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COMPENDIOUS   HISTORY 


OF 


]^EW    ENGLAND 

FROM    THE 

DISCOVERY  BY  EUROPEANS 

TO    THE 

JFitst  ffifenetal  Coitflwss  of  tlje  anglfl*J^imrtcan  Colonies 


BY 


JOHN   GORHAM   PALFREY 


IN    FOUR    VOLUMES 


Vol.  I  a/a,- 


BOSTON 

JAMES   R.    OSGOOD  AND   COMPANY 

1884 


Copi/right,  187S, 
By  John  Gorham  Palfrey. 

Copyright,  1883, 
By  John  Carver  Palfret. 


PRINTED  BY  JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON, 
UNIVERSITY   PRESS. 


'I'O 

M.  A.  P. 

IN     GRATEFUL     REMEMBRANCE 
OF 

THE   HAPPINESS    OF   FIFTY  YEARS. 

J.  G.  P 

CVMBRIDGB,  MASSACaUSETTS ; 

1873,  March  11. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


The  first  two  volumes  of  this  work  were  pub- 
lished seven  years  ago.  The  first  three  volumes 
appeared  last  August,  under  the  title  of  "  A  Com- 
pendious History  of  the  First  Century  of  New 
England."  The  fourth  volume,  now  first  issued, 
completes  the  execution  of  my  plan.  I  do  not 
propose  to  extend  the  work  beyond  the  period  al- 
ready surveyed  in  these  four  volumes. 

The  last  chapter  of  the  book  is  not  embraced 
in  the  title,  and  does  not  pretend  to  be  so  much 
as  a  compendious  history  of  the  time  therein 
treated.  But  the  reader  may  find  it  convenient 
as  a  slight  summary  of  the  events  which  immedi- 
ately preceded  the  War  of  Independence. 


Caubridge,  Massachusetts; 
1873,  March. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST  TWO  VOLUMES. 


Of  the  periods  of  past  New  England  history 
each  consisting  of  eighty-six  years,  the  third  has 
lately  closed.  In  the  year  1602  the  Englishman 
Bartholomew  Gosnold  built  a  house  on  land  now 
belonging  to  Massachusetts,  and  in  the  spring  of 
1603  the  family  of  Stuart  came  to  the  throne  of 
Great  Britain.  On  the  19th  of  April,  1689,  the  im- 
prisonment, by  the  people,  of  the  Royal  Governor, 
marked  the  First  Revolution  in  New  England. 
On  the  19th  of  April,  1775,  the  Second  Revolution 
was  inaugurated  by  the  fight  at  Lexington  and 
Concord.  On  the  19th  of  April,  1861,  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  Third  Revolution,  which  was  to  rescue 
the  country  from  the  domination  of  the  Slave 
Power,  Massachusetts  troops  fought  their  way 
through  a  city  of  Maryland  to  the  relief  of  the 
National  Capital. 

Through  the  first  two  of  these  periods,  and 
through  more  than  half  of  the  third,  the  English 
inhabitants  of  New  England  continued  to  be  a 
remarkably  homogeneous  people.     Since  the  year 


iv  PREFACE. 

1830,  there  has  been  a  large  immigration,— 
chiefly  of  Irish,  and,  next  in  number  to  them, 
of  Germans.  Down  to  that  time  the  population 
consisted,  with  very  few  exceptions,  of  the  descend- 
ants of  twenty-one  thousand  Puritan  Englishmen, 
who  had  come  over  before  the  meeting  of  the 
Long  Parliament  in  1640.  Through  six  genera- 
ations,  this  peculiar  people,  singularly  sequestered 
from  foreign  influences,  was  forming  a  distinct 
character  by  its  own  discipline,  and  working  out 
its  own  problems  within  an  isolated  sphere. 

The  economical  progress  of  New  England  has 
been  marvellous.  Massachusetts,  of  which  the 
recent  statistics  have  been  more  carefully  collected 
than  those  of  any  other  of  the  six  States,  presents 
a  sufficient  example.  The  soil  of  Massachusetts  is 
barren,  and  she  has  no  natural  staple  commodity 
of  great  value  in  the  markets  of  the  world.  Yet 
at  the  present  time,  two  centuries  and  a  third  from 
the  date  of  her  foundation,  her  taxable  property  — 
exclusive  of  property  belonging  to  institutions  of 
religion,  education,  and  benevolence  —  amounts  to 
a  thousand  millions  of  dollars.  Equally  divided,  it 
would  afford  more  than  eight  hundred  and  eighty 
dollars  each  to  every  man,  woman,  and  child  with- 
in her  borders.  From  the  reserved  fruits  of  the 
labor  of  seven  generations  "  she  could  give  a  dol- 


PREFACE.  V 

lar  to  each  individual  of  the  thousand  millions  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  and  still  have  all  her 
schools,  meeting-houses,  town-houses,  alms-houses, 
gaols,  and  literary,  benevolent,  and  scientific  insti- 
tutions left  as  nest-eggs  to  begin  the  world  anew." 
The  value  of  the  registered  products  of  the  labor 
of  her  people  for  the  year  ending  June  1,  1855, — 
undoubtedly  falling  far  short  of  the  actual  amount, 
—  was  two  hundred  and  ninety-five  millions  eight 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand  six  hundred  and 
eighty-one  dollars. 

New  England,  in  the  political  relations  which 
through  her  brief  history  she  has  sustained,  has  not 
been  inactive  nor  unimportant.  In  her  primitive 
weakness  she  kept  her  lands  for  the  mother  country 
against  Dutch  plotters  on  one  border  and  French 
on  the  other.  From  the  massacre  at  Schenectady 
in  1690  to  the  fall  of  Quebec  in  1759,  her  men 
and  money  upheld  the  British  empire  in  America 
against  the  encroachments  of  the  rival  monarchy. 
Her  seemingly  Quixotic,  but  magnificently  suc- 
cessful enterprise  against  the  French  post  of  Louis- 
burgh,  in  1745,  was  not  only  the  single  event 
creditable  to  the  arms  of  England  in  the  war  of 
the  Austrian  succession,  but  it  gave  peace  to  Eu- 
rope. Adopting  for  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle 
the  basis  of  the  status  ante  bellum,  England  bought 


VI  PREFACE. 

back  with  the  retrocession  of  Louisburgh  to  France 
the  conquests  which  the  more  fortunate  arms  of  her 
enemy  had  been  wresting  from  her  on  the  other 
side  of  the  water.  In  1757,  during  the  last  inter- 
colonial war,  nearly  one  third  part  of  the  effective 
men  of  Massachusetts  were  in  the  field,  and  tEixes 
on  real  estate  in  Boston  amounted  to  two  third 
parts  of  the  rents.  In  1759,  the  General  Court  of 
that  colony  excused  themselves  to  Governor  Pow- 
nall  for  not  being  more  liberal  by  referring  to  the 
fact  that  the  military  service  of  the  preceding  year 
had  cost  a  million  of  dollars.* 

But  such  are  not  the  greatest  benefactions  for 
which  England  is  indebted  to  the  community  that 
bears  her  name.  To  the  Puritans  the  Tory  his- 
torian Hume  ascribed  the  liberty  of  England.  But 
the  Puritans  never  struck  decisively  for  English 
freedom,  till  Independency  obtained  the  control  of 
the  Parliament  and  the  array  in  1645 ;  and  it  was 
the  pens  of  learned  ministers  living  in  New  Eng- 
land that  in  Old  England  raised  Independency  to 
that  position  of  command.  It  was  Hooker  of  Con- 
necticut, and  Cotton,  and  Shepard,  and  Allen,  and 
Norton,  and  Mather,  of  Massachusetts,  that  organ- 
ized the  victories  of  Fairfax  and   Cromwell.     In 

*  Minot,  Continuation  of  the  History  of  the  Province  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  ii  37,  49. 


PREFACE.  VH 

former  times  this  relation  was  understood,  however 
now  forgotten.  "  We  may  look  for  England  in 
England,  and  find  nothing  but  New  England." 
"  The  Scots  at  Newcastle,  to  whom  the  King  re- 
tired for  safeguard,  had  a  brave  occasion  to  show 
faith  and  loyalty ;  but  they  kept  their  wont,  and 
sold  their  master,  as  Judas  did  his  to  the  Jews, 
to  the  race  of  New  England,  the  Independent  sal- 
vages." *  These  words  of  the  Tory  bishop  Hacket 
present,  with  his  own  coloring,  a  specimen  of  a 
class  of  facts  familiar  to  his  contemporaries,  though 
they  have  since  slipped  out  of  the  histories. 

The  preparation  for  separate  national  existence 
had  nowhere  in  the  colonies  an  earlier  date  than 
in  New  England  ;  and  on  her  soil  the  War  of 
American  Independence  began.  Of  the  Conti- 
nental troops  and  militia  registered  in  the  war- 
ofiice  as  having  served  in  that  contest,  the  States 
of  New  England,  then  four  in  number,  furnished 
no  fewer  than  147,704,  while  only  71,140  were  sent 
to  the  field  by  the  six  States  south  of  the  Potomac. 
Massachusetts  alone  contributed  83,092  men,  or 
about  twelve  thousand  more  than  the  aggregate 
contributions  of  the  six  Southern  States.  So,  alike 
in  time  and  in  efiiciency,  the  people  of  New  Eng- 
land were  leaders  in  that  movement  which  has 
*  Scrinia  Reserata,  etc.,  78,  203. 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

lately  issued  in  the  deliverance  of  the  United  States 
of  America  from  the  unspeakable  curse  of  slavery  ; 
and  to  the  armies  and  fleets  that  overthrew  the 
despotism  of  the  Slave  Power  she  supplied  not 
fewer  than  three  eighth  parts  of  a  million  of  fight- 
ing men.* 

It  is  to  the  first  of  the  three  periods  of  the  past 
history  of  New  England  that  the  present  work 
relates.  It  tells  the  primitive  story  of  a  vast  tribe 
of  men,  numbering  at  the  present  time,  it  is  likely, 
some  nine  or  ten  millions.  Exactness  in  such  an 
estimate  is  not  attainable,  but  it  would  probably 
be  coming  somewhere  near  the  truth  to  divide  the 
present  white  population  of  the  United  States  into 
three   equal   parts,  —  one,   belonging  to  the  New 

*  The  figures,  as  stated  in  reports  of  the  Adjutant-Generals 
of  the  several  States,  are  as  follows ;  namely,  — 

Massachusetts         .....  165,234 

Maine 71,600 

Connecticut                      64,468 

Vermont 34,555 

New  Hampshire 33,258 

Rhode  Island 24,278 

373,293 

But  the  tables  of  the  Adjutant -Grenerals  of  Connecticut  and 
New  Hampshire  are  brought  down  no  further  than  to  April,  1865, 
and  those  of  the  Adjutant-General  of  Maine  include  nothing  of  that 
year. 


PREFACE.  be 

England  stock ;  another,  the  posterity  of  English- 
men who  settled  in  the  other  Atlantic  colonies  ;  and 
a  third,  consisting  of  the  aggregate  of  Irish,  Scotch, 
French,  Dutch,  German,  Swedish,  Spanish,  and 
other  immigrants,  and  their  descendants.  Accord- 
ing to  the  United  States  Census  of  1860,  the  New 
England  States  had  in  that  year  3,135,283  inhabi- 
tants, of  which  number  469,338  were  of  foreign 
birth.  On  the  other  hand,  not  much  fewer  than  a 
million  of  natives  of  New  England,  —  often  persons 
not  inconsiderable  in  respect  to  activity,  property, 
or  influence,  —  were  supposed  to  be  living  in  other 
parts  of  the  Union,  at  the  beginning  of  the  late 
civil  war.  The  New  England  race  has  contrib- 
uted largely  to  the  population  of  the  great  State 
of  New  York,  and  makes  a  majority  in  some  of 
the  new  States  further  west.  Considerable  num- 
bers of  them  are  dispersed  in  distant  parts  of  the 
world,  where  commerce  or  other  business  invites 
enterprise,  though  they  do  not  often  establish  them- 
selves for  life  in  foreign  countries.  I  presume  there 
is  one  third  of  the  white  people  of  these  United 
States,  wherever  now  residing,  of  whom  no  in- 
dividual can  peruse  these  volumes  without  read- 
ing the  history  of  his  own  progenitors. 

Boston,  Massachusetts  ; 
November  4,  1865. 


CONTENTS 
OF   THE   FIRST  VOLUME. 


BOOK  I. 

THE    SETTLEMENT. 

> 

CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY   EXPLORATIOX3. 

PAei 

The  Cabots  and  Cortereal 2 

Verazzano,  Gomez,  and  Gilbert 8 

Raleigh,  Gosnold,  and  Pring 4 

Waymouth  and  Gorges 5 

The  London  Colony 6 

The  Plymouth  Colony  6 

Abortive  Expedition  to  the  Kennebec 7 

Captain  John  Smith 8 

His  First  Voyage  to  Virginia 10 

Founding  of  Jamestown 10 

Smith's  Adventures  in  Virginia 11 

His  Return  to  England 15 

His  "  General  History  "  and  "  True  Travels  " 15 

His  First  Voyage  to  North  Virginia 15 

The  Country  named  New  England 16 

Visits  of  Vines  and  Dermer 17 

CHAPTER  11. 

OEOGBAFKT   AND   NATURAL   HISTORY. 

Mountains,  Rivers,  andClimate 20 

Soil,  Minerals,  and  Forests 22 

Fishes  and  Birds 24 

Reptiles,  Insects,  and  Quadrupeds 26 


XU  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  III 

ABORIGINAL   INHABITANTS. 

PAOI 

Pliysical  Conformation  of  the  American  Indian 27 

Wide  Diffusion  of  the  Algonquin  Race 28 

The  Etetchemins  and  Abenaquis 29 

Other  New-England  Tribes 29 

Clothing,  Dwellings,  and  Food 30 

Manufactures  and  Utensils 33 

Domestic  Relations 84 

Propertj'  and  Trade 36 

Mental  Capacity 36 

Government 88 

Language 89 

Religion 41 

Social  Relations 44 

CHAPTER  IV. 

ORIGIN   OF   PLYMOUTH    COLONT. 

Puritans  and  Nonconformists  in  England 47 

Separatists  and  Brownists 48 

Congregation  at  Scrooby 48 

Emigration  to  Holland 49 

Removal  to  Leyden 50 

Scheme  for  another  Removal 51 

Negotiation  with  the  Virginia  Company 64 

Wincob's  Patent 66 

Terms  of  the  Agreement  with  English  Partners 65 

Embarkation  at  Delft  Haven 67 

Departure  from  Southampton 58 

Return  of  the  Speedwell 58 

Final  Departure  of  the  Mayflower 58 

Passengers  by  the  Mayflower 59 

Arrival  at  Cape  Cod 60 

CHAPTER  V. 

FIRST    TEAR  AT   PLTMOUTH. 

The  Compact  for  Government 61 

John  Carver  elected  Governor 61 


CONTENTS.  Xm 

FAGK 

Explorations  of  the  Country 62 

Landing  at  Plymouth 64 

First  Winter  at  Plymouth 65 

Military  Organization 66 

Visit  of  Samoset 6R 

Treaty  with  Massasoit 67 

Death  of  Carver 69 

Bradford  chosen  Governor 69 

Sickness  and  Mortality 70 

Expeditions  into  the  Interior 71 

Indian  Conspiracy  against  Massasoit 71 

Arrival  of  the  Fortune 72 

Patent  from  the  Council  for  New  England 73 

Departure  of  the  Fortune 73 

CHAPTER  VI. 

EARLY   PROGBESS    OP  PLYMOUTH. 

"Weston's  Plantation  at  Wcssagussett 75 

Visit  of  Winslow  to  Massasoit 76 

Shipwreck  of  Weston 76 

Grants  of  the  Council  for  New  England 77 

Arrival  of  Robert  Gorges 78 

New  Patent  to  John  Pierce 79 

Scarcity  of  Food 79 

Arrival  of  the  Ann  and  Little  James 82 

Improved  Prospects 83 

John  Robinson 84 

Arrival  of  John  Lyford 84 

Emancipation  from  the  Adventurers 85 

Neighboring  Settlements 87 

Thomas  Morton  of  Merry  Mount 87 

French  and  Dutch  Colonies 89 

CHAPTER  VIL 

ORIGIN   OF  MASSACnnSETTS    COLONY. 

English  Politics '. 92 

John  White,  of  Dorchester ....*.  94 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

PAOl 

Settlement  at  Cape  Ann 94 

Settlement  at  Naumkeag  (Salem) 96 

Charter  of  Massachusetts 98 

lligginson's  Account  of  the  Settlements 99 

Organization  of  a  Church  at  Salem 101 

Expulsion  of  Churclmien 103 

Increase  of  Immigration 104 

Dan  for  a  Transfer  of  the  Cliarter  to  New  England 105 

Jolm  Winthrop  chosen  Governor 106 

The  Massachusetts  Company 106 

Departure  and  Voyage  of  the  Arbella 110 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

ORGANIZATION   OF   MASSACHUSETTS. 

Aniral  of  Winthrop  and  his  Company 113 

Sickness  and  Deaths  at  Salem 114 

Ciiuroli  at  Charlestown 115 

Courts  of  Assistants 115 

Epidemic  Sickness  at  Charlestown 116 

Settlement  and  General  Court  at  Shawmut  (Boston) 116 

Plantations  in  Massachusetts 118 

Sickness  and  Famine 119 

Annual  Election 120 

Religious  Test  for  Freemen 121 

Disaffection  at  Watertown 124 

Furtlier  Immigration 127 

Boston  the  Capital  Town 128 

Early  Kvlaiions  with  the  Natives 129 

Scanty  Harvest 131 

Complaints  in  England  against  the  Colony 132 

CHAPTER  IX. 

MASSACHUSETTS   AND    PLYMOUTH. 

Renewal  of  Immigration 134 

John  Cotton 135 

Order  in  Council  rehiting  to  New  England 136 

Deputies  from  the  Towns 137 


CONTENTS.  rv 

PAQI 

Governor  "Winthrop  superseded 139 

Slow  Growth  of  Plymouth 141 

New  Patent  for  Plymouth 142 

Pecuniary  Embarrassments 143 

New  Settlements 144 

French  and  Dutch  Plantations 145 

Plymouth  Factory  on  the  Connecticut 146 

Legislation  of  Plymouth 147 

CHAPTER  X. 

MASSACHUSETTS   AND   PROVIDENCE. 

Condition  of  Massachusetts  after  Four  Years 148 

The  Freemen,  Magistrates,  and  Ciergy 149 

Dangers  to  the  Colony 150 

Proceedings  of  the  General  Court 155 

Dissolution  of  the  Council  for  New  England 158 

The  Cliarter  endangered 159 

Roger  Williams  and  the  Salem  Church 161 

Banishment  of  Williams 165 

Settlement  of  Providence , 166 

CHAPTER  XL 

MASSACHUSETTS    AND    CONNECTICUT. 

Governor  Haynes 170 

Municipal  System  of  New  England 172 

Sir  Henry  Vane  and  Hugh  Peter 173 

Vane  elected  Governor  of  Massachusetts 175 

Magistrates  for  Life 176 

Project  of  a  Code  of  Laws 177 

Project  for  a  Settlement  in  Connecticut 178 

Thomas  Hooker  and  Samuel  Stone 179 

Dorchester  and  Watertown  Plantations 181 

Emigration  from  Newtown  to  Connecticut 182 

Primitive  Administration  in  Connecticut 183 

The  Pequot  War 184 

Captain  John  Mason 1 86 

Attack  on  the  Pequot  Fort 188 

Conclusion  of  the  War 192 


rvi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   ANTINOMIAN   FACTION. 

PAOS 

Mrs.  Ann  Hutchinson 195 

John  Whcelwriglit 198 

Disaffection  of  Governor  Vane 199 

Restoration  of  Winthrop 201 

Departure  of  Vane 203 

Synod  at  Cambridge 205 

Punishment  of  Antinomian  Disturbers 206 

Mrs.  HutcliinsoH's  Trial 207 

Excommunication  and  Banisliment  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson 209 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

RHODE    ISLAND    AND    THE    EASTERN    SETTLEMENTS. 

Emigration  of  Antinomians  to  Aquetnet 211 

Dissensions  in  the  New  Colony 212 

Eastern  Settlements 214 

Hansard  Knollys,  John  Underbill  and  Thomas  Larkham  . . .   216 

Death  of  Jolin  Mason 218 

Annexation  of  the  Piscataqua  Settlements  to  Massachusetts  .  219 

Gorgeana 221 

Settlement  of  Pejepscot 222 

The  Lygonia  or  Plougli  Patent. 223 

George  Cleaves  and  Ricliard  Vines 224 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

HEW  HAVEN,  CONNECTICUT,  AND  PLYMOUTH. 

Theophilus  Eaton  and  John  Davenport 225 

Settlement  of  Quinnipiack  (New  Haven) 226 

Organization  of  the  Government 228 

Milford  and  Guilford 229 

Eaton  chosen  Governor  of  New  Haven  Colony 231 

Frame  of  Government  in  Connecticut 233 

Settlement  of  Fairfield  and  Stratford 234 

Saybrook,  Springfield,  and  Southampton 235 

Edward  Winslow  in  England 237 

John  Norton  and  Charles  Chauncy  at  Plymouth 240 

Early  Legislation  of  Plymouth 241 


CONTENTS.  XVU 

PAoa 

Election  of  Deputies 242 

Boundaries 243 

Transfer  of  the  Patent  to  the  Freemen 244 

Death  of  Brewster 245 

CHAPTER  XV. 

MASSACHUSETTS   AND   THE    CONFEDERATION. 

Founding  of  Harvard  College 247 

Legislation  and  Elections  in  Massachusetts  249 

Question  about  the  Number  of  Deputies 250 

Wintlirop's  Letter  to  the  Commissioners  for  Plantations 252 

Election  of  Governor  Bellingham 254 

Organization  of  Four  Counties 256 

Two  Houses  of  Legislature 257 

Scheme  for  a  Colonial  Confederacy 259 

Objects  of  the  Confederation 261 

Articles  of  Confederation '. 268 


BOOK  II. 

CONFEDERACY    OF   THE    FOUR    COLOKIES. 


CHAPTER  I. 

FBIKITIVE   GOYEENHENT  AND    LAWS. 

Conditions  of  the  Franchise , 271 

Annual  Elections 272 

Magistrates  and  Deputies 273 

Organization  of  Towns 274 

Administration  of  Justice 276 

Iiegal  Code  of  Massachusetts 279 

Cotton's  "  Abstract  of  the  Laws  of  New  England  " 279 

«  The  Body  of  Liberties  " 280 

ObUgation  of  Religious  Observances 283 

b 


XViii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  II. 

RBLIOIOM,    EDUCATION,   AND    SOCIAL   LIFB. 

PAOB 

Independency  in  New  England 285 

Organization  of  Churches 286 

Order  of  Worship 288 

Books  and  Education 289 

Military  Organization 291 

Employments 292 

Roads  and  Dwellings 295 

Furniture  and  Dress 297 

Diet 298 

Amusements 299 

Language 300 

CHAPTER  III. 

FIRST    PERIOD   OF   THE    CONFEDERACY 

The  Narragansett  Indians 302 

Samuel  Gorton  and  his  Company 304 

Settlement  at  Shawomet  ( Warwick) 306 

Miantonomo  and  Uncas , 307 

Surrender  and  Imprisonment  of  the  Party  at  Shawomet  ....  310 

Their  Conviction  for  Blasphemy 311 

Cession  of  the  Narragansett  Country  to  the  King 312 

Resentment  of  the  Narragausetts 313 

Strength  of  the  Confederacy 314 

Dutch  and  French  Colonies 815 

Internal  Politics  of  Massachusetts 317 

Relations  to  the  Mother  Country  319 

Conflict  of  Authority  in  Boston  Harbor 320 

CHAPTER  IV. 

CONOBEGATIONALISM   AND   MISSIONARY   ACTION. 

Presbytery  and  Independency 322 

The  Westminster  Assembly ^ 323 

Presbyterian  Cabal  in  Massachusetts 325 

Mission  of  Edward  Winslow  to  England 327 

Cambridge  Synod  and  Platform 329 


CONTENTS.  XIX 

FAGI 

Constitution  of  Congregationalism 331 

Undertaking  to  Evangelize  the  Natives 383 

John  Eliot  and  Thomas  Mayliew 334 

Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel 33i 

Dispute  with  French  Adventurers 33C 

New  Netherland 33i 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE    NARRAGANSETT    CO0NTRT. 

Winslow  and  Gorton  in  England 339 

"  Simplicitie's  Defence  "  and  "  Hypocrisie  Unmasked  " . . . .  341 

Return  of  Gorton  from  England 342 

Gorton's  Company  at  Warwick 343 

Patent  of  Providence  Plantations 344 

Organization  of  a  Government 846 

Alarm  from  the  Narragansett  Indians 347 

Preparations  of  the  Confederacy  for  War 348 

Treaty  of  Peace 849 

CHAPTER  VI. 

LAST   YEARS   OP  WINTHEOP. 

Dispute  between  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut 352 

Proposed  Revision  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation 354 

Impost  levied  at  Boston 365 

Proposed  Change  of  Representation  in  Massachusetts 366 

Administration  of  Governor  Dudley 357 

Arraignment  and  Acquittal  of  Winthrop 369 

Institution  of  Common  Schools 361 

Death  of  Thomas  Hooker 361 

Death  of  Grovernor  Wintlirop 362 

CHAPTER  VII. 

HASSACHUSETTS   AND   THE    COyPEDERACT. 

Relations  to  New  Netherland 864 

Dissension  between  Massaclmsetts  and  the  Confederacy 869 

Declaration  of  War  against  Ninigret 871 


XX  CONTENTS. 

FAOI 

Dissent  of  Massachusetts 872 

Expedition  against  Ninigret 374 

Missionary  Operations 375 

Missionary  Services  of  John  Eliot 377 

The  May  hews,  Father  and  Son 878 

Contributions  to  Harvard  College  380 

Arrangements  for  a  History  of  New  England 380 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

SOUTHEEN    NEW    ENGLAND. 

Coddington's  Commission  as  Governor  of  Rhode  Island. ..   .  881 

Rhode  Island  Baptists 382 

Treatment  of  John  Clarke  in  Massachusetts 388 

Williams  and  Clarke  in  England 386 

Revocation  of  Coddington's  Commission  387 

Dissensions  in  Providence  Plantations 389 

Restoration  of  the  former  Government 390 

Affairs  of  Plymouth 392 

Return  of  John  Winthrop  the  younger  from  England 394 

Plantation  in  the  Pequot  Country 395 

Rapid  increase  of  Connecticut 396 

John  Winthrop  the  younger  elected  Governor 397 

New  Haven  Colony 398 

Laws  of  New  Haven 399 

CHAPTER  IX. 

LAST  YEARS  OF  THE  FOUNDERS. 

Administration  of  Governor  Endicott 400 

Enlargement  of  Massachusetts 401 

Annexation  of  Maine  and  Lygonia  to  Massachusetts 402 

Cromwell's  Plans  for  Ireland  and  for  Jamaica 404 

Prosperity  of  New  England 405 

Relations  with  Cromwell 406 

Coinage  of  Money 407 

Death  of  several  eminent  Founders 408 


HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


BOOK  I. 

THE   SETTLEMENT. 
CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY    EXPLORATIONS. 

The  name  New  England  has  at  different  times 
been  used  to  designate  regions  of  very  different 
extent.  At  an  early  period  of  the  English  coloni- 
zation it  denoted  only  the  settlements  within  and 
near  to  Boston  harbor.  Fifty  years  later,  it  was 
given  by  a  royal  decree  to  the  whole  tract  of  coun- 
try stretching  along  the  border  of  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  from  the  peninsula  of  Nova  Scotia  to  Del- 
aware Bay.  In  present  use,  the  name  stands  for 
the  six  States  of  the  American  Union  that  lie 
furthest  to  the  northeast ;  namely,  Maine,  New 
Hampshire,  Vermont,  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island, 
and  Connecticut. 

These  States  cover  about  two  third  parts  of 
what  may  be  regarded  as  a  great  peninsula,  which 
Is  joined  to  the  continent  by  a  narrow  isthmus 
between  the  River  St.  Lawrence  and  the  upper 
waters  of  Hudson's  River,  and  which  would  be 


2  EARLY  EXPLORATIONS. 

converted  into  an  island  if  the  Isthmus  were  de- 
pressed only  one  hundred  and  forty  feet  nnore. 
New  England  extends  through  six  degrees  of  lati- 
tude, about  midway  between  the  equator  and  the 
north  pole,  and  from  the  sixty-seventh  degree  of 
west  longitude  to  the  seventy-fourth. 

It  is  probable  that  New  England  was  visited  by 
Europeans  before  the  voyage  of  Columbus  to  the 
West  Indies.  There  is  reason  to  believe,  that,  as 
early  as  about  the  end  of  the  tenth  century,  some 
adventurous  navigators  from  Iceland  landed  on 
the  American  shore ;  and  there  are  circumstances 
pointing  to  the  country  about  Massachusetts*Bay 
and  Narragansett  Bay  as  the  region  which  they 
visited.  But  their  voyages,  if  repeated,  were  after 
no  long  time  discontinued;  and  for  five  centuries 
more  this  country  remained  unknown  to  the  East- 
ern world. 

Five  years  had  passed  after  the  first  voyage  of 
Columbus  to  the  West  Indies,  when  John  Cabot 
and  his  son  Sebastian,  mariners  of  Bristol  in  Eng- 
land, on   a  voyage   expected    by  them  to   termi- 

1497  nate  at  the  eastern  coast  of  Asia,  were 
June  24.  ^rrcstcd  by  the  American  shore  of  Labra- 
dor or  Newfoundland.  Changing  their  course 
towards  the  southwest,  they  sailed  in  that  direc- 
tion as  far  as  the  thirty-eighth  degree  of  north  lati- 
tude, and  probably  saw  the  headlands  of  Maine 
and  Massachusetts. 

Gaspar  Cortereal,  a  Portuguese,  followed  in 
1500-1601.  nearly   the   same   track.     The    Florentine 


SIR  HUMPHREY  GILBERT.  3 

Verrazzano,  in   the  service  of  King  Francis  the 
First  of  France,  discovered  what  is  now 

1524 

called  Hudson's  River,  and  for  several  days 
anchored  his   vessel   in  Narragansett  Bay.      The 
Spaniard,  Stephen  Gomez,  in  quest  of  the 
Northwest  passage,  for  the  Emperor  Charles 
the  Fifth,  is  believed  to  have  sailed  near  to  Cape 
Cod,  and  through  Long  Island  Sound. 

The  fishing  grounds  of  America  had  now  at- 
tracted attention  and  enterprise.  Hundreds  of 
French,  English,  Portuguese,  and  Spanish  fishing- 
vessels  met  on  the  banks  of  Newfoundland.  At 
length,  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  spirit 
of  maritime  adventure,  so  vigorously  developed 
at  that  time  in  England,  prompted  a  project  for 
establishing  a  colony  on  the  continent  of  America. 
Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  half-brother  of  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh,  received  from  the  Queen  a  patent  em- 
powering him  to  discover,  possess,  and  govern  all 
remote  heathen  and  barbarous  countries  not  occu- 
pied by  any  Christian  people.  With  two  hundred 
and  sixty  men,  embarked  in  five  vessels,  he  reached 
the  harbor  of  St.  Johns  in  Newfoundland,  and,  in 
the  name  of  the  sovereign  of  England,  1553. 
took  formal  possession  of  the  country  for  ^"k-^- 
two  hundred  leagues  around.  Sickness  broke  out 
among  his    men.      Some   died.      Many  deserted. 

In  search  of  provisions,  or  for  further  dis- 

.        T  Aug.  20. 

covery,  he  put  to  sea  agam.     In  a  storm 

the  little  vessel  which  conveyed  him  went  to  the 

bottom  with   all    her   company.      Another  Sept.  9. 


4  EARLY  EXPLORATIONS. 

of  his  vessels  had  been  wrecked  before.     The  rest 
of  the  five  now  returned  to  England. 

Raleigh  obtained  a  renewal  to  himself  of  Gil- 
bert's patent.     He  was  disabled  from  using  it  by 
his  recently  frustrated  attempts  to  found  a  colony 
on  the  Roanoke;  but,  with  his  consent,  the  Earl  of 
Southampton  fitted  out  a  small  vessel,  under  the 
command  of  Bartholomew  Gosnold,  for  explora- 
tion in  "the   north  part  of  Virginia."      Gosnold 
1502.    sailed  from  Falmouth  with  a  company  of 
March  26.  thirty-two  persons,  of  whom  eight  were  sea- 
men, and  twenty  were  to  become  planters.     His 
voyage  across  the  ocean  occupied  seven  weeks.  He 
looked  into  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  landed  on  the 
extremity  of  Cape  Cod,  to  which  promontory  he  gave 
that  name  on  account  of  the  great  quan- 
titles  of  codfish  there  taken  by  his  people. 
On  a  little  island  called  by  the  natives  Cuttyhunk, 
and  belonging  to  the   group  now  known  as  the 
Elizabeth  Islands,  he  made   arrangements  for   a 
permanent    occupation,   and    built   a    palisad®ed 
house.     But  the  supply  of  provisions  was  scanty. 
Some  demonstrations  of  the  natives  were  alarm- 
ing.    The  men  became  dispirited  and  mutinous, 
and  in  five  weeks  after  coming  within  sight 
of  land,  the   whole  party  sailed   again  for 
England. 

The  intelligence  they  carried  back  did  not  prove 
to    be    discouraging.       A   voyage    made    to    the 
1803     ^^^*^'''y  P^i^ts   of  New  England   by   Mar- 
tin Pring,  in  the  service  of  some  merchants 


SIR  FERDINANDO  GORGES.  O 

and  others  of  Bristol,  was  only  for  trading  pur- 
poses; but  Lord  Southampton,  still  intent    on  a 
settlement,  and  perceiving  the  necessity  of  further 
information  in  order  to  the  maturing  of  his  plans, 
sent  out  Captain  George  Waymouth,  with    jg^^g 
a   single   vessel,   to   discover   and   explore.  ^*"**^^- 
He   made  land  at  the   Island  of  Nantucket,  and 
sailed  some  fifty  or  sixty  miles  up  one  of  the 
rivers  of  Maine.     Here,  in  absurd  disregard 
of  the   interests  as  well  as   of  the  honor  of  his 
employers,  he  kidnapped  five  of  the  natives,  whom 
he  presently  conveyed  to  his  own  country. 

He  had  scarcely  left  New  England,  when  it  was 
visited  by  a  party  of  Frenchmen,  who  came  in 
quest  of  a  place  of  settlement  more  convenient 
than  that  on  the  shore  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  where 
they  had  first  thought  of  planting.  In  their  ex- 
amination of  the  coast  of  Maine  and  Massa- 
chusetts,   disasters    overtook    them.      The 

1606. 

weather  was  stormy.      They  lost  some  of 
their   number   in    attacks  from   the   savages,  and 
a  vessel  by  shipwreck.     And  the  enterprise  was 
abandoned. 

The  last  of  this  series  of  abortive  undertakings 
to  establish  a  European  colony  in  New  England 
was  projected  on  a  large  scale.  Among  the  per- 
sons connected  with  it,  Sir  John  Popham,  Chief 
Justice  of  England,  was  the  most  considerable, 
and  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  was  one  of  the  most 
active.  Gorges  was  a  Someroetshire  man,  who 
had  been  concerned  in  the  conspiracy  of  the  Earl 


Q  EARLY  EXPLORATIONS. 

of  Essex,  and  had  afterwards  been  induced  to 
testify  against  him,  thereby  bringing  upon  himself 
the  lasting  dislike  of  an  important  portion  of  the 
English  people.  At  the  accession  of  King  James, 
Gorges  was  made  Governor  of  Plymouth,  and  was 
residing  there  when  Captain  Waymouth 
returned  from  his  visit  to  Maine.  The 
active  mind  of  Gorges  became  intent  on  plans 
for  colonization  in  that  country.  He  communi- 
cated his  zeal  to  Chief  Justice  Popham,  with  whom 
he  seems  to  have  been  connected  by  marriage ;  and 
a  company  was  formed  by  them  of  gentlemen, 
merchants,  and  others,  in  the  west  of  England. 
At  the  same  time  another  company  was  organized 
in  London,  for  the  purpose  of  renewing  the  hith- 
erto frustrated  attempts  to  colonize  Virginia. 
The  two  associations  combined  their  plans,  and 
1606.  obtained  from  the  King  a  patent  in  which 
April  10  they  were  distinguished  from  each  other 
as  the  First  and  the  Second  Colony.  The  First, 
or  London  Colony,  was  authorized  to  make  settle- 
ments on  the  American  coast,  and  fifty  miles  in- 
land, between  the  thirty-fourth  and  the  forty-first 
degrees  of  north  latitude ;  to  the  Second,  or  Plym- 
outh Colony,  was  accorded  the  same  privilege  be- 
tween the  thirty-eighth  degree  of  latitude  and  the 
forty-fifth.  Neither  colony  might  plant  within  a 
hundred  miles  of  a  settlement  of  the  other.  Both 
alike  had  power  to  expel  intruders,  to  coin  money, 
to  impose  taxes  and  duties  for  their  own  occasions 
for  twenty-one  years,  and  for  seven  years  to  import 


FORT  ST.  GEORGK  7 

goods  from  other  parts  of  the  British  dominions, 
free  of  duty.  Both  were  to  pay  to  the  King  one 
fifth  part  of  the  products  of  gold  and  silver  mines, 
and  one  fifteenth  part  of  whatever  copper  should 
be  found.  Both  colonies  were  to  be  under  the 
supervision  of  a  council,  called  the  Council  of  Vir- 
giniaj  consisting  of  thirteen  members,  to  be  ap- 
pointed from  time  to  time  by  the  Crown,  and  to 
exercise  their  authority  agreeably  to  royal  instruc- 
tions. The  settlers  of  each  colony  were  to  be  gov- 
erned for  the  King,  and  according  to  his  directions, 
by  a  council  of  his  appointment  residing  on  the 
spot. 

A  little  more  than  a  year  after  obtaining  their 
incorporation,   the    Plymouth    Colony    de-    igoy. 
spatched  three  ships  to  the  American  coast,  ^*^  ^^' 
with    a   hundred    passengers,   to    make   a   settle- 
ment.    Landing  by  the  mouth  of  the  River 

°      •'  Aug.  8. 

Kennebec,  they  formally  inaugurated  their 
enterprise  with  prayers,  a  sermon,  and  a  reading 
of  the  patent  and  of  the  ordinances  under  which 
it  had  been  decreed  by  the  authorities  at  home 
that  they  should  live.  With  idle  ostentation 
members  of  the  company  were  invested  with  the 
titles  of  President,  Admiral,  Master  of  the  Ord- 
nance, Commander  of  the  Forces,  Marshal,  Secre- 
tary, and  Governor  of  the  Fort. 

No  settlement  was  made.  Before  the  autumn, 
one  half  of  the  party  became  discouraged,  and  re- 
turned to  England  with  the  ships  that  had  brought 
them.      Forty-five   persons  held  out  through   the 


8  EARLY  EXPLORATIONS. 

winter.  The  President  fell  sick  and  died,  and 
news  came  of  the  death  of  the  brother  of  the  Ad- 
miral, an  event  which  required  his  presence  in  Eng- 
land. In  the  spring,  the  last  of  the  company  went 
home,  and  still  New  England  remained  uncolo- 
nized. 

Six  years  more  passed,  when  the  country  was 
visited  by  a  person  whose  name,  though  it  rather 
owes  its  place  in  history  to  his  exploits  elsewhere, 
connects  itself  with  New  England  by  reason  of 
the  important  contribution  made  by  him  to  the 
knowledge  of  its  geography.  John  Smith,  a  native 
of  Lincolnshire,  and  now  near  thirty-five  years 
of  age,  had  already  passed  through  a  series  of  ad- 
ventures of  a  character  the  most  extraordinary, 
and  of  which  many  of  the  incidents  that  are  re- 
corded are  not  to  be  received  without  caution. 
Running  away  from  his  home  while  yet 
a  boy,  he  took  service  in  the  Netherlands. 
About  the  time  when  he  came  of  age  he  set  off  to 
enlist  in  the  Imperial  army,  then  fighting  the  Turks 
in  Hungary.  Before  he  got  to  France  he  was 
robbed  of  all  his  money  and  effects,  and  was  saved 
by  a  peasant's  kindness  from  freezing  to  death. 
In  the  Mediterranean,  having  been  thrown  over- 
board by  a  company  of  pilgrims,  who  imputed  to 
him,  as  a  heretic,  the  disaster  of  a  storm  which  had 
arisen,  he  scarcely  saved  his  life  by  swimming  to 
an  island. 

Arrived  at  the  Imperial  camp,  Smith  presently 
recommended  himself  to  favor  by  working  a  tele- 


CAPTAIN  JOHN  SMITH.  9 

graph  ingeniously  contrived,  and  by  the  invention 
of  some  destructive  pyrotechnic  missiles,  which  he 
called  "  fiery  dragons."  Three  Turkish  champions 
having,  "  to  delight  the  ladies,"  defied  as  many 
Christian  cavaliers  to  mortal  combat,  Smith  took 
the  whole  business  upon  himself,  and  successively 
vanquished  and  beheaded  all  of  the  vainglorious 
challengers. 

Taken  prisoner  in  battle,  he  was  sold  as  a  slave 
in  a  market  near  Adrianople.  A  Pasha  bought 
him,  for  a  present  to  his  mistress.  The  lady,  fear- 
ing that  he  might  be  again  sold  out  of  her  reach, 
sent  him  to  be  protected  by  her  brother  in  a  for- 
tress by  the  Black  Sea.  The  "Tymor"  did  not 
share  in  his  sister's  tenderness,  but  had  Smith 
stripped  naked,  his  head  and  beard  shaved,  and  "  a 
great  ring  of  iron,  with  a  long  stalk  bowed  like  a 
sickle,  riveted  about  his  neck."  Being  the  last 
comer,  he  succeeded  to  the  unpleasant  offices 
from  which  his  predecessors  had  been  advanced, 
and  his  service  was  that  of  "  slave  of  slaves  to 
them  all." 

The  "  Tymor"  coming  alone  one  day  to  look  after 
him,  Smith  took  the  wished-for  opportunity  to  beat 
out  his  brains  with  his  "  threshing  bat."  He  hid 
the  body  under  a  truss  of  straw,  after  stripping  it 
to  array  himself  in  the  clothes,  filled  a  knapsack 
with  corn,  leaped  upon  a  horse,  and  made  into  the 
wilderness,  where  "  God  did  direct  him  to  the  great 
way  of  Castragan." 

He  got  back  among  Christians,  and  after  roving 


10  EARLY  EXPLORATIONS. 

over  almost  all  Europe,  proceeded  to  take  a  look 
at  Africa.  While  he  was  accidentally  on  board 
of  an  English  frigate  in  a  port  of  Morocco,  a  storm 
drove  her  to  sea ;  and  before  she  regained  her  moor- 
ing, Smith  had  the  satisfaction  of  assisting  in  a 
desperate  engagement  between  her  and  two  Span- 
ish ships  of  war. 

Returning  to  England  when  the  excitement 
created  by  Gosnold's  expedition  was  still  fresh, 
and  when  arrangements  were  making  for  the 
patent  of  the  council  of  Virginia,  he  immediately 
came    into    relations   with    the   projectors  of  the 

igQg  London  Colony,  and  sailed  with  the  first 
Dee,  19.  company  fitted  out  by  them  for  America. 
In  what  is  now  called  Virginia  he  passed  two 
eventful  years,  and  established  a  claim  to  be  ac- 
counted the  founder  of  that  commonwealth. 

Smith  reached  America  as  a  prisoner,  under  a 
charge  of  plotting  with  others  to  murder  the  law- 
ful leaders  of  the  expedition,  and  make  himself 

iQQY  king  in  the  country  to  be  occupied.  The 
April  26.  emigrants  came  to  land  at  the  capes  of 
Chesapeake  Bay,  and  sailed  up  James  River,  where 
they  laid  out  a  town,  calling  it  by  the 
name  of  Jamestown.  In  the  orders  brought 
from  England,  Smith  was  named  as  one  of  the 
council  of  government.  But  Wingfield,  the  Presi- 
dent, was  his  enemy,  and  he  was  excluded  from 
that  trust.  The  colony,  however,  soon  fell  into 
trouble  and  danger,  from  which  nobody  but  Smith 
was  thought  able  to  extricate  it ;  and  before  winter 


CAPTAIN  JOHN   SMITH.  H 

he  had  brought  affairs  at  Jamestown  into  some 
order,  not  however  till  after  there  had  been  scenes 
of  violence. 

Having  gone  up  the  River  Chickahominy  with  a 
few  men  on  an  expedition  for  hunting  and  dis- 
covery, and  having  parted  from  all  his  companions 
except  two  Indian  guides,  he  was  set  upon  by  a 
party  of  the  natives,  who  wounded  him  with  an  ar- 
row in  the  thigh.  Loosing  his  garters,  and  tying 
one  of  his  Indians  with  them  to  his  left  arm,  he 
handled  him  as  a  shield,  and,  thus  protected,  killed 
three  of  his  assailants  and  wounded  several  others. 
But  his  crippled  leg  was  a  disadvantage.  He  could 
not  extricate  himself  from  a  morass  into  which  he 
had  sunk  in  attempting  to  withdraw ;  and  being  in 
danger  of  freezing  to  death,  he  surrendered  himself 
to  the  assailants. 

He  parried  their  wrath  for  the  moment  by  tak- 
ing from  his  pocket  a  compass,  of  which  he  ex- 
plained the  properties,  proceeding  to  expound,  as 
far  as  his  knowledge  of  their  language  would 
admit,  the  principles  of  the  solar  system,  and  the 
great  features  of  geography,  as  received  by  civil- 
ized nations.  His  unreconciled  captors  tied  him 
to  a  tree,  and  would  have  put  him  to  death  with 
their  arrows,  but  their  leader  protected  him  by 
holding  up  the  compass  ;  and,  held  by  three  men, 
and  guarded  by  six  archers  on  each  side,  he  was 
led  away  to  be  presented  to  King  Powhatan. 
In  that  monarch's  presence  the  case  was  examined 
by  his  counsellors.     The  result  was  that  Smith's 


12  EARLY  EXPLORATIONS. 

head  was  laid  upon  a  large  stone,  that  it  might  be 
crushed  with  clubs.  The  fatal  blows  were  about 
to  descend,  when  Powhatan's  daughter,  twelve  or 
thirteen  years  of  age,  sprang  from  his  side,  where 
she  had  been  sitting,  and  clasping  Smith's  head  in 
her  arras,  laid  it  close  to  her  own.  The  angry  father 
relented,  and  the  culprit's  life  was  spared.  It  was 
agreed  between  them,  that,  in  consideration  of  a 
present  of  two  cannon  and  a  grindstone.  Smith 
should  not  only  be  set  at  liberty,  but  should  be 
adopted  by  Powhatan  as  his  son,  and  be  endowed 
with  a  large  tiact  of  country.  Twelve  Indians 
accompanied  Smith  to  Jamestown  to  receive  the 
promised  bounty;  but  finding  the  articles  too 
heavy  to  carry,  they  returned  to  their  homes  en- 
riched only  with  some  more  manageable  tokens  of 
his  good-will.  This  story  is  here  told  as,  on  the 
authority  of  one  of  the  books  that  bear  Smith's 
name,  it  has  long  been  current.  But  recent  criti- 
cisms indicate  that  it  must  be  remitted  to  the 
realm  of  fable. 

Smith's  fellow-colonists  were  not  responsible 
persons.  "  A  great  part,"  he  says,  "  were  unruly 
sparks,  packed  off  by  their  friends,  to  escape  worse 
destinies  at  home.  Many  were  poor  gentlemen, 
broken  tradesmen,  rakes,  and  libertines,  footmen, 
and  such  others  as  were  much  fitter  to  spoil  and 
ruin  a  commonwealth  than  to  help  to  raise  or 
maintain  one."  On  his  return  from  Powhatan's 
country,  he  found  them  in  extreme  disorder.  Two 
parties  had  been  formed,  one  of  which  had  seized 


CAPTAIN   JOHN    SMITH.  13 

the  vessel,  and  was  about  to  set  sail  for  England. 
Smith  laid  hands  on  some  of  the  mutineers,  and 
sent  them  thither  as  prisoners.  His  management 
of  affairs  was  brave  and  prudent ;  his  credit  grew ; 
and  he  was  chosen  by  his  associates  to  be  Presi- 
dent of  the  colony.  Again  his  career  had  just 
been  near  coming  to  a  close.  From  a  fish  called  a 
stingray  he  received  a  wound  which  threatened  to 
be  fatal,  and  his  companions  dug  a  grave  for  his 
burial.  But  one  of  them  produced  a  "precious 
oil,"  which  effected  so  speedy  a  cure  that  at  night 
he  ate  a  piece  of  the  same  fish  vf'iih  a  good  ap- 
petite. 

On  the  River  Susquehanna,  Smith  became  ac- 
quainted with  a  race  of  Indians  of  gigantic  stature, 
who  used  a  language  that  might  "well  beseem 
their  proportions,  sounding  from  them  as  a  voice 
in  a  vault."  Defeated  in  a  stratagem  for  carrying 
off  the  great  King  Powhatan,  he  was  surrounded 
in  a  house  by  a  crowd  of  the  followers  of  that 
chief;  but, armed  with  sword  and  pistol,  "he  made 
such  a  passage  among  these  naked  devils,  that,  at 
his  first  shot,  those  next  him  tumbled  one  over 
another,  and  the  rest  quickly  fled,  some  one  way, 
some  another."  Powhatan  followed  him,  how- 
ever, and  was  about  to  fall  upon  his  small  party, 
when  "  Pocahontas,  his  dearest  jewel  and  daughter, 
in  that  dark  night,  came  through  the  irksome 
woods "  to  bring  intelligence  of  the  danger.  An- 
other chief,  Opechancanough,  with  seven  hundred 
men,   encountered    Smith,   who   had    but  fifteen. 


14  EARLY  EXPLORATIONS. 

Smith  caught  him  by  his  long  hair  and  dragged 
him  into  the  midst  of  the  Indian  warriors,  who 
were  so  confounded  at  such  temerity  that  they 
offered  no  resistance,  but  with  their  sovereign  gave 
up  their  bows  and  arrows.  After  the  excitement 
and  fatigue  of  this  scene,  Smith  fell  asleep;  and 
some  of  the  Indians,  watching  their  opportunity, 
gathered  about  him  with  murderous  designs. 
But  he  awoke  at  the  right  moment,  and,  seizing 
his  sword  and  target,  speedily  put  them  all  to 
flight.  Some  of  Powhatan's  subjects  tried  to 
poison  him ;  but  a  seasonable  nausea  gave  him 
relief,  and  he  had  strength  enough  to  give  a  severe 
beating  to  the  Indian  who  appeared  to  be  imme- 
diately responsible.  While  he  slept  in  a  boat  next 
to  a  bag  of  powder,  it  was  fired  by  some  accident, 
and  he  was  shockingly  burned.  He  sprang  into 
the  water  for  relief,  and  was  scarcely  saved  by  his 
crew  from  drowning.  As  he  lay  at  Jamestown, 
disabled  by  his  burns,  some  disalTected  English 
conspired  against  his  life.  The  person  designated 
to  slay  him  could  not  get  up  his  courage  for  the 
villanous  attempt. 

Smith  had  had  enough  of  Virginia.  He  had 
there  worried  through  two  years  of  extreme  toil 
and  danger.  The  factions  among  his  own  people 
which  had  so  disastrously  embarrassed  him  were 
still  as  venomous  and  as  unmanageable  as  ever; 
and  he  could  hope  for  no  support  from  the  author- 
ities at  home,  whose  ear  the  malecontents  had 
poisoned  against  him.     What  decided  him,  how- 


CAPTAIN   JOHN   SMITH.  15 

ever,  was  the  condition  of  his  burns,  which  he  was 
satisfied  could  not  be  cured  without  good  surgery. 
He  bade  farewell  to  Virginia  forever,  leav- 

1609. 

ing  behind  him  five  hundred  colonists,  well 
supplied  with  the  necessaries  of  life. 

Seventeen  years  after  this  time  a  work  appeared, 
of  which  part  of  the  title  was,  "  The  General  His- 
tory of  Virginia,  New  England,  and  the  Summer 
Isles,"  with  Smith's  name  on  the  title-page  as  its 
author.  It  was  followed,  some  years  later,  by 
"  The  True  Travels,  Adventures,  and  Observations 
of  Captain  John  Smith,  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa, 
and  America."  In  these  two  works  are  recorded 
the  extraordinary  adventures,  of  some  of  which  a 
sketch  has  been  given  above.  In  recent  times  the 
authenticity  and  truth  of  parts  of  these  narratives 
have  been  more  than  doubted;  but  the  reasons 
against  their  credit  leave  unimpaired  the  substan- 
tial facts  of  Smith's  inestimable  services  to  the 
infant  colony  of  Virginia. 

The  history  of  his  less  conspicuous  career  in 
later  life  is  more  prosaic  and  better  established. 
Five  years  had  passed  after  his  return  to  England, 
when  he  engaged  himself  with  some  partners  to 
make  a  voyage  with  two  vessels  to  North  Virginia, 
"  to  take  whales,  and  also  to  make  trials  of  a  mine 
of  gold  and  copper."  He  came  to  land  jgj^ 
at  Monhegan,  an  island  near  the  mouth  ^p"'30. 
of  the  River  Penobscot.  With  eight  men  in  a 
small  boat,  he  ranged  the  neighboring  coast  to  the 
southwest,  with  the  object  of  collecting  furs.      In 


IG  EARLY  EXPLORATIONS. 

this  expedition  he  drew  "  a  map  from  point  to 
point,  isle  to  isle,  and  harbor  to  harbor,  with  the 
soundings,  sands,  rocks,  and  landmarks,"  and  gave 
to  the  country  the  name  of  New  England.  Re- 
turning home,  he  was  permitted  to  present  a  copy 
of  his  sketch,  and  of  the  journal  of  his  voyage,  to 
the  King's  second  son,  afterwards  King  Charles  the 
First,  who,  at  his  solicitation,  gave  names,  princi- 
pally of  English  towns,  to  certain  points  upon  the 
coast.  The  map,  with  this  addition,  was  engraved 
and  published ;  and  by  the  circulation  of  it,  and  by 
other  efforts,  but  with  little  success,  Smith  tried  to 
reawaken  an  interest  in  establishing  a  colony  in 
that  region.  The  Plymouth  Company  ostensibly 
took  him  into  their  service ;  but  they  were  embar- 
rassed and  disheartened  by  the  ill-success  of  their 
undertaking  seven  years  before,  and  it  was  not 
1615.  without "  a  labyrinth  of  trouble  "  that  Smith 
Ma^ch.  ^g^g  enabled  to  set  sail  again  with  two  ships, 
the  larger  of  two  hundred  tons  burden,  the  other 
of  fifty. 

At  sea,  the  vessels  were  separated  in  a  storm. 
The  smaller  of  them,  commanded  by  Captain  Der- 
raer,  proceeded  to  America,  and  brought  home  a 
freight.  Smith's  own  ship  was  dismasted,  and, 
returning  into  port,  was  pronounced  unseaworthy. 
Putting  to  sea  again  with  thirty  men  in  a  bark  of 
sixty  tons,  he  fell  in  with  a  French  squadron,  and 
was  taken  prisoner.  He  served  a  while  with  his 
captors  in  a  cruise  against  the  Spaniards,  and  was 
then  set  free,  with  empty  pockets,  at  Rochelle. 


VINES  AND   DERMER.  17 

After  a  series  of  minor  adventures  and  exploits, 
he  made  his  way  back  to  Plymouth,  obtained  three 
vessels,  and  prepared  to  set  sail  once  more  for  New 
England.  But  at  first  contrary  winds  kept 
him  in  port ;  then  other  obstacles  occurred, 
which  proved  to  be  insuperable.  Smith  travelled 
about  the  south  and  west  of  England,  distributing 
books  and  maps,  but  winning  no  effectual  favor  to 
his  project.  He  might  as  well  have  tried,  he  said, 
"  to  hew  rocks  with  oyster-shells."  At  last,  "  see- 
ing nothing  would  be  effected,  he  was  contented  as 
well  with  this  loss  of  time  and  charge  as  all  the 
rest."  He  lived  several  years  longer,  but  never  saw 
America  again.  He  heard  that  "  some  hundreds 
of  Brownists  had  gone  to  New  Plymouth,  whose 
humorous  ignorances  caused  them  for  more  than  a 
year  to  endure  a  wonderful  deal  of  misery  with  an 
infinite  patience."  But  he  valued  himself  on  being 
"  not  so  simple  to  think  that  any  other  motive  than 
wealth  would  ever  erect  there  a  commonwealth,  or 
draw  company  from  their  ease  and  humors  at 
home,  to  stay  in  New  England." 

Soon  after  Smith's  failure  in  the  expedition  in 
which  he  had  been  associated  with  Dermer,  a  trad- 
ing party  was  sent  out  by  Gorges  to  New  Eng- 
land, under  the  conduct  of  Richard  Vines. 

mi  1  •  1616-1617. 

They  passed  a  winter  at  a  camp  on  the 
River  Saco.     There  they  learned  that  an  extensive 
tract  of  the  country  had  been  recently  almost  de- 
populated by  wars  and  pestilence,  a  fact  which 
was  afterwards  abundantly  confirmed. 


18  EARLY  EXPLORATIONS. 

Derraer  came  to  New  England  again.  He  sailed 
along  the  coast  from  the  Kennebec  to  Virginia, 
jg2o.  and,  returning  thence,  traversed  part  of  the 
"'""*•  country  on  which,  six  months  later,  was 
begun  the  second  permanent  American  colony  of 
Englishmen.  At  the  spot  where  presently  that 
colony  was  in  fact  to  be  established,  Dermer 
wished  "that  the  first  plantation  might  be  seated, 
if  there  came  to  the  number  of  fifty  persons,  or 
upwards."  He  was  severely  wounded  at  Martha's 
Vineyard,  in  a  fight  with  some  Indians,  and  soon 
afterwards  died  in  Virginia. 


CHAPTER  11. 

GEOGRAPHY   AND    NATURAL   HISTORY. 

As  yet  Europeans  had  not  seen  much  more  of 
New  England  than  some  parts  of  the  sea-coast. 
Its  interior  topography,  its  vegetation,  and  its  in- 
habitants, brute  and  human,  were  still  unknown  to 
them.  That  the  reader  may  understand  the  con- 
dition of  things  into  which  colonists  were  to  come, 
it  is  necessary  here  to  anticipate  some  observations 
of  a  later  time. 

The  great  feature  in  the  configuration  of  the 
inland  country  is  presented  by  two  nearly  parallel 
ranges  of  mountains,  or  rather  elevated  plateaus, 
which  traverse  New  England  from  the  southwest- 
ern corner  to  the  northeastern.  The  chain  nearest 
to  the  western  border  bears  the  general  name  of 
the  Green  Mountains.  The  other  chain,  present- 
ing greater  elevations,  rises  to  its  principal  height 
in  the  White  Mountains  of  New  Hampshire. 
Mount  Washington,  one  of  the  latter  group,  is 
sixty-three  hundred  feet  high.  Mansfield  Moun- 
tain, the  loftiest  of  the  Green  Mountains,  measures 
forty-four  hundred  feet.  The  easterly  edge  of  the 
eastern  range  of  highlands  approaches  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  to  within  about  fifty  miles,  and  in  this  sea- 


20  NATURAL  HISTORY. 

coast  line  there  is  no  elevation  of  more  than  six 
hundred  feet. 

The  most  considerable  of  the  rivers  which  de- 
scend from  these  heights  take  a  southerly  course 
to  the  ocean.  Such  are  the  Penobscot,  the  Kenne- 
bec, the  Androscoggin,  the  Connecticut,  and  the 
Housatonic.  By  spurs  of  highland  the  Merrimac 
and  the  Charles  are  turned  off  to  the  east.  The 
hill-country  is  so  near  to  the  ocean  as  not  to  admit 
of  a  long  navigation  of  the  rivers.  At  the  mouths 
of  several  of  them  are  deep  and  capacious  harbors. 
The  interior  masses  of  water  find  almost  every- 
where a  sufficient  vent,  and  there  are  few  lakes  of 
considerable  size.  The  largest.  Lake  Winnipiseo- 
gee,  is  thirty-five  miles  long,  and  about  ten  miles 
across  in  its  greatest  breadth.  The  continuity  of 
the  coast  line  is  broken  by  several  great  inlets  from 
the  sea,  of  which  Penobscot  Bay,  Buzzard's  Bay, 
and  Narragansett  Bay  are  the  most  considerable. 

The  atmospheric  temperature  in  New  England 
is  variable,  and  heat  and  cold  are  both  in  extreme. 
The  range  of  the  mercury  in  Fahrenheit's  ther- 
mometer is  from  more  than  a  hundred  degrees  in 
summer  to  the  freezing  point  of  mercury  (thirty- 
three  degrees  below  zero)  in  winter.  In  Massa- 
chusetts, the  central  State,  the  mean  temperature 
of  the  year  varies  from  forty-four  to  fifty-one  de- 
grees. Great  changes  of  temperature  often  occur 
suddenly.  At  Boston,  the  mercury  has  been 
known  to  traverse  forty-five  degrees  in  twenty- 
four  hours;  and  on  one  day  it  rose  twenty-seven 


METEOROLOGY  AND  CLIMATE.         21 

degrees  between  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  and 
two  in  the  afternoon,  and  fell  thirty-three    iggj. 
degrees  in  the  next  seven  hours.  *^*'^"  ^^' 

Droughts,  though  not  unusual,  are  not  often 
severe.  The  average  annual  fall  of  rain  is  from 
forty  to  forty-five  inches.  In  twenty  years,  the 
extreme  range  of  the  barometer  at  Cambridge,  in 
Massachusetts,  was  two  inches  and  sixty-four  hun- 
dredths. Tornadoes  are  infrequent.  There  is  no 
appearance  of  volcanic  action.  There  have  been 
earthquakes  which  have  created  alarm,,  but  none 
which  have  done  much  damage.  One  of  them, 
in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  j-^g 
in  the  month  of  the  great  earthquake  at  ^°^-^^- 
Lisbon,  shook  down  a  hundred  chimneys  in  Bos- 
ton. It  was  the  last  that  occasioned  much  obser- 
vation. 

The  great  and  sudden  variations  of  temperature 
may  be  supposed  to  affect  the  salubrity  of  the 
climate.  But  New  England  is  not  an  unhealthy 
country.  The  conformation  of  the  surface  forbids 
the  stagnation  of  masses  of  water ;  and  the  tides 
of  the  neighboring  ocean,  the  snow  on  the  hills, 
and  the  winds  which  the  rapid  changes  of  temper- 
ature keep  in  motion,  are  perpetual  restorers  of  a 
wholesome  atmosphere.  In  the  absence  of  marshes 
diffusing  noxious  miasmata,  intermittent  fevers 
rarely  occur.  Among  the  fatal  maladies,  pulmo- 
nary consumption  numbers  most  victims.  Diseases 
of  the  nervous  system  are  next  in  frequency. 
Malignant  fevers,  especially  of  the  typhoid  type, 


22  NATURAL  HISTORY. 

are  sometimes  epidemic.     If  the  official  returns  of 
deaths  in  Massachusetts  for  four  consecutive 

1852-1856.  ,  ,.,     , 

years  may  be  credited,  one  person  in  every 
eighteen  then  living  was  more  than  eighty  years  old. 

The  agricultural  season  is  short.  Though  of 
different  length  in  different  parts  of  a  region  ex- 
tending through  six  degrees  of  latitude  and  di- 
versified by  alternations  of  hill  and  valley,  the 
statement  may  be  made,  in  a  general  way,  that 
winter  lasts  through  nearly  half  the  year.  In 
Massachusetts,  the  mean  temperature  of  the  eight 
cold  months  is  less  than  forty  degrees.  That  of 
the  four  warm  months  is  nearly  seventy.  In  years 
of  average  vernal  temperature  in  Massachusetts, 
the  ground  is  ready  for  the  plough  by  the  first  of 
April.  By  the  first  week  of  November,  the  last 
fruits  of  the  year  are  gathered  in. 

Generally,  the  soil  is  not  fertile.  The  wide 
beach  along  the  coast  is  sandy;  in  the  interior, 
rocks  and  gravel,  with  occasional  veins  of  clay, 
cover  a  large  part  of  the  surface.  In  the  neigh- 
borhood of  towns  the  quality  of  the  land  has  been 
greatly  improved  by  the  careful  cultivation  of  more 
than  two  centuries.  But  most  of  the  natural  fruit- 
fulness  of  the  region  was  found  in  the  valleys  of 
the  great  rivers.  The  borders  of  the  Penobscot, 
the  Kennebec,  the  Connecticut,  and  other  streams, 
enriched  in  past  ages  and  still  reinvigorated  by  the 
deposits  of  the  annual  overflow,  exhibit  a  fecun- 
dity in  strong  contrast  with  the  stony  hill-sides. 
The  territory  of  Massachusetts  is,  on  the  whole, 


MINERALOGY  AXD  BOTANY.  23 

the  least  fruitful  in  New  England.  Maine,  skirted 
by  a  barren  shore,  contains  inland  the  largest  pro- 
portion of  good  arable  soil.  New  Hampshire  and 
Vermont  abound  in  lands  suitable  for  the  pasture 
of  herds  and  flocks. 

In  mineral  wealth  New  England  is  not  affluent. 
A  little  copper  has  been  found,  some  lead,  some 
graphite,  and  considerable  quantities  of  iron  and 
manganese.  There  are  beds  of  anthracite  coal, 
of  an  inferior  quality.  Maine,  New  Hampshire, 
and  Massachusetts  contain  ample  quarries  of 
slate;  and  limestone  abounds  in  Rhode  Island  and 
Maine.  The  granite  and  sienite  of  Eastern  Mas- 
sachusetts, the  white  marble  of  the  western  moun- 
tain range,  and  the  sandstone  of  the  valley  of  the 
Connecticut,  are  valuable  materials  for  building. 
The  serpentine  of  Vermont,  and  the  variegated 
marbles  of  Connecticut,  are  prized  for  architectural 
embellishment.  Here  and  there  are  medicinal 
springs,  generally  of  a  chalybeate  quality.  Salt  is 
only  to  be  had  from  sea-water. 

The  natural  forests  of  New  England  were  so  vast 
that  the  early  explorers  described  them  as  covering 
the  country.  In  fact,  it  was  all  forest-clad,  except 
the  bogs  and  salt-marshes,  and  the  mountain  tracts 
above  the  limit  of  trees.  An  abundance  of  the 
oak,  hickory,  walnut,  ash,  elm,  maple,  pine,  spruce, 
chestnut,  cedar,  and  other  forest- trees  offered  sup- 
plies for  fuel,  tools,  weapons,  utensils,  and  build- 
ing. The  chestnut,  hazlenut,  beechnut,  butternut, 
and  shagbark  yielded   contributions  to  the  stores 


24  NATURAL  HISTORY. 

of  food  laid  up  for  winter.  Wild  cherries,  mul- 
berries, and  plunis  enlarged  the  variety  of  the  sum- 
mer's diet.  Wild  berries,  as  the  strawberry,  the 
gooseberry,  the  raspberry,  the  blackberry,  the  whor- 
tleberry, the  cranberry,  grew  in  plenty  in  the  meadow 
and  champaign  lands.  Vines  bearing  grapes  of 
tolerable  flavor  flourished  along  the  streams.  A 
profusion  of  flowering  shrubs,  and  of  aquatic,  forest, 
and  field  flowers,  brought  their  tribute  to  the  pomp 
of  the  year.  The  lobelia,  the  sarsaparilla,  the  gin- 
seng, and  the  sassafras  were  prized  for  their  me- 
dicinal properties.  The  tough,  fibrous  bark  of  an 
indigenous  plant,  a  species  of  dogbane,  afforded  a 
good  substitute  for  hemp.  The  native  grasses  of 
the  upland  were  rank  but  innutritious,  so  that  the 
European  planters  soon  found  it  better  to  fodder 
their  cattle  on  the  salt  herbage  of  the  sea-marshes. 
Neither  in  the  vegetable  nor  in  the  animal  world 
was  in  any  instance  the  same  species  found  in 
America  as  existed  on  the  other  continent.  The 
fishes  of  the  interior  waters  of  New  England,  like 
the  trees,  the  bushes,  the  birds,  and  the  quadru- 
peds of  that  region,  received  from  the  settlers 
such  names  as  were  suggested  by  superficial 
resemblances  to  objects  which  had  been  known 
abroad.  The  rivers  of  New  England,  as  well  as 
the  belt  of  sea  which  embraced  its  long  coast,  were 
found  to  swarm  with  fishes  of  kinds  the  most  use- 
ful to  man.  The  cod,  the  mackerel,  and  the  herring 
have  from  the  first  arrival  of  Europeans  to  the  pres- 
ent time  been  important  articles  of  trade. 


BIRDS.  25 

Of  the  native  birds  of  New  England,  the  most 
abundant  is  the  wood-pigeon.  Different  wild  species 
of  the  goose  and  duck  resort  to  the  sea-shore,  in 
the  colder  months,  in  search  of  fish  and  of  aquatic 
plants  and  insects.  Various  species  of  the  plover 
and  of  other  birds  of  passage  haunt  the  meadows 
and  Ihe  marshes.  The  wild  turkey,  now  rarely 
seen,  throve  on  berries  in  the  woods.  The  quail 
and  the  red-breasted  thrush  (commonly  known  as 
the  robin)  make  their  nests  in  the  uplands.  The 
woodcock  and  the  ruffed  grouse,  or  partridge,  hide 
in  the  copses.  Among  birds  remarkable  for  beauty 
of  plumage  are  the  gorgeous  oriole,  or  golden  robin, 
which  makes  its  annual  summer  visit  from  the 
Chesapeake ;  the  bluebird,  the  golden-winged  wood- 
pecker, the  rose-breasted  grossbeak,  and  above  all, 
the  tiny  humming-bird.  Hawks  and  horned  owls 
are  the  terror  of  poultry-yards.  Blue-jays,  crows, 
and  blackbirds  annoy  the  husbandman  by  their 
inroads  upon  the  just  planted  and  just  ripening 
grain,  which,  however,  they  save  from  more  de- 
structive enemies  than  themselves.  The  music  of 
the  dwellers  in  the  air  is  various.  The  song-spar- 
row pours  out  its  joyous  melody  all  day  long. 
The  hermit-thrush,  or  mavis,  charms  the  w^oods 
at  nightfall.  From  its  solitude  the  whippoorwill 
sends  to  a  long  distance  its  wild  and  plaintive  song. 
"  In  sweetness  of  voice,  as  far  as  his  few  notes  ex- 
tend," the  American  starling,  or  meadow-lark,  is 
pronounced  by  Wilson  to  be  eminently  superior 
to  the  skylark  of  Europe. 


26  NATURAL  HISTORY. 

Of  the  larger  kinds  of  reptiles  there  were  not 
many  found  native  to  the  soil.  The  bite  of  the 
rattlesnake  is  dangerous,  though  by  no  means  cer- 
tainly fatal,  as  is  commonly  supposed.  The  black 
snake,  sometimes  seen  six  or  seven  feet  long,  is 
shy  and  harmless.  Troublesome  insects  abound. 
The  short  and  happily  not  constant  summer  cam- 
paign of  the  canker-worm  leaves  desolation  behind 
in  the  orchards,  and  on  the  most  prized  of  the  orna- 
mental trees,  within  the  narrow  limits  which  it  in- 
fests. Cut-worms  and  other  caterpillars  ravage  the 
grain-fields.  Borers  and  other  beetles  deform  the 
gardens.  During  the  heats  of  the  summer,  espe- 
cially in  the  evening  and  night  and  in  moist  places, 
the  presence  of  the  mosquito,  with  its  threatening 
music  and  its  irritating  sting,  materially  detracts 
from  the  comfort  of  man. 

The  native  quadrupeds  of  New  England,  as  gen- 
erally of  all  America,  were  found  to  be  of  types 
inferior  to  those  of  the  other  hemisphere.  The 
bear,  the  wolf,  the  catamount,  and  the  lynx,  or 
wild-cat,  were  the  most  formidable.  The  moose, 
which  has  disappeared,  except  from  secluded  por- 
tions of  New  Hampshire  and  Maine,  was  the  larg- 
est, measuring  five  feet  and  a  third  in  height,  and 
nearly  seven  feet  in  the  length  of  the  body.  The 
fallow  -  deer,  not  quite  exterminated  at  this  day, 
abounded  in  the  forests.  Of  fur-bearing  animals 
there  were  the  beaver,  the  otter,  the  ermine,  the 
raccoon,  the  musquash,  the  mink,  the  sable,  and 
the  marten,  besides  the  fox  and  the  squirrel,  and 
others  less  prized. 


CHAPTER  IIL 

ABORIGINAL    INHABITANTS. 

The  indigenous  population  of  New  England  was 
probably  never  numerous.  Considering  the  scanty 
means  of  living  there  afforded  to  men  destitute  of 
the  resources  of  art,  the  fact  could  scarcely  have 
been  otherwise.  At  the  time  of  the  first  European 
settlement  in  New  England,  a  terrible  pestilence 
had  recently  ravaged  the  country,  and,  according 
to  the  best  reckoning  which  can  now  be  made,  the 
reduced  population,  whatever  it  may  previously 
have  been,  did  not  then  amount  to  more  than 
about  fifty  thousand  souls.  It  was  spread  thinly 
along  the  eastern  coast,  and  more  compactly  along 
the  southern.  The  wide  tracts  now  known  as 
Vermont,  Northern  New  Hampshire,  and  Western 
Massachusetts,  were  then  almost,  if  not  absolutely, 
without  inhabitants. 

Of  the  five  families  into  which  the  most  current 
classification  distributes  the  human  inhabitants  of 
this  planet,  that  known  as  the  American  Indian, 
spreading  from  Hudson's  Bay,  at  the  north,  to  the 
southern  extremity  of  the  continent,  constitutes 
one.  The  symmetrical  frame  of  this  race,  the 
cinnamon  color  of  the  skin,  the  long,  black,  coarse 


28  ABORIGINAL   INHABITANTS. 

hair,  the  scant  beard,  the  high  cheek-bones,  the  flat 
and  square  forehead  set  upon  a  triangular  confor- 
mation of  the  lower  features,  the  small,  deep-set, 
shining,  snaky  eyes,  the  protuberant  lips,  the  broad 
nose,  the  small  skull  with  its  feeble  frontal  develop- 
ment, make  a  combination  which  the  scientific  ob- 
server of  some  of  these  marks  in  the  skeleton,  and 
the  unlearned  eye  turned  upon  the  living  subject, 
equally  perceive  to  be  unlike  what  is  seen  in  other 
regions  of  the  globe. 

The  portion  of  North  America  enclosed  by  the 
Atlantic  Ocean,  the  River  St.  Lawrence,  the  great 
lakes,  the  Mississippi,  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  was 
found  by  European  explorers  to  be  inhabited  by 
natives  distinguishable  into  four  groups.  Of  these 
the  most  numerous,  or,  at  all  events,  the  most 
widely  spread,  was  the  family  to  which  the  French 
gave  the  name  of  Algonquin.  Their  country  ex- 
tended along  the  Atlantic  Ocean  from  Pamlico 
Sound  in  North  Carolina  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Law- 
rence. 

On  the  basis  of  a  difference  in  dialect,  that  por- 
tion of  the  Algonquin  Indians  which  dwelt  in  New 
England  has  been  classed  in  two  divisions,  one 
consisting  of  those  who  inhabited  what  is  now  the 
State  of  Maine,  nearly  up  to  its  western  border, 
the  other  consisting  of  the  rest  of  the  native  popu- 
lation. The  Maine  Indians  may  have  been  some 
fifteen  thousand  in  number,  or  somewhat  less 
than  a  third  of  the  native  population  of  New 
England.     That  portion  of  them  who  dwelt  fur- 


ALGONQUIN  TRIBES.  29 

thest  towards  the  east  were  known  by  the  name  of 
Etetchemins.  The  Abenaquis,  including  the  Tarra- 
tines,  hunted  on  both  sides  of  the  Penobscot,  and 
westward  as  far  as  the  Saco,  if  not  quite  to  the 
Piscataqua.  The  tribes  found  in  the  rest  of  New 
England  were  designated  by  a  greater  variety  of 
names.  The  home  of  the  Penacook  or  Pawtucket 
Indians  was  in  the  southeast  corner  of  what  is 
now  New  Hampshire  and  the  contiguous  region 
of  Massachusetts.  Next  dwelt  the  Massachusetts 
tribe,  along  the  bay  of  that  name.  Then  were 
found  successively  the  Pokanokets,  or  Wampa- 
noags,  in  the  southeasterly  region  of  Massachu- 
setts and  by  Buzzard's  and  Narragansett  Bays  ;  the 
Narragansetts,  with  a  tributary  race  called  Nyan- 
tics,  in  what  is  now  the  western  part  of  the  State 
of  Rhode  Island ;  the  Pequots,  between  the  Narra- 
gansetts and  the  river  formerly  called  the  Pequot 
River, now  the  Thames;  and  the  Mohegans,  spread- 
ing themselves  beyond  the  River  Connecticut.  In 
the  central  region  of  Massachusetts  were  the  Nip- 
mucks,  or  Nipnets ;  and  along  Cape  Cod  were  the 
Nausets,  who  appear  to  have  owed  some  fealty  to 
the  Pokanokets. 

The  New-England  Indians  exhibited  an  inferior 
type  of  humanity.  Their  physical  conformation, 
in  some  respects,  was  not  mean.  They  were 
of  tall  or  medium  stature,  and  their  limbs  were 
shapely  ;  but  though  fleet  and  agile  when  excited 
to  some  occasional  effort,  they  were  found  to  be 
incapable  of  continuous  labor.     Heavy  and  phleg* 


30  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS. 

matic,  they  scarcely  wept  or  smiled.  Their  slen- 
der appetites  demanded  little  indulgence.  They 
could  support  life  on  the  scantiest  amount  of  food. 
If  they  were  continent,  it  can  only  be  to  coldness 
of  constitution  that  this  was  due  ;  but  no  instance 
is  recorded  of  their  offering  insult  to  a  female  cap- 
tive, or  soliciting  her  familiarity;  and  the  coyness 
of  their  women  repelled  approach  on  the  part  of 
European  visitors. 

Their  supplies  for  the  essential  wants  of  physical 
life  —  their  food,  shelter,  and  clothing  —  were  of 
the  rudest  kind.  Undressed  skins  of  seals,  of  deer, 
or  of  other  wild  animals,  furnished  the  winter's 
attire.  In  summer,  the  men  went  naked,  except 
that  they  wore  about  the  middle  a  piece  of  deer- 
skin, from  which  the  fur  had  been  removed  by  fric- 
tion. Moccasins  reaching  above  the  ankle,  of  thin 
deer-skin,  made  supple  by  dressing  with  the  brains, 
or~  of  the  moose's  hide,  according  to  the  season, 
afforded  some  protection  and  support  to  the  foot. 
Snow-shoes,  presenting  a  wide  surface  by  project- 
ing to  a  distance  from  the  foot,  assisted  journey- 
ing in  winter.  Personal  adornments  consisted  of 
greasy  paint,  red,  blue,  and  black,  laid  in  streaks 
upon  the  skin  ;  of  mantles  and  head-gear,  made 
of  feathers ;  of  ear-rings,  nose-rings,  bracelets,  and 
necklaces  of  bone,  shells,  or  shining  stones  ;  and  of 
pieces  of  native  copper,  sometimes  in  plates,  some- 
times strung  together  so  as  to  make  a  sort  of  fringe. 
Their  persons  were  uncleanly  in  the  extreme. 

Their  houses,  called  wigwams^  were  made  of 


SHELTER    AND  FOOD.  31 

bark  or  mats  laid  over  a  framework  of  branches 
of  trees  stuck  in  the  ground  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  converge  at  the  top,  where  there  was  a  central 
aperture  for  the  escape  of  smoke  from  the  fire  be- 
neath. Sometimes  they  were  also  lined  with  mats. 
For  entrance  and  egress  two  low  openings  were  left 
on  opposite  sides,  so  that  one  or  the  other  could  be 
closed  with  bark  or  mats,  according  to  the  direc- 
tion of  the  wind. 

For  animal  food  the  natives,  in  winter,  shot  or 
snared,  or  caught  in  pitfalls,  the  moose,  the  bear, 
and  the  deer ;  in  the  summer,  still  less  trouble  pro- 
vided them  with  a  variety  of  birds ;  in  winter,  too, 
at  favorable  times,  as  well  as  throughout  the  warm 
season,  the  sea  and  the  rivers  afforded  supplies. 
For  want  of  salt,  meat  could  only  be  preserved  by 
smoking,  or,  for  a  short  time,  by  burying  in  the 
snow.  Vegetable  food  consisted  of  various  nuts, 
roots,  and  berries,  which  grew  wild;  of  acorns,  in 
the  last  resort;  and  of  a  few  cultivated  edibl^-s. 
The  potato  was  not  known,  but  in  the  ground-nut, 
which  was  dug  in  the  woods,  nature  had,  to  a  lim- 
ited extent,  provided  a  sort  of  substitute.  The 
natives  raised  maize  or  Indian  corn,  the  squash, 
the  pumpkin,  the  bean  now  called  the  saba-beaUy 
and  a  species  of  sunflower,  whose  succulent  tuber- 
ous root  resembled  the  artichoke  in  taste.  To- 
bacco they  cultivated  for  luxury,  using  it  only  in 
the  way  of  smoking.  The  one  tool  which  sufficed 
for  their  wretched  husbandry,  was  a  hoe  made  of 
clam-shells,  or  of  a  moose's  shoulder-blade,  fastened 


32  '      ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS. 

into  a  wooden  handle.  They  manured  the  land 
with  fish,  covered  over  in  the  hill  along  with  the 
seed.  When  the  growth  of  corn  was  sufficiently 
advanced,  earth  was  heaped  about  it  to  the  height 
of  some  inches,  for  support  as  well  as  to  extirpate 
weeds.  Beans  were  planted  amidst  the  corn,  so 
that  the  vines  might  be  upheld  by  the  corn-stalks. 
Corn  was  laid  up  for  winter  supply  in  holes  dug  in 
the  earth  and  lined  with  bark. 

Flesh  and  fish  were  cooked  by  roasting  before  a 
fire  on  the  point  of  a  stake,  broiling  on  hot  coals 
or  stones,  or  boiling  in  vessels  of  stone,  earth,  or 
wood ;  water  being  made  to  boil,  not  by  hanging 
the  vessel  over  a  fire,  but  by  the  immersion  in  it 
of  heated  stones.  The  Indians  had  not  the  art  of 
making  bread.  They  boiled  their  corn  either  alone 
into  hominy,  or  else  mixed  with  beans,  in  which 
case  the  compound  was  called  succotash;  or  they 
ate  the  parched  kernels  whole ;  or  with  a  stone 
pestle  and  a  stone  or  wooden  mortar  they  broke 
them  up  into  meal,  which,  moistened  with  water 
into  a  paste,  they  called  nookhik.  They  did  not 
feed  at  regular  intervals,  but  whenever  hunger 
prompted,  or  means  allowed.  Water  was  their 
only  drink,  except  when  they  could  flavor  it  with 
the  sweet  juice  for  which  in  spring  they  tapped 
the  rock- maple  tree. 

Their  lines  and  nets  for  fishing  were  made  of 
twisted  fibres  of  the  dogbane,  or  of  sinews  of  the 
deer.  The  scoop-net,  the  cylindrical  basket,  and 
the  waving  of  torches  over  the  water  to  attract  to 


MANUFACTURES.  33 

the  surface  the  larger  fish,  there  to  be  struck  by 
a  spear,  were  devices  used  in  fishing.  Hooks  were 
fashioned  of  sharpened  bones  of  fishes  and  birds. 
Arrows  and  spears  were  also  tipped  with  bone, 
or  with  claws  of  birds  of  the  larger  species,  or 
with  those  artificially  shaped  triangular  pieces  of 
flint  which  are  now  sonoetimes  found  in  the  fields. 
Bows  were  strung  with  the  sinews  and  twisted  en- 
trails of  the  moose  and  the  deer.  Axes,  hatchets, 
chisels,  and  gouges  were  made  of  hard  stone, 
brought  to  a  sort  of  edge  by  friction  upon  an- 
other stone.  The  helve  of  the  axe  or  hatchet  was 
attached  either  by  a  cord  drawn  tight  around  a 
groove  in  the  stone,  or  by  being  cleft  while  still 
unsevered  from  the  tree,  and  left  to  grow  while  it 
closed  round  the  inserted  tool.  The  tomahawk 
was  merely  a  wooden  club,  two  feet  or  more  in 
length,  terminating  in  a  heavy  knob.  The  pipe, 
w^ith  its  bowl  of  soft  stone,  set  upon  a  stem  of 
hard  wood  two  feet  long,  and  often  carved  and 
ornamented  with  grotesque  elaboration,  was  a 
personal  object  of  special  regard.  The  precious 
metals  were  unknown,  as  well  as  the  preparation 
of  the  ores  of  those  employed  by  civilized  men  in 
the  useful  arts. 

Baskets,  mats,  and  boats  were  on  the  whole  the 
chief  glory  of  Indian  skill  in  manufacture.  Ves- 
sels of  basket-work  constituted  the  principal  article 
of  household  furniture.  Mats  served  as  hanging 
for  houses,  and,  with  or  without  skins,  according  to 
the  season,  as  couches  for  repose,  for  which  latter 

VOL.  I.  3 


34  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS 

use  they  were  spread  on  wooden  supports  a  foot  or 
two  above  the  ground.  Boats  were  of  two  de- 
scriptions. One  kind,  made  of  birch-bark  fastened 
over  a  light  wooden  frame,  with  seams  skilfully  and 
not  untastefuUy  secured,  was  not  only  convenient 
for  its  lightness  when  taken  out  of  the  water  to  be 
launched  in  another  stream,  but  could  be  impelled 
with  equal  ease  and  safety,  as  long  as  it  was  kept 
clear  of  the  collisions  for  which  its  frail  structure 
was  unfit.  The  other  sort  was  a  log,  shaped  and 
hollowed  by  the  application  first  of  fire,  and  then 
of  rude  stone  tools  to  the  charred  surface. 

The  Indian  had  trained  no  animal  to  assist  him 
in  cultivation,  or  hunting,  or  war.  He  had  no  flock, 
nor  herd,  nor  poultry.  He  had  a  stupid  native  ani- 
mal of  the  dog  species  for  his  companion,  but  it 
was  of  no  use  as  a  sentinel  or  in  the  chase. 

Though  no  rule  or  fixed  custom  forbade  polyg- 
amy, the  New-England  Indian  had  generally  only 
one  wife.  She  was  his  drudge  and  slave.  She 
covered  and  lined  the  wigwam,  and  carried  away 
its  materials  when  it  was  to  be  set  up  in  another 
spot.  She  bore  home  the  game  he  had  taken, 
plaited  the  mats  and  baskets,  planted,  tended,  and 
harvested  the  corn  and  vegetables,  and  cooked 
the  food.  Till  her  infant  was  able  to  go  alone, 
she  carried  it  about  on  her  back.  Her  toils  were 
relieved  by  no  participation,  and  requited  with  no 
tenderness ;  the  leavings  of  the  feast  were  her  share 
of  it,  and  the  spot  most  exposed  to  the  weather 
was  her  place  in  the  wigwam.     Her  remedy,  such 


PROPERTY  AND   TIIADE.  35 

as  it  was,  consisted  in  the  right,  admitted  to  reside 
in  either  party,  to  rescind  the  marriage  covenant  at 
pleasure. 

No  condition  of  human  society  can  be  imagined 
so  simple  as  to  afford  absolutely  no  occasion 
for  an  exchange  of  commodities.  Before  the  ar- 
rival of  European  planters  in  New  England,  some 
of  the  natives  had  advanced  so  far  as  to  use  a  cir- 
culating medium  for  trade.  This  currency,  called 
wampum,  or  wampumpeag",  consisted  of  cylindrical 
pieces  of  the  shells  of  testaceous  fishes,  a  quarter 
of  an  inch  long,  and  in  diameter  less  than  a  pipe- 
stem,  drilled  lengthwise,  so  as  to  be  strung  upon  a 
thread.  White-colored  beads  of  this  kind,  rated 
at  half  the  value  of  the  black  or  violet,  passed  as 
the  equivalent  of  farthings  in  transactions  between 
the  natives  and  the  settlers.  They  were  used  for 
ornament  as  well  as  for  money,  and  ten  thousand 
of  them  have  been  known  to  be  wrought  into  a 
single  war-belt  four  inches  wide.  They  are  said 
to  have  been  invented  and  manufactured  by  the 
Narragansetts,  and  from  them  to  have  come  into 
circulation  among  the  other  tribes. 

But  notwithstanding  this  symptom  of  the  ex- 
istence of  the  idea  of  property,  the  New-England 
savage  possessed  little  that  can  be  called  by  that 
name,  and  entertained  little  desire  for  it.  Insen- 
sible to  that  impulse  which  enforces  industry  and 
creates  civilization,  he  lived  the  laziest  of  lives. 
When  not  engaged  in  war  or  hunting,  he  would 
pass  weeks  in  sleep,  or  in  sitting  silent,  with  his 


36  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS. 

elbows  on  his  knees.  He  had  not  energy  to  cleanse 
his  wigwam  from  its  natural  conglomeration  of 
odious  filth.  A  game  of  foot-ball  or  of  quoits,  or 
a  wrestling  bout,  afforded  some  occasional  variety. 
But  his  eminent  resource  was  that  of  all  other 
people,  civilized  or  savage,  who  seek  escape  from 
intolerable  sloth.  He  was  a  desperate  gambler. 
He  would  stake  his  arms,  his  covering  of  furs, 
his  stock  of  winter  provisions,  his  cabin,  his  wife, 
his  personal  liberty,  on  the  chances  of  play.  Des- 
titute of  the  means  of  drunkenness  till  he  was 
tempted  by  the  stranger,  he  used  his  earliest  op- 
portunities to  plunge  into  desperate  excess  in 
drinking. 

As  a  hunter  and  a  warrior  he  had  occasion  for 
the  use  and  culture  of  those  faculties  which  the 
phrenologists  call  perceptive.  He  readily  detected 
changes  in  the  appearance  of  surrounding  objects, 
and  discerned  their  bearing  on  the  business  of  the 
hour.  He  tracked  his  game  or  his  enemy  by  in- 
dications on  the  surface  of  the  ground,  in  the 
motions  of  trees,  in  faint  sounds  interpreted  by  his 
vigilant  experience.  No  wonders  of  nature  or  of 
art  stimulated  his  dull  curiosity,  or  lighted  up  his 
vacant  eye.  But  while  his  own  countenance  rarely 
expressed  emotion,  he  was  skilled  to  read  the  pas- 
sions of  others  in  their  aspect. 

Beyond  this  little  range,  it  is  surprising  to  ob- 
serve how  destitute  he  was  of  mental  cultivation 
and  capacity.  The  proceedings  of  the  second  gen- 
eration before  his  own  were  unknown  to  him.    He 


MENTAL  CAPACITY.  37 

had  no  ballads,  no  songs,  no  poetry  of  any  kind ; 
what  was  called  his  war-son^  was  a  series  of  howls 
and  yells,  with  no  distinguishable  rhythm.  He 
had  no  instrument  of  music.  K  he  drew  lines  and 
figures  on  trees  and  rocks,  they  might  be  for  use  in 
tracking  the  labyrinth  of  the  forest,  and  possibly, 
in  rare  instances,  for  chronicles  and  memorials, 
but  never  were  essays  in  a  fine  art.  The  nearest 
thing  to  a  work  of  imagination  of  which  he  was 
observed  to  be  capable  was  the  war-dance,  which 
was  not  so  much  an  amusement  as  a  solemnity, 
consisting  of  a  grotesque  dramatic  representation 
of  the  proceedings  of  a  campaign  :  the  muster,  the 
march,  the  ambush,  the  slaughter,  the  retreat,  the 
reception  at  home,  the  torture  and  massacre  of 
prisoners.  The  aboriginal  of  New  England  was 
no  orator.  Occasions  enough  occurred  for  him  to 
make  creditable  exhibitions  in  this  field.  But  the 
gift  of  impressive  speech  was  not  his. 

With  a  mental  constitution  such  as  has  been 
described,  it  is  not  easy  to  imagine  that  he  had 
accomplished  anything  in  the  way  of  scientific  ob- 
servation or  discovery.  He  had  learned  the  medic- 
inal virtue  of  a  few  simples ;  he  bound  up  w^ounds 
in  bark,  with  mollifying  preparations  of  leaves,  and 
treated  fevers  by  opening  the  pores  of  the  skin  with 
a  vapor  bath ;  but  the  main  reliance  of  his  thera- 
peutics was  the  action  on  the  nervous  system  pro- 
duced by  the  mummery  of  the  medicine-man  or 
powwow.  His  arithmetical  scale  scarcely  extended 
beyond  as  many  numbers  as  he  could  tell  off  on 


38  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS. 

his  fingers.  Though  starlight  was  familiar  to  him, 
it  was  not  ascertained  that  his  observations  had 
extended  to  any  grouping  of  the  heavenly  bodies. 
He  had  no  approximate  formula  for  the  year.  He 
could  not  fail  to  observe  the  lunar  changes,  or  to 
distinguish  the  months  of  vegetation  by  their  pro- 
ductions ;  but  it  is  not  known  that  he  discrim- 
inated the  colder  months  in  any  way,  or  that  he 
recognized  any  division  into  weekly  periods  cor- 
responding to  the  quarterings  of  the  moon.  Days 
were  to  him  so  many  sleepings  and  wakings.  He 
had  no  further  divisions  of  the  day  than  those 
which  are  marked  by  sunrise,  noon,  and  sunset. 

