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BOSTON 

PUBLIC 

LIBRARY 


THE  MEMORIAL  HISTORY  OF  BOSTON. 


Which  we  have  heard  and  known  and  our  fathers  have  told  us.  We  will  not  hide  them  from 
their  children.  ...  He  commanded  our  fathers,  that  they  should  make  them  known  to  their 
children  ;  that  the  generation  to  come  might  know  them.  —  PSALM  Ixxviii. 

Write  this  for  a  Memorial  in  a  book.  —  EXODUS  xvii.  14. 


LET'  ERSaFIGURES 


Water 
pt\n£s    / 


REFERENCES. 


HILLS. 

A.  Fox  Hill  in  the  Marsh. 

B.  West  Hill.  \          Treamount, 

C.  Gentry,  later  Beacon  Hill,  [180  feet].  later 

D.  Cotton  Hill.  )         Beacon  Hill. 

E.  Windmill  Hill,  Snow  Hill,  later  Copp's  Hill,  [50  feet]. 

F.  Corn  Hill,  later  Fort  Hill,  [80  feet]. 

SITES. 

G.  Watering  Place.     [Pond.] 
H.      Green. 

K.      Springgate. 

L.  First  Meeting-House. 

M.  Open  Market.    • 

N.  Jail. 

P.  School. 

Q.  Mill  Creek,  (partly  excavated,  1643,)  and  South  Mill. 

R.  Ship  here  built  l>y  Nehemiah  Bourne. 

S.  First  Burial  Ground. 

T.  Blackstone's  lot,  (dotted  line). 

V.  North  Mill. 

W.  Drawbridge,  (gave  away,  1659). 

X.  North  Battery,  1646. 

Y.       Tuthill's  Windmill. 

Z.  Gate  and  Defences. 

HOUSES. 

1.  Gov.  Winthrop. 

2.  Rev.  John  Cotton. 

3.  Rev.  John  Wilson. 

4.  Capt.  Robt.  Keayne. 

5.  Edward  Tyng. 

6.  Gov.  Bellingham. 

7.  Samuel  Cole,  (first  tavern.) 

8.  Henry  Dunster. 

9.  Thos.  Savage. 


THE 


MEMORIAL 


HISTORY  OF   BOSTON, 

INCLUDING 

SUFFOLK    COUNTY,    MASSACHUSETTS. 
1630 — 1880. 


EDITED 

BY   JUSTIN     WINSOR, 

/       / 

LIBRARIAN    OF    HARVARD   UNIVERSITY.  ^7       AV     //       *V-  > 

7r-  re 


IN   FOUR  VOLUMES. 


VOL.  I. 


THE   EARLY   AND   COLONIAL   PERIODS. 


Issued  under  the  business  superintendence  of  the  projector, 
CLARENCE  F.  JEWETT. 

g.  C.  C.  H.  LIBRARY 
50  West  Broadway 
South  Boston,  Mass. 

BOSTON: 

JAMES    R.   OSGOOD    AND    COMPANY. 
1881. 


07854 


Copyright,  1880, 
BY  JAMES  R.  OSGOOD  &  Co. 

All  Rights  Reserved. 


PREFACE. 


HPHE  scheme  of  this  History  originated  with  Mr.  CLARENCE  F. 
JEWETT,  who,  towards  the  end  of  December,  1879,  entrusted 
the  further  development  of  the  plan  to  the  Editor.  On  the  third 
of  January  following,  about  thirty  gentlemen  met,  upon  invitation, 
to  give  countenance  to  the  undertaking,  and  at  this  meeting  a 
Committee  was  appointed  to  advise  with  the  Editor  during 
the  progress  of  the  work.  This  Committee  consisted  of  the  Rev. 
EDWARD  E.  HALE,  D.D.,  SAMUEL  A.  GREEN,  M.D.,  and  CHARLES 
DEANE,  LL.D.  The  Editor  desires  to  return  thanks  to  them  for 
their  counsel  in  assigning  the  chapters  to  writers,  and  for  other 
assistance ;  and  to  DR.  DEANE  particularly  for  his  suggestions 
during  the  printing.  Since  Messrs.  JAMES  R.  OSGOOD  &  Co. 
succeeded  to  the  rights  of  Mr.  JEWETT  as  publisher,  the  latter 
gentleman  has  continued  to  exercise  a  supervision  over  the 
business  management. 

The  History  is  cast  on  a  novel  plan,  —  not  so  much  in  being 
a  work  of  co-operation,  but  because,  so  far  as  could  be,  the  several 
themes,  as  sections  of  one  homogeneous  whole,  have  been  treated 
by  those  who  have  some  particular  association  and,  it  may  be,  long 
acquaintance  with  the  subject.  In  the  diversity  of  authors  there 
will  of  course  be  variety  of  opinions,  and  it  has  not  been  thought 
ill-judged,  considering  the  different  points  of  view  assumed  by 
the  various  writers,  that  the  same  events  should  be  interpreted 


Vi  PREFACE. 

sometimes  in  varying,  and  perhaps  opposite,  ways.  The  chapters 
may  thus  make  good  the  poet's  description, — 

"Distinct  as  the  billows,  yet  one  as  the  sea,"  — 

and  may  not  be  the  worse  for  each  offering  a  reflection,  according 
to  its  turn  to  the  light,  without  marring  the  unity  of  the  general 
expanse.  The  Editor  has  endeavored  to  prevent  any  unnecessary 
repetitions,  and  to  provide  against  serious  omissions  of  what  might 
naturally  be  expected  in  a  history  of  its  kind.  He  has  allowed 
sometimes  various  spellings  of  proper  names  to  stand,  rather  than 
abridge  the  writers'  preferences,  in  cases  where  the  practice  is  not 
uniform.  Such  annotations  as  he  has  furnished  upon  the  texts  of 
others  have,  perhaps,  served  to  give  coherency  to  the  plan,  and 
they  have  in  all  cases  been  made  distinctly  apparent.  For  the 
selection  of  the  illustrations,  which,  with  a  very  few  exceptions, 
are  from  new  blocks  and  plates,  Mr.  Jewett  and  the  Editor  are 
mainly  responsible.  Special  acknowledgments  for  assistance  in 
this  and  in  other  ways  are  made  in  foot-notes  throughout  the 
work. 

JUSTIN  WINSOR. 

CAMBRIDGE, 

HARVARD  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY, 
September,  1880. 


CONTENTS    AND    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


FRONTISPIECE.     Boston,  old  and  new,  a  topographical  map     .     .     .     Facing  titlepage 

PREFACE. 


THE  EDITOR  TO  THE  READER 


INTRODUCTION. 
THE  SOURCES  OF  BOSTON'S  HISTORY.     The  Editor xiii 

HISTORICAL  POEM. 

THE  KING'S  MISSIVE,  1661.     John  G.  Whittier. xxv 

ILLUSTRATIONS  :  Boston  Town-house,  Endicott  and  Shattuck,  xxvii ;  the  Jail 
Delivery,  xxviii ;  the  Quakers  on  the  Common,  xxix  ;  the  Great  Windmill 
on  Snow  Hill,  xxx ;  tail-piece,  xxxii. 


$refjtstortc  periotr  anlr  Natural  PH 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE  GEOLOGY  OF  BOSTON  AND  ITS  ENVIRONS.     Nathaniel  Southgate  Shaler      .        i 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  FAUNA  OF  EASTERN  MASSACHUSETTS,     jfoel  A.  Allen 9 

ILLUSTRATION:  The  Great  Auk,  12. 

CHAPTER   III. 

THE  FLORA  OF  BOSTON  AND  ITS  VICINITY.    Asa  Gray 17 

ILLUSTRATION  :  The  Great  Elm  on  Boston  Common,  21. 


viii  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY  EUROPEAN  VOYAGERS  IN  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.     George  Dexter    ...       23 
ILLUSTRATION  :  A  Norse  Ship,  25. 

CHAPTER   II. 
THE  EARLIEST  MAPS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY  AND  BOSTON   HARBOR.     Justin 

Winsor 37 

ILLUSTRATIONS:  Cosa's  Map  (1500),  39;  Stephanius's  Map  (1570),  39;  Fernando 
Columbus's  Map  (1527),  41 ;  French  Map  (1542-43),  43;  Lok's  Map  (i5>S2), 
44;  Hood's  Map  (1592),  45 ;  Wytfliet's  Map  (1597),  45 ;  Champlain's  Map 
(1612),  49;  Lescarbot's  Map  (1612),  heliotype,  49;  John  Smith's  Map  (1614), 
heliotype,  52;  Portrait  of  Smith,  heliotype,  52;  Figurative  Map  (1614),  57; 
Jacobsz's  Map  (1621),  58;  Governor  Winthrop's  Sketch  of  Coast,  61. 

AUTOGRAPHS:  Champlain,  48;  John  Smith,  50;  Isaac  Allerton,  60. 

CHAPTER   III. 

THE  EARLIEST  EXPLORATIONS  AND  SETTLEMENT  OF  BOSTON  HARBOR.     Charles 

Francis  Adams,  Jr. 63 

ILLUSTRATIONS:  Squaw  Rock,  or  Squantum  Head,  64;  Miles  Standish,  65; 
Standish's  Sword  and  a  Matchlock,  66 ;  Blackstone's  Lot,  84. 

AUTOGRAPHS:  Miles  Standish,  63;  Phinehas  Pratt,  70;  Ferdinando  Gorges,  72 ; 
Samuel  Maverick,  78 ;  Thomas  Morton,  82. 


Colonial 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  MASSACHUSETTS  COMPANY.     Samuel  Foster  Haven 87 

ILLUSTRATION  :  Seal  of  the  Council  for  New  England,  92. 
AUTOGRAPH  :  Joshua  Scottow,  97. 

CHAPTER   II. 
BOSTON  FOUNDED.     Robert  C.  Winthrop 99 

ILLUSTRATIONS:  The  Winthrop  Cup,  heliotype,  114;  Plan  of  Ten  Hills  (1636), 
heliotype,  114;  Winthrop's  Fleet,  115;  "Trimountaine  shall  be  called  Bos- 
ton," htliotype,  116;  St.  Botolph's  Church,  117;  First  page  of  the  Town 
Records,  hcliotype,  122;  Sir  Harry  Vane,  125;  John  Winthrop,  137;  Letter 
of  John  Hampden  in  fac-simile,  140. 

AUTOGRAPHS:  Matthew Cradock,  102;  Margaret  Winthrop,  104;  John  Winthrop, 
114;  John  Wilson,  114;  Isaac  Johnson,  114;  Thomas  Dudley,  114;  Hugh 
Peter,  124;  John  Haynes,  124;  Harry  Vane,  125;  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall, 
129;  Richard  Saltonstall,  Jr.,  129. 


CONTENTS.  ix 

CHAPTER   III. 
THE  PURITAN  COMMONWEALTH.     George  E.  Ellis 141 

ILLUSTRATIONS:  John  Cotton,  157;  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  183;  Recantation 
of  Winlock  Christison,  in  fac-simile,  188. 

AUTOGRAPHS:  John  Cotton,  157;  Samuel  Gorton,  170;  Roger  Williams,  171; 
William  Coddington,  174;  William  Aspinwall,  175;  Edward  Rainsford, 
175;  Thomas  Savage,  175;  John  Underhill,  175;  John  Wheelwright,  176; 
John  Clarke,  178;  Mary  Trask,  185;  Margaret  Smith,  185;  William  Dyer, 
186;  Nicholas  Upsall,  187;  Dorothy  Upsall,  187;  William  Greenough,  187; 
Elizabeth  Upsall,  187  ;  Experience  Upsall,  187  ;  Susannah  Upsall,  187. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  RISE  OF  DISSENTING  FAITHS.     Henry  W.  Foote 191 

ILLUSTRATIONS:  Samuel  Willard,  heliotype,  208;  Cotton  Mather,  heliotype,  208; 
Simon  Bradstreet,  209 ;  the  first  King's  Chapel,  214. 

AUTOGRAPHS:  John  Davenport,  193;  Thomas  Thacher,  194;  James  Allen,  194, 
206;  Increase  Mather,  194,  206;  John  Russell,  195  ;  Robert  Ratcliffe,  200; 
John  Eliot,  206;  Samuel  Phillips,  206;  Joshua  Moodey,  206;  Samuel 
Willard,  208. 

CHAPTER  V. 
BOSTON  AND  THE  COLONY.     Charles  C.  Smith 217 

ILLUSTRATION:  The  Old  Aspinwall  House,  221. 
AUTOGRAPH  :  Robert  Keayne,  237. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  INDIANS  OF  EASTERN  MASSACHUSETTS.     George  E.  Ellis 241 

ILLUSTRATIONS:  Charles  Sprague's  Ode  (1830),  in  fac-simile,  246;  Indian  Deed 
of  Boston,  heliotype,  250;  John  Eliot,  the  Apostle,  261. 

AUTOGRAPHS:  John  Mason,  253;  Israel  Stoughton,  253;  Lion  Gardiner,  253; 
Miantonomo,  253;  John  Eliot,  263. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

BOSTON  AND  THE  NEIGHBORING  JURISDICTIONS.     Charles  C.  Smith      .     .     .     .     275 

AUTOGRAPHS:  D'Aulnay,  285;  Edward  Gibbons,  286;  La  Tour,  288;  William 
Hathorne,  292  ;  Daniel  Denison,  292 ;  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies 
(Theophilus  Eaton,  John  Endicott,  John  Haynes,  Stephen  Goodyear,  Her- 
bert Pelham,  Edward  Hopkins,  John  Brown,  Timothy  Hatherly),  300; 
another  group  (Simon  Bradstreet,  Daniel  Denison,  Thomas  Prence,  James 
Cudworth,  John  Mason,  John  Tallcott,  Theophilus  Eaton,  William  Leete), 
301. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

FROM  WINTHROP'S  DEATH  TO  PHILIP'S  WAR.     Thomas  W.  Higginson    .     .     .     303 
ILLUSTRATION  :  John  Endicott,  308. 

AUTOGRAPHS  :  James  Davids,  305 ;  John  Endicott,  307,  308 ;  Richard  Belling- 

ham,  307  ;  Daniel  Gookin,  307. 
VOL.   I.  —  B. 


X  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

CHAPTER   IX. 
PHILIP'S  WAR.     Edward  E.  Hale 


ILLUSTRATIONS:  Secretary  Rawson's  Memorandum  on  Captain  Richard,  313; 
John  Leverett,  315;  Thomas  Savage,  318;  a  part  of  Hubbard's  Map  of  New 
England  (1677),  328. 

AUTOGRAPHS  :  Josiah  Winslow,  311  ;  Wussausman,  311  ;  Richard  Russell,  312; 
Thomas  Danforth,  312  ;  Daniel  Denison,  313;  Samuel  Mosley,  313;  Com- 
missioners of  the  United  Colonies  (Thomas  Danforth,  President,  William 
Stoughton,  Josiah  Winslow,  Thomas  Hinckley,  Jr.,  John  Winthrop,  Wait 
Winthrop),  314  ;  John  Leverett,  316  ;  Thomas  Clark,  316  ;  William  Hudson, 
316;  Thomas  Savage,  316;  John  Hull,  316;  Daniel  Henchman,  316,  317  ; 
James  Oliver,  316;  John  Richards,  316;  Isaac  Johnson,  319;  Thomas 
Wheeler,  320;  Nathaniel  Davenport,  323;  Samuel  Appleton,  323;  William 
Turner,  325;  Philip's  mark,  325. 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE  STRUGGLE  TO  MAINTAIN  THE  CHARTER  OF  KING  CHARLES  THE  FIRST,  AND 

ITS  FINAL  Loss  IN  1684.     Charles  Deane   ...........     329 

ILLUSTRATIONS:  The  Massachusetts  Charter,  heliotype,  329;  Oliver  Cromwell, 
348;  Edward  Rawson,  381. 

AUTOGRAPHS:  Charles  I.,  331  ;  John  Hull,  354;  Royal  Commissioners  (Richard 
Nicolls,  Robert  Carr,  George  Cartwright,  Samuel  Maverick),  358  ;  Richard 
Bellingham,  360  ;  Edmund  Randolph,  364  ;  Charles  II.,  365;  Simon  Brad- 
street,  369  ;  Thomas  Danforth,  369  ;  Joseph  Dudley,  369  ;  Daniel  Gookin, 
Sen.,  369;  William  Stoughton,  369;  Elisha  Hutchinson,  369;  ElishaCooke, 
369;  Samuel  Nowell,  371  ;  James  II.,  380;  Edward  Rawson,  381, 

CHAPTER  XI. 
CHARLESTOWN  IN  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD.     Henry  H.  Edes  .......     383 

ILLUSTRATIONS  :  Order,  Feb.  10,  1634,  establishing  Board  of  Selectmen,  helictyfe, 
388;  Order,  Oct.  13,  1634,  relating  to  lands,  &c.,  heliotype,  388  ;  the  Training- 
Field,  392  ;  John  Harvard's  Monument,  395, 

AUTOGRAPHS:  The  Squaw-Sachem's  mark,  383;  John  Greene,  384;  Richard 
Sprague,  384;  Thomas  Walford's  mark,  384  ;  Thomas  Graves,  surveyor, 
385;  Walter  Palmer,  386;  Thomas  Coitmore,  388;  Thomas  Lynde,  389; 
Samuel  Adams,  389;  Thomas  Graves,  the  admiral,  389;  Edward  Burt,  389; 
James  Gary,  390;  John  Newell,  390;  Abraham  Palmer,  391  ;  John  Edes, 
392  ;  Edward  Converse,  393  ;  Robert  Long,  393  ;  Increase  Nowell,  394  ; 
Zechariah  Symmes,  394  ;  Thomas  Goold,  396  ;  Thomas  Shepard,  396  ;  John 
Greene,  396;  John  Morley,  397;  Ezekiel  Cheever,  397  ;  Samuel  Phipps,  397; 
Lawrence  Hammond,  399;  Richard  Sprague,  the  younger,  399;  Robert 
Sedgwick,  399;  Francis  Norton,  399;  Francis  Willoughby,  399;  Richard 
Russell,  399. 

CHAPTER  XII. 
ROXBURY  IN  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD.     Francis  S.  Drake  ........     401 

ILLUSTRATIONS  :  William  Pynchon,  404  ;  the  Curtis  Homestead,  406  ;  John 
Eliot's  Chair,  415;  Certificate  signed  by  John  Eliot  and  Samuel  Danforth, 
416. 

AUTOGRAPHS:  William  Pyncheon,  404;  John  Eliot,  414  ;  Thomas  Dudley,  417. 


CONTENTS.  xi 


CHAPTER   XIII. 
DORCHESTER  IN  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD.     Samuel  J.  Barrows 423 

ILLUSTRATIONS:  Pierce  House,  431;  Minot  House,  432;  Blake  House,  433; 
Tolman  House,  434  ;  Bridgham  House,  435 ;  Richard  Mather,  437, 

AUTOGRAPHS  :  Roger  Clap,  428  ;  Humphrey  Atherton,  428;  James  Parker,  428 ; 
Richard  Mather,  438 ;  George  Minot,  438 ;  Henry  Withington,  438. 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
BRIGHTON  IN  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD.    Francis  S.  Drake 439 

CHAFFER  XV. 

WlNNISIMMET,    RUMNEY   MARSH,  AND   PULLEN    POINT   IN  THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 

Mellen  Chamberlain 445 

ILLUSTRATIONS:  Deane  Winthrop  House,  447;  Yeaman  House,  448;  Floyd 
Mansion,  450. 

AUTOGRAPHS  :  Proprietors  (Robert  Keayne,  John  Cogan,  John  Newgate,  James 
Penn,  Samuel  Cole,  George  Burden),  451. 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD.     Justin  Winsor 453 

ILLUSTRATIONS  :  Title  of  first  book  printed  in  Boston,  457  ;  Memorandum  of 
Richard  Mather,  458  ;  Stanza  signed  by  Benjamin  Tompson,  460, 

AUTOGRAPHS:  Jose  Glover,  455;  Stephen  Daye,  455;  Henry  Dunster,  456; 
Samuel  Green,  456;  Marmaduke  Johnson,  456;  John  Foster,  456;  Richard 
Mather,  458  ;  Thomas  Weld,  458  ;  Anne  Bradstreet,  461  ;  Michael  Wiggles- 
worth,  461  ;  Thomas  Shepard,  462 ;  Edward  Johnson,  463. 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
THE  INDIAN  TONGUE  AND  ITS  LITERATURE.     J.  Hammond  Trumbull     .     .     .     465 

ILLUSTRATIONS  :  Title  to  the  Indian  Bible,  469;  the  Massachusetts  Psalter,  476; 
the  Indian  Primer,  478. 

AUTOGRAPHS:  John  Cotton  the  younger,  470;  James  Printer,  477, 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
LIFE  IN-  BOSTON  IN  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD.     Horace  E.  Scudder 48 1 

ILLUSTRATIONS:  Bill  of  Lading  (1632),  490;  Adam  Winthrop's  Pot,  491;  the 
Stocks,  506;  the  Pillory,  507;  Rebecca  Rawson,  519. 

AUTOGRAPHS:  Samuel  Cole,  493;  George  Monck,  494;  Nehemiah  Bourne,  498; 
Hezekiah  Usher,  500;  John  Usher,  500;  John  Dunton,  500;  Samuel  Fuller, 
501. 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
TOPOGRAPHY  AND  LANDMARKS  OF  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD.     Edwin  L.  Bynner .     521 

ILLUSTRATIONS  :  Wood's  Map  of  Boston  and  Vicinity  (1634),  524 ;  the  Tramount, 
525;  section  of  Bonner's  Map  (1722),  526;  Plan  of  the  Summit  of  Beacon 
Hill,  527  ;  West  Hill  in  1775,  528;  the  Old  Feather  Store,  547;  Old  House 
in  Salem  Street,  551. 


xii  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

CHAPTER  XX. 
BOSTON  FAMILIES  PRIOR  TO  1700.     William  H.  Whitmore 557 

ILLUSTRATIONS  :  Isaac  Addington,  576 ;  Mrs.  Jane  Addington,  577  ;  Simeon 
Stoddard,  583 ;  Colonel  Samuel  Shrimpton,  584 ;  Mrs.  Shrimpton,  585 ; 
Increase  Mather,  587. 

AUTOGRAPHS  :  Isaac  Addington,  575;  Penn  Townsend,  575  ;  Humphrey  Davie, 
578 ;  Edward  Hutchinson,  579 ;  Peter  Oliver,  580 ;  Thomas  Brattle,  580 ; 
Edward  Tyng,  581;  Anthony  Stoddard,  583;  Samuel  Shrimpton,  584; 
Peter  Sergeant,  585 ;  Increase  Mather,  587  ;  Crescentius  Matherus,  587. 


INDEX 589 


INTRODUCTION. 


"\  T  7  HEN,  in  1730,  a  hundred  years  had  passed  from  the  foundation 
*  *  of  the  town,  a  commemoration  was  proposed ;  but  the  community 
was  then  suffering  under  a  visitation  of  the  small-pox,  and  the  anniversary 
was  not  observed,  except  by  one  or  two  pulpit  ministrations.  The  Rev. 
Mr.  Foxcroft  preached  a  century  sermon 1  at  the  First  Church,  and  Thomas 
Prince,  in  the  previous  May,  made  the  annual  election  sermon2  an  admoni- 
tion of  the  event.  A  fit  celebration,  however,  took  place  on  the  second 
centennial,  in  1830,  and  Josiah  Quincy  —  who,  after  he  had  left  the  chief 
magistracy  of  the  city,  had  taken  the  presidency  of  the  neighboring  uni- 
versity—  was  selected  to  deliver  an  address  in  the  Old  South,  and  Charles 
Sprague,  who  had  shown  his  powers  on  more  than  one  earlier  occasion, 
read  the  ode,3  which  is  preserved  in  the  volume  of  his  Writings.  The 
address  was  printed,  and  in  some  sort  it  became  the  basis  of  The  Municipal 
History  of  Boston  which  Mr.  Quincy  printed  in  1852.  This  volume  gives 
a  full  exposition  of  the  city's  history  after  the  town  obtained  a  charter,  and 
during  the  administrations  of  the  first  and  second  mayors  (Phillips  and 
Quincy) ;  but  it  contains  only  a  cursory  sketch  of  the  earlier  chronicles.4 
This  part  of  its  story,  however,  had  already  been  but  recently  told. 

As   early  as    1794   Thomas   Pemberton    printed  A    Topographical  and 

* 

Historical  Description  of  Boston?  A  limit  of  sixty  pages,  however,  could 
afford  only  a  glimpse  of  the  town's  history.  It  nevertheless  formed  the 
basis  upon  which  Charles  Shaw  worked,  as  shown  in  his  little  duodecimo 

1  Ohservations,  Historical  and  Practical,  on  8  A  fac-simile  of  a  part  of  this  ode  is  given 

the  Rise  and  Primitive  State  of  Arew  England,  on  p.  246. 

with  a  special  reference  to  the  old  or  first  gathered  4  Edmund    Quincy,    Life  of  Josiah    Quincy, 

Church  in  Boston.  pp.  444,  501. 

-   The  People  of  New  England  put  in  mind          5  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  iii.  241-304.     There  are 

of  the  Righteous  Acts  of  the  Lord  to  them  and  manuscripts   of    Pemberton's    in    the  Society's 

their  Fathers.  Cabinet. 


XIV  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

of  31 1  pages  which  he  published  in  1817*  under  the  same  title,  A  Topo- 
graphical and  Historical  Description  of  Boston.  In  1821  Mr.  J.  G.  Hales, 
to  whom  we  owe  the  most  important  map  of  Boston  issued  in  his  day, 
published  a  little  descriptive  Survey  of  Boston  and  Vicinity.  Four  years 
later,  in  1825,  Dr.  Caleb  Hopkins  Snow  printed  his  History  of  Boston,  to 
which  an  appendix  was  subsequently  added,  and  in  1828  what  is  called  a 
second  edition  seems  to  have  been  merely  a  reissue  of  the  same  sheets 
with  a  new  title  2  and  index,  to  satisfy  the  interest,  perhaps,  arising  from 
the  approaching  centennial.  Snow's  labor  was  creditable,  and  his  examina- 
tion of  the  records  in  regard  to  the  sites  of  the  early  settlers'  habitations 
and  other  landmarks  was  careful  enough  to  make  his  work  still  useful.3 
The  next  year,  1829,  Bowen,  its  publisher,  issued  his  own  Picture  of  Bos- 
ton? which  proved  the  precursor  of  numerous  guide-books.5  In  1848 
Nathaniel  Dearborn  printed  his  Boston  Notions,  a  medley  of  statistics  and 
historical  descriptions;  and  in  the  same  year,  1852,  in  which  Quincy's  J\Iun- 
icipal  History,  already  mentioned,  appeared,  Samuel  G.  Drake  began  the 
publication  of  his  History  and  Antiquities  of  Boston,  which  was  issued  at 
intervals  in  parts,  till  the  annals  —  for  this  was  the  form  it  took  —  were 
brought  down  to  1770,  when  the  publication  ceased,  in  i856.6  No  further 
special  contribution  of  any  importance 1  appeared  till  the  late  Dr.  Nathaniel 
Bradstreet  Shurtleff  published,  under  sanction  of  the  city,  during  his  mayor- 
alty, A  Topographical  and  Historical  Description  of  Boston.  The  volume  is 
principally  made  up  of  papers  previously  published,  chiefly  in  the  Boston 
Saturday  Evening  Gazette,  which  had  been  amended  and  enlarged.  They 
relate  to  various  topographical  features  of  the  town  and  harbor,  forming 
a  collection  of  valuable  monographs,  but  in  no  wise  covering  even  that  re- 
stricted field.  Two  years  later,  in  1873,  Mr.  Samuel  Adams  Drake,  a  son 
of  the  elder  annalist,  printed  an  interesting  volume,  The  Old  Landmarks 
and  Historic  Personages  of  Boston,  in  which  the  reader  is  taken  a  course 
through  the  city,  while  the  old  sites  are  pointed  out  to  him,  and  he  is 

1  Reprinted  in  1818  and  1843.  American  Review,  vol.  Ixxxiii.,  by  William   H. 

2  A  History  of  Boston,  the  Metropolis  of  Mas-  Whitmore.     Lucius  Manlius  Sargent  printed  a 
saf/iusf Its,  front  Us  Origin  to  the  Present  Period,  little  tract,  Notices  of  Histories  of  Boston,  in  1857. 
with  some  account  of  the  Environs.     Boston :  A.  The  City  Government  had  taken  steps  to  print 
Bowen.     1828.  a  continuation  of  Drake,  when  his  death  put  a 

8  Dr.   Snow  also  published,  in  1830,  a  Geog-  stop  to  the  project. 

raphy  of  Boston,  with  Historical  Notes,  for  the          7  There  was  a  small  History  of  Boston,  by  J. 

younger  class  of  readers.     He  died  in   1835,  at  S.  Homans,  published   in   1856,  and  an  anony- 

less  than  forty  years  of  age.  mous  Historical  Sketch  in  1861,  beside  others  of 

4  Other  editions  in  1833  and  1838.  even  less  interest.     The  account  of  Boston  in 

5  Among  them  may  be  classed  Boston  Sights,  the  ninth  edition  of  the  Encyclopedia  Brilnnniiu 
by  David  Pulsifer,  1859.  is  by  the  Rev.  G.  E.  Ellis,  D.D.      A   Boston 

6  An  examination  of  it  was  made  in  the  North  Antiquarian  Club  has  recently  been  founded. 


INTRODUCTION.  XV 

edified  with  the  story  of  their  associations.  This  is  the  last  acquisition 
to  the  illustrative  literature  of  Boston,  apart  from  the  numerous  guide- 
books which  have  filled  from  time  to  time  their  temporary  mission. 

The  outlying  districts  of  Boston  have  each  had  their  historians.  A  large 
History  of  East  Boston,  with  Biographical  Sketches  of  its  early  Proprietors 
was  printed  by  the  late  General  William  H.  Sumner  in  1858,  the  author 
being  a  descendant  of  the  Shrimptons  and  other  early  occupants  and  pro- 
prietors of  the  island.  A  History  of  South  Boston,  by  Thomas  C.  Simonds, 
was  published  in  1857.  General  H.  A.  S.  Dearborn  delivered  a  second  cen- 
tennial address  at  Roxbury  in  1830.  Mr.  C.  M.  Ellis  issued  a  History  of  Rox- 
bury  Town  in  1847.  Mr.  Francis  S.  Drake,  another  son  of  the  annalist,  did 
for  Roxbury  much  the  same  service  that  his  brother  had  done  for  the  orig- 
inal Boston,  when  The  Town  of  Roxbury,  its  Memorable  Persons  and  Places, 
appeared  in  1878.  For  Dorchester,  there  is  the  History  published  by  the 
Dorchester  Historical  and  Antiquarian  Society,  and  other  publications 
bearing  their  approval,  which  are  enumerated  in  another  part  of  the  present 
volume.1  Of  Brighton  there  is  no  distinct  history ;  but  a  sketch  prepared 
by  the  Rev.  Frederic  A.  Whitney  forms  part  of  the  recently  published  His- 
tory of  Middlesex  County,  which  contains  also  a  brief  sketch  of  Charles- 
town.  This  is  based  in  good  part,  as  all  accounts  of  that  town  must  be  for 
the  period  ending  with  the  Revolution,  on  the  History  of  Charlestown,  by 
Richard  Frothingham,  the  publication  of  which  was  begun  in  numbers  in 
1845  and  never  finished,  —  seven  numbers  only  being  published.  A  very 
elaborate  work,  The  Genealogies  and  Estates  of  Charlestown  by  Thomas 
Bellows  Wyman,  the  result  of  nearly  forty  years'  application  to  the  subject, 
was  published  in  1879,  the  year  following  the  author's  death,  the  editing  of 
it  having  been  completed  by  Mr.  Henry  H.  Edes.  Mention  should  also  be 
made  of  the  earlier  Historical  Sketch  by  Dr.  Bartlett,  1814,  and  Mr.  Everett's 
commemoration  of  the  second  centennial  in  i83O.2  Those  regions,  no  longer 
within  the  limits  of  Boston  but  once  a  part  of  the  town,  have  also  their 
special  records.  Muddy  River,  now  Brookline,  has  had  its  history  set  forth 
in  several  discourses  by  the  late  venerable  Dr.  Pierce,  in  an  address  by  the 
Hon.  R.  C.  Winthrop,  and  in  the  more  formal  Historical  Sketches  by  H.  F. 
Woods.  The  Records  of  Muddy  River,  extracted  in  part  from  the  Boston 
Records,  have  also  been  printed  by  the  town.  Mount  Wollaston,  or  "  The 
Mount "  as  it  was  usually  called  when  the  people  of  Boston  had  their  farms 
there,  has  recently  given  occasion  to  an  elaborate  History  of  Old  Brain  tree 

1  The  church  history  of  Dorchester  has  been  2  The  church  history  of  Charlestown  has 
specially  commemorated  by  Harris,  Pierce,  Cod-  been  particularly  elucidated  by  Budington, 
man,  Hall,  Allen,  Means,  and  Barrows.  Ellis,  Hunnewell,  and  Edes. 


XVI  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

and  Quincy,  by  William  S.  Pattee,  1878,  while  there  have  been  earlier  con- 
tributions by  Hancock,  Lunt,  Storrs,  Whitney,  and  Adams.  Of  Pullen 
Point  and  Winnissimet  there  have  been  no  formal  records  printed. 

As  full  a  list  as  has  ever  been  printed  of  the  great  variety  of  local 
publications  which  must  contribute  to  the  completeness  of  the  history  of 
Boston  has  been  given  by  Mr.  Frederic  B.  Perkins,  in  his  Check-list  of 
American  Local  History,  1876,  many  of  which  titles,  of  particular  applica- 
tion, will  be  referred  to  in  the  foot-notes  and  editorial  annotations  through- 
out these  volumes. 

Chief  among  such  are  the  numerous  discourses  and  other  monographs 
which  have  been  given  to  the  history  of  the  churches  of  Boston.1  Their 
history  has  also  been  made  a  part  of  such  general  accounts  of  the  progress 
of  religious  belief  in  New  England  as  Felt's  Ecclesiastical  History.  This  is 
in  the  form  of  annals;  and  John  Eliot's  "  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Plymouth 
and  Massachusetts,"  as  begun  in  the  Mass.  Hist.  Collections,  vii.,  has  a  similar 
scope.  In  this  place  it  would  be  unpardonable  to  overlook  one  or  two  chap- 
ters of  the  elaborate  treatises  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  M.  Dexter  on  Con- 
gregationalism as  seen  in  its  Literature?'  Boston  formed  so  considerable  a 
part  of  the  colony,  and  the  theocracy  which  ruled  its  people  influenced 
so  largely  their  history,  that  it  is  not  easy  to  separate  wholly  the  local  from 
the  general,  and  it  certainly  was  not  done  by  the  earlier  writers.  Win- 
throp's  Journal,  which  is  called,  however,  in  the  printed  book,  a  History 
of  New  England,  tells  us  more  than  we  get  elsewhere  of  the  course  of 
events  in  Boston  for  nearly  twenty  years  after  the  settlement.3  This  can 

1  The  principal  of  these  are  here  enumerated :  1877.     Trinity, —  Brooks.    Smith  Congregational, 

On  the  First  Church,— Foxcroft,  1730 ;  Emerson,  — Hale.     Twelfth  Congregational, — Barrett,  1850 ; 

1812;  N.   L.   Frothingham,  1830,   1850;    Rufus  Pray,    1863.      Park    Street,  —  Semi-centennial, 

Ellis,  1868,  1869, 1873.     Second,  or  Old  North, —  1861.      Bulfinch    Street,  —  Alger,    1861.      First 

Ware,  1821;    Robbins,  1844,  1845,   1850,   1852,  Universalist, —  Silloway,   1864.      New  South, — 

1858.      Third,  or   Old  South,  —  Austin,    1803;  Ellis,    1865.     Church   of  the   Advent,  —  Bolles, 

Wisner,  1830;  Armstrong,  1841 ;  Blagden,  1870;  1860,  &c.     Coggeshall's  discourse  on  the  intro- 

and  Manning;  a  history  of  the  meeting-house  by  duction  of  Methodism  into  Boston.     Cf.  articles 

Burdett,  1877.     New  North,  —  Eliot,  1804,  1822;  in  the  Amer.  Quarterly  Register,  vii.,  and  Boston 

Parkman,  1814,   1839,  1843,  1849;  Fuller,  1854.  Almanac,  1843  and  1854. 

Manifesto,  or  Brattle  Square,  Church,  —  Thacher,  2   The  Congregationalism  of  the  last  three  hun- 

1800;     Palfrey,     1825;     Lothrop,     1851,    1871.  dred years  as  seen  in  its  Literature,  New  York, 

Kings  Chapel,  —  Greenwood,  1833;  Foote,  1873.  1880.     In  an  appendix  there  is  a  bibliography 

Christ  Church,  —  Eaton,  1820,  1824;  Burroughs,  of    the    subject,  giving  7,250    titles,  arranged 

1874.    First  Baptist,— Neale,  1865.    West  Church,  chronologically,  —  a  most  valuable  contribution, 

—  Lowell,  1820,  1831,  1845;   Bartol,  1867,  1877.  showing  most  of  the  books  one  must  consult 
Federal  and  Arlington   Street,  —  Davis,    1824  ;  on  the  early  history  of  Boston. 

Gannett,  1860,  1864;  the  lives  of  Channing  and  3  It  was  first  printed  in   Hartford  in  1790, 

Gannett.     Essex  Street  Church,  —  Sabine,  1823,  from  a  copy  collated  with  the  original  but  in- 

and  the  memorial  volume,  1860.     Second  Baptist,  complete,  as  the  third  volume  of  the  manuscript 

—  Baldwin,  1824, 1841.    Hollis  Street,  —  Chancy,  was  not  then  known  to  be  in  existence,  though 


INTRODUCTION. 


XV11 


best  be  supplemented  by  the  convenient  group  of  contemporary  writings 
which  the  Rev.  Alexander  Young,  D.D.,  gathered  in  his  Chronicles  of  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay,  1623-36,  and  by  a  part  of  the  documents  which  Hazard 
printed  in  his  Historical  Collections,  and  Hutchinson  published  in  1769  in 
his  Collection '  of  Original  Papers^  to  fortify  his  history.  Of  the  early 
accounts  by  Wood,  Lechford,  Johnson,  Josselyn,  and  others,  and  of  such 
diaries  as  Hull's  and  Sewall's,  mention  is  elsewhere  made.  Although  some 
of  these  were  in  print  when  Hubbard  wrote  his  History  of  New  England, 
it  was  from  the  manuscript  of  Winthrop's  Journal  that  this  old  historian 
filched  pretty  much  all  that  was  valuable  in  his  narrative;  and  for  the 
thirty  years  that  he  continued  it  beyond  Winthrop's  death,  Dr.  Palfrey, 
following  Hutchinson's  judgment,  calls  his  book  "good  for  nothing,"  — 
a  decision,  perhaps,  too  denunciatory.  Every  historical  student,  however, 
recognizes  the  great  importance  of  Hubbard  for  the  period  before  Win- 
throp  took  up  the  story,  and  for  which  Hubbard  must  have  had  material 
at  first  hand.2  Before  the  printing  of  Winthrop,  Hubbard  was  looked  upon 
as  an  original  authority,  but  the  recovery  of  his  preface  shows  that  he 
urged  no  claims  but  those  of  a  compiler  of  "  the  original  manuscripts  of 
such  as  had  the  managing  of  those  affairs,"  &c. 

First  among  the  books  whose  authors  were  indebted  to  Hubbard  comes 


Prince  is  supposed  to  have  had  the  three  volumes 
in  his  keeping  in  1754,  and  to  have  used  them  in 
his  Chronology.  This  third  volume,  covering 
the  last  four  years  of  Winthrop's  life,  was  dis- 
covered among  the  Prince  manuscripts  about 
1815,  and  was  shortly  after  surrendered  to  the 
Winthrop  family,  in  whose  custody  the  other 
volumes  were.  Savage  used  it,  however,  in 
preparing  his  valuable  edition  of  the  entire 
manuscript  (cf.  Mr.  Hillard's  "  Memoir  of  Sav- 
age," in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  March,  1878, 
p.  135) ;  but  while  the  volumes  were  in  his 
hands,  the  fire  occurred  in  Court  Street  in  1825, 
in  which  the  second  volume  was  burned.  The 
first  and  third  volumes  are  now  in  the  cabinet  of 
the  Historical  Society.  See  their  Proceedings, 
June,  1872.  The  original  letters  of  Winthrop 
and  others,  which  Mr.  Savage  printed  in  his  ap- 
pendix, have  recently  become  the  property  of 
the  same  Society.  These  and  other  letters  and 
papers  of  the  early  Winthrops,  brought  to  light 
of  late  years,  and  printed  in  the  Society's  Collec- 
tions, as  noted  elsewhere,  were  used  in  the  Hon. 
R.  C.  Winthrop's  Life  and  Letters  of  John  ITi/i- 
throp,  which,  with  the  papers,  have  been  the 
subject  of  numerous  reviews  :  No.  Amer.  AVz'., 
January,  1864,  and  January  and  October,  1867  ; 
VOL.  I.  —  C. 


Atlantic  Monthly,  January,  1864,  and  February, 
1867;  ffar/>er'sM0ntAfy,November,  1876;  Black- 
wood's  Magazine,  August,  1867  >  Annual  Register, 
1867  ;  Rwue  Britannique,  &c.  Additional  refer- 
ences are  given  in  Allibone's  Dictionary. 

1  This  was  reprinted  by  the  Prince  Society  in 
1865,  under  the  care  of   W.  H-  Whitmore  and 
W.  S.  Appleton.     Other  papers  of  Hutchinson 
are  printed  in  2  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  x.,  and  third 
series,  vol.  i.     The  Proceedings,  February,  1868, 
and  January,   1874,  of  the   Society  contain  ac- 
counts of  the  controversy  which  preceded  the 
transfer  of  these  papers  to  the  State  Archives. 
Cf.  also,  ibid.  ii.  438. 

2  It  was  not  printed  till  1815,  and  again  in  1848, 
in  2  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  v.  and  vi.    Savage,  Winthrop, 
i-  357-      The  Historical  Society  has  the  rough 
draft  and  the  corrected  copy  of  Hubbard's  man- 
uscript, and  has  recently  printed  some  opening 
and  concluding  pages  of  it,  which  had  long  been 
missing,  until  procured  from  England  by  Dr.  F. 
E.  Oliver.     It   would   seem   that   the  Society's 
copy,  when  perfect,  had  been  copied  by  Judge 
Peter  Oliver,  and  it  is  from  his  transcript  that 
the  text  is  completed.     Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc., 
August,  1814,  and  February,  1878.     Sibley,  Har- 
vard Graduates,  p.  56. 


XV111 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY    OF   BOSTON. 


Cotton  Mather's  Magnalia  Christi  Americana:  The  first  book  of  the  New- 
English  History,  reporting  tlie  Design  wJicrcon,  tlte  Manner  wherein,  and  the 
People  whereby,  the  several  colonies  of  New  England  were  planted.  This 
book  is  an  anomaly,  even  in  those  times  of  anomalous  books.  It  was  pub- 
lished in  London  in  1702,  in  a  huge  folio,  but  the  introduction  bears 
date  Oct.  16,  1697.  While  there  is  much  that  is  valuable  in  its  hetero- 
geneous contents,  there  is  not  a  little  that  is  absurd  and  irrelevant.  It 
is  largely  made  up  of  earlier  separate  publications  of  its  author,1  and 
gives  us  the  chief  accounts  we  have  of  the  lives  of  several  of  the  Boston 
ministers,  —  Cotton,  Wilson,  Norton,  Davenport,  and  others. 

« 

Next,  there  is  a  similar  acknowledgment  to  Hubbard  due  from  Thomas 
Prince,  the  pastor  of  the  Old  South,  for  the  use  he  made  of  him  in  his 
Chronological  History  of  New  England?  This  work,  as  published,  ex- 
tends only  over  the  earliest  years  of  Boston's  history,  not  going  beyond 
1633,  as  the  author,  seeking  a  start,  began  with  the  Flood.  In  his  pre- 
face he  enumerates  the  manuscripts  he  had  used,  and  his  paragraphs  are 
credited  to  their  sources. 


1  It  has  since  been  reprinted  in  this  country, 
in  1820  and  in  1853.  Mr.  Deane  has  indicated 
the  light  thrown  upon  it  by  Mather's  diary  in 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  December,  1862.  Cf.  Mr. 
"Winthrop's  apt  characterization  of  the  book  in 
his  lecture  of  the  Lowell  Institute  course,  p.  21. 
Dunton,  the  London  bookseller  who  came  to 
Boston,  says  of  Mather  and  his  book :  "  His 
library  is  very  large  and  numerous,  but  had  his 
books  been  fewer  when  he  writ  his  history, 
't  would  have  pleased  us  better ; "  and  again  he 
speaks  of  Mather's  library  as  "the  glory  of  New 
England,  if  not  of  all  America.  I  am  sure 
it  was  the  best  sight  that  I  had  in  Boston." 
Some  part  of  this  library,  as  is  well  known,  is 
now  in  the  possession  of  the  American  Anti- 
quarian Society  at  Worcester,  and  fragments  of 
it  even  to  this  day  occasionally  find  their  way 
into  public  sales  or  dealer's  catalogues.  The 
Mather  manuscripts  in  the  library  of  that  Soci- 
ety are  described  in  their  Proceedings,  April  30, 
1873,  p.  22.  The  papers  known  as  the  Mather 
manuscripts,  belonging  to  the  Prince  Library, 
have  been  fully  calendared  in  the  catalogue  of 
that  library,  and'  the  best  part  of  them  printed 
in  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  viii.  Some  part  of  the 
diaries  of  Increase  and  Cotton  Mather  are  pre- 
served in  the  Historical  Society's  cabinet.  — 
Proceedings,  March,  1858,  and  April,  1868.  Other 
portions  are  in  the  library  of  the  American 
Antiquarian  Society  at  Worcester.  It  does 


not  seem  likely  that  they  will  be  printed  until 
men  are  better  pleased  with  confessions  of  short- 
comings and  with  the  display  of  self-debase- 
ment. Drake,  in  his  introduction  to  Increase 
Mather's  History  of  Philip' }s  War,  speaks  of  the 
Mather  library  as  the  product  of  the  care  of  four 
generations,  and  refers  to  some  letters  of  Sam- 
uel Mather,  D.D.,  the  last  of  the  four,  which 
were  a  part  of  a  MS.  volume  afterwards  noted 
in  the  Brinley  Catalogue,  No.  1,329.  Accepting 
the  statements  of  these  letters,  it  appears  that 
Samuel  Mather  furnished  Hutchinson  "with 
most  of  the  material  of  which  his  history  was 
composed."  His  son  says  of  the  library,  that  it 
was  "by  far  the  most  valuable  part  of  the  family 
property.  In  consisted  of  7,000  or  8,000  volumes 
of  the  most  curious  and  chosen  authors,  and  a 
prodigious  number  of  valuable  manuscripts, 
which  had  been  collected  by  my  ancestors  for 
five  generations."  A  considerable  portion,  if 
not  the  whole,  of  Increase  Mather's  library  is 
said  to  have  been  burned  in  the  destruction 
of  Charlestown  in  1775. 

2  The  first  volume  was  published  in  1736, 
and  a  second  volume  was  begun  in  1755,  of 
which  only  three  serial  numbers  were  issued 
before  the  author's  death.  The  completed  vol- 
ume is  not  a  scarce  book,  but  the  subsequent 
parts  had  become  so  rare  that  it  was  deemed 
desirable  to  reprint  them  in  2  Mass.  Hist. 
Coll.  vii. 


INTRODUCTION.  XIX 

Great  value  must  confessedly  be  put  upon  Governor  Hutchinson's  His- 
tory of  Massachusetts  Bay.  No  one  before  his  day,  and  perhaps  no  one 
since,  has  had  reflected  on  him  more  credit  as  a  local  historian.  His  first 
volume  was  published  in  1764,  and  was  the  subject  of  a  correspondence, 
preserved  to  us,1  between  the  author  and  Dr.  Stiles.  His  second  volume 
was  nearly  ready  for  the  press  when  his  house  was  sacked  by  a  mob,  Aug. 
26,  1765.  He  left  the  manuscript  to  its  fate,  as  he  bore  off  a  daughter  from 
their  fury;  thrown  into  the  street,  it  was  saved  by  the  interposition  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Andrew  Eliot,  and  was  not  so  much  injured  but  that  the  author 
readily  repaired  the  loss:  it  was  printed  in  1767,  bringing  the  story  down  to 
1749.  A  third  volume  —  detailing  events  preceding  the  Revolution  with  a 
surprising  fairness  when  we  consider  the  treatment  he  had  received,  and  of 
course  without  sympathy  for  the  patriot  cause  —  was  not  published  till 
long  after  its  author's  death  (1780),  when  a  grandson,  at  the  instigation  of 
some  Boston  gentlemen,  gave  it  to  the  world  in  i828.2 

It  is  not  worth  while  to  enumerate  here  a  long  list  of  histories,  all  more 
or  less  general  as  regards  our  State  and  country,  but  all  throwing  light  in 
considerable  sections  upon  our  own  Boston  history,  and  which  the  eager 
student  of  her  fameful  annals  will  not  neglect,  —  the  histories  of  New 
England  by  Neal,  Backus,  Palfrey  (hardly  to  be  surpassed),  and  Elliott; 
those  of  Massachusetts  by  Barry  (the  completest),  Minot,  and  Bradford, 
not  to  mention  other  works.  Of  the  foreign  writers,  who  in  days  not  recent 
have  visited  Boston  and  left  accounts  of  the  town,  there  are  enumerations 
in  Shurtleff's  Description  of  Boston,  and  in  Henry  T.  Tuckerman's  America 
and  her  Commentators,  with  extracts  from  such  narratives. 

The  Commonwealth  has  done  its  work  nobly  in  causing  the  printing 
of  those  early  records,3  to  which  the  historian  of  Boston  must  constantly 
resort.  In  our  State  House,  too,  are  tier  upon  tier  of  volumes,  labelled 
"  Massachusetts  Archives,"  so  arranged,  indeed,  in  an  attempted  classifi- 
cation,4 that  it  is  irksome  and  unsatisfactory  to  consult  them.  They  are 
rich,  however,  to  the  patient  inquirer  in  the  evidences  of  Boston's  power 
and  significance  in  our  colonial  history.  The  city  has,  fortunately,  estab- 

1  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Keg.,  April,  1872.  8  Records  of  Mass.  Bay,  1628-86,  edited  by 

2  Charles  Deane  has  traced  the  bibliography  N.  B.  Shurtleff,  Boston,  1855-57,  in  six  volumes, 
of  Hutchinson's  historical  writings  in  the  Hist.  The  transcription  for  the  printer  was  made  by 
Mag.  \.  97,  or  with  revision  in  the  Mass.  Hist.  David   Pulsifer.     Cf.   Mass.   Hist.   Soc.,  Lowell 
Sac.  Proc.,  February,  1857.     Hutchinson,  in  his  Lectures,  p.  230. 

preface,  speaks  of  his  efforts  to  save  records  and  4  Set  forth  in  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg., 

papers  from  destruction,  and  of  their  repeated  1848,  p.  105.      See  Dr.  Palfrey's  condemnation 

loss  by  fire  ;  and  in  the  preface  of  his  second  vol-  of   it  in   the  preface  to  his  New  England,  iii. 

ume  he  recounts  his  own  losses  by  the  riot.  p.  vii. 


XX  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

lished  of  late  years  a  Record  Commission.  Under  the  supervision  of  the 
gentlemen  who  have  thus  far  constituted  it,  Messrs.  William  S.  Appleton 
and  William  H.  Whitmore,  three  reports  have  been  printed.  The  first 
consists  of  various  lists  of  early  inhabitants,  and  the  second,  third,  and 
fourth  are  mentioned  below. 

Of  the  records  and  papers  in  the  office  of  the  City  Clerk,  the  following 
statement  is  furnished  by  SAMUEL  F.  McCLEARY,  Esq.,  the  present  clerk: 

The  Town  Records,  1634  to  1821,  in  ten  volumes.  Also  a  copy  on  paper  of 
vol.  i.  (1634-60),  by  Charles  Shaw,  made  in  1814.  Also  a  copy  on  parchment  of 
vol.  i.,  and  fully  indexed,  made  by  S.  B.  Morse,  Jr.,  in  1855.  [This  first  volume  is 
now  in  print  in  the  Second  Report  of  the  Record  Commissioners^ 

The  City  Records,1  from  1822  to  1867,  in  forty-five  volumes;  from  1868  to  1880, 
in  twenty-six  volumes,  two  for  each  year. 

The  Original  Papers  forming  the  foundation  of  the  Town  and  City  Records,  from 
163410  1880.  [Those  from  1634  to  1734  (1716  missing)  are  bound  in  two  vol- 
umes ;  the  rest  are  in  files.] 

The  Book  of  Possessions,  being  the  original  entries  of  the  earliest  recorded  division 
of  land  within  the  town,  written  about  1643-44,  in  one  volume.  Also  a  copy  made  on 
parchment  in  1855  by  S.  B.  Morse,  Jr.,  in  one  volume.  [The  volume  is  now  in  print 
in  the  Second  Report  of  the  Record  Commissioners.  Its  probable  date  is  discussed 
elsewhere  in  this  history.] 

Minutes  of  Meetings  of  the  Selectmen,  1701-1822,  inclusive,  in  twenty-four 
volumes.  Selectmen's  Memoranda,  being  the  original  entries  from  which  the  above 
"minutes"  were  made  up,  1732  to  1821,  in  ninety-four  memorandum  books. 

Record  of  names  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  in  1695,  m  one  volume.  Records 
of  strangers  not  inhabitants  of  the  town ;  also  of  bonds  furnished  by  sundry  persons 
as  sureties  that  certain  other  persons  therein  named  shall  not  become  a  charge  to  the 
town,  1679-1700,  in  one  volume. 

Permits  to  build  with  timber  in  the  year  1707.  Account  books  of  the  town  and 
records  of  the  committee  on  finance,  1739  to  1821.  Records  of  committee  on 
rebuilding  after  the  great  fire  of  1 760.  Subscriptions  for  sufferers  by  the  great  fire  of 
1 794.  Lists  of  persons  who  arrived  by  sea  during  the  years  1 763-69.  Memorandum 
book  of  selectmen  for  the  year  1772. 

List  of  donations  to  the  town  of  Boston  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  north  and 
south,  at  the  time  of  the  enforcement  of  the  Boston  Port  Bill  in  1 7  74.  Records  of 
the  donation  committee  of  the  town  in  1774.  Lists  of  persons  aided  in  the  several 
wards  by  gifts  of  food  or  money,  in  eighteen  memorandum  books,  for  the  years 
1774-75.  Cash-book  of  donation  committee  for  1774-75. 

The  shoemakers' book,  1774.  Spinning  and  knitting-book,  1774.  Brickmakers' 
book,  1774.  Wood-account  book,  1774.  "Departing  money"  receipt-book,  1774. 
Petty  ledger  of  donation  committee,  1 7  74. 

1  There  is  a  printed  index  of  city  documents,  1834-74,  compiled  by  J.  M.  l.ugbee. 


INTRODUCTION.  Xxi 

Records  of  Committee  of  Safety,  after  the  evacuation  of  Boston  by  the  British 
troops,  1776. 

Then,  of  the  records  of  adjacent  towns,  now  a  part  of  the  metropolis  by 
annexation,  there  are  the  following;  and  for  the  enumeration  I  am  indebted 
to  JOHN  T.  PRIEST,  Esq.,  the  Assistant  City  Clerk :  — 

Charlestown.  —  Town  Records,  1629-1847,  in  fourteen  volumes.  Selectmen's  Re- 
cords, 1843-47,  in  one  volume  ;  previous  to  1843  these  records  were  kept  in  the  Town 
Records.  Mayor  and  Aldermen's  Records,  1847-73,  m  ten  volumes.  Common  Coun- 
cil Records,  1847-73,  in  seven  volumes.  [These  and  other  records  and  papers  have 
been  rearranged  by  Mr.  Henry  H.  Edes,  acting  under  orders  of  the  city  of  Charles- 
town,  1869  and  1870.  See  Third  Report  of  the  Record  Commissioners,  where  the 
"Book  of  Possessions,"  1638-1802,  is  printed  in  full.  One  of  the  other  volumes  in 
this  series  is  "  An  estimate  of  the  losses  of  the  inhabitants  by  the  burning  of  the  town, 
June  17,  1775."  The  volumes  so  far  arranged  make  sixty-nine  in  number,  and  the 
papers  yet  to  be  arranged,  few  of  which  are  earlier  than  1720,  will  fill  fifty  or  sixty 
volumes  more.] 

Roxbury. — Town  Records,  1648-1846,  in  six  volumes  [the  records  were  burned 
in  1645,  and  of  those  remaining  there  are  but  few  before  1652.  Ellis,  Roxbury,  p.  7  ; 
Drake,  Roxbury,  p.  260].  Selectmen's  Records,  1783-1846,  in  four  volumes;  pre- 
vious to  1783  these  records  were  kept  in  the  Town  Records.  Mayor  and  Aldermen's 
Records,  1846-67,  in  seven  volumes,  1652-54.  [The  "  Ancient  Transcript,"  so-called, 
is  the  Roxbury  Book  of  Possessions,  and  was  made  about  1652-54.  It  has  been 
copied  for  the  Record  Commissioners  and  will  be  printed] . 

West  Roxbury.  —  Town  Records,  185 1-73,  in  two  volumes.  Selectmen's  Records, 
1851-73,  in  two  volumes. 

Dorchester.  —  Town  Records,  Jan.  16,  1633-1869,  in  twelve  volumes.  [These 
are  the  oldest  original  records  in  the  office ;  a  portion  of  the  first  volume  will  consti- 
tute the  Fourth  Report  of  the  Record  Commissioners^.  Selectmen's  Records,  1855-69, 
in  two  volumes ;  previous  to  1855  these  records  were  kept  in  the  Town  Records. 

Brighton.  —  Town  Records,  1807-73,  in  five  volumes;  the  first  volume  contains 
the  records  of  the  "  Third  Precinct  of  Cambridge  on  the  South  side  of  Charles  River," 
beginning  in  1772.  Selectmen's  Records,  1807-73,  m  f°ur  volumes. 

The  following  statement  of  the  records  in  the  keeping  of  the  City  Regis- 
trar has  been  kindly  furnished  from  that  office :  — 

Boston.  —  Births,  Marriages,  and  Deaths  (County  Records),  1630-60,  in  one 
volume,  with  a  transcription  made  in  1856:  Births,  1644-1744  (complete,  over 
20,000),  in  one  volume,  with  a  transcription  made  in  1874  ;  1726-1814  (imperfect), 
in  one  volume;  1800-49  (imperfect),  in  one  volume;  1849-79  (complete),  in  six- 
teen volumes.  Marriages,  1651-1879,  in  twenty-seven  volumes,  with  a  gap  from 
1662  to  1689  ;  marriages  out  of  the  city,  but  recorded  here,  in  one  volume.  Deaths, 


xxii  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

1800-79  (complete  from  1810),  in  twenty-one  volumes ;  of  persons  buried  here  but 
who  died  elsewhere,  in  one  volume. 

Charlestown.  —  Births,  Marriages,  and  Deaths,  1629-1843,  in  two  volumes, 
including  marriages  out  of  town  before  1800,  and  indexes  :  Births,  1843-73,  m  tnree 
volumes.  Marriages,  1843-73,  in  three  volumes.  Deaths,  1843-73,  in  three  volumes. 
Indexes,  1843-73,  m  three  volumes. 

Roxbury. —  Births,  Marriages,  and  Deaths,  1632-1849,  in  three  volumes:  Births, 
1843-68,  in  four  volumes.  Marriages,  1632-1868,  in  four  volumes  ;  marriages  out  of 
the  city  but  recorded  here,  in  one  volume.  Deaths,  1633-1868,  in  three  volumes. 

Dorchester.  —  Births,  Marriages,  and  Deaths,  1631-1849,  in  four  volumes  :  Births, 
1850-69,  in  one  volume.  Marriages,  1850-69,  in  two  volumes.  Deaths,  1850-69, 
in  one  volume. 

Brighton.  —  Births,  Marriages,  and  Deaths,  1771-1873,  in  one  volume. 

West  Roxbury.  —  Births,  Marriages,  and  Deaths,  1851-73,  in  one  volume. 

Intentions  of  Marriages:  Boston,  1707-1879,  in  thirty-five  volumes;  Charles- 
town,  1725-1873,  in  five  volumes,  with  an  index  volume;  Roxbury,  1785-1868,  in 
two  volumes;  Dorchester,  1798-1869,  in  two  volumes. 

The  editor  has  endeavored  in  the  map  which  accompanies  this  volume, 
called  "  Boston,  Old  and  New,"  to  depict,  as  well  as  he  could,  the  physical 
characteristics  of  the  original  peninsula,  with  the  highways  and  footways  of 
the  young  town  for  its  first  thirty  years  or  more,  and  to  indicate  a  few  of 
the  sites  most  interesting  in  its  early  history.  His  chief  dependence  has 
been  the  first  volume  of  the  "  Boston  Town  Records  "  and  the  "  Book  of 
Possessions,"  both  of  which  are  now  in  print  in  the  Second  Report  of  the 
Record  Commissioners.  The  earliest  published  maps  of  the  town  were  not 
made  till  eighty  or  ninety  years  after  the  settlement,  and  after  the  original 
water-line  had  been  much  obscured  by  the  "  wharfing-out "  process,  which 
began,  so  far  as  the  records  indicate,  in  1634.  Ever  after  that  date  the  town 
records  show  that  frequent  permission  was  given  to  wharf  out  along  the  front 
of  riparian  lots.  Still,  some  help  has  been  derived  from  Bonner's  map  of 
1722,  Burgiss's  of  1728,  and  even  from  later  published  surveys.  More  than 
one  attempt  has  been  made  to  construct  a  map  of  Boston  as  it  was  about  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  but  none  has  heretofore  been  published. 
Mr.  Uriel  H.  Crocker  was  led  to  the  study  of  the  subject  from  his  professional 
calls  as  a  conveyancer,  and  constructed  a  map  of  the  lots  in  the  town,  which  he 
explained  by  extracts  from  the  records  in  an  accompanying  volume.  These 
he  very  kindly  placed  at  the  editor's  service,  and  they  have  been  of  frequent 
assistance.  So  has  a  similar  plan  on  a  much  larger  scale,  which  was  made  by 
Mr.  George  Lamb  of  Cambridge,  and  which  is  now  in  the  Public  Library. 
Of  this  latter  plan  a  lithographed  fac-simile  of  full  size  has  been  made, 


INTRODUCTION. 


XX111 


under  the  direction  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Library.  If  there  are  other  plans 
existing  based  on  the  same  sources,  they  have  not  come  to  the  editor's 
knowledge,  except  a  sketch  of  streets  and  estates,  indorsed  "  William 
Appleton,  1866,"  a  copy  of  which  is  in  the  Historical  Society's  Collec- 
tion. Any  one  working  up  this  subject  can  but  derive  great  assistance, 
in  tracing  the  bounds  of  estates  and  placing  the  original  habitations,  from 
the  "  Gleaner "  articles  of  the  late  Mr.  N.  I.  Bowditch,  which  were  pub- 
lished in  the  Boston  Transcript  in  1855-56,  and  which  are  to  be  republished 
in  the  near  future.  They  are  the  key  to  the  greater  store  of  information 
preserved  in  Mr.  Bowditch's  manuscripts.  Not  a  few  hints  and  corrobora- 
tive statements  which  have  also  been  of  assistance  were  found  in  Snow, 
Drake,  and  Shurtleff.1 


1  The  modern  map  used  as  a  background  is 
a  reduced  section  of  a  large  one  recently  pub- 
lished by  the  Boston  Map  Company;  but  it  has 
been  found  necessary  to  modify  a  little  the 
"original  shore-line,"  as  indicated  by  its  com- 
pilers, George  F.  Loring  and  Irwin  C.  Cromack, 
surveyors  and  draughtsmen  in  the  City  Sur- 


IfkAXUsl 


veyor's  office.  The  stones  of  the  last  previous 
authentic  map  of  Boston  were  destroyed  in  the 
fire  of  1872,  and  no  satisfactory  representation 
of  the  recent  changes  in  the  streets  had  been 
given  till  the  issue  of  this  map.  The  present  re- 
duction of  it  has  been  made  by  the  proprietor's 
kind  permission. 


NOTE  TO  THE   KING'S  MISSIVE. 

SAMUEL  SHATTOCK,  or  SHATTUCK,  of  Salem,  a  Quaker,  had  been  whipped  in  1657 
for  interfering  while  another  Quaker  was  gagged.  He  was  subsequently  banished 
under  the  law,  which  provided  whipping  for  a  first  and  second  offence  (branding 
was  later  included),  and  finally  banishment  on  pain  of  death.  The  Quakers  in 
London,  whither  Shattuck  had  gone,  gaining  the  ear  of  the  King,  procured  a  royal 
order,  addressed  to  the  authorities  here,  commanding  them  to  send  to  England  for 
trial  all  Quakers  detained  for  punishment.  Shattuck  was  selected  to  take  the  mandate 
to  Boston,  and  a  ship  was  procured,  of  which  another  Quaker,  Ralph  Goldsmith,  was 
commander.  Upon  their  arrival  in  the  harbor,  Shattuck,  with  not  a  little  of  the 
'dramatic  instinct  which  directed  many  of  the  proceedings  of  the  early  Quakers, 
refused  to  tell  to  those  who  boarded  the  ship  the  object  of  the  voyage.  On  the 
second  day  after  their  arrival,  accompanied  by  Goldsmith,  he  proceeded  through 
the  town,  knocked  at  Governor  Endicott's  door,  and  sent  word  to  him  that  they  bore 
a  message  from  the  King.  The  interview  followed,  as  told  in  the  poem ;  but  the 
Governor's  determination  was  not  reached  till  he  had  gone  out  and  consulted  with 
the  Deputy-Governor,  Bellingham.  The  release  from  jail  was  tardily  ordered,  and 
happily  at  last  there  were  no  Quakers  in  detention  .  to  be  sent  to  England ;  and 
none  were  sent.  The  persecution  had  nearly  run  its  course,  and  the  royal  mandate 
proved  a  happy  escape  from  the  dilemma  of  positive  enactments  in  contravention 
of  previous  orders.  It  is  sad  to  say,  however,  that  though  the  beginning  of  the  end 
was  come,  there  were  still  some  whippings  at  the  cart's  tail  through  the  streets  of 
Boston  before  the  persecution  was  over. 

The  poet,  with  a  fair  license,  has  placed  the  interview  in  the  Town  House,  —  that 
picturesque  structure,  which  stood  where  now  the  old  State  House  stands,  and  which 
was  then  but  newly  built,  partly  with  the  bequest  of  Captain  Robert  Keayne,  who  had 
lived  opposite  on  the  southerly  corner  of  State  and  Washington  streets.  The  artist 
has  delineated  it  according  to  the  descriptions  we  have  of  it,  —  the  building  standing 
on  pillars,  while  a  market  was  kept  beneath.  The  view  down  what  is  now  State  Street 
shows  the  tide,  as  was  then  the  case,  flowing  up  to  Merchants  Row. 

Of  the  prison  we  have  no  description,  other  than  that  it  was  surrounded  by  a  yard. 
It  stood  where  the  Court  House  now  stands,  on  Court  Street.  The  artist  has  given 
in  the  procession  of  the  Quakers  across  the  Common  as  good  a  delineation  of  the 
spot  at  that  time  as  the  records  afford  us,  —  the  rounded  summit  of  Gentry  Hill,  with 
the  beacon  on  it,  which  finally  gave  it  a  name,  and  which  was  seventy  feet  or  more 
higher  than  now ;  the  slope,  broken  in  places  by  rocks  (Sewall  records  getting  build- 
ing-stones from  the  Common,  at  a  later  day)  ;  the  elm,  known  in  our  day  as  the  Great 
Elm,  but  even  then  very  likely  a  sightly  tree,  and  near  which  the  executions,  probably 
on  one  of  the  knolls,  took  place.  The  victims  we  know  were  buried  close  by. 

Snow  Hill,  as  Copp's  Hill  was  then  called,  projected  into  the  river  much  as  the 
artist  has  drawn  it,  topped  by  the  principal  windmill  of  the  town.  Just  by  a  little 
cove  stood  the  house  which  William  Copp,  the  cobbler,  had  built  there,  and  near  by 
was  the  water-mill,  which,  with  the  causeway  across  the  marsh,  forming  the  dam,  had 
been  built  some  years  previous.  —  ED. 


THE    KING'S   MISSIVE. 
1661. 

BY    JOHN     GREENLEAF     WHITTIER. 

T  TNDER  the  great  hill  sloping  bare 

To  cove  and  meadow  and  Common  lot, 
In  his  council  chamber  and  oaken  chair 

Sat  the  worshipful  Governor  Endicott,  — 
A  grave,  strong  man,  who  knew  no  peer 
In  the  pilgrim  land  where  he  ruled  in  fear 
Of  God,  not  man,  and  for  good  or  ill 
Held  his  trust  with  an  iron  will. 

He  had  shorn  with  his  sword  the  cross  from  out 

/ 

The  flag,  and  cloven  the  May-pole  down, 
Harried  the  heathen  round  about, 

And  whipped  the  Quakers  from  town  to  town. 
Earnest  and  honest,  a  man  at  need 
To  burn  like  a  torch  for  his  own  harsh  creed, 
He  kept  with  the  flaming  brand  of  his  zeal 
The  gate  of  the  holy  commonweal. 

His  brow  was  clouded,  his  eye  was  stern, 

With  a  look  of  mingled  sorrow  and  wrath : 
"  Woe 's  me !  "  he  murmured,  "  at  every  turn 
The  pestilent  Quakers  are  in  my  path ! 

Some  we  have  scourged,  and  banished  some, 

Some  hanged,  more  doomed,  and  still  they  come, 

Fast  as  the  tide  of  yon  bay  sets  in, 

Sowing  their  heresy's  seed  of  sin. 


VOL.    !.  —  D. 


XXvi  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

"  Did  we  count  on  this  ?  —  Did  we  leave  behind 
The  graves  of  our  kin,  the  comfort  and  ease 
Of  our  English  hearths  and  homes,  to  find 

Troublers  of  Israel  such  as  these  ? 
Shall  I  spare  ?     Shall  I  pity  them  ?  —  God  forbid 
I  will  do  as  the  prophet  to  Agag  did : 
They  come  to  poison  the  wells  of  the  word, 
I  will  hew  them  in  pieces  before  the  Lord ! " 

The  door  swung  open,  and  Rawson  the  Clerk 

Entered  and  whispered  underbreath  : 
"  There  waits  below  for  the  hangman's  work 

A  fellow  banished  on  pain  of  death,  — 
Shattuck  of  Salem,  unhealed  of  the  whip, 
Brought  over  in  Master  Goldsmith's  ship, 
At  anchor  here  in  a  Christian  port 
With  freight  of  the  Devil  and  all  his  sort ! " 

Twice  and  thrice  on  his  chamber  floor 

Striding  fiercely  from  wall  to  wall, 
"  The  Lord  do  so  to  me  and  more," 

The  Governor  cried,  "  if  I  hang  not  all ! 
Bring  hither  the  Quaker."     Calm,  sedate, 
With  the  look  of  a  man  at  ease  with  fate, 
Into  that  presence  grim  and  dread 
Came  Samuel  Shattuck  with  hat  on  head. 

"  Off  with  the  knave's  hat!  "     An  angry  hand 

Smote  down  the  offence ;  but  the  wearer  said, 
With  a  quiet  smile  :  "  By  the  King's  command 

I  bear  his  message  and  stand  in  his  stead." 
In  the  Governor's  hand  a  missive  he  laid 
With  the  Royal  arms  on  its  seal  displayed, 
And  the  proud  man  spake  as  he  gazed  thereat, 
Uncovering,  "  Give  Mr.  Shattuck  his  hat." 


XXVU1  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

He  turned  to  the  Quaker,  bowing  low : 

"  The  King  commandeth  your  friends'  release. 

Doubt  not  he  shall  be  obeyed,  although 
To  his  subjects'  sorrow  and  sin's  increase. 

What  he  here  enjoineth  John  Endicott 

His  loyal  servant  questioneth  not. 

You  are  free  !  —  God  grant  the  spirit  you  own 

May  take  you  from  us  to  parts  unknown." 

So  the  door  of  the  jail  was  open  cast, 

And  like  Daniel  out  of  the  lion's  den, 
Tender  youth  and  girlhood  passed 

With  age-bowed  women  and  gray-locked  men ; 
And  the  voice  of  one  appointed  to  die 
Was  lifted  in  praise  and  thanks  on  high, 
And  the  little  maid  from  New  Netherlands 
Kissed,  in  her  joy,  the  doomed  man's  hands. 


THE    KING'S    MISSIVE. 

And  one,  whose  call  was  to  minister 

To  the  souls  in  prison,  beside  him  went, 
An  ancient  woman,  bearing  with  her 

The  linen  shroud  for  his  burial  meant. 
For  she,  not  counting  her  own  life  dear, 
In  the  strength  of  a  love  that  cast  out  fear, 
Had  watched  and  served  where  her  brethren  died, 
Like  those  who  waited  the  Cross  beside. 

One  moment  they  paused  on  their  way  to  look 
On  the  martyr  graves  by  the  Common  side, 

And  much-scourged  Wharton  of  Salem  took 

His  burden  of  prophecy  up  and  cried : 
"  Rest,  souls  of  the  valiant !  —  Not  in  vain 

Have  ye  borne  the  Master's  cross  of  pain ; 

Ye  have  fought  the  fight ;  ye  are  victors  crowned ; 

With  a  fourfold  chain  ye  have  Satan  bound ! " 


XXIX 


XXX 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 


The  Autumn  haze  lay  soft  and  still 

On  wood  and  meadow  and  upland  farms ; 
On  the  brow  of  Snow-hill  the  Great  Windmill 

Slowly  and  lazily  swung  its  arms ; 
Broad  in  the  sunshine  stretched  away 
With  its  capes  and  islands  the  turquoise  bay ; 
And  over  water  and  dusk  of  pines 
Blue  hills  lifted  their  faint  outlines. 

The  topaz  leaves  of  the  walnut  glowed, 
The  sumach  added  its  crimson  fleck, 

And  double  in  air  and  water  showed 
The  tinted  maples  along  the  Neck. 

Through  frost-flower  clusters  of  pale  star-mist, 

And  gentian  fringes  of  amethyst, 

And  royal  plumes  of  the  golden-rod, 

The  grazing  cattle  on  Gentry  trod. 


THE    KING'S    MISSIVE.  XXXI 

But  as  they  who  see  not,  the  Quakers  saw 
The  world  about  them :  they  only  thought 

With  deep  thanksgiving  and  pious  awe 

Of  the  great  deliverance  God  had  wrought. 

Through  lane  and  alley  the  gazing  town 

Noisily  followed  them  up  and  down ; 

Some  with  scoffing  and  brutal  jeer, 

Some  with  pity  and  words  of  cheer. 

One  brave  voice  rose  above  the  din ; 

Upsall  gray  with  his  length  of  days 
Cried,  from  the  door  of  his  Red-Lion  Inn, 

"  Men  of  Boston !  give  God  the  praise ! 
No  more  shall  innocent  blood  call  down 
The  bolts  of  wrath  on  your  guilty  town ; 
The  freedom  of  worship  dear  to  you 
Is  dear  to  all,  and  to  all  is  due. 

"  I  see  the  vision  of  days  to  come, 

When  your  beautiful  City  of  the  Bay 
Shall  be  Christian  liberty's  chosen  home, 

And  none  shall  his  neighbor's  rights  gainsay ; 
The  varying  notes  of  worship  shall  blend, 
And  as  one  great  prayer  to  God  ascend  ; 
And  hands  of  mutual  charity  raise 
Walls  of  salvation  and  gates  of  praise ! " 

So  passed  the  Quakers  through  Boston  town, 

Whose  painful  ministers  sighed  to  see 
The  walls  of  their  sheep-fold  falling  down, 

And  wolves  of  heresy  prowling  free. 
But  the  years  went  on,  and  brought  no  wrong ; 
With  milder  counsels  the  State  grew  strong, 
As  outward  Letter  and  inward  Light 
Kept  the  balance  of  truth  aright. 


THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

The  Puritan  spirit  perishing  not, 

To  Concord's  yeomen  the  signal  sent, 
And  spake  in  the  voice  of  the  cannon-shot 
That  severed  the  chains  of  a  continent. 
With  its  gentler  mission  of  peace  and  good-will 
The  thought  of  the  Quaker  is  living  still, 
And  the  freedom  of  soul  he  prophesied 
Is  gospel  and  law  where  its  martyrs  died. 


Heliotype  Printing  Co., 


Boston. 


STATUE  OF  JOHN  WINTHROP. 


SCOLLAY  SQUARE,  BOSTON. 


THE 


MEMORIAL    HISTORY   OF    BOSTON 


pwtjtetoric  $erioD  anD 


CHAPTER   I. 

OUTLINE     OF    THE     GEOLOGY    OF     BOSTON    AND     ITS 

ENVIRONS. 

BY  NATHANIEL  SOUTHGATE  SHALER,  S.  D., 

Professor  of  Palteontology  in  Harvard  University. 

THE  topography,  the  soils,  and  other  physical  conditions  of  the  region 
about  Boston  depend  in  a  very  intimate  way  upon  the  geological 
history  of  the  district  in  which  they  lie.  The  physical  history  of  this 
district  is  closely  bound  up  with  that  of  all  eastern  New  England,  so  that 
it  is  necessary  at  the  outset  to  premise  some  general  statements  concerning 
the  geological  conditions  of  the  larger  field  before  we  can  proceed  to  the 
description  of  the  very  limited  one  that  particularly  concerns  us.  In  this 
statement  we  shall  necessarily  be  restricted  to  the  facts  that  have  a  special 
bearing  upon  the  ground  on  which  the  life  of  the  city  has  developed. 

The  New  England  section  of  North  America  —  viz.  the  district  cut  off 
by  the  Hudson,  Champlain,  and  St.  Lawrence  valleys  —  is  one  of  the 
most  distinctly  marked  of  all  the  geographical  regions  of  the  con- 
tinent. In  it  we  find  a  character  of  surface  decidedly  contrasted  with 
that  of  any  other  part  of  the  United  States.  While  in  the  other  districts 
of  this  country  the  soil  and  the  contour  of  the  surface  are  characterized  by 
a  prevailing  uniformity  of  conditions,  in  this  New  England  region  we  have 
a  variety  and  detail  of  physical  features  that  find  their  parallel  only  in 
certain  parts  of  northern  Europe,  whence  came  the  New  England  col- 
onists. This  peculiarly  varied  surface  of  New  England  depends  upon 
certain  combinations  of  geological  events  that  hardly  admit  of  a  very 
brief  description.  The  main  elements  of  the  history  are,  however,  as 
follows :  — 

VOL.  i.  —  i. 


2  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

The  New  England  district  has  been  more  frequently  and  perhaps  for  a 
longer  aggregate  time  above  the  level  of  the  sea  than  any  other  part  of  the 
region  south  of  the  great  lakes.  This  has  permitted  the  erosive  forces  to 
wear  away  the  unchanged  later  rocks,  thereby  exposing  over  its  surface  the 
deep-lying  metamorphic  beds  on  whose  masses  the  internal  heat  of  the 
earth  has  exercised  its  diversifying  effects.  This  irregular  metamorphism 
brings  about  a  great  difference  in  the  hardness  of  the  rocks,  causing  them 
to  wear  down,  by  the  action  of  the  weather,  at  very  different  rates.  Then 
the  mountain-building  forces  —  those  that  throw  rocks  out  of  their  original 
horizontal  positions  into  altitudes  of  the  utmost  variety — have  worked  on 
this  ground  more  than  they  have  upon  any  other  region  east  of  the  Cordille- 
ras of  North  America.  Again,  at  successive  times,  and  especially  just  before 
the  human  period,  and  possibly  during  its  first  stages  in  this  country,  the 
land  was  deeply  buried  beneath  a  sheet  of  ice.  During  the  last  glacial 
period,  and  perhaps  frequently  in  the  recurrent  ice  times,  of  which  we  find 
traces  in  the  record  of  the  rocks,  the  ice-sheet  for  long  periods  overtopped 
the  highest  of  our  existing  hills,  and  ground  away  the  rock-surface  of  the 
country  as  it  crept  onward  to  the  sea.  During  the  first  stage  of  the  last 
ice  period  this  ice-sheet  was  certainly  over  two  thousand  feet  thick  in 
eastern  Massachusetts,  and  its  front  lay  in  the  sea  at  least  fifty  miles  to 
the  east  of  Boston.  At  this  time  the  glacial  border  stretched  from  New 
York  to  the  far  north,  in  an  ice-wall  that  lay  far  to  the  eastward  of  the 
present  shore,  hiding  all  traces  of  the  land  beneath  its  mass. 

These  successive  ice-sheets  rested  on  a  surface  of  rock,  already  much 
varied  by  the  metamorphism  and  dislocations  to  which  it  had  been  sub- 
jected. Owing  to  the  fact  that  ice  cuts  more  powerfully  in  the  valleys  than 
on  the  ridges,  and  more  effectually  on  the  soft  than  on  the  hard  rocks, 
these  ice-sheets  carved  this  surface  into  an  amazing  variety  of  valleys,  pits, 
and  depressions.  We  get  some  idea  of  the  irregularity  of  these  rock- carv- 
ings from  the  fretted  nature  of  the  sea-coast  over  which  the  ice-sheets  rode. 
When  the  last  ice-sheet  melted  away,  it  left  on  the  surface  it  had  worn 
a  layer  of  rubbish  often  a  hundred  feet  or  more  in  depth.  As  its  retreat 
was  not  a  rout,  but  was  made  in  a  measured  way,  it  often  built  long  irregu- 
lar walls  of  waste  along  the  lines  where  its  march  was  delayed.  When 
the  ice-wall  left  the  present  shore-line,  the  land  was  depressed  beneath  the 
sea  to  a  depth  varying  from  about  thirty  feet  along  Long  Island  Sound  to 
three  or  four  hundred  feet  on  the  coast  of  Maine.  The  land  slowly  and  by 
degrees  recovered  its  position ;  but,  as  it  rose,  the  sea  for  a  time  invaded 
the  shore,  washing  over  with  its  tides  and  waves  the  rubbish  left  by  the 
ice-sheet,  stripping  the  low  hills  and  heaping  the  waste  into  the  valleys. 
While  this  work  was  going  on,  the  seas  had  not  yet  regained  their  shore- 
life,  which  had  been  driven  away  by  the  ice,  and  the  forests  had  not  yet 
recovered  their  power  on  the  land ;  so  the  stratified  deposits  formed  at  this 
time  contain  no  organic  remains.  At  the  close  of  this  period,  when  the 
land  had  generally  regained  its  old  position  in  relation  to  the  sea,  there  were 


OUTLINE  OF  THE  GEOLOGY  OF  BOSTON.  3 

several  slight,  irregular  movements  of  the  shore,  —  local  risings  and  sink- 
ings, each  of  a  few  feet  in  height.  The  last  of  these  were  accomplished  in 
this  locality  not  long  before  the  advent  of  the  European  colonists ;  some 
trace  of  their  action  is  still  felt  on  the  coast  to  the  northward. 

This  brief  synopsis  of  the  varied  geological  history  of  New  England  will 
enable  us  to  approach  the  similarly  brief  history  of  the  Boston  district. 

Looking  on  a  detailed  map  of  southeastern  New  England,  the  reader 
will  observe  that  Massachusetts  Bay  and  Boston  Harbor  form  a  deep  but 
rudely  shaped  re-entrant  angle  on  the  coast.  If  the  map  is  geologically 
colored,  he  will  perceive  that  around  this  deep  bay  there  is  a  fringe  of  clay 
slates  and  conglomerates,  or  pudding-stones.  Further  away,  making  a  great 
horse-shoe,  one  horn  of  which  is  at  Cape  Ann  and  the  other  at  Cohasset, 
the  curve,  at  its  bottom  near  the  Blue  Hills,  includes  a  mass  of  old  granitic 
rocks.  This  peculiar  order  of  the  rocks  that  surround  Boston  is  caused  by 
the  existence  here  of  a  deep  structural  mountain  valley  or  synclinal,  the 
central  part  of  which  is  occupied  by  the  harbor.  Long  after  the  formation 
of  the  Green  Mountains,  at  the  time  just  after  the  laying  down  of  the 
coal-beds  of  the  Carboniferous  age,  this  eastern  part  of  New  England,  and 
probably  a  considerable  region  since  regained  by  the  sea,  was  thrown  into 
mountain  folds.  These  mountains  have  by  the  frequent  visitations  of  gla- 
cial periods  been  worn  down  to  their  foundations,  so  that  there  is  little  in 
the  way  of  their  original  reliefs  to  be  traced.  They  are  principally  marked 
in  the  attitudes  of  that  part  of  their  recks  that  have  escaped  erosion.  The 
Sharon  and  the  Blue  Hills  are,  however,  the  wasted  remnants  of  a  great 
anticlinal  or  ridge  that  bordered  the  Boston  valley  on  the  south  side.  The 
Waltham,  Stoneham,  and  Cape  Ann  Bay  granitic  ridges  made  the  mountain 
wall  on  its  north  side.  Narragansett  Bay  and  Boston  Harbor  are  cut  out  in 
the  softer  rocks  that  were  folded  down  between  these  mountain  ridges.  The 
lower  part  of  the  Merrimac  valley  is  a  mountain  trough  that  has  been  simi- 
larly carved  out,  and  there  are  others  traceable  still  further  to  the  northward. 
This  mountain  trough  is  very  deep  beneath  Boston ;  a  boring  made  at  the 
gas-works  to  the  depth  of  over  sixteen  hundred  feet  failed  to  penetrate 
through  it.  If  we  could  restore  the  rocks  that  have  been  taken  away  by 
decay,  these  mountain  folds  would  much  exceed  the  existing  Alleghanics 
in  height. 

Within  the  peninsula  of  Boston,  the  seat  of  the  old  town,  these  older 
rocks  that  were  caught  in  the  mountain  folds  do  not  come  to  the  level 
of  the  sea.  They  are  deeply  covered  by  the  waste  of  the  glacial  period. 
But  in  Roxbury,  Dorchester,  Somerville,  Brookline,  and  many  other  adja- 
cent towns,  they  are  extensively  exposed.  They  consist  principally  of 
clay-slates  and  conglomerates,  —  a  mingled  series,  with  a  total  thickness 
of  from  five  to  ten  thousand  feet.  The  slates  are  generally  fine-grained 
and  flag-like  in  texture,  their  structure  showing  that  they  were  laid  down 
in  a  sea  at  some  distance  from  the  shore.  The  conglomerates  were  evi- 
dently laid  down  in  the  sea  at  points  near  the  shore ;  and  they  are  proba- 


4  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

bly  the  pebble-waste  resulting  from  a  glacial  period  that  occurred  in  the 
Cambrian  age,  or  at  a  time  when  the  recorded  organic  history  of  the  earth 
was  at  its  very  beginning.  These  rocks  represent  a  time  when  the  waters 
of  this  shore  were  essentially  destitute  of  organic  life.  In  the  whole  section 
we  have  only  about  three  hundred  feet  of  beds  among  the  lower  layers 
that  hold  any  remains  of  organic  life ;  and  these  remains  are  limited  to  a 
few  species  of  trilobites,  that  lived  in  the  deep  sea.  From  the  slates  and 
conglomerates  of  the  Cambridge  and  Roxbury  series  the  first  quarried 
stones  of  this  Colony  were  taken.  The  flagging-slates  of  Quincy,  at  the 
base  of  Squantum  Neck,  were  perhaps  the  first  that  were  extensively  quar- 
ried. A  large  number  of  the  old  tombstones  of  this  region  were  from  these 
quarries.  The  next  in  use  were  the  similar  but  less  perfect  slates  of  Cam- 
bridge and  Somerville ;  and  last  to  come  into  use  were  the  conglomerates 
and  granites,  that  require  much  greater  skill  and  labor  on  the  part  of  the 
quarryman  to  work  them.1  At  first  the  field-boulders  supplied  the  stone 
for  underpinning  houses  and  other  wall-work;  so  that  the  demand  for 
gravestones  was,  during  all  the  first  and  for  most  of  the  second  century 
of  the  existence  of  the  town,  the  only  demand  that  led  to  the  exploration 
of  the  quarry-rocks  of  this  neighborhood.  Indeed,  we  may  say  that  the 
exploration  of  the  excellent  building  and  ornamental  stones  so  abundant 
here  has  been  barely  begun  within  the  last  two  decades. 

Although  the  rocks  of  this  vicinity  are  extensively  intersected  by  dykes 
and  veins,  —  those  agents  that  in  other  regions  aid  the  gathering  together 
of  the  precious  metals,  —  no  ore-bearing  deposits  have  ever  been  found 
very  near  Boston.  There  is  a  story  that  a  very  thin  lode  of  argen- 
tiferous galena  was  opened  some  fifty  years  ago  in  the  town  of  Woburn, 
about  eight  miles  from  Boston,  out  of  which  a  trifling  amount  of  silver  was 
taken.  But,  unlike  the  most  of  the  other  settlers  in  this  country,  the  Mas- 
sachusetts colonists  seem  never  to  have  had  any  interest  in  the  search  for 
precious  metals,  and  we  know  of  no  efforts  at  precious  metal-mining  in 
the  eastern  part  of  this  Commonwealth  until  we  enter  the  present  century. 
The  craze  for  gold  and  silver,  which  seems  almost  inevitable  in  the  life  of 
the  frontiersman,  was  unknown  in  the  early  days  of  New  England.2 

Although  the  general  features  of  the  topography  of  this  district  are 
determined  by  the  disposition  of  the  hard  underlying  rocks,  the  detail  of 
all  the  surface  is  chiefly  made  by  the  position  of  the  drift  or  glacial  waste 
left  here  at  the  end  of  the  last  ice  time,  but  much  sorted  and  re-arranged 
by  water  action.  If  we  could  strip  away  the  sheet  of  glacial  and  post- 
glacial deposits  from  this  region,  we  would  about  double  the  size  of  Boston 
Harbor  and  greatly  simplify  its  form.  All  the  islands  save  a  few  rocks,  the 
peninsulas  of  Hull  and  Winthrop  Head,  indeed  that  of  Boston  proper, 
would  disappear;  with  them  would  go  about  all  of  Cambridge,  Charles- 

1  [Cf.  Shurtleff's  Desc.  of  Boston,  p.  189. —  whales  and  make  trials  of  a  mine  of  gold  and 
ED.]  copper ; "  but  he  added  the  alternative,  "  if  those 

2  [Captain  John  Smith,  speaking  of  his  voyage  failed,  fish  and  furs  were  then  our  refuge,  to  make 
on  our  coast  in  1614,  says  he  came  "to  take  ourselves  savers,"  —  and  so  they  proved.  —  ED.] 


OUTLINE   OF   THE   GEOLOGY   OF   BOSTON.  5 

town,  Chelsea,  Everett,  Revere,  a  large  part  of  Maiden,  Brighton,  Brook- 
line,  and  Quincy.  Charles  River,  Mystic  River,  and  Neponset  River  would 
become  broad  estuaries,  running  far  up  into  the  land. 

The  history  of  the  making  of  these  drift-beds  is  hard  to  decipher,  and 
harder  still  to  describe  in  a  brief  way.  The  following  statement  is  only 
designed  to  give  a  very  general  outline  of  the  events  in  this  remarkable 
history. 

After  the  ice  had  lain  for  an  unknown  period  over  this  region,  climatal 
changes  caused  it  to  shrink  away  slowly  and  by  stages,  until  it  disappeared 
altogether.  As  it  disappeared  it  left  a  very  deep  mass  of  waste,  which  was 
distributed  in  an  irregular  way  over  the  surface,  at  some  places  much  deeper 
than  at  others.  At  many  points  this  depth  exceeded  one  hundred  feet.  As 
the  surface  of  the  land  lay  over  one  hundred  feet  below  the  present  level 
in  the  district  of  Massachusetts  Bay  when  the  sea  began  to  leave  the  shore, 
the  sea  had  free  access  to  this  incoherent  mass  of  debris,  and  began  rapidly 
to  wash  it  away.  We  can  still  see  a  part  of  this  work  of  destruction  of  the 
glacial  beds  in  the  marine  erosion  going  on  about  the  islands  and  headlands 
in  the  harbor  and  bay.  The  same  sort  of  work  went  on  about  the  glacial 
beds,  at  the  height  of  one  hundred  feet  or  more  above  the  present  tide-line. 
During  this  period  of  re-elevation,  the  greater  part  of  the  drift-deposits  of 
the  region  about  Boston  was  worked  over  by  the  water.  Where  the  gravel 
happened  to  lie  upon  a  ridge  of  rock  that  formed,  as  it  were,  a  pedestal  for 
it,  it  generally  remained  as  an  island  above  the  surface  of  the  water.  As  the 
land  seems  to  have  risen  pretty  rapidly  when  the  ice-burden  was  taken  off, 
—  probably  on  account  of  this  very  relief  from  its  load,  —  the  sea  did  not 
have  time  to  sweep  away  the  whole  of  these  islands  of  glacial  waste. 
Many  of  them  survive  in  the  form  of  low,  symmetrical  bow-shaped  hills. 
Parker's  Hill,  Corey's  Hill,  Aspinwall,  and  the  other  hills  on  the  south  side 
of  Charles  River,  Powderhorn  and  other  hills  in  Chelsea  and  Winthrop,  are 
conspicuously  beautiful  specimens  of  this  structure.  Of  this  nature  were 
also  the  three  hills  that  occupied  the  peninsula  of  Boston,  known  as  Sentry 
or  Beacon,  Fort,  and  Copp's  hills.  Whenever  an  open  cut  is  driven 
through  these  hills,  we  find  in  the  centre  a  solid  mass  of  pebbles  and  clay, 
all  confusedly  intermingled,  without  any  distinct  trace  of  bedding.  This 
mass,  termed  by  geologists  till,  or  boulder-clay,  is  the  waste  of  the  glacier, 
lying  just  where  it  dropped  when  the  ice  in  which  it  was  bedded  ceased  to 
move,  and  melted  on  the  ground  where  it  lay.  All  around  these  hills,  with 
their  central  core  of  till,  there  'are  sheets  of  sand,  clay,  and  gravel,  which 
have  been  washed  from  the  original  mass,  and  worked  over  by  the  tides  and 
rivers.  This  reworked  boulder-clay  constitutes  by  far  the  larger  part  of  the 
dry  lowland  surface  about  Boston :  all  the  flat-lands  above  the  level  of  the 
swamps  which  lay  about  the  base  of  the  three  principal  hills  of  old  Bos- 
ton—  lands  on  which  the  town  first  grew  —  were  composed  of  the  bedded 
sands  and  gravels  derived  from  the  waste  of  the  old  boulder-clay.  These 
terraces  of  sand  and  gravel  from  the  reasserted  boulder-clay  make  up  by 


6  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

far  the  greater  part  of  the  low-lying  arable  lands  of  eastern  Massachusetts ; 
and  of  this  nature  are  about  all  the  lands  first  used  for  town-sites  and 
tillage  by  the  colonists,  —  notwithstanding  the  soil  they  afford  is  not  as 
rich  nor  as  enduring  as  the  soils  upon  the  unchanged  boulder-clay.  The 
reason  these  terrace  deposits  were  the  most  sought  for  town-sites  and  cul- 
tivation is  that  they  were  the  only  tracts  of  land  above  the  level  of  the 
swamps  that  were  free  from  large  boulders.  Over  all  the  unchanged  drift 
these  large  boulders  were  originally  so  abundant  that  it  was  a  very  laborious 
work  to  clear  the  land  for  cultivation  ;  but  on  these  terraces  of  stratified  drift 
there  were  never  boulders  enough  to  render  them  difficult  of  cultivation. 
The  result  was  that  the  first  colonists  sought  this  class  of  lands.  One  of 
the  advantages  of  the  neighborhood  of  Boston  was  the  large  area  of  these 
terrace  deposits  found  there.  There  was  an  area  of  fifteen  or  twenty  thou- 
sand acres  within  seven  or  eight  miles  of  the  town  that  could  have  been 
quickly  brought  under  the  plough,  and  which  was  very  extensively  culti- 
vated before  the  boulder-covered  hills  began  to  be  tilled. 

After  the  terrace-making  period  had  passed  away,  owing  to  the  rising  of 
the  land  above  the  sea,  there  came  a  second  advance  of  the  glaciers,  which 
had  clung  to  the  higher  hills,  and  had  not  passed  entirely  away  from  the 
land.  This  second  advance  did  not  cover  the  land  with  ice ;  it  only  caused 
local  glaciers  to  pour  down  the  valleys.  The  Neponset,  the  Charles,  and 
the  Mystic  valleys  were  filled  by  these  river-like  streams,  which  seem  never 
to  have  attained  as  far  seaward  as  the  peninsula  of  Boston.  This  second  ad- 
vance of  the  ice  seems  to  have  been  very  temporary  in  its  action,  not  hav- 
ing endured  long  enough  to  bring  about  any  great  changes.  At  about  the 
time  of  its  retreat,  the  last  considerable  change  of  line  along  these  shores 
seems  to  have  taken  place.  This  movement  was  a  subsidence  of  the  land 
twenty  feet  or  more  below  the  former  high-tide  mark.  This  is  shown  by 
the  remains  of  buried  roots  of  trees,  standing  as  they  grew  in  the  harbor 
and  coast-lands  about  Boston.  These  have  been  found  at  two  points  on  the 
shore  of  Cambridge,  a  little  north  of  the  west  end  of  West  Boston  Bridge, 
and  in  Lynn  harbor.  Since  this  last  sinking,  the  shore-line  in  this  district 
shows  no  clear  indications  of  change. 

With  the  cessation  of  the  disturbances  of  the  glacial  period  and  at  the 
beginning  of  the  present  geological  conditions,  the  last  of  the  constructive 
changes  of  this  coast  began.  Hitherto  mechanical  forces  alone  had  done 
their  work  on  the  geography  of  the  region ;  henceforward,  to  the  present 
day,  organic  life,  driven  away  from  the  shore  and  land  by  the  glacial  period, 
again  takes  a  share  in  the  constructive  work.  This  is  still  going  on  about 
us.  The  larger  part  of  it  is  done  by  the  littoral  sea-weeds  and  the  swamp 
grasses.  Along  the  estuaries  of  the  Saugus,  Mystic,  Charles,  and  Ne- 
ponset rivers  there  are  some  thousands  of  acres  of  lands  which  have  been 
recovered  from  the  sea  by  these  plants.  The  operation  is  in  general 
as  follows :  The  mud  brought  down  by  these  streams,  consisting  in  part  of 
clay  and  in  part  of  decomposed  vegetable  matter,  derived  from  land  and 


OUTLINE  OF  THE  GEOLOGY  OF  BOSTON.  7 

water  plants,  coats  the  sandy  bottoms  or  under-water  terraces.  In  this 
mud,  even  at  considerable  depths,  eel-grass  and  some  sea-weeds  take  root, 
and  their  stems  make  a  dense  jungle.  In  this  grass  more  mud  is  gath- 
ered, and  kept  from  the  scouring  action  of  the  tide  by  being  bound 
together  by  the  roots  and  cemented  by  the  organic  matter.  This  mass 
slowly  rises  until  it  is  bare  at  low-tide.  Then  our  marsh-grasses  creep  in, 
and  in  their  interlaced  foliage  the  waste  brought  in  by  the  tide  is  retained, 
and  helps  to  raise  the  level  of  the  swamp  higher.  The  streams  from  the  land 
bring  out  a  certain  amount  of  mud,  which  at  high-tide  is  spread  in  a  thin 
sheet  over  the  surface  of  the  low  plain.  Some  devious  channels  are  kept 
open  by  the  strong  scouring  action  of  the  tide,  but  the  swamp  rapidly 
gains  a  level  but  little  lower  than  high-tide.  Except  when  there  is  some 
chance  deposit  of  mud  or  sand  from  the  bluffs  along  its  edges,  these 
swamps  are  never  lifted  above  high-tide  mark,  for  the  forces  that  build  them 
work  only  below  that  level.  Their  effect  upon  the  harbor  of  Boston  has 
been  disadvantageous.  They  have  diminished  the  area  of  storage  for  the 
tide-water  above  the  town,  and  thereby  enfeebled  the  scouring  power  of 
the  tidal  currents.  Except  at  the  very  highest  tides,  the  Charles,  Mystic, 
and  Neponset  rivers  now  pour  their  mud  directly  into  the  harbor,  instead  of 
unloading  it  upon  the  flats  where  these  marshes  have  grown  up.  There  are 
other  forces  at  work  to  diminish  the  depth  of  water  in  the  harbor.  The 
score  or  more  of  islands  that  diversify  its  surface  are  all  sources  of  waste, 
which  the  waves  tend  to  scatter  over  the  floor.  For  the  first  two  hundred 
years  after  the  settlement,  the  erosion  of  these  islands  was  not  prevented 
by  sea-walls ;  and  in  this  time  the  channels  were  doubtless  much  shoaled  by 
river-waste.  Just  after  the  glacial  period  these  channels  were  very  deep. 
Borings  made  in  the  investigations  for  the  new  sewerage  system  showed  that 
the  channel  at  the  mouth  of  the  Neponset  had  been  over  one  hundred  feet 
deeper  than  at  present,  —  the  filling  being  the  rearranged  glacial  drift 
brought  there  by  just  such  processes  as  have  recently  shoaled  the  channels 
of  the  harbor. 

The  depth  of  this  port  has  also  been  affected  by  the  drifting  in  of  sands 
along  the  shores  contiguous  to  the  northeast  and  southeast.  When  the  sea 
surges  along  these  shores,  it  drives  a  great  deal  of  waste  towards  the  har- 
bor. A  fortunate  combination  of  geographical  accidents  has  served  to  keep 
the  harbor  from  utter  destruction  from  this  action.  On  the  north  side, 
whence  comes  the  greater  part  of  this  drifting  material,  several  pocket-like 
beaches  have  been  formed,  which  catch  the  moving  sands  and  pebbles  in 
their  pouches,  and  stop  their  further  movement.  But  for  these  protections  — 
at  Marblehead  Neck,  Lynn,  and  Chelsea  on  the  north,  and  Nantasket  on  the 
south  —  the  inner  harbor  would  hardly  exist,  since  these  lodgements  contain 
enough  waste  to  close  it  entirely.  At  Nantasket  the  beach  is  now  full  and 
no  longer  detains  the  accumulating  sands,  which  are  overflowing  into  the 
outer  harbor ;  yet,  as  the  rate  of  flow  is  slow,  its  effect  is  not  likely  to  be 
immediately  hurtful. 


8  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Of  the  ancient  life  of  this  district  there  is  hardly  a  trace.  The  two 
great  and  conspicuous  formations  in  the  basin  —  the  flags  and  conglomer- 
ates of  the  Roxbury  series  and  the  drift  deposits  of  the  last  geological 
age  —  are  both  very  barren  in  organic  remains,  for  the  reason  that  they 
are  probably  both  the  product  of  ice  periods.  The  rocks  older  than  the 
Roxbury  series  are  too  much  changed  to  have  preserved  any  trace  of  the 
organisms  they  may  have  once  contained.  In  the  rearranged  drift  there  are 
some  very  interesting  remains  of  buried  forests  that  have  not  yet  received 
from  naturalists  the  attention  they  deserve.  These  buried  trees  lie  at  a  con- 
siderable depth  below  low-tide  mark,  and  are  not  exposed,  except  by  the 
chance  of  the  few  excavations  along  the  shore  that  penetrate  to  some  depth 
below  the  water-line.  When  found,  these  trees  seem  all  to  be  species 
of  coniferous  woods.  The  cone-bearing  trees  appear  from  this  and  other 
evidence  to  have  been  the  first  to  remake  the  forests  of  this  region,  after 
the  cessation  of  the  last  ice  time.  Even  the  larger  animals  that  once  in- 
habited this  district  —  the  moose,  caribou,  etc.  —  have  left  little  trace  of 
their  occupation.  It  is  rare,  indeed,  that  a  bone  of  their  skeletons  is  found, 
except  among  the  middens  accumulated  around  the  old  camping-grounds 
of  the  aborigines. 

On  the  extreme  borders  of  the  Boston  basin  there  are  extensive  fossil- 
bearing  strata.  At  Mansfield,  on  the  south,  which  is  just  outside  of  this 
synclinal,  and  within  the  limits  of  the  Rhode  Island  trough  of  the  same 
nature,  there  is  a  broad  section  of  the  coal-measures  exposed  in  some 
mines  now  unworked.  These  beds  are  extremely  rich  in  fossil  plants. 
At  Gloucester  there  is  a  small  deposit  of  beds,  containing  shells  of  mol- 
lusks  that  lived  in  the  early  part  of  the  present  period,  that  lie  just  above 
the  high-tide  mark.  But  neither  of  these  interesting  deposits  extends  into 
the  limits  of  the  Boston  basin. 

Although  this  basin  has  lost  the  greater  part  of  its  rocks  by  the  wast- 
ing action  of  the  glacial  periods,  it  owes  more  to  these  events  than  to 
all  the  other  forces  that  have  affected  its  physical  condition.  To  their 
action  we  must  attribute  the  formation  of  the  trough  in  which  the  har- 
bor lies,  the  building  of  the  peninsula  occupied  by  the  original  town,  and 
all  the  beautiful  details  of  contour  of  the  adjoining  country.  To  them, 
also,  it  owes  the  peculiarly  favorable  conditions  of  drainage  afforded  by 
the  deep  sandy  soils  that  underlie  the  terraces  where  the  greater  part 
of  the  urban  population  has  found  its  dwelling-place. 


r\ 

J  \ 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE  FAUNA  OF   EASTERN   MASSACHUSETTS:    FORMS  BROUGHT  IN 
AND    EXPELLED    BY    CIVILIZATION. 

BY    JOEL    A.     ALLEN, 

Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology,  Harvard  University. 

THE  changes  in  the  fauna  of  the  region  immediately  surrounding  Boston, 
wrought  by  civilization,  are  merely  such  as  would  be  expected  to  occur 
in  the  transformation  of  a  forest  wilderness  into  a  thickly  populated  district, 
namely,  the  extirpation  of  all  the  larger  indigenous  mammals  and  birds,  the 
partial  extinction  of  many  others,  and  the  great  reduction  in  numbers  of 
nearly  all  forms  of  animal  life,  both  terrestrial  and  aquatic,  as  well  as  the 
introduction  of  various  domesticated  species  and  those  universal  pests  of 
civilization  the  house  rats  and  mice.  The  only  other  introduced  species  of 
importance  are  the  European  house-spanrow  and  a  few  species  of  noxious 
insects.  As  there  is  nothing  peculiar  in  the  changes  in  question,  it  seems 
best  to  devote  the  few  pages  allotted  to  this  subject  to  a  presentation  of 
data  bearing  upon  the  character  of  the  fauna  as  it  was  when  the  country 
was  first  settled  by  Europeans,  these  data  being  derived  from  the  narratives 
of  Wood,  Morton,  Higginson,  Josselyn,  and  other  early  writers. 

MAMMALS. — William  Wood,  in  his  New  Englands  Prospect,  first  pub- 
lished in  1634,  thus  begins  his  quaint  enumeration  of  the  animals  occurring 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Boston :  — 

"The  kingly  Lyon,  and  the  strong  arm'd  Beare, 
The  large  lim'd  Mooses,  with  the  tripping  Deare, 
Quill  darting  Porcupines  and  Rackcoones  be, 
Castell'd  in  the  hollow  of  an  aged  tree.  .  .  ." 

"  Concerning  Lyons,"  a  point  of  some  interest  in  the  present  connection,  he 
adds,  "  I  will  not  say  that  I  ever  saw  any  my  selfe,  but  some  affirme  that  they 
have  scene  a  Lyon  at  Cape  Anne,  which  is  not  above  six  leagus  from  Boston  : 
some  likewise  being  lost  in  woods,  have  heard  such  terrible  roarings,  as 
have  made  them  much  agast;  which  must  either  be  Dcvills  or  Lyons; 
there  being  no  other  creatures  which  use  to  roare  saving  Beares,  which  have 
not  such  a  terrible  kinde  of  roaring :  besides,  Plimouth  men  have  traded  for 
VOL.  i.  —  2. 


IO  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Lyons  skinnes  in  formfcr  times."  1  To  the  above  respecting  "  Lyons  "  may 
be  added  the  following  from  an  anonymous  account  of  New  Englands 
Plantation,  published  in  1630,  and  attributed  to  Francis  Higginson:  "For 
Beasts  there  are  some  Beares,  and  they  say  some  Lyons  also ;  for  they 
have  been  seen  at  Cape  Anne,  ...  I  have  seen  the  Skins  of  all  these  Beasts 
since  I  came  to  this  Plantation  excepting  Lyons."  These  and  other  early 
allusions  to  "  Lyons  "  at  Cape  Ann,  Plymouth,  and  elsewhere  in  southern 
New  England,  doubtless  relate  to  the  catamount  or  panther  (the  Fclis  con- 
color  of  naturalists),  which  formerly  ranged  from  near  the  northern  boun- 
dary of  the  United  States  throughout  the  continent,  but  which  long  since 
disappeared  from  nearly  the  whole  Atlantic  slope  north  of  Virginia. 

Lynxes  were  quite  common,  and  bears  rather  numerous,  the  latter  being 
hunted  for  their  oil  and  flesh,  which  were  esteemed  "  not  bad  commodities." 
Wolves  roamed  in  large  packs,  and  were  very  destructive  to  sheep,  swine, 
and  calves.  As  early  as  1630  the  Court  of  Massachusetts  ordered  rewards 
for  their  destruction.  The  wolves  appear  to  have  been  unable  or  unwilling 
to  leap  fences  in  pursuit  of  cattle,  a  trait  the  settlers  soon  learned  to  profit 
by,  as  shown  by  the  following  from  Wood,  who,  in  describing  the  plantation 
of  Saugus,  refers  to  the  "  necke  of  land  called  Nahant"  and  adds:  "In 
this  nccke  is  store  of  good  ground,  fit  for  the  Plow ;  but  for  the  present  it 
is  onely  used  for  to  put  young  cattle  in,  and  weather-goates,  and  Swine,  to 
secure  them  from  the  Woolves  :  a  few  posts  and  rayles  from  the  lower 
water-markes  to  the  shore,  keepes  out  the  Wolves,  and  keepes  in  the 
cattle." 2  He  alludes  to  the  same  practice  in  his  account  of  Boston,  the 
situation  of  which,  he  says,  "  is  very  pleasant,  being  a  Peninsula,  hem'd  in 
on  the  South-side  with  the  Bay  of  Roxberry,  on  the  North-side  with  CJiarles- 
river,  the  Marshes  on  the  backe-side,  being  not  halfe  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
over;  so  that  a  little  fencing  will  secure  their  Cattle  from  the  Woolves."3 
Foxes  were  also  so  numerous  as  to  be  a  great  annoyance,  bounties  being 
early  offered  for  their  destruction.  Lewis  states  that  the  authorities  of 
Lynn  paid,  between  the  years  1698  and  1722,  for  the  destruction  of  four 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  foxes  killed  in  "  the  Lynn  woods  and  on  Nahant," 
the  reward  being  two  shillings  for  each  fox. 

Among  animals  long  since  extirpated  from  Massachusetts  is  the  "  Jac- 
cal "  mentioned  by  Josselyn,4  who  describes  it  as  "  ordinarily  less  than 
Foxes,  of  the  colour  of  a  gray  Rabbet,  and  do'  not  scent  nothing  near  so 
strong  as  a  Fox"  This  account  points  unquestionably  to  the  Virginian  or 
gray  fox  {Urocyon  cinereo-argcntatus} ,  which  during  the  last  hundred  years 
has  receded  southward  and  westward  with  great  rapidity. 

In  respect  to  the  larger  game  animals,  there  appears  to  be  no  evidence  of 
the  presence  of  the  elk  or  wapiti  deer  {Ccrinis  canadensis)  in  eastern  Massa- 
chusetts within  historic  times,  although  it  occupied  the  country  not  far  to 
the  westward.  There  are,  however,  distinct  references  to  the  occurrence  of 

1  Wood,  ed.  of  1636,  pp.  16,  17.  3  Ibid,  p  32. 

2  Ibid.  p.  35.  *  New  Englands  A'aritifs,  p.  22. 


THE   FAUNA   OF   EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS.  I  I 

the  moose  {Alces  malchis)  at  Lynn  and  elsewhere  northward  and  west- 
ward within  forty  miles  of  Boston.  It  was  sometimes  referred  to  under  the 
name  "  elk,"  as  in  the  following,  from  Morton's  New  English  Canaan^  pub- 
lished in  1637,  but  the  accompanying  descriptions  render  clear  the  identity 
of  the  species.  "  First,  therefore,"  says  Morton,  "  I  will  speake  of  the 
Elke,  which  the  Salvages  call  a  Mose :  it  is  a  very  large  Deare,  with  a  very 
faire  head,  and  a  broade  palme,  like  the  palme  of  a  fallow  Deares  horn,  but 
much  bigger,  and  is  6.  foote  wide  betweene  the  tipps,  which  grow  curbing 
downwards :  Hee  is  of  the  biggnesse  of  a  great  horse.  There  have  bin  of 
them,  scene  that  has  bin  18.  handfulls  higher  hee  hath  a  bunch  of  haire 
under  his  jawes.  .  .  ."  Wood2  says:  "There  be  not  many  of  these  in 
Massachusetts  bay,  but  forty  miles  to  the  Northeast  there  be  great  store 
of  them." 

The  common  deer  (Cariactu  virginianus)  was,  from  its  abundance,  by 
far  the  most  important  of  the  larger  native  animals,  and  for  many  years 
afforded  a  ready  supply  of  animal  food.  Morton  states  that  "  an  hundred 
have  bin  found  at  the  spring  of  the  yeare,  within  the  compasse  of  a  mile,"  3 
and  other  writers  refer  to  their  numbers  in  similar  terms.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  a  small  remnant  still  existing  in  Plymouth  and  Barnstable  Counties, 
thanks  to  stringent  legislative  protection,  the  species  became  long  since 
extirpated  throughout  nearly  the  whole  of  southern  New  England. 

Among  other  mammals  that  have  entirely  disappeared  are  the  beaver, 
the  marten,  and  the  porcupine.  The  otter  and  the  raccoon  are  nearly  ex- 
tinct, and  nearly  all  the  smaller  species  occur  in  greatly  reduced  numbers, 
including  the  muskrat,  mink,  weasels,  shrews,  moles,  squirrels,  and  the 
various  species  of  field-mice.  The  marine  mammals  have  declined  equally 
with  the  land  species.  There  are  many  allusions  to  the  abundance,  in  early 
times,  of  seals,  whales,  and  the  smaller  cetaceans.  One  writer,  in  speaking 
of  Massachusetts  Bay,  says,  "  for  it  is  well  knowne  that  it  equalizeth  Groin- 
land  for  Whales  and  Grampuses."  It  is  a  matter  of  history  that  a  profita- 
ble whale-fishery  was  at  one  time  carried  on  in  the  Bay  itself,  the  whales 
being  pursued  at  first  in  open  boats  from  the  shore. 

BIRDS. — The  great  auk  and  the  Labrador  duck  are  believed  to  have 
become  everywhere  extinct,  especially  the  former,  and  five  or  six  other 
species  long  since  disappeared  from  southern  New  England.  All  the 
larger  species,  and  many  of  the  shore-birds,  have  greatly  decreased,  as 
have  likewise  most  of  the  smaller  forest-birds.  The  few  that  haunt  culti- 
vated grounds  have  doubtless  nearly  maintained  their  former  abundance, 
and  in  some  instances  have  possibly  increased  in  numbers.  Prominent 
among  those  formerly  abundant,  but  which  now  occur  only  at  long  inter- 
vals as  stragglers  from  the  remote  interior,  are  swans  and  cranes.  Respect- 
ing the  former,  Morton  has  left  us  the  following:  "  And  first  of  the  Swanne, 
because  shee  is  the  biggest  of  all  the  fowles  of  that  Country.  There  are  of 

1  Page  74.  2  Page  18.  3  New  English  Canaan,  p.  75. 


12 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


them  in  Merrimack  River,  and  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  greate  store  at 
the  seasons  of  the  yeare.  The  flesh  is  not  much  desired  of  the  inhab- 
itants, but  the  skinnes  may  be  accompted  a  commodity,  fitt  for  divers  uses, 
both  for  fethers  and  quiles."  Of  "  Cranes,"  he  says,  "  there  are  greate  store. 
.  .  .  These  sometimes  eate  our  corne,  and  doe  pay  for  their  presumption  well 

enough  ;  and  scrvcth  there 
in  powther,  with  turnips  to 
supply  the  place  of  pow- 
thered  beefe,  and  is  a 
goodly  bird  in  a  dishe, 
and  no  discommodity." 1 
The  crane  was  probably 
the  brown  crane  (Cms  can- 
adensis),  while  the  swans 
embraced  both  of  the 
American  species. 

The  wild  Turkey  is  well 
known  to  have  been  for- 
merly abundant.  Wood 
speaks  of  there  sometimes 
being  "  forty,  three-score, 
and  an  hundred  of  aflocke," 
while  Morton  alludes  to  a 
"  thousand "  seen  in  one 
day.  According  to  Josse- 
lyn,  they  began  early  to 
decline.  After  alluding  to 
their  former  abundance,  he 
THE  GREAT  AUK.  says,  writing  in  1672,  "but 

this  was  thirty  years  since, 

the  English  and  the  Indian  having  now  so  destroyed  the  breed,  so  that  't  is 
very  rare  to  meet  with  a  Tnrkie  in  the  Woods ;  but  some  of  the  English 
bring  up  great  store  of  the  wild  kind,  which  remain  about  their  Houses  as 
tame  as  ours  in  England" '2  The  complete  extirpation  of  the  wild  stock 
appears  to  have  occurred  at  an  early  date. 

The  pinnated  grouse  (Cupidonia  cupido)  likewise  soon  disappeared. 
The  few  which  still  remain  on  Martha's  Vineyard  are  believed  to  be  a  rem- 
nant of  the  original  stock,  but  this  is  rendered  doubtful  by  the  fact  that 
birds  introduced  from  the  West  have  been  at  different  times  turned  out  on 
this  or  neighboring  islands. 

The  former  presence  of  the  great  auk  {A lea  impennis}  along  the  coast 
of  Massachusetts  is  not  only  attested  by  history  but  by  the  occurrence  of* 
its  bones  in  the  Indian  shell-heaps  at  Ipswich  and  neighboring  points.     It 
seems  to  have  existed  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston  till  near  the  close  of  the 

1  New  English  Canaan,  p.  67.  z  Arew  England*  Rarities,  p.  9. 


THE    FAUNA   OF   EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS.  13 

seventeenth  century,  but  probably  did  not  survive  to  a  much  later  date. 
The  earliest  reference  to  it  as  a  bird  of  our  coast  is  contained  in  Archer's 
Relation  of  Captaine  Gosnols  Voyage  to  the  North  part  of  Virginia,  made  in 
1602,  in  which  "  Pengwins "  are  mentioned  as  found  on  the  New  Eng- 
land coast  in  latitude  43°.  The  account  further  states  that  "  near  Gilbert's 
Point,"  in  latitude  41°  40',  "  by  the  ships  side  we  there  killed  Pengwins." 
In  Rosier's  account  of  a  Virginian  Voyage  made  An.  1605  by  Captaine 
George  WaymoutJi,  in  tJie  Arch-angell,  "  Penguins"  are  enumerated  among 
the  birds  met  with,  in  all  probability  near  Nantucket  Shoals.  As  the  bird 
here  called  "  Penguins  "  is  not  described  in  the  accounts  above  cited,  the 
following,  from  Captain  Richard  Whitbourne's  Relation  of  Newfoundland^ 
may  be  of  interest :  "  These  Penguins  are  as  bigge  as  Geese,  and  flie  not, 
for  they  have  but  a  little  short  wing,  and  they  multiply  so  infinitely  vpon  a 
certaine  flat  Hand,  that  men  drive  them  from  thence  vpon  a  boord  into 
their  Boates  by  hundreds  at  a  time ;  as  if  God  had  made  the  innocencie  of 
so  poore  a  creature  to  become  such  an  admirable  instrument  for  the  sus- 
tentation  of  man."  1  From  Josselyn's  account  of  the  "  Wobble,"  which  is 
evidently  the  same  bird,  it  may  be  inferred  that  it  was  not  uncommon  on 
the  coast  of  Massachusetts  Bay  as  late  as  1672.  He  says:  "The  Wobble, 
an  ill  shaped  Fowl,  having  no  long  Feathers  in  their  Pinions,  which  is  the 
reason  they  cannot  fly,  not  much  unlike  a  Penguin;  they  are  in  the  Spring 
very  fat,  or  rather  oyly,  but  pull'd  and  garbidg'd,  and  laid  to  the  Fire  to 
roast,  they  yield  not  one  drop."  2 

The  abundance  of  water-fowl  and  shore-birds  seems  worthy  of  brief 
notice.  Morton  describes  three  kinds  of  geese,  and  says:  "There  is  of 
them  great  abundance.  I  have  had  often  1000.  before  the  mouth  of  my 
gunne  .  .  .  the  fethers  of  the  Geese  that  I  have  killed  in  a  short  time,  have 
paid  for  all  the  powther  and  shott,  I  have  spent  in  a  yeare,  and  I  have  fed 
my  doggs  with  as  fatt  Geese  there  as  I  have  ever  fed  upon  my  selfe  in 
England."  Of  ducks  he  mentions  three  kinds,  besides  "  Widggens,"  and 
two  sorts  of  teal,  and  refers  to  its  being  a  "  noted  Custome  "  at  his  house 
"  to  have  every  mans  Duck  upon  a  trencher."  He  speaks  of  the  smaller 
shore-birds  under  the  general  term  "  Sanderling,"  and  says  they  were 
"  easie  to  come  by,  because  I  went  but  a  stepp  or  to  for  them :  I  have 
killed  betweene  foure  and  five  dozen  at  a  shoot  which  would  loade  me 
home."  3 

Wood  observes,  "  Such  is  the  simplicity  of  the  smaller  sorts  of  these 
birds  [which  he  calls  '  Humilities  or  Simplicities,']  that  one  may  drive 
them  on  a  heape  like  so  many  sheepe,  and  seeing  a  fit  time  shoot  them ; 
the  living  seeing  the  dead,  settle  themselves  on  the  same  place  againe, 
amongst  which  the  Fowler  discharges  againe.  I  my  selfe  have  killed  twelve 
score  at  two  shootes."  4 

No  bird  appears  to  have  been  more  numerous  in  early  times  throughout 

1  Purchas  his  Pilgrims,  iv.  pp.  1885,  1886.  3  New  English  Canaan,  pp.  67-69. 

2  New  England*  Rarities,  p.  n.  *  New  England's  Prospect,  pp.  26,  27. 


14  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

the  whole  Atlantic  slope  than  was  the  wild  pigeon.  The  early  historians 
of  the  region  here  in  question  speak  of  flocks  containing  "  millions  of  mil- 
lions," having  seemingly,  as  Josselyn  expresses  it,  "  neither  beginning  nor 
ending,"  and  "  so  thick "  as  to  obscure  the  sun.  Other  writers  speak  of 
their  passing  in  such  immense  clouds  as  to  hide  the  sun  for  hours  together. 

REPTILES.  —  The  antipathy  to  snakes,  which  so  generally  impels  their 
destruction  at  every  opportunity,  has  left  few  of  these  in  comparison  with 
their  former  numbers.  The  rattlesnake,  the  only  dangerous  species,  found 
now  only  at  few  localities,  was  formerly  much  more  generally  dispersed. 
The  draining  of  ponds  and  marshy  lands  has  greatly  circumscribed  the 
haunts  of  frogs,  salamanders,  and  tortoises,  which  at  many  localities  have 
become  nearly  extirpated. 

FISHES.  —  A  few  quotations  respecting  some  of  the  more  important 
kinds  of  edible  fish  will  show  to  how  great  a  degree  our  streams  and  coast 
waters  have  been  depopulated.  Respecting  the  codfish,  the  bass,  and  the 
mackerel,  Morton  speaks  as  follows :  "  The  Coast  aboundeth  with  such 
multitudes  of  Codd,  that  the  inhabitants  of  New  England  doe  dunge  their 
grounds  with  Codd ;  and  it  is  a  commodity  better  than  the  golden  mines 
of  the  Spanish  Indies.  .  .  .  The  Basse  is  an  excellent  Fish.  .  .  .  There  are 
such  multitudes,  that  I  have  scene  stopped  into. the  river  [Merrimack]  close 
adjoyning  to  my  howse  with  a  sand  at  one  tide,  so  many  as  will  loade  a  ship 
of  a  100.  Tonnes.  Other  places  have  greater  quantities  in  so  much,  as 
wagers  have  bin  layed,  that  one  should  not  throw  a  stone  in  the  water,  but 
that  hee  should  hit  a  fish.  I  my  selfe,  at  a  turning  of  the  tyde,  have  scene 
such  multitudes  passe  out  of  a  pound,  that  it  seemed  to  mee,  that  one  might 
goe  over  their  backs  drishod.  .  .  .  The  Mackarels  are  the  baite  for  the 
Basse,  and  these  have  bin  chased  into  the  shallow  waters,  where  so  many 
thousands  have  shott  themselves  ashore  with  the  surfe  of  the  Sea,  that 
whole  hogges-heads  have  bin  taken  up  on  the  Sands ;  and  for  length  they 
excell  any  of  other  parts:  they  have  bin  measured  18.  and  19.  inches  in 
length,  and  seaven  in  breadth :  and  are  taken  ...  in  very  greate  quantities 
all  alonge  the  Coaste."  l 

Wood  says,  "...  shoales  of  Basse  have  driven  up  shoales  of  Macrill 
from  one  end  of  the  sandie  Beach  to  another  [referring  to  Lynn  Beach]  ; 
which  the  inhabitants  have  gathered  up  in  wheelc-barrowes."  Higginson, 
in  speaking  of  "  a  Fish  called  a  Basse,"  states  that  the  fishermen  used  to 
take  more  of  them  in  their  nets  than  they  could  "  hale  to  land,  and  for  want 
of  Boats  and  Men  they  are  constrained  to  let  a  many  goe  after  they  have 
taken  them,  and  yet  sometimes  they  fill  two  Boats  at  a  time  with  them." 

Other  kinds  of  fish  appear  to  have  been  correspondingly  abundant. 
"  There  is  a  Fish,  (by  some  called  shadds,  by  some  allizes),"  says  Morton, 
"  that  at  the  spring  of  the  yearc,  passe  up  the  rivers  to  spaune  in  the  ponds ; 

1  New  English  Gutaan,  pp.  86-88. 


THE   FAUNA   OF   EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS.  15 

and  are  taken  in  such  multitudes  in  every  river,  that  hath  a  pond  at  the 
end,  that  the  Inhabitants  doung  their  ground  with  them.  You  may  see  in 
one  towneship  a  hundred  acres  together,  set  with  these  Fish,  every  acre 
taking  1000.  of  them."  Wood  records  that  "  In  two  Tydes  they  have 
gotten  one  hundred  thousand  of  those  Fishes"  (referring  to  shad  and 
alewives)  "  in  a  Wayre  to  catch  Fish,"  built  just  below  the  falls  of  Charles 
River.  Among  other  abundant  species  are  mentioned  halibut  and  floun- 
ders. Respecting  the  latter,  Morton  says  "  They  (at  flowing  water)  do 
almost  come  ashore,  so  that  one  may  stepp  but  halfe  a  foote  deepe  and 
prick  them  up  on  the  sands." 

I  find  no  distinct  allusion  to  the  bluefish,  but  it  is  well  known  to*  have 
been  for  a  long  time  of  periodical  occurrence  in  Massachusetts  Bay.  A 
century  ago  it  was  abundant  about  Nantucket  and  to  some  distance  north- 
ward; later,  it  disappeared  for  about  fifty  years,  and  then  again  became 
more  or  less  abundant,  even  in  Massachusetts  Bay.  Their  reappearance, 
says  Mr.  N.  E.  Atwood,  has  caused  "  the  rapid  diminution  of  the  mackerel 
during  the  spawning-season,  and  the  tenfold  increase  of  the  lobster,  the 
young  of  which  were  devoured  by  the  mackerel."  l 

INVERTEBRATES. — There  are,  as  would  naturally  be  expected,  few 
available  data  for  a  comparison  of  the  present  invertebrate  fauna  with  that 
of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  and  these  relate  mainly  to  a  few  of  the 
edible  "  shell-fish."  From  the  accounts  left  us  by  the  authors  already  so 
frequently  quoted,  it  appears  that  the  lobster  has  declined  greatly  in  num- 
bers and  in  size.  In  the  quaint  language  of  the  times,  they  are  said  to 
have  been  "  infinite  in  store  in  all  parts  of  the  land,  and  very  excellent," 
and  to  have  sometimes  attained  a  weight  of  sixteen  to  twenty-five  pounds. 
They  appear  to  have  been  an  important  source  of  food  to  the  Indians,  as 
Morton2  says,  "...  the  Salvages  will  meete  500,  or  1000.  at  a  place  where 
Lobsters  come  in  with  the  tyde,  to  eate,  and  save  dried  for  store,  abiding 
in  that  place,  feasting  and  sporting  a  moneth  or  6.  weekes  together." 

Oysters  were  found  in  "  greate  store  "  "  in  the  entrance  of  all  Rivers," 
and  of  large  size.  Wood  says  the  oyster-banks  in  Charles  River  "  doe  barre 
out  the  bigger  ships."  He  thus  describes  the  oysters :  "  The  Oisters  be 
great  ones  in  forme  of  a  shoo  home,  some  be  a  foote  long,  these  breede  on 
certaine  bankes  that  are  bare  every  Spring  tide.  This  fish  without  the  shell 
is  so  big  that  it  must  admit  of  a  division  before  you  can  well  get  it  into 
your  mouth."  From  some  not  well-known  cause  the  oysters  died  out  so 
long  ago  along  most  parts  of  the  Massachusetts  coast  that  some  recent 
authorities  have  doubted  whether  they  were  ever  indigenous  here,  those 
now  cultivated  having  been  introduced  from  other  points. 

Of  clams  ("  Clames,"  "  Clammes,"  or  "Clamps,"  as  they  were  variously 
designated),  it  is  said  "  there  is  no  want,  every  shore  is  full."  Besides  their 
ordinary  uses  they  were  esteemed  "  a  great  commoditie  for  the  feeding  of 

1  Proc.  Bost.  Soc.  Nat.  Hist.,  xii.  p.  403.  2  New  English  Canaan,  p.  90. 


l6  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Swine,  both  in  Winter  and  Summer;  for  being  once  used  to  those  places, 
they  will  repaire  to  them  as  duely  every  ebbe,  as  if  they  were  driven  to  them 
by  keepers."  Swine  were  doubtless  instrumental  in  eradicating  clams  and 
mussels  at  the  points  they  visited,  since  it  is  well-known  that,  at  localities 
in  the  West  where  they  are  allowed  to  run  at  large,  they  quickly  destroy 
the  fresh-water  mussels  in  all  the  streams  where  in  seasons  of  drought  they 
can  gain  access  to  these  animals.  The  use  of  clams  for  fish-bait  has  also 
tended  greatly  to  their  decrease.  At  many  points  along  the  coast  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  they  have  become  wholly  exterminated,  since  a  com- 
paratively recent  date,  over  areas  embracing  hundreds  of  acres  in  extent. 
Their  extinction,  however,  seems  not  in  all  cases  to  have  been  the  result  of 
human  agency,  but  is  known,  in  some  instances,  to  have  been  caused  by 
exposure  of  the  tracts  they  inhabited  to  extreme  cold  during  very  low  tides. 
The  changes  in  respect  to  insect-life  have  unquestionably  been  great, 
some  species  having  decreased  while  others  have  become  more  numerous. 
Many  obnoxious  species  have  been  fortuitously  introduced  from  other 
countries,  while  some  have  reached  us  by  migration  from  distant  parts  of 
the  West.  Of  the  latter,  the  Colorado  potato-beetle  is  the  best-known 
example,  which  has  recently  reached  the  Atlantic  coast  by  a  gradual 
migration  from  the  Great  Plains,  and  which  at  present  constitutes  the  most 
dreaded  foe  with  which  the  farmer  has  to  contend.  In  early  times, 
as  is  well-known,  the  locusts,  or  "  grasshoppers,"  occasionally  appeared  in 
such  numbers  as  to  commit  serious  depredations. 


/ 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    FLORA    OF    BOSTON    AND    ITS    VICINITY,    AND    THE 
CHANGES    IT    HAS    UNDERGONE. 

BY   ASA   GRAY,  LL.D., 

Fisher  Professor  of  Natural  History  itt  Harvard  University. 

THE  changes  of  climate  which  are  referred  to  in  a  preceding  chapter 
have  led  to  corresponding  changes  in  the  vegetation.  It  is  only  by 
conjecture  and  analogy  that  we  can  form  some  general  idea  of  the  vegeta- 
tion of  Massachusetts  in  the  days  which  immediately  preceded  the  advent 
of  the  glacial  period,  when  the  ancestors  of  the  present  trees,  shrubs,  and 
herbs  of  New  England,  which  had  long  flourished  within  the  Arctic  Circle, 
were  beginning  to  move  southward  before  the  slowly  advancing  refrigera- 
tion. But,  as  the  refrigeration  at  the  north  increased,  a  warm-temperate 
vegetation,  which  may  have  resembled  that  of  the  Carolinas  and  of  Florida 
at  present,  must  have  been  forced  southward,  and  have  been  replaced  very 
gradually  by  a  flora  very  like  that  which  we  now  look  upon.  This,  in  its 
turn,  must  have  been  wholly  expelled  from  New  England  by  the  advanc- 
ing ice-sheet,  under  and  by  which  our  soil  has  been  completely  re- 
modelled. After  this  ice-sheet  had  melted  and  receded,  and  the  new  soil 
had  become  fit  for  land  vegetation,  —  that  is,  at  a  time  geologically  re- 
cent, —  the  vegetation  of  Boston  and  its  environs  must  have  closely  resem- 
bled that  of  northern  Labrador  or  of  Greenland,  or  even  have  consisted 
mainly  of  the  same  species  of  herbs  and  stunted  shrubs  which  compose  the 
present  Arctic-alpine  flora.  The  visitor  to  the  summit  of  Mount  Washing- 
ton will  there  behold  a  partial  representation  of  it,  as  it  were  an  insular 
patch,  —  a  vestige  of  the  vegetation  which  skirted  the  ice  in  its  retreat,  and 
was  stranded  upon  the  higher  mountain  summits  of  New  England,  while  the 
main  body  retreated  northward  at  lower  levels.  In  time,  the  arborescent 
vegetation,  and  the  humbler  plants  which  thrive  in  the  shade  of  trees,  or 
such  of  them  as  survived  the  vicissitudes  of  a  southern  migration,  returned 
to  New  England ;  and  our  coast  must  have  been  at  one  time  clothed  with 
white  spruces ;  then  probably  with  black  spruce  and  arbor-vitae,  with  here 
and  there  some  canoe  birches  and  beeches ;  and  these,  as  the  climate  ame- 
liorated, were  replaced  by  white  and  red  pines,  and  at  length  the  common 
pitch  pine  came  to  occupy  the  lighter  soils;  and  the  three  or  four  species 
VOL.  i.  —  3. 


l8  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

of  oak,  the  maples,  ashes,  with  their  various  arboreal  and  frutescent  asso- 
ciates, came  in  to  complete  the  ordinary  and  well-known  New  England 
forest  of  historic  times.1 

Even  without  historical  evidence,  we  should  infer  with  confidence  that 
New  England  before  human  occupation  was  wholly  forest-clad,  excepting  a 
line  of  salt  marshes  on  certain  shores,  and  the  bogs  and  swamps  not  yet  firm 
enough  to  sustain  trees.  The  islands  in  our  bay  were  well  wooded  under 
Nature's  planting,  although  we  now  find  it  difficult,  yet  by  no  means  im- 
possible, to  reforest  them. 

The  Indian  tribes  found  here  by  the  whites  had  not  perceptibly  modi- 
fied the  natural  vegetation;  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  they  had  here 
been  preceded  by  any  agricultural  race.  Their  inconsiderable  plantation  of 
maize,  along  with  some  beans  and  pumpkins,  —  originally  derived  from 
much  more  southern  climes,  but  thriving  under  a  sultry  summer,  —  how- 
ever important  to  the  raisers,  could  not  have  sensibly  affected  the  face  of 
the  country ;  although  it  was  said  that  "  in  divers  places  there  is  much 
ground  cleared  by  the  Indians."  But,  whatever  may  have  been  the  amount 
of  their  planting,  if  the  aborigines  had  simply  abandoned  the  country,  no 
mark  of  their  occupation  would  have  long  remained,  so  far  as  the  vegetable 
kingdom  is  concerned. 

Very  different  was  the  effect  of  European  immigration,  and  the  occupa- 
tion of  the  land  by  an  agricultural,  trading,  and  manufacturing  people. 
Yet,  with  all  the  change,  it  is  not  certain  that  any  species  of  tree,  shrub,  or 
herb  has  been  extirpated  from  eastern  Massachusetts,  although  many  which 
must  have  been  common  have  become  rare  and  local,  and  their  continua- 
tion precarious ;  and  the  distribution  and  relative  proportions  of  the  land 
flora,  and  even  that  of  the  streams,  have  been  largely  altered. 

Regarded  simply  as  to  number  of  species,  no  doubt  an  increase  in  the 
variety  has  been  the  net  result,  even  after  leaving  all  cultivated  and  pur- 

1  Palfrey,  in  his  History  of  New  England,  acteristicalness  was  soon  expressed  in  the  pine- 

i.  16,  enumerates  the  characteristic  trees  of  New  tree  money,  its  effigy  being  impressed  upon  their 

England.     Most  are  indigenous  to  the  vicinity  only  coinage.     The  wealth  of  the  oak-genus,  even 

of  Boston.     All  were  different  in  species  from  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston,  must  have  been  noted ; 

the  trees  of  old  England,  except  the  white  birch  and  among  the  larger  shrubs  or  low  trees  the 

and  the  chestnut,  which  are  here  represented  by  magnolia   and   rhododendron    (if,    indeed,   they 

American  varieties;  but  the  greater  part  were  of  were  early  met  with  here),  the  kalmia,  the  larger 

familiar  genera.    Those  which  must  have  been  sumach,  the  hawthorns  and  the  Juneberry  with 

new  to  the  settlers  were  such  as  the  flowering  edible  fruit,  several  species  of  viburnum,  the 

dogwood,   the   sassafras,   the    tupelo,   and    the  sweet  pepper-bush,  the  pink  and  the  white  azalea, 

hickory,  — to  which   the    tulip-tree    would    be  must  have  attracted  early  attention.     It  would 

added   on   taking  a  wider  range ;   and,  among  be  interesting  to  know  how  soon  the  epigaea,  or 

evergreens,  the  hemlock-spruce,  and  the  three  May-flower  —  deliciously-scented    precursor    of 

trees  of  as  many  different  genera  to  which  the  spring,  blossoming  among   russet   fallen  leaves 

colonists  gave   the   name   of   cedar,   though   it  from  which  the  winter's  snow  has  just  melted 

rightfully  belongs  to  none  of  them.     The  white  away  —  came  to  be  noticed  and  prized.      It  is 

pine  —  the  noblest  and  most  useful  tree  of  New  not    much   to   his   credit   as   an   observer   that 

England  — must  also  have  been  a  novelty,  no  Josselyn    takes    no    account    of    it.      But    he 

pine   of  that   type  having  been  known  to  the  equally  omits  all  mention  of  huckleberries  and 

settlers;  and  their  sense  of  its  value  and  char-  blueberries. 


THE   FLORA   OF   BOSTON   AND    ITS   VICINITY.  19 

posely  introduced  plants  out  of  view.  For  while  it  is  doubtful  if  any  spe- 
cies has  been  entirely  lost  from  the  environs  of  Boston  (taking  these  to 
include  the  counties  of  Norfolk,  Middlesex,  and  Essex),  a  very  consid- 
erable number  has  been  acquired,  although  the  gain  has  not  always  been 
an  advantage.  Some  of  the  .immigrant  plants,  indeed,  are  ornamental  or 
useful ;  others  are  the  pests  of  the  fields  and  gardens,  showy  though  seve- 
ral of  them  are ;  and  perhaps  all  of  them  are  regarded  by  the  botanist  with 
dislike  when  they  mix  themselves  freely  or  predominantly  with  the  native 
denizens  of  the  soil,  as  if  "  to  the  manner  born,"  since  their  incoming  tends 
to  confuse  the  natural  limits  and  characteristics  of  floras. 

The  influx  of  European  weeds  was  prompt  and  rapid  from  the  first,  and 
has  not  ceased  to  flow ;  for  hardly  a  year  passes  in  which  new  comers  are 
not  noticed  in  some  parts  of  the  country. 

The  earliest  notices  of  the  plants  of  this  vicinity  which  evince  any  botani- 
cal knowledge  whatever  are  contained  in  John  Josselyn's  New  Englands 
Rarities  discovered,  published  in  1672,*  and  in  his  Voyages,  published  in 
1674.  The  next  —  after  a  long  interval  —  are  by  Manasseh  Cutler,  of 
Ipswich  (Hamilton),  in  his  "Account  of  Some  of  the  Vegetable  Produc- 
tions naturally  growing  in  this  part  of  America,  botanically  arranged," 
published  in«the  first  volume  of  the  Memoirs  of  the  American  Academy  of 
Arts  and  Sciences  in  1785.  Next  in  order  was  Dr.  Bigelow's  Florida 
Bostoniensis,  issued  in  1814. 

More  interesting  to  us  than  his  account  of  the  indigenous  vegetation  of 
the  country  is  Josselyn's  list  "  of  such  plants  as  have  sprung  up  since  the 
English  planted  and  kept  cattle  in  New  England."  Twenty-one  of  such 
plants  are  mentioned  by  their  popular  English  names,  and  most  of  them  are 
to  be  identified.  And  the  list  of  "  garden  herbs "  comprises  several 
plants  —  among  them  sorrel,  purslane,  spearmint,  ground-ivy,  elecam- 
pane, and  tansy  —  which  have  since  become  naturalized  weeds.  More- 
over, several  herbs  are  mentioned  as  indigenous  both  to  New  England  and 
to  the  mother  country  which  are  certainly  not  of  American  origin,  but 
manifest  introductions  from  the  Old  World. 

There  is  no  need  to  specify  the  numerous  plants  of  the  Old  World 
which,  purposely  or  accidentally  imported  by  European  settlers,  have  been 
added  to  the  flora  not  only  of  Boston,  but  of  the  Atlantic  United  States 
generally.  They  are  conspicuous  in  all  our  manuals  and  catalogues.,  and 
indeed  are  even  more  familiar  to  people  in  general  than  are  most  of  the 
indigenous  plants.  Yet  attention  may  be  called  to  those  which  are  some- 
what peculiarly  denizens  of  Boston,  —  that  is,  which  have  thoroughly  estab- 
lished themselves  in  this  vicinity,  yet  have  manifested  a  disinclination  to 
spread  beyond  eastern  New  England.  Some  of  them,  however,  occur  in 
the  seaboard  districts  of  the  Middle  States. 

1  Reprinted  and  carefully  edited,  with  an  1638,  and  came  again  in  July,  1663,  then  re- 
introduction  and  commentaries,  very  important  maining  eight  years.  He  passed  most  of 
for  the  botany,  by  Professor  Edward  Tucker-  his  time  at  his  brother's  plantation  at  Black 
man.  Josselyn  first  arrived  in  Boston  in  July,  Point,  Scarborough,  Maine. 


2Q  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

If  Josselyn  is  to  be  trusted,  various  introduced  plants  must  have  taken 
wonderfully  prompt  possession  of  the  new  soil;  for  (as  just  mentioned)  he 
enumerates  St.  John's  wort,  catmint,  toad-flax,  Jerusalem  oak  (Chenopodiiun 
Botrys),  and  "wood-wax,  wherewith  they  dye  many  pretty  colors,"  as  indi- 
genous to  the  country.  But  most  of  these  could  assert  no  such  claim  in 
much  later  times ;  and  it  is  probable  that  either  the  memory  or  the  judg- 
ment of  Josselyn  may  have  been  at  fault.  However  this  may  be,  the 
last-mentioned  plant  may  head  the  list  of  those  introduced  plants  which  are 
somewhat  characteristic  of  the  environs  of  Boston. 

Woad-waxen,  or  dyer's  greenweed  (Genista  tinctoria),  which  covers 
the  sterile  hills  between  Salem  and  Lynn  with  a  full  glow  of  yellow  at 
flowering-time,  is  very  local  at  a  few  other  stations,  and  is  nearly  or  quite 
unknown  beyond  eastern  New  England.  According  to  Tuckerman  there  is 
a  tradition  that  it  was  introduced  here  by  Governor  Endicott,  which  may 
have  been  forty  years  before  Josselyn  finished  his  herborizing,  —  enough  to 
account  for  its  naturalization  at  that  period,  but  not  enough  to  account  for 
its  being  then  regarded  as  indigenous. 

Fall  dandelion  (Lcontodon  aiitumnali)  is  remarkable  for  its  abundance 
around  Boston,  and  its  scarcity  or  total  absence  elsewhere. 

Bulbous  buttercup  (Ranunculus  bulbosus),  whose  deep  yellow  blossoms 
give  a  golden  tinge  to  our  meadows  and  pastures  in  the  latter  part  of  spring, 
has  hardly  spread  beyond  New  England,  and  abounds  only  in  eastern  Mas- 
sachusetts, —  unlike  the  tall  buttercup  (R.  acris]  in  this  respect,  which  is 
diffused  throughout  the  Northern  and  Middle  States. 

Succory,  or  chichory  (Cichorium  Intybus},  which  adorns  our  road- 
sides and  many  fields  with  cerulean  blue  at  midsummer,  is  of  rare  occur- 
rence beyond  this  neighborhood,  and  when  met  with  out  of  New  England 
shows  little  disposition  to  spread. 

Jointed  charlock  (Rafhanus  Raphanistnuri)  is  a  conspicuous  and  trouble- 
some weed  only  in  eastern  Massachusetts. 

Bladder  campion  (Silene  inflata),  if  not  confined  to  this  district,  is  only 
here  abundant  or  conspicuous;  and  the  list  of  such  herbs  could  be  con- 
siderably extended. 

Barberry  (Berberis  vulgaris}  is  the  leading  shrub  of  the  same  class. 
It  is  a  surprise  to  most  Bostonians  to  be  told  that  it  is  an  intruder.  Beyond 
New  England  it  is  seldom  seen,  except  as  planted  or  as  spontaneous  in  the 
neighborhood  of  dwellings,  or  near  their  former  sites. 

Privet,  or  prim  (Ligustrum  vulgare),  is  somewhat  in  the  same  case; 
but  it  has  obtained  its  principal  foothold  in  the  sea-board  portion  of  the 
Middle  States. 

The  only  trees  which  tend  to  naturalize  themselves  are  one  or  two 
European  willows,  perhaps  the  Abele  tree  or  white  poplar,  and  the  locust, 
—  the  last  a  native  of  the  United  States  farther  south. 

It  would  much  exceed  our  limits  to  specify  the  principal  trees  and  shrubs 
which,  by  being  extensively  planted  for  shade  or  ornament,  have  con- 


THE    FLORA   OF   BOSTON    AND    ITS   VICINITY. 


21 


spicuously  supplemented 
our'  indigenous  vegetation. 
Most  of  these  are  of  com- 
paratively recent  introduc- 
tion, and  the  number  is 
still  rapidly  increasing. 
One  of  the  earliest  ac- 
cessions of  this  kind  must 
have  been  the  English  elm, 
—  some  trees  of  which,  in 
the  Boston  Mall  and  else- 
where, may  have  been  only 
a  century  younger  than 
the  celebrated  American 
elm,  which  was  until  re- 
cently the  pride  of  Boston 
Common.  Perhaps  the 
very  first  introduced  trees 
were  the  white  willow  and 
the  Lombardy  poplar,  both 


1  [This  cut  follows  a  photograph  taken  about 
a  score  of  years  since,  and  before  the  tree  was 
shorn  of  all  its  majestic  proportions.  The  gate 
of  the  surrounding  fence  bore  this  inscription: 
"  This  Tree  has  been  standing  here  for  an  un- 
known period.  It  is  believed  to  have  existed 
before  the  settlement  of  Boston,  being  full-grown 
in  1722,  exhibited  marks  of  old  age  in  1792,  and 
was  nearly  destroyed  by  a  storm  in  1832.  Pro- 
tected by  an  iron  inclosure  in  1854."  The  tree 
was  again  seriously  dismembered  in  a  storm, 
June  29,  1860.  One  of  the  remaining  large 
limbs  fell  in  another  storm  in  September,  1869. 
Its  final  destruction  took  place  Feb.  16,  1876, 
when  it  was  broken  off  near  the  ground.  Shurt- 
leff,  Desc.  of  Boston,  p.  335,  says  it  is  reasonable 
to  believe  it  was  growing  before  the  arrival  of 
the  first  colonists.  A  vague  tradition,  on  the 
other  hand,  assigns  its  setting  out  to  Hezekiah 
Henchman  about  1670,  or  to  his  father  Daniel, 
of  a  somewhat  earlier  day.  No.  Amer.  Rev., 
July,  1844,  p.  204.  One  hundred  and  ninety 
rings  were  counted  in  the  great  branch  which 
fell  in  1860.  Dr.  Holmes,  Autocrat  of  the  Break- 
fast Table,  p.  5,  puts  the  tree  in  the  second  rank 
of  large  elms,  those  measuring,  at  five  feet  from 
the  ground,  from  fourteen  to  eighteen  feet  in 
girth.  The  measurements  recorded  are :  In 
1825,  sixty-five  feet  high;  twenty-one  feet  eight 
inches  girth,  at  two  feet  and  a  half  from  the 
ground ;  diameter  of  spread,  eighty-six  feet.  Mr. 
George  B.  Emerson,  in  his  Trees  and  Shrubs 
growing  naturally  in  the  forests  of  Massachusetts, 
2d  ed.,  1875,  vol.  ii.  p.  326,  says :  "  The  great  elm 


THE   GREAT   ELM.1 


on  Boston  Common  was  measured  by  Professor 
Gray  and  myself  in  June  of  1844.  At  the  ground 
it  measures  twenty-three  feet  six  inches ;  at  three 
feet,  seventeen  feet  eleven  inches ;  and  at  five 
feet,  sixteen  feet  one  inch.  The  largest  branch, 
towards  the  southeast,  stretches  fifty-one  feet." 
In  1855  it  was  measured  by  City  Engineer  Ches- 
borough,  giving  a  height  of  seventy-two  feet  and 
a  half,  and  sixteen  and  a  half  feet  to  the  lowest 
branch  ;  girth,  twenty-two  feet  and  a  half  at  one 
foot  from  the  ground,  seventeen  feet  at  four; 
average  spread  of  the  largest  branches,  one 
hundred  and  one  feet.  In  1860  its  measure  was 
taken  by  Dr.  Shurtleff,  twenty-four  feet  girth 
at  the  ground,  eighteen  feet  and  a  quarter  at 
three  feet,  and  sixteen  and  a  half  at  five  feet. 
After  its  destruction  a  chair  was  made  of  its 
wood,  and  is  now  in  the  Public  Library.  Pic- 
tures of  it  on  veneer  of  the  wood  were  made 
by  the  city,  and  one  of  them  is  now  in  the  His- 
torical Society's  library.  Dr.  J.  C.  Warren 
printed  an  account  of  The  Great  Tree  in  1855; 
this  and  the  account  in  Shurtleffs  Desc.  of  Bos- 
ton, p.  332,  tell  the  essentials  of  the  story.  The 
Rev.  R.  C.  Waterston  reviewed  its  associations 
in  the  "  Story  of  the  Old  Elm  "  in  Mass.  Hist. 
Soc.  Proc.,  March,  1876.  Pictures  of  it  since  the 
application  of  photography  are  numerous;  of 
the  earlier  ones  may  be  mentioned  those  in  the 
Boston  Book,  1836;  in  Boston  Common,  1838;  in 
the  view  of  the  Common  in  Snow's  Boston,  1824; 
in  the  Boston  Book,  1850,  drawn  by  Billings,  &c. 
Shurtleff  says  there  exists  a  picture  of  it  painted 
by  H.  C.  Pratt  in  1825.  — ED.] 


22 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


readily  brought  over  in  the  form  of  cuttings,  both  of  rapid  growth,  and  more 
valued  in  the  days  of  our  great  grandfathers  than  at  present.  The  small- 
leaved  variety  or  species  of  the  European  linden,  or  lime-tree,  must  also 
have  been  planted  in  colonial  times.  The  horse-chestnut,  the  ailantus,  the 
Norway  maple,  and  the  European  larch  are  of  more  recent  introduction. 
The  earliest  Norway  spruces  —  not  yet  very  old  —  were  imported  by 
Colonel  Perkins,  and  planted  upon  the  grounds  around  what  was  then  his 
country  residence  at  Brookline. 

The  common  lilac  and  the  snowball  were  planted  in  door-yards,  where 
these  for  a  long  time  were  almost  the  only  ornamental  shrubs,  as  they  still 
are  around  New  England  farm-houses.  Fruit  trees  were  of  more  account, 
and  in  greater  variety.  But  their  consideration  belongs  rather  to  the  chapter 
on  horticulture.1 


1  [By  the  Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder,  to  appear  in  Vol.  IV.  — ED.] 


Carl? 


CHAPTER   I. 

EARLY  EUROPEAN  VOYAGERS   IN   MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

BY    GEORGE    DEXTER, 

Recording  Secretary  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 

/"T~^HE  earliest  European  visitors  to  New  England,  of  whose  alleged 
-i.  voyages  any  account  is  preserved,  were  the  Northmen,  who  had  re- 
discovered and  colonized  Iceland  toward  the  close  of  the  ninth  century. 
The  following  is  a  brief  outline  of  the  story. 

Erik,  surnamed  the  Red,  was  driven  from  Norway  with  his  father,  on 
account  of  a  murder,  and  removed  to  Iceland.  From  thence  Erik  sailed 
to  the  westward  and  found  Greenland,  which  he  colonized  about  985. 
Among  his  companions  was  one  Herjulf,  who  also  made  a  settlement  in 
Greenland.  The  son  of  this  Herjulf,  by  name  Bjarni,  or  Biarne,  was  absent 
in  Norway  when  his  father  left  Iceland,  and  upon  his  return  resolved  to 
follow  him  to  Greenland.  Starting  about  the  year  990,  he  was  driven  from 
his  course  by  northerly  winds,  and  reached  his  destination  only  after  having 
seen  new  and  strange  lands  at  three  distinct  times.1 

Leif,  the  son  of  Erik,  excited  by  the  relation  of  the  new  lands  seen 
by  Biarne,  prepared  for  a  voyage  of  discovery  about  the  year  1000. 
The  first  land  he  reached  was  the  one  seen  last  by  Biarne  on  his  return 
northward  after  his  rough  handling  by  the  northerly  storm.  Leif  landed, 
and  "saw  there  no  grass.  Great  icebergs  were  over  all  up  the  country; 
but  like  a  plain  of  flat  stones  was  all  from  the  sea  to  the  mountains,  and  it 
appeared  to  them  that  this  land  had  no  good  qualities."  2  To  this  country 
they  gave  the  name  of  HELLULAND  (flat  stone  land).  The  second  land 
seen  by  Leif  is  described  as  "  flat  and  covered  with  wood,  and  white  sands 

1  This  Biarne  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  Newfoundland.      See  Dr.  Kohl's  Discovery  of 

first  European  to  see  the  New  England  coast,  Maine  (2  Maine  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.  i.),  pp.  62,  63. 
and  the  three  lands  he  sighted  may  have  been          2   Voyages  of  the  Northmen  (Prince  Society), 

(it   is   thought)   Cape  Cod,   Nova    Scotia,   and  p.  31. 


24  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

were  far  around  where  they  went,  and  the  shore  was  low."1  This  they  called 
MARKLAND  (woodland).  Thence  they  sailed  with  a  northeast  wind  two 
days,  and  arrived  at  an  island  to  the  eastward  of  the  main-land,  where  they 
found  sweet  dew  upon  the  grass.  They  sailed  from  this  island  west  through 
a  sound  or  bay,  and,  landing,  decided  to  build  huts  and  spend  the  winter. 
This  place,  called  Leifsbudir  in  the  story,  is  thus  described :  "  The  nature 
of  the  country  was,  as  they  thought,  so  good  that  cattle  would  not  require 
house-feeding  in  winter,  for  there  came  no  frost  in  winter,  and  little  did  the 
grass  wither  there.  Day  and  night  were  more  equal  than  in  Greenland  or 
Iceland,  for  on  the  shortest  day  was  the  sun  above  the  horizon  from  half- 
past  seven  in  the  forenoon  till  half-past  four  in  the  afternoon." 2  Among 
Leif's  crew  was  a  German,  named  Tryker,  who  was  missing  one  day,  and 
who,  returning  "  not  in  his  right  senses,"  announced  the  discovery  of  vines 
and  grapes.  From  this  discovery  Leif  called  the  country  VlNLAND.  The 
party  returned  to  Greenland  not  long  afterward. 

Thorvald,  Leif's  brother,  was  anxious  to  explore  Vinland  further,  and, 
starting  about  the  year  1002,  spent  two  years  there.  The  second  summer 
of  his  stay  he  went  from  Leifsbudir  eastward,  and  round  the  land  to  the 
north.  His  vessel  encountered  a  storm  when  off  a  ness  or  promontory, 
was  driven  ashore,  and  her  keel  broken.  Thorvald  called  the  place  where 
this  happened  KjALARNESS.  Thence  he  sailed  "  round  the  eastern  shores 
of  the  land,  and  into  the  mouths  of  the  friths  which  lay  nearest  thereto, 
and  to  a  point  of  land  which  stretched  out,  and  was  covered  all  over  with 
wood."3  Here  he  had  an  encounter  with  the  natives,  and  received  a 
mortal  wound.  He  gave  his  men  directions  to  bury  him,  setting  up  crosses 
at  his  head  and  feet,  and  to  call  the  place  KROSSANESS.  Thorvald's  com- 
panions, after  another  winter  spent  at  Leifsbudir,  returned  home  in  the 
spring. 

Thorfinn  Karlsefne  prepared  an  expedition  which  started  probably  in 
1008,  and  was  absent  about  three  years.  It  was  an  important  one,  com- 
prising three  vessels  and  one  hundred  and  sixty  persons,  and  was  planned 
to  establish  a  colony  in  Vinland.  There  are  three  accounts  of  it,  with  some 
variations  in  details  and  some  repetitions  of  parts  of  the  story,  just  narrated, 
of  Leif.  Helluland  and  Markland  are  reached  and  named ;  a  promontory, 
on  which  a  keel  of  a  boat  is  found,  is  called  KjALARNESS,  —  the  name 
which  had  been  previously  given  to  it  by  Thorvald,  —  and  the  sandy 
beaches  along  it  FURDUSTRANDS.  An  island  covered  with  a  vast  number 
of  eider-ducks'  eggs  is  named  STRAUMSEY,  and  at  last  Thorfinn  builds 
winter  quarters  not  far  from  Leifsbudir,  but  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  bay, 
at  a  place  which  he  calls  H6p.  After  some  traffic  with  the  natives  and 
some  expeditions  of  exploration,  the  Northmen,  in  the  third  winter,  find 
"  that  although  the  land  had  many  good  qualities,  still  would  they  be  always 
exposed  there  to  the  fear  of  hostilities  from  the  earlier  inhabitants,"  4  and 
the  settlement  is  abandoned. 

1  Voyages  of  the  Northmen  (Prince  Society),  p.  31.      2  Ibid.  p.  33.      8  Ibid  p.  38.     4  Ibid.  p.  58. 


EARLY  EUROPEAN  VOYAGERS  IN  MASS.  BAY. 


Other  voyages  to  Vinland  took  place,  and  it  is  supposed  that  there  were 
several  settlements,  and  even  regular  trade  with  Greenland  and  Iceland ; 
but  in  time  all  knowledge  of  the  new  country  was  lost 

The  accounts  of  these  voyages  of  the  Northmen  remained  the  subject 
of  oral  tradition  for  nearly  two  centuries.  They  were  handed  down,  how- 
ever, as  precious  heirlooms,  and  were  preserved  by  successions  of  pro- 
fessional skalds  and  saga-men.  Whatever  variations  and  additions  may 
have  been  incorporated  into  their  stories  by  successive  narrators,  a  founda- 
tion of  facts  and  real  events  is  supposed  to  have  remained  unchanged. 

Although  known  in  a  somewhat  general  way,  it  was  not  until  1837  that 
these  Sagas  were  published. 
In  that  year  the  Sagas  of 
Erik  the  Red  and  of  Thor- 
finn  Karlsefne,  with  other 
homogeneous  materials, 
were  printed  at  Copenhagen 
in  the  original  Icelandic, 
and  in  two  translations, — 
Danish  and  Latin,  —  by  the 
Royal  Society  of  Northern 
Antiquaries  under  the  able 
editorship  of  Professor 
Charles  Christian  Rafn.1 
An  English  translation  of 
the  portions  relating  to  Am- 
erica was  published  in  Lon- 
don in  1841  by  Mr.  North 
Ludlow  Beamish;  and  this 
translation,  with  Professor 
Rafn's  synopsis  of  evidence,  and  his  attempts  to  identify  the  places  visited, 
was  incorporated  among  the  publications  of  the  Prince  Society  in  1877, 
under  the  care  of  the  Rev.  Edmund  F.  Slaftcr.  Mr.  De  Costa  had  already 
collected  in  an  English  dress  the  various  narratives  of  these  voyages  in  his 
Pre-Columbian  Discovery  of  America,  published  at  Albany  in  1868. 

The  accounts  of  these  voyages  of  the  Northmen  have  been  rejected 
by  a  few  writers  as  unworthy  of  serious  consideration,2  and  accepted  by 
others  as  true  and  accurate  in  their  minute  particulars.3  Helluland  has 
been  identified  with  Newfoundland;  Markland  with  Nova  Scotia;  Kjalar- 
ness  with  Cape  Cod.  Krossaness  is  to  some  Gurnet  Point,  to  others  Point 
Allerton.  Leifsbiidir  and  Furdustrands,  Straumsey,  and  Hop  have  been 
assigned  definite  locations  on  the  map. 

1  Anliquitates  Americana,  sh-e  Scriptores  Sf/>-  '2  As  by  Mr.  Bancroft,  who  styles  them  "  myth- 

li-iilrionalt-*     Rcrnm     Ante-Coltimlnnnanitn    in  ological  in  form  and  obscure  in  meaning." 
America,  —  a  noble  410  volume  of  over  500  pages,  3  As  by  the  Danish  antiquaries  and  their  fol- 

enriched   with    fac-similes   of   the   manuscripts,  lowers.     A  project  is  on  foot  to  erect  in  Boston  a 

genealogical  tables,  maps,  and  engravings.  statue  to  Leif  as  the  discoverer  of  this  region. 
VOL.  I.  —  4. 


A  NORSE   SHIP. 


26  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Two  kinds  of  evidence  have  been  brought  forward  to  support  the  stories 
of  these  voyages.  The  first  —  that  furnished  by  supposed  remains  of  the 
Northmen  still  extant  in  New  England  —  is  not  now  often  advanced.  It  is 
generally  conceded  that  no  vestiges  of  their  visits  remain.  The  famous  Digh- 
ton  Rock  and  the  Newport  Mill,  offered  once  as  positive  proofs  of  the  truth 
of  these  stories,  are  no  longer  thought  to  be  works  of  the  Northmen.1  The 
evidence  upon  which  modern  defenders  of  the  narratives  rely  is  that  offered 
by  the  Sagas  themselves.  I  have  no  space  here  to  discuss  the  character 
of  these  documents.2  It  is  possible  only  now  to  say  that,  while  they  are  ac- 
cepted generally  as  historical  narratives  by  most  historians,  the  data  which 
they  offer  for  the  identification  of  places  are  considered  by  many  scholars 
as  too  slight  to  warrant  the  conclusions  sometimes  drawn  from  them.  The 
direction  of  the  wind  and  the  time  occupied  in  sailing  from  point  to  point 
are  not  enough  to  prove  the  exact  position  of  the  place  reached.  The 
descriptions  of  the  countries  are  not  thought  by  all  to  be  applicable  to  New 
England.  The  astronomical  observation  of  the  length  of  the  winter  day,  on 
which  so  much  stress  has  been  laid,  is  still  obscure,  and  capable  of  more 
than  one  interpretation.3  Some  argument  has  been  based  on  the  supposed 
similarity  of  Indian  and  Norse  names  of  places,  but  no  great  stress  has  been 
laid  upon  it.4  While,  then,  it  is  very  probable  that  the  Northmen  reached 
America,  it  is  not  safe  to  assert  that  they  discovered  Massachusetts  Bay, 
much  less  so  to  say  that  Thorvald,  Erik's  son,  was  killed  at  the  mouth  of 
Boston  Harbor.5 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  recount  all  the  supposed  pre-Columbian  discoveries 
of  America.  Only  the  voyagers  who  are  thought  to  have  visited  New  England 
claim  notice  here.6  I  pass  by,  therefore,  the  story  of  the  discoveries  of  the 
Welsh  Prince  Madoc  ap  Owen  Gwyneth.  He  is  supposed  to  have  reached 

1  See  an  excellent  note  in  Dr.  Palfrey's  Hist,  lished  critically]   I  fancy  a  person  who  knows 
of  New  England,  i.  55.  the  natural  appearance  of  the  coast  of  Labrador, 

2  The  interested  reader  may  be  referred  to  Newfoundland,  Nova  Scotia,  &c.,  will  be  able  to 
Wheaton's    History   of  the   Northmen,   ch.    v. ;  ascertain  the  places  tolerably  correctly  from  the 
Laing's  Heimskringla,  introduction;  Sir  George  descriptions  given  of  each  of  them  in  the  Sagas; 
W.  Dasent's  introduction   to  his   Njal's  Saga,  never  from  the   length  of  the  shortest  day,  it 
Story  of  Burnt  Njal ';  Slafter's  introduction  to  being  liable  to  so  different  interpretation." 

the   Prince  Society's   Voyages  of  the  Northmen  ;  4  Antiquitatcs  Americans,  p.  455  ;  Proe.  Afass. 

and  to  the   Prolegomena  to  Vigfussen's   Stur-  Hist.  Soc.,  February,  1865,  pp.  193-199. 

lunga  Saga.  5  Krossaness,  the  place  of  Thorvald's  death 

8  See  Laing's  Heimskringla,  \.  172;  Foreign  and  grave,  has  been  identified  with  Point  Aller- 

Qnarterly  Review,  xxi.   109,  no;  Palfrey's  Nno  ton  by  Rafn  (Antiquitates  Americans,  pp.  430, 

England,  i.   55,  note;  Cleasby  and  Vigfussen's  431).  who  leans  more,  however,  toward  Gurnet 

Icelandic-English  Dictionary,  s.  t:    Eykt.      The  Point,  and  by  Dr.   Kohl    (Discovery  of  Maine, 

arguments  of  Finn  Magnusen  and  Rafn  are  in  p.   69).      See    also    Bryant's    Popular    History 

the  Memoires  of  the  Danish  Antiquaries'  Society,  of  the   United  States,  i.  44,  note.      The    French 

1836-39,  p.  165,  and  1840-44,  p.  128.     The  fol-  translation  of  Wheaton's  History  of  the  Norlh- 

lowing  extract  from  a  letter  written  by  the  great  men,  made  by  Paul  Guillot  and  sanctioned  by 

philologist,  Erasmus  Rask,  in  1831,10  Mr.  Henry  Mr.  Wheaton,  leans  also  toward  this  view. 

Wheaton  is  not  without  interest.     I  have  printed  fi  Mr.  Major's  introduction  to  the  Select  Lct- 

the  whole  letter  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Massa-  ters  of  Columbus  (Ilakluyt  Society,  2d  edition, 

chusetts  Historical  Society  for  April,  1880:  "Then  1870),  contains  a  good  account  of  the  earliest 

[when  the  text  of  the  Sagas  shall  have  been  pub-  voyages  to  America. 


EARLY  EUROPEAN  VOYAGERS  IN  MASS.  BAY.        27 

only  the  southern  parts  of  the  United  States,  or  perhaps  Mexico.  I  come 
next  to  the  story  of  the  Zeni  brothers,  which  is  briefly  as  follows :  — 

Nicolo  Zeno,  a  Venetian  of  noble  family  and  considerable  wealth,  started 
on  a  northern  voyage — perhaps  the  not  uncommon  one  to  Flanders — late  in 
the  fourteenth  century.1  He  was  driven  out  of  his  course,  and  finally  cast 
away  on  the  island  of  Frislanda  (Faroe  Islands).  Here  he  was  rescued  from 
the  rude  inhabitants  by  a  chieftain  named  Zichmni,2  who  received  him  into 
his  service  as  pilot,  and  in  time  entertained  a  great  regard  for  him.  Nicolo 
sent  a  letter  home  to  Venice,  urging  his  brother  Antonio  to  join  him  in 
Zichmni's  dominions,  which  he  did.  Four  years  after  his  arrival  Nicol6 
died,  and  ten  years  later  Antonio  returned  to  his  native  city. 

Meantime  the  brothers  had  accompanied  Zichmni  in  an  attack  on  the 
Shetland  Islands,  on  one  of  which,  according  to  the  narrative,  Nicolo  Zeno 
was  left  after  the  victory.  The  following  summer  he  sailed  from  the  island 
on  a  voyage  of  discovery  toward  the  north,  and  reached  a  country  called 
Engroneland  (Greenland).  A  settlement  which  he  discovered  there,  sup- 
posed to  have  been  one  founded  many  years  before  by  the  Northmen,  is 
described  at  length  in  the  story,  with  its  monastery  and  church,  its  volcanic 
mountain,  and  hot  springs  whose  waters  served  for  all  domestic  purposes. 
The  climate  proved  too  severe  for  the  Italian,  and  he  returned  to  Frislanda, 
where  he  died. 

The  other  brother,  Antonio  Zeno,  was  detained  in  the  service  of  Zichmni, 
who  desired  to  make  use  of  his  nautical  skill  and  daring  to  ascertain  the 
correctness  of  the  stories  of  some  fishermen  who  had  reported  the  discovery 
of  rich  and  populous  countries  in  the  west.  The  Zeni  narrative  gives  the 
fishermen's  story  at  some  length.  Twenty-six  years  before  this  time,  four 
fishing  boats  had  been  driven  helplessly  for  many  days,  and  found  them- 
selves, on  the  tempest  abating,  at  an  island  a  thousand  miles  west  from 
Frislanda.  This  island  they  called  EsTOTILAND.  The  fishermen  were 
carried  before  the  king  of  the  island,  who,  after  getting  speech  with  them 
with  difficulty  through  the  medium  of  an  interpreter  who  spoke  Latin,  com- 
manded them  to  remain  in  the  country.  They  dwelt  in  Estotiland  five 
years,  and  a  description  of  it  and  of  its  inhabitants  is  preserved.  From 
Estotiland  they  were  sent  in  a  southerly  direction  to  a  country  called 
DROGEO,  where  they  fared  very  badly.  They  were  made  slaves,  and 
some  of  them  were  murdered  by  the  natives,  who  were  cannibals.  The 
lives  of  the  remainder  were  saved  by  their  showing  the  savages  how  to  take 
fish  with  the  net.  The  chief  of  the  fishermen  became  very  famous  in  this 
occupation,  and  proved  a  bone  of  contention  among  the  native  kings.  He 
was  fought  for,  and  transferred  from  one  to  another  as  the  spoils  of  war, 

1  The  date  given  in  the  narrative  is  1380,  and  pp.  xlii.-xlviii.,  that  a  mistake  of  ten  years  has 

this  date,  incompatible  with  some  of   the  inci-  been  made,  and  that  Nicolo  Zeno's  journey  took 

dents  of  the  story,  has  been  a  serious  obstacle  in  place  in  1390. 

the  way  of  accepting  the  adventures  of  the  Zeni.  2  Mr.  Forster  suggests,  and  Mr.  Major  ac- 

Mr.  R.  H.  Major  has  shown,  in  his  introduction  cepts  the  suggestion,  that  Zichmni  was  Henry 

to  the  Ilakluyt  Society's  reprint  of  the  Voyages,  Sinclair,  Earl  of  Orkney  and  Caithness. 


28  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

not  less  than  twenty-five  times  in  the  thirteen  years  which  he  is  supposed 
to  have  passed  in  Drogeo.  In  this  way  he  saw  much  of  the  country, 
which  he*says  became  more  refined  in  climate  and  in  people  as  he  travelled 
toward  the  southwest.  At  last  the  fisherman  escaped  back  through  the 
length  of  the  land,  and  over  the  sea  to  Estotiland,  where  he  amassed  a 
fortune  in  trading,  and  whence  he  returned  finally  to  Frislanda  with  his 
wonderful  story. 

The  narrative  goes  on  to  tell  how  Antonio  Zeno  accompanied  his  patron 
Zichmni  on  a  voyage  of  discovery  to  find  Estotiland  and  Drogeo ;  how  the 
fisherman,  who  was  to  have  been  their  guide,  died  just  as  the  expedition  was 
ready  to  sail;  how  the  vessels  encountered  a  severe  storm,  and  were  driven 
to  an  island  called  Icaria,1  where  they  were  refused  shelter  by  the  inhabit- 
ants. After  six  days'  further  sail  westward  the  wind  shifted  to  the  southwest, 
and  four  days'  journey  with  the  wind  aft  brought  the  fleet  to  Greenland. 
Here  Zichmni  decided  to  establish  a  settlement,  but  some  of  his  followers 
having  become  anxious  to  return  home,  he  agreed  to  send  them  back  under 
the  charge  of  Antonio  Zeno,  who  brought  them  safely  to  Frislanda. 

I  have  given  a  full  outline  of  the  story  of  the  Zeni,  suppressing  none 
of  its  exaggerations.  The  narrative  was  published  with  a  map,  on  which 
much  reliance  is  placed  in  the  identification  of  places.  The  countries  called 
Estotiland  and  Drogeo  are  supposed  with  some  probability,  if  the  story 
is  not  an  absolute  fabrication,  to  have  been  part  of  America.  Dr.  Kohl 
thinks  the  former  Nova  Scotia,  and  Drogeo  New  England.  Mr.  Major 
prefers  Newfoundland  for  Estotiland,  and  considers  Drogeo,  "  subject  to 
such  sophistications  as  the  word  may  have  undergone  in  its  perilous  trans- 
mission from  the  tongues  of  Indians  vid  the  northern  fisherman's  repetition 
to  the  ear  of  the  Venetian,  and  its  subsequent  transfer  to  paper,"  a  native 
name  for  a  large  part  of  North  America.2  Many  historians  reject  the 
narrative  entirely.  The  difficulties  attending  the  identification  of  particular 
places  are  certainly  great. 

The  bibliography  of  the  controversy  about  the  Zeni  voyages  is  given  by 
Mr.  Winsor  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  Boston  Public  Library,  No.  37,  for  April, 
1876.  The  strongest  opponent  of  the  narrative  has  been  perhaps  Admiral 
Zahrtmann  ;  3  its  strongest  upholders  Cardinal  Zurla,  John  Reinhold  Forstcr, 

1  Icaria  has  been  supposed  to  be  some  part     by  that  name   in  the  chart  of  the  Zeni  is  the 
of  America,  —  Dr.  Kohl  thinks  Newfoundland.     Feroe  Islands. 

Mr.  Major,  following  Mr.  Forster,  identifies  it  "  Second.  That  the  said  chart  has  been  com- 

with  Kerry  in  Ireland,  and  gives  some  reasons  piled  from  hearsay  information,  and  not  by  any 

for  his  opinion.  seaman  who  had  himself  navigated  in  those  seas 

2  Voyngesofthc Zetfi(\\*k\\\<j\.  Society),  p.  xcv.  for  several  years. 

Dr.  Kohl's  views  are  given  in  his  Discovery  of  "Third.  That  the  'History  of  the  Voyages 

Maine,  pp.  105,  106.  of  the  Zeni,'  —  more  particularly  that  part  of  it 

3  The  following  summary  of  Admiral  Zahrt-  which    relates   to  Nicolo, —  is  so  replete  with 
mann's  essay  is  taken  from  Mr.  J.  Winter  Jones's  fiction  that  it  cannot  l)e  looked  to  for  any  infor- 
introduction  to  the  Hakluyt  Society's  reprint  of  mation  whatever  as  to  the  state  of  the  north  at 
Hakluyt's  Divers  Voyages,  pp.  xciii,  xciv.     The  that  time. 

admiral  contends,  —  "  Fourth.  That  both  the  history  and  the  chart 

"  First.  That  there  never  existed  an  island  of     were  most  probably  compiled  by  Nicolo,  a  de- 

Frisland ;    but  that  what  has  been  represented     scendant  of  the  Zeni,  from  accounts  which  came 


EARLY  EUROPEAN  VOYAGERS  IN  MASS.  BAY.        29 

and  Mr.  Major.  Nothing  of  importance  has  appeared,  I  think,  since  the 
Hakluyt  Society  of  London  reprinted  the  original  narrative,  with  an  English 
translation  and  an  elaborate  introduction  by  Mr.  Major,  in  1873.  Mr,  Major 
contributed  a  re'sume'  of  his  editorial  labors  in  this  work  to  the  Massachu- 
setts Historical  Society,  which  is  printed  in  their  Proceedings  for  October, 
1874.  The  original  narrative,  founded  on  a  letter  from  Nicolo  Zeno  to  his 
brother  Antonio,  and  on  subsequent  letters  from  Antonio  to  a  third  brother, 
Carlo,  is  said  to  have  been  prepared  by  Antonio  after  his  return  to 
Venice.  It  was  preserved  in  manuscript  among  the  family  papers  until 
a  descendant,  also  named  Nicolo,  while  still  a  boy,  partially  destroyed  it.  • 
From  what  escaped  of  the  papers,  this  Nicolo  Zeno  the  younger  afterward 
rewrote  the  narrative,  which  with  a  map  copied  from  one  much  decayed, 
found  in  the  family  palace,  was  published  in  1558  by  Francisco  Marcolini 
at  Venice.  It  is  a  small  I2mo  volume  of  sixty-three  leaves,  and  contains, 
besides  this  narrative,  the  adventures  of  another  member  of  the  family, 
Caterino  Zeno,  who  made  a  journey  into  Persia.  It  was  reprinted  in  the 
third  edition  of  the  second  volume  of  Ramusio's  Collection  of  Voyages, 
Venice,  1574;  and  Hakluyt  included  a  translation  of  this  in  his  Divers 
Voyages,  published  in  1582. 

The  story  of  the  voyages  of  the  Cabots,  which  come  next  in  the  list  of 
the  early  voyages,  requires  a  different  treatment  from  that  pursued  in  con- 
sidering the  stories  of  the  Northmen  and  the  Zeni.  Instead  of  having  to 
condense  a  detailed  narrative,  real  or  fictitious,  I  am  called  upon  to  con- 
struct, if  possible,  a  connected  story  from  very  scanty  and  very  scattered 
materials,  —  many  of  them  of  doubtful  value.  These  voyages  of  the  Cabots 
present  great  difficulties,  and  have  given  rise  to  much  discussion.  To 
recapitulate  even  a  small  part  of  this  discussion  would  overrun  the  limits 
of  my  space.  It  is  only  within  a  few  years,  since  the  publication  of  the 
researches  of  Mr.  Rawdon  Brown  and  Mr.  Bergenroth  among  the  archives 
of  Venice  and  of  Spain,  that  positive  evidence  has  been  brought  to  light 
which  enables  the  historian  to  settle  beyond  reasonable  doubt  even  such 
fundamental  points  as  the  date  of  the  voyage  in  which  the  main-land  of 
America  was  discovered,  and  the  name  of  the  commander.  To  John  Cabot 
this  honor  is  due;  and  he  saw  the  coast  of  North  America,  June  24,  1497, 
more  than  a  year  before  Columbus  reached  the  main-land. 

John  Cabot,  a  native  of  Genoa,  or  of  some  neighboring  village,1  settled 
in  Venice,  where  he  obtained  a  grant  of  citizenship  from  the  Senate,  after 
a  residence  of  fifteen  years,  March  29,  I476.2  He  was  a  man  of  some 
acquirements  in  cosmography  and  the  science  of  navigation,  and  had  been 
a  traveller  in  the  East.3  He  married  in  Venice,  and  there  probably  his 

to  Italy  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  1  Letter  of  M.  D'Avezac,  2  Maine  Hist.  Soc. 

being  the  epoch  when    information   respecting  Coll.  \.  504. 

Greenland  first  reached  that  country,  and  when  2  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Venetian,  1202- 

interest  was  awakened  for  the  colony  which  had  1509,  p.  136. 

disappeared."  3  M.  D'Avezac's  letter,  p.  505.     He  cites  an 

Mr.  Winter  Jones  expresses  his  own  convic-  Italian  authority  without  giving  the  name, 
tion  of  the  conclusiveness  of  the  argument. 


30  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY. OF   BOSTON. 

second  son  Sebastian  was  born.1  John  Cabot  emigrated  with  his  family 
from  Venice  to  England,  where  he  settled  in  Bristol,  then,  next  to  London, 
the  most  flourishing  seaport  of  the  kingdom  and  a  great  resort  for  mer- 
chants and  navigators.  It  was  already  possessed  of  a  trade  with  Iceland, 
and  was  favorably  situated  for  exploring  voyages  in  search  of  Kathay.2 
The  date  of  this  removal  to  England  is  uncertain,  but  it  was  probably  about 
the  year  I477,3  when  Sebastian  Cabot,  if  born  at  all,  was  a  very  young 
child.  The  object  of  the  removal  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  embarking 
in  mercantile  pursuits,  in  which  many  foreigners  were  then  engaged  in 
•Bristol.4 

That  voyages  from  Bristol  toward  the  west  in  search  of  new  countries  or 
of  a  new  route  to  Kathay  were  not  unusual,  and  that  John  Cabot  was  a  mov- 
ing spirit  in  some  of  these  voyages,  appear  from  a  despatch  of  the  Span- 
ish ambassador  in  England  to  his  sovereigns.  Under  date  of  July  25,  1498, 
he  writes :  "  The  people  of  Bristol  have,  for  the  last  seven  years,  sent  out 
every  year  two,  three,  or  four  light  ships  (caravclas)  in  search  of  the  island 
of  Brazil  and  the  Seven  Cities,  according  to  the  fancy  of  the  Genoese."5 

Possibly  some  encouraging  result  was  obtained  in  one  of  these  pre- 
liminary voyages,  if  I  may  call  them  by  that  name.  It  is  certain  that 
application  was  made  to  King  Henry  VII.  for  aid,  and  that  a  patent  was 
issued  to  John  Cabot  and  his  three  sons  by  name,  bearing  date  March  5, 
1496,  by  which  they  were  authorized  to  discover  new  lands  for  the  king, 
to  set  up  his  ensigns  therein,  and  they  were  granted,  under  restrictions, 
some  control  over  future  trade  with  such  new  countries.6  By  this  patent 
the  Cabots  were  to  bear  all  the  expenses  of  the  voyage ;  and  this  may  have 
caused  the  delay  of  a  year  in  the  sailing  of  the  expedition,  which  did  not 
leave  Bristol  until  the  following  spring.  The  name  of  one  vessel,  the 
"  Matthew,"  has  come  down  to  us.  With  this  vessel  John  Cabot,  accompanied 
by  Sebastian,  reached  some  point  in  America,  most  probably  Cape  Breton, 
on  June  24,  1497.*  No  long  stay  could  have  been  made ;  for  the  "  Matthew," 

1  M.  D'Avezac's  letter,  p.   505.      Sebastian  American   Antiquarian   Society,  October,   1865, 
Cabot  is  said  to  have  made  contradictory  state-  p.  25.    [These  islands  belong  to  the  myths  which 
ments  as  to  the  place  of  his  birth,  having  told  puzzled    the    early    cartographers.      Brazil    or 
Eden   (Decades,  p.  255)   that  he   was  born   in  Bresil   was   usually  represented   as    lying   two 
Bristol,  and  Contarini  (Letter  in  Calendar  of  State  or  three  hundred  miles  off  the  coast  of  Ireland. 
Papers,  Venetian,  1520-1526,  p.  293)  that  he  was  It  is  said   not   to   have   disappeared  from   the 
a  Venetian.     The  date  of  his  birth  can  be  only  British  Admiralty  charts  till  within  ten  years, 
approximated.     He  accompanied  his  father  on  The  Seven  Cities  had  a  floating  station,  but  was 
the  voyage  of  1497,  and  assisted  a  "good  olde  usually  put  down  farther  to  the  south.  —  ED.] 
gentleman  "  at  wishing  God-speed  to  Stephen          6  The  patent,  in  Latin   and   English,  is  in 
Burrough  in  the  "Search-thrift"  in  1556.     See  Hakluyt's    Divers    Voyages    (reprinted    by   the 
HzM\\\i's  Principal  Navigations  (1599),  i.  274.  Hakluyt    Society  in    1850).      It   is   also   in   his 

2  Dr.    Kohl,   Discovery    of  Maine,   ch.    iii. ;  Principal  Navigations,  ed.   1589,  pp.   509,   510, 
Corry,  Hist,  of  Bristol,  i.  ch.  v.  and  again  in  the  1599-1600  edition,  iii.  4,  5.     It 

3  M.  D'Avezac  (Letter,  p.  505)  says  1477;  has  been  reprinted  by  Hazard  and  others. 

Dr.  Kohl  (Discovery  of  Maine,  p.  123)  says  prob-  7  There  is  some  difference  of  opinion  as  to 

ably  before  1490.  the  landfall  of  the  Cabots,  but  the  l>est  evidence 

4  Nicholls,  Life  of  Sebastian  Cabot,  p.  18.  points  to  Cape  Breton.      See  J.  C.  Brevoort's 

5  This  letter  is  published,  from  the  English  article  in  the  Historical  Magazine,  March,  1868; 
State  Paper  Calendars,  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  F.  Kidder's  contribution  to  the  New  England 


EARLY  EUROPEAN  VOYAGERS  IN  MASS.  BAY. 


after  sailing  along  the  coast  three  hundred  leagues,  was  back  in  Bristol 
early  in  August,  as  appears  from  a  letter  of  a  Venetian  gentleman,  and 
from  the  entry  in  the  privy-purse  expenses  of  a  payment  of  ;£io  "to  him 
that  found  the  new  isle."  1 

A  second  patent  or  license  was  issued  to  John  Cabot  the  next  year  (Feb. 
3,  1498),  in  which  he  was  authorized  to  impress  six  vessels,  and  "them 
convey  and  lead  to  the  land  and  isles  of  late  found  by  the  said  John  in  our 
name  and  by  our  commandment."  2  John  Cabot  does  not  appear  to  have 
profited  by  this  license.  He  is  said  to  disappear  from  history  at  this  point.3 
He  is  supposed  to  have  died  soon  after  the  grant  was  made.  Sebastian 
Cabot  sailed  in  1498  under  this  license,  the  king  having  been  at  the  charge 
of  one  vessel  of  the  fleet.  He  is  supposed  to  have  taken  out  at  least  three 
hundred  men,  and  to  have  entertained  some  plan  of  a  colony  or  settlement.4 
What  the  exact  events  of  this  voyage  were,  —  how  much  of  the  coast  of  North 
America  was  explored,  —  yet  remain  uncertain.  There  is  no  contemporary 
account  of  the  voyage,  and  what  we  find  which  may  possibly  relate  to  it 
presents  many  difficulties,  and  is,  in  part  at  least,  of  doubtful  character.  It 
is  probable  that  Cabot  reached  in  this  voyage  a  high  degree  of  latitude, 
seeking  always  a  passage  through  the  land  to  Kathay.  It  is  possible  that, 
as  Dr.  Kohl  suggests,  finding  the  coast  trend  to  the  East  at  the  modern 
Cumberland,  which  answers  to  the  highest  latitude  which  any  of  the  stories 
state  him  to  have  attained,  and  finding  also  his  way  blocked  by  heavy  ice, 
he  may  have  turned  and  run  down  the  American  coast  to  the  south.  The 
farthest  point  in  this  direction  which  he  is  supposed  to  have  reached  was 
in  the  latitude  of  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  —  36°  north.5 


Historical  and  Genealogical  Register,  October, 
1878;  H.  Stevens's  Sebastian  Cahot  —  John 
Cabot  =  o ;  and  Mr.  Deane's  paper  on  Cabot's 
"  Mappe  Monde "  in  the  Proceedings  of  the 
American  Antiquarian  Society  for  April,  1867, 
where  the  earliest  suggestion  of  Cape  Breton 
(drawn  from  the  map)  is  made. 

