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1921.] GIFTS TO THE SOCIETY. 289 



MAY MEETING. 

' I S HE stated meeting was held on Thursday, the 12th in- 
-*- stant, at three o'clock, p. m.; Mr. Rhodes in the chair. 
The record of the last meeting was read and approved. 
The Librarian reported the following accessions: 

From the Estate of James Schouler, by bequest, a volume of 
Autographs of Eminent Americans, 1779-1809. In a note Mr. 
Schouler wrote that he began to collect about the year 1874, upon 
finding various letters from distinguished persons in the collection 
of his father, Adjutant General William Schouler, who died in 1872. 

From Miss Eliza Winslow Eaton Holland, a number of papers, 
broadsides, and printed volumes of her grandfather, Lieut. Park 
Holland, 1774-1843, of Petersham, Mass., and Eddingtonand Bangor, 
Maine, mostly relating to lands in Massachusetts and Maine. 

From Frederic Amory, an account of Beacon Hill and the Gardiner 
Greene estate by Francis Cabot Lowell, February 13, 1886, with 
plans; an account of John Singleton Copley and his family by Anna 
C. L. (Quincy) Waterston, several engravings and sketches, and a 
number of papers on the Amory, Copley, and Greene families. 

From Mrs. Arthur Codman, a number of papers relating to the 
ownership and descent of Gullager's portrait of Washington, given 
by her to the Society, and to the ancestry of the Belknap family, 
received from her great-grandfather, Jeremy Belknap; and a bio- 
graphical sketch of Judge Edward St. Loe Livermore, her great- 
grandfather. 

From Miss Kate Jackson, by deposit, a Journal kept by William 
Clark on the United States Ships Relief and Vincennes, Charles 
Wilkes, Commander, on a voyage of discovery in the South Pacific 
Ocean, 1838-1842. 

From Marcus Morton Smith, of Dover, an account book kept in 
Boston, 1720-1728. 

From Dr. Robert Amory Hare, of Philadelphia, a ms. sermon by 
Rev. Nehemiah Hobart at a lecture in Cohasset, May 7, 1736. 

By purchase, the account book of Jabez and Benjamin Dow, of 
Hampton, N. H., 1716-1765, containing a record of scout service 
and some diary entries. 



290 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May, 

The Cabinet-Keeper reported the following gifts : 

From Mrs. Arthur Codman, four oil paintings: the portrait of 
Washington by Christian Gullager, of Boston, painted at Ports- 
mouth, N. H., on November 3, 1789, where Washington sat two 
hours for Mr. Gullager, at the request of several persons in Boston. 1 
To reward the painter for his trouble, money was raised by a raffle 
in Boston to purchase the portrait, and it fell to the lot of Daniel 
Sargent, Jun., who presented it to Rev. Jeremy Belknap, Mrs. 
Codman's great-grandfather, from whom it descended to her. While 
Washington was in Boston, on his way to Portsmouth, Gullager 
made a pencil sketch of him, from which another portrait was later 
made that was destroyed by fire in New York, in 1835. The other 
paintings given by Mrs. Codman are of her great-grandfather, Rev. 
Samuel Haven (1727-1806, H. C. 1749), of Portsmouth, N. H., and 
of her grandfather, Thomas Haven, and of Mrs. Haven (Mehitable 
Jane Livermore), daughter of Judge Edward St. Loe Livermore. 
Mrs. Codman also gives a past-master's masonic jewel given to her 
by Robert Ilsley Robison, from whom her son who died in 1894 was 
named. It bears the date 1567 and was brought to this country by 
Robert Ilsley from Scotland. 

From Frederic Amory, an album of photographs of the Amory, 
Copley, and Greene families. 

From Dr. George Cheever Shattuck, two framed photographs; 
one, the officers of Gen. Meade's Escort, and the other, the officers 
and non-commissioned officers of the First Massachusetts Cavalry, 
Gen. Meade's Escort, Army of the Potomac. 

From Miss Sophia A. Underwood, a colored relief in plaster of 
Trinity Church, Boston, by George N. Faught; and eight others, 
by Miss Sarah W. Symonds, of houses in Marblehead, Salem, 
and Boston, and a woodcut of the Harvard Yard at Camdrigbe, 
1877. 

From Charles Torrey, a photograph of an original painting by 
Salmon, owned by George Uriel Crocker, of a view of Bromfield 
Place, Boston, made about 1832. 

From Miss Eliza Winslow Eaton Holland, two sand-shakers, a 
snuff-box, a fan used as a parasol, three straw-splitters, a small 
trunk owned by Samuel Hyde of Bangor, 1815, and engravings 
published by Lumsden and Son, Glasgow, of Benjamin Franklin, 
Andrew Jackson, Sir Walter Scott, and the Due de Reichstadt. 

From Miss Elise Bordman Richards, a water-color painting of 
Lynde Minshall Walter, 1799-1842, founder and first editor of the 

1 1 Proceedings, m. 310. 



192 1.] MELVILLE MADISON BIGELOW. 29 1 

Boston Transcript, made by John R. Smith, drawing-master, in 1813; 
and a water-color of him in 1842, by Alvan Clark. 

It was voted that Article 3, Chapter IX of the By-Laws be 
amended by striking out the 1st clause and inserting in its place 
the words, "The use of the room for other purposes shall be 
under the direction of the Council," so that the Article shall 
read: 

Art. 3 — Meetings of the Society shall be held in the Dowse 
Library, if not otherwise ordered by the Council. The use of the 
room for other purposes shall be under the direction of the Council. 

Announcement was made of the appointment of the following 
Standing Committees: 

House Committee: John W. Farlow, Frederic Winthrop, 
and William C. Endicott. 

Finance Committee: Francis R. Hart, Grenville H. 
Norcross, and Arthur Lord. 

Library Committee: Edward Stanwood, Charles Pelham 
Greenough, and Charles K. Bolton. 

Committee to publish the Proceedings: Henry Cabot 
Lodge, James Ford Rhodes, and Edward Stanwood. 

It was voted that the income of the Massachusetts Historical 
Trust Fund for the last financial year be retained in the Treas- 
ury, to be expended in such objects as may seem desirable to 
the Council of the Society. 

The Vice-President announced the death of James Phinney 
Baxter, a Corresponding Member of the Society. Mr. Stan- 
wood spoke briefly of the many interests and service of Mr. 
Baxter. 

The Vice-President also announced the death of our Associate 
Melville Madison Bigelow. Mr. Brooks Adams paid the 
following tribute to his memory: 

It was I think in the autumn of 1872, when I was still a law 
student, that I first knew our old friend and colleague, Melville 
Bigelow. As I remember Dr. Bigelow, fifty years ago, he was 
then pretty much what he always remained, an omnivorous 
reader and an ideal professor, to whom teaching came as a 
natural instinct. 



292 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [MAY, 

I remember Mr. Bigelow first in the old library, in the old 
courthouse, which was at that particular moment chiefly occu- 
pied by three remarkable men, by no means the least of whom 
was Bigelow himself. One of these was Oliver Wendell Holmes, 
who was then editing Kent; another was Nicholas St. John 
Green, who was then lecturing in the Harvard Law School 
on Torts, and, by way of parenthesis, I may say that than 
Green, I never listened to a greater lecturer; and the third was 
Bigelow himself, who was then struggling with his first law 
book, the precursor of many, his work on Estoppel. 

Of these three, Holmes and Bigelow had tables appropriated 
to themselves, and usually loaded with books, and there, in the 
library, we youngsters, who had little else to do, would meet 
these busy men and, I fear, waste their time abominably. 
Whether we did or not, I recall that Bigelow, in particular, 
always treated me with his never failing urbanity. I do not 
remember a single impatient word that he ever said to me. Of 
these three men Green soon died, Holmes shortly became ab- 
sorbed in practice and was then raised to the bench, after which 
he became less accessible, and Bigelow alone remained to me, 
of whom I kept track through life. Years passed by and I can 
very truthfully say that, so far as the law was concerned, 
Bigelow became my most intimate friend. If I proposed to 
write anything touching the law, I always consulted him, and 
usually submitted my manuscripts to him, that I might have 
his opinion; and he was always patient and obliging. The 
teaching instinct was, however, with Bigelow, always uppermost. 
He was not fit for a practising lawyer. He had not the litigious 
instinct, nor had he the instinct for business, or for money. 
He was a scholar, if ever a pure scholar was born on earth, and 
he was an instructor and not a denizen of courts. I do not 
suppose Mr. Bigelow ever made a dollar of money, save the 
meagre salary he may have earned as a lecturer in the 
Booton University Law School and whatever the publishers 
may have paid for his books; and fortunes are seldom acquired 
out of law books. 