By  reason  of  the  conditions  of  his  rude  and  un- 
settled life,  he  did  not  require  much  government, 
nor  could  be  much  subjected  to  its  control.  There 
is  no  evidence  of  his  having  possessed  what,  in  the 
loosest  construction  of  the  phrase,  might  be  termed 
a  code  of  laws,  or  any  set  of  customs  having  the 
force  of  legal  obligation.  His  chief  need  for  gov- 
ernors of  any  kind  arose  out  of  the  foreign  rela- 
tions of  his  tribe,  if  in  respect  to  such  communities 
that  language  may  be  used.  For  the  protection  of 
life  and  of  hunting-grounds  against  a  common 
enemy,  it  was  necessary  that  there  should  be  unity 
of  counsel  and  of  action  in  a  tribe,  and  that  there 
should  be  some  central  authority  to  exercise  fore- 
sight and  oversight  for  the  common  weal. 

The  New- England  Indians  had  functionaries 
for  such  purposes.  They  were  called  sachems  and 
sagamores;  the  latter  name   being   probably   the 


GOVERNMENT  AND  LANGUAGE.         39 

designation  of  subordinate  chiefs,  or  of  such  as 
were  of  inferior  note  or  narrower  jurisdiction. 
How  the  rank  was  obtained,  it  would  be  bootless 
to  inquire,  with  any  expectation  of  finding  a  uni- 
form rule  or  principle  of  advancement.  Hereditary 
claims  were  recognized,  but  not  apparently  as  of 
such  decisive  weight  that  a  defect  in  personal  ca- 
pacity would  not  cause  them  to  be  easily  set  aside. 
The  sachem  was  not  necessarily  the  captain  of  his 
tribe  in  war;  but  to  him  it  would  naturally  belong 
to  receive  and  send  envoys,  to  collect  intelligence, 
to  convoke  assemblies  for  consultation,  to  circulate 
information  and  directions.  The  exertion  of  his 
authority  would  practically  be  so  dependent  on  the 
cheerful  consent  of  his  people,  that  he  would  be 
careful  to  be  mainly  influenced  by  their  wishes, 
and  thus  a  democratic  spirit  would  pervade  the 
public  counsels.  As  the  honored  depositary  of  a 
degree  of  power,  it  would  be  natural  that  private 
controversies  should  occasionally  find  their  way  to 
bira.  He  expected  his  maintenance  from  the  free 
contributions  of  his  subjects ;  and  when  these  did 
not  come,  he  was  considered  to  have  a  right  to 
provide  for  himself  by  what  we  call  distraint. 
Sometimes  bachems  were  of  the  female  sex. 

The  language  of  the  aborigines  of  New  England 
belonged  to  that  class  which  philologists  denominate 
agglutinating,  or  poly  synthetic.  Instead  of  the  ver- 
bal inflections  used  by  the  civilized  nations  of  the 
Caucasian  stock  to  indicate  the  modifications  and 
relations   of  ideas,  these   languages   employ    the 


40  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS. 

method  of  stringing  words  together  in  one  com- 
pound vocable.  In  Eliot's  "  Indian  Primer  "  there 
are  words  consisting  of  no  less  than  fifteen  sylla- 
bles. The  language  of  the  New-England  tribes, 
like  those  of  the  rest  of  the  Algonquins,  was  full 
of  consonants,  and  harsh.  The  vocabulary,  corre- 
sponding to  the  range  and  the  style  of  thought 
existing  among  those  who  used  it,  was  at  once  re- 
dundant and  defective ;  characteristics  which  were 
necessitated  by  the  incapacity  for  abstraction  and 
analysis.  There  was  no  substantive  verb  to  con- 
vey the  idea  of  existence  independent  of  some 
accompanying  condition  or  circumstance.  The 
apparatus  of  words  for  expressing  abstractly  even 
common  and  obvious  relations  was  extremely  scan- 
ty. The  Indian  could  speak  of  a  hatchet^  as  was 
necessary,  because  its  owner  might  be  unknown, 
but  not  of  a  father,  son,  head,  or  hand,  except  as 
my,  your,  or  his  father,  and  so  on.  There  was  an 
affluence  of  words  indicative  of  distinctions  be- 
tween persons  in  the  same  relations  of  consan- 
guinity; as  between  older  and  younger  brother, 
paternal  and  maternal  uncle ;  and  what  was  more 
singular,  each  sex  had  a  separate  vocabulary  for  its 
own  use  in  speaking  of  such  relatives.  The  names 
of  species  were  multiplied  without  regard  to  resem- 
blances which  to  us  seem  essential  and  obvious, 
and  which  with  us  are  the  basis  of  a  distribution 
into  g-enera;  different  kinds  of  oak  were  called  by 
names  as  different  as  the  names  which  were  given 
to  oaks  and  to  willows.   The  exigencies  of  discourse 


RELIGION.  41 

may  lead  to  the  attempt  to  supply  by  metaphors  a 
want  of  abstract  terms,  but  metaphorical  language 
can  never  be  that  of  discussion  and  study.  The 
Indian  had  not  so  much  as  named  time,  space,  or 
substance.  He  bad  no  use  for  abstract  terras, 
when  he  had  not  conceived  the  ideas  which  they 
are  needed  to  express. 

The  subject  of  the  language  of  the  New-Eng- 
land Indians  is  not  without  a  bearing  upon  the 
credit  of  the  transmitted  accounts  of  what  has 
been  favorably  styled  their  religion.  The  consid- 
erate inquirer  will  remark  by  what  means  the 
information  was  obtained  which  has  been  so  con- 
fidently bequeathed  to  us  by  contemporary  writers. 
All  representations  of  the  systems  of  opinion  of 
barbarous  nations  ought  to  be  received  with  ex- 
treme caution,  and,  in  the  compass  of  human 
thought,  there  are  no  ideas  or  conceptions  more 
abstract  and  subtle  than  those  of  religion.  What- 
ever information  the  European  settlers  professed 
to  have  collected  concerning  the  theories  of  the 
natives  on  this  subject,  reached  them  through  the 
treacherous  instrumentality  of  a  language,  not 
only  at  best  imperfectly  understood  by  the  hearer, 
but  essentially  unsuitable  for  explanations  on  such 
a  subject,  and,  what  was  worse  yet,  unsuitable  for 
conducting  the  speculations  from  which  theories 
are  framed.  By-and-by,  settler  and  native  came 
to  understand  better  each  other's  speech.  But, 
step  by  step,  meanwhile,  the  original  ideas  of  the 
natives  had   been    modified   by  this  intercourse ; 


42  ABORIGINAL   INHABITANTS. 

and,  in  proportion  as  they  were  more  capable  of 
explaining  their  meaning,  their  meaning  itself,  the 
subject  of  their  explanation,  had  been  adulterated 
and  confused ;  while,  from  first  to  last,  the  observ- 
ers and  writers,  themselves  men  of  religious  theo- 
ries, whether  Romanist  or  Puritan,  would  insensibly 
be  guided  by  their  respective  predilections  in  inter- 
preting what  the  Indians  told,  and  would  compose 
a  sense  of  their  own  out  of  the  unmeaning  or 
enigmatical  communications  which  they  received. 
The  civilized  man,  having  constructed  or  re- 
ceived some  scheme  of  physics,  metaphysics,  or 
theology,  imagines  that  every  human  mind  must 
have  some  conceptions  corresponding  with  it;  and, 
when  encountered  by  strange  forms  of  thought, 
he  proceeds  to  dispose  of  them  by  explanations 
founded  on  that  unsafe  hypothesis.  But  the  very 
first  step  in  such  an  interpretation  is  illusory ;  and 
it  is  on  altogether  too  slender  a  basis  of  ascertained 
facts  that  our  literature  has  built  up  a  theology 

for 

"  the  poor  Indian,  whose  untutored  mind 
Sees  God  in  clouds,  and  hears  liim  in  the  wind." 

Such  an  Indian  is  mainly  an  imagination  of  Euro- 
pean sentimentalists. 

Many  of  the  early  French  explorers  of  North 
America  were  men  capable  of  judicious  observa- 
tion, and  several  of  them  declared  that  tribes  which 
they  visited  were  absolutely  without  a  notion  of 
religion.  There  is  not  wanting  testimony  of  the 
same   kind   in   relation    to    the    natives   of    New 


RELIGION.  43 

England.  "  They  are  a  people,"  wrote  Edward 
Winslow,  after  a  short  acquaintance  with  them, 
"  without  any  religion,  or  knowledge  of  any  God." 
In  preaching  to  them  in  their  own  language.  Cotton 
of  Plymouth  was  obliged  to  use  the  English  word 
denoting  the  Supreme  Being,  for  want  of  any  equiv- 
alent sign  known  to  his  hearers ;  and  Eliot,  in  his 
translation  of  the  Bible,  was  driven  to  a  similar 
expedient.  The  correct  perception  of  some  facts 
was,  at  all  events,  not  endangered  by  that  inade- 
quacy of  oral  communication  which  renders  sus- 
picious so  much  of  the  testimony  on  this  subject ; 
and  it  is  quite  certain  that  the  savages  of  New 
England  had  no  temples,  no  public  ritual,  nothing 
in  the  nature  of  social  worship,  no  order  of  priests. 
In  short,  of  the  machinery  of  religion  they  were 
destitute.  And  this  fact  is  a  decisive  one.  For 
if,  where  there  has  been  preparation  of  the  under- 
standing and  affections,  the  religious  sentiment 
may,  unaided  by  forms  and  sympathy,  sustain  its 
life  in  the  solitary  breast,  it  is  inconceivable  that, 
among  a  people  in  a  low  state  of  culture,  anything 
entitled  to  the  name  of  religious  sentiment  should 
exist  without  some  provision  for  its  public  incul- 
cation and  expression. 

Some  early  observers  fell  into  the  error  of  regard- 
ing the  sorceries  used  among  the  natives  as  relig- 
ious practices.  But  in  this  there  was  a  mere  con- 
fusion of  ideas.  The  medicine-man,  or  powwow,  was 
not  a  priest,  but  a  reputed  conjurer,  a  healer  of 
disease  and  controller  of  the  elements  by  virtue  cf 


44  ABORIGINAL   INHABITANTS. 

mysterious  arts.  The  murdering  by  the  Indians 
of  their  captives  has  been  interpreted  as  a  relig- 
ious sacrifice.  But  it  is  as  impossible  to  show 
that  they  ever  gave  authority  for  that  interpreta- 
tion, as  to  pretend  that  the  slaying  of  enemies  and 
the  offering  of  worship  are  intrinsically  equivalent 
acts.  The  occasional  discovery  of  arms,  apparel, 
ornaments,  and  provisions  in  Indian  graves  has 
been  thought  to  indicate  the  prevalence  of  a  belief 
in  a  future  life.  But  the  careful  inquirer  is  not 
satisfied  that  the  interment  of  such  articles  was 
anything  like  a  prevailing  practice,  and  he  hesi- 
tates to  regard  it  as  anything  more  than  a  natural 
expression  of  the  thought  that  the  course  of  the 
dead  man  was  finished,  that  the  separation  from 
him  and  from  what  belonged  to  him  was  complete. 
"  The  fanciful  historians,"  says  a  modern  writer  on 
the  history  of  Maine,  long  personally  conversant 
with  the  remains  of  the  native  tribes  in  that  re- 
gion, "  have  said  much  respecting  the  savage's 
hope  of  felicity  in  fine  fields  beyond  the  gates  of 
death,  where  he  should  meet  his  ancestors  and  be 
happy  in  a  state  of  immortality.  But  from  any 
conversation  had  with  the  Indians  here,  or  from 
anything  which  can  be  gathered  from  those  who 
have  been  most  with  them,  there  is  no  reason  to 
believe  that  the  northern  savages  ever  had  ideas 
of  that  nature." 

With  the  Indian  the  social  attraction  was  feeble. 
At  the  fishing-season  he  would  meet  his  fellows 
of  the  same  tribe  by  the  shores  of  ponds  and  at 


MORAL  QUALITIES.  45 

the  falls  of  rivers,  and  enjoy  the  most  that  he  knew 
of  companionship  and  festivity.  But  much  of  his 
life  was  passed  in  the  retirement  of  his  wigwam 
and  the  solitude  of  the  chase.  The  habit  of  lone- 
liness and  of  self-protection  made  him  independent 
and  proud.  His  pride  created  an  aptitude  for  the 
virtue  which  constituted  his  point  of  honor,  and 
which  he  cultivated  with  assiduous  care.  This 
was,  fortitude  in  suffering.  In  war,  craft  rather 
than  valor  stood  high  in  his  esteem.  Stealth  and 
speed  composed  his  strategy.  He  showed  no  dar- 
ing and  no  constancy  in  the  field  ;  but  it  was  great 
glory  to  him  to  bear  the  most  horrible  tortures 
without  complaint  or  a  sign  of  anguish. 

His  brave  endurance,  however  studied  and 
scenic,  or  in  whatever  degree  the  symptom  of  a 
coarse  nervous  organization,  presented  the  bright 
side  of  his  character.  He  was  without  tenderness, 
and  very  few  instances  are  recorded  of  his  appear- 
ing capable  of  gratitude.  Cunning  and  falsehood, 
the  vices  of  the  undisciplined,  the  weapons  of  the 
imbecile,  were  eminently  his.  His  word  afforded 
no  security.  He  could  play  the  spy  with  a  perfect 
self-possession ;  and  a  treaty  could  not  bind  him 
any  longer  than  he  supposed  the  violation  of  it  to 
be  dangerous.  Exceptions  are  to  be  allowed  for  in 
every  portraiture  of  a  class  of  men.  Everywhere 
and  always  there  are  happy  natures  that  rise  above 
the  moral  standard  of  their  place.  But  a  just 
description  of  this  peculiar  race  cannot  omit  the 
statement  that  their  temper  was  sullen,  jealous, 


46  ABOKIGINAL  INHABITANTS. 

passionate,  intensely  vindictive,  and  ferociously 
cruel.  Among  the  early  colonists  they  had  no  bet- 
ter friend  than  Roger  Williams.  But  after  long 
years  of  intercourse  with  them,  and  toleration  of 
them,  and  services  to  them,  he  was  fain  to  charac- 
terize them  as  "dregs  of  mankind."  "  There  is  no 
fear  of  God,"  he  said,  "  before  their  eyes ;  and  all 
the  cords  that  ever  bound  the  barbarous  to  foreign- 
ers were  made  of  self  and  covetousness." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PLYMOUTH    COLONY. 

At  length  the  time  came  for  a  European  colo- 
nization of  New  England.  A  religious  impulse 
accomplished  what  commercial  enterprise,  sus- 
tained by  money  and  court  favor,  had  attempted 
without  success.  Civilized  New  England  is  the 
child  of  English  Puritanism. 

By  many  enlightened  Englishmen,  both  of  the 
clergy  and  in  other  walks  of  life,  the  Reformation 
which  took  place  in  England  in  the  time  of  King 
Henry  the  Eighth  was  thought  to  be  incomplete. 
As  early  as   the   next  following  reign,  those  who 
aimed  at  further  reforms  came  to  be  known  as  a 
party  under  the  name  of  Puritans.     When    1558. 
Queen  Elizabeth  ascended  the  throne,  the    ^07. 
clergy  of  this  party  vainly  flattered  themselves  that 
they  would  be  indulged  in  the  omission  of  some 
observances  of  the  prescribed  ritual  which  occa- 
sioned them  offence.    An  act  of  Parliament,    J559 
passed  in  the  first  year  of  her  reign,  forbade     ^lay 
all  ministers  to  conduct  public  worship  otherwise 
than  according  to  the  rubric.    A  number  of  Puritan 
clergymen,  some  of  whom  were  persons  of 
distinction,  refused  to  comply  with  this  act, 
and  they  and  their  followers  received  the  name  of 


48  '  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Non-conformists.  A  portion  of  them  went  further 
yet.  "  Seeing  they  could  not  have  the  word  freely 
preached,  and  the  sacraments  administered 
without  idolatrous  gear,  they  concluded  to 
break  off  from  public  churches,  and  separate  in 
private  houses."  These  were  called  Separatists. 
They  were  also  known  by  the  name  of  Brownists, 
derived  from  one  Robert  Brown,  an  active  preacher 
among  them. 

To  the  surprise  and  dismay  of  those  who  had 
hoped  that  the  accession  of  James  the  First  to  the 
throne  of  England  would  bring  relief  from  ecclesi- 
astical oppression,  he  began  his  reign  with 
severe  measures  against  dissentients  from 
the  Church.  At  the  village  of  Scrooby,  near  the 
northeastern  corner  of  Nottinghamshire,  a  congre- 
gation of  Separatists  had  existed  for  several  years. 
They  were  in  the  habit  of  assembling  for  worship 
at  the  house  of  William  Brewster,  a  person  of  some 
property,  who  had  formerly  been  employed  by  Davi- 
son, Secretary  of  State  to  Queen  Elizabeth.  They 
had  two  ministers,  Richard  Clifton  and  John  Rob- 
inson. A  young  man,  named  William  Bradford, 
was  in  the  habit  of  coming  to  their  meetings  from 
the  neighboring  hamlet  of  Austerfield. 

Bancroft,  made  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  within 
a  few  weeks  after  King  James's  accession,  was  a 
prelate  of  the  most  arbitrary  disposition.  The  an- 
noyances which,  under  his  vigilant  administration, 
distressed  the  Puritans  in  every  part  of  England, 
became  so  intolerable  to  this  company  of  simple 


CONGREGATION  AT  SCROOBY.  49 

farmers,  of  whom  few  can  be  supposed  to  have 
ever  seen  the  sea  or  till  lately  learned  anything  of 
foreign  countries,  that  at  length  they  resolved  on 
the  sad  expedient  of  expatriation.  They  deter- 
mined to  seek  a  home  in  the  Low  Countries,  where 
they  heard  that  religious  freedom  was  enjoyed,  and 
that  some  of  their  persecuted  countrymen  had 
already  found  a  refuge. 

The  scheme  had  to  be  prosecuted  by  stealth. 
Bancroft  had  obtained  from  the  king  a  proclama- 
tion forbidding  his  subjects  to  transport  themselves 
to  Virginia  without  his  special  license  ;  and,  under 
color  of  this,  or  under  some  other  pretence,  the 
departure  of  the  Scrooby  congregation  was  ob- 
structed. A  portion  of  them  chartered  a 
vessel  to  receive  them  and  their  effects  near 
Boston  in  Lincolnshire,  to  which  place  they  accord- 
ingly made  a  journey  of  fifty  miles.  The  master 
betrayed  them  after  they  had  got  on  board.  The 
coast  officers,  after  robbing  them  of  books,  money, 
and  other  property,  took  them  on  shore  and  put 
them  in  gaol. 

Another  attempt  was  made  in  the  spring  of  the 
next  year.  A  number  of  members  of  the  congre- 
gation made  a  bargain  with  a  Dutch  shipmaster  to 
take  them  on  board  at  a  place  on  the  Huraber, 
thirty  miles  distant  from  their  home.  A  part  had 
embarked,  when  a  body  of  armed  men  came  in 
view.  The  Dutchman  put  to  sea  in  a  fright,  with 
such  of  the  company  as  had  reached  his  vessel. 
The  rest,  separated  from  their  friends,  and  some 


50  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

of  them  destitute  of  money  and  clothing,  were  left 
in  a  condition  the  most  forlorn. 

At  last  the  scattered  flock  collected  at  Amster- 
dam. In  that  city  they  found  two  congregations 
of  English  Separatists,  which  had  emigrated  at  an 
earlier  time.  Between  them  there  was  some  dis- 
pute, in  which  the  new-comers  feared  that  they 
might  themselves  become  involved.  Accordingly, 
after  a  few  months,  they  resolved  to  remove  to 
Leyden.  Clifton,  the  elder  of  their  ministers,  was 
indisposed  to  another  change,  and  remained  at 
Amsterdam.  At  Leyden,  Robinson  was  the  min- 
ister, and  Brewster  "  was  an  assistant  unto  him  in 
the  oflfice  of  an  elder,  unto  which  he  was  now 
called  and  chosen  by  the  church." 

Leyden,  "  wanting  that  traffic  by  sea  which 
Amsterdam  enjoyed,  was  not  so  beneficial  for  their 
outward  means  of  living  and  estates."  They  "  fell 
to  such  trades  and  employments  as  they  best  could, 
and  at  length  they  came  to  raise  a  competent  and 
comfortable  living,  but  with  hard  and  continual 
labor ;  and  many  came  unto  them  from  divers  parts 
of  England,  so  as  they  grew  a  great  congregation." 
At  Leyden,  Robert  Cushman,  William  White,  and 
Richard  Masterson  found  employment  as  wool- 
carders;  William  Bradford  was  a  fustian-worker, 
and  then  a  printer ;  John  Jenney  served  a  brewer ; 
Samuel  Fuller  was  a  silk-weaver ;  George  Morton, 
a  trader  ;  Diggory  Priest,  a  hatter ;  Isaac  Allerton, 
a  tailor  ;  and  Moses  Fletcher,  a  smith. 

An  experience  of  less  than  ten  years  in  Holland 


SCHEME  FOR  ANOTHER  REilOVAL.  51 

satisfied  them  of  the  expediency  of  making  an- 
other removal.  They  hoped  that  somewhere  else 
their  children  and  their  old  people  might  be  ex- 
posed to  less  hardship  than  they  now  endured  for 
the  earning  of  a  scanty  maintenance.  They  were 
anxious  for  the  morals  of  the  rising  generation, 
endangered  by  the  example  of  the  youth  of  the 
country,  and  by  the  license  of  the  war  with  Spain, 
which,  after  a  twelve  years'  truce,  was  about  to  be 
renewed.  They  were  born  Englishmen,  and  they 
could  not  be  content  that  their  posterity  should 
speak  any  other  than  the  language  of  England,  or 
own  any  other  sovereign  than  hers.  "  If  God 
would  discover  some  place  unto  them,  though  in 
America,  they  desired  not  only  to  be  a  means  to 
enlarge  the  dominions  of  the  English  state,  but  the 
Church  of  Christ  also,  if  the  Lord  had  a  people 
among  the  natives  whither  he  would  bring  them." 
There  can  be  no  more  generous  ambition  than 
that  which  inspired  these  men.  Unenterprising  vil- 
lagers at  first,  habituated  at  length  to  a  new  home, 
and  able  to  earn  a  decent  living  by  humble  drudg- 
ery, some  of  them  now  sinking  into  age,  they  turn 
their  thoughts  to  their  posterity.  With  a  patriotic 
yearning,  they  desire  to  extend  the  dominion  of 
the  native  country  which  refuses  to  grant  them  a 
peaceable  home  on  its  broad  lands.  And,  through 
the  hardships  of  a  long  voyage  and  an  unknown 
continent,  they  propose  to  be  missionaries  to  the 
heathen. 

The   project  occasioned   much   discussion.      It 


62  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

offered  no  certainties  on  the  bright  side.  The  dan- 
gers to  be  met  on  sea  and  land  were  formidable. 
The  cost  of  the  voyage  would  exceed  any  means 
in  their  possession.  Its  length  might  be  beyond 
the  endurance  of  the  aged  and  feeble  of  their  com- 
pany. Arrived  at  its  end,  they  would  "  be  liable  to 
famine  and  nakedness,  and  the  want,  in  a  manner, 
of  all  things,  with  sore  sicknesses."  Appalling  re- 
ports had  reached  them  of  the  ferocity  and  treach- 
ery of  the  savage  races ;  their  hard  experience  in 
the  removal  from  England  was  not  forgotten  ;  and 
the  ill  success  of  the  earlier  attempts  at  settlement 
in  Virginia  and  in  Maine  was  a  heavy  discourage- 
ment. 

On  the  other  hand,  they  considered  "  that  all 
great  and  honorable  actions  were  accompanied 
with  great  difficulties,  and  must  be  both  enter- 
prised  and  overcome  with  answerable  courage. 
The  dangers  were  great,  but  not  desperate,  and 
the  difficulties  were  many,  but  not  invincible.  It 
might  be,  sundry  of  the  things  feared  might  never 
befall;  others,  by  provident  care  and  the  use  of 
good  means,  might,  in  a  great  measure,  be  pre- 
vented ;  and  all  of  them,  through  the  help  of  God, 
by  fortitude  and  patience,  might  either  be  borne  or 
overcome.  True  it  was  that  great  attempts  were 
not  to  be  made  and  undertaken  but  upon  good 
ground  and  reason,  not  rashly  or  lightly,  as  many 
had  done,  for  curiosity  or  hope  of  gain.  But  their 
condition  was  not  ordinary.  Their  ends  were  good 
and   honorable,  their  calling  lawful  and   urgent ; 


SCHEME  FOR  ANOTHER  REMOVAL.  53 

and  therefore  they  might  expect  the  blessing  of 
God  on  their  proceedings.  Yea,  though  they 
should  lose  their  lives  in  this  action,  yet  they  might 
have  comfort  in  the  same,  and  their  endeavors 
would  be  honorable."  It  is  a  genuine  heroism 
which  can  reason  thus. 

They  pondered,  debated,  fasted  and  prayed,  and 
came  to  the  conclusion  to  remove.  The  prepara- 
tions going  on  around  them  for  a  renewal  of  the  war 
made  them  impatient  to  proceed  to  execute 
their  plan.  As  to  the  choice  of  a  place  of 
settlement,  opinions  were  divided.  The  Dutch 
made  them  liberal  offers  ;  but  to  found  a  colony  for 
Holland  would  have  been  a  deviation  from  one  of 
the  objects  they  had  in  view.  Some  would  have 
gone  to  Guiana,  of  which  the  salubrity  and  fruit- 
fulness  had  been  extolled  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
who  had  sailed  up  the  Orinoco  twenty  years  before, 
and  was  now  there  on  a  second  visit ;  but  it  was 
feared  that  the  tropical  climate  would  ill  agree  with 
the  English  constitution,  and  the  proximity  of 
Spanish  plantations  was  regarded  as  undesirable. 
Others  desired  to  follow  their  countrymen  to  Vir- 
ginia ;  but  it  was  considered,  that,  if  they  attached 
themselves  to  the  colony  existing  there,  "they 
would  be  in  as  great  danger  to  be  persecuted  for 
their  cause  of  religion  as  if  they  lived  in  England, 
and  it  might  be  worse.  And  at  length  the  conclu- 
sion was  to  live  in  a  distinct  body  by  themselves, 
under  the  general  government  of  Virginia,"  that 
■»8,  of  the  Virginia  Company  in  England. 


54  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

Religious  freedom,  which  they  had  exiled  them- 
selves to  enjoy,  was  the  one  thing  indispensable 
for  the  future.  But  as  yet  there  was  no  security 
for  it  in  any  region  claimed  by  the  British  crown. 
Two  of  their  company,  Robert  Cushraan  and  John 
Carver,  were  despatched  to  solicit  it  from  the  king, 
to  be  enjoyed  at  such  place  of  settlement  as  in  the 
progress  of  a  proposed  negotiation  they  should 
obtain  from  the  Virginia  Company. 

The  messengers  found  the  Virginia  Company 
favorably  disposed  to  their  enterprise,  and  desirous 
of  affording  it  sufficient  facilities.  The  king  was 
less  tractable.  Through  the  influence  of  Sir  Ed- 
win Sandys,  a  person  of  great  authority,  son  of 
that  Archbishop  of  York  whose  tenant  Brewstei 
had  formerly  been  at  Scrooby,  and  soon  afterwards 
Governor  of  the  Company,  their  case  was  pre- 
sented by  Sir  Robert  Naunton,  then  principal  Sec- 
retary of  State.  But  the  king  would  give  no  pledge. 
The  most  that  could  be  obtained  from  him  was  an 
encouragement,  in  general  terms,  that  their  Separa- 
tism would  be  connived  at,  as  long  as  they  should 
give  no  public  offence.  An  express  engagement, 
even  of  that  unsatisfactory  tenor,  was  denied. 

Thus  the  question  was  opened  again.  "  Many 
were  afraid,  that,  if  they  should  unsettle  themselves, 
put  off  their  estates,  and  go  upon  these  hopes,  it 
might  prove  dangerous,  and  but  a  sandy  founda- 
tion." On  a  reconsideration,  however,  the  coun- 
sels of  the  more  sanguine  prevailed.  It  was  de- 
termined  to   take   the   risk,   and    "  to  rest  herein 


SCHEME  FOR  ANOTHER  REMOVAL.       55 

on  God's  providence,  as  they  had  done  in  other 
things;"  and  Cashman  and  Brewster  were  ^g^g 
sent  to  England  to  arrange  terms  with  the  ^^^' 
Virginia  Company,  and  also  "to  treat  and  conclude 
with  such  merchants  and  other  friends  as  had  man- 
ifested their  forwardness  to  provoke  to,  and  ad- 
venture in,  this  voyage,"  so  as  to  procure  pecuniary 
means  for  the  outfit.  In  short,  money  for  the  cost 
of  the  emigration  was  to  be  raised  on  a  mortgage 
of  the  future  labor  of  the  emigrants. 

After  a  vexatious  negotiation,  both  objects  were 
accomplished.  A  patent  was  obtained  under  the 
seal  of  the  Virginia  Company,  not,  however, 
"  taken  in  the  name  of  any  of  their  own  company, 
but  in  the  name  of  Mr.  John  Wincob,  a  religious 
gentleman  then  belonging  to  the  Countess  of  Lin- 
coln, who  intended  to  go  with  them."  Neither  the 
patent,  nor  any  copy,  nor  even  its  date,  nor  any 
description  of  its  grants,  has  been  preserved.  It  is 
known,  however,  from  a  memorandum  of  the  time, 
that  the  land  conveyed  was  "  about  the  Hudson's 
River." 

The  conditions  insisted  on  by  the  Merchant  Ad- 
venturers—  that  is,  the  merchants  who  were  to  fur- 
nish money  —  were  oppressive  to  the  borrowers. 
The  two  parties  were  to  be  united  in  a  joint-stock 
company.  Colonists  sixteen  years  old  and  upwards, 
and  persons  contributing  ten  pounds  in  money, 
were  to  be  owners  of  one  share.  Colonists  who 
contributed  ten  pounds  were  to  have  two  shares ; 
and  they  were  to  be  allowed  a  share  for  every 


56  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

domestic  dependant  more  than  sixteen  years  old, 
two  shares  for  every  such  dependant  if  fitted  out 
at  their  expense,  and  half  a  share  for  every  depend- 
ant between  ten  years  of  age  and  sixteen.  Arrived 
at  their  destination,  the  planters  were  to  employ 
themselves  in  boat-building,  fishing,  carpentry,  cul- 
tivation, and  manufactures,  for  the  common  emolu- 
ment. They  were  to  be  provided  with  food,  cloth- 
ing, and  other  necessaries,  from  the  common  stock. 
At  the  end  of  seven  years  the  capital  and  profits 
were  to  be  divided  among  the  stockholders  in  pro- 
portion to  their  shares  in  the  investment,  and  each 
child  that  had  gone  out  when  under  ten  years  of 
age  was  to  have  fifty  acres  of  unmanured  land. 
Stockholders  investing  at  a  later  period  were  to 
have  shares  in  the  division  proportioned  to  the 
duration  of  their  interest ;  and  to  the  estates  of 
stockholders  who  might  die  before  the  expiration 
of  the  seven  years,  allowances  were  at  that  time  to 
be  made  proportioned  to  the  length  of  their  lives 
in  the  colony.  To  the  great  disappointment  and 
displeasure  of  the  colonists,  two  articles,  supposed 
by  them  to  have  been  agreed  upon,  to  the  effect 
that  they  should  have  two  days  in  each  week  for 
their  private  use,  and  that,  at  the  division,  they 
should  be  owners  of  their  houses  and  of  the  culti- 
vated land  appertaining  thereto,  were,  at  the  last 
moment,  disallowed  by  the  Merchant  Adventurers. 
The  supplies  which  had  as  yet  been  obtained 
were  sufficient  for  the  conveyance  of  only  a  por- 
tion of  the  Leyden  congregation,  and  of  some  as- 


SCHEME  FOR  ANOTHER  REMOVAL.  57 

sociates  who,  agreeably  to  arrangements  of  theirs 
or  of  the  Merchant  Adventurers,  were  to  join  them 
in  England.  As  it  turned  out  that  only  a  minor- 
ity of  the  congregation  could  embark  in  the  first 
vessels,  it  was  determined  that  Robinson,  the  pas- 
tor, should  remain  for  the  present  at  Leyden,  while 
Brewster  should  accompany  the  pioneers,  who  were 
without  delay  to  sell  their  little  property,  and  con- 
tribute the  proceeds  to  the  common  stock  on  the 
terms  defined  in  the  articles.  As  to  the  more  dis- 
tant future,  there  was  a  mutual  understanding,  that, 
"if  the  Lord  should  frown  upon  their  proceedings, 
then  those  that  went  to  return,  and  the  brethren 
that  remained  still  there  to  assist  and  be  helpful 
to  them ;  but,  if  God  should  be  pleased  to  favor 
them  that  went,  then  they  also  should  endeavor  to 
help  over  such  as  were  poor  and  ancient,  and  will- 
ing to  come."  Thomas  Weston,  one  of  the  Lon- 
don partners,  came  to  Leyden,  for  a  consultation 
respecting  the  details  of  the  outfit ;  and  Cushman 
was  sent  over  to  London,  and  Carver  to  South- 
ampton, "  to  receive  the  money  and  provide  for 
the  voyage." 

A  little  vessel,  which  had  been  purchased,  called 
the  Speedwell,  awaited  the  departing  Pilgrims — ■ 
it  was  then  that  the  now  familiar  application  of 
the  word  was  first  made  —  at  Delft-Haven,  on  the 
River  Meuse,  fourteen  miles  from  Leyden.  With 
all  the  enthusiasm  that  possessed  alike  the  emi- 
grants and  the  friends  whom  they  left,  the  parting 
was   anxious  and   sorrowful.      They  held  a  last 


58  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 

religious  service  together  at  Leyden,  "  pouring  out 
prayers  to  the  Lord  with  great  fervency,  mixed 
with  abundance  of  tears."  Then  a  party  of  those 
who  were  to  remain  accompanied  the  voyagers  to 
the  ship,  and  the  sad  farewell  was  repeated.  The 
Speedwell  brought  her  passengers  prosperously  to 
Southampton,  where  they  were  awaited  by  the 
Mayflower,  a  larger  vessel,  of  a  hundred  and  eighty 
tons'  burden,  which  had  come  round  from  London. 
After  a  fortnight,  employed  in  the  last  prepara- 
tions, the  two  vessels  put  to  sea,  with  about  a 
hundred  and  twenty  passengers.  Before  they  had 
proceeded  far,  the  Speedwell  sprung  a  leak,  and 
with  her  consort  returned  to  Dartmouth  for  repairs. 
They  sailed  a  second  time ;  and  a  second  time,  for 
the  same  reason,  were  forced  to  put  back,  and  at 
Plymouth  the  Speedwell  was  pronounced  to  be  un- 
seaworthy.  It  was  getting  late  in  the  season ;  no 
other  vessel  could  immediately  be  had;  and  it  was 
determined  that  a  part  of  the  company  should  re- 
linquish the  voyage  for  the  present.  When 
^*'  ^'  the  Mayflower  set  sail  a  third  time,  it  was 
with  a  hundred  and  two  passengers,  counting  men, 
women,  and  children. 

The  connection  between  this  ship's  company 
and  the  Separatist  congregation  of  Scrooby  consists 
rather  in  an  historical  continuity  than  in  an  iden- 
tity of  persons.  In  determining  the  question  as  to 
which  portion  of  the  congregation  should  first 
emigrate,  it  was  arranged  for  *'  the  youngest  and 
strongest  part  to  go."    The  youngest  and  strongest 


PASSENGERS  IN  THE  JIAYFLOWER.  59 

would  generally  be  of  those  who  had  joined  the 
society  most  recently,  while  they  who  were  ex- 
cused from  the  first  enterprise  would,  on  the  whole, 
be  the  persons  whose  more  ancient  relations  to 
Robinson  in  England  would  be  a  reason  for  their 
remaining  with  him.  Concerning  very  few  of  the 
first  company  of  planters  in  New  England  is  it 
known  to  this  day  from  what  English  homes  they 
came.  None  but  William  Brewster  and  William 
Bradford  are  ascertained  to  have  been  attendants 
upon  the  ministry  of  Robinson  in  Nottinghamshire. 
Edward  Winslow,  who  was  superior  in  condition 
to  all  or  to  most  of  his  companions,  is  believed 
to  have  become  acquainted  with  Robinson  while 
travelling  in  Holland  ;  he  joined  the  society  at 
Leyden  three  years  before  the  emigration.  The 
"  cautionary  towns  "  of  the  Netherlands  had  been 
garrisoned  by  British  regiments  for  thirty  years, 
and  the  soldier  Miles  Standish  had  probably  been 
employed  in  this  service.  The  Leyden  church  had 
received  several  members  of  Dutch  and  of  French 
birth  ;  and  Edmund  Margeson,  one  of  the  Mayflow- 
er's company,  was  probably  a  Hollander.  Richard 
Warren,  Stephen  Hopkins,  John  Billington,  Ed- 
ward Dotey,  and  Edward  Lister  appear  to  have 
joined  the  expedition  at  one  or  another  of  the 
English  ports.  Christopher  Martin  came  from 
Billerica,  in  Essex,  to  meet  it.  John  Alden  was 
a  cooper,  engaged  at  Southampton.  Samuel  Ful- 
ler, Isaac  Allerton,  and  Diggory  Priest  were  Lon- 
doners.    Robert  Coshman  was  from  Canterbury ; 


60  PLYMOUTU  COLONY. 

George  Morton,  from  York ;  and  Richard  Master- 
son,  from  Sandwich.  "  Many  of  you,"  Robinson 
wrote  in  a  letter  which  reached  the  emigrants  at 
Southampton,  "  are  strangers,  as  to  the  persons,  so 
to  the  infirmities,  one  of  another,  and  so  stand  in 
need  of  more  watchfulness." 

Including  children,  there  were  twenty  -  eight 
females  on  board,  eighteen  of  whom  were  wives 
of  emigrants.  The  voyage  was  long,  and  the  latter 
part  of  it  was  fatiguing  and  perilous.  As  the 
wanderers  approached  the  American  continent, 
they  encountered  weather  which  proved  almost  too 
tempestuous  for  their  overburdened  vessel  to  sus- 
tain. They  did  not  reach  the  land  where  they  had 
expected  to  disembark.  It  was  afterwards  be- 
lieved, though  on  unsatisfactory  evidence,  that  the 
shipmaster  had  been  bribed  by  the  Dutch  to  take 
them  out  of  their  way,  so  as  to  prevent  their  inter- 
fering with  the  infant  Dutch  colony  at  the  mouth 
^^^  g  of  Hudson's  River.  At  early  dawn  of  the 
sixty-fourth  day  of  their  voyage  they  came 
in  sight  of  the  white  sand-banks  of  Cape  Cod. 
Veering  to  the  south,  they  found  themselves,  by 
the  middle  of  the  day,  "  among  perilous  shoals  and 
breakers."  This  induced  them  to  retrace  their 
course,  and  at  length,  at  noon  of  a  Saturday  near 
the  close  of  autumn,  the  Mayflower  dropped 
her  anchor  in  the  roadstead  of  what  is  now 
Provincetown,  at  the  extremity  of  the  southern 
cape  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 


CHAPTER  V. 

FIRST   TEAR   AT   PLYMOUTH. 

The  heterogeneous  composition  of  the  company 
which  came  to  New  England  in  the  Mayflower  has 
been  explained.  The  company  did  not  consist  en- 
tirely of  persons  devoted  to  the  high  objects  for 
which  the  emigration  had  been  planned.  Some  or- 
ganization for  local  government  would  have  proved 
necessary  at  any  rate ;  but  the  necessity  was  the 
more  manifest,  because  already,  "  before  they  came 
to  harbor,"  it  was  observed  that  "  some  were  not 
well  affected  to  unity  and  concord,  but  gave  some 
appearance  of  faction."  Accordingly  an  instrument 
was  drawn  up  and  signed,  by  which  the  subscrib- 
ers, professing  themselves  loyal  subjects  of  King 
James,  "  solemnly  and  mutually,  in  the  presence 
of  God  and  of  one  another,  covenanted  and  com- 
bined themselves  together  into  a  civil  body  politic, 
for  their  better  ordering  and  preservation,  and  to 
enact,  constitute,  and  frame  such  just  and  equal 
laws,  ordinances,  acts,  constitutions,  and  offices, 
from  time  to  time,  as  should  be  thought  most  meet 
and  convenient  for  the  general  good  of  the  colony, 
promising  all  due  submission  and  obedience  there- 
to." The  simple  government  was  then  instituted 
by  the  election  of  John  Carver  to  be  Governor. 


62  FIRST  YEAR  AT  PLYMOUTH. 

In  the  afternoon  of  the  day  when  the  ship 
came  to  anchor,  a  party  of  armed  men  was  sent  on 
shore  to  reconnoitre  and  collect  fuel.  They  re- 
turned at  evening  with  the  report  that  they  had 
seen  neither  person  nor  dwelling,  but  that  the 
country  was  well  wooded,  and  that  the  appearance 
as  to  soil  was  promising. 

The  next  day  was  the  Sabbath.     Having  kept  it 
1520.    in  due  retirement,  the  men  began  the  labors 
Nov.  13.  Q^  ^jjg  week  by  landing  a  shallop  from  the 
ship,  and  hauling  it  up  the  beach  for  repairs,  while 
the  women  went  on  shore  to  wash  clothes.    While 
the  carpenter  and  his   men  were  at  work  on  the 
boat,  sixteen  others,  armed  and  provisioned, 
with  Standish  for  their  leader,  set  off  to  ex- 
plore the  country.    They  were  gone  three  days.    On 
the  first  day  they  saw  four  or  five  natives,  who  ran 
away  so  fast  that  they  could  not  be  overtaken.    Still 
proceeding    southward    the    next   morning, 
Nov  16.  .^.j^gy   observed  marks  of  cultivation,  heaps 
of  earth, which  they  supposed  to  denote  graves,  and 
the  remains  of  a  hut,  with  "  a  great  kettle  which 
had  been  some  ship's  kettle."     They  examined  a 
little  mound,  and  found  beneath  it  two  baskets 
containing  four  or  five  bushels  of  Indian-corn,  of 
which  they  helped  themselves  to  as  much  as  they 
could  carry  away  in    their    pockets    and    in   the 
kettle.      Further  on   they    saw   two   canoes,   and 
"  an   old  fort  or   palisado,  made  by  some    Chris- 
tians, as  they  thought."      They  returned  on 
Friday  evening,  Pamet   Harbor,  in    Truro, 


SECOND  AND  THIRD  EXPLORATIONS.  63 

being  probably  the  most  distant  point  they  had 
reached. 

The  next  week  was  spent  in  putting  tools  in 
order,  and  preparing  timber  for  a  new  boat.  It 
proved  to  be  cold  and  stormy  ;  much  inconven- 
ience was  felt  from  having  to  wade  through  the 
shallow  water  to  the  shore,  and  many  took  "  coughs 
and  colds,  which  afterwards  turned  to  the  scurvy." 
On  the  Monday  of  the  next  following  week, 
twenty-four  of  the  colonists  in  the  shallop, 
accompanied  by  the  ship-master  and  ten  of  his 
people  in  the  long-boat,  set  out  for  an  exploration 
along  the  shore.  They  came  to  the  harbor  to 
which  Standish's  journey  by  land  had  been  ex- 
tended, and,  finding  it  to  have  a  depth  of  twelve 
feet  of  water  at  high  tide,  they  considered  the 
question  of  fixing  upon  it  for  their  settlement. 
But  the  idea  was  abandoned,  in  consideration  of 
the  insufficiency  of  the  harbor  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  large  vessels,  and  the  uncertainty  as  to  a 
supply  of  fresh  water. 

As  soon  as  the  state  of  the  weather  allowed,  a 
party,   ten    in    number,   including    Carver, 
Bradford,  and  others  of  the  principal  men, 
set  off  with  eight  seamen,  in  the  shallop,  on  what 
proved  to   be   the  final   expedition    of  discovery. 
The  cold  was  severe.     "  The  water  froze  on  their 
clothes,  and  made  them  many  times  like  coats  of 
iron."     They  coasted  along  the  cape,  landing  at 
different  points,  but  not  finding  what  they 
looked  for.     At  the  end  of  the  third  day 


64  FIRST  YEAR  AT   PLYMOUTH. 

their  mast  was  carried  away  in  a  storm  of  sleet  and 
snow,  and  they  drifted  in  the  dark  towards  what 
turned  out  to  be  a  small  island.  They  landed  and 
lighted  a  fire,  by  which  to  pass  the  inclement  night. 
The  next  day  they  required  to  "  dry  their  stuff,  fix 
their  pieces,  and  rest  themselves;"  and  the  next 
day  after  that  was  the  Sabbath,  when  no  work 
might  be  done. 

On  the  following  day,  "  Monday,  they  sounded 

the  harbor,  and  found  it  fit  for  shipping,  and 

marched  also  into  the  land,  and  found  divers 

cornfields  and  little  running  brooks, —  a  place,  as 

they  supposed,  fit  for  situation  ; so  they 

returned  to  their  ship  again  with  this  news  to  the 
rest  of  their  people,  which  did  much  comfort  their 
hearts."  Such  is  the  record  of  that  event  which 
has  made  the  twenty-second  of  December  a  memo- 
rable day  in  the  now  altered  calendar. 

By  the  end  of  the  week  the  Mayflower  had 
brought  her  company  to  keep  their  Sab- 
bath by  their  future  home.  On  Smith's 
map  the  spot  bears  the  name  of  Plymouth^  chosen 
for  it  by  Prince  Charles  ;  and  either  for  that  reason, 
or  because  Plymouth  was  the  place  where  the 
emigrants  took  their  final  departure  from  their 
native  country,  they  gave  that  designation  to  the 
place  of  their  settlement. 

The  first  needful  operations  on  shore  were  con- 
ducted with  the  resolution  which  had  marked  the 
previous  proceedings.  A  platform  was  laid  for  ord- 
nance, and  a  building  was  hastily  erected,  twenty 


FIRST   WINTER  AT  PLYMOUTH.  65 

feet  square,  for  a  storehouse,  and  for  common 
occupation.  The  company  was  distributed  into 
nineteen  families,  and  as  many  plats  for  dwell- 
ings were  laid  out  on  the  opposite  sides  of  a  way 
along  the  north  side  of  a  brook  which  runs  into 
the  harbor.  "  The  frost  and  foul  weather  hin- 
dered them  much."  "  Scarcely  could  they  work 
half  the  week."  Time  was  lost  in  going  to  and 
from  the  vessel,  to  which,  in  the  severe  cold,  they 
were  obliged  often  to  repair  for  lodging.  They 
were  delayed  in  unloading  by  want  of  boats  ;  and 
stone,  mortar,  and  thatch  were  slowly  provided. 

Worse  troubles  followed.  The  labor  of  prepar- 
ing habitations  had  scarcely  begun,  when  sickness 
set  in,  the  consequence  of  exposure  and  bad  food. 
Within  four  months  it  carried  off  nearly  half  the 
company.  Of  the  one  hundred  and  two  who  had 
arrived,  six  died  in  December,  eight  in  January, 
seventeen  in  February,  and  thirteen  in  March.  At 
one  time  there  were  only  six  or  seven  who  had 
strength  enough  left  to  nurse  the  dying,  and  bury 
the  dead.  The  sick  lay  crowded  in  the  unwhole- 
some vessel,  or  in  half-built  cabins  heaped  around 
with  snow-drifts.  The  dead  were  interred  in  a 
bluff  by  the  water-side,  the  marks  of  burial  being 
carefully  effaced,  lest  the  natives  should  discover 
how  safe  would  be  an  attack.  But  through  all 
this  sorrow  the  lesson  rehearsed  at  Leyden  was 
not  forgotten,  that  "  all  great  and  honorable  actions 
are  accompanied  with  great  difficulties,  and  must 
be  both  enterprised  and  overcome  with  answerable 


66  FIRST  YEAR  AT  PLYMOUTH. 

courages."     It  was  felt  that  the  fit  way  for  surviv- 
ors to  honor  and  lament  the  departed  was  to  be 
true  to  one  another,  and  to  work  together  bravely 
for  the  cause  to  which  dead  and  living  had  alike 
consecrated  themselves.    The  devastation  increased 
the  necessity  of  preparations  for  defence  ;  and  at 
1621.    ^^^  time  when  the   company   was   dimin- 
Feb.  17.  ishing  at  a  greater  rate  than  that  of  one 
on  every  second  day,  a  military  organization  was 
formed,  with    Standish   for  the   captain,  and    the 
humble  fortification   on  a   hill  overlooking 

Feb.  21.  ° 

the  dwellings  was  mounted  with  five  pieces 
of  cannon. 

"  Warm,  and  fair  weather "  came  at  last,  and 
"the  birds  sang  in  the  woods  most  pleas- 
antly."    Never  was  spring  more  welcome 
than  when  it  opened  on  this  afflicted  company. 
As  yet  there  had  been  no  communication  with 
the  natives.     On  "  a  fine,  warm  morning," 
an  Indian  came  into  the  hamlet,  and,  pass- 
ing along  the  row  of  huts,  was  intercepted  before 
the  common  house,  which  he  would  have  entered. 
In   broken    English   he  bade  the  strangers  "  wel- 
come," and  said  that  his  name  was  Samoset,  and 
that  he  came  from   Monhegan,  a  place  distant  to- 
wards the  east  by  a  day's  sail,  or  five  days  of  land 
journey,  where  he  had  learned  something  of  the 
language  from  the  crews  of  fishing-vessels.     He 
told  them  that  the  place  where  they  were  was  by 
the  Indians  called  Patuxet,  and  that  it  had  been 
depopulated  four  years  before  by  an  epidemic  sick- 


TREATY  WITH  MASSASOIT.  67 

ness ;  that  the  subjects  of  a  sachem  named  Mas- 
sasoit  were  their  nearest  neighbors ;  and  that  at 
the  southeast,  on  the  cape,  dwelt  a  tribe  called  the 
Nausets,  who  were  exasperated  against  the  Eng- 
lish on  account  of  a  kidnapping  of  some  of  their 
people. 

Samoset  remained  through  the  day  and  night, 
well  pleased  with  his  reception.  Two  days  after, 
he  came  again,  with  five  other  savages,  who 
brought  back  some  tools  which  had  been  stolen 
two  or  three  weeks  after  the  landing.     In  a 

.  -  March  21. 

third  visit  he  had  four  companions,  one  of 
whom,  named  Squanto,  turned  out  to  be  one  of 
several  natives  who,  seven  years  before,  had  been 
kidnapped  by  John  Smith's  subordinate.  Captain 
Hunt.  This  party  brought  a  message  from  Mas- 
sasoit  that  he  was  at  hand,  and  desired  an  inter- 
view with  the  strangers.  He  presently  appeared 
on  a  hill  close  by,  with  sixty  followers,  and  Wins- 
low  went  out  with  a  present,  and  with  a  guard  of 
six  musketeers,  to  meet  him.  The  Indian  chief, 
with  twenty  unarmed  attendants,  was  conducted 
with  honor  to  an  unfinished  building,  where  a  rug 
and  cushions  were  spread  for  them.  Then,  with 
Squanto  and  Samoset  for  interpreters,  he  gave  audi- 
ence to  the  Governor,  who  came  "  with  drum  and 
trumpet";  and,  after  salutations  and  feasting,  a 
treaty  was  made,  in  which  it  was  agreed  that  Mas- 
sasoit  and  his  people  should  offer  no  injury  to  the 
English,  and  that  any  transgressor  of  this  engage- 
ment should  be  surrendered  for  punishment ;  that 


68  FIRST   YEAR  AT  PLYMOUTH. 

if  tools  were  stolen  by  natives,  they  should  be  re- 
stored, and  that  similar  redress  should  be  afforded 
on  the  other  part ;  that  aid  should  be  rendered  by 
each  of  the  contracting  parties  against  the  enemies 
of  the  other ;  that  notice  should  be  sent  to  neigh- 
boring tribes,  to  the  end  that  they  might  enter 
into  similar  engagements;  and  that,  when  visits 
should  in  future  be  exchanged,  the  visitors  should 
go  unarmed. 

This  business  settled,  and  Massasoit  having 
been  assured  that  "  King  James  would  esteem 
of  him  as  his  friend  and  ally,"  he  was  conducted 
by  the  Governor  across  the  brook,  and  rejoined  his 
party.  Presently  his  brother,  named  Quadequina, 
came  over  with  a  retinue,  and  was  received  with 
similar  hospitality.  The  next  day,  on  an  invita- 
tion from  the  king,  Standish  and  Allerton  returned 
his  visit,  and  were  regaled  with  "  three  or  four 
ground-nuts,  and  some  tobacco."  The  Governor 
sent  for  the  king's  kettle,  and  returned  it  "  full  of 
pease,  which  pleased  them  well,  and  so  they  went 
their  way."  Squanto  and  Samoset  remained,  and 
the  former  gave  an  earnest  of  his  subsequent  useful- 
ness to  the  English  by  taking  for  them  a  quantity 
of  eels.  Their  tables  vi^ould  have  been  better  sup- 
plied, had  they  been  able  to  avail  themselves  of 
the  plenty  of  the  fishing  -  grounds ;  but,  by  some 
oversight,  they  had  come  unprovided  with  the 
proper  tackle. 

Before  the  adoption  of  the  Gregorian  calendar, 
the  year,  with  Englishmen,  began  on  the  twenty- 


DEATH  OF  GOVERNOR  CARVER.         69 

fifth  day  of  March.    As  their  New  Year's  day  ap- 
proached, the  planters  "  proceeded  with  their  jj^^ch 
common   business,   and  concluded   both  of  ^^'^' 
military  orders  and  of  some  laws  and  orders  thought 
behooveful  for  their  present  estate  and  condition." 
At  the  same  time  they  reelected  Carver  to  be  their 
Governor.     They  had  now  completed  such  prepa- 
ration as  was  to  be  made  for  severing  the  last  tie 
that  bound  them  to  the  scenes  of  their  earlier  life, 
and   the  Mayflower  set  sail  on    her  return 
voyage.     She  carried  back  not  one  of  the    '' 
emigrants,  dispiriting  as  were  the  hardships  which 
they   had  endured,  and   which  they    had   still   in 
prospect. 

Scarcely  had  she  gone,  when  another  heavy 
calamity  occurred.  Carver,  who  at  one  time  had 
been  left  with  no  aid  but  that  of  Brewster,  Stan- 
dish,  and  four  others,  to  nurse  their  suffering  com- 
panions, "  oppressed  by  his  great  care  and  pains 
for  the  common  good,"  came  out  of  the  field 
where  he  was  planting,  took  to  his  bed,  after  a 
few  hours  fell  into  a  delirium,  and  died  in  a  few 
days.  In  "  great  lamentation  and  heaviness " 
they  laid  him  in  his  grave,  "with  as  much  solem- 
nity as  they  were  in  a  capacity  to  perform,  with 
a  discharge  of  some  volleys  of  shot  of  all  that  bare 
arms."  His  wife,  "  being  overcome  with  excessive 
grief  for  the  loss  of  so  gracious  a  husband,"  fol- 
lowed him  after  a  few  weeks.  Bradford  was  placed 
in  the  vacant  office,  and  at  his  request,  on  account 
of  being  only  partially  recovered  from  his  illness 


70  FIRST  YEAR  AT  PLYMOUTH. 

in  the  winter,  Isaac  Allerton  was  chosen  to  be  his 
assistant.  Forty-six  of  the  passengers  in  the  May- 
flower were  now  dead,  twenty-eight  out  of  the 
forty-eight  adult  men.  Before  the  second  party 
of  emigrants  arrived  in  the  autumn,  the  number 
of  the  dead  was  fifty-one,  and  only  an  equal  num- 
ber survived  the  first  miseries  of  the  enterprise. 

The  settlers  had  no  working-cattle.  In  early 
spring  they  opened  the  ground  near  their  dwellings 
with  the  spade,  and  prepared  their  rude  gardens. 
They  sowed  six  acres  with  barley  and  pease.  Their 
good  fortune  in  the  winter  at  the  subterranean 
storehouses  had  given  them  ten  bushels  of  Indian- 
corn  for  seed.  This  sufficed  them  for  the  cultiva- 
tion of  twenty  acres,  Squanto  instructing  them 
how  to  plant  and  hill  it,  and  to  manure  with  fish. 
As  the  season  advanced,  they  found  a  supply  of 
wild  grapes  and  berries ;  nor  did  they  omit  to  re- 
cord that  wild  flowers  of  various  hue  and  of  "very 
sweet  fragrance"  added  a  charm  to  the  scene. 
With  the  variety  afforded  by  wildfowl,  fish,  and 
native  fruits,  what  remained  of  the  stores  that  had 
been  brought  over  sufficed  for  food,  and  the  warm 
season  brought  no  other  want. 

Four  expeditions  during  the  summer  varied  the 
life  of  the  exiles,  and  extended  their  knowledge 
of  the  country  to  a  few  miles'  distance  on  the 
west,  east,  and  north.  Winslow  and  Hopkins,  ac- 
companied by  Squanto  as  interpreter,  were  sent 
to  Massasoit's  home  on  Narragansett  Bay,  to 
confirm  the  relations  which  had  been  entered  into 


EXPEDITIONS   INTO  THE  INTERIOR.  71 

with  that  prince.  After  an  absence  of  five  days, 
they  returned  to  the  settlement  with  accounts  of 
his  friendly  dispositions,  and  of  the  wretched  squal- 
idness  of  Indian  life.  A  boy  of  the  company  hav- 
ing gone  astray  in  the  woods,  a  party  of  ten  men 
went  for  him  in  a  boat  to  the  southern  coast  of  the 
bay,  whither  they  heard  that  he  had  wandered. 
They  went  to  Cummaquid,  now  Barnstable,  and 
to  Nauset,  now  Eastham;  and  again  making  them- 
selves understood  with  Squanto's  help,  they  accom- 
plished their  object,  and  made  arrangements  to  pay 
at  Plymouth  for  the  corn  to  which  they  had  helped 
themselves  on  their  first  arrival.  Returning,  they 
found  the  settlement  disturbed  by  information  which 
had  been  received  of  a  conspiracy  formed  against 
Massasoit  by  subjects  of  his  who  were  dissatisfied 
with  his  friendship  for  the  foreigners.  Standish, 
with  some  twelve  men,  went  to  the  wigwam 
of  the  chief  conspirator,  and,  in  his  absence,  "^ 
disarmed  his  people,  without  killing  any  ;  —  a  dem- 
onstration so  serviceable,  that,  before  long,  nine 
sachems,  representing  jurisdictions  extend- 
ing from  Charles  River  to  Buzzard's  Bay,  *^ " 
came  into  the  town,  and  subscribed  a  writing  by 
which  they  "  acknowledged  themselves  to  be  loyal 
subjects  of  King  James."  Lastly,  Standish  and 
nine  others,  still  attended  by  Squanto,  made 
a  visit  to  what  was  to  be  the  harbor  of 
Boston.  Going  on  shore,  and  walking  a  few  miles 
mto  the  country,  they  observed  land  which  had 
been   cultivated,  two  forts   in  decay,  untenanted 


72  FIRST  YEAR  AT  PLYMOUTH. 

huts,  and  other  tokens  of  recent  depopulation. 
They  noted  "  the  fair  entrance  "  of  the  River 
Charles,  and  came  back  with  accounts  of  the 
place  they  had  seen,  such  as  naturally  made  their 
friends  "  wish  they  had  been  seated  there."  But 
it  was  too  late  to  begin  anew. 

The  husbandry  of  the  first  summer  had  been 
prosperous  on  its  small  scale.  The  crop  of  pease 
failed,  but  the  barley  was  "  indifferent  good,"  and 
there  was  "  a  good  increase  of  Indian-corn."  Fish 
and  game  were  abundant.  By  the  autumn,  seven 
substantial  dwellings  had  been  built.  Health  was 
restored.  The  Governor  sent  out  a  party  to  hunt, 
"that  so  they  might,  after  a  special  manner,  re- 
joice together  after  they  had  gathered  the  fruit 
of  their  labors  ; "  —  the  first  celebration  of  the 
national  festival  of  New  England,  the  autumnal 
Thanksgiving.  On  that  occasion  of  hilarity  they 
"  exercised  their  arms,"  and  for  three  days  "  enter- 
tained and  feasted  "  Massasoit  and  some  ninety 
of  his  people,  who  made  a  contribution  of  five  deer 
to  the  festivity. 

Before  winter  set  in,  tidings  came  from  England, 
and  a  welcome  addition  was  made  to  the  sadly 
diminished  number.  The  Fortune,  a  vessel  of 
fifty-five  tons'  burden,  arrived  at  Plymouth  with 
Cushman  and  some  thirty  other  emigrants. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  community 
planted  at  Plymouth  was  not  of  a  strictly  homoge- 
neous character.  The  devoted  men  who  at  Leyden 
debated  the  question  of  emigration  did  not  com- 


DEPARTURE  OF  THE  FORTUNE.        73 

pose  the  whole  company  even  of  the  Mayflower,  nor 
is  it  known  that  they  had  any  effectual  control  over 
the  selection  of  those  companions  whom  their 
partners,  the  Merchant  Adventurers^  sent  with  them 
from  England,  and  some  of  whom  actually  turned 
out  to  be  unworthy  persons.  So  of  the  twenty- 
five  men  brought  out  by  the  Fortune,  some  were 
old  friends  of  the  congregation  at  Leyden,  others 
were  persons  who  added  to  the  moral  as  well  as  to 
the  numerical  strength  of  the  settlement ;  but  there 
were  not  wanting  such  as  became  subjects  for 
anxiety  and  coercion. 

The  Fortune  brought  over  a  patent  from  the 
recently  constituted  "  Council  established  at  Plym- 
outh, in  the  County  of  Devon,  for  the  planting, 
ordering,  ruling,  and  governing  of  New  England 
in  America."  This  patent  was  obtained  by  the 
friends  of  the  colony  in  consequence  of  the  intelli- 
gence carried  back  by  the  Mayflower,  in  the  spring, 
respecting  the  place  where  the  emigrants  had  estab- 
lished themselves,  which  was  not  within  the  terri- 
tory disposable  by  the  Virginia  Company.  The 
new  patent  was  taken  out  in  the  name  of  John 
Pierce,  citizen  and  cloth-worker  of  London,  and  his 
associates,  with  the  understanding  that  it  should 
be  held  in  trust  for  the  Adventurers,  of  whom 
Pierce  was  one. 

At  the  end  of  five  weeks  after  her  arrival,  the 
Fortune  sailed  again  for  England.     Cush- 
man  returned  in   her,  to   make  a  personal 
report  to  the  Adventurers.     She  carried  homeward 


74  FIRST  YEAR  AT  PLYMOUTH. 

"  two  hogsheads  of  beaver-skins,  and  good  clap- 
boards as  full  as  she  could  hold ;  the  freight  esti- 
mated at  five  hundred  pounds."  But  near  the 
coast  of  England  she  was  captured  and  pillaged 
by  a  French  privateer. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

EARLT  PROGRESS  OF  PLYMOUTH. 

is  seven  years  more  the  colony  of  Plymouth 
worked  its  way  to  a  secure  and  comfortable  estab- 
lishment; but  its  progress  was  made  through  not 
a  few  dangers  and  troubles. 

It  was  but  a  transient  gleam  of  prosperity  that 
had  cheered  the  exiles  at  the  close  of  their  first  sum- 
mer in  America.  Through  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
next  two  years  they  suffered  grievously  from  hunger. 
In  the  second  summer  after  the  landing,  "  the  crop 
proved  scanty,  partly  through  weakness,  for  want  of 
food,  to  tend  it,  partly  through  other  business,  and 
partly  by  much  being  stolen,"  while  still  unripe,  by 
some  disorderly  persons  who  had  been  sent  out  to 
make  a  plantation  by  the  "  Adventurer "  Thomas 
Weston.  The  main  reliance  of  the  colonists  was 
upon  shell-fish  ;  they  obtained  some  corn  and  beans 
from  the  Indians,  and  some  bread  from  fishing- 
vessels  ;  and  with  these  supplies,  eked  out  with  game 
and  ground-nuts,  they  managed  to  sustain  life. 

Weston's  company  did  worse  by  the  colony  than 
stealing  its  corn.    They  involved  it  in  its  first  quar- 
rel with  the  natives.      Having  established 
themselves  at  Wessagussett,    (now   Way- 


76       EARLY  PROGRESS  OF  PLYMOUTH. 

mouth,)  Weston's  men  wasted  their  provisions,  and 
to  supply  themselves  made  depredations  on  the 
Indians  in  their  neighborhood.  From  various 
quarters  intelligence  came  to  Plymouth  that  the 
Indians  along  the  coast  had  conspired  to  avenge 
this  wrong,  and  that  their  undiscriminating  resent- 
ment would  include  the  friendly  settlers  at  Plym- 
outh, who  had  interposed  with  the  new-comers  in 
their  behalf,  and  had  even  straitened  themselves  to 
relieve  that  want  which  was  the  excuse  for  en- 
croaching upon  them.  Massasoit,  the  Pokanoket 
chief,  taken  ill  at  this  time,  was  visited  by  Wins- 
low,  who  nursed  and  cured  him ;  and  the  savage, 
in  the  overflow  of  his  gratitude,  informed  his  guest 
that  mischief  was  brewing.  The  General  Court 
jg23  of  Plymouth,  having  become  satisfied  of  the 
*^*^'^^-  necessity  for  rough  action,  sent  Standish, 
with  eight  men,  to  Wessagussett,  where  the  ring- 
leaders were  met.  The  English  party  had  a  fight 
with  them,  killing  six  and  dispersing  the  rest.  Wes- 
ton's settlement  was  abandoned,  and  the  natives 
occasioned  no  further  alarm. 

Weston's  enterprise,  embarked  in  with  far  bet- 
ter apparent  prospects  than  those  of  the  poor  col- 
ony at  Plymouth,  was  now  at  an  end.  Coming 
over  soon  afterwards  to  look  after  his  affairs,  he 
was  shipwrecked  between  the  Piscataqua  and  the 
Merrimack,  and  robbed  by  the  Indians,  even  to  the 
clothes  he  wore.  In  this  plight  he  found  his  way 
to  Plymouth,  where  the  settlers  treated  him  kindly, 
notwithstanding  his  misconduct  to  them,  and  sup- 


FAILURE  OF  OTHER  PLANTATIONS.  77 

plied  him  with  furs  to  trade  with.  But  he  never 
prospered  afterwards.  He  went  to  Virginia,  and 
thence  back  to  England.  From  a  thriving  London 
merchant  he  was  now  a  ruined  man. 

Nor  was  his  scheme  of  a  colony  in  New  England 
the  only  one  that  came  to  nothing  or  languished, 
while  the  starving  plantation  at  Plymouth  strug- 
gled vigorously  on.  In  England,  the  Virginia 
Company  and  the  Council  for  New  England  were 
at  feud,  the  latter  being  in  favor  with  the  King,  the 
former  with  the  patriotic  party  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  The  Commons  passed  a  bill  designed 
to  arrest  the  arbitrary  proceedings  of  the  Council 
towards  fishermen  in  the  New-England  seas,  but 
it  had  not  become  a  law  when  Parliament  was 
prorogued.  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  who  was  the 
soul  of  the  Council  for  New  England,  had  a  fi"iend, 
named  John  Mason,  who  had  formerly  spent  some 
little  time  in  Newfoundland,  and  was  now  Treas- 
urer of  the  Royal  Navy  and  Governor  of  Ports- 
mouth in  Hampshire.  Mason  obtained  from  the 
Council  of  New  England  a  grant  of  the  territory 
lying  between  the  little  river  which  discharges  its 
waters  at  Naumkeag,  now  Salem,  and  the  1622. 
River  Merrimack  ;  and  to  this  tract,  extend-  " 
ing  inland  to  the  sources  of  those  streams,  he  gave 
the  name  of  Mariana.  In  the  same  year  the 
Council  granted  to  Gorges  and  Mason  the  '^' 
country  bounded  by  the  Merrimack,  the  Kennebec, 
the  ocean,  and  the  "  river  of  Canada,"  and  this 
territory  they  called  Laconia.     By  Mason's  inter- 


78  EARLY  PROGRESS   OF  PLYMOUTH. 

est  with  Gorges,  Sir  William  Alexander  obtained 
from  the  Council  a  patent  for  Nova  Scotia,  or  New 
1621.  Scotland,  which  was  afterwards  confirmed 
s«pt- 10.  ^y  ^jjg  king,  under  the  seal  of  his  northern 
kingdom.  Perhaps  Saco,  on  the  river  of  that  name, 
and  Agamenticus,  afterwards  York,  may  have  re- 
ceived some  English  inhabitants,  under  the  patron- 
age of  Gorges,  within  three  or  four  years  after  the 
occupancy  of  Plymouth.  In  the  service  of  Gorges, 
Mason,  and  others,  settlements  were  at 
tempted  at  the  mouth  of  the  Piscataqua, 
where  is  now  Portsmouth,  and  higher  up  that 
stream,  at  Cochecho,  now  Dover.  Fishermen  and 
traders  began  to  resort  to  Pemaquid,  and  to  the 
neighboring  island  of  Monhegan.  Captain  Robert 
Gorges,  son  of  Sir  Ferdinando,  having  been  ap- 
pointed by  the  Council  for  New  England  to  be 
"  General  Governor  of  the  country,"  revived  the 
attempt  to  plant  a  colony  at  Wessagussett.  His 
personal  observations  did  not  encourage  the  scheme, 
and  he  returned  to  England  with  some  of  his  com- 
panions. A  portion  of  them,  left  behind,  among 
whom  was  Morrell,  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  who 
wrote  a  Latin  poem  descriptive  of  the  country,  were 
assisted  for  a  while  with  supplies  from  Plymouth. 
But  their  patience,  too,  wore  out ;  and  a  second  time 
the  scheme  of  a  considerable  settlement  at  Wessa- 
gussett was  abandoned,  and  only  a  few  persevering 
or  lazy  persons  still  remained  there.  Captain  Wol- 
laston,  with  some  thirty  or  forty  companions, 
attempted    a   settlement    on  a  bluff  which 


SCARCITY  OF    FOOD.  79 

still  bears  his  name,  on  the  sea-shore,  in  what  is 
now  the  town  of  Quincy;  but  he  soon  withdrew 
with  part  of  his  company  to  Virginia,  and  presently 
sent  for  a  portion  of  the  rest.  A  small  party  from 
the  west  of  England  sat  down  at  Cape  Ann  for 
purposes  of  planting  and  fishing.  But  for  the  pres- 
ent their  operations  had  no  importance. 

From  the  better  prospect  of  the  plantation  at 
Plymouth  arose  an  occasion  of  alarm  to  the  set- 
tlers   there.     John    Pierce,   in   whose    name    the 
patent  had  been  taken  for  the  joint  benefit  of  the 
Adventurers,  conceived  the  scheme  of  securing  it 
for  his  private  advantage,  and  contrived  to  super- 
sede it  by  another  which  he  obtained  from 
the   Council  for  New  England,  with   pro-  ^p"'  ^o. 
visions,   which,   as   the    settlers    construed  them, 
would  '*  hold  them  as  his  tenants,  and  to  sue  to 
his  courts  as  chief  lord."     Pierce  sailed  for  Plym- 
outh to  push  his  claim,  but  by  tempestu- 
ous weather  was   twice  driven  back,  with 
serious  damage.     Informed  of  the  fraud  that  had 
been  practised,  the  Adventurers  made  a  complaint 
to  the    Council,  which  was  entertained   and  dis- 
cussed by  that  board,  and  the  issue  was    .^^ 
that  Pierce's  new  patent  was  cancelled,  and  ^'^  28. 
the  Adventurers,  with  their  partners,  the  colonists, 
were  reinstated  in  their  rights. 

Meanwhile,  the  distress  from  scarcity  of  food 
had  continued  at  Plymouth.  When  the  settlers 
had  planted  in  the  third  spring,  "  all  their  victuals 
were  spent,  and  they  were  only  to  rest  on  God's 


80  EARLY  PROGRESS   OF  PLYMOUTH. 

providence,    at   night   many   times    not   knowing 

where  to  have  a  bit  of  anything  the  next  day 

Sometimes,  two  or  three  months   together,  they 

neither  had  bread  nor  any  kind  of  corn 

They  were  divided  into  several  companies,  six  or 
seven  to  a  gang  or  company,  and  so  went  out  with 
a  net  they  had  bought,  to  take  bass  and  such-like 
fish,  by  course.  Neither  did  they  return  till  they 
had  caught  something,  though  it  were  five  or  six 
days  before ;  for  they  knew  there  was  nothing  at 
home,  and  to  go  home  empty  would  be  a  great 
discouragement  to  the  rest.  Yea,  they  strove  who 
should  do  best.  If  the  boat  stayed  long,  or  got 
little,  then  all  went  to  seeking  of  shell-fish,  which 

at  low  water  they  digged  out  of  the  sands 

Also  in  the  summer  they  got  now  and  then  a  deer; 
for  one  or  two  of  the  fittest  was  appointed  to  range 
the  woods  for  that  end,  and  what  was  got  that  way 
was  divided  amongst  them." 

A  drought  prevailed  from  planting-time  till  mid- 
summer, and  "  the  most  courageous  were  now  dis- 
couraged."   A  day  was  appointed  for  fasting 

^^'  and  prayer,  and  the  religious  services  lasted 
"  some  eight  or  nine  hours."  When  they  began, 
"  the  heavens  were  as  clear  and  the  drought  as  like 
to  continue  as  ever."  As  they  proceeded,  the  sky 
was  overcast;  and  while  the  thankful  worshippers 
withdrew,  a  rain  began  to  fall,  which  continued 
for  a  fortnight  in  "  such  soft,  sweet,  and  moderate 
showers  as  it  was  hard  to  say  whether  their  with- 
ered corn  or  drooping  affections  were  most  quick- 


IMPROVED    PROSPECTS.  8l 

ened  or  revived."  Afire  was  set  to  their  storehouse, 
through  carelessness  or  for  mischief,  and  before 
it   was    srot    under,    five    hundred   pounds' 

,  ?     ,  ,  T  .  Not. 

worth    oi  stores   was    consumed.      In   the 
preservation  of  the  rest,  as  well  as  in  the  season- 
able rain,  was  confidently  recognized  the  interpo- 
sition of  a  special  providence. 

The  third  year  was  now  drawing  to  a  close,  and 
the  worst  hardships  of  the  enterprise  were  over. 
"  Now  God  gave  them  plenty,  and  the  face  of 
things  was  changed  to  the  rejoicing  of  the  hearts 

of  many All   had,   one   way  and  other, 

pretty  well  to  bring  the  year  about,  and  some  of 
the  abler  sort  and  more  industrious  had  to  spare 
and  sell  to  others."  The  seasonable  rains  were  not 
the  only  thing  that  made  the  harvest  plentiful. 
This  year  was  the  first  in  which  a  stimulus  of  in- 
dividual interest  had  quickened  the  alacrity  of  toil. 
To  each  family,  in  place  of  the  partnership  labor 
hitherto  maintained,  had  been  assigned  in  the 
spring  the  cultivation  and  usufiruct  of  a  separate 
parcel  of  land,  the  unmarried  persons  being  each 
attached  to  some  family,  and  a  provision  being 
added  that  each  cultivator  should  at  harvest-time 
"  bring  in  a  competent  portion  for  the  maintenance 
of  public  officers,  fishermen,  &c."  This  method 
"  made  all  hands  very  industrious,  so  as  much  more 
corn  was  planted  than  otherwise  would  have  been ; 
and  it  gave  far  better  content.  The  women  now 
went  willingly  into  the  field,  and  took  their  little 
cues  with  them  to  set  corn,  whom  to  have  com- 

VOL.  I.  6 


82       EARLY  PROGRESS  OF  PLYMOUTH. 

pelled  would  have  been  thought  great  tyranny  and 
oppression." 

Two  vessels,  the  Ann  and  the  Little  James, 
had,  towards  the  end  of  summer,  brought  a  rein- 
forcement of  settlers,  who,  with  the  colonists  of 
the  Mayflower  and  the  Fortune,  were  afterwards 
distinguished  from  later  emigrants  by  the  titles  of 
old-comers  and  forefathers.  Sixty  persons  of  those 
who  now  arrived  were  "  for  the  general,"  that  is, 
under  contract  with  the  Adventurers ;  and  of  these 
some  were  members  of  the  families  of  earlier  emi- 
grants, or  had  belonged  to  the  congregation  at  Ley- 
den.  A  few  others  came  in  such  circumstances  as 
to  introduce  a  new  element  into  the  social  system 
of  Plymouth.  They  were  under  an  engagement 
"  to  be  subject  to  the  general  government ; "  but, 
coming  at  their  own  charge,  they  were  free  to 
choose  their  own  employments. 

In  the  spring  following  the  happy  change  of 
affairs,   Bradford   reluctantly   consented   to 

1624.  •' 

accept  the  place  of  Governor  for  the  fourth 
time,  five  Assistants  being  now  associated  with 
him  in  the  magistracy,  instead  of  one  as  hereto- 
fore. He  had  justly  estimated  the  operation  of  the 
division  of  labor  introduced  in  the  preceding  year, 
and  the  plan  was  now  extended  so  as  to  allot  to 
each  householder  an  acre  of  land  near  the  town,  to 
be  held  in  severalty  till  the  expiration  of  the  seven 
years'  partnership  with  the  Adventurers.  The 
quantity  of  land  thus  distributed  was  small,  to  the 
end  "that  they  might  be  kept  close  together,  both 
for  more  safety  and  defence." 


IMPROVED  PROSPECTS.  83 

Plymouth  was  now  in  a  thriving  condition,  if 
its  prosperity  was  on  no  imposing  scale.  Accord- 
ing to  information  which  reached  John  Smith, 
in  England,  there  were  at  the  settlement  "  about 
a  hundred  and  eighty  persons ;  some  cattle  and 
goats,   but   many  swine  and   poultry ;   thirty-two 

dwelling-houses ; the  town  impaled  about 

half  a  mile  compass ;  in  the  town,  upon  a  high 
mount,  a  fort  well   built  with  wood,  loam,  and 

stone ;   also  a  fair  watch-towei ; and  this 

year  they  had  freighted  a  ship  of  a  hundred  and 
eighty  tons."  Fifty  English  ships  were  on  the 
coast,  engaged  in  fishing,  and  every  ship  was  an 
enlargement  of  their  market  for  purchases  and 
sales.  "  It  pleased  the  Lord  to  give  the  plantation 
peace,  and  health,  and  contented  minds,  and  so  to 
bless  their  labors  as  they  had  corn  sufficient,  and 
some  to  spare  to  others,  with  other  food ;  neither 
ever  had  they  any  supply  of  food  but  what  they 
first  brought  with  them." 

Li  the  Ann,  on  her  return  voyage,  Winslow  had 
gone  to  England,  to  make  a  personal  report  to  the 
Adventurers,  and  to  procure  supplies.  He  came 
back,  after  an  absence  of  eight  months,  bringing 
"  three  heifers  and  a  bull,  the  first  beginning  of  any 
cattle  of  that  kind  in  the  land,  with  some  clothing, 
and  other  necessaries."  But  he  brought  also  an 
unpleasant  "  report  of  a  strong  faction  among  the 
Adventurers  against  the  planters,  and  against  the 
coming  of  the  rest  from  Leyden." 

The  London  Adventurers   were   partners   in   a 


84       EARLY  PROGRESS  OF  PLYMOUTH. 

commercial  speculation.  Some  of  them  had  more 
or  less  sympathy  in  religious  sentiment  with  Rob- 
inson's followers,  but  they  were  outnumbered  by 
those  who  were  either  of  the  opposite  inclining,  or 
else  solely  intent  on  money-making.  Their  policy 
of  course  was  to  keep  in  favor  with  the  Court,  and 
with  the  Council  for  New  England,  in  which  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges  and  other  churchmen  were 
leaders.  Accordingly,  there  is  no  question  that 
they  took  care  to  obstruct  Robinson's  plan  of  go- 
ing to  America,  and  there  collecting  his  scattered 
flock.  Robinson  was  the  recognized  head  of  the 
English  Independents,  and  no  name  could  have 
been  uttered  in  the  courtly  circles  with  worse  omen 
than  his  to  the  views  of  the  majority  of  the  Ad- 
venturers in  respect  to  their  plantation  in  America. 
Nor  was  this  the  worst  of  their  interference. 
The  circumstances  of  the  case,  and  developments 
that  speedily  followed,  clearly  enough  indicated 
that  some  of  the  persons  who  had  lately  come  "  on 
their  particular,"  came,  in  concert  with  the  "  strong 
faction  among  the  Adventurers,"  on  the  errand  of 
subverting  the  existing  government  and  order  at 
Plymouth.  They  were  soon  followed  by  a  preacher 
named  Lyford,  whom  Winslow,  who  had  heard 
no  flattering  account  of  him,  only  consented  to 
bring  out  "  to  give  content  to  some  in  London." 
Lyford  at  first  recommended  himself  by  exuberant 
professions  of  Puritan  piety,  but  was  soon  known 
to  have  connected  himself  closely  with  John  Old- 
ham, a  passenger  in  the  Ann,   "  a  chief  stickler 


EMANCIPATION    FROM  THE  ADVENTURERS.         85 

in  the  faction  among  the  particulars."    They  wrote 
to  England,  calumniating  the  colony,  and    jg24 
recommending  a  radical  change  in  its  man-    '''^^■• 
agement,  and,  with    "  some  of  the  weaker  sort  of 
the  company,"  set  up  a  separate  worship,  insulted 
the  Governor,  and   resisted   military  orders.     Both 
were  ordered  to  leave  the  colony.     Oldham  went 
to  establish    himself  at    Nantasket,   the   southern 
cape  of  Boston  Bay,  whither  he  was  before    1625. 
long  followed  by  his  confederate,  who  had  *^*^*'- 
obtained  a  respite  of  his  sentence  by  promises  of 
better  conduct,  which  he  failed  to  keep. 

In  another  point  of  view  the  "  breach  and  seques- 
tration "  among  the  Adventurers  proved  greatly 
beneficial  to  the  colonists.  Discouraged  by  the 
debt  that  had  been  incurred,  two  thirds  of  the  num- 
ber of  Adventurers  in  London  withdrew  from  the 
partnership.  Those  who  remained  were  believed, 
at  Plymouth,  to  be  willing  to  receive  favorably  pro- 
posals for  a  release  from  the  engagement  which 
had  proved  advantageous  to  neither  party ;  and 
Standish  was  despatched  to  England  to  learn  what 
terms  could  be  made.  He  returned,  after 
opening  the  business,  and  Allerton  was  sent 
to  pursue  it.  Standish  brought  to  Plymouth  the 
afflicting  intelligence  of  the  death  of  Robinson,  at 
Leyden,  the  year  before. 

Allerton's  mission  succeeded.     He  adjusted  with 
the  Adventurers  the  preliminaries  of  an  ar- 

^  1627. 

range ment  for  discharging  the  planters  from 

their  contract  of  service  and  partnership.     For  the 


86       EARLY  PROGRESS  OF  PLYMOUTH. 

sum  of  eighteen  hundred  pounds,  payable  in  nine 
equal  annual  instalments,  the  Adventurers  were  to 
convey  to  the  planters  "  every  their  stocks,  shares, 
lands,  merchandise,  and  chattels ; "  and  "  seven  or 
eight  of  the  chief  of  the  place  became  jointly  bound 
for  the  payment  of  this  eighteen  hundred  pounds, 
in  the  behalf  of  the  rest,  at  the  several  days."  A 
partnership  was  now  formed  of  all  the  men  on  the 
spot,  of  suitable  age  and  prudence,  "  particulars  " 
as  well  as  "  generals,"  under  an  agreement  that 
the  trade  should  "  be  managed  as  before,  to  help 
pay  the  debts,"  in  the  way  of  a  joint-stock  com- 
pany. A  division  followed  of  the  stock  and  land, 
hitherto  the  joint  property  of  the  Adventurers  and 
of  their  associates  on  the  soil.  The  houses  became 
private  estate  by  an  equitable  assignment.  Vas- 
salage to  the  foreign  merchants  was  at  an  end. 
Henceforward  there  were  to  be  New-England  free- 
holders. 

Another  business  arrangement  followed.  Seven 
of  the  passengers  in  the  Mayflower,  with  Thomas 
Prince,  who  came  in  the  Fortune,  entered  into  an 
engagement  with  the  colony  to  farm  its  trade  for 
the  term  of  six  years.  In  consideration  of  the  sole 
right  of  trading,  of  an  annual  payment  to  them  by 
each  colonist  of  three  bushels  of  corn  or  six  pounds 
of  tobacco,  and  of  the  transfer  to  them  of  the  pub- 
lic stock  of  property  for  traffic,  including  three  ves- 
sels, they  agreed  to  make  the  annual  payments  due 
to  the  London  partners ;  to  discharge  the  other 
debts  of  the  plantation,  amounting  to  about  six 


NEIGHBORING  SETTLEMENTS.  87 

hundred  pounds  more  ;  and  to  bring  over,  every 
year,  filty  pounds'  worth  of  hoes  and  shoes,  and 
sell  them  for  corn  at  six  shillings  a  bushel.  Aller- 
ton  was  despatched  again  to  England,  where  he 
paid  the  first  instalment  to  the  Adventurers,  ob- 
tained the  due  conveyance  and  release  on  a  deliv- 
ery of  the  bonds,  and  discharged  all  other  debts 
except  those  due  to  four  friends  who  agreed  to 
become  partners  in  the  six  years'  hire  of  the  trade. 
He  also  obtained  from  the  Council  for  New  Eng- 
land a  patent  for  land  on  the  River  Kennebec, 
which  was  presently  turned  to  account  by  the  erec- 
tion of  "  a  house  up  above  on  that  river,  in  the  most 
convenient  place  for  trade."  Three  years  before, 
Winslow  had  discovered  the  importance  of  this 
acquisition.  From  the  Kennebec,  whither 
he  had  gone  with  a  few  others  in  an  open 
boat,  he  had  "  brought  home  seven  hundred  pounds 
of  beaver,  besides  some  other  furs,"  paying  for 
them  with  "  corn,  which  themselves  had  raised  out 
of  the  earth." 

Plymouth  might  now  be  considered  a  well  organ- 
ized community,  with  a  fair  prospect  of  stability 
and  growth.  The  condition  of  other  settlements 
on  and  about  Massachusetts  Bay  is  illustrated  by 
an  occurrence  which  followed  upon  the  abandon- 
ment by  Captain  Wollaston  of  his  enterprise. 
Among  those  of  his  company  who  remained  be- 
hind, when  he  went  to  Virginia,  was  one  Thomas 
Morton,  said  to  have  "  been  a  kind  of  pettifogger 
of  Furnival's   Inn."     Morton   displaced   the   per- 


88  EARLY  PROGRESS  OF   PLYMOUTH. 

son  left  by  Wollaston  in  charge,  and  at  Merry 
Mount,  as  he  called  his  hold,  kept  up  a  course 
of  license  and  revelry  which  gave  sore  offence  to 
all  his  sober  countrymen  who  were  within  hearing 
distance  of  it.  By  enticing  away  their  servants, 
he  increased  his  rabble  rout.  But  what  made  him 
an  intolerable  nuisance  was,  that,  to  support  his 
wild  way  of  life,  he  sold  fire-arms  and  ammunition 
to  the  natives.  The  Plymouth  people,  at 
the  instance  of  other  parties  similarly  inter- 
ested, sent  to  Morton  "  to  admonish  him  to  for- 
bear these  courses."  The  bearer  of  the  message 
was  sent  back  with  affront,  as  was  another,  who 
went  on  the  same  errand.  Captain  Standish,  the 
third  messenger,  took  "some  other  aid  with  him." 
Morton  barricaded  his  house,  defied  the  invaders, 
and  excited  his  comrades  with  drink.  Standish 
disarmed  and  dispersed  them,  and  conducted  their 
leader  to  Plymouth,  whence  he  was  sent  to  Eng- 
land, with  accounts  of  the  proceeding,  addressed 
to  the  Council  for  New  England,  and  to  Sir  Fer- 
dinando  Gorges. 

The  contributions  to  the  expense  of  this  expedi- 
tion, from  settlements  and  from  individuals,  are  on 
record.  The  settlements  were  Plymouth ;  Piscat- 
aqua  (Portsmouth) ;  Naumkeag,  presently  to  be 
spoken  of;  and  Nantasket,  the  seat  of  Oldham's 
party.  The  individual  contributors  were  "  Mr. 
Jeffrey  and  Mr.  Burslem,"  whose  dwellings  were 
perhaps  at  Winnisimmett,  now  Chelsea;  Edward 
Hilton,  seated  at  Cochecho,  on  the  river  Piscataqua ; 


NEIGHBOR rXG  SETTLEifENTS.  89 

William  Blaxton,  who  had  made  a  farm  on  the 
peninsula  of  Shawmut,  afterwards  Boston ;  and 
Mrs.  Thompson,  widow  of  David  Thompson,  who 
had  removed  from  Piscataqua  to  the  island  still 
called  by  his  name  in  Boston  harbor. 

Within  the  same  circuit  there  were,  perhaps, 
solitEiry  planters,  whose  names  do  not  appear  in 
the  transaction.  Thomas  Walford  may  have  been 
already,  where  he  was  found  presently  after,  on  the 
peninsula  of  Mishawum  (since  Charlestown),  and 
Samuel  Maverick  on  Noddle's  Island,  hard  by. 
Probably  there  were  a  few  Englishmen  at  Cape 
Ann  and  Wessagussett.  Plymouth  had  extended 
itself  westwardly  to  Buzzard's  Bay,  by  an  outpost 
on  Manomet  River,  kept  by  "  some  servants  who 
planted  corn,  and  reared  some  swine." 

On  both  sides  of  New  England,  settlements  had 
now  been  attempted   by   planters  not  of  English 
blood.     The  French  attempts  at  colonization  east 
and  north  of  that  territory  had  at  no  period  had 
much  success ;  in  the  war  which  now  took 
place,  Quebec  was  captured  by  the  English, 
and  for  a  time  New  France  was  stricken  from  the 
map  of  America.    On  the  western  side,  a  few  scores 
of  trading  Dutchmen  had  collected  at  the  mouth 
of  the  river  which  Henry  Hudson,  whose  name  it 
bears,  had  discovered  while  in  command  of 
a  vessel  in  the  service  of  the  Dutch   East 
India  Company.     Their  hamlet,  which  they  called 
New  Amsterdam,  (now  New  York,)  is  be- 
lieved to  have  had  at  this  time  a  population 


90       EARLY  PROGRESS  OF  PLYMOUTH. 

of  two  hundred  and  seventy  persons.  Manhattan 
Island,  on  which  it  stood,  they  had  bought  from 
the  natives  for  a  consideration  about  equivalent  to 
twenty-four  dollars.  The  settlers  at  New  Plym- 
outh and  at  New  Amsterdam  had  not  only  heard 
of  each  other,  but  they  had  become  jealous  of  each 
other's  plans  for  occupation  of  territory  and  for 
trade ;  and  an  official  of  the  latter  place  had 

1627 

visited  New  Plymouth,  and  composed  an 
interesting  description  of  it,  which  has  been  trans- 
mitted to  our  time. 


CHAPTER  VIL 

ORIGIN    OF    MASSACHUSETTS. 

Twenty  years  had  now  passed  since  the  Sepa- 
ratists of  the  Scrooby  congregation  fled  to  Holland, 
whence  some  of  them  came  to  found  the  colony  at 
Plymouth.  That  period  had  witnessed  a  vigorous 
growth  and  spread,  in  their  native  country,  of  the 
Puritanism  which  was  educating  the  English  peo- 
ple for  freedom. 

Seventeen  years  of  the  rule  of  James  the  First 
had  intervened.  The  reign  of  that  imbecile  mon- 
arch marked  the  transition  from  a  scarcely  dis- 
turbed acquiescence  in  arbitrary  government  to  the 
incipient  triumph  of  popular  principles  in  England. 
In  his  long  quarrel  with  his  Parliaments,  little,  it  is 
true,  had  been  effected  for  popular  rights  in  the  way 
of  legislative  action.  But  the  spirit  and  courage 
of  men  in  public  and  private  life  had  been  raised ; 
and  the  exigencies  of  the  time  had  led  to  investi- 
gations into  the  principles  of  politics,  which  were 
destined  to  bear  abundant  fruit.  Though,  unable 
to  w^ithstand  the  severity  of  the  government,  the 
Separatists  had  fled  from  the  kingdom,  or  dis- 
banded their  congregations,  Puritan  non-conform- 
ity had  largely  extended  its  numbers  and  power 


92  ORIGIN  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

within  the  Church,  and  an  attentive  observer  might 
discern  a  constant  advance  of  the  Non-conformist 
party  towards  an  occupation  of  the  Separatist 
ground. 