1  The  patents  issued  to  John  Cabot ;  the  de- 
spatch of  the  Spanish  Ambassador  quoted  above ; 
the  letter  of  the  Venetian  gentleman  Lorenzo 
Fasqualigo  (Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Venetian, 
1202-1509,  p.  262,  and  reprinted  with  other  doc- 
uments in  Proceedings  Amer.  Antiq.  Society, 
October,  1865);  and  Cabot's  "Mappe  Monde," 
published  by  M.  Jomard,  are  ample  evidence  for 
the  truth  of  the  voyage  of  1497.  The  map  should 
be  examined  with  the  aid  of  Mr.  Deane's  learned 
comments  on  it,  made  to  the  meeting  of  the  Anti- 
quarian Society  in  April,  1867,  and  of  his  careful 
note  to  the  Ilakluyt  Discourse  on  Western  Plant- 
ing (Maine  Hist.  Soc.,  2d  series,  ii.  223-227)  ; 
and  Mr.  Major's  contribution  to  the  Archaologia, 
xliii.  17-42,  on  the  "True  date  of  the  English 
Discovery  of  the  American  Continent  under 
John  and  Sebastian  Cabot."  M.  D'Ave/ac 
adhered  to  his  early  belief  in  a  voyage  of  1494. 


See  his  letter  in  Dr.  Kohl's  Discovery  of  Maine, 
pp.  502-514. 

2  Biddle,  Memoir  of  Sebastian  Cabot,  p.  76. 

8  Unless  the  Spanish  Ambassador's  despatch 
gives  trace  of  him  :  "  I  have  seen  the  map  "which 
the  discoverer  has  made ;  who  is  another  Genoese, 
like  Columbus.  .  .  .  The  Genoese  has  continued 
his  voyage."  The  date  of  the  despatch  is  July 
25,  1498,  and  Sebastian  Cabot  is  supposed  to 
have  sailed  on  the  second  voyage  early  in  the 
spring.  But  dates  and  all  other  particulars  of 
this  voyage  are  uncertain.  That  the  expedition 
had  started  before  the  despatch  was  written  is 
certain  from  the  despatch  itself,  and  from  the 
passage  in  the  Cotton  MSS.  See  Mr.  Hale's 
paper  in  the  Antiquarian  Society's  Proceeding!;, 
April,  1860,  p.  37. 

4  Biddle,  Cabot,  p.  87. 

6  From  the  scanty  original  authorities  for  the 
voyages  of  Sebastian  Cabot  many  elaborate  ac- 
counts have  been  built.  Mr.  Biddle,  in  his  valu- 
able Memoir,  gives  an  account  of  a  third  voyage 
in  1517,  and  M.  D'Ave/ac  agrees  with  him.  Dr. 
Kohl  thinks  that  this  voyage  never  took  place, 
and  he  is  followed  by  other  critics.  The  reader 
must  be  referred  to  Kohl's  Discovery  of  Mains. 


32  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

The  voyages  of  the  Cabots  were  barren  of  immediate  results.  The 
claim  of  England  to  her  North  American  territory  rested  upon  them 
finally,  but  no  present  advantage  accrued  to  their  commander.  Sebastian 
Cabot's  subsequent  career  does  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  this  chapter. 
It  is  known  that  he  lived  for  many  years  after  his  discoveries,  serving 
successively  Spain  and  England.  He  entered  the  service  of  the  former  in 
I5I2,1  and  was  advanced  to  the  dignity  of  Grand  Pilot  in  1518.  In  this 
capacity  he  presided  at  the  celebrated  Congress  of  Badajos  in  1524.  Two 
years  later  he  sailed  for  the  Moluccas  in  command  of  an  expedition  which 
did  not  result  successfully.  He  returned  to  England  about  1548,  and  was 
granted  a  pension  by  Edward  VI.  the  next  year.  He  became  Governor  of 
the  new  Company  of  Merchant  Adventurers,  who  opened  the  trade  to  Russia. 
The  date  of  his  death  is  uncertain  and  the  place  of  his  burial  unknown.2 

I  must  pass  over,  without  relating  their  stories,  the  voyages  of  the  Cor- 
tereals  in  1500  and  1501.  Mr.  Biddle  thinks  that  Caspar  Cortereal's  landfall 
was  in  New  England,3  but  Dr.  Kohl,  who  has  made  a  careful  study  of  these 
voyages,  places  it  to  the  north  of  Cape  Race.  The  interested  reader  will 
find  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  Dr.  Kohl's  Discovery  of  Maine  the  fullest  and 
latest  information  regarding  the  Cortereal  voyages. 

I  approach  next  the  voyage  of  Verrazano,  whose  narrative  is  said  to 
contain  the  earliest  particular  description  of  the  eastern  coast  of  North 
America.4  Giovanni  Verrazano,  an  Italian  in  the  service  of  Francis  I.  of 
France,  had  made  for  that  monarch  some  predatory  voyages  with  a  view 
to  Spanish  Indian  commerce,  and  possibly  one  or  more  voyages  in  search 
of  new  countries.5  On  his  return  from  one  of  these  latter  voyages  he  wrote 
to  the  King  from  Dieppe,  July  8,  1524,  an  account  of  his  discovery  and 
exploration  of  a  new  country.  His  letter  relates  that  with  one  ship,  the 
"Dauphine,"  well  manned  and  equipped,  he  sailed  westward  from  the  Ma- 
deira Islands  about  June  17  (27),  1524.  He  encountered  a  severe  tempest, 
from  which  he  escaped  with  difficulty,  and  at  length,  after  a  voyage  of  forty- 
nine  days,  he  came  in  sight  of  a  land  hitherto  unknown  to  navigators.6  First 
he  coasted  to  the  south  in  search  of  a  harbor,  but  finding  none  he  turned 
about,  and  running  beyond  the  point  of  his  landfall,  anchored  and  sent  a 
boat  ashore.7  Continuing  northward  along  the  coast,  a  second  landing 
was  attempted,  and  a  youth  who  was  cast  upon  the  shore  in  the  attempt 
was  kindly  received  and  cared  for  by  the  natives.8  Their  kindness  was 

1  Biddle,  Cabot,  p.  98.  6  Dr.   Kohl    places  Verrazano's   landfall    at 

2  The  character  of  the  times,  if  not  of  the  Cape  Fear  (Discovery  of  Maine,  p.  252);  Mr.  J. 
man,  is  shown  by  Cabot's  intrigues  with  Venice,  Winter  Jones,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Charleston 
of  which  we  get  glimpses  in  the  Calendar  of  or  Savannah  (Hakluyt  Society's  Divers  Voyages, 
State  Papers,  Venetian,  1520-1526,  pp.  278,  293-  p.  56) ;  Mr.  Brevoort,  off  Little  Egg  Harbor  beach 
295,  304,  315,328;  and  also  in  the  volume  1534-  (Verrazano  the  Navigator,  p.  37). 

1554,  p.  364.  7  At  Onslow  Bay,  near   New    River   Inlet; 

3  Biddle,  Cabot,  book  ii.  ch.  iv.  Discovery  of  A f nine,  p.  254. 

4  Hakluyt,  Divers    Voyages    (Hakluyt  Soc.           8  Dr.  Kohl  and  Mr.  Jones  place  this  incident 
ed.),  p.  Ixxxviii.  at    Kalcigh    Bay;    Mr.    Brevoort,  at    Rockaway 

6  Brevoort,  Verrazano  the  Navigator,  pp.  19,35.     Beach,  Long  Island. 


EARLY  EUROPEAN  VOYAGERS  IN  MASS.  BAY.        33 

repaid  by  the  abduction  by  the  French,  at  their  next  landing,  of  an  Indian 
boy.1  Verrazano  describes  a  harbor,  a  pleasant  place  among  small  hills,  in 
the  midst  of  which  a  great  stream  of  water  ran  down  into  the  sea ;  so  deep 
at  its  mouth  that  any  great  vessel  might  pass  into  it.2  From  this  harbor 
the  shore  line  was  followed  to  the  eastward,  and  at  a  distance  of  fifty 
leagues  an  island  was  discovered  and  called  Louisa,  the  only  place  named 
by  Verrazano.3  Fifteen  leagues  from  Louisa  Island  the  explorer  found 
a  good  harbor,  where  he  remained  two  weeks,  and  became  somewhat 
acquainted  with  the  natives,  of  whose  manners  and  customs  he  gives  an 
account.4  From  this  point  the  voyage  was  continued,  and  another  landing 
made,  where  the  natives  were  found  much  more  savage  than  those  before 
seen,  and  where  the  Europeans  were  roughly  received.6  At  last  the  land 
"  discovered  by  the  Britons,  which  is  in  fifty  degrees  "  6  was  reached,  and 
then,  having  spent  all  their  provisions,  the  expedition  sailed  for  France. 

The  story  of  Verrazano's  voyage  contained  in  the  letter  from  the  explorer 
to  the  King  already  mentioned  was  first  printed  by  Ramusio  in  the  third 
volume  of  his  Collection  of  Voyages  in  1556.  From  this  it  was  translated 
by  Hakluyt  for  his  Divers  Voyages,  published  in  1582.  A  manuscript 
copy  of  the  letter,  differing  in  some  particulars  from  Ramusio's  printed 
text,  and  containing  a  cosmographical  appendix,7  was  found  later  in  the 
Magliabecchian  Library  at  Florence.  This  was  printed,  with  a  translation 
by  Dr.  Joseph  G.  Cogswell,  in  the  Collections  of  the  New  York  Historical 
Society  in  1841  (2d  series,  i.  3 7-68), 8  and  the  translation  was  incorporated 
by  Dr.  Asher  into  his  Henry  Hudson  the  Navigator,  published  by  the 
Hakluyt  Society  in  1860  (pp.  197-228).  With  the  Magliabecchian  manu- 
script there  was  found  a  letter  from  Fernando  Carli  to  his  father,  from 
Lyons,  dated  Aug.  4,  1524,  in  which  he  transmits  the  copy  of  Verrazano's 
letter.9  There  exists  no  French  original  of  this  letter. 

This  narrative  has  been  generally  considered  as  worthy  of  credit  until 
a  few  years  ago,  when  its  authenticity  was  attacked  by  Mr.  Buckingham 
Smith,  who  accounted  the  whole  letter  a  fraud.  Mr.  Smith's  view  has  been 
followed  and  supported  by  Mr.  Henry  C.  Murphy,  who  published  an 

1  Somewhere  on  the  Delaware  coast  (Jones) ;     been    identified    with    Narragansett    Bay,   and 
or  south  of  it  (Dr.  Kohl);  or  on  Long  Island     particularly  with  Newport. 

(Brevoort).  5  Not  far  from  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire, 

2  Identified  generally  with  New  York  Har-  according  to  Dr.  Kohl  and  Mr.  Jones.     Mr.  Bre- 
bor  and  the  Hudson  River.      See  Dr.  Kohl's  voort  places  this  landing  between  Nahant  and 
Disccrcery  of  Maine,  pp.  256-258 ;  Hakluyt  So-  Cape  Ann. 

ciety's  edition,  Divers   Voyages,  p.  63;    Asher's  6  Hakluyt  Society's  edition,  Divers  Voyages, 

Henry  Hudson  the  Navigator,  p.  211,  note.     But  p.  71. 

Brevoort  thinks  that  this  description  applies  to  ~*  Dr.  Asher  considers  this  appendix  a  very 

the  mouth  of  the  Thames  in  Connecticut  (Ver-  important  document  (Henry  Hudson  the  Navi- 

razano  the  Navigator,  p.  43),  and  identifies  New  gator,  pp.  198,  199,  222,  note). 

York  with  a  point  reached  earlier  (Ibid.  p.  40).  8  See  also  Professor  G.  W.  Greene's  article 

3  Block  Island  (Brevoort,  p. -4-3) ;  Martha's  in  the  North  American  Review,  xlv.  293. 
Vineyard   (Dr.    Kohl,   p.    260,  and   Mr.   Jones,  9  Carli's   letter   is   in    Buckingham    Smith's 
p  64).  Inquiry,  pp.  27-30;  H.  C.  Murphy's    Voynge  of 

4  Verrazano's   letter   says   that   this   harbor  Verrazzano,  pp.  17-19;  and  in  Brevoorl's  Verm- 
was  in  the  parallel  of  Rome,  41°  40'.      It  has  zano  the  Navigator,  pp.  151-153- 

VOL.  I.  —  5. 


34  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

elaborate  monograph  on  the  subject  in  1875.  On  the  other  side,  the 
genuineness  of  the  letter  has  been  maintained  by  Mr.  J.  C.  Brevoort,  whose 
Verrazano  the  Navigator,  read  before  the  American  Geographical  Society 
in  November,  1871,  was  printed  in  1874;  by  Mr.  Major,  who  reviewed  Mr. 
Murphy's  book  in  the  Geographical  Magazine  (London)  for  July  1876; 
and  by  Mr.  De  Costa  in  articles  in  the  Magazine  of  American  History  for 
February,  May,  and  August,  1878,  and  for  January,  1879. 

Mr.  Murphy  thinks  that  the  Verrazano  letter  was  concocted  to  increase 
the  glory  of  Florence,  and  that  its  geography  was  taken  from  the  dis- 
coveries made  by  Gomez,  whose  voyage  I  shall  touch  upon  next.  In  the 
discussion  of  this,  as  of  all  early  voyages,  much  depends  upon  the  maps. 
There  is  a  Verrazano  map  preserved  in  Rome,  supposed  to  have  been 
made  by  a  brother  of  the  navigator;  and  Hakluyt  speaks  of  an  "  olde 
mappe  in  parchmente,  made  as  yt  shoulde  seme  by  Verarsanus,"  and  of  a 
"  globe  in  the  Queene's  privie  gallery  at  Westminster,  which  also  semeth  to 
be  of  Verarsanus'  mekinge." J  I  have  purposely  avoided  touching  upon 
the  maps  of  these  early  voyages,  as  the  early  cartography  of  this  region  will 
be  treated  in  a  succeeding  chapter.  Mr.-  Deane's  note  to  the  passages  cited 
from  Hakluyt's  Discourse  (pp.  216-219)  should  be  consulted.  Mr.  De 
Costa,  in  his  contribution  to  the  Magazine  of  American  History  for  August, 
1878,  gives  for  the  first  time  the  names  on  the  American  section  of  the 
Verrazano  map. 

Much  doubt  hangs  over  the  subsequent  career  of  Verrazano.  He  is 
said  to  have  made  a  second  voyage  to  America,  and  to  have  been 'killed  by 
the  savages  here.  He  is  said  also  to  have  been  taken  by  the  Spaniards 
and  hanged  as  a  pirate.  The  reader  must  consult  the  works  of  Murphy 
and  Brevoort,  where  all  that  can  be  said  is  related. 

The  year  following  Verrazano's  voyage,  but,  so  far  as  is  known,  without 
any  connection  with  it,  Estevan  Gomez,  a  Portuguese  by  birth,  who  had 
served  Spain  as  pilot,  and  had  been  a  member  of  the  Congress  of  Badajos, 
sailed  in  search  of  a  passage  to  India  less  difficult  than  that  discovered  by 
Magellan  in  1520.  Gomez  had  been  of  Magellan's  expedition,  but  had 
deserted  his  commander  and  returned  home.  There  is  no  narrative  of  his 
voyage.  It  is  uncertain  where  he  landed,  and  whether  he  sailed  up  or 
down  the  American  coast.  Dr.  Kohl  has  examined  more  carefully  than 
any  one  else  the  various  allusions  to  this  voyage,  and  its  results  as  laid 
down  on  the  maps.2  His  opinion  is  that  Gomez  struck  the  coast  toward 
the  North  and  sailed  along  it  southward  as  far  as  the  fortieth  or  forty-first 
parallel  of  latitude.  He  saw,  probably,  much  of  the  New  England  coast, 
and  may  have  entered  many  bay's  and  even  harbors,  for  his  voyage  lasted 
ten  months.  A  map  of  the  world  made  in  1529  by  Diego  Ribero,  the 
imperial  cosmographer,  gives  the  name  "  ticrra  de  Estevan  Gomez  "  to  that 
part  of  America  answering  nearly  to  New  England  and  Nova  Scotia. 

1  Discourse  on   Western  Planting  (2   Maine  2  Disco-scry  of  Maine,  pp.  271-281,  and  ap- 

llist.  Soc.  ii.  113,  114).  pendix  to  chapter  viii. 


EARLY  EUROPEAN  VOYAGERS  IN  MASS.  BAY.        35 

For  some  time  nothing  seems  to  have  been  done  in  England,  after 
Cabot's  discovery,  in  the  way  of  exploration  of  the  new  continent.  I  am 
inclined  to  reject  the  voyage  of  1517  under  the  supposed  command  of 
Sebastian  Cabot  and  Sir  Thomas  Part.1  But  in  1527  two  ships,  the  "  Mary 
of  Guilford  "  and  the  "  Samson,"  sailed  for  the  New  World  under  the  command 
of  John  Rut.  The  object  of  the  expedition  was  probably  the  discovery  of 
a  northwest  passage.  One  vessel,  the  "  Samson,"  was  lost;  the  other  is  said 
to  have  visited  parts  of  the  American  coast,  and  Dr.  Kohl  supposes  that 
she  carried  the  first  Europeans  who  are  known  to  have  trodden  the  shores 
of  Maine.2  No  detailed  account  of  this  voyage  exists  beyond  Rut's  letter 
from  Newfoundland  to  the  King,  which  is  very  meagre.3  It  has  been 
supposed  by  some  that  Verrazano  was  the  pilot,  and  that  he  lost  his  life 
in  this  voyage. 

Rut's  expedition  was  followed  in  1536  by  that  of  "  Master  Hore,"  under- 
taken with  the  same  object  and  very  tragic  in  its  details.4  After  this 
unfortunate  experience,  the  attention  of  the  English  was  directed  for  a  time 
to  attempts  to  find  a  passage  to  Kathay  by  the  northeast,  in  one  of  which 
Willoughby  met  his  sad  fate. 

Andre  Thevet,  a  Franciscan  monk  who  accompanied  Villegagnon's 
expedition  to  Brazil,  is  said  to  have  sailed  along  the  American  coast  on 
his  return  voyage  to  Europe  in  1556.  In  his  works  written  after  his  arrival 
home  he  gives  a  description  of  Norumbega,  which  Dr.  Kohl  considers 
interesting.5  But  Thevet  has  not  been  esteemed  a  trustworthy  authority, 
and  much  doubt  exists  as  to  his  visit  to  New  England.6 

The  French  expeditions  to  Canada  under  Cartier  and  Roberval,  the 
Huguenot  colony  in  Florida,  and  the  discoveries  of  the  Spaniards  and 
others  at  the  southward  do  not  come  within  the  scope  of  this  chapter. 
After  the  English  had  turned  their  attention  to  the  search  for  a  northeast 
passage,  the  idea  of  further  exploration  of  America  slumbered  for  many 
years.  The  plan  of  colonization  was  not  yet  conceived.  Later  in  this  same 
sixteenth  century,  however,  England  awakened  to  the  value  of  the  Ameri- 
can possessions  which  she  might  claim  under  the  discovery  of  Cabot.  Sir 
Humphrey  Gilbert  wrote  a  treatise  to  prove  the  possibility  of  a  northwest 
passage  in  1576,  and  lost  his  life  seven  years  later  in  an  attempt  to  estab- 
lish England's  supremacy  in  the  Western  World.  And  Richard  Hakluyt, 
after  publishing  in  1582  his  Divers  Voyages,  prepared  in  1584  an  elabo- 
rate Discourse  on  Western  Planting,  in  aid  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  who  was 
Gilbert's  successor  in  the  scheme  for  American  colonization. 

1  See  Dr.  Kohl's  argument  in  Discovery  of  3  Purchas,  Pilgrimes,  iii.  809. 

Maine,  pp.  206-225.     The  opposite  view  is  main-  4  For  Here's  voyage  see  Dr.  Asher's  intro- 

tained  by  Bidclle,  Memoir  ofS.  Cabot,  chs.  xiii.-xv.  duction  to  Henry  Hudson  the  Navigator,  p.  xcv ; 

2  Discovery  of  Maine,  pp.  281-289.     Mr.  De  Dr.    Kohl,   Diswery  of  Maine,   pp.   337-340; 
Costa  controverts  Dr.   Kohl's   claim   that    Rut  Hakluyt,  Principal  Navigations,  iii.  129-131. 
landed  in  Maine,  Northmen  in  Alaiite,  pp.  43-62.  5  Discor'ery  of  ATaine,  pp.  416-420. 

In  the  same  volume,  pp.  80-122,  he  asserts  for  °  Northmen  in  Maine,  pp.  63-79;    Hakluyt, 

Jean  Allefonsce  the  honor  of  the  discovery  of      Western  Planting,  pp.  184,  185. 
Massachusetts  Bay. 


36  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Dr.  Palfrey,  after  recounting  these  early  voyages,  when  he  comes  to 
the  story  of  Gosnold's  expedition,. says,  with  that  admirable  caution  which 
is  characteristic  of  a  true  historian,  "  Gosnold,  Brereton,  and  three  others 
went  on  shore,  —  the  first  Englishmen  who  are  known  to  have  set  foot 
upon  the  soil  of  Massachusetts." 1  The  twenty  years  that  have  passed 
since  Dr.  Palfrey  wrote  do  not  make  it  possible  to  contradict  with  deci- 
sion this  statement.  Gosnold's  expedition,  planned  with  a  view  to  a 
settlement,  took  place  in  1602.  He  landed  first  at  a  point  not  far  from 
Cape  Ann,  sailed  thence  across  the  bay,  and  entered  the  harbor  of 
Provincetown.  Rounding  the  end  of  Cape  Cod,  he  sailed  along  its 
"  back  side,"  and  at  last  pitched  the  site  of  his  colony  on  the  small 
island  of  Cuttyhunk  in  Buzzard's  Bay.  Here  a  fort,  or  protected  house, 
was  built,  and  the  settlement  begun.  It  was  soon  abandoned,  however,  for 
want  of  proper  supplies,  and  the  "  Concord,"  Gosnold's  vessel,  returned 
with  the  people  to  England,  where  she  arrived,  says  her  commander, 
without  "  one  cake  of  bread,  nor  any  drink  but  a  little  vinegar  left." 2 


1  Palfrey,  Hist,  of  N.  £.,  i.  71.      -  Gosnold's  letter  to  his  father;  Purchas,  Pilgrintes,  iv.  1646. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE    EARLIEST    MAPS    OF    MASSACHUSETTS    BAY    AND 

BOSTON     HARBOR. 

BY   JUSTIN   WINSOR,f 
Librarian    of  Harvard    University. 


THE  broad  indentation  of  the  New  England  coast,  of  which  Cape  Sable 
and  Cape  Cod  form  the  outer  promontories,  has  of  late  years  acquired 
the  name  of  the  Gulf  of  Maine.  In  the  southwest  part  of  this  expanse, 
enclosed  by  Cape  Ann  and  Cape  Cod,  is  the  water  which  on  modern 
maps  is  called  Massachusetts  Bay.  This  name  was,  however,  by  the  earliest 
frequenters  and  planters,  and  subsequently  by  the  settlers,  confined  to  what 
is  now  called  Boston  Harbor.  It  is,  moreover,  probable  that  the  name  was 
even  restricted  to  what  we  know  as  the  inner  harbor,  if  not  indeed  to  that 
portion  of  it  represented  by  Quincy  Bay.1  Chiefly  upon  the  shores  of  this 
minor  inlet  dwelt  the  Massachusetts  Indians,  a  designation  borrowed,  it  is 
said,  primarily  from  a  hillock  on  the  shore,  the  name  of  which  was  later 
given  to  the  high  eminence  known  to  Captain  John  Smith  and  others  as 
Massachusetts  Mount,  and  to  us  as  the  Blue  Hill.2  This  name  —  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  —  gradually  extended,  subsequent  to  the  settlement,  over  the 
entire  harbor,  and  finally  took  the  range  now  appropriated  to  it.3  It  is  the 
cartographical  history  of  these  waters  which  is  the  subject  of  this  chapter. 


1  Wood,   in   1634,  speaks   of   the  land  on 
Quincy  Bay :  "  This  place  is  called  Massachu- 
sets  fields,  where  the  greatest  Sagamore  in  the 
Countrey  lived  before  the  plague,  who  caused 
it  to  be  cleared  for  himself." 

2  The  origin  and  significance  of  the  name 
has  given  rise  to  some  conflicting  views.     See 
E.  E.  Male's  note,  and  a  letter  of  J.  H.  Trum- 
bull  in  American  Antiquarian  Society's  Proceed- 
ings, Oct.  21,  1867,  p.  77.     For  earlier  views  see 
Everett's  Orations,  ii.  116.     Ilutchinson,  in  1764, 
speaks   of   the   sachem's    abode    being   on    "  a 
small  hill  or  rising  upland  in  the  midst  of  a  body 
of  salt  marsh,  near  to  a  place  called  Squantum ;  " 
and  adds,  "it  is  known  by  the  name  of  Massa- 
chusetts  Hill   or   Mount   Massachusetts  to  this 
day."     There  is  a  small   lithographic  view  of 
this  hillock,  after  a  sketch  by  Miss  Eliza  Susan 


Quincy  in  1827,  with  a  distant  view  of  Boston, 
taken  from  the  late  President  Quincy's  estate. 
It  is  in  this  called  Moswetuset,  or  Sachem's  Hill. 
Smith  says  that  the  plague,  shortly  after  his 
visit,  .reduced  this  tribe  to  thirty  individuals, 
and  of  these  twenty-eight  were  killed  by  neigh- 
boring tribes,  leaving  two,  who  fled  the  country 
till  the  English  came.  Smith's  Advertisements, 
&c.,  in  3  Afass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vii.  16. 

3  Drake,  Hist,  of  Boston,  p.  59,  says  it  is  not 
clear  when  the  name  Massachusetts  was  first 
applied  to  the  great  bay.  The  early  writers 
seemed  to  look  upon  Charles  River  as  begin- 
ning at  Point  Allerton,  and  Smith,  in  1629,  makes 
that  designation  an  alternative,  —  "the  bay  of 
Massachusetts,  otherwise  called  Charles  River." 
So  Dudley,  in  1630,  speaks  of  Charlestown  as 
"  three  leagues  up  Charles  River;  "  and  yet,  in 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


The  outline  of  the  Massachusetts  coast  was  never  drawn  upon  any  map 
so  as  to  be  recognized,  except  from  its  relative  position,  before  John  Smith 
sailed  along  it  in  1614;  but  it  is  curious  to  see  how,  from  the  very  begin- 
ning of  explorations,  the  headland  of  Cape  Cod  attracted  attention.1  The 
Northmen  of  the  tenth  century  left  no  charts  known  to  us ;  but  Torfaeus,  in 
his  Gronlandia  Antiqna,  published  in  1706,  gives  some  old  Icelandic  delin- 
eations of  the  North  Atlantic,  which  presumably  may  have  followed  some 
ancient  Scandinavian  charts,  although  made,  of  themselves,  five  or  six 
hundred  years  after  the  Northmen  voyages.  Sigurd  Stephanius,  an  Ice- 
lander, made  such  a  one  in  1570,  but  at  that  date  more  than  two  hundred 
years  had  passed  since  the  last  of  these  Norse  voyages,  if  the  Sagas  arc  to 
be  believed.  This  map  represents  the  promontory  of  Vinland  (Cape 
Cod?),  jutting  from  the  main  to  the  north  and  east,  shaped  much  like  a 


the  same  writing  ("  Letter  to  the  Countess  of 
Lincoln  "),  he  connects  the  two  names,  as  dis- 
tinguishing harbor  from  stream,  "  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  and  Charles  River."  Roger  Clap, 
speaking  of  the  arrival  of  the  first  vessel  of 
Winthrop's  fleet,  May  30,  1630,  says  of  the 
captain  of  it,  that  he  "  would  not  bring  us  into 
Charles  River,  but  put  us  ashore  on  Nantasket 
Point;"  and,  after  going  to  the  Charlestown  pe- 
ninsula in  a  boat,  then  they  went  "  up  Charles 
River."  Winthrop,  i.  144,  sought  to  make  a 
distinction  in  1633,  when  he  speaks  of  "  the 
bay,  or  rather  the  lake,  for  so  it  were  more 
properly  termed,  the  bay  being  that  part  of 
the  sea  without,  between  the  two  capes,  Cape 
Cod  and  Cape  Ann."  On  Wood's  map,  1634, 
the  name  is  given  as  if  it  covered  the  great  bay; 
but  this  was  for  the  engraver's  convenience  prob- 
ably, for  in  his  text  he  says,  "  the  chiefe  and 
usuall  Harbour  is  the  still  Bay  of  Massachusets, 
which  is  close  aboard  the  plantations,  in  which 
most  of  our  ships  come  to  anchor."  The  bill 
of  lading  of  1632,  given  later  in  .this  volume, 
signifies  Boston  by  the  "  aforesaid  port  of  Mas- 
sachuset  Bay."  Bradford,  Plymouth  Plantation, 
p.  368,  confines  the  name  to  the  present  harbor, 
in  1639-40.  In  1676,  a  paper  in  Hutchinson's 
Collection  speaks  of  "the  Plantation  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  commonly  called  the  Corporation 
of  Boston."  Deeds  of  Spectacle  and  Rainsford 
islands,  respectively  dated  in  1684  and  1691, 
speak  of  them  as  "  scituate  in  Massachusetts 
Bay."  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  January, 
1868,  p.  47.  The  British  Admiralty  charts  of 
about  the  Revolutionary  time  often  apply  to  the 
present  Massachusetts  Bay  the  term  Boston  Bay, 
m  distinction  to  Boston  Harbor.  On  some  of 
these  maps  the  Gulf  of  Maine  is  called  Massa- 
chusetts Bay.  As  late  as  1852,  Josiah  Quincy, 
Alunicipal  Hist,  of  Boston,  p.  2,  conforms  to  the 
old  usage,  and  speaks  of  Boston  peninsula  as 
formed  by  Charles  River  and  Massachusetts 
Bay. 


1  The  most  effective  study  of  this  early  car- 
tographical problem  is  given  in  Dr.  John  G. 
Kohl's  Discovery  of  Maine,  published  by  the 
Maine  Historical  Society.  Cf.  Amer.  Antiq. 
Soc.  Proc.,  April  28,  1869,  p.  37.  Dr.  Palfrey, 
History  of  New  England,  i.  96,  gives  but  a 
meagre  list  of  the  early  maps.  A  few  of  them 
are  named  in  S.  A.  Drake's  Nooks  and  Cor- 
ners of  the  New  England  Coast,  ch.  i. ;  and  their 
want  of  fitting  delineation  is  discussed  in  B.  F. 
De  Costa's  article  on  the  Verrazzano  map  in 
the  Magazine  of  American  History,  August,  1878, 
p.  455.  The  great  atlases  of  Jomard,  Kunstmann, 
and  Santarem  contain  several  of  the  early  maps 
showing  the  New  England  coast.  The  most 
complete  enumeration  of  the  French  maps  makes 
part  of  the  section  "  Cartographic  "  in  Harrisse's 
Notes  sur  la  Nouvelle  France,  Paris,  1872,  pp. 
191-239.  A  collection  of  maps,  formed  by  Har- 
risse,  embracing  early  MS.  and  engraved  maps, 
with  copies  of  maps  in  the  French  archives, 
was  offered  some  years  since  to  the  United 
States  Government,  but,  on  the  failure  of  the 
negotiations,  they  became  the  property  of  S.  L. 
M.  Barlow,  Esq.,  of  New  York,  who  kindly  sent 
them  to  me  for  inspection.  I  have  also  seen  the 
excellent  collection  of  copies  of  early  French 
maps  made  by  Mr.  Francis  Parkman  in  the  prose- 
cution of  his  studies.  With  the  exception,  how- 
ever, of  Champlain,  the  French  map-makers  usu- 
ally concerned  themselves  only  incidentally  with 
the  New  England  coast,  their  chief  study  being 
with  Acadie,  the  course  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
and  the  great  lakes,  and,  later,  of  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley.  The  resources  for  this  study, 
with  chance  light  on  the  New  England  coast, 
are  also  great  in  the  Parliamentary  Library 
(Ottawa,  Canada) ;  in  the  collection  in  our  own 
State  House,  formed  under  authority  by  Mr. 
Ben.  Perley  Poore  in  Paris.  As  private  collec- 
tors, Mr.  O.  H.  Marshall,  of  Buffalo,  and  Mr.  C. 
C.  Baldwin,  of  Cleveland,  have  well  cultivated 
this  field. 


EARLIEST   MAPS    OF    MASSACHUSETTS   BAY. 


39 


ship's  nose.     An  appellation  of  this  meaning  is  said  in  the  old  Norse  story 

to  have  been  given  to  a  cape  in  this  region.     The  bay  lying  to  the  west  of 

it  has    an   unindented   continental    line,  and    Dr.  Kohl 

argues  that   some   older  Icelandic   original  must   have 

been  before  Stephanius,  as  no  European  map  previous 

to    1570    presents  such    a    configuration.      The    Sagas 

name    a  point  of  land,    Krossaness,    lying   within    this 

bay ;   but  this  map  gives  nothing  to  correspond.     It  has 

been  identified,  as  Mr.  Dexter  has  pointed   out,  either 

with  Point  Allerton  or  the  Gurnet  Point.1 

The  Zeno  map,  drawn  not  long  before  1400,  but  not  published  till  1558, 
shows  in  the  southwest  corner  a  bit  of  coast-line",  skirted  with  islands,  which 
those  who  believe  in  its  authenticity  interpret  as  a  part  of  our  New 
England  coast.2 

Of  Sebastian  Cabot's  voyage,  1498,  there  are  no  charts  remaining;  3  but 
Juan  de  la  Cosa,  one  of  Columbus's  companions,  who  made  in  1500  the 
earliest  existing  map  showing  any  part  of  the  American  continent,  is 
supposed  to  have  had  access  to  Cabot's  charts,  or  to  copies  of  them. 
Cosa's  map  is  now  preserved  in  the  Royal  Library  at  Madrid,  and  was 
brought  to  light  by  Humboldt,  when  exploring  Baron  Walckenaer's  library 
in  Paris,  in  1832.  It  shows,  in  an  island  off  a  promontory,  what  seems  to  be 
Cape  Cod,  but,  according  to  the  prevailing  opinion  of  that  time,  it  represents 
these  landmarks  as  on  the  northeast  coast  of  Asia,  washed  by  "  the  sea 
discovered  by  the  English,"-  as  the  legend  on  it  reads.  That  this  configura- 
tion really  represents  the  Gulf  of  Maine  would  be  borne  out  by  Peter 
Martyr's  statement  that  Sebastian  Cabot  reached,  sailing  south,  the  latitude 
of  Gibraltar;  and  Gomara's,  that  Cabot  turned  back  at  38°  north  latitude. 
Still,  some  excellent  later  commentators  have  doubted  if  he  came  south  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  gulf.  Yet  it  is  upon  Cabot's  discoveries  that  the  English 
for  a  long  while  claimed  their  rights  to  the  coasts  of  New  England  and 
Nova  Scotia.4 


1  This  map  is  sketched  in  Kohl,  p.  107. 

2  The  map  appeared  in  a  little  volume  now 
scarce,  published,  as  said   by   Mr.    Dexter,   at 
Venice  in   1558,  Dei  Comvientarii  del  Viaggio; 
and  it  has  been  reproduced  by  R.  H.  Major  in 
the  Royal  Geog.  Society's  Journal,  1873;  in  his 
eel.  of  the  narrative,  published  by  the  Hakluyt 
Society,  1873;  and   in   his   paper   in   the  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  October,  1874.     There  are  other 
fac-similes  in  the  Catalogue  of  the  John  Carter 
Brown  Library,  p.  21 1 ;  in  Malte  Brun's  Annales 
tics  Voyages;  in  Kohl's  Disc,  of  Maine,  p.  97; 
and  in  Bryant  and  Gay's  United  States,  i.  84,  &c. 

3  Hakluyt's  Western  Planting,  ed.  by  Chas. 
Deane,  p.  224.     The  portrait  of  Cabot  preserved 
by  our  Historical  Society  is  a  copy  of  an  original 
now  destroyed.     Cf.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  Jan- 
uary, 1865. 


4  Sir  William  Alexander,  in  1630,  set  forth 
this  claim,  as  given  in  the  Bannatync  Collection 
of  Royal  Letters,  Edinburgh,  1867,  p.  61.  Cf. 
Chas.  Deane's  note  to  Hakluyt's  Western  Plant- 
ing, p.  194,  and  Hakluyt's  argument  in  his  ch. 
xviii.  Purchas  also  discussed  the  claim.  Cosa's 
map  has  often  been  re- 
produced since  Hum- 
boldt gave  it  in  his 
Exainen  Critique,  and 
again,  reduced,  in  his 
App.  to  Ghillany's  Be- 


haiin,  Nuremberg,  1853. 
The  best  fac-simile  is  COSA'S  MAP. 

in     Jomard's     Momt- 

incn's  de  la  Geographie,  and  a  lithographic  re- 
production of  the  American  region  is  given  in 
Henry  Stevens's  Hist,  and  Geog.  A'oles,  pi.  i.  It 


40  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Cabot's  discoveries,  and  his  reports  of  the  large  quantities  of  fish  in  these 
waters,  led  to  many  Norman,  Breton,  and  Biscayan  fishing  vessels  following 
in  his  track.  With  from  one  third  to  one  half  of  the  days  in  the  Calendar 
fast-days,  fish  was  at  that  time  an  important  article  of  food,  and  the  fishing 
fleet  along  the  coast  as  early  as  1504  was  surprisingly  large.1  It  can  hardly 
be  possible  that  from  the  Grand  Banks  these  fishermen  should  not  have 
stretched  their  courses  to  George's  Bank,  and  have  made  the  acquaintance 
of  the  harbors  of  our  bay.  It  seems  evident  that  the  fishermen  made  out 
the  contour  of  the  coast  from  Labrador  south  much  before  those  exploring 
under  royal  commissions.  Their  sailing-charts,  however,  have  all  disap- 
peared, or,  at  least,  none  are  known  giving  any  delineation  of  our  bay. 

In  1508  the  map  of  Ruysch  was  issued  at  Rome  in  an  edition  of  Ptolemy's 
Geography.  This  is  the  rare  but  well-known  earliest  engraved  map  showing 
the  new  discoveries,  and  connecting  them  of  course  with  the  coast  of  Asia.2 
Cape  Race  is  clearly  made  out,  but  the  coast  trends  westward  from  that 
point  in  a  way  hardly  to  be  identified  with  any  of  the  minor  contours 
known  to  modern  maps.3  Following  this  came  an  interval,  when  the  region 
known  through  the  discoveries  of  Cabot,  and  subsequently  of  Cortercal, 
the  Portuguese,  came  out  on  the  maps  as  an  island  or  as  an  indefinite 
section  of  the  main,  while  the  Atlantic  swept  over  the  region  now  known  as 
New  England.  This  idea  prevailed  in  the  globe  preserved  in  the  Lenox 
Library  in  New  York,  made  probably  1510-12;  in  Sylvanus's  map  to 
the  Ptolemy  of  1511  ;  in  the  sketch-map  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  preserved 
in  the  Queen's  Collection  at  Windsor;  in  the  map  in  Stobnicza's  Ptolemy, 
a  Polish  edition  of  1512  or  later;  in  Schoner's  globe,  preserved  at  Nurem- 
berg, 1520,  and  in  various  other  delineations. 

A  more  correct  idea  prevailed  in  1527,  when  Robert  Thorne,  an  English 
merchant  then  living  in  Seville,  transmitted  to  England  the  map,  showing 
recent  Spanish  and  Portuguese  discoveries,  which,  with  Thome's  letter  to 
Henry  VIII.,  instigated  the  expedition  under  Rut,  who  according  to 
Hakluyt  coasted  the  shores  of  Norumbega  or  Arambec,  and  landed  men 
"  to  examine  into  the  condition  of  the  country."  Maine,  and  even  the 
whole  of  New  England,  was  known  by  this  name,  and  it  is  barely  possible 
that  our  bay  may  have  been  explored  by  the  first  English  known  to  have 

is  also  in  Lelewel's  Geog.  dn  Moyen  Age,  No.  41 ;  2  Cf.  E.  E.  Hale's  paper,  with  a  section  of 

DC  la  Sagra's  Cuba  ;  Kohl's  Discovery  of  Maine,  the  map  compared  with  the  Asia  coast,  in  Amer. 

p.  151,  &c.     Cf.  Appendix  to  Kunstmann's  Ent-  Antiq.  Soc.  Proc.,  April  21,  1871. 

deckling  Anicrikas.  3  A  copy  of  the  original  of  this  map,  which 

1  Lorenzo    Sabine,  Report  on   the   Principal  belonged  to  the  late  Charles  Sumner,  is  in  Har- 

Fisheries  (>f  the  American  Seas,  Washington,  1853.  vard  College  Library,  and  fac-similes  or  repro- 

Cf.  Wytfliet's  Descriptionis  Ptoleinnica-  Anginen-  ductions  will  be  found  in  Humboldt's  Exaincn 

turn;    Lescarbot's  Nouv.   France,   1618,  p.   228;  Critique, \.;  in  his  App.  to  Ghillany's  Hchaim  ;  in 

Kiard's  Relation,  1616, ch.  i ;  Chanlplain's  Voyages,  Santarcm's  Atlas;  in  Stevens's  Hist,  and  Geog. 

1632,  p.  9;  Navarrete's  Collection,  &.C.,  iii.   176,  Notes,  pi.  2;  in  Lelewel's  Moyen  Age,  and  a  sec- 

who  denies  the  French  claim ;  Parkman's /V0«*w.r  tion    in    Kohl's   Disc,   of  Maine,  p.  156.     The 

of  France,  \.  171-5  Kohl's  Disc,  of  Maine,  pp.  201,  original    map   measures    twenty-one   inches   by 

280;  Estancelin's  Kecherches  stir  les  Voyages  des  sixteen,  and  is  thought  to  have  followed  one  by 

Navigaleurs  Norman Js.  Columbus,  now  lost. 


EARLIEST   MAPS    OF   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY. 


set  foot  on  the  soil  of  this  region.  If  Rut  made  any  sailing-charts,  none 
are  known ;  but  Thome's  map  was  engraved  in  Hakluyt's  first  publication, 
the  Divers  Voyages,  London,  I582.1  It  shows  a  continuous  coast-line  from 
Labrador  to  Florida,  but  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  it  has  any  indication 
of  Massachusetts  Bay. 

In  1527  we  have  the  map2  ascribed  to  Fernando  Columbus,  the  son  of 
the  admiral,  which  is  preserved  at  Munich,  and  bears  a  close  resemblance 
to  the  chart  made  in  1529  by  the  royal  carto- 
grapher, Ribero,  by  the  order  of   Charles  V.,  **  < 
to    embody    existing    knowledge.      They    are 
supposed   to  represent  the  results  of  the  ex- 
pedition of  Gomez,  which  had  been  sent  out 
after  the  Congress  at  Badajos,  where,  on  a  com- 
parison of  views  of  geographers  then  present, 
it  appeared  there  had  been  up  to  that  time  no 
adequate  examination  of  the  coast  of  the  pres- 
ent United  States,  to  discover  if  some  passage 
through  to  the  Indies  did  not  exist.     The  dis- 
coveries of  Gomez  first  introduced  into  maps 
the  Connection   between    Cabot's    surveys   and 
those   of  the    Spanish,  who    had  sailed  as  far1 
north  as  the  Chesapeake.     In  Ribero's  chart, 

^  r*     j  11      i    ^        j  /•*    L       BY  FERNANDO  COLUMBUS,   I<527. 

Cape  Cod  seems  to  be  well  defined  as    Cabo 

de  Arenas^  (Sandy  Cape),  enclosing  a  circling  bay  called  St.  Christoval, 
which  stretches  with  a  northern  sweep  to  the  estuary  of  the  Penobscot.4 
If  Boston  Harbor  can  be  made  out  at  all,  it  would  seem  to  be  that  fed 
by  a  river  and  called  Bate  de  S.  Antonio. 

The  same  date  (1529)  is  given  to  a  planisphere,  preserved  in  the  Collegio 
Romano  de  Propaganda  Fide  at  Rome,  which  by  some  is  thought  to  be  an 
original,  and  by  others  a  copy,  by  Hieronimus  Verrazzano.  It  has  of  late 
years  been  brought  into  prominence  in  support  of  the  authenticity  of  a  letter 


1  It  is  also  fac-similed  in  J.  W.  Jones's  ed. 
of  this  book,  published  by  the  liakluyt  Society. 

2  Figured  in  Kohl's  Aeltestcn  General  Karten 
von  Amerika. 

3  The  Spanish  names  of  Ribero,  as  well  as 
his  error  in  placing  Cape  Cod  so  low  as  39°  or 
40°,   was  followed   in   many  maps   for   a   long 
time. 

4  There  is,  however,  some  difference  of  opin- 
ion on  this  point.     Originals  of  this  Ribero  map 
are  preserved  at  Rome  and  at  Weimar,  and  Dr. 
Kohl  gives  a  fac-simile  in  his  Aeltesten  General 
Karten  von  Amerika,  and  a  reduction  in  his  Dis- 
covery of  Maine,  p.  299.     Sprengel,  in  1795,  na<^ 
already  given   a  large   fac-simile    in  his    Ueber 
Riberos  dlteste   Weltkarte.      Lelewel,  Moyen  Age, 
gives  a  reduction.     Murphy,  Verrazzano,  p.  129, 
gives  it  with  English  names,  and  this  writer  thinks 

VOL.    I.  —  6. 


that  it  is  followed  in  the  map  given  in  Ramusio's 
Indie  Occidentali,  Venice,  1534.  De  Costa,  Mag. 
of  Amer.  History,  August,  1878,  p.  459,  on  the  con- 
trary, traces  this  Ramusio  map  to  another  pre- 
served in  the  Propaganda  at  Rome,  of  which  he 
gives  a  sketch.  Thomassy,  Nouvelles  Annales 
des  Voyages,  xxxv.,  had  already  described  this 
Propaganda  map  in  1855,  and  it  is  attributed  — 
De  Costa  thinks  wrongfully  —  to  Verrazzano  in 
the  Studi  Bibliografici,  &c.,  p.  358.  De  Costa 
also  contends  that  Oviedo,  when  he  described 
the  coast  in  1534  from  the  map  of  Chaves,  now 
lost,  repudiated  Ribero,  as  did  Ruscelli  in  1544 
(Kohl,  p.  297),  and  Gastaldi  in  the  Ptolemy  of 
1548.  The  map  of  Fernando  Columbus  is  also 
given  in  fac-simile  in  Kohl's  Aeltesten  General 
Karten  von  Amerika,  Weimar,  1860,  and  a  sec- 
tion is  given  in  Kohl's  Disc,  of  Maine. 


42  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

ascribed  to  Giovanni  de  Verrazzano,  which  purports  to  describe  a  cruise  by 
that  navigator  along  the  coast  of  the  present  United  States  in  I524.1  The 
map  in  question-,  if  it  shows  our  bay  at  all,  puts  it  much  too  far  to  the  north, 
and  the  outstretched  spit  of  land  which  bounds  it  on  the  south  is  represented 
as  much  broken  along  its  straight  length.2 

The  Asian  theory  came  out  again  very  singularly,  in  1531,  in  the  plani- 
sphere of  Orontius  Finaeus,  in  which  the  eastern  shore  is  given  with  close 
resemblance  to  that  of  the  older  continent.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  find  our 
bay,  however,  in  any  of  its  sinuosities.3 

Dr.  Kohl  gives  from  a  MS.  in  the  collection  of  the  late  Henry  Huth,  of 
London,  of  about  this  date,  a  Spanish  map  of  the  coast  from  Penobscot 
to  Cape  Cod,  which  resembles  the  outline  of  Ribero,  with  the  same  want 
of  definiteness.4  Much  the  same  may  be  said  of  a  map  of  an  Italian  cosmog- 
rapher,  Baptista  Agnese,  1536,  preserved  in  the  Royal  Library  at  Dresden.5 
In  this  and  in  other  maps  of  about  this  time  the  continent  in  the  latitude  of 
New  England  is  drawn  as  an  isthmus,  which  is  made  to  connect  the  Cabot 
discoveries  at  the  north  with  the  Spanish  discoveries  about  ancient  Florida. 
It  usually  shows  on  the  Atlantic  side  a  vague  likeness  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
resembling  the  Ribero  draft.  A  map  giving  this  representation  did  much 
service  during  the  middle  of  that  century,  appearing  first  in  the  Ptolemy  of 
1540,  subsequently  in  the  CosmograpJiia  of  Sebastian  Munster,  and  in 
various  other  places  for  a  period  of  fifty  years.  I  think  the  map  was  the 
first  from  a  wood-block,  in  which  cavities  were  cut  for  the  insertion  of  type 
for  the  names.  Impressions  of  it  accordingly  appear  with  the  names  changed 
into  several  languages.6  The  engraved  sheets  of  a  globe,  an  early  work  of 
Mercator,  1541,  show  a  similar  bay.7  It  is  quite  impossible  to  make  the 
coast-line,  as  shown  in  the  globe  of  Ulpius,  into  any  semblance  of  the  bay. 
This  globe,  which  bears  date  1542,  was  found  in  Spain  by  the  late  Mr. 
Buckingham  Smith,  and  is  now  in  the  New  York  Historical  Society's  rooms, 
and  it  was  cited  by  Smith  in  his  contribution  to  the  Verrazzano  controversy.8 

1  Ortelius,  in  1570,  in  giving  a  list  of  maps  of  it  to  Mercator's  projection.     The  reduction  is 

known  to  him,  does  not  mention  any  of  Verraz-  given  in   Henry  Stevens's  Historical  and  Geo- 

zano.     The  main  points  of  the  Verrazzano  con-  graphical  Notes. 
troversy  are  sketched  in  Mr.  Dexter's  chapter.  4  Kohl,  Disc,  of  Maine,  p.  315. 

'2  Two  imperfect  photographs  of   this  map,  6  Depicted  in  Kohl,  p.  292. 

which  measures  102  X  51  inches,  were  procured  6  A  sketch  of   this   map,  incorrectly   dated 

by  the  Amer.  Geog.  Soc.  in  1871,  and  Murphy,  1530,  is  given  in  Kohl's  Disc,  of  Maine,  p.  296, 

in  his    Voyage  of  Verrazzano,  and  Brevoort,  in  with  some  others  of  similar  features   for   our 

his    Verrazano  the  Navigator,  give   engravings,  New  England  coast.     See  Kohl,  p.  315. 
but   without   the   coast    names,   which   are   un-  7  These  sheets  —  the  only  ones  known  —  were 

decipherable   in   the   photographs.      De  Costa,  bought  by  the  Royal  Library  at  Brussels  in  1868, 

however,    has    since    added    the   coast    names  and  a  small  edition  of  a  fac-simile  has  since  been 

from   the   original    to    an   enlarged   section   of  issued  under  the  auspices  of  the  Belgian  gov- 

the  map,  which  is  given  in  the  Mag.  of  Amer.  eminent. 

History,  August,  1878,  with  sketches  of  other  8  It  is  engraved  in  Smith's  Inquiry  into  the 

and  later  maps,  influenced,  as  he  claims,  by  this  authenticity  of  Verrazzano 's  claims,  and  in  Mur- 

of  Verrazzano.  Pny's  Verrazzano,  p.  114.     A  full  description  of 

3  The    original     representation    shows    the  it,  with  an  engraving,  is  given  by  B.  F.  De  Costa 

strange  union  of  the  two  continents  by  no  means  in   the   Magazine    of  Atiu'r.   History,   January, 

so  clearly  as  is  done  in  Mr.  Brevoort's  reduction  1879. 


EARLIEST   MAPS    OF    MASSACHUSETTS   BAY. 


43 


How  far  Alfonce,  in  1542,  came  into  the  bay  it  is  not  easy  to  determine, 
though  he  has  been  credited  with  being  its  first  actual  discoverer,  and  there 
is  a  sketch  of  the  Norumbega  or  Maine  coast,  given,  after  Alfonce's  drafts,  in 
Murphy's  Verrazzano.1 

Of  about  this  date  ( 1 542—43  )  is  a  map  which  was  perhaps  made,  as  Davezac 
thinks,  under  orders  from  Francis  I.  On  it  the  Spanish  "  Cabo  de  Arenas  " 
becomes  the  French  C.  des  Sablons,  and  it  encloses  a  bay  in  the  same  way, 
which  has  a  river — R.  de  la  Tourne'e,  possibly 
our  Charles  —  at  its  inner  point.2  Another  map 

of  this  time  (1543)  seems  to  be  of  Portuguese  ~ %  "*  *e-"**»**«»fel^jr'  <j*s&/** 
origin,  and  is  preserved  in  the  collection  of  the  3l!ilO':''' 

late  Sir  Thomas  Phillipps.  It  gives  the  same  -^ '.**.  -  ^-^MBfiS^*1**' 
bay,  but  calls  the  outer  cape  C.  dc  Croix,  and 
it  has  a  river — Rio  Hondo — about  where  the 
Merrimac  should  be.  The  designation  Cabo 
de  Arenas  is  given  to  a  projection  further 
south.3  A  year  later  is  the  date  (1544)  of  the  large  engraved  map  of  which 
the  single  copy  known  is  preserved  in  the  great  Paris  library.  The  influence 
of  Jomard  brought  it  from  Germany,  where  it  was  discovered  in  1855.  It  is 
usually  called  Sebastian  Cabot's  Mappemonde,  but  the  better  authorities4 
doubt  Cabot's  connection  with  it  in  the  state  in  which  we  have  it.  It  gives 
our  cape  and  bay  rather  after  Ribero's  plat,  but  without  names. 

In  1556  the  Italian  Ramusio  gave  a  map  of  the  two  Americas  in  the  third 
volume  of  his  Collection  of  Voyages,  but  the  sketch  of  the  coast-line  from 
Terra  de  Bacalaos  (Newfoundland)  to  Florida  has  simply  a  general  south- 
westerly trend.  The  same  map  was  again  used  in  his  1565  edition. 

Again,  in  1558,  a  Portuguese  chart,  by  Homem,  indicates  the  bay,  but 
yields  nothing  distinctive.6 

In  1561,  Ruscelli,  a  learned  Italian  geographer,  produced  his  edition  of 
Ptolemy,  and  included  in  it  a  map  6  borrowed  seemingly,  so  far  as  the  coast- 
lines of  New  England  go,  from  a  previous  map  of  Gastaldi ;  but  he  carries 
the  coast  to  the  west,  and  gives  the  bay  this  time  with  two  headlands, 
bestowing  the  name  of  Cabo  de  Santa  Maria  on  the  one  corresponding  to 

to  Hakluyt's  Western  Planting,  p.  224 ;  and 
Kohl's  Disc,  of  Maine,  p.  358.  There  is  also  a 
small  sketch  of  it  in  Bryant  and  Gay's  United 
States,  i.  132;  Jomard,  Monuments  de  la  Geo- 
graphic, gives  it  in  fac-simile ;  and  Judge  Daly 
gives  a  reduction  of  the  entire  map  in  his  Early 
History  of  Cartography,  an  address  before  the 
American  Geographical  Society,  1879. 

6  The  original  is  in  the  British  Museum.  It 
is  figured  in  Kohl,  p.  377. 

e  This  map  is  figured  in  Lelewel,  p.  170,  and 
Kohl,  p.  233.  The  Ptolemy  in  question  is  in  the 
Boston  Public  Library.  The  same  character- 
istics of  nomenclature  appear  in  Navigalioni  del 
mondo  nuovo,  by  Nicollo  del  Dolfinato,  which  is 
also  given  in  Kohl,  p.  317. 


1  See  B.  F.  De  Costa's  Northmen  in  Maine, 
p.  92 ;  Davezac  in  the  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  de 
Geographic,   1857,  p.  317;  Margry's  Les  Naviga- 
tions Francises,   p.   228;  Guc'rin's  Navigateiirs 
Fran  fats,  p.   109;    Hakluyt's  Princ ipall  Naviga- 
tions, iii.  237  ;  and  Le  Routier  de  Jcau  Alphonse, 
pub.  by  the  Quebec  Lit.  and  Hist.  Soc.,  1843. 

2  Given  in  Jomard's  Monuments  de  la  Geog., 
and  in  Kohl's  Disc,  of  Maine,  p.  351. 

8  Kohl,  Disc,  of  Maine,  p.  354. 

4  R.  H.  Major's  "  English  Discovery  of  the 
American  Continent,"  in  the  Archicologia,  xliii., 
p.  17;  Geo.  Bancroft  in  AppletoiCs  Cyclopaedia; 
Chas.  Deane  in  his  Remarks  on  Sebastian  Cabofs 
Mappemonde,  in  Amer.  Antiq.  Soc.  Proceedings, 
April  24,  1867,  also  Oct.  20,  1866,  and  his  note 


44 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


Cape  Cod,  and  not  to  Cape  Ann,  as  the  Spanish  maps  commonly  do.  In 
the  small  map  of  the  New  World,  given  in  Levinus  Apolonius,  published  at 
Antwerp,  1566,  Cape  Ann  is  called  C.  de  S.  Maria;  Cape  Cod,  C.  de  Trafal- 
gar;  J  and  Massachusetts  Bay  is  named  B.  de  S.  Christoval. 

In  1569  the  great  German  map-maker,  Mercator,  produced  his  most 
famous  work,  —  that  great  chart  in  which  he  first  gave  his  well-known  projec- 
tion publicity,  and  which  is  now  to  be  seen  in  the  National  Library  at  Paris. 
For  our  Massachusetts  Bay  he  represents  an  almost  enclosed  expanse  of 
water,  guarding  it  on  the  south  with  the  then  well-known  C.  de  Arenas.  He 
puts  it,  however,  much  too  far  to  the  south,  giving  it  a  latitude  of  38°  north. 
Unfortunately,  as  Kohl  says,  this  great  chart  tells  us  but  little  of  our  own 
New  England  coast.2 

The  next  year  (1570)  Ortelius  brought  out  his  TJicatrnm  or  bis  tcrrarnm, 
which  was  the  first  general  atlas  since  the  revival  of  letters.  The  maps  of 
the  world  and  of  the  two  Americas  were  not  changed  in  several  successive 
editions.3  Penobscot  Bay  is  given  prominence  with  C.  de  lagus  islas  on  its 
westerly  entrance,  while  a  general  southerly  trend  of  coast,  called  Bncna 
Vista,  gives  the  old  Spanish  name  of  C.  de  Arenas  further  down,  with  hardly 
a  protuberance  to  correspond.  Ortelius  followed,  in  large  measure,  the 
views  of  Mercator,  and  in  turn  affected  for  many  years  the  cartographical 
knowledge  of  the  world,  but  he  had  less  influence  in  England  than  on  the 

continent.    When  Hakluyt  issued  his  first  pub- 

.<*+  WL  lication  in  1582,—  Divers  Voyages,—  he  gave 

in  it  what  was  known  as  Michael  Lok's  map, 
a  strange  conglomeration  of  cartographical 
notions.  Our  bay  is  still  shown  with  its  Cape 
Carenas,  but  the  Penobscot  was  changed  into 
LOK'S  MAP,  1582.  a  strait  connecting  Massachusetts  Bay  with 

the  St.  Lawrence,  or  the  gulf-like  water  that  stood  for  that  river,  while  the 
"  Mare  de  Verrazana,  1524,"  making  an  isthmus  of  New  England,  lay  like  a 
broad  sea  over  most  of  New  France.4 

There  is  in  the  Munich  Library,  in  the  collection  of  manuscript  maps 
which  belonged  to  Robert  Dudley,  one  marked  "  Thomas  Hood  made  this 
platte,  1592."  It  gives  a  shape  to  the  bay  common  to  maps  of  this  time, 
and  calls  Cape  Cod  C.  de  Pero,  —  a  name  Dudley  corrects  in  the  manuscript 
to  Arenas,  while  Hood  had  placed  the  old  name  further  down  the  coast. 

1  This  name  is  usually  applied  on  the  Caro-  cording  to  Verrazano's  plat,"  and  with  it  the 
lina  coast  to  Cape  Hatteras  or  Cape  Fear,  but  great  western  sea  called  in  early  maps  by  his 
the  sliding  scale  on  which  names  run  in  those  name  passed  out  of  geographers'  minds.  The 


days  was  very  slippery. 


map  is  rarer  than  the  book.     The  copies  of  the 


2  It  is  given  in  Jomard's  great  work  in  fac-     Divers  Voyages  in  Harvard  College  Library,  in 
simile,  and  is  reduced  in  Lelewel,  p.  181,  and  in     the  Lenox  Library,  and  in  Chas.  Deane's  collec- 


part  in  Kohl,  p.  384.  Cf.  Amer.  Geog.  Soc.  Bul- 
letin, No.  4,  on  Mercator  and  his  works.  Judge 
Daly  gives  a  reduction  of  the  entire  map  in  his 
Early  History  of  Cartography,  N.  Y.,  1879. 

3  '575.  1584,  &c. 

*  The  map  claims  to  have  been  made  "ac- 


tion, have  it  in  fac-simile.  The  Hakluyt  Society's 
reprint  of  the  book  gives  it  in  fac-simile,  and  it 
can  also  be  found  in  the  Catalogue  of  the  John 
Carter  Brown  Library,  p.  288.  There  are  small 
sketches  of  it  in  Kohl's  Disc,  of  Maine,  p.  290, 
and  in  Fox  Bourne's  English  Seamen. 


EARLIEST    MAPS    OF   MASSACHUSETTS    BAY. 


45 


The  names  around  the  bay  in  succession,   going  north,  are  Santiago,  B. 
de  S.  Chris toforo,  R.  de  S,  Antonio,  Monte  Viride,  and  R.  de  Buena  Madre.1 


HOOD'S  MAP,  1592. 


WYTFLIET,   1597. 


A  new  cartographer  appeared,  1597,  in  Wytfliet,  who  then  published 
his  Dcscriptionis  Ptolemaicce  Augmentum,  and  gave  a  new  delineation  to 
the  coast,  with  some  curious  mistakes.  A  large  estuary  is  represented  in 
the  correct  latitude  for  Massachusetts  Bay,  fed  by  various  rivers,  and 
called  Clicsipook  Sinus,  while  the  genuine  Chesapeake  has  no  existence. 
Along  the  main  river,  at  the  bottom  of  this  bay,  Comokee'vs,  written ;  while  to 
the  north,  where  the  Merrimac  might  be,  is  the  R.  de  Buena  Madre?  with  an 
island,  Y.  Primera,  off  the  mouth.  C.  de  Santa  Maria  is  carried  well  north 
into  what  looks  like  Casco  Bay,  with  the  usual  estuary  of  Norumbega  (Penob- 
scot)  still  to  the  east.3  Confusion  meets  one  at  every  turn  in  tracing  the 
development  of  the  coast-lines  at  this  time.  Maps  were  produced  and 
followed  here  and  there  often  long  after  other  and  better  surveys  were  made 


1  This  map  is  fac-similed  (No.  13)  in  Kunst- 
mann's  atlas  to  his  Entdeckung  Amerikas,  Mu- 
nich. 

•      '2  A  name  which  goes  back  at  least  to  the 
Gomez  explorations. 

3  The  same  map  appeared  in  subsequent 
editions, —  1598, 1603;  in  French  at  Douai,  1607 
and  1611.  Copies  of  the  last  are  in  the  Public 


Library  of  Boston  and  in  Harvard  College 
Library;  and  the  map  of  1597  is  also  in  the 
latter  library.  The  America  sii'c  Novus  Or- 
bis  of  Metellus,  issued  at  Cologne,  1600, 
has  a  map  which  seems  to  have  been  drawn 
wholly  from  Wytfliet.  It  is  also  in  the  Col- 
lege Library.  Cf.  Harrisse's  Nouv.  France, 
No.  298-301. 


46  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

known.  Kohl,1  for  instance,  gives  three  maps  of  about  1590,  which  are 
hardly  improved  on  Ribero  of  sixty  years  before,  showing  how  Hondius,  as 
late  as  1619,  used  an  old  plate  of  Mercator's,  which  can  be  contrasted  with 
a  map  in  the  Atlas  Minor  Gerardi  Mcrcatoris,  also  issued  by  Hondius  in 
1607;  while  the  Novus  Atlas  of  Blaeu,  Amsterdam,  so  late  as  1642,  shows 
a  coast-line  of  a  very  much  earlier  date.2  Again,  the  same  atlas  shows 
differing  sources  in  separate  maps  of  the  coast;  as,  for  instance,  in 
Hondius's  Mcrcator,  Amsterdam,  1613,  the  map  Virginia  and  Florida 
gives  to  the  Clicscpioock  Sinus  the  same  shape  that  it  bears  in  Wytfliet, 
while  being  put  in  37^°,  it  raises  a  doubt  if  it  may  not,  after  all,  be  the 
modern  Chesapeake ;  but  in  the  same  atlas,  on  a  map  of  the  two  Americas, 
the  C.  de  las  Arenas  encloses  a  large  B.  de  S.  Cliristoftc,  going  back  to 
Ribero  for  the  name,  while  Chesepiook  now  does  duty  to  a  small  inlet  a  little 
further  south.3 

De  Bry's  map  of  the  two  Americas,  in  1597,  makes  the  coast-line  stretch 
west  from  the  Penobscot,  loop  into  a  bay,  and  then  trend  south.  This  is 
our  bay  again  with  the  C.  de  S.  Maria  at  the  north,  but  Plancius's  name  for 
the  southern  peninsula,  C.  dc  S.  Tiago,  was  a  forerunner  of  Prince  Charles's 
Cape  James  of  twenty  years  later,  when  he  fruitlessly  tried  to  supplant  the 
homely  nomenclature  of  Gosnold.  It  is  usually  said  that  this  English  navi- 
gator was  the  earliest  to  stretch  his  course  from  England  directly  to  New 
England,  others  having  before  followed  the  circuitous  course  by  the  Azores 
and  the  West  Indies.  It  seems  to  be  quite  certain  that  he  made  his  land- 
fall near  Salem,  May  14,  1602,  when,  striking  across  to  the  opposite  Cape, 
he  was  surprised  at  a  large  catch  of  fish,  and  gave  the  now  well-known  name 
of  Cape  Cod  to  the  headland.4  He  and  his  men  are  the  first  English  posi- 
tively known  to  have  landed  on  Massachusetts  soil.5  If  Gosnold  made  any 
drafts  of  the  coast  as  he  found  it,  they  have  not  come  down  to  us.  They 
would  doubtless  have  shown  the  peninsula  of  Cape  Cod  as  an  island,  "  by 
reason  of  the  large  sound  [called  by  him  Shoal  Hope]  that  lay  between  it 
and  the  main."  We  know  that  Hudson  and  Block  subsequently  supposed 
it  such. 

1  In  his  Discovery  of  Maine,  p.  315.  upon  this  coast  better  fishing  and  in  as  great 

2  Some  of  the  atlases  passed  through  many     plenty  as  in  Newfoundland."      So  also  Rosier 
editions.     Muller's  Catalogues  (Amsterdam)  de-     reported,  two  or  three  years  later. 

scribe  many  of  them,  under  Mercator.  Ortelius,  6  Gosnold's  short  letter  to  his  father,  Sept.  7, 

Hondius, &c.  1602,  Archer's  Relation  in  Purchas,  iv.,  and  Bre- 

8  So  late  as  1638,  in  Linschoten's  Histoire  de  reton's  Brief  and  True  Relation  are  the  chief 
la  A'tK'igntioH,  a  map  by  Petrus  Plancius,  dated  original  authorities.  The  Harvard  College  copy 
1594,  preserves  this  same  5".  C/iristoval  Bay,  shut  of  Brereton  is  imperfect ;  there  is  one  in  the  Bar- 
in  by  C.  de  S.  Maria  on  the  north,  and  C.  de  S.  low  Collection ;  and  the  Brinlcy  copy  (Catalogue, 
Tiago  on  the  south.  It  had  appeared  on  various  No.  280)  brought  eight  hundred  dollars.  Brere- 
intervening  charts,  and  came  out  even  later  in  ton  is  reprinted  in  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  viii.  69. 
Visscher's  map  of  the  two  Americas,  dated  There  are  other  accounts  in  Strachey's  Historie 
1652.  Blaeu,  when  he  was  making  his  sectional  of  Travaile,  ii.  ch.  6;  reprinted  in  4  Afass.  Hist. 
charts  follow  the  reports  of  Block  (1614),  would  Coll.  i.  223,  and  in  N.  Y.  Hist.  Coll.;  and  in 
give  the  old  contour  in  his  general  maps,  with  the  Smith's  Gencrall  Historic,  i.  16.  For  Gosnold's 
B.  de  Christofie,  &c.,  as  see  his  1635  edition.  landfall,  see  John  A.  Poor,  in  his  Vindication  vf 

4  His  chronicler  Brereton  says:  "There  is  Gorges,  30,  and  Drake's  Boston,  p.  12. 


EARLIEST   MAPS    OF    MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.  47 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  earliest  English  name  attached  to  our 
coast  should  later  point  to  one  of  the  chief  industries  of  the  future  Com- 
monwealth.1 

Captain  Pring,  the  next  year,  1603,  following  in  the  track  of  Gosnold, 
seems  to  have  landed  somewhere  2  in  the  bay,  without  entering,  however,  the 
present  Boston  Harbor,  and  to  have  made  a  map,  if  we  can  so  inter- 
pret Gorges's  language  when  he  says  Pring  made  "  the  most  exact  dis- 
covery of  that  coast  that  ever  came  to  my  hands."  It  has  never,  however, 
come  into  later  hands,  so  far  as  we  know,  and  it  is  fair  to  presume  bore 
more  resemblance  to  the  reality  than  did  the  sketches  of  the  New  England 
coast  which  this  same  year —  1603  —  appeared  in  Juan  Botero's  Relaciones 
Univcrsales?  published  at  Valladolid,  which  is  of  no  further  interest  than  as 
introducing  a  new  name,  Modano,  against  a  barely  protuberant  coast,  where 
Cape  Cod  might  well  be. 

Again,  another  English  captain,  Weymouth,  leaving  England  in 
May,  1605,  under  the  patronage  of  the  Earl  of  Southampton,  seems 
to  have  struck  the  coast  at  our  Cape  Cod,  and  then  to  have  borne  away 
to  the  north,  leaving  to  our  friends  of  the  Maine  coast  a  disputed  ques- 
tion concerning  his  navigating.4 

Our  next  records  are  French.  Henry  IV.,  in  1603,  gave  to  De  Monts 
a  patent  of  La  Cadie,  as  a  country  lying  between  40°  and  46°  north  lati- 
tude.5 In  De  Monts'  expedition  for  exploration,  in  1605,  Champlain  sailed 
with  him  as  his  pilot,  and  they  seem  to  have  landed  at  Cape  Ann,6  where 
Champlain  tells  us  he  got  the  natives  to  draw  for  him  the  coast  farther 
south.  They  made  it  in  the  form  of  a  great  bay,  and  placed  six  pebbles 
at  intervals  along  its  shores  to  indicate  so  many  distinct  chieftaincies.  It 
has  been  noted  that  this  agrees  with  the  number  of  chief  sachems  which, 
later,  Gookin  and  others  said  the  early  settlers  found  about  Massachusetts 

1  The  effigy  of  a  codfish,  which  now  hangs  in  280)  brought  eight  hundred  dollars.    There  are 
the    Representatives'    Chamber    in    the    State  other  copies  in  the  Barlow  Collection,  and  in  the 
House,   was    transferred    from    the    Old   State  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.   Library.      The   copy  in   the 
House  in  1798,  where  it  was  hung  up  in  a  simi-  Grenville    Collection     (British    Museum)    was 
lar  position,  by  vote  in  1784,  "as  a  memorial  of  transcribed  for  Sparks  to  print  in  the  3  Mass. 
the  importance  of  the  cod-fishery ;  "  and  it  would  Hist.  Coll.,  viii.  125 ;  and  George  Prince  has  also 
appear,  from  the  same  vote,  that  such  an  em-  printed  it  in  his  pamphlet  on  Weymouth.     Cf. 
blem    had   earlier   "been    usual."     A   previous  Purchas,  iv.  1659;  Strachey  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 
effigy  may  have  been  burned  in  one  of  the  fires  i.  228 ;  Smith's  Gcnerall  Historic,  p.  18. 

to  which  that  building  or  its  predecessor  had  8  Lescarbot,  Hist,  de  la  Nonvelle  France,  1866, 

been  subjected   in   1711   or   1747.      A  colonial  ii.  410.     This  covered  the  New  England  coast, 

stamp  in  1755  figured  a  cod  as  "the  staple  of  *>  Le  Cap  anx  Isles,  he  calls  it,  in  reference  to 

the  Massachusetts."     Cf.  K.  S.  Rantoul  on  "The  the  three  islands  which  Smith,  a  few  years  later, 

Cod  in  Massachusetts  History,,"  in  Essex  Insti-  named  the  Three  Turks'  Heads,io  commemorate 

title  Hist.  Coll.,  September,  1866.  one  of  his  Eastern  exploits.     An  early  French 

2  Plymouth   was    the    bay   in   which    Pring  map,  of  which  Mr.  Francis  Parkman  procured  a 
landed,  according  to  De  Costa,  in  his  paper  on  copy,   somewhat   strangely   confounds   matters, 
Gosnold  and  Pring,  in  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Gcneal.  when   the    C.  St.  Louis  of   Champlain,  on  the 
Keg.,  January,  1878,  p.  80.  Marshfield  shore,  is  fixed  here,  with  C.  St.  Anne 

3  In  Harvard  College  Library.  as  an  alternative,  —  a  canonization  of  the  royal 

4  Rosier's  Journal,  describing  this  voyage,  is  consort  of   King  James   that   improves  on  the 
one  of   the   rarities.      The   Brinley   copy   (No.  simpler  adulation  of  Smith. 


48  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Bay;  and  Champlain  adds,  "  I  observed  in  the  bay  all  that  the  savages  had 
described  to  me."  Sailing  then  to  the  west-south-west,  between  numerous 
islands,  the  French  anchored  near  an  island,  finding  on  their  way  the  coast 
a  great  deal  cleared,  and  planted  with  corn  and  fine  trees.  The  islands 

about  them  were  covered  with  wood.1  This 
is  supposed  to  depict  Boston  Harbor,  and 
•  it  is  the  Charles,  perhaps,  that  he  describes 
when,  towards  the  end  of  his  chapter,  he 
says,  "  There  is  in  this  bay  a  very  broad  river,  which  we  named  River  dn 
Guast,  which  stretched,  as  it  seemed,  toward  the  Iroquois." 

Passing  outside  the  harbor,  we  next  track  them  to  Brant  Rock  Point,  on 
the  Marshfield  shore,  —  their  Cap  St.  Louis,  —  whence  they  skirted  a  low 
sandy  coast  to  Port  du  Cap  St.  Louis,  seemingly  the  same  harbor  in  which 
the  "  Mayflower"  landed  her  company  in  i62O.2  Again  following  the  bend 
of  the  bay,  they  reach  Cap  Blanc,  our  Cape  Cod,  which  they  rounded,  and, 
going  south  a  little  further,  they  had  a  skirmish  with  the  natives,  and 
turned  back. 

The  next  year,  1606,  Champlain  came  back  with  Poutrincourt.  Having 
occasion  to  calk  their  shallop  in  Gloucester  Harbor,  he  has  left  us  a  map 
of  it  in  his  book.  He  says,  however,  very  little  of  his  now  following  his 
previous  track  beyond  Cap  St.  Louis  to  a  harbor,  which  was  perhaps 
Barnstable ;  and  so  again  rounding  Cap  Blanc  he  tacked  away  to  the 
south,  finding  the  shore  and  the  shoals  doubtless  different  from  now,  and  so 
proceeded  to  the  entrance  of  the  Vineyard  Sound,  a  little  further  than 
before,  when  he  again  turned  back,  and  never  again  visited  these  shores. 
He  left  on  them,  however,  names  that  clung  to  some  maps  for  a  long  time. 
The  full  narrative  of  these  explorations  appeared  in  the  1613  edition  of 
Lcs  Voyages  du  Sieur  de  Cliarnplain,  published  at  Paris ;  and  it  was  ac- 
companied by  two  maps,  —  the  one  showing  the  coast  from  the  St.  Law- 
rence to  the  Chesapeake,  "  faict  1'an,  1612;"  and  the  other  carried  the 
coast  south  only  to  about  the  extent  of  his  own  observations.  This  is 
called  the  map  of  1613.  In  the  first  we  have  Baye  Blanche  inside  of  C.  blan  ; 
the  Baye  aux  Isles,  from  its  relation  to  C.  St.  Louis,  might  be  Plymouth ; 
the  R.  de  Gas  flows  into  a  bay  dotted  with  islands,  and  comes,  as  his  text 
indicates,  from  a  region  west  near  Lac  de  Cliamplain,  which  is  marked  as  the 
country  of  the  Yrocois.  The  1613  map  is  not  so  carefully  drawn,  but  it 
has  the  same  prototype  of  the  Charles,  stretching  still  to  the  western 
Yroquois,  just  south  of  Lake  Champlain.  Some  of  these  features  still  clung 

1  A   manuscript-  in  the  State  Paper  Office,  for  the  Prince  Society,  and  edited  by  Rev.  E. 
London,  has   events  a  good  deal   mixed.      Cf.  F.  Slafter,  1878,  vol.  ii.      The  Quebec  edition 
Mass.   Hist.  Soc.  Proc ,  January,  1861.  of  Champlain's   works   has    all    the    maps    in 

2  A  plan  of  this  bay  is  rudely  given  in  the  iac-simile.      I    regret    that    I    have    not    been 
1613    and    1632    editions   of    Champlain;    and  able    to   agree    with    Mr.    Parkman  —  Pioneers 
Drake,  Nooks  and  Corners  of  the  New  England  of   France    in    the    New    World,    p.   232  —  in 
Coast,  copies  it.     This  whole  narrative  is  easily  fixing   the   modern   correspondences   of   Cham- 
followed  in  the  English  translation  of  the   1613  plain's  localities.     My  views   accord   with    Mr. 
edition  which  has  been  made  by  Professor  Otis  Slafter's. 


EARLIEST   MAPS   OF   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.  49 

to  the  larger  map1  of  1632,  which  appeared  in  the  consolidated  edition  of 
Champlain's  successive  narratives  of  that  date ;  but  the  supposable  Charles 
has  dwindled  in  this  later  map  to  a  mere  coast  stream,  while  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  interposing  to  the  east  of  the  Hudson,  lies  not  farther  distant  to  the 
west  from  the  site  of  Boston  than  the  Cap  aux  Isles  (Cape  Ann)  lies  to 
the  east. 

It  is  interesting  to  remember  that  in  1609,  only  three  or  four  years  after 
Champlain's  voyage,  Henry  Hudson  landed  at  Cape  Cod  on  his  way  to 
explore  the  river  since  called  by  his  name ;  and  his  reports  made  it  pos- 
sible for  Champlain  to  make  his  map  of  the  harbor  of  New  York  and  its 
magnificent  river  as  well  as  he  did.  In  the  same  year,  1609,  Lescarbot 
brought  out  in  his  Nouvelle  France  a  map  which  did  further  service  in  the 
later  editions  of  1611  and  1612.  Cape  Cod  would  hardly  challenge  our  ac- 
quaintance in  this  map,  and  the  bay  within  seems  but  one  of  a  zigzag  series 
of  contours  which  run  north,  each  well  supplied  with  islands,  till  the  region 
of  the  Kinibeki  is  reached,  when  the  coast  turns  eastward.  There  are  no 
names  from  Malebarre  to  Chouacoet,  the  latter  well  up  into  the  bend  of  the 
coast.2  In  the  year  of  the  original  issue  of  Lescarbot,  Hakluyt  had  caused 
an  English  translation  of  it  to  be  published  in  London.  This  Nova  Francia, 
as  it  was  called,  came  out  in  1609,  with  nothing  to  show  that  Lescarbot  was 
its  original  source  except  that  it  had  his  map ;  and  this  was  the  latest 
engraved  cartographical  expression  of  this  region  which  Englishmen  could 
have  seen  when  that  "  thrice  memorable  discoverer,  Captain  Smith,"  as 
Wood  calls  him,  took  up  the  problem.  Lescarbot  had  certainly  gone  far 
from  a  solution,  as  many  others  had  done,  if  we  may  trust  Smith's  own 
words.  "  I  have  had  six  or  seven  several  plots  of  these  northern  parts,  so 
unlike  each  to  other,  and  most  so  differing  from  any  true  proportion  or 
resemblance  of  the  country  as  they  did  me  no  more  good  than  so  much 
waste  paper,  though  they  cost  me  more.  It  may  be  that  it  was  not  my 
chance  to  see  the  best."3 

Smith  left  England  in  March,  1614,  on  this  trading  expedition,  four 
London  merchants  joining  him  in  the  commercial  venture,  and  two 

1  One  of  the  1632  editions  in  Harvard  Col-  ter.     The  French,  after  this,  added  nothing  to 
lege  Library  has  the  map.     It  is  given  in  fac-  our  knowledge  of  the  coast.     Their  later  maps 
simile  in  the  Quebec  edition,  vol.  vi.  of  Cham-  were  drawn  to  express  their  knowledge  of  the 
plajn,   and  defectively   in  O'Callaghan's  Doat-  great  lakes  and  the  Mississippi ;  and,  when  the 
nifntary  History  of  Arew   York,  iii.  eastern  seaboard  was  drawn  in,  it  was  with  little 

2  The  1612  Lescarbot  is  in  Harvard  College  or  no  regard  to  detail.     Franquelin  made  for 
Library.     The  map  is  fac-similed  in  Tross's  re-  Colbert  various  maps;  and  others  of  his  time  are 
print  of  the  book,  —  Paris,    1866,   p.    224;   and  noted  in  llarrisse's  ATotes  sur  la  Noitvelle  France, 
other  reproductions  are  in  the  Abbe  Faillon's  and   in    the  appendix   to    Parkman's   La  Salle. 
Hisloirc  Je  la  Colonie  Franchise  en  Canada,  \.  85,  Mr.    Parkman's   tracing    of    the   great   map    of 
and  in  The  Popham  Manorial.     A  fac-simile  is  Franquelin,   the   original  of    which   has   disap- 
also  given  herewith.  peared  from  the  French  archives,  gives  Boston, 

3  Smith's  reference  must  be  to  drafts  made  with  the  hook  of  Cape  Cod,  but  nothing  else  dis- 
by  English  explorers  or  fishermen  on  the  coast,  tinctively.     Aii  earlier  map  shows  an  undulating 
The   only  engraved  maps  to  which   he   could  line  from  Maine  to  Jersey.     Mr.  Parkman  has 
have  referred  were  Lescarbot's  and  Champlain's ;  lately  placed  his  collection  of  maps  in  Harvard 
and  it  seems  improbable  that  he  knew  the  lat-  College  Library. 

VOL.  I.  —  7. 


50  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

ships1  carried  his  company  and  his  supplies.  He  sailed  away  for  North 
Virginia,  as  the  country  was  then  called,  and  struck  the  coast  near  the 
Penobscot.  Leaving  his  vessels  to  fish  and  trade,  he  took  eight  men  in 
a  boat,  and  started  to  map  out  the  bay.  He  speaks  of  passing  "  close 
aboard  the  shore  in  a  little  boat,"  and  of  drawing  "  the  map  from  point  to 
point,  isle  to  isle,  and  harbor  to  harbor,  with  the  soundings,  sands,  rocks, 
and  landmarks,"  and  adds  that  he  "  sounded  about  twenty-five  excellent 
good  harbors."  We  follow  him  in  his  coursing  pretty  accurately  round 
Cape  Ann,  which  he  named  Cape  Tragabigsanda,  after  an  old  Turkish 
flame  of  his,  while  the  neighboring  islands  were  set  down  on  his  plot  as 
the  Three  Turks'  Heads,  the  doughty  navigator  having  memorably  decapi- 
tated an  equal  number  of  Moslems  at  some  past  time.2 

Our  present  interest  in  his  narrative  is  to  ascertain  how  closely  he 
explored  Boston  Harbor.  His  language  is  usually  held  to  signify  that 
he  struck  across  from  the  north  shore  and  touched  the  south  shore  some- 
where in  the  neighborhood  of  Cohasset,  and  that  he  mistook  the  entrance 
by  Point  Allerton  as  the  debouching  of  a  river.  He 
wrote  afterwards  that  he  thought  "  the  fairest  reach 
'.  in  this  bay "  was  a  river,  "  whereupon  I  called  it 
Charles  River."  The  map  which  two  years  later  he 
published  clearly  shows  a  bay  with  eight  islands  in  it,  into  which  this  river 
flows.  From  this  one  would  infer  that  he  at  least  got  within  the  outer 
harbor,  and  mistook  one  of  the  inner  passages  for  the  river's  mouth.3  It 
is,  of  course,  possible  that  he  embodied  in  this  map  what  information  he 
obtained  from  the  descriptions  of  the  natives  at  that  time,  but  he  does  not 
say  he  did.  He  afterwards  made  use  of  later  explorers'  reports,  when  he 
extended  on  his  map  this  same  bay  farther  inland,  and  increased  the  num- 
ber of  its  islands ;  describing  at  the  same  time  "  that  fair  channel "  as  divid- 

1  These  vessels  were  of  fifty  and  sixty  tons,  zine,  July,  1861.     Mr.  Deane  says  the  body  of  the 
Mr.  Deane  has  gathered  a  number  of  instances  letter  is  not  in  Smith's  hand;  but  he  thinks  the 
of  the  sizes  of  the  ships  of  these  early  naviga-  signature  above  given  is.     Cf.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc. 
tors.     Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  October,  1865.  Proc.,  January,  1867.     Summarized  accounts  of 

2  The  authorities  for  this  exploration  are  his  this  New  England  voyage  will  be  found  in  Belk- 
own  Description  of  New  England,  1616,  of  which  nap's   American  Biography;    Hillard's   Life  of 
there  are  copies  in  Harvard  College  Library;  John  Smith;  Palfrey's  New  England,  where  (i. 
in  the  Prince  Collection  (Boston  Public  Library) ;  p.  89)  there  is  a  note  on  the  authenticity  and 
in  Charles  Deane's  Collection,  &c.     It  was  re-  veracity   of   Smith's  books.      Accounts   of    his 
printed    at    Boston  —  seventy-five    copies  —  by  published  works  are  to  be  found  in  Allibone's 
Veazie  in  1865,  and  is  in  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  vi.  Dictionary  of  Authors ;  in  Hillard,  p.  398;  and 
95   (the    Prince   copy  being   followed),   and    in  an   estimate   of   their  literary  value    in    M.   C. 
Force's  Tracts,  ii.     It  was  afterwards  included  in  Tyler's  Hist,  of  American  Literature,  \. 

his  Gencrall  Historic,  of  which  there  are  copies  3  His  language  already  quoted  would  seem 

of  different  editions  in  Harvard  College  Library,  to  imply  that  he  was  in  the  bay  when  he  descried 

in  the  Prince  Collection,  and  in  Mr.  Deane's.    Cf.  its  "fairest  reach,"  and  we  know  he  makes  in 

also    his   Advertisement    to    Planters,    1631,  of  another  place  Massachusetts  Bay  and  Charles 

which  there  are  copies   in  the  College  Library  River   one   and   the  same.      The    question    at 

and  in  Mr.  Deane's  Collection.     This  also  was  issue  seems  to  l>e  what  Smith  saw  and  thought 

reprinted  by  Veazie  in  1865;  audit  is  also  in-  to   be   a   river's  mouth,  —  the  lighthouse  chan- 

cluded   in  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  iii.  i.      Smith's  nel,  or  the  passage  between  Long  Island  Head 

letter  to  Lord  Bacon  (1618),  giving  an  account  of  and    Deer    Island.      I    incline    to    the    latter 

New  England,  is  printed  in  the  Historical  Maga-  view. 


LESCARHOT'S  MAP,    1612. 


CHAM  PLAIN'S  MAP,   1612. 


EARLIEST   MAPS    OF    MASSACHUSETTS    BAY.  51 

ing  itself  "  into  so  many  fair  branches  as  make  forty  or  fifty  pleasant 
islands  within  that  excellent  bay." J  Smith  thence  sailed  across  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  made  his  draft  of  the  Cape  Cod  peninsula,  and  then,  rejoin- 
ing his  vessels  to  the  eastward,  set  sail  for  England,  and  reached  port  in 
August.  Smith  was,  or  professed  to  be,  well  pleased  with  what  he  saw ;  but 
as  he  next  engaged  in  a  project  for  settling  the  country,  which  first  took 
from  him  the  name  of  New  England,  his  enthusiastic  description  may  savor 
perhaps  of  self-interest.  "  Of  all  the  parts  of  the  world  I  have  yet  seen  not 
inhabited,"  he  said,  "  I  would  rather  live  here  than  anywhere." 

The  site  of  Boston  before  this  had  been  successively  found  within  a 
region  variously  designated.  To  the  Northmen  it  was  Vinland.  In  1520 
Ayllon  could  not  have  sailed  much  above  30°  north  latitude,  yet  in  Ribero's 
map  Ticrra  de  Ayllon  stretched  up  into  New  England.  So  again,  a  little 
later,  the  Ticrra  de  los  Bretoncs  was  extended  west  and  south  from  the 
region  where  Cabot  made  his  landfall.  After  Verrazzano  and  Cartier, 
Francisca,  Nova  Francia,  La  Terre  Franqaise,  and  Nouvelle  France  was 
stretched  to  the  south  over  New  England,  and  sometimes  the  Spanish 
Florida,  as  in  Ruscelli's  map,  1561,  came  well  up  to  the  same  latitude.  The 
earliest  native  name  to  be  applied  to  the  country  by  Europeans  was 
Norumbega,  which  appears  in  the  narrative  of  the  French  captain  quoted 
in  Ramusio,  in  1537,  and,  by  the  time  Mercator  made  his  great  chart  in 
1569,  this  name  began  to  be  general.  It  seemed  at  first  to  cover  a  terri- 
tory stretching  well  along  our  eastern  seaboard,  but  gradually  became  fixed 
on  the  region  of  the  Penobscot.2  Smith,  in  1620,  makes  Virginia  a  part  of 
Norumbega.  Virginia  first  appeared  on  maps  in  Hakluyt's  edition  of  Peter 
Martyr's  Decades,  1587,  and  later  Gosnold  and  his  successor  considered  they 
were  exploring  the  northern  parts  of  Virginia,  and  so  it  was  known  to 
Smith  before  he  gave  it  the  designation  it  now  bears,  —  New  England. 
"  My  first  voyage  to  Norumbega,  now  called  New  England,  1614,"  is  his 
marginal  note  in  his  Advertisement  to  Planters.  Hunt  and  other  navigators 
called  it  Cannaday.  Smith's  designation  did  not  wholly  supplant  the  Dutch 
New  Nctherland  in  European  maps  (which  began  to  be  used  also  about 
this  time),  till  the  Hollanders  were  finally  expelled  from  New  York;  and 
even  after  that  the  Dutch  name  vanished  slowly. 

To  further  his  colonization  scheme,  Smith  set  sail  from  England  again 
in  March,  1615,  with  two  ships,  one  commanded  by  himself  and  the  other 
by  Dermcr.  The  latter  alone  succeeded  in  reaching  the  coast,  and  returned 
after  a  successful  business  in  August.3  Meanwhile  Smith's  ship  was  dis- 

1  There  is  a  narrative  on  the  early  records  of  himself  says   rather   unguardedly  that    "  Smith 

Charlestown,  which  represents  Smith  as  having  entered  Charles  River  and  named  it." 

come    up   to   that   peninsula.     It  is  printed  in  'l  Cf.  De  Laet's  Novns  Mundus ;  Kohl's  Disc. 

Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts.     It  can  be,  of   Maine;    Hakluyt's    Western   Planting;   De 

however,  of  no  authority.     Frothingham,  in  his  Costa's  Northmen  in  Maine,  p.  44 ;  Congres  des 

History  of  Charlestown  (unfortunately  never  to  be  Amcricanistes,  1877,  p.  223,  &c. 

completed),  says  that  it  was  written  in  1664  by  3  The  absolute  continuity  of  the  New  Eng- 

John  Greene,  and  not,  as  Thomas  Prince  had  land  and  Virginia  coasts  was  later  proved  by 

affirmed,    by    Increase    Newell.      Frothingham  Dernier  first  among  the  English.     Cf.  Purchas's 


52  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

ablcd  in  a  storm ;  returned  to  refit ;  again  set  sail,  June  24,  but  only  to  be 
captured  by  a  French  cruiser.  After  many  mishaps  in  his  captivity,  Smith 
got  back  to  England  late  in  1615,  bringing  with  him  the  narrative  of  his 
first  voyage,  which  he  had  written  while  a  prisoner  to  the  French.  In  June, 
1616,  he  published  it  in  London,  as  A  Description  of  Neiv  England :  or  TJtc 
Observations,  and  Discoveries,  of  Captain  loJm  Smith  {Admiral I  of  tliat 
Country},  in  the  North  of  America,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  1614.  —  London. 
Ilninfrey  Lowncs,  for  Robert  Clcrke,  1616.  It  was  a  little  quarto  volume, 
of  a  size  and  shape  common  to  that  day,  of  about  eighty  pages.  A  folding 
map  of  New  England,  extending  from  Penobscot  Bay  to  Cape  Cod,  went 
with  it.  With  this  publication  Smith  sought  to  incite  a  movement  for 
colonization.  He  journeyed  about  the  western  counties  distributing  it. 
"  I  caused,"  he  says,  "  two  or  three  thousand  of  them  [the  book]  to  be 
printed ;  one  thousand  with  a  great  many  maps,  both  of  Virginia  and  New 
England,  I  presented  to  thirty  of  the  Chief  Companies  in  London  at  their 
halls."  No  immediate  results  came  from  Smith's  efforts.  He  never  again 
was  on  the  coast,  and  his  endeavors  were  but  a  part  of  the  causes  that 
finally  worked  together  to  establish  the  English  race  permanently  upon 
Massachusetts  Bay. 

Smith's  map,  as  the  real  foundation  of  our  New  England  cartography, 
deserves  particular  attention.  To  the  draft  which  he  made  he  affixed  the 
Indian  names,  or  such  as  whim  had  prompted  him  to  give  while  he  sur- 
veyed the  shores.  There  is  rarely  found  in  copies  of  the  Description 
of  New  England  a  leaf,  printed  on  one  side  only,  which  reads  as  follows : 
"  Because  the  Booke  was  printed  ere  the  Prince  his  Highnesse  had  altered 
the  names,  I  intreate  the  Reader  peruse  this  schedule ;  which  will  plainly 
shew  him  the  correspondence  of  the  old  names  to  the  new."  Below  this 
are  two  columns,  one  giving  the  old  names,  the  other  the  new  ones ;  the 
latter  such  as  Prince  Charles,  then  a  lad  of  fifteen,  had  affixed  to  the 
different  points,  bays,  rivers,  and  other  physical  features,  when  Smith 
showed  him  the  map.  As  engraved,  the  map  has  the  Prince's  nomen- 
clature; the  book  has  Smith's  or  the  earlier;  and  this  rare  leaf  is  to  make 
the  two  mutually  intelligible.1 

So  far  as  is  known  to  me,  this  map  exists  in  ten  states  of  the  plate,  and 
I  purpose  now  to  note  their  distinctive  features.2 

I.  The  original  condition  of  the  map  bears  in  the  lower  left-hand  corner,  Simon 
Pasans  sculpsit ;  Robert  Clerke  cxcudit ;  and  in  the  lower  right-hand  corner,  London, 

Pilgrims;  2  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.  i.;  Thornton's  Mr.  Deane  having  caused  such  a  fac-simile  to  be 

Ancient  Femaqitid.     In  1616  the  settlement  of  made  from  the  Prince  copy.     Mr.  Deanc's  copy, 

Richard  Vines  at   Saco,  and  other   ineffectual  that  in  Harvard  College  Library,  and  the  three 

plantations,  enlarged  the  knowledge  of  the  coast,  copies  in  the  British  Museum,  want  it. 
Cf.  Gorges's  Narrative  ;  Palfrey's  New  England,  2  In  this  study  I  make  use  of  some  memor- 

i.  ch.  2;  Folsom's  Saco  and  Biddcford,  &c.  anda  of  Mr.  James  Lenox  and  Mr.  Chas.  Deane, 

1  The  Prince  copy  and  the  Peter  Force  copy  printed  in  Norton's  Literary  Gazette,  new  series, 

(Library  of  Congress)  are  the  only  copies  known  i.  (1854)  134,  219;  but  I  add  one  condition  (VIII.) 

to  me  which  have  this  leaf,  unless  in  fac-simile,  to  their  enumeration. 


•s-s 

i&J*, 


EARLIEST    MAPS    OF   MASSACHUSETTS    BAY.  53 

Printed  by  Geor:  Low.  The  title  NEW  ENGLAND  is  in  large  letters  at  the  top, 
to  the  right  of  it  the  English  arms,  and  beneath  it,  The  most  remarqueable  parts  thus 
named  \  by  the  high  and  mighty  Prince  CHARLES,  |  Prince  of  great  Britaine. 
The  latitude  is  marked  on  the  right-hand  side  only :  there  are  no  marks  of  longitude. 
Boston  Harbor  is  indicated  by  a  bay  with  eight  islands,  and  a  point  of  land  extending 
from  the  southwest  within  it.  The  River  Charles  extends  inland  from  the  northwest 
corner  of  the  bay,  a  short  distance.  A  whale,  a  ship,  and  a  fleet  are  represented 
upon  the  sea.  There  is  no  date  beneath  the  scale.  There  are  many  names  on  later 
states  not  yet  introduced,  and  some  of  the  present  names  are  changed  in  the  later 
impressions,  as  will  be  noted  below. 

Of  the  names  which  the  Prince  assigned,  but  three  became  permanently  attached 
to  the  localities,  and  these  are,  —  Plimouth  to  the  spot  which  Champlain  had  called 
Port  St.  Louis,  which  the  natives  called  Accomack,  and  which  the  Pilgrims  continued 
to  call  by  this  newer  name,  seven  or  eight  years  later ;  Cape  Anna,  for  which  Smith 
had  sacrificed  the  remembrance  of  his  Eastern  romance ;  and  The  River  Charles, 
which  had  been  previously  known  as  Massachusets  River ;  while  the  name  Massa- 
chusets  Mount,  earlier  applied  to  our  Blue  Hill,  became,  under  Charles's  pen,  Cheuyot 
hills}-  Gosnold's  Cape  Cod  proved  better  rooted  than  Charles's  monument  to  his 
dynasty,  Cape  James,  and  so  the  Prince's  Stuard's  Bay  has  given  place  to  Cape  Cod 
Bay.  Our  own  name,  —  Boston,  —  as  is  the  case  with  many  other  well-known  names 
of  this  day,  appears  in  connection  with  a  locality  remote  from  its  present  application. 
It  supplanted  Smith's  Accominticus ,  and  stood  for  the  modern  York  in  Maine.  Two  of 
the  Captain's  names  were  suffered  to  stand,  —  New  England  as  the  general  designation 
of  the  country,  and  Smith" s  Isles,  within  ten  years  aftenvards  to  be  known  among  the 
English  as  the  Isles  of  Shoals.2  London  was  put  upon  the  shore  about  where  Hingham 
or  perhaps  Cohasset  is ;  Oxford  stood  for  the  modern  Marshfield  ;  Poynt  Suttliff  is 
adjacent,  and  does  duty  for  Champlain's  C.  de  S.  Louis  and  the  present  Brant  Rock ; 
and  Poynt  George  is  the  designation  of  the  Gurnet. 

Of  the  copies  of  the  book  known  to  be  in  America,  but  one  has  the  map  in  this 
state,  and  that  is  the  Prince  copy,  in  which  the  map  is  unfortunately  imperfect,  but  not 
in  an  essential  part.3  From  this  copy  C.  A.  Swett,  of  Boston,  engraved  the  fac-simile 
which  appeared  in  Veazie's  reprint  of  the  Description  of  New  England,  in  1865.* 

In  1617,  Hulsius,  the  German  collector,  translated  Smith's  Description  for  his 
Voyages,  and  re-engraved  the  map  ;  but  the  names  in  the  lower  corners  were  omitted, 
and  Smith's  title,  the  verses  concerning  him,  and  some  of  the  explanations  were 
given  in  German.  Hulsius's  map,  beside  accompanying  his  Part  XIV.,  first  edition, 
1617,  and  second  edition,  1628,  is  often  found  in  Part  XIII.  (Hamor's  Virginia), 
and  is  also  given  in  Part  XX.  (New  England  and  Virginia),  1629? 

i  Smith,   in  his  text,  speaks  of   "the    high  Brinley  sale,  March,  1879,  had  maps  of  a  later 

mountaine  of  Massachusetts."  state,  and  so  do  all  the  other  copies  in  Ameri- 

'2  A   monument   to    Smith    was    erected    on  can    collections, —  Harvard   -College    Library, 

Star   Island,  one  of  the  group,  in  1864.     It  is  Lenox  Library,  the  Carter  Brown  Library,  Chas. 

pictured  in  Jenness's  Isles  of  Shoals,  and  in  S.  Deane's  collection,  &c. 

A.  Drake's  Nooks  ami  Corners  of  the  New  E/ig-          *  The  reduction  in  Bryant  and  Gay's  Pop. 

land  Coast.  Jfist.  of  the  U.  S.,  i.   518,  is  from   Swell's  fac- 

3  A  copy  wilhout  the  map  was  advertised  in  simile,    which    can    also    be     found    in    some 

London  in   1879  f°r  £l°    Ior-  /  while  Quaritch  copies  of  Chas.  Deane's   reprint  of  New  £"g- 

in  1873  advertised  a  copy  with  what  he  called  land's   Trials. 

the  original    map   (perhaps,    however,   not    the  6  "Voyages  of  Hulsius,"  in  Contributions  to 

original  stale)  for  £50.     The  copies  sold  in  Ihe  a  Catalogue  of  t/ie  Lenox  Library,  parl  i.,  1877. 


54  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

II.  The  date,  1614,  is  for  the  first  time  inserted  under  the  scale,  and  the  names 
P.  Trarers  and  Gerrards  Jls  are  put  in  near  Pcmbrocks  Bay  (Penobscot).     A  copy 
of  this  second  state  is  in  the  Harvard  College  copy  of  the  Description  of  1616.     \Vc 
give  a  heliotype  of  a  portion  of  it.      A  lithographic  fac-simile  of  the  whole,  but 
without  the  ships,  &c.,  is  given  in  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  iii.,  and  in  .a  reduced  form  by 
photo-lithography  in  Palfrey's  New  England,  i.  95.'     Mr.  Lenox  supposed  that  this 
state  of   the  plate  may  have  been  first  used  in  the  1620  edition  of  Smith's  New 
England's  Trials,  no  copy  of  which  was  known  to  be  in  this  country  when    Mr. 
Deane,  in  1873,  reprinted  it 2  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Mass.  Hist.  Society,  Feb.  i873-8 

III.  Smith's  escutcheon,  but  without  the  motto,  was  introduced  in  the  lower  left- 
hand  corner.    This  state  is  found  in  Mr.  Deane's  copy  of  the  Gencrall  Historic,  1624, 
and  in  the  Lenox  copy  of  the  Description  of  1616.     Mr.  Lenox  supposed  this  state 
may  have  been  first  used  in  the  1622  edition  of  New  England's  Trials* 

IV.  The  motto  Vincere  est  vivere  is  put  in  a  scroll  to  the  left  of  Smith's  escutcheon. 
The  degrees  of  latitude  and  longitude  are  noted  on  all  sides.     Copies  of  this  state 
are  found  in  the  Charles  Deane  and  Carter  Brown  copies  of  the  Description  of  1616, 
and  it  was  also  in  the  Crowninshield  copy,  taken  from  Boston  to  England  some  years 
since.     Mr.  Lenox  supposed  this  state  to  have  originally  belonged  to  the  first  edition 
of  the  Genera/1  Historic?  1624,  in  which  Smith  gathered  his  previous  independent 
issues.     There  was  no  change  in  the  several  successive  editions  of  this  book  (1624, 
1626,  1627,  1632,  the  last  in  two  issues)  except  in  the  front  matter;  and,  speaking  of 
this  book,  Field,  in  his  Indian  Bibliography,  p.  366,  says  of  the  original  issue,  "  It  is 
so  commonly  the  case  as  almost  to  form  the  rule,  that  even  the  best  copies  have  been 
made  up  by  the  substitution  of  later  editions  of  some  of  the  maps."     Some  of  the 
copies  were  on  large  paper.6 

V.  The  name  Paynes  Us  is  put  down  on  the  Maine  coast.      Cross-lines  are  made 
on  the  front  of  the  breastplate  in  the  portrait  of  Smith,  in  the  upper  left-hand  corner, 
and  the  whole  portrait  is  retouched.     Robert  Clerke's  name  is  partly  obliterated. 
This  state  is  supposed    to   belong   to   the   1626  edition   of  the   Gencrall  Historic. 
The  edition   of  this  date  in   Cornell  University   Library    (Sparks    Collection)    has 

Both  editions,  each  with  map,  are  also  in  liar-  a  private  reprint  of  it.     The  text  is  given  in 

vard  College  Library.      Chas.   Deane   has   the  Force's  Tracts,  ii. 

1617  edition.     A  copy  was  sold  in  the  Brinley          6  Mr.  Deane  has  printed  the  prospectus  of 

sale,  March,  1879,  No.  362.  this  book,  which  he  found  in   London.     Mass. 

'  We   give   a   heliotype    of   the  portrait  of  Hist.  Sac.  Proc.,  January,  1867. 

Smith  on  his  map  from  the  same  state,  and  before  6  Such  is  S.  L.  M.  Barlow's  copy,  but  it  has 

it  was  retouched.     The  only  other  photographic  slate  V.  of  the  map.     A  large-paper  dedication 

reproduction  of  it  is,  we  think,   the  reduction  copy,  bound  for  Smith's  patron,  the  Duchess  of 

given  by  Palfrey  while  reproducing  the  map.     It  Richmond  and  Lenox,  was  bought  at  the  Brinley 

is  unsatisfactory,  however,  the  art  of  photo-lith-  sale    (No.    364),    March,    1879,   for   the    Lenox 

ography  being   then  young.      There  have  been  Library,  for  $1,800.     Mr.  Deane's  copy  of  the 

various  engraved   copies  of  it,  —  in    Bancroft's  1624  edition  has  state  III.  of  the  plate.     This 

United  States  ;  in  .  the  New  England  Hist,  and  book  is  a  favorite  subject  for  the  artful  manipu- 

Gen.   Register,    1858 ;    in    Drake's    Boston  ;    in  lations  of  modern  dealers  in  second-hand  books. 

Vea/ie's  reprint  of  the  map,  &c.  There  were  important  changes  in  the  title,  maps, 

*  From  a  transcript  of  a  copy  in  the  Bodleian  and  other  parts  of  the  successive  issues;  but  in 
Library,  which  differs  in  the  names  of  the  declica-  making   up   deficient   copies,   these   fabricators 
tion  from  the  British  Museum  copy.  have  inserted  whatever  they  could  find,  irrespec- 

8  Also  separately  issued.  tive  of  its  state  of  issue.     The  Gencrall  Historic 

*  This   second   edition   was    enlarged    from  is  reprinted  in  Pinkcrton's  Voyages,  xiii.,  and  in 
eight   to  fourteen  leaves  of   text.     Mr.   Deane  great  part  in  Purchas's  Pilgrims.     It  was  care- 
has  a  copy.     The  late  John  Carter  Brown  issued  lessly  reprinted  in  Richmond,  Va.,  in  1819. 


EARLIEST   MAPS    OF   MASSACHUSETTS    BAY. 


55 


but  a  part  of  the  map,  which,  however,  so  far  conforms.     It  is  in  Mr.  Barlow's 
1624  edition.1 

VI.  The  name  of  lames  Reeue  in  the  lower  right-hand  corner  is  substituted  for 
that  of  George  Low,      The  name  of  the  engraver  is  given  with  an  additional  s,  — 
Passaus.     This  state  is  supposed  by  Mr.  Lenox  to  belong  to  the  1627  edition  of  the 
General!  Historic,  of  which  there  are  copies  in  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Library,  and  in  the 
Prince  Library  (with  notes  by  Prince).     This  state  is  in  the  1632  edition  in  Harvard 
College  Library. 

VII.  The  last  line  of  the  inscription  at  the  top  is  changed  to  read  :  noive  King  of 
great  Britainc.     In  the  portrait  the  armor  is  figured.      West's  Bay  is  placed  on  the 
outer  side  of  Cape  lames.     P'.  Standish  corresponds  to  the  modern  Manomet  Point. 
The  word  NEW  is  inserted  above  Plimouth.    P.  Wynthrop  is  put  north  of  Cape  Anna. 
P.  Reeues  is  put  near  Ipswich.     Salem  is  laid  down  just  north  of  Cape  Anna. 
Fullerton  lie  is  changed  to  Frauncis  lie;*  Cary  Us  to  Claiborne  Us   (off  Boston 
Harbor)  ;    and  P.  Murry  to  P.  Saltonstale  (south  of  Boston  Harbor).      The  bay 
(Boston  Harbor)   is  enlarged  westward,  a  point  of  land  within  it  erased,  and  the 
islands  increased  from  eight  to  eighteen.8 

Mr.  Lenox  held  that  this  state  first  appeared  in  Smith's  Advertisements  to  Planters* 
1631,  and  it  is  found  in  the  Carter  Brown  copy  of  this  tract.  The  Harvard  College 
copy,  however,  has  the  state  X.,  and  the  Charles  Deane  copy  has  IX.  Mr.  Lenox 
has  questioned  if  this  state  did  not  sometimes  make  part  of  Higginson's  New 
England's  Plantation,  of  which  there  were  three  editions  printed  in  1630,  the  first 
of  twenty,  and  the  second  enlarged  to  twenty-six  pages.  The  two  copies  of  the  book 
in  Harvard  College  Library,  the  three  editions  in  the  Lenox  Library,  and  the  copy 
which  was  in  the  Brinley  sale,  all,  however,  want  the  map.5  Sparke,  who  printed 
the  second  edition  of  Higginson,  probably  owned  the  plate,  as  he  printed  the  General! 
Historic  of  1624,  1626,  and  1627,  and  the  Historia  Mundi  of  1635,  which  all  had 
the  map.  Yet,  if  it  properly  belongs  to  Higginson,  it  is  strange  that  a  map  mis- 
placing Salem,  where  Higginson  lived,  should  be  used ;  and  the  names  Wynthrop 
and  Saltonstale  could  have  been  given  only  in  anticipation  of  the  arrival  of  those 
gentlemen. 

VIII.  Martins  lie  is  given  in   Penobscot  Bay.      Perhaps  some  of  the  changes 
named  under  IX.  were  made  in  this  state  (except  the  Plymouth  Company's  arms)  ; 
for  the  only  example  of  it  which  I  have  found  is  a  fragment  (two  thirds)  of  the  map 
belonging  to  Harvard  College  Library,  the  westerly  third  being  gone.     It  belonged, 
perhaps,  to  the  first  issue  of  the  1632  edition  of  the  General!  Historic. 

IX.  The  arms  of  the  Council  for  New  England  are  given  in  the  centre  of  the 
plate.6    The  following  changes  may  first  have  appeared  in  the  preceding  number. 

1  The  Harvard  College   copy  of  this   date  simile  of  the  map  by  Veazie,  Boston,  1865,  and 

(1626)  wants  the  maps.     There  is  a  copy  in  the  is  also  included  in  3  Mass'  Hist.  Coll.  iii.     Smith 

Mass.  Hist.  Society's  library.  died  June  21,  1631,  and  this  must  have  been  the 

'2  This  is  just  north  of  the  entrance  to  Bos-  last  state  of  the  plate  he  was  personally  con- 
ton  Harbor,  and  is  supposed  to  be  Nahant,  re-  cerned  in. 

fcrred  to  in  Smith's  account  as  "the  isles  of  5  The  tract   was   reprinted    in   Mass.    Hist. 

Mattahunts."  Coll.  i. 

••  This  was  because  of  the  reports  of  later  °  Mr.  Charles  Deane  supposes  these  arms  to 
visitors,  which  Smith,  in  his  Advertisements  to  be  those  of  the  Council.  See  his  letter  in  Mass. 
Planters,  says  had  represented  the  "excellent  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  March,  1867.  Dr.  Palfrey  en- 
bay"  to  have  "forty  or  fifty  pleasant  islands."  gra%'cs  them  as  such  on  the  title-page  of  his 

4  This  tract  has  been  reprinted,  with  a  fac-  History  of  New  England. 


56  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

The  name  Char/ton1  is  inserted  just  south  of  the  mouth  of  The  River  Charles. 
Salem  misplaced  is  obliterated,  and  the  name  is  inserted  in  its  proper  place.  Two 
unfinished  arms  of  the. sea,  on  the  north  of  Talbotts  Bay,  are  extended  inland, 
covering  the  position  of  a  church  in  previous  states.  This  may  have  belonged  to  the 
second  1632  issue  of  the  Generall  Historie,  and  it  appears  in  such  copies  in  Harvard 
College  Library  and  in  Mr.  Barlow's  copy.  It  is  in  Mr.  Deane's  Advertisement  to 
Planters  of  1631. 

X.  The  River  Charles  is  extended  to  the  left-hand  edge  of  the  plate,  and  symbols 
of  towns  with  figures  of  men,  animals,  and  representations  of  Indian  huts  are  scattered 
near  it.  On  its  north  bank  the  following  names  are  inserted,  beginning  at  the  west : 
Watertowne,  Newtowne,  Medford,  Charlcstown?  and  beyond  the  Fawmouth  of  the 
original  plate  Saugus  is  put  in.  The  south  bank  shows  Roxberry,  Boston  (repre- 
sented as  five  leagues  up  the  river,  by  the  scale) ,  and  Winnisime.  Cheuyot  hills  is 
erased  and  the  name  Dorchester  is  inserted  along  the  eastern  slope  of  the  picture  of 
the  hill  which  still  remains.  London  and  Oxford  still  stand.  A  school  of  fish  is 
delineated  under  the  single  ship.  Under  the  compass  these  words  appear  :  He  that 
desyrcs  to  know  more  of  the  Estate  of  new  England  lett  him  read  a  new  Book  of  the 
prospecte  of  new  England  6»  ther  he  shall  have  Satisfaction.  Although  the  old  date, 
1614,  is  still  kept  on  the  plate,  this  inscription  shows  that  this  state  followed  the 
publication  of  Wood's  New  England's  Prospects?  1634,  and  it  seems  to  have  been 
made  for  the  following  work  :  Historia  Mimdi,  or  Mercator's  Atlas  .  .  .  Enlarged 
with  new  Mapps  and  Tables  by  the  studious  Industrie  of  Jodocus  Hondy.  Englished 
by  W  [ye]  6"[altonstall] .  London,  Printed  for  Michaell  Sparke  and  Samuel  Cart- 
wright,  1635,  folio.4 

This  state  is  found  in  the  Harvard  College  copy  of  the  Advertisement  to  Planters, 
1631. 

The  modern  fac-simile,  by  Swett,  of  the  first  state  was  also  altered  for  Veazie  to 
suit  this  condition,  but  the  engraver  did  not  observe  that  a  third  s  had  been  inserted 
in  the  name  of  Passceus.  This  altered  engraving  is  found  in  J.  S.  Jenness's  Isles  of 
Shoals,  New  York,  1873. 

A  new  element  entered  into  the  progress  of  New  England  cartography 
when  the  Dutch  laid  claim  to  her  territory.  We  have  already  mentioned 
how  Hudson,  in  1609,  came  upon  Cape  Cod.  He  thought  the  promontory 
an  island ;  and,  naming  it  Nieuw  Hollande,  he  sailed  about  within  the  bay, 
baffled  in  his  efforts  to  find  a  passage  to  the  south.  Five  years  later  from 
the  settlements  of  the  Dutch  at  Manhattan,  Adrian  Block,  in  the  spring  of 
1614,  sailing  in  the  first  vessel  built  in  that  region,  —  the  yacht  "  Onrust,"  or 
the  "  Restless,"  —  explored  the  Connecticut  shores  and  inlets ;  passed  by 
Tcxel  (Martha's*  Vineyard),  Vlielande  (Nantuckct)  ;  rounded  the  southern 

1  This  pronunciation  of  Charlestown  was  4  In  some  of  the  copies  of  a  "second  Edytion" 

usual  in  the  171)1  century.  Hull,  the  mint-mas-  of  this  book,  1637,  a  new  map  of  New  Virginia, 

ter,  in  his  diary,  1663,  writes  Charltown.  Amer.  announced  before  as  in  preparation  in  America, 

Anliq.  Soc.  Coll.  iii.  209.  engraved  by  Ralph  Hall,  1636,  was  inserted.  Cf. 

'2  This  is  the  same  as  Charlton,  which  is  still  Quaritch's  Catalogue,  No.  11,728,  who  errs  in 

left  in  erroneously,  as  in  IX.  calling  the  map  "New  England."  There  is  a 

3  Wood  had  spoken  of  the  harbor  as  "made  copy  in  the  American  Antiquarian  Society's 

by  a  great  Company  of  islands,  whose  high  cliffs  library.  The  original  edition  is  in  Harvard 

shoulder  out  the  boisterous  seas."  College  Library. 


EARLIEST    MAPS    OF    MASSACHUSETTS    BAY. 


57 


point  of  the  Cape  Cod  peninsula,  which  he  called  Vlacke  Hoeck ;  passed 
the  easterly  highlands  on  the  back  of  the  Cape,  which  he  called  Staten 
liocck ;  rounded  the  Cape  itself,  naming  it  Caep  Bevechier ;  passed  into  the 
bay  (Fuyck)  ;  named  the  southerly  reach  off  the  Barnstable  shore  Staten 


THE   FIGURATIVE  MAP,   1614. 


Bay ;  stopped  at  Crane  Bay,  as  he  called  Plymouth,  proceeding  to  Fox 
Jiaven^  seemingly  Boston  Harbor;  and  ended  his  northerly  course  at 
Pye  bay,  in  latitude  42°  30',  which  appears  to  be  what  we  know  as  Nahant 

1  We  shall  find  these  names  of  Crane  Bay  and  "  Little  Crane,"  licensed  by  the  States  Gen- 

and  Fox  or   Vos  Haven  clinging  long  to  these  eral,  Feb.  21,  1611,  for  exploring,  ostensibly  to 

localities  in  maps.     I  judge  them  to  have  been  find  a  passage   to   China.     They  never  found 

named  after  two  ships,  "Little  Fox"  (het  vosje)  their  place,  however,  in  English  maps. 
VOL.  I.  —  8. 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


Bay,  making  it  the  northerly  limit  of  the  Dutch  claim,  based  on  his  dis- 
coveries. Brodhead,  the  New  York  historian,  found  in  1841,  in  the 
archives  at  the  Hague,  a  map,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  one  mentioned 
by  De  Laet,  in  1625,  as  "a  chart  of  this  quarter  made  some  years  since." 
It  is  conjectured  that  it  was  prepared  in  1614  from  Block's  data,  and  was 
the  "  Figurative  Map,"  covering  the  country  from  40°  to  45°  north  latitude, 
presented  to  their  High  Mightinesses  at  the  time  they  granted  the  charter 
for  this  region,  —  Oct.  n,  1614,  —  in  which  they  acknowledge  the  English 
claim  below  40°  and  the  French  claim  above  45,°  and  took  to  themselves 
the  intervening  territory.  Thus  it  would  seem  that,  at  about  the  time 
Prince  Charles  was  reaffirming  the  name  New  England,  the  Dutch  digni- 
taries were  assigning  the  name  New  Netherland  to  the  same  territory.1 
This  "  Figurative  Map  "  gives  a  misshapen  Cape  Cod  peninsula,  and  cuts  it 
off  from  the  main  by  a  channel;  2  the  bay  becomes  the  Noord Zee ;  Boston 
is  Vos  haven,  with  the  Charles  stretching  west  to  Irocoisia,  lying  east  of 
what  stands  for  our  present  Lake  George;  Salem  Bay  seems  to  be  Gracf 
Hcndrycks  Bay;  Smith's  P.  Wynthorp  becomes  Wyugacrds  Jiocck ;  the 
Merrimac  is  Sant  rcvier,  emptying  into  Witte  bay? 

There  was  issued  at  Amsterdam  in  1621,  by 
Jacobsz,  a   West  IndiscJie  paskacrt,  of  which  a 
section  showing  New  Netherland,  as  claimed  by 
the  Dutch,  is  given  in  fac-simile  by  Dr.  O'Cal- 
laghan,    after   a   copy   in    his   possession.4      It 
corresponds  nearly  in  outline    (excepting  the 
'/    TI/  -£j,cJ0i"&'  channel  that  makes  Cape  Cod  an  island)   and 
in  names  to  the  "  Figurative  Map."      The  fea- 
tures common  to  the   two  were   reiterated  by 
JACOBSZ,  1621. 

the  Dutch  geographers  for  some  time. 

Joannes  DC  Laet  issued  the  first  edition  of  his  Niemve  Wcreldt,  Leyclcn,  in 
i625,6  which  contained  maps  by  Hessel  Gerritz.  A  second  edition,  in  1630, 
had  new  maps ;  and  there  were  various  later  editions  in  Latin  and  in  French.6 


1  Brodhead,  Hist,  of  New  York,  gives  a  map 
with  modern  outlines,  showing  New  Netherland 
according  to  the  charters  of  Oct.  u,  1614,  and 
June  3,  1621,  covering  what  is  now  known  as 
Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New 
York,  and  New  Jersey. 

2  There  seem  to  have  been  passages  through 
the  peninsula  at  a  later  day,  upon  good  evidence, 
and   there  were  probably  similar  ones  earlier. 
Captain  Cyprian   Southack,  in  his  chart  of  the 
"  Sea  of  New  England,"  giving  the  coast  from 
Ipswich  to  Buzzard's  Bay,  makes  a  passage  at 
the  elbow  of  Cape  Cod,  and  calls  it  "The  place 
where  I  came  through  with  a  whale  boat,  being 
ordered  by  yc  Governm't  to  "look  after  yc    Pirate 
Ship,  Whido  Bellame,  commands  cast  away  y*  26 
of  April,  1717,  where  I  buried  one  hundred  and 
two  men  drowned."     There  is  a  similar  passage 
shown  in  The  English  Pilot,  London,  1 794. 


3  Fac-similes  of  this  map  are  given  in  Docu- 
ments relative  to  the   Colonial  History  of  Ne-*v 
York,  \.  13,  and  in  O'Callaghan's  Hist,  of  Nno 
Netherland.     According   to    F.  Muller's   Hooks 
on  America,  iii.  147,  and  his  Catalogue  of  1877, 
No.  2,270,  a  chromo-lithograph  of  it  was  issued 
by  E.  Spanier  in  1850!?). 

4  Documents  relating  to  the  Colonial  Hist,  of 
N.  Y.  i. ;  also  given  in  Valentine's  New   York 
City  Manual,  1858,  and  in  Pennsylvania  Archives, 
second  series,  v.      Muller,  Books  on   America, 
iii.    143,  and   Catalogue  of  1877,  No.  3,484,  de- 
scribes the  only  other  copy  known. 

6  Stevens,  Bibliotheca  Geographica,  p.  183, 
gives  fac-simile  of  title  and  portrait.  Mr.  Deane 
has  a  perfect  copy  without  ma))  of  New  England. 

6  Latin,  in  1633,  Novns  Orl>is;  French,  in 
1640,  Histoire  Ju  Nonvcau  Monde.  Cf.  Asher's 
Bibliographical  and  Historical  Essay ;  F.  Muller's 


EARLIEST   MAPS   OF   MASSACHUSETTS    BAY.  59 

These  works  constitute  an  important  step  in  the  progress  of  cartographi- 
cal knowledge.  The  Novus  Orbis  of  1633,  however,  shows  two  maps  of 
our  bay,  which  seem  to  divide  the  geographical  honors  between  Champlain 
and  Block.  That  of  "  Nova  Francia "  gives  the  Frenchman's  names ;  and 
R.  du  Gaz  stands  for  the  Charles.  That  of  "  Nova  Anglia,  Novum  Belgium 
et  Virginia"  follows  the  Dutch  reports,  putting  Vossen  Haven  for  Boston 
Harbor;  but,  with  further  impartiality,  it  perpetuates  Smith's  designation  of 
Stuarts  Bay  and  Bristow  (which  proved  singularly  perennial  for  a  non- 
existing  town  about  where  Beverly  is),  while  Tragabigzanda  dragged  after 
it  the  alias  of  Cape  Anna.1 

In  1631,  an  important  series  of  Dutch  atlases  was  begun  at  Amsterdam 
by  W.  J.  Blaeu ;  and  they  continued  to  be  issued  with  Dutch,  French,  Span- 
ish, and  Latin  texts  till  near  the  end  of  the  century,  —  some  purporting  to 
be  continuations  of  Mercator  and  Ortelius.2  The  map  of  "  Nova  Belgica  et 
Anglia  Nova,"  in  his  Nieuwe  Atlas  of  1635,  repeats  the  general  contours  of 
the  "Figurative  Map"  of  twenty  years  earlier;  but  Cape  Cod  peninsula  is 
not  severed,  as  in  that.  Boston  is  still  Vos  haven;  there  are  still  some 
traces  of  Smith  remaining,  as  in  Tragabigzanda.  As  in  the  Champlain 
map,  the  Charles,  or  rather  the  Merrimac,  leaves  at  its  head-waters  but  a 
small  portage  to  the  Lacns  Irocociensis,  or  Lake  Champlain.  A  new  name 
comes  in  for  the  Gurnet  Point,  —  C.  Blanco  Gallis,  —  which  seems  to  be 
repeated  in  another  form  (C.  Banco}  in  a  map  which  appeared  in  Robert 
Dudley's  Delia  Arcano  del  Mare,  Firenze,  1647 .3  Dudley,  who  seems  to 
have  followed  the  "  Figurative  Map  "  in  general,  has  made  a  strange  mix- 
ture of  the  names.  To  Block's  nomenclature  he  has  added  various  desig- 
nations from  Smith's  map,  like  Bristow,  Milford  Haven  (put  outside  the 
Cape).  Some  of  the  Dutch  names  are  translated,  like  Henry 's  Bay;  others 
are  left,  like  P!  Vos  along  the  Charles ;  while  Boston  stands  against  the 
harbor  of  islands,  and  occasionally  an  Italian  termination  appears,  —  due, 
perhaps,  to  his  engraver,  A.  E.  Lucini.4 

Before  closing  this  section  it  may  be  well  to  trace  the  more  immediate 
influence  of  Smith's  map  among  the  English.  Dermer,  who  had  sailed  in 
company  with  Smith  on  his  last  unfortunate  voyage,  had  been  again  on  the 
coast  in  1620,  and  seems  to  have  landed  at  Nauset,  and  at  the  place  "  which, 
in  Captain  Smith's  map,  is  called  Plymouth." 5  This  was  in  June ;  and,  in 

Catalogues;   Quaritch's  Catalogues,  &c.     Muller  in  a  note  its  source  is  not  recognized.    A  second 

says   the   editions   have   become   rare   even   in  edition  of  Dudley  is  dated  1661. 

Holland.  4  The  Rev.  E.  E.  Hale  reports  in  the  Ameri- 

1  This  map  is  given  in  fac-simile  in  the  Lenox  can  Antiquarian  Society's  Proceedings,  October, 
edition  of  Jogues's  Novum  Belgium,  prepared  by  1873,  that   there   are   in  the  Royal    Library  at 
J.  G.  Shea  in  1862.  Munich    some    of    Dudley's   drawings    for   the 

2  Cf.  Clement's  Bibl.  Curieuse,  iv.  267 ;  Bau-  maps   published   by  him   in  the  Arcano.     The 
det's  Biog.  of  Blaeu,  Utrecht,  1871,  p.  76;  Muller's  map     corresponding     to     this    one    has    more 
Books  on  America,  part  iii.  128,  &c.  names  than  were  engraved.      Cape  Cod  is  La 

3  Of  this  book,  now  rare,  there  is  a  good  Pitnta,  &c.     In  the  engraved   map  Horicans  is 
copy  in  Harvard  College  Library.     The  map  in  put  down  west  of  Plymouth  as  the  name  of  a 
question  is  fac-similed  in  Documents  relative  to  region  or  tribe. 

the  Colonial  History  of  New  York,  vol.  i.,  where  5  Cf.  Bradford's  History,  p.  96. 


60  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

November,  the  "  Mayflower,"  borne  by  the  wind  and  the  currents  north  of 
her  destination,  which  had  been  somewhere  on  the  Jersey  coast  or  by  the 
capes  of  Delaware,  sighted  the  cliffs  of  Cape  Cod,  and  came  to  anchor  in 
the  harbor  of  Provincetown.  The  Pilgrims  had  declined,  while  in  Holland, 
the  offers  of  the  Dutch  to  settle  in  New  Netherland ;  but,  if  they  had  seen 
Block's  map,  they  must  have  known  they  were  now  in  what  Hudson  had 
called  New  Holland.  Smith's  map  they  doubtless  knew ;  and,  notwithstand- 
ing their  exile,  they  had  English  sympathies.  There  were  among  the  crew 
of  the  ship  those  who  had  been  on  the  coast  before  in  fishing-craft;  and 
one  such  advised  them  to  make  a  settlement  at  Agawam,  the  modern 
Ipswich.  That  they  went  to  Plymouth,  however,  is  well  known ;  and, 
almost  at  the  same  date  with  their  arrival,  James  I.  had  challenged  the 
Dutch  on  the  one  side  and  the  French  on  the  other,  by  granting  to  the 
Council  of  Plymouth  in  England  the  patent  of  Nov.  3,  1620,  which  con- 
firmed to  that  Company  the  territory  between  40°  and  48°  north  latitude. 
Of  these  the  Pilgrims  sought  to  hold,  and  from  them  they  received  their 
patent. 

The  next  few  years  saw  an  increase  in  the  visitors  to  the  coast ;  and  of  the 
large  numbers  of  his  maps  which  Smith  had  distributed  in  the  country  back 
of  Bristol  some  doubtless  found  their  way  hither  in  the  venturesome  craft 
which  came  among  these  waters  to  fish  and  to  barter  for  beaver.1  Settle- 
ments were  forming,  too,  —  Weston  at  Wessagusset  (Weymouth)  in  1622; 
those  at  Nantasket  in  1623-24,  who  removed  to  Cape  Ann  the  next  year; 
Morton  at  Merry  Mount  in  1625  ;  Conant  and  others  at  Naumkeag  (Salem) 
in  1626;  and,  when  Higginson  came  in  1629,  he  spoke  of  those  already 
settled  at  Cherton,  or  Charlestown,  "on  Masathulets  Bay,"  —  the  Prince's 
name  still  governing  the  designation  of  the  earliest  settlement  on  the  Charles, 
—  and  which  the  next  year  received  the  company  of  Winthrop.  Somewhere 
in  these  few  years  must  be  fixed  another  excursion  of  the  Plymouth  people, 
when,  on  their  way  to  visit  their  neighbors  at  Salem,  they  stopped  in  Boston 

Harbor,  and  left  names  upon  headland 
and  island  that  still  remain.  One  of 
their  chief  men,  Isaac  Allerton,  gave 
his  name  to  the  bluff  more  frequently 
in  these  days  called,  by  corruption, 
Point  Alderton ; 2  and  upon  neighbor- 
ing rocks  and  islets  was  bestowed  the  name  of  his  wife's  family.  She  was 
a  daughter  of  the  Pilgrim  elder,  Brewster. 

Meanwhile,  as  Smith  said  in  i624,3the  country  was  "at  last  engrossed  by 
twenty  patentees,  that  divided  my  map  into  twenty  parts,  and  cast  lots  for 
their  shares."  What  Smith  refers  to  is  an  abortive  scheme  of  this  time,  by 
which  the  coast  was  to  be  parcelled  out  to  prominent  members  of  the  Coun- 

1  Dudley,  Letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln,  2  It  is  called  "  Allerton   Poynt "  in  Wood's 

1630;  Smith,  Generall  Hislorie;  White,  Planter's     map,  1634,  the  earliest  giving  details. 
Plea.  3  In  his  True  Travels,  cap.  xxiii.,  p.  47. 


EARLIEST    MAPS    OF   MASSACHUSETTS    BAY. 


6l 


cil  for  Planting,  Ruling,  and  Governing  New  England.1  Smith's  map  was 
certainly  not  implicitly  followed ;  for  the  map  thus  cut  up  seems  also  to  bear 
some  traces  borrowed  from  another,  —  perhaps  from  Lescar- 
bot's  of  1612.  Sir  William  Alexander,  to  whom  the  King 
had  granted  a  charter  in  1621,  made  this  new  map  public  in 
his  Encouragement  to  Colonists,  London,  1624  (some  copies, 
1625),  and  again  in  1630  annexed  it  to  a  new  edition  of  the 
tract,  in  which  he  had  changed  the  name  to  The  Mapp  and  Descrip- 
tion of  New  England?1 

Some  of  the  names  which  Prince  Charles  bestowed  had  a  singular 
vitality, — cartographically  speaking  at  least.     Though  there  were 
no  communities  to  be  represented  by  them,  geographers  did  not 
willingly  let  them  die.    De  Laet  and  Blaeu,  within  the  next  score  of 
years,  used  several  of  them.    They  got  into  the  Carta  II.  of  Robert 
Dudley's  Arcano  del  Mare,  published  at  Florence  in  1647.    Sanson 
used  some  of  them  through  a  long  period  of  map-making,  and 
even  as  late  as  1719;   and  during  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century   they   constantly   appear    in   the   geographical   works   of 
Visscher,  Homann,  Jansson,  De  Witt,  Sandrart,  Danckers,  Ottens, 
Allard,  and  others.     They  stood  forth  in  the  maps  of  Montanus's 
Nieuwe  Weereld,  and  adorned  the  great  folio  translation  known 
as  Ogilby's  America  in  1670.     Some  of  them  are  found  so  late 
as  1745,  in  a  Dutch  Atlas  von  Zeei'aert,  published  at  Amster- 
dam.3    It  is  curious  to  observe  how  the  imaginary  Bristow 
and    London   appear   as   Bristoinm   and  Londinnm,   in  the 
Latin  map  of  Crceuxius's  book  on  Canada  in  1664.     In 
Visscher's  and  Jansson's   maps,  the   intruding   Cheviot 
Hills   becomes  Chenyotliillis,  —  not  readily  recognized, 
except  for  the  Mons  Massachusetts ^  given  by  their 
side.     A  strange  migration  occurs  in  one  of  Hen- 
nepin's  maps.     The  Dutch  claimed  that  Pye  Bay 
(Nahant)  marked  their  northern  limit,  and  so  the 
upper  boundary  of  Nonvean  Pays  Bas  runs  west- 
erly from  Boston  Harbor.     It  could  hardly  be  de- 
nied, in  Hennepin's  time,  that  the  English  had  a 
substantial  hold  upon  Boston,  and  ought  to  have 
had  upon  Bristow  and  London,  —  which  were  Eng- 
lish enough  in  name,  if  aerial  in  substance.     So,  to 


1  This  division  is  treated  of  in  Mr.  Adams's 
section. 

'2  The  tract  is  reprinted,  with  a  fac-simile  of 
the  map,  in  E.  F.  Slafter's  Sir  William  Alex- 
ander, published  by  the  Prince  Society.  Har- 
vard College  Library  has  the  1630  tract  without 
the  map.  The  map  was  repeated  in  Purchas's 
Pilgrims,  iv.,  and  has  been  reproduced  in  S.  G. 
Drake's  Founders  ^of  New  England,  1860 ;  in 


GOV.  WINTHROP'S  SKETCH. 


David  Laing's  Royal  Letters,  &c.,  Bannatyne  Club, 
Edinburgh,  1867  ;  and  in  part  in  J.  W.  Thorn- 
ton's Landing  at  Cape  Anne.  It  is  also  given, 
with  documents  appertaining,  in  the  American 
Antiquarian  Society's  Proceedings,  April  24,  1867. 
8  Ignorance  in  Holland  in  1745  is  certainly 
more  pardonable  than  the  English  blunder  of 
1778,  when  the  North  American  Gazetteer  of  that 
year  spoke  of  Bristol,  R.  I.,  as  being  famed  "for 


62 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


cause  no  dispute,  Boston  is  put  down  somewhere  in  the  latitude  of  Ports- 
mouth, where  Prince  Charles  had  placed  it,  and  Bristow  and  London 
flank  the  mouths  of  what  must  be  the  Merrimac.  This  was  not  long 
before  1700. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Winthrop,  in  the"  "  Arbella  "  in  1630,  mak- 
ing the  shore  just  south  of  Cape  Ann,  sketched  on  a  blank  leaf  of  his 
journal  —  as  on  preceding  page  —  the  earliest  outline  of  the  coast  from 
Gloucester  to  Salem  harbor,  which  is  preserved  to  us  in  any  original 
drawing.  The  same  page  bears  a  description  of  the  islands  and  reefs 
about  Cape  Ann.1 


the  King  of  Spain  having  a  palace  in  it  and  1685,  still  keeps  Charles's  London  on  the  south 

being  killed  there."    The  Indian  "King  Philip"  shore  of  the  bay. 

was  meant.     A  popular  account  of  the  English          l  Savage's  ed.  of  Winthrop's  Hist,  of 

empire  in  America,  published  by  N.  Crouch  in  England,  ii.  418. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE     EARLIEST    EXPLORATIONS    AND     SETTLEMENT    OF 

BOSTON     HARBOR. 

BY    CHARLES     FRANCIS    ADAMS,    JR. 

ON  the  afternoon  of  Wednesday,  the  29th  of  September,  1621,  a  large 
open  sail-boat,  or  shallop,  as  it  was  then  called,  entered  Boston 
Harbor,  coming  up  along  the  shore  from  the  direction  of  Plymouth.  In 
it  were  thirteen  men,  —  ten  Europeans,  with  three  savages  acting  as  their 
guides.  The  whole  party  was  under  the  immediate  command  of  Captain 
Miles  Standish,  and  their  purpose  was  to  explore  the  country  in  and  about 
Massachusetts  Bay,  as  Boston 
Harbor  was  then  called,  and 
to  establish  friendly  trading 
relations  with  the  inhabitants,  f/  (^/  ^^^^0 

They   had   started    from    Ply-  +^  f 

mouth  on  the  ebb  tide  shortly  before  the  previous  midnight,  expecting  to 
reach  their  destination  the  next  morning ;  but  the  wind  was  light  and  the  dis- 
tance greater  than  they  supposed,  so  that  the  day  was  already  old  when  they 
made  the  harbor's  mouth.  Passing  by  Point  Allerton  they  laid  their  course 
for  what  appeared  to  them  to  be  the  bottom  of  the  bay,  and,  finding  good 
shelter  there,  came  to  anchor  off  what  is  now  known  as  Thomson's  Island.1 
Here  they  lay  during  the  night,  which  they  passed  on  board  their  boat; 
though  it  would  seem  that  Standish  and  others  landed  and  explored  the 
little  island,  even  naming  it  Trevore,  after  one.  of  their  number,  —  William 
Trevore,  an  English  sailor. 


1  The  course  of  this  exploring  expedition 
has  been  differently  surmised  by  the  several  au- 
thorities. The  words  used  in  Mourt  are  :  "  We 
came  into  the  bottom  of  the  bay."  Young  sup- 
poses this  to  mean  that  they  anchored  off  Copp's 
Hill,  at  the  north  end  of  Boston  (Chronicles  of  the 
Pilgrims,  p.  225,  «.,  following,  in  this  statement, 
Dr.  Belknap  in  his  American  Biography] ;  while 
Dexter,  in  his  edition  of  Mourt,  says  :  "That  is, 
run  in  by  Point  Allerton  into  Light-house  Chan- 
nel "  (p.  125,  «.).  Neither  Dr.  Young  nor  Dr. 
Dexter,  it  is  fair  to  presume,  were  practically 
very  familiar  with  Boston  Harbor.  To  one  who 


has  been  in  the  custom  of  navigating  it,  how- 
ever, the  phrase  "  the  bottom  of  the  bay  "  is,  as 
a  description,  almost  unmistakable.  A  boat  com- 
ing from  Plymouth  would  enter  the  harbor  by  the 
channel  between  Shag-rocks  and  Point  Allerton  ; 
and  from  there  the  view  in  the  direction  of  Thom- 
son's Island  is  wholly  unobstructed,  while  the 
ship-channel  to  Boston  and  Copp's  Hill  is  de- 
vious, and  masked  by  islands.  Explorers  would 
naturally  go  directly  through  the  open  water  to 
Squantum  near  the  mouth  of  the  Neponset,  —  the 
apparent  "  bottom  of  the  bay." 

Many  years  subsequently  (in  1650),  Stand- 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


Early  on  the  morning  of  the  next  day  the  party  made  ready  to  extend 
their  explorations  to  the  main-land.  As  they  had  come  to  establish  rela- 
tions with  what  remained  of  the  once  powerful  tribe  of  the  Massachusetts, 


SQUAW  ROCK,  OR  SQUANTUM  HEAD. 


their  Indian  guides  seem  to 

have  brought  them  to  that 

point  on  the  shore  of  the  bay 

which  was  most  convenient 

for  access  to  the  broad  plain 

then  and  long  subsequently  known  as  the  "  Massachusetts  Fields,"  from  its 

being  used  as  the  central  gathering-place  of  the  tribe.1     This  plain  lay  in 


ish  made  a  deposition  in  relation  to  Thomson's 
Island,  in  which  he  stated  that,  in  the  year  he 
came  into  the  country,  he  visited  this  island,  and 
then  named  it  Island  Trevore,  —  after  William 
Trevore,  who,  as  stated  in  the  text,  was  with  him 
(Ar.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  ix.  248).  This 
Trevore  came  over  in  the  "Mayflower,"  hired  to 
stay  in  the  country  one  year.  At  the  expiration 
of  his  year  he  returned  to  England.  Standish 
and  Trevore,  therefore,  could  only  have  visited 
Thomson's  Island  together  during  the  Septem- 
ber expedition  of  1621.  (Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Pioc., 
1875-76,  p.  373.) 

This  visit  also  could  apparently  have  been 
made  only  on  the  evening  of  their  arrival  at  the 
"bottom  of  the  bay,"  or  the  morning  after  their 
arrival  there,  and  before  they  crossed  to  the 
main-land.  For  it  is  clear  that  Obbatinewat  did 
not  live  on  this  island,  as  Slanclish,  in  the  depo- 
sition of  1650,  particularly  says  that  it  was  riot 
only  deserted,  but  that  there  were  no  signs  of 
its  ever  having  been  inhabited.  After  visiting 


the  main-land,  and  setting  out  in  search  of  Ob- 
batinewat's  place  of  abode,  the  whole  time  of 
the  explorers  is  accounted  for :  they  crossed  the 
bay,  passed  the  night  off  the  main  shore  on  its 
other  side,  and  the  next  day  made  their  excur- 
sion into  the  interior,  getting  back  to  their  boat 
only  in  time  to  start  for  Plymouth  by  moonlight. 
Apparently,  they  were  too  much  occupied  to 
explore  uninhabited  islands. 

It  seems,  therefore,  fairly  to  be  inferred  that 
they  came  to  anchor  off  Thomson's  Island  on 
their  arrival,  and  that  their  subsequent  course 
was  as  described  in  the  text.  The  Hist,  of 
Dorchester  supposes  that  the  first  landing  was 
at  Nantasket,  then  at  Squantum,  and  that  it 
was  on  the  Neponset  that  they  made  their 
explorations. 

1  Chronicles  of  Mass.,  p.  395 ;  Chronicles  of 
the  Pilgrims,  p.  226.  [Mr.  Everett,  in  his  Dor- 
chester oration,  1855  (Works,  iii.  318),  speaks  of 
a  solitary  individual  of  the  tribe  still  lingering 
within  his  recollection.  —  ED.] 


THE   EARLIEST   SETTLEMENT   OF    BOSTON    HARBOR. 


the  northern  part  of  what  is  now  the  town  of  Quincy,  and,  almost  surrounded 
by  the  swamps  and  marshes  bordering  on  the  bay  and  the  Neponset  River, 
was  connected  with  the  Squantum  headland,  opposite  to  which  the  party  had 
anchored  their  boat,  by  a  low  neck  of  mingled  marsh  and  beach.  Crossing 
the  narrow  channel  which  divides  Thomson's  Island  from  this  headland, 


MILES    STANDISH.1 


Standish  landed  at  the  foot  of  the  bold  rocky  cliff  which  is  still  so  striking 
and  exceptional  a  feature  of  the  shore,  —  a  miniature  Nahant  deep  within 
the  recesses  of  the  harbor. 


1  [The  portrait  which  is  here  called  that  of 
Standish  is  from  a  photograph,  taken  from  an 
old  painting  owned  by  Captain  A.  M.  Harri- 
son, U.  S.  Coast  Survey,  of  Plymouth,  which, 
through  the  friendly  offices  of  B.  Marston  Wat- 
son, Esq.,  of  that  town,  was  kindly  placed  at  my 
disposal  by  the  owner.  Captain  Harrison  has 
given  an  account  of  what  is  known  of  the  pic- 
ture, in  a  letter  printed  in  the  Afass.  Hist.  Soc. 
Proc.,  October,  1877,  p.  324.  The  canvas  stands 
in  need  of  complete  identification  as  a  likeness 
of  the  redoubtable  Pilgrim  hero,  and  the  leader 
of  the  first  party  of  Englishmen  of  whom  we 
have  accounts  as  landing  on  any  part  of  the  ter- 
VOL.  I.  —  9. 


ritory  of  Boston;  but, until  positively  disproven, 
it  must  have  a  certain  interest.  The  portrait, 
which  is  painted  on  an  old  panel,  was  found  in 
a  picture  shop  in  School  Street,  the  legend 
ALtatis  suce  38,  A°-  1625  being  observable, — 
the  year  of  Standish's  visit  to  England,  when  he 
was  of  the  age  noted.  The  name  M.  Standish 
was  disclosed  on  removing  the  apparently  mod- 
ern frame.  The  previous  owner,  James  Gilbert, 
stated  that  it  was  purchased  by  Roger  Gilbert, 
his  great-uncle,  who  was  born  in  Portsmouth, 
Va.,  but  then  living  in  Philadelphia,  of  a  branch 
of  the  Chew  family  in  Germantown,  Penn., 
shortly  before  the  war  of  1812.  —  ED.] 


66 


THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY    OF    BOSTON. 


Either  the  party  had  set  out  but  slenderly  provided,  or  they  had  not  yet 
breakfasted ;  for,  rinding  a  number  of  lobsters  on  the  shore,  collected  there 
by  the  savages,  they  appropriated  them,  and  on  them  made  their  morning's 
meal.  This  done,  Standish,  having  posted  two  men  as  sentinels  behind  the 
cliff  on  the  landward  side,  to  secure  the  shallop  against  any  attempt  at 
surprise,  took  four  other  men,  with  Squanto  as  a  guide,  and  went  in  search 
of  the  inhabitants.  They  had  not  gone  far  when  they  met  a  woman  coming 
for  the  lobsters  they  had  found  on  landing.  They  told  her  that  they  had 
taken  them  and  gave  her  something  in  compensation,  and  she  in  return 
explained  to  them  where  her  people  were.  Her  sachem's  name  she  gave 
as  Obbatinewat.  There  is  no  record,  other  than  this,  either  of  him  or  of 
the  place  where  he  usually  lived.  He  professed  allegiance  to  Massasoit, 
though  then  in  the  territory  of  the  Massachusetts,  and  at  this  particular  time 
was  in  such  terror  of  the  dreaded  Tarrentines  that  he  did  not  dare  remain 
long  in  any  settled  place.  It  would  seem  probable  that  he  and  his  people 
were  then  tarrying  somewhere  on  the  shores  north  of  the  Neponset,  perhaps 


STANDISH'S  SWORD  AND  A  MATCHLOCK.* 


at  Savin  Hill  or  near  Dorchester  Heights ;  for,  while  Squanto  went  thither 
with  the  woman,  probably  in  her  canoe,  the  rest  returned  to  the  shallop 
and  followed  them  by  water,  which  they  would  scarcely  have  done  had  their 
destination  been  any  point  further  to  the  south  and  accessible  by  land. 

Rejoining  Squanto  and  the  Indian  woman  at  the  place  she  had  indicated, 
Standish  there  found  Obbatinewat,  and,  taking  advantage  of  the  terror  in 
which  he  lived  both  of  the  Squaw-Sachem  of  the  Massachusetts,  the 
widow  of  Nanepashemet,  and  of  the  Tarrentines,  he  easily,  by  means  of  a 
promised  protection,  induced  him  to  profess  allegiance  to  King  James. 
Obbatinewat  then  undertook  to  guide  the  party  to  the  Squaw-Sachem,  who 
lived  somewhere  on  the  Mystic,  in  the  neighborhood,  it  is  supposed,  of  the 
Wachuset.  Going,  therefore,  presently  on  board  their  boat,  they  crossed 


1  [This  sword  came  into  the  possession  of  the 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  in  1798,  where  it  now  is.  See 
their  Proceedings,  January,  1798,  p.  115.  The 


matchlock  is  also  in  the  Society's  cabinet,  and  is 
given  here  as  a  specimen  of  the  weapons  with 
which  Standish's  men  were  armed.  —  En.] 


THE   EARLIEST   SETTLEMENT   OF   BOSTON    HARBOR.  67 

the  bay,  and,  as  they  did  so,  they  noted  with  admiration  its  broad  expanse 
and  the  numerous  islands  dotting  its  surface,  which,  though  then  deserted  by 
their  inhabitants,  were  covered  with  trees  and  the  remains  of  those  savage 
plantations  which  Captain  Smith  had  observed  upon  them  seven  years  before.1 
It  was  night  before  the  explorers  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Mystic  and  landed 
the  savages,  who,  however,  found  no  one.  It  being  too  late  to  go  further  that 
day,  they  anchored  their  shallop  and  again  passed  the  night  on  board. 

The  next  morning  they  landed,  and,  leaving  two  men  to  protect  the  boat, 
pushed  forward  up  the  country  in  the  direction  of  Medford  and  Winchester.2 
It  was  the  first  of  October,  of  the  present  style,  and  a  bright  clear  autumnal 
day,  with  the  wind,  what  little  there  was  of  it,  from  the  west.3  Though  en- 
cumbered by  their  arms,  the  explorers  marched  briskly  on,  following  their 
Indian  guides,  until,  having  gone  some  three  miles,  they  came  to  an  aban- 
doned village ;  another  mile  brought  them  to  the  place  where  the  Sachem 
Nanepashemet  had  lived.  His  wigwam  they  found  still  standing,  though 
deserted.  It  was  situated  on  the  top  of  a  hill,  and  consisted  of  a  wide  scaf- 
folding of  planks,  raised  some  six  feet  from  the  ground  and  supported  upon 
posts,  and  on  this  stood  the  hut.  Still  pressing  forward,  they  next  found  in 
a  swamp,  not  far  distant  from  the  hill,  the  dead  sachem's  stronghold,  which 
consisted  of  a  palisaded  enclosure  of  about  forty  or  fifty  feet  in  diameter,  and 
of  the  usual  circular  form.  The  single  means  of  entrance  was  by  way  of 
a  bridge  crossing  two  ditches,  which  formed  the  chief  protection  for  the 
place,  one  being  within  and  the  other  without  the  palisade ;  and  "  in  the 
midst  of  this  Pallizade  stood  the  frame  of  an  house,  wherein  being  dead  he 
lay  buryed." 

The  party  had  now  gone  perhaps  four  miles  from  their  starting-point,  and 
one  mile  more  brought  them  to  their  destination,  —  another  and  similar 
stronghold  on  a  hill-top,  in  which,  some  two  years  before,  Nanepashemet  had 
been  surprised  and  killed  by  the  Tarrentines.4  Here,  on  what  is  supposed  to 
have  been  Rock-hill,  in  Medford,  they  halted.  The  stockade  had  not  been 
occupied  since  the  sachem's  death,  nor  had  they  as  yet  seen  any  of  his 
people.  Indeed,  the  rumor  of  their  approach  had  evidently  gone  before 
them,  for  at  several  points  they  had  come  upon  the  bare  poles  of  recently 
dismantled  wigwams,  and  once  they  had  found  a  pile  of  Indian  corn  covered 
only  with  a  mat.  They  now,  therefore,  stopped  at  the  second  of  these 
stockades  and  sent  two  of  their  guides  out  to  hunt  up  the  savages.  About 
a  mile  away  some  Indian  squaws  were  found  at  the  place  where  they  had 
carried  their  corn,  and  thither  the  party  went.  It  was  not  without  difficulty 
that  the  terror  of  the  women  was  appeased,  but  at  last  the  friendly  bearing 
of  the  strangers  had  its  effect,  and  they  recovered  their  courage  sufficiently 
to  prepare  for  them  such  an  entertainment  as  they  could  of  boiled  cod  and 
whatever  else  they  had.  No  males  had  yet  been  seen.  At  length,  however, 

1  3  Ma ss.  Hist.  Coll.,  vi.  1 19.   [The  question  of  History  of  Boston,  —  is   the   authority  for   the 
Smith's  sailing  into  the  inner  harbor  is  examined  course  pursued  by  the  explorers  on  this  day. 
in  Mr.  Winsor's  chapter,  next  preceding.  —  ED.]  3  Chronicles  of  the  Pilgrims,  p.  229. 

2  The    Harris  MS.,   followed   by   Drake, —  4  Dexter's  Mourfs  Relation,  p.  127. 


68  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY    OF    BOSTON. 

after  much  sending  and  coaxing,  one  was  induced  to  show  himself,  "  shaking 
and  trembling  for  feare ; "  but  finally  they  satisfied  him  also  that  they  came 
to  trade  and  not  to  injure  him,  and  then  he  promised  them  his  furs.  They 
could,  however,  get  no  information  as  to  the  whereabouts  of  the  Squaw- 
Sachem.  They  were  simply  told  that  "  shee  was  far  from  thence." 

The  day  now  being  well  spent  the  party  prepared  to  return,  and 
Squanto  then  took  occasion  to  suggest  the  propriety  of  plundering  the 
poor  Indian  women,  who  had  just  entertained  them,  of  their  furs;  "for," 
said  he,  "  they  are  a  bad  people,  and  have  often  threatened  you."  Naturally 
the  suggestion  was  not  listened  to,  and  the  squaws,  on  the  contrary,  had  by 
this  time  become  so  friendly  that  they  accompanied  the  explorers  the  whole 
distance  back  to  the  boat.  Then  at  last  the  spirit  of  trade  proved  so  strong 
with  them  that  they  even  "sold  their  coats  from  their  backs,  and  tied  boughs 
about  them,  but  with  great  shamefacedness,  for  indeed  they  are  more  modest 
than  some  of  our  English  women."  Their  provisions  growing  scarce,  the 
party  now  set  sail,  having  a  fair  wind  and  a  bright  moon,  and  reached  their 
homes  at  Plymouth  before  noon  of  the  following  day,  the  last  of  the  week. 

They  had  been  most  fortunate  in  the  time  of  their  expedition,  for  they 
had  enjoyed  a  series  of  clear,  windless  days,  during  which  they  saw  the 
harbor  and  its  surrounding  country  wider  their  most  attractive  aspect,  — 
through  the  translucent  September  haze,  when  field  and  forest  and  hill-side 
glow  with  autumnal  tints,  and  it  is  a  pleasure  to  breathe  and  move  in  the 
pure  New  England  air.1  Their  explorations,  it  is  true,  had  not  gone  far, 
and  they  saw  apparently  the  mouth  of  one  only  of  the  rivers  which  empty 
into  the  harbor.2  They  had,  however,  in  their  going  and  coming,  thoroughly 
traversed  the  bay,  and  taken  in  its  great  size  and  the  number  of  its  islands. 
It  was,  therefore,  no  occasion  for  surprise  that  they  returned  to  Plymouth 
not  without  repining ;  and,  as  they  made  report  of  the  pleasant  places  they 
had  visited,  they  could  not  help  "wishing  they  had  been  ther  seated."3 

Such  was  the  first  recorded  exploration  of  Boston  Harbor;  for  Smith, 
when  he  passed  along  the  New  England  coast  seven  years  before,  had 

1  The  facts  stated  in  Mourt  fix  perfectly  the  "  such  a  name  upon  that  river  upon  which  since 
character  of  the  weather.     It  was  a  period  of  Charles-towne  is  built   (supposing   that  was   it 
full  moon,  between  the  2gth  of  September  and  which  Captain  Smith  in  his  map  so  named)."  — 
October   2.      The  wind   was   westerly,   but   so  ED.] 

light  —  "  coming  fayre  "  in  the  evening  —  that  the  8  [Bradford,  Plymouth  Plantation,  p.  105.    It 

voyage  of  about  forty-four  miles  occupied,  each  may  be  unsafe  to  say  that  Bradford  himself  was 

way,  from  fifteen  to  twenty  hours.  one  of  this  party ;  but  that  he  made  one  of  some 

2  [It  would  seem,  however,  that  at  the  same  party  of  these  early  Plymouth  explorers  before 
time  they  discovered  the  Charles;  for  Bradford,  Winthrop  came  would  appear  from  his  verses  on 
in  his  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation,  —  edited  Boston,  written  long  subsequently.     It  would  be 
by  C.Deane,  p.  369, —  claims  for  the  Pilgrims  that  inferred  that  he  landed,  whenever  it  was,  upon 
they  really  fixed  that  name  upon  the  stream  now  the  peninsula  itself:  — 

bearing  it.     They  recognized  that  Smith  had  ap-  "Yet  I  have  seen  thee  a  void  place, 

plied  the  name  to  a  river  emptying  into  this  bay ;  Shrubs  and  bushes  covering  thy  face ; 

but  when,  on  further  exploration,  there  proved  And  houses  then  '"  thee  none  were  there- 

.     ,  |  ,        ,   ...        ,  Nor  such  as  gold  and  silk  did  weare. 

to  be  several  streams,  "  ytf  people  of  this  place  ...    . 

We  then  drunk  freely  of  thy  spring 

which  came  first "  —  meaning  presumably  Stand-  without  paying  of  anything" 

ish   and   his   party  —  were  the  first  to   impose  \  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  \\\. —  ED.] 


THE    EARLIEST   SETTLEMENT   OF    BOSTON    HARBOR.  69 

apparently  hardly  more  than  looked  into  it,  as  he  did  not  even  ascertain  the 
non-existence  of  the  great  river,  a  mouth  for  which  he  suggested  in  his 
map,  and  which  the  savages  assured  him  pierced  "  many  days  journeys  the 
entrails  of  that  country."  There  is  no  question,  however,  that  long  before 
Standish's  visit  the  harbor  was  well  known  to  the  traders  and  fishermen  of 
all  the  maritime  nationalities.  Of  the  French,  in  particular,  the  traces  are 
curiously  distinct.  Smith,  for  instance,  mentions  that,  when  he  visited  the 
bay  in  1614,  a  French  ship  had  shortly  before  been  there  and  remained  six 
weeks,  trading  with  the  natives  until,  when  he  followed,  they  had  nothing 
left  to  barter.  A  year  or  two  later  there  is  a  passing  record  of  another 
French  vessel  which  entered  the  harbor  to  truck  for  furs;  and  while  she  lay 
at  anchor  off  Pettuck's  Island  the  savages  conspired  to  surprise  her ;  which 
they  successfully  did,  killing  or  capturing  all  on  board,  and  then  plundering 
and  burning  the  vessel.  Years  afterwards  pieces  of  French  money,  which 
not  improbably  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  savages  on  this  occasion,  were  dug 
up  at  Dorchester.  There  were  traditions  also  of  shipwrecked  Frenchmen, 
most  of  whom  ended  a  miserable  existence  as  captives  among  the  Indians, 
though  one  or  two  were  rescued  from  them.1  These  passing  traders, 
whatever  their  nation,  left,  however,  no  records  of  their  visits ;  and,  though 
the  harbor  was  familiar  to  many,  no  attempt  at  settlement  had  yet  been 
made  upon  its  shores.  It  is  probable  that,  in  consequence  of  Standish's 
expedition,  some  shelter  necessary  for  the  uses  of  an  occasional  trading- 
party  may  have  been  erected  by  the  Plymouth  people  at  Hull  the  next 
year;2  if  so,  it  was  but  temporarily  occupied,  and  had  about  it  nothing  of 
the  character  of  a  settlement. 

It  was  not  possible,  however,  that  so  advantageous  a  point  upon  the 
coast  should  long  remain  a  wilderness;  and  in  1621  its  civilized  occupation 
was  already  a  question  of  time,  and  a  very  short  time  at  that.  The  first 
attempt  at  a  settlement  was,  in  fact,  made  the  very  next  year,  at  a  place 
known  by  the  Indians  as  Wessagusset,  on  the  south  side  of  the  bay,  and  in 
that  part  of  the  present  town  of  Weymouth  locally  known  as  Old  Spain. 

The  advance  party  of  those  concerned  in  this  attempt  made  their 
appearance  in  the  bay  less  than  eight  months  after  Standish's  visit,  about 
the  middle  of  May,  1622.  Ten  in  number,  they  came  from  the  northward 
in  an  open  boat.  They  had  been  sent  out  by  Mr.  Thomas  Weston,  a 
London  merchant,  who  had  a  design  of  establishing  a  trading-post  some- 
where on  the  coast,  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Plymouth.  Weston  was 
well  known  to  the  Plymouth  people,  and,  indeed,  had  for  a  time  been 
prominently  connected  with  their  enterprise.  He,  however,  was  interested 
only  in  its  commercial  aspect,  being  a  pure  adventurer  of  the  Captain  John 
Smith  type,  so  common  at  that  time.  As  such,  he  had  very  naturally 
looked  upon  the  English  exiles  then  at  Leyden  as  convenient  instruments 

1  Pratt,  Relation,  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  iv.  489;   Morton,  New  English    Canaan,  bk.  i.  ch.  iii. ; 
Savage,  Winthrop,  i.  59*,  «. ;  Bradford,  Plymouth  Plantation,  p.  98. 

2  Hubbard,  New  England,  p.  102. 


yo  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

for  the  establishment  of  a  permanent  trading-station  on  that  New  England 
coast  of  which  Smith  had  given  so  glowing  and  so  deceptive  an  account. 
Accordingly,  he  had  been  very  instrumental  in  sending  them  out.  But,  as 
time  went  on  and  the  Plymouth  people  sent  little  or  nothing  back  to  their 
English  partners,  Thomas  Weston  was  disposed  to  attribute  the  unsatisfac- 
tory financial  outcome  rather  to  "  weeknes  of  judgmente,  than  weeknes 
of  hands ; "  and  so  he  bluntly  charged  them  with  passing  their  time  in 
discoursing,  arguing  and  consulting,  when  they  should  have  been  trad- 
ing. Wholly  breaking  with  them,  therefore,  and  selling  out  his  interest  in 
the  Merchant  Adventurers'  Company,  Weston  now  proceeded  to  organize 
an  expedition  of  his  own  on  what  he  regarded  as  the  correct  commercial 
plan.  Though  long  concerned  in  trading  voyages,  he  personally  seems 
to  have  known  nothing  of  New  England.  An  inborn  adventurer  him- 
self, he  was  persuaded  that  a  settlement  of  able-bodied  men  could,  as 
Captain  Christopher  Levett  afterwards  expressed  it,  "  do  more  good  there  in 
seven  years  than  in  England  in  twenty ; " l  and  he  regarded  families  as 
a  mere  encumbrance  to  any  well-designed  enterprise.  Accordingly,  in  the 
winter  of  1621-22,  he  was  busy  in  London  organizing  his  new  company 
on  this  approved  plan ;  and  he  made  it  up  of  the  roughest  material  pos- 
sible,—  the  very  scum,  apparently,  of  the  streets  and  docks  of  the  English 
trading-ports,  —  "  rude  fellows"  .  .  .  "made  choice  of  at  all  adventures."2 

Before  sending  out  his  main  expedition,  Weston  took  the  precaution  to 
dispatch  the  smaller  party,  which  has  been  mentioned,  to  explore  the 
way  and  fix  upon  a  place  of  settlement.  Those  composing  it  were  shipped 
in  a  vessel  named  the  "  Sparrow,"  bound  to  the  fishing-grounds  off  the 
coast  of  Maine ;  and  the  plan  was  for  them  to  leave  the  vessel  near  the 
Damariscove  Islands,  and  thence  to  find  their  way  by  sea  to  Plymouth, 
looking  as  they  went  along  for  some  place  suitable  for  their  purpose.  Their 
method  of  procedure  was  a  curious  exemplification  of  the  reckless  spirit 
of  the  times,  as  well  as  of  the  lack  of  forethought,  which,  throughout, 
seems  to  have  characterized  Weston's  attempt.  None  of  the  advance  party 
appear  to  have  been  familiar  with  the  region  to  which  they  were  going;  a 
portion  of  them  were  not  even  seafaring  men,  and  they  were  wholly 
unprovided  with  outfit.  Not  until  they  were  on  the  point  of  leaving  the 
"  Sparrow  "  for  a  voyage  of  1 50  miles  along  the  New  England  coast  in  an 
open  boat  do  they  seem  to  have  fully  realized  the  nature  of  their  errand. 
Apparently  commiserating  their  helplessness,  and  being  himself  an  adven- 

1  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  viii.  190.  Bradford,  Plymouth  Plantation,  p.  120;  Winslow, 

2  [The  authorities  for  this  and  all  other  facts  Good  Newes  ;  Hubbard,  New  England,  ch.  xiii. ; 
connected  with  Weston's  attempted  settlement  Baylies,  Old  Colony,  chs.  v.  and  vi. ;  Palfrey,  New 
are  given  in  detail  in  Adams's  Address  on  the  Two  England,  i.  199.    The  narrative  of  Phinehas  Pratt, 

.  one  of  Weston's  company,  still  exists  in  inanu- 

*  •  script,  and  Richard  Frothingham  has  edited  it  in 

4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  iv. ;  but  Mr.  Adams  says  "  it 
Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Settle-  can  be  accepted  as  authority  only  with  very  de- 
ment  of  Weymouth.  The  other  chief  contempo-  cided  limitations."  It  was  Pratt  who  warned  the 
rary  and  later  writers  to  lie  consulted  are:  Plymouth  people.  —  ED.] 


THE   EARLIEST   SETTLEMENT   OF   BOSTON    HARBOR.  71 

turous  fellow,  the  mate  of  the  "Sparrow"  volunteered  to  pilot  the  party, 
and  under  his  guidance  they  skirted  the  shore  to  Cape  Ann,  whence  they 
ran  across  to  Boston  Harbor.  Here  they  seem  to  have  passed  a  number 
of  days  exploring,  and  finally  selected  its  southerly  side  as  that  most 
favorable  for  the  proposed  settlement,  for  the  single  reason  that  there  were 
the  fewest  natives  thereabout.  Indeed,  there  would  not  seem  at  this  time 
to  have  been  more  than  a  few  score  of  the  wretched  remnant  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts lingering  in  that  vicinity.1  Making  some  arrangement  for  what 
land  they  needed  with  the  local  sachem,  and  growing  uneasy  at  the  vast- 
ness  of  the  solitude  and  the  smallness  of  their  own  number,  they  then  left 
the  bay  and  made  their  way  to  Plymouth.  There  they  landed  and  were 
cared  for;  and,  while  their  pilot  returned  to  his  vessel,  they  awaited  the 
arrival  of  the  main  body  of  their  enterprise. 

This  was  already  on  the  sea,  having  sailed  from  London  during  the 
previous  month.  It  consisted  of  some  sixty  "  rude  fellows,"  whose  "  pro- 
faneness "  their  own  leader  surmised  might  not  improbably  scandalize 
the  voyage,  on  board  of  two  small  vessels,  the  "  Charity"  and  the  "  Swan," 
the  former  of  one  hundred  and  the  latter  of  thirty  tons  measurement. 
They  all  landed  at  Plymouth  towards  the  end  of  June,  and  there  they 
remained,  to  the  great  annoyance  of  their  hosts,  until  some  time  in 
August.  The  necessary  preparations  having  by  that  time  been  made  at 
Wessagusset,  the  healthy  members  of  the  party  were  then  removed  thither, 
and  towards  the  end  of  September  the  larger  vessel,  the  "  Charity," 
returned  to  England,  leaving  the  smaller  one  for  the  settlers'  use.  Weston 
himself  was  not  of  the  party,  but  had  placed  it  in  charge  of  his  brother- 
in-law,  one  Richard  Greene.  Greene,  however,  had  died  during  the  summer 
at  Plymouth,  and  a  man  named  Saunders  had  succeeded  him  in  control. 

The  wretched  sequel  of  Weston's  abortive  attempt  belongs  rather  to  the 
history  of  Weymouth  than  to  that  of  Boston.  Organized  on  wholly  wrong 
principles,  and  managed  without  judgment;  unrestrained  by  any  authority 
and  controlled  by  no  purpose ;  at  once  reckless  and  cowardly,  scantily  sup- 
plied and  utterly  improvident,  —  it  required  but  the  first  touch  of  a  New 
England  winter  to  develop  its  whole  inherent  weakness.  Insufficiently  clad 
and  starving,  the  would-be  settlers  mixed  freely  with  the  neighboring 
Indians,  first  begging  and  then  stealing  from  them,  and  thus  incurring 
anger  while  they  ceased  to  inspire  fear.  A  number  of  them  died,  and  by 
the  month  of  March  their  affairs  had  come  to  such  a  pass  that  it  seemed 
more  than  questionable  whether  any  would  survive.  Meanwhile,  the 
savages  had  become  so  incensed  at  the  depredations  committed  upon 
them,  that  a  conspiracy  was  formed  to  destroy  not  only  the  Wessagusset 
intruders,  but  the  Plymouth  colony  also.  Rumors  of  it  reached  the  latter 
towards  the  close  of  March ;  and,  after  some  anxious  deliberation,  it  was 
determined  to  send  an  armed  force  to  Wessagusset,  there  to  meet  the 
impending  danger.  Standish,  accordingly,  was  authorized  to  take  as  many 

1   Chronicles  of  Mass.,  p.  305;   Chronicles  of  the  Pilgrims,  p.  310. 


72  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY    OF    BOSTON. 

men  as  he  deemed  sufficient  to  hold  his  own  against  all  the  Indians  in  that 
vicinity,  and  to  proceed  thither  at  once.  Placing  no  high  estimate  appar- 
ently either  on  the  number  or  the  courage  of  his  opponents,  he  selected  but 
eight  companions,  and  with  these  set  sail  on  what  is  now  the  4th  of  April. 
He  reached  his  destination  the  next  day,  in  wet  and  stormy  weather,  and 
proceeded  energetically  to  the  work  he  had  in  hand.  Collecting  the 
wretched  stragglers  from  the  woods  where  they  were  searching  for  nuts, 
and  from  the  shore  where  they  were  digging  clams,  he  gathered  them  into 
the  stockade,  and  issued  to  them  rations  of  corn  taken  from  the  store  which 
the  hard-pressed  people  of  Plymouth  were  reserving  for  seed.  Having  thus 
provided  for  his  allies,  he  prepared  to  deal  with  the  savages  ;  and  the  next 
day,  or  the  day  after,  seven  of  them  who  had  come  within  the  stockade 
were  surprised  and  massacred.  Among  those  thus  summarily  dealt  with 
were  Pecksuot  and  Wituwamat,  —  two  warriors  who  had  been  special  objects 
of  dread  to  the  Plymouth  magistrates. 

This  was  the  end  of  Weston's  settlement.  On  the  following  day  it  was 
wholly  abandoned,  every  European  leaving  Wessagusset,  excepting  only 
three  stragglers,  who,  in  defiance  of  orders,  had  wandered  off  among  the 
savages.  All  of  these  were  subsequently  put  to  death  by  the  natives.1 
The  remainder  divided  into  two  parties,  one  of  which  cast  in  their  lot  with 
the  Plymouth  colony,  while  the  other  and  apparently  larger  body,  supplied 
by  Standish  with  enough  corn  for  the  voyage,  went  on  board  the  "  Swan," 
and  with  their  leader,  Saunders,  sailed  for  the  fishing-stations  on  the  coast 
of  Maine.  They  felt  no  further  desire  to  remain  in  New  England.  Weston 
himself,  meanwhile,  had  already  left  London,  and  was  now  on  the  way  to 
his  plantation.  At  the  Maine  fishing-stations  he  heard  of  its  abandonment, 
but  nevertheless  started  in  an  open  boat  with  one  or  two  men  for  Wessa- 
gusset. Less  fortunate  than  his  pioneer  party  of  the  year  before,  he  was 
cast  away  upon  the  voyage,  and  barely  escaped  with  his  life.  Though  he 
recovered  the  "  Swan,"  and  remained  some  time  longer  on  the  coast,  trading 
with  the  savages  and  in  trouble  with  the  authorities,  he  made  no  attempt 
to  revive  his  plantation,  or,  if  he  did,  it  resulted  in  nothing. 

During  the  very  months  that  Weston's  enterprise  was  thus  dragging 
to  its  end,  another  and  scarcely  less  ill-conceived  undertaking  was 
being  matured  in  England.  The  design  now  was  to  establish  a  princi- 

pality, rather  than  a  trading-post,  on 
the  New  England  shore.  The  new 
enterprise  was  organized  by  no  less  a 
person  than  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges; 
and  his  younger  son,  Robert,2  was 
in  immediate  charge  of  it.  Robert 
Gorges  had  at  that  time  recently  returned  to  England,  having  seen  some 
service  in  the  Venetian  wars  ;  and  now,  being  apparently  out  of  occupation, 


1  Morton,  New  £«£//jA  Canaan,  bk.  iii.  ch.  v.       nent  people  of  the  Gorges  name,  see  N.  E. 

2  [Of  the  relationship  of  the  various  promi-     and  Gen.  AVf.,  January,  1875,  pp.  44,  112.  —  En.] 


THE   EARLIEST   SETTLEMENT   OF   BOSTON    HARBOR.  73 

and  not  devoid  of  the  prevailing  spirit  of  adventure,  he  was  ambitious  of 
planting  and  ruling  over  a  species  of  feudality  or  palatinate  of  his  own  in 
the  New  World.  As  a  preliminary,  a  patent  had  been  issued  to  him  by  the 
Council  for  New  England.  By  its  terms  it  vaguely  covered  a  tract  on  the 
northeast  side  of  what  was  then  known  as  Massachusetts  Bay,  but  which 
included  only  the  waters  inside  of  Nahant  headland  and  Point  Allerton. 
The  territory  thus  conveyed  had  a  sea-front  of  ten  miles,  and  stretched  thirty 
miles  into  the  interior,  —  not  much,  perhaps,  in  those  times  for  a  royal  grant 
of  unclaimed  wilderness,  but  covering,  nevertheless,  some  two  hundred  thou- 
sand acres  of  what  are  now  the  most  thickly-peopled  portions  of  the  counties 
of  Essex  and  Middlesex.  No  portion  of  either  Boston  proper  or  Weymouth 
could,  however,  be  included  within  its  limits,  which  seemed  rather  to  cover  the 
region  lying  back  of  the  coast-line  between  Nahant  headland  on  the  north 
and  East  Boston  on  the  south.  The  patent  bore  date  Dec.  30,  1622 ;  and 
during  the  next  few  months  Robert  Gorges  was  busy  organizing  his  com- 
pany. It  was  part  of  a  great  scheme  which,  through  sixteen  years,  had  been 
maturing  in  the  restless  mind  of  his  father,  Sir  Ferdinando.  It  looked  to 
nothing  less  than  the  organized  colonization  of  New  England. 

Though  somewhat  discouraged  and  greatly  reduced  in  means  by  the 
poor  results  of  his  earlier  attempts  of  a  similar  character  on  the  coast  of 
Maine,  Gorges  was  not  disposed  to  abandon  for  the  future  what  seems  to 
have  been  with  him  the  dream  of  a  long  life.  He  simply,  as  he  himself 
expressed  it,  waited  for  "  better  times."  1  In  1620  he  had  obtained  from 
the  Crown  a  patent  incorporating  forty  persons  into  what  was  known  as  the 
Council  for  New  England,  but  which  in  fact  was  a  private  colonization  and 
trading  company.2  The  territory  nominally  ceded  to  it  covered  not  only 
all  of  what  is  now  New  England,  but  also  New  York  and  New  Brunswick 
as  well,  and  extended  across  the  continent  from  sea  to  sea.  In  this  com- 
pany Gorges  had  associated  with  himself  a  number  of  the  most  prominent 
characters  in  the  kingdom.  Indeed,  no  less  than  thirteen  of  them  were  noble- 
men, among  whom  were  several  dukes  and  quite  a  number  of  earls.  Taught 
by  experience,  Gorges  thus  proposed  to  give  his  next  attempt  at  coloniza- 
tion a  broader  basis  of  means  and  influence  than  he  alone  could  command. 

The  patent  of  the  Council  for  New  England  was  issued  Nov.  3,  1620; 
and  the  very  next  month  the  Plymouth  Colony  seated  itself  within  the 
territory  covered  by  it.  This  rather  facilitated  than  interfered  with  Gorges' 
plans.  It  was  a  stroke  of  good  fortune ;  for  what  he  of  all  things  wanted 
was  something  besides  savages  and  wild  animals  to  occupy  his  new  domain. 
The  application  of  the  new  settlers  for  a  patent  was  accordingly  at  once  com- 
plied with,  and  a  new  life  seems  to  have  been  infused  into  the  projects  of  the 
Council.  Just  at  this  time,  however,  when  all  else  seemed  at  last  propitious, 
the  Parliament  of  1621  was  assembled,  and  Gorges  at  once  found  himself 
involved  in  new  and  serious  difficulties.  He  was  sharply  called  to  account 

1  [Gorges'  Brief  Narration  is  reprinted  in  3  2  [And  a  reincorporation  of  an  old  company. 

Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,\\.  and  Maine  Hist. Coll.,  ii. — En.]     See  Stith's  Charters.  —  ED.] 
VOL.    I.  —  IO. 


74  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

because  of  the  Council  for  New  England,  which  was  attacked  as  a  monopoly, 
while  its  orders  for  the  regulation  of  commerce  were  denounced  as  being 
in  restraint  of  trade.  Finally,  when  Sir  Edward  Coke,  as  Chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Grievances,  presented  a  list  of  things  demanding  redress, 
the  patent  for  New  England  was  first  specified.  The  sudden  dissolution  of 
Parliament  in  January,  1622,  relieved  Sir  Ferdinando  from  this  difficulty; 
and  the  way  now  seemed  to  him  clear  once  more.  His  sanguine  spirit, 
however,  again  deceived  him.  Though  Parliament  was  dissolved,  the  angry 
opposition  of  the  Commons  had,  he  found,  produced  an  effect  upon  those 
he  had  thought  to  interest  in  the  enterprise,  which  his  utmost  efforts  failed 
to  overcome.  One  by  one  they  fell  away  from  it,  or  failed  to  respond.  A 
project  for  raising  the  large  sum  of  one  hundred  thousand  pounds  among 
the  London  merchants  had  been  one  feature  in  his  scheme ;  but  this  had 
to  be  abandoned.  A  debt  had  been  contracted  for  building  a  ship  and 
pinnace  for  the  trade  it  was  proposed  to  carry  on;  and  there  were  no  funds 
with  which  to  discharge  it.  Finally,  those  who  had  taken  shares  in  the  ven- 
ture failed  to  meet  their  engagements,  on  the  ground  that  they  did  not  know 
what  their  shares  were. 

Under  these  circumstances  Sir  Ferdinando  seems  to  have  determined  on 
a  supreme  effort.  A  meeting  of  the  Council  was  held  at  Greenwich  on  Sun- 
day, June  29,  1623;  and,  in  the  presence  of  King  James  himself,  the  whole 
coast  of  New  England  from  the  Bay  of  Fundy  to  Narragansett  was  appor- 
tioned among  twenty  patentees.1  Their  names  included  two  dukes,  —  Buck- 
ingham and  Richmond,  —  four  earls,  and  numerous  lords  and  gentlemen. 
The  King  drew  for  Buckingham.  The  plan  was  that  each  lot  represented 
two  shares,  so  that  the  person  drawing  it  should  introduce  one  other  person 
into  the  enterprise,  —  making  the  whole  number  not  less  than  forty.2  The 
success  which  attended  this  meeting  seems  to  have  decided  both  Sir 
Ferdinando  and  his  son  to  go  on  at  once ;  and  a  few  weeks  later  the  latter 
sailed  for  America. 

He  was  armed  with  a  commission  as  Lieutenant  of  the  Council,  and  was 
to  exercise  a  jurisdiction,  not  only  civil  and  criminal  but  ecclesiastical  also, 
of  the  widest  nature.  With  his  civil  and  criminal  power  it  was  intended  that 
he  should  correct  the  abuses  incident  to  the  wholly  unregulated  condition 
of  the  trade  along  the  coast.  There  was  certainly  room,  too,  for  reform  in 
this  respect;  for  these  abuses,  as  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  truly  told  the  Com- 
mons, tended  not  only  to  the  dishonor  of  the  government,  but  to  the  over- 
throw of  trade,  —  for  besides  "beastly  demeanors,  tending  to  drunkenness" 
and  debauchery,  the  reckless  traders  were  freely  selling  arms  and  am- 
munition to  the  savages.  But,  in  the  mind  of  Sir  Ferdinando,  "  the 
advancement  of  religion  in  those  desert  parts  "  was  also  a  matter  of  high 
concernment;  so  the  new  lieutenant  was  not  only  clothed  with  wide  eccle- 

1  [See  an  account  of  the  map  showing  this     Council  for  New  England,"  in  the  Proceedings  of 
division  in  Mr.  Winsor's  chapter. —  En.]  the  American  Antiquarian  Society  for  October, 

2  Mr.  Deane's  paper  on  the  "  Records  of  the     1875.     [Cf.  Dr.  Haven's  chapter.  —  ED.] 


THE   EARLIEST   SETTLEMENT   OF   BOSTON    HARBOR.  75 

siastical  powers,  but  he  brought  with  him  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of 
England,  having  a  commission  conferring  upon  him,  as  Bradford  after  see- 
ing it  subsequently  wrote,  "  I  know  not  what  power  and  authority  of  super- 
intendencie  over  other  churches  .  .  .  and  sundrie  instructions  for  that  end." 
As  at  this  time  there  was  but  one  church  —  that  at  Plymouth — in  all  New 
England,  the  significance  of  the  authority  thus  conferred  is  apparent. 

It  was  no  part  of  the  present  scheme  to  place  the  seat  of  the  new  gov- 
ernment within  the  limits  of  either  New  Hampshire  or  Maine,  though  in 
both  Gorges  either  then  had  or  was  planning  settlements.  The  Plymouth 
colony  was  no  enterprise  of  his ;  but  he  now  clearly  proposed  to  absorb  it, 
civilly  and  ecclesiastically,  in  his  more  ambitious  scheme,  —  making  of  it  a 
convenient  instrument  to  his  end.  His  son's  destination,  therefore,  was 
fixed  for  a  point  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  close  proximity  to  Plymouth. 
Though  modesty  itself,  so  far  as  titles  and  dignitaries  were  concerned,  when 
compared  with  Gorges'  previous  short-lived  settlement  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Kennebec  fourteen  years  before,  the  new  government  was  organized  on 
a  scale  sufficiently  grandiose.  At  its  head  was  the  Lieutenant  of  the  Coun- 
cil, with  powers  of  life  and  death.  He  was  further  provided  with  a  council 
of  his  own,  of  which  the  Governor  of  the  Plymouth  colony  for  the  time 
being  was  ex  officio  a  member ;  as  was  also  Francis  West,  who  had  already  . 
been  commissioned  as  "  Admiral  for  that  coast  during  this  voyage,"  and 
Captain  Christopher  Levett,  —  both  of  the  two  last-named  being  then  in 
America  or  voyaging  in  American  waters.1 

The  Robert  Gorges  expedition,  when  it  departed  from  Plymouth  in  the 
midsummer  of  1623,  represented,  therefore,  the  whole  power  and  dignity  of 
the  Council  for  New  England.  Specially  favored  by  King  James,  it  num- 
bered among  its  patrons  and  associates  the  most  powerful  noblemen  in 
England.  It  went  out  also  in  the  full  confidence  of  being  the  mere  fore- 
runner of  a  much  larger  movement  of  the  same  character,-soon  to  follow. 
It  was,  also,  as  respects  those  who  composed  it,  wholly  different  from  Wes- 
ton's  party  of  the  preceding  year,  for  Robert  Gorges  took  with  him  a  number 
of  his  relatives  and  personal  friends ; z  and  there  is  every  reason  to  suppose 
that  the  Rev.  William  Morell,  the  ecclesiastical  head  of  the  new  govern- 
ment, was  accompanied  by  at  least  one  Cambridge  graduate,  —  William 
Blackstone.  Among  Gorges'  other  followers  was  a  Captain  Hanson  and 
one  Samuel  Maverick,  then  a  young  man  of  means  and  education  in  his 
twenty-second  year.3  As  the  design  of  the  expedition  was  to  effect  a  settle- 

1  An  account  of  Levett's  voyage  was  issued     Historical  Society  for  June,  1878  (pp.  194-206). 
in  London,   1628.     Cf.  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  viii.,     Detailed  citations  of  the  original  authorities  are 
and  Maine  Hist.  Coll.,  ii.  there  given. 