And this leads me naturally to speak of the two great occupa- 
tions which divided Mr. Bigelow's life. From its outset, he 
became identified with the Boston University Law School. 
He taught in that, I think, nigh on fifty years. The second 



192 1.1 MELVILLE MADISON BIGELOW. 293 

great occupation was his books, and of these he wrote many. 
His first and perhaps his most successful professional book 
was Estoppel, which went through many editions; but he also 
wrote one as well known on Torts, which ran through no less 
than eight editions, and besides these another on Negotiable 
Instruments, and a fourth monumental publication, in two 
bulky volumes, on Fraud. All of these works have been and 
still are consulted by both bench and bar, and it is probable 
that they will continue to be so consulted for many years to 
come. But it was not on books such as these, well known as 
they are, that he is most widely known, or on which his fame 
most securely rests, perhaps the book of Dr. Bigelow's which is 
best known both abroad and at home is his Placita Anglo- 
Germanica. It was because of the learning shown in this book, 
and in other writings of this same character, that Mr. Bigelow 
became known as our most learned man, and the person beyond 
all others to whom learned strangers such as Mr. Pollock, one 
of the authors of the History of English Law, turned at once 
when they visited America. 

From its first organization, he became identified with the 
Law School of the Boston University, wherein he continued 
teaching, almost to the day of his death, a period of nearly fifty 
years. More learned lawyers doubtless have lived than was 
Mr. Bigelow. I do not dispute the fact. But if so I have never 
met them, and it is only needful for any member of this So- 
ciety who wishes to convince himself of this fact to glance 
casually at the Introduction to the Placita to become certain 
thereof. 

I do not know why it should have been so. To me the phe- 
nomenon was inexplicable, but in some manner Mr. Bigelow 
conceived the idea that I too was learned. Accordingly he 
hardly had been made dean of the Boston University Law 
School than he urged me to lecture for him, and I finally yielded 
to his requests and complied, on the solemn promise on his part 
that he would, so far as might be possible, make good my 
deficiencies. 

It was during the following years that I saw most of Mr. 
Bigelow and came to appreciate most fully the profundity of 
his knowledge. I gradually acquired the habit of dropping in 
at the Dean's office before my lecture, and of putting to him any 



294 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May, 

difficulties which I might perceive to lie in my path. And in 
this way I traversed with him a very large area of the law, and 
I wish to say most emphatically that I always found him willing 
and ready. 

On such an occasion, he would say, " I think if you look at such 
a one of my books, that on Torts, for instance, you will find the 
subject you suggest treated," and so I did. Philosophically and 
not by rule of thumb. For Mr. Bigelow was great on the sub- 
ject of the growth, or the evolution of a theory, or of an idea. 
Especially was he strong on the old ecclesiastical theory that 
the wrong, whatever it|may be, is intellectual. The common 
law considered the act as decisive. The Church always dwelt 
upon the thought. There could be no crime without the mind. 
Heresy was a thought. Therefore the Church rightfully did 
not punish the ignorant heretic. And it was on precisely these 
questions of psychology that Mr. Bigelow was strong. One 
can hardly pick up a book of his, as for example his book on 
Torts or his chapters in Centralization and the Law, without 
coming upon discussions of this kind. Nor was this the bound- 
ary of his knowledge or of his modes of thought. Mr. Bigelow 
was not only an English lawyer, but he was well read in the 
civil law. He was not only familiar with the Roman law, but 
he was also well read in ecclesiastical law. More than all, 
especially toward the end of his life, he became immersed in 
Germanic tribal law. He was also familiar with the French 
and German codes, where I sadly had to admit that I had no 
heart or energy to follow him. 

In short I can only reiterate to the Society that our deceased 
colleague was a man of truly gigantic learning, and the greatest 
critic that, perhaps, I ever met in all my pilgrimage. 

But, when all is said, this forms but a small part of his 
power over others, of his social charm, or of the extent of his 
usefulness. These lay in his perfect manners, the unfailing 
courtesy of his address, in his marvellous temper, and in his 
infinite patience. It was these attributes which made him in- 
valuable as the head of a school and which made him, I had 
almost said adored, by his scholars. 

Professor Perry read a chapter from his biography of Major 
Henry Lee Higginson, about to be published. 



192 1.] REV. SAMPSON BOND OF THE BERMUDAS. 295 

Mr. Ford read a paper on 

Rev. Sampson Bond of the Bermudas. 

The John Carter Brown Library recently came into possession 
of two issues of the Boston press in 1699 the very existence of 
which has been unsuspected. Both are catechisms, a form 
of disciplinary literature of which our ancestors seemed never 
to grow weary, until superseded by the pictorial primer. Both 
are incomplete but in the fragmentary state enough remains to 
offer a full text, for one is a second edition of which a first 
issue supplies the missing text. 1 

The more interesting of the two pieces lacks the title-page 
— if it ever had any. For the colophon on page 8 shows that 
the text is complete and page 1 has signature-mark A. A 
sheet of eight pages, it may give all there should be, or there may 
have been a title-page. The half-title on page 1 reads: The Sin- 
cere Milk of the Word, | for the | children | Of Barmuda. | In A 
Short and Plain | Catechism. | By Mr. Sampson Bond, late Min- 
ister j on that Island. The colophon reads: Boston, Printed 
by B. Green, & /. Allen. | 1699. 

Who was Sampson Bond? The first impressions obtainable 
are not in his favor. One of the name was alderman of Saltash, 
Cornwall, and certified the seal of the town and borough of 
Saltash 2 . in 1620 at the time of the Heralds' Visitation. This 
was probably of a generation older than the minister, and the 
same person was disclaimed by the Heralds as "ignobilis." 3 
The disclaimer is the more marked as the gentility of two fam- 
ilies of Bonds, both of Saltash, was recognized. At some time, 
the exact year is not given, Sampson Bond, the minister, was 
ejected from the living of Mawgan in Meneage, sometimes 
written Mogion. 4 This parish, situated near the head of 
Helford Creek, is in the hundred of Kirrier about four miles 
from Helston. It is, therefore, quite a distance from Saltash 

1 The Stone Catechism was first printed in 1684 and copies are in the Wat; 
kinson Library of Hartford, Connecticut and the New York Public Library. It was 
reproduced in facsimile in 1899 by th e Acorn Club, Connecticut. Comparison 
shows that the 1699 edition is a page for page and almost a line for line reprint 
of that of 1684. 

3 On the estuary of the Tamar and about three miles northwest of Devoaport 
' Visitation of the County of Cornwall, 1620 (Harleian Society), 284, 294. 

4 Calamy, 1. 355. 



296 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [MAY, 

and is almost the extreme western point of England. If the 
father aspired to political honors he was in an unfavorable 
situation, as Saltash was a pocket borough controlled by the 
Bullers; but the son may have had enough of a politician in 
him to be a useful and also a troublesome factor later in his 
dealings with the governors of the Bermudas. 

Writing from Falmouth in 1651 to Edward Winslow, then 
collecting money to spread the gospels in America, Richard 
Floyd said: 

Nowe tbeis maye Certifie you that presently on receipt of the 
bookes you sent me I caused them to be dispersed to severall f reinds 
to stirr upp others to be liberall in Contributinge to this pious worke 
of propagation of the Gospele in New England & I conceive ther is 
a good quantity of money collected (though not so much as would 
have beene) if fish in our County had not fayled as itt did, & one 
man in our west partes put in by the gentleman to be a treasurer 
which is not well beloved with us, but rather feare that he will de- 
ceive you of itt — his name is Mr. Sampson Bond, a notorious 
Insynuatinge Hypocrite as is by moste with us Conceived & I thinke 
not abused by their conceipt wherefore I believe itt were best for 
you, to make hast to call in the money already collected for feare 
of miscarriage of parte of itt. 1 

The writer of the letter may have been strongly preju- 
diced, and it was a time when feelings found ready expres- 
sion in words which appear to us more forcible than the 
situation required. With every allowance, however, such 
an introduction is not a happy one. 