When  James  died,  the  accession  of  a  new  sov- 
jg25  ereign  invited  the  friends  of  freedom  in  the 
March  27.  Engiisij  Church  and  State  to  mark  out  a 
definite  policy  for  the  future.  The  experience  of 
the  late  reign  had  alike  shown  the  need  and  the 
practicability  of  strong  proceedings,  and  afforded 
encouragement  as  to  their  happy  effect.  Whether 
the  patriots  had  been  more  or  less  admonished  by 
their  observations  on  the  character  of  the  young 
successor  to  the  throne,  at  any  rate  his  close  ties 
with  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  the  corrupt  courtier 
who  had  swayed  his  father's  counsels,  were  enough 
to  make  him  liable  to  their  extreme  distrust ;  and 
they  deliberately  resolved  to  keep  King  Charles's 
power  in  check  by  the  frugality  of  their  grants  of 
money.  As  yet,  there  vras  not,  properly  speaking, 
an  English  constitution.  They  were  resolved  that 
there  should  be.  They  saw  that  the  time  had  come 
for  determining  whether  Englishmen  should  live 
in  future  under  an  absolute  or  under  a  limited  and 
balanced  monarchy  ;  and  they  launched  upon  the 
course  of  measures  which  was  to  solve  that  mo- 
mentous question. 

For  four  years  the  conflict  went  on,  and  at  the 
end  of  them  the  victory  seemed  to  be  with  the 
King.  In  pursuance  of  the  patriot  policy,  Parlia- 
ment doled  out  supplies  with  a  penurious  hand, 


ENGLISH  POLITICS.  93 

while  it  complained  to  him  of  the  lenity  shown  to 
Papists,  and  prayed  for  more  indulgence  to  the 
Non-conformist  clergy.  But,  by  economy  on  the 
one  hand,  and  by  extortion  on  the  other,  Charles 
the  First  learned  to  take  care  of  himself.  He  re- 
lieved his  exchequer  by  forced  loans.  He  levied 
tonnage  and  poundage  without  the  authority  of 
an  act  of  Parliament.  He  encumbered  the  crown 
lands.  He  rigorously  enforced  fines  for  religious 
delinquency.  At  length,  in  a  passion,  he  jggg. 
dissolved  his  third  Parliament,  and  from  March  lo. 
that  day  England  was  an  absolute  monarchy  for 
eleven  years.  All  hope  of  legislative  relief  was 
over  for  the  present.  "  By  our  frequent  meeting 
with  our  people,"  said  the  King  in  a  proclamation, 
"  we  have  showed  our  love  to  the  use  of  Parlia- 
ments ;  yet  the  late  abuse  having  for  the  present 
driven  us  unwillingly  out  of  that  course,  we  shall 
account  it  presumption  for  any  to  prescribe  any 
time  unto  us  for  Parliaments,  the  calling,  continu- 
ing, and  dissolving  of  which  is  always  in  our  own 
power ;  and  we  shall  be  more  inclinable  to  meet  in 
Parliament  again,  when  our  people  shall  see  more 
clearly  into  our  interests  and  actions." 

As  this  dismal  state  of  things  approached,  and 
especially  when  it  was  reached,  patriotic  and  relig- 
ious Englishmen  asked  themselves  and  one  another 
what  was  the  course  of  honor  and  of  safety.  While 
some  among  them  still  looked  for  relief  to  a  re- 
newal and  a  happy  issue  of  the  struggle  that  had 
been  going  on  in  Parliament,  and  resigned  them- 


94  ORIGIN  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

selves  to  await,  and  help  on,  the  progress  of  a 
political  and  religious  reformation  in  the  kingdom, 
others,  less  confident  or  less  patient,  pondered  on 
exile  as  the  best  resource,  and  turned  their  view 
to  a  new  home  on  the  Western  continent. 

Since  the  second  year  of  King  James  the  First, 
Mr.  John  White,  "  a  famous  Puritan  divine,"  had 
been  rector  of  a  church  in  Dorchester,  the  shire 
town  of  Dorset.  A  scheme  of  colonization  was 
suggested  to  him  by  circumstances  of  his  position. 
Dorchester,  near  the  British  Channel,  furnished 
numbers  of  those  who  made  voyages  to  New  Eng- 
land for  fishing  and  trade,  and  who  were  sometimes 
together  upon  the  coast  for  several  months.  The 
good  prospect  of  the  enterprise  at  Plymouth  was 
now  known  in  the  Puritan  circles  in  England.  Mr. 
White  conceived  the  plan  of  establishing  another 
settlement  on  Massachusetts  Bay,  where  the  Dor- 
chester sailors  might  have  a  home  and  be  brought 
under  religious  influences  when  not  at  sea,  and 
where  supplies  might  be  provided  for  them  by 
farming,  hunting,  and  trading.  To  this  end  he  in- 
terested himself  with  the  ship-owners  of  his  parish, 
and  the  result  was  the  formation  of  an  unincor- 
porated joint-stock  association,  under  the  name  of 
the  "  Dorchester  Adventurers,"  which  collected  a 
capital  of  three  thousand  pounds. 

The  adventurers  turned  their  attention  to  the 
spot,  on  Cape  Ann,  where  now  stands  the  town  of 
Gloucester.  It  was  included  in  a  parcel  of  land 
then  understood,  though  the  transaction  was  after* 


PLANTATION  AT   CAPE  ANN.  95 

wards  regarded  as  invalid,  to  have  been  granted  to 
Lord  Sheffield  by  the  Council  for  New  England. 
Lord  Sheffield  had  sold  it  to  "Winslow  for  the  Plym- 
outh people ;  and  from  them  White  and  his  asso- 
ciates obtained  such  a  site  as  was  wanted  for  their 
purposes  of  fishing  and  planting.  Fourteen 
persons  in  the  service  of  the  Adventurers 
came  out  to  Cape  Ann  with  a  supply  of  live  stock. 
But  the  undertaking  did  not  prosper.  The  price  of 
fish  went  down.  The  vessels  of  the  company  met 
with  accidents.  The  colonists,  "  being  ill  chosen 
and  ill  commanded,  fell  into  many  disorders,  and 
did  little  service." 

The  partners  tried  again.  They  heard  of  "  some 
religious  and  well-affected  persons  that  were  lately 
removed  out  of  New  Plymouth,  out  of  dislike  of 
their  principles  of  rigid  separation,  of  which  num- 
ber Mr.  Roger  Conant  was  one,  a  religious,  sober, 
and  prudent  gentleman."  Conant,  whose  earlier 
history  is  not  known,  was  then  at  Nantasket,  with 
Lyford  and  Oldham.  The  partners  engaged  Co- 
nant "to  be  their  Governor"  at  Cape  Ann,  and 
Lyford  to  be  minister  there.  But  matters  did  not 
mend,  and  "  the  Adventurers  were  so  far  discour- 
aged that  they  abandoned  the  further  prosecution 
of  this  design,  and  took  order  for  the  dissolving  of 
the  company  on  land,  and  sold  away  their  shipping 
and  other  provisions." 

Mr.  White  did  not  share  in  their  discourage- 
ment. Probably  he  had  all  along  had  an  object 
different  from  what  had    been   disclosed.     At  his 


96  ORIGIN  OF  MASSACHUSETTS- 

instance,  "  a  few  of  the  most  honest  and  industri- 
ous resolved  to  stay  behind,  and  to  take  charge  of 
the  cattle  sent  over  the  year  before  ;  and,  not  liking 
their  seat  at  Cape  Ann,  chosen  especially 
for  the  supposed  commodity  of  fishing,  they 
transported  themselves  to  Nahunkeike,  about  four 
or  five  leagues  distant  to  the  southwest."  White 
wrote  to  Conant,  exhorting  him  "  not  so  to  de- 
sert the  business,  faithfully  promising  that,  if 
himself,  with  three  others,  whom  he  knew  to  be 
honest  and  prudent  men,  namely,  John  Wood- 
bury, John  Balch,  and  Peter  Palfrey,  employed  by 
the  Adventurers,  would  stay  at  Naumkeag,  and 
give  timely  notice  thereof,  he  would  provide  a 
patent  for  them,  and  likewise  send  them  whatever 
they  should  write  for,  either  men,  or  provision,  or 
goods  wherewith  to  trade  with  the  Indians." 

1627.      ° 

They  yielded  to  his  urgency,  and  "  stayed  to 
the  hazard  of  their  lives." 

It  is  uncertain  how  comprehensive  had  been  the 
plans  of  White  down  to  this  time ;  —  whether  the 
scheme  now  developed  by  him  and  others  had  been 
entertained  from  the  beginning,  and  the  sending 
out  of  a  few  persons  to  till  and  fish  had  been  in- 
tended to  prepare  the  way  for  a  large  emigration  ; 
or  whether  the  more  extensive  project  was  now 
first  conceived,  and  White's  previous  movement, 
originally  independent  of  it,  was  seized  upon  for 
its  promotion.  At  all  events,  in  the  critical  in- 
terval between  the  second  and  third  Parliaments  ot 
Charles  the  First,  when  the  arbitrary  policy  of  that 


PLANTATION  AT  SALEM.  97 

monarch  had  been  plainly  disclosed,  "the  business 
[of  founding  a  colony  in  New  England]  came  to 

asitation  afresh  in    London  ; insomuch 

that,  some  men  showing  some  good  affection  to 
the  work,  and  offering  the  help  of  their  purses  if 
fit  men  might  be  procured  to  go  over,  inquiry  was 
made  whether  any  would  be  willing  to  engage 
their  persons  in  the  voyage.  By  this  inquiry  it  fell 
out,  that,  among  others,  they  lighted  at  last  on 
Master  Endicott,  a  man  well  known  to  divers  per- 
sons of  good  note,  who  manifested  much  willing- 
ness to  accept  of  the  offer  as  soon  as  it  was  teu- 
dered,  which  gave  great  encouragement  to  such  as 
were  upon  the  point  of  resolution  to  set  on  this 
work  of  erecting  a  new  colony  upon  the  old  foun- 
dation." Six  persons,  of  whom  Endicott  was  one, 
obtained  from  the  Council  for  New  Eng-  i628. 
land  the  grant  of  a  tract  of  land  extending  ^^^''^  ^^' 
in  length  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  Pacific, 
and  in  width  from  a  line  of  latitude  three  miles 
north  of  the  River  Merrimack  to  a  line  three  miles 
south  of  the  River  Charles.  The  dimensions  of 
the  domain  indicate  that  the  projected  colony  was 
not  intended  to  be  an  inconsiderable  one. 

Within  six  months  after  this  arrangement,  En- 
dicott had  conducted  a  small  party  to 
Naumkeag,  which  thenceforward  took  the 
name  of  Salem,  or  "  peaceful."  The  "  old  plant- 
ers "  and  the  new-comers  together  composed  a 
company  of  "  not  much  above  fifty  or  sixty  per- 
sons."    Before  winter  an  exploring  party  visited 


93  ORIGIN  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

Mishawum,  now  Charlestown,  and  another  party 
went  to  Morton's  hold,  at  Merry  Mount,  or,  as 
Endicott  called  it,  Mount  Dagon,  where  they  cut 
down  the  May-pole,  and  urgently  advised  that 
"  there  should  be  better  walking."  The  winter 
at  Salem  proved  sickly  ;  an  "  infection  that  grew 
among  the  passengers  at  sea  spread  also  among 
them  ashore,  of  which  many  died." 

In  England,  meanwhile,  political  affairs  had  gone 
on  from  worse  to  worse,  and  whatever  reasons 
existed  for  patriotic  Englishmen  to  look  for  a  ref- 
uge in  a  foreign  land  had  been  multiplying  and 
strengthening.  Six  days  before  that  dissolution 
of  King  Charles's  third  Parliament  which  reduced 
England  to  the  condition  of  an  absolute  monarchy, 
the  six  persons  who  had  obtained  the  patent  for 
land  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  with  twenty  new  as- 

jg29  sociates,  found  means  to  procure  a  royal 
March  4.  charter,  making  them  a  corporation  under 
the  name  of  "  The  Governor  and  Company  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bay,  in  New  England."  To  them 
the  charter  confirmed  the  ownership  of  the  land 
already  possessed  by  the  six  patentees.  It  empow- 
ered them  and  their  associates  and  successors  for- 
ever to  elect  annually  a  Governor,  Deputy  Governor, 
and  eighteen  Assistants,  and  to  make  laws  and 
ordinances  not  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England. 
It  authorized  the  company  to  admit  new  partners  ; 
to  transport  settlers ;  to  encounter  and  repel  ene- 
mies ;  and  to  constitute  inferior  officers  as  they 
should  think  proper  for  the  ordering  and  managing 


PLANTATION  AT  SALEM.  99 

of  their  affairs.  This  is  the  instrument  under  which 
the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  was  administered  for 
fifty-five  years. 

Choosing  Matthew  Cradock,  a  London  merchant, 
to  be  their  Governor,  and  continuing  Endicott  at 
the  head  of  affairs  at  Salem,  the  new  corporation 
lost  no  time  in  despatching  a  reinforcement  of 
colonists.  Six  vessels  were  prepared,  and  license 
was  obtained  from  the  Lord  Treasurer  for 
the  embarkation  of  "  eighteen  women  and  ^' 
maids,  twenty-six  children,  and  three  hundred  men, 
with  victuals,  arms  and  tools,  and  necessary  ap- 
parel," and  with  "  one  hundred  and  forty  head 
of  cattle,  and  forty  goats."  A  committee  of  the 
company  were  careful  "  to  make  plentiful  pro- 
vision of  godly  ministers."  The  first  three  vessels 
conveyed  four  ministers.  One  of  them,  Bright, 
returned  to  England  in  the  following  summer, 
probably  from  dissatisfaction  with  ecclesiastical 
proceedings  which  followed.  Another,  Smith,  went 
for  the  present  to  the  fishing-station  at  Nantasket. 
Skelton,  from  whose  ministry  Endicott  had  "  for- 
merly received  much  good,"  and  Higginson,  "  a 
reverend,  grave  minister,"  formerly  rector 
of  a  church  at  Leicester,  established  them- 
selves at  Salem. 

Higginson  wrote  home  : —  "  When  we  came  first 
to  Naumkeag,  we  found  about  half  a  score  of 
houses,  and  a  fair  house  newly  built  for  the  gov- 
ernor. We  found  also  abundance  of  corn  planted  by 
them,  very  good  and  well-liking.     And  we  brought 


100  ORIGIN  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

with  U3  about  two  hundred  passengers  and  planters 
more,  which,  by  common  consent  of  the  old  planters, 
were  all  combined  together  into  one  body  politic, 
under  the  same  governor.  There  are  in  all  of  us, 
both  old  and  new  planters,  about  three  hundred, 
whereof  two  hundred  of  them  are  settled  at  Naum- 
keag,  now  called  Salem,  and  the  rest  have  plant- 
ed themselves  at  Massachusetts  Bay,  beginning 
to  build  a  town  there,  which  we  do  call  Charton 

or    Charlestown But   that  which    is   our 

greatest  comfort  and  means  of  defence  above  ail 
other,  is,  that  we  have  here  the  true  religion  and 
holy  ordinances  of  Almighty  God  taught  among 
us.  Thanks  be  to  God,  we  have  here  plenty  of 
preaching  and  diligent  catechising,  with  strict  and 
careful  exercise  and  good  and  commendable  orders 
to  bring  our  people  into  a  Christian  conversation 
with  whom  we  have  to  do  withal.  And  thus  we 
doubt  not  but  God  will  be  with  us ;  and  if  God 
be  with  us,  who  can  be  against  us  ?  " 

What  had  been  the  plans  and  expectations  formed 
in  England  by  the  emigrants  in  respect  to  the  re- 
ligious institutions  of  their  future  home,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  define  with  certainty.  Probably  as  yet  no 
definiteness  nor  absolute  uniformity  existed.  Skel- 
ton,  if  John  Cotton  was  well  informed  upon  the 
fact,  was  a  Separatist  before  leaving  his  native 
country.  Higginson  appears  to  have  as  yet  got  no 
further  than  Non-conformity ;  and  the  same  was 
probably  the  state  of  mind  of  most  of  his  compan- 
ions when  they  came  away.     But  the  time  tha 


CHURCH  OF  SALEM.  101 

had  since  elapsed,  short  though  it  was,  had  wit- 
nessed a  natural  progress  from  the  half-way  doc- 
trine. The  same  course  of  thought  that  had  led 
any  to  take  the  first  step  of  separation  from  the 
Church  of  the  State  could  scarcely  fail,  when 
local  obstacles  were  removed,  to  impel  them  to  the 
second.  A  six  weeks'  voyage  away  from  familiar 
scenes  must  needs  have  opened  a  long  religious 
experience.  In  a  North- American  wild,  the  con- 
ventional associations  were  dissolved.  It  is  strik- 
ing to  observe  to  what  an  extent,  as  one  party 
after  another  of  earnest  men  came  to  confer  to- 
gether on  New-England  soil,  they  had  grown  to 
be  of  one  mind  in  rejecting  the  whole  constitution 
of  the  English  Establishment.  Not  a  fragment  of 
the  hierarchical  order  found  a  place  in  the  eccle- 
siastical organization  of  New  England. 

Skelton  and  Higginson  found  Endicott  in  full 
sympathy  with  their  own  advanced  views.  During 
the  sickness  that  prevailed  in  the  preceding  winter, 
Fuller,  the  physician  of  Plymouth,  had  come  to 
Salem  to  render  his  professional  assistance.  With 
him  Endicott  had  edifying  conferences ;  and  the 
result  was  to  confirm  him  in  the  opinion  that  the 
Separatist  theory  and  practice  of  the  Leyden  and 
the  Plymouth  church  were  in  conformity  with  the 
pattern  in  the  gospel. 

The  first  church  in   Massachusetts  was  consti- 
tuted   accordingly.     Four   weeks   had    not 
passed   after   the  last  arrival  of  colonists,      ^ 
when,  on  a  day  appointed   for   the  choice  of  a 


102  ORIGIN  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

pastor  and  teacher,  after  prayer,  fasting,  and  a  ser- 
mon, Mr.  Skelton  was  chosen  to  the  former  office, 
and  Mr.  Higginson  to  the  latter.  Mr.  Higginson 
then  offered  a  prayer,  while  he  and  three  or  four  of 
the  gravest  men  laid  their  hands  on  Mr.  Skelton's 
head ;  and  then,  for  the  consecration  of  Mr.  Hig- 
ginson, a  like  service  was  conducted  by  his  col- 
league. The  next  step  was  to  gather  a  church, 
or  society  of  communicants.  Mr.  Higginson  drew 
*'  a  confession  of  faith  and  church  covenant,  ac- 
cording to  Scripture,"  and  an  invitation  was  des- 
patched to  the  church  at  Plymouth  to  send  mes- 
sengers to  witness  the  further  proceeding.  The 
day  appointed  for  it  having  arrived,  the  two 
"^'  ■  ministers  prayed  and  preached;  thirty  per- 
sons assented  to  the  covenant,  and  associated  them- 
selves together  as  a  church ;  the  ministers,  whose 
dedication  to  the  sacred  office  had  appeared  incom- 
plete till  it  was  made  by  a  church  constituted  by 
mutual  covenant,  were  ordained  to  their  respective 
offices  by  the  imposition  of  the  hands  of  some  of 
the  brethren  appointed  by  the  church  ;  and  Gov- 
ernor Bradford,  *'  and  some  others  with  him,  com- 
ing by  sea,"  and  being  "  hindered  by  cross-winds 
that  they  could  not  be  there  at  the  beginning  of 
the  day,  came  into  the  assembly  afterward,  and 
gave  them  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  wishing 
all  prosperity  and  a  blessed  success  unto  such  good 
beginnings." 

The  transaction  which  determined  the  religious 
constitution  of  New  England  gave  offence  to  two 


EXPULSION  OF  CHURCHMEN.  103 

brothers,  named  Browne,  who  were  among  the 
most  considerable  persons  of  the  recent  emigra- 
tion ;  and  they,  with  others  of  the  same  mind,  pro- 
ceeded to  set  up  a  separate  worship,  conducted 
according  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  En- 
dicott  called  the  brothers  to  account  for  their  dis- 
orderly behavior.  They  pleaded  that  the  ministers 
"  were  Separatists,  and  would  be  Anabaptists." 
The  ministers  replied,  "  that  they  came  away  from 
the  Common  Prayer  and  ceremonies,  and  had  suf- 
fered much  for  their  non-conformity  in  their  native 
land ;  and  therefore,  being  in  a  place  where  they 
might  have  their  liberty,  they  neither  could  nor 
would  use  them,  because  they  judged  the  impo- 
sition of  those  things  to  be  sinful  corruptions  in 
the  worship  of  God."  There  was  no  composing 
such  a  strife ;  "  and  therefore,  finding  those  two 
brothers  to  be  of  high  spirits,  and  their  speeches 
and  practices  tending  to  mutiny  and  faction,  the 
governor  told  them  that  New  England  was  no 
place  for  such  as  they,  and  therefore  he  sent  them 
both  back  for  England  at  the  return  of  the  ships 
the  same  year." 

For  this  he  had  his  warrant  in  written  instruc- 
tions of  the  corporation  at  home,  directing  that 
persons  who  might  prove  to  be  not  "  conformable 
to  their  governnient "  should  not  be  suffered  "  to 
remain  within  the  limits  of  their  grant."  The 
right  of  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  to  exclude,  at  their  pleasure,  danger- 
ous or  disagreeable    persons  from    their   domain, 


104  ORIGIN  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

they  never  regarded  as  questionable,  any  more 
than  a  householder  doubts  his  right  to  determine 
who  shall  be  sheltered  by  his  roof.  No  civilized 
man  had  a  right  to  come,  or  to  be,  within  their 
chartered  limits,  except  themselves,  and  such  others 
as  they,  in  the  exercise  of  an  absolute  discretion, 
saw  fit  to  harbor.  The  wisdom  of  such  a  use  of 
their  right  as  was  now  made  by  their  officer  and 
representative  would,  in  existing  circumstances, 
appear  to  him  equally  evident.  The  English  hie- 
rarchy was  immensely  powerful,  both  in  its  own 
resources  and  in  the  patronage  of  an  absolute 
monarch.  Of  its  vigilance  and  cruelty  the  colo- 
nists had  had  a  wellnigh  ruinous  experience.  If 
it  could  keep  its  arms  about  them,  they  thoroughly 
knew  from  the  past  what  they  had  to  expect  from 
it  in  the  future.  They  had  fled  from  it  to  the  wild 
solitude  of  a  distant  continent.  Should  they  suffer 
it  to  follow  them,  if  they  were  able  to  keep  it  oflf? 
A  conventicle  of  a  score  of  persons  using  the  Lit- 
urgy might  be  harmless.  But  how  long  would  the 
conventicle  be  without  its  surpliced  priest  ?  and, 
when  he  had  come,  how  far  in  the  distance  would 
be  a  bishop,  armed  with  the  powers  of  the  High 
Commission  Court  ?  and  then,  would  not  the  emi- 
grants have  done  better  to  stay  at  home  ? 

Meanwhile,  a  movement  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance, probably  meditated  long  before,  was  hastened 
by  external  pressure.  The  state  of  public  affairs 
m  England  in  the  spring  and  summer  of  this  year 
had  brought  numbers  to  the  decision  which  had 


TRANSFER   OF  THE  CHARTER.  105 

been  heretofore  approached  with  sorrowful  reluc- 
tance ;  and  several  persons  of  character  and  con- 
dition resolved  to  emigrate  at  once  to  the  New 
World.  It  was  necessary  to  their  purpose  to 
secure  self-government,  as  far  as  it  could  be  exer- 
cised by  British  subjects.  Possibly,  events  might 
permit  and  require  it  to  be  vindicated  even  beyond 
that  line.  At  any  rate,  to  be  ruled  in  America  by 
a  commercial  corporation  in  England  was  a  con- 
dition in  no  sort  accordant  with  their  aim. 

At  a  General  Court  of  the  Company,  Cra-  1099. 
dock,  the  Governor,  "  read  certain  proposi-  ^"'^  ' 
tions  conceived  by  himself;  namely,  that  for  the 
advancement  of  the  plantation,  the  inducing  and 
encouraging  persons  of  worth  and  quality  to  trans- 
plant themselves  and  families  thither,  and  for  other 
weighty  reasons  therein  contained,  [it  is  expedient] 
to  transfer  the  government  of  the  plantation  to  those 
that  shall  inhabit  there,  and  not  to  continue  the 
same  in  subordination  to  the  company  here,  as  now 
it  is."  The  corporation  entertained  the  proposal, 
and,  in  view  of  "  the  many  great  and  considerable 
consequences  thereupon  depending,"  reserved  it 
for  deliberation.  Two  days  before  its  next  meet- 
ing, twelve  gentlemen,  assembled  at  Cambridge, 
pledged  themselves  to  each  other  to  embark  for 
New  England  with  their  families  for  a  permanent 
residence,  provided  an  arrangement  should  be 
made  for  the  charter  and  the  administration  un- 
der it  to  be  transferred  to  that  country.  Legal 
advice  was  obtained*  in  favor  of  the  authority  to 


106  ORIGIN   OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

make  the  transfer ;  and  on  full  consideration  it 
was  determined,  "by  the  general  consent 
"^  "  of  the  company,  that  the  government  and 
patent  should  be  settled  in  New  England."  The 
old  officers  resigned,  and  their  places  were  filled 
with  persons  of  whom  most  or  all  were  expecting 
to  emigrate.  John  Winthrop  was  chosen  Gov- 
ernor, with  John  Humphrey  for  Deputy  Governor, 
and  eighteen  others  for  Assistants.  Humphrey's 
departure  was  delayed,  and,  on  the  eve  of  embar- 
kation, his  place  was  supplied  by  Thomas  Dudley. 
Winthrop,  then  forty-two  years  old,  was  de- 
scended firom  a  family  of  good  condition,  long 
seated  at  Groton  in  Suffolk,  where  he  had  a  prop- 
erty of  six  or  seven  hundred  pounds  a  year,  the 
equivalent  of  at  least  two  thousand  pounds  at  the 
present  day.  Commanding  uncommon  respect 
and  confidence  from  an  early  age,  he  had  moved 
in  the  circles  where  the  highest  matters  of  English 
policy  were  discussed  by  men  who  had  been  as- 
sociates of  Whitgift,  Bacon,  Essex,  and  Cecil. 
Humphrey  was  "  a  gentleman  of  special  parts, 
of  learning  and  activity,  and  a  godly  man;"  in 
the  home  of  his  father-in-law,  Thomas,  third  Earl 
of  Lincoln,  the  head,  in  that  day,  of  the  now  ducal 
house  of  Newcastle,  he  had  been  the  familiar  com- 
panion of  the  patriotic  nobles.  Of  the  Assistants, 
Isaac  Johnson,  esteemed  the  richest  of  the  emi- 
grants, was  another  son-in-law  of  Lord  Lincoln, 
and  a  landholder  in  three  counties.  Sir  Richard 
Saltonstall,  of  Halifax,  in   the   West   Riding   of 


THE  MASSACHUSETTS  COMPANY.  107 

Yorkshire,  was  rich  enough  to  be  a  bountiful  con- 
tributor to  the  company's  operations.  Thomas 
Dudley,  with  a  company  of  volunteers  which  he 
had  raised,  had  served,  thirty  years  before,  under 
Henry  the  Fourth  of  France,  since  which  time  he 
had  managed  the  estates  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln. 
He  was  old  enough  to  have  lent  a  shrill  voice  to 
the  huzzas  at  the  defeat  of  the  Armada,  and  his 
military  service  had  indoctrinated  him  in  the  lore 
of  civil  and  religious  freedom.  Theophilus  Eaton, 
an  eminent  London  merchant,  was  used  to  courts, 
and  had  been  minister  of  Charles  the  First  in 
Denmark.  Simon  Bradstreet,  the  son  of  a  Non- 
conformist minister  in  Lincolnshire,  and  grandson 
of  "  a  Suffolk  gentleman  of  a  fine  estate,"  had 
studied  at  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge.  Wil- 
liam Vassall  was  an  opulent  West  India  proprie- 
tor. "  The  principal  planters  of  Massachusetts," 
says  the  prejudiced  Chalmers,  "  were  English  coun- 
try gentlemen  of  no  inconsiderable  fortunes  ;  of 
enlarged  understandings,  improved  by  liberal  edu- 
cation ;  of  extensive  ambition,  concealed  under 
the  appearance  of  religious  humility." 

But  it  is  not  alone  from  what  we  know  of  the 
position,  character,  and  objects  of  those  few  mem- 
bers of  the  Massachusetts  Company  who  were 
proposing  to  emigrate  at  this  early  period,  that 
we  are  to  estimate  the  power  and  purposes  of 
that  important  corporation.  It  had  been  rapidly 
brought  into  the  form  which  it  now  bore,  by  the 
political  exigencies  of  the  age.     Its  members  had 


108  ORIGIN  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

no  less  in  hand  than  a  wide  religious  and  political 
reform,  —  whether  to  be  carried  out  in  New  Eng- 
land, or  in  Old  England,  or  in  both,  it  was  for 
circumstances,  as  they  should  unfold  themselves, 
to  determine.  The  leading  emigrants  to  Massa- 
chusetts were  of  that  brotherhood  of  men  who,  by- 
force  of  social  consideration  as  well  as  of  intelli- 
gence and  resolute  patriotism,  moulded  the  public 
opinion  and  action  of  England  in  the  first  half  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  While  the  larger  part 
stayed  at  home  to  found,  as  it  proved,  the  short- 
lived English  republic,  and  to  introduce  elements 
into  the  English  constitution  which  had  to  wait 
another  half-  century  for  their  secure  reception, 
another  part  devoted  themselves  at  once  to  the 
erection  of  free  institutions  in  this  distant  wil- 
derness. 

In  an  important  sense,  the  associates  of  the 
Massachusetts  Company  were  builders  of  the 
British,  as  well  as  of  the  New-England  Common- 
wealth. Some  ten  or  twelve  of  them,  including 
Cradock,  the  Governor,  served  in  the  Long  Par- 
liament. Of  the  four  commoners  of  that  Parlia- 
ment distinguished  by  Lord  Clarendon  as  first 
in  influence.  Vane  had  been  Governor  of  the 
Company,  and  Hampden,  Pym,  and  Fiennes,  (all 
patentees  of  Connecticut,)  if  not  members,  were 
constantly  consulted  upon  its  affairs.  The  latter 
statement  is  also  true  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick, 
the  Parliament's  Admiral,  and  of  those  excellent 
persons,  Lord   Say  and   Sele,  and   Lord   Brooke, 


THE  MASSACHUSETTS  COMPANY.  109 

both  of  whom  at  one  time  proposed  to  emigrate. 
The  company's  meetings  brought  Winthrop  and 
his  colleagues  into  relation  with  numerous  persons 
destined  to  act  busy  parts  in  the  stirring  times  that 
were  approaching ;  —  with  Moreton  and  Hewson, 
afterwards  two  of  the  Parliamentary  Major- Gen- 
erals;  with  Philip  Nye,  who  helped  Sir  Henry 
Yane  to  "  cozen  "  the  Scottish  Presbyterian  Com- 
missioners in  the  phraseology  of  the  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant ;  with  Samuel  Vassau, 
whose  name  shares  with  those  of  Hampden  and 
Lord  Say  and  Sele  the  renown  of  the  refusal  *o 
pay  ship-money,  and  of  courting  the  suit  which 
might  ruin  them  or  emancipate  England  ;  with 
John  Venn,  who,  at  the  head  of  six  thousand  citi- 
zens, beset  the  House  of  Lords  during  the  trial  of 
Lord  Strafford,  and  whom,  with  thirty-one  Lon- 
doners, King  Charles,  after  the  Battle  of  Edgehill, 
excluded  from  the  offer  of  pardon  ;  with  Owen 
Rowe,  the  "firebrand  of  the  city"  ;  with  Thomas 
Andrews,  the  Lord  Mayor  who  proclaimed  the 
abolition  of  royalty.  Sir  John  Young,  named 
second  in  the  original  grant  from  the  Council  for 
New  England,  as  well  as  in  the  charter  from  King 
Charles,  sat  in  Cromwell's  second  and  third  Par- 
liaments. Others  of  the  company,  as  Vane  and 
Adams,  incurred  the  Protector's  displeasure  by  too 
uncomplying  principles.  Six  or  seven  were  mem- 
bers of  the  High  Court  of  Justice  for  the  King's 
trial,  on  which  occasion  they  gave  a  divided  vote. 
Four  were  members  of  the  Committee  of  Religion, 


110  ORIGIN    OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

the  most  important  committee  of  Parliament,  and 
one,  the  counsellor  John  White,  was  its  Chairman. 
He  who  well  weighs  the  facts  which  have  been 
presented  in  connection  with  the  principal  emi- 
gration to  Massachusetts,  and  other  related  facts 
which  will  offer  themselves  to  notice  as  we  pro- 
ceed, may  find  himself  conducted  to  the  conclu- 
sion, that,  when  Winthrop  and  his  associates 
prepared  to  convey  across  the  water  a  charter 
from  the  King,  which,  they  hoped,  would  in  their 
beginnings  afford  them  some  protection  both  from 
himself  and,  through  him,  from  the  powers  of  Con- 
tinental Europe,  they  had  conceived  a  project  no 
less  important  than  that  of  laying,  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic,  the  foundations  of  a  nation  of  Puri- 
tan Englishmen,  foundations  to  be  built  upon  as 
last  and  as  largely  as  circumstances  should  decide 
or  allow.  It  would  not  perhaps  be  pressing  the 
point  too  far  to  say,  that,  in  view  of  the  thick 
clouds  that  were  gathering  over  their  home,  they 
contemplated  the  possibility  that  the  time  was 
near  at  hand  when  all  that  was  best  of  what  they 
left  behind  would  follow  them  to  these  shores ; 
when  a  renovated  England,  secure  in  freedom  and 
pure  in  religion,  would  rise  in  North  America; 
when  a  Transatlantic  English  empire  would  fulfil, 
in  its  beneficent  order,  the  dreams  of  English  pa- 
triots and  sages  of  earlier  times. 

From  the  company's  ship  Arbella,  lying  in  the 

1630.    port  of  Yarmouth,  the  Governor  and  several 

AprU7.  ^£  jjjg  companions  took  leave  of  their  native 


VOYAGE  OF  THE  ARBELLA.         Ill 

country  by  an  address,  which  they  entitled,  "  The 
Hunnble  Request  of  his  Majesty's  Loyal  Subjects, 
the  Governor  and  the  Company  late  gone  for  New 
England,  to  the  rest  of  their  Brethren  in  and  of 
the  Church  of  England."  They  asked  a  favorable 
construction  of  their  enterprise,  and  good  wishes 
and  prayers  for  its  success.  With  a  tenacious 
affection,  which  the  hour  of  parting  made  more 
tender,  they  said  :  "  We  esteem  it  an  honor  to  call 
the  Church  of  England,  from  whence  we  rise,  our 
dear  mother,  and  cannot  part  from  our  native  coun- 
try, where  she  specially  resideth,  without  muca 
sadness   of  heart,   and   many  tears   in   our  eyes. 

Wishing  our   heads   and   hearts    may  be 

as  fountains  of  tears  for  your  everlasting  welfare, 
when  we  shall  be  in  our  poor  cottages  in  the  wil- 
derness, overshadowed  with  the  spirit  of  supplica- 
tion, through  the  manifold  necessities  and  tribula- 
tions which  may  not  altogether  unexpectedly,  nor, 
we  hope,  unprofitably,  befall  us,  and  so  commend- 
ing you  to  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ,  we  shall 
ever  rest  your  assured  friends  and  brethren."  The 
address  is  said  to  have  been  drawn  up  by  Mr. 
White,  of  Dorchester.  The  phrase  "  the  Church 
of  England,"  as  used  in  it,  must  not  be  quoted  as 
having  the  technical  sense  which  it  now  bears. 
The  Church  of  England  meant  the  aggregate  of 
English  Christians,  whether,  in  the  upshot  of  the 
movements  which  were  now  going  on,  their  polity 
should  turn  out  to  be  Episcopal,  or  Presbyterian, 
or  something  different  from  either. 


112  ORIGIN    OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

The  incidents  of  the  voyage  are  minutely  related 

in  a  journal  bearun  by  the  Governor  on  ship- 
March  29.  rr 

board,  off  the  Isle   of   Wight.     Preaching 

and  catechising,  fasting  and  thanksgiving,  were 
duly  observed.  A  record  of  the  writer's  medita- 
tions on  the  great  design  which  occupied  his  mind 
while  he  passed  into  a  new  world  and  a  new  order 
of  human  affairs,  would  have  been  a  document  of 
the  profoundest  interest  for  posterity.  But  the 
diary  contains  nothing  of  that  description.  On  the 
voyage  Winthrop  composed  a  little  treatise,  which 
he  called,  "  A  Model  of  Christian  Charity."  It 
breathes  the  noblest  spirit  of  philanthropy.  The 
reader's  mind  kindles  as  it  enters  into  the  train  of 
thought  in  which  the  author  referred  to  "  the  work 
we  have  in  hand."  "  It  is,"  he  said,  "  by  a  mutual 
consent,  through  a  special  overruling  Providence, 
and  more  than  an  ordinary  approbation  of  the 
churches  of  Christ,  to  seek  out  a  place  of  cohabita- 
tion and  consortship  under  a  due  form  of  govern- 
ment, both  civil  and  ecclesiastical."  The  forms  and 
institutions  under  which  liberty,  civil  and  religious, 
is  consolidated  and  assured,  were  floating  vaguely 
in  the  musings  of  that  hour. 


CHAPTER  VIIL 

OROANIZATION    OF    MASSACHUSETTS. 

The  Arbella  had  a  passage  of  nine  weeks  to 
Salenj,  where,  in  a  few  days,  she  was  joined 
by  three  vessels  which  had  sailed  in  her  com- 
pany. The  Assistants  Ludlow  and  Rossiter,  with 
a  party  from  the  west  country  of  England,  had 
landed  at  Nantasket  a  fortnight  before.  Seven 
vessels  from  Southampton  made  their  voyage  three 
or  four  weeks  later.  Seventeen  in  the  whole  came 
before  winter,  bringing  about  a  thousand  passen- 
gers. Almost  all  of  these  belonged  to  one  or  an- 
other of  the  following  classes :  1.  Such  as  paid 
for  their  passage  and  were  accordingly  entitled  on 
their  arrival  to  a  specific  grant  of  land ;  2.  Such 
as  paid  a  part  of  the  cost  of  their  passage,  and  on 
making  up  the  deficiency  by  their  labor,  were  en- 
titled to  the  same  allowance  of  land  ;  3.  Indented 
servants,  for  whose  conveyance  their  masters  were 
to  have  a  like  remuneration  ;  4.  Such  as  for  the 
exercise  of  some  profession,  art,  or  trade,  were  to 
receive  a  specified  compensation  from  the  com- 
pany. The  expenditures  which  were  soon  in- 
curred show  that  considerable  sums  of  money  were 
brought  over. 

The  reception  of  the  new-comers  was  discourag- 

VOL.   I.  8 


114  ORGANIZATION  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

ing.  More  than  a  quarter  part  of  their  predeces- 
sors at  Salem  had  died  during  the  previous  winter, 
and  many  of  the  survivors  were  ill  or  feeble.  The 
faithful  Higginson  was  vi^asting  with  a  hectic 
fever,  which  soon  proved  fatal.  There  was 
a  scarcity  of  all  sorts  of  provisions,  and  not  corn 
enough  for  a  fortnight's  supply  after  the  arrival  of 
the  fleet.  "  The  remainder  of  a  hundred  and  eighty 
servants,"  who,  in  the  two  preceding  years  had 
been  conveyed  over  at  a  heavy  cost,  were  discharged 
from  their  indentures,  to  escape  the  expense  of  their 
maintenance.  Sickness  soon  began  to  spread,  and, 
before  the  close  of  autumn,  had  carried  off  two 
hundred  of  that  year's  emigration.  Death  aimed 
at  the  "  shining  mark  "  he  is  said  to  love.  Lady 
Arbella  Johnson,  coming  "  from  a  paradise  of 
plenty  and  pleasure,  which  she  enjoyed  in  the  fam- 
ily of  a  noble  earldom,  into  a  wilderness  of  wants," 
survived  her  arrival  only  a  month;  and  her  hus- 
band, singularly  esteemed  and  beloved  by  the  col- 
onists, died  of  grief  a  few  weeks  after.  "  He 
was  a  holy  man,  and  wise ;  and  died  in 
sweet  peace." 

Giving  less  than  a  week  to  repose  and  investi- 
gations at  Salem,  Winthrop  proceeded  with 
June  7.  ^  party  in  quest  of  some  more    attractive 
place  for  settlement.     He  traced  the  River  Mystic 
a  few  miles  up  from  its  mouth,  and,  after  a  three 
days'  exploration,  returned  to  Salem  to  keep  the 
Sabbath.     When  ten  or  eleven  vessels  had 
arrived,  a  day  of  public  thanksgiving  was 


COURTS  OF  ASSISTANTS.  115 

observed,  in  acknowledgment  of  the  divine  good- 
ness which  had  so  far  prospered  the  enterprise. 

The  subject  of  an  ecclesiastical  settlement  claim- 
ed to  be  first  disposed  of.  One  of  the  new-comers 
was  Mr.  John  Wilson,  son  of  a  prebendary  of 
Rochester,  and  grand-nephew  of  Archbishop  Grin- 
dal.  On  a  day  solemnized  with  prayer  and 
fasting,  Mr.  Wilson  entered  into  a  church 
covenant  with  Winthrop,  Dudley,  and  Johnson,  after 
the  manner  of  proceeding  at  Salem  in  the  year 
before.  Two  days  after,  on  a  Sunday,  the  beginners 
associated  with  them  three  of  the  Assistants,  Mr. 
Nowell,  Mr.  Sharpe,  and  Mr.  Bradstreet,  and  two 
other  persons.  Yet  other  additions  were  made  to 
the  church,  which,  so  constituted,  elected  Mr.  Wil- 
son to  be  its  teacher,  and  ordained  him  to  that 
charge  at  Mishawum,  already  called  Charlestown. 
From  the  promptness  of  these  measures,  it  is  nat- 
ural to  infer  that  they  had  been  a  subject  of  con- 
sideration and  concert  before  the  landing. 

Ten  weeks  after  Winthrop's  arrival,  the  first  Cis- 
atlantic  Court  of   Assistants  was   held    at 

Aug.  23. 

Charlestown.  The  question  first  considered 
was  that  of  provision  for  the  ministers.  Sir  Richard 
Saltonstall  undertook  to  have  a  house  built  "  at  his 
plantation  [Watertown]  for  Mr.  Phillips,  and  the 
Governor  at  the  other  plantation  for  Mr.  Wilson ; " 
and  a  stipend  of  thirty  pounds  a  year  was  assigned 
to  each  of  those  gentlemen.  At  Mattapan  (Dor- 
chester) the  "  many  godly  families  and  people " 
who  came  with  Rossiter  and  Ludlow  were  already 


116  ORGANIZATION   OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

establishing  themselves  under  the  ministry  of  Mr. 
Warham  and  Mr.  Maverick. 

Courts  of  Assistants  were  held,  about  as  often 
as  once  in  three  weeks,  through  the  autumn.  The 
business  transacted  at  these  was  multifarious,  and, 
as  was  to  be  expected,  the  proceedings  were  not  all 
equally  wise.  A  futile  attempt,  often  afterwards 
repeated,  was  made  to  regulate  and  define  by  law 
the  prices  of  materials  and  of  labor.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  early  necessities  of  the  infant  colony  were 
judiciously  provided  for,  as  they  successively  arose 
to  view.  A  few  specimens  of  such  action  will 
suffice  to  show  its  general  character.  Permission 
from  a  majority  of  the  board  of  Magistrates  was 
made  a  preliminary  to  the  establishment  of  any 
plantation  within  the  limits  of  the  patent.  Mili- 
tary instructors  were  employed  for  hire.  Justices 
of  the  Peace  and  executive  peace-officers  were  ap- 
pointed. Orders  were  made  against  allowing  the 
Indians  the  use  of  fire-arms,  and  against  parting 
with  corn  to  them,  or  sending  it  out  of  the  jurisdic- 
tion, without  a  license.  Thomas  Gray  "  for  divers 
things  objected  against  him "  was  ordered  "  to 
remove  himself  out  of  the  limits  of  the  patent,"  — 
a  use  of  that  right  of  the  company,  which  was 
so  often  exercised  afterwards,  to  possess  its  soil 
exclusively,  and  keep  it  clear  of  nuisances.  Ser- 
vants, "  either  man  or  maid,"  were  forbidden  to 
"give,  sell,  or  truck  any  commodity  whatsoever, 
without  license  from  their  master,  during  the  time 
of  their  service."     A  bounty  was  offered  for  the  kill- 


SETTLEMENT  OF  BOSTON.  117 

irig  of  wolves,  to  be  paid  by  the  owners  of  domes- 
tic animals,  in  sums  proportioned  to  the  amount  of 
their  stock.  Encouragement  was  given,  by  a  legal 
rate  of  toll,  to  the  setting  up  of  a  ferry  between 
Charlestown  and  the  opposite  peninsula  of  Shaw- 
mut  (Boston).  These  measures,  in  their  circum- 
stantial and  miscellaneous  character,  and  in  their 
mixture  of  legislative,  judicial,  and  executive  func- 
tions, exemplify  the  general  course  of  proceedings 
of  the  board  of  Magistrates  during  the  four  years 
through  which  they  continued  to  be  the  only  gov- 
erning body. 

A  severe  epidemic  sickness  broke  out  at  Charles- 
town.  "Almost  in  every  family,  lamentation,  mourn- 
ing, and  woe  was  heard,  and  no  fresh  food  to  be 
had  to  cherish  them.  It  would  assuredly  have 
moved  the  most  locked-up  affections  to  tears,  had 
they  passed  from  one  hut  to  another  and  beheld 
the  hideous  case  these  people  were  in.  And  that 
which  added  to  their  present  distress  was  the  want 
of  fresh  water."  Ascertaining  that  there  was  an 
ample  supply  of  good  water  close  by,  at  Shawmut, 
a  portion  of  the  people  removed  to  that  peninsula. 
It  is  said  that  they  were  invited  by  William  Blax- 
ton,  who  had  a  solitary  dwelling  there,  he  having 
probably  come  to  Boston  Bay  with  Robert  Gorges 
four  years  before. 

At  Shawmut  was  now  held,  for  the  first  time 
on  this   continent,   one  of  those  quarterly 
General  Courts  of  the  Company  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  which  were  prescribed  in  the  cb£urtec 


118  ORGANIZATION  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

At  this  Court  a  hundred  and  eighteen  persons, 
among  whom  were  several  of  the  earlier  planters, 
gave  notice  of  their  desire  to  be  admitted  to  the 
freedom  of  the  Company.  Perhaps  it  was  in  ap- 
prehension of  the  consequences  of  such  an  irrup- 
tion of  strangers,  that  a  rule  was  adopted,  materially 
differing  from  that  of  the  charter,  for  the  choice  of 
the  highest  magistrates,  the  enacting  of  laws,  and 
the  appointment  of  ministerial  officers.  By  an 
arrangement  which  soon  proved  to  be  out  of  har- 
mony with  the  spirit  of  the  time  and  the  place, 
the  Company  delegated  important  attributes  of 
their  power  to  the  Assistants.  It  ordained  that 
the  Governor  and  Deputy  -  Governor,  instead  of 
being  chosen  by  the  whole  corporation,  should  be 
elected  by  the  Assistants  from  their  own  num- 
ber ;  and  that  the  board  of  Magistrates,  consisting 
of  Governor,  Deputy  -  Governor,  and  Assistants, 
"  should  have  the  power  of  making  laws,  and 
choosing  officers  to  execute  the  same."  The  free- 
men were  divested  of  all  power  excepting  that  of 
choosing  Assistants  from  year  to  year. 

The  plantations  through  which  the  Massachu- 
setts settlers  were  scattered  were  now  eight  in 
number;  namely,  Salem,  Charlestown,  Dorchester, 
Boston,  Watertown,  E-oxbury  (where  Mr.  Pynchon, 
one  of  the  Assistants,  had  sat  down  with  a  party), 
Mystic  (assigned  to  Mr.  Cradock,  and  occupied 
for  him  by  some  servants),  and  Saugus  (Lynn),  to 
which  place  some  emigrants  of  the  last  year  had 
probably  strayed  from  Salem.     Before  winter,  the 


SICKNESS   AND  FAMINE.  119 

Governor  and  several  of  the  principal  persons  had 
erected  and  occupied  some  rude  temporary  habita- 
tions on  the  peninsula  of  Boston.     A  fortification 
was  projected,  and  the  narrow  isthmus  which  con- 
nects Boston   with    Roxbury  was  fixed    on 
for  its  site ;  but  before  anything  was  done 
further  than  to  collect  some    materials,  the   spot 
which    is   now    Old    Cambridge    was    pre- 
ferred, and  the  Governor  and  all  but  two 
of  the  Assistants  engaged  together  to  build  houses 
there  in  the  following  year. 

With  the  wretched  shelter  which  was  all  that 
most  of  the  recent  emigrants  had  been  able  to 
provide,  the  winter,  from  the  last  week  in  Decem- 
ber, when  the  cold  set  in,  to  the  middle  of  Feb- 
ruary, proved  grievously  severe.  Many  died  of 
the  scurvy,  which  disease,  Winthrop  thought,  espe- 
cially affected  "  such  as  fell  into  discontent,  and 
hankered  after  their  former  conditions  in  England." 
Suffering  from  want  of  food  was  added  to  the 
distresses  of  the  time.  Shell-fish  had  to  serve  for 
meat,  ground-nuts  and  acorns  for  bread.  It  was  a 
welcome  relief  when  a  vessel  sent  to  the  southern 
side  of  Cape  Cod  procured  a  hundred  bushels  of 
corn.  The  scarcity  of  bread-stuffs  in  England  was 
such,  that,  for  every  bushel  of  imported  flour,  when 
it  was  to  be  had,  the  colonists  paid  fourteen  shil- 
lings sterling.  A  fast  had  been  appointed  jggi 
to  be  kept  throughout  the  settlements,  to  ^*''-^- 
implore  Divine  succor.  The  day  before  that  which 
was  to  be  thus  solemnized,  a  vessel  arrived  from 


120  ORGANIZATION  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

England  with  supplies,  and  a  public  thanksgiving 
was  substituted. 

At  the  opening  of  spring,  several  of  the  emi- 
grants went  to  England  :  some,  as  the  minister 
Wilson  and  the  Assistant  Coddington,  to  bring 
their  families  ;  others,  discouraged  or  for  other  rea- 
sons, not  designing  to  return.  A  number  of  the 
congregation  assembled  at  the  Governor's  house 
to  bid  their  Teacher  farewell.  There  was  a  magis- 
tracy on  the  spot,  and  the  civil  order  could  proceed; 
but,  in  the  Teacher's  absence,  some  provisional  ar- 
rangement was  necessary  for  the  well  being  of  the 
church.  Mr.  Wilson,  "  praying,  and  exhorting  the 
congregation  to  love,"  committed  to  Winthrop, 
Dudley,  and  Nowell,  the  ruling  elder,  the  trust  of 
conducting  public  worship ;  and,  at  his  request, 
the  Governor  commended  him  and  his  fellow-voy- 
agers to  the  Divine  protection  with  prayer. 

The  time  prescribed  in  the  charter  of  the  Com- 
pany for  the  annual  election  of  its  high  officers 
soon  arrived.  Winthrop  was  reelected  Gov- 
ernor "  by  the  general  consent  of  the  Court, 
within  the  meaning  of  the  patent,"  Dudley  being 
again  associated  with  him  in  the  second  office, 
and  those  Assistants  of  the  last  year  who  remained 
in  the  colony  being  also  continued  in  their  place. 
A  hundred  and  eighteen  persons  at  the  same  time 
took  the  freeman's  oath,  and  were  admitted  to  the 
franchise  of  the  Company.  By  this  act,  residents 
of  the  territory  on  Massachusetts  Bay  became  a 
majority  of  the  English  corporation. 


RELIGIOUS  TEST  FOR  FREEMEN.  121 

This  first  Cisatlantic  General  Court  for  election 
witnessed  a  proceeding  which  deeply  colored  the 
whole  subsequent  character  and  history  of  the 
colony.  The  charter  of  the  Company  had  pre- 
scribed no  condition  of  investment  with  its  fran- 
chise—  or  with  what  in  the  circumstances  which 
had  arisen  was  the  same  thing,  the  prerogatives 
of  citizenship  in  the  plantation — except  the  will 
and  vote  of  those  who  were  already  freemen. 
The  freemen  now  prescribed  for  themselves  and 
their  successors  a  rule  to  limit  and  control  their 
choice.  They  determined  that  citizenship  should 
belong  only  to  Christian  men,  ascertained  to  be 
such  by  the  best  test  which  they  who  had  the  power 
of  choice  knew  how  to  apply.  "  To  the  end  the 
body  of  the  commons  might  be  preserved  of  honest 
and  good  men,"  they  "ordered  and  agreed, that, for 
the  time  to  come,  no  man  should  be  admitted  to 
the  freedom  of  this  body  politic  but  such  as  were 
members  of  some  of  the  churches  within  the  limits 
of  the  same."  Thus  they  established  an  aristoc- 
racy of  a  description  heretofore  unknown.  Not 
birth,  nor  wealth,  nor  learning,  nor  martial  skill 
and  prowess,  was  to  confer  political  power  among 
this  peculiar  people  ;  but  goodness,  —  goodness  of 
the  highest  type,  —  goodness  of  that  purity  and 
force  which  only  the  spirit  of  the  Master  of  Chris- 
tians can  create.  The  conception,  if  a  delusive 
and  impracticable,  was  a  noble  one.  Nothing  bet- 
ter can  be  imagined  for  the  administration  of  a 
government  than  that  they  who  conduct  it  shall 


122  ORGANIZATION  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

be  Christian  men,  —  men  of  disinterestedness  and 
uprightness  of  the  choicest  quality, —  men  whose 
fear  of  God  exalts  them  above  every  other  fear, 
and  whose  controlling  love  of  God  and  man  con- 
secrates them  to  the  most  generous  aims. 

Regarded  in  another  point  of  view,  the  plan  was 
at  once  less  novel  and  more  feasible.  When  the 
fathers  of  Massachusetts  established  their  religious 
test  of  citizenship,  it  was  matter  of  fearful  uncer- 
tainty what  the  faith  and  ritual  of  the  Church  of 
England  would  turn  out  to  be.  It  was  too  pain- 
fully certain  what  had  been  the  Church's  treatment 
of  themselves,  and  how  hardly,  without  any  further 
backsliding  of  its  own,  it  was  prepared  to  treat 
them  again,  should  it  come  into  power  on  their 
own  soil.  They  were  in  error  in  supposing,  that, 
by  the  application  of  a  religious  test,  they  might 
exclude  all  but  good  men  from  their  councils. 
They  were  not  so  far  from  the  truth  when  they 
expected,  by  the  application  of  such  a  test,  to  shut 
out  from  their  counsels  the  emissaries  of  Went- 
worth  and  Laud ;  and,  in  their  early  weakness, 
nothing  was  more  indispensable  than  this  for  their 
protection. 

The  circumstances  of  the  time  at  which  this  con- 
dition of  franchise  was  imposed,  were  probably 
thought  to  call  for  a  prompt  decision.  Till  then 
there  had  been  no  freemen  of  the  Company  except 
those  who  had  become  such  in  England,  and  might 
be  supposed  to  be  solicitous  for  the  generous  objects 
of  its  institution.    When,  at  the  first  meeting  ip 


PERMANENCY   OF  OFFICE.  123 

America,  more  than  a  hundred  persons  presented 
themselves  as  candidates  for  admission,  it  could 
not  fail  to  become  a  subject  of  grave  anxiety  to 
those  as  yet  in  possession  of  the  power,  what  would 
be  the  character  and  purposes  of  associates  who, 
once  received  into  the  corporation,  would  be  able 
to  control  its  action,  and  to  carry  out  or  defeat  the 
designs  of  its  projectors. 

Down  to  this  time,  and  a  little  longer,  while  the 
freemen  may  be  supposed  to  have  been  without 
much  acquaintance  with  each  other,  or  with  their 
rights  and  privileges  under  the  charter,  the  Magis- 
trates appear  to  have  been  consolidating  power  in 
their  own  hands.  As  at  the  first  General  Court 
it  had  been  determined  to  transfer  the  power  of 
choosing  the  Governor  and  Deputy-Governor  from 
the  freemen  to  the  Assistants,  so  at  the  second 
Court  a  rule  was  established  for  proceeding  in  the 
choice  of  Assistants,  which,  in  place  of  the  irre- 
sponsible freedom  of  that  annual  election  de  novo 
which  was  contemplated  by  the  charter,  substi- 
tuted the  invidious  and  difficult  process  of  a  vote 
for  the  confirmation  or  removal  of  those  Assist- 
ants who  were  already  in  office.  Thus  a  prece- 
dent was  created  for  a  permanent  tenure  of  the 
Magistracy. 

The  plan  of  establishing  the  capital  at  Newtown 
(Cambridge)  was  relinquished.  The  site  had  been 
laid  out,  with  lines  for  a  fortification,  and  streets 
enclosing  rectangular  spaces ;  the  Deputy- Governor 
had  occupied  a  newly  buih  house,  and  the  Gov- 


124  ORGANIZATION  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

ernor  had  set  up  the  frame  of  one ;  when  the  peace- 
able aspect  of  relations  with  the  natives  seemed  to 
render  a  concentration  of  the  colony  less  impor- 
tant, the  superior  advantages  of  the  neighboring 
peninsula  for  residence  and  commerce  had  been 
perceived,  and  Winthrop  resolved  to  yield  to  the 
importunity  of  his  neighbors,  who  urged  him  to 
remain  in  Boston.  At  this  Dudley  was  so  strongly 
displeased,  that  the  Governor  was  not  immedi- 
ately able  to  pacify  him  by  the  most  friendly  over- 

1632.    tures.     His  disgust  became  so  serious,  that, 

'^  ^  ■  as  his  second  year  of  office  was  drawing  to 
an  end,  he  sent  to  the  Assistants  a  letter  of  resig- 
nation.    At  a  private  meeting  they  refused 
to  accept  it;  but  he  persisted  in  his  purpose 
for  the  present.     At  length,  by  the  good  offices  of 
Mr.  Wilson  and  others,  a  reconciliation  was 
effected  ;  and  the  good  men  "  ever  after  kept 
peace  and  good  correspondency  together,  in  love 
and  friendship,"  their  alliance  being  subsequently 
cemented  by  an  intermarriage  of  their  children. 

Already  an  ecclesiastical  question  threatened 
discord,  bringing  into  view  one  of  the  important 
relations  of  the  lately  instituted  condition  of  the 

jggj  franchise.  It  was  reported  that  Phillips 
July  31.  gjjj  Brown,  the  Pastor  and  the  elder  of 
Watertown,  had  spoken  of  "  the  churches  of 
Rome  "  as  "  true  churches."  Winthrop,  Dudley, 
and  Nowell,  ruling  elder  of  Boston,  visited  the 
place  to  make  inquiry.  The  doctrine  was  debated 
before  a  number  of  members  of  the  congregations 


DISAFFECTION   AT   WATERTOWN.  125 

of  Boston  and  "Watertown,  and,  against  only  three 
opposing  votes,  was  determined  to  be  an  error. 
But  Brown  was  pertinacious  in  his  heretical  laxity, 
and  the  matter  was  only  put  to  rest  after  a  sec- 
ond visit  of  the  same  dignitaries.  It  can  scarcely 
be  doubted  that  the  importance  attached  to  this 
incident  belonged  to  the  political  considerations 
which  were  understood  to  be  involved.  If  church- 
members,  rulers  as  they  were  to  be  in  Massachu- 
setts, should  esteem  the  Church  of  Rome  a  true 
church,  where  would  be  the  safety  of  Massachusetts 
should  England  become  Popish  ?  Thus  out  of 
political  forecast  a  union  of  Church  and  State  in 
Massachusetts  was  already  dawning. 

Watertown   raised  another   question   with   the 
central  government.      When  Newtown  ceased  to 
be  thought  of  as  the  capital  town,  the  plan  of 
fortifying  it  had  not  been  abandoned ;  and  to  de- 
fray the  expense,  a  tax  of  fifty  pounds  was  levied 
by  the  Magistrates  on  twelve  plantations.     On  the 
reception  at  Watertown  of  the  warrant  for  collect- 
ing the  proportion  of  this  tax  due  from  that    ^^g^. 
town,  "the  pastor  and  elder,  etc.,  assembled  ^*'*-^- 
the  people,  and  delivered  their  opinion  that  it  was 
not  safe  to  pay  moneys  after  that  sort,  for  fear  of 
bringing  themselves  and  posterity  into  bondage." 
It  was  the   English  jealousy  of  illegal   taxation. 
The   malcontents,   summoned   to    Boston, 
were  reminded  by  Winthrop  that  "  this  gov- 
ernment was  in  the  nature  of  a  Parliament,  and 
that  no  Assistant  could  be  chosen  but  by  the  free- 


126  ORGANIZATION   OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

men,  who  had  power  likewise  to  remove  the  Assist- 
ants, and  put  in  others;"  whereupon  they  were 
"  fully  satisfied " ;  and  "  their  ofience  was  par- 
doned, a  recantation  and  submission  under  their 
hands  "  having  been  first  made,  which  they  "  were 
enjoined  to  read  in  the  assembly  the  next  Lord's 
Day." 

At  the  next  General  Court,  the  hasty  step  which 

had  been  taken  of  investing  the  Assistants  with 

the   power  of  choosinsr  the   Governor  and 

May  9. 

Deputy-Governor  w^as  retraced,  and  the 
freemen  resumed  into  their  own  hands  the  election 
of  those  Magistrates, —  a  right,  however,  which 
they  exercised  by  continuing  Winthrop  and  Dudley 
in  place.  At  the  same  time  they  took  the  further 
important  step  of  ordering  the  choice  of  "two  of 
every  plantation  to  confer  with  the  Court  about 
raising  a  public  stock,"  —  a  measure  which  proved 
to  be  the  germ  of  a  second  house  of  legislature. 
The  charter,  so  far  from  giving  power  to  the  Assist- 
ants to  lay  taxes  on  all  persons  living  on  the  Com- 
pany's lands,  did  not  even  authorize  them  to  assess 
the  freemen.  The  recent  opposition  at  Watertown 
to  an  impost  had  been  lawful  and  reasonable,  and, 
however  apparently  checked,  may  be  presumed  to 
have  been  neither  subdued  in  that  place,  nor  con- 
fined to  it.  The  names  of  the  sixteen  deputies 
who  were  chosen  from  eight  towns  "  to  advise 
about  the  raising  of  a  common  stock,"  indicate 
the  elementary  existence  of  a  party  of  opposition 
to  the  Magistrates.     Watertown,  for  instance,  waa 


FURTHER  EMIGRATION.  127 

represented  by  the  factious  John  Oldham,  and  by 
Masters,  who  had  been  active  in  the  late  move- 
ment in  Mr.  Phillips's  church ;  and  Conant  and 
Palfrey,  of  the  set  of  "  old  planters,"  over  whom 
the  charter  officers  had  assumed  control,  appeared 
for  Salem. 

A  fortification  was  erected  in  Boston,  men  of 
the  neighboring  towns  laboring  on  it  in  succession. 
Several  vessels  arrived  with  passengers  and 
stock,  the  emigration,  though    not  yet  re-      *^' 
newed  with  activity,  being  more  considerable  than 
in  the  year  before.      A  day  of  thanksgiving  was 
kept  for  their  safe  passage,  and  for  the  intel- 
ligence which  they  brought  of  the  prosper- 
ity of  the  Protestant  interest  in  the  successes  of 
Gustavus   Adolphus   against  the  Emperor.  ^^^  ^ 
Wilson  returned  to  his  parochial  charge  in 
Boston.     John  Eliot,  destined  to  win  the  name  of 
Apostle^  had  arrived  there  in  the  preceding  autumn, 
since  which  time  he  had  supplied  Wilson's  place. 
After  an  earnest  struggle  on  the  part  of  the  Bos- 
ton people  to  retain  him  as  Wilson's  colleague,  a 
church  was  organized  in  Roxbury  under  his  min- 
istry and  that  of  Thomas  Welde,  who  had  come 
about  the  same  time  as  Wilson ;  and  the  Deputy- 
Governor  abandoned  his  transient  home  at  Neu'- 
town  to  place  himself  under  their  spiritual  charge. 
A  company  from  Braintree  in  England  sat  down 
at  Mount  Wollaston,  but,  before  long,  in  conform- 
ity to  an   order   of  the   Magistrates,  removed   to 
Newtown. 


12S  ORGANIZATION  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

A  transaction  of  material  interest  to  the  colony 
took  place  a  few  months  after  Wilson's  return. 
His  church,  originally  formed  at  Charlestown,  had 
soon  transferred  itself  for  worship  to  the  opposite 
peninsula,  where  the  greater  part  of  its  members 
gradually  took  up  their  residence.  The  portion 
left  behind,  thirty-three  in  number,  finding  the  pas- 
sage of  the  river  inconvenient  in  bad  weather,  and 
having  opportunity  to  secure  the  services  of  a  min- 
ister of  their  own,  determined  to  organize  a  sep- 
arate congregation.  Mr.  James,  recently  arrived 
from  England,  was  placed  in  charge  of  it ;  while 
Mr.  Wilson,  who  had  hitherto  been  Teacher  of 
the  original  church,  was  now  chosen  to  be  its  Pas- 
tor, and  a  meeting-house  was  built  for  him  at  what 
was  thought  a  liberal  expense.  Still  following  the 
example  of  the  primitive  church  at  Salem,  the  Pas- 
tor, and  Oliver,  his  ruling  elder,  assisted  by  two 
deacons,  offered  prayers  for  each  other  mutually, 
with  imposition  of  hands. 

Boston  was  taking  the  character  of  the  capital 
town.  It  was  "  thought  by  general  consent "  to 
be  "  the  fittest  place  for  public  meetings  of  any 
place  in  the  Bay."  The  claim  of  Blaxton,  the 
earlier  occupant,  was  quieted  by  "  fifty  acres  of 
ground  set  out  for  him  near  to  his  house  in  Bos- 
ton, to  enjoy  forever."  It  was  "  ordered  that  there 
should  be  a  market  kept  at  Boston,  upon  every 
Thursday."  The  Magistrates  directed  the  build- 
ing of  a  house  of  correction  there  for  the  colony 
to  use,  and  of  a  dwelling-house  for  a  beadle.     At 


EARLY  RELATIONS   WITH   THE  NATIVES.         129 

that  time  Boston  showed  only  a  few  cabins,  on  the 
eastern  declivity  and  at  the  foot  of  a  hill  which 
fronted  towards  the  sea.  At  high  water  its  prim- 
itive area,  of  about  two  square  miles,  looked  like 
two  islands.  A  drawbridge  was  soon  thrown 
across  the  narrow  channel  which  separated  them, 
and  nature  had  provided  for  their  connection  with 
the  mainland  by  a  narrow  isthmus,  a  mile  in 
length.  The  uneven  surface  was  divided  among 
three  hills,  since  called  Beacon  Hill,  Fort  Hill,  and 
Copp's  Hill,  with  their  intervening  valleys. 

The  colonists  had  few  natives  in  their  vicinity, 
and  they  had  little  opportunity  to  acquaint  them- 
selves with  the  more  formidable  tribes  of  the  inte- 
rior.     In  the  first  spring  after  Winthrop's  arrival, 
Chickatabot,  said  to  have  been  then  chief  sachem 
of  the  Massachusetts,  visited  him  with  an 
attendance  of  his  principal  men  and  their  5iaiih23. 
wives,  bringing  from  his  home  on  Neponset  River 
the  present  of  a  hogshead  of  Indian  corn.     Pleased 
with  his  hospitable  reception,  he  repeated  his^     j^^j. 
visit  in  a  few  weeks,  and  a  communication 
of  good  offices  was  established.     The  Massachu- 
setts Indians  were  interested  to  make  the  English 
their  protectors  against  the  Tarratines,  of  whose 
hostility  they  were  in  constant  dread.      A  move- 
ment of  the  Tarratines  in  fact  occasioned  a  mo- 
mentary uneasiness  to  the  colonists.     A  hundred 
warriors  of  that  tribe  came  up  the  Merri- 
mack in  canoes  by  night,  and,  killing  sev- 
eral of  the  friendly  natives,  stole  down  as  far  as 


130  ORGANIZATION  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

Saugus,  whence  they  retraced  their  steps,  terrified 
by  a  discharge  of  the  English  alarm-guns.  This 
was  the  first  disturbance  from  the  natives  in  the 
new  colony. 

A  visit   from   another   native    about   the    time 
of  that  of  Chickatabot  had  ultimately  more  im- 
portant consequences.      An  Indian  from  Connecti- 
.  ,    cut  River  came  to  the  Governor  with  a  re- 

Apnl  4. 

quest  "  to  have  some  Englishmen  to  come 
plant  in  his  country,  and  offered  to  find  them 
corn,  and  give  them  yearly  eighty  skins  of  beaver  ; 
and  that  the  country  was  very  fruitful,  &c.,  and 
wished  that  there  might  be  two  men  sent  with 
him  to  see  the  country."  The  object  appeared  to 
be  to  obtain  an  alliance  with  the  English  against 
the  Pequots.  "  The  Governor  entertained  him  at 
dinner,  but  would  send  none  with  him."  A  party 
jgg2  of  Narragansett  Indians  having  pursued 
April  12.  some  Pokanoket  allies  of  Plymouth  to 
an  English  outpost,  Winthrop  sent  twenty-seven 
pounds  of  powder  to  Standish,  who  had  been  de- 
spatched to  their  relief ;  upon  which  the  Narragan- 
setts  withdrew.    Four  months  later,  a  Narragansett 

chief,  named   Miantonomo,  destined  to  act, 

Aug.  3-5.  ,  .  .  .  ,  . 

at  a  later  time,  a  conspicuous  part  in  this 
history,  came  with  his  wife  and  several  attendants 
1o  Boston,  where  he  was  courteously  entertained 
by  the  Governor.  Nothing  took  place  to  indicate 
the  design  of  his  visit ;  but  soon  after  some  symp- 
toms of  prevailing  disaffection  on  the  part  of  the 
natives  were  observed.     The  Narragansetts  were 


EARLY  RELATIONS   WITH   THE  NATIVES.        131 

known  to  have  held  meetings,  which,  as  they  gave 
out,  related  to  an  expedition  against  the  Nipnets. 
A  friendly  powwow  sent  information  that  a  plot 
was  on  foot ;  and,  as  a  measme  of  precaution, 
a  camp  was  formed  at  Boston.  The  small-pox, 
which  spread  among  the  Indians  about  this  time, 
was  thought  by  some  to  have  been  the  main  pro- 
tection of  the  feeble  colony.  Possibly  it  may  have 
been  for  a  consultation  on  Indian  affairs  that  Win- 
throp,  accompanied  by  his  Pastor,  Mr.  Wilson,  now 
made  a  visit  to  Plymouth.  The  journey,  performed 
on  foot,  took  two  days  each  way. 

The  Indians  had  had  no  provocation  to  unfriend- 
liness. Not  a  foot  of  land  previously  in  their  oc- 
cupation had  been  appropriated  by  the  colonists, 
except  by  purchase.  The  region  around  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  almost  depopulated  by  the  epidem- 
ics which  had  prevailed  before  the  arrival  of  the 
English,  was  for  the  most  part  vacant  for  their 
possession,  without  interference  with  the  rights  of 
any  earlier  inhabitant.  The  English  Company, 
in  its  instructions  to  the  settlers,  had  been  scru- 
pulously tender  of  the  claims,  and  thoughtful  for 
the  welfare,  of  the  aborigines  of  the  soil.  And 
through  the  whole  period  of  the  colonial  history, 
the  legislation  respecting  the  natives  was  eminently 
just  and  humane. 

The  last  harvest  raised  by  the  English  in  and 
about  Boston  had  been  scanty,  by  reason  of  cold 
and  wet  weather  through  the  summer.  The  sup- 
plies brought  from  England  were  inadequate  ;  and, 


132  ORGANIZATION  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

the  winter  which  succeeded  proving  a  severe  one, 
the  settlers  suffered  scarcely  less  than  in  that  which 
immediately  followed  their  arrival. 

The  hardship  would  have  been  greater,  had  there 
been  a  larger  number  of  recently  arrived  emigrants 
to  provide  for.  But  in  the  year  after  the  great 
emigration  not  quite  a  hundred  came,  and  in 
the  following  year  only  about  two  hundred  and 
fifty.  Persons  in  England  who  were  meditating 
a  removal  were  naturally  willing  further  to  watch 
the  experiment  that  was  in  progress ;  and  what 
they  had  learned  respecting  it  had  not  been  highly 
encouraging.  The  accounts  which  had  been  re- 
ceived of  sickness  and  famine,  and  the  return  of 
some  whose  resolution  had  not  held  out,  had 
tended  to  give  a  check  to  the  enterprise.  More- 
over, representations  injurious  to  the  colony  had 
been  made  by  the  Brownes,  Morton,  and  others, 
who  had  fallen  under  its  censure.  These,  backed 
by  the  great  interest  of  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges, 
and  of  John  Mason,  who  was  concerned  with  him 
in  the  eastern  grants,  had  not  been  without  effect 
upon  the  minds  of  men  in  power.  The  malcon- 
tents had  actually  prevailed  to  have  their  com- 
plaints entertained  by  the  Privy  Council,  and  well- 
founded  apprehensions  of  annoyance  from  the 
home  government  were  felt  by  the  friends  of  the 
colony. 

This  storm,  however,  blew  over  for  the  time. 
Cradock,  Humphrey,  and  Saltonstall  appeared  in 
the  Company's  behalf  before  a  committee  of  the 


FAVOR  OF  THE  HOME  GOVERNMENT.     133 

Council,  and  had  the  address  or  the  good  fortune 
to  vindicate  their  clients.  The  complaint  ^^^ 
was  dismissed ;  and  the  Council  went  so  •^*'^-  ^^• 
far  as  to  pronounce  *•  that  the  adventurers  had 
cause  to  go  on  cheerfully  with  their  undertakings, 
and  to  rest  assured,  if  things  were  carried  as  was 
pretended  when  the  patents  were  granted,  and  ac- 
cordingly as  by  the  patents  it  was  appointed,  his 
Majesty  would  not  only  maintain  the  liberties  and 
privileges  heretofore  granted,  but  supply  anything 
further  that  might  tend  to  the  good  government 
of  the  place,  and  prosperity  and  comfort  of  his 
people  there." 

At  the  annual  election  in  the  following  spring, 
for  a  fourth  time  Winthrop  was  made  Gov- 
ernor, and  Dudley  Deputy- Govern  or  ;    and     *^ 
the  eight  Assistants  of  the  last  year  were  rechosen, 
with  the  addition  of  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  who 
was  expected  soon  to  return  from  England. 


CHAPTER  IX 

MASSACHUSETTS    AND    PLYMOUTH. 

The  death  of  Abbot,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
made  way  for  the  accession  of  the  furious  Laud 
to  the  primacy.  This  event  was  nearly  contem- 
poraneous with  a  renewal  of  emigration  to  New 
England,  which  it  is  not  unlikely  to  have  prompted. 
The  number  of  Englishmen  that  came  in 
this  year  to  settle  in  Massachusetts  was 
about  seven  hundred.  In  one  of  the  companies 
came  John  Haynes,  an  opulent  landholder 

^  ■  *  of  the  County  of  Essex,  and  three  famous 
divines,  Thomas  Hooker,  Samuel  Stone,  and  John 
Cotton.  These  were  men  of  eminent  capacity 
and  sterling  character,  fit  to  be  concerned  in  the 
building  of  a  State. 

Hooker  and  Stone  went  to  Newtown,  and  were 
chosen,  the  former  to  be  Pastor,  the  latter  to  be 
Teacher,  of  a  church  established  there.  Cotton, 
much  coveted  by  other  plantations,  became  asso- 
ciated with  Wilson  as  Teacher  of  the  Boston 
church.  The  new  ministers  were  severally  in- 
ducted to  their  offices  with  solemnities  similar  to 
those  first  used  at  Salem. 

Cotton,  the  son  of  a  barrister  in  easy  circum- 
stances, had  been  educated  at  Trinity  College,  and 


JOHN  COTTON.  135 

had  afterwards  been  a  Fellow  and  Tutor  of  Eni- 
tnanuel  College,  in  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
at  which  he  acquired  a  distinguished  reputation  for 
ability  and  learning.  For  nearly  twenty  years  be- 
fore Winthrop's  emigration  to  America,  Cotton  had 
been  rector  of  St.  Botolph's  Church,  at  Boston,  in 
Lincolnshire,  where  his  professional  labors  were 
of  astonishing  amount,  and  the  sanctity  and  min- 
gled force  and  amiableness  of  his  character  won 
for  him  a  vast  influence.  At  the  departure  of 
Winthrop's  company,  he  made  a  journey  to  take 
leave  of  them  at  Southampton.  The  Lord  Keeper, 
Williams,  his  diocesan,  was  his  personal  friend, 
and  desired  to  deal  gently  with  him  for  non-con- 
forming practices  with  which  he  was  truly  charged. 
But  the  stern  vigilance  of  the  new  Archbishop  was 
not  to  be  eluded.  The  dogs  of  the  High  Commis- 
sion Court  were  set  upon  Cotton,  and  with  diffi- 
culty he  escaped  to  London,  where  for  a  time  he 
was  concealed  by  John  Davenport,  then  vicar  of 
St.  Stephen's,  and  by  other  friends.  His  design 
to  get  out  of  the  kingdom  was  known  or  suspected, 
and  pursuivants  were  sent  to  arrest  him  and  Hooker 
at  the  Isle  of  Wight,  where  it  was  supposed  they 
would  embark.  But  they  went  on  board  in  the 
Downs,  and,  avoiding  discovery,  arrived  at  their 
destination. 

The  example  of  men  of  such  note  as  had  re- 
cently come  over,  and  the  desire  of  being  asso- 
ciated with  them,  had  a  favorable  effect  on  further 
emigration.      The  renewal  of  the  movement  at- 


136  MASSACHUSETTS. 

tracted  the  attention  of  the  English  court,  and 
secured  a  more  favorable  hearing  for  the  represen- 
tations of  disaffected  persons,  if  indeed  we  are  not 
rather  to  suppose  that  the  injurious  representations 
were  invited  and  rewarded  by  the  government  at 
home.  The  spirit  of  the  court  had  now  reached 
its  height  of  arrogance  and  passion.  It  was  at 
this  time  that  ship-money  was  first  levied,  and  the 
Star  Chamber  was  rioting  in  the  barbarities  which 
were  soon  to  bring  an  awful  retribution.  The 
precedent  by  which,  in  disregard  of  the  chartered 
privileges  of  the  Virginia  Company,  the  govern- 
ment of  Virginia  had  been  taken  into  the  king's 
hands,  was  urged  in  relation  to  the  Massachusetts 
Company.  An  order  in  Council  was  obtained,  re- 
1534  •  citing  that  "the  Board  is  given  to  under- 

Feb.  21.  g^g^jj^j  Qf  Hig  frequent  transportation  of  great 
numbers  of  his  Majesty's  subjects  out  of  this  king- 
dom to  the  plantation  called  New  England,  amongst 
whom  divers  persons  known  to  be  ill-affected,  dis- 
contented not  only  with  civil  but  ecclesiastical 
government  here,  are  observed  to  resort  thither, 
M^hereby  such  confusion  and  distraction  is  already 

grown  there,  especially  in  point  of  religion,  as, 
beside  the  ruin  of  the  said  plantation,  cannot  but 
highly  tend  to  the  scandal  both  of  Church  and 
State  here."  Thereupon  it  commanded  the  deten- 
tion of  "  divers  ships  now  in  the  river  of  Thames, 
ready   to   sail  thither,   freighted  with    passengers 

and  provisions  in  each  ship,"  and  the  production 

before  the  board,  by  Mr.  Cradock,  of  the  charter 


DEPUTIES   FROM  THE  TOWNS.  137 

of  the  Massachusetts  Company.  Cradock's  reply, 
that  the  charter  had  gone  to  America,  perhaps  first 
apprised  the  government  of  that  important  fact. 

Intelligence  of  the  threatening  state  of  affairs 
in  England  had  not  reached  the  colony,  when  a 
transaction  took  place  of  the  utmost  importance  in 
relation  to  its  internal  order.  It  now  contained 
three  or  four  thousand  inhabitants,  distributed  in 
sixteen  towns.  The  settlements  had  so  extended, 
that  the  most  distant,  Ipswich,  was  thirty  miles 
from  the  capital,  and  it  was  not  convenient  or  safe 
for  the  freemen  all  to  travel  to  Boston  at  the  same 
time.  Everything  tended  to  a  change  in  the  or- 
ganization of  the  government ;  and  the  considera- 
tions which  manifested  its  necessity  at  the  same 
time  dictated  its  form.  The  freemen,  by  some  pre- 
vious concert,  the  method  of  which  is  not  recorded, 
determined  to  do  by  representation  a  part  of  the 
office  which  belonged  to  them  in  the  management 
of  the  corporate  business  ;  and,  at  the  fifth  Gen- 
eral Court  held  in  Massachusetts,  twenty- 

'  ^       May  14. 

four  persons  appeared,  delegated  by  eight 
towns,  "  to  meet  and  consider  of  such  matters  as 
they  [the  freemen]  were  to  take  order  in  at  the 
same  General  Court."  This  great  step  was  an 
easy  extension  of  the  proceeding  of  the  Court 
of  the  second  year  before,  when  deputies  had 
been  sent  fi-om  the  towns  with  a  power  limited 
to  the  assessment  of  taxes. 

The  delegates   of  the  eight  towns  "desired  a 
sight  of  the  patent,"  and  concluded  its  sense  to  be 


138  MASSACHUSETTS. 

"  that  all  their  laws  should  be  made  at  the  Greneral 
Court,"  —  a  great  abridgment  of  the  power  of  the 
Assistants,  as  hitherto  it  had  been  exercised. 
Proceeding  on  this  interpretation  of  the  charter, 
the  Court  carried  out  in  a  business-like  manner 
an  administrative  reform,  which  had  evidently 
been  well  considered  beforehand.  They  resolved 
"  that  none  but  the  General  Court  had  power  to 

make  and  establish  laws ;  or  to  elect  and 

appoint,"  remove,  or  determine  the  duties  and 
powers  of,  civil  or  military  officers ;  or  "  to  raise 
moneys  and  taxes,  and  to  dispose  of  lands." 
Some  recent  orders  of  the  Assistants  were  re- 
scinded, and  for  one  order  the  Assistants  were 
punished  by  a  fine.  Their  judicial  power  was 
restricted  by  a  rule  "  that  no  trial  should  pass 
upon  any  for  life  or  banishment,  but  by  a  jury 
summoned,  or  by  the  General  Court."  The  char- 
ter had  provided  for  four  General  Courts  in  a  year. 
Since  the  first  summer  of  its  administration  in 
New  England,  only  one  in  each  year  had  been 
convened,  the  annual  spring  Court  of  Elections. 
It  was  now  "  ordered,  that  there  shall  be  four  Gen- 
eral Courts  held  yearly,  to  be  summoned  by  the 
Governor  for  the  time  being,  and  not  to  be  dis- 
solved without  the  consent  of  the  major  part  of 
the  Court."  And  finally,  to  give  permanence  to 
the  representative  power  of  the  Commons,  it  was 
enacted,  "  that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  freemen 
of  every  plantation  to  choose  two  or  three  of  each 
town  before  every  General  Court,  to  confer  of  and 


GOVERNOR   WINTHROP  SUPERSEDED.  139 

prepare  such  public  business  as  by  them  shall  be 
thought  fit  to  consider  of  at  the  next  General 
Court ;  and  that  such  persons  as  shall  be  hereafter 
so  deputed  by  the  freemen  of  the  several  planta- 
tions to  deal  in  their  behalf  in  the  public  affairs  of 
the  Commonwealth,  shall  have  the  full  power  and 
voices  of  all  the  said  freemen,  derived  to  them  for 
the  making  and  establishing  of  laws,  granting  of 
lands,  &c.,  and  to  deal  in  all  other  affairs  of  the 
Commonwealth  wherein  the  freemen  have  to  do, 
the  matter  of  election  of  Magistrates  and  other 
officers  only  excepted,  wherein  every  freeman  is  to 
give  his  own  voice." 

Thus,  after  an  administration  of  four  years  un- 
der the  charter,  the  freemen  took  a  share  in  the 
government  out  of  the  hands  of  the  oligarchy  of 
Magistrates  into  their  own.  The  new  policy  was 
not  unnaturally  inaugurated  by  the  deposition  of 
the  highest  representative  of  the  policy  which  was 
abandoned.  Dudley  was  chosen  Governor  instead 
of  Winthrop  ;  Ludlow  was  made  Deputy- Gov- 
ernor, and  Winthrop  took  Ludlow's  place  as  an 
Assistant.  A  change  of  rulers  was  recommended 
by  other  considerations.  Some  personal  disaffec- 
tion towards  Winthrop  had  grown  up.  The  "  old 
planters  "  might  naturally  be  jealous  of  him.  In 
the  transactions  at  Watertown,  he  might  be  thought 
to  have  assumed  an  overbearing  tone.  He  had  had 
differences  with  Dudley,  and  with  Coddington,  now 
chosen  Treasurer.  He  must  have  offended  not  a 
few  persons  in  his  four  years'  exercise  of  high,  but 


140  MASSACHUSETTS. 

ill-defined  powers.  Cotton  had  made  a  mistake  in 
endeavoring  to  support  him.  Lately  arrived  as  he 
was,  Cotton  laid  down  the  doctrine,  in  his  election 
sermon  before  the  General  Court,  that  "  a  Magis- 
trate ought  not  to  be  turned  into  the  condition  of 
a  private  man  without  just  cause,  and  to  be  pub- 
licly convict,  no  more  than  the  Magistrates  may 
not  turn  a  private  man  out  of  his  freehold  without 
like  public  trial."  The  freemen  quietly  expressed 
their  judgment  of  the  theory  of  public  office  being 
of  the  nature  of  a  freehold,  by  abstaining  for  four 
years  from  a  reelection  of  any  person  to  be  Gov- 
ernor at  the  end  of  his  official  terra. 

There  were  not  wanting  to  Winthrop  the  mor- 
tifications with  which  the  popular  mood  is  apt  to 
pursue  superseded  favorites.  Soon  after  he  ceased 
to  be  Governor,  "  the  inhabitants  of  Boston  met 
to  choose  seven  men  who  should  divide  the  town 
lands  among  them  ; "  and  Winthrop  was  elected 
only  "  by  a  voice  or  two,"  with  "  one  of  the  elders 
and  a  deacon,  and  the  rest  of  the  inferior  sort." 
Another  transaction  touched  him  more  nearly. 
The  General  Court,  apparently  with  a  design  of 
annoyance,  appointed  a  committee  "  to  receive  his 
account  of  such  things  as  he  had  received  and  dis- 
bursed for  public  use."  The  result  was  triumphant 
for  him.  It  showed  that  his  disbursements  for  the 
pnblic  had  exceeded  his  receipts  by  more  than  a 
thousand  pounds.  "  It  repenteth  me  not,"  said  the 
sublime  man,  "  of  my  cost  or  labor  bestowed  in 
the  service  of  this  commonwealth,  but  do  heartily 


PLYMOUTH.  141 

bless  the  Lord  our  God,  that  he  hath  pleased  to 
honor  me  so  far  as  to  call  for  anything  he  hath 
bestowed  upon  me  for  the  service  of  his  church 
and  people  here,  the  prosperity  whereof,  and  his 
gracious  acceptance,  shall  be  an  abundant  recom- 
pense to  me." 

For  half  a  century,  down  to  the  abrogation  of 
the  charter  of  Massachusetts,  the  only  changes  in 
the  arrangements  respecting  the  legislature  now 
constituted,  were  its  division  into  two  branches 
sitting  apart,  with  a  negative  each  upon  the  other, 
and  the  practice  of  two  annual  sessions  instead  of 
four.  As  Magistrates  were  chosen  by  joint  vote 
of  the  freemen  of  the  colony  in  their  General 
Court,  so  Deputies  were  elected  by  the  freemen 
of  the  towns  which   they  respectively  represented. 

We  turn  back  to  the  primitive  colony  of  Plym- 
outh, overshadowed,  as  it  had  now  been,  by  the 
more  important  settlement  of  the  Massachusetts 
Company.  At  the  time  when  Winthrop  and  his 
associates  came  over,  Plymouth  had  a  population 
of  about  three  hundred  persons.  A  year  earlier, 
thirty-five  members  of  the  Leyden  church  had 
joined  their  friends,  accomplishing  a  long-  1629. 
deferred  hope  of  both  parties.  The  poor  *"^"*'' 
people  of  Plymouth,  just  involved  in  new  pecu- 
niary obligations  to  an  oppressive  amount,  were 
but  too  happy,  not  only  to  defray  all  the  ex- 
penses of  the  new-comers,  but  to  give  them 
dwellings,  and  supply  them  with  food  for  more 
than  a  year,  till  there  was  time  for  them  to  make 


142  PLYMOUTH. 

provision  for  themselves.  Another  party  came 
over  with  Winthrop's  fleet.  The  two  cost  their 
American  friends  five  hundred  and  fifty  pounds 
sterling  for  their  outfit  and  transportation  from 
Holland,  in  addition  to  the  expense  of  their  recep- 
tion and  of  their  support  till  the  second  following 
harvest.  The  consequence  of  this  generosity  was 
eminently  beneficial.  In  proportion  as  members 
of  the  Leyden  congregation  became  numerous  at 
Plymouth,  the  better  party  there  —  the  party 
of  Bradford,  Brewster,  and  their  compeers  —  was 
strengthened,  and  the  colony  was  made  to  con- 
form more  to  its  original  design. 

Mr.  Smith  was  the  minister  of  the  settlement, 

succeeding  in  that  place  to  Rogers,  who  had  been 

brought  from  England  by  Mr.  Allerton,  but 

who  proved  to  be  "  crazed  in  his  brain,  so 

they  were  fain  to  be  at  further  charge  to  send  him 

back   again   the  next  year."     Arriving   at    Salem 

in  company  with  Higginson  and  Skelton, 

1629.  r^         •    1  1  1  n  n 

Smith  had  gone  at  first  to  the  fishing- 
station  at  Nantasket,  and  there  was  found  by  the 
Plymouth  people,  who,  for  want  of  better,  took 
him  home  with  them,  and  set  him  in  the  place 
which  the  revered  Robinson  should  have  filled. 

The  perseverance  of  Allerton  obtained  from  the 
Council  for  New  England  a  patent  for  Plymouth 
jggo    more  suitable  to  the  existing  condition  of 
•'■  °-  ^3-  that  colony  than  that  which  had  been  issued 
nine  years  before   to  John   Pierce   and    his  asso- 
ciates.   The  new  patent  conveyed  to  William  Brad- 


PECUNIARY  CONDITION.  143 

ford,  his  heirs,  associates,  and  assigns,  a  tract  of 
land  including  Plymouth,  and  another  on  the  Ken- 
nebec, both  of  which,  however,  for  want  of  geo- 
graphical knowledge,  were  imperfectly  defined  ; 
and  it  invested  the  associates,  in  respect  to  the 
granted  territory,  with  all  the  power  which  the 
Council,  by  its  charter,  was  made  capable  of  con- 
veying to  its  assigns.  Under  this  instrument  the 
Colony  of  Plymouth  was  managed,  down  to  the 
end  of  its  separate  history.  A  royal  charter,  with 
the  same  privileges  as  were  conferred  on  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Company,  was  much  desired,  but  though 
often  solicited,  and  sometimes  at  considerable  cost, 
could  never  be  obtained. 

For  four  or  five  years  from  this  time,  the  busi- 
ness relations  between  the  partners  at  Plymouth 
and  those  at  London  became  more  and  more  com- 
plicated and  unsatisfactory.  Allerton,  who  passed 
between  them  as  agent  for  the  Plymouth  associates, 
fell  under  the  serious  displeasure  of  his  employers 
for  transactions  implicating  them  without  their 
authority,  as  well  as  for  other  alleged  misconduct, 
and  was  continued  in  his  trust  only  through  ten- 
derness for  Brewster,  whose  daughter  was  Aller- 
ton's  wife.  In  two  years  he  had  raised  their  debt 
from  four  hundred  pounds  to  four  thousand.  Still, 
under  the  honest  and  wise  conduct  of  Bradford 
and  his  associates,  affairs  prospered  on  the  small 
scale  that  belonged  to  them.  "  Though  the  part- 
ners," writes  Bradford,  "  were  plunged  into  great 
engagements,  and  oppressed  with  unjust  debts,  yet 


144  PLYMOUTH. 

the  Lord  prospered  their  trading,  that  they  made 

yearly  large  returns Also,  the  people  of 

the  plantation  began  to  grow  in  their  outward 
estates,  by  reason  of  the  flowing  of  many  people 
Into  the  country,  especially  into  the  Bay  of  the 
Massachusetts,  by  which  means  corn  and  cattle 
grew  to  a  great  price,  by  which  many  were  much 
enriched,  and  commodities  grew  plentifuL" 

As  property  and  a  sense  of  security  increased, 
the  people  of  Plymouth  showed  a  disposition  to 
disperse,  for  the  convenience  of  more  past- 
urage and  other  accommodations.  A  sep- 
arate church  and  town,  with  the  name  of  Duxbury, 
were  established  on  the  north  side  of  the  harbor, 
and  grazing  lands  were  assigned  at  Marshjield  to 
persons  who  engaged  to  keep  them  by  servants, 
and  not  remove  themselves  from  the  original  set- 
tlement. 

