Cotton, who bad long lived at a place of the same name in England.
The governor removed to this place about November. H.J
t [" Bread with many," eay Captain Cl*p, " was a very
152 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
coming to the governor to complain, was told
that the last batch was in the oven ; but of
this he had his share. They had appointed
the 22d of February* for a fast ; but, before
it came, a ship arrived with provisions, and
they turned it into a day of thanksgiving.
In the spring of 1631, in pursuance of the
intended plan, the governor set up the frame
of a house at Newtown ; the deputy-govern-
orf also built one, and removed his family.
scarce thing, and flesh of all kinds as scarce ; and oh the hun-
ger that many suffered, and saw no hope in the eye of reason
to be supplied but with fish, clams, and muscles. But God
caused his people to be content with mean things, and to trust
in him. Wheat meal was worth now fourteen shillings sterling
a bushel, and pease eleven shillings, ' and not easy to be pro-
cured neither.' " H.]
* [The fast was appointed for the sixth of February. The
people were alarmed for the safety of a ship which had been sent
to Ireland for provisions, and which returned February 5th. The
thanksgiving was the 22d. Prince, 341, 342. H.]
t [The deputy-governor was Thomas Dudley, who had been
chosen to that place by the company in England, March 23d,
1630, and came with Winthrop in the summer. He was bom
at Northampton in the year 1576. He studied law for some
time, was made captain of a company of volunteers for the
French service under Henry IV., and was present at the siege
of Amiens. On the restoration of peace he returned to Eng-
land, and went inco the household of the Earl of Lincoln as
steward, in which office he gained a good reputation for pru-
dence and exact fidelity. Already a Puritan, he was easily in-
duced to join the emigrants to Massachusetts, to whom he was
a valuable acquisition, from his tried integrity and his great ex-
W I N T H R O P. 153
About this time Chicketawbu,* the chief of
the Indians in that neighbourhood, made a
perience. He was continued deputy-governor, by successive
elections, till 1634, when he was chosen governor. He was
then chosen one of the assistants till 1640, when he was made
governor, and again in 1645 and in 1650. He died at Rox-
bury, Julj 31, 1653. The celebrated Joseph Dudley, president,
and governor of Massachusetts 1703-1715, was his son by a
second marriage. The elder Dudley came to New-England
when past the prime of life, and was of a melancholic tempera-
ment, and apt to resent supposed neglect. He gave some trou-
ble by his jealousy, his irritable temper, and his disposition to
avarice. Governor Belcher made this epitaph on him :
" Here lies Thomas Dudley, that trusty old stud :
A bargain's a bargain, and must be made good."
He was strongly inclined to fanaticism, and rigidly intolerant.
A copy of verses, found in his pocket after his decease, has these
lines :
" Let Men of God in Courts and Churches watch
On such as do a TOLERATION HATCH." H.]
* [The first interview of the governor with Chickatabot, as the
name is spelled by Winthrop, is worth transcribing. " Chick-
atabot came (March 23d, 1630) with his sannups (chiefs) and
squaws, and presented the governor with a hogshead of Indian
corn. After they had all dined, and had each a small cup of sack
and beer, and the men tobacco, he sent away all his men and
women (though the governor would have stayed them in regard
of the rain and thunder). Himself and one squaw and one san-
nup stayed all night ; and being in English clothes, the gov-
ernor set him at his own table, where he behaved himself as
soberly, &c., as an Englishman. The next day after dinner
he returned home, the governor giving him cheese, and pease,
and a mug, and other small things." Journal, i., 48. For sev-
eral years after their arrival, the colonists lived in continual feat
of the Indians, yet they suffered very little. H.]
154 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
visit to the governor, with high professions of
friendship. The apprehension of danger from
the Indians abated, and the scheme of a for-
tified town was gradually laid aside ; though,
if it had been retained, the peninsula would
have been a situation far preferable to New-
town. The governor took down his frame
and removed it to Shawmut,* which was
finally determined upon for the metropolis,
and named Boston.!
The three following years he was contin-
ued, by annual election, at the head of the
government, for which office he was eminent-
ly qualified, and in which he shone with a
lustre which would have done him honour iri
a larger sphere and a more elevated situation
* [About the last of October, 1631. Dudley seems to have
remained at Cambridge some years. Prince, 363, 364. H.]
t [Already several points on the coast were occupied when
Winthrop and his company arrived. A colony had been settled
at Plymouth ten years before, and was now well established and
flourishing. , Endecott and his company were going on pros-
perously at Salem ; the Spragues had made some progress at
Charlestown ; Weston had begun and abandoned a settlement
at Wessagusset (now Weymouth) ; Morton had established a
rude and riotous colony at Mount Wollaston (now Quincy) ;
Cape Ann and Nantasket had been built upon ; Blackston was
the solitary occupant of the Peninsula of Shawmut. Besides
these, and a few families dotting the shore at great intervals, at
points favourable for fishing, the whole region was in possession
of its original inhabitants. H.]
WINTHROP. 155
He was the father, as well as governor, of an
infant plantation. His time, his study, his
exertions, his influence, and his interest were
all employed in the public service. His wis-
dom, patience, and magnanimity were con-
spicuous in the most severe trials, and his
exemplary behaviour as a Christian added a
splendour to all his rare qualifications.* He
* [The religious character of Governor Winthrop was marked
with great deliberateness and calmness, and with a degree of
liberality which was uncommon in his day. He was temperate,
but firm, in his views of truth and duty, rarely led into heat or
extravagance, yet fervent in his devotion, and often denying
himself for the cause of religion. He was a strenuous believer,
as were most men in his day, in special interpositions of Provi-
dence. This belief is apt to degenerate into superstition, and in
him sometimes takes a shape that is almost ludicrous. Thus
he records in his Journal, " About this time (1640) there fell out
a thing worthy of observation. Mr. Winthrop the younger, hav-
ing many books in a chamber where there was corn of divers
sorts, had among them one wherein the Greek, the Psalms, and
the Common Prayer were bound together. He found the Com-
mon Prayer eaten with mice every leaf of it, and not any of the
two other touched, nor any other of his books, though there were
above a thousand."
The company who emigrated with Winthrop were not among
the most rigid opposers of the Established Church, nor, though
dissatisfied, were they separated from it. The chief of them
were too considerate to have been led into the extravagances
which marked the later career of their associates left in England.
In an address to their fellow-Christians in that country, dated on
board the Arbella, at Yarmouth, April 7th, 1630, they say,
" Wee are not of those that dreame of perfection in this world ;
156 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
maintained the dignity of a governor with the
obliging condescension of a gentleman, and
was so deservedly respected and beloved, that
when Archbishop Laud, hearkening to some
calumnies raised against the country on ac-
count of their Puritan principles, summoned
one Mr. Cleaves before King Charles I., in
hopes of getting some accusation against the
governor, he gave such an account of his
laudable deportment in his station, and, with-
al, of the devotion with which prayers were
yet wee desire you would take notice of the principals and body
of our company, as those who esteem it an honor to call the
Church of England, from whence we rise, our deare Mother ....
as members of the same body, (we) shall always rejoice in her
good, and unfainedly grieve for any sorrow that shall ever betide
her." This letter is signed by Winthropj Dudley, Phillips,'and
others.
Many of them probably looked with favour on the model of
Geneva. They found Endecott in full sympathy and communion
with the Separatists of Plymouth. And it was not difficult to
pass from a dislike of the rites to a throwing off the authority of
the Church of England. The form of church government and
discipline they adopted here was thus favoured by their prepos-
sessions, while it was in part, perhaps, forced upon them by
their peculiar circumstances. It was totally unlike that of Eng-
land, and, apart from a temporary and imperfect connexion with
the civil power, was a pure specimen of the independence of
congregations. Each church was held competent to settle its
own affairs ; and though for a while the General Court would
sometimes interfere, they held fast, practically, to the faith that
they had no master but Christ alone. H.]
W I N T H R O P. 157
made, both in private and public, for the king,
that Charles expressed his concern that so
worthy a person as Mr. Winthrop should be
no better accommodated than in an American
wilderness.*
He was an example to the people of that
frugality, decency, and temperance which
were necessary in their circumstances, and
even denied himself many of the elegances
* [As a specimen of the manner in which the chief magistrate
of Massachusetts was sometimes " accommodated," take the fol-
lowing, under date 1631, from his Journal, i., 62: "The gov-
ernor, being at his farmhouse at Mistick (Medford), walked out
after supper, and took a piece in his hand, supposing he might
see a wolf (for they came daily about the house, and killed swine,
calves, &c.) ; and, being about half a mile off, it grew suddenly
dark, so as, in coming home, he mistook his path, and went till ha
came to a little house of Sagamore John, which stood empty :
there he stayed, and, having a match in his pocket (for he al-
ways carried about his match and compass), he made a good
fire and warmed the house, and lay down upon some old mats
he found there, and so spent the night, sometimes walking by the
fire, sometimes singing Psalms, and sometimes getting wood,
but could not sleep. It was a warm night ; but a little before
day it began to rain, and, having no cloak, he made shift by a
long pole to climb up into the house. In the morning there
came thither an Indian squaw ; but, perceiving her before she
had opened the door, he barred her out ; yet she stayed there a
great while essaying to get in, and at last she went away, and
he returned safe home, his servant having been much perplexed
for him, and having walked about, and shot off pieces, and hal-
looed in the niaht but he heard them not." H.J
158 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
and superfluities of life, which his rank and
fortune gave him a just title to enjoy, both
that he might set them a proper example,*
and be the better enabled to exercise that lib-
erality in which he delighted, even, in the end,
to the actual impoverishment of himself and
his family. He would often send his servants
on some errand, at mealtimes, to the houses
of his neighbours, to see how they were pro-
vided with food ; and if there was a deficien-
cy, would supply them from his own table.
The following singular instance of his char-
ity, mixed with humour, will give us an idea
of the man. In a very severe winter, when
wood began to be scarce in Boston, he re-
ceived private information that a neighbour
was wont to help himself from the pile at his
door. " Does he ?" said the governor ; " call
him to me, and I will take a course with him
that shall cure him of stealing." The man
appeared, and the governor addressed him
* [A notable instance is found in the following record, Jour-
nal, i., 37 : "The governor, upon consideration of the inconve-
niences which had grown in England by drinking one to anoth-
er, restrained it at his own table, and wished others to do the
like, so as it grew, by little and little, to disuse." The govern-
or's example in this particular was made a law, by order of the
General Court, in 1639, for obvious reasons, which he recorded,
and perhaps suggested. See his Journal, i., 324. H.]
W I W T H R O P. 159
thus : u Friend, it is a cold winter, and I hear
you are meanly provided with wood ; you are
welcome to help yourself at my pile till the
winter is over ;" and then merrily asked his
friend whether he had not put a stop to the
man's stealing.
In the administration of justice, he was for
tempering the severity of law with the exer-
cise of mercy. He judged that in the infancy
of a plantation, justice should be administer-
ed with more lenity than in a settled state.*
But when other gentlemen of learning and
influence had taken offence at his lenity, and
adopted an opinion that a stricter discipline
was necessary, he submitted to their judg-
ment, and strictly adhered to the proposals
which were made to support the dignity of
government, by an appearance of union and
firmness, and a concealment of differences
and dissensions among the public officers.
* [He gave a plausible reason for it : " Because people were
then more apt to transgress, partly of ignorance of new laws,
and partly through oppression of business and other straits."
Being gently reproved by his brother magistrates for this prac-
tice and opinion, "the ministers were desired to set down a
rule in the case," and decided against him ; "Whereupon Mr.
Winthrop acknowledged that he had failed in over-much lenity
and remissness, and would endeavour (by God's assistance) to
be more strict hereafter." Journ., i., 178.* H.]
160 AMEKJCAN B OGRAPHY.
His delicacy wa& so great, that though he
could not, without incivility, decline accepting
gratuities from divers towns, as well as par-
ticular persons, for his public services, yet he
took occasion, in a public speech at his third
election, to declare that " he received them
with a trembling hand in regard of GOD'S
word and his own infirmity," and desired
them that for the future they would not be
offended if he should wholly refuse such
presents.*
In the year 1634 and the two years fol-
lowing he was left out of the magistracy.!
Though his conduct, from his first engaging
in the service of the colony, had been irre-
proachable, yet the envy of some raised a
suspicion of his fidelity, and gave him a small
taste of what, in other popular governments,
their greatest benefactors ha ye had a large
share of. An inquiry having been made of
his receipts and disbursemems of the public
money during his past admini stration, though
it was conducted in a manne r too harsh for
* [Yet "he never had any allowance tjwards the charge of
his place." Jouirnal, i., 77. This was in 1632. H.]
t [In 1634, Thomas Dudley was chosen governor (Journal,
i., 132) ; in 163.'), John Haynes (Ib., 158); ami in 1636, Henry
Vane Ib., 17 H.]
WINTHROP. 161
his delicate sensibility, yet he patiently sub-
mitted to the examination of his accounts,
which ended to his honour. Upon which oc-
casion he made a declaration, which he con-
cluded in these words : "In the things which
I offer, I refer myself to the wisdom and jus-
tice of the court, with this protestation, that
it repenteth me not of my cost and labour be-
stowed in the service of this commonwealth ;
but I do heartily bless the Lord our God, that
he hath been pleased to honour me so far as
to call for anything he hath bestowed upon
me, for the service of his Church and peo-
ple here ; the prosperity whereof, and his
gracious acceptance; shall be an abundant
recompense to me."*
The same rare humility and steady equal-
ity of mind were conspicuous in his beha-
viour when a pretence was raised to get him
left out of the government, lest, by the too
frequent choice of one man, the office should
cease to be elective, and seem to be his by
prescription. This pretence was advanced
* [In a spirit of innocence and in the pride of just self-res-
pect, he concludes with one request, that "as it stands upon rec-
ord that upon the discharge of my office I was called to account,
so this my declaration may he recorded also, lest hereafter, when
I shall be forgotten, some blemish may be upon my posterity
when there be none to clear it." H.]
162 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
even in the election sermons ;* and when he
* [It were curious to ascertain, if it were possible, how far
this jealousy influenced the elections. It was clearly not the
only reason why Winthrop was left out of the chief magistracy.
Dudley, from his age and public services, was well entitled to the
place. The wealth and high character of Haynes gave him am-
ple claim to the honour ; and the staid Puritanism and noble birth
of Vane may well account for his elevation. The " election
sermon" for 1634 was preached by Mr. Cotton, who, with evi-
dent allusion to the jealousy referred to, " delivered the doc-
trine that a magistrate ought not to be turned into the condition
of a private man without just cause, no more than the magistrate
may not turn a private man out of his freehold, &c., without like
public trial, &c." The first direct notice that Winthrop takes
of such a pretence is in 1639 (Journal, i., 299), when he says
an opposition to his re-election was made by some, " out of their
fear lest it might make way for having a governor for life, which
some had propounded as most agreeable to God's institution
and the practice of all well-ordered states." In 1640 this feel-
ing had gained strength, and " the elders" waited on Governor
Winthrop, and, with every expression of confidence and affec-
tion, frankly told him of their wish for a change, " lest the long
continuance of one man in the place should bring it to be for
life, and in time hereditary." Ib., ii., 1. Dudley was chosen
in his place ; and, to testify their undiminished esteem for him,
the court gave Winthrop 3000 acres of land, and the towns
raised 500 to relieve some embarassments of his private af-
fairs, which he had neglected for his public duties. The next
itep in sentiment on this subject was still more radical. ID
1641, Nathaniel Ward, formerly pastor of Ipswich, in his elec-
jion sermon, " advised the people to keep all their magistrates
n an equal rank, and not give more honour or power to one than
another. Which," adds Winthrop (ii., 36), "is easier to advise
than to prove." In 1643, Ezekiel Rogers, of Rowley, preached
the election sermon, and "dissuaded them earnestly from choos-
WINTHROP. 163
was in fact reduced to a lower station in the
government, he endeavoured to serve the
people as faithfully as in the highest ; nor
would he suffer any notice to be taken of
some undue methods which were used to
have him left out of the choice.* An in-
stance of this rare temper, and the happy fruit
of it, deserve remembrance. There was a
time when he received a very angry letter
from a Member of the Court,! which having
read, he delivered back to the messenger with
this answer : " I am not willing to keep by me
such a matter of provocation." Shortly af-
ter, the writer of this letter was compelled, by
the scarcity of provision, to send to buy one
of the governor's cattle ; he begged him to
ing the same man twice together." Ib., ii., 99. Yet, with all
tiitse expressions of popular feeling against him, Winthrop was
afterward regularly elected, except in 1644, when Endecott,
and in 1645, when Dudley was chosen ; and in these years he
was chosen deputy. H.]
* [The " undue methods" must refer to the election of Bel-
lingham in 1641. He had six more votes than the other can-
didates, " but some votes were refused by the magistrates be-
cause they had not given them in at the doors. But others,"
says Winthrop (ii., 35), referring probably to his own claims,
"thought it was an injury, yet were silent, because it con-
cerned themselves." H.]
t [The "Member of the Court" was the choleric deputy,
Thomas Dudley. Journal, i., 118. H.]
Ill N
164 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
accept it as a gift, in token of his good- will.
On which the gentleman came to him with
this acknowledgment: "Sir, your overcom-
ing yourself hath overcome me."
But, though condescending and gentle on
every occasion of personal ill treatment, yet,
where the honour of government or religion,
and the interest of the people, were concern-
ed, he was equally firm and intrepid, standing
foremost in opposition to those whom he judg-
ed to be really public enemies, though in the
disguise of warm and zealous friends. Of
this number was the famous ANNA HUTCHIN-
SON, a woman of masculine understanding
and consummate art, who held private lec-
tures to the women at her house, in which
she advanced these doctrines, viz. : " that the
Holy Ghost dwells personally in a justified
person, and that sanctification does not evi-
dence justification." Those who held with
her were said to be "under a covenant of
grace," and those who opposed her " under
a covenant of works." Into these two de-
nominations the whole colony began to be
divided. Her adherents prevailed in 1636 to
choose for governor HENRY VANE,* a young
* This person, so well known afterward in England, is thus
characterized by Lord Clarendon :
WINTHROP. 165
gentleman of an apparently grave and serious
deportment, who had just arrived from Eng-
land, and who paid great attention to this
woman, and seemed zealously attached to
her distinguishing tenets. Winthrop, then
deputy-governor, not only differed in senti-
ment, but saw the pernicious influence of this
controversy with regret, and feared that, if it
were suffered to prevail, it would endanger
the existence of the colony. In the heat of
the controversy, Whelewright, a zealous sec-
tarian, preached a sermon, which not only
carried these points to their utmost length, but
contained some expressions which the court
laid hold of as tending to sedition, for which
he was examined ; but a more full inquiry was
deferred for that time. Some warm brethren
" A man of great natural parts and of very profound dissim-
ulation, of a quick conception, and ready, sharp, and weighty
expression. He had an unusual aspect, a vultum clausum, that,
though no man could make a guess of what he intended, yet
made men think there was something in him extraordinary, and
his whole life made good that imagination. There need no
more be said of his ability than that he was chosen to cozen and
deceive a whole nation [the Scots] which was thought to excel
in craft and cunning, which he did with a notable pregnancy and
dexterity."*
* [For a full account of Vane, Wheelwright, and Mrs. Hutch-
inson, the reader may consult Sparks's American Biography,
vol. 73 of Harper's School District Library. H.]
166 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
of Boston petitioned the court in Whele-
wright's favour, reflecting on their proceed-
ings, which raised such a resentment in the
court against the town, that a motion was
made for the next election to be made at
Cambridge. Vane, the governor, having no
negative voice, could only show his dislike by
refusing to put the question. Winthrop, the
deputy-governor, declined it, as being an
inhabitant of Boston ; the question was then
put by Endicott of Salem,* and carried for
the removal.
* [John Endecott was at this time one of the assistants. So
remarkable a man, and so largely connected with the early his-
tory of Massachusetts, deserves a better memorial than the lim-
its of a note allow. He was born at Dorchester, England, in
1589, and was chosen by the Massachusetts Company to super-
intend their first plantation at Salem, where he arrived Septem-
ber 6, 1628. His commission was superseded by the arrival of
Winthrop, but he was continued in the magistracy. He was re-
peatedly chosen deputy-governor, and in 1645 major-general of
the colony. He was elected governor in 1644, again, on the
death of Winthrop in 1649, he was chosen to succeed him, and
re-elected in 1651, '2, '3. In 1655 he was chosen again, anf
by successive elections was continued in office till his death,
March 15, 1665. He resided chiefly at Salem.
Governor Endecott was undoubtedly the finest specimen to
be found among our governors of the genuine Puritan character.
He was of a quick temper, which the habit of military command
had not softened ; of strong religious feelings, moulded on the
sterner features of Calvinism ; resolute to uphold with the
sword what he had received as Gospel truth, and fearing no en-
W I N T H R O P. 167
At the opening of the election (May 17,
1637) a petition was again presented by many
inhabitants of Boston, which Vane would
have had read previous to the choice. Win-
throp, who clearly saw that this was a con-
trivance to throw all into confusion, and
spend the day in debate, that the election
might be prevented for that time, opposed
the reading of the petition until the election
should be over. Vane and his party were
strenuous, but Winthrop called to the people
to divide, and the majority appeared for the
election. Vane still refused, till Winthrop
said they would proceed without him, which
obliged him to submit. The election was
carried in favour of Winthrop and his friends.
The sergeants who had waited on Vane to the
place of election threw down their halberds,
and refused to attend the newly-elected gov-
emy so much as a gainsaying spirit. Cordially disliking the
English Church, he banished the Browns and the Prayer-book ;
and, averse to all ceremonies and symbols, the cross in the king's
colours was an abomination he could not away with. He cut
down the Maypole at Merry Mount, published his detestation of
long hair in a formal proclamation, and set in the pillory and on
the gallows the returning Quakers. Inferior to Winthrop in
learning, in comprehensiveness to Vane, in tolerance even to
Dudley, he excelled them all in the eye keen to discern the fit
moment for action, in the quick resolve to profit by it, and in the
band always ready to strike. H.J
168 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
ernor : he took no other notice of the affront
than to order his own servants to bear them
before him ; and when the people expressed
their resentment, he begged them to overlook
the matter.
The town of Boston being generally in
favour of the new opinions, the governor
grew unpopular there, and a law which was
passed in this year of his restoration to office
increased their dislike. Many persons who
were supposed to favour those opinions were
expected from England, to prevent whose
settlement in the country the court laid a pen-
alty on all who should entertain any strangers,
or allow them the use of any house or lot
above three weeks, without liberty first grant-
ed. This severe order was so ill received in
Boston, that, on the governor's return from
the court at Cambridge, they all refused to
go out to meet him, or show him any token
of respect. The other towns on this occasion
increased their respect towards h:jn, and the
same summer, in a journey to Ipswich, he
was guarded from town to town with more
ceremony than he desired.
The same year a synod* was called to de-
* [As a preparation for this synod a fast was observed, Sep-
tember 24, in all the churches. Winthrop, under date Octobet
WINTHROP. 169
termine on the controverted points, in which
assembly Winthrop, though he did not pre-
side, yet, as head of the civil magistracy, was
obliged often to interpose his authority, which
he did with wisdom and gravity, silencing
passionate and impertinent speakers, desiring
that the Divine Oracles might be allowed to
express their own meaning, and be appealed
to for a decision of the controversy ; and
when he saw heat and passion prevail in the
assembly, he would adjourn it, that time
might be allowed for cool consideration, by
which prudent management the synod came
30, 1637 (Journal, i., 237), gives the following account of the
proceedings of this assembly: " The synod, called the Assem-
bly, began at Newtown (now Cambridge). There were all the
teaching elders through the country, and some new come out
of England, not yet called to any place here, as Mr. Davenport,
&c. The Assembly began with prayer by Mr. Shepherd, pastor
of Newtown. Then the erroneous opinions which were spread
in the country were read (being eighty in all) [a rank growth for
seven years] : next, the unwholesome expressions [nine in num-
ber] : then the Scriptures abused. Then they chose two mod-
erators for the next day, viz., Mr. Buckley and Mr. Hooker, and
these were continued in that place all the time of the Assembly.
There were about eighty opinions, some blasphemous, others er-
roneous, and all unsafe, which were condemned by the whole
Assembly." Any one who wishes more particular information
touching the points our fathers deemed heretical, will find ample
satisfaction in a contemporary work by Thomas Welde, entitled
"The Rise, Reign, and Ruin of Antinomianism in New-Eng-
land." H.I
AMERICAN BIOGEAPHY.
to an amicable agreement in condemning the
errors of the day.* But the work was not
wholly done until the erroneous persons were
banished the colony. This act of severity
the court thought necessary for the peace of
the common we alth.f Toleration had not
* [The extent of Winthrop's agency in maintaining order in
the synod may have been too strongly stated in the text, though
the facts are hardly more creditable to that body. His own ac-
count (Journal, i., 238-240) is, that there was a clamorous and
continued call for witnesses to the prevalence of the opinions
under discussion, which the moderators found it difficult to
check ; and when some of the magistrates told the callers that
" it would prove a civil disturbance" demanding their interfe-
rence, they denied the magistrate's authority in such cases, " so
as he was forced to tell one of them, that if he would not for-
bear, but make trial of it, he might see it executed." The syn-
od " broke up" October 22d, matters having been concluded
" comfortably in all love." H.]
t [The decrees of the synod, however harmonious, could not
silence the disaffected, nor its arguments convert the heretical.
Wheelwright still published his " confuted" opinions, and Mrs.
Hutchinson still proclaimed her censures and "vented her rev-
elations." The General Court interposed ; and, " finding that
two so opposite parties could not contain in the same body with-
out apparent hazard of ruin to the whole" (Winthrop's Journal,
i., 245), " disfranchised and banished Wheelwright, and banished
Mrs. Hutchinson, and ordered many others who had petitioned in
their favour to be disarmed. " It will be seen by the above extract
from Winthrop, that the banishment was inflicted not so much as
a punishment of heresy as to preserve the peace of the state. It
is due to the fathers of New-England, who have suffered deeply
under charges of intolerance and persecution, and have deserved
it somewhat, to say, that if an examination be made of the al-
WINTHROP. 171
then been introduced into any of the Protest-
ant countries, and even the wisest and best
men were afraid of it as the parent of all er-
ror and mischief.
Some of the zealous opinionists in the
Church of Boston would have had the elders
proceed against the governor in the way of
ecclesiastical discipline for his activity in pro-
curing the sentence of banishment on their
brethren. Upon this occasion, in a well-
judged speech* to the congregation, he told
them that, " though in his private capacity it
was his duty to submit to the censure of
his brethren, yet he was not amenable to
them for his conduct as a magistrate, even
though it were unjust. That in the present
case he had acted according to his conscience
and his oath, and by the advice of the elders
of the Church, and was fully satisfied that it
leged cases of wrong doing in this respect, a regard, and a fear,
and commonly a well-grounded fear, for the quiet of the common-
wealth, lay at the basis of all their public political action in mat-
ters properly of faith and conscience. The novel doctrines and
eloquent enthusiasm of Mrs. Hutchinson had carried contentions
and heartburnings into families and among friends, strife into
the state, and war into the Church. However harsh the resul
may seem, it was clearly better that some should be separated
than that all should fight. H.J
* [This speech was delivered to excuse himself, and "to pre-
vent such a public disorder" as hie enemies proposed in hi*
trial. Journ , i , 249 H.]