The history of the English in the West Indies in the seven- 
teenth century shows a much disturbed course and an adminis- 
tration which is strongly tinged with lawlessness. One cause 
was probably nearness to Spanish settlements and consequent 
exposure to attack, depredation, and fanatical zeal of that 
grasping and cruel people. To hold their own against such 
a neighborhood the English settlers required great energy and 
quick action. Whether in aggression or in retaliation the 
question of right was settled by force, and without too great 
attention to niceties of procedure. From the day of discovery 
the Caribbean Sea and its circle of islands have been the chosen 
ground of romance, the reality surpassing any fiction. The 

1 N. E. Hist. Gen. Register, xxxvn. 392. 



1021.] REV. SAMPSON BOND OF THE BERMUDAS. 297 

contest of European powers for possession or influence, the 
deeds of pirates, buccaneers (a word not known until 1690) 
and free-booters, of discoverers, settlers, and natives exploited 
almost to extinction, of efforts to save the bodies as well as the 
souls of the original inhabitants, efforts graced by Bishop Casas 
and a long line of pious and suffering workers in the vineyard — 
those materials have for centuries formed extraordinary pictures 
of social unrest and movement, and in action have exerted an 
influence on the course of American history as yet unmeasured, 
even undescribed. The very geography of the region lends itself 
to lawlessness. 

The Bermudas form no exception to the rule of picturesque 
incident. Settled by a company of adventurers, and intended 
for profit, the opportunities for bickering between company and 
servants and between governors and settlers were many and 
from their very nature difficult to settle to the liking of all. 
As the number of planters and settlers increased the purely 
administrative questions — laws and regulations, defences 
and shipping — were complicated by religious differences, by 
the jealousy and struggle for control between the non-conformist 
ministers and the representatives of the Church of England, 
and by the more bitter contest between royalist and Puritan. 
William Sayle was a councillor in the Bermudas in 1630 and 
eleven years later became lieutenant governor for about a year 
and a half, again in 1643, and for a third time in 1658. 1 As 
early as 1642 it was charged that he was too much guided 
by the ministers of the place, "who have had main sway 
in the government the past year," and had gone to such 
lengths as to "make a man quite out of love with the govern- 
ment of the clergy, as they are called." The complaint came 
from the schoolmaster of the place, Richard Norwood, who had 
disagreed with the ministers, believing that "the manner of 
catechising all sorts of men and women, especially believers, 
that have by their lives given good testimony of their faith," 
was neither fit nor lawful. 2 Upon his reappointment in 1658 

1 The dates of his service are: September 15, 1641, to February 7, 1642; 
September 19, 1643, to February 4, 1645; and June 30, 1658, to January, 1662. 
A part of the interval between 1645 and 1658 he was concerned in the Puritan 
colony of Eleutheria, which brought him into contact with Governor Winthrop. 

2 Norwood to Governor and Company of Adventurers to the Somers Islands, 
February 28, 1642. Col. State Papers, Colonial, 1574-1660, 323. He was the 



298 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [MAY, 

Sayle, then in England, was denounced as "a scandalous 
person, and an enemy to the Commonwealth," but was exon- 
erated so far as to be returned to the colony with a strict 
admonition to demean himself with circumspection and faith- 
fulness to the King's interest and service. 2 

In 1656 the number of inhabitants was given as 3,000, with 
but one minister, although there had been four — two In- 
dependent and two Presbyterian — nine years before. The 
controversies had been well aired in one of Prynne's inter- 
minable tracts which did not bring a cessation of bickering. 
Sayle was superseded in 1662 by Florentia Seymour, and 
in the same year Sampson Bond went to the Bermudas under 
a commission from the Company of the Summer Islands. There 
is nothing to show that the lieutenant governor had any hand 
in the appointment, but it was not made without a question 
on the fitness of the candidate. 

At a Quarter Court derivative for the Summer Islands Com- 
pany, held in Watling Street, London, September 4, 1662, the 
recommendation from the Grand Committee of the Company of 
Sampson Bond, "a Godly orthodox and painefull Divine, as 
willing to be enterteyned by this Company and sent on minis- 
try to the Summer Islands" was in debate, with a charge that 
"the said Mr. Bond was a Letigious person among his Neigh- 
bours." Bond was called in and examined. He admitted that 
being denied possession of a living in the country to which he 
had been approved, he had under advice sued and after three 
years obtained judgment in his favor. Then charges were 
brought against him: i, that he had been active for the King 
and against the Parliament in 1642 ; and 2, that he was litigious 
among his neighbors. Without replying to the first charge he 
stated that he had been obliged to bring suit for his tithes which 
the generality of the people refused to pay during the period 
of his contest for possession. The company were well satisfied 
with his defense and cleared him of what was objected against 
him. He then exhibited a certificate signed by Samuel Clarke, 
David Bull, and Elias Pledger, ministers, that he was " a man of 

author of the MS. in the John Carter Brown Library — Insularum de la Bermuda 
Detectio — edited and printed in 1018 by Champlin Burrage in a volume entitled 
John Pory's lost Account of Plymouth Colony. 
s Col. Slate Papers, Colonial, 1574-1660, 468. 



1921.] REV. SAMPSON BOND OF THE BERMUDAS. 299 

approved Abilities, one who hath binn Faithfull and painefull 
in the worke of the Ministry and of an unblamable and holy 
Conversacon, And further gave them to understand, That he 
was ordeyned by Bishopp Hall Anno 1641, . . . And further 
was approved of by the Assembly of Divines as he hath to 
shewe in that behalf e." On this the Company accepted his 
services, named him as Minister for Devon and Pembrooke 
Tribes and gave him the glebe and house at Spanish Point 
and 40/. per annum salary. 1 He was also recommended to the 
new Governor, Florentia Seymour, for "courteous entertayn- 
ment, countenance and encouragement ... as the eminencie 
of their employment shall deservedly call fit at your hands." 
Bond was well received by the old governor (Sayle) and in- 
habitants and expressed to the Company his content. 2 He 
had sailed from England in The Somer Islands Merchant, 
the company's magazine ship, and reached the Bermudas 
January 12, 1663. In the same vessel came a brother minister, 
Samuel Smith, to whom Bond later showed bitter hostility. 
Much must have happened between 1662, the year of his 
going to the Bermudas, and 1669, when he intimated that he 
and some hundreds of people desired to remove to New York 
if they might have accommodation, but the records give us 
only an intimation. Governors and ministers reflected in their 
relations the disturbances in England and Bond saw no reasons 
for sitting quietly under the arbitrary acts of the men who 
enjoyed their authority for a short time to give way to succes- 
sors even more arbitrary. In 1669 he believed that his position 
could be improved by removing from the island to a colony on 
the continent. He wrote to his brother-in-law John Wolsten- 
craft, in New York, who had retired into the country, and the 
letter fell into the hands of a fellow Cornwall man, Samuel 
Maverick. He answered some of Bond's questions thus: 

You hint to him, that you have heard very well of New Yorke, 
which hath made you willing to come and dwell in some parte of 
this cuntrey (if the Lord were so pleased.) It seemes to me he is 
opening a wide dore to you, by inclyninge the honorable Gouernour, 
on the first notice he had of your thoughts this way, to tell the bearer, 
Capt. Stone, that if yourselfe and company came, he would order you 
a proportion of land (accordinge to the families you should bringe) 

1 Lefroy, Memorials of the Bermudas, 11. 171. 'lb., 207. 



300 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [MAY, 

on an Hand called States Hand, about 3 or 4 leagues from this 
cittie, the most commodiosest seate and richest land I haue seene 
in America. It is probable (if his multiplicitie of buisines will 
permitt it) he will lett you know it by his own penn. I haue heard 
it from his owne mouth. 

You intimate that you want directions from some person well 
accquainted in the cuntery, as to the priviledges and libertyes of 
the Inhabitants. I haue beene heare from the very first settling of 
N: England, by the English, and could giue you an account of all 
the privilidges injoyed and bondagess imposed in the severall 
Gouennents there, but that is needles. I shall only informe you 
what is allowed, and may be expected to be enioyed by the Inhab- 
itants, within his Royal Highnes his territonies heare, 

Ecclesiastical liberties are, 1. Liberty of conscience to all, pro- 
uided they rase not fundamentalls in religion, nor disturbe the 
publique peace. 2, Cerimonies may be used or omitted. 3, The 
Booke of Common Prayer may be made vse of or not. 