Enterprises  at  a  distance  from  their  home  m  op- 
posite directions,  involved  the  Plymouth  people  in 
some  troublesome  disputes.  The  colonial  partners, 
in  connection  with  four  of  their  London  friends, 
had  reluctantly  consented  to  establish  a  trading- 
house  on  the  Penobscot,  under  the  charge  of  one 
Edward  Ashley,  with  whom  AUerton  had  treated 
for  that  purpose  in  London.  When  Acadia  was 
ceded  to  France  by  the  treaty  of  St.  Ger- 
main, the  extent  of  the  territory  denoted  by 
that  name  was  left  undefined.  Claiming  Ashley's 
post  as  within  the  domain  of  their  sovereign,  a 
party  of  French  came  and  rifled  it,  carrying  off 


REMOTE  TRADING-POSTS.  145 

property  valued  at  more  than  five  hundred  pounds 
sterling. 

The  other  eastern  trading-house  of  Plymouth,  on 
the  Kennebec,  gave  occasion  to  a  conflict  of  a  dif- 
ferent nature.  The  Plymouth  people  understood 
that  their  patent  right  to  territory  on  this  river 
gave  them  the  monopoly  of  the  Indian  traffic  there. 
A  person  named  Hocking,  in  command  of  a  vessel 
from  the  Piscataqua  belonging  to  Lord  Say  and 
Sele,  insisted  on  going  up  the  river  to  trade. 
Rowland,  the  Plymouth  commander,  after 
unavailing  remonstrance,  ordered  his  men 
to  cut  the  cable  of  the  ship's  anchor.  Hocking 
shot  one  of  them,  and  was  himself  shot  dead  in 
return.  The  General  Court  of  Massachusetts 
thought  proper  to  interfere.  Alden,  one  of  the 
party,  and  a  principal  person  of  Plymouth, 
coming  presently  after  to  Boston  for  a  visit, 
was  detained  to  answer  for  what  had  been  done ; 
and  the  Massachusetts  Magistrates  were  scarcely 
induced  to  desist  from  a  prosecution  of  it  by  ex- 
planations which  Standish  first,  and  afterwards 
Bradford,  Winslow,  and  Smith,  the  minister,  were 
sent  to  make  in  person.  Winslow  soon  after  went 
a  third  time  to  England,  partly  on  the  errand  of 
pacifying  Lord  Say  and  Sele. 

The  attention  of  the  Plymouth  people  had  been 
turned  to  a  different  quarter  by  what  from  time  to 
time  they  had  heard,  from  native  and  Dutch  visit- 
ors, of  a  river  to  the  west  of  them,  called  the  Fresh 
River,   and  the  Connecticut   River,   "  a  fine   place 

TOL.  I.  10 


146  PLYMOUTH. 

both  for  plantation  and  trade."  They  had  further 
heard  of  the  visit  made  to  Winthrop,  the  first 
spring  after  his  landing,  by  an  Indian  chief,  who 
had  offered  him  a  settlement  on  the  Connecticut, 
with  a  yearly  present  of  corn  and  beaver.  Wins- 
1633.  l^w  ^"^  Bradford  went  to  Boston,  to  see 
•""'y^-  whether  a  partnership  could  be  arranged  on 
this  basis  between  individuals  of  the  two  colonies. 
This  scheme  coming  to  nothing,  the  Plymouth 
people,  on  their  own  account,  despatched 
a  vessel  to  the  Connecticut  with  the  frame 
of  a  house,  and  workmen  and  materials  for  its 
construction.  Having  sailed  fifty  miles  up  the 
river,  to  the  place  where  now  stands  Hartford,  they 
were  challenged  by  a  party  of  Dutch,  who  had 
thrown  up  a  rude  work,  and  mounted  two  small 
cannon.  When  nothing  worse  than  some  alterca- 
tion had  ensued,  the  English  passed  on,  and  landing 
above,  at  what  is  now  the  town  of  Windsor,  put 
up,  fortified,  and  provisioned  their  house,  in  which 
a  portion  of  their  number  remained.  A  company 
of  Dutch  who  in  the  following  year  came  from 
New  Amsterdam  to  expel  the  intruders,  having 
made  their  observations  on  the  spirit  and  the  dis- 
position of  the  little  garrison,  were  prevailed  on 
to  retire  without  violence  ;  and  the  English  and 
Dutch  outposts  continued  to  scowl  harmlessly  at 
one  another. 

All  that  is  extant  of  what  can  properly  be  called 
the  legislation  of  the  first  twelve  years  of  the  col- 
ony of  Plymouth  suffices  to  cover  in  print  only  two 


LEGISLATION  OF  PLYMOUTH.  147 

pages  of  a  common  octavo  volume.     That  of  the 
first  five  years  consists  of  a  single  enact-    iq23. 
ment,    establishing   the    trial   by   jury.     In  ^^•"• 
the  tenth  year,  after  many  misgivings  as  to  their 
power,  the  colonists  inflicted  capital   pun-    iggQ 
ishment  upon  a  murderer,  John  Billington,    ^^*" 
one  of  the  company   of  the   Mayflower.     In  the 
twelfth  year  a  journal  was   begun,  which, 
under  the  name  of  Court  Orders,  exhibits 
thenceforward  the  miscellaneous  proceedings  both 
of  the  General  Courts,  consisting  of  the  body  of 
freemen,  and  of  the  Courts  of  Magistrates,  in  the 
threefold  character  corresponding  to  their  legisla- 
tive, judicial,  and  executive  functions. 

After  serving  twelve  years  as  Governor,  Brad- 
ford was   relieved  from  that  office  at  his 

1633. 

own  urgent  request,  and  was  succeeded  by 
Edward  Winslovv.    At  the  end  of  his  official  year, 
Winslow,  perhaps  pleading  his  privilege  of 
exemption  accorded  by  a  recent  law,  was 
in  his  turn  succeeded  by  Thomas  Prince,  a  pas- 
senger in  the  Fortune.     At  the  time  of  Prince's 
accession,  a  colonial  tax  of  fifty-eight  pounds  and 
seventeen  shillings  was  assessed   on  seventy-seven 
men  and  four  women.     The  tax-list  of  the  next 
preceding  year,  the  earliest  which  is  extant,  con- 
tains  the    names   of   eighty-six    men    and  three 
women.     When  the  Court  Orders  registry 

°        "'       1633. 

was   begun,  the   freemen  were   sixty-eight 
in  number. 


CHAPTER  X. 

MASSACHUSETTS    AXD    PROVIDENCE. 

Four  years  had  now  passed  since  the  great 
emigration,  under  Winthrop's  conduct,  to  Massa- 

jgg^  chusetts  Bay.  The  worst  hardships  of  a 
new  plantation  had  been  outlived.  The 
infant  society  had  been  organized  into  coherence, 
symmetry,  and  a  capacity  of  self-preservation  and 
growth.  The  emigration  had  been  recently  re- 
newed ;  and  between  three  and  four  thousand  Eng- 
lishmen were  distributed  among  twenty  hamlets 
along  and  near  the  sea-shore. 

They  were  settling  into  such  employments  as 
their  situation  dictated.  They  cultivated  the 
ground,  and  took  care  of  herds  and  flocks.  They 
hunted  and  fished  for  a  part  of  their  food.  They 
were  building  houses,  boats,  and  mills ;  enclosing 
land  with  fences;  and  cutting  roads  through  the 
forest  to  connect  their  towns.  Their  exports  of 
cured  fish,  furs,  and  lumber  bought  them  articles 
of  convenience  and  luxury  in  England,  and  they 
were  soon  to  build  ships  to  be  sold  abroad.  The 
customs  of  daily  life  were  taking  the  new  shapes 
impressed  upon  them  by  the  strangeness  of  a  con- 
dition so  novel,  and  the  course  of  public  admin- 


CONDITION  AFTER  FOUR  YEARS.       149 

istration  was  beginning  to  be  made  regular  by 
precedents. 

The  freemen  of  the  company  were  now  about 
three  hundred  and  fifty  in  number.  More  than 
two  thirds  of  them  had  been  admitted  to  the  fran- 
chise since  the  establishment  of  the  religious  test, 
and  a  majority  of  the  residue  were  also  members 
of  churches.  As  yet,  all  the  Magistrates  were  per- 
sons who  had  first  been  appointed  in  England, 
with  the  exception  of  John  Haynes,  who  had  lately 
arrived,  and  John  Winthrop  the  younger,  the  Gov- 
ernor's son.  Not  a  few  others  of  the  freemen,  from 
both  position  and  character,  had  good  pretensions 
to  be  admitted  to  the  body  charged  with  the  ex- 
ecutive and  judicial  administration  ;  but,  though 
the  charter  authorized  the  choice  of  twenty  Magis- 
trates, for  several  years  only  about  half  as  many 
were  elected,  the  vacancies  being  kept  for  the  men 
of  rank  who  were  expected  to  come  over. 

The  clergy,  now  thirteen  or  fourteen  in  number, 
constituted  in  some  sort  a  separate  estate  of  special 
dignity.  Though  they  were  excluded  from  secular 
office,  the  relation  of  their  functions  to  the  spirit  and 
aim  of  the  community  which  had  been  founded, 
as  well  as  their  personal  weight  of  ability  and  char- 
acter, gave  great  authority  to  their  advice.  Nearly 
all  were  graduates  of  Oxford  or  of  Cambridge,  and 
had  held  livings  in  the  Established  Church  of  Eng- 
land. Several  had  been  eminent  among  their  fel- 
lows for  all  professional  endowments. 

The   difficulties   of  the   enterprise  were  by  no 


150  MASSACHUSETTS. 

means  yet  over.  The  freedom  which  the  colonists 
had  attained  by  heroic  sacrifice  they  had  now  to 
secure  by  practical  wisdom.  Its  permanence  was 
exposed  to  two  dangers.  It  was  threatened  by  the 
hostility  of  the  English  government,  and  by  dis- 
sensions in  the  new  community.  And  in  circum- 
stances likely  to  occur,  each  of  these  dangers  would 
increase  the  other. 

Of  the  reality  and  nearness  of  the  danger  of  an- 
noyance from  the  home  government  the  colonists 
had  had  warning  in  the  recent  complaints  against 
them  to  the  Privy  Council.  For  protection  against 
it  they  were  to  look  to  their  charter,  as  long  as  the 
grants  in  that  instrument  should  continue  to  be 
respected.  Their  charter  was  their  palladium.  To 
lose  it  would  be  ruin.  Whatever  might  imperil 
it  required  to  be  watched  with  the  most  jealous 
caution. 

Against  internal  dissensions  they  had  an  easy 
remedy.  The  freemen  had  a  right,  in  equity  and 
in  law,  to  expel  from  their  territory  all  persons  who 
should  give  them  trouble.  In  their  corporate  capa- 
city, they  were  owners  of  Massachusetts  in  fee,  by 
a  title  to  all  intents  as  good  as  that  by  which  any 
freeholder  among  them  had  held  his  English  farm. 
As  against  all  Europeans,  whether  English  or  Con- 
tinental, they  owned  it  by  a  grant  from  the  crown 
of  England,  to  which,  by  a  well-settled  principle, 
the  disposal  of  it  belonged,  in  consequence  of  its 
discovery  by  an  English  subject.  In  respect  to 
any  adverse  claim  on  the  part  of  the  natives,  they 


CONDITION  AFTER  FOUR  YEARS.       151 

had  either  found  the  land  unoccupied,  or  had  be- 
come possessed  of  it  with  the  consent  of  its  earlier 
proprietors.  And  the  privilege  of  determining  who 
should  occupy  it  along  with  them  they  regarded  as 
being  further  assured  to  them  by  the  letter  of  Eng- 
lish law  ;  for  the  royal  charter  under  which  they 
held  gave  them  express  power  to  "  expulse  all  such 
person  and  persons  as  should  at  any  time  attempt 
or  enterprise  detriment  or  annoyance  to  their  plan- 
tation or  its  inhabitants."  Accordingly,  while  the 
associate  who  could  sympathize  with  them,  and 
join  his  hand  with  theirs  in  building  up  the  new 
institutions  in  Church  and  State,  was  welcome, 
whoever  had  views  and  objects  so  different  from 
theirs  that  his  presence  among  them  would  be  an 
occasion  of  weakness  or  of  strife,  had,  in  their 
judgment,  no  claim  to  fasten  himself  upon  them. 

However  distasteful  to  the  Magistrates  the  action 
of  the  fifth  General  Court  had  for  the  moment 
been,  they  found  reason  to  rejoice  in  it  before  the 
next  four  years  were  passed.  A  suspended  ques- 
tion of  power  between  them  and  the  freemen,  with 
its  attendant  disputes  and  jealousies,  would  have 
disabled  both  parties  for  the  action  which  events 
were  about  to  require ;  and  the  extension  of  the  re- 
sponsibility of  government  to  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  persons,  with  a  great  interest  in  common, 
and  capacity  to  understand  it,  proved  to  be  an 
opportune  element  of  strength.  The  Court  had 
scarcely  been  dissolved,  when  tidings  came 
from  England  of  a  nature  to  impress  the    ''^^- 


152  MASSACHUSETTS. 

minds  of  the  rulers  in  Massachusetts,  more  seri- 
ously than  ever  before,  with  a  sense  of  the  magni- 
tude of  the  task  they  had  undertaken. 

The  jealousy  of  the  royal  government,  carried  on 
for  the  last  five  years  without  a  Parliament,  and 
growing  every  day  more  despotic  in  Church  and 
State,  had  been  revealed  in  the  order  of  the  Privy 
Council  to  detain  ten  vessels  about  to  sail  from 
London  with  passengers  for  New  England.  The 
attempts  against  the  charter,  baffled  a  year  before, 
were  renewed,  and  an  order  had  been  obtained  from 
the  Lords  of  the  Council  for  its  production  at  their 
board.  The  alarm  in  Massachusetts  reached  its 
height  when  intelligence  came  of  a  design  to  send 
out  a  General  Governor,  and  of  the  creation  of  a 
special  commission,  with  Laud,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, at  its  head,  for  the  management  of  all  the 
colonies  and  for  the  revocation  of  their  charters. 
Mr.  Cradock  transmitted  a  copy  of  the  Order  of 
Council  requiring  the  production  of  the  patent. 
For  the  present,  the  Magistrates  simply  replied,  that 
they  had  no  power  to  do  anything  of  the  kind  with- 
out the  direction  of  the  General  Court,  which  would 
not  meet  for  two  months.  They  sent  letters,  "  to 
mediate  their  peace,"  by  Mr.  Winslow,  on  whose 
personal  agency  it  may  be  presumed  that  they  also 
placed  reliance. 

There  is  no  matter  of  surprise  in  the  vigorous 
assault  now  made  upon  the  charter  of  Massachu- 
setts by  the  counsellors  of  King  Charles.  The 
difficult  questions  are,  how  such  a  charter  came  to 


HOSTILITY  IN  ENGLAND.  153 

be  originally  granted,  and  why,  when  assailed  only 
a  year  before  the  present  hostile  movements,  it  had 
been  treated  with  so  much  favor.  Considering  the 
character  of  the  King  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  pro- 
visions of  the  charter  on  the  other,  it  seems  neces- 
sary to  conclude,  either  that  its  tenor  was  not  well 
known  to  him  when  it  received  his  assent,  or  else 
that  his  purpose  in  granting  it  was  to  encourage 
the  departure  of  Puritans  from  England,  at  the 
time  when  he  was  entering  upon  measures  which 
might  bring  on  a  dangerous  conflict  with  that 
party.  The  former  supposition  is  scarcely  to  be 
reconciled  with  what  appears  to  be  a  well-authen- 
ticated fact,  that  the  charter  was  procured  through 
the  intervention  of  that  vigilant  courtier  and  sensi- 
tive churchman.  Lord  Dorchester.  The  latter  sup- 
position derives  some  plausibility  from  the  tortu- 
ous policy  of  the  King,  a  policy  to  which  his  expe- 
rienced diplomatist  was  in  no  wise  averse. 

The  charter  of  the  Massachusetts  Company  had 
passed  the  seals  almost  simultaneously  with  the 
King's  annunciation,  after  an  exciting  controversy 
with  three  Parliaments,  of  his  purpose  to  govern 
without  Parliaments  in  future.  It  might  well  ap- 
pear to  him,  that,  in  the  contests  which  perhaps 
were  to  follow,  his  task  would  be  made  easier,  if 
numbers  of  the  patriots  could  be  tempted  to  absent 
themselves  from  the  kingdom  ;  and  when  he  should 
have  succeeded,  and  the  laws  and  liberties  of  Eng- 
land should  be  stricken  down,  there  would  be  noth- 
ing in  his  past  grants  to  embarrass   him  in  his 


154  MASSACHUSETTS. 

treatment  of  the  exiles,  and  his  arm  would  be  long 
enough  to  reach  and  strong  enough  to  crush  them 
in  their  distant  hiding-place.  Or  if  no  scheme  so 
definite  as  tliis  was  entertained,  the  grant  of  the 
charter,  inviting  attention  to  a  distant  object,  might 
do  something  for  his  present  relief,  by  breaking  up 
the  dangerous  concentration  of  the  thoughts  of  the 
Puritans  on  the  state  of  affairs  at  home. 

Whatever  was  the  King's  design  in  granting  the 
charter,  nothing  occurred  to  change  his  course  of 
action  in  respect  to  it  for  the  next  four  years. 
"Within  that  time  there  had  been  only  one  large 
emigration ;  and,  if  he  heard  anything  of  the  colony, 
he  must  have  heard  that  it  seemed  languishing. 
There  was,  therefore,  no  motive  to  lay  a  heavy 
hand  on  it;  and  accordingly  the  complaint  of 
Mason  and  others,  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  year, 
was  carelessly  dismissed.  In  the  fifth  year,  things 
took  a  different  turn.  Eight  or  nine  hundred  Eng- 
lishmen went  to  Massachusetts,  some  of  them  im- 
portant men.  The  colony  had  got  through  its  first 
difficulties,  and  was  vigorous.  K  the  King  and  his 
archbishop  had  heard  of  all  that  it  had  been  doing, 
they  knew  that  its  progress  could  not  be  stopped 
too  soon  for  their  advantage.  On  the  other  hand, 
Charles  seemed  to  have  surmounted  the  first  diffi- 
culties of  his  career  as  an  absolute  monarch.  More 
than  five  years  had  passed  of  government  without 
a  Parliament,  and  England  was  not  in  arms.  Sub- 
servient courts  of  justice,  and  the  parasites  about 
his   person,   may   well   have  persuaded   him  that 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  GENERAL  COURT.    155 

England  was  at  his  feet.  He  had  just  come  from 
his  coronation  in  Scotland,  elated  with  his  loyal 
reception  in  the  dominion  of  his  fathers.  The 
Star  Chamber  was  in  unopposed  activity.  Laud 
had  just  been  made  the  first  clergyman,  peer,  and 
counsellor  of  the  realm ;  and  Laud,  at  the  ear  of 
his  sovereign,  was  not  a  man  to  forget  the  claims 
of  the  Church,  or  to  postpone  the  harsh  exercise  of 
power.  We  may  find  it  hard  to  satisfy  ourselves 
of  the  reason  for  granting  the  charter  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  ;  but  as  to  the  causes  of  the  early 
proceedings  for  its  destruction  there  is  no  per- 
plexity. 

The  General  Court  of  Magistrates  and  Deputies 
came  together,  and  on  their  table  lay  a  copy  of  the 
instrument  which  gave  power  to  eleven  courtiers 
to  ruin  them  and  theirs.  The  Commissioners  were 
found  to  be  the  two  archbishops,  six  lay  peers,  and 
three  other  high  functionaries.  They,  or  any  five 
of  them,  were  invested  with  "  power  of  protection 
and  government"  over  all  English  colonies.  They 
had  authority  "  to  make  laws,  orders,  and  consti- 
tutions ; "  to  provide  for  the  maintenance  of  a 
clergy  "  by  tithes,  oblations,  and  other  profits ; " 
"  to  inflict  punishment, either  by  impris- 
onment or  other  restraints,  or  by  loss  of  life  or 
members ; "  to  remove  and  appoint  governors  and 
other  oflicers  ;  to  establish  ecclesiastical  courts  ;  to 
hear  and  determine  complaints,  "  either  against 
the  whole  colonies, or  any  private  mem- 
ber thereof,"  and  for  that   purpose  "  to  summon 


156  MASSACHUSETTS. 

the  persons  before  them  ; "  and  finally,  to  call  in 
all  letters-patent,  and,  if  any  were  found  to  con- 
vey privileges  hurtful  to  the  "  crown  or  prerogative 
royal,"  to  cause  them  to  be  legally  revoked. 

Since  the  tidings  came  from  England  of  the 
alarming  measures  in  train,  the  members  of  the 
Court  had  had  time  for  conference  with  their 
neighbors,  and  were  probably  well  agreed  as  to 
what  business  they  should  transact.  A  determined 
spirit  does  not  closely  calculate  resources.  It  easily 
believes  that  the  way  will  appear,  when  the  will  is 

g^  J.  g    constant.    The  first  orders  adopted  were  for 
the  erection  of  fortifications  on  Castle  Island 
in  Boston  harbor,  and  at   Charlestown  and   Dor- 
chester.    Next  the  captains  were  authorized  "  to 
train  unskilful  men  so  often  as  they  pleased,  pro- 
vided they  exceeded   not  three  days  in  a  week." 
Dudley,  Winthrop,  Haynes,  Humphrey,  and  Endi- 
cott  were  appointed  "to  consult,  direct,  and  give 
command  for  the  managing  and  ordering  of  any 
war  that  might  befall  for  the  space  of  a  year  next 
ensuing,  and  till   further   order   should   be  taken 
therein."     Arrangements  were  made  for  the  col- 
lection and  custody  of  arms  and  ammunition. 
During  the   winter  no    new  alarm   came   from 
jggg     abroad.     The  ministers  were  invited  by  the 

Jan.  19.  Governor  and  Assistants  to  a  consultation 
at  Boston  on  the  existing  state  of  affairs.  All 
came  but  one,  Mr.  Ward,  who  was  lately  ar- 
rived ;  and  the  unanimous  advice  of  those  present 

was :  "  If  a  General  Governor  were  sent,  we  ought 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  GENERAL  COURT.    157 

not  to  accept  him,  but  defend  our  lawful  posses- 
sions, if  we  were  able  ;  otherwise  to  avoid  or  pro- 
tract." It  might  prove  that  the  King  of  England 
was  able  to  coerce  these  people  by  force ;  to  coerce 
them  by  intimidation  was  beyond  his  power. 

The  great  subject  of  anxiety  presented  itself 
again  at  the  next  General  Court.  An  order 
was  passed,  "  that  the  fort  at  Castle  Island, 
now  begun,  shall  be  fully  perfected,  the  ordnances 
mounted,  and  every  other  thing  about  it  finished;" 
and  the  Deputy-Governor,  who  had  it  in  charge, 
was  empowered  "  to  press  men  for  that  work." 
Another  vote  directed,  "  that  there  should  be  forth- 
with a  beacon  set  on  the  sentry  hill  at  Boston,  to 

give  notice  to  the  country  of  any  danger, 

and  that,  upon  the  discovery  of  any  danger,  the 
beacon  should  be  fired."  To  secure  a  supply  of 
musket-balls,  they  were  made  a  legal  tender  for 
payments,  at  the  rate  of  a  farthing  apiece,  instead 
of  the  coin,  the  circulation  of  which  was  forbid- 
den. Further  rules  were  made  for  the  enforcement 
of  a  strict  military  discipline  ;  and  the  "  Freeman's 
Oath  "  of  fidelity  to  the  local  government  was  re- 
quired to  be  taken  by  every  man  "  resident  within 
the  jurisdiction,"  and  being  "  of  or  above  the  age 
of  sixteen  years."  Finally  a  military  commission 
was  established  with  extraordinary  powers.  The 
Magistrates  and  Mr.  Bellingham  were  the  commis- 
sioners. They  were  authorized  "  to  dispose  of  all 
military  affairs  whatsoever ; "  "  to  ordain  and  re- 
move  all   military  officers  ; "   "  to   do  whatsoever 


158  MASSACHUSETTS. 

might  be  behooveful  for  the  good  of  the  plantation, 
in  case  of  any  war  that  might  befall ;"  "  to  imprison 
or  confine  any  that  they  should  judge  to  be  enemies 
to  the  Commonwealth  ;  and  such  as  could  not 
come  under  command  or  restraint,  as  they  should 
be  required,  it  should  be  lawful  for  the  commis- 
sioners to  put  such  persons  to  death." 

The  demand  from  England  for  a  transmission 
of  the  charter  had  received  no  other  notice  from 
the  General  Court  than  what  these  proceedings 
imply.  The  government  of  Charles  the  First  was 
pressed  with  too  much  business  to  follow  up  a 
policy  of  consistent  rigor  against  the  contumacious 
colony.  But  another  business  of  the  worst  omen 
was  at  the  same  time  in  train.  The  Council  for 
New  England,  having  struggled  through  nearly 
fifteen  years  of  maladministration  and  ill  luck, 
had  yielded  to  the  discouragements  which  beset 
it.  By  the  royal  favor,  it  had  triumphed  over  the 
rival  Virginia  Company,  to  be  overwhelmed  in  its 
turn  by  the  just  jealousy  of  Parliament,  and  by 
dissensions  among  its  members.  The  Council, 
having  by  profuse  and  inconsistent  grants  of  its 
lands  exhausted  its  common  property,  as  well  as 
its  credit  with  purchasers  for  keeping  its  engage- 
ments, had  no  motive  to  continue  its  organization. 
Under  these  circumstances,  it  determined  on  a  res- 
ignation of  its  charter  to  the  King,  and  a  surrender 
of  the  administration  of  its  domain  to  a  General 
Governor  of  his  appointment,  on  the  condition 
that  all  the  territory,  a  large  portion  of  which  by 


THE  CHARTER  ENDANGERED.  lo9 

its  corporate  action  had  already  been  alienated  to 
other  parties,  should  be  granted  in  severalty  by  the 
King  to  the  members  of  the  Council.  Twelve 
associates  accordingly  proceeded  to  a  distribution 
of  New  England  among  themselves  by  lot ;  and 
nothing  was  wanting  to  render  the  transaction 
complete,  and  to  transfer  to  them  the  ownership 
of  that  region,  except  to  oust  the  previous  paten- 
tees, of  whom  the  most  powerful  body  were  the 
colonists  in   Massachusetts  Bay. 

To  effect  this,  Sir  John  Banks,  Attorney- General, 
brought  a  writ  of  quo  warranto  in  Westminster 
Hall  against  the  Massachusetts  Company,  igs^. 
Sir  Henry  Roswell,  Sir  John  Young,  and  ^^'' 
twelve  others  of  the  original  associates,  "  came 
in  and  pleaded  that "  they  "  had  never  usurped  any 
the  said  liberties,  privileges,  and  franchises  in  the 
information,  nor  did  use  or  claim  any  of  the 
same;"  and  judgment  was  given  that  they  "should 
not  for  the  future  intermeddle  with  any  the  liber- 
ties, privileges,  or  franchises  aforesaid,  but  should 
be  forever  excluded  from  all  use  and  claim  of  the 
same  and  every  of  them."  Cradock,  the  former 
Governor,  made  default;  and,  in  his  case,  "judg- 
ment was  given  that  he  should  be  convicted  of  the 
usurpation  charged  in  the  information,  and  that 
the  said  liberties,  privileges,  and  franchises  should 
be  taken  and  seized  into  the  King's  hands,  the  said 
Matthew  not  to  intermeddle  with  and  be  excluded 
the  use  thereof,  and  the  said  Matthew  to  be  taken 
to  answer  to  the  King  for  the  said  usurpation." 


160  MASSACHUSETTS. 

Of  the  eleven  remaining  original  patentees,  Hum- 
phrey, Endicott,  Novvell,  Bellingham,  Pynchon,  and 
William  Vassall  were  then  in  New  England,  and 
Johnson  had  died  there. 

It  seemed  that  when  a  few  more  forms  should 
be  gone  through,  all  would  be  over  with  the  pre- 
sumptuous colony.  In  the  view  of  English  law, 
the  Englishmen  who  had  gone  to  Massachusetts 
had  no  rights  and  no  property  there.  Divided  into 
provinces,  Massachusetts  belonged  to  Gorges,  Ma- 
son, the  Marquis  of  Hamilton,  and  whoever  else 
had  won  by  lot  any  of  its  dismembered  parts.  In 
the  regular  course  of  proceeding,  nothing  remained 
but  for  the  local  government  voluntarily  to  abdi- 
cate, and  for  the  people  to  abandon  their  homes, 
or  else  for  the  King  to  send  out  his  Governor, 
backed  by  a  sufficient  force,  and  turn  over  the  land 
to  its  new  masters.  But  neither  of  these  things 
took  place.  In  Massachusetts,  the  whole  proceed- 
ing was  a  nullity.  Everything  went  on  as  if 
Westminster  Hall  had  not  spoken.  "  The  Lord 
frustrated  their  design." 

The  disorders  of  the  mother  country  were  a  safe- 
guard of  the  infant  liberty  of  New  England.  Laud 
was  busy  with  his  more  important  plan  of  prelor 
tizing  the  Church  of  Scotland.  England  was  in  a 
rage  on  the  question  of  ship-money.  An  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  to  launch  a  vessel  intended  to  bring 
over  the  General  Governor,  and  the  decease  at  this 
juncture  of  John  Mason,  were  regarded  by  Win- 
throp  as  eminent  interpositions  of  God  in  behalf 


ROGER    WILLIAMS.  161 

of  his  chosen  people.  The  death  of  the  able  and 
energetic  Mason  was,  at  all  events,  a  great  relief 
to  the  leaders  of  affairs  in  Massachusetts.  As  a 
principal  member,  and  Secretary,  of  the  Council 
for  New  England,  and  as  holder  of  patents  with 
which  the  Massachusetts  charter  interfered,  he  had 
been  indefatigable  in  his  endeavors  for  the  annul- 
ling of  that  instrument.  Disaffected  persons,  re- 
turning from  the  colony,  had  steadily  resorted  to 
him  as  the  standing  agent  of  their  revenge ;  and, 
with  whatever  influence  he  could  exert,  he  had 
promoted  the  schemes  for  a  Commission  for  the 
Plantations  and  a  General  Governor.  Though 
the  more  generous  Gorges  lived  to  render  good 
service  to  his  master  in  the  great  civil  war,  he  was 
already  growing  old,  and  was  dispirited  by  the 
thirty  years'  ill  success  of  projects  which  had 
wasted  his  fortune  and  involved  him  in  infinite 
discomfort.  It  was  perhaps  owing  not  a  little  to 
the  decay  of  his  former  activity  that  the  proceed- 
ings under  the  quo  warranto  against  the  Massa- 
chusetts Company  proved  fruitless. 

While  the  events  which  have  been  now  related 
wore  their  most  alarming  phase,  domestic  embar- 
rassments added  to  the  terrors  of  foreign  encroach- 
ment. In  the  midst  of  a  crisis  calling  for  all  the 
energy  and  wisdom  of  the  colonists  to  avert  the 
ruin  that  seemed  to  impend,  a  character  prominent 
in  New  England  history  interposed  by  a  course  of 
action  which  complicated  the  existing  difficulties. 

Roger  Williams,  after   some   residence    at  the 

VOL.  I.  11 


162  MASSACHUSETTS. 

University  of  Oxford,  perhaps  under  the  patron- 
age of  Sir  Edward  Coke,  is  believed  to  have  been 
admitted  to  orders  in  the  Established  Church.  He 
had  subsequently  separated  himself  from  that  com- 
munion, and,  sympathizing  with  the  hopes  of  other 
1631.  Non-conformists,  had  arrived  at  Boston  the 
Feb.  6.  ,^gj^^  ygg^j  after  the  transportation  of  the 
charter,  being  then  probably  in  the  twenty-fifth 
year  of  his  age.  A  reputation  for  talents  and 
piety  had  preceded  him  ;  and  a  few  weeks  only 
passed  before  the  church  at  Salem  invited  him  to 
succeed  Higginson  as  their  Teacher.  He  had 
made  the  most  of  his  short  time  in  becoming  ob- 
noxious to  the  government ;  and  "  a  letter 
was  written  from  the  Court  to  Mr.  Endicott 
to  this  effect,  that,  whereas  Mr.  Williams  had  re- 
fused to  join  with  the  congregation  at  Boston 
because  they  would  not  make  public  declaration 
of  their  repentance  for  having  communion  with 
the  churches  of  England  while  they  lived  there, 
and  besides  had  declared  his  opinion  that  the  mag- 
istrate might  not  punish  the  breach  of  the  Sab- 
bath, nor  any  other  offence  as  it  was  a  breach  of 
the  first  table,  therefore  they  marvelled  they  would 
choose  him  without  advising  with  the  Council,  and 
withal  desiring  them  that  they  would  forbear  to 
proceed  till  they  had  conferred  about  it." 

The  Salem  church,  however,  proceeded,  and  Wil- 
liams had  already  become  their  Teacher  when  the 
remonstrance  reached  them.  Precisely  how  long 
he  remained  in  this  place  is  not  known  ;  but  some 


ROGER  WILLIAMS.  163 

time  in  the  same,  or  perhaps  in  the  following  year, 
he  withdrew  to  the  more  benignant  atmosphere 
of  Plymouth  Colony,  and  became  assistant  to  the 
Pastor  of  the  church  there,  the  Separatist,  Mr. 
Smith.  The  affection  of  his  Salem  flock  followed 
him,  and  he  was  persuaded  to  retrace  his  steps, 
and  resume  a  home  among  them.  He  returned  to 
Salem  with  more  confidence  in  himself,  from  the 
position  which  he  had  occupied  while  absent,  and 
the  popularity  which  invited  him  back. 

It  was  in  the  year  of  his  reappearance  there  that 
the  courage  and  policy  of  the  colonists  became  their 
only  protection  under  God  against  that  wrong- 
headed  and  bad-hearted  churchman  who  presided 
over  the  commission  intrusted  with  their  ruin. 
Only  a  few  months  had  passed  since  the  petition 
of  Gorges  and  Mason  to  the  King's  Privy  Council 
had  been  dismissed,  through  what  the  colonists 
esteemed  to  be  little  short  of  a  miraculous  inter- 
position of  Providence.  And  late  in  the  same 
year  an  answer  to  the  charges  which  had  been  pro- 
duced in  England  was  still  under  debate  among 
the  Magistrates. 

Such  being  some  of  the  circumstances  in  which 
the  Magistrates  of  Massachusetts  had  their  renewed 
experience  of  Williams,  it  occasions  no  surprise 
that  they  interfered  again  with  their  advice  when 
it  was  proposed  to  appoint  him  to  the  place  lately 
vacated  by  the  death  of  Mr.  Skelton.     But 

1634. 

the   Salem   church  persisted,  and   formally 
installed    him  as  their  Teacher.     He  was  now  a 


164  MASSACHUSETTS. 

power  in  the  State,  and  nobody  could  be  better 
disposed  to  make  himself  felt  as  such.     The  Magis- 
trates charged  him  with  "  teaching  publicly 
against  the  King's  patent,"  and  against  the 
sin  of  "  claiming  right  thereby  to  this  country,  &c.," 
1635     and  with  maintaining  "that  a  magistrate 
^^'^''    ought  not  to  tender  an  oath  to  an  unregen- 
erate  person,"  —  a  doctrine  which,  besides  the  em- 
barrassment it  offered  to  the  common  administra- 
tion of  justice,  had  special  significance  at  a  time 
when  it  had  been  thought  necessary  to  impose  the 
"  Freeman's   Oath "  and   the    "  Resident's   Oath " 
in  order  to  secure  allegiance  to  the  colony,  even 
in  opposition,  should   that   prove    needful,  to  the 
King. 

Presently  the  annual  Court  of  Elections  met, 
and  Mr.  Haynes  was  chosen  Governor,  with  Mr. 
Bellingham,  lately  arrived,  for  Deputy  Governor. 
The  General  Court  took  up  the  dispute  with  Wil- 
liams and  his  church,  and  gave  them  the  time 
which  would  intervene  before  the  next  Court 
to  exculpate  themselves,  at  the  same  time,  on  ac- 
count of  the  contumacy  of  Salem,  rejecting  a  peti- 
tion from  that  town  for  a  grant  of  land.  Williams 
struck  back.  He  caused  his  church  to  "  write  to 
other  churches,  to  admonish  the  Magistrates  of  this 
as  a  heinous  sin,  and  likewise  the  Deputies."  When 
less  attention  than  he  desired  Was  given  to  this 
missive,  Williams  addressed  himself  to  his  own 
church,  exhorting  them  to  renounce  all  communion 
with  the  other  churches  of  the  colony. 


ROGER  WILLIAMS.  165 

The  next  General  Court  unseated  the  Deputies 
from    Salem,  till  their  constituents  should 
apologize  for  having  "  exceedingly  reproach- 
ed  and   vilified   the    Magistrates   and    churches," 
which  was  presently  done.     Next  they  considered 
the  case  of  Williams,  and,  findinsr  that  he 

'  '  °  Sept.  3. 

had  "  broached  and  divulged  divers  new 
and  dangerous  opinions  against  the  authority  of 
magistrates,  as  also  writ  letters  of  defamation  both 
of  the  Magistrates  and  churches,"  they  proceeded 
to  deal  with  him,  as  numerous  disturbers,  the 
Brownes,  Gardiner,  Stone,  Walford,  Gray,  Lynn, 
Smith,  and  others,  had  been  dealt  with  before. 
They  ordered  that  he  should  "  depart  out  of  the 
jurisdiction  within  six  weeks,"  and  that,  if  he  did 
not  go  of  himself,  the  Governor  and  two  of  the 
Magistrates  might  send  him.  Still  he  lingered  at 
Salem,  and  the  Magistrates  did  not  disturb  him, 
till  they  learned  that  he  was  busy  rekindling  the 
troublesome  excitement.  Then  they  sent  Captain 
Underbill  from  Boston  to  put  him  on  board  a  ves- 
sel about  to  sail  for  England.  Three  days  ^^g, 
before  that  officer  reached  Salem,  Williams  ''^^■ 
left  his  family  there,  and  took  to  the  woods. 

Forty  years  after  his  departure  from  Salem, 
Williams  related  that  he  was  "  sorely  tossed  for 
fourteen  weeks,  in  a  bitter  winter  season,  not  know- 
ing what  bread  or  bed  did  mean."  He  appears  to 
have  passed  the  winter  among  the  Pokanoket  In- 
dians, with  whom  he  had  become  acquainted  dur- 
ing his  residence  at   Plymouth.     Governor  Win- 


166  PROVIDENCE. 

throp,  he  says,  had  advised  him  "  to  steer  his  course 
to  the  Nahigoiisett  Bay  and  Indians."  Proceeding 
in  that  direction,  he  stopped  at  Seekonk, 
where,  being  joined  in  the  spring  by  a  few 
friends  from  Salem,  he  "  first  pitched,  and  began 
to  build  and  plant."  A  letter  from  Governor 
Winslow,  however,  who  told  him  that  he  was  occu- 
pying land  that  belonged  to  Plymouth,  induced  him 
to  change  his  plan.  Embarking,  with  five  com- 
panions, on  the  Seekonk  River,  in  search  of 
another  home,  he  landed  on  the  high  point 
which  divides  that  stream  from  the  uppermost  inlet 
of  Narragansett  Bay,  and  by  a  spring  of  water  laid 
the  foundation  of  what  is  now  the  beautiful  city 
of  Providence.  From  the  Narragansett  chiefs, 
Canonicus  and  Miantonomo,  he  obtained  leave  to 
occupy  the  lands  "  lying  upon  the  two  fresh  rivers, 
Mooshausick  and  Wanasquatucket."  The  bargain, 
with  its  avails,  was  his  own  ;  he  fulfilled  it  with 
money  borrowed  on  a  mortgage  of  his  property  in 
Salem  ;  but  he  freely  gave  lands  to  all  comers. 

The  government  first  established  was  in  the 
simplest  form  of  a  democracy.  For  four  years  a 
town  treasurer  was  the  only  officer.  "  We  do 
promise  "  —  such  was  the  compact  of  the  associ- 
ates —  "  to  subject  ourselves,  in  active  and  passive 
obedience,  to  all  such  orders  or  agreements  as  shall 
be  made  for  public  good  of  the  body  in  an  orderly 
way,  by  the  major  consent  of  the  present  inhab- 
itants, masters  of  families,  incorporated  together 
into  a  township,  and  such  others  whom  they  shall 


EARLY  PROCEEDINGS.  167 

admit  into  the  same,  only  in  civil  things."  Thus  it 
was  already  seen  to  be  necessary  to  recognize  in 
the  social  constitution  the  same  right  as  to  the 
selection  of  associates  which  had  been  exercised  in 
the  expulsion  of  the  leader  by  the  Massachusetts 
people.  But  further  experience  was  required  to 
refute  some  more  exalted  theories,  which  a  gener- 
ous enthusiasm  had  too  confidently  embraced. 

Scarcely  any  records  of  the  settlement  at  Provi- 
dence for  the  first  ten  years  are  extant.  Such  as 
were  made  are  believed  to  have  been  mostly 

•'      1676. 

destroyed  when  the  Indians  set  fire  to  the 
town  in  Philip's  War.    Among  the  fragments  which 
remain,  two,  besides  what  have  been  already  re- 
ferred to,  are  of  principal  importance.     One    i638. 
is  a  grant,  to  thirteen  associates,  of  "  the 
meadow  ground  at  Pawtuxet,"  lying  west  of  the 
original  settlement,  on  the  other  side  of  the  bay ; 
a  proceeding  which   was   followed    by   important 
consequences,  to  be  explained  hereafter.     The  other 
exhibits  the  "  Form  of  Government,"  devised  by 
four   "  arbitrators "    chosen   for  the   purpose,   and 
subscribed  by  thirty-nine  freemen  as  the  rule    i640. 
of  their   association.     It  contains    scarcely 
anything  except  a  provision  for  the  adjustment  of 
disputes,  through  a  permanent  board  of  "  five  dis- 
posers," to  be  chosen  by  the  inhabitants,  and  the 
subsidiary  arrangements  suitable  for  carrying  this 
plan  into  effect.     In  his  new  home  Williams's  own 
restless  career  took  new  directions.     He  be-    jgaa. 
came  dissatisfied  with  his  baptism,  and  was   ***'^- 


168  PROVIDENCE. 

baptized  anew.  In  a  few  months  he  distrusted  the 
last  administration  of  that  ordinance,  and  waited 
for  a  new  apostolic  commission  to  give  it  validity. 
"  After  that,  he  set  himself  upon  a  way  of  seeking 
(with  two  or  three  of  those  that  had  dissented  with 
him)  by  way  of  preaching  and  praying;  and  these 
he  continued  a  year  or  two,  till  two  of  the  three 
left  him."  Throughout  his  long  life  he  continued 
to  present  a  rare  specimen  of  individualism.  But 
the  vital  spirit  of  religion  never  deserted  him. 


CHAPTER  XL 

MASSACHUSETTS    AND    CONNECTICUT. 

The  change  of  rulers  in  Massachusetts  when 
Winthrop  was  superseded  as  Governor  had  con- 
sisted merely  in  the  promotion  of  two  of  his  asso- 
ciates in  the  magistracy,  while  he  was  still  their 
colleague  as  an  Assistant.  The  government  con- 
tinued to  be  conducted  according  to  the  same 
principles  and  by  the  same  methods  as  during  the 
four  years  of  his  wise  and  upright  administration 
of  the  chief  office.  While  the  recent  intelligence 
from  England  gave  great  uneasiness,  the  means 
and  the  confidence  of  the  colonists  were  increased 
by  the  arrival  of  large  numbers  of  their  friends. 

During  the  year  of  Dudley's  service  as  Governor, 
Endicott,  instigated,  as  was  said,  by  Roger  Wil- 
liams, caused  the  red  cross  of  Enarland  to 

1634. 

be  obliterated  from  the  colors  of  the  train- 
bands under  his  command.  "  Much  matter  was 
made  of  this,"  writes  Winthrop,  "  as  fearing  it 
would  be  taken  as  an  act  of  rebellion,  or  of  like 
high  nature  ;  though  the  truth  were,  it  was  done 
upon  this  opinion,  that  the  red  cross  was  given  to 
the  King  of  England  by  the  Pope  as  an  ensign  of 
victory,  and  so  a  superstitious  thing,  and  a  relict 
of    Antichrist."      The    Magistrates   weye   ^neasy. 


170  MASSACHUSETTS. 

Scruples  of  their  own,  as  well  as  of  their  constit- 
uents, forbade  them  to  condemn  the  act,  yet  they 
could  not  fail  to  see  how  much  trouble  it  might 
give  them  at  court.  They  informed  their  friend, 
Mr.  Downing,  in  England,  of  their  "  dislike  of  the 
thing,  and  purpose  to  punish  the  offenders,"  in 
order  that,  "  if  occasion  were,  he  might  show  it  in 
their  excuse  ;"  but  "  they  expressed  themselves  with 
as  much  wariness  as  they  might,  being  doubtful 
of  the  lawful  use  of  the  cross  in  an  ensign."  The 
question  was  too  perplexing  to  be  immediately  dis- 
posed of.  "  Because  the  Court  could  not  agree 
about  the  thing,  whether  the  ensigns  should  be  laid 
by,  in  regard  that  many  refused  to  follow 
Marcii4.  them,  the  whole  cause  was  deferred  till  the 
next  General  Court,  and  the  commissioners  for 
military  affairs  gave  orders  in  the  mean  time  that 
all  the  ensigns  should  be  laid  aside." 

The  freemen  did  not  forget  Cotton's  lesson  con- 
cerning the  right  of  permanence  in  office.  They 
allowed  Dudley  to  serve  them  only  one  year  as 
Governor.  John  Haynes,  who  succeeded 
him,  was  from  the  county  of  Essex  in  Eng- 
land, where  he  possessed  a  large  property.  He 
had  lately  come  over,  in  company  with  John  Cot- 
ton. Richard  Bellingham,  who  was  made  Deputy- 
Governor,  had  arrived  still  more  recently.  He  had 
been  educated  a  lawyer,  had  filled  the  office  of 
Recorder  in  the  English  Boston,  and  was  one  of 
the  twenty-six  freemen  named  in  the  charter,  which 
be  was  thought  to  have  had  a  hand  in  framing. 


ADMINISTRATION   OF   GOVERNOR   HAYNES.         171 

The  other  Magistrates  were  the  same  as  in  the 
preceding  year,  except  that  Atherton  Hough,  who 
had  come  over  with  Haynes,  and  Richard  Dummer, 
who  had  been  at  Roxbury  three  years,  were  chosen 
Assistants,  while  Endicott  and  Ludlow  were  dis- 
missed to  private  life,  the  former  on  account  of  his 
rash  proceeding  in  relation  to  the  flag,  the  latter 
because  of  his  having  passionately  resented  the 
promotion  of  Haynes  over  him. 

Endicott  was  punished  for  his  indiscretion  by 
being  "  disabled  for  one  year  from  having  any  pub- 
lic office."  But  the  main  question  that  had  arisen 
still  remained  to  be  disposed  of.  In  the  course  of 
the  year  a  measure  was  adopted  that  seemed  to 
shift  the  responsibility  from  the  Magistrates.  "  It 
was  referred  to  the  military  committee  to  appoint 
colors  for  every  company,  who  did  accordingly,  and 
left  out  the  cross  in  all  of  them,  appointing  the 
King's  arms  to  be  put  into  that  of  Castle  Island." 
There  the  royal  colors  would  be  seen  by  the  ship- 
ping, and  prevent  a  damaging  report  from  being 
carried  to  England. 

A  tendency  to  well-defined  and  settled  institu- 
tions was  indicated  by  several  measures  adopted 
towards  the  close  of  Haynes's  administration.  The 
General  Court  empowered  the  Magistrates  jggg 
"  from  time  to  time  to  dispose  of  the  sitting  *'"^''  ^' 
down  of  men  in  any  new  plantations,"  and  forbade 
settlements  to  be  made  without  their  consent.  The 
number  of  Greneral  Courts  was  reduced  from  four 
in  each  year  to  two.     Local  courts  of  justice  were 


172  MASSACHUSETTS. 

instituted,  each  charged  to  hold  four  sessions  in 
each  year,  the  places  being  Boston,  Newtown. 
Salem,  and  Ipswich.  A  rule  was  made  for  pre- 
sentments by  a  grand  jury  to  precede  a  prosecu- 
tion. A  definition  of  the  powers  of  towns  gave 
the  first  legislative  authority  to  that  municipal 
system  of  New  England  which,  with  such  happy 
results,  has  survived  to  the  present  day.  The  free- 
men of  the  several  towns  were  empowered  "  to 
dispose  of  their  own  lands  and  woods,"  to  "  choose 
their  own  particular  officers,"  and  to  "  make  such 
orders  as  might  concern  the  wellbeing  of  their 
own  towns,  not  repugnant  to  the  laws  and  orders 
of  the  General  Court."  And  the  right  of  repre- 
sentation in  the  central  government  was  roughly 
apportioned  to  the  towns,  according  to  the  amount 
of  their  population.  Towns  with  fewer  than  ten 
freemen  had  no  right  to  choose  a  Deputy ;  "  those 
that  had  above  ten  and  under  twenty  [freemen], 
not  above  one  ;  betwixt  twenty  and  forty,  not 
above  two ;  and  those  that  had  above  forty,  three 
if  they  would,  but  not  above." 

A  scarcely  less  important  proceeding  of  the  time 
related  to  the  formation  of  churches.  As  no  per- 
son could  become  a  freeman  without  being  first  a 
church-member,  and  as  admission  into  a  church 
was  obtained  by  the  consent  of  its  officers  and 
members,  a  question  could  not  fail  to  present  it- 
self as  to  safeguards  for  political  integrity  at  the 
source  of  political  power.  Nothing  less,  it  seemed, 
than  a  prohibition  of  the  forming  of  any  church 


SIR  HENRY  VANE.  173 

without  the  approbation  of  the  whole  coram  unity- 
expressed  through  its  rulers  would  suffice  to  se- 
cure an  accordance  between  the  sentiments  of  the 
church-member  and  freeman  and  the  vital  princi- 
ples of  the  Commonwealth.  Accordingly,  a  law 
w^as  made  providing  that  no  church  should  be  es- 
tablished without  the  approbation  of  the  Magis- 
trates and  of  the  majority  of  existing  churches, 
and  that  no  member  of  any  church  irregularly 
formed  without  such  authority,  should  "  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  freedom  of  the  Commonwealth." 

In  the  autumn  of  the  year  in  which  Haynes  was 
Governor,  three  persons  of  special  note  ar-    jggg 
rived   in    Massachusetts.      John    Winthrop  ^''*-^- 
the  younger  had  been  there  before,  having  come 
over  in  the  year  after  his  father,  when   he    jggj 
was  twenty-five   or  twenty-six   years    old.  ^ov.  2. 
At  the  time  of  that  visit  he  had  remained  more 
than  two  years,  during  which    he   established   a 
plantation  at  Ipswich. 

One  of  the  companions  of  his  present  voyage  was 
a  person  destined  for  a  short  time  to  exercise  an 
important  agency  in  the  affairs  of  New  England, 
and  subsequently  to  act  a  part  scarcely  secondary 
to  any  on  a  much  more  conspicuous  theatre.  This 
was  the  young  Henry  Vane.  His  father,  the  rep- 
resentative of  an  ancient  line,  and  himself  expe- 
rienced in  high  public  employments  in  the  present 
and  the  late  reign,  was  at  this  period  a  Privy 
Counsellor  and  one  of  the  Secretaries  of  State. 
The  son,  now  twenty-three  years   old,  "  being  a 


174  MASSACHUSETTS. 

young  gentleman  of  excellent  parts,  had  been 
employed  by  his  father,  when  he  was  ambassador, 
in  foreign  affairs ;  yet,  being  called  to  the  obedience 
of  the  gospel,  forsook  the  honors  and  preferments 
of  the  court,  to  enjoy  the  ordinances  of  Christ  in 
their  purity  here.  His  father  being  averse  to  this 
way,  (as  no  way  savoring  the  power  of  religion,) 
would  hardly  have  consented  to  bis  coming  hither, 
but  that,  acquainting  the  King  with  his  son's  dis- 
position and  desire,  he  commanded  him  to  send 
him  hither,  and  gave  him  license  for  three  years' 
stay  here." 

The  third  personage  in  this  distinguished  trio 
was  the  minister,  Hugh  Peter.  He  had  been  edu- 
cated at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  and  had  sub- 
sequently been  lecturer  at  St.  Sepulchre's  Church, 
in  London,  whence  he  had  been  driven,  by  the 
persecution  under  Laud,  to  Holland.  After  six 
years'  service  as  pastor  of  a  church  in  Rotterdam, 
he  was  induced,  by  annoyances  from  the  English 
ambassador,  to  resolve  to  join  the  colony  in  Massa- 
chusetts, with  which  he  was  the  better  acquainted 
from  having  been  a  member  of  the  company  be- 
fore leaving  England,  and  a  liberal  contributor  to 
its  stock.  He  was  soon  inducted  into  the  place 
lately  vacated  by  Williams  in  the  church  at  Salem. 
He  was  a  man  of  great  talents,  and  of  restless  and 
various  activity.  He  saw  at  once  the  commercial 
capacities  of  the  country,  and  set  himself  to  work 
to  develop  thein. 

At  the  first  election  after  Vane's  arrival,  he  was 


ADMINISTRATION   OF  GOVERNOR  VANE.  175 

chosen  Governor,  with  Winthrop  for  his  Deputy. 
It  is  likely  that  the  resentment  of  the  freemen 
against  Cotton's  doctrine  of  a  vested  estate  in  the 
high  offices  were  not  yet  exhausted.  It  may  have 
been  believed  that  Governor  Haynes  intended  to 
leave  Massachusetts.  And  the  remarkable  per- 
sonal qualities  of  Vane,  set  off  by  his  eminent 
social  position,  required  no  long  time  to  make 
themselves  felt.  His  accession  was  greeted  with 
unusual  pomp.  "  Because  he  was  son  and  heir  to 
a  Privy  Counsellor  in  England,  the  ships  congrat- 
ulated his  election  with  a  volley  of  great  shot." 

The  King's  mutilated  flag  flapped  forthwith  in 
the  face  of  the  son  of  the  King's  Privy  Counsellor 
and  Secretary  of  State.  A  seaman  said,  "  that  be- 
cause we  had  not  the  King's  colors  at  our  fort,  we 
were  all  traitors  and  rebels."  The  Magistrates 
caused  him  to  be  apprehended  and  put  in  jggg 
gaol.  He  acknowledged  his  offence,  made  ^^y^^- 
a  submission,  and  was  discharged.  The  Governor, 
reasonably  thinking  that  this  might  not  be  the  last 
of  it,  advised  with  the  ship-masters  then  in  port. 
They  said  that,  as  they  should  be  questioned  when 
they  got  home,  it  would  be  well  for  them  to  be 
able  to  report  that  they  had  seen  the  national  en- 
sign displayed  at  the  Castle.  And  now  a  singular 
fact  appeared.  In  an  English  colony  six  years 
old,  that  ensign  was  not  to  be  found.  "  It  was 
answered,  that  we  had  not  the  King's  colors." 
The  ship-masters  offered  to  furnish  them,  and  they 
were  hoisted  accordingly  over  the  fort,  but  not  till 


176  MASSACHUSETTS. 

after  anxious  consultation,  and,  as  far  as  Winthrop 
and  some  other  Magistrates  were  concerned,  with 
only  a  dissatisfied  and  reluctant  consent. 

In  palpable  disregard  of  the  charter,  a  new  order 
of  magistracy  was  instituted  in  this  year  of  reforms. 
The   last    General    Court  that  sat  while  Haynes 
was  Governor  resolved  that  the  Court,  at  its  meet- 
ins:  two  months  later,  "  and  so  from  time  to 

March  3.       .  °  .  ,         ,  ,  .  ,         ,  ,      , 

time,  as  occasion  should  require,  should  elect 
a  certain  number  of  Magistrates,  for  term  of  their 
lives,  as  a  Standing  Council,  not  to  be  removed  but 
upon  due  conviction  of  crime,  insufficiency,  or  for 
some  other  weighty  cause."  The  proposed  dig- 
nity was  now  conferred  upon  Winthrop  and 
*^  '  Dudley  ;  upon  Endicott  in  the  following 
year ;  and  never  upon  any  other  person.  The  plan 
was  not  pressed ;  it  acquired  no  favor  with  the 
people,  and  came  to  nothing.  It  appears  to  have 
been  at  once  a  revival  of  Cotton's  doctrine  of  per- 
petuity in  office,  and  a  concession  to  a  proposal 
which  had  been  made  by  Lord  Say  and  Sele  to 
introduce  an  aristocratical  element  into  the  gov- 
ernment. 

At  the  same  time,  a  more  plausible  scheme  was 
defeated  as  to  present  execution.      "The  people 

thought  their  condition  very  unsafe,  while 

so  much  power  vested  in  the  discretion  of  Magis- 
trates ; "  and  the   General   Court  raised  a 
*  committee    "  to  make  a  draught  of  lawy." 
At  first  sight  this  seems  very  wise  on  the  part  of 
the  people.     But  Winthrop  and  his  friends  in  the 


PROJECT  OF  A  CODE  Of  LAWS.  177 

magistracy  and  ministry  were  wiser.  A  formal 
code,  with  provisions  conformed  in  all  respects  to 
the  convenience  and  wishes  of  the  people, "  would," 
he  said,  "  professedly  transgress  the  limits  of  our 
charter,  which  provides  we  shall  make  no  laws  re- 
pugnant to  the  laws  of  England ;  and  that  we  are 
assured  we  must  do ;  but  to  raise  up  laws  by  prac- 
tice and  custom  had  been  no  transgression  ;  as,  in 
our  church  discipline  and  in  matters  of  marriage, 
to  make  a  law  that  marriages  should  not  be  sol- 
emnized by  ministers  is  repugnant  to  the  laws  of 
England ;  but  to  bring  it  a  custom  by  practice  for 
the  Magistrate  to  perform  it,  is  by  no  law  made 
repugnant."  Those  Magistrates  and  ministers  who 
did  not  favor  the  scheme  of  a  code  of  statute  laws 
knew  how  to  interpose  embarrassments  and  delays; 
and  several  years  passed  before  the  plan  was  car- 
ried into  effect,  though  it  was  never  lost  sight  of, 
and  was  repeatedly  urged  by  the  freemen. 

In  view  of  "  the  great  danger  and  damage  that 
might  accrue  to  the  State  by  all  the  freemen  leav- 
ing their  plantations  to  come  to  the  place  of  elec- 
tions," a  General  Court,  convened  by  Vane  towards 
the  close  of  his  term  of  office,  made  it  "  free  and 
lawful  for  all  freemen  to  send  their  votes  for  elec- 
tions by  proxy,"  By  the  same  Court  it  was 
"  ordered  that  all  military  men  in  the  jurisdiction 
should  be  ranked  into  three  regiments,"  according 
to  a  division  which  subsequently  became  the  basis 
of  counties.  The  regiments  were  respectively  to 
elect  their   field   officers,  while   company  officers 

VOL.  I.  12 


178  CONNECTICUT. 

were  to  be  appointed  by  the  Magistrates,  from  a 
list  of  persons  nominated  by  the  towns.  The 
officers  were  all  to  be  freemen ;  but,  in  the  nom- 
ination for  company  officers,  non  -  freemen  might 
vote. 

Simultaneously  with  the  foundation  of  Provi- 
dence by  Roger  Williams,  a  more  important  move- 
ment took  place  towards  the  region  further  to  the 
west.  In  order  to  follow  the  course  of  this  trans- 
action, and  observe  its  connection  with  its  impor- 
tant incidents  in  Massachusetts,  it  is  necessary 
first  to  retrace  our  steps. 

The  establishment  of  a  factory  by  the  Plymouth 
1633  P^^P^^  ^^  ^^^  Fresh  River,  or  River  Con- 
necticut, has  been  mentioned  in  a  former 
chapter.  That  river  had  also  been  visited  by  a  little 
vessel  belonging  to  Governor  Winthrop,  and  by  the 
restless  John  Oldham,  who,  with  three  companions, 
went  thither  by  land.  Intelligence  which  continued 
to  be  brought  of  the  beauty  and  fertility  of  the 
Connecticut  valley  led  many  to  desire  to  transfer 
themselves  to  it  from  the  less  productive  soil  which 
they  had  occupied  in  Massachusetts.  Especially 
the  project  was  entertained  by  the  inhabitants  of 
Dorchester,  Roxbury,  Newtown,  and  Watertovvn. 
It  was  favored  at  Roxbury  by  Pynchon,  one  of  the 
Assistants,  and  at  Dorchester  by  Ludlow,  the  prin- 
cipal lay  citizen.  But  at  the  head  of  the  enterprise, 
in  the  shape  which  it  finally  took,  were  Hooker 
and  Stone,  ministers  of  Newtown,  and  their  pa- 
rishioner, John  Haynes. 


ORIGIN  OF  CONNECTICUT  COLONY.  179 

The  reader  has  some  acquaintance  with  the 
position  of  Haynes,  at  home  and  in  the  colony, 
Samuel  Stone,  educated,  like  so  many  of  our 
founders,  at  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge,  had 
been  a  lecturer  in  Northamptonshire  before  his 
flight  into  America.  Thomas  Hooker,  student 
and  Fellow  of  the  same  college,  bad  acquired 
a  high  reputation  in  the  same  employment  at 
Chelmsford,  in  Essex.  He  had  also  taught  a 
school,  in  which  John  Eliot,  afterwards  the  fa- 
mous missionary  to  the  Indians,  was  his  assistant. 
From  the  threats  of  the  High  Commission  Court 
he  escaped  to  Rotterdam,  where  he  became  Pastor 
of  the  congregation  served  by  Dr.  Ames  as  Teacher. 
The  intention  of  some  of  his  Essex  friends  having 
been  made  known  to  him,  he  returned  to  England, 
and,  going  on  shipboard  in  disguise,  joined  them, 
a  year  after  the  arrival  of  their  most  numerous 
company,  at  Newtown,  where  he  was  pres-  jggg 
ently  established  as  their  Pastor,  Mr.  Stone  °'^'-  ^^• 
being  associated  with  him  as  Teacher. 

Hooker  and  Stone  and  their  friends  did  not  like 
Newtown.  They  were  pleased  with  what  they 
heard  of  the  country  about  the  Connecticut.  A 
year  had  not  passed,  when  they  avowed  their  wish 
to  remove  thither.  There  were  those  who  imagined 
that  a  jealousy  of  Mr.  Winthrop  on  the  part  of 
Mr.  Haynes,  and  of  Mr.  Cotton  on  the  part  of  Mr. 
Hooker,  impelled  those  distinguished  persons  to 
seek  a  sphere  where  their  influence  would  cease  to 
be  controlled,  and  their  consequence  to  be  eclipsed, 


180  CONNECTICUT. 

by  rivals  earlier  possessed  of  the  public  confidence. 
Of  this  there  is  no  proof.  But  as  the  emigrants 
to  Connecticut  did  not  adopt  in  their  own  settle- 
ment that  radical  feature  of  the  social  system  of 
Massachusetts  which  founded  the  civil  franchise 
on  church-membership,  we  may  not  unnaturally 
suppose  that  dissatisfaction  with  it,  and  apprehen- 
sion of  what  might  follow  from  it,  were  among 
their  motives  for  seeking  a  new  home.  And  it  may 
have  been,  that,  in  the  existing  relations  between 
Massachusetts  and  the  mother  country,  Haynes 
and  Hooker  and  their  associates  were  disposed  to 
seek  whatever  security  might  be  afforded  by  a  res- 
idence more  remote  ;  a  motive  which  is  known  to 
have  had  a  part  in  prompting  the  next  later  emi- 
gration towards  the  west. 

The  Magistrates  did  all  in  their  power  to  hinder 
the  enterprise.  They  said  that  it  was  forbidden, 
by  the  obligations  under  which  every  settler  in 
Massachusetts  had  come  to  contribute  to  the  pros- 
perity of  that  colony  ;  that  Massachusetts  was 
"  now  weak  and  in  danger  to  be  assailed  ; "  and 
that  there  was  no  necessity  to  go  abroad  for  larger 
accommodation,  for  there  was  abundance  of  un- 
occupied land  within  her  limits.  In  the  General 
Court  fifteen  out  of  twenty-five  Deputies  gave  their 
sanction  to  the  undertaking,  while  of  the  Magis- 
trates all  but  the  Governor  and  two  Assistants 
dissented. 

The  disagreement  brought  up  an  important 
question,  not  immediately  to  be  put  to   rest,  re- 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  CONNECTICUT  COLONY.         181 

specting  the  possession  by  the  Magistrates  of  an 
effectual  negative  voice  in  the  government.  "  Upon 
this  grew  a  great  difference,"  and  "  the  whole  Court 
agreed  to  keep  a  day  of  humiliation  to  seek  the 
Lord,  which  accordingly  was  done  in  all  the  con- 
gregations." On  that  day  Cotton  addressed  the 
General  Court  in  what  was  thought  a  very  weighty 
sermon.  At  all  events,  its  effect  was  to  allay  the 
excitement.  "  Although  all  were  not  satisfied  about 
the  negative  voice  to  be  left  to  the  Magistrates, 
yet  no  man  moved  aught  about  it ;  and  the  congre- 
gation of  Newtown  came  and  accepted  of  such 
enlargement  as  had  formerly  been  offered  them  by 
Boston  and  Watertown,  and  so  the  fear  of  their 
removal  to  Connecticut  was  removed." 

But  the  scheme  was   not  abandoned.      In  the 
summer  of  the  following  year,  a  party  from 
Dorchester  travelled  to  the  neighborhood  of 
the   spot  where   the    Plymouth    factory  had  been 
planted,  and  a  few  explorers  from  Watertown  es- 
tablished themselves  where  Wethersfield  at  length 
grew    up.      A   more    important    movement    was 
made  in  the  autumn,  when  a  party  of  sixty 
persons,    including    women    and    children, 
set  off,  driving  cattle  before  them,  for  the  infant 
settlements.     Another  neighboring  plantation,  of 
independent  origin,  was  begun  at  the  same  time. 
John  Winthrop  the  younger,  at  his  recent  return 
to  New  England,  had  brought  a  commission  from 
Lord  Say  and  Sele,  Lord  Brooke,  and  other  pat- 
entees of  Connecticut,  to  look  after  their  property. 


182  CONNECTICUT. 

He  built  a  fort  at  the  river's  mouth,  on  the  spot 
which  four  years  afterwards  took  the  name  of  Say- 
brook  from  the  names  of  those  two  noblemen. 

The  Dorchester- and  Watertown  people  who  un- 
dertook to  winter  on  Connecticut  River  suffered 
extreme  hardship.  The  vessels  in  which  they  had 
laden  household  supplies  and  furniture  were  de- 
tained by  the  freezing  over  of  the  river.  The 
ground  was  early  covered  deep  with  snow.  The 
loss  of  the  Dorchester  settlement  alone,  in  cattle 
that  died  for  want  of  shelter  and  provender,  was 
estimated  at  two  thousand  pounds  sterling.  Sev- 
enty persons  found  their  way  back  to  Boston. 

In  the  following  year  the  people  of  Newtown 
carried  out  their  long- meditated  plan.  They  sold 
their  houses  and  other  immovable  property  to  a 
company  which  had  lately  arrived  under  the  lead- 
ership of  Mr.  Thomas  Shepard ;  and,  to  the  nura- 
jggg  ber  of  a  hundred,  of  both  sexes  and  all  ages, 
June,  they  set  out,  early  in  summer,  for  their 
new  home.  Their  herd  of  a  hundred  and  fifty 
cattle,  which  grazed  as  they  journeyed,  supplied 
them  with  milk.  Tents  and  wagons  protected 
them  from  the  rain,  and  sheltered  their  sleep.  At 
a  spot  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Connecticut,  just 
north  of  the  Dutch  stockade,  they  reached  the 
end  of  their  journey.  It  had  occupied  a  fort- 
night, though  the  distance  was  scarcely  a  hundred 
miles. 

The  two  groups  of  planters  above  and  below 
this  spot  were  reinforced  in  the  course  of  the  sum- 


PRIMITIVE    ADMINISTRATION.  183 

mer  by  the  emigration  of  the  churches,  to  which 
they  had  respectively  belonged,  of  Dorchester  and 
Watertown.     To  the  spots  selected  for  their  hab- 
itation, the  emigrants  gave,  for  the   present,  the 
names  of  the  towns  of  Massachusetts  from  which 
they  had  come.     Before   the   year    expired,  these 
names    were    superseded.       Newtown    was    jgg_ 
called    Hartford,   after   the    English    birth-  ^^''-^i- 
place  of  Mr.  Stone  ;  Watertown   took  the   name 
of  Wethersjield,  and  Dorchester  that  of  Windsor. 
Mr.  William   Pynchon   and    seven    other   persons 
from  Roxbury  established  themselves  upon    lem. 
a  beautiful  site  higher  up  the  river,  after-        '' 
wards  called  Springfield. 

The  local  business  of  the  several  plantations 
was  from  the  beginning  transacted  at  town  meet- 
ings. The  general  administration  of  the  four 
towns  for  the  first  year  was  in  the  hands  of  eight 
Commissioners,  who  had  been  appointed  by  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  "  to  gov- 

O  March. 

ern  the  people  of  Connecticut  for  the  space 
of  a  year."     This  arrangement  had  been  only  pro- 
visional, and  of  course  it  was  found  in  practice  to 
be  inconvenient  to  both  parties.     The  commission 
was  not  renewed ;  and  in  the  second  month  after 
the  expiration  of  the  year  to  which  it  had  been 
limited,  a   General  Court  for    Connecticut    iggj 
was  held  at  Hartford.     In  it  the  aggregate  ^'^^" 
community  was  represented  by  six  persons,  five  of 
whom  had  been  Commissioners,  while  nine  others 
appeared  as  "  committees,"  or  Deputies,  from  the 


184  CONNECTICUT. 

several  towns.  The  now  organized  colony  re- 
ceived at  the  same  time  the  welcome  accession 
of  John  Haynes.  Its  population  had  come  to  con- 
sist of  about  eight  hundred  persons,  including  two 
hundred  and  fifty  adult  men. 

Connecticut  began  her  history  with  a  dangerous 
war  with  the  most  formidable  of  the  native  tribes. 
In  the  same  summer  in  which  the  emigration  of 
the  three  churches  took  place,  Governor  Vane  sent 
jggg  Endicott,  at  the  head  of  a  party  of  ninety 
Aug.  24.  jjjg,^^  ^Q  demand  satisfaction  from  Sassacus, 
chief  of  the  Pequot  nation,  for  the  murder  of  four 
English  traders,  one  of  whom  was  John  Oldham. 
It  was  Endicott's  first  trust  of  such  a  kind,  and 
he  did  not  execute  it  with  good  judgment.  He 
burned  some  wigwams  and  canoes,  and  killed 
and  wounded  a  small  number  of  the  Pequots, 
but  could  get  no  audience  of  their  chief  men. 

The  movement,  instead  of  intimidating,  did  but 
irritate  that  warlike  nation.  Sassacus  exerted  him- 
self to  engage  the  Narragansetts,  the  hereditary 
enemies  of  his  tribe,  in  an  alliance  for  extermi- 
nating the  English  in  all  the  settlements.  There 
was  great  probability  that  these  endeavors  would 
succeed ;  and,  had  he  been  able  to  conciliate  the 
Narragansetts,  and  to  enlist  or  overawe  the  Mohe- 
gans,  there  was  no  power  in  the  colonists  to  make 
head  against  him,  and  the  days  of  civilized  New 
England  might  have  been  numbered  and  finished 
near  their  beginning.  The  ancient  hostility  of  the 
Narragansetts  to  their  overbearing  rivals  prevailed, 


WAR   WITH    THE   PEQUOTS.  185 

enforced  by  the  diplomacy  of  Roger  Williams, 
who,  at  the  hazard  of  his  life,  visited  their  settle- 
ments to  counteract  the  solicitations  with  which 
they  were  addressed.  Determined  by  his  influence, 
some  of  the  Narragansett  chiefs  came  to  Boston  in 
the  autumn,  and  concluded  a  treaty  of  peace  and 
alliance  with  the  colonists.  The  furious  and  for- 
midable Pequots  were  to  fight  their  battle  alone. 

They  spared  no  measures  of  a  nature  to  spread 
consternation  and  provoke  resentment.  In  the 
autumn,  they  caught  one  Butterfield  near  the  gar- 
rison at  the  river's  mouth,  and  he  was  never  heard 
of  more.  A  few  days  after,  they  took  two  men  out 
of  a  boat,  and  murdered  them  with  ingenious  bar- 
barity, cutting  off  first  the  hands  of  one  of  them, 
then  his  feet.  All  winter,  a  marauding  party  kept 
near  the  fort,  of  which  they  burned  the  out-build- 
ings and  the  hay,  and  kiUed  the  cattle.  Towards 
spring,  Gardiner,  the  commander,  went  out  with 
ten  men  for  some  farming  work ;  they  were  way- 
laid by  the  Indians,  and  three  of  them  were  slain. 
Soon  after,  two  men  sailing  down  the  river  were 
stopped  and  horribly  mutilated  and  mangled ;  their 
bodies  were  cut  in  two,  lengthwise,  and  the  parts 
hung  up  by  the  river's  bank.  A  man  who  had 
been  carried  off"  from  Wethersfield  was  roasted 
alive.  All  doubt  as  to  the  necessity  of  vigorous 
action  was  over,  when  a  band  of  a  hundred  Pequots 
attacked  that  place,  killed  seven  men,  a  woman, 
and  a  child,  and  carried  away  two  girls.  They 
had  now  put  to  death  no  less  than  thirty  of  the 
English. 


186  CONNECTICUT. 

The  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  in  the  Connec- 
ticut towns  were  surrounded  by  Indian  tribes,  who, 
from  their  hunting  grounds  between  Hudson  River 
and  Narragansett  Bay,  could,  if  united,  have  fallen 
upon  them  with  a  force  of  at  least  four  or  five 
thousand  warriors.  The  Pequots,  already  engaged 
in  open  hostility  against  them,  numbered  not  fewer 
than  a  thousand  fighting  men.  It  was  but  too 
probable  that  the  friendship  of  the  other  tribes 
would  not  long  be  proof  against  the  seductions  by 
which  they  continued  to  be  plied.  There  seemed 
no  alternative  for  the  distressed  colonists,  except 
their  own  speedy  extermination  or  a  sudden  exer- 
cise of  courage  and  conduct  that  should  crush  the 
assailant.  And,  if  a  bold  movement  should  suc- 
ceed, it  might  be  expected  to  impress  a  salutary 
lesson ;  to  break  up  the  dangerous  negotiations 
which  had  been  on  foot ;  to  settle  for  the  future 
the  relations  of  the  parties  ;  and  to  entail  a  lasting 
enjoyment  of  security  and  peace. 

Applications  to  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth 
for  aid  were  answered  by  the  promise  of  an  aux- 
iliary force  of  two  hundred  men,  one  fifth  of  that 
number  to  be  furnished  by  Plymouth.  But  no 
time  could  be  spared  for  these  troops  to  come  up. 
Forty-tw^o  soldiers  were  furnished  by  Hartford, 
thirty  by  Windsor,  and  eighteen  by  Wethersfield, 
and  the  command  was  intrusted  to  Captain  John 
Mason,  of  Windsor,  an  officer  who,  after  serving 
with  credit  in  the  Netherlands  under  Sir  Thomas 
Fairfax,  had  come  to  Massachusetts,  where,  before 


WAR  WITH  THE  PEQUOTS.  187 

his  next  remove,  he  had  been  a  Deputy  for  Dorches- 
ter in  the  General  Court.  For  the  transportation 
of  his  English  troops,  and  of  seventy  friendly  In- 
dians, led  by  the  Mohegan,  Uncas,  Mason  had 
three  small  vessels.  At  Gardiner's  fort  he  met 
Captain  John  Underbill,  of  Massachusetts,  who, 
with  twenty  men,  had  been  despatched  to  his  aid. 
These  Mason  decided  to  take  with  him,  sending 
back  as  many  of  his  own  party  for  the  protection 
of  the  exposed  settlements. 

A  question  which  presented  itself  at  the  outset 
divided  the  opinions  of  his  council  of  officers.  His 
orders  were  express  to  land  at  Pequot  River,  and 
attack  the  enemy  on  their  western  frontier.  He 
knew  this  to  be  the  side  from  which  they  were  ex- 
pecting the  assault,  and  which  they  had  strength- 
ened accordingly ;  and  he  preferred  to  approach 
them  through  the  Narragansett  country,  in  their 
rear.  His  officers  shrank  from  the  responsibility 
of  disobeying  the  instructions,  and  leaving  their 
homes  so  long  undefended  as  the  protracting  of 
the  campaign  through  several  days  would  require. 
Mason  proposed  to  leave  the  question  undecided 
till,  during  the  next  night,  the  chaplain,  Mr.  Stone, 
should  have  sought  the  Divine  direction  in  prayer. 
It  was  so  arranged,  and,  early  the  next  morning, 
Mr.  Stone  reported  at  headquarters  that  the  Cap- 
tain's plan  for  the  campaign  was  the  correct  one, 
—  a  judgment  which  was  forthwith  unanimously 
confirmed  by  a  council  of  war. 

Accordingly,  the  little  squadron  set  sail  from  the 


188  CONNECTICUT. 

fort,  and  arrived  the  next  evening  at  the  place  of 
jgg^  its  destination,  near  the  western  cape  of  the 
May  20.  entrance  to  Narragansett  Bay,  at  the  foot 
of  what  is  now  called  Tower  Hill.  The  next  day 
they  kept  their  Sabbath  quietly  on  shipboard,  and 
then  came  a  storm  which  prevented  them  from 
disembarking  till  Tuesday  evening.  Mason  had 
an  interview  with  the  sachem  of  the  friendly  Nar- 
ragansetts,  who  engaged  to  reinforce  him  with  two 
hundred  men  of  his  own,  and  as  many  of  the 
neighboring  Nyantic  tribe.  Here,  too.  Mason  re- 
ceived a  message  from  Providence,  informing  him 
of  the  arrival  of  a  Massachusetts  party  at  that 
place,  under  Captain  Patrick,  and  proposing  to 
him  to  wait  till  it  could  come  up.  But  a  rapid 
movement  was  thought  to  be  of  more  consequence 
than  an  augmented  force. 

On  the  day  following  his  debarkation.  Mason, 
at  the  head  of  seventy-seven  brave  Englishmen, 
(the  rest  being  left  in  charge  of  the  vessels,)  sixty 
frightened  Mohegans,  and  four  hundred  more  ter- 
rified Narragansetts  and  Nyantics,  marched 
*^  ■  twenty  miles  westward,  towards  the  Pequot 
country,  to  a  fort  occupied  by  some  suspected 
neutrals.  For  fear  lest  intelligence  should  be  con- 
veyed, this  fort  was  invested  for  the  night.  On 
Thursday,  after  a  march  of  about  fifteen  miles,  to 
a  place  five  miles  northwest  of  the  present  principal 
village  of  Stonington,  the  soldiers  encamped,  an 
hour  after  dark,  near  to  a  hill,  upon  which,  accord- 
ing to  information  received  from  their  allies,  (who, 


WAR   WITH  THE  PEQUOTS.  189 

"  being  possessed  with  great  fear,"  had  nearly  all 
fallen  behind,)  stood  the  principal  stronghold  of  the 
Pequots.  It  was  evident  that  no  alarm  had  been 
given,  for  the  sentinels  could  hear  the  noisy  revel- 
ling within  the  place,  which  was  kept  up  till  mid- 
night. The  savages,  who  from  the  heights  had 
seen  the  vessels  pass  to  the  eastward  along  the 
Sound,  supposed  that  the  settlers  had  abandoned 
their  hostile  intentions  in  despair. 

Their  fort  was  a  nearly  circular  area  of  an  acre 
or  two,  enclosed  by  trunks  of  trees,  twelve  feet 
high,  or  thereabouts,  set  firmly  in  the  ground  so 
closely  as  to  exclude  entrance,  while  the  interstices 
served  as  port-holes  for  marksmen.  Within,  ar- 
ranged along  two  lanes,  were  some  seventy  wig- 
wams, covered  with  matting  and  thatch.  At  two 
points,  for  entrance,  spaces  were  left  between  the 
timbers,  these  intervals  being  protected  only  by  a 
slighter  structure,  or  loose  branches. 

At  these  points,  Mason  and  Underbill  were  to 
force  an  entrance,  each  at  the  head  of  half  the 
Englishmen,  while  those  of  their  Indian  allies  who 
remained  (the  Nyantics  and  Narragansetts  having 
mostly  disappeared)  should  invest  the  fort  in  a 
circle,  and  arrest  the  fugitives.  Before  breaking 
up  their  camp,  the  little  band  took  time  to  join  in 
prayer.  Two  hours  before  dawn,  under  a  bright 
moonlight,  they  set  off  for  the  fort,  two  miles  dis- 
tant. Mason  had  come  within  a  few  feet  of  the 
sally-port  which  he  was  seeking,  when  a  dog  barked, 
and  the   cry  of   Owanuxl    Owanux !    ''English- 


190  CONNECTKJUT. 

men  !  Englishmen  !  "  which  immediately  followed, 
showed  that  the  alarm  was  given.  With  sixteen 
men  he  instantly  pushed  into  the  enclosure.  Un- 
derhill  did  the  same  on  the  opposite  side.  The  ter- 
rified sleepers  rushed  out  of  their  wigwams,  but 
soon  sought  refuge  in  them  again  from  the  Eng- 
lish broadswords  and  fire-arms.  Their  number  was 
too  great  to  be  dealt  with  by  such  weapons. 
Snatching  a  live  brand  from  a  wigwam,  Mason 
threw  it  on  a  matted  roof;  Underbill  set  fire  in  his 
quarter  with  a  train  of  powder ;  and  the  straw  vil- 
lage was  presently  in  flames.  All  was  over  in  an 
hour.  The  muskets  of  the  English  brought  down 
those  who  escaped  the  conflagration,  and  most  of 
the  stragglers  who  avoided  this  fate  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  native  allies,  who  had  kept  cautiously 
aloof  from  the  conflict,  but  had  no  mercy  on  the 
fugitives.  "  It  is  reported  by  themselves,"  says 
Underbill,  "  that  there  were  about  four  hundred 
souls  in  this  fort,  and  not  above  five  of  them  es- 
caped out  of  our  hands."  According  to  other 
accounts,  seven  hundred  perished.  Of  the  Eng- 
lish only  two  men  were  killed,  but  the  number  of 
wounded  was  more  than  a  quarter  of  the  force. 

Mason  had  a  narrow  escape.  An  Indian  close 
by  had  taken  deliberate  aim  at  him,  when  Mason's 
orderly  made  a  spring  at  the  savage  just  in  time 
to  cut  the  bowstring.  There  was  another  Indian 
fort  four  or  five  miles  further  west,  near  the  path  to 
Pequot  Harbor,  where  he  had  appointed  to  meet 
his  vessels.     He  did  not  know  the  way  out  of  the 


WAR  WITH  THE  PEQUOTS.  191 

country.  His  movements  were  encumbered  by  his 
wounded,  who,  with  their  bearers,  amounted  to  full 
half  his  force;  his  scanty  supply  of  ammunition 
and  food  was  spent ;  his  surgeon  had  been  left  be- 
hind at  the  Narragansett  landing;  and  the  heat  of 
the  weather  was  overpowering.  As  the  party  kept 
on  their  slow  way,  they  saw  approaching  more  than 
three  hundred  savages  from  the  other  fort,  who,  in- 
formed of  the  morning's  work,  were  tearing  their 
hair,  stamping  on  the  ground,  and  clamoring  for 
revenge.  Hiring  his  allies  to  carry  the  wounded. 
Mason  managed  to  keep  up  the  spirits  of  his  ex- 
hausted men,  and  to  hold  the  assailants  at  bay 
while  he  pursued  his  impeded  march.  Fifty  of  his 
Narragansetts,  set  upon  by  the  Pequots,  took  to 
flight,  and  he  had  to  detach  Underbill  with  a  party 
for  their  rescue.  At  length,  as  he  reached  an  emi- 
nence, at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  his  eyes  were 
gladdened  by  the  sight  of  Pequot  Harbor,  and  of 
his  vessels  coming  to  anchor  within  it.  The  weary 
conquerors  thanked  God  and  took  courage,  owning, 
in  the  spirit  of  the  time,  the  special  Providence  that 
sent  them  such  relief.  Their  appearance  on  the 
heights,  "  with  colors  flying,"  gave  the  seamen  the 
first  notice  of  their  approach,  their  drum  having 
been  "  left  at  the  rendezvous  the  night  before." 

At  evening  they  went  to  rest  on  board  the  ves- 
sels, in  which  they  found  the  company  from  Massa- 
chusetts, under  Captain  Patrick  ;  it  had  arrived  at 
Point  Judith  after  the  departure  of  the  land  expe- 
dition, and  been  taken  on  board.     The  first  care 


192  CONNECTICUT. 

was  to  despatch  the  greater  part  of  the  force  for 
the  protection  of  the  towns.  Then,  sending  round 
the  wounded  by  sea,  and  scouring  the  intervening 
country  with  what  remained  of  his  command, 
Mason  led  them  by  land  to  the  fort,  where  they 
were  "  nobly  entertained  by  Lieutenant  Gardiner, 
with  many  great  guns,"  and  where  they  rested 
for  their  Sabbath.  The  next  week  saw  the  whole 
dispersed  to  their  homes  in  the  three  towns.  The 
imagination  easily  pictures  the  welcome  which 
greeted  the  deliverers. 

The  remnant  of  the  doomed  nation  collected  in 
the  western  fort.  After  stormy  debate  on  the  ques- 
tion whether  they  should  fall  upon  the  Narragan- 
setts  or  upon  the  English,  or  seek  safety  by  flight, 
they  resolved  oh  the  last  course  ;  and  burning  their 
wigwams  and  their  supplies,  they  set  off  to  join 
the  Mohawks,  on  the  Hudson.  Giving  new  prov- 
ocation by  putting  to  death  some  Englishmen  on 
the  way,  they  were  pursued  by  Mason  with  forty 
men,  who  were  joined  by  one  hundred  and  twenty 
from  Massachusetts,  under  Stoughton,  A  party 
of  the  fugitives,  some  three  hundred  in  number, 
was  overtaken  a  little  west  of  where  now  stands 
New  Haven,  encamped  in  a  spot  surrounded  by 
quagmires,  which  rendered  it  difficult  of  access. 
The  English  sent  an  interpreter,  with  a  proposal, 
which  was  accepted,  for  a  surrender  of  the  old  men, 
women,  and  children,  whom  they  were  "  loath  to 
destroy."  In  the  foggy  morning  which  followed, 
the  warriors  made  a  sally,  and  seventy  broke  through 


END  OF  THE  WAR.  193 

and  escaped.  Stragglers  of  the  tribe  were  put  to 
death  in  considerable  numbers  by  neighboring 
Indians,  who  all  seem  to  have  owed  the  Pequots 
an  ancient  grudge.  Sassacus  was  killed  by  the 
Mohawks,  to  whom  he  had  fled.  The  Pequot 
nation  became  extinct,  the  survivors  being  merged, 
under  English  mediation,  in  the  Narragansett, 
Mohegan,  and  Nyantic  tribes.  And  from  savage 
violence  the  land  had  rest  forty  years. 


IS 


CHAPTER  XIL 

THE    ANTINOMIAN    FACTION. 

The  war  against  the  Pequots  had  been  waged 
by  the  English  on  the  Connecticut  at  such  extreme 
disadvantage,  that  nothing  short  of  a  conviction 
of  its  necessity  can  be  supposed  to  have  induced 
them  to  engage  in  it.  The  settlements  which  un- 
dertook to  equip  and  victual  a  force  consisting  of 
more  than  one  third  of  their  adult  males,  were 
themselves  not  far  from  starvation.  In  the  summer 
of  the  principal  emigration,  the  labors  of  husbandry 
had  been  interrupted  by  those  of  making  roads  and 
erecting  and  fortifying  habitations.  In  the  autumn 
there  were  only  thirty  ploughs  in  Massachusetts, 
and  it  is  not  likely  that  there  was  a  quarter  of  that 
number  in  Connecticut.  In  the  winter  which  fol- 
lowed, the  cattle  suffered  from  insufficiency  of  food 
and  shelter ;  and  fanning  stock,  and  provisions, 
both  meat  and  grain,  bore  an  enormous  price, 
whUe  hunting  and  fishing  were  made  dangerous 
occupations  by  the  near  neighborhood  of  watchful 
savages.  Nor  did  the  struggle,  successful  as  it 
had  been,  fail  to  bring  heavy  burdens  of  its  own. 
While  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  able-bodied 
men  were  in  the  field,  production  was  stinted  on 
the  one  hand,   and    debt   incurred    on   the  other. 


MRS.  ANN  HUTCHINSON.  195 

Indian  corn  was  sold  for  twelve  shillings  a  bushel, 
at  the  time  when  a  tax  of  five  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  was  levied  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  war, 
and  the  towns  were  required  to  furnish  themselves 
with  military  stores,  and  the  individual  citizens  to 
keep  themselves  provided  with  arms  and  ammu- 
nition. 

While  the  Pequot  war  was  going  on,  still  more 
serious  embarrassments  of  a  different  description 
were  crippling  the  energy  of  the  settlement  on  the 
Bay.  When  Patrick  and  Stoughton  were  de- 
spatched to  Connecticut,  they  left  the  elder  colony 
rent  by  faction,  and  in  imminent  danger  of  civil 
war. 

Scarcely  were  the  Massachusetts  Magistrates  rid 
of  Roger  Williams,  when  they  found  themselves 
engaged  again  in  a  much  more  threatening  contest 
than  what  he  had  raised,  and  much  more  difficult 
for  them  to  conduct,  for  various  reasons,  —  one  of 
which  was,  that  the  head  of  opposition  was  a  ca- 
pable and  resolute  woman.  The  name  of  Mrs. 
Ann  Hutchinson  is  dismally  conspicuous  in  the 
early  history  of  New  England.  She  perhaps  well- 
nigh  brought  it  to  an  end  very  near  to  its  begin- 
ning. 

She  had  come  to  Massachusetts  in  the  ves- 
sel that  brought  the  copy  of  the  commission 
which  empowered  the  two  archbishops  and  nine 
others  of  the  Privy  Council  to  regulate  foreign 
plantations  and  call  in  charters,  —  a  coinci-  jgg^ 
dence  suited  to  render  internal  agitations  ^p*-^^- 


196  THE  ANTINOMIAN  FACTION. 

doubly  unwelcome.  She  had  accompanied  her 
husband  from  their  home  at  Alford,  near  Boston, 
in  Lincolnshire,  where  they  had  enjoyed  a  good 
estate.  He  is  described  by  Winthrop  as  "  a  man 
of  a  very  mild  temper  and  weak  parts,  and  wholly 
guided  by  his  wife."  She  had  spirit  and  talent 
enough  for  both.  In  England,  she  had  found  no 
satisfactory  ministrations  of  religion  but  those  of 
John  Cotton,  and  of  John  Wheelwright,  her  broth- 
er-in-law; and  her  unwillingness  to  lose  the  benefit 
of  Cotton's  preaching  induced  her  to  emigrate. 
In  Boston  she  soon  recommended  herself  widely 
as  a  kind  and  serviceable  neighbor,  especially  to 
persons  of  her  own  sex  in  times  of  sickness ;  and 
by  these  qualities,  united  with  her  energy  of  char- 
acter and  vivacity  of  mind,  she  acquired  esteem 
and  influence. 

The  first  mention  of  her  by  Winthrop  is  in  these 
words :  "  One  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  a  member  of  the 
church  of  Boston,  a  woman  of  a  ready  wit  and 
bold  spirit,  brought  over  with  her  two  dangerous 
errors :  first,  that  the  person  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
dwells  in  a  justified  person ;  second,  that  no  sancti- 
fication  can  help  to  evidence  to  us  our  justification. 
From  these  errors  grew  many  branches ;  as  first, 
our  union  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  as  a  Christian 
remains  dead  to  every  spiritual  action,  and  haih 
no  gifts  nor  graces,  other  than  such  as  are  in  hypo- 
crites, nor  any  other  sanctification  but  the  Holy 
Ghost  himself." 

Mrs.   Hutchinson   attached   importance   to    her 


MRS.   ANN  HUTCHINSON.  197 

doctrines  and  expositions,  sufficient  to  lead  her  to 
undertake  a  sort  of  public  ministration  of  them. 
It  had  been  the  practice  of  the  male  members  of 
the  Boston  church  to  hold  meetings  by  themselves, 
for  recapitulating  and  discussing  the  sermons  of 
their  ministers.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  instituted  similar 
assemblies  for  her  own  sex,  which,  at  one  time, 
were  held  twice  a  week.  In  the  want  of  social 
meetings  of  other  sorts,  it  is  not  matter  of  surprise 
that  they  were  attended  by  nearly  a  hundred  fe- 
males, some  of  whom  were  among  the  principal 
matrons  of  the  town.  Her  bold  criticisms  were 
set  off  by  a  voluble  eloquence,  and  an  imposing 
familiarity  with  Scripture.  She  bestowed  unqual- 
ified approbation  upon  Cotton  and  Wheelwright, 
whom  she  declared  to  be  "  under  a  covenant  of 
grace."  Of  the  other  ministers  of  the  colony  she 
spoke  more  and  more  distrustfully  and  slightingly, 
till  by -and -by  she  came  to  pronounce  them  in 
downright  terms  to  be  "  under  a  covenant  of 
works." 