172 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
would not have been consistent with the pub-
lic peace to have done otherwise." These
reasons satisfied the uneasy brethren ; and
his general condescending and obliging de-
portment so restored him to their affections,
that he was held in greater esteem than be-
fore ; as a proof of this, upon occasion of a
loss whicli he had sustained in his temporal
estate, they made him a present amounting
to several hundred pounds.*
A warm dispute having arisen in the Gen-
eral Court concerning the negative voice of
the Upper House,f the governor published
* [This was several years after. See note to p. 162 of this
volume. H.]
t [The first case in which the question of the negative voice
of the Assistants, or Upper House, arose, was (September, 1634)
on a petition of the men of Newtown for leave to settle on the
Connecticut River, out of the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. A
majority of the deputies were in favour of granting the request,
and a majority of the assistants were for refusing it. The dep-
uties, being a majority of the whole Legislature, claimed that a
majority of the whole should decide. The assistants, fearing for
their separate existence, claimed the right of a negative on the
vote of the deputies. After many days of debate, neither party
would yield, till " a day of humiliation in all the congregations,"
and a judicious sermon from Mr. Cotton, caused the question, for
the present, to be passed silently in favour of the assistants.
Winthrop's Journal, i., 140-142. In 1643 "the sow case"
tarted it again, and it was put to rest in the same way. Ib.,
ii., 118, 119. The next year it was finally decided by an order
that the two bodies should consult separately. ^b., ii., 160
W I N T H R O P. 173
his sentiments in writing, some passages of
which giving great offence, he took occasion
at the next meeting of the court, in a public
speech, to tell them " that, as to the matter
of his writing, it was according to his judg-
ment, which was not at his own disposal, and
that, having examined it by the rules of rea-
son, religion, and custom, he saw no cause to
retract it ; but as for the manner, which was
wholly his own, he was ready to acknowl-
edge whatever was blameable. He said that,
though what he wrote was on great provoca-
tion, and to vindicate himself and others from
unjust aspersion, yet he ought not to have al-
lowed a distemper of spirit, nor to have been
so free with the reputation of his brethren ;
that he might have maintained his cause with-
During this controversy (1643) Winthrop wrote a tract on the
subject, which is preserved, in manuscript, in the library of the
Mass. Hist. Society. Rev. Mr. Cobbet, of Lynn, wrote on the
same subject. It was the paper " set forth about the sow busi-
ness" that gave rise to the speech referred to in the text. Ib.,
ii., 117. This case, a lawsuit between a poor woman and a rich
merchant, in which the question was turned on the identity of a
sow, to which no witness could swear positively, and about
which no jury could agree, embroiled the whole colony many
months, and caused almost as much heartburning and alienation
as the fiercest religious controversy. One who is curious to see
" how great a fire a little spark kindleth," may consult, for th
details of this strange case, Winthrop, ii., 67-72, and 116-119-
-H.]
174 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
out casting any reflection on them, and that
he perceived an unbecoming pride and arro-
gancy in some of his expressions, for which
he desired forgiveness of God and man !"
By this condescending spirit he greatly en-
deared himself to his friends, and his enemies
were ashamed of-their opposition.
He had not so high an opinion of a demo-
cratical government as some other gentlemen
of equal wisdom and goodness,* but plainly
* [The sober judgment of Winthrop clearly saw the need of a
well-regulated authority in the state. He seems to have appro-
ved the plan of a council for life, selected from the magistrates,
as he was one of the members. This council was instituted in
1636. Winthrop's Journal, i., 184. In 1641, Mr. Saltonstall,
a magistrate from Salem, wrote a book to prove it " a sinful in-
novation" (Ib., ii., 64), which was referred to the elders for their
judgment. Ib., ii., 89.
Winthrop was not alone in his aversion to a pure democracy.
Cotton said (Letter to Lord Say, Hutch. Mass., i., App., 433-
436), " Democracy I do not conceive that ever God did ordain
as a fit government either for church or commonwealth. If the
people be governors, who shall be governed 1" By the charter
the powers of government were committed to the governor and
thirteen assistants. The whole body of the freemen met to
elect the magistrates and to enact laws. Representatives, or
deputies, as they were called, do not appear till 1634, when
three were chosen for each town, and in later years two. Win-
throp's Journal, i., 128, 300. They formed one body with the
magistrates till 1644. Ib., ii., 160. During this interval there
were continual disputes between them touching their mutual
rights. The magistrates, i.e., the governor and assistants, exer-
cised all judicial power, and held regular sessions for this pur
W I N T H R O P. 175
perceived a danger in " referring matters of
counsel and judicature to the body of the peo-
ple ;" and when those who had removed to
Connecticut were about forming their govern-
ment, he warned them of this danger in a
friendly and faithful letter, wherein are these
remarkable words : " The best part of a com-
munity is always the least, and of that best
part the wiser is always the lesser ; wherefore
the old law was, choose ye out judges, &c.,
and thou shall bring the matter to the judge."
In 1645, when he was deputy-governor, a
great disturbance was raised by some peti-
tioners from Hingham,* who complained that
pose ; they also exercised all the ordinary powers of government
during the recess of the General Court. The governor was the
presiding officer of this body, and intrusted with the special ex-
ecution of their orders.
The letter referred to was to the excellent Hooker, Septem-
ber, 1638. Journal, ii., 349, 350.
The governor was chosen by the assistants till 1632, May 8,
and afterward by the General Court, and from 1634 by the whole
body of the freemen. H.]
* [In this paragraph the author seems to have confounded two
cases which were entirely distinct. The first occurred in 1645,
when Winthrop was deputy-governor, and was briefly this : A
disagreement had fallen out in a military company at Hingham,
touching an election of officers, which led to some mutinous and
disorderly practices there ; and the offenders being required to
find bail for their appearance at court, Winthrop, as a magis-
trate, on the refusal of some of them, ordered them to be com-
mitted. As there existed at that time great jealousy of the au-
176 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
the fundamental laws of England were not
owned in the colony as the basis of govern-
thority of the magistrates, and as this business excited much
feeling in Hingham, a petition, numerously signed, was present-
ed to the deputies, asking that the case might be examined by
the General Court. Winthrop was put on trial, and, after a
prolonged examination of six weeks, was fully acquitted, and the
mutineers and petitioners were fined in various sums, from l
to 20, for the costs of the court. It was on this occasion that
"Winthrop delivered the speech, of which portions are given in
the text. Journal, ii., 221-235. Hubbard's New-England,
417, 418. 3d Mass. Hist. Coll., iv., 108-110.
The petition described in the text, and which makes a part of
the second case, was presented in 1646, when Winthrop was
governor. Hutch. Coll., 188, 261, 278, &c. From the found-
ation of the colony, all persons residing within its limits, who
were not church members, were subject to several important
disabilities. They were excluded from all the offices and hon-
ours of the state ; they were not allowed to vote in elections or
on laws, even for town-laws and officers, saving only those of
military companies. They were, moreover, we can hardly doubt,
looked upon by the church members, not only with pity as lost
men, but with somewhat of indignation as rebels against the
Divine law, and treated sometimes with the indifference or dis-
regard which is often all that the more privileged bestow upon
the less. Among those who were not members of a church, and
so but half members of the state, there were not a few persons
eminent for learning and talent, on whom these disabilities bore
grievously. Hence arose, and gradually increased, a dislike of
the government, and a purpose to get rid of the odious restric-
tions, which at length gave rise to the petition referred to.
William Vassal, of Scituate, a man of learning, wit, and ad-
dress, was one of the leading fomenters of this movement ; and
Dr. Robert Child, of Hingham, whom Winthrop calls " a gen-
tleman and a scholar," ably seconded his efforts. The court
W I N T H R O P. 177
ment ; that civil privileges were denied to
men merely for not being members of the
churches ; and that they could not enjoy Di-
vine ordinances, because they belonged to the
Church of England. With these complaints
they petitioned for liberty of conscience ; or,
if that could not be granted, for freedom from
taxes and military services : the petition con-
cluded with a menace that, in case of a re-
fusal, complaint would be made to the Par-
liament of England. This petition gave much
offence, and the petitioners were cited to
court, and fined as " movers of sedition."
Winthrop was active in their prosecution ,
but a parly in the House of Deputies was so
strong in their favour as to carry a vote re-
quiring him to answer for his conduct in pub-
refused to entertain the petition, and an appeal was claimed to
the commissioners in Parliament. Some of the petitioners were
stopped on the eve of their sailing for England, and held to bail.
On their examination they justified their petition, and were fined
in various sums from 4 to 50. Persisting in their opposi-
tion, and while preparing to prosecute their appeal, Child and
others were arrested and imprisoned. He afterward went to
England, where Vassal was already, and attempted to excite an
odium against the colony, but was successfully resisted by Ed-
ward Winslow, their agent. So far was Winthrop from being
called c trial, and censured for the part he took in this affair,
that the sympathies of the people were strongly with him, and he
was re-elected the next year by a majority of several hundred
votes. Journal, ii., 307. H.]
178 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
lie, the result of which was that he was hon-
ourably acquitted. Then resuming his seat,
he took that opportunity publicly to declare
his sentiments on the questions concerning
the authority of the magistracy and the liber-
ty of the people : "You have called us," said
he, " to office ; but, being called, we have
our authority from GOD ; it is the ordinance
of GOD, and hath the image of GOD stamp-
ed on it ; and the contempt of it hath been
vindicated by GOD with terrible examples
of his vengeance. When you choose magis-
trates you take them from among yourselves,
men subject to the like passions with your-
selves. If you see our infirmities, reflect on
your own, and you will not be so severe on
ours. The covenant between us and you is,
that we shall govern you, and judge your
causes according to the laws of GOD*f and
* It must be observed that the Mosaic law was at that time
considered as the general standard, and most of the laws of the
colony were founded on it.
t [Winthrop himself says, " the rules of God's laws and our
awn." Journal, ii., 229. The Mosaic law, or the examples of
the Old Testament, was in some sense the basis of the early le-
gislation of Massachusetts, yet rather as furnishing principles
and arguments than specific forms. The colony had already a
definite code of laws. Rev. John Cotton, of Boston, and Na-
thaniel Ward, of Ipswich, had been made a commission for the
purpose of compiling a cod, and each presented a model to thai
W I N T H R O P. 179
our best skill. As for our skill, you must run
the hazard of it ; and if there be an error, not
in the will, but the skill, it becomes you to
bear it. Nor would I have you mistake in
the point of your liberty. There is a liberty
of corrupt nature, which is inconsistent with
authority, impatient of restraint, the grand
enemy of truth and peace, and all the ordi-
nances of GOD are bent against it. But there
is a civil, moral, federal liberty, which is the
proper end and object of authority, a liberty
lor that only which is JUST and GOOD. For
this liberty you are to stand with your lives ;
and whatever crosses it is not authority, but a
distemper thereof. This liberty is maintain,
ed in a way of subjection to authority, and
the authority set over you will, in all admin-
istrations for your good, be quietly submitted
to by all but such as have a disposition to
shake off the yoke, and lose their liberty by
murmuring at the honour and power of au-
thority."
This kind of argument was frequently ur-
court in 1639. These were digested by the court into one,
which was sent to the towns for their consideration. In 1641
the court adopted and enacted for three years a system of on
hundred laws, called the "body of liberties." Journal, i., 322 ;
., 55. Winthrop intimates that they followed the scheme of-
fered by Mr. Ward. H.]
180 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
ged by the fathers of New-England in justi-
fication of their severity towards those who
dissented from them. They maintained that
all men had liberty to do right, but no liberty
to do wrong". However true this principle
may be in point of morality, yet in matters of
opinion, in modes of faith, worship, and ec-
clesiastical order, the question is, who shall
be the judge of right and wrong ? and it is
too evident, from their conduct, that they sup-
posed the power of judging to be in those
who were vested with authority ; a principle
destructive of liberty of conscience and the
right of private judgment, and big with all
the horrors of persecution. The exercise of
such authority they condemned in the High-
Church party, who had oppressed them in
England ; and yet, such is the frailty of hu-
man nature, they held the same principles
and practised the same oppressions on those
who dissented from them. Winthrop, before
he left England, was of a more catholic spirit
than some of his brethren ; after he had come
to America he fell in with the reigning prin-
ciple of intolerancy, which almost all the Re-
formers unhappily retained as a relic of the
persecuting Church from which they had sep-
arated ; but as he advanced in life he re-
WINTHBOP. 181
sumed his former moderation ; and in the time
of his last sickness, when Dudley, the deputy-
governor, pressed him to sign an order for the
banishment of a person who was deemed
heterodox, he refused, saying that " he had
done too much of that work already."
Having devoted the greatest part of his in-
terest to the service of the public, and suffer-
ed many losses by accidents, and by leaving
the management of his private affairs to un-
faithful servants, while his whole time and
attention were employed in the public busi-
ness, his fortune was so much impaired, that,
some years before his death, he was obliged
to sell the most of his estate for the payment
of an accumulated debt.* He also met with
* [Not only his time, but much of his estate also, was given
to the public. In 1632 he tells us, "For want of a common
stock, he had to disburse all common charges out of his estate"
(i., 86). In 1633 the court ordered to be paid him 150 salary
for the year, and the money he had paid from his own purse in
the public service, being between 200 and 300 more. Jour-
nal, i., 105. He informs us that when in office his 'expenses
hardly fell short of 500 a year, 200 of which would have sup-
ported his family in a private condition. In 1640 his estate had
become so reduced, partly by the misconduct of his steward,
who had contracted large obligations (2500) for him without
his knowledge, that several hundred pounds (less than 500)
were given him by voluntary contribution in the colony ; and the
court, the treasury being, as it often was, empty, granted to hi*
wife 3000 acres of land : a strong proof of the high esteem in
182 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
much affliction in his family, having buried
three wives* and six children. These troub-
les, joined to the opposition and ill treatment
which he frequently met with from some of
the people, so preyed upon his nature, al-
ready much worn by the toils and hardships
of planting a colony in a wilderness, that he
perceived a decay of his faculties seven years
before he reached his grand climacteric, and
often spoke of his approaching dissolution
with a calm resignation to the will of Heav-
en. At length, when he had entered the
sixty-third year of his age,f a fever occasion-
ed by a cold, after one month's confinement,
which he was held, as well as of sympathy for his misfortunes.
Journal, ii., 1, 2. In his will, made June, 1641 (afterward re-
voked), he mentions that he owned a farm at Medford, then as
now called " the Tenhills," an island called still Governor's in
Boston Harbour, Prudence Island in Narraganset Bay, a lot at
Concord, and another of 1200 acres on the Concord River, and
2000 acres still due him from the country. Ib., 360. H.]
* [His first wife was Mary, daughter of John Forth, Esq., of
Great Stanbridge, Essex, whom he married in his eighteenth
year, Feb., 1606. Savage's note to Winthrop, i., 64. The
third was Margaret, daughter of Sir John Tindal, "a woman of
singular virtue, prudence, modesty, and piety," whom he mar-
ried April 24, 1618, and who died June 4, 1647. The fourth,
who survived him, was Mrs. Martha Cotyemore, of Charles-
town, whom he married December, 1647. H.]
t [In the sixty-second year of his age. See note to page
148, 1. 15.
W I N T H R O P. 183
put an end to his life on the 26th of March,
1649.*
The island called Governor's Island, in the
harbour of Boston, was granted to him, and
still remains in the possession of his descend-
ants. His picture is preserved in the Senate
Chamber with those of other ancient govern-
ors. The house in which he lived remained
till 1775, when, with many other old wooden
buildings, it was pulled down by the British
troops for fuel. He kept an exact journal of
the occurrences and transactions in the colo-
ny during his residence in it.f This journal
was of great service to several historians,
particularly Hubbard, Mather, and Prince.
It is still in possession of the Connecticut
branch of his family, and was published at
Hartford in 1790. It affords a more exact
* [He was buried in the Chapel burying-ground in Boston,
where his monument may yet be seen. H.]
t [This journal was begun on Easter Monday, March 29, 1630,
on board the Arbella, before Winthrop and his company sailed
from the Isle of Wight, and was continued till February, 1649.
It is a record, made from day to day, as they occurred, of the
various events which occurred in the colony during the period
which it embraces, and made with rare impartiality and judg-
ment. Another edition of it has been published by Hon. James
Savage, who thoroughly revised the text, and added a large
body of illustrative notes, which are unrivalled for accuracy, sa-
gacity, and learning. H.]
184 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
and circumstantial detail of events within that
period than any compilation which has been
or can be made from it ; the principles and
conduct of this truly great and good man
therein appear in the light in which he him-
self viewed them ; while his abilities for the
arduous station which he held, the difficulties
which he had to encounter, arid his fidelity in
business, are displayed with that truth and
justice in which they ought to appear.
He had five sons living at his decease, all
of whom, notwithstanding the reduction of his
fortune, acquired and possessed large proper-
ty, and were persons of eminence. Many
of his posterity have borne respectable char-
acters, and filled some of the principal places
of trust and usefulness.*
* [The high reputation of Governor Winthrop has been well
sustained by the succeeding generations of his family. While I
am writing these pages, death has called away one of them, long
known and revered among us, Hon. Thomas Winthrop, for
many years Lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, and president
of the Massachusetts Historical Society. His son, Hon. R. C.
Winthrop, is now the able representative of Suffolk district in
Congress. H.]
W I N T H R O P. 185
XXV. JOHN WINTHROP, F.R.S.,
GOVERNOR OF CONNECTICUT.
JOHN WINTHROP, eldest son of Governor
Winthrop by his first wife, was born at Gro-
ton, in Suffolk, Feb. 12, 1605.* His fine
genius was much improved by a liberal edu-
cation in the universities of Cambridge and
Dublin,! and by travelling through most of
the European kingdoms as far as Turkey.^
* [Feb. 12, 1605-6. Savage's note to Winthrop, i., 64.
H-i
t [His father's letters, yet preserved, were addressed to him
at Trinity College, Dublin, from August, 1622, to March, 1624.
Journal, ii., 336-345. From these letters it appears that his
college life was prudent, frugal, and studious, and that here he
received and cherished " the seeds of the fear of God." H.]
t [From Dublin he returned to London, where he manifested
a strong passion for travelling, and especially for going to sea.
In June, 1627, we find him " attending upon Captain Best in his
majesty's ship the Dire Repulse," but in what capacity does not
appear. He probably sailed in the convoy of the Duke of Buck-
ingham. Journal, ii., 347, 348. In 1628, his adventurous
temper yet unsatisfied, he was earnestly disposed to "settle with a
plantation," which we presume to have been that of Plymouth or
of Massachusetts, but was dissuaded by his father. Ib., ii., 352.
We have (Ib., 354) the draught of a letter from him " to Sir
Peter Wich, lord ambassador at Constantinople," dated at " the
Castles of Hellespont." in which he states that he was to sail
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
He came to New-England with his father's
family, Nov. 4, 1631 ; and, though not above
twenty-six years of age, was, by the unani-
mous choice of the freemen, appointed a ma-
gistrate* of the colony, of which his father
was governor. He rendered many services
to the country, both at homef and abroad,
particularly in the year 1634, when, returning
to England, he was, by stress of weather,
forced into Ireland, where, meeting with many
influential persons at the house of Sir John
Closworthy, he had an opportunity to pro-
that day for Venice. " The writer," says Savage, in his note
upon the letter, " had no doubt accompanied this very celebra-
ted minister either as secretary of legation or as private secre-
tary, probably the latter." The letter expresses thanks for fa-
vours received, and implies intimacy.
The experience of life acquired in these travels, united with
the piety of his own temper, led him to say, in a letter to his
father, August 16, 1629, touching the planting of New-Eng-
land, " And for myself, I have seen so much of the vanity of the
world, that I esteem no more of the diversities of countries
than as so many inns, whereof the traveller, that hath lodged in
the best or in the worst, findeth no difference when he cometh
to his journey's end ; and I shall call that my country where I
can most glorify God, and enjoy the presence of my dearest
friends." Ib., i., 359. H.]
* [He was elected to the magistracy May 8th, 1632. Win-
throp's Journal, i., 76. H.]
t [In March, 1633, he, with twelve other persons, began a
settlement at Ipswich. Ib., i., 100. Felt's History of Ipswich.
-H.]
WINTHROP. 187
mote the interest of the colony through their
means.*
* [The following is Governor Winthrop's account of this in-
terview (Journal, i., 172) : " Mr. Winthrop went to Dublin, and
from thence to Antrim, in the north, and came to the house of
one Sir John Clotworthy, the-evening before the day when divers
godly persons were appointed to meet at his house to confer
about their voyage to New-England ; by whom they were thor-
oughly informed of all things, &c From thence he passed
over 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."
Sir John Clotworthy was a member of the Parliament which
met November, 1640, and seconded Pym in his impeachment
of the Earl of Stratford. May's History of the Parliament of
1640, p. 48. Clarendon, in his History of the Rebellion (i.,
138, fol.), calls him " a gentleman of Ireland, ar.d utterly un-
known in England ;" and says that " he was, by the contri-
vance of some powerful patrons, returned to serve for a bor-
ough in Devonshire, that so he might be enabled to act his part
against the lord-lieutenant." He must have been, therefore, a
thorough Puritan and a fearless man. From his residence iu
Ireland, he was a very suitable witness against Stratford. We
next hear of him near the scaffold at the execution of Laud, dis-
turoing the last hours of that venerable prelate with " uncivil
and unseasonable" questions " concerning his assurance of sal-
vation, and whereon the same was grounded." Fuller's Church
History, iii., 472, Lond., 1837. In 1646 he was one of tha
Parliamentary commissioners for Ireland, and discharged from
that office at his own request. Whitelock's Memorials, 240, ed.
1682. He was charged with embezzlement, and, at the in-
stance of Fairfax, his conduct was made the subject of Parlia-
mentary inquiry. In 1648 he was committed to prison by Par-
liament for favouring too much the proposed addresses to tha
III. P
188 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
The next year he came back to New-Eng-
land, with powers from the Lords Say* and
king ; though Clarendon (iii., 184, fol.) classes him with " the
most active members in the House of the Presbyterian party,
and who had as maliciously advanced the interests of the Parlia-
ment against the king as any men of their rank in the king-
dom." H.]
* [William Fiennes, second Baron, and first Viscount, Say
and Sele, by patent from King James, July 7, 1624. The
family was a very ancient one, but the title had been disused
for a long time, till it was restored in the person of Richard
Fiennes, the father of the subject of this note. Burke's Peer-
age. William Fiennes was born at Broughton, Oxfordshire,
about the year 1582; received his early education at Wyke-
ham School, near Wynton, which had been founded by his an-
cestor, the celebrated William de Wykeham, and entered New
College, Oxford, as a fellow-commoner, in 1596. Here he
spent " some time in logicals and philosophicals," afterward
travelled on the Continent, and, having returned to the posses-
sion of a " fair estate," was early married, and became a firm
and avowed Puritan. Such is the testimony of Wood (Athena
Oxonienses); but Miss Aikin, in her Memoirs of James I. (vol
ii., p. 210), speaks of him as "necessitous and haughty." He
seems early to have manifested a tendency to liberal principles
in politics, and, perhaps for that reason, suffered a temporary im-
prisonment by order of the king in 1622. Wood. Carte (vol.
iv., p. 203) says he was a nobleman " of great parts and infinite
ambition." James, finding that violence could not intimidate
bim, may have hoped to secure the one by bribing the other with
the offer of a higher title. For a while this policy may have
prevented any offensive exhibition of his principles. Clarendon
asserts, that for several years after 1624 he "lived narrowly in
the country" (i., 162, fol.). Yet in the next reign he appears
again a firm opponent of the arbitrary measures of the govern-
ment, and a vehement antagonist of the prelacy. In 1637,
W I N T H R O P. 189
Brooke,* to settle a plantation on Connecti-
cut River. But, finding that some worthy
with Hampden, and with no less boldness, he refused the payment
of ship-money, and desired to have the legality of that exaction
tried in his own case rather than in that of his illustrious friend.
Carte, iv., 303. In 1639 he was " deep in with the Scotch com-
missioners, sympathizing in their aims, and hoping for aid, to
what he deemed a righteous cause, from their concurrence."
Whitelock, 31. Wood adds, that he boldly and openly favour-
ed thus early the Scotch Covenant. He was a member of the
famous Parliament of November, 1640, and was reckoned
among the foremost of the leaders who swayed that remarkable
body. He was one of the lords who, in August of that year,
earnestly advised Charles to summon it. The liberal leaders in
the Upper House of that Parliament held frequent meetings for
sonsultation at his house at Brougbton, where he " resided for
many years ; and his advice passed for oracles." Whitelock
(Memorials, p. 31) says, that while the impeachment of Straf-
ford, one of the first works of the Long Parliament, was pend-
ing, proposals were made to stop the proceedings against him,
provided that Pym and others, his enemies, should come into
high offices ; and that Lord Say was named for the Mastership
of the Court of Wards ; but the king refused. This fact is not
very creditable to the actors in that memorable process. The
next year the king sought to win Say from his now dreaded op-
position, by appointing him of the privy council, and by giving
him the very lucrative office he had before refused to give, of
Master of the Court of Wards, May 17th, 1641. May, Hist, of
Parl. of 1640, p. 78. Though he may have been poor, he was
not to be bought. He still adhered to his principles and to his
party. In August of that year he was made by Parliament
lieutenant-general of Oxfordshire, and is said to have fortified his
own house at Broughton for the service. Early the next year
he refused to obey the royal summons, issued to all the officers
* For thin note, see p. 192.
190 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
persons from the Massachusetts had already
removed, and others were about removing to
of the Court of Wards, to meet Charles at Oxford, and, for his
disobedience, was outlawed and attainted. In 1643 he was
chosan one of the commissioners on the part of Parliament to
treat with the king at Oxford, but did not serve in that office, as
Charles expressly refused to treat with him. "Whitelock, p. 64.
He was made, April 15, 1645, one of a committee of the lords
" to manage the admiralty business." Ib., 137. In a crea-
tion of dignities the same year by Parliament, he was advan-
ced to an earldom (Ib., 138), though, we believe, he never used
"the title. In 1646 his office in the Court of Wards was abol-
ished, and 10,000 were voted to him as a compensation for
his loss. On some occasions he showed almost a personal dis-
like to the king, Opposing in Parliament all measures tending to
a compromise or reconciliation ; and in 1648, when the com-
missioners, of whom he had been named one, met Charles in the
Isle of Wight, he quoted to him, from Hooper, that the king is
" singulis major, universis minor.'" After the king's death, and
the temporary overthrow of the English Church, he is said to
have become an Independent in his opinions, as he had before
been a Presbyterian. Wood. Cromwell, who was no mean
judge of men, required his services in his House of Lords.
Parl. Hist., iii., 1518. The Protector proposed in 1653 to
make him " chamberlain of his household," which those who
knew him doubted if he would accept. Thurloe's State Papers,
i., 645. Though his ambition was now gratified by the highest
honours, and his darling scheme of religious liberty seemed neai
its consummation, his patriotism was not put to sleep. He was
one of the first to discern Cromwell's aspirations for a crown,
and foremost and boldest in his opposition. Finding his oppo-
sition ineffectual, he retired to the Isle of Lundy, on the coast
of Devon, where he remained till Cromwell's death in 1658.