Civill liberties are, — All freeholders, not scandalous in theire 
hues and conversations, are capable to vote att the election of 
officers, military and civill, in theire severall towneshipps. . . . The 
greatest want heare is good, honest, ingenious people, and some 
good ministers; and though (if you should come) you resolve not 
to be tyed to any people, yett many might reape benefitt by you. 1 

He had a friend in former Governor Sayle, now governor of 
Carolina. In 1670 Sayle wrote to Anthony, Lord Ashley: 

"In my late country of Bermudas" there is one Sampson Bond, 
heretofore of long standing in Exeter College, Oxford, who was 
ordained by the late Bishop [Joseph] Hall (of Exeter) and sent by a 
commission from the Company to the Summer Islands in 1662, 
"under whose powerful and soul-edifying ministry I have lived about 
eight years last past"; greatly grieved parting with his godly society 
and faithful ministry. Mr. Bond has little respect from some who 
are now in authority in Bermudas and has been invited to Boston 
and New York by the Governors there, and Sayle has also written 
to him to "come and sit down with us," which is the most hearty 
request of the Colony in general, who were exceedingly affected with 
his ministry all the time they were in Bermudas, as was also Sir 
John Yeamans, who promised to procure him a commission from 
the King to make him their minister, but Sayle can hear of nothing 
done, which emboldens him to beseech his Lordship "to put on 

1 Maverick to Bond, May 30, 1669. 4 Collections, vn. 317. 



192 1.] REV. SAMPSON BOND OF THE BERMUDAS. 301 

bowels of great goodness and compassion towards your Colony 
here in procuring a commission and competent salary for him." 
Assures his Lordship that Mr. Bond is so well reported of and be- 
loved in the Caribbee Islands that were he minister here it would 
gain hundreds of considerable persons to this place. 1 

In reply Lord Ashley said: 

As to Col. Sayle's wishes concerning Mr. Sampson Bond, if he 
will go to Carolina he shall have 500 acres, 40/. per annum, and a 
house, but though allowed this to be Preacher among them, the Lords 
Proprietors give neither him nor Sayle authority to compel any one 
in matters of religion, having in their Fundamental Constitutions 
granted a freedom in that point which they resolve to keep inviolable. 2 

Before the reply could reach Carolina Sayle, an old man and 
of feeble mind, had died, leaving a reputation on which his 
associates and contemporaries could not agree. 

Meanwhile personal differences with the governor, Sir John 
Heydon, may have sharpened Bond's desire to find other 
surroundings. Sir John was somewhat hot-tempered and 
arbitrary, and for ten years he ruled without summoning an 
assembly to advise or legislate. The tropics seemed to accen- 
tuate the faults of such a character, and as for a churchman like 
Bond he would not be likely to abate his independence. The 
governor, too, was at a disadvantage. For the minister could 
preach from his pulpit against the governor, certain of his 
audience and influence, while the governor, fretting and fum- 
ing in the council, had no way of getting his matter to the 
people. From the beginning of Heydon's administration 
Bond appears to have been in opposition. Some parishes were 
without ministers and were served in rotation by the ministers 
of other parishes. Bond refused to preach out of his parish 
without express order of the governor and council, though he 
knew the pressing needs of the vacant churches and the willing- 
ness of others to do their share. 3 He was not on good terms with 
some of his fellow ministers, but that does not necessarily imply 
that he was at fault. Finally he put in circulation a paper 
against Governor Heydon, and on complaint of their represen- 
tation the Company directed summary proceedings on Bond: 

1 Col. State Papers, Colonial, 1660-1674, 71. 

2 lb., 105. 3 Lefroy, 11. 317. 



302 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May, 

Whereas Mr. Sampson Bond was Commissioned and sent over 
by this Company to preach the Gospell in the Sommer Islands, 
And to performe all offices and duties as became the minister thereof. 
It being a great part of the same, with all meekness and quietnes of 
spirit to behave himself towards all, and to endeavour the peace of 
the place, contrary whereunto, he the said Mr. Bond hath shewed 
himself upon all occasions a person of a factious and contentious 
spirit fomenting divisions betweene Governor and Governor, peo- 
ple and people, and hath made it his practise to prosecute quar- 
rells, and to egg on the people to needles Suites of Law in the Courts 
of the Sommer Islands. But principally hath bin an instrument to 
discontent all the ministers sent over thither by the Company, by 
distilling into the eares of the Governor and Councell such things as 
might tend thereunto, And hath appeared active therein, And 
further hath occasioned the imprisonment of one of them for the 
space of 8 months. And, as if these were not crimes enough, he 
the said Sampson Bond hath bin an Instrument lately to present 
the Governor upon the Bench for some proclamacons made and 
issued out touching liberty to be granted to Negroes, embracing 
the Christian faith. And thereupon he the said Mr. Bond hath 
come into open court, and owned his contrivance of, and avowed 
the said Presentment. And further did alleadge that the breeding 
up of such children in the Christian religion makes them stubborne. 
The contrivance of which presentment this Court doth adjudge 
seditious, and the uttering of the prealleadged work impious. 
Touching manie of which things, he the said Mr. Bond hath by 
publick Letter from this Court Anno 1666 bin admonished, and since 
by manifold private letters from his friends and others, in order to 
his reforming, and the leaving of such practices. Notwithstanding 
all which, he the said Mr. Bond hath persisted in those his former 
courses to the endangering of the publick peace, And causeing the 
contempt of the Gospell. Upon full consideration of the premises, 
wee do think fitt and order that the said Mr. Sampson Bond be 
forthwith dismissed the Islands, And that you the Governor and 
Councell take care to see the same performed accordingly. 1 

This letter reached the Bermudas in February, 167 1, and 
the governor at once took action. Warrants were issued to the 
proper officers to "dismiss the said Bond, and his Family out 
and off the said Gleabe, allowing him reasonable Satisfaction 
for whate paines or Charge is iudged he hath bin at in making 
of Plant Bedds, and planting of corne and potatoes since Christ- 
1 November 9, 1620. Lefroy, 329. 



1921.] REV. SAMPSON BOND OF THE BERMUDAS. 303 

mas last past. And likewise for his forthwith dismission out 
of these Islands, there being now present severall vessels fit 
for accommodation bound to severall ports, more especially the 
Honorable Companies Magazeene shipp, bound for the port 
of London, in which, if Mr. Bond please to transport himselfe, 
it is conceived he may then be in the nearest capacity to vin- 
dicate himselfe, And recover Satisfaction, if the Honorable 
Company hath done him wronge, as he alleageth in his afore- 
said petition." 1 In answer Bond called for his accusers and 
demanded the protection of the king's laws, in a petition which 
tastes of the lawyer rather than the minister, and two petitions 
for staying execution were sent up from the tribes he served. 2 
The governor and Council wrote to the Company, March 15, 
1670-71, of their troubles in dealing with this troublesome 
minister : 

After the reading of your generall Letter wee sent Mr. Sampson 
Bond a copy of your order for his dismission that he might have 
timely notice. The next Councill Table following he sent to mee and 
councell a Petition fraughted with coler and spleene against your 
Honors and ourselves your seruants. In answer to that Petition 
it was by the Gouernor and councell ordered That your order 
against Mr. Bond should be put in execution and warrants imediately 
issued ordered execution of the same, there being seuerall shipps in 
Harbor fit for accommodacon som bound for old England and New 
Virginia Barbadoes, Leeward Islands and one vessell for Carolina 
to Ashlie river. After the warrant was out Mr. Sampson Bond 
made it his practice to preach against the Government which soe 
stirred up the people insomuch that many of them cast out vn- 
handsome language, saying that never an honest man would have 
a hand in executing the Companies command against Mr. Bond, 
but the Gouernor and Councell. And they were sure he would not 
goe out of his house vnless he was pulled out and carried awaie 
by force. The next Councell Table Mr. Bond appeared before vs 
with another Petition somewhat like his former and desired his 
staie. To which he was answered it could not be granted and tould 
he must depat in some of the shipps in Harbor, he answered the 
Gouernor and council in court he would not goe and if they did 
send him awaie, they should pull him out of his house and carrie 

1 Lefroy, n. 334. The Council had adjudged the petition to be "of dangerous 
consequences." 

* It; 336, 338- 



304 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [MAY, 

him, and if they did soe he was a man, uttering these kind of lan- 
guages in a great passion, with a kind of threatening language against 
som of the councell. And when the councell rose and came out 
they found seueral of his partie com to toune, and standing near the 
court, some of them being the cheefe persons that imprisoned Mr. 
Smith who we haue prevailed with in compliance to your honors 
desires to staie to the return of the magazeene ship, hoping that your 
Honors will be pleased to put a period to his agreevances, which are 
spread before you. And send another minister ouer to supply Mr. 
Bond's place that wee may haue more peace in the countrie: For 
his return will set vs all at variance for now we understand he in- 
tendeth for England with Captain Pensax l as he hath publickly 
declared in the Church last sundaie to his congregation wee not 
knowing whether he would complie with his Declaration of going 
with Capt. Pensax hee hauing the last year writt to the Gouernor 
of New Yorke and promised to come with his Family thither vpon 
which writing the Gouemor of New Yorke caused a shipp to tuch 
here and staie a fortnighte for the accomodacon of Mr. Bond and his 
Family. And when the ship came he would not goe. Afterwards 
he pretended to goe to New Yorke in one of our country vessells 
and promised if shee would staie a fortnight for him he would goe, 
after her staie granted, he at the same time requested leave of the 
Gouemor to depart these Islands, his request being granted, he 
tould the Gouernor he hoped he would have denied him, And that 
would have been a f aire excuse for him to the Gouernor of New Yorke. 
At least by such shifts as these hee should com for England and 
clamor against the Gouernor or any of his councell or Mr. Samuel 
Smith (for whom he hath not any loue) being a person desirous to 
promote the designe of Mr. Smiths enemies as witness the papers 
herewith sent. Wee haue thought fitt to send this to your honor 
with his Petition to vs sent. And likewise a copy from the Records 
of Mr. John Stowes acknowledgment 2 that thereby your honors 
may the better know him, and not give credit to any of his language 
against vs or Mr. Smith till wee are heard to speak for ourselves. 
If Mr. Sampson Bond the person that said the Booke of Common 
Prayer was a mass Booke, or a company of packet praiers made vp 
by the pope and the words Godfather and Godmother be blasphemy 
or words to that effect [be heard] what condition shall your servants 

1 Captain Samuel Pensax, who commanded the magazine ship, the Marigold. 
He had arrived at the Bermudas January 27, 167.1, and sailed for London 
March 21. 