When  the  strife  broke  out  in  public  action,  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  had  secured  the  championship  of  no 
less  a  personage  than  Vane,  the  young  Governor 
of  Massachusetts,  besides  that  of  Dummer  and 
Coddington,  eminent  among  the  Magistrates,  and 
of  other  influential  persons.  The  country  towns 
and  churches  proved  to  be,  on  the  whole,  strongly 
opposed  to  her,  while  all  the  members  of  the  Bos- 
ton church  were  her  partisans  except  five.  Of 
these  five,  however,  were  Wilson,  the  Pastor,  and 


198  THE  ANTINOMIAN  FACTION. 

Winthrop,  lately  advanced  again  so  far  as  to  the 
second  place  in  the  government.  Old  friends  were 
estranged,  and  offensive  language  was  freely  used. 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  went  out  of  church  as  the  hith- 
erto venerated  Wilson  rose  to  speak,  and  others 
followed  her  example  of  affront  in  the  presence  of 
other  preachers. 

"  The  other  ministers  in  the  Bay came 

163Q  to  Boston  at  the  time  of  a  General  Court, 
^*'^"  and  entered  conference  with  them,  to  the 
end  they  might  know  the  certainty  of  these  things, 
and,  if  need  were,  they  might  write  to  the  church 
of  Boston  about  them,  to  prevent,  if  it  were  pos- 
sible, the  dangers  which  seemed  hereby  to  hang 
over  that  and  the  rest  of  the  churches."  For  the 
present,  Cotton  gave  them  satisfaction.  Wheel- 
wright was  not  so  explicit.  A  proposal  was  made 
in  the  Boston  church  to  associate  him  in  office 
with  its  Pastor  and  Teacher.  Winthrop,  acting 
with  the  concurrence  of  Wilson,  whom  the  deli- 
cacy of  his  position  compelled  to  reserve,  with 
difficulty  succeeded  in  parrying  this  blow.  But 
the  transaction  did  not  fail  to  leave  heart-burnings. 
Wheelwright  was  presently  invited  to  a  church 
gathered  at  Mount  WoUaston. 

These  annoyances,  together  with  that  of  the  im- 
pending Indian  war,  and  perhaps  others  of  a  more 
personal  nature,  disturbed  the  mind  of  the  young 
and  inexperienced  Governor.  He  had  scarcely 
finished  half  his  term  of  service  when  he 
*^  ®      "  called  a  Court  of  Deputies,  to  the  end  he 


DISAFFECTION  OF  GOVERNOR  VANE.  199 

might  have  free  leave  of  the  country,"  having  re- 
ceived "  letters  from  his  friends  in  England,  which 
necessarily  required  his  presence  there."  In  answer 
to  the  dissuasive  considerations  which  were  urged, 
"  the  Governor  brake  forth  into  tears,  and  professed, 
that,  howsoever  the  causes  propounded  for  his  de- 
parture were  such  as  did  concern  the  utter  ruin  of 
his  outward  estate,  yet  he  would  rather  have  haz- 
arded all  than  have  gone  from  them  at  this  time,  if 
something  else  had  not  pressed  him  more  ;  namely, 
the  inevitable  danger  of  God's  judgments  to  come 
upon  us  for  these  differences  and  dissensions  which 
he  saw  amongst  us,  and  the  scandalous  imputations 
brought  upon  himself,  as  if  he  should  be  the  cause 
of  all,  and  therefore  he  thought  it  best  for  him  to 
give  place  for  a  time,  etc."  This  explanation  did 
but  cause  more  earnest  remonstrances;  and  though 
they  were  withdrawn,  and  the  Court  finally  con- 
sented to  his  departure,  further  expostulations  on 
the  part  of  the  Boston  church,  to  which  he  "  ex- 
pressed himself  to  be  an  obedient  child,"  finally 
turned  him  from  his  design. 

"  The  differences  in  the  said  points  of  religion 

increased  more  and  more  ; every  occasion 

increased  the  contention,  and  caused  great  aliena- 
tion of  minds ; and  it  began  to  be  as  com- 
mon to  distinguish  between  men  by  being  under  a 
covenant  of  grace  or  a  covenant  of  works,  as  in 
other  countries  between  Protestants  and  Papists." 
The  Court  found  or  believed  it  necessEiry  to  take 
up  the  matter  in  earnest.     The  ministers,  being 


200  THE  ANTINOMIAN  FACTION. 

consulted,  gave  their  advice,  "that,  in  all  such  here- 
sies or  errors  of  any  church-members  as  are  man- 
ifest and  dangerous  to  the  State,  the  Court  may 
proceed  without  tarrying  for  the  Church."  A  per- 
1637.  son  of  some  consequence,  "  Stephen  Green- 
March9.  gp^j^j^^  f^j.  affirming  that  all  the  ministers, 
except  Mr.  Cotton,  Mr.  Wheelwright,  and,  he 
thought,  Mr.  Hooker,  did  teach  a  covenant  of 
works,  was  for  a  time  committed  to  the  marshal, 
and  after  enjoined  to  make  acknowledgment  to 
the  satisfaction  of  every  congregation,  and  was 
fined  forty  pounds."  A  more  serious  matter  pre- 
sented itself  "  when  Mr.  Wheelwright  was  to  be 
questioned  for  a  sermon  which  seemed  to  tend  to 
sedition."  Wheelwright,  "  preaching  at  the  last 
fast,  inveighed  against  all  that  walked  in  a  cove- 
nant of  works,  as  he  described  it  to  be,  namely,  such 
as  maintain  sanctification  as  an  evidence  of  justifi- 
cation, etc.,  and  called  them  Antichrists,  and  stirred 
up  the  people  against  them  with  much  bitterness 
and  vehemency.  For  this  he  was  called  into  the 
Court,  and,  his  sermon  being  produced,  he  justified 
it So,  after  much  debate,  the  Court  ad- 
judged him  guilty  of  sedition,  and  also  of  con- 
tempt, for  that  the  Court  had  appointed  the  fast 
as  a  means  of  reconciliation  of  the  differences,  etc., 
and  he  had  purposely  set  himself  to  kindle  and 
increase  them." 

The  Governor,  joined  by  a  few  other  members 
of  the  Court,  offered  a  protest  against  this  proceed- 
ing ;  but  the  Court  refused  to  receive  it.    The  Bos- 


-     RESTORATION  OF   WINTHROP.  201 

ton  church  also  petitioned  in  Wheelwright's  behalf. 
The  Court  deferred  his  sentence.  Contumacious 
Boston  was  thought  to  be  not  a  suitable  place  for 
its  meetings  under  present  circumstances,  and  a 
motion  was  made  that  it  should  next  assemble  at 
Newtown.  The  Governor  refused  to  take  the  vote. 
The  Deputy- Govern  or  excused  himself  from  doing 
it,  on  account  of  the  delicacy  of  his  position  as  a 
Boston  man.  Endicott  took  the  office  upon  him- 
self, and  the  measure  was  carried. 

Had  the  calm  and  able  Winthrop  been  at  the 
head  of  the  government  during  these  transactions, 
they  might  have  had  a  different  issue.  As  it  was, 
they  caused  the  need  of  his  restoration  to  be  felt. 
At  the  next  Court,  the  exasperation  was  at  its 
height.  One  who  considers  well  the  elements  that 
were  in  conflict  may  not  unreasonably  believe  that 
the  fate  of  New  England  was  tremblins:  in  the  bal- 

ance.     "  So  soon  as  the  Court  was  set, a 

petition  was  preferred  by  those  of  Boston." 
Vane  would  have  read  it  at  once.  Win- 
throp interposed,  and  insisted  that  it  was  out  of 
order  till  after  the  transaction  of  the  first  business 
of  the  annual  Court,  the  election  of  Magistrates. 
On  Winthrop's  motion,  it  was  decided  by  a  large 
majority  to  proceed  first  to  the  election ;  but  the 
Governor  still  refused ;  "  whereupon  the  Deputy 
told  him,  that,  if  he  would  not  go  to  election,  he 
and  the  rest  of  that  side  would  proceed."  They 
did  so ;  and  the  result  was,  that  the  old  order  of 
things  was  restored.     Winthrop  was  chosen  Gov- 


202  THE  ANTINOMIAN   FACTION. 

enior,  and  Dudley  Deputy  -  Governor  ;  Endicott 
was  joined  to  them  as  one  of  the  Magistrates  for 
life  ;  "  Mr.  Israel  Stoughton  and  Mr,  Richard 
Saltonstall  [son  of  Winthrop's  ancient  colleague] 
were  called  in  to  be  Assistants ;  and  Mr.  Vane, 
Mr.  Coddington,  and  Mr.  Dumraer,  being  all  of 
that  faction,  were  quite  left  out.  There  was  great 
danger  of  a  tumult  that  day,  for  those  of  that  side 
grew  into  fierce  speeches,  and  some  laid  hands  on 
others  ;  but  seeing  themselves  too  weak,  they  grew 
quiet."  In  the  height  of  the  fray,  Wilson  climbed 
a  tree  and  made  a  speech,  the  meeting  being  held 
in  the  open  air,  on  Newtown  Common. 

At  the  election  the  next  day,  Boston  returned 
Vane  and  Coddington,  with  Hough,  formerly  an 
Assistant,  as  its  Deputies.  In  the  proceedings 
there  had  been  a  trifling  informality,  of  which  the 
Court  availed  itself  to  refuse  them  seats  ;  but,  on  a 
reelection  the  following  day,  "  the  Court  not  find- 
ing how  they  might  reject  them,  they  were  ad- 
mitted." Winthrop  ran  the  gantlet  of  daily  slights 
from  his  neighbors.  When  he  went  back  to  Bos- 
ton, no  escort  met  him,  as  had  been  usual.  The 
four  Boston  sergeants,  who  had  been  accustomed 
to  attend  the  Governor  to  and  from  public  worship, 
"  laid  down  their  halberds  and  went  home."  "  The 
country,  taking  notice  of  this,  offered  to  send  in 
some  from  the  neighboring  towns,  to  carry  the  hal- 
berds by  course ;  and,  upon  that,  the  town  of  Bos- 
ton offered  to  send  some  men,  but  not  the  sergeants ; 
but  the  Governor  chose  rather  to  make  use  of  two 
of  his  own  servants." 


DEPARTURE    OF  VANE.  203 

Vane  did  not  bear  his  defeat  with  the  dignity 
which  his  riper  character  displayed.  Before  he  was 
Governor,  he  had  been  used  to  sit  at  public  wor- 
ship in  the  Magistrates'  seat,  —  a  distinction  yielded 
to  his  distinguished  birth ;  he  now  left  it,  with 
Coddington,  and  repelled  the  Governor's  invitation 
to  return.  The  son  and  heir  of  the  Earl  of  Marl- 
borough, a  boy  in  his  teens,  having  come  to  Bos- 
ton  "  to    see   the  country,"    the   Governor, 

•"  .      '    June  26. 

whose  guest  he  had  declined  to  be  during 
his  stay,  invited  Vane,  with  others,  to  meet  him  at 
dinner.  Vane  "  not  only  refused  to  come,  alleg- 
ing by  letter  that  his  conscience  withheld  him,  but 
also  at  the  same  hour  he  went  over  to  Noddle's 
Island  to  dine  with  Mr.  Maverick,  and  carried  the 
Lord  Leigh  with  him." 

His  only  further  conspicuous  agency  in  the  pend- 
ing difficulties  related  to  an  order  of  that  Court  by 
which  he  had  been  displaced,  to  the  effect  of  ex- 
cluding, till  the  next  annual  Court,  "  all  such  per- 
sons as  might  be  dangerous  to  the  commonwealth, 
by  imposing  a  penalty  upon  all  such  as  should  retain 
any,  etc.,  above  three  weeks,  which  should  not  be 
allowed  by  some  of  the  Magistrates."  The  obvi- 
ous purpose  of  the  measure  was  to  prevent  the 
increase  of  the  defeated  party  by  recruits  from 
abroad.  It  was  an  Alien  Law.  Winthrop  circu- 
lated a  defence  of  it,  to  which  Vane  replied,  and 
the  controversy  terminated  with  a  rejoinder  from 
the  former.  Before  the  end  of  the  summer, 
in   company  with  his  young  friend,  Vane      ^' 


204  THE  ANTINOMIAN   FACTION. 

left  the  country  forever,  to  pass  on  to  higher  and 
harsher  fortunes.  At  parting,  his  adherents  made 
an  ambitious  display  of  their  respect  and  regrets. 
"  Those  of  Mr.  Vane's  party  were  gathered  to- 
gether, and  did  accompany  him  to  the  boat,  and 
many  to  the  ship ;  and  the  men,  being  in  their 
arms,  gave  him  divers  volleys  of  shot,  and  five 
pieces  of  ordnance,  and  he  had  five  more  at  the 
Castle ;  the  Governor  was  not  come  from  the 
Court,  but  had  left  order  with  the  captain  for  their 
honorable  dismission."  Abandoned  by  their  great 
patron,  the  faction  henceforward  acted  at  disad- 
vantage. 

The  Court  had  again  deferred  the  sentence  of 
Wheelwright,  in  the  hope  that  so  "  their  modera- 
tion and  desire  of  reconciliation  might  appear  to 
all."  Often  things  seemed  strongly  tending  to  an 
amicable  settlement.  "  Divers  writings  were  pub- 
lished." The  Magistrates  issued  a  defence  of  their 
course  against  Wheelwright,  and  his  friends  replied. 
"  Mr.  Wheelwright  also  himself  set  forth  a  small 
tractate,"  and  the  ministers  retorted,  "confuting 
the  same  by  many  strong  arguments."  But  Cot- 
ton "  replied  to  their  answer  very  largely,  and 
stated  the  differences  in  a  very  narrow  scantling ; 
and  Mr.  Shepard,  preaching  at  the  day  of  elec- 
tion, brought  them  yet  nearer,  so  as,  except  men 

of  good   understanding, few   could   see 

where  the  difference  was."  Matters  seemed  in  so 
good  a  train  that  it  was  hoped  a  satisfactory  ac- 
commodation would  be  effected  in  a  synod,  which 


SYNOD  AT   CAMBRIDGE.  205 

had  been  summoned  by  the  ministers,  "  with  con- 
sent of  the  Magistrates." 

It  met  in  Mr.  Shepard's  church,  at  Newtown. 
"  There  were  all  the  teaching  elders  through 
the  country,  and  some  men  come  out  of 
England,  not  yet  called  to  any  place  here,  as  Mr. 
Davenport."  The  Magistrates  had  seats.  The 
moderators  were  Hooker,  of  Hartford,  and  Bulkely, 
of  Concord,  from  whose  recent  ordination  Cotton 
had  absented  himself,  conceiving  him  to  be  one  of 
the  "  legal  preachers."  The  discussions,  which  on 
the  whole  appear  to  have  been  conducted  with 
much  moderation,  continued  through  three  weeks. 
Eighty-two  opinions,  each  represented  to  have  had 
some  unnamed  advocate,  were  with  great  una- 
nimity condemned  as  erroneous,  even  Cotton  giv- 
ing his  scarcely  qualified  consent  to  the  decree. 
Prominent  among  them,  of  course,  were  the  pecu- 
liar tenets  of  "Wheelwright  and  Mrs.  Hutchinson. 
Some  practical  questions  of  church  discipline,  bear- 
ing upon  the  recent  proceedings,  were  "  next  de- 
bated and  resolved." 

More  than  a  year  had  now  passed  since  the  strife 
began,  and  three  months  since  Vane  returned  to 
England.  There  had  been  great  provocation  and 
excitement;  but,  down  to  this  time,  John  Green- 
smith,  fined  for  slander,  was  the  only  one  of  the 
disturbers  who  had  been  punished  in  any  way. 
"  There  was  great  hope  that  the  late  general  assem- 
bly would  have  some  good  effect  in  pacifying  the 
troubles  and  dissensions  about  matters  of  religion  ; 


206  THE   ANTINOMIAN   FACTION. 

but  it  fell  out  otherwise."  Whether  it  was,  that, 
with  or  without  authority  from  Vane,  it  was  hoped 
on  the  one  side  and  feared  on  the  other  that  he 
would  assert  in  England  those  doctrines  of  alle- 
giance which  in  America  he  had  urged  in  contro- 
versy with  Winthrop,  or  from  some  other  cause, 
the  dispute  was  revived  with  such  acrimony, 
that  the  General  Court,  "  finding  upon  con- 
sulfation  that  two  so  opposite  parties  could 
not  contain  in  the  same  body  without  apparent 
hazard  of  ruin  to  the  whole,  agreed  to  send  away 
some  of  the  principal." 

The  petition,  presented  nine  months  before  by 
members  of  the  Boston  church  in  favor  of  Wheel- 
wright, was  considered  as  showing  the  necessity  of 
this  measure,  in  the  new  ferment  which  was  pre- 
vailing. It  referred,  in  ambiguous  terms  of  appro- 
bation, which  the  Court  construed  as  of  seditious 
intent,  to  the  conduct  of  Peter  in  drawing  his 
sword,  and  to  that  of  the  Israelites  in  rescuing 
Jonathan  from  Saul.  William  Aspinwall,  a  signer 
of  the  petition,  (and  its  author,  though  this  was  not 
known  till  afterwards,)  was  now  a  Deputy  from 
Boston  ;  he  was  sentenced  first  to  dismission  from 
the  Court,  and  then  to  disfranchisement  and  expul- 
sion from  the  territory.  John  Coggeshall,  another 
Deputy,  who  declared  in  Court  his  approbation  of 
the  petition,  though  he  had  not  signed  it,  escaped 
with  dismission  and  disfranchisement.  Wheel- 
wright, "  refusing  to  leave  either  the  place  or  his 
public  exercisings,"  was  also  disfranchised,  and  was 


PUNISHMENT   OF  THE  FACTIONISTS.  207 

banished.  He  aggravated  his  offence  by  an  ap- 
peal to  the  King;  but  "  the  Court  told  him  that  an 
appeal  did  not  lie,  for,  by  the  King's  grant,  we  had 
power  to  hear  and  determine  without  any  reserva- 
tion." He  was  allowed  to  withdraw  to  his  house, 
under  an  engagement  to  surrender  himself  to  a 
Magistrate  at  the  end  of  a  fortnight,  unless  he 
should  previously  retire  from  the  jurisdiction.  It 
was  probably  before  the  expiration  of  this  time  that 
he  went,  with  a  few  adherents,  to  the  Piscataqua 
River,  as  will  be  related  by-and-by. 
•  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  next  sent  for,  and  was 
charged,  among  other  things,  with  railing  at  the 
ministers,  and  with  continuing  her  semi-weekly 
public  lectures,  in  defiance  of  determinations  of 
the  recent  synod.  In  her  defence,  she  laid  claim 
to  prophetical  inspiration,  and  declared  that  among 
its  communications  "  this  was  one :  that  she  had 
it  revealed  to  her,  that  she  should  come  into  New 
England  and  should  here  be  persecuted,  and  that 
God  would  ruin  us  and  our  posterity  and  the 
whole  state  for  the  same."  Her  trial  lasted  two 
days.  Two  reports  of  it  survive.  They  contain 
evidence  that  her  judges  did  not  escape  the  con- 
tagion of  her  ill-temper.  When  some  of  the  min- 
isters were  to  give  their  testimony,  she  demanded 
that  they  should  be  sworn.  It  was  done,  but  not 
till  after  objection  and  delay.  She  may  have  meant 
the  claim  as  an  affront ;  but  that  was  not  to  be 
assumed ;  and,  even  if  known,  it  did  not  bar  her 
of  her  right,  which,  for  every  reason  of  policy  and 


208  THE  ANTINOMIAN  FACTION. 

dignity,  as  well  as  of  justice,  should  have  been 
promptly  allowed.  "  So  the  Cotirt  proceeded,  and 
banished  her ;  but,  because  it  was  winter,  they 
committed  her  to  a  private  house,  where  she  was 
well  provided,  and  her  own  friends  and  the  elders 
permitted  to  go  to  her,  but  none  else." 

When  the  Court  met  again,  after  an  adjourn- 
ment for  a  few  days,  it  did  not  find  the 
Nov.  15.       .      .  •;  ' 

agitation   at  an  end,  though   more  than  a 

quarter  part  of  the  signers  of  the  petition  in  Wheel- 
wright's behalf  had  recanted  and  apologized.  John 
Underbill,  the  captain  in  the  Pequot  war,  besides 
being  cashiered,  was  now  disfranchised,  with  six 
or  seven  other  subscribers  to  the  obnoxious  paper. 
The  rest,  with  "  some  others,  who  had  been  chief 
stirrers  in  these  contentions,"  received  an  order  to 
surrender  their  arms,  which,  "  when  they  saw  no 
remedy,  they  obeyed."  For  further  security,  "  the 
powder  and  arms  of  the  country,  which  had  been 
kept  at  Boston,  were  carried  to  Roxbury  and  .''few- 
town."  The  number  of  persons  disarmed  was 
seventy-six.     "  Two   of  the    sergeants   of  L'oston 

were   disfranchised   and   fined  :     V/illiam 

Balston,  twenty  pounds ;  Edward  Hut/.hinson, 
forty  pounds."  Coddington,  and  ten  ot'icrs,  hav- 
ing "  desired  and  obtained  license  to  remove  them- 
selves and  their  families  out  of  the  jurisdiction," 
were  ordered  to  carry  their  professed  wish  into  ef- 
fect within  seven  weeks,  or  else  "  to  appear  at  the 
next  Court  to  abide  the  further  order  of  the  Court." 
The  "  private  house  "  to  which  Mrs.  Hutchinson 


EXCOMMUNICATION   OF  MRS.    HUTCHINSON.       209 

had  been  committed  for  the  winter  was  that  of 
Joseph  Welde,  of  Roxbury,  Deputy  in  the  General 
Court,  and  brother  of  the  minister.  Her  conver- 
sations there  with  the  elders  occasioned  such  of- 
fence, that,  at  their  instance,  she  was  cited  to  an- 
swer to  a  charge  of  "  gross  errors "  before  the 
church  of  Boston,  so  lately  her  devoted  partisans. 
One  of  the  errors  which  were  specified,  namely, 
that  the  soul  is  not  naturally  immortal,  she  was 
prevailed  upon,  after  a  long  discussion,  to  retract 
and  condemn  ;  but,  as  she  persisted  in  the  others, 
the  church  "agreed  she  should  be  admonished." 
The  vote  to  that  effect  would  have  been  unani- 
mous but  for  the  dissent  of  her  two  sons,  who,  for 
their  contumacy,  "  were  admonished  also."  The 
meeting  was  opened  about  noon,  after  the  jggg 
weekly  Thursday  lecture,  which  had  taken  *^"«^i- 
place  an  hour  earlier  than  usual.  It  "  continued 
till  eight  at  night,  and  all  did  acknowledge  the 
special  presence  of  God's  Spirit  therein."  Several 
of  her  friends,  however,  were  absent,  on  the  search 
for  another  home. 

This  was  simply  an  ecclesiastical  proceeding.  On 
the  part  of  the  government  there  was  still  a  desire 
to  be  lenient,  and  at  all  events  to  avoid  pro- 

I  •  i-  1  rr  March 22 

vokmg  a  reaction  by  unnecessary  oiience ; 
and  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  "licensed  by  the  Court, 
in  regard  she  had  given  hope  of  her  repentance,  to 
be  at  Mr.  Cotton's  house  [in  Boston],  that  both  he 
and  Mr.  Davenport  might  have  the  more  opportu- 
nity to  deal  with  her."     The  result  was,  that  "  she 

VOL.  I.  14 


210  THE  ANTINOMIAN   FACTION. 

made  a  retractation  of  near  all"  the  obnoxious 
opinions  imputed  to  her,  and  "  declared  that  it  was 
just  with  God  to  leave  her  to  herself  as  he  had 
done,  for  her  slighting  his  ordinances,  both  magis- 
tracy and  ministry."  But  she  marred  all  by  insist- 
ing that  the  doctrines  attributed  to  her  were  partly 
such  as  she  had  never  maintained.  This  raised  a 
question  of  veracity,  which  was  decided  against 
her ;  and  "  the  church,  with  one  consent,  cast  her 
out,"  or  excommunicated  her,  for  having  "impu- 
dently persisted  "  in  untruth.  Cotton  acquiesced 
in  the  verdict.  Her  unhappy  deportment  on  this 
occasion  dissipated  what  was  left  of  her  party. 
"  Many  poor  souls  who  had  been  seduced  by  her, 
by  what  they  heard  and  saw  that  day,  were,  through 
the  grace  of  God,  brought  off  quite  from  her  errors, 
and  settled  again  in  the  truth."  "  The  sentence 
was  denounced  by  the  Pastor  [Wilson],  matters  of 
manners  belonging  properly  to  his  place."  Cotton, 
it  is  likely,  would  be  naturally  averse  to  that  ser- 
vice, from  his  past  relations  to  the  convict.  The 
approach  of  spring  having  brought  the  time  for 
carrying  into  effect  the  order  of  the  Court,  "  after 
tu'^o  or  three  days  the  Governor  sent  a  warrant  to 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  to  depart  this  jurisdiction  before 
the  last  of  the  month  ; "  which  she  did  ac- 
cordingly, visiting  "  her  farm  at  the  Mount " 
(Braintree)  on  her  way. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

RHODE   ISLAND    AND    THE    EASTERN   SETTLEMENTS. 

On  the  defeat  of  the  Antinomian  party,  a  por- 
tion of  its  members,  expelled  from  Massachusetts 
or  voluntarily  departing,  dispersed  in  different  di- 
rections, to  the  north  and  the  south.  Several  went 
to  Williams's  settlement  at  Providence,  where,  not 
changing  their  mind  with  their  climate,  they  took 
part  in  disturbances  to  be  recorded  hereafter.  A 
more  considerable  number  established  themselves 
at  a  lower  point  on  Narragansett  Bay. 

Before  the  final  action  of  the  government, 
William  Hutchinson,  William  Coddington,  John 
Clarke,  and  others,  apparently  satisfied  that,  if 
they  should  have  their  choice,  it  would  be  best 
for  thera  to  remove,  had  been  looking  out  for  a 
suitable  habitation.  Roger  Williams  proposed  to 
thera  the  beautiful  island  of  Aquetnet  in  Narragan- 
sett Bay.  There  nineteen  persons,  the  founders  of 
a  new  colony,  met,  associated  themselves  less. 
in  a  body  politic,  and  chose  Coddington  to^*"**'' 
be  their  "Judge,"  and  Aspinwall  to  be  Secretary. 
With  Williams's   mediation,   they    bought 

•'  °        March  24. 

the  island  from  the  chiefs   Canonicus  and 
Miantonomo  for  the  consideration  of  "  forty  fathom 


212  RHODE   ISLAND. 

of  white  b»;ads."     Adopting  the  rule   which  they 

had  thought  so  oppressive  in  Massachusetts, 

they  limited  the  privileges  of  residence  to 

"  such  as  should  be  received  in  by  the  consent  of 

the  body." 

Mrs.  Hutchinson's  propensity  to  faction  was  not 
exhausted  nor  left  behind  when  she  sought  a  new 
home.  Before  a  year  had  passed,  she  had  got 
Coddington  removed  from  his  office,  and  her  weak 
husband  put  in  his  place.  Tumults  accompanied 
and  followed  this  petty  revolution.  At  Portsmouth, 
jggg  as  they  presently  called  their  town,  the  vic- 
Apriiso.  torious  party  proceeded  to  organize  them- 
selves under  a  new  civil  compact.  Coddington 
and  his  friends  withdrew,  and,  betaking  themselves 
to  the  magnificent  harbor  at  the  southern  end  of 
the  island,  besran   a  new  settlement  there, 

May  16.  '  °  ' 

to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  Newport. 
During  the  summer  they  had  an  accession  of  num- 
bers, including  forty  or  fifty  adult  males.  But  the 
separation  continued  only  a  short  time.  Before 
jg^(j  the  expiration  of  another  year,  a  union  was 
March  12.  effected  between  the  towns  ;  and  it  w^as 
agreed  between  them  to  be  jointly  ruled  by  a  Gov- 
ernor, Deputy-Governor,  and  four  Assistants,  to  be 
chosen  annually,  the  Governor  and  two  Assistants 
from  one  town,  and  the  Deputy- Govern  or  and  two 
Assistants  from  the  other.  Coddington  was  elected 
to  be  Governor  for  a  year,  and  William  Hutchin- 
son to  be  one  of  the  Assistants.  It  was  probably 
the  last  time   that   Hutchinson   ever   held   office. 


RHODE  ISLAND  AND  PROVIDENCE.  213 

Williams  said  that  Hutchinson's  wife  persuaded 
him  to  withdraw, "  upon  the  opinion  which  newly 
she  had  taken  up,  of  the  unlawfulness  of  magis- 
tracy." He  lived  but  a  year  or  two  longer ;  and  his 
widow  removed,  with  some  of  her  children,  to  a  spot 
within  or  near  the  border  of  New^  Netherland, 
where,  after  a  few  months,  the  Indians,  in  jg^g 
a  quarrel  with  the  Dutch,  murdered  her  and  ^^*" 
her  family,  "  to  the  number,"  says  Cotton  Mather, 
"  of  about  sixteen  persons." 

From  year  to  year  Coddington  was  chosen  Gov- 
ernor, and  Brenton  Deputy-Governor,  of  the  settle- 
ments on   Aquetnet  Island.     At  first,  two 
General  Courts  were  ordered  to  be  holden    Aig.  6. 
annually,  alternating,  as  to  place,  between  Newport 
and  Portsmouth.    After  two  years'  trial,  one    jg^g. 
General  Court  in  each  year  was  thought  ^*"='*- 
sufficient.     The  state  of  things  in  England  now 
suggested    the    hope    of   obtaining    Transatlantic 
protection   for   the   infant  settlement:    and 

.  .  Sept.  19. 

the  General  Court  raised  a  committee  "to 
consult  about  the  procuration  of  a  patent  for  this 
island  and  islands  and  the  land  adjacent,  and  to 
draw  up  petition  or  petitions,  and  to  send  letter  or 
letters  for  the  same  end  to  Sir  Henry  Vane." 

The  planters  at  Providence  conceived  a  similar 
design.  They  too  felt  strongly  the  desirableness  of 
a  recognition  in  England,  on  account  alike  of  their 
want  of  some  title  to  their  lands  besides  what  they 
derived  from  the  natives,  of  their  dissensions  with 
one  another,  and  of  their  isolation  from  the  more 


214  EASTERN  SETTLEMENTS. 

flourishing  colonies  around  them.  The  character 
of  Roger  Williams,  as  well  as  his  personal  rela- 
tions to  Henry  Vane,  recommended  him  for  em- 
ployment in  the  service  proposed  ;  and  he  embarked 
for  England,  sailing  from  New  Amsterdam,  be- 
cause still  under  the  sentence  of  banishment  from 
Massachusetts. 

When  the  Hutchinsons  and  Coddington  sought  a 
refuge  on  Aquetnet  Island,  their  friend  Mr.  Wheel- 
wright, on  leaving  Boston,  went  in  a  different  di- 
rection. With  thirty-five  companions,  he  made  a 
settlement  on  a  river  called  the  Swamscot,  tributary 
to  the  Piscataqua,  and  gave  to  it  the  name  of 
Exeter.    The  party  established  a  church  and 

Oct.  4.  a  body  politic,  committing  the  enactment 
of  laws  to  meetings  of  the  whole  body,  and  their 
administration  to  a  Governor  and  two  Assistants, 
to  be  chosen  annually.  Of  the  persons  concerned 
in  the  recent  disturbances  at  Boston,  no  portion 
proved  afterwards  more  quiet  and  orderly  than  this. 
But  its  independent  organization  lasted  only  three 
years. 

Seaward  from  the  settlement  of  Wheelwright's 
friends  lay  an  extensive  tract  of  salt  marsh.    Hither 

jiggg     Mrs.  Hutchinson's  adherent  Nicholas  Eas- 

^*y  ^^-  ton  first  bent  his  steps  from  Boston  ;  but, 

being  presently  warned  away,  he  went  to  join  his 

friends  on  Rhode  Island.    Here,  the  next  year,  Mas- 

jggg     sachusetts  laid  out  her  township  of  Hamp- 

May  22.  ^^^^  the  fourth  settlement  within  the  territory 

of  what  is  now  the  State  of  New  Hampshire,  and 


COCHECHO.  215 

the  last  for  more  than  half  a  century.  Its  fifty  or 
sixty  inhabitants,  recognizing  their  relation  to  Mas- 
sachusetts, established  no  other  than  a  municipal 
government. 

Others  yet  of  the  dispersed  party  of  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson betook  themselves  to  Cochecho,  on  the  Pis- 
cataqua.     The  settlement  in  this  place  has  been 
mentioned  as  one  of  the    most   ancient  in   New 
England.     When  it  had  languished  seven  or  eight 
years,  the  Hiltons  sold  their  right  in  it  to 
some  merchants  of  Bristol.     Thomas  Wig- 
gin,  who  came  over  as  agent  of  the  new  owners, 
found  only  three  houses  on  the  spot.     Returning 
to   England,  Wiggin  learned  that  the  patent  had 
been    again   sold   to    Lord    Say  and    Sele,    Lord 
Brooke,   and  two   other   partners.     Engaging   in 
their  service,  he  brought  with  him  to  Cochecho  a 
company  of  about  thirty  persons  from  the 
west  of  England,  a  part  of  whom  are  said   oc'- 1^- 
to  have  been  of  "  some  account  for  religion." 

Mr.  William  Leverich  came  with  them  as  their 
minister.  They  did  not  furnish  him  a  living,  and 
after  a  year  or  two  he  went  away.  Two 
years  later,  George  Burdet  came  to  Cochecho 
from  Salem,  where  he  had  been  preaching  to  the 
good  satisfaction  of  the  people.  He  turned  out  at 
last  to  be  a  spy  of  Laud.  At  Cochecho,  he  im- 
mediately became  an  agitator  both  in  civil  and  in 
church  affairs.  Addressing  himself  to  the  anti- 
Puritan  interest,  he  prevailed  on  a  majority  of 
the  planters,  first  to  receive  him  as  their  minister, 


216  EASTERN  SETTLEMENTS. 

and  then  to  make  hinn  their  ruler,  after  deposing 
Wiggin. 

While  Burdet  was  in  the  enjoyment  of  this  two- 
fold dignity  at  Cochecho,  John  Underhill  came  to 
seek  a  retreat  there.  By  the  help,  probably,  of 
some  Antinomian  auxiliaries  whom  he  had  brought 

jggg     with  him,  Underhill  was  chosen  to  be  Gov- 
October.  gj-nor  of  Cochecho  in  the  place  of  Burdet, 
who,  relieved  thus  from  public  station,  and  more- 
over detected  in  some  debaucheries,  withdrew  to 
Agamenticus. 

Hansard  Knollys,  formerly  in  England  a  minister 
of  the  established  Church,  came  to  Cochecho  about 
the  same  time  as  Underhill,  and  succeeded  Burdet 
in  the  sacred  office,  as  Underhill  did  in  the  civil. 
A  friendship  between  them  was  cemented  by  a 
sympathy  of  hatred   to   Massachusetts,      "  There 

1639.    "^^^  ^^^^  *°  ^^^  Governor  [Winthrop]  the 

*'"'^'  copy  of  a  letter  written  into  England  by 
Mr.  Hansard  Knollys,  of  Piscataquack,  wherein 
he  had  most  falsely  slandered  this  government,  as 
that  it  was  worse  than  the  High  Commission,  etc., 
and  that  there  was  nothing  but  oppression,  etc., 
and  not  so  much  as  a  face  of  religion."  Knollys, 
informed  of  his  detection,  asked  leave  to  come  to 
Boston,  and  there,  "  upon  a  lecture-day,   made   a 

jg^     very  free  and  full  confession  of  his  offence, 

Feb.  20.  y;^\l[^  much  aggravation  against  himself,  so 

as  that  the  assembly  were  well  satisfied."      They 

were  not  so  well  satisfied  with  Underhill,  who  lay 

under  the  same  charge.     He  too  came  to  Boston, 


COCHECHO.  217 

and  in  the  presence  of  the  church,  of  which  he  was 
still  a  member,  acknowledged  himself  to  be  guilty 
of  adultery  and  other  miscarriages.  The  church, 
believing  his  confession  and  distrusting  his 

.1  ,     1  ■  i  «»  11       March  5. 

remorse,  "  presently  cast  hiin  out,"  and  he 
returned  to  Cochecho,  humiliated  and  incensed. 

In  this  mood,  he  set  himself  to  defeat  a  nego- 
tiation which  had  been  on  foot  for  annexing  that 
settlement  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts. 
But,  finding  that,  among  his  volatile  neighbors,  the 
tide  was  nowrunning  strong  against  him,  he  changed 
his  mind  again,  and,  obtaining  leave  to  go  to  Bos- 
ton, secured  a  better  reception  there  than  before. 
"  Upon  the  lecture-day,  after  sermon,"  he  made  a 
full  avowal  of  his  offences,  and  thereupon 
was  relieved  by  the  church  from  his  excom-  ^  " 
munication,  and  by  the  General  Court  from  his 
sentence  of  banishment. 

Returning  to  his  home,  he  found  that  the  party 
opposed   to   annexation    to    Massachusetts 
had  been  growing  stronger,  and  had  been 
concerting  a  plan  for  a  municipal  independence, 
to  be  maintained  till  such  time  as  they  should  re- 
ceive instructions  from  the  King.     Their  champion 
was  one  Thomas  Larkham,  an  English  clergyman, 
who  had  just  come  among  them  with  a  new  contri- 
bution to  their  elements  of  quarrel.     The  renewed 
strife  between   Churchman   and   Antinomian  was 
not  merely  a  war  of  words.     "  Mr.  KnoUys 
and  his  party  excommunicated   Mr.  Lark-    May. 
ham,  and  he  again  laid  violent  hands  upon   Mr. 


218  EASTERN  SETTLEMENTS. 

Knollys."  Larkham's  party  undertook  to  arrest 
Underbill,  who,  on  his  part,  "  gathered  some  of  the 
neighbors  to  defend  himself,  and  to  see  the  peace 
kept ;  so  they  marched  forth  towards  Mr.  Lark- 
ham's,  one  carrying  a  Bible  upon  a  staff',  for  an 
ensign,  and  Mr.  Knollys  with  them,  armed  with 
a  pistol."  Seeing  that  they  were  likely  to  be 
worsted,  Larkham's  party  sent  for  help  to  "  Mr. 
Williams,  who  was  Governor  of  those  in  the  lower 
part  of  the  river  [Strawberry  Bank,  Portsmouth.]" 
He  came  up  with  a  company  of  armed  men,  and 
seized  Underbill,  who  was  convicted  of  a  riot,  and 
ordered,  with  some  of  his  partisans,  to  quit  tbe 
plantation. 

Williams's  own  settlement  was  in  no  thriving 
way.     David    Thompson,    who,    under  the 
auspices  of  John  Mason,  the  patentee,  had, 
eighteen  years  before  this  time,  attempted  a  plan- 
tation at  the  mouth  of  the   Piscataqua,  soon  be- 
came  discouraged,  and  removed  to  an  island    in 
Boston  harbor,  thenceforward  called  by  his  name. 
Seven  years  later.  Mason  and  his  partners 
sent  out  some  fifty  men  to  be  employed  in 
fishing,  trade,  salt-making,  and  farming,  under  the 
superintendence  of  Captain  Walter  Neal.     He  re- 
mained  but   about   three   years,  and    then 
Mason  reinforced  the  settlement  with  a  new 
supply  of  men  and  money,  and  gave  it  in  charge 
to  Francis  Williams.     Mason  died  after  two 
years  more,  bequeathing  his  American  prop- 
erty to  his  grandsons,  John  and  Robert    Tufton. 


ANNEXATION  TO  MASSACHUSETTS.  219 

Tn  the  bands  of  an  agent,  sent  over  by  his  widow 
and  executrix,  it  ran  down.  Supplies  ceased  on  the 
one  hand,  and  remittances  on  the  other.  Some  set- 
tlers went  away,  and  such  as  remained  came  to 
look  upon  the  houses  and  lands  which  they  occu- 
pied as  their  own  property,  and  ceased  to  pay  rent. 
From  the  utter  disorder  into  which  the  plantation 
fell,  it  recovered  only  through  some  voluntary  com- 
bination of  the  inhabitants,  the  tenor  and  date  of 
which  are  alike  unknown. 

Experiences  of  this  kind  taught  the  Piscataqua 
settlements  that  they  were  not  in  a  condition  to  go 
on  comfortably  by  themselves;  the  claim  of  Mas- 
sachusetts to  jurisdiction  as  far  north  as  to  the 
sources  of  the  Merrimack  was  always  hanging  over 
their  heads ;  the  state  of  affairs  in  England  pre- 
cluded the  expectation  of  any  present  attention 
from  that  quarter ;  and  the  communities  were  too 
dissimilar  from  each  other,  as  well  as  singly  too 
feeble  and  heterogeneous,  to  find  sufficient  strength 
in  a  union  together.  The  natural  and  prudent  re- 
source was  to  seek  the  protection  of  Massachusetts. 
After  a  year's  negotiation,  Strawberry  Bank  ig4i 
and  Cochecho  (now  called  Dover)  placed  '^"°®^*- 
themselves  under  the  government  of  that  colony, 
with  careful  reservations  of  the  rights  of  the  Eng- 
lish patentees  to  their  property  in  the  soil.  Two 
Deputies  were  allowed  to  be  sent  "  from  the  whole 
river  to  the  Court  at  Boston;"  and  in  all  respects 
the  persons  now  admitted  were  to  have  the  privi- 
'eges  of  settlers  in  Massachusetts.     The  freemen 


220  EASTERN  SETTLEMENTS. 

and  Deputies  (the  settlers  at  Strawberry  Bank,  and 
jg43  many  at  Dover,  not  being  of  the  Puritan 
May  10.  persuasion)  were  exennpted  from  the  obliga- 
tion of  being  church-members,  Massachusetts  hav- 
ing now  become  strong  enough  to  admit  of  this 
deviation  from  her  fundamental  policy.  Exeter 
before  long  followed  the  example  of  accession;  and 
Wheelwright,  still  jealous  of  the  power  of  Massa- 
chusetts, besides  being  yet  under  her  sentence  of 
banishment,  withdrew  himself  to  the  territory  of 
Gorges.  The  three  towns  —  with  Hampton,  which 
had  been  planted  by  avowed  subjects  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  with  the  neighboring  settlements  of 
Salisbury  and  Haverhill,  on  the  northern  bank 
of  the  Merrimack  —  were  made  to  constitute  one 
of  the  four  counties  into  which  Massachusetts  was 
now  divided.  And  for  forty  years  this  relation  of 
the  New  Hampshire  towns  continued,  greatly  to 
their  satisfaction  and  advantage. 

The  country  east  of  the  Piscataqua  was  still 
almost  without  English  inhabitants.  There  was 
probably  now  no  English  post  eastward  of  the 
Plymouth  trading  -  house  on  the  Kennebec,  ex- 
cept that  at  Pemaquid,  though  some  fishermen 
may  have  been  collected  on  Muscongus  Bay.  In 
settling  the  country  between  the  Kennebec  and 
the  Piscataqua,  which  was  claimed  by  Sir  Ferdi- 
nando  Gorges,  scarcely  greater  progress  had  been 
made.  Sir  Ferdinando  sent  to  the  Magistrates  of 
jgg^  Massachusetts  a  commission  for  the  gov- 
june.    ernment   of  his   province  ;    but   they  gave 


GORGEANA.  221 

it  no  attention,  being  in  doubt  of  bis  author- 
ity. Then  he  appointed  his  son,  Thomas  jg^ 
Gorges,  to  be  Deputy-Governor  of  his  do-  ^^^'^^  ^°- 
nnain,  with  six  persons,  residents  on  the  spot,  for 
Counsellors.  The  Counsellors,  who  were  sever- 
ally to  fill  the  offices  of  Secretary,  Chancellor, 
Field- Marshal,  Treasurer,  Admiral,  and  Master  of 
Ordnance,  were  jointly  to  constitute  a  Supreme 
Court  of  Judicature,  to  meet  every  month,  and  to 
be  served  by  a  Registrar,  and  a  Provost- Marshal. 
The  province  was  to  be  divided  into  counties  or 
bailiwicks,  hundreds,  and  tithings.  To  form  a 
legislature,  eight  Deputies,  "  to  be  elected  by  the 
freeholders  of  the  several  counties,"  were  to  be  as- 
sociated with  the  Counsellors.  Each  county  was 
to  have  its  court,  consisting  of  a  lieutenant  and 
eight  justices,  to  be  appointed  by  the  council.  The 
Deputy-Governor,  arriving  soon  after,  found  the 
official  residence  at  Agaraenticus  scarcely  suffi- 
cient to  give  him  shelter,  and  "  nothing  of  the 
household  stuff  remaining  but  an  old  pot,  a  pair 
of  tongs,  and  a  couple  of  cobirons."  George  Bur- 
det,  formerly  the  mischief-maker  at  Dover,  now  a 
person  of  consequence  in  the  capital  of  Maine,  was 
arrested  by  Gorges,  under  a  charge  of  adultery, 
and  other  offences.  The  demagogue,  convicted  and 
fined,  set  sail  for  England,  with  threats  of  ven- 
geance, which,  on  his  arrival  there,  he  saw  the  futil- 
ity of  attempting  to  execute. 

The  province  was  divided  into  two  counties,  of 
one  of  which  Agamenticus,  or  York,  was  the  prin- 


222  EASTERN  SETTLEMENTS. 

cipal  settlement;  of  the  other,  Saco.     The  annual 

General  Courts  were  appointed  to  be  held  at  the 

latter  place,  while  the  former  was  distinguished  both 

by  being  the  residence  of  the  Deputy-Governor,  and 

1641     '^y  *^^  d'a"i^y  of  incorporation  as  a  borough, 

April  10.  mjjjgy  the    hand    of  the    Lord    Proprietary 

himself.     The  greatness  of  Agamenticus  made  it 

arrogant ;  and  it  sent  a  deputation  of  alder- 

June25.  ,    ,  ,       V>.  ,    ^ 

men  and  burgesses  to  the  General  Court  at 
Saco,  to  save  its  metropolitan  rights  by  a  solemn 
1642.  protest.  The  Proprietary  was  its  friend,  and 
March3.  ^gfore  loug  cxaltcd  it  still  more  by  a  city 
charter,  authorizing  it  and  its  suburbs,  constituting 
a  territory  of  twenty-one  square  miles,  to  be  gov- 
erned, under  the  name  of  Gor^eann,  by  a  Mayor, 
twelve  Aldermen,  a  Common  Council  of  twenty- 
five  members,  and  a  Recorder,  all  to  be  annually 
chosen  by  the  citizens.  Probably  as  many  as  two 
thirds  of  the  adult  males  were  in  places  of  authority. 
The  forms  of  proceeding  in  the  Recorder's  Court 
were  to  be  copied  from  those  of  the  British  Chan- 
cery. This  grave  foolery  was  acted  more  than  ten 
years. 

Meanwhile,  reasons  similar  to  those  which  satis- 
fied the  groups  of  planters  about  the  Piscataqua 
had  influenced  a  party  of  settlers  on  the  remote 
eastern  border  of  the  patent  of  Gorges;  and  Thomas 
Purchas  and  his  company,  who  had  sat  down  on 
the  convenient  spot  called  by  the  natives  Pejepscot 
1639.  (now  Brunswick),  sought  the  protection, 
July  22.  g^jjjj  ^^  ^  formal  instrument  submitted  them- 


THE  PLOUGH   PATENT.  223 

selves  to  the  jurisdiction,  of  the  Governor  and  Com- 
pany of  Massachusetts  Bay.  Wheelwright,  on 
leaving  Exeter  to  escape  from  that  government, 
betook  himself,  with  some  adherents,  to  a  tract  of 
land  adjoining  to  Agamenticus,  which  he  had  jg^g 
bought  of  Gorges,  and  gave  it  the  name  of  ^^'^^'^ 
Wells.  Before  he  had  been  there  long,  he  had  the 
wisdom  to  see  the  folly  of  the  conduct  which  had 
made  him  an  exile ;  and  he  wrote  to  Governor 
Winthrop,  avowing  that  he  had  been  misled  by 
his  "  own  distempered  passions."  He  was  answered 
with  respect  and  courtesy,  and  his  sentence  of  ban- 
ishment was  revoked,  "  without  his  appearance." 
He  continued,  however,  in  his  new  settlement  a 
short  time,  till  it  seemed  to  be  thriving,  and  then 
returned  to  the  neighborhood  of  his  former  resi- 
dence, and  lived  seven  years  at  Hampton.  Next 
he  sailed  for  England,  where,  like  other  ministers 
from  Ma!~sachusetts,  he  enjoyed  the  special  regard 
of  Cromwell.  After  the  restoration  of  the  mon- 
archy, he  returned  to  New  England,  and  ended  his 
days  at  Salisbury,  having  lived  to  be  the  oldest 
minit^ter  in  the  colonies. 

The  patent  of  Gorges  conflicted  with  another 
grant  of  the  Council  for  New  England,  called  the 
Li/gonia,  or  Plough  patent,  which  gave  to  John 
Dy  and  others  a  territory,  forty  miles  square,  in- 
cluding the  lower  part  of  the  River  Saco,  and  ex- 
tending northeasterly  along  the  coast,  nearly  to 
Casco  Bay.  After  the  breaking  out  of  the  jg^ 
Great  Rebellion  in  England,  this  patent  was  ^^"^  ^' 


224  EASTERN  SETTLEMENTS. 

purchased  from  the  holders  by  Alexander  Rigby, 
a  patriot  member  of  Parliament,  who  sent  out 
George  Cleaves  to  look  after  his  property.  Pro- 
jg^  ceeding  to  organize  a  government  upon  the 
place,  Cleaves  was  interrupted  by  a  remon- 
strance from  Richard  Vines,  who  had  been  left  at 
the  head  of  Gorges's  government,  on  the  recent 
departure  of  the  Deputy  -  Governor  for  England. 
Vines  put  a  messenger  from  Cleaves  in  prison, 
and  both  potentates  came  to  Boston,  to  represent 
their  case  to  the  Magistrates  of  Massachusetts. 
Neither  got  anything  more  than  advice  to  keep 
quiet  till  further  instructions  should  arrive  from 
England.  It  would  not  have  been  prudent,  by  the 
rejection  of  this  counsel,  to  tempt  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Bay  to  interpose  to  keep  the  peace  between 
them;  they  were  not  strong  enough,  or  near  enough, 
to  threaten  each  other  with  serious  harm  ;  and  here 
their  controversies  ended  for  the  present.  The  loyal 
and  hearty  proprietor  of  Maine  was  now  involved 
in  his  king's  affairs ;  and  when,  if  not  before,  he 
died,  as  he  did  soon  after  being  taken  prisoner  by 
the  Parliamentary  forces  at  Bristol,  his  Transat- 
lantic possessions  fell  to  the  management  of  bands 
less  diligent  and  less  able. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

NEW   HAVEN,    CONNECTICUT,    AND    PLYMOUTH. 

We  pass  to  the  opposite  extremity  of  New  Eng- 
land, where,  simultaneously  with  the  settlement  at 
Aquetnet,  another  community  was  erected,  of  a 
different  character  from  any  of  those  which  were 
mentioned  in  the  last  chapter.  Theophilus  Eaton 
has  already  been  named  as  a  member  and  Assist- 
ant of  the  Massachusetts  Company.  The  son  of 
a  clergyman  at  Stony  Stratford  in  Buckingham- 
shire, he  had  risen  to  opulence  in  London,  and  had 
attracted  the  notice  of  the  government,  by  which 
he  was  sent  in  a  diplomatic  capacity  to  Denmark. 
He  was  a  parishioner  of  John  Davenport,  minister 
of  St.  Stephen's  Church,  in  Coleman  Street,  Lon- 
don. Davenport,  son  of  a  mayor  of  Coventry,  in 
Warwickshire,  was  an  Oxford  graduate,  and  a 
clergyman  of  so  much  eminence  as  to  have  at- 
tracted the  special  notice  of  Laud,  who  1634. 
mentions  him  in  a  letter  to  the  King.  Driven 
by  the  proceedings  of  that  prelate  to  resign  his 
cure,  he  was  for  some  time  preacher  to  an  English 
congregation  at  Amsterdam.  By  John  Cotton, 
with  whom  he  had  kept  up  a  correspondence,  he 
was  induced  to  turn  his  thoughts  towards  America ; 
and  at  Davenport's  instance — at  all  events  in  his 

VOL.    I.  15 


226  NEW  HAVEN. 

company  —  Eaton  came  to   New  England,  arriv- 
1637.    ^"g  there,  with  a  number  of  friends    "  in 
June 26.  ^^^  ghlps,"  at  the  height  of  the  troubles  of 
the  Antinomian  controversy  and  the  Pequot  war. 

The  habits  of  thought  of  this  fraternity  led  them 
to  carry  out  to  its  last  results  the  idea  which  had 
fascinated  so  many  thinking  persons  at  that  period, 
of  finding  in  Scripture  a  special  rule  for  everything 
of  the  nature  of  civil  as  well  as  of  ecclesiastical 
order  and  administration  ;  and,  for  the  experiment, 
they  desired  a  more  unoccupied  field  than  was 
to  be  found  at  that  late  hour  in  Massachusetts. 
Having  taken  some  months  for  inquiry  and  delib- 
eration, they  in  early  spring  set  forth  by  water  to 
16S8.  Quinnipiack,  —  an  inviting  site,  on  a  com- 
Marchso.  „,odious  harbor  of  Long  Island  Sound, 
thirty  miles  west  of  the  mouth  of  Connecticut 
River.  The  company  included  two  ministers 
besides  Davenport;  namely,  Samuel  Eaton  and 
Peter    Prudden. 

Their  voyage  occupied  a  fortnight.     Under  the 

shelter  of  an  oak,  they  kept  their  first   Sabbath, 

listeninsr  to  a  sermon  from  Davenport  on 

April  15.  °  ^ 

the  leading  up  of  Jesus  into  the  wilderness 
to  be  tempted.  A  few  days  later,  "  after  fasting 
and  prayer,"  they  formed  their  political  association 
by  what  they  called  a  "  plantation  covenant,"  "  to 
distinguish  it  from  a  church  covenant,  which  could 
not  at  that  time  be  made,  a  church  not  being  then 
gathered."  In  this  compact  they  resolved,  "  that, 
as   in   matters   that   concern   the   gathering  of  a 


ORGANIZATION  AT  NEW  HAVEN.       227 

church,  so  likewise  in  all  public  offices  which 
concern  civil  order,  as  choice  of  magistrates  and 
officers,  making  and  repealing  of  laws,  dividing 
allotments  of  inheritance,  and  all  things  of  like 
nature,"  they  would  "be  ordered  by  the  rules  which 
the  Scriptures  hold  forth."  This  constitution  had 
no  external  sanction,  and  comprehended  no  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  government  of  England. 
The  company  consisted  mostly  of  Londoners,  who 
at  home  had  been  engaged  in  trade.  In  propor- 
tion to  their  number?;,  they  were  the  richest  of  all 
the  plantations.  Like  the  settlors  on  Narragansett 
Bay,  they  had  no  other  title  to  their  lands  ^^^  ^^ 
than  that  which  they  obtained  by  purchase  J^«ii- 
from  the  Indians. 

Before  proceeding  further,  the  settlers  at  Quin- 
nipiack  gave  themselves  a  year  to  learn  from  ex- 
perience the  arrangements  suitable  to  a  social 
organization  for  persons  so  circumstanced.  Then 
"  all  the  free  planters  "  met  in  a  barn,  "  to  jggg 
consult  about  settling  civil  government  •'"°**- 
according  to  God."  Mr.  Davenport  prayed  and 
preached  from  the  text,  "  Wisdom  hath  builded 
her  house,  she  hath  hewn  out  her  seven  pillars;" 
demonstrating  the  propriety  of  designating  seven 
competent  men  to  construct  the  government  which 
was  contemplated.  By  a  unanimous  vote  his  hear- 
ers determined  that  "  the  Scriptures  do  hold  forth 
a  perfect  rule  for  the  direction  and  government  of 
all  men  in  all  duties  which  they  are  to  perform 
to    God  and  men."     After  the  plan  approved  in 


228  NEW  HAVEN. 

Massachusetts,  they  resolved  that "  church-membera 
only  should  be  free  burgesses,"  with  power  to  legis- 
late and  to  elect  magistrates.  And  they  designated 
twelve  men,  who  were  "  to  choose  out  of  themselves 
seven,  that  should  be  most  approved  of  the  major 
part,  to  begin  the  church."  The  votes  were  sub- 
scribed, on  the  day  of  their  adoption,  by  sixty-three 
persons,  and  soon  after  by  about  fifty  more. 

After  due  time  for  reflection,  the  twelve  electors 
chose  the  "  seven  pillars,"  and  after  another  pause, 
the    pillars    proceeded    to    their   office    of 
constituting  the   body  of  church-members. 
Next,  at  a  meeting  held  by  them  as  a  "court,"  all 
former  trusts  were  pronounced  vacated  and  null; 
their  associates  in  the  church,  nine  in  num- 
ber, were  recognized  as  freemen  ;  and  Eaton, 
elected  by  the  sixteen  as  "  Magistrate  "  for  a  year, 
and   four   other   persons   chosen  with    him   to   be 
"  Deputies,"  were  addressed  by  Mr.  Davenport  in 
what  was  called  a  charge.     A  "  public  notary,"  or 
Secretary,  was  also  appointed,  and  a  "  marshall," 
or  Sheriff.     The  "  Freeman's  Charge,"  which  stood 
in  the  place  of  an  oath,  pledged  no  allegiance  to 
the  King,  or  to  any  other  authority  than  "  the  civil 
government   here    established."      The   little    State 
of  Quinnipiack  was  as  yet  independent  of  all  the 
world. 

It  was  resolved  that  there  should  be  an  annual 
General  Court,  or  meeting  of  the  whole  body,  in 
the  month  of  October;  and  "that  the  word  of 
God  should  be  the  only  rule  to  be  attended  unto 


MILFOKD  AND  GL'ILFORD.  229 

in  ordering  the  affairs  of  government."  By  the 
authority  thus  constituted,  orders  were  immedi- 
ately made  for  the  building  of  a  meeting-house, 
for  the  distribution  of  house-lots  and  pasturage, 
for  precautions  against  attacks  from  the  savages, 
and  for  regulation  of  the  prices  of  commodities  and 
of  labor.  And  the  general  course  of  administration 
proceeded  thenceforward  in  the  same  manner  as 
in  the  earlier  well-organized  plantations.  In  iq^ 
its  second  year,  the  town  took  the  name  of  ^p*-^ 
New  Haven. 

The  Englishmen  at  Quinnipiack  had  not  fully 
arranged  their  own  social  system  before  they  began 
to  swarm;  and  others,  of  similar  sentiments  and 
objects,  came  presently  to  seek  homes  in  their 
neighborhood.  Among  the  new-comers  were  the 
Reverend  Henry  Whitefield ;  William  Leet,  des- 
tined to  act  a  distinguished  part  in  the  colony; 
and  Samuel  Desborough,  brother  of  Cromwell's 
general  of  that  name.  A  company  of  two  hundred 
persons,  some  of  them  from  Quinnipiack,  some 
from  Wethersfield,  were  led  by  the  Reverend  Mr. 
Prudden  to  a  harbor  on  Long  Island  Sound,  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Housatonic,  which  they  jggg 
bought  of  the  Indians,  and,  after  a  year's '^"^' ^ 
occupation,  called  by  the  name  of  Mifford.  An- 
other party,  fresh  from  England,  under  the  conduct 
of  Mr.  Whitefield,  went  somewhat  further  in  the 
opposite  direction,  and  established  themselves,  also 
on  the  shore  of  Lonff  Island   Sound,  at  a 

,  ,  Sept.  29. 

place    named   by  them   Guilford,  after  the 


230  NF.W    HAVEN. 

English  town  from  which  several  of  them  had  come. 
Leet,  then  a  young  man,  and  Desborough,  were  of 
this  company. 

The  founders  of  both  Milford  and  Guilford, 
taking  for  their  model  the  proceedings  at  the  re- 
cent settlement,  erected  their  Ciiurch  and  State  on 
a  foundation  of  "  seven  pillars."  Departing  from 
the  method  of  organization  which  had  been  pur- 
sued in  Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut, 
the  settlement  at  New  Haven,  and  those  which 
had  made  it  their  model,  at  first  maintained  a  com- 
plete independence  of  each  other.  They  preferred 
what  has  been  called,  in  Greek  history,  the  system 
of  autonomy.  Perhaps  the  incentive  to  this  scheme 
was  an  idea  of  extending  to  civil  institutions  the 
Separatist  theory  of  an  absolute  independence  of 
churches.  Very  soon,  however,  this  scheme  was 
partially  abandoned,  when,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
1640  govennnent  at  New  Haven,  a  company  from 
October.  No,.foii-  )„  England  founded  the  town  of 
Southhold  near  the  eastern  end  of  Long  Island ; 
a  party  who  had  taken  offence  at  Wethersfield  sat 
down,  under  the  protection  of  New  Haven, 

1641. 

at  Stamford  ;  and  a  similar  movement,  as 
yet  with  little  result,  was  made  towards  Greenwich, 
close  to  the  New  -  Netherland  frontier.  Nor  was  it 
;ong  before  the  whole  plan  of  this  independence  on 
a  small  scale  was  given  up  as  unreasonable  and 
inconvenient.  When  Guilford  had  enjoyed  its  iso- 
lated sovereignty  four  years,  it  saw  the  wis- 
dom of  connecting  itself  with  New  Haven 


"JURISDICTION"   OF  NEW   HAVEN,  231 

and  the  settlements  already  in  "  combination  " 
with  that  town  ;  and  what  was  thenceforward  called 
the  "jurisdiction"  of  New  Haven  was  thus  formed. 
Three  months  later,  Milford  too  annexed  itself,  and 
the  Colony  of  New  Haven  was  fully  constituted. 

Eaton  was  chosen  Governor  of  the  newly  organ- 
ized community,  with  Stephen  Goodyeare,  also 
of  New  Haven,  for  Deputy  -  Governor,  and  four 
other  Assistant  Magistrates,  one  a  freeman  of  New 
Haven,  two  of  Milford,  and  one  of  Stamford.  A 
system  of  judicial  administration  was  constituted. 
Each  plantation  was  to  choose  for  itself  "  ordinary 
judges,"  to  hear  and  determine  "all  inferior  causes." 
From  the  "  Plantation  Courts"  was  to  lie  an  appeal 
to  the  "  Court  of  Magistrates,"  (consisting  of  the 
Governor,  Deputy- Governor,  and  Assistants,)  who 
were  also  to  have  original  jurisdiction  in  "  weighty 
and  capital  cases,  whether  civil  or  criminal;"  and 
from  the  latter  tribunal  appeals  and  complaints 
might  be  made,  and  brought  to  the  General  Court 
as  the  highest  for  the  jurisdiction.  In  the  determi- 
nation of  appeals,  "  with  whatsoever  else  should  fall 
within  their  cognizance  or  judicature,"  the  Courts 
were  to  "  proceed  according  to  the  Scriptures,  which 
is  the  rule  of  all  righteous  laws  and  sentences." 

A  list,  taken  in  the  same  year,  of  "  the  planters" 
in  the  town  of  New  Haven,  exhibits  the  names  of 
a  hundred  and  thirty-two  persons,  including  eight 
women.  A  reckoning  of  their  family  dependents 
swelled  the  number  to  four  hundred  and  sixteen ; 
but  it  is  known  that  some  of  these  never  came  to 


232  CONNECTICUT. 

America.  The  aggregate  property  of  the  planters 
was  rated  at  thirty-six  thousand  three  hundred  and 
thirty-seven  pounds  sterling. 

When  the  Pequot  war  had  been  concluded,  the 
jggg  business  first  demanding  the  attention  of  the 
Feb.  9.  Qeneral  Court  of  the  towns  on  Connecticut 
River  was  to  defray  the  expenses  that  had  been 
incurred,  to  make  arrangements  for  future  security 
against  the  Indians,  and  to  purchase  from  them  sup- 
plies of  food  till  the  new  fields  should  become  pro- 
ductive. These  first  cares  disposed  of,  the  planters 
1639.  °^  Windsor,  Hartford,  and  Wethersfield  met 
Jan.  14.  ^Q  constitute  a  "public  state  or  common- 
wealth "  by  voluntary  combination,  and  to  settle 
its  plan  of  government.  The  instrument  framed 
by  them  has  been  called  "  the  first  example  in  his- 
tory of  a  written  constitution,  —  a  distinct  organic 
law,  constituting  a  government  and  defining  its 
powers."  It  provided  that  all  persons  should  pos- 
sess the  franchise  who  should  be  admitted  to  it  by 
the  freemen  of  the  towns,  and  take  an  oath  of  alle- 
giance to  the  commonwealth  ;  that  there  should 
be  two  meetings  of  freemen  in  a  year,  at  one  of 
which,  to  be  holden  in  April,  they  should  elect  a 
Governor,  and  not  fewer  than  six  other  Magis- 
trates ;  that,  at  the  same  times,  there  should  be 
meetings  of  Deputies,  four  to  be  sent  from  each  of 
the  existing  towns,  and  as  many  as  the  General 
Court  should  determine  from  towns  subsequently 
constituted  ;  and  that  the  General  Court,  con- 
sisting of  the  Governor  and  at  least  four  Magis- 


FRAME  OF  GOVERNMENT.  233 

trates,  and  a  majority  of  the  Deputies,  should 
have  power  to  make  laws  for  the  whole  jurisdic- 
tion, "  to  grant  levies,  to  admit  freemen,  dispose 
of  lands  undisposed  of  to  several  towns  or  persons, 
to  call  either  Court  or  Magistrate  or  any  other 
person  whatsoever  into  question  for  any  misde- 
meanor," and  to  deal  in  any  other  matter  that  con- 
cerned the  good  of  the  commonwealth,  except  elec- 
tion of  Magistrates,  "  v/hich  was  to  be  done  by  the 
whole  body  of  freemen."  The  Governor  was  not 
reeligible  till  a  year  after  the  expiration  of  his  term 
of  office.  In  the  absence  of  special  laws,  "  the 
rule  of  the  word  of  God "  was  to  be  followed. 
Neither  the  oaths  of  officers  nor  of  freemen  prom- 
ised any  allegiance  except  to  "  the  jurisdiction." 
The  whole  constitution  was  that  of  an  independent 
State.  It  continued  in  force,  with  very  little  altera- 
tion, a  hundred  and  eighty  years,  securing,  through- 
out that  period,  a  degree  of  social  order  and  happi- 
ness such  as  is  rarely  the  fruit  of  civil  institutions. 

At  the  first  election,  Haynes,  formerly  Governor 
of  Massachusetts,  was  chosen  Governor.  The  ad- 
ministration proceeded  in  substantially  the  same 
manner  as  in  the  earlier  government?  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Plymouth,  except  that  in  Connecticut 
the  Court  of  Magistrates  confined  itself  more  to 
judicial  business.  In  the  first  year  a  general  law 
was  passed,  of  an  elaborate  character,  for 
the  incorporation  of  towns,  on  the  model  of 
those  in  Massachusetts,  each  with  a  government 
for  municipal  affairs,  of  "  three,  five,  or  seven  of 


234  CONNECTICUT. 

their  chief  inhabitants,"  chosen  annually  by  them- 
selves. A  public  registry  was  established  in  each 
town  for  conveyances  of  real  estate,  with  the  pro- 
vision, that  "  all  bargains  or  mortgages  of  land 
whatsoever  should  be  accounted  of  no  value  until 
they  were  recorded." 

Connecticut  had,  in  the  course  of  the  year,  in- 
terposed itself  by  two  new  plantations  between 
New  Haven  and  the  Dutch.  Mr.  Ludlow,  with 
eight  or  ten  families  from  Windsor,  began  a  settle- 
ment at  an  inviting  spot  called  by  the  Indians 
Uficoa,  and  by  the  English  Fairfield,  at  the  head 
of  a  small  inlet  from  Long  Island  Sound.  They 
were  joined  by  a  party  from  Watertown,  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  before  long  by  another  from  Con- 
cord ;  and  after  some  questions,  in  w^hich  Mr.  Lud- 
1640.  low  did  not  escape  censure,  their  Deputies 
June  11.  ^gj.g  admitted  to  the  General  Court  of  Con- 
necticut. ■  East  of  Fairfield,  between  it  and  the 
Housatonic,  and  near  the  mouth  of  that  river,  a 
number  of  persons  —  several  recently  arrived  from 
England,  several  from  Boston  and  other  parts  of 
Massachusetts,  and  a  few  from  the  Connecticut 
towns — collected  on  an  expanse  of  meadow-land, 
known  then  by  the  names  of  Cupheage  and  Pequan- 
nock,  and  since  by  that  of  Stratford.  The  General 
Court  recognized  them  by  setting  out  their 
bounds  and  providing  for  the  administra- 
tion of  justice  within  them.  They  had  bought  their 
lands  of  the  Indians,  and  pretended  no  other  title. 

The  post  at  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut,  which 


SAYBROOK  AND  SPRINGFIELD.  235 

Gardiner  had  commanded  in  the  Pequot  war,  had 
as  yet,  and  for  four  or  five  years  longer,  no  political 
connection  with  the  upper  towns.  It  was  nothing 
but  a  fort,  occupied  by  some  twenty  men,  and  sur- 
rounded by  a  few  buildings  and  a  little  cultivated 
land,  till  George  Fenwick,  "  and  his  lady  jggg 
and  family,  arrived  to  make  a  plantation."  •'"'^• 
Fenwick,  "  a  worthy,  pious  gentleman,  and  of  a 
good  family  and  estate,"  had  been  a  barrister  of 
Gray's  Inn.  His  wife  was  a  daughter  of  Sir  Ed- 
w^ard  Apsley.  He  was  interested  in  the  Connect- 
icut patent,  and  to  explore  its  territory  had  made 
a  short  visit  to  this  country  three  years  before. 
He  now  came  as  agent  for  the  patentees,  and,  fix- 
ing on  the  site  at  the  river's  mouth  as  his  residence, 
gave  it  the  name  of  Saybrook,  in  honor  of  the  two 
noblemen  who  were  the  most  distinguished  mem- 
bers of  the  company  which  he  represented. 

The  connection  of  Pynchon's  settlement  with  the 
lower  towns  was  of  brief  duration,  and  had  not 
been  well  defined  even  while  it  lasted.  There  had 
been  disagreements  with  him  from  the  first,  and 
Massachusetts  had  always  held  that  his  plantation 
lay  within  her  territory,  as  described  by  the  charter. 
At  length,  on  a  petition  of  Pynchon  and  his  com- 
pany to  the  General  Court  at  Boston,  Springfield 
(as  it  was  now  called,  instead  of  Ag-awam,  the 
Indian  name  which  it  had  hitherto  borne,)  jg^j 
was  recognized  as  falling  within  the  juris-  *'"'^®  ^■ 
diction  of  Massachusetts  ;  and  commissioners  were 
appointed   "to   lay  out  the  soath  line "   of  that 


236  CONNECTICUT. 

colony,  to  be  joined  by  such  as  Connecticut  might 
designate  for  the  purpose. 

After  three  years  this  loss  to  Connecticut  was 
more  than  made  up  by  two  additions.     A  com- 
pany   consisting  of  "  about  forty   families,"  from 
Lynn,  in  Massachusetts,  "finding  themselves  strait- 
ened," had  bouo^ht  land  of  the  Indians,  on 

1640-1641. 

the  south  side  of  Long  Island,  near  its 
eastern  end,  and  there  begun  a  plantation  which 
they  called  Southampton.  For  a  while  they  formed 
an  independent  community ;  but  learning  from  ex- 
perience the  disadvantages  of  this  condition,  they 
entered  into  an  agreement  to  "  associate  and  join 
themselves  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Connecticut;" 
1641  and  their  Deputies  were  admitted  to  the 
Oct.  25.  Qeneral  Court  of  that  Colony.  A  more 
important  accession  was  that  of  the  settlement  at 
Saybrook.  On  condition  of  receiving  the  avails, 
for  ten  years,  of  certain  duties  to  be  collected  from 
all  vessels  passing  out  of  the  river,  and  of  certain 
taxes  on  the  domestic  trade  in  beaver  and  live 
stock,  Fenwick  conveyed  the  fort,  with  its  arma- 
ment and  "appurtenances,"  and  the  "  land  upon 
the  river,"  "  except  such  as  was  already  private 
property,"  to  the  "jurisdiction  of  Connect- 
^'  '  icut."  He  further  covenanted  to  obtain 
for  that  jurisdiction  the  property  of  "  all  the  lands 
from  Narragansett  River  to  the  fort  of  Saybrook, 
mentioned  in  a  patent  granted  by  the  Earl  of  War- 
wick to  certain  nobles  and  gentlemen, if 

it  came  into  his  power." 


EDWARD   WmSLOW   IN   ENGLAND.  237 

The  perplexities  of  the  colony  of  Plymouth,  con- 
sequent upon  its  connection  with  the  English  part- 
ners, were  still  far  from  being  unravelled.  Among 
the  objects  of  Edward  Winslow's  visit  to  ^^g^ 
England,  one  was  the  defence  of  the  char- 
tered rights  of  Massachusetts  before  the  Privy 
Council,  and  another  the  final  adjustment  of  the 
mercantile  affairs  of  Plymouth.  One  of  his  first 
measures  after  arriving  incurred  the  disapprobation 
of  the  far-sighted  Governor  of  Massachusetts.  In 
a  petition  to  the  Lords  Commissioners  for  Foreign 
Plantations,  in  which  were  set  forth  the  ambitious 
designs  of  the  French  and  Dutch,  he  prayed  the 
Commissioners,  "  on  the  behalf  of  the  plantations 
in  New  England,"  to  "  either  procure  their  peace 
with  those  foreign  States,  or  else  to  give  special 
warrant  unto  the  English  to  fight  and  defend  them- 
selves against  all  foreign  enemies ; "  —  a  step,  says 
Winthrop,  "  undertaken  by  ill  advice,  for  such  pre- 
cedents might  endanger  our  liberty,  that  we  should 
do  nothing  but  by  commission  out  of  England." 

Winslow  flattered  himself  prematurely  that  his 
business  was'  prospering.  At  the  time  of  his  arri- 
val, the  appointment  of  a  General  Governor  was 
seriously  meditated.  When,  in  a  hearing  before 
the  Council,  he  had  successfully  parried  the  charges 
made  by  Morton  under  the  instigation  of  Gorges 
and  Mason,  the  archbishop,  taking  him  to  task  for 
officiating  in  religious  ministrations,  and  for  marry- 
ing in  his  capacity  of  Magistrate,  browbeat  the 
Commissioners  into  ordering  his  committal  to  the 


238  PLYMOUTH. 

Fleet  prison,  where  he  lay  four  months.  When 
the  business  with  Shirley,  Beauchamp,  and  An- 
drews, the  London  partners,  was  resumed,  it  was 
under  some  disadvantage  from  this  delay.  The 
Plymouth  people  believed  that  they  had  already 
made  remittances  of  merchandise  more  than  suf- 
ficient to  discharge  their  obligations.  But  they 
had  reposed  a  degree  of  confidence,  such  as  in 
transactions  between  the  most  upright  men  does 
not  tend  to  the  highest  ultimate  satisfaction  ; 
barter  accounts  had  gone  on  unstated  from  year 
to  year;  questions  arose  upon  mutually  conflict- 
ing claims  of  the  English  associates  ;  and  the 
complicated  embaiTassments  became  distressing  to 
persons  who  could  not  consent  to  fall  short  of  their 
engagements,  but  who  could  not  afford  to  go  much 
beyond  them.  Repeatedly,  after  seeming  to  them- 
selves to  have  already  done  more  than  discharge 
their  debts,  they  were  moved  by  some  new  com- 
plaint to  send  to  England  all  the  later  accumula- 
tions of  their  hard  labor. 

But,  notwithstanding  such  discouragements,  pros- 
perity could  not  fail  at  last  to  come  in  the  train  of 
industry  and  intelligence  such  as  were  exercised 
at  Plymouth.  The  large  emigration  to  Massachu- 
setts created  a  profitable  market.  "  It  pleased 
God,  in  these  times,  so  to  bless  the  country  with 
such  access  and  confluence  of  people  into  it,  as  it 
was  thereby  much  enriched,  and  cattle  of  all  kinds 
stood  at  a  high  rate  for  divers  years  together."  A 
cow  was  sold  for  twenty  pounds,  sometimes  even 


PROJECT   OF  A   REilOVAL.  2rf9 

as  high  as  twenty-eight  pounds ;  a  goat  for  three 
or  four  pounds;  and  corn  for  six  shillings  a 
bushel ;  "  by  which  means  the  ancient  planters 
which  had  any  stock  began  to  grow  in  their  estates 

so  as  other  trading  began  to  be  neglected." 

The  commerce  with  the  Indians  on  the  Kennebec, 
which  had  been  likely  to  be  abandoned,  was  farmed 
by  the  colony  to  a  new  company,  for  the  rent  of  a 
sixth  part  of  the  profits,  "  with  the  first  fruits  of 
which  they  built  a  house  for  a  prison."  This  was 
one  sign  of  the  permanency  of  the  settlement,  which 
hitherto  had  been  matter  of  uncertainty.  When 
the  Dorchester  planters  came  to  the  Con- 
necticut, their  Plymouth  rivals  complained 
of  being  deprived  "  of  that  which  they  had  with 
charge  and  hazard  provided,  and  intended  to  re- 
move to,  as  soon  as  they  could  and  were  able." 
Three  years  later,  it  was  remarked  of  "  a  jggg. 
great  and  fearful  earthquake,"  which  was  •'""®^- 
felt  at  Plymouth  and  the  other  settlements,  that 
'  it  fell  out  at  the  same  time  divers  of  the  chief  of 
this  town  were  met  together  at  one  house,  confer- 
ring with  some  of  their  friends  that  were  upon 
their  removal  from  the  place,  as  if  the  Lord  would 
hereby  show  the  signs  of  his  displeasure  in  their 
shaking  apieces  and  removals  one  from  another." 

One  reason  of  their  unsettled  state  was  the  con- 
tinued ill-success  of  their  endeavors  to  obtain  a 
minister  who  should  in  some  measure  supply  to 
them  the  place  of  their  venerated  Robinson.  Smith 
was  soon  seen  to  be  a  man  of  mean  abilities ;  and 


240  PLYMOUTH. 

after  six  or  seven  years'  patient  endurance  of  him 
by  the  colony,  he  "  laid  down  his  place  of 

1636.  .    .  ,  ^ 

ministry,  partly  by  his  own  willingness,  as 
thinking  it  too  heavy  a  burden,  and  partly  at  the 
desire  and  persuasion  of  others."     To  assist  him, 

Winslow  had  brought  over  from  England 

1635.  " 

Mr.  John  Norton,  "  who  was  well  liked  of 
them,  and  much  desired  by  them."  But  he  re- 
mained at  Plymouth  only  through  a  winter,  and 
then  departed,  to  enter  on  a  conspicuous  career  in 
Massachusetts.  On  Smith's  retirement,  "it  pleased 
the  Lord  to  send  them,"  in  Mr.  Rayner,  "  an  able 
and  godly  man,  and  of  a  meek  and  humble  spirit, 
sound  in  the  truth,  and  every  way  unreprovable 
in  his  life  and  conversation  ; "  but  not,  it  ap- 
pears, of  commanding  abilities  or  character.  Two 
1638     y^^rs  after  Norton's  departure,  Mr.  Charles 

Chauncy,  "  a  reverend,  godly,  and  very 
learned  man,"  as  he  afterwards  fully  proved  himself, 
was  brought  to  Rayner's  aid.  He  soon  announced 
himself  to  be  a  believer  in  the  doctrine  of  baptism 
by  immersion.  Indisposed  to  have  any  variance 
with  him  on  that  account,  the  congregation  offered 
to  respect  his  conscience,  if  he  would  but  tolerate 
theirs,  and  to  allow  the  rite  to  be  performed  by  the 
two  ministers  in  whichever  way  they  and  the  sub- 
jects of  it  should  prefer.  "  But  he  said  he  could  not 
yield  thereunto  ;"  and,  after  unsuccessful  attempts 
at  accommodation,  he  withdrew  from  his  relation 
to  the  Plymouth  church,  at  the  end  of  nearly  three 
years. 


EARLY    LEGISLATION.  241 

For  almost  sixteen  years  from  the  beginning  of 
the  old  colony,  the  scanty  record  which  remains 
of  the  public  administration  exhibits  it  as  princi- 
pally occjipied  with  police  and  military  regula- 
tions, and  rules  and  orders  for  the  division  of  lands 
and  the  settlement  of  estates.  In  the  sixteenth 
year,  a  committee  was  raised,  consisting  of 
four  freemen  of  Plymouth,  two  of  Scituate, 
and  two  of  Duxbury,  to  aid  the  Governor  and 
Assistants  in  codifying  the  laws,  of  which  "  divers 
were  found  worthy  the  reforming,  others  the  reject- 
ing, and  others  fit  to  be  instituted  and  made." 
Under  a  system  of  general  jurisprudence 
such  as  suited  the  simple  wants  of  the 
colony,  the  report  of  the  committee  included  a  re- 
visal  of  the  constitution  of  government.  It  pro- 
vided that  annual  elections  of  a  Governor,  seven 
Assistants,  a  Treasurer,  a  Coroner,  a  Clerk,  Con- 
stables, and  other  inferior  officers,  should  be  made 
by  the  freemen  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  March ; 
and  it  defined  the  very  narrow  powers  of  those 
functionaries,  reserving  to  the  body  of  freemen  the 
chief  share  of  both  legislation  and  administration. 
The  oaths  prescribed  to  be  taken  by  freemen  and 
residents,  as  well  as  by  officers,  —  unlike  those  in 
use  in  Massachusetts  and  in  the  western  settle- 
ments,—  comprehended  an  engagement  of  loyalty 
to  the  King ;  and  the  Courts  were  ordered  to  be 
held  in  his  name.  Laws  and  ordinances  were  to 
be  made  only  by  the  freemen,  who  were  cautioned 
to  be  just  in  laying  taxes  upon  others, 

TOI..  1.  16 


342  PLYMOUTH. 

The  same  policy  by  which  in  Massachusetts  the 
holders  of  the  soil  selected  their  associates,  was 
adopted  in  a  supplementary  rule,  "  that  no  person 
or  persons  thereafter  should  be  permitted  to  live 
and  inhabit  within  the  government  of  New  Plym- 
outh without  the  leave  and  liking  of  the  Governor, 
or  two  of  the   Assistants,  at  least."     The  frame 

1638  ^^  government  was  before  long  completed 
by  the  creation  of  a  second  class  of  legisla- 
tors. On  a  "  complaint  that  the  freemen  were 
put  to  many  inconveniences  and  great  expenses  by 
their  continual  attendance  at  the  Courts,"  it  was 
"  enacted  by  the  Court,  for  the  ease  of  the  several 
colonies  and  towns  within  the  government,  that 
every  town  should  make  choice  of  two  of  their 
freemen,  and  the  town  of  Plymouth  of  four,  to  be 
Committees  or  Deputies  to  join  with  the  bench  to 
enact  and  make  all  such  laws  and  ordinances  as 
should  be  judged  to  be  good  and  wholesome  for 
the  whole."  Laws  might,  however,  be  enacted  or 
repealed  by  the  whole  body  of  freemen,  convened 
in  their  Courts  of  Election.  The  Deputies,  who 
were  to  be  freemen,  were  to  be  paid  by  their 
towns;  and  tax- paying  "masters  of  families," 
though  not  freemen,  were  to  have  a  vote  in  their 
election.  Deputies  found  to  be  "  insufficient  or 
troublesome  "  might  be  "  dismissed  "  by  their  asso- 
ciates and  the  Assistants,  in  which  case  their  town 
should  "  choose  other  freemen  in  their  place."  At  a 

1639  General  Court  in  the  next  year.  Deputies  ap- 
june  4.   peared  from  seven  towns,  na  mely,  Plymouth, 


BOUKDARffiS.  243 

Du?c'>ary,  Scituate,  Sandwich,  Cohannet  (Taun- 
ton), Yarmouth,  and  Barnstable.  In  the  same  year 
"  Us.samequin  [Massasoit]  and  Mooanam,  his  son, 
came  into  the  Court  in  their  own  proper 
persons,"  and,  at  their  request,  "  the  ancient 
league  and  confederacy,  formerly  made,"  and  now 
enlarged  by  some  further  stipulations,  was  "  re- 
newed, and  ordered  to  stand  and  remain  invio- 
lable." 

The  first  patent  of  Plymouth  had  defined  no 
boundaries.  The  second  never  took  effect,  ig2i. 
having  been  surrendered  by  Pierce  in  the  ^®^' 
sequel  of  a  dispute  with  the  Associates.  The 
gratit  in  the  third  furnished  the  rule  for  ^^^ 
determining  the  line  between  the  jurisdic-  Jiiieis. 
lions  of  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth.  If  the 
patents  conflicted  in  the  descriptions  of  the  terri- 
tory conveyed,  the  claim  of  Massachusetts  was 
best,  as  being  prior  in  time ;  but  it  was  main- 
tained by  Plymouth  that  the  other  colony  gave  an 
unjustifiable  interpretation  to  the  name  Charles 
River,  in  holding  it  to  extend  as  far  south  as  the 
most  southerly  of  its  tributaries.  The  Plymouth 
planters  had  assigned,  partly  to  their  London  asso- 
ciates, and  partly  to  actual  settlers,  certain  lands 
at  a  place  called  Scituate,  contiguous  to  the  Mas- 
sachusetts town  of  Hingham,  but  understood  by 
the  Plymouth  people  to  lie  within  their  own  north- 
eastern border.  A  dispute  which  ensued  between 
the  neighbors  was  taken  up  by  their  respective 
governments.     Commissioners,  two  on  each  side, 


244  PLYMOUTH. 

met,  and  came  to  an  agreement,  which  proved  mu- 
tually satisfactory  for  the  present,  though, 
under  a  change  of  circumstances,  it  was 
revised  at  a  later  time. 

The  patent  from  the  Council  for  New  England, 
under  which  the  lands  continued  to  be  held,  was 
a  grant  to  "  William  Bradford,  his  heirs,  associates, 
and  assigns."  The  freemen,  being  now  dispersed 
through  seven  towns  in  addition  to  Plymouth, 
desired  legal  possession  of  the  common  property; 
and  Bradford  executed  an  instrument,  by  which, 
after  certain  reservations  for  the   "  Purchasers  or 

1641.  O^^  Comers,"  he  surrendered  "  into  the 
March -2.  jj^^j^jg  ^f  ^jjg  wholc  Court,  cousistiug  of  the 
freemen  of  the  corporation  of  New  Plymouth,  all 
that  other  right  and  title,  power,  authority,  privi- 
leges, immunities,  and  freedoms,  granted  in  the 
said  letters  patents  by  the  said  right  honorable 
Council  for  New  England." 

The  vexatious  business  with  the  English  part- 
ners was  brought  to  a  partial  settlement  by  their 
consent  to  give  a  full  discharge  on  the  receipt  of 
twelve  hundred  pounds.  One  of  them,  Andrews, 
"  a  haberdasher  in  London,  a  godly  man,"  pre- 
sented five  hundred  pounds,  his  share  of  the  pro- 
ceeds, to  the  Massachusetts  colony,  "  to  be  laid 
out  in  cattle,  and  other  course  of  trade,  for  the 
poor."  The  eight  men  of  Plymouth,  having  made 
a  scrupulously  high  valuation,  on  oath,  of  the 
effects  in  their  hands,  had  not  only  been  great 
losers,  but   considered    themselves   to   have   been 


DEATH   OF  BREWSTER.  245 

hardly  treated.  And  the  case  turned  out  still 
worse  than  their  fears,  when,  in  consequence  of 
the  arrest  of  emigration,  occasioned  by  the  altered 
state  of  affairs  in  the  parent  country,  the  value  of 
their  salable  property  was  excessively  depressed. 
The  price  of  a  cow  fell  in  a  month  from  twenty 
pounds  to  five,  and  of  a  goat  from  three  pounds  to 
ten  shillings ;  and  the  prospect  was  so  dark,  that 
thoughts  of  removal  were  again  entertained,  which 
probably  nothing  short  of  a  local  attachment,  ma- 
tured under  the  severest  experiences,  could  have 
overcome. 

And  the  strength  of  this  sentiment  was  tried  at 
the  critical  moment  by  an  event,  which,  if  suited 
to  weaken  it  in  one  class  of  minds,  would  be  likely 
to  give  it  double  force  in  another.  "  Their  1543 
reverend  elder,"  writes  Bradford,  "  and  my  ^p"^^- 
dear  and  loving  friend,  Mr.  William  Brewster," 
died;  "  a  man  that  had  done  and  suffered  much  for 
the  Lord  Jesus  and  the  gospel's  sake,  and  had  done 
his  part  in  weal  and  woe  with  this  poor  persecuted 
church,  above  thirty-six  years,  in  England,  Hol- 
land, and  in  this  wilderness,  and  done  the  Lord 
and  them  faithful  service  in  his  place  and  calling. 
And,  notwithstanding  the  many  troubles  he  passed 
through,  the  Lord  upheld  him  to  a  great  age.  He 
was  near  fourscore  years  of  age,  if  not  all  out, 
when  he  died.  He  had  this  blessing  added  by  the 
Lord  to  all  the  rest,  to  die  in  his  bed  in  peace, 
amongst  the  midst  of  his  friends,  who  mourned 
and  wept  over  hira,  and  ministered  what  help  and 


246  PLYMOUTH. 

comfort  they  could  unto  him,  and  he  again  recom- 
forted  them  whilst  he  could.  His  sickness  was  not 
long,  and  till  the  last  day  thereof  he  did  not  wholly 
keep  his  bed.  His  speech  continued  till  somewhat 
more  than  half  a  day,  and  then  failed  him ;  and 
about  nine  or  ten  o'clock  that  evening  he  died 
without  any  pangs  at  all.  A  few  hours  before, 
he  drew  his  breath  short,  and  some  few  minutes 
before  his  last  he  drew  his  breath  long,  as  a  man 
fallen  into  a  sound  sleep,  without  any  pangs  or 
gaspings ;  and  so  sweetly  departed  this  life  unto  a 
better." 


CHAPTER  XV. 

MASSACHUSETTS   AND    THE    CONFEDERATION. 

In  Massachusetts,  the  thoughts  of  the  freemen 
had  not  been  engrossed  by  the  pressing  distractions 
of  the  troubled  times  through  which  they  were 
passing.  They  still  had  attention  to  bestow  on 
the  wants  of  posterity ;  and  no  men  better  under- 
stood what  were  the  essential  conditions  of  the 
permanent  well-being  of  a  commonwealth.  The 
seventh  year  since  the  transportation  of  the  ^^33 
charter  had  just  begun,  when  "  the  Court  ^'^''  ^' 
agreed  to  give  four  hundred  pounds  towards  a 
school  or  college,  whereof  two  hundred  pounds  to 
be  paid  the  next  year,  and  two  hundred  pounds 
when  the  work  is  finished,  and  the  next  Court  to 
appoint  where  and  what  building."  That  Massa- 
chusetts assembly  over  which  Henry  Vane  pre- 
sided has  been  said  to  be  "the  first  body  in  which 
the  people,  by  their  representatives,  ever  gave  their 
own  money  to  found  a  place  of  education."  Their 
college  preceded  the  next  oldest  in  British  America 
(the  College  of  William  and  Mary  in  Virginia) 
by  more  than  fifty  years.  Provision  had  hardly 
been  made  for  the  first  wants  of  life,  —  habitations, 
food,  clothing,  and  churches.  Walls,  roads,  and 
bridges  were  yet  to  be  built     The  power  of  Eng- 


248  MASSACHUSETTS. 

land  stood  in  attitude  to  strike.  A  desperate 
war  with  the  natives  had  already  begun,  and  the 
government  was  threatened  with  an  Antinomian 
insurrection.  Through  and  beyond  these  dark 
complications  of  the  present,  the  New  England 
founders  looked  to  great  necessities  of  future  times, 
which  could  not  be  provided  for  too  soon. 

The  appropriation  was  equivalent  to  the  colony 
tax  for  a  year.     Regarded  in  that  point  of  view,  a 
million  of  dollars  would  at  the  present  day  inad- 
163.7.     equately  represent  it.     Newtown  was  fixed 
Nov.  15.  ypQjj  fQy  ^{jg  gj^e  q£  ^jjg  college,  and  a  com- 
mittee of  seven  Magistrates  and  six  ministers,  men 
of  the    first  distinction   in   their  respective 
classes,  were  directed  "  to  take  order"  for  it. 
The  generous  project  engaged  the  sympathy  of 
John  Harvard,  a  graduate  of  Emmanuel  College, 
jgg,     Cambridge,  who,  dying  childless  within  a 
Sept.  14.  yggj,  af^gj.  [jig  arrival  at   Charlestown,  be- 
queathed his  library  and  "  the  half  of  his  estate, 
which  amounted  to  about  seven  hundred  pounds, 
jggg     for   the   erecting  of  the  college."      In  just 
March  13.  gratitude,  the  Court  ordered  it  to  be  called 
by  his  name.     Newtown  had  just  before  received 
the  name  of  Cambridge. 