2  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vi.  70.  [The   paper  thus  referred  to  was  a  contri- 
8  The    evidence    upon    which    Blackstone,     btition  by  Mr.   Adams,  and   a  most   searching 

Maverick,  Watford,  Jeffrey,  and   Bursley  have  examination   and   collation  of  the  accounts   of 

been   included    in   the   Gorges   expedition    and  these  earliest  settlers  about    the    harbor.     The 

settlement  of  1623  is  set  forth  in  the  paper  en-  previous  writers  who  had  glanced  with  more  or 

titled  "The  Old  Planters  about  Boston  Harbor,"  less  care  at  the  intricacies  of  the  subject  were 

included  in  the  Proceedings  of  ike  Massachusetts  a  writer  in  the  Charlestown  Records  (copied  in 


76  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

ment  in  an  unbroken  wilderness,  care  seems  to  have  been  taken  to  include 
in  it  a  certain  proportion  of  mechanics,  among  whom  was  probably  Thomas 
Walford,  the  blacksmith.  Othenvise  it  was  composed  of  the  usual  traders 
and  tillers  of  the  soil,  —  respectable  and  well-to-do  persons,  some  of  them 
accompanied  by  their  families ;  and  among  these  may  have  been  William 
Jeffrey  and  John  Bursley,  subsequently  of  Weymouth.  They  reached  their 
destination  about  the  middle  of  September.  Although  the  grant  covered 
by  his  patent  lay  upon  the  opposite  side  of  the  bay,  Gorges,  not  improbably 
alarmed  by  the  nearness  of  the  winter  and  tempted  by  the  shelter  ready  to 
his  hand  offered  by  Weston's  deserted  block-house,  landed  his  party  at 
Wessagusset.  There  they  established  themselves ;  and,  as  the  place  was 
never  again  wholly  abandoned,  the  permanent  settlement  about  Boston 
Harbor  must  be  dated  from  this  time,  —  September,  1623. 

The  residence  of  the  new  Governor-General  within  his  jurisdiction  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  what  he  expected.  Possibly,  for  he  died  not  long 
after  his  return  to  England  the  next  year,  he  was  already  in  declining  health. 
He  seems,  however,  to  have  made  some  attempts  to  exercise  his  authority, 
first  summoning  the  Governor  of  the  Plymouth  Colony  to  Wessagusset  to 
consult  with  him,  and  then,  before  that  dignitary  could  answer  the  sum- 
mons, departing  suddenly  for  the  coast  of  Maine  in  search  of  W'cston, 
whom  he  proposed  to  call  to  account  for  various  trading  misdemeanors.  On 
his  way  thither  he  encountered  a  storm  and  put  back,  running  into  Plymouth, 
where  he  landed  and  passed  a  fortnight.  Here  he  met  Weston  coming  from 
the  eastward,  and  a  heated  discussion  seems  to  have  followed ;  which,  how- 
ever, resulted  in  nothing.  Returning  then  by  land  to  Wessagusset,  his 
anger,  after  a  time,  seems  to  have  gotten  the  better  of  his  judgment,  and  he 
sent  a  warrant  to  Plymouth  for  Weston's  immediate  arrest  and  the  seizure 
of  his  vessel.  The  arrest  and  seizure  were  made,  and  it  would  seem  that 
Weston  must  have  passed  the  winter  of  1623-24  at  Wessagusset,1  for  dur- 
ing it  he  and  Gorges  went  again  to  the  coast  of  Maine,  this  time  together. 
Finally,  towards  the  spring,  they  reached  an  understanding.  Weston,  his 
vessel  having  been  restored  to  him  with  some  compensation  for  its  seizure, 
thereupon  departed  for  Plymouth,  whence  he  shaped  his  course  to  Virginia. 

This  angry  quarrel  with  Weston  appears  to  have  been  the  principal  inci- 
dent in  Gorges'  New  England  life.  His  jurisdiction  on  paper  was  wide  and 
complete;  practically  he  had  no  power  to  enforce  it.'  The  fishermen  and 
traders  were  stubborn  fellows.  They  had  paid  no  attention  to  the  orders 
of  Francis  West,2  though  commissioned  as  Admiral  of  New  England ;  and 
they  paid  none  to  Robert  Gorges,  though  he  was  recognized  as  General 
Governor  and  was  provided  with  a  Council.  Gorges  accordingly  sickened 
of  his  undertaking.  Governor  Bradford  observed  that  he  did  not  find  "  the 

Budington's  Hist,  of  the  First  Church,  and  in  Felt's  Eccles.  Hist,  of  AT.  E. ;  Drake's  Boston  ; 

Young's  Chronicles  of  Mass.,  and  in  part  in  Froth-  Palfrey's  Nno  England ;  Barry's  ATassaclntsetls  ; 

ingham's  Hist,  of  Charlcstowii);  Mather's  Magna-  Savage's  \]'inthro/>,  i.  52.  —  En.] 
lid,  bk.  i.  ch.  iv. ;   Prince's  C/irottolofy ;  Holmes's  >   Bradford,  fly  mouth  Plantation,  p.  153. 

Annals;    Chalmers's  Political   Annals,  ch.  vi. ;  -  Ibid   p.   141. 


THE   EARLIEST   SETTLEMENT   OF   BOSTON    HARBOR.  77 

state  of  things  hear  to  answer  his  qualitie  and  condition."  His  father,  Sir 
Ferdinando,  was  also  in  serious  trouble.  The  difficulty  was  an  obvious  one. 
The  enterprise  in  England  was  great  only  in  the  names  and  titles  of  its 
nominal  projectors  and  patrons.  The  Council  for  New  England  was,  after 
all,  but  another  name  for  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges ;  and  the  high  dignitaries 
whom  he  so  strenuously  endeavored  to  bring  into  prominence  and  active 
participation  in  it,  though  in  no  way  reluctant  to  have  their  names  recorded 
as  the  proprietors  of  vast  tracts  of  territory,  evinced  little  disposition  to 
advance  the  funds  necessary  to  quicken  the  settlement  of  their  new  domains. 
The  meeting  of  the  Council  in  the  King's  own  presence,  at  Greenwich,  in 
June,  1623,  and  the  drawing  of  the  lots,  was,  after  all,  but  a  stage  effect,  skil- 
fully arranged.  The  whole  burden  of  carrying  forward  the  undertaking 
now,  therefore,  devolved  upon  Gorges ;  and  he  was  not  equal  to  it.  He 
seems,  nevertheless,  during  the  months  which  followed  the  departure  of  his 
son,  to  have  made  every  effort  in  his  power  to  infuse  something  of  his  own 
zeal  into  his  friends,  even  announcing  his  determination  to  go  to  New  Eng- 
land himself  with  the  party  of  the  following  year.1  It  was,  however,  of  no 
avail;  and  before  the  close  of  1623  it  seems  to  have  become  apparent,  even 
to  him,  that  no  second  party  was  to  follow. 

A  reluctant  intimation  of  this  fact  was  at  last  sent  to  Robert  Gorges, 
reaching  him,  probably  by  way  of  the  fishing-stations  on  the  coast  of 
Maine  upon  the  arrival  there  of  the  forerunners  of  the  fleet,  in  the  early 
spring  of  1624.  He  decided  at  once  to  return  to  England.  A  portion  of 
his  followers  returned  with  him.  Others,  however,  among  whom  was  Morell, 
remained  at  Wessagusset. 

Beyond  the  fact  of  their  receiving  some  assistance  from  Plymouth  to 
enable  them  to  overcome  the  hardships  necessarily  incident  to  every  new 
settlement,  the  records  contain  no  mention  of  those  thus  left  at  Wessagusset 
during  the  year  which  immediately  succeeded  the  departure  of  Robert 
Gorges.  The  following  spring — that  of  1625 — he  was  followed  by  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Morell,  who,  having  passed  the  intervening  time  among  his  own  people, 
went  to  Plymouth  for  the  purpose  of  taking  ship  from  thence.  It  was  then 
that  he  first  informed  the  authorities  there  of  the  ecclesiastical  powers  which 
had  been  confided  to  him.  He  seems,  during  his  residence  in  Massachu- 
setts, to  have  passed  his  time  in  a  quiet  and  unobtrusive  way,  attending  to 
his  own  duties  and  giving  trouble  to  no  one.  As  the  fruit  of  his  New  Eng- 
land sojourn  he  has  left  behind  him  a  Latin  poem,  showing  scholarly 
acquirements  of  a  good  order,  in  which  he,  in  a  genial  and  somewhat 
imaginative  way,  describes  the  country  and  gives  his  impressions  of  it.2 
Notwithstanding  his  early  departure,  also,  those  impressions  were  extremely 
favorable.  He  was  indeed  as  much  charmed  by  the  region  about  Boston 
Harbor  as  he  was  disgusted  with  its  aboriginal  inhabitants.  Nevertheless, 
even  before  his  departure,  it  had  become  apparent  to  the  little  settlement 
that  a  great  mistake  had  been  made  when  they  had  placed  themselves  at 

1  Sir  Wm.  Alexander's  Map  and  Description  of  New  England,  p.  31.      2  i  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  i.  125. 


78  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Wessagusset;  and  Morell  speaks  with  something  like  feeling  of  the  hard 
lot  of  men  who  are  "  landed  upon  an  unknown  shore,  peradventure  weake 
in  number  and  naturall  powers,  for  want  of  boats  and  carriages,"  being  for 
this  reason  compelled,  with  a  whole  empty  continent  before  them,  "  to  stay 
where  they  are  first  landed,  having  no  means  to  remove  themselves  or  their 
goods,  be  the  place  never  so  fruitlesse  or  inconvenient  for  planting,  building 
houses,  boats,  or  stages,  or  the  harbors  never  so  unfit  for  fishing,  fowling,  or 
mooring  their  boats."  The  settlers  at  Wessagusset  were  in  fact  repeating 
on  a  smaller  scale  the  experience  of  those  of  Plymouth.  The  great  scheme 
of  colonization  having  failed,  they  were  there  to  trade;  and  for  trading  pur- 
poses Wessagusset  was  in  every  way  unfavorably  placed.  The  only  means 
of  communication  with  the  interior,  from  whence  came  the  furs  they  coveted, 
was  by  the  rivers ;  for  the  region  thereabouts  was  a  wilderness  devoid  of 
natural  ways  and  interspersed  with  swamps.  Wessagusset  was  just  below 
the  mouth  of  the  little  Monatoquot,  it  is  true ;  but  the  Monatoquot  was 
hardly  more  than  a  brook,  and  could  scarcely  have  been  navigable  for  any 
distance,  even  by  an  Indian's  canoe.  Meanwhile  the  Charles,  the  Mystic, 
and  the  Neponset  each  commanded  the  interior  for  many  miles.  Nor  was 
Wessagusset  any  more  favorably  situated  so  far  as  the  ocean  was  concerned. 
Even  then  a  fleet  of  no  less  than  fifty  vessels  annually  traded  along  the 
coast,  and  their  appearance  in  Boston  Harbor  was  a  matter  of  such  ordinary 
occurrence  as  to  have  long  ceased  to  excite  surprise  among  the  Indians. 
Wessagusset,  however,  was  accessible  to  these  vessels  only  by  a  narrow  and 
devious  river  channel,  so  inconvenient  for  navigation  that  almost  from  the 
outset  Hull  was  regarded  as  its  seaport.  There  the  Wessagusset  planters 
met  the  coasting  traders.  Accordingly  there  is  some  reason  to  suppose 
that,  about  the  time  Morell  returned  to  England,  the  settlers  he  left  behind 
him  divided,  —  Jeffrey  and  Bursley,  with  some  few  others  abiding  at  Wes- 

sagusset,  while  Blackstone,  Maverick,  and 
Walford  removed  across  the  bay;  the 
former  establishing  himself  at  Shawmut,1 
opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Charles,  while  Walford  placed  himself  on  the 
Mystic,  and  Maverick  took  up  his  abode  on  Noddle's  Island,2  at  what 

1  [Trumbull  thinks  Shawmut,  or  rather  Mi-  ton,  p.  45.     It  would  seem  the  island  had  dimin- 
shawmut,  meant  a  place  to  go  to  by  boat.     Cf.  ished  about  one  third  in  area  from  1633,  when  it 
his  letter  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  December,  was  reckoned  at  a  thousand  acres,  to  1800,  when 
1866,  and  his  chapter  in  this  volume.  —  ED.]  a  survey  gave  six  hundred  and  sixty-six.     It  has 

2  [The  island  at  this  early  date  seems  to  have  of  course   since    increased    by  filling   in.     The 
been  known  by  this  name,  which  is  conjectur-  General  Court  confirmed  the  island  to  Maverick 
ably  derived  from  one  William  Noddle,  who  had  in    1633,  for  a  yearly  consideration  of   "a  fat 
earlier  occupied  it,  and,  remaining  in  the  colony,  wether,  a  fat  hog,  or  40^.  in  money,"  paid  to  the 
was  made  a  freeman  in  1631.     The  island  seems  Governor.    Sumner,  in  his  second  chapter,  traces, 
to  have  been  granted  by  John  Gorges  (brother  as  well  as  he  can,  the  early  Mavericks  in  New  Eng- 
of  Robert)  to  Sir  William  Brereton  in  January,  land,  and  makes  Samuel  of  Noddle's  Island,  born 
1628-29,  and  was  ^en  called  by  the  baronet's  in  1602,  the  son  of  the  "godly  "  Mr.  John  Maver- 
name  ;  but,  during  1629,  Johnson,  Wonder  Work-  ick,  who  was  of  the  party  that  settled  Dorchester 
ing  Providence,  speaks  of  it  as  Noddle's  Island,  just  Ix-fore  the  arrival  of  Winthrop.     He  also 
as  does  Winthrop  in  1630.     Sumner,  East  Bos-  proves  him  to  be  identical  with  the  Royal  Com- 


THE   EARLIEST   SETTLEMENT   OF   BOSTON    HARBOR.  79 

is  now  East  Boston.  The  exact  date  of  these  removes  cannot  be  fixed, 
but  the  probabilities  would  seem  to  be  strong  that  they  took  place  not  later, 
certainly,  than  1626,  and  very  probably  in  1625. ! 

In  1625,  however,  two  additional  settlements  seem  to  have  been  made 
within  the  limits  of  the  bay,  —  one  at  Natascot,  as  Hull  was  then  called  ;  the 
other  at  Pasonagesset,  since  known  as  Mount  Wollaston,  in  the  town  of 
Quincy.  The  Hull  settlement  was  a  singular  affair,  arising  out  of  certain 
incidents,  both  laughable  and  scandalous,  which  occurred  at  Plymouth.  It 
has  been  stated,2  though  the  authority  for  the  statement  is  not  now  known  to 
exist,  that  as  early  as  1622 — that  is  about  the  time  of  the  arrival  of  Weston's 
party — three  men,  named  Thomas  and  John  Gray  and  Walter  Knight,  pur- 
chased Nantasket  of  Chickataubut,the  sachem  of  the  "  Massachusetts  Fields," 
and  there  settled  themselves.  If  they  did  so,  which,  in  view  of  the  subse- 
quent occurrences  at  Wessagusset,  seems  improbable,  the  next  addition  to 
their  number  was  in  the  spring  of  1625.  John  Lyford,  a  clergyman  of 
doubtful  moral  character  and  a  confirmed  mischief-maker,  and  John  Old- 
ham,  an  energetic  but  'self-willed  and  passionate  private  adventurer,  had 
shortly  before  this  time  got  into  serious  trouble  with  the  Plymouth  magis- 
trates, and  had  been  ignominiously  expelled  from  the  settlement.  They 
then  came  to  Hull,  Lyford  bringing  his  wife  and  children  with  him.  It 
would  seem  that  they  must  have  found  some  few  persons  residing  there,  for 
Lyford  is  reported  to  have  had  an  "  auditory  "  for  his  preaching ;  and,  though 
the  next  year  both  Oldham  and  Lyford  went  elsewhere,  those  they  left 
behind  them  were  still  able  to  contribute  to  the  expense  of  an  expedition 
sent  up  some  two  years  later  by  the  Plymouth  authorities  to  put  a  stop  to 
certain  disorderly  proceedings  which  had,  meanwhile,  occurred  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Wessagusset,  and  which  will  presently  be  described.  A 
year  later,  in  1629,  —  the  year  which  preceded  the  arrival  of  Governor 
Winthrop  and  his  colony,  —  Bradford,  having  occasion  to  mention  Nantas- 
ket in  his  history,3  described  it  as  an  "  uncoth  place"  with  "  some  stragling 
people,"  but  scarcely,  it  would  seem,  deserving  to  be  called  a  settlement. 

The  other  settlement  made  in  the  summer  of  1625 — that  within  the 
present  limits  of  Quincy  —  was  of  a  wholly  different  character.  Like  Wes- 
ton's, it  was  a  purely  trading  enterprise.  At  its  head  was  a  Captain  Wollas- 
ton, of  whom  nothing  is  known  except  that  among  the  Plymouth  people  he 
bore  the  reputation  of  being  "  a  man  of  pretie  parts  "  and  of  "  some  emi- 
nencie."  The  party  Wollaston  brought  with  him  consisted  of  three  or  four 
men,  not  without  means,  —  his  partners,  apparently,  in  the  venture,  —  and 
some  thirty  or  forty  servants,  as  they  were  called,  or  persons  who  had  sold 
their  services  for  a  term  of  years,  and  during  that  period  occupied  towards 

missioner  of  a  later  date  (see  Mr.  Deane's  chap-  tion  thereof  by  ye  English."    Clarendon  Papers, 

ter).    Mr.  Savage  (notes  to  Winthrop)  tookadif-  in  N.  Y.  Hist.  Coll.,  1869,  p.  49.  —  ED.) 

ferent  view.   The  following  bears  upon  this  point,  J  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  1878,  p.  200. 

being  a  deposition   about  the   Commissioner:  2  "An  unpublished  deposition"  referred  to 

"Mr.  Samuel]  Maverick  hath  along  tyme  dwelt  in  Drake's  Boston,  p.  41. 

in  New  England,  allmost  since  the  first  planta-  3  Bradford,  Plymouth  Plantation,  p.  263. 


80  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

their  employers  the  position  of  minors  to  their  parents,  or  apprentices 
to  their  masters. 

Among  Wollaston's  company  was  one  Thomas  Morton,  a  lawyer  by  pro- 
fession, for  he  signed  himself  "  of  Clifford's  Inn,  Gent,"  though  the  grave 
elders  of  the  Plymouth  colony  contemptuously  referred  to  him  as  "  a  petie- 
fogger  of  Furnivall's  Inn."  There  seems  some  reason  for  supposing  that 
Morton  had  been  one  of  Weston's  company.  If  so,  he  came  over  with  it  in 
June,  and  may  have  gone  back  to  England  in  the  following  September  in 
the  "  Sparrow,"  on  her  return  voyage,  without  passing  the  winter  at  Wessa- 
gusset  or  sharing  in  the  wretched  ending  of  the  settlement  there.1  In  any 
event  he  carried  back  with  him  the  most  pleasing  impressions  of  the  country 
which  no  subsequent  experience  ever  changed,  and  which  he  has  himself 
recorded  in  glowing  language.  It  was,  in  his  eyes,  a  land  of  "  delicate  faire 
large  plaines,  sweete  cristall  fountaines,  and  cleare  running  streames,  that 
twine  in  fine  meanders  through  the  meads  "  where  "  millions  of  Turtledoves 
one  the  greene  boughes:  which  sate  pecking  of  the  full-ripe  pleasant 
grapes."2  It  was  Morton,  therefore,  who  in  all  probability  guided  Wollas- 
ton  to  Boston  Bay.  On  the  arrival  of  the  party,  however,  some  time  in  the 
summer  of  1625,  VVessagusset  was  already  occupied  by  the  remnants  of 
Gorges'  colony,  and  they  accordingly  selected  Pasonagesset  as  the  site  for 
their  plantation.  There  they  proceeded  to  establish  themselves.  Situated 
some  two  miles  in  a  direct  line  from  Wessagusset,  and  upon  the  other,  or 
north,  side  of  the  Monatoquit,  Pasonagesset,  or  Mount  Wollaston,  was  a  hill 
of  moderate  elevation,  sloping  gently  on  its  eastern  side  towards  the  bay, 
and  commanding  an  unobstructed  view  of  the  widest  anchorage-ground  of 
the  harbor.  For  trading  purposes  its  single  draw-back  was  the  absence  of 
deep  water  from  its  immediate  front.3  The  spot  had,  however,  the  ad- 
vantage of  being  cleared  of  trees,  for  previous  to  the  great  plague  it  had 
been  the  home  of  the  Sachem  Chickatabut,  and  there  his  mother  had  been 
buried.4 

The  adventurers  had  no  charter  and  no  grant  of  the  soil  on  which  they 
settled.  They  apparently  troubled  themselves  little  about  questions  of  title. 
A  season  probably  was  passed  in  the  work  of  laying  out  their  plantation 
and  erecting  their  buildings,  at  the  close  of  which  it  would  seem  that  Wol- 

1  Address  on  the  ztpth  Anniversary  of  the  mentions  the  book  (Wood  not  leaving  New  Eng- 
Settlement  of  Weymouth,  p.  8,  «.  land  till  Aug.  1 5, 1633),  shows  the  1632  date  to  be 

2  The  A'ew  English   Canaan,  p.  61.     (This  erroneous;  and  Lowndes' citing  of  a  1634  date  is 
book  of  Morton's,  describing  his  experiences,  likewise  wrong,  certainly  as  regards  the  Gordons- 
has  a  curious  history.     It  has  been  said  that  it  toun  copy.      About  twenty  copies  which   have 
was  issued  in  1632,  presumably  at  London,  and  come  to  my  knowledge  all  purport  to  be  printed 
the  date  is  so  given  by  White-Kennet  and  Meu-  at  Amsterdam  by  Jacob  Frederick  Stain  in  1637, 
sel.   Force  claimed  to  have  reprinted  it  from  such  and  Muller,  the  Amsterdam  bookseller,  contends 
a  copy;  but  the  Force  copy  is  now  without  title,  it  was  printed  there,  though  the  place  has  been 
and  he  probably  copied  the  date  from  White-  held  to  be  falsely  given  for  London.     Cf.  Hiir- 
Kennet.       The     Stationers'    Register     (Arber's  vard  College  Library  Bulletin,  No.  IO,  p.  244. — 
Transcripts,  iv.  283)  proves  it  was  entered  for  ED.] 

copyright  Nov.  18,  1633,  and  this,  as  well  as  the  a  Young,  Chronicles  of  Mass.,  p.  395. 

fact  that  Wood,  in  his  New  England*  Prospect,  *  Morton,  New  English  Canaan,  bk.  iii.  ch.  iii. 


THE   EARLIEST   SETTLEMENT   OF   BOSTON    HARBOR.  8 1 

laston  had  become  satisfied  that  there  was  little  legitimate  profit  to  be  looked 
for  in  the  enterprise.  Accordingly  he  determined  to  go  elsewhere.'  Leaving 
one  Rasdell  in  charge  of  the  plantation,  and  taking  with  him  a  number  of  the 
articled  servants,  he  set  sail,  some  time  in  the  winter  of  1625-26,  for  Virginia. 
He  there  disposed  of  those  of  his  servants  whom  he  brought  with  him  to 
the  planters  on  terms  so  satisfactory  to  himself  that  he  at  once  sent  back 
word  for  Rasdell  to  turn  over  the  plantation  to  one  Pitcher,  and  to  bring  on 
to  Virginia  another  detachment  of  servants.  This  was  done,  and  they  also 
were  disposed  of. 

The  number  of  those  left  at  the  plantation  was  now  reduced  to  ten. 
The  supplies  had  begun  to  run  short,  and  a  spirit  of  discontent  prevailed. 
Taking  advantage  of  this,  Morton  incited  a  species  of  mutiny,  which  resulted 
in  Pitcher's  being  thrust  out  of  doors,  while  he  himself  got  control.  He 
then  changed  the  name  of  the  place  to  Merry  Mount,  or,  as  he  called  it, 
Mare  Mount,  designating  himself  as  "  mine  host"  of  the  establishment;  but 
the  Plymouth  people  spoke  of  him  as  the  "  Lord  of  Misrule."  According 
to  his  own  account,  he  and  his  followers  were  a  roystering,  drunken  set,  trad- 
ing with  the  savages  for  beaver-skins,  and  freely  supplying  them  with  spirits, 
arms,  and  ammunition, — holding  most  questionable  relations  with  the  Indian 
women,  and  leading,  generally,  a  wild  frontier  life.  On  what  is  now  the 
tenth  of  the  month,  in  the  year  1627,  the  anniversary  of  May  Day  was  cele- 
brated here  by  these  people  with  revels  and  merriment,  after  the  old  English 
custom.  Not  only  has  Morton  himself  left  us  a  minute  description  of  the 
proceedings  on  this  occasion,  —  declaring  that  the  pole  was  "a  goodly  pine 
tree  of  80  foote  longe,  .  .  .  with  a  peare  of  buckshorns  nayled  one,  somewhat 
neare  unto  the  top  of  it,"  but  Governor  Bradford  also  says  they  "  set  up  a 
May-pole,  drinking  and  dancing  aboute  it  many  days  togeather,  inviting  the 
Indean  women  for  their  consorts,  dancing  and  frisking  togither  (like  so  many 
fairies,  or  furies  rather),  and  worse  practises."  According  to  the  evidence 
of  both  sides,  therefore,  it  would  seem  there  can  be  no  question  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  proceedings  at  Pasonagesset  during  the  year  1627.* 

The  number  of  Morton's  followers  was  small  as  yet,  but  the  danger  was 
great  lest  the  place  should  become  a  refuge  for  loose  and  disorderly  char- 
acters, whether  runaway  servants  of  the  planters  or  deserters  from  the 
fishing-vessels.  The  practice,  too,  of  bartering  with  the  savages  firearms 
for  furs  not  only  destroyed  the  value  of  all  other  commodities  in  exchange, 
but  it  added  a  new  danger  to  a  situation  already  perilous  enough.  The 
straggling  settlers  along  the  coast,  therefore,  impelled  by  a  common  sense 
of  alarm,  came  together  to  consider  the  subject ;  but  Morton  would  listen 
to  no  reason,  and  in  strength  was  more  than  a  match  for  all  of  them. 
The  question,  however,  was  one  in  which  the  whole  region  was  interested. 
An  appeal  was  therefore  finally  made  to  the  authorities  at  Plymouth, 
and  they  sent  a  messenger  to  Mount  Wollaston,  bearing  a  formal  letter, 

1  [Hawthorne  pictures  this  revelry  in  "The  Maypole  of  Merry  Mount,"  —  one  of  his  Twice- 
Told  T.i/i-s.—  En.] 

VOL.    I. —  II. 


82  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

in  which  they,  in  a  friendly  and  neighborly  way,  admonished  Morton  as 
to  his  evil  courses,  and  called  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  his  dealings  in 
firearms  were  in  direct  contravention  of  King  James's  proclamation  of  1622. 
Their  admonition  was,  however,  treated  with  contempt.  In  fact  they  were 
plainly  told  to  mind  their  own  business,  and  the  dangerous  trade  was  about 
to  be  carried  on  upon  a  larger  scale  than  ever,  when,  in  the  spring  of  1628, 
it  was  decided  to  have  recourse  to  more  severe  measures  for  its  repression. 
Miles  Standish  was,  accordingly,  again  sent  to  Wessagusset,  with  orders  to 
arrest  Morton.  Acting,  probably,  on  information  received  from  the  other 
settlers,  this  expedition  started  towards  the  end  of  May  or  early  in 
June,  when  the  larger  portion  of  Morton's  followers  were  in  the  interior 
looking  for  furs.  He  was  found  at  Wessagusset,  and  there  captured.  It 
was,  however,  either  too  late  in  the  day,  or  no  part  of  the  plan,  to  carry 
him  at  once  to  Plymouth,  and  during  the  night  which  followed  the  prisoner 
succeeded  in  slipping  away  from  his  captors,  and  made  his  escape  to  his 
own  house.  Thither  Standish  followed  him  the  next  day,  and  finally  suc- 
ceeded in  arresting  him.  This,  however,  was  accomplished  only  after  a 

ludicrous  attempt  at  resistance  on  the  part 
°^  Morton  and  such  tipsy  and  frightened 
followers  as  he  had  with  him,  which  re- 
sulted in  injury  only  to  one  of  their  number,  who  "  was  so  drunke  y'  he 
run  his  own  nose  upon  yc  pointe  of  a  sword  yl  one  held  before  him  as  he 
entred  yc  house ;  but  he  lost  but  a  litle  of  his  hote  blood."  l 

Morton  was  taken  to  Plymouth  by  his  captors,  and  thence  subsequently 
sent  to  England.  He  returned,  however,  the  next  year  with  Isaac  Allerton, 
the  agent  of  the  colony;  and,  after  hanging  about  Plymouth  —  acting  as 
Allerton's  clerk  —  for  some  time,  he  found  his  way  back  to  Mount  Wol- 
laston.  In  the  meanwhile,  however,  — on  the  6th  of  September,  1628,  just 
three  months  after  his  arrest  by  Standish,  —  John  Endicott  had  landed  at 
Salem ;  and  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  which  included  Merry 
Mount  within  its  chartered  limits,  had  come  into  existence.  One  of  Endi- 
cott's  first  acts  had  been  to  visit  Mount  Wollaston,  where  he  cut  down  the 
May-pole,  and  sternly  admonished  the  remnants  of  the  party  who  still 
lingered  about  the  place.  Whether  any  of  them  were  yet  there  at  the 
time  of  Morton's  reappearance  a  year  later,  in  the  autumn  of  1629,  does 
not  appear.  He,  however,  repossessed  himself  of  his  old  home,  which  he 
occupied  until  the  arrival  of  Winthrop,  a  year  later.  He  even  seems  to 
have  been  tolerated  by  Endicott,  as  he  attended  one  or  more  of  the  earlier 
General  Courts  held  at  Salem.  According  to  his  own  account,  however,  he 
was  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  authorities ;  and  he  escaped  a  second  arrest 
only  by  concealing  himself  in  the  woods.2 

1  Bradford,  Plymouth  Plantation,  p.  241.   The  2  j Samuel  Maverick  gives  a  curious  story  of 

history  of  the  Merry  Mount  episode  is  narrated  Morton's  tribulations  at  the  hands  of  the  colon- 

in  detail  in  two  articles  in  the  Atlantic  Afont/ily  ists  in  one  of  his  letters  to  Lord  Clarendon.     Ar. 

Magazine,  for  May  and  June,   1877   |by  C.  F.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  1869,  p.  40.  —  El).] 
Adams,  Jr.  —  ED.]. 


THE    EARLIEST   SETTLEMENT   OF   BOSTON    HARBOR.  83 

In  addition  to  those  already  referred  to,  there  was  at  this  time  but  one 
other  plantation  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston, — that  of  David  Thomson,  on  what 
is  now  Thomson's  Island.  This  man  is  referred  to  by  Morton  as  a  Scottish 
gentleman, — both  a  traveller  and  a  scholar, — who  had  been  quite  observant 
of  the  habits  of  the  Indians.  Unlike  Morton,  who  seems  to  have  had  no  con- 
nection with  the  Gorges  family  until  a  subsequent  period,  Thomson  was  a 
distinct  dependent  of  Sir  Ferdinando  and  the  Council  for  New  England.  In 
London  he  had  been  its  agent  or  attorney,  and  seems  to  have  represented 
it  before  the  Privy  Council.  In  November,  1622,  a  patent  covering  a  con- 
siderable grant  of  land  in  New  England  was  issued  to  him ;  and  early  in  the 
next  year  he  seems  to  have  come  over  to  take  possession  of  it,  bringing 
with  him  his  wife  and  a  few  servants.  In  the  Robert  Gorges  grant  of 
Dec.  30,  1622,  he  is  mentioned  as  "  David  Thomson,  Gent.,"  1  and  named  as 
attorney  to  enter  upon  and  take  possession  of  the  grant,  with  a  view  to  its 
legal  delivery  to  Gorges.  In  1623,  when  Robert  Gorges  reached  Wessagus- 
set,  Thomson  was  already  at  Piscataqua  in  New  Hampshire ;  and  there, 
later  in  the  year,  Gorges  visited  him,  meeting  Captain  Levett,  of  his  council. 
Subsequently,  in  1626,  Thomson  removed  to  Massachusetts.  He  died  in 
1628,  leaving  a  wife,  who  was  one  of  those  who  contributed  to  the  expense 
of  Morton's  arrest  by  Standish,  and  an  infant  son,  to  whom  the  island 
occupied  by  his  father,  and  which  has  ever  since  borne  his  name,  was 
subsequently  granted  by  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts.2 

In  the  early  summer  of  1630,  therefore,  —  just  prior  to  the  arrival  of 
Governor  Winthrop,  coming  to  "  Mattachusetts "  from  Salem  on  the  7th 
of  June  to  "find  out  a  place  for  our  sitting  down,"  —  the  location  of  the 
"  old  planters,"  as  they  were  called,  was  as  follows  :  At  the  parent 
settlement  of  Wessagusset,  or  Weymouth,  there  still  lived  a  few  families, 
not  unprosperously  it  would  appear;  as,  when  Governor  Winthrop  and 
others  visited  the  place  two  years  later  on  their  way  to  Plymouth, 
they  were,  both  going  and  coming,  "  bountifully  entertained  with  store 
of  turkeys,  geese,  ducks,  &c."3  Of  the  Wessagusset  residents,  William 
Jeffreys  and  John  Bursley  appear  to  have  been  the  most  prominent; 
and  their  names  only  have  come  down  to  us.  They  had  then  been 
living  there  nearly  seven  years.  At  the  entrance  to  the  harbor,  at  Hull, 
there  also  dwelt  a  few  "  stragling "  people ;  but  whether  the  Grays  were 
among  them  does  not  appear.  In  what  is  now  Quincy,  Morton  was 
still  hanging  about  Mount  Wollaston,  though  his  trade  with  the  Indians 
had  been  broken  up,  and  he  was  already  marked  by  the  authorities  at 
Salem  for  destruction.  He  had  been  there  five  years.  Thomson's  widow 
occupied  what  is  now  the  Farm-school  island,  having  with  her  an  infant  son, 
and  owning,  probably,  one  or  more  English  servants.  In  what  is  now  Bos- 
ton, William  Blackstone,  a  solitary,  bookish  recluse,  in  his  thirty-fifth  year, 

1  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vi.  77.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Pro,:,  May,  1876.     Cf.  Shurt- 

*  [All  that  is  known  of  Thomson  is  given  in     left's  Description  of  Boston,  p.  502.  —  ED.] 
Chas.  Deane's  notes  to  an  Indenture,  printed  in  3  Winthrop,  New  England,  \.  93. 


84 


THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


had  a  dwelling  somewhere  on  the  west  slope  of  Beacon  Hill,  not  far  from 
what  are  now  Beacon  and  Spruce  streets,  from  which  he  commanded  the 
mouth  of  the  Charles.  Here  he  had  lived  ever  since  his  removal  from 
Wessagusset  in  1625  or  1626,  trading  with  the  savages,  cultivating  his 
garden,  and  watching  the  growth  of  some  apple-treed,1  Thomas  \Vul- 


1  [It  is  known  that  Blackstone,  in  1634,  re- 
serving only  six  acres,  sold  out  to  the  colonists 
his  right  to  the  remainder  of  the  peninsula,  being 
tired  of  the  "lord  brethren,"  as  he  had  before 
his  emigration  wearied  of  the  "lord  bishops," 
and  that  at  this  date  he  removed  to  an  estate, 
which  he  named  "  Study  Hill,"  situated  near 
the  railroad  station  in  the  present  town  of  Lons- 
clale,  Rhode  Island,  where  he  became  the  first 
white  inhabitant  of  that  State.  In  1684  Francis 
Hudson,  ferryman,  aged  sixty-eight ;  John  Odlin, 
aged  eighty-two;  William  Lytherland,  aged 
seventy-six ;  and  Robert  Walker,  aged  seventy- 
eight, —  all  made  deposition  as  to  the  purchase  of 
the  peninsula  from  Blackstone.  Suffolk  Deeds, 


breast,  and  back,  and  bowells ;  afterward  he 
said  he  was  well,  had  no  paines,  and  should  live  ; 
but  he  grew  fainter,  and  yealded  up  his  breath 
without  a  groane."  4  Afass.  If  1st.  Coll.,  vi.  299; 
also  cf.  2  Mass.  I  fist.  Coll.,  x.  170.  Two  boulders 
are  to  this  day  pointed  out  as  marking  his  grave. 
He  left  among  his  effects  "  10  paper  books," 
whose  destruction  shortly  after,  when  the  Indians 
burned  his  house,  we  must  regret,  as  containing 
possibly  some  record  of  his  mysterious  career. 
The  late  N.  I.  Bowditch,  in  his  Gleaner  articles 
in  the  Boston  Transcript,  1855-56  (which  «will 
soon  be  reprinted  at  the  cost  of  the  city),  traced 
back  the  titles  of  the  territory  reserved  by  Black- 
stone  in  1634,  and  his  results  would  place  his 
house  and  orchard  on  a  plat  stretching 
on  Beacon  Street  from  near  Spruce  to 
the  water,  and  back  so  as  to  include 
what  was  later  known  as  West  Hill,  the 
most  westerly  of  the  summits  of  "  Tri- 
mountain."  His  name  continued  long 
attached  to  a  bold  point  of  land  some- 
where near  the  foot  of  Pinckney  Street, 
just  inside  the  line  of  Charles  Street. 
Sewall,  Papers,  \.  186,  notes  in  August, 
1687,  "going  into  the  water  alone  at 
Blackstone's  Point,"  and  again  in  1709 
he  speaks  of  "behind  Blackstone's 
Point." — Ibid.  ii.  260.  It  is  thought  his 
famous  spring  was  situated  not  far  from 
the  present  Loulsbourg  Square.  The 
Burgiss  map  of  1728  is  said  to  present 
in  Bannister's  garden  the  site  of  Black- 
stone's  orchard.  It  is  sometimes  in 
the  later  days  called  Humphrey  Davy's 
orchard.  The  relations  to  modern  streets 
can  be  seen  in  the  annexed  sketch,  which 
follows  a  marking-out  of  the  lots  of  the 
peninsula  according  to  the  Book  of  Pos- 
sessions, as  figured  by  U.  II.  Crocker, 


xxiv.  406;  Shurtleff,  Dese.  of  Boston,  p.  296. 
Sewall  records  Hudson's  death,  Nov.  3, 1700,  as 
"one  of  the  first  who  set  foot  on  this  peninsula." 
Sewall  Papers,  ii.  24.  Blackstone  later  revisited 
Boston  more  than  once,  and  married  the  widow 
of  John  Stephenson,  who  lived  on  Milk  Street 
on  the  site  of  the  building  in  which  Franklin  was 
born.  Shurtleff,  Boston,  p.  616.  He  died  in  Cum- 
berland, R.  I.,  May  26,  1675.  Roger  Williams 
records  it,  June  13:  "About  a  fortnight  since 
your  old  acquaintance  Mr.  Blackstone  departed 
this  life  in  the  fourscore  year  of  his  age;  four 
days  before  his  death  he  had  a  great  pain  in  his 


Esq.  The  six-acre  lot  is  here  bounded  by  Bea- 
con Street,  the  dotted  line,  and  the  original  shore 
line.  It  is  made  out  in  part  from  a  deposition 
of  Anne  Pollard,  aged  eighty-nine,  in  1711,  who 
says  that  Blackstone  visited  her  house  on  this  lot, 
after  he  had  removed  to  Rhode  Island.  Sewall 
Papers,  i.  73.  It  is  an  area  upon  which  many 
distinguished  Bostonians  have  lived,  —  Copley, 
Phillips  (the  first  mayor),  Harrison  Gray  Otis, 
Channing,  Prescott,  David  Sears,  Charles  Francis 
Adams,  John  I.othmp  Motley,  Francis  Parkman, 
and  others.  Cf.  Shurtleff's  Boston,  pp.  106,  295, 
383,  391 ;  T.  C.  Amory's  notes  to  his  poem, 


THE   EARLIEST   SETTLEMENT   OF   BOSTON    HARBOR. 


ford,  the  blacksmith,  with  his  wife,  were  his  nearest  neighbors,  living  at 
Mishauwum,  or  Gharlestown,  in  an  "  English  palisadoed  and  thatched 
house ;  "  while  a  little  further  off,  at  East  Boston,  Samuel  Maverick,  a  man 
of  twenty-eight,  dwelt  in  a  sort  of  stronghold  or  fort,  which  probably  also 
served  as  the  settlers'  trading-post.  This  he  had  built  with  the  aid  of  Thom- 
son, some  three  years  previously;  and  it  was  armed  with  four  large  guns, 
or  "  murtherers,"  as  a  protection  against  the  Indians.  It  was  in  fact  the  first 
of  the  many  forts  erected  for  the  protection  of  those  dwelling  about  Boston 
Harbor;  and  it»is  not  unnatural  to  suppose  that  it  was  constructed  at  the 
common  cost  of  the  old  planters,  with  the  exception  of  Morton,  and  was 
regarded  as  the  general  place  of  refuge  in  case  of  danger.  It  only  remains 
to  be  said  that  all  of  these  settlers  belonged  to  the  Church  of  England,  and 
either  had  been  or  afterwards  became  associates  and  adherents  of  Sir  Fer- 
dinando  Gorges.  They  were  all  that  was  left  of  what  had  been  intended  as 
the  mere  forerunner  of  a  great  system  of  colonization,  emanating  from  the 


Bhjfkstone,  Boston's  First  Inhabitant ;  W.  W. 
Wheildon's  Beacon  Hill.  What  information  we 
have  of  Blackstone  can  be  gleaned  from  Bliss's 
Rehoboth,  p.  2 ;  Uaggett's  Attleborough,  p.  29 ; 
Callender's  Hist.  Discourse,  app. ;  S.  C.  New- 
man's Address  at  Study  Hill,  July  4,  1855 ; 
Arnold's  Rhode  Island,  \.  99,  ii.  568 ;  and  par- 
ticularly of  his  Boston  life  in  Savage's  Winthrop, 
i.  44,  and  Geneal.  Dictionary  ;  Young's  Chronicles 
of  Mass. ;  S.  Davis,  in  2  Afass.  Hist.  Coll.,  x.  170; 
Drake's  Boston,  p.  95 ;  L.  M.  Sargent,  quoted  in 
Hist.  Mag.,  December,  1870;  North  American 
Review,  Ixiii.,  by  G.  E.  Ellis,  and  Ixviii.,  by  F. 
Bowen.  Motley  the  historian,  in  his  early  ro- 
mance, Merry  Mount,  introduces  Blackstone  as 
riding  on  a  bull  about  his  peninsula.  He 
briefly  tells  Blackstone's  story  in  "The  Soli- 
tary of  Shawmut,"  in  the  Boston  Book  of 
1850. 

The  document  above  referred  to  is  endorsed, 
"John  Odlin,  &c.,  their  depositions  abr  Black- 
ston's  Sale  of  his  Land  in  Boston,"  and  is 
printed  by  Shurtleff,  Desc.  of  Boston,  p.  296,  as 
follows :  — 

"The  Deposition  of  John  .Odlin,  aged  about 
Eighty-two  yeares ;  Robert  Walker,  aged  about 
Seventy-eight  yeares;  Francis  Hudson,  aged 
about  Sixty-eight  yeares;  and  William  Lyther- 
lancl,  aged  about  Seventy-six  yeares.  These 
Deponents  being  ancient  dwellers  and  Inhabit- 
ants ot  the  Town  of  Boston,  in  New  England, 
from  the  time  of  the  first  planting  and  selling 
thereof,  and  continuing  so  at  this  day,  do  jointly 
testify  and  depose  that  in  or  about  the  yeare  of 
our  Lord  One  thousand  Six  hundred  thirty  and 
ffour,  the  then  present  Inhabitants  of  s(1  Town 
of  Boston  (of  whoine  the  Honoble  John  Win- 
throp,  Esqr-  Governor  of  the  Colony,  was 
Clieife)  did  treate  and  agree  with  Mr  William 


Blackstone  for  the  purchase  of  his  Estate  and 
right  in  any  Lands  lying  within  the  sd  neck  of 
Land  called  Boston ;  and  for  sd  purchase  agreed 
that  every  householder  should  pay  Six  Shillings, 
which  was  accordingly  Collected,  none  paying 
less,  some  considerably  more  than  Six  Shillings, 
and  the  sd  sume  Collected  was  delivered  and 
paid  to  Mr-  Blackstone  to  his  full  content  and 
satisfaction ;  in  consideration  whereof  hee  Sold 
unto  the  then  Inhabitants  of  s'1  Town  and  their 
heires  and  assignees  for  ever  his  whole  right 
and  interest  in  all  and  every  of  the  Lands  lying 
within  sd  neck,  Reserving  onely  unto  himselfe 
about  Six  acres  of  Land  on  the  point  commonly 
called  Blackston's  Point,  on  part  whereof  his 
then  dwelling  house  stood  ;  after  which  purchase 
the  Town  laid  out  a  place  for  a  trayning  field, 
which  ever  since  and  now  is  used  for  that  pur- 
pose and  for  the  feeding  of  Cattell.  Robert 
Walker  &  Wm-  Lytherland  further  testify  that 
Mr  Blackstone  bought  a  Stock  of  Cows  with 
the  Money  he  recd  as  above,  and  Removed  and 
dwelt  near  Providence,  where  he  liv'd  till  ye  day 
of  his  death. 

"Deposed  this  loth  of  June,  1684,  by  John 
Odlin,  Robert  Walker,  Francis  Hudson,  and 
William  Lytherland,  according  to  their  respec- 
tive Testimonye, 

"  Before  us, 

S.  BRADSTREET,  Goti'nr- 
SAM.  SEWALL,  Assist." 

Shurtleff  notes  that  Odlin  was  a  cutler  by 
trade,  and  died  Dec.  18,  1685.  Hudson  was  the 
fisherman  who  gave  his  name  to  the  point  of 
the  peninsula  nearest  Charlestown.  Walker 
was  a  weaver,  and  died  May  29,  1687.  Lyther- 
land was  an  Antinomian,  who  removed  to  Rhode 
Island  and  became  town  clerk  of  Newport,  and 
died  very  old.  —  Eu.J 


86 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


Royalist  and  Church  party  in  England.  The  scheme  had  come  to  nothing; 
and  it  now  only  remained  for  the  next  wave  of  emigration  —  which  was  to 
originate  with  the  other  party  in  Church  and  State  —  to  so  completely  sub- 
merge it  as  to  obliterate  through  more  than  two  centuries  every  historical 
tradition  even  of  its  continuity  with  what  followed. 


colonial 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE    MASSACHUSETTS     COMPANY... 

BY     SAMUEL    FOSTER    HAVEN,    LL.D. 

Librarian  of  the  A  merican  A  titiquarian  Society. 

/'~~*ARLYLE,  in   his   book   on   Cromwell,1  refers  to  our  city  of  Boston 
thus  :  — 


"  Rev.  John  Cotton  is  a  man  still  held  in  some  remembrance  among  our  New  Eng- 
land friends.  He  had  been  minister  of  Boston  in  Lincolnshire  ;  carried  the  name 
across  the  ocean  with  him  ;  fixed  it  upon  a  new  small  home  he  had  found  there,  which 
has  become  a  large  one  since,  —  the  big,  busy  capital  of  Massachusetts,  —  Boston,  so 
called.  John  Cotton,  his  mark,  very  curiously  stamped  on  the  face  of  this  planet  ; 
likely  to  continue  for  some  time." 

The  passage  is  a  very  good  specimen  of  Carlyle's  mannerism  ;  but  it  must 
not  be  mistaken  for  correct  history.  Many  errors  in  recording  minor  particu- 
lars maybe  found  in  the  narratives  of  early  New  England  authorities,  which 
have  been  adopted  and  transmitted  by  later  writers  ;  this  is  one  of  them. 
The  placing  of  Endicott's  expedition  after  the  procuring  of  the  charter, 
when  he  really  sailed  more  than  eight  months  before,  is  another.  It  is  a 
want  of  precision  in  them,  which  indicates  that  their  minds  were  more  occu- 
pied with  the  great  results  they  had  witnessed  than  with  the  order  of  events. 
Hence,  a  little  readjustment  of  the  time  and  manner  of  occurrences  is  some- 
times necessary.  Governor  Dudley's  almost  official  letter  to  the  Countess 
of  Lincoln  is  described  by  himself  as  written  by  the  fireside  on  his  knee,  in 
the  midst  of  his  family,  who  "  break  good  manners,  and  make  me  many 
times  forget  what  I  would  say,  and  say  what  I  would  not  ;  "  and  that  he  had 
"  no  leisure  to  review  and  insert  things  forgotten,  but  out  of  due  time  and 
order  must  set  them  down  as  they  come  to  memory."  2 

1  Cromwell's  Letters  and  Speeches,  with  Rln-  came  above  eight  months  before."  —  Prince,  An- 
ciJutions,  iii.  197.  nals,  edition  of  1826,  p.  249.     "Governor  Bracl- 

2  "  Deputy-Governor  Dudley,  Mr.  Hubbard,  ford  and  Mr.  Morton  seem  to  mistake  in  saying 
and  others,  wrongly  place  Mr.  Endicott's  voyage  he   (Endicott)   came   with   a   patent  under  the 
after  the  grant  of  the  Royal  Charter,  whereas  he  broad  seal  for  the  Government  of  the  Massa- 


88  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Hubbard  is  responsible  for  the  assertion  that  the  neck  of  land  on  the 
south  side  of  Charles  River  was  called  "  Boston,"  "  on  account  of  Mr.  Cot- 
ton."1 Yet  the  circumstance  of  bestowing  upon  the  principal  town  of 
Massachusetts  the  name  of  the  principal  town  of  the  English  county  of 
Lincolnshire  has  an  historical  significance  which  deserves  to  be  more 
carefully  stated. 

Dr.  Young2  was  probably  right  in  his  opinion  that  the  name  "  Boston" 
was  given,  not  out  of  respect  for  Mr.  Cotton  particularly,  but  because  so 
many  of  the  prominent  men  of  the  colony  were  from  that  part  of  the  coun- 
try. It  was  at  a  Court  held  at  Charlestown,  Sept.  7,  1630,  that  it  was  sim- 
ply ordered  that  Tri-Mountain  be  called  Boston.  Mr.  Cotton  was  not  men- 
tioned ;  and  no  reason  was  assigned  for  selecting  that  name.  It  is  rather 
singular  that  Winthrop,  in  his  very  particular  diary,  does  not  record  this 
important  act  of  the  General  Court.  He  uses  the  name  for  the  first  time 
about  a  month  later,  in  stating  the  fact  that  a  goat  died  there  from  eat- 
ing Indian  corn,  —  which  affords  to  his  editor  an  occasion  to  remark : 
"  Here  is  proof  that  the  name  of  our  chief  city  of  New  England  was  given, 
not,  as  is  often  said,  after  the  coming  of  Mr.  Cotton,  but  three  years 
before." 

Governor  Dudley  intimates  that  it  had  been  predetermined  to  adopt  that 
name  for  whatever  place  should  be  chosen  for  the  first  settlement,  —  "which 
place  we  named  Boston  (as  we  intended  to  have  done  the  place  we  first 
resolved  on)."  He  gives  no  reason  for  it.3  Perhaps  a  motive  may  be  found 
in  the  relations  of  the  several  interests  that  were  combined  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  colony. 

Various  influences  were  united  in  the  constitution  of  the  Massachusetts 
Company  that  also  affected  the  policy  of  the  colony.  The  religious  and 
political  elements  are  more  marked  in  the  views  and  purposes  of  the  men 
from  the  eastern  counties  of  England,  —  usually  termed  "  the  Boston  men." 
The  commercial  element  existed  more  visibly  among  the  adventurers  from 
the  western  counties  of  Dorset  and  Devon,  who  were  commonly  designated 
as  "  the  Dorchester  men."  The  merchants  and  capitalists  of  London  min- 
gled hopes  of  profit  with  the  desire  to  do  good  and  advance  the  cause  of 
religion.  Between  the  Dorchester  men,  with  whom  the  movement  for  a 
plantation  originated,  and  the  Boston  men,  who  were  new  associates,  there 
is  an  appearance  of  competition  —  amicable,  doubtless  —  in  the  matter  of 
first  establishing  and  naming  a  settlement  in  the  new  country.  The  Dor- 

chusetts."  —  Ibid.  p.  250.     Harris,  in  his  edition  the  charter  itself.     Mr.  Savage  says  of  Hubbard : 

of  Hubbard,  tries,  we  think  unsuccessfully,  to  "  He  seems  to  have  slighted  most  of  the  occur- 

give  a  different  construction  to  Hubbard's  state-  rences  in  which  he  should  have  felt  the  deepest 

ment.     Hubbard  says  in  the  same  place  :  "The  interest,  and  for  anything  of  date  preceding  1630 

Company  having  chosen  Mr.  Cradock  Governor  his   information    is    sometimes    authentic,    and 

(&c.),  sent  over   Mr.  Endicott."     Cradock  was  often   curious."      Winthrop,   New   England,    \. 

not  chosen  by  the  Company  till  May   13,   1629  297,  note. 

(Easter  week),  the  day  assigned  for  elections  by  1  Hist,  of  Nrw  England,  ch.  xxv. 

the  charter,  after  letters  had  been  received  from  2  Chronicles  of  Mass.,  pp.  48,  49. 

Endicott.     The  first  officers  were  designated  by  3  Letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln, 


THE   MASSACHUSETTS   COMPANY.  89 

Chester  emigrants  came  in  a  large  and  well-appointed  ship  by  themselves. 
They  arrived  a  fortnight  sooner  than  the  rest  of  Winthrop's  fleet,  and  fixing 
upon  Mattapan  (now  South  Boston),  called  it  ''Dorchester,"  —  expecting  it 
to  become  the  principal  town ;  and  there  were  good  reasons  for  that  anticipa- 
tion. Rev.  John  White,  of  Dorchester,  in  England,  was  the  acknowledged 
father  of  New  England  colonization;  and  the  existence  of  the  proposed 
colony  was  chiefly  due  to  his  exertions.  No  other  man  and  no  other  county 
were  so  well  entitled  to  such  a  memorial  of  services  in  the  first  introduc- 
tion of  permanent  settlements  here. 

The  situation  selected  was  well  supplied  with  pastures  and  fields  for  till- 
age, possessing  also  a  convenient  harbor  and  facilities  for  trade ;  and  for 
a  time  it  took  the  lead  among  the  new  plantations.  Wood1  calls  Dorches- 
ter "  the  greatest  town  in  New  England."  Prince  says  that  Dorchester 
became  the  first  settled  church  and  town  in  the  county  of  Suffolk,  "and  in 
all  military  musters  or  civil  assemblies  used  to  have  the  precedency."  2  In 
1633,  when  four  hundred  pounds  were  assessed  upon  the  colony,  Dorches- 
ter was  called  upon  for  one  fifth  of  the  whole,  —  eighty  pounds,  —  while 
Boston  paid  only  forty-eight  pounds.3 

On  the  other  hand,  when  the  Boston  men  joined  the  Massachusetts  Com- 
pany, after  the  two  preliminary  expeditions  had  been  provided  for,  and  after 
the  royal  charter  had  been  prepared  for  signature,  their  superior  wealth  and 
standing  gave  them  the  ascendency  in  its  councils;  and  their  election  to  the 
offices  of  the  government  placed  in  their  hands  the  management  and  con- 
trol of  the  enterprise.  They  came  over  holding  the  power  and  responsi- 
bility of  an  organized  community ;  and  to  their  authority  all  previous  and 
all  subsequent  operations  became  subordinate.  When  they  decided  upon 
"  Tri-Mountain  "  as  the  seat  and  centre  of  their  jurisdiction,  they  simply 
gave  it  the  appellation  by  which,  as  a  body,  they  were  best  known  in  the 
mother  country,  —  the  name  of  the  place  around  which  their  home  associa- 
tions were  chiefly  gathered.  Thus  it  came  to  pass,  legitimately  enough,  that 
Lincolnshire  and  its  neighborhood  of  counties  acquired  the  birthright  of 
Dorset  and  Devon.  The  adopted  metropolis  naturally  became,  —  as  Wood 
describes  it  in  the  early  period,  — "although  neither  the  greatest  nor  the 
richest,  yet  the  most  noted  and  frequented,  —  being  the  centre  of  the  Plan- 
tations where  the  monthly  Courts  are  kept." 

But  a  Boston  already  existed  —  nominally  —  on  the  coast  of  New 
England,  for  which  King  Charles  himself,  then  only  Prince  Charles,  stood 
godfather  fourteen  years  before.  In  1616,  when  Captain  John  Smith 
dedicated  his  famous  map,  made  in  1614,  to  the  Prince,  he  begged  the 
favor  of  him  to  change  the  native  names  of  places  for  more  euphonious 

1  New  England's  Prospect,  London,  1635.          England,  he  having  placed  the  city  of  London 

2  Annals,  edition  of  1826,  p.  287,  note.  in  this  neighborhood.     Hist,  of  Dorchester,  by  a 
8  The  vicinity  of  Dorchester,  Mass.,  was  re-     committee  of  the  Dorchester  Antiquarian  and 

garded  by   Smith   (perhaps  we  should  say  by  Historical  Society,  p.  8.     [A  glance  at  Smith's 

Prince  Charles,  who  gave  the  English  names)  map  does  not  wholly  confirm  this  view  of  Smith's 

as  the  probable  site  of  the  future  capital  of  New  location  of  London.  —  ED.] 
VOL.   I. —  12. 


9o 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


appellations.1  Of  course  the  prospective  head  of  the  Church  did  not  intend 
to  honor  particularly  the  Non-conformist  capital  of  Lincolnshire,  and  doubt- 
less, without  any  special  motive,  suggested  such  names  as  happened  to  occur 
to  him,  — "Berwick,"  "Plymouth,"  "Oxford,"  "Falmouth,"  "Bristol,"  "Cam- 
bridge," "  Boston"  &c.  It  is  possible  that,  when  asked  for  a  charter  to  the 
Massachusetts  Company,  his  mind  reverted  to  his  examination  of  Smith's 
map;  and  this,  in  connection  with  the  intrinsic  advantages  of  the  locality 
for  one  of  the  most  valuable  branches  of  trade  of  his  dominions,  perhaps 
led  to  the  favorable  conditions  granted  to  the  applicants.  It  is  certain  that 
on  several  subsequent  occasions  Charles  exhibited  a  mind  of  his  own  on  the 
subject,  and  independent  sentiments  more  liberal  and  friendly  than  those  of 
his  ministers  and  advisers.2 

The  transition  from  a  trading  copartnership  engaged  in  the  business  of 
fishing  to  the  embryo  of  a  religious  and  political  Commonwealth  is  the 
history  of  the  Massachusetts  Company,  whose  steps  are  to  be  now  concisely 
traced. 

While  the  deeply  wooded  shores  of  the  northern  portion  of  the  continent 
continued  in  undisturbed  barbarism,  the  fisheries  were  frequented  by  gen- 
erations of  hardy  mariners  of  different  nations,  through  whom  a  knowledge 
of  their  abundant  riches  was  gradually  communicated  to  European  countries.3 
A  century  of  familiar  acquaintance  with  the  harbors  and  islands  of  the  sea 


1  "  Humbly  intreating  his  Highness  he  would 
please  to  change  their  barbarous  names  for  such 
English  as  posterity  might  say  Prince  Charles 
was    their    Godfather."      "  Whose    barbarous 
names  you  changed  for  such  English  that  none 
can  deny  but  Prince  Charles  is  their  Godfather." 
Smith,  Dcsc.  of  New  England.     [See  Mr.  Win- 
sor's  chapter  in  the  previous  section.  —  ED.] 

2  See  Winthrop's  New  England,  i.  102,  103. 
Before  leaving  this  point   I  wish  to  refer  to  a 
paper  upon  "  Anthropology,  Sociology,  and  Na- 
tionality," by   D.   Mackintosh,   F.G.S.,  read   at 
the  forty-fifth  meeting  of  the  British  Association 
for  the   Advancement   of   Science,   in   August, 
1875.     In  that  portion  of  his  lecture  which  re- 
lated to  the  ancestors  of  the  British,  the  writer 
endeavored  to  show  that  "between  the  northeast 
and  southwest  portions  of  England,  the  difference 
in  the  character  of  the  people  is  so  great  as  to 
give  a  semi-nationality  to  each  division.      Rest- 
less activity,  ambition,  and  commercial  specula- 
tion predominate  in  the  northeast ;  contentment 
and  leisure  of  reflection  in  the  southwest."     He 
concluded  by  a  reference  to  the  derivation  of  the 
settlers  of  New  England  from  the  southwest, 
mentioning  as  a  fact  that,  while  a  large  propor- 
tion of  New  England  surnames  are  still  found  in 
Devon  and  Dorset,  there  is  a  small  village  called 
Boston  near  Totness,  and  in  its  immediate  neigh- 
borhood a  place  called  Bunker  Hill !     Did  some 
English  political  dissenter  of  177531  the  Devon- 
shire Boston  (near  which  may  now  be  found 


meeting-houses  for  Independents,  Methodists, 
and  .Unitarians)  thus  signify  his  sympathy  with 
the  Boston  of  New  England  by  christening  a 
neighboring  hill  after  the  famous  battle-field  of 
our  Revolution  ?  Local  differences  of  fnanners, 
of  dialects,  and  of  temperament  are  strongly 
marked  in  England,  and  betray  diversity  of  an- 
cestral derivation.  It  is  a  suitable  task  for  our 
New  England  Historic  Genealogical  Society  to 
determine  whether  the  southwestern  or  the  north- 
eastern sections  of  the  mother  country,  or  the 
intermediate  point  of  London  and  its  vicinity, 
contributed  most  largely  to  the  numbers  that  ulti- 
mately formed  the  Massachusetts  Colony.  Ilig- 
ginson,  in  the  journal  of  his  voyage,  written  from 
New  England,  July  24,  1629,  describes  the  Com- 
pany of  Massachusetts  Bay  as  consisting  of  many 
worthy  gentlemen  in  the  city  of  London,  Dor- 
chester, and  other  places.  He  does  not  mention 
Lincolnshire.  The  merchants  of  London  already 
took  a  leading  part,  but  the  Lincolnshire  men 
had  not  come  to  the  front  when  he  wrote.  Hig- 
ginson  writes  again,  in  September,  1629,  "There 
are  certainly  expected  here  the  next  spring  the 
coming  of  sixty  families  out  of  Dorsetshire. 
Also  many  families  are  expected  out  of  Lin- 
colnshire, and  a  great  company  of  godly  Chris- 
tians out  of  London."  Young,  Chron.  of  Mass. 
p.  260. 

8  It  is  claimed  that  the  first  French  settle- 
ments originated  from  this  source,  and  that  the 
active  participation  of  Holland  in  the  trade  drew 


THE   MASSACHUSETTS   COMPANY. 


91 


had  passed  away  without  plantations  or  durable  stations  on  land  for  settle- 
ment or  traffic.  During  this  period  there  would  be  more  or  less  exchange 
of  articles  of  use  or  ornament  with  the  natives  for  furs  or  provisions. 
Occasionally  a  ship  or  boat  would  be  wrecked,  and  the  brass  kettles  of 
the  fishermen,  transmuted  into  breast-plates  and  decorations  of  metal,  fur- 
nished materials  for  "  The  Skeleton  in  Armor,"  and  other  supposed  relics  of 
the  Northmen.1  Mr.  Sabine,in  his  learned  Report  to  Congress,  in  1853,  on 
American  fisheries,  carries  back  the  trade  as  a  regular  employment  as  far  as 
A.  D.  1504.  The  Biscayan  sailors  of  France  and  Spain  led  the  way,  while 
the  merchants  of  Holland  were  more  prompt  than  those  of  England  in 
securing  its  profits.  The  earlier  American  fisheries  were  chiefly  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Newfoundland.  The  particular  fisheries  of  Massachusetts 
Bay  did  not  commence  till  about  1618  or  1619.  The  Council  established 
at  Plymouth,  in  the  county  of  Devon,  for  the  planting,  ruling,  and  govern- 
ing of  New  England  in  America,  succeeded  to  the  Northern  Company  of 
Virginia  as  proprietors  of  the  portion  of  the  continent  between  the  fortieth 
and  forty-eighth  degree  of  latitude  on  the  3d  of  November,  1620,  and  all 
British  subjects  were  prohibited  from  visiting  and  trafficking  into  or  from 
the  said  territories,  unless  with  the  license  and  consent  of  the  Council  first 
obtained  under  seal. 

In  1622  the  President  and  Council  of  New  England  published  an 
account  of  their  condition,  the  difficulties  they  had  encountered,  their 
proposed  plans,  &c.,  which  was  dedicated  to  Prince  Charles,  on  whom  they 
relied  for  encouragement  and  assistance.2  It  contains  a  summary  of  the 
past  history  of  the  Council,  and  affords  very  satisfactory  reasons  why  thus 
far  they  had  made  no  progress ;  and  also  tends  to  explain  why  it  is  that 


the  attention  of  the  Pilgrims  to  this  particular 
place  of  refuge ;  while,  again,  the  cod-fisheries 
of  the  New  England  seaboard,  whose  emblem 
has  so  conspicuously  figured  in  our  popular  hall 
of  legislation,  first  brought  hither  the  merchant 
ships  of  the  southern  ports  of  Great  Britain. 

1  It  seems  safe  to  say  at  this  time  that  no 
authentic  vestiges  of  Scandinavian  occupancy 
have  ever  been  discovered  in  New  England. 
See  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proe.,  April,  1880,  for  re- 
marks of  George  Dexter,  Esq.,  on  communicat- 
ing a  letter  of  Erasmus  Rask  to  Henry  Wheaton. 
[A  chapter  by  Mr.  Dexter  in  this  volume  covers 
this  question.  —  ED.] 

'*  A  Brief  Relation  of  the  Discovery  and  Plan- 
tation of  Neiu  England,  London,  1622,  reprinted 
in  2  iVass.  Hist.  Coll.  ix.  The  beginning  of  the 
dedication  is  significant  of  the  good  will  of 
Prince  Charles  towards  American  colonization, 
as  well  as  of  his  knowledge  of  the  country. 
"  And  for  the  subject  of  this  relation,  as  your 
highness  hath  been  pleased  to  do  it  the  honor 
by  giving  it  the  name  of  New  England,  and  by 
your  most  favorable  encouragement  to  continue 


the  same  in  life  and  being,  so  ought  we  to  render 
an  account  of  our  proceedings  from  the  root 
thereof  unto  the  present  growth  it  hath,"  &c. 
It  seems  that  after  their  patent  passed  the  seals 
in  1620,  "it  was  stopped,  upon  new  suggestions 
to  the  King,  and  referred  to  the  Privy  Council 
to  be  settled."  "These  disputes  held  us  almost 
two  years,  so  as  all  men  were  afraid  to  join  with 
us,"  &c.  "  But  having  passed  all  these  storms 
abroad,  and  undergone  so  many  home-bred  op- 
positions and  freed  our  patent,  which  we  were 
by  order  of  state  assigned  to  renew  for  the 
amendment  of  some  defects  therein  contained, 
we  were  assured  of  this  ground  more  boldly  to 
proceed  on  than  before."  It  is  just  at  this  point 
that  the  records  begin,  and  it  was  just  at  this 
period  that  the  fisheries  were  becoming  very 
profitable.  Hence  it  was  the  time  of  effort  and 
activity  on  the  part  of  the  Council,  and  also 
the  time  when  inducements  to  emigration  were 
the  strongest.  Thus  it  happened  for  a  year  or 
two  that  there  was  a  demand  for  grants  from  the 
Council,  and  a  swarming  of  adventurers  to  the 
Bay  of  Massachusetts. 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


the  two  copies  of  their  records  which  have  been  brought  to  light  within  a 
few  years  have  their  first  entries  so  late  as  May,  I622.1 

During  the  few  years  of  prosperity  in  the  fishing  business,  the  Council 
made   great  exertions   to   secure  their  monopoly   and   to    establish    their 

authority  on  land ;  but  they  lost  courage 
and  energy  as  soon  as  the  business  of  fishing 
was  broken  up  by  the  Spanish  and  French 
wars,  causing  a  loss  of  the  best  customers 
and  great  hazard  to  navigation.  The  re- 
action began  in  1624,  when  the  war  with 
Spain  commenced,  and  was  made  com- 
plete by  the  additional  war  with  France  in 
1626,  and  the  civil  dissensions  at  home. 
But  all  those  things  were  preparing  the 
way  for  the  rise  of  a  very  different  scries 
of  operations  under  very  different  auspices. 
John  White,  of  Dorchester,  a  Puritan 
minister,  but  not  a  Non-conformist,  whose 
parishioners  and  friends  were  actively  en- 
gaged in  the  business  of  fishing,  being 

troubled  at  the  godless  life  and  unruly  condition  of  the  men  employed 
by  them  (and  having  some  views  of  his  own  about  plantations,  which 
he  subsequently  embodied  in  a  tract),  conceived  the  idea  of  establishing 
a  settlement  on  the  land.  His  purpose  was  to  furnish  assistance  to 
the  crews  in  the  busy  season,  to  provide  supplies  of  provisions  and  other 
necessaries  by  cultivating  the  soil  and  trafficking  with  the  natives,  and  to 
afford  religious  instruction  to  both  planters  and  sailors.  To  this  end, 
about  1624,  he  raised  a  common  stock  of  three  thousand  pounds,  and  pur- 


SEAL  OF  THE   COUNCIL   FOR  NEW 
ENGLAND.2 


1  Among  the  irregular  proceedings  of  the 
Council  for  New  England  was  an  early  attempt 
to  divide  the  territory  embraced  in  their  patent 
among  their  members ;  a  measure  which  did  not 
acquire  a  legal  validity.  But  the  Earl  of  Shef- 
field, in  whose  portion  Cape  Ann  was  included, 
acting  upon  his  anticipated  right,  conveyed  five 
hundred  acres  there  to  Robert  Cushman  and 
Edward  Winslow,  their  associates  and  assigns, 
with  the  "free  use  of  the  Bay  and  islands,  and 
free  liberty  to  fish  and  trade  in  all  other  places  in 
New  England."  It  was  this  conveyance  (which 
came  to  nothing)  that  led  to  John  Smith's  state- 
ment in  his  Genera//  Historic,  p.  247,  "that  there 
is  a  plantation  beginning  by  the  Dorchester  men 
which  they  hold  of  those  of  New  Plymouth." 
The  story  is  very  well  told  by  Mr.  Thornton  in 
his  Landing  at  Cape  Anne,  1624.  His  principal 
mistake  was  in  giving  too  much  significance  to 
what  was  in  reality  one  of  the  least  important 
incidents  of  the  period,  having  little  or  no  bearing 
on  subsequent  events.  [The  matter  of  this  abor- 
tive division  of  territory  above  referred  to  is  fur- 


ther explained  in  Mr.  Adams's  chapter  of  this 
volume,  and  the  map  showing  it  is  explained  in 
Mr.  Winsor's.  For  further,  on  Conant's  Com- 
pany, see  Felt's  Salem;  George  D.  Phippen  in 
Essex  Institute  Collections,  i.  97,  145,  185  ;  Ar.  E. 
Hist,  and Geneal.  Reg.,  July,  1848;  Bradford's  Ply- 
mouth Plantation,  Deane's  note,  p.  169.  Hub- 
bard's  most  valuable  chapter  is  that  on  Conant, 
and  his  facts  may  have  been  derived  from  Conant 
himself.  It  is  given  in  part  in  Young's  Chron- 
icles of  Massachusetts.  —  En.] 

2  [An  account  of  the  seal,  with  the  reasons  for 
believing  this  to  be  the  seal,  is  given  by  Charles 
Deane  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  March,  1867. 
Dr.  Palfrey  adopts  Mr.  Deane's  conclusions. 
The  patent  creating  the  Council  will  be  found  in 
Hazard's  Collections,  i.  103 ;  in  Brigham's  Ply- 
mouth Laws;  in  Baylics's  Plymouth  Colony, 
i.  160;  in  the  Popham  Memorial,  p.  iro,  and 
in  Trumbull's  Connecticut,  i.  546.  The  petition 
for  it  can  l>e  found  in  the  Colonial  History  of 
Nttv  )'<'/•/•,  iii.,  and  the  warrant  in  Gorges' 
England.  —  Eu.] 


THE   MASSACHUSETTS    COMPANY.  93 

chased  first  a  small  ship  which  brought  over  fourteen  men,  who  were  left 
at  Cape  Ann.  The  New  Plymouth  men,  and  perhaps  others,  had  stages  at 
that  place  for  drying  and  curing  fish,  and  it  was  now  selected  for  a  per- 
manent plantation.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  make  use  of  the  disaffected 
persons  from  the  little  colony  at  Plymouth  who  had  located  themselves 
there  and  at  Nantasket,  and  selected  the  most  trustworthy  among  them  to 
manage  the  new  enterprise. 

The  associates  in  England  struggled  for  three  years  against  constant  loss, 
till  their  capital  was  expended  with  no  favorable  results,  when,  becoming 
discouraged,  they  dissolved  the  company  on  land  and  sold  their  shipping  and 
provisions.  "  The  ill  choice  of  the  place  for  fishing,  the  ill  carriage  of  the 
men  at  the  settlement,  and  ill  sales  for  the  fish  "  are  assigned  by  Mr.  White 
as  reasons  for  the  bad  results  of  the  adventure.  In  brief,  the  stock  was  ex- 
pended with  no  returns,  the  settlers  quarrelled  with  those  from  New  Ply- 
mouth, and  among  themselves,  till  the  community  of  three  years'  duration 
fell  to  pieces,  and  its  members  who  desired  to  leave  the  country  were  helped 
to  do  so. 

In  the  mean  time,  however,  there  were  four  "  honest  and  prudent 
men"  —  Roger  Conant,  John  Woodberry,  John  Balch,  and  Peter  Palfrey, 
from  the  settlement  —  who  had  removed  to  Naumkeag  (now  Salem),  and 
resolved  to  stay  in  Massachusetts  if  they  were  sustained  by  encouragement 
from  England.  On  receiving  an  intimation  to  this  effect,  Mr.  White 
wrote  to  them  that  if  they  would  remain  he  would  "  provide  a  patent 
for  them,  and  send  them  whatever  they  should  write  for,  either  men,  or 
provisions,  or  goods,  for  trade  with  the  Indians."  Through  the  influ- 
ence of  Conant  they  were  kept  to  their  engagement,  and  are  entitled  to 
the  consideration  of  being  among  the  originators  of  the  Massachusetts 
Company.1 

There  are  three  contemporary  statements  of  what  was  done  at  this  par- 
ticular juncture,  representing  three  different  points  of  view.  One  of  these 
is  that  of  Mr.  White,  the  leader  of  the  movement  in  the  counties  of  Dor- 
set and  Devon.  Another  is  by  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  the  President  of  the 
Council  for  New  England,  and  the  chief  manager  of  its  affairs.  The  third 
is  the  letter  of  Thomas  Dudley  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln,  showing  his 
impression  of  the  time  and  manner  in  which  the  "  Boston  men  "  of  the 
eastern  counties  became  connected  with  the  scheme  of  a  settlement  in 
Massachusetts  Bay.  Hubbard,  the  historian,  wrote  fifty  years  later,  having 
been  a  young  man  when  the  events  occurred. 

1  "Conant,"  says   Hubbard,  "secretly   con-  answer  his  people  before  they  call,  as  he  had 

ceiving  in  his  mind  that  in  following  times  (as  filled  the  heart  of  that  good  man,  Mr.  Conant, 

since  has  fallen  out)  it  might  prove  a  receptacle  in  New  England,  with  courage   and   resolution 

for  such  as  upon  the  account  of  religion  would  be  to  abide  fixed  in  his  purpose,  notwithstanding 

willing  to  begin  a  foreign  plantation  in  this  part  all  opposition  and  persuasion  he  met  with  to  the 

of  the  world,  of  which  he  gave  some  intimation  to  contrary,  had  also  inclined  the  hearts  of  several 

his  friends  in  England." —  Hist,  of  Nnv  England,  others  in  England  to  be  at  work  about  the  same 

And  "  that  God,"  says  White,  "  who  is  ready  to  design."  —  Planter's  Plea. 


94  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Mr.  White's  account,  in  the  Planter 's  Plea,  printed  in  1630,  is  brief,  and 
does  not  refer  to  his  own  services.1 

"  Some  then  of  the  adventurers  that  still  continued  their  desire  to  set  forward  the 
plantation  of  a  Colony  there,  conceiving  that  if  some  more  cattle  were  sent  over  to 
those  few  men  left  behind,  they  might  not  only  be  a  means  of  the  comfortable  subsist- 
ing of  such  as  were  already  in  the  country,  but  of  inviting  some  other  of  their  Friends 
and  Acquaintance  to  come  over  to  them,  adventured  to  send  over  twelve  Kine  and 
Bulls  more ;  and  conferring  casually  with  some  gentlemen  of  London,  moved  them  to 
add  as  many  more.  By  which  occasion  the  business  came  to  agitation  afresh  in  Lon- 
don, and  being  at  first  approved  by  some  and  disliked  by  others,  by  argument  and  dis- 
putation it  grew  to  be  more  vulgar ;  insomuch  that  some  men  shewing  some  good 
affection  to  the  work,  and  offering  the  help  of  their  purses  if  fit  men  might  be  pro- 
cured to  go  over,  inquiry  was  made  whether  any  would  be  willing  to  engage  their  per- 
sons in  the  voyage.  .  .  .  Hereupon  divers  persons  having  subscribed  for  the  raising  of 
a  reasonable  sum  of  money,  a  Patent  was  granted  with  large  encouragements  every 
way  by  his  most  Excellent  Majesty." 

It  will  be  observed  that  no  mention  is  made  by  Mr.  White  of  the  grant 
from  the  Council  for  New  England.  After  the  Royal  Charter  the  grant  from 
the  Council  apparently  was  regarded  as  of  little  consequence,  and  it  has 
not  been  preserved  except  in  citations  from  it  contained  in  the  Char- 
ter. The  conveyance,  bearing  date  March  19,  1627-28,  was  made  to  six 
persons,  doubtless  the  friends  alluded  to  by  Mr.  White  as  offering  the  use 
of  their  purses,  —  Sir  Henry  Rosewell  and  Sir  John  Young,  knights, 
both  of  Devonshire ;  Thomas  Southcoat,  presumed  to  be  of  Devonshire ; 
John  Humfrey,  who  had  been  treasurer  of  the  fishing  company,  whose 
wife  was  daughter  of  Thomas,  third  Earl  of  Lincoln ;  John  Endicott,  of 
Dorchester,  the  leader  of  the  first  party  of  emigrants ;  and  Simon  Whet- 
comb,  perhaps  of  London,  subsequently  an  Assistant,  constant  in  his 
attendance  at  the  meetings  of  the  Company  in  London,  and  a  liberal  con- 
tributor to  its  expenses. 

The  first  portion  of  the  records  of  the  Council  for  New  England,  as  we 
have  them,  extends  from  Saturday,  the  last  of  May  1622,  to  Sunday,  Juns 
29,  1623,  inclusive.  The  second  portion  begins  the  4th  of  November,  1631. 
The  patent  to  the  friends  of  the  Massachusetts  Company  comes  between  these 
periods,  and  no  official  account  of  the  circumstances  attending  the  applica- 
tion for  it  and  its  being  granted  is  known  to  exist.  The  years  1622  and 
1623  were  those  of  hopeful  expectation  on  the  part  of  the  New  England 
Council.  They  were  looking  for  an  amended  charter  for  themselves  from 
the  Crown,  and  trying  to  raise  money  for  their  operations  in  the  failure  of 
their  members  to  pay  their  dues.  They  clung  to  their  aristocratic  ideas,  but 
were  anxious  to  admit  untitled  persons  to  fellowship  so  far  as  might  be 

1  Mr.  White  is  described  as  "  a  person  of  great  Chester,"  &c.  —  Echard,  I  fist,  of  England,  p.  653. 

gravity  and  presence,"  and  as  always  having  great  To  these  titles  have  been  added  those  of  "  Father 

influence  with  the  Puritan  party,  "  who  bore  him  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony,"  and  "  Patriarch  of 

more  respect  than  they  did  to  their  diocesan."  New  England." — Fuller,  Worthies  of  England ; 

He  is  styled  "  famous,"  "  the  Patriarch  of  Dor-  Callender,  Hist.  Discourse. 


THE   MASSACHUSETTS   COMPANY.  95 

necessary  to  secure  their  capital  and  their  services.  In  their  new  "  Grand 
Patent,  to  be  held  of  the  Crown  of  England  by  the  Sword,"  it  was  resolved 
to  call  the  country  "  Nova  Albion,"  and  to  have  power  given  to  create  titles 
of  honor  and  precedency.  They  proposed  to  admit  new  associates  on  the 
payment  of  £110,  "  provided  that  they,  so  to  come  in,  be  persons  of  Honor 
or  Gentlemen  of  blood  (except  only  six  Merchants,  to  be  admitted  by  us 
for  the  service  and  special  employment  of  the  said  Council  in  the  course  of 
trade  and  commerce,  who  shall  enjoy  such  liberties  and  immunities  as  are 
thereunto  belonging.'") 

It  is  not  impossible  that  the  grant  to  the  six  friends  of  Mr.  White,  for 
purposes  of  settlement,  was  a  modification  of  the  idea  of  admitting  six  mer- 
chants to  partnership  for  the  sake  of  their  practical  utility.  There  is  a 
degree  of  mystery  attending  the  transaction  for  which  no  means  of  positive 
solution  exist. 

It  is  expressly  charged  by  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  that  changes  were 
privately  made  in  the  terms  and  extent  of  the  grant,  through  some  influence 
of  which  he  was  not  cognizant,  affecting  his  own  interests  and  those  of  his 
son.  He  says  that  the  Council  for  New  England  were  in  a  state  of  "  such 
a  disheartened  weakness  as  there  only  remained  a  carcass  in  a  manner 
breathless,  when  there  were  certain  that  desired  a  patent  of  some  lands  in 
Massachusetts  Bay  to  plant  upon,  who  presenting  the  names  of  honest  and 
religious  men  easily  obtained  their  first  desires  ;  but,  these  being  once  got- 
ten, they  used  other  means  to  advance  themselves  a  step  from  beyond  their 
first  proportions  to  a  second  grant  surreptitiously  gotten  of  other  lands  also 
justly  passed  unto  some  of  us,  who  were  all  thrust  out  by  these  intruders 
that  had  exorbitantly  bounded  their  grant  from  East  to  West  through  all 
that  main  land  from  sea  to  sea.  .  .  .  But  herewith  not  yet  being  content, 
they  obtained,  unknown  to  us,  a  confirmation  of  all  this  from  His  Majesty, 
by  which  means  they  did  not  only  enlarge  their  first  extents  .  .  .  but  wholly 
excluded  themselves  from  the  publick  government  of  the  Council  authorized 
for  those  affairs,  and  made  themselves  a  free  people."  l 

In  their  irregular  modes  of  doing  business,  the  execution  of  papers  was 
often  left  to  different  officers  or  members  of  the  Council,  the  seal  serving  as 
a  sufficient  emblem  of  authority.  Especially  must  this  have  been  the  case 
in  the  period  of  which  no  record  remains,  between  1624  and  1629,  when  the 
Council  was  compared  by  Gorges  to  "  a  dead  carcass." 

It  seems  to  have  been  the  impression  of  the  Council,  as  represented  by 
Gorges,  their  most  active  member,  that  the  grant  to  the  friends  of  Mr.  White 
was  intended  to  be  merely  a  place  for  a  settlement  in  Massachusetts  Bay, 
where  they  were  to  be  subject  to  the  authority  of  the  Council  and  to  serve 
the  interests  of  that  body  as  the  six  merchants  before  mentioned  might  have 
done ;  the  enlargement  of  territory  and  privileges  being  the  private  work 

1  Resignation  of  the  Great  Charter  of  New     [The  document  of  resignation  is  given  in  Ha/- 
England,  April  25,  1635,  in  Proceedings  of  the     ard's  Historical  Collections  i.  390. — ED.] 
American    Antiquarian    Society,    April,    1867. 


96  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

of  some  friend  or  friends,  whose  position  in  the  Council  gave  the  power  to 
make  such  changes.  There  is  but  one  person,  so  far  as  known,  whose  offi- 
cial relation  to  the  Council  would  enable  him  to  accomplish  that  purpose, 
and  whose  personal  interest  in  the  object  would  have  prompted  the  act. 
The  Earl  of  Warwick  was  an  ardent  promoter  of  the  Puritan  movement. 
When  the  records,  which  closed  in  June,  1623,  with  a  formal  division  of  New 
England  among  the  remnant  of  the  patentees,  (twenty  from  the  original 
forty),  commence  again  in  November  1631,  the  Earl  of  Warwick  is  president, 
his  predecessor,  Gorges,  being  treasurer.  The  old  names  have  mostly  dis- 
appeared from  the  minutes  of  the  meetings,  which  were  held  at  Warwick 
House,  where  very  few,  chiefly  new  members,  were  accustomed  to  attend. 
The  books  and  papers  and  the  seal  were  in  possession  of  the  Earl,  who  for 
some  reason,  when  called  upon  to  produce  them,  omitted  to  do  so.  He  was, 
of  course,  treated  with  great  respect;  but  when  he  was  in  vain  desired  to 
"  direct  a  course  for  finding  out  what  patents  have  been  granted  for  New 
England,"  and  when  the  Great  Seal  had  been  repeatedly  called  for  without 
effect,  those  who  represented  the  pecuniary  interest  of  the  remaining  asso- 
ciates, growing  uneasy,  voted  to  hold  their  meetings  elsewhere,  and  Warwick 
appears  no  more  among  them. 

Gorges'  narrative  of  transactions  at  the  time  of  the  grant  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts Company,  printed  in  1658,  when  affairs  had  long  been  settled,  shows 
that  he  was  then  absent  from  London,  and  had  been  applied  to  by  Warwick 
for  his  consent :  — 

"  Some  of  the  discreeter  sort,  to  avoid  what  they  found  themselves  subject  unto, 
made  use  of  their  friends  to  procure  from  the  Council  for  the  affairs  of  New  England 
to  settle  a  colony  within  their  limits ;  to  which  it  pleased  the  thrice-honored  Lord  of 
Warwick  to  write  to  me,  then  at  Plymouth,  to  condescend  that  a  patent  might  be 
granted  to  such  as  then  sued  for  it.  Whereupon  I  gave  my  approbation  so  far  forth 
as  it  might  not  be  prejudicial  to  my  son  Robert  Gorges'  interests,  whereof  he  had 
a  patent  under  the  seal  of  the  Council.1  Hereupon  there  was  a  grant  passed  as  was 
thought  reasonable ;  but  the  same  was  aftenvards  enlarged  by  His  Majesty  and  con- 
firmed under  the  great  seal  of  England." 

It  might  very  well  happen,  in  their  careless  way  of  conducting  such  oper- 
ations, that  a  vote  of  those  present  at  the  meeting  of  the  Council  would 
empower  the  President,  or  a  Committee,  to  execute  an  instrument  according 
to  their  judgment  of  what  was  advisable  and  proper.  The  alleged  interests 
of  Robert  Gorges  were  doubtless  believed  to  possess  no  legal  validity. 
Under  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  and  regarding  the  Council  as  incapa- 
ble of  accomplishing  any  successful  results  by  its  own  efforts,  the  bold  idea 
of  creating  an  independent  proprietorship,  of  liberal  extent,  for  actual  settle- 

1  The  patent  of  Robert  Gorges,  conveying  Mass.  p.  51 ;  Mass.  Archives,  Lands,  i.  i ;  3  Mass. 
ten  miles  in  length  and  thirty  miles  into  the  Hist.  Coll.  vi.  [Cf.  Mr.  C.  F.  Adams  Jr.'s  chap- 
land  on  the  northeast  side  of  Massachusetts  ter  in  the  present  volume.  A  reprint  of  Gorges 
Hay,  was  disregarded  by  subsequent  grantees  will  be  found  in  3  Massachusetts  Historical  Col- 
as  invalid,  partly  for  its  uncertainty.  Hutchin-  lections,  vi.,  and  in  Maine  Historical  Collections, 
son,  Hist,  of  Mass.  i.  14;  Young,  Chronicles  of  iii.  —  El).] 


THE   MASSACHUSETTS   COMPANY.  97 

ment  by  an  earnest  body  of  men,  might  naturally  and  honestly  appear  to  the 
Earl  of  Warwick  to  present  the  wisest  course  for  the  Council  to  adopt.  In 
view  of  the  Council's  probable  dissolution,  he  might  also  deem  it  advisable 
that  the  records  of  the  many  irregular  proceedings,  causing  confusion  and 
conflict  of  titles,  should  not  be  left  as  the  seeds  of  future  controversy.  The 
account  books  and  registers  of  the  corporation  have  disappeared,  and  what  are 
called  the  Records  are  supposed  to  be  only  transcripts  used  in  the  Parliamen- 
tary examinations  to  which  the  Council  were  subjected.  Whether  placed  in 
some  secret  depository  at  Warwick  House,  or  committed  to  the  flames,  they 
carry  with  them  the  history  of  a  multitude  of  ineffectual  endeavors,  from 
which  only  two  of  their  members,  Gorges  and  Mason,  reaped  any  perma- 
nent results ;  and  these  were  in  localities  not  interfering  with  the  claims  and 
rights  of  the  Massachusetts  Company.  The  rise  of  this  company,  limited  as 
it  was,  comparatively,  in  its  jurisdiction,  is  considered  as  giving  the  death- 
blow to  the  Great  Council  for  New  England.  That  unwieldy  corporation, 
after  seeking  in  vain  to  cause  a  revocation  of  the  Massachusetts  Charter, 
ultimately  declared  it  to  be  a  reason  for  the  surrender  of  their  own.1 

Besides  the  persons  named  in  the  charter  from  the  Crown,  additional  to 
the  six  original  grantees,  many  persons  of  wealth  and  consideration  came 
forward  to  promote  its  design.  Headquarters,  as  had  been  the  case  with 
the  Council  for  New  England,  were  established  at  London,  and  before  the 
royal  sanction  had  been  officially  secured  operations  were  fairly  in  progress. 
Yet  it  was  only  at  great  cost  and  by  means  of  high  influence  that  the  over- 
ruling grant  from  the  Throne  was  carried  through  its  formalities,  and  passed 
the  seals  on  the  4th  of  March,  1629.  Thus  nearly  a  year  had  passed 
since  the  grant  from  the  Council  on  the  I9th  of  March,  i628.2  But  the 
Company  did  not  wait  for  either  of  these  legal  securities.  The  first  date 
in  their  records  is  March  16,  1628,  when  without  organization  they  were  en- 
gaged in  fitting  out  Endicott's  expedition.  He  sailed  on  the  2Oth  of  June 
following.  Favorable  letters  being  received  from  him  on  Feb.  13,  1629, 
preparations  were  hastened  for  another  and  larger  emigration.  Endicott 
was  made  Governor  of  the  Colony,  and  a  form  of  government  drawn  up  for 
his  direction.3  On  the  23rd  of  March,  letters  were  received  from  Isaac 

1  [The  declaration  of  reasons,  &c.,  will   be          8  It  was  just  at  this  point  of  time  that  the 
found  in  Hazard's  Collections,  i.     A  manuscript  men  from  Lincolnshire  and  other  eastern  coun- 
of  this  declaration  is  in  the  Massachusetts  His-  ties,  encouraged  by  Endicott's  letters,  present- 
torical    Society's   cabinet. — Proceedings,   April,  ed  themselves  for  admission  to  the  Company. 
1868,  p.  161. —  ED.]  "2d  March,  1628-29.     Also  it  being  propounded 

2  [It  was  under  this  grant  that  the  limits  of  by  Mr.   Coney  in  behalf  of   the  Boston   men 
Massachusetts  were  fixed  three  miles  north  of  (whereof  divers  had  promised,  though   not  in 
the  Merrimac,  —  a  trace  of  which  remains  in  the  our  book  underwritten)  to  adventure  ^400  for 
zigzag  line  of  our  present  northeastern  boundary,  the  common  stock,  that  now  their  desire  was 
following  a  parallel  of  the  river.     The  southern  that  10  persons  of  them  might  underwrite  ^25  a 
bounds  were  three  miles  south  of  the  Charles,  and  man  in  the  joint  stock,  they  withal  promising 
gave  rise  to  much  dispute  with  the  Ply- 
mouth people.     The  tortuous  river,  with 

all  its  southern  affluents,  offered  ground 
for  much  diversity  of  opinion.     See  Brad- 
ford's Plymouth  Plantation,  p.  369.  —  ED.] 
VOL.   I.—  13. 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


Johnson,  a  son-in-law  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  giving  notice  that  "  one  Mr. 
Higgeson,  of  Leicester,  an  able  minister,  proffers  to  go  to  our  plantation." 
On  the  8th  of  April  Francis  Higginson  and  Samuel  Skelton  sign  an 
agreement  to  that  end;  and  on  the  25th  the  second  expedition  set  sail, 
carrying  those  ministers  and  three  hundred  passengers  with  them.1 

On  the  28th  of  July  Governor  Cradock  "  read  certain  propositions,  con- 
ceived by  himself,"  giving  reasons  for  transferring  the  government  to  Mas- 
sachusetts ;  but  at  this  point  another  writer  takes  up  the  story  in  the  follow- 
ing chapter. 

Thus  the  Massachusetts  Company  in  England,  having  accomplished  its 
great  purpose,  was  merged  in  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  Those 
members  who  remained  in  the  mother  country  retained  an  organization, 
and  endeavored  by  small  appropriations  of  land  and  some  advantages  of 
trade  to  leave  chances  of  compensation  for  the  money  they  had  expended. 
Nothing,  however,  ever  came  of  those  uncertain  provisions.  No  list  of 
members  was  entered  in  their  records ;  but  among  the  names  casually  men- 
tioned (about  one  hundred  in  number),  as  contributors  or  associates,1  will 
be  found  many  prominently  connected  with  the  revolutionary  events  which 
changed  the  kingdom  of  Great  Britain  to  a  commonwealth.2 


with  those  ships  to  adventure  in  their  particular 
alone  above  -£250  more,  and  to  provide  able  men 
to  send  over  for  managing  the  business." — Mass. 
Company  Records.  [The  instructions  to  Endicott 
are  given  in  the  Mass.  Records,  i.  2,  ii.  383  ;  Amer. 
Antiq.  Soc.  Coll.,  iii.  79;  and  in  Hazard's  Collec- 
tions, i.  236,  359.  The  original  authorities  on 
this  settlement  are  these :  A  Narrative  of  the 
Planting  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  which 
Joshua  Scottow,  then  in  a  somewhat  senile 
frame  of  mind,  but  who  had  been  a  well-to-do 
and  active  Boston  merchant  for  many  years, 
printed  in  1694.  There  are  copies  of  the  orig- 
inal edition  in  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society's  library  (Proceedings,  i.  447),  and  it  is 
printed  in  their  Collections,  fourth  series,  iv. 
(Mr.  Savage  gives  a  notice  of  Scottow  in  2 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  iv.  100.  Cf.  Tyler's  American 
Literature,  i.  94.)  Johnson's  Wonderworking 
Prm'idence,  noticed  elsewhere  in  this  volume. 
Higginson's  New  England  Plantation,  July  to 
September,  1629,  of  which  three  editions  were  is- 
sued in  1630  (all  are  in  the  Lenox  Library;  copies 
also  in  Harvard  College  Library,  &c.) ;  and  it  is 
reprinted  in  Young,  Force's  Tracts,  i.,  and  in 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  i.  There  is  a  second-hand  ac- 
count in  Morton's  Memorial.  There  has  been 
some  unsatisfactory  controversy  as  to  whom  the 


title  of  first  Governor  of  Massachusetts  rightfully 
belongs,  but  it  has  all  arisen  from  a  lack  of  clear 
perception  of  the  facts,  or  from  inexactness  of 
terms.  The  conditions  are  clearly  stated  in  the 
following  chapter.  Cf.,  further,  S.  F.  Haven  in 
Amer.  Antiq.  Soc.  Coll.,  iii.  p.  c. ;  Savage's  note 
to  Winthrop's  New  England,  ii.  200;  Gray, 
Mass  Reports,  ix.  451 ;  R.  C.  Winthrop's  Life  of 
John  Winlhrop,  i.  ch.  xvii.,  ii.  ch.  ii. ;  Essex  In- 
stitute Hist.  Coll.,  v.  and  viii.  —  ED.] 

1  Mass.  Company  Records. 

'2  The  Records  (so  called)  of  the  Council  for 
New  England  may  be  found  in  the  Proceedings 
of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society  of  April, 
1867,  and  October,  1875,  edited  by  Mr.  Deane, 
whose  able  exposition  of  the  character  and  ter- 
mination of  both  corporations  occupies  a  follow- 
ing chapter  of  the  present  work.  [The  reader 
is  also  referred  to  Dr.  Haven's  paper  on 
the  origin  of  the  Massachusetts  Company  in 
the  American  Antiquarian  Society's  Collections, 
iii.,  and  to  his  "History  of  the  Grants  under  the 
Great  Council  for  New  England,"  in  the  Lowell 
Lectures,  1869,  by  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society.  The  Records  of  the  Massachusetts 
Company  are  printed  in  the  Afiiss.  Records,  pub- 
lished by  the  State,  i.  21,  and  in  Young's  Chron- 
icles of  Mass.  — ED.) 


CHAPTER    II. 

BOSTON     FOUNDED. 

1630-1649. 

BY     THE     HON.     ROBERT     C.     WINTHROP,     LL.D., 

President  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society, 

r  I  ^HE  History  of  The  Massachusetts  Bay  Company  has  been  brought 
-L  down,  in  a  previous  chapter,  to  the  last  week  of  the  month  of  July, 
1629.  On  the  28th  day  of  that  month,  a  momentous  movement,  fraught 
with  most  important  results  for  the  infant  Colony,  was  made  in  the  General 
Court  of  the  Company.  At  a  meeting  holden  at  the  house  of  the  Deputy- 
Governor  (Thomas  Goffe)  in  London,  Matthew  Cradock,  the  Governor  of 
the  Company,  "  read  certain  propositions  conceived  by  himself;  viz.,  that 
for  the  advancement  of  the  plantation,  the  inducing  and  encouraging 
persons  of  worth  and  quality  to  transplant  themselves  and  families  thither, 
and  for  other  weighty  reasons  therein  contained,  to  transfer  the  govern- 
ment of  the  plantation  to  those  that  shall  inhabit  there,  and  not  to  con- 
tinue the  same  in  subordination  to  the  Company  here,  as  it  now  is." 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  Paper  containing  these  propositions 
is  not  to  be  found,  but  the  language  thus  given  from  the  original  Records 
indicates,  clearly  and  precisely,  the  condition  of  things  then  existing  in  the 
Plantation  at  Salem,  and  the  radical  change  which  was  contemplated  by 
Governor  Cradock.  The  Government  then  existing  at  Salem  is  styled  a 
Government  "  in  subordination  to  the  Company  here ;  "  that  is,  in  London. 
The  proposition  of  Cradock  was,  that  this  Government  shall  no  longer  be 
"  continued  as  it  now  is,"  but  shall  be  "  transferred  to  those  that  shall 
inhabit  there." 

The  proposition  was  too  important  to  be  the  subject  of  hasty  decision, 
and  the  Records  state  that,  "  by  reason  of  the  many  great  and  considerable 
consequences  thereupon  depending,  it  was  not  now  resolved  upon."  The 
members  of  the  Company  were  requested  to  consider  it  "  privately  and 
seriously;"  "to  set  down  their  particular  reasons  pro  et  contra,  and  to 
produce  the  same  at  the  next  General  Court;  where,  they  being  reduced 
to  heads  and  maturely  considered  of,  the  Company  may  then  proceed  to 
a  final  resolution  thereon."  In  the  mean  time,  the  members  were  "  desired 
to  carry  this  business  secretly,  that  the  same  be  not  divulged." 


100  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

This  call  for  "  private  and  serious  "  consideration  ;  this  demand  for  par- 
ticular reasons,  on  both  sides,  set  down  in  writing;  and  this  solemn  in- 
junction of  secrecy,  —  furnish  abundant  proof  that  the  Company  understood 
how  important  and  how  bold  a  measure  their  Governor  had  proposed  to 
them.  It  was  no  mere  measure  of  emigration  or  colonization.  It  was 
a  measure  of  government;  of  self-government;  of  virtual  independence. 
It  clearly  foreshadowed  that  spirit  of  impatience  under  foreign  control 
which,  at  a  later  day,  was  to  pervade  not  only  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,  but  the  whole  American  Continent. 

The  General  Court  of  the  Company  now  adjourned,  as  usual,  to  the 
following  month.-  They  met  again,  to  consider  this  momentous  matter,  on 
the  28th  day  of  August,  1629;  but  the  interval  had  not  been  unimproved 
by  those  who  desired  to  have  it  wisely  and  rightly  decided.  It  had  cost 
them,  we  may  well  believe,  many  an  anxious  hour  of  deliberation  and 
consultation ;  and,  two  days  only  before  the  meeting  of  the  Court,  an 
Agreement  had  been  finally  drawn  up  and  subscribed,  which  was  to  settle 
the  whole  question. 

This  Agreement  was  entered  into  and  executed  at  Cambridge,  beneath 
the  shadows,  and  probably  within  the  very  walls,  of  that  venerable  University 
of  Old  England,  to  which  New  England  was  destined  to  owe  so  many  of 
her  brightest  luminaries  and  noblest  benefactors.  It  bore  date  August  26, 
1629 ;  and  was  in  the  following  words :  — 

THE  AGREEMENT  AT  CAMBRIDGE. 

"  Upon  due  consideration  of  the  state  of  the  Plantation  now  in  hand  for  New 
England,  wherein  we,  whose  names  are  hereunto  subscribed,  have  engaged  ourselves, 
and  having  weighed  the  greatness  of  the  work  in  regard  of  the  consequence,  God's 
glory  and  the  Church's  good ;  as  also  in  regard  of  the  difficulties  and  discourage- 
ments which  in  all  probabilities  must  be  forecast  upon  the  prosecution  of  this  busi- 
ness ;  considering  withal  that  this  whole  adventure  grows  upon  the  joint  confidence 
we  have  in  each  other's  fidelity  and  resolution  herein,  so  as  no  man  of  us  would  have 
adventured  it  without  assurance  of  the  rest ;  now,  for  the  better  encouragement  of 
ourselves  and  others  that  shall  join  with  us  in  this  action,  and  to  the  end  that  every 
man  may  without  scruple  dispose  of  his  estate  and  affairs  as  may  best  fit  his  prepara- 
tion for  this  voyage  ;  it  is  fully  and  faithfully  AGREED  amongst  us,  and  every  one  of 
us  doth  hereby  freely  and  sincerely  promise  and  bind  himself,  in  the  word  of  a 
Christian,  and  in  the  presence  of  God,  who  is  the  searcher  of  all  hearts,  that  we  will 
so  really  endeavor  the  prosecution  of  this  work,  as  by  God's  assistance,  we  will  be 
ready  in  our  persons,  and  with  such  of  our  several  families  as  are  to  go  with  us,  and 
such  provision  as  we  are  able  conveniently  to  furnish  ourselves  withal,  to  embark  for 
the  said  Plantation  by  the  first  of  March  next,  at  such  port  or  ports  of  this  land  as 
shall  be  agreed  upon  by  the  Company,  to  the  end  to  pass  the  Seas,  (under  God's 
protection,)  to  inhabit  and  continue  in  New  England  :  Provided  always,  that  before 
the  last  of  September  next,  the  whole  Government,  together  with  the  patent  for  the 
said  Plantation,  be  first,  by  an  order  of  Court,  legally  transferred  and  established  to 
remain  with  us  and  others  which  shall  inhabit  upon  the  said  Plantation  ;  and  provided, 


BOSTON    FOUNDED.  IO£ 

also,  that  if  any  shall  be  hindered  by  such  just  and  inevitable  let  or  other  cause,  to  be 
allowed  by  three  parts  of  four  of  these  whose  names  are  hereunto  subscribed,  then 
such  persons,  for  such  times  and  during  such  lets,  to  be  discharged  of  this  bond. 
And  we  do  further  promise,  every  one  for  himself,  that  shall  fail  to  be  ready  through 
his  own  default  by  the  day  appointed,  to  pay  for  every  day's  default  the  sum  of  ^3, 
to  the  use  of  the  rest  of  the  company  who  shall  be  ready  by  the  same  day  and  time. 

"(Signed)  RICHARD  SALTONSTALL,  THOMAS  SHARPE, 

THOMAS  DUDLEY,  INCREASE  NOWELL, 

WILLIAM  VASSALL,  JOHN  WINTHROP, 

NICHOLAS  WEST,  WILLIAM  PINCHON, 

ISAAC  JOHNSON,  KELLAM  BROWNE, 

JOHN  HUMFREY,  WILLIAM  COLBRON." 

The  leading  Proviso  of  this  memorable  agreement  must  not  fail  to  be 
noted :  — 

"  Provided  always,  that  before  the  last  of  September  next,  the  whole  Government, 
together  with  the  patent  for  the  said  Plantation,  be  first,  by  an  order  of  Court,  legally 
transferred  and  established  to  remain  with  us  and  others  which  shall  inhabit  upon 
the  said  Plantation." 

This  was  the  great  condition  upon  which  Saltonstall,  and  Dudley,  and 
Johnson,  and  Winthrop,  and  the  rest,  agreed  so  solemnly  "  to  pass  the 
seas  (under  God's  protection),  to  inhabit  and  continue  in  New  England." 

They  were  not  proposing  to  go  to  New  England  as  adventurers  or 
traffickers ;  not  for  the  profits  of  a  voyage,  or  the  pleasure  of  a  visit ;  but 
"  to  inhabit  and  continue "  there.  And  they  were  unwilling  to  do  this 
while  any  merely  subordinate  jurisdiction  was  to  be  exercised  there,  as 
was  now  the  case,  and  while  they  would  be  obliged  to  look  to  a  Governor 
and  Company  in  London  for  supreme  authority.  They  were  resolved,  if 
they  went  at  all,  to  carry  "  the  whole  Government"  with  them. 

Accordingly,  at  the  meeting  of  the  General  Court  of  the  Company  on 
the  28th  of  August  (two  days  only  after  this  Agreement  was  signed), 
Mr.  Deputy,  in  the  Governor's  absence,  acquainted  the  Court  "  that  the 
especial  cause  of  their  meeting  was  to  give  answer  to  divers  gentlemen, 
intending  to  go  into  New  England,  whether  or  no  the  Chief  Government 
of  the  Plantation,  together  with  the  Patent,  should  be  settled  in  New 
England,  or  here."  Two  Committees  were  thereupon  appointed  to  pre- 
pare arguments,  the  one  "  for  "  and  the  other  "  against "  "  the  settling  of 
the  chief  government  in  New  England,"  with  instructions  to  meet  the 
next  morning,  at  seven  of  the  clock,  to  confer  and  weigh  each  other's 
arguments,  and  afterwards  to  make  report  to  the  whole  Company.  On 
the  next  morning,  at  the  early  hour  which  had  been  appointed,  the 
Committees  met  together,  and  debated  their  arguments  and  reasons  on 
both  sides;  and  after  a  long  discussion  in  presence  of  the  Company,  Mr. 
Deputy  put  it  to  the  question  as  follows :  - 


102  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

"  As  many  of  you  as  desire  to  have  the  patent  and  the  government  of  the  Plan- 
tation to  be  transferred  to  New  England,  so  as  it  may  be  done  legally,  hold  up  your 
hands ;  so  many  as  will  not,  hold  up  your  hands." 

And  thereupon  the  decision  of  the  question  is  thus  entered  upon  the 
Records :  — 

"  Where,  by  erection  of  hands,  it  appeared,  by  the  general  consent  of  the  Com- 
pany, that  the  government  and  patent  should  be  settled  in  New  England,  and 
accordingly  an  order  to  be  drawn  up." 

Nearly  two  months  more  were  still  to  intervene  before  this  declaration 
of  Independence  was  to  assume  a  more  practical  shape.  Many  incidental 
arrangements  occupied  the  attention  of  the  Company  at  their  meetings  in 
September  and  October.  On  the  2oth  of  this  latter  month,  however 
(1629),  a  further  step  forward  was  taken,  and  one  which  betokened  that 
there  were  to  be  no  steps  backward,  —  "  nulla  vestigia  rctrorsum"  On 
that  day,  Governor  Cradock  "  acquainted  those  present  that  the  especial 
^-^  occasion  of  summoning  this  Court  was  for 

I     Jvi^fr/fcCf, »JL/» 3P,jQ Jj_        *lie  election  of  a  new  Governor,  Deputy, 

V/\         "^^tfW'Vr        -   ancj   Assistants;    the    Government   being 

^  to    be    transferred    into    New    England, 

according  to  the  former  order  and   resolution  of  the  Company ;  "  —  and 

soon  afterwards,  some  other  business  having  been   previously  transacted, 

the  following  entry  is  found  in  the  Records :  — 

"  And  now  the  Court,  proceeding  to  the  election  of  a  new  Governor,  Deputy,  and 
Assistants,  —  which,  upon  serious  deliberation,  hath  been  and  is  conceived  to  be  for 
the  especial  good  and  advancement  of  their  affairs  ;  and  having  received  extraordinary 
great  commendations  of  Mr.  JOHN  WvNTHROP,1  both  for  his  integrity  and  sufficiency, 
as  being  one  every  (way)  well  fitted  and  accomplished  for  the  place  of  Governor,  — 
did  put  in  nomination  for  that  place  the  said  Mr.  John  Winthrop,  Sir  R.  Saltonstall, 
Mr.  Is.  Johnson,  and  Mr.  John  Humfry  :  and  the  said  Mr.  Winthrop  was,  with  a 
general  vote,  and  full  consent  of  this  Court,  by  erection  of  hands,  chosen  to  be 
Governor  for  the  ensuing  year,  to  begin  on  this  present  day ;  who  was  pleased  to 
accept  thereof,  and  thereupon  took  the  oath  to  that  place  appertaining." 

Mr.  John  Humfrey  was  then,  in  like  manner,  chosen  Deputy-Governor; 
and  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Mr.  Isaac  Johnson,  Mr.  Thomas  Dudley,  Mr. 
John  Endicott,  and  fourteen  others,  were  chosen  to  be  Assistants. 

John  Winthrop,  who  was  thus,  on  the  2Oth  day  of  October,  1629,  old 
style,  or  the  3Oth,  as  we  should  now  reckon  it,  unanimously  elected  Gov- 
ernor of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Company,  and  with  whose  career  and 
character  the  fortunes  of  Massachusetts  were  to  be  so  closely  associated 
for  the  next  twenty  years,  was  then  in  the  forty-first  year  of  his  age. 
He  was  born  at  Edwardston,  near  Groton,  in  Suffolk,  on  the  I2th  day  of 

1  The  name  of  Winthrop  is  spelled  three  or  four  different  ways  in  these  Records.  This 
very  paragraph  uses  y  in  one  line,  and  /'  in  others.  And  so  it  is  with  other  names. 


BOSTON    FOUNDED.  103 

January,  1587,  old  style,  or,  as,it  would  now  be  counted,  the  22d  of  January, 
1588.  His  grandfather,  Adam  Winthrop,  the  second  of  that  name  on  the 
family  pedigree,  was  a  wealthy  Clothier  of  Suffolk,  to  whom  the  Manor 
of  Groton  had  been  granted  by  Henry  VIII.  in  1544,  immediately  after 
the  Reformation,  of  which  he  and  his  family  were  zealous  supporters, 
and  he  had  been  Master  of  the  great  Cloth  Workers'  Company  in  London, 
in  1551.  His  third  son,  Adam,  —  a  lawyer,  who  had  graduated  at  Mag- 
dalen College,  Cambridge,  and  had  been  afterwards  connected  with  that 
University  as  Auditor  of  Trinity  and  St.  John's  Colleges,  —  married,  in 
1574,  Alice  Still,  a  sister  of  Dr.  John  Still,  then  Master  of  Trinity,  and 
afterwards  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells.  She  dying,  without  surviving  issue, 
he  married,  secondly,  Anne,  a  daughter  of  Henry  Browne  of  Edwardston. 
Of  this  marriage,  John,  the  Governor,  was  the  only  son.  There  is  ample 
evidence,  in  his  life  and  writings,  that  he  must  have  enjoyed  a  good 
education ;  but  it  has  not  been  ascertained  at  what  schools  it  was  com- 
menced, or  how  far  it  was  prosecuted  beneath  the  paternal  roof.  But 
we  learn  from  his  father's  Diary  that  he  was  admitted  into  Trinity  Col- 
lege, Cambridge,  on  the  8th  of  December,  1602,  and  that  he  remained 
at  the  University  for  two  years.  An  early  love-match  prevented  him 
from  staying  to  take  a  Degree.  He  was  married  on  the  i6th  of  April, 
1604,  in  the  first  half  of  his  eighteenth  year,  to  Mary  Forth,  daughter 
and  sole  heiress  of  John  Forth,  Esq.,  of  Great  Stambridge,  in  the  County 
of  Essex. 

Of  the  life  of  Winthrop  for  the  next  ten  or  twelve  years  but  few  details 
are  to  be  found,  and  those  chiefly  of  a  domestic  character.  He  resided  for 
several  years  with  his  wife's  family  at  Great  Stambridge.  The  wife  of  his 
youth  bore  him  six  children,  the  eldest  of  whom,  born  on  the  22d  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1606,  is  known  to  history  as  the  Governor  of  Connecticut.  Nine 
years  afterwards,  in  1615,  his  wife  died,  and  he  was  left  a  widower,  in  his 
twenty-eighth  year.  After  an  interval  of  less  than  a  year  (according  to  the 
customs  of  that  period),  he  was  married  again  to  Thomasine  Clopton, 
daughter  of  William  Clopton,  Esq.,  of  Castleins,  a  seat  near  Groton.  But 
a  year  and  a  day  only  had  elapsed  since  her  marriage,  when  she  and  her 
infant  child  were  committed  to  the  grave.  No  wonder  that,  under  such 
successive  and  severe  bereavements,  his  spirit  should  have  been  sorely 
tried.  No  wonder  that  he  was  oppressed  with  melancholy,  and  that  he 
should  have  been  led  to  conceive  and  entertain  many  misgivings  as  to 
his  religious  condition.  He  gave  himself  to  the  study  of  divinity,  and 
seriously  contemplated  an  abandonment  of  his  profession  as  a  lawyer, 
with  a  view  to  take  orders  as  a  clergyman.  His  "  Religious  Experiences," 
as  recorded  by  himself  from  time  to  time,  during  a  period  of  three  years, 
furnish  a  striking  testimony  to  his  Christian  faith  and  character,  and  have 
a  charm  not  unlike  that  which  belongs  to  the  devotional  writings  of  Baxter 
or  Bunyan.  But  his  father  and  friends  dissuaded  him  from  any  change  of 
his  profession ;  and  we  find  him,  not  many  years  afterwards,  discharging 


104  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

his  duties  as  a  justice  of  the  peace,  following  the  circuits,  holding  a  court 
as  Lord  of  the  Manor  of  Groton,  admitted  as  a  member  of  the  Inner  Tem- 
ple in  London,  preparing  papers  for  parliamentary  committees,  and  exer- 
cising the  office  of  an  attorney  of  the  Court  of  Wards  and  Liveries,  of 
which  Sir  Robert  Naunton  was  then  Master.  Meantime  he  was  once  more 
married,  in  1618,  to  Margaret,  the  daughter  of  Sir  John  Tyndal,  knight, 

of  Great  Maplested,  in  the 

//    r  -/•  r      county  of  Essex,  who   was 

«  0,20  , 

happily     destined      to      be 

*?"**  to  IT, as  •". affe<- 

tionate  and  devoted  wife 
for  thirty  years.  Eleven 
or  twelve  of  those  years  were  passed  in  England ;  and  the  idea  of  leaving 
their  native  land  for  a  remote  and  unsettled  region  in  another  hemisphere 
was  hardly  in  the  dreams  of  either  of  them  until  the  occasion  presented 
itself.  Winthrop  was  not  one  of  the  original  Massachusetts  Company. 
His  name  was  not  with  those  of  Cradock  and  Saltonstall  and  Humfry  and 
Isaac  Johnson  and  Endicott  in  the  Massachusetts  Charter,  signed  in  behalf 
of  Charles  I.  on  the  4th  of  March,  1628-29.  Nor  does  he  seem  to  have 
been  associated  with  them  as  an  adventurer  in  the  joint  stock  of  the  Com- 
pany. But  now  that  a  great  responsibility  was  to  be  incurred  and  a  bold 
step  taken,  in  transferring  the  Patent  and  the  whole  Government  to  New 
England,  he  appears  to  have  been  summoned  at  once  to  their  counsels, 
and  at  the  earliest  practicable  moment  to  have  been  invested  with  their 
Chief  Magistracy. 

He  said  of  himself,  on  a  most  solemn  occasion,  a  few  years  after  his 
arrival  in  New  England :  "  I  was  first  chosen  to  be  Governor,  without  my 
seeking  or  expectation,  —  there  being  then  divers  other  gentlemen  who, 
for  their  abilities  every  way,  were  far  more  fit."  Those  gentlemen,  how- 
ever, were  of  a  different  opinion ;  and  he  was  obliged  to  confess,  in  his 
little  memorandum  of  private  and  personal  self-communings,  that  "  it  is 
come  to  that  issue,  as,  in  all  probabilitye,  the  welfare  of  the  Plantation 
depends  upon  my  assistance:  for  the  maine  pillars  of  it,  beinge  gentlemen 
of  high  qualitye  and  eminent  parts,  bothe  for  wisdom  and  Godlinesse,  are 
determined  to  sit  still  if  I  deserte  them." 

But  the  considerations  which  induced  Winthrop  and  the  other  signers 
of  the  Cambridge  Agreement  to  come  over  to  New  England  were  of  no 
mere  private  or  personal  character.  They  had  relation  to  the  condition  of 
England  at  that  day,  —  its  social,  moral,  religious,  and  political  condition. 
Charles  I.  was  just  entering  on  that  course  of  absolute  government  which 
brought  him  at  last  to  the  block.  Forced  loans  and  illegal  taxes  were 
imposed  and  extorted.  Buckingham  had  just  fallen  beneath  the  stroke  of 
an  assassin ;  but  Strafford  stood  ready  to  replace  him  as  the  tool  of  despot- 
ism. Laud,  already  Bishop  of  London,  and  virtually  Primate,  was  assert- 
ing the  Divine  right  of  Kings  for  his  Master,  and  assuming  the  whole  power 


BOSTON    FOUNDED.  105 

of  the  Church  for  himself.  Puritanism  was  his  pet  aversion.  Parliament 
was  dissolved,  and  the  King's  intention  announced  of  ruling  without  one. 
Proclamations,  Star  Chamber  and  High  Commission  Courts,  were  to  be  the 
only  instruments  of  government.  The  Marshalsea  and  the  Gate-House 
were  crowded  with  gentlemen  who  had  refused  to  yield  to  arbitrary  exac- 
tions. Free  Speech  was  the  special  subject  of  proscription ;  and  the  brave 
Sir  John  Eliot  was  doomed  to  linger  out  his  few  remaining  years  and  die  in 
the  Tower.  Winthrop  gives  a  faint  impression  of  all  this  in  a  letter  to  his 
wife,  dated  May  15,  1629,  as  follows:  — 

"  It  is  a  great  favour,  that  we  may  enjoye  so  much  comfort  &  peace  in  these  so 
evill  &  declining  tymes,  &  when  the  increasinge  of  our  sinnes  gives  us  so  great  cause 
to  looke  for  some  heavye  scourge  &  Judgment  to  be  coininge  upon  us :  The  Lorde 
hath  admonished,  threatened,  corrected,  &  astonished  us,  yet  we  growe  worse  &  worse, 
so  as  his  Spirit  will  not  allwayes  strive  with  us,  he  must  needs  give  waye  to  his  furye  at 
last :  He  hath  smitten  all  the  other  Churches  before  our  eyes,  &  hath  made  them  to 
drinke  of  the  bitter  cuppe  of  tribulatid,  even  unto  death.  We  sawe  this,  &  humbled 
not  ourselves,  to  turne  from  our  evill  wayes,  but  have  provoked  him  more  than  all  the 
nations  rounde  about  us :  therefore  he  is  turninge  the  Cuppe  towards  us  also,  &  be- 
cause we  are  the  last,  our  portion  must  be,  to  drinke  the  verye  dreggs  which  remaine  : 
My  dear  wife,  I  am  veryly  persuaded,  God  will  bringe  some  heavye  Affliction  upon 
this  lande,  &  that  speedylye  :  but  be  of  good  comfort,  the  hardest  that  can  come  shall 
be  a  meanes  to  mortifie  this  bodye  of  corruption,  which  is  a  thousand  tymes  more 
dangerous  to  us  then  any  outward  tribulation,  &  to  bring  us  into  nearer  comunion 
with  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  &  more  assurance  of  his  kingdome.  If  the  Lord  seeth 
it  wilbe  good  for  us,  he  will  provide  a  shelter  &  a  hidinge  place  for  us  &  others,  as  a 
Zoar  for  Lott,  Sarephtah  for  his  prophet,  &c. :  if  not,  yet  he  will  not  forsake  us  :  though 
he  correct  us  with  the  roddes  of  men,  yet  if  he  take  not  his  mercye  &  lovinge  kind- 
nesse  from  us  we  shalbe  safe." 

In  these  words,  "  If  the  Lord  seeth  it  will  be  good  for  us,  he  will  provide 
a  shelter  and  a  hiding  place  for  us  and  others,"  is  found  the  first  intimation 
of  what  followed.  Winthrop  was  at  that  moment  engaged  in  preparing  a 
memorable  paper,  which  has  sometimes  been  ascribed  to  others,  and  which 
has  been  printed  in  more  than  one  volume,  with  many  variations  and 
abbreviations,  but  of  which  the  original  draught  has  recently  been  found 
among  his  own  manuscripts  and  in  his  own  handwriting.1  That  original 
draught  is  indorsed  "For  N.  E.  May,  1629."  It  is  sometimes  referred 
to  in  history  as  "  The  Conclusions  for  New  England,"  and  sometimes  as 
"  General  Considerations  for  the  Plantation  of  New  England."  But  its  true 
title  is,  "  Reasons  to  be  considered  for  justifying  the  undertakers  of  the 
intended  Plantation  in  New  England,  and  for  encouraging  such  whose 
hearts  God  shall  move  to  join  with  them  in  it."  The  second  of  the  Rea- 
sons is  in  terms  almost  identical  with  the  letter  just  quoted :  — 

"  2.  All  other  churches  of  Europe  are  brought  to  desolation,  &  or  sinnes,  for  wch 
the  Lord  beginnes  allreaddy  to  frowne  upon  us  &  to  cutte  us  short,  doe  threatne  evill 

1  [See  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  Proceedings,  July,  1865.  —  ED.] 
VOL.  I.  — 14. 


106  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

times  to  be  comminge  upon  us,  &  whoe  knowes,  but  that  God  hath  provided  this  place 
to  be  a  refuge  for  many  vvhome  he  meanes  to  save  out  of  the  generall  callamity,  &  see- 
inge  the  Church  hath  noe  place  lefte  to  flie  into  but  the  wildernesse,  what  better  worke 
can  there  be,  then  to  goe  &  provide  tabernacles  &  foode  for  her  against  she  comes 
thether :  " 

"  The  Church  hath  no  place  left  to  fly  into  but  the  wilderness."  This 
was  the  idea  which  had  carried  the  Pilgrims  to  Plymouth  ten  years  before, 
and  which  is  now  in  part  urging  the  Puritans  to  Massachusetts.  But 
indeed,  as  we  have  seen,  both  Church  and  State  were  now  in  peril.  Reli- 
gious and  civil  rights  alike  were  trampled  under  foot  at  home ;  and 
"  a  shelter  and  a  hiding-place "  could  only  be  sought  and  secured 
beyond  the  seas. 

Meantime,  however,  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  had  higher  and 
larger  views  than  merely  securing  a  refuge  for  themselves.  A  great 
country  was  to  be  settled  and  civilized  and  Christianized.  The  very  first 
clause  of  The  Conclusions  for  New  England,  as  prepared  by  Winthrop  in 
May,  1629,  sets  forth  that  "it  will  be  a  service  to  the  Church  of  great 
consequence  to  carry  the  Gospell  into  those  partes  of  the  World,  to  hclpe 
on  the  comminge  of  the  fulnesse  of  the  Gentiles;  "  and  a  later  Consid- 
eration, in  the  same  Paper,  is  as  follows :  — 

"  3.  It  is  the  revealed  will  of  God  that  the  Gospell  should  be  preached  to  all  nations, 
&  though  we  know  not  whether  these  Barbarians  will  receive  it  at  first  or  noe,  yet  it 
is  a  good  worke  to  serve  Gods  providence  in  offering  it  to  them  (&  this  is  fittest  to 
be  doone  by  Gods  owne  servants.)  for  God  shall  have  glory  by  it  though  they  refuse 
it,  &  there  is  good  hope  that  the  Posterity  shall  by  this  meanes  be  gathered  into 
Christs  sheepefould." 

The  spreading  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  conversion  of  the  Heathen,  were 
foremost  in  the  contemplation  of  the  New  England  Fathers. 

This  Paper  of  Winthrop's  was  widely  circulated  at  the  time  among  the 
great  Puritan  leaders  in  England.  It  found  its  way  to  the  noble  Sir  John 
Eliot,  while  imprisoned  in  the  Tower,  and  a  copy  of  it  has  recently  been 
discovered  among  his  papers  at  Port  Eliot,  in  Cornwall.  He  seems  to  have 
held  correspondence  in  regard  to  it  with  the  famous  John  Hampden,  and 
a  letter  of  Hampden's  to  Sir  John  has  been  printed  both  in  Nugent's 
Memorials  of  Hampden,  and  in  Forster's  Life  of  Eliot,  requesting  that 
"  the  Paper  of  Considerations  Concerning  the  Plantation  "  might  be  sent 
to  him,  and  promising  to  return  it  safely  after  it  had  been  transcribed. 
Nothing  could  be  more  interesting  or  suggestive  than  this  positive  proof 
that  the  views  of  the  Massachusetts  Company  were  communicated  to 
those  great  English  Patriots,  Eliot  and  Hampden,  and  were  the  subject 
of  their  consultation  and  correspondence.  "  Both  of  them,"  as  Forster 
says,  "  in  that  evil  day  for  religion  and  freedom,  had  sent  their  thoughts 
across  the  wide  Atlantic  towards  the  New  World  that  had  risen  beyond 
its  waters;  and  both  had  been  eager  in  promoting  those  plans  for  emigra- 


BOSTON    FOUNDED. 


107 


tion  which  in  the  few  succeeding  years  exerted  so  momentous  an  influence 
over  the  destiny  of  mankind.  It  was  in  this  very  year"  (1629),  he  con- 
tinues, "that  the  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay  was  formed;  and  though 
the  immediate  design  had  scarcely  at  first  extended  beyond  the  provision 
of  a  refuge  abroad  for  the  victims  of  tyranny  in  Church  and  State  at  home, 
it  soon  became  manifest  that  there  had  entered  also  into  it  a  larger  and 
grander  scheme,  that,  with  more  security  for  liberty  of  person  and  freedom 
to  worship  God,  had  mingled  the  hope  of  planting  in  those  distant  regions 
a  free  Commonwealth  and  citizenship  to  balance  and  redress  the  old ;  and 
that  thus  early  such  hopes  had  been  interchanged  respecting  it  between 
such  men  as  Eliot  and  Hampden,  Lord  Brooke,  Lord  Warwick,  and  Lord 
Say  and  Sele,"  l 

Four  or  five  months  were  now  occupied  in  busy  preparations  for  the 
great  Emigration.  Eleven  or  twelve  ships  were  to  be  employed  in  carry- 
ing the  Governor  and  Company  across  the  Atlantic.  Four  of  them  were 
ready  to  sail  together  from  Southampton  on  the  22d  of  March,  and  on  that 
day  Governor  Winthrop  and  the  Company  embarked  for  New  England, 
taking  the  Charter  of  Massachusetts  with  them.  In  the  principal  ship, 
with  Winthrop,  were  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall ;  Isaac  Johnson  with  his  wife, 
the  Lady  Arbella,  a  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln ;  George  Phillips,  the 
Minister;  Thomas  Dudley,  the  Deputy  Governor;  William  Coddington, 
afterwards  Governor  of  Rhode  Island ;  and  Simon  Bradstreet,  who  was  to 
survive  them  all,  and  to  be  known  as  "  the  Nestor  of  New  England."  Two 
of  the  Governor's  young  children  were  with  him,  but  his  wife  was  obliged 
to  postpone  her  departure  for  another  year.  John  Wilson,  the  first  Minister 
of  Boston,  seems  to  have  been  in  one  of  the  other  vessels,  which  had  the 
names  of  the  "  Talbot,"  the  "  Ambrose,"  and  the  "  Jewel."  The  ship  which 
bore  Winthrop  and  the  Charter  had  long  been  known  as  the  "  Eagle,"  but 
was  now  called  the  "Arbella,"  in  compliment  to  the  Earl's  daughter  who  was 
one  of  her  passengers.  Detained  by  unfavorable  winds  at  Cowes,  and  again 
off  Yarmouth,  the  voyage  was  not  fairly  commenced  until  the  8th  of  April. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  delay  had  given  opportunity  for  those  of  the 
Company  on  board  the  "Arbella"  to  address  to  those  from  whom  they  were 
parting  their  admirable  Farewell  Letter,  entitled :  "  The  Humble  Request 
of  his  Majesty's  Loyall  Subjects,  the  Governor  and  the  Company  late  gone 
for  New  England ;  to  the  rest  of  their  brethren  in  and  ,of  the  Church  of 
England  ;  for  the  obtaining  of  their  Prayers,  and  the  removal  of  suspicions, 
and  misconstruction  of  their  Intentions." 

This  Letter  belongs  to  the  History  of  Massachusetts.  Nothing  more 
tender  or  more  noble  can  be  found  in  the  annals  of  New  England  or  of 
Old  England.  It  furnishes  the  key-note  of  the  whole  enterprise,  and  illus- 
trates the  spirit  and  character  of  those  engaged  in  it.  Not  a  word  of  it  can 
be  spared  from  any  just  account  of  the  Puritan  leaders  of  1630.  It  is  as 
follows :  — 

1  Forster,  Life  of  Sir  John  Eliot,  ii.  p.  531. 


108  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

"  REVEREND  FATHERS  AND  BRETHREN,  —  The  general  rumor  of  this  solemn  enter- 
prise, wherein  ourselves  with  others,  through  the  providence  of  the  Almighty,  are 
engaged,  as  it  may  spare  us  the  labor  of  imparting  our  occasion  unto  you,  so  it  gives 
us  the  more  encouragement  to  strengthen  ourselves  by  the  procurement  of  the 
prayers  and  blessings  of  the  Lord's  faithful  servants.  For  which  end  we  are  bold  to 
have  recourse  unto  you,  as  those  whom  God  hath  placed  nearest  his  throne  of  mercy ; 
which  as  it  affords  you  the  more  opportunity,  so  it  imposeth  the  greater  bond  upon 
you  to  intercede  for  his  people  in  all  their  straits.  We  beseech  you,  therefore,  by  the 
mercies  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  consider  us  as  your  brethren,  standing  in  very  great 
need  of  your  help,  and  earnestly  imploring  it.  And  howsoever  your  charity  may 
have  met  with  some  occasion  of  discouragement  through  the  misreport  of  our  inten- 
tions, or  through  the  disaffection  or  indiscretion  of  some  of  us,  or  rather  amongst  us 
(for  we  are  not  of  those  that  dream  of  perfection  in  this  world),  yet  we  desire  you 
would  be  pleased  to  take  notice  of  the  principals  and  body  of  our  Company,  as  those 
who  esteem  it  our  honor  to  call  the  Church  of  England,  from  whence  we  rise,  our 
dear  mother ;  and  cannot  part  from  our  native  Country,  where  she  specially  resideth, 
without  much  sadness  of  heart  and  many  tears  in  our  eyes,  ever  acknowledging  that 
such  hope  and  part  as  we  have  obtained  in  the  common  salvation  we  have  received 
in  her  bosom,  and  sucked  it  from  her  breasts. 

"  We  leave  it  not,  therefore,  as  loathing  that  milk  wherewith  we  were  nourished 
there ;  but,  blessing  God  for  the  parentage  and  education,  as  members  of  the  same 
body,  shall  always  rejoice  in  her  good,  and  unfeignedly  grieve  for  any  sorrow  that 
shall  ever  betide  her,  and  while  we  have  breath,  sincerely  desire  and  endeavor  the 
continuance  and  abundance  of  her  welfare,  with  the  enlargement  of  her  bounds  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Christ  Jesus. 

"  Be  pleased,  therefore,  reverend  fathers  and  brethren,  to  help  forward  this  work 
now  in  hand ;  which  if  it  prosper,  you  shall  be  the  more  glorious,  howsoever  your 
judgment  is  with  the  Lord,  and  your  reward  with  your  God.  It  is  a  usual  and 
laudable  exercise  of  your  charity,  to  commend  to  the  prayers  of  your  congregations 
the  necessities  and  straits  of  your  private  neighbors :  do  the  like  for  a  Church  spring- 
ing out  of  your  own  bowels.  We  conceive  much  hope  that  this  remembrance  of  us, 
if  it  be  frequent  and  fervent,  will  be  a  most  prosperous  gale  in  our  sails,  and  provide 
such  a  passage  and  welcome  for  us  from  the  God  of  the  whole  earth,  as  both  we 
which  shall  find  it,  and  yourselves,  with  the  rest  of  our  friends,  who  shall  hear  of 
it,  shall  be  much  enlarged  to  bring  in  such  daily  returns  of  thanksgivings,  as  the 
specialties  of  his  providence  and  goodness  may  justly  challenge  at  all  our  hands. 
You  are  not  ignorant  that  the  spirit  of  God  stirred  up  the  Apostle  Paul  to  make 
continual  mention  of  the  Church  of  Philippi,  which  was  a  Colony  from  Rome ;  let 
the  same  spirit,  we  beseech  you,  put  you  in  mind,  that  are  the  Lord's  remembrancers, 
to  pray  for  us  without  ceasing,  who  are  a  weak  colony  from  yourselves,  making  con- 
tinual request  for  us  to  God  in  all  your  prayers. 

"  What  we  entreat  of  you  that  are  the  ministers  of  God,  that  we  also  crave  at  the 
hands  of  all  the  rest  of  our  brethren,  that  they  would  at  no  time  forget  us  in  their 
private  solicitations  at  the  throne  of  grace. 

"  If  any  there  be  who,  through  want  of  clear  intelligence  of  our  course,  or  tenderness 
of  affection  towards  us,  cannot  conceive  so  well  of  our  way  as  we  could  desire,  we  would 
entreat  such  not  to  despise  us,  nor  to  desert  us  in  their  prayers  and  affections,  but  to 
consider  rather  that  they  are  so  much  the  more  bound  to  express  the  bowels  of  their  < 


BOSTON    FOUNDED.  109 

compassion  towards  us,  remembering  always  that  both  nature  and  grace  doth  ever 
bind  us  to  relieve  and  rescue,  with  our  utmost  and  speediest  power,  such  as  are  dear 
unto  us,  when  we  conceive  them  to  be  running  uncomfortable  hazards. 

"  What  goodness,  you  shall  extend  to  us  in  this  or  any  other  Christian  kindness, 
we,  your  brethren  in  Christ  Jesus,  shall  labor  to  repay  in  what  duty  we  are  or  shall  be 
able  to  perform,  promising,  so  far  as  God  shall  enable  us,  to  give  him  no  rest  on  your 
behalfs,  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  wilderness,  overshadowed  with 
the  spirit  of  supplication,  through  the  manifold  necessities  and  tribulations  which  may 
not  altogether  unexpectedly,  nor,  we  hope,  unprofitably,  befall  us.  And  so  com- 
mending you  to  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ,  we  shall  ever  rest 

Your  assured  friends  and  brethren, 

"JOHN    WlNTHROP,  Gov.  RICHARD    SALTONSTALL, 

CHARLES  FiNES,1  ISAAC  JOHNSON, 

THOMAS  DUDLEY, 

GEORGE  PHILLIPPS,  WILLIAM  CODDINGTON, 

&c.  &c. 

"  From  YARMOUTH,  aboard  the  ARBELLA,  April  7,  1630." 

While  they  were  still  at  "  the  Cowes,"  Governor  Winthrop  had  written 
the  first  pages  of  a  Diary  or  Journal,  which,  having  been  continued  until 
within  a  few  weeks  of  his  death,  has  supplied  the  main  materials  of  early 
Massachusetts  History.  He  seems  to  have  appreciated  the  full  magnitude 
of  the  work  on  which  he  had  entered  ;  to  have  realized  that  he  was  going  out 
to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  great  Commonwealth ;  and  to  have  felt  that  no 
incident  connected  with  such  an  enterprise  could  be  too  trifling  to  be 
recorded.  He  looked  forward  to  some  day  of  leisure  for  revising  what  he 
had  written,  and  making  it  more  worthy  of  himself  and  of  his  subject.  But 
no  such  leisure  time  was  ever  vouchsafed  to  him,  and  his  daily  record  of 
events  as  they  occurred,  providentially  preserved,  and  now  known  as 
Winthrop's  History  of  New  England,  furnishes  almost  all  which  is  known 
of  the  first  nineteen  years  of  Massachusetts. 

The  voyage  of  the  "  Arbclla  "  and  her  consorts  was  a  tedious  one,  and  it 
was  not  until  the  seventy-sixth  day  that  they  came  to  anchor  in  the  harbor 
of  Salem.  On  the  I2th  of  June,  old  style,  or,  as  we  should  count  it,  the 
22d  of  June,  1630,  Governor  Winthrop,  with  the  Massachusetts  Company, 
and  with  the  Charter,  are  fairly  arrived  on  the  shores  of  New  England. 
The  Chief  Government  of  Massachusetts  was  now  established  on  her  own 
soil,  and  there  was  no  longer  to  be  any  subordination  to  a  Governor  and 
Company  in  London.  John  Endicott,  who  had  been  a  devoted  and 
vigorous  ruler  of  the  little  Plantation,  of  which  he  had  been  appointed 
Governor  a  year  before,  but  whose  jurisdiction  was  now  merged  in  the 
General  Government  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  of  which  he  had  been 

1  Doubtless  of  the  family  of  Fiennes,  Lord  Say  and  Sele,  one  of  whose  daughters  married  the 
young  Earl  of  Lincoln,  a  brother  of  the  Lady  Arbella  Johnson. 


110  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

elected  one  of  the  Assistants,  seems  to  have  come  at  once  to  welcome 
Winthrop,  and  to  offer  to  him  and  the  Company  all  the  hospitalities  in 
his  power.  The  relations  of  Endicott  and  Winthrop  were  of  the  most 
cordial  character  as  long  as  they  both  lived.  The  account  of  the  arrival 
and  landing  of  the  Company  is  thus  simply  and  pleasantly  recorded  by 
Governor  Winthrop  in  his  Journal :  — 

"Saturday,  12.  About  four  in  the  morning  we  were  near  our  port.  We  shot  off 
two  pieces  of  ordnance,  and  sent  our  skiff  to  Mr.  Peirce  his  ship  (which  lay  in  the 

harbor,  and  had  been  there days  before).  About  an  hour  after,  Mr.  Allerton 

came  aboard  us  in  a  shallop  as  he  was  sailing  to  Pemaquid.  As  we  stood  towards 
the  harbor,  we  saw  another  shallop  coming  to  us ;  so  we  stood  in  to  meet  her,  and 
passed  through  the  narrow  strait  between  Baker's  Isle  and  Little  Isle,  and  came  to  an 
anchor  a  little  within  the  islands. 

"Afterwards  Mr.  Peirce  came  aboard  us,  and  returned  to  fetch  Mr.  Endecott, 
who  came  to  us  about  two  of  the  clock,  and  with  him  Mr.  Skelton  and  Capt. 
Levett.  We  that  were  of  the  assistants,  and  some  other  gentlemen,  and  some  of  the 
women,  and  our  captain,  returned  with  them  to  Nahumkeck,  where  we  supped  with 
a  good  venison  pasty  and  good  beer,  and  at  night  we  returned  to  our  ship,  but  some 
of  the  women  stayed  behind. 

"  In  the  mean  time  most  of  our  people  went  on  shore  upon  the  land  of  Cape  Ann, 
which  lay  very  near  us,  and  gathered  store  of  fine  strawberries." 

Among  the  most  noteworthy  incidents  of  the  long  voyage  which  had 
thus  happily  been  brought  to  an  end,  was  the  Discourse  written,  and  prob- 
ably delivered,  by  Governor  Winthrop,  and  which  came  to  light  less  than 
half  a  century  ago,  with  the  following  title  evidently  prepared  by  some 
other  hand  than  that  of  the  author :  — 

"  A  Modell  of  Christian  Charity,  written  on  board  the  '  Arbella,'  on  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  by  the  Hon.  John  Winthrop,  Esq.,  in  his  passage  (with  a  great  company  of 
Religious  people,  of  which  Christian  tribes  he  was  the  Brave  Leader  and  famous 
Governor ;)  from  the  Island  of  Great  Brittaine  to  New- England  in  the  North  America, 
Anno  1630." 

In  this  discourse,1  after  an  elaborate  discussion  of  Christian  charity  or 
love,  the  Governor  proceeded  to  speak  of  the  great  work  in  which  they 
had  embarked,  and  of  the  means  by  which  it  was  to  be  accomplished. 
The  spirit  of  the  whole  is  condensed  in  the  following  passage  from  the 
conclusion :  — 

"  Thus  stands  the  case  between  God  and  us.  We  are  entered  into  a  Covenant 
with  Him  for  this  work.  We  have  taken  out  a  commission.  The  Lord  hath  given 
us  leave  to  draw  our  own  articles.  We  have  professed  to  enterprise  these  and  those 
ends,  upon  these  and  those  accounts.  We  have  hereupon  besought  of  Him  favor 
and  blessing.  Now  if  the  Lord  shall  please  to  hear  us,  and  bring  us  in  peace  to  the 
place  we  desire,  then  hath  he  ratified  this  Covenant  and  sealed  our  Commission,  and 
will  expect  a  strict  performance  of  the  articles  contained  in  it ;  but  if  we  shall  neglect 
1  [The  original  MS.  is  in  the  library  of  the  N.  Y.  Historical  Society.  —  ED.] 


BOSTON   FOUNDED.  Ill 

the  observation  of  these  articles  which  are  the  ends  we  have  propounded,  and,  dis- 
sembling with  our  God,  shall  fall  to  embrace  this  present  world  and  prosecute  our 
carnal  intentions,  seeking  great  things  for  ourselves  and  our  posterity,  the  Lord  will 
surely  break  out  in  wrath  against  us ;  be  revenged  of  such  a  (sinful)  people,  and 
make  us  know  the  price  of  the  breach  of  such  a  Covenant. 

"  Now  the  only  way  to  avoid  this  shipwreck,  and  to  provide  for  our  posterity,  is 
to  follow  the  counsel  of  Micah,  to  do  justly,  to  love  mercy,  to  walk  humbly  with  our 
God.  For  this  end  we  must  be  knit  together,  in  this  work,  as  one  man.  We  must 
entertain  each  other  in  brotherly  affection.  We  must  be  willing  to  abridge  ourselves 
of  our  superfluities,  for  the  supply  of  other's  necessities.  We  must  uphold  a  familiar 
commerce  together  in  all  meekness,  gentleness,  patience,  and  liberality.  We  must 
delight  in  each  other ;  make  other's  condition  our  own ;  rejoice  together,  mourn 
together,  labor  and  suffer  together,  always  having  before  our  eyes  our  commission  and 
community  in  the  work,  as  members  of  the  same  body.  So  shall  we  keep  the  unity  of 
the  spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace.  The  Lord  will  be  our  God,  and  delight  to  dwell  among 
us,  as  his  own  people,  and  will  command  a  blessing  upon  us  in  all  our  ways.  So  that  we 
shall  see  much  more  of  his  wisdom,  power,  goodness,  and  truth  than  formerly  we  have 
been  acquainted  with.  We  shall  find  that  the  God  of  Israel  is  among  us,  when  ten  of 
us  shall  be  able  to  resist  a  thousand  of  our  enemies ;  when  he  shall  make  us  a  praise 
and  a  glory,  that  men  shall  say  of  succeeding  plantations,  '  The  Lord  make  it  likely 
that  of  New  England.'  For  we  must  consider  that  we  shall  be  as  a  City  upon  a  hill. 
The  eyes  of  all  people  are  upon  us.  Soe  that  if  we  shall  deal  falsely  with  our  God  in 
this  work  we  have  undertaken,  and  so  cause  him  to  withdraw  his  present  help  from 
us,  we  shall  be  made  a  story  and  a  by-word  throughout  the  world.  We  shall  open 
the  mouths  of  enemies  to  speak  evil  of  the  ways  of  God,  and  all  professors  for  God's 
sake.  We  shall  shame  the  faces  of  many  of  God's  worthy  servants,  and  cause  their 
prayers  to  be  turned  into  curses  upon  us  till  we  be  consumed  out  of  the  good  land 
whither  we  are  a-going. 

"  I  shall  shut  up  this  discourse  with  that  exhortation  of  Moses,  that  faithful  servant 
of  the  Lord,  in  his  last  farewell  to  Israel  (Deut.  30).  Beloved,  there  is  now  set 
before  us  Life  and  good,  Death  and  evil,  in  that  we  are  commanded  this  day  to  love  the 
Lord  our  God,  and  to  love  one  another,  to  walk  in  his  ways  and  to  keep  his  Command- 
ments and  his  Ordinance  and  his  Lawes,  and  the  articles  of  our  Covenant  with  him, 
that  we  may  live  and  be  multiplied,  and  that  the  Lord  our  God  may  bless  us  in  the 
land  whither  we  go  to  possess  it.  But  if  our  hearts  shall  turn  away,  so  that  we  will 
not  obey,  but  shall  be  seduced,  and  worship  and  serve  other  Gods,  our  pleasure  and 
profits,  and  serve  them. ;  it  is  propounded  unto  us  this  day,  we  shall  surely  perish  out 
of  the  good  land  whither  we  pass  over  this  vast  sea  to  possess  it;  Therefore  let  us 
choose  life,  that  we  and  our  seed  may  live,  by  obeying  His  voice  and  cleaving  to  Him, 
for  He  is  our  life  and  our  prosperity." 

When  the  Massachusetts  Company  arrived  at  Salem,  with  the  Charter 
of  the  Colony,  in  June,  1630,  the  ever-honored  Pilgrims  of  Plymouth  had 
already,  for  nine  years  and  a  half,  been  in  happy  and  quiet  possession  of  a 
part  of  the  territory  now  included  within  the  State  of  Massachusetts.  They 
were  an  independent  colony,  however,  and  continued  such  until  the  Pro- 
vincial Charter  of  Oct.  7,  1691.  Coming  over  in  a  single  ship,  and  count- 
ing only  about  a  hundred  souls,  in  all,  at  their  landing  from  the  "  May 


112  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Flower,"  their  numbers  had  increased  only  threefold  during  this  first  decen- 
nial period ;  and  the  population  of  Plymouth,  when  Winthrop  arrived,  is 
accordingly  estimated  as  not  exceeding  three  hundred,  —  men,  women,  and 
children.  The  settlement  at  Salem,  it  seems,  had  reached  about  the  same 
number.  Higginson,  in  his  New  England's  Plantation,  gives  the  number  of 
persons  in  the  colony,  previous  to  his  own  arrival  in  1629,  as  only  about 
one  hundred.  But  he  brought  two  hundred  persons  with  him,  and  he  was 
thus  able  to  say,  in  September  of  that  year:  "There  are  in  all  of  us,  both 
old  and  new  planters,  about  three  hundred  ;  whereof  two  hundred  of  them 
are  settled  at  Nehum-kek,  now  called  Salem,  and  the  rest  have  planted 
themselves  at  Massathulets  Bay,  beginning  to  build  a  town  there,  which 
we  do  call  Cherton  or  Charlestown."  Roger  Conant  had  presided  over  the 
Naumkeag  plantation  for  two  years,  and  had  been  succeeded  or  superseded 
by  Endicott  in  1628.  Endicott  had  been  sent  over,  at  first,  in  the  ship 
"  Abigail,"  as  the  agent  of  the  Massachusetts  Company  and  the  leader  of  a 
small  band,  under  the  patent  obtained  from  the  Plymouth  Council,  March 
19,  1628.  In  the  following  year,  after  the  royal  charter  had  been  obtained, 
March  4,  1629,  a  commission  was  sent  out  to  him,  dated  April  30  of  the 
same  year,  as  "  Governor  of  London's  Plantation  in  the  Mattachusetts  Bay 
in  New  England."  In  the  exercise  of  this  commission  he  was  subordinate 
to  "  the  Governor  and  Company"  in  London,  by  whom  he  was  deputed, 
and  who,  from  time  to  time,  sent  him  elaborate  instructions  for  the  regu- 
lation of  his  conduct.  Massachusetts,  as  we  have  seen,  was  a  very  little 
colony  at  this  time,  still  in  embryo ;  but  it  seems  to  have  taken  two 
governors  to  rule  her !  Cradock  and  Endicott  were  governors  simultane- 
ously from  April  30,  1629,  or,  more  correctly,  from  the  time  when  Endi- 
cott's  commission  as  governor  reached  Salem,  two  or  three  months  later, 
until  the  2Oth  (3Oth)  of  October  of  the  same  year;  and  Winthrop  and 
Endicott  were  simultaneously  governors  from  that  date  until  the  arrival 
of  the  "  Arbella  "  at  Salem.  There  was  thus  a  chief  governor  in  London,  and 
a  subordinate  or  local  governor  in  the  Plantation.  The  Instructions  to 
Endicott,  dated  April  17,  and  May  28,  1629,  are  among  the  most  valuable 
of  our  early  colonial  papers,  as  showing  precisely  the  relation  which 
existed  between  the  Plantation  at  Naumkeag  and  the  Governor  and  Com- 
pany in  England. 

But  all  this  double-action  machinery  had  now  been  abolished.  The 
chief  government  had  been  transferred,  agreeably  to  the  Cambridge 
Agreement,  and  the  local  government  was,  of  course,  absorbed  in  it. 
Winthrop  came  over  at  once  as  the  Governor  of  the  Company,  and  to 
exercise  a  direct  and  personal  magistracy  over  the  colony.  Not  less  than 
a  thousand  persons  were  added  to  the  colony  about  the  period  of  his 
arrival.  Seven  or  eight  hundred  of  these  came  with  him,  or  speedily 
followed  as  a  part  of  his  immediate  expedition.  Two  or  three  hundred 
more  arrived  almost  at  the  same  time,  though  not  in  vessels  included  in 
the  Company's  fleet.  A  second  thousand  was  soon  afterwards  added  under 


BOSTON    FOUNDED.  113 

the  same  influence  and  example.  A  precarious  Plantation  was  thus  trans- 
formed at  once  into  a  permanent  and  prosperous  Commonwealth ;  and 
henceforth,  instead  of  two  or  three  hundred  pioneer  planters,  thinly  scat- 
tered along  the  coast,  looking  to  a  governor  and  company  across  the 
ocean  for  their  supreme  authority  and  instructions,  two  or  three  thousand 
people  are  to  be  seen,  with  a  governor  and  legislature  upon  their  own  soil 
and  of  their  own  selection,  —  erecting  houses,  building  ships,  organizing 
villages  and  towns,  establishing  churches,  schools,  and  even  a  college,  and 
laying  broad  and  deep  the  foundations  of  an  independent  Republic.  Such 
was  the  result  of  that  transfer  of  the  chief  government  which  Matthew 
Cradock,  the  first  Governor  of  the  Massachusetts  Company  in  Old  England, 
proposed  on  the  28th  of  July,  1629,  and  which  John  Winthrop,  the  first 
Governor  of  the  Company  in  New  England,  was  the  instrument  of  carrying 
out  to  its  completion  on  the  I2th  (22d)  day  of  June,  1630.  On  that  day 
the  transfer  was  consummated,  and  the  consequences  soon  began  to 
develop  themselves. 

But  there  was  much  to  contend  against  at  the  outset.  Thomas  Dudley; 
who  had  come  over  as  Deputy-Governor  to  Winthrop,  in  the  place  of  John 
Humfrey  who  had  declined  the  service,  in  a  letter  to  the  Countess  of 
Lincoln,  the  mother  of  the  Lady  Arbella  Johnson,  dated  March  28,  1631, 
writes  of  the  condition  of  things  as  follows :  — 

"  We  found  the  Colony  in  a  sad  and  unexpected  condition,  above  eighty  of  them 
being  dead  the  winter  before,  and  many  of  those  alive  weak  and  sick ;  all  the  corn 
and  bread  amongst  them  all  hardly  sufficient  to  feed  them  a  fortnight,  insomuch  that 
the  remainder  of  a  hundred  and  eighty  servants  we  had  the  two  years  before  sent 
over,  coming  to  us  for  victuals  to  sustain  them,  we  found  ourselves  wholly  unable  to 
feed  them,  by  reason  that  the  provisions  shipped  for  them  were  taken  out  of  the  ship 
they  were  put  in  ;  and  they  who  were  trusted  to  ship  them  in  another  failed  us,  and 
left  them  behind :  whereupon  necessity  enforced  us,  to  our  extreme  loss,  to  give 
them  all  liberty,  who  had  cost  us  about  £\(>  or  ^20  a  person,  furnishing  and  sending 
over." 

It  would  thus  appear  that  of  the  residents  under  Endicott,  one  hundred 
and  eighty  had  been  the  bond-servants  of  the  planters  who  were  to  follow, 
and  that  one  of  the  first  acts  of  Winthrop's  administration  was  to  emanci- 
pate all  who  had  survived  the  winter;  not  from  any  abstract  considerations 
of  philanthropy,  but  from  absolute  inability  to  provide  for  their  main- 
tenance. The  little  Colony  was  clearly  in  a  weak  and  almost  starving 
condition  when  the  "  Arbella "  arrived,  and  it  is  by  no  means  surprising 
that  Dudley  speaks  of  the  "  too  large  commendations  of  the  country,"  and 
adds,  "  Salem,  where  we  landed,  pleased  us  not."  Five  days  only  after 
their  arrival  we  find  Governor  Winthrop  recording  in  his  Diary:  "Thurs- 
day, 17  (June).  We  went  to  Mattachusetts  to  find  out  a  place  for  our 
sitting  down."  This  journey  of  exploration,  made  on  foot,  resulted  in  the 
immediate  removal  of  the  Governor  and  Company  to  what  is  now  called 

VOL.  i.  — 15. 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


' Charlestown.  "A  great  House"  had  been  built  here  the  year  before,  and 
in  this  "  the  Governor  and  several  of  the  patentees  dwelt,"  as  we  learn  from 
the  old  records  of  the  town,  while  "  the  multitude  set  up  cottages,  booths, 
and  tents  about  the  Town  Hill." 

Here,  in  Charlestown,  on  the  3Oth  of  July,  six  weeks  after  their  landing  at 
Salem,  after  appropriate  religious  exercises,  Governor  Winthrop,  Deputy- 
Governor  Dudley,  Isaac  Johnson,  and  John  Wilson,  adopted  and  signed 
the  following  simple  but  solemn  church  covenant:  — 

"  In  the  name,  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  obedience  to  his  holy  will,  and 
divine  ordinances : 

"  We,  whose  names  are  here  underwritten,  being  by  his  most  wise  and  good 
providence  brought  together  into  this  part  of  America,  in  the  Bay  of  Massachusetts ; 
and  desirous  to  unite  into  one  congregation  or  church,  under  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
our  head,  in  such  sort  as  becometh  all  those  whom  he  hath  redeemed,  and  sanctified 
to  himself,  do  hereby  solemnly  and  religiously,  as  in  his  most  holy  presence,  promise 
and  bind  ourselves  to  walk  in  all  our  ways  according  to  the  rule  of  the  Gospel,  and  in 
all  sincere  conformity  to  his  holy  ordinances,  and  in  mutual  love  and  respect  to  each 
other,  so  near  as  God  shall  give  us  grace." 


AUTOGRAPHS  OF  THE   SIGNERS.1 

The  Church  thus  formed  is  now  known  as  the  First  Church  of  Boston, 
on  one  of  the  painted  windows  of  whose  new  and  beautiful  house  of  worship 
this  covenant  is  inscribed ;  while  among  its  ancient  communion  plate  may 
still  be  seen  an  embossed  silver  cup,  with  "  The  gift  of  Governor  Jn°.  Win- 
throp  to  ye.  i'  Church "  engraved  on  its  rim.2 

And  here,  at  Charlestown,  on  the  23d  of  August,  1630,  was  held  the 
earliest  "  Court  of  Assistants  "  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  at  which  the 


1  [This  group  does  not  represent  the  actual 
signatures    of    this    document,   but   reproduces 
other  autographs  of  the  signers.     Wilson  was 
at  this  time  forty-two  years  old,  and  had  grad- 
uated at  King's  College,  Cambridge.     He  was 
ordained  at  Charlestown,  August  27,  and  again 
in  Boston  in  November.     He  returned  to  Eng- 
land for  his  wife  the  next  year,  and  was  a  third 
time  installed  in  November,  1632.  —  ED.] 

2  [The  heliotype  herewith  given  of  this  cup 


was  made  by  the  kind  permission  of  the  present 
pastor,  and  shows  it  on  a  reduced  scale.  It 
measures  eleven  and  three-fourth  inches  high, 
of  which  the  bowl  makes  five  inches,  and  the 
diameter  at  the  top  is  four  and  three-quarters 
inches,  and  at  its  base  four  inches.  The  Church 
Records  have  the  following  account  of  it : 
"A  tall  embossed  cup,  with  engraving  and 
figures  in  relief.  Weight,  16  oz.,  i  dwt.  No 
date."  — ED.] 


I 


*' -W 


'.  '--•: 

••  I>."$T:^U-»*«^*  • 


-  i 


u 

ft. 

05 

X 


BOSTON    FOUNDED.  115 

very  first  matter  propounded  was,  "  How  the  Ministers  should  be  main- 
tained,"—  when  it  was  ordered,  that  houses  should  be  built  for  them  with 
convenient  speed,  at  the  public  charge.  Everything  so  far  seemed  thus 
to  indicate  that  Charlestown  was  to  be  the  capital  of  the  colony,  and, 
accordingly,  the  town  records  tell  us  that  the  Governor  "  ordered  his  house 
to  be  cut  and  framed  there."  There  is  reason,  however,  for  thinking  that 
the  "  Great  House  "  was  still  the  Governor's  abode  on  the  25th  of  October, 


WINTHROP'S   FLEET.1 


when  he  entered  in  his  Diary  the  following  record  of  what  was  unques- 
tionably the  original  temperance  movement  in  Massachusetts,  if  not  in 
America:  — 

"  The  Governour,  upon  consideration  of  the  inconveniences  which  had  grown  in 
England  by  drinking  one  to  another,  restrained  it  at  his  own  table,  and  wished  others 
to  do  the  like,  so  as  it  grew,  by  little  and  little,  into  disuse." 

Meantime  discouragements  and  afflictions  were  falling  heavily  upon  the 
Colony.  Sickness  and  death  had  begun  their  ravages.  The  following 
entry  in  Winthrop's  Journal,  under  date  of  September  30,  tells  its  own  sad 
story  in  language  which  could  not  be  improved :  "  About  two  in  the 


1  [This  cut  is  a  reduction,  by  permission,  from 
an  oil-painting  recently  completed  by  Mr.  Wil- 
liam F.  Halsall,  representing  a  part  of  the  fleet 
which  brought  Winthrop  and  his  company  to 
Salem  just  as  they  had  come  round  to  Boston 
Harbor,  and  were  dropping  anchor.  The  ves- 
sels are  a  careful  study  of  the  ships  of  the 
period.  The  "Arliella,"  the  admiral  of  the 
fleet,  a  ship  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  tons, 


carrying  twenty-eight  guns  and  fifty-two  men, 
is  in  the  foreground,  l>eing  towed  to  her  anchor- 
age. The  "Talbot,"  the  vice-admiral,  riding  at 
anchor,  hides  Governor's  Island  from  the  spec- 
tator. The  "Jewell,"  the  captain  of  the  fleet,  is 
the  distant  vessel  on  the  right,  where  Castle 
Island  appears.  The  time  is  late  in  a  July  day. 
The  spectator's  position  is  between  Boston  and 
East  Boston.  —  ED.] 


Il6  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

morning  Mr.  Isaac  Johnson  died ;  his  wife,  the  Lady  Arbella,  of  the  house  oi 
Lincoln,  being  dead  about  one  month  before.  He  was  a  holy  man  and  wise, 
and  died  in  sweet  peace,  leaving  some  part  of  his  substance  to  the  Colony." 
About  the  same  time,  also,  died  "  good  Mr.  Higginson,"  the  zealous  and 
devoted  minister  of  Salem;  Dr.  William  Gager,  the  chosen  physician  of 
the  Company,  and  one  of  the  deacons  of  the  little  church ;  and  others 
of  both  sexes,  more  or  less  conspicuous  among  the  colonists.  The  loss  of 
associates  and  friends,  however,  was  not  the  only  trial  to  which  the  com- 
pany were  subjected  at  this  early  period.  Provisions  had  again  been 
growing  scarce,  and  the  springs  at  Charlestown  seemed  beginning  to  fail. 
Edward  Johnson,  an  eye-witness,  speaks  of  this  precise  period  in  his 
Wonder-working  Providence,  as  follows :  — 

"  The  griefe  of  this  people  was  further  increased  by  the  sore  sicknesse  which  befell 
among  them,  so  that  almost  in  every  family,  lamentation,  mourning,  and  woe  was 
heard,  and  no  fresh  food  to  be  had  to  cherish  them.  It  would  assuredly  have  moved 
the  most  lockt-up  affections  to  teares,  no  doubt,  had  they  past  from  one  hut  to 
another,  and  beheld  the  piteous  case  these  people  were  in.  And  that  which  added 
to  their  present  distresse  was  the  want  of  fresh  water ;  for  although  the  place  did 
afford  plenty,  yet  for  present  they  could  finde  but  one  spring,  and  that  not  to  be  come 
at  but  when  the  tide  was  downe." 

This  want  of  water  it  was  which  finally  determined  Governor  Winthrop 
and  others  to  abandon  their  present  location,  to  quit  Charlestown,  and  to 
establish  themselves  on  the  neighboring  peninsula.  Of  this  step,  the 
following  brief  but  ample  account  is  found  in  the  early  records  of  Charles- 
town  :  — 

"  In  the  meantime,  Mr.  Blackstone,  dwelling  on  the  other  side  Charles  River 
alone,  at  a  place  by  the  Indians  called  Shawmutt,  where  he  only  had  a  cottage,  at  or 
not  far  off  the  place  called  Blackstone's  Point,  he  came  and  acquainted  the  Governor 
of  an  excellent  Spring  there  ;  withal  inviting  him  and  soliciting  him  thither.  Where- 
upon, after  the  death  of  Mr.  Johnson  and  divers  others,  the  Governor,  with  Mr. 
Wilson,  and  the  greatest  part  of  the  church  removed  thither  :  whither  also  the  frame 
of  the  Governor's  house,  in  preparation  at  this  town,  was  also  (to  the  discontent  of 
some)  carried ;  where  people  began  to  build  their  houses  against  winter ;  and  this 
place  was  called  BOSTON." 

William  Blackstone  had  until  now  been  the  only  known  white  inhab- 
itant of  Sliawmnt,  as  the  peninsula  was  called  by  the  Indians,  and  will 
always  be  remembered  as  the  pioneer  settler  of  the  peninsula.1 

The  order  of  the  Court  of  Assistants,  —  Governor  Winthrop  presiding, 

- "  THAT  TRIMONTAINE  SHALL  BE  CALLED  BOSTON,"  was  passed  on  the 

7th  of  September,  old  style,  or,  as  we  now  count  it,  the  i/th  of  September, 

i63O.2    The  name  of  Boston  was  specially  dear  to  the  Massachusetts  colonists 

1  [The  story  of  Blackstone's  residence  is  told  2  [By  favor  of  the  Hon.  Henry  B.  Peirce, 
at  length  in  Mr.  C.  F.  Adams,  Jr.'s  section  of  Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth,  a  heliotype  of 
the  present  volume.  —  ED.]  this  famous  order  is  herewith  given.  —  ED.] 


' 


COLONY  RECORDS,  SEPT.  7,  1630  (OLD  STYLE).     ORDER  NAMING  BOSTON. 


1 


V1  -  . 


r 


HEADING  OF  ABOVE  RECORD,  SHOWING  MAGISTRATES  PRESENT  AT  THE  TIME. 


BOSTON    FOUNDED.  117 

from  its  associations  with  the  old  St.  Botolph's  town,  or  Boston,  of  Lincoln- 
shire, England,  from  which  the  Lady  Arbella  Johnson  and  her  husband  had 
come,  and  where  John  Cotton  was  still  preaching  in  its  noble  parish  church. 
But  the  precise  date  of  the  removal  of  the  Governor  and  Company  to  the 
peninsula  is  nowhere  given. 

The  Court  of  Assistants  continued  to  hold  its  meetings  at  Charlestown 
until  the  end  of  September;  but  on  the  I9th  (29th)  of  October  we  find  a 
General  Court  holden  at  Boston,  and  on  the  29th  of  November  we  find 
Winthrop  for  the  first  time  dating  a  letter  to  his  wife  in  England,  "  Boston 
in  Mattachusetts,"  in  which  he  says :  "  My  dear  wife,  we  are  here  in  a 
paradise.  Though  we  have  not  beef  and  mutton,  etc.,  yet  (God  be 
praised)  we  want  them  not;  our  Indian  corn  answers  for  all.  Yet  here  is 
fowl  and  fish  in  great  plenty."  In  a  previous  letter  he  had  said  to  her : 
"We  here  enjoy  God  and  Jesus  Christ.  Is  not  this  enough?  What  would 
we  have  more?  " 


ST.  BOTOLPH'S  CHURCH. 


Boston,  however,  was  not  destined  to  be  "  a  paradise  "  quite  yet,  to  any 
one  except  its  hopeful  and  brave-hearted  founder.  The  Winter,  then  just 
opening,  was  to  be  one  of  great  severity  and  continued  suffering.  The 
Charlestown  records  tell  us  that  "  people  were  necessitated  to  live  on  clams 
and  muscles,  and  ground-nuts  and  acorns."  The  Governor  himself  "  had 
the  last  batch  of  bread  in  the  oven,"  and  was  seen  giving  "the  last  handful 


Il8  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY    OF    BOSTON. 

of  meal  in  the  barrell  unto  a  poor  man  distressed  by  the  wolf  at  the  door." 
A  ship  had  been  sent  to  England  for  provisions  six  months  before,  but 
nothing  had  been  heard  of  her.  A  day  had  been  appointed  for  a  general 
humiliation,  "  to  seek  the  Lord  by  fasting  and  prayer."  And  now,  at  the 
last  moment,  in  the  very  hour  of  their  despair,  the  ship  is  descried 
entering  Boston  Harbor,  and  "  laden  with  provisions  for  them  all."  The 
Governor's  Journal,  accordingly,  has  the  following  entry:  "  22  (February). 
We  held  a  day  of  Thanksgiving  for  this  ship's  arrival,  by  order  from  the 
Governour  and  Council,  directed  to  all  the  Plantations."  This  must  have 
been  the  first  regularly  appointed  Thanksgiving  Day  in  Massachusetts. 

A  second  Thanksgiving  Day  was  observed  in  Boston  on  the  iith  day 
of  November  following,  on  occasion  of  the  next  return  from  England  of 
the  same  ship, — the  "Lion," — bringing  Governor  Winthrop's  wife,  Margaret 
(Tyndal),  with  his  eldest  son,  John,  the  future  Governor  of  Connecticut, 
accompanied  by  the  Rev.  John  Eliot,  soon  to  be  known,  and  never  to  be 
forgotten,  as  the  Apostle  to  the  Indians,  and  the  translator  of  the  Bible 
into  the  Indian  language.  Massachusctts's  Thanksgiving  Days  seem  thus 
to  have  originated  in  the  public  acknowledgment  of  some  immediate 
special  causes  of  gratitude  to  God,  and  not  as  mere  formal  anniversary 
observances. 

On  the  1 8th  of  May,  1631,  the  second  General  Court  was  holden  at 
Boston,  when  Winthrop  was  re-elected  Governor,  and  Dudley  Deputy- 
Governor,  and  when  a  memorable  order  was  unanimously  passed  by  the 
people  assembled  on  the  occasion,  —  an  order  which  was  to  furnish  the 
subject  of  no  little  controversy  and  contention  a  few  years  later.  It  was 
recorded  as  follows:  "And  to  the  end  (that)  the  body  of  the  commons 
may  be  preserved  of  honest  and  good  men,  it  was  ordered  and  agreed  that 
for  time  to  come  no  man  shall  be  admitted  to  the  freedom  of  this  body 
politic,  but  such  as  are  members  of  some  of  the  Churches  within  the  limits 
of  the  same."  Winthrop,  in  his  Journal,  adds  to  this  record  that  "  all  the 
freemen  of  the  Commons  were  sworn  to  this  government." 

Among  the  few  incidents  of  this  year  which  have  any  historical  or  local 
interest,  as  showing  the  progress  of  the  Plantation  and  the  condition  of 
things  in  Boston,  it  must  not  be  omitted  that  on  the  4th  day  of  July,  "the 
Governor  built  a  bark  at  Mistick,  which  was  launched  this  day,  and  called 
'  The  Blessing  of  the  Bay.'  "  Nor  must  the  record  be  passed  over,  that,  on 
the  25th  of  October,  "  the  Governour,  with  Captain  Underbill  and  others 
of  the  officers,  went  on  foot  to  Sagus,  and  next  day  to  Salem,  where  they 
were  bountifully  entertained  by  Captain  Endecott,  etc.,  and,  the  28th,  they 
returned  to  Boston  by  the  ford  at  Sagus  River,  and  so  over  at  Mistick." 
The  occupation  of  three  whole  days  in  a  visit  from  Boston  to  Salem,  by 
fords  and  on  foot,  gives  an  impressive  picture  of  the  locomotion  of  that 
early  period  of  the  colony. 

The  Records  of  the  third  "  General  Court,"  holden  at  Boston,  on  the 
9th  of  May,  1632,  open  as  follows:  - 


BOSTON    FOUNDED.  119 

"  It  was  generally  agreed  upon,  by  erection  of  hands,  that  the  Governor,  Deputy- 
Governor,  and  Assistants  should  be  chosen  by  the  whole  Court  of  Governor,  Deputy- 
Governor,  Assistants,  and  freemen,  and  that  the  Governor  shall  always  be  chosen  out 
of  the  Assistants. 

"John  Winthrop,  Esq.,  was  chosen  to  the  place  of  Governor  (by  the  general 
consent  of  the  whole  Court,  manifested  by  erection  of  hands),  for  this  year  next 
ensuing,  and  till  a  new  be  chosen,  and  did,  in  presence  of  the  Court,  take  an  oath  to 
his  said  place  belonging." 

At  the  same  session  of  the  Court  it  was  ordered,  "  that  there  should  be 
two  of  every  plantation  appointed  to  confer  with  the  Court  about  raising 
of  a  public  stock."  Accordingly,  two  persons  were  appointed  from  Water- 
town,  Roxbury,  Boston,  Saugus,  Newtown,  Charlestown,  Salem,  and  Dor- 
chester. 

The  recognition  of  the  "  freemen  "  of  the  colony  in  the  first  clause  of 
this  Record,  and  the  designation  in  the  last  clause  of  representatives  of  the 
several  plantations  to  confer  about  taxes,  indicate  the  gradual  advance 
of  the  little  colony  towards  popular  institutions ;  while  the  naming  of  the 
plantations  shows  that  there  were  now  eight  separate  communities  in 
Massachusetts  claiming  consideration  as  towns.  Of  these  towns  Boston 
was  named  in  the  Records,  intentionally  or  accidentally,  third ;  l  but  at  a 
Court  of  Assistants,  in  the  following  October,  the  Record  runs :  "  It  is 
thought,  by  general  consent,  that  Boston  is  the  fittest  place  for  public 
meetings  of  any  place  in  the  Bay." 

Perhaps  the  most  memorable  incident  of  this  year  was  the  official  visit 
of  the  authorities  of  Massachusetts,  civil,  military,  and  ecclesiastical,  to  the 
Pilgrims  at  Plymouth.  Winthrop's  description  of  it,  in  his  Journal,  gives  a 
vivid  idea  of  the  condition  of  both  colonies,  and  of  their  cordial  relations 
towards  each  other.  We  should  not  be  forgiven  for  omitting  a  word 
of  it:- 

"  25  (September)  — The  governour,  with  Mr.  Wilson,  pastor  of  Boston,  and  the 
two  captains,  etc.,  went  aboard  the  '  Lyon,'  and  from  thence  Mr.  Pierce  carried  them 
in  his  shallop  to  Wessaguscus.  The  next  morning  Mr.  Pierce  returned  to  his  ship, 
and  the  governour  and  his  company  went  on  foot  to  Plimouth,  and  came  thither 
within  the  evening.  The  governour  of  Plimouth,  Mr.  William  Bradford  (a  very 
discreet  and  grave  man),  with  Mr.  Brewster,  the  elder,  and  some  others,  came  forth 
and  met  them  without  the  town,  and  conducted  them  to  the  governour's  house,  where 
they  were  very  kindly  entertained,  and  feasted  every  day  at  several  houses.  On  the 
Lord's  Day  there  was  a  sacrament,  which  they  did  partake  in ;  and  in  the  afternoon 
Mr.  Roger  Williams  (according  to  their  custom)  propounded  a  question,  to  which 
the  pastor,  Mr.  Smith,  spake  briefly ;  then  Mr.  Williams  prophesied ;  and  after  the 

1  [Boston  seems  to  have  had  no  special  build-  out  by  Francis  Jackson  of  late  years,  is  in  th<J 
ing  for  public  worship  until,  during  the  year  library  of  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Genealogical 
1632,  was  erected  the  small  thatched-roof,  one-  Society.  See  the  Register,  April,  1860,  p.  152. 
story  building  which  stood  on  State  Street,  where  Wilson,  the  pastor,  lived  where  the  Merchants' 
Brazer's  Building  now  stands.  A  plan  of  the  Bank  is,  and  Wilson's  Lane  until  recently  trans- 
church  lot  as  existing  at  this  time,  but  as  made  mitted  his  name  to  us.  —  ED.] 


120  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

governour  of  Plimouth  spake  to  the  question ;  after  him  the  elder ;  then  some  two 
or  three  more  of  the  congregation.  Then  the  elder  desired  the  governour  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Mr.  Wilson  to  speak  to  it,  which  they  did.  When  this  was  ended,  the 
deacon,  Mr.  Fuller,  put  the  congregation  in  mind  of  their  duty  of  contribution  ; 
whereupon  the  governour  and  all  the  rest  went  down  to  the  deacon's  seat,  and  put 
into  the  box,  and  then  returned." 

What  a  grand  group  of  New  England  worthies  is  presented  to  us  here ! 
Governor  Bradford  and  Elder  Brewster,  Roger  Williams,  John  Wilson,  and 
Governor  Winthrop, — all  gathered  at  Plymouth  Rock ;  all  partaking  together 
of  the  Holy  Communion ;  engaging  in  religious  discussion,  and  joining  in  a 
contribution  for  the  wants  of  the  poor!  What  a  subject  it  suggests  for 
American  art !  But,  alas !  authentic  likenesses  of  all  except  Winthrop 
would  be  wanting  for  such  a  picture.1  The  most  cordial  relations  existed 
between  Massachusetts  and  her  elder  sister  Colony  at  Plymouth.  Bradford 
and  Winthrop  exchanged  letters  often,  and  visits  more  than  once.  The 
two  Colonies  were  one  in  spirit,  as  they  were  one  in  destiny;  and  the 
repeated  interchanges  of  friendly  offices,  at  that  early  day,  were  a  pleasant 
prelude  to  their  becoming  members  incorporate,  a  little  more  than  half  a 
century  later,  of  the  same  noble  Commonwealth. 

But  all  was  not  harmony  for  the  Massachusetts  Colony  within  her  own 
limits.  A  controversy  sprung  up  early  between  Governor  Winthrop  and 
Deputy-Governor  Dudley,  about  many  personal  and  many  public  matters, 
which  involved  serious  discomfort  both  to  themselves  and  their  friends. 
This  controversy  has  sometimes  been  absurdly  exaggerated  and  caricatured 
by  descriptions  and  by  pictures.  It  is  only  worth  alluding  to,  in  these 
pages,  as  an  evidence  that  it  has  not  been  overlooked,  and  as  furnishing  an 
opportunity  to  introduce  the  following  brief  account  of  the  conclusion  of 
the  whole  matter,  a  few  years  afterwards,  as  contained  in  Winthrop's 
Journal  under  date  of  April  24,  1638:  — 

"  The  governour  and  deputy  went  to  Concord  to  view  some  land  for  farms,  and, 
going  down  the  river  about  four  miles,  they  made  choice  of  a  place  for  one  thousand 
acres  for  each  of  them.  They  offered  each  other  the  first  choice,  but  because  the 
deputy's  was  first  granted,  and  himself  had  store  of  land  already,  the  governour 
yielded  him  the  choice.  So,  at  the  place  where  the  deputy's  land  was  to  begin,  there 
were  two  great  stones,  which  they  called  the  Two  Brothers,  in  remembrance  that  they 
were  brothers  by  their  children's  marriage,  and  did  so  brotherly  agree,  and  for  that  a 
little  creek  near  those  stones  was  to  part  their  lands." 

The  "  two  great  stones,"  which  were  the  witnesses  to  this  charming  scene 
of  reconciliation,  are  standing  to  this  day,  and  are  still  known  as  the  "  Two 
Brothers."  Few  more  delightful  incidents  are  to  be  found  in  history  than 
Winthrop's  returning  an  insulting  letter  from  Dudley  with  the  simple 

1  [What  was  once  considered  a  portrait  of  woodcut  of  it.  Dr.  Appleton,  in  the  Mass.  Hist. 
Wilson  hangs  in  the  Gallery  of  the  Historical  Soc.  Proc.,  September,  1867,  showed  the  error  of 
Society.  Drake,  Hist,  of  Boston,  gives  a  poor  considering  it  a  likeness  of  Wilson.  —  ED.] 


BOSTON    FOUNDED.  121 

remark,  "  I  am  not  willing  to  keep  such  an  occasion  of  provocation  by 
me."  Nor  could  a  better  companion-piece  easily  be  found  than  the  reply 
of  Dudley,  when  Winthrop  offered  him  a  token  of  his  good-will:  "Your 
overcoming  yourself  hath  overcome  me."  But  there  were  other  contro- 
versies, meantime,  of  a  more  public  concern,  and  between  other  parties, 
which  were  less  happily  and  less  speedily  settled. 

Winthrop  was  again  chosen  Governor  for  the  fourth  time,  and  Dudley 
Deputy-Governor,  at  the  General  Court  held  in  Boston  May  29,  1633. 
In  the  following  October  it  was  ordered  that  there  shall  be  four  hundred 
pounds  collected  out  of  the  several  plantations  to  defray  public  charges, 
and  eleven  plantations  are  set  down  in  the  Records  to  be  assessed  accord- 
ingly,—  Winnesimmet,  Medford,  and  Agawam  or  Ipswich,  having  been 
added  to  the  eight  which  have  been  previously  recognized.  Boston  is  now 
named  at  the  head  of  the  list,  and  is  one  of  the  five  towns  assessed  at  forty- 
eight  pounds.  Dorchester  is  named  sixth,  but  with  an  assessment  of  eighty 
pounds.  These  sums  may  give  some  idea  of  the  expenses  of  the  colony 
and  of  the  relative  wealth  of  the  plantations. 

But  the  great  event  of  this  year  1633,  for  Boston  and  for  the  whole 
colony,  was  the  arrival  of  the  Rev.  John  Cotton ;  accompanied,  too,  by  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Hooker  and  John  Haynes,  soon  to  be  Governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and,  not  long  afterwards,  of  Connecticut.  The  arrival  of  these  im- 
portant characters  is  thus  chronicled  by  Winthrop  in  his  Journal  :  — 

"  SEPT.  4.  The  '  Griffin,'  a  ship  of  three  hundred  tons,  arrived  (having  been 
eight  weeks  from  the  Downs).  .  .  In  this  ship  came  Mr.  Cotton,  Mr.  Hooker,  and 
Mr.  Stone,  ministers,  and  Mr.  Peirce,  Mr.  Haynes  (a  gentleman  of  great  estate),  Mr. 
Hoffe,  and  many  other  men  of  good  estates.  They  got  out  of  England  with  much 
difficulty,  all  places  being  belaid  to  have  taken  Mr.  Cotton  and  Mr.  Hooker,  who  had 
been  long  sought  for  to  have  been  brought  into  the  High  Commission  ;  but  the  master 
being  bound  to  touch  at  the  Wight,  the  pursuivants  attended  there,  and,  in  the  mean- 
time, the  said  ministers  were  taken  in  at  the  Downs.  Mr.  Hooker  and  Mr.  Stone  went 
presently  to  Newtown,  where  they  were  to  be  entertained,  and  Mr.  Cotton  stayed  at 
Boston." 

This  was  the  year  in  which  the  poems  of  George  Herbert  were  published, 
and  there  is  some  reason  for  the  conjecture  that  the  proposed  emigration 
of  Cotton  and  other  eminent  English  ministers  suggested  those  well-known 
lines  of  his,  — 

"  Religion  stands  a  tiptoe  in  our  land, 
Ready  to  pass  to  the  American  strand." 1 

This  was  the  year,  too,  when  an  Order  was  issued  by  the  Privy  Council 
to  stay  several  ships  in  the  Thames,  in  which  some  distinguished  opponents 
of  the  Crown  were  supposed  to  be  embarked  for  New  England,  —  as,  later, 
there  has  been  a  tradition  that  even  Hampden,  Pym,  and  Cromwell  medi- 
tated such  a  flight. 

1  Muss,  fit st.  Soc.  Proc.,  January,  1867. 
VOL.    I.  —  1 6. 


122  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Coming  from  Boston  in  Old  England,  where  he  had  ministered  for  more 
than  twenty  years  in  the  Church  of  St.  Botolph,  whose  lofty  tower  is  still 
the  pride  of  all  the  regions  round  about,  the  great  Puritan  preacher  did  not 
fail  to  receive  the  most  cordial  welcome  in  the  little  transatlantic  town,  which 
has  often  been  said  to  have  been  named  out  of  respect  to  his  character,  and 
in  hopeful  anticipation  of  his  soon  becoming  one  of  its  inhabitants. 

His  welcome  was  all  the  more  fervent  from  his  having  so  narrowly 
escaped  the  pursuivants  and  the  High  Commission  Court.  He  seems, 
however,  to  have  brought  over  with  him  from  England  some  views  in  regard 
to  civil  government  which  were  by  no  means  palatable  in  Massachusetts. 
He  took  occasion  to  express  and  enforce  these  views  in  the  Election  Ser- 
mon which  he  delivered  before  the  General  Court  in  the  following  May 
(1634),  when  he  maintained  "that  a  magistrate  ought  not  to  be  turned 
into  the  condition  of  a  private  man  without  just  cause,"  any  more  than 
the  magistrates  may  turn  a  private  man  out  of  his  freehold.  The  subject 
was  thereupon  discussed  in  the  Court,  and  the  opinion  of  the  other  min- 
isters asked.  Winthrop  paid  the  penalty  of  the  decision.  The  immediate 
practical  answer  was  that  the  General  Court  elected  a  new  Governor,  and 
a  wholesome  rebuke  was  thus  given  to  the  suggestion  of  a  vested  right  on 
the  part  of  any  incumbent  in  the  political  office  which  he  may  happen  to 
hold.  Thomas  Dudley  l  was  now  elected  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  and 
Roger  Ludlow  Deputy-Governor ;  while  Winthrop  was  chosen  at  the  head 
of  the  Board  of  Assistants. 

Meantime,  we  have  the  record  of  a  great  advance  in  the  political  con- 
dition of  the  little  Colony,  —  nothing  less  than  the  establishment  of  a  Repre- 
sentative System  in  New  England.  It  was  ordered,  "  That  four  General 
Courts  should  be  kept  every  year;  that  the  whole  body  of  the  freemen 
should  be  present  only  at  the  Court  of  Election  of  Magistrates,  and  that,  at 
the  other  three,  every  town  should  send  their  deputies,  who  should  assist 
in  making  laws,  disposing  lands,  &c."  Town  governments  were  thus 
already  in  existence,  and  in  this  year  are  found  the  earliest  remaining 
records  of  the  town  of  Boston,  written  by  Winthrop  himself,  and  dated 
"  1634,  moneth  7*,  Daye  I."2  Relieved  from  the  cares  of  the  chief  magis- 

1  [Dudley  lived  where  the  Universalist  Durrie's  Index  to  American  Genealogies.  The 
Church  in  Roxbury  stands,  at  the  end  of  Shaw-  full  text  of  the  life  of  Thomas  Dudley,  which 
mut  Avenue.  His  well  is  said  still  to  exist  was  abridged  by  Cotton  Mather  when  he  print- 
under  the  building.  Here  he  entertained  Mian-  ed  his  Magnolia,  is  given  in  the  Mass.  Jfist. 
tonomoh  in  1640.  He  died  July  31, 1654.  Drake,  Soc.  Proc.,  January,  1870,  with  notes  and  col- 
Tmon  of  Roxbury,  pp.  334,  340 ;  Ellis,  Roxbury  lations  with  the  text  of  the  same  given  in 
Town,  p.  97.  The  family  line  is  traced  in  N.  E.  George  Adlard's  Sutton-Dndleys  of  England. 
Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.  \\\\.  and  ix.,  supplementing  Cf.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  April,  1858.  The 
Dean  Dudley '*  Dudley  Genealogies,  Boston,  1848.  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Keg.,  October,  1856, 
There  is  a  tabular  pedigree  in  Drake's  Boston,  p.  342,  has  a  paper  on  the  portraits  of  the 
folio  edition.  Cf.  Bridgman,  Pilgrims  of  Boston  ;  Dudleys.  —  ED.] 

Heraldic  Journal,  i.  35,  185;  Herald  and  Gene-  '2  [This  first  page   of  the  Town  Records  is 

alogist,  part  xvi.  p.  308;   Savage,  Dictionary  ;  ].  given  herewith  in  heliotypc.     Engravings  of  it 

B.    Moore,    Governors   of   Ne~,t>   Plymouth   and  have  appeared  in  Shaw's  Description  of  Boston, 

Mass.  Bay,  p.  273;   and  further  references  in  and  in  Drake's  Boston,  p.  172.  —  ED.] 


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IMRSI-  PACK  OF  BOSTON   RKCOKDS,  SKIT,   i,  1634.  IN  GOVKRNOR   WINTHROP'S  HAND. 