2 Stowe had stated that of a paper against Governor Heydon "Mr. Sampson 
Bond was the sole author, procurer and contriver," and Stowe had signed it 
"meerlie through the said Mr. Bonds importunity." Lefroy, 11. 319. 



I92I-] REV. SAMPSON BOND OF THE BERMUDAS. 305 

here live vnder if such practices are suffered vnder your Gouern- 
ment. 1 

Bond went in person to London, appeared before the Com- 
pany with evidence and petitions in his favor, and defended 
himself so well that the Company reversed their order of 
dismissal and restored him to his position. 2 

In 167 1 the assembly reported that "though there ought to 
be five ministers in the island, they have but one." The island 
was divided into eight tribes and each tribe was a distinct 
parish, which would seem to call for at least eight ministers. 
The assembly may have had in mind the Church of England. 
The island had reached a saturation point in population — 
about eight thousand souls — and between 1672 and 1679 no 
white immigrants from any quarter had come to it. In the 
latter year the religious situation was thus reported: "The 
Presbyterian persuasion is most prevalent, being reckoned to 
include two-thirds of the population, the remainder being 
Independents, Anabaptists, and Quakers. There are nine 
churches and five ministers, who are sufficient to supply all 
churches; each of them receives 40I. a year from the Company, 
a house, and two shares of land" — about fifty acres. 3 With 
only one staple product, tobacco, a trade which could not 
much have exceeded the £10,000 a year named in the report, 
and four merchants, the net return to the planters was not 

1 Lefroy, i. 692. 

* lb., n. 368. "And as unto the other charge, in the said Order Comprised, 
That the said Mr. Bond had been an Instrument lately to present the Governor 
upon the Bench for some Proclamations made and issued out touching liberty to 
be granted to Negroes unbracing the Christian faith. . . . The said Committee 
are satisfied by the severall Evidences read unto them, that the Negroes taking 
occasion from the Proclamation set forth by the Governor, touching their liberty, 
but besides the intent thereof may Committ many Insolencies against there 
Masters and Mistresses, was a necessary ground for presenting the paper 
Entitled A Publick Grievance to the Grand Inquest, but withall the said paper 
was presented only by Mr. John Stowe, and subscribed with his name . . . 
And that Mr. Bond was not the Author of the said presentment, or did owne it 
in the Court as he is Charged to have done." 

In November, 1679, the Company again discharged Bond from service and 
he was to be ordered to quit his house and glebe, but in March following he was 
again restored, having once more obtained support from many on the islands. 
Lefroy, n. 483, 500. 

3 Col. State Papers, Colonial, 1677-1680, 394. In 1684 the Company owed 
Bond 200/. and on the restoration of the King the money allowance to ministers 
ceased and they were supported by the glebe land and voluntary contributions. 
lb., r68s-i688, 395. 



306 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May, 

large and it was fortunate that the Company paid the allowance 
to the ministers. Perhaps the Company was backward in so 
doing, and under economic pressure Bond looked elsewhere for 
employment. He had visited Boston, but the precise year 
cannot be known. It is stated, upon what authority I do not 
learn, that he returned from New England in 1674. 1 That he 
was in Boston before December, 1679, the following letter to 
him from Increase Mather shows: 

Concerning your call from the old church here, I am at some 
stand what to say. I know it cannot but be a great objection and 
discouragement in your way, that so many of the church, and those 
in some respects the most considerable persons amongst them, doe 
not act in this Invitation; and there is reason to doubt that it will 
be a great discouragement unto them that now may doe (as Mr. 
Allen informs me) onely invite you to come again upon further trial. 
To mee it seems hard that a man of your years, soe well known in 
the world and whose gifts themselves have had such experience of, 
must now [be] tried whether fit for them or no. The greatest objec- 
tion which I ever had as to your settlement there, I acquainted you 
with when last in Boston, lest there should be some publick contest 
between yourself and the Elders there, which would greatly tend to 
the disgrace of the Gospell; but you did abundantly satisfy in that 
matter. If therefore it shall please the Lord to bring you hither, 
you may rest assured that I shall (the Lord helping) doe what is in 
me to strengthen your hands in the work of the Lord. I return you 
many thanks for your profitable labours in our congregation when 
last with us. Thus presenting respects (mine and my wives) to 
yourselfe and Mrs. Bond, I beseech the Lord to be with you, and 
to direct you to doe as shall be most for His glory and your own 
everlasting comfort. 2 

Bond had thus been in Boston and so preached as to receive 
an invitation from the First Church whose minister, James 
Allen, required assistance. At the time of Mather's letter he 
appears to have been in the Bermudas; but if so, matters 
moved slowly. On September 26, 1682, nearly three years after 
the letter of Mather, he was invited to the office of assistant 
preacher in the First Church, but, writes Emerson, "the vote, 
for some reason, was never carried into effect." 3 Less than 

1 Lefroy,i. 695. 

1 Dated, December 1, 1679. 4 Collections, vm. 96. 

8 Historical Sketch, 134. 



1921.] REV. SAMPSON BOND OF THE BERMUDAS. 307 

two months later Cotton Mather writes to a friend: "But in 
the Town there has been a very great Disturbance, by Mr. 
Bonds coming hither; from whence he is now gone again, 
under the quality of a Snuffer." 1 Hutchinson had access to 
a manuscript, since lost, from which he learned that Bond was 
discovered in preaching a sermon other than his own, and 
"presently after removed to Berbados." 2 

Not to Barbados but to the Bermudas, where he became so 
obnoxious to the governor — Richard Cony by name — as to 
be placed under bonds for his good behavior. He had been 
deprived of his land and 40/. a year, and declared that his 
bond became void on the death of the King. He had joined with 
another minister, Henry Vaughan, who had suffered in the same 
way, and both were enemies to the Church of England, yet so 
far from pleasing others as to be called "hirelings" by the 
Quakers. 3 He was more than a match for the Governor who 
admitted that: "Mr. Bond is a secret enemy to the quiet of 
this country; What to doe with him I know not; It is vain to 
imprison him, hee hath the turbulent spirits of the Country for 
his friends." In fact the islanders were playing church and 
politics just as those in the mother country were doing, and the 
Governor, in asserting his authority and in attempting to obey 
the instructions his far distant superiors framed for him, ran 
counter to the popular will. Cony gave way to a successor in 
1687 charged among other things not to appoint a minister 
without a certificate from the Bishop of London, to whom 
belonged ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the islands. That 
would prevent recognition of Bond, who was still preaching 
in Pembroke parish on the island in 1689, when his salary was 
15Z. a year, payable in money or in tobacco at current rates. 
The next trace of him is in this discovery of a Catechism printed 
in 1699, in which he is described as "late Minister" on the 
island. Was he living at that time, or dead? He has left his 
name in Bond's Bay, at the end of Pembroke glebe, once a 
favorite ship-building place. 4 It would appear that he was not 
so bad as the authorities of the island sought to picture him, 

1 4 Collections, vm. 388. A "snuffer" was one who snuffed or sniffed dis- 
dainfully. 

2 Hutchinson, I. 427 n. 

5 Cat. State Papers, Colonial, 1685-1688, 102. 
4 Lefroy, I. 694. 



308 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [MAY, 

and he had a sufficient following among the islanders to uphold 
him in his contest with the governor. Shortness of temper 
and great freedom in language were too common in the colonies 
to condemn a man, and Bond was of a type of clergyman and 
colonist just as the governors who sought his banishment were 
of a type of administrator. Coming into opposition the in- 
evitable followed. That the colony survived such an acute 
form of civil strife can be explained by regarding the contestants 
as indulging in high talk and undue exaggeration. The right 
and the wrong of the matter were equally divided between them. 
After so stormy a career it is strange that nothing is known 
of his later years and work; he has passed entirely out of 
record. 