When  the  Indian  war  was  over,  and  the  movers 

of  sedition    had  been    quelled,  everything  within 

Massachusetts  began  to  wear  the  aspect  of  a  new 

prosperity.    The  vigor  of  the  rulers  had  in  England 

inspired  confidence,  and  no  fewer  than  three 

thousand  settlers  came  over  in  three  months. 


LEGISLATION  AND   ELECTIONS.  249 

The  government  was  indulgent  as  soon  as  it  was 
safe ;  and  the  arms  which   had  been  taken  from 
nearly  a  hundred  excited  persons  were  re-    ^^^ 
stored  to  as  many  of  them  as  remained  in  ^°^-^ 
the  colony  "carrying  themselves  peaceably." 

For  the  present,  few  occasions  arose  for  any  ex- 
traordinary legislation.  A  public  registration  of 
births,    marriages,    and    deaths   was    estab- 

Sept.  9. 

lished,  as  well  as  that  excellent  system  of 
registration  of  deeds  and  of  testamentary  instru- 
ments, which  has  rendered  the  conveyance  of 
property  in  New  England  so  simple  and  so  safe. 
A  rule  was  made  for  the  publication  of 
intentions  of  marriage.  A  post-office  for 
foreign  correspondence  was  set  up.  "  That  abom- 
inable practice  of  drinking  healths  "  was  forbidden, 
under  a  penalty  of  twelve  pence  for  each  offence, 
as  being  "  a  mere  useless  ceremony,"  and  "  also  an 
occasion  of  much  waste  of  the  good  creatures,  and 
of  many  other  sins."  Prohibitions,  addressed  to 
both  possessor  and  purveyor,  were  aimed  against 
"  the  excessive  wearing  of  lace  and  other  super- 
fluities, tending  to  little  use  or  benefit,  but  to  the 
nourishing  of  pride  and  exhausting  of  men's  es- 
tates, and  also  of  evil  example  to  others." 

Since  the  restoration  of  Winthrop  to  the  chief 
magistracy  from  the  inferior  place  into  which  the 
democratic  spasm  had  cast  him,  he  had  continued 
to  be  aided  by  his  former  counsellors.  In  each  of 
these  three  years  Dudley  held  the  second  office ; 
and  all  of  the  former  Assistants  who  remained  in 


250  MASSACHUSETTS. 

the  colony,  except  Duramer,  retained  their  position 
in  the  government. 

But  the  public  confidence  in  Winthrop,  so  well 
merited  and  generally  so  constant,  did  not  blind 
the  electors  to  the  danger  of  the  precedent  that 
might  grow  out  of  a  too  long  continuance  in  office 
of  one  favorite  public  servant;  and  his  second  elec- 
lion  after  that  when  he  succeeded  Vane 
had  not  been  carried  with  universal  satisfac- 
tion. Another  temporary  cause  of  discontent  with 
the  existing  administration  was,  that  "the  Court, 
finding  the  number  of  Deputies  to  be  much  in- 
creased by  the  number  of  new  plantations,  thought 
fit,  for  the  use  both  of  the  country  and  the  Court, 
to  reduce  all  towns  to  two  Deputies.  This  occa- 
sioned some  to  fear  that  the  Magistrates  intended 
to  make  themselves  stronger  and  the  Deputies 
weaker,  and  so  in  time  to  bring  all  power  into  the 
hands  of  the  Magistrates."  "  By  force  of  reason," 
the  question  about  the  number  of  Deputies  was 
settled  to  the  general  satisfaction ;  and  for  forty 
years  from  this  time  there  was  a  uniform  delega- 
tion of  two  representatives  from  every  town  in  the 
jurisdiction. 

After  the  third  year  of  Winthrop's  second  period 
of  service  as  Governor,  the  personal  question  re- 
lating to  him  was  disposed  of  in  the  best  way 
possible,  as  things  stood,  both  for  him  and  for  the 
jg^Q  country.  Dudley  was  elected  in  his  place, 
*^^^^-  —  "a  man,"  says  his  magnanimous  prede- 
sessor,  "  of  approved  wisdom  and  godliness,  and 


DEMAND  FOR  THE  CHARTER.         251 

of  much  good  service  to  the  country;  and  there- 
fore it  was  his  due  to  share  in  such  honor  and 
benefit  as  the  country  had  to  bestow.  The  elders, 
being  met  at  Boston  about  this  matter,  sent  some 
of  their  company  to  acquaint  the  old  Governor 
with  their  desire,  and  the  reasons  moving  them, 
clearing  themselves  of  all  dislike  of  his  govern- 
ment, and  seriously  professing  their  sincere  affec- 
tions and  respect  towards  him,  which  he  kindly 
and  thankfully  accepted."  In  the  new  election, 
he  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  still  better  evi- 
dence of  the  public  approbation  of  that  govern- 
ment of  which  he  had  been  the  head.  It  was  no 
further  changed  than  by  the  promotion  of  Dudley 
and  Bellingham  each  one  step  in  official  station, 
while  he  himself  took  Bellingham's  place  as  an 
Assistant. 

In  the  second  period  of  Winthrop's  administra- 
tion of  the  chief  magistracy,  yet  another  attempt 
had  been  made  by  the  home  government  —  the 
final  one  for  the  present  —  to  get  possession  of 
the  charter  of  Massachusetts.  A  "  very  strict 
order"  came  from  the  Commissioners  of  Plan- 
tations for  its  instant  transmission  to  England. 
The  General  Court,  after  a  pause  of  some  ^^^ 
months,  "  agreed  that  a  letter  should  be  ^p'-  ^• 
written  by  the  Governor  in  the  name  of  the  Court, 
to  excuse  our  not  sending  of  it ;  for  it  was  resolved 
to  be  best  not  to  send  it,  because  then  such  of  our 
friends  and  others  in  England  would  conceive  it 
to  be  surrendered,  and  that  thereupon  we  should 


252  massachusp:tts. 

be  bound  to  receive  such  a  Governor  and  such  or- 
ders as  should  be  sent  to  us,  and  many  bad  minds, 
yea,  and  some  weak  ones,  among  ourselves  would 
think  it  lawful,  if  not  necessary,  to  accept  a  Gen- 
eral Governor." 

Winthrop's  letter  addressed  to  the  Commission- 
ers for  Plantations,  under  this  order,  is  a  document 
worthy  of  all  remembrance,  as  displaying  the  spirit 
and  policy  of  the  time.  It  begins  with  a  refusal 
to  transmit  the  patent,  expressed  in  the  form  of  a 
petition  for  a  further  consideration  of  the  demand, 
and  in  the  style  of  diplomatic  courtesy  appropriate 
to  such  communications.  It  declares,  that,  had 
notice  been  received  of  the  prosecution  under  the 
quo  warranto^  there  would  have  been  "  a  sufficient 
plea  to  put  in."  The  material  part  of  the  mani- 
festo then  follows :  — 

"  It  is  not  unknown  to  your  Lordships,  that  we 
came  into  these  remote  parts  with  his  Majesty's 
license  and  encouragement,  under  his  great  seal 
of  England ;  and,  in  the  confidence  we  had  of 
the  great  assurance  of  his  favor,  we  have  trans- 
ported our  families  and  estates,  and  here  have  we 
built  and  planted,  to  the  great  enlargement  and 
securing  of  his  Majesty's  dominions  in  these  parts, 
so  as,  if  our  patent  should  be  now  taken  from  us, 
we  should  be  scoffed  at  as  runagates  and  outlaws, 
and  shall  be  enforced  either  to  remove  to  some 
other  place,  or  to  return  to  our  native  country 
again,  either  of  which  will  put  us  to  insuperable 
extremities;  and  these  evils  (among  others)  will 
necessarily  follow :  — 


DEMAND  FOR  THE  CHARTER.        253 

"  1.  Many  thoasand  souls  will  be  exposed  to 
ruin,  being  laid  open  to  the  injuries  of  all  men. 

"  2.  If  we  be  forced  to  desert  the  place,  the  rest 
of  the  plantations  about  us  (being  too  weak  to 
subsist  alone)  will,  for  the  most  part,  dissolve  and 
go  along  with  us ;  and  then  will  this  whole  country 
fall  into  the  hands  of  French  or  Dutch,  who  would 
speedily  embrace  such  an  opportunity. 

"  3.  If  we  should  lose  all  our  labor  and  cost,  and 
be  deprived  of  those  liberties  which  his  Majesty 
hath  granted  us,  and  nothing  laid  to  our  charge, 
nor  any  failing  to  be  found  in  us  in  point  of  alle- 
giance, (which  all  our  countrymen  do  take  notice 
of,  and  do  justify  our  faithfulness  in  this  behalf,)  it 
will  discourage  all  men  hereafter  from  the  like  un- 
dertakings, upon  confidence  of  his  Majesty's  royal 
grant. 

"  4.  Lastly,  if  our  patent  be  taken  from  us  (where- 
by we  suppose  we  may  claim  interest  in  his  Maj- 
esty's favor  and  protection),  the  common  people 
here  will  conceive  that  his  Majesty  hath  cast  them 
off,  and  that  hereby  they  are  freed  from  their  alle- 
giance and  subjection,  and  thereupon  will  be  ready 
to  confederate  themselves  under  a  new  govern- 
ment, for  their  necessary  safety  and  subsistence, 
which  will  be  of  dangerous  example  unto  other 
plantations,  and  perilous  to  ourselves  of  incurring 
his  Majesty's  displeasure,  which  we  would  by  all 
means  avoid." 

Here,  after  a  little  more  empty  threatening  from 
the  Commissioners,  the  business  slept  for  the  pres- 


254  MASSACHUSETTS. 

ent.  There  was  more  serious  matter  for  concern 
nearer  home.  The  Scots  were  in  arms.  The  his- 
torian Hutchinson  thought,  that,  if  the  settlers  in 
Massachusetts  had  now  been  pushed  to  extremity, 
it  was  "  pretty  certain  the  body  of  the  people  would 
have  left  the  country,"  either  betaking  themselves 
to  the  Dutch  on  Hudson's  River,  or  seeking  some 
unoccupied  spot  out  of  the  reach  of  any  Euro- 
pean power.  But  a  combination  with  the  Dutch, 
while  it  would  have  secured  their  liberty  of  wor- 
ship, might  not  even  have  involved  a  necessity  for 
their  change  of  residence.  As  things  stood,  the 
great  maritime  power  of  the  United  Provinces,  had 
it  been  engaged  to  come  in  aid  of  what  the  trans- 
planted Englishmen  could  do  for  themselves,  might 
fairly  be  supposed  competent  to  protect  them  in 
their  Massachusetts  homes. 

For  a  second  time,  Dudley  served  as  Governor 
only  one  year.  Richard  Bellingham  was 
chosen  to  be  his  successor,  with  Endicott 
for  Deputy- Governor.  The  election  of  Belling- 
ham, which  was  made  by  a  majority  of  only  six 
votes  when  there  were  some  fourteen  hundred 
voters,  took  the  General  Court  by  surprise,  and 
was  received  by  them  with  a  displeasure  which 
they  testified  promptly  and  significantly.  The  Gov- 
ernor was  no  sooner  sworn  in,  than  they  passed 
a  vote  to  repeal  "  the  order  formerly  made  for  al- 
lowing a  hundred  pounds  per  annum  for  the  Gov- 
ernor." This  period  of  Bellinghara's  life  was  not 
the  most  creditable.     He  occasioned  scandal  by  an 


ADMINISTRATION   OF    BELLIXGHAM.  250 

ansuitable  matrimonial  contract,  by  neglecting  to 
have  the  banns  published  according  to  law,  and  by 
performing  the  marriage  ceremony  himself;  and, 
when  called  to  account  before  the  Board  of  Magis- 
trates, he  indulged  himself  in  disrespectful  and  dis- 
orderly behavior.  The  General  Court  "  was  full 
of  uncomfortable  agitations  and  contentions,"  by 
reason  of  his  unfriendliness  to  "  some  other  of  the 
Magistrates."  The  candid  Winthrop,  who  gives 
some  instances  of  Bellingham's  maladministration, 
found  himself  compelled  to  impute  it  to  "an  evil 
spirit  of  emulation  and  jealousy,  through  his  mel- 
ancholy disposition."  Dudley's  disgust  was  such 
that  he  could  scarcely  be  prevailed  upon  not  to 
withdraw  from  office.  Perhaps  it  was  with  a  view 
to  provide  some  check  to  what  was  apprehended 
from  his  overbearing  disposition,  that  an  able  man, 
John  Humphrey,  was  advanced  to  the  new 
trust  of  "  Sergeant- Major  General"  of  all  the 
military  force  of  the  colony.  Whenever  the  ship 
of  state  was  laboring,  the  natural  resource 

1642. 

was  to  call  Winthrop  to  the  helm;  and  he 
was  again  made  Governor  at  the  end  of  Belling- 
ham's year  of  office. 

At  this  time,  "  there  arose  a  scruple  about  the 
oath  which  the  Governor  and  the  rest  of  the  Magis- 
trates were  to  take,  viz :  about  the  first  part  of  it,« 
*you  shall  bear  true  faith  and  allegiance  to  our 
sovereign  lord,  King  Charles,'  seeing  he  had  vio- 
lated the  privileges  of  Parliament,  and  made  war 
upon  them,  and  thereby  had  lost  much  of  his  king- 


256  MASSACHUSETTS. 

dom  and  many  of  his  subjects  ;  whereupon  it  vvaa 
thought  fit  to  omit  that  part  of  it  for  the  present." 
And  here  was  an  end,  for  many  years,  to  all  pub- 
lic recognition  of  royal  authority  in  Massachusetts. 

The  second  year  of  Winthrop's  third  service  in 
the  chief  magistracy  of  Massachusetts  was  signal- 
ized by  the  perfecting  of  the  system  of  internal  ad- 
ministration in  two  respects,  and  by  the  maturing 
of  a  measure  which  materially  changed,  and  fixed 
for  a  long  period,  the  relations  of  the  colonies  of 
New  England  to  one  another,  and  to  the  world 
abroad. 

One  of  the  improvements  now  made  was  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  towns  of  Massachusetts,  thirty  in 
number,  into  four  counties,  named,  Suffolk,  Nor- 
folk, Essex,  and  Middlesex,  from  the  English  shires 
jg43  from  which  probably  the  greater  number  of 
May  10.  immigrants  had  come.  A  framework  for 
this  organization  already  existed  in  the  institution 
of  Quarterly  Courts  held  at  four  principal  places, 
and  in  the  organization  of  the  military  force  into 
regiments  according  to  a  local  division.  The  armed 
levy  of  each  county  was  presently  after 
placed  under  the  command  of  a  "  Lieuten- 
ant," an  officer  corresponding  to  the  Lord-Lieu- 
tenant of  an  English  shire,  and  inferior  only  to  the 
Governor  and  the  Sergeant- Major  General  of  the 
colony.  In  each  county  there  was  to  be  a  Sergeant- 
Major,  second  in  command  to  the  Lieutenant. 

The  same  year  witnessed  the  adoption  of  that 
great  security  of  constitutional  governments,  which. 


TWO   HOUSKS   OF   LEGISLATURE.  257 

late  in  the  following  century,  was  to  be  maintained 
by  John  Adams  against  the  arguments  of  Turgot 
and  the  judgment  of  Franklin,  and  which  now 
makes  a  part  of  the  organic  law  of  each  one  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  as  well  as  of  the  federal 
government  that  unites  them.  A  division  of  the 
legislature  into  two  coordinate  branches  terminated 
a  controversy  between  the  Magistrates  and  Depu- 
ties which  had  been  running  on  for  several  years. 

"  There  fell  out  a  great  business,"  writes  Win- 
throp,  "  upon  a  very  small  occasion,"  which 
he  proceeds  to  relate.  "  There  was  a  stray 
sow  in  Boston,  which  was  brought  to  Captain 
Keayne,"  a  man  of  property  and  consequence,  but 
unpopular  for  alleged  hardness  in  his  dealings.  He 
advertised  for  its  owner  in  vain,  till  after  he  had 
killed  a  pig  of  his  own,  which  had  been  kept  along 
with  the  stray.  Then  a  woman  named  Sherman 
came  to  see  it,  and,  not  being  able  to  identify 
it  with  one  she  had  lost,  alleged  that  the  slaugh- 
tered pig  was  hers.  A  litigation  followed,  and  par- 
ties became  excited.  A  jury  exonerated  Captain 
Keayne,  who  turned  on  his  prosecutor  with  a  suit 
for  defamation,  in  which  also  he  prevailed.  Mrs. 
Sherman  appealed  to  the  General  Court.  With 
the  popular  portion  of  that  body,  in  which  ^q^ 
as  yet  Magistrates  and  Deputies  sat  and  ^^"^' 
voted  in  the  same  chamber,  the  prejudices  against 
Keayne  had  weight.  Seven  Magistrates  with  only 
eight  Deputies  voted  in  his  favor,  while  fifteen 
Deputies  sustained  two  Magistrates  against  him. 

VOL.  I.  17 


258  MASSACHUSETTS. 

Thus  a  large  majority  of  the  superior  officials  wa3 
on  one  side,  while  in  a  joint  vote  the  majority  of 
the  Court  would  be  for  the  other.  In  circum- 
stances which  so  enlisted  a  popular  feeling,  the 
fundamental  question  of  the  mutual  relation  of 
the  two  classes  of  representatives  was  brought  up. 
The  Magistrates  published  a  declaration  respect- 
ing it.  The  now  factious  Bellingham  answered 
the  declaration,  and  Winthrop  replied  to  him.  "  It 
was  the  Magistrates'  only  care,"  he  said,  "  to  gain 
time,  that  so  the  people's  heat  might  be  abated, 
for  then  they  knew  they  would  hear  reason."  The 
event  proved  that  their  confidence  was  not  mis- 
placed. At  the  end  of  two  years  more  the  contro- 
versy was  happily  and  wisely  terminated.  The 
people  did  hear  reason ;  and,  when  the  next  action 
was  had  upon  the  subject,  the  negative  vote  was 
jg^^  not  "  taken  away,"  but  duplicated.  With- 
March  7.  q^^-  opposition,  SO  far  as  is  known,  the  fol- 
lowing vote  was  passed  by  the  General  Court :  — 
"  It  is  ordered,  that  the  Magistrates  may  sit  and 
act  business  by  themselves,  by  drawing  up  bills  and 
orders  which  they  shall  see  good  in  their  wisdom, 
which  having  agreed  upon,  they  may  present  them 
to  the  Deputies  to  be  considered  of,  how  good  and 
wholesome  such  orders  are  for  the  country,  and 
accordingly  to  give  their  assent  or  dissent ;  the 
Deputies  in  like  manner  sitting  apart  by  them- 
selves, and  consulting  about  such  orders  and  laws 
as  they  in  their  discretion  and  experience  shall 
find  meet  for  common  good,  which,  agreed  upon 


SCHEME  OF  A  CONFEDERATION.  259 

by  them,  they  may  present  to  the  Magistrates, 
who,  according  to  their  wisdom  having  seriously 
considered  of  them,  may  consent  unto  them  or  dis- 
allow them." 

"  This  order,"  not  by  hurtfuUy  withdrawing  a 
power  from  the  Magistrates,  as  had  been  attempted, 
but  by  beneficially  conferring  an  equal  power  upon 
the  Deputies,  "  determined  the  great  contention 
about  the  negative  voice,"  and  completed  the  frame 
of  the  internal  government  of  Massachusetts,  des- 
tined to  undergo  no  further  organic  change  for  forty 
years. 

A  measure  of  still  greater  moment  had  been  con- 
summated some  months  earlier.  This  was  no  less 
than  a  political  confederation  of  the  four  principal 
colonies  of  New  England. 

This  measure,  the  scheme  of  which  had,  perhaps, 
been  derived  from  the  Confederacy  of  the  Low 
Countries,  had  been  conceived  several  years  before. 
Such  of  the  reasons  finally  availing  for  its  adoption, 
as  seemed  fit  to  be  committed  to  a  formal  record, 
are  set  forth  in  the  preamble  to  the  Articles. 

"  Whereas  we  all  came  into  these  parts  of  Amer- 
ica with  one  and  the  same  end  and  aim,  namely,  to 
advance  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
to  enjoy  the  liberties  of  the  gospel  in  purity  with 
peace;  —  and  whereas  in  our  settling  (by  a  wise 
providence  of  God)  we  are  further  dispersed  upon 
the  sea-coast  and  rivers  than  was  at  first  intended, 
so  that  we  cannot,  according  to  our  desire,  with 
convenience  communicate  in  one  government  and 


260  CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  COLONIES. 

jurisdiction;  —  and  whereas  we  live  encompassed 
with  people  of  several  nations  and  strange  lan- 
guages, which  hereafter  may  prove  injurious  to  us, 
or  our  posterity;  —  and  forasmuch  as  the  natives 
have  formerly  committed  sundry  insolences  and 
outrages  upon  several  plantations  of  the  English, 
and  have  of  late  combined  themselves  against  us; 
—  and  seeing,  by  reason  of  those  sad  distractions 
in  England  which  they  have  heard  of,  and  by  which 
they  know  we  are  hindered  from  that  humble  way 
of  seeking  advice,  or  reaping  those  comfortable 
fruits  of  protection  which  at  other  times  we  might 
well  expect :  —  We  therefore  do  conceive  it  to  be 
our  bounden  duty  without  delay  to  enter  into  a 
present  consociation  among  ourselves  for  mutual 
help  and  strength  in  all  our  future  concernments; 
that,  as  in  nation  and  religion,  so  in  other  respects, 
we  be  and  continue  one." 

Of  the  five  specifications  here  made,  it  was  the 
third  particularly  that  expressed  the  original  occa- 
sion of  the  movement.  The  "  people  of  several 
nations  and  strange  languages"  were  the  French 
upon  the  eastern  frontier  of  the  English  colonists, 
the  Dutch  upon  the  western,  and  the  Swedes 
further  south.  Six  years  after  the  fall  of  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus  on  the  field  of  Liitzen,  a  small 
company  of  Swedes,  following  up  a  plan  of  colo- 
nization conceived  by  that  prince,  had  come  and 
settled  on  Delaware  Bay.  They  were  too 
distant  and  too  few  to  be  formidable  to  New 
England.     The  French  did  not  seem  likely  for  the 


OBJECTS  OF  THE  CONFEDERATION.  261 

present  to  attempt  the  use  of  any  force  beyond 
what  Massachusetts,  which  alone  was  exposed  to 
it,  was  amply  competent  to  cope  with.  But  Con- 
necticut and  New  Haven,  from  the  first,  had  suf- 
fered annoyance  from  the  Dutch  settlement  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Hudson. 

Accordingly,  the  original  movement  towards  a 
confederation  came  from  the  western  colonies,  and 
this   harassing  state  of  their  relations  with  their 
Dutch  neighbors  is  recorded   as  its  cause.      The 
first  proposal  had  come  from  Connecticut,    jgg- 
so  early  as  before  the  planting  of  New  Ha-  ^"^'  ^^' 
ven.    It  produced  no  result  at  the  time.    But,  as  the 
Dutchmen   grew  more  encroaching,  it  was    .g™ 
revived,  and  Haynes  and    Hooker  "  came    ^*y- 
into  the  Bay,  and  stayed  near  a  month  "  to  confer 
upon  it. 

Hitherto,  and  for  a  considerable  time  latep^  Mas- 
sachusetts seems  to  have  been  indifferent  to  the 
measure,  —  perhaps  from  unwillingness  to  be  in- 
vested with  a  share  in  the  joint  administration 
equal  only  to  that  claimed  by  sister  communities 
less  populous  and  powerful.  At  length,  her  course 
in  respect  to  it  was  changed.  A  concurrence  of 
circumstances  at  that  point  of  time  deserves  notice. 
"  The  propositions  sent  from  Connecticut  jg^g 
about  a  combination,  etc.,  were  read,  and  Sept.  27. 
referred  to  a  committee  to  consider  of  after  the 
Court."  The  Court,  "  with  advice  of  the  elders," 
had  just  "  ordered  a  general  fast,"  of  which  the 
specified  occasions  were,  "  second,  the  danger  of 


262     CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  COLONIES. 

the  Indians;  third,  the  unseasonable  weather;" 
but  first  and  chiefly,  "  the  ill  news  we  had  out  of 
England  concerning  the  breach  between  the  King 
and  Parliament."  The  war  that  had  begun  in  the 
mother  country  in  the  previous  month  had  been 
impending  through  all  the  summer.  Puritanism 
and  civil  liberty  were  to  try  their  issue  at  the 
sword's  point  against  despotism  and  prelacy.  If 
the  right  were  doomed  to  be  stricken  down  on  the 
other  side  of  the  water,  it  would  only  the  more 
need  a  refuge  upon  this;  and,  as  long  as  the  bal- 
ance was  trembling,  the  encouragement  of  friend- 
ship, though  neither  powerful  nor  near,  ndght  add 
a  weight  to  determine  which  way  it  should  incline. 
At  all  events,  when  tyrannical  King  and  patriotic 
Parliament  were  in  arms  against  each  other,  it  was 
prudent  for  distant  Englishmen  to  be  likewise  in 
panoply  to  meet  all  occasions ;  when  their  num- 
bers were  lessened  by  the  drawing  off  of  reinforce- 
ments to  a  remote  field,  it  was  wise  in  those  who 
were  left  to  fortify  themselves  with  the  strength  of 
union  ;  and  he  reads  the  avowed  reasons  for  the 
New  England  Confederacy  with  superficial  observa- 
tion, who  does  not  single  out  from  the  rest  "  those 
sad  distractions  in  England  "  as  having  had  a  spe- 
cial efficacy  in  bringing  about  the  measure. 

At  the  next  General  Court,  commissioners  from 
1643.    Plymouth,   Connecticut,  and    New    Haven 
May  10.  presented  themselves  at  Boston.    The  Gov- 
ernor, with  two   Magistrates  and  three  Deputies, 
was  authorized  to  treat  on  the  part  of  Massachu- 


ARTICLES   OF  CONFEDERATION.  263 

setts.  The  deliberations  issued  in  agreement  upon 
twelve  Articles,  and  created  what,  for  important 
purposes,  was  for  many  years  a  Federal  Govern- 
ment of  the  New  England  Colonies.      Re- 

May  19. 

ceiving  at  once  the  signatures  of  all  the 
commissioners  except  those  of  Plymouth,  who  had 
not    brought   authority  to   sign,  they  were  ^^    ^ 
soon    ratified   by   the   government   of  that 
colony  also. 

The  settlements  of  Gorges,  and  the  plantations 
about  Narragansett  Bay,  were  denied  admission 
to  the  Confederacy.  Neither  had  yet  been  able  to 
institute  a  government,  such  as  could  be  relied 
on  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  stipulations  mutually 
made  by  the  four  colonies.  The  oath  taken  by  the 
freemen  of  Rhode  Island  contained  an  engage- 
ment of  fealty  to  the  King ;  and  Gorges,  the  pro- 
prietary of  Maine,  was  in  arms  for  him.  It  was 
by  no  influence  proceeding  from  such  sources  that 
the  objects  of  the  Confederacy  were  to  be  carried 
out. 

The  confederation  was  no  less  than  an  act  of 
absolute  sovereignty  on  the  part  of  the  contracting 
States.  The  first  two  Articles  bound  together  the 
four  colonies  and  their  dependencies,  under  the 
name  of  "  The  United  Colonies  of  New  Eng-land,'" 
in  "a  firm  and  perpetual  league  of  friendship  and 
amity  for  offence  and  defence,  mutual  advice  and 
succor,  upon  all  just  occasions,  both  for  preserving 
ond  propagating  the  truth  and  liberties  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  for  their  own  mutual  safety  and  welfare." 


264     CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  COLONIES. 

The  third  provided,  that,  for  purposes  of  internal 
administration,  each  colony  should  retain  its  in- 
dependence, and  that  no  new  mennber  should  be 
received  into  the  league,  nor  any  tv^^o  present  mem- 
bers be  consolidated  into  one  jurisdiction,  without 
"  consent  of  the  rest." 

By  the  fourth,  levies  of  men,  money,  and  sup- 
plies for  war  were  to  be  assessed  on  the  respective 
colonies,  in  proportion  to  the  male  population  of 
each  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  sixty,  as 
ascertained  by  a  census  to  be  made  from  time  to 
time  for  each  colony  by  its  Commissioners ;  and 
the  spoils  of  war  were  to  be  distributed  to  the  sev- 
eral colonies  on  the  same  principle. 

According  to  the  fifth,  upon  notice,  by  three 
Magistrates,  of  an  existing  invasion  of  any  col- 
ony, the  rest  were  forthwith  to  send  it  relief, — 
Massachusetts  to  the  number  of  a  hundred  men, 
if  so  many  were  needed,  and  each  of  the  others  to 
the  number  of  forty-five,  "  sufficiently  armed  and 
provided  for  such  a  service  and  journey."  The 
nearest  confederate  alone  was  to  be  summoned, 
if  the  occasion  required  no  more ;  and  then  the 
men  were  "to  be  victualled,  and  supplied  with 
powder  and  shot  for  their  journey  (if  there  were 
need)  by  that  jurisdiction  which  employed  or  sent 
for  them."  If  more  than  the  whole  stipulated 
amount  of  aid  was  demanded,  then  the  whole  body 
of  Commissioners  was  to  be  convened  in  order 
to  a  further  enlistment  should  they  see  cause ; 
or,  if  in  their  judgment  the  invaded  colony  was 


ARTICLES   OF  CONFEDERATION.  265 

in  fault,  then  to  condemn  it  to  give  satisfaction  to 
the  invader,  and  to  defray  the  charges  incurred. 
In  the  case  of  "  danger  of  any  invasion  approach- 
ing," three  Magistrates  (or  if  in  the  threatened 
jurisdiction  there  were  no  more  than  three,  then 
two)  might  summon  a  meeting  of  the  Commis- 
sioners. 

By  the  sixth,  a  board  was  constituted  for  the 
management  of  the  business  of  the  Confederacy, 
to  consist  of  two  Commissioners  from  each  col- 
ony, all  of  them  church-members,  with  power  to 
"determine  all  affairs  of  war  or  peace,  leagues, 
aids,  charges,  and  numbers  of  men  for  war,  di- 
vision of  spoils,  and  whatsoever  was  gotten  by 
conquest,  receiving  of  more  confederates  for  plan- 
tations into  combination  with  any  of  the  confed- 
erates, and  all  things  of  like  nature  which  were 
the  proper  concomitants  or  consequents  of  such 
a  confederation  for  amity,  offence,  and  defence." 
The  concurrence  of  six  Commissioners  was  to  be 
conclusive ;  in  fault  of  this,  the  matter  was  to  be 
referred  to  the  General  Courts  of  the  several  col- 
onies, and  the  concurrence  of  them  all  was  to  be 
binding.  The  Commissioners  were  to  meet  once 
a  year,  on  the  first  Thursday  of  September,  and 
as  much  oftener  as  occasion  should  require.  The 
meetings,  until  some  permanent  place  of  meeting 
should  be  agreed  upon,  were  to  be  held  in  succes- 
sion at  the  principal  towns  of  the  colonies  respec- 
tively, except  that  two  meetings  out  of  five  were 
.,0  be  at  Boston. 


266     CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  COLONIES. 

The  seventh  authorized  the  Commissioners,  or 
six  of  them,  at  each  meeting,  to  choose  a  president 
from  their  own  number,  who  was  to  be  "  invested 
with  no  power  or  respect,"  except  "  to  take  care 
and  direct  for  order,  and  a  comely  carrying  on  of 
all  proceedings." 

The  eighth  directed  the  Commissioners  to  "  en- 
deavor to  frame  and  establish  agreements  and 
orders,  in  general  cases  of  a  civil  nature  wherein 
all  the  plantations  were  interested,  for  preserving 
peace  among  themselves,  and  preventing,  as  much 
as  might  be,  all  occasions  of  war,  or  difference  with 
others,"  as  by  the  securing  of  justice  to  citizens  of 
different  jurisdictions,  and  a  firm  and  equitable 
course  of  proceeding  towards  the  Indians  ;  and  it 
stipulated  the  extradition  of  runaway  servants  and 
fugitives  from  justice. 

By  the  ninth,  the  confederates  mutually  engaged 
themselves  to  abstain  from  all  war  not  inevitable, 
and  from  all  claim  to  reimbursement  for  military 
charges,  except  with  the  approbation  of  the  Cora^ 
missioners. 

The  tenth  permitted  a  preliminary  action  by 
four  Commissioners,  in  cases  of  exigency,  when  a 
larger  number  could  not  be  convened. 

The  eleventh,  in  case  of  any  breach  of  the  terms 
of  the  alliance  by  any  colony,  invested  the  Commis- 
sioners of  the  other  colonies  with  authority  to  de- 
termine the  offence  and  the  remedy. 

And  the  twelfth  was  a  ratification  of  the  eleven 
preceding,  which  were  to  go  into  effect  either  with 


COLONIAL  INDEPENDENCE.  267 

or  without  the  expected  concurrence  of  Plymouth, 
whosp  representatives  had  brought  "  no  commis- 
sion to  conclude." 

Of  this  confederation,  which  "offers  the  first  ex- 
ample of  coalition  in  colonial  story,  and  showed  to 
party  leaders  in  after-times  the  advantages  of  con- 
cert," it  was  not  without  apparent  reason  that  the 
unfriendly  historian  Chalmers  remarked,  that  its 
"  principles  were  altogether  those  of  independency, 
and  it  cannot  easily  be  supported  by  any  other." 
It  had  scarcely  been  formed  when  the  English 
Parliament,  turning  its  attention  to  the  American 
colonies,  and  assuming  the  same  authority  over 
them  that  had  been  pretended  by  the  Kan», 

.      .  ^  /  .  ^     Not.  2. 

instituted  a  commission  for  their  govern- 
ment, consisting  of  six  lords  and  twelve  com- 
moners, with  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  the  Lord 
Admiral,  at  its  head.  The  commissioners  were 
authorized  "  to  provide  for,  order,  and  dispose  all 
things  which  they  should  from  time  to  time  find 
most  fit  and  advantageous  to  the  well-governing, 
securing,  strengthening,  and  preserving  of  the  said 
plantations,"  and  especially  to  appoint  and  remove 
"  subordinate  governors,  counsellors,  commanders, 
officers,  and  agents."  The  Ordinance  of  Parlia- 
ment was  too  late  for  New  England,  if,  indeed, 
it  was  intended  for  anything  more  than  to  pro- 
vide for  the  suppression  of  the  King's  party  in 
the  other  dependencies  of  the  empire.  The  New 
England  colonies  had  taken  their  afiairs  into  their 
own  hands.     By  the  counsels  of  brave  men,  and 


268  CONFEDERATION   OF  THE   COLONIES. 

by  the  progress  of  events,  a  self-governing  associa- 
tion of  self-governing  English  commonwealths  had 
been  founded  in  America;  and  the  manifestation 
which  they  had  just  now  made  of  confidence  in 
themselves  and  in  one  another  may  well  have  had 
its  place,  along  with  the  sympathies  which  allied 
them  to  those  who  had  come  into  power  in  the 
parent  country,  in  preventing  interference  from 
abroad  with  the  local  administration. 


BOOK  n. 

CONFEDERACY  OF  THE  FOUR  COLONIES. 
CHAPTER  I. 

PRIMITIVE    GOVERNMENT   AND    LAWS. 

The  league  of  tlje  four  colonies  of  New  England 
lasted  twenty  years,  and  was,  during  that  time, 
the  predominant  power  in  North  America.  When 
it  was  established,  twenty-three  years  had  passed 
since  the  landing  of  Englishmen  at  Plymouth,  and 
thirteen  years  since  a  royal  charter,  transferred  to 
the  soil  of  Massachusetts,  had  there  become  the 
basis  of  a  government.  The  institutions  and  the 
social  condition  of  the  colonies  had  taken  a  defi- 
nite shape.  It  will  be  instructive  here  to  pause, 
and  observe  what  the  founders  had  done  towards 
realizing  the  purposes  of  their  emigration,  and  what 
was  that  primitive  system  of  society  which  was  to 
influence  the  character  and  fortunes  of  the  later 
generations  of  the  people. 

For  the  attainment  of  the  objects  contemplated 
by  the  first  settlers,  a  political  consolidation  was 
desirable.     But  at  first  the  tendency  of  things  had 


270  PRIMITIVE  GOVERNMENT  AND  LAWS. 

been  in  the  opposite  direction.  Plymouth  and 
Massachusetts  were  distinct  communities  from  the 
beginning.  Some  of  the  best  men  of  Massachu- 
setts soon  went  away  to  found  a  separate  commu- 
nity in  Connecticut.  Later  companies  of  immi- 
grants, instead  of  stopping  in  Massachusetts,  as  it 
was  hoped  they  would  do,  sought  homes  at  the 
west  near  to  Hudson  River.  Independent  planta- 
tions were  made  in  New  Hampshire  and  Maine. 
The  isolation  of  the  settlements  at  Providence  and 
Rhode  Island,  though  not  without  its  advantages 
to  the  other  colonies,  took  away  from  their  numer- 
ical strength. 

After  a  little  time,  however,  this  enfeebling  ten- 
dency to  dispersion  had  been  checked  and  reversed. 
The  scattered  communities  had  been  drawn  to- 
gether. What  there  was  of  New  Hampshire  was 
merged  in  Massachusetts.  Though  the  little  set- 
tlements further  east  —  chiefly  of  West-of-Eng- 
land  fishermen  —  were  mostly  inclined  to  a  wild 
state  of  society,  and  at  the  same  time  to  the  cause 
of  Church  and  King,  one  of  them  had  yielded  it- 
self to  the  government  of  the  leading  Puritan  col- 
ony, and  others  had  solicited  her  patronage.  The 
"  Jurisdiction  "  of  New  Haven  had  been  formed  by 
a  junction  of  distinct  plantations,  which,  through 
a  sufficient  experiment  of  separate  administration, 
had  become  satisfied  that  the  great  objects,  com- 
mon to  all,  could  be  best  attained  by  joint  counsels 
and  united  strength.  Finally,  the  four  principal 
colonies,  each    previously  compacted   in   its   own 


TENURE  OF  THE  FRANCHISE.  271 

way,  had  combined  together,  for  mutual  protec- 
tion, in  a  league  which  in  important  respects  con- 
stituted them  one  body  politic. 

At  the  time  of  their  confederation,  the  popula- 
tion of  the  four  colonies  probably  amounted  to 
about  twenty-four  thousand  souls,  of  which  num- 
ber fifteen  thousand  may  be  assigned  to  Massa- 
chusetts, three  thousand  each  to  Plymouth  and 
Connecticut,  and  twenty -five  hundred  to  New 
Haven.  They  had  established  governments  and 
courts  of  justice,  which  were  working  well.  They 
had  organized  and  trained  a  military  force.  They 
had  founded  numerous  churches,  and  furnished 
them  with  a  pious  and  learned  ministry.  They 
bad  established  schools  and  a  college.  They  had 
fallen  into  methods  of  industry,  which  promised  to 
themselves  and  their  descendants  a  sufficiency  of 
the  means  of  living.  And  they  had  a  fair  prospect 
of  continued  tranquillity  ;  for  their  friends  at  home 
were  giving  the  King  too  much  employment  to  al- 
low him  leisure  to  molest  them,  and  the  savages 
in  their  neighborhood  they  had  partly  intimidated, 
and  partly  won  to  friendship. 

The  governments  of  the  several  colonies  were 
framed  on  the  same  general  model.  No  one  of 
them  had  definite  reference  to  any  superior  author- 
ity in  England.  In  all  of  them  the  freemen 
were  the  fountain  of  power.  Suffirage  was  not 
universal ;  in  every  colony  there  were  numbers  of 
inhabitants  who  were  not  freemen.  After  a  body 
of  fireemen  had  been  once  constituted,  admissions 


272  PRIMITIVE  GOVERNMENT  AND   LAWS. 

to  it  were  accorded  by  the  vote  of  those  who  were 
already  comprehended  in  it.  In  Massachusetts 
and  New  Haven,  the  discretion  of  the  freemen  as 
to  the  admission  of  new  associates  was  limited  by 
a  standing  rule  which  excluded  all  but  such  as 
had  been  received  into  full  communion  with  some 
church.  Most  church-members  became  also  free- 
men, but  not  all;  some  forbore  to  seek  the  fran- 
chise, through  unwillingness  to  become  eligible  to 
public  office.  In  Plymouth  and  Connecticut,  the 
franchise  was  conferred  on  inhabitants  of  the  re- 
spective towns  by  the  votes,  or  on  the  recommen- 
dation addressed  to  the  General  Court,  of  such  as 
were  already  freemen  or  residents  of  the  towns. 
But  though  church-membership  was  in  neither  of 
those  colonies  an  essential  legal  qualification  for 
citizenship,  still,  in  them  too,  a  religious  character 
in  the  candidate,  such  as  naturally  led  to  church- 
membership,  and  was  commonly  found  in  union 
with  it,  was  much  regarded  by  the  electors  as  a 
recommendation  to  their  favor ;  and  statutes  of  a 
later  period,  providing  that  a  candidate  must  be 
of  "  a  peaceable  and  honest  conversation,"  and 
"  orthodox  in  the  fundamentals  of  religion,"  are 
naturally  understood  as  formal  enactments  of  what 
had  been  the  primitive  practice. 

In  all  the  confederate  colonies  elections  of  rulers 
were  annual.  In  Massachusetts  this  arrangement 
was  required  by  the  charter ;  elsewhere  it  was 
dictated  by  the  republican  views  of  the  freemen. 
Each  colony  had  a  Governor,  whose  power,  though 


MAGISTRATES  AND  DEPUTIES.  273 

not  altogether  the  same  in  the  different  jurisdic- 
tions, was  in  all  substantially  identical  with  that  of 
the  other  Magistrates,  except  in  his  being  the  organ 
of  their  will,  and  the  moderator  in  public  assem- 
blies. All  but  Plymouth  had  a  Deputy- Governor^ 
to  take  the  Governor's  place  when  it  became  vacant 
during  the  official  term,  and  to  act  meanwhile 
with  those  other  dignified  officials,  who,  under  the 
name  of  Assistants  in  Plymouth  and  Massachu- 
setts, and  of  Magistrates  in  the  two  western  colo- 
nies, were  associated  with  the  Governor  in  the 
highest  functions  of  administration.  The  central 
authority  was  also  shared  by  the  Deputies,  who, 
however,  in  no  colony  constituted  as  yet  a  sep- 
arate and  coordinate  branch  of  the  government. 
While  the  superior  functionaries  were  elected  by 
the  votes  of  the  freemen  of  the  whole  colony, 
counted  together,  the  Deputies  were  chosen  for 
each  town  by  a  majority  of  its  voters.  Any  free- 
man of  the  colony  was  eligible  by  a  town  to  be  its 
Deputy,  without  reference  to  his  being  an  inhabi- 
tant of  the  town. 

In  Massachusetts,  the  Governor  was  remunerated 
for  his  service  by  special  grants  of  the  General 
Court,  made  from  year  to  year ;  the  Deputy-Gov- 
ernor and  the  Assistants,  as  well  as  the  Deputies, 
received  an  allowance  at  a  fixed  rate  for  each  day 
of  their  presence  in  the  General  Court,  the  latter 
paid  sometimes  by  their  towns,  and  sometimes  from 
the  colonial  treasury.  In  Plymouth,  the  Magis- 
trates, when  on  duty,  had  their  living  at  the  public 

VOL.  I.  18 


274  PRIMITIVE  GOVERNMENT  AND  LAWS. 

charge,  without  other  compensation.  Neither  in 
Connecticut  nor  in  New  Haven  does  it  appear  that 
either  Magistrates  or  Deputies  received  any  regu- 
lar stipend  in  the  early  times. 

The  public  treasury  of  each  colony  was  sap- 
plied  by  direct  taxes  upon  the  property  of  residents, 
whether  freemen  or  not.  There  was  as  yet  no 
capitation  tax,  excise,  or  duty  on  imported  com- 
modities. 

The  part  in  the  general  legislation  which  the 
towns  took  by  their  Deputies  in  the  General  Court, 
was  not  the  chief  of  the  functions  that  belonged  to 
them.  In  the  development  of  a  system  coeval  with 
the  settlement  of  the  country,  the  whole  inhabited 
territory  of  New  England  is  laid  off  into  towns. 
Every  man  in  New  England  belongs  to  some  town. 
Each  town  is  a  body  politic,  with  an  administra- 
tion of  its  own,  conducted  by  officers  of  its  own 
choice,  according  to  its  will,  except  as  that  will  is 
restrained  within  limits  prescribed  by  the  higher 
common  authority.  A  town  is  in  law  a  corpora- 
tion, with  rights  and  liabilities  as  such,  capable 
of  suing  and  subject  to  be  sued  in  the  courts,  in 
disputes  with  any  parties,  individual  or  corporate. 
A  town  is  obliged  by  law  to  protect  health  and 
quiet  within  its  borders,  by  means  of  a  police ;  to 
maintain  safe  and  convenient  communication  about 
and  through  its  precinct  by  roads  and  bridges  ;  to 
furnish  food,  clothing,  and  shelter  to  its  poor ;  and 
to  provide  for  the  instruction  of  all  the  children  of 
its  inhabitants,  at  the  common  charge.     Besides 


TOWNS.  275 

occasional  meetings,  the  voters  of  a  town  come 
togetiier  once  every  year,  to  choose  the  adminis- 
trators of  its  business,  and  determine  the  amount 
of  money  with  which  it  will  intrust  them,  and  how 
this  shall  be  raised.  If  a  general  tax  is  levied,  the 
proportion  assessed  on  each  town  is  paid  from  the 
town  treasury,  the  townsmen,  by  their  assessors, 
distributing  the  burden  of  the  payment  among 
their  own  people.  On  matters  of  their  own  inter- 
est, the  towns  present  their  petitions,  and,  as  to 
matters  of  general  concern,  they  send  their  advice,  to 
the  central  authorities.  By  their  magistrates,  they 
supervise  the  elections  alike  of  municipal  officers, 
and  of  all  others  designated  by  popular  choice. 

The  experience  of  later  times  has  dictated  im- 
provements of  detail  in  the  municipal  system  of 
New  England,  but  its  outline  was  complete  when 
it  was  first  devised.  No  city  government  was  con- 
stituted in  New  England  till  more  than  a  century 
and  a  half  after  the  first  settlement ;  none  in  Mas- 
sachusetts till  more  than  two  hundred  years.  In 
law,  a  city  is  a  town,  the  difference  between  them 
being  only  in  internal  administration  ;  the  former 
managing  its  affairs  by  representatives  chosen  by 
the  citizens  ;  the  latter,  by  votes  of  the  whole  body 
of  citizens  in  town  meeting. 

At  the  epoch  of  the  confederation  there  were 
forty-nine  towns  in  the  four  colonies,  of  which 
number  Plymouth  had  eight,  Massachusetts  thirty, 
Connecticut  (including  Saybrook)  six,  and  New 
Haven   five.     The    institution    of  towns   had   it3 


276  PRIMITIVE  GOVERNMENT  AND  LAWS. 

origin  in  Massachusetts,  and  was  borrowed  thence 
by  the  other  governments.  Almost  from  the  be 
ginning,  each  town  had  the  following  civil  officers, 
chosen  by  its  own  freemen ;  namely,  a  board  of 
Selectmen,  varying  in  number  from  three  to  nine ; 
a  Clerk ;  a  Treasurer  ;  a  Sealer  of  Weights  and 
Measures ;  one  or  more  Surveyors  of  Highways ; 
and  one  or  more  Tithing-men.  Meanwhile  the  per- 
sons exercising  ecclesiastical  functions  were  officers 
of  the  same  community,  elected  by  substantially 
the  same  body  of  constituents ;  for  wherever  there 
was  a  town,  there  was,  or  should  be,  a  church,  and 
voters  in  church  meetings  and  in  town  meetings 
were  the  same  persons. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  colonies,  judicial  author- 
ity was  exercised  by  the  whole  body  of  the  freemen, 
and  by  the  central  board  of  Magistrates.  When 
the  settlements  of  Plymouth  began  to  extend,  "  two 
sufficient  men,  one  of  Yarmouth  and  another  of 
Barnstable,"  were  empowered,  in  association  with 
an  Assistant,  to  decide  "  controversies,  not  exceed- 
ing three  pounds."  The  institution  was  copied  in 
Connecticut  and  in  New  Haven.  Massachusetts 
early  established  "  Inferior  Courts,"  consisting  each 
of  five  judges;  one  at  least  being  a  Magistrate  res- 
ident within  the  jurisdiction  of  his  court,  the  others 
being  persons  appointed  by  the  General  Court 
from  a  list  nominated  by  the  freemen  of  the  towns 
within  the  circuit.  These  courts  had  jurisdiction 
in  civil  causes  to  the  amount  of  ten  pounds,  and 
in  "  criminal  causes,  not  concerning  life,  member, 


ADMINISTRATION   OF  JUSTICE.  277 

or  banishment."  "  Town  Courts,"  or  "  courts  to 
order  small  causes,"  disposed  of  questions  involv- 
ing an  amount  not  exceeding  twenty  shillings. 
"  Merchants'  or  Strangers'  Courts,"  invested  with 
all  the  power  of  the  bench  of  Magistrates,  might 
be  held  by  the  Governor  or  Deputy-Governor,  with 
two  Assistants,  for  the  accommodation  of  persons 
who  desired  to  avoid  being  detained  in  the  country. 
By  an  amendment  of  the  original  system.  Inferior 
Courts  obtained  jurisdiction  in  cases  of  divorce 
and  of  probate  of  wills.  Appeals  lay  from  the 
Town  Courts  to  the  Inferior  Courts ;  from  the  latter 
to  the  Court  of  Assistants ;  and  from  the  Court  of 
Assistants  to  the  General  Court.  The  General 
Court  alone  possessed  the  pardoning  power.  It 
was  the  tribunal  of  final  jurisdiction.  There  was 
no  recognized  method  of  appeal  from  it  to  the  King 
in  Council,  to  a  commission  for  the  colonies,  or  to 
any  other  authority  beyond  sea. 

In  all  the  colonies,  the  Assistants  or  Magistrates 
exercised  the  functions  of  Justices  of  the  Peace. 
Constables,  in  the  early  times,  were  selected  from 
among  men  of  property  and  consequence.  They 
w^ere  appointed  annually,  at  first  by  the  General 
Court,  afterwards  by  the  towns.  New  Haven 
could  find  nothing  of  juries  in  the  Old  Testament. 
The  three  other  colonies  had  both  petit  juries  and 
juries  of  inquest.  There  were  no  professional 
advocates.  A  prisoner  or  suitor  might  argue  his 
own  cause,  or  a  friend  might  appear  in  his  behal£ 
Processes  had  a  general  conformity  to  those  of  the 


278  PRIMITIVE  GOVERNMENT  AND  LAWS. 

Common  Law.  In  taking  an  oath,  the  witness 
lifted  his  right  hand.  The  English  ceremony  of 
kissing  the  book  was  rejected  as  idolatrous. 

The  earliest  colonial  code  of  statutes  was  that 
of  Plymouth.  Established  when  the  colony  had 
existed  sixteen  years,  it  was  not  framed  upon  any 
theory  of  conformity  to  the  Jewish  law,  or  to  the 
law  of  England,  but  consisted  of  such  provisions 
as,  on  general  principles  of  jurisprudence,  and  with 
the  experience  which  had  been  obtained,  appeared 
suitable  to  secure  the  well-being  of  the  little  com- 
munity. It  allowed  authority  to  such  laws  only 
as  were  enacted  by  the  body  of  the  freemen,  or  by 
their  representatives  legally  assembled.  It  recog- 
nized eight  capital  offences,  and  made  other  crimes 
punishable  at  the  discretion  of  the  Magistrates. 
In  transfers  of  real  estate,  it  required  acknowledg- 
ment before  a  Magistrate,  and  a  public  record. 
Widows  were  to  have  a  third  part  of  the  personal 
property  of  the  deceased  husband,  and  the  usufruct 
of  a  third  part  of  his  real  estate.  Marriages,  when 
parents  refused  their  sanction,  might  be  contracted 
"  with  the  consent  of  the  Governor,  or  some  Assist- 
ant, to  whom  the  persons  were  known."  Every 
resident  was  to  provide  himself  with  certain  arms 
and  accoutrements.  The  retail  sale  of  liquors, 
except  in  private  houses,  was  forbidden.  A  few 
other  simple  regulations,  among  which  were  some 
relating  to  the  distribution  of  lands  and  to  tres- 
passes of  domestic  animals,  made  a  body  of  law 
8uflB.cient  for  the  present  needs  of  the  orderly  peo- 


LEGAL  CODE  OF  MASSACHUSETTS.      279 

pie  of  Plymouth.  In  the  next  eight  years  a  very 
few  enactments  were  added,  of  which  the  most 
important  related  to  military  organization  and  sup- 
plies, and  to  settling  the  powers  and  liabilities  of 
towns. 

In  Massachusetts,  for  more  than  ten  years,  the 
administration  of  justice  was  without  the  security 
either  of  a  system  of  statutes,  or  of  any  recogni- 
tion of  the  authority  of  the  Common  Law.  The 
law  dispensed  by  the  Magistrates  was  no  other 
than  equity,  as  its  principles  and  rules  existed  in 
their  own  reason  and  conscience,  instructed  by 
Scripture.  The  people  continued  to  be  solicitous 
for  the  safeguard  of  a  written  code ;  the  leaders 
still  felt  the  force  of  reasons  for  obstructing  that 
wish.  The  difference  led  to  a  long  struggle,  which, 
however,  was  conducted  without  acrimony.  At 
length,  by  the  course  of  time  and  of  events,  the 
grounds  of  objection  were  mainly  removed.  On 
the  one  hand,  the  characteristics  of  a  useful  juris- 
prudence had  disclosed  themselves  in  the  experi- 
ence of  several  years ;  and  on  the  other  hand, 
Parliament  was  rising  to  power  in  England,  and 
in  Massachusetts  the  fear  of  impending  hostility 
from  that  quarter  was  dying  away. 

While  the  question  was  pending,  Cotton  had 
prepared  a  small  volume,  which  was  printed  in 
England,  with  the  incongruous  title,  "  An  Abstract 
of  the  Laws  of  New  England,  as  they  are  now 
established."  It  never  was  approved  by  the  Gen- 
eral Court,  nor  obtained  any  authority.     Nathaniel 


280  PRIMITIVE  GOVERNMENT  AND  LAWS. 

Ward,  of  Ipswich,  of  which  town  he  had  formerly 
been  minister  for  a  short  time,  was  more  than  any 
other  man  the  legislator  of  primitive  Massachu- 
1641.  setts.  The  General  Court,  apparently  by  a 
"^°*  unanimous  vote,  established  a  code  of  fun- 
damental laws,  prepared  by  Ward,  under  the  name 
of  The  Body  of  Liberties. 

Ward  had  been  a  minister  in  England,  before  his 
emigration  ;  earlier  yet,  he  had  studied  and  prac- 
tised in  the  Common  Law  courts.  The  contents 
of  the  Body  of  Liberties  are  digested  in  a  hundred 
sections.  The  first  paragraph,  constituting  a  Bill 
of  Rights,  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  No  man's  life  shall  be  taken  away ;  no  man's 
honor  or  good  name  shall  be  stained;  no  man's 
person  shall  be  arrested,  restrained,  banished,  dis- 
membered, nor  any  ways  punished ;  no  man  shall 
be  deprived  of  his  wife  or  children  ;  no  man's  goods 
or  estates  shall  be  taken  away,  nor  any  way  en- 
dangered, under  color  of  law,  or  countenance  of 
authority,  unless  it  be  by  virtue  or  equity  of  some 
express  law  of  the  country  warranting  the  same, 
established  by  the  General  Court  and  sufficiently 
published,  or,  in  case  of  the  defect  of  the  law  in 
any  particular  case,  by  the  word  of  God,  and  in 
capital  cases,  or  in  cases  concerning  dismember- 
ment or  banishment,  according  to  that  word  to  be 
judged  by  the  General  Court." 

The  code  goes  on  to.  prescribe  general  rules  of 
judicial  proceeding;  to  define  the  privileges  and 
duties  of  freemen  ;  to  provide  for  justice  to  women, 


MASSACHUSETTS   "BODY   OF  LIBERTIES."         281 

children,  servants,  and  foreigners,  and  for  humane 
treatment  of  the  brute  creation ;  to  declare  capital 
offences,  twelve  in  number ;  and  to  describe  the 
liberties  and  prerogatives  of  the  churches. 

In  the  promulgation  of  the  principle  that  life, 
liberty,  or  property  was  not  to  be  invaded  except 
by  virtue  of  express  law  established  by  the  local 
authority,  a  step  was  taken  than  which  none  could 
be  more  important  tow^ards  creating  a  common- 
wealth at  once  prosperous  and  independent.  The 
government  constituted  by  the  charter  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Company  was  forbidden,  by  a  provision  of 
that  instrument,  to  make  laws  repugnant  to  the 
laws  of  England.  Ward's  formula  gave  distinct 
utterance  to  the  doctrine  that  English  law  had  in 
Massachusetts  no  other  than  this  restrictive  force, 
and  that  within  the  limit  so  prescribed  she  was 
competent  to  build  up  such  a  system  of  jurispru- 
dence as  her  condition  might  seem  to  herself  to 
require.  As  long  as  that  principle  was  observed 
in  practice,  the  King  could  touch  no  man  within 
her  territory.  It  was  almost  a  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. 

In  respect  to  the  penalty  of  death,  Ward  and  his 
associates  had  tender  scruples;  and  in  the  Body  of 
Liberties  the  laws  for  inflicting  it,  unlike  the  rest, 
are  sustained  by  references  to  Scripture.  Yet  in 
its  list  of  capital  crimes,  that  code  did  not  adopt 
the  whole  system  of  Moses  ;  it  did  not  include 
among  them  the  striking  or  reviling  of  parents,  or 
the  breaking  of  the    Sabbath.     The  English  law 


282  PRIMITIVE  GOVERNMENT  AND  LAWS. 

of  the  time  denounced  capital  punishment  against 
more  than  thirty  offences.  The  Body  of  Liberties 
reduced  the  number  to  ten.  It  borrowed  from  the 
Mosaic  law  some  of  its  provisions  respecting  inher- 
itance and  servitude.  Thus  it  gave  a  twofold  share 
of  the  estate  of  an  intestate  parent  to  the  oldest 
son,  and  secured  to  servants  humane  treatment 
during  the  time  of  their  bondage,  and  an  adequate 
temporary  provision  when  it  expired.  One  feature 
of  the  law  of  servitude  deserves  especial  mention. 
The  child  of  slaves  was  as  free  as  any  other  child. 
No  person  was  ever  legally  held  to  servitude  in 
Massachusetts  as  being  the  offspring  of  a  slave 
mother. 

The  first  code  of  law  adopted  in  Connecticut 
1642.  related  only  to  capital  offences.  Established 
^'''  a  year  later  than  the  Massachusetts  Body 
of  Liberties,  it  is  in  great  part  a  verbal  copy  from 
that  instrument.  Neither  before,  nor  for  several 
years  after,  the  confederation  of  the  colonies,  had 
New  Haven  any  body  of  statutes.  Daring  this 
time  the  courts  were  guided  in  their  decisions  by 
what,  in  their  apprehension,  were  the  rules  of 
equity  and  Scripture.  The  popular  story  of  the 
"  Blue  Laws  "  of  New  Haven  is  without  founda- 
tion in  fact.  It  was  the  fabrication  of  a  dishonest 
writer  of  the  period  of  the  War  of  Independence. 

After  the  example  of  the  mother  country,  orders 
were  made  in  all  the  colonies  for  the  regulation  of 
the  prices  of  commodities  and  of  labor.  Experi- 
ence proved  the  futility  of  such  legislation,  and  in 


RELIGIOUS   OBSERVANCES   ENFORCED.  283 

due  time  it  was  abandoned.    The  less  objectionable 
enactments,  aimed  at  the  restraint  of  extravagance 
in  dress,  were  also  no  inventions  of  New  England 
or  of  Puritanism.     They  had    precedents   in    the 
earlier  history  of  England.     Not  only  the  support 
of  the  ministrations  of  religion,  but  personal  at- 
tendance upon  them,  was  enforced  by  law.     So  it 
was  in  Virginia,  and  so  it  was  in  England.     In  all 
Christian  countries  it  was  understood  to  belong  to 
the  rightful  province  of  law  to  control  the  individ- 
ual, not  only  for  his  neighbor's  protection,  but  for 
his  own  well-being  and  improvement.'*  But  if  the 
New  England  founders  had  not  received  that  theory, 
probably  they  would  have  originated  it.     The  peo- 
ple of  that  region  in  modern  times  have  supposed 
it  to  be  no  invasion  of  the  citizen's  liberty  to  re- 
quire him  to  submit  his  children  to  instruction  in 
reading,  writing,  and  accounts,  to  the  end  that  they 
may  not  grow  up  to  be  incapable  and  shiftless, 
troublesome  and   chargeable.     On  similar  grounds 
the  fathers  considered  it  to  be  alike  conducive  to 
the  public  good  and  unobjectionable  to  the  indi- 
vidual, that  he  should  be  saved  from  the  misery  to 
himself  and  the  mischievousness  to  his  neighbors 
of  ignorance  respecting  morals  and  religion.     Their 
political  foresight  enforced  such  a  policy.     For  a 
godless   population  is  a  population  ungovernable 
except  by  a  despotism.     To  be  capable  of  lasting 
liberty,  a  people  must  be  religious.     It  is  vital  to 
free  government,  that  they  who  are  to  sustain  and 
enjoy  it  should  have  a  sense  of  the  government  of 


284  PRIMITIVE  GOVERNMENT  AND  LAWS. 

God.  If  neither  devout  worshippers  nor  virtuoas 
citizens  can  be  made  by  law,  it  by  no  means  fol- 
lows that  the  law  can  do  nothing,  or  can  do  noth- 
ing without  countervailing  disadvantages,  towards 
bringing  the  citizen  within  the  reach  of  influences 
helpful  to  his  becoming  devout  and  virtuous. 


CHAPTER   11. 

RELIGION,    EDUCATION,    AND    SOCIAL    LIFE. 

The  religious  objects  of  the  colonists  claimed 
their  immediate  attention.     The  planters  at  Plym- 
outh had  no  new  scheme  of  church  order  to  de- 
vise.    Theirs  was  the  scheme  of  the  English  Inde- 
pendents,   already  put  in   practice    and   amended 
by  themselves  in  Europe.     It  was  introduced  into 
Massachusetts  by  the  congregation  of  Skelton  and 
Higginson,   was  adopted    by  the  companies  who 
joined  them  in  the  following  year,  and  was  carried 
to  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  by  the  founders 
of  those  colonies.     A  church  was  a  company  of 
believers,  associated    together  by  a  mutual    cove- 
nant  to    maintain    and    share    Christian    worship 
and  ordinances,  and   to  watch  over  each   other's 
spiritual  condition.    A  church,  it  was  held,  "  ought 
not  to  be  of  greater  number  than  might  ordinarily 
meet  together  conveniently  in  one  place,  nor  ordi- 
narily   fewer   than    might   conveniently    carry    on 
church  work."     Persons  so  pledged  and  associated 
were  church  -  members ;   and  they,  and  no  others, 
were  entitled  to  come  to  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  to 
present  their  children  for  baptism.     Each  church 
was  an  independent  body,  competent  to  elect  and 


286  RELIGION. 

ordain  its  officers,  to  admit,  govern,  censure,  and 
expel  its  members,  and  to  do  all  other  things  prop- 
erly pertaining  to  ecclesiastical  order.  A  church 
fully  furnished  had  a  Pastor  and  a  Teacher,  both 
of  whom  preached  and  administered  the  ordi- 
nances, while  the  distinctive  function  of  the  former 
was  to  exhort  in  public  and  private,  of  the  latter 
to  enforce  doctrine  and  interpret  Scripture.  Each 
church  had  also  one  or  more  "  ruling  elders,"  who 
shared  with  the  "  teaching  elders "  the  office  of 
discipline,  and  deacons,  who  had  the  charge  of 
prudential  concerns  and  of  providing  for  the  poor. 
But  the  office  of  ruling  elder  was  not  uniformly 
kept  up  ;  the  office  of  Pastor  was  not  long  discrim- 
inated from  that  of  Teacher ;  and  the  practice  of 
maintaining  two  teaching  elders  in  each  church, 
often  departed  from  in  the  early  times,  went  by 
degrees  into  general  disuse. 

At  the  time  of  the  confederation  there  were  near- 
ly eighty  teaching  elders  in  the  colonies;  that  is, 
one  minister  to  about  three  hundred  of  the  popu- 
lation. These  were  generally  men  who  had  been 
reared  in  the  best  education  of  the  time.  As  many 
as  one  half  of  the  number  are  known  to  have  been 
graduates  of  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  the  greater 
part  being  of  the  latter  university.  Not  seldom 
they  were  men  of  good  property.  Some  were  held 
in  the  greater  consideration  on  account  of  their 
being  highly  connected.  At  first,  ministers  were 
provided  for  by  voluntary  contributions,  made  every 
Sunday ;  but  soon  "  the  churches  held  a  different 


RELIGIOUS   INSTITUTIONS.  287 

course  in  raising  the  ministers'  maintenance  ;  some 
did  it  by  way  of  taxation." 

A  church  officer,  of  whatever  degree,  was  an 
officer  only  of  his  own  church.  According  to  the 
primitive  doctrine  and  practice  of  New  England, 
no  man  was  a  clergyman  in  any  sense,  either  be- 
fore his  election  by  a  particular  church,  or  after  his 
relinquis'liment  of  the  special  trust  so  conferred  ; 
and,  even  while  in  office,  he  was  a  layman  to  all 
the  world  except  his  own  congregation,  and  was 
not  competent  to  exercise  any  clerical  function  else- 
where. In  the  earliest  times,  a  minister  was  or- 
dained, not  by  other  ministers,  but  by  officers  of 
the  church  which  had  elected  him,  or,  when  it  had 
no  officers,  then  by  some  of  its  private  members. 
It  has  been  seen  how,  in  Massachusetts,  the  prac- 
tical exigencies  presented  themselves  which  in- 
duced great  practical  deviations  from  this  principle 
of  mutual  independence  of  the  churches.  As  soon 
as,  for  supposed  reasons  of  public  necessity,  church- 
membership  and  political  power  were  combined  in 
the  same  persons,  and  ministers,  by  receiving  to 
the  communion,  might  substantially  confer  the  fran- 
chise, the  character  of  ministers  and  the  action  of 
churches  came  vitally  to  concern  the  public ;  and 
thus  Church  and  State  became  intimately  con- 
nected. In  Massachusetts  and  New  Haven,  a  meet- 
ing of  the  whole  body  of  freemen  in  a  General 
Court  was  composed  of  the  same  class  of  persons 
as  a  convention  of  members  of  all  the  churches.  In 
the  General  Courts  of  Magistrates,  or  of  Magistrates 


288  RELIGION. 

and  Deputies,  none  but  church-members  could  sit, 
or  have  a  voice  in  choosing  others  to  sit.  So  that 
when  either  sort  of  General  Court  took  cognizance 
of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  it  was  but  the  whole  body 
of  the  church  legislating  for  its  parts,  and  this  with 
the  important  peculiarity,  that  all  the  legislators  by 
whom  the  church  exercised  its  supreme  power  were 
laymen.  In  Plymouth  and  Connecticut,  where  the 
association  between  church-metnbership  and  citi- 
zenship was  not  determined  by  law,  there  was  less 
action  of  the  government  upon  ecclesiastical  affairs. 
The  place  for  public  worship  was  the  meeting- 
house, where  assemblies  for  transacting  the  town's 
business  were  also  held.  Men  and  women  sat 
apart  on  their  respective  sides  of  the  house,  while 
boys  had  a  place  separate  from  both,  with  a  tithing- 
raan  to  keep  them  in  order.  The  men,  or  such  por- 
tion of  them  as  was  from  time  to  time  thought 
sufficient,  were  required  to  come  completely  armed. 
Two  services  were  held  on  each  Sunday,  both 
by  daylight.  They  consisted  of  extemporaneous 
prayers,  singing  of  the  Psalms  in  a  metrical  ver- 
sion, without  instrumental  accompaniment,  and  a 
sermon,  of  which  the  approved  length  was  an  hour, 
measured  by  an  hour-glass,  which  stood  upon  the 
pulpit.  The  public  reading  of  the  Bible,  without 
exposition,  was  generally  disapproved,  being  re- 
garded as  an  unbecoming  conformity  to  the  hie- 
rarchical service,  and  qualified  by  the  opprobrious 
name  of  dumb  reading.  Children  were  baptized 
in  the  meeting-houses,  generally  on  the  next  Sun- 


BOOKS  AND  EDUCATION.  289 

day  after  their  birth.  Communicants  sat  while 
receiving  the  consecrated  elements.  Ministers  did 
not  officiate  at  marriages ;  the  contract  was  made 
before  a  Magistrate.  No  religious  service  took 
place  at  the  burial  of  the  dead. 

Of  periodical  holy  -  days,  none  was  recognized 
but  the  first  day  of  the  week.  Every  kind  of  rec- 
reation on  that  day  was  forbidden,  as  well  as  every 
kind  of  labor.  In  some  principal  places  a  lecture 
was  regularly  preached  on  some  secular  day  of 
every  week.  Christmas,  Good-Friday,  Easter,  and 
other  periodical  festivals  and  fast-days  of  the 
Church,  were  scrupulously  disregarded  and  dis- 
countenanced. The  use  of  the  word  Saint,  in  con- 
nection even  with  the  names  of  apostles  and  evan- 
gelists, was  esteemed  an  impropriety. 

After  liberty,  religion,  and  social  order,  learning 
was  the  object  nearest  to  the  hearts  of  the  fathers 
of  New  England.      Some  of  the   immigrants  — 
some  of  the  ministers  especially  —  possessed  valu- 
able collections  of  books.     Nine  years  after 
the  arrival  of  Winthrop's  company,  a  print- 
ing-press was  set  up  at  Cambridge.     In  the  earliest 
times,  it  is  probable  that  children  were  instructed 
only  at  their  homes.     Boston  had  a  public 
school  as  early  as  the  fifth  year  from  its  set- 
tlement.    New   Haven,  in  its  fourth  year,  set  up 
a  free  school  to  be  maintained  "  out  of  the    „,_ 
common  stock  of  the  town."     Hartford  had 
made  similar  provision  still  earliei*.     A  very    ^^^' 
few  years  only  were  to  pass,  before,  in  every  town 

VOL.   I.  19 


290  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

of  Massachusetts,  the  means  of  useful  instruction 
were  provided  by  law  for  every  child. 

In  the  summer  before  the  confederation  of  the 
colonies,  the  first  Commencement  of  Harvard 

1642. 

College  was  held.  Nine  young  men,  hav- 
ing been  four  years  under  its  tuition,  were  then 
admitted  to  the  first  academical  degree,  and  "  per- 
formed their  acts  so  as  gave  good  proof  of  their 
proficiency  in  the  tongues  and  arts."  The  course 
of  study  had  been  adopted  from  the  contempo- 
raneous usage  of  the  English  universities.  The 
beginning  of  the  institution  was  not  auspicious, 
by  reason  of  the  misconduct  of  Nathaniel  Eaton, 
the  person  first  placed  at  its  head.  But  he  was 
soon  deposed;  and  his  successor,  the  learned  and 
excellent  Dunster,  inaugurated  a  new  era  of  pros- 
perity. Dunster  had  been  educated  at  Emmanuel 
College,  Cambridge,  and  had  afterwards  been  a 
Non-conformist  minister  in  England.  Under  his 
administration  Harvard  College  acquired  such  re- 
pute, that,  in  several  instances,  youth  of  opulent 
families  in  the  parent  country  were  sent  over  for 
their  education. 

The  military  force  of  the  colonies  was  a  militia, 
■which,  in  the  early  period,  consisted  of  infantry 
alone,  except  that  there  were  a  few  cannoneers  in 
the  forts.  Against  the  natives  field-artillery  would 
have  been  of  little  use ;  nor  could  it  have  been 
worked  to  advantage,  while  the  country  was  wild. 
All  males  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  sixty 
were  enrolled,  and  were  required  to  be  provided 


MILITARY  ORGANIZATION.  291 

with  arms  and  ammunition ;  at  their  own  expense, 
if  they  had  the  means;  if  not,  at  the  expense  of 
their  towns.  The  arms  of  private  soldiers  were 
pikes,  muskets,  and  swords.  The  muskets  had 
matchlocks  or  flintlocks,  and  to  each  one  there  was 
"  a  pair  of  bandoleers,  or  pouches,  for  powder  and 
bullets,"  and  a  stick  called  a  rest^  for  use  in  taking 
aim.  The  pikes  were  ten  feet  in  length,  besides  the 
spear  at  the  end.  For  defensive  armor  corselets 
were  worn,  and  coats  quilted  with  cotton.  It  does 
not  appear  that  there  was  any  attempt  at  uniform- 
ity in  dress. 

The  unit  of  the  organization  was  the  trainband, 
consisting  of  not  fewer  than  fifty-four  men,  and  not 
more  than  two  hundred.  It  had  twice  as  many 
musketeers  as  pikemen,  the  latter  being  selected 
for  their  superior  stature.  The  commissioned 
officers  of  a  band  were  a  captain,  a  lieutenant, 
and  an  ensign.  They  carried  swords,  partisans, 
otherwise  called  leading-staves,  and  (if  they  chose) 
pistols.  The  sergeants  bore  halberds.  Company 
trainings  took  place,  at  first,  every  Saturday  ;  then, 
every  month  ;  then,  eight  times  a  year.  They  were 
begun  and  closed  with  prayer.  The  only  martial 
music  was  that  of  the  drum. 

In  the  year  after  the  confederation,  Massachu- 
setts had  twenty-six  trainbands,  and  "  a  very  gal- 
lant horse  troop."  The  bands  were  distributed 
into  regiments  ;  a  lieutenant,  and  under  him  a 
sergeant-major,  commanded  the  regiment  of  each 
county ;   and  over  the  whole  force  of  the  colony 


292  SOCIAL   LIFE. 

was  a  Sergeant- Major  General,  subordinate  only 
to  the  Governor. 

Industry  had  now  taken  the  forms  which  are 
common  in  a  settled  social  state.  Agriculture, 
though  never  a  lucrative  employment  in  the  greater 
part  of  New  England,  yielded  returns  sufficient  to 
constitute  an  important  resource  for  a  people  so 
isolated  from  more  fertile  regions.  To  the  invalu- 
able maize,  or  Indian-corn,  —  nutritious,  hardy,  and 
of  a  bountiful  increase,  —  the  planters  soon  recon- 
ciled themselves  as  a  substitute  for  wheat,  to  which 
the  soil  and  temperature  were  less  propitious.  The 
native  grasses  were  coarse  and  innutritive ;  but  it 
took  only  a  few  seasons  to  cover  the  champaign 
lands  with  a  rich  growth  of  the  herbage  of  Eng- 
land. Barley,  rye,  OEfts,  and  pease  were  success- 
fully cultivated,  and  most  of  the  garden  fruits 
and  vegetables  common  in  the  mother  country. 
Squashes,  pumpkins,  and  beans  were  indigenous 
to  the  soil.  The  apple,  the  pear,  the  cherry,  the 
plum,  and  the  quince  were  found  to  take  kindly 
to  their  new  home.  Poultry  and  swine,  while  they 
were  fed  at  little  cost,  multiplied  in  great  abun- 
dance ;  and  as  pasturage  was  extended  and  im- 
proved, goats  in  the  first  place,  and  then  sheep, 
horses,  and  neat  cattle  became  numerous. 

Manufactures  of  necessary  articles    were    early 
undertaken  with  some  success.     Before  the  con- 
federation, the  spinning  and  knitting  of  thread  and 
yarn  by  the  women  at  their  homes  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  weaving  of  woollen  and  cotton 


EMPLOYMENTS.  293 

fabrics,  introduced  by  a  few  families  who  came 
from  Yorkshire,  and  built  up  a  town  at  Rowley, 
adjoining  Ipswich.  At  first  this  manufacture  was 
stimulated  by  protective  laws,  which  soon  however 
were  found  to  be  unnecessary,  and  were  repealed, 
so  remunerative  had  the  business  become.  The 
great  demand  for  salt  was  promptly  and  profitably 
met,  so  easy  was  the  process  of  obtaining  it  from 
sea-water.  In  the  third  year  after  Winthrop's 
arrival,  water-mills  were  erected  in  Plymouth  and 
in  Massachusetts.  Windmills  had  been  in  earlier 
use.  From  the  beginning  of  the  settlements  there 
was  ample  employment  and  good  pay  for  the 
brickmaker,  the  mason,  the  carpenter,  the  tanner, 
the  currier,  the  cordwainer,  the  sawyer,  and  the 
smith. 

The  woods  were  a  source  of  wealth.  Boards, 
clapboards,  shingles,  and  staves  and  hoops  for  bar- 
rels, cost  nothing  but  labor,  and  commanded  a 
ready  sale.  The  pine  forests  yielded  turpentine, 
pitch,  and  tar.  Furs  and  peltry,  obtained  from  the 
natives  by  barter  for  provisions  and  for  articles  of 
foreign  manufacture,  were  yet  another  rich  resource 
for  the  export  trade. 

Along  the  seaboard  of  New  England,  as  fast  as 
it  was  occupied  by  settlers,  one  of  the  chief  em- 
ployments was  fishing,  especially  the  taking  of  the 
cod  and  the  mackerel.  A  hogshead  of  mackerel 
was  worth  three  pounds  and  twelve  shillings,  and 
three  men  in  a  boat  could  catch  ten  hogsheads  in 
a  week.     In  the  second  year  before  the  confeder- 


294  SOCIAL   LIFE. 

ation,  the  mariners  of  Massachusetts  *'  followed 
the  fishing  so  well,  that  there  was  above  three  hun- 
dred thousand  dry  fish  sent  to  the  market." 

Fishing  led  to  ship -building.  In  the  second 
year  after  Winthrop's  arrival  a  vessel  of  a  hundred 
tons'  burden,  and  in  the  next  year  another  of  double 
that  measurement,  were  launched  on  Mystic  River. 
Hugh  Peter,  who  had  energy  for  thrift  and  for  busi- 
ness  as  well  as  for  politics  and  religion,  "  pro- 
cured some  to  join  for  building  a  ship  at 
Salem  of  three  hundred  tons."  The  year  before 
the  confederation,  a  writer  in  Boston  informed  his 
English  friends :  "  Besides  many  boats,  shallops, 
hoys,  lighters,  pinnaces,  we  are  in  a  way  of  building 
ships  of  a  hundred,  two  hundred,  three  hundred, 
four  hundred  tons.  Five  of  them  are  already  at 
sea  ;  many  more  in  hand  at  this  present ;  we  be- 
ing much  encouraged  herein  by  reason  of  the  plenty 
and  excellence  of  our  timber  for  that  purpose,  and 
seeing  all  the  materials  will  be  had  there  in  short 
time." 

Coasting  voyages  to  the  Dutch  settlement  on 
Hudson's  River,  and  to  the  English  in  Virginia,  were 
soon  succeeded  by  adventures  in  foreign  commerce. 
In  the  sixth  year  of  Boston,  a  vessel  built  there 
"  came  from  Bermuda  with  thirty  thousand  weight 
of  potatoes,  and  store  of  oranges  and  limes."  Then 
cotton  was  brought  from  the  West  Indies,  to  the 
great  satisfaction  of  the  spinners  and  weavers  at 
Rowley.  In  the  year  of  the  confederation,  ships 
built  in  Massachusetts  carried  "  many  passengers 


TRADE  AND  TRAVEL.  295 

and  great  store  of  beaver  "  to  London,  being  fol- 
lowed on  their  way  by  "  many  prayers  of  the 
churches."  In  the  next  year,  a  Boston  vessel 
brought  wine,  fruit,  sugar,  and  ginger  from  Tene- 
riffe,  in  exchange  for  corn  ;  and  the  Trial  carried 
from  Boston  a  freight  of  fish  to  Bilbao,  and  came 
home  from  Malaga,  "laden  with  wine,  fruit,  oil, 
iron,  and  wool,  which  was  of  great  advantage  to 
the  country,  and  gave  encouragement  to  trade." 

Trade  was  embarrassed  for  a  time  by  the  insuffi- 
cient supply  of  a  circulating  medium.  The  settlers 
brought  over  a  considerable  amount  of  coin,  but 
most  of  it  soon  went  back  to  England  in  payment 
for  supplies.  The  first  trading  with  the  natives 
was  by  barter,  to  which,  more  or  less,  the  use  of 
wampum  succeeded.  Indian-corn  and  beaver  had 
to  take  the  place  of  money  ;  and  corn,  at  the  market 
price,  was  in  Massachusetts  made  a  legal  tender, 
except  in  cases  where  there  had  been  an  express 
stipulation  to  pay  coin  or  beaver.  Corn  and  other 
produce,  at  prescribed  rates,  were  received  in  pay- 
ment of  the  public  taxes.  At  one  time  bullets 
were  made  a  legal  tender,  as  the  equivalent  of 
farthings. 

From  the  outset  the  towns  put  themselves  to  a 
liberal  expense  for  roads.  Ferries  were  early  estab- 
lished, and  bridges  thrown  over  narrow  streams. 
Of  course,  the  means  of  convenient  communica- 
tion between  the  settlements  had  to  be  gradually 
created ;  but,  on  the  whole,  the  inquirer  is  sur- 
prised to  find  how  rapidly  they  grew.     Added  to 


296  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

the  craving  for  companionship,  there  was  a  con- 
scientious sense  of  the  obligation  of  mutual  coun- 
sel and  mutual  defence,  to  be  secured  only  by 
facilities  for  travel. 

The  architecture  of  public  buildings  was  alto- 
gether unambitious.  We  have  a  partial  description 
of  the  primitive  meeting-house  of  Dedham,  which 
was  the  first  or  second  inland  town  of  Massachu. 
setts.  This  place  of  worship,  for  a  town  founded 
under  highly  favorable  auspices,  was  thirty-six  feet 
long,  twenty  feet  wide,  and  twelve  feet  high  "  in 
the  stud;"  and  the  roof  was  thatched  with  long 
grass.  It  may  be  thought  singular  that  we  have 
no  positive  knowledge  respecting  the  construction 
of  the  dwellings  of  the  generality  of  the  settlers. 
It  is  probable,  but  not  certain,  that  they  first  erected 
log-houses,  like  those  commonly  used,  at  the  pres- 
ent day,  in  the  new  settlements  of  America.  At 
all  events,  they  at  an  early  period  allowed  them- 
selves to  gratify,  in  full  proportion  to  their  means, 
that  taste  for  comfortable  habitations  which  they 
had  brought  with  them,  so  intimately  associated 
with  the  English  feeling  for  home.  Frame-houses, 
with  brick  chimneys,  and  lathed  and  plastered 
within,  very  soon  superseded,  in  common  use,  the 
rude  shelters  which  had  at  first  sufficed.  Nor  were 
there  wanting  mansions  of  more  pretension.  At 
the  early  time  when  Coddington  went  from  Bos- 
ton to  found  his  colony,  he  had  already  built  there 
a  brick  house,  which,  wh6n  old,  he  still  remembered 
as  a  token  of  his  departed  magnificence.    The  New 


FURNITURE  AND  DRESS.  297 

Haven  people  were  thought  to  have  "  laid  out  too 
much  of  their  stocks  and  estates  in  building  of  fine 
and  stately  houses ; "  and  Isaac  AUerton,  who  went 
among  them  from  Plymouth,  "  built  a  grand  house 
on  the  creek,  with  four  porches."  The  house  of  the 
Reverend  Mr.  Whitefield,  the  first  minister  of 
Guilford,  remains  almost  unaltered,  to  attest  the 
resources  and  taste  of  its  proprietor.  When  Gor- 
ton and  his  company  were  conducted  to  jg^g 
Boston,  "  the  Governor  [Winthrop]  caused 
the  prisoners  to  be  brought  before  him  in  his  hall, 
where  was  a  great  assembly." 

Nor  were  the  furniture  and  other  appointments 
of  rich  men's  dwellings  deficient  in  a  correspond- 
ing luxury.  There  is  an  inventory  of  the  property 
of  the  third  wife  of  John  Winthrop,  —  a  widow 
when  she  married  him,  —  which  indicates  a  sump- 
tuous domestic  establishment.  At  Governor  Ea- 
ton's death,  when  money  vA'^as  worth  three  times  as 
much  as  now,  his  wearing  apparel  was  appraised 
at  fifty  pounds  sterling,  and  his  plate  at  a  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds ;  and  "  Turkey  carpet,"  "  cushions 
of  Turkey  work,"  and  "  tapestry  coverings,"  were 
among  the  articles  of  show  which  had  helped  him 
to  maintain  "  a  port  in  some  measure  answerable 
to  his  place."  In  the  early  inventories  of  furniture, 
no  forks  appear;  but,  as  a  fact  correlative  to  this, 
there  was  a  great  affluence  of  napery.  Such 
laws  as  have  been  referred  to,  prohibiting  extrava- 
gance in  personal  adornment,  point  to  one  form  of 
the  taste  and  ambition  of  that  period.     But  the 


298  SOCIAL  LIFE. 

dress  of  the  generality  of  the  people  must  needs 
have  been  plain.  The  supply  of  homespun  woollen 
cloth  and  "  linen  fustian  dimities  "  was  not  abun- 
dant, and  some  use  was  made  of  "  cordovan,  deer, 
seal,  and  moose  skins especially  for  ser- 
vants' clothing." 

As  to  diet,  the  necessity  for  a  multiplication  of 
flocks  for  wool,  and  of  herds  for  draught  and  for 
milk,  forbade  a  free  consumption  of  butcher's  meat 
in  New  England  in  the  primitive  age.  Game  and 
fish  supplied,  to  a  considerable  extent,  the  want  of 
animal  food.  Swine  and  poultry  were  in  common 
use  earlier  than  other  kinds  of  flesh-meat.  In  the 
earliest  time,  wheaten  bread  was  not  so  uncom- 
mon as  it  afterwards  became ;  but  various  prepa- 
rations of  Indian-corn  came  immediately  into  use. 
Brown  breads  a  mixture  of  two  parts  of  the  meal 
of  this  grain  with  one  part  of  rye,  has  continued, 
until  far  into  the  present  century,  to  be  the  bread 
of  the  great  body  of  the  people.  Hasti/ pudding; 
consisting  of  the  boiled  meal  of  this  grain  or  of  rye, 
and  eaten  with  molasses  and  butter  or  milk,  was  a 
common  article  of  diet.  Succotash,  composed  of 
beans  boiled  with  Indian-corn  in  the  milk,  was  a 
dish  adopted  from  the  natives,  as  were  other  prep- 
arations of  corn,  named  samp  and  hominy.  Indian- 
corn  meal,  boiled  or  baked,  and  sweetened  with 
molasses,  as  soon  as  molasses  began  to  come  from 
the  West  Indies  to  Boston,  was  Indian  pudding 
in  its  primitive  condition.  The  dish  called  baked 
beans  commemorates  the  time  when  it  was  worth 


DIET  AND  AMUSEMENTS.  299 

while  to  make  the  most  of  the  commonest  vegeta- 
ble, by  flavoring  it  with  the  flesh  of  the  common- 
est animal.  For  considerably  more  than  a  century 
the  people  of  New  England,  ignorant  of  tea  and 
cofiee,  made  their  morning  and  evening  repast  on 
boiled  Indian  meal  and  milk,  or  on  porridge  or 
broth,  made  of  pease  or  beans,  and  seasoned  by 
being  boiled  with  salted  beef  or  pork.  The  regu- 
lar dinner  on  Saturdays  (not  on  Fridays,  which 
would  have  been  Popish)  was  of  salted  codfish ; 
and  so  tenacious  are  such  customs,  that  down  to  a 
time  very  recent,  at  ceremonious  feasts  in  Boston 
on  Saturdays,  the  dunfish,  boiled  between  two 
others  for  the  greater  delicacy,  never  failed  to  ap- 
pear at  one  end  of  the  table.  Beer,  which  was 
brewed  in  families,  was  accounted  scarcely  less 
than  a  necessary  of  life,  and  the  orchards  soon 
yielded  a  bountiful  provision  of  cider.  Wine  and 
rum  found  a  ready  market,  as  soon  as  foreign 
voyages  supplied  them.  Tobacco  and  legislation 
had  a  resolute  conflict,  in  which  the  latter  at  last 
gave  way. 

Some  accessories  of  social  intercourse,  elsewhere 
relished,  were  here  abjured.  The  sad  experience 
of  his  native  country  had  taught  the  fugitive  Puri- 
tan a  lesson  which  he  laid  religiously  to  heart,  if 
he  misconceived  or  went  beyond  it  in  some  partic- 
ulars. All  persons  were  forbidden  so  much  as  to 
possess  cards,  dice,  or  other  instruments  of  gaming. 
Dancing  was  prohibited,  not  only  as  inconsistent 
with  dignity  of  character,  but  because  of  its  being 


300  SOCIA.L  LIFE. 

attended  with  provocatives  to  licentiousness.  From 
the  absence  of  instruments  of  music  from  the  in- 
ventories, it  is  unavoidable  to  infer  either  that  the 
art  was  not  much  relished,  or  that  the  practice  of  it 
was  not  approved. 

There  was  great  punctiliousness  in  the  applica- 
tion of  both  official  and  conventional  titles.  Only 
a  small  number  of  persons  of  the  best  condition 
(always  including  ministers  and  their  wives)  had 
the  designation  Mr.  or  Mrs.  prefixed  to  their 
names.  Goodman  and  g-oodwife  were  the  appro- 
priate addresses  of  persons  above  the  condition  of 
servitude,  and  below  that  of  gentility.  Most  of 
the  Deputies  are  designated  in  the  records  by  their 
names  only,  without  a  prefix,  unless  they  were 
deacons  of  the  church  or  officers  in  the  militia,  in 
which  latter  case  they  received  the  title  of  their 
rank,  in  all  the  degrees  from  general  to  corporal. 

The  language  written  and  spoken  by  the  early 
colonists  could  be  no  other  than  the  language 
which  they  had  been  accustomed  to  hear  and  use ; 
and  that  was  the  common  English  of  the  realm, 
with  such  provincial  peculiarities  as  belonged  to 
the  places  of  their  English  homes,  and  with  the 
conventional  phraseology  of  their  religious  sect. 
As  to  not  a  few  words  and  phrases  which  have 
been  supposed  to  be  of  New  England  origin,  be- 
cause, when  the  comparison  came  to  be  made,  they 
were  not  current  in  the  mother  country,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  at  the  time  of  the  emigration  they  be- 
longed to  the  staple  of  the    English  tongue,  and 


SPEECH.  301 

have  been  preserved  in  New  England,  while  they 
have  gone  into  disuse  on  the  other  side  of  the 
water.  The  vocal  utterance  of  the  New-Englander 
is  criticised  for  an  ungraceful  nasal  peculiarity. 
Perhaps  this  is  an  effect  of  climate.  Probably  it 
is  one  of  his  Puritan  heirlooms. 


CHAPTER  IIL 

FIRST  PERIOD  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

The  first  year  of  the  great  civil  war  in  England 

1543     had  just  expired,  when  the  first  meeting  of 

^P'*  "*-  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies 

was  held  at  Boston.     Several   important  subjects 

were  ready  for  their  consideration.     One  was  an 

alarm  from  the  Narragansett  Indians. 

After  the  overthrow  of  the  Pequots,  the  Narra- 
gansetts  were  the  most  powerful  of  the  native 
tribes  near  to  the  colonies ;  and  next  to  them  in 
numbers  and  strength  were  the  Mohegans,  whose 
hunting-grounds  were  further  to  the  west,  towards 
the  River  Connecticut.  Canonicus  and  his  nephew 
Miantonomo  were  the  Narragansett  chiefs.  Their 
relations  with  the  colonists  cannot  be  said  to  have 
been  hitherto  on  the  whole  unfriendly,  though 
Canonicus  at  an  early  period  had  sent  a  threat- 
ening message  to  Plymouth,  and  the  conduct  of 
Miantonomo  had  sometimes  occasioned  uneasiness 
at  Boston.  Uncas,  sachem  of  the  Mohegans,  was 
on  amicable  terms  with  the  planters  on  Connect- 
icut River.  Jealous  of  each  other's  power,  the  Nar- 
ragansetts  and  Mohegans  were  always  on  the  verge 
of  a  conflict. 


THE  NAERAGANSETT  INDIANS.  303 

Three  years  before  the  confederation,  a  report  had 
come   to    Massachusetts  that    Miantonomo    ^^ 
was  treating  with  the  Mohawks  with  a  view    "'""*■ 
to  a  joint   attack   upon  the   English  settlements. 
Conferences  held  with  him  in  his  own  country,  and 
afterwards  at  Boston,  afforded  but  partial  satisfac- 
tion.     Two  years  more  had  passed  of  suspicious 
amity,  when  the  alarm  was  renewed.  Friend-    j^^ 
ly  Indians  gave  information  at  New  Haven    ^'^'' 
and  at  Hartford  that  Miantonomo  had  planned  a 
general  massacre  of  the  English.     The  two  west- 
ern colonies  would  have  immediately  gone  to  war 
with    him,   and   solicited    Masssachusetts   to  join 
them  in  it  with  a  large  force.     But  that  colony, 
less  exposed  and  more  calm,  held  back  from   so 
critical  a  step. 