After the restoration of Charles II., by what the monarchist
writers of that and later times have considered a strange per
WINTHROP. 191
make a settlement on that river at Hartford
and Weathersfield, he gave them no disturb-
rersion of justice, he held the office of lord privy seal till his
death. Pepys's Diary, i., 114. What may seem stranger is,
that he sat as one of the judges on the trial of Adrian Scrope,
one of the regicides.^- Wood, ii., 542. April 14th, 1662, "h
did die quietly in his bed," as loyal Anthony Wood records
it, with a seeming wonder that a rebel could so die. He had
lived, I cannot doubt, long enough to regret many of the excess-
es of which his party were guilty, and to have felt that stability
and order in a state are to be preferred to any dreams of theo-
retical perfection.
Clarendon, while he evidently had a strong dislike of Lord
Say, and charges him with avarice and ambition, gives yet an
indirect testimony of great value to his abilities and worth. Af-
ter having spoken of the vast influence he exercised among
those who were disaffected to the king, he adds (History of the
Rebellion, i., 145, fol.), "He had great reputation with many
who were not discontented, who believed him to be a wise man,
of a very useful temper in an age of license, and one who would
still adhere to the law." He elsewhere says that he was " of
a proud and sullen nature ;" that he " conversed much with
books ;" and, which is a clear proof of his inflexible and consci-
entious clinging to his principles, that " his ambition would not
be satisfied with offices and preferments, without some conde-
scensions and alterations in ecclesiastical matters." Ib., 161,
162, and 145. One who compares the testimony of Wood, oi
Clarendon, and the conflicting statements of contemporary
writers who have spoken of him, may well conclude with Nu-
gent that he " possessed qualities of mind and courage sufficient
to make him deeply revered and violently hated." Memorials
of Hampden, ii., 29.
He was an eloquent speaker and an able writer. A speech
of his. well worthy of perusal for its terse expression, ingenious
reasoning, and manly frankness, delivered in the House of
192 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
ance, but, having made an amicable agree-
ment with them, built a fort at the mouth of
Lords May 24th, 1641, on a bill to restrain the clergy from in-
termeddling in secular matters, is preserved in Gobbet's Parl.
Hist., ii., 806. This bill was one of the first steps taken by the
enemies of Episcopacy to root out that odious polity, and it re-
quired no slight boldness to stand forth at that time, in that
place, in open opposition to it. He also wrote and published
several works. Among them were, "The Scots' Design discov-
ered," 4to, Lond., 1643 ; " Folly and Madness made manifest,"
4to, Oxon., 1659; "The Quaker's Reply manifested to be
Railing," 4to, Oxon., 1660. See Walpole's Royal and Noble
Authors, Park's edition, iii., 70 ; where also may be seen a por-
trait of Lord Say. H.]
* [Robert Greville, second Lord Brooke, was born in 1607,
and at the age of four years adopted, and afterward brought up,
by his cousin Fulke Greville, chancellor of the exchequer to
James I., and a famous poet, courtier, and patron of letters, un-
der that prince and Elizabeth. Robert was educated at the
University of Cambridge, in some of the halls of which Puritan-
ism had found favour, if not a resting-place. On the decease
of his cousin in 1628, he succeeded to the baronetcy, at the age
of twenty-one. Entering upon public life at a period when
great principles in government and religion were the common
theme of warm and almost angry discussion, he seems early and
always to have been liberal in his politics and a Puritan in his
theology. No doubt can be entertained of the fervour of his
religious feelings, and the sincerity of his religious faith, whom
Baxter, in an early edition of the Saints' Rest, numbered among
the dead whom he hoped to meet in Heaven (p. 101, ed. 1656).
When Charles, in 1639, to try the fidelity of his army at York,
required of them the well-known " protestation against holding
any correspondence with rebels," which the Scots took " without
grieving their consciences or improving their manners," Lords
Say and Brooke, and they only, in the king's presence, indig-
W I iN T H E O P. 193
the river, and furnished it with the artillery
and stores which had been sent over, and be-
nantly refused it, saying, " If the king suspected their loyalty,
he might proceed against them as he thought fit; but it was
against the law to impose any oaths or protestations upon them
which were not enjoined by the law ; and in that respect, that
they might not betray the common liberty, they would not submit
to it." Clarendon, Rebellion, i., 93., fol. He was commander-
in-chief in Warwick and Staffordshire, holding a commission
from the Parliament (Walpole, ii., 344), and commanded a body
of cavalry in the battle and victory at Edge Hill, October, 1642.
In August of the same year, while Lord Brooke lay with his
troops near Warwick, the Earl of Northampton and other lords,
who commanded the royal forces, which had just come up, de-
manded a parley, and proposed to Lord Brooke that he should
lay down his arms, a royal pardon being offered him, resign
Warwick Castle into such hands as the king should appoint, dis-
avow the ordinance of the militia, &c. ; and menaced him with
signal punishment if he refused. " Lord Brooke," says Nu-
gent, to whose Memorials of Hampden we are indebted for this
history, " was of a temper not quick to anger, and a mind deep-
ly imbued with the stern and patient reserve, which partly the
externals of their religion, and partly the pressure of political
necessity, had imposed on the Puritan party. But the spirit of
a gallant gentleman, in whose veins flowed the blood of many
generations of proud and valiant ancestors, rose up against terms
so unworthy to be proposed to him, and against the tone and
bearing to the noble persons who addressed him in the confidence
of fancied power. Incensed, he wheeled his horse about to
leave them without reply ; but, after a moment's consideration,
he returned, and, fronting them as he spoke, ' My lords,' said
he, ' I much wonder that men of judgment, in whose breast*
true honour should hold her seat, should so much wrong their
noble predecessors as to seek the ruin of those high and noble
thoughts thfiv should endeavour to support. ... As for thesa
194 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
gan a town there, which, from the two lords
propositions, take this- in answer. When that his majesty, his
posterity, and the peace of the kingdom shall be secured from
you, 1 shall gladly lay down my arms and power. As for the
castle, it was delivered to my trust by the high court of Parlia-
ment, who reserve it for the king's good use, and, I dare boldly
say, will so employ it. As for the commission of array, you
know it is unlawful. For the magazine of the county, it was
delivered to me also by the Parliament, and, as a faithful servant
to the country, I am resolved to continue it till Northampton
can show me greater authority for the delivery of the same. As
touching his majesty's pardon, as I am confident that I have not
given any occasion of offence to his majesty, so I need not his
pardon. As for your fury, I wholly disdain it.' " Whatever
judgment may be formed of the truth of his political opinions,
no one can question the pure, earnest, and high-minded sincerity
in which he entertained them.
This estimate of his character has been almost uniformly
made, even by those who in political sentiment were opposed to
him. Carte, who is by no means too favourable to the Puritan
leaders, gives him this character (iv., 303) : This lord " had
parts, learning, fluency .of speech, with many good qualities,
which gained him the esteem of those with whom he agreed in
their Puritanical and antimonarchical principles. He was natu-
rally warm in any cause he espoused, and, in his utter aversion
to Episcopacy, embarked eagerly in the measures of the faction."
Clarendon, who was also of the opposite side, says (ii., 114, fol.),
" Those who were acquainted with him believed him to be well-
natured and just, and rather seduced and corrupted in his under-
standing than perverse and malicious;" and adds, "he was un-
doubtedly one of those who could have been with most difficul-
ty reconciled to the government of Church or state." A noble
testimony to the honesty of his convictions and the steadfastness
of his principles.
He used his pen as well as his sword in behalf of the cause
to which he so cheerfully devoted himself. He published sev-
W I N T H R O P. 195
who had a principal share in the undertaking,
eral answers and speeches. Wood, Athen. Oxon., ii., 445,
446. A treatise written by him, on " The Nature of Truth,"
was printed in the year of his death. Of his " Discourse opening
the Nature of that Episcopacie which is exercised in England,"
Milton wrote that it was " so full of meekness and breathing
charity, that, next to the last testament of Him who. bequeathed
love and peace to his disciples, I cannot call to mind where I
have met with words more mild and peaceful." See Walpole's
Royal and Noble Authors, ii., 90 ; where also may be seen a
portrait of Lord Brooke.
We copy the following account of his death from Dugdale's
Short View of the late Troubles in Englanc, 117, 118, fol.,
Lond., 1681 : " Likewise that attempt upon Litchfield-close, in
Staffordshire, made by Robert, Lord Brooke, wherein he lost his
life : the manner of which was not a little remarkable, which
was thus. . . . When he had marched within half a mile of
Litchfield, he drew up his army, and there devoutly prayed a
blessing on his intended work [the assault of the Cathedral] ;
withal earnestly desiring that God would by some special token
manifest unto them his approbation of their design ; which being
done, he went on, and planted his great guns against the south-
east end of the close, himself standing in a window of a little
house near thereto, to direct the gunners in their purposed bat-
tery ; but it so happened that, there being two persons placed
in the battlements of the chiefest steeple to make shot with long
fowling guns at the cannoniers, upon a sudden accident, which
occasioned the soldiers to give a shout, this lord coming to the
door (completely harnessed with plate-armour cap-a-pie), was
suddenly shot into one of his eyes ; but the strength of the bul-
let so much abated by the glancing thereof on a piece of timber,
that it only lodged in his brains : whereupon he suddenly fell
down dead. Nor is it less notable that this accident fell out
upon the second day of March [1643], which is a festival of the
some time famous Bishop of St. Chad, to whose memory. Offa,
king of Mercia, first erected this stately church, and devoutly
196 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
was called Saybrook.* This fort kept the
dedicated it." To relieve his memory from a suspicion of sac-
rilege, we add, that the Earl of Chesterfield and his troops had
taken refuge and intrenched themselves in the close (cathedral),
from which, as commander of the Parliament forces, he was
endeavouring to dislodge them. Whitelock's Memorials, p. 66.
These two noble and Christian men, united by common princi-
ples and aims, and by their very diversities of character, were join-
ed in council and action in some of the most important events of
tneir lives. " They had from their boyhood," says Lord Nu-
gent, " lived together as brothers, and the ties of their affection
had been straightened by a close and constant agreement in
public life." Memorials of Hampden, i., 251. In the evils
which they felt, and the troubles they foresaw at home, their
hopes for a season naturally turned to the New World. "To
this wild and distant settlement," continues Nugent, " they had
determined to retreat in failure of their efforts for justice and
peace at home ; and there they were jointly to become the found-
ers of a patriarchal community. Of this settlement, liberty
of conscience was to be the first law, and it was afterward to
be governed according to their darling scheme of a free common-
wealth."
The sincerity of their purpose, and that not a transient and
fickle one, to remove to New-England, is fully proved by the
proposals which were made by them to some leading members
of the Massachusetts colony in 1634. The proposals, with
their answers, and a letter from Rev. John Cotton, of Boston,
on the subject in 1636, may be found in Hutchinson's History
of Massachusetts, App. I., 431-439. See, also, Winthrop's
Journal, i., J35. So early as 1633, they had purchased a tract
at Pascataquack, and sent a small colony thither. Winthrop, i.,
115. They had a pinnace trading there the next year (ib., 131),
and for some time kept a friendly correspondence with the peo-
ple at Massachusetts Bay. Ib., 161. H.J
* [Mr. Winthrop came to Boston, empowered to begin a new
WINTHROP. 197
Indians in awe, and proved a security to the
planters on the river.*
colony, October 8th, 1635. His commission from Lord Say and
Sele, and others, was dated July 18th, and his contract with
them, July 7th of the same year. Their lordships sent over
men, ordnance, ammunition, and 2000 sterling, for the accom-
plishment of their design. Mr. Winthrop was directed by his
commission, immediately on his arrival, to repair to Connecti-
cut with fifty able men, and to erect the fortifications, and to
build houses for the garrison, and for gentlemen who might af-
terward come into the colony. The latter were to be erected
within the fort. It was required that the planters, at the begin-
ning, should settle themselves near the mouth of the river, and
set down in bodies, that they might be in a situation for in-
trenching and defending themselves. Mr. Wiuthrop, having
intelligence that the Dutch were preparing to take possession of
the mouth of the river, determined to anticipate them ; and as
soon as he could engage twenty men and furnish them with
provisions, despatched them (November 9th) in a small vessel
of about thirty tons. A few days after the party sent by Mr
Winthrop arrived there, a Dutch vessel from New- Netherlands
(New-York) appeared in the sound off the mouth of the river,
which had been sent on purpose to take possession of the en-
trance of the river and erect fortifications there. The English
had by this time two pieces of cannon, and prevented their land-
ing. Mr. Winthrop was appointed governor of the River Con-
necticut, with the places adjoining, for one year. He erect-
ed a fort, built houses, and made a settlement according to his
instructions. Trumbull's History of Connecticut, i., 50, 51, and
Appendix II. Wintbrop's Journal, i., 170, 173. H.]
* [The settlement at Saybrook did not remain long in the
hands of the original proprietors, and as a separate colony. It
was transferred to the Colony of Connecticut, which was plant-
ed higher on the river, and in circumstances favouring a more
rapid growth, by a contract made December 5tb, 1644. \.t this
198 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
When they had formed themselves into a
body politic, they honoured him with an elec-
tion to the magistracy, and afterward chose
him governor of the colony.* At the resto-
contract curiously illustrates the state of trade in that region at
that period, we give the substance of its provisions. George
Fenwick, Esq., one of those who had signed Governor Win-
throp's commission, and who resided at Saybrook, assigned to
Connecticut all the title of the planters there to the river, fort,
and adjacent country, with some slight reservations for his own
use. The colony agreed to pay him, for the term of ten years,
twopence for every bushel of corn that should pass out of the
river's mouth, sixpence for every hundred biscuit, twenty shil-
lings for every hogshead of beaver ; for every pound of beaver
traded within the limits of the river, twopence ; for each milch
cow or mare of three years old, twelve pence a year ; and for
every hog or sow killed within the limits of the river settlement,
twelve pence. What should be due fof grain, to be paid in
grain ; what should be due from other sources, to be paid in bea-
ver, wampum, barley, beans, or pease. This contract was su-
perseded by another made February 17th, 1646, by which they
agree to pay him 180 a year, one third in good wheat at four
shillings a bushel, one third in pease at three shillings a bushel,
and one third in rye or barley at three shillings a bushel. In
the whole, they are supposed to have paid him about 2000.
Trumbull, i., 150, 200, and Appendix V., VI. H.]
* [Mr. Winthrop was chosen a magistrate of Connecticut,
May 15th, 1651. The Assembly of the colony then consisted
of twelve magistrates and twenty-two deputies. Trumbull, i.,
201. He was continued in the number of magistrates till 1657,
when he was elected governor. There is, so far as I have
means of information, some uncertainty respecting Mr. Win-
throp's residence and occupations for several years after 1639.
After his expedition to Connecticut, he returned to Ipswich,
W I N T H R O P. 199
ration of King Charles II. he undertook a
voyage to England on the behalf of the peo-
Mass., where he lived in 1638 and 1639. Felt's Ipswich, 394.
He sailed for England August 3d, 1641 (Winthrop's Journal,
ii., 31, 32), and returned in 1643. In the autumn of 1646 he
went to Connecticut to reside permanently. Ib., ii., 276, and
i., Appendix A., 65. On his return from England, in 1643, he
brought with him 1000 in money, together with the necessary
stock, workmen, and other preparations for carrying on iron-
works here, and obtained from the General Court of Massachu-
setts a monopoly of the business for twmty-one years, an ex-
emption from public taxes for ten years, and other privileges.
Six tracts of land, each three miles square, were assigned to him
and his partners. He built a furnace and foundry at Lynn, on
the west bank of Saugus River, and another afterward at Brain-
tree, and made arrangements for extensive operations. The
court greatly encouraged the undertaking, by formally recom-
mending it to the enterprise of the planters as a work of great
public utility, and promising large returns of profit to the adven-
turers. Winthrop's Journal, ii., 212, note, and 355, 366. The
governor, his father, wrote to him at Pequod, September, 1648,
" The iron work goes on with more hope. It yields now about
seven tons per week They tried another mine, and after
twenty-four hours they had a sum of about 500, which, when
they brake, they conceived to be a fifth part silver." Ib., Ap-
pendix A, 69. The next month he writes, " The furnace runs
eight tons per week, and their bar-iron is as good as Spanish."
Ib., A, 70. Joseph Jenks, one of the principal workmen at
Lynn, took out a patent in 1646 for fourteen years, " for ye
making of engines for mills to goe with water, and mills for ma-
king of sithes and other edge-tools, with a new-invented sawe-
mill," and in 1654 made a contract with the selectmen of Boston
" for an Ingine to carry water in case of fire." Lewis's Histo-
ry of Lynn, 92, 100. This enterprise was not very prosperous,
chiefly, it is said (Lewis, 92), for the want of silver to buy the
200 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
pie, both of Connecticut and New-Haven ;
and by his prudent address obtained from
the king a charter incorporating both colonies
into one, with a grant of privileges and pow-
ers of government superior to any plantation
which had then been settled in America.*
iron with. After much expense and little profit, the works pass-
ed into other hands, and, though they continued to be worked,
more or less, for a hundred years, were finally abandoned While
in the hands of the old company, they were several times attach-
ed for their debts ; and Hubbard (N. E., 374) says, " Instead of
drawing out bars of iron for the country's use, there was ham-
mered out nothing but contentions and lawsuits." Though there
was romance enough in the elder Puritan character, it seldom
took the form of golden visions (though William White wrote to
Governor Winthrop in 1648 of "great riches concerning whit
glass, and two other things not to be spoken of within four miles
of Boston," Mass. Hist. Coll., xiv., 199) ; and we may well
ascribe Winthrop's agency in this business to a wise forecast of
the necessities and advantages of the colony. These were the
first mining works in New-England.
In 1651 the Legislature of Connecticut passed an act reciting
" the probabilities of mines of metals among those rocky hills,"
and granting to John Winthrop, and his heirs and assigns for-
ever, such mines as he might discover and work, with the land,
&c., within two or three miles, necessary for carrying them on.
I do not learn whether any discoveries were made, or any ben-
efit taken from this act. It referred only to mines of lead, cop-
per, tin, antimony, salt, &c. They had no hopes of gold and
silver. Trumbull, i., 201. H.]
* [Governor Winthrop sailed for England as agent for the
colony, and especially to procure a charter for them, in the sum-
mer of 1661. He returned, I suppose, in the summer of 1663.
The charter was dated April 2()lh, 1662, and was brought to
WINTHROP. 201
During this negotiation, at a private confer-
ence with the king, he presented his majesty
with a ring which King Charles I. had given
to his grandfather. This present rendered
him very acceptable to the king, and greatly
facilitated the business.* The people, at his
return, expressed their gratitude to him by
America May 15th of the same year. The limits of Connecti-
cut, by this charter, included the tract occupied by the settlers
of New-Haven. They long and strenuously resisted the scheme
of a union with Connecticut, but finally yielded in 1665. H.]
* [An account of Mr. Winthrop's agency in England was
written in verse by Roger Wolcott, Esq., his successor in the
government of Connecticut. It is somewhat in " the Heroics
vein," and we extract a brief passage as a curiosity. The whole
has been printed in the Mass. Hist. Coll., iv., subfinem. The
poet is describing the rout of the Pequods. which Mr. Winthrop
is represented, in the true epic style, as describing to the court,
nd introduces the following simile :
"As when Euroclydon the forest rends,
The bigger oaks fall down, the lesser bends ;
The beaten leaves and limbs before him scour,
Affrighted and enforced by his power,
To some huge rock, whose adamantine brow
Outbraves the fury of all winds that blow, , ,..
There hoping to be hid from the high charge
Of fierce pursuers by his mighty verge.
The winds in pressing troops demand surrender
Of the pursued, and boisterous storm and thunder:
But he browbeats and masters all their pride,
And sends them roaring to the larboard side.
So Mason here, most strongly dress'd in arm*.
Reanimates his men, his ranks reforms." H.]
202 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
electing him to the office of governor, for
fourteen years together, till his death.*
Mr. Witithrop's genius led him to philo-
sophical inquiries, and his opportunities for
conversing with learned men abroad furnish-
ed him with a rich variety of knowledge,
particularly of the mineral kingdom ; and
there are some valuable communications of
his in the Philosophical Transactions, which
procured him the honour of being elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society, t He had also
* [He was chosen deputy-governor in 1658, and governor
every year from 1659 to 1675 seventeen years. He was the
first who was chosen two years in succession : a practice
which was forbidden by the Constitution of the colony. Trum
bull, i., Appendix III., art. 4. H.]
t [Of the papers communicated by Mr. Winthrop to the Phil-
osophical Transactions, I have found only two, which, indeed,
are probably all. One is a letter occupying two pages (Phil.
Trans. ,v., 1151), accompanying and describing a small collec-
tion of natural curiosities which he sent from New-England ;
and " especially a very strange and very curiously contrived
fish." Among the curiosities were specimens of dwarf, or, as
we call it, shrub-oak, on which he remarks, that " it may be
truly said, that there is a Country where Hoggs are so tall that
they eat acorns upon the standing growing Oakes." The fish
was certainly " very strange," if we may judge of it from the
plate and description. It was taken in Massachusetts Bay, and
"spread itself from a pentagonal root (the body) into five main
limbs," each of which was continually subdivided, till the num-
ber of branches from each was 81,920, " beyond which the far-
ther expanding of the fish could not be certainly traced." Tho
W I N T H R O P. 203
much skill in the art of physic, and gener-
ously distributed many valuable medicines
editoi of that volume of the Transactions named it Piscit
Echino-stellaris Viscifarmis.
The other paper, of about five pages (Phil. Trans., xii., 1065),
was entitled " The Description, Culture, and Use of Maize."
It would appear from this article that samp was an original Indian
dish, and a favourite one with the early settlers of New-England.
They were told by the Indians, who lived much on it, that they
were seldom afflicted with that painful disease the stone. Mr.
Winthrop says " it was often prescribed by the learned Dr.
Wilson to his patients in London."
To show more fully the connexion of Mr. Winthrop with the
Royal Society, and the interest he took in its proceedings and
inquiries, as well as the esteem in which his judgment was held
by his associates, we have made some extracts from its records,
as given by Dr. Birch in his history of that association. The
Society was incorporated by royal charter July 15th, 1662, and
it will be noticed that Mr. Winthrup was previously a member,
and may be considered, in a sense, one of the founders of it.
" 1661, Dec. 18. John Winthrop, Esq., was proposed as a can-
didate by Mr. Brereton." Birch, i., 67.
" 1662, Jan. 1. Mr. Winthrop was admitted into the Soci-
ety." Ib., 68.
" 1662, Feb. 12. Mr. Winthrop promised to deliver in an ac-
count of strange tides at the next meeting." Ib., 76.
" 1662, March 5. The account of the refining of gold was or-
dered to be brought in at the next meeting by Dr. Goddard, Dr.
Whistler, and Mr. Winthrop." Ib., 77.
" 1662, April 23. Mr. Winthrop showed a tin lamp, called a
bladder's lamp, burning high like a candle, continually feeding
itself ; of which a diagram was ordered to be made and register-
ed.''!^, 80.
" 1662, April 30. Mr. Winthrop produced a little stone, of
which one part was, as it came from the rock, of an amethyst
III. Q
204 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
among the people, who constantly applied to
him whenever they had need, and were treat-
ed with a kindness that did honour to their
benefactor.
His many valuable qualities as a gentle-
man, a Christian, a philosopher, and a public
ruler, procured him the universal respect of
colour, and the other, after calcination, of a flesh colour." Ib.,
82.
"1662, June 25. Mr. Winthrop was desired to communicate
in writing the manner of making pitch and tar." Ib., 87.
" 1662, July 9. Mr. Winthrop read his history of the making
pitch and tar in New-England, and was desired to prosecute
it." Ib., 88. July 16, the paper was finished, and may be
found at length in Birch, i., 99-102.
" 1662, Sept. 24. Mr. Winthrop read his paper concerning
the conveniency of building of ships in some of the northern
parts of America ; which was ordered to be registered." Ib.,
i., 112, 113.
" 1662, Dec. 17. Mr. Winthrop, showing the Society some
Indian corn, some grains of which were bluish, promised to give
them in writing the history of ordering it in the West Indies.
He showed also the tail of a rattlesnake, which he said increased
every year by one ring, whence the people conjecture the age."
Ib., 162.
" 1662, Dec. 31. Mr. Winthrop remarked that there was
no right black-lead anywhere except in England and New-Eng-
land." Ib., 167.
" 1663, Jan. 7. Mr. Winthrop was desired to make experi
ment of beer out of barley and maize." Ib., 171.
"1663, March 11. Mr. Winthrop presented some bottles of
beer brewed out of maize bread, which was a pale, well-tasked,
middle beer." Ib., 206. H.]
W I N T H R O P. 205
the people under his government ; and his
unwearied attention to the public business,
and great understanding in the art of gov-.
ernment, were of unspeakable advantage to
them. Being one of the commissioners of
the United Colonies of New-England in the
year 1676, in the height of the first general
Indian war, as he was attending the service
at Boston, he fell sick of a fever, and died on
the 5th of April, in the seventy-first year of
his age, and was honourably buried in the
same tomb with his excellent father.*!
* Mather's Magnalia.
t [He was twice married. In England to Martha Painter, by
whom he had no children, and who died at Ipswich, Mass., soon
after the settlement of that place. His second wife, whom he
married probably in 1635, was Elizabeth, daughter of the famous
Hugh Peters. She bore him two sons and five daughters.
Fitz-John, one of his sons, was for many years governor of
Connecticut, and Waitstill, or Wait Still, after the revolution
of 1689, was chief-justice of Massachusetts. Winthrop's Jour-
nal, L, 64, notes. H.J
206 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
XXVI. GEORGE CALVERT, CECILIUS
CALVE RT, LORDS BALTIMORE. LEON-
ARD CALVERT.
GEORGE CALVERT -was descended from a
noble family of Flanders, and born at Kip-
ling, in Yorkshire (1582). He received his
education at Trinity College, in Oxford, and,
after taking his bachelor's degree (1597),
travelled over the Continent of Europe. At
his return to England in the beginning of the
reign of James I., he was taken into the office
of Sir Robert Cecil, secretary of state ; and
when Sir Robert was advanced to be lord-
high-treasurer, he retained Calvert in his ser-
vice, and employed him in several weighty
matters of state.*
* [Sir George was, through the influence of Sir Thomas
Wentworth, chosen one of the representatives of Yorkshire in
the Parliament of 1620, '21. He was a strenuous defender of
the royal prerogative, as appears from the debates in the House
of Commons in the Parliament of 1627, '28, on a bill for a free
fishery on the coasts of Virginia, New-England, &c., which he
opposed as contrary to the king's authority, insisting that " the
territory of America, being gotten by conquest, ought to be gov-
erned as the king pleases." Chalmers, 201, and see 114, 115.
-H.]
C A L V E R T. 207
By the interest of Sir Robert, then Earl of
Salisbury, he was appointed one of the clerks
of the council, and received the honour of
knighthood (1617), and in the following year
was made secretary of state, in the room of
Sir Thomas Lake. Conceiving the Duke of
Buckingham to have been instrumental of his
preferment, he presented him with a jewel
of great value ; but the duke returned it, with
a message that he owed his advancement to
his own merit and the good pleasure of his
sovereign, who was fully sensible of it. His
great knowledge of public business, and his
diligence and fidelity in conducting it, had
rendered him very acceptable to the king,
who granted him a pension of 1000 out of
the customs.