Fortunately our knowledge of Bond is not limited to these 
few references in contemporary records. On an island of some 
eight thousand souls, of whom only four hundred were planters 
and one- third were slaves, the ministers engaged in politics and 
controversies, as acrid as they were at times exciting. As in 
Barbados, the Quakers on the Bermudas, transported from Eng- 
land to get rid of them, were a source of annoyance to the ad- 
ministration and churches. In their new-born zeal these people 
went far to bring the government into contempt and the 
churches to naught, and efforts to restrain them only increased 
their desire to compel a hearing of their peculiar doctrines. In 
the West Indies the question of defense was a serious one; the 
Quakers refused to bear arms, attend drill, or contribute to the 
support of the fortifications. They would not serve on juries 
or hold office. They buried their own dead. So far was this 
carried that a Quaker who prepared for government a map of 
Barbados omitted all forts and churches, of both which he 
and his co-believers made much scruple. 1 Their singularity 
and obstinacy made them difficult subjects and neighbors, yet 
zeal was their worst quality, for they set no bounds to their 
behavior when antagonized. 

In 1678 Bond, then teacher in Pembroke-Tribe, figured 
largely in a dispute with some Quakers of the island. He 
relates the circumstance in a volume of one hundred pages, of 
which the title is as follows: A | Publick Tryal | of the | Quakers | 

1 Cat. Slate Papers, 1677-1680, 536. 



1921.] REV. SAMPSON BOND OF THE BERMUDAS. 309 

in I Barmudas | Upon the first Day of May, 1678. | First, 
The Charge against them was openly read containing these 
Particulars: As | 1. That a Quakers pretended Saviour within 
him, is not the true Christ, | but the False Christ, the Devil. | 
2. That the main end of the Quakers Meetings in these Islands, 
is to make the Lords Christ, His Holy Spirit, His Angels, and 
Apostles, all Lyars \ and False Witnesses of God. | 3. That the 
Prim-Principles of a Quaker, are the same Held and Pro- \ fessed 
by the Beasts, which Paul fought with at Ephesus. | Secondly, 
The whole Charge being Proved by the Testimony | of the 
Holy Scriptures: was found by the Sheriffs, and | Justices of 
Peace, a true and just Charge. \ Thirdly, Being found Guilty, 
they are here Sentenced, and | brought forth unto the deserved 
Execution of the Presse. | By Samson Bond late Preacher of 
the Gospel in | Barmudas. | . . . | Boston in New England: | 
Printed by Samuel Green, upon Asignment of Samuel Sewell: 
I 1682. • 

In "The Preface to the Christian Reader" the origin of the 
book is explained as follows: 

Being lately informed, that the Quakers had left a Paper (with a 
Gentleman in these Islands) intimating a chalenge to the Ministers 
here, viz. Whether the Ministers God, or the Quakers God, were the 
true God; little notice was taken of this their Folly: in a short time 
afterwards, a Justice of the Peace acquainted me, that a Quaker 
brought him a Letter, and would have him deliver it unto me, but he 
refused to receive it from him: And some few dayes after this, an 
honest Neighbour told me, that the Quakers had reported up and down 
the Countrey, sc. That I would as soon take a Bear by the Tooth, 
as Dispute with them: and withal, that thereby the Leading Quakers 
did confirm and increase their party: Hereupon I sent unto them (a 
Synagogue of Libertines) the charge in the Title Page asserted, [Being 
Answers to three short Questions.] And in the Paper (which was 
sent the 15th, day of April 1678.) they were informed, that I would 
be ready to prove (from the Holy Scriptures) the charge against them: 
upon the modest motion of any one or more Quakers in these Islands, 
(on any Lecture-day in Devonshier-Tribe Church) in order to a 
Regular and Peaceable Disputation, for the investigation of the Truth 
of the true God; which Paper the Quakers received and accepted. And 
according to the general Directions therein given, they came (the first 
day of May following) to the place assigned, (but without giving me 
any special notice of it,) Then Francis Estlack, a Teacher amongst 



3IO MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May, 

them, moved for a performance of my promise, in reference to the Charge 
{which he called a Chalenge) under my hand against them: I forthwith 
told him, that I was ready (by Christs help) to do it: howbeit, by the 
way (as I told them) I thought it fit to signifie unto them, sc. That as 
they had accepted the Paper which I had sent to them, so they had thereby 
bound themselves to all the terms and conditions therein expressed: as 
Namely, i. That the Disputation is to be Regular; that is to say, 
I am (in the first place) to prove the whole Charge, without any in- 
terruption from any one of you; That then any one or more of you may 
(without interruptions from me) answer my Arguments , or give your 
Assent. 2. That the Disputation is to be peaceable; that is to say, one 
person only (at a time) is to Answer; That the Disputation may not 
end (as usually such kind of Disputes have done) in an unprofitable 
confusion, but to the satisfaction of the numerous, and judicious 
Hearers: And that at the end of all, They may judge (according to 
the Scriptures of truth) between you and me: Let me here pray the 
Reader to take notice, that not any thing said by me (touching the 
Regular and Peaceable Disputation) was gain said by any of them, 
whose silence was (by all the Hearers) taken for their full consent: 
yet, notwithstanding; herein, they declared themselves most unfaithful, 
for they frequently interrupted me, more especially, by casting in imper- 
tinent objections, ere I had half-answered this or that Scripture, which 
some one or other of them had proposed; thereby in design (as I thought) 
to obstruct the special matter, ready to be uttered jor the satisfaction of 
the Attentive Hearers; which urged me (as I must confess) unadvisedly 
to say, that what I had, and should then have declared, I would cause to 
be Printed, that full returnes might be given to the objections made, 
and Scriptures wrested by them: saying, If I could not be heard I 
would be read: here withal, I cannot deny, but that I have in the 
returns, inserted sundry things from judicious Authors (for confirma- 
tion) or further explication which I might not then have aUedged, 
though I had not met with any interruption at all: And forasmuch as 
some of them have (as I am informed) since said, that their business 
was not managed aright by them, and that some things were for- 
gotten to be spoken: not only those but all other things which might 
seem for their advantage, I have (in their due places) set down and 
answered; upon the whole I do assure the Reader, / should not have 
given myself this trouble; had they not (by their manifold interruptions) 
provoked me to make that inconsiderate open promise as above: 
concerning which many of the Hearers have since been my frequent 
Remembrancers; and probably others may be ready (on default of 
performance) to reflect slanderously upon me, whose reviling rudeness 
is but too well known: 

And so Farewel, SAMPSON BOND. 



1921.] REV. SAMPSON BOND OF THE BERMUDAS. 3II 

This insuing Discourse had been Printed sooner, had not Mr. 
John Foster (the Printer) been disenabled by a tedious sickness, 
of which he Died. 

That Bond's account of the public discussion was not wholly 
fair is shown by Estlake's x rejoinder and testimony, supplied 
by his colleagues. Estlake claimed that due notice had been 
given to Bond: 

After I [Estlake] had received his Paper, and shewed the same 
to Friends, who considering of the same, and finding his promise, 
that he desired a regular Dispute, Friends generally determined to 
meet him at the place appointed; whereupon I writ a few lines to 
the said Priest, to signifie our Acceptance & our intents to meet 
him; and sent the Paper by his next Neighbour, who brought me 
back an answer. Beside the matter was made every way so publick, 
that when the day came the House was greatly filled, from all parts 
(almost) of the whole Island, which is not usual on their Lecture 
days. 

But when we came, expecting to have a regular Disputation, 
(viz) that we should have had liberty to have answered to the 
Charge along as he went, we found it quite another thing, as doth 
appear in his Preface. 

For his intent was to bind us down in silence, until he had quite 
finished his whole work intended, which I perceived by the time he 
spent in the answer to his first Question, he would have wearied out 
the Peoples patience, so that they would hardly wait to hear any 
return. 

And Secondly, The Peoples Minds would have been so stuffed 
with his multitude of Arguments, Slanders, Lies, and false Accusa- 
tions; that there would not have been room for Truth to get any 
entrance. 

And lastly, it tended to prevent and stop us, so that we should 
not find where to have an entrance to make any orderly reply to any 
thing he spake; for which cause it was that I stopt him when he had 
ended his first answer, for which he charges us with Unfaithfulness, 

1 Francis Islie alias Estlack was complained of in 1660 for refusing to bear 
arms at the exercising of soldiers. Was admonished to reform, but if he in future 
refused, "hee as likewise anie other of the same judgement are to lie bound 
necke and heeles together during such exercise . . . and in case of an invasion 
of an enemie to be forsed to fight in the Front thereof." He was so bound in 1665. 
Wilkinson and he were fined for absence from musterings, r666. Lefroy, 11. 
137, 228. 