BOSTON    FOUNDED.  123 

tracy  of  the  colony,  he  was  able  to  give  more  attention  to  town  affairs,  and 
in  the  following  December  we  find  him  at  the  head  of  seven  selectmen  of 
Boston,  commissioned  "  to  divide  and  dispose  of  all  such  lands  belonging 
to  the  town  (as  are  not  yet  in  the  lawful  possession  of  any  particular  per- 
son) to  the  inhabitants  of  the  town,  leaving  such  portions  in  common  for 
new  comers,  and  the  further  benefitte  of  the  town,  as  in  their  best  discretion 
they  shall  think  fitt."  It  was  in  the  exercise  of  this  commission  that  Win- 
throp  was  mainly  instrumental  in  reserving  from  the  distribution  of  the 
town  lands  the  forty  or  fifty  acres  now  known  as  BOSTON  COMMON,  and 
which  constitute  so  much  of  the  beauty  and  pride  of  the  city.1 

Another  memorable  incident  belongs  to  the  history  of  Boston  about  this 
time,  of  which  the  town  records  contain  the  following  account:  "Like- 
wise it  was  then  gen'ally  agreed  upon,  y-  or.  brother  Philemon  Pormont 
shalbe  entreated  to  become  schoolmaster  for  the  teaching  and  nourtering 
of  children  w*  us."  This  is  one  of  the  very  earliest  references  to  that  cause 
of  education,  and  those  free  schools,  which  Boston  has  gloried  to  advance 
from  that  day  to  this;  and  the  town  records  of  another  year  (1636) 
contain  a  list  of  the  subscriptions  of  all  the  principal  inhabitants  of 
the  town,  from  four  shillings  up  to  ten  pounds  each,  "  towards  the  main- 
tenance of  free-schoolmaster  for  Mr.  Daniel  Maude  being  now  also  chosen 
thereunto."2 

The  spirit  of  legislation,  as  well  as  the  habits  of  the  people,  at  this  period 
may  be  illustrated  by  such  an  order  of  the  General  Court  as  the  following: 
"  The  Court,  taking  into  consideration  the  great,  superfluous,  and  unneces- 
sary expenses  occasioned  by  reason  of  some  new  and  immodest  fashions,  as 
also  the  ordinary  wearing  of  silver,  gold,  and  silk  laces,  girdles,  hatbands, 
&c.,  hath  therefore  ordered  that  no  person,  either  man  or  woman,  shall 
hereafter  make  or  buy  any  apparel,  either  woollen,  silk,  or  linen,  with  any 
lace  on  it,  silver,  gold,  silk,  or  thread,  under  the  penalty  of  forfeiture  of 
such  clothes." 

And  here  is  another  sample :  "  It  is  ordered  that  no  person  shall  take 
tobacco  publicly,  under  the  penalty  of  2  shillings  and  sixpence,  nor  privately 
in  his  own  house,  or  in  the  house  of  another,  before  strangers,  and  that  two 
or  more  shall  not  take  it  together  anywhere,  under  the  aforesaid  penalty, 
for  every  offence." 

One  more  order  will  suffice  to  throw  light  on  the  domestic  condition  of 
Boston  :  "  There  is  leave  granted  to  the  Deputy-Governor,  John  Winthrop, 
Esq.,  and  John  Winthrop,  Junior,  each  of  them  to  entertain  an  Indian 
a-piece  as  a  household  servant."  In  this  year  Boston  had  reached  the 
highest  rate  of  assessment  for  public  uses,  being  taxed  £80,  with  Dor- 
chester and  Newtown,  out  of  the  .£600  ordered  to  be  "  levied  out  of  the 
several  plantations,"  which  were  now  twelve  in  number. 

1  Palfrey,  Hist,  of  N.  E.  i.  379.  Second  Report  of  the  Record  Commissioners,^.  160. 

2  [See  further  on  this  point  in  Mr.  Scudder's     The  history  of  education  is  specially  treated  by 
chapter.     The  list  in  question  is  printed  in  the     Dr.  Dillaway  in  Vol.  IV.  —  ED.J 


124  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

At  the  election  of  May,  1635,  Thomas  Dudley,  after  a  single  year  of 
service,  was  left  out  of  the  chief  magistracy  of  Massachusetts,  and  John 
Haynes  was  chosen  Governor  in  his  place.  And  now  we  come  to  the 

arrival    in   Boston   of  two 

Cmost  notable  persons,  who 
are  to  play  no  small  part 
^ —   /  in  the  history  of  the  colony 

^S  for  the  next  few  years,  and 

who,  alas  !  were  doomed  to 
a  common  and  sad  end  at  a   later  day  in  England,  —  Hugh   Peters   (or 
Peter,  as  he  always  signed  his  name),  and  Henry  Vane.     Peters  had  been 
the  pastor  of  the  English  Church  in  Rotterdam,  and  had  been  persecuted 
.          -  by  the    English    Ambassador,  who   desired  to  bring   his 

JrJ  **•    ulf*t    church  under  the  English  discipline.     He  had  long  before 
'  taken  an  interest  in  the  colonization  of  New  England,  was 

one  of  the  first  members  of  the  Massachusetts  Company,  and  one  of  the 
signers  of  the  Company's  Instructions  to  Endicott  in  1629.  Vane  was 
son  and  heir  to  Sir  Henry  Vane,  Comptroller  of  the  King's  household, 
and  had  already,  though  not  yet  twenty-five  years  old,  been  employed 
by  his  father,  while  an  ambassador,  in  foreign  affairs.  These  gentlemen 
exhibited  the  most  active  concern  for  the  condition  of  the  colony,  both 
ecclesiastical  and  civil,  at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  Vane  was  ad- 
mitted a  member  of  the  Church  of  Boston  within  a  month  after  his 
arrival,  and,  before  three  months  had  expired,  he  and  Peters  had  pro- 
cured a  meeting  in  Boston  of  all  the  leading  magistrates  and  ministers 
of  the  colony,  with  a  view  to  healing  some  distractions  in  the  Com- 
monwealth and  effecting  "  a  more  firm  and  friendly  uniting  of  minds." 
At  this  meeting  Vane  and  Peters,  with  Governor  Haynes  and  the 
ministers,  Cotton,  Wilson,  and  Hooker,  declared  themselves  in  favor  of 
a  more  rigorous  administration  of  government  than  had  thus  far  been 
pursued.  Winthrop  was  charged  with  having  displayed  "  overmuch 
lenity."  The  ministers  delivered  a  formal  opinion,  "  that  strict  disci- 
pline, both  in  criminal  offences  and  in  martial  affairs,  was  more  needful 
in  plantations  than  in  settled  States,  as  tending  to  the  honor  and  safety 
of  the  Gospel."  Within  seven  days  after  this  decision  Governor  Haynes 
and  the  Assistants,  being  informed  that  Roger  Williams,  who  in  the  previous 
October  had  been  sentenced  by  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  to 
depart  out  of  their  jurisdiction  in  six  weeks,  and  to  whom  liberty  had  been 
granted  "  to  stay  till  spring,"  was  using  this  liberty  for  preaching  and  prop- 
agating the  doctrines  for  which  he  had  been  censured,  despatched  Captain 
Underhill  to  apprehend  him,  with  a  view  to  his  being  shipped  off  at  once 
to  England.  But  Williams  escaped  to  Narragansett  Bay,  and  became  the 
founder  of  Rhode  Island.  He  said  of  this  escape,  in  a  letter  long  after- 
wards: "  It  pleased  the  Most  High  to  direct  my  steps  into  this  Bay,  by  the 
loving  private  advice  of  the  ever  honored  soul,  Mr.  John  Winthrop."  But 


BOSTON    FOUNDED.  125 

the  controversies  about  Roger  Williams  belong  to  a  different  chapter  of  this 
work  and  to  another  writer,1  and  they  are  passed  over  here  accordingly. 

On  the  7th  of  April,  1636,  it  was  ordered  by  the  General  Court  "  that 
a  certain  number  of  magistrates  should  be  chosen  for  life."  This  council 
for  life  was  undoubtedly  the  work  of  John  Cotton,  and  was  designed  to 
encourage  the  coming  over  to  New  England  of  some  of  those  noblemen  of 
old  England  to  whom  life-tenures  were  dear,  and  who  shrunk  from  trusting 


their  distinction  to  popular  favor.  It  was  entirely  in  keeping,  also,  with 
Cotton's  Election  Sermon  in  1634,  and  it  is  expressly  provided  for  in  the 
draft  of  the  "  Model  of  Moses  his  Judicials,"  which  Cotton  presented  to 
the  General  Court  in  October  of  this  year.  At  the  election  in  May,  accord- 
ingly >  John  Winthrop  and  Thomas  Dudley  were  chosen  councillors  for  life. 
But  the  young  Henry  Vane  was  at  the  same  time  elected  Governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts,—  a  signal  proof  of  the  influence  and  importance  he  had  so 

1  [Dr.  Ellis's  chapter  on  "The  Puritan  Commonwealth." —  El).] 


126  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

rapidly  acquired  in  the  colony.1  Winthrop — who  accepted  the  Deputy 
Governorship  under  him  —  says  of  him  in  his  Journal  on  this  occasion: 
"  Because  he  was  son  and  heir  to  a  Privy  Councillor  in  England,  the  ships 
congratulated  his  election  with  a  volley  of  great  shot."  But  Vane  had 
ability  and  enterprise  enough  to  have  secured  an  ultimate  success  and 
celebrity,  as  well  as  salutes  of  "  great  shot,"  without  the  aid  of  any  mere 
family  prestige.  His  administration,  however,  was  destined  to  be  disturbed 
by  a  violence  of  religious  and  civil  controversy  which  has  never  been  ex- 
ceeded on  the  same  soil,  if,  indeed,  on  any  soil  beneath  the  sun.  But  the 
story  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  of  the  Antinomian  Controversy  belongs  to 
another  writer,2  and  is  gladly  left  to  him.  At  the  General  Court  in  March, 
1636-37,  contentions  ran  so  high  that,  although  it  had  been  so  recently 
declared  that  "  Boston  is  the  fittest  place  for  publique  meetings  of  any 
place  in  the  Bay,"  it  was  determined  that  the  Court  of  Elections  should  not 
be  held  there.  It  was  thereupon  held  in  Newtown,  soon  to  be  Cambridge, 
where,  after  scenes  of  great  controversy  and  even  tumult,  Winthrop  was 
again  chosen  Governor  and  Dudley  Deputy-Governor,  while  Vane,  after  a 
single  year's  service,  was  not  even  included  among  the  Assistants.  It  was 
during  this  election  that  the  first  Stump  Speech  was  made  in  this  part  of 
the  world,  and  made  by  a  clergyman,  —  no  less  a  person  than  the  Rev.  John 
Wilson,  one  of  the  ministers  of  the  first  Boston  Church ;  having  "  got  up 
on  the  bough  of  a  tree,"  and  having  made  a  speech  which  was  said  to 
have  turned  the  scale. 

Governor  Winthrop  thus  entered  on  a  fifth  term  of  the  chief  magistracy 
in  May,  1637,  and  soon  after  his  re-election  the  General  Court  passed  the 
order  which  gave  occasion  to  the  memorable  controversy  between  himself 
and  Vane.  The  order  was  to  the  effect  "  that  none  should  be  received  to 
inhabite  within  this  Jurisdiction  but  such  as  should  be  allowed  by  some 
of  the  magistrates."  Winthrop  defended  the  order  in  an  elaborate  paper. 
Vane  replied  in  what  he  termed  "  A  briefe  Answer,"  but  which  was  more 
than  three  times  longer  than  Winthrop's  defence.  Winthrop  rejoined  in  a 
replication  as  long  as  both  the  other  papers  together.  Many  persons  have 
pronounced  judgment  on  these  arguments,  but  few  have  read  them.  They 
may  all  be  found  in  Governor  Hutchinson's  Collection  of  Original  Papers,  who 
dismisses  them  with  the  wise  remark:  "  I  leave  the  reader  to  judge  who  had 

1  [Cf.  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Cental.  Reg.,  A-pril,  time  after.     The  building  is  of  wood ;  the  front 

1848;  C.  W.  Upham,  Life  of  Vane;  J.  B.  Moore,  part  has  a  modern   appearance,  but  the   back 

Gtmernors  of  New  Plymouth  and  Mass.  Bay,  p.  exhibits   marks    of    antiquity."     It    has    lately, 

313.      Snow,  Hist,  of  Boston,  p.  75,  speaks  of  however,    been   denied    that    this   was   Vane's 

the  house  where   he   lived,  as   fifty  years   ago  house,  by  W.   H.   Whitmore,  who  (Sewall  Pa- 

and    more    still    standing    on    the    slope    back  pers,  i.  58-62)  traces  the  estate  down   through 

of  the  stores  on  Tremont  Street,  opposite   to  Seaborn    Cotton    and    John    Mull    to    Samuel 

"  King's  Chapel  Burying  Ground,"  extending  up  Sewall.     The  lot  touched  Tremont   Street  just 

towards   Somerset    Street.      Snow  spoke   of  it  south   of   the  entrance   to    Pemberton    Square, 

as  "the  oldest  house  in  the  city,"    and   adds:  and   extended   south   and   also   back   over   the 

"It  was  originally  small.     Mr.  Vane  gave  it  to  hill. —  ED.] 

Mr.  Cotton,  who  made  an  addition  to  it,  and  lived  -'  [Dr.  Ellis,  in  his  chapter  on  "  The  Puritan 

and  died  there.      His  family  occupied  it  some  Commonwealth."  —  ED.] 


BOSTON    FOUNDED.  127 

the  best  cause,  and  who  best  defended  it."  Vane's  reply  has  often  been 
mentioned  as  containing  a  clear  and  comprehensive  exposition  of  the  true 
principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  as  entitling  him  to  be  ranked 
among  the  very  earliest  assertors  of  toleration  and  the  rights  of  conscience. 
His  paper,  however,  as  Dr.  Palfrey  points  out  in  his  excellent  History  of 
New  England,  contains  repeated  suggestions  of  a  -power  in  the  King  to 
overrule  all  colonial  proceedings,  and  exhibits  him  clearly  as  a  friend  to  the 
Royal  Prerogative.  But,  without  detracting  in  the  slightest  degree  from 
the  lofty  and  enviable  claims  which  have  been  made  for  him,  it  may  well 
be  more  than  doubted  whether  his  views  were  applicable  to  the  condition 
of  the  colony  at  the  time,  and  whether  the  little  Commonwealth  could  have 
been  held  together  in  peace  and  prosperity  —  if  held  together  at  all  —  by 
any  other  policy  than  that  which  Winthrop  defended. 

It  was  admirably  said  by  the  late  Josiah  Quincy  on  this  subject,  in  his 
Centennial  Discourse  in  1830,  that  "  had  our  early  ancestors  adopted  the 
course  we  at  this  day  are  apt  to  deem  so  easy  and  obvious,  and  placed  their 
government  on  the  basis  of  liberty  for  all  sorts  of  consciences,  it  would  have 
been,  in  that  age,  a  certain  introduction  of  anarchy.  It  cannot  be  questioned 
that  all  the  fond  hopes  they  had  cherished  from  emigration  would  have 
been  lost.  The  agents  of  Charles  and  James  would  have  planted  here  the 
standard  of  the  transatlantic  monarchy  and  hierarchy.  Divided  and 
broken,  without  practical  energy,  subject  to  court  influences  and  court 
favorites,  New  England  would  at  this  day  have  been  a  colony  of  the 
parent  State,  her  character  yet  to  be  formed,  and  her  independence  yet 
to  be  vindicated." 

"The  non-toleration,"  proceeded  Mr.  Quincy,  "which  characterized  our 
early  ancestors,  from  whatever  source  it  may  have  originated,  had  undoubt- 
edly the  effect  they  intended  and  wished.  It  excluded  from  influence  in 
their  infant  settlement  all  the  friends  and  adherents  of  the  ancient  monarchy 
and  hierarchy ;  all  who,  from  any  motive,  ecclesiastical  or  civil,  were  dis- 
posed to  disturb  their  peace  or  their  churches.  They  considered  it  a 
measure  of  '  self-defence.'  And  it  is  unquestionable  that  it  was  chiefly 
instrumental  in  forming  the  homogeneous  and  exclusively  republican 
character  for  which  the  people  of  New  England  have  in  all  times  been 
distinguished ;  and,  above  all,  that  it  fixed  irrevocably  in  the  country  that 
noble  security  for  religious  liberty,  —  the  independent  system  of  church 
government." 

Vane  returned  to  England  in  August  of  the  same  year,  and  Governor 
Winthrop  gave  orders  for  his  "  honorable  dismission  "  with  "  divers  vollies 
of  shot."  There  was  so  much  that  was  noble  in  Vane's  character,  and  so 
much  that  was  sad  in  his  fate,  that  it  is  pleasant  to  remember  that  Winthrop 
afterwards  makes  record  that  "  he  showed  himself  in  later  years  a  true 
friend  to  New  England,  and  a  man  of  a  noble  and  generous  mind."  A 
friendly  correspondence  was  kept  up  between  him  and  Winthrop  as  late  as 
1645,  a"d  their  relations  were  cordial  and  affectionate. 


128  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF  BOSTON. 

Hugh  Peters  had  made  bold  to  tell  Vane  to  his  face  "  that,  before  he 
came,  within  less  than  two  years  since,  the  churches  were  in  peace."  But 
his  departure  by  no  means  put  an  end  to  contentions.  On  the  contrary, 
they  seemed  to  wax  warmer  and  fiercer  than  before.  The  General  Court 
at  last  resorted  to  extreme  measures,  —  banishment,  disfranchisement,  and, 
finally,  disarming.  On  the  2Oth  of  November,  1637,  nearly  sixty  persons 
in  Boston,  and  about  twenty  in  the  neighboring  towns,  were  disarmed, — 
many  of  them  persons  of  the  best  consideration  in  the  colony,  and  some  of 
whom  were  afterwards  highly  distinguished  in  the  military  service  of  New 
England.  But  all  this  belongs  to  the  history  of  the  controversies  of  the 
colony,  to  form  the  subject  of  a  separate  chapter  of  this  history  by  a 
different  hand.1 

Another  political  year  opens  in  May,  1638,  with  the  re-election  of  Win- 
throp  as  Governor.  During  this  year  the  colony  was  called  on  to  con- 
front a  peremptory  demand  from  the  Lords  Commissioners  in  England 
for  the  surrender  of  the  Massachusetts  Charter,  coupled  with  the  threat  of 
sending  over  a  new  General  Governor  from  England.  But,  happily,  diplo- 
matic delays  were  interposed ;  a  humble  petition  was  sent  back,  and  the  di- 
rect issue  was  "  avoided  and  protracted,"  by  the  express  advice  of  Governor 
Winthrop,  until  the  King  and  his  ministers  became  too  much  engrossed  with 
their  own  condition  at  home  to  think  more  about  their  colonies.  The 
Charter  was  saved  for  another  half  century,  to  the  great  relief  and  delight 
of  those  who  had  brought  it  over.2 

Again,  in  1639,  the  May  election  resulted  in  the  renewal  of  Winthrop's 
commission  as  Governor.  But  pecuniary  embarrassments,  resulting  from  the 
fraud  of  his  bailiff",  now  made  him  anxious  to  withdraw  from  public  respon- 
sibilities, and  on  the  I3th  of  May,  1640,  he  gave  up  the  chief  magistracy 
again  to  Thomas  Dudley,  and  resumed  a  place  at  the  Board  of  Assistants. 
In  1641  Dudley  was  succeeded  by  Richard  Bellingham,  and  this  year  was 
rendered  memorable  by  the  adoption  of  a  code  of  laws,  a  hundred  in 
number,  and  known  as  "the  Body  of  Liberties."3  It  had  been  prepared  by 
Nathaniel  Ward,  pastor  of  the  Ipswich  Church,  who  had  formerly  been  a 
student  and  practiser  of  the  law  in  England,  and  whose  Simple  Coblcr  of 
Agawam  has  rendered  his  name  familiar.  This  code  had  been  revised  and 
altered  by  the  General  Court,  and  sent  into  all  the  towns  for  consideration. 
And  now  it  was  revised  and  amended  again  by  the  General  Court,  and  then 
adopted.  For  all  the  previous  years  of  the  colony's  existence  there  had 
been  no  statutes  for  the  administration  of  justice,  and  no  express  recognition 
of  the  Common  Law  of  England.  In  establishing  this  code  at  last,  the 
General  Court  decreed  "  that  it  should  be  audibly  read  and  deliberately 
weighed  in  every  General  Court  that  shall  be  held  within  three  years  next 
ensuing;  a.nd  such  of  them  as  shall  not  be  altered  or  repealed,  they  shall 

1  [Dr.  Ellis,  as  before.  —  ED.]  3  [See  the  note  on  this  subject  in  Dr.  Ellis's 

2  [The  story  of  the  struggle  is  told  later  in     chapter,  as  before.  —  ED.] 
Mr.  Deane's  chapter.  —  Eu.] 


BOSTON    FOUNDED.  129 

stand  so  ratified  that  no  man  shall  infringe  them  without  due  punishment." 
The  code  opened  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,  dismembered,  nor  anyways  punished;  no 
man  shall  be  deprived  of  his  wife  or  children ;  no  man's  goods  or  estate 
shall  be  taken  away  nor  anyway  endangered  under  color  of  law  or  coun- 
tenance 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 
dismembering  or  banishment,  according  to  that  Word  to  be  judged  by 
the  General  Court." 

Governor  Winthrop  tells  us,  in  1639,  that  "  the  people  had  long  desired  a 
body  of  laws,  and  thought  their  condition  very  unsafe  while  so  much  power 
rested  in  the  discretion  of  the  magistrates."  Now,  at  length,  the  wishes  of 
the  people  had  prevailed,  and  a  system  of  written  law  was  adopted  for  Mas- 
sachusetts. But  it  was  written  only,  —  not  yet  published,  or  certainly  not  yet 
printed;  for  it  was  not  until  November,  1646,  that  we  find  the  record  that 
the  Court,  "  being  deeply  sensible  of  the  earnest  expectation  of  the  country 
in  general  for  their  Court's  completing  a  body  of  laws  for  the  better  and 
more  orderly  wielding  all  the  affairs  of  this  Commonwealth,"  appointed  a 
joint  commission  of  magistrates  and  deputies  "  to  peruse  and  examine,  com- 
pare, transcribe,  and  compose  in  good  order  all  the  liberties,  laws,  and  orders 
extant  with  us  ...  so  as  we  may  have  ready  recourse  to  any  of  them,  upon 
all  occasions,  whereby  we  may  manifest  our  utter  disaffection  to  arbitrary 
government,  and  so  all  relations  be  safely  and  sweetly  directed  and  protected 
in  all  their  just  rights  and  privileges;  desiring  thereby  to  make  way  for 
printing  our  Laws  for  more  public  and  profitable  use  of  us  and  our  succes- 
sors." Two  years  more,  however,  were  to  elapse  before  the  laws  were  "  at 
the  press,"  and  still  a  third  year  before  the  colony  records  inform  us  that  the 
Court  had  found,  "  by  experience,  the  great  benefit  that  doth  redound  to 
the  country  by  putting  of  the  law  in  print"  The  first  printed  edition  of 
the  laws  was  in  1649,  while  "  The  Body  of  Liberties,"  of  which  the  preamble 
has  just  been  given,  as  adopted  in  1641,  did  not  find  its  way  into  type  until 
two  full  centuries  afterwards. 

Winthrop   was    elected    Governor    again    in    1642,   with    Endicott    as 
Deputy-Governor.     The   year  was  rendered 
notable  by  a  controversy  arising  out  of  the 
publication  —  in   manuscript  copies,  not  by 
printing  —  of  a   book    of    Richard    Salton- 
stall's,  a  son  of  that  good  Sir  Richard *  who 
had  come  over  in  the  "  Arbella "  as  one  of    CD-  A-— ( 
the  Assistants,  on  the  transfer  of  the  charter        V 
and  chief  government  to  New  England,  and  who,  while  returning  home 

1  [The  autographs  are  those  of  father  and  son.  —  ED.] 
VOL.  I. —  17. 


130  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

himself  after  a  brief  stay,  left  a  part  of  his  family  behind  him  to  perpetuate 
an  honored  name  in  the  history  of  Massachusetts.  The  Book  was  prin- 
cipally aimed  at  "  The  Council  for  Life,"  to  which  only  three  persons  had 
ever  been  chosen,  —  Winthrop,  Dudley,  and  Endicott;  of  which,  indeed, 
nothing  but  a  nominal  life-tenure  remained,  and  of  which  Winthrop  took  oc- 
casion to  say  that  "  he  was  no  more  in  love  with  the  honor  or  power  of  it  than 
with  an  old  frieze  coat  in  a  summer's  day."  But  a  more  serious  controversy 
soon  followed,  which  lasted  for  nearly  two  years,  and  which  happily  termi- 
nated in  an  organic  change  for  the  better  in  the  mode  of  colonial  legislation. 
"  There  fell  out,"  says  Winthrop,  "  a  great  business  upon  a  very  small  oc- 
casion. Anno  1636  there  was  a  stray  sow  in  Boston,  which  was  brought  to 
Captain  Keayne ;  he  had  it  cried  divers  times,  and  divers  came  to  see  it,  but 
none  made  claim  to  it  for  near  a  year.  He  kept  it  in  his  yard  with  a  sow  of 
his  own.  Afterwards,  one  Sherman's  wife,  having  lost  such  a  sow,  laid  claim 
to  it,"  —  and  so  the  story  is  pursued  for  many  pages.  This  stray  sow  in 
the  streets  of  Boston  (and  it  was  a  white  sow)  is  hardly  less  historical 
than  the  white  sow  which  guided  ./Eneas  to  the  future  site  of  Rome.1  It 
led  to  the  great  dispute  between  the  magistrates  and  the  deputies  in  re- 
gard to  the  "  Negative  Voice,"  and  to  the  final  separation,  by  solemn  order, 
of  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  into  two  co-ordinate  branches,  —  Magis- 
trates and  Deputies,  or,  as  we  now  style  them,  Senators  and  Representatives. 
This  order,  as  contained  in  the  Colonial  Records  of  March  7,  1644,  is  too 
notable  to  be  omitted  in  any  account  of  the  gradual  progress  of  the  colony 
towards  constitutional  government.  It  is  as  follows :  — 

"  Forasmuch  as,  after  long  experience,  we  find  divers  inconveniences  in  the  man- 
ner of  our  proceeding  in  Courts  by  magistrates  and  deputies  sitting  together,  and  ac- 
counting it  wisdom  to  follow  the  laudable  practice  of  other  States  who  have  laid 
groundworks  for  government  and  order  in  the  issuing  of  greatest  and  highest  conse- 
quence, — 

"  It  is  therefore  ordered,  first,  that  the  magistrates  may  sit  and  act  business  by 
themselves,  by  drawing  up  bills  and  orders  which  they  shall  see  good  in  their  wisdom, 
which  having  agreed  upon,  they  may  present  them  to  the  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  themselves,  and  consult- 
ing about  such  orders  and  laws  as  they  in  their  discretion  and  experience  shall  find  meet 
for  common  good,  which,  agreed  upon  by  them,  they  may  present  to  the  magistrates, 
who,  according  to  their  wisdom,  having  seriously  considered  of  them,  may  consent 
unto  them  or  disallow  them ;  and  when  any  orders  have  passed  the  approbation  of 
both  magistrates  and  deputies,  then  such  orders  to  be  engrossed,  and  in  the  last  day 
of  the  Court  to  be  read  deliberately,  and  full  assent  to  be  given ;  provided,  also,  that 
all  matters  of  judicature  which  this  Court  shall  take  cognizance  of  shall  be  issued  in 
like  manner."  2 

But  the  record  of  1642  must  not  be  closed  without  recalling  the  fact  that 
it  was  the  year  of  the  first  Commencement  of  Harvard  College.  Endowed 

1  Virgil,  jfLneid,  bk.  Hi.  lines  390-94.  2  Massachusetts  Colonial  Records,  ii.  58,  59. 


BOSTON    FOUNDED. 

by  the  infant  colony  in  1636,  the  College  assumed  a  practical  existence  in 
1638,  taking  the  name  of  the  Rev.  John  Harvard,  of  whom,  alas!  so  little  is 
known  except  his  immortal  bequest.  And  now,  at  the  end  of  the  first  four 
years'  term,  Governor  Winthrop  has  the  satisfaction  of  making  the  following 
entry  in  his  Journal :  — 

"  Nine  bachelors  commenced  at  Cambridge  ;  they  were  young  men  of  good  hope, 
and  performed  their  acts  so  as  gave  good  proof  of  their  proficiency  in  the  tongues 
and  arts.  (8.)  5.  The  general  court  had  settled  a  government  or  superintendency 
over  the  college,  viz.,  all  the  magistrates  and  elders  over  the  six  nearest  churches  and 
the  president,  or  the  greatest  part  of  these.  Most  of  them  were  now  present  at  this 
first  Commencement,  and  dined  at  the  college  with  the  scholar's  ordinary  commons, 
which  was  done  of  purpose  for  the  students'  encouragement,  &c.,  and  it  gave  good 
content  to  all." 

Winthrop  was  again  elected  Governor  for  1643,  with  Endicott  as  his 
Deputy-Governor.  The  General  Court,  at  its  first  session  of  this  year, 
divided  "  the  whole  plantation  within  this  jurisdiction "  into  four  shires, 
or  counties,  —  Suffolk,  with  Boston  at  its  head,  and  seven  other  towns ; 
Norfolk,  with  "  Salsberry "  at  its  head,  and  five  other  towns ;  Essex,  with 
Salem  at  its  head,  and  seven  other  "towns;  Middlesex,  with  Charlestown 
at  its  head,  and  eight  other  towns.  There  were  thus  already  thirty-four 
towns  in  Massachusetts,  distributed  among  four  counties,  or  shires.  At 
the  following  session,  a  number  of  the  neighboring  Indian  Sachems  made 
voluntary  submission  of  themselves  to  the  government  of  Massachusetts, 
and  the  records  contain  sundry  questions  which  were  propounded  to  them, 
with  their  answers  of  consent  or  agreement.  A  single  one  of  the  nine  or 
ten  will  illustrate  their  character :  — 

"  3.  Not  to  do  any  unnecessary  worke  on  y6  Sabath  day,  especially  w'.hin  y6  gates 
of  Christian  townes." 

Answer :  "  It  is  easy  to  y™ ;  they  have  not  much  to  do  on  any  day,  and  they  can 
well  take  their  ease  on  y!  day." 

But  the  great  event  of  this  year,  and  one  of  the  most  memorable  events 
in  the  early  history  of  our  whole  country,  was  the  final  formation  of  that 
New  England  Confederation  or  Union,  by  written  articles  of  agreement, 
which  is  the  original  example  and  pattern  of  whatever  unions  or  confedera- 
tions have  since  been  proposed  or  established  on  the  American  Continent. 
It  was  adopted  by  only  four  Colonies,  —  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth, 
Connecticut  and  New  Haven,  —  the  four  which  were  afterwards  consolidated 
into  two.  But  it  was  formed  by  those  who  were  "  desirous  of  union  and 
studious  of  peace,"  and  it  embodied  principles,  and  recognized  rights,  and 
established  precedents,  which  have  entered  largely  into  the  composition  of 
all  subsequent  instruments  of  union.  It  had  been  proposed  as  early  as 
1637,  and  Governor  Winthrop  had  labored  unceasingly  to  accomplish  it 
for  six  years.  He  was  recognized  as  its  principal  prompter  and  promoter 


132 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


by  the  famous  Thomas  Hooker,  of  Connecticut,  in  a  remarkable  letter,  thank- 
ing him  for  the  "  speciall  prudence  "  with  which  he  had  labored  "  to  settle 
a  foundation  of  safety  and  prosperity  in  succeeding  ages,"  and  for  laying, 
with  his  faithful  assistants,  "  the  first  stone  of  the  foundation  of  this  com- 
bynation  of  peace.'.' l  The  little  congress  of  commissioners  was  held  and 
organized  in  Boston  on  the  7th  (ijth)  of  September,  1643,  the  birthday  of 
the  town,  and  Winthrop  was  elected  its  first  president.  The  same  day  of 
the  same  month,  nearly  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  later  (1787),  was  to  mark 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  in  which  it  is  not  dif- 
ficult to  discern  some  provisions  which  may  have  owed  their  origin  to  the 
Articles  of  this  old  New  England  Confederation. 

The  year  1643  did  not  end  without  witnessing  the  rise  and  progress,  but 
unhappily  not  the  end,  of  the  La  Tour  and  D'Aulnay  controversy,  which 
involved  not  a  few  of  the  jealousies  and  animosities  which  have  more  re- 
cently occupied  the  public  mind  in  connection  with  foreigners  and  Papists, 
and  which  involved  also  some  nice  points  of  neutrality  and  international  law. 
Governor  Winthrop  gave  vigorous  expression  to  his  views  on  the  subject  in 
one  of  the  papers  to  which  the  controversy  gave  occasion,  and  in  particular 
reply  to  some  reproaches  which  were  cast  upon  his  own  course.  This  paper 
has  been  preserved  by  Hutchinson,2  and  contains  the  following  passage  near 
its  close :  — 

"  All  amounts  to  this  summe  :  The  Lord  hath  brought  us  hither,  through  the 
swelling  seas,  through  the  perills  of  pyrates,  tempests,  leakes,  fires,  rocks,  sands,  dis- 
eases, starvings ;  and  hath  here  preserved  us  these  many  yeares  from  the  displeasure  of 
Princes,  the  envy  and  rage  of  Prelates,  the  malignant  plots  of  Jesuits,  the  mutinous 
contentions  of  discontented  persons,  the  open  and  secret  attempts  of  barbarous  In- 
dians, the  seditious  and  undermining  practices  of  hereticall  false  brethren  ;  and  is  our 
confidence  and  courage  all  swallowed  up  in  the  feare  of  one  D'Aulnay?  " 

But  this  much-vexed  controversy,  with  all  the  others,  belongs  to  a  dif- 
ferent writer  and  another  chapter.3 

The  political  year  of  1644  opens  with  the  election  of  Endicott  as  Gover- 
nor, and  Winthrop  as  Deputy-Governor.  The  year  was  one  of  much 
political  agitation.  Grave  discussions  were  held  at  the  successive  sessions 
of  the  General  Court  as  to  the  principles  on  which  the  government  should 
be  administered,  and  particularly  as  to  the  respective  powers  of  the  two 
branches  of  the  Legislature.  The  magistrates  and  deputies  were  drawn  into 
frequent  and  earnest  contention  with  each  other,  and  the  ministers  and  elders 
were  sometimes  called  upon  to  give  judgment  or  arbitrate  between  them. 
In  connection  with  this  controversy,  and  in  justification  of  his  own  views, 
Winthrop  prepared  an  elaborate  Treatise  on  Government,  entitled  "Arbi- 
trary Governm!  described :  and  the  Governmen'  of  the  Massachusetts  vin- 

1  Letter  of  Hooker,  4  Mass.  Hist.   Coll.   vi.  2  Hutchinson,  Collection  of  Original  Paper:, 

pp.  389-390.     |See,  further,  in  Mr.  Smith's  chap-  p.  121-132. 

ter  on  "Boston  and  the   Neighboring  Jurisdic-          3  [By  C.  C.  Smith,  "Boston  and  the  Neigh- 

tions."  —  ED.]  boring  Jurisdictions."  —  ED.] 


BOSTON    FOUNDED.  133 

• 

dicated  from  that  Aspersion."  This  work  only  added  fuel  to  the  flame. 
While  it  was  still  the  subject  of  private  consultation,  and  before  it  was 
revised  and  prepared  for  presentation  to  the  General  Court,  some  of  the 
deputies  succeeded  in  procuring  a  copy,  and  made  it  the  subject  of  cen- 
sorious criticism.  An  autograph  copy  has  lately  been  discovered  among 
Winthrop's  papers,  and  it  has  very  recently  been  printed  for  the  first  time 
since  it  was  written.1 

Thomas  Dudley  was  substituted  for  Endicott  as  Governor  in  1645,  and 
Winthrop  was  again  made  Deputy-Governor.  The  Governor's  Journal  for 
this  year  contains  the  following  noteworthy  record :  — 

"  Divers  free  schools  were  erected,  as  at  Roxbury  (for  maintenanc^whereof  every 
inhabitant  bound  some  house  or  land  for  a  yearly  allowance  forever)  and  at  Boston, 
where  they  made  an  order  to  allow  forever  50  pounds  to  the  master  and  an  house, 
and  30  pounds  to  an  usher,  who  should  also  teach  to  read  and  write  and  cipher,  and 
Indians'  children  were  to  be  taught  freely,  and  the,  charge  to  be  by  yearly  contribution, 
either  by  voluntary  allowance,  or  by  rate  of  such  as  refused,  &c. ;  and  this  order  was 
confirmed  by  the  General  Court  \blanfc\.  Other  towns  did  the  like,  providing  main- 
tenance by  several  means." 

But  the  most  signal  event  of  this  year  was  what  has  sometimes  been 
called  "  the  Impeachment  of  Winthrop."  The  story  is  told  so  well  by  Dr. 
Palfrey,  in  his  History  of  New  England?  that  we  are  unwilling  to  give  it 
any  other  words  than  his :  — 

"  A  dispute,  local  in  its  origin,  and  apparently  of  slight  importance  for  a  time,  but 
finally  engaging  at  once  the  military,  the  religious,  and  the  civil  authorities  of  the  col- 
ony, was  bequeathed  by  Endicott  to  his  successor.  The  train-band  of  the  town  of 
Hingham,  having  chosen  Anthony  Eames  to  be  their  captain,  '  presented  him  to  the 
Standing  Council  for  their  allowance.'  While  the  business  was  in  this  stage,  the  soldiers 
altered  their  minds,  and  in  a  second  election  gave  the  place  to  Bozoun  Allen.  The 
magistrates,  thinking  that  an  injustice  and  affront  had  been  offered  to  Eames,  determined 
that  the  former  election  should  be  held  valid  until  the  Court  should  take  further  order. 
The  company  would  not  obey  their  captain,  and  mutinied.  He  was  summoned  before 
the  church  of  his  town,  under  a  charge  of  having  made  misrepresentations  to  the  mag- 
istrates. He  went  to  Boston  and  laid  his  case  before  them.  They  '  sent  warrant  to 
the  constable  to  attach  some  of  the  principal  offenders  [Peter  Hobart,  minister  of 
Hingham,  being  one]  to  appear  before  them  at  Boston,  to  find  sureties  for  their  ap- 
pearance at  the  next  Court.'  Hobart  came  and  remonstrated  so  intemperately  that 
'  some  of  the  magistrates  told  him  that,  were  it  not  for  respect  for  his  ministry,  they 
would  commit  him.'  Two  of  those  arraigned  with  him  refused  to  give  bonds,  and 
Winthrop  sent  them  to  jail. 

"  So  the  affair  stood  at  the  time  of  Dudley's  accession.  Hobart  and  some  eighty 
of  his  friends  petitioned  for  a  hearing  before  the  General  Court  upon  the  lawfulness  of 
their  committal  '  by  some  of  the  magistrates,  for  words  spoken  concerning  the  power 
of  the  General  Court,  and  their  liberties,  and  the  liberties  of  the  Church.'  The  dep- 

1  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop,  ii.  440-     throp,  in   1876,  to  the  Public  Library,  where  it 
459.      [The    original  manuscript,   with   all    the     now  is.  —  ED.] 
papers  relating  to  it,  was  given  by  Mr.   Win-  2  Vol.  ii.  p.  254. 


134  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

• 

uties,  on  their  part,  complied  with  the  request,  and  sent  a  vote  accordingly  to  the 
magistrates  for  their  concurrence.  The  magistrates  '  returned  answer,  that  they  were 
willing  the  cause  should  be  heard,  so  as  the  petitioners  would  name  the  magistrates 
whom  they  intended,  and  the  matters  they  would  lay  to  their  charge,  £c.  The  peti- 
tioners' agents,  who  were  then  deputies  of  the  Court,  .  .  .  thereupon  singled  out  the 
Deputy- Governor  [Winthrop],  and  two  of  the  petitioners  undertook  the  prosecution.' 
The  magistrates  were  loath  to  sanction  so  irregular  a  proceeding  ;  but  Winthrop  de- 
sired to  make  his  vindication,  and  the  petitioners  were  permitted  to  have  their  way. 

" '  The  day  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  [Winthrop],  coming  in  with  the  rest  of  the  magistrates,  placed  him- 
self beneath  within  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  dis- 
advantage to  him,  for  he  could  not  take  that  liberty  to  plead  the  cause  which  he  ought 
to  be  allowed  at  the  bar.' 

"  In  the  full  argument  which  followed,  the  Deputy-Governor  'justified  all  the  par- 
ticulars laid  to  his  charge ;  as  that,  upon  credible  information  of  such  a  mutinous  prac- 
tice and  open  disturbance  of  the  peace  and  slighting  of  authority,  the  offenders  were 
sent  for,  the  principal  by  warrant  to  the  constable  to  bring  them,  and  others  by  summons, 
and  that  some  were  bound  over  to  the  next  Court  of  Assistants,  and  others,  that 
refused  to  be  bound,  were  committed ;  and  all  this  according  to  the  equity  of  laws 
here  established,  and  the  custom  and  laws  of  England,  and  our  constant  practice  these 
fifteen  years.' " 

The  matter  was  under  debate,  says  Palfrey,  for  more  than  seven  weeks, 
with  only  one  week's  intermission,  and  was  at  length  adjusted  by  an  agree- 
ment on  all  hands  for  a  complete  acquittal  of  Winthrop,  and  for  the  punish- 
ment of  all  the  petitioners  by  fines,  the  largest  of  which  was  twenty  pounds, 
and  that  of  the  minister  two  pounds. 

"  According  to  this  agreement,"  writes  Winthrop  himself,  in  his  Journal,  "  presently 
after  the  lecture,  the  magistrates  and  deputies  took  their  places  in  the  meeting-house ; 
and  the  people  being  come  together,  and  the  Deputy-Governor  placing  himself  within 
the  bar,  as  at  the  time  of  the  hearing,  &c.,  the  Governor  [Dudley]  read  the  sentence 
of  the  Court,  without  speaking  any  more ;  for  the  deputies  had  (by  importunity)  ob- 
tained a  promise  of  silence  from  the  magistrates.  Then  was  the  Deputy-Governor 
desired  by  the  Court  to  go  up  and  take  his  place  again  upon  the  bench,  which  he  did 
accordingly,  and  the. Court  being  about  to  arise,  he  desired  leave  for  a  little  speech." 

Few  speeches,  if  any,  which  have  ever  been  made  in  Boston,  during 
its  two  centuries  and  a  half  of  existence,  have  attained  a  celebrity  so  wide 
and  so  durable  as  this  "  little  speech"  of  Winthrop's,  delivered  in  the  meet- 
ing-house of  its  First  Church,  before  the  assembled  General  Court  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, on  the  I4th  (24th)  of  May,  1645.  In  the  Modern  Universal 
History  1  it  is  given  at  length,  and  pronounced  "  equal  to  anything  of  an- 
tiquity, whether  we  consider  it  as  coming  from  a  philosopher  or  a  magis- 

1  Vol.  xxxix. 


BOSTON    FOUNDED.  135 

trate."  James  Grahame,  the  excellent  Scotch  historian  of  the  United 
States,  says  of  it:  "The  circumstances  in  which  this  address  was  delivered 
recall  the  most  interesting  scenes  of  Greek  and  Roman  history;  while  in 
the  wisdom,  piety,  and  dignity  that  it  breathes,  it  resembles  the  magnan- 
imous vindication  of  a  judge  of  Israel."  De  Tocqueville,  in  his  remarkable 
essay  on  Democracy  in  America,  quotes  a  passage  from  it  as  "  a  fine 
definition  of  liberty."  This  passage  may  well  be  quoted  here,  as  one  of 
the  cherished  memorials  of  the  early  days  of  Boston :  — 

"  There  is  a  two-fold  liberty,  —  natural  (I  mean  as  our  nature  is  now  corrupt) ,  and 
civil  or  federal.  The  first  is  common  to  man  with  beasts  and  other  creatures.  By 
this,  man,  as  he  stands  in  relation  to  man  simply,  hath  liberty  to  do  what  he  lists ;  it  is 
a  liberty  to  evil  as  well  as  to  good.  This  liberty  is  incompatible  and  inconsistent  with 
authority,  and  cannot  endure  the  least  restraint  of  the  most  just  authority.  The  exer- 
cise and  maintaining  of  this  liberty  makes  men  grow  more  evil,  and  in  time  to  be  worse 
than  brute  beasts :  Omnes  sumus  licentia  deteriores.  This  is  that  great  enemy  of 
truth  and  peace,  that  wild  beast,  which  all  the  ordinances  of  God  are  bent  against,  to 
restrain  and  subdue  it. 

"  The  other  kind  of  liberty  I  call  civil  or  federal ;  —  it  may  also  be  termed  moral, 
in  reference  to  the  covenant  between  God  and  man,  in  the  moral  law,  and  the  politic 
covenants  and  constitutions  amongst  men  themselves.  This  liberty  is  the  proper  end 
and  object  of  authority,  and  cannot  subsist  without  it ;  and  it  is  a  liberty  to  that  only 
which  is  good,  just,  and  honest.  This  liberty  you  are  to  stand  for,  with  the  hazard  (not 
only  of  your  goods,  but)  of  your  lives,  if  need  be.  Whatsoever  crosseth  this,  is  not 
authority,  but  a  distemper  thereof.  This  liberty  is  maintained  and  exercised  in  a  way 
of  subjection  to  authority  ;  it  is  of  the  same  kind  of  liberty  wherewith  Christ  hath  made 
us  free." 

Winthrop,  as  we  have  seen,  had  encountered  many  controversies;  but 
this  was  the  last.  In  1646,  1647,  and  1648,  successively,  he  was  elected  Gov- 
ernor again,  with  Thomas  Dudley  as  Deputy-Governor.  He  did  not  live  to 
be  the  subject  of  an  election  in  1649. 

The  limits  of  our  chapter  will  not  allow  of  any  detailed  account  of  the 
legislation  of  the  colony,  or  of  the  progress  of  Boston,  as  its  capital,  during 
these  three  remaining  years.  Yet  there  are  some  matters  which  must  not 
be  omitted.  And  before  all  others  must  be  mentioned,  as  an  enactment  of 
inestimable  value  and  of  immeasurable  influence  on  the  future  character  and 
welfare  of  the  Colony  and  the  Commonwealth,  the  Order  of  Nov.  n  (21), 
1647,  —  which  was  in  the  following  words  :  — 

"  It  being  one  chief  project  of  that  old  deluder,  Satan,  to  keep  men  from  the 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  as  in  former  times  by  keeping  them  in  an  unknown 
tongue ;  so  in  these  latter  times  by  persuading  from  the  use  of  tongues,  that  so  at 
least  the  true  sense  and  meaning  of  the  original  might  be  clouded  by  false  glosses  of 
saint-seeming  deceivers,  —  that  learning  may  not  be  buried  in  the  grave  of  our  fathers 
in  the  Church  and  Commonwealth,  the  Lord  assisting  our  endeavors,  — 

"  It  is  therefore  Ordered,  that  every  township  in  this  jurisdiction,  after  the  Lord 
hath  increased  them  to  the  number  of  fifty  householders,  shall  then  forthwith  appoint 


136  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

one  within  their  town  to  teach  all  such  children  as  shall  resort  to  him  to  write  and  read 
whose  wages  shall  be  paid  either  by  the  parents  or  masters  of  such  children,  or  by  the 
inhabitants  in  general,  by  way  of  supply,  as  the  major  part  of  those  that  order  the  pru- 
dentials of  the  town  shall  appoint ;  provided  those  that  send  their  children  be  not  op- 
pressed by  paying  much  more  than  they  can  have  them  taught  for  in  other  towns. 

"  And  it  is  further  Ordered,  that  when  any  town  shall  increase  to  the  number  of  one 
hundred  families  or  householders,  they  shall  set  up  a  Grammar  School,  the  master 
thereof  being  able  to  instruct  youth  so  far  as  they  may  be  fitted  for  the  University ; 
provided,  that  if  any  town  neglect  the  performance  hereof  above  one  year,  that  every 
such  town  shall  pay  five  pounds  to  the  next  school  till  they  shall  perform  this  Order." 

Massachusetts  has  nothing  wiser  or  nobler  to  boast  of,  whether  in  her 
earlier  or  her  later  legislation,  than  this  memorable  provision  for  Education. 
It  has  been  the  very  light  of  her  own  path,  and  the  inspiration  of  her 
own  onward  progress,  from  that  day  to  this ;  while  it  has  furnished  an  ex- 
ample, never  to  be  forgotten,  to  all  the  world.  Two  centuries  after  this  Order 
was  passed  by  her  little  General  Court,  it  was  held  up  for  imitation  and 
admiration  in  the  British  Parliament  by  one  of  the  most  brilliant  speakers 
and  writers  of  his  day.1 

At  this  same  session  of  the  Colonial  Legislature  a  provision  was  made 
as  follows:  — 

"  It  is  agreed  by  the  Court,  to  the  end  we  may  have  the  better  light  for  making  and 
proceeding  about  laws,  that  there  shall  be  these  books  following  procured  for  the  use 
of  the  Court  from  time  to  time :  Two  of  Sir  Edwd  Cooke  upon  Littleton ;  two  of 
the  Books  of  Entryes  ;  two  of  Sir  Edwd  Cooke  upon  Magna  Charta  ;  two  of  the  New 
Terms  of  the  Law;  two  Dalton's  Justice  of  Peace;  two  of  Sir  Edw*1  Cooke's 
Reports." 

English  Law,  with  Coke  as  its  expositor  and  commentator,  was  thus 
adopted  as  the  model  of  Massachusetts  legislation,  while  the  foundation  was 
laid  thus  early  of  a  State  Library  for  the  General  Court.  But  from  Eng- 
land, too,  Massachusetts  seems  to  have  derived  her  earliest  suggestions  and 
encouragements  in  regard  to  the  dreadful  delusion  which  was  soon  to  per- 
vade the  colony.  The  records  of  the  May  session  of  1648  contain  this 
clause :  — 

"  The  Court  desire  the  course  which  hath  been  taken  in  England  for  discover)'  of 
Witches,  by  watching  them  a  certain  time.  It  is  Ordered,  that  the  best  and  surest 
way  may  forthwith  be  put  in  practice,  —  to  begin  this  night  if  it  may  be,  being  the 
18'!'  of  the  3?  mo.,  and  that  the  husband  may  be  confined  to  a  private  room,  and  he 
also  then  watched." 

But  the  story  of  Witchcraft,  either  in  Old  or  in  New  England,  of  which 
this  record  is  but  a  preamble,  belongs  happily  to  a  later  chapter. 

It  only  remains  for  us  to  close  this  summary  sketch  of  the  foundation- 
period  of  Massachusetts  and  of  Boston  by  some  notice  of  the  death  of  him 

1  Macaulay,  in  1847,  in  my  own  hearing. 


BOSTON    FOUNDED. 


'37 


who  has  often  been  called  the  Father  of  both.  Governor  Winthrop's  last 
entry  in  his  Journal  bears  date  the  I  ith  of  January,  1648,  or  as  we  now  count 
it,  the  2  ist  of  January,  1649.  This  was  the  very  last  day  of  his  sixty- 
first  year.  A  letter  to  his  eldest  son,  bearing  date,  in  modern  style,  BOS- 


JOHN  WINTHROP.1 

ton,  Feb.  10,  1649,  'ls  tne  last  written  evidence  of  his  being  in  life  and 
health.  We  hear  next  of  his  having  "  a  cold  which  turned  into  a  fever," 
and  that  he  "  lay  sick  about  a  month."  Five  or  six  years  before  he  had 
written  of  himself,  —  "  Age  now  comes  upon  me,  and  infirmities  therewithal, 
which  makes  me  apprehend  that  the  time  of  my  departure  out  of  this  world 


1  The  best  portrait  of  Governor  Winthrop  is 
that  in  the  Senate  Chamber  of  Massachusetts,  — 
always  ascribed  to  Van  Dyck.  There  is  a  mar- 
ble statue  of  him,  in  a  sitting  posture,  in  the 
chapel  at  Mount  Auburn,  and  another,  stand- 
ing, in  the  Capitol  at  Washington.  A  third, 
standing  and  in  bronze,  is  to  be  unveiled  in 
Boston  on  the  I7th  of  September  next.  All 
the  statues  are  by  Richard  S.  Greenough.  [See 
R.  C.  Winthrop's  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Win- 
throp, ii.  408.  The  portrait  in  the  Senate  Cham- 
VOL.  I.  —  l8. 


ber  is  that  referred  to  in  Mather's  Magnalia. 
A  descendant  in  New  York  has  another  likeness, 
much  inferior,  of  which  there  is  a  copy,  or 
duplicate,  in  the  hall  of  the  Antiquarian  Society 
at  Worcester.  The  family  has  also  a  miniature, 
thought  to  be  an  original ;  but  it  is  in  very 
bad  condition.  There  are  two  copies  of  the 
Senate  Chamber  likeness  in  Memorial  Hall  at 
Cambridge  ;  another  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum, 
and  one  in  the  gallery  of  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society.  —  Eu.] 


138  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

is  not  far  off.  However,  our  times  are  all  in  the  Lord's  hand,  so  as  we  need 
not  trouble  our  thoughts  how  long  or  short  they  may  be,  but  how  we  may 
be  found  faithful  when  we  are  called  for."  He  now  sent  for  the  elders  ot 
the  church  to  pray  with  him,  and  "  the  whole  church  fasted  as  well  as  prayed 
for  him," — John  Cotton  preaching  a  sermon  on  the  occasion.  Deputy-Gov- 
ernor Dudley  is  said  to  have  waited  on  him,  during  this  last  illness,  to  urge 
him,  as  Governor,  to  sign  an  order  for  the  banishment  of  some  one  deemed 
heterodox ;  but  Winthrop  refused,  saying  that  "  he  had  done  too  much  of 
that  work  already."1  He  died,  March  26  (April  5),  1649,  being,  as  Mr. 
Savage  has  been  careful  to  calculate  (in  correcting  the  error  of  Cotton 
Mather),  61  years  2  months  and  14  days  old. 

Governor  Winthrop  died  at  his  residence,  on  what  is  now  Washington 
Street,  just  opposite  the  foot  of  School  Street,  his  garden  being  now  oc- 
cupied by  the  "  Old  South."  His  house  was  burned  up  as  firewood  by  the 
British  soldiers  in  1775,  while  they  were  using  the  meeting-house  for  their 
cavalry  horses.  In  the  parlors  of  that  house,  immediately  after  he  had 
breathed  his  last,  a  consultation  was  held  by  the  principal  persons  of  Bos- 
ton as  to  the  ordering  of  the  funeral,  "  it  being  the  desire  of  all  that  in 
that  solemnity  it  may  appear  of  what  precious  account  and  desert  he  hath 
been,  and  how  blessed  his  memorial."  These  were  the  words  used  by  John 
Wilson  and  John  Cotton  and  Richard  Bellingham  and  John  Clark,  in  a  let- 
ter2 addressed  to  John  Winthrop  of  Connecticut,  "  from  his  father's  parlour," 
on  the  same  day,  —  announcing  that  the  funeral  would  take  place  on  the 
3d  (i3th)  of  April,  and  despatched  by  a  swift  Indian  messenger.  On  the 
1 3th  of  April,  accordingly,  his  remains  were  buried  with  "  great  solemnity 
and  honor,"  in  what  is  now  known  as  the  "  King's  Chapel  Burial  Ground," 
where  the  old  Winthrop  tomb  is  still  to  be  seen.  The  only  positive  state- 
ment in  regard  to  the  funeral  is  found  in  the  following  record  at  the  next 
meeting  of  the  General  Court :  — 

"  Whereas  the  Surveyor  General,  on  some  encouragements,  lent  one  barrel  and  a 
half  of  the  country's  store  of  powder  to  the  Artillery  officers  of  Boston,  conditionally, 
if  the  General  Court  did  not  allow  it  to  them  as  a  gift  to  spend  it  at  the  funeral  of  our 
late  honored  Governor,  they  should  repay  it,  —  the  powder  being  spent  on  the  oc- 
casion above  said,  —  the  Court  doth  think  meet  that  the  powder  so  delivered  should 
never  be  required  again,  and  thankfully  acknowledge  Boston's  great,  worthy,  and  due 
love  and  respects  to  the  late  honored  Governor,  which  they  manifested  in  solemnizing 
his  funeral,  whom  we  accounted  worthy  of  all  honor."  3 

Nearly  twenty  years  had  now  elapsed  since  Winthrop  was  elected  Gov- 
ernor of  Massachusetts  by  the  Company  in  London ;  nearly  nineteen  years 

1  The  authority  for  this  statement,  which  had  Priest,"  —  probably  Marmaduke  Matthews,  who 

eluded   the   search   of    Mr.   Savage,   has  been  had  then  been  ten  years  in  the  colony, 

kindly  furnished  to  the  writer  of  this  chapter  by  2  [Given  in  fac-simile  in  the  Life  of  John 

Dr.  George   H.  Moore,  the   superintendent   of  Winthrop,  ii.  395.  —  ED.| 

the  Lenox  Library  in  New  York,  — viz.,  George  8  [See  Shurtleff's  Desc.  of  Boston,  pp.  190, 652 ; 

Bishop's   New  England  Judged,   1661,  p.    172.  and  Mr  Winthrop's  appeal  for  the  preservation 

Bishop  mentions  the  person  whose  banishment  of  the  old  burial  spots  in  Boston  in  Mass.  Hist. 

was  urged  as  "  one  Matthews,  a  Weltch  man,  a  Soc.  Proc.,  September,  1879.  —  ED.] 


BOSTON   FOUNDED.  139 

since  he  landed  with  the  Company  at  Salem,  bringing  the  charter  of  Mas- 
sachusetts with  him.  During  that  period  he  had  been  twelve  times  re- 
elected  as  Governor,  three  times  chosen  Deputy-Governor,  and  in  all  the 
few  other  years  had  served  at  the  head  of  the  Board  of  Assistants.  Mean- 
time there  had  been  no  intermission  of  his  devoted  services  to  Boston,  at 
the  head  of  her  Selectmen,  or  otherwise,  from  the  day  on  which,  under  his 
auspices,  the  town  was  founded,  and  "  Trimontaine  called  Boston."  Boston 
had  now  become  the  thriving  and  prosperous  capital  of  a  colony  which  con- 
tained more  than  fifteen  thousand  people.  Institutions  of  government, 
education,  and  religion  had  been  established  in  town  and  country.  Indeed, 
Dr.  Palfrey,  in  his  history,  writing  of  this  period,  says :  — 

"  The  vital  system  of  New  England,  as  it  had  now  been  created,  was  complete.  It 
had  only  thenceforward  to  grow,  as  the  human  body  grows  from  childhood  to  graceful 
and  robust  maturity."  l 

And  he  adds,  in  relation  to  Winthrop :  — 

"  The  importance  which  history  should  ascribe  to  his  life  must  be  proportionate 
to  the  importance  attributed  to  the  subsequent  agency  of  that  Commonwealth  of 
which  he  was  the  most  eminent  founder.  It  would  be  erroneous  to  pretend  that  the 
principles  upon  which  it  was  established  were  an  original  conception  of  his  mind ;  but 
undoubtedly  it  was  his  policy,  more  than  any  other  man's,  that  organized  into  shape, 
animated  with  practical  vigor,  and  prepared  for  permanency  those  primeval  senti- 
ments and  institutions  that  have  directed  the  course  of  thought  and  action  in  New 
England  in  later  times.  And  equally  certain  is  it  that  among  the  millions  of  living 
men  descended  from  those  whom  he  ruled,  there  is  not  one  who  does  not  —  through 
efficient  influences,  transmitted  in  society  and  thought  along  the  intervening  genera- 
tions —  owe  much  of  what  is  best  within  him,  and  in  the  circumstances  about  him, 
to  the  benevolent  and  courageous  wisdom  of  JOHN  WINTHROP."  2 

Similar  tributes  by  Cotton  Mather  and  Governor  Hutchinson,  by  Josiah 
Quincy  and  George  Bancroft,  and  others,  might  be  added.  But  one  such 
is  enough,  coming  as  it  does  from  a  venerable  author  to  whom  no  suspicion 
of  partiality  can  attach. 


1  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii.  265.  2  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii.  266. 


140 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


[NOTE.  —  This  auto- 
graph of  the  famous  Eng- 
lish patriotjohn  Ilampden, 
which  concerns  Governor 
Winthrop's  "  Conclusions 
for  New  England,"  and  is 
referred  to  by  Mr.  Win- 
throp  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  is  taken  from  a 
fac-simile  of  the  entire  let- 
ter, in  Jlfiiss.  Hist.  Soc.  free., 
July,  1865.  The  letter  was 
addressed  to  Sir  John  Eliot, 
and  was  found  among  his 
papers,  together  with  the 
transcript,  sent  by  Eliot, 
endorsed  "  The  project  for 
New  England.  For  Mr. 
Hampden,"  —  and  this  text 
of  the  paper,  together  with 
another  from  the  State  Pa- 
per Office,  is  given  in  the 
same  place.  It  may  be 
interesting  in  this  connec- 
tion to  recall  the  fact  that  Isaac  Johnson,  before  leaving  England,  made  a 
will,  in  which  John  Ilampden  and  John  Winthrop  were  associated  as  his 
executors,  and  the  sum  .of  "three  pounds  lawful  monies  "  left  to  each  of 
them  "to  make  him  a  ringe  of."  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  viii.  244,  245.  —  ED.] 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  PURITAN  COMMONWEALTH:  ITS  BASIS,  ORGANIZATION,  AND 
ADMINISTRATION;  ITS  CONTENTIONS;  ITS  CONFLICTS  WITH 
HERETICS. 

BY    GEORGE    EDWARD    ELLIS. 
Vice-President  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 

THE  colony  or  local  government  established  here  by  the  original  set- 
tlers and  founders  was  not  by  themselves  called  "  The  Puritan  Com- 
monwealth ;  "  but  the  title  is  a  most  apt  and  just  one  for  defining  what 
really  seems  to  have  been  their  intent,  and  what  was  actually  the  result  of 
their  enterprise.  Nor  is  it  likely  that  those  most  gravely  engaged  in  that 
enterprise  would  have  objected  to  that  title.  There  is  no  assumption  in  it 
which  would  have  to  them  seemed  unbecoming;  nor  would  prejudice,  con- 
tempt, or  satire  associated  with  it  have  led  them  to  repudiate  it. 

The  title,  however,  is  one  assigned  by  a  later  age,  and  after  the  experi- 
ment which  it  describes  had  been  modified  by  stress  of  circumstances,  or, 
as  some  would  even  say,  had  failed.  It  is  our  phrase  for  designating  the 
idea  and  the  practical  working  of  a  sternly  serious  scheme  of  colonization  on 
the  shores  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  of  which  the  town  of  Boston  was  the  centre. 
Nor  is  it  presumptuous  in  us  to  say  that  we  ourselves  are  more  favorably  situ- 
ated for  forming  a  fuller  and  more  intelligible  view  of  their  object  than  they 
defined  in  such  statements  of  it  as  they  have  left  to  us.  Of  course,  they 
had  what  was  to  them  a  deliberately  formed  design,  —  clear  in  its  main 
intent  and  distinguished  in  its  chief  purpose,  however  vaguely  appre- 
hended, as  to  all  the  requisitions  and  conditions  which  would  present  them- 
selves in  its  practical  working.  We  look  back  upon  it,  and,  seeing  what  it 
involved  of  difficulties,  embarrassments,  and  errors;  we  can  judge  it  more 
wisely ;  and  while  generously  appreciating  its  sincerity  in  their  hearts,  and 
the  zeal  and  sacrifice  which  they  devoted  to  it,  we  may  account  its  qualified 
merits  and  success  to  causes  which  they  did  not  take  into  view  as  likely  to 
thwart  their  purposes. 

Following  the  wise  counsel  for  guidance  in  such  investigations  ex- 
pressed in  the  maxim,  Melius  est petere  fontes  quam  scctare  rivnlos,  we  must 
derive  our  idea  of  the  intent  and  object  and  the  animating  spirit  of  the 
enterprise  from  those  who  as  its  foremost  leaders  planned  and  guided  it,  and 
from  documents  left  by  them  which  were  contemporary  with  the  movement. 


142  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

The  leaders,  the  master  spirits  of  it,  were  few  in  number;  yet,  the  whole 
undertaking  being  at  their  charges  and  under  their  responsibility,  they  were 
entitled  to  authority  in  its  direction.  We  must  from  the  first  distinguish 
carefully  between  the  purposes  and  just  rights  of  these  responsible  leaders, 
who  embarked  their  worldly  means  and  prospects  in  a  scheme  of  their  own 
devising,  and  the  qualified  interests  of  others  —  soon  to  become  the  major- 
ity—  who,  as  associates,  adventurers,  servants,  and  subsequent  members  of 
the  company,  acceded  to  an  influence  over  the  development  and  fortunes 
of  the  enterprise  without  having  the  same  ends  in  view,  or  the  same  interest 
at  stake  in  it. 

The  Governor  and  Company  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  derived  certain 
defined  rights  and  privileges  from  a  patent  purchased  by  them  of  the 
"  Grand  Council  of  Plymouth,"  confirmed  by  a  royal  charter.  It  was  the 
manifest  intent  of  this  charter  to  constitute  and  empower  a  trading  company, 
to  be  resident  and  administered  in  England,  with  power  to  send  its  agents 
to  transact  and  oversee  its  business  in  the  waters  and  over  the  territory  here 
assigned  to  it.  The  circumstances  under  which,  contrary  to  the  manifest 
intent  of  the  charter,  it  was  transferred  here  and  used  as  the  basis  of  a  gov- 
ernment claiming  its  sanction,  to  be  set  up  and  administered  on  this  soil, 
have  been  defined  on  other  pages.1 

It  is  for  us,  at  this  point,  to  penetrate  as  thoroughly  as  we  can  into  the 
avowed  or  secret  purposes,  so  that  we  may  apprehend  the  real  motives  of 
the  chief  and  the  responsible  movers  of  the  enterprise,  —  those  who  bore  the 
cost  of  it,  and  claimed  the  authority  to  direct  it.  We  have  to  guide  us 
the  significant  fact  that  when,  after  due  deliberation  in  private  conferences 
and  much  serious  consultation,  the  decision  of  transferring  the  charter  and 
its  administration  was  reached,  there  were  some  very  important  changes 
made  in  the  membership  and  government  of  the  company.  We  look  for 
the  master  motive,  and  we  question  the  leaders  as  to  their  spirit  and  pur- 
poses. The  governor,  John  Winthrop,  —  the  foremost  of  these  leaders; 
the  wisest,  truest,  and  most  constant  among  those  who  formed  and  guided 
the  enterprise,  —  on  his  voyage  of  permanent  exile  hither,  having  em- 
barked his  whole  estate  in  the  venture,  wrote  in  his  cabin  an  essay,  to  which 
he  gave  the  title :  A  Modell  of  Christian  Charity?  For  tenderness  and 
devoutness  of  tone,  for  gentleness  and  serenity  of  spirit,  and  for  loftiness 
of  self-consecration  to  unselfish,  self-sacrificing  aims,  it  will  be  difficult  to 
find  any  like  composition  with  which  to  compare  it.  In  this,  he  writes : 
"  For  the  worke  wee  have  in  hand,  it  is  by  a  mutuall  consent,  through  a 
special  overvaluing  providence  and  a  more  than  an  ordinary  approbation  of 
ye  Churches  of  Christ,  to  seek  out  a  place  of  cohabitation  and  Consorte- 
shipp  under  a  due  form  of  Government  both  civill  and  ecclesiasticall.  In 
such  cases  as  this,  ye  care  of  yc  publique  must  oversway  all  private  respects 
by  which  not  only  conscience,  but  meare  civill  pollicy,  dothe  bind  us." 

It  hardly  needs  to  be  suggested  that,  while  Winthrop  was  the  master 

1  |Cf.  Mr.  Winthrop's  and  Mr.  Deane's  chapters.  —  En.|      2  |  In  3  Mass.  Hist.  Col.  vii.  31.  —  En.] 


THE   PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  143 

spirit  of  the  enterprise,  he  was  by  no  means  the  arbitrary,  autocractic  dic- 
tator, asserting  and  securing  for  it  the  direction  of  his  individual  will.  He 
was  but  one  of  a  choice  fellowship  of  intimate  friends,  animated  by  the 
same  devout  and  generous  aims.  There  is  evidence  enough  in  the  con- 
ferences and  debates  above  referred  to  that  he  and  his  chief  associates  had 
come  into  accord  and  mutual  understanding  by  a  deliberate  weighing  of 
proposals,  a  comparison  of  their  several  judgments,  and  a  counting  of 
costs.  Winthrop  makes  a  pointed  reference,  in  his  Modell  of  Charity, 
to  the  close-drawn  covenant  of  mutual  fidelity  which  he  and  his  brethren 
had  bound  between  them.  He  says :  "  Wee  must  be  knitt  together  in  this 
worke  as  one  man.  Wee  must  entertaine  each  other  in  brotherly  affection. 
Wee  must  be  willing  to  abridge  ourselves  of  our  superfluities,  for  ye  supply 
of  others'  necessities.  Wee  must  uphold  a  familiar  converse  together  in  all 
meekeness,  gentlenes,  patience,  and  liberality.  Wee  must  delight  in  cache 
other ;  make  others'  conditions  our  owne ;  rejoice  together,  mourne  to- 
gether, labour  and  suffer  together,  always  having  before  our  eyes  our  com- 
mission and  community  in  the  worke,  as  members  of  ye  same  body,  &c." 

With  these  helps  for  our  guidance  (among  which  we  must  reckon  the 
Conclusions  for  New  England,  described  in  the  preceding  chapter),  we  may 
proceed  to  indicate  the  main  design  of  the  leaders  of  the  enterprise,  and  the 
method  by  which  they  aimed  to  accomplish  it.  One  preliminary  sugges- 
tion may  not  be  out  of  place  here.  Among  the  censorious  criticisms,  the 
harsh  judgments,  and  even  expressions  of  contempt  and  ridicule,  to  which 
the  "  Puritan  Commonwealth "  and  its  leaders  in  Church  and  State  have 
been  subjected  in  later  times,  the  candid  and  considerate  student  of  their 
plans  and  doings  is  generally  able  to  discern  for  himself  the  line  of  distinc- 
tion between  what  is  fair  and  reasonable  and  what  is  simply  misleading  and 
unjust  in  the  arraignment  of  them  before  their  posterity.  Certain  it  is,  that 
no  assailant  of  the  motives,  methods,  and  plans  of  these  Puritan  founders 
of  a  new  State  has  ever  charged  himself  with  the  obligation  to  show  how 
any  particular  set  and  sort  of  men  and  women  could  have  been  moved  by 
the  purpose  and  inspired  with  the  energy  and  zeal  for  such  an  enterprise, 
unless  a  profoundly  religious  spirit  had  quickened  them;  nor  how,  with  a 
series  of  failures  before  them  as  warnings,  they  could  have  failed  to  protect 
their  hazardous  venture  against  the  risks  of  discord,  sedition,  and  disaster  to 
which  it  was  exposed,  by  some  such  measures  and  safeguards  as  would  have 
to  those  not  personally  in  full  accord  with  them  the  character  of  severity, 
bigotry,  and  stern  intolerance.  Their  enterprise  was  arduous  and  full  of 
perils.  Failure  would  be  ruin  to  them.  Nor  was  it  strange  that,  while  they 
prepared  for  and  faced  the  real  dangers  of  their  enterprise,  they  should  have 
yielded  also  to  timid  apprehensions  and  anxious  forebodings  of  possible 
perils. 

Though,  as  has  been  said,  the  "Puritan  Commonwealth"  was  not  a  phrase 
adopted  by  the  founders  of  Boston  and  Massachusetts  as  the  title  of  the 
government  and  State  which  they  set  up  here,  there  was  a  word  of  equal 


144  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

significance  and  fitness  which  they  did  accept  for  that  purpose,  —  the  word 
"  theocracy."  From  the  most  careful  study  of  their  motives  and  designs,  as 
meditated  by  the  leaders  and  tentatively  carried  out  in  their  legislation  and 
institutions,  we  draw  this  inference,  —  that  it  was  their  aim  and  effort  to 
establish  here  a  Christian  commonwealth,  which  should  bear  the  same  rela- 
tion to  the  whole  Bible,  as  its  Statute-book,  which  the  Jewish  commonwealth 
bore  to  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament.1  Their  legislation  and  institu- 
tions were  not  founded  upon  nor  guided  by  the  spirit  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment distinctively.  Had  they  been  so,  they  would  doubtless  have  been  in 
several  respects  much  modified.  And  though  the  founders  did  intend  to 
distinguish  between  certain  ceremonial  and  institutional  elements  of  the 
"  Old  Covenant "  which  they  believed  to  be  abrogated  and  those  which  they 
regarded  as  of  permanent  and  perpetual  authority  for  "  the  people  of  God," 
they  did  not  draw  the  dividing  line  so  sharply  or  so  indulgently  on  the  side 
of  larger  liberty  for  Christians  as  it  has  been  drawn,  by  general  approval,  in 
later  times.  The  punctiliousness,  the  authority,  the  judicial  severity  of  the 
old  dispensation,  and  its  blending,  of  the  functions  of  Church  and  State  were 
adopted  as  vital  principles  of  the  Puritan  theocracy.  This  fact  appears 
alike  in  their  long  delay  and  reluctance  to  construct  anything  answering  to 
a  code  of  laws,  and  in  the  character  of  the  code  which  they  finally  adopted. 
They  felt  it  to  be  their  solemn  duty  rather  to  put  into  force  and  require 
obedience  to  laws  which,  as  they  believed,  God  had  already  proclaimed  for 
them  than  to  enact  laws  of  their  own.  So,  while  waiting  deliberately  before 
engaging  in  such  legislation  as  the  emergency  of  their  condition  might  re- 

1  [Perhaps  the  best  explanation  to  be  found  in  the  end  to  be  identical.     The  Pilgrims  were 

in  their  own  writings  of  the  intent  of  our  New  separatists,  professedly  outside  the  pale  of  the 

England  Puritan's  system  of  church  government,  English    Church;    the    Puritans   but   gradually 

as  distinguished  from  that  of  the  Church  of  Eng-  emancipated  themselves  from  its  fetters.     This 

land,  is  in  John  Cotton's  Keyes  of  the  Kingdom  is  the  view  taken  in  the  following  books  :   Dr. 

of  Heaven,  1644,  and  in  his  Way  of  the  Churches  Waddington's  Tracks  of  the  Hidden  Church,  and 

of  Christ  in  New  England,  1645.     The  prevailing  more  elaborately  in  his  Congrfgational  History, 

views  of  the  following  generation  find  record  in  of  which  there  is  in  the  Congregational  Quarterly, 

Mather's  Magnalia,  and  still  later,  with  Baptist  1874,  a  searching  review  by  H.  M.  Dexter,  who 

tendencies,  in  Backus's  Hist,  of  New  England,  also  covers  the  ground  in  his  Congregationalism 

and  it  was  chiefly  upon  these  two  books  that,  at  as  seen  in  its  Literature;  articles  by  I.  N.  Tarbox 

the   suggestion   of   Neander,    Uhden  wrote  his  on  "Plymouth  and  the  Bay"  in  the  Congregational 

Geschichte  der  Congregationalisten  in  Neu  Eng-  Quarterly,  xvii.,  and  "Pilgrims  and  Puritans  "  in 

land  bis   1740,   of  which    there   is   an   English  the  Old  Colony  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.  1878;  Punchard's 

translation,  with  characterization  of  the   chief  History  of  Congregationalism,  iii.  443;  Benjamin 

authorities  in  an  appendix.     Views  of  the  aims  Scott  in  a  lecture,  London,  1866,  reprinted  in 

and  significance  of  the  churches  from  the  point  Hist.  Mag.,  May,    1867,   from   which   is   mostly 

taken  by  those  holding  with  modern  qualifica-  derived  an  article,  "  Pilgrims  and  Puritans,"  in 

tions  to  their  transmitted  beliefs  will  be  found  Scrilmer's  Monthly,  June,   1876.     Cf.  also  Hist. 

in  Leonard   Wood's    Theology  of  the  Puritans,  Mag.,  May  and  November,  1867,  October,  1869; 

and  in  Leonard  Bacon's  Genesis  of  the  Nnv  Eng-  Baylies's  Old  Colony,   \.  ch.  i. ;    Barry's  Afassa- 

land  Churches.     The  latter  book  aims  rather  to  chuselts,  i.  ch.  ii. ;  Palfrey's  Ne~M  England,  i.  ch. 

show  how  the  neighboring  colony  of  New  Ply-  iii. ;  Essex  Institute  Hist.  Coll.  iv.  145,  by  A.  C. 

mouth  exerted  an  influence  upon  the  gathering  Goodell ;    and  Dr.  Bacon  on  the  "  Reaction  of 

churches  of  the  Bay.     A  distinction  has  of  late  New  England   on   English   Puritanism    in   the 

been  much  insisted  upon  between  the  principles  Seventeenth  Century,"  in  the  New  Englander, 

of  these  neighboring  communities,  which  came  July,  1878.  —  ED.] 


THE    PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  145 

quire,  they  were  content  to  understand  that  Scripture  should  furnish  them 
guidance  in  their  code.  And  when,  after  a  long  deferring  of  this  need- 
ful work  for  their  government,  and  many  ingenious  excuses  for  their  pro- 
crastination, they  were  finally  compelled  by  the  impatient  demands  of  the 
people  to  provide  for  them  a  "  body  of  liberties,"  the  influence  of  the  lead- 
ing spirits  prevailed  to  secure  for  their  legislation  a  Jewish  austerity,  and  to 
reinforce  their  authority  by  Old-Testament  texts.1 

In  our  attempt  to  understand  and  to  judge  with  fairness  the  intent  and 
purpose  of  the  founders  of  this  New  England  theocracy,  it  is  of  course  of 
prime  importance  that  we  view  them  in  the  light  of  their  own  beliefs  and 
consciences.2  The  fundamental  condition  of  their  rectitude  and  sincerity  in 
heart  and  aim  is  put  beyond  all  question  by  their  efforts,  their  sacrifices, 
their  exposing  themselves  and  all  they  possessed  in  this  world,  and  com- 
mitting their  hopes  for  another  to  the  stern  deprivations,  perils,  and  suffer- 
ings involved  in  their  wilderness  enterprise.  And  as  to  the  Scriptural  the- 
ocratical  foundation  which  was  the  basis  of  the  Puritan  Commonwealth, — 
visionary  and  impracticable  as  the  scheme  seems  to  us  in  its  own  principles, 
in  the  discomfitures  and  errors  attending  its  experimental  trial,  and  in  its 
confessed  failure,  —  a  wise  review  of  the  past  and  a  knowledge  of  the  work- 
ings of  human  nature  will  at  least  relieve  the  scheme  of  contempt  and 
ridicule.  Very  many  and  very  visionary,  ranging  all  the  way  from  a  noble 
dignity  to  a  manifest  absurdity  and  folly,  have  been  the  theories  which  have 
inspired  and  beguiled  companies  of  men  and  women  for  the  disposing  .of 
themselves  in  communities  with  security,  prosperity,  and  happiness.  To  say 
nothing  of  those  which  have  been  only  set  forth  in  theory  and  in  imagina- 
tion, like  Plato's  Republic,  More's  Utopia,  and  Harrington's  Oceana,  we  find 
enough  of  them  that  have  been  put  on  trial,  from  that  of  the  Essenes  to  that 
of  the  Mormons,  —  with  all -that  have  been  in  actual  experiment  between 

1  [John  Cotton  had  drawn  up  a  code  on  the  years  has  put  us  in  easy  possession  of  their  early 
pattern  of  "  Moses  his  Judicials  "  in  1636,  which  laws.  Professor  Joel  Parker  has  made  their  re- 
was  not  adopted  ;  but  it  was  printed  in  London  ligious  legislation  the  subject  of  a  lecture,  which 
in  1641,  reprinted  in  1655,  again  in  Hutchinson's  is  printed  in  the  Lowell  Lectures  on  Massachu- 
Collections,  p.  161,  and  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll,  v.  173.  setts  and  its  Early  History.  The  abstract  of  the 
The  first  code  adopted  was  the  "Body  of  Lib-  early  laws  which  was  printed  in  1641  (copy  in 
erties,"  drawn  up  in  1638  by  Nathaniel  Ward,  Harvard  College  Library)  has  been  reprinted 
which  became  authorized  in  Dec.  1641.  Nine-  in  Force's  Tracts,  ii.  Professor  Washburn's 
teen  MS.  copies  were  distributed  to  the  towns.  Judicial  History  of  Massachusetts  will  serve  as 
None  were  printed.  No  copy  of  this  was  known  a  commentary.  A  statement  of  the  early  edi- 
till,  about  sixty  years  ago,  a  manuscript  of  it  tions  of  the  Massachusetts  laws  is  in  the 
was  discovered  in  the  Boston  Athenasum,  and  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.  ii.  576.  Of  the  earliest 
in  1843  it  was  printed  in  the  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  printed  edition,  1648,  no  copy  is  known.  A  few 
viii.  216,  with  an  introduction  by  Francis  C.  copies  remain  of  the  second  edition,  dated 
Gray.  Cf.  Poole's  introduction  to  Johnson's  1660.  See  Mr.  Winthrop's  chapter.  —  ED.  | 
Wonder-working  Providence  of  Zioifs  Saviour,  '2  [The  most  flagrant  disregard  of  these  con- 
and  Historical  Magazine,  February,  1868.  Barry,  ditious  has  brought  a  great  deal  of  censure  upon 
Hist,  of  Mass.  \.  276,  instances,  as  significant  of  the  Peter  Oliver's  Puritan  Commonwealth  in  Mas- 
really  mild  sway  of  New  England  Puritanism  for  sachusells,  Boston,  1856.  Palfrey  says  it  might 
the  times,  that  the '*  Body  of  Liberties  "contained  well  have  been  written  by  a  chaplain  of  James 
but  twelve  offences  punishable  by  death,  while  II.  Hildreth,  in  his  History  of  the  United 
one  hundred  and  fifty  were  so  treated  in  Eng-  Stales,  rather  allows  their  faults  to  overshadow 
land.  The  printing  of  the  colony  records  of  late  their  virtues.  —  ED.] 
VOL.  I.  —  19. 


146  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

them,  —  to  furnish  us  with  sufficient  illustrations  of  the  ingenuity,  the  fertil- 
ity, the  eccentricity  of  human  inventiveness  in  this  direction.  In  view  of  all 
these  human  devices,  exercised  in  schemes  for  reconstituting  and  amending 
the  social  state,  —  whether  having  reference  solely  to  mundane  objects  or 
fashioned  by  faith  or  superstition  for  religious  ends,  —  it  is  not  at  all  strange 
that  the  basis  of  a  commonwealth  on  a  theocracy  or  the  Bible,  such  as  was 
attempted  here,  should,  in  the  developments  of  time  and  circumstances,  have 
had  its  turn  for  a  practical  trial.  Compared  with  many  other  of  the  vision- 
ary schemes  of  men,  it  has  qualities  august  in  nobleness  and  dignity.  In 
accordance  with  this  view,  a  considerate  study  of  the  better  side  and  aspects 
of  the  Puritan  scheme  can  hardly  fail  to  impress  us  with  a  sense  of  the  pro- 
found and  enthralling  earnestness,  the  thorough  and  intense  sincerity,  of  the 
master  spirits  of  the  enterprise.  There  is  something  indeed  that  we  may 
describe  as  awful  in  this  their  earnestness,  the  literal  closeness  and  entireness 
of  their  religious  believings,  their  unfaltering  convictions  as  to  their  duty,  and 
their  purpose  to  perform  it.  Now,  it  is  to  this  full  persuasion  and  intense 
earnestness  of  the  founders  of  the  Puritan  Commonwealth  that  we  may  trace 
the  occasion  of  their  failure,  and  incidentally  of  the  errors  and  wrongs  into 
which  their  policy,  legislation,  and,  so  to  speak,  their  consciences,  consist- 
ently as  they  thought,  but  none  the  less  fatally,  led  them.  And  to  the  same 
cause  we  are  also  to  refer  much  that  is  uncharitable,  unfair,  and  wholly  un- 
just in  the  contemptuous  criticism  and  severity  of  censure  and  ridicule  which 
have  been  visited  upon  the  Puritans  in  these  modern  times. 

The  theocratic  principles  of  these  leading  Puritans,  and  the  legislative, 
social,  and  religious  enforcement  of  them,  were  vitally  dependent  upon  a 
form  of  belief  and  a  rule  of  living  which  required  perfect  individual  con- 
viction, and  which  could  not  be  transferred  or  imposed  upon  such  as  rightly 
or  wrongfully  failed  to  share  that  conviction.  Oppression  and  intolerance 
of  all  their  associates  who  were  outside  of  their  covenant,  however  other- 
wise concerned  for  the  common  security  and  prosperity,  as  we  shall  soon  see, 
were  inextricably  involved  with  —  in  fact  were  —  the  natural  and  necessary 
results  of  the  Puritan  administration.  The  attempt  of  the  most  earnest  and 
austere  of  the  leaders  to  enforce  their  own  principles  upon  their  servants 
and  others  —  and  indeed  upon  such  of  their  own  chosen  fellowship  as  might 
falter  or  seem  lukewarm  in  their  constancy  —  led  to  manifest  injustice,  to 
bigotry,  and  to  cruelty.  And  this  same  earnestness  and  consequent  sever- 
ity of  the  leaders  furnish  the  occasion  of  much  of  the  harshness  of  judg- 
ment, the  scorn,  contempt,  and  ridicule  that  have  been  visited  upon  them. 
Not  so  much  by  any  individual  attainments  of  our  own,  but  by  our  share  in 
a  general  enlightenment  and  enfranchisement,  it  has  come  about  that  what 
to  those  Puritan  legislators  were  the  most  august  and  solemn  realities  of 
belief  and  conviction  are  to  us  the  merest  superstitions  and  bugbears. 
Their  harshness,  bigotry,  and  intolerance  were  the  results  of  what  we  re- 
gard as  their  false  beliefs,  their  absurd  credulity,  their  conceit  that  they 
were  "  God's  elect."  Yet  their  sincerity  in  their  prejudices,  convictions, 


THE   PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  147 

and  delusions  does  not  avail  with  all  who  criticise  or  judge  them  to  relieve 
one  whit  the  limitation  of  the  wisdom  of  the  Puritans,  or  to  palliate  the 
odiousness  of  their  principles  when  put  to  trial. 

The  enterprise  of  transplanting  themselves  and  establishing  a  colony  in 
the  wilderness  involved  most  grave  and  exacting  conditions.  It  was  costly, 
and  beset  by  many  contingencies  and  risks.  It  required  all  the  previous 
forecast  of  calculating  wisdom,  a  cautious  apprehension  of  possible  dis- 
comfitures, and  a  prudent  watchfulness  against  external  and  internal  foes. 
They  had  before  them  for  warning  the  disastrous  failure  of  like  enterprises 
at  Virginia,  St.  Christopher's,  Newfoundland,  and  on  the  coast  of  Maine,  with 
only  at  that  time  the  qualified  success  of  the  poor  settlement  at  Plymouth. 
Encouragement  and  security  in  any  like  experiment  could  be  looked  for  only 
by  a  watchful  caution  against  the  ill  agencies  which  had  wrecked  all  pre- 
vious ones.  The  master  motive  in  the  minds  of  the  leaders  here  —  those 
who  embarked  all  their  estates  and  prospects  in  life  in  the  undertaking  —  is 
admitted  to  have  been  a  profoundly  religious  one,  however  qualified  by  its 
elements  and  limitations  that  type  of  religion  may  have  been.  But  this 
religious  intent  was  necessarily  dependent  upon  financial  or  commercial 
conditions  and  accessories.  It  is  to  be  admitted  that  only  the  minority  of 
those  who  came  in  the  first  fleet,  and  who  arrived  in  increasing  numbers  for 
the  next  score  of  years,  were  primarily  drawn  hither  by  that  master  motive 
of  zeal  in  their  peculiar  type  of  religion.  Only  the  minority,  too,  from  the 
first  and  onwards,  embarked  their  whole  worldly  substance  and  their  life- 
resolve  and  constancy  in  the  enterprise. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  company  in  England  in  which  it  was  resolved  to 
transfer  the  charter  and  to  set  up  its  local  administration  here,  the  religious 
motive  prevailed  over  merely  mercantile  or  thrifty  objects,  though  the  latter 
were  recognized  in  their  place.  At  that  point  the  enterprise  was  in  the 
hands,  at  the  charges,  and  in  the  direction  of  its  religious  leaders.  The 
security  and  success  of  the  colony  would  depend  primarily  upon  the  condi- 
tion that  these  leaders  should  be  intelligent,  educated,  and  upright  men, 
thoroughly  conscientious  and  high-minded,  sincerely  devout,  and  seeking 
ends  of  public  good.  These  prime  conditions  would  ensure  the  judi- 
cious exercise  of  the  power  which  rightfully  belonged  to  them,  and  would 
qualify  the  ill  consequences  of  any  arbitrary  stretch  of  it.  That  these  con- 
ditions were  in  the  main  generously  and  nobly  met  stands  triumphantly 
certified  in  the  fact  that  though  there  were  many  impediments,  mistakes, 
and  discomfitures,  many  incidental  grievances  and  wrongs,  the  experiment 
was  never  abandoned.  No  crisis  in  its  trial  compelled  any  radical  changes 
in  it,  except  such  as  could  be  allowed  without  revolution,  as  in  the  time  and 
circumstances  of  them  necessary  and  wise;  and  the  success  of  it  stands 
to-day  a  demonstration  to  the  world. 

But  these  leaders,  being  the  few,  needed  associates  and  helpers.  Servants, 
"  laborers,  miners,  and  engineers,"  as  the  record  reads,  must  be  engaged, 
still  at  the  charge  of  the  responsible  projectors  and  the  pecuniary  resources 
of  the  company. 


148  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Thomas  Foxcroft,  the  minister  of  the  First  Church  in  Boston,  in  a  ser- 
mon preached  by  him  on  the  first  centennial  of  the  settlement,  speaks  thus 
of  the  founders :  "  The  initial  generation  of  New  England  was  very  much 
a  select  and  a  puritanical  people  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word.  They 
were  not  (as  to  the  body  of  them)  a  promiscuous  and  heterogeneous  assem- 
blage, but  in  general  of  a  uniform  character,  agreeing  in  the  most  excellent 
qualities,  principles,  and  tempers ;  Christians  very  much  of  the  primitive 
stamp.  As  one  of  our  worthies  of  the  second  generation  l  has  aptly  ex- 
pressed it,  '  God  sifted  a  whole  nation  that  he  might  send  a  choice  grain 
over  into  this  wilderness.'  It  was  as  little  of  a  mixed  generation,  in  regard 
of  their  moral  character  and  religious  profession,  that  came  over  first  to 
New  England,  as  perhaps  was  ever  known  in  the  earth.  They  were  very 
much  a  chosen  generation,  collected  from  a  variety  of  places,  and  by  a 
strange  conduct  of  Divine  Providence  agreeing  in  the  same  enterprise,  to 
form  a  plantation  for  religion  in  this  distant  part  of  the  world.  Scarce 
any  of  a  profane  character  mingled  themselves  with  the  first-comers ;  and 
of  those  that  came  hither  upon  secular  views,  some  were  disheartened  by 
the  toils  and  difficulties  they  met  with  and  soon  returned,  and  others,  finding 
this  reformed  climate  disagreeable  to  their  vitiated  inclinations,  took  thc-ir 
speedy  flight  away.  The  body  of  the  first-comers  were  men  in  their  middle 
age  or  declining  days,  who  had  been  inured  to  sufferings  for  righteousness' 
sake."  Foxcroft  adds,  of  his  own  time,  "We  are  now  become  a  very  mixt 
generation;  and  may  I  not  add,  in  consequence  thereof,  an  apostate  one?  " 

The  question  naturally  presents  itself,  as  to  what  were  the  measures  or 
safeguards  by  which  the  leaders  of  the  colony,  its  proprietors  and  officers, 
sought  to  protect  themselves  and  their  scheme  against  the  intrusion,  the 
intermeddling,  or  the  opposition  of  uncongenial  and  mischievous  associates 
or  interlopers?  They  were  eager  to  obtain  renewing  and  reinforcing  emi- 
grants. Indeed,  it  was  essential  that  they  should  do  so.  But  how  did  they 
plan  to  guard  themselves  against  the  wrong  sort  of  comers?  Circumstances 
favored  them  in  this  respect  better  than  any  protective  measures  which 
they  did  or  could  enforce.  It  is  understood  that  the  Corporation  held  the 
absolute  proprietary  right  to  all  the  territory  covered  by  their  patent,  and 
could  also  fix  the  conditions  on  which  new  members,  freemen,  could  be 
admitted  to  the  company,  whose  votes  and  action  would  afterwards  imperil 
or  secure  all  that  depended  upon  that  proprietary  right.  When  the  Cor- 
poration, through  its  Court,  afterwards  disposed  of  parcels  of  its  land  to  in- 
dividuals or  to  townships,  it  still  held,  by  the  right  of  taxation,  a  sovereignty 
over  the  territory.  They  found  in  their  Charter  this  assured  privilege  or 
authority  for  protecting  themselves  against  all  unwelcome  or  dangerous 
persons — "That  it  shall  and  may  be  lawful  to  and  for  ye  cheife  com- 
manders, governors,  &c.,  of  ye  said  company,  resident  in  ye  said  part  of 
New  England,  for  their  special  defence  and  safety,  to  incounter,  expulse, 
repell,  and  resist  by  force  of  armes,  as  well  by  sea  as  by  lande,  and  by  all  fit- 

1  Mr.  Stoughton,  in  his  Election  Sermon. 


THE    PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH. 


149 


ting  waies  and  meanes  whatsoever,  all  such  person  and  persons  as  shall  at 
any  time  hereafter  attempt  or  enterprise  ye  destruction,  invasion,  detriment, 
or  annoyance  to  ye  said  plantation  or  inhabitant."  The  authorities,  in 
their  wisdom,  interpreted  this  positive  charter  privilege  as  empowering  them 
to  order  and  banish  from  their  territory  any  one  whose  presence  in  it  was 
not  desirable  to  them.  They  availed  themselves  of  it  from  the  moment  of  the 
-first  sitting  of  their  Court,  and  proceeded  to  clear  the  place  of  all  the  squat- 
ters, scattered  settlers,  "  old  planters,"  and  remnants  of  former  companies  of 
adventurers,  who  were  judged  "  unmeet  to  inhabit  in  this  jurisdiction." 

Still,  there  was  from  the  first,  from  the  stress  of  necessity,  a  door  left 
open  by  which  many  persons  but  in  partial  sympathy  with  the  aims  of  the 
Company,  and  some  secretly  or  avowedly  hostile  to  it,  came  in  among  them. 
It  was  essential  to  the  unimpeded  success  of  the  Puritan  Commonwealth,  its 
firm  basis,  its  fair  development,  its  peace  and  security,  that  those  who  con- 
stituted it  should  be  in  accord  and  harmony,  their  loyalty  to  and  love  of 
it  being  assured  by  their  "piety,"  —  the  piety  of  the  Puritan  pattern  and 
spirit.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  authorities  were  sufficiently  rigid  and 
watchful  in  imposing  restrictions  to  an  entrance  upon  their  territory,  such  as 
would  keep  out  mere  adventurers,  restless,  discontented,  and  mischievous 
intruders.  So  they  had  to  deal  with  such  persons  after  they  had  more  or 
less  secured  a  hold  by  their  presence  and  self-assertion.  This  was  the  first 
occasion  of  annoyance  to  them  ;  and  the  measures  to  which  they  had  recourse 
were  such  as  gradually,  under  the  workings  of  human  nature,  involved 
severity,  bitterness,  cruelty,  and  matured  into  what  we  regard  as  their  in- 
tolerant and  persecuting  spirit.  It  was  quite  far  from  their  intent  to  offer 
a  freehold  or  asylum  for  all  sorts  of  unsettled,  whimsical,  and  crotchety 
spirits.  Yet  a  rare  variety  of  such  came  in  upon  them.  The  Planter's  Plea1 
made  the  following  somewhat  generous,  but  still  guarded  invitation  as  to  the 
sort  of  persons  needed  for  the  colony:  "  Good  Governours,  able  Ministers, 
Physitians,  Souldiers,  Schoolemasters,  Mariners,  and  Mechanicks  of  all  sorts." 
Men  free  of  ill  humours  "  ought  to  be  willing,  constant,  industrious,  obedient, 
frugall,  lovers  of  the  common  good,  or  at  least  such  as  may  be  easily 
wrought  to  this  temper."  It  cannot  be  expected  that  all  should  be  such, 
"  but  care  must  be  had  that  ye  principalls  be  so  inclined.  .  .  .  Mutinies, 
which  one  person  may  kindle,  are  well  nigh  as  dangerous  in  a  Colony,  as  in 
an  Armie.  .  .  .  Governours  and  Ministers,  especially  in  New  England,  must 
be  of  piety  and  blameless  life  as  patterns  to  ye  Heathens."  Had  the 
authorities  of  Massachusetts  known  what  trouble  they  were  to  have  from 
Roger  Williams,  they  might  from  the  first  have  declined  to  receive  him ;  for 
he  was  not  one  of  those  concerned  in  the  enterprise,  nor  a  freeman  of  the 
Company.  They  did  not  invite  him  here;  but  the  way  was  free  to  him, 
and  he  came.  It  was  the  attempt  of  the  most  earnest  and  austere  of  the 

1  [This  rare  tract  of  John  White's,  printed  the  Brinley  Catalogue,  Nos.  373,  2,704),  is  re- 
in 1630  (of  which  Mr.  Deane  has  a  copy,  and  printed  in  Force's  Tracts,  ii.,  and  in  part  in 
another  is  in  the  Lenox  Library,  and  two  are  in  Young's  Chronicles  of  Mass.  —  ED.] 


150  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

authorities  to  enforce  their  principles  and  standards  and  tests  upon  their 
servants  and  others,  and  upon  such  of  their  own  choicer  fellowship  as 
showed  lukcwarmness,  or  a  failing  "  godliness,"  that  heightened  bigotry  and 
prompted  all  degrees  of  harshness. 

This  seems  to  be  the  fitting  place  to  notice,  by  anticipation,  the  measure 
to  which  the  legislators  here  had  so  soon  a  recourse  in  restricting  the  fran- 
chise to  "  Church-Members."  In  the  lack  of,  or  in  the  doubtful  efficacy, 
of  other  securities,  their  first  reliance  was  upon  this.  As  has  been  already 
stated,  their  charter  left  them  at  full  liberty  to  define  the  conditions  on  which, 
by  making  new  members  "  freemen,"  they  should  admit  to  the  company 
those  who,  as  voters  and  candidates  for  office  among  them,  should  thus 
accede  to  influence  and  authority  in  disposing  their  affairs,  their  proprietary 
rights,  and  property.  Our  modern  democracy  makes  quite  easy  the  terms 
for  the  naturalization  among  us  of  foreigners  who  cast  in  their  lot  here,  and 
who  soon  acquire  the  right  to  vote  and  to  ask  votes  for  themselves  in  all 
matters  concerning  our  institutions  and  the  property  of  the  community. 
The  franchise,  on  those  easy  terms,  would  have  wrecked  our  colonial  enter- 
prise jn  its  very  start.  It  would  soon  have  numbered  among  its  full  partners 
a  heterogeneous  multitude  who  would  have  had  little  idea  of  what  "  the  pub- 
lic good  "  required,  and  less  ability  and  will  to  labor  and  suffer  for  it.  Se- 
dition, dissension,  the  strong  assertion  of  individual  variances  of  judgment 
believed  to  endanger  the  fabric  of  government  or  to  provoke  a  party  spirit, 
were  evils  which  they  had  most  reason  to  apprehend,  and  against  these  the 
leaders  were  most  anxious  to  protect  their  enterprise,  especially  in  its  stage 
of  uncertainty  and  peril.  They  would  naturally,  therefore,  seek  to  hold  new 
partners  by  some  solemn  pledge  of  fidelity,  and  to  put  this  pledge  into 
terms  by  which  they  might  ever  after  challenge  those  who  had  voluntarily 
entered  into  it.  So  the  condition  on  which  they  granted  the  franchise  was 
not  one  dependent  upon  social  rank,  nor  upon  pecuniary  means,  but  upon 
hearty  sympathy  and  accord  in  the  religious  intent  of  the  enterprise,  —  that 
which  consecrated  it  and,  as  they  believed,  could  alone  insure  its  success. 
They  required  that  all  who  wished  to  share  the  civil  franchise  with  them 
should  enter  into  covenant  with  one  of  their  churches.  This  rigid  Puritan 
restriction  of  full  civil  rights  to  "  church  members  "  has  furnished  the  oc- 
casion of  the  sharpest  censure  and  reproach  against  those  who  imposed 
the  condition.  Waiving  for  a  moment  the  rightfulness  or  expediency  of 
the  condition,  it  is  enough  to  say  that,  having  in  view  the  chief  intent  of  the 
founders  of  the  Puritan  Commonwealth,  they  would  have  stultified  them- 
selves and  confounded  their  scheme  had  they  failed  to  impose  it.  There 
was  no  alternative  open  to  them.  Nor  can  the  ingenuity  of  any  censor  of 
theirs  in  our  own  days  propose  any  other  condition  of  the  franchise  which 
would  consist  with  the  model  of  a  Theocracy.  None  the  less,  however,  the 
condition  proved  on  trial  to  work  simply  results  of  gross  injustice  and 
various  forms  of  mischief  and  trouble.  It  was  especially  faulty  and  vicious 
in  each  of  two  evil  consequences.  First,  the  condition  excluded  from  the 


THE   PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH  151 

full  rights  of  citizens  a  steadily  increasing  number  of  excellent,  upright,  and 
conscientious  persons,  who,  for  reasons  satisfactory  to  themselves,  could  not 
and  would  not  come  into  covenant  relations  with  a  church  by  the  prescribed 
methods.  Either  lack  of  belief,  or  self-distrust,  or  scruples  of  conscience, 
restrained  them  from  subjecting  themselves  to  the  ordeal  of  standing  before 
a  mixed  congregation  and  revealing  their  innermost  religious  exercises  and 
experience,  with  a  profession  that  they  had  reached  a  certain  stage  in  their 
conviction,  and  would  henceforward  put  themselves  under  the  watch  and 
ward  of  the  men  and  women  under  covenant.  But  as  a  second  ill-working 
of  this  condition,  while  it  excluded  from  citizenship  some  of  the  best  persons, 
it  afforded  no  adequate  security  against  the  inclusion  of  the  worst.  A  hypo- 
crite might  easily  pass  the  ordeal  under  the  lure  of  the.  consideration  and 
privilege  of  which  it  was  made  the  condition.  One  of  the  earliest  and  one 
of  the  most  vexatious  causes  of  strife  and  complaint,  and  a  whole  series  of 
perplexities  and  embarrassments  relieved  only  by  the  positive  demand  of 
Charles  II.  for  the  free  allowance  of  the  franchise,  came  from  the  imposition 
of  this  covenant  condition.  Persons  who  challenged  scrutiny  for  the  recti- 
tude of  their  characters  and  lives  in  vain  petitioned  for  the  rights  of  citizen- 
ship, as  they  shared  all  the  public  burdens.  As  the  rite  of  baptism  was 
allowed  only  to  the  children  of  parents  who  were  under  covenant,  there  was 
soon  a  generation  of  those  born  on  the  soil  who  neither  were  baptized 
themselves  nor  could  obtain  baptism  for  their  children.  The  question  be- 
came to  them  a  pertinent  one,  whether  they  were  Christians  or  Heathen. 
Such  then  was  the  quandary  in  which  the  Puritan  leaders  found  themselves. 
To  yield  the  franchise  to  the  "  uncovenanted  "  and  the  "  unregenerate  "  was 
to  subvert  their  Theocracy.  To  enforce  the  covenant  condition  was  to  risk 
the  sure  ruin  of  their  Commonwealth. 

These  preliminary  suggestions,  which  present  the  aims  and  purposes  of 
the  responsible  leaders  in  the  enterprise  that  planted  the  town  of  Boston,  — 
the  germ  of  the  State,  —  have  been  here  advanced  as  setting  forth  that  enter- 
prise, the  spirit  and  the  method  of  it,  as  it  reveals  itself  to  us  in  the  retro- 
spect of  history,  with  more  of  clearness  and  fulness  than  may  have  been 
enjoyed  by  those  who  planned  and  guided  it.  The  writer  of  these  pages, 
from  as  thorough  a  study  of  the  original  sources  of  information  in  our 
colonial  history  as  was  within  his  reach,  has  become  convinced  that  a  deep 
religious  design  in  the  purpose  of  the  leaders  is  the  key  to  the  enterprise. 
We  have  to  trace  the  process  —  one  of  arbitrary  acts  on  the  part  of  the 
leaders,  and  of  obstructions  and  arrests  on  the  side  of  opponents  who  stood 
for  a  more  lawful  authority  —  by  which,  through  the  temporary  experi- 
ment of  the  Puritan  Commonwealth,  the  corporation  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  Company  became,  by  anticipation,  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachu- 
setts. Our  starting  point  is  from  the  obvious  and  undeniable  fact  that  the 
charter  was  made  to  serve  a  use  for  which  it  was  not  designed  or  intended.1 

1  [Cf.  Joel  Parker's  lecture  on  the  charter     the  Lowell  Lectures,  Massachusetts  and  its  Early 
and  religious  legislation   in    Massachusetts,  in     History.  —  ED.] 


152  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Whatever,  then,  was  found  necessary,  by  forced  construction,  adaptation,  or 
supplementary  provisions,  to  fit  it  for  the  purposes  to  which  it  was  turned, 
involved,  of  course,  trespass,  disloyalty,  and  a  breach  of  law.  The  charter 
was  in  this  way  perverted  as  a  basis  and  medium  for  all  such  acts  and 
measures  and  stretch  of  authority  as  it  was  made  to  sanction.  Notwith- 
standing this,  and  the  fact  that  the  astute  leaders  must  have  been  perfectly 
well  aware  that  they  had,  so  to  speak,  stolen  a  march  upon  their  monarch  by 
the  transfer  of  the  charter,  and  by  the  setting  up,  under  their  way  of  constru- 
ing it,  such  a  government  as  they  instituted  here,  they  still  clung  to  that  char- 
ter, and  professed  to  find  in  it  their  sufficient  warrant.  They  seem  to  have  per- 
suaded themselves  —  indeed  they  boldly  insisted — that  there  was  a  pledge 
and  potency  in  a  quality  which  it  derived  from  its  seal  of  royalty,  its  kingly 
grace  and  covenant,  that  neutralized,  or  at  least  was  not  invalidated  by,  any 
strain  or  stretch  of  use  of  which,  as  they  pleaded,  they  had  found  it  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  avail  themselves.  The  Chancery  process,  which  in  1684 
vacated  and  revoked  the  charter,  was  a  decisive  judgment  of  the  authori- 
ties at  home  that  the  charter  had  been  unlawfully  perverted.  This,  how- 
ever, was  only  a  final  and  effectual  disposal  of  a  controversy  which  had  been 
from  the  first  continuously  in  agitation.  As  soon  as  the  royal  councillors 
had  knowledge  of  what  was  going  on  here  under  the  assumed  authority  of 
the  charter,  a  commission  was  instituted  for  examining  and  recalling  it. 
More  and  more  inquisitive  and  stringent  measures  by  royal  mandate  and  by 
later  commissioners  followed  up  the  same  attempt  to  bring  the  recusant 
Massachusetts  legislators  to  a  reckoning.  Yet  they  still  insisted  upon  that 
transcendent  royal  quality  in  the  pledge  of  their  patent  just  referred  to. 
And  they  might  well  heighten  its  value  to  them  by  the  plea,  which  they  more 
and  more  cogently  and  even  piteously  urged,  about  the  sincerity  of  their 
reliance  upon  the  royal  covenant  in  the  stern  enterprise  of  coming  over  as 
"  a  poor  distressed  flock  "  into  a  desolate  wilderness,  at  their  own  charges, 
among  brute  men  and  wild  beasts,  to  found  a  civil  State,  and  "  to  extend  the 
bounds  of  the  Gospel."  It  is  evident,  also,  that  the  more  of  added  value 
they  had  with  pains  and  toil  put  into  the  venture,  the  more  cogent  would  be 
their  plea  that  the  original  covenant  of  their  enterprise  should  hold  inviola- 
ble. Nothing  but  the  all-engrossing  troubles  and  convulsions  of  the  mother 
country,  and  the  sympathy  of  the  temporary  Puritan  Parliament  and  Pro- 
tectorate of  Cromwell,  would  have  availed,  however,  to  secure  to  the  exiles 
in  Massachusetts  time  and  opportunity  for  the  rooting  of  their  enterprise 
under  the  first  charter.  Whoever  chooses  by  curious  study  to  inform  him- 
self of  all  the  particulars  incident  to  this  lively  episode  in  our  history,  about 
the  challenging  of  the  charter  and  the  struggle  to  keep  it,  will  find  the  story 
at  least  an  entertaining  one.  He  will  find  much  that  he  may  appreciate  in  the 
resolute,  sturdy  pluck  and  defiant  obstinacy  of  the  Puritan  magistracy ;  and 
he  must  be  left  free  to  form  his  own  judgment  of  the  casuistry  and  the  strat- 
egy, and  —  to  use  plain  words  —  the  artifice  and  adroit  trickery  by  which  the 
charter  administration  was  maintained  till  the  catastrophe  of  its  fall ;  while 


THE    PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  153 

the  instrument  itself  was  never  wrenched  away  to  cross  the  ocean  on  its 
return,  but  still  hangs  with  its  royal  seal  attached  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary 
of  the  Commonwealth.  The  King  himself  had  no  power,  nor  could  he  by 
prerogative  have  usurped  or  exercised  it,  to  confer  by  charter  on  any  sect 
or  party  of  his  subjects  such  an  independency  and  such  legislative  functions 
as  were  actually  assumed  by  the  corporation  of  Massachusetts  Bay  when 
transferred  here.  Having  transported  themselves  with  their  charter,  the 
leaders  of  the  enterprise  seem  to  have  taken  for  granted  that  they  might 
extend  and  supplement  their  rightful  authority  under  it  so  as  to  adjust  it  to 
the  change  of  place  and  circumstances.1 

It  is,  however,  a  curious  fact,  having  a  significance  which  each  reader 
is  at  liberty  to  assign  to  it,  that  whatever  may  have  been,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  the  intent  of  the  leaders  of  the  Boston  colony  as  to  the 
setting  up  in  Church  and  State  an  original  and  arbitrary  pattern  of  their 
own,  what  they  actually  wrought  out  of  this  sort  had  been  suspected  of 
them  and  charged  upon  them  as  their  real  but  covert  design  before  their 
feet  rested  on  the  new  territory  for  their  experiment.  Some  persons  in 
England  whose  attention  had  been  drawn  to  the  project  before  it  was 
effected,  and  who  were  more  or  less  informed  of  its  preliminary  measures, 
had  expressed  jealous  misgivings  lest  the  prime  movers  had  secretly  in 
view  the  actual  scheme  of  separation  and  faction  which  was  soon  realized 
here.  The  anonymous  Planter's  Plea,  written  by  that  stanch  friend  and  pro- 
moter of  the  enterprise,  the  patriarch  and  vicar  of  Dorchester,  John  White, 
was  published  in  London  in  1630,  after  Endicott  had  been  heard  from  at 
Salem,  and  while  Winthrop's  company  was  on  the  ocean.  One  of  the 
"  objections  "  to  the  enterprise,  which  Mr.  White  tries  to  set  aside,  is  thus 
expressed :  "  That  religion  indeede  and  ye  colour  thereof  is  ye  cloake  of 
this  work,  but  under  it  is  secretly  harboured  faction  and  separation  from  ye 
Church.  Men  of  ill  affected  mindes  (some  conceive),  unwilling  to  join  any 
longer  with  our  assemblies,  meane  to  draw  themselves  apart,  and  to  unite 
into  a  body  of  their  owne,  and  to  make  that  place  a  nursery  of  faction  and 
rebellion,  disclaiming  and  renouncing  our  Church  as  a  limbe  of  Antichrist." 
This  objection  Mr.  White  meets  by  referring  to  the  affectionate  and  tender 
parting  address  of  the  governor  and  his  associates,  to  "  their  dear  mother, 
ye  Church  of  England,"  and  to  the  known  "carriage  of  these  persons  in 
their  owne  country  in  former  times,  as  not  men  of  turbulent  or  factious  dis- 
positions, impatient  of  ye  present  government,  who  have  separated  from  our 
Assemblies,  refused  our  Ministery,  &c.  .  .  .  And  yet,  if  some  one  or  two,  or 
ten  of  them  should  be  factiously  inclined,  it  were  hard  measure  to  condemn 
a  whole  Society,  &c.  ...  I  persuade  myself  there  is  no  one  Separatist  knowne 
unto  ye  Governours,  or  if  there  be  any,  that  it  is  as  far  from  their  purpose 
as  it  is  from  their  safety  to  continue  him  among  them."  Yet  the  candid 
pleader,  doubtless  well  knowing  more  than  he  cared  to  communicate,  adds, 

1  [The  struggle   to  maintain  the   charter  is   more  particularly  explained   by  Mr.  Deane  in 
another  chapter.  —  ED.] 
VOL.  I. —  20. 


154  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

"  I  conceive  we  doe  and  ought  to  put  a  great  difference  between  Separa- 
tion and  Non-Conformity.  There  is  great  oddes  between  peaceable  men, 
who  out  of  tendernesse  of  heart  forbeare  ye  use  of  some  ceremonies  of  ye 
Church,  and  men  of  fiery  and  turbulent  spirits  that  walke  in  a  crosse  way 
out  of  distemper  of  minde.  I  should  be  very  unwilling  to  hide  anything  I 
think  might  be  fit  to  discover  ye  uttermost  of  ye  intentions  of  our  Planters, 
and  therefore  shall  make  bold  to  manifest  not  only  what  I  know,  but  what 
I  guesse  concerning  their  purpose."  Necessity,  novelty,  love  of  gain  may 
draw  some,  "  but  that  ye  most  and  most  sincere  and  godly  part  have 
ye  advancement  of  y-  Gospel  for  their  main  scope  I  am  confident. 
That  of  them  some  may  entertain  hope  and  expectation  of  enjoying  greater 
libertie  there  than  here  in  ye  use  of  some  orders  and  Ceremonies  of  our 
Church,  it  seemes  very  probable.  Nay,  I  see  not  how  we  can  expect  from 
them  a  correspondence  in  all  things  to  our  State,  civill  or  Ecclesiasticall. 
Wants  and  necessities  cannot  but  cause  many  changes.  But  ye  men  are  far 
enough  from  projecting  the  erecting  of  this  Colony  for  a  Nursery  of  Schis- 
matickes"  Mr.  White  concludes  "  that  ye  suspicious  and  scandalous  reports 
raysed  upon  these  gentlemen  and  their  friends  (as  if  under  ye  colour  of 
planting  a  Colony  they  intended  to  rayse  and  erect  a  seminary  of  faction  and 
separation)  are  nothing  else  but  ye  fruits  of  jealousie  of  some  distempered 
minde,  &c."  It  is  admitted  that  the  wise  and  good  of  the  company  would 
naturally  be  followed  "by  a  mixed  multitude,  as  were  y°  children  of  Israel 
out  of  Egypt;"  and  Mr.  White  forebodes  that  such  "  would  prove  refractory 
to  Government,  expecting  all  libertie  in  an  unsettled  body,"  and  that  the 
restraint  of  authority  would  cross  their  discontented  humors,  so  that  they 
would  revenge  themselves  by  being  "  ready  to  blemish  ye  Government  with 
such  scandalous  reports  as  their  malicious  spirits  can  devise  and  utter." 
He  anticipates  that  such  will  return  or  be  sent  back  to  England,  revengeful 
and  malignant  with  ill  reports ;  and  he  asks  that  they  be  not  listened  to  till 
the  authorities  in  New  England  shall  send  home  true  information. 

These  frank  pleadings,  disclosures,  and  anticipations,  made  public  while 
the  adventuring  company  with  whose  motives,  plans,  and  fortunes  they  were 
concerned  were  on  their  ocean  passage,  are  certainly  very  noteworthy. 
Had  Mr.  White  deferred  writing  till  the  experiment  had  been  on  practical 
trial  for  ten  or  twenty  years,  he  could  not  better  have  described  its  real 
working  as  to  the  separation  effected,  the  "novelties"  reduced  to  practice, 
and  the  complaints  carried  back  to  England,  which  he  endeavored  to  deal 
with  by  anticipation.  It  is  needless  to  ask  by  what  prescience  or  "  jealousie  " 
some  in  England  found  occasion  to  advance  the  objections,  which  proved  to 
be  so  well  grounded,  to  the  schemes  of  the  planters.  Doubtless  it  was  in 
part  from  some  shrewd  observation  of  the  spirits  and.  inclinations  of  the 
prime  movers  in  the  enterprise,  and  in  part  from  inferences  drawn  from  the 
characteristics  of  the  previous  similar  experiments  at  Plymouth. 

The  zealous  pleading  of  the  good  patriarch  White  in  his  anticipatory 
defence  of  the  colonists  then  on  their  passage  to  the  Bay,  taken  in  connec- 


THE    PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  155 

tion  with  the  fact  that  on  their  arrival  they  immediately  pursued  the  course 
the  suspicion  and  intent  of  which  he  so  boldly  repudiated,  present  to  read- 
ers of  this  generation  a  curious  theme  on  which  they  are  at  liberty  to  exer- 
cise their  own  judgment  as  to  the  integrity  or  crookedness  of  the  leaders 
of  the  enterprise.  Sharp  censures  have  been  pronounced  upon  them,  in- 
volving the  imputation  of  gross  hypocrisy  in  their  tender  and  yearning  ad- 
dress from  the  deck  of  their  vessel  as  they  left  the  shores  of  their  native 
land.  In  this  they  said  :  "  We  esteem  it  our  honor  to  call  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, from  whence  we  rise,  our  dear  mother,  and  cannot  part  from  our  native 
country  where  she  specially  resideth,  without  much  sadness  of  heart  and 
many  tears  in  our  eyes,  ever  acknowledging  that  such  hope  and  part  as  we 
have  obtained  in  ye  common  salvation,  we  have  received  in  her  bosom  and 
sucked  it  from  her  breasts."  They  ask  the  prayers  of  their  brethren,  and 
promise  their  own  for  them,  —  "  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  wilderness,  &c."  What  then,  it  is  asked,  is  to  be  said  of 
the  high-minded  sincerity  of  men  who,  after  uttering  this  pathetic  strain, 
proceeded  at  once  to  lay  the  foundations  in  separation  and  schism  of  the 
Puritan  Commonwealth?  Something,  doubtless,  might  be  urged  on  their 
side  by  any  one  who  should  assume  their  defence  or  championship.  What 
was  to  them  the  Church  of  England?  It  represented  to  them  a  lineage  and 
communion  of  discipleship,  in  an  organized  institution,  then  in  process  of  ref- 
ormation and  purification  from  its  late  corruption  under  Popery.  They  had 
had  part  in  zeal  and  suffering  in  advancing  that  needful  reforming  work  to 
the  stage  which  it  had  reached.  For  themselves,  they  hoped  and  expected 
that  the  purifying  work  would  go  on,  as  they  believed  there  was  need  of  it. 
They  had  a  common  interest  in  its  membership.  They  had  no  idea  that  they 
were  about  to  heathenize  themselves  by  passing  the  ocean  to  another  shore. 
They  ever  after  maintained  that  they  were  seeking  to  advance  an  arrested 
process  of  reformation.  They  soon  found  that  this  involved  for  them  sep- 
aration, which  none  the  less  they  regarded  as  an  enforced  exclusion.  When 
on  the  first  year  after  the  planting  of  their  church  in  Boston  they  invited 
Roger  Williams  to  be  their  teacher,  the  demand  which  he  made  on  them 
as  a  condition  of  his  acceptance,  that  they  should  renounce  communion 
with  the  Church  of  England,  met  their  decided  refusal.  And,  further, 
any  one  who  assumes  their  defence  might  proceed  to  urge  that  they  de- 
parted only  from  the  discipline  of  the  Church  of  England,  not  at  all  from 
its  doctrine;  that  changes  in  the  mode  of  institution  and  discipline  were 
inevitable,  to  meet  the  circumstances  and  exigences  of  their  wilderness  con- 
dition ;  that  they  had  the  example  of  the  mother  country  to  justify  the 
connection  of  Church  and  State,  and  that  they  simply  followed  the  leadings 
of  Providence  and  the  teaching  of  the  Bible  in  adjusting  their  policy. 

We  proceed  now  to  trace  the  development  of  that  policy  in  the  organi- 
zation of  the  Puritan  Commonwealth.  The  written  charter  was  made  its 
basis,  but  the  limitations  and  deficiencies  which  at  once  showed  that  it  was 


156  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

to  be  put  to  uses  not  intended  or  provided  for  were  recognized  only  to 
be  neutralized  by  such  devices  as  seemed  necessary  or  available.  By  that 
charter  a  governor,  deputy-governor,  and  eighteen  assistants  were  annu- 
ally to  be  chosen  out  of  their  own  number  by  all  who,  as  "  freemen,"  had 
the  franchise  in  the  Company.  Any  seven  of  the  Assistants,  with  either  the 
Governor  or  the  Deputy,  meeting  once  a  month,  made  a  quorum,  as  an 
executive,  for  the  transaction  of  business.  Four  Great  or  General  Courts 
were  to  be  held  annually,  to  elect  and  commission  the  officers  and  to  vote 
upon  the  admission  of  new  members,  or  "  freemen."  As  soon  as  the  com- 
pany was  established  here,  the  Assistants  obtained  a  unanimous  vote  allow- 
ing them  to  choose  the  Governor  and  Deputy  out  of  their  own  body;  but 
when  the  Assistants  were  to  be  chosen,  all  the  freemen  were  electors.  In- 
stead of  the  full  number  of  eighteen,  only  eleven  or  twelve  of  the  Assistants 
came  over,  and  the  number  was  never  afterwards  filled  up.  The  Assistants 
soon  assumed  the  name  of  "  Magistrates,"  with  all  the  requisite  and  im- 
plied functions.  They  quietly  kept  their  office,  without  re-election,  for 
two  years,  and  made  the  first  laws  for  the  colony.  In  the  first  year  one 
hundred  new  freemen,  many  of  them  not  members  of  a  church,  took  the 
prescribed  oath.  But  in  1631  church  membership  was  made  a  condition 
of  the  franchise.  It  may  be  noted  here,  that  as  late  as  1676  five-sixths  of 
the  men  in  the  colony  were  non-voters,  because  not  church  members.  In 
1632  the  freemen  insisted  on  and  secured  their  right  to  choose  the  Governor 
and  Deputy ;  and  the  "  Magistrates  "  so  graciously,  though  grimly,  yielded 
the  point  that  they  were  re-chosen. 

The  wide  scattering  of  the  colonists  into  different  settlements  helped  for 
a  while  the  centralization  of  power.  As  it  became  inconvenient  for  all  the 
freemen  to  assemble  at  the  courts,  each  local  settlement,  the  nucleus  of  a 
town,  delegated  two  persons  to  represent  it.  Meeting  in  Boston  in  1634, 
these  Deputies,  early  watchful  against  arbitrary  power,  demanded  "  a  sight 
of  the  patent,"  and  then,  seeming  for  the  first  time  to  come  to  a  full  knowl- 
edge of  their  rights,  they  "  confronted  "  the  Governor.  After  parrying  their 
complaints,  he  told  them  that  so  large  a  number  of  freemen  in  the  com- 
pany had  not  been  anticipated  ;  that  their  numbers  and  lack  of  qualifications 
unfitted  them  for  making  laws ;  but  that  at  the  next  Court  some  of  them, 
summoned  by  the  Governor,  might  come  and  judge  of  the  taxes  and  revise 
the  laws,  though  they  could  make  no  new  ones,  but  might  submit  their 
grievances  to  the  magistrates. 

The  next  month,  May,  1634,  twenty-four  principal  inhabitants  appeared 
in  Boston  as  representatives  of  the  people,  and  disrupted  the  arbitrary 
exercise  of  power,  and  by  exercising  their  deputed  authority  through  the 
rights  recognized  in  the  Charter,  they  chose,  as  a  new  Governor,  Thomas 
Dudley.  They  gained  the  point  that  the  whole  body  of  freemen  should 
attend  at  the  General  Election,  while  being  represented  by  their  deputies  at 
the  three  other  Courts.  The  vigorous  struggle  in  the  next  year  was  be- 
tween those  who  stood  respectively  for  "  strict  discipline  "  or  for  lenity  in 


THE    PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH. 


157 


the  management  of  "  infant  plantations."  The  decision  was  in  favor  of 
the  rigid  party.  The  Assistants  or  magistrates,  in  their  tenacity  of  pur- 
pose to  maintain  an  almost  exclusive  authority  in  disposing  each  successive 
measure  which  the  expanding  interests  and  the  needful  protection  of  their 
enterprise  seemed  to  make  essential,  acted  on  the  assumption  that  they  had 


the  same  governing  power  over  all  their  associates  and  subordinates  on  the 
spot  as  they  would  have  had  if  they  had  been  exercising  their  administrative 
rights  in  England  over  the  employes  which  they  had  sent  here.  Up  to 
1644  the  magistrates  and  the  deputies  of  the  people,  meeting  together,  had 


1  [The  death  of  Cotton,  near  the  end  of  1652, 
was,  after  the  death  of  Winthrop,  the  loss  that 
most  closely  affected  the  town.  The  superstition 
of  the  day  found  alarming  portents  in  the  hea- 
vens while  his  body  lay  ready  for  burial.  Nor- 
ton, Life  and  Death  of  Cotton,  reissued  with  notes 
by  Enoch  Pond  in  1834;  Samuel  Clarke,  Lives 
of  Ten  Eminent  Divines,  London,  1662 ;  Ma- 


ther, Magnalia  ;  Emerson,  First  Church  ;  Snow, 
Boston,  p.  133.  Cotton's  house  stood  not  far 
from  the  southerly  corner  of  Tremont  Street 
and  the  entrance  to  Pemberton  Square.  The 
estate  ran  back  up  the  hill.  Vane  lived  on  it 
two  years,  and,  at  a  later  day,  Judge  Sewall. 
A  portrait,  said  to  be  of  Cotton,  from  which  our 
cut  is  taken,  belonged  to  the  late  John  Eliot 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

acted  jointly.  In  that  year,  as  the  result  of  another  severe  struggle  as  to 
the  people's  right  to  a  negative  voice,  it  was  decided  that  each  branch 
should  meet  by  itself,  and  that  a  concurrent  vote  should  be  requisite  in  legis- 
lation. This  was  another  stage  in  the  process  by  which  the  business  man- 
agement of  a  mercantile  corporation  was  transformed  into  an  administration 
leading  on  to  the  constitutional  provisions  of  our  existing  Commonwealth. 
It  was  obvious  from  the  first  that  the  reduction  of  the  paramount  authority 
of  the  magistrates,  or  even  the  participation  in  it  to  any  great  extent  by  the 
people  at  large,  would  imperil  the  rigid  principles  of  Puritanism,  so  far  as 
they  were  relied  upon  for  bringing  civil  affairs  under  the  absolute  sway  of 
the  Church.  It  is  observable  that  in  all  their  pleas  on  their  own  behalf  the 
magistrates  emphasize  their  religious  motives. 

Incidental  to,  or  we  should  rather  say  as  a  most  needful  and  vital  ele- 
ment of,  the  fundamentals  of  the  Puritan  theocratic  Commonwealth,  was  the 
habit  of  appealing  to  and  of  relying  upon  the  ministers  of  the  churches  for 
advice  and  guidance,  outside  of  their  own  special  functions.  The  clergy 
constituted,  so  to  speak,  a  body  of  spiritual  peers  in  the  Puritan  parliament, 
only  they  had  relatively  a  far  more  exalted  and  stringent  professional  influ- 
ence than  has  been  yielded  to  the  bishops  of  the  English  realm  since  the  era 
of  the  Reformation.  "  The  reverend  elders  "  —  "  our  brethren  the  elders  "  — 
constituted  a  body  which,  either  in  consultation  by  themselves  or  as  called 
into  the  meetings  of  the  Court,  was  appealed  to  for  counsel  and  advice  on 
all  perplexed  or  critical  matters.  As  pastors  of  the  churches,  whose  mem- 
bers alone  exercised  the  franchise,  they  would  have  had  their  full  share  of 
influence  in  preaching  from  their  pulpits,  and  in  their  disciplinary  visits 
from  house  to  house.  That  they  should  have  been  recognized  as  jointly  com- 
posing a  fellowship  qualified  and  entitled  to  have  referred  to  them,  impliedly 
for  ultimate  disposal,  matters  upon  which  the  civil  rulers  were  divided  in 
judgment,  is  certainly  the  most  significant  token  of  the  identity  between  the 
Puritan  Church  and  State.  It  would  have  been  consistently  within  the  range 
of  their  clerical  functions  if  questions  of  casuistry  in  religion,  or  of  the  inter- 
pretation and  explication  of  Bible  texts  by  whose  guidance  the  people  were 
generally  disposed  to  be  directed,  were  referred  to  them.  But  such  ques- 
tions as  the  interpretation  of  the  Charter,  and  how  the  continual  attempts  of 
the  authorities  at  home  to  subvert  and  reclaim  the  administration  set  up 
under  it  were  to  be  parried  and  thwarted,  could  be  regarded  as  of  fit  refer- 
ence to  a  clerical  body  only  under  a  theocracy.  But  these  and  like  questions, 

Thayer,  Esq.,  and  now  hangs  in  the  residence  of  the  old  St.  Botolph's  Church  in  Boston,  Lin- 

of  the  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop  at  Brookline.  colnshire,   where   Cotton   preached  before   his 

Mr.  Thayer,  who  was  a  descendant  of  Cotton,  coming   to  America,  was  restored  some  years 

bought  it  more  than  twenty  years  ago,  but   I  since,  and  a  memorial  tablet  was  erected  in  it 

have  not  been  able  to  learn  its  previous  history,  to  Cotton's  memory,  with  a  Latin  inscription  by 

It  was  first  engraved,  on  steel,  in  Drake's  Boston.  Mr.  Everett.     The  list  of  subscribers  is  given  in 

The  Cotton  genealogy  is  given  in    the  N.  E.  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Cental.  Reg.,  January,  1874, 

Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.  i.  164;  also  an  account  p.  15.     A  paper  on  Boston,  England,  and  Cot- 

of  his  ancestry  in  the  Heraldic  Journal,  iv.  49,  ton's  career  there,  by  the  Rev.  G.  B.  Blenkin, 

and  a  tabular  pedigree  in  Drake's  Boston.      By  Vicar  of  Boston,  is  in  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal. 

the  care  of  Edward  Everett  and  others,  a  chapel  Reg.,  April,  1874.  —  ED.  | 


THE   PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  159 

which  we  should  regard  as  strictly  secular  and  related  to  civil  polity,  were 
seldom  disposed  of,  in  the  first  three  decades  of  the  Colony,  till  "  our 
honored  Magistrates,"  or  "  the  Court,"  had  sought  the  advice  of  the 
"  reverend  elders."  In  fact,  John  Cotton,  in  discourses  at  the  Thursday 
Lecture,  was  ever  ready,  not  only  to  give  decided  counsels  on  secular  mat- 
ters when  his  advice  was  asked,  but,  when  some  critical  point  was  in 
contest  before  the  Court,  he  would  adjudicate  on  the  subject,  ostensibly 
of  course,  through  his  "  exposition  of  the  word  of  God." 

The  early  stages  of  the  conflict  between  the  magistrates  for  retaining 
their  own  legitimate  and  their  constructive  and  usurped  authority,  on  the 
one  side,  and  the  inhabitants  at  large  on  the  other,  tended  in  many  inci- 
dental matters  to  unite  the  non-voters  with  the  freemen  as  an  opposing 
party.  So  far,  however,  as  this  union  was  effective,  it  would  prejudice  the 
theocratical  principles  of  the  government.  The  records  of  the  Court  and 
many  of  the  contemporary  documents  that  are  now  extant  reveal  to  us  the 
fevered  state  of  anxiety  and  agitation  which  grave  questionings  and  sharp 
bickerings  induced.  Nor  is  it  strange  that  there  should  have  very  soon 
begun  a  weeding-out  process,  not  only  in  the  forced  exclusion  of  those 
whose  presence  proved  objectionable,  but  in  the  voluntary  withdrawal  of 
others  who  conceived  a  strong  distaste  or  disgust  for  the  atmosphere  and 
influences  of  the  place.  Some  of  these  last  are  referred  to  in  that  very 
interesting  pamphlet  published  in  London  as  early  as  1643,  entitled  New 
England's  First  Fruits^  While  the  general  account  of  prosperity  and 
hopefulness  in  these  pages  is  almost  roseate,  we  read  the  following:  "As 
some  went  thither  upon  sudden  undigested  grounds,  and  saw  not  God's 
leading  them  in  their  way,  but  were  carried  by  an  unstayed  spirit,  so 
have  they  returned  upon  as  sleight,  headlesse,  unworthy  reasons  as  they 
went.  Others  must  have  elbow-roome,  and  cannot  abide  to  be  so  pinioned 
with  the  strict  government  in  the  Commonwealth,  or  discipline  in  the* 
Church."  Very  tersely  and  aptly  did  one  of  the  wiser  of  the  Puritan 
company  express  the  fervid  working  of  the  enterprise,  in  writing  the  brief 
sentence,  "  While  the  liquor  is  boiling,  it  must  needs  have  a  scumming." 
When  we  come  to  take  note  of  the  rigid  proceedings  of  the  Puritan  legisla- 
tors against  those  who  "  disturbed  their  peace,"  we  shall  have  to  recognize 
the  fact,  which  to  a  moderate  extent  may  be  taken  as  palliating  their  harsh- 
ness, that  the  victims  of  it  were  not  members  of  their  company,  partners 
and  freemen  of  the  Commonwealth,  but  were,  with  rare  exceptions,  intruders 
among  them,  who  themselves  had  nothing  at  stake  in  the  enterprise. 

But  little  more  than  ten  years  had  passed  since  the  settlement  of  Boston 
and  of  the  towns  which  were  offshoots  from  it,  before  the  Colony,  in  all  the 
elements  that  constituted  it,  and  in  all  its  prospects  for  the  future,  passed 
through  some  experiences  of  gloom  and  darkness,  the  dismal  impression 

1  [This  tract  is  reprinted  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  original  edition  is  rare,  but  there  are  copies  in 
i.,  and  there  is  a  separate  modern  reprint  by  the  Harvard  College  Library  and  in  the  Prince 
Sabin,  published  in  New  York  in  1865.  The  Library.  —  ED.] 


160  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY    OK    BOSTON. 

from  which  is  most  vividly  presented  on  the  pages  of  Winthrop.  Though 
he  nobly  held  to  his  constancy  of  purpose  through  the  trying  experience, 
it  is  evident  that  his  hope  faltered  under  the  apprehension  of  the  threatened 
failure  and  abandonment  of  the  Colonial  enterprise.  It  was  not,  however, 
mainly  from  the  dissensions  and  discontents  that  had  been  developed 
among  the  struggling  exiles  here,  but  rather  from  the  agitations  and  revolu- 
tionary throes  of  the  mother  country  at  that  critical  period,  that  Winthrop 
was  compelled  to  face  the  appalling  disaster  to  the  fond  venture  in  which  he 
had  staked  his  all.  The  tyrant  monarch  of  England  was  at  bay ;  his  subjects 
were  winning  the  mastery  over  him ;  the  Parliament  was  above  the  throne ; 
and  a  work  was  brewing  in  which  not  only  some  restless  spirits,  but  some 
heroic  and  earnest  men  who  were  fired  by  a  holy  and  generous  ardor,  wished 
to  have  a  part.  Old  England  was  then  more  attractive  to  such  as  these, 
than  even  the  new  Commonwealth  rising  in  the  free  wilderness.  The  tide 
of  immigration,  which  up  to  that  time  had  set  strongly  hitherwards,  was  at 
once  stayed.1  There  was  almost  a  tidal  wave  of  return  homewards.  There 
were  many  of  those  who  embarked,  —  hardly,  however,  the  majority,  —  of 
whom  the  magistrates  and  elders  might  be  glad  to  be  well  rid.  But  magis- 
trates and  elders,  as  well  as  some  men  of  weight,  value,  and  high  service,  were 
among  the  returning  company,  not  alleging  that  they  were  going  merely 
for  a  visit,  but  intent  upon  remaining  that  they  might  have  part  and  lot  in 
the  stir  of  affairs.  It  is  of  these  that  Winthrop,  in  his  Journal,  utters  himself 
in  touching  pathos,  as  abandoning  by  a  broken  covenant  those  to  whom, 
for  good  or  for  evil  fortune,  they  had  pledged  joint  endeavor  and  holy 
fellowship.  The  interests  of  the  Colony  were  also  temporarily  prostrated 
from  the  suspension  of  foreign  trade,  the  value  of  all  products  of  the  Colony 
depreciated,  and  debtors  could  not  meet  their  obligations.  It  did,  for  the 
time,  look  as  if  the  forests  must  be  left  to  grow  again  over  our  clearings, 
and  one  more  colonial  failure  be  added  to  the  melancholy  list.  Winthrop 
records  not  only  the  darkness  of  the  surroundings,  but  also  the  spirit  of 
resolve  and  trust  which  brought  with  it  cheer  and  hope.  He  would  abide 
in  his  lot  and  be  the  stay  of  others.  Only  after  long  and  divided  counsels 
did  the  Court  resolve,  under  the  depression  of  their  fortunes,  to  send  three 
agents  to  England  to  have  in  view  the  interests  of  the  Colony.  With  the 
dignity  of  a  noble  pride  the  agents  were  strictly  cautioned,  thus,  "  that 
they  should  not  seek  supply  of  our  wants  in  any  dishonorable  way,  as  by 
begging  or  the  like,  for  we  were  resolved  to  wait  upon  the  Lord  in  the  use 
of  all  means  which  were  lawful  and  honorable." 

The  reader  must  look  to  the  numerous  and  fuller  sources  of  historical 
information,  if  he  wishes  to  trace  out  all  the  stages  and  processes  of  the  de- 
velopment in  the  minds  and  measures  of  the  more  responsible  leaders  of  the 
scheme  of  the  Puritan  Commonwealth.  Puritan  ideas  and  institutions  are 

1  IDr.  Palfrey,  Hist,  of  New  England,  Preface,  this  immigration  ceased,  are  the  ancestors  of 
considers  that  the  20,000  persons  which  consti-  the  great  body  of  our  New  England  stock.  — 
tuted  the  population  of  New  England  when  ED.J 


THE    PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  l6l 

to  be  studied  both  through  the  kind  of  influence  which  they  exercised  and 
the  strength  of  that  influence.  It  contained  in  itself  elements  and  agencies 
corrective  of  its  own  mistakes  and  ill  workings.  We  may  compare  it  in  some 
respects  to  those  fruits  and  berries  which  in  their  unripe  and  maturing  stages 
are  very  acrid,  but  healthful  and  grateful  after  passing  through  the  later 
processes.  It  is  denied  by  no  one,  and  with  rightful  boasting  it  is  proudly 
maintained  by  the  wisest  and  most  candid  philosophical  historians,  that  the 
heritage  assured  to  later  generations  by  Puritanism,  as  softened  and  modified 
by  the  working  of  its  own  self-developed  forces,  is  eminently  fruitful  in  civil, 
social,  and  domestic  virtues  and  prosperities.  The  awful  sincerity  of  its  stern 
disciples,  and  the  lofty  sanctity  of  the  aims  and  motives  which  they  avowed 
as  having  committed  themselves  in  all  things  to  a  holy  covenant  with  God 
and  each  other,  secured  them  against  the  worst  forms  of  disaster  from  self- 
seeking  and  corruption  which  would  inevitably  have  fallen  upon  them.  The 
Puritan  Commonwealth  may  ever  claim  the  honor  of  having  trained  the 
spirit  and  fostered  the  virtues  which  redeemed  it  from  its  own  limitations 
and  errors. 

A  democracy  was  the  product  or  result,  not  by  any  means  the  intent, 
of  the  enterprise  when  it  was  put  on  trial.  On  the  first  intimation  or  alarm 
of  a  tendency  in  that  direction,  John  Cotton,  the  clerical  oracle  of  the 
theocracy,  wrote,  "  Democracy  I  do  not  conceive  that  God  ever  did  ordain 
as  a  fit  Government  either  for  Church  or  Commonwealth."  But,  none  the 
less,  how  democracy  developed  and  established  itself  is  not  only  traceable  in 
every  stage  of  its  growth,  in  spite  of  the  shock  and  the  purposed  resistance 
to  it,  but  is  also  to  be  accounted  to  the  natural  and  inevitable  conditions  of 
the  experiment  here  on  trial.  The  objects  had  in  view  involved  democracy, 
and  were  consistent  only  with  democracy.  The  air  of  the  sea  and  the  wilder- 
ness, the  atmosphere  of  exile,  the  withdrawal  from  the  scenes,  habits,  re- 
straints, and  safeguards  of  the  old  home,  the  essential  equality  of  condition 
to  which  gentlemen  and  servants  were  alike  reduced  in  exposures,  straits,  and 
occupations,  levelled  distinctions  and  compelled  familiarity  in  intercourse. 
After  the  arrival  of  the  colonists  here,  not  one  of  them,  however  gentle  his 
degree  in  England,  was  free  from  the  necessity  of  manual  labor  in  the  field, 
the  forest,  and  in  building  and  providing  for  a  home.  The  Governor's  wife 
made  and  baked  her  own  batch  of  bread,  and  from  her  dwelling,  near  the 
site  of  the  Old  South  Church,  would  take  pail  in  hand  and  go  down  to  fill  it 
from  the  spring  that  still  flows  under  the  basement  of  the  new  Post  Office. 

The  rapid  decay  of  the  sense  of  loyalty  to  the  English  monarch,  of  de- 
pendence upon  or  deference  to  his  authority,  which  followed  upon  the 
breathing  of  this  free  air,  and  which  antedated  Independence  long  previous 
to  its  declaration,  was  also  a  direct  influence  for  fostering  democracy.  The 
only  substitute, for  allegiance  to  the  King  was  obedience  to  laws  of  their  own 
enactment.  In  their  secret  persuasion,  the  first  colonists  here  probably 
regarded  the  claims  of  dominion  of  the  English  monarch  over  these  wild 
realms  as  quite  unsubstantial  and  visionary.  The  possession  and  subjection 

VOL.  i.  —  21. 


1 62  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

of  them  at  their  own  charges,  with  that  shrewd  and  scrupulous  avoidance 
from  the  first  of  asking  or  receiving  any  help  or  protection  from  the  monarch, 
gave  them  rights  which  they  persuaded  themselves  overrode  his.  One  who 
is  keen  in  his  search  and  reading  in  the  more  minute  details  of  our  history 
will  meet  some  curious  tokens  of  a  seeming  arrest  of  the  democratic  ten- 
dency here,  and  a  temporary  show  of  the  revival  of  loyalty  after  the  substi- 
tution of  the  provincial  for  the  colonial  charter.  Self-governed  by  native 
magistrates  of  our  own  choice,  we  had  become,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
independents  of  the  democratic  pattern.  The  name  of  the  monarch  had  been 
dropped  from  statutes  and  writs  and  legal  processes.  We  had  no  courtly  re- 
presentatives here,  except  nominal  ones  with  popular  titles  and  indorsements. 
Royal  birthdays  were  not  among  our  holidays.  But  when  crown  officers 
were  put  in  authority  over  us,  and  came  with  their  commissions,  functions, 
and  ceremonials,  sometimes  with  a  show  of  state,  in  robings,  symbols,  and 
equipages,  the  effect,  perceptibly,  on  a  class  of  the  less  sturdy  among  us 
was  a  little  dazing  and  beguiling.  The  reminder  came  rudely  and  unwel- 
come to  the  majority,  that  rank  and  privilege  and  prerogative  might  still 
exert  themselves  against  a  pure  democracy.  A  striking  illustration  of  the 
collision  between  the  intruding  of  a  revived  loyalty  and  the  habit  attending 
its  previous  decay  here  is  presented  in  the  jealousy  and  distrust  —  and  even 
contempt  on  the  part  of  many  —  for  those  two  of  the  Royal  Governors  of 
the  Province  who  made  the  most  trouble  for  the  people.  These  were  Gover- 
nor Joseph  Dudley  and  Governor  Thomas  Hutchinson,  both  of  them  natives 
of  the  soil,  of  the  strictest  Puritan  stock  and  lineage,  baptized  and  nurtured 
in  the  Puritan  Church,  and  pledged  by  its  covenant,  and  graduates  of  its 
college :  they  were  none  the  less  courtiers,  and  hated  —  perhaps  unduly  or 
unjustly — as  recreant  to  their  own  heritage.  These  retrospects  and  revivals 
of  a  specious  loyalty,  after  the  change  in  the  charter,  attract  notice  by  contrast 
only,  as  showing  how  firmly  the  spirit  of  independence  and  democracy  had 
strengthened  under  the  Puritan  Commonwealth.  The  discomfitures  which 
the  theocratic  system  encountered,  and  the  concessions  which  it  was  com- 
pelled to  make  to  this  same  democratic  spirit  were  the  occasions  of  the 
modifications  just  referred  to.  Puritanism,  like  every  other  moral  and  reli- 
gious system,  had  to  deal  with  human  nature. 

Five  years  after  the  colony  was  planted,  a  paper  was  received  by  the  au- 
thorities, entitled  "  Certain  proposals  made  by  Lord  Say,  Lord  Brooke,  and 
other  persons  of  quality,  as  conditions  of  their  removing  to  New  England." 
The  object  of  those  who  made  these  proposals  was  to  secure  encouragement 
in  a  proposed  coming  hither,  from  the  assurance  that  in  the  government  to  be 
here  established  the  hereditary  privileges  above  "  the  common  sort "  should 
be  secured  to  those  of  gentle  blood.  Though  the  accession  of  such  persons 
was  very  desirable,  the  authorities  evidently  felt  embarrassed  in  the  matter, 
and  the  answers  exhibit  a  gingerly  caution  and  a  shrewd  sagacity.  They 
were  ready  to  accord  "  hereditary  honors ;  "  but  "  hereditary  authority  "  was 
quite  another  matter.  Nor  could  the  magistrates  admit  that  the  freeholders, 


THE   PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  163 

or  voters,  should  be  those  who  owned  a  certain  personal  estate,  for  the  con- 
dition of  the  franchise  must  be  membership  of  some  church.  The  only 
magistrates  they  could  set  in  office  must  be  "  men  fearing  God  "  (Exodus 
xviii.  21),  and  these  must  be  "chosen  out  of  their  brethren"  (Deut. 
xvii.  15)  "  by  saints"  (i.  Cor.  vi.  i). 

This  frank  and  emphatic  avowal  that  the  Puritan  State  was  founded  on  and 
was  identical  with  the  Puritan  Church  brings  us  back  to  the  original  intent  in 
the  minds  of  the  chief  spirits  in  the  enterprise.  The  Puritan  Commonwealth, 
as  a  theocracy,  must  be  administered  by  "  God's  people"  in  church  covenant. 

What  was  the  material  and  constitution  of  the  Puritan  Church?  Seven 
or  more  professing  Christians,  associating  themselves  together  in  covenant, 
constitute  a  Church  for  all  the  uses  of  Christian  edification  and  enjoyment 
of  ordinances ;  nothing  being  between  them  and  Christ.  The  Bible  is  their 
sole  sufficient  sanction,  guide,  and  statute-book.  In  the  sacred  volume  are 
to  be  found  divine  directions  for  'the  administration  and  discipline  of  the 
Church,  a  commission  and  instructions  for  its  teachers  and  officers,  the  mat- 
ter of  their  teaching,  the  rule  of  believing  and  living  for  members,  and  the 
method  of  discipline.  Men  receive  their  authority  and  functions  as  ministers 
directly  from  God ;  their  qualifications  of  heart,  mind,  and  spirit  are  from 
Him,  in  nowise  dependent  upon  any  allowance  or  transmitted  privilege  from 
their  fellow-men.  Such  ministers,  however,  obtain  an  official  position,  op- 
portunity to  teach  and  temporal  support,  from  the  free  choice  of  a  congre- 
gation desiring  their  services.  God  commissions  the  man,  but  the  people 
set  him  in  his  place  over  or  among  them.  The  Puritans  found  a  vast  and 
sublime  confirmation  of  their  fundamental  idea  in  the  grand  assertion  by 
St.  Paul,  that  the  Gospel  made  each  Christian  to  represent  to  himself  the 
two  highest  offices,  —  those  of  "  a  King  and  a  Priest  unto  God."  The 
Protestantism  of  various  communions  has  in  later  years  certified  and  fol- 
lowed these  principles  of  church  institution,  and  has  found  no  bar  to  the 
adoption  of  them,  even  when  under  methods  of  fellowship  freely  accepted 
among  themselves  very  many  individual  churches  have  been  united  in  a 
larger  brotherhood.  But  the  Puritan  discipline  proved,  on  trial,  to  be 
impracticable,  as  crude,  incomplete,  inconsistent,  and  hopelessly  embarassed 
by  collision  with  the  civil  rights  of  men.  Had  all  the  accepted  freemen  in 
the  colony  been  members  of  one  single  all-inclusive  Church,  there  might, 
for  a  time  at  least,  have  been  a  degree  of  harmony  and  success  in  the  trial 
of  the  theory.  But  there  were  many  churches  soon  organized  after  the 
Puritan  pattern.  The  theory  was  that  each  of  them  was  independent  in 
choosing  its  pastor,  in  administering  discipline,  and  in  its  relations  to  the 
civil  power.  All  these  assumptions  proved  misleading  and  fallacious  under 
the  Puritan  Commonwealth.  A  church  could  not  be  constituted,  and  a  pas- 
tor set  over  it,  without  deference  to  the  Court  or  magistracy.  It  was  found 
necessary  that  each  and  all  the  churches  should  be  mutually  answerable, 
that  they  should  come  into  accord  in  doctrine  and  discipline,  and  should 
recognize  each  other  through  councils  and  synods,  the  authority  claimed  by 


164  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

or  yielded  to  these  representative  combinations  being  undecided  and  always 
likely  to  be  contested.  It  would  be  neither  interesting  nor  edifying  to  the 
general  reader  to  follow  the  rehearsal  of  the  discomfitures  and  contentions, 
the  controversies  and  the  alienations  between  brethren,  and  of  the  measures 
of  offence  and  of  opposition  employed  by  those  not  of  the  brethren,  which 
thwarted  the  experiment  of  a  theocracy.  The  asserted  right  of  private 
judgment  did  not  then,  any  more  than  now,  carry  with  it  the  wise  exercise 
and  use  of  it.  Puritanism  proved  to  be  a  nebulous  fire-mist  with  marvellous 
potencies  in  it,  requiring,  in  the  processes  of  evolution  from  it,  time  and 
space  and  modifying  conditions.  The  development  of  the  theocratical 
experiment  does  not  engage  sympathetic  or  amiable  feelings  as  we  read  it. 
Every  session  of  the  Court,  every  meeting  of  the  Magistrates,  the  planting 
of  each  new  Church,  the  arrival  of  each  new  group  of  men  and  women  of 
independent  or  "  nimble  "  spirit,  the  ever  restless  inquisitions  and  searchings 
of  thoroughly  honest  seekers  for  truth  in  the  "  Word,"  and  the  curious  con- 
ceits and  notions  of  all  sorts  of  erratic  and  mystical  idealists  continually 
opened  matter  of  contention,  and  the  fissure  was  ever  enlarging  and  deep- 
ening. The  ingenious  and  acrimonious  strifes  which  ensued  from  the  con- 
flict of  opinions,  and  the  disputations  about  civil  and  religious  polity  stand 
illustrated  to  us  in  a  marvellous  wealth  of  technical  terms,  constituting  a 
jargon,  antique  and  comical  in  its  quaintness,  not  found  in  the  literature  of 
the  old  English  divines  outside  of  the  Puritan  fold.  The  series  of  severe  pro- 
ceedings which  were  instituted  by  the  Puritan  authorities  against  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  more  alarming  heresies  and  seditious  theories  must  be 
noticed  by  and  by.  It  is  enough  here  to  dismiss  with  the  slightest  recogni- 
tion the  active  workings  of  the  causes  already  presented  in  proving  how 
impracticable  was  the  experiment  of  the  Puritan  Commonwealth.  The  Court 
records  testify  to  the  endless  complications  of  the  attempt  to  commingle 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  legislation,  with  their  multiplying  statutes  and  penal- 
ties against  undefinable  heresies,  moaning  laments  about  "  the  decay  of 
religion,"  with  judgments  of  fines,  imprisonment,  and  banishment.  Under 
the  first  Charter,  five  "  Synods  "  of  the  Churches,  —  respectively  in  1637, 
1648,  1662,  1679,  and  1680, — were  held  in  the  vain  attempt  to  harmonize 
variances  and  to  construct  a  platform  of  discipline.1  Not  gradually,  but 
rapidly,  the  habits  and  feelings  which  had  been  identified  with  the  religious 
and  ecclesiastical  associations  of  their  old  home  yielded  under  the  stress  of 
changed  circumstances  and  fresh  elements  of  thought.  Mr.  Cotton  divested 
himself  of  all  that  once  characterized  him  as  the  vicar  of  a  prelate  with 
book-services  and  rites,  and  was  prepared  to  "  clear  the  Way  of  Congrega- 
tional churches."  Only  that  "  Way  "  was  constantly  obstructed  by  being 
coursed  in  every  direction  by  by-paths  and  foot-tracks,  by  misleading  sign- 
boards, and  by  travellers  in  all  sorts  of  conveyances,  very  few  of  whom 
seemed  to  enjoy  each  other's  company.  Seven  years  after  his  arrival,  Win- 

1  [Dr.  Dexter  has  examined  the  bearing  of  these  Synods  in  Congregationalism  as  seen  in  its 
Literature,  —  ED.] 


THE    PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  165 

throp  wrote  this  distinct  averment:  "Whereas  the  way  of  God  hath  always 
been  to  gather  his  churches  out  of  ye  world,  now  ye  world,  or  civill  state, 
must  be  raised  out  of  ye  churches." 

It  would  on  some  accounts  be  desirable,  in  the  writing  of  fresh  pages  for 
the  perusal  of  the  present  generation,  if  the  painful  and  darker  incidents  in 
the  development  of  the  Puritan  Commonwealth  could  be  passed  without 
mention,  or  dismissed  with  a  sentence  in  general  terms  of  regret  and  pre- 
ferred oblivion.  But  one  constraining  reason,  to  say  nothing  of  others,  for 
pursuing  a  different  course  presents  itself  in  the  consideration  that  some 
of  the  most  essential  principles  and  elements  of  the  stern  system  here  set 
on  trial  were  made  to  appear  only  in  the  sharp  encounters  with  its  opponents 
and  assailants.  Only  when  the  Puritan  Commonwealth  was  driven  into  self- 
defence  against  those  who  struck  at  its  vitality,  through  denying  its  authority, 
insulting  its  dignity,  and  in  successfully  breaking  its  thraldom,  can  we  under- 
stand it  for  what  it  was.  Intolerance  and  bigotry  might  be  regarded  as 
allowable  in  defence  of  a  form  of  Puritanism  which  held  its  disciples  to 
lofty  aims  and  found  them  cheerfully  meeting  pains  and  penalties  in  fidelity 
to  it.  But  pitiless  severity,  running  at  last,  by  provocation  and  passionate 
indulgence,  into  acts  of  direful  cruelty,  brought  humiliation  upon  our  an- 
cient magistrates,  left  sad  and  dark  stains  on  a  few  years  of  their  record,  and 
finally  confounded  and  subverted  the  original  scheme  of  their  government. 
Yet  that  austerity  of  intolerance,  that  ruthlessness  in  punitive  methods,  could 
alone  consist  with  sincerity  and  stern  fidelity  to  the  Puritan  scheme  and  rule. 

Doubtless  the  odiousness  of  the  Puritan  discipline  and  legislation  may 
be  heightened  by  a  trifling  and  scornful  rehearsal  of  the  follies  and  errors 
consequent  upon  it,  especially  in  the  outrages  visited  by  it  on  individuals 
and  classes  who,  however  offensive  in  their  heresies,  were  upright  and  pure 
in  life.  All  harshness  of  censure,  all  contempt  and  ridicule  poured  upon 
the  Puritan  magistrates,  is  utterly  unjust  when  it  proceeds,  as  it  generally 
does,  upon  the  implication  that  the  sort  of  persons  whom  they  are  charged 
with  persecuting  were  in  spirit  and  conduct  then  what  the  sort  of  persons 
are  who  are  known  among  us  now  under  the  same  names  and  as  holding  the 
same  opinions.  And  those  sharp  criticisms  are  also  equally  unjust,  when 
they  transfer  the  standard  of  intelligence  and  judgment,  and  the  social 
securities  of  our  times,  to  the  past  of  two  hundred  years.  Nor,  on  the  other 
hand,  would  any  candid  person  be  willing  to  set  up  a  plea  in  justification 
of  the  Puritan  magistrates,  and  so  make  himself  a  party  to  their  harsh  pol- 
icy. It  is  the  simple  facts  of  history  that  we  want,  and  essential  parts  of 
those  facts  are  to  be  found  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  times,  the  modes  of 
thinking  and  believing,  and  the  relations  between  men,  as  they  then  differed 
widely  from  what  they  are  in  these  days.  Anything  that  mitigates  or  re- 
lieves the  severity  of  the  proceedings  against  those  who  voluntarily  courted 
the  austere  discipline  of  the  Puritan  magistracy  may  be  alleged  in  the  inter- 
est of  both  the  sufferers  and  the  inflictors  of  the  wrong. 

The  main  intent  and  design  of  those  who  "  enterprised  "  the  Bay  Colony 


1 66  THE-  MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

planting  itself  in  Boston  has  been  fully  set  forth,  both  as  it  was  conceived  by 
those  who  planned  and  guided  it,  and  as  the  practical  trial  of  it  developed  its 
elements  and  conditions  somewhat  more  clearly  than  the  founders  had  appre- 
hended them.  Having  insufficiently  secured  themselves  at  the  start  against 
the  intrusion  of  uncongenial  and  obnoxious  strangers,  they  would  need  to 
devise  most  stringent  measures  in  dealing  with  them  as  they  presented 
themselves.  It  is  important  to  keep  in  mind  the  fact  that  the  repressive 
and  punitive  measures  adopted  against  a  succession  of  individuals  and 
classes  of  persons  who  made  protests  and  assaults  against  the  civil  or 
religious  policy  of  the  Commonwealth  were  all  of  them,  in  the  full  severity 
of  their  infliction,  confined  to  the  first  thirty  years  of  the  colony.  After 
that  brief  term  there  was  a  sensible  relaxation  of  austerity,  and  an  increase 
of  allowance  and  tolerance.  It  is  observable,  likewise,  that  as  the  severe 
dealing  with  heretics  and  dissentients  was  mitigated,  their  zeal  and  fervor 
and  offensiveness  were  sensibly  reduced,  and  they  ceased  to  present  them- 
selves so  obnoxiously.  Here  we  note  a  very  natural  relation  between  the 
spirit  of  persecution  and  the  spirit  which  obstinately  and  even  wantonly  or 
perversely  provoked  it.  The  fathers  were  anxiously,  we  say  morbidly  and 
timidly,  dreading  lest  their  bold  venture  in  the  wilderness  should  be  pros- 
trated before  it  could  strike  root.  Their  first  years  were  the  years  of  its 
darkest  uncertainty  and  its  severest  trial.  Saving  the  slender  colony  at 
Plymouth,  all  other  like  enterprises  presented  to  them  only  warnings, 
without  a  gleam  of  encouragement.  The  risk  which  they  had  most  to 
dread  was  that  from  seditions  and  dissensions  among  themselves,  coming 
from  an  assault  upon  their  fundamental  principles,  —  "godliness"  and 
harmony.  Their  troublers  came  precisely  in  the  form  and  shape  in  which 
they  apprehended  them,  —  in  the  form  and  in  the  sturdy  and  persistent 
protests  of  men  and  women  against  their  civil  and  religious  principles,  and 
in  the  shape  of  active  and  irrepressible  assailants  of,  and  offenders  against, 
their  laws.  As  will  soon  appear,  there  was  something  extraordinary  in 
the  odd  variety,  the  grotesque  characteristics,  and  the  specially  irritating 
and  exasperating  course  of  that  strange  succession  of  men  and  women,  of 
all  sorts  of  odd  opinions  and  notions,  who  presented  themselves  during  a 
period  of  thirty  years,  seeming  to  have  in  common  no  other  object  than  to 
grieve  and  exasperate  the  Puritan  magistrates.  We,  indeed,  can  see  that 
they  had  a  higher  and  nobler  mission.  But  those  to  whom  they  were  so 
mischievous  and  hateful  regarded  them  only  as  reckless  and  wanton  dis- 
turbers of  their  peace.  No  sooner  had  one  nuisance  of  this  sort  been  dis- 
posed of,  fined,  banished,  pilloried,  whipped,  and,  in  the  last  dread  alterna- 
tive, swung  from  the  gallows,  than  another,  with  a  slight  variation  in  the 
hue  of  heresy  and  the  attitude  of  daring,  presented  himself.  As  travellers 
through  the  woods  and  bushes  from  Boston  to  Rhode  Island  in  midsummer 
would  then  have  been  vexed  by  the  whole  brood  of  snakes  and  stinging 
insects,  so  that  harborage  of  "  conscientious  contentious  heretics  "  seemed 
to  furnish  an  endless  variety  of  the  troublers  of  our  Israel.  Cotton  Mather 


THE    PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  167 

said  that  Roger  Williams  "  had  a  wind-mill  in  his  head,"  and  that  if  any- 
body had  lost  his  conscience,  he  might  find  one  of  a  sort  to  suit  him  in 
Rhode  Island.  A  rich  variety  of  specimens  was  certainly  offered  from 
that  source  to  Boston. 

A  reader  of  the  old  strange  annals  of  those  times  may  be  moved  to 
conceive  what  would  have  been  the  fate  and  fortune  of  the  Puritan  Common- 
wealth had  it  been  put  to  the  test  of  quite  another  set  of  spirits  than  those 
who  tried  it.  Suppose  that  a  party  had  been  developed  among  them  who 
simply  intensified  Puritanism,  as  moping  ascetics,  devotees,  exceeding  in 
austerity  and  rigidness  the  tone  and  ways  of  their  associates,  rebuking 
their  regard  for  worldly  thrift,  and  exacting  a  piety  even  sterner  than 
theirs :  possibly  their  history  might  then  have  read  somewhat  differently. 
But  if  we  would  rightly  read  their  history  as  it  is  written,  we  must  now  re-- 
cognize  the  fact  that  those  who  experienced  the  most  ruthless  dealing  from 
the  Puritan  magistrates  presented  themselves  as  representing  opinions,  no- 
tions, and  practices  which  were  at  the  same  time  most  odious  and  alarming 
to  the  Puritans.  The  latter  welcomed  —  indeed  they  perfectly  revelled  in — 
disputations  confined  to  the  exposition  and  interpretation  of  the  Bible. 
They  were  ready  on  all  occasions  to  entertain  either  with  approval  or  assault 
anything  offered  to  them  as  exposition  or  interpretation  of  Holy  Writ. 
Texts  were  to  them  a  legal  tender  in  the  currency  of  beliefs  and  obligations. 
But  when  assertion  and  argument  took  them  outside  of  the  Bible,  either  in 
the  direction  of  ecclesiastical  traditions  and  "  Papistical  claims,"  or  of  the 
asserting  of  special  illuminations  or  "  revelations,"  they  were  taken  at  a 
disadvantage  ;  variances  then  became  embittered  ;  there  was  no  recognized 
umpire  for  adjusting  the  issues  opened,  and  they  had  recourse  to  other 
weapons  and  methods  than  those  of  argument.  Identifying  civil  order  and 
security  with  the  foundation  and  safeguards  of  their  Commonwealth  which 
they  had  drawn  from  and,  as  they  believed,  had  squared  by  the  Bible,  all 
"  heady  notions,"  all  eccentric  individualisms,  all  mystical  speculations, 
became,  in  their  apprehensions,  fomentings  of  sedition  and  revolution. 
Even  in  our  own  secure  State,  with  all  the  interests  and  excitements  of  our 
heterogeneous  population,  we  are  not  without  experiences  and  memories  of 
rancors  and  dreads  caused  by  the  wild  vagaries  and  the  fancied  plottings 
of  mischief  of  men  and  women  who  shock  convictions  or  defy  the  laws,  or 
threaten,  instead  of  "  prophesying,"  woes  and  calamities  to  the  community. 

The  range  of  life  and  the  materials  for  mental  occupation  and  excitement 
were  exceedingly  meagre  for  the  hard-worked  and  anxious  exiles  of  the 
Puritan  colony.  They  were  enthralled  by  all  the  superstitions  of  their  own 
time,  and  additional  clouds  of  gloom  and  fear  came  over  them  from  their 
wilderness  experiences.  They  became  morbid,  excitable,  and  apprehen- 
sive, so  that  they  persuaded  themselves  that  an  attitude  of  watchfulness  for 
self-defence  should  keep  them  ever  on  their  guard  against  visible  and 
invisible  foes,  —  fiendish  powers  of  the  air;  Indians  who,  if  not  victims  of 
Satan,  seemed  to  be  in  league  with  him;  and  evil  men,  disturbers  and 


THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

fomenters  of  mischief.  The  magistrates  and  elders,  with  their  fuller  intelli- 
gence and  a  sense  of  their  enhanced  responsibility,  realized  that  they  had 
in  charge  many  of  "  ye  weaker  sort "  among  the  common  people,  who 
might  easily  be  drawn  away  by  the  craft  or  subtilty  of  "  erratic  spirits,"  and 
they  felt  bound  to  guard  them  from  the  risks  of  contact  with  heretics.  It 
is  to  be  remembered,  also,  that  in  the  mother  country,  where  there  seemed 
less  reason  for  dreading  the  influence  of  fanaticism  and  the  ingenuities  of 
heresy,  the  authorities  anticipated  the  course  pursued  in  this  colony  in 
dealing  with  the  same  classes  of  offenders.  The  penalties  of  fining, 
imprisonment,  scourging,  and  mutilations- of  the  person  inflicted  here  were 
in  strict  imitation  of  those  inflicted  in  England  on  the  strange  fellowships 
of  Ranters,  Seekers,  Anabaptists,  Quakers,  Muggletonians,  Fifth-Monarchy 
men,  &c., —  saving  only  that  Boston  brought  four  of  its  most  insufferable 
tormenters  to  the  gallows.  The  wit  of  man  in  sanity  or  mildly  crazed, 
working  upon  all  the  fancies  and  whimseys  of  the  human  brain,  might  well 
be  challenged,  even  in  these  days  so  fertile  in  speculation  and  individual 
theories  and  crotchets,  to  match  the  productiveness  of  the  enthusiastic  and 
fanatical  spirits  of  England  just  preceding  and  extending  through  the 
Commonwealth  period  of  its  history.  Given  the  two  chief  factors  or  sources 
of  material  to  be  wrought  with,  —  the  Bible  under  each  one's  private  inter- 
pretation to  test  what  he  could  make  of  it,  whether  he  could  himself  read  it, 
or  was  dependent  upon  listening  to  it  from  others'  lips ;  and  the  fathomless 
chaos  and  medley  creations  of  an  overwrought,  uninstructed  mind,  believed 
in  each  case  to  be  illuminated  and  inspired  by  special  divine  communica- 
tions, —  and  we  cease  to  marvel  over  the  effervescing  products  of  the  com- 
bination. Human  ingenuity,  conceit,  credulity,  and  self-delusion  may  be 
said  to  have  exhausted  their  resources  and  capacities  in  the  products  of  the 
time,  which  were  wrought  out  by  the  abounding  forms  of  eccentric  sectarism 
and  heresy.  Out  of  the  mountain  heaps  of  pamphlets  and  tractates  of  the 
period,  with  which  the  busy  presses  teemed,  enough  are  extant  in  these 
days  to  constitute  in  themselves  a  portent  to  be  marvelled  over.  Indeed 
these  extraordinary  productions  are  now  sought  for  and  gathered  up  at  large 
cost  by  curious  collectors,  fascinated  by  their  quaint  titles,  their  mystic 
dreamings,  their  extravagant  vagaries,  their  intensity  of  conviction  which 
would  have  made  their  disciples  ready  to  bear  the  rack  or  the  stake. 

One  of  the  most  profoundly  engaging  exercises  in  the  study  of  the  life 
of  Milton^  as  illustrated  by  his  times,  is  to  note  how  his  noble  soul,  in 
working  out  the  grand  immunity  of  the  private  conscience  in  its  exercises 
of  thinking  and  believing,  was  tormented  by  "  the  buzz  and  gabble,"  so 
noisy  and  teazing  all  around  him.  The  effervescences  and  extravagances  of 
what  we  call  the  religious  spirit,  working  its  wonderful  manifestations 
among  large  numbers  of  ignorant  and  illiterate  persons  in  that  period, 
engaged  many  pens  in  the  mere  effort  to  catalogue  and  classify  them,  as 
one  arranges  strange  specimens  of  Nature's  productions  in  a  cabinet.  But 
these  broods  of  sectaries  were  by  no  means  in  a  fossil  or  inert  condition. 


THE   PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  169 

They  were  very  much  alive,  and  about  equally  engaged  in  prophesying 
their  own  oracles  and  assailing  other  peoples'.  Certain  names  and  titles 
have  come  down  to  us,  and  are  in  use  to-day  as  designating  religious  sects, 
or  denominations,  or  opinions,  which  were  first  adopted  or  assigned  when 
those  who  bore  them  are  supposed  to  have  first  espoused  the  beliefs  or 
opinions  which  the  words  now  designate.  We  read  how  ruthlessly  the 
Puritan  magistrates  dealt  with  Antinomians,  Baptists,  and  Quakers.  But 
there  are  no  persons  now  living  who  fully  represent  those  who  first 
bore  these  names,  and  carried  with  them  the  repute,  and  made  such  a 
manifestation  of  themselves,  as  did  those  who  teazed  and  tormented  the 
old  magistrates.  We  should  be  greatly  misled  if  we  transferred  to  those 
who  were  once  dealt  with  here  as  Baptists  and  Quakers  the  qualities,  princi- 
ples, ways,  and  demeanor  of  those  who  now  bear  these  names,  seeing  that 
the  latter  do  not  represent  in  spirit,  word,  or  act  the  sort  of  persons  of  whom 
we  read  in  our  history.  It  would  be  enough  to  set  us  in  the  right  point  of 
view  for  seeing  the  real  truth  on  this  subject,  if  we  should  simply  cull  out 
the  epithets  and  phrases  for  individuals,  and  for  their  opinions  and  behav- 
ings,  which  the  magistrates  and  elders  used  in  dealing  with  the  objects  of 
their  stern  discipline.  The  emphatic  words  employed  make  up  a  strange 
category.  They  are  such  as  these :  blasphemous,  seditious,  unsavory,  ex- 
orbitant, monstrous,  diabolical,  impious,  satanical,  with  many  other  sharp, 
stinging  epithets.  To  say  nothing  of  the  absurdity  of  the  supposition  that 
any  such  terms  should  be  applied  to  the  opinions  or  practices  of  those 
known  among  us  as  Baptists  and  Quakers,  it  is  more  to  the  point  to  remind 
ourselves  that  even  the  Puritan  magistrates  themselves  would  not  have 
used  them  if  under  those  names  they  had  had  to  deal  only  with  such  as 
now  bear  them.  The  explanation  of  the  matter  is  not  far  to  seek.  While 
charging  upon  the  intolerance  and  bigotry  of  the  Puritan  magistrates  the 
utmost  burden  of  blame  for  what  there  was  in  their  stern  principles  which 
drove  them  to  the  unrelenting  and  distressing  severity  of  their  penalties, 
there  is  quite  another  element  in  the  case  for  which  candor  must  make  a 
very  large  though  undefined  allowance  as  palliating  their  fault. 

If  we  should  gather  in  a  series  the  individuals  and  the  classes  of  persons 
who  were  the  victims  of  Puritan  intolerance,  we  should  have  to  recognize 
the  fact  that,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  case  of  Roger  Williams,  — 
to  be  specially  referred  to  in  its  place,  —  there  were  common  qualities  in 
those  who  provoked  that  intolerance  which  were  peculiarly  aggravating  and 
hateful  to  the  magistrates  and  ministers.  There  was  in  all  of  them  a  strong 
and  ardent  element  of  enthusiasm  and  fanaticism,  and  in  most  of  them  a 
claim  to  a  special  divine  illumination  and  guidance  in  the  form  of  "  private 
revelations,"  the  avowal  of  which  goaded  the  Puritans  to  rage,  and  made 
those  professedly  so  "  inspired  "  the  objects  of  mingled  contempt  and  dread. 
A  thorough  and  faithful  study  of  the  records  of  the  Court,  of  the  pamphlets 
and  tractates  of  the  time,  of  the  extant  manuscripts  which  preserve  the 
language  and  fervor  of  the  sharp  conflicts,  and  a  perusal  of  the  historical 


170  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

digests  whose  writers,  in  their  earnest  championship  of  the  respective  par- 
ties to  the  strife,  have  taken  care  that  either  side  shall  have  a  fair  and  full 
hearing,  —  while  it  may  or  may  not  be  regarded  as  rewarding  the  labor  of 
the  inquirer,  will  teach  him  a  useful  wisdom.  He  will  find  himself  gradu- 
ally but  sensibly  taken  into  a  very  different  range  for  thought,  belief,  and 
mental  occupation  from  that  in  which  we  move  and  live.  He  will  meet 
with  no  need  or  use  for  that  sort  of  tolerance  which  consists  with  indiffer- 
ence. While  wondering  how  human  beings  could  work  themselves  into 
such  fervors  and  fevers  of  zeal  and  passion  about  fancies  and  notions  to  us 
so  remote  from  the  range  of  reasonable  and  healthful  interest,  we  often 
find  ourselves  admiring  them  for  their  manifest  sincerity  and  constancy. 
Nor  are  there  lacking  among  them  the  evidences  of  a  rich  ingenuity  and 
ideality  in  fashioning  out  of  misty  speculations  the  shapings  of  some  august 
truths.  We  are  not  infrequently  awed  by  catching  from  the  lips  of  illiterate 
persons,  in  their  seeming  delirium  from  their  oracles,  the  proof  of  a  marvel- 
lous insight  in  the  region  of  elevated  ideas.  We  are  led,  perhaps,  to  a  better 
appreciation  of  the  cautious  sagacity  of  Erasmus  in  protesting  against  Lu- 
ther's resolve  to  offer  the  Bible  in  the  vernacular  to  the  free  perusal  of  the 
common  people.  But  we  are  also  impressed  with  a  sense  of  the  inner  fecun- 
dity and  the  quickening  spirit  of  the  Bible  for  earnest  and  restless  minds, 
who  received  it  as  if  passed  to  them  in  a  cloud  from  the  hand  of  God,  to 
be  read  and  brooded  over  as  a  private  message,  direct  and  sufficient. 

One  of  the  most  picturesque  characters  for  us  in  our  early  chronicles, 

though  he  had  quite  another  aspect  and  personification  for  the  old  magis- 

•>  trates,  was  Samuel  Gorton.     He  is  described  by 

tfTf  fr  them  as  representing  "  the  very  dregs  of  Famil- 

*4%    -fffjfrx^    .       „ 

qj  ism,   — an   insufficient  portraiture  for  our  days. 

He  was  a  "  clothier   from    London."      We  first 

hear  of  him  as  appearing  in  Boston  in  1636,  and  as  shortly  going  to  Ply- 
mouth, whence  he  was  soon  expelled  for  holding  some  strange  and,  to  us, 
unintelligible  heresies.  Next,  he  was  whipped  in  Rhode  Island  for  calling 
the  magistrates  "just-asses,"  and  found  refuge  with  Roger  Williams  in 
Providence.  In  a  controversy  with  our  authorities  about  the  lands  on 
which  he  and  others  had  settled,  he  was  seized,  and  with  ten  of  his  followers 
was  brought  to  Boston,  where,  for  his  "  damnable  heresies,"  he  was  put  in 
irons,  confined  to  labor,  and  whipped,  and  then  banished  on  pain  of  death 
if  he  appeared  here  again.  His  heresies  were  reputed  as  proving  him  a 
disciple  of  the  fanatic  David  George,  of  Delft,  the  founder  of  the  "  Family  of 
Love,"  who  called  himself  the  "  Messiah."  It  was  said  that  Gorton  could 
neither  write  nor  read.  If  the  charge  had  been  that  what  he  did  write 
was  utterly  unintelligible  for  its  mystical  and  cloudy  rhapsodies  and  dream- 
ings,  it  would  have  been  more  to  the  point.  On  a  visit  which  he  made  to 
England,  he  engaged  the  countenance  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick  to  redress 
his  wrongs;  and  he  wrote,  or  published,  tractates  and  expositions  of  his 
fancies,  from  which  one  in  these  days  will  hardly  succeed  in  drawing  out 


THE   PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH. 


171 


anything  but  darkness.  Yet  he  founded  a  sect  which  bore  his  name  in 
Rhode  Island  for  a  century,  and  proved  in  private  and  civil  capacities  to  be 
a  useful  man.  Any  one  who,  in  these  days,  may  be  curious  to  inform  him- 
self about  the  opinions  of  this  reputed  "  Familist"  may  find  them  in  books 
bearing  his  name,  such  as  Simplicities  Defence  against  Seven-Headed  Polity ; 
An  Incorruptible  Key  composed  of  the  CX.  Psalm,  &c.  His  writings  are 
accessible,  but  they  do  not  obtrude  themselves  on  the  present  generation.1 

The  first  serious  trouble,  engaging  severe  measures  in  the  action  of 
the  Court,  was  that  of  Roger  Williams.  Though  he  was  not  and  never 
became  a  member  or  freeman  of  the  Company,  he  was  welcomed  on  his 
arrival.  He  came  here  on  his  own  prompting,  and  of  course  could  remain 
only  on  sufferance,  if  he  should  prove  a  desirable  person.  Arriving  with 
his  wife  in  Boston,  in  1631,  while 
Wilson  of  the  First  Church  was  absent 
in  England,  Williams  was  invited  to 
become  its  teacher.  He  says  that 
he  refused  the  invitation  because  the  members  of  the  church  would  not 
make  humble  confession  of  sin  in  having  communed  with  the  Church  of 
England.  He  was  not  then  known,  as  in  the  after  years  of  his  life,  for  his 
sweetness  of  spirit,  his  breadth  of  liberality,  and  his  noble  magnanimity,  but 
seems  to  have  most  impressed  those  who  met  him  as  holding  "  singular 
opinions,"  and  being  "  very  unsettled  in  judgmente."  He  was  more  wel- 
come in  Salem,  where  he  first  went,  than  he  proved  to  be  at  Plymouth, 
where  he  made  a  short  stay,  and  whence  he  returned  to  Salem  in  1634. 
The  gentle  Elder  Brewster,  fearing  that  he  would  "  run  a  course  of  rigid 
Separation  and  Anabaptistry,"  was  glad  to  facilitate  his  removal  from 
Plymouth.  There  are,  of  course,  two  ways  of  telling  the  story  of  his 
troubles  with  the  Massachusetts  authorities.  One,  a  plea  in  his  defence 

1  [The  sources  of  knowledge  of  the  Gorton  printed  in  2  Mass,  f/ist.  Coll.,  iv. ;  in  Force's 
controversy  are  Winthrop's  New  England,  Sav-  Tracts,  iv.,  and  edited  by  W.  T.  R.  Marvin,  Bos- 
age's  edition,  ii.  69;  documents  in  Hazard's  ton,  1869.  Window  replied  in  his  New  Eng- 
Collections ;  Johnson's  Wonder-working  Provi-  land's  Salamander,  1647,  of  which  there  is  a 
deuce,  Poole's  edition,  p.  185,  and  the  several  copy  in  Harvard  College  Library;  reprinted  in 
controversial  tracts  of  the  time.  In  1646  Gor-  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll ,  ii.  Gorton  took  exception  to 
ton  printed  his  defence  of  his  own  conduct  in  some  part  of  Morton's  New  England's  Memorial, 
New  England,  the  Simplicities  Defence,  now  a  and  furnished  an  answer,  which  Henry  Stevens 
rare  book,  of  which  there  are  copies  in  the  Prince  printed  at  London  in  1862  from  an  autograph 
collection  and  in  Harvard  College  Library ;  but  manuscript.  Cf.  Force's  Tracts,  iv.  The  con- 
there  are  reprints  of  U  in  Rliodc  Island  Hist,  troversy  has  been  followed  with  more  or  less 
Coll.,  ii.,  and  in  Force's  Tracts,  iv.  Edward  Wins-  care  in  Hubbard's  New  England,  ch.  xlvii. ; 
low,  of  Plymouth,  who  had  been  sent  to  England  Baylies's  Old  Colony,  i.  ch.  xii. ;  Palfrey's  New 
to  thwart  the  purposes  of  the  enemies  of  the  England,  il.  ch.  iii.,  iv.f  and  v. ;  Felt's  Eccles. 
confederacy,  answered  Gorton  in  his  Hypocracie  Hist,  of  New  England,  i.  512;  Arnold's  Rhode 
Unmasked  (copies  in  Mr.  Deane's  and  in  the  Island,  i.  ch.  vi.  and  vii.;  Bryant  and  Gay's 
Carter  Brown  Library),  which  was  reissued  in  United  States,  ii.  ch.  iv. ;  George  H.  Moore's 
1649  with  the  title  changed  to  The  Danger  of  paper  on  Nathaniel  Ward  in  the  Hist.  Mag., 
tolerating  Levellers  in  a  Civill  State.  Meanwhile,  March,  1868.  There  is  a  life  of  Gorton  by 
in  1647,  on  the  other  side,  J.  Child's  New  Eng-  Mackie  in  Sparks's  American  Biography ;  and 
Itimi's  Jonas  cast  up  at  London  purports  to  re-  Charles  Deane  in  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal. 
view  the  proceedings  at  Boston  against  "divers  Reg-,  July,  1850,  goes  over  the  matter  and  gives 
honest  and  godly  persons."  It  has  been  re-  the  authorities. —  Eu.J 


172  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

against  them,  represents  him  as  a  premature  champion  of  soul-liberty, 
denying  .the  right  of  the  magistrate  beyond  civil  matters,  and  pleading  for 
the  claims  of  the  savages  above  the  King's  patent  to  the  land.  The  other 
telling  of  the  story  sets  him  forth  as  a  dangerous  enthusiast,  broaching 
opinions  which  struck  at  the  foundations  of  all  safe  authority,  and  holding 
principles  of  such  a  seditious  tendency  as  would  have  involved  the  com- 
plete wreck  of  the  enterprise  for  which  its  projectors  had  spent  and 
endured  so  much.  The  sentence  pronounced  against  him  charged  that  he 
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  here."  The  Court  forbade  his  longer  stay  within 
its  jurisdiction.  The  "  wilderness  "  into  which  he  was  banished  was  a  part 
of  the  same  sort  as  the  whole  country  at  that  time.  As  far  as  location, 
scenery,  soil,  and  surroundings  were  concerned,  he  certainly  was  the  gainer 
in  finding  a  new  home  in  Providence.  He  proved  to  be  the  first  of  a  scries 
of  stragglers,  holding  all  manner  of  eccentric  individualisms  of  opinion,  with 
"  all  sorts  of  consciences,"  who  found  a  home  there  and  in  Rhode  Island. 
Trouble  and  distraction  enough,  too,  they  had  in  settling  any  sort  of  policy 
and  society  in  their  free  State.  Between  the  range  of  diversity  in  utterance 
and  deed  there  indulged  and  allowed,  and  the  strict  uniformity  labored  for  in 
Massachusetts,  one  is  reminded  of  the  difference  between  attempting  to  cord 
up  into  a  symmetrical  pile  and  range  straight  sticks  of  wood  of  the  same 
length,  and  essaying  the  same  object  with  a  heap  of  stumps  drawn  from  the 
earth,  with  their  roots  and  prongs  projecting  at  all  angles  in  every  direction.1 

1  [Roger  Williams  and  his  controversies  have  of  the  Lambe,  1652,  which  has  also  been  reprinted 
produced  a  long  list  of  literary  illustrations,  by  the  same  club.  Further  titles  appertaining 
The  original  sources  are  found  in  Bradford's  may  be  found  in  the  Brinley  Catalogue,  and  in 
Neio  Plymouth ;  in  Winthrop's  New  England,  H.  M.  Dexter's  Bibliography  of  Congregation- 
and  in  the  latter's  papers  on  the  Baptist  con-  alism.  Professor  Tyler,  in  his  Hist,  of  American 
troversy  and  his  argument  against  Williams's  Literature,  i.  241,  takes  a  kindly  view  of  Williams 
attack  on  the  patent,  which  are  printed  in  the  in  this  matter.  The  judgment  of  him  which  is 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  February,  1873,  with  Mr.  taken  in  Mather's  Magnalia,  bk.  vii.  430,  and  in 
Deane's  examination  of  the  validity  of  the  charter  Hubbard's  New  England,  ch.  xxx.,  may  be  con- 
title  to  the  lands,  which  Williams  denied.  Also  sidered  as  emanating  from  those  who  derived 
Williams's  letters,  both  as  given  in  the  Narra-  impressions  from  a  generation  that  knew  him ; 
gansett  Club  Publications,  vi.,  and  in  the  Win-  but  the  friends  of  Williams  claim  that  they  are 
throp  papers  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  third  series,  prejudiced.  Backus's  Hist,  of  New  England, 
\\.  and  x.,  and  fourth  series,  vi.  Further,  Wil-  being  written  primarily  in  the  interests  of  the 
liams's  controversial  works,  particularly  his  Baptists,  whose  faith  Williams  later  embraced, 
Blondy  Tcnent  of  Persecution  for  Cause  of  Con-  represents  the  views  of  the  other  side.  Professor 
science,  London,  1644,  two  editions,  an  exposi-  Diman,  in  his  preface  to  Cotton's  reply  to  Wil- 
tion  and  defence  of  his  views  on  toleration.  The  liams  as  published  by  the  Narragansett  Club,  is 
original  print  is  found  in  a  few  libraries  (Har-  generally,  however,  considered  to  have  treated 
vard,  Prince,  Historical  Society,  &c.),  and  re-  the  vexed  questions  at  issue  between  Rhode 
prints  have  been  made  by  the  Hansard  Knollys  Island  and  Massachusetts  writers  with  a  good 
Society  in  1848,  and  by  the  Narragansett  Club  deal  of  candor.  Dr.  George  E.  Ellis,  in  his 
in  1867.  This  book  elicited  from  John  Cotton,  lectures  on  the  treatment  of  intruders  and  dis- 
the  Boston  minister,  his  rejoinder,  The  Blondy  sentients,  published  in  the  Hist.  Society's  Lowell 
Tenent,  Washed,  And  made  white  in  the  bloud  of  Institute  Lectures,  takes  the  same  view  as  in  the 
the  Lambe,  and  Williams  was  again  prompted  to  text.  Dr.  H.  M.  Dexter,  in  his  As  to  Roger  Wil- 
respond  in  his  Bloody  Tenent  yet  more  Bloody,  by  liams,  makes  a  very  searching  collation  of  the 
Afr.  Cotton's  Endevor  to  wash  it  white  in  the  Blood  authorities,  and  contends  that  the  banishment 


THE   PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  173 

More  serious  still,  and,  for  a  short  period  of  embittered  and  alienating 
discord  between  parties  in  Boston  almost  equally  matched  in  earnestness 
and  influence,  threatening  the  complete  and  disastrous  overthrow  of  the 
colonial  enterprise,  was  what  is  known  in  our  history  as  the  "  Antinomian 
Controversy."  There  are  some  articles  on  the  long  list  of  discovered  and 
branded  "  Heresies,"  of  which  we  may  say  that  the  worst  thing  about  them 
is  their  names,  with  the  ill  associations  which  they  have  acquired.  Among 
these  is  "  Antinomianism."  Some  of  our  readers  must  be  saved  the  trouble 
of  turning  to  the  dictionary  to  learn  what  the  word  means,  by  being  told  that 
it  signifies  a  denial  of,  or  opposition  to,  legalism,  or  a  subjection  to  the  law 
of  works  as  the  duty  of  a  Christian.  "  Antinomians  "  were  understood  to  hold 
that  one  who  believed  himself  to  be  under  a  "  covenant  of  faith"  need  not 
concern  himself  to  regard  "  the  covenant  of  works."  In  other  words,  those 
who  internally  and  spiritually  had  the  assurance  that  they  were  in  a  state  of 
"justification"  might  relieve  themselves  of  all  anxiety  as  to  their  "  sanctifi- 
cation."  It  is  easy  to  see  what  possible  mischief  of  dangerous  self-delusion 
and  utter  recklessness  about  the  demands  of  strict  virtue  and  even  common 
morality  was  wrapt  up  in  this  beguiling  heresy.  Some  private  mystical  ex- 
perience, real  or  imagined,  that  one  was  in  a  "  state  of  grace,"  might  secure 
a  discharge  from  scrupulous  fidelity  of  conduct.  Thus,  that  sad  reprobate, 
Captain  Underbill,  —  a  member  of  the  Boston  Church,  and  very  serviceable  in 
his  military  capacity, — when  detected  in  gross  immorality,  had  the  assurance 
to  tell  the  pure-hearted  Governor  Winthrop,  "  that  the  Spirit  had  sent  in  to 
him  the  witness  of  Free  Grace,  while  he  was  in  the  moderate  enjoyment  of 
the  creature  called  tobacco,"  —  that  is,  while  he  was  smoking  his  pipe. 