In 1624 he conscientiously became a Ro-
man Catholic, and, having freely owned his
principles to the king, resigned his office.
This ingenuous confession so affected the
mind of James, that he not only continued
him on the list of privy counsellors, but crea-
ted him Baron of Baltimore, in the county of
Longford, in Ireland.
While he was secretary of state, and one
of the Committee of Trade and Plantations,
he obtained from the king a patent for the
208 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
southeastern Peninsula of Newfoundland,
which he named the Province of Avalon,
from Avalonius, a monk, who was supposed
to have converted the British King Lucius
and all his court to Christianity ; in remem-
brance of which event the Abbey of Glaston-
bury was founded at Avalon, in Somerset-
shire. Sir George gave his province this
name, imagining it would be the first place in
North America where the Gospel would be
preached.*
At Ferryland, in his Province of Avalon,
he built a fine house, and spent 25,000 in
advancing his plantation, which he visited
twice in person, t But it was so annoyed by
the French, that, though he once repulsed
and pursued their ships, and took sixty pris-
oners, yet he found his province so much ex-
posed to their insults, and the trouble and
* See Collier's Dictionary, and Kippis's Biog. Brit., article
Calvert, Fuller's Worthies of England, 202. Camden's Bri-
tannia, 63.
t [The colony in Newfoundland was settled, under the orders
of Calvert, by Captain Edward Wynne, in 1621. Chalmers, 201.
He erected granaries, saltworks, &c. The first visit of Sir
George was probably in 1625, and the second probably (Chal-
mers, 201, intimates that he came from England a second time)
on his return from Virginia in 1628. Bosnian, p. 256, is wrong
in saying 1627 ; for he was active in Parliament in 1627.-
H.j
C A L V E K T. 209
expense of defending it so very great, that he
was obliged to abandon it, and be content
with the loss of what he had laid out in the
improvement of a territory, the soil and cli-
mate of which were considered as unfavour-
able to his views.*
Being still inclined to form a settlement in
America, whither he might retire with his
family and friends of the same religious prin-
ciples, he made a visit to Virginia, the fertili-
ty and advantages of which had been highly
celebrated, and in which he had been inter-
ested as one of the adventurers.t But the
people there, being Protestants of the Church
of England, regarded him with a jealous eye
on account of his religion, and by their un-
welcome reception of him he was discouraged
from settling within their jurisdiction.
In visiting the Bay of Chesapeake he ob-
served that the Virginians had established
trading-houses on some of the islands, but
that they had not extended their plantations
to the northward of the River Potowrnack,
although the country there was equally val-
uable with that which they had planted.
When he returned to England he applied
to King Charles I. for the grant of a territory
Chalmers, 201. I Smith, 130. Bevcrley, 46.
210 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
northward of the Potowmack ; and the king,
who had as great an affection for him as had
his father James, readily complied with his
request. But, owing to the tedious forms of
public business, before a patent could be
completed and pass the seals, Lord Balti-
more died at London on the 15th of April,
1632, in the 51st year of his age.
The character of this nobleman is thus
drawn.* Though he was a Roman Catholic,
he kept himself disengaged from all interests,
behaving with such moderation and proprie-
ty that all parties were pleased with him,
and none complained of him. He was a
man of great good sense, not obstinate in his
opinions, taking as much pleasure in hearing
the sentiments of others as in delivering his
own. While he was secretary of state he
examined all letters, and carried to the king
every night an exact and well-digested ac-
count of affairs. He agreed well with Sir
John Popham in the design of foreign plan-
tations, but differed in the manner of execu-
ting it. Popham was for extirpating the ori-
ginal inhabitants, Calvert was for civilizing
and converting them. The former was for
present profit, the latter for reasonable ex-
* Collier and Kippis.
CALVERT. 211
pectation, and for employing governors who
were not interested merchants, but unconcern-
ed gentlemen ; he was for granting liberties
with caution, leaving every one to provide for
himself by his own industry, and not to de-
pend on a common interest. He left some-
thing respecting America in writing, but it
does not appear that it was ever printed.
After the death of Sir George, the patent
was again drawn in the name of his eldest son,
Cecil, Lord Baltimore, and passed the seals
on the 28th of June, 1632.* The original
* [We may add a word to the notice of the second Lord Bal-
timore. Chalmers (362, 363) says, " Cecilius, the father of the
province, having lived to enjoy, what few men ever possess, the
fruit of the tree which his own hands had planted, died in the
beginning of 1676, covered with age and reputation, in the 44th
year of his government. Too honest a man to scatter the idle
theories of the projector among the million, he published no
scheme of ideal commonwealths to delude his followers; and
too wise not to mark the solid texture and excellent balance of
the English Constitution, he resolved to build upon its plan, and
to rear that of Maryland with all possible consimilarity. . . It was
his constant maxim, which he often recommended to the Legis-
lature, ' That by concord a small colony may grow into a great
and renowned nation ; but that, by dissension, mighty and glo-
rious kingdoms have declined and fallen into nothing.' On his
tombstone ought to be engraven, that while fanaticism del-
uged the empire, he refused his consent to the repeal of a law
which, in the true spirit of Christianity, gave liberty of con-
science to all."
He appointed his eon Charles governor in 1662, "that M
III. R
212 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
draught being in Latin, the patentee is called
Cecilius, and the country " Terra Maries,
alias Maryland,"* in honour of Henrietta
Maria, the queen consort of Charles I.t
From the great precision of this charter,
the powers which it gives to the proprietor,
and the privileges and exemptions which it
grants to the people, it is evident that Sir
George himself was the chief penman of it.
One omission was soon discovered : no pro-
vision was made that the laws should be
transmitted to the sovereign for his approba-
tion or disallowance. The Commissioners of
Trade and Plantations made a representation
of this defect to the House of Commons in
1633, and an act of Parliament was proposed
as the only remedy.1:
The province of Maryland is thus de-
scribed. All that part of a peninsula in
America, lying between the ocean on the east
might know the people, and learn to rule them." Charles suc-
ceeded as proprietary in 1676. H.] * Hazard, i., 327.
t Ogilby (p. 183) says that a blank was left for the name of
the territory, which Lord Baltimore intended to have filled with
Crescentia. But when the king asked him for a name, he com-
plaisantly referred it to his majesty's pleasure, who proposed the
name of the queen, to which his lordship could not but consent.
He also says that the second Lord Baltimore was christened
Cecil, in honour of his father's patron, but was confirmed by the
name of Cecilius (p. 184). t Chalmers, 203.
CALVERT. 213
and the Bay of Chesapeake on the west, and
divided from the other part by a right line
drawn from Watkin's Point, in the aforesaid
bay, on the west, to the main ocean on the
east. Thence to that part of Delaware Bay,
on the north, which lieth under the fortieth
degree of north latitude from the equinoctial,
where New-England ends. Thence in a right
line, by the degree aforesaid, to the true me-
ridian of the first fountains of the River Po-
towmac. Thence following the course of
said river to its mouth, where it falls into the
Bay of Chesapeake. Thence on a right line
across the bay to Watkin's Point, with all
the islands and islets within these limits.
This region was erected into a province,
and the proprietor was invested with palatine
honours. In conjunction with the freemen
or their delegates, he had legislative, and in
person, or by officers of his own appointment,
he had executive powers. He had also the
advowson of churches, the erection of man-
ors, boroughs, cities, and ports, saving the
liberty of fishing and drying fish, which was
declared common to all the king's subjects.
The charter provided, that if any doubts
should arise concerning the sense of it, such
an interpretation should be given as would be
214 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
most favourable to the interest of the pro-
prietor.*
The' territory is said to be " in the parts of
America not yet cultivated, though inhabited
by a barbarous people ;" and it is provided
that the province " should not be holden or
reputed as part of Virginia, or of any other
colony, but immediately dependant on the
crown of England." These clauses, togeth-
er with the construction put on the fortieth,
degree of latitude, proved the ground of long
and bitter controversies, one of which was
not closed till after the lapse of a century.
Twelve years before the date of the charter
(1620), John Porey, some time secretary of
Virginia, who had sailed into the northern
part of the Bay of Chesapeake, reported that
he found " near one hundred English people
very happily settled there, and engaged in
a fur-trade with the natives."! In the year
before the date of the charter (1631), King
Charles had granted a license, under the privy
* [There was also a singular covenant on the part of the king,
" that neither he nor any of his successors should at any time
impose, or cause to be imposed, any tallages on the colonists,
on their goods or tenements, or on their commodities to be
laden within the province. Thus was confirmed on Maryland
that exemption forever, which had been granted to other colonies
for years." Chalmers, 203. H.] t Purchas, v., 1784.
CALVERT. 215
eal of Scotland, to Sir William Alexander,*
proprietor of Nova Scotia, and to William
Cleyborne, counsellor and secretary of Vir-
ginia, to trade in those parts of America for
which there had not been a patent granted to
others ; and sent an order to the governor of
Virginia to permit them freely to trade there.
In consequence of which, Sir John Harvey
and his council, in the same year, had grant-
ed to the said Cleyborne a permission to sail
and traffic to the "adjoining plantations of
the Dutch, or to any English plantation on
the territory of America."! As nothing is
said in these instruments of the Swedes, who
first planted the shores of the Bay of Dela-
ware, it has been inferred by the advocates
of Baltimore that they had not settled there
previous to the charter of Maryland, though
* [Sir William Alexander was bom in Scotland in 1580. He
received a liberal education, and travelled as companion to the
Duke of Argyle. Soon after his return he married Janet, the
heiress of Sir William Erskine, and removed to the court of
James VI., where he acquired much note by his dramatic and
other writings. The king used to call him his philosophical
poet. He was knighted in 1631, made secretary of state for
Scotland in 1626, and created Earl of Sterling in 1633. He
continued in the office of secretary till his death in 1640. The
grant of Nova Scotia was made in 1621. See Gorton's Biog
Diet., and Haliburtori's Nova Scotia, i., 40, note. H.J
f Cbalmers, 229.
216 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
the family of Penn insisted on it as a fact that
the occupancy of the Swedes was prior to
that period. In consequence of the license
given to Cleyborne, he and his associates had
made a settlement on the Isle of Kent, far
within the limits of Maryland, and claimed a
monopoly of the trade in the Chesapeake.
These people, it is said, sent burgesses to the
Legislature of Virginia, and were considered
as subject to its jurisdiction before the estab-
lishment of Maryland.
After receiving the charter, Lord Balti-
more began to prepare for the collecting and
transporting a colony to America. At first
he intended to go in person, but afterward
changed his mind, and appointed his brother,
Leonard Calvert, governor, with two assist-
ants, Jeremy Hawley and Thomas Cornwal-
lis. These, with about two hundred per-
sons,* of good families and of the Roman
Catholic persuasion, embarked at Cowes, in
the Isle of Wight, on the twenty-second of
* The names of the principal men of the colony were, George
Calvert, brother to the proprietor and governor, Richard Gerard,
Edward Winter, Frederic Winter. Henry Wiseman, John San-
ders, John Baxter, Edward Cranfield, Henry Green, Nicholas
Fairfax, Thomas Dorrell, John Medcalf, William Sayre, John
Hill. See Douglass, ii., 357. Chalmers, 207. Oldmixon, i .
185.
CALVERT. 217
November, 1633, and, after a circuitous voy-
age through the West Indian Islands, touch-
ing first at Barbadoes and then at St. Chris-
topher's, they came to anchor before Point
Comfort, in Virginia, on the twenty-fourth of
February, 1634, and, going up to James-,
town, delivered to Governor Harvey the let-
ters which the king had written in their fa-
vour. The governor and his council receiv-
ed them with that civility which was due to
the command of their sovereign, but they re-
solved " to maintain the rights of the prior
settlement." They afforded to the new col-
ony supplies of provision for domestic use,
but considered them as intruders on their ter-
ritory, and as obstructing that traffic from
which they had derived and expected to de-
rive much advantage.
On the 3d of March, Calvert, with his col-
ony, proceeded in the Bay of Chesapeake to
the northward, and entered the Potowmac,
up which he sailed twelve leagues, and came
to anchor under an island, which he named
St. Clement. Here he fired his cannon, erect-
ed his cross, and took possession, " in the
name of the Saviour of the world and the
King of England." Thence he went with
his oinuaces fifteen leagues higher to the In-
218 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
dian town of Potowmac, on the Virginian
side of the river, now called New-Marlbor-
ough, where he was received in a friendly
manner by the guardian regent, the prince of
the country being a minor. Thence he sail-
ed twelve leagues farther, to the town of Pis-
cataway, on the Maryland side, where he
found Henry Fleet, an Englishman, who had
resided several years among the natives, and
was held by them in great esteem. He pro-
cured an interview between Calvert and the
werowance* or lord of the place, and offici-
ated as their interpreter. Calvert, determin-
ing to pursue a course of conduct founded on
pacific and honourable intentions, asked the
werowance whether he was willing that he
and his people should settle in his country.
His answer was short and prudent : "I will
not bid you to go nor to stay ; but you may
use your own discretion." This interview
was held on board the governor's pinnace ;
the natives on the shore crowded to the wa-
ter's edge to look after their sovereign, and
* [The word werowance appears to have signified, among the
Indians, the king, or chief, or head man of the tribe or nation.
The infancy of the werowance mentioned above " the prince 01
the country" seems to disprove what is alleged by some wri-
ters, that among the American Indians monarchy is always elect-
ive. Bosman, 271, note. H.J
CALVERT. 219
were not satisfied of his safety till he stood up
and showed himself to them.
Having made this discovery of the river,
and convinced the natives that his designs
were amicable, the governor, not thinking it
advisable to make his first settlement so high
up the river, sailed down to the ships, taking
Fleet with him for a guide. The natives,
who, when they first saw the ships and heard
the guns, had fled from St. Clement's Island
and its neighbourhood, returned to their hab-
itations, and seemed to repose confidence in
their new friends ; but this was not deemed a
proper station. Under the conduct of Fleet,
the governor visited a creek on the northern
side of the Potowmac, about four leagues
from its mouth, where was an Indian village
surrounded by cornfields, and called Yoacom-
aco.* Calvert went on shore, and acquaint-
ed the prince of the place with his intention,
who was rather reserved in his answer, but
entertained him in a friendly manner, and
gave him a lodging in his own bed.
On the next day he showed Calvert the
country, which pleased him so well that he
determined there to fix his abode, and treat-
* [Bosinan gives Yoamaco aa the correct spelling (p. 272,
note). H.]
220 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
ed with the prince about purchasing the place.
Calvert presented him and his principal men
with English cloth, axes, hoes, and knives ;
and they consented that their new friends
should reside in one part of their town, and
themselves in the other part, till the next
harvest, when they promised to quit the place,
and resign it wholly to them. Both parties
entered into a contract to live together in a
friendly manner ; or, if any injury should be
done on either side, the offending party should
make satisfaction. Calvert having given them
what he deemed a valuable consideration,
with which they appeared to be content, they
readily quitted a number of their houses and
retired to the others ; and, it being the sea-
son for planting, both parties went to work.
Thus, on the 27th of March, 1634, the Eng-
lish colony took peaceable possession of the
country of Maryland, arid gave to the town
the name of St. Mary, and to the creek on
which it was situate the name of St. George.
The Desire 01 quieting the natives, by giving
them a reasonable and satisfactory compen-
sation for their lands, is a trait in the charac-
ter of the first planters which will always do
honour to their memory.
It was a fortunate circumstance for these
CALVERT. 221
adventurers that, previous to their arrival, the
Indians of Yoacomaco had resolved to quit
their country, and retire to the westward, that
they might be free from the incursions of the
Susquehanocks, a powerful and warlike na-
tion residing between the Bays of Chesapeake
and Delaware, who frequently invaded them,
and carried off their provisions and women.
Some had actually removed, and the others
were preparing to follow, but were encour-
aged to remain another season by the pres-
ence of the English. They lived on friendly
terms with the colony ; the men assisted them
in hunting and fishing ; the women taught
them to manage the planting and culture of
corn, and the making it into bread ; and they
were compensated for their labour and kind-
ness in such tools and trinkets as were pleas-
ing to them. According to their promise,
they quitted the place wholly in the following
year, and the colony had full and quiet pos-
session.
At his first settlement in this place Calvert
erected a house, and mounted a guard for the
security of his people and stores. He was
soon after visited by Sir John Harvey, and
by several of the Indian princes. At an n-
tertainment on board one of the ships, the
222 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
werowance of Patuxent was seated between
the Governor of Virginia and the Governor
of Maryland. One of his own subjects com-
ing on board and seeing his sovereign in that
situation, started with surprise, thinking him
a prisoner, as he had been once before to
the Virginians. The prince rose from the
table, and satisfied the Indian that he was
safe, which prevented his affectionate sub-
ject from leaping into the water, as he had
attempted. This werowance was so much
pleased with the conduct of Calvert and his
people, that, after many other compliments,
he said to them at parting, " I love the Eng-
lish so well, that if I knew they would kill
me, I would command my people not to re-
venge my death, because I am sure they would
not kill me but through my own fault."
The colony had brought with them English
meal ; but they found Indian corn in great
plenty both at Barbadoes and Virginia, and
by the next spring they were able to export
one thousand bushels to New-England and
Newfoundland, for which they received dried
fish and other provisions in return. They
procured cattle, swine, and poultry from Vir-
giljia. They were very industrious in build-
ing houses and making gardens, in which they
C A L V E R T. 223
sowed the seeds of European esculent vege-
tables, and had the pleasure of seeing them
come to high perfection. They suffered much
in their health by the fever and ague, and
many of them died ; but when the survivers
were seasoned to the climate, and had learn-
ed the use of indigenous medicinal remedies,
they enjoyed their health much better. The
country had so many natural advantages that
it soon became populous. Many Roman Cath-
olic families from England resorted thither;
and the proprietor, with a degree of wisdom
and generosity, then unparalleled but in Hol-
land, after having established the Christian
religion upon the footing of common law,
granted liberty of conscience and equal priv-
ileges to Christians of every denomination.
With this essential benefit was connected se-
curity of property ; lands were given, in lots
of fifty acres, to every emigrant, in absolute
fee simple.* Under such advantages, the
* [In the early years of this colony lands were granted in va-
rious quantities and on various conditions. By Lord Baltimore's
" Instructions" to his brother, dated August 8th, 1636, each of
the first adventurers was to receive for every five men he brought
into the colony 2000 acres, subject to a rent of 400 Ibs. of good
wheat ; those who brought a smaller number were to have 100
acres for each grown person, and 50 for every child under six-
teen years. Those who came later received 2000 acres for ev
224 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
people thought themselves so happy, that in
an early period of their colonial existence,
they in return granted to the proprietor a
subsidy of fifteen pounds of tobacco on every
poll, " as a testimony of their gratitude for his
great charge and solicitude in maintaining
the government, in protecting the inhabitants
in their rights, and for reimbursing his vast
expense," which during the first two years
exceeded forty thousand pounds sterling.*
ery ten men, &c. These grants were to be made under the
great seal of the province, and to them and their heirs forever.
The " Instructions" are given in substance in Bosnian, 283-286.
H.] * Chalmers, 208.
FENN. 225
XXVII. WILLIAM PENN.
WILLIAM PENN, the founder of Pennsylva-
nia, was the grandson of Captain Giles Penn,
an English consul in the Mediterranean ; and
the son of Sir William Penn, an admiral of
the English navy, in the protectorate of
Cromwell, and in the reign of Charles II., in
which offices he rendered very important ser-
vices to the nation, particularly by the con-
quest of Jamaica from the Spaniards, and in
a naval victory over the Dutch. William
was born October 14, 1644, in the parish of
St. Catharine, near the Tower of London,
educated at Chigwell, in Essex, and at a pri-
vate school in London ; and in the fifteenth
year of his age entered as a student and gen-
tleman commoner of Christ-Church College
in Oxford.
His genius was bright,* his disposition so-
* [The portrait of Penn, painted somewhat later, yet in his
early life, represents him as " eminently handsome ; the ex-
pression of his countenance remarkably pleasing and sweet ; his
eye dark and lively, and his hair flowing gracefully over his
shoulders, according to the fashion set by the worthless though
fascinating Charles II." Fisher's Private Life of Penn, Mem
of Penn. Hist Society, vol. iii., part ii., p. 71. H.]
226 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
ber and studious ; and being possessed of a
lively imagination and a warm heart, the first
turn of his mind towards religious subjects
was attended with circumstances bordering
on enthusiasm. Having received his first im-
pressions from the preaching of Thomas Loe,
an itinerant Quaker, he conceived a favoura-
ble opinion of the flights and refinements of
that rising sect, which led him, while at the
University, in conjunction with some other
students, to withdraw from the established
worship and hold a private meeting, where
they preached and prayed in their own way.
The discipline of the University being very
strict in such matters, he was fined for the sin
of non-conformity ; this served to fix him
more firmly in his principles and habits, and
exposed his singularity more openly to the
world. His conduct being then deemed ob-
stinate, he was, in the sixteenth year of his
age, expelled as an incorrigible offendei
against the laws of uniformity.
On his return home he found his father
highly incensed against him. As neither
remonstrances, nor threaten ings, nor blows
could divest him of his religious attachments,
he was for a while turned out of the house ;
but, by the influence of his mother, he was so
P E N N. 227
far restored to favour as to be sent to France,
in company with some persons of quality,
with a view to unbend his mind and refine his
manners. Here he learned the language of
the country, and acquired such a polite and
courtly behaviour,* that his father, after two
years' absence, received him with joy, hoping
that the object of his wishes was attained.
He was then admitted into Lincoln's Inn,
where he studied law till the plague broke
out in 1665, when he returned to his father's
house.
About this time (1666), the king's coffers
being low, and claims for unrewarded ser-
vices being importunate, grants were fre-
quently made of lands in Ireland ; and the
merits of Sir William Penn being not the
least conspicuous, he received a valuable es-
tate in the county of Cork, and committed
the management of it to his son, then in the
twenty-second year of his age. Here he met
with his old friend Loe, and immediately at-
tached himself to the society of Quakers,
though at that time they were subject to se-
* [In Pepys's Diary, vol. i., p. 311, under the date of August
26, 1664, we find this record : " Mr. Pen, Sir William's BOD, i
come back from France, and came to visit my wife. A most
modish person grown, she says a fine gentleman." H.J
III. S
228 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
vere persecution. This might have operated
as a discouragement to a young gentleman
of such quality and expectations, especially
as he exposed himself thereby to the renewed
displeasure of a parent who loved him, had
not the integrity and fervour of his mind
induced him to sacrifice all worldly consider-
ations to the dictates of his conscience.
It was not long before he was apprehended
at a religious " conventicle" and, with eigh-
teen others, committed to prison by the
mayor of Cork ; but upon his writing a hand-
some address to the Earl of Orrery, lord-
president of Munster, in which he very sensi-
bly pleaded for liberty of conscience, and
professed his desire of a peaceable, and his
abhorrence of a tumultuous and disrespectful
separation from the established worship, he
was discharged. This second stroke of per-
secution engaged him more closely to the
Quakers. He associated openly with them,
and bore with calmness and patience the
cruel abuse which was liberally bestowed on
that singular party.*
* [Pepys notices this attachment to the Quakers as we might
suppose he would. "At night (Dec. 29, 1667) comes Mrs.
Turner to see us ; and then, among other talk, she tells me that
Mr. William Pen, who js lately come over from Ireland, is a
P E N N. 229
His father being informed of his conduct,
remanded him home ; and though now Will-
iam's age forbade his trying the force of that
species of discipline to which, as a naval
commander, he had been accustomed, yet he
plied him with those arguments which it was
natural for a man of the world to use, and
which, to such a one, would have been pre-
vailing. The principal one was a threatening
to disinherit him ; and to this he humbly sub-
mitted, though he could by no means be per-
suaded to take off his hat in presence of the
king, the Duke of York, or his father.* For
this inflexibility he was again turned out of
doors ; upon which he commenced an itin-
erant preacher, and had much success in ma-
Quaker again, or some very melancholy thing; that he cares for
no company, nor comes into any ; which is a pleasant thing,
after his being abroad so long." Diary, ii., 172. H.]
* [Jesse, in his Continuation of his Memoirs of the Stuarts,
i., 213, relates the following anecdote, which is characteristic
enough to be true. "Among those whom he (the king) admit-
ted to familiar intercourse, was William Penn, the celebrated
Quaker and lawgiver of Pennsylvania. Penn, on his introduc-
tion, had continued standing before the king without removing
his hat. Nothing could be more characteristic than the quiet
rebuke of Charles : he merely took off his own hat, and stood
uncovered before Penn. ' Friend Charles,' said the future le-
gislator, ' why dost thou not keep on thy hatT "Tis the cus-
tom of this place,' replied the witty monarch, ' for only one
person to remain covered at a time.' " H.]
230 AMERICAN BIOGRA-t-HY.
king proselytes. In these excursions, the op-
position which he met with from the clergy
and the magistracy frequently brought him
into difficulties, and sometimes to imprison-
ment ; but his integrity was so manifest, and
his patience so invincible, that his father at
length became softened towards him, and
not only exerted his interest to release him
from confinement, but winked at his return to
the family whenever it suited his conveniency.
His mother was always his friend, and often
supplied his necessities without the knowl-
edge of the father.
In the year 1668 he commenced author ;
and, having written a book entitled " The
Sandy Foundation Shaken," which gave great
offence to the spiritual lords, he was impris-
oned in the Tower, and the visits of his friends
were forbidden. But his adversaries found
him proof against all their efforts to subdue
him ; for a message being brought to him by
the Bishop of London that he must either
publicly recant or die a prisoner, his answer
was, " My prison shall be my grave. I owe
my conscience to no man. They are mista-
ken in me ; I value not their threats. They
shall know that I can weary out their malice,
and baffle all their designs by the spirit
PENN. 231
of patience." During this confinement he
wrote his famous book, " No Cross, No
Crown;" and another, " Innocency with her
open Face," in which he explained and vin-
dicated the principles which he had advanced
in .the book for which he was imprisoned.
This, with a letter which he wrote to Lord
Arlington, secretary of state, aided by the in-
terest which his father had at court, procured
his release, after seven months' confinement.
Soon after this he made another visit to
Ireland to settle his father's concerns, in
which he exerted himself with great industry
and success. Here he constantly appeared
at the meetings of the Quakers, and not only
officiated as a preacher, but used his interest
with the lord-lieutenant, and others of the no-
bility, to procure indulgence for them, and
get some of them released from their impris-
onment.
In 1670 an act of Parliament was made,
which prohibited the meetings of Dissenters,
under severe penalties. The Quakers be-
ing forcibly debarred entering their meeting-
house in Grace-Church-street, London, as-
sembled before it in the street, where Penn
preached to a numerous concourse ; and be-
ing apprehended on the spot by a warrant
232 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
from the lord mayor, was committed to New-
gate, and at the next session took his trial
at the Old Bailey, where he pleaded his own
cause with the freedom of an Englishman
and the magnanimity of a hero. The jury at
first brought in their verdict, " guilty of
speaking in Grace-Church-street ;" but this
being unsatisfactory to the court, they were
detained all night, and the next day returned
their verdict "not guilty." The court were
highly incensed against them, fined them
forty marks each, and imprisoned them along
with Penn till their fines and fees were paid.