Miantonomo  was  sent  for,  and  came  to  Boston. 
He  denied  the  imputed  conspiracy,  alleging  it  to 
be  a  calumny  of  Uncas.  The  charge  did  not  seem 
to  the  Magistrates  to  be  made  out ;  but  he  had 
scarcely  been  dismissed  when  urgent  letters  came 
from  Connecticut,  and  others  from  Plymouth,  in- 
sisting upon  the  reality  of  the  plot,  and  the  neces- 
sity of  immediate  measures  of  counteraction.  On 
his  way  home,  Miantonomo  killed  one  of  his  attend- 
ants, whom,  for  participation  in  an  attempt  to 
assassinate  Uncas,  he  had  engaged  to  surrender  to 
that  chief.  This  was  interpreted  as  a  precaution 
on  his  part  against  further  discoveries.  But  the 
Magistrates  of  Massachusetts  were  still  uncon- 
vinced  of  the  necessity  for  war,  and  repeated  to 


304  FreST  PERIOD  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

the  other  colonies  their  advice  to  practise  longer 
forbearance. 

A  new  occasion  of  disquiet  arose  out  of  a  con- 
nection formed  by  Miantonomo  with  some  dis- 
affected English  borderers.  One  of  the  quarrels 
so  frequently  occurring  in  the  Narragansett  planta 
tions,  had  lately  taken  place  at  Providence.  A  party 
of  the  associates  of  Roger  Williams  had  established 
themselves  on  the  west  side  of  Narragansett  Bay, 
north  of  the  River  Pawtuxet,  and  were  there  so  in- 
commoded by  some  lawless  persons  who  came  and 
sat  down  among  them,  that,  for  want  of  any  nearer 
authority  competent  to  give  them  redress,  they 
were  fain  to  apply  themselves  to  that  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay.  In  a  petition  to  the  Magistrates  of 
jQ^j  that  colony,  they  professed  to  give  "  true  in- 
Nov.  17.  j.gjjjgg,-,gg  of  the  insolent  and  riotous  car- 
riages of  Samuel  Gorton  and  his  company,  which 
came  from  the  island  of  Aquetnet,  together  with 
John  Greene  and  Francis  "Weston."  The  petition, 
signed  by  thirteen  persons,  complained  of  various 
acts  of  violence  and  disorder  on  the  part  of  the  un- 
mannerly intruders,  and  concluded  by  entreating 
the  Massachusetts  people,  "  of  gentle  courtesy,  and 
for  the  preservation  of  humanity  and  mankind,"  to 
"lend  a  neighbor-like  helping  hand,"  and  abate 
the  nuisance.  They  received  for  answer,  that,  while 
they  belonged  to  no  recognized  jurisdiction,  no  gov- 
ernment was  authorized  to  interfere  in  their  behalf. 
If  they  chose  to  attach  themselves  to  Massachusetts 
or  to  Plymouth,  the  case  would  be  different. 


SAMUEL   GORTON'S   COMPANY.  305 

Of  the  four  disturbers  complained  of  by  name 
in   the   petition,  three  were   afterwards   especially 
conspicuous  in  a  long  series  of  events.     Randall 
Holden  had  been  one  of  the  original  confederates 
with    Coddington,   and   then    one   of   those   who 
helped  to  displace  him  from  the  government  of 
Portsmouth.    John  Greene  had  been  at  Providence 
almost  from  its  beginning.  On  a  visit  to  Boston,  he 
had  been  fined  twenty  pounds  for  seditious    ^^~ 
discourse,  and  had  been  sent  away,  with  an  ^*p'-  ^^' 
injunction  to  keep  away  for  the  future.     Samuel 
Gorton  had  come  from  England  to  Boston  during 
the  Antinomian  controversy,  and  thence  had  passed 
to   Plymouth.     Here,  quarrelling  with  the    jggg 
minister,  and  reviling   the  Magistrates,  he     ^^• 
was    punished    with    fine    and    banishment.      He 
withdrew  to  the  new    settlement   on    Rhode   Isl- 
and, busied  himself  in  the  movement  there  for  the 
deposition  of  Coddington,  and  for  his  part  jg^  ^^ 
in  a  later  dispute  was   sentenced   by  the    ^^*^- 
court  to  be  whipped.     Next  he  turned  up  at  Prov- 
idence,  for  the  annoyance   of   Williams  and    his 
friends. 

The  petitioners  for  protection  against  these 
troublesome  interlopers  took  the  hint  which  had 
been  given  them.  At  their  request  they  were  re- 
ceived under  the  government  of  Massachusetts,  and 
the  Magistrates  of  that  colony  sent  word  to  j^^ 
Gorton  and  his  party  that  they  must  desist  ^''^■^■ 
from  violent  proceedings,  but  should  have  in  the 
colonial  courts  a  fair  trial  of  any  claim  which  they 

VOL..  I.  90 


306  FIRST  PERIOD  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

asserted.  This  was  a  month  after  that  visit  of 
Miantonomo  to  Boston,  which  was  last  men- 
tioned. 

To  this  message  a  long  answer  was  returned, 
composed  in  the  most  ambitious  style  of 
insulting  invective  and  menace.     The  writ- 
ers, judging  it  not  prudent  to  await,  so  near  at 
hand,  the  rebound  of  their  defiance,  removed  to 
jg^     the  southern  side  of  the  River  Pawtuxet, 
Jan.  12.  ^here,  at  a  place  called    Shawomet,  they 
bought  lands  of  Miantonomo. 

The  right  of  Miantonomo  to  dispose  of  the 
tract  then  came  into  question.  Pomham,  a  petty 
chief  whose  followers  dwelt  upon  it,  declared 
that  the  land  belonged  to  him,  and  that  he  was 
not  Miantonomo's  vassal.  Sacononoco,  another 
sachem  of  Pawtuxet,  made  for  himself  the  same 
pretension  of  independence,  and  the  two  chiefs 
came  to  Boston,  where  they  asked  to  submit 

May. 

themselves  and  their  lands  to  the  govern- 
ment and  the  protection  of  Massachusetts.  Their 
interpreter  was  Benedict  Arnold,  of  Providence, 
one  of  the  recent  petitioners  for  protection  against 
the  misconduct  of  Gorton  and  his  companions. 

A  sense  of  interest  as  well  as  of  justice  made  it 
the  policy  of  Massachusetts  to  protect  the  Indians 
in  their  property,  for  trickery  or  roughness  towards 
them  on  the  part  of  any  of  the  white  race  would 
provoke  an  undiscriminating  resentment  towards 
all.  The  Magistrates  wrote  "  to  Gorton  and  his 
company,  to  let  them  know  what  the  sachems  had 


MIANTONOMO  AND  DNCAS.  307 

complained  of,  and  how  they  had  tendered  them- 
selves to  come  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  therefore,  if  they  had  anything  to  allege 
against  it,  they  should  come  or  send  to  the  next 
Court."  To  this  communication  no  reply  was 
made.  Miantonomo  was  summoned  to  Boston, 
and  "  being  demanded,  in  open  Court,  before  divers 
of  his  own  men  and  other  Indians,  whether  he  had 
any  interest  in  the  said  two  sachems  as  his  sub- 
jects, he  could  prove  none."  The  arrangements 
of  Massachusetts  with  the  two  sachems  for 

1      •  11        •  June  22. 

acceptmg  their  allegiance^  were  then  con- 
cluded. 

In  the  disturbed  state  of  mind  in  which  Mian- 
tonomo now  turned  his  face  homewards  from 
Boston,  it  would  be  fruitless  to  guess  which  one 
of  various  passions  prevailed.  A  month  had  not 
passed  since  his  departure,  when  news  was  brought 
that  with  a  force  of  several  hundred  followers  he 
had  suddenly  fallen  upon  his  rival  Uncas. 
The  Mohegan  warriors  were  not  more  than 
half  as  numerous,  but  they  obtained  a  signal  vic- 
tory, at  the  cost,  as  was  usual  in  Indian  pitched 
battles,  of  very  little  blood.  Miantonomo  was 
taken  prisoner,  and  conducted  to  Hartford.  There, 
at  his  own  request,  he  was  left  in  the  custody  of 
the  English,  as  the  captive,  however,  of  Uncas, 
to  be  disposed  of  by  him  according  as  he  should 
be  advised  or  permitted  by  the  Commissioners. 
Uncas  waited  for  this  decision  of  theirs,  in  conse- 
quence of  a  message  which  he  received  from  Gor- 


308  FIRST   PERIOD   OF   THE  CONFEDERACY. 

ton,  threatening  him  with  the  vengeance  of  the 
English  unless  he  should  release  his  prisoner. 

These  important  transactions  claimed  the  atten- 
tion of  the  central  government  at  its  first  meeting. 
Whatever  were  the  new  revf^lations  now  made, 
their  import  was  such  that  the  Commissioners  — 
and  among  them  Winthrop,  who  had  been  reso- 
lutely averse  to  such  a  conclusion  — consid- 
ered it  to  be  "  clearly  discovered  that  there 
was  a  general  conspiracy  among  the  Indians  to 
cut  off  all  the  English,  and  that  Miantonomo  was 
the  head  and  contriver  of  it."  They  further  found 
it  "  sufficiently  evidenced  that  Miantonomo  and 
his  confederates  had  sundry  ways  manifested  their 
enmity,  and  treacherously  plotted  and  practised 
against  the  life  of  Uncas."  By  the  laws  of  Indian 
warfare,  the  prisoner's  life  was  forfeit  to  his  cap- 
tor. "  These  things  being  duly  weighed  and  consid- 
ered," the  conclusion,  confirmed  by  the  unanimous 
voice  of  "  five  of  the  most  judicious  elders,"  was 
this:  "  The  Commissioners  apparently  see  that 
Uncas  cannot  be  safe  while  Miantonomo  lives,  but 
that  either  by  secret  treachery  or  open  force  his 
life  will  still  be  in  danger.  Wherefore  they  think 
he  may  justly  put  such  a  false  and  blood-thirsty 
enemy  to  death."  Miantonomo  accordingly  came 
to  his  end  by  a  sudden  blow  with  a  hatchet  from 
the  brother  of  Uncas,  in  the  presence  of  some 
Englishmen  who  were  charged  to  protect  him 
from  torture  or  other  outrage. 

Anticipating  the  effect  of  this  transaction  upon 


THE  SETTLEHS   AT  SHAWuMET.  309 

his  tribe,  the  Commissioners  sent  them  a  message 
of  warning  and  conciliation,  recommending  at  the 
same  time  to  the  several  colonies  to  make  careful 
military  preparations  for  what  might  follow.  The 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  was  in  session. 
The  irritation  of  their  correspondence  with  the 
renegade  English  friends  of  the  Narragansetts  was 
recent.  The  danger  of  mischief  from  that  quarter 
had  to  be  watched.  The  General  Court  issued  a 
warrant  to  the  settlers  at  Shawomet  to  ap- 

^       Sept.  12. 

pear  in  Boston  at  its  next  meeting,  and  make 
answer  to    Pomham's   complaint  of  the  intrusion 
upon  his  lands.     The  summons  brought  an  abusive 
reply,   addressed  by  Randall  Holden,  in  the  name 
of  the  company,  "  To  the   Great  and  Hon- 
ored Idol  General,  now  set  up  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts."    It  insulted  the  government  with  copious 
ribaldry,  and  tempted  them  with  vainglorious  defi- 
ance.    "  If  your  sword  be  drawn,  ours  is  girt  upon 
our  thigh;  if  you  present  a  gun,  make  haste  to 
give  the  first  fire;  for  we  are  come  to  put  fire  upon 
the  earth,  and  it  is  our  desire  to  have  it  speedily 
kindled." 

The  Commissioners  had  not  left  Boston,  when 
this  letter  arrived.  The  Magistrates  consulted 
them,  and  were  advised  to  proceed  in  the  matter 
"according  to  what  they  should  find  just,  and  the 
rest  of  the  jurisdictions  would  approve  and  con- 
cur."   They  wrote  immediately  to  the  Shaw- 

Sept  19 

omet  people  that  they  intended  to  send  com- 
missioners to  inquire  into  and  settle  the  matters 


310  FIRST  PERIOD   OF   THE  CONFEDERACY. 

in  controversy  upon  the  spot,  and  that  the  commis- 
sioners, for  their  protection,  would  be  attended  with 
an  armed  guard. 

Escorted    by  forty  soldiers,   the   commissioners 

proceeded  upon  their  errand.     At  a  little  distance 

from    Shawomet,   they   received    a  written 

Sept.  28.  .  1  .,        »      ,      . 

warnmg  not  to  advance,  on  peril  of  their 
lives.  They  answered  with  an  assurance  of  their 
wish  to  bring  the  dispute  to  a  fair  and  friendly 
settlement  with  the  malecontents,  whom,  however, 
in  case  of  a  failure  so  to  do,  they  should  have  to 
"  look  upon  as  men  prepared  for  slaughter." 

They  pushed  on  rapidly,  and  blockaded  the 
settlement.  Of  the  party  that  held  it,  one  man, 
Greene,  escaped  by  flight ;  the  rest,  ten  in  number, 
surrendered  themselves,  no  life  having  been  lost, 
and  were  led  away  prisoners  through  Providence 
to  Boston.  There  they  were  put  in  prison,  to  be 
kept  till  the  Court  should  meet. 

What  should  be  done  with  them  ?  Their  mis- 
chief-making was  intolerable  ;  but  where  was  the 
law  against  it  ?  Massachusetts  had  not  long  ago 
undertaken  to  administer  justice  according  to  a 
written  code,  and  little  time  was  required  to  create 
in  Er)glishmen  a  sense  of  the  sanctity  of  the  special 
prescribed  law.  No  small  part  of  the  offensiveness 
of  the  persons  now  in  custody,  and  of  the  anxiety 
which  they  occasioned,  consisted  in  their  threat  of 
an  "  appeal  to  the  Honorable  State  of  England." 
But  there  was  no  law  in  Massachusetts  against 
such  an  appeal,  nor  could  such  a  law  prudently  be 


THE  SETTLERS   AT   SHAWOMET.  311 

made.  For  their  transactions  with  the  Narragan- 
setts  the  prisoners  might  have  been  indicted  under 
the  twelfth  article  of  the  Capital  Laws ;  but  to  take 
that  course  would  have  been  to  create  a  panic  in 
respect  to  the  designs  of  the  Indians.  The  charge 
upon  which  it  was  resolved  to  arraign  them  was 
that  of  being  "  blasphemous  enemies  to  the  true 
religion  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  all  his  holy 
ordinances,  and  also  to  all  civil  authority  among 
the  people  of  God,  and  particularly  in  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  Massachusetts." 

There  was  abundant  proof  to  convict  them  of 
the  latter  of  the  two  offences  charged,  but  the  pen- 
alty assigned  to  it  by  law  was  inadequate  to  the 
exigency.  A  conviction  for  blasphemy  would  meet 
the  need.     Gorton  and  six  of  his  comrades 

Not.  3. 

were  found  guilty  of  that  crime,  and  nar- 
rowly escaped  a  sentence  of  death.  They  were 
confined  in  as  many  different  towns,  at  hard  labor 
in  irons.  Of  the  remaining  three,  one  was  bound 
over  for  a  future  appearance,  should  it  be  required. 
Another,  who  was  found  to  be  stupid,  was  bidden 
to  keep  himself  quiet  at  Watertown.  The  third 
was  released,  having  "  denied  that  he  set  his  hand 
to  the  first  book."  A  party  was  sent  to  Shawomet, 
"  to  fetch  so  many  of  their  cattle  as  might  defray 
the  charges." 

After  four  or  five  months,  the  prisoners  were  re- 
leased by  an  order  of  the   General   Court,    -^q^ 
which  at  the  same  time  threatened  them  ^*"'»^- 
with  death,  if,  after  fourteen  days,  they  should  be 


312  FIRST   PERIOD   OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

found  "in  the  Massachusetts,  or  in  or  near  Provi- 
dence, or  any  of  the  lands  of  Pomham  or  Sacono- 
moco."  To  await  their  friends,  as  they  said,  some 
of  them  met  at  Boston,  whence  a  warrant  from 
the  Governor  enjoined  them  to  depart  within  two 
hours.  They  reassembled  at  Shawomet,  whence 
thev  wrote  to  Winthrop  to  inquire  whether 

Harch26.  '  i 

the  General  Court  could  have  meant  that 
place  by  "  the  lands  of  Pomham  and  Saconomoco." 
Being  informed. by  him   that  such  was  the  fact, 

they  retired  to  Rhode  Island,  to  nurse  their 

April  L  '' 

ill  temper  under  the  government  of  Cod- 
dington. 

The  next  step  showed  their  spirit,  their  capacity, 
and  that  power  of  theirs  for  mischief  which  it  had 
been  thought  so  important  to  disarm.    Six  or  seven 

of  them  passed  over  to  the  main-land,  and 
^  '  obtained  from  Canonicus  and  from  Pessacus 
(brother  and  successor  of  Miantonomo)  a  treaty  of 
absolute  cession  of  the  Narragansett  people  and  ter- 
ritory "  into  the  protection,  care,  and  government 
of  that  worthy  and  royal  prince,  Charles,  King  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  his  heirs  and  successors 
forever."  In  this  instrument  of  surrender, — com- 
posed, it  needs  not  be  said,  by  English  hands,  — the 
savage  chiefs  declared  that  they  were  moved  to  it 
by  the  hope  of  obtaining  the  King's  protection 
against  "  some  of  his  Majesty's  pretended  subjects,'' 
who  had  given  them  "just  cause  of  jealousy  and 
suspicion;"  and  they  empowered  Samuel  Gorton, 
and  his  friends  Holden,  Wickes,  and  Warner,  to  be 


RESENTMENT  OF  THE  NAERAGANSETTS.   313 

their  "  lawful  attorneys  and  commissioners "  to 
attend  to  "  the  safe  custody,  careful  conveyance, 
and  declaration  thereof  unto  his  Grace." 

Under  the  same  dictation,  Canonicus  and  Pes- 
sacus  addressed  a  letter  to  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts,  in  which  they  threatened  to 
revenge  on  Uncas  the  fate  of  Miantonomo. 
It  was  presently  followed  by  a  letter  from  John 
Warner,  who  announced  himself  as  Secre- 

,         ^  .      .  .  June  20. 

tary  to  "  the  Commissioners  put   m   trust 
for  the  further  publication  of  the  solemn  act"  of 
the  Narragansetts  in  their  cession  to  the  King,  and 
threatened  the  Massachusetts  people  with  the  ven- 
geance of  the  King  and  of  the  Mohawks,  should 
they  presume  to  interfere.    The  General  Court  sent 
two  messages  to  the  Narragansett  sachems, 
to  advise  them  to  be  quiet,  and  detach  them-      ^ 
selves  from  their  pernicious  English  friends.     The 
envoys   were  rudely  received.      Canonicus  would 
scarcely  speak  to  them,  and  Pessacus  persisted  in 
the  threat  of  a  renewal  of  hostilities  against  Uncas. 
He  did   not,  however,  carry  out  his  resolution, 
though  the  uneasiness  which  it  occasioned  was  not 
relieved  till  after  the  next  meeting  of  the  Federal 
Commissioners.     An  embassy  sent  by  them 
persuaded  the  discontented  chiefs  to  agree 
with  Uncas  to  "propound  their  several  grievances 
to  the  Commissioners."    On  a  hearing,  it  was  found 
impossible  to  accomplish  more  at  pres^ent  than  a 
postponement  of  the  dispute.     The   Narragansett 
chiefs  were  brought  to  agree  that  they  would  9.b- 


314  FIRST   TERIOD   OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

stain  from  hostilities  against  Uncas  till  after  the 
next  corn- planting,  and  that,  subsequently  to  that 
time,  they  would  give  thirty  days'  notice  to  the 
Governor  of  Massachusetts  or  of  Connecticut  be- 
fore beginning  any  war.  Gorton  and  his  party 
continued  to  live  unmolested  upon  Rhode  Island. 
They  were  dangerous  persons,  but  to  leave  them 
at  large  was  a  course  less  embarrassing  than  appar- 
ently any  other  would  have  been.  Their  power 
of  annoyance  was  far  from  being  exhausted.  It 
continued  to  be  exerted  for  many  years. 

The  relations  with   borderers  and  Indians  were 
not  the  only  relations  which  the  progress  of  events 
had  summoned    Massachusetts  to   oversee.      The 
New  England  Confederacy  was  the  strongest  power 
on  the  Atlantic  seaboard  of  America.    Virtually,  —' 
almost  formally, —  Massachusetts  was  at  the  head 
of  the  Confederacy;  and,  with  a  sense  of  this  new 
importance,  it  was  not  unnatural  that  she  should 
assume  a  position  of  authority  in  respect  to  Euro- 
pean colonies  not  embraced  in  the  alliance.     The 
New  Haven  people  had  projected  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  factory  on  the  Delaware,  near 
to  the  site  which  has  been  mentioned  as  being  ear- 
lier occupied  by  a  few  Swedes.     The  visitors  from 
New  Haven  were  maltreated  and  expelled  by  the 
Swedish   governor,  and  that  colony  laid  its  com- 
plaint before  the   Commissioners  of  the   Confed- 
eracy.    A  letter  written  under  their  direction  by 
1643.     Winthrop  to  the  Swedes  brought  a  reply 
^*P'-    with  "  large  expressions  of  their  respect  to 


DUTCH  AND  FRENCH  COLONIES.  315 

the  English,"  and  particularly  to  Massachusetts, 
and  a  promise  to  refrain  from  molesting  any  future 
visitors  who  should  bring  authority  from  the  Com- 
missioners. The  Dutch  governor  at  New  Amster- 
dam complained  to  the  Commissioners  of 
encroachments  on  the  part  of  Connecticut,  "^^ 
and  inquired  whether  by  taking  his  remedy  into  his 
own  hands,  he  should  involve  himself  in  a  quarrel 
with  the  United  Colonies.  Winthrop,  under  the 
direction  of  the  Commissioners,  replied  by 

'         ^  •'    Sept.  21. 

a  counter- complaint,  and  added,  "as  we 
will  not  wrong  others,  so  we  may  not  desert  our 
confederates  in  any  just  cause."  The  Dutchmen 
were  presently  so  much  pressed  by  their  Indian 
neighbors,  that,  instead  of  further  reclamations 
from  New  Haven,  they  were  fain  to  apply  to  that 
colony  for  an  auxiliary  force  of  a  hundred  men. 
The  request  was  declined,  one  of  the  reasons 
assigned  for  the  refusal  being  derived  from  a 
provision  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation. 

With  her  French  neighbors,  on  the  other  side  of 
her  territory,  Massachusetts  had  more  communica- 
tion. There  were  two  companies  of  Frenchmen 
employed  in  trading  for  furs  with  the  eastern  In- 
dians. The  head  of  the  one  was  named  D' Aulnay  ; 
of  the  other,  La  Tour.  The  former  held  posts  on 
the  Penobscot,  and  at  Port  Royal  (now  Annapolis) 
and  La  Heve  (now  New  Dublin)  in  Nova  Scotia. 
La  Tour  had  fortified  himself  at  St.  John,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river  of  that  name,  in  what  is  now 
New  Brunswick.    He  fell  under  the  displeasure  of 


316  FIRST  PERIOD  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

the  French  court,  and  D'Aulnay  received  instruc- 
„„     tions  to  arrest  him  and  send  him  home  to 

1641. 

Feb.  13.  Prance.  D'Auhiay  was  a  Catholic.  His 
rival,  professing  to  be  a  Protestant,  hoped  that  on 
that  ground  he  might  obtain  aid  at  Boston,  and 

1343  came  thither  for  the  purpose,  offering  as  fur- 
junei2.  ^i^gj.  inducement  a  free  trade  with  his  posts. 
The  Magistrates  told  him  that  they  were  forbidden 
by  their  obligations  to  the  Confederacy  to,  contrib- 
ute the  assistance  he  desired;  but  they  gave  him 
leave  to  charter  vessels  and  enlist  volunteers. 

He  hired  four  ships  and  enlisted  some  seventy 
men,  and  with  them  obtained  some  advan- 

"^* "  tage  over  his  enemy.  D'Aulnay  went  to 
France,  to  strengthen  himself  with  new  credentials, 

1644.    and  La  Tour  came  again  to  Bostoi},  on  the 

''"'^'  same  business  as  before.  Opinions  were 
now  much  divided  respecting  his  suit;  and  after 
some  weeks'  negotiation  he  was  dismissed,  with 
nothing  better  than  unprofitable  demonstrations  of 
respect.  He  had  scarcely  left  Boston,  before  his 
wife  arrived  there.  She  had  come  from  London, 
with  a  cargo  of  supplies  for  St.  John.  At  Boston, 
she  sued  the  ship-master  for  a  breach  of  contract 
in  carrying  her  out  of  her  way,  and  obtained  a 
verdict.  The  other  party  attempted  to  delay  the 
execution  of  it,  by  offering  security  for  the  pay- 
ment, if  "  the  Parliament  of  England  did  not  call 
the  cause  before  themselves  ; "  —  a  proposal  which 
"was  very  ill-taken  by  the  Court,  as  making  way 
for  appeals,  etc.,  into  England." 


INTERNAL   POLITICS   OF  MASSACHUSETTS.       317 

While  La  Tour's  wife  was  in  Boston,  an  envoy 
from  his  rival  came  thither,  —  "one  Marie,  sup- 
posed to  be  a  friar,  but  habited  like  a  gentleman." 
He  talked  with  the  Governor  in  French,  and  with 
the  rest  of  the  Magistrates  in  Latin.  He  produced 
three  papers;  namely,  a  certified  copy  of  the  King's 
commission  to  D'Aulnay;  a  verification  of  a  sen- 
tence against  La  Tour  "as  a  rebel  and  traitor;" 
and  an  order  for  his  and  his  wife's  arrest  and  con- 
veyance to  France.  "  He  complained  of  the  wrong 
done  by  our  men  the  last  year  in  assisting  of  La 
Tour,  etc,  and  proffered  terras  of  peace  and  amity." 
In  the  sequel  of  the  negotiation,  the  Magis- 
trates agreed  to  present  for  the  approbation 
of  the  Commissioners,  at  their  next  meeting,  a 
treaty,  which  was  to  be  binding  meanwhile,  "for 
firm  peace"  and  free  commerce  between  the  juris- 
dictions of  Massachusetts  and  D'Aulnay. 

The  Magistrates  had  fallen  into  an  error  in  per- 
mitting La  Tour  to  enlist  volunteers  in  Boston, 
The  Commissioners  had  expressed  their  sense  of 
it,  and  had  at  the  same  time  asserted  for  their  own 
body  a  great  power  by  voting  "  that  no  jurisdiction 
within  the  Confederacy  should  permit  any  volunta- 
ries to  go  forth  in  a  warlike  way  against  any  peo- 
ple whatsoever,  without  order  and  direction  of  the 
Commissioners  of  the  several  jurisdictions."  The 
proceeding  had  unsettled  the  politics  of  Massa- 
chusetts. Bellingham's  party,  though  he  prudently 
kept  himself  in  the  background,  revived  its  opposi- 
tion  to    Winthrop.      Three   Magistrates,   namely, 


318  FIRST   PERIOD   OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Saltonstall   of    Watertown,   and    Bradstreet    and 
1643     Syraonds  of  Ipswich,  with  their  townsman, 
July  14.  Nathaniel  Ward,  and  three   ministers,  Na- 
thaniel Rogers  and  John   Norton  of  Ipswich,  and 
Ezekiel  Rogers  of  Rowley,  addressed  a  joint  re- 
monstrance to  the  Governor.     At  the  next  annual 
1544     election,  Winthrop  was  let  down  into  the 
^^y^-  office  of  Deputy-Governor.    The  oppo^^ition, 
not  strong  enough  to  choose  Bellingham,  conferred 
the  highest  office  on  Endicott,  who,  though  never 
failing  to  treat  Winthrop  with  affectionate  respect, 
dissented  from  his  recent  policy.     Bradstreet  and 
William  Hathorne,  the  latter  a  young  man  now 
rising  into  notice,  were  at  the  same  time  appointed 
to  succeed  Winthrop  and  Dudley  as  Federal  Com- 
rnissioners ;  and  Saltonstall  was  designated  to  be 
Bradstreet's    substitute,  should   the   latter  be  de- 
tained at  home. 

Nor  were  these  the  most  serious  symptoms  of 
disaffection  from  the  ancient  guides  of  opinion  and 
policy.  The  Essex  towns,  especially,  had  become 
jealous  of  the  influence  of  Boston.  They  called 
into  question  the  hitherto  established  doctrine,  that, 
when  the  General  Court  was  not  sitting,  the  Magis- 
trates were  the  supreme  government;  and  they 
prevailed  to  carry  through  the  House  of  Deputies 
"  a  commission  whereby  power  was  given  to  seven 
of  the  Magistrates  and  three  of  the  Deputies  and 
Mr.  Ward  (sometime  pastor  of  Ipswich,  and  still 
a  preacher)  to  order  all  affairs  of  the  common- 
wealth in  the  vacancy  of  the  General  Court."    The 


RELATIONS   TO  THE  MOTHER  COUNTRY.  319 

Magistrates  refused  their  assent  to  this  measure, 
as  being  no  less  than  a  revolutionary  deposition  of 
them  from  the  authority  vested  in  their  office  by 
the  charter.  The  Deputies  persisted.  The  dis- 
pute was  still  unsettled  when  the  time  which  had 
been  agreed  upon  for  a  prorogation  of  the  Court 
arrived.  In  the  recess,  the  Magistrates  continued 
to  exercise  their  functions  as  usual.  When  the 
Court  met  again,  the  ministers,  invited  to  give 
their  opinion,  unanimously  advised  that "  the 

,,       .  .  Oct.  30. 

Magistrates  are,  by  patent  and  election  of 
the  people,  the  standing  council  of  the  common- 
wealth in  the  vacancy  of  the  General  Court,  and 
have  power  accordingly  to  act  in  all  cases  subject 
to  government,  according  to  the  said  patent  and 
the  laws  of  this  jurisdiction."  The  fever  now  was 
over.  Saltonstall  was  surly,  and  Belli ngham  did 
not  cease  to  be  factious.  But  their  associates  in 
the  Magistracy  were  undisturbed  in  their  places, 
and  "  most  of  the  Deputies  were  now  well  satisfied." 

While  Massachusetts  held  such  an  attitude  as 
has  been  described  towards  native  tribes  and  Euro- 
pean colonists,  it  is  still  more  interesting  to  ob- 
serve that  which  she  assumed  towards  the  mother 
country. 

A  year  after  the  confederation  of  the  four  colo- 
nies, and  four  years  after  the  meeting  of  the  Long 
Parliament,  the  General  Court  of   Massa- 
chusetts passed  an  order  in  the  follow^ing    *^ 
terms  :  "  That  what  person  soever  shall  by  word, 
writing,  or  action,  endeavor  to  disturb  our  peace, 


320  FIRST  PERIOD  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

directly  or  indirectly,  by  drawing  a  party,  under 
pretence  that  he  is  for  the  King  of  England,  and 
such  as  adjoin  with  him,  against  the  Parliament, 
shall  be  accounted  as  an  offender  of  an  high  nature 
against  this  commonwealth,  and  to  be  proceeded 
with,  either  capitally  or  otherwise,  according  to  the 
quality  and  degree  of  his  offence."  Massachusetts 
w^as  not  with  the  King  against  the  Commons  of 
England. 

But  neither  was  she  for  the  Commons,  without 
discrimination.  A  ship  from  Bristol,  then  held  for 
the  King,  was  lying  in  Boston  harbor,  when  an 
armed  vessel  from  London  came  in,  and  summoned 
the  master  to  surrender,  which  he  did.  The  con- 
signee loudly  protested  ;  but  the  London  captain 
produced  his  commission  from  the  Parlia- 
ment's  admiral,  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  and, 
their  sympathy  with  Parliament  prevailing,  the 
Magistrates  decided  in  his  favor.  But  it  was  not 
without  misgivings  of  their  own,  and  loud  remon- 
strance breaking  out  around  them  ;  and  presently 
a  second  occasion  of  the  same  kind  called  for  a 
revisal  of  the  judgment.  A  ship  from  Dartmouth, 
in  "  the  King's  service,"  was  threatened  in 
Boston  harbor  by  one  Richardson,  com- 
mander of  a  vessel  from  London,  bearing  the  com- 
mission of  Lord  Warwick.  In  the  absence  of 
Endicott,  who  was  at  his  home  in  Salem,  Win- 
throp  sent  an  order  to  Richardson  to  come  on 
shore  forthwith,  which  he  tried  to  excuse  himself 
from  doing.     A  shot  from  the  shore  battery,  which 


RELATIONS  TO  THE  MOTHER  COUNTRY.         321 

cut  his  rigging,  and  the  sight  of  boats  with  forty 
Boston  men  pulling  from  the  north  wharf  for  the 
Dartmouth  vessel,  brought  him  to  a  better  mind, 
and  he  "  came  ashore,  and  acknowledged  his  error, 
and  his  sorrow  for  what  he  had  done," 

In  short,  it  was  now  meet  that  neither  King  nor 
Parliament  should  meddle  with  anything  under  the 
protection  of  Massachusetts.  The  language  of 
the  time,  embodying  this  doctrine,  was,  "  that  a 
commission  could  not  supersede  a  patent." 


21 


CHAPTER  IV. 

CONGKEGATIONALISM   AND    MISSIONARY   ACTION. 

The  relations  of  New  England  to  the  politics  of 
the  mother  country  were  now  of  extreme  impor- 
tance. Scotland  on  the  one  hand,  and  New  Eng- 
land on  the  other,  were  in  the  front  ranks  of  the 
party  war  which  raged  in  England  after  the  down- 
fall of  prelacy.  And  New  England  was  on  the 
side  which  at  length  obtained  the  mastery. 

The  Presbyterian  regimen  of  Calvin  was  im- 
ported from  Geneva  into  Scotland  by  John 
Knox.     Under  the  auspices  of  his  successor, 

1578.    Andrew  Melville,  it  became  the  ecclesiastical 

1572  law  of  the  land.  Thomas  Cartwright  vtTote 
in  favor  of  it  in  England ;  but  this  was  in 
the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  in  her  time  and 
that  of  her  successor  there  was  little  manifest  fruit 
of  his  labors,  though  under  King  James  the  discon- 
tent with  the  episcopal  hierarchy  was  constantly 
increasing  and  extending. 

The  first  movement  in  arms  against  King  Charles 
was  made  in  Scotland,  and  the  close  communica- 
tion and  sympathy  into  which  the  patriots  of  the 
two  kingdoms  were  brought  naturally  quickened 
the* tendency  of  opinion  in  England  towards  that 


PRESBYTERY  AND   INDEPENDENCY  323 

form  of  church  government  which  was  approved  in 
the  sister  realm.     An  ordinance  of  the  Long    1(542. 
Parliament  abolished  episcopacy.     Another  ^^p'-^"'- 
convoked    an    assembly  '*  to    be    consulted    ^543 
with    by   the    Parliament  for   the    settling  "'""^  ^2- 
of  the  government  and  liturgy  of  the  Church  of 
England." 

When  this  body,  famous  in  history  as  the  West- 
minster Assembly,  came  together,  a  large  majority  of 
its  members  were  found  to  be  in  favor  of  the  Pres- 
byterian rule.  A  considerable  number  were  still 
attached  to  the  old  hierarchical  system,  but,  obey- 
ing the  King's  mandate,  they  soon  withdrew.  A 
few  members  were  known  as  Independents.  They 
were  in  sympathy  with  Oliver  Cromwell,  Vane  the 
younger,  and  some  other  members  of  Parliament. 
As  yet,  a  large  majority  of  Parliament  was  with 
the  Presbyterians. 

Even  before  the  meeting  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly,  the  controversy  between  Presbyterians 
and  Independents  had  broken  out.  It  continued 
for  several  years,  at  the  end  of  which  the  Indepen- 
dents, a  despised  body  at  first,  obtained  absolute 
mastery.  Though  England  was  the  field  of  the 
dispute,  the  chief  champions  belonged  to  Scotland 
and  to  New  England.  Hooker  of  Connecticut, 
Cotton,  Shepard,  Allin,  Norton,  Mather,  and  others 
of  Massachusetts,  did  battle  for  the  Independents  ; 
Baillie,  Rutherfurd,  Henderson,  and  other  Scottish 
divines,  for  the  Presbyterians  ;  and  according  as 
New  England  or  Scotland  seemed  to  be  prosper- 


324  CONGREGATIONALISM. 

ing  in  these  polemics,  the  star  of  Fairfax  or  of 
Essex  seemed  to  be  rising.  The  policy  proclaimed 
by  the  Presbyterians  was  that  of  church  unity,  and 
of  such  coercion  as  should  be  necessary  to  secure 
it.  The  policy  announced  by  the  Independents  was 
that  of  toleration,  and  thus  they  were  made  perti- 
nacious and  active,  alike  by  the  force  of  a  gener- 
ous purpose,  and  by  the  apprehension  of  what  they 
should  have  to  suffer  in  case  they  were  overborne. 
When  Presbytery,  arrogant  and  threatening, 
reigned  in  the  counsels  of  the  mother  country,  it 
could  not  fail  to  be  watched  with  solicitude  in  the 
distant  colonies.  In  Massachusetts,  "  some  of  the 
elders,"  Winthrop  sorrowfully  wrote,  "  went  about 

,„,„     to  set  up  some  things  according  to  the  Pres- 
1643.  r  &  o 

bytery."  These  were  Thomas  Parker  and 
Jannes  Noyes,  ministers  of  the  church  of  Newbury. 
They  were  amiable  and  unambitious  men,  who, 
having  relieved  their  consciences  by  their  mani- 
festo, were  not  disposed  to  make  further  trouble. 

The  case  was  very  different  with  William  Vas- 
sall,  who  was  one  of  the  original  Assistants  named 
in  the  charter  of  the  Massachusetts  Company.  He 
was  a  man  of  fortune,  and,  what  was  very  mate- 
rial, his  brother,  also  formerly  an  Assistant,  was 
now  one  of  the  Parliament's  Commissioners  for 
the  Government  of  Foreign  Plantations.  William 
Vassall  had  come  to  Massachusetts  with  Win- 
throp's  fleet,  but  remained  only  a  very  short  time. 
He  came  to  New  England  again  five  years 
later,   but   then    it    was  to   the   colony  of 


PRESBYTERIAN  CABAL.  325 

Plymouth.  At  Scituate  he  established  his  home, 
and  the  character  of  "a  man  of  a  busy  and  factious 
spirit,  and  always  opposite  to  the  civil  government 
of  this  country,  and  the  way  of  the  churches."  He 
was  not  unobservant  of  that  critical  period  in  the 
party  conflict  abroad  when  the  "  Self- Denying 
Ordinance"  had  given  to  the  Independents  a  sort 
of  control  of  the  army,  and  when,  on  the  ^g^g 
other  hand,  an  ordinance  of  Parliament  had  ^"sia- 
established  Presbytery  as  the  church  of  England. 
He  "  practised  with  "  a  few^  persons  in  Massachu- 
setts, whose  plot  took  the  form  of  a  "  Re-  jg^g 
monstrance  and  Humble  Petition"  to  the  ^^^^' 
General  Court.  They  represented  that  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  colony  was  not  "  according  to  the 
laws  of  England ; "  that  many  English  subjects 
were  excluded  from  civil  and  military  employments, 
and  from  the  franchise  ;  and  that  numerous  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  of  England  were  "  detained 
from  the  seals  of  the  covenant  of  free  grace."  They 
prayed  for  relief  from  each  of  these  grievances;  and 
they  gave  notice,  that,  if  it  were  denied,  they  should 
"be  necessitated  to  apply  their  humble  desires  to 
the  honorable  Houses  of  Parliament." 

This  was  serving  a  notice  on  Independent  Mas- 
sachusetts, that,  unless  she  would  renounce  her 
cherished  constitutions,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  she 
might  prepare  to  feel  the  heavy  hand  of  a  Presby- 
terian Parliament.  The  Humble  Petition  was  sub- 
scribed by  seven  persons,  of  whom  Samuel  Maver- 
ick, found  by  Winthrop's  company  on  an  island  in 


326  CONGREGATIONALISM. 

Boston  harbor,  was  one  ;  the  rest  were  of  little  or 
no  consideration.  The  paper,  prepared  for  outside 
effect,  was  "dispersed  into  the  hands  of  some  known 
ill-affected  people  in  the  governments  adjoining," 
and  even  as  far  as  "  the  Dutch  plantation,  Virginia, 
and  Bermudas." 

The  occasion  was  not  one  for  half-way  measures. 
Massachusetts  was  not  ready  for  Presbyterian  sway, 
nor,  as  things  stood,  for  submission  to  the  English 
Parliament.  The  General  Court  answered 
the  "Remonstrance  and  Petition"  by  a  pub- 
lished "  Declaration,"  designed  for  effect  abroad  as 
well  as  at  home,  in  which  they  maintained  their 
own  case  with  equal  circumspection  and  boldness. 
Vassall's  friends  were  not  to  be  so  put  down. 
Learning  that  two  of  them  were  about  to  embark 
for  England,  to  prosecute  their  business,  the  Court 
stopped  them  with  a  summons  to  appear  and  "  an- 
swer to  the  matter  of  their  petition."  They  replied 
by  an  appeal  "to  the  Gentlemen  Commissioners  for 
Plantations,"  and  the  Court  ordered  them  into  cus- 
tody. The  seven  disturbers  were  next  arraigned  as 
authors  of  "  divers  false  and  scandalous  passages 

in  a  certain  paper against  the  churches  of. 

Christ  and  the  civil  government  here  established, 
derogating  from  the  honor  and  authority  of  the  same, 
and  tending  to  sedition."  Refusing  to  answer,  they 
were  punished  by  fines,  of  different  amounts,  from 
tifty  pounds  to  ten  pounds.  Three  Assistants, 
Bellingham,  Saltonstall,  and  Bradstreet,  with  four 
Deputies,  opposed  the  sentence. 


PRESBYTERIAN  CABAL.  327 

This  affair,  and  the  trouble  threatened  by  the 
intrigue  of  Gorton  and  his  friends  with  the  Narra- 
gansetts,  caused  it  to  be  "  thought  needful  to  send 
some  able  nrian  into  England,  with  commission  and 
instructions  to  satisfy  the  Commissioners  for  Plan- 
tations." Edward  Winslow,  of  Plymouth,  was  ap- 
pointed to  this  agency.  In  a  conference  which 
was  held  respecting  the  instructions  to  be  furnished 
him,  the  relation  of  Massachusetts  to  England  was 
compared  with  that  of  Burgundy  and  Flanders  to 
France,  a  relation  not  inconsistent  with  "  absolute 
power  of  government."  At  the  request  of  the  Court, 
the  elders  drew  up  a  second  declaration,  in  which 
they  said  :  "  We  conceive,  that,  in  point  of  govern- 
ment, we  have,  granted  by  patent,  such  full  and 
ample  power  of  choosing  all  otficers  that  shall  com- 
mand and  rule  over  us,  of  making  all  laws  and 
rules  of  our  obedience,  and  of  a  full  and  final  deter- 
mination of  all  cases  in  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice, that  no  appeals  or  other  ways  of  interrupting 
our  proceedings  do  lie  against  us."  This  was  no 
less  than  political  independence. 

Child  and  Dand,  two  of  the  remonstrants,  were 
.preparing  to  go  to  England  with  a  petition  to  the 
Parliament  from  a  number  of  the  non-freemen. 
Informed  of  their  intention,  the  Magistrates  ordered 
a  seizure  of  their  papers.  The  searching  officers 
found  in  their  possession  certain  memorials  to  the 
Commissioners  for  Plantations,  asking  for  "  settled 
churches  according  to  the  [Presbyterian]  Reforma- 
tion of  England ; "  for  the  establishment,  in   the 


828  CONGREGATIONALISM. 

colony,  of  the  laws  of  the  realm  ;  and  for  the  ap- 
pointment of  "  a  General  Governor,  or  some  hon- 
orable commissioners,"  to  reform  the  existing  state 
of  things.  For  this  further  offence,  such  of  the 
prominent  conspirators  as  remained  in  the  country 
were  punished  by  additional  fines.  Child  and 
Dand  were  mulcted  in  the  sum  of  two  hundred 
pounds ;  Maverick,  in  that  of  a  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  ;  and  two  others,  of  a  hundred  pounds  each. 
Vassall  had  preceded  Winslow  to  England. 
Child  soon  followed.  Child,  as  well  as 
^  '■  Vassall,  had  a  brother  then  in  power.  But 
the  tide  was  now  on  the  turn.  With  the  King  in 
the  hands  of  an  Independent  army,  it  would  no 
longer  do  for  Presbytery  to  be  arrogant.  Child 
approached  the  Commissioners  with  a  petition 
against  Massachusetts  ;  but  his  associate,  Thomas 
Fowle,  had  taken  alarm,  and  begged  that  he  might 
not  be  thought  to  have  anything  to  do  with  it. 
"  Mr.  Vassall,  finding  no  entertainment  for  his 
petitions,  went  to  Barbadoes,"  and  Child  was  pre- 
vailed upon  by  his  friends  "  to  give  it  under  his 
hand  never  to  speak  evil  of  New  England  men 
after,  nor  to  occasion  any  trouble  to  the  country, 
or  to  any  of  the  people,"  so  that,  "  as  for  those  who 
went  over  to  procure  us  trouble,  God  met  with 
them  all." 

The  Presbyterian  controversy,  and  the  solicitude 
which  it  created,  had  revealed  a  weak  point  in  the 
original  Independent  scheme  of  church  order.  The 
primitive  dread  of  ecclesiastical  domination  in  any 


CAMBRIDGE  SYNOD   AND   PLATFORM.  329 

form  was  not  at  all  abated,  but  the  want  had  be- 
come manifest  of  some  principle  of  union  and  some 
system  of  common  authority,  or  of  mutual  influ- 
ence, among  the  churches,  both  for  the  avoiding  of 
scandal,  and  for  efficiency  in  joint  action  for  the 
common  safety.  A  few  days  only  after  the  recep- 
tion of  the  "  Remonstrance  and  Humble  Petition  " 
had  apprised  them  of  the  existence  of  an  jg^g 
alarming  cabal,  the  General  Court  passed  ^*>i^- 
a  vote  convoking  a  synod  of  elders  and  messengers 
from  the  churches  of  all  the  confederate  colonies, 
for  "  the  establishing  and  settling  of  the  right  form 
of  government  and  discipline  by  the  joint  and  pub- 
lic agreement  and  consent  of  churches,  and  by  the 
sanction  of  civil  authority." 

The  synod  came  together  in  the  meeting-house 
of  Cambridge.     All  the  churches  of  Massa- 

"  Sept.  1. 

chusetts  were  represented,  except  four.  The 
absence  of  the  church  of  Concord  was  accidental. 
The  church  of  Hingham  stayed  away  because  its 
minister,  Mr.  Hobart,  feared  that  the  synod  would 
be  too  hostile  to  Presbytery.  The  churches  of  Bos- 
ton and  Salem  held  back,  because  they  feared  that 
the  synod  would  lean  too  much  the  other  way.  The 
Pastor  and  Teacher  of  Boston  "  thought  it  their 
duty  to  go,  notwithstanding;"  and  at  length  the 
church  was  prevailed  upon  by  Mr.  Norton  to  rein- 
force them  with  messengers.  The  synod  did  not 
pursue  its  business  with  alacrity.  But  at  length, 
after  two  adjournments,  and  nearly  two  jg^ 
years  after  its  first  meeting,  it  published  its  ^"*  * 


330  CONGREGATIONALISM. 

conclusions  as  they  were  embodied  in  "  A  Platform 
of  Church  Discipline,  gathered  out  of  the  word  of 
God." 

In  describing  tiie  constitution  of  churches  as  to 
members,  officers,  authority,  duties,  and  methods  of 
administration,  the  Cambridge  Platform  —  known 
in  later  times  as  the  Book  of  Discipline  of  the  Con- 
gregational church  —  merely  defines  the  principles 
and  practices  which  had  all  along  distinguished  the 
Independent  body.  The  chief  fruit  of  it  was  a 
modification  of  the  original  theory,  in  respect  to 
the  formal  recognition  of  an  arrangement  designed 
to  introduce  order  and  unity,  and  to  create  a  capa- 
city for  more  efficient  action  and  influence  than 
was  now  thought  to  have  been  provided  for  in  the 
original  frame  of  the  churches.  The  constitution 
of  the  Independent  churches  of  England  was 
strictly  indicated  by  the  name  which  they  bore. 
Each  was  competent  in  itself  to  all  ecclesiastical 
offices,  and  there  was  no  instituted  connection 
among  them.  In  New  England,  from  an  early 
period  of  its  history,  we  find  instances  of  a  church 
encouraged  or  expostulated  with  by  another  church, 
or  by  churches,  or  by  Magistrates,  or  by  ministers, 
on  occasions  of  special  interest,  or  on  apprehensions 
of  erroneous  belief  or  practice.  With  the  benefit 
of  the  experience  of  nearly  twenty  years,  and  in 
the  light  of  the  events  which  have  last  been  related, 
the  discerning  minds  of  Cotton,  Hooker,  Norton, 
and  their  associates,  saw  the  expediency  of  giving 
permanence  to  a  system  of  mutual  supervision  and 


CONSTITUTION   OF   CONGREGATIONALISM.       331 

influence.  Accordingly  the  Cambridge  synod  for- 
mally recognized  the  prerogative  of  occasional 
councils,  composed  of  "  elders  and  other  messen- 
gers" of  churches,  to  give  advice  and  admonition, 
and  in  extreme  cases  to  withhold  fellowship  (or 
participation  in  religious  services  and  functions) 
from  an  offending  church,  "  but  not  to  exercise 
church  censures  in  way  of  discipline,  nor  any  other 
act  of  church  authority  or  jurisdiction." 

A  Congregational  Council  —  or  Synod,  as  it  was 
now  more  usually  termed  —  was  not  a  permanent 
body,  like  the  Classes,  Synods,  and  General  Assem- 
bly of  the  Presbyterian  church.  It  was  summoned 
for  a  special  occasion ;  it  was  composed  of  cler- 
ical and  lay  delegates  from  such  and  so  many  of 
the  neighboring  churches  as  circumstances  made 
it  convenient  for  the  parties  interested  to  convoke  ; 
and  its  existence  ceased  when  the  present  occasion 
was  over.  It  had  no  power  to  act  immediately  on 
individuals.  Its  judgment  and  will,  if  made  oper- 
ative at  all,  were  carried  into  effect  by  the  church 
or  churches  to  which  its  counsels  were  addressed. 
And  in  case  of  the  rejection  of  its  advice,  the  high- 
est act  of  authority  to  which  it  was  competent 
was  to  withdraw  the  countenance  and  fellowship 
of  the  churches  represented  in  it  from  the  offend- 
ing church,  thus  making  public  their  sense  of  its 
ill-desert,  and  their  own  exemption  from  respon- 
sibility. 

The  Ecclesiastical  Councils  thus  grafted  in  New 
England  on  the  original  scheme  of  Independency 


332  CONGREGATIONALISM. 

may  properly  be  considered  as  the  specific  differ- 
ence of  the  Congregational  system.  The  term 
Congregational  now  became  established,  as  denot- 
ing a  form  of  church  order.  The  divines  of  the 
Cambridge  synod  used  it  in  the  preface  to  their 
platform ;  and  Cotton  pronounced  it  the  fittest  he 
knew  to  make  a  distinction,  on  the  one  hand,  from 
the  Presbyterian  regimen,  and,  on  the  other,  from 
"  those  corrupt  sects  and  heresies  which  showed 
themselves  under  the  vast  title  of  Independency." 

The  platform  gave  its  sanction  to  a  relaxation 
of  the  primitive  rule,  and  a  faint  approval  to  one 
feature  of  presbytery,  by  allowing  the  ordination 
of  officers  of  a  church  by  officers  of  other  churches, 
"  in  cases  where  there  were  no  elders,  and  the 
church  so  desired."  And,  as  a  last  resort  for  the 
protection  of  peace  and  purity,  it  looked  to  the  in- 
tervention of  the  civil  power.  "  If  any  church,  one 
or  more,  shall  grow  schismatical,  rending  itself 
from  the  communion  of  other  churches,  or  shall 
walk  incorrigibly  or  obstinately  in  any  corrupt  way 
of  their  own,  contrary  to  the  rule  of  the  word,  in 
such  case  the  Magistrate  is  to  put  forth  his  coercive 
power,  as  the  matter  shall  require." 

It  is  no  matter  of  surprise  that  an  ecclesiastical 
assembly  should  thus  seek  to  enlist  the  government 
in  support  of  its  opinions  and  of  its  authority. 
But  the  government  appears  not  to  have  been  for- 
ward to  assume  such  a  responsibility,  or  to  be  a 
party  to  any  sharper  definition  of  the  connection 
between  Church  and  State  than  circumstances  from 


CONVERSION   OF  THE  NATIVES.  333 

time  to  time  might  call  for.  Agreeably  to  the  v«ite 
by  which  the  synod  was  convened,  its  platform  was 
submitted  to  the  General  Court  "  for  their  consider- 
ation and  acceptance  in  the  Lord."  After  a  delay 
of  more  than  a  year,  the  General  Court  re-  1549 
solved  "  to  commend  it  to  the  judicious  and  ^'•^''• 
pious  consideration  of  the  several  churches  within 

the  jurisdiction,  desiring  a  return how  far 

it  was  suitable  to  their  judgments  and  approbation, 
before  the  Court  proceeded  any  further  therein." 
When  two  years  more  had  passed,  they  dis-  ^^i 
posed  of  the  business  by  a  brief  declaratory  <^"='- 1*- 
vote,  giving  "  their  testimony  to  the  said  Book  of 
Discipline,  that  for  the  substance  thereof,  it  was 
that  they  had  practised,  and  did  believe." 

Questions  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  of 
church  organization,  were  not  the  only  matters  of 
common  interest  between  the  leaders  of  affairs  in 
New  England  and  in  the  parent  country.  In  their 
solicitude  to  convert  the  natives  to  a  Christian  faith 
and  practice,  the  colonists  sought  and  found  the 
sympathy  and  aid  of  fellow- believers  in  England. 
For  a  time  the  wants  and  hardships  which  they 
encountered  were  such  as  to  aiford  sufficient  em- 
ployment to  the  thoughts  of  every  day;  though  they 
were  never  indifferent  about  the  religious  condition 
of  the  savages  around  them,  nor  unconcerned  to 
use  for  their  benefit  such  opportunities  as  occurred. 
In  the  year  after  the  confederation,  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts  passed  an  order  jg^ 
which,  perhaps,  entitles  it  to  be  considered  ^°'-  ^^- 


334  MISSIONARY   ACTION. 

the  first  Missionary  Society  of  Protestant  Christen- 
dom. The  order  directed  the  County  Courts  to  take 
measures  "to  have  the  Indians  residing  in  their 
several  shires  instructed  in  the  linovvledge  and  wor- 
ship of  God."  It  was  followed  up  by  authority 
1646  giv^"  ^o  the  ministers  to  send  two  of  their 
Not.  4.  number  "  to  make  known  the  heavenly  coun- 
sel of  God  among  the  Indians  in  most  familiar 
manner,  by  the  help  of  some  able  interpreter." 

Two  names  are  especially  connected  with  this 
enterprise,  —  those  of  John  Eliot,  of  Roxbury,  and 
Thomas  Mayhew  (father  and  son),  of  Martha's 
Vineyard.  Having  attained  some  proficiency  in 
the  language  of  the  natives,  Eliot  first  ad- 
dressed an  audience  of  them  at  the  falls  of 
Charles  River,  in  Watertown.  He  spoke  an  hour 
and  a  quarter,  and  was  assured  that  he  was  well 
understood.  Encouraged  by  so  prosperous  a  be- 
ginning, he  extended  his  labors  to  other  parts  of 
Massachusetts.  He  preached  at  Dorchester,  at 
Concord,  at  Yarmouth,  at  Sudbury,  at  Dedham,  at 
Lynn,  and  at  Brookfield,  and  on  the  whole  met  with 
gratifying  success.  If  some  of  the  savage  auditors 
proved  to  be  "  naught,"  others  were  "  found  hun- 
gry after  instruction." 

The  Mayhews  were   owners  of  Martha's  Vine- 
yard, by  a  patent  which  they  had  obtained  from 
the  Earl  of  Stirling.     Thomas  Mayhew,  the  son, 
1544     found    himself   presently    engaged    in   mis- 
iggQ     sionary  work,  and  in  a  few  years  he  could 
Sept.  7.  gay .  u  There  are  now,  by  the  grace  of  God, 


SOCIETY  FOR  PROPAGATING  THE  GOSPEL,   335 

thirty-nine  Indian  men  of  this  meeting,  besides 
women  that  are  looking  this  way,  which  we  sup- 
pose to  exceed  the  number  of  the  men." 

"  Some  thought  that  all  this  work  was  done  and 
acted  thus  by  the  Indians  to  please  the  English, 
and  for  applause  from  them."  But  gratitude  and 
hope  predominated  ;  and  intelligence  of  the  glad 
prospect  was  forwarded  to  England,  where  it  was  re- 
ceived with  delight.  In  an  address  to  Parlia-  ^^^ 
ment,  twelve  ministers,  of  the  most  eminent 
in  England,  representing  both  sects,  Presbyterians 
and  Independents,  commended  the  object  of  evan- 
gelizing the  natives  of  New  England  to  the  patron- 
age of  the  State.  Winslow,  with  all  his  intelligent 
activity,  urged  on  the  movement;  and  an 
ordinance  of  Parliament  was  passed  "  for  the  Juiy  i9- 
promoting  and  propagating  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  New  England."  It  constituted  a  corpo- 
ration in  England,  to  consist  of  a  president,  a 
treasurer,  and  fourteen  assistants,  with  power  to 
hold  real  estate  of  the  value  of  not  more  than  two 
thousand  pounds  yearly  income,  and  personal  prop- 
erty without  limitation.  And  it  incidentally  recog- 
nized the  Confederacy  by  intrusting  the  local  man- 
agement of  the  business  of  the  corporation  to  "  the 
Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  of  New 
England." 

While  Massachusetts  thus  sought  the  aid  of  the 
government  of  England  in  her  endeavors  to  evan- 
gelize the  Indians,  she  made  no  communication  to 
Parliament  respecting  her  intercourse  with  Ameri- 


336  COLONIAL  RELATIONS. 

can  subjects  *of  the  continental  States  of  Europe. 
Her  foreign  relations  she  preferred  to  keep  strictly 
under  her  own  charge,  and  the  charge  of  the  Con- 
federacy, which  confided  much  to  her  discretion. 
Her  French  neighbors  at  the  east  had  not  yet 
ceased  to  be  troublesome.  D'Aulnay,  blockading 
La  Tour's  stronghold  at  St.  John,  cap- 
tured a  Boston  vessel,  and  treated  her  crew 
with  severity.  The  Magistrates  sent  him  a  letter 
of  remonstrance ;  while  he  complained  of  a  depar- 
ture, on  their  part,  from  the  neutrality  that  had 
heen  agreed  upon.  La  Tour's  fort  was  taken  by 
his  rival,  and  for  the  time  he  was  ruined,  with  great 
loss  to  some  Boston  merchants,  from  whom  he  had 
borrowed.  He  took  to  fur-trading,  and,  as  Win- 
throp  believed,  to  piracy  ;  but  after  four  or  five  years, 
restored  his  fortunes  by  marrying  the  widow  of 
his  ancient  rival.  The  dispute  between  Massa- 
chusetts and  D'Aulnay  had  been  taken  up  by  the 
Commissioners,  and  with  their  help  had  been  finally 
adjusted  three  or  four  years  before  his  death. 

These  transactions  are  of  little  interest,  except 
as  showing  with  what  freedom  the  Confederacy  — 
or,  as  the  case  might  be,  Massachusetts,  acting  for 
it  —  took  the  position  of  an  independent  power. 
On  the  western  border,  New  England  had  relations 
of  a  more  practical  description  to  oversee  and  ad- 
just. The  Dutch  at  New  Netherland  were  from 
time  to  time  asserting  a  claim  which  the  English 
colonists  considered  themselves  to  be  under  obli- 
gations alike  of  honor  and  of  interest  to  fend  off, 


NEW  NETHERLAND.  337 

at  least  so  long  as  their  friends  in  England  were 
too  busy  to  give  it  their  attention. 

The  New  Haven  people  having  set  up  a  trading 
house  some  ten  miles  northwestwardly  from 
their  town,  the    Dutch    governor  wrote  to  Aug.  3. 
the  Governors  of  New  Haven  and  Massachusetts 
to  remonstrate   against  the  encroachment  on    his 
domain.     The  Federal  Commissioners  took  cogni- 
zance of  the  matter,  and  sent  a  messenger 
to  New  Amsterdam  to  signify  their  approba-  ^^'" ' 
tion  of  the  proceeding  complained  of,  and  to  make 
a  counter  representation  respecting  misconduct  of 
the  Dutch  at  the  fort  which  they  still  held  at  Hart- 
ford.  Kieft,  the  Dutch  governor,  was  soon  displaced. 
Peter  Stuyvesant,  his  successor,  in  a  letter 
of  ceremony  to  the  Governor  of  Massachu- 
setts, "  laid  claim  to  all  between  Connecticut  and 
Delaware,"  and  was  answered  by  a  complaint  of 
the  sale  of  arms  and  ammunition  by  the  Dutch  to 
the  Indians.     Other  occasions  of  dispute  arose,  but 
Stuyvesant  became  less  offensive,  as  he   learned 
more  of  those  with  whom  he  had  to  contend.     He 
wrote  to  the   Governor   of  Massachusetts,    1548 
proposing  to  submit  to  him  and  to  the  Gov-  ^*'*''- 
ernor  of  Plymouth  the  questions  pending  between 
New  Netherland  and  New  Haven.     The  General 
Court  advised  that  the   proposal  should    be  sub- 
mitted to  the  Commissioners.     The  Commission- 
ers addressed  to  Stuyvesant  a  joint  letter, 
inquiring  what  it  was  that  he  proposed  to 
refer,  and  what  were  his  credentials.    They  restated 

VOL.  I.  22 


338  COLONIAL  RELATIONS 

their  grounds  of  complaint  against  his  colony,  and 
gave  him  notice  of  their  intention  to  retaliate  any 
injustice  done  to  any  person,  of  whatever  nation, 
inhabiting  within  their  bounds,  and,  in  short,  to 
"  vindicate  the  English  rights  by  all  suitable  and 
just  means."  Stuyvesant  could  not  take  the  re- 
sponsibility of  provoking  the  execution  of  these 
threats.  He  wrote  home  asking  for  instructions, 
and  urging  that  the  parent  governments 
should  settle  the  controversy.  And  here  it 
restea  for  the  present. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   NARRAGANSETT    COUNTRY. 

When  Winslow  went  to  England  as  agent  for 
Massachusetts  to  counteract  the  plots  of  Gorton 
and  Child  and  their  respective  associates,  eleven 
years  had  passed  since  the  last  of  his  three  previous 
voyages  to  that  country.  Instead  of  having  in 
charge,  as  before,  an  humble  suit  to  a  domineering 
Privy  Council,  and  a  vexatious  negotiation  veith 
some  London  merchants  for  a  small  sum  of  money, 
the  cause  of  a  community  beginning  to  be  confident 
in  its  power  was  now  to  be  pleaded  by  him  in  the 
hearing  of  rulers  of  England  who  recognized  him 
as  their  equal  associate.  He  arrived  in  the  month 
in  which  the  King  was  surrendered  by  the  jg^^ 
Scottish  army  to  the  English  Parliament,  ''^' 
and  two  months  before  the  question  of  disbanding 
the  troops  provoked  the  open  quarrel  between  the 
Presbyterians  and  the  Independents. 

His  success  in  relation  to  the  dispute  of  the 
authorities  of  Massachusetts  with  the  Presbyteri- 
ans in  that  colony  was  related  in  the  last  chapter. 
The  intrigues  of  Gorton,  Greene,  and  Holden  had 
demanded  his  still  earlier  attention.  As  Child  and 
his  party  relied  upon  the  Presbyterians  for  support, 


340  THE  NARRAGANSETT  COUNTRY. 

SO  in  the  Levellers  and  Ranters,  whom  the  strong 
hand  of  Cromwell,  after  helping  them  to  rise,  was 
now  hardly  keeping  in  check,  the  emissaries  from 
Shawomet  found  sympathizers  so  numerous  and 
active  that  other  parties  were  indisposed  to  incur 
their  displeasure. 

Gorton  and  his  colleagues  had  gone  to  England 
more  than  a  year  before  Winslow.  They  took 
with  them  the  Act  of  Submission  of  the  Narra- 
gansetts,  and  they  presented  to  the  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Plantations  a  complaint  of  the  treat- 
ment which  their  company  had  experienced.  They 
1646.    obtained  from  the  Commissioners  an  order 

^*y^^'  to  the  government  of  Massachusetts  to  allow 
the  petitioners  and  their  friends  "  freely  and  quietly 
to  live  and  plant  upon  Shawomet,"  till  such  time 
as  the  adverse  claim  of  Massachusetts  could  be 
presented  and  considered.  With  this  order,  and 
with  a  letter  of  safe-conduct  from  the  same  author- 

Se  t  13  ^^y^  Holden  arrived  in  Boston  three  months 
before  Winslow's  departure.  The  Governor 
refused  him  permission  to  land,  till  the  advice  of 
the  Magistrates  should  be  obtained.  The  Magis- 
trates, divided  in  opinion,  recommended  that  the 
elders  should  be  consulted.  The  elders,  too,  were 
of  different  minds ;  but  "  the  greater  part,  both  of 
Magistrates  and  elders,  thought  it  better  to  give 
so  much  respect  to  the  protection  which  the  Par- 
liament had  given  him,  as  to  suffer  him  to  pass 
quietly  away." 

In  drawing  up  instructions  for  their  agent,  and 


WmSLOW  AND   GOKTON   IN  ENGLAND.  341 

a  remonstrance  and  petition  which  he  was  to  pre- 
sent to  the  Commissioners,  the  General  Court  pro- 
ceeded with  great  caution.  It  was  not  till  after 
some  deliberation  that  they  determined  to  "  give 
the  Commissioners  their  title,  lest  thereby,"  they 
said,  "  we  should  acknowledge  all  that  power  they 
claim  in  our  jurisdiction."  They  declined  to  make 
the  formal  answer  which  had  been  called  for  to  the 
charges  of  Gorton  and  his  confederates,  preferring 
to  "  wait  upon  Providence  for  the  preservation  of 
their  just  liberties,  if  the  Parliament  should  be  less 
inclinable."  They  instructed  their  agent  to  main- 
tain that  their  charter  gave  them  an  "  absolute 
power  of  government ; "  and  in  their  remonstrance 
they  cautioned  the  Commissioners  against  assum- 
ing a  responsibility  to  which  they  would  be  sure  to 
find  themselves  unequal. 

Just  before  Winslow  reached  England,  Gorton 
had  presented  his  case  to  the  public  in  a  book, 
with  a  long  title,  of  which  the  first  part  is,  "  Sim- 
plicitie's  Defence  against  Seven-Headed  Policy." 
In  a  few  weeks  Winslow  published  a  reply  to  it, 
which  in  some  copies  bears  the  title  of  "  The 
Danger  of  tolerating  Levellers  in  a  Civil  State," 
in  others,  the  title  of  "  Hypocrisie  Unmasked,"  In 
a  dedication  to  the  Earl  of  Warwick  and  his  fel- 
low-Commissioners, they  were  urged  to  refuse  to 
receive  appeals  from  New  England,  and  by  this  and 
other  acts  of  justice  to  the  people  of  that  country, 
to  lay  them  under  an  obligation  to  "  engage  with 
and  for  "  the  Parliament  and  the  Commissioners 


342       THE  NARRAGANSETT  COUNTRY. 

"  against  all  opposers  of  the  State,  to  the  last  drop 
of  blood  in  their  veins." 

This  publication  was  seasonable.     Ecclesiastical 
Independency  was  climbing  rapidly  to  dominion  in 
England;  and  Massachusetts,  the  champion  of  that 
system,  was  in  favor.    The  Commissioners  hastened 
to  relieve  the  anxiety  which  was  felt  as  to  the  most 
important  point  that  had  been  raised.    "  We  intend- 
jg^-     ed  not,"  they  wrote,  "  to  encourage  any  ap- 
May26.   peals  from  your  justice."     Finally,  the  appli- 
cation of  Gorton  and  his  friends  to  the  Commission- 
ers for  an  authoritative  interference  in  their  behalf 
obtained  no  more  than  an  intercession  for  indulgent 
^    treatment  of  them.     "  We  commend  it  to 

July  22. 

the   government,  under   whose  jurisdiction 

they  shall  appear  to  be, to  encourage  them 

with  protection  and  assistance,  in  all  fit  ways, 
provided  that  they  demean  themselves  peaceably, 

wherein  if  they  shall  be  faulty,  we  leave 

them  to  be  proceeded  with  according  to  justice." 

Thus  discomfited,  Gorton  set  his  face  home- 
ward.     Arriving  at  Boston,  he  produced  a 

May-  letter  from  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  "  desiring 
only  that  he  might  have  liberty  to  pass  home." 
This  was  yielded  only  after  much  opposition,  and 
by  a  majority  of  a  single  vote  in  the  General 
Court.  No  immediate  inconvenience  followed 
from  Gorton's  presence.  He  had  come  back  a 
sadder  and  more  peaceable,  if  not  a  wiser,  man. 
Encouraged  by  the  order  of  the  Parliamentary 
Commissioners  brought  by  Holden  in  the  second 


GORTON'S   COMPANY  AT  WARWICK.  343 

preceding  year,  several  of  the  party  had  reassem- 
bled at  Shawomet,  to  which  place  they  had  given 
the  name  of  Warwick,  in  commemoration,  or  in 
hope,  of  the  noble  admiral's  favor.  They  no  sooner 
learned  from  their  returning  emissary  how  little  he 
had  prospered,  than  they  "  sent  two  of  their  com- 
pany to  petition  the  General  Court,  and  make 
their  peace."  Learning  at  Dedhara,  on  their  way, 
that  the  Court  had  adjourned,  the  messengers  wrote 
to  Winthrop,  in  terras  not  so  much  deferential  as 
abject,  asking  leave  to  wait  upon  him  with  the 
"  humble  request"  which  they  had  in  charge.  The 
Governor's  reply,  if  he  made  one,  is  not  recorded. 
While  the  people  at  Warwick  should  be  inoffen- 
sive, as  they  had  lately  been,  and  as  there  was  now 
an  increased  probability  that  they  would  continue 
to  be,  Massachusetts  had  no  desire  to  disturb 
them. 

The  account  which  has  been  given  of  transac- 
tions in  and  relating  to  the  Narragansett  country 
through  a  period  of  nearly  eight  years,  has  been 
confined  to  the  proceedings  of  the  Indians  of  that 
name,  and  of  the  party  of  Gorton  now  resettled  at 
Shawomet.  An  independent  series  of  events,  pos- 
sessing a  different  kind  of  interest,  had  been  taking 
place  meanwhile  in  the  same  neighborhood. 

The  reader  remembers,  that,  at  the  time  of 
the  confederation,  Newport  with  Portsmouth,  on 
Rhode  Island,  constituted  one  community,  and 
Providence  another,  —  the  two  being  as  distinct  as 
either  was  from    Plymouth   or  from   Connecticut 


344       THE  NARRAGANSETT  COUNTRY. 

And  so  they  remained  for  three  years  longer,  when, 
in  the  sequel  of  proceedings  which  are  now  to  be 
related,  an  attempt  was  made,  but  with  little  suc- 
cess, to  unite  the  jurisdictions. 

It  was  two  months  before  the  confederation,  and 
some  two  years  after  Gorton  had  begun  his  an- 

jg^g     noyances  at  Providence,   that   Roger  Wil- 

March.  liams  set  sail  for  England,  in  the  hope  of 
obtaining  some  authority  for  a  government  of  the 
settlements  on  Narragansett  Bay.  Favorably  in- 
troduced  by   Sir   Henry   Vane,    he  had  obtained 

1644.  from  the  Parliamentary  Commissioners  a 
March  u.  patent,  which  associated  "  the  towns  of  Prov- 
idence, Portsmouth,  and  Newport "  in  one  com- 
munity, "by  ^he  name  of  the  Incorporation  of 
Providence  Plantations,  in  the  Narrag  nsett  Bay 
in  New  England."  It  prescribed  no  criterion  of 
citizenship,  and  no  form  of  organization.  It  sim- 
ply empowered  the  "inhabitants"  of  the  towns 
named  to  establish  such  a  government  as  "  they 
should  find  most  suitable  to  their  state  and  con- 
dition," and  to  make  laws  "  conformable  to  the 
laws  of  England,  so  far  as  the  nature  of  the  case 
would  admit." 

This  instrument  Williams  brought  to  Boston, 
with  a  letter  to  the  Magistrates,  in  which  not  the 
Commissioners,  who  perhaps  scrupled  to  ask  what 
might  be  denied,  but  "  divers  lords  and  others  of  the 
Parliament"  requested  that  he  might  have  friend- 

g^  ^  ly  treatment.  At  Providence  he  received 
a  cordial  welcome,  but  this  was  all.     For 


PROVIDENCE  AND  RHODE   ISLAND.  345 

the  present  there  appeared  little  disposition  to  turn 
to  account  the  arrangement  which  he  had  made. 
Plymouth    sent    one    of   her  Assistants   to 

■'  Not.  5. 

Rhode  Island  to  declare  that  great  part  of 
the  territory  covered  by  the  new  patent  was  with- 
in her  limits.  Massachusetts  asserted  a  similar 
claim  on  the  ground  of  a  patent  obtained  from  the 
Commissioners  three  months  earlier  than  that  of 
Williams.  Coddington  and  his  friends  had  been 
no  parties  to  Williams's  scheme,  and  did  not  wish 
it  to  succeed.  Williams  withdrew  to  a  residence 
in  the  heart  of  the  Narragansett  country,  where,  in 
partnership  with  an  Englishman  whom  he  found 
there,  named  Richard  Smith,  he  took  to  trading 
with  the  Indians,  and  for  a  time  was  expecting  to 
grow  rich. 

Holden  returned  from  England,  as  has  been  re- 
lated, two  years  after  Williams.  Perhaps  he  had 
concerted  with  Gorton  to  bring  about  a  pacifica- 
tion of  the  feud  which  had  existed  between  them 
and  Williams,  and  unite  their  forces  to  set  up,  for 
the  common  advantage,  the  government  which  had 
been  authorized  by  Williams's  patent.  At  all  events, 
within  a  few  months  after  Holden's  return,  we  find 
Williams,  with  nine  other  persons,  among  jg^- 
whom  were  Gorton's  friends,  John  Greene  ^^^^  ^^• 
and  Richard  Waterman,  elected  to  represent  the 
town  of  Providence  in  a  convention  of  delegates 
from  all  the  Narragansett  settlements.  The  con- 
vention included  a  delegation  from  Warwick, 
though  the  patent  had  given  no  authority  to  that 


346  THE  NARRAGANSETT  COUNTRY. 

plantation.  A  constitution  of  union  and  govern- 
May  ment  was  established,  and  a  minute  code  of 
19-21.  jg^^g^  fjjg  Q(^g  colony  was  to  have  a  Presi- 
dent, four  Assistants,  (in  each  town  one,)  and  other 
officers,  to  be  chosen  each  year  by  a  general  assem- 
bly of  the  citizens.  John  Coggeshall,  of  Newport, 
was  made  President,  from  which  town  were  also 
taken  the  Recorder  (or  Secretary),  and  the  Treas- 
urer. Williams  was  Assistant  for  Providence,  Cod- 
dington  for  Newport,  and  Holden  for  Warwick. 
Sanford,  who  represented  Portsmouth  at  that  board, 
must  have  found  it  hard  to  keep  the  peace  between 
his  colleagues. 

The  scheme  proved  a  failure.  The  machine  had 
taken  some  three  years  to  construct  and  set  agoing, 
after  its  construction  had  been  authorized  by  the 
patent.  In  three  years  more  it  ran  down.  Three 
only  of  the  proposed  annual  Assemblies  were  held. 
At  the  first  of  these,  Coddington  was  chosen  Presi- 
dent, but  declined  to  serve;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
"  divers  bills  of  complaint  were  exhibited  against 
him,"  of  which  he  took  no  notice.  It  was  about 
this  time  that  Gorton  returned  from  England,  as 
has  been  related. 

Eight  months  later,  Coddington  sailed  for  Eng- 
jgjQ  land,  with  objects  that  will  be  explained 
Jan.  hereafter.  Meanwhile,  stimulated,  as  ap- 
pears, by  the  return  of  Gorton,  who,  he  appre- 
hended, would  prove  "  a  thorn,  if  the  Lord  pre- 
vented not,"  he  had  attempted  a  negotiation  of 
equal  delicacy  and  importance.     In  behalf,  as  he 


THE  NARRAGANSETT  INDIANS.  347 

alleged,  of  "  the  majority  of  the  people  of  Rhode 
Island,"  he  applied  to  the  Commissioners  of  the 
four  colonies  for  their  admission  into  the  Confed- 
eracy. But  this,  he  was  told,  the  islanders  could 
not  obtain,  except  by  placing  themselves  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  Plymouth ;  a  course  to  which, 
personally,  he  was  now  by  no  means  disinclined, 
but  which  he  could  not  commaud  sufficient  sup- 
port among  his  neighbors  to  make  practicable.  In 
his  place  Williams  was  made  Chief  Magis-  ^^^ 
trate,  with  the  title  of  Deputy  -  President.  ^'^^^ 
Williams  held  the  office  but  two  months,        _ 

'    May  22. 

being  succeeded  at  the  annual  election  by 
John  Smith,  of  Warwick,  who,  in  Massachusetts, 
had  been  one  of  the  partisans  of  Child.     The  next 
following  year,  Nicholas   Easton,  of  New- 
port,  was  chosen  President.     The  govern- 
ment was  now  falling  to  pieces.     Before  the  end 
of  the  year  a  special  meeting  of  the  General  Court 
was  held,  and  an  order  was  passed  "  to  capitulate 
with  Mr.  Williams  about  his  going  to  England  " 
to  make  further  endeavors  for  a  settlement.     But 
Williams,  after  his  experience,  had  no  heart  for  the 
undertaking ;  and  for  the  present  the  plantations  of 
disorganized  Rhode  Island  went  on  each  its  own 
fantastic  way. 

It  is  necessary  to  retrace  our  steps  in  order  to 
follow  the  course  of  transactions  with  the  Narra- 
gansett  Indians.  The  expectations  with  which 
Gorton  and  his  friends  had  encouraged  them  in 
their  quarrel  with  Massachusetts  had  been  wofuUy 


348       THE  NARRAGANSETT  COUNTRY 

disappointed.     Gorton  had  disappeared  for  three 
years.     None  of  the  assistance  he  had  promised 
them  came  from  the  King.    At  the  expiration  of 
1644     the  truce  which  they  had  been  persuaded  to 
^^*"    make  with  Uncas,  their  attitude  again  be- 
came menacing.     A  force,  said  to  amount  to  not 
less  than  four  thousand  warriors  of  the  tribe,  and  to 
have  as  many  as  thirty  muskets,  fell  upon 
the  Mohegans,  who  again  defeated  them, 
but  not  without  considerable  loss.     An  occasion 
was  thought  to  have  arisen  for  a  special  meeting 
of  the  Federal  Commissioners,  which  accordingly 
was  held  at  Boston.    They  despatched  mes- 
sages to  the  hostile  chiefs,   requiring  their 
presence  personally,  or  by  ambassadors,  to  treat  of 
the  terms  of  peace.     The  messengers  returned  with 
the  defiance  of  the  Narragan setts.     Probably  Gor- 
ton had  not  yet  gone  abroad,  and  was  giving  them 
encouragement.     Williams  wrote  "that  the  coun- 
try would  suddenly  be  all  on  fire  by  war;"  and  that 
"  the  Narragansetts  had  been  with  the  plantations 
combined  with  Providence,  and  solemnly  treated 
and  settled  a  neutrality  with  them." 

"  These  premises  being  weighed,  it  clearly  ap- 
peared that  God  called  the  colonies  to  a  war ; " 
and  the  call  was  promptly  answered.  It  was  ar- 
ranged that  three  hundred  men  should  take  the 
field  :  one  hundred  and  ninety  from  Massachusetts, 
forty  from  Plymouth,  as  many  from  Connecticut, 
and  thirty  from  New  Haven.  Edward  Gibbons^ 
of   Massachusetts,   was  appointed  commauder-in- 


THE  NAKRAGANSETT   INDIANS.  349 

chief.  Within  three  days  forty  men  marched  from 
Massachusetts,  to  secure  Uncas  against  a  i?urprise. 
Other  messengers  were  despatched  to  renew  the 
proposal  for  the  suspected  sachems  to  present  them- 
selves at  Boston,  and  to  add  that  "  deputies  would 
not  now  serve,  nor  might  the  preparations  in  hand 
be  now  stayed."  Williams,  who  had  come  from 
England  nearly  a  year  before,  accompanied  the 
messengers  as  interpreter,  and  probably  made  him- 
self useful,  though  the  Commissioners  blamed  their 
agents  for  employing  him. 

The  chiefs  were  brought  to  reconsider  their  pas- 
sionate decision  ;  and  the  Narragansetts,  Pessacus 
and  Mixan,  with  Ninigret,  sachem  of  their  Nyan- 
tic  allies,  came  to  Boston,  where  they  concluded  a 
treaty  of  "  firm  and  perpetual  peace "  with  the 
English,  with  Uncas,  with  Pomham  and  Sacono- 
noco,  and  with  all  other  Indians  "  in  friendship 
with,  or  subject  to,  any  of  the  English."  They 
agreed  to  reimburse  the  charge  of  the  expedition 
against  them  to  the  amount  of  "  two  thousand 
fathom  of  good  white  wampum,"  payable  in  four 
annual  instalments,  and  to  leave  four  children  of 
their  chiefs  as  hostages  for  their  good  faith. 

The  instalment  due  in  the  following  spring  was 
not  paid.  It  remained  unpaid  when  another  year 
had  passed,  and  it  was  feared  that  the  omission 
was  to  be  explained  by  intelligence  which  had  been 
received,  to  the  effect  that  the  Narragansetts  had 
"  been  plotting,  and  by  presents  of  wampum  en- 
gaging the  Indians  round  about  to  combine  with 


350  THE  NARRAGAJSrSETT  COUNTRY. 

them  against  the  English  colonies  in  war."  At  a 
special  meeting  held  at  Boston,  the  Commissioners 

1647.  resolved  to  send  to  Pessacus  and  require 
July  26.  jjjg  immediate  presence  before  them.  He 
sent  excuses,  which,  though  they  were  humble,  did 
not  satisfy,  and  with  them  his  ally  Ninigret,  who, 
promising  that  the  debt  should  be  speedily  dis- 
charged, was  dismissed  with  the  threat,  that,  if 
there  were  twenty  days'  more  delay,  "the  Commis- 
sioners would  send  no  more  messengers,  but  take 
course  to  right  themselves,  as  they  saw  cause,  in 
their  own  time." 

Nevertheless,  after  still  another  year,  the  account 
remained  unsettled,  while  stories  continued  to  ar- 
rive of  attempts  on  the  part  of  the  Narragansetts 
to  contract  an  alliance  with  the  powerful  and  mer- 
cenary Mohawks.  Remonstrances  and  menaces, 
repeated  during  yet  three  years  longer  by  the  Eng- 
lish, failed  to  obtain  anything  more  than  an  uncer- 
tain and  anxious  peace.  A  Narragansett  Indian, 
arrested  in  an  attempt  upon  the  life  of  Uncas, 
affirmed  that  he  had  been  bribed  to  the  deed  by 
the  chief  of  his  tribe.     The  Commissioners  decided 

jggQ  that  it  was  necessary  to  take  final  meas- 
sept.  5.  |2].gg  ci  ^Q  keep  the  colonies  from  contempt 
imong  the  Indians,  and  to  prevent  their  improving 
he  said  wampum  to  hire  other  Indians  to  join 
with  themselves ; "  and  they  sent  Captain  Ather- 
ton,  with  twenty  Massachusetts  men,  to  Pessacus, 
to  "  demand  the  said  wampum,  and  upon  refusal 
or  delay,  to  take  the  same,  or  the  value  thereof." 


THE  NARRAGANSETT  INDIANS.  351 

He  was  instructed,  "  if  other  means  were  wanting, 
with  as  little  hurt  as  might  be,"  to  seize  and  bring 
away  either  Pessacus  or  his  children.  Atherton 
sought  the  sachem  in  his  wigwam,  and  the  demon- 
stration was  decisive.  The  wampum  was  paid, 
and  for  the  present  the  Narragansetts  seemed  to 
be  impressed  with  the  safety  of  peaceable  behavior. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

LAST    YEARS    OF    WINTHROP. 

Confederacies  always  contain  elements  of 
jealousy,  which  are  so  many  disintegrating  forces. 
When  the  confederation  of  the  four  New  England 
colonies  was  made,  it  was  not  till  after  some  re- 
luctance had  been  overcome,  first  on  the  part  of 
Massachusetts,  then  on  the  part  of  Connecticut. 
Possessing  wealth  and  numbers  far  superior  to  the 
aggregate  of  those  of  the  three  smaller  colonies, 
Massachusetts  was  both  tempted  to  arrogance,  and 
liable  to  be  regarded  with  unreasonable  distrust. 

The  first  dispute  which  arose  was  between  Mas- 
sachusetts and  Connecticut.  To  pay  her  debt  to 
George  Fenwick,  incurred  by  the  purchase  from 
him  of  the  fort  at  Saybrook,  Connecticut  levied  a 
toll  on  all  vessels  passing  out  of  the  river.  The 
people  of  Springfield  refused  to  pay  it,  on  the 
ground  of  their  belonging  to  the  jurisdiction  of 
Massachusetts.  The  penalty  of  refusal,  which  was 
confiscation  of  the  property,  Connecticut  forbore  to 
exact,  till  there  should  be  a  judgment  of  the  Fed- 
eral Commissioners  on  the  validity  of  her  claim. 

1646.  The  Commissioners,  regarding  the  object  of 
Sept.  22.  ^j^g  impost  to  be  "  chiefly  to   maintain  the 


DISSENSION  IX   THE  CONFEDERACY.  35S 

fort  for  security  and  conveniency,"  in  which  secu- 
rity and  conveniency  "  Springfield  had  in  its  pro- 
portion the  same  benefit "  as  the  lower  towns, 
seemed  to  approve  the  action  of  Connecticut.  But 
as  Massachusetts  had  given  her  representatives  no 
instructions  touching  the  matter,  a  final  disposi- 
tion of  it  was  postponed. 

The  reader  would  weary  of  the  details  of  a  dis- 
cussion which  was  continued  through  nearly  three 
years.  Massachusetts  contended  that  Connecticut 
ought  not  to  wrest  from  the  inhabitants  of  another 
jurisdiction  any  part  of  the  money  used  for  a  pur- 
chase of  her  own ;  that  the  fort  at  Saybrook  was 
"  not  useful  "  to  Springfield  ;  and  that  the  Spring- 
field people  would  not  have  planted  where  they  did, 
had  they  been  apprehensive  of  subjecting  them- 
selves to  such  a  burden  as  was  now  imposed.  To 
this  and  other  arguments  Connecticut  replied,  that 
the  impost  was  not,  in  fact,  "  to  purchase  land  or 
fort,"  though  the  destination  of  it  was  a  point  into 
which  the  party  taxed  had  no  right  to  inquire  ; 
that  the  fort  had  been,  was,  and  would  continue  to 
be,  useful  to  Springfield ;  and  that  no  expectation 
of  the  now  disputed  impost  would  have  hindered 
that  plantation. 

.  As  the  discussion  went  on,  it  extended  itself  into 
various  particulars.  From  first  to  last  the  Com- 
missioners from  the  two  neutral  colonies,  at  first 
with  forbearance  and  modesty,  at  last  with  decision, 
though  with  dignity  and  temper,  favored  the  claim 
of  Connecticut.     Such  was  the  displeasure  in  Mas- 

VOL.  I.  23 


354         LAST  YEARS  OF  WINTHROP. 

sachusetts  at  this  aspect  of  things,  that  the  General 

1648.  Court  raised  a  committee  to  revise  the  Ar- 
'  *^    ■  tides  of  Confederation,  and    propose   such 

amendments   as  might  appear  necessary  for   the 
protection  of  the  several  colonies  against  the  injus- 
tice of  a  consolidated  power.     This  committee  pro- 
posed to  the  Federal  Commissioners  at  their 

Sept.  7.  '^  .  . 

next  meetmg  various  amendments  of  the 
Articles,  among  which  one  was,  that,  as  "  Massa- 
chusetts bore  almost  five  for  one  in  the  proportion 
of  charge  with  any  one  of  the  rest,"  she  should  be 
represented  in  the  Federal  Congress  by  three  Com- 
missioners, and  that  any  one  colony  should  have 
the  same  privilege  of  representation,  on  consenting 
to  the  same  pecuniary  burden.  Another  was  that 
a  declaration  should  be  made,  that,  if  any  colony 
forbore  to  follow  the  advice  of  the  Commissioners, 
"  the  same  not  to  be  accounted  any  offence  or 
breach  of  any  Article  of  the  Confederation."  This 
communication  led  to  no  practical  result  of  import- 
ance. The  Commissioners  may  have  regarded  it 
as  not  altogether  inoffensive ;  but  their  treatment 
of  it  was  marked  with  good  sense  and  good  temper. 
As  to  the  original  question  of  the  impost  at  Say- 

1649.  brook,  Massachusetts,  by  a  vigorous,  not  to 
^*^  ^"   say  arbitrary  measure,  showed  her  confidence 

in  her  own  case,  and  her  resentment  against  the 
judges  whom  she  had  failed  to  convince.  Foreign 
vessels  entering  the  principal  harbors  of  Massachu- 
setts had  been  required  to  pay  a  duty  "towards 
the  maintenance  of  the  fortification  for  the  defence 


DISSENSION  IN   THE  CONFEDERACY.  355 

of  the   said    harbors."      The   law   provided    that 

"  none  of  the  vessels  of  our  confederates 

shall  pay  any  custom  or  inrjposition  in  any  of  our 
harbors."  That  exemption  was  now  withdrawn 
in  respect  to  Boston  harbor,  making  vessels  of 
Plymouth  and  New  Haven,  as  well  as  of  Connec- 
ticut, liable  to  a  payment  at  the  Castle  of  Boston 
similar  to  what  was  exacted  from  Springfield  trad- 
ers at  Saybrook.  The  significance  of  this  proceed- 
ing was  simple.     The  Commissioners  from 

July. 

the  two  smaller  colonies  forwarded  to  Mas- 
e^achusetts  a  remonstrance  against  her  action,  and 
with  proper  dignity  "desired  to  be  spared  in  all 
further  agitations  concerning  Springfield."  The 
angry  attitude  of  Massachusetts  was,  perhaps,  not 
such  as  she  could  justify  herself  in  main-  ^^^ 
taining;  and  the  retaliating  act  was  repealed  *'*^  ^■ 
the  next  year,  "  the  Court  having  been  credibly  in- 
formed that  the  jurisdiction  at  Connecticut  will  for 
the  present  suspend  the  taking  of  any  custom  of 
us,  and  that  they  intend  to  repeal  the  order  where- 
by they  imposed  it."  On  the  other  hand,  eminent 
and  admirable  as  the  Commissioners  of  the  neutral 
colonies  were  for  integrity  and  good  judgment,  the 
careful  reader  of  the  controversy  at  the  present  day 
will  hesitate  to  pronounce  that  on  the  original 
question  they  had  decided  wisely. 

In  each  of  the  three  smaller  colonies  of  the  Con- 
federacy, the  popular  attachment  to  the  primitive 
leaders  was  remarkably  constant,  and  no  such  offi- 
cial changes  took  place  as  would  have  indicated 


356         LAST  YEARS  OF  WINTHROP. 

occasional  variations  of  policy.  It  was  otherwise 
in  Massachusetts.  While  the  most  important  of 
the  events  sketched  in  this  and  the  last  chapter 
were  passing,  Winthrop  was  at  the  head  of  affairs. 
But  it  was  after  a  third  interval,  during  which,  for 
two  years,  he  had  held  a  subordinate  position. 
Endicott  was  Governor  in  the  year  when  the  en- 
gagenient  to  keep  the  peace  with  Uncas  was 
extorted  from  the  Narragansetts.  Dudley  was 
Governor  during  the  year  in  which  that  engage- 
ment was  broken,  and  in  which  Eliot  made  his 
first  essay  in  preaching  to  the  natives.  In  both 
these  years  Winthrop  was  Deputy-Governor. 

Endicott's  term  of  office  was  just  expiring  when 
jg^5  a  scheme  was  proposed  to  change  the  basis 
April.  q|-  representation  in  the  House  of  Deputies, 
"  so  as  to  have  only  five  or  six  out  of  each  shire," 
instead  of  one  at  least  from  every  town.  The  ex- 
pensiveness  of  the  existing  usage  was  the  reason 
urged  for  this  change.  "  The  greater  number  of 
towns,"  however,  "  refused  it ;  so  it  was  left  for 
this  time."  And  more  than  two  hundred  years 
passed  after  this  time,  before  such  a  change  was 
made. 