This  dreaded  heresy  came  to  the  stern  Puritans  of  Boston  associated  with 
grossly  licentious  professions  and  indulgences  among  fanatics  in  Germany 
and  Holland,  and  was  by  no  means  unknown  by  such  tokens  in  old  England. 
But  allowing  for  very  exceptional  cases,  like  that  of  Underbill,  no  such 
scandals  attach  to  the  names  and  conduct  of  the  Antinomians  who  were  so 
ruthlessly  dealt  with  in  Boston  in  1636.  The  most  prominent  among  the 
Antinomians  here,  —  the  one  who  "broached  the  heresy,"  and  whose  name 
is  the  synonym  of  it,  —  was  Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson,  a  pure  and  excellent 

was  for  political  reasons  chiefly;  and-  this  is  der  Congregationalisten  in  Neu  England,  and 
the  view  in  J.  A.  Vinton's  article  in  the  Congre-  Masson's  Life  and  Times  of  Milton,  iii.  S.  G. 
gational  Quarterly,  July,  1873.  Of  the  lives  of  Drake,  in  the  Hist.  Mag.,  December,  1868,  ex- 
Williams,  Knovvles's,  1834,  is  based  on  authentic  amines  the  question  of  the  authenticity  of  an 
material;  Gammell's  is  briefer  and  is  in  Sparks's  alleged  portrait  of  Williams,  which  first,  and 
A in er.  Biography;  Elton's,  1852,  brings  forward  properly,  did  service  for  Franklin  in  Watson's 
new  facts,  which  are  also  used  by  Guild  in  his  Annals  of  Philadelphia,  1830.  The  same  plate, 
introduction  to  the  Narragansett  Club  publica-  with  Williams's  name  under  it,  served  some 
tions,  1865.  The  relations  of  Williams  and  the  years  afterwards  as  his  likeness  in  the  Welsh 
Boston  authorities  are  also  discussed  more  or  less  Magazine,  published  in  New  York.  Later,  a 
fully  in  Bancroft,  i.  ch.  ix.  ;  Palfrey's  New  Eng-  painting  was  made  to  match  the  Franklin  head ; 
land,  i.  ch.  x. ;  Arnold's  Rhode  Island;  Budding-  and  this  painting  was  engraved  as  a  portrait 
ton's  First  Church  in  Charlestoum,  p.  200 ;  Felt's  of  Williams  in  Benedict's  History  of  the  Bap- 
Ecdes.  Hist,  of  N.  E.  i.  ch.  ix. ;  Sprague's  Annals  tists,  1847.  The  fraud  was  first  exposed  by 
of  the  American  Pulpit,  vi.,  &c.  For  foreign  Charles  Deane  in  the  Cambridge  Chronicle  in 
views  see  Gervinus's  introduction  to  his  History  1850.  The  painting  was  recently  in  existence 
of  the  Nineteenth  Century;  Uhden's  Geschichte  in  Roxbury.  —  ED.| 


174 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


woman,  to  whose  person  and  conduct  there  attaches  no  stain.  She  first  became 
known  for  her  kind  and  helpful  services,  friendly  and  medical,  to  her  own  sex 
in  their  needs.  She  is  described  as  a  woman  of  "  nimble  wit "  and  a  high 
spirit,  gifted  in  argument  and  ready  speech.  She  was  inquisitive  and  critical, 
— perhaps  censorious.  But  her  most  alarming  quality  was  that  she  "  vented 
her  revelations;  "  i.  e.,  in  a  form  of  prophecy  sometimes  threatening  and 
denunciatory  gave  utterance  to  forebodings  of  judgment  and  disaster  to 
come  upon  the  Colony,  as  revealed  to  her  by  special  divine  communications. 
While  no  claim  to  such  privileged  illumination  could  for  a  moment  stand 
with  the  Puritans  as  even  possible  of  proof,  the  assertion  of  it  was  of  the 
very  essence  of  fanaticism.  Yet  the  weak  and  credulous  might  be  ensnared 
by  it,  and  then  there  was  no  setting  limit  or  restraint  to  the  ruin  and  woe 
which  might  come  upon  them. 

Having  made  herself  trusted  and  esteemed  by  many  of  the  principal 
women  of  the  town,  Mrs.  Hutchinson  drew  groups  of  them  around  her  to 
discuss  the  sermons  delivered  by  the  elders.1  It  soon  appeared  that  by  her 
judgment  most  of  these  preached  a  "  covenant  of  works."  The  theme  of 
earnest  debate,  and  the  vehicle  which  it  found  in  tongues  not  always  discreet 
or  charitable,  soon  made  itself  a  power  outside  of  the  women's  meetings. 
The  spark  was  set  to  inflammable  materials.  The  whole  community  was  in 
a  fever  of  mutual  distrust,  jealousy,  and  dread  of  impending  catastrophe. 
Had  Boston  at  the  time  been  the  only  local  settlement  in  the  colony,  or 
isolated  from  connection  through  the  Court  with  others,  it  seems  as  if  its 
goodly  birth  and  hope  would  have  been  darkly  and  dismally  succeeded  by 
a  most  gloomy  blight  and  extinction.  It  was  saved  from  absolute  ruin  by 
its  neighbor  settlements,  which  had  not  been  so  stirred  by  the  matter  of  strife. 
As  the  dealings  of  the  Court  and  the  Church  with  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  her 
party  became  more  and  more  embittered  and  stern,  it  was  found  that  she 
had  a  very  strong  following.  The  two  associate  elders  Cotton  and  Wilson, 
and  the  two  Governors,  Winthrop  and  Vane,  each  respectively  took  dif- 
ferent sides  in  the  contest.  Many  of  the  principal  inhabitants  of  Boston 
warmly  espoused  the  views  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson.2  As  the  dispute  came  to 

who  had  come  over  with   Winthrop,  and   for 
some  years  had  been  a  prominent  resident  and 
merchant  of  Boston.     He  is  said  to  have  built 
the  first  brick  house  erected  in  the  town.     He 
was  dropped  from  the  government  when  Win- 
throp was  elected  over  Vane  in  their  memorable 
contest,  but  the  freemen  immediately  returned 
him  as  a  Deputy.    In  April,  1638,  he,  with  others, 
removed  to  the  island  of  Aquidneck,  and  founded 
the  State  of  Rhode  Island.     A  portrait  of  him 
hangs  in  the  Council  Chamber  at  Newport,  and 
is  engraved  in  Bryant  and  Gay's   United  States, 
ii.  44.     For  Coddington's  origin,  see  N.  E. 
I  list,  and  Geneal.  Keg.,  January,  1874,  p.  13. 
He  was  from   Lincolnshire,  and  the   Ply- 
mouth Dr.  Fuller,  in  his  letter  to  Bradford, 
calls  him  a  "  Boston  man,"  —  as  Dr.  Haven 
explains  in  his  chapter.  —  Eu.J 


1  [Mrs.   Hutchinson  lived  at,  or  rather  her 
husband's   lot   formed,  the   corner  of  the  pres- 
ent Washington  and   School  streets,  where  the 
"Old  Corner  Book-store"  stands,  nearly  oppo- 
site Governor  Winthrop's  house,  which  was  on 
the  other  side  of  Washington  Street.     William 
Aspinwall,  one   of   her  adherents,  was  a  near 
neighbor,  and  lived  on  Washington  Street,  just 
south    of    School    Street,   his    land    extending 
back  to  the  Common.      Snow,  Boston,  p.  118. 
—  ED.  | 

2  [Among  them    was   William   Coddington, 


THE    PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  175 

the  knowledge  of  the  "  common  sort  of  people,"  it  gained  new  elements  of 
fear  and  passion,  partly  because  there  were  real  elements  of  lawlessness 
involved  in  it,  and  for  the  rest  because  so  many  who  were  heated  by  the 
strife  had  really  no  intelligent  idea  of  the  terms  and  significance  of  the 
controversy,  so  that  they  could  distinguish  between  its  practical  and  its 
panic  qualities. 

The  sentence  against  Mrs.  Hutchinson  stands  thus  in  the  Court  record, 
that,  "  being  convented  for  traducing  the  ministers  and  their  ministry  in  this 
country,  she  declared  voluntarily  her  revelations  for  her  ground,  and  that 
she  should  be  delivered  and  the  Court  ruined  with  their  posterity ;  and  there- 
upon was  banished,"  &c.  The  Church  excommunicated  her  for  "  having 
impudently  persisted  in  untruth."  Two  of  her  followers  were  both  dis- 
franchised and  fined,  eight  disfranchised,  two  fined,  and  three  banished. 
Seventy-six  inhabitants  of  Boston,  in  sympathy  with  her,  were  disarmed.1 
The  reason  given  by  the  Court  for  this  last  sentence  of  disarming  was,  — 
"  as  there  is  just  cause  of  suspicion  that  they,  as  others  in  Germany,  in 
former  times,  may,  upon  some  revelation,  make  some  sudden  irruption  upon 
those  that  differ  from  them  in  judgment." 

The  special  and  distinguishing  feature,  in  the  matter  of  this  Antinomian 
controversy  as  presented  by  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  her  friends  and  opponents, 
was  that  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  penalties  of  Puritanism  were  inflicted 
in  their  full  severity  upon  members  of  their  own  community ;  most  of  them 
also  in  full  church  covenant.  Other  of  the  sufferers  by  the  Puritan  dis- 
cipline were  for  the  most  part  strangers  and  intruders,  who  had  neither  part 
nor  lot  here,  and  whose  presence  and  disturbing  influence  were  regarded 
as  simply  acts  of  effrontery  and  wanton  interference  with  what  did  not  con- 
cern them.  The  Antinomians,  so  called,  had  been  in  kindly  neighborly 
relations,  fellow-believers,  under  the  freeman's  oath  to  the  Commonwealth, 
and  bound  with  them  in  "  the  fellowship  of  the  saints."  The  more  harrowing 
and  distressing,  therefore,  was  the  antagonism  that  rose  up  between  them. 
We  apply  the  terms  "  intolerance  and  persecution  "  to  the  party  which  car- 

1  [The  lists  of  the  disarmed  and  of 
those  who  recanted,  as  shown  by  the  enu- 
meration in  Ellis's  Anne  Hutchinson  and 
in  Drake's  Boston,  embrace  some  of  the 
leading  townsmen,  a  few  of  whom  we  can 
note  with  interest  in  their  own  autographs. 
Under  hill  was  the  same  who  had  done  good 


of  Winthrop,  and  we  shall  read  more  of  him 
'n  t'ie  chapter  on  Philip's  war.  Raynsford  was 
an  elder  °f  tne  church  and  the  head  of  a  respect- 
a^'e  famil>'»  ar|d  an  island  in  the  harbor  still 
preserves  in  its  name  the  record  of  his  former 
ownership.  Aspinwall  is  a  name  not  yet  died 

service  in  the   Pequot  war.      Savage   was   the     out  among  us.      Cf.   Savage,   Genealogical  Dic- 

progenitor  of  the  late  James  Savage,  the  editor     tionary.  —  ED.] 


1 76  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

ried  with  it  the  balance  of  power.  But  the  magistrates  and  the  elders  would 
not  have  regarded  those  terms  as  fitly  characterizing  their  measures.  And 
it  might  be  questioned  which  party  was  the  more  intolerant;  for  certainly 
neither  of  them  was  tolerant.  It  was  the  dread  of  those  "  revelations  "  from 
which  there  was  no  telling  what  might  come  that  overbore  the  conflict  of 
opinions.  Though  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  ultimate  fate  in  another  colony  —  fall- 
ing with  all  her  family  save  one  child  in  an  Indian  massacre — was  most 
deplorable,  it  is  pleasant  to  know  that  most  of  those  who  suffered  with  her 
expressed  their  regret  and  penitence  and  were  restored. 

In  defending  the  order  of  the  Court  in  1637,  to  the  effect  that  "  none 
should  be  allowed  to  inhabite  here  but  by  permission  of  the  Magistrates," 
and  in  thus  vindicating  the  banishment  of  the  Antinomians,  VVinthrop  dis- 
tinctly fell  back  upon  what  he  believed  the  proprietary  right  conferred  by 
the  Charter,  previously  defined.  The  incorporators,  he  urged,  had  secured 
a  common  interest  in  land  and  goods  and  in  means  for  securing  their  own 
welfare ;  and  without  their  full  consent  no  other  person  could  claim  to  share 
in  their  privileges.  The  welfare  of  the  whole  could  not  be  hazarded  for  the 
advantage  of  any  individuals.  No  one,  without  permission  of  the  proprietors, 
could  come  on  their  soil,  take  land,  or  intermeddle  with  their  affairs.  It 
followed,  of  course,  that  the  proprietors  were  free,  and  indeed  were  bound 
to  keep  out  and  to  expel  from  their  society  any  persons  who  would  be  harm- 
ful or  ruinous  to  them.  "  A  Commonwealth,"  he  added,  "  is  a  great  family," 
and  as  such  is  not  bound  to  entertain  all  comers,  nor  to  receive  unwelcome 
strangers.  To  this  defence  Sir  Henry  Vane  wrote  a  strong  and  adroitly 
argued  answer,  but  Winthrop  backed  his  former  plea  with  a  rejoinder.  By 
the  expansion  and  warrant  of  the  liberal  views  which  we  have  reached, 
through  the  failure  of  all  restrictive  measures  for  controlling  or  suppressing 
perfect  religious  liberty,  we  should,  of  course,  assign  to  Vane  the  nobler 
argument.  But  Winthrop  had  in  view  the  security  of  an  imperilled  State, 
rather  than  restraints  on  conscience.1 

1  [The  original   authorities   of  this  contro-  growing  out  of  his  connection  with  the  synod  for 

versy  are    these:    Winthrop's   New    England,  confuting  the  heresy,  accounts  of  which  are  found 

with   Mr.    Savage's   appendix    of    papers  ;    an  in  Winthrop's  New  England,  i.  237 ;  Cotton's 

anonymous   book,   issued   in    1644   in  London,  Way   Cleared,   &c.   p.   39;    Johnson's    IVonder- 

as  Antinomians  and  Familists,   and   the   same  working  Providence;    Mather's    Magnalia,   vii. 

year   reissued  from   the   same   type,   but  with  ch.  iii.,  &c.     The  proceedings  of  the  General 

the  changed  title  of  A  short  story  of  the  Rise,  Court,  which  pronounced  banishment  upon  Mrs. 

reign,  and  mine  of  the  Antinomians,  Familists,  Hutchinson  and  Wheelwright,  are  given  in  \Vin- 

and  Libertines  that  infected  the  Churches  of  New  throp,  i.  248,  and  in  the  Records  of  Mass.  i.  207. 
England ;  and  another  edition,  the  type  new  set, 
was  issued  the  same  year.    The  order  of  these 
issues  and  the  purpose  of  the  changes  has  occa- 
sioned  some  diversity  of  opinion,  and  the  curi- 

ous  controversy  is  traced  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  Contemporary  documents  are  given  in  Hutchin- 

Harvard  College  Library,  No.  u,  p.  287.     The  son's  Collection  of  Papers,  1769,  reprinted  by  the 

Rev.  Thomas  Weld,  of  Roxbury,  furnished  a  Prince  Society,   1865.      Of  Mrs.   Hutchinson's 

preface  to  it,  and  this  has  led  Savage  and  others  trial,  the  Short  Story  account  is  not  so  full  as 

to  assign  the  authorship  of  it  to  him ;  but  Mr.  that  in  Hutchinson's  Massachusetts  Bay,  Appen- 

Deane  gives  reasons  and  proofs  for  supposing  dix.     The  Fast  Day  sermon  of  Wheelwright, 

Winthrop  to  have  been  the  main  writer  of  it,  as  for  which  he  was  adjudged  guilty  of  sedition,  is 


THE   PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  177 

The  next  class  of  persons,  in  the  character  of  heretics  or  "  troublers  of 
their  peace,"  to  receive  grievous  treatment  from  the  magistrates  of  the  Pu- 
ritan Commonwealth,  is  represented  among  us  now  by  the  denomination  of 
the  Baptists,  who  charge  themselves  with  the  grateful  obligation  of  redeem- 
ing the  memory  of  the  victims  from  reproach,  while  exposing  the  wrong  and 
cruelty  visited  upon  them.  Here,  again,  we  must  make  large  allowance  for 
the  ill  associations  connected  with  names  once  borne  by  persons  of  offensive 
antecedents  in  previous  years  and  in  other  lands,  and  for  the  dread  of  a 
repetition  here  of  deplorable  experiences  the  tale  of  which  was  to  the  Boston 
Puritans  distressing  and  horrifying.  "  Anabaptists  "  is  the  word  used  in  our 
records  to  define  this  class  of  victims.  The  prefix  Ana  to  the  name,  with  only 
which  we  are  familiar,  designates  those  who  nad  been  baptized  anew,  or  a 
second  time.  The  first  who  bore  the  name  having  been  baptized  as  in- 
fants, and  having  come  to  regard  the  rite  at  that  time  as  unscriptural,  fol- 
lowed the  rule  of  their  conscience  in  seeking  its  benefit  at  the  time  of  their 
"  conversion,"  in  mature  years,  as  a  token  of  their  Christian  profession.  Of 
course  this  repetition  of  the  rite  was  a  reflection  upon  the  way  of  those  who 
practised  infant  baptism.  The  proceedings  against  the  innovators  here  were 
instituted  just  about  the  time  when  our  rulers  were  most  perplexed  and 
dismayed  by  the  experience  already  referred  to,  namely,  the  alarming  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  persons  growing  up  in  the  colony  as  unbaptized, 
because  their  parents  were  not  members  of  a  church.  One  might  have 
supposed  that  the  principles  of  the  new  heretics  would  have  furnished  in 
some  sort  a  welcome  relief  under  that  sad  perplexity  presented  by  the 
growth  of  a  heathen  element  in  the  community.  But  "  Anabaptism  "  was  a 
word  which  brought  with  it  portentous  associations  of  fanaticism,  licentious- 
ness, and  utter  lawlessness  and  anarchy  to  the  Puritans.  Among  the  masses 

in  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  August,  1866,  with  be  named:  Samuel  Groom's  Glass  for  the  People 

a  note  by  Mr.  Deane,  and  also  in  the  Historical  of  New  England,  1676  (cf.  G.  H.  Moore  in  Hist. 

Magazine,  April,  1867,  these  following  an  ancient  Mag.  xiii.  28) ;  Ward's  Simple  Cobler  of  Agawam 

MS.,  in   the    Historical    Society's  cabinet.     An  (reprinted   in    Force's    Tracts,  iii.,   and   edited, 

early  transcript  is  preserved  among  the  Hutch-  1843,  separately,  by  D.  I'ulsifer) ;  Thomas  Shep- 

inson  papers  at  the  State   House,  and  this  is  ard's  Autobiography,  first   printed  1832,  also  in 

followed  in  C.  H.  Bell's  John  Wheelwright,  his  Young's  Chronicles  of  Mass.,  and  used  by  Cotton 

Writings,  &c.,  published  by  the   Prince  Society  Mather  in  his  Magnolia,  iii.  ch.  v.     Among  the 

in  1876;  and  in  the  memoir  attached  Mr.  Bell  later   authorities   may   be   named,  additionally, 

follows  the  controversy,  and  ascribes  to  Wheel-  Hubbarcl's  New  England  ;  Neal's  New  England, 

wright  a  reply  to  the  "Short  Story,"  which  was  1720;  C.  Chauncy's  Seasonable   Thoughts  on  the 

entitled   Mercurius  Americanns,  London,   1645,  State  of  Religion,  17 '43;  Backus's  New  England, 

which  is  reprinted  by  Bell  from  the  Harvard  Col-  1777  ;  Dawson's  Life  and  Times  of  Anne  Hutch- 

lege  copy.     Dr.  Ellis  does  not  ascribe  this  book  inson;  Anderson's  Memorable  Women  of  Puritan 

to  Wheelwright,  and  Savage  and  Felt  think  the  Times;  C.  W.  Upham's  Life  of  Sir  Henry  Vane; 

"John    Wheelwright,    junior,"   of    the    title  to  Peleg  W.  Chandler's  American  Criminal  Trials, 

mean  a  son  of  the  author  of  the  Fast-Day  ser-  i.,  for  the  legal  aspects ;  Lunt's  Two  Discourses 

mon.    There  was  a  remonstrance  of  members  of  at  Quincy,  1839;  John   A.  Vinton's  defence  of 

the  Boston  Church  against  Wheelwright's  sen-  the    prosecution    in    Congregational    Quarterly, 

tence,  and  this  is  given  in  Dr.  E.\\\s's  Life  of  Anne  April,   July,    October,    1873;    an(*   tne    general 

Hutchinson,  printed  in  Sparks's  series  of  biog-  histories  of  Bancroft,  Grahame,  Palfrey,  Barry, 

raphies,  which  gives  one  of  the  best  of  the  later  &c.     Dr.   Albro  covers   the  controversy  in  his 

accounts  of  the  controversy.     Of  other  contem-  Life  of  Thomas  Shepard,  prefixed  to  Shepard's 

porary  books  bearing  on  the  matter,  there  may  Works,  1853,  ch.  viii.  —  ED.] 
VOL.  I.  —  23. 


178  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY    OF   BOSTON. 

of  pamphlets  and  tractates  dealing  with  the  wild  sectaries  with  which  the 
time  was  so  rife  —  mentioned  on  a  previous  page  —  was  one  little  volume, 
copies  of  which  we  may  be  sure  had  found  their  way  here.  Of  one  of  these 
now  before  me  I  transcribe  the  title  :  The  Dippers  dipt,  or,  The  Anabaptists 
Duck'd  and  Plung'd  over  Head  and  Eares,  &c.  :  The  famous  History  of  the 
frantick  Anabaptists,  their  wild  Preachings  and  Practices  in  Germany,  &c. 
By  Daniel  Featley,  D.D.  London;  1651.  With  special  and  minute  detail 
in  its  repulsive  narration  it  tells  of  the  frantic  and  delirious  excitements 
wrought  among  the  peasants  by  Thomas  Muncer,  the  "  Prophet  John,"  of 
Leyden  and  other  fanatics,  —  "  an  illiterate,  sottish,  lying,  and  blasphemous 
sect,  falsely  pretending  to  divine  Visions  and  Revelations:  .  .  .  also  an  impure 
and  carnall  Sect,  a  cruell  and  bloudy  Sect,  a  prophane  and  a  sacrilegious 
Sect,  &c."  Nor  does  the  fiery  tractate  fail  to  give  illustrations  of  each  of 
these  epithets. 

This  is  a  specimen  of  the  numerous  volumes  whose  now  time-stained 
paper  was  fresh  and  white  as  read  by  the  Boston  Puritans,  and  when  in- 
stead of  lifeless  ashes  the  pages  glowed  with  fire.  The  word  "  Anabap- 
tists," to  those  who  put  it  into  our  Court  records,  was  one  to  them  thus 
weighted  with  dread  and  dismay  and  horror.  Happily  they  had  no  answer- 
ing experience  of  the  sort  even  from  the  most  heated  of  the  zealots  with 
whom  they  .dealt  under  that  name.  Cotton  Mather  wrote,  "  many  of  the 
first  settlers  in  Massachusetts  were  Baptists,  and  they  were  as  holy,  and 
watchful,  and  fruitful  and  heavenly  a  people  as.  any  perhaps  in  the  world." 
There  was  no  complaint,  no  interference  with  any  individuals  espousing  the 
Baptist  principles,  until  they  denounced  the  doctrine  and  practice  of  Infant 
Baptism,  threatened  divisions  in  the  churches,  and  set  up  separate  conventi- 
cles. Dunster,  the  President  of  the  College,  was  proceeded  with  and  dis- 
placed only  because  of  an  offensive  obtrusion  of  his  principles.  The  Court 
Record,  under  date  of  May,  1646,  states  that  at  the  County  Court  at  Salem, 
the  previous  year,  William  Witter  of  Lynn  was  presented  by  the  grand  jury 
for  saying  "  that  they  who  stayed  whiles  a  child  is  baptised  doe  worshipp 
the  devil."  Nor  would  he  atone  for  this  grievous  affront.  It  is  alleged 
that  Witter  was  a  member  of  the  Baptist  Church  at  Newport,  though  living 
at  what  is  now  Swampscott,  and  that  being  infirm  and  having  sought  the 
sympathy  of  his  brethren,  two  of  them,  Holmes  and  Crandall,  with  the  Pas- 

tor, Clarke,  had  come  to  pay 

^'m  a  religi°us  visit,  in   1651. 

Arriving    on    Saturday   even- 

0  *J  x?  ing,  they  held  a  separate  relig- 

jfl£,     0Trlr&**  —  ious  service  in  W'itter's  house 

£        r^V  on  Sunday,  inviting  in  a  few 

neighbors.  Witter  was  then 
under  censure  of  the  Court  for  having  called  infant  baptism  "a  badge  of  the 
whore."  Boston  had  had  previous  trouble  with  these  visitors.  Holmes 
was  "  excommunicate,"  and  they  came  into  the  jurisdiction  at  their  own 


/lAvr'F 


THE    PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  179 

peril,  adding  to  their  offence  by  holding  a  separate  conventicle.  The  in- 
truders were  arrested,  and  being  compelled  against  their  will  to  attend  the 
public  meeting  in  the  afternoon,  they  behaved  unseemly.  They  contrived 
to  hold  another  meeting  at  Witter's  the  next  day.  The  Court  sentenced 
the  offenders  to  pay  respectively  a  fine  of  five,  twenty,  and  in  the  case  of 
Holmes,  thirty  pounds,  "  or  to  be  well  whipped."  The  fines  of  Crandall 
and  Clarke  were  paid,  against  their  wishes,  by  friends.  Holmes,  not  allow- 
ing this  in  his  own  case,  was  cruelly  whipped.  He  had  previously  been 
in  trouble  in  Plymouth,  and  was  regarded  as  a  nuisance  here.  The  of- 
fences charged  on  the  records  of  the  Court  against  Clarke,  Crandall,  and 
Holmes  are  as  follows :  for  being  "  at  a  Private  Meeting  at  Lin,  upon  the 
Lord's  day,  exercising  among  themselves ;  ...  for  offensively  disturbing  the 
peace  of  the  Congregation  at  their  coming  into  the  Publique  Meeting,"  — 
which,  however,  they  were  forced  to  attend ;  "  for  saying  and  manifesting 
that  the  church  of  Lin  was  not  constituted  according  to  the  order  of  the 
Lord,"  &c.  There  was  also  a  "  suspition  of  having  their  hands  in  the  re- 
baptising  of  one,  or  more,  among  us." 

So  far  from  regarding  themselves  as  "  persecutors  "  in  thus  dealing  with 
Baptists,  our  authorities  maintained  that  they  were  but  simply  and  rightfully 
defending  their  own  most  precious  religious  principles  "and  institutions  from 
reproach  and  contempt  by  contumelious  strangers.  In  1644  they  had  by  a 
law  sentenced  to  banishment  all  persons  who  "  shall  either  openly  condemn 
or  oppose  the  baptising  of  infants,  or  go  about  secretly  to  seduce  others 
from  the  approbation  or  use  thereof,  or  shall  purposely  depart  the  congre- 
gation at  the  administration  of  the  ordinance,  or  shall  deny  the  ordinance  of 
magistracy,  &c."  There  had  been  an  earnest  "  Petition  and  Remonstrance  " 
against  this  law ;  but  it  stood  in  force.  The  consequence  was  that  if  any 
person  in  a  congregation  flouted  at  the  ordinance  of  infant-baptism,  or  walked 
out  when  it  was  to  be  observed,  he  was  proceeded  against,  and  if  under  cove- 
nant might  be  excommunicated.  And  then,  if  those  who  had  been  excom- 
municated set  up  a  "  conventicle  "  of  their  own,  they  committed  another 
grievous  trespass.  It  is  a  sad  story.  Most  pure  and  excellent  and  otherwise 
inoffensive  persons  were  the  sufferers,  and  generally  patient  ones.  But  the 
struggle  was  a  brief  one.  The  Baptists  conquered  in  it,  and  came  to  equal 
esteem  and  love  with  their  brethren.  Their  fidelity  was  one  of  the  needful 
and  effective  influences  in  reducing  the  equally  needful  but  ineffective  in- 
tolerance of  the  Puritan  Commonwealth. 

Of  the  then  new  outburst  of  heresy  exemplified  by  those  who  "  in  con- 
tempt were  called  Quakers  "  the  magistrates  and  elders  of  Massachusetts 
had  heard,  to  their  dread  and  horror,  as  causing  an  "  intense  stir"  in  England, 
nearly  ten  years  before  any  one  of  them  appeared  in  this  colony.  To 
the  Puritan  exiles  their  speech  and  behavior  marked  them  as  fanatics  of  the 
wildest,  most  reckless,  and  pernicious  sort.  They,  too,  had  "  illuminations," 
"  inspirations,"  and  "  revelations,"  the  impulses  and  directions  of  which  they 
implicitly  followed ;  and,  what  to  the  Puritan  turned  even  their  sweetest  and 


l8o  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

most  edifying  rhapsodies  into  "  ravings  and  blasphemies,"  they  assigned  to 
the  "impellings  of  the  spirit"  in  them  an  authority  above  that  of  ''the  written 
Word."  It  will  always  be  a  stumbling-block  to  the  unskilled  student  of  our 
history  that  the  term  "  Quaker,"  borne  for  the  last  two  centuries  on  this 
continent,  as  elsewhere,  by  a  fellowship  of  men  and  women  eminent  for  the 
quietude  and  loveliness  of  their  graces  and  virtues,  should  have  come  into 
our  local  annals  first  as  designating  the  offenders  against  charity,  modera- 
tion, justice,  and  decency  who  were  dealt  with  here  from  1656  to  six  years 
onward.  The  Boston  magistrates,  being  well-informed  about  the  notions 
and  doings  of  the  "  Ranters  "  in  the  mother  country,  dreaded  a  visit  from 
them  with  as  much  dismay  as  that  which  apprehended  the  first  coming 
hither  of  the  cholera.  There  were  many  letters  of  warning  received  here, 
like  one  addressed  two  years  before  the  first  of  the  sect  reached  Boston  to 
President  Dunster  of  the  College,  containing  such  sentences  as  these :  "  A 
sect  called  Quakers  doe  much  increase  rayleing  much  att  the  ministry  and 
refuseing  to  sho  any  reverence  to  magestrates.  We  hope  they  wilbe  con- 
founded and  ashamed  off  their  Tenetts ;  butt  I  could  desire  thatt  some 
stricter  course  were  taken  than  is."  l  Travelling  from  place  to  place,  the 
widest  journeyings,  even  beyond  the  limits  of  Christendom,  "  under  the 
leadings  of  the  Lord,"  with  special  illumination  as  to  the  testimonies  they 
should  bear,  was  the  mission  of  these  enthusiasts.  As  they  swayed  and 
shivered  under"  the  pent  fires  of  their  inspiration,  they  received  in  contumely 
the  name  of  "  Quakers."  The  prophet  trembling  from  head  to  foot  under  his 
own  burden  of  spirit  often  acted  as  a  battery  on  those  who  listened  to  and 
looked  on  him.  It  can  hardly  be  considered  strange  that  the  Puritan  folk,  in- 
disposed to  take  the  word  of  these  Quakers  as  to  their  special  illumination  and 
inspiration  in  uttering  divine  rebukes  and  warnings,  regarded  them  simply 
as  nuisances  and  firebrands.  Their  objurgatory  denunciation  of  magistrates 
and  ministers ;  their  bitter  revilings ;  their  contempt  of  preaching  and  ordi- 
nances ;  their  dismal  prophesying  of  awful  divine  judgments  to  come  upon 
the  colony  in  the  black  pox,  in  pestilences  and  all  dreaded  calamities;  and 
their  unseemly  and  indecent  behavior,  designed  to  have  a  symbolic  mean- 
ing, —  exasperated  those  whom  they  denounced,  beyond  the  limits  of  pa- 
tient endurance.  Just  a  fortnight  before  the  first  two  Quakers  arrived  in 
the  Bay  a  Fast  Day  had  been  observed  in  the  colony,  in  dread  of  them 
among  other  troubles. 

They  were  all  of  them  of  low  rank,  of  mean  breeding,  and  illiterate.  A 
magistrate,  in  rebuking  one  of  them,  told  him  that  if  he  was  under  "  inspir- 
ation "  he  ought  at  least  to  use  good  grammar,  "  for  Balaam's  ass  did  that." 
Yet  we  may  wonder  whether  the  thought  ever  occurred  to  one  of  the  Puri- 
tans, stung  and  goaded  by  the  objurgations  and  indecency  of  the  Quakers, 
that  the  wildest  of  them  said  nothing  and  did  nothing  for  which  he  had  not 
the  full  warrant  and  example  —  in  denunciatory  speech  and  in  symbolic 
meaning  of  the  act  of  throwing  off  clothing  and  smearing  the  person  —  of 

1  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  ii.  195. 


THE   PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  l8l 

one  or  another  of  the  Old  Testament  Prophets.  Of  these  heaven-prompted 
and  heaven-guided  rebukers  of  sin  and  prophets  of  righteousness  the  Pur- 
itan read  in  his  Bible  with  awe-stricken  reverence.  But  a  strict  and  exact 
imitation  of  them,  in  testimony  and  in  uttering  the  "  Burden  of  the  Lord," 
roused  the  Puritan  to  anger  and  scorn.  And  why  should  it  not  have  done  so? 
The  Puritans  sincerely  believed  that  they  had  come  here  under  Divine  guid- 
ance by  a  holy  covenant  to  plant  a  city  of  God  in  the  wilderness.  The  first 
generation  of  their  seed  was  growing  up  under  stern  discipline.  It  was  hardly 
reasonable  to  ask  them  to  believe  also  that  God  was  following  them  up  to 
thwart  and  overwhelm  them  by  sending  in  among  them  a  company  of  erratic 
prophets,  to  revile  them  with  all  manner  of  invectives  and  reproaches  against 
magistrates  and  churches,  and  with  awful  denunciations  of  judgments  and 
catastrophes.  This  dread  experience  would  be  a  repetition  to  them  of  what 
they  read  in  the  Gospel  narrative,  that  "  Jesus  was  led  up  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
into  the  wilderness  to  be  put  to  trial  by  the  Evil  Spirit."  Nor  was  it  of  any 
use  to  quote  Scripture  to  the  Quakers,  or  to  remind  them  of  the  Master's 
direction  to  those  whom  he  sent  on  his  work,  "  that  if  they  were  persecuted 
in  one  place  they  should  flee  to  another."  This  was  the  very  thing  the 
Quakers  would  not  do.  They  insisted  upon  being  persecuted  by  staying 
where  they  knew  they  would  be  persecuted,  and  by  returning  over  and  over 
again  if  forcibly  driven  out.  The  Puritan  being  the  extremest  literalist  in 
the  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  with  no  skill  or  fancy  in  catching  from  it  the 
gleams  and  enlargings  of  high  spiritual  insight,  through  which,  not  infre- 
quently, an  illiterate  Quaker  would  soar  into  realms  of  the  loftiest  and  sere- 
nest  truth,  would  turn  away  his  ear  from  listening  to  what  to  him  was  blas- 
phemy. The  Quaker,  in  his  turn,  was  stiffened  into  reproach  and  daring 
defiance,  by  which  he  made  himself  an  equally  tormenting  and  damaging 
foe  as  he  would  have  been  if  the  energy  and  spite  which  he  threw  into  his 
words  had  gone  into  his  muscles  and  fists  as  a  pugilist.  Perhaps  an  ordinary 
reader  of  the  minute  details  of  the  antagonism  between  our  original  Puritan- 
ism and  Quakerism  would  find  himself  alternating  between  an  amused  feel- 
ing over  the  ludicrous  incidents  in  the  conflict,  and  pangs  of  profound  regret 
over  the  wrong  and  passion  which  it  involved.  The  issue  presented  seemed 
to  have  a  resemblance  to  the  mechanical  problem  of  what  will  be  the  effect 
if  an  irresistible  body  strikes  an  immovable  body.  The  Quakers,  either  of 
set  purpose,  or  by  the  consistent  working  out  of  the  mission  to  which  they 
believed  themselves  divinely  called,  planted  themselves  on  the  resolve  that, 
through  whatever  penalties  of  punishment,  pain  or  death,  the  faithful  dis- 
charge of  their  duty  should  lead  them,  they  would  break  down  the  intolerant 
spirit  of  Puritanism.  Not  till  they  had  done  that  would  they  keep  silence 
from  prophesying,  or  care  much  about  selecting  soft  and  gentle  terms  of 
utterance,  or  for  staidness  and  inoffensiveness  of  demeanor.  Candor  will 
hardly  go  wide  astray  in  judgment,  if,  using  the  light  of  those  times  to  see 
by,  and  having  in  view  the  actual  circumstances  and  the  relations  of  parties, 
the  blame  and  censure  for  what  was  done  be  equally  apportioned  between 


1 82  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

them.  The  crowning  folly  or  iniquity  in  the  course  of  the  Puritans  was  in 
following  up  their  penal  inflictions,  through  banishments,  imprisonments, 
fines,  scourgings,  and  mutilations,  to  the  execution  on  the  gallows  of  four 
martyr  victims.  But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  persistency,  the  exasperating 
contemptuousness  and  defiance,  the  goading,  maddening  obstinacy,  and 
reproaching  invectives  of  those  who  drove  the  magistrates,  against  their  will, 
to  vindicate  their  own  insulted  authority  and  to  stain  our  annals  with  in- 
nocent blood?  Cotton  Mather  called  them  an  "  enchanted  people." 

The  writer  of  these  pages,  after  an  exhaustive  study  of  this  episode 
of  our  history  for  another  purpose,  has  been  led  to  adopt  this  view  of  the 
equal  folly  and  culpability  of  both  parties  in  this  dire  tragedy.1  Calm  self- 
possession,  indifference,  or  an  exercise  of  patience  on  the  part  of  the 
magistrates  on  the  first  appearance  of  these  enthusiasts,  or  a  forbearing, 
considerate,  and  gentle  method  adopted  by  those  who  believed  they  had  a 
divine  mission  to  discharge,  would  have  averted  the  catastrophe.  But  these 
were  the  very  graces  and  qualities  which  were  on  either  side  the  most  lack- 
ing. The  authentic  reports  of  "  the  ravings  and  blasphemies  "  associated 
with  the  "  Ranters  "  in  Old  England  made  the  magistrates  alarmed  by  the 
exposure  of  their  colony  to  peculiar  perils  from  the  presence  of  such  an 
exciting  and  mischievous  element,  when  it  should  manifest  itself  here. 
They  were  well  aware  that  they  had  among  their  restless  spirits  inflamma- 
able  material,  and  men  and  women  whose  Puritan  and  Biblical  training  had 
quickened  them  to  an  alert  and  inquisitive  interest  in  controversy,  specula- 
tion, and  pious  mysticisms.  Their  worst  fears  were  realized  when  they 
found  that  the  Quaker  spirit  was  contagious  and  catching  among  a  class 
of  their  own  citizens.  Indeed,  it  appears  from  the  legislation  and  pro- 
ceedings of  the  authorities  against  the  avowed  Quakers,  that  their  intent 
was  as  much  or  more  to  prevent  the  dissemination  of  their  notions  as  to 
visit  penalties  upon  the  original  utterers  of  them.  The  fervid  "testimonies" 
and  the  stinging  objurgations  screamed  out  by  the  Quakers  as  they  were 
led  along  the  streets,  or  as  they  burst  upon  the  assembly  in  the  meeting- 
house, or  engaged  the  ears  of  passers-by  from  between  the  bars  of  their 
prisons,  were  sure  of  meeting  sympathy,  secret  or  avowed,  from  occa- 
sional witnesses ;  and  this  sympathy  was  often  made  deep  and  tender  by  the 
passive  submissiveness  and  gentleness  of  the  sufferers  under  barbarous  cru- 
elties. The  magistrates  being  on  the  alert  for  the  intrusion  of  these  dreaded 

1  [There  were  certainly  some,  though  few,  years  after  the  decease  of  Cotton,  had  come  from 

among  the  principal  people  who  saw  clearer  than  Ipswich  to  be  his  successor  in  the  First  Church, 

the  rest  what  intolerance  was  accomplishing.  1656)  had  certainly  removed  one  who  exercised  a 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  who  watched  the  course  baleful  influence  in  the  direction  of  intolerance, 

of  events  after  his  return  to  England,  addressed  He  died  of  apoplexy,  and  the  friends  of  the  Quak- 

a  manly  letter  of  remonstrance  to  the  two  teach-  ers,  after  the  fashion  of  the  day,  pronounced  it  a 

ers  of  the  Boston  First  Church.  Bond,  Water-  judgment  of  the  Lord.  The  entry  in  the  Roxbury 

town,  ii-4i6;  Hutchinson,  Papers,  p.  401 ;  Backus,  church  records  of  his  sudden  death  is  given  in 

New  England,  i.  245.  the  JV.  E.  Hist,  and  Getieal.  Keg.,  January,  1880, 

7"  ^n  J*C(ffll>H  The  death,  in  1663,  of  p.  89,  and  in  July,  1859,  an  early  pedigree  owned 

John  Norton  (who,  four  by  Prof.  C.  E.  Norton  of  Cambridge  —  En.] 


THE    PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH. 


'83 


fanatics,  easily  rid  themselves  of  the  first  of  the  sort,  as  they  arrived  by 
sea.  They  were  retained  on  shipboard ;  and  the  masters  of  vessels  who 
brought  them  hither  were  compelled,  under  penalty,  to  carry  them  away. 


SIR   RICHARD    SALTONSTALL.1 


1  |  The  present  representative  of  the  family, 
Leverett  Sallonstall,  Esq.,  kindly  furnished  a 
photograph  of  the  original  portrait  of  his  an- 
cestor by  Rembrandt,  from  which  this  engraving 
is  taken.  It  is  in  his  possession.  There  are 
copies  of  it  in  the  gallery  of  the  Historical  So- 
ciety and  in  Memorial  Hall  at  Cambridge.  It 


has  been  engraved  on  steel  in  Drake's  Boston, 
p.  122,  and  elsewhere.  Saltonstall  came  over 
with  Winthrop,  but  returned  to  England  the 
next  year.  He  was  born  in  1586,  and  died  about 
1658.  The  family  descent  is  followed  in  the  N. 
E.  Hist,  and  Geiteal.  Reg.,  1847;  Bond's  Water 
tmvit  ;  and  Drake's  Boston,  p.  68.  —  ED. 


184  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

•» 

But  very  soon  the  pertinacious  troublers  found  an  access  into  the  jurisdic- 
tion from  Rhode  Island,  —  that  harborage  of  all  sorts  of  persons  "  unset- 
tled in  judgement."  Well  would  it  have  been  for  our  magistrates  if  they 
had  followed  a  hint  conveyed  to  them,  with  sly  humor,  in  the  shrewd  and 
sagacious  reply  of  the  authorities  of  Rhode  Island  to  a  request  sent  to  them 
from  Massachusetts  for  co-operating  measures  of  repression  and  punish- 
ment against  the  Quakers.  The  answer  was,  that  they  had  found  that  the 
Quakers  were  a  sort  of  people  that  did  affect  persecution ;  that  they  lived 
by  inviting  and  provoking  it;  and  that  they  had  already  come  to  loathe 
Rhode  Island  because  they  were  allowed  full  liberty  to  vent  their  prophecy- 
ings  and  revelations.  But,  most  unfortunately,  our  authorities  thought  and 
acted  differently.  They  steadily  pursued  a  course  of  increased  severity  and 
harshness  in  the  penalties  denounced  and  inflicted  by  their  laws,  —  though 
always  ready  and  willing  to  suspend  them,  if  the  offenders  would  go  away 
and  stay  away.  But  this  was  the  very  thing  the  Quakers,  in  avowed  fidelity 
to  conscience  and  their  mission,  would  not  do.  It  would  be  a  weak  and 
fatal  concession  to  the  fear  of  man,  and  a  timid  surrender  of  their  solemn 
trust.  Their  patient  resolve  of  spirit  and  their  bitterness  and  provocative- 
ness  of  speech  and  behavior  were  alike  stiffened  and  aggravated.  They 
denounced  the  ministers  as  "  Baal's  priests;  "  "  the  seed  of  the  Serpent;  " 
"  the  brood  of  Ishmael,"  &c.  Here  is  a  description  drawn  by  one  of  them 
of  a  church  member:  — 

"  A  man  that  hath  a  covetous  and  deceitful  rotten  heart,  lying  lips,  which  abound 
among  them,  and  a  smooth,  fawning,  flattering  tongue,  and  short  hair,  and  a  deadly  en- 
mity against  those  that  are  called  Quakers  and  others  that  oppose  their  wayes,  —  such 
a  hypocrite  is  a  fit  man  to  be  a  member  of  any  N.  England  church."  l 

The  Thursday  lecture  in  Boston  was  a  solemn  occasion,  which  drew  the 
magistrates  and  people  to  listen  to  the  words  of  their  preacher.  One  may 
well  imagine  the  consternation  and  rage  attendant  upon  this  incident,  as 
related  in  one  of  the  Quakers'  Journals :  — 

"  13th  of  2d  Month,  1658.  Sarah  Gibbins  and  Dorothy  Waugh  spoke  at  Lector. 
Death  fed  Death,  through  the  painted  sepulchre  John  Norton  "  1  [the  minister]. 

The  women  proceeded  to  break  two  bottles  over  his  head,  "  as  a  sign  of 
his  emptiness." 
And  again :  — 

"  J.  Rons  and  H.  Norton  were  moved  to  go  to  the  great  meeting-house  at  Boston 
upon  one  of  their  Lector  days,  where  we  found  John  Norton  their  teacher  set  up,  who 
like  a  babling  Pharisee  run  over  a  vain  repetition  near  an  hour  long,  like  an  impudent 
smooth  fac'd  harlot,  who  was  telling  her  Paramoors  a  long  fair  story  of  her  husband's 
kindness,  while  nothing  but  wantonness  and  wickedness  is  in  her  heart,"  &C.1 

1  From  a  Quaker's  journal,  New  England's  Ensigne,  &c.,  copied  by  the  writer  from  the 
original  in  the  British  Museum. 


THE   PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  185 

It  may  readily  be  allowed  that  the  magistrates  and  ministers  were,  by  no 
rule  of  reason  or  religion,  under  obligation  to  subject  themselves  to  such 
effrontery  and  insult  as  this.  And  when  such  wild  enthusiasts,  generally 
women,  appeared  in  the  streets  and  meeting-houses  in  a  state  of  nudity,  or 
in  ghostly  sheets,  with  their  faces  smeared  with  black  paint,  "prophetically," 
the  fright  and  horror  of  the  spectacle  might  well  justify  the  severest  meas- 
ures to  prevent  its  repetition.  Among  a  people  under  the  cloud  of  many 
superstitions  and  dreads,  such  exhibitions  were  portentous  in  causing  hys- 
terical shocks  and  agonizing  fears.  Even  about  the  beginning  of  the  next 
century,  Judge  Sewall  records  the  dismay  and  panic  caused  by  the  rushing 
in  of  such  Quaker  prophets  into  the  assembly  of  the  South  Church.  The 
magistrates  of  the  earlier  period,  while  personally  exasperated  almost 
beyond  endurance,  felt  themselves  stirred  by  the  obligations  of  their  trust 
to  punish  such  desperate  offenders.  Leniency  and  tolerance,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, would  have  seemed  to  them  a  crime.  Even  the  gentle-spirited 
Roger  Williams,  under  a  sore  trial  of  his  patience  by  the  Quakers,  allowed 
himself  to  write  of  them :  "  They  are  insufferably  proud  and  contemptuous. 
I  have,  therefore,  publicly  declared  myself  that  a  due  and  moderate  re- 
straint and  punishment  of  these  incivilities,  though  pretending  conscience, 
is  so  far  from  persecution,  properly  so  called,  that  it  is  a  duty  and  com- 
mand of  God  unto  all  mankind,  first  in  Families,  and  thence  into  all 
mankinde  Societies."  * 

Somewhere  beneath  the  soil  of  Boston  Common  lie  the  ashes  of  four 
so-called  Quakers,  —  three  men  and  one  woman,  —  who  were  cast  into  their 
rude  graves  after  they  had  been  executed  on  the  gallows,  between  the 
years  1659  and  i66i.2  This  death  penalty  was  the  culmination  of  the  suc- 

1  George  Fox  digged  out  of  his  Bnrrowes.  execution  drew   not    a  few   Quakers    into    the 
There  is  a  witticism  in  this  title,  referring  to  Bur-  town,  "bringing    linen    wherein    to    wrap    the 
roughs,  the  companion  and  co-preacher  with  Fox.  dead  bodies,"  and  "  to  look  the  bloody  laws  in 
[Coddington,  who  had  been  a  Boston  merchant,  the  face."     There  is  in  the  Mass.  Archives,  x., 
having  become  one  of  the  founders  of  Rhode  a  characteristic  letter  addressed  to  the  Governor 
Island,  was  chosen  its   Governor,  and  adopted 

the  tenets  of  the  Quakers.     He  took  exception  ss 

to  Williams's   course   in   his  controversy  with  f/f/fl 

Fox,  and  wrote  a  letter  to  Governor  Leverett, 

complaining  of  the  countenance  he  had  given 

to  Williams.     Leverett  wrote  a  reply. 

Neither  of  these  letters  is  known  to  . 

be  extant.    Williams,  having  seen  this        JL  r                    ^7\.       _     ^.       7)^*-            _ 

correspondence,  wrote  an  "Answer,"   Qjofrffft—     2.  (      &fl    "V      /{/    •       f  L     /-^~ 

which    was     printed    in    Boston    by  "                                                   ' 

John  Foster.       This  has  been  reprinted  in  the  from  two  women,  and  dated  "  from  your  house 

R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.  1875-76.     There  are  letters,  of    correction,   where    we    have    been    unjustly 

&c.,  of  Williams's  in  Ibid.  1877-78.  —  ED.]  restrained."     It  was  on  the  occasion  of  this  ex- 

2  [The  crowd  of  North-enders  was  so  great  ecution  that  Mary  Dyer  sat  on  the  gallows  with 
returning  from  two  of  these  executions,  Oct.  27,  a  rope  about  her  neck  while  the  others  were 
1659,  when  William  Robinson  and  Marmaduke  swung  off.     She  was  sent  out  of  the  jurisdiction, 
Stevenson  were  hung,   that  the  drawbridge  on  but,  returning  the  next  June,  finally  suffered  the 
Ann  Street  (now  North  Street),  over  the  canal  last  penalty.     There  is  in  the  Mass.  Archives,  x., 
which   made    the   North    End    an    island,  fell  a  petition  from  her  husband,  W.  Dyer,  asking 
through  under  the  weight.     Strange  to  say,  the  that  his  wife  may  be  spared.     Dr.  Ellis  prints  it 

VOL.  I.  —  24. 


1 86 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


cessive  inflictions  to  which  Puritan  legislation  vainly  had  recourse  to  be  rid 
of  an  intolerable  plague.  It  was  denounced  upon  such  as,  returning  a  fourth 
time  after  punishment  and  banishment,  refused,  even  when  on  the  gallows, 
to  keep  their  lives  on  condition  that  they  would  not  again  obtrude  them- 
selves where  they  were  so  unwelcome.  Their  refusal  to  comply  with  this 
condition  convinced  the  magistrates,  who  "  desired  their  lives  absent  rather 
than  their  deaths  present,"  that  "  they  courted  death  and  thrust  themselves 
upon  it."  Some  readers  may  find  relief  in  the  fact  that,  even  after  the  long 
trial  of  the  patience  of  the  magistrates,  the  infliction  of  the  death  penalty 
was  effected  only  by  the  vote  of  a  bare  majority  of  the  Court,  and  was  most 
vehemently  opposed  by  earnest  remonstrances  from  some  of  the  best  peo- 
ple.1 Our  historian,  Hutchinson,  rightly  balances  "  the  strange  delusion 
the  Quakers  were  under  in  courting  persecution,  and  the  imprudence  of  the 
authorities  in  gratifying  this  humor  as  far  as  their  utmost  wishes  could  carry 
them."  One  may  all  the  more  regret  the  heady  temper,  the  rancor,  and 
the  violence  shown  on  either  side,  because  the  parties  were  so  admirably 

in  his  Lowell  lecture  on  "  The  Treatment  of  In-     Hist,  and  Geneal.  Keg.  v.  465 ;   Drake's  Boston, 
truders  and  Dissentients,"  p.  123.     Her  story  is     p.  345.  An  account  of  Upsall,  with  a  view  of  the 
told  in  Anderson's  Memorable  Women  of  Puritan 
Times.      A    posthumous   tract  by   Marmaduke 
Stevenson,  entitled  A  Call  from  Death  to  Life, 
London,  1660,  is  one  of  the  rarities  of  Americana. 


Cf.  Mcnzies  Catalogue,  No.  1,903,  and  Brinley 


stone  on  his  grave  in  the  Copp's  1 1  ill 
i^   burial-ground,  is  given  in  the    N. 
E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Keg.,  January, 
1880.     There  is  in  the  Mass.  Ar- 
chives, x.,  a  petition  from  his  wife 
Dorothy,    his    son-in-law    William 
Greenough,  and  Upsall's  children, 
asking  for  the  revoking  of  the  decree  of  banish- 
ment.   The  Court  refused  it.     Mr.  Rowland  II. 
Allen,  in  his  New  England  Tragedies  in  Prose, 


Catalogue,  No.  3,571.  It  has  appended  to  it  two 
letters  from  Peter  Pearson,  giving  "  a  brief  re- 
lation of  the  manner  of  the  martyrdom "  of 
Stevenson  and  Robinson.  It  is  noted  in  the 
Sewall  Papers,  5.  82,  91,  that  in  1685  the  Quak- 
ers asked  permission  "to  enclose  the  ground 
the  hanged  Quakers  are  buried  in,  under  or  near 
the  gallows,  with  pales."  It  was  denied  "  as  very 
inconvenient ;  "  but  nevertheless  a  "  few  feet  of 
ground  was  enclosed  with  boards."  —  Eo.J 

1  [Longfellow  makes  the  Governor  express 
this  aversion  in  his  John  Endicott: — 

"  Four  already  have  been  slain  ; 
And  others  banished  upon  pain  of  death. 
But  they  come  back  again  to  meet  their  doom, 
Bringing  the  linen  for  their  winding  sheets. 
We  must  not  go  too  far.     In  truth  I  shrink 
From  shedding  of  more  blood.    The  people  murmur 
At  our  severity." 

But  Endicott  was  the  most  bitter  and  persistent 
advocate  of  extreme  measures.  The  Nicholas 
Upsall  of  this  tragedy,  who  was  imprisoned  and 
banished  for  harboring  Quakers,  was  a  veritable 
citizen,  whose  blood  still  runs  among  us.  N.  E. 


Boston,  1869,  has  followed  out  the  historical  in- 
cidents which  Longfellow  weaves  into  his  plot. 
Hawthorne  uses  these  Quaker  persecutions  as 
the  basis  of  his  "  Gentle  Boy,"  —  one  of  his  Twice 
Told  Tales.  —  Ei).| 


THE   PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH. 


I87 


qualified  for  testing  their  issues  by  disputation  and  the  tongue.  Richard 
Baxter  foiled  the  weapon  of  one  very  persistent  Quaker,  who  had  been 
arguing  that  all  men  were  illumined  by  the  inner  light,  by  asking  the 
question,  "If  all  have  it,  why  may  not  I  have  it?" 

What  would  have  been  the  final  working  out  of  the  pitched  conflict 
between  Quaker  contumacy  and  Puritan  persistency,  had  they  been  left  to 
the  action  of  their  own  energies  without  the  intervention  of  an  external 
mediating  agency,  it  would  hardly  have  been  difficult  for  any  but  the  most 
resolute  and  stern  of  the  magistrates  to  have  forecast.  The  Quakers  would 
have  conquered  by  simple  endurance.  Their  weapons  were  what  in  the 
immediate  future  were  to  be  recognized  as  vital  and  effective  truths.  But 
one  of  the  sufferers  having  gone  to  England  and  gained  access  to  Charles 
II.  brought  back  from  the  monarch  a  peremptory  command  that  the  death 
penalty  against  the  Quakers  should  be  no  more  inflicted,  and  that  those  who 
were  under  judgment  or  in  prison  should  be  sent  to  England  for  trial.2  The 
King's  interference  with  the  stern  rule  of  the  Puritan  Commonwealth  also 
involved  the  immediate  removal  of  the  restriction  of  the  franchise  to  church- 
members,  and  its  extension  to  all  citizens  who  were  in  other  respects  entitled 
to  it.  The  Court,  however,  managed  to  evade  the  concession  here  required 
of  them,  by  substituting  conditions  which  substantially  retained  the  rigid 


1  [It  is  not  worth  while  here  to  follow  out 
the  bibliographical  intricacies  of  the  literature 
of  these  Quaker  persecutions.  The  reader  is 
referred  to  Dr.  H.  M.  Dexter's  Bibliography  of 
Congregationalism ;  J.  Smith's  Catalogue  of 
Friends'  Books  ;  and  some  of  the  rarer  books 
noted  in  the  Brinley  Catalogue,  ii.  100.  Of  the 
older  books,  G.  Bishop's  New  England  Judged, 
Part  I.,  1661,  and  Part  II.,  1667,  —  both  parts 
with  additions,  1703,  of  which  a  copy,  with  many 
other  of  the  Quaker  productions,  is  in  the  pos- 
session of  Dr.  Ellis,  —  puts  the  Quakers'  side, 
while  the  Boston  minister, .  John  Norton,  on 
whom  the  burden  of  the  unhappy  conflict  fell, 
in  behalf  of  the  churches  offered  their  apology 
in  his  Heart  of  New  England  rent  at  the  Blas- 
phemies of  the  Present  Generation,  Cambridge, 
1659,  —  a  book  published  by  authority  and  at 
the  public  charge,  and  for  which  the  Court  made 
him  a  grant  of  land.  Not  much  reading  on  either 
side  is  edifying,  and  the  joint  production  of  John 
Kous  and  others,  New  England  a  Degenerate 
/'/iiiif,  London,  1659,  is  worth  attention  chiefly 
for  its  record  of  the  laws  and  proceedings  of  the 
colonies  against  the  Quakers.  We  also  owe  to 
Rous,  Fox,  and  others  another  harrowing  narra- 
tive of  their  sufferings,  printed  in  London  in 
1659,  as  The  Secret  IVorkes  of  a  Cruel  People. 
Their  own  later  chroniclers  always  cover  these 
New  England  experiences,  as  in  William  Sewel's 
History  of  the  Quakers,  1722,  &c.,  fourth  and  fifth 
books,  and  Jos.  Besse'  s  Sufferings  of  the  People 


called  Quakers,  London,  1753,  each  depending 
largely  on  G.  Bishop's  book ;  and  such  more  recent 
works  as  Janney's  Hist,  of  the  Friends,  \.  ch.  xiii.- 
xv.,  and  Cough's  Quakers,  ch.  xiv.  Our  New  Eng- 
land historians  all  follow  the  story  with  more 
or  less  consideration  for  the  authorities.  Hub- 
bard,  New  England,  ch.  Ixv. ;  Mather,  Magnalia, 
vii.  ch.  iv. ;  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay;  Bancroft, 
United  States,  i.  ch.  x.,  ii.  ch.  xvi.,  and  centenary 
edition,  i.  ch.  x. ;  Palfrey,  New  England,  ii.  452, 
—  a  careful  account  with  some  detail ;  Bryant 
and  Gay,  United  States,  ii.  ch.  viii.  and  ix. ; 
Barry,  Massachusetts,  \.  ch.  xiii. ;  P.  W.  Chand- 
ler, American  Criminal  Trials,  i.,  with  an  ap- 
pendix of  documents ;  Dexter,  As  to  Roger 
Williams,  pp.  105,  124,  &c.  Dr.  Ellis  has  written 
a  history  of  the  subject,  which  is  still  in  manu- 
script. —  ED.] 

2  [Dr.  Palfrey,  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii.  519, 
says:  "The  resolution  to  abstain  from  further 
capital  punishments  had  been  taken  some  months 
before,  though  the  magistrates,  perhaps,  were  not 
indisposed  to  appeal  to  the  King's  injunction,  rather 
than  avow  a  change  of  judgment  on  their  own 
part"  The  letter  of  the  King  was  intrusted  to 
one  Samuel  Shattuck,  who  had  been  banished, 
and  he,  with  other  Quakers,  arrived  in  Boston 
in  1661.  One  of  the  disturbers  at  least,  Win- 
lock  Christison,  recanted  a  little  too  <arly, 
or  he  might  have  enjoyed  the  triumph  of  his 
release  without  so  satisfying  the  magistrates  as 
he  did.  -  Ko.] 


1 88 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


method  of  securing  the  ballot.     On  this  point  —  the  vital  and  all-essential 
security  of  their  original  polity  —  they  were  soon  compelled  to  yield,  because 

the  royal  mandate  was  reinforced  by  so  strong 
a  party  of  the  uncovenanted  non-voters  within 
the  colony  insisting  upon  their  rights.  Not  till 
the  provincial  was  substituted  for  the  colonial 
charter  was  the  spell  of  the  Puritan  domina- 
tion effectually  broken;  and  then  the  Puri- 
tan  Commonwealth  was  prostrated.  The  sur- 
vival  from  it  in  tradition,  in  influence,  in  the 
sway  of  manifold  habits  and  customs,  and  in 
the  lessons  of  childhood  retaining  their  power 
over  those  who  lived  to  advanced  age,  per- 
petuated very  much  of  its  austere  and  char- 

s^  /^      r\  acteristic   qualities  in  this  community.     Nor 

/       \\P      -fc     -v-  ^     '  \      even   in   these  days,  among  the  mixed  and 
r\  >j    ^vi^         A    diversified  elements   of  our   population   and 

M^       S!   rv^     y^A-          j    aU  tne  relaxing  and  liberalizing  results  of  the 

most  radical  social  change,  is  the  fire  in  the 
ashes  of  Puritanism  wholly  extinguished. 

It  may  have  been  well  that,  in  the  train  and 
succession  of  the  experimentings  on  the  theory 
of  the  model  for  planting  a  State,  secure  arid 
prosperous,  what  we  regard  now  as  fundamen- 
tally  an  erroneous  and  impracticable  one 
was  so  thoroughly  tested.  An  earnest 
and  lofty  purpose,  demanding  high  vir- 
tues,  zeal,  self-consecration,  and  stern 
fidelity  could  alone  have  prompted  the 
master  spirits  of  this  colony,  and  sus- 
tained them  under  the  exactions  of  their 
enterprise.  They  were,  for  their  time, 
intelligent  and  wise  men ;  and  by  the 
best  standards  of  any  age  their  char- 
acters in  their  intents  and  aims  —  of 
integrity,  sincerity,  devoutness,  and  un- 
selfishness—  must  be  adjudged  to  have 
been  elevated  and  pure.  They  showed 
heroic  powers  of  endurance;  they  were 
simple  and  frugal  in  their  mode  of  life ; 
"  they  scorned  delights  and  lived  labori- 
ous days  ; "  and  in  their  generation,  more 
resolutely  and  disinterestedly  than  any 
other  community  of  men  and  women  known  to  us,  they  had  regard,  in  all 
that  they  devised  and  did,  far  more  for  the  welfare  and  advantages  of  their 


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THE    PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH.  189 

posterity  than  for  their  own.  How  far  their  erroneous  and  impracticable 
experiment  of  constructing  a  State  from  a  Church  was  the  consequence  or  the 
cause  of  the  limitations  of  wisdom,  the  superstitions,  and  the  errors  which 
appear  in  their  policy,  it  might  be  difficult  fairly  to  decide.  Their  thorough 
trial  of  what  proved  to  be  an  impracticable  theory  may  help  to  reconcile 
us  to  all  the  risks  and  exposures  of  our  present  system,  which  recognizes 
only  secular  interests.  Large  allowance  should  be  made  by  us  for  what  was 
so  ungenial,  gloomy,  and  repulsive  in  the  Puritan  character,  as  manifested  dur- 
ing the  brief  period  of  intolerance  and  severity  in  their  history,  on  the  score 
of  the  harshness  and  rudeness  of  the  circumstances  under  which  the  first 
generation  born  on  the  soil  grew  into  life.  The  first  comers  had  sweet  and 
tender  memories  of  dear  old  England.  Their  children  had  none  of  these. 
Their  childhood  was  not  nursed  on  milk.  They  saw  no  games  or  pageants, 
no  holidays  or  festivals,  no  gray  old  churches  or  ivy-clad  castles.  They  had 
no  picture-books  or  romances.  The  shadows  of  the  wilderness  hung  over 
them,  and  the  ways  through  it  were  lonely  and  full  of  terrors.  A  som- 
bre domestic  discipline  saddened  their  years  of  subjection.  The  weariness 
of  their  long  day-tasks  was  compensated  by  no  evening  jollities.  These 
sober  and  grave  influences  clouded  their  lives,  and  passed  into  maturer 
austerities  in  their  characters.  Religion  had  to  them  more  of  frights  and 
bugbears  than  of  fair  visions  and  sweet  solaces.  The  charter  of  the  colony 
assigned  the  terms  for  holding  its  Courts,  as  "  Hilary,  Easter,  Trinity,  and 
Michaelmas."  But  only  in  the  charter,  not  elsewhere  in  the  records,  do 
those  words  and  the  things  and  associations  of  which  they  are  the  symbols 
appear.  The  children  grown  here  never  heard  them.  The  dispensation  of 
religion  to  them  offered  them  lessons  above  their  comprehension,  divested  of 
all  attractions  in  the  mode  of  their  teaching,  —  dry,  dreary,  and  saddening. 

There  is  an  offset  of  a  generous  and  grateful  character  to  be  made  for  all 
that  is  just  in  the  severity  of  censure  visited  upon  these  Puritan  legislators 
for  their  narrowness  and  bigotry,  their  rigid  and  harsh  austerity  against  those 
who  disturbed  their  peace,  and  yet  so  patiently  suffered  the  penalties  of 
their  protests,  their  dissent,  and  their  heresies.  These  disturbers  were  dealt 
with  as  enthusiasts  and  fanatics,  at  a  time  and  under  circumstances  of  dread 
experience  that  made  enthusiasm  and  fanaticism  most  alarming  in  their 
impulses,  methods,  and  tendencies,  as  destructive  of  domestic,  social,  and 
civil  order.  But  while  the  Puritan  outlook  was  narrow  in  that  direction,  it 
was  broad  and  generous  in  another.  They  did  not  stand  as  champions  of 
ignorance,  indifference,  or  the  conservatism  of  prejudice  and  error.  While 
we  call  them  superstitious,  we  have  to  remind  ourselves  that  there  was  noth- 
ing to  them  more  odious  or  debasing  than  what  they  themselves,  by  the 
degree  of  their  enlightenment,  had  come  to  regard  as  superstition.  This 
they  identified  with  ignorance  and  folly.  And  it  was  because  of  this  that 
the  Puritans  came  nearer  than  any  other  class  of  religionists  to  making  an 
idol  of  knowledge,  of  the  exercise  of  mental  freedom  and  vigor,  and  of  the 
education  of  the  young.  The  unrest  of  Puritanism,  its  constant  labor  to 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

verify  and  certify  its  fundamentals  of  doctrine  and  dispensation,  kept  the 
intellect  in  full  vigor,  and  prompted  the  inquisitive  spirit  which  gradually 
released  it  from  a  slavish  bondage.  Certain  it  is,  that  wherever  in  Christen- 
dom we  trace  the  presence  and  influence  of  the  doctrinal  system  and  disci- 
pline characteristic  of  Puritanism,  —  as  in  Geneva,  Holland,  Scotland,  Old 
and  New  England, — we  find  tokens  of  intellectual  vigor  in  the  commanding 
minds  of  statesmen,  scholars,  and  men  of  affairs.  And  consequent  upon 
this  quality  has  been  their  noble  zeal  to  promote  education,  knowledge, 
learning,  in  all  their  ranges,  so  that  their  elevating  influence  may  be  shared 
by  all  classes  of  the  people.  The  college  planted  in  the  wilderness  by  the 
magistrates  of  Boston,  and  the  system  of  common  schools  provided  by 
the  Court  of  the  Puritan  colony,  attest  that  its  founders  recognized  in  edu- 
cation the  only  safeguard  of  liberty.  They  would  not  have  dreaded  lest 
freedom  in  thought  and  policy  should  exceed  due  restraints,  provided  only 
that  they  could  anticipate  and  guide  its  development  by  true  enlightenment. 
It  is  easy  to  reconcile  the  professed  heavenly-mindedness  of  the  Puritans 
with  their  manifest  regard  for  worldly  thrift.  They  confessedly  recognized 
the  mundane  virtues ;  and  we,  their  posterity,  share  largely  in  the  account 
of  their  having  done  so.  There  was  candor  as  well  as  shrewdness  in  the 
avowal  made  by  the  patriarch  White  for  our  colonists,  that  "  nothing  sorts 
better  with  Piety  than  Competency,"  —  a  truth  which  the  prophet  Agur 
had,  long  before  their  day,  uttered  by  inspiration. 

As  to  the  character  of  the  community,  —  the  qualities  and  habits  of  the 
people;  the  tone  of  daily  life;  the  relations  between  individuals  and 
classes ;  the  public  and  private  virtues,  with  the  offset  of  evils  and  errors, 
which  especially  manifested  themselves  in  this  Puritan  Commonwealth  in 
anything  peculiar  and  distinctive,  —  it  would  require  more  space  than  can 
here  be  given  for  a  fair  exposition  of  the  subject.  One  might  be  prompted 
to  institute  a  comparison,  either  in  general  terms  or  in  details,  with  other 
contemporary  colonial  communities  where  quite  other  than  Puritan  princi- 
ples and  usages  controlled  the  religious,  civil,  and  social  life  of  the  people. 
This,  too,  would  take  us  beyond  our  limits.  Had  this  old  town  of  Boston, 
with  the  surrounding  municipalities  which  are  essentially  its  offshoots, 
been  left  to  a  natural  process  of  development  by  modifications  working 
from  within  of  its  original  elements,  and  an  increase  of  its  homogeneous 
stock  by  generations,  keeping  its  homogeneous  character,  we  might  then 
have  been  able  to  trace  and  define  our  essential  Puritan  heritage  in  its  pres- 
ent fruitage.  The  flood  of  foreign  immigration  which  has  poured  in  upon 
us  since  the  beginning  of  this  century  has  vastly  qualified,  though  it  has 
not  neutralized,  the  original  qualities  of  the  old  stock.  We  must  reconcile 
ourselves  to  any  regrets  over  a  promising  but  arrested  development  from 
our  heritage  by  gratefully  recognizing  its  attractiveness  for  aliens. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   RISE   OF   DISSENTING   FAITHS,   AND    THE   ESTABLISH- 
MENT  OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH. 

BY    THE    REV.    HENRY    W.    FOOTE. 
Minister  of  King's  Chapel. 

THE  noble  vision  of  the  Puritan  Commonwealth,  compacted  of  souls 
united  in  faith  and  doctrine,  in  which  Church  and  State  should  be 
substantially  one,  proved  impracticable  before  the  first  generation  of  the 
Puritans  had  begun  to  pass  from  the  stage.  It  has  been  related  in  a  for- 
mer chapter1  how  the  successive  controversies  with  the  followers  of  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  with  the  Baptists,  and  with  the  Quakers,  demonstrated  more 
and  more  clearly  the  impossibility  of  such  a  permanent  accord  of  the  whole 
population  on  religious  questions  as  was  vitally  necessary  for  the  perman- 
ence of  the  Theocracy.  The  fixedness  with  which  the  policy  of  repression 
was  pursued  until  the  English  Government  interfered,  although  ineffectual 
to  do  more  than  postpone  the  religious  disintegration  which  nothing  could 
ultimately  prevent,  had  one  further  effect  of  immense  importance.  It 
secured  time  to  impress  on  the  community  a  marked  character  which  two 
centuries  since  elapsing,  with  all  their  modifications  of  faith  and  of  the 
population,  have  not  been  able  to  efface.  During  nearly  half  a  century 
the  Puritan  spirit  had  exercised  an  unrestricted  sway,  while  the  new  com- 
munity was  hardening  from  gristle  into  bone.  The  Boston  of  365,000 
inhabitants  to-day,  with  its  mingling  of  many  races  and  all  religions  and  no 
religion,  is  marked  profoundly  by  its  inheritances  from  the  temper,  spirit, 
and  belief  of  the  Boston  which,  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  was 
a  little  town  of  less  than  7,000  souls. 

The  period  of  forcible  repression  of  dissent  from  the  Established  Church 
of  New  England  was  succeeded  by  a  period  in  which  the  Protestant  bodies 
gained  a  firm  and  recognized  footing  in  Boston.  The  history  of  the  succes- 
sive steps  by  which  this  was  established,  much  against  the  will  and  to  the 
sore  reluctance  of  the  dominant  powers,  is  of  course  less  picturesque  and 
exciting  than  the  chapter  of  punishments,  oppositions,  and  even  martyr- 
doms in  which  the  Quaker  and  the  Baptist  conquered  by  enduring.  It  is, 
however,  an  important  chapter  in  the  history  of  Boston,  and  interesting  not 
only  as  a  chapter  of  ecclesiastical  antiquities,  but  as  illustrating  how,  in  the 
1  [Chap.  III.,  by  Rev.  George  E.  Ellis,  D.D.] 


192  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

field  of  this  narrow  peninsula,  the  victory  of  a  policy  of  religious  tolerance 
was  established  as  a  fact  for  all  New  England. 

The  growth  of  the  town  in  numbers  had  necessitated  the  organization  of 
a  second  church  in  1650.  For  twenty  years  the  "Old  Meeting-house" 
had  accommodated  the  whole  population. 

No  record  exists  of  the  first  occupation  of  the  Second  Church,  which 
was  built  of  wood  at  the  North  End  (North  Square),  and  thence  derived 
the  name,  the  "  North  Church,"  by  which  it  was  usually  known.1  This  part 
of  the  town  held  at  this  time  about  thirty  householders,  and  there  was 
prospect  of  a  speedy  increase.  The  first  sermon  in  the  new  house  was 
preached  June  5,  1650.  The  services  were  conducted  by  one  of  the 
brethren,  Michael  Powell,  till  1655,  when  the  Rev.  John  Mayo  was  ordained 
as  its  first  minister.  The  splendid  roll  of  its  ministers  gave  it  a  special  dis- 
tinction :  it  has  been  called  "  the  Church  of  the  Mathers,"  four  of  its  early 
pastors  having  belonged  to  that  family,  who  held  the  pulpit  for  seventy- 
three  out  of  the  first  ninety-one  years  of  the  church. 

But  the  era  of  peace  within  the  Puritan  ecclesiastical  community  was 
now  to  be  rudely  broken. 

Of  the  third  church  gathered  in  Boston,  Rev.  Dr.  Wisner2  says:  "Like 
too  many  other  churches  of  Christ,  it  originated  in  bitter  contentions  among 
those  who  are  bound  by  their  profession,  as  well  as  by  the  precept  of 
heaven,  to  maintain  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace."  These 
contentions  "  were  not  local  or  of  sudden  production,  but  originated  in  the 
first  ecclesiastical  institutions  of  the  country,  and  were  spread  through  the 
whole  of  New  England." 

The  limitation  of  the  political  franchise  to  those  who  were  church- 
members,  made  by  an  order  of  the  second  General  Court  in  1631, 
continued  in  effect  until  the  Charter  Government  was  dissolved,  since  even 
after  it  was  apparently  repealed  at  the  urgency  of  King  Charles  II.,  in  1664, 
a  certificate  was  required  from  the  ministers  to  the  "  orthodox  principles  " 
and  good  lives  of  candidates  for  freedom.  From  the  beginning,  a  consider- 
able and  ever  increasing  number  of  inhabitants  were  disfranchised  by  this 
test;  many  of  the  children  of  the  early  settlers  could  not  satisfy  the  tests 
for  admission  to  the  church  when  they  grew  up ;  and  as  baptism  could  not 
be  had  for  the  children  of  those  who  were  not  church-members,  a  genera- 
tion arose  who  were  largely  excluded  alike  from  religious  and  civil  privi- 
leges. An  earnest  effort,  led  by  Robert  Child  and  others,  was  made  in 
1646,  by  a  petition  to  the  General  Court,  "that  civil  liberty  and  freedom 
might  be  forthwith  granted  to  all  truly  English ;  and  that  all  members  of 
the  Church  of  England  or  Scotland,  not  scandalous,  might  be  admitted 
to  the  privileges  of  the  churches  of  New  England."  The  petitioners,  who 

1  It   was   burned  in    1676,  but  soon  rebuilt.  Brick  Church  in  Hanover  St.,  retaining  the  name 

This  later  edifice,  though  in  a  condition  to  last  and  records  of  the  Second  Church, 

many  years  longer,  was  destroyed  for  fuel  by  the  2  History  of  the  Old  South  Church  in  Bos- 

King's  troops  during  the  siege  of  Boston  in  1775.  ton,  1830,  p.  4.     We  have  largely  followed  Dr. 

The  congregation   then  united   with   the   New  Wisner's  account  of  this  controversy. 


THE   RISE   OF   DISSENTING   FAITHS.  193 

threatened  to  appeal  to  the  Parliament  of  England,  and  who  represented 
a  wide-spread  discontent,  were  denied,  their  papers  seized,  and  themselves 
fined ;  while  the  political  troubles  in  the  mother-country  rendered  all 
appeal  hopeless.1 

But  a  grievance  so  well  grounded  could  not  be  permanently  repressed. 
The  growing  sentiment  that  "  all  baptized  persons,  not  scandalous  in  life 
and  formally  excommunicated,  ought  to  be  considered  members  of  the 
church  in  all  respects  except  the  right  of  partaking  of  the  Lord's  Supper," 
though  strenuously  opposed  by  lovers  of  the  old  way,  finally  induced  the 
Court  of  Massachusetts  to  call  a  General  Council  in  1657,  which  met  at 
Boston,  delegates  from  Connecticut  also  taking  part.  This  Council  deter- 
mined that  those  who  had  been  baptized  in  infancy  were  therefore  to  be 
regarded  as  members  of  the  church,  and  entitled  to  its  privileges,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  including  baptism  for  their  children. 
Such  an  innovation  on  the  earlier  practice  roused  yet  more  bitter  opposi- 
tion. A  second  Synod  was  obliged  to  be  held  in  1662,  at  which  this 
decision  was  substantially  reaffirmed.  Vigorous  protest  was,  however, 
made  by  some  of  the  most  eminent  pastors,  who  published  writings  in 
opposition ;  and  among  them  Rev.  John  Davenport  of  New  Haven,  "  the 
greatest  of  the  anti-synodists."  The  churches  of  Massachusetts  were 
divided  among  themselves,  whether  to  receive  or  reject  conclusions  of  the 
Synod.  In  the  First  Church  of  Boston,  while  a  majority  favored  them, 
the  influence  of  their  pastor,  the  venerated  Wilson,  preserved  the  peace. 
His  death,  Aug.  7,  1667,  at  the  age  of  seventy-nine,2  left  a  vacancy  which 
was  filled  by  the  choice  of  Mr.  Davenport,  then  seventy  years  old.  The 
prominent  position  of  this  eminent  man  as 
an  advocate  of  the  stricter  side  in  the  con-  *£r 
troversy  which  was  agitating  New  England  * 

occasioned  the  most  earnest  opposition  to  his  settlement.  The  church  was 
divided,  the  former  minority  becoming  the  majority.  Mr.  Davenport 
accepted  their  call  and  came  to  Boston,  where  he  died  little  more  than  a 
year  after  beginning  his  ministry.3  But  the  dissatisfied  minority  did  not 

1  [Beside  Child,  William  Vassal!  and  Sam-  ministers  of  Christ,  rested  from  his  labors  and 
uel  Maverick  were  engaged  in  this  movement,  sorrowes,  beloved  and  lamented  of  all,  and  very 
Drake,   Boston ;   Sumner,   East  Boston  ;    Win-  honourably  interred  ye  day  following."     N.  E. 
throp,  New  England,  &c.     Cf.  Colonel  Aspin-  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  July,  1880,  p.  297.    Seethe 
wall    on   "William    Vassall    no   factionist,"   in  genealogy  in  the  Heraldic  Journal,  ii.  182. —  ED.] 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  March,  1863.  —  ED.]  3  [Davenport  died  March  n,  1670,  and  lies 

2  [A  daughter  of  Wilson  married  the  Rev.  buried  in  the  Chapel  burial  ground,  nearly  oppo- 
Samucl  Danforth  of  Roxbury,  and  their  son,  the  site  where  he  lived  on  Tremont  Street,  on  an 
Rev.  John  Danforth,  was  the  minister  of  Dor-  estate  that  remained  for  many  years  in  the  pos- 
chester,   1682-1730.     The  former  thus  records  session  of  the  First  Church,  and  where  several 
Wilson's  death  in  his  church  records:  "7'ii6m-  of  Davenport's  successors  lived.     Drake,  Land- 
67.     About  two  of  ye  clock  in  ye  Morning,  my  marks,  p.  55.     The  Roxbury  records  make  this 
honoured  Father,  Mr  John   Wilson,  Pastour  to  mention  of  his  death:    "?g,  im,  13.      Mr  John 
y=  Church  of  Boston,  aged  about  78  yeares  and  Davenport  was  taken  with  yc  dead  palsey  on  ye 
a  half,  a  man  eminent  in  Faith,  love,  humility,  right  side,  and  2  days  after,  viz.  on  ye  isth-  of  ye 
self-denyal,  prayer,  soundnes  of  minde,  zeal  for  first  moneth,  died,  and  was  buried  on  ye  22dof 
God,  liberality  to  all  men,  esp'ly  to  ye  sts  and  ye  same.     Aged  73."     N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal. 

VOL.  I.  —  25. 


194  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

rest  here.1  Twenty-eight  in  number,  with  one  member  of  the  Charlestown 
Church,  they  met  at  Charlestown,  probably  to  avoid,  by  holding  their 
meeting  in  another  county,  the  law  which  required  that  the  magistrates 
should  be  consulted  before  forming  another  church.  Their  application  to 
the  First  Church  to  be  dismissed  for  this  purpose  was  refused,  whereupon 
they  called  a  council  of  other  churches,  by  whose  advice  they  organized 
themselves  in  due  form  as  the  "Third  Church  in  Boston."  Thomas 
Thacher  became  their  first  minister  in  February,  1670.  The  publication 
of  protests  and  counter-protests  enlisted  the  whole  colony  on  one  side  or 
the  other,  as  it  was  seen  that  "  the  favorers  of  the  old  church  were  against 
the  Synod,  and  those  of  the  new  church  were  for  it." 

Nor  was  the  opposition  confined  to  words.  It  is  probable  that  the 
"imprisoning  of  parties"  to  which  a  letter  of  Randolph  refers  indicates 
that  the  members  of  the  new  church  were  punished  in  this  way  for  their 
proceeding  without  consent  of  the  authorities.  Governor  Bellingham  being 
strenuous  for  the  First  Church,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  summoned  his 
Council  to  prohibit  the  erection  of  the  new  meeting-house.  The  Council, 


9 


however,  was  unwilling  to  take  this  extreme  ground,  and  the  consent  of  the 
selectmen  of  Boston  being  obtained  to  the  erection  of  "  another  Meeting- 
House  in  this  town,"  the  Third  Church  was  built  on  what  is  now  the  corner 
of  Washington  and  Milk  streets.  The  land  for  the  purpose  was  given  by 
Madam  Norton,  who,  though  the  widow  of  a  former  minister  of  the  First 
Church,  was  in  warm  sympathy  with  the  seceders  from  it. 

The  dissension  agitated  the  "  House  of  Deputies,"  who,  in  1670,  adopted 
a  report  from  "  a  committee  to  inquire  into  the  prevailing  evils  which  had 
been  the  cause  of  the  displeasure  of  God  against  the  land,"  explicitly  con- 
demning the  transaction  by  which  the  new  church  was  constituted,  "  as 
irregular,  illegal,  and  disorderly."  But  the  next  election  reversed  this 

Reg  ,  July,  1  880,  p.  300.    A  History  and  Genealogy  four  Churches"  was  called,  and  "their  advice 

of  the  Davenport  Family,  New  York,  1851,  traces  was  to  dismiss  them  in  order  to  yc  propagtio.  of 

his   ancestry   and   descendants,    and   a   tabular  another  church  in    Boston."  —  N.  E.  Hist,  and 

pedigree  is  given  in  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Cental.  Gcncal.  /V;r,  July,  iSSo,  p.  299.     The  Synod  and 

Reg.'vx..  146.  —  ED.]  the  "half-way  Covenant,"  as  it  was  called,  are 

1  [It  appears  from  an  entry  by  Danforth  in  discussed  learnedly  by  Dr.  Dexter  in  his  Con- 

the  Roxbury  church  records,  that  "  a  Council  of  gregationalism  as  s£en  in  its  Literature.  —  Eu.] 


THE   RISE   OF   DISSENTING   FAITHS.  195 

action,  and  the  new  General  Court,  being  chosen  with  reference  to  this 
very  question,  adopted  a  contrary  vote  by  a  decisive  majority. 

The  troubled  waters,  however,  subsided  but  slowly.  The  old  church 
refused  to  have  any  ecclesiastical  relations  with  its  rebellious  daughter. 
Three  times  it  denied  dismission  to  the  wives  of  the  brethren  who  had 
withdrawn  to  form  the  new  church,  who  naturally  wished  to  follow  their 
husbands ;  nor  was  it  until  the  forebodings  of  an  .invasion  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical unity  of  New  England  by  the  dreaded  Episcopacy  of  the  mother- 
country  grew  into  certainty,  that  the  breach  was  healed.  In  May,  1682, 
Edward  Randolph  wrote  to  the  Bishop  of  London :  — 

"  We  have  in  Boston  one  Mr.  Willard,  a  minister,  brother  to  Major  Dudley ;  he  is 
a  moderate  man,  and  baptizeth  those  who  are  refused  by  the  other  churches,  for 
which  he  is  hated.  There  was  a  great  difference  between  the  old  church  and  the 
members  of  the  new  church  about  baptisme  and  their  members  joyning  in  full  com- 
munion with  either  church  ;  this  was  soe  high  that  there  was  imprisoning  of  parties 
and  great  disturbances,  but  now,  heereing  of  my  proposals  for  ministers  to  be  sent 
over,  .  .  .  they  are  now  joyned  together,  about  a  fortnight  ago,  and  pray  to  God  to 
confound  the  devices  of  all  who  disturbe  their  peace  and  liberties."  1 

It  has  been  already  related  how2  the  period  of  active  persecution  of 
obnoxious  modes  of  faith  had  closed :  the  two  heresies  which  had  been 
most  strenuously  resisted,  the  Baptist  and  the  Quaker,  had  rooted  them- 
selves in  the  soil,  in  spite  of  all  opposition.  The  former  built  a  place  of 
worship  in  1680,  which,  though  closed  for  a  time  by  order  of  the  General 
Court,  was  soon  peaceably  occupied.3  The  Quakers  had  a  regular  place 
of  meeting  as  early  as  1677,  and  in  1697  they  erected  the  first  meeting- 
house built  of  brick  in  Boston,  on  a  lot  in  Brattle  Street.4  The  Society  of 
Friends  continued  in  considerable  numbers  until  after  the  Revolution,  but 
then  greatly  diminished,  so  much  that  soon  after,  the  beginning  of  this 
century  they  ceased  to  hold  regular  meetings. 

But  bitter  to  the  strict  followers  of  "  the  old  way  "  as  were  these  indica- 
tions of  the  relaxing  Puritanism,5  the  rooting  of  the  Church  of  England  here 
was  most  bitter  of  all. 

The  people  of  the  sturdy  Puritan  stock  are  not  blameworthy  for  desiring  to 
keep  the  country  of  their  own  way  of  belief,  if  they  could.  For  nearly  half  a 
century  they  had  had  the  opportunity  to  grow  far  toward  an  independent  na- 

1  llutchinson,  Coll.  of  Papers,  ii.  271.  their  minister.     He  had  a  pamphlet  controversy 

2  See  Chap.  III.  on  the  commo- 

8  [The  first  organized  meetings  of  the  Bap-  tionsof  the  time      {/fflilH. 

tists  were  held  on  Noddle's  Island,  and  in  1666  with        Samuel  ^/ 

Henry  Shrimpton  left  j£io  to  these  quiet  wor-  Willard  of  the 

shippers.     Sumner,  East  Boston,  pp.  115,  191;  South    Church. 

Snow,  Boston,  ch.  xxvi. ;  Drake,  Boston,  p.  379;  • — En.] 
Backus,  History,  &c.,  i.  399;  Palfrey,  AVro  Eng-  *  They  removed  in  1708  to  Congress  Street, 

land,  iii.  91;  Dr.  Neale's  Discourse  on  the  two  and  about  1827  to  Milton  Place, 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  foundation  of  the  5  The  formation  of  the  Church  in  Brattle  Sq. 

first  Baptist  Church.     John  Russell,  after  suffer-  was  a  memorable  advance  in  the  same  direction, 

ing  imprisonment  and  other  tribulations,  became  but  the  history  of  this  falls  in  a  later  chapter. 


$fy#e£ 


196  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

tion  on  that  ecclesiastical  basis,  and  the  presence  of  the  Church  of  England 
would  be  a  perpetual  sign  that  this  state  of  things  was  ended.  Nor  is  it 
strange  that  they  feared  many  evils  from  the  admission  of  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer  which  never  came  to  pass.  But  they  resolutely  shut  their  eyes 
to  the  fact  that  there  were  those  among  them  who  had  an  equal  right  with 
themselves  to  such  religious  institutions  as  they  might  choose.1  The  Church 
of  England  had  the  misfortune  to  be,  in  the  estimation  of  the  mass  of  Ncw- 
Englanders,  a  part  of  the  tyranny  of  the  Stuarts.  If  it  had  been  more  free 
from  such  associations,  perhaps  they  would  have  feared  and  hated  it  less, 
nor  would  some  of  its  earliest  promoters  have  been  so  zealous  in  its  behalf. 

The  controversy  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  could  only  end  in  one  way. 
Englishmen  must  surely  have  the  rights  of  Englishmen  in  an  English 
colony,  and  among  these  none  was  dearer  to  some  than  the  right  to  worship 
God  according  to  the  hallowed  and  familiar  form  established  in  England  itself. 
Yet  although  there  were  not  a  few  in  Boston  who  desired  it,  "  most  of  the 
inhabitants,"  says  Hutchinson,  "who  were  upon  the  stage  in  1686  had  never 
seen  a  Church  of  England  Assembly."  Edward  Randolph  discovered  in  his 
first  visit  here  in  1676  that  there  were  laws  forbidding  the  observance  of 
"  Christmas  day  or  any  like  festivity,"  "  the  solemnization  of  marriage  by  any 
person  but  a  Magistrate,"  and  confining  the  suffrage  to  church-members,  as 
well  as  on  other  points  which  contravened  the  Royal  prerogative.  The 
result  partly  of  Randolph's  persistency  in  his  frequent  crossings  of  the 
ocean,  and  partly  of  the  King's  own  growing  certainty  of  the  intractable 
stubbornness  of  the  people  with  whom  he  had  to  deal,  was  a  steady  pressure 
on  our  ancestors  to  alter  their  laws  in  these  regards.  In  November,  1678, 
the  General  Court  appointed  a  Fast  Day,  to  beseech  the  Lord  "  that  he  will 
not  take  away  his  holy  gospel,  and  it  be  his  good  will  yet  to  continue  our 
liberties  civil  and  ecclesiastical  to  us  and  our  children  after  us."  The  times 
were  dark  indeed  for  them,  —  Charles  Stuart  on  the  throne,  and  they  too 
weak  to  resist  him  with  open  war. 

"  The  thoughtful  observer,"  says  Dr.  Greenwood,.  "  will  mark  the  strange 
processes  by  which  the  human  mind  is  often  forced  to  the  most  simple  and 
excellent  conclusions.  He  will  see  arbitrary  power  from  another  country 
contending  against  arbitrary  power  here,  and  the  results  of  these  conflicting 
and  angry  authorities  to  be  toleration,  liberty,  and  peace."  2 

In  1679  a  number  of  persons  residing  in  Boston  petitioned  the  King 
"  that  a  Church  might  be  allowed  them  for  the  exercise  of  religion  accord- 
ing to  the  Church  of  England."  Not  until  1681  was  the  law  which  forbade 
the  keeping  of  Christmas  repealed.  In  1685  Sewall  wrote  in  his  diary,  — 
"  Xr-  25,  Friday.  Carts  come  to  Town,  and  Shops  open  as  is  usual:  some 
somehow  observe  y6  day ;  but  are  vex'd  I  believe  that  y-  Body  of  ye  People 
profane  it,  and  blessed  be  God  no  authority  yet  to  compell  them  to  keep  it." 

1  Lechford,  in  1644,  says  that  one  sixth  of  the  population  were  church-members  ;  Randolph,  in 
1 686.  states  the  numlier  at  one  tenth. 
-  Greenwood,  A'in:fs  C/iafel,  p.  14. 


THE   RISE   OF   DISSENTING   FAITHS.  197 

In  those  four  years  events  had  marched  fast  in  Boston,  and  on  the  other 
side  of  the  water. 

Edward  Randolph,  "  his  shuttle  of  mischief  being,"  in  1682,  on  this  "  side 
of  the  ocean,  still  working  in  its  loom  of  hate  and  revenge,"  l  —  doubtless, 
also,  of  loyalty  to  King  and  Church,  after  the  high-handed  fashion  of  loyalty 
with  which  such  a  man  would  serve  a  Stuart  king,  —  wrote  two  letters  to 
the  Bishop  of  London,  urging  measures  to  establish  the  Church  of  England 
here. z 

"  In  my  attendance  on  your  lordship,  I  often  exprest  that  some  able  ministers 
might  be  appoynted  to  performe  the  officies  of  the  church  with  us.  The  maine 
obstacle  was  how  they  should  be  maintayned.  I  did  formerly  and  doe  now  propose, 
that  a  part  of  that  money  sent  over  hither,  and  pretended  to  bee  expended  among  the 
Indians,  may  be  ordered  to  goe  towards  that  charge.  .  .  .  Since  wee  are  here  im- 
mediately under  your  lordship's  care,  I  with  more  freedome  press  for  able  and  sober 
ministers,  and  wee  will  contribute  largely  to  their  maintenance ;  but  one  thing  will 
mainely  helpe,  when  no  marriages  hereafter  shall  be  allowed  lawfull  but  such  as  are 
made  by  the  ministers  of  the  Church  of  England." 

And  July  14,  i682,3  besides  urging  the  bringing  a  quo  warranto  against 
the  Massachusetts  charter,  to  "  disenable  many  ...  of  the  faction  .  .  . 
from  acting  further  in  a  public  station,"  he  says :  — 

"  Wee  have  advice  ...  that  your  lordship  hath  remembered  us  and  sent  over  a 
minister  with  Mr.  Cranfield  ;  .  .  .  the  very  report  hath  given  great  satisfaction  to  many 
hundreds  whose  children  are  not  baptized,  and  to  as  many  who  never,  since  they  came 
out  of  England,  received  the  sacraments.  ...  If  we  are  misinformed  concerning 
your  lordship's  sending  over  a  minister,  be  pleased  to  commiserate  our  condition,  and 
send  us  over  a  sober,  discreet  gentleman.  Your  lordship  hath  now  good  security,  as 
long  as  their  agents  are  in  England,  for  his  civil  treatment  by  the  contrary  party ;  he 
will  be  received  by  all  honest  men  with  hearty  respects  and  kindness,  and  if  his  maj- 
esty's laws  (as  none  but  fanatics  question)  be  of  force  with  us,  we  could  raise  a  suffi- 
cient maintenance  for  clivers  ministers  out  of  the  estates  of  those  whose  treasons  have 
forfeited  them  to  his  majesty." 

No  wonder  that  good  Mr.  Sewall  and  the  rest  of  his  Puritan  fellow-wor- 
shippers with  him  looked  darkly  on  the  man  who  was  busy  among  them 
with  such  thoughts  as  these.  For  though  they  could  not  read  his  thoughts 
or  the  letters  which  their  descendants  can  read,  they  knew  him  as  one  who 
hated  their  ways  and  looked  on  them  as  more  than  half  rebels,  and  who  met 
their  resolute  wills  against  high  prerogative  in  Church  and  Crown  with  a 
will  every  whit  as  resolute  as  theirs.  Still  the  "sober and  discreet"  minister 
did  not  come.  Randolph  wrote  again,  and  described  the  religious  condition 
of  the  country  at  this  time :  — 

1  This  phrase  is  quoted  from  an  unpublished  z  Hutchinson,  Pafers,  ii.  271,  May  29,  1682. 

Lowell    Institute    Lecture    by   Rev.  George   E.  8  Hutchinson,  Papers,  ii.  280.     Randolph  to 

Ellis,  D.D.  Bishop  of  London. 


198  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

"  New  Engw  is  devided  into  7  small  colonyes  or  Gouernm15,  at  present  managed 
by  men  of  weake  and  inconsiderable  parts ;  most  of  them  hauing  different  Lavves  and 
methods  of  executing  them.  They  are  devided  into  Presbyterians,  Independants,  ana- 
bptists,  quakers,  seauenth  day  men :  who  are  some  of  them  in  all  govermts :  such 
of  the  Church  of  England  tho'  the  cheife  men  and  of  good  parts  not  appearing  soe  till 
a  regulation  in  governm'  from  hence  directed.  Our  cheife  colony  is  that  of  Boston, 
made  so  by  a  continuall  concourse  of  people  from  all  parts ;  they  driue  a  great  trade  in 
ye  world,  and  in  deed  give  Lawes  to  all  the  rest ;  here  all  is  managed  by  their  Clergye, 
without  whom  the  magistrates  venture  not  to  act,  as  in  the  late  example  of  this  gov' 
upon  receipt  of  his  maties  letter,  &5.  Here  noe  children  are  baptized  but  the  children 
of  Church  members :  some  giue  a  larger  latitude  and  admitt  the  gran-children  of  C. 
members,  others  the  children  of  such  who  own  the  church  and  promise  to  Hue  vnder 
their  watch. 

"  But  none  in  any  of  the  colonyes  are  admitted  to  the  Eucharist  but  as  are  in  full 
communion.  All  are  obliged,  by  one  way  or  other  to  maintaine  the  ministry  :  some  by 
weekly  contributions  in  their  meeting-houses  ;  Anabaptists  and  Quakers  pay  not  vnder 
that  notion,  but  are  rated  in  towne  rates,  which  also  is  really  for  that  intent."  l 

Randolph  went  and  came  again.  Meantime,  in  the  neighboring  domain 
of  New  Hampshire  a  governor  less  able  than  Randolph  and  Andros,  but  as 
overbearing  and  resolute  to  crush  out  opposition  in  State  and  Church,  was 
illustrating  before  the  observant  watch  of  the  Massachusetts  colony  what 
they  might  expect  when  their  turn  should  come.  In  the  intervals  of  Ran- 
dolph's absence  from  New  England,  Governor  Cranfield  supplied  fresh  fuel 
for  the  flame. 

"  Touching  Ecclesiasticall  matters,"  he  wrote, "  the  attempting  to  settle  ye  way  of  y" 
Church  of  England  I  perceive  wilbe  very  grievous  to  ye  people,  However  Mr  Mason 
asserted  y'  their  Inclinacons  were  mch  yl  way.  I  have  observed  them  to  be  very 
dilig*  and  devout  in  attending  on  y*  mode  of  worship  w"h  they  have  been  brought  up 
in,  and  hath  been  so  long  settled  among  them  and  seem  to  be  very  tenacious  of  it,  and 
are  very  thankfull  for  His  Majsties  Gracious  Indulgence  in  those  matters."  2 

Governor  Cranfield  wrote  again :  — 

"...  Tis  my  humble  opinion,  that  it  will  be  absolutely  necessary  to  admit  no 
person  into  any  place  of  Trust,  but  such  as  take  ye  Sacrament  and  are  conformable 
to  the  Rites  of  the  Church  of  England,  for  others  will  be  so  influenced  by  their  Min- 
isters as  well  obstruct  the  good  Settlement,  of  this  place,  and  I  utterly  dispair  (as  I 
writt  in  my  former  to  yor  Lordps)  of  any  true  duty  and  obedience  paid  to  his  Maj'y  untill 
their  Colledge  be  supprest  and  their  Ministers  silenced,  for  they  are  not  only  Enimies 
to  his  Majty  and  Government,  but  Christ  himself,  for  of  all  the  Inhabitants  of  this  Prov- 
ince, being  about  ffour  Thousand  in  number,  not  above  Three  Hundred  Christned  by 
reason  of  their  Parents  not  being  Members  of  their  Church.  I  have  been  this  16 
Months  perswading  the  Ministers  to  admitt  all  to  the  Sacrament  and  Baptisme,  that  were 
not  vitious  in  their  lives,  but  could  not  prevaile  upon  them,  therefore  with  advice  of 

1  Tanner,   MS.   xxxii.    5,  in   Papers  relating  2  Jenness,   Transcripts,  &c    p.  126;  Edward 

to  the  Hist,  of  the  Church  in  A f ass.,  1676-1785,     Cranfield  to  Com.  for  Foreign  Plantations,  Dec  I, 
p.  643,  edited  by  W.  S.  Perry,  D.D.,  1873.  1682. 


THE   RISE    OF   DISSENTING   FAITHS.  199 

the  Councell  made  this  inclosed  Order.  Notwithstanding  they  were  left  in  the  intire 
possession  of  their  Churches  and  only  required  to  administer  both  Sacraments,  ac- 
cording to  the  Liturgie  of  ye  Church  of  England,  to  such  as  desired  them,  which  they 
refuse  to  doe,  and  will  understand  Liberty  of  Conscience  given  in  his  Majts  Commission, 
not  only  to  exempt  them  from  giving  the  Sacrament  according  to  the  Book  of  Comon 
Prayer  but  make  all  the  Inhabitants  contribute  to  their  Maintenance,  although  they 
refuse  to  give  them  the  Sacrament  and  Christen  their  Children,  if  it  be  not  absolutely 
enjoyned  here,  and  in  other  colonies,  that  both  Sacraments  be  administered  to  all  persons 
that  are  duly  qualified,  according  to  the  form  of  the  Comon  Prayer,  there  will  be  per- 
petual dissentions,  and  a  totall  decay  of  the  Christian  Religion."  L 

In  New  Hampshire  Cranfield  tried  to  put  these  principles  into  practice 
with  no  more  success  than  was  to  be  looked  for  when  the  Governor  chose  to 
strike  against  the  Puritan  rock.  In  December,  1683,  he  ordered  the  ministers 
to  admit  all  persons  not  scandalous  to  the  sacrament  and  to  baptism,  and  to 
use  for  these  sacred  offices  the  English  liturgy  when  desired,  under  penalty ; 
and  he  commanded  Rev.  Joshua  Moodey,  of  Portsmouth,  to  read  this  order 
from  his  pulpit.  A  few  days  later  he  sent  Moodey  notice  that  he  with  some 
of  his  coadjutors — who,  if  tradition  is  to  be  believed,  could  scarcely  claim 
to  be  "  not  scandalous  persons  "  —  "  would  receive  from  him  the  sacrament 
according  to  the  liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England  the  next  Sunday." 
Moodey  declined  to  violate  his  conscience,  and  went  to  prison  for  it  with  a 
stout  heart.  Nothing  is  so  stimulating  to  religious  convictions  as  the  sight 
of  a  worthy  martyr;  and  the  latent  Puritanism  was  doubtless  quickened  in 
many  lukewarm  spirits  in  Boston,  when  like  wildfire  the  news  spread  of 
what  had  been  done,  just  beyond  their  jurisdiction,  by  the  overbearing 
Governor  who  had  been  seen  in  their  own  streets. 

In  October,  1683,  Randolph  brought  the  threatened  quo  warranto  against 
the  charter,  which  in  October,  1684,  was  abrogated  at  last.  The  liberties  of  the 
Puritan  State  had  fallen  with  those  of  the  ancient  boroughs  of  England  be- 
fore the  corrupt  decision  of  courts  which  were  the  tools  of  the  Stuart  tyranny. 
And  Massachusetts  was  now  a  Royal  Province,  to  be  ruled  by  a  Governor 
sent  from  over  seas,  —  a  representative  of  the  King,  who  must  needs  have, 
therefore,  a  sort  of  vice-regal  court,  and  must  worship  after  the  forms  of 
the  Established  Church.  Still  a  little  further  delay ;  for  Charles  II.  was  sum- 
moned to  the  bar  of  the  King  of  kings,  —  in  that  sudden  hour  of  which  John 
Evelyn  has  left  so  impressive  an  account.  Charles  died  in  February,  1685. 
Just  before  his  death  he  had  shown  what  his  temper  towards  New  England 
was,  by  commissioning  the  brutal  Colonel  Piercy  Kirk  to  be  Governor  with 
unlimited  authority.  He  was  to  have  a  council  of  his  own  appointment, 
and  all  lands  granted  here  were  to  pay  a  royal  quit-rent.  One  of  the  three 
Boston  churches  was  to  be  seized  for  the  service  of  the  Church  of  England, 
a  point  on  which  Randolph's  persistency  with  the  Royal  Council  and  the 
prelates  had  succeeded.  But  though  James  II.  confirmed  Kirk's  appoint- 
ment, he  soon  found  that  he  should  need  him  for  a  tool  of  oppression  in 

1  Jenness,  Transcripts,  pp.  147,  148.     Cranfield  to  Committee,  Jan.  16,  1683. 


200  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

England.1  In  the  year's  delay  which  yet  intervened,  the  following  record 
from  the  Journals  of  the  Privy  Council  shows  what  preparations  were 
making  there :  — 

"  Novf  1 685  :  Ordered,  that  ...  his  Mais  stationer  do  forthwith  provide  and  de- 
liver to  the  Right  Rev.  Father  in  God,  Henry,  Lord  Bp.  of  London,  ...  six  large 
Bibles  in  folio,  six  Common- Prayer  Books  in  folio,  six  books  of  the  Canons  of  the 
Church  of  England,  six  of  the  homilies  of  the  Church,  six  copies  of  the  xxxix  Articles, 
and  six  Tables  of  Marriage,  to  be  sent  to  New-Eng.,  and  there  disposed  for  the  use  of 
his  Mais  plantation,  as  the  said  Bp.  of  London  shall  direct."  2 

On  May  15,  1686,  there  entered  Boston  Harbor  a  vessel  "freighted 
heavily  with  wo  "  3  to  "  the  Bostoneers,"  as  Randolph  called  them.  For  this 
"  Rose  "  frigate  brought  a  commission  to  Joseph  Dudley  as  president  of 
Massachusetts,  Maine,  Nova  Scotia,  and  the  lands  between :  she  also 
brought  the  Rev.  Robert  Ratcliffe,  the  first  minister  of  the  English  Church 
who  had  ever  come  so  commissioned  to  officiate  on  this  soil. 


The  Puritan  diarist,4  who  has  left  an 
invaluable  chronicle  of  this  period,  sup- 
plies the  record  of  the  ensuing  ecclesias- 
tical steps,  not  without  ample  indication 
of  the  course  of  his  own  sympathies : 

"  1686.  Tuesday,  May  18.  A  great  Wedding  from  Milton,  and  are  married 
by  Mr.  Randolph's  Chaplain  at  Mr.  Shrimpton's,  according  to  yf  Service-Book,  a  little 
after  Noon,  when  Prayer  was  had  at  ye  Town  House  :  Was  another  married  at  ye 
same  time  ;  The  former  was  Vosse's  son.  Borroowd  a  ring.  Tis  sd  they  having  asked 
Mr.  Cook  and  Addington,  and  yy  declining  it,  went  after  to  ye  President  and  he  sent  ym 
to  ye  Parson." 

No  sooner  had  Dudley  assumed  his  office  than  Mr.  Ratcliffe  waited  on 
the  Council,  and  Mr.  Mason  and  Randolph  proposed  that  he  should  have 
one  of  the  three  congregational  meeting-houses  to  preach  in.  This,  how- 
ever, was  denied ;  but  he  was  allowed  the  use  of  the  library  room  in  the 

1  In  the  light  of  Colonel    Kirk's   infamous  happening  here  in  an  order,  signed  by  S.  Pepys, 

record  there  is  a  grim  humor  in  Randolph's  de-  appointing  "  Our  Shipp  the  '  Rose,'  Cap'  John 

scription  of  him,  writing  to  Dudley:  "  .  .  .  9,  n,  George,  Commander,  to  attend  our  Collony  of 

'84.     His  Majesty  has  chosen  Coll.  Kerke,  late  New  England,"  Nov.  28,  1685.  —  4  Mass.  Hist. 

governor  of  Tangier,  to  be  your  governor.     He  Coll.  ii.  234.     The  change  of  government  was 

is  a  gentleman  of  very  good  resolution,  and,  I  duly  celebrated  in  Boston  by  the  proclamation  of 

believe,  will  not  faile  in  any  part  of  his  duty  to  James  II ,  April  20,  1685,  when  there  may  have 

his  Majesty,  nor  be  wanting  to  doe  all  good  offices  been  in  the  Puritans  a  momentary  hope  of  relief, 
for  your  distracted  colony,  if,  at  last,  they  will  2  Palfrey,  New  England,  iii.  484. 

hear  what  is  reason  and  be  governed."  3    Greenwood,    History    of  King's    Chapel, 

It  is  interesting  to  note  a  momentary  con-  p.  15. 
nection  of  the  racy  diarist  Pepys  with  the  events  *  Sewall,  Diary. 


THE    RISE   OF   DISSENTING   FAITHS.  2OI 

east  end  of  the  town-house,  which  stood  where  the  Old  State   House  now 
stands,  "  untill  those  who  desire  his  Ministry  shall  provide  a  fitter  place." 

"  Sabbath,  May  3oth,  1686.  My  son  reads  to  me  in  course  ye  26th  of  Isaiah,  — In 
that  day  shall  y°  Song,  &c.  And  we  sing  ye  141  Psalm  both  exceedingly  suited  to  ye 
day  wherein  therein  to  be  Worship  according  to  ye  Chh  of  Engld  as  'tis  call'd,  in  ye 
Town- House  by  Countenance  of  Authority.  Tis  defer'd  till  y°  6th  of  June  at  what 
time  y6  Pulpit  is  provided ;  it  seems  many  crowded  thether,  and  ye  Ministers  preached 
forenoon  and  Afternoon.  Charles  Lidget  there.  The  pulpit  is  movable,  carried  up  and 
down  stairs,  as  occasion  serves."  l 

There  for  the  first  time  the  liturgy  was  read, —  and  on  June  15,  1686, 
"  the  Church  of  England  as  by  law  established  "  was  organized  in  Boston, 
—  as  appears  from  the  first  record  in  the  parchment-bound  folio  constitut- 
ing the  earliest  record-book  of  King's  Chapel.  Besides  Mr.  Ratcliffe  and 
Mr.  Randolph,  there  were  present  Captain  Lydgett,  Messrs.  Luscomb,  White, 
Maccartie,  Ravenscroft,  Dr.  Clerke,  Messrs.  Turfery  and  Bankes,  and  Dr. 
Bullivant.  It  was  voted  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  church  by  a  weekly 
collection  at  evening  service.  Dr.  Benj.  Bullivant  and  Mr.  Richard  Bankes 
were  elected  the  first  church-wardens.  It  was  also  voted  humbly  to  address 
the  King  and  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  Bishop  of  London, 
"  to  implore  their  favor  to  the  church,  and  that  all  other  true  sons  of  the 
Church  of  England  might  join  in  the  same."  Also :  "  Agreed,  that  Mr. 
Smith  the  Joyner  do  make  12  formes,  for  the  servise  of  the  Church,  for 
each  of  which  he  shall  be  paid  43.  8d.,  and  that  the  said  Mr.  Smith  be  paid 
2os.  quarterly  for  placing  and  removing  the  Pulpit,  formes,  table,  &c." 

Another  meeting  is  recorded  on  July  4,  1686,  at  which  it  was  agreed 
to  pay  Mr.  Ratcliffe  £50  per  annum  beside  what  the  Council  might 
allow  him. 

The  earliest  funeral  administration  of  the  church  offices  is  recorded  in 
Sewall's  Diary :  — 

"Aug.  5  [1686].  Mr  Harris,  boddice-maker,  is  the  first  buried  with  Common 
Prayer  :  he  was  formerly  Randolph's  landlord." 

The  first  observance  of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  held  on  the  second  Sunday 
of  August.  This,  too,  was  noted  by  the  observant  Puritan  eye :  — 

"Sabbath-day,  Aug*  8.  'Tis  sd  ye  Sacramt  of  ye  Lord's  Super  is  administered 
at  ye  Town  H.  Cleverly  there."  2 

The  Episcopalians  set  about  the  undertaking  of  a  church  for  themselves, 
without  delay. 

"  Aug(  21,  Mane.  Mr.  Randolph  and  Bullivant  were  here.  Mr.  Randolph  men- 
tion'd  a  Contribution  toward  building  them  a  Chh,  and  seem'd  to  goe  away  displeas'd 
bee.  I  spake  not  up  to  it." 8 

1  Sewall,  Diary.  2  ibid.  3  Ibid. 

VOL.    I.  —  26. 


202  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY    OF   BOSTON. 

But  Randolph  had  other  designs  for  them,  involving  the  seizure  of  one  of 
the  Congregational  meeting-houses,  and  the  support  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land at  the  cost  of  those  who  hated  it.  Here,  however,  his  purposes  were 
crossed,  and  his  brief  partnership  with  Dudley  speedily  gave  place  to 
hostility,  as  the  possession  of  coveted  power  gave  the  pliant  son  of  stern  old 
Thomas  Dudley  the  opportunity  to  displease  all  parties  in  serving  himself. 
Randolph  wrote  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  and  Plantations,  July  28,  1686: 

"  The  proceeding  of  the  governor  and  councill  .  .  .  are  managed  to  the  incouragement 
of  the  independant  faction  and  utter  discountenancing  both  the  minister  and  these  gen- 
tlemen and  others  who  dare  openly  profess  themselves  to  be  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, not  making  any  allowance  for  our  minister,  more  than  we  rayse  by  contribution 
amongst  ourselves." 

Randolph  had  supposed  it  to  be  part  of  the  implied  contract  with  Dudley 
that  the  Church  of  England  was  to  be  installed  in  power  on  his  accession. 
But  the  following  letter  gives  a  vivid  picture  of  his  disappointment,  as  well 
as  of  the  difficulties  with  which  the  new  church  had  to  contend :  l  — 

"  BOSTON,  NEW  ENGLAND,  Aug1  2nd,  1686. 

"...  As  to  Mr  Dudley,  our  Presid',  he  is  a  N.  Conformist  minister,  and  for  sev- 
eral years  preachd  in  New  Engl!  till  he  became  a  Magistrate,  and  so  continued  for 
many  years ;  but,  finding  his  interest  to  faile  among  that  party,  sett  vp  for  a  King's  man, 
and,  when  in  London,  he  made  his  application  to  my  Lord  of  London,  and  was  well 
liked  of  by  some  about  his  late  Matie ;  where  vpon  he  was  appointed  for  this  turn  to 
be  president,  who,  at  my  arriual,  with  all  outward  expressions  of  duty  and  loyalty, 
receiued  his  Maties  Commission,  Sweetned  with  liberty  of  conscience :  and  now  we 
believed  we  had  gained  the  point,  supposing  the  President  our  own  for  ye  C.  of  Engd. 
At  the  opening  his  Maties  commission,  I  desired  Mr  Ratcliffe,  our  minister,  to  attend 
the  ceremony  and  say  grace,  but  was  refused.  I  am  not  to  forgett  that  in  the  late 
Rebellion  of  Munmouth,  not  one  minister  opened  his  lipps  to  pray  for  the  King,  hop- 
ing that  the  time  of  their  deliverance  from  monarchy  and  popery  was  at  hand.  Some 
tyme  after  ye  settlement  of  ye  goum,  I  moued  for  a  place  for  the  C.  of  England  men  to 
assemble  in ;  after  many  delays,  at  last  were  gott  a  small  room  in  ye  town  house,  but 
our  Company  increasing  beyond  the  expectation  of  the  goum ,  we  now  use  ye  Exchange, 
and  haue  ye  Common-prayer  and  two  sermons  euery  Sunday,  and  at  7  a  clock  in  ye  morn- 
ing on  Wednesdays  and  frydays  the  whole  service  of  ye  Church  ;  and  some  Sundays  7  or 
8  persons  are  in  one  day  Baptis'd,  and  more  would  dayly  be  of  our  communion  had  wee 
but  the  Company  and  countenance  of  the  President  and  Councill ;  but  instead  thereof 
wee  are  neglected  and  can  obtain  no  maintainance  from  them  to  support  our  minister. 
Butt  had  wee  a  gen"  gour  we  should  soon  haue  a  larg  congregation  and  also  one  of  the 
Churches  in  Boston,  as  your  Grace  was  pleased  to  propose  when  these  matters  were 
debated  at  ye  Councill  Table.2  I  humbly  remind  your  Grace  of  the  money  granted 
formerly  for  evangelizing  the  Indians  in  our  Neighborhood.  It's  great  pitty  that 
there  should  be  a  considerable  stock  in  this  country  (but  how  imployed  I  know  not) 

1  Other  letters  from  him  are  largely  quoted  2  See  Hutchinson's   Coll.  of  Tapers,  pp.  549, 

by  Dr.  Palfrey, passim, going  over  essentially  the     550,  of  the  original  edition;  ii.  291,  292,  of  the 
same  ground,  in  History  of  New  England,  iii.  Prince  Society's  reprint. 


THE   RISE   OF   DISSENTING   FAITHS.  203 

and  wee  want  7  or  800^  to  build  vs  a  Church.  Their  ministry  exclaim  against  yf  Com- 
mon Prayer,  calling  it  man's  invention,  and  that  there  is  more  hopes  that  vvhoremongers 
and  adulterers  will  go  to  heaven  than  those  of  ye  C.  of  Eng11.  By  these  wicked  doc- 
trines they  poison  the  people,  and  their  ministry  carry  it  as  high  as  ever.  .  .  .  Your 
grace  can  hardly  imagine  the  small  artifices  they  haue  vsed  to  prevent  our  meetings  on 
Sundays,  and  at  all  other  tymes  to  serue  God.  They  haue  libelled  my  wife  and  our  Min- 
ister, and  this  is  done  (as  credibly  beleiued)  by  ye  minister  of  the  frigott,1  yett  it 's  coun- 
tenanced by  the  faction,  who  haue  endeavoured  to  make  a  breach  in  my  family,  betwixt 
me  and  my  wife,  and  haue  accomplished  another  design  in  setting  vp  and  supporting 
Capt.  Georg,  Commander  of  the '  Rose '  frigott,  against  me.  .  .  . 

"  It 's  necessary  that  ye  gour  licence  all  their  ministers,  and  that  none  be  called 
to  be  a  pastor  of  a  Congregation  without  his  approbation.  By  this  method  alone  the 
whole  Country  will  easily  be  regulated,  and  then  they  will  build  vs  a  church  and  be 
willing  to  allow  our  ministers  an  honorable  maintenance. 

"  Wee  haue  a  sober,  prudent  gent,  to  be  our  minister,  and  well  approved ;  but,  in 
case  of  sickness  or  other  casualtyes,  if  he  haue  not  one  soul  from  Eng.1.  to  helpe  him, 
our  Church  is  lost.  '  Tis  therefore  necessary  That  another  sober  man  come  ouer  to 
assist,  for  some  tymes  'tis  requisite  that  one  of  them  visit  the  other  Colonyes  to  bap- 
tise and  administer  the  Sacrament ;  and  in  regard  we  cannot  make  40'!'  a  yeare  start  by 
contributions  for  support  of  him  and  his  assistant,  it  would  be  very  gratefull  to  our 
church  affaires  if  his  Malie  would  please  to  grant  us  his  Royall  letters,  That  the  three 
meeting  houses  in  Boston,  which  seuerally  collect  7  or  &jQ  on  a  Sunday,  do  pay  to 
our  church  warden  205-.  a  weeke  for  each  meeting  house,  which  will  be  some  encour- 
agement to  our  ministers,  and  then  they  can  but  raile  against  ye  Service  of  ye  Church. 
They  haue  great  Stocks,  and  were  they  directed  to  contribute  to  build  us  a  Church, 
or  part  from  one  of  their  meeting  houses,  Such  as  wee  should  approue,  they  would 
purchase  that  exemption  at  a  great  rate,  and  then  they  could  but  call  vs  papists  and 
our  Minister  Baal!  Priests." 2 

It  is  evident  enough,  from  the  letters  of  the  most  resolute  enemy  that 
New  England  had,  that  the  Church  was  pushed  here  by  Randolph  in  no 
small  degree  as  a  political  engine,  rather  than  for  religious  and  devout  ends. 
The  clear-sighted  and  conscientious  Puritans  who  were  opposed  to  him  saw 
this  very  plainly.  The  wonder  is  not  that  they  opposed  the  church  so  cham- 
pioned, but  rather  that  it  took  root  at  all  under  such  malign  auspices. 

The  congregation  of  the  Church  of  England  in  Boston  was  now  organized 
and  established,  and  would  soon  have  had  a  religious  home  of  its  own  but 
for  a  new  political  event.  Within  five  months,  on  December  20,  1686,  Sir 
Edmund  Andros  superseded  Dudley  and  became  the  first  Royal  Governor 
of  the  Province. 

It  is  beyond  the  scope  of  this  narrative  to  give  in  detail  the  history  of 
the  high-handed  ways  in  which  Governor  Andros  faithfully  carried  out  his 
master's  policy.  His  proceedings  in  the  State  were  paralleled  by  his  course 
in  ecclesiastical  affairs.  On  the  very  day  of  his  landing,  the  Governor  endeav- 
ored to  make  an  arrangement  with  the  ministers  for  the  partial  use  of  one 

1  The  Rev.  Mr.  Buckly  was  the  chaplain  of     Tanner  MS.  xxx  f.  97,  quoted  in  Perry's  Papers 
the  "  Rose  "  frigate.  relating  to  the  History  of  the  Church    in  Mass. 

2  Randolph  to  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  in     pp.  653-656. 


204  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

of  the  meeting-houses  for  Church  of  England  worship.  The  pithy  con- 
densed entries  in  Sewall's  Diary  give  us  an  invaluable  picture  of  the  course 
of  the  negotiation  and  of  subsequent  events ;  and  there  are  few  more 
dramatic  incidents  in  our  history  than  the  moment  when  the  English  ruler 
and  the  Boston  clergy  confronted  each  other. 

"Monday,  Decemb'  20,  1686.     Govr  Andros  comes  up  in  ye  Pinace.  .  .  . 

"...  it  seems  speaks  to  ye  Ministers  in  ye  Library  abt  accomodation  as  to  a 
Meeting-house,  yt  might  so  contrive  ye  time  as  one  House  might  serve  two  Assem- 
blies. 

"Tuesday,  Decr  21.  There  is  a  Meeting  at  Mr.  Allen's  of  ye  Ministers,  and  four 
of  each  Congregation  to  consider  what  answer  to  give  ye  Govr ;  and  'twas  agreed  yt 
could  not  with  a  good  Conscience  consent  yt  our  Meeting-House  should  be  made 
use  of  for  ye  Cofnon-prayr  worship. 

"Decr22.  .  .  .  In  ye  Evening  Mr.  Mather  and  Willard  thorowly  discoursed  his  Ex- 
cellency about  ye  Meeting-Houses  in  great  plainess,  shewing  they  could  not  consent : 
This  was  at  his  Lodging  at  Madam  Taylor's ;  He  seems  to  say  will  not  impose. 

"  Friday  Xr  24.     About  60  Red-coats  are  brought  to  Town.  .  .  . 

"Satterday,  Xr  25.  Govr  goes  to  ye  Town-House  to  Service  Forenoon  and  after- 
noon, a  Redcoat  going  on's  right  hand  and  Capt.  George  on  ye  left.  Was  not  at  Lec- 
ture on  Thorsday.  Shops  open  to-day  generally  and  persons  about  yr  occasions.  Some 
but  few  Carts  at  Town  with  wood  thou  ye  day  exceeding  fair  and  pleasant.  Read  in  ye 
morn  ye  46  &  47  of  Isa." 

So  ended  what  must  have  been  an  exciting  week  in  the  little  Puritan 
community.  But  they  were  thankful  that  things  were  no  worse.  Mr.  Sew- 
all  doubtless  expressed  the  general  mind  when,  meeting  Governor  Andros 
in  the  street,  — 

"  Friday  Jan.  7th  i68f.  I  thankfully  acknowledged  ye  protection  and  peace  we 
enjoyed  under  his  Excellencie's  Government." 

The  Puritans  knew  very  well  the  temper  of  the  men  whom  they  were  fight- 
ing. The  controversy  was  one  which  no  soft  words  would  heal.  It  was  at 
bottom  nothing  less  than  a  deadly  strife  as  to  which  of  two  opposing 
principles  should  govern  Massachusetts.  The  unanimous  mind  of  those 
who  came  here  to  execute  the  court  policy  was  expressed  by  Governor 
Cranfield,  of  New  Hampshire,  who,  in  a  letter  dated  at  Boston,  June  19, 
1683,  wrote  to  Sir  LI.  Jenkins, — 

"...  There  can  be  no  greater  evill  attend  his  Majtie  affairs  here,  then  those  perni- 
cious and  Rebellious  principles  which  flows  from  their  Collige  at  Cambridge  which  they 
call  their  Uniuersity,  from  whence  all  the  Townes  both  in  this  and  the  other  Colonys 
are  supplyed  with  Factious  and  Seditious  Preachers  who  stirr  up  the  people  to  a  dislike 
of  his  Majlitf  and  his  Goum1.  and  the  Religion  of  the  Church  of  England,  terming  the 
Liturgy  of  our  Church  a  precident  of  Superstition  and  picked  out  of  the  Popish 
Dunghill ;  so  that  I  am  humbly  of  opinion  this  Country  can  never  bee  well  settled  or 
the  people  become  good  Subjects,  till  their  Preachers  bee  reformed  and  that  Colleclge 
suppressed  and  the  severall  Churches  supplyed  with  Learned  and  Orthodox  Ministers 
from  England  as  all  other  his  Maj"es  Dominions  in  America  are. 


THE    RIS-E   OF   DISSENTING    FAITHS.  205 

"  The  Country  growes  very  populous,  and  if  Longer  left  ungoverned  or  in  that  man- 
ner as  now  they  are  I  feare  it  may  bee  of  dangerous  consequence  to  his  Maj's  concerns 
in  this  part  of  the  World.  ...  If  the  Boston  Charter  were  made  void  and  the  Cheif 
of  the  Faction  called  to  answer  in  their  owne  persons  for  their  misdemenors  and 
their  Teachers  restrained  from  Seditious  preaching,  it  would  give  great  encourage- 
ment to  the  Loyall  Party,  to  shew  themselves,  who  haue  hetherto  beene  kept  under 
and  greatly  oppressed  and  from  all  places  of  proffitt  and  trust.  .  .  ."  l 

A  school  of  historical  students  has  sprung  up  in  this  country  who  teach 
that  the  Massachusetts  policy  was  a  self-seeking  and  hypocritical  one.  The 
fact  simply  was  that  the  Massachusetts  policy  was  imperious,  as  it  was 
necessary  to  be  when  in  collision  with  imperiousness,  and  its  assertors  were 
in  away  sagacious,  as  those  must  be  who  have  to  outwit  unprincipled  craft; 
their  course  was  narrow,  as  a  sword  must  be  if  it  is  to  have  a  cutting  edge. 
The  Puritan  idea  tended  to  make  men  freemen ;  the  courtly  idea  of  the 
court  of  Charles  II.  tended  to  make  them  slaves.  In  that  interest  the 
courtier  party  here  bent  all  their  efforts  to  break  the  Puritan  idea  to  atoms. . 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Puritan  idea  was  based  on  the  supposition  that  this 
should  be  a  colony  of  Puritans,  —  that  they  could  keep  out  everybody  else. 
And  thus  when  the  land  filled  up  with  churchmen  and  loyalists,  the  injus- 
tice followed  that  there  was  a  multitude  of  disfranchised  persons ;  so  that 
it  came  to  pass  that  the  courtier  party,  from  having  fought  against  liberty 
at  home,  were  obliged  to  fight  for  liberty  here.  To  our  forefathers  it 
seemed  that  these  men  were  wholly  evil ;  but  as  dispassionate  historical 
students  we  should  judge  them  more  fairly. 

That  little  group  of  men  "  in  the  library  of  the  town  house"  brought  the 
antagonist  forces  face  to  face. 

Confronting  the  new  power  that  was  bent  on  subverting  the  cherished 
system  of  the  Colony  was  a  little  company,  resolute,  uncompromising, 
devoted  to  the  Puritan  idea,  —  in  the  five  ministers  of  Boston.  They  were 
the  steel  point  of  the  spear  which  Massachusetts  held  steadily  before  her 
breast,  ever  on  the  guard,  though  not  thrusting  against  her  enemy  as  yet. 
The  clergy  had  possessed  a  supreme  influence  from  the  beginning  of 
the  colony.  The  ablest  men  had  found  in  that  profession  their  largest 
opportunity.  Many  a  man  whose  ambition  led  him  later  into  public  life 
set  his  foot  first  on  that  firm  stepping-stone  to  power.  George  Downing, 
who  passed  from  his  Cambridge  study  of  theology,  by  way  of  a  chaplaincy 
in  Cromwell's  army,  to  success  as  one  of  the  ablest  politicians  in  England, 
whose  baseness  in  betraying  his  former  friends  to  a  traitor's  death  when  he 
joined  Charles  II.  was  only  paralleled  by  his  refusal  to  allow  his  mother 
the  pittance  needed  in  her  old  age ;  Joseph  Dudley,  nursed  in  the  very 
bosom  of  Massachusetts,  and  turning  to  give  her  the  deadlier  sting  with 
talents  and  powers  which  made  him  one  of  the  ablest  men  of  his  time; 
William  Stoughton,  the  rich,  sour  old  bachelor,  who  never  repented  of  his 
dark  part  as  judge  in  the  Salem  witchcraft  tragedy,  and  whose  character 

1  Jenness,   Transcripts,  p.  150. 


206  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OP   BOSTON. 

is  crabbedly  portrayed  on  the  walls  of  the  Cambridge  dining-hall, — these, 
and  such  as  these,  began  as  New  England  ministers. 

The  sceptre  of  dominion  was  to  pass  forever  from  the  Massachusetts 
clergy  with  the  generation  now  on  the  stage.  But  the  five  ministers  of  the 
Boston  churches  are  worthy  to  wield  it.  They  face  Andros,  when  he 
demands  one  of  their  churches,  with  a  will  as  resolute  as  his  own.  Four. of 
them  were  now  hard  upon  fifty  years  old ;  the  fifth  made  up  for  the  brevity 
of  his  twenty-four  years  by  a  precocity  which  was  the  wonder  of  the  town. 
Two  were  joint-ministers  of  the  First  Church,  two  of  the  Second,  and  one 
of  the  Third,  or  South,  Church. 

Rev.  James  Allen,  an  ejected  minister  and  Oxford  Fellow,  came  to  New 
England  soon  after  the  accession  of  Charles  II.  At  the  period  of  our 
narrative  he  had  been  eighteen  years  a  minister  of  the  First  Church,  having 
been  installed  as  its  teacher  Dec.  9,  1668,  at  the  same  time  that  Davenport 
was  inducted  as  its  pastor.  He  was  destined  to  continue  in  his  sacred 
.office  until  his  death,  at  the  age  of  seventy-eight,  Sept.  22,  1710.  John 
Dunton,  in1  his  Life  and  Errors,  says:  "  I  went  to  visit  the  Reverend  Mr. 
Allen.  He  is  very  humble  and  very  rich,  and  can  be  generous  enough 
when  the  humor  is  upon  him.  His  son  was  an  eminent  minister  here  in 
England,  and  deceased  at  Northampton." 

The  historian  of  the  First  Church  thus  writes  concerning  him :  — 

"  He  was  equally  moderate  and  lenient  in  his  concessions  to  others,  on  the  score 
of  individual  freedom,  as  he  was  strenuous  for  the  enjoyment  of  his  own  rights.  He 

was  willing  to  render  to  Caesar  all  proper 
tribute ;  but  he  was  unwilling  that  Caesar, 
in  the  capacity  of  civil  magistrate,  should 

^Tt)  /)>i       £*Lrf       i"— *•*.  interfere  in  holy  things.      He  was  equally 

/     *  """"^"•^  desirous  of  shielding  the  Church  against 

L<^++^*f-f  J\0&n—  tne  power  of  the  Clergy,  as  against  that  of 

*^  the  civil  ruler.    [He]  enjoyed  a  long,  virtu- 

ous, and  happy  life  of  seventy-eight  years, 
forty-six  of  which  he  had  been  a  member, 
and  forty-two  a  vigilant  ruler  and  instructer 
of  the  Church.  His  wealth  gave  him  the 
power,  which  he  used  as  a  good  Bishop,  to 
be  hospitable." 

His  colleague,  Joshua  Moodey,  was  a  man  of  the  stuff"  that  martyrs  are 
made  of,  and  had  himself  shown  a  willingness  to  die,  if  need  be,  in  this 
very  cause.  During  his  imprisonment  by  Cranfield  at  Portsmouth,  he  wrote 
from  prison  a  letter  worthy  to  be  enrolled  with  the  Acts  of  the  Martyrs: 

"  The  good  Lord  prepare  poor  New  England  for  the  bitter  cup  which  is  begun  with 
us,  and  intended  (by  man  at  least)  to  go  round.  But  God  is  faithful ;  upon  whose 
grace  and  strength  I  beg  grace  to  hang  and  hope."  This  letter  he  signed  "  Christ'^ 
prisoner  and  your  humble  servant."  ' 

1  4  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.  v.  120. 


THE    RISE   OF    DISSENTING   FAITHS.  207 

After  three  months'  incarceration  he  had  come  to  Boston,  and  had  been 
invited  to  remain  as  Mr.  Allen's  assistant.  It  is  not  less  to  his  honor  that  in 
1692  his  opposition  to  the  witchcraft  delusion  was  to  cause  his  removal 
again  from  Boston,  returning  to  Portsmouth,  where  he  died  July  4,  1697. 

The  renowned  ministers  of  the  Second  Church  —  the  Mathers,  father  and 
son  —  are  considered  in  a  later  chapter  of  this  work.  The  son,  indeed,  has 
given  a  fantastic  tinge  to  the  name,  which  clouds  over  his  real  claim  to  hon- 
orable memory.  Cotton  Mather  had  grave  faults,  —  his  conceit  of  learning, 
his  credulity,  his  monstrous  part  in  the  witchcraft  tragedy.  But  lovers  of 
books  ought  to  judge  leniently  of  the  man  who  wrote  more  than  three  hun- 
dred !  And  the  part  which  he  played  in  his  later  years  in  the  introduction 
here  of  inoculation  for  small-pox,  when  the  fury  of  the  mob  imperilled 
his  very  life,  entitles  him  to  grateful  remembrance.  When  he  stood  before 
Andros,  only  twenty- four  years  old,  his  faults  were  not  yet  so  evident,  and 
his  promise  seemed  to  have  no  limit. 

Of  the  father,  Increase  Mather,  President  of  Harvard  College,  —  and  one 
of  the  most  eminent  who  have  ever  filled  that  office,  —  a  powerful  preacher 
to  the  age  of  eighty-five,  agent  of  Massachusetts  at  the  court  of  King  James 
II.  and  at  that  of  William  and  Mary,  his  distinguished  reception  there  testi- 
fies to  the  impression  which  he  made  on  nobles  and  princes.  He  lived  to  be 
the  last  possessor  of  the  almost  absolute  power  of  the  old  Puritan  clergy. 
When  he  faced  Andros  he  was  the  very  incarnation  of  the  Puritan  temper. 
He  addressed  a  town-meeting  in  Boston  when  there  was  question  of  giving 
up  the  charter,  in  1683-84,  and  openly  counselled  that  they  should  return 
Naboth's  answer  when  Ahab  asked  for  his  vineyard,  —  that  they  would  not 
give  up  the  inheritance  of  their  fathers.1 

Randolph,  who  knew  men  thoroughly,  paid  Increase  Mather  the  compli- 
ment of  hating  him  and  fearing  him  as  he  did  no  other  man  here.  "  The 
Bellowes  of  Sedition  and  Treason,"2  he  called  him ;  and  when  after  the  dowa- 
fall  of  the  Andros  tyranny  he  was  safely  lodged  in  prison  and  had  leisure  to 
contemplate  the  bringing  to  nought  of  his  fifteen  years  of  busy  scheming, 
he  wrote  from  the  "  Goal  in  Boston,  May  16,  '89,"  to  the  Govr  of  Barbados, 
"...  They  have  not  yet  sent  to  England,  expecting  Mather,  their 
Mahomett."  3 

The  Mathers  also  were  quite  capable  of  a  hatred  which  they  perhaps 
thought  to  be  only  righteous  indignation.  Increase  Mather,  with  all  his 
dignity,  observed  this  in  his  famous  letter  to  Governor  Dudley,  nearly  twenty 
years  later  than  this  time,  —  in  which  he  raked  together  all  Dudley's  political 
and  personal  sins  in  a  pile  of  red-hot  coals,  by  no  means  of  the  kind  which 
the  apostle  commands  to  heap  on  an  enemy's  head.  It  is  not  difficult  to 
imagine  what  was  the  temper  of  such  men  as  these,  when  they  saw  that 

1  In  any  other  country  of  the  civilized  world  the  most  dreaded  scourge,  and  where  lived  his 

the  veriest  stranger  would  read  inscriptions  re-  father,  Increase  Mather,  the  leader  of  Massa- 

cordmg  where  the  house  stood  in  which  Cotton  chusetts  Puritans  in  this  great  contest. 
Mather  inoculated  his  own  child  to  prove  the  2  Mather  Papers,  p.  525. 

safety  of  the  process,  and  by  so  doing  banished  3  Hutchinson,  Coll.  of  Papers,  ii.  315. 


208  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

nothing  but  their  firmness  and  skill  could  save  from  destruction  all  that 
they  held  dearest. 

Last  of  the  five  ministers  was  he  of  the  South  Church,  — Rev.  Samuel  Wil- 
lard,  son  of  Major  Simon  Willard,  one  of  the  principal  citizens  of  Concord 
and  prominent  in  civil  and  'military  life.  He  had  been  a  Fellow  of  Harvard 
College  and  subsequently  the  first  minister  of  Groton,  where  his  ministry 
was  ended  by  the  destruction  of  the  town  by  the  Indians  in 
March,  1676,  when  he  had  removed  to  Boston  and,  being 
settled  as  colleague  to  Rev.  Thomas  Thacher,  was  soon  left 
the  only  minister  of  the  South  Church,  which  place  he  occupied  until  Rev. 
Ebenezer  Pemberton  was  settled  as  his  colleague  in  1700.  From  Sept.  6, 
1701,  to  Aug.  14,  1707,  he  filled  the  office  of  Vice-president  of  Harvard 
College,  while  retaining  his  pastorship.  He  died  Sept.  12,  1707. 

"  Well  furnished  with  learning,"  says  Dunton,  he  "  has  a  natural  fluency 
of  speech  and  can  say  what  he  pleases."  1  During  the  witchcraft  delusion 
he  bore  himself  prudently  and  firmly.  Pastor  of  three  of  the  special  judges 
of  that  tribunal,  "  he  has  as  yet,"  says  a  contemporary,  "  met  with  little  but 
unkindness,  abuse,  and  reproach  from  many  men."  Calef  says  that  once 
"  one  of  the  accusers  cried  out  publicly  of  Mr.  Willard,  as  afflicting  of  her." 
He  published  many  works,  of  which  the  chief  was  his  Complete  Body  of 
Divinity,  the  first  folio  volume  of  theology  published  in  this  country,  in 
I726.2 

These  were  the  men  who,  with  a  constituency  of  laymen  behind  them, 
had  to  foil  Andros  and  Randolph  if  they  could.3 

1  Dunton's  Letters,  edited  by  Mr.  Whitmore,  one  of  your  publick  Meeting-Houses  or  in  any 
p.  175.  other  convenient  place,  where  all  who  are  de- 

2  [The    portrait    of   Willard,   given   in   this  sirous  to  come  may  have  liberty,  and   let  the 
volume,  is  a  reduced  heliotype  from  the  engrav-  time  be  as  soon  as  may,  as  either  to  day  in 
ing  which  stands  as  a  frontispiece  to  this  folio,  the  Afternoon,  or  to  morrow  in  the  Fore-noon  ; 
There   is  a  portrait  in   Memorial    Hall,  Cam-  but  rather  then  fail,  if  ye  will  give  me  any  as- 
bridge.  —  ED.]  surance  to  have  a  meeting  with  you,  I  will  attend 

8  The  lofty  bearing  which  these  Puritan  your  leasure  for  two  or  three  days  to  come,  pro- 
ministers  could  assume  is  shown  in  their  an-  viding  once  this  day  ye  send  me  your  positive 
swer  to  the  Quaker,  George  Keith,  just  after  answer;  and  if  ye  give  me  a  meeting  with  you, 
this  time.  Keith's  book  was  called  The  Presby-  I  proffer  in  true  love  and  good-will,  by  the 
terian  and  Independent  Visible  Churches  in  fleto  divine  assistance,  to  show  and  inform  you.  that 
(Englanfc  And  else-wkere,  Brought  to  the  Tat,  &c.  ye  teach  and  preach  unto  the  People  many  false 
Philadelphia,  1689.  and  unsound  Principles  contrary  to  the  Doc- 
It  contained  the  following  letter: —  trine  of  Christ,  sufficiently  declared  in  the  holy 

"  To  James  Allen,  Joshua  Moody,  Samuel  Wil- 
lard, Cotton  Mather,  Preachers  in  the  Town  It  is  an  interesting  illustration  of  the  doctrine 
of  Boston  in  New  England.  then  taught  in  the  Boston  pulpit,  that  among  his 
"  Friends  and  Neighbours  •  —  twelve  Points  of  complaint,  besides  asserting  his 
"  I  being  well  assured,  both  by  the  Spirit  of  doctrine  of  the  "Inner  Light,"  he  mentions  that 
God  in  my  Heart  and  the  Testimony  of  the  holy  thev  teach  — 

Scriptures,  that  the  Doctrine  ye  preach  to  the  "  That  there  are  reprobate  Infants  that  dye 

People  is  false  and  pernicious  to  the  Souls  of  in  Infancy,  and  perish  eternally,  only  for  Adam's 

People  in  many  things,  do  earnestly  desire  and  Sin  imputed  unto  them,  and  derived  into  them, 

entreat  you,  and  every  one  of  you,  the  Preachers  ........ 

in  the  Town  of  Boston,  to  give  me  a  fair  and  "That     Justification     is     only    by    Christ's 

publick  hearing  or  meeting  with  you,  either  in  Righteousness,  without    us,   imputed    unto   us, 


THE    RISE   OF    DISSENTING    FAITHS. 


209 


Of  those  who  were  with  these  ministers,  —  the  shaft  to  their  spear-head, 
—  we  can  now  call  up  only  few  and  shadowy  glimpses.  We  know,  indeed, 
the  names  of  a  few  of  the  gentlemen  who  were  on  the  side  of  the  native 
cause ;  but  with  the  exception  of  Judge  Sewall  there  is  hardly  one  whom 
we  can  vividly  picture  to  ourselves.  The  great  men  of  the  former  genera- 


SIMON    BRADSTREET. 


tion  had  passed  away.  With  the  death  of  that  grand  old  Commonwealth 
soldier,  Governor  Leverett,  nine  years  before,  the  last  of  the  heroic  group 
had  gone.  The  most  venerable  figure  whom  we  now  see  is  old  Simon 
Bradstreet,  full  of  years  and  of  dignity.  When  Andros  is  overthrown 


and  received  by  Faith  alone,  and  not  by  any 
Righteousness  of  God  or  Christ  infused  into 
us,  or  wrought  in  us." 

The  answer  of  the  Boston  ministers  was 
brief  and  to  the  point :  — 

"  Having  received  a  Blasphemous  and  Heret- 
ical Paper,  subscribed  by  one  George  Keith,  our 
answer  to  it  and  him  is,  —  If  he  desires  Con- 
ference to  instruct  us,  let  him  give  us  his  Argu- 
ments in  wilting,  as  well  as  his  Assertions:  If 
to  inform  himself,  let  him  write  his  Doubts  : 
If  to  cavil  and  disturb  the  Peace  of  our  Churches 
(which  we  have  cause  to  suspect),  we  have 
VOL.  I.  —  27. 


neither  list  nor  leasure  to  attend  his  Motions : 
If  he  would  have  a  Publick  Audience,  let  him 
Print :  If  a  private  Discourse,  though  he  may 
know  where  we  dwell,  yet  we  forget  not  what 
the  Apostle  John  saith,  Ep.  ii.  10. 

"JAMES  ALLEN. 

"JOSHUA  MOODY. 

"SAMUEL  WILLARD. 

"  COTTON  MATHER. 
"July  the  12"',  1688." 

The  final  Scriptural  reference  is  this :  "  If 
there  come  any  to  you  and  bring  not  this  doc- 
trine, receive  him  not  into  your  house,  neither 
give  him  God-speed." 


210  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

in  1689  he  will  be  placed  at  the  head  of  the  government,  though  weighed 
down  with  the  snows  of  ninety  years.  We  prize  the  few  words  in  which 
the  Labadist  missionaries  describe  him,1  "  an  old  man,  quiet  and  grave, 
dressed  in  black  silk,  but  not  sumptuously."  Venerable,  but  not  forcible, 
his  memory  was  long  cherished,  largely  because  he  had  the  happy  fortune 
to  linger  the  last  survivor  of  a  band  of  remarkable  men.  He  seemed  to 
concentrate  in  himself  the  dignity  and  wisdom  of  the  first  century  of  Mas- 
sachusetts life. 

But  the  strength  of  the  opposition  which  the  ministers  headed  was  really 
the  same  which  made  the  strength  of  the  Revolution,  and  again  of  our  own 
War  for  the  Nation.  It  was  the  tough  persistence  of  the  common  people. 
The  yeomen  of  New  England  knew  perfectly  what  they  wanted ;  and  they 
wanted  no  bishops  nor  tithes,  nor  forced  loans  of  their  churches.  They 
might  bend  a  little  for  a  moment ;  but  they  would  only  spring  back  the 
harder ;  and  they  would  never  break  ! 

The  strange  law  by  which  the  Old  South  Church  was  brought,  in  this 
earlier  time  of  revolution  as  well  as  in  the  later  ninety  years  afterward,  into 
a  sort  of  representative  attitude  as  the  special  antagonist  of  the  alien  in- 
fluences, is  strikingly  exemplified  in  the  person  who  stands  in  history  as  the 
typical  Puritan  of  his  time.  It  is  not  because  Samuel  Sewall  was  the  most 
prominent  man  in  Boston ;  for  that  he  was  not,  at  the  time  where  we  are, 
though  he  was  a  man  of  wealth  and  influence  and  of  the  real  Puritan 
character.  But  it  is,  above  all,  because  he  kept  a  diary  !  His  ink  had  a 
wholesome  human  tincture  in  it  which  has  prevented  it  from  fading  through 
two  centuries.  Judge  Sewall  is  the  Pepys  of  New  England.  His  diary  is 
as  quaint  and  racy,  and  as  full  of  delicious  bits  of  self-revealing  as  was  that 
of  his  English  contemporary.  But  how  unlike  to  that  other  Samuel  in  all 
the  nobler  aspects,  all  of  which  are  mirrored  in  those  brown  old  pages,  — 
his  prayerful  temper,  his  loyalty  to  God  and  to  the  God-fearing  Puritanism 
which  he  loved  so  well !  2 

The  Governor  waited  yet  three  months  with  a  patience  hardly  in  accord 
with  his  impetuous  character,  and  showed  himself  a  good  churchman  in  the 
shorn  observances  in  the  town-hall.  Sewall  records :  — 

"  [1686-7].  Tuesday,  January  25.  This  day  is  kept  for  s'  Paul  and  ye  Bell  was  rung 
in  y*  Morning  to  call  persons  to  service ;  The  Govr  (I  am  told)  was  there. 

"  Monday.  January  31.  There  is  a  Meeting  at  ye  Town  house  forenoon  and  after- 
noon. Bell  rung  for  it ;  respecting  ye  beheading  Charles  ye  first.  Govr  there." 

But  when  the  solemn  days  of  the  Church  at  the  close  of  Lent  drew  nigh, 
there  seemed  a  special  unfitness  in  their  celebration  by  the  representative  of 
the  King  and  by  the  authorized  ritual  of  England  in  a  place  devoid  of  all 
sacred  associations,  with  a  few  "  benches  and  formes,"  while  around  the 
Governor  were  commodious  houses  of  worship  tenanted  by  a  form  of  re- 
ligion which  at  home  had  no  rights,  —  not  even  the  legal  right  to  exist. 

1  Long  Island  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.  i.  2  [Cf.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  February,  1873.—  ED.] 


THE   RISE   OF    DISSENTING   FAITHS.  211 

No  reason  is  given  why  the  South  Church  was  selected  to  be  the  very 
unwilling  host  of  the  new  Episcopal  Society ;  but  it  may  be  conjectured 
that  it  was  either  because  it  was  the  nearest  to  where  Sir  Edmund  lived,  — 
in  what  was  then  called  "  the  best  part  of  the  town,"  and  near  where  the 
Province  House  afterwards  stood,  —  or  because  the  South  Church  only  had 
one  minister,  while  each  of  the  others  had  two,  i.  e.,  twice  as  many  persons 
with  troublesome  tongues.  Then,  too,  Randolph  had  doubtless  told  the 
Governor  how  the  South  Church  rose  out  of  a  bitter  quarrel,  and  he  may 
have  thought  that  the  other  two  churches  would  look  on  its  vexations  with 
more  composure  of  spirit.  To  be  sure,  in  1682,  when  ominous  clouds  were 
gathering  over  the  prospects  of  New  England  Puritanism,  the  First  Church 
had  proposed  to  the  South  Church  "  to  forgive  and  forget  all  past  offences," 
and  to  live  "  in  peace  for  time  to  come."  But  it  may  well  have  been  sup- 
posed that  the  old  gulf  had  not  wholly  closed. 

Sewall  again  notes  in  his  diary :  — 

"Tuesday,  March  22,  168^.  This  day  his  excellency  views  the  three  Meeting 
houses.  Wednesday,  March  23.  —  The  Govr  sends  Mr.  Randolph  for  y6  keys  of  our 
Meetingh.  y'  may  say  Prayers  there.  Mr.  Eliot,  Frary,  Oliver,  Savage,  Davis,  and  my  self 
wait  on  his  Excellency ;  shew  that  ye  Land  and  House  is  ours,  and  that  we  can't  consent 
to  part  with  it  to  such  use ;  exhibit  an  extract  of  Mrs.  Norton's  Deed  and  how  'twas 
built  by  particular  persons  as  Hull,  Oliver,  ioo£  a  piece,  &c. 

"Friday,  March  25,  1687.  The  Govr  has  service  in  ye  south  Meetinghouse; 
Goodm.  Needham  [the  Sexton]  tho'  had  resolv'd  to  ye  Contrary,  was  prevail'd  upon 
to  Ring  ye  Bell  and  open  ye  door  at  ye  Governour's  Comand,  one  Smith  and  Hill,  Joiner 
and  Shoemaker,  being  very  busy  about  it.  Mr.  Jno.  Usher  was  there,  whether  at  ye 
very  begining,  or  no,  I  can't  tell." 

From  this  time,  during  the  remainder  of  Andros's  administration,  — that 
is,  for  a  little  over  two  years,  —  the  Episcopalians  had  joint  occupancy  of  the 
South  Church  with  its  proper  owners,  though  against  occasional  protests. 

It  was  something,  indeed,  for  which  the  Puritan  congregation  had 
reason  to  be  grateful,  that  they  were  allowed  to  worship  at  all  in  their  own 
meeting-house  by  the  representative  of  a  government  which  at  home  had 
set  so  many  marks  of  scorn  on  dissenters  from  the  Church  of  England. 
Nevertheless,  on  the  special  days  of  the  Church  they  were  subjected  to 
grave  inconveniences.  On  Easter  Sunday,  1687,  the  Governor  and  his  suite 
met  there  again  at  eleven,  sending  word  to  the  proprietors  that  they  might 
come  at  half-past  one ;  "  but  it  was  not  until  after  two  that  the  Church  service 
was  over;"  owing,  says  Sewall,  to  "the  sacrament  and  Mr.  Clarke's  long 
sermon  ;  so  'twas  a  sad  sight  to  see  how  full  the  street  was  with  people  gazing 
and  moving  to  and  fro,  because  they  had  not  entrance  into  the  house." 

The  Puritan  diarist,  to  whose  invaluable  pages  we  are  indebted  for  the 
history  of  this  obstinate  contest,  follows  it  further  step  by  step  with  his  pithy 
narrative  till  the  end  of  October,  1688,  in  passages  which  we  have  not  space 
to  quote.  The  pressure  of  imposition  on  the  one  side  and  of  resistance  on 


212  THE    MEMORIAL    HISTORY    OF    BOSTON. 

the  other  grew  more  urgent.  In  April,  1688,  the  Governor  gave  his  definite 
promise  that  they  would  "build  a  house;"  but  the  further  long  delay  led 
to  hot  remonstrances  and  an  angry  dispute  between  the  high-tempered 
soldier  and  the  Puritan  owners  of  the  South  Church,  who  were  stubborn 
for  their  rights. 

To  this  enforced  tenancy  of  the  South  Meeting-house  we  owe  some  of 
the  most  picturesque  passages  in  the  religious  history  of  the  period.  We 
quote  Sewall  again :  — 

"  Monday,  May  16,  1687.  This  day  Capt.  Hamilton  buried  wth  Capt.  Nicholson's 
Redcoats  and  yc  8  Companies  :  Was  a  funeral-sermon  preach 'd  by  yc  Fisher's  Chaplain  : 
Pulpit  cover'd  with  black  cloath  upon  w'h  scutcheons :  Mr.  Dudley,  Stoughton  & 
many  others  at  ye  Comon  Prayer,  and  Sermon  :  House  very  full,  and  yet  ye  Souldiers 
went  not  in." 

But  the  most  impressive  scene  which  it  witnessed  was  the  funeral  of  Lady 
Andros.  The  rigid  Puritan  diarist  gives  us  an  unconscious  glimpse  into  his 
feelings  of  indignant  sorrow  for  New  England,  in  his  private  entry  on  this 
event : — 

"  Feb.  10,  i68£.  Between  4  and  5. 1  went  to  ye  Funeral  of  yc  Lady  Andros  having 
been  invited  p  ye  Clark  of  ye  South-Company.  Between  7.  and  8.  (Lychus  illuminating 
ye  cloudy  air)  The  Corps  was  carried  into  the  Herse  drawn  by  six  Horses.  The  Soul- 
diers making  a  Guard  from  ye  Governour's  House  down  ye  Prison  Lane  to  ye  South-M. 
House,  there  taken  out  and  carried  in  at  ye  western  dore,  and  set  in  ye  Alley  before  ye 
pulpit  wth  six  Mourning  women  by  it.  House  made  light  with  candles  and  Torches  ;  was 
a  great  noise  and  clamor  to  keep  people  out  of  ye  House,  y'  might  not  rush  in  too 
soon.  I  went  home,  where  about  nine  a  clock  I  heard  ye  Bell  toll  again  for  ye  Funeral. 
It  seems  Mr.  Ratcliff's  Text  was,  Cry,  all  flesh  is  Grass.  The  Ministers  turned  in  to  Mr 
Willards.  The  Meeting  House  full,  among  whom  Mr.  Dudley,  Stoughton,  Gedney, 
Bradstreet  &c.  On  Satterday,  Feb.  1 1 .  yc  mourning  cloth  of  ye  Pulpit  is  taken  off  and 
given  to  Mr.  Willard.  My  Bror.  Stephen  was  at  ye  Funeral,  and  lodged  here." 

Another  illustration  of  the  bitter  conflicts  of  feeling  here  is  found  in  the 
account  of  the  funeral  of  a  person  named  Lilly,  who  had  left  the  ordering 
of  this  to  his  executors.  Mr.  Ratcliffe  undertook  to  read  the  service  at  his 
grave,  he  having  been  one  of  the  subscribers  to  the  church,  but  the  execu- 
tors forbade  him ;  and  when  he  began,  Deacon  Frairey  of  the  South  Church 
interrupted  him  and  put  a  stop  to  the  service,  for  which  the  deacon  was 
bound  to  his  good  behavior  for  twelve  months.  This  was  deemed  of  suf- 
ficient importance  to  be  reported  to  the  Privy  Council  in  England. 

The  Governor  on  one  occasion  requested  the  South  Church  minister  to 
begin  his  service  at  8  A.M.  for  the  convenience  of  the  Episcopalians,  and 
promised  that  it  should  be  the  last  time.  But  still  the  church  was  occupied 
in  this  way  till  just  before  the  popular  uprising  which  overthrew  Andres's 
government,  on  the  news  of  William  of  Orange's  landing  in  England. 

It  is  a  chapter  of  outrageous  wrongs  which  Andros  wrote  here,  and  there 
is  cause  for  lasting  regret  that  the  origin  of  so  good  a  thing  as  religious 


THE    RISE   OF    DISSENTING   FAITHS.  213 

freedom  under  the  stern  old  Puritan  regime  should  have  been  sullied  by  his 
despotic  acts.  But  it  is  satisfactory  to  remember  that  ninety  years  later 
King's  Chapel  willingly  expiated  this  injustice  by  opening  its  doors  wide  to 
the  Old  South  Congregation,  when  dispossessed  of  their  own  church  by  the 
later  revolution.  It  should  be  said,  too,  that  the  character  both  of  Andros 
and  Randolph  doubtless  had  a  better  side  than  they  showed  to  these  troub- 
lesome (as  they  must  have  seemed  to  them)  and  rebellious  colonists.  They 
were  pupils  in  a  bad  school,  —  the  household  of  the  Stuarts.1  As  a  matter 
of  policy,  it  was  obviously  unwise  for  Andros  to  irritate  the  town  by  for- 
cing his  form  of  worship  into  a  meeting-house  against  the  will  of  its  lawful 
owners.  He  had  to  build  his  own  church  at  last.  But  we  should  fall  into 
a  great  error  if  we  should  measure  his  act  by  the  standard  of  toleration  of 
our  modern  day. 

The  enforced  tenancy  of  the  South  Meeting-house  did  not  wait  to  be 
brought  to  a  close  till  the  downfall  of  Governor  Andros  in  April,  1689. 
The  fact  that  the  first  wooden  church  was  already  nearly  finished  at  that 
time  is  sufficient  proof  that  the  interference  with  property  which  gave  such 
ofife*nce  was  a  temporary  though  high-handed  obedience  to  supposed  neces- 
sity, and  not  a  step  towards  confiscation.  The  foundations  of  the  new 
building  had  been  laid  before  the  middle  of  October,  1688,  and  the  frame 
was  raised  soon  after.  The  last  record  by  Sewall  concerning  the  unwel- 
come tenants  of  the  South  Church  reads  thus:  "  Octr.  28  [1688].  N.  It 
seems  ye  Govr  took  Mr-  Ratcliffe  with  him  [on  a  journey  to  Dunstable], 

1  Randolph  was  probably  in  the  family  of  the  about  him,  now  absent  or  dead."  —  Greenwood, 

Duke  of  York  before  he  became  James  II.,  while  King's  Chapel,  p.  36. 

Andros  had  begun  life  as  a  page  to  Charles  I.  Sir   Edmund   had  delayed   too   long.      The 

They   were    loyal    to    church    and    king    after  building  which  at  an  earlier  day  must  have  been 

the  old  High  Tory  fashion.      Randolph  is  de-  accepted  as  a  proper  recognition  of  the  State 

scribed  by  Dr.  Ellis  as  "a  persistent  and  pester-  and  the  religion  which  the  Governor  represented, 

ing,  if  not  unscrupulous,  man."     Of  Andros  Mr.  was  now  considered  to  be  his  reluctant  conces- 

Whitmore,  in  his  Andros   Tracts,  says  there  is  sion  to  public  opinion.     One  of  the  complaints 

"  no  evidence  that  he  was  cruel,  rapacious,  or  dis-  most  urged   against    him    before    William    the 

honest,"  or  immoral,  and  that  "  a  hasty  temper  is  Third  was,  "  That  the  Service  of  the  Church  of 

the  most  palpable  fault  to  be  attributed  to  him."  England   has  bin   forced   into   their    Meeteing 

But  the  domineering  will  of  both  Andros  and  Houses." 

Randolph  came  out  in  its  harshest  colors  when  Andros  justified   his   course    in    his   official 

brought  in  such  collision  with  the  will  of  the  report   to   his   superiors   at   home   as  follows  : 

Puritans,  which  was  as  unyielding  as  the  granite  "The  Church  of  England  being  unprovided  of  a 

of  New  England  itself.  place  for  theyr  publique  worship,  he  did,  by 

These  advocates  were  not  such  as  wise  men  advise  of  the  Councill,  borrow  the  new  meeting- 
would  have  chosen.  Hut  the  cause  which  they  house  in  Boston,  at  such  times  as  the  same  was 
were  advocating,  though  blindly,  was  of  the  best,  unused,  untill  they  could  provide  otherwise; 
And  doubtless  not  a  few  of  those  who  first  met  and  accordingly  on  Sundays  went  in  between 
in  this  way  had  a  spirit  worthy  of  the  cause,  eleven  and  twelve  in  the  morning,  and  in  the 
"  In  the  most  contentious  and  stormy  periods,"  afternoon  about  fower.  But  understanding  it 
says  Dr.  Greenwood,  "  I  doubt  not  that  a  holy  gave  offence,  hastned  the  building  of  a  Church, 
calm  was  shed  upon  the  heart  of  many  a  wor-  wch  was  effected  at  the  charge  of  those  of  the 
shipper  as  he  offered  up  his  prayers  in  the  way  Church  of  England,  where  the  Chaplaine  of  the 
which  to  him  was  best  and  most  affecting,  and  Souldiers  prformcd  divine  service  and  preach- 
perhaps  the  way  in  which,  long  years  ago,  he  ing."  —  Sir  E.  Andros's  Report  of  his  Adminis- 
had  offered  them  up  in  some  ivy-clad  village  tration  in  Documents  Relating  to  Colonial  History 
church  of  green  England,  with  many  dear  friends  of  N.  Y.,  vol.  iii. 


214 


THE    MEMORIAL    HISTORY    OF    BOSTON. 


so  met  not  at  all  distinct  in  our  House  ys  day :  Several  of  ym  wth  us  in 
y*  afternoon.  Col.  Lidget,  Mr  Sherlock,  Farvvell  in  our  Pue,  went  to 
Contribution."  As  the  custom  was  for  the  contributors  to  go  up  in  the 
presence  of  the  congregation,  and  give  what  they  had  to  offer  in  the  sight 
of  all,  this  was  a  conspicuous  act.  It  is  pleasant  to  know  that  High 
Churchmen  though  these  men  were,  and  among  those  whom  they  loved 

not,  they  were  Christian 
enough  to  join  in  the 
worship  of  the  Puritans, 
and  to  contribute  for  its 
support,  —  an  example  of 
charity  which  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  some  of  those 
with  whom  they  thus  held 
communion  would  have 
been  willing  to  imitate  in 
turn.  Worship  was  first 
held  in  the  new  church 
on  Sunday,  June  8,  1689. 
It  stood  on  a  corner  of 
the  old  burial-ground, 
covering  the  space  now 
occupied  by  the  tower 
and  front  part  of  the 
present  King's  Chapel. 

The  Governor  had  first 
tried  to  purchase  a  site 
for  the  new  church  on 
Cotton  Hill,  nearly  oppo- 
site; but  Judge  Sewall,  who  had  no  liking  for  Andros  or  for  Episcopacy, 
felt  that  it  would  be  a  desecration  of  the  ground  on  which  Sir  Henry 
Vane  had  built  a  house,  and  which  on  leaving  the  country  he  had  given  to 
John  Cotton.  He  was  more  than  once  approached  on  the  subject,  and 
once  particularly  by  Mr.  Ratcliffe,  but  constantly  replied  that  he  "  could 
not;  first,  because  he  would  not  set  up  that  which  the  people  of  New  Eng- 
land came  over  to  avoid,  and  second,  because  the  land  was  entailed." 

Finally  the  Governor  and  Council  seem  to  have  used  their  authority,  as 
the  supreme  governing  body,  to  appropriate  a  part  of  the  corner  from  the 
old  burying-ground,  which  probably  was  then  but  thinly  tenanted.  Ill-na- 
tured question  is  sometimes  made  of  the  rightful  tenure  of  this  spot  by  the 
church,  but  the  question  seems  to  be  fairly  answered  by  two  facts:  first, 

1  [The  little  vignette  showing  this  original  Whitmore,  and  others,  is  really  taken  from  what 

wooden  edifice,  with  Beacon   Hill  beyond,  and  is  known  as  Price's  View  of  Boston,  of  a  date 

given  by  Dr.  Greenwood  in  his  Hist,  of  King's  probably  a   few   years   later   than   1720,  and  of 

C//rt/Was  taken  from  an  old  print  of  Boston  of  which  a  later  issue  of  1743  is  now  only  known, 

1720,  and   which   has   been   copied   by  Drake,  so  far  as  has  been  discovered.  —  l£u.] 


THE   FIRST   KING'S   CHAPEL.1 


THE    RISE   OF   DISSENTING    FAITHS.  215 

only  the  smaller  moiety  of  the  land  on  which  the  present  King's  Chapel 1 
stands  was  obtained  at  that  time,  the  other  portion  having  been  bought  from 
the  town  when  the  present  church  was  built,  at  an  exorbitant  price,  suffi- 
cient to  cover  the  fair  value  of  all  the  land ;  second,  if  the  town  had  power 
to  sell  to  the  church  in  1749,  the  Governor  and  Council,  being  the  only  law- 
ful authorities  at  the  time,  had  the  right  to  convey  a  piece  of  the  public  land 
in  1688.  If  it  had  not  been  so  considered,  the  act  would  surely  have  been 
at  least  impugned,  if  not  annulled,  after  the  overthrow  of  Sir  Edmund 
Andros.  But  no  attempt  to  do  so  appears,  even  in  Sewall's  Diary?' 

Here,  then,  the  modest  little  church  was  built  at  a  cost  of  £284  i6s.  or 
$1,425.  To  defray  this  expense,  ninety-six  persons  throughout  the  colony 
had  contributed  £256  9-r.,  the  balance  being  given  by  Andros  on  his  depart- 
ure from  the  country,  and  by  other  English  officers  later. 

There  was  poetical  justice  in  the  fact  that  Andros  and  Randolph  never 
entered  the  building  which  they  had  done  so  much  to  obtain.  They  were 
punished  for  their  misdeeds  of  oppression  by  not  enjoying  their  good  deed, 
or  seeing  established  the  emblem  of  that  form  of  religion  for  which  they 
really  cared.  The  church-book,  on  the  next  page  to  that  which  states  the 
cost  of  the  house,  contains  the  following:  "Note  that  on  18°  Aprill  pre- 
seeding  the  date  on  th'  other  side,  began  a  most  impious  and  detestable 
rebellion  agsl  the  King's  Majestys  Government;  the  Govern'  and  all  just  men 
to  the  same  were  brought  into  restraint."  There  can  be  little  doubt  where 
the  sympathies  of  the  writer  lay.  If  he  was  the  Senior  Warden  it  is  not 
strange,  as  Dr.  Bullivant  had  been  one  of  those  imprisoned. 

The  storm  of  that  time  had  well-nigh  driven  the  little  ark  of  the  church 
from  its  anchorage.  Even  now,  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  two  centuries,  it  is 
impossible  to  read  the  Andros  Tracts  without  feeling  the  ground-swell  of 
those  waves  of  passion  which  tossed  so  fiercely  in  the  little  town  of  Boston. 
In  July,  1689,  Rev.  Robert  Ratcliffe  returned  to  England.  It  is  very  un- 
likely, in  the  angry  state  of  public  feeling,  that  there  was  any  public  dedica- 
tion, or  perhaps  any  consecration  at  all,  of  the  wooden  church.  The  very 
building  itself  seems  to  have  been  in  some  danger,  for  in  those  days  there 
was  such  a  power  as  the  "  Boston  Mob."  A  pamphlet  published  in  London 
in  1690,  entitled  New  England's  Faction  Discovered ;  by  C.  D.,  states  that 
"  the  church  itself  had  great  difficulty  to  withstand  their  fury,  receiving  the 
marks  of  their  indignation  and  scorn  by  having  the  Windows  broke  to 
pieces  and  the  Doors  and  Walls  daubed  and  defiled  with  dung  and  other 
filth  in  the  rudest  and  basest  manner  imaginable,  and  the  Minister  for 
his  safety  was  forced  to  leave  the  country  and  his  congregation  and  go 
for  England."3 

1  As  enlarged  in  1754.  the  Committee  of  Seven,  but  make  no  mention 

2  The  charges  against  Andros  and  others,  of  the  taking  of  land  for  the  Church,  —  which 
given  in  Andros  Tracts,  i.  149-173,  from  Mass,  they  would  surely  do  if  that  had  been  regarded 
Archives,  Inter-Charter  Papers,  xxv.  255,  bring  as  a  usurpation. 

together  everything  which  could  be  collected  by  3  Andros  Tracts,  ii.  212. 


2i6  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

The  church,  however,  survived  to  be  fostered  by  the  care  and  honored 
with  the  gifts  of  the  successive  monarchs  of  England,  from  William  and 
Mary  to  George  the  Third.  Under  the  long  ministry  of  Rev.  Samuel 
Myles  it  won  the  respect,  if  not  the  love,  of  its  neighbors.  The  plain 
building  was  the  only  place  in  New  England  where  the  forms  of  the  court 
church  could  be  witnessed.  The  prayers  and  anthems  which  sounded 
forth  in  the  cathedrals  of  the  mother  country  were  here  no  longer  dumb. 
The  equipages  and  uniforms  which  made  gay  the  little  court  of  Boston 
brightened  its  portals.  Within,  the  escutcheons  of  Royal  governors 
hung  against  the  pillars;  at  Christmas  it  was  wreathed  with  green;  the 
music  of  the  first  organ  heard  in  New  England  here  broke  the  stillness 
of  the  Sabbath  air.1 

The  religious  struggle  of  twenty-five  years  was  over.  If  it  be  asked 
which  party  won  in  it,  the  answer  must  be,  —  Neither,  and  both.  The 
despotism  of  Andros  was  overthrown ;  the  charter  never  was  restored  in  its 
first  fulness,  but  its  work  was  wrought ;  a  people  had  been  trained  to  great 
traditions  of  freedom,  and  these  survived  eighty-six  years  more  and  then 
burst  into  blossom  and  fruit.  On  the  other  hand  the  religious  despotism  of 
Puritanism  was  broken  forever.  Baptists,  Episcopalians,  Quakers,  might 
henceforth  worship  as  they  would ;  to-day,  everything,  anything,  or  noth- 
ing may  be  believed  where  for  nearly  sixty  years  the  Calvinism  of  New 
England  was  all  in  all. 


1  This  organ  was  the  gift  of  Thomas  Brattle.     A  Mr.  Price  was  the  first  organist.     Greenwood, 
Kings  Chapel,  p.  7^. 


CHAPTER    V. 

BOSTON     AND     THE     COLONY. 

BY     CHARLES     C.     SMITH. 
Treasurer  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 

WHEN  Winthrop  and  his  company  cast  anchor  in  Salem  harbor,  in  the 
summer  of  1630,  it  was  their  intention  to  remain  together  and  begin 
only  a  single  settlement.  With  this  view  an  exploration  of  the  neighbor- 
hood was  begun  three  days  after  the  arrival  of  the  "  Arbella."  1  But  circum- 
stances over  which  they  had  no  control  soon  compelled  them  to  relinquish 
this  purpose.  "  We  were  forced,"  says  Deputy  Governor  Dudley,  in  his 
letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln,  "  to  change  counsel,  and  for  our  present 
shelter  to  plant  dispersedly,  —  some  at  Charlestown,  which  standeth  on  the 
north  s'ide  of  the  mouth  of  Charles  River ;  some  on  the  south  side  thereof, 
which  place  we  named  Boston  (as  we  intended  to  have  done  the  place  we  first 
resolved  on)  ;  some  of  us  upon  Mistick,  which  we  named  Medford  ;  some  of 
us  westward  on  Charles  River,  four  miles  from  Charlestown,  which  place  we 
named  Watertown  ;  others  of  us  two  miles  from  Boston,  in  a  place  we  named 
Roxbury;  others  upon  the  river  of  Saugus,  between  Salem  and  Charles- 
town  ;  and  the  western  men  four  miles  south  from  Boston,  at  a  place  we 
named  Dorchester."2  Accordingly,  at  a  Court  of  Assistants  held  at  Charles- 
town  on  the  /th  of  September,  1630,  Old  Style,  which  corresponds  with  the 
1 7th  of  September  as  time  is  now  reckoned,  it  was  ordered  "that  Trimoun- 
tain  shall  be  called  Boston."  3  This  order  is  the  only  act  of  incorporation 
which  Boston  had  under  the  colony  charter. 

What  was  the  extent,  and  what  was  the  source  of  the  powers,  which  the 
towns  of  Massachusetts  exercised  is  by  no  means  clear.  It  has  been  asserted 
by  high  authority  that  the  principle  on  which  the  Plymouth  Colony  was 
founded,  —  and  the  remark  is  equally  true  as  to  the  Massachusetts  Colony, — 
required  that  while  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  "  should  remain  a  part  of  the 
whole,  and  be  subject  to  the  general  voice  in  relation  to  all  matters  which 
concerned  the  whole  colony,  they  should  be  allowed  to  be  what  their  sepa- 
rate settlements  had  made  them  ;  namely,  distinct  communities,  in  regard  to 

1  Winthrop,  New  England,  i.  27.     The  party  2  I  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  viii.  39 ;  Young,  Chron- 

was  absent  three  days,  went  up  Mystic  River,  ides  of  Mass.  pp.  313,  314. 
and  visited  Noddle's  Island  and  Nantasket.  3  Mass.  Col.  Records,  i.  75. 

VOL    I.  — 28. 


2i8  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

such  affairs  as  concerned  none  but  themselves."  l  There  was  no  sharply 
defined  line  separating  the  powers  which  the  town  and  the  colony  might 
respectively  exercise ;  and  the  limitations  with  which  we  are  familiar  grew  up 
by  slow  degrees,  or  were  created  by  orders  of  the  General  Court  or  the  Court 
of  Assistants,  sometimes  limited  to  the  towns  named  in  the  order,  and  some- 
times of  wider  application.2  So  late  as  October,  1662,  the  General  Court 
passed  an  order  reciting  that,  notwithstanding  the  wholesome  orders  hither- 
to made  by  the  selectmen  of  Boston  against  fast  riding,  many  persons  fre- 
quently galloped  in  the  streets  of  that  town,  to  the  great  danger  of  other 
persons,  especially  children ;  and  ordering  that  no  one  should,  in  future, 
gallop  any  horse  there  under  a  penalty  of  three  shillings  and  four  pence  for 
each  offence,  to  be  paid,  on  conviction  before  any  magistrate  of  the  town,  to 
the  treasurer  of  the  county  of  Suffolk.3  And  at  a  still  later  period,  in  Octo- 
ber, 1679,  the  General  Court  passed  the  following  order:  — 

"  For  prevention  of  the  profanation  of  the  Sabbath,  and  disorders  on  Saturday  night, 
by  horses  and  carts  passing  late  out  of  the  town  of  Boston,  it  is  ordered  and  enacted  by 
this  Court,  that  there  be  a  ward  from  sunset,  on  Saturday  night,  until  nine  of  the  clock 
or  after,  consisting  of  one  of  the  selectmen  or  constables  of  Boston,  with  two  or  more 
meet  persons,  who  shall  walk  between  the  fortifications  and  the  town's  end,  and  upon 
no  pretence  whatsoever  suffer  any  cart  to  pass  out  of  the  town  after  sunset,  nor  any 
footman  or  horseman,  without  such  good  account  of  the  necessity  of  his  business  as 
may  be  to  their  satisfaction  ;  and  all  persons  attempting  to  ride  or  drive  out  of  town 
after  sunset,  without  such  reasonable  satisfaction  given,  shall  be  apprehended  and 
brought  before  authority  to  be  proceeded  against  as  Sabbath-breakers ;  and  all  other 
towns  are  empowered  to  do  the  like  as  need  shall  be." 4 

The  passage  of  such  orders  as  these  shows  how  undefined  was  the  extent 
of  the  powers  which  the  colonial  authorities  exercised  in  the  first  half- 
century  after  the  settlement  of  the  town. 

The  need  of  some  sharper  distinction  between  the  powers  which  the  colony 
reserved  to  itself  and  those  with  which  the  town  was  invested  seems  to  have 
strongly  impressed  the  inhabitants  of  Boston.  Twice,  at  least,  during  the 

1  Paper  by  Professor  Joel  Parker  on  "The  towns,  not  repugnant  to  the  laws  and  orders  here 
Origin,  Organization,  and  Influence  of  the  Towns  established  by  the  General  Court ;  as  also  to  lay 
of  New  England,"  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  Jan-  mulcts  and  penalties   for   the  breach  of  these 
nary,  1866,  pp.  29,  30.    [Cf.,  further,  Mr.  Winsor's  orders,  and  to  levy  and  distrain  the  same,  not 
references  in  the  chapter  on  "Colonial  Litera-  exceeding  the  sum  of  twenty  shillings;   also  to 
ture"  in  the  present  volume.  —  ED.]  choose  their  own  particular  officers,  as  consta- 

2  The  most  important  of  these  orders  was  bles,  surveyors  for  the  highways,  and  the  like." 
adopted  by  the  General  Court  at  the  session  in  (Mass.  Col.  Records,  \.  172.)     In  Quincy's  Mini- 
March,  1635-36.     It  begins  by  reciting  that  "par-  icipal  History  of  Boston,  p.  i,  the  date  of  this 
ticular  towns  have  many  things  which  concern  order  is  misprinted  1630.     The  order  was  not 
only  themselves,  and  the  ordering  of  their  own  passed  until  Boston  had  been  settled  between 
affairs,  and  disposing  of  business  in  their  own  five  and  six  years.     The  true  date  is  of  import- 
town."    Therefore  power  was  granted  to  them  ance  in  tracing  the  history  of  town  governments 
"  to  dispose  of  their  own  lands  and  woods,  with  in  Massachusetts. 

all  the  privileges  and  appurtenances  of  the  8  Mass.  Col.  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  pp.  59,  60. 
said  towns,  to  grant  lots,  and  make  such  orders  *  Ibid.  v.  239,  240.  [See  Mr.  Scudder's 
as  may  concern  the  well-ordering  of  their  own  chapter  in  this  volume.  —  En.| 


BOSTON  AND  THE  COLONY.  2 19 

colonial  period  they  petitioned  for  an  act  of  incorporation.  In  May,  1650, 
in  answer  to  a  petition  from  the  inhabitants  of  Boston,  the  Court  declared  a 
willingness  "  to  grant  the  petitioners  a  corporation,  if  the  articles  or  terms, 
privileges  and  immunities  thereof,  were  so  presented  as  rationally  should 
appear,  respecting  the  mean  condition  of  the  country,  fit  for  the  Court 
to  grant;  "  and  the  petitioners  were  required  to  present  their  propositions 
at  the  next  session.1  So  far  as  now  appears;  nothing  further  was  done 
at  that  time;  and  in  May,  1659,  the  Court,  in  answer  to  a  request  of  the 
town  of  Boston  to  be  made  a  corporation,  granted  them  "  liberty  to  consult 
and  advise  amongst  themselves  what  may  be  necessary  for  such  an  end,  and 
the  same  to  draw  up  into  a  form  and  present  the  same  to  the  next  session."  a 
Again,  three  years  later,  in  May,  1662,  in  answer  to  a  petition  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Boston  "  for  some  further  power  in  reference  to  the  well  ordering  of 
trade  and  tradesmen,  and  the  suppressing  of  the  vices  so  much  abounding 
there,"  a  committee  was  appointed  "  to  peruse  the  charter  now  in  Court,  and 
consider  how  far  it  is  meet  to  be  granted,  or  what  else  they  shall  judge  meet 
for  the  attaining  of  the  ends  above  mentioned,  and  to  make  return  of  what 
they  shall  conclude  upon  to  the  next  Court  of  Election." 3  In  October, 
1663,  the  same  committee  was  reappointed.  with  the  same  instructions,  ex- 
pressed in  almost  precisely  the  same  words  ;4  but  it  does  not  appear  that 
any  report  was  ever  made  by  the  committee,  and  here  the  matter  apparently 
dropped.  It  is  curious  to  notice  how  little  trace  of  these  applications  has 
been  left  on  the  town  records.  There  is  not  a  single  entry  in  them  near 
the  date  of  the  orders  of  the  Court  which  can  be  directly  connected  with 
these  petitions  for  a  charter ;  and  the  only  votes  of  the  town  which  can  be 
supposed  to  have  even  a  remote  reference  to  the  matter  were  in  October, 
1652,  and  October,  i658.5  But  in  May,  1677,  the  town  instructed  her  depu- 
ties to  the  General  Court  to  use  their  endeavors  "  that  this  town  may  be 
a  corporation,  or  made  town  and  county."6 

In  the  original  laying  out  of  the  towns  the  bounds  were  very  loosely 
described,  and  controversies  naturally  arose  at  a  very  early  date  between 
adjoining  towns  as  to  the  extent  of  territory  belonging  to  each.  The  pen- 
insula of  Boston  touched  only  one  of  the  neighboring  towns,  Roxbury;  but 
from  the  narrow  limits  which  Nature  had  assigned  to  her,  her  inhabitants 
were  forced  to  seek  "enlargement"  beyond  the  peninsula,  —  and  Noddle's 
Island  and  extensive  tracts  at  Pullen  Point,  Mount  Wollaston,  and  Rumney 
Marsh  were  at  different  times  granted  to  Boston  by  orders  of  the  General 
Court.7  Questions  of  boundary  frequently  arose  under  these  grants, 
and  committees  were  appointed  by  the  Court,  or  by  the  town,  to  settle 

1  Mass.  Col.  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  p.  9.     The  5  Second  Report  of  the  Record  Commissioners, 
charter   which   was   asked   for  at  this  time  is     pp.  112,  148. 

printed    in   the   A7.  E.  Hist,  and   Geneal.  Reg.  6  MS.  Records  of  the  Town  of  Boston  (in  the 

xi.  206-210.     [The  original  document  is  in  the  office  of  the  City  Clerk),  ii.  106. 

Secretary  s  office  at  the  State  House.  —  ED.|  "  Mass.  Col.  Records,  i.  101,  1 19,  130,  189.  |Cf. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  p.  368.  also  Wood's  Arr,u  England's  Prospect,  a  quota- 
8  Ibid.  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  56.  tion  in  Shurtleff's  Description  of  Boston,  p.  41 ; 
4  Ibid.  p.  99.  also  pp.  32,  33.  —  En.| 


220  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

the  differences  and  establish  the  boundaries.  So  early  as  December,  1636,  a 
committee  was  appointed  at  a  general  town-meeting  to  consider  about  form- 
ing a  town  and  church  at  Mount  Wollaston,  with  the  consent  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Boston;1  and  three  years  later,  in  January,  1639-40,  the  selectmen 
entered  into  an  agreement  with  a  committee  acting  in  behalf  of  the  residents 
at  the  Mount,  by  which  Boston,  in  consideration  of  certain  payments  into  her 
treasury,  consented  to  the  formation  of  a  new  town  there,  "  if  the  Court  shall 
think  fit  to  grant  them  to  be  a  town  of  themselves."  2  At  the  session  of  the 
General  Court,  in  the  following  May,  "  The  petition  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Mount  Wollaston  was  voted,  and  granted  them  to  be  a  town  according  to 
the  agreement  with  Boston,  —  provided  that  if  they  fulfil  not  the  covenant 
made  with  Boston,  and  hereto  affixed,  it  shall  be  in  the  power  of  Boston  to 
recover  their  due  by  action  against  the  said  inhabitants,  or  any  of  them  ;  and 
the  town  is  to  be  called  Braintree."3  Muddy  River  had  probably  belonged 
to  Boston  from  the  first  settlement  of  the  town ;  but  the  first  mention  of  it 
in  the  Colony  Records  is  in  September,  1634,*  when  the  General  Court,  at  a 
session  held  in  Cambridge,  ordered  "that  the  ground  about  Muddy  River, 
belonging  to  Boston,  and  used  by  the  inhabitants  thereof,  shall  hereafter  be- 
long to  New  Town,  the  wood  and  timber  thereof  growing  and  to  be  growing 
to  be  reserved  to  the  inhabitants  of  Boston;  provided,  and  it  is  the  meaning 
of  the  Court,  that  if  Mr.  Hooker  and  the  congregation  now  settled  here  shall 
remove  hence,  that  then  "  the  ground  at  Muddy  River  shall  revert  to  Boston.5 
Hooker  and  most  of  his  congregation  removed  to  Connecticut  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1636  ;6  and  the  title  of  the  lands  accordingly  reverted  to  Boston. 
Muddy  Brook  continued  to  be  a  part  of  Boston  until  1705,  when  it  was 
made  a  town  by  the  name  of  Brookline."  Rumney  Marsh  and  the  adjacent 
territory  remained  for  a  still  longer  period  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Boston  ; 
and  it  was  not  until  near  the  middle  of  the  last  century  that  these  lands  were 
set  off  from  Boston,  and  incorporated  under  the  name  of  Chelsea.8 

In  each  of  these  outlying  districts  grants  of  land  were  made  by  the  town, 
sometimes  of  extensive  tracts  to  prominent  individuals,  and  sometimes, 
especially  at  Muddy  River,  to  "  the  poorer  sort."  For  instance,  in  October, 
1634,  a  grant  was  made  to  Mr.  Wilson,  pastor  of  the  church,  of  two  hundred 
acres  of  land  at  Mount  Wollaston,  in  exchange  for  an  equal  quantity  of  land 
on  Mystic  River  previously  granted  to  him  by  the  General  Court.9  Subse- 

1  Second  Report  of  the  Record  Commissioners,     building  the  house  of  William  Amory,  Esq.,  in 
p.  14.  Longwood.     Pierce,  Address,  p.  8.  —  ED.] 