312 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [MAY, 

who never made him no such promise, as to give him such liberty 
as he required. 1 

The debate was conducted as might have been expected, 
neither side following a line which could produce satisfaction. 
The methods in disputing of Archbishop Laud were imitated 
and enlarged by Judge Jeffreys, and Bond followed the example 
of Laud with every desire of adopting those of Jeffreys. 

Appalling as are the hundred pages of the pamphlet there are 
some touches of humor. Bond was interrupted by Francis 
Estlake (pronounced Islay) and expostulated with him saying, 
that such interruption was contrary to agreement, but without 
effect: "his Sepulchre being opened, he refused to shut it," 
and Bond was obliged to let him have his way. Yet when Bond 
interrupted Estlake he defended himself on the ground that he 
"did not interrupt, but help him" 2 Naturally Bond had little 
respect for the methods of his oponents in argument and states 
that he "has filed off much of the Rust and Ruggedness of his 
expressions, which often wearied the Christian Hearers: For 
it was not only his, but also his Fellow-Disputants course all 
along, here and there to steal, and strangely to disorder, (nay 
to dismember) Scripture words, out of the Evangelists, and the 
Apostles, thereby endeavouring to cover themselves from being 
discovered" 3 — a dangerous and designful practice. Nor was 
the language used by Bond selected for soothing purposes. 
He asked one of his opponents: "Why shouldest thou not be 
whipt by the Christian Magistrate, for this thy notorious and open 
Blasphemy?" 4 Their practices he set forth in this language: 

That they acknowledge no other Baptisme, then of the Holy 
Ghost, and of Fire (which makes many of them (as is supposed) 
so hot, two Wives) calling it their internal warmth, and spiritual 
refreshment: nor no other Lords Supper, than their daily Feasts 
of fat things, which (as they dare say) feed them with heavenly 
joyes, glories, and unspeakable delights; often attended with a 

* Estlake, The Truth of Christ Jesus, 49. In 1667 Estlake "in the twilight or 
night, did repayre to the house of Mr. Hen: Vaughan, Minister, and at those 
seasons aforesaid, did foment severall threatening speeches, to the terror and 
affrightment of his Family with predicting destruction to the Family," and later 
made an attack on Vaughan's church. Lefroy, 11. 250. 

* Page 5. 

3 Page 6. 

4 lb., 59- 



1921.] REV. SAMPSON BOND OF THE BERMUDAS. 313 

dissembled kind of canting-hummings within: a new kind of charm to 
seduce the itching ear, the soft head, with unscriptural novelties: 
so much for their internal and invisible Sacraments. 1 

Some digressions from the argument are of value in measur- 
ing the latitude of Bond's assumed privileges in printing. 

Since that time [i.e. of the public debate], I have been informed 
of the occasion, which invited these words from the sad-Quaker: 
it was thus, discoursing of the old Brigham (a man of the fifth- 
Monarchy persuasion) who said, he hoped to live to see Jesus Christ 
on the Earth, and to shake him by the hand; then F[rancis] E[stlake] 
said, But he (5c. Brigham) should be first sure, that Jesus Christ 
had a hand: Bethels Wife then told him, that Christ had now a hand: 
for I do (said she) Believe that Christ hath now the same body in 
Heaven, which he had when he was upon the Earth: at this ex- 
pression of her Faith, tins frank Quaker was offended, and could not 
forbear, but in plain terms, told her, that she was a Blasphemer, 
(or, had spoken Blasphemy) and withal he further said unto her as 
above, To wit, That if she believed in any other Christ, then in that 
Christ which was within her, she would be damned: O most horrid 
Quakerisme, dig'd out of the bottomless Pit, from whence thou has 
received thy Ordination to be a Teaching, Seducing, and Lying 
Quaker? 

The doctrine of the Quakers of the inner light and their 
asserting that Heaven as well as Hell was within them could not 
be accepted by any other sect, and Bond triumphantly charged 
" that he makes justification from sin, not only a work within 
him, but to be daily wrought in himself by measure, or degrees, 
which assertion of his, is directly contrary to the manifold 
Scriptures of truth." 3 To Bond the Quakers' pretended 
Saviour within him was the false Christ, the Devil. Therefore 
it followed "That the main end of the Quakers Meetings in 
these Islands, is, to make the Lord Christ, his Holy Spirit, his 
Angels and Apostles, all Lyars and false Witnesses of God."- 4 
Finally, " That the Prime Principles of a Quaker, are the 
same which were held and professed by the Beasts, that 

1 Estlake, The Life of Christ Jesus, 66. 

2 A Publick Tryal, 22. 

3 lb., 31. 

4 lb., S4- 



314 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [MAY, 

Paul fought with at Ephesus." * From such arguments only 
one result could follow: 

Having thus Answered, I expected some return; but they were 
all silent: Thereupon Capt. John Hubbart Sherrif, with the Iustices 
of Peace, (as Representees of the Christian part of the Assembly) 
came forth towards me, and openly declared, That they were fully 
satisfied with my Proofs and Answers: The Quakers being thus regu- 
larly found Guilty of the whole charge; the Vast Assembly was 
forthwith peaceably dismissed. 2 

The Reverend Bond was not satisfied with this verdict, re- 
corded on his page 75, but he must add twenty-four more 
pages of discussion of the Quakers' erroneous principles. For- 
tunately it is not necessary to follow him in his wanderings 
among his texts. We may utter a pious wish that his hearers 
and readers of bis day found his arguments more juicy and 
profitable than they appear to-day. 

If he imagined that his verdict and judgment would be ac- 
cepted by the Quakers he was greatly deceived. There was 
no press in the islands and that of Boston would hardly be 
favorable to Estlake and his associates. So they were obliged 
to send to London, where their tract appeared with the follow- 
ing title: A | Bermudas Preacher | Proved A | Persecutor | 
Being a Just | Tryal | of | Sampson Bond's Book, | entituled, 
A Publick Tryal of the Quakers, &c. | Fraught with Fallacies | 
False Doctrine, | Slanders, Railings, Aspersions, Perversions, 
and I other Abuses, herein Detected, Disproved and Wiped off. j 
And that the True Christ is Owned by the People called | 
Quakers, plainly Made Manifest. | . . . | London, Printed 
by John Bringhurst at the Sign of | the Book in Grace-Church- 
street, 1683. 3 

1 Estlake, The Life of Christ Jesus, 66. 

2 lb., 75- 

3 A copy is in the John Carter Brown Library. It is composed of three parts. 
In the first partisan address to the inhabitants of the "Bermudas" by Estlake, 
dated the nth of the 3d Month, 1678; a replie to Bond by William Wilkinson, 
dated, Bermudas the 1st Month, 1683; "A brief | Touch | of the | Deceit | and 
False Doctrine | of | Sampson Bond," signed "R.R."; "Something further in 

Answer to | Jriest Bond's | Lyes, Ignorance and Blasphemy, | In his Book , 

"by John Tysoe. The second part, paged continuously with the first is Estlake's 
"The I Truth | of | Christ Jesus, | With the Professors thereof in the Island of | 
Bermudas, | Commonly called Quakers) | Cleared from the Three Ungodly 
False I Charges charged upon them by Samp. Bond (Teacher | in the said Island) 