An unlucky expression which dropped from
the recorder on this trial, rendered the cause
of the Quakers popular, and their perse-
cutors odious : "It will never be well with
us," said the infamous Sir John Howel, " till
something like the Spanish Inquisition be es-
tablished in England." The triumph of
Penn was complete : being acquitted by his
peers, he was released from prison on the
payment of his fees, and returned to the zeal-
ous exercise of his ministry.
His conduct under this prosecution did him
great honour.* His father became perfectly
* [Mr. Fisher remarks that, though he had forsaken the
fashionable society which he had before enjoyed, and had at-
PENN. 233
reconciled to him, and soon after died,* leav-
ing his paternal blessing and a plentiful es-
tate. This accession of fortune made no al-
teration in his manners or habits. He con-
tinued to preach, to write, and to travel as
before ; and, within a few months afterward,
was taken up again for preaching in the
street, arid carried to the Tower, from whence,
after a long examination, he was sent to New-
gate, and being discharged without any trial
at the end of nine months, he went over to
Holland and Germany, where he continued
travelling and preaching till the king publish-
ed his declaration of indulgence to tender
tached himself to a despised sect, " it is remarkable that we do
not find he forfeited the respect, or even incurred the ridicule,
of his old friends and companions." Memoirs of the Penn-
sylvania Historical Society, iii., part ii., p. 72. A just tribute
from those who knew him best to his consummate prudence, as
well as to the frankness of his character and the sincerity of his
new religious profession. H.]
* The dying advice of his father to him deserves to be re-
membered. " Three things I commend to you. 1 . Let no-
thing tempt you to wrong your conscience : If you keep peace
at home, it will be a feast to you in a day of trouble. 2.
Whatever you design to do, lay it justly, and time it seasonably;
for that gives security and despatch. 3. Be not troubled at
disappointments : if they may be recovered, do it ; if not,
trouble is vain. These rales will carry you with firmness
and comfort through this inconstant world." No Cross, no
Crown, 2d ed.
234 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
consciences, upon which he returned to Eng-
land, married a daughter of Sir William
Springet, and settled at Rickmansworth, in
Hertfordshire, where he pursued his studies,
and multiplied his controversial writings for
about five years.
In 1677 he " had a drawing" to renew his
travels in Holland and Germany, in company
with Fox, Barclay, Keith, and several others
of his brethren. The inducement to this
journey was the candid reception which had
been given, by divines and other learned men
in Germany, to the sentiments of every well-
meaning preacher who dissented from the
Church of Rome. In the course of these
travels they settled the order of church-gov-
ernment, discipline, correspondence, and mar-
riage* among their friends in Holland ; dis-
* It may not be amiss here to introduce an extract from Mr.
Penn's Journal containing the sentiments of the Quakers con-
cerning marriage : "Amsterdam, the 3d of the 6th month, 1677.
A scruple concerning the law of the magistrate about marriage
being proposed and discoursed of in the fear of God, among
friends at a select meeting, it was the universal and unanimous
sense of friends, that joining in marriage is the work of the Lord
only, and not of priest or magistrate. It is God's ordinance,
and not man's. It was God's work before the fall, and it is
God's work in the restoration. We marry none ; it. is the
Lord's work, and we are but witnesses. But if a friend have a
desire that the magistrate should know it before the marriage be
P E N N. 235
persed their books among all sorts of people
who were inclined to receive them ; visited
many persons of distinction, and wrote letters
to others, particularly to the King of Poland
and the Elector Palatine. They were receiv-
ed very courteously by the Princess Eliza-
beth, grand- daughter of King James I., then
resident at Herwerden, who, though not per-
fectly initiated into the mystery of " the holy
silence," yet had been brought to a " waiting
frame," and admitted them to several private
meetings and conferences in her apartments,
in company with the Countess of Homes and
other ladies, her attendants ; and afterward
kept up a correspondence with Mr. Penn till
her death.
On his return to England he found his
friends suffering by the operation of a law
made against papists, the edge of which was
unjustly turned against them. The law re-
quired a certain oath to be tendered to those
who were suspected of popery ; and, because
the Quakers denied the lawfulness of oaths
in any case whatever, they were obliged to
concluded, he may publish the same (after the thing hath by
friends been found clear), and, after the marriage is performed
in a public meeting of friends and others, may carry a copy of
the certificate to the magistrates, that, if they please, they may
register it.* 1
236 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
bear the penalty annexed to the refusal of this
oath, which was no less than a fine of twenty
pounds per month, or two thirds of their
estate. By Penn's advice they petitioned
the Parliament for redress of this grievance,
and, after explaining the reason of their de-
clining the oath, offered to give their word to
the same purport, and to submit to the pen-
alty " if they should be found faulty." Penn
had a hearing before a committee of Parlia-
ment, when he pleaded the cause of his friends
and of himself in a sensible, decent, convin-
cing manner ; and what he said had so much
weight, that the committee agreed to insert
in a bill then pending a proviso for their re-
lief. The bill passed the Commons, but, be-
fore it could be got through the House of
Lords, it was lost by a sudden prorogation
of Parliament.
We have hitherto viewed Mr. Penn as a
Christian and a preacher, and he appears to
have been honest, zealous, patient, and indus-
trious in the concerns of religion. His abili-
ties and his literary acquirements were emi-
nently serviceable to the fraternity with which
he was connected ; and it was owing to his
exertions, in conjunction with Barclay and
Keith, that they were formed into order, and
P E N N. 237
that a regular correspondence and discipline
were established among the several societies
of them dispersed in Europe and America.
His writings served to give the world a more
just and favourable idea of their principles
than could be had from the harangues of illit-
erate preachers or the rhapsodies of enthu-
siastic writers, while his family and fortune
procured for them a degree of respectability
at home and abroad. His controversial wri-
tings are modest, candid, and persuasive.
His book entitled " The Christian Quaker"
is a sensible vindication of the doctrine of
Universal Saving Light. His style is clear
and perspicuous ; and, though he does not
affect so much scholastic subtilty in his argu-
mentation as his friend Barclay, yet he is by
no means inferior to him in solidity of reason-
ing. His character is thus drawn by the edi-
tor of his works : " Our worthy friend, Will-
iam Penn, was known to be a man of great
abilities ; of an excellent sweetness of dispo-
sition ; of quick thought and ready utterance ;
full of love, without dissimulation ; as exten-
sive in charity as comprehensive in knowl-
edge ; so ready to forgive enemies, that the
ungrateful were not excepted. He was learn-
ed without vanity, apt without forwardness,
238 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
facetious in conversation, yet weighty and se-
rious ; of an extraordinary gr witness of mind,
yet void of the stain of ambition."
We shall now view him in the characte*
of a LEGISLATOR, in which respect his learn-
ing, his sufferings, his acquaintance with man-
kind, and his genuine liberality, were of great
use to him. Among his various studies, he
had not omitted to acquaint himself with the
principles of law and government ; and he
had more especial inducement to this from
the prosecutions and arrests which he fre-
quently suffered, into the legality of which it
was natural for him to inquire. He had ob-
served in his travels abroad, as well as in his
acquaintance at home, the workings of arbi-
trary power, and the mischiefs of usurpation ;
and he had studied the whole controversy be-
tween regal and popular claims : the result of
which was, that government must be founded
in justice, and exercised with moderation.
One of his maxims was, that " the people be-
ing the ivife-politic of the prince, is better man-
aged by wisdom than ruled by force." His
own feelings, as well as reflections, led him
to adopt the most liberal idea of toleration.
Freedom of profession and inquiry, and a to-
tal abhorrence of persecution for conscience'
PENN. 239
sake, were his darling principles ; and it is a
singular circumstance in the history of man-
kind, that Divine Providence should give to
such a man as William Penn an opportunity
to make a fair and consistent experiment of
these excellent maxims, by establishing a col-
ony in America on the most liberal principles
of toleration, at a time when the policy of
the oldest nations of Europe were ineffectual-
ly employed in endeavouring to reduce the
active minds of men to a most absurd uni-
formity in articles of faith and modes of wor-
ship.
It has been observed that his father, Sir
William Penn, had merited much by his ser-
vices in the English navy. There were also
certain debts due to him from the crown at
the time of his death, which the royal treas-
ures were poorly able to discharge. His son,
after much solicitation, found no prospect of
getting his due in the common mode of pay-
ment, and therefore turned his thoughts to-
wards obtaining a grant of land in America,
on which he might make the experiment of
settling a colony, and establishing a govern-
ment suited to his own principles and views.
Mr. Penn had been concerned with sev-
eral other Quakers in purchasing of Lord
240 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
Berkeley his patent of West-Jersey, to make
a settlement for their persecuted brethren in
England, many of whom transported them-
selves thither, in hope of an exemption from
the troubles which they had endured from the
execution of the penal laws against Dissent-
ers. But they found themselves subject to
the arbitrary impositions of Sir Edmund An-
dros, who governed the Duke of York's ter-
ritory, and exercised jurisdiction over all the
settlements on both sides the Delaware. Penn
and his associates remonstrated against his
conduct, but their efforts proved ineffectual.
However, the concern which Penn had in this
purchase gave him not only a taste for spec-
ulating in landed interest, but a knowledge
of the middle region of the American coasts ;
and being desirous of acquiring a separate
estate, where he might realize his sanguine,
wishes, he had great advantage in making in-
quiry and determining on a place.
Having examined all the former grants to
the companies of Virginia and New-Eng-
land, the Lord Baltimore, and the Duke of
York, he fixed upon a territory bounded on
the east by the bay and river of Delaware,
extending southward to Lord Baltimore's
province of Maryland, westward as far as the
PENN. 241
western extent of Maryland, and northward
" as far as plantable." For this he petition-
ed the king ; and being examined before the
privy council, on the 14th of June, concern-
ing of those words of his petition " as far as
plantable," he declared " that he should be
satisfied with the extent of three degrees of
latitude ; and that, in lieu of such a grant, he
was willing to remit his debt from the crown,
or some part of it, and to stay for the remain-
der till his majesty should be in a better con-
dition to satisfy it."
Notice of this application was given to the
agents of the Duke of York and Lord Bajti-
more, and inquiry was made how far the pre-
tensions of Penn might consist with the grants
already made to them. The peninsula be-
tween the Bays of Chesapeake and Delaware
had been planted by detached companies of
Swedes, Finlanders, Dutch, and English. It
was, first by force, and afterward by treaty,
brought under the dominion of the crown of
England. That part of it which bordered on
the Delaware was within the Duke of York's
patent, while that which joined on the Ches-
apeake was within the grant to Lord Balti-
more.
The duke's agent consented that Penn
242 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
should have' the land west of Delaware and
north of Newcastle, " in consideration of the
reason he had to expect favour from his ma-
jesty." Lord Baltimore's agent petitioned
that Penn's grant might be expressed to lie
north of Susquehannah Fort, and of a line
drawn east and west from it, and that he
might not be allowed to sell arms and am-
munition to the Indians. To these restric-
tions Penn had no objection.
The draught of a charter being prepared,
it was submitted to Lord-chief-justice North,
who was ordered to provide by fit clauses for
the interest of the king and the encourage-
ment of the planters. While it was under
consideration, the Bishop of London petition-
ed that Penn might be obliged by his patent
to admit a chaplain of his lordship's appoint-
ment, at the request of any number of the
planters. The giving a name to the province
was left to the king.
The charter, consisting of twenty-three
sections, "penned with all the appearance of
candour and simplicity," was signed and
sealed by King Charles II., on the fourth of
March, 1681. It constitutes WILLIAM PENN
and his heirs true and absolute proprietaries
of the Province of PENNSYLVANIA, saving to
P E N N. 243
the crown their allegiance and the sovereign-
ty. It gives him, his heirs, and their depu-
ties, power to make laws " for the good and
happy government of the country," by advice
of the freemen, and to erect courts of justice
for the execution of those laws, provided they
be not repugnant to the laws of England.
For the encouragement of planters, they were
to enjoy the privileges of English subjects,
paying the same duties in trade ; and no tax-
es were to be levied on them but by their own
Assemblies, or by acts of Parliament. With
respect to religion, no more is said than what
the Bishop of London had suggested, that if
twenty inhabitants should desire a preacher
of his lordship's approbation, he should be
allowed to reside in the province. This was
perfectly agreeable to Mr. Penn's professed
principles of liberty of conscience ; but it may
seem rather extraordinary that, this distin-
guished leader of a sect, who so pointedly
denied the lawfulness of war, should accept
the powers given him in the sixteenth article
of the charter, " to levy, muster, and train all
sorts of men, to pursue and vanquish ene-
mies, to take and put them to death by the
laws of war, and to do everything which be-
longeth to the office of CAPTAIN-GENERAL in
III. T
:244 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
an army." Mr. Penn, for reasons of state,
might find it convenient that he and his heirs
should be thus invested with the power of the
sword, though it was impossible for him or
them to exercise it without first apostatizing
from their religious profession.
The charter being thus obtained, he found
himself authorized to agree with such persons
as were disposed to be adventurers to his new
province. By a public advertisement, he in-
vited purchasers, and described the country,
with a display of the advantages which might
be expected from a settlement in it. This in-
duced many single persons, and some fam-
ilies, chiefly of the denomination of Quakers,
to think of a removal. A number of mer-
chants and others formed themselves into a
company, for the sake of encouraging the set-
tlement and trade of the country, and pur-
chased twenty thousand acres of his land.
They had a president, treasurer, secretary,
and a committee of twelve, who resided in
England and transacted their common busi-
ness. Their objects were to encourage the
manufactures of leather and glass, the cutting
and sawing of timber, and the whale-fishery.
The land was sold at the rate of twenty
pounds for every thousand acres. They who
PENN. 245
rented lands were to pay one penny yearly
per acre. Servants, when their terms were
expired, were entitled to fifty acres, subject
to two shillings per -annum; and their mas-
ters were allowed fifty acres for each servant
so liberated, but subject to four shillings per
annum ; or, if the master should give the ser-
vant fifty acres out of his own division, he
might receive from the proprietor one hun-
dred acres, subject to six shillings per annum.
In every hundred thousand acres, the proprie-
tor reserved ten for himself.
The quit-rents were not agreed to with-
out difficulty. The purchasers remonstrated
against them as a burden, unprecedented in
any other American colony. But Penn dis-
tinguished between the character of proprie-
tor and governor, urging the necessity of sup-
porting government with dignity, and that,
by complying with this expedient, they would
be freed from other taxes. Such distinctions
are very convenient to a politician, and by
this insinuation the point was carried : upon
which it was remarked (perhaps too severely),
that " less of the man of God now appeared,
and more of the man of the world."
According to the powers given by the char-
ter " for regulating and governing property
246 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
within the province," he entered into certain
articles with the purchasers and adventurers
(July 11, 1681), which were entitled " Con-
ditions and Concessions." These related to
the laying out roads, city and country lots ;
the privilege of water-courses ; the property
of mines and minerals ; the reservation of
timber and mulberry trees ; the terms of im-
provement and cultivation ; the traffic with
the Indians, and the means of preserving
peace with them ; of preventing debtors and
other defaulters from making their escape ;
and of preserving the morals of the planters,
by the execution of the penal laws of England,
till an Assembly should meet.
These preliminaries being adjusted, the
first colony, under his authority, came over
to America, and began their settlement above
the confluence of the Schuylkill with the Del-
aware. By them the proprietor sent a let-
ter to the Indians, informing them that " the
GREAT GOD had been pleased to make him
concerned in their part of the world, and that
the king of the country where he lived had
given him a great province therein ; but that
he did not desire to enjoy it without their
consent ; that he was a man of peace, and
that the people whom he sent were of the
P E N N. 247
same disposition ; but if any difference should
happen between them, it might be adjusted
by an equal number of men on both sides."
With this letter he appointed commissioners
to treat with the Indians about purchasing
land, and promised that he would shortly
come and converse with them in person.
About this time (Nov., 1681) he was elect-
ed a Fellow of the Royal Society.
The next spring he completed a frame of
government (April 25, 1682), with the ex-
press design " to support power in reverence
with the people, and to secure the people
from the abuse of power.". It is prefaced
with a long discourse ort the nature, origin,
use and abuse of government ; which shows
that he had not only well studied the subject,
but that he was fond of displaying his knowl-
edge.
By this frame of government there was to
be a Provincial Council, consisting of seventy-
two persons, answering to the number of el-
ders in the Jewish sanhedrim, who were to be
divided into three classes : twenty-four to
serve for three years, twenty-four for two
years, and twenty-four for one year ; the va-
cancies thus made to be supplied by new
elections ; and after seven years, every one
248 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
of those who went off yearly were to be in
capable of re-election for one year following
This rotation was intended " that all mighi
be fitted for government, and have experience
of the care and burden of it." Of this coun-
cil two thirds were to be a quorum, and the
consent of two thirds of this quorum was to
be had in all matters of moment ; but in mat-
ters of lesser moment one third might be a
quorum, the majority of whom might deter-
mine. The distinction between matters of
moment and of lesser moment was not de-
fined, nor was it declared who was to be
judge of the distinction. The governor was
not to have a negative, but a treble voice.
The Council were to prepare and propose
bills to the General Assembly, which were to
be published thirty days before its meeting.
When met, the Assembly might deliberate
eight days, but on the ninth were to give their
assent or dissent to the proposed bills : two
thirds of them to be a quorum. With re-
spect to the number of the Assembly, it was
provided that the first year all the freemen
in person might compose it ; afterward a del-
egation of two hundred, which might be in-
creased to five hundred. The governor, with
the Council, to be the supreme executive,
PENN. 249
wHh a parental and prudential authority, and
to be divided into four departments of eigh-
teen each ; one of which was called a com-
mittee of plantations, another of justice and
safety, another of trade and revenue, and an-
other of manners, education, and arts.
To this frame of government was subjoined
a body of fundamental laws, agreed upon by
Penn and the adventurers in London, which
respected moral, political, and economical
matters ; which were not to be altered but
by the consent of the governor or his heirs,
and six parts in seven of the freemen, met in
Provincial Council and Assembly. In this
code we find that celebrated declaration,
which has contributed more than anything
else to the prosperity of Pennsylvania, viz.,
" That all persons living in the province who
confess and acknowledge the ONE almighty
and eternal GOD to be the creator, upholder,
and ruler of the world, and hold themselves
obliged in conscience to live peaceably and
justly in civil society, shall in no ways be
molested for their religious persuasion or
practice in matters of faith and worship, nor
shall they be compelled at any time to frequent
or maintain any religious worship, place, or
ministry whatever." To which was added
250 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
another equally conducive to the welfare of
society : " That, according to the good ex-
ample of the primitive Christians, and the
case of the creation, every first day of the
week, called the Lord's Day, people shall
abstain from their common daily labour, that
they may the better dispose themselves to
worship God according to their understand-
ings."
These laws were an original compact be-
tween the governor and the freemen of the
colony. They appear to be founded in wis-
dom and equity, and some of them have been
copied into the declarations of rights prefixed
to several of the present republican constitu-
tions in America. The system of govern-
ment which Penn produced has been regard-
ed as a Utopian project ; but, though in some
parts visionary and impracticable, yet it was
liberal and popular, calculated to gain adven-
turers with a prospect of republican advanta-
ges. Some of its provisions, particularly the
rotation of the council, have been adopted by
a very enlightened body of American legisla-
tors, after the expiration of a century. The
experiment is now in operation, and without
experiment nothing can be fairly decided in
the political any more than in the physical
world.
PENN 251
Having, by the help of Sir William Jones
and other gentlemen of the long robe, con-
structed a plan of government for his colony,
Mr. Penn prepared to make the voyage to
America, that he might attempt the execu-
tion of it.
A part of the lands comprehended within
his grant had been subject to the govern-
ment which was exercised by the deputy of
the Duke of York. To prevent any difficul-
ty, he thought it convenient to obtain from
the duke a deed of sale of the Province of
Pennsylvania, which he did on the 21st of
August, 1682 ; and, by two subsequent deeds
in the same month, the duke conveyed to him
the town of Newcastle, situate on the west-
ern side of the Delaware, with a circle of"
twelve miles radius from the centre of the
town, and from thence extending southerly
to the Hoar Kills, at Cape Henlopen, the
western point of the entrance of Delaware
Bay, which tract contained the settlements
made by the Dutch, Swedes, and Finns.
This was called the Territory, in distinction
from the Province of Pennsylvania, and was
divided into three counties, Newcastle, Kent,
and Sussex.
At this time the oenal laws against Dissent-
m.u
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
ers were executed with rigour in England,
which made many of the Quakers desirous of
accompanying or following Penn into Ameri-
ca, where they had a prospect of the most
extensive liberty of conscience. Having cho-
sen some for his particular companions, he
embarked with them in August, 1682 ; and
from the Downs, where the ship lay waiting
for a wind, he wrote an affectionate letter to
his friends, which he called "a farewell to
England." After a pleasant passage of six
weeks they came within sight of the American
coast, and were refreshed by the land breezes
at the distance of twelve leagues. As the
ship sailed up the Delaware, the inhabitants
came on board, and saluted their new gov-
ernor with an air of joy and satisfaction. He
landed at Newcastle, and summoned the peo-
ple to meet him, when possession of the soil
was given him in the legal form of that day,
and he entertained them with a speech, ex-
plaining the purpose of his coming and the
views of his government, assuring them of his
intention to preserve civil and religious liber-
ty, and exhorting them to peace and sobriety.
Having renewed the commissions of their for-
mer magistrates, he went to Chester, where
he repeated the same things, and received
p E r N. 253
their congratulations. The Swedes appoint-
ed a delegate to compliment him on his arri-
val, and to assure him of their Taffection and
fidelity.
At this time the number of inhabitants was
about three thousand. The first planters
were the Dutch, and after them the Swedes
and Finns. There had been formerly dis-
putes among them, but for above twenty
years they had been in a state of peae
The Dutch were settled on the bay, and ap-
plied themselves chiefly to trade. At New-
castle they had a courthouse and a place of
worship. The Swedes and Finns lived high-
er up the river, and followed husbandry.
Their settlements were Christina, Tenecum,
and Wicoco, at each of which they had a
church. They were a plain, robust, sober,
and industrious people, and most of them had
large families. The colony which Penn had
sent over the year before began their settle-
ment above Wicoco, and it was, by special
direction of the proprietor, called PHILADEL-
PHIA. The province was divided into three
counties, Chester, Buckingham, and Phila-
delphia.
Three principal objects engaged the atten-
tion of Mr. Penn : one was to unite the terri-
254 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
tory with the province ; another was to enter
into a treaty with the Indians ; and a third
was to lay out a capital city.
The first was entered upon immediately.
Within a month after his arrival he called a
General Assembly at Chester, when the con-
stitution, which had been formed in England,
was to undergo an experiment. The freemen
both of the province and territory were sum-
moned to compose this Assembly in person.
Instead of which they elected twelve mem-
bers in each county, amounting in all to sev-
enty-two, the precise number which, by the
frame of government, was to compose one
house only. The elections were accompa-
nied by petitions to the governor, importing
" that the fewness of the people, their inabil-
ity in estate, and uuskilfulness in government,
would not permit them to serve in so large a
council and assembly, and therefore it was
their desire that the twelve now returned
from each county might serve both for Pro-
vincial Council and General Assembly, with
the same powers and privileges which by the
charter were granted to the whole."
The members were accordingly distributed
into two houses ; three out of each county
made a Council, consisting of eighteen, and
PENN. 255
the remaining part formed an Assembly of
fifty-four. In this Assembly was passed " the
act of settlement," in which the frame of
government made in England, being styled a
probationary act, was so far changed as that
three persons of each county might compose
the Council and six the Assembly. After
several other " variations, explanations, and
additions" requested by the Assembly and
yielded to by the governor, the aforesaid
charter and frame of government was " rec-
ognised and accepted, as if with these alter-
ations it was supposed to be complete." The
Assembly is styled " the General Assembly
of the Province of Pennsylvania and the ter
ritories thereunto belonging."
Thus the lower counties at this time mani-
fested their willingness to be united with the
province of Pennsylvania ; but the proprietor
had not received from the crown any right of
jurisdiction over that territory, though the
duke had sold him the right of soil, and it
was not in the power of the people, as sub-
jects of the King of England, to put them-
selves under any form of government without
the royal authority. The want of this, with
the operation of other causes, produced diffi-
culties which afterward rendered this union
256 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
void; and the three lower counties had a
separate Assembly, though under the same
governor.
Mr. Penn's next object was to treat with
the natives. The benevolence of his disposi-
tion led him to exercise great tenderness to-
wards them, which was much increased by
an opinion which he had formed, and which
he openly avowed, that they were descend-
ants of the ten dispersed tribes of IsraeL He
travelled into the country, visited them in
their cabins, was present at their feasts, con-
versed with them in a free and familiar man-
ner, and gained their affections by his obli-
ging carriage, and his frequent acts of gener-
osity. But on public occasions he received
them with ceremony, and transacted business
with solemnity and order.
In one of his excursions in the winter he
found a chief warrior sick, and his wife pre-
paring to sweat him, in the usual manner, by
pouring water on a heap of hot stones, in a
closely covered hut, and then plunging him
into the river, through a hole cut in the ice.
To divert himself during the sweating opera-
tion, the chief sang the achievements of his
ancestors, then his own, and concluded his
song with this reflection : " Why are we sick,
P E N N. 267
and these strangers well ? It seems as if
they were sent to inherit the land in our steafl !
Ah ! it is because they love the Great Spirit,
and we do not !" The sentiment was ration-
al, and such as often occurred to the sagacious
among the natives. We cannot suppose it
was disagreeable to Mr. Penn, whose view
was to impress them with an idea of his hon-
est and pacific intentions, and to make a fair
bargain with them.
Some of their chiefs made him a voluntary
present of the land which they claimed, oth-
ers sold it at a stipulated price. The form of
one of these treaties is thus described, in a
letter which he wrote to his friends in Eng-
land. " The king sat in the middle of a half
moon, and had his council, old and wise, on
each hand. Behind, at a little distance, sat
the young ones, in the same figure. Having
consulted and resolved the business, the king
ordered one of ftiem to speak to me. He
stood up, came to me, took me by the hand,
saluted me in the name of the king, told me
he was ordered by the king to speak to me,
and that now it was not he that spoke, but
the king, because what he should say was the
king's mind. [Having made an apology for
their delay,] he fell to the bounds of the laud
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
they had to dispose of, and the price, which is
row dear, that which would once have bought
twenty miles not now buying two. During
the time this person was speaking, not a man
of them was observed to whisper or smile.
When the purchase was agreed, great prom-
ises passed between us of kindness and good
neighbourhood, and that the English and In-
dians must live in love as long as the sun gave
light. Which done, another made a speech
to the Indians in the name of all the sachems,
first to tell them what was done, next to
charge them to love the Christians, to live in
peace with me and my people, and that they
should never do me or my people any wrong ;
at every sentence of which they shouted and
said Amen in their way. The pay or pres-
ents I made them were not hoarded by the
particular owners, but, the neighbouring kings
and their clans being present when the goods
were brought out, the parties chiefly concern-
ed consulted what and to whom they should
give them. To every king, then, by the hands
of a person for that work appointed, was a
proportion sent, sorted and folded, with that
gravity which is admirable. Then that king
subdivided it in like manner among his de-
pendants, they hardly leaving themselves an
equal share with one of their subjects."