2  Ibid.  p.  47.  6  Mass.  Col.  Records,  i.  129,  130.     [The  town 
8  Mass.  Col.  Records,  \.  291.                                  of  Brookline  printed,  in  1875,  sucn  extracts  from 
4  [Two  years  before  this,  in  1632,  Winthrop     the  Boston  Records  as  pertain  to  Muddy  River, 

in  his  Journal  had  mentioned  that  ten  Sagamores  together  with  the  records  of  the  town  to  1837, 

and    many    Indians   were   gathered   at    Muddy  under  the  title  of  Muddy  River  and  Brookline 

River  when  Underbill,  with  twenty  musketeers,  Records,  1634-1838.  —  ED.] 

was  sent   to  reconnoitre   their  camp.      II.   F.  6  Winthrop,  New  England,  i.  187. 

Woods,  Historical  Sketches  of  Brookline,  p.  10,  7  Brookline  Records,  p.  91. 

says  vestiges  of  this  old  Indian  fort  on  a  knoll  in  8  Province  Laws,  ii.  969-971. 

the  great  swamp  were  discernible  up  to  1844-45,  9  Second  Report  of  the  Record  Commissioners, 

when  the  ground  was  levelled  in  preparation  for  pp.  2,  3;  Mass.  Col.  Records,  i.  114. 


BOSTON   AND   THE   COLONY. 


221 


quently  the  town  relinquished  to  him  all  claims  to  the  land  at  Mystic,  in  con- 
sequence of  defects  in  the  title  to  the  land  at  Mount  Wollaston,  which  had 


THE   OLD  ASPINWALL   HOUSE. 


1  [This  old  house,  still  standing  near  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  Longwood,  was  built  by 
Peter  Aspinwall  about  1660,  and  has  descended 
through  lineal  descendants  (Samuel,  Thomas, 
Dr.  William)  to  the  late  Colonel  Thomas  As- 
pinwall. Though  still  owned  by  the  family,  the 
last  of  the  name  to  occupy  it  lived  there  till 
1803.  The  original  deed  of  the  land  from  Wil- 
liam Colburn  to  Robert  Sharpe  is  dated  1650, 
and  is  in  the  family's  keeping.  Wood,  Brookline, 
ch.  v.  A  famous  elm,  of  which  the  stump  still 
remains,  once  shaded  the  house.  According  to 
the  No.  Amer.  Rev.,  July,  1844,  it  sprung  up  about 
1 656 ;  but  Dr.  Pierce,  Historical  Address,  p.  38,  says 
it  was  planted  about  1700.  Mr.  G.  B.  Emerson 


says  that  "  it  was  known  to  be  one  hundred  and 
eighty-one  years  old  in  1837,  and  then  measured 
twenty-six  feet  five  inches  at  the  ground,  and 
sixteen  feet  eight  inches  at  five  feet.  The 
branches  extended  one  hundred  and  four  feet 
from  southeast  to  northwest,  and  ninety-five 
feet  from  northeast  to  southwest."  —  Trees  and 
Shrubs  in  Mass.,  &c.,  ii.  326.  Our  cut  follows  a 
photograph  taken  before  1860,  and  before  the 
great  tree  fell,  which  was  in  September,  1863; 
and  at  that  time  it  measured  twenty-six  feet 
girth  at  the  ground,  and  sixteen  feet  eight 
inches  at  five  feet  from  the  ground,  showing 
much  the  same  dimensions  as  twenty-five  years 
before.  —  ED.] 


222  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

involved  him  in  some  expenses.1  In  December,  1635,  a  committee  of  five  of 
the  freemen  was  appointed  at  a  general  town-meeting,  to  "  go  and  take  view 
at  Mount  Wollaston,  and  bound  out  there  what  may  be  sufficient  for  Mr. 
William  Coddington  and  Edmund  Quincy  to  have  for  their  particular  farms 
there  ;  "  to  "  lay  out  at  Muddy  River  a  sufficient  allotment  for  a  farm  for  our 
Teacher,  Mr.  John  Cotton ;  "  and  also  to  lay  out  farms  there  for  Mr.  William 
Colburn,  and  for  the  two  Elders,  Mr.  Thomas  Oliver  and  Thomas  Leverett. 
At  the  same  time  it  was  voted,  "  That  the  poorer  sort  of  inhabitants,  such  as 
are  members  or  likely  so  to  be,  and  have  no  cattle,  shall  have  their  propor- 
tion of  allotments  for  planting  ground  and  other  assigned  unto  them  by  the 
alloters,  and  laid  out  at  Muddy  River  by  the  aforenamed  five  persons,  or  four 
of  them ;  those  that  fall  between  the  foot  of  the  hill  and  the  water  to  have 
but  four  acres  upon  a  head,  and  those  that  are  farther  off"  to  have  five  acres 
for  every  head."2  Provision  was  likewise  made  for  laying  out  the  allotments 
at  Rumney  Marsh.  The  committee  apparently  made  no  report  until  January, 
1637-38,  when  the  allotments  were  entered  at  length  in  the  town  records.3 

From  her  favorable  position  at  the  head  of  the  bay  Boston  could  scarcely 
fail  to  become,  and  continue  to  be,  the  chief  place  in  the  growing  colony ; 
and  so  early  as  October,  1632,  the  Court  agreed,  "by  general  consent,  that 
Boston  is  the  fittest  place  for  public  meetings  of  any  place  in  the  Bay."  4 
Previously  to  that  time,  however,  it  had  been  a  matter  of  uncertainty  wheth- 
er Boston  or  Cambridge  would  be  the  seat  of  government ;  and  the  sharp 
controversy  between  Dudley  and  Winthrop,  growing  out  of  the  failure  of 
the  latter  to  remove  to  Cambridge,  is  one  of  the  most  curious  incidents  in 
their  personal  relations :  but  it  need  not  be  considered  here.5  It  is  sufficient 
to  say  that  the  purpose  to  make  Cambridge  the  capital  was  relinquished, 
and  steps  were  taken  at  an  early  date  to  secure  Boston  from  attacks  by  sea 
as  well  as  by  land.  From  Winthrop's  Journal  we  learn  that  a  fort  was  begun 
on  the  eminence  known  to  the  first  settlers  as  the  Corn  Hill,  but  which  was 
called  in  later  time  Fort  Hill,  toward  the  end  of  May,  1632,  and  that  the 
people  of  Boston,  Charlestown,  Roxbury,  and  Dorchester  worked  on  it  on 
successive  days.6  The  work  was  not  completed  at  that  time;  and  in  the 
following  May  the  General  Court  ordered  "  that  the  fort  at  Boston  shall  be 
finished  with  what  convenient  speed  may  be,  at  the  public  charge."  7  A  few 
months  later  it  was  ordered  that  "  every  hand  (except  magistrates  and  min- 
isters) shall  afford  their  help  to  the  finishing  of  the  fort  at  Boston,  till  it  be 
ended."  8  This  was  not  all  that  was  deemed  necessary  for  defence  on  the 
waterside;  and  in  July,  1634,  the  Governor  and  Council,  several  of  the  min- 
isters, and  other  persons  met  at  Castle  Island,  and  there  agreed  to  erect 

1  Second  Report  of  the  Record  Commissioners,  6  Winthrop,  New  England,  i.  77. 
p.  6.                                                                                        7  Mass.  Col.  Records,  \.  105. 

2  Ibid.  p.  6.  8  Ibid.  p.  108.     |Cf.  Shurtleff's  Desc.  of  Bos- 
8  Ibid.  pp.  22  et  seq.                                                ton,  p.  164.     The  records  mention,  in  1635-36, 

4  Mass.  Col.  Records,  i.  101.  "y*  ingineer  Mr.  Lyon  Garner,  who  doth  soe 

5  Winthrop,  New  England,  \.  82-86.     [Cf.  freely  offer  his  help  thereunto."     Lyon  Gardiner 
Mr.   R.  C.   Winthrop's  chapter  in  the  present  was,  a  little  later,  prominent  in  the  Pequot  war. 
volume.  —  ED.]  See  Mr.  Bynner's  chapter.  —  ED.| 


BOSTON   AND   THE   COLONY.  223 

"  two  platforms  and  one  small  fortification  to  secure  them  both ;  and  for  the 
present  furtherance  of  it  they  agreed  to  lay  out  .£5  a  man,  till  a  rate  might 
be  made  at  the  next  General  Court."  l  Accordingly,  at  the  General  Court 
in  September,  it  was  ordered  "  that  there  shall  be  a  platform  made  on  the 
northeast  side  of  Castle  Island,  and  an  house  built  on  the  top  of  the  hill  to 
defend  the  said  platform."2  In  the  following  March,  it  was  ordered  by  the 
General  Court  "  that  there  shall  be  forthwith  a  beacon  set  on  the  Sentry 
Hill  at  Boston,  to  give  notice  to  the  country  of  any  danger,  and  that  there 
shall  be  a  ward  of  one  person  kept  there  from  the  first  of  April  to  the  last 
of  September ;  and  that  upon  the  discovery  of  any  danger  the  beacon  shall 
be  fired,  an  alarm  given,  as  also  messengers  presently  sent  by  that  town 
where  the  danger  is  discovered  to  all  other  towns  within  this  jurisdiction."3 
In  March  of  the  following  year,  1636,  the  Court  granted  to  the  inhabitants 
of  Boston  the  use  of  six  pieces  of  ordnance,  and  gave  them  thirty  pounds 
in  money  toward  the  making  of  a  platform  at  the  foot  of  Fort  Hill,  requir- 
ing the  inhabitants  of  the  town  to  finish  "the  said  work  at  their  own  proper 
charges  before  the  General  Court  in  May  next."4  The  defence  of  the  town 
on  the  land  side  began  at  a  much  earlier  period ;  and  in  the  April  after  their 
arrival  Winthrop  wrote  in  his  Journal,  but  afterward  for  some  unknown 
reason  erased  the  entry,  "  we  began  a  court  of  guard  upon  the  neck  between 
Roxbury  and  Boston,  whereupon  should  always  be  resident  an  officer  and 
six  men."  5  These  ample  preparations,  however,  were  not  always  kept  up ; 
the  fortifications  frequently  fell  into  decay,  and  the  garrisons  were  with- 
drawn, to  be  renewed  whenever  a  new  occasion  of  alarm  arose.  The  colony 
and  the  town  were  equally  reluctant  to  spend  money  on  defences  for  which 
there  seemed  to  be  no  probability  of  an  immediate  need ;  but  they  were 
always  on  the  alert  whenever  a  new  danger  arose.  Thus  in  May,  1649,  the 
Deputies  voted,  that  "  there  being  many  ships  in  the  harbor,  and  divers  of 
them  strangers,  the  Court  judgeth  meet  to  order  that  a  military  watch  be 
forthwith  appointed  in  Boston  and  Charlestown,  to  continue  till  any  four 
magistrates  shall  see  cause  to  alter  it." 6 

So  little  did  the  founders  of  the  colony  anticipate  the  establishment  of 
numerous  and  scattered  settlements,  that  at  the  first  Court  of  Assistants,  in 
answer  to  the  question  how  the  ministers  should  be  maintained,  "  it  was 
ordered  that  houses  should  be  built  for  them  with  convenient  speed,  at  the 
common  charge ;  "  and  in  answer  to  the  further  question,  what  should  be 
their  present  maintenance,  after  enumerating  what  should  be  given  them,  it 
was  added,  "  all  this  to  be  at  the  common  charge,  those  of  Mattapan  and 
Salem  only  excepted." 7  It  is  not  much  to  the  credit  of  the  first  settlers  of 
Boston,  that  when  Mr.  Cotton  came  over  a  few  years  later  they  desired  to 
have  this  precedent  apply  to  his  support;  but  on  "second  thoughts"  the 

1  Winthrop,  New  England,  \.  137.  *  Ibid.  p.  165. 

2  Mass.   Col.  Records,  i.  123.     [Shurtleff,  p.  5  Winthrop,  Neiv  England,  i.  54. 
475,  traces  in  some  detail  the  history  of  this  for-  6  Mass.  Col.  Records,  iii.  162. 

tification.  —  ED.]  "  Ibid.  i.  73.     The  exception  was  probably 

8  Mass.  Col.  Records,  i.  137.  because  these  places  already  had  ministers. 


224  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

council  did  not  see  any  sufficient  reason  why  the  colony  treasury  should  con- 
tribute to  the  support  of  a  minister  for  Boston.1  Though  the  Boston  minister 
soon  ceased  to  derive  any  part  of  his  support  from  the  colony  rates,  his  suc- 
cessors continued  to  exert  an  important  influence  on  colonial  politics  till  the 
very  end  of  the  charter  government.  From  Winthrop's  language  it  would 
appear  that  the  first  meeting-house  in  Boston  was  not  built  until  the  town 
had  been  settled  for  nearly  two  years,  and  that  the  cost,  both  of  the  meeting- 
house and  of  a  house  for  the  minister,  was  defrayed,  in  part  at  least,  by  a 
voluntary  contribution.2  The  same  course  was  pursued  some  years  afterward, 
when  it  became  necessary  to  build  a  new  meeting-house  in  place  of  the  old 
one.  "  The  church  of  Boston,"  says  Winthrop,  under  date  of  February, 
1640-41,  "were  necessitated  to  build  a  new  meeting-house,  and  a  great  dif- 
ference arose  about  a  place  of  situation,  which  had  much  troubled  other 
churches  on  the  like  occasion  ;  but  after  some  debate  it  was  referred  to  a 
committee,  and  was  quietly  determined.  It  cost  about  ,£1000,  which  was 
raised  out  of  the  weekly  voluntary  contribution  without  any  noise  or  com- 
plaint, when  in  some  other  churches  which  did  it  by  way  of  rates  there  was 
much  difficulty  and  compulsion  by  levies  to  raise  a  far  less  sum."3 

During  the  first  ten  years  the  town  grew  rapidly  in  wealth  and  popula- 
tion, and  it  has  been  estimated  that  before  the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  war 
in  England  about  twenty  thousand  persons  had  emigrated  to  New  England.4 
Of  these  a  much  larger  number  settled  in  Boston  than  in  any  other  place. 
But  with  the  meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament  the  immigration  nearly  ceased. 
"  The  Parliament  of  England  setting  upon  a  general  reformation  both  of 
Church  and  State,"  says  Winthrop,  in  June,  1641,  "the  Earl  of  Strafford 
being  beheaded,  and  the  archbishop  (our  great  enemy)  and  many  others 
of  the  great  officers  and  judges,  bishops  and  others,  imprisoned  and  called 
to  account,  this  caused  all  men  to  stay  in  England  in  expectation  of  a  new 
world  ;  so  as  few  coming  to  us  all  foreign  commodities  grew  scarce,  and  our 
own  of  no  price."  6  The  assessments  of  the  colony  taxes  will  afford  an  ap- 
proximate idea  of  the  relative  wealth  and  population  of  the  several  towns. 
In  October,  1633,  it  was  ordered  that  ^400  should  be  collected  from  eleven 
plantations  "  to  defray  public  charges."  Of  this  sum  Dorchester  was  to 
pay  £80  ;  Boston,  Roxbury,  Cambridge,  Watertown,  and  Charlestown,  .£48 
each;  and  Salem,  £2%.*  In  September  of  the  following  year  a  tax  of  £600 
was  ordered  to  be  levied.  In  this  assessment  Dorchester,  Cambridge,  and 
Boston  were  each  to  contribute  £80;  Roxbury,  £70;  and  Salem,  ^45-7  In 


1  Winthrop,  New  England,  \.  112.     Hutchin-  2  Winthrop,  New  England,  i.  87. 

son,  who  published  the  first  volume  of  his  His-  z  Ibid.  ii.  24.     See  also  Emerson's  History 

tory  of  Massachusetts  Bay  in  1764,  says:  "The  of  the  First  Church,  p.  65. 

ministers  of  the  several  churches  in  the  town  of  4  Hutchinson,  Hist,  of  the  Col.  of  Mass.  Bay, 

Boston  have   ever   been    supported   by   a   free  p.  iii.  (preface).    This  estimate  has  been  adopted 

weekly  contribution.     I  have  seen  a  letter  from  by  Dr.  Palfrey  and  by  other  writers,  and  has  been 

one  of  the  principal  ministers  of  the  colony  ex-  made  the  basis  of  some  curious  calculations. 

pressing  some  doubts  of  the  lawfulness  of  receiv-  5  Winthrop,  Neio  England,  ii.  31. 

ing  a  support  in  any  other  way."     (Hist,  of  the  6  Mass.  Col.  Records,  i.  no. 

Col.  of  Mass.  Bay,  from  1628  to  1691,  p.  427.)  7  Ibid.  p.  129. 


BOSTON    AND   THE   COLONY.  225 

May,  1636,  the  General  Court  appointed  a  committee  "  to  require  the  last 
rates  of  each  town  in  the  plantation,  and  to  find  out  thereby,  and  by  all 
other  means  they  can  according  to  the  best  of  their  discretion,  the  true 
value  of  every  town,  and  so  to  make  an  equal  rate."1  A  similar  vote  was 
passed  in  the  following  September ;  2  but  in  neither  instance  was  any  change 
made  in  the  last  rate  of  assessment.  In  April,  1637,  the  Court  ordered  a 
levy  of  soldiers  for  the  Pequot  war.  The  whole  number  to  be  raised,  in- 
cluding those  already  in  the  service,  was  211.  Of  this  number  Boston  was 
to  furnish  35  ;  Dorchester,  17 ;  Charlestown,  16;  Roxbury,  13;  Cambridge, 
12  ;  and  Salem,  24,  — fourteen  towns  being  included  in  the  levy.3  The  next 
colony  tax  was  in  August  of  the  same  year,  when  in  an  assessment  of  ^400 
Boston  was  required  to  pay  £59  4s.;  Salem,  £4$  I2s. ;  Dorchester  and 
Charlestown,  .£42  6s.  each;  Roxbury,  £30  8s. ;  and  Cambridge,  £29  I2J.4 
From  a  comparison  of  these  figures  it  would  appear  that  in  1637  Boston 
was  not  only  the  most  populous,  but  also  the  wealthiest  town  in  the  colony. 
In  May,  1640, — not  quite  ten  years  after  the  settlement  of  Boston,  —  a  tax 
of  .£1200  was  ordered  to  be  levied  on  seventeen  towns.  Of  this  sum  Boston 
was  to  contribute  ^179,  or  almost  exactly  fifteen  per  cent;  Braintree,  which 
it  will  be  remembered  was  set  off  from  Boston  in  the  same  month,  £25  ; 
Cambridge,  ;£ioo;  Dorchester,  £95;  Charlestown,  ,£90;  Roxbury,  £75; 
and  Salem,  £115° 

The  first  windmill  was  erected  in  August,  1632,  having  been  brought 
down  from  Cambridge,  because,  where  it  first  stood,  "  it  would  not  grind 
but  with  a  westerly  wind."  6  Four  years  later  another  windmill  was  erected  ; 7 
and  subsequently  other  windmills  were  built  on  the  various  hills  in  the 
town,8  and  tidemills  were  also  introduced.  For  the  purpose  of  encouraging 
the  erection  of  a  watermill,  the  town  granted,  in  July,  1643,  all  the  cove  and 
the  salt  marsh  bordering  upon  it  northwest  of  the  causeway  leading  to 
Charlestown,  together  with  three  hundred  acres  of  land  at  Braintree,  on 
condition  that  the  grantees  should,  within  three  years,  erect  one  or  more 
corn  mills  to  be  maintained  forever.9  The  cove  thus  granted  was  known, 
down  to  our  own  time,  as  the  mill-pond ;  and,  in  order  that  the  grant  to  the 
mill-owners  might  not  interfere  with  the  rights  of  other  persons,  the  grantees 
were  required  to  make  and  maintain  forever  a  gate  ten  feet  in  width,  to 
open  at  flood  tide  for  the  passage  of  boats,  so  that  they  might  arrive  at 
"  their  ordinary  landing  places." 

It  is  not  known  when  the  first  wharf  was  built;  but  in  January,  1638-39, 
the  town  granted  "  to  the  owners  of  the  wharf  and  crane  one  hundred  acres 

1  Mass.  Col,  Records,  i.  175.  '  Winthrop,  New  England,  i.   196.     About 

2  Ibid.  p.  180.  the    same    time    a    windmill    was    erected    at 
a  Ibid.  p.  192.  Charlestown. 

4  Ibid.  p.  201.  8  [So  late  as  1824  a  large  windmill  stood  at 
b  Ibid.  p.  294.  Windmill  Point,  on  the  easterly  side  of  the  South 
6  Winthrop,  New  England,  i.  87.     This  wind-  Cove,  and  is  shown  in  the  view  of  Boston  en- 
mill  appears  to  have  been  placed  on  Copp's  Hill  graved  that  year  in  Snow's  History.  —  ED.) 
(see  Wood's  New  England 's  Prospect,  in  publi-           s  Second  Report  of  the  Record  Commissioners, 
cations  of  the  Prince  Society,  p.  42).  p.  74.     |See  Mr.  Bynner's  chapter.  —  ED.) 
VOL.    I.  —  29. 


226  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

of  land  at  Mount  Wollaston,  next  to  the  allotments  already  granted,  toward 
the  repairing  and  maintaining  of  the  said  wharf  and  crane."  1  It  seems 
probable,  therefore,  that  there  had  been  a  wharf  for  a  sufficient  length  of 
time  for  it  to  fall  into  decay  and  to  need  "  repairing."  Not  long  afterward 
a  much  more  comprehensive  scheme  was  planned  for  facilitating  a  com- 
mercial intercourse  with  other  places.  In  November,  1641,  the  town 
granted  to  Valentine  Hill  and  his  associates  and  successors  a  considerable 
tract  of  "  waste  ground  "  near  Dock  Square,  for  a  specified  term  of  years, 
dependent  on  their  purchase  of  various  wharf-rights,  and  on  the  cost  of 
repairs  and  other  charges  incurred  by  them ;  and,  in  consideration  of  the 
improvements  which  they  proposed  to  make,  the  grantees  were  authorized 
to  collect  tonnage  and  wharfage  dues  from  all  persons  who  should  land 
goods  there,  except  persons  whose  lands  bounded  on  the  granted  territory, 
who  might  land,  free  of  charge,  goods  for  their  own  use,  but  not  for  sale. 
Provision  was  likewise  made  for  the  valuation  of  the  warehouses  and  other 
buildings  to  be  erected,  and  for  keeping  the  wharves  in  repair,  all  of  which 
were  to  become  the  property  of  the  town  at  the  expiration  of  the  period 
covered  by  the  grant.2  The  proper  charges  for  the  use  of  these  and  other 
wharves  were  regarded  by  the  colonial  authorities  as  matters  within  their 
discretion;  and  in  October,  1641,  the  General  Court  appointed  a  committee 
"  to  settle  the  rates  of  wharfage,  porterage,  and  warehouse  hire,  and  certify 
the  next  General  Court,  —  and  the  order  to  stand  the  meanwhile."3  In 
November,  1646,  the  Court  adopted  a  minute  schedule  of  charges,  to  re- 
main in  force  until  the  Court  of  Election  in  1648;  and  the  owners  of 
wharves,  whether  at  Boston  or  at  Charlestown,  were  "  required  to  attend 
to  these  rules  for  wharfage  of  such  goods."4  From  time  to  time  new  rules 
and  regulations  on  the  subject  were  made  by  the  same  authority. 

But  by  far  the  most  important  enterprise  of  this  kind  was  undertaken 
near  the  close  of  the  colonial  period,  and  was  designed  partly  to  secure  the 
town  from  any  attack  by  a  hostile  fleet,  and  partly  to  encourage  maritime 
trade.  In  the  summer  of  1673  the  Court  of  Assistants  recommended  to 
the  town  to  cause  a  sea-wall  or  wharf  to  be  erected  in  front  of  the  town, 
from  the  Sconce  to  Captain  Scarlett's  wharf,  or  to  adopt  some  other  means 
for  securing  the  town  against  fire  ships  in  case  of  the  approach  of  an 
enemy.  At  a  town-meeting  held  in  September  it  was  voted  not  to  carry 
on  so  extensive  an  undertaking  at  the  public  charge ;  but  the  selectmen 
were  authorized  to  make  such  a  disposition  of  the  flats  as  they  might  think 
best  for  promoting  the  execution  of  the  proposed  work  by  private  enter- 
prise. Accordingly,  a  few  days  afterward,  the  selectmen  issued  proposals 
for  the  construction  of  a  wall  or  wharf  of  wood  or  stone  from  Captain 
Scarlett's  wharf,  which  was  at  the  foot  of  Fleet  Street,  in  a  straight  line  to 
the  Sconce,  or  south  battery,  near  the  head  of  India  wharf,  —  a  distance  of 
about  twenty-two  hundred  feet.  The  wall  or  wharf  was  to  be  twenty-two 

1  Second  Report  of  the  Record  Commissioners,  p.  37.  8  Mass.  Col.  Kecords,  i.  341. 

2  Ibid.  pp.  63,  64.  *  Ibid.  ii.  170,  171. 


BOSTON  AND  THE  COLONY.  227 

feet  in  breadth  at  the  bottom  and  twenty  feet  at  the  top;  and  it  was 
supposed  that  the  necessary  height  would  be  fourteen  or  fifteen  feet,  with  a 
breastwork  for  cannon,  and  suitable  openings  for  the  passage  of  vessels.  In 
consideration  of  the  execution  of  the  work  in  the  manner  proposed,  the 
undertakers  were  to  have  a  grant  in  perpetuity  of  all  the  flats  within  the  wall, 
with  liberty  to  build  wharves  and  warehouses  for  a  distance  of  two  hundred 
feet  back  from  the  wall,  the  remainder  to  be  kept  as  an  open  cove,  but 
with  the  reservation  of  certain  rights  to  those  persons  who  already  abutted 
on  the  shore  line.  And  the  undertakers  were  to  have  all  the  income  which 
they  might  derive  from  anchorage  or  wharfage  dues  from  vessels  sheltered 
within  the  cove,  or  from  grants  of  the  privilege  of  fishing  there.1  Under 
these  proposals  forty-one  subscribers  undertook  the  work,  in  sections  vary- 
ing in  length  from  twenty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet.2  The  work  was 
prosecuted  with  very  little  energy;  but  at  the  General  Court  held  in  May, 
1 68 1,  —  more  than  seven  years  afterward,  —  an  order  was  passed  setting 
forth  "  that,  at  the  great  cost,  pains,  and  hazard  of  said  undertakers,  a  sea 
wall  hath  been  built,  and  almost  finished,  for  the  safety  of  said  town  and 
this  his  Majesty's  colony ;  "  wherefore  "  the  said  undertakers,  their  heirs, 
executors,  administrators,  and  assigns,  or  major  part  of  them,  shall  have 
power  to  make  orders  for  finishing  and  preserving  the  said  wall,  the  regu- 
lating of  themselves,  and  appointing  persons  among  themselves  to  manage 
their  affairs,"  &c.3  Fortunately,  the  wharf  was  never  needed  for  purposes 
of  defence,  and  it  soon  fell  into  decay.  It  is  shown  on  Franquelin's  map 
of  1693  ;  but  on  Bonner's  map  of  1722,  and  on  Burgiss's  map  of  1729,  only 
its  general  outline  can  be  traced,  and  probably  neither  of  these  is  accurate 
in  its  delineation.4 

A  little  more  than  two  months  after  the  town  was  settled,  arrangements 
were  made  for  setting  up  a  ferry  between  Boston  and  Charlcstown ;  and  at  a 
Court  of  Assistants,  Nov.  9,  1630,  it  was  ordered  "  that  whosoever  shall  first 
give  in  his  name  to  Mr.  Governor  that  he  will  undertake  to  set  up  a  ferry 
betwixt  Boston  and  Charlestown,  and  shall  begin  the  same  at  such  time  as 
Mr.  Governor  shall  appoint,  shall  have  one  penny  for  every  person,  and 
one  penny  for  every  hundred  weight  of  goods  he  shall  so  transport."5  In 
November,  1637,  tne  Governor  and  Treasurer  were  authorized  to  lease  the 
ferry  for  the  term  of  three  years  at  the  rate  of  £40  per  annum ;  6  and  at  the 
expiration  of  that  time  it  was  granted  to  the  college.7  In  September,  1638, 
the  General  Court  ordered  a  ferry  to  be  set  up  "  from  Boston  to  Winnissim- 

1  A/S.   Keconis  of  the    Town  of  Boston,  ii.  Wharf,  ran  pretty  nearly  in  the  direction  of  the 

81,82.  present  Atlantic  Avenue.     Portions  of  it  form- 

-  Ibid.  pp.  82,  83.  ing  island  wharfs  are  seen  in  the  map  of  1824  in 

3  Mass.  Col.  Records,  v.  310,  311.  Snow's  Boston.     Cf.   Shurtleff's  Description  of 

4  |  It  is  also  shown  between  the  South  Bat-  Boston,  p.  118.  —  ED.-) 

tcry  and  Long  Wharf  in  Bonner's  sketch  of  the  5  Mass.  Col.  Records,  \.  81. 

waterfront,  made  in  1714,  and  figured  elsewhere  (l  Ibid.  p.  208. 

in  this  work.     This  "out-wharf,"  as  it  was  some-  ''   Ibid.  p.  304.     See  also  Quincy's  History  of 

times  called,  of  which  a  portion  was  still  con-  Harvard  University,  ii.  271,  272.     The  college 

cealed  in  the  .structure  known  in  our  day  as  T  enjoyed  this  income  until  1785. 


228  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

met,  Noddle's  Island,  and  the  ships;  the  person  to  be  appointed  by  the 
magistrates  of  Boston." l  Three  years  later  the  Court  passed  a  general 
order  regulating  the  use  of  ferries,  and  providing  that  every  person  to  whom 
a  ferry  was  granted  should  have  "  the  sole  liberty  of  transporting  passen- 
gers from  the  place  where  such  ferry  is  granted  to  any  other  ferry,  or  place 
where  ferry-boats  used  to  land,  and  that  any  ferry-boat  that  shall  land 
passengers  at  any  other  ferry  may  not  take  passengers  from  thence,  if  the 
ferry-boat  of  the  place  be  ready;  provided  that  this  order  shall  not  preju- 
dice the  liberty  of  any  that  do  use  to  pass  in  their  own  or  neighbors' 
canoes  or  boats  to  their  ordinary  labors  or  business."2  In  November,  1646, 
an  order  was  passed  prohibiting  the  overcrowding  of  ferry-boats,  and 
regulating  the  manner  in  which  passengers  should  go  on  board.3  It  seems 
to  have  been  tacitly  recognized  that  the  establishment  and  regulation  of 
ferries  were  exclusively  within  the  powers  of  the  colonial  government;  but 
in  two  or  three  instances  the  town  seems  to  have  set  up  a  ferry  by  its  own 
authority.  In  January,  1635-36,  Thomas  Marshall  was  chosen  to  keep  "a 
ferry  from  the  mill  point  unto  Charlestown,  and  to  Winnissimmet;  "  in 
December,  1637,  it  was  agreed  that  Edward  Bendall  should  keep  "  a  suffi- 
cient ferry-boat  to  carry  to  Noddle's  Island  and  to  the  ships  riding  before 
the  town;  "  and  in  January,  1646-47,  George  Halsoll  was  ordered  to  "  keep 
and  employ  a  passage  boat  between  his  wharf  and  the  ships  where  the  ships 
ride,"  and  no  other  person  was  "  to  make  use  of  his  wharf  or  landing  place 
for  hire  or  reward,  but  it  shall  be  lawful  for  any  seamen  or  others  to  pass 
to  and  fro  from  said  landing  place  in  their  own  boats  without  paying  any- 
thing for  themselves  or  friends."4  It  is  probable,  however,  that  these  ap- 
pointments were  either  temporary,  or  were  made  subject  to  the  action  of 
the  General  Court. 

From  the  first  the  town  was  careful  to  prevent  encroachments  on  the 
streets  and  highways,  and  to  keep  them  clean ;  but  she  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  equally  careful  to  keep  them  in  a  safe  condition.  For  this  neg- 
lect Boston  was  frequently  fined,  or  threatened  with  a  fine,  by  the  General 
Court;  and  she  was  also  required  from  time  to  time  to  build  or  repair 
bridges  and  highways,  or  to  contribute  a  proportionate  part  of  the  expense 
of  building  or  repairing  them.  For  instance,  in  March,  1634-35,  it  was  or- 
dered that  a  sufficient  cart  bridge  should  be  built  over  Muddy  River  "  before 
the  next  General  Court,  and  that  Boston,  Roxbury,  Dorchester,  New  Town, 
and  Watertown  shall  equally  contribute  to  it."6  In  December,  1638,  the  town 
was  fined  ten  shillings  for  defective  highways  and  want  of  a  watch-house, 
and  allowed  until  the  next  court  to  remedy  the  neglect.6  Apparently  the 
town  paid  little  or  no  attention  to  this  order,  and  in  the  following  June 
"  Boston  was  fined  twenty  shillings  for  defective  highways,  and  enjoined  to 
repair  them,  upon  the  penalty  of  five  pounds."  7  Six  months  later,  "  Boston, 

1  Mass.  Col.  Records,  i.  241.  °  Mass.  Col.  Records,  \.  141. 

2  Ibid.  p.  338.  °  Ibid.  p.  247. 

3  Ibid.  ii.  170.  "  Ibid.  p.  266. 

4  Second A't'jft  of  the Record  Com.  pp.  7, 22, 89. 


BOSTON    AND   THE   COLONY.  229 

for  defect  of  their  ways  between  Powder-Horn  Hill  and  the  written  tree,  is 
fined  twenty  shillings,  and  enjoined  to  mend  them ;  "  but  on  a  representa- 
tion that  the  ways  were  "  new  laid  out,"  the  town  was  allowed,  in  October 
of  the  next  year,  further  time  to  repair  them.1  At  the  expiration  of  that 
time  the  General  Court  passed  a  more  peremptory  order,  "  that  the  highway 
between  the  written  tree  and  Winnisimmet  should  be  made  sufficient  for 
carts,  horses,  and  men  by  Boston,  within  three  months,  upon  pain  of  twenty 
pounds."2  Again,  in  May,  1670,  the  Court  passed  an  order  that,  "Whereas 
the  country  highway  over  some  part  of  Rumney  Marsh  was  laid  out  long 
since,  from  a  point  of  upland  to  the  written  tree,  and  the  said  way  was  never 
made  passable,  but  in  stead  thereof  a  causey  or  bridge  hath  been  made  in 
another  place,  which  hath  been  made  use  of,  but  is  now  and  hath  been  often 
out  of  repair :  it  is  ordered  that  the  selectmen  of  Boston  shall  take  speedy 
care  to  make  and  maintain  a  sufficient  causey  or  bridge  over  the  marsh  and 
creek  where  the  way  was  laid  out  first,  or  to  see  and  cause  the  causey  and 
bridge  that  is  already  made  to  be  sufficiently  repaired,  and  so  kept  from 
time  to  time."  3  On  the  other  hand  the  town  passed  numerous  orders  for  the 
abatement  of  nuisances  in  the  thickly  settled  neighborhoods ;  and  in  Octo- 
ber, 1649,  the  selectmen  made  a  general  order  "that  no  person  whatsoever 
shall  suffer  any  stones,  clay,  timber,  or  firewood,  boards  or  clapboards,  or 
any  other  thing  that  may  annoy  the  town's  streets,  to  lie  above  forty-eight 
hours,  upon  penalty  of  five  shillings  for  every  default."4  To  a  similar  pur- 
pose is  the  following  order  passed  by  the  selectmen  in  January,  1657-58: 
"  Forasmuch  as  sundry  complaints  are  made  that  several  persons  have  re- 
ceived hurt  by  boys  and  young  men  playing  at  foot-ball  in  the  streets,  these 
are  therefore  to  enjoin  that  none  be  found  at  that  game  in  any  of  the  streets, 
lanes,  or  enclosures  of  this  town,  under  the  penalty  of  twenty  shillings  for 
every  such  offence."5 

From  a  very  early  period  the  town  began  to  take  precautions  against  the 
harboring  of  strangers  who  might  become  a  charge;  and  in  May,  1636,  "  it 
was  ordered  that  no  townsmen  shall  entertain  any  strangers  into  their  houses 
for  above  fourteen  days,  without  leave  from  those  that  are  appointed  to  or- 
der the  town's  businesses."6  At  a  later  period,  in  March,  1647,  the  scope 
of  this  order  was  somewhat  enlarged,  and  a  definite  penalty  for  any  neglect 
to  comply  with  its  provisions  was  established.  At  that  time  it  was  "  ordered 
that  no  inhabitant  shall  entertain  man  or  woman  from  any  other  town  or 
country  as  a  sojourner  or  inmate  with  an  intent  to  reside  here,  but  shall  give 
notice  thereof  to  the  selectmen  of  the  town  for  their  approbation  within 
eight  days  after  their  coming  to  the  town,  upon  penalty  of  twenty  shillings." 
At  the  same  time  it  was  ordered  that  no  inhabitant  should  let  or  sell  to  any 
person  any  house  or  houses  within  the  town,  "without  first  acquainting  the 

1  Mass.  Col.  A'ecords,  i.  285,  310.     (The  "  writ-  4  Second  Report  of  the  Record  Commissioners, 

ten  tree"  was  on  the  present  bounds  between  p.  98. 
Everett  and  Revere.  —  ED.|  6  Ibid.  p.  141. 

-  Ibid.  p.  338.  6  Ibid.  p.  10. 

3  Ibid.  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii   p.  450. 


2?o  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

\J 

selectmen  of  the  town  therewith."1  In  March,  1652,  both  of  these  orders 
were  re-enacted.2  Some  years  later,  —  in  June,  1659,  —  at  a  general  town- 
meeting  further  orders  were  made  on  the  subject,  reciting  that,  "  Whereas 
sundry  inhabitants  in  this  town  have  not  so  well  attended  to  former  orders 
made  for  the  securing  the  town  from  sojourners,  inmates,  hired  servants, 
journeymen,  or  other  persons  that  come  for  help  in  physic  or  chirurgery, 
whereby  no  little  damage  hath  already,  and  much  more  may  accrue  to  the 
town :  for  the  prevention  whereof  it  is  therefore  ordered  that  whosoever 
of  our  inhabitants  shall  henceforth  receive  any  such  persons  before  named 
into  their  houses  or  employment,  without  liberty  granted  from  the  select- 
men, shall  pay  twenty  shillings  for  the  first  week,  and  so  from  week  to  week 
twenty  shillings,  so  long  as  they  retain  them,  and  shall  bear  all  the  charge 
that  may  accrue  to  the  town  by  every  such  sojourner,  journeyman,  hired 
servant,  inmate,  &c.,  received  or  employed  as  aforesaid."  3  Provision  was 
made,  however,  that  if  a  satisfactory  bond  were  given  to  the  selectmen  to 
secure  the  town  from  all  charges,  and  the  persons  received  were  not  "  of 
notorious  evil  life  and  manners,"  the  fine  might  be  remitted;  and  if  anyone 
who  had  given  such  a  bond  should  give  "  such  orderly  notice  to  the  select- 
men that  the  town  may  be  fully  cleared  of  such  person  or  persons  so 
received,"  his  bond  should  be  given  up.  Meanwhile,  as  a  further  precau- 
tionary measure,  it  was  ordered,  in  March,  1657,  "that  henceforth  no  per- 
sons shall  have  liberty  to  keep  shops  within  this  town,  or  set  up  manufac- 
tures, unless  they  first  be  admitted  inhabitants  into  the  town."  *  On  the 
breaking  out  of  Philip's  war  the  town  took  steps  to  prevent  being  burdened 
with  charges  which  properly  belonged  to  the  whole  colony;  and  under  date 
of  November,  1675,  the  town  clerk  made  the  following  record:  "An 
humble  request  was  presented  to  the  General  Court  to  settle  some  general 
way  whereby  those  persons  or  families  who  by  the  outrage  of  the  enemy 
were  bereaved  of  all  means  of  their  subsistence,  or  forced  from  their  habi- 
tations, many  whereof  have  come  into  this  town,  may  find  such  relief  and 
redress  that  no  particular  town  may  be  burdened  thereby."5 

After  the  great  fire  of  1676,  which  destroyed  among  other  buildings  the 
Second  Church  and  Increase  Mather's  house,6  an  order  was  issued  by  the 
Court  of  Assistants,  or  Council,  as  it  was  often  called,  restraining  any  per- 
son from  building  within  the  burnt  district  before  the  next  General  Court, 
"  without  the  advice  and  order  of  the  selectmen."  Subsequently  the  select- 
men widened  the  street,  now  known  as  Hanover  Street,  to  what  was  probably 
a  nearly  uniform  width  of  twenty-two  feet;  and  thereupon  the  Court  passed 
an  order  that  "  The  act  of  the  council  and  return  of  the  selectmen  of  Bos- 
ton, as  above,  being  read  and  perused  by  the  Court,  who  took  notice  that 
the  street,  as  now  laid  out,  is  made  wider  and  more  accommodable  to  the 

1  Si-fontt  Report  <>/  the  Record  Commissioners,  G  /IAS".  Records  of  the  Tmvn  of  Boston,  ii.  94. 

p.  go.  c  Hutchinson,  Hist,  of  the  Col.  of  Mass.  Bay, 

-  Ibid.  p.  109.  p.  349,  note ;  Cotton  Mather,  Parentator,  p.  79; 

3  Ibid.  p.  152.  Sewall,  Diary,  in  5  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  v.  29.     |Sce 

4  Ibid.  p.  135.  Mr.  Hymier's  chapter.  —  ED.  | 


BOSTON   AND   THE   COLONY.  231 

public,  and  due  satisfaction  given  and  received  by  all  persons  concerned,  one 
only  excepted,  the  Court  approves  of  the  act  of  the  selectmen,  and  orders 
it  to  be  proceeded  in,  and  the  person  that  hath  not  consented,  to  have  the 
like  proportionable  satisfaction  tendered  him  for  so  much  of  his  land  that  is 
taken  and  staked  out  to  the  street."1 

A  few  months  later,  after  the  fire  of  1679  which  destroyed  eighty  dwell- 
ing houses  and  seventy  warehouses,  —  "  the  most  woful  desolation  that  Bos- 
ton ever  saw,"2 —  the  General  Court  passed  the  first  building  law  for  the 
town :  "  This  Court,  having  a  sense  of  the  great  ruins  in  Boston  by  fire, 
and  hazard  still  of  the  same,  by  reason  of  the  joining  and  nearness  of  their 
buildings,  for  prevention  of  damage  and  loss  thereby  for  future,  do  order  and 
enact  that  henceforth  no  dwelling-house  in  Boston  shall  be  erected  and  set 
up  except  of  stone  or  brick,  and  covered  with  slate  or  tile,  on  penalty  of 
forfeiting  double  the  value  of  such  buildings,  unless  by  allowance  and  liberty 
obtained  otherwise  from  the  magistrates,  commissioners,  and  selectmen  of 
Boston  or  major  part  of  them."  3  At  the  same  session  an  order  was  passed 
that  certain  persons  were  "  under  vehement  suspicion  of  attempting  to  burn 
the  town  of  Boston,  and  some  of  their  endeavors  prevailed  to  the  burning  of 
one  house,  and  only  by  good  Providence  prevented  from  further  damage," 
and  therefore  the  Court  ordered  ten  persons,  within  twenty  days,  to  "  depart 
this  jurisdiction  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony;  and  in  case  of  the  return  of 
any  of  the  abovesaid  persons  without  license  first  had  from  the  governor 
and  council,  such  offenders  shall  be  committed  to  close  prison  until  they  pay 
the  sum  of  twenty  pounds  in  money,  and  give  good  security  to  depart  this 
jurisdiction,  and  not  return  again  contrary  to  this  order."4  In  the  follow- 
ing May  the  Court,  on  a  petition  from  some  of  the  inhabitants  setting  forth 
that  many  persons,  in  consequence  of  their  heavy  losses,  were  not  able  to 
rebuild  with  brick  and  stone,  suspended  the  operation  of  the  law  "  for  the 
space  of  three  years  only,  when  it  is  to  be  in  force,  and  all  persons  are 
required  then  carefully  to  attend  unto  the  same."  5  At  the  expiration  of 
that  time,  in  December,  1683,  the  Court  again  attempted  to  legislate  on  the 
subject,  and  passed  an  order  that  "  This  Court,  being  sensible  of  the  great 
ruins  in  Boston  by  fire  at  sundry  times,  and  hazards  still  of  the  same,  by 
reason  of  the  joining  and  nearness  of  buildings,  for  the  prevention  of 

1  Mass.  Col.  Records,  v.  139,  140.  dustry  and  cost,  many  of  them  standing  upon 

2  Hutchinson,  Hist,  of  t lie  Col.  of  Alass.  Bay,  piles,  close  together  on  each  side  of  the  streets 
p.  349,  note.    I  See  Mr.  By nuer's  chapter.  —  ED.]  as   in   London,  and   furnished  with   many  fair 

3  Mass.   Col.   Records,    v.    240.      Describing  shops ;    their  materials  are  brick,  stone,  lime, 
Boston  in  1665,  the  Royal    Commissioners,  or  handsomely  contrived,  with  three  meeting-houses 
some  person  employed  by  them,  wrote  :  "  Their  or  churches,  and  a  town-house  burlt  upon  pillars, 
houses    are    generally    wooden,    their     streets  where  the  merchants  may  confer;  in  the  cham- 
crooked,    with   little  decency  and    no   uniform-  bers   above   they   keep    their    monthly   courts, 
ity."      (Hutchinson,    Original  Papers,   p.   421).  Their  streets  are  many  and  large,  paved  with 
Josselyn,   who  was   here   a   short   time  before,  pebble  stones,  and  the  south  side  adorned  with 
probably  drew  on  his   imagination,  or   trusted  gardens  and  orchards."     (3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  iii. 
to    an    imperfect   recollection,  when  he  wrote  :  319.) 

"The  houses  are  for  the  most  part  raised  on  4  Mass.  Col.  Records,  v.  250,  251. 

the  sea-banks  and  wharfed  out  with  great  in-  5  Ibid.  pp.  266,  267. 


212  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

%| 

damage  and  loss  thereby  for  the  future,  do  order  and  enact,  that  henceforth 
no  dwellinghouse,  warehouse,  shop,  barn,  stable,  or  any  other  building,  shall 
be  erected  and  set  up  in  Boston  except  of  stone  or  brick,  and  covered  with 
slate  or  tile,  on  penalty  of  forfeiting  one  hundred  pounds  in  money  to  the 
use  of  said  town  for  every  house  built  otherwise,  unless  by  allowance  and 
liberty  obtained  from  this  Court,  from  time  to  time."  Some  other  provisions 
then  followed,  and  the  building  law  of  1679  was  expressly  repealed.1  A 
few  months  later  the  law  was  amended  by  the  enactment  of  the  important 
provision  that  half  of  any  parti-wall  might  be  set  on  the  adjoining  estate, 
and  that  when  it  was  built  into,  one  half  of  the  cost  of  the  wall  should  be 
paid  for  by  the  person  using  it.2  The  subsequent  legislation  on  this  subject 
does  not  fall  within  the  period  covered  by  this  chapter. 

Three  or  four  years  after  the  settlement  of  the  town,  —  in  March,  1633-34, 
—  the  Court  ordered  a  market  to  be  kept  at  Boston  every  Thursday.3  It 
was  not  till  November,  1639,  that  the  first  post-office  was  set  up  in  Boston. 
The  General  Court  at  that  time  passed  an  order  to  give  notice  "  that 
Richard  Fairbanks's  house,  in  Boston,  is  the  place  appointed  for  all  letters 
which  are  brought  from  beyond  the  seas,  or  are  to  be  sent  thither,  are  to  be 
brought  unto  ;  and  he  is  to  take  care  that  they  be  delivered  or  sent  according 
to  their  directions ;  and  he  is  allowed  for  every  such  letter  a  penny,  and 
must  answer  all  miscarriages  through  his  own  neglect  in  this  kind,  —  pro- 
vided that  no  man  shall  be  compelled  to  bring  his  letters  thither,  except  he 
please."4  It  is  not  known  how  long  Mr.  Fairbanks  held  this  office;  but 
in  June,  1677,  the  same  difficulties  which  had  led  to  his  appointment 
compelled  the  merchants  of  Boston  to  petition  for  some  further  action  of 
the  General  Court.  From  the  statements  then  made  it  appeared  that 
"  many  times  letters  are  thrown  upon  the  exchange,  that  who  will  may  take 
them  up ;  "  and  the  Court  thereupon  appointed  Mr.  John  Hayward,  the 
scrivener,  as  a  "  meet  person  to  take  in  and  convey  letters  according  to 
their  direction."  5  Three  years  later  he  was  re-appointed  to  this  office.6 

The  first  act  of  incorporation  affecting  Boston  was  passed  in  October, 
1648,  when  "  upon  the  petition  of  the  shoemakers  of  Boston,  and  upon 
consideration  of  the  complaints  which  have  been  made  of  the  damage  which 
the  country  sustains  by  occasion  of  bad  ware  made  by  some  of  that  trade," 
the  General  Court  granted  an  act  of  incorporation  for  three  years  to  certain 
persons,  "  and  the  rest  of  the  shoemakers  inhabiting,  and  housekeepers  in, 
the  town  of  Boston,  or  the  greater  number  of  them  (upon  due  notice 
given  to  the  rest),"  empowering  them  to  choose  "a  master  and  two 
wardens,  with  four  or  six  associates,  a  clerk,  a  sealer,  a  searcher,  and  a 
beadle,  with  such  other  officers  as  they  shall  find  necessary."  These 
officers  were  to  be  chosen  annually  and  to  be  sworn  before  the  governor 
or  one  of  the  magistrates ;  and  they  were  to  have  power  to  make  orders 
for  the  government  of  the  company  and  the  regulation  of  the  trade,  which 

1  Mass.  Col.  Records,  v.  426.  *  Mass.  Col.  Records,  i.  281. 

2  Ibid.  p.  432.  6  Ibid.  v.  147,  148. 
8  Ibid.  i.  112.  6  Ibid.  p.  273. 


BOSTON    AND   THE   COLONY.  233 

orders  were  not  to  be  in  force  until  approved  by  the  County  Court  or  the 
Court  of  Assistants.  The  company  was  also  authorized  to  impose  fines  for 
any  infractions  of  its  orders,  "  provided  always,  that  no  unlawful  combina- 
tion be  made  at  any  time,  by  the  said  company  of  shoemakers,  for  enhanc- 
ing the  prices  of  shoes,  boots,  or  wages,  whereby  either  their  own  people 
or  strangers  may  suffer,"  and  provided  also  "  that  no  shoemaker  shall 
refuse  to  make  shoes  for  any  inhabitant,  at  reasonable  rates,  of  their  own 
leather,  for  the  use  of  themselves  and  families  only,  if  they  be  required 
thereunto."  l 

At  the  same  session  of  the  General  Court,  "  upon  petition  of  the  coopers 
inhabiting  in  Boston  and  Charlestown,  and  upon  consideration  of  many 
complaints  made  of  the  great  damage  the  country  hath  sustained  by  occa- 
sion of  defective  and  insufficient  casks,"  the  coopers  also  were  incorporated, 
with  similar  powers,  "  for  the  space  of  three  years,  and  no  longer,  except  this 
Court  shall  see  cause  to  continue  the  same ;  "  and  with  a  proviso  that  none 
of  the  orders  of  the  company,  "  nor  any  alteration  therein,  shall  be  in  force 
before  they  shall  have  been  perused  and  allowed  by  the  court  of  that 
county  where  they  shall  be  made,  or  by  the  Court  of  Assistants."  It  was  also 
provided  "  that  no  unlawful  combination  be  made  at  any  time  by  the  said 
company  of  coopers  for  enhancing  the  prices  of  casks  or  wages,  whereby 
either  our  own  people  or'  strangers  may  suffer ;  "  and  that  "  the  priority  of 
their  grant  shall  not  give  them  precedency  of  other  companies  that  may 
hereafter  be  granted."  2 

A  few  years  later,  —  in  June,  1652,  —  the  General  Court  granted  an  act 
of  incorporation  to  "  inhabitants  of  the  Conduit  Street  in  Boston,"  to  pro- 
vide a  supply  of  fresh  water  for  their  families,  and  especially  for  use  in  case 
of  fire.  The  nature  and  extent  of  the  powers  which  it  was  intended  to 
confer  on  the  corporation  are  involved  in  some  obscurity ;  but  the  corpo- 
rators and  their  associates  were  authorized  to  elect  annually  two  of  the 
proprietors  to  be  masters  or  wardens  of  the  water-works,  with  power  to 
arrange  for  the  payment  of  the  annual  rent  of  their  land,  to  make  all 
necessary  repairs  on  the  water-works,  to  assess  the  proper  sums  for  these 
purposes,  and  to  admit  new  members  of  the  corporation.  If  any  persons 
should  be  found  guilty  of  corrupting,  wasting,  or  spoiling  the  water,  or 
water-works,  or  injuring  the  pipes,  cisterns,  or  fountains,  the  warden  for  the 
time  being  might  prosecute  the  offender ;  and  if  any  person  should  take 
water  from  the  conduit  without  license,  the  warden  might  confiscate  "  such 
vessels  from  them  as  they  shall  bring  to  carry  away  such  water  with."  The ' 
wardens  could  also  allow  poor  persons  to  take  water  "  for  a  time  "  without 
charge.3  Under  the  authority  of  this  act,  or  perhaps  just  before  its  passage, 
it  seems  that  a  reservoir  was  constructed  near  the  corner  of  the  streets  now 
known  as  Union  Street  and  North  Street,  and  that  it  was  supplied  by  pipes 

4  Mass.  Col.  Records,  ii.  249,  250.  3  Mass.   Col.   Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  pp.  99, 

2  Ibid.  pp.  250,  251.  100. 

VOL.   I.  —  30. 


234  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

leading  from  wells  or  springs  in  the  neighborhood.1  It  is  not  perhaps 
strange,  that  "water-works"  on  so  simple  a  plan  should  have  failed  to 
answer  any  useful  purpose,  and  that  they  are  scarcely  mentioned  in  the 
town  records. 

In  September,  1670,  the  town  found  it  necessary  to  supplement  the 
existing  means  for  extinguishing  fires  by  passing  an  order,  which  shows 
how  simple  and  inadequate  these  means  still  remained.  The  order  recites : 
"  Whereas,  it  is  found  by  experience  that  in  case  of  fire  breaking  out  in  this 
town  the  welfare  thereof  is  much  endangered  for  want  of  a  speedy  supply 
of  water,  it  is  therefore  ordered  that  after  the  first  of  March  next,  and  so 
forward  to  the  first  of  November  in  every  year,  every  inhabitant  in  this  town 
shall  at  all  times  during  the  said  term  have  a  pipe  or  a  hogshead  of  water 
ready  filled,  with  the  head  open,  at  or  near  the  door  of  their  dwelling-houses 
and  warehouses,  upon  the  penalty  of  five  shillings  for  every  defect."  2  From 
time  to  time  persons  were  fined  for  having  defective  chimneys,  and  were 
required  to  have  them  put  in  order  and  swept;  and  in  December,  1676,  the 
colony  council  recommended  to  the  town  the  appointment  of  certain  per- 
sons who  were  named,  or  other  persons  instead  of  them,  to  see  that  the 
chimneys  in  the  town  were  kept  properly  swept.  The  suggestion  proved 
agreeable  to  the  town,  and  the  appointments  were  accordingly  made.3 

The  colony  grew  so  rapidly  that  in  1643  there  were  thirty  towns  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts,  and  the  need  of  further  organization  was 
felt.  Accordingly,  in  May  of  that  year,  the  General  Court  divided  the 
whole  plantation  into  four  shires  or  counties.  Seven  towns  were  associated 
with  Boston  under  the  designation  of  Suffolk  County.  These  were  Rox- 
bury,  Dorchester,  Dedham,  Braintree,  Weymouth,  Hingham,  and  Nantas- 
ket.4  The  origin  of  the  English  counties  is  lost  in  the  obscurity  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  history;  but  their  privileges  and  obligations  were  well  understood, 
and  for  this  reason,  probably,  there  is  in  the  order  creating  the  Massachu- 
setts counties  no  enumeration  of  the  powers  which  the  towns  thus  united 
might  exercise.  Closely  connected  with  the  division  of  the  colony  into 
counties  was  the  creation  of  a  military  organization ;  and  a  few  months 
afterward  an  elaborate  plan  was  adopted  by  the  Court  for  this  purpose,  on 
the  ground  that  "  as  piety  cannot  be  maintained  without  church  ordinances 
and  officers,  nor  justice  without  laws  and  magistracy,  no  more  can  our  safety 
and  peace  be  preserved  without  military  orders  and  officers."5  In  the  or- 
ders now  adopted  it  was  expressly  declared  that  no  war  ought  to  be  under- 
taken without  the  authority  of  the  General  Court;  but  as  emergencies 
might  arise  requiring  immediate  action  there  was  to  be  a  council,  of  which 
the  Governor  should  always  be  one,  with  authority  to  raise  the  whole  force 
of  the  country,  or  any  part  thereof,  and  to  make  such  disposition  of  the 

1  Shurtleff,  Topographical  and  Historical  De-  H.  Whitmore  contributed  to  the  ^fass.  Hist.  Soc. 

scription  of  Boston,  pp.  401-403.  Proc.,  February,  1873,  a  paper  on  the  origin  of 

a  MS.  Records  of  the  Toion  of  Boston,  ii.  54.  the  names  of  these  and  other  towns  in  Massa- 

8  Ibid.  pp.  100,  tot.  chusetts.  —  ED.J 
*  Mass.   Col.  Records,  ii.  38.     [Mr.  William  6  Mass.  Col.  Records,  ii.  42. 


BOSTON   AND   THE   COLONY.  235 

soldiers  thus  raised  as  they  might  think  best  "  for  the  necessary  defence  of 
the  country."  There  was  also  to  be  a  "  sergeant  major-general  to  lead  and 
conduct  their  forces  levied,  and  to  execute  all  orders  and  directions  of  the 
council."  In  each  shire  or  county  there  was  to  be  a  lieutenant  with  power 
to  act  independently  when  timely  notice  could  not  be  given  to  the  Governor 
and  Council,  and  there  was  also  to  be  "  one  sergeant-major  to  command, 
lead,  and  conduct  the  forces  of  that  shire,  being  called  together,"  and  to  act 
in  the  absence  of  the  lieutenant.1  Other  regulations  were  adopted  to  secure 
the  effective  disciplining  of  the  forces  in  each  shire,  and  the  defence  of  each 
shire  by  the  local  military  officers.  The  idea  of  local  self-government  was 
becoming  rapidly  developed,  though  it  was  long  before  it  was  fully  recog- 
nized and  firmly  established. 

A  precedent  for  this  action  of  the  General  Court  in  the  establishment  of 
counties  and  the  distribution  of  the  military  powers,  if  any  were  necessary, 
may  be  found  in  the  orders  passed  in  March,  1635-36,  providing  for  the 
holding  of  local  courts  at  Ipswich,  Salem,  Cambridge,  and  Boston,  for  those 
towns  and  the  towns  in  their  immediate  neighborhood.  In  these  orders 
it  was  declared  that  the  courts  thus  established  "  shall  be  kept  by  such 
magistrates  as  shell  be  dwelling  in  or  near  the  said  towns,  and  by  such  other 
persons  of  worth  as  shall  from  time  to  time  be  appointed  by  the  Gen- 
eral Court,  so  as  no  court  shall  be  kept  without  one  magistrate  at  the  least, 
and  that  none  of  the  magistrates  be  excluded  who  can  and  will  intend  the 
same ;  ytt  the  General  Court  shall  appoint  which  of  the  magistrates  shall 
specially  belong  to  every  of  the  said  courts.  Such  persons  as  shall  be  joined 
as  associates  to  the  magistrates  in  the  said  court  -shall  be  chosen  by  the 
General  Court,  out  of  a  greater  number  of  such  as  the  several  towns  shall 
nominate  to  them,  so  as  there  may  be  in  every  of  the  said  courts  so  many 
as  (with  the  magistrates)  may  make  five  in  all."  2  This  limited  right  of  local 
appointment  for  the  associates  curiously  illustrates  the  tendency  of  colonial 
politics  to  enlarge  the  powers  conferred  by  the  charter,  and  to  adapt  it  to 
the  wants  of  a  growing  colony. 

There  was  no  provision  in  the  colony  charter  expressly  authorizing  the 
creation  of  any  legislative  body  other  than  the  Court  of  Assistants ;  but 
there  was  nothing  in  it  inconsistent  with  the  establishment  of  a  representa- 
tive body  in  which  the  freemen  who  could  not  be  personally  present  in  the 
General  Court  might  express  their  will  through  regularly  appointed  dele- 
gates. With  the  rapid  growth  of  the  colony  it  soon  became  impracticable 
for  all  the  freemen  to  meet  together  in  the  General  Courts  for  which  express 
provision  was  made  in  the  charter,  and  the  establishment  of  some  system 
of  representation  became  a  necessity.  So  early  as  May,  1634,  the  General 
Court  met  the  difficulty,  and  solved  it,  by  ordering  "  that  it  shall  be  lawful 
for  the  freemen  of  every  plantation  to  choose  two  or  three  of  each  town 
before  every  General  Court,  to  confer  of  and  prepare  such  public  business 
as  by  them  shall  be  thought  fit  to  consider  of  at  the  next  General  Court, 

• 

1  Afass.  Col.  Records,  ii.  42.  2  Ibid.  i.  169. 


THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

and  that  such  persons  as  shall  be  hereafter  so  deputed  by  the  freemen  of 
[the]  several  plantations,  to  deal  in  their  behalf  in  the  public  affairs  of  the 
commonwealth,  shall  have  the  full  power  and  voices  of  all  the  said  free- 
men, 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."  1  Various 
orders  were  passed  subsequently  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  dep- 
uties should  be  paid  for  their  necessary  expenses;  and  in  March,  1638-39, 
"  it  was  ordered  that  no  town  should  send  more  than  two  deputies  to 
the  General  Courts."  2  At  length,  nearly  forty  years  afterward,  the  town  of 
Boston  instructed  its  deputies  to  have  the  number  of  deputies  from  the  town 
augmented,  as  the  number  of  freemen  had  much  increased.3  No  immediate 
action  appears  to  have  been  taken  on  the  subject;  but  in  March,  1 680-81, 
the  Court  granted  the  town  liberty  to  send  three  deputies  in  future.4  At 
first  the  magistrates  and  deputies  sat  together,  the  former  claiming  the  right 
to  negative  the  votes  of  the  deputies;  but  in  March,  1643-44,  after  a  contro- 
versy which  belongs  to  the  history  of  the  colony  rather  than  to  the  history 
of  the  town,  the  Court  passed  the  following  preamble  and  order:  "  For- 
asmuch as,  after  long  experience,  we  find  divers  inconveniences  in  the 
manner  of  our  proceeding  in  Courts  by  magistrates  and  deputies  sitting 
together,  and  accounting  it  wisdom  to  follow  the  laudable  practice  of  other 
States  who  have  laid  groundworks  for  government  and  order  in  the  issuing 
of  business  of  greatest  and  highest  consequence,  —  it  is  therefore  ordered, 
first,  that  the  magistrates  may  sit  and  act  business  by  themselves,  by  draw- 
ing 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  con- 
sidered of,  how  "good  and  wholesome  such  orders  are  for  the  country,  and 
accordingly  to  give  their  assent  or  dissent;  the  deputies  in  like  manner 
sitting  apart  by  themselves,  and  consulting  about  such  orders  and  laws  as 
they  in  their  discretion  and  experience  shall  find  meet  for  common  good, 
which  agreed  upon  by  them,  they  may  present  to  the  magistrates,  who, 
according  to  their  wisdom,  having  seriously  considered  of  them,  may 
consent  unto  them  or  disallow  them ;  and  when  any  orders  have  passed  the 
approbation  of  both  magistrates  and  deputies,  then  such  orders  to  be 
engrossed,  and  in  the  last  day  of  the  Court  to  be  read  deliberately,  and  full 
assent  to  be  given,  provided,  also,  that  all  matters  of  judicature  which  this 
Court  shall  take  cognizance  of  shall  be  issued  in  like  manner." 5  These 
orders  of  May,  1634,  and  March,  1643-44,  formed  the  basis  on  which,  with 
only  a  single  important  modification,  the  system  of  town  representation  in 
Massachusetts  rested  down  to  our  own  time. 

Almost  nothing  is  known  about  the  places  in  which  the  General  Court 

1  Mass.  Col.  Records,  i.  nS,  119.  4  Mass,  Col.  Records,  v.  305. 

2  Ibid.  p.  254.  5  Ibid.  ii.  58,  59. 
*  8  MS.  Records  of  the  Town  of  Boston,  ii.  105. 


BOSTON   AND   THE   COLONY.  237 

held  their  sessions  during  the  first  twenty-five  years  after  the  settlement  of 
the  town.  It  is  stated,  indeed,  by  Johnson,  that  the  first  Court  of  Assistants, 
August  23,  1630,  was  held  on  board  the  "  Arbella;  "l  but  as  his  work  was  not 
published  until  1654  the  statement  is  of  doubtful  authority.  In  May,  1634, 
the  Court  was  held  in  the  meeting-house  in  Boston  ;  2  and  this  probably 
continued  to  be  its  place  of  meeting,  for  according  to  Lechford  —  who  was 
here  for  about  four  years,  and  whose  P/aiue  Dealing  ;  or  Newcs  from  New 
England  was  published  in  1642  —  "the  General  and  Great  Quarter  Courts 
are  kept  in  the  church  meeting-house  at  Boston."  3  In  at  least  one  mem- 
orable instance,  in  May,  1637,  the  Court  of  Election  was  held  in  the  open 
air.4  But  in  1658,  when  the  first  town-house  was  erected  in  Boston,  the 
town  was  required  to  provide  suitable  accommodations  for  the  courts  as  one 
of  the  conditions  of  receiving  aid  from  the  colonial  treasury.  At  its  session 
in  May  of  that  year  the  Court  passed  the  following  order:  "  In  answer  to 
the  request  of  the  selectmen  of  Boston,  the  Court  judgeth  it  meet  to  allow 
unto  Boston,  for  and  toward  the  charges  of  their  town-house,  Boston's  pro- 
portion of  one  single  country  rate  for  this  year  ensuing,  provided  that  suffi- 
cient rooms  in  the  said  house  shall  be  forever  free  for  the  keeping  of  all 
courts,  and  also  that  the  place  underneath  shall  be  free  for  all  inhabitants  in 
this  jurisdiction  to  make  use  of  as  a  market  forever,  without  paying  of  any 
toll  or  tribute  whatever."  5  According  to  the  contract  with  the  builders 
it  was  to  be  "  a  very  substantial  and  comely  building,"  sixty-six  feet  in 
length,  and  thirty-six  feet  in  breadth,  set  upon  twenty-one  pillars  ten  feet  in 
height  between  the  pedestal  and  capital.  The  building  was  to  be  a  story 
and  a  half  in  height,  with  three  gable  ends  on  each  side  ;  and  the  principal 
story  was  to  be  ten  feet  high.  On  the  roof  was  to  be  a  walk  fourteen 
or  fifteen  feet  wide,  with  two  turrets  and  turned  balusters  and  rails  around 
the  walk.  The  contract  price  was  four  hundred  pounds,  —  the  town  fur- 
nishing all  the  mason's  work  and  materials,  all  the  iron-work,  lead,  glass, 
and  glazing.  The  cost  was  to  be  defrayed  in  part  from  a  legacy  of  three 
hundred  pounds  left  to  the  town  by  Captain  Keayne,  and  in  part  from  .a 
voluntary  subscription.6  It  does  not  appear  whether  the  town  intended 
that  any  part  of  the  cost  should  be  raised  by  a  direct  tax;  but  the  contrac- 

1  Wonder-working  Providence,  p.  37.  country's  account,  and  the  rather  in  regard  that 

2  Winthrop,  Wnv  England,  \.  132.  the  town  of  Boston  have  long  since  covered  the 

3  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  iii.  84.  east  staircase  of  said  house  at  their  own  cost 
J   Hutchinson,  Hist,  of  the  Col.  of  Mass.  Bay,  and  charges."     Mass.  Col.  Kfcords,  v.  501. 

p.  61,  vote.  6  Papers  relating  to  the  Boston  Town  House 

6  A/ass.   Col.  Kecords,  vol.   iv.  pt.  i.  p.  327.  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  March,  1858,  pp.  337- 

In  consideration  ot  the  joint  occupancy  of  the  341.     |  Keayne    is   famous   for   having   left  the 

town-house,  the  colony  recognized  the  obligation  most  voluminous  will  known  on  our  records.     It 

to  keep  the  building  in  repair,  and  in  September,  fills  158  pages'  ;  was  executed  Dec.  28,  1653,  and 

1685,  the  following  order   was   passed:    "The  proved  May  2,  1656. 

Court,  considering  the  necessity  of  covering  the  Cf.    Savage,    Win- 


^ 

west  staircase  of  the  town-house  with  lead,  —  the     throp's  Hist,  of  N.     \  'Vj-' 

wooden  covering,  being  deficient,  lets  in  the  rain,     E.  \.  378.      Keayne 

which  decays  the  main  timber  thereof,  —  it  is  ord-  lived  opposite  the  old  market-place  (old  State 
ered  that  it  be  done  with  all  speed,  and  that  the  House  lot),  en  the  south  corner  of  Washington 
Treasurer  defray  the  charge  thereof  upon  the  and  State  streets.  Shaw,  Boston,  p.  117.  —  ED.| 


238  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

tors  claimed  a  much  larger  sum  in  the  final  settlement,  and  in  January, 
1660-61,  the  town  voted  to  allow  them  six  hundred  and  eighty  pounds 
in  full.1 

In  at  least  one  instance  the  colony  made  a  specific  grant  to  Boston  in  aid 
of  a  purely  local  institution.  At  the  session  in  October,  1660,  the  General 
Court,  in  answer  to  a  petition  of  the  town  of  Boston,  granted  to  the  town 
one  thousand  acres  of  land  "  for  their  furtherance  and  help  to  discharge  the 
charge  of  a  free  school  there."  2  On  the  other  hand,  the  town  was  not  back- 
ward in  contributing  to  general  colonial  objects.  In  December,  1652,  at  a 
public  town-meeting  a  committee  was  chosen  to  receive  any  sums  of  money 
which  any  persons  might  subscribe  "  toward  the  maintenance  of  the  Presi- 
dent and  Fellows  or  poor  scholars  of  Harvard  College."3  In  July,  1654, 
another  committee  was  chosen  "  to  collect  the  several  sums  subscribed  for 
the  use  of  the  college  by  the  selectmen."4  In  November,  1656,  "a  rate  for 
town  and  country  and  college  "  was  committed  to  the  constables  for  collec- 
tion ;  and  in  the  following  month  it  was  voted  to  discharge  the  constables 
of  this  rate,  —  the  whole  amount  apparently  having  been  collected.6  But 
the  relations  of  the  town  and  the  college  will  be  treated  at  length  in  another 
chapter  of  this  History;  and  these  votes  have  been  cited  only  to  show  that 
the  town  had  helped  to  support  the  college  even  before  she  received  aid  for 
her  free  school. 

All  through  the  colonial  period  Boston  clung  to  the  charter  with  an  un- 
questioning devotion ;  and  it  was  no  doubt  with  a  smile  of  grim  satisfaction 
that  the  town-clerk  placed  on  record  the  unanimous  decision  of  the  town- 
meeting  in  January,  1683-84,  against  a  surrender  of  the  charter:  - 

"  At  a  meeting  of  the  freemen  of  this  town  upon  full  warning,  —  upon  reading  and 
publishing  his  Majesty's  declaration,  dated  26th  of  July,  1683,  relating  to  the  quo 
warranto  issued  out  against  the  charter  and  privileges  claimed  by  the  Governor  and 
Company  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  England,  it  being  put  to  the  vote  whether 
the  freemen  were  minded  that  the  General  Court  should  make  a  full  submission  and 
entire  resignation  of  our  charter  and  privileges  therein  granted  to  his  Majesty's  pleas- 
ure, as  intimated  in  the  said  declaration  now  read,  the  question  was  resolved  in  the 
negative,  ncmine  contradicentc"  e 

During  all  the  anxious  period  when  the  charter  was  in  danger,  the  town 
constantly  instructed  her  deputies  to  the  General  Court  to  do  nothing  to 
abridge  the  liberties  of  the  country,  and  to  give  their  consent  to  no  laws 
repugnant  to  the  charter.7 

In  the  period  of  misgovernment  after  the  first  charter  was  vacated,  and 
before  the  second  charter  was  granted,  the  hand  of  arbitrary  power  did  not 

1  Second  Report  of  the  Record  Commissioners,  *  Ibid.  p.  I2O. 

p.  158.     |See  further  on  this  town-house  in  Mr.  5  Ibid.  pp.  132,  133. 

Uynner's  chapter  in  this  volume.  —  En.j  6  MS.  RcforJs  of  the  Toiun  of  Boston,  ii.  155. 

1  Mas.1!.  Col.  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  p.  444.  "  |This  struggle  for  the  maintenance  of  the 

3  Second  Retort  of  the  Record  Coiiimissioturs,  charter  is  fully  described  in  another  chapter  of 

p.  113.  this  volume.  —  En.] 


BOSTON    AND   THE   COLONY.  239 

spare  the  inhabitants  of  Boston ;  and  it  is  significant  of  the  changed  con- 
dition of  things  to  read  in  the  town  records  a  formal  confirmation,  by  the 
President  and  Council,  of  rates  voted  by  the  town  for  finishing  the  alms 
house  and  for  maintaining  the  poor,  and  of  an  order  made  many  years  be- 
fore for  regulating  the  manner  in  which  gunpowder  should  be  kept.1  It  is 
no  matter  for  surprise,  but  it  is  one  for  deep  satisfaction,  that  Boston  was 
foremost  in  the  resistance  to  Andros,  and  that  the  New  England  Revolution 
of  1689  was  the  result  of  a  great  popular  uprising  in  Boston.  With  the  loss 
of  the  colony  charter  one  period  in  the  history  of  Boston,  as  well  as  of 
Massachusetts,  closed :  with  the  grant  of  the  province  charter  a  new  era 
opened. 

In  reviewing  the  details  which  have  been  brought  together  here  to  illus- 
trate the  relations  of  the  town  to  the  colony  down  to  the  end  of  the  colonial 
period,  no  one  can  fail  to  be  impressed,  above  all  else,  by  the  slow  and 
steady  growth  of  the  institutions  with  whose  later  developments  we  are 
familiar.  The  founders  of  the  colony  and  of  the  town  brought  with  them 
no  elaborate  plan  of  colonial  or  town  government;  and  the  institutions 
which  they  established  here  were  the  natural  growth  of  the  circumstances 
in  which  they  were  placed.  It  is  needless  now  to  discuss  the  question 
whether  the  colony  charter  merely  created  a  trading  corporation  to  reside 
in  England  and  transact  all  its  business  there,  or  whether  it  conferred  on  the 
company  the  power  necessary  to  establish  a  colonial  government  here  and 
to  make  all  necessary  laws  under  it  not  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England. 
The  deliberation  with  which  the  transfer  of  the  charter  to  New  England  was 
ordered  shows  that  Winthrop  and  his  associates  accepted  the  latter  view ; 
and  they  and  their  successors  acted  on  it  until  the  charter  was  vacated. 
The  charter  was,  it  is  true,  only  a  clumsy  and  ill-contrived  foundation  on 
which  to  erect  such  a  superstructure  as  was  built  up  here  in  half  a  century; 
but  as  each  necessity  arose  for  the  exercise  of  new  powers  the  magistrates 
and  the  people  deduced  the  requisite  authority  from  the  acknowledged  pro- 
visions of  the  charter.  This  development  went  forward  in  two  directions,  — 
one  toward  local  self-government  in  the  management  of  town  affairs,  and  the 
other  toward  the  establishment  of  a  strong  central  authority  which  recog- 
nized no  appeal  to  the  mother  country.  Thus,  by  slow  degrees,  the  colony 
became 

"A  land  of  settled  government, 
A  land  of  just  and  old  renown, 
Where  Freedom  broadens  slowly  down 
From  precedent  to  precedent." 

In  this  gradual  development  of  free  institutions  during  the  colonial 
period  Boston  had  a  conspicuous  part.  As  the  most  important  town  in  the 
colony,  in  respect  both  to  wealth  and  population,  she  could  not  fail  to  exert 
a  large  influence  in  colonial  politics.  There  are  no  records  now  extant  to 

1  MS.  Records  of  the  Town  of  Boston,  ii.  176,  177.  Other  orders  were  confirmed  at  the  same 
time. 


240  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

show  when  the  first  board  of  selectmen  was  established  in  Boston  ;  but  such 
a  body  was  in  existence  in  September,  1634,  when  the  town  records  begin, 
and  Winthrop,  who  had  been  Governor  in  the  preceding  year  and  was  now 
one  of  the  Assistants,  was  a  member.1  This  fact  shows  how  close  were  the 
political  relations  of  the  colony  and  the  town.  It  was  only  a  single  step 
from  the  office  of  governor  to  that  of  selectman.  Not  a  few  of  the  ques- 
tions which  most  largely  influenced  the  course  of  colonial  politics  were  pri- 
marily Boston  questions.  The  disarmament  of  the  followers  of  Wheelright, 
in  1637,  was  the  result  of  the  controversy  in  the  Boston  church  over  the 
theological  speculations  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson.  The  separation  of  the  magis- 
trates and  deputies  into  two  bodies,  in  1643-44,  was  finally  brought  about 
by  the  strong  feeling  which  had  been  aroused  by  a  series  of  lawsuits  in 
Boston  over  a  stray  pig.2  Wilson  and  Cotton  were  acknowledged  forces  in 
shaping  the  colonial  polity ;  at  a  later  period  the  Mathers  showed  that  the 
Boston  ministers  had  lost  none  of  their  interest  in  politics ;  and,  it  may  be 
added,  the  first  governor  under  the  province  charter  owed  his  appointment 
to  the  good  offices  of  Increase  Mather,  the  minister  of  a  Boston  church. 

So  close,  indeed,  were  the  relations  of  the  colony  and  the  town,  and  so 
nearly  identical  were  their  interests  during  the  earlier  part  of  the  colonial 
period,  that  it  is  not  easy  to  write  the  history  of  Boston  without  writing  also 
the  history  of  Massachusetts.  But  as  the  number  of  towns  multiplied,  and 
the  aggregate  population  and  wealth  increased  and  became  more  widely 
distributed,  the  limits  of  the  central  power  and  of  the  local  power  were  more 
exactly  defined.  The  General  Court  confined  itself  more  and  more  to 
matters  of  general  importance;  and  the  town  was  left  more  and  more  to 
regulate  her  own  affairs.  The  relations  of  the  town  and  the  colony  changed 
somewhat  in  character.  There  was  little  of  direct  interference  on  either 
side ;  but  neither  the  colony  nor  the  province  ever  relinquished  the  authority 
which  might  be  claimed  under  the  respective  charters,  and  the  town  never 
ceased  to  take  the  liveliest  interest  in  all  matters  which  concerned  the  other 
towns  as  well  as  herself.  A  reciprocal  influence  took  the  place  of  the  more 
direct  and  positive  relations  which  had  existed  at  first;  and  from  the  time 
when  the  extent  of  the  powers  which  the  town  might  rightfully  exercise  was 
defined  with  some  approach  to  accuracy,  the  separate  history  of  the  town 
and  of  the  colony  or  province  may  be  traced  along  parallel  lines,  with  little 
fear  of  confusion  of  statement. 


1  [Cf.  Snow's  Boston,  p.  56,  and  the  facsimile     Winthrop's   Life  of  John    Winthrop,    1630-49, 
of  the  page  in  another  chapter.  —  ED.]  ch.  xviii ,  and  in  his  chapter  in  this  volume. 

'l  [See  the  curious  story  recounted  in  R.  C.     — En.) 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE    INDIANS    OF    EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS. 

BY    GEORGE    EDWARD    ELLIS. 

Vice-President  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 

IT  seems  to  have  been  allotted  to  the  first  colonists  in  the  settlement 
of  Boston  to  establish  the  precedent  which  has  ever  since,  in  the  suc- 
cessive advances  of  our  race  over  the  continent,  been  adopted  as  an  example, 
or  regarded  as  certified  by  experience,  —  that  civilized  men  and  barbarians 
cannot  live  peacefully  as  neighbors.  Whether  this  issue  was  prejudiced  at 
the  start  by  ill  advice  or  wrong  action,  and  whether  a  different  principle  or 
method  in  the  treatment  of  the  Indians,  by  those  whose  ruthless  dealing 
with  them  justified  itself  by  the  assumed  necessity  of  their  extinction  or 
removal  from  proximity  to  a  white  settlement,  would  have  in  any  way 
modified  the  subsequent  relations  between  the  aboriginal  and  the  intruding 
races  on  this  continent,  it  might  be  profitless  now  to  inquire.  Certain  it 
is  that  two  facts  of  a  most  decisive  significance  are  certified  to  us  by  full 
historical  testimony  of  the  past,  and  by  the  course  of  things  which  has 
been  followed  up  to  this  current  year  of  time.  The  first  is,  that  when  the 
magistrates  and  fighting  men  of  Boston  came  into  actual  warfare  with  Indian 
tribes,  even  at  a  considerable  distance  from  their  own  original  plantations, 
they  acted  as  if  under  the  stress  of  a  necessity  to  secure  a  complete  riddance 
of  their  red  foes,  putting  as  many  of  them  as  possible  to  death,  and  reduc- 
ing the  remnant  to  abject  and  humiliating  slavery,  —  a  few  being  scattered 
among  the  settlements,  while  the  greater  number  were  transported  to  be 
sold  in  foreign  plantations.  The  second  fact  is,  that  as  the  white  men, 
steadily  advancing  their  borders  across  the  vast  expanses  of  continent  to- 
wards the  further  ocean,  over  each  mountain  range  and  valley,  have  come 
in  contact  with  survivors  of  tribes  previously  driven  to  refuges  in  the  West, 
or  with  new  hordes  of  wild  roamers,  the  precedent  has  been  invariably  fol- 
lowed. There  has  been  no  sharing  of  the  heritage  with  the  original  oc- 
cupants ;  they  have  had  to  move  out  and  to  move  on.  With  consummate 
assurance  the  abler  race  has  spoken  its  command  to  the  savage  in  the  tone 
and  language  of  the  old  Prophet,  —  "  The  place  is  too  strait  for  me ;  give 
room  that  I  may  dwell." 

This  assurance  of  the  right,  as  well  as  of  the  ability,  of  the  civilized  man 
to  dispossess  the  red  man  of  his  territory  has  rested  itself,  from  the  time 
VOL.  i.  —  31. 


242  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

of  the  first  foreign  discovery  of  this  continent  down  to  recent  years,  upon 
two  grounds  of  justification,  quite  different  in  their  character,  but  each  of 
them,  under  the  circumstances  of  the  times  and  the  views  of  those  who 
adopted  it,  believed  to  be  of  axiomatic  truth.  One  of  these  was  simply  a 
matter  of  opinion,  firmly  and  devoutly  held,  indeed,  but  still  only  a  way  of 
thinking  which  took  for  granted  its  own  rightfulness.  The  other  ground  of 
the  white  man's  justification  —  that  which  came  in  season  to  serve  when  the 
former  might  be  questioned  or  discredited,  and  which  abundantly  supplied 
its  place  —  may  be  regarded  as  certifying  itself  by  actual  and  decisive  experi- 
ment in  continued  conflict. 

Amid  all  the  sharp  and  bitter  variances  between  the  creeds  of  the  Roman- 
ist and  the  Puritan,  there  was  one  point  of  pious  belief  held  in  common 
between  the  sanguinary  Spanish  invaders  of  the  more  tropical  realms  of  this 
continent  and  the  stern  Protestant  heretics  who  planted  their  colonies  on 
the  rough  borders  of  the  Bay  of  Massachusetts.  Equally,  and,  so  to  speak, 
honestly,  were  they  assured  that  as  Christians  they  had  by  the  law  of  Nature 
and  of  "  Grace  "  dominant  rights  over  heathen,  not  only  to  the  soil  but  to 
everything  beside,  including  even  existence.  The  Spaniard  said  to  the  wild 
native,  "  Be  converted  or  die ; "  without,  however,  allowing  time  or  mercy 
for  the  saving  process.  The  Puritan  avowed  it  to  be  his  main  intent  to  con- 
vert the  savage,  but  was  too  dilatory  or  too  inefficient  in  the  attempt  for  its 
success.  But  from  the  moment  when  the  Puritan  had  experience  of  Indian 
warfare,  the  savage  became  to  him  rather  a  heathen  to  be  put  to  the  slaugh- 
ter than  a  subject  of  salvation  by  the  method  of  the  Gospel.  Modern 
readers  of  our  early  local  literature  sometimes  find  it  difficult  to  relieve  the 
writers  of  it  from  the  imputation  of  the  grossest  bigotry  and  hypocrisy, 
when,  without  misgiving,  regret,  or  one  breathing  of  tender  human  yearning 
for  their  wretched  victims,  they  speak  of  themselves  as  merely  fulfilling  the 
will  and  purpose  of  heaven  against  heathen  outcasts,  children  of  the  Devil. 
But  we  cannot  question  the  thorough  sincerity  of  the  belief  which  found 
expression  in  these  dismal  and  to  us  often  revolting  declarations.  It  was 
of  the  very  fibre  and  texture,  of  the  very  vigor  and  essence  of  the  faith  of 
the  Puritan  exiles,  that,  in  coming  to  occupy  these  wild  realms  where  the 
imbruted  savages  roamed,  they  were  fortified  by  the  same  Divine  rights  and 
held  to  the  same  solemn  obligations  as  were  the  chosen  people  of  old,  of 
whom  they  read  so  trustfully  in  their  Bibles.  It  was  one  of  the  profoundest 
and  most  vital  sources  of  their  courage,  heroism,  and  constancy  in  their 
enterprise,  their  refuge  and  solace  in  all  their  straits  and  hazards,  that  God 
was  leading  them  and  using  them  for  his  own  purposes  to  reclaim  a  blasted 
region  of  the  earth  and  to  set  up  his  kingdom  there.  They,  too,  were  to  dis- 
possess and  drive  out  the  heathen,  and  to  put  them  to  the  sword,  to  form  no 
truce  with  them,  and  to  exterminate  even  their  offspring.  When  that  stanch 
old  Puritan  captain,  John  Mason,  had  burned  up  some  seven  hundred  of 
the  Pequots  in  their  own  fort  and  wigwams,  and  the  wretched  victims  were 
writhing  impaled  upon  their  own  palisades,  he  wrote  of  the  scene,  "  Thus 


THE    INDIANS    OF    EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS.  243 

was  God  seen  in  the  Mount,  crushing  his  proud  enemies."  The  enemies 
of  the  Puritans  were  the  enemies  of  God. 

But  even  while  the  Puritan  was  finding  a  full  justification  of  his  exter- 
minating work  against  the  Indians  as  doomed  and  uncovenanted  heathen, 
another  conviction  grew  strong  in  his  mind,  which  has  ever  since,  and 
never  more  effectually  than  to-day,  furnished  to  the  civilized  man  a  justi- 
fication for  the  same  course  against  the  savage  tribes  as  his  border  set- 
tlements advance  towards  them.  The  different  mode  of  life,  and  the  dif- 
ferent uses  which  the  land  and  the  water-courses  of  the  earth  are  made  to 
serve  for  the  white  and  the  red  man,  make  it  impracticable  and  indeed  im- 
possible for  them  to  live  even  within  miles  of  intervening  space  in  the  same 
territory.  The  savage  needs  that  Natifre  should  be  and  should  forever  remain 
in  its  wild,  primeval  condition.  The  native  forests  must  stand  in  their  dark 
and  tangled  luxuriance,  sheltering  the  game  and  bearing  fruit  and  berry. 
They  must  be  unopened  by  highways;  coursed  only  by  leafy  and  mossy  by- 
paths. The  winds  and  breezes  must  not  be  tainted  by  the  effluvia  of  hu- 
manity ;  they  must  be  silent,  except  only  from  their  own  murmurs  or  the 
gusts  of  storms.  The  waters  must  be  left  to  flow  freely,  that  the  fish  may 
visit  them  for  spawning.  The  dam  or  mill  which  obstructs  their  course,  and 
defiles  or  clogs  them  with  rubbish  or  saw-dust,  at  once  destroys  their  value 
to  the  savage.  But  the  white  man's  first  necessity  is  a  clearing.  His  axe 
breaks  the  solitude.  The  wild  creatures  in  the  forest  are  to  him  not  only 
game  for  his  partial  subsistence,  but  vermin  destructive  of  his  flocks  and 
poultry.  The  white  man  never  by  preference  would  live  wholly  on  the  food 
of  the  woods.  The  meat  of  the  ox,  the  sheep,  and  the  swine  is  far  more 
congenial  to  his  palate  and  physical  system  than  that  of  the  native  wilder- 
ness. He  must  fence  and  plant  grounds,  raise  cereal  crops,  textile  fibres 
and  domesticated  animals,  and  open  highways  over  his  scattered  settlements. 
He  must  put  the  watercourses  to  use,  must  dam  the  streams,  and  raise  the 
clatter  of  the  mill.  The  white  man,  in  the  regions  where  the  heats  of  sum- 
mer and  the  frosts  and  snows  of  winter  divide  the  year,  must  be  thosghtful 
and  provident.  He  must  fill  his  barn  and  cellar,  and  attach  himself  per- 
manently to  one  spot.  As  now,  in  our  most  secure  and  crowded  rural  com- 
munities, a  strolling  tramp  is  an  object  of  suspicion  and  fear,  so  on  all  early 
and  recent  border  settlements  the  known  proximity  of  few  or  many  vagrant 
savages,  prowling  in  the  shadows  of  the  forest  and  bent  on  ventures  for 
stealing  the  live-stock,  or  firing  the  corn-rick,  or  frightening  the  inmates  of 
the  cabin,  was  an  experience  to  which  the  white  man  never  could  reconcile 
himself.  So  the  condition  was  very  soon  certified,  and  has  never  since  been 
qualified,  that  if  the  white  man  resolves  to  occupy  any  region  of  territory, 
the  red  man,  if  in  transient  possession,  must  move  wide-away.  From  this 
anticipation  of  what  proved  to  be  the  experience  of  the  first  colonists,  we 
start  for  the  beginning  of  their  story. 

We  are  naturally  prompted  to  ask,  with  what  expectations  and  intentions 
as  regards  their  relations  with  the  natives  whom  they  might  find  here  the 


244  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

first  colonists  to  the  Bay  prepared  to  meet  them?  On  this  matter  there  is  to 
be  noted  some  confusion  of  statement.  Over  and  over  again,  in  very  positive 
and  earnest  terms,  the  purpose  is  avowed,  as  indeed  the  prompting  and  con- 
secrating aim  of  the  enterprise  in  the  Colony,  to  civilize  and  Christianize  the 
barbarous  heathen  inhabiting  here.  But,  again,  we  meet  with  frequent  ref- 
erences to  the  fact  that  before  the  planters  left  England  they  had  learned 
that  the  natives  in  these  parts  had  been  almost  exterminated  by  some 
desolating  plague  or  disease,  so  that  they  were  not  likely  to  meet  with  any 
embarrassment  from  such  a  remnant  of  them  as  they  might  encounter. 

Governor  Cradock,  in  his  letter  to  Endicott,  March,  1629,  bids  him  to 
"  be  not  unmindful  of  the  main  end  of  our  Plantation,  by  endeavoring  to 
bring  the  Indians  to  the  knowledge  of'the  Gospel,"  and  to  keep  a  watchful 
eye  over  our  own  people  so  that  they  may  be  just  and  courteous  to  the  In- 
dians, winning  their  love  and  respect  and  getting  some  of  their  children  to 
be  trained  in  learning  and  religion.  The  Charter  emphatically  recognizes 
this  obligation  towards  the  natives ;  and  those  who  availed  themselves  of  the 
privileges  which  it  bestowed  professed  with  seeming  sincerity,  and  with  re- 
iteration, that  they  expected  to  be  missionaries  of  the  Christian  religion,  and 
heralds  of  civilization  to  the  heathen. 

It  is  observable  also,  that,  up  to  the  early  period  of  fierce  hostilities 
between  the  Massachusetts  colonists  and  the  natives,  the  former,  when 
brought  under  question  in  England  for  their  proceedings  here,  were  gen- 
erally glad  to  lay  the  utmost  stress  possible  upon  their  missionary  errand 
and  purposes.  None  the  less,  however,  is  it  true  that  the  colonists  in  this 
immediate  neighborhood  expected  to  find  but  very  few,  and  those  a  feeble 
remnant,  in  possession  here,  and  were  persuaded  that  the  fewer  of  them 
there  were,  the  .better  for  both  parties.  In  the  lack  of  particular  and  authen- 
tic information  of  the  condition  of  the  natives  before  the  settlement  at  Ply- 
mouth and  that  at  Salem,  we  have  very  imperfect  knowledge  about  the  des- 
olating plague  which  is  said  to  have  well  nigh  extirpated  the  natives  just 
previously.  Increase  Mather  distinguishes  between  a  plague  in  Plymouth 
Colony  and  the  small-pox  in  this  region.  Bradford  says  that  the  Pilgrims, 
before  leaving  Leyden,  expected  to  find  but  a  scanty  number  of  natives  on 
their  arrival.  The  patriarch  White,  in  the  Planter  s  Plea,  says :  "  The  land 
affords  void  ground  "  for  more  people  than  England  can  spare,  "  on  account 
of  a  desolation  from  a  three  years'  plague,  twelve  or  sixteen  years  past,  which 
sw.ept  away  most  of  the  inhabitants  all  along  the  sea-coast,  and  in  some 
places  utterly  consumed  man,  woman,  and  child,  so  that  there  is  no  person 
left  to  lay  claim  to  the  soyle  which  they  possessed."  In  other  places, 
twenty  or  thirty  miles  up  into  the  land,  he  says,  not  one  in  a  hundred  is  left. 
Those  of  them  who  are  left,  he  promises,  we  will  teach  providence  and 
industry,  which  in  their  wastefulness  and  idleness  they  much  need.  Also, 
we  shall  defend  them  from  the  "  Tarantines  "  savages,  who  have  been  wont 
to  destroy  and  desolate  them,  "  and  have  wonderfully  weakened  and  kept 
them  low  in  times  past."  But  yet  this  stanch  friend  of  the  colonists,  re- 


THE    INDIANS    OF   EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS.  245 

minding  himself  of  the  stress  which  he  had  previously  laid  upon  their  pur- 
pose to  convert  the  Indians,  feels  bound  to  meet  the  supposed  objection 
as  to  how  this  is  to  be  done,  if  they  have  been  so  nearly  killed  off.  He 
therefore  pleads  that  it  is  easier  to  begin  the  work  with  a  few,  and  then  to 
spread  it  to  places  better  peopled.  Besides,  he  suggests,  there  are  enough 
of  them  near  by  in  the  Narragansett  country.  He  grants  that  no  progress 
had  been  made  in  converting  the  Indians  in  Virginia ;  and  that  in  New  Ply- 
mouth, in  ten  years,  not  one  of  them  had  been  converted.  He  accounts 
this  to  the  difficulty  presented  by  the  Indian  language,  in  which,  he  naively 
suggests,  the  whites  easily  acquire  enough  facility  for  purposes  of  trade 
and  for  temporal  matters,  but  not  for  making  themselves  understood  about 
"  things  spiritual."  Mr.  Higginson,  after  his  arrival  in  Salem,  wrote  in  1629, 
"  The  Indians  are  not  able  to  make  use  of  the  one  fourth  part  of  the  land ; 
neither  have  they  any  settled  places,  as  towns,  to  dwell  in,  nor  any  grounds, 
as  they  challenge  for  their  own  possession,  but  change  their  habitation  from 
place  to  place."  The  good  minister  made  these  somewhat  fallacious  state- 
ments in  perfectly  good  faith,  seeming  not  to  have  recognized  the  peculiar- 
ities in  the  habits  of  the  savages  just  noted,  as  to  their  not  confining  themselves 
to  any  fixed  residences,  and  their  need  of  vast  spaces  of  territory  for  their 
wild  roaming  life. 

We  have  no  means  of  any  trustworthy  information  as  to  the  extent  and 
effects  inland  from  the  coast  border  of  the  desolation  made  by  the  pestilence 
just  previous  to  the  coming  of  the  colonists.  The  small-pox  renewed  its  rav- 
ages in  the  immediate  neighborhood  very  soon  after  their  arrival.  It  is  on 
record  that  many  of  the  whites  pitifully  befriended  the  red  sufferers  in  their 
bewilderment  under  loathsome  disease  when  their  own  kith  and  kin  deserted 
them  in  dismay.  It  is  said  that  in  some  spots  the  ground  was  strewn  with  un- 
buried  human  bones.  The  most  careful  computation  and  inference  from  facts 
that  afterwards  came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  whites  put  the  estimate  of  the 
number  of  the  savages  then  within  the  present  bounds  of  New  England,  where 
now  are  more  than  four  millions  of  population,  at  about  thirty  thousand. 
This  estimate  is  now  believed  to  be  an  excessive  one.1 

1  [The  principal  contemporary  authorities  on  ton,    New   English    Canaan  ;    Lechford,  Plaint 

the  condition  of  the  New  England   Indians  at  Dealing,  reprinted  in  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  iii.,  and 

the  time  of  the  settlement  are  as  follows :  Smith,  recently  edited  by  Dr.  Trumbull ;  a  tract,  New 

Desc.  of  New  England  and  Generall  Historie  ;  England'1  s  First  Fruits,  1643,  reprinted  in  Mass. 

Bradford,    Plymouth    Plantation,   edited   by   C.  Hist.   Coll.,  i.,  and  by  Sabin,   New   York,  1865 

Deane ;  Mourt,  Relation,  &c.,  recently  edited  by  (and  the  series  of  tracts  on  the  conversion  of 

Dr.  II.  M.  Dexter;  Winslow,   Good  Newe s,  re-  the  Indians  referred  to  in  a    later    note);    the 

printed  in  the  appendix  of  the  Congregational  "  Briefe    Observations   of    the    Customes,"   ap- 

Board's  edition  of  Morton's  Memorial;  the  AV-  pended  to  Roger  Williams's  Key,  reprinted  in 

ladon,   1622,  by  the   President  and  Council  of  the  K.  I.  Hist.   Coll.,  1827,  and  by  the  Narra- 

New  England ;  Gorges,  Briefe  Narration  ;  Win-  gansett  Club,  1866.     Palfrey  says  "  the  only  au- 

throp,  New  England ;  Higginson,  New  England  thentic  portrait  of  an  historical  Indian  "  is  one 

Plantation  ;    Dudley,   Letter  to  the  Countess  of  painted  for  Governor  Winthrop,  of  Connecticut, 

Lincoln,  given  in  Young's  Chron.  of  Mass.,  &c. ;  of  Ninigret,  a  Niantic  sachem,  which  has  been 

Johnson,  Wonder-working  Providence,  reprinted  engraved  in  Drake's  Boston  and  elsewhere.     A 

in  2  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  ii.,  and  recently  edited  by  story,  ascribed  to  one  of  the  Mathers,  that  three 

Poole;  Wood,  New  England's  Prospect;  Mor-  hundred  skulls,  supposed  to  be  Indian,  had  been 


246 


THE   MEMORIAL  HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


Under  this  somewhat  hazy  and  confused  state  of  mind  as  to  the  numbers, 

disposition,  and   probable  attitude  of  the   Indians  towards  them,  with  the 

'*~  avowed  intent  of  treating  them 

kindly   and  of  civilizing  and 

/L   /tL    A~I    ~  —    *~*  *•   \£*-*-  Christianizing  them,  while  still 

L~   k.     ft^*~>    ~.~«-***  /—  •  with  the  hope  that  there  were 

t.,      ^  but  few  of  them,  the  colonists 

<tr*~x-  planted    themselves    on    this 

;  soil,    and    prepared,    as    the 

/.  __  .  stronger  party,  for  the  encoun- 


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side,  we  have  to  inform  our- 
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X. 


ideas  and  feelings  of  the  In- 
dians  towards  the  white  com- 
ers  on  their  first  acquaintance. 
We  have  on  this  point  (on 
this,  as  on  every  other  occa- 
sion  when  it  comes  before  us) 
to  remind  ourselves  that  the 
Indians  have  no  historian  of 
their  own  race,  no  one  to  state 
their  cause,  to  stand  for  their 
side,  or  to  represent  their  view 
on  a  single  controversy  or 
struggle  between  them  and 

the  whites-    Tt  is  Pleasant, 

however,  to  recognize  the  fact 
that  the  Indians  from  the  first 
have  never  lacked  friends, 
pleaders,  or  champions  among 

the  race  which  has  spoiled  them.  By  such  men,  just,  candid,  and  prompted 
by  considerate  and  merciful  sentiments,  facts  have  been  left  on  record  for 
us,  and  avowals  and  admissions  of  oppressive  dealings  by  the  whites  have 
been  made,  from  which  we  are  able  to  gather  as  fair  a  statement  of  the 
Indian  side  in  every  quarrel  and  conflict  as  might  have  been  looked  for 
from  the  pen  of  an  Indian  advocate  and  historian.  Our  own  historians, 
indeed,  have  not  in  all  cases  so  guarded  and  qualified  their  relations  of 


JL  L~ 


A 


FROM  CHARLES  spRAGUE's  ODE,  I83O.1 


dug  up  on  Cotton  (Pemberton)  Hill,  has  been 
taken  to  show  that  the  peninsula  was  at  one  time 
well  populated  ;  but  few  or  no  evidences  of  that 
kind  have  been  disclosed  in  the  general  excava- 
tion  of  the  land  which  has  from  time  to  time 
been  made  all  over  the  territory  of  original  Bos- 
ton.  —  ED.] 


1  [This,  one  of  the  most  fervent  appeals  for 
the  Indian,  is  taken  from  the  original  manu- 
script  of  the  centennial  ode  delivered  by  Charles 
Sprague  at  the  celebration  in  1830;  and  for  the 
privilege  of  making  the  fac-simile  we  are  in- 
debted  to  the  courtesy  of  the  son  of  the  poet, 
Charles  J.  Sprague,  Esq.,  of  Boston.  —  ED.] 


THE    INDIANS    OF   EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS.  247 

the  causes  and  the  conduct  of  the  English  wars  with  the  natives  as  to 
conceal  from  us  the  evidence  that  the  civilized  man  was  generally  the 
aggressor,  and  that  though  he  expressed  horror  and  disgust  at  the  bar- 
barous and  revolting  atrocities  of  savage  warfare,  his  own  skill  and  cruelty 
in  wreaking  vengeance  hardly  vindicated  his  milder  humanity. 

The  testimony  on  record  in  every  case  is  complete,  and  without  exception, 
to  two  facts,  the  significance  of  which,  as  setting  forth  the  relations  between 
the  two  races  on  this  continent,  can  hardly  be  exaggerated.  First,  it  is  in  evi- 
dence from  the  writings  of  all  the  voyagers,  explorers,  and  colonists  coming 
hither  from  Europe,  beginning  with  those  of  the  Spanish  discoverers,  that 
at  every  point  along  our  whole  coast,  and  on  the  shore  of  every  inhab- 
ited island,  the  new-comers  met  a  kindly  reception  from  the  natives.  The 
sea-worn,  feeble,  and  hungry  adventurers,  weakened  by  confinement  and 
illness,  craving  fresh  water,  meat,  and  green  vegetables,  were  made  free 
partakers  of  the  rude  hospitality  of  the  red  man.  In  many  instances,  well 
authenticated,  they  would  have  perished  from  starvation  without  such  succor. 
Second,  it  is  also  in  evidence  that  in  every  case,  with  very  rare  exceptions, 
the  kindness  and  hospitality  of  the  savages  were  ill  requited.  Oppressive  or 
cruel  treatment  was  the  base  return.  Nor  do  the  exceptions  which  are  to  be 
allowed  for  present  themselves  in  the  journals  of  the  early  visits  made  to  the 
New  England  coasts  by  English  adventurers.  On  the  contrary,  the  wrong 
was  committed  here  by  them  with  all  its  aggravations.  Natives  enticed  on 
board  English  fishing  or  trading  vessels  here  were  in  three  instances  kid- 
napped, carried  off,  and  sold  into  slavery.  This  was  the  method  of  the 
introduction  of  the  white  man  to  the  red  man. 

There  are  frequent  and  positive  affirmations  scattered  over  the  writings 
of  the  first  colonists  of  Massachusetts,  that  in  no  single  instance  did  they 
assume  the  possession  or  occupancy  of  any  parcel  of  land  without  the  free 
consent  and  the  fair  compensation  of  the  natives.  The  claim  thus  asserted, 
as  if  for  the  quieting  of  conscience,  occasionally  has  the  tone  of  a  boast,  as 
if  indicating  a  supererogatory  merit.  At  any  rate  the  new-comers  do  not 
appear  to  have  felt  any  reproaches  at  having  displaced  the  original  occu- 
pants. Among  the  grievances  which  the  magistrates  had  against  Roger 
Williams,  in  the  first  issue  of  contention  opened  by  him,  was  his  disputing 
the  right  of  the  English  monarch  to  grant  a  patent  to  lands  here  without 
a  recognition  of  the  prior  claims  of  the  natives.  It  is  observable,  also,  that, 
when  under  the  so-called  usurpation  of  Andros  and  the  overthrow  of  the 
colony  charter  all  the  titles  to  land  held  by  it  were  put  in  peril,  the  magis- 
trates of  Boston  made  haste  to  secure  a  confirmation  of  the  deed  of  the 
peninsula  from  the  grandson  of  the  old  Sachem. 

If  we  examine  closely  the  matter  and  contents  of  the  contracts  by  which 
these  purchases  of  land  from  the  Indians  were  secured,  and  the  consideration 
paid  for  them,  we  must  keep  in  view  the  relations  of  the  respective  parties, 
the  value  of  wild  land  to  each  of  them,  and  the  uses  to  which  it  had  been 
and  was  to  be  put.  It  is  evident  that  the  whites  regarded  the  territorial 


248  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

rights  of  the  Indians,  in  their  mode  of  occupancy  for  the  time  being  of  any 
particular  region,  as  at  best  but  vague  and  slender,  while  the  way  in  which 
they  scoured  over  it  without  in  any  way  improving  it,  except  by  an  oc- 
casional cornfield,  did  not  insure  ownership  according  to  any  test  recog- 
nized by  the  law  of  nations.  Our  romantic  notions  of  the  aborigines  assign 
to  them  in  their  tribes  the  long  possession  for  generations  of  ancestral  hunt- 
ing-grounds and  burial-places.  Well-certified  facts  that  have  been  accumu- 
lating from  all  our  knowledge  of  the  relations  of  the  Indian  tribes  on  this 
continent  before  and  since  the  coming  hither  of  Europeans  assure  us  that 
there  is  very  much  of  mere  fancy  in  those  notions.  In  very  rare  cases,  if, 
indeed,  in  any,  —  except  as  regards  the  Five  Nations  or  Iroquois,  of  central 
New  York,  who  had  themselves  farther  back  been  intruders  and  conquerors, 
displacing  previous  occupants,  —  is  there  evidence  of  any  long  and  quiet 
tenure  of  the  same  regions  by  the  same  tribe  of  savages.  There  was  among 
them  an  endless  and  hardly  intermittent  internecine  warfare.  The  tribes 
were  constantly  displacing  each  other.  At  the  time  of  the  colonization  of 
New  England,  the  Indians  on  its  soil  had  been  and  were  at  feud ;  some  of 
them  had  conquered,  subjugated,  and  brought  under  tribute  their  weaker 
neighbors  ;  and  of  once  powerful  tribes  there  remained  but  feeble  remnants. 
As  the  whites  came  to  the  knowledge  of  these  facts,  they  of  course  natu- 
rally drew  the  inference  that  any  particular  clan  or  tribe  who  happened  to 
be  here  or  there  were  transient  roamers  rather  than  old-time  inheritors. 
In  1633  the  Court  ordered  "  that  the  Indians  had  a  just  right  to  such  lands 
as  they  possessed  and  improved  by  subduing  the  same.  Gen.  i.  28,  ix.  i." 
The  condition  demanded  was  actual  occupation  by  tillage.  The  accepted 
rule  was  vacuum  domicilium  cedit  occupanti.  Plymouth  devoted  several 
necks  of  land  to  the  Indians,  and  pronounced  them  inalienable. 

The  whites  regarded  land  strictly  for  its  uses,  and  in  a  wilderness  these 
were  substitutes  for  title-deeds.  They  recognized  the  right  of  the  old 
Patriarch,  returning  with  his  family  from  a  sojourn  in  Egypt  during  a  fam- 
ine, to  repossess  himself  of  Canaan  and  to  drive  out  the  heathen,  because 
of  a  title  to  it  assured  by  the  three  ancient  tokens  of  ownership  in  the  altar 
of  Bethel,  the  well  of  Jacob,  and  the  tomb  at  Macphelah.  The  Indians 
raised  and  left  no  such  token,  no  land-mark,  structure,  or  betterment.  Oc- 
cupancy, improvements,  and  an  added  value  to  field  and  stream  were  the 
white  man's  tests  of  rightful  tenure.  They  saw  no  evidences  of  these  in  the 
vast  forests  and  reedy  meadows  where  the  Indians  lurked.  The  Indians 
simply  wasted  everything  within  their  reach.  They  skimmed  what  was  on 
the  earth's  surface.  They  required  enormous  spaces  of  wilderness  for  their 
mode  of  existence,  —  depths  in  which  the  game  for  their  subsistence,  and 
the  creatures  and  the  food  on  which  that  game  might  subsist,  roamed  free 
for  natural  propagation. 

Under  these  circumstances,  while  we  smile  as  in  ridicule  or  contempt  at 
the  trifling  compensation  paid  to  the  Indians  in  a  purchase  covenant  for 
their  lands,  we  must  remember  that  the  standard  of  values  was  quite  unlike 


THE    INDIANS    OF   EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS.  249 

our  modern  estimates.  The  deeds  which  are  preserved,  and  the  transactions 
on  record  from  the  earliest  days,  tell  us  of  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands 
of  acres  being  transferred  for  the  consideration  of  a  few  utensils ;  tools,  gew- 
gaws, yards  of  cloth,  blankets,  or  coats.  But  an  implement  of  iron  or"  steel, 
a  pot,  kettle,  spade,  axe,  or  hatchet,  was  to  an  Indian  the  representative  of 
an  untold  value.  It  extended  and  intensified  his  own  natural  resources,  as 
steam  and  labor-saving  machines  reinforce  the  abilities  of  civilized  man. 
Probably,  too,  the  whites,  in  many  cases,  regarded  the  title-deeds  of  lands 
thus  transferred  to  them  as  of  very  dubious  authenticity  and  validity.  It 
was  really  questionable  if  the  chief  or  sachem  of  a  tribe  had  such  a  vested 
right  in  any  particular  portion  of  territory  as  to  have  authority,  on  the  con- 
sideration of  a  few  perishable  articles,  to  alienate  it  for  all  time  from  his 
temporary  subjects  and  their  posterity.  If  the  Indians  really  owned  it  in 
any  way  equivalent  to  our  own  tenure  of  possession,  it  is  evident  that,  if  not 
a  permanent  annuity  of  perpetual  benefit  with  a  share  to  all,  at  least  some 
better  mode  of  compensation  than  that  of  a  trifling  gift  so  soon  to  perish  in 
the  using  should  have  balanced  the  transfer. 

It  soon  appeared,  however,  in  many  cases,  that  the  Indians  supposed  that 
these  deeds  of  theirs  to  the  whites  merely  conferred  upon  the  latter  a  right 
of  joint  occupancy  with  themselves.  They  seem  to  have  had  no  idea  that 
they  had  shut  themselves  out  for  all  time  from  the  liberty  of  roaming  over 
their  lands.  King  Philip,  though  he  had  been  lavishly  free  in  his  gifts  of 
large  areas  of  land  to  the  men  of  Plymouth,  soon  came  to  make  bitter  com- 
plaints against  the  white  man's  clearings  and  fences,  as  disabling  the  red 
man  from  using  the  regions  in  common. 

There  is  no  early  contemporary  notice  of  any  claim  set  up  by  Indians  on 
the  score  of  their  territorial  rights  on  the  peninsula  of  Boston,  nor  of  any 
negotiations  for  a  purchase  or  payment  by  the  whites.  It  was  only  after 
more  than  a  half  century  had  elapsed  since  its  settlement,  when,  in  1684, 
such  claim  was  asserted  and  satisfied,  that  we  learn  that  it  had  been  ad- 
vanced some  time  previously.  Finding  the  spot  desolate,  except  as  Mr. 
Blackstone  had  a  lonely  residence  here,  the  whites  inferred  that  its  former 
occupants  had  perished  by  the  plague,  or  had  deserted  it,  so  that  they  them- 
selves were  free  to  take  possession.  Nor  do  we  know  of  the  occasion  which 
prompted  the  demand  for  remuneration  when  it  was  subsequently  made. 
There  is  in  the  Suffolk  Registry  a  copy  of  an  Indian  deed  of  Boston,  record- 
ed in  1708.  It  appears  that  at  a  town-meeting  on  June  18,  1685,  a  citizen 
of  Boston,  who  was  joined  by  some  associates,  was  charged  with  the  office 
of  purchasing  any  claim,  "  legal  or  pretended,"  which  the  Indians  might 
advance  to  "  Deare  Island,  the  Necke  of  Boston,  or  any  parte  thereof." 
The  Indian  chief  in  the  negotiation  was  Wampatuck,  by  the  English  called 
Charles  Josias,  grandson  of  Chickataubut,  who,  the  deed  recites,  "  upon 
the  first  coming  of  the  English,  for  encouragement  thereof,  did  grant,  sell, 
alienate,  and  confirm  unto  them  and  their  assigns  forever  all  that  Neck  of 
land,  in  order  to  their  settling  and  building  a  Town  there,  now  known  by  the 

VOL   i. —  32. 


250  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

name  of  Boston,  as  it  is  environed  by  the  Sea,  and  by  the  line  of  Roxbury, 
and  the  island  called  Deer  Island,  about  two  leagues  easterly  from  Boston, 
&c.,  —  which  have  been  quietly  possessed  by  the  said  English  for  the  space 
of  abbut  five-and-fifty  years  last  past."  This  deed  —  on  the  consideration 
of  "  a  valuable  sum  of  money,"  the  amount  not  being  stated  —  was  signed  by 
the  marks  of  the  chief  and  some  of  his  Indian  "  counsellors,"  witnessed 
and  acknowledged  before  magistrates.1  It  is  singular  that  neither  the  Court 
Records,  Winthrop,  nor  any  other  writer  at  the  time  make  any  reference  to 
the  earlier  transaction  with  Chickataubut,  of  whom,  however,  Winthrop  has 
frequent  mention  during  the  three  years  in  which  he  lived  after  the  arrival 
of  the  English.  Intimations  have  been  dropped  that  this  deferred  record  of 
a  bargain  with  the  Indians  for  the  absolute  ownership  of  the  peninsula  was 
shrewdly  contrived  by  the  astute  authorities  of  the  town,  as  they  were 
trembling  over  the  royal  challenging  of  their  Colony  Charter,  the  fall  of 
which  might  render  worthless  all  grants  of  parcels  of  territory  that  depended 
upon  legislation  under  it.  Chickataubut  resided  at  Neponset.  As  there  is 
no  evidence  that  he  ever  bestowed  the  land  on  the  English  by  formal  trans- 
fer, so  it  is  certain  that  he  never  made  objection  to  its  occupancy  by  them, 
and  that  he  never  molested  them.  On  the  contrary,  he  seemed  to  welcome 
their  presence,  and  put  himself  under  their  patronage.  Such  is  the  tenure 
of  the  white  man's  home  on  this  ancient  soil. 

There  was  never  any  serious  collision  on  the  spot  between  the  natives 
and  the  occupants  of  Boston  and  its  immediate  neighborhood.  The  whites 
had  to  seek  and  destroy  their  enemies  in  places  distant  from  these  scenes 
when  hostilities  raged  between  them.  There  were  occasional  alarms  in  the 
early  years,  and  measures  of  protection  —  like  a  night-watch,  and  orders  re- 
quiring the  colonists  to  have  their  arms  in  readiness  —  showed  that  the  people 
were  at  times  anxious  and  always  on  their  guard.  Very  soon,  however,  the 
whites  came  to  understand  the  relations  between  themselves  and  the  rem- 
nant of  the  natives  scattered  in  the  neighborhood,  and  felt  that  they  were 
reasonably  secure  from  harm.  The  apprehension  was  rather  from  the  mis- 
chief that  might  be  done  by  strolling  and  pilfering  individuals  or  small 
parties  in  the  night  or  in  the  woods,  the  firing  of  scattered  dwellings,  or  the 
murder  of  a  traveller,  than  from  any  assault  in  force.  Before  Winthrop's 
party  had  occupied  the  peninsula,  it  had  been  visited,  and  the  immediate 
surroundings  by  land  and  water  had  been  explored,  by  a  boat-load  of  men 
from  Plymouth.2  There  was  not  a  single  Indian  found  at  the  time  on  this 

1  [This  original  deed  is  now  in  the  possession  v.  516,  that,  May  20,  1686,  a  committee  (Samuel 
of  General  Charles  G.  Loring  of  Boston,  and  by  Nowell,  John  Saffin,  Timothy  Prout)  was  ap- 
his permission  is  here  given  in  heliotype,  much  pointed  to  receive  from  Rawson,  the  secretary, 
reduced.  It  is  printed  verbatim  in  the  Mass,  all  such  papers  as  referred  to  the  negotiations 
Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  March,  1879,  having  been  less  to  preserve  the  charter  and  to  the  Indian  titles 
accurately  printed  before  by  Snow  in  his  Hist,  of  the  land,  and  to  preserve  them,  —  the  "Mas- 
of  Boston.  Cf.  Drake's  Boston,  p.  456.  Mr.  sachusetts  books  and  papers  "  being  about  this 
Charles  Deane  has  examined  the  question  of  the  time  transferred  to  the  custody  of  Andros  and 
comparative  validity  of  the  Indian  and  patent  his  secretaries.  Snoall  Papers,  \.  168.  —  ED.] 
titles  to  land,  in  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  Feb-  *  [This  visit  is  recounted  in  Mr.  Adams's 
ruary,  1873.  ^  appears  by  the  Mass.  Records,  chapter  of  the  present  volume.  —  ED.] 


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THE    INDIANS   OF   EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS.  251 

peninsula.  Some  deserted  wigwams  were  seen  in  various  places.  Weak 
and  sparse  groups  of  natives  were  met,  or  traces  of  their  lingering  presence 
were  observed,  up  the  banks  of  the  Mystic  and  the  Charles.  The  first  sight 
of  white  men  seemed  always  to  alarm  an  Indian,  and  he  was  inclined  to  run 
away  and  hide  himself.  But  the  natives  were  generally  reassured  by  a  sign 
of  amity.  We  read  of  some  friendly  manifestations,  such  as  the  exchange 
of  a  bass  for  an  English  biscuit,  and  of  communications  in  answer  to  ques- 
tions so  far  as  the  parties  could  make  themselves  understood.  Occasionally 
some  native  would  appear  wearing  some  article  of  European  apparel,  or 
having  a  foreign  implement  or  tool,  showing  that  the  random  intercourse 
of  previous  years,  between  foreign  adventurers  and  fishermen,  had  already 
heralded  the  time  for  deliberate  colonization.  The  people  of  Boston  were 
soon  well  assured  of  the  security  of  their  own  position.  The  easily-guarded 
peninsula  hanging  by  the  slender  stem  of  a  narrow  neck  of  land  to  Roxbury, 
with  tide-waters  and  flats  nearly  surrounding  it,  was  safe  against  the  artifices 
of  Indian  warfare.  When  settlements  were  made  in  the  interior,  the  trees 
which  were  felled  for  a  clearing  were  used  for  a  stockade,  —  as,  for  instance, 
the  present  College  Yard  and  Common  at  Cambridge  were  originally  en- 
closed and  fortified  by  palisades,  the  trees  being  driven  closely  into  the 
ground,  and  their  tops  united  by  birch  withes.  Within  this  enclosure  the 
people,  when  alarmed,  took  refuge,  and  the  cattle,  which  browsed  outside  by 
day,  WCFC  driven  at  night.1 

Some  months  elapsed  after  the  settlement  before  the  whites  had  any 
intercourse  with  others  of  the  natives  than  those  who  harbored  north  of 
Charles  River.  At  the  end  of  March,  1631,  Winthrop  mentions  that 
"  Chicatabot  came  from  Neponset  on  the  south,  with  his  sannops  and 
squaws,"  and  presented  him  with  a  hogshead  of  Indian  corn.  The  Gover- 
nor gave  the  party  a  dinner,  with  a  cup  of  sack  and  beer,  and  to  the  men 
some  tobacco.  Three  of  the  party  remained  over  night.  "  Chickatabot 
being  in  English  clothes,  the  Governour  set  him  at  his  own  table,  where  he 
behaved  himself  as  soberly  as  an  Englishman.  The  next  day,  after  dinner, 
he  returned  home,  the  Governour  giving  him  cheese  and  pease,  and  a  mug 
and  some  other  small  things."  The  sachem  repeated  his  visit  in  less  than 
a  month,  wishing  to  trade  with  the  Governor  for  an  English  suit.  But 
Winthrop,  reminding  him  that  it  was  not  seemly  "  for  sagamores  to  truck," 
gave  orders  to  his  tailor,  and  had  the  chief  "  put  into  a  very  good  new  suit 
from  head  to  foot."  Food  being  put  upon  the  table,  the  chief  refused  to 
eat  till  the  Governor  had  said  grace ;  and  after  meat  he  was  desired  by  the 
chief  to  return  thanks.  Winthrop  received,  as  a  return  present,  "  two  large 
skins  of  coat  beaver."  The  Governor  and  the  Court  evidently  tried  to 
maintain  relations  of  amity  and  equity  with  the  natives  near  them.  If  a 
white  man  wronged  an  Indian  he  was  duly  punished,  and  required  to  make 
restitution.  If  the  Indian  was  the  trespasser,  he  in  his  turn  suffered;  and  if 
chastisement  was  the  penalty  decreed,  another  Indian  was  made  to  inflict  it. 

1   [Cf.  Paige's  Cambridge.  —  ED.] 


252  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON! 

And  here,  with  whatever  of  relief  the  fact  may  afford  us  in  a  review  of 
the  fierce  conflict  with  the  natives  at  a  distance  in  which  soldiers  sent  from 
Boston  had  a  full  share,  it  is  to  be  frankly  stated  that  the  feuds  and  quarrels 
of  contending  Indian  tribes  furnished  the  occasion  of  the  first,  and  one  of 
the  most  ruthless,  of  our  wars  with  the  natives.  Only  because  Indians 
were  set  against  Indians,  giving  opportunity  to  the  whites  to  find  most 
effective  allies  in  their  forest  warfare,  could  the  early  colonists  from  Spain, 
France,  or  England  have  been  so  uniformly  the  conquerors.  It  may 
safely  be  affirmed  that  if  the  natives  of  this  continent  had  been  at  peace 
among  themselves,  and  had  offered  a  united  resistance  to  the  first  feeble 
bands  of  European  intruders,  its  occupation  would  have  been  long  deferred. 

The  region  extending  from  the  bounds  of  Rhode  Island  to  the  banks  of 
the  Hudson  was  at  the  time  of  the  colonization  held  in  strips  of  territory 
mainly  by  three  tribes  of  the  natives,  who  had  long  had  feuds  among 
themselves  and  with  other  tribes.  •  They  were  the  Narragansetts,  the 
Mohegans,  and  the  Pequots.  The  Mohegans  were  then  tributaries  of  the 
Pequots,  and  were  restive  under  subjection  to  their  fierce  and  warlike 
conquerors,  who  were  estimated  to  number  at  the  time  a  thousand  fighting 
men.  Fair  and  fertile  meadows,  ponds,  fresh  and  salt  streams,  and  virgin 
forests  made  the  region  rich  and  attractive.  To  the  mind  and  eye  of  the 
Puritan  it  would  present  itself  as  a  portion  of  the  heritage  which  God  had 
given  to  his  children,  especially  to  his  elect,  which  in  this  fulness  of  time 
was  no  longer  to  be  scoured  over  by  scant  hordes  of  heathen  barbarians, 
but  to  be  turned  to  the  uses  of  a  thriftful  civilization  under  the  Gospel. 
The  way  in  which  this  end  was  to  be  brought  about  would  depend  entirely 
upon  the  relation  and  attitude  in  which  the  savages  should  put  themselves 
to  the  whites  ;  whether  a  friendly  and  docile  one,  —  which  would  make  them 
partners  in  a  profitable  trade,  and  easy  subjects  of  conversion,  —  or  one  of 
hostility  and  resistance,  using  their  own  resources  and  modes  of  defensive  and 
offensive  warfare.  The  policy  of  the  whites  was  to  aggravate  the  dissensions 
of  the  tribes,  and  to  make  alliance  with  one  or  more  of  them.  Winthrop 
records  in  March,  1631,  the  visit  to  Boston  of  a  Connecticut  Indian,  probably 
a  Mohegan,  who  invited  the  English  to  come  and  plant  near  the  river,  and 
who  offered  presents,  with  the  promise  of  a  profitable  trade.  His  object 
proved  to  be  to  engage  the  interest  of  the  whites  against  the  Pequots. 
His  errand  was  for  the  time  unsuccessful.  Further  advances  of  a  similar 
character  were  made  aftenvards,  the  result  being  to  persuade  the  English 
that,  sooner  or.  later,  they  would  need  to  interfere  as  umpires,  and  must 
use  discretion  in  a  wise  regard  to  what  would  prove  to  be  for  their  own 
interest.  In  1633  the  Pequots  had  savagely  mutilated  and  murdered  a 
party  of  English  traders,  who,  under  Captain  Stone,  of  Virginia,  had  gone 
up  the  Connecticut.  The  Boston  magistrates  had  instituted  measures  to 
call  the  Pequots  to  account,  but  nothing  effectual  was  done.  The  Dutch 
had  a  fort  on  the  river  near  Hartford,  and  the  English  had  built  one  at 
its  mouth.  In  1636  several  settlements  had  been  made  in  Connecticut  by 


THE    INDIANS    OF   EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS. 


253 


the  English  from  Cambridge,  Dorchester,  and  other  places.  John  Oldham, 
of  Watertown,  had  in  that  year  been  murdered,  while  on  a  trading  voyage, 
by  same  Indians  belonging  on  Block  Island.  To  avenge  this  act  our 
magistrates  sent  Endicott,  as  general,  with  a  body  of  ninety  men,  with 
orders  to  kill  all  the  male  Indians  on  that  island,  sparing  only  the  women 
and  little  children.  He  accomplished  his  bloody  work  only  in  part;  but 
after  destroying  all  the  corn-fields  and  wigwams,  he  turned  to  hunt  the 
Pequots  on  the  main.  After  this  expedition,  which  simply  exasperated  the 
Pequots,  they  made  a  desperate  effort  to  induce  the  Narragansetts  to  come 
into  a  league  with  them  against  the  English.  It  seemed  for  a  while  as  if 
they  would  succeed  in  this,  and  the  consequences  would  doubtless  have 
been  most  disastrous  to  the  whites.  The  scheme  was  thwarted  largely 
through  the  wise  and  friendly  intervention  of  Roger  Williams,  whose 
diplomacy  was  made  effective  by  the  confidence  which  his  red  neighbors 
had  in  him.  The  Narragansett  messengers  then  entered  into  a  friendly 
league  with  the  English  in  Boston.1  All  through  the  winter  of  1637  the 
Pequots  continued  to  pick  off  the 
whites  in  their  territory,  and  they  /J 

mutilated,  tortured,  roasted,  and  mur- 
dered at  least  thirty  victims,  becoming 
more  and  more   vindictive    and  cruel  f ~^/ 
in  their  doings.      There  were  then  in 
Connecticut   some    two    hundred    and 

fifty  Englishmen,  and,  as  has  been  said,  £j 

about  a  thousand  Pequot  "  braves." 
The  authorities  in  Connecticut  reso- 
lutely started  a  military  organization, 
giving  the  command  to  the  redoubtable 
John  Mason,  a  Low-Country  §oldier, 
who  had  recently  gone  from  Dorchester.  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth 
contributed  their  quotas,  having  as  allies  the  Mohegans,  of  whose  fidelity 
they  had  fearful  misgivings,  but  who  proved  constant  though  not  very  effec- 
tive. Of  the  hundred  and  sixty  men  raised  by  Massachusetts,  only  about 

i  [This  was  in  October,  1636.      The  famed     in  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  vi.     Cf.  Arnold's  Rhode 
Miantonomoh  was  the  chief  who  came  to  Boston.     Island,  i.  ch.  iii.  —  ED.] 

Savage's  edition  of  Winthrop's  New  England,  2  [Mason's  life  has  been  written  by  Dr.  Ellis 

i.  236.     A   view   of  the   monument   erected  to     in  Sparks's  series  of  biographies.     He  had  lived 
Miantonomoh's  memory  is  given  in  Bryant  and     in  Dorchester  from  1630  to  1635.     The  lines  of 

his  descendants  are  traced  in  the  N.  E. 
Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  April,  1861,  and 
in  the  ATemoir  ofATrs.  Mary  Anna  Board- 
^  man,  New  Haven,  1849.  Stoughton  was 
also  a  Dorchester  man,  and  commanded 
the  expedition  that  sailed  from  Boston  in 
June,  1637,  to  follow  up  the  successes  of 
Gay's  United  States,  ii.  95.  As  to  the  form  of  Mason.  Gardiner  was  now  a  Connecticut  man, 
Miantonomoh's  name,  see  Dr.  Trumbull  in  the  but  he  had  arrived  in  Boston  and  had  been  em- 
Hist.  Mag.  ii.  205.  Letters  of  Roger  Williams  ployed  as  an  engineer  in  planning  the  works  on 
at  this  time  are  given  in  the  "  Winthrop  Papers  "  Fort  Hill  in  1632.  There  is  an  account  of  him 


AUTOGRAPHS  OF  LEADERS  IN  THE  WAR.2 


254  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

twenty,  under  Captain  Underbill,  —  a  good  fighter,  but  a  sorry  scamp, — 
reached  the  scene  in  season  to  join  with  Mason  in  surprising  the  unsus- 
pecting and  sleeping  Pequots  in  one  of  their  forts  near  the  Mystic.  Fire, 
lead,  and  steel,  with  the  infuriated  vengeance  of  Puritan  soldiers  against 
murderous  and  fiendish  heathen,  did  effectively  the  exterminating  work. 
Hundreds  of  the  savages,  in  their  maddened  frenzy  of  fear  and  dismay, 
were  shot  or  run  through  as  they  were  impaled  on  their  own  palisades  in 
their  efforts  to  rush  from  their  blazing  wigwams,  crowded  within  their 
frail  enclosures.  The  English  showed  no  mercy,  for  they  felt  none.  The 
language  and  tone  in  which  three  of  the  leaders  in  the  daring  and  desperate 
massacre  have,  as  writers  of  little  tracts,  described  the  scene,  indicate  that 
they  regarded  themselves  as  engaged  in  a  meritorious  work,  —  In  fact,  as  the 
willing  agents  of  the  Almighty,  whose  special  providences  were  evidently 
engaged  for  their  help.  A  very  few  of  the  wretched  savages  escaped  to 
another  fort,  to  which  the  victorious  English  followed  them.  This,  how- 
ever, they  soon  abandoned,  taking  refuge,  with  their  old  people  and  chil- 
dren, in  the  protection  of  swamps  and  thickets.  Here,  too,  the  English, 
who  had  lost  but  two  men  killed,  though  they  had  many  wounded,  and  who 
were  now  reinforced,  pursued  and  surrounded  them,  allowing  the  aged  and 
the  children,  by  a  parley,  to  come  out.  The  men,  however,  were  mostly 
slain,  and  the  feeble  remnant  of  them  which  sought  protection  ajnong  the 
so-called  river  Indians,  higher  up  the  Connecticut,  and  among  the  Mohawks, 
were  but  scornfully  received,  —  the  Pequot  sachem,  Sassacus,  being  beheaded 
by  the  latter.  A  few  of  the  prisoners  were  sold  in  the  West  Indies  as  slaves, 
others  were  reduced  to  the  same  humiliation  among  the  Mohegans,  or  as 
farm  and  house  servants  to  the  English,  —  a  wretched  fate  for  once  free 
roamers  of  the  wild  woods.  But  the  alliances  into  which  the  whites  had 
entered  in  order  to  divide  their  savage  foes  were  the  occasions  of  future 
entanglements  in  a  tortuous  policy,  and  of  later  bloody  struggles  of  an 
appalling  character.  Thus,  in  its  origin,  causes,  and  results,  we  read  of  the 
first  fierce  struggle  of  our  ancestral  stock  with  the  aborigines  on  the  soil 
which  the  new  comers  believed,  or  taught  themselves  to  believe,  belonged 
by  the  ordinance  of  Heaven  to  them.  It  is  for  later  pages  in  this  volume 
to  follow  their  chronicles  in  a  yet  more  desperate  crisis,  which  brought 
extreme  peril  nearer  to  the  homes  and  hearts  of  the  people  of  Boston.1 

In  all  candor  the  admission  must  be  made,  that  Christian  white  men, 
—  Puritans,  —  with  all  the  humanity  which  they  practised  towards  their 
own  brethren,  and  all  the  piety  which  they  professed  towards  God,  allowed 
themselves  to  be  trained  by  the  experience  of  Indian  warfare  into  a  savage 
cruelty  and  a  desperate  vengefulness,  hardly  distinguishing  themselves  at 
any  point  from  the  victims  of  their  rage.  This  assertion  covers  not  only  the 

in  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  x.     Notes  of  his  descend-  furnished    by   Massachusetts,   Boston   supplied 

ants   are  given   in   Thompson's  Hist,   of  Long  twenty-six.  —  En.] 

Island,   ii.   378,  and   in   the    Heraldic   Journal,  l  [Chapter  on  "  Philip's  War,"  by  the  Rev. 

iii.  82.      Of  the   one   hundred   and   sixty  men  E.  E.  Hale.  —  ED.] 


THE    INDIANS    OF   EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS. 


255 


infuriate  warfare  of  our  soldiers,  but  equally  our  legislative  acts  and  meas- 
ures, and  the  temper  and  language  of  contemporary  writers  and  historians, 
especially  the  foremost  ones,  who  were  clergymen,  like  Increase  Mather  and 
William  Hubbard.  The  heat,  the  passion,  the  scorn,  and  the  vindictiveness 
with  which  the  last-named  writers,  for  instance,  have  recorded  our  early 
Indian  wars,  certainly  bring  the  frame  of  their  spirits,  if  not  their  sense  of 
humanity,  under  question.1  They  and  the  English  soldiers  and  magistrates 
whose  deeds  they  record  are  entitled,  however,  to  such  palliating  or  explan- 
atory pleading  in  their  behalf  as  their  own  circumstances  and  experiences, 
and  the  extremities  of  the  situation  in  the  times  of  which  they  wrote  may 
fairly  demand  or  allow.  Our  soldiers,  magistrates,  and  early  historians,  if 
thus  challenged,  would  have  justified  themselves,  in  the  main,  by  referring 
to  their  own  experience  of  Indian  warfare,  the  atrocities  and  barbarities  of 
which  drove  them  to  the  desperate  conviction  that  they  were  dealing  rather 
with  the  fiends  of  hell  —  as  indeed  they  said  they  were —  than  with  creatures 
like  themselves,  however  low  in  the  scale  of  humanity.  A  review  of  our 
colonial  and  national  history,  reaching  down  to  that  of  the  years  last  passed, 
would  present  a  mass  of  evidence  to  prove  that  white  men  on  the  border 


-1  [The  principal  early  writers  on  the  Pequot 
war  are  these :  Mason  wrote  an  account,  which 
was  given  in  good  part  by  Increase  Mather  in 
his  Relation  of  the  Troubles  in  New  England, 
1677,  as  being  the  work  of  John  Allyn,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut,  but  was 
printed  from  the  original  manuscript  by  Prince 
in  1736,  and  again,  following  Prince's  edition, 
in  2  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  viii.  120-153,  and  once  more 
reprinted  by  Sabin  in  1869.  Captain  John  Under- 
hill,  of  Boston,  who  had  taken  part  in  it,  published 
News  from  America,  London,  1638  (in  Harvard 
College  Library),  which  is  reprinted  in  3  Mass. 
Hist  Coll.  vi.  Rev.  Philip  Vincent,  also  an  eye- 
witness, published  True  Relation  of  the  late  Battcll 
fought  in  New  England,  London,  1637  (second 
edition,  1638,  in  Harvard  College  Library,  and  in 
the  Prince  Library),  which  is  reprinted  in  3  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll.,  vi.  29-43.  Captain  Lion  Gardiner's 
Relation  of  the  Pcqnot  Wars  was  drawn  up  partly 
from  old  papers  about  twenty-three  years  after  the 
war,  and  remained  in  manuscript  till  1833,  when 
it  was  printed  in  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  iii.  131-160. 
Drake  thinks  it  the  most  valuable,  in  some  re- 
spects, of  all  the  early  accounts.  It  is  reprinted 
in  the  appendix  of  some  copies  of  the  edition  of 
Penhallow's  Indian  IVars,  edited  by  Dodge,  Cin- 
cinnati, 1859.  There  are  other  contemporary 
accounts  in  Winthrop's  New  England ;  and  in 
Winthrop's  letters  given  in  Bradford's  Plymouth. 
Plantation,  in  R.  C.  Winthrop's  Life  and  Letters 
of  Winthrop,  ii.,  and  one  of  them  in  Morton's 
Memorial.  Johnson,  Wonder-working  Providence, 
gives  some  account;  and  a  letter  of  Jonathan 
Brevvster,  describing  its  outbreak,  is  given  in 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  May,  1860. 


Of  the  later  narratives  are  Increase  Mather's 
Relation,  above  mentioned,  covering  the  Indian 
troubles,  1614-75,  which  has  been  of  late  years 
edited  by  S.  G.  Drake  (in  1864).  Cotton  Ma- 
ther gives  another  account  in  his  Magnalia,  bk. 
vii.  ch.  vi.  Hubbard's  account  covers  1607-77. 
The  Boston  edition,  1677,  i§  called  Narrative  of 
the  Troubles  with  the  Indians  in  New  England, 
while  there  was  an  edition  issued  the  same  year 
in  London  under  the  title  of  The  Present  Sta'e 
of  New  England,  being  a  Narrative,  &c.  Field, 
Indian  Bibliography,  p.  179,  says  there  were  two 
issues,  if  not  two  separate  editions,  in  Boston  in 
1677,  and  he  thinks  the  Boston  and  London  edi- 
tions were  in  part  printed  simultaneously  from 
copies  of  the  same  manuscript.  S.  G.  Drake 
has  edited  it  of  late  years,  with  a  preface;  and 
he  says  the  best  text  is  that  of  the  second,  1677, 
edition,  and  that  later  editions  have  usually  fol- 
lowed the  inaccurate  1775  edition.  Hubbard 
also  gives  a  chapter  to  the  Pequot  war  in  his  His- 
tory of  Neiv  England.  Hist.  Mag.,  August  and 
November,  1857 ;  Sibley,  Harvard  Graduates, 
p.  60.  M.  C.  Tyler,  American  Literature,  ii. 
135,  characterizes  these  early  chroniclers.  Miles, 
"  History  of  the  French  and  Indian  Wars,"  in 
3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  vi.  and  4  ibid,  v.,  is  held  by 
Palfrey  to  be  not  very  accurate.  The  more  ac- 
cessible modern  writers  are  these  :  Drake,  Book 
of  the  Indians,  bk.  ii.  ch.  vi.,  and  "  Notes "  in 
N.  E.  Hist,  and  Cental.  Keg.,  January,  1858, 
&c. ;  Barry,  Hist,  of  Mass.  i.  ch.  viii. ;  Palfrey, 
New  England,  i.  456;  Bryant  and  Gay,  United 
Slates,  ii.  ch.  i. ;  Trumbull,  History  of  Connec- 
ticut, iii.  ch.  v. ;  G.  E.  Ellis,  Life  of  John  Mason, 
&c.  — ED.] 


256  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

frontiers  of  civilization  have  steadily  become  more  and  more  ruthless  un- 
der these  experiences  of  savage  warfare.  The  complete  extinction  of  the  red 
race  is  the  sole  solution  of  the  problem  accepted  by  the  vast  majority  of 
those  soldiers  or  border  settlers  who  have  had  to  deal  with  savages.  The 
Massachusetts  Puritans  may  not  have  avowed  this  conviction  so  frankly  as 
have  many  who  have  succeeded  to  them  on  this  soil.  But  they  seem  to 
have  acted  in  the  full  belief  of  it.  It  is  observable  in  our  early  chronicles 
that  the  feelings  with  which  our  colonists  regarded  the  natives,  and  the  rela- 
tion in  which  they  put  themselves  towards  them,  underwent  a  rapid  change 
as  the  parties  came  into  fuller  acquaintance.  At  first  the  whites  felt  a  vague 
sense  of  obligation  to  the  savages  on  whose  possessions  they  were  entering, 
deeming  themselves  held,  as  superiors  and  as  Christians,  to  offices  of  pity, 
help,  and  mercy  to  such  forlorn  heathen.  Very  soon,  however,  indifference, 
neglect,  contempt,  arbitrary  assumption,  and  severe  repression  manifested 
themselves  in  all  the  white  man's  dealings  with  the  Indians.  Cotton 
Mather  wrote  of  them:  "These  doleful  creatures  are  the  veriest  ruins  of 
mankind.  One  might  see  among  them  what  a  hard  master  the  Devil 
is  to  the  most  devoted  of  his  vassals."  It  was  at  once  taken  for  granted 
by  the  colonists  that  the  natives  were  natural  •  subjects  of  the  English 
monarch,  bound  to  allegiance  and  obedience.  So  far  as  the  savages 
comprehended  the  meaning  of  this  assumption,  they  were  at  a  loss  to 
apprehend  the  grounds  of  it ;  and  though  they  were  ingeniously  induced 
to  assent,  it  was  evident  that  they  were  never  really  reconciled  to  it.  The 
perplexity  and  the  antagonism  thus  stirred  in  the  breasts  of  the  freemen  of 
Nature  were  greatly  strengthened  when  they  came  to  learn  that  the  English 
among  them  regarded  them  not  only  as  fellow-subjects  of  the  monarch 
across  the  sea,  but  as  really  their  subjects,  held  to  obedience  and  tribute  to 
them,  as  their  masters.  The  Indian  was  slow  in  coming  to  realize  that  the 
first  appearance  of  a  few  not  formidable  parties  of  white  men  left  here  by 
vessels  that  at  once  sailed  away,  were  but  little  ripples  of  one  wave  of  the 
rolling  tide  which  was  soon  to  cover  these  shores  and  to  surge  on  till  it 
reached  the  further  ocean.  As  soon  as  the  ominous  signs  of  the  fate  which 
awaited  themselves  were  realized  for  what  they  foreboded,  the  savages  were 
roused  to  a  desperate  but  futile  resistance.  It  was  too  late  for  them.  The 
whites  could  not  cornplain  if,  against  their  implements  of  steel  and  their 
skill  and  firearms,  the  Indians  made  use  of  all  the  guile  and  strategy  of  their 
wilderness  tactics,  —  the  subtilty  and  secrecy  of  ambush,  the  midnight  sur- 
prise, the  arrow  tipped  with  flaming  tow  to  fire  the  thatched  roof  of  the 
cabin,  the  skulking  shot  from  behind  a  tree,  and  the  arts  learned  from  the 
couching  and  springing  of  the  wild  beasts  of  the  forest.  But  the  maxim 
that  all  tricks  and  frauds  are  fair  in  open  war  would  not  cover  the  revolting 
and  torturous  ingenuities  of  malice,  rage,  and  fiendish  cruelty  by  which  the 
savages  deferred  the  death  and  prolonged  the  exquisite  torments  of  their 
victims.  The  midnight  yells  and  shrieks  which  palsied  with  horror  the  in- 
mates of  a  rude  cabin  in  the  woods,  the  braining  of  infants,  the  agonies  of 


THE  INDIANS  OF  EASTERN  MASSACHUSETTS.       257 

the  gauntlet,  the  scornful  mockings,  aggravating  death  by  slow  fires,  and  all 
the  cunning  mutilations  by  which  the  savages  surpassed  the  skill  of  the  an- 
atomist and  the  vivisector  in  approaching  but  still  avoiding  the  centres  of 
vitality,  naturally  induced  in  the  whites  a  belief  that  they  were  dealing  with 
imps  from  Pandemonium.  When  report  was  made  by  two  of  the  English,  in 
a  boat  on  the  Connecticut,  that  they  had  seen  the  quartered  bodies  of  two 
whites  hanging  on  trees,  and  that  Captain  John  Tilley,  while  fowling  in  a 
canoe,  was  seized  by  ambushed  Pequots,  who  cut  off  his  hands  and  feet,  and 
praised  him  for  his  "  stoutness  "  under  the  torture  in  which  he  lingered  for 
three  days,  white  men,  and  white  women  too,  were  assured  that  humanity 
was  left  wholly  out  of  the  account,  with  every  alleviating  mercy  of  quick  and 
painless  death,  in  savage  warfare.  Instances  are  on  record  in  our  later  annals 
of  frontiersmen,  who,  having  seen  their  wives  and  little  ones  subjected  to  all 
the  barbarous  outrages  of  Indian  malignity,  registered  vows  of  vengeance, 
devoting  the  remainder  of  their  lives  to  tramping  and  ambushing  for  the 
sole  errand  of  destroying  a  holocaust  of  the  red  race.  Our  own  colonists 
very  soon  came  to  regard  the  savages  as  simply  the  most  noxious  and  ven- 
omous class  of  the  vermin  and  serpents  and  wild-cats  of  thewoods.  Happily 
it  is  not  in  our  English,  but  in  the  Frenchman's  chronicles  of  his  retaliatory 
imitation  of  savage  barbarities,  that  we  read  of  the  infliction  by  white  men 
of  the  death  by  fire  and  torture  of  perfidious  red  men.  But  the  records  of 
the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  contain  the  tariff  of  premiums  offered 
and  paid  for  the  scalps  taken  by  our  enlisted  soldiers,  or  by  our  volunteers, 
from  Indian  men  and  women,  boys  and  girls.  It  was  the  Rev.  Solomon  Stod- 
dard,  of  Northampton,  who,  after  the  horrors  which  Deerfield  had  twice  suf- 
fered from  Indian  massacre,  wrote  to  Governor  Dudley,  in  1703,  a  letter,  from 
which  the  following  is  an  extract,  proposing  that  the  English  near  him  "  may 
be  put  into  ye  way  to  hunt  ye  Indians  with  dogs  as  they  doe  bears,"  as  is 
done  in  Virginia.  He  adds  :  "  If  ye  Indians  were  as  other  people  are,  and  did 
manage  their  war  fairly  after  ye  manner  of  other  nations,  it  might  be  looked 
upon  as  inhumane  to  pursue  them  in  such  a  manner.  But  they  are  to  be 
looked  upon  as  thieves  and  murderers ;  they  doe  acts  of  hostility  without 
proclaiming  war ;  they  don't  appear  openly  in  ye  feeld  to  bid  us  battle ; 
they  use  those  cruelly  that  fall  into  their  hands ;  they  act  like  wolves  and 
are  to  be  dealt  withall  as  wolves."  l  It  is  to  be  noticed  also  that,  just  pre- 
vious to  our  Pequot  war,  the  colonists  of  Virginia  had  been  nearly  exter- 
minated by  an  Indian  massacre,  secretly  and  artfully  planned,  and  awful  in 
its  havoc. 

We  must  turn  now  to  another  part  of  our  theme  concerning  the  relations 
between  the  colonists  and  the  natives.  Hardly  more  cheering  is  it  in  the 
review  than  that  we  have  just  rehearsed.  Considering  the  emphasis  laid 
upon  the  duty  and  purpose  of  efforts  for  the  conversion  of  the  natives  in 
the  charter  of  the  colony,  and  by  those  who  brought  it  with  them,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  little,  if  any,  credit  is  due  to  them  for  labor  spent  or  for 

1  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  ii.  235-237. 
VOL.    I.  — 33. 


258  THE    MEMORIAL    HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

success  attained  in  that  work.  One  signal  achievement,  a  monument  of 
holy  zeal  and  pious  toil,  invested  now  with  a  pathetic  interest,  remains  to  us 
in  Eliot's  translation  of  the  Bible  into  the  Indian  tongue,  to  testify  to  the 
consecrated  labor  of  an  individual  to  discharge  a  Christian  obligation  to  the 
dark  and  doomed  savage.  A  very  few  other  names  there  are  —  like  those  of 
the  Mayhews,  Gookin,  Cotton,  Shepard,  and  Bourne  —  which  deserve  to  be 
mentioned  with  respect  and  homage  for  their  patient  service  in  that  unre- 
warding field.  But  neither  the  records  of  the  Court,  nor  the  attitude  in 
which  the  large  majority  of  the  colonists  put  themselves  toward  the  sacred 
task,  or  even  towards  those  who  assumed  its  heaviest  responsibility,  testify 
to  any  enthusiasm  about  it.  It  must  be  confessed,  likewise,  that  the  first 
general  sense  of  obligation  toward  the  savages  was  stirred  by  questionings 
and  censures  of  the  colonists  from  their  friends  in  England,  while,  as  may 
be  considered  pardonable  on  account  of  the  poverty  of  our  early  days,  the 
funds  spent  in  the  work  came  very  largely  from  abroad.  The  colonists  well 
knew  how  zealously,  and  with  what  in  the  view  of  the  missionaries  was 
regarded  as  rewarding  success,  the  Franciscan  and  Jesuit  priests  in  the 
French  settlements  had  given  themselves  to  the  work  of  bringing  savages 
within  the  fold  of  the  Church.  But  neither  the  methods  nor  the  fruits  of 
this  priestly  zeal  commended  themselves  to  the  Puritans.  As  we  shall  have 
occasion  to  notice,  the  Puritans  thought  an  alleged  convert  made  by  the 
priests  as  hardly  a  whit  better  than  a  heathen. 

When  John  Eliot,  of  Roxbury,  and  Thomas  Mayhew,  of  Martha's  Vine- 
yard, almost  simultaneously  gave  themselves  to  the  work  of  converting  the 
natives,  some  of  the  most  inquisitive  of  the  latter  put  to  them  the  natural 
but  embarrassing  question,  why  the  English  should  have  allowed  nearly 
thirty  years,  the  period  of  a  generation,  to  pass,  since  their  first  occupancy 
of  the  soil  of  Massachusetts,  before  beginning  that  work?  The  colonists 
had  learned  enough  of  the  Indian  tongue  for  the  purposes  of  trade  and 
barter.  They  had  made  the  natives  feel  the  power  and  superiority  of  the 
white  man,  who  kept  them  at  a  distance  as  barbarians  and  pagans,  holding 
them  subject  to  his  own  laws  for  theft,  polygamy,  and  murder,  and  waging 
dire  war  against  them  for  acts  which  the  Indians  regarded  as  only  a  defence 
of  their  natural  rights.  Incidentally,  indeed,  the  natives  who  had  come  into 
contact  with  the  whites  had  received  from  them  help,  tools,  appliances,  and 
many  comforts  relieving  the  desolateness  of  their  lot  and  life.  But  only 
after  this  long  delay  had  the  white  man  proposed  to  make  the  savages  full 
sharers  in  his  blessings  of  civilization  and  religion.  The  childlike  sincerity 
of  Eliot  furnished  him  with  a  reply  which  best  apologized  for  the  neglect  of 
the  past  by  regret,  and  by  the  earnestness  of  his  purpose  for  the  future. 
The  Presbyterian  Baylie,  in  his  invective  against  the  New  England  "  Church- 
Way,"  had  charged  upon  its  supporters  that,  "  of  all  that  ever  crossed  the 
America  seas,  they  were  the  most  neglectful  of  the  work  of  conversion." 
He  rests  his  charge  upon  quotations  from  the  Key  into  the  Languages  of 
America,  written  by  Roger  Williams  on  his  voyage  to  England,  in  the  spring 


THE    INDIANS    OF   EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS.  259 

of  1643,  which  was  published  in  London  in  the  summer  of  that  year.  From 
another  little  essay  of  Williams's  Baylie  quotes  the  following  sentences :  "  For 
our  New  England  parts,  I  can  speak  it  confidently,  I  know  it  to  have  been 
easie  for  myself  long  ere  this  to  have  brought  many  thousands  of  these 
natives,  yea  the  whole  community,  to  a  far  greater  anti-Christian  conversion 
than  was  ever  heard  of  in  America.  I  could  have  brought  the  whole  countrey 
to  have  observed  one  day  in  seven, —  I  adde,  to  have  received  Baptisme;  to 
have  come  to  a  stated  Church  meeting;  to  have  maintained  Priests  and 
Forms  of  Prayer,  and  a  whole  form  of  anti-Christian  worship  in  life  and 
death.  Wo  be  to  me  if  I  call  that  conversion  to  God,  which  is  indeed  the 
subversion  of  the  souls  of  millions  in  Christendom  from  one  false  worship 
to  another.  God  was  pleased  to  give  me  a  patient,  painful  spirit  to  lodge 
with  them  in  their  filthy,  smoky  holes,  to  gain  their  tongue." 

By  these  censures  the  Court  of  Massachusetts  may  have  been  prompted 
to  its  action  in  March,  1644.  Some  of  the  sachems,  with  their  subjects,  were 
induced  to  come  under  a  covenant  of  voluntary  subjection  to  the  Government, 
and  into  an  agreement  to  worship  the  God  of  the  English,  to  observe  the  com- 
mandments, to  allow  their  children  to  be  taught  to  read  the  Bible,  &c.  The 
county  courts  were  ordered  in  the  same  year  to  take  care  for  the  civilization 
of  the  Indians,  and  for  their  instruction  in  the  knowledge  and  worship  of 
God.  In  the  next  year — 1645 — the  Court  desired  that  "  the  reverend  Elders 
propose  means  to  bring  the  natives  to  the  knowledge  of  God  and  his  wayes, 
and  to  civilize  them  as  speedily  as  may  be."  President  Dunster  seems  to  have 
been  regarded  as  eccentric  in  urging  that  the  Indians  were  to  be  instructed 
through  their  own  language  rather  than  through  the  English.  In  November, 
1646,  the  Court,  admitting  that  the  Indians  were  not  to  be  compelled  to 
accept  Christianity,  decreed  that  they  were  to  be  held  amenable  to  what  it 
regarded  as  simple  natural  religion,  and  so  should -be  punished  for  blas- 
phemy, should  be  forbidden  to  worship  false  gods,  and  that  all  pow-wowing 
should  at  once  be  prohibited.  "  Necessary  and  wholesome  laws  for  the 
reducing  them  to  the  civility  of  life  "  should  be  made,  and  read  to  them 
once  in-  a  year  by  some  able  interpreter. 

The  ever-honored  representative  of  Puritan  zeal  and  piety  in  the  service 
of  the  natives,  who,  with  his  co-workers,  Mayhew  and  Gookin,  can  alone 
"  match  the  Jesuit "  in  this  work,  was  the  famous  John  Eliot.  Yet  even  he 
and  his  foremost  assistants  fell  short  of  the  extreme  devotedness  of  the 
Jesuit,  in  lonely,  isolated  labor  and  peril,  as  in  the  depths  of  the  wilderness 
he  identified  himself  in  manner  of  life  with  the  savage.  The  modest  Eliot, 
who  had  been  called  "  the  Indian  Evangelist "  in  a  tract  by  Edward  Winslow, 
objected  to  bearing  the  title,  as  in  use  "  for  that  extraordinary  office  men- 
tioned in  the  New  Testament,"  and  asked  that  the  sacred  word  should  "  be 
obliterated  in  any  copies  of  the  books  that  remain  unsold."  What  would 
Eliot  have  said  to  the  title  of  "  Apostle,"  which  he  has  long  borne,  and  will 
ever  bear  unchallenged  ;  or  even  to  that  of  "  the  Augustine  of  New  England," 
which  M.  Du  Ponceau  attached  to  his  name? 


260  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Eliot,  born  in  1604,*  came  to  New  England  in  1631,  and  was  settled 
as  pastor  in  Roxbury  the  next  year,  having  declined  the  office  in  the  Boston 
Church.  He  served  in  his  pastorate  till  his  death  in  1690,  at  the  age  of  86; 
his  faithful  partner,  who  had  come  over  from  England  to  be  married  to  him, 
dying  shortly  before  him,  in  her  84th  year.  From  his  first  settlement,  Eliot 
had  given  thought  and  heart  to  the  welfare  of  the  natives.  As  soon  as  his 
efforts  seemed  hopeful  to  himself,  he  met  with  incredulity  and  even  oppo- 
sition from  many  around  him.  It  must  be  confessed  that  only  from  a  very 
few,  and  those  most  earnest  in  their  own  piety,  did  he  ever  receive  full  sym- 
pathy ;  and  this  in  but  rare  cases  reached  to  enthusiasm.  Winslow,  the 
agent  of  the  Colony  in  England,  won  friends  for  Eliot's  object  there,  and 
brought  about  the  incorporation  of  a  society,  in  1649,  which  furnished  funds 
for  its  encouragement.  To  that  same  society  Harvard  College,  in  its  early 
poverty  and  struggles,  was  more  largely  indebted  than  has  been  generally 
recognized.  The  Massachusetts  Court,  in  1647,  voted  Eliot  a  gratuity  often 
pounds  for  his  work. 

Eliot  says  that  an  Indian  taken  in  the  Pequot  wars,  and  who  lived  in 
Dorchester,  was  the  first  native  "  whom  he  used  to  teach  him  words,  and  to 
be  his  interpreter."  He  took  the  most  unwearied  pains  in  his  strange  lessons 
from  this  uncouth  teacher,  finding  progress  very  slow  and  baffling,  receiving 
no  aid  from  the  other  tongues  which  he  had  learned  and  taught  in  England 
and  which  were  so  differently  constituted,  inflected,  and  augmented.  Though 
he  is  regarded  as  having  gained  an  amazing  mastery  of  the  Indian  language, 
he  frequently,  even  at  the  close  of  a  half  century  in  his  work,  avows  and 
laments  his  lack  of  skill  in  it.  He  secured  from  time  to  time  what  he  calls 
the  more  "  nimble-witted "  natives,  young  or  grown,  to  live  with  him  in 
Roxbury,  and  to  accompany  him  on  his  visits,  to  interchange  with  him 
words  and  ideas.  A  beautiful  tribute  was  borne  to  him  by  Shepard,  of 
Cambridge,  who  said  that  while  some  of  the  English  exceeded  Eliot  in  con- 
verse with  the  Indians  about  common  matters,  trade,  &c.,  "  in  sacred  lan- 
guage, about  the  holy  things  of  God,  Mr.  Eliot  excels  any  other  of  the 
English."  Differences  of  judgment  have  been  expressed  as  to  the  capacity 

1  [An  account   of  his   ancestry  is  given  in  1680,  also  gives  an  account  of  an  interview.     It 

"The  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  Nazing,"  in  the  N.  E.  is  printed  in  the  Long  Island  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  and 

Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  April,  1874.     The  will  of  extracted  from  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  May, 

his  father,  Bennett  Elliott,  with  notes,  is  given  1874.  There  are  various  later  lives  of  Eliot, —  one 

in  the  Heraldic  Journal,  iv.  182.     His  descend-  by  Convers  Francis ;  another  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc. 

ants  are  given  in  W.  S.  Porter's  Genealogy  of  the  Coll.  viii.;  one  in  the  Methodist  Magazine,  1818; 

Eliots,  New  Haven,  1854.     The  tabular  pedigree  others  by  Dearborn,  Thornton,  and  N.  Adams, 

given  in  Drake's  Boston  was  prepared  by  William  and  a  sketch  by  Miss  Yonge  in  her  Pioneers  and 

H.  Whitmore,  who  had  printed  ten  copies  of  it  Founders.     A  paper  by  the  Rev.  Martin  Moore 

in  a  somewhat  different  form.previously,  in  1857.  on  Eliot  and  his  converts  in  the  Amer.  Quarterly 

He  has  also  traced  the  family  in  the  N.  E.  Hist.  Register  is  reprinted   in    Beach's   Indian   Mis- 

and  Geneal.  Reg.t  July,  1869.     The  earliest  life  cellany.      Cf.  Biglow's  Hist,  of  Natick,  and  the 

of  Eliot  is  Cotton  Mather's,   1691,  afterwards  accounts  of  Natick  and  Newton  in  the  History 

embodied  in  his  Magnolia,  which  is  largely  bor-  of  Middlesex  County,\\.     The  general  historians, 

rowed  from  by  Dunton,  who  describes  a  visit  to  Hubbard,  Palfrey,  Barry,  &c.,  of  course  deal  with 

Eliot  in  1686.     Dunton's  Letters,  p.  192;  Drake,  the  subject.  —  ED.] 
Town  of  Roxbury,  p.   185.      Danker's  Journal, 


THE  INDIANS  OF  EASTERN  MASSACHUSETTS. 


26l 


and  adaptability  of  the  Indian  tongue  for  converse  on  themes  of  dignity,  in 
abstract  discourse.  Mr.  Leverich,  of  Sandwich,  a  successful  Indian  preacher, 
highly  commended  the  language  for  such  uses.  Eliot  thought  Mr.  Cotton, 
of  Plymouth,  his  own  superior  in  the  mastery  of  it.  Only  after  two  years 


THE   APOSTLE    ELIOT. 


study  did  he  venture  to  preach  in  it,  but  even  then  he  would  not  offer  prayer 
in  it.  On  the  28th  of  October,  1646,  on  a  hill  in  Nonantum,  Eliot  first 
preached  to  the  chief  Waban  and  some  of  his  subjects  in  their  own  tongue 
a  discourse  from  Ezekiel,  xxxviii.  9,  of  an  hour  and  a  quarter  in  length. 


1  [This  cut  is  made,  by  permission,  from  a 
photograph  of  a  portrait  owned  by  Mrs.  William 
Whiting,  of  Roxbury,  which  bears  the  following 
inscription  in  the  upper  left-hand  corner :  "John 
Elliot,  the  Apostle  of  the  Indians.  Nascit.  1604. 
Obit,  1690,"  —  which  constitutes  the  only  direct 
evidence  of  its  authenticity.  If  authentic,  it  must 
have  been  painted  in  this  country,  for  Eliot  never 
returned  to  England.  It  would  have  been  nat- 


ural for  Boyle  to  have  employed  some  one  to 
portray  the  missionary  in  whose  labors  he  had 
taken  so  much  interest.  In  1851  the  late  Hon. 
William  Whiting,  M.C.,  found  the  painting  in  the 
shop  of  a  dealer  in  London,  who  seemed  to  have 
a  notion  that  the  "  Indians  "  were  East  Indians. 
He  could  give  no  account  of  the  source  from 
which  the  picture  came,  having  purchased  it 
with  others.  —  ED.] 


262  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

His  prayer  was  in  English,  as  he  scrupled  lest  he  might  use  some  unfit  or 
unworthy  terms  in  the  solemn  office.  This  prompted  an  inquiry  from  his 
interested  but  bewildered  listeners,  whether  God  would  understand  prayer 
offered  to  him  in  the  Indian  tongue?  His  method  in  subsequent  visits,  when 
he  gained  more  confidence,  was  to  offer  a  short  prayer  in  Indian,  to  recite 
and  explain  the  Ten  Commandments,  to  describe  the  character,  work,  and 
offices  of  Christ  as  Saviour  and  Judge,  to  tell  his  hearers  about  the  crea- 
tion, fall,  and  redemption  of  man,  and  to  persuade  them  to  repentance.  He 
then  encouraged  them  to  put  any  questions  that  rose  to  their  minds,  prom- 
ising them  answers  and  explanations.  Some  of  their  queries  were  so  apt  and 
pertinent,  indicating  much  acumen,  that  their  good  friend  was  often  puzzled 
to  satisfy  them.  Cotton  Mather,  in  commending  Eliot's  style  in  sermoniz- 
ing, said  :  "  Lambs  might  wade  into  his  discourses  on  those  texts  and  themes 
wherein  elephants  might  swim."  Such  a  style  must  have  been  equally 
suited  to  his  white  and  red  auditors.  Some  of  the  leading  men  of  the 
colony,  magistrates  and  ministers,  occasionally  accompanied  Eliot  on  his 
preaching  visits,  and  however  they  may  have  fallen  short  of  his  enthusiasm 
and  hopefulness,  they  gratefully  appreciated  his  devotion  and  zeal. 

From  the  very  entrance  upon  his  work,  Eliot  set  before  himself  an  aim 
and  plan,  as  the  prime  conditions  of  any  successful  effort  for  the  sure  and 
permanent  benefit  of  the  natives,  which  put  him  and  other  Puritan,  and  indeed 
all  Protestant,  missionaries  to  the  Indians  into  the  broadest  possible  diver- 
gence from  the  methods  of  the  Jesuits.  These  latter  sought  to  interfere  as 
slightly  as  possible  with  the  native  habits,  the  wild  ways,  the  freedom  and 
impulses  of  the  savages.  As  a  general  thing  all  the  French  colonists,  lay 
and  clerical,  associating  with  the  Indians,  compromised  themselves  and  their 
own  civilization  by  meeting  the  Indians  more  than  halfway,  by  living  with 
them  on  easy  if  not  equal  terms,  adopting  their  free  habits,  indulging  their 
humors,  and  scrupulously  avoiding  all  crossing  their  inclinations  or  shocking 
their  prejudices.  The  Frenchmen  did  not  bind  the  savages  to  fixed  resi- 
dences, nor  compel  them  to  live  in  houses,  to  wear  white  men's  clothing,  to 
be  scrupulous  about  cleanliness,  or  dainty  in  their  food.  They  shared  the 
natives'  wigwams,  their  loathsome  cookery,  not  troubled  much  by  contact 
with  their  filth,  vermin,  and  immodesty.  A  few  simply  ritual  ceremonies, 
a  repetition  of  prayer  or  chant,  and  the  baptismal  rite  turned  the  doomed 
heathen  into  a  lovely  Christian,  and  set  him  in  equality  with  the  Frenchman. 
All  didactic,  moral,  intellectual  training  was  regarded  as  needless  or  unes- 
sential. The  simplest  assent  to  the  chief  and  to  a  few  subordinate  doctrines 
or  dogmas  of  the  Church  was  all  sufficient.  A  savage  might,  under  the 
stress  of  circumstances,  pass  through  the  saving,  and,  so  to  speak,  the  con- 
verting and  Christianizing,  process  within  ten  minutes,  or  even  in  one.  Quite 
otherwise  did  Eliot  apprehend  the  conditions  of  his  exacting  work,  if  it  was 
to  have  any  measure  of  assurance  for  success.  He  aimed  to  establish  com- 
munities of  the  Indians  in  fixed  settlements,  exclusively  their  own,  with  en- 
tirely changed  habits  of  life,  dependent  no  longer  upon  hunting  and  roaming, 


THE    INDIANS   OF   EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS.  263 

but  pursuing  industrious  occupations,  with  lands  cleared  and  fenced,  mod- 
estly clothed,  living  in  houses,  regarding  propriety  and  decency.  Ultimately 
they  were  to  have  local  magistrates,  mechanics,  teachers,  and  preachers  of 
their  own  race,  with  all  the  comforts  and  securities  of  the  towns  of  the  white 
men,  and  organized  and  covenanted  churches.  He  wrote,  "  I  find  it  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  carry  on  civility  with  religion."  After  deliberate  exam- 
ination of  several  localities,  Eliot  made  choice  of  a  region  which  still  bears 
its  original  name,  Natick,  for  his  fond  experiment  for  the  subjects  of  his 
care,  who  came  to  be  known  as  "  the  praying  Indians."  A  considerable 
company  of  the  natives  was  gathered  here  in  1651.  Eliot  kept  the  General 
Court  informed  of  all  his  proceedings,  and  sought  its  sympathy  and  aid.  It 
is  curious  to  read  on  the  Records  enactments  by  which  portions  of  our 
wilderness  territory,  the  whole  of  which  had  so  recently  been  regarded  by 
the  savages  as  in  their  unchallenged  ownership,  were  bounded  off,  as  hence- 
forward to  be  their  own  for  improvement.  There  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  much  heartiness  in  this  legislation,  the  kind  purpose  of  which  alternated 
with  measures  of  apprehension,  caution,  and  restraint.  There  was  always  a 
party  in  the  colony,  not  wholly  composed  of  the  "  ungodly,"  or  the  unfeel- 
ing and  self-seeking  classes,  who  looked  with  distrust,  indifference,  or  avowed 
hostility  upon  the  work  of  Eliot  and  his  supporters.  Such  persons  thought 
they  had  come  fully  to  understand  what  an  Indian  was  in  blood  and  fibre, 
in  native  proclivity  and  irreclaimable  savagery.  Indeed,  some  of  them  saw 
in  specimens  of  the  first  alleged  converts  to  the  white  man's  faith  and  ways 
satisfactory  evidence  either  that  the  Indian  could  not  really  be  transformed 
and  renewed,  or  that  he  was  not  worth  the  labor  spent  on  his  conversion. 

The  experiment  at  Natick,  the  first  of  a  series  of  a  dozen  others  made 
with  degrees  of  completeness  in  plan  in  several  places,  was,  like  most  of  them, 
under  the  special  care  of  Eliot.  He  was  modest,  unassuming,  deferential, 
ready  to  yield  his  own  preferen-  .  ^  y.  /  <,  ^ 

ces,  and  ever  cautious,  while  seek-  /y  o/O^A  J^jf~s 
ing  wisdom  from  others.     At  one  J      // 

interval    he    seems    to    have    had  ^ 

encouragement  of  full  rewarding  J'  '     * 

success.     While   religiously  faith-  o/X#-^  ^, 

ful  to  all  the  exacting  routine  of  duty  in  his  Roxbury  parish,  his  rule  was  to 
visit  Natick  once  a  fortnight,  visiting  in  the  alternate  week  the  wigwam  of 
Cutshamakin,  in  Dorchester,  in  all  weathers ;  riding  on  his  horse  eighteen 
miles  by  a  way  through  woods,  over  hills  and  swamps  and  streams,  which 
his  journeys  opened  into  a  road.  He  carried  with  him  heavy  and  miscella- 
neous burdens.  Though  his  own  beverage  was  water,  his  diet  the  simplest, 
and  he  abhorred  tobacco,  he  was  willing  that  the  Indians  should  in  some  cases 
have  wine,  while  he  himself  replenished  their  pipes.  He  always  had  apples, 
nuts,  and  other  little  gifts  for  the  pappooses.  He  had  acquired  that  fine 

1  [The  letter  to  which  this  is  the  subscription  inet,  "  Miscellaneous,"  1632-1795,  p.  9,  and  it  is 
is  in  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society's  cab-  printed  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  vi.  201.  —  ED.] 


264  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

accomplishment  of  being  a  graceful  beggar  of  something  from  everybody, 
—  his  own  comfort  and  needs  dropping  out  of  thought  in  his  care  for 
others.  The  cast-off  clothing,  and  even  much  that  had  not  come  to  that 
indignity,  of  his  own  parishioners  and  friends  and  the  widest  compass  of 
neighbors,  was  solicited,  and  generally  was  borne  on  ,his  horse's  shoulders 
or  crupper,  to  eke  out  the  civilized  array  of  his  red  pupils.  Without  over- 
wrought enthusiasm,  and  with  meek  patience  and  slow,  steady  advances, 
Eliot  met  all  the  obstacles  which  he  looked  for  in  dealing  with  an  intracta- 
ble race.  With  the  same  mild  virtues  he  parried  the  distrust  and  opposition 
of  many  around  him.  Even  some  sincere  but  misgiving  lookers-on  thought 
he  was  anticipating  a  work  which  should  be  deferred  till  the  time  was  prov- 
identially reached  "  for  the  coming  in  of  ye  fulness  of  y°  Gentiles."  The 
worldling  complained  of  him  for  injuring  the  trade  in  peltry  with  the  Indians. 
The  magistrates  were  by  no  means  always  faithful  in  keeping  even  the  letter 
of  their  covenants,  and  were  cool  as  to  the  spirit  of  them.  Meanwhile  the 
Indian  pow-wows,  magicians,  sorcerers,  medicine-men,  were  secretly  jealous, 
sometimes  actively  hostile.  The  sachems  were  deprived  of  tribute  from  their 
subjects.  King  Philip,  hearing  of  the  work  across  his  borders,  positively 
refused  to  entertain  the  missionaries,  to  listen  to  their  teaching,  or  to  allow 
his  subjects  to  be  approached  by  it.  And  he  spoke  in  bitter  contempt  of 
the  English  creed  and  religion.  Roger  Williams  wrote,  in  1654,  that  in  his 
recent  visit  to  England  he  had  been  charged  by  the  Narragansett  sachems  to 
petition  Cromwell  and  the  council  in  their  behalf,  that  they  should  not 
be  compelled  to  change  their  religion.  King  Philip,  taking  hold  of  one  of 
Eliot's  coat-buttons,  told  him  he  cared  no  more  for  his  religion  than  for 
that.  This  desperate  hard-heartedness  in  Philip  prompted  Cotton  Mather 
to  speak  of  him  as  "  a  blasphemous  Leviathan."  Uncas,  sachem  of  the 
Mohegans,  forbade  any  proselyting  work  among  his  Indians. 

The  bounds  for  the  Indian  town  of  Natick  —  "  the  place  of  hills" — were 
drawn  by  the  Court  in  1652.  Over  Charles  River,  which  ran  through  it, 
sometimes  fordable,  sometimes  swollen,  the  natives  built  a  strong  arched 
foot-bridge,  eighty  feet  long,  and  eight  feet  high,  its  piles  laden  with  stone. 
The  rude  builders  were  especially  proud  of  their  work,  which  stood  firm, 
while  in  the  next  freshet  an  English  bridge  near  by,  in  Medfield,  was  carried 
down  the  stream.  Three  wide  parallel  streets,  two  on  one  side  and  one  on  the 
other  of  the  river,  ran  through  the  town.  The  territory  was  portioned  into  lots 
for  houses,  tillage,  and  pasturage.  Fruit-trees  were  planted,  with  walls  and 
fences.  A  palisadoed  fort  enclosed  a  meeting-house  fifty  feet  long,  twenty- 
five  wide,  and  twelve  high,  built  of  squared  timber,  in  English  fashion,  by 
the  natives,  with  two  days'  aid  from  an  English  carpenter.  The  space  within 
was  to  be  used  for  a  school,  and  for  preaching  and  worship,  while  the  attic, 
besides  a  store-room,  contained  a  bed-room  for  Eliot ;  for,  unlike  the  Jesuit 
missionary,  he  insisted  on  his  own  privacy,  and  brought  with  him  food  pre- 
pared by  his  wife,  as  his  English  stomach  would  not  bear  the  diet  and  culi- 
nary work  and  apparatus  of  the  natives.  His  average  Indian  auditory  was 


THE    INDIANS   OF    EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS.  265 

about  an  hundred,  a  few  whites  being  generally  present.  The  place  soon 
began  to  wear  the  air  of  industry  and  thrift,  with  a  show  of  comfort.  The 
Indians  were  indulged  in  their  antipathy  to  the  English  style  of  houses  and 
lodgings,  but  cleanliness  and  decency,  for  which  the  natives  were  utterly  and 
unblushingly  wanting  all  sense,  were  rigidly  insisted  upon.  Eliot  established 
over  them  a  theocratic  and  Jewish  form  of  municipal  government,  by  rulers 
of  tens,  fifties,  and  an  hundred.  They  came  to  have  magistrates  and  school 
teachers,  of  both  sexes,  of  their  own  race.  They  entered  into  a  solemn 
religious  covenant,  Sept.  24,  165 1,  "  with  God  and  each  other,  to  be  governed 
by  the  Word  of  the  Lord  in  all  things."  The  most  earnest  efforts  were 
made  for  the  primer  and  catechetical  teaching  of  the  children  in  English, 
and  also  in  preparing  youth,  by  a  dame  and  a  grammar-school  at  Cam- 
bridge, for  entering  Harvard  College,  so  that  there  might  be  well-instructed 
Indian  and  English  preachers  in  both  tongues. 

Eliot,  by  letter  and  report,1  steadily  kept  the  society  and  its  officers  in 
England  informed  of  the  progress  of  his  holy  work.  His  letters,  hopeful 
and  genial,  are  also  frank,  candid,  and  not  greatly  over-colored.  A  series  of 
now  very  rare  tracts  and  essays  were  printed  at  the  time,  which  modestly 
take  their  titles  from  the  stages  of  advance,  —  as  "  The  Day  Breaks,"  "  The 
Dawn  Advances,"  "The  Clear  Orb  appears  and  mounts  to  the  Meridian."2 
The  crowning  aim  for  which  the  devout  and  single-hearted  Indian  Apostle 
was  laboring  —  with  no  undue  expectancy,  well  knowing  that  it  must  be  de- 
layed and  toiled  for  till  it  came  with  its  own  assurance  of  ripeness  and  joy  — 
was  that  he  might  live  to  find  all  the  needful  sacred  conditions  fulfilled  in  which 
he  might  gather  "a  Church  of  Christ"  after  the  Puritan  fashion,  composed 
of  regenerated  and  covenanted  Indian  men  and  women,  with  the  seals  of  the 
sacraments,  and  a  baptized  flock.  This  required  "a  company  of  saints  by 
profession  and  in  the  judgement  of  charity."  The  strict  observance  of  the 
Sabbath,  family  prayer,  grace  at  meals,  Bible-reading,  a  conviction  of  their 
sinful  and  lost  state,  spiritual  experience  of  renewal,  and  a  sincere  purpose  to 
lead  a  godly,  consistent  life  were  the  means  and  stages  of  the  culminating 
result.  The  Indian  pastor  must  rival  in  ability,  attainment,  zeal,  and  piety 
the  English  minister,  and,  putting  himself  in  communion  with  sister  churches, 
his  own  flock  must  be  equal  to  them  in  all  gospel  relations.  The  brethren 
and  sisters,  when  thus  covenanted,  would  have  a  strict  watch  and  ward  over 

1  [Various  letters  of  Eliot  to  the  corporation     them,  and  several  are  reprinted  in  3  Mass.  Hist. 
are  printed  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc ,  November,     Coll.  iv. 

1879.     There  are  others  in  Birch's  Life  of  Robert  Dr.  Trumbull's  Origin  and  Early  Progress  of 

Boyle.  —  ED.]  Indian  Missions  in  Ne-M  England  was  privately 

2  [The  bibliography  of  this  series  of  tracts  reprinted  in  1874  from  the  Amer.Antitj.Soc.Proc. 
can  be  followed  in  Dr.  Henry  M.  Dexter's  ex-  Single  tracts  have  been  printed  or  reprinted  in 
haustive  "Bibliography  of  Congregationalism,"  different  places,  as  Eliot's  "  Dying  Speeches  of 
appended  to  his  Congregationalism  as  seen  in  its  several  Indians,"  in  the  Sabbath  at  ffome,  1868,  p. 
Literature,  1880.    A  very  valuable  series  of  copies  333,  and  in  the  Prince  Society's  edition  of  Dnn- 
is  recorded,  with  notes  by  Dr.  Trumbull,  in  the  ton's  Letters ;  the  "Clear  Sunshine,"  in  Thomas 
Brinley  Catalogue,  p.  52,  &c.     Cf.  also  Field's  Shepard's  Works,\\.;  and  Eliot's  Brief  Narrative, 
Indian  Bibliography.  1670,  by  Marvin  of  Boston,  &c.     See  Dr.  Trum- 

Sabin,  of  New  York,  has  reprinted  some  of     bull's  chapter  in  the  present  volume.  —  ED.] 
VOL.  I.  —  34. 


266  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

each  other,  jealously,  guarding  themselves  against  reproach  or  scandal,  keep- 
ing all  wrong-doers  in  awe,  attracting  the  well-disposed,  and  proving  them- 
selves a  body  of  the  elect. 

The  wisest  and  most  sincerely  earnest  and  good  among  men,  in  all  their 
private  aims  and  public  plans,  have  always  found  their  accomplished  results 
to  fall  widely  short  of  their  purposes;  and  in  such  disappointments  of 
experience,  all  the  noble  and  earnest  effort  that  has  been  spent  must  be 
regarded  as  a  moral  equivalent  to  what  was  looked  for  as  success.  It  can- 
not be  claimed  that  on  any  large  public  scale,  either  of  expense  or  interest, 
Massachusetts  tried  to  fulfil  its  pledges  or  its  obligations  of  humane,  Chris- 
tian duty  to  the  Indians.  Indeed,  some  of  the  sharpest  rebukes  for  its 
neglect  and  failure  in  this  matter  came  from  the  more  conscientious  and 
scrupulous  of  its  own  people.  Stoddard,  of  Northampton,  wrote  a  lugubrious 
tract  to  prove  that  many  of  the  severest  calamities  visited  on  the  colony 
might  be  referred  to  the  displeasure  of  Providence  because  so  little  had  been 
done  for  the  conversion  of  the  savages.  Notwithstanding  all  the  justice  of 
the  admission  thus  made  to  the  discredit  of  our  fathers,  it  must  still  be 
affirmed  that  in  full  view  of  the  difficulties  of  their  position  and  of  all  the 
facts  of  the  case,  as  we  look  back  upon  them,  the  efforts  and  toils  of  Eliot 
and  his  co-laborers,  within  the  scale  and  with  the  means  which  limited  their 
undertaking,  were  on  the  whole  the  most  creditable,  well-devised,  and  hope- 
ful enterprise  of  the  kind  ever  put  on  trial  on  this  continent.  The  labors 
of  the  Jesuit  priests  among  the  savages,  heroic,  self-sacrificing,  and  constant 
to  death,  were,  in  the  view  of  the  missionaries  themselves,  fully  rewarded  in 
their  results.  But  religious  Protestants  at  the  time  regarded  the  boasted 
triumphs  of  the  Church  and  the  Cross  among  the  savages,  and  all  the  fond 
complacency  of  the  priests,  with  simple  disgust  and  contempt.  Not  the  first 
step  had  in  their  opinion  been  taken,  or  even  attempted,  to  secure  what 
they  believed  to  be  the  true  process  of  saving  conversion  in  the  heart  and 
conscience  of  the  savage.  He  had  been  taught  a  few  "  mummeries,"  had 
been  sprinkled  with  water  in  the  outward  form  of  baptism,  and  then  had 
been  left,  in  habit  and  way  of  life,  as  much  of  a  savage  as  before.  The  task 
to  which  the  Puritan  missionary  set  himself,  as  conditioning  his  success,  was 
a  far  more  exacting  and  complicated  one.  Full  civilization,  if  it  did  not 
with  him  take  precedence  of  Christian  conversion,  was  the  essential  accom- 
paniment of  it.  Cleanliness,  decency,  a  humanized  heart,  monogamy,  chas- 
tity, daily  labor  in  some  industrious  calling,  ability  to  read,  and  a  quickened 
intellectual  activity,  could  alone  serve  as  a  basis  for  the  hopeful  material  out 
of  which  to  make  Christians.  The  Puritan  was  also  vastly  embarrassed  and 
put  at  extreme  disadvantage  by  his  own  creed,  and  by  the  requisitions  which 
he  felt  obliged  to  make  of  converts  through  a  training  in  doctrinal  divinity 
and  experimental  religion.  Calvinism  has  always  proved  hard  teaching  to 
heathens  of  any  type,  and  the  Calvinism  of  the  Puritans  was,  as  we  shall 
soon  see,  offered  to  especially  difficult  pupils  of  it.  The  proffer  to  the  sav- 
ages was  a  gospel  of  "  Good-News,"  of  joy  and  blessing.  Its  first  message 


THE    INDIANS    OF    EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS.  267 

to  them  was  that  they  were  all  under  the  curse  of  the  Englishman's  God, 
and  doomed  to  a  fearful  hell  forever.  They  had  not  been  aware  of  their 
dreadful  condition  in  these  respects ;  and  between  the  difficulty  of  making 
them  understand  and  realize  this  their  desperate  state,  and  of  bringing  them 
to  avail  themselves  of  the  method  which  alone  promised  deliverance  from  it, 
the  Puritan  set  himself  to  a  very  hard  task.  Considering  these  facts  in  con- 
nection with  the  well-devised  purposes  of  Eliot,  the  patient,  persistent,  and 
tentative  plans  which  he  pursued  for  realizing  them  must  be  held  worthy  of 
the  distinctive  commendation  just  assigned  to  them.  Nor  can  the  disas- 
trous failure  of  any  long  result  from  his  labors,  —  attributable  largely  to  the 
calamity  of  King  Philip's  war,  —  be  regarded  as  essentially  derogating  from 
this  commendation.  It  might  be  claimed  that  the  Moravians  among  the  In- 
dians of  Pennsylvania  had  been  more  wise  and  successful  in  their  work  than 
was  the  Puritan  Eliot.  The  Moravians  have  often  been  presented  as  models 
for  Protestant  missionaries  among  the  savages.  But  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  their  efforts  were  made  later,  with  the  help  of  much  hard-earned  expe- 
rience ;  that  the  subjects  of  their  noble  labors  were  mainly  remnants  of  tribes 
of  humbled,  subject  savages,  —  "  women,"  as  their  proud  barbarian  con- 
querors called  them,  —  and  that,  if  the  Moravians  proffered  the  same  essen- 
tial creed  for  converts,  they  used  it  a  little  more  manageably.  But  the 
Moravians  gained  much  by  making  a  common  home  with  their  wild  pupils, 
as  the  Puritans  did  not. 