192 1.] REV. SAMPSON BOND OF THE BERMUDAS. 315 

Estlake speaks with moderation and defends the Quakers 
in general in their beliefs rather than himself in particular. Yet 
he intimates pointedly that Bond in the discussion had hot 
conducted himself as might have been expected — "he did stop 
and hinder me that time by his Mocks and Scoffs, and deriding 
Speeches, and clamorous Noise; altogether unlike a Preacher 
of the Everlasting Gospel " 1 — a description which bears the marks 
of being true. Wilkinson would not have made reply if Bond 
had used softer terms of him instead of abusing him and the 
truth, using reviling speeches, and calling him a "prater"; 
yet Wilkinson indulges in no abuse himself. R. R., on the other 
hand, opens his remarks with the not overpacific sentence: 
"The mighty strength (as he thinks) of this operative, blind, 
embondaged Sampson/ Bond, lies in his 17th and 66th page 
(wherein he grindes and grins against the Truth of the Gos- 
pel." . . . 2 and soon, with a wealth of comparison and imagery 
that would enrich a professor of rhetoric, if only it could be re- 
duced to order. And again: "Now here this Great Greek 
THRASONICAL SAMPSON, boasting over unlearned Men 
with his Metonymy es and Syllogisms," who ought to be ashamed 
of his "Metonymical, Sarcastical, Synecdochical, Metaphorical, 
Syllogistical, Samsonical Monsters he produces to fight with" 
— one need not quote further. John Tysoe denounces Bond 
as a "blasphemous Wretch " — thus returning his own words — 
a "Blind guide, who leads all into the Ditch that follow thee," 
one who would "through his malice and envy stir up the Magis- 
trates of Bermudas to Whip and Persecute a People that lives 
peaceably amongst them," one "like a proud Pharisee, whose 
Tongue is at liberty, and pratest like a Perrot in thy Book, 
which is stuft with Lies, Ignorance and Blasphemy, against 
God and Christ, his Holy Angels, Prophets and Apostles; 

in a Book, Entituled, | The Quakers in Bermudas Tryed, &c. | In which Book are 
found many Blasphemies, Slanders, false Accusations, false Glosses and Inter- 
pretations, herein | searched and noted in their particular Pages, and examined 
and I confuted with as much brevitie as the matter could well bear. | By a 
Friend and lover of the Truth in the same Island, called, | Francis Estlacke. . . . 
To this he has an "Appendix," with independent paging and signature-marks, 
which I call the third part. Though John Tysoe is said to have suffered persecu- 
tion in the Bermudas there is no allusion to it in Smith's Descriptive Catalogue of 
Friends' Books, where titles of six tracts by him, published from 1662 to 1683, 
are given, and the name is spelled "Tyso." 

1 A Bermudas Preacher, 09. 2 lb., 19. 



316 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [MAY, 

which thou most falsly chargest upon others, in the 54 page; 
but art really found guilty thyself." If it came to flinging 
epithets, strong rather than convincing, Tysoe was a match 
for Bond, and in biting personality more than his equal. His 
final paragraph rises to the pitch of anathema: 

For God hath opened a Spiritual Eye in Thousands, which see 
you thoroughly, and can buy your Merchandize no more, for the 
Light shines, and will shine more and more unto the perfect day, 
and Thousands shall come to the brightness of its rising, and we 
know why you are Angry, and Rage, and Blaspheme at the Light; 
it is because it discovers your Kingdom of Darkness, and your holes 
where you have hid your selves, but your Rage and Fury signifies 
no more than the Doggs barking at the Moon; for the Light will 
shine, and the Day will dawn, and your Darkness must fly away; 
although you may rove [rave?] and make a noise like the Sea, yet 
your Egyptian Tongue must be dryed up, a way hath God prepared 
for his ransomed and redeemed to walk in ; and the Wayfaring-Man, 
though a fool to your earthly-wisdom, yet he shall not err therein, 
Glory to the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb forever, who sits 
upon the Throne, who is and is to come from Everlasting to Ever- 
lasting, who is the antient of Days, who shall stand last upon the 
Earth, when all your Foggs and Mists of Darkness shall be driven 
away into the Pitt from whence it came; Blessed be the Name of 
Christ Jesus who lives for Ever. 1 

Estlake was not content to rest with the brief reply of nine 
pages written in 1678. The second part of A Bermudas 
Preacher is taken up with a treatise by him, with a separate 
title and itself comprising an essay of forty-four pages on The 
Truth of Christ Jesus and an "Appendix" of thirty-eight pages. 2 
This essay was directly called out by Bond's publication and 
is cutting if not slanderous in its free characterization. He 
charged that Bond was "put by a Benefice of 250L a year 
upon the Kings coming in," 3 and Tysoe had also applied to 
him the word "hireling." On Tysoe, Estlake throws some light: 

1 A Bermuda Preacher, 44. 

2 The Truth has paging and signature-marks in continuation of those of A 
Bermudas Preacher, but the " Appendix " is independent in paging and signature- 
marks, yet was printed at the same time as the first parts of the tract. The 
Truth is dated, "Written in Bermudas, the 25th Day of the first Month, 1683." 

3 TheTruth,6i. 



1921.] REV. SAMPSON BOND OF THE BERMUDAS. 317 

And 5. Bond (to bring in, with the rest of your cruelty and in- 
humane Practises) I query of thee, Wast thou not the man who 
instigated and stur'd up the Magistrates in Burmudas to take up 
John Tysoe with a Warrant, and carried him from Constable to 
Constable through great part of the Island to your Town-Prison, 
where he was kept till Banished off your Island? a Man, whom you 
had nothing to lay to his charge, Worthy of Bonds, but for coming 
upon your Island to visit his Friends and people of the Lord, who were 
gathred from your persecuting Spirit, and thy Idolatrous Worships; 
to wait upon the Lord in the Spirit of Truth and Righteousness, 
at which (Cain like) you were angry, and thou in thy malice wast 
stirr'd up to cry out against this Inocent man; (like thy Brethren of 
old, Help men of Israel, the turners of the World upside down are 
come hither also) who, as aforesaid, came with the Love of God in 
his heart to visit his Friends, and did desire the well-being of you all, 
which is Sixteen years ago; and how thou hast behaved thy self 
since it is known to some; but now thou hast made thy self manifest 
in a large measflre, in thy ungodly, Blasphemous Book, which I 
hope will be a means to open the Eyes of some that yet see thee not. 1 

All this comes nearer to New England than would seem pos- 
sible, for New England's name among the Quakers was a 
stench, while Bond had had some connection with New England 
and his book had been printed at Boston. So he was open to 
attack on that score. Tysoe twits him with wishing to stir 
the magistrates in Bermudas to persecution, "like thy Brethren 
in New-England, who have out-done the Pope that we read of 
in our day, in Persecution, in Rifling Houses, in Spoiling of 
Goods, Whipping, cuting off ears, Banishing upon Pain of 
Death, and Murdering and Drinking the Blood of the Servants 
and Martyrs of Christ Jesus; whereby they are become a by- 
word to the Nations." 2 That Bond's book was printed at 
Boston leads Tysoe to say: 

It is very like such a Book might be acceptable in Boston in New- 
England, amongst his Brethren, the Priests and Professors in Boston, 
who encouraged the Printing of Roger Williams Blasphemous Book, 
who said (to wit) Roger Williams, That Christ was a Corruptible 
Man, and his Blood was Corruptible. Fit Companions for Priest 
Bond, and Priest Intret Madder, who said, "He had nothing that was 
Good in him:" But miserable Sheep are they who have no better 

1 "Appendix," 34. 2 lb., 42. 



318 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [May, 

Shepheards then 5. Bond and /. Madder: But we do not charge the 
tender Hearted and moderate People in Boston, but such as have 
been Persecutors and Enemies to the Appearance of God and his 
People, and have besmeared themselves with the Blood of the Inno- 
cent, which will not be wip'd of in Generations to come, no more then 
Caines who slew his Brother, because his works where Righteous, 
and his Evil. 1 

Estlake also gives attention to this particular connection. 

And now, we understanding, that Sam. Bond's Book was Printed 
at Boston, in New-England, by Sam. Green, upon the Assignment of 
S. Sewall; and we being sensible, how forward the New-England 
Priests and Professors are to tolerate and Print such lying and 
slanderous Books against us the people of God, in scorn called 
Quakers, to cover their Wickedness in their persecuting of us, (who 
Hanged four of the said people called Quakres, Cut of the Ears of 
others, Branded with an Hot-Iron, Banished many upon pain of 
Death, and Imprisoned, Beat and Cruelly Whipt many; yea, one 
William Br end, till his body was like a Getty; and besides the spoiling of 
Friends Goods) who promoted the Printing, and tolerated Roger 
Williams's filthy, slanderous Book of Lies against us; We have brought 
forth, and added some of R. Williams's (one of their old Priests in 
N. E.) false and Blasphemous Doctrines concerning Christs Body 
and Blood, which he asserted and maintained openly, at the dispute 
at Rhode-Island in N. England, to the shame of true Christianity, 
as follows: 

These are four Pages, taken out of G. F's and S. B's answer to 
Roger Williams, Entituled, A New-England Fire-Brand quenched, 
part 2. Page 508. [208] and seq. Printed in the year 1670. 2 

What follows is a discussion of no interest to us. On the 
whole a dispassionate review of the discussion rather favors 
the Quakers, and the quality of Bond's abilities is not suffi- 
ciently developed to enable a final judgment to be given. 

1 "Appendix," 43. 

2 This was a book by George Fox and John Bumyeat in answer to Roger 
Williams' George Fox digg'd out of his Burrowes, printed at Boston by John 
Foster, 1676. The New England Fire-Brand appeared in London, in 1679.