P E N N. 259
Mr. Penn was so happy as to succeed in
his endeavours to gain the good-will of the
Indians. They have frequently, in subse-
quent treaties many years after, expressed
great veneration for his memory ; and to per-
petuate it, they have given to the successive
governors of Pennsylvania the name of Onas,
which signifies a Pen. By this name they
are commonly known and addressed in the
speeches made by the Six Nations in all their
treaties. ; $ J
One part of his agreement with the Indians
was, that th'ey should sell no lands to any
person but to himself or his agents ; another
was, that his agents should not occupy nor
grant any lands but those which were fairly
purchased of the Indians. These stipula-
tions were confirmed by subsequent acts of
Assembly ; and every bargain made between
private persons and the Indians without leave
of the proprietor was declared void. The
charter which Mr. Penn had obtained of the
crown comprehended a far greater extent of
territory than it was proper for him at first to
purchase of the natives.
He did not think it for his interest to take
any more at once than he had a prospect of
granting away to settlers. But his colony
^t>0
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
increased beyond his expectation ; and when
new tracts were wanted, the Indians rose in
their demands. His first purchases were
made at his own expense ; and the goods
delivered on these occasions went by the
name of presents. In course of time, when
a treaty and a purchase went on together, the
governor and his successors made the speech-
es, and the Assembly were at the expense of
the presents. When one paid the cost and
the other enjoyed the profit, & subject of al-
tercation arose between the proprietary and
the popular interests, which other causes con-
tributed to increase and inflame.
The purchases which Mr. Penn made of
the Indians were undoubtedly fair and hon-
est, and he is entitled to praise for his wise
and honourable conduct towards them. But
there is such a thing as overrating true mer-
it. He has been celebrated by a late author*
as having in these purchases " set an exam-
ple of moderation and justice in America
which was never thought of before by the
Europeans." It had been a common thing
in New-England, for fifty years before his
time, to make fair and regular purchases of
land from the Indians, and many of their
* Abbe Raynal.
PENN. 261
deeds are preserved in the public records.
As early as 1633, a law was enacted in the
colony of Massachusetts that " no person
shall put any of the Indians from their plant-
ing grounds or fishing places ; and that, upon
complaint and proof thereof, they shall have
relief in any of the courts of justice, as the
English have." To prevent frauds in pri-
vate bargains, it was ordered by the same
act that " no person shall buy land of any
Indian without license first had and obtained
of the general court." Other regulations re-
specting traffic with them were made at the
same time, which bear the appearance, not
only of justice and moderation, but of a pa-
rental regard to their interest and property.
Nor is it to be supposed that other Euro-
peans neglected their duty in these respects.
Several purchases were made before Penn's
time in New-Jersey. Mr. Penn himself, in
one of his letters, speaking of the quarrels
between the Dutch and the Swedes, who had
occupied the lands on the Delaware before
him, says, " The Dutch, who were the first
planters, looked on them [the Swedes] as in-
truders on their purchase and possession."
Of whom could the Dutch have purchased
those lands but of the natives ? They could
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
not have occupied them without the consent
of the Indians, who were very numerous, and
could easily have extirpated them, or pre-
vented their settlement. It is probable that
this Dutch purchase is referred to in that part
of Penn's letter before quoted, where he
speaks of the land at that time (1683) as
" dearer" than formerly, for how could this
have been ascertained but by comparing his
with former purchases ?
It may then be proper to consider Mr.
Penn as having followed the " examples of
justice and moderation" which had been set
by former Europeans in their conduct to-
wards the natives of America, and as hav-
ing united his example with theirs for the
imitation of succeeding adventurers. This
will give us the true idea of his merit, with-
out detracting from the respect due to those
who preceded him in the arduous work of
colonizing America.
Mr. Penn easily foresaw that the situation
of his province, and the liberal encourage-
ment which he had given to settlers, would
draw people of all denominations thither, and
render it a place of commerce ; he therefore
determined to lay the plan of a capital city,
which, in conformity to his catholic and pa-
P E N N. 263
cific ideas, he called PHILADELPHIA. The site
of it was a neck of land between the River
Delaware on the east, and the Schuylkill
(Hiding' Creek), a branch on the west ; and
he designed that the city should extend from
one to the other, the distance being two miles.
This spot was chosen on account of the firm
soil, the gentle rising from each river towards
the midst, the numerous springs, the conveni-
ence of coves capable of being used as docks,
the depth of water for ships of burden, and
the good anchorage. The ground was sur-
veyed, and a plan of the intended city was
drawn by Thomas Holme, surveyor general.
Ten streets, of two miles in length, were laid
out from river to river, and twenty streets of
one mile in length, crossing them at right an-
gles. Four squares were reserved for com-
mon purposes, one in each quarter of the city,
and in the centre, on the most elevated spot,
was a large square of ten acres, in which
were to be built a statehouse, a market-house,
a schoolhouse, and a place of worship. On
the side of each river it was intended to build
wharves and warehouses, and from each front
street nearest to the rivers, an open space was
to be left, in the descent to the shores, which
would have added much to the beauty of the
264 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
city. All owners of one thousand acres were
entitled to a city lot, in the front streets or in
the central high street, and before each house
was to be an open court, planted with rows
of trees. Smaller purchasers were to be ac-
commodated in the other streets; and care
was taken in all, that no building should en-
croach on the street lines. This last regula-
tion has been always attended to, though in
some other respects the plan has been either
disregarded or not completed.
The city was begun in 1682, and within
less than a year " eighty houses and cottages
were built, wherein merchants and mechanics
exercised their respective occupations;" and
they soon found the country around them so
well cultivated by the planters as to afford
them bread and vegetables, while the venison,
fowl, and fish made an agreeable variety with
the salted provisions which they imported.
Penn himself writes, with an air of cheerful-
ness, that he was well contented with the
country, and the entertainment which he
found in it. This letter is among his printed
works, and in the same collection we find an
affectionate address to the people of Pennsyl-
vania ; in it he appears to have a tender con-
cern for their moral and religious improve-
P E N N. 265
ment, and warns them against the tempta-
tions to which they were exposed. Their
circumstances were indeed peculiar ; they
had suffered contempt and persecution in
England, and were now at rest ; in the en-
joyment of liberty, under a popular form of
government ; the eyes of the world were upon
them ; their former enemies were watching
their conduct, and would have been glad of
an opportunity to reproach them; it was
therefore his desire that they should be mod'
erate in prosperity, as they had been patient
in adversity. The concluding words of this
address may give us a specimen of his style
and manner of preaching : " My friends, re-
member that the Lord hath brought you upon
the stage ; he hath now tried you with liber-
ty, yea, and with power ; he hath put pre-
cious opportunities into your hands ; have a
care of a perverse spirit, and do not provoke
the Lord by doing those things by which the
inhabitants of the land that were before you
grieved his spirit ;* but sanctify God, the liv-
ing God, in your hearts, that his blessing may
fall and rest as the dew of heaven on you
and your offspring. Then shall it be seen
* Probably alluding to the ten tribes of Israel, from whom he
supposes the Indians to be descended.
266 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
to the nations that there is no enchantment
against Jacob, nor divination against Israel;
but your tents shall be goodly, and your
dwellings glorious."
In the spring of 1683, a second Assembly
was held in the new city of Philadelphia, and
a great number of laws were passed. Among
other good regulations, it was enacted that,
to prevent lawsuits, three arbitrators, called
peace-makers, should be chosen by every
County Court, to hear and determine small
differences between man and man. This
Assembly granted to the governor an impost
on certain goods exported and imported,
which he, after acknowledging their good-
ness, was pleased, for the encouragement of
the traders, " freely to remit." But the most
distinguished act of this Assembly was their
acceptance of another frame of government
which the proprietor had devised, which was
" in part conformed to the first, in part mod-
ified according to the act of settlement, and
in part essentially different from both." The
most material alterations were the reducing
the number of the Assembly from seventy-
two to fifty-four, and the giving the governor
a negative in lieu of a treble voice in acts of
legislation. Their " thankful" acceptance of
P E N N. 267
this second charter was a proof of his great
ascendency over them, and the confidence
which they placed in him ; but these changes
were regarded by some as a departure from
the principles on which the original compact
was grounded.
The state of the province at this time has
been compared to that of " a father and his
family ; the latter united by interest and af-
fection, the former revered for the wisdom of
his institutions and the indulgent use of his
authority. Those who were ambitious of re-
pose found it in Pennsylvania ; and, as none
returned with an evil report of the land, num-
bers followed. All partook of the leaven
which they found : the community wore the
same equal face : no one aspired, no one was
oppressed : industry was sure of profit, knowl-
edge of esteem, and virtue of veneration."
When we contemplate this agreeable picture,
we cannot but lament that Mr. Penn should
ever have quitted his province ; but, after re-
siding in it about two years, he found him-
self urged, by motives of interest as well as
philanthropy, to return to England. At his
departure in the summer of 1684, his capital
city, then only of two years' standing, con-
tained nearly three hundred houses and two
Hi X
268 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
thousand inhabitants ; besides which there
were twenty other settlements begun, inclu-
ding those of the Dutch and Swedes. He
left the administration of government in the
hands of the Council and Assembly, having
appointed five commissioners to preside in
his place.
The motives of his return to England were
two. A controversy with Lord Baltimore,
the proprietor of Maryland, concerning the
limits of their respective patents, and a con-
cern for his brethren, who were suffering by
the operation of the penal laws against dis-
senters from the Established Church.
The controversy with Lord Baltimore ori-
ginated in this manner. Before Penn came
to America, he had written to James Frisby
and others, at their plantations on Delaware
Bay, then reputed a part of Maryland, ad-
vising them that, as he was confident they
were in his limits, they should yield no
obedience to the laws of Maryland. This
warning served as a pretext to some of the
inhabitants of Cecil and Baltimore counties,
who were impatient of control, to withhold
the payment of their rents and taxes. Lord
Baltimore and his council ordered the mili-
tary officers to assist the sheriffs in the exe-
P E N N 269
oution of their duty, which was accomplish-
ed, though with great difficulty. After this,
Markham, Perm's agent, had a meeting with
Lord Baltimore at the village of Upland,
which is now called Chester, where a discov-
ery was made by a quadrant that the place
was twelve miles south of the 40th degree of
latitude, a circumstance before unknown to
both parties. Baltimore therefore concluded
to derive an advantage from precision, while
Penn wished to avail himself of uncertainty.
After Penn's arrival in America, he visited
Lord Baltimore, and had a conference with
him on the subject. An account of this con-
ference, taken in short-hand by a person pres-
ent, with a statement of the matter in debate,
were sent by Lord Baltimore to England,
and laid before the lords of trade and planta-
tions in April, 1683. Upon which, letters
were written to both, advising them to come
to an amicable agreement. This could not
be done ; and therefore they both went to
England, and laid their respective complaints
before the Board of Trade. Baltimore al-
leged that the tract in question was within
the limits of his charter, and had always been
so understood, and his claim allowed until
disturbed by Penn. The words of his char-
270 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
ter were, " to that part of Delaware Bay on
the north, which lies under the 40th degree
of northerly latitude from the equinoctial."
Penn, on the other hand, affirmed that Lord
Baltimore's grant was of lands not inhabited
by the subjects of any Christian prince ;" that
the land in question was possessed by the
Dutch and Swedes prior to the date of the
charter of Maryland ; that a surrender hav-
ing been made by the Dutch of this territory
to King Charles in 1664, the country had
ever since been in possession of the Duke of
York. The lords at several meetings, hav-
ing examined the evidences on both sides,
were of opinion that the lands bordering on
the Delaware did not belong to Lord Balti-
more, but to the king. They then proceeded
to settle the boundary, and on the 7th of No-
vember, 1685, it was determined that, " for
avoiding farther differences, the tract of land
lying between the river and bay of Delaware
and the eastern sea on the one side, and
Chesapeake Bay on the other side, be divided
into two equal parts by a line from the lati-
tude of Cape Henlopen to the 40th degree
of northern latitude, and that one half thereof,
lying towards the Bay of Delaware and the
eastern sea, be adjudged to belong to his ma-
PENN. 271
jesty, and that the other half remain to the
Lord Baltimore, as comprised within his
charter." To this decision Lord Baltimore
submitted, happy that he had lost no more,
since a quo warranto had been issued against
his charter. But the decision, like many oth-
ers, left room for a farther controversy, which
was carried on by their respective successors
for above half a century. The question was
concerning the construction of the " 40th de-
gree of latitude," which Penn's heirs con-
tended was the beginning, and Baltimore's
the completion of the 40th degree, the differ-
ence being sixty-nine miles and a half.*
The other cause of Mr. Penn's departure
for England proved a source of much greater
vexation, and involved consequences injurious
to his reputation and interest. His concern
for his suffering brethren induced him to use
the interest which he had at court for their
relief. He arrived in the month of August,
and the death of Charles, which happened
the next February, brought to the throne
James IL, under whom, when lord-high-ad-
* For the particulars of this controversy, and its final decis-
ion by Lord-chancellor Hardwicke in 1750, the reader is re-
ferred to Douglas'* Summary, ii., 309, and Vesey's Reports, j.,
441.
272 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
miral, Perm's father had commanded, and
who had always maintained a steady friend-
ship with the son. This succession rather
increased than diminished his attachment to
the court ; but as James openly professed
himself a papist, and the prejudices of a great
part of the nation against him were very high,
it was impossible for his intimate friends to
escape the imputation of being popishly af-
fected. Penn had before been suspected to
be a Jesuit, and what now contributed to fix
the stigma upon him was his writing a book
on liberty of conscience, a darling principle
at court, and vindicating the Duke of Buck-
ingham, who had written on the same sub-
ject. Another circumstance which strength-
ened the suspicion was his taking lodgings
at Kensington, in the neighbourhood of the
court, and his frequent attendance there, to
solicit the liberation of his brethren who now
filled the prisons of the kingdom.
He endeavoured to allay these suspicions
by publishing an address to his brethren, in
which he refers to their knowledge of his
character, principles, and writings, for eigh-
teen years past, and expresses his love of
moderation, and his wish that the nation
might not become " barbarous for Christian!-
PENH. 273
ty, nor abuse one another for God's sake."
But what gave him the greatest pain was,
that his worthy friend Doctor Tillotson had
entertained the same suspicion, and expressed
it in his conversation. To him he wrote an
expostulatory letter, and the doctor frankly
owned to him the ground of his apprehension,
which Penn so fully removed that Doctor
Tillotson candidly acknowledged his mis-
take, and made it his business on all occasions
to vindicate Penn's character.* This ingen-
uous acknowledgment, from a gentleman of
so much information, and so determined an
enemy to popery, is one of the best evidences
which can be had of Mr. Penn's integrity in
this respect ; but the current of popular prej-
udice was at that time so strong, that it was
not in the power of so great and good a man
as Doctor Tillotson to turn it.
Had Mr. Penn fallen in with the discon-
tented part of the nation, and encouraged the
emigration of those who dreaded the conse-
quences of King James's open profession of
popery, he might have made large additions
to the numbers of his colonists, and greatly
* These letters, which do honour to both the writers, are
printed in the first volume of Penn's works, and in the Biogra-
phia Britannica under ihe article PENN.
274 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
increased his fortune ; but he had received
such assurances from the king of his inten-
tion to introduce universal toleration, that he
thought it his duty to wait for the enlarge-
ment which his brethren must experience
from the expected event. His book on lib-
erty of conscience, addressed to the king and
council, had not been published many days
before the king issued a general pardon, and
instructed the judges of assize on their re-
spective circuits to extend the benefit of it to
the Quakers in particular. In consequence
of this, about thirteen hundred of them, who
had been confined in the prisons, were set at
liberty. This was followed by a declaration
for liberty of conscience, and for suspending
the execution of the penal laws against Dis-
senters, which was an occasion of great joy
to all denominations of them. The Quakers,
at their next general meeting, drew up an ad-
dress of thanks to the king, which was pre-
sented by Mr. Penn.
The declaration of indulgence, being a spe-
cimen of that dispensing power which the
house of Stuart were fond of assuming, and
being evidently intended to favour the free
exercise of the popish religion, gave an alarm
to the nation, and caused very severe ecu-
PENN. 275
Bures on those who, having felt the benefit of
it, had expressed their gratitude in terms of
affection and respect. The Quakers in par-
ticular became very obnoxious, and the prej-
udice against Penn as an abettor of the arbi-
trary maxims of the court was increased ;
though, on a candid view of the matter, there
is no evidence that he sought anything more
than an impartial and universal liberty of con-
science.*
It is much to be regretted that he had not
taken this critical opportunity to return to
Pennsylvania. His controversy with Lord
Baltimore had been decided by the council,
and his pacific principle ought to have led
him to acquiesce in their determination, as
did his antagonist. He had accomplished his
purpose with regard to his brethren the Qua-
kers, who, being delivered from their difficul-
ties, were at liberty either to remain in the
kingdom, or follow him to America. The
* "If a universal charity, if the asserting an impartial lib-
erty of conscience, if doing to others as one would be done by,
and an open avowing and steady practising of these things, in
all times and to all parties, will justly lay a man under the re-
flection of being a Jesuit or papist, I must not only submit to
the character, but embrace it ; and I can bear it with more
pleasure than it is possible for them with any justice to give it
to me." Penn's Let. to Sec. Popple, Oct. 24, 1688.
276 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
state of the province was such as to require
his presence, and he might at this time have
resumed his office, and carried on his busi-
ness in Pennsylvania, with the greatest prob-
ability of spending the remainder of his days
there in usefulness and peace.
The revolution which soon followed placed
him in a very disagreeable situation. Hav-
ing been a friend to James, he was supposed
to be an enemy to William. As he was
walking one day in Whitehall, he was arrest-
ed and examined by the Lords in council, be-
fore whom he solemnly declared " that he
loved his country and the Protestant religion
above his life, and that he had never acted
against either ; but that King James had been
his friend and his father's friend, and that he
thought himself bound in justice and grati-
tude to be a friend to him." The jealous
policy of that day had no ear for sentiments
of the heart. He was obliged to find securi-
ties for his appearance at the next term, and
thence to the succeeding term, in the last day
of which, nothing having been specifically
laid to his charge, he was acquitted.*
* [We find a notice of this affair in the Ellis Correspond-
ence (ii., 356), in a letter dated Dec. 13, 1688. "Mr. Penn
was brought before the Lords at Whitehall, who were prevailed
upon to make 6000 bail for him." H.]
P E N N. 277
The next year (1690) be was taken up
again, on suspicion of holding correspond-
ence with the exiled king. The Lords re-
quired securities for his appearance ; he ap-
pealed to King William in person, who was
inclined to acquit him ; but, to please some of
the council, he was for a while held to bail,
and then acquitted.
Soon after this, his name was inserted in a
proclamation, wherein eighteen lords and
others were charged with adhering to the en-
emies of the kingdom ; but no evidence ap-
pearing against him, he was a third time ac-
quitted by the Court of King's Bench.
Being now at liberty, he meditated a re-
turn to Pennsylvania, and published proposals
for another emigration of settlers. He had
proceeded so far as to obtain from the secre-
tary of state an order for a convoy ; but his
voyage was prevented by a fourth accusa-
tion, on the oath of a person whom the
Parliament afterward declared a cheat and
impostor ; a warrant was issued for appre-
hending him, and he narrowly escaped an ar-
rest at his return from the funeral of his friend
George Fox, on the 16th of January, 1691.
He then thought it prudent to retire, and ac-
cordingly kept himself concealed for two 01
278 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
three years, during which time he employed
himself in writing several pieces, one of which,
entitled " Maxims and Reflections relating to
the Conduct of Human Life," being the re-
sult of much observation and experience, has
been much celebrated, and has passed through
several editions. In 1693, by the mediation
of several persons of rank, he was admitted
to appear before the king in council, where he
so maintained his innocence of what had been
alleged against him that he was a fourth
time honourably acquitted.
The true cause of these frequent suspicions
was the conduct of his wife, who, being pas-
sionately attached to the queen consort of
James, made a practice to visit her at St.
Germain's every year, and to carry to her
such presents as she could collect from the
friends of the unhappy royal family. Though
there was no political connexion or corre-
spondence between Penn's family and the
king's, yet this circumstance gave colour to
the jealousy which had been conceived ; but
the death of his wife, which happened in
February, 1694, put an end to all these sus-
picions. He married a second wife in 1696,
a daughter of Thomas Callowhill, of Bristol,
by whom he had four sons and one daughter.
P E N N. 279
By his continual expenses, and by the pe-
culiar difficulties to which he had been ex-
posed, he had run himself deeply into debt.
He had lost 7000 before the revolution, and
4000 since, besides his paternal estate in
Ireland, valued at 450 per annum. To re-
pair his fortune, he requested his friends in
Pennsylvania that one hundred of them would
lend him 100 each, for some years, on land-
ed security. This, he said, would enable him
to return to America, and bring a large num-
ber of inhabitants with him. What answer
was given to this request does not appear ; but,
from his remaining in England six or seven
years after, it may be concluded that he re-
ceived no encouragement of this kind from
them. The low circumstances of the first
settlers must have rendered it impossible to
comply with such a request.
Pennsylvania had experienced many in-
conveniences from his absence. The Pro-
vincial Council, having no steady hand to
hold the balance, had fallen into a controver-
sy respecting their several powers and privi-
leges, and Moore, one of the proprietary of-
ficers, had been impeached of high misde-
meanours. Disgusted with their disputes,
and dissatisfied with the Constitution which he
280 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
had framed and altered, Penn wrote to his
commissioners (1686) to require its dissolu-
tion ; but the Assembly, perceiving the loss
of their privileges, and of the rights of the
people to be involved in frequent innovations,
opposed the surrender. The commissioners
themselves were soon after removed by the
proprietor, who appointed for his deputy
John Blackwell, an officer trained under
Cromwell, and completely versed in the arts
of intrigue. He began his administration in
December, 1688, by a display of the power
of the proprietor, and by endeavouring to
sow discord among the freemen. Unawed
by his insolence, they were firm in defence
of their privileges, while at the same time
they made a profession of peace and obedi-
ence. He imprisoned the speaker of the As-
sembly which had impeached Moore, and, by
a variety of artifices, evaded the granting
an habeas corpus. He delayed as long as
possible the meeting of a new Assembly ; and
when they entered on the subject of griev-
ances, he prevailed on some of the members
to withdraw from their seats, that there might
not be a quorum. The remainder voted that
his conduct was treacherous, and a strong
prejudice was conceived not only against the
PENN. 281
deputy, but the proprietor who had appointed
him. The province also fell under the royal
displeasure. The laws had not been pre-
sented for approbation, and the new king and
queen were not proclaimed in Pennsylvania
for a long time after their accession ; but the
administration of government was continued
in the name of the exiled monarch. At what
time the alteration was made we cannot be
certain ; but in the year 1692 the king and
queen took the government of the colony into
their own hands, and appointed Colonel
Fletcher governor of New- York and Penn-
sylvania, with equal powers and prerogatives
in both, without any reference to the charter
of Pennsylvania.
It being a time of war between England
and France, and the Province of New- York
being much exposed to the incursions of the
Indians in the French interest, the principal
object which Fletcher had in view was to
procure supplies for the defence of the coun-
try, and the support of those Indians who
were in alliance with the English. The As-
sembly insisted on a confirmation of their
laws as a condition of their granting a sup-
ply, to which he consented during the king^s
pleasure. They would have gone farther,
282 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
and demanded a redress of grievances; but
Fletcher having intimated to them that the
king might probably annex them to New-
York, and they, knowing themselves unable
to maintain a controversy with the crown,
submitted for the present to hold their liber-
ties by courtesy, and voted a supply. On
another application of the same kind", they
nominated collectors in their bill, which he
deemed inconsistent with his prerogative, and
after some altercations dissolved them.
In 1696, William Markham, deputy-gov-
ernor under Fletcher, made a similar propo-
sal, but could obtain no supply till an expe-
dient was contrived to save their privileges.
A temporary act of settlement was passed,
subject to the confirmation of the proprietor,
and then a grant was made of three hundred
pounds ; but, as they had been represented
by some at New- York as having acted in-
consistently with their principles in granting
money to maintain a war, they appropriated
this grant to "the relief of those friendly In-
dians who had suffered by the war." The
request was repeated every year, as long as
the war continued ; but the infancy, poverty,
and embarrassments of the province were al-
leged for non-compliance. The peace of
P E N N.
Ryswick, in 1698, put an end to these requi-
sitions.
Thus the Province of Pennsylvania, as well
as its proprietor, experienced many inconve-
niences during their long separation of f>e/en
years ; and it is somewhat singular to remark,
that while they were employed in an inef-
fectual struggle with the royal governor and
his deputy, he, whom Montesquieu styles the
American Lycurgus, was engaged in his dar-
ling work of religious controversy, and of
itinerant preaching through England, Wales,
and Ireland.
In August, 1699, he embarked with his
family, and, after a tedious passage of three
months, arrived in Pennsylvania. By reason
of this long voyage, they escaped a pestilen-
tial distemper which during that time raged
in the colony.
He did not find the people so tractable as
before. Their minds were soured by his long
absence, by the conduct of his deputies and
the royal governors ; their system of laws was
incomplete, and their title to their lands inse-
cure. After much time spent in trying their
tempers and penetrating their views, he found
it most advisable to listen to their remon-
strances. Five sessions of Assembly were
ill. Y
284 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
held during his second residence with them ;
his expressions in his public speeches were
soothing and captivating, and he promised to
do everything in his power to render them
happy. They requested of him that, in case
of his future absence, he would appoint for
his deputies men of integrity and property,
who should be invested with full powers to
grant and confirm lands, and instructed to
give true measure, and that he would execute
such an instrument as would secure their priv-
ileges and possessions. To these requests he
seemed to consent, and with the most flatter-
ing complaisance desired them to name a
person for his substitute, which they with
equal politeness declined.
In May, 1700, the charter was surrendered
by six parts in seven of the Assembly, undei
a solemn promise of restitution, with such al-
terations and amendments as should be found
necessary. When a new charter was in de-
bate, the representatives of the lower coun-
ties wanted to obtain some privileges peculiar
to themselves, which the others were not will-
ing to allow. The members from the terri-
tory, therefore, refused to join, and thus a
separation was made of the Province of Penn-
sylvania from the three lower counties
PENN. 285
In this new charter the people had no voice
in the election of counsellors ; whoever after-
ward served in this capacity were appointed
by the proprietor, but they had no power of
legislation. The executive was vested solely
in him, and he had a negative on all their
laws. On the other hand, the Assembly had
the right of originating laws, which before
had been prepared for their deliberation.
The number of members was four from each
county, and more, if the governor and As-
sembly should agree. They were invested
with all the powers of a legislative body, ac-
cording to the rights of English subjects and
the practice of other American colonies. The
privileges before granted were confirmed, and
some of their most salutary laws were inclu-
ded in the body of the charter ; all which
were declared irrevocable, except by consent
of six sevenths of the Assembly with the gov-
ernor ; but the clause respecting liberty of
conscience was declared absolutely irrevoca-
ble. A provisional article was added, that if
in three years the representatives of the prov-
ince and territories should not join in legisla-
tion, each county of the province might choose
eight persons, and the city of Philadelphia
two, to represent them in one Assembly, and
'286 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
each county of the territory the same number
to constitute another Assembly. On the 28th
of October, 1701, this charter was accepted
by the representatives of the province ; pre-
vious to which (viz., on the 25th), the city of
Philadelphia was incorporated by another
charter, and the government of it committed
to a mayor and recorder, eight aldermen, and
twelve common councilmen. The persons in
each of these offices were appointed by name
in the charter, who were empowered to choose
successors to themselves annually, and to add
to the number of aldermen and common
councilmen so many of the freemen as the
whole court should think proper.