Though  the  culmination  of  his  labors  in  a  Christian  church,  in  mem- 
bership, pastor,  and  officers  composed  wholly  of  Indians,  was  an  object 
so  dear  to  the  heart  of  Eliot,  and  many  of  his  converts  were  importu- 
nately impatient  to  realize  the  promised  boon,  his  own  good  sense  and  well- 
poised  discretion  deferred  the  result  for  four  full  years.  These  years  he 
had  improved  by  secluding  his  converts  from  the  white  settlements,  and 
by  keeping  them  to  hard  labor,  while  they  were  diligently  instructed.  They 
showed  considerable  skill  in  handicrafts  and  also  in  municipal  administration. 
In  1656  the  Court  had  commissioned  Major  Daniel  Gookin,  a  man  of  noble 
and  lovable  character,  and  Eliot's  most  attached  co-worker,  as  the  general 
magistrate  of  all  the  Indian  towns.  The  income  of  the  English  society  for 
converting  and  civilizing  the  Indians,  —  amounting  to  the  then  large  sum  of 
about  seven  hundred  pounds,  —  was  freely  spent  in  the  salaries  of  mission- 
aries and  teachers,  in  printing,  and  in  furnishing  goods,  tools,  clothing,  &c., 
for  those  under  training.  The  first  brick  edifice  in  the  college  yard  at  Cam- 
bridge was  built  by  the  funds  of  this  society,  and  was  called  "  the  Indian 
College,"  being  designed  to  accommodate  twenty  native  pupils.  There  the 
Indian  Bible  was  afterwards  printed,  with  primers,  tracts,  &c.  A  vessel  lad- 
en with  utensils  and  tools  for  Natick,  sent  over  by  this  society,  was  wrecked 
on  Cohasset  rocks,  but  some  of  the  freight  was  saved.  Eliot  told  his 
bewildered  converts  that  Satan,  in  his  spite,  wrecked  the  vessel,  while  God 
in  mercy  saved  some  of  the  cargo.  Eliot's  salary  from  the  society  rose  from 
twenty  to  forty,  and  finally  to  fifty  pounds. 


268  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

On  the  very  eve  of  the  occasion  for  instituting  the  church  at  Natick, 
"  three  Indians  of  ye  unsound  sort,  had  got  several  quarts  of  strong  water." 
The  natural  consequences  followed.  Of  this  Eliot  says,  "  There  fell  out  a 
very  great  discouragement,  which  might  have  been  a  scandal  to  them,  and  I 
doubt  not  but  Satan  intended  it  so.  But  the  Lord  improved  it  to  stir  up 
faith  and  prayer,  and  so  turned  it  another  way ! "  Serene  and  mighty  is 
that  assuring  trust  which  can  thus  allot  the  bane  and  blessing  of  human 
life  to  two  agents,  a  lesser  and  a  Mightier! 

A  suggestive  scene  is  offered  to  an  artist  who  would  find  a  subject  for 
his  pencil  in  early  New  England  History,  in  a  visit  received  by  Eliot  at 
Roxbury,  in  1650,  from  a  most  unwonted  guest.  In  that  year  Governor 
D'Aillebout  sent  to  the  governors  of  this  and  of  Plymouth  Colony  Father 
Druillettes,  a  Jesuit  missionary  among  the  Indians  in  Canada,  to  engage 
the  English  settlers  in  commercial  relations,  with  a  view  also  to  secure  them 
in  alliance  against  the  Mohawk  Indians,  the  enemies  of  the  French.  .  There 
was  then  a  law  of  our  General  Court  that  a  Jesuit  presuming  to  enter  this 
jurisdiction  should  at  once  be  banished,  on  pain  of  death  if  he  ventured  to 
return.  Druillettes's  diplomatic  character  was  his  security.  He  has  left  a 
charming  letter  in  French  describing  his  visit.  Though  he  was  unsuccess- 
ful in  the  object  of  his  errand,  he  met  with  kind  treatment  and  generous 
hospitality.  Doubtless  the  Mass  was  for  the  first  time  celebrated  in  Boston 
by  himself  in  a  private  room,  with  "  a  key  "  furnished  him  by  his  courteous 
host,  Major  Gibbons.  Governor  Endicott  in  Salem  treated  him  in  a  friendly 
way,  and  talked  French  with  him.  Governor  Bradford,  of  Plymouth,  invited 
him  to  dinner,  and,  "  it  being  Friday,  entertained  him  with  fish."  The 
Father  describes  his  visit  to  "Mr.  Heliot"  at  Roxbury,  who,  it  being 
November,  invited  him  to  stay  with  him,  and  thus  defer  his  journey  back  to 
Canada  through  the  wintry  wilderness;  but  the  priest  could  not  remain.1 

The  attractive  scene  for  the  artist  is  the  interview  between  these  two 
devoted  missionaries  to  the  Indians,  who  labored  for  them,  each  beyond  the 
bounds  of  four-score  years,  representing  the  extremes  and  antagonisms  of 
two  creeds  and  policies  in  the  method  and  aim  of  their  work.  Doubtless 
they  conferred  together  as  Christian  gentlemen,  perhaps  on  something  in 
which  they  could  accord,  and  oblivious  of  all  that  divided  them.  One  loves 
to  think  of  Eliot's  humble  cottage  as  thus  graced.  His  Indian  interpreter 
might  have  been  crouching  by  the  cheerful  chimney;  and  one  or  more 
Indian  youth,  whom  Eliot  always  had  near  him,  might  have  looked  on  in 
wonder  as  the  cassocked  priest  and  the  Puritan  discussed  the  difficulties  of 
the  Indian  tongues,  in  which  both  of  them  attained  great  skill,  and  accom- 
plished their  ministry  as  translators  and  preachers. 

Eliot,  in  allowing  and  prompting  his  converts  to  ask  questions,  in  order  to 
make  him  sure  that  they  understood  his  teachings,  quickened  in  them  a  keen 
spirit  of  disputation  and  even  casuistry.  In  the  reports  which  he  sent  to 

1  [See  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  C.  C  Smith's  chapter  in  this  volume,  on  "  Boston  and  the  Neigh- 
boring Jurisdictions."  —  ED.] 


THE    INDIANS    OF    EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS.  269 

England  he  often  reveals  some  amusing  illustrations  of  the  acuteness  and 
perplexity  of  the  Indian  intellect  on  the  speculative  and  didactic  themes  of 
Calvinism.  The  excellent  Gookin  writes,  "  Divers  of  them  had  a  faculty  to 
frame  hard  and  difficult  questions,  which  Mr.  Eliot  did  in  a  grave  and  Chris- 
tian manner  endeavor  to  resolve  and  answer  to  their  satisfaction."  Being 
told  that  they  were  the  children,  not  of  God,  but  of  the  Devil,  they  were 
naturally  interested  chiefly  in  the  latter.  They  asked,  — 

"  Whether  y"  Devil  or  man  was  made  first  ?  Whether  there  might  not  be  some- 
thing, if  only  a  little,  gained  by  praying  to  ye  Devil?  Why  does  not  God,  who  has 
full  power,  kill  ye  Devil  that  makes  all  men  so  bad  ?  If  God  made  Hell  in  one  of  the 
'  six  days,'  why  did  he  make  it  before  Adam  had  sinned  ?  If  all  ye  world  be  burned 
up,  where  shall  Hell  be  then  ?  Are  all  ye  Indians  who  have  died  now  in  Hell,  while 
only  we  are  in  y°  way  of  getting  to  Heaven  ?  Why  does  not  God  give  all  men  good 
hearts,  that  they  may  be  good  ?  Whither  do  dying  little  children  go,  seeing  that  they 
have  not  sinned  ?  "  —  "  This  question  [says  Eliot]  gave  occasion  to  teach  them  more 
fully  original  sin  and  the  damned  state  of  all  men.  I  could  give  them  no  further 
comfort  than  that,  when  God  elects  the  parents,  he  elects  their  seed  also."  "  If  a  man 
should  be  inclosed  in  iron  a  foot  thick,  and  thrown  into  the  fire,  how  would  his  soul 
get  out?" 

There  is  a  sweet  beauty  in  one  of  the  questions  put  by  a  pupil  of  natural 
religion.  "  Can  one  be  saved  by  reading  y"  Book  of  ye  Creature?  "  [Na- 
ture.] Eliot  says,  "  This  question  was  made  when  I  taught  them  that  God 
gave  us  two  Bookes,  and  that  in  ye  Booke  of  ye  Creature  every  creature  was 
a  word  or  sentence." 

The  good  Apostle  records  some  that  he  calls  "  weak  questions."  Among 
these  is  the  following :  "  What  shall  be  in  yc  roome  of  yc  world  when  it  is 
burnt  up?"  This  he  depreciates  as  a  "woman's  question,"  though  it  was 
not  put  by  a  woman.  Only  once  does  he  record  an  instance  of  trifling: 
"  We  had  this  year  a  malignant,  drunken  Indian,  that,  to  cast  some  reproach 
as  wee  feared  upon  this  way,  boldly  pronounced  this  question :  '  Mr.  Eliot, 
who  made  Sack?  Who  made  Sack?'  [The  word  for  all  strong  drinks.]  He 
was  presently  snibbed  [snubbed?]  by  y"  other  Indians  calling  it  a  pappoose 
question,  and  seriously  and  gravely  answered  not  so  much  to  his  question  as 
to  his  spirit,  which  hath  cooled  his  boldness  ever  since."  The  questioner 
was  a  sad  reprobate.  He  stole,  killed,  and  skinned  a  young  cow,  which  he 
had  the  effrontery  to  pass  off  on  President  Dunster  as  a  "  moose." 

In  deferring  the  entrance  of  his  converts  on  a  "  Church  Estate  "  till  they 
were  fully  trained  and  disciplined,  Eliot  had  to  keep  in  view  the  coldness, 
jealousy,  and  still  unreconciled  opposition  of  many -of  his  Puritan  friends, 
who  would  be  sadly  affronted  by  any  parody  upon,  or  any  debasement  of 
the  dignity  of,  their  cherished  institutions.  But  the  day  approached  at  last. 
In  preparation  for  it  Eliot  painfully  put  some  of  his  most  promising  subjects 
through  the  same  process  of  "  relation,"  "  confession,"  and  revealing  of  pri- 
vate religious  "  experience  "  which  was  required  of  members  of  his  own 


THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

parish  as  a  requisite  to  full  church  communion.  A  half  dozen  of  these 
"  exercises  "  he  translated,  wrote  down,  and  submitted  to  his  clerical  breth- 
ren. Further  "  exercises  "  of  the  sort  were  called  forth  on  a  solemn  Fast 
Day  at  Natick,  Oct.  16,  1652.  Still  more  "  confessions  "  were  heard  at  a 
great  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  at  Roxbury  in 
July  1654.  Eliot  said  of  some  of  his  subjects,  "We  know  ye  profession  of 
very  many  of  them  is  but  a  meere  paint,  and  their  best  graces  nothing 
but  meere  flashes  and  pangs."  "  My  desire  is  to  be  true  to  Christ,  to  their 
soules,  and  to  ye  churches."  The  listening  to  the  confessions  and  to  their 
interpretation  was  very  tedious.  "  The  work  was  long-som  considering  yc 
inlargement  of  spirit  God  gave  some  of  them."  Some  of  the  English  visi- 
tors "whispered  and  went  out."  Further  delays  occurred,  and  it  was  not 
till  1660  that  a  church  of  natives  after  the  Puritan  pattern  was  instituted  at 
Natick. 

The  marvellous  accomplishment  in  Eliot's  missionary  work,  —  the  trans- 
lation of  the  entire  Scriptures  into  the  Indian  tongue,  —  so  far  from  having 
been  in  his  view  when  he  began  his  labors,  had  been  by  him  then  regarded 
and  pronounced  an  impossible  task.  The  utmost  he  had  hoped  for  was  the 
translation  of  some  parts  of  the  Bible  and  of  a  few  simple  manuals.  It  is 
to  be  remembered  that  other  conditions  in  his  circumstances  disabled  him 
from  the  singleness  of  devotion  enjoyed  by  a  Jesuit  priest.  He  was  depend- 
ent for  his  support  of  himself  and  a  family  mainly  on  his  salary  as  a  hard-work- 
ing pastor  in  his  own  church.  Besides  a  wife  and  a  daughter,  he  had  five  sons, 
all  of  whom  he  trained  for  Harvard  College.  One  of  these  died  in  his  course  ; 
the  other  four  became  preachers.  Grammars  and  dictionaries  of  some  of 
the  native  languages  had  been  published  in  Spanish  America  a  century  be- 
fore Eliot  began  his  labors.  The  English  society  cautioned  him  against 
putting  any  Scripture  into  print  until  he  felt  sure  of  his  mastery  of  the  In- 
dian tongue.  A  reviewer  of  Eliot's  linguistic  labors  cannot  repress  the  wish 
that  he  might  have  had  the  benefit  and  used  the  facilities  of  the  modern  art 
of  phonography.  It  was  found  that  while  many  of  the  English  teachers 
spoke  in  Indian  with  great  facility,  in  writing  sentences  of  it  they  would  use 
much  diversity  in  the  spelling  and  in  the  number  of  letters,  and  especially  of 
consonants,  guided,  as  they  were,  simply  by  the  sound  as  they  caught  the 
gutturals  and  grunts  of  the  natives.  Thus  on  pages  of  the  same  book  we 
find  the  two  words  ankooks  and  oliktikes,  as  the  name  of  an  Indian  stone 
kettle.  Cotton  Mather  thought  that  some  Indian  words  had  been  lengthen- 
ing themselves  out  ever  since  the  confusion  of  tongues  at  Babel.  To  us  it 
seems  as  if  an  Indian  root-word  started  little  and  compact,  like  one  of  their 
own  pappooses,  and  then  grew  at  either  extremity,  thickened  in  the  middle, 
extended  in  shape  and  proportion  in  each  limb,  member,  and  feature,  and 
was  completed  with  a  feathered  head-knot.  We  might  copy  here  some  of 
their  words,  each  of  more  than  forty  letters.  The  Jesuit  Biard,  in  Acadia, 
says  he  was  satisfied  with  translating  into  Indian,  "  ye  Lord's  Prayer,  ye 
Salutation  of  ye  Virgin,  y-  Commandments  of  God  and  of  yc  Church, 


THE    INDIANS     OF   EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS.  271 

with  a  short  explanation  of  ye  Sacraments,  and  some  Prayers,  for  this  is  all 
y6  Theology  they  need."  But  Eliot,  true  to  the  Puritan  idea  that  the  Bible 
ought  to  be  to  all  Christians  what  the  "  Church  "  is  to  the  Romanists,  finally 
essayed  a  complete  translation  of  both  Testaments.  So  the  patriarchal  his- 
tory, the  wars  in  Canaan,  the  Levitical  institution,  the  Tabernacle  and  Tem- 
ple worship,  the  genealogical  tables  of  Kings  and  Chronicles,  and  the 
technical  arguments  of  the  Epistles  took  their  equal  places  with  the  Psalms 
of  penitence  and  aspiration  and  of  the  sweet  Benedictions  and  Parables  of 
Christ.  Eliot  also  made  Indian  catechisms  and  primers  and  a  few  devo- 
tional tracts,  and  put  some  psalms  into  Indian  in  metre.  The  restored 
King  renewed  the  charter  of  the  Parliamentary  Corporation  in  aid  of  the 
Indian  work  which  furnished  type,  paper,  printer,  and  funds  for  the  publica- 
tion of  the  Indian  Bible.  The  New  Testament  appeared  Sept.  5,  1661,  the 
Old  in  1663,  and  a  copy,  with  a  somewhat  fulsome  dedication,  was  richly 
bound  and  sent  to  Charles  II.  as  the  first  European  sovereign  who  ever 
received  such  a  work  with  such  "  a  superlative  lustre  "  upon  it  from  his  sub- 
jects. As  the  book  will  be  the  appropriate  matter  for  treatment  in  another 
place  in  this  Memorial  History,  nothing  more  need  be  said  about  it  here.1 
It  has  now,  in  the  score  or  more  of  copies  of  it  which  alone  are  extant, 
held  at  lofty  valuations,  but  little  other  use  than  as  the  sight  of  it  yields  a 
sacramental  power  as  a  monument  of  holy —  and  must  we  say  of  wasted?  — 
toil.  The  reader  may  recall  with  quite  other  reflections  the  beautiful  pas- 
sage in  Hallam,  as  he  notices  the  publication  of  the  Latin  or  Mazarin  Bible, 
"  the  earliest  printed  book,  properly  so  called  "  :  "  We  may  see  in  imagina- 
tion this  venerable  and  splendid  volume  leading  up  the  crowded  myriads  of 
its  followers,  and  imploring,  as  it  were,  a  blessing  on  the  new  art,  by  dedicat- 
ing its  first  fruits  to  the  service  of  Heaven."2 

What  would  have  been  the  later  working  and  the  continuous  and  final 
results  of  the  experiment  tried  among  the  Massachusetts  Indians,  had  it 
been  left  to  a  peaceful  development,  is  certainly  a  question  of  interest.  It 
would  find  different  answers  according  to  the  hopefulness  or  the  distrust 
and  misgivings  which  any  one  might  bring  to  its  consideration  from  his 
views  of  what  has  been  or  what  might  be  the  result  of  similar  experiments. 
It  is  for  us  only  to  recognize  the  deplorable  and  disheartening  catastrophe 
which  brought  such  a  grievous  disappointment  to  Eliot  and  Gookin,  with 
such  bitter  miseries  on  the  "  Praying  Indians."  That  catastrophe  was  the 
outbreak  of  Philip's  war,  regarded  by  the  whites  as  a  conspiracy  designed 
for,  and  at  one  interval  darkly  threatening,  the  utter  extermination  of  the 
English  settlements  in  New  England. 

The  outbreak  occurred  when  about  thirty  years  had  passed  in  the 
trial  of  Eliot's  fond  experiment.  There  were  then  in  the  colony  seven  tol- 
erably well-established  villages  of  more  or  less  civilized  and  Christianized 

1  [See  the  chapter  by  Dr.  Trumbull  on  "  The     instruction  in  part  of  Job  Nesutan,  an  Indian 
Indian  Tongue  and   its   Literature."     Eliot  is     servant  in  his  household.  —  ED.] 
said  to  have   learned  the  language  under  the          2  Literature  of  Europe,  \.  211. 


272  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

natives,  and  seven  others  in  a  crude  state  working  toward  that  condition. 
The  majority  of  the  residents  in  the  former  of  these  villages  had  in  the  main 
abandoned  a  vagabond  life,  and  were  trying  to  subsist  on  the  produce  of  the 
soil,  on  simple  handicraft,  and  on  wages  paid  them  for  labor  by  the  whites, 
with  occasional  hunting  and  fishing.  These  more  advanced  villages  had 
their  forts,  their  outlying  fields,  fenced  or  walled,  their  more  cleanly  and 
decent  cabins,  their  native  mechanics,  teachers,  petty  magistrates,  and 
preachers,  with  schools  and  meeting-houses.  Fruit-trees  and  growing  crops 
gave  a  show  of  thrift  and  culture  to  the  scenes.  The  subjects  of  all  this  care 
were,  however,  jealously  watched  and  restrained  in  ways  often  irritating  to 
them.  There  were  rogues,  pilferers,  and  nuisances  among  them.  Doubtless 
they  committed  much  mischief,  and  were  suspected  of  some  of  which  they 
were  innocent.  The  old  feeling  of  distrust,  antipathy,  and  opposition  to  the 
experiment  still  lingered  and  perhaps  was  even  strengthened  among  many 
of  the  English,  who  regarded  the  so-called  "  Praying  Indians  "  as  more  of  a 
nuisance  than  were  those  in  a  state  of  Nature,  —  as  in  fact  mere  hankerers 
for  the  "  loaves  and  fishes,"  hypocrites,  weaklings,  shiftless  and  dependent 
paupers.  Gookin's  hopeful  narrative  of  success  could  not  have  been  long 
circulated  in  England  before  he  was  compelled,  in  1677,  to  write  a  despond- 
ing one,  which,  remaining  in  obscurity  in  private  hands  for  more  than  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half,  was  only  put  in  print  as  an  antiquarian  document  in  I836.1 
Even  at  this  day  that  later  narrative  will  draw  from  the  reader  a  pang  of 
profound  sympathy  with  the  heart-agony  of  the  writer  of  it.  The  gentle, 
earnest  truthfulness,  the  sweet  forbearance,  the  passionless  tone,  and  the 
minute  and  well-authenticated  matter  of  the  record  give  to  it  a  touching 
pathos  and  power.  The  substance  of  it  is  a  rehearsal  of  the  jealousies, 
apprehensions,  and  severe  measures  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  of  Massa- 
chusetts in  their  dealing  with  the  "  Praying  Indians  "  during  the  horrors,  bar- 
barities, massacres,  and  burnings  of  the  war  instigated  by  the  sachem  of  the 
Narragansetts  with  his  red  allies.  Gookin  and  Eliot,  perhaps  over  confident- 
ly, were  persuaded  that  the  Indians  under  their  charge,  in  numbers,  fidelity, 
and  constancy,  might  have  been  most  effective  allies  of  the  whites  in  the 
war,  and  that  their  settlements  would  be  a  wall  of  defence.  But  from  the 
outbreak  of  that,  havoc  of  burning,  pillage,  and  carnage,  a  panic-horror  of 
dismay  and  awful  apprehension  seized  many  of  the  whites  that  the  darkest 
treachery  was  working  in  the  Indian  towns  among  the  viperous  reptiles  whom 
a  weak  sentimentality  had  warmed  into  life.  Rumors  filled  the  laden  and 
melancholy  air.  A  few  certified  occurrences  there  were  which  sufficed  to 
warrant  the  darkest  apprehensions.  Tribes  heretofore  hostile  to  each  other 

1  [Daniel  Gookin,  in  1674,  planned  a  history  and  Sufferings  of  the  Christian  Indians  of  New 

of  New  England,  of  which  only  the  second  vol-  England,"   a   manuscript   written   in    1677   and 

ume,  "  Hist.  Coll.  of  the  Indians  in  New  Eng-  dedicated  to  Robert  Boyle,  is  printed   in   the 

land,"   is    preserved    and    printed   in    I    Mass.  Artlucologia  Americana,  ii.  423-564.     A  synopsis 

Hist.  Coll.  i.,  and  of  this,  chapter  v.  is  given  to  of  Gookin's  historical  writings  is  given  in  the 

the  conversion  of  the  natives  of  Massachusetts.  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  October,   1859 

Cf.  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  October,  1859,  There  is  a  Gookin  genealogy  in  the  N.  E.  Hist. 

p.  347.     His  "  Historical  Account  of  the  Doings  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  1847.  —  ED.] 


THE    INDIANS   OF   EASTERN    MASSACHUSETTS.  273 

and  harmless  to  the  English  were  drawn  into  Philip's  league.  Just  enough 
of  cases  of  treachery  occurred  to  confirm  the  panic-frenzy  about  the 
"  nourishing  of  vipers."  A  few  Indians  slipped  away  from  the  towns,  and 
were  charged  with  burning  barns  and  outbuildings,  when  possibly  this  was  the 
work  of  malignant  strollers,  of  whom  there  were  enough  in  the  woods.  In 
no  single  instance,  however,  was  a  criminal  act  proved  against  any  Indian 
that  had  had  the  confidence  of  Eliot  or  Gookin.  Still,  some  of  the  natives 
under  training,  disgusted  by  restraint,  or  maddened  by  the  jealousy  and  hate 
felt  towards  them,  did  leave  the  settlements ;  and  in  the  histories  of  some  of 
our  towns,  published  in  recent  years,  we  find  antiquarian  mention  of  one  or 
more  Natick,  Grafton,  or  Marlborough  Indians  as  seen  among  the  files  or 
ambushed  parties  of  "  the  wily  and  hellish  foe." 

There  was  no  reasoning  with  the  people  under  this  panic.  Eliot  and 
Gookin  became  victims  of  dark  animosity  among  the  people,  —  the  life 
of  the  latter  being  threatened  in  the  streets  because  he  pleaded  so  be- 
seechingly for  confidence  and  mercy  to  his  wards.  Doubtless  there  would 
have  been  a  popular  rising  if  the  Indians  had  been  left  in  their  towns.1 
The  magistrates,  to  protect  both  parties,  decided  at  first  that  the  Indians 
should  be  moved  from  their  distant  settlements,  and  brought  chiefly 
near  the  seaboard, —  to  Cambridge  plains,  Dorchester  Neck,  and  Noddle's 
Island,  and  some  to  Concord  and  Mendon.  This  proposition  only  exasper- 
ated the  residents  in  those  towns,  as  it  would  but  bring  the  dreaded  scourge 
nearer.  Finally  it  was  decided  to  move  the  Indians  from  Natick,  while 
their  crops  were  ungathered,  to  Deer  Island,  then  covered  with  forest  trees 
and  used  for  the  grazing  of  sheep.  A  sad  scene  was  presented  in  the  autumn 
of  1675  at  the  site  of  the  United  States  Arsenal,  on  Charles  river,  then 
called  "The  Pines."  The  Natick  Indians,  who  had  been  temporarily  brought 
there  on  foot,  by  horses  and  carts  for  the  sick  and  lame,  after  a  comforting 
prayer  by  Eliot,  were,  by  the  serving  tide  at  midnight  on  October  3Oth, 
shipped  in  three  vessels  for  the  Island,  —  Eliot  wrote,  "  patiently,  humbly, 
and  piously,  without  murmuring  or  complaining  against  ye  English."  They 
had  a  forlorn  winter  on  the  Island,  which  was  bleak  and  cold  and  shelterless. 
Some  of  their  corn  was  taken  to  them,  "  a  boat  and  man  was  appointed  to 
look  after  them."  Their  subsistence  was  largely  from  shell-fish.  In  the 
dire  extremity  of  the  continued  war  by  Philip  the  English  were  finally  in- 
duced to  avail  themselves  of  the  service  of  a  few  of  the  "  Praying  Indians," 
for  whose  fidelity  and  constancy  Eliot  pledged  himself.  Indians  again  were 
used  against  Indians  by  the  whites.  The  substitutes  and  allies,  by  their  skill 
in  forest  strategy,  proved  of  utmost  use  in  the  emergency.  They  stood  nobly 
for  their  dubious  benefactors,  and  some  of  them  won  special  praise  and 
rewards.  They  stripped  and  painted  themselves,  became  Indians  again 
like  the  enemy,  tracked  them  to  their  lairs,  brought  home  such  captives 
as  had  not  been  massacred ;  and  so  far  as  they  were  traitors  it  was  to 
their  own  race.  Gookin  says  that  these  red  allies  killed  at  least  400  of  the 

1  [Cf.  Dr.  Hale's  section  on  "Boston  in  Philip's  War."  —  ED.] 
VOL.  I.  —  35. 


274  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

enemy,  "  turning  ye  balance  to  ye  English  side,  so  that  y*  enemy  went  down 
y*  wind  amain." 

The  poor  exiles  from  Natick  were  returned  there  in  May,  1678.  It  was 
estimated  at  the  time  that  about  a  fourth  part  of  all  the  Indians  in  New 
England  —  those  of  Massachusetts  being  3000  of  that  quarter  —  had  been 
more  or  less  influenced  by  civilization  and  Christianity ;  and  that  had  these 
been  in  full  league  with  Philip,  the  whites  would  have  been  exterminated. 
After  the  war  the  stated  places  for  Indian  church  settlements  were  reduced 
to  four,  while  there  were  other  temporary  stations.  There  were  ten  stations 
in  Plymouth  Colony,  the  same  number  in  the  Vineyard,  and  five  in  Nantuck- 
et.  President  Mather,  writing  in  1687,  said  there  were  in  New  England  six 
regular  churches  of  baptized  Indians,  and  eighteen  assemblies  of  catechu- 
mens, twenty-four  Indian  preachers,  and  four  English  ministers  who  preached 
in  Indian.  A  committee  to  visit  Natick  in  1698  reported  a  church  there  of 
seven  men  and  three  women  (Indians),  a  native  minister  ordained  by  Eliot, 
59  native  men,  51  women,  and  70  children.  Up  to  1733  all  the  town  officers 
were  Indians.  The  place  was  incorporated  as  an  English  town  in  1762.  In 
1792  there  was  in  it  but  a  single  Indian  family.  At  a  local  celebration  there 
in  1846,  the  two-hundredth  anniversary  of  Eliot's  first  service,  a  girl  of  six- 
teen was  the  only  known  native  descendant.  A  copy  of  Eliot's  Indian 
Bible,  obtained  from  the  library  of  the  Hon.  John  Pickering  for  the  purpose, 
was  then  deposited  among  the  town  records. 

No  laments  could  deepen  the  melancholy  in  which  this  story  finds  its 
close.  To  moralize  over  it  would  be  to  open  an  inexhaustible  theme. 
There  were  places  in  this  State  where  feeble  remnants  of  partially  civilized 
natives  remained  a  little  longer  than  at  Natick.  But  the  longer  they  sur- 
vived the  more  forlorn  was  the  spectacle  they  presented,  as  poor  pension- 
ers and  vagabonds,  the  virility  of  their  native  nobleness  in  the  wild  woods 
crushed  in  abject  abasement  before  the  white  man,  their  veins  mixed  with 
African  rather  than  with  English  blood.  Humiliated,  taciturn,  retrospec- 
tive, and  with  no  longer  heritage,  name,  or  progeny,  they  preached  more 
suggestive  and  impressive  sermons  than  were  ever  preached  to  them.  Yet, 
as  if  in  memorial  of  motives  or  compunctions  which  those  who  have  driven 
them  from  the  soil  once  felt  towards  them,  there  are  now  vested  charitable 
funds  held  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  are  not  here  to  receive  it. 

"  Alas  !  for  them,  —  their  day  is  o'er, 
Their  fires  are  out  from  shore  to  shore  ; 
No  more  for  them  the  wild  deer  bounds, 
The  plough  is  on  their  hunting  grounds  ; 
The  pale  man's  axe  rings  through  their  woods, 
The  pale  man's  sail  skims  o'er  their  floods, 
Their  pleasant  springs  are  dry."  ' 


1  From  Charles  Sprague's  Centennial  Ode,  1830. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

BOSTON    AND    THE    NEIGHBORING    JURISDICTIONS. 

BY     CHARLES     C.     SMITH. 
Treasurer  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 

FROM  her  fortunate  position  at  the  head  of  the  bay,  and  from  her 
comparatively  large  population  and  wealth,  Boston  was  brought  into 
more  intimate  relations  with  the  neighboring  English,  French,  and  Dutch 
colonies  than  were  sustained  by  any  other  Massachusetts  town.  But  these 
relations  arose  mainly  from  the  circumstance  that  the  people  of  the  town 
were  led  to  engage  in  trade  with  the  other  colonies,  partly  by  the  ne- 
cessity of  supplying  the  various  wants  of  a  growing  community,  and 
partly  by  the  thrifty  habits  of  the  first  settlers.  With  the  Indians  Boston 
seldom  came  into  direct  contact ;  and  only  once  were  there  serious  fears  of 
an  attack  from  them.  This  was  in  August,  1632,  not  quite  two  years  after 
the  settlement  of  the  town,  when  "notice  being  given  of  ten  sagamores  and 
many  Indians  assembled  at  Muddy  River,"  says  Winthrop,  "the  governor 
sent  Captain  Underhill  with  twenty  musketeers  to  discover,  &c. ;  but  at 
Roxbury  they  heard  they  were  broke  up."1  While  towns  not  more  than 
twenty  or  thirty  miles  distant  were  the  scenes  of  frequent  alarms,  Boston 
was  happily  preserved  from  the  Indian  torch  and  tomahawk.  There  was 
a  limited  trade  with  the  Indians,  but  from  the  comparatively  small  number 
of  them  living  near  Boston  it  could  never  have  been  of  much  value  to  the 
town.  The  extensive  maritime  trade  which  sprang  up  at  an  early  date  had 
its  origin,  however,  in  a  voyage  to  the  Indian  country.  Only  a  few  weeks 
after  the  naming  of  the  town  a  vessel  was  sent  south  to  buy  corn.  "About 
the  end  of  October,  this  year,  1630,  I  joined  with  the  governor  and  Mr. 
Maverick,"  says  Dudley,  in  his  letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln,  "in 
sending  out  our  pinnace  to  the  Narragansetts,  to  trade  for  corn  to  supply 
our  wants ;  but  after  the  pinnace  had  doubled  Cape  Cod,  she  put  into  the 
next  harbor  she  found,  and  there  meeting  with  Indians,  who  showed  their 
willingness  to  truck,  she  made  her  voyage  there,  and  brought  us  a  hundred 
bushels  of  corn,  at  about  four  shillings  a  bushel,  which  helped  us  some- 
what."2 

1  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  i.  88. 

2  Young,  Chronicles  of  Mass.,  pp.  322,  323;  I  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  viii.  42. 


276  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

This  expedition  was  more  fortunate  than  that  of  the  Salem  people  in  the 
following  year.  In  September,  1631,  the  Salem  pinnace  was  sent  out  on 
a  similar  errand,  but  was  driven  by  head  winds  into  Plymouth  harbor, 
"where,"  says  Winthrop,  "the  governor,  &c.,  fell  out  with  them,  not  only 
forbidding  them  to  trade,  but  also  telling  them  they  would  oppose  them  by 
force,  even  to  the  spending  of  their  lives,  &c. ;  whereupon  they  returned, 
and  acquainting  the  governor  of  Massachusetts  with  it,  he  wrote  to  the 
governor  of  Plymouth  this  letter,  here  inserted  with  their  answer,  which 
came  about  a  month  after."1  So  far  as  is  known,  neither  Winthrop's  letter 
nor  Bradford's  reply  has  been  preserved.  But  about  the  middle  of  Novem- 
ber, we  are  told,  "the  governor  of  Plymouth  came  to  Boston,  and  lodged  in 
the  ship."2  The  purpose  of  this  visit  was,  no  doubt,  to  settle  the  quarrel; 
and  from  that  time  the  relations  of  the  Boston  and  the  Plymouth  people 
were  almost  uniformly  of  a  friendly,  and  sometimes  of  a  very  intimate 
character.  In  September  of  the  next  year  Winthrop  and  Wilson,  pastor 
of  the  Boston  church,  went  on  foot  from  Weymouth  to  Plymouth,  where 
they  partook  of  the  communion  with  the  Plymouth  church,  and  afterward 
addressed  the  congregation.3  In  June,  1647,  Governor  Bradford  attended 
the  synod  at  Cambridge  as  a  messenger  from  the  church  of  Plymouth.4  In 
the  latter  part  of  1646,  Edward  Winslow,  at  that  time  one  of  the  Plymouth 
magistrates,  was  sent  to  England  as  the  agent  of  Massachusetts  to  answer 
the  complaints  of  Child  and  Gorton.5  At  the  very  close  of  the  colonial 
period  the  Plymouth  Court  passed  a  vote  of  thanks  to  Increase  Mather  for 
his  services  in  England,  and  desired  Sir  Henry  Ashurst,  who  was  made  their 
agent,  to  consult  with  him  about  obtaining  a  charter  for  the  colony;6  and 
it  was  mainly  through  Mather's  efforts  that  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth 
were  brought  under  one  government."  These  instances  are  sufficient  to 
show  how  intimate  were  the  relations  of  the  two  colonies. 

The  trade  between  Massachusetts  and  Virginia,  of  which  Boston  after- 
ward had  the  principal  share,  appears  to  have  begun  with  Salem.  In  May, 
1631,  Winthrop  records  the  arrival  at  Salem  of  "a  pinnace  of  eighteen 
tons,  laden  with  corn  and  tobacco.  She  was  bound  to  the  north,  and  put 
in  there  by  foul  weather.  She  sold  her  corn  at  ten  shillings  the  bushel."' 
It  was  probably  some  irregularity  in  the  sale  of  this  cargo  which  induced 
the  General  Court,  at  its  next  session,  to  order  "that  no  person  whatsoever 
shall  buy  corn  or  any  other  provision  or  merchantable  commodity  of  any 
ship  or  bark  that  comes  into  this  bay,  without  leave  from  the  governor  or 
some  other  of  the  assistants."9  In  the  beginning  of  1632  a  bark  arrived 
here  from  Virginia,  having  been  to  the  northern  settlements  and  to  Salem 
to  sell  corn.  She  remained  in  the  harbor  for  nearly  a  month,  when  she 

1  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  i.  60.  6  Plymouth  Col.  Records,  vi.  259,  260. 

2  Ibid.  p.  67.  7  Hutchinson,  Hist,  of  the  Col.  of  Mass.  Bay, 
8  Ibid.  pp.  91,  92.                                                      pp.  405-407. 

*  Ibid.  ii.  308.  8  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  \.  56. 

5  Mass.  Col.  Records,  ii.  162  ;  Winthrop,  Hist.  9  Mass.  Col.  Records,  i.  88. 

of  New  England,  ii.  298,  299. 


BOSTON    AND    THE    NEIGHBORING   JURISDICTIONS.  277 

sailed  again  for  Virginia,  with  Mr.  Maverick's  pinnace.1  Not  long  afterward 
Captain  Peirce  arrived  from  England  in  the  ship  "  Lion,"  and  after  discharg- 
ing his  cargo  and  leaving  his  passengers,  some  of  whom  became  prominent 
among  the  leading  men  in  the  Connecticut  colony,  he  sailed  for  Virginia. 
In  less  than  a  week  from  the  time  of  sailing  his  vessel  was  wrecked  at  the 
mouth  of  Chesapeake  Bay,  to  the  serious  loss  of  Boston  and  Plymouth. 
"Plymouth  men,"  says  Winthrop,  "lost  four  hogsheads,  nine  hundred 
pounds  of  beaver,  and  two  hundred  otter  skins.  The  governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts lost,  in  beaver  and  fish,  which  he  sent  to  Virginia,  &c.,  near  ^100. 
Many  others  lost  beaver,  and  Mr.  Humfrey,  fish."2  In  the  spring  or  sum- 
mer of  1644,  after  the  great  Indian  massacre  of  that  year,  a  considerable 
number  of  persons  emigrated  from  Virginia  to  Massachusetts.  The  most 
conspicuous  man  among  them  was  Captain  Daniel  Gookin,  a  name  which 
will  always  be  remembered  in  connection  with  the  Christian  Indians,  of 
whom  he  was  a  steadfast  friend.  He  is  supposed  to  have  arrived  in  Boston 
on  the  2Oth  of  May,  was  made  a  freeman  only  nine  days  later,  and  was 
the  last  major-general  in  the  colonial  period.3 

In  May,  1642,  about  seventy  persons  in  Virginia  wrote  to  Boston, 
"bewailing  their  sad  condition  for  want  of  the  means  of  salvation,  and 
earnestly  entreating  a  supply  of  faithful  ministers,  whom,  upon  experience 
of  their  gifts  and  godliness,  they  might  call  to  office."  These  letters  were 
publicly  read  at  the  Thursday  lecture;  and  subsequently  it  was  agreed 
that  the  ministers  who  could  be  spared  best  were  Mr.  Phillips,  of  Water- 
town,  Mr.  Tompson,  of  Braintree,  and  Mr.  Miller,  of  Rowley,  as  each  of 
these  churches  had  two  ministers.  Various  difficulties,  however,  arose,  but 
finally  Mr.  Knowles,  of  Watertown,  and  Mr.  Tompson,  agreed  to  go,  and  in 
October  they  left  for  their  new  home,  intending  to  embark  at  Narragan- 
sett.4  Here  they  were  wind-bound  for  several  weeks,  but  in  the  mean  time 
they  were  joined  by  another  minister,  —  Mr.  James,  of  New  Haven;  and 
after  a  long  and  perilous  winter  voyage  they  reached  Virginia  in  safety. 
"There,"  says  Winthrop,  "they  found  very  loving  and  liberal  entertainment, 
and  were  bestowed  in  several  places,  not  by  the  governor,  but  by  some  well- 
disposed  people  who  desired  their  company."  They  were  soon  silenced, 
however,  by  the  Virginia  authorities,  because  they  would  not  conform  to  the 
Church  of  England,  and  were  ordered  to  leave  the  colony.  They  reached 
home  in  the  summer  of  i643-5  Puritanism  could  not  thrive  in  Virginia 
under  the  shadow  of  Sir  William  Berkeley's  administration. 

With  North  Carolina  also  Boston  had  early  and  intimate  relations. 
Thirty  years  after  the  settlement  of  the  town,  just  as  the  first  generation 
had  passed  away,  a  party  of  emigrants,  desirous,  perhaps,  of  finding  a  more 
genial  climate,6  established  themselves  at  the  mouth  of  Cape  Fear  River. 

1  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  i.  72.  *  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii.  78. 

2  Ibid.  p.  102.  6  Ibid.  p.  96;  Hubbard,  Hist,  of  New  Eng- 

3  Ibid.  ii.  165,  and  Mr.  Savage's  note.     [See     land,  in  2  Mass  Hist.  Coll.,  vi.  411. 

Dr.  Ellis's  chapter  on  "The  Indians  of  Eastern          °  [Savage,  Winthrop's  New  England,  \.  118, 
Massachusetts."  —  ED.]  has  a  note  on  the  changes  of  climate.  —  ED.J 


278  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

The  enterprise  met  with  little  success,  and  in  May,  1667,  the  General  Court 
passed  an  order  for  the  relief  of  the  unfortunate  settlement.  "Upon  the 
perusal  of  a  letter  sent  from  Mr.  John  Vassall,  and  the  people  with  him  at 
Cape  Fear,"  the  order  recites,  "directed  to  Major-General  John  Leverett, 
desiring  that  they  may  have  some  relief  in  their  distress,  and  having  infor- 
mation that  the  honored  governor,  deputy-governor,  and  some  others  of  our 
honored  magistrates  encouraged  a  contribution  for  the  relief  of  those  peo- 
ple, the  which  contribution  hath  been  made  in  many  places,  and  hath  been 
committed  to  the  care  of  Mr.  Peter  Oliver  and  John  Bateman,  of  Boston,"  — 
the  Court  ordered  the  said  Mr.  Peter  Oliver  and  John  Bateman  to  carry  on 
the  contributions,  empowering  them  to  receive  the  same  ;  and  further  order- 
ing them  "  to  keep  exact  accounts  of  their  receipts  and  disbursements,  that 
they  may  render  the  same  when  they  are  called  thereto  by  this  Court."1 
This  was  one  of  the  earliest,  if  not  the  earliest,  of  the  contributions  by 
which  Boston  and  Massachusetts  have  afforded  relief  to  other  communities 
in  times  of  sickness,  famine,  or  disaster. 

In  spite  of  the  extreme  aversion  with  which  the  settlers  of  Massachusetts 
regarded  the  Romish  Church,  there  was  some  friendly  intercourse  with 
Maryland.  In  August,  1634,  Winthrop  records  the  arrival  at  Boston  of  a 
pinnace  of  about  fifty  tons  "  from  Maryland  upon  Potomac  River,  with  corn 
to  exchange  for  fish  and  other  commodities.  The  governor,  Leonard  Cal- 
vert,  and  two  of  the  commissioners,  wrote  to  the  governor  here,  to  make 
offer  of  trade  of  corn,  etc.,  and  the  governor  of  Virginia  wrote  also  on  their 
behalf,  and  one  Captain  Young  wrote  to  make  offer  to  deliver  cattle  here. 
Near  all  their  company  came  sick  hither,  and  the  merchant  died  within  one 
week  after."2  At  a  still  later  period,  in  July,  1642,  there  was  another  arri- 
val at  Boston  on  a  similar  errand.  "From  Maryland,"  says  Winthrop, 
"came  one  Mr.  Neale  with  two  pinnaces  and  commission  from  Mr.  Calvert, 
the  governor  there,  to  buy  mares  and  sheep,  but  having  nothing  to  pay  for 
them  but  bills  charged  upon  the  Lord  Baltimore,  in  England,  no  man  would 
deal  with  him.  One  of  his  vessels  was  so  eaten  with  worms  that  he  was 
forced  to  leave  her."3  Even  more  suggestive  is  a  record  which  appears 
in  October  of  the  following  year:  "The  Lord  Baltimore  being  owner  of 
much  land  near  Virginia,  being  himself  a  Papist,  and  his  brother,  Mr.  Cal- 
vert, the  governor  there,  a  Papist  also,  but  the  colony  consisted  both  of 
Protestants  and  Papists,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Captain  Gibbons  of  Boston,  and 
sent  him  a  commission,  wherein  he  made  tender  of  land  in  Maryland,  to 
any  of  ours  that  would  transport  themselves  thither,  with  free  liberty  of 
religion,  and  all  other  privileges  which  the  place  afforded,  paying  such 
annual  rent  as  should  be  agreed  upon ;  but  our  captain  had  no  mind  to 
further  his  desire  herein,  nor  had  any  of  our  people  temptation  that  way."4 
It  would  have  been  strange,  indeed,  if  our  Puritan  ancestors  could  have 
so  far  overcome  their  aversion  to  Romanism  as  to  leave  a  Puritan  colony  in 

1  Mass.  Col.  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  337.  8  Ibid.  ii.  72. 

2  Wiiilhrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  \.  139.  4  Ibid.  pp.  148,  149. 


BOSTON    AND    THE    NEIGHBORING   JURISDICTIONS.  279 

order  to  seek  new  homes  in  a  colony  founded  and  governed  by  Catholics. 
In  spite  of  the  ungenial  climate  and  sterile  soil  of  New  England,  there  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  much  disposition  among  the  first  settlers  to  forsake 
Massachusetts  for  more  attractive  places.  The  removals  from  Cambridge 
and  Dorchester  to  Connecticut  are  scarcely  an  exception  to  this  statement; 
and  the  number  who  went  to  the  West  Indies,  to  Long  Island,  or  back  to 
England,  after  the  triumph  of  Puritanism  there,  was  not  large. 

Massachusetts  had  relations  with  the  Swedes  on  the  Delaware  River  at 
an  early  date,  but  an  account  of  these  relations  belongs  to  the  annals  of  the 
New  England  Confederacy  rather  than  to  the  history  of  Boston.1  So  early 
as  1641  New  Haven  had  established  a  trading-house  there,  near  the  Swed- 
ish fort,  by  the  governor  of  which  the  New  Haven  people  were  badly 
treated.  They  made  complaint  to  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colo- 
nies, who  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Swedish  governor,  and  sent  an  agent  to  treat 
with  him  for  redress  of  grievances.2  Subsequently  "  the  Swedes  denied 
what  they  had  been  charged  with,"  says  Winthrop,  "  and  sent  copies  of 
divers  examinations  upon  oath  taken  in  the  cause,  with  a  copy  of  all  the 
proceedings  between  them  and  our  friends  of  New  Haven  from  the  first; 
and  in  their  letters  used  large  expressions  of  their  respect  to  the  English, 
and  particularly  to  our  colony."3  Early  in  1644  a  pinnace  was  sent  from 
Boston  to  the  Delaware  to  trade;  but  the  voyage  proved  unsuccessful, 
partly  through  the  refusal  of  the  Dutch  and  Swedish  governors  to  allow 
them  to  trade  with  the  Indians,  and  partly  through  the  drunkenness  of  the 
master.  On  the  return  of  the  pinnace  the  adventurers  brought  an  action 
against  the  master,  both  for  his  drunkenness,  and  for  not  proceeding  with 
the  voyage  as  he  was  required  to  do  by  his  charter.  They  recovered  two 
hundred  pounds  from  him,  "which  was  too  much,"  says  Winthrop,  "though 
he  did  deal  badly  with  them,  for  it  was  very  probable  they  could  not  have 
proceeded."4  In  the  autumn  a  bark  was  sent  from  Boston,  with  seven  men, 
for  the  same  purpose.  They  remained  near  the  English  settlement  all  win- 
ter, and  in  the  spring  fell  down  the  river  to  trade.  In  this  they  were  so 
successful  that  in  three  weeks  they  had  obtained  five  hundred  fur-skins 
and  other  merchandise,  when  they  were  suddenly  attacked  by  the  Indians, 
who  killed  the  master  and  three  men,  plundered  the  vessel,  and  carried  away 
another  man  and  a  boy.  Finally,  the  survivors  were  recovered  by  the  Swed- 
ish governor,  who  sent  them  to  New  Haven.  From  that  place  they  were 
brought  to  Boston.5 

With  the  Dutch  at  New  York  there  were  various  relations  of  trade  and 
hostility.  So  early  as  September,  1642,  the  former  had  become  so  large 
that  the  General  Court  found  it  necessary  to  pass  an  order  determining  the 
value  of  Dutch  coins ;  and  they  accordingly,  "considering  the  oft  occasions 
we  have  of  trading  with  the  Hollanders  at  the  Dutch  plantation,  and  other 

1  [Cf.  Frederic  Kidder's  paper  on  the  Swedes  2  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  u.  140; 

on  the  Delaware,  and  their  intercourse  with  New  Plymouth  Col.  Records,  ix.  13. 
England,  in  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg ,  Jan-  8  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  \\.  157. 

uary,  1874,  p.  42. —  ED.]  *  Ibid.  p.  187.  6  Ibid.  pp.  203,  204. 


280  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

wise,"  ordered  "that  the  Holland  ducatour,  worth  three  guilders,  shall  be 
current  at  six  shillings  in  all  payments  within  our  jurisdiction,  and  the  rix 
dollar,  being  two  and  one  half  guilders,  shall  be  likewise  current  at  five 
shillings,  and  the  real  of  eight  shall  be  also  current  at  five  shillings."  l  At  a 
still  earlier  period,  in  August,  1634,  we  have  Winthrop's  testimony  as  to  the 
extent  and  character  of  this  trade.  "Our  neighbors  of  Plymouth,  and  we, 
had  oft  trade  with  the  Dutch  at  Hudson's  River,  called  by  them  New 
Netherlands,"  he  writes.  "We  had  from  them  about  forty  sheep,  and 
beaver,  and  brass  pieces,  and  sugar,  &c.,  for  sack,  strong  waters,  linen 
cloth,  and  other  commodities.  They  have  a  great  trade  of  beaver, — about 
nine  or  ten  thousand  skins  in  a  year."2  In  May,  1653,  during  the  war 
between  England  and  Holland,  the  General  Court  passed  an  order  pro- 
hibiting all  persons  within  their  jurisdiction  "from  carrying  provisions,  as 
corn,  beef,  pease,  bread,  or  pork,  &c.,  into  any  of  the  plantations  of  Dutch 
or  French  inhabiting  in  any  of  the  parts  of  America,"  under  penalty  of  a 
fine  of  three  times  the  value  of  the  provisions  carried  in  violation  of  the 
order.3  This  prohibition  remained  in  force  until  August,  1654,  when  the 
Court  ordered  that  "the  law  made  in  May,  1653,  prohibiting  trade  with 
the  Dutch,  be  henceforth  repealed."  4 

When  the  Royal  Commissioners  sent  over  by  Charles  II.  in  the  summer 
of  1664  visited  Boston,  one  of  the  questions  submitted  to  the  General 
Court  was  whether  the  Colony  would  send  any  men  to  assist  in  the  expedi- 
tion against  the  Dutch  of  New  Netherlands.  This  question  having  been 
decided  in  the  affirmative,  the  Court,  at  the  special  session,  August  3, 
ordered  that  there  should  be  "voluntary  soldiers  raised  in  this  jurisdiction 
for  his  Majesty's  service  against  the  Dutch,  not  exceeding  the  number  of 
two  hundred,  to  be  ready  to  march  by  the  2Oth  of  this  instant."5  Accord- 
ingly officers  were  selected  for  "such  forces  as  shall  be  raised  in  this  juris- 
diction," and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  see  if  Mr.  Graves  would  "dis- 
pense the  word  of  God  to  such  as  are  intended  for  this  expedition."  The 
volunteers  were  also  to  be  allowed  "an  able  chirurgeon,  such  as  they  can 
get,  furnished  with  all  things  necessary  for  such  service."6  Whether  any 
volunteers  actually  enlisted  in  Boston  under  these  and  the  other  orders 
passed  at  the  same  time  does  not  appear ;  but  the  Royal  Commissioners, 
when  they  left  Boston,  were  accompanied  by  representatives  from  Massa- 
chusetts, and  the  Dutch  did  not  venture  to  resist  the  force  which  shortly 
afterward  appeared  before  the  little  fort  on  Manhattan  Island.  The  Dutch 
settlements  came  under  English  control ;  and  at  a  somewhat  later  period 
Boston  and  New  York  had  the  same  governor. 

Both  the  colony  of  New  Haven  and  the  colony  of  Connecticut  were  set- 
tled in  part  from  Massachusetts,  and  their  relations  with  Boston  were 
always  more  or  less  intimate ;  but  these  relations,  on  one  occasion,  at  least, 

1  Mass.  Col.  Records,  ii.  29.  4  Ibid.  p.  197. 

2  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  i.  138.  5  Ibid.  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  120. 

3  Mass.  Col.  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  pp.  120,          6  Ibid.  p.  121.     [See  Mr.  Deane's  chapter  in 
121.  the  present  volume.  —  ED.] 


BOSTON   AND   THE   NEIGHBORING  JURISDICTIONS.  281 

were  subject  to  colonial  regulations  which  operated  to  the  disadvantage  of 
Boston,  though  for  the  general  interest  of  the  colony.  In  May,  1649,  the 
General  Court  established  retaliatory  duties  on  "all  goods  belonging  or 
appertaining  to  any  inhabitant  of  the  jurisdictions  of  Plymouth,  Connecti- 
cut, or  New  Haven,"  imported  into  Boston  or  exported  from  any  part  of  the 
bay.1  The  occasion  of  the  passage  of  this  order  was  the  approval  by  the 
Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  of  a  duty  on  all  corn  or  beaver  skins 
belonging  to  the  inhabitants  of  Springfield,  which  should  pass  the  mouth 
of  the  Connecticut  River.  This  duty  was  to  be  applied  to  the  upholding  of 
the  fort  at  Saybrook,  and  not  to  be  "continued  longer  than  the  fort  in  ques- 
tion is  maintained,  and  the  passage  as  at  present  thereby  secured."2  Massa- 
chusetts, not  unreasonably,  objected  that  the  fort  was  of  little  or  no  use  for 
the  purpose  intended,  and  that  the  duty  was  continued  after  the  fort  was 
burned  down.3  The  passage  of  the  retaliatory  order  must,  however,  have 
seriously  affected  the  trade  of  Boston;  and  at  the  session  in  May,  1650,  in 
answer  to  a  petition  from  the  inhabitants  of  Boston  for  its  repeal,  the  Court 
passed  an  order  setting  forth  that  "the  Court  (being  credibly  informed  that 
the  Court  at  Connecticut  will,  for  the  present,  suspend  the  taking  of  any 
custom  of  us,  and  at  their  next  General  Court  intend  to  repeal  their  order 
that  requires  it)  do  hereby  order  the  suspension  of  that  law  of  ours  that 
requires  any  custom  of  the  other  confederate  colonies  until  they  shall  know 
that  Connecticut  do  take  custom  of  us."4 

This  was  the  only  instance  in  which  Massachusetts  levied  retaliatory 
duties  on  trade  with  the  other  English  colonies,  and  it  is  the  only  instance 
in  which  Boston  appears  to  have  made  special  complaint.  There  were, 
indeed,  numerous  colonial  regulations  affecting  trade;  but  they  were  almost 
without  exception  based  on  obvious  reasons  of  expediency,  or  concerned 
the  other  towns  in  the  colony  quite  as  much  as  they  did  Boston.  For  in- 
stance, in  March,  1634-35,  the  Court  passed  an  order  forbidding  any  person 
to  go  on  board  of  any  ship,  without  leave  of  one  of  the  Assistants,  until  she 
had  lain  at  anchor  at  Nantasket,  or  within  some  inhabited  harbor,  for  twenty- 
four  hours,  under  penalty  of  "confiscation  of  all  his  estate,  and  such  further 
punishment  as  the  Court  shall  think  meet  to  inflict."5  At  the  same  session 
it  was  ordered  "that  no  person  whatsoever,  either  people  of  this  jurisdiction 
or  strangers,  shall  buy  any  commodity  of  any  ship  or  other  vessel  that  comes 
into  this  jurisdiction  without  license  from  the  governor  for  the  time  being, 
under  the  penalty  of  confiscation  of  such  goods  as  shall  be  so  bought,  or  the 
value  of  them." 6  The  first  of  these  orders  was  repealed  in  the  following 
September;7  and  the  other  in  May,  i636.8  In  November,  1655,  the  General 

1  Mass.  Col.  Records,  ii.  269.  become  the  minister  of  the  First  Church;  but 

2  Plymouth  Col.  Records,  ix.  93.  the  account  of  that  important  controversy  be- 
8  Ibid.  pp.  90,  133.  longs  to  another  chapter  of  this  history.     [See 
*  Mass.  Col.  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  p.  11.  It     Mr.  Foote's  chapter.  —  ED.] 

should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  formation  of  5  Mass.  Col.  Records,  i.  136. 

the  third  church  in  Boston,  known  to  us  as  the  6  Ibid.  p.  141. 

Old  South,  was  owing  to  the  invitation  extended  ?  Ibid.  pp.  159,  160. 

to  the  Rev.  John  Davenport  of  New  Haven  to  8  Ibid.  p.  174. 
VOL.  I.  —  36. 


282  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

Court,  taking  into  "  serious  consideration  the  great  necessity  of  upholding 
the  staple  commodities  of  this  country  for  the  supply  and  support  of  the 
inhabitants  thereof,"  absolutely  prohibited  the  importation  of  malt,  wheat, 
barley,  biscuit,  beef,  meal,  and  flour  into  the  colony  from  any  part  of 
Europe,  under  penalty  of  confiscation.1 

From  the  circumstances  under  which  Rhode  Island  was  settled,  and  the 
distrust  with  which  that  colony  was  regarded  by  her  neighbors,  Boston  had 
much  less  intercourse  with  the  inhabitants  of  that  jurisdiction  than  with  the 
other  colonies ;  but  an  account  of  the  relations  of  Massachusetts  and  Rhode 
Island  does  not  properly  fall  within  the  scope  of  this  chapter.2  Roger  Wil- 
liams was  a  resident  of  Salem  when  he  had  leave  to  depart  out  of  this  juris- 
diction ;  and  the  dealings  with  Gorton's  followers,  which  have  been  made 
the  ground  for  much  reproach,  were  in  exact  conformity  with  the  orders  of 
the  colonial  authorities  or  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies. 
With  the  settlements  in  New  Hampshire  and  Maine  Boston  had  more  fre- 
quent relations;  and  it  was  to  New  Hampshire  that  Wheelwright  and  many 
of  his  followers  betook  themselves  when  they  also  had  license  to  remove 
themselves  and  their  families  out  of  Massachusetts.  But  both  New  Hamp- 
shire and  Maine  were,  during  a  part  of  the  colonial  period,  under  the  juris- 
diction of  Massachusetts ;  and  everything  relating  to  them  belongs  to  the 
history  of  the  colony  rather  than  to  the  history  of  the  town. 

With  the  French  colonies  Boston  had  so  frequent  and  various  relations 
that  the  whole  colony  came  to  be  known  as  the  colony  of  Boston,  or  Bas- 
ton,  as  the  name  was  commonly  written ;  3  and  the  inhabitants  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  even  of  the  other  colonies,  were  designated  as  Boston  men,  or 
"  Bostonnais."  Schemes  for  its  capture  more  than  once  formed  part  of  the 
ambitious  designs  of  the  French  chiefs  at  Quebec.4  It  was  probably  to 
these,  schemes  that  we  owe  at  least  two  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  early 
maps  of  Boston.5 

Indeed,  the  relations  of  Boston  and  of  Massachusetts  to  the  quarrels  of 
two  rival  French  governors  of  Acadia  (La  Tour  and  D'Aulnay)  form  one  of 
the  most  curious  and  interesting  episodes  in  the  early  history  of  the  town  and 
of  the  colony.6  The  questions  growing  out  of  the  rivalry  of  these  ambitious 
and  unscrupulous  men  fill  a  large  space  in  our  colonial  annals;  but,  as  they 
are  questions  which  originated  in  the  desire  of  the  Boston  merchants  to 
increase  the  foreign  trade  of  the  town,  they  may  very  properly  be  treated 

1  Mass.  Col.  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  p.  246.  4  Parkman,  France  and  England  in  North 

-  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  however,  that  in  America,  pt.  v.  pp.  382-384. 

the    Winthrop    Papers,  in   4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  &  Franquelin's  map  of  1693,  of  which  a  helio- 

vol.   vi.,   there   are    thirty-nine    friendly  letters  type  reproduction  has  recently  been  prepared 

from  Roger  Williams  to  the  elder  Winthrop,  for  the  Trustees  of  the  Boston  Public  Library, 

written  after  Williams  settled  at  Providence.  and  his  map  of  1697,  both  of  which  are  repro- 

8  [This  form,  Baston,  simply  preserved  the  duced  in  this  volume. 

broad  French  sound  (Bawston)  as  their  equiva-  '3  The  names  of  these    rivals  are  variously 

lent   of   the   colloquial    English    pronunciation,  written    in    the    contemporaneous    documents. 

The  Canadians  towards  the   Pacific  coast  and  Winthrop  frequently  wrote  D'Aulney;  but  the 

the  Indians  of  that  region  call  Americans  Bos-  weight  of  authority  is  in  favor  of  the  spelling 

tons  to  this  day.  —  ED.]  here  adopted. 


BOSTON    AND   THE    NEIGHBORING   JURISDICTIONS.  283 

here  at  some  length.  In  the  discussion  of  them,  party  lines  were  for  the 
first  time  drawn  between  town  and  country.  The  course  which  the  colonial 
government  followed  was  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  and  with  the  appro- 
val of  the  people  of  Boston,  while  the  remonstrances  came  from  Ipswich 
and  Salem  and  other  places  which  could  expect  to  derive  little  benefit  from 
an  increased  trade  with  the  French  colonies.  "  I  must  needs  say  that  I  fear 
we  shall  have  little  comfort  in  having  anything  to  do  with  these  idolatrous 
French,"  Endicott  wrote  to  Winthrop,  in  June,  1643. 1  ^n  saying  this,  he 
only  expressed  an  opinion  very  generally  entertained  away  from  Boston. 
Here  the  drift  of  opinion  was  naturally  in  the  opposite  direction. 

By  the  treaty  of  St.  Germains,  concluded  between  France  and  England 
March  29,  1632,  the  whole  of  the  French  territory  in  America  which  had 
been  conquered  by  England  was  restored  to  the  former  country;  and  shortly 
afterward  the  Chevalier  Rasilli  was  appointed  by  the  King  of  France  to  the 
chief  command  in  Acadia.  The  new  governor  designated  as  his  lieutenants 
Charles  de  la  Tour  for  the  portion  east  of  the  St.  Croix,  and  Charles  de 
Menou,  Sieur  d'Aulnay-Charnise,  for  the  portion  to  the  westward  as  far  as 
the  French  claim  extended.2  The  latter  is  said  to  have  been  "  a  zealous  and 
efficient  supporter  of  the  Romish  Church;"3  but  "La  Tour  pretended  to  be 
a  Huguenot,  or  at  least  to  think  favorably  of  that  religion."4  A  belief  that 
La  Tour  sympathized  with  their  religious  opinions  no  doubt  had  weight 
with  the  colonial  authorities  in  determining  the  policy  to  be  pursued  with 
regard  to  the  rivals ;  but  it  seems  more  than  probable  that  he  cared  very 
little  about  what  he  professed  to  believe.  He  was  so  cautious,  or  so  indiffer- 
ent to  political  obligations,  that  he  obtained  grants  from  Sir  William  Alex- 
ander, who  derived  his  title  from  James  I.,  and  also  from  the  French  gov- 
ernment.5 The  first  appearance  of  either  of  the  rivals  in  our  history  is  in 
November  or  December,  1633,  when  Winthrop  writes  that  news  came  of 
the  taking  of  Machias  by  the  French :  "  Mr.  Allerton,  of  Plymouth,  and 
some  others  had  set  up  a  trading  wigwam  there,  and  left  in  it  five  men  and 
store  of  commodities.  La  Tour,  governor  of  the  French  in  those  parts, 
making  claim  to  the  place,  came  to  displant  them,  and,  finding  resistance, 
killed  two  of  the  men  and  carried  away  the  other  three  and  the  goods."6 
The  first  appearance  of  the  name  of  D'Aulnay,  nearly  two  years  later,  is 
accompanied  by  equally  unpleasant  circumstances.  In  the  summer  of  1635 
he  seized  the  Plymouth  trading-house  at  Penobscot,  and  sent  the  traders 
home  with  many  fair  promises,  but  without  making  payment  for  the  prop- 
erty he  had  taken.  This  greatly  excited  the  Plymouth  colony,  —  "  so  as 
they  resolved  to  consult  with  their  friends  in  the  bay,"  says  Bradford;  "and, 
if  they  approved  of  it  (there  being  now  many  ships  there),  they  intended  to 

1  Hutchinson,  Coll.  of  Original  Papers,  113.  6  ITutchinson,   Hist,   of  Mass.   Bay,   p.    127. 

2  Hutchinson,  Hist,  of  Mast.  Bay,  p.  128.  See   also  Slafter's  Sir  William   Alexander  and 
8  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vii.  90.                                    American  Colonization,  pp.  73-80. 

4  Hutchinson,  Hist,  of  Mass.  Bay,  p.  132.    See  6  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  \.  117. 

also  a  letter  from  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  in  4  Mass.     See  also  Bradford's  Plymouth  Plantation,  in  4 
Hist.  Coll.,  vi.  519.  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  iii.  292. 


284  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

hire  a  ship  of  force,  and  seek  to  beat  out  the  French,  and  recover  it  again."  l 
The  Massachusetts  authorities  sympathized  cordially  with  the  proposed 
movement,  but  they  were  unwilling  to  bear  the  cost  of  an  expedition  mainly 
designed  for  the  benefit  of  Plymouth.  However,  at  the  September  session 
of  the  General  Court  it  was  "  agreed  that  Plymouth  shall  be  aided  with  men 
and  munition  to  supplant  the  French  at  Penobscot."2  At  the  same  session 
it  was  further  agreed  that  the  commissioners  for  martial  discipline  "  shall 
have  full  power  to  assist  our  neighbors  at  Plymouth  for  the  supplanting  of 
the  French  at  Penobscot  or  elsewhere,  in  any  other  business  of  that  nature 
that  maybe  occasioned  thereby."3  It  was  probably  after  the  passage  of 
these  votes  that  the  Plymouth  people  entered  into  an  agreement  with  one 
Girling,  the  master  of  the  "Great  Hope,"  —  a  well-armed  ship  of  above 
three  hundred  tons,  —  "  that  he  and  his  company  should  deliver  them  the 
house  (after  they  had  driven  out  or  surprised  the  French),  and  give  them 
peaceable  possession  thereof,  and  of  all  such  trading  commodities  as  should 
there  be  found,  and  give  the  French  fair  quarter  and  usage,  if  they  would 
yield."  4  With  him  they  sent  their  own  bark,  with  twenty  men  under  the 
command  of  Captain  Miles  Standish,  to  aid  in  the  capture  of  the  place,  if 
necessary,  and  "  to  order  things  if  the  house  was  regained."  But  the  expe- 
dition failed,  through  the  incompetence  or  bad  faith  of  Girling;  and,  upon 
its  failure,  a  second  application  was  made  to  Massachusetts. 

On  receiving  this  new  application,  the  Governor  and  Assistants  re- 
quested Plymouth  to  send  commissioners  to  Boston,  with  full  authority  to 
treat  of  the  whole  subject.  Accordingly,  Thomas  Prence,  who  had  been 
governor  of  the  colony  the  year  before,  and  Captain  Standish  were  em- 
powered to  conclude  an  arrangement  for  the  further  prosecution  of  the 
enterprise.  When  they  met,  however,  says  Winthrop,  the  Plymouth  com- 
missioners "  refused  to  deal  further  in  it  otherwise  than  as  a  common  cause 
of  the  whole  country,  and  so  to  contribute  their  part.  We  refused  to  deal 
in  it  otherwise  than  as  in  their  aid,  and  so  at  their  charge;  for  indeed  we 
had  then  no  money  in  the  treasury,  neither  could  we  get  provision  of 
victuals,  on  the  sudden,  for  one  hundred  men,  which  were  to  be  em- 
ployed." 5  The  expedition  was  accordingly  abandoned ;  and  it  does  not 
appear  that  after  that  time  Plymouth  had  any  direct  relations  with  either 
D'Aulnay  or  La  Tour.  Unfortunately,  it  was  only  the  beginning  of  the 
relations  of  the  Massachusetts  colony  with  them. 

The  next  mention  of  D'Aulnay  is  in  connection  with  circumstances  of  a 
more  friendly  character,  though  they  were  afterward  made  ground  of  com- 
plaint. Writing  only  a  few  weeks  later,  —  in  November,  1635,  —  Winthrop 
records  that  "  the  pinnace  which  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  sent  to  take  pos- 
session of  a  great  quantity  of  land  at  Connecticut  was,  in  her  return 
into  England,  cast  away  upon  the  Isle  Sable.  The  men  were  kindly  enter- 

1  4  Mass,  ffist.  Coll.,  iii.  333.  4  Bradford,  Plymouth  Plantation,  in  4  Mass. 

2  Kfass.  Col.  Kecords,  i.  160.  Hist.  Coll.,  iii.  333. 

8  Ibid.  p.  161.  *  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  \.  169. 


BOSTON    AND    THE    NEIGHBORING   JURISDICTIONS.  285 

tained  by  the  French  there,  and  had  passage  to  La  Have,  some  twenty 
leagues  east  of  Cape  Sable,  where  Monsieur,  commander  of  Roselle,  was 
governor,  who  entertained  them  very  courteously,  and  furnished  them  with  a 
shallop  to  return  to  us,  and  gave  four  of  their  company  passage  into  France, 
but  made  them  pay  dear  for  their  shallop ;  and  in  their  return  they  put  into 
Penobscot,  at  such  time  as  Girling's  ship  lay  there ;  so  that  they  were  kept 
prisoners  there  till  the  ship  was  gone,  and  then  sent  to  us  with  a  courteous 
letter  to  our  governor.  A  little  before,  our  governor 
had  written  to  him  (viz.,  Mons.  D'Aulnay)  to  send 
them  home  to  us,  but  they  were  come  before."  l  In  the 
letter,  however,  of  the  Governor  and  Council  to  D'Aulnay  in  1643,  "your 
taking  of  the  goods  of  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  knight,  and  the  imprisoning 
of  his  men,  who  suffered  shipwreck  upon  the  Isle  of  Sables  eight  years 
past,"  are  mentioned  first  among  "the  particulars  wherein  we  conceive  our- 
selves, friends,  and  confederates  to  be  by  you  injured,  and  for  the  which  we 
never  yet  received  satisfaction."  2 

Nothing  of  importance  seems  to  have  occurred  during  the  next  few 
years;  but  in  November,  1641,  La  Tour  sent  one  of  his  people  —  a 
Protestant  from  Rochelle,  named  Rochett  —  to  conclude  a  treaty  of  com- 
merce and  alliance  with  the  Massachusetts  colony.  The  authorities  were 
willing  to  grant  liberty  of  commerce ;  but  they  declined  to  furnish  aid  to 
La  Tour  in  his  war  against  D'Aulnay,  or  to  allow  him  to  bring  goods  out  of 
England  by  our  merchants,  on  the  ground  that  the  envoy  had  no  proper 
credentials.3  In  the  following  year  another  embassy  came,  with  a  new  re- 
quest for  assistance  against  D'Aulnay,  and  remained  about  a  week,  leaving  a 
very  favorable  impression  behind  them.  "  Though  they  were  Papists,"  says 
Winthrop,  "  yet  they  came  to  our  church  meeting ;  and  the  lieutenant  seemed 
to  be  much  affected  to  find  things  as  he  did,  and  professed  he  never  saw  so 
good  order  in  any  place.  One  of  the  elders  gave  him  a  French  Testament 
with  Marlorat's  notes,  which  he  kindly  accepted,  and  promised  to  read  it."  4 
In  June,  1643,  La  Tour  himself  made  a  visit  to  Boston,  in  a  ship  from 
Rochelle,  —  the  master  and  crew  of  which  were  Protestants,  but  having  as 
passengers  two  friars  and  two  women  sent  from  France  to  wait  on  Madame 
La  Tour.  On  the  arrival  of  the  vessel  a  curious  incident  occurred,  which 
gives  a  very  vivid  idea  of  the  life  of  the  town  at  that  time  and  of  its  de- 
fenceless condition.  The  wife  of  Captain  Gibbons,  with  her  children,  was 
going  down  the  harbor  to  visit  her  husband's  farm  at  Pullen  Point,  when 
she  was  recognized  by  one  of  the  gentlemen  on  La  Tour's  vessel,  who  knew 
her.  Thereupon,  La  Tour  manned  his  shallop  to  go  and  speak  with  her. 
Mrs.  Gibbons,  on  seeing  so  many  foreigners  approach,  was  alarmed,  and 
hastened  to  land  at  the  governor's  garden,  now  the  site  of  Fort  Winthrop. 
Here  she  found  the  governor  and  his  wife  and  two  sons  and  his  son's  wife. 
Presently  La  Tour  landed,  and,  after  saluting  the  governor,  told  him  the 

1  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  i.  171.          3  Wihthrop,  Hist  of  New  England,  ii.  42,  43. 

2  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vii.  101.  4  Ibid.  p.  88. 


286  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

cause  of  his  coming,  —  that  this  ship  had  been  sent  to  him  from  France,  but 
his  old  enemy,  D'Aulnay,  had  blockaded  the  river  at  St.  John's,  so  that  she 
could  not  get  in.  He  had  accordingly  slipped  out  of  the  river  in  a  shallop 
by  night,  and  had  come  to  ask  help  from  Massachusetts.  After  supper,  the 
governor  went  up  to  the  town  in  La  Tour's  boat,  —  having  previously  sent 
Mrs.  Gibbons  home  in  his  own  boat.  In  the  mean  time  news  of  the  arri- 
val of  a  strange  ship  had  spread  through  Boston  and  Charlestown ;  and 
"  the  towns  betook  them  to  their  arms,  and  three  shallops  with  armed  men 
came  forth  to  meet  the  governor  and  to  guard  him  home.  But  here  the  Lord 
gave  us  occasion  to  take  notice  of  our  weakness,  &c.,"  says  Winthrop  ;  "  for 
if  La  Tour  had  been  ill-minded  towards  <us,  he  had  such  an  opportunity  as 
we  hope  neither  he  nor  any  other  shall  ever  have  the  like  again ;  for  com- 
ing by  our  castle  and  saluting  it,  there  was  none  to  answer  him,  for  the  last 
Court  had  given  order  to  have  the  Castle  Island  deserted,  —  a  great  part  of 
the  work  being  fallen  down,  &c.,  —  so  as  he  might  have  taken  all  the  ord- 
nance there.  Then,  having  the  governor  and  his  family  and  Captain  Gib- 
bons's  wife,  &c.,  in  his  power,  he  might  have  gone  and  spoiled  Boston ;  and 
having  so  many  men  ready,  they  might  have  taken  two  ships  in  the  harbor, 
and  gone  away  without  danger  or  resistance ;  but  his  neglecting  this  oppor- 
tunity gave  us  assurance  of  his  true  meaning."  1 

On  landing,  La  Tour  was  escorted  by  the  governor  and  a  guard  to  his 
lodgings  at  the  house  of  Captain  Gibbons.  The  next 
day  the  governor  called  together  all  the  magistrates 
whom  he  was  able  to  notify,  to  consider  any  proposals 
which  La  Tour  might  submit.  The  latter  was  present  with  the  master  of 
the  vessel,  who  exhibited  a  commission  from  the  Vice-Admiral  of  France, 
authorizing  him  to  convey  supplies  to  La  Tour,  his  Majesty's  Lieutenant  of 
Acadia.  A  letter  from  the  agent  of  the  French  company  for  the  coloniza- 
tion of  Acadia  was  also  shown,  in  which  La  Tour  was  addressed  as  Lieu- 
tenant-General,  and  informed  of  the  injurious  practices  of  D'Aulnay. 
These  documents  satisfied  the  magistrates  that  La  Tour  was  not  a  rebel,  as 
D'Aulnay  had  called  him  in  a  letter  to  the  governor  the  year  before,  and 
that  he  was  in  good  standing  at  the  court  of  France.  The  colonial  authori- 
ties did  not  feel  at  liberty,  however,  to  aid  him  directly,  without  the  advice 
of  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  ;  but  they  readily  granted  him 
permission  to  hire  any  vessels  in  the  harbor.  His  men  were  also  allowed  to 
come  on  shore  to  refresh  themselves,  "  so  they  landed  in  small  companies, 
that  our  women,  &c.,  might  not  be  affrighted  by  them."  2  The  next  week, 
the  training-day  occurred  at  Boston  ;  and  La  Tour,  having  expressed  a  wish 
to  exercise  his  men  on  shore,  was  allowed  on  that  occasion  to  land  forty 
men.  They  were  escorted  to  the  field  by  the  Boston  company,  which  num- 
bered one  hundred  and  fifty  men.  After  the  exercises  were  over,  La  Tour 

1  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  Nciv  England,  ii.    107.     cords,   as   cited  in  Shurtleff's   Dcsc.   of  Boston, 
[This  incident  prompted  the  authorities  to  re-     pp.  482-84.     See  Mr.  Bynner's  chapter.  —  ED.] 
pair   the   fortifications  on  the  island.      Cf.  Re-  2  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii.  108. 


BOSTON    AND   THE   NEIGHBORING   JURISDICTIONS.  287 

and  his  officers  were  invited  home  to  dinner  by  the  Boston  officers,  and  his 
soldiers  by  the  Boston  soldiers.  In  the  afternoon  the  Frenchmen  went 
through  a  variety  of  military  movements  in  the  presence  of  the  governor 
and  magistrates,  who  were  much  interested  in  what  they  saw.  La  Tour 
remained  in  Boston  for  about  a  month.  "  Our  governor  and  others  in  the 
town,"  says  Winthrop,  "  entertained  La  Tour  and  his  gentlemen  with  much 
courtesy,  both  in  their  houses  and  at  table.  La  Tour  came  duly  to  our 
church  meetings,  and  always  accompanied  the  governor  to  and  from  thence, 
who,  all  the  time  of  his  abode  here,  was  attended  with  a  good  guard  of 
halberts  and  musketeers."  l 

Meanwhile,  the  reports  of  what  had  been  done  in  Boston  created  a  lively 
excitement  in  the  other  towns  of  the  colony ;  and  one  minister,  whose  name 
has  not  come  down  to  us,  but  who  is  vouched  for  as  "judicious,"  when  he 
heard  that  the  strangers  were  to  go  through  their  military  exercises  on 
shore,  predicted  that  before  the  day  was  ended  much  blood  would  be 
spilled  in  Boston.  Letters  poured  in  on  the  governor,  —  some  setting  be- 
fore him  "  great  dangers,  others  charging  sin  upon  the  conscience  in  all 
these  proceedings."  Accordingly,  he  wrote  and  circulated  at  least  two 
answers  to  these  complaints.2  For  further  satisfaction,  another  meeting  of 
the  neighboring  magistrates,  deputies,  and  elders  was  held,  at  which  two 
questions  were  discussed:  "(i)  Whether  it  were  lawful  for  Christians  to  aid 
idolaters,  and  how  far  we  may  hold  communion  with  them?  (2)  Whether  it 
were  safe  for  our  state  to  suffer  him  to  have  aid  from  us  against  D'Aulnay?  " 
The  arguments  on  the  one  side  and  the  other  extend  over  several  pages  of 
Winthrop's  journal,  and  are  in  a  large  part  derived  from  Old  Testament  pre- 
cedents about  Jehoshaphat  and  Ahab  and  Ahaziah  and  Josias,  and  the  King 
of  Babylon,  and  Pharaoh  Necho,  and  Solomon,  and  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  and 
other  precedents  of  a  similar  character,  the  relevancy  of  which  is  not  very 
apparent.  The  final  issue  was  that  the  line  of  policy  previously  marked  out 
remained  unchanged.  The  colony  gave  no  direct  aid  to  La  Tour ;  but  he 
was  allowed  to  make  any  arrangements  that  he  could  with  the  inhabitants  of 
Boston  and  the  masters  of  the  vessels  in  the  harbor.  On  the  1/j.th  of  July 
he  left  Boston,  —  "  the  governor  and  divers  of  the  chief  of  the  town  accom- 
panying him  to  his  boat.  There  went  with  him  four  of  our  ships  and  a  pin- 
nace. He  hired  them  for  two  months,  —  the  chiefest,  which  had  sixteen 
pieces  of  ordnance,  at  two  hundred  pounds  the  month  (yet  she  was  of  but 
one  hundred  tons,  but  very  well-manned  and  fitted  for  fight),  and  the  rest 
proportionable.  The  owners  took  only  his  own  security  for  their  pay.  He 
entertained  also  about  seventy  land  soldiers,  volunteers,  at  40$.  per  month  a 
man;  but  he  paid  them  somewhat  in  hand."3 

1  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii.  109.  and  part-owners  of  the  ship  "  Seabridge,"  ship 

2  For  one  of  these  letters  see  Hutchinson,  "  Philip  and  Mary,"  ship  "  Increase,"  and  ship 
Coll.  of  Original  Papers,  pp.  121-132.  "Greyhound,"  for  this  expedition,  dated  June  30, 

3  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii.  127.  1643,  's  recorded   in    the    Suffolk    Registry  of 
The  contract  between   La   Tour   and   Captain  Deeds,  and  is  printed  in  Hazard's  Historical  Col- 
Edward  Gibbons  and  Thomas  Hawkins,  masters  lections,  \.  499-502. 


288  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

The  sudden  appearance  of  La  Tour's  fleet  in  the  eastern  waters  was  a 
surprise  to  his  rival,  who,  on  seeing  them,  attempted  to  escape  to  the  west- 
ward with  two  ships  and  a  pinnace.  Being  closely  pursued,  D'Aulnay  ran  his 
vessels  ashore,  and  began  to  fortify  himself;  on  which  a  messenger  was  sent 
to  him  with  letters  from  the  governor  of  the  Massachusetts  colony  and 
Captain  Hawkins.  The  messenger  was  led  blindfold  into  the  presence  of 
D'Aulnay,  who  showed  him  the  original  decree  against  La  Tour,  and  sent  a 
copy  of  it  to  the  governor ;  but  he  would  not  make  peace  with  La  Tour.  The 
latter  then  endeavored  to  persuade  our  men  to  attack  D'Aulnay,  which  they 
declined  to  do ;  but  with  Hawkins's  consent  about  thirty  volunteers  joined 
La  Tour's  men  in  an  attack  on  a  fortified  mill  belonging  to  his  rival,  which 
was  taken  and  set  on  fire.  Some  standing  corn  was  also  burned ;  one  pris- 
oner was  taken  and  carried  on  board  the  vessels,  and  three  Frenchmen  on 
each  side  were  killed.  About  the  same  time  our  ships  captured  D'Aulnay's 
pinnace,  with  four  hundred  moose  skins  and  four  hundred  beaver  skins. 
These  they  divided,  —  one-third  and  the  pinnace  to  La  Tour,  one-third  to 
the  ships,  and  the  remainder  to  the  men.  After  this,  nothing  more  was 
done ;  and  at  the  expiration  of  the  time  for  which  they  were  chartered  the 
ships  returned  to  Boston.  The  pinnace,  before  leaving  for  home,  went  up 
the  river  some  twenty  leagues,  and  loaded  with  coal ;  and  her  men  also 
procured  a  piece  of  limestone,  —  possibly  the  first  coal  and  limestone 
brought  into  Boston  from  that  part  of  Nova  Scotia  now  called  New 
Brunswick.1 

In  the  following  summer  La  Tour  came  again  to  Boston  to  obtain  further 
assistance.  On  hearing  his  statement,  most  of  the  magistrates  and  some  of 
the  elders  were  in  favor  of  helping  him,  partly  as  an  act  of  charity  toward 
a  neighbor  in  distress,  and  partly  in  the  hope  of  weakening  his  rival,  whom 

they  regarded  as  an  enemy,  or,  at  least, 
a  dangerous  neighbor.  But  as  three 
or  four  of  the  magistrates  dissented, 
and  many  of  the  elders  were  absent,  it  was  determined  to  have  another 
meeting  at  Salem,  at  which  the  rest  of  the  elders  should  be  invited  to  be 
present.  After  much  discussion,  it  was  found  to  be  impossible  to  obtain  a 
full  consent  to  the  taking  of  active  measures  in  behalf  of  La  Tour;  but  all 
agreed  that  a  warning  should  be  sent  to  D'Aulnay.2  Accordingly  a  letter 
was  drawn  up,  setting  forth  that  an  application  had  been  made  to  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Council  by  La  Tour  for  assistance  of  men  and  ammunition,  which 
had  given  them  occasion  to  consider  what  were  their  own  relations  with  him, 
and  to  take  notice  of  the  many  injuries  already  suffered  from  him,  and  espe- 
cially of  certain  commissions  lately  issued  to  take  their  vessels  and  goods. 
As  for  the  operations  of  the  last  year,  it  was  declared,  in  order  that  the 

1  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii.  134,  the  charge  and  take  the  coals;  if  they  get  not 

135.     About  four  years  earlier  than  this  date  coals,  the  country  to  bear  the  charge."     (Mass. 

the   General   Court   passed   an   order   "that   a  Col.  Records,  i.  253.)     Winthrop  makes  no  refer- 

shallop  should  be  sent  to  the  eastward  to  get  ence  to  this  voyage, 
coals,  which  if  they  get,  the  smiths  are  to  bear          2  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii.  179, 180. 


BOSTON    AND   THE   NEIGHBORING   JURISDICTIONS.  289 

doings  of  the  colonial  authorities  might  not  be  misconstrued,  that  the  men 
hired  by  La  Tour  "  did  not  act  either  by  command,  counsel,  or  commission 
of  the  government  here  established;  they  went  as  volunteers."  If  any  un- 
lawful action  was  committed  at  that  time,  the  Colony  would  be  ready  to 
render  satisfaction;  "for  as  we  are  not  willing  to  bear  injuries  whilst  we 
have  in  our  hands  to  right  ourselves,  we  ever  desire  to  be  conscientiously 
careful  not  to  offer  any  ourselves,  nor  to  approve  of  it  in  any  of  ours." 
Satisfaction  was  then  demanded  for  the  taking  of  the  goods  of  Sir  Richard 
Saltonstall  and  the  imprisoning  of  his  men ;  for  the  taking  of  Penobscot 
from  the  Plymouth  people ;  for  the  refusal  of  permission  for  our  vessels  to 
trade  at  Port  Royal,  under  a  threat  of  capture  if  they  should  go  beyond 
Pcmtagoiett;  and  for  the  granting  of  the  commissions  mentioned  in  the 
beginning  of  the  letter,  —  "that  so  we  may  understand  how  you  are  at 
present  disposed,  whether  to  war  or  peace."  It  was  then  declared  that  the 
Colony  had  not  complied  with  La  Tour's  request,  "  but,  on  the  contrary, 
upon  this  occasion  we  have  expressly  prohibited  all  our  people  to  exercise 
any  act  of  hostility,  either  by  sea  or  land,  against  you,  unless  it  be  in  their 
own  defence,  until  such  time  as  they  shall  have  further  commission."  Finally 
the  Governor  and  Council  plainly  intimated  to  him  their  intention  to  protect 
any  of  their  merchants  who  should  continue  to  trade  with  La  Tour.1  About 
the  same  time  Governor  Edward  Winslow,  of  Plymouth,  assigned  to  John 
Winthrop,  Jr.,  Edward  Gibbons,  and  Thomas  Hawkins  all  the  rights  of  the 
Plymouth  people  growing  out  of  their  former  possession  of  "  Matche- 
biguatus,  in  Penobscot,"  with  full  power  to  recover  the  same  by  force  of 
arms  or  otherwise.  But  whatever  may  have  been  the  intention  of  the 
grantees  or  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony  in  obtaining  this  assignment,  it 
does  not  appear  that  anything  was  done  under  it,  or  that  it  was  ever  used 
in  any  way.2 

Having  failed  of  success  in  his  main  effort,  La  Tour  left  Boston  in  the 
early  part  of  September;  and,  as  it  was  the  ordinary  training-day,  the  Gov- 
ernor and  many  other  persons  accompanied  him  to  his  boat,  under  the 
escort  of  all  the  train-bands  in  the  town.  About  ten  days  after  his  depar- 
ture Madame  La  Tour  arrived  here  in  a  ship  from  London.  She  had  been 
about  six  months  on  the  voyage,  and  had  narrowly  escaped  capture  by 
D'Aulnay  off  Cape  Sable.  By  the  same  vessel  the  latter  wrote  to  the 
Deputy-Governor  that  the  King  of  France  had  learned  that  the  aid  given 
to  La  Tour  was  in  consequence  of  the  commission  from  the  Vice- Admiral 
of  France,  which  had  been  shown  in  Boston.  The  King  had  accordingly 
given  instructions  that  peace  should  be  maintained  with  the  English.  These 
instructions  the  writer  intended  to  obey,  so  far  as  it  was  possible  to  do  so ; 
and  he  added  that  he  should  send  a  messenger  to  Boston  to  treat  of  the 
matters  of  difference.  Shortly  after  her  arrival  Madame  La  Tour  com- 
menced a  suit  against  the  master  and  the  consignee  of  the  ship  for  a  breach 

1  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vii.  99-102.  in  a  note  to  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  Neiv  England 

-  This  assignment  is  printed  by  Mr.  Savage     (ed.  1853),  "•  22O>  221- 
VOL.    I,  —  37. 


290  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

of  contract  in  not  carrying  her  to  her  port.  After  a  hearing,  which  lasted 
four  days,  the  jury  awarded  her  damages  to  the  amount  of  two  thousand 
pounds.  She  then  caused  the  arrest  of  the  master  and  the  consignee,  who 
were  obliged  to  surrender  the  portion  of  the  cargo  already  landed,  in  order 
to  secure  their  release.  Thereupon  the  master  petitioned  the  General  Court 
for  his  freight  and  wages.  As  the  majority  of  the  magistrates  were  of  the 
opinion  that  nothing  was  due,  and  the  majority  of  the  deputies  were  of  the 
opposite  opinion,  nothing  came  of  it;  and  accordingly  the  captain  brought 
an  action  before  a  jury  at  the  next  Court  of  Assistants.  On  the  trial  of  the 
issue,  whether  the  goods  were  or  were  not  held  for  the  freight,  the  jury 
found  for  the  defendant.  "  This  business,"  says  Winthrop,  "  caused  much 
trouble  and  charge  to  the  country,  and  made  some  difference  between  the 
merchants  of  Charlestown  (who  took  part  with  the  merchants  and  master 
of  the  ship)  and  the  merchants  of  Boston,  who  assisted  the  lady  (some  of 
them  being  deeply  engaged  for  La  Tour),  so  as  offers  were  made  on  both 
sides  for  an  end  between  them.  Those  of  Charlestown  offered  security 
for  the  goods,  if,  upon  a  review  within  thirteen  months,  the  judgment  were 
not  reversed,  or  the  Parliament  in  England  did  not  call  the  cause  before 
themselves.  This  last  clause  was  very  ill-taken  by  the  Court,  as  making 
way  for  appeals,  &c.,  into  England,  which  was  not  reserved  in  our  charter."1 
It  was  not  possible  for  the  parties  to  come  to  an  agreement,  and  Madame 
La  Tour  kept  possession  of  the  goods,  and  hired  three  ships  which  lay  in 
the  harbor  to  carry  her  home.  Her  opponents  also  sailed  about  the  same 
time,  in  company  with  one  of  our  own  ships.  On  the  arrival  of  the  latter 
in  London,  two  of  the  passengers  —  the  recorder  of  the  court  and  one  of 
the  jurymen  who  had  given  the  verdict  in  favor  of  Madame  La  Tour  — 
were  arrested,  and  compelled  to  find  sureties  in  a  bond  for  four  thousand 
pounds  to  answer  to  a  suit  in  the  Court  of  Admiralty.  After  much  trouble 
and  expense  they  were  released,  and  returned  home.2  They  then  petitioned 
the  General  Court  for  relief;  but  both  the  magistrates  and  deputies  voted 
that  they  knew  no  way  of  help,  except  to  certify  the  truth  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  Court  in  Boston,  which  they  were  ready  to  do.3 

In  the  mean  time,  D'Aulnay  had  sent  a  boat  with  ten  men  to  Salem, 
where  he  had  heard  the  Governor  then  lived.  Among  them  was  "  one 
Marie,  supposed  to  be  a  friar,  but  habited  like  a  gentleman."  On  finding 

1  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii.  200.  in  the  other  book."     But  Mr.  Savage  adds  in 

There  are  two  accounts  of  these  transactions  in  his     foot-note,    with     characteristic     accuracy, 

Winthrop's  History,  differing  in  some  slight  par-  "  Some  of  this  is  not  in  the  former  book."     The 

ticulars;  but  the  differences  are  of  very  little  most  important   variation   is    that   in    the   first 

importance,  except  as  showing  how  unlikely  it  account  the  captain  is  said  to  have  brought  his 

is  that  any  one  will  narrate  undoubted  facts  in  suit  in  the  Court  of  Assistants  after  his  petition 

precisely  the  same  way  in  two  distinct  accounts,  to  the  General  Court.     In  the  second  account  it 

In   the  text  I  have  followed  the  first  account,  is  said  that  the  suit  was  first  and  the  petition 

mainly  because,  in  the  original  manuscript  now  came  afterward.     This  would  seem  to  be  the 

in  the  library  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  natural  order  of  proceeding. 

Society,  Winthrop  erased  the  second  account,  2  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  Neiv  England,  ii.  248. 

and   wrote    in    the   margin :    "  This    is    before  3  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vii.  105,  106. 


BOSTON    AND   THE   NEIGHBORING  JURISDICTIONS.  2QI 

that  Boston  was  the  capital,  Marie  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Governor,  inquiring 
where  he  should  wait  on  him,  and  the  next  day  came  to  Boston  with  full 
credentials  from  D'Aulnay.  Here  he  exhibited  a  commission  from  the 
King  of  France,  under  the  Great  Seal,  with  the  Privy  Seal  annexed,  verify- 
ing the  proceedings  against  La  Tour,  and  commanding  his  arrest  and  that 
of  his  wife,  who  had  fled  from  France  against  special  order.  He  then  com- 
plained of  the  assistance  afforded  to  La  Tour  in  the  previous  year,  and 
offered  to  enter  into  a  treaty  of  peace  and  amity.  To  these  complaints  it 
was  answered  that  several  of  the  ships  and  most  of  the  men  did  not  belong 
to  the  Colony ;  that  they  had  no  commission  from  the  authorities,  and  no 
permission  to  use  hostility;  and  that  the  authorities' were  very  sorry  when 
they  heard  what  had  been  done.  With  this  he  professed  to  be  satisfied. 
To  his  proposals  for  a  treaty,  it  was  answered  that  nothing  could  be  done 
without  the  advice  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies.1  To  these 
propositions  two  others  were  added  by  him,  —  that  La  Tour  should  not  be 
aided,  and  that  D'Aulnay  should  be.  On  the  part  of  the  Colonial  Govern- 
ment strong  efforts  were  made  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation  between  the 
rivals ;  but  D'Aulnay's  agent  was  not  prepared  to  yield  anything.  If  La 
Tour  would  submit  voluntarily,  his  life  and  liberty  should  be  assured;  but 
if  he  was  taken,  he  was  sure  to  lose  his  head  in  France.  As  for  his  wife, 
her  chances  were  still  worse ;  for  "  she  was  known  to  be  the  cause  of  his 
contempt  and  rebellion,  and  therefore  they  could  not  let  her  go  to  him." 
If  she  were  sent  in  any  of  our  vessels  the  vessels  would  be  taken,  and  if 
any  goods  were  sent  to  La  Tour  they  should  be  taken,  and  no  satisfaction 
allowed  for  the  capture.  Finally  an  arrangement  was  made  within  less  than 
a  week  after  his  arrival,  drawn  up  in  Latin,  and  executed  by  the  Governor 
and  six  of  the  magistrates  in  behalf  of  the  Colony,  and  by  M.  Marie  in 
behalf  of  D'Aulnay.  This  agreement,  which  bears  the  date  of  October  8, 
1644,  contains  reciprocal  promises  to  maintain  a  firm  peace,  with  a  right  to 
each  of  the  contracting  parties  to  trade  with  the  other,  and  if  any  occasion 
of  offence  should  happen,  there  should  be  no  hostile  acts  unless  an  expla- 
nation had  first  been  asked  and  satisfaction  refused.  There  were  two  pro- 
visos, —  that  the  Massachusetts  Government  should  not  be  obliged  to  restrain 
their  merchants  from  trading  in  any  place  to  which  they  might  choose  to 
go,  or  with  any  persons,  whether  French  or  not,  with  whom  they  might  wish 
to  trade ;  and  that  these  articles  should  be  subject  to  the  confirmation  of  the 
Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies.  This  confirmation  was  not  given 
until  September  in  the  following  year.2 

The  articles  of  peace,  with  the  ratification  of  the  Commissioners,  were 
sent  to  D'Aulnay  shortly  afterward,  with  the  expression  of  a  readiness  on 
the  part  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony  to  hear  and  settle  all  complaints  for 

1  The  New  England  Confederacy  had  been  2  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii.   196, 

formed  about  a  year  and  a  half  before  the  date  197  ;  Hutchinson,  Coll.  of  Original  Papers,  pp. 

of  these  negotiations,  the  articles  of  confedera  146,147;  Acts  of  the  Commissioners  in  Plymouth 

tion  being  dated  May  19,  1643.  C°t-  Records,  ix.  56-60 


2Q2  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

injuries,  and  to  keep  the  peace  if  he  would  subscribe  to  it.  D'Aulnay 
treated  the  messenger  with  great  courtesy,  but  refused  to  sign  the  articles 
until  all  differences  had  been  composed,  and  sent  back  an  insulting  answer 
to  the  effect  that  "  our  drift  was  to  gain  time,"  and  that  "  we  should  find 
that  it  was  more  his  honor  which  he  stood  upon  than  his  benefit."  Under 
these  circumstances,  he  would  wait  until  spring  for  an  answer  to  his  com- 
plaints. On  the  receipt  of  this  message  there  was  an  animated  discussion 
in  the  General  Court,  from  which  it  appeared  that  wide  differences  of  opin- 
ion existed  as  to  the  proper  course  to  be  pursued.  It  was  finally  decided 
to  send  Deputy-Governor  Dudley,  who  was  then  upward  of  seventy  years  of 

age,  and  two  other  prominent  men  —  Mr. 

+s~)'flK  ^fis? ^^4.^  Q    Hawthorne  and  Major  Denison  —  toD'Aul- 
j"  ^y/  -^   nay>  w'tn  fuM  powers  to  treat  of  all  mat- 

^  ters  of  difference.1    As  soon  as  information 

^^  •  /  .  •  of  this  appointment  reached  the  French  Governor,  he 
~^^  ^~  *yt*tlt4tr*^  professed  to  feel  highly  honored,  and  expressed  a  wish 
to  save  the  Colony  from  trouble,  offering  to  send  two  or  three  of  his  own 
people  to  Boston  to  settle  the  matters  at  issue.2  Accordingly,  in  the  fol- 
lowing September,  —  almost  exactly  two  years  after  the  negotiation  of  the 
treaty,  —  "  being  the  Lord's  Day,  and  the  people  ready  to  go  to  the  As- 
sembly after  dinner,"  three  of  D'Aulnay's  principal  men  arrived  in  Boston. 
The  next  day  they  presented  their  credentials,  and  on  the  third  day  the 
negotiations  began.  While  here  the  messengers  were  treated  with  great 
respect.  "  Their  diet  was  provided  at  the  ordinary,"  says  Winthrop, 
"  where  the  magistrates  used  to  diet  in  court  times,  and  the  Governor 
accompanied  them  always  at  meals.  Their  manner  was  to  repair  to  the 
Governor's  house  every  morning  about  eight  of  the  clock,  who  accompanied 
them  to  the  place  of  meeting;  and  at  night  either  himself  or  some  of  the 
commissioners  accompanied  them  to  their  lodging."  At  first  their  de- 
mands were  set  pretty  high.  They  claimed  great  injuries  and  damages 
from  the  acts  of  Captain  Hawkins  and  his  men,  for  which  they  desired  to 
hold  the  Colony  responsible;  but  after  a  protracted  discussion,  in  which 
the  colonial  authorities  denied  all  responsibility  either  by  commission  or 
permission,  and  contended  that  the  treaty  of  peace  had  been  concluded 
without  any  reservation  as  to  these  matters,  the  extravagant  demands  of  the 
French  envoys  were  abandoned.  "  In  the  end  they  came  to  this  conclu- 
sion," says  Winthrop.  "  We  accepted  their  commissioners'  answer  in  satis- 
faction of  those  things  we  had  charged  upon  Monsieur  D'Aulnay,  and  they 
accepted  our  answer  for  clearing  our  government  of  what  he  had  charged 
upon  us."  It  was  agreed  that  a  small  present  should  also  be  sent  to  D'Aul- 
nay to  make  amends  for  the  acts  of  Captain  Hawkins;  and,  in  accordance 
with  this  understanding,  "  a  very  fair  new  sedan  (worth  forty  or  fifty  pounds 
where  it  was  made,  but  of  no  use  to  us),"  which  had  been  taken  in  the  West 
Indies,  and  given  to  the  Governor,  was  sent  to  D'Aulnay.3  The  agreement 

1  Winthrop,  //«/.  of  New  England,  ii.  259,  260.        2  Ibid.  pp.  266,  267.       3  Ibid.  pp.  273,  274. 


BOSTON    AND   THE    NEIGHBORING  JURISDICTIONS.  293 

was  then  signed  and  executed,  and  in  about  a  week  after  their  arrival  the 
French  Commissioners  returned  home. 

In  the  mean  time  D'Aulnay  waged  an  active  warfare  against  his  rival ; 
and  while  the  latter  was  absent  on  a  trading  voyage,  his  fort  at  St.  John's 
was  attacked  and  taken  by  assault.  Madame  La  Tour  fell  into  the  hands 
of  her  enemy,  and  died  in  less  than  three  weeks  afterward.  By  the  capture 
of  his  fort  La  Tour  lost  jewels,  plate,  furniture,  and  other  movables  valued 
by  him  at  ten  thousand  pounds,  and  was  for  a  time  rendered  utterly  help- 
less. His  debts  to  the  Boston  merchants  were  very  heavy,  and  to  one  of 
them  alone  (Major  Gibbons)  he  owed  upward  of  twenty-five  hundred 
pounds.  This  was  a  total  loss ;  and,  from  the  want  of  money  to  pay  his 
adherents,  his  men  became  scattered,  and  he  was  himself  obliged  to  seek 
shelter  in  Newfoundland.  The  Governor,  Sir  David  Kirk,  promised  him 
assistance ;  and  subsequently  he  came  to  Boston,  and  was  hospitably  enter- 
tained at  Noddle's  Island  by  Maverick.1 

In  the  midst  of  his  distress  La  Tour  was  not  without  friends  in  Boston, 
who  furnished  him  with  trading  commodities  of  the  value  of  four  hundred 
pounds  With  these  he  sailed  on  a  voyage  to  the  eastward ;  but  when  he 
reached  Cape  Sable, "  which  was  in  the  heart  of  winter,"  he  conspired  with 
the  master  and  a  part  of  the  crew,  seized  the  vessel,  and  put  the  Boston 
men  ashore.  "  Whereby  it  appeared  (as  the  Scripture  saith)  that  there 
is  no  confidence  in  an  unfaithful  or  carnal  man,"  Winthrop  sadly  writes. 
"  Though  tied  with  many  strong  bonds  of  courtesy,  &c.,  he  turned  pirate." 
Our  men  wandered  about  on  the  land  for  two  weeks,  when  they  met  some 
friendly  Indians,  who  furnished  them  with  a  shallop,  food,  and  an  Indian 
pilot,  and  at  length  they  arrived  home  in  safety.2 

D'Aulnay  reappears  only  once  more  in  our  history.  In  March,  1646-47, 
Captain  Venner  Dobson  fitted  out  a  small  vessel,  and  obtained  a  license 
from  the  colonial  authorities  to  trade  in  the  Gulf  of  Canada.  Stress  of 
weather  compelled  him  to  put  into  harbor  at  Cape  Sable.  Here  he 
traded  with  the  Indians  for  some  skins ;  and  information  of  this  fact  having 
reached  D'Aulnay,  the  latter  immediately  sent  a  party  of  men  through  the 
woods  to  put  a  stop  to  the  transactions.  Circumstances  favored  D'Aulnay's 
party,  and  through  gross  negligence  the  ship  and  cargo,  valued  at  a  thou- 
sand pounds,  were  captured.  As  a  matter  of  course  both  were  confiscated, 
and  the  men  were  sent  home  in  two  old  shallops.  The  Boston  merchants 
were  exasperated  at  this,  and  petitioned  the  General  Court  for  redress, 
proposing  to  send  out  a  good  vessel  to  make  reprisals  on  some  of  D'Aul- 
nay's vessels.  "  But  the  Court,"  says  Winthrop,  "  thought  it  not  safe  nor 
expedient  for  us  to  begin  a  war  with  the  French  ;  nor  could  we  charge  any 
manifest  wrong  upon  D'Aulnay,  seeing  we  had  told  him  that  if  ours  did  trade 
within  his  liberties,  they  should  do  it  at  their  own  peril.  And  though  we 
judged  it  an  injury  to  restrain  the  natives  and  others  from  trading,  &c.  (they 

1  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii.  238.  See  also  Hubbard,  Hist,  of  New  England,  in 
2  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vi.  497,  498.  '2  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii.  266. 


294  THE   MEMORIAL  HISTORY  OF   BOSTON. 

being  a  free  people),  yet,  it  being  a  common  practice  of  all  civil  nations,  his 
seizure  of  our  ship  would  be  accounted  lawful,  and  our  letters  of  reprisal 
unjust.  And,  besides,  there  appeared  an  overruling  Providence  in  it,  other- 
wise he  could  not  have  seized  a  ship  so  well  fitted,  nor  could  wise  men  have 
lost  her  so  foolishly."1 

In  1650  or  1651  D'Aulnay  died,  and  in  1652  his  widow  married  La  Tour.2 
By  this  marriage  he  had  several  children,  and  the  race  is  not  yet  extinct  in 
Nova  Scotia.  With  this  romantic  termination  of  a  long  rivalry,  which  had 
largely  influenced  colonial  politics,  the  names  of  D'Aulnay  and  La  Tour 
disappear  from  our  annals.  As  has  been  stated  already,  the  course  pursued 
by  the  colonial  authorities  caused  much  dissatisfaction  at  the  time.  In  the 
vigorous  protest  signed  by  the  younger  Richard  Saltonstall  and  six  others, 
in  July,  1643,  sometimes  called  the  Ipswich  letter,  the  writers  argued  with 
great  ability  against  this  course,  and  shrewdly  remarked  that  neither  D'Aul- 
nay nor  the  French  Government  was  so  weak  in  intellect  "  as  to  deem  it  no 
act  of  State,  when  upon  consultation  with  some  of  our  chief  persons,  our 
men  are  suffered,  if  not  encouraged,  to  go  forth  with  our  provision  and 
munition  "  to  help  La  Tour.  The  course  of  the  Government  was  not  im- 
properly regarded  by  the  writers  as  little  short  of  an  act  of  war ;  and  the 
grounds  of  a  war,  they  maintained,  ought  to  be  just  and  necessary.  But 
New  England  had  no  sufficient  information  to  determine  positively  as  to  the 
justice  of  the  war  in  which  the  colony  had  been  invited  to  take  part.  In 
the  next  place,  they  argued,  "  wars  ought  not  to  be  undertaken  without  the 
counsel  and  command  of  the  supreme  authority  whence  expeditions  come," 
and  in  the  then  existing  relations  of  France  and  England  there  ought  not 
to  be  any  act  of  hostility  by  the  subjects  of  one  against  the  other  without 
a  public  commission  of  State,  or  unless  it  was  in  defence  against  a  sud- 
den assault.  They  then  proposed  three  questions:  (i)  If  D'Aulnay  or 
France  should  demand  the  surrender  of  any  persons  who  went  on  the  ex- 
pedition, on  the  ground  that  they  were  enemies  or  murderers,  what  was  to  be 
done?  "(2)  If  any  of  the  parents  or  wives  shall  require  their  lives  at  our 
hands,  who  shall  answer  them?  (3)  If  any  of  their  widows  or  children  shall 
require  sustenance,  or  any  maimed  soldier  in  this  expedition  call  for  main- 
tenance, who  shall  give  it  them?  Or  if  taken  captive  and  made  slaves,  who 
shall  rescue  or  redeem  them?  "  In  the  third  place,  the  ends  of  a  war  ought 
to  be  religious ;  but  the  writers  failed  to  see  what  honor  was  intended  to 
God,  and  how  peace  was  to  be  settled  by  engaging  in  this  conflict. 
Fourthly,  there  ought  to  be  probable  ground  for  thinking  the  undertakings 
of  a  war  to  be  feasible ;  but  this  expedition  did  not  seem  so  to  the  remon- 
strants. Finally,  "according  to  Scripture  and  the  custom  of  religious  and 
ingenuous  nations"  there  ought  to  be  a  previous  summons  and  warning 
before  beginning  a  war;  the  defendant  should  have  an  opportunity  to  state 

1  \Vinthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii.  309,  Williamson,  Hist,  of  Maine,  i.  323;  Mr.  Shea's 
310.  See  also  5  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  \.  158.  notes  to  Charlevoix's  Hist,  of  New  France,  iii 

3  Sullivan,  Hist,  of  the  Dist.  of  Maine,  p.  282 ;     131,  132. 


BOSTON   AND   THE   NEIGHBORING   JURISDICTIONS.  295 

his  case,  and  there  should  be  an  offer  of  terms  of  peace,  and  instructions  to 
the  men  engaged,  —  neither  of  which  preliminaries  could  be  observed  in  this 
instance  "  without  a  professed  embarking  ourselves  in  the  action,  which,  it 
seems,  is  wholly  declined  on  our  parts."1  In  our  own  time  the  action  of 
the  colonial  authorities  has  been  criticised  by  Mr.  Savage  in  his  notes  to 
Winthrop's  History,  and  by  other  writers ;  and  it  must  be  conceded  that 
there  are  strong  grounds  for  adverse  criticism  on  the  course  pursued  by 
them.  The  distinction  which  they  attempted  to  draw  between  the  acts  of 
the  Colony  and  the  acts  of  individuals  hired  in  Boston  by  La  Tour  is  not  a 
valid  defence ;  and  the  action  of  the  Colony  in  this  particular  was  censured 
by  implication  when  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  ordered,  in 
September,  1644,  "that  no  jurisdiction  within  this  Confederation  shall  per- 
mit any  voluntaries  to  go  forth  in  a  warlike  way  against  any  people  what- 
soever, without  order  and  direction  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  several 
jurisdictions."2  But  it  should  be  observed  that  both  La  Tour  and  D'Aulnay 
claimed  to  be  acting  under  the  authority  of  the  French  Crown,  and  that 
Massachusetts  was  justified  in  treating  the  whole  matter  as  a  personal 
quarrel,  and  in  maintaining  that  nothing  which  she  did  or  permitted  could 
give  just  ground  of  offence  to  France.  Moreover,  the  Colony  had  good 
reason  for  complaining  of  the  hostile  acts  of  D'Aulnay,  and  would  have 
been  justified  in  making  reprisals  on  him.  Whether  any  real  advantage 
was  gained  for  Massachusetts  or  for  Boston  by  the  course  pursued  is,  per- 
haps, doubtful.  But  there  was  a  wide-spread  belief  that  D'Aulnay  was  likely 
to  become  a  dangerous  neighbor,  and  his  proximity  to  the  English  settle- 
ments made  him  much  more  an  object  of  fear  than  La  Tour.  "  If  a  thorough 
work  could  be  made,"  Thomas  Gorges  wrote  to  Winthrop,  in  June,  1643, 
"  that  he  might  utterly  be  extirpated,  I  should  like  it  well."  3 

The  most  important  event  in  the  history  of  the  relations  of  .Boston  with 
the  neighboring  colonies  was  the  formation  of  the  New  England  Confed- 
eracy in  1643.  The  plan  of  this  confederation  appears  to  have  originated 
with  Connecticut,  who  was  anxious  to  strengthen  herself  against  encroach- 
ments from  the  Dutch.  In  August,  1637,  aft£r  the  close  of  the  Pequotwar, 
some  of  the  ministers  and  magistrates  of  that  colony  came  to  Boston  to 
attend  the  synod  called  to  consider  the  theological  errors  spread  through 
the  country  by  the  Antinomians.  While  they  were  here  a  meeting  was 
appointed  "  to  agree  upon  some  articles  of  confederation,  and  notice  was 
given  to  Plymouth  that  they  might  join  in  it;  but  their  warning  was  so 
short  as  they  could  not  come."4  Nothing,  therefore,  was  done,  and  the 
matter  rested  until  June,  1638,  when  a  plan  of  confederation  was  partially 
agreed  on ;  but  this  plan  finally  failed  to  obtain  the  necessary  ratifications. 
It  was  afterward  claimed  by  Massachusetts,  and  denied  by  Connecticut, 
that  the  chief  obstacle  was  the  levying  of  a  duty  by  the  latter,  as  has  been 

1  Ilutchinson,  Coll.  of  Original  Papers,  pp.  3  Hutchinson,   Coll.  of  Original  Papers,  p. 
115-119.                                                                            114. 

2  Plymouth  Col.  Records,  ix.  22.  *  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  N<r<a  England,  i.  237. 


296  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

mentioned  in  another  place,  on  vessels  passing  the  fort  at  Saybrook.1  At 
the  close  of  the  negotiations  the  Deputy-Governor  of  Connecticut  wrote  a 
letter  in  the  name  of  their  Court,  which  Winthrop  characterizes  as  so  harsh 
in  its  tone  as  to  preclude  a  reply;  but,  in  order  to  prevent  an  open  rupture, 
the  latter  wrote  a  private  letter  to  the  Governor  of  Connecticut,  stating  our 
view  of  the  case,  and  pointing  out  the  mistakes  of  the  Connecticut  authori- 
ties. Commenting  on  this  transaction  he  adds :  "  These  and  the  like  mis- 
carriages in  point  of  correspondency  were  conceived  to  arise  from  these  two 
errors  in  their  government :  ( I )  They  chose  divers  scores  men  who  had  no 
learning  nor  judgment  which  might  fit  them  for  those  affairs,  though  other- 
wise holy  and  religious.  (2)  By  occasion  hereof  the  main  burden  for  man- 
aging of  State  business  fell  upon  some  one  or  other  of  their  ministers  (as 
the  phrase  and  style  of  these  letters  will  clearly  discover),  who,  though 
they  were  men  of  singular  wisdom  and  godliness,  yet,  stepping  out  of  their 
course,  their  actions  wanted  that  blessing  which  otherwise  might  have  been 
expected."  2  The  scheme  was  again  revived  in  the  early  part  of  the  follow- 
ing year,  when  Haynes,  the  Governor  of  Connecticut,  Hooker,  her  most 
prominent  minister,  and  others  came  to  Boston,  and  stayed  a  month.  They 
were  unwilling,  however,  to  move  in  the  matter,  though  the  idea  of  union 
was  favorably  entertained  by  Massachusetts ;  3  and  again  it  failed  to  be 
consummated. 

Here  the  matter  stood  until  September,  1642,  when  Connecticut  sent 
new  propositions  for  forming  a  confederacy.4  These  propositions  were 
referred  to  the  magistrates  in  and  near  Boston,  and  to  the  deputies  from 
Boston  and  the  neighboring  towns,  to  confer  with  any  commissioners  from 
Plymouth,  Connecticut,  or  New  Haven,  and  to  take  such  action  as  might 
be  thought  necessary,  "  so  as  they  enter  not  into  an  offensive  war  without 
order  of  this  Court." 5  Winter  was  then  approaching,  and  nothing  more 
was  done  until  the  following  spring;  but  at  the  General  Court  in  May, 
1643,  commissioners  appeared  from  Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and  New 
Haven,  accompanied  by  George  Fenwick,  of  Saybrook.6  On  their  arri- 
val the  General  Court  appointed  a  committee,  consisting  of  the  Governor 
and  five  others,  "  to  treat  with  our  friends  of  Connecticut,  New  Haven,  and 
Plymouth  about  a  confederacy  between  us."  7  The  result  of  the  discussions 
was  that,  in  two  or  three  meetings,  articles  of  union  were  agreed  on,  and 
signed  by  all  the  commissioners  except  those  from  Plymouth,  who  were 
only  authorized  to  treat,  but  not  to  sign  any  agreement.  The  articles  of 
confederation  were  then  submitted  to  the  Courts  of  the  several  colonies  and 
duly  ratified  by  them.  The  settlements  in  Maine  under  the  patent  of  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges  "  were  not  received  nor  called  into  the  confederation," 
says  Winthrop,  "  because  they  ran  a  different  course  from  us  both  in  their 

1  Plymouth  Col.  Records,  ix.  90,91,  123.    [An  8  Ibid.  p.  299. 
account  of  the  first  attempts  at  negotiation  will  4  Ibid.  if.  85. 

be  found  in  the  New  Haven  Col.  Records,  edited  5  Mass.  Col.  Records,  ii.  31. 

by  Hoadley.  —  ED.]  6  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii.  99. 

2  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  \.  286.  7  Mass.  Col.  Records,  ii.  35. 


BOSTON    AND   THE   NEIGHBORING  JURISDICTIONS.  297 

ministry  and  civil  administration." l  Probably  not  one  of  the  colonies 
would  have  been  willing  to  unite  with  Rhode  Island.  Early  in  1642  Gov- 
ernor Bradford,  of  Plymouth,  wrote  to  Bellingham,  the  Governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts :  "  Concerning  the  Islanders,  we  have  no  conversing  with  them, 
nor  desire  to  have,  further  than  necessity  or  humanity  may  require."2 
Massachusetts  had  already  declared  her  unwillingness  to  join  with  Rhode 
Island  in  any  confederacy. 

The  act  of  union  bears  the  date  of  May  19,  1643,  Old  Style,  and  recites 
in  words  that  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  the  reasons  which  moved  the  colo- 
nies to  take  this  important  step, — the  precedent  for  a  far  more  important 
union  which  separated  a  larger  confederation  from  the  mother  country.  It 
declares  that,  "Whereas,  we  all  came  into  these  parts  of  America  with  one  and 
the  same  end  and  aim,  namely,  to  advance  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  to  enjoy  the  liberties  of  the  Gospel  in  purity  with  peace ;  and 
whereas,  in  our  settling  (by  a  wise  providence  of  God)  we  are  further  dis- 
persed upon  the  sea-coasts  and  rivers  than  was  at  first  intended,  so  that  we 
cannot,  according  to  our  desire,  with  convenience  communicate  in  one  gov- 
ernment and  jurisdiction;  and  whereas,  we  live  encompassed  with  people 
of  several  nations  and  strange  languages,  which  hereafter  may  prove  inju- 
rious 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  our  bounden  duty 
without  delay  to  enter  into  a  present  consociation  amongst  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  according  to  the 
tenor  and  true  meaning  of  the  ensuing  articles.  Wherefore  it  is  fully  agreed 
and  concluded  by  and  between  the  parties  or  jurisdictions  above  named, 
and  they  jointly  and  severally  do  by  these  presents  agree  and  conclude, 
that  they  all  be,  and  henceforth  be  called  by  the  name  of,  the  United 
Colonies  of  New  England."3 

Then  followed  eleven  articles,  commonly  counted  with  the  preamble  as 
twelve.  Of  these,  the  first — numbered  II.  in  the  Plymouth  copy  of  the 
Articles  of  Confederation  —  simply  declared  that  the  United  Colonies  joint- 
ly and  severally  united  into  a  firm  and  perpetual  league,  both  offensive  and 
defensive,  "for  preserving  and  propagating  the  truth  and  liberties  of  the 
Gospel,  and  for  their  own  mutual  safety  and  welfare."  The  next  article  pro- 
vided that  each  colony  should  have  exclusive  jurisdiction  within  its  own 
territory;  that  no  new  member  should  be  admitted  into  the  confederation, 

1  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii.  loo.  8    Plymouth    Col.    Keconls,    ix.   3;    Hazard, 

2  Bradford,  Plymouth  Plantation,  in  4  Mass,     Historical  Collections,  ii.  i,  2.     [See    Mr.  \Vin- 
Ifist.  Coll.,  iii.  388.  throp's  chapter.  —  ED.] 

VOL.  I. —  38. 


298  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

and  no  two  colonies  should  be  united  under  one  government,  without  the 
consent  of  the  rest.  Provision  was  made  by  the  next  article  that  the 
charge  of  all  just  wars,  offensive  or  defensive,  in  which  any  member  should 
be  involved,  should  be  borne  by  all  the  colonies  in  proportion  to  the  number 
of  male  inhabitants  in  each  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  sixty.  The 
fifth  article  provided  that  if  either  of  the  colonies  should  be  invaded,  the 
others,  upon  notice  and  request  of  any  three  magistrates  of  the  invaded 
colony,  should  forthwith  send  aid, —  Massachusetts  sending  one  hundred 
armed  men,  and  each  of  the  other  colonies  forty-five,  if  so  many  should  be 
required.1  At  the  next  meeting  of  the  commissioners  the  cause  of  the 
invasion  was  to  be  duly  considered,  and  if  it  should  appear  that  the  colony 
invaded  was  in  fault,  no  part  of  the  cost  of  the  war  was  to  be  charged  to  the 
other  colonies.  If  any  colony  should  anticipate  an  invasion,  and  there  should 
be  sufficient  time  to  call  the  commissioners  together,  a  meeting  was  to  be 
summoned  by  any  three  magistrates  of  the  colony  so  threatened.  The  next 
three  articles  provided  that  there  should  be  two  commissioners  for  each 
colony,  to  meet  once  a  year, — the  first  two  meetings  being  held  at  Boston, 
the  third  at  Hartford,  the  fourth  at  New  Haven,  and  the  fifth  at  Plymouth. 
Boston  was  always  to  be  the  place  of  meeting  for  two  consecutive  years. 
The  concurrent  votes  of  six  of  the  commissioners  were  to  be  sufficient  to 
secure  the  adoption  of  any  measure ;  but  if  six  members  failed  to  agree, 
the  matter  was  to  be  referred  to  the  four  General  Courts,  and  the  agree- 
ment of  all  the  Courts  became  necessary.  A  president  was  to  be  chosen  at 
each  meeting,  whose  duties  and  powers  were  to  be  merely  those  of  a  presid- 
ing officer.  The  commissioners  were  specially  empowered  "  to  frame  and 
establish  agreements  and  orders  in  general  cases  of  a  civil  nature,  wherein 
all  the  plantations  are  interested  for  preserving  peace  among  themselves, 
and  preventing  as  much  as  may  be  all  occasions  of  war  or  differences  with 
others ; "  and  express  stipulations  were  also  made  for  the  rendition  of  fugi- 
tives from  service  or  justice.  By  the  ninth  article,  the  confederate  colonies 
bound  themselves  not  to  undertake  a  war,  except  in  a  sudden  emergency, 
without  the  consent  of  six  commissioners;  and  no  charge  for  even  a 
defensive  war  was  to  be  made  on  any  of  the  colonies,  until  the  commis- 
sioners had  met  and  approved  of  the  war,  and  agreed  on  the  proper  amount 
of  money  to  be  levied.  The  tenth  article  provided  that  in  extraordinary 
occasions,  if  any  of  the  commissioners  after  being  summoned  failed  to 
appear,  four  of  the  commissioners  should  have  power  to  direct  a  war  which 
could  not  be  delayed,  and  to  send  for  the  several  quotas  of  men ;  but  to 
approve  of  the  war,  or  allow  the  cost,  or  "cause  any  levies  to  be  made 

1  Johnson,  whose  Wonder-working  Providence  than  the  least  of  the  other,  and  any  one  of  the 
was  printed  in  1654,  quaintly  says  (p.  182) :  "  But  other  as  likely  to  involve  them  in  a  chargeable 
herein  the  Mattachuut  had  the  worst  end  of  the  war  with  the  naked  natives,  that  have  neither 
staff,  in  bearing  as  much  or  more  charge  than  plunder  nor  cash  to  bear  the  charge  of  it;  nay, 
all  the  other  three,  and  yet  no  greater  number  hitherto  the  most  hath  arisen  from  the  lesser 
of  commissioners  to  negotiate  and  judge  in  colonies,  yet  arc  the  Afaltac/ntsets  far  from  de- 
transacting  of  affairs  concerning  peace  and  war  serting  them." 


BOSTON   AND   THE   NEIGHBORING   JURISDICTIONS.  299 

for  the  same,"  required  the  votes  of  not  less  than  six  members.  The 
eleventh  article  provided  against  infractions  of  the  agreement ;  and  by  the 
last  article  it  was  agreed  that  if  the  General  Court  of  Plymouth  should  not 
ratify  the  articles  of  confederation,  they  should  nevertheless  be  binding  on 
the  other  three  colonies.1  These  articles  were  signed  on  the  igth  of  May, 
Old  Style,  by  the  Secretary  in  behalf  of  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts, 
and  by  the  commissioners  for  Connecticut  and  New  Haven.  Subsequently 
the  articles  were  approved  by  the  General  Court  of  Plymouth,  and  by  all 
the  townships  in  that  colony;  and  by  an  order  dated  the  29th  of  August, 
Edward  Winslow  and  William  Collyer  were  authorized  to  ratify  them,  and 
were  appointed  commissioners  for  Plymouth.  The  igih  of  May,  however, 
was  regarded  by  all  parties  as  the  date  of  the  formation  of  the  confederacy ; 
and  in  1843,  the  29th  of  May,  which  is  the  corresponding  date,  as  we  reckon 
time,  was  selected  by  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  for  their -bi- 
centennial celebration  of  this  great  event  in  New  England  history.2 

The  second  meeting  of  the  commissioners  was  held  in  Boston,  Sept.  7, 
1643.  After  the  transaction  of  some  formal  business,  they  took  up  the 
matter  of  the  war  between  Uncas  and  Miantinimo,  reaching  the  very  harsh 
conclusion  "that  Uncas  cannot  be  safe  while  Miantinimo  lives,  but  that 
either  by  secret  treachery  or  open  force  his  life  will  be  still  in  danger. 
Wherefore  they  think  he  may  justly  put  such  a  false  and  bloodthirsty  enemy 
to  death,  but  in  his  own  jurisdiction,  not  in  the  English  plantations;  and 
advising  that  in  the  manner  of  his  death  all  mercy  and  moderation  be  shown, 
contrary  to  the  practice  of  the  Indians,  who  exercise  tortures  and  cruelty."3 
The  commissioners  then  recommended  that  each  General  Court  should 
see  that  every  man  kept  by  him  a  good  gun  and  sword,  one  pound  of 
powder,  four  pounds  of  shot,  and  suitable  match  or  flints,  to  be  exam- 
ined at  least  four  times  a  year,  and  that  each  colony  also  should  keep  a 
stock  of  powder,  shot,  and  match ;  that  there  should  be  a  uniform  standard 
of  measure  throughout  all  the  plantations  in  the  United  Colonies ;  and  that 
there  should  be  at  least  six  training-days  yearly  in  every  plantation.  They 
then  determined  the  proportion  of  men  to  be  furnished  by  each  colony  in 
any  present  danger ;  and  taking  into  consideration  the  complaints  against 

1  [The  articles  are  given  at  length  in  Pulsifer's  style  into  new  style.     The  Proceedings  of  the  ffis- 
edition  of  the  Records  of  the  Commissioners,  torical  Society,  ii.  243,  244,  note,  contains  Mr. 
vol.  ix.  (1643-52)  and  x.  (1653-79)  of  the  Ply-  Adams's  letter  accepting  the  invitation  to  de- 
iitouth    Col.   Records;   in  Brigham's  jedition   of  liver  the  address,  and  a  letter  from  Mr.  Savage, 
Plymouth  Laws ;  in  Bradford's  Plymouth  Plan-  at  that  time  President  of  the  Society,  pointing 
tation,  p.  416;  in  Hazard's  Collections,  \\.     Pal-  out  the  principal  authorities  for  the  history  of 
frey,  Arew  England,  ii.  ch.  i.,  makes  a  survey  of  the  confederacy.     [Hubbard,  in  New  England, 
the  condition  of  the   colonies  at  this  time.  —  ch.  lii.,  gives  an  account  of  the  doings  of  the 
ED.]  confederacy,  and   later  accounts   are   given   in 

2  On  that  occasion  an  address  was  delivered  Bancroft's  United  States,  i.  ch.  x. ;  Chalmers's 
in  the  First  Church  in  Boston  by  John  Quincy  Polit.  Annals,  ch.  viii.;  Palfrey's  New  England, 
Adams,  which  is  printed  in  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  \.  ch.  xv ;    Baylies's  Old  Colony,  pt.  ii.  ch.  xiii. ; 
ix.  189-223.     In  Mr.  Adams's  Memoirs  (vol.  xi.  Barry's   Massachusetts,   i.   ch.   xi. ;    Bryant   and 
pp.  372-379)  are  some  interesting  notes  about  Gay's  United  States,  ii.  ch.  ii.,  &c.  —  En.] 

the  preparation  and  delivery  of  this  address,  and  3  Plymouth  Col.  Records,  ix.  n,  12;  Hazard, 

the  perplexity  which  he  felt  about  changing  old     Historical  Collations,  ii.  9. 


300 


THE   MEMORIAL    HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


Gorton  and  his  company,  the  commissioners  declared  that  if  Gorton  and 
his  followers  stubbornly  refused  to  obey  the  summons  of  the  General  Court 
of  Massachusetts,  the  magistrates  of  that  colony  might  proceed  against 
them  with  the  full  approval  and  concurrence  of  the  other  jurisdictions, 
provided  nothing  was  done  prejudicial  to  the  land-claims  of  Plymouth. 
Finally,  it  was  ordered  that  letters  should  be  written  to  the  Dutch  and 
Swedish  governors,  complaining  of  the  injuries  done  to  the  Hartford  and 
New  Haven  men  at  Delaware  Bay  and  elsewhere.1 


fy 


7 


*-*tf 

€&&&+ 


SIGNATURES  OF    COMMISSIONERS,   1646* 


Meetings  of  the  commissioners  were  held  annually,  and  sometimes  more 
frequently,  for  upward  of  twenty  years;  but  in  September,  1664,  —  a  few 
weeks  after  the  arrival  of  the  Royal  Commissioners  sent  over  by  Charles 
II.,  —  it  was  ordered  that  henceforth  the  meetings  should  be  held  only  once 
in  three  years.3  At  the  same  time  provision  was  made  that  the  number  of 
the  commissioners  should  be  reduced,  in  case  the  Connecticut  and  New 
Haven  colonies  should  be  united  under  one  government.  4  Six  years 
afterward,  at  a  meeting  held  in  Boston  in  June,  1670,  the  articles  of  agree- 
ment were  renewed,  again  entered  on  the  record,  and  ordered  to  be  pre- 
sented to  the  several  General  Courts.5  In  the"  new  compact  the  order  of 
the  articles  was  changed,  some  new  provisions  were  inserted,  and  some  of 
the  powers  heretofore  exercised  by  the  commissioners  were  transferred 
to  the  General  Courts  of  the  United  Colonies.  Hartford  and  New  Haven 


1  Plymouth  Col.  Records,  ix.  12,  13. 

2  [Endicott  and  Pel  ham  represented  Massa- 
chusetts; John  Brown  and  Timothy  Hatherly, 
Plymouth;   the    others,   Connecticut  and   New 
Haven.  —  ED.] 


3  [This  confederacy  was  made  one   of   the     tions,  ii.  511-516. 


points  of  the  Royal  Commissioners  in  1663,  as 
indicating  the  colony's  assumption  of  the  King's 
prerogative.  —  ED.] 

*  Plytitouth  Col.  Records,  x.  319. 

6  Ibid.  334-339 ;    Hazard,   Historical  Collec- 


BOSTON   AND   THE    NEIGHBORING    JURISDICTIONS. 


301 


having  been  consolidated  under  the  charter  granted  by  Charles  II.,  in 
1662,  the  number  of  commissioners  was  reduced  to  six.  They  were  to 
meet  only  once  in  three  years;  and  of  every  five  regular  meetings,  two 
were  to  be  held  in  Boston,  /-  n  ^^ 

two  in  Hartford,  and  one  in 
Plymouth.  But  the  strength 
and  glory  of  the  old  Confed- 
eracy had  departed,  and  the 
new  union  had  only  a  short 
existence.  The  commissioners 
met  in  September,  1672,  and 
formally  ratified  these  articles  ; 
and  they  met  also  in  the  fol- 
lowing year,  on  a  special  call 
from  the  governor  and  magis- 
trates of  Connecticut, 
in  consequence  of  the 
capture  of  New  York 
by  the  Dutch.  Their 
only  other  meetings 
were  in  1675,  1678,  1679,  1681, 
and  1684.  Their  last  act  was 
the  issuing  of  a  recommenda- 
tion to  the  several  colonial  gov-  SIGNATURES  OF  COMMISSIONERS,  SEPT. 
ernments  for  the  appointment  of  the  22d  of  October,  1684,  as  a  day  of  solemn 
humiliation,  "to  the  end  that  we  may  meet  together  in  united  prayers  at  the 
Throne  of  Grace,  for  the  more  effectual  promoting  of  the  work  of  general 
reformation,  so  long  discoursed  of  amongst  ourselves  (but  greatly  delayed)  ; 
and  that  we  may  obtain  the  favor  of  God  for  a  farther  lengthening  out  of 
our  tranquillity,  under  the  shadow  of  our  Sovereign  Lord  the  King;  and 
that  God  would  preserve  his  life  and  establish  his  crown  in  righteousness 
and  peace,  for  the  defence  of  the  Protestant  religion  in  all  his  dominions."  2 
The  death  of  that  worthless  sovereign  a  few  months  afterward,  the  accession 
of  James  II.,  and  the  appointment  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros  as  governor  of 
all  New  England  put  an  end  to  the  New  England  Confederacy.  With  the 
expulsion  of  Andros,  who  imitated  on  a  narrower  field  the  tyrannical  acts 
which  led  to  the  expulsion  of  James  II.  from  England,  the  colonies  resumed 
their  charter  governments ;  but  the  Confederacy  was  not  revived. 

It  had  accomplished  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  formed ;  but  it  was 
never  a  strong  organization,  and  it  had  the  inherent  defects  of  every  simple 
confederation.  Even  if  the  growing  jealousy  of  the  colonies  which  existed 
in  the  mother  country  would  have  permitted  its  re-establishment,  public 

1  [Bradstreet  and  Denison  represented  Mas-     Haven  colonies,  not  then  united  as  a  single  juris- 
sachusetts  Bay;  Prince  and  Cudworth,  Plymouth     diction.  —  ED.] 
Colony;  and  the  others,  Connecticut  and  New          *  Plymouth  Col.  Records,  x.  411,  412. 


302 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


opinion  on  this  side  of  the  ocean  was  not  yet  ripe  for  the  formation  of  a 
union  in  any  considerable  degree  free  from  the  interference  and  control 
of  the  colonial  legislatures.  In  its  early  days,  however,  the  Confederacy 
had  exerted  a  powerful  influence  in  making  the  colonies  feared  and  respected 
by  their  Dutch  and  French  neighbors,  and  by  the  Indians  within  their  own 
borders.  As  the  principal  town  in  the  most  important  colony  in  the  Con- 
federacy, Boston  shared  largely  in  the  benefits  which  Massachusetts  derived 
even  from  this  imperfect  union ;  and  in  any  enumeration  of  the  causes 
which  have  combined  to  make  Boston  what  she  now  is,  the  formation  of  the 
New  England  Confederacy  of  1643  cannot  be  overlooked.1 


1  Any  account  of  the  relations  of  Boston  with 
the  neighboring  jurisdictions  would  be  incom- 
plete which  did  not  include  some  reference  to 
the  two  abortive  missions  of  Father  Druilletes 
to  Boston  and  Plymouth  in  1650  and  1651.  Four 
years  after  the  formation  of  the  New  England 
Confederacy,  Governor  Winthrop  wrote  to  the 
Governor  of  Canada  proposing  a  free  trade  be- 
tween the  colonies.  Apparently  no  answer  was 
returned  to  this  proposition  during  Winthrop's 
life;  but  in  1650  Gabriel  Druilletes,  one  of  the 
Jesuit  fathers,  was  sent  to  New  England  by  his 
superior,  with  the  concurrence  of  the  Governor, 
to  negotiate  on  the  subject.  The  chief  object 
of  Druilletes  seems,  however,  to  have  been  to 
engage  the  New  England  colonies  in  a  war  with 
the  Mohawks  for  the  advantage  of  the  Abenakis; 
but  his  mission  failed  to  produce  any  result, 
though  he  says  he  had  a  moral  assurance  that 
three  of  the  four  colonies  were  favorable  to  his 
plans.  In  his  narrative  he  represents  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Plymouth  as  urgent  in  the  affair,  and  he 
had  strong  hopes  that  the  younger  Winthrop 
would  give  his  aid,  "after  the  letter  which  I 
wrote  him  praying  him  to  finish  what  his  father 
began."  Of  Boston  he  writes:  "The  Vice- 
Governor  of  Boston,  named  Mr.  Endicott,  who 
is  now  probably  Governor,  has  pledged  his  word 
to  do  all  in  his  power  to  bring  the  Boston  magis- 
trates to  consent  and  unite  with  the  Governor 
of  Plymouth.  All  the  Boston  magistrates  write 
that  they  will  recommend  it  earnestly  to  the 
deputies.  Boston's  interest  is  the  hope  of  a 
good  trade  with  Quebec,  especially  as  that  which 
it  has  with  Virginia  and  the  Isle  of  Barbadoes 
and  St.  Christopher's  is  on  the  point  of  being 
destroyed  by  the  war  excited  by  the  Parliamen- 
tarians to  exterminate  there  the  authority  of 
the  Governors  who  still  hold  for  the  King  of 
England.  This  interest  has  made  the  Boston 
merchants  say  in  advance,  that  if  the  republic 


makes  any  difficulty  about  sending  troops,  the 
volunteers  will  be  satisfied  with  a  simple  per- 
mission for  the  expedition."  While  here,  he 
visited  Salem,  and  was  hospitably  entertained 
by  Endicott,  who,  he  says,  "speaks  and  under- 
stands French  well."  lie  also  went  to  Plymouth 
to  see  Governor  Bradford,  whose  influence,  every 
one  told  him,  was  all-powerful.  At  Roxbury  he 
spent  the  night  with  the  Rev.  John  Eliot,  "who 
was  instructing  some  Indians,"  and  he  adds: 
"  He  treated  me  with  respect  and  affection,  and 
invited  me  to  pass  the  winter  with  him."  In 
Boston  he  was  the  guest  of  Major-General  Gib- 
bons, who  "gave  me  the  key  of  a  room  in  his 
house,  where  I  might  in  all  liberty  pray  and 
perform  the  exercises  of  my  religion,  and  he  be- 
sought me  to  take  no  other  lodgings  while  I  re- 
mained at  Boston."  Druilletes  was  very  nat- 
urally impressed  by  these  attentions ;  but  the 
failure  of  his  mission  shows  that  he  was  over- 
confident in  his  expectations.  It  is  not  at  all 
probable  that  the  United  Colonies  had  any  in- 
tention of  attacking  the  Mohawks.  In  the 
following  year  he  came  again  under  the  authority 
of  a  regular  appointment  from  the  Government 
of  Ca,nada,  accompanied  by  the  Sieur  Godefroy, 
one  of  the  council.  But  their  mission  also  failed 
of  success.  (See  Hutchinson,  Hist,  of  Mass.  Bay, 
pp.  166-171 ;  2  Coll.  AT.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.,  iii.  305-328 ; 
Proceedings  of  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  for  Oct.  1869,  pp. 
152-154;  Plymouth  Col.  Records,  ix.  199-203.) 

[NOTE.  —  La  Tour's  story  is  the  subject  of 
an  essay  by  Henry  Winsor  of  Philadelphia,  con- 
tained in  Montrose  and  Other  Biographical 
Sketches,  Boston,  1861.  There  is  a  paper  on 
D'Aulnay  in  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  iv.  462,  translated 
by  Dr.  William  Jenks  from  CEuvres  de  fhistoire 
de  la  Maison  de  Afenoti,  Paris,  1852,  p.  165.  A  con- 
siderable number  of  original  papers  relating  to 
La  Tour  and  D'Aulnay  are  preserved  at  the 
State  House  in  Mass.  Archives,  vol.  ii.  —  ED.] 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

FROM   THE   DEATH   OF  WINTHROP  TO   PHILIP'S  WAR. 

BY    COLONEL    THOMAS    WENTWORTH    HIGGINSON. 

WINTHROP  died  in  1649.    The  best  picture  left  to  us  of  the  wonderful 
transformation  which  he  had  seen  wrought  in  the   New  England 
wilds  since  his  coming  is  to  be  found  in  the  quaint  narrative  by  Edward 
Johnson,   The   Wonder-working  Providence,  probably  written  about    1650. 
He  says  of  the  condition  of  the  Colony :  — 

"  The  Lord  hath  been  pleased  to  turn  all  the  wigwams,  huts,  and  hovels  the  English 
dwelt  in  at  their  first  coming  into  orderly,  fair,  and  well-built  houses,  well  furnished 
many  of  them,  together  with  Orchards  filled  with  goodly  fruit  trees,  and  gardens 
with  variety  of  flowers.  There  are  supposed  to  be  in  the  Mattaehusets  Government 
at  this  day  neer  a  thousand  acres  of  land  planted  for  Orchards  and  Gardens,  there 
being,  as  is  supposed  in  this  Colony,  about  fifteen  thousand  acres  in  tillage,  and  of 
cattel  about  twelve  thousand  neat,  and  about  three  thousand  sheep.  Thus  hath  the 
Lord  incouraged  His  people  with  the  encrease  of  the  general,  although  many  particu- 
lars are  outed,  hundreds  of  pounds,  and  some  thousands,  yet  are  there  many  hundreds 
of  labouring  men,  who  had  not  enough  to  bring  them  over,  yet  now  worth  scores  and 
some  hundreds  of  pounds. 

"  And  those  who  were  formerly  forced  to  fetch  most  of  the  bread  they  eat,  and  beer 
they  drink,  a  hundred  leagues  by  Sea,  are  through  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  so  encreased 
that  they  have  not  only  fed  their  Elder  Sisters,  —  Virginia,  Barbados,  and  many  of  the 
Summer  Islands  that  were  prefer'd  before  her  for  fruitfulness,  —  but  also  the  Grand- 
mother of  us  all,  even  the  fertil  Isle  of  Great  Britain ;  beside  Portugal  hath  had  many 
a  mouthful  of  bread  and  fish  from  us  in  exchange  of  their  Madeara  liquor,  and  also 
Spain."  1 

And,  speaking  especially  of  Boston,  he  thus  rejoices  in  its  growth :  — 

"  The  chiefe  Edifice  of  this  City-like  Towne  is  crowded  on  the  Sea-bankes,  and 
wharfed  out  with  great  industry  and  cost,  the  buildings  beautifull  and  large,  some  fairely 
set  forth  with  Brick,  Tile,  Stone,  and  Slate,  and  orderly  placed  with  comly  streets, 
whose  continuall  inlargement  presages  some  sumptuous  City.  .  .  .  But  now  behold 
the  admirable  Acts  of  Christ :  at  this  his  peoples  landing,  the  hideous  Thickets  in 
this  place  were  such  that  Wolfes  and  Beares  nurst  up  their  young  from  the  eyes  of  all 

1  Johnson,  Wonder-working  Providence,  Poole's  edition,  pp.  174,  175,  208. 


304  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

beholders,  in  those  very  places  where  the  streets  are  full  of  Girles  and  Boys  sporting 
up  and  downe,  with  a  continued  concourse  of  people.  Good  store  of  Shipping  is 
here  yearly  built,  and  some  very  faire  ones :  both  Tar  and  Mastes  the  Countrey  affords 
from  its  own  soile  ;  also  store  of  Victuall  both  for  their  owne  and  Forreiners  ships,  who 
resort  hither  for  that  end  :  this  Town  is  the  very  Mart  of  the  Land  ;  French,  Portngalls, 
and  Dutch  come  hither  for  Traffique."  1 

Such  was  the  peaceful  life  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony.2  The  busy 
citizens  thus  continued  to  thrive,  and  the  children  to  sport,  during  all  the 
period  when  the  iron  Cromwell  ruled  England,  taking  little  thought  among 
his  cares  and  victories  for  the  humble  settlements  across  the  ocean.  He 
sometimes  found  them  a  convenient  place  of  banishment  for  his  Scotch 
prisoners,3  and  he  thought  of  them  as  a  source  from  which  he  could  re- 
people  Jamaica;  but  this  was  almost  all.  He  ruled,  and  died;  and  his  weak 
son  succeeded,  —  and  still  Massachusetts  was  at  peace  under  the  beneficent 
leadership  of  Endicott,  while  the  stern  progress  of  events  was  bringing 
about  the  great  Royalist  reaction  in  England,  and  the  day  of  the  Restoration 
was  drawing  near. 

In  London,  on  the  29th  of  May,  1660,  the  River  Thames  was  alive  with 
gay  barges,  the  streets  were  full  of  merry-making  people,  the  air  resounded 
with  martial  music,  with  cheering,  and  with  the  roar  of  great  guns  from  the 
Tower.  The  merchants  had  hung  brocade  and  cloth  of  gold  from  their 
shop  windows,  and  among  these  gorgeous  stuffs  drooped  torn  and  tattered 
flags  that  had  been  scorched  with  fire  from  Cromwell's  cannon.  The  pike- 
heads  of  the  train-bands  glittered  along  the  streets,  decked  here  and  there 
with  wreaths  of  flowers  tossed  from  upper  casements  by  laughing  girls. 
All  this  tumult  and  passion  and  madness  was  to  welcome  the  Restoration 
of  a  profligate  prince  and  a  fatal  dynasty;  and  meantime,  in  the  quiet 
streets  of  Boston,  men  came  and  went  about  their  sober  errands,  and  "  girles 
and  boys  "  still  played  in  the  highways,  not  knowing  that  all  they  had  revered 
and  trusted  in  the  mother  country  was  being  swept  away.  For  twenty 
years  Massachusetts  had  exercised  virtual  self-government,  had  kept  clear 
of  all  English  complications.  She  had  never  directly  recognized  the  succes- 
sion of  Richard  Cromwell ;  she  was  in  no  haste  to  recognize  that  of  Charles 
the  Second. 

The  news  of  the  Restoration  was  brought  to  America  by  the  very  ship 
which  brought  Goffe  and  Whalley,  the  regicides.  Massachusetts  had 
never  distinctly  approved  the  execution  of  the  King,  but  she  took  the  men 
who  had  abetted  it  into  her  heart.  For  nearly  a  year  they  were  honored 
guests  at  the  firesides  of  the  State;  when  a  Commission  was  sent  for  their 
arrest,  the  fugitives  were  hurried  from  place  to  place  though  New  England, 

1  Johnson,  as  before,  p.  43.  Poole's   chapter  of   this  work,   in   the  second 

2  [Descriptions  of    the    occasional    disturb-     volume.  —  ED.] 

ance  of  the  town's  quiet  by  trials  and  execu-  8  [A  ship  arriving  in  1652  brought  two  hun- 

tions  for  witchcraft  —  as  when  Margaret  Jones,  dred  and  seventy-two  such, —  captives  of  Dun- 

of    Charlestown,   suffered    in    1648,    and    Ann  bar  battle  and  others.     A  list  is  given  in  N.  E. 

Hibbins   in    1654  —  will    find   a  place    in    Mr.  Hist,  and  Cental.  Keg.,  i.  377.  —  ED.] 


FROM    DEATH    OF   WINTHROP   TO    PHILIP'S    WAR.  305 

and  faithfully  guarded ;  there  was  an  outward  acquiescence  in  the  search, 
but  "  the  Colonels,"  as  they  were  habitually  called,  were  always  warned  and 
removed  in  ample  season.  Their  names  were  as  well  known  on  the  lips  of 
the  people  as  those  of  Endicott  and  Winthrop ;  they  remained  a  traditional 
phrase  down  to  this  present  generation :  I  can  distinctly  remember  to  have 
heard  from  the  lips  of  country  people,  in  my  childhood,  the  oath  "  By  Goffe- 
Whalley !  " 1 

But  even  the  testimony  of  "  the  Colonels  "  did  not  readily  convince  the 
people  that  the  Restoration  was  a  permanent  thing.  Affairs  in  the  mother 
country  were  full  of  changes,  and  this  might  be  but  one  change  more. 
Then  followed  trials  and  executions  that  affected  New  England  as  well  as 
Old.  Sir  Henry  Vane,  once  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  the  defender  of 
Quakers,  Roman  Catholics,  Presbyterians,  the  opponent  of  slavery  and  of 
Cromwell  himself  when  needful,  —  Sir  Henry  Vane  suffered  death  at  the 
block.  Hugh  Peter,  once  the  minister  of  Salem  and  one  of  the  founders 
of  Harvard  College,  was  hanged ;  his  last  words  to  his  friends  being, 
"Weep  not  for  me,  my  heart  is  full  of  comfort;  "  and  to  his  daughter,  "  Go 
home  to  New  England  and  trust  God  there."  These  events  must  have 
touched  the  hearts  of  the  Colonists  very  nearly;  but  the  ocean  then 
seemed  very  wide ;  a  passage  of  six  weeks  was  considered  short;  Europe 
was  far  more  remote  in  those  days  of  Colonial  dependence  than  in  these 
of  National  separation.  This  had  already  taught  Massachusetts  men  the 
habit  of  evading  some  troublesome  problems  by  simple  delay;  so  they 
let  a  year  pass  before  they  sent  a  congratulatory  address  to  the  newly 
made  King. 

When  the  time  for  writing  the  letter  came,  it  seemed  necessary  to  put 
some  loyalty  into  their  words,  if  there  was  not  much  in  their  actions.  The 

1  [Colonels    Goffe    and    Whalley    had    ar-  regicides  were,  it  would  seem,  visited  at  Hadley  by 

rived  in  Boston  July  27,  1660,  and  were  kindly  Governor  Leverett,  and  by  Mr.  Richard  Salton- 

received  by  the  principal  people;  but  they  very  stall  (son  of  Sir  Richard),  who  left  ^50  in  the 

soon  removed  to  Cambridge,  and  when  the  Act  hands  of  Edward  Collins,  of  Charlestown,  for 

of  Indemnity,  in  which  they  were  by  name  ex-  them  when  he  went  to  England  in  1672.     Their 

cepted,  arrived  from  England,  they  relieved  the  story  is  succinctly  told  in  Dr.  Chandler  Robbins's 

magistrates  of  embarrassment   by  departing  in  lecture,  "  The  Regicides  sheltered  in  New  Eng- 

February,    1661,  without  their  jurisdiction.      It  land,"  in  the  course  before  the  Lowell  Institute, 

was  one  of  the  charges  raised  against  Massachu-  Cf.  also  President  Stiles's  Hist,  of  the  Judges  ; 

setts  Bay  a  year  or  two  later  that  "  Whaley  and  Palfrey's    New    England,   ii.   495 ;    TrumbulPs 

Goffe  were  entertayned  by  the  magistrates  with  Connecticut,  i.  242 ;  F.  B.  Dexter's  memoranda 

great  solemnity,  and  feasted  in    every  place  ; "  in  the  New  Haven    Colony  Hist.   Soc.   Papers, 

Cartwright's  account,  in  N.  Y.  Hist.  Coll.,  1869,  vol.  ii. ;  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  July,  1868, 

p.  85.     When  the  Royal  order  was  received  by  p.  345;  Sibley's  Harvard  Graduates,  i.  115,  &c. 

Endicott    for    their    arrest,   the   Governor    de-  Bostonians   find   more   interest,   however,   in  a 

spatched  two  commissioners  to  find  their  hiding-  third  of  the  regicides,  though  he  was  never  in 

place,  but    they    returned    to    Boston   without  Boston,  but  lived  and  died  in  New  Haven  under 

accomplishing  their  purpose.     The  pursued  men  the  name  of  James  Davids.     He  was  the  progeni- 

finally  found  refuge  in  Hadley,  but  kept  up  a  tor,  through  a 

correspondence  with  friends  in  England  through  female  line,  of    yf  f*A~.  c  tf 

Increase  Mather  in  Boston.     Several  of  Goffe's  a    well-known     J~  ^j 

letters  are  given  in  the  Mather  papers,  now  pre-  Boston  family, 

served   in   the    Public   Library,  and  printed  in  who  have  taken  his  true  name,  and  who  have 

4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  viii.     Hutchinson  had  before  erected  a  monument  in  the  ancient  burial-ground 

this  printed  others  in  his  Collection  of  Papers.  The  of  that  city,  giving  it  as  John  Dixwell.  —  ED.] 

VOL.  I.  —  39. 


306  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

epistle  was  termed  "  a  congratulatory  and  lowly  script,"  and   it  was  written 
in  this  style :  — 

"  Royal  Sir  :  your  just  title  to  the  Crown  enthronizes  you  in  our  consciences ;  your 
graciousness  in  our  affections ;  that  inspireth  unto  duties,  this  naturalizeth  unto 
loyaltie,  thence  wee  call  you  lord,  hence  a  savior  .  .  .  Nowe,  the  Lord  hath  dealt  well 
unto  our  lord  the  King ;  may  New  England,  under  your  royal  protection,  be  permitted 
still  to  sing  the  Lord's  song  in  this  strange  land." 

Comparing  the  first  sentence  with  the  last,  we  see  which  part  of  the 
"  script "  was  perfunctory  and  which  was  genuine ;  it  was  only  when  they 
came  to  speak  of  their  own  affairs  that  they  got  down  to  straightfor- 
ward talk  and  monosyllables.  Yet  doubtless  even  their  loyalty  was  not 
wholly  fictitious,  but  it  belonged  to  the  realm  of  vague  traditions;  it 
was  their  present  work  that  was  real.  They  soon  discovered  the  small 
value  for  that  work  of  the  "  royal  protection  "  they  asked.  Little  cared 
the  King  and  his  advisers  for  that  ideal  community  at  which  the  Puritan 
Colony  aimed.  Moreover  their  easy  natures  were  repelled,  and  with 
good  cause,  by  the  Quaker  persecutions;  although  true  it  is  that  King 
Charles  himself  found  those  indomitable  schismatics  quite  unmanageable, 
and  was  glad  to  recommend  "  a  sharp  law  "  at  last,  though  always,  to  his 
honor,  stopping  short  of  the  penalty  of  death.  He  took,  at  any  rate,  small 
interest  in  the  higher  aims  of  the  Colony ;  but  when  he  considered  its  thrift 
and  prosperity,  and  the  ships  from  Spain  and  Holland  that  filled  the  harbor 
of  Boston,  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  a  spendthrift  monarch,  in  those 
days  of  commercial  monopolies,  should  keep  his  hands  off.  In  the  Act  of 
Navigation,  passed  in  1660,  the  first  real  blow  fell. 

"  No  merchandise  shall  be  imported  into  the  plantations  but  in  English 
vessels,  navigated  by  Englishmen,  under  penalty  of  forfeiture."  Trade 
thus  summarily  checked,  further  restrictions  followed.  It  was  soon  decreed 
that  all  exports  to  America  must  not  only  be  shipped  in  English  vessels, 
but  from  English  ports ;  then  the  staples  of  the  colonies  must  be  sent  to 
England  alone,  unless  they  were  also  articles  which  England  produced,  and 
in  that  case  they  might  be  sent  to  remote  foreign  ports  south  of  Cape  Fin- 
isterre ;  no  produce  must  be  sent  from  one  American  colony  to  another, 
except  under  a  duty  equal  to  that  which  would  have  been  levied  on  it  in 
England.  It  shows  what  was  the  spirit  of  the  American  people,  at  that  early 
day,  when  we  consider  that  these  destructive  laws  remained  a  dead  letter. 
During  sixteen  years  the  Massachusetts  Governor,  annually  elected  by  the 
people,  never  once  took  the  oath  which  the  Navigation  Act  required  of 
him ;  and  when  the  courageous  Leverett  was  called  to  account  for  this, 
he  answered :  "  The  King  can  in  reason  do  no  less  than  let  us  enjoy  our 
liberties  and  trade,  for  we  have  made  this  large  plantation  at  our  own 
charge,  without  any  contribution  from  the  Crown." 

But  the  navigation  acts  were  to  be  followed  by  still  more  direct  inva- 
sion of  liberties.  In  view  of  threats  and  supposed  dangers,  it  became 
needful  for  the  Massachusetts  Colony  to  send  commissioners  to  England. 


FROM    DEATH    OF   WINTHROP   TO    PHILIP'S   WAR.  307 

Norton  and  Bradstreet  were  sent;  they  were  received  with  courtesy  by  the 
King  and  his  ministers,  and  brought  back  an  answer.  The  Colonial  Charter 
was  confirmed,  but  wholly  new  interpretations  were  placed  on  it.  It  was 
asserted  that  "  the  principle  of  the  Charter  was  the  freedom  of  the  liberty 
of  conscience,"  and  that  this  freedom  should  extend  to  those  who  wished  to 
use  "  the  booke  of  common  prayer."  On  the  same  principle  it  was  de- 
manded that  the  elective  franchise  should  be  given  to  all  male  freeholders 
of  competent  estate ;  and  it  was  also  required  that  justice  should  be  admin- 
istered in  the  King's  name,  and  that  all  laws  in  derogation  of  his  authority 
should  be  repealed.  Some,  at  least,  of  these  newly  required  provisions 
seemed  reasonable  enough,  and  some  were  readily  granted;  but  it  was 
the  precedent  thus  created  that  was  alarming.  For  instance,  it  did  not 
seem  too  much  to  ask  that 

in    an    English    colony    the  O  «*•   tS 

established  Church  of  Eng- 
land should  be  at  least  toler- 
ated, and  indeed  a  spirit  of 
toleration  had  long  been 
growing  in  the  Colony  itself; 
but  men  did  not  wish  to  have 
even  toleration  forced  upon 
them.  The  royal  authority  hurt  the  very  cause  it  aimed  to  help ;  and 
the  antagonism  thus  created  increased  the  suspicion  already  growing  in 
England.  The  union  of  the  two  colonies  had  already  been  interpreted  as 
a  step  toward  entire  independence,  and  the  ghosts  of  Goffe  and  Whalley 
came  up  to  trouble  the  King's  advisers,  if  not  that  easy-going  personage 
himself.  What  if  "the  Colonels"  should  be  raising  an  army? 

In  July,  1664,  there  sailed  into  Boston  Harbor  an  English  fleet,  intended 
ostensibly  to  attack  the  Dutch  settlements  on  the  Hudson.  It  bore  the 
members  of  a  Royal  Commission,  against  whose  power  and  purpose  the 
Colony  at  once  protested.  Massachusetts  readily  contributed  two  hundred 
men  for  the  war  against  the  Dutch,  and  the  fleet  went  on  its  way.  The 
Commissioners  remained  behind,  to  cope,  as  well  as  they  might,  with  the 
unanimous  opposition  of  an  unwilling  people.  The  Colonial  authorities  first 
prohibited  all  complaints  to  these  Commissioners,  and  then  issued  their  own 
deliberate  remonstrance  in  words  so  clear  and  dignified  as  to  give  a  fore- 
taste of  the  Revolutionary  State-papers  that  were  to  follow  a  century  later. 
The  document  is  of  deep  interest,  as  showing  how  early  the  conscious 
separation  of  interests  had  begun,  and  how  the  later  Revolution  was  really 
the  accumulated  protest  of  successive  generations :  — 

"  Dread  Sovereign,  —  The  first  undertakers  of  this  plantation  did  obtain  a  patent, 
wherein  is  granted  full  and  absolute  power  of  governing  all  the  people  of  this  place, 
by  men  chosen  from  among  themselves,  and  according  to  such  laws  as  they  should 
see  meet  to  establish.  A  Royal  donation,  under  the  great  seal,  is  the  greatest  security 


3o8 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


that  may  be  had  in  human  affairs.     To  be  governed  by  rulers  of  our  own  choosing 
and  lawes  of  our  own,  is  the  fundamental  privilege  of  our  patent. 

"  A  commission  under  the  great  seal,  wherein  four  persons  (one  of  them  our  pro- 
fessed enemy)  are  impowered  to  receive  and  determine  all  complaints  and  appeals 
according  to  their  discretion,  subjects  us  to  the  arbitrary  power  of  strangers,  and  will 
end  in  the  subversion  of  our  all.  . 


"  God  knows,  our  greatest  ambition  is  to  live  a  quiet  life,  in  a  corner  of  the  world. 
We  came  not  into  this  wilderness  to  seek  great  things  to  ourselves ;  and,  if  any  come 
after  us  to  seeke  them  heere,  they  will  be  disappointed.  We  keep  ourselves  within  our 
line ;  a  just  dependence  upon  and  subjection  to  your  majestic,  according  to  our 


FROM    DEATH    OF   WINTHROP   TO    PHILIP'S    WAR.  309 

Charter,  it  is  far  from  our  hearts  to  disacknowledge.  We  would  gladly  do  anything 
within  our  power  to  purchase  the  continuance  of  your  favorable  aspect.  But  it  is  a 
great  unhappiness  to  have  no  testimony  of  our  loyalty  offered  but  this,  to  yield  up  our 
liberties,  which  are  far  dearer  to  us  than  our  lives,  and  which  we  have  willingly  ven- 
tured our  lives  and  passed  through  many  deaths  to  obtain." l 

But  this  was  not  all.  Public  meetings  were  held ;  Hathorne  and  Endi- 
cott  2  publicly  protested ;  the  English  friends  of  America  remonstrated  in 
vain,  and  could  not  comprehend  the  objections  made  to  commissioners  who 
had  as  yet  done  no  harm.  Meanwhile,  the  emissaries  went  to  the  other 
Colonies,  whom  it  was  their  policy  to  conciliate ;  then  returning,  desired 
that  the  whole  male  population  of  Massachusetts  should  assemble  in  Boston 
to  hear  the  message  from  the  King.  When  this  was  rejected,  the  Com- 
missioners announced  that  they  should  hold  a  Court,  at  which  the  Colony 
was  cited  to  appear  as  defendant.  Then  followed  one  of  the  picturesque 
scenes  so  characteristic  of  the  life  of  those  days,  —  a  life  which  we  miscon- 
strue as  tame  and  colorless  only.  The  Court  was  to  be  held  at  the  house  of 
Captain  Thomas  Breedon,  on  Hanover  Street,  at  9  A.  M.,  May  24,  1665. 
It  seems  that  a  brother  officer  of  Captain  Breedon's,  one  Colonel  Cart- 
wright,  was  then  lying  lame  of  the  gout  in  this  house;  and  at  eight  on 
the  appointed  morning,  beneath  the  very  window  of  the  unhappy  Colonel, 
a  messenger  of  the  General  Court  stationed  himself,  blew  an  alarum  on  the 
trumpet,  and  proclaimed  "  in  his  Majesty's  name  "  and  by  authority  of  the 
Royal  Charter,  that  the  Court  regarded  this  action  of  the  Commissioners 
as  gross  usurpation,  and  could  in  no  way  "  countenance  any  should  in  so 
high  a  manner  go  cross  unto  his  Majesty's  direct  charge."  This  said,  the 
messenger  departed  with  his  trumpeter,  to  make  the  same  proclamation  in 
two  other  parts  of  the  town  ;  and  when  the  Commissioners  assembled  at  nine, 
they  found  nobody  with  whom  to  confer  except  the  gouty  Colonel  Cart- 
wright,  with  all  his  symptoms  doubtless  exasperated  by  this  intolerable 
interruption  of  his  morning  nap. 

1  [See  Mr.  Deane's  chapter  on  the  struggle  Boston}  of  the  portrait,  from  which  our  cut  is 
for  the  charter  in  this  volume.     Many  original  taken.     There  is  a  copy  of  this  portrait  in  the 
papers  are  in  the  Mass.  Archives,c\\.    (Political,  gallery  of  the  Historical  Society,  taken  by  Smi- 
1638-1700.)  —  ED.]  bert  in  1737.     Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,\\.f>\.     Of 

2  [Endicott  did  not  long  survive  the  Commis-  the  Endicott  portrait,  Mr.  William  C.  Endicott 
sioners' visit,  —  he  died  March  23,  1665.  There  is  wrote,  in  1873,  in  relation  to  a  copy  then  pre- 
an  account  of  Endicott  in  J.  B.  Moore's  Governors  sented  to  the  Amer.  Antiq.  Society  (see  their 
of  New  Plymouth  and  Mass.  Bay,  p.  347.    He  had  Proceedings,  Oct.  21, 1873,  P- l  !3) :  "  The  original, 
removed  to  Boston  from  Salem  before  he  was  now  in  the  possession  of  my  father,  William  P. 
chosen  Governor  in  1644.   His  will,  dated  at  Bos-  Endicott  of  Salem,   descended  to  him  as   the 
ton,  May  2,  1659,  mentions  his  house  on  Cotton  oldest  son  of  the  oldest  son  direct  from  the  gov- 
(Pemberton)  Hill.     In  1721  the  family  of  Endi-  ernor,  together  with  the  sword  with  which  the 
cott  had  no  nearer  representative  in  Boston  than  cross  was  cut  from  the  king's  colors.     It  was 
Mr.  John  Edwards,  who  that  year  applied  to  painted  in  1665,  the  year  of  the  governor's  death, 
have  possession  of  the  tomb  of  the  Governor  in  and  the  tradition  in  the  family  declares  it  to 
the   Granary  burying-ground.     A   genealogy  of  have  been  a  most  admirable  likeness.     I  do  not 
his  family  is  printed   in   the   N.  E.  Hist,  and  know  when  the  several  copies   in  the   Senate 
Geneal.  Reg.,  October,  1847,  and  a  memoir  of  the  Chamber,  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society, 
Governor  was  given  in  the  July  number  of  the  and  the  Essex  Institute  were  made,  but  they  are 
same  year,  with  a  steel  plate   (also  in  Drake's  all  more  or  less  imperfect  and  inferior."  —  ED.] 


310  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

What  neither  Church  nor  State  nor  days  of  fasting  could  convey  to  the 
minds  of  the  Commissioners  was  apparently  made  plain  by  this  one  herald's 
proclamation.  Sermons  and  prayers  were  unavailing,  but  the  sound  of  a 
trumpet  seemed  significant.  "  Since  you  misconstrue  our  labors,"  said  the 
Commissioners  with  dignity,  "  we  shall  not  lose  more  of  our  labors  upon 
you."  This  was  precisely  what  the  Colony  wished.  It  proceeded  to  show 
its  loyalty  in  its  own  way ;  sent  provisions  to  the  English  fleet  in  the  West 
Indies,  and  sent  a  ship-load  of  masts  to  the  navy  in  England,  —  an  act  which 
Pepys  describes  as  "  a  blessing  mighty  unexpected,  and  but  for  which  we 
should  have  failed  next  year."  But  Massachusetts  persisted  in  her  protest 
against  the  Commissioners,  and  nothing  ever  came  of  their  enterprise. 
It  was  not  until  many  years  later,  after  a  season  of  cruel  Indian  wars  and 
the  death  of  King  Philip,  that  the  English  Ministry,  which  had  done  noth- 
ing to  help  the  Colony  through  its  struggle,  at  last  fulfilled  for  a  time 
its  purpose  "  to  reassume  the  government  of  Massachusetts  into  its  own 
hands." 


CHAPTER    IX. 


BOSTON     IN     PHILIP'S     WAR. 


«J^  n-U'wiUL* 


BY     THE     REV.     EDWARD     E.     HALE,     D.D. 

Minister  of  the  South  Congregational  Ch-urch. 

ON  the  twenty-first  of  June,  1675,  an  express  which  had  started  from 
Marshfield,  in  Plymouth  County,  early  that  morning,  came  clattering 
over  the  Neck,  and  delivered  to  Governor  Leverett,  at  three  or  four  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon,  a  letter  from  Governor  Winslow  of  the  Old  Colony.  The 
original  letter  is  still  preserved.1  It  announced  that  Philip  and  his  band  of 
Indians  had 
alarmed  the 
people  of 
Swansea,  and 
that  these  had 
retreated  to 
their  block- 
house. This 
was  on  Sun- 
day, the  day 

/3ff  fl  (T^~^f  before.      Winslow's    letter   says,  manfully, 

S**~  *^~~&r\j&t4jjb  ^at  t^ie  Plymoutn  Colony  will  give  a  good 

/?    C)  account  of  Philip  in  a  few  days  if  the  Mas- 

S^j~***"**"     ^  /  •    /5^     sachusetts  will  see  that  the  Narragansetts 

f^/  __  and  the  Nipmucks  do  not  act  to  assist  that 

chieftain.    He  also  says  that  the  Old-Colony 

people  had  been  taking  all  precautions  not  to  insult  or  injure  Indians.     But 
the  war  with  Philip  had  had  a  long  prelude,  and  in  this  very  month  of  June 
the  Indian  murderers  of  Sausaman,  or  Wussausman,  one  of  Eliot's  disciples, 
had  been  executed.     One  of  them  had 
testified  before  his  death  that  his  father, 
a  counsellor  and  friend  of  Philip,  had  a 
hand  in  that  murder,  which  was  supposed 
to  have  a  political  character. 

1  [In  the  Mass.  Archives,  Ixvii.  202.     A  fac-simile  of  the  subscription  is  given  above. — ED.] 


312  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Their  twenty-first  of  June  corresponds  to  our  first  of  July,  and  the 
reader  must  imagine  hot  July  days  in  the  mustering  of  hosts  which  followed. 
Leverett's  house  stood  at  the  corner  of  Court  and  Washington  Streets,  where 
the  Sears  building  now  stands.1  We  can  well  imagine  that  the  Marshfield 
express,  as  he  passed  through  the  little  town  with  the  tidings  of  war,  did  not 
make  the  least  of  them.  He  had  made  good  time  on  his  sad  errand.  Lev- 
erett  summoned  his  Council  at  once.  We  have  the  list  of  those  who  at- 
tended, —  and,  as  these  Boston  members  of  the  Council  became  in  practice 
the  military  committee  who  carried  on  the  war,  the  names  are  worth  record- 
ing here.  They  were  Samuel  Symonds,  Simon  Bradstreet,  Richard  Russell 

<*^  (who  was  Treasurer),  Thomas  Danforth, 
*~  William  Hathorne,  Edward  Tyng,  Wil- 
liam Stoughton,  and  Thomas  Clarke, 
with  Edward  Rawson,  the  Secretary.  One 
fancies  Stoughton  picking  up 
the  news  as  the  express  passed 
him  in  Dorchester,  and  coming 
in  to  the  Council  on  that  sum- 
mons. John  Hull  was  soon  after  added,  as  treasurer  for  the  war. 

The  Council  immediately  engaged  Edward  Hutchinson  (a  young  captain), 
Seth  Perry,  and  William  Powers,  to  go  to  the  Narragansetts,  bidding  them  to 
call  on  Roger  Williams2  on  the  way,  and  avail  themselves  of  all  his  influence 
in  persuading  or  ordering  the  Narragansetts  not  to  come  into  any  alliance 
with  Philip.  Horses  were  impressed  for  them,  and  they  started  on  their 
errand.  From  day  to  day,  further  news  was  received  from  Swansea,  where 
the  Plymouth  forces  were  gathering  around  Philip ;  and  meanwhile  two  mes- 
sengers were  despatched  to  Mount  Hope,  with  some  expectation  of  negoti- 
ation with  him.  But  these  messengers  found,  on  the  twenty-fourth,  that  the 
war  was  begun.  One  of  the  Swansea  men  had  wounded  an  Indian  who 
was  killing  his  cattle,  and  the  Indians  had  retaliated  by  killing  some  of  the 
Swansea  men.  Boston  was  all  alive  meanwhile  ;  drums  beat  for  volunteers ; 
in  three  hours'  time  one  hundred  and  ten  men  were  mustered.  Meanwhile, 
the  regular  train-bands  were  notified  that  they  must  be  ready  for  draft ;  and 
the  whole  history  shows  that  their  organization  was  complete,  and  that  they 
were  ready  to  meet  such  demands  with  promptness. 

Winslow  had  not  asked  for  military  assistance.  But,  in  the  note  sent  to  him 
in  reply  to  his  first  despatch,  Leverett  had  assured  him  that  the  larger  colony 
would  send  him  any  arms  or  ammunition  which  he  required.  As  accounts 
of  real  war  came  in,  the  Council  organized  an  aggressive  expedition.  To 
the  command  of  it  they  appointed  Captain  John  Richards  to  go  "  as  cap- 
tain of  the  foot ;  who  shamefully  refused  the  employment." Jt  Captain  Daniel 

1  [Drake,  Landmarks,  p.  83.     See  Introduc-  3  [The  original  minutes  of  this  meeting,  as 
tion  to  vol.  ii.  for  the  site  of  Governor  Leverett's  taken  by  Rawson  the  secretary  on  a  bit  of  pa- 
house. —  ED]  per,  are  preserved  in  the  Mass.  Archives,  Ixvii. 

2  [Cf.   Williams's   letters   in   the    Winthrop  204,  and  this  reproach  seems  to  have  been  inter- 
Papers,  in  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  vi.  —  ED.|  lined  later,  as  the  fac-simile  shows.  —  Eo.J 


BOSTON    IN    PHILIP'S   WAR.  313 

Henchman  was  then  chosen  to  "  go  forth  as  the  captain  of  one  hundred  men  for 
the  service,  and  Captain  Thomas  Prentice  to  be  captain  of  the  horse."    These 


titles  were  given  them  because  they  were  already  captains  in  the  train-bands. 
Orders  were  given  to  the  militia  of  Boston  and  of  all  the  neighboring  towns 
to  furnish  such  a  number  of  able  soldiers  as  should  make  one  hundred  in  all 
for  Henchman's  command,  to  be  ready  at  an  hour's  notice.  Each  soldier 
was  to  have  his  arms  complete  and  knapsack  ready  to  march,  "  and  not  fail, 
but  be  at  the  randyvous"  On  the  twenty-fifth,  these  men  were  summoned 
to  appear  "  at  their  colors  in  the  market-place  at  six  in  the  evening,  with 
their  arms  ready  fixed  for  service."  On  the  next  day,  Daniel  Denison 
was  appointed  Commander- 
in-chief  of  all  the  forces  of 
the  colony.1 

Henchman  and  Prentice 
marched  on  the  twenty-sixth 
with  their  men.  When  they 
reached  Neponset  River,  at  a  point  about  twenty  miles  2  from  Boston,  there 
happened  a  great  eclipse  of  the  moon,  which  was  totally  darkened  above  an 
hour.  William  Hubbard  says  that  some  melancholy  fancies  thought  the 
eclipse  ominous,  and  conceived  that  in  the  centre  of  the  moon  they  discerned 
an  Indian  scalp.  He  adds  that  they  might  rather  have  thought  of  Crassus's 
joke  when  the  moon  was  eclipsed  in  Capricorn,  that  he  was  more  afraid  of 
Sagittarius  than  of  Capricornus.  Cotton  Mather  improves  on  Hubbard 
enough  to  say  that  some  of  the  soldiers  did  think  of  Crassus.  Henchman 
had  been  master  in  the  Latin  school,  and  may  have  remembered  the  story. 

The  next  day  Samuel  Mosley 
and  his  company  overtook  the 
advance.  He  had  beat  up  for 
volunteers  in  Boston,  and  with  one  hundred  and  ten  men,  who  were  called 
"  Privateers," 3  had  made  a  quick  march ;  so  that  he  and  Henchman  and 
Prentice  all  arrived  together  at  Swansea. 

It  is  no  part  of  this  Memorial  History  to  trace  the  details  of  the  history 
of  Philip's  war,  except  so  far  as  Boston  took  part  in  it.     But  as  the  gov- 

1  [Cf.  an  account  of  Denison  by  D.  D.  Slade          2  [So  Hubbard  says.  — ED.] 
in   N.   E.  Hist,   and   Gcncal.  Keg.,  July,    1869.  3  Probably  as  a  synonym  for  "volunteers," 

Drake,  Town  of  Roxbury,  p.  90.  —  En.]  — not  because  they  had  served  at  sea. 
VOL.  I  — 40. 


3H 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY    OF   BOSTON. 


ernor  of  Massachusetts  and  the  military  committee  were  Boston  men,  and 
as  the  commissioners  for  the  united  colonies  met  in  Boston,  most  of  the 
orders  for  the  war  went  out  from  the  council  chamber  in  the  Boston  Town 

House.  Boston,  Rox- 
bury,  Dorchester,  and 
Charlestown  furnished 
a  considerable  propor- 
tion of  the  Massachu- 
setts contingents,  who 
were  always  ready  with 
a  singular  promptness, 
which  shows  that  the 
people  must  have  lived 
as  in  the  presence  of 
an  enemy.  To  describe 
the  arrangements  thus 
made  for  war  in  the  cap- 
ital, with  such  thread  of 
its  history  in  the  field 
as  may  be  necessary 
to  explain  them,  is  the 
object  of  this  chapter. 
Everything  in  the 
history  shows  that  the 
colony  at  this  time  was 
fairly  in  the  second 

generation  from  the  settlement.  There  is  nothing  of  the  polish  and  state  of 
the  beginning,  but  there  is  in  all  the  despatches  and  letters  the  vigor,  not 
to  say  the  rigor,  of  a  generation  only  too  well  trained  by  hardship.  John 
Leverett,  the  governor,  was  such  a  man  as  republics  are  apt  to  put  in  the 
front.  He  was  born  in  the  English  Boston  in  1616,  was  trained  under 
Cotton's  preaching,  and  seems  to  have  crossed  the  ocean  in  the  same  ship 
with  him  and  with  Governor  Haynes.  He  returned  to  England  in  time  to 
serve  through  the  whole  Civil  War  as  a  Captain  of  Horse,  and  he  acquired 
the  confidence  and  friendship  of  Cromwell. 

In  1655  he  was  sent  to  England  as  the  colony's  agent,  and  he  remained 
there  till  Charles  II.  was  well  seated  on  his  throne.  Very  likely  the  old  sol- 
dier would  have  been  glad  to  lead  this  campaign  himself.  But  at  sixty 
years  of  age  he  did  not  take  the  field,  and  the  immediate  direction  of  affairs 
fell  to  younger  men.  His  own  letter  to  the  Government  of  Connecticut, 
written  on  the  28th  of  June,  is  a  good  description  of  the  energetic  activity 
of  those  first  days :  — 

"  Upon  the  2ist  instant,  about  three  o'clock,  came  an  express  to  me  from  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Plymouth,  signifying  that  upon  the  Lord's  day  before  an  armed  party  of 
Philip's  men  attacked  two  houses  not  far  from  Swansea,  and  drove  the  people  out  of 


SIGNATURES   OF  THE   COMMISSIONERS. 


BOSTON    IN    PHILIP'S   WAR. 


315 


them,  who  fled  to  the  town  and  gave  intelligence  thereof ;  and  accordingly  Swansea  men 
sent  a  post  to  the  Governor  of  Plymouth  to  acquaint  him  of  their  needs,  —  with  all  in- 
timating that  the  Indians  were  rrferching  to  Swansea.  The  Governor  thereupon  ordered 
some  relief  to  be  sent  to  Swansea,  as  he  informed  us.  The  armed  Indians  marched 
up  to  the  bridge  at  Swansea,  but  40  of  the  English  of  Swansea  being  posted  at 
the  bridge  the  Indians  retreated  to  Mount  Hope  again ;  but  since  have  made  several 


GOVERNOR  JOHN  LEVERETT. 


excursions  in  small  parties,  and  have  plundered  several  houses  not  far  from  Swansea. 
And  afterwards,  about  the  24th  and  25th  and  26th  day  of  this  instant,  have  killed  about 
5  or  6  persons  in  all  in  a  skulking  way,  and  barbarously  taken  the  head,  scalpe,  and 
hands  of  two  persons,  and  some  within  sight  of  a  Court  of  Guard,  —  others  they  have 
wounded  about  twenty  ;  and  a  house  they  have  fired,  and  daily  we  hear  of  the  increase 
of  trouble.  The  Governor  of  that  colony  has  frequently  solicited  us  for  aid,  which  as 
soon  as  we  could  possibly  raise  we  have  sent  to  them.  It  is  certified  from  Plymouth 


1  [A  portrait  of  Leverett  is  preserved  in  the 
gallery  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society  at 
Worcester.  He  was  the  Governor  from  1673- 
78.  He  died  March  16,  1679,  ar>d  the  order  of 
march  at  his  funeral  is  given  in  Snow's  Boston, 
p.  170.  Dr.  N.  B.  Shurtleff  gives  an  account  of 
him  and  his  family  in  the  N,  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal. 
Keg.,  1850,  p.  125;  cf.  also  October,  1858.  A 
communication  on  the  seal  and  family  of  the 


Governor  is  in  the  Heraldic  Journal,  i.  83.  A 
Memoir  of  Sir  John  Leverett  and  of  the  Family 
generally,  by  Rev.  C.  E.  Leverett,  was  printed 
in  Boston  in  1856.  Two  of  the  three  preserved 
portraits  of  the  Governor  are  engraved  in  this 
memoir.  Mr.  Leverett  also  prepared  the  tabu- 
lar pedigree  in  Drake's  Boston,  folio  edition. 
J.  B.  Moore  has  a  memoir  of  the  Governor  in  his 
Governors  of  Plymouth  and  Mass.  Bay.  —  ED.] 


316  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

and  Swansea  that  both  Narragansetts  and  Nipmucks  have  sent  aid  to  Philip  ;  we  sent 
messengers  to  Narragansetts  and  Nipmucks  to  warn  and  caution  them  not  to  help  Philip, 
and  if  any  were  gone  to  command  to  return.  Our  messengers  are  returned  from  both 
these  places.  The  Nipmucks  speak  fair,  and  say  they  are  faithful  to  their  engage- 
ments and  will  not  assist  Philip.  The  Narragansetts  say  they  will  not  meddle  ;  but  there 
is  more  reason  to  suspect  the  latter,  and  we  believe  they  are  not  unconcerned  in  this 
matter.  All  our  intelligence  gives  us  ground  to  believe  that  the  poor  people  in  these  I 
parts  are  in  a  very  distressed  condition  in  many  respects.  Their  houses  burned,  their 
people  killed  and  wounded,  and  they  not  able  to  make  any  attempt  upon  the  Indians, 
wanting  for  victuals,  amunition,  and  arms.  We  have  occasion  to  send  greater  force 
for  their  relief.  We  have  sent  about  three  hundred  foot  and  about  eighty  horse,  besides 
several  carts  laden  with  munition,  provisions,  and  armes.  Moreover  we  are  sending 
two  vessels  with  provision  and  munition  to  supply  their  forces,  the  vessels  to  serve  as 
there  shall  be  cause.  We  sent  Captain  Savage  and  Mr.  Brattle  four  days  since  to 
speak  with  Philip,  who  are  returned,  but  could  not  obtain  speech  with  him.  The  Coun- 
cil has  appointed  a  fast  to-morrow  to  seek  God  in  this  matter  for  a  blessing  upon  our 
forces.  How  far  this  trouble  may  speed,  it  is  with  the  Lord  to  order.  There  is  reason 
to  conceive  that  if  Philip  be  not  soone  suppressed  he  and  his  confederates  may  skulk 
into  the  woods  and  greatly  annoy  the  English,  and  that  the  confederacy  of  the  In- 
dians be  larger  than  yet  we  see.  Major-General  Denison  was  chosen  for  the  general 
of  these  forces,  but  he  being  taken  ill  Captain  Savage  is  sent  commander-in-chief. 
Captain  Prentice  is  Commander  of  the  Horse,  and  Captain  Henchman  and  Captain 
Mosley  Captain  of  the  Foot.  Our  eyes  are  unto  the  Lord  for  his  presence  with  them, 
and  hope  you  will  not  be  wanting  in  your  prayers  and  watchfulness  over  the  Indians, 
and  particularly  request  you  to  use  your  utmost  authority  to  restrain  the  Mohegans  and 
Pequods." 

John  Richards  the  captain,  who  is  spoken  of  so  cavalierly  as  having 
shamefully  refused  the  command,  was  a  person  of  a  good  deal  of  note,  and 
does  not  seem  to  have  lost  in  public  estimation  by  this  refusal.  He  was 
chosen  an  Assistant  from  1680  to  1686;  in  Andres's  time  he  was  a  "  high 
friend  of  liberty,"  in  Mr.  Savage's  phrase ;  was  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  when  he  died  was  buried  with  all  the  honors.  The  "  shameful 
refusal "  to  take  command  of  the  foot  may  be  the  testy  memorandum  of  an 
excited  day. 


(2/°^n^}   C^rLVt^2- 

ns/fatf^fa 


BOSTON    IN    PHILIP'S    WAR.  317 

The  captains  of  the  eight  companies  in  Boston  were  Thomas  Clarke, 
Thomas  Savage,  James  Oliver,  William  Hudson,  Daniel  Henchman,  John 
Richards,  John  Hull,  and  [John  ?]  Clarke.  Failing  Richards,  as  has  been  said, 
the  command  of  the  infantry  was  given  to  Henchman,  and  that  of  the  horse 
to  Thomas  Prentice  of  Newton.  Daniel  Denison,  the  major-general,  was  not 
well,  and  the  general  command  was  transferred  to  Savage,  the  father. 

Daniel  Henchman  first  appears  in  our  local  history  as  the  assistant 
teacher  in  the  Latin  School,  then  under  the  charge  of  Robert  Woodmansey. 
In  1669  he  was  appointed  on  the  committee  ^/ 
for  the  survey  of  a  new  plantation,  and  from  VV 
the  history  of  Worcester  it  appears  that  he  ^E^O 
was  one  of  the  most  important  persons  in  laying  out  and  settling  that  town. 
He  died  there  in  the  year  1685.  He  was  a  connection  of  Judge  Sewall,  and 
there  was  in  Sewall's  house  a  room  called  by  his  name.  Everything  in  his 
letters  shows  that  he  was  a  good  soldier  and  a  prompt  executive  man,  and 
he  is,  perhaps,  the  most  prominent  representative  of  Boston  as  the  war  goes 
on.  Like  other  commanders  he  is  often  blamed.  Doubtless  he  made  mis- 
takes like  other  men.  But  there  is  a  manliness  in  his  treatment  of  the 
Christian  Indians  which  conciliates  respect. 

Both  the  Savages,  father  and  son,  appear  in  these  campaigns  with  dis- 
tinction. The  son,  Perez  Savage,  who  was  an  ensign,  was  but  a  young  man  ; 
and  in  one  of  the  very  first  encounters  he  was  badly  wounded  in  the  thigh 
by  a  shot  from  his  own  party.  He  was  wounded  again  in  the  Narragansett 
fight,  but  recovered  and  died  twenty  years  after,  a  captive  in  Mequinez  in 
Barbary.  He  had  probably  been  taken  by  the  Algerines  in  his  trade  with 
Spain.  Thomas  Savage,  the  father,  was  one  of  the  men  whom  the  General 
Court  disarmed  in  the  Wheelwright  troubles.  He  had  at  one  time  retired 
into  Rhode  Island.  He  lived  to  revenge  himself  on  his  old  persecutors  by 
leading  their  army  with  courage,  prudence,  and  skill.  He  became  now  the 
commander  of  the  whole  contingent  into  Plymouth  County.  He  made  his 
will  on  the  28th  of  June,  the  day  he  marched  to  the  war;  and  on  the  25th 
of  June  he  was  appointed  one  of  the  committee  for  the  war,  and  had  all  the 
accounts  of  the  military  expenses  confided  to  him.  The  next  May  he  was 
appointed  treasurer,  as  successor  to  Richard  Russell. 