The  restlessness  of  the  party  opposed  to  Win- 
throp was  manifested  in  a  measure  which  in  those 
days  had  much  more  significance  than  it  would 
now  have.  It  had  been  the  practice,  almost  from 
the  beginning,  for  the  Magistrates  to  appoint  some 
minister  to  preach  before  the  General  Court  on 
the  day  of  annual  election.     In  one  year,  the  year 


THIRD  ADMINISTRATION   OF   DUDLEY.  357 

when  the  factious  Belli nghani  was  Governor,  and 
when  Ward  obtained  a  well-merited  popularity  by 
his  Body  of  Liberties,  "  some  of  the  free- 
men "  chose  him  to  be  election  preacher, 
and  the  Magistrates  acquiesced,  for  quiet's  sake. 
When  Endicott  was  Governor,  this  prescriptive 
privilege  of  the  Magistrates  was  a  second  time 
invaded.  The  Deputies  appointed  John  jg^ 
Norton,  conspicuous  for  his  opposition  to  o*'*"^"' 
Winthrop  in  the  matter  of  La  Tour  and  D' Aulnay, 
to  be  the  election  preacher.  The  Magistrates,  on 
hearing  this,  cancelled  their  own  appointment, 
which  had  fallen  upon  Norris,  of  Salem,  minister  of 
the  Governor.  It  is  probable  that  their  moderation, 
and  the  magnanimity  of  Endicott,  who,  though  he 
had  differed  on  the  recent  occasion  from  Winthrop 
and  his  friends,  knew  their  worth,  and  had  no  dis- 
position to  see  them  treated  with  disrespect,  led  to 
the  partial  restoration  of  the  former  settled  order 
of  things,  which  took  place  when  Endicott's  official 
year  expired. 

Dudley,  on  succeeding  him,  found  an  unpleasant 
quarrel  on  his  hands.  In  the  town  of  Hingham 
there  had  been  a  disputed  election  of  captain  of 
the  trainband.  The  company  mutinied  against  the 
officer  whom  the  Magistrates  decided  to  have  been 
rightfully  chosen.  The  church,  under  the  ministry 
of  Peter  Hobart,  summoned  the  captain  before 
them,  on  ^harge  of  having  misled  the  Magistrates 
by  false  information.  The  Magistrates  sent  a  con- 
Btabl*"  "  to  attach  some  of  the  principal  offenders ; " 


358         LAST  YEARS  OF  WINTHROP. 

and  Hobart,  with  others,  was  brought  to  Boston, 
where  his  deportment  to  the  Magistrates  was  so 
disrespectful  that  he  was  told  they  would  have 
committed  him,  "  were  it  not  for  respect  to  his 
ministry."  The  impulse  to  Hobart's  disorderly  con- 
duct was  probably  one  which  does  not  appear  upon 
the  surface.  He  was  "  of  a  Presbyterial  spirit." 
When,  a  few  months  after  the  time  of  the  trans- 
actions now  related,  the  plot  of  Child  and  his 
six  friends  was  just  ripened  for  execution,  the 
marshal  was  resisted  in  collecting  fines  levied  on 
citizens  of  Hinghara,  and  Hobart  abetted  the  dis- 
order, and  avowed  his  sympathy  with  the  political 
heresies  of  the  Presbyterian  mutineers.  It  is  prob- 
able that  in  the  view  of  the  Magistrates  the  knowl- 
edge of  these  propensities  of  his,  not  sufficiently 
considered  as  yet  by  the  Deputies,  perhaps  not  as 
yet  known,  gave  significance  to  his  conduct  in  re- 
spect to  the  military  election  of  his  town. 

With  eighty  of  his  friends,  he  presented  a  peti- 
1545     tion  to  the  General  Court  which  came  to- 
Mayi4.  gg^jjg^  ^^  ^jjg   time  of  Dudley's  accession. 
The  prayer  was  for  a  hearing  against  the  recent 
action  of  "  some  of  the  Magistrates."     The  Dep- 
uties consented.     The  Magistrates  expressed  their 
willingness  to  grant  the  hearing,  if  the  petitioners 
would  name  the  Magistrates  complained  of,  and 
describe  the   alleged   offence.      "  The    petitioners' 
agents  thereupon  singled  out  the  Deputy-Governor." 
What  followed  was  the  crowning  glory  of   a 
course  of  honor  now  nearly  finished.     "  The  day 


ARRAIGNMENT  OF   WINTHROP.  359 

appointed  being  come,  the  Court  assembled  in  the 
meeting-house  at  Boston.  Divers  of  the  elders 
were  present,  and  a  great  assembly  of  people. 
The  Deputy-Governor,  coming  in  with  the  rest  of 
the  Magistrates,  placed  himself  beneath  the  bar, 
and  so  sat  uncovered."  At  this,  "  many,  both  of 
the  Court  and  the  assembly,  were  grieved."  But 
he  said  that  he  had  taken  what  was  the  fit  place 
for  an  accused  person ;  and  that,  "  if  he  were  upon 
the  bench,  it  would  be  a  great  disadvantage  to 
him,  for  he  could  not  take  that  liberty  to  plead  the 
cause  which  he  ought  to  be  allowed  at  the  bar." 

He  argued  at  length  that  there  had  been  "  open 
disturbance  of  the  peace  and  slighting  of  author- 
ity," and  that  the  course  taken  by  the  Magistrates 
for  the  honor  of  government  and  the  security  of 
the  people  had  been  "  according  to  the  equity  of 
laws  here  established,  and  the  custom  and  laws 
of  England,  and  our  constant  practice  these  fifteen 
years."  In  the  Court  a  debate  followed  which  ran 
through  more  than  seven  weeks,  with  a  single 
week's  intermission.  The  assembly,  if  it  contained 
angry  elements,  was,  on  the  whole,  a  generous  one, 
and  the  disaffected  Deputies  found  themselves  con- 
vinced or  disabled.  The  House  offered  to  join  the 
Magistrates  in  voting  that  "  the  petition  was  false 
and  scandalous ; "  that  the  "  parties  to  the  disturb- 
ance at  Hingham  were  all  offenders ; "  and  that 
"  the  Deputy- Govern  or  ought  to  be  acquit  and 
righted."  But  they  were  not  yet  ready  to  agree 
that  "  the  petitioners  were  to  be  censured."     The 


360        LAST  YEARS  OF  WINTHROP. 

Magistrates,  however,  now  felt  their  power,  and 
would  take  no  less  than  a  thorough  measure ;  and 
a  concurrent  action  of  the  two  Houses  proclaimed 
an  absolute  acquittal  of  the  Deputy-Gov- 
"^  ■  ernor,  and  a  sentence  of  all  the  petitioners 
to  pay  fines,  the  largest  of  which  was  twenty 
pounds,  and  that  of  the  minister  two  pounds. 

Winthrop's  triumph  was  complete.  "  The  Gov- 
ernor read  the  sentence  of  the  Court,  without  speak- 
ing any  more Then  was  the  Deputy- 
Governor  desired  by  the  Court  to  go  up  and  take 
his  place  again  upon  the  bench,  which  he  did  ac- 
cordingly;  and,  the  Court  being  about  to  arise,  he 
desired  leave  for  a  little  speech."  The  little  speech 
was  a  magnificent  discussion  of  the  uses  and  lim- 
itations of  political  power,  of  the  responsibility  of 
rulers,  the  principles  of  a  right  and  reasonable  criti- 
cism of  their  conduct,  and  the  nature  of  that  lib- 
erty, which  is  not  ruinous  license. 

The  reader  is  acquainted  with  the  leading  par- 
ticulars of  the  condition  of  public  affairs  at  this 
time.  The  Presbyterians  were  plotting.  The 
Narragansetts  were  stirring.  Connecticut  was 
thought  to  be  encroaching.  Plainly,  the  times 
were  out  of  joint,  and  again  there  was  need  of 
Winthrop.  Changing  places  with  Dudley,  he  re- 
sumed the  highest  office,  to  remain  in  it  as  long  as 
he  lived.  The  popular  spasm  was  over.  The  pen- 
dulum swung  back.  The  election  sermon  was 
preached  by  Norris,  who  had  been  the  candidate 
of  the  Magistrates  the  year  before.     The  freemen 


COMMON  SCHOOLS.  361 

took  to  themselves  the  electing  of  Federal  Com- 
missioners, instead  of  allowing  them  to  be  chosen 
by  the  General  Court;  but  this  was  because  they 
thought,  that,  in  choosing  in  one  instance  to  that 
office  a  person  no  higher  than  a  Deputy,  the  Court 
had  not  been  sufficiently  mindful  of  the  dignity 
that  belonged  to  it. 

During  Winthrop's  last  administration,  the  code 
of  laws  was  revised,  enlarged,  and  in  other  respects 
improved.  But  the  great  memorial  of  this  period 
of  his  government  is  the  establishment  of  that  sys- 
tem of  common  schools,  which,  to  every  child  of 
Massachusetts,  through  the  seven  generations  that 
have  followed,  has  opened  the  book  of  knowledge 
and  the  way  to  competence  and  honor.  To  the 
end  "  that  learning  might  not  be  buried  in  the 
grave  of  the  fathers,"  the  General  Court  provided 
by  law,  "that  every  township  in  the  juris-  jg^^ 
diction,  after  the  Lord  had  increased  them  ^°^'  "• 
to  the  number  of  fifty  householders,"  should  main- 
tain a  school,  and  that  every  town  with  a  hundred 
families  should  "  set  up  a  grammar-school,  the  mas- 
ter thereof  being  able  to  instruct  youth  so  far  as 
they  might  be  fitted  for  the  University." 

The  ranks  of  the  settlers  of  New  England  had 
now  begun  to  be  thinned.  Winthrop  recorded  in 
his  journal  the  death  of  "  that  faithful  servant  of 
the  Lord,"  Thomas  Hooker,  of  Hartford, 
"  the  fruits  of  whose  labors  in  both  Eng- 
lands,"  he  wrote,  "  shall  preserve  an  honorable  and 
happy  remembrance  of  him  forever."    Winthrop's 


362        LAST  YEARS  OF  WINTHROP. 

own  end  was  at  hand.  Early  in  his  sixty-second 
year,  "  he  took  a  cold,  which  turned  into  a  fever, 
^g49  whereof  he  lay  sick  about  a  month,"  and 
March  26.  ^^en  closcd  his  eyes  upon  a  scene  of  rare 
prosperity,  Avhich  he,  helped  by  many  other  good 
and  able  men,  had  been  the  chief  instrument  in 
creating.  His  last  look  abroad  rested  upon  the 
tranquil  and  affluent  dwellings  of  a  flourishing. 
Christian  people,  enjoying  a  virtual  independence 
which  wellnigh  realized  the  longing  of  the  best  third 
of  his  life.  The  vital  system  of  New  England  was 
complete.  It  had  only  thenceforward  to  grow,  as 
the  human  body  grows  from  childhood  to  graceful 
and  robust  maturity.  What  one  life  could  do  for 
a  community's  well-being,  the  life  of  Winthrop  had 
diligently  and  prosperously  done.  The  prosecution 
of  the  issues  he  had  wrought  for  was  now  to  be 
committed  to  the  wisdom  and  courage  of  a  younger 
generation,  and  to  the  course  of  events  under  the 
continued  guidance  of  a  gracious  Providence. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

MASSACHUSETTS  AND    THE    CONFEDERACY. 

WiNTHROP  died  just  before  tidings  of  the  greal 
tragedy  that  had  been  enacted  in  England  would 
have  reached  his  ears.  In  the  ten  years  which 
elapsed  between  the  death  of  King  Charles  the 
First  and  the  death  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  the  rapid 
succession  of  important  events  in  the  mother 
country,  and  the  confidence  and  favor  with  which 
the  governing  party  there  regarded  the  colonists  of 
New  England,  conspired  to  prevent  attempts  to 
control  the  administration  of  the  Confederacy,  and 
it  transacted  its  business  without  reference  to  any 
superior  authority  abroad. 

Just  after  Winthrop's  death,  who  was  succeeded 
by  Endicott,  a  new  relation  arose  between  Massa- 
chusetts and  the  French  colonists  on  the  north  of 
her  country.  On  the  recovery  by  France, 
eighteen  years  before  this  time,  of  the 
American  territory  which  had  been  conquered 
from  her  by  England,  the  region  along  the  St. 
Lawrence  became  missionary  ground.  The  Cath- 
olic preachers  made  converts  among  the  Huron  In- 
dians on  the  north  side  of  Lake  Erie,  and  among  the 
Abenaquis  in  what  is  now  called  Maine.  A  large 
force  of  Iroquois  Indians,  having  routed  the  Hurons, 


364   MASSACHUSETTS  AND  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

pursued  the  fugitives  to  the  very  walls  of  Quebec. 

In  this  strait,  the  governor  of  New  France, 

^^^'    named  D' Ailleboust,  conceived  the  hope  of 

obtaining  help  from   Massachusetts  and  Plymouth, 

which  latter  colony  had  relations  with  the  Abena- 

quis  through  its  colony  upon  the  Kennebec;  and 

two  messengers,  Gabriel  Druillettes,  a  priest, 

^  *  and  John  Godefroy,  a  member  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  New  France,  proceeded  to  New  Haven  to 
obtain  the  sanction  of  the  Federal  Commission- 
ers, to  whom,  at  Boston,  the  business  had  been  re- 
ferred. 

The  envoys  urged  the  New  England  colonies  to 
"  join  in  the  war,"  in  order  to  protect  the  Chris- 
tain  converts  among  the  Abenaquis,  and  to  pre- 
vent that  interruption  of  trade  with  them  which 
would  be  hurtful  to  French  and  English  alike.  If 
the  colonies  would  not  consent  to  take  part  in  the 
^ar,  then  the  envoys  desired  permission  to  enlist 
men  and  obtain  provisions  within  their  territory, 
or  at  least  to  march  forces  through  it  as  occasion 
might  require.  The  Commissioners  declined  all 
these  proposals.      They  were  not  satisfied, 

^  ■  '  they  said,  of  the  justness  of  the  war ;  and, 
as  to  a  treaty  of  commerce,  to  which  they  might 
have  been  disposed,  they  must  await  "  a  fitter 
season  "  for  it,  as  the  envoys  had  no  authority  to 
make  it  except  in  connection  with  an  alliance. 

Meanwhile  the  dispute  between  the  western 
colonies  and  the  New  Netherlanders  seemed  for  a 
time  to   have  been  brought  to  an  amicable  issue. 


RELATIONS   TO  NEW  NETHERLA2ID.  365 

The  hope  entertained  by  Stuyvesant  that  it  might 
be  settled  by  an  agreement  between  the  mother 
countries  had  to  be  abandoned  in  consequence  of 
their  estrangement  from  each  other  after  the  exe- 
cution of  King  Charles.  But  the  governor  had 
instructions  to  "  live  with  his  neighbors  on  as  good 
terms  as  possible  ; "  and  he  decided  to  waive  cere- 
mony, and  make  a  strenuous  effort  to  bring  about 
a  better  state  of  things. 

He  came  to  Hartford  while  the  Federal  Com- 
missioners were  in  session  there.  He  laid  before 
them  a  complaint  of  various  injuries  done  jggQ 
by  the  English  to  his  countrymen,  of  which  ^^*"  ^^ 
the  most  serious  was  the  "  unjust  usurpation  and 
possessing  the  land  upon  the  river  commonly 
called  Connecticut,  or  the  Fresh  River."  The 
Commissioners  replied,  asserting  the  English  title 
to  the  lands  on  the  Connecticut  as  derived  from 
"  patent,  purchase,  and  possession."  Stuyvesant 
proceeded  to  argue  his  case  with  zeal  ;  but  he 
learned  the  temper  of  his  opponents,  and  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  a  different  expedient  must  be 
tried.  He  proposed  that  the  matters  in  controversy 
should  be  referred  to  the  judgment  of  four 
arbitrators,  of  whom  two  should  be  named  * ' 
by  the  Commissioners  and  two  by  himself.  The 
proposal  was  accepted.  Bradstreet  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Prince  of  Plymouth  were  appointed 
referees  on  the  part  of  the  Confederacy ;  Thomas 
Willett  and  George  Baxter,  English  residents  at 
New  Amsterdam,  on  the  part  of  the  Dutch.    Their 


3G3   MASSACHUSETTS  AND  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

award,  made  on  the  day  after  their  appointment, 
disallowed  in  all  particulars  the  claim  of  the 
Dutch.  A  boundary  was  established,  securing  to 
New  Netherland  a  strip  of  territory  no  more  than 
ten  miles  wide,  easterly  from  Hudson's  River.  The 
arrangement  subjected  Stuyvesant  to  severe  dis- 
pleasure and  complaint  at  New  Amsterdam.  But 
it  was  not  to  have  been  expected  that  he  should 
obtain  one  more  favorable ;  and  it  may  be  be- 
lieved, that,  when  he  named  Englishmen  to  be 
arbitrators  on  his  part,  he  had  made  up  his  mind 
to  the  necessity  of  full  concessions. 

But  New  Haven  and  Connecticut  were  uneasy 
and  suspicious,  and  further  provocations  followed. 
On  the  Delaware,  where  they  were  still  undertak- 
ing to  make  a  settlement,  they  had  a  quarrel  with 
some  Dutchmen  who  were  there  before  them. 
When,  a  year  and  a  half  after  Stuyvesant's  settle- 
ment, a  war  broke  out  between  the  parent  coun- 
jggg     tries,  Connecticut  proceeded  to  put  the  fort 

Feb.  23.  ^^  Saybrook  in  an  efficient  state  of  defence. 
Both  colonies  were  in  a  condition  to  lend  a  ready 
ear  to  reports  which  got  abroad  of  a  plot  of  the 
Dutch  to  enlist  against  them  a  joint  force  of  the 
Mohawks  and  Nyantics,  and  of  other  natives  with- 
in their  own  borders.  When  the  rumor,  with  some 
corroborating  circumstances,  reached  Boston,  the 
Magistrates  with  all  speed  called  a  special  meet- 
ing  of   the    Commissioners,    and,    without 

■^'"^''  ^  waiting  till  it  should  take  place,  sent  mes- 
sengers to  Pessacus  and  Mixan,  and  to  Ninigret, 


RELATIONS   TO   NEW   NETHERLAND.  367 

sachem  of  the  Nyantics,  to  require  their  testimony 
as  to  the  existence  of  the  alleged  plot.  The  chiefs 
severally  denied  all  knowledge  of  it ;  and  they  sent 
four  or  five  messengers  to  give  such  further  satis- 
faction to  the  Commissioners  as  might  be  desired. 
Nothing  could  be  learned  from  those  messengers 
in  corroboration  of  the  report.  The  Commission- 
ers were  divided  in  opinion.  In  Massachusetts  it 
was  feared  that  Uncas,  from  whom  the  fullest  in- 
formation of  the  conspiracy  had  come,  was  now 
designing  to  obtain,  through  a  fabrication,  advan- 
tages like  what  a  disclosure  of  facts  had  formerly 
afforded  him  in  his  quarrel  with  Miantonomo. 
But  Plymouth  sided  with  the  western  colonies ;  and 
the  Commissioners  determined  to  raise   a 

May  2. 

force   of  five   hundred    men,  and  to  place 
them   under  the  command   of  John    Leverett,  of 
Massachusetts,  for  a  war  with  the  Dutch. 

In  the  mean  time,  Leverett  and  another  officer 
of  the  Boston  regiment,  with  Francis  Newman,  a 
Magistrate  of  New  Haven,  had  gone  to  New 
Netherland  to  confer  with  Stuyvesant  at  his  re- 
quest. They  came  back,  not  entirely  satisfied 
with  his  behavior,  but,  at  the  same  time,  without 
sufficient  confirmation  of  the  suspicions  which  had 
been  entertained.  Massachusetts  was  becoming 
more  and  more  averse  to  aggressive  proceedings  in 
the  existing  deficiency  of  proofs  to  justify  them. 
The  General  Court  now  interfered,  and  desired, 
before  things  should  go  too  far,  to  have  "  a  con- 
sultation" with  the  Federal  Commissioners  by  a 


3fi8       MASSACHUSETTS   AND  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

committee  of  their  own  body,  to  be  joined  with 
some  of  the  elders. 

The   conference   was   held.      Governor   Eaton 
presented  a  written  statement  on  one  side ; 

May  25.    ^  ' 

Major-General  Denison  presented  a  state- 
ment which  moderately  favored  the  other.  The 
elders  took  the  papers,  and  considered  them  for 
two  days,  and  then  delivered  their  judgment 
against  the  precipitating  of  hostilities.  "  Upon 
serious  and  conscientious  examination,"  they  said, 
"  of  the  proofs  produced,  we  cannot  find  them  so 
fully  conclusive  as  to  clear  up  present  proceeding 
to  war  before  the  world,  and  to  bear  up  our  hearts 
with  that  fulness  of  persuasion  that  is  meet  in 
commending  the  case  to  God  in  our  prayers,  and 
to  his  people  in  our  exhortations."  The  Deputies 
were  all  ready  to  pronounce  their  decision.  The 
next  day  they  communicated  to  the  Com- 
^^  '  mission ers  a  resolve  of  theirs,  that  "  they 
did  not  understand  they  were  called  to  make  a 
present  war  with  the  Dutch." 

The  Commissioners  persisted.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  Bradstreet,  one  of  the  Commissioners 
for  Massachusetts,  they  were  unanimous  for  war; 
though  there  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  Ha- 
thorne,  his  colleague,  and  the  Plymouth  Commis- 
sioners, were  influenced  in  their  course  by  con- 
siderations of  the  existing  attitude  of  the  parent 
countries,  rather  than  by  a  conviction  of  the  reality 
of  the  plot  charged  upon  the  colonists  at  New 
Netherland.    A  committee  was  immediately  raised 


DISSEXSrOX   BETWEEN   THEM.  369 

by  the  General  Court  to  report  an  answer  to  the 
question,  "Whether  the  Connmissioners  have 

June  2. 

power,  by  articles  of  agreement,  lo  deter- 
mine the  justice  of  an  offensive  or  vindictive  war, 
and  to  engage  the  colonies  therein  ?  "  The  sixth 
Article  of  Confederation  authorized  the  Commis- 
sioners  to  "  examine,  weigh,  and  determine  all 
affairs  of  war  or  peace."  From  general  considera- 
tions, and  from  the  language  of  other  articles,  the 
committee  argued,  in  their  report,  that  the  provision 
extended  no  further  than  to  matters  of  defensive 
war;  and  they  concluded  by  declaring  it  to  be  "a 
scandal  in  religion,  that  a  General  Court  of  Chris- 
tians should  be  obliged  to  act  and  engage  upon 
the  faith  of  six  delegates  against  their  conscience." 
The  report  was  appioved  by  both  branches  of  the 
legislature  of  Massachusetts. 

This  was  very  serious.  When  intelligence  of 
the  unexpected  stand  that  had  been  made  reached 
Plymouth,  the  General  Court  of  that  colony  raised 
a   committee   to   examine    the   Articles   of 

_,  .  June  7. 

Confederation,  "and  give  in  their  thoughts." 
But  it  does  not  appear  that  this  action  had  any 
result.     The  General  Court  of  New  Haven  were 
strongly  incensed.     They  commissioned  two  mes- 
sengers, to  be  joined  by  two  from  Connecti- 
cut, to  proceed  to  Boston  with  a  remon- 
strance.    If  this  should  fail,  they  were  to  endeavor 
to   obtain    permission    to   enlist   volunteers.    New 
Haven   being  resolved,  if  this  could  be  done,  to 

embark  in  the  war  with  the  aid  of  Connecticut 
VOL.  I.  24 


370  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

alone.  And  the  General  Court  of  New  Haven 
voted,  that,  unless  that  of  Massachusetts  withdrew 
its  objectionable  interpretation  of  the  Articles,  there 
was  no  reason  why  the  Commissioners  should 
hold  another  meeting. 

This  strong  ground  Connecticut  declined  to 
adopt,  while  acceding  to  the  proposal  to  expostu- 
late with  Massachusetts.  The  messengers  did  their 
errand,  and  brought  back  letters  from  the  Governor 
and  the  Magistrates  of  that  colony.  Endicott  said, 
that  he  could  not  answer  for  the  General  Court, 
which  was  not  then  in  session ;  but  that  he  did  not 
believe  they  would  consent,  "  either  to  shed  blood, 
or  to  hazard  the  shedding  of  their  subjects'  blood, 
except   they   could    satisfy  their  consciences  that 

God  called  for  it; neither  did  he  think  it 

was  ever  at  first  intended  so  to  act  against  their 
consciences,  when  they  entered  into  confederation." 
The  Magistrates  frankly  avowed,  that,  in  their 
judgment,  the  Articles  made  no  distinction,  as  to 
the  power  of  the  Commissioners,  between  offensive 
and  defensive  wars. 

At  the  regular  time,  the  Commissioners  for  all 
four  of  the  colonies  again  came  together  at 
^'P*^-  Boston.  The  General  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts was  at  the  same  time  in  session.  The 
Court  complained  to  the  Commissioners  of  the 
injustice  of  being  pfaced,  "  under  a  dilemma, 
either  to  act  without  satisfaction  against  their 
light,  or  be  accounted  covenant-breakers."  The 
Commissioners  admitted  the  paramount  obligation 


DISSENSION   BETWEEN  THEM.  371 

of  the  Higher  Law,  "  We  know  well,"  they  said, 
"  that  no  authority  or  power  in  parents,  magis- 
trates, commissioners,  etc.,  doth  or  ought  to  hold 
against  God  or  his  commands.  But "  they  added, 
"  we  conceive  that  is  not  the  question  here." 

Massachusetts  conceived  that  it  was  the  ques- 
tion, and  would  not  recede.  The  Commissioners 
threatened  to  dissolve  the  Confederacy.  The  Court 
replied,  that  they  should  "  acquiesce  in  their 
last  paper,  and  leave  the  success  to  God."  "^^^' 
But  some  conciliating  language  which  was  added 
was  so  far  accepted  by  the  Commissioners  that  they 
determined  to  refer  the  dispute  to  their  respective 
General  Courts,  and  to  proceed  to  the  ordinary 
business  of  the  session. 

At  the  same  time,  there  were  transactions  with 
the  southern  natives,  besides  those  incident  to 
their  supposed  conspiracy  with  the  Dutch.  It  be- 
ing told  that  some  Long  Island  Indians,  friendly 
to  the  English,  had  suffered  ill  treatment  from  the 
Narragansetts  and  Nyantics,  the  chiefs  of  these 
tribes  were  summoned  to  justify  them- 
selves before  the  Commissioners  at  Boston.  ^*^'' 
Ninigret,  the  Nyantic,  refused  to  come,  and  gave 
"  proud,  peremptory,  and  offensive  answers  "  to  the 
bearers  of  the  message.  Hereupon  the  Commis- 
sioners voted  that  they  "  conceived  them- 

•'  Sept.  20. 

selves  called  by  God  to  make  a  present  war  " 
against  him,  and  for  this  purpose  they  appointed 
a  levy  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  men.     Neither  of 
the   Commissioners  from  Massachusetts  agreed  to 


372  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

these  votes.    Bradstreet  formally  registered  his  dis- 
sent.   And  the  Magistrates  expressed  their  dissatis- 
faction, and  voted  that  "  they  dared  not  to 

Sept.  24.  '  ^ 

exercise  their  authority  to  levy  forces  within 
their  jurisdiction  to  undertake  a  present  war 
against   Ninigret." 

Thus  the  flame,  that  had  scarcely  been  kept 
under,  broke  out  afresh.  The  Commissioners  of 
the  three  smaller  colonies  united,  not  only  in  con- 
firming their  recent  action  against  the  Nyantics, 
but  in  renewing  their  vote  for  war  against  the 
Dutch  ;  and  they  passed  a  resolve  that  "  the 
Massachusetts  had  actually  broken  their  covenant." 
Before  things  had  gone  so  far,  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts  had  addressed  them- 
selves directly  to  the  governments  of  the  other  col- 
onies, with  a  proposal  for  "  a  committee,  to  be 
chosen  by  each  jurisdiction,  to  treat  and  agree 
upon  such  explanation  or  reconciliation  of  the 
Articles  of  Confederation  as  should  be  consistent 
with  their  true  meaning."  After  six  weeks,  Con- 
,    necticut  and  New  Haven  made  a  joint  re- 

Nov.  1.  •' 

ply.     They  saw  "  no  cause   to   choose  or 
send  a  committee,  either  for  explication  or  altera- 
tion of  any  of  the  Articles ; "  and  they  renewed 
the  charge  of  "  breach  of  league  and  covenant." 
Plymouth,  after  some  months  longer,  sent 
March 7.  a   reply  of  the   same  import.      Massachu- 
June6.  setts  answercd  each  colony  separately,  and 
received  from  them  a  joint  reply,  prepared 
'    "  by  New  Haven. 


RECONCILIATION    BETWEEN   THEM.  373 

Just  at  this  time  there  arrived  at  Boston  three 
or  four  ships,  which,  with  a  few  troops,  had 
been  sent  out  by  Cromwell  under  the  com-  •'°'^^^- 
mand  of  Robert  Sedgwick  of  Charlestown  and 
John  Leverett  of  Boston,  for  the  conquest  of  New 
Netherland.  They  had  a  long  passage,  and  were 
immediately  followed  by  news  of  peace  between 
England  and  Holland.  Probably,  so  far  as  the 
relations  with  New  Netherland  were  concerned,  the 
prospect  thus  opened  had  a  tendency  to  allay  the 
dissension  in  the  counsels  of  the  Confederacy.  Con- 
necticut had  chosen  her  Federal   Commis- 

1  1       •  in  May  18. 

sioners  at  the  accustomed  time ;  and,  after 
some  debate  on  the  question  whether  the  Confed- 
eracy should  be  still  sustained.  New  Haven   juiys. 
and  Plymouth  followed  the  example,  at  the   ^"°'  ^ 
same  time  instructing  their  representatives  to  en- 
deavor to  obtain  satisfaction  for  the  injury  w^hich 
was   imputed.      When   the    Commissioners    met, 
Bradstreet  and  Denison,  in  behalf  of  Mas- 

.  Sept.  7. 

sachusetts,  retracted  the  distinction  which 
had  been  made  as  to  the  sense  of  the  Articles  in  re- 
spect to  offensive  and  to  defensive  war,  and  owned 
the  decisions  of  the  Commissioners  to  be  binding 
on  each  and  every  colony,  so  far  as  they  were  "  in 
themselves  just  and  according  to  God."  The  Com- 
missioners accepted  the  explanation,  and  the  strife 
seemed  at  an  end. 

Though  no  more  proof  of  the  alleged  conspiracy 
between  the  Indians  and  the  New  Netherlanders  had 
some  to  light,  and  the  parent  countries  of  the  con- 


374      MASSACHUSETTS   AND  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

tending  colonists  had  made  peace,  the  proceedings 
of  Ninigi'et,  who  was  probably  emboldened  by  in- 
formation of  the  disagreement  in  the  Confederacy, 
had,  during  the  year,  become  more  alarming.  In 
Massachusetts,  his  conduct  was  regarded  as  indicat- 
ing rather  ill-temper  and  vexation  than  any  settled 
design  of  mischief;  yet,  as  such  a  design  might  easily 
follow,  and  his  example  of  defiance  in  refusing  to 
explain  himself  was  dangerous,  the  Commissioners 
from  that  colony  could  no  longer  take  the  respon- 
sibility of  obstructing  active  measures.  To  bring 
him  to  terms,  a  force  of  forty  horsemen  and 

Oct.  9-13.  '  "^ 

two  hundred  and  sixty  foot-soldiers  was  sent 
into  his  country  under  the  command  of  Major  Wil- 
lard.  The  expedition  had  no  striking  result.  Prob- 
ably the  Massachusetts  commander  was  not  in- 
structed to  carry  matters  with  a  high  hand.  The 
weather  was  unfavorable  for  active  operations. 
Ninigret  had  taken  to  a  place  in  the  woods,  where 

it  was  hard  to  follow  him.     To  two  officers 

Oct.  18. 

who  found  him  he  made  some  promises  of 
"  peaceable  carriage."     With  these  Willard  deter- 
mined to  be  content,  and  brousrht  back  his 

Oct.  24.  '  ^        rr  ^ 

command  to  Boston  after  only  fifteen  days' 
absence.  The  Commissioners  were  disappointed 
and  incensed  at  this  slender  result ;  but  the  govern- 
1055  ment  of  Massachusetts  was  of  the  opinion 
Sept.  19.  ^jj^^  "the  peace  of  the  country,  through 
the  blessing  of  God  upon  the  late  expedition,  was 
comfortably  secured  ; "  and  on  the  whole  it  was 
found  that  the  easiest  way  to  protect  the  English 


MISSIONARY  OPERATIONS.  375 

and  their  native  friends  on  Long  Island  against 
Ninigret's  insults,  was  to  give  them  a  frugal  sup- 
ply  of  arms  and  ammunition,  and  employ  a  little 
vessel  to  cruise  in  the  Sound  and  intercept  his 
boats. 

If  the  English  found  it  necessary  to  watch  against 
a  constant  danger  from  the  uncertain  humor  of 
their  Indian  neighbors,  they  were  not  less  thought- 
ful of  promoting  alike  the  comfort  and  the  spiritual 
well-being  of  the  inferior  race.  After  the  war  with 
the  Pequots,  the  captive  survivors  of  that  nation 
had  been  distributed  among  the  Mohegans,  the 
Narragansetts,  and  the  Nyantics,  who,  for  their  ser- 
vices, engaged  to  pay  a  yearly  tribute  to  the  Eng- 
lish. This  guardianship  was  liable  to  abuse.  The 
Pequots  made  complaints  to  the  English  of  being 
ill-treated  by  their  masters.  The  irregularity  of 
the  payments  which  had  been  made  for  them 
authorized  the  English  to  interfere,  which  they  did 
by  establishing  the  captives  in  settlements  of  their 
own,  at  the  same  time  transferring  to  them  the 
obligation  of  tribute,  and  releasing  the  governing 
tribes.  To  the  communities  thus  formed,  the  Com- 
missioners prescribed  a  simple  system  of  laws, 
which  they  appointed  native  magistrates  to  ad- 
minister. 

The  enthusiasm  for  the  conversion  of  the  natives 
to    Christianity   continued   to   grow   and   spread. 
The  English  "  Society    for  the  Promoting    ^^^ 
and    Propagating  of  the   Gospel  of  Jesus  Sept.  5. 
Christ  in  New  England  "  opened  a  correspondence 


376   MASSACHUSETTS  AND  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

with  the  Federal  Commissioners,  and  made  that 
body  the  superintendents  of  its  local  operations, — 
an  arrangement  which  continued  throughout  the 
existence  of  the  Confederacy.  The  society  obtained 
liberal  contributions  in  England.  By  the  publica- 
tion of  a  series  of  memoirs  it  solicited  the  public 
attention,  and  made  reports  of  progress.  In  the 
seventh  year  after  its  incorporation,  the  sums  which 
it  had  remitted  to  New  England  amounted  to  more 
than  seventeen  hundred  pounds ;  and  four  years 
later  its  property  yielded  an  annual  income  of  six 
or  seven  hundred  pounds.  And  New  England  peo- 
ple did  not  less,  but  more,  in  proportion  than  their 
countrymen  in  England. 

The  Commissioners  placed  themselves  in  rela- 

jggj  tions  with  Eliot  and  Mayhew ;  and,  as  op- 
Sept.i2.  portunity  allowed,  they  employed  others, 
Englishmen  and  natives,  in  the  capacity  of  assist- 
ants to  those  missionaries,  and  in  similar  labors 
elsewhere.  They  selected  young  men  to  "  be  main- 
tained at  Cambridge,  to  be  educated  and  fitted  for 
future  service,  to  be  helpful  in  teaching  such  Indian 
children  as  should  be  taken  into  the  college  for  that 
end."  They  authorized  the  erection  of  a  building 
within  the  college  enclosure  for  the  accommodation 
of  native  pupils.  They  made  provision  for  print- 
ing catechisms  in  the  Indian  languages.  They  fur- 
nished their  chief  missionaries  with  libraries.  They 
encouraged  some   "  deserving   Indians "  by  small 

1658.    pecuniary    bounties.      In    the    eighth    year 
Sept.  22.  Qf  ^j^gjj  administration   of  the  trust,  theii 


MISSIONARY   OPERATIONS.  377 

outlay   amounted    to   five    hundred    and   tuenty 
poundi. 

Eliot  continued  to  be  indefatigable,  though  in 
the  face  of  discouragements  such  as  even  his  san- 
guine temper  could  not  always  disregard.  The 
chiefs  of  the  great  tribes  all  opposed  him.  His 
success  could  not  fail  to  impair  their  authority. 
"  Some  tribute  "  the  converts  were  still  "  willing  to 
pay,  but  not  as  formerly;"  and  the  Commissioners 
thought  it  prudent  to  instruct  Eliot  to  "  be  slow  in 
withdrawing  Indian  professors  from  paying  accus- 
tomed tribute,  and  performing  other  lawful  service 
to  their  sagamores." 

The  caution  thus  enforced  upon  him  was  scarcely 
to  be  reconciled  with  the  execution  of  a  scheme 
which  he  had  entertained  from  the  first,  and  which, 
as  soon  as  possible,  he  proceeded  to  realize.  He 
thought  it  material  to  collect  his  native  followers 
into  a  separate  society.  He  looked  for  some  spot, 
"  somewhat  remote  from  the  English,  where  the 
word  might  be  constantly  taught,  and  government 
constantly  exercised,  means  of  good  subsistence 
provided,  encouragements  for  the  industrious,  means 
of  instructing  them  in  letters,  trades  and  labors,  as 
building,  fishing,  flax  and  hemp  dressing,  planting 
orchards,  etc."  On  Charles  River,  about  eighteen 
miles  west  from  Boston,  he  found  a  site,  called  by 
the  Indians  Natick,  which  appeared  well  suited  to 
his  purpose,  and  here  he  laid  out  a  town.  ^^^ 
AJong  three  streets  parcels  of  land  were  en-  *'"'^" 
closed,  each  sufficient  for  a  dwelling,  a  garden,  and 


378     MASSACHUSETTS  AND  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

an  orchard.  A  palisaded  fort  was  erected,  and  a 
"common  house,"  containing  a  hall  where  worslup 
was  conducted  on  Sundays,  and  a  school  was  kept 
on  other  days. 

Eliot  anticipated  no  practical  difficulty  in  carry- 
ing out  his  scheme  of  a  government  for  his  collected 
converts.     "  I  propound  this,"  he  said,  "  as  my  gen- 
eral rule  through  the  help  of  the  Lord  ;  they  shall 
be  wholly  governed  by  the  Scriptures  in  all  things 
both  in  Church  and  State."    He  expounded 
to  them  the  eighteenth  chapter  of  Exodus, 
and   they  elected    a  "  ruler  of  an   hundred,"  two 
"  rulers  of  fifties,"  and  ten  "  rulers  of  tens,"  other- 
wise called  tithing'-men.    A  further  step  was  to  en- 
ter, with  public  solemnities,  "  into  covenant 
^ '    ■  with  God  and  each  other  to  be  the  Lord's 
people,  and  to  be  governed  by  the  word  of  the  Lord 
in  all  things."     A  similar  community,  less  numer- 
ous, was  collected  at  Punkapog,  now  Stoughton. 
It  was  for  the  advantage  of  all  parties  that  such 
establishments  should    be  under  a  wise   superin- 
,„^„     tendence ;  and    Daniel  Gookin,  an   Assist- 

1656. 

ant,  was  chosen  to  be  "  ruler  over  the  pray- 
ing Indians  in  the  colony  of  Massachusetts." 

In  the  first  communication  of  Thomas  Mayhew, 
1651.  the  younger,  to  the  Society  for  Propagating 
'  the  Gospel,  he  was  able  to  report  that  on 
the  island  of  Martha's  Vineyard  there  were  "  an 
hundred  ninety  -  nine  men,  women,  and  children 
that  had  professed  themselves  to  be  worship- 
pers of  the  great  and  ever  -  living  God."     In  the 


CARES  FOR  POSTERITY.  379 

next  year  the  number  of  his  converts  had  in- 
creased to  "  two  hundred  eighty-three  In-  1553 
dians,  not  counting  young  children,"  and  ^'='-^- 
in  two  places  public  worship  was  conducted  by 
natives  on  the  Lord's  day.  The  prospect  which  he 
had  opened  was  clouded  over  by  his  premature 
death.  A  vessel  in  which,  with  some  of  jg^- 
bis  converts,  he  had  embarked  for  England,  ^°^' 
was  never  heard  of  afterwards.  But  the  enter- 
prise was  not  abandoned.  "  Old  Mr.  Mayhew,  his 
worthy  father,  struck  in  with  his  best  strength  and 
skill."  At  Sandwich,  in  Plymouth  colony,  lived  Mr. 
Richard  Bourne  and  Mr.  William  Leverich,  both 
of  whom  followed,  but  with  no  striking  success,  in 
the  steps  of  Eliot  and  Mayhew.  In  Connecticut, 
Mr.  Richard  Blindman  preached  to  the  remnant  of 
the  Pequots,  and  Mr.  Abraham  Pierson  to  his  sav- 
age neighbors  at  Branford  ;  but  their  diligence  met 
with  little  reward.  The  great  southern  tribes  of 
Wampanoags,  Narragansetts,  Nyantics,  and  Mohe- 
gans  remained  unimpressed  with  Christian  truth. 

The  chief  proceedings  of  the  Commissioners,  dur- 
ing the  time  of  the  most  unrestricted  freedom  of 
the  United  Colonies,  have  been  recorded  in  this 
and  the  last  chapter.  The  course  of  affairs  in  the 
mother  country,  averting  the  danger  of  encroach- 
ment from  that  quarter,  had  relieved  the  Con- 
federacy from  the  heaviest  of  the  responsibilities 
that  it  had  been  devised  to  meet.  Among  the  par- 
ticulars of  miscellaneous  business  brought  before 
the  Commissioners  from  time  to  time  occur  such 


380       MASSACHUSETTS   AND   THE  CONFEDERACY. 

as  are  indicative  of  the  generous  comprehensive- 
ness of  their  objects,  confined,  and  at  the  same 
time  illustrated,  by  their  humble  means.  On  in- 
formation from  the  corporation  of  Harvard  College 
that  "  the  former  college  buildings  were  in  a  decay- 
ing condition,"  the  Commissioners  proposed  to  the 
colonies,  "that  by  pecks,  half-bushels,  and  bushels 
of  wheat,  according  as  men  were  free  and  able,  the 
college  might  have  some  considerable  yearly  help." 
And  "to  the  end  that  the  works  of  God  and  his 
goodness,  which  had  been  great  towards  his  people 
in  their  first  planting  of  this  desolate  wilderness, 
might  never  be  forgotten,"  they  requested  the  sev- 
eral General  Courts  to  collect  memorials  of  the 
past,  so  that  "  some  one  fitly  qualified  might  be 
appointed  and  desired  to  compose  the  same  into 
a  history,  and  prepare  it  for  the  press." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

SOUTHERN   NEW    ENGLAND. 

The  plantations  about  Narragansett  Bay  were 
as  yet  incapable  of  a  settled  government.  They 
needed  first  to  learn  by  experience  that  social 
order  is  inconsistent  with  such  an  uncompro- 
mising individualism  as  they  affected  to  maintain. 
Unorganized  within  themselves,  they  continued 
to  have  but  a  loose  relation  to  the  unity  of  New 
England. 

It  was  known  that    Coddington    had    gone  to 
England,  in  discontent  at  the  state  of  things  about 
him  ;   but  the  special  purpose  of  his  voyage  had 
not  been  disclosed.    After  an  absence  of  two    ^^^ 
years  and  a  half  he  returned,  having  obtained  ^priis' 
a  "commission"  from  the  Council  of  State 
to  institute  a  separate  government  over  the  islands 
of  Rhode  Island  and  Conanicut.    This  government 
he  was  to  administer  during  his  life,  with  a  Coun- 
cil to  be  composed  of  not  more  than  six  Assistants, 
who  were  to  be  nominated  annually  by  "  such  free- 
holders of  Newport  and  Portsmouth  as  should  be 
well-affected  to  the  government  of  the   Common- 
wealth of  England,"  —  the  choice,  however,  to  be 
subject  to  the  Governor's  approval. 


382  SOUTHERN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Providence  and  Warwick  were  thus  remanded  to 
their  original  isolation.  A  large  number  of  Cod- 
dington's  own  fellow-citizens,  no  fewer  than  sixty- 
five  at  Newport,  and  forty  at  Portsmouth,  were 
opposed  to  the  plan.  One  reason,  at  least,  for  so 
strong  an  opposition  is  to  be  found  in  religious 
partisanship. 

A  church  of  Baptists  —  or  Anabaptists,  as  they 
were  called  by  opponents  —  had  been  gath- 

^^'  ered  at  Newport  about  the  seventh  year 
after  the  beginning  of  the  plantation.  Coddington 
did  not  belong  to  it.  Its  principal  member  was 
John  Clarke,  who  had  already  been,  during  most 
of  the  time,  the  religious  teacher  as  well  as  the 
physician  of  the  settlement. 

Between  Massachusetts  and  the  Baptists  there 
was  no  good-will.  In  the  year  when  their  church 
at  Newport  was  founded,  the  General  Court 
of  that  colony  had  passed  a  law  for  the  ban- 
ishment of  Baptists  on  their  conviction  of  certain 
overt  acts.  A  preamble  to  the  act  recited,  that 
"  since  the  first  arising  of  the  Anabaptists,  about  a 
hundred  years  since,  they  have  been  the  incendiaries 
of  commonwealths."  The  name  at  this  period 
denoted  a  person  very  different  from  a  mere  relig- 
ious errorist.  It  still  revived  the  memory  of  those 
flagitious  proceedings  in  Germany  which  are  re- 
ferred to  in  the  statute.  The  position  of  those  who 
bore  it  was  still  esteemed  to  be  threatening  to  social 
security.  Winslow,  indeed,  had  affirmed  in  Eng- 
land, that  the  law  v/as  designed  always  to  remain 


KHODE  ISLAND  BAPTISTS.  383 

a  dead  letter,  unless  some  extraordinary  occasion 
should  arise  for  its  enforcement.  And,  at  the  time 
when  it  was  passed,  and  for  several  years  longer, 
a  clergyman  who  denied  the  lawfulness  of  infant 
baptism  was  at  the  head  of  Harvard  College,  and 
his  successor  held  that  immersion  was  essential  to 
the  rite.  Still  the  association  between  "  Anabap- 
tistry  "  and  enmity  to  good  order  survived  in  the 
minds  of  the  colonial  rulers. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  many  of  the  sixty- 
five  citizens  of  Newport  and  forty  of  Portsmouth 
who  were  disinclined  to  submit  to  the  "  commis- 
sion "  of  Coddington,  were  of  the  Baptist  pers^ua- 
sion.  It  is  impossible  that  so  clear-headed  a  man 
as  Clai'ke  should  have  overlooked  the  relation  into 
which  he  and  his  party  were  brought  by  the  new 
state  of  things.  Coddington's  desire  for  a  connec- 
tion with  the  Confederacy  was  no  secret.  Should  he 
be  permanently  established  in  the  local  government 
according  to  the  terms  of  his  "  commission,"  there 
could  be  no  question  that  he  would  pursue  that  ob- 
ject. Perhaps  he  would  even  bring  about  a  com- 
plete annexation  to  Massachusetts;  but,  should  he 
do  no  more  than  become  associated  with  her  in 
the  league  of  colonies,  she  would  have  acquired  a 
power  of  molesting  the  large  body  of  Baptists  in 
Rhode  Island,  which  power  she  might  not  be  in- 
disposed to  use,  as  was  proved  by  a  recent  1549 
transaction  of  hers  with  Plymouth,  on  a  sim-  ^*"  ^* 
ilar  occasion. 

Clarke  saw  his  advantage  for  resistance  to  the 


384  SOUTHERN    NEW   ENGLAND. 

establishment  of  his  rival's  dominion.  If  Massa- 
chusetts was  intolerant  of  Baptists,  and  if  the  exe- 
cution of  Coddington's  scheme  would  place  the 
Rhode  Island  Baptists  more  or  less  under  her  con- 
trol, the  necessity  of  self-defence  would  admonish 
them  to  defeat  that  scheme.  Clarke  knew  that  for 
seven  years  a  law  had  existed  in  Massachusetts 
which  his  presence  in  that  colony  would  affront. 
Indeed,  seven  years  earlier  yet,  he  had  gone  away 
under  circumstances  making  it  next  to  certain,  that, 
if  he  had  not  departed  voluntarily,  he  would  have 
been  expelled. 

Fourteen  years  he  was  content  to  stay  away  from 
Massachusetts.  In  the  fifteenth  he  was  prompted 
to  go  thither.  The  time  which  he  chose  for  his 
movement  discloses  the  motive.  The  precise  day 
of  Coddington's  arrival  from  England  with  his 
"  commission "  is  not  known.  But  it  seems  to 
have  been  when  his  arrival  was  expected  from  week 
to  week,  or  even  from  day  to  day,  that  Clarke  un- 
dertook his  journey.  Clarke  was  a  man  of  influ- 
ence and  authority.  His  personal  character,  his 
sacred  office,  and  his  newly  acquired  position  of 
Assistant  in  the  government,  placed  him  promi- 
nently before  the  people.  He  was  a  man  of  dis- 
cernment and  of  action.  He  felt  no  reluctance  to 
expose  himself  to  personal  inconvenience  for  the 
furtherance  of  what  he  accounted  a  good  public 
object.  And  he  judged  well,  that,  at  this  moment, 
some  striking  practical  evidence  of  the  hostility  of 
Massachusetts  to  Baptists  would  be  efficacious  to 


RHODE  ISLAND  BAPTISTS.  385 

excite  his  Rhode  Island  friends  to  oppose  the  as- 
cendency of  Coddington. 

With  two  companions,  John  Crandall,  of  New- 
port, and  Obadiah  Holmes,  minister  of  a  Baptist 
congregation  at  Seekonk,  Clarke  proceeded  1551 
to  Lynn,  ten  miles  on  the  further  side  of  •'"'y^^- 
Boston.  The  ostensible  object  was  to  visit  a  sick 
and  aged  friend,  William  Witter,  who,  "  brother 
in  the  church  "  of  Baptists  as  he  was,  had  been 
living  in  Lynn  unmolested. 

The  next  day  after  the  travellers  reached  their 
journey's  end  was  Sunday,  and  Clarke  was  preach- 
ing to  a  small  company  in  Witter's  housCj  when 
two  constables  appeared  with  a  warrant.  They 
took  him  and  his  companions  to  the  meeting-house 
of  the  town,  where  Clarke  "  put  on  his  hat,  and  so 
sat  down,  opened  his  book,  and  fell  to  reading." 
They  were  sent  to  Boston  for  trial,  and 
Clarke  was  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  twenty 
pounds,  Holmes  of  thirty  pounds,  and  Crandall  of 
five  pounds,  for  holding  a  private  service  at  Lynn ; 
for  disturbing  the  public  service  ;  for  asserting  "  that 
the  church  of  Lynn  was  not  constituted  according 
to  the  order  of  our  Lord ; "  for  "  seducing  and 
drawing  aside  of  others  ; "  and  for  what  was  con- 
sidered offensive  behavior  in  Court. 

As  was  usual  at  that  time,  when  a  person  fined 
had  not  property  to  be  levied  upon  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Court,  they  were  further  sen- 
tenced to  be  punished  by  whipping  as  the  alter- 
native.    The  gaoler  paid  Crandall's  fine.     Holmes 

VOL.  I.  25 


386  SOUTipiRN  NEW   ENGLAND. 

refused  to  have  the  same  kindness  done  for  him ;  it 
would  have  prevented  the  full  effect  he  desired  to 
produce.  But  it  may  be  hoped  that  the  minister 
of  the  law  was  instructed  to  do  his  office  forbear- 
ingly,  as  Holmes  said  he  was  so  little  hurt  that  he 
"  in  a  manner  felt  it  not,"  and  that  he  had  been 
"struck  as  with  roses."  "  Some  friends"  paid 
Clarke's  fine,  "  contrary  to  his  counsel,"  as  he  de- 
clared, and  he  went  back  to  Newport,  which  place 
he  must  have  reached  in  season  to  publish  his  ex- 
periences a  very  few  days  before  or  after  the  arrival 
there  of  Coddington  with  his  "  commission." 

If,  as  is  probable,  arrangements  were  already  in 
progress  for  Clarke  to  proceed  to  England  to  make 
interest  for  a  reversal  of  the  recent  action  of  the 
government  in  Coddington's  favor,  there  was  yet 
another  strong  reason  for  his  being  provided  with 
a  recent  case  of  persecution  of  Baptists  by  Massa- 
chusetts. In  fact,  before  the  winter,  he  sailed  upon 
that  mission.  Exertions  were  at  the  same  time 
made  to  speed  the  hitherto  fruitless  plan  of  de- 
spatching Williams  as  the  envoy  of  the  main-land 
settlements.  But  they  effected  nothing  or  little. 
He  provided  for  himself  by  selling  his  property  in 
the  Indian  country,  and  embarked  for  England  at 
or  about  the  same  time  with  Clarke.  Though  act- 
ing for  different  parties,  the  business  of  both  was 
to  solicit  a  repeal  of  the  order  creating  Codding- 
ton's government. 

It  is  probable  that  Nicholas  Easton  had  been 
rechosen    President   of  the   "  Providence    Planta- 


PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS.         387 

tious,"  and  that  he  abdicated  that  place  when  Cod- 
dington  assumed  the  powers  conferred  by  the  "com- 
mission." The  now  truncated  colony,  consisting  but 
of  the  two  towns  on  the  main-land,  elected  Gorton 
to  be  its  President.  He  was  succeeded  in  the  next 
year  by  John  Smith,  of  Warwick ;  and  in  jg^g 
the  following  spring  the  choice  fell  upon  ^*yi*- 
Gregory  Dexter,  of  Providence,.during  whose  term 
of  office  the  four  towns  were  reunited,  as  will  be 
hereafter  seen. 

Williams  and  Clarke,  leaving  America  after 
Gorton's  election,  reached  London  just  before  the 
breaking  out  of  the  Dutch  war,  and  some  months 
passed  before  they  could  secure  attention.  Sir 
Henry  Vane  interested  himself  in  their  be-  jggg. 
half,  and  Coddington's  "  commission"  was  ^*"^- 
provisionally  revoked  by  the  Council  of  State,  a 
year  and  a  half  after  it  had  been  issued.  The  in- 
strument of  revocation  recited  that  intelligence  had 
reached  the  Council  of  such  misbehavior  on  the  part 
of  Coddington  as  had  caused  "  the  whole  colony  " 
to  be  "  exposed  as  a  prey  to  the  Dutch,  the  enemies 
of  the  English  Commonwealth."  Clarke  must  have 
been  as  lucky  as  ingenious  to  satisfy  the  Council 
of  the  justness  of  this  charge  against  his  rival ;  but 
in  consideration  of  this,  and  of  other  "  great  mat- 
ters of  complaint,"  perhaps  equally  well  estab- 
lished, the  Council  authorized  the  "  Magistrates 
and  free  inhabitants  of  Providence  Plantations" 
to  "  take  care  for  the  peace  and  quiet  thereof  until 
further  direction  should  be  given  by  the  Parliament 


388  SOUTHERN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

or  the  Council."     William  Dyer,  who  had  accom- 
panied or  followed  the  envoys,  now  leaving 
^*'     them  in  England,  brought    home   the  im- 
portant fruit  of  their  labors. 

Coddington  was  powerless,  and  withdrew ;  but 
his  retirement  helped  little  towards  a  resettlement. 
Everything  seemed  in  unmanageable  disorder.  At 
Warwick,  Gorton  had  his  old  friend  Warner  de- 
graded from  the  place  of  Assistant  and  dis- 
franchised, "upon  suspicion  of  insufferable 
treachery."     At  Providence,  the  General  Sergeant 

and  Solicitor  -  General  of  the  colony  was 
Dec.  •' 

arraigned  and  tried  for  treason.  The  in- 
strument brought  over  by  Dyer  gave  authority  to 
the  "  magistrates  and  free  inhabitants  "  to  "  take 
and  seize  Dutch  ships  and  vessels,"  and  recom- 
mended Dyer  as  "  a  fit  man  to  be  employed  there- 
in." Accordingly  the  Rhode  Islanders  set  up  pri- 
1653.  vateering,  and  issued  commissions  to  three 
May  24.  Qfgcgj-g  for  scrvicc  against  New  Netherland ; 
a  measure  which  Providence  and  Warwick  con- 
demned, and  they  passed  a  vote  disfranchising  its 
friends.  Of  the  officers  chosen,^  one  was  Mrs. 
Hutchinson's  eccentric  disciple,  John  Underbill, 
who  was  not  particular  as  to  the  colors  under 
which  he  served,  and  who  had  been  losing  credit 
with  his  recent  Dutch  masters.  Another  was  Dyer 
himself,  who  was  "  ruined  by  party  contentions  with 
Mr.  Cottington,"  and  in  his  necessity  turned  free- 
booter, if  a  representation  of  the  town  of  Provi- 
dence to  Sir  Henry  Vane  is  to  be  credited,  "  plung- 


PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS.  389 

ing  himself  and  some  others  in  most  unnecessary 
and  unrighteous  plundering,  both  of  Dutch  and 
French,  and  English  also."  Captain  Hull  inter- 
preted his  commission  from  Rhode  Island  so  liber- 
ally as  to  capture  a  French  ship.  Captain  Baxter 
seized  a  vessel  belonging  to  the  town  of  Barn- 
stable in  Plymouth  colony.  The  same  commander 
took  a  Dutch  prize  into  Fairfield,  in  New  Haven, 
whither  he  was  pursued  by  two  Dutch  armed  ves- 
sels, who  proceeded  to  blockade  the  port.  The 
distracted  community  was  fertile  in  ways  of  be- 
ing troublesome  to  its  neighbors. 

The  removal  of  Coddington's  obstrtiction,  as  it 
was  called,  should  have  been  a  restoration  of  the 
order  of  things  established  under  Williams's  patent 
for  the  "  Providence  Plantations."  But  how  to 
bring  this  about,  when  disagreement  with  one 
another  and  within  themselves  was  the  normal 
condition  of  these  plantations?  The  main-landers 
and  the  islanders  could  not  even  agree  upon  a 
place  where  they  should  meet  to  receive  the  order 
from  the  Council  of  State ;  and,  determined  alike 
to  have  their  own  way  or  none,  Newport  and 
Portsmouth  chose  one  board  of  Magistrates,  and 
Providence  and  Warwick  another,  to  administer 
the  government  over  the  four  towns. 

In   this   condition   they  were  found  by  Roger 
Williams  when  he  came  from  England,  a    ^^^ 
year  and  a  half  after  sending  over  the  Coun-    ''"°*' 
oil's  order.     He  told  them  frankly  of  the  bad  repu- 
tation they  had   established  wherever  they  were 


390  SOUTHERN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

known,  and  implored  them  not  to  persist  in  "dis- 
franchising humanity  and  love."  Aided  by  a  letter 
which  he  brought  from  Sir  Henry  Vane,  rebuking 
them  with  that  eloquence  which  Vane  could  com- 
mand and  with  a  severity  in  some  proportion  to 
their  deserts,  Williams  prevailed  to  obtain  a  hear- 
ing; the  government,  as  it  had  been  constituted 
seven  years  before  under  his  own  patent,  was 
restored,  and  again  Williams,  as  President, 
^P*-^-  was  elected  to  put  it  in  operation. 

At  or  about  this  time  there  were  two  hundred 
and  forty -seven  freemen  in  the  four  towns; 
namely,  ninety-six  in  Newport,  seventy-one  in 
Portsmouth,  forty-two  in  Providence,  and  thirty- 
eight  in  Warwick.  Measures,  successful  after 
three  or  four  years,  were  in  train  for  rounding  the 
colony  by  the  adjustment  of  the  long  dispute  re- 
specting Pawtuxet.  Massachusetts  was  getting 
tired  of  asserting  her  claim,  and  the  original  pur- 
pose of  it  had  long  ago  been  answered.  Plymouth 
was  no  less  indifferent.  The  number  of  English 
at  Pawtuxet  had  been  reduced  by  removals,  till 
only  four  heads  of  families  remained.     Two   of 

iggg     these  desired   to   attach  themselves   to  the 

^°''  new  government;  the  other  two  did  not 
care  to  oppose ;  and  Pawtuxet  became  again  an 
appendage  of  Providence,  as  it  had  originally 
been. 

Williams  had  a  troubled  administration  of  two 
years.     The  license,  which  in  his  green  as:e 

1664- 1665.  f  '  5  & 

be  had  encouraged,  was  now  too  strong  for 


PROVIDENCE  PLANTATIONS.         391 

him  to  control.  There  was  a  riot  at  Providence, 
"  under  pretence  of  a  voluntary  training."  A  re- 
forming citizen  addressed  a  letter  to  the  town, 
maintaining  that  it  was  "  blood-guiltiness,  and 
against  the  rule  of  the  gospel,  to  execute  judg- 
ment upon  transgressors  against  the  public  or  pri- 
vate weal."  A  law  against  striking  any  person  in 
Court  indicates  a  certain  rudeness  of  inter-    isoo. 

JuaeSO. 

course.  The  colony  being  "  rent  and  torn 
with  divisions,"  an  order  passed  for  sending  ring- 
leaders to  be  tried  in  England.  Coddington  was 
suspected  of  being  hostile  to  the  govern-  jg^g 
ment,  and  even  of  furnishing  arms  to  the  ^^"^'"^  "• 
Indians.  Harris,  who  had  been  one  of  Williams's 
early  associates  and  friends,  published  arguments 
not  only  against  "  the  authority  of  his  Highness," 
the  Lord  Protector,  but  against  the  rightful  exist- 
ence of  "  all  earthly  powers, and  in  open 

Court  protested,  before  the  whole  Colony  Assembly, 
that  he  would  maintain  his  writings  with  his 
blood."  Williams  had  him  arraigned  for  j^g- 
high  treason.  But  it  would  seem  that  the  '^^^  ^^" 
President  miscalculated  his  power  ;  for,  the  annual 
election  taking  place  at  this  time,  he  was  super- 
seded in  the  chief  magistracy  by  Benedict  Arnold, 
of  Pawtuxet,  the  young  man  who,  as  interpreter 
for  the  Indians,  had  incurred  the  hatred  of  Gor- 
ton's party.  Williams  was  never  again  employed 
in  any  office  higher  than  that  of  Assistant.  Nor 
did  Coddington,  Coggeshall>  or  Easton,  for  several 
years  afterwards,  occupy  any  higher  station. 


392         SOUTHERN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

The  most  important  of  the  events  which  occurred 
in  New  England  in  the  years  that  immediately  fol- 
lowed the  confederation  took  place,  as  they-  have 
been  related,  in  Massachusetts  and  on  Narrangan- 
sett  Bay.  In  the  three  smaller  confederate  colonies, 
the  tranquil  course  of  events  has  left  less  to  be  re- 
corded. Plymouth,  the  nearest  neighbor  of  the 
turbulent  settlers  on  Narragansett  Bay,  was  unas- 
piring and  poor.  Her  government  was  careful  to 
keep  on  good  terms  with  the  rising  power  in  Eng- 
land. In  the  next  summer  after  the  King's  execu- 
tion, the  freemen  unanimously  concluded  to  con- 

jg^g     tinue  the  existing  administration  in    place, 

June  6.  Yvithout  a  ucw  choicc ;  a  course  probably 
adopted  because  the  royal  authority  was  recog- 
nized in  the  oaths  of  office  which  had  been  in  use. 

jg.2     Plymouth  kept   a  day  of  thanksgiving  for 

March 2.  Cromwcll's  vjctory  at  Worcester,  and  made 

preparations  to  engage  in  his  war  with  the  Dutch, 

and  to  assist  in  his  projected  expedition  to  New 

Netherland. 

At  the  end  of  the  first  twenty-five  years  of  the 
town  of  Plymouth,  its  importance  in  relation  to 
the  rest  of  the  colony  of  that  name  had  been 
much  diminished.  "  Many  having  left  the  place, 
by  reason  of  the  straitness  and  barrenness  of  the 
same,  and  their  finding  of  better  accommodations 

elsewhere, the   church   began  seriously  to 

think  whether  it  were  not  better  jointly  to  remove 

to  some  other  place Many  meetings  and 

much    consultation   was    held    hereabout  ;  "    the 


PLYMOUTH.  393 

result  of  which  was,  that  "  the  greater  part 

1644 

consented  to  a  removal,"  and  several  fami- 
lies established  themselves  at  Nauset,  which    ,„., 

'  1651. 

town  —  the  ninth  in  the  colony  —  took,  a 
few  years  later,  the  name  of  Eustham.  But  if  the 
town  had  suffered  a  decline,  and  the  church  was 
dispersed,  the  colony,  in  the  measure  of  its  scanty 
means,  was  prosperous  and  energetic  ;  and  no 
member  of  the  Confederacy  was  more  prompt  and 
liberal  in  its  offerings  to  the  common  welfare. 

Through  Winslow's  assiduity,  Plymouth  ob- 
tained from  Parliament  a  confirmation  and  en- 
largement of  its  property  on  the  Kennebec,  and 
Thomas  Prince  was  despatched  to  that  ^^^ 
river  to  organize  a  local  administration,  to  ^""'*^' 
be  conducted  by  himself  and  Assistants  chosen  by 
the  inhabitants.  In  the  month  of  Cromwell's 
death,  a  second  revised  collection  of  the  jg-g 
laws  of  Plymouth  was  published  by  the  ^^'^^' 
General  Court.  It  was  prefaced  by  a  declaration 
that  no  other  laws  were  of  authority  within  the 
jurisdiction,  but  such  as  were  "  imposed  by  con- 
sent of  the  body  of  associates,  or  their  represen- 
tatives legally  assembled."  The  freemen  of  the 
eleven  towns  that  constituted  the  colony  were 
now  about  three  hundred  in  number.  No  person 
could  become  an  inhabitant  without  the  permission 
of  the  municipal  authorities ;  and  the  right  of  ex- 
pulsion was  freely  exercised.  The  churches  were 
not  so  flourishing,  nor  so  well  provided  with  a 
ministry,  as  those  of  the  other  confederate  colonies. 


394         SOUTHERN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

The  General  Court  repeatedly  took  measures  to 
stimulate  the  towns  to  their  duty  in  this  respect; 
and  on  one  occasion  Massachusetts  went  so  far  as 
to  make  the  remissness  of  Plymouth  the  subject  of 
a  representation  to  the  Federal  Commissioners. 

In  New  Haven  and  Connecticut,  the  Indians 
near  the  towns  were  more  numerous  than  in 
Massachusetts  and  Plymouth ;  but  the  disturb- 
ances made  by  them,  though  not  infrequent,  were 
seemingly  without  plan,  and  the  simple  methods 
of  repression  which  became  necessary  were  dic- 
tated by  local  exigencies.  The  new  settlement 
of  Branford,  a  few  miles  east  of  New  Haven,  and 
that  of  Farmington,  a  short  distance  from  Hart- 
ford, to  the  west,  brought  the  two  colonies  nearer 
to  each  other.  But  a  more  important  extension  of 
the  settlements  of  Connecticut  was  made  in  the 
opposite  direction,  under  the  auspices  of  a  man 
who  brought  to  her  a  large  accession  of  means 
and  of  character. 

In  the  year  of  the  confederation,  John  Winthrop, 
the  younger,  son  of  the  Governor  of  Massa- 

1643  o      ' 

chusetts,  returned  to  that  colony  from  Eng- 
land. He  "  brought  with  him  a  thousand  pounds 
stock,  and  divers  workmen,  to  begin  an  iron-work." 
He  formed  a  joint-stock  company,  and  began 
operations  at  Braintree.  But,  though  favored  by 
the  General  Court  with  bounties  and  immunities, 
the  enterprise  miscarried,  and,  after  three  years, 
Winthrop  transferred  his  attention  to  a  different 
object.     With    Thomas    Peter,   brother   of   Hugh 


CONNECTICUT.  395 

Peter,  of  Salem,  he  besan,  at  the  mouth  of 

,  .  ,  .  1646. 

the  Pequot  River,  a  plantation,  which  the 
General  Court  gave  them  authority  "  for  ordering 
and  governing  till  further  order."  It  lay  within 
the  territory  which  was  known  to  be  claimed  by 
Connecticut,  by  right  of  conquest  from  the  Pe- 
quots.  But  "  it  mattered  not  to  which  jurisdiction 
it  did  belong,  seeing  the  confederation  made  all 
as  one ;  but  it  was  of  great  concernment  to  have  it 
planted,  to  be  a  curb  to  the  Indians,  etc."  It  was 
at  the  very  doors  of  Uncas,  who,  with  all  motives 
for  obsequiousness  to  the  English,  had  to  be  looked 
after  with  a  sleepless  eye.  Winthrop  desired  to 
have  his  settlement  remain  a  dependency  of 
Massachusetts  ;  but  the  Commissioners  de-  i647. 
cided  that  it  belonged  to  Connecticut,  and  juiy26 
from  that  colony  he  presently  received  a  Sept. 9. 
commission  to  govern  it.  Davenport  and  his 
friends  at  New  Haven  urged  him  strongly  to  take 
up  his  abode  with  them,  partly  on  account  of  his 
skill  in  medicine;  while  Roger  Williams,  in  the 
woods  on  the  other  side,  cherished  the  hope  that 
some  turn  of  atfairs  might  attach  Winthrop's  set- 
tlement to  the  Narragansett  towns,  and  make  him 
their  governor. 

A  system  of  written  law  for  Connecticut  bears 
an  early  date.     A  compilation  was  made  of  jggo 
existing  statutes,  with  additions  from  the  '^'•''•• 
code  of  Massachusetts.     It  was  prefaced  by  a  Bill 
of  Rights,  which  was  but  a  transcript  of  that  of 
the  older  colony. 


398         SOUTHERN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Connecticut  increased  more  rapidly  than  any 
other  of  the  confederate  colonies,  except  Massa- 
chusetts. Near  the  eastern  border,  the  settlement 
at  the  mouth  of  Pequot  River,  before  long  to  be 
known  by  the  name  of  New  London,  was  acquiring 
1649-1651  importance.  The  buildings  and  works  at 
Saybrook  were  restored  after  a  fire.     East 

jg49     Hampton,  a  fishing-station  near  the  eastern 

Nov.  7.  gjjj  q£  Long   Island,  was  annexed  to  the 

colony.     On  a  little  stream  which  empties  into  the 

jggQ     sound,  some  twenty  families  from  Hartford 

•'"''*•  made  a  settlement,  to  which  they  gave  the 
name  of  Norwalk.     Middletown,  on   Connecticut 

jg53     River,  was  founded  by  a  party  collected  from 

^^'-  Hartford  and  Wethersfield,  with  others  from 
Massachusetts,  and  a  few  just  arrived  from  Eng- 
land. Including  Southampton  and  East  Hamp- 
ton, on  Long  Island,  Connecticut  had  now  twelve 
towns.  Seven  hundred  and  seventy-five  persons 
were  taxed  in  the  colony,  and  their  aggregate  prop- 
erty was  valued  at  seventy-nine  thousand  pounds. 

Connecticut  embraced  with  eagerness  the  scheme 
of  the  Protector  for  the  conquest  of  New  Neth- 
erland.     On   the   arrival  of  the  fleet   despatched 

jgg^  by  Cromwell  for  that  purpose,  messengers 
June  13.  were  despatched  to  offer  the  colony's  share 
of  a  confederate  force  of  fifteen  hundred  men. 
From  her  position  Connecticut  was  especially  ex- 
posed to  annoyance  from  the  marauders  commis- 
sioned by  Rhode  Island.  One  of  them,  Baxter, 
being  caught  within  the  limits  of  the  colony,  was 


CONNECTICUT.  397 

sentenced  to  restore  his  Barnstable  prize,  and  to 
pay  heavy  damages,  besides  a  fine  of  fifty  ^  ^jg 
pounds  for  his  "  insolent  carriages."     Un- 

'  ^  1653. 

derhill  sailed  up  to  the  Dutch  house  at  Hart-  June  27. 
ford,  and  posted  upon  it  a  notice  that  it  was 
seized  by  him  as  belonging  to  "  enemies  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  England."  He  sold  it  twice 
over,  and  made  conveyances  of  it  to  two  parties. 
But  the  Magistrates  "  sequestered  and  re-  ^^^ 
served  it,"  paying  no  attention  to  his  claim.  *p"'^ 

After  the  death  of  Haynes,  and  the  departure  of 
Hopkins  from  the  colony,  Thomas  Welles  and 
John  Webster  were  each  at  the  head  of  the  gov- 
ernment for  one  year.  A  higher  degree  of  capacity 
than  theirs  was  probably  desired  for  the  highest 
place  ;  and  the  choice  next  fell  upon  John  jg.- 
Winthrop,  of  New  London.  His  adminis-  ^*y2i. 
tration  of  that  office,  connected  with  a  long  series 
of  important  events,  was  inaugurated  by  transac- 
tions indicative  of  the  orderly  and  vigorous  policy 
of  the  community  over  which  he  was  to  preside. 
The  General  Court  by  which  he  was  elected  was 
the  first  to  carry  into  effect  a  rule  to  submit  the 
question  of  the  admission  of  every  freeman  to  the 
vote  of  the  central  government  of  the  colony.  It 
raised  a  troop  of  horse,  the  first  that  had  been  en- 
rolled. And  in  Winthrop's  first  year  of  office,  the 
ecclesiastical  policy  of  Massachusetts  was  followed 
in  a  law  forbidding  the  formation  of  a  church  "with- 
out cons'ent  of  the  General  Court,  and  approba- 
tion  of  the   neighbor  churches."     Connecticut,  at 


-?n8  SOUTHERN   NEW   ENGLAND. 

her  separate  charge,  employed  missionaries  among 
the  Indians  ;  and  she  was  a  liberal  patron  of  Har- 
vard College. 

The  protracted  disputes  with  the  Dutch  and  In- 
dians, which  have  been  mentioned  as  agitating  the 
two  youngest  members  of  the  Confederacy,  bore  es- 
pecially hard  upon  New  Haven.    When  that  colony 
jg^.^     despaired  of  the  cooperation  of  Massachu- 
oct.  12.  gettg  i,^  hostilities  against  New  Netherlandj 
it  proceeded  to  solicit  the  Lord  General,  both  by 
letters  and  by  a  special  messenger.      The  intelli- 
gence of  the  arrival  at  Boston  of  the  expedi- 

June9.     °  .  ^ 

tion  under  Sedgwick  and  Leverett  gave  the 

liveliest  satisfaction  to  the  people  of  New  Haven. 

Thev  levied  a  rate  of  two  hundred  pounds, 

June  23.  ^  ^ 

raised  a  force  of  a  hundred  and  thirty-three 
men,  and  pressed  vessels  for  transports.     The  col- 
jggg     ouy,  cxtcuding  so  far  westward  as  to  in- 
oct.  6.    gi^fje  Greenwich  on  the  Dutch  border,  now 
comprehended  seven  towns,  being  the  largest  num- 
ber that  it  ever  possessed. 

The  policy  of  New  Haven  as  to  the  public  ex- 
penditure was  generous.  Magistrates  were  liber- 
ally provided  for.  Before  the  earliest  town  was 
ten  years  old,  it  had  projected  the  establishment 
of  a  college.  It  "  raised  above  three  hun- 
^^^'  dred  pound  to  encourage  the  work,"  and  Mil- 
ford  pledged  another  hundred.  The  scheme  proved 
to  be  premature ;  and  for  the  present  these  distant 
plantations  were  content  to  expend  their  judicious 
bounty  on  the  college  of  the  older  colony,  to  which 


NEW  HAVEN.  399 

the  Governor  did  not  fail  frequently  to  invite  their 
attention,  reminding  them  to  send  their  yearly  con- 
tributions of  corn.  Before  the  first  English  child 
born  in  New  Haven  had  attained  its  major-  jg^- 
ity,  "  it  was  propounded  that  the  Court  ^^J  27. 
would  think  of  some  way  to  further  the  setting  up 
of  schools  for  the  education  of  youth."  Still  earlier, 
the  town  had  "  provided  that  a  schoolmaster  should 
be  maintained  at  the  public  charge,  and  Milford 
had  made  provision  in  a  comfortable  way."  And 
imitation  of  the  example  was,  by  an  order  of  the 
General  Court,  soon  enforced  on  all  the  towns  of 
the  colony. 

The  tranquillity  which  succeeded  in  New  Haven 
to  the  preparations  for  Dutch  and  Indian  wars  had 
given  opportunity  for  the  completion  of  a  body  of 
laws.  In  compliance  with  a  request  of  the  Genersil 
Court,  Governor  Eaton  presented  a  com-  jg^g 
pilation  of  such  earlier  orders  as  he  con-  *^y* 
sidered  "  most  necessary  to  continue."  He  was 
desired  to  have  it  printed  in  London,  after  compar- 
ing it  with  the  Massachusetts  laws  and  the  com- 
pend  of  John  Cotton,  and,  with  the  approbation 
of  the  elders,  making  such  additions  "  as  he  should 
think  fit;" — a  singular  illustration  of  the  confi- 
dence reposed  in  him  and  his  clerical  advisers. 
The  code  contains  none  of  the  provisions  known 
in  New  England  fable  under  the  name  of  Blue 
Laws.  Tiie  existence  of  such  laws  as  have  been 
called  by  that  name  is,  so,  has  been  already  told, 
the  fabrication  of  a  refugee  clergyman  of  Connec- 
ticut late  in  the  eighteenth  century. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

LAST  YEARS  OF  THE  FOUNDERS. 

After  the  death  of   Governor  Winthrop,  John 

Endicott  was   always,  except  during  two   years, 

chief  magistrate  of  Massachusetts,  till,  at  the  age 

of   seventy -seven,    he    died.      During    this 

period  Dudley  and  Bellingham  each  filled 

^^^'  the  office  for  one  term.  In  the  administra- 
tions of  both,  Endicott  was  Deputy-Governor;  and 
when  Endicott  held  the  first  place,  Dudley  held  the 
second,  till  the  last  year  of  his  own  life,  as  Bel- 
lingham did  after  that  time  without  interruption. 

By  many  titles  Dudley  might  seem  to  be  marked 
as  Winthrop's  natural  successor.  But  he  was 
already  old  when  Winthrop  died,  and  it  is  prob- 
able that  infirmities  had  overtaken  him.  Bel- 
lingham was  a  man  of  great  capacity,  and  at  a 
later  period  rendered  excellent  service.  But  the 
native  impetuosity  of  his  character  was  not  yet 
tempered  by  years,  and  it  may  be  supposed  that 
his  course  of  factious  opposition  to  Winthrop  had 
brought  upon  him  an  amount  of  displeasure  which 
time  was  needed  to  overcome.  By  some  of  the 
statesmanlike  qualities  of  his  admirable  predecessor, 
Endicott  was  not  distinguished.     But  if  he  would 


ENLARGEMENT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS.  401 

not  have  been  competent  to  strike  out  a  new  path, 
he  had  steadiness  and  courage  to  advance  in  that 
which  had  been  opened  and  levelled  for  him.  Bos- 
ton had  almost  always  hitherto  been  the  Govern- 
or's residence ;  and  it  may  be  that  in  the  election 
of  Endicott  the  rival  claim  of  Essex  County  ob- 
tained consideration. 

The  period  which  began  with  the  Common- 
wealth of  England,  and  reached  beyond  it  by  five 
years,  might  be  called,  in  relation  to  Massachu- 
setts, the  period  of  Endicott's  administration  ;  since 
within  that  time  he  was  scarcely  discharged  from 
the  chief  magistracy  often  enough  to  suggest  that 
it  was  not  intended  to  be  vested  for  life.  During 
the  first  half  of  the  time,  Massachusetts  extended 
her  confines  in  two  opposite  directions. 

Between  the  Paucatuck  River,  which  now  makes 
part  of  the  western  boundary  of  the  State  of  Rhode 
Island,  and  the  Mystic  River,  by  which  stood  the 
Pequot  fort  destroyed  by  Captain  Mason,  a  tract 
had  been  selected  for  a  plantation  by  William 
Chesebrough,  who  went  thither  from  Reho-  ^^ 
both.  He  was  joined  by  others ;  and  the  ques- 
tion having  arisen  whether  his  settlement  belonged 
to  Connecticut  or  to  Massachusetts,  which  latter 
colony  claimed  it  as  part  of  her  share  in  the  spoil 
of  the  Pequot  war,  the  Federal  Commissioners  were 
appealed  to  by  the  parties.  They  decided  that 
the  Mystic  should  be  the  boundary  between  the 
respective  portions  of  the  conquered  soil  ;  and 
Chesebrough's   settlement,  known  in  later  times 

VOL.  I.  26 


402       LAST  TEARS  OF  THE  FOUNDERS. 

as  Stonington,  received  from  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts  a  municipal  organization  with  the 
name  of  Southertown. 

While  Massachusetts  thus  spread  herself  south- 
wardly to  Long  Island  Sound,  she  received  a  large 
accession  of  territory  on  the  northeast.  Maine  and 
Lygonia,  provinces  separated  by  the  River  Kenne- 
bunk,  and  belonging  respectively  to  Gorges  and 
to  Rigby,  had  been  neglected  by  their  proprietors 
amid  the  distractions  of  the  times.  In  both  prov- 
inces there  were  numbers  who  were  dissatisfied 
with  the  existing  lax  state  of  things.  Some  de- 
sired a  different  settlement  under  new  charters ; 
others  were  inclined  to  follow  the  example  of  the 
Piscataqua  towns,  and  place  themselves  under  the 
government  of  Massachusetts.  The  charter  of 
Massachusetts  granted  a  territory  having  for  its 
northern  boundary  a  line  extending  westward  from 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  on  a  parallel  of  latitude  three 
miles  north  of  the  most  northerly  part  of  the  River 
Merrimack.  The  General  Court  had  obtained  some 
knowledge  of  the  geography  of  the  region,  and  of 
their  apparent  right  under  this  clause  to  lands  ear- 
lier granted  to  themselves,  but  now  claimed  by 
the  representatives  of  Gorges  and  Rigby.  Present 
circumstances  plainly  favored  their  producing  the 
claim,  and  obtaining  a  recognition  of  it,  which  would 
be  for  the  advantage  of  the  settlers  as  well  as  for  their 
own.  Commissioners  sent  to  Maine  first  obtained, 
though  not  without  opposition,  the  submission  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Kittery,  a  settlement  which  had 


ENLARGEMENT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS.  403 

grown  up  at  the  mouth  of  the  Piscataqua,  opposite 
to  Strawberry  Bank  (Portsmouth).  Kittery  was 
constituted  by  the  Commissioners  a  town  1552. 
of  Massachusetts,  within  a  new  "  county  or  ^'°'-^- 
shire,  which  was  called  by  the  name  of  Yorkshire." 
The  inhabitants  received  the  franchise  of  the  col- 
ony on  the  sole  condition  of  taking  the  freeman's 
oath,  independent  of  the  religious  or  any  other  test, 
and  were  authorized  to  send  two  Deputies  to  the 
General  Court. 

Such  liberal  dealing  was  followed  by  what  must 
be  supposed  to  have  been  its  intended  effect.     The 
inhabitants  of  Agamenticus  gladly  accepted 
the   same   terms   as  had  been   made   with 
Kittery,  and  their  town  received  the  name  of  York. 
The  next  year  a  similar  course  was  taken    1653. 
with  the  three  principal  settlements  further  •'"'y*- 
east;   namely,  Wells,   Saco,  and    Cape    Porpoise 
(now   Kennebunk  Port).     They   also  were  incor- 
porated into  the  County  of  York,  though  without 
the   privilege,  as  yet,  of  being  represented  in  the 
General  Court.     Another  enlargement  soon  took 
place,  which  extended  the  dominion  of  Massachu- 
setts to  the  shores  of  Casco  Bay.     The  planters  at 
Black  Point,  at  Spurwink,  at  Blue  Point  (which 
received  the  name  of  Scarborough),  and  at  Casco 
Bay  (which   assumed  that  of    Falmouth),    jgjg 
took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Massachu-  •'"'>i3. 
setts,  and  received   its  franchise.     They  were  but 
twenty-nine  in  number,  and  thirteen  of  them  signed 
the  oath  with  a  mark. 


404      LAST  YEARS  OF  THE  FOUNDERS. 

Such  a  steady  extension  of  a  domain  won  by 
herself  from  the  wilderness  was  more  alluring  to 
Massachusetts  than  were  other  prospects  which 
were  opened  to  her  by  the  friendship  of  the  ruler 
of  England.  When  Cromwell  had  conquered  Ire- 
land, and  had  next  to  consider  how  it  was  to  be 
kept  in  subjection  and  in  order,  he  bethought  him- 
self of  the  Puritans  across  the  water,  now  probably 
some  thirty  thousand  in  number,  and  he  made  over- 
tures foi-  their  establishment  in  the  sister  island. 
But  his  proposal  was  not  received  with  favor.  They 
had  taken  root  where  they  were,  and  there,  in  their 
judgment,  the  objects  of  greatest  interest  to  them 
might  be  best  pursued.  Perhaps  they  did  not 
overlook  the  possibility  of  a  not  distant  restoration 
of  the  old  order  of  things  in  Great  Britain.  Endi- 
cott  wrote  to  Cromwell  for  the  General  Court,  that 

1651.    ^h^y  were  enjoying  health,  plenty,  peace,  the 

*'*"■  liberty  and  ordinances  of  the  gospel,  and 
an  opportunity  for  spreading  the  knowledge  of  it 
among  savages  ;  and  that,  content  with  these  bless- 
ings, they  had  no  desire  to  change  their  abode. 

Cromwell  sought  their  services  in  another  sphere. 

jgg5  He  had  wrested  from  Spain  the  West  Indian 
May  10.  jsiauj  Qf  Jamaica.  Edward  Winslow,  of 
Plymouth,  was  one  of  his  commissioners  in  charge 
of  the  expedition,  and  John  Sedgwick,  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, was  made  governor  of  the  island. 
Jamaica  had  only  fifteen  hundred  white  inhabi- 
tants. Daniel  Gookin,  who  was  then  in  London, 
was  sent  home  by  Cromwell,  with  proposals  to  the 


PROSPERITY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       405 

people  of  New  England  to  emigrate  to  his  new 
possession.  "He  did  apprehend,"  he  told  them, 
"  the  people  of  New  England  had  as  clear  a  call  to 
transport  themselves  from  thence  to  Jamaica,  as 
they  had  from  England  to  New  England,  in  order 
to  their  bettering  their  outward  condition,  God 
having  promised  his  people  should  be  the  head, 
and  not  the  tail ;  besides  that  design  had  his  ten- 
dency to  the  overthrow  of  the  man  of  sin."  He 
offered  them  lands  on  the  easiest  terms,  immunity 
from  taxes  and  customs  for  a  period  of  years,  free 
transportation,  and  other  inducements.  But  he 
proposed  himself  to  appoint  their  highest  magis- 
trates; and  this  alone  would  have  been  an  insur- 
mountable obstacle,  had  there  been  no  other,  to  their 
acceptance  of  his  offer.  The  Court  returned  "  their 
thankful  acknowledgment  of  his  Highness's  jg^g 
favor,"  and  assured  him  that  he  should  al-  oct.24. 
ways  have  their  prayers;  but,  with  periphrastic 
phraseology,  such  as  they  could  trust  him  to  under- 
stand, they  declined  to  engage  themselves  in  his 
plan. 

They  might  well  be  satisfied  with  their  condi- 
tion and  their  prospects.  Everything  was  pros- 
pering with  them.  They  had  established  com- 
fortable homes,  which  they  felt  strong  enough  to 
defend  against  any  power  but  the  power  of  the 
mother  country  ;  and  that  now  was  friendly.  They 
had  always  the  good  will  of  Cromwell.  In  rela- 
tion to  them  he  allowed  his  Navigation  Act,  which 
pressed  hard  on  the  loyalist  colonists  further  south, 


406      LAST  YEARS  OF  THE  FOUNDERS. 

to  become  a  dead  letter;  and  they  received  the  com- 
modities of  all  nations  free  of  duty,  and  sent  their 
ships  at  will  to  the  ports  of  continental  Europe. 
For  twenty  years  there  had  been  no  serious  dissen- 
sion in  Church  or  State  ;  the  affairs  of  both  had, 
on  the  whole,  been  conducted  to  the  general  con- 
tent. There  had  been  time  for  attachment  to  the 
soil  to  mature  ;  for  a  sense  of  national  character  to 
be  formed  ;  for  society  to  be  moulded  into  such  a 
shape  as  makes  it  strong  and  thrifty  through  the 
fit  action  of  its  members  in  their  several  places. 
Prescription  had  both  familiarized  and  legitimated 
the  methods  of  local  administration.  The  educa- 
tion of  the  rising  generation  had  been  provided  for. 
Every  child  old  enough  to  leave  its  mother's  side 
was  at  school.  Ninety-eight  young  men  had  been 
trained  at  the  college  by  teachers  who  had  been 
ornaments  of  the  great  English  seats  of  learning. 
It  is  impossible  not  to  admire  the  wisdom  of 
those  who  watched  over  the  honor  and  interests 
of  Massachusetts  during  that  period  of  her  history 
which  coincides  with  the  ascendency  of  the  myste- 
rious Dictator  of  England.  To  his  Council  for  the 
Colonies  she  carefully  forbore  to  make  any  such 
solicitation  as  would  have  been  an  acknowledgment 
of  its  authority.  When  England  made  Cromwell  a 
monarch,  Massachusetts  preserved  a  steady  silence. 
He  went  to  war  with  the  Dutch,  and  proposed 
to  her  to  help  him  conquer  the  Dutch  colony  on 
her  border :  treating  the  demand  as  subject  to 
her  own  consent  or  refusal,  she  "  gave  liberty  to 


COINAGE   OF   MONEY.  407 

his  Highness's  commissioners"  to  enroll  five  hun- 
dred volunteers,  if  they  could  find  so  many.     In- 
formed by  her  agent  in  England  that  there    jgsi. 
was  a  scheme  for  requiring  a  new  patent  for  ^^-^ 
her  domain  to  be  taken  out,  and  courts  to  be  kept 
in  the   name  of   Parliament,  she  waited   for  the 
favorable  time  to  reply,  and  finding  it  when  the 
war  between  England  and  Holland  broke  out,  pro- 
claimed the  chartered  right  of  her  people    ^^^ 
"to  live  under  the  government  of  a  Gov-  Oct. 23. 
ernor  and  Magistrates  of  their  own  choosing,  and 
under  laws  of  their  own  making." 

It  was  within  this  period  that  Massachusetts 
undertook  to  exercise  the  sovereign  prerogative  of 
coining  money.  The  brisk  trade  with  the  West 
Indies  introduced  a  quantity  of  Spanish  silver; 
and  along  with  it  there  was  "  much  counterfeit 
coin  brought  into  the  country,  and  much  loss  ac- 
cruing in  that  respect."  The  General  Court  estab- 
lished a  mint,  and  appointed  John  Hull,  a  1(552. 
goldsmith,  to  be  mint-master.  He  was  to  •'"°"^''- 
receive  "  bullion,  plate,  or  Spanish  coin,"  and  con- 
vert it  "  into  twelve-penny,  six-penny,  and  three- 
penny pieces,"  each  of  which  was  to  contain  three 
quarters  as  much  silver  as  the  English  sterling  coin 
of  the  same  denomination.  This  coinage  was  con- 
tinued for  more  than  thirty  years,  and  different 
dies  were  in  use  from  time  to  time ;  but  all  the 
money  of  the  denominations  now  specified  pre- 
served the  date  of  the  year  when  the  mint  was 
established.     Ten  years  later,  a  coinage  began  of 


408       LAST  YEARS  OF  THE  FOUNDERS. 

pieces  of  the  value  of  two  pence,  which  likewise 

always  bore  the  name  of  the  year  when  the  pieces 

of  that  denomination  were  first  issued. 

The  course  of  many  of  the  principal  founders 

had  now  been    run.     Bradford  was  in   his  sixty- 

1657.    eighth  year  when  he  died,  having  been  for 

May  9.    thirty  -  scven    years    the   foremost  man   of 

Plymouth    Colony,  and  having,  by  several   years, 

survived   Brewster,  his  earliest  friend   among  the 

jggg     colonists.     Standish,  the  soldier  of  the  col- 

o«'-3-    Q,jy^  |jad  died  a  few  months  before    him. 

Edward  Winslow  had  not  returned  to  finish  his 

days  in  Plymouth.     Associated  by  Cromwell  with 

the  General  and  Admiral  in  the  conduct  of  the  ex- 

1655.    pedition  against  the  Spanish  West  Indies, 

^*^  ®    he  sickened  and  died,  a  few  days  before  it 

effected  the  conquest  of  Jamaica.     In  New  Haven, 

jl^i    *^e  services  and  the  life  of  Theophilus  Eaton 

1664.     were  brought  to  a  close  together ;  in   Con- 

Marchi.  jjggticut,  the  scrvlces  and  the  life  of  John 

July  31.  Haynes  ;  in  Massachusetts,  those  of  Thomas 

1652.     Dudley  and  John  Cotton.     Edward    Hop- 
Dec  23  . 

kins  died  in  England  in  high  office,  having 

Marcii.  left  Connecticut  four  years  before,  with  the 

intention  of  only  a  short  absence. 


END   OF   VOL.   L 


^■*'