These two charters were the last public
acts of Mr. Penn's personal administration in
Pennsylvania. They were done in haste,
and while he was preparing to re-embark for
England, which he did immediately on sign-
ing them. The cause of his sudden depar-
ture was an account which he had received
that a bill was about to be brought into Par-
liament for reducing the proprietary and char-
tered governments to an immediate depend-
ance on the crown. In his speech to the
Assembly, he intimated his intention to return
and settle among them with his family ; but
PENN. 287
this proved to be his last visit to America.
He sailed from Philadelphia in the end of
October, and arrived in England about the
middle of December, 1701. The bill in Par-
liament, which had so greatly alarmed him,
was, by the solicitation of the friends of the
colonies, postponed, and finally lost. In about
two months King William died, and Queen
Anne came to the throne, which brought Penn
again into favour at court ; and in the name
of the society of which he was at the head,
he presented to her an address of congratu-
lation.
He then resumed his favourite employment
of writing, preaching, and visiting the socie-
ties of Friends in England till the year 1707,
when he found himself involved in a suit at
law with the executors of a person who had
formerly been his steward. The cause was
attended with such circumstances that, though
many thought him ill used, the Court of Chan-
cery did not give him relief, which obliged
him to live within the rules of the Fleet Pris-
on for about a year, till the matter was ac-
commodated. After this he made another
circuitous journey among his friends, and in
the year 1710 took a handsome seat at Rush-
combe, in Buckinghamshire, where he resided
ur.riug the remainder of his life.
288 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
At his departure from Philadelphia he left
for his deputy Andrew Hamilton, whose prin-
cipal business was to endeavour a reunion of
the province and territory, which being inef-
fectual, the province claimed the privilege of
a distinct Assembly.
On Mr. Hamilton's death, John Evans
was appointed in 1704 to succeed him. His
administration was one unvaried scene of
controversy and uneasiness. The territory
would have received the charter, and the
governor warmly recommended a union, but
the province would not hearken to the meas-
ure. They drew up a statement of their
grievances, and transmitted to the proprietor
a long and bitter remonstrance, in which they
charge him with not performing his prom-
ises, but by deep-laid artifices evading them ;
and with neglecting to get their laws confirm-
ed, though he had received great sums of
money to negotiate the business. They took
a retrospective view of his whole conduct,
and particularly blamed his long absence
from 1684 to 1699, during which the interest
of the province was sinking, which might
have been much advanced if he had come
over according to his repeated promises.
They complained that he had not affixed his
P K N N. 289
seal to the last charter ; that he had ordered
his deputy to call assemblies by his writ, and
to prorogue and dissolve them at his pleas-
ure ; that he had reserved to himself, though
in England, an assent to bills passed by his
deputy, by which means three negatives were
put on their acts, one by the deputy-governor,
another by the proprietor, and a third by the
crown. They also added to their list of
grievances the abuses and extortions of the
secretary, surveyor, and other officers, which
might have been prevented if he had passed
a bill proposed by the Assembly in 1701, for
regulating fees ; the want of an established
judicature between him and the people : for
the judges being appointed by him, could not
in that case be considered as independent and
unbiased ; the imposition of quit-rents on the
city lots, and leaving the ground on which
the city was built encumbered with the claim
of its first possessors, the Swedes.
The language of this remonstrance was
plain and unreserved, but the mode of their
conducting it was attended with a degree of
prudence and delicacy which is not common-
ly observed by public bodies of men in such
circumstances. They sent it to him private-
ly, by a confidential person, and refused to
290 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
give any copy of it, though strongly urged.
They were willing to reclaim the proprietor
to a due sense of his obligations, but were
equally unwilling to expose him. They had
also some concern for themselves ; for if it
had been publicly known that they had such
objections to his conduct, the breach might
have been so widened as to dissolve the rela-
tion between them ; in which case certain
inconveniences might have arisen respecting
oaths and military laws, which would not
have been pleasing to an assembly consisting
chiefly of Quakers.
Three years after (viz., in 1707) they sent
him another remonstrance, in which they
complained that the grievance before men-
tioned was not redressed ; and they added
to the catalogue articles of impeachment
against Logan the secretary, and Evans the
deputy-governor. The latter was removed
from his office, and was succeeded by Goo-
kin in 1709, and he by Sir William Keith in
1717 ; but Logan held his place of secretary,
and was, in fact, the prime minister and mo-
ver in behalf of the proprietor, though ex-
tremely obnoxious to the people.
These deputy-governors were dependant
on the proprietor for their appointment, and
PENN. 291
on the people for their support ; if they dis-
pleased the former, they were recalled ; if the
latter, their allowance was withheld ; and it
was next to impossible to keep on good terms
with both. Such an appointment could be
accepted by none but those who were fond
of perpetual controversy.
To return to the proprietor. His infirmi-
ties and misfortunes increased with his age,
and unfitted him for the exercise of his be-
loved work. In 1711 he dictated a preface
to the journal of his old friend John Banks,
which was his last printed work. The next
year he was seized with a paralytic disorder,
which impaired his memory. For three sue
ceeding years he continued in a state of great
debility, but attended the meeting of Friends
at Reading as long as he was able to ride in
his chariot, and sometimes spake short and
weighty sentences, being incapable of pro-
nouncing a long discourse. Approaching by
gradual decay to the close of life, he died on
the 30th of July, 1718, in the 74th year of his
age, and was buried in his family tomb at
Jordan's, in Buckinghamshire.
Notwithstanding his large paternal inherit-
ance, and the great opportunities which he
enjoyed of accumulating property by his con-
292 AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.
nexion with America, his latter days were
passed in a state far from affluent. He was
continually subject to the importunity of his
creditors, and obliged to mortgage his estate.
He was on the point of surrendering his
province to the crown for a valuable consid-
eration, to extricate himself from debt. The
instrument was preparing for his signature,
but his death, which happened rather unex-
pectedly, prevented the execution of it ; and
thus his province in America descended to
his posterity, who held it till the Revolution
APPENDIX.
Mr. Winslow's Account of the Natives of New-England, an-
nexed to his Narrative of the Plantations, A.D. 1624. [Pur-
chas, iv. f 1867.]
A FEW things I thought meet to add hereunto, which I
have observed among the Indians, both touching their reli-
gion and sundry other customs among them. And first,
whereas myself and others, in former letters (which came to
the press against my will and knowledge), wrote that the In-
dians about us are a people without any religion, or knowl-
edge of any God ; therein I erred, though we could then
gather no better ; for as they conceive of many divine pow-
ers, so of one, whom they call Kiehtan,* to be the principal
maker of all the rest, and to be made by none. He, they
say, created the heavens, earth, sea, and all creatures con-
tained therein. Also, that he made one man and one woman,
of whom they, and we, and all mankind came ; but how they
became so far dispersed, that they know not. At first, they
say, there was no sachem or king but Kiehtan, who dwell-
eth above the heavens, whither all good men go when they
die, to see their friends and have their fill of all things. This
his habitation lieth westward in the heavens, they say;
thither the bad men go also, and knock at his door, but ht
bids them quachet, that is to say, walk abroad, for there is no
place for such ; so that they wander in restless want and
* The meaning of the word Kiehtan hath reference to antiqui-
ty ; for chfse is an old man, and Kieh-chise, & man that eiceedeth
in age.
294 APPENDIX.
penury. Never man saw this Kiehtan, only old men tell
them of him, and bid them tell their children, yea, charge
them to teach their posterities the same, and lay the like
charge upon them. This power they acknowledge to be
good ; and, when they would obtain any great matter, meet
together and cry unto him ; and so likewise for plenty, vic-
tory, &c., sing, dance, feast, give thanks, and hang up gar-
lands and other things in memory of the same.
Another power they worship whom they call Holla,
viock, and to the northward of us, Hobbamoqui ; this, as far
as we can conceive, is the devil. Him they call upon to
cure their wounds and diseases. When they are curable, he
persuades them he sends the same for some conceived anger
against them ; but upon their calling upon him, can and doth
help them ; but when they are mortal and not curable in
nature, then he persuades them Kiehtan is angry, and sends
them whom none can cure ; insomuch as in that respect
only they somewhat doubt whether he be simply good, and,
therefore, in sickness never call upon him. This Hobbamock
appears in sundry forms unto them, as in the shape of a man,
a deer, a fawn, an eagle, &c., but most ordinarily a snake.
He appears not to all, but the chiefest and most judicious
among them ; though all of them strive to attain to that hell-
ish height of honour. He appears most ordinary, and is
most conversant with three sorts of people : one, I confess,
I neither know by name nor office directly ; of these they
have few, but esteem highly of them, and think no weapon
can kill them ; another they call by the name of Powah, and
the third Pamese.
The office and duty of the Powah is to be exercised prin-
cipally in calling upon the devil, and curing diseases of the
sick or wounded. The common people join with them in the
exercise of invocation, but do but only assent, or, as we
term it, say Amen to that he saith, yet sometime break out
into a short musical note with him. The Powah is eager
and free in speech, fierce in countenance, and joineth many
APPENDIX. 295
antic and laborious gestures with the same over the party
diseased. If the party be wounded, he will also seem to
suck the wound ; but if they be curable (as they say), he
toucheth it not, but a shooke, that is, the snake, or Wobsa-
cuck, that is, the eagle, sitteth on the shoulder and licks the
same. This none see but the Powah, who tells them he
doth it himself. If the party be otherwise diseased, it is ac-
counted sufficient if in any shape he but come into the
house, taking it for an undoubted sign of recovery.
And as in former ages Apollo had his temple at Delphos,
and Diana at Ephesus, so have I heard them call upon some
as if they had their residence in some certain places, or be-
cause they appeared in^hose forms in the same. In the
Powah's speech, he promiseth to sacrifice many skins of
beasts, kettles, hatchets, beads, knives, and other the best
things they havp to the fiend, if he will come to help the party
diseased ; but whether they perform it I know not. The
other practices I have seen, being necessarily called some-
times to be with their sick, and have used the best arguments
I could to make them understand against the same. They
have told me I should see the devil at those times come to
the party ; but I assured myself and them of the contrary,
which so proved ; yea, themselves have confessed they never
saw him when any of us were present. In desperate and
extraordinary hard travail in childbirth, when the party can-
not be delivered by the ordinary means, they send for this
Powah ; though ordinarily their travail is not so extreme as
in other parts of the world, they being of a more hardy na-
ture ; for on the third day after childbirth, I have seen the
mother with the infant, upon a small occasion in cold weath-
er, in a boat upon the sea.
Many sacrifices the Indians use, and in some cases they
kill children. It seemeth they are various in their religious
worship in a little distance, and grow more and more cold
in their worship to Kiehtan ; saying, in their memory, he was
much more called upon. The Narohiggansets exceed in
296 APPENDIX.
their blind devotion, and have a great spacious house, where
m only some few (that are, as we may term them, priests)
come : thither, at certain known times, resort all their people,
and offer almost all the riches they have to their gods, as
kettles, skins, hatchets, beads, knives, &c., all which are
cast by the priests into a great fire that they make in the
midst of the house, and there consumed to ashes. To this
offering every man bringeth freely ; and the more he is knowp
to bring, hath the better esteem of all men. This the othei
Indians about us approve of as good, and wish their sachems
would appoint the like : and because the plague has not
reigned at Narohigganset as at other places about them, they
attribute to thie custom there use*.
The Panieses are men of great courage and wisdom, and
to these also the devil appeareth more familiarly than to oth-
ers, and, as we conceive, maketh covenant with them to
preserve them from death by wounds with arrows, knives,
hatchets, &c., or at least both themselves, and especially the
people, think themselves to be freed from the same. And
though against their battles all of them, by painting, disfigure
themselves, yet they are known by their courage and bold-
ness, by reason whereof one of them will chase almost a
hundred men ; for they account it death for whomsoever
stand in their way. These are highly esteemed of all sorts
of people, and are of the sachems' counsel, without whom
they will not war or undertake any weighty business. In
war their sachems, for their more safety, go in the midst
of them. They are commonly men of great stature and
strength, and such as will endure most hardness, and yet are
more discreet, courteous, and humane in their carriages than
any among them, scorning theft, lying, and the like base
dealings, and stand as much upon their reputation as any
men. And to the end they may have store of these, they
train up the most forward and likeliest boys, from their
childhood, in great hardness, and make them abstain from
dainty meat, observing divers orders prescribed, to the end
APPENDIX. 297
that, when they are of age, the devil may appear to them,
causing to drink the juice of sentry and other bitter herbs,
till they cast, which they must disgorge into the platter, and
dunk again and again, till at length, through extraordinary
pressing of nature, it will seem to be all blood ; and this the
hoys will do with eagerness at the first, and so continue till
by reason of faintness they can scarce stand on their legs,
and then must go forth into the cold ; also they beat their
shins with sticks, and cause them to run through bushes, and
stumps, and brambles, to make them hardy and acceptable to
the devil, that in time he may appear unto them.
Their sachems cannot be all called kings, but only some
few of them, to whom the rest resort for protection, and pay
homage unto them; neither may they war without their
knowledge and approbation ; yet to be commanded by the
greater, as occasion seemeth. Of this sort is Massassowat,
our friend, and Conanaciis of Narohigganset, our supposed
enemy. Every sachem taketh care of the widow and father-
less, also for such as are aged and any way maimed, if their
friends be dead or not able to provide for them. A sachem
will not take any to wife but such a one as is equal to him
in birth, otherwise they say their seed would in time be-
come ignoble ; and though they have many other wives, yet
are they no other than concubines or servants, and yield a
kind of obedience to the principal, who ordereth the family
and them in it. The like their men observe also, and will
adhere to the first during their lives, but put away the other
at their pleasure. This government is successive, and not
by choice ; if the father die before the son or daughter be of
age, then the child is committed to the protection and tuition
of some one among them, who ruleth in his stead till he be
of age, but when that is I know not.
Every sachem knoweth how far the bounds and limiis of
his own country extendeth, and that is his own proper inher-
itance ; out of that, if any of his men desire land to set
their corn, he giveth them as much as they can use, and sets
298 APPENDIX.
them in their bounds. In this, circuit, whoever hunteth, if
any kill venison, they bring him his fee, which is four parts
of the same if it be killed on land ; but if in the water, then
the skin thereof. The great sachems or kings know not
their own bounds or limits of land as well as the rest. All
travellers or strangers for the most part lodge at the sachem's.
When they come, they tell them how long they will stay and
to what place they go ; during which time they receive en-
tertainment, according to their persons, but want not. Once
a year the Panieses use to provoke the people to bestow
much corn on the sachem. To that end they appoint a
certain tune and place, near the sachem's dwelling, where
the people bring many baskets of corn, and make a great
stack thereof. There the Panieses stand ready to give thanks
to the people on the sachem's behalf; and after acquaint the
sachem therewith, who fetcheth the same, and is no less
thankful, bestowing many gifts on them.
When any are visited with sickness, their friends resort
unto them for their comfort, and continue with them often-
times till their death or recovery. If they die, they stay a
certain time to mourn for them. Night and morning they
perform this duty, many days after the burial, in a most dole-
ful manner, insomuch as though it be ordinary, and the note
musical which they take from one another and altogether,
yet it will draw tears from their eyes, and almost from ours
also. But if they recover, then, because their sickness was
chargeable, they send corn and other gifts unto them, at a
certain appointed time, whereat they feast and dance, which
they call commoro. When they bury the dead, they sow up
the corpse in a mat, and so put it in the earth ; if the part}'
be a sachem, they cover him with many curious mats, and
bury all his riches with him, and enclose the grave with a pale.
If it be a child, the father will also put his own most special
jewels and ornaments in the earth with it ; also he will cut
Lis hair, and disfigure himself very much in token of sorrow,
If it be the man or woman of the house, they will pull down
APPENDIX. 299
the mats, and leave the frame standing, and bury them in or
near the same, and either remove their dwelling, or give over
housekeeping.
The men employ themselves wholly in hunting and other
exercises of the bow, except at some times they take some
pains in fishing. The women live a most slavish life ; they
carry all their burdens, set and dress their corn, gather it in,
and seek out for much of their food ; beat and make ready
the corn to eat, and have all household care lying upon
them.
The younger sort reverence the elder, and do all mean of-
fices while they are together, although they be strangers.
Boys and girls may not wear their hair like men and women,
but are distinguished thereby.
A man is not accounted a man till he do some notable act,
or show forth such courage and resolution as becometh his
p.ace The men take much tobacco, but for boys so to do,
they account it odious.
All their names are significant and variable; for, when
they ceme to the state of men and women, they alter them
according to their deeds or dispositions.
When a maid is taken tn marriage, she first cutteth her
hair, and after weareth a covering on her head till her hair
be grown out. Their women are diversely disposed, some
as modest as they will scarce talk one with another in the
company of men, being very chaste also ; yet other some
are light, lascivious, and wanton. If a woman have a bad
husband, or cannot affect him, and there be war or opposition
between that and any other people, she will run away from
him to the contrary party, and there live, where they never
come unwelcome ; for where are most women there is greatett
"plenty.
When a woman hath her monthly terms, she separateth
herself from all other company, and liveth certain days in a
house alone ; after which she washeth herself, and all that she
hath touched or used and is again received to her husband's
z
300 APPENDIX.
bed or family. For adultery, the husband will beat bis wife
and put her away if he please. Some common strumpets
there are, as well as in other places ; but they are such as
either never married, or widows, or put away for adultery ;
for no man will keep such a one to wife.
In matters of unjust and dishonest dealing, the sachem ex-
amineth and punisheth the same. In case of theft, for the
first offence he is disgracefully rebuked ; for the second, beat-
en by the sachem with a cudgel on the naked back ; for the
third, he is beaten with many strokes, and hath his nose slit
upward, that thereby all men may know and shun him. If
any man kill another, he must likewise die for the same.
The sachem not only passeth sentence upon malefactors,
but executeth the same with his own hands if the party be
then present ; if not, sendeth his own knife in case of death,
in the hands of others to perform the same. But if the of-
fender be to receive other punishment, he will not receive
the same but from the sachem himself ; before whom, being
naked, he kneeleth, and will not offer to run away, though
he beat him never so much, it being a greater disparagement
for a man to cry during the time of his correction than is
his offence and punishment.
As for their apparel, they wear breeches and stockings in
one, like some Irish, which is made of deer skins, and have
shoes of the same leather. They wear also a deer's skin
*oose about them like a cloak, which they will turn to the
weather-side. In this habit they travel ; but when they are
at home, or come to their journey's end, they presently pull
off their breeches, stockings, and shoes, wring out the water
if they be wet, and dry them, and rub or chafe the same.
Though these be off, yet have they another small garment
which covereth their secrets. The men wear also, when
they go abroad in cold weather, an otter or fox skin on their
right arm, but only their bracer on the left. Women, and
all of that sex, wear strings about their legs, which the mpa
never do.
APPENDIX. 301
i
The people are veiy ingenious and observative ; they keep
account of time by the moon, and winters or summers ; they
know divers of the stars by name ; in particular, they know
the North Star, and call it Maske, which is to say, the Bear ;
also they have many names for the winds. They will guess
very well at the wind and weather beforehand by observa-
tions in the heavens. They report, also, that some of them
can cause the wind to blow in what part they list ; can raise
storms and tempests, which they usually do when they in-
tend the death or destruction of other people, that by reason
of the unseasonable weather, they may take advantage of
their enemies in their houses. At such tunes they perform
their greatest exploits ; and at such seasons, when they are
at enmity with any, they keep more careful watch than at
other times.
As for their language, it is very copious, large, and difficult ;
as yet, we cannot attain to any great measure thereof, but
can understand them, and explain ourselves to then- under-
standing by the help of those that daily converse with us.
And though there be difference in a hundred miles' dis-
tance of place both in language and manners, yet not so
much but that they very well understand each other. And
thus much of their lives and manners.
Instead of records and chronicles, they take this course.
Where any remarkable act is done, in memory of it, either
in the place, or by some pathway near adjoining, they make
a round hole in the ground about a foot deep, and as much
over, which, when others passing by behold, they inquire the
cause and occasion of the same, which being once known,
they are careful to acquaint all men, as occasion serveth
therewith ; and, lest such holes should be filled or grown up by
any accident, as men pass by, they will oft renew the same :
by which means many things of great antiquity are fresh in
memory. So that, as a man travelleth, if he can understand
his jjuide, his journey will be less tedious, by reason of many
historical discourses which will be related to him.
302 Ar.FENUIX.
For that continent on which we are, called New-England,
although it hath ever been conceived by the English to be a
part of the mainland adjoining to Virginia, yet by relation of
the Indians it should appear to be otherwise ; for they affirm
confidently that it is an island, and that either the Dutch or
French pass through from sea to sea between us and Vir-
ginia, and drive a great trade in the same. The name of
that inlet of the sea they call Mohegon, which I take to be the
same which we call Hudson's River, up which Master Hud-
son went many leagues, and, for want of means (as I hear),
left it undiscovered. For confirmation of this, their opinion
is thus much ; though Virginia be not above a hundred
leagues from us, yet they never heard of Powhaian, or knew
that any English were planted in his country, save only
by us and Tisquantum, who went thither in an English
ship ; and, therefore, it is more probable, because the water
is not passable for them who are very adventurous in their
boats.
Then for the temperature of the air : in almost three years'
experience, I can scarce distinguish New-England from Old-
England in respect of heat and cold, frost, snow, rain, wind,
&c. Some object because our plantation lieth in the lati-
tude of two-and-forty, it must needs be much hotter. I con-
fess I cannot give the reason of the contrary ; only experi-
ence teaches us that, if it do exceed England, it is so little
as must require better judgments to discern it. And for the
winter, I rather think (if there be difference) it is both
sharper and longer in New-England than Old ; and yet the
want of those comforts in the one which I have enjoyed in
the other may deceive my judgment also. But in my best
observation, comparing our own conditions with the rela-
tions of other parts of America, I cannot conceive of any to
agree better with the constitutions of the English, not being
oppressed with the extremity of heat, nor nipped by biting
cold, by which means, blessed be God, we enjoy OUT health,
wit withstanding those difficulties we have undergone, in
APPENDIX. 303
such a measure as would have been admired had we lived in
England with the like means. The day is two hours longer
than here when at the shortest, and as much shorter when
at the longest.
The soil is variable ; in some places mould, in some clay,
and others a mixed sand, &c. The chiefest grain is the In-
dian maize or Guinea wheat ; the seed-time beginneth in the
midst of April, and continueth good till the midst of May.
Our harvest beginneth with September. This corn increas-
eth in great measure, but is inferior in quality to the same in
Virginia ; the reason, I conceive, is because Virginia is far
hotter than it is with us, it requiring great heat to ripen. But
whereas it is objected against New-England that corn will
not grow there except the ground be manured with fish, I
answer, that where men set with fish (as with us), it is more
easy so to do than to clear ground, and set without some
five or six years, and so begin anew, as in Virginia and else-
where. Not but that in some places where they cannot be
taken with ease in such abundance, the Indians set four
years together without them, and have as good corn, or bet-
ter than we have that set with them ; though, indeed, I
think, if we had cattle to till the ground, it would be more
profitable and better agreeable to the soil to sow wheat, rye,
barley, pease, and oats, than to set maize, which our Indians
call Ewachim : for we have had experience that they live and
thrive well ; and the other will not be procured without good
labour and diligence, especially at seed-time, when it must
also be watched by night, to keep the wolves from the fish
till it be rotten, which will be in fourteen days ; yet men
agreeing together and taking their turns, it is not much.
Much might be spoken of the benefit that may come to
such as shall plant here, by trading with the Indians for furs,
if men take a right course for obtaining the same ; for I dare
presume upon that small experience I have had to affirm
that tbe English, Dutch, aud French return yearly man>
304 APPENDIX.
thousand pounds profit by trade only from that island on
which we are seated.
Tobacco may be there planted, but not with that profit as
in some other places ; neither were it profitable there to fol-
low it, though the increase were equal, because fish is a bet
ter and richer commodity, and more necessary, which may
be, and there are, had in as great abundance as in any other
part of the world ; witness the west-country merchants of
England, which return incredible gains yearly from thence.
And if they can so do, which here buy their salt at a great
charge, and transport more company to make their voyage
than will sail their ships, what may the planters expect
when once they are seated, and make the most of their salt
there, and employ themselves at least eight months in fish ing,
whereas the other fish but four, and have their ship lie dead
m the harbour all the time, whereas such shipping as belong
to plantations may take freight of passengers or cattle thith-
er, and have their lading provided against they come 1 I
confess we have come so far short of the means to raise
such returns, as with great difficulty we have preserved our
lives ; insomuch as, when I look back upon our condition
and weak means to preserve the same, I rather admire at
God's mercies and providence in our preservation than that
no greater things have been effected by us. But, though oui
beginning have been thus raw, small, and difficult, as thou
hast seen, yet the same God that hath hitherto led us through
the former, I hope, will raise means to accomplish the latter.
INDEX.
A.
ACADIA, its limits, ii., 19.
Africa circumnavigated, i., 30.
Aguado sent to Hispaniola, L, 187.
Allerton, Isaac, assistant to Governor Bradford, hi., 10.
America, peopled in part from the East, i., 51. Naraed from
Amerigo, 194.
"Antiquitates Americanae," abstract of the historical evidence
contained in the, i., 87.
Archer, Gabriel, journalist of Gosnold's voyage, ii., 215.
Argal, Samuel, sails from Virginia with Sir George Somers, ii.,
130. Returns to Virginia, 131. Carries Lord Delaware to Eng-
land, 137. Returns to Virginia, ib. His voyage to the Patow-
mack, ib. Obtains Pocahontas from Japazaws, and carries her
to Jamestown, 138. Accompanies Dale on a treaty with the
Chicahomony Indians, 141. Expedition to the northern part of
Virginia, 148. Attacks the French at Mount Desart, 1 49. Takes
possession of their fort, t'6. Takes and destroys Fort Royal,
150. His conference with Biencourt, ib. Visits the Dutch at
Hudson's River, 152. Dutch governor surrenders to him,
ib. His voyage to England, 153. Appointed deputy-governor
of Virginia, 154. Arrives in Virginia, ib. Revives discipline,
155. Becomes odious by his rigour, 156. Charged with pecu-
lation, ib. His oppressive treatment of Brewster, Lord Dela-
ware's agent, 157. Superseded, 158. Escapes by aid of th
Earl of Warwick, ib. Commands a ship against the Algerines
129. Knighted by King James, ib. His character, 158.
Azores discovered, i., 213.
B.
Baltimore, Lord, vide Calvert, George.
Behaim, Martin, i., 210. Discovers Congo and Benin, 216.
Bermuda Islands, description of them, ii., 124.
Biron, i., 77.
Bligh, Lieutenant, his hazardous voyage, i., 38.
Boston founded, iii., 154. Favours the opinion of Mr. Hutchinsor
168. Opposition to Governor Winthrop, 166, 171.
Botello, his daring voyage from India to Lisbon, i., 39, n.
Bovadilla supersedes Columbus, i., 192.
Bradford, William, his birth and education, iii., 7. Joins RoH
inson's and Clifton's Church, 8. Imprisoned, t'6. Removes t\
Amsterdam, ii. Unsuccessful in trade, 9. Accompanies the
adventurers to New-England, ib. Makes an excursion from
Cape Cod Harbour, 16. His wife drowned, i6. Chosen governor
of New-Plymouth. 10. Sends an embassy to Massasoit, 12.
Sends a party to the flay of Massachusetts, 17. Receives a
306 INDEX.
threatening message from Canonicus, 19. Makes a voyage for
corn, &c., 21, 22. Sends messages to Massasbit in his sickness,
22. Receives intelligence of a conspiracy of the Indians, 23.
Adopts measures of defence, 24. Surrenders the patent to the
colony, 83. His death, 44. His character, 45, 48. His history
of the colony, 46. Part of his letter-book found at Halifax, ib.
His discreet and decisive proceedings with Lyford, 48-50. His
descendants, 51.
Brazil discovered, i., 55.
Breton, Cape, named, i., 230, n.
Brewster, William, his education, iii., 53. Enters into the service
of Davison, ib. Intrusted with the keys of Flushing, 54. Hon-
oured by the States of Holland, ib. Adheres to Davison in his
misfortunes, 55. Joins Mr. Clifton's and Robinson's Church,
56. Removes to Holland, 57. Employed as an instructor at
Leyden, ib. Sets up a printing-office, 58. Removes to Ameri-
ca, ib. Chosen ruling elder at Plymouth, ib. "Officiates as a
preacher, 59. His death, 66. His character, 66-69. His li-
brary, 69.
Brown, Robert, head of a zealous party of Puritans, ii., 256.
Bucke, Richard, chaplain to Sir George Somers, ii., 125.
Buss Island, i., 148.
Buzzard's Bay, ii., 219.
C.
Cabral discovers Brazil, i., 55.
Calvert, George, his birth and education, iii., 206. In the service
of Sir Robert Cecil, ib. Secretary of state, 207. Receives a
pension from King James, ib. Becomes a Catholic, ib Created
Baron of Baltimore, ib. Attempts a settlement at Newfound-
land and abandons it, 208, 209. Visits Virginia, 209. Receives
a grant of the territory north of the Patowmack, 210. His death,
ib. His character, 16.
Calvert, Cecil, Lord Baltimore, receives a patent of Maryland, iii.,
211. Settles the colony, 216, 224. Appoints his brother Leon-
ard governor, 216.
Calvert, Leonard, governor of Maryland, iii., 216. Conducts set-
tlers to the colony, 216, 224.
Canary Islands discovered, i., 48. Volcanoes in, 50.
Cape Cod visited by the French from Acadia, ii., 27, 31. Disco v
ered by Gosnold, 209.
Cartier, James, i., 230.
Carver, John, appointed agent to the English settlers at Leyden,
ii., 283, 295. Superintends the equipments for emigration, 301.
Chosen governor of the company, 307. Makes an excursion
from Cape Cod to look for a harbour, 317. Skirmish with the
natives, 319 Laods on Clarke's Island, 320 Returns to the
ship, 321. Makes a settlement at Plymouth, 321, 322 His
sickness, 323. His recovery, and visit to Billington's Sea, 3^5.
His interview with Massasoit, 330. His death, 332. His char-
acter, 332, 333. His posterity, 333. A ship named for him, ib,
His sword in the cabinet of the Historical Society, 6.
INDEX. 307
Cattle first brought to New-England, ill., 103.
Chaleur Bay discovered, i., 233.
Champlain, Samuel, ii., 15. Sails up the St. Lawrence, 18.
Builds a fort at Quebec, 42. Discovers the Lakes, ib. Surren
ders Quebec to the English, 44. His death and character, 45.
Chanco reveals a plot of the Indians, and preserves Jamestown.
ii, 179.
Charaibes, emigrants from the East, i., 57.
Chicahomony Indians, treaty between them and the Virginians, ii.,
141, 142.
Clarke's Island, ii., 320.
Columbus, Christopher, i., 156. His reasons for seeking India in
the West, 161. His first voyage, 175. His second voyage, 181.
His third voyage, 189. His fourth voyage, 195. Wrecked on
Jamaica, 198. His death and character, 202-210.
Columbus, Bartholomew, i., 171, 185.
Congo discovered, i., 216.
Convicts first sent to Virginia, ii., 167.
Copper ornaments worn by the Indians of New-England, ii., 224.
Croix, St , port of, i., 237.
Croix, St., island of, ii., 24.
Cuba discovered, i., 184.
Cushman, Robert, agent from the English at Leyden to the Vir-
ginia Company, iii., 70. Agent for removal, 71. Embarks for
America, 16. Returns to England, ib. Arrives at Plymouth,
72. Delivers a discourse on Self-love, ib. Sails for England, ib.
Taken by the French, i&. His death and character, 73. His
son a ruling elder at Plymouth, 78. Extract from his Dis-
course on Self-love, 70-84.
D.
Dale, Sir Thomas, governor of Virginia, ii., 118. Built Henrico,
119. Arrival in Virgina, 134. His energetic proceedings, 135.
Surrenders the command to Sir Thomas Gates, 137. Resumes
the command, 142. Returns to England, 146. His character
as governor, ib.
Delaware, Lord, arrives in Virginia, ii., 122. Builds two forts on
James River, 133, Leaves Virginia, ib. Arrives at the Western
Islands, ib. Sails for Virginia, 156. His death, ib.
Dermer, Thomas, ii., 63.
Drogio, i., 141.
Dutch intrude into the fur-trade, ii., 36. Complained of as intru
ders, 77.
E.
Eclipse, lunar, fortunate to Columbus, i., 199.
Kgg, set on its smallest end, i., 207.
Elizabeth Island, ii., 213, 214. Visited by the author in. 1797, 215,
220. Description of it, 219-221.
Estotiland, i , 140, 154.
Kudoxus, his voyage, i., 46.
Evans, John, Peun's deputy, iii., 288.
Ill A A
308 INDEX.
F.
Fog Banks, i., 166.
Fonte, De, Strait of, ii., 12.
Forefather Rock at Plymouth, ii., 321.
Fortifications, antique, i., 270.
Frisland, i., 138, 146.
Fuca, John de, ii., 7.
Fuca De, Strait of, described, ii., 9, 11.
G.
Gaspe, Bay of, discovered, i., 233.
Gates, Sir Thomas, arrives in Virginia as governor, ii., 137. Re-
turns to England, 142.
Gay Head, called Dover Cliff by Gosnold, ii., 218.
Gilbert, Bartholomew, his voyage to Virginia, ii., 237, 238. Kill-
ed by the natives, 238.
Gilbert, Humphrey, i., 272. His birth and education, 275. Serves
in Ireland, 276. Member of Parliament, ib. Takes possession
of Newfoundland, 282. Is lost at sea, 286.
Gookin, Daniel, settles in Virginia, ii., 118. Removes to New-
England, ib.
Gorges, Ferdinando, ii., 47. His perseverance, 55. His defence
before the Commons, 72. His complaint against the Dutch, 77.
His expense and loss, 80,81. His misfortunes and death, 91, 92
Gorges, Ferdinando, 2d, ii., 93.
Gorges, John, it., 93.
Gorges, Robert, ii,, 69, 76.
Gorges, Thomas, ii., 87.
Gosnold, Bartholomew, his voyage to Virginia, ii., 207. His sec-
ond voyage, ib. Discovers land near Massachusetts Bay, 208.
Discovers Cape Cod, 209. His interview with the natives, 210.
Discovers Martha's Vineyard, 211. Discovers Dover Cliff (Gay
Head), 212. Anchors at Elizabeth Island (Cuttyhunk), 213.
Builds a fort, 222. Visits the main, ib. His interview and
traffic with the natives, 223. Attacked, 226. Sails for Eng-
land, ib. Accompanies John Smith to Virginia, 227. His death,
228.
Greenland discovered, i., 78.
Grenville, Richard, i., 289. His voyage to Virginia, 306. His
death, 316.
Guadaloupe discovered, i., 53, 182.
Guanahana discovered, i., 178.
H.
Hakluyt, Richard, engaged in an adventure to New-England,
ii., 228.
Hamilton, Andrew, Penn's deputy, iii., 288.
Hampden, John, accompanies Winslow to Massasoit, iii., 22
Hanno, his voyage, i., 44.
Harvey, Sir John, governor of Virginia, ii., 205.
Henrico built by Sir Thomas Dale, ii., 137.
INDEX. 309
Hispaniola discovered, i., 182.
Homony described, i., 303.
I.
Independence of the colonies suspected, ii., 83.
J.
Jamaica discovered, i., 184. Columbus wrecked on, 198.
James I. (King), tenacious of his prerogatives, ii., 114. His pro-
ceedings with the Virginia Company, 185, 204. His death, 204.
His character, 258.
James II. (King), friendly to William Penn, iii., 272. Liberates
the Quakers, 274.
Jesuits introduced to Port Royal, ii., 40.
K.
Kirk, David, takes Quebec, ii., 44.
L.
Laconia described, ii., 78.
Lane, Ralph, governor of Virginia, i., 307.
Lawrence, St., Bay and River discovered, i., 234.
Lead ore in Virginia, ii., 181.
Line of demarcation, i., 180.
Lisbon, Columbus puts in at, i., 221.
Lotteries, supplies by them for Virginia, ii., 113.
Luseme, an American wild animal, ii., 234.
M.
Madoc, prince of Wales, i., 129.
Maine, Province of, ii , 87. Its plan of government, 88. Protect-
ed by Massachusetts, 92. Purchased by Massachusetts, 94.
Martha's Vineyard, No-man's-land, first so named, ii., 217. Mar-
tin Pring lands upon it, 231. Description of its productions,
234.
Maryland made a province, iii., 213. Settled by the Calverts,216,
224. Many Roman Catholics resort there, 223.
Mason, John, connected with Gorges, ii., 77. His plantation at
Piscataqua, 80. His great expense and loss, 16.
Massachusetts colony established, ii., 82.
Massacre, general, in Virginia by the natives, ii., 179-181.
Massasoit, his interview with the Plymouth settlers, ii., 329, 330
Treaty with him, 330. His sickness, iii., 22. Visited by Wins-
low, 74.
Mavoshen, an ancient name for the district of Maine, ii., 252.
Monsoons known to the Phoenicians, i., 34.
Montreal discovered and. named, i., 243.
Monts, De, ii., 15. His patent for Acadia, 19. His fort at St.
Croix, 24. Quits Acadia, 38.
Morrell, William, first Episcopal clergyman in New- England, iii,
69.
310 INDEX.
N.
Necho, his voyage round Africa, i., 29.
Newfoundland, its productions, i., 84. State of its fishery, 2"3,
Possessed by the English, 282.
Newport, Christopher, commander in the navy of Queen Eliza-
beth, ii., 117. Makes a settlement in Virginia, ib.
New- York first settled, ii., 152.
Normans, their navigation, i., 77.
Norornbega, ii., 27.
Norumbega, ancient name for parts of the District of Maine, n.,
252.
Nova Scotia granted to Sir William Alexander, ii., 152.
O.
Opecanchanough has a house built for him by the English, ii., 161.
Makes a treaty with the settlers in Virginia, ib. Artful conduct
towards Governor Wyat, 175. Demands satisfaction for the
death of Nematanow, 177. Plans and executes a general mas-
sacre of the English, 178-181.
Opitchapan succeeds Powhatan, ii., 160.
Ovando, governor of Hispaniola, i., 195. His cruelty to Coi am-
bus, 199, 200.
P.
Paria, Gulf of, discovered, i., 189.
Paul the Physician, his letters to Columbus, i., 223, 228.
Penn, William, his birth and education, iii., 225. His religious
impressions, 226. Punished at the University for non-conformi-
ty, ib. Travels to France, 227. Student at Lincoln's Inn, ib.
Goes to Ireland, ib. Attaches himself to the Quakers, ib. Ar-
rested at a conventicle, 228. His sensible plea in his defence,
and his discharge, ib. Discarded by his father, 229. An itiner-
ant preacher, ib. Publishes a book which offends the spiritual
lords, 230. Imprisoned in the Tower, ib. Released, 231. His
second journey to Ireland, ib. Preaches in the street in Lon-
don, ib. Arrested, tried, and acquitted, 232. His father recon-
ciled to him, ib. Great increase of property on the death of his
father, 233. Imprisoned in Newgate, ib. Travels on the Con-
tinent, ib. Returns to England, marries, &c., 234. Travels
with Fox, Barclay, and Keith, ib. Settles the government of
the churches, ib. Pleads for the Quakers before Parliament,
236. Character of his writings, 16. His political character and
opinions, 238. Receives a charter of Pennsylvania, 242. His
terms of settlement, 245, 246. Sends a letter to the Indians,
246. Elected Fellow of the Royal Society, 247. Completes a
frame of government for his province, ib. Embarks with a num-
ber of Quakers for America, 252 Arrives at Newcastle, ib.
Cordially received by the settlers, ih. Goes to Chester, 6.
Names his settlement Philadelphia, 253 Calls a general as-
sembly, 254. His kind attentions to the natives, 256 His trea-
ties, 257, 259. Lays out Philadelphia, 263, 264. Specimen uf
.
INDEX. 311
his style of preaching, 265. His departure for England, 267.
His controversy with Lord Baltimore respecting boundaries,
267-271. Publishes a book on liberty of conscience, 272. Sus-
pected of affecting Popery, ib. Address to his brethren, ib.
Presents to King James II. an address of thanks from the Qua-
kers, 274. Suspected of being an enemy to King William, 276.
Repeatedly tried and acquitted, 276, 277. Conceals himself, 277.
His writings while in retirement, 278. Conduct of his wife ren-
ders him suspected, ib. Her death, 16. His second marriage,
ib. Involved in debt, 279. Ineffectual application to the Penn-
sylvanians for a loan, 16. Returns to Pennsylvania, 283. His
prudent measures, ib. Signs a new charter, 286. Returns to
England, 287. Confined in the Fleet Prison, ib. Receives a
romonstrance from the Pennsylvanians, 288-290. His embar-
rassments, 291. Contemplates a surrender of his province to the
crown to relieve himself, 292. His death, 291.
Pennsylvania, original frame of its government, iii. ,247-251. Al-
teration in the government, 266. Early flourishing state of it,
267. Difficulties from Penn's absence, 279, 283. New char-
ter, 286, 290. Separated from the three lower counties, 288.
Controversies with Penn's deputies, 288, 290.
Penobscot River discovered by Weymouth, ii., 253. Called Pen-
tagoet by the French, ib.
Percy, governor of Virginia, ii., 134.
Pestilence among the Indians, ii., 58.
Philadelphia founded and named by Penn, ii., 263. Situation and
original plan of it, 263, 264. Its flourishing situation in two
years after its foundation, 267.
Phoenicians the first navigators, i., 27. Construction of their ships,
37. Their mercantile jealousy, 40.
Plymouth, Council of, established, ii., 66. Embarrassed, 84.
Dissolved, 86.
Plymouth first settled and named, ii., 321-323. The harbour dis-
coveiedby Winslow and oihers, iii , 85. Fortified, 19. Defence
of it < ommitted to Miles Standish, 118. Description of its situ-
ation, ii, 322. Dangerous fire at its first settlement, 323.
Plymouth colony established, ii., 67. Its settlement, progress,
sufferings, government, laws, &c., vide Carver, Bradford, Brew-
ster, Winslow, and Standish, ii., 295 iii., 147.
Pocahontas preserves Henry Spelman from Powhatan, ii., 131.
Concealed by Japazaws, 138. Obtained by Argal, and convey-
ed to Jamestown, ib. Married to J. Rolfe, 139. Accompanies
Sir T. Dale to England, 146. Her descendants, 140.
Porland, i., 152. *
Port Royal, plantation at, ii., 22.
Poutrincourt, ii., 15.
Powhatan reconciled to the English. ii. r 139. His death and
character, 160.
Pring, Martin, sails for North Virginia, ii., 229. Discovers Fox
Islands, 16. Enters Saco, Kennebec, York, and Piscataqua
rivers, 230. Enters Massachusetts Bay, 231. Lands at Edgar-
town, 232. Interview with the Datives, 233. Sends a cargo of
312 INDEX.
sassafras to England, 234. Returns to England, 237. His sec
ond voyage, 252.
Proctor. Mrs., her heroic defence against the Indians, ii., 182.
Q.
Quakers debarred from their meeting-houses in London, iii., 231.
Assemble in the streets, 232. Their cause rendered popular by
an intemperate expression of Sir John Howel's, ib. Their
church government and discipline settled by Penn and others,
234. Their sentiments concerning marriage, ib. Suffer by a
test law made against Papists, 235. Ineffectual application to
Parliament for relief, 236. Penn's exertions in their behalf,
271, 272. Relieved by James II., 274. Their address of thanks
to him, ib. Become obnoxious on that account, 275.
Quebec named, ii., 19. Fort built, 42. Taken by the English,
44. Restored to the French, 45.
R.
Raleigh, Walter, i., 289. Birth and education, 290, 291. Em-
barks for France with a troop of volunteers, 292. Accompanies
Sir John N orris to the Netherlands, 293. Joins the first and
unsuccessful voyage of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 294. Serves in
Ireland as captain of a troop of horse, 295. Is admitted to court,
297. Patent for discovering, &c., 299. Makes an assignment
of his patent, 314. Imprisoned in the Tower, 322. Released,
324. Embarks for Guiana, ib. Second expedition to Guiana,
338. Engaged in the expedition to Cadiz, 340. Arrested on a
charge of high treason, 351. His trial, 353. Remanded to the
Tower, 357. His "History of the World," 358. Released
from confinement, 361. Expedition to Guiana, ib. His execu-
tion, 370 ; ii., 160.
Roanoke discovered, i., 300.
Robinson, John, his birth and education, ii., 257. Minister of a
congregation of dissenters, ib. His congregation persecuted,
258-265. Removes with his church to Amsterdam, 268. Re-
moves to Leyden, 270. His public- dispute with Episcopius,
273. His sentiments, 275-278. His church contemplates a re-
moval, 278-280. Apply to the Virginia Company, 282. Preach,
es to them previous to removal, 286. His just and liberal senti-
ments, 288, 289. His affectionate leave of those who embarked
for America, 289. Prevented from removing to America, 291.
His death, character, and posterity, 291-294.
Roldan, his mutiny, i., 190.
S. *
Sable Island, flocked with cattle, i., 284, 287. Convicts lauded at,
ii., 16.
Saco River, ii.,-253.
Sagadahock, colony at, ii., 52.
Samoset visits the Plymouth settlers, ii., 327.
Sandys, Sir Edwin, treasurer of the Virginia Company, ii., 110.
Sassafras the principal object of ('ring's voyage, ii , 231.
INDEX. 313
Savage rock, ii., 231.
Scurvy, remedy for, i., 247.
Silk attempted to be produced in Virginia, ii., 170.
Skrselings, i., 81.
Smith, Sir Thomas, ii., 100. Calumniated, 100, 103, 104. De
cree of chancery in his favour, 107. Resigns his office of treas-
urer of the Virginia Company, 110. Two thousand acres of
land granted to him in Virginia, 1 12.
Somers, Sir George, admiral of Virginia, ii., 117. Dispute with
Gates about rank, 119. Wrecked on Bermuda Islands, 121.
Arrives in Virginia, 126. Voyage to the Bermudas, 130, 131.
His death, burial, and monument, 131, 132. Somers' Islands
named from him, 133.
Somers, Matthew, ii., 131.
Soto, Ferdinando de, his adventures in Florida, i., 258. His death,
268.
Spelman, Henry, preserved by Pocahontas, ii., 131.
Standish, Miles, iii., 116. A soldier in the Netherlands, 117.
Settles at Leyden, ib. Embarks for America, ib. Commands
a party for discovery at Cape Cod, ib. Chief military com-
mander at Plymouth, t'6. Compels Corbitant to submit, 118.
His arrangements for the defence of Plymouth, 119. His voyage
to Matachiest, ib. His resolute conduct with the Indians, 120.
His voyage to Manomet, 121. His expedition to Wessagusset,
122, 123. His expedition to Cape Ann, 135, 136. Mr. Hub-
bard's observations relating to him, 136. Mr. Robinson's letter
respecting him, 187. Apology for his conduct, 137, 138. Agent
for the colony in England, 139. Returns to Plymouth, 140.
Expedition against Morton at Mount Wollaston, 143. His set-
tlement at Duxbury, 145. His death and descendants, 145-147.
Stith, his remarks on sending convicts to Virginia, ii., 168. His
eulogy of the Virginia Company, 200.
T.
Thorpe, George, murdered by Indians, ii., 180. His character, 181.
Tillotson, Dr., his candid treatment of Penn, iii., 273.
Tobacco first known, i., 244. Carried to England, 316. Cultiva-
ted in Virginia, ii., 169. King James' aversion to it, ib. Its cul-
tivation opposed by the Virginia Company, 170. Becomes a
staple commodity of Virginia, ib. Prohibited in England, unless
the growth of the colonies, 197.
Trinidad Island discovered, i., 189.
V.
Vane, Sir Henry, governor of Massachusetts, iii., 164.
Virginia named.i., 305. Its topography by Heriot, 308. First child
born in, 312. Divided into North and South, ii., 50. Expedition
to, 119. Character of a company of its settlers, 122. State of,
at Lord Delaware's departure. 134. At Sir Thomas Dale's ar-
rival, ib. Adventures to, Uieir discouragement, 135. Descrip-
tion of it by Gates and Delaware, 135-137. Difficulties in, from
the manner of holding lands, 142-145. Sir Thomas Dale's high
314 INDEX.
opinion of it, 146. Supplied with corn by the natives, J53.
Great mortality in, 164. Its first assembly, ib. General views
of its settlers, 165. A number of young women sent there, 165,
166. Convicts sent there, 167. Slaves tirst introduced there,
169. Its tobacco trade, 169, 170. New settlements there in
Yeardley's administration, 173. Means of defence there neg-
lected, ib. Massacre of a great number of the inhabitants, 178-
181. Iron works and lead ore there, 181. Many of the planta-
tions there abandoned, 182. War with the natives, 182, 183.
Its slender aid from the crown, 185. Orders of council for an
alteration in its government, 188. Commissioners sent to, 189.
Quo warranto against the Company of, 190. Assembly protest
and appoint an agent, 192. John Porentis, their agent, dies on
his passage to England, ib. Applies to the House of Commons,
196. Their petition ordered to be withdrawn by the king, ib.
Meetings of the Company of, suppressed, 198. Charter vacated,
ib. Government new modelled by King James, 201-204.
W.
Wainham, Sir Ferdinando, his arrival in Virginia, and death, ii.,
119.
Wey mouth, George, sails for America, ii., 239. Oldmixon's and
Beverley's mistakes respecting his voyages, ib. Discovers
George's Islands, 239, 241. Pentecost Harbour, 239, 242. Ob-
servations on his journal by John F. Williams, 249-252. Ab-
stract of his voyage, with the author's queries, 240, 249. Kid-
naps some of the natives, 243. Discovers Penobscot River, 252.
White, John, governor of Virginia, i., 311.
White, Peregrine, first English child born in New-England, ii.,
315.
Williams, John Foster, his observations on Weymouth's voyage,
ii., 249-252.
Winland discovered, i., 80.
Winslow, Edward, his birth and education, iii., 85. Travels on
the Continent, ib. Joins Robinson's Church, ib. Settles at
Leyden, and marries, ib. Removes to America with his family,
ib. One of the discoverers of Plymouth Harbour, ib. Death of
his wife, and second marriage, 86. His visit to Massasoit, 85,
91. His voyage to Monahigon, 94. His second visit to Massa-
soit in the time of his sickness, 94-102. Went to England as
agent for the Colony of New-England, 102. Published a narra-
tive of the transactions of the colony, ib. Returns to Plymouth,
and brings the first neat cattle brought to New-England, 103.
His second voyage to England, ib. Detects Lyford, and returns
to Plymouth, 104. Elected assistant, ii. Again sent agent to
England, 105. Application to the commissioners of the colo-
nies, 106. Questioned by Archbishop Laud for celebrating mar
riages, 107. His defence, ib. Pronounced guilty of separation
from the Church, ib. Committed to the Fleet Prison, ib. Pe-
titions the board, and obtains a (please, ib. Returns to New
England, and chosen governor, 108. Chosen commissioner of
the United Colonies, ib. Agent to England to answer the com
INDEX. 315
plaint of Gorton, 109. Conducts with ability and success, 110.
Engaged in colonizing and converting the Indians, ib. One of
the corporation for that purpose, 112. One of the commission*
era sent by Cromwell on an expedition against the Spaniards,
113. Dies on the passage to Jamaica, ib. Buried with the hon-
ours of war, 114. His settlement at Marshfield, ib. Account
of his descendants, 1 14, 115. His account of the Indians, 293-304.
WirUhrop, John, his birth and ancestry, iii., 148. Educated for
the law, ib. Leader of the settlement in Massachusetts, 149.
First governor of the colonies, t'6. Settlement at Newtown, 152.
Removal to Boston, 154. His character, 154-160. Left out of
the magistracy, 160. Examination of his accounts, and honour-
able result, 161. His humility, ib. His firmness and decision,
164. His difficulties with Mrs. Hutchinson and her followers,
ib. Superseded by Henry Vane, ib. Elected governor again,
167. Assists at a synod, 169. His firm and correct conduct
with the ChuMh at Boston, 171, 172. His opinion of democra-
cy, 174. Of magistracy and liberty, 178. His pecuniary em-
barrassments, 181. His afflictions, 182. Governor's Island grant-
ed to him, 183. His death, t'6. His picture preserved in the
Senate Chamber of Massachusetts, ib. His journal, ib. His
posterity, 184.
Winthrop, John, governor of Connecticut, his birth and education,
iii., 185. His removal to New-England, 186. Services to the
colony, ib. Builds Saybrook Fort, 192. Obtains a charter in-
corporating Connecticut and New-Haven, 200. Governor of the
Colony of Connecticut for fourteen years, 202. Elected Fellow
of the Royal Society, ib. One of the commissioners of the Uni-
ted Colonies, 205. Dies at Boston, ib.
Wyat, Sir Francis, succeeds Yeardley, ii., 174. His instructions
from the Virginia Company, ii. Arrives in Virginia, 175. De-
ceived by the Indian chiefs, ib. Massacre of the inhabitants
while he was governor, 178-181. Opposes the change of gov-
ernment attempted by the crown, 193. Returns to Ireland, 205.
X.
Xerxes, his orders to sail round Africa, i., 31, 44.
Y.
Yeardley, George, governor of Virginia, ii., 153. Encourages the
cultivation of tobacco, 16. Attacks the Chickahomouy Indians,
ib. Superseded by Argal, 154. Appointed governor-general of
Virginia, 158. His attention to his government, 161. Opposed,
172. Resigns, 16. Resumes the government on Wyat's depar-
ture, 205. His death, ib.
Z.
Zeno, i., 138.
Zones, doctrine of, i., 42.
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