John  Hull,  another  of  the  captains,  was  the  mint  master.  It  is  clear  that 
his  services  as  treasurer  were  so  essential  that  it  was  out  of  the  question  that 
he  should  march  with  the  troops.  No  suggestion  of  other  reason  appears 
in  the  record. 

The  various  companies  did  not  take  the  field  as  such  this  year,  but 
after  October  they  were  ready  to  do  so.  They  were  three  times  drafted 
for  this  war:  once  for  the  first  expedition,  and  once  for  troops  to  the  east- 
ward ;  again  for  the  attack  on  the  Narragansetts.  The  whole  number  was 
probably  about  850,  —  of  whom  the  greater  part  were  called  into  one  or 
another  service  during  the  war.  For  the  sinews  of  war  the  proper  taxes 
were  levied,  and  a  powder-mill  was  successfully  established  at  Dorchester. 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


The  three  companies  arrived  at  Swansea  in  forty-eight  hours  from  the 
time  when  they  left  Boston.  There  is  an  intimation  in  one  despatch  that 
Henchman's  forces,  though  infantry,  went  as  "  dragoons,"  — by  which  phrase 
was  then  meant  what  we  call  "  mounted  infantry."  If  the  first  march  were 
effected  thus,  their  horses  were  sent  back,  for  they  certainly  served  after- 
wards as  foot.  They  at  once  drove  the  Indians  back  from  Swansea  to  Mount 


CAPTAIN   THOMAS   SAVAGE.1 


1  [This  engraving  follows  an  original  paint- 
ing owned  by  his  descendant,  Colonel  Henry 
Lee  of  Boston,  who  some  years  ago  bought  it  of 
another  descendant,  Mr.  William  H.  Spooner, 
in  whose  family  it  had  descended.  Beneath  the 
arms  in  the  upper  right-hand  corner  is  the  in- 
scription :  "  JEta :  73.  An?  1679."  He  's  buried 
in  the  King's  Chapel  yard,  and  the  inscription 


on  his  tomb,  with  the  arms,  is  given  in  the 
Heraldic  Journal,  ii.  22.  Shurtleff,  Description 
of  Boston,  p.  195;  Savage,  Genealogical  Dic- 
tionary, iv.  23;  Whitman,  Ancient  and  Honor- 
able Artillery  Company.  He  lived  near  the 
northerly  corner  of  North  and  Fleet  streets, 
and  had  a  shop  near  Edward  Gibbons's  house. 
He  was  a  tailor.  —  ED.] 


BOSTON    IN    PHILIP'S    WAR.  319 

Hope,  in  an  action  in  which  young  Savage  was  wounded.  His  father,  the 
commander-in-chief,  arrived  the  next  day,  and  led  his  force  to  an  attack  on 
Mount  Hope.  They  found  and  destroyed  Philip's  own  wigwam.  But  the 
enemy  had  flown.  After  a  week's  marching  and  countermarching,  Hench- 
man with  his  force  crossed  into  Rhode  Island,  and  gave  efficiency  to 
the  negotiation  which  Edward  Hutchinson  and  Joseph  Dudley  had  been 
directed  to  carry  on  with  the  Narragansetts.  The  Sachems  of  that  tribe 
bound  themselves  not  to  enter  into  the  war,  and  to  detain  any  of  Philip's 
subjects  who  fell  in  their  way;  to  surrender  any  goods  stolen  from  the 
English,  and  themselves  to  make  war  against  Philip :  for  which  they  gave 
four  hostages.  This  treaty  was  signed  by  Coeman,  Taitson,  and  Tawageson, 
as  "  Councillors  and  Attorneys  "  to  the  six  Sachems  of  the  Narragansetts. 
It  is  dated  on  the  I5th  of  July. 

While  this  was  passing,  Colonel  Benjamin  Church,  in  command  of  the 
forces  in  the  Old  Colony,  had  brought  Philip  and  his  men  to  bay  at  Pocasset, 
on  Taunton  River.  So  soon  as  Henchman  returned,  on  the  i8th  of  July,  he 
undertook  to  besiege  them  there.  Retaining  his  own  company  of  foot  he 
sent  the  other  Massachusetts  companies  home.  Prentice  and  his  troop  were 
ordered  to  Mendon,  in  Norfolk  County.  Philip  outwitted  Henchman.  He 
waded  the  Taunton  River  at  low  tide  with  his  warriors,  leaving  one  hun- 
dred women  and  children  behind.  Henchman  secured  these,  and  learning 
that  Philip  was  marching  north-west  followed  with  his  company,  about  a  day 
behind.  He  went  to  Providence  in  a  sloop,  "  giving  each  one  three  biscakes, 
a  fish,  and  a  few  raisons,  with  ammunition  that  may  last  two  or  three  days." 
A  party  of  Mohegans,  on  their  way  from  Boston  to  reinforce  him,  cut  off 
Philip's  rear,  and  killed  about  thirty  men.  But  Philip  escaped  further  pursuit. 
Henchman  was  blamed  for  letting  him  escape.  It  seems  clear  that  the  blame, 
after  the  first  mistake,  was  not  well  deserved.  But  Philip  himself  said,  that 
when  they  were  in  Pocasset  their  powder  was  almost  gone,  and  that  if  they 
had  been  pressed  there  they  must  have  surrendered. 

The  intense  excitement  in  Boston,  meanwhile,  may  be  well  conceived. 
As  Leverett's  letter  has  shown,  the  Council  appointed  a  Fast  for  the  29th  of 
June.  But  persons  who  suppose  such  appointments  were  very  eagerly  met 
must  notice  the  memorandum  on  the  Dorchester  church  records :  "  There 
was  no  meeting  that  day  in  this  town,  but  people  went  abroad  to  meetings 
in  other  towns."  Besides  the  troop  of  Prentice,  Captain  Isaac  Johnson  was 
ordered  on  the  I5th  to  march  with  sol- 
diers  "  listed  under  the  order  of  Major 
Treatt"  (Governor  of  Connecticut),  as  also  some  others  from  Boston,  to 
relieve  Mendon  and  Wrentham.  Johnson  was  of  Roxbury,  the  son  of  John 
Johnson.  Like  all  the  other  train-band  captains,  he  was  a  man  of  distin- 
guished social  position.  He  had  been  many  years  in  the  artillery  company, 
and  had  served  in  the  Legislature.1  Major  Treatt,  who  had  formerly  lived 

1  [F.  S.  Drake,  Town  of  Roxbury,  p.  393,  says  he  lived  opposite  Amory  Street,  where 
Centre  Street  beads  to  the  west.  —  ED.] 


320  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

in  Connecticut,  was  acting  under  the  orders  of  Connecticut  in  command  of 
some  auxiliary  Mohegans. 

The  towns  westward  from  Medfield  and  Wrentham,  as  far  as  Springfield, 
Westfield,  Hadley,  and  Hatfield,  were  in  constant  danger  through  the  rest 
of  the  year.  Edward  Hutchinson  was  killed  in  an  early  surprise  near 
.^7  Marlborough.  He  and  Captain 

*"~  Wheeler,  of  Concord,  had  been 

despatched  on  an  expedition 
from  Boston  into  the  Nipmuck 
country,  to  ascertain  how  those  Indians  were  affected.  Wheeler  was  wounded 
in  the  same  ambush. 

Henchman  and  Mosley,  with  Boston  soldiers,  were  moving  backward  and 
forward  as  occasion  directed.  Beers,  Captain  of  Watertown,  and  Lothrop, 
at  the  head  of  the  "  Flower  of  Essex,"  were  killed  in  that  campaign.  It  was 
Captain  Mosley's  good  fortune,  hearing  the  musketry,  to  come  to  the  relief 
of  the  wounded  after  the  massacre  at  Bloody  Brook.  Lothrop  lost  fifty- 
nine  men ;  Mosley  lost  three.1 

Of  all  these  commanders,  Samuel  Mosley  is  he  who  would  figure  most 
brilliantly  in  a  romance.  He  had,  perhaps,  been  what  we  call  a  privateer. 
He  had  a  rough-and-ready  way  with  him,  and  indulged  his  prejudices  to  the 
country's  injury.  It  was  he  who,  in  this  western  campaign,  took  fifteen 
friendly  Indians  from  their  fort  at  Marlborough,  and  sent  them  under  guard, 
tied  to  each  other,  to  Boston,  to  be  tried  for  the  attack  on  Lancaster.  It 
was  he  of  whom  the  old  story  is  told,  that  he  took  off  his  wig  and  hung 
it  on  a  tree  that  he  might  fight  more  coolly,  —  to  the  great  terror  of  the 
enemy,  who  thought  there  was  little  use  in  scalping  such  a  man.  It  was 
he  who,  next  year,  in  proposing  to  raise  another  company,  said  he  would 
take  for  pay  the  captives  and  plunder,  —  and  was  permitted  to  do.  so. 
He  was  a  lesser  Garibaldi,  and,  it  need  hardly  be  added,  was  always  in 
hot  water. 

Meanwhile,  Boston  had  all  the  terrors  and  other  excitements  of  a  town 
which  is  a  little  removed  from  the  scene  of  danger,  where  every  rumor 
swells  the  truth,  and  people  have  not  the  safety-valve  of  vigorous  work 
before  an  enemy.  In  August,  when  the  Christian  Indians  at  Marlbor- 
ough were  tried  on  the  charge  of  murder,  John  Eliot,  the  minister  of  Rox- 
bury,  with  Daniel  Gookin,  always  the  Indians'  loyal  friend,  made  every 
effort  to  save  them  from  the  popular  fury,  and  succeeded  with  all  but  one, 
who  was  sold  for  a  slave.  There  seemed  some  doubt  of  his  innocence ; 
that  of  the  others  was  certain.  But  their  friends  brought  the  indigna- 
tion of  the  mob  on  their  own  heads.  Eliot  happened  to  be  run  down  in  a 
boat,  by  a  large  vessel,  and  was  almost  drowned.  Cotton  Mather  repeats 
with  horror  the  exclamation  of  some  man  unknown,  that  he  wished  Eliot 

1  Only  two  names  are  legible,  —  Peter  Barren  slain  in  the  county  of  Hampshire,  1675,  's 
and  John  Vates.  These,  it  will  be  observed,  given  in  the  Massachusetts  Archives,  Ixviii.  33. 
were  privateers,  or  volunteers.  [A  list  of  the  — ED.] 


BOSTON    IN    PHILIP'S   WAR.  321 

had  been  drowned.1  The  Indians,  after  acquittal,  were  let  loose  by  night. 
This  so  inflamed  the  mob,  that  some  thirty  boys  and  young  fellows 
called  at  nine  o'clock  at  night  on  James  Oliver,  a  magistrate,  thinking 
he  would  lead  them  in  an  attack  on  the  prison,  that  they  might  take 
and  hang  one  remaining  Indian.  Oliver  manfully  took  his  cane  and 
cudgelled  them  then  and  there,  and  "  so  far  dismissed  them."  There 
was  a  clamor  for  "  martial  law."  A  few  days  after,  when  a  Watertown 
man,  named  Shattucke,  had  said  at  the  porch  of  the  "  Three  Cranes,"  in 
Charlestown,  that  he  would  be  hanged,  if  he  would  ever  serve  again  if 
the  Marlborough  Indians  were  cleared,  Gookin  relates  with  satisfaction 
that  within  a  quarter  of  an  hour  he  was  drowned  by  the  sinking  of  the 
Charlestown  ferry-boat.  There  were  other  men  on  board,  but  all  were 
saved  except  him. 

Swayed  by  the  popular  resentment,  or  striving  to  satisfy  it,  the  General 
Court  made  stringent  orders  about  Indians.  None  were  to  enter  the  town 
unless  with  a  guard  of  two  musketeers ;  any  Indian  found  in  town  without 
such  guard  might  be  arrested.  And  by  another  vote  Eliot's  colony  of  pray- 
ing Indians  at  Natick  were  removed  to  Deer  Island,  in  Boston  Harbor,  with 
the  consent  of  Mr.  Shrimpton,  who  owned  it.  Prentice  supervised  the  sad 
removal.  The  Indians  made  no  opposition.  Two  hundred  men,  women, 
and  children,  they  loaded  their  little  possessions  on  six  carts  Prentice  had 
brought  with  him,  and  at  a  place  called  "The  Pines,"  at  the  Arsenal 
grounds,  not  far  from  Mount  Auburn,  they  were  put  on  boats  for  the 
Island.  At  "  The  Pines "  Eliot  met  them  to  comfort  and  help  them. 
On  the  3Oth  of  October,  at  the  full  tide,  they  embarked  at  midnight  and 
were  carried  to  the  Island.  Another  colony  of  friendly  Indians  and 
prisoners  were  afterwards  sent  to  Long  Island,  in  the  harbor.  They 
were  kept  at  fishing  and  digging  clams,  and  when  the  next  summer  came 
they  broke  up  the  land  at  Deer  Island  for  planting.  The  Council  ap- 
pointed two  "  meet  men  "  to  oversee  them,  and  supply  them  with  food. 
Before  winter  came,  the  number  of  the  Deer-Island  colony  had  enlarged 
to  five  hundred. 

It  has  been  seen  that  Philip  had  abandoned  his  women  and  children  with- 
out hesitation.  These  were  made  prisoners ;  most  of  them  seem  to  have 
been  brought  to  Boston,  as  well  as  the  prisoners  of  war.  At  first  they  were 
assigned  to  such  families  as  would  receive  them ;  but  before  the  war  ended 
they  were  sent  into  West-Indian  slavery.  "  What  was  the  fate  of  Philip's 
wife  and  child?  She  is  a  woman;  he  is  a  lad.  They  surely  did  not  hang 
them?  No.  That  would  have  been  mercy.  They  were  sold  into  slavery: 
West-Indian  slavery !  An  Indian  princess  and  her  child  sold  from  the  cool 
breezes  of  Mount  Hope,  from  the  wild  freedom  of  a  New-England  forest, 
to  gasp  under  the  lash  beneath  the  blazing  sun  of  the  tropics !  Bitter  as 
death  !  Ay,  bitter  as  hell !  "  These  are  Mr.  Everett's  indignant  words  in  his 
Bloody-Brook  address.  Dear  old  John  Eliot  of  Roxbury  made  his  protest 

1  [Eliot's  own  account  of  this  incident  is  quoted  in  Drake's  Town  of  Roxbury,  p.  183. — En.] 
VOL.  I.  —  41. 


322 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


against   this  barbarity   at  the  moment.       A  thousand   pities  that   it  was 
unheeded !  J 

Randolph  picked  up  some  of  the  gossip  about  Eliot  and  his  friends, 
when  in  his  report  of  September,  1676,  he  said  :  "  These  have  been  the  most 
barbarous  and  cruel  enemies  to  the  English,"  —  a  charge  which  is  wholly 
untrue.  In  the  State  archives  are  two  weather-stained  placards,  duplicates 
in  manuscript,  posted  on  the  walls  to  alarm  Gookin  and  Danforth.  They 
are  in  this  language :  — 

"Feb.  28,  1675. 

"  Reader,  thou  art  desired  not  to  suppress  this  paper,  but  to  promote  the  design, 
which  is  to  testify  (those  traitors  to  their  King  and  country)  Guggins  and  Danford, 
that  some  ginerous  spiritts  have  vowed  their  destruction  ;  as  Christians  we  warn  them 
to  prepare  for  death,  for  though  they  will  deservedly  die,  yet  we  wish  the  health  of 
their  souls. 

"  By  the  new  Society,  A.  B.  C.  D."  2 

Richard  Scott  was  imprisoned  and  tried  for  scandalous,  reproachful,  and 
vile  execrations  of  several  persons  in  authority.  He  pleaded  that  he  was 
drunk,  and  was  discharged  on  giving  bonds  for  his  good  behavior. 


1  It  remains  in  his  own  manuscript  in  the 
archives  of  the  State;  never  printed,  indeed, 
until  now :  — 

"To  the  Honorable  Council  sitting  at  Boston  this  13^  6'h 
1675 : — 

"  The  humble  petition  of  John  Eliot  showeth  that  the 
terror  of  selling  away  such  Indians  into  the  islands  for  per- 
petual slavery,  who  shall  yield  up  themselves  to  your  mercy, 
is  like  to  be  an  effectual  prolongation  of  the  war.  Such  an 
exasperation  of  them  as  it  may  produce  we  know  not  what 
evil  consequence  upon  all  the  land.  Christ  hath  said : 
'  Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for  they  shall  obtain  mercy." 
This  usage  of  them  is  worse  than  death.  To  put  to  death 
men  that  have  deserved  to  die  is  an  ordinance  of  God,  and 
a  blessing  is  promised  for  it.  It  may  be  done  in  faith.  The 
design  of  Chris!  in  these  last  days  is  not  to  extirpate  na- 
tions, but  to  gospelize  them.  He  will  spread  the  gospel 
round  the  world  about.  Rev.  xi.  15:  'The  kingdoms  of 
the  world  are  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  his 
Christ.'  His  sovereign  hand  and  grace  hath  brought  the 
gospel  into  these  dark  places  of  the  earth.  When  we 
came  we  declared  to  the  world,  and  it  is  recorded, 
yea,  we  are  engaged  by  our  Letters  Patent  from  the 
King's  Majesty,  that  the  endeavor  for  the  Indians'  conver- 
sion, not  their  extirpation,  were  one  great  end  of  our  enter- 
prise in  coming  to  these  ends  of  the  earth.  The  Lord  hath 
so  succeeded  the  work  as  that  (by  his  grace)  they  have  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  and  sundry  of  themselves  able  to  teach  their 
countrymen  the  good  knowledge  of  God.  The  light  of  the 
gospel  is  risen  among  those  that  sat  in  darkness  and  in  the 
region  of  the  shadow  of  death.  And  however  some  of  them 
have  refused  to  receive  the  gospel,  and  now  are  incensed 
in  their  spirits  into  a  war  against  the  English,  yet  by  that 
good  promise,  —  Psalm  ii.  i,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7, —  I  doubt  not 
but  the  morning  of  Christ  is  to  open  a  door  for  the  free 
passage  of  the  gospel  among  them,  and  that  the  Lord  will 
publish  the  Word.  Ver.^6 :  '  Yet  have  I  set  my  king,  my 
anointed,  upon  the  holy  hill  of  Zion,  though  some  rage 
»l  it.' 

"  My  humble  request  is  that  you  would  follow  Christ  his 
designs  in  this  matter  to  foster  [?]  the  passages  of  religion 


among  them,  and  not  to  destroy  them.  To  send  into  a 
place  a  slave  away  from  spiritual  direction,  to  the  eternal 
ruin  of  their  souls,  is  as  I  apprehend  to  net  contrary  to  the 
mind  of  Christ.  Christ's  command  is  we  should  enlarge 
the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ.  Isay,  liv.  2  :  '  Enlarge  the 
place  of  thy  tent.' 

"  It  seemeth  to  me  that  to  sell  them  away  as  slaves  is  to 
hinder  the  enlargement  of  his  kingdom.  How  can  a  Chris- 
tian sell  [except  ?J  to  act  in  casting  away  their  souls  fur  which 
Christ  hath  in  an  eminent  hand  provided  an  offer  of  the 
gospel  ?  To  sell  souls  for  money  seemeth  to  me  a  danger, 
ous  merchandise.  If  they  deserve  to  die,  it  is  far  better  to 
be  put  to  death  under  godly  persons  who  will  take  religious 
care  that  means  may  be  used  that  they  may  die  penitently. 
To  sell  them  away  from  all  means  of  grace  when  Christ  hath 
provided  means  of  grace  for  them  is  the  way  for  us  to  be 
active  in  destroying  their  souls,  when  we  are  highly  obliged 
to  seek  their  conversion  and  salvation,  and  have  opportunity 
in  our  hand  so  to  do.  Detit.  xxiii.  15,  16.  A  fugitive  ser- 
vant from  a  Pagan  master  might  not  be  delivered  to  this 
master,  but  be  kept  in  Israel  for  the  good  of  his  soul.  How 
much  less  lawful  is  it  to  sell  away  souls  from  under  the  light 
of  the  gospel  into  a  condition  where  their  souls  shall  be 
utterly  lost  so  far  as  appeareth  unto  men  !  All  men  (of 
reading)  condemn  the  Spaniard  for  cruelty  upon  this  point 
in  destroying  men  and  depopulating  the  land.  The  coun- 
try is  large  enough.  Here  is  land  enough  for  them  and 
us  too. 

"  In  the  multitude  of  people  is  the  King's  honor.  It 
will  be  more  to  the  glory  of  Christ  to  have  many  brought 
in  to  worship  his  great  name. 

"  I  beseech  the  honorable  Council  to  pardon  my  bold- 
ness, and  let  the  case  of  conscience  be  discussed  orderly  be- 
fore the  thing  be  acted.  Pardon  my  weakness,  and  leave  to 
reason  and  religion  their  liberty  in  this  great  case  of  con- 
science." 

2  [Mass.  Archives,  xxx.  193.  Palfrey,  iii.  201, 
has  a  note  of  this  incensed  feeling  of  the  popu- 
lace. The  matter  is  also  examined  by  Dr.  Ellis 
in  his  chapter  on  "  The  Indians  of  Eastern  Mas- 
sachusettsr>  in  the  present  volume.  —  Eo.J 


BOSTON   IN   PHILIP'S    WAR.  323 

To  return  to  the  prosecution  of  the  war  in  the  field.  The  Commission- 
ers of  the  four  united  colonies  determined  to  carry  the  war  against  the 
Narragansetts.  It  was  charged  that  their  young  men  had  been  found  in  the 
parties  of  warlike  Indians.  It  was  certain  that  they  had  not  delivered  up 
the  Wampanoags,  Philip's  men,  who  had  taken  shelter  with  them.  Far  less 
had  they  held  to  the  treaty  made  by  their  "  attorneys,"  and  carried  on  war 
against  him.  A  new  army  of  one  thousand  men  was  now  called  out,  of 
which  Massachusetts  was  to  furnish  five  hundred  and  twenty-seven.  Bos- 
ton, as  she  then  was,  furnished  one  hundred  and  eight.  Charlestown  fur- 
nished fifteen.  Winslow  was  the  commander-in-chief.  Dec.  13,  1676,  is 
one  of  the  terrible  days 
in  our  history.  The  lit- 
tle army  marched  from 
Bull's  Fort,  known  to 
modern  tourists  as  Tow- 
er Hill,  on  Narragansett  Bay.  Passing  over  Kingston  Hill,  in  a  cold  snow- 
storm, they  came  upon  the  Indian  fort  in  the  midst  of  a  swamp.  The 
Stonington  railroad  of  to-day  passes  close  by  the  place.  They  stormed 
the  fort  at  once.  Johnston  and  Davenport  were  killed  at  the  head  of  their 
men,  in  leading  the  attack.  It  was  only  after  a  severe  battle  that  the  place 
was  taken,  and  the  wigwams  burned.  The  only  vestiges  to  be  found  to-day 
are  here  and  there  a  grain  of  Indian  corn  burned  black  in  the  destruction.1 
The  full  loss  of  the  army  was  thirty-one  killed  and  sixty-seven  wounded. 
Such,  at  least,  was  the  official  return  at  the  time.  ^ 

Appleton  of  Ipswich  had  been  withdrawn  from    ^}cfrnl*-ti^  ^j-i^p^fJ-'^-' 
the  west  for  this  expedition,  and  Savage  took 
his   place. 

The  power  of  the  Narragansetts  was  thus  broken.  But  war  harried  every 
frontier;  and  on  the  28th  of  December  the  Council  of  Massachusetts 
passed  an  order  to  add  three  hundred  more  men  to  the  army,  of  which  Suf- 
folk should  furnish  one  hundred  and  twelve.  For  this  order  the  commission- 
ers thanked  the  Council  the  next  day.  The  Suffolk  militia  had  all  been  in 
readiness  to  take  the  field  at  once,  since  the  session  of  the  Court  in  October. 
The  army  with  its  reinforcements  kept  the  field,  much  of  the  time  in  terri- 
ble weather,  following  the  remnants  of  the  Narragansetts  where  it  could  find 
them.  The  men  suffered  a  great  deal  from  the  cold.  But  on  the  5th  of 
February,  when  the  army  returned  to  Boston,  there  were  not  wanting  critics 

1  The  names  of  the  men  who  were  killed,  of  The    wounded  from  the  same   towns    were 

Boston  and  towns  now  united  with  it,  are:  Captain  John    Blandon,  James    Updick,  Sergeant   Peter 

Isaac  Johnson,  of  Roxbury;  Captain  S.  Daven-  Bennett,  Sergeant  Timberly,  James  Lendall,  \Vil- 

port,  of  Boston;  Benjamin  Langdon,  John  Far-  Ham  Kemble  (servant  to  John  Cheems),  Ezekiel 

mer,  Richard  Barnam,  Jeremiah  Stock,  Thomas  Gilman,  Mark  Rounds  (servant  to  Henry  Kem- 

Browne    (substitute    for   Paul    Bat),   Alexander  ble),  Alex  Bogell,  John  Casey  (servant  to  Thomas 

Forbes,  James  Thomas,  Irlancl  Trevor   (substi-  Gardiner ), all  of  Boston;  Jacob  Cook, of  Charles- 

tute   for    Davis   Turner),  all    of   Boston;    John  town;  John  Speer,  of  Dorchester,  and  "sundry 

Watson,  William  Linckern,  Solomon  Watts,  all  others."      The   Massachns<.tts  Archives  contain 

of  Roxbury;  John  Warner,  of  Charlestown.  various  lists  of  this  kind. 


324  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

who  said  they  should  have  done  something  the  army  did  not  do.  The 
severest  part  of  the  war,  for  whites  and  Indians  both,  was  to  be  crowded  into 
the  next  four  months. 

Captain  Hull's  contemporary  diary,  kept  in  Boston,  might  show  us  the 
view  of  things  by  a  bigoted  and  hard  man  of  affairs  there.  But  it  follows  the 
universal  law  of  diaries ;  namely,  that  when  a  man  is  busy  he  has  no  time  or 
heart  to  write  the  record,  and  that  it  is  only  when  he  has  nothing  to  say 
that  he  wastes  his  time  in  memoranda.  For  pages  as  crowded  as  ours,  per- 
haps no  briefer  skeleton  of  the  history  could  be  given  than  his,  which  is  here 
copied,  with  no  abridgment :  — 

"  Several  particular  fasts  this  year.  Feb.  10,  Lancaster  spoiled  by  the  enemy. 
2ist,  Medfield  in  part  burned  by  ditto.  Mar.  13,  Groton  burned.  2 6th,  Marlborough 
burned  in  part.  28th,  Rehoboth  assaulted.  April  6,  John  Winthrop,  Governor  of 
Connecticut,  died  in  Boston.  1 8th,  Sudbury  part  burned  by  the  enemy.  Capt.  Wads- 
worth,  Capt.  Brocklebanck,  and  fifty  soldiers  slain.  The  second  and  third  months 
were  very  sickly  throughout  this  colony.  April  25,  Major  Simon  Willard,  one  of  our 
magistrates,  died,  a  pious  Orthodox  man.  Mr.  Peter  Lidget  died,  an  accomplished 
merchant.  May  8,  some  houses  burned  at  Bridgewater.  nth,  some  also  toward 
Plymouth.  i4th,  Mr.  Hezekiah  Usher  died,  a  pious  and  useful  merchant.  i5th,  Mr. 
Richard  Russell  died,  a  magistrate  and  the  county  treasurer,  a  godly  man.  i6th,  Mr. 
Joshua  Atwater  died.  i8th,  the  Fall  Fight,  many  Indians  slain.  24th,  Capt.  William 
Davis  died.  June  29th,  a  day  of  public  thanksgiving.  Aug.  12,  Sagamore  Philip,  that 
began  the  war,  was  slain."  1 

Twenty  such  entries,  passing  through  the  sad  gamut  of  fasting  and  grief, 
but  culminating  in  thanksgiving,  are  all  the  Boston  merchant  finds  time  for 
in  seven  months.2 

The  share  which  Boston  took  in  such  a  season  must  be  briefly  told.  The 
Fast  Day  in  the  old  meeting-house  on  the  23d  was  interrupted  by  alarms, 
and  on  the  25th  Major  Savage  marched  again  to  the  west,  as  far  as  North- 
ampton, which  he  relieved.  John  Curtis  of  Roxbury  was  "  guide  to  the 
forces,"  and  six  friendly  Indians  from  Deer  Island  went  with  them.  All  this 
year  the  "  friendly  Indians  "  are  much  more  cordially  spoken  of;  and  before 
the  war.  was  over  they  were  enlisted,  and  served  with  distinction  and  success. 
Meanwhile  Philip  and  his  men  having  pressed  too  far  westward,  in  retiring 
from  the  English,  were  attacked  by  the  Mohawks,  whom  he  kept  off  by  a 
short  truce,  but  who  afterwards  fell  on  his  women  and  children.  A  letter 
from  Savage  at  Hadley,  written  in  March,  makes  it  almost  certain  that  the 
Dutch  traders  supplied  the  Indians  with  powder.  But  Andros,  who  was 
Governor  of  New  York,  was  very  indignant  when  this  charge  was  made.3 
The  Fall  Fight —  so  called  from  the  great  Falls  of  Connecticut  River,  now 
known  as  Turner's  Falls  —  was  a  victory  over  the  savages;  but  it  cost  the  life 

1  [Hull's  diary,  edited  by  Mr.  Hale,  is  printed     more  particular  in  its  references  to  these  events, 
in  the  American  Antiquarian  Society's  Collection,     —  ED.] 

iii.  —  ED.]  3  [Several  letters  of  Andros  are  in  the  Mas- 

2  jSewall's  diary  (Sewall  Papers,  \.)  is  hardly     sachusetts  Archives. —  ED.] 


BOSTON    IN    PHILIP'S   WAR. 


325 


.  .  . 

/$ftu[_ 

L/ 


of  William  Turner,  a  Boston  captain.     He  was  not  a  train^band  captain, 

but  early  offered  to  raise   a  company  of  volunteers.     Because  he  was  a 

prominent  Baptist  his  offer  was  at  first  slighted  ; 

but  he  had  found  his  services  more  esteemed  at 

the  front,  and  at  the  time  of  the  battle  where 

he  lost  his  life  he  was  commanding  a  company  of  Hadley,  Hatfield,  and 

Hampton  soldiers. 

On  the  2Oth  of  April  another  fast  was  held,  close  on  the  news  of  the  loss 
at  Sudbury  ;  and  on  the  2/th  another  "  army  "  is  raised  for  a  westward  expe- 
dition. April  and  May  were  very  sickly  months.  In  May  alone  fifty  per- 
sons died  in  the  little  town,  whose  whole  census,  including  its  soldiers  in  the 
field,  cannot  have  been  six  thousand.1  On  the  9th  of  May  is  another  day 
of  humiliation,  attended  at  the  First  Church  by  the  magistrates  and  General 
Court;  and  on  the  2ist  of  June  one  church  in  Boston  held  another.  But  by 
the  29th  of  June,  as  the  reader  has  seen  from  Hull's  journal,  affairs  had  so 
far  brightened  that  on  that  day,  as  the  anniversary  of  the  first  fast  day  of 
the  war,  the  Government  ordered  a  day  of  thanksgiving.  The  Boston  troops 
returned  from  an  expedition  to  Mount  Hope  on  the  22d  of  July,  dissatisfied. 
But  they  had  taken  or  killed  one  hundred  and  fifty  Indians  with  the  loss  of 
only  one  man.  With  Philip's 
death  the  war,  except  at  the 
eastward,  ended.2  So  com- 
plete  was  the  destruction  of 
the  Indian  power,  that  in  the 

,  r     A,  .  THE   MARK   OF   PHILIP. 

proclamation    of    the    annual 

Thanksgiving  in  December  it  was  said  :  "  Of  those  several  tribes  and 
parties  that  have  hitherto  risen  up  against  us,  which  were  not  a  few,  there 
now  scarce  remains  a  name  or  family  of  them  in  their  former  habitations 
but  are  either  slain,  captivated,  or  fled  into  remote  parts  of  this  wilderness, 
or  lie  hid,  despairing  of  their  first  intentions  against  us." 

There  was  never  again  an  important  Indian  rising,  not  instigated  by 
Jesuit  or  French  hatred.  But  the  terrors  of  Philip's  war  were  the  origin 
of  the  horror  and  contempt  with  which  for  a  century  men  regarded  the 
Indians. 

For  such  local  incidents,  connected  with  this  life-and-death  struggle,  as  it 
has  been  possible  to  collect,  the  best  authorities  are  the  contemporary  his- 

1  Fifteen  hundred  families  is  the  guess  in  a     and    hanged    at   the    "  town's   end,"    Sept.    26, 
report  to  England.    See  Chalmers's  Annals.    But     1676.  —  ED.] 

in  1680  there  were  but  eight  hundred  and  sixty-  3  [This   is   taken   from   a   deed   of  land    in 

eight  taxable  polls,  which  gives  the  full  num-  Taunton,  the  original  of  which  belonged  to  the 

ber  of    males    above    eighteen    years   of    age.  late  S.  G.  Drake  (Drake,  Boston,  p.  387).     The 

[Tax-lists  of   1674-76  are  printed   in  the  First  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society  have  erected  a 

Report  of  the  Boston   Record   Commissioners,  stone  on  the  spot  where  he  fell.      Proceedings, 

—  EL>.]  1877-78,  p.  106.     In  1680  four  Boston  merchants 

2  [One  of  the  most  insolent  of  the  Indians,  bought   a  part  of  Mount  Hope  neck  and  laid 
Monahco,  —  or  one-eyed  John,  —  was  marched,  out  the  town  of  Bristol,  and  Colonel  Benjamin 
with  others  who  had  been  taken,  through  the  Church  settled  there.    Cf.  Rhode  Island  Hist.  Soc. 
Boston   streets   with  a   halter   about   his  neck,  Proc.,  1874-75,  p.  60.  —  El>  J 


326  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

tories,  Gookin's  admirable  narration  of  the  praying  Indians,  the  letters  of 
the  time,  and  the  State  archives.  These  have  been  freely  used  in  this  narra- 
tive. The  church  records  afford  little  light  on  a  struggle  which  was,  how- 
ever, followed  with  intense  interest  in  the  churches.  "  Ned  Randolph,"  as 
he  was  called,  in  his  spiteful  review  of  the  war,  written  the  same  year,  says 
that  the  church  members  staid  at  home,  and  only  "  loyal "  men  went  to 
battle.  But  this  is  not  true,  even  as  he  meant  it.  It  is  clear  that  all  classes 
shared  in  the  dangers  of  the  struggle.  The  churches  contributed  freely  for 
the  poor  of  the  towns  destroyed  or  depopulated.  For  instance,  the  Old 
South  provided  a  house  for  the  Rowlandsons  after  their  captivity. 

The  town  records  contain  little  more  allusion  to  the  war  than  a  few  ref- 
erences to  the  "  settlement "  of  the  poor  people  thrown  back  upon  Boston. 
The  knotty  questions  of  "town  settlement"  and  "  State  settlement,"  as  we 
now  define  them,  began  with  these  experiences.1 

Boston  went  into  the  encounter  ready  for  war,  indeed,  but  with  little 
experience  of  it.  Not  a  man  fought  who  had  ever  been  in  battle,  —  unless 
he  had  seen  it  in  fights  with  cavaliers  in  England.  "  Ned  Randolph,"  an 
unfriendly  critic,  saw  their  army  after  a  year's  training  in  the  field,  and  he 
says :  "Each  troop  [of  horse]  consists  of  sixty  horse  besides  officers ;  and  they 
are  well  mounted  and  completely  armed  with  back,  breast,  and  head-piece, 
buff  coat,  sword,  carbine,  and  pistols,  each  troop  distinguished  by  their  coats. 
The  foot  also  are  very  well  furnished  with  swords,  muskets,  and  bandoleers, 
The  late  wars  have  hardened  their  infantry,  made  them  good  firemen,  and 
taught  them  the  ready  use  of  their  arms." 

Of  a  population  of  perhaps  twenty-five  thousand,  Massachusetts  had  lost 
in  battle  five  or  six  hundred  of  her  sons.  The  estimate  frequently  made, 
that  she  lost  one  tenth  of  her  fighting  men,  is  probably  beneath  the  truth. 
Of  that  population  Boston  alone,  as  she  then  was,  made  perhaps  one  fifth. 
Her  loss  was  nearly  proportional  to  that  of  the  others,  though  her  troops 
were  not  in  any  one  of  the  great  massacres.  Four  of  her  captains,  Hutch- 
inson,  Johnson,  Davenport,  and  Mosley  had  been  killed.  When  in  October, 
1675,  a  special  tax  of  £1,553  was  ordered,  Boston  paid  £300,  Charlestown 
£iSo,  Dorchester  £40,  and  Roxbury  £30.  This  gave  Boston  a  little  more 
than  one  third  of  the  tax,  —  about  the  proportion  she  pays  to-day. 

With  such  diminution  of  resource  the  little  town  and  State  were  to  turn 
to  their  harder  battle  against  their  king.2 


1  [As  to  the  contribution  sent  to  the  colony  Hist,    and    Getieal.    Reg.,    July,    1848,    p.    245. 

from  Ireland  in  1676,  to  assist  in  the  support  of  — ED.] 

those  weakened  or  famished  by  the  war,  see  Mr.  2  [This  struggle  to  maintain  their  charter  is 

Charles  Deane's  communication   in  the  N.  E.  narrated  in  Mr.  Deaue's  chapter.  —  Eu.j 


BOSTON    IN    PHILIP'S   WAR. 


327 


EDITORIAL  NOTE.  —  If  the  reader  desires 
to  follow  out  more  minutely  the  events  of  this 
war,  he  will  find  one  of  the  best  general  accounts 
of  the  causes  of  it  in  Palfrey's  New  England,  iii. 
ch.  iv.  That  historian  does  not  believe  it  was  a 
wide-spread,  premeditated  effort  to  expel  the 
colonists.  A  Rhode  Island  Quaker,  John  East- 
on,  wrote  a  Narrative  of  the  Causes  which  led 
to  Philip"s  War,  which  was  printed  in  1858,  with 
notes  by  F.  B.  Hough.  Easton  did  not  think  all 
the  faults  were  on  the -side  of  the  Indians.  (Cf. 
Palfrey,  iii.  180,  on  its  supposed  authorship ) 
Increase  Mather,  in  his  Early  History  of  New 
England,  of  which  Drake  edited  an  edition  in 
1864,  goes  into  the  question  of  the  origin  of  the 
war.  Drake  has  followed  the  preliminaries  in 
his  "  Notes  "  in  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Keg., 
April,  1858,  January,  April,  and  July,  1861.  He 
also,  in  his  Old  Indian  Chronicle,  1836,  has  re- 
printed several  contemporary  narratives,  the 
original  editions  of  which  are  preserved  in 
Harvard  College  Library.  They  were  written 
in  New  England,  but  printed  in  London.  Some 
of  them  —  like  The  present  State  of  New  England, 
1675 ;  A  new  and  further  Narrative  of  the  State 
of  New  England,  1676;  Warre  between  the  Eng- 
lish and  Indians  in  New  England,  1676 ;  Mather's 
Brief  History,  1676;  News  from  New  England, 
1676;  and  Hubbard's  Narrative,  all  which  once 
belonged  to  Sir  Walter  Scott,  and  were  given 
by  him  to  Mr.  Brevoort,  of  New  York — were 
described  by  Baylies  in  his  History  of  the  Old 
Colony,  \.  p.  x.,  while  in  the  possession  of  J.  Car- 
son Brevoort,  of  Brooklyn.  It  was  ostensibly  to 
correct  the  statements  of  one  of  these  old  narra- 
tives, some  of  which  were  ascribed  to  "a  mer- 
chant of  Boston  "  (see  Palfrey's  New  England, 
iii.  151),  that  Increase  Mather  hastily  prepared 
his  Brief  History  of  the  War  with  the  Indians  in 
New  England,  from  June  24,  1675,  t°  Aug.  12, 
1676,  Londpn,  1676,  and  Boston,  same  year  (a 
copy,  which  belonged  to  Samuel  Mather,  and 
had  been  "  revised  and  corrected  "  by  the  author, 
his  father,  is  one  of  fourteen  early  tracts  bound 
together  by  the  son,  being  writings  mostly  by  the 
father,  the  whole  priced  in  1876  by  William 
George,  bookseller,  Bristol,  at  .£350),  • —  a  reprint 
of  which  was  edited  by  S.  G.  Drake  in  1862,  col- 
lated with  Cotton  Mather's  account  of  the  war 
in  his  Magtialia.  This  last  account  was  written 
twenty  years  after  the  war,  and  its  author  availed 
himself,  without  giving  credit,  of  Hubbard's  Nar- 
rative of  the  Troubles  with  the  Indians,  —  a  better 
account  than  Increase  Mather's.  The  ground  is 
also  gone  over  in  Hubbard's  New  England,  ch. 
Ixxi.  Palfrey,  Nev>  England,  iii.  153,  thinks 
Hubbard  had  good  opportunities. 

The  hero  of  the  war  was,  perhaps,  Colonel 
Benjamin  Church,  of  Plymouth  Colony,  whose 
sword  is  preserved  in  the  Historical  Society's 
cabinet.  (Cf.  Proceedings,  i.  379.)  The  history 


of  the  ordinary  portrait,  so  called,  of  Church, — 
which  is  really  a  likeness  of  Charles  Churchill, 
the  English  poet,  with  a  powder-horn  slung  over 
his  shoulder,  —  is  given  by  Mr.  Drake  in  the 
Hist.  Mag.,  December,  1868,  p.  27.  Cf.  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  March,  1858,  p.  293.  It  was  en- 
graved by  Paul  Revere,  who  also  engraved  a 
picture  of  "  Philip,  King  of  Mount  Hope." 
Church's  son,  Thomas  Church,  wrote  out  for  his 
father  an  account  of  the  war,  —  Entertaining 
Passages  relating  to  Philip 's  War,  —  which  was 
published  long  afterwards  in  Boston,  in  1716, 
and  often  since;  the  best  edition  being  that 
edited  by  Henry  M.  Dexter,  1865-67,  in  two 
volumes,  including  a  memoir  of  Church.  The 
original  edition  is  very  scarce ;  Brinley,  having 
watched  forty  years  for  a  sale  of  it,  secured  it  at 
last  at  Drake's  sale.  (Brinley  Catalogue,  No.  383.) 
A  copy  once  owned  by  Dr.  S.  A.  Green  passed 
for  $200  some  years  since  into  the  hands  of  Sa- 
bin,  who  at  that  time  had  "  never  seen  a  copy 
for  sale"  (Sabin,  Dictionary,  No.  12,996),  and 
from  him  passed  to  a  Brooklyn  collector  at 
$400. 

Other  original  material,  beside  that  at  the 
State  House,  can  be  found,  somewhat  scattered : 
Records  of  the  United  Colonies,  published  by  the 
State  of  Massachusetts ;  Gookin,  Historical  Col- 
lections, and  his  narrative  transmitted  to  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel, 
printed  in  the  Archa-ologia  Americana;  Mrs. 
Rowlandson's  Narrative  of  her  Captivity,  an 
original  copy  of  which  is  in  the  Prince  Library, 
but  it  has  been  reprinted ;  Captain  Thomas 
Wheeler's  narrative  of  the  expedition  to  Brook- 
field,  in  the  N.  H.  Hist.  Coll.  ii.,  and  in  Foot's 
Historical  Discourse  on  the  History  of  Brookfield : 
the  Bradford  Club,  1859,  published  Papers  on 
the  Attack  on  Hatfield  and  Deerfield ;  the  New 
Hampshire  Provincial  Papers,  i.  354;  the  life  of 
Major-General  Denison  in  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and 
Geneal.  Keg.,  July,  1869;  papers  in  the  appendix 
of  Drake's  edition  of  Mather's  Brief  History  ; 
a  letter  of  Major  Bradford  is  printed  in  Davis's 
edition  of  Morton's  Memorial ;  the  Prince  Cata- 
logtie  shows  various  contemporary  manuscripts; 
Waldron's  letter  on  the  war  at  the  eastward  in 
the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  January,  1853; 
a  few  original  papers  are  given  in  a  volume 
("Miscellaneous  Papers,  1632-1795")  in  the  His- 
torical Society's  cabinet,  which  includes  a  letter 
of  Jonathan  Brewster  on  the  outbreak  of  the  war, 
which  has  been  printed  in  that  Society's  Pro- 
ceedings. Of  the  later  historians,  mere  mention 
may  be  made  of  the  following  :  Palfrey,  New 
England,  iii.  ch.  iv.,  who  tdkes  a  low  estimate  of 
Philip's  character,  and  gives  an  all-sufficient  ac- 
count, with  full  references ;  Drake,  Book  of  the 
Indians,  bk.  iii.;  Baylies,  Old  Colony,  with  ad- 
ditions in  Drake's  edition,  ii.  ch.  iv. ;  Bancroft, 
United  States,  ii.  ch.  xii. ;  Bryant  and  Gay,  United 


328 


THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


States,  ii.  ch.  xvii.,  —  a  good  account ;  Barry, 
Hist,  of  Mass.,  i.  ch.  xv.,  xvi. ;  Theodore  Dvvight, 
Hist,  of  Connecticut,  ch.  xxii.,  xxiii. ;  Arnold, 
Rhode  Island,  \.  ch.  x. ;  Potter,  Early  Hist,  of 
Narragansett,  p.  78;  Upham,  Salem  Witchcraft, 
\.  118-134,  &c.  It  would  be  too  long  a  list  to 
give  all  the  local  histories,  which  have  told  the 
part  of  many  towns  in  the  struggle. 

Fuller  bibliographical  detail  on  this  subject 
can  be  found  in  Field's  Indian  Bibliography. 
Some  of  the  rarer  titles  are  given  in  the  Brinley 
Catalogue,  Nos.  382,  &c. 

Convenient  maps  for  the  campaign  will  be 
found  in  Dexter's  edition  of  Church,  and  the 
same  in  Drake's  edition  of  Baylies  ;  also  others 
in  Hough's  edition  of  Easton's  Narrative,  and  in 
Ridpath's  United  States,  p.  139.  These  may  be 
contrasted  with  the  map  of  New  England  which 
was  issued  in  England  at  this  time  by  John 
Seller,  hydrographer  to  the  King,  accompanied 
by  a  description  taken  from  Josselyn's  Two  Voy- 
ages, which  shows  the  prevalent  ignorance  of 
New  England  geography  in  England  ;  there  is 
a  copy  of  it  in  Harvard  College  Library.  The 
same  cartographer  issued  a  New  England  Al- 
manac, 1685,  which  has  a  small  sketch-map  of 
New  England;  and  Palfrey,  New  England,  iii. 


489,  gives  a  reduced  fac-simile  of  a  map  of  New 
England  and  New  York,  likewise  by  Seller.  In 
some  respects  a  more  accurate  though  rude  map 
of  New  England  was  issued,  just  at  the  close  of 
the  war,  by  Hubbard  in  his  Narrative  of  the 
Troubles  in  New  England,  and  it  is  said  to  be 
the  first  map  cut  in  the  colony.  It  is  given  en- 
tire in  Judge  Davis's  edition  of  Morton's  New 
England  Memorial,  and  in  Palfrey's  New  Eng- 
land, iii.  155.  William  B.  Fowle  had  a  fac- 
simile made  of  it  in  1846.  Sections  showing 
Boston  Harbor  are  given  in  Lossing's  Field-book 
of  the  Revolution,  i.  446,  and  in  S.  A.  Drake's 
New  England  Coast.  A  similar  section  is  given 
herewith.  Both  Davis's  and  Palfrey's  fac-similes 
are  given,  however,  from  the  London  edition  of 
the  book  of  the  same  year,  for  which  the  map 
was  recut,  and  is  to  be  known  from  the  Boston 
edition  by  the  substitution  of  "  Wine  Hills  "  for 
"  White  Hills."  A  copy  of  this  London  edition, 
with  its  map,  is  in  Harvard  College  Library. 
In  1872  Henry  Stevens,  of  London,  had  fac- 
similes made  of  both  editions  of  the  map,  and 
he  says  :  "The  London  edition,  though  a  close 
copy,  is  entirely  recut,"  and  differs  in  minor  par- 
ticulars. Cf.  Stevens's  Bibliotheca  Geographica, 
p.  228;  Field's  Indian  Bibliography,  p.  178. 


A  PART  OF  HUBBARD'S  MAP  OF  NEW  ENGLAND,  1677. 


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CHAPTER    X. 

THE   STRUGGLE  TO   MAINTAIN  THE  CHARTER  OF  KING  CHARLES 
THE   FIRST,  AND   ITS  FINAL  LOSS  IN    1684. 

BY     CHARLES     DEANE,     LL.D. 

Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 

THE  Royal  Charter  of  "  The  Governor  &  Company  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  in  New  England"  passed  the  seals  March  4,  1628-29, 
confirming  to  Sir  Henry  Rosewell,  Sir  John  Young,  Thomas  Southcott, 
John  Humfrey,  John  Endicott,  and  Symon  Whetcomb,  and  twenty  others, 
their  associates,  named,  their  heirs  and  assigns,  a  certain  parcel  of  land 
in  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  England,  extending  from  three  miles  south 
of  Charles  River  to  three  miles  north  of  Merrimac  River,  and  in  breadth 
from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  South  Sea,  —  which  land  had  been  granted 
to  these  six  persons  named  above  by  the  Council  for  New  England, 
March  19  in  the  preceding  year.  The  Charter  also  ordained  that  these 
twenty-six  persons  and  all  such  others  as  shall  hereafter  be  admitted  and 
made  free  of  the  Company  shall  be  forever  hereafter  one  body  corporate  and 
politic  in  fact  and  name,  by  the  name  above  cited  ;  with  power  to  make  laws 
and  elect  officers  for  disposing  and  ordering  the  general  business  concerning 
said  lands  and  the  plantation,  and  the  government  of  the  people  there.1 
The  powers  of  government  contained  in  this  instrument  have  been 

1  Some  authorities  say  that  the  charter  cost  be  asked  if  the  original  parchment,  in  Hutch  in- 

the  Company  two  thousand  pounds  sterling.    The  son's  day,  was  missing  ?     The  charter,  however, 

original  instrument  is  at  the  State  House  in  Bos-  had   already  been  printed   eighty  years    before 

ton.     It  is  beautifully  engrossed  on  four  sheets  Hutchinson  printed  it,  "by  S.  Green,  for  Benja- 

of  parchment,  the  initial  letter  "C"  containing  a  min  Harris,  at  the  London  Coffee  House  near 

representation  of   King  Charles  the  First.      It  the  Town-House  in  Boston,  1689,"  in  4to.,  26  pp. 

was  printed  by  Governor  Hutchinson  in  his  Col-  See  Catalogue  of  the  Library  of  the  Massachusetts 

lection  of  Original  Papers  in  1769,  from  a  mann-  Historical  Society,  vol.  ii.  p.  26.      It  was  here 

script  copy,  each  sheet  of  which  bears  at  foot  the  printed  from  the   duplicate   of   the    instrument 

autograph  signature  of  Governor  Winthrop;  it  sent  over  to  Governor  Endicott  in  1629,  and  now 

is  attested  by  him  at  the  end,  under  the  date,  of  in  the  Salem  Athenaeum.     The  charter  is  also 

"this   igth  day  of  the  first  month,  called  Feb-  printed  in  Hazard,  vol.  i.,  from  the  "original," 

ruary,   1643-44."     Here   is  an  error   in  calling  likewise  in  the  volume  of  Charters  and  General 

February   the    first   month,   which    Hutchinson  Laws,  Boston,  i8t4,  and  is  also  included  in  the 

corrects.     This  manuscript  is  in  the  Library  of  first  volume  of  the  Mass.  Col.  Kerords. 
the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society.    Hutchin-          [A  heliotype  of  the  charter,  as  at  present  dis- 

son  appends  to  his  copy  a  note  saying  that  the  played  on  the  walls  of  the  Secretary's  Office  at 

charter  had  never  been  printed,  that  there  were  the   State  House,  is  herewith  given.     A  cut  of 

but  few  manuscript  copies  of  it,  and  he  now  pub-  the  heading  of  the  document  is  given  in  Bryant 

lishes  it  as  the  most  likely  means  of  preventing  and  Gay's  United  States,  ii.  376      The  original  is 

its  being  irrecoverably  lost.    The  question  might  indorsed  with  the  autograph  of  Wolseley,  while 
VOL.    I.  —  42. 


33°  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

differently  interpreted  by  different  writers;  and  there  has  not  been  an 
entire  agreement  on  the  question  as  to  the  legality  of  the  transfer  of  the 
corporation  and  charter  to  New  England,  which  took  place  at  the  time  of 
the  Winthrop  emigration.  As  to  the  latter  branch  of  this  subject,  Hutchin- 
son  says :  "  It  is  evident  from  the  charter  that  the  original  design  of  it  was 
to  constitute  a  corporation  in  England  like  to  that  of  the  East  India  ami 
other  great  companies,  with  powers  to  settle  plantations  within  the  limits 
of  the  territory,  under  such  forms  of  government  and  magistracy  as  should 
be  fit  and  necessary.  The  first  step,  in  sending  out  Mr.  Endicott,  appoint- 
ing him  a  council,  giving  him  commission,  instructions,  &c.,  was  agreeable 
to  this  construction  of  the  charter."  l 

This  opinion  has  been  concurred  in  by  such  historians  as  Chalmers, 
Robertson,  Grahame,  Hildreth,  and  Young,  and  by  the  distinguished 
jurist  Story.  On  the  other  hand  Dr.  Palfrey,  the  eminent  historian  of 
New  England,  and  the  late  Professor  Joel  Parker,  of  Cambridge,  are  of 
opinion  that  the  charter  was  adroitly  drawn,  with  a  design  on  the  part 
of  the  patentees  to  be  used  either  in  England  or  in  New  England,  —  there 
being  an  absence  of  any  language  locating  the  corporation  in  England.2 

It  does  not  come  within  my  province  here  to  write  a  history  of  the 
colony  under  this  charter;  but  it  is  necessary  that  I  should  give  a  brief 
analysis  of  that  instrument,  and  show  what  were  the  complaints  of  the 
home  Government  from  time  to  time  against  the  Colony  for  alleged  viola- 
tions of  it,  and  the  attempts  by  legal  process  and  otherwise  to  vacate 
its  franchises,  at  the  same  time  that  I  narrate  the  struggles  of  the  colonists 
to  maintain  their  privileges  and  their  rights,  finally  wrested  from  them. 

the  Salem  copy  bears  his  name  in  the  scribe's  of  them  down  to  i6S6,  and  it  was  done  under  the 

hand.      Shurtleff,  Description  of  Boston,  p.  19.  supervision  of  Dr.  N.  B.  Shurtleff.     Cf.  Chas. 

"Winthrop  Papers,"  in  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  vii.  W.  Upham  on  "The  Records  of  Massachusetts 

159,  note.      The   Brinley   Catalogue,  No.  2650,  under  the  First  Charter,"  in  the  Hist.  Soc.  Lowtll 

calls  the   1689  edition,  above  referred  to,  "ex-  Institute  Lectures,  1869.  —  En.] 

cessively  rare."     That  edition  had  a  woodcut  of  J  Hutchinson,   History,  i.  p.   13.      See   also 

the  Massachusetts  seal  on  the  title,  which  is  given  his  views  more  fully  expressed  in  vol.  ii.  pp. 

in  fac-simile  in  Drake,  Boston,  p.  840,  who  says  i,  2. 

the  seal  was  of  silver,  was  sent  over  to  Cover-  *    It    may    be    mentioned    that    Attorney- 

nor  Endicott  in  1629,  and  continued  in  use  till  General  Sawyer,  in  the  subsequent  reign,  ex- 

Andros's  time.     Cf.  T.  C.  Amory's  paper  on  the  pressed  the   opinion  "that  the    Patent   having 

Seals  of  Massachusetts  in  Afass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  created  the  grantees,  and  their  assigns,  a  body 

Dec.  1867,  and  the  appendix  to  Felt's  Currency  corporate,  they  might  transfer  their  charter  and 

of  Mass.     The   "Records  of  the  Governor  and  act  in  New  England."      But   Chalmers  thinks 

Company   of   the    Massachusetts   Bay   in    New  that  he  had  probably  neither  perused  the  in- 

England  "  are  preserved  in  the    State    House,  strument  with  attention  nor  studied  its  history. 

An  ancient  copy  of  them,  from  the  first  meeting  "  It  conveyed  the  soil,"  he  says,  "  to  the  corpor- 

in  London  to  Aug.  6,  1645,  which  supplies  some  ation  and  its  assigns ;  it  conferred  the  powers 

leaves  wanting  in  the  original  records,  belonged  of  government  on  it  and  its  successors.     And,  to 

to  Governor  Hutchinson,  and  later  to  Colonel  As-  all  who  have  been  accustomed  to  legal  or  accu- 

pinwall,  and  passed  with  his  library  into  the  hand  rate  reasoning,  these  expressions  must  appear 

of  S.  L.  M.  Barlow,  Esq.,  of  New  York.     Mass,  as  different  in  sense  as  they  are  in  sound.     The 

Hist.  Soc.   Proc.,   July,  1855.      Cf.  Archaologia  two  Chief  Justices,  Rainsford  and   North,  fell 

Americana,\\\.     From  a  transcript  of  the  original  into  a  similar  mistake  by  supposing  that  the 

records  of  the  Colony  made  by  Mr.  David  Pul-  corporate  powers  were  to  have  been  originally 

sifer,  the  State  ordered,  in  1853-. 54,  the  printing  executed  in  New  England."    Annals,  p.  173. 


THE   CHARTER   OF    KING   CHARLES   THE    FIRST.  331 

As  showing  the  process  of  issuing  letters-patents,  and  as  furnishing 
some  evidence  of  the  intention  of  the  Crown  as  to  the  location  of  the  cor- 
poration created  by  the  Massachusetts  Charter,  it  may  not  be  inappropriate 
to  give  here  a  memorandum  signed  by  the  King's  Solicitor-General,  called 
a  "docket,"  appended  to  the  "King's 
bill,"  the  latter  being  the  first  official 
form  in  which  the  charter  appears,  — 
in  the  very  words  of  the  instrument 
itself,  as  subsequently  issued  under 
the  Great  Seal,  —  and  the  authority  for  its  issue.  In  all  chancery  pro- 
ceedings, not  to  refer  to  others  of  a  kindred  nature,  where  papers  are 
prepared  for  the  King's  signature,  a  memorandum  is  written  at  the  foot  of 
such  documents  by  the  Attorney  or  Solicitor  General  (sometimes  by  both 
jointly),  addressed  to  the  sovereign,  briefly  explaining  to  him  the  nature 
of  the  instrument  he  is  about  to  sign.  The  following  is  the  "  docket " 
appended  to  the  "King's  bill"  (or  sign-manual)  of  the  Massachusetts 
Charter,  the  spelling  being  here  modernized:1  — 

SIGN- MANUALS.  —  VOL.  X.  No.  16. 
May  it  please  your  Most  Excellent  Majesty :  — 

Whereas  your  Majesty's  most  dear  and  royal  father  did  by  his  letters-patents  in  the 
eighteenth  year  of  his  reign  incorporate  divers  noblemen  and  others  by  the  name  of 
the  Council  for  the  Planting  of  New  England  in  America,  and  did  thereby  grant  unto 
them  all  that  part  of  America  which  lieth  between  forty  degrees  of  northerly  latitude 
and  forty-eight  inclusive,  with  divers  privileges  and  immunities  under  a  tenure  in  free 
socage  and  reservation  to  the  Crown  of  the  fifth  part  of  the  gold  and  silver  ore  to  be 
found  there,  which  said  Council  have  since,  by  their  Charter  in  March  last,  granted  a 
part  of  that  continent  to  Sir  Henry  Rosewell  and  others,  their  heirs  and  associates  for- 
ever, with  all  jurisdictions,  rights,  privileges,  and  commodities  of  the  same. 

This  bill  containeth  your  Majesty's  confirmation  and  grant  to  the  said  Sir  Henry 
Rosewell  and  his  partners  and  their  associates  and  to  their  heirs  and  assignees  forever 
of  the  said  part  of  New  England  in  America,  with  the  like  tenure  in  socage  and 
reservation  of  the  fifth  part  of  gold  and  silver  ore,  —  incorporating  them  also  by  the 
name  of  the  Governor  and  Company  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  England  in 
America,  with  such  clauses  for  the  electing  of  governors  and  officers  here  in  England 
for  the  said  Company,  and  powers  to  make  laws  and  ordinances  for  settling  the  gov- 
ernment and  magistracy  for  the  plantation  there,2  and  with  such  exemptions  from 

1  See  "  Forms  used   in   issuing   Letters-Pa-  fit  and  necessary  for  the  said  plantation  and  the 
tents,"  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  Dec.  1869,  p.  inhabitants  there,"  &c.,  in  virtue  of  which  the 
172  [by  C.  UEANE].  Form  of  Government  for  the  Colony,  adopted 

2  As  I  interpret  the  Docket,  this  last  clause  on  the  3<Dth  of  April,  1629,  was  established.     In 
refers  to  the  following  in  the  charter :  The  Com-  the  charter  granted  to  the  "  Council  for  New 
pany  have  power  "  to  make,  ordain,  and  estab-  England,"  established   at   Plymouth,  the   same 
lish  all  manner  of  wholesome  and   reasonable  power  was  given,  namely,  "  to  make,  ordain,  and 
orders,  laws,  statutes,  and  ordinances,  directions  establish  all  manner  of  orders,  laws,  directions, 
and  instructions  .  .  .  for  the  settling  of  the  forms  instructions,  forms,  and  ceremonies  of  govern- 
and  ceremonies  of  government  and  magistracy  ment  and  magistracy,  fit  and  necessary  for  and 


332  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

customs  and  impositions  and  such  other  privileges  as  were  originally  granted  to  the 
Council  aforesaid,  and  are  usually  allowed  to  corporations  in  England. 

And  is  done  by  direction  from  the  Lord  Keeper,1  upon  your  Majesty's  pleasure 
therein  signified  to  his  Lordship  by  Sir  Ralph  Freeman.2 

(Signed)  Ri.  SHILTON.S 

Indorsed  :  "  1628,  Expedit  apud  Westm-  Vicesimo  septimo 
die  Februarij  Anno  Reg1-   Caroli  quarto."  * 

"g  WOODWARD  dep." 

The  Charter  gave  power  to  the  freemen  of  the  Company  to  elect  an- 
nually from  their  own  number  a  Governor,  Deputy-Governor,  and  eighteen 
Assistants,  and  to  make  laws  and  ordinances,  not  repugnant  to  the  laws  of 
England,  for  their  own  benefit  and  for  the  government  of  persons  inhabiting 
their  territory.  Four  meetings  of  the  Company,  called  the  "  four  great  and 
general  courts,"  were  to  be  held  in  a  year,  and  others  might  be  convened. 
Meetings  of  the  Governor,  Deputy-Governor,  and  Assistants  were  to  be 
held  once  a  month,  or  oftener.  The  Governor,  Deputy-Governor,  and 
any  two  Assistants  were  authorized  to  administer  to  freemen  the  oaths  of 
allegiance  and  supremacy.  The  Company  might  transport  settlers  not  re- 
strained by  special  name.  They  had  authority  to  admit  new  associates, 
and  to  fix  the  terms  of  their  admission,  and  to  elect  such  officers  as  they 
should  see  fit  for  the  managing  of  their  affairs.  By  a  form  of  language 
used  in  all  the  English  charters  from  that  of  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  down  to 
the  Charter  of  Massachusetts,  the  franchise  provided  that  all  subjects  of  the 
Crown  who  should  go  to  inhabit  within  said  lands,  and  their  children  born 
there,  or  on  the  seas,  going  or  returning,  should  enjoy  all  liberties  of  free 
and  natural  subjects  within  any  of  the  dominions  of  the  Crown,  as  if 
they  had  been  born  within  the  realm.  The  Company  also  were  empowered, 
agreeably  to  the  often-repeated  phrase  in  previous  and  subsequent  charters, 
"  to  encounter,  repulse,  repel,  and  resist  by  force  of  arms,  as  well  by  sea  as 
by  land  ...  all  such  person  and  persons  as  should  at  any  time  thereafter 
attempt  or  enterprise  the  destruction,  detriment,  or  annoyance  to  the  saii 
Plantation  or  inhabitants,"  &c.  No  mention  is  made  of  religious  liberty. 

Many  of  the  powers  which  the  Colony  during  the  next  fifty  years  pre- 
sumed to  exercise,  and  for  which  they  pleaded  their  charter  as  authority, 
were  not  specially  granted  in  that  instrument ;  and,  at  a  later  period,  these 
powers  were  held  to  have  been  assumed.  No  authority  is  expressly  given 

concerning  the  government  of  the  said  colony  Attorney-General.      He   must    have   been   con- 

and  plantation,"  &c.  suited,  with  his  colleague  the  Solicitor-General, 

1  Sir  Thomas  Coventry  was  at  this  time  Lord  when  the  application  for  the  charter  was  before 

Keeper.  the  Privy  Council,  and   was  also  officially  con- 

-  Sir  Ralph  Freeman  was  "  Auditor  of  Im-  cerned  in  drawing  up  the  King's  bill, 
prests."  4   The    Writ    of    Privy    Seal    (Bundle    281, 

8  Sir  Richard  Sheldon,  who  signs  this  Docket,  part   71)    thus   concludes:    "Given    under   our 

was  the   Solicitor-General.      In  the  Docket  as  Privy   Scale   at   our   Pallace   of    Westminster, 

printed  by  Chalmers,  and  in  that  in  the  Signet  the   eight   and   twentieth   day  of   Februarie    in 

Book,  it   says,   "subscribed   by   Mr.    Attorney  the  fourth    year  of   our    Reigne."      "  Kecefi,  4 

General."    Sir  Robert  Heath  was  at  this  time  Martii  1628." 


THE    CHARTER   OF    KING    CHARLES    THE    FIRST.  333 

to  erect  juridicatories,  or  courts  for  the  probate  of  wills,  or  with  admiralty 
jurisdiction,  nor  to  constitute  a  house  of  deputies,  nor  to  impose  taxes  on 
the  inhabitants,  nor  to  incorporate  towns,  colleges,  or  schools,  —  all  which 
powers  had  been  exercised,  together  with  the  power  of  inflicting  capital 
punishment.  Most,  if  not  all,  of  the  powers  here  exercised  were  necessary 
to  the  government  of  a  colony  remote  from  the  mother  country ;  and  if  the 
charter  was  issued  for  this  purpose,  as  the  colonists  constantly  claimed, 
they  might  well  find  a  warrant  for  their  exercise  in  the  general  provision 
authorizing  them  "  to  ordain  and  establish  all  manner  of  wholesome  and 
reasonable  orders,  laws,  statutes,  and  ordinances,  directions  and  instruc- 
tions, not  contrary  to  the  laws  of  this  our  realm  of  England,  as  well  for  the 
settling  of  the  forms  and  ceremonies  of  government  and  magistracy  fit  and 
necessary  for  the  said  plantation  and  the  inhabitants  there,"  &c. 

The  charter  of  Connecticut,  granted  at  the  Restoration,  —  the  corporate 
powers  of  which  were  avowedly  to  be  executed  on  the  soil,  —  authorized  a 
house  of  deputies  and  the  erection  of  courts  of  judicature,  but  was  silent 
as  to  many  other  specified  powers,  which  were  nevertheless  exercised  in 
common  with  Massachusetts. 

The  coining  of  money  by  the  Massachusetts  Colony  may  well  be  re- 
garded as  the  exercise  of  a  prerogative  not  conferred  by  their  charter ;  and 
some  of  their  legislation  was  probably  against  the  Navigation  laws  of  the 
realm. 

The  primary  cause  of  the  dissensions  between  England  and  her  Ameri- 
can colonies,  during  the  whole  period  of  the  existence  of  those  relations, 
was  the  absence  of  any  clear  distinction  between  her  imperial  and  their 
municipal  rights.  "  Their  early  charters,  faulty  in  many  respects,  were 
especially  so  in  this  particular,  —  that  they  left  a  wide  and  debatable  ground 
between  the  local  and  imperial  functions.  Upon  this  ground,  alternate 
inroads  on  either  side  produced  irritation ;  and  a  sort  of  border  warfare 
was  kept  up,  which  naturally  ended  by  bringing  into  collision  the  aggregate 
forces  of  each  people,  and  involving  them  at  length  in  implacable  war."  1 

The  right  to  grant  such  a  charter  as  this  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  pre- 
rogatives of  the  Crown.  "  The  title  to  unoccupied  lands  belonging  to  Great 
Britain,  whether  acquired  by  conquest  or  discovery,  was  vested  in  the  Crown. 
The  right  to  grant  corporate  franchises  was  one  of  the  prerogatives  of  the 
King;  and  the  right  to  institute  and  to  provide  for  the  institution  of  colo- 
nial governments  .  .  .  was  likewise  one  of  the  prerogatives.  Parliament 
had  then  nothing  to  do  with  the  organization  or  government  of  colonies."  2 

The  sovereigns  of  Europe  assumed,  in  violation  of  natural  rights,  a  claim 
of  possession  to  all  foreign  lands  discovered  by  their  subjects,  and  not  occu- 
pied by  any  Christian  people.  Agreeably  to  this  rule,  the  kings  of  Eng- 
land assumed  to  grant  patents  for  discovery,  —  of  which  the  earliest  relating 

1  See  Samuel  Lucas's  Introduction  to  Char-  2  Prof.  Joel   Parker,  Lecture  at  the  Lowell 

ters  of  the  old  English  Colonies  in  America,  &c.,  Institute,  on  "The  First  Charter,"  &c.,  1869, 
London,  1850,  pp.  13,  14.  p.  8. 


334  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

to  America,  that  to  John  Cabot  and  his  sons,  is  an  interesting  example, — 
and  to  claim  exclusive  property  in  and  jurisdiction  over  such  lands,  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State.  They  called  them  their  foreign 
dominions,  their  demesne  lands  in  partibus  exteris,  and  held  them  as  their 
own.  These  were  the  king's  possessions,  not  parts  or  parcels  of  the  realm. 
So,  when  the  House  of  Commons,  in  1621,  made  repeated  attempts  to 
pass  a  law  for  establishing  a  free  right  of  fishing  on  the  coasts  of  Virginia, 
New  England,  and  Newfoundland,  and  claimed  the  jurisdiction  of  Parlia- 
ment over  those  countries,  they  were  told  by  the  servants  of  the  Crown 
"  that  it  was  not  fit  to  make  laws  here  for  those  countries  which  are  not  yet 
annexed  to  the  Crown."  "  That  this  bill  was  not  proper  for  this  House,  as 
it  concerneth  America."  Indeed,  it  was  doubted  "  whether  the  House  had 
jurisdiction  to  meddle  with  these  matters."  A  petition  to  the  House,  three 
years  later,  to  take  cognizance  of  the  affairs  of  plantations,  was,  "  by  general 
resolution,  withdrawn."  The  King  considered  these  lands  his  demesnes, 
and  the  colonists  to  whom  he  granted  them  as  his  subjects  in  these  his  for- 
eign dominions,  —  not  his  subjects  of  the  realm  or  State.1 

"  The  confirmation,  therefore,  in  the  charter  of  the  grant  of  the  lands 
from  the  Council  of  Plymouth  (which  derived  title  from  the  grant  of  James 
I.,  and  which  could  grant  the  lands,  but  could  not  grant  nor  assign  powers 
of  government),  with  a  new  grant  in  form  of  the  same  lands,  gave  to  the 
grantees  a  title  in  socage,  —  substantially  a  fee-simple,  except  that  there 
was  to  be  a  rendition  of  one-fifth  of  the  gold  and  silver  ores.  The  grant 
of  corporate  powers,  in  the  usual  form  of  grants  to  private  corporations, 
conferred  upon  them  all  the  ordinary  rights  of  a  private  corporation, 
under  which  they  could  dispose  of  their  lands  and  transact  all  business  in 
which  the  Company  had  a  private  interest.  And  the  grant  of  any  powers 
of  colonial  government,  embraced  in  the  charter,  was  valid  and  effective  to 
the  extent  of  the  powers  which  were  granted,  whatever  those  powers  might 
be,  —  the  whole,  as  against  the  corporation,  being  subject  to  forfeiture  for 
sufficient  cause."2 

"  The  grant  and  confirmation  of  the  lands,  and  the  grant  of  mere  corporate  pow- 
ers for  private  purposes,  were  private  rights  which  vested  in  the  grantees,  and  which 
the  King  could  not  divest,  except  upon  some  forfeiture  regularly  enforced.  Upon 
such  forfeiture  the  corporation  would  be  dissolved,  and  all  of  the  lands  belonging  to 
it  would  revert  in  the  nature  of  an  escheat.  But  this  would  not  affect  valid  grants 
previously  made  by  it. 

"  The  grant  of  power  to  institute  a  colonial  government,  being  a  grant  not  for  pri- 
vate but  for  public  purposes,  may  have  a  different  consideration.  Whether,  by  reason 
of  its  connection  with  the  grant  of  the  lands  and  of  ordinary  corporate  powers,  it  par- 
took so  far  of  the  nature  of  a  private  right  that  it  could  not  be  altered,  modified,  or 
revoked,  except  on  forfeiture  enforced  by  process,  or  whether  this  part  of  the  grant 
had  such  a  public  character  that  the  powers  of  government  were  held  subject  to 
alteration  and  amendment,  is  hardly  open  to  discussion.  At  the  present  day  it  is 

1  Pownall,  At/ministration  of  the  British  Colonies,  5th  ed.,  i.  47-50.     2  Prof.  Parker,  as  above,  p.  9. 


THE   CHARTER   OF   KING   CHARLES    THE   FIRST.  335 

held  that  municipal  corporations,  being  for  public  uses  and  purposes,  have  no  vested 
private  rights  in  the  powers  and  privileges  granted  to  them,  but  that  they  may  be 
changed  at  the  pleasure  of  the  government.  That  principle  seems  to  be  equally  appli- 
cable to  a  grant  of  colonial  powers  of  government ;  and  the  better  opinion  would 
seem  to  be,  that  it  was  within  the  legitimate  prerogative  of  the  King  at  that  day  to 
modify  and  even  to  revoke  the  powers  of  that  character  which  had  been  granted  by 
the  Crown,  substituting  others  appropriate  for  the  purpose. 

"  If  the  King  had  assumed  to  revoke  the  powers  of  government  granted  by  the 
charter,  without  substitution,  or  if  he  had  imposed  any  other  form  of  government,  by 
which  the  essential  features  of  that  which  was  constituted  under  the  charter  would 
have  been  abrogated,  it  might  have  been  an  arbitrary  exercise  of  power,  justifying  any 
revolutionary  resistance  which  the  Colony  could  have  made.  But  the  Crown,  under 
the  then-existing  laws  of  England,  must  have  possessed  legally  such  power  over  the 
Colony  as  the  legislature  may  exercise  over  municipal  corporations  at  the  present  day. 
The  charter,  so  far  as  the  powers  of  government  were  concerned,  could  not  be  treated 
as  a  private  contract."  l 

The  transfer  of  the  charter  and  government  from  London  to  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  previously  agreed  upon  by  a  majority  vote  of  the  Company, 
was  practically  effected  when  Governor  Winthrop  sailed  in  1630,  with  his 
fleet  of  fifteen  ships,  and  nearly  fifteen  hundred  passengers ;  and  on  his 
arrival  the  subordinate  government  was  abolished.2  "  The  boldness  of  the 
step,"  says  Judge  Story,  "  is  not  more  striking  than  the.  silent  acquiescence 
of  the  King  in  permitting  it  to  take  place."  3 

The  foundations  of  the  government  in  the  Colony  had  been  laid  by 
Endicott,  to  whom  a  duplicate  of  the  charter,  and  a  seal,  of  the  Colony 
had  been  sent,  but  of  whose  brief  administration  no  records  exist.4  The 
new  order  of  things,  under  the  Company's  change  of  base,  was  silently, 
almost  imperceptibly,  inaugurated.  The  records  of  the  Colony  begin  with 
the  meeting  of  "  the  first  court  of  Assistants  holden  at  Charlton,5  August  236, 
Anno  Dom.  1630,"  —  Winthrop  having  arrived  at  Salem  June  12  preceding, 
had  now  taken  up  his  residence  at  Charlestovvn.  ' 

The  accessions  to  the  colony  in  1631  were  but  few,  but  in  the  two 
following  years  they  were  more  numerous;  and  in  1633  a  welcome  addition 

1  Professor  Parker,  as  above,  pp.  9,  10.  confirmed  in  that  position,  with  the  additional 

2  A  board  of  trade,  or  joint-stock  company,  authority  of  Governor  of  "  London's  Plantation 
was  to  be  kept  up  in  London  consisting  of  five  in  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  England,"  —  a  sub- 
persons  who  were  to  remain  in  England,  and  ordinate   local   government,  established  by  the 
five  who  were  expected  to  emigrate.     It  was  a  corporation  in  London  agreeably  to  the  provis- 
voluntary  association,  consisting  of  adventurers,  ions  of  the  Charter,  and  apparently  intended  as 
who  contributed  to  a  fund  for  aiding  the  colony,  a  permanent  municipal  establishment.     On  the 
expecting  to  be  remunerated,  and  at  the  end  of  arrival  of  Winthrop,  and  the  transfer  of  the  corn- 
seven  years  a  division  to  be  made.     The  scheme  pany  to  Massachusetts,  the  subordinate  govern- 
seems  to  have  come  to  naught.     If  not  dissolved  ment  was  abolished,  and  its  duties  were  assumed 
before,  the  quo  loarranto  of  1635  mav  nave  na<3  by  its  principal,  the  corporation  itself,  which  took 
its  influence  in  dissolving  the  association.  immediate  direction  of  affairs.    As  the  successor 

3  Commentaries  on  the  Constitution,  Book  i.  of  Cradock,  Winthrop  was  the  second  Governor 
chap.  iv.  sec.  66.  of  the  Massachusetts  Company,  yet  he  was  the 

4  Endicott,  who  had  been  sent  over  originally  first  who  exercised  his  functions  in  New  England, 
as   agent   of    the   patentees,   was   subsequently  *  Charlestown  was  early  so  called. 


336 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY    OF    BOSTON. 


was  made  by  the  arrival  of  a  number  of  eminent  clergymen  and  laymen, 
some  of  whom  had  with  difficulty  succeeded  in  escaping  the  surveillance 
of  the  High  Commission  Court. 

A  few  individuals  found  here  by  Governor  Winthrop  and  his  company, 
whose  presence  in  the  colony  was  unwelcome,  were  speedily  sent  away. 
Among  these  were  Christopher  Gardiner  and  Thomas  Morton,  who, 
arriving  in  England,  failed  not  to  make  representations  injurious  to  the 
Puritan  settlement;  and  they  were  backed  by  the  great  interest  of  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges  and  of  John  Mason.  These  representations  had  not 
been  without  effect,  and  well-founded  apprehensions  were  now  felt  of 
annoyance  from  the  home  government. 

These  persons  actually  prevailed  to  have  their  complaints  entertained  by 
the  Privy  Council,  whose  records  show  that,  on  the  ipth  of  December,  1632, 
"  several  petitions  "  were  "  offered  by  some  planters  of  New  England,  and 
a  written  declaration  by  Sir  Christopher  Gardiner,  Knt.,"  when,  "  upon  long 
debate  of  the  whole  carriage  of  the  plantations  of  that  country,"  twelve 
lords  were  directed  to  "  examine  how  the  patents  for  the  said  plantations 
have  been  granted  and  how  carried,"  and  to  "  make  report  thereof  to  this 
Board  ...  for  which  purpose  they  are  to  call  before  them  such  of  the 
patentees  and  such  of  the  complainants  and  their  witnesses,  or  any  other 
persons,  as  they  shall  think  fit."  * 

Winthrop,  under  date  of  February  following,  notices  these  complaints, 
having  intelligence  thereof  from  his  friends  in  England,  namely,  "  that  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges  and  Captain  Mason  (upon  the  instigation  of  Sir  Chris- 
topher Gardiner,  Morton,  and  Ratcliff)  had  preferred  a  petition  to  the  Lords 
of  the  Privy  Council  against  us,  charging  us  with  many  false  accusations ; 
but  through  the  Lord's  good  providence,  and  the  care  of  our  friends  in 
England  (especially  Mr.  Emanuel  Downing,2  who  had  married  the  Gov- 

1  Citations  in  Palfrey,  i.  365,  366.  The  Rec-  was  accessible  among  the  archives  of  the  Coun- 
ords  of  the  Council  for  New  England  show  cil  for  New  England  if  an  inspection  of  it  was 
that,  before  this  date,  the  Massachusetts  pa-  all  that  was  wanted.  No  copy  of  it  now  exists, 
tentees  had  had  some  grievances  to  allege  It  is  cited  in  the  royal  charter  of  4th  March, 
against  the  Council.  On  the  26th  June,  1632,  1628-29.  Mr.  Humfrey  was  requested  to  appear 
Mr.  Humfrey,  one  of  the  original  patentees,  at  the  next  meeting  of  the  Council  for  New  Eng- 
complained  to  the  President  and  Council  for  land,  and  to  bring  Mr.  Cradock  with  him.  Two 
not  permitting  ships  and  passengers  to  pass  days  afterwards  they  appeared,  and  Mr.  Hum- 
hence  for  the  Bay  of  Massachusetts  without  frey  was  reproved  "for  charging  Sir  F.  Gorges 
license  first  had  from  the  President  and  Coun-  falsely"  at  the  last  meeting,  of  writing  him- 
cil,  or  their  Deputy,  they  being  free  to  go  thither  self  the  Lord  Treasurer's  letters  to  the  officers 
and  to  transport  passengers,  not  only  by  a  pa-  of  customs,  for  not  suffering  any  ships  to  pass 
tent  from  said  Council,  but  by  a  confirmation  for  New  England  without  license  first  obtained 
thereof  from  his  Majesty.  Hereupon  some  of  from  the  President  and  Council  for  New  England, 
the  Council  desired  to  see  the  patent  obtained  Am.  Antiq.Soc.  Proceedings,  April,  1867,  pp.  59, 61. 
from  the  Council,  because,  as  they  alleged,  "it  2  "  A  circumstantial  account,"  says  Ilutch- 
preindicted  former  grants."  Mr.  Humfrey  an-  inson,  ii.  2,  "  of  an  attempt  to  vacate  it  [the 
swered  that  the  patent  was  in  New  England,  charter],  the  second  year  after  their  removal, 
that  they  had  often  written  for  it  to  be  sent  we  have  in  a  letter  to  the  Governor  from  Einan- 
hither,  but  had  not  as  yet  received  it.  It  seems  uel  Downing,  father  of  Sir  George  Downing." 
to  us  strange  that  no  record  of  the  grant  to  the  "  I  intended  to  have  printed  it,  but  it  was  un- 
Massachusetts  patentees  of  iQth  March,  1627-28,  fortunately  destroyed." 


THE   CHARTER   OF    KING   CHARLES    THE   FIRST.  337 

ernor's  sister),  and  the  good  testimony  given  on  our  behalf  by  one  Captain 
Wiggin,  who  dwelt  at  Pascataquack,  and  had  been  divers  times  among  us, 
their  malicious  practice  took  not  effect." 

When  Winthrop  made  this  entry  in  his  journal,  he  had  not  heard  of  the 
report  of  the  committee  of  the  Lords  made  at  a  meeting  of  the  Privy  Coun- 
cil January  I  Qth  preceding.  It  was  to  this  effect:  The  complaints  against 
the  Colony  were  dismissed  for  the  reasons  alleged  in  the  order  adopted  by 
the  Council,  — 

"  Most  of  the  things  informed  being  denied,  and  rested  to  be  proved  by  parties 
that  must  be  called  from  that  place,  which  required  a  long  expense  of  time  ;  and  at 
the  present  their  Lordships  finding  that  the  adventurers  were  upon  the  despatch  of 
men,  victuals,  and  merchandises  for  that  place,  all  which  would  be  at  a  stand  if  the 
adventurers  should  have  discouragement  or  take  suspicion  that  the  State  here  had 
no  good  opinion  of  that  Plantation  ;  their  Lordships,  not  laying  the  faults  or  fancies  (if 
any  be),  of  some  particular  men  upon  the  general  government,  or  principal  adven- 
turers (which  in  due  time  is  to  be  inquired  into),  have  thought  fit,  in  the  mean  time, 
to  declare  that  the  appearances  were  so  fair  and  the  hopes  so  great,  that  the  country 
would  prove  both  beneficial  to  this  kingdom  and  profitable  to  the  particular  adventurers, 
as  that  the  adventurers  had  good  cause  to  go  on  cheerfully  with  their  undertakings, 
and  rest  assured,  that  if  things  were  carried  as  was  pretended  when  the  patents  were 
granted,  and  accordingly  as  by  the  patents  is  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 
to  his  people  there."  1 

This  result  of  the  petition  of  the  enemies  of  the  Colony  was  received  by 
Winthrop  some  time  in  May,  1633,  and  he  makes  this  record  concerning  it:  — 

"  The  petition  was  of  many  sheets  of  paper,  and  contained  many  false  accusations 
(and  among  some  truths  misrepeated)  accusing  us  to  intend  rebellion,  to  have  cast 
off  our  allegiance,  and  to  be  wholly  separate  from  the  Church  and  laws  of  England  ; 
that  our  ministers  and  people  did  continually  rail  against  the  State,  Church,  and 
bishops  there,  &c. ;  upon  which  such  of  our  Company  as  were  then  in  England,  viz. 
Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Mr.  Humfrey,  and  Mr.  Cradock,  were  called  before  a  Com- 
mittee of  the  Council,  to  whom  they  delivered  in  an  answer  in  writing ;  upon  reading 
whereof  it  pleased  the  Lord,  our  gracious  God  and  Protector,  so  to  work  with  the 
Lords,  and  after  with  the  King's  Majesty,  when  the  whole  matter  was  reported  to  him 
by  Sir  Thomas  Jermin,  one  of  the  Council  .  .  .  that  he  said  he  would  have  them 
severely  punished,  who  did  abuse  his  governor  and  the  Plantation  ;  that  the  defend- 
ants were  dismissed  with  a  favorable  order  for  their  encouragement,  being  assured 
from  some  of  the  Council  that  his  Majesty  did  not  intend  to  impose  the  ceremonies 
of  the  Church  of  England  upon  us ;  for  that  it  was  considered  that  it  was  the  free- 
dom from  such  things  that  made  people  come  over  to  us ;  and  it  was  credibly 
informed  to  the  Council  that  this  country  would,  in  time,  be  very  beneficial  to 
England  for  masts,  cordage,  &c.,  if  the  Sound  should  be  debarred."  2 

Governor  Winthrop's  exultation  on  the  receipt  of  this  favorable  intel- 
ligence was  not  concealed.  He  addressed  a  letter  to  his  friend,  Governor 

1  Orders  in  Council,  Jan.  19,  1632-33.  2  New  England,  \.  102,  103. 

VOL.  I.  —  43. 


338  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Bradford,  of  the  Plymouth  Colony,  sending  him  a  copy  of  the  record  of  the 
Privy  Council,  and  expressing  the  hope  that  he  would  join  "  in  a  day 
of  thanksgiving  to  our  merciful  God  "  for  so  signal  a  deliverance  from  their 
enemies. 

But  the  enemies  of  the  Colony  were  not  to  be  so  easily  silenced.  The 
accession  of  Laud  to  the  Primacy,  in  1633,  was  nearly  contemporaneous 
with  the  renewal  of  emigration  to  New  England,  and  this  was  the  signal 
for  the  renewal  of  complaints  at  Court  against  the  Massachusetts  Company 
by  the  disaffected  persons,  who  now  secured  a  more  favorable  hearing. 
"  The  spirit  of  the  Court,"  says  Dr.  Palfrey,  "  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  government  of 
Virginia  had  been  taken  into  the  King's  hands,  was  urged  in  relation  to  the 
Massachusetts  Company."  An  Order  in  Council  was  obtained,  under 
date  of  21  February,  1633-34,  reciting  that, — 

"  Whereas  the  Board  being  given  to  understand  of  the  frequent  transportation  of 
great  numbers  of  his  Majesty's  subjects  out  of  this  kingdom  to  the  plantation  called 
New  England,  amongst  whom  divers  persons  known  to  be  ill-affected  and  discontented, 
as  well  with  the  civil  as  ecclesiastical  government,  are  observed  to  resort  thither, 
whereby  such  confusion  and  disorder  is  already  grown  there,  especially  in  point  of 
religion,  as  besides  the  ruin  of  the  said  Plantation,  cannot  but  highly  tend  to  the 
scandal  both  of  the  Church  and  State  here  ;  and  whereas  it  was  informed  in  par- 
ticular that  there  were  at  this  present  divers  ships  now  in  the  river  of  Thames,  ready 
to  set  sail  thither,  freighted  with  passengers  and  provision ;  it  was  thought  fit  and 
ordered  that  stay  should  be  forthwith  made  of  the  said  ships  until  further  order  from 
the  Board.  And  that  the  several  masters  and  freighters  of  the  same  should  attend 
the  Board  on  Wednesday  next  in  the  afternoon,  with  a  list  of  the  passengers  and 
provisions  in  each  ship.  And  that  Mr.  Cradock,  a  chief  adventurer  in  that  Plantation, 
now  present  before  the  Board,  should  be  required  to  cause  the  letters-patents  for 
that  Plantation  to  be  brought  to  the  Board." 

Chalmers  says  that  Cradock's  confession  at  this  time,  "  that  the  charter 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  governor  of  the  colony,"  discovered  "  what  seems 
to  have  been  hitherto  unknown  "  to  the  government.1 

In  the  following  week,  however  (Feb.  28),  an  order  for  the  release 
of  the  ships  bound  for  New  England  was  issued,  the  masters  entering  into 
bonds  to  cause  certain  rules  prescribed  to  be  put  into  execution,  as  to  the 
use  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  at  morning  and  evening  service  on 
board  the  ships,  the  requiring  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy  to  be 
taken  by  persons  to  be  transported,  &c. 

"  It  was  therefore,  for  divers  others  reasons  best  known  to  their  Lordships,  thought 
fit,  that  for  this  time  they  should  be  permitted  to  proceed  on  their  voyage." 

1  Revolt,  <&c.,  i.  49. 


THE   CHARTER   OF   KING   CHARLES   THE   FIRST.  339 

But  the  progress  of  arbitrary  power  in  England  gave  no  assurance  of 
peace  to  the  Colony. 

"Annoyance  from  the  home  government  was  therefore  to  be  expected  by  the 
colonists.  For  protection  against  it  they  were  to  look  to  their  charter,  as  long  as 
the  grants  in  that  instrument  should  continue  to  be  respected.  Against  internal  dis- 
sensions they  had  an  easy  remedy.  The  freemen  of  the  Massachusetts  Company 
had  a  right,  in  equity  and  in  law,  to  expel  from  their  territory  all  persons  who  should 
give  them  trouble.  In  their  corporate  capacity  they  were  owners  of  Massa- 
chusetts 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  Continental,  they  owned  it  by  a  grant  from  the  Crown  of  England,  to  which,  by 
well-settled  law,  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 
had  either  found  the  land  unoccupied,  or  had  become  possessed  of  it  with  the 
consent  of  its  early  proprietors.  .  .  .  Their  charter  was  their  palladium.  To  lose 
it  would  be  ruin.  Whatever  might  imperil  their  possession  of  it  required  to  be 
watched  by  them  with  the  most  jealous  caution."  1 

Mr.  Humfrey,  who  arrived  in  July  of  this  year,  brought  news  of  impend- 
ing danger ;  and  in  the  same  month  a  letter  was  received  from  Mr.  Cradock, 
addressed  to  the  Governor  and  Assistants,  sending  a  copy  of  the  Council's 
order  of  the  2ist  of  February,  requiring  the  delivery  of  the  patent.  Mr. 
Cradock,  who  had  "  had  strict  charge  to  deliver  in  the  patent,"  desired  that 
it  might  be  sent  home.  "  Upon  long  consultation,"  says  Winthrop,2 
"  whether  we  should  return  answer  or  not,  we  agreed,  and  returned  answer 
to  Mr.  Cradock,  excusing  that  it  could  not  be  done  but  by  a  General  Court, 
which  was  to  be  holden  in  September  next."  They  wrote  letters  "  to 
mediate  their  peace,"  and  sent  them  by  Mr.  Winslow. 

The  alarm,  however,  in  the  Colony  reached  its  height  when  intelligence 
was  received  of  a  design  to  send  out  a  general  governor,  and  of  the  creation 
of  a  special  Commission,  with  Laud,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  at  its 
head,  to  regulate  all  plantations,  with  powers  to  cause  all  charters,  letters- 
patents,  &c.,  to  be  brought  before  them,  and  if  found  to  "  have  been  preju- 
diciously  suffered  or  granted  ...  to  command  them,  according  to  the  laws 
and  customs  of  England,  to  be  revoked,"  &c.  A  copy  of  the  Commission 
itself  arrived  in  the  Colony  in  September.3  It  bears  date  April  10,  1634. 
It  had  been  previously  announced  by  Thomas  Morton,  in  a  letter  from 
London,  dated  May  i,  1634,  to  his  friend  Jeffery,  an  old  planter,  who  deliv- 
ered it  to  Governor  Winthrop,  in  the  early  part  of  August.  Winthrop  has 
preserved  this  characteristic  letter.4  The  writer  had,  or  professed  to  have 

1  Palfrey,  New  England,  i.  387,  388.  264-268  ;    Hutchinson,  Rfass.   Bay,    i.   502-506 

2  New  England,  i.  135,  137.  (copied  from   Hubbard)  ;    Bradford,  Plymouth 

3  This  Commission  is  a  document  of  some  Plantation,  pp.  456-460.     There  would  seem  to 
length.     A  copy  in  Latin  is  contained  in  Po\v-  be  two  Knglish  versions  of  the  document.     See 
nail's  Administration  of  the  Colonies,  51)1  ed.,  ii.  Bradford,  as  above,  p.  456,  note;  Hubbard,  p. 
155-163;    same  in    Hazard,    Collections,  i.  344-  698,  note  a. 

347;    in    English    in   Hubbard,   Nciv  England,  4  New  England,  ii.  190. 


340  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

had,  information  concerning  the  Commission  before  it  was  perfected  in  the 
public  offices  in  London. 

On  September  3,  the  General  Court  adopted  orders  for  the  erection  of 
fortifications  on  Castle  Island  in  Boston  Harbor,  and  at  Charlestown  and 
Dorchester.  The  captains  were  authorized  "  to  train  unskilful  men  so 
often  as  they  pleased,  provided  they  exceeded  not  three  days  in  a  week." 
Dudley,  Winthrop,  Haynes,  Humfrey,  and  Endicott  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  collec- 
tion and  custody  of  arms  and  ammunition.1 

During  the  few  following  months  no  alarm  came  from  abroad ;  but  in 
January,  1634-35,  all  the  ministers,  except  Mr.  Ward  newly  arrived,  met  the 
Governor  and  Assistants  in  Boston,  to  confer  on  the  existing  state  of  affairs. 
And  to  the  question,  "  What  we  ought  to  do  if  a  general  governor  should 
be  sent  out  of  England?"  "they  all  agreed  that  we  ought  not  to  accept 
him,  but  defend  our  lawful  possessions  if  we  were  able;  otherwise,  to  avoid 
or  protract."  2 

At  the  next  General  Court,  in  March,  the  same  subject  agitated  their 
councils.  It  was  ordered  "  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  was  authorized  "to  press  men  for  that 
work."  It  was  ordered  "  that  there  should  be  forthwith  a  beacon  set  on 
the  centry  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." 
Musket-balls  were  made  a  legal  tender  at  the  rate  of  a  farthing  a  piece, 
instead  of  coin,  the  circulation  of  which  was  forbidden.  The  "  Freeman's 
Oath"  was  required  to  be  taken  by  every  man  "resident  within  .the 
jurisdiction,"  and  being  "  of  or  above  the  age  of  sixteen  years."  A  military 
commission  was  established,  with  powers  "  to  dispose  of  all  military  affairs 
whatever;"  "to  imprison  or  confine  any  that  they  should  judge  to  be 
enemies  to  the  commonwealth,  and  such  as  would  not  come  under  com- 
mand or  restraint,  as  they  should  be  required,  it  should  be  lawful  for  the 
commissioners  to  put  such  persons  to  death."  3 

No  other  notice  was  taken  by  the  General  Court  of  the  demand  for  the 
transmission  of  the  charter  than  what  these  proceedings  intimate.  The 
troubles  which  environed  the  government  at  home  prevented  the  pursuance 
of  a  vigorous  and  consistent  policy  against  the  Colony.  But  the  Lords 
Commissioners,  in  December,  1634,  sent  an  order  to  the  Lord  Warden  of 
the  Cinque  Ports  and  other  haven  towns,  directing  that  the  officers  suffer 
no  person,  being  a  subsidy  man,  to  embark  thence  for  any  of  the  planta- 
tions without  license  from  his  Majesty's  Commissioners;  nor  any  person, 

1  Palfrey,  New  England,   i.  394,  395,  sum-  3  Palfrey,  Nno  England,  as  above,  and  Mass. 
mary  from  Mass.  Col.  Rcc.,  i.  123-128.                       Col.  Rec.,  \.  135-143. 

2  Winthrop,  New  England,  i.  154. 


THE   CHARTER   OF    KING   CHARLES    THE   FIRST.  341 

under  a  subsidy  man,  without  evidence  that  he  had  taken  the  oath  of 
supremacy  and  allegiance,  and  that  he  conforms  to  the  discipline  of  the 
Church  of  England.1 

Other  measures  were  in  progress.  The  great  Council  for  New  England 
having  failed  satisfactorily  to  dispose  of  or  to  settle  the  vast  territory 
granted  to  them,  Nov.  3,  1620,  by  James  I.,  and  having,  as  Hubbard  truly 
says,  "  spent  much  time  and  cost,  and  taken  a  great  deal  of  pains,  and 
perceiving  nothing  like  to  come  to  perfection,  and  fearing  that  they  should 
ere  long  be  forced  to  resign  up  their  grand  charter  into  the  hands  of  the 
King,  they  adventured  upon  a  new  project  in  the  latter  end  of  the  year 
1634,  and  beginning  of  the  year  1635,  which  was  to  have  procured  a 
General  Governor  for  the  whole  country  for  New  England,  to  be  forthwith 
sent  over,  and  to  reduce  the  whole  country  into  twelve  provinces,  from 
St.  Croix  to  the  Lord  Baltimore's  province  in  Virginia;  and  because  the 
Massachusetts  Patent  stood  in  their  way  (which  province  was  then  well 
peopled  and  planted)  they  endeavored  to  get  that  patent  revoked,  and 
that  all  might  be  reduced  to  a  new  form  of  government,  under  one  general 
governor."  2 

This  measure  was  taken  by  the  Council  for  New  England  by  under- 
standing or  collusion  with  the  Government,  and  in  reference  to  measures  in 
process  for  vacating  the  charter  of  Massachusetts.  In  a  petition  from  the 
Council  for  New  England  to  the  Lords  of  the  Privy  Council,  they  say: 
"  Whereas  it  pleased  your  Lordships  to  give  order  to  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges 
to  confer  with  such  as  were  chiefly  interested  in  the  plantations  of  New 
England,  to  resolve  whether  they  would  resign  wholly  to  his  Majesty  the 
patent  of  New  England,"  &c. ;  they  agree  to  resign  their  charter  on  the 
implied  condition  that  the  whole  territory,  divided  into  twelve  provinces 
by  a  plan  submitted,  be  confirmed  to  certain  members  of  the  Council,  by 
patents  direct  from  his  Majesty.  Certain  other  requests  then  follow,  of 
which  the  first  is,  "  That  the  patent  for  the  Plantation  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  may  be  revoked."  2 

The  public  declaration  of  reasons  for  the  surrender  of  the  grand  patent 
is  entered  on  the  records  of  the  Council  for  New  England,  April  25,  1635, 
and  the  King's  acceptance  of  the  same  is  also  recorded  at  the  same  meeting. 
The  formal  resignation  was  effected  June  7  following.3 

1  Hazard,  Collections,  i.  347,  348.  tain  religious  persons  for  lands  in  the  Massa- 
-  Hubbard,  New  England,  pp.  226-229.  chusetts  Bay,  who  "easily  obtained  their  first 
8  In  the  Council's  declaration  of  reasons  for  desires,  but  those  being  once  gotten,  they  used 
resigning  their  charter  of  Nov.  3,  1620,  written  other  means  to  advance  themselves  a  step  from 
probably  by  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  they  refer  beyond  their  first  proportions  to  a  second  grant 
to  the  troubles  they  had  encountered  from  the  surreptitiously  gotten  of  other  lands  also,  justly 
beginning;  namely,  the  opposition  of  the  Vir-  passed  unto  Captain  Robert  Gorges  long  be- 
ginia  Company,  which  was  prosecuted  in  Parlia-  fore  "  (it  may  be  added  here,  in  parenthesis,  that 
ment,  the  death  of  several  "  of  the  most  noble  Gorges,  in  his  Briefe  Narration,  pp.  40,  41,  says, 
and  principal  props  "  of  the  Company,  and  the  in  speaking  of  this  grant,  that  the  Earl  of  War- 
opposition  of  the  French  ambassador,  all  which  wick  wrote  to  him,  "  then  at  Plymouth,  to  con- 
left  them,  as  it  were,  "a  carcass  in  a  manner  descend  that  a  patent  might  be  granted  to  such 
breathless."  Then  came  the  application  of  cer-  as  then  sued  for  it,  whereupon  I  gave  my  appro- 


342 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


To  effect  the  contemplated  overthrow  of  the  Massachusetts  Charter,  a 
quo  warranto  was  brought  against  the  Company  in  June,  1635,  by  Sir 
John  Banks,  the  Attorney-General.  Fourteen  allegations  were  made.  They 
may  be  seen  in  Hutchinson's  Collection  of  Original  Papers.  Nearly  all  tile- 
allegations  relate  to  the  due  exercise  of  powers  granted  in  the  charter 
itself,  rather  than  to  the  abuse  of  powers,  and  probably  were  intended  to 
be  so  regarded.  The  purpose  evidently  was  to  deny  the  legality  of  the 
charter  itself;  to  strike  a  blow  at  its  existence  as  being  void  ab  initio ; 

see  the  Massachusetts  Patent,  "because,  as  they 
alleged,  it  preinclicted  former  grants.  Mr.  Hum- 
frey  answered  that  the  said  patent  was  now  in 
New  England." 

The  statement  further  on,  that  the  subseq  uent 
charter  from  the  King  was  a  means  of  enlarging 
"their  first  extents  to  the  west  limits  spoken 
of,"  must  be  understood  to  mean  that  his  Ma- 
jesty's grant  operated  as  a  confirmation  of  that 
boundary.  In  Gorges's  Briefe  Narration,  cited 
above,  it  is  also  said  that  the  grant  which  passed 
the  Council  "was  after  enlarged  by  his  Majesty 
and  confirmed  under  the  Great  Seal  of  England." 
No  copy  of  the  Massachusetts  Patent  from  the 
Council  for  New  England  is  extant,  Humfrey's 
reference  to  it  above  is  the  last  we  have  heard 
of  it ;  but  it  is  cited  in  the  royal  charter  of  March 
4,  1628-29,  which  simply  confirmed  the  bound- 
aries of  the  former,  and  make  the  patentees  a 
corporation.  By  the  enlargement  referred  to, 
the  writer  may  intend  that  of  powers  and  not  of 
boundaries. 

The  Council  also  allege,  as  a  grievance,  that 
the  patentees  "obtained,  unknown  to  us,  a  con- 
firmation of  all  this  from  his  Majesty,  and  un- 
witting thereof."  To  say  that  there  was  any 
thing  "unwitting"  on  the  part  of  the  King 
or  the  Government  in  granting  the  charter  of 
incorporation  is  unlikely.  The  Council  may  not 
have  intended  to  relinquish  their  right  of  gov- 
ernment over  the  lands  granted.  They  say  that 
those  who  had  complaints  to  make  against  the 
Colony  applied  to  them  for  redress  as  the  respon- 
sible party,  but  "we  easily  made  it  appear  that 
we  had  no  share  in  the  evils  committed,  and 
wholly  disclaimed  the  having  any  hand  therein, 
humbly  referring  to  their  Lordships  to  doe  what 
might  best  sort  with  their  wisdoms  ;  who  found 
matters  in  so  desperate  a  case  as  that  they  saw 
a  necessity  for  his  Majesty  to  take  the  whole 
business  into  his  own  hands,  if  otherwise  we 
could  not  undertake  to  rectify  what  was  brought 
to  ruin."  Whatever  may  have  been  the  inten- 
tions of  the  Council  for  New  England  respect- 
ing the  government  of  the  territory  ceded  to  the 
Massachusetts  patentees,  the  Chief  Justices  in 
1677  held  that  the  Council,  by  its^rant  of  igth 
of  March,  1627-28,  must  be  presumed  to  have 
"  deserted  the  government."  Chalmers,  Annals, 
p.  506. 


bation  so  far  forth  as  it  might  not  be  prejudicial 
to  my  son  Robert  Gorges'  interests,"  &c.)  ;  that 
they  "  exorbitantly  bounded  their  grant  from 
east  to  west  through  all  that  main  land  from  sea 
to  sea,  being  near  about  3,000  miles  in  length. 
.  .  .  But,  herewith  not  yet  content,  they  labored 
and  obtained  unknown  to  us  a  confirmation  of 
all  this  from  his  Majesty,  and  unwitting  there- 
of, by  which  means  they  did  not  only  enlarge 
their  first  extents  to  the  west  limits  spoken  of, 
but  wholly  excluded  themselves  from  the  pub- 
lic government  of  the  council  authorized  for 
those  affairs,  and  made  themselves  a  free  people, 
and  for  such  hold  of  themselves  at  this  present," 
&c.  Proc.  Am.  Antiq.  Soc.,  April,  1867,  p.  124. 

The  allegations  here  made  against  the  Mas- 
sachusetts patentees  as  to  the  use  of  dishonest 
methods  in  obtaining  their  lands  are  very  blindly 
stated.  They  speak  of  "a  second  grant  surrep- 
titiously gotten."  I  have  never  heard  of  but 
one  grant  made  to  these  patentees.  It  would 
not  be  at  all  unlikely  that,  before  the  patent  of 
March  19, 1627-28,  was  issued,  negotiations  were 
pending  for  better  terms  than  those  the  company 
were  willing  at  first  to  concede,  and  that  their 
efforts  were  finally  successful.  The  members 
of  the  Council  for  New  England  were  at  this 
time  at  loggerheads  among  themselves.  Their 
business  was  very  loosely  done,  there  being  no 
proper  record  kept  of  the  patents  issued.  Be- 
sides, they  had  no  accurate  maps  or  plans  of  the 
coast  and  lands  which  they  pretended  to  convey. 
The  Massachusetts  Patent,  it  is  true,  covered 
the  earlier  grant  to  Robert  Gorges  of  Dec. 
30,  1622,  but  that  was  the  Council's  business, 
and  not  that  of  the  petitioners,  who  were  prob- 
ably ignorant  of  any  such  collision.  The  extra- 
ordinary grant  issued  to  the  Massachusetts 
patentees,  bounded  "from  sea  to  sea,"  in  like 
manner  as  the  grand  patent  itself,  is  probably 
due  to  the  influence  of  their  powerful  friends  in 
the  Council,  of  whom  the  Earl  of  Warwick  was 
one,  and  which  gave  rise  subsequently  to  com- 
plaints from  some  of  the  opposite  faction,  in- 
cluding Gorges  and  Mason,  who  were  probably 
not  present  when  the  instrument  passed  the 
seals  of  the  Council.  At  a  meeting  of  the 
Council  in  June,  1632,  Mr.  Humfrey,  one  of  t he- 
patentees,  being  present  on  a  matter  of  busi- 
ness, some  members  of  the  Council  desired  to 


THE   CHARTER   OF   KING   CHARLES    THE   FIRST. 


343 


denying  the  defendants'  claim  to  title  to  land,  or  their  claims  to  be  a 
corporation.1 

Fourteen  of  the  original  patentees  in  the  grant  of  the  4th  March,  1628-29, 
residing  in  England,  appeared,  each  of  whom  severally  pleaded  that  he  had 
never  usurped  any  of  said  liberties,  and  disclaimed,  and  there  was  judgment 
that  for  the  future  they  should  not  intermeddle  with  any  of  the  said 
franchises.  Cradock  came  in,  and,  having  had  time  to  interplead,  made 
default,  and  judgment  was  given  that  he  should  be  convicted  of  the  usurpa- 
tion charged,  and  that  the  said  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  to  answer  to  the  King  for  said  usurpation. 

The  rest  of  the  patentees  were  outlawed,  and  no  judgment  entered  up 
against  them.  Of  the  eleven  remaining  original  patentees,  Humfrey, 
Endicott,  Nowell,  Bellingham,  Pyncheon,  and  William  Vassall  were  then 
in  New  England,  and  Johnson  had  died  there.  The  process  was  pending 
about  two  years.  There  was  no  service  of  the  writ  on  the  corporation,  nor 
on  any  of  the  members  in  Massachusetts.2 

Whether  or  not  this  process  against  the  Massachusetts  Charter  was 
considered  by  the  Court  which  gave  the  judgment,  and  by  the  Government 
at  home,  as  having  settled  the  case  against  the  colonists ;  and  that,  in  view 
of  English  law,  they  had  no  rights  and  no  property  there,  —  such,  at  least  for 
a  time,  was  assumed  to  be  the  opinion.  And  yet  the  demand  that  the 
patent  should  be  returned  looks  as  if  something  more  was  felt  to  be  needed 
to  consummate  the  proceedings.  Great  importance  seems  to  have  been 
attached  in  that  day,  by  both  parties,  to  the  possession  of  the  original 
instrument  itself  in  the  hands  of  the  patentees,  while,  so  far  as  the  Govern- 
ment at  home  was  concerned,  a  copy  of  it  was.  readily  accessible  in  the 
public  archives.  The  colonists  felt  that  while  they  still  held  possession  of 

1  The  writ  of  quo  warranto  is  in  2  Mass,  erroneous,  and  ought  to  be  reversed,  which  a 

Hist.  Col.  viii.  97.  The  information  on  which  motion  in  the  King's  Bench,  without  any  long  suit 

it  issued,  and  the  result  of  the  process,  may  be  by  Writ  of  Error,  may  set  right  again."  4  Mass. 

seen  in  Hutchinson,  Collection  of  Original  Papers,  Hist.  Coll.,  y\.  58.  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  i. 

pp.  101-104.  87,  says:  "It  is  said  judgment  was  never  en- 

-  Emanuel  Downing,  Governor  Winthrop's  tered  in  form  against  the  corporation.  .  .  .  Mr. 

brother-in-law,  was  in  England  at  the  time  of  Hubbard  says  judgment  was  given,  &c.,  but  the 

this  process  against  the  charter.  He  came  over  Government  themselves,  in  some  of  their  declar- 

to  the  colony  in  1638.  In  1641,  when  Hugh  ations  in  King  Charles  the  Second's  time,  say 

Peter  was  about  to  sail  for  England,  Downing  that  the  process  was  never  completed.  Judg- 

vvrote  him  a  letter  containing  this  passage  :  ment  was  entered  against  so  many  as  appeared, 

"The  Bishop  caused  a  quo  warranto  to  be  and  they  which  did  not  appear  were  outlawed." 

sued  forth  in  the  King's  Bench  against  our  The  opinion  of  the  Crown  lawyers,  Jones  and 

patentees,  thinking  to  damn  our  patent  and  put  Wilmington,  in  1678,  was  as  follows:  "Upon 

a  general  governor  over  us,  but  most  of  them  view  of  a  copy  of  the  record  of  the  quo  warranto, 

that  appeared  I  did  advise  to  disclaim,  which  we  find  that  neither  the  quo  warranto  was  so 

they  might  safely  do,  being  not  sworn  magis-  brought,  nor  the  judgment  thereupon  so  given,  as 

trates  to  govern  according  to  the  patent ;  and  could  cause  a  dissolution  of  the  said  charter." 

those  magistrates  which  do  govern  among  us,  The  reasons  of  the  Attorney  and  the  Solicitor 

being  the  only  parties  to  the  patent,  were  never  Generals  are  not  given  by  Chalmers,  and  may 

summoned  to  appear.  Therefore,  if  there  be  a  not  have  been  embodied  in  the  paper  cited  by 

judgment  given  against  the  patent,  it 's  false  and  him.  Annals,  pp.  405,  439. 


344  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

the  original  parchment,  with  the  Great  Seal  attached  to  it,  their  franchise 
was  safe.1  These  repeated  calls  for  the  patent  may  have  been  demands 
for  its  surrender,  and  may  have  been  so  understood. 

Prof.  Joel  Parker  says  that  the  reason  that  there  was  no  service  of  the 
writ  in  the  colony  was,  "  that  the  process  of  the  King's  Bench  did  not  run 
into  the  colony,  having  no  jurisdiction  there;  and  there  could  therefore  be 
no  service  there."  For  the  same  reason,  then,  the  judgment  of  outlawry 
against  the  patentees  resident  in  the  colony  could  be  of  no  effect. 

The  Privy  Council  Records  have  this  entry  under  the  date  of  May  3, 
1637  :  "  Their  Lordships,  taking  into  consideration  the  patent  granted  to  the 
Governor  of  New  England,  did  this  day  order,  That  Mr.  Attorney-General 
be  hereby  prayed  and  required  to  call  for  the  said  patent,  and  present  the 
same  to  the  Board,  or  the  Committee  for  Foreign  Plantations." 

The  Council  Records  also  show  that  during  the  year  1638  there  were 
frequent  orders  for  the  stay  of  ships  bound  for  New  England,  and  that 
these  orders  were  followed  by  others  granting  leave  to  depart,  on  the 
performance  of  the  conditions  required. 

Under  the  date  of  September  of  this  year  (1638)  Winthrop  has  this 
entry :  — 

"The  General  Court  was  assembled,  in -which  it  was  agreed,  that,  whereas  a  very 
strict  order  was  sent  from  the  Lords  Commissioners  for  Plantations  for  the  sending 
home  our  patent,  upon  pretence  that  judgment  had  passed  against  it  upon  a  quo 
•warranto,  a  letter  should  be  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  be  bound  to  receive  such  a  governor  and  such  orders 
as  should  be  sent  to  us ;  and  many  bad  minds,  yea,  and  some  weak  ones,  among 
ourselves,  would  think  it  lawful,  if  not  necessary,  to  accept  a  general  governor." 2 

The  very  "  strict  order"  for  the  sending  home  of  the  patent,  referred  to 
by  Winthrop,  was  conveyed  in  the  following  paper :  — 

"  A  copy  of  a  letter  sent,  by  the  appointment  of  the  Lords  of  the  Council,  to  Mr. 
Winthrop,  for  the  patent  of  this  Plantation  to  be  sent  to  them. 

AT  WHITE  HALL,  April  4,  1638. 

"This  day  the  Lords  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Plantations,  taking  into  con- 
sideration that  the  petitions  and  complaints  of  his  Majesty's  subjects,  planters,  and 
traders  in  New  England  grow  more  frequent  than  heretofore,  for  want  of  a  settled 
and  orderly  government  in  those  parts,  and  calling  to  mind  that  they  had  formerly 

1  In  that  day  parchment  evidences  of  title  to  evidence  of  a  possession  of  the  franchise  while 
real  property  were  rarely  recorded,  and  were  it  remained  in  their  hands.  See  a  paper  by  Pro- 
themselves  the  only  proof  of  possession,  and  fessor  Emory  Washbuin  on  the  "  Transfer  of  the 
such  muniments  passed  with  the  ownership  of  Colony  Charter,"  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  Jan- 
trie  property.  And,  although  the  Massachusetts  uary,  1859,  pp.  154-167.  He  thinks  the  purpose 
Charter  was  recorded  in  the  public  offices  in  of  the  home  Government  was,  in  the  process  here 
London,  the  original  parchment  in  the  hands  of  instituted,  "toget  possession  of  the  charter  itself." 
the  patentees  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  2  New  England,  \.  269. 


THE    CHARTER   OF    KING   CHARLES    THE   FIRST.  345 

given  order  about  two  or  three  years  since  to  Mr.  Cradock,  a  member  of  that  Planta- 
tion, to  cause  the  grant  or  letters-patent  of  that  Plantation  (alleged  by  him  to  be 
there  remaining  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Winthrop)  to  be  sent  over  hither,  and  that, 
notwithstanding  the  same,  the  said  letters-patent  were  not  as  yet  brought  over :  and 
their  Lordships  being  now  informed  by  Mr.  Attorney-General  that  a  quo  warranto 
had  been  by  him  brought,  according  to  former  order,  against  the  said  patent,  and  the 
same  was  proceeded  to  judgment  against  so  many  as  had  appeared,  and  that  they 
which  had  not  appeared  were  outlawed,  — 

"  Their  Lordships,  well  approving  of  Mr.  Attorney's  care  and  proceeding  therein, 
did  now  resolve  and  order,  that  Mr.  Mewtis,  Clerk  of  the  Council,  attendant  upon 
the  said  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Plantations,  should,  in  a  letter  from  himself  to 
Mr.  Winthrop,  enclose  and  convey  this  order  unto  him.  And  their  Lordships  hereby, 
in  his  Majesty's  name,  and  according  to  his  express  will  and  pleasure,  strictly  require 
and  enjoine  the  said  Winthrop,  or  any  other  in  whose  power  and  custody  the  said 
letters-patent  are,  that  they  fail  not  to  transmit  the  said  patent  hither  by  the  return  of 
the  ship  in  which  the  order  is  conveyed  to  them ;  it  being  resolved  that  in  case  of  any 
further  neglect  or  contempt  by  them  shown  therein,  their  Lordships  will  cause  a  strict 
course  to  be  taken  against  them,  and  will  move  his  Majesty  to  reassume  into  his  hands 
the  whole  plantation."  1 

From  the  citation  given  above  from  Winthrop's  History,  we  have 
seen  that  the  General  Court  agreed  that  a  letter  should  be  written  by  the 
Governor  (Winthrop),  in  the  name  of  the  Court,  to  excuse  their  not  sending 
the  patent  as  directed  in  the  above  order.  This  letter,  in  the  form  of  an 
official  address  from  the  General  Court,  is  a  remarkable  paper,  and  is 
written  in  Winthrop's  best  manner;  and  it  forms  a  striking  contrast  to 
many  of  the  official  documents  issued  by  the  Massachusetts  authorities, 
under  similar  circumstances,  at  the  Restoration.  It  deserves  a  place  in  this 
narrative,  and  is  here  given :  — 

COPY  OF  THE  GENERAL  COURT'S  ADDRESS,  THE  6ra  OF  SEPTEMBER,  1638. 

"  To  the  Right  Honorable  the  Lords  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Plantations  : 

"  The  humble  Petition  of  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Massachusetts  in  New  England, 
of  the  General  Court  there  assembled,  the  6th  day  of  September,  in  the  i4th  year  of 
the  reign  of  our  Sovereign  Lord  King  Charles. 

"  Whereas  it  hath  pleased  your  Lordships,  by  order  of  the  4th  of  April  last,  to 
require  our  patent  to  be  sent  unto  you,  we  do  hereby  humbly  and  sincerely  profess, 
that  we  are  ready  to  yield  all  due  obedience  to  our  Sovereign  Lord  the  King's  Majesty, 
and  to  your  Lordships  under  him,  and  in  this  mind  we  left  our  native  country,  and 
according  thereunto  hath  been  our  practice  ever  since,  so  as  we  are  much  grieved 
that  your  Lordships  should  call  in  our  patent,  there  being  no  cause  known  to  us,  nor 
any  delinquency  or  fault  of  ours  expressed  in  the  order  sent  to  us  for  that  purpose, 
our  government  being  according  to  his  Majesty's  grant,  and  we  not  answerable  for  any 
defects  in  other  plantations,  &c. 

"  This  is  that  which  his  Majesty's  subjects  here  do  believe  and  profess,  and  there- 
upon we  are  all  humble  suitors  to  your  Lordships,  that  you  will  be  pleased  to  take 

1   Hutchlnson,  Papers,  pp.  105,  106. 
VOL.    I. —44. 


346  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

into  further  consideration  our  condition,  and  to  afford  us  the  liberty  of  subjects,  that 
we  may  know  what  is  laid  to  our  charge ;  and  have  leave  and  time  to  answer  for  our- 
selves, before  we  be  condemned  as  a  people  unworthy  of  his  Majesty's  favor  or  pro- 
tection ;  as  for  the  quo  warranto  mentioned  in  the  said  order,  we  do  assure  your 
Lordships  we  were  never  called  to  answer  it,  and  if  we  had,  we  doubt  not  but  we  have 
a  sufficient  plea  to  put  in. 

"  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  that  assurance,  we  have  transported  our  families  and  estates,  and 
here  have  we  built  and  planted  to  the  great  enlargement  and  securing  of  his  Majesty's 
dominions  in  these  parts,  so  as  if  our  patent  should  now  be  taken  from  us  we  shall  be 
looked  on  as  runnigadoes  and  outlawed,  and  shall  be  enforced,  either  to  remove  to 
some  other  place,  or  to  return  into  our  native  country  again ;  either  of  which  will  put 
us  to  unsupportable  extremities,  and  these  evils  (among  others)  will  necessarily  follow  : 
(i)  Many  thousand  souls  will  be  exposed  to  ruin,  being  laid  open  to  the  injuries  of 
all  men.  (2)  If  we  be  forced  to  desert  this  place,  the  rest  of  the  plantations  (being 
too  weak  to  subsist  alone)  will,  for  the  most  part,  dissolve  and  go  with  us,  and  then 
will  this  whole  country  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  French  or  Dutch,  who  would  speedily 
embrace  such  an  opportunity.  (3)  If  we  should  lose  all  our  labor  and  costs,  and 
be  deprived  of  those  liberties  which  his  Majesty  hath  granted  us,  and  nothing  laid  to 
our  charge,  nor  any  failing  to  be  found  in  us  in  point  of  allegiance  (which  all  our 
countrymen  do  take  notice  of  and  will  justify  our  faithfulness  in  this  behalf)  it  will 
discourage  all  men  hereafter  from  the  like  undertakings  upon  confidence  of  his 
Majesty's  royal  grant.  Lastly,  if  our  patent  be  taken  from  us  (whereby  we  suppose 
we  may  claim  interest  in  his  Majesty's  favor  and  protection)  the  common  people  here 
will  conceive  that  his  Majesty  hath  cast  them  off,  and  that,  hereby,  they  are  freed  from 
their  allegiance  and  subjection,  and,  thereupon,  will  be  ready  to  confederate  them- 
selves under  a  new  government,  for  their  necessary  safety  and  subsistence,  which  will 
be  of  dangerous  example  to  other  plantations,  and  perilous  to  ourselves  of  incurring 
his  Majesty's  displeasure,  which  we  would  by  all  means  avoid. 

"  Upon  these  considerations  we  are  bold  to  renew  our  humble  supplications  to 
your  Lordships,  that  we  may  be  suffered  to  live  here  in  this  wilderness,  and  that  this 
poor  plantation,  which  hath  found  more  favor  from  God  than  many  others,  may  not 
find  less  favor  from  your  Lordships  ;  that  our  liberties  should  be  restrained,  when 
others  are  enlarged ;  that  the  door  should  be  kept  shut  unto  us,  while  it  stands  open 
to  all  other  plantations ;  that  men  of  ability  should  be  debarred  from  us,  while  they 
have  encouragement  to  other  colonies. 

"  We  dare  not  question  your  Lordships'  proceedings ;  we  only  desire  to  open  our 
griefs  where  the  remedy  is  to  be  expected.  If  in  anything  we  have  offended  his 
Majesty  and  your  Lordships,  we  humbly  prostrate  ourselves  at  the  footstool  of  supreme 
authority ;  let  us  be  made  the  object  of  his  Majesty's  clemency,  and  not  cut  off,  in  our 
first  appeal,  from  all  hope  of  favor.  Thus,  with  our  earnest  prayers  to  the  King  of 
kings  for  long  life  and  prosperity  to  his  sacred  Majesty  and  his  royal  family,  and  for 
all  honor  and  welfare  to  your  Lordships,  we  humbly  take  leave."  1 

Hutchinson2  says:  "It  was  never  known  what  reception  this  answer 
met  with.  It  is  certain  that  no  further  demand  was  made."  If  Hutchinson 

1  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  i.  507-509.  -  Ibid.,  \.  88. 


THE   CHARTER   OF    KING   CHARLES    THE   FIRST.  347 

had  been  as  familiar  with  Winthrop's  manuscript  Journal,  or  History,  as  he 
was  with  Hubbard's  History,  he  would  have  found,  under  date  of  May,  1639, 
the  following  entry :  — 

"  The  Governor  received  letters  from  Mr.  Cradock,  and  in  them  another  order 
from  the  Lords  Commissioners,  to  this  effect :  "  That,  whereas  they  had  received 
our  petition  upon  their  former  order,  &c.,  by  which  they  perceived  we  were  taken  with 
some  jealousies  and  fears  of  their  intentions,  &c.,  they  did  accept  of  our  answer,  and  did 
now  declare  their  intentions  to  be  only  to  regulate  all  plantations  to  be  subordinate  to 
the  said  Commission  ;  and  that  they  meant  to  continue  our  liberties,  &c. ;  and  therefore 
did  now  peremptorily  require  the  Governor  to  send  them  our  patent  by  the  first  ship ; 
and  that,  in  the  mean  time,  they  did  give  us,  by  that  order,  full  power  to  go  on  in  the 
government  of  the  people  until  we  had  a  new  patent  sent  us  ;  and,  withal,  they  added 
threats  of  further  course  to  be  taken  with  us  if  we  failed." 

The  next  paragraph  of  the  Journal  is  interesting,  as  giving  a  little  piece 
of  private  history,  and  showing  the  shrewd  qualities  of  those  with  whom  the 
English  Government  had  to  deal :  — 

"  This  order  being  imparted  to  the  next  General  Court,  some  advised  to  return 
answer  to  it.  Others  thought  fitter  to  make  no  answer  at  all,  because,  being  sent  in  a 
private  letter,  and  not  delivered  by  a  certain  messenger,  as  the  former  was,  they  could 
not  proceed  upon  it,  because  they  could  not  have  any  proof  that  it  was  delivered  to  the 
Governor ;  and  order  was  taken,  that  Mr.  Cradock's  agent,  who  delivered  the  letter 
to  the  Governor,  &c.,  should,  in  his  letters  to  his  master,  make  no  mention  of  the  letters 
he  delivered  to  the  Governor." 

This  furnishes  a  sufficient  reason  why  Hutchinson  never  heard  of  this 
order  of  the  Commissioners  and  the  action  taken  on  it.  No  official  record 
was  made  of  it,  and  no  papers  were  left  on  file.  Indeed,  as  to  most  of  the 
transactions  narrated  here  respecting  the  patent,  and  which  were  the  subject 
of  so  much  anxiety,  the  records  of  the  General  Court  are  wholly  silent. 

In  this  last  order  the  Lords  Commissioners  frankly  admit  their  object. 
They  intended  to  bring  all  the  plantations  into  subjection  under  their  com- 
mission. "  The  charter,"  says  Professor  Parker,  "stood  in  their  way.  They 
called  for  it,  and  it  did  not  come.  Process  to  enforce  a  forfeiture  of  it  had  failed. 
There  was  a  very  good  reason  for  this  thrice-repeated  demand  by  the  Com- 
missioners. Their  commission  purported  to  give  it  to  them,  with  authority 
to  revoke  it  if,  upon  view  of  it,  they  found  anything  hurtful  to  the  King,  his 
crown,  or  prerogative  royal.  The  possession  of  it  was  thus  made  necessary 
to  a  revocation  by  the  Commissioners.  A  view  of  the  copy  was  not  suffi- 
cient. No  reason  is  apparent  why  this  might  not  have  been  made  otherwise. 
Perhaps  it  would  have  been  if  there  had  been  any  apprehension  of  difficulty 
in  obtaining  possession.  But  so  it  stood.  Therefore  the  repeated  attempts 
to  obtain  a  surrender,  with  the  threats  if  it  was  not  forthcoming.  It  was  im- 
portant to  exhibit  a  semblance  of  a  legal  revocation.  There  were  too  many 
complaints  of  the  exercise  of  arbitrary  power  in  England  to  render  it  ex- 
pedient to  add  others  in  relation  to  the  colonies."  1 

1  Lecture,  as  above,  p.  25. 


348 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 


All  these  proceedings,  at  least  in  Massachusetts,  were  a  nullity.  "  Every- 
thing went  on  as  if  Westminster  Hall  had  not  spoken.  The  disorders  of  the 
mother  country  were  a  safeguard  of  the  infant  liberty  of  New  England."  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges,  the  newly-appointed  General  Governor,  did  not  come  to 
New  England.  There  was  a  rumor  that  the  "  great  ship,"  which  Mason  and 
others  had  built  "  to  send  over  the  General  Governor,  .  .  .  being  launched, 
fell  in  sunder  in  the  midst."  1 


OLIVER   CROMWELL.2 


1  Winthrop,  New  England,  i.  161. 

2  [This  is  engraved,  by  permission  of  the  Hon. 
Robert  C.  Winthrop,  from  a  contemporary  min- 
iature, ascribed  to  Cooper,  whose  ownership  is 
traced  back  from    Mr.    Winthrop  through  the 


late  Joseph  Coolidge,  President  Jefferson,  and 
Geo.  W.  Erving.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.t  March, 
1880,  p.  365.  For  Cromwell's  purpose  to  fly  to 
America  see  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  April, 
1866.  —  ED.] 


THE    CHARTER   OF    KING   CHARLES   THE    FIRST.  349 

» 

For  thirty  years  the  freemen  of  Massachusetts  managed  their  affairs  with 
very  little  interruption  from  the  mother  country.  There  were  times  of 
anxiety,  and  there  were  occasions  of  annoyance,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
but  during  this  period  they  were  substantially  independent.  From  the  year 
1640  to  the  Restoration  they  had  little  apprehensions  of  danger  to  their  civil 
or  religious  privileges.  They  recognized  the  importance  of  keeping  on 
good  terms  with  the  Parliament,  and  subsequently  with  Cromwell.  Hutch- 
inson  says  he  has  "  nowhere  met  with  any  marks  of  disrespect  to  the  mem- 
ory of  the  late  King,  and  there  is  no  room  to  suppose  the  colonists  were 
under  disaffection  to  his  son ;  and  if  they  feared  his  restoration  it  was 
because  they  expected  a  change  in  religion,  and  that  a  persecution  of  all 
Nonconformists  would  follow  it."  1  The  restoration  of  royal  authority  gave 
occasion  to  some  fears,  grounded  in  part  on  uncertainty  as  to  the  character 
of  the  new  King  and  his  ministers  and  advisers,  as  well  as  respects  the  policy 
which  he  might  adopt  towards  New  England.  The  declaration  from  Breda 
was  calculated  to  dispel  alarm.  While  their  charter  remained  good  in 
English  law,  they  rested  upon  it  as  a  sufficient  shield. 

In  July,  1660,  news  arrived  that  the  King  had  been  proclaimed  in  Eng- 
land, but  no  advices  had  been  received  from  authority,  and  he  .was  not  pro- 
claimed in  the  colony."  At  the  session  of  the  Court  in  October,  a  motion 
was  made  for  an  Address  to  be  sent,  but  it  did  not  prevail.  There  were 
rumors  that  England  was  in  an  unsettled  condition,  that  the  body  of  the 
people  were  dissatisfied,  and  fears  were  felt  that  an  address  might  fall  into 
the  hands  of  parties  for  whom  it  was  not  intended.  In  November,  how- 
ever, they  were  informed  that  all  matters  were  settled,  and  letters  were  re- 
ceived from  Capt.  John  Leverett,  their  agent  in  London,  and  others,  that 
petitions  and  complaints  had  been  preferred  against  the  Colony,  to  the 
King  in  Council,  by  Mason  and  Gorges,  —  each  a  grandson  and  heir  of 
a  late  more  distinguished  proprietor  of  lands  in  New  England,  —  and 
by  others ;  that  the  Quakers  and  some  of  the  Eastern  people  had'  been 
making  their  grievances  known,  and  that  the  demand  was  for  a  general 
governor  to  be  sent  over.2 

An  extraordinary  meeting  of  the  General  Court  was  called  on  the  igth 
of  December,  and  a  loyal  address  to  the  King  was  agreed  upon,  and  another 
to  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament.  Letters  were  also  sent  to  Lord  Manches- 
ter, Lord  Say  and  Sele,  and  others  of  note,  to  intercede  in  behalf  of  the 
colony.  The  Address  to  the  King  was  lavish  in  compliments,  and  abounded 
in  Scriptural  phraseology. 

"  May  it  please  your  Majesty,"  they  say,  "in  the  day  wherein  you  happily  say,  you 
now  know  that  you  are  again  king  over  your  British  Israel,  to  cast  a  favorable  eye  upon 
your  poor  Mephibosheths,  now  —  and,  by  reason  of  lameness  in  respect  of  distance, 
not  until  now  —  appearing  in  your  presence ;  we  mean  New  England,  kneeling  with 
the  rest  of  your  subjects  before  your  Majesty  as  her  restored  king.  We  forget  not  our 
ineptness  as  to  these  approaches.  We  at  present  own  such  impotency  as  renders  us 
1  Mass.  Bay,  \.  209.  2  Hutchinson,  Papers,  pp.  322,  323. 


350  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

•n 

unable  to  excuse  our  impotency  of  speaking  unto  our  lord  the  king ;  yet  contemplating 
such  a  king  who  hath  also  seen  adversity,  that  he  knoweth  the  hearts  of  exiles,  who 
himself  hath  been  an  exile  ;  the  aspect  of  majesty  thus  extraordinarily  circumstanced 
influenceth  and  animateth  exanimated  outcasts,  yet  outcasts  as  we  hope  for  the  truth, 
to  make  this  Address  unto  their  Prince,  hoping  to  find  grace  in  your  sight." 

This  is  certainly  a  very  unpromising  beginning,  both  as  to  rhetoric  and 
as  to  taste.  The  Address  proceeds  to  supplicate  protection  "  in  the  continu- 
ance both  of  our  civil  privileges  and  of  our  religious  liberties,  according  to 
the  grantees'  known  end  of  suing  for  the  patent  conferred  upon  this  Planta- 
tion by  your  royal  father.  .  .  .  Touching  complaints  put  in  against  us,  our 
humble  request  only  is  that  for  the  interim,  wherein  we  are  dumb  by  reason 
of  absence,  your  Majesty  would  permit  nothing  to  make  an  impression 
upon  your  royal  heart  against  us,  until  we  have  opportunity  and  license  to 
answer  for  ourselves."  As  to  the  Quakers,  "  the  Quakers  died,  not  because 
of  their  other  crimes,  how  capital  soever,  but  upon  their  superadded  pre- 
sumptuous and  incorrigible  contempt  of  authority."  l 

The  General  Court's  instructions  to  their  agent  are  expressed  in  a  business- 
like manner.  He  is  to  interest  as  many  gentlemen  of  worth  in  Parliament, 
or  that  are  near  the  King,  as  possible,  and  "  get  speedy  and  true  information 
of  his  Majesty's  sense  of  our  petition,  and  of  the  government  and  people 
here,  together  with  the  like  of  the  Parliament."  As  to  any  complaints 
"  relating  to  the  bounds  and  limits  of  our  patent,"  they  desire  to  have  liberty 
to  make  answer  for  themselves ;  and  "  if  any  objection  be  made  that  we 
have  forfeited  our  patent  in  several  particulars,  you  may  answer  that  you 
desire  to  know  the  particulars  objected,  and  that  you  doubt  not  but  a  full 
answer  will  be  given  thereto  in  due  season." 

The  King's  answer  to  the  Address  of  the  General  Court,  dated  February 
15,  1 660-6 1,  was  brief,  but  gracious:  — 

"  We  have  made  it  our  care  to  settle  our  lately  distracted  kingdom  at  home,  and  to 
extend  our  thoughts  to  increase  the  trade  and  advantages  of  our  colonies  and  planta- 
tions abroad.  Amongst  which,  as  we  consider  New  England  to  be  one  of  the  chiefest, 
having  enjoyed  and  grown  up  in  a  long  and  orderly  establishment,  so  we  shall  not  come 
behind  any  of  our  royal  predecessors  in  a  just  encouragement  and  protection  of  all  our 
loving  subjects  there,  whose  application  unto  us,  since  our  late  happy  restoration,  hath 
been  very  acceptable,  and  shall  not  want  its  due  remembrance  upon  all  seasonable 
occasions ;  neither  shall  we  forget  to  make  you  and  all  our  good  people  in  those  parts 
equal  partakers  of  those  promises  of  liberty  and  moderation  to  tender  consciences 
expressed  in  our  gracious  declarations." 2 

Such  benign  language,  employed  by  the  King  through  Secretary  Mor- 
rice,  was  well  calculated  to  allay  anxiety,  and  undoubtedly  prepared  the  way 
for  the  reception  of  another  document  of  a  different  character,  which  proba- 

1  This  address  was  printed  this  year  in  Lon-  presented  unto  His  Most  Gracious  Majesty,  Feb. 

don  in  a  small  quarto  of  eight  pages,  entitled,  n,  1660;  that  is,  1661,  N.  s. :  the  year  then  be- 

The  Humble  Petition  and  Address  of  the  General  gan  on  the  25th  of  March. 

Court  sitting  at  Boston,  in  New  England,  &c.,  2  Hutchinson,  Papers,  pp.  329-333. 


THE   CHARTER   OF   KING   CHARLES   THE    FIRST. 


351 


bly  came  by  the  same  ship,  yet  bearing  a  little  earlier  date.  This  was  an 
order  for  the  arrest  of  Colonels  Whalley  and  Goffe,  the  fugitive  regicides, 
who  arrived  in  the  colony  the  preceding  July,  and  had  been  seen  in 
Boston  by  one  Captain  Breedan,  a  commercial  adventurer  from  England, 
who,  on  his  return  home,  gave  information  thereof  to  the  authorities. 

The  Navigation  Act  of  Cromwell,  through  the  friendly  feeling  of  the 
Protector,  had  been  a  dead  letter  in  the  Colony.  The  Convention  Parlia- 
ment enacted  a  more  stringent  law.  This  forbade  the  importation  of  mer- 
chandise into  any  English  colony,  except  in  English  vessels,  with  English 
crews ;  and  prohibited  the  exportation  of  certain  colonial  staples,  specified, 
from  the  place  of  production  to  any  other  ports  than  such  as  belonged  to 
England.  The  penalty  in  both  cases  was  forfeiture  of  vessel  and  cargo. 
This  oppressive  system  was  extended,  three  years  later,  by  confining  the 
import  trade  of  the  colonists  to  a  direct  commerce  with  England,  forbidding 
them  to  bring  from  any  other  country,  or  in  any  but  English  ships,  the  pro- 
ducts, not  only  of  England,  but  of  any  European  soil.1 

It  was  not  without  reason  that  the  General  Court  apprehended  some  dif- 
ficulty in  the  execution  of  the  more  rigorous  law  passed  in  the  year  of  the 
Restoration.  Yet  they  desired  to  place  themselves  right  on  the  record,  and 
repealed  certain  laws  which  had  hitherto  made  their  harbor  free  to  "  all  ships 
which  came  for  trading  only  from  other  parts ; "  while  they  authorized  the 
Governor  to  require  bonds  of  the  ship-masters  coming  hither,  as  the  Naviga- 
tion Act  required,  and  returns  to  be  made  before  they  had  liberty  to  depart. 
And,  in  order  to  give  no  unnecessary  cause  for  complaint  that  the  provisions 
of  their  charter  had  not  been  adhered  to  in  a  certain  respect,  they  repealed 
the  law  limiting  the  number  of  Assistants  to  fourteen,  and  permitted  the  free- 
men to  choose  eighteen  Assistants,  "  as  the  Patent  hath  ordained."  The 
practice,  however,  remained  the  same.2 

The  government  of  the  English  colonies  was  first  lodged  in  the  Privy 
Council.  The  plan  next  devised,  in  1634,  was  that  of  the  Commission 
which  has  already  been  referred  to,  and  of  which  Laud  was  at  the  head. 
At  an  early  period  of  the  Civil  War,  in  1642,  a  Parliamentary  Commission 
was  intrusted  with  the  superintendence  of  colonial  affairs,  with  Robert, 
Earl  of  Warwick,  at  its  head.3  But  this  last  commission  exercised  little 
authority.  One  of  Lord  Clarendon's  earliest  measu'res  on  the  Restoration 
was  the  formation,  in  December,  1660,  of  a  Council  of  Foreign  Planta- 
tions, which  was  invested  with  similar  powers  to  that  last  named.  In  the 
preceding  month  a  Council  of  Trade  had  been  established.  A  few  months 
later,  in  May,  1661,  twelve  Privy  Councillors  were  appointed  to  be  a 
"  Committee  touching  the  settlement  of  New  England."  But  no  immediate 
authority  appears  to  have  been  exercised  by  this  committee.4 

The  natural  anxiety  consequent  upon  the  condition  of  public  affairs  at 

1  A   few   articles   were    excepted   from    the  '2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.  IV.  (ii.)  31,  32. 

general  law.      Palfrey,  New  England,  ii.    444,  3  Hazard,  Coll.,  \.  533,  633. 

445.  4  Palfrey,  as  above,  p.  444. 


352 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF  BOSTON. 


this  time  led  the  colonial  authorities  to  reflect  upon  their  own  rights  and 
duties.  As  the  session  of  the  General  Court  in  May,  1661,  was  drawing  to 
a  close,  a  committee  consisting  of  twelve  of  the  principal  laymen  and  clergy- 
men was  appointed  to  take  into  consideration  "  the  present  condition  of 
our  affairs."  They  desired  "  seriously  to  discuss,  and  rightly  to  understand, 
our  liberty  and  duty,  thereby  to  beget  unity  amongst  ourselves  in  the  due 
observance  of  obedience  and  fidelity  unto  the  authority  of  England  and  our 
own  just  privileges."  At  a  special  meeting  of  the  General  Court,  June 
10,  this  committee  made  a  report  which  was  "  allowed  and  approved." 
This  remarkable  paper,  signed  and  probably  written  by  Thomas  Danforth, 
is  a  sort  of  declaration  of  rights  and  an  acknowledgment  of  duties.  As  an 
exposition  of  those  rights,  and  as  showing  the  reliance  placed  upon  their 
charter,  it  is  worthy  of  a  place  here. 

THE  COURT'S  DECLARATION  OF  THEIR  RIGHTS  BY  CHARTER,  JUNE  10,  1661. 

"First,   Concerning  our  Liberties: 

"  i.  We  conceive  the  patent  (under  God),  to  be  the  first  and  main  foundation  of 
our  civil  polity  here,  by  a  governor  and  company,  according  as  is  therein  expressed. 

"  2.  The  governor  and  company  are,  by  the  patent,  a  body  politic  in  fact  and  name. 

"  3.  This  body  politic  is  vested  with  power  to  make  freemen. 

"  4.  These  freemen  have  power  to  choose  annually  a  governor,  deputy-governor, 
assistants,  and  their  select  representatives  or  deputies. 

"  5.  This  government  hath  also  power  to  set  up  all  sorts  of  officers,  as  well  superior 
as  inferior,  and  point  out  their  power  and  places. 

"  6.  The  governor,  deputy-governor,  assistants,  and  select  representatives  or  depu- 
ties have  full  power  and  authority,  both  legislative  and  executive,  for  the  government 
of  all  the  people  here,  whether  inhabitants  or  strangers,  both  concerning  ecclesiastical 
and  civil,  without  appeal,  excepting  law  or  laws  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England. 

"  7.  This  government  is  privileged,  by  all  fitting  means  (yea,  if  need  be  by  force 
of  arms),  to  defend  themselves,  both  by  land  and  sea,  against  all  such  person  or 
persons  as  shall,  at  any  time,  attempt  or  enterprise  the  destruction,  invasion,  detri- 
ment, or  annoyance  of  this  Plantation,  or  the  inhabitants  therein,  besides  other 
privileges,  mentioned  in  the  patent,  not  here  expressed. 

"  8.  We  conceive  any  imposition  prejudicial  to  the  country,  contrary  to  any  just 
law  of  ours,  not  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England,  to  be  an  infringement  of  our  right. 

"  Second,   Concerning  our  duties  of  allegiance  to  our  Sovereign  Lord  the  King: 

"  i.  We  ought  to  uphold,  and  to  our  power  maintain,  this  place  as  of  right 
belonging  to  our  Sovereign  Lord  the  King,  as  holden  of  his  Majesty's  manor  of 
East  Greenwich,  and  not  to  subject  the  same  to  any  foreign  prince  or  potentate 
whatsoever. 

"  2.  We  ought  to  endeavor  the  preservation  of  his  Majesty's  royal  person,  realms, 
and  dominions,  and,  so  far  as  lieth  in  us,  to  discover  and  prevent  all  plots  and  con- 
spiracies against  the  same. 

"  3.  We  ought  to  seek  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  our  king  and  nation,  by  a  faith- 
ful discharge  in  the  governing  of  this  people  committed  to  our  care. 


THE   CHARTER   OF   KING    CHARLES    THE    FIRST.  353 

"  First.  By  punishing  all  such  crimes  (being  breaches  of  the  first  or  second  table) 
as  are  committed  against  the  peace  of  our  Sovereign  Lord  the  King,  his  royal  crown 
and  dignity. 

"  Second.  In  propagating  the  Gospel,  defending  and  upholding  the  true  Christian 
or  Protestant  religion,  according  to  the  faith  given  by  our  Lord  Christ  in  his  Word : 
our  dread  sovereign  being  styled,  '  Defender  of  the  Faith.' 

"  The  premises  considered,  it  may  well  stand  with  the  loyalty  and  obedience  of 
such  subjects  as  are  thus  privileged  by  their  rightful  sovereign  (for  himself,  his  heirs, 
and  successors  forever)  as  cause  shall  require,  to  plead  with  their  prince  against  all 
such  as  shall  at  any  time  endeavor  the  violation  of  their  privileges. 

"  We  further  judge  that  the  warrant  and  letter  from  the  King's  Majesty  for  the 
apprehending  of  Colonel  Whalley  and  Colonel  Goffe  ought  to  be  diligently  and 
faithfully  executed  by  the  authority  of  this  country.1 

"And  also  that  the  General  Court  may  do  safely  to  declare,  that  in  case,  for 
the  future,  any  legally  obnoxious,  and  flying  from  the  civil  justice  of  the  state  of 
England,  shall  come  over  to  these  parts,  they  may  not  here  expect  shelter."  a 

The  formal  proclaiming  of  the  restored  king  had  been  deferred  until 
August,  1661,  fifteen  months  after  his  accession,  when  it  was  ordered  by 
the  Court  that  he  be  proclaimed  in  Boston ;  and  the  following  form, 
selected  from  among  several  proposed,  was  adopted, — 

"  Forasmuch  as  Charles  the  Second  is  undoubted  King  of  Great  Britain,  France, 
and  Ireland,  and  all  other  his  Majesty's  territories  and  dominions  thereunto  belonging, 
and  hath  been  sometimes  since  lawfully  proclaimed  and  crowned  accordingly,  we 
therefore  do,  as  in  duty  we  are  bound,  own  and  acknowledge  him  to  be  our  Sovereign 
Lord  and  King,  and  do  therefore  hereby  proclaim  and  declare  his  said  Majesty, 
Charles  the  Second,  to  be  lawful  King  of  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Ireland,  and  all 
other  the  territories  and  dominions  thereunto  belonging."  8 

An  address  to  the  King,  likewise  agreed  to  at  the  same  time,  if  not 
sent,  is  preserved  by  Hutchinson.4  It  is  conceived  and  executed  in  bad 
taste,  its  rhetoric  being  beyond  redemption.  The  tone  was  sufficiently 
submissive  to  satisfy  the  vanity  of  the  most  arbitrary  monarch. 

Hutchinson  says  that  intelligence  arrived  about  this  time  of  further  com- 
plaints against  the  Colony,  and  that  orders  were  received  from  'the  King 
that  persons  should  be  sent  over  to  make  answer.  That  historian  may  have 
had  papers  not  now  on  file.  It  is  certain  that,  at  the  meeting  of  the  General 
Court  in  November,  the  question  of  sending  agents  and  providing  money  to 
defray  the  expenses  of  the  mission  was  considered,  and  was  referred  to  the 
next  Court.  A  special  session  was  called  for  December,  at  which  it  was  re- 
solved to  send  Mr.  Bradstreet  and  Mr.  Norton,  with  instructions  to  represent 
the  Colony  as  his  Majesty's  loyal  and  obedient  subjects,  to  endeavor  to  take 
off  all  scandal  and  objections,  and  to  understand  his  Majesty's  apprehen- 
sions concerning  them.  A  humble  petition  and  address  to  the  King  was 
prepared  to  accompany  the  agents,  praying  his  Majesty  to  incline  his  royal 

1  Hutchinson,  History,  \.  331,  prints  this  "Court."  8  Ibid.  p.  31. 

2  Mass.  Colony  Records,  IV.  (il.)  25,  26.  4  Papers,  p.  341. 
VOL.   I.  —  45. 


354  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

ear  unto  the  persons  herewith  sent,  and  imploring  his  "  gracious  confirma- 
tion of  our  patent  granted  by  your  royal  predecessor  of  famous  memory." 
Letters  were  also  written  to  the  Earl  of  Manchester,  Viscount  Say  and  Sele, 
and  the  Earl  of  Clarendon. 

Mr.  Bradstreet  and  Mr.  Norton  engaged  in  this  service  with  great  reluc- 
tance, as  the  mission  was  regarded  by  them  as  a  delicate  one,  attended 
with  heavy  responsibilities.  Mr.  Norton  had  a  special  reluctance  to  serve. 
The  agents  feared  that  they  might  be  detained  as  hostages  for  the  good 
behavior  of  their  constituents.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  make  all 
the  necessary  arrangements,  including  the  preparation  of  instructions. 
They  met  at  the  "  Anchor  Tavern  in  Boston,"  having  ten  sessions  in 
five  weeks;  and  though  some  members  of  the  Committee,  including  the 
Governor,  Mr.  Endicott,  and  Deputy-Governor,  Mr.  Bellingham,  were  so 
averse  to  the  measure  that  they  failed  to  attend  the  meetings,  the  business 
was  finally  arranged,  and  the  agents  sailed  February  11,  1 662-63. l 

It  has  been  remarked,  as  the  occasion  of  some  surprise,  that  the  Colony, 
in  a  period  so  critical  in  their  affairs,  should  have  repeated  an  act  calculated 
to  give  high  offence  in  England.  Soon  after  the  agents  had  sailed,  and 
before  any  tidings  of  them  could  have  been  received,  the  General  Court 
passed  an  order  for  issuing  a  new  coin  of  "two-penny  pieces  of  silver." 
This  coin  continued  to  be  struck  for  a  long  time,  all  the  pieces  being 
stamped  with  the  date  of  the  year  of  the  first  issue,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
earlier  issue.2 

The  reception  of  the  agents  in  England  was  far  more  favorable  than  they 
had  dared  to  hope.  In  London  they  were  confronted  by  some  of  the 
enemies  of  the  Colony,  particularly  by  the  Quakers,  who  had  little  power 
to  annoy  them.  Their  stay  in  England  was  short,  and  they  returned  the 
next  fall,  —  arriving  September  3,  —  with  a  gracious  letter  from  the  King, 
bearing  date  June  28,  1662,  "  part  of  which  cheered  the  hearts  of  the 
country."  He  told  the  authorities  of  Massachusetts  that  their  Address 
to  him  had  been  very  acceptable ;  that  he  received  them  into  his  gracious 
protection ;  confirmed  the  patent  and  charter  heretofore  granted  to  them, 

1  Hutchinson,  Papers,  pp.  345-370.  of  Hull   himself  (Amer.  Antiq.  Soc.   Coll.,  vol. 

2  | The  first  coining  had  taken  place  in  1652,  iii.),  throw  light  on   Hull's  life  and  character, 
when,  by  order  of  the  Court,  shillings,  sixpences,  The  one  date,   1652,  continued  on  these  early 
and  threepences  were  to  be  struck  to  take  the  coins  as  struck  for  thirty  years.     Hull  claimed 
place  of  "paper  bills,  very  subject  to  be  lost,  all  his  rights  under  a  very  advantageous  con- 
rent,  or  counterfeited,"  tract   for   coining   the   money,   and   died    rich. 
ancl  J°hn   Hull,  a  sil-  Felt,  Mass.  Currency.      The  coins  are  figured 
versmith,   and    Robert  in  Drake's  Boston,  p.  330,  and  Landmarks,  pp. 
Sanderson  were  placed  211,    237,   and    in    Lossing's   Field-book  of  the 

in  charge  of  the  minting,  Hull  being  the  mint-  Revolution,  i.  449,  &c.  Cf.  John  II.  Ilickox, 
master.  Hull  lived  till  1683,  and  left  a  will,  Hist.  Ace.  of  Amer.  Coinage,  Albany.  Hull  is 
which  is  abstracted  in  Drake's  Boston,  pp.  329,  supposed  to  have  lived  in  Shcaffe  Street ;  he 
450.  His  daughter  Hannah,  of  whom  the  old  lies  buried  in  the  Granary.  A  large  property 
story  goes  that  he  gave  her  on  her  marriage  a  — 350  acres — which  he  possessed  in  Long- 
settlement  in  pine-tree  shillings  equal  to  her  wood  was  known  as  SewalPs  Farm  after  it  de- 
weight,  was  the  wife  of  the  famous  Judge  Sewall,  scended  to  his  son-in-law.  Wood,  Brookline, 
whose  Diary  (5  Mass.  Hist.  Coll,  v.),  and  that  p.  109.  —  ED.] 


THE    CHARTER   OF   KING   CHARLES    THE   FIRST.  355 

and  was  ready  to  renew  the  same  whenever  desired ;  and  that  he  pardoned 
all  his  subjects  of  that  Plantation  for  all  crimes  and  offences  committed 
against  him  during  the  late  troubles,  except  any  such  persons  who  stood 
attainted  of  high  treason,  if  any  such  persons  had  transported  themselves 
into  those  parts. 

These  clauses  in  this  missive  of  the  King  were  then  regarded  by  the 
colonists,  and  were  often  afterwards  referred  to  by  them,  as  a  confirmation 
of  their  charter  privileges  and  an  amnesty  of  all  past  errors. 

There  were  some  things,  however,  in  the  King's  letter,  hard  to  comply 
with  ;  and  though  the  authorities,  agreeably  to  the  King's  command,  ordered 
it  to  be  published,  it  was  with  the  proviso  that  "  all  manner  of  actings  in 
relation  thereto  shall  be  suspended  until  the  next  General  Court." 

After  the  expressions  of  favor  above  recited  from  the  King's  letter,  his 
Majesty  proceeded  as  follows  :  — 

"  Provided  always,  and  be  it  in  our  declared  expectation,  that  upon  a  review  of 
all  such  laws  and  ordinances  that  are  now  or  have  been  during  these  late  troubles  in 
practice  there,  and  which  are  contrary  or  derogative  to  our  authority  and  government, 
the  same  may  be  annulled  and  repealed,  and  the  rules  and  prescriptions  of  the  said 
charter  for  administering  and  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance  be  henceforth  duly 
observed,  and  that  the  administration  of  justice  be  in  our  name.1  And  since  the 
principle  and  foundation  of  that  Charter  was  and  is  the  freedom  of  liberty  of  con- 
science, We  do  hereby  charge  and  require  you  that  that  freedom  and  liberty  be  duly 
admitted  and  allowed,  so  that  they  that  desire  to  use  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
and  perform  their  devotion  in  that  manner  that  is  established  here,  be  not  denied  the 
exercise  thereof,  or  undergo  any  prejudice  or  disadvantage  thereby,  they  using  their 
liberty  peaceably  without  any  disturbance  to  others  ;  and  that  all  persons  of  good  and 
honest  lives  and  conversations  be  admitted  to  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper ; 
according  to  the  said  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  their  children  to  baptism.  We 
cannot  be  understood  hereby  to  direct  or  wish  that  any  indulgence  should  be  granted 
to  those  persons  commonly  called  Quakers,  whose  principles  being  inconsistent  with 
any  kind  of  government,  We  have  found  it  necessary,  with  the  advice  of  our  Par- 
liament here,  to  make  a  sharp  law  against  them,  and  are  well  content  you  do  the  like 
there.  Although  We  have  hereby  declared  our  expectation  to  be  that  the  Charter 
granted  by  our  royal  father,  and  now  confirmed  by  us,  shall  be  particularly  observed ; 
yet,  if  the  number  of  assistants  enjoined  thereby  be  found  by  experience,  and  be 
judged  by  the  country,  to  be  inexpedient,  as  We  are  informed  it  is,  We  then  dispense 
with  the  same,  and  declare  our  will  and  pleasure,  for  the  future,  to  be,  that  the 
number  of  the  said  assistants  shall  not  exceed  eighteen,  nor  be  less  at  any  time  than 
ten,  We  assuring  ourselves,  and  obliging  and  commanding  all  persons  concerned,  that, 
in  the  election  of  the  governor  or  assistants  there  be  only  consideration  of  the  wisdom 

1  These  are  made  the  conditions  of  the  Par-  called  a  Letter,  and  certainly  was  not  a  Pardon 

don  which  the  King  may  annex,  as  he  thinks  fit,  under   the   Great   Seal.      It  is,  however,  often 

on  the  performance  whereof  the  validity  of  the  claimed   as  a  Grant  or  Charter  as  well  for  the 

Pardon  will  depend.     What  follows  seems  to  be  remission  of  all  offences  as  for  the  confirmation 

rather  a  requisition  or  recommendation  of  cer-  of  all  Liberties  and  Privileges  granted  by  Patent, 

tain  acts  upon  the  performance  whereof  depends  (Hutckinson's  note.} 
his  Majesty's  further  grace  and  favor.     This  is 


356  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

and  integrity  of  the  persons  to  be  chosen,  and  not  of  any  faction  with  reference  to 
their  opinion  or  profession,  and  that  all  the  freeholders  of  competent  estates,  not 
vicious  in  conversations,  orthodox  in  religion  (though  of  different  persuasions  con- 
cerning church-government) ,  may  have  their  vote  in  the  election  of  all  officers  civil 
or  military.  Lastly,  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  that,  at  the  next  General  Court  of  that 
our  Colony,  this  our  letter  and  declaration  be  communicated  and  published,  that  all 
our  loving  subjects  may  know  our  grace  and  favor  to  them,  and  that  We  do  take  them 
into  our  protection  as  our  loving  and  dutiful  subjects,  and  that  We  will  be  ready  from 
time  to  time  to  receive  any  application  or  address  from  them  which  may  concern 
their  interest  and  the  good  of  our  Colony,  and  that  We  will  advance  the  benefit  of 
the  trade  thereof  by  our  uttermost  endeavor  and  countenance,  presuming  that  they 
will  still  merit  the  same  by  their  duty  and  obedience."  1 

Many  of  these  requirements  were  grievous  to  our  ancestors.  "The 
agents  met  with  the  same  fate,"  says  Hutchinson,  "  of  most  agents  ever 
since.  The  favors  which  they  obtained  were  supposed  to  be  no  more  than 
might  well  have  been  expected,  and  their  merits  were  soon  forgot;  the 
evils  which  they  had  it  not  in  their  power  to  prevent  were  attributed  to 
their  neglect  or  to  unnecessary  concessions."  Mr.  Norton  was  so  sensibly 
affected  by  the  displeasure  of  his  neighbors  that  he  drooped  and  died  in  a 
few  months  after  his  return.  Mr.  Bradstreet  was  a  man  of  more  "  phlem," 
and  of  less  ability  than  his  associate,  and  perhaps  was  regarded  as  less 
responsible.2 

The  only  thing  done  at  this  session  of  the  General  Court,  —  held 
in  October,  1662,  —  in  obedience  to  the  King's  orders,  beside  making 
the  letter  public,  was  the  ordering  that  "  all  writs,  process  with  indict- 
ments," &c.,  be  made  and  set  forth  in  the  King's  name.  At  the  next 
session,  in  May,  1663,  a  commission  was  appointed,  after  long  and  seri- 
ous debate,  to  consider  what  was  proper  to  be  done  as  to  other  parts  of 
the  letter ;  and  in  the  mean  time  both  clergymen  and  laymen  were  invited 
to  send  in  their  thoughts,  so  that  something  might  be  agreed  upon 
"  satisfactory  and  safe,  conducing  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  felicity  of 
his  people."3 

Notwithstanding  the  gracious  expressions  and  promises  in  some  of  the 
King's  letters  to  the  Massachusetts  authorities,  it  must  be  admitted  that, 
from  the  Restoration  until  the  vacating  of  the  charter,  the  Colony  never 
stood  well  in  England,  and  the  principal  persons  in  the  colony,  both 
Church  and  State,  were  never  without  fears  of  being  deprived  of  their 
privileges.  The  years  1664  and  1665  afforded  them  greater  occasion  for 
apprehension  than  they  had  met  with  at  any  previous  period,  —  certainly 
since  the  time  of  the  meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Privy  Council,  Sept.  25,  1662,  "The  settlement  of 
the  plantations  in  New  England  [were]  seriously  debated  and  discoursed, 
and  the  Lord  Chancellor  declared  then  that  his  Majesty  would  speedily 
send  commissioners  to  settle  the  respective  interests  of  the  several  colonies. 

1  Hutchinson,  Papers,  pp.  377-381.       2  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  i.  222,  223.       3  Ibid.  p.  223. 


THE    CHARTER    OF    KING    CHARLES   THE    FIRST.  357 

The  Duke  of  York  to  consider  of  the  choice  of  fit  men."  At  a  meeting  on 
the  loth  April,  1663,  "A  letter  from  New  England,  and  several  instruments 
and  papers  being  this  day  read  at  the  Board,  his  Majesty  (present  in 
Council)  did  declare  that  he  intends  to  preserve  the  charter  of  the  planta- 
tion, and  to  send  some  commissioners  thither  speedily  to  see  how  the 
charter  is  maintained  on  their  part,  and  to  reconcile  the  differences  at 
present  amongst  them." 

These  orders  of  the  Privy  Council  were  a  foreshadowing  of  what  was  to 
come.  In  the  spring  of  1664  intelligence  was  brought  that  several  men- 
of-war  were  coming  from  England,  with  some  gentlemen  of  distinction  on 
board.  At  the  meeting  of  the  Court  in  May,  they  order  that  "  the  Captain 
of  the  Castle,  on  the  first  sight  and  knowledge  of  their  approach,  give  speedy 
notice  thereof  to  the  honored  Governor  and  Deputy-Governor ;  and  that 
Captain  James  Oliver  and  Captain  William  Davis  are  hereby  ordered  forth- 
with to  repair  on  board  the  said  ships,  and  to  acquaint  those  gentlemen 
that  this  Court  hath  and  doth  by  them  present  their  respects  to  them, 
and  that  it  is  the  desire  of  the  authority  of  this  place  that  they  take  strict 
order  that  their  under  officers  and  soldiers,  in  their  coming  on  shore  to 
refresh  themselves,  at  no  time  exceed  a  convenient  number,  and  that 
without  arms,  and  that  they  behave  themselves  orderly,"  &c.  A  solemn 
day  of  humiliation  and  prayer  was  commended  to  be  held  by  all  the 
churches,  "  for  the  Lord's  mercy  to  be  towards  us."  And  "  forasmuch  as 
it  is  of  great  concernment  to  this  Commonwealth  to  keep  safe  and  secret 
our  patent,  it  is  ordered,  the  patent  and  duplicate,  belonging  to  the  country, 
be  forthwith  brought  into  the  Court  ;  and  that  there  be  two  or  three 
persons  appointed  by  each  House  to  keep  safe  and  secret  the  said  patent 
and  duplicate,  in  two  distinct  places,  as  to  the  said  committee  shall  seem 
most  expedient;  "  and  "  that  the  Deputy-Governor,  Major-General  Leverett, 
Captain  Clarke,  and  Captain  Johnson  are  appointed  to  receive  the  grand 
patent  from  the  secretary,  and  to  dispose  thereof  as  may  be  most  safe 
for  the  country.  The  secretary,  being  sent  for  the  patent,  brought 
it  into  Court,  and  delivered  it  to  the  Deputy-Governor,  Richard  Bel- 
lingham,  Esq.,  and  the  rest  of  the  committee,  in  the  presence  of  the 
whole  Court,  and  was  discharged  thereof."1  The  train- bands  were 
put  in  order,  and  Captain  Davenport  was  placed  in  command  of  the 
Castle.  "  Having  trimmed  their  vessel,  the  wakeful  pilots  awaited  the 
storm."2 

On  Saturday  the  23d  of  July,  1664,  two  ships  of  war,  the  "  Guinea"  and 
the  "  Elias,"  came  to  anchor  before  the  town  of  Boston.  They  had  sailed 
ten  weeks  before  from  Portsmouth,  England,  in  company  with  two  other 
ships,  the  "  Martin  "  and  the  "  William  and  Nicholas,"  from  which  they  had 
parted  a  week  or  two  before  in  bad  weather.  The  fleet  conveyed  three  or 
four  hundred  troops,  and  four  persons  charged  with  public  business,  viz., 
Colonel  Richard  Nichols,  Sir  Robert  Carr,  Colonel  George  Cartwright, 

1  Mass.  Col.  Kec.,  IV.  (ii.)  102.  2  Palfrey,  New  England,  ii.  577. 


358 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


and  Mr.  Samuel  Maverick.1  The  two  last  named  had  arrived  at  Piscataqua 
three  days  before.  They  jointly  bore  a  commission  from  the  King  for 
reducing  the  Dutch  at  Manhadoes  (New  York),  and  for  hearing  and  de- 

termining  all  matters 
of  complaint,  and  set- 
tling  the  peace  and 
security  of  the  coun- 
try ;  any  three  or  two 
of  them  to  be  a  quo- 
rum, Colonel  Nichols 
during  his  life  being 
one.  The  commis- 
sion,  dated  April  25, 
1664,  is  in  Hutch- 
inson.*  They  also 
brought  a  letter  from  the  King  to  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  of 
two  days'  earlier  date,  declaring  the  purpose  of  the  embassy  to  be  to  obtain 
information  for  the  guidance  of  his  Majesty  in  his  attempts  to  advance  the 
well-being  of  his  subjects  in  New  England  ;  to  suppress  and  utterly 
extinguish  those  unreasonable  jealousies  and  malicious  calumnies  which 
wicked  and  unquiet  spirits  perpetually  labored  to  infuse  into  the  minds 
of  men,  that  his  subjects  in  those  parts  did  not  submit  to  his  government, 
but  looked  upon  themselves  as  independent  of  him  and  his  laws  ;  to 
compose  such  differences  as  existed  upon  questions  of  boundaries  between 
different  colonies  ;  to  assure  the  native  tribes  of  his  protection  ;  to  over- 
throw the  usurped  authority  of  the  Dutch  ;  to  confer  upon  the  matter  of 
his  former  letter  sent  by  Bradstreet  and  Norton,  and  the  Colony's  answer 
thereto,  of  which  he  would  only  say  that  the  same  did  not  answer  his 
expectations,  nor  the  professions  made  by  their  messengers.  The  letter 
is  in  the  Massachusetts  Colony  Records?  They  also  had  two  sets  of  instruc- 
tions from  the  King;  one  set  to  be  shown,  the  other  for  the  guidance  of 
the  Commissioners.4 

At  the  wish  of  the  Commissioners,  the  Governor  called  a  meeting  of  the 
Council  on  Tuesday  the  26th  of  July.  The  Commissioners  then  laid  before 
that  body  their  commission,  the  King's  letter  of  the  23d  of  April,  and  part 
of  their  instructions,  and  proposed  that  the  Colony  should  raise  such  a 
number  of  men  as  they  could  spare  to  assist  in  the  reduction  of  the 
Manhadoes,  to  begin  their  march  on  the  2Oth  of  August;  promising  that  in 
the  mean  time,  if  they  could  dispense  with  their  services,  they  would  give 
the  necessary  order.  The  Council  replied  that  they  would  cause  the  General 

1  [Cf.  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  October,  doubt  which  once  existed  on  that  point  has  been 
1854,  p.  378.  Letters  of  Maverick  during  this  dispelled  by  the  petition  of  his  daughter,  Mi.-. 
period  are  in  the  Clarendon  Papers,  printed  by  Hooke.  Cf.  Sumner,  East  Boston,  p.  107.  —  Eu.] 


the  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  in  1869.  Maverick,  the 
Commissioner,  was  the  same  person  of  that  name 
whom  Winthrop  found  on  Noddle's  Island  ;  any 


2  Afasis.  Ray,  ii.  535. 

8  IV.  (ii).  158-160. 

4  See  Brodhead,  Documents,  &c  ,  iii.  51  ct  seq. 


THE    CHARTER   OF    KING    CHARLES   THE    FIRST.  359 

Court  to  assemble  on  the  3d  of  August,  and  lay  the  proposal  before  them. 
The  Commissioners  then  proceeded  to  the  Manhadoes,  intimating,  on  their 
departure,  that  they  should  have  many  more  things  to  communicate  to  the 
Council  at  their  return,  and  desiring  that  the  King's  letter  of  June  28, 
1662,  might,  in  the  mean  time,  be  further  considered,  and  a  more  satisfactory 
answer  than  before  given  to  it. 

On  the  assembling  of  the  Court  at  the  time  appointed,  they  first  resolved 
"  that  they  would  bear  faith  and  true  allegiance  to  his  Majesty,  to  adhere 
to  their  patent,  so  dearly  obtained  and  so  long  enjoyed  by  undoubted 
right  in  the  sight  of  God  and  men."  They  then  resolved  to  raise  not 
exceeding  two  hundred  men,  at  the  Colony's  charge,  for  his  Majesty's 
service  against  the  Dutch.  As  Manhadoes  so  soon  surrendered  upon 
articles,  no  orders  were  given  for  the  men  to  march.  The  Court  then  pro- 
ceeded to  consider  his  Majesty's  letter  of  1662,  —  the  letter  brought  by 
Bradstreet  and  Norton  two  years  before,  —  to  which  the  Council's  attention 
had  been  specially  called.  They  repealed  the  law  which  confined  the 
franchise  to  church  membership,  superseding  it  by  another  which  provided 
that  from  henceforth  all  Englishmen,  being  twenty-four  years  of  age,  house- 
holders, and  settled  inhabitants,  and  presenting  a  certificate  from  the 
minister  of  the  place  that  they  were  orthodox  in  religion  and  not  vicious 
in  their  lives,  and  a  certificate  from  the  selectmen  that  they  were  free- 
holders and  ratable  to  the  value  of  ten  shillings,  should  have  the  privilege 
of  applying  to  be  chosen  freemen.  The  practical  effect  of  this  law  was  to 
produce  little  change.  Finally,  the  Court  chose  a  committee  of  three,  to 
draw  up  a  petition  to  the  King  for  the  continuance  of  the  privileges  granted 
by  charter. 

Two  months  were  spent  in  preparing  this  petition,  which  is  a  paper  of 
some  length.  It  bears  date  Oct.  I,  1664.  It  sets  forth,  with  considerable 
eloquence,  the  sacrifices  by  which  the  liberties  hitherto  possessed  by 
the  Colony  had  been  purchased,  and  urged  the  injustice  of  the  present 
proceedings  against  them. 

"This  people,"  it  said,  "did,  at  their  own  charges,  transport  themselves,  their 
wives  and  families,  over  the  ocean,  purchase  the  lands  of  the  natives,  and  plant  this 
Colony  with  great  labor,  hazards,  costs,  and  difficulties ;  for  a  long  time  wrestling  with 
the  wants  of  a  wilderness  and  the  burdens  of  a  new  plantation ;  having  also  now 
above  thirty  years  enjoyed  the  aforesaid  power  and  privilege  of  government  within 
themselves,  as  their  undoubted  right  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man." 

As  to  the  King's  letter  brought  by  Norton  and  Bradstreet,  the  Court 
said :  — 

"  We  have  applied  ourselves  to  the  utmost  to  satisfy  your  Majesty  so  far  as  doth 
consist  with  conscience  of  our  duty  towards  God,  and  the  just  liberties  and  privileges 
of  our  patent.  .  .  .  But  now  what  affliction  of  heart  must  it  needs  be  unto  us,  that 
our  sins  have  provoked  God  to  permit  our  adversaries  to  set  themselves  against  us,  by 
their  misinformations,  complaints,  and  solicitations  (as  some  of  them  have  made  that 


360  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

their  work  for  many  years),  and  thereby  to  procure  a  commission  under  the  Great 
Seal,  wherein  four  persons  (one  of  them  our  known  and  professed  enemy)  are 
empowered  to  hear,  receive,  examine,  and  determine  all  complaints  and  appeals  in 
all  causes  and  matters,  as  well  military  as  criminal  and  civil,  and  to  proceed  in  all 
things  for  settling  this  country  according  to  their  good  and  sound  discretions,  &c. ; 
whereby,  instead  of  being  governed  by  rulers  of  our  own  "choosing  (which  is  the 
fundamental  privilege  of  our  patent),  and  by  laws  of  our  own,  we  are  like  to  be 
subjected  to  the  arbitrary  power  of  strangers,  proceeding,  not  by  any  established  law, 
but  by  their  own  discretions."  1 

Nichols  was  now  occupied  at  New  York  by  the  duties  of  his  new 
government.  The  other  three  commissioners  met  at  Boston  in  February 
following  (1665),  and  thence  immediately  proceeded  to  Plymouth,  Rhode 
Island,  and  Connecticut,  to  transact  with  these  colonies  the  business  of  their 
mission,  before  making  a  final  trial  of  their  strength  with  the  Massachusetts. 
With  their  reception  in  these  colonies  the  commissioners,  in  their  report  to 
the  King,  express  complete  satisfaction.  By  the  following  May  they  had 
arrived  at  Boston,  Nichols  coming  from  New  York  to  join  his  associates 
only  the  day  before  the  meeting  of  the  Court  of  Elections.  The  parties 
now  entered  with  spirit  into  the  contest,  which  was  begun  and  ended  in  a 
month.  The  venerable  Governor  Endicott  had  died  in  the  preceding 

month,  and  he  was  succeeded 
by  Bellingham.2  The  Commis- 
sioners  laid  their  claims  before 
the  Court,  and  demanded  answers.  There  was  considerable  skirmishing  on 
both  sides.  The  purpose  of  the  Commissioners  was  primarily  to  have 
their  commission  acknowledged  by  the  Government,  by  which  they  might 
substantially  override  the  charter,  and  prepare  the  way  for  a  modification 
of  the  government.  The  proceedings  occupy  a  large  space  in  the  records 
of  the  colony,  in  which  the  correspondence  is  preserved.  The  personal 
bearing  of  some  of  the  envoys  was  offensive,  and  the  conference  soon 
descended  into  altercation.  The  Court  demanded  that  the  Commissioners 
should  at  once  show  their  whole  hand,  instead  of  delivering  their  papers 
by  piecemeal.  Finally,  the  Commissioners  peremptorily  asked  that  body : 
"  Do  you  acknowledge  his  Majesty's  Commission  to  be  of  full  force  to  all 
the  intents  and  purposes  therein  contained?"  To  this  question  the  Court 
replied :  "  We  humbly  conceive  it  is  beyond  our  line  to  declare  our  sense 
of  the  power,  intent,  or  purpose  of  your  commission.  It  is  enough  for  us 
to  acquaint  you  what  we  conceive  is  granted  to  us  by  his  Majesty's  royal 
charter.  If  you  rest  not  satisfied  with  our  former  answer,  it  is  our  trouble, 

1  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,\.  538,  539;  Mass.  tenant-Governor  Phillips.      Drake,  Landmarks, 
Col.  Rec.,  IV.  (ii.)  129,   130.     Cf.  also  Colonel  53.     He  died  December  7,  1672,  and  is  buried 
Higginson's  chapter  in  this  volume.  in    the    Granary.      Shurtleff,    Boston,    p.    2U; 

2  I  Bellingham  lived  on  Tremont  Street,  about  Bridgman,  Pilgrims  of  Boston.      He  figures  in 
midway   between    the    entrance   to    Pemberton  that  weird   picture  of  the  strong  contrasts   of 
Square  and  Beacon   Street,  on  the  same  estate  Puritan   life    in    Boston,    Hawthorne's    Scarlet 
afterwards  owned  by  the  Faneuils  and  by  Lieu-  Letter.  —  ED.] 


THE   CHARTER   OF   KING   CHARLES   THE   FIRST.  361 

but  we  hope  it  is  not  our  fault."  l  The  Commissioners,  however,  attempted 
to  sit  as  a  court  to  hear  a  complaint  against  the  Governor  and  Company, 
when  the  General  Court  published,  by  sound  of  trumpet,  its  disapprobation 
of  the  proceeding,  and  prohibited  every  one  from  abetting  a  conduct  so 
inconsistent  with  their  duty  to  God  and  allegiance  to  their  King.  The 
Commissioners  failed  in  their  mission  to  the  Massachusetts,  and  soon  after- 
wards proceeded  to  the  eastward.  Colonel  Nichols,  however,  returned  to 
New  York.2  Chalmers's  reflection  on  these  proceedings  is  as  follows :  — 

"The  General  Court  considered  the  least  infringement  of  those  forms  that  had 
been  established,  however  contrary  to  the  letter  or  intent  of  the  patent,  as  an  attack 
on  the  chartered  rights  of  the  Colony.  The  truth  lay,  as  usual,  in  the  middle,  between 
both.  No  grant,  no  usage,  however  ancient  or  inveterate,  could  exclude  a  king  of 
England  from  the  power  of  executing  the  general  laws  of  the  State  within  the 
dominions  of  the  State.  But  that  commission  was  liable  to  great  objection  ;  because 
it  might  have  been  extended  to  affect  English  liberties,  which  no  prerogative  of  the 
Crown  can  abridge.  An  Act  of  Parliament  was  assuredly  necessary  in  order  to  cut  up 
effectually  those  principles  of  independence  that  had  rooted  with  the  settlement  of 
New  England." 8 

The  leading  colonists  of  Massachusetts  held  more  radical  views  as  to 
their  rights  and  their  relation  to  the  mother  country.  They  regarded  civil 
subjection  as  either  necessary  or  voluntary.  Necessary  subjection,  arising 
from  actual  residence  within  any  jurisdiction,  created  an  obligation  to 
submit  to  its  authority,  in  like  manner  as  every  alien  who  resides  in  Eng- 
land owes  a  temporary  allegiance  to  the  king,  and  obedience  to  the  laws. 
Voluntary  subjection  proceeded  from  special  compact  ;  but  the  mere 
circumstance  of  birth  they  deemed  no  necessary  cause  of  allegiance,  as 
subjects  of  all  States  had  a  natural  right  to  remove  to  any  other  State,  or 
any  other  part  of  the  world,  and  their  removal  would  discharge  all  former 
connection  and  obligation.  From  this  reasoning  they  deduced  this  practical 
principle  of  independence:  "that  they  no  longer  owed  any  allegiance  to 
the  Crown,  or  any  obedience  to  the  laws  of  the  State  from  which  they 
emigrated  with  its  consent."  The  country  to  which  they  themselves  had 
removed  had  been  claimed  and  possessed  by  independent  princes,  whose 
right  to  the  lordship  and  sovereignty  thereof  had  been  acknowledged  by 
the  kings  of  England.  All  this  they  had  purchased  for  a  valuable  con- 
sideration. Their  charter,  however,  they  deemed  a  compact,  whence  vol- 
untary subjection  arose;  and  by  this  test,  to  which  they  always  appealed, 
they  claimed  that  the  nature  and  extent  of  their  obligation  ought  to  be 
determined.  Though  no  natural  allegiance  was  due,  they  thought  them- 
selves bound  by  their  patent  to  subject  the  Colony  to  no  other  sovereign, 
to  make  no  laws  contrary  to  those  of  England ;  yet  at  the  same  time,  that 
they  were  to  be  governed  wholly  by  regulations  established,  and  by  officers 
elected  by  themselves.  Principles  somewhat  dissimilar,  or  conclusions 

1  Mass.  Col.  Kec.  IV.  (ii.)  204,  207.       2  Palfrey,  New  England,  ii.  606-618.       8  Annals,  p.  388. 
VOL.   I.  —  46. 


362  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

altogether  different,  have  been  often  avowed ;  yet  such  were  the  reasonings 
which  exercised  a  controlling  influence  in  the  colony.1 

The  Commissioners  were  powerless.  "  Gentlemen,"  they  wrote,  "  we 
thought  when  we  received  our  commission  and  instructions,  that  the  King 
and  his  Council  knew  what  was  granted  to  you  in  your  charter,  and  what 
right  his  Majesty  had  to  give  us  such  commission  and  commands ;  and  we 
thought  the  King,  his  chancellor,  and  his  secretaries,  had  sufficiently 
convinced  you  that  this  commission  did  not  infringe  your  charter;  but 
since  you  will  needs  misconstrue  all  these  letters  and  endeavors,  and  that 
you  will  make  use  of  that  authority  which  he  hath  given  you,  to  oppose 
that  sovereignty  which  he  hath  over  you,  we  shall  not  lose  more  of  our 
labors  upon  you,  but  refer  it  to  his  Majesty's  wisdom,  who  is  of  power 
enough  to  make  himself  to  be  obeyed  in  all  his  dominions."2 

The  Colony  could  not  expect  otherwise  than  that  their  cause  would  be 
unfavorably  represented  to  the  Government  in  England  by  the  Commission- 
ers ;  and  the  reports  of  those  officials  could  not  fail  also  to  show  that  their 
efforts  had  become  powerless  to  effect  the  purpose  which  the  authorities  had 
in  view.  In  this  quarrel  the  Government  had  been  defeated ;  but  they  re- 
solved to  carry  the  contest  by  another  method.  On  the  loth  of  April,  1666, 
the  King,  by  his  secretary,  in  a  letter  to  the  Colony,  wrote :  — 

"  It  is  very  evident  to  his  Majesty  .  .  .  that  those  who  govern  the  colony  of  the 
Massachusetts  do  believe  that  the  commission  given  by  his  Majesty  to  those  Commis- 
sioners ...  is  an  apparent  violation  of  their  charter,  and  tending  to  the  dissolution 
of  it ;  and  that  in  truth  they  do,  upon  the  matter,  believe  that  his  Majesty  hath  no 
jurisdiction  over  them,  but  that  all  persons  must  acquiesce  in  their  judgments  and  deter- 
minations how  unjust  soever,  and  cannot  appeal  to  his  Majesty."  The  King  had,  there- 
fore, resolved  to  recall  his  said  Commissioners,  "  to  the  end  that  he  may  receive  from 
them  a  more  particular  account  of  the  state  and  condition  of  those  his  plantations,  and 
of  the  particular  differences  and  debates  they  have  had  with  those  of  the  Massachu- 
setts, so  that  his  Majesty  may  pass  final  judgment  and  determination  thereupon.  His 
Majesty's  express  command  and  charge  is,  that  the  Governor  and  Council  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts do  forthwith  make  choice  of  five  or  four  persons  to  attend  upon  his  Majesty, 
whereof  Mr.  Richard  Bellingham  and  Major  Hathorn  are  to  be  two,  .  .  .  and  his 
Majesty  will  then  in  person  hear  all  the  allegations,  suggestions,  or  pretences  to  right 
or  favor  that  can  be  made  on  the  behalf  of  the  said  Colony,  and  will  there  make  it 
appear  how  far  he  is  from  the  least  thought  of  invading  or  infringing,  in  the  least 
degree,  the  royal  charter  granted  to  the  said  Colony ;  and  his  Majesty  expects  the 
appearance  of  the  said  persons  as  soon  as  they  can  possibly  repair  hither  after  they 
have  notice  of  this  his  Majesty's  pleasure."  3 

At  a  special  meeting  of  the  Court  in  September  following,  the  King's 
letter,  which  had  been  received  through  Mr.  Samuel  Maverick,  was  consid- 
ered, and  a  reply,  addressed  to  Secretary  Morrice,  adopted.  In  this  they 
say:  — 

1  Summary  from  Chalmers,  Annals,  pp.  391,  2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  IV.  (ii).  210,  211. 

392  ;  and  from  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  \.  251,  253.  3  Hutchmson,  Mass.  Bay,  \.  547,  548. 


THE    CHARTER   OF    KING   CHARLES    THE   FIRST.  363 

"  We  may  not  omit  to  acquaint  your  Honor  that  a  writing  was  delivered  to  the  gov- 
ernor and  magistrates  by  Mr.  Samuel  Maverick,  the  6th  of  September,  without  direc- 
tion or  seal,  which  he  saith  is  a  copy  of  a  signification  from  his  Majesty  of  his  pleasure 
concerning  this  Colony  of  the  Massachusetts,  the  certainty  whereof  seems  not  to  be  so 
clear  unto  us  as  former  expresses  from  his  Majesty  have  usually  been.  We  have  in  all 
humility  given  our  reasons  why  we  could  not  submit  to  the  Commissioners  and  their 
mandates  the  last  year,  which  we  understand  lie  before  his  Majesty,  to  the  substance 
whereof  we  have  not  to  add,  and  therefore  cannot  expect  that  the  ablest  persons 
among  us  could  be  in  a  capacity  to  declare  our  cause  more  fully.  We  must,  there- 
fore, commit  this  our  great  concernment  unto  Almighty  God,  praying  and  hoping 
that  his  Majesty  (a  prince  of  so  great  clemency)  will  consider  the  state  and 
condition  of  his  poor  and  afflicted  subjects  at  such  a  time,  being  in  imminent 
danger  by  the  public  enemies  of  our  nation,  and  that  in  a  wilderness  far  remote 
from  relief."  l 

These  proceedings  were  not  concluded  with  entire  unanimity.  Petitions 
to  the  General  Court  came  in  from  four  of  the  principal  commercial  towns, 
entreating  compliance  with  the  royal  demand,  —  that  from  Boston  having 
twenty-six  signatures;  that  from  Salem  thirty-three;  from  Newbury,  thirty- 
nine;  and  from  Ipswich,  seventy-three  names.  The  Boston  petition  (in 
substance  they  were  all  the  same),  with  the  names  attached  to  it,  and  the 
names  which  were  attached  to  the  other  petitions,  respectively,  may  be  seen 
in  2  Mass.  Historical  Collections,  viii.  103-107 .2  The  signers  gave  offence  to 
the  Court,  and  several  from  each  town  were  summoned  to  appear  to  answer 
for  the  same.  Maverick  came  on  from  New  York,  with  a  letter  signed  by 
Nichols,  Carr,  and  himself,  making  a  general  protest  against  this  last  action 
of  the  Court,  testifying  to  the  genuineness  of  the  letter  subscribed  by  Sir 
William  Morrice,  and  fully  concurring  in  the  substance  of  the  several  peti- 
tions referred  to.  The  Court  answered  that  what  they  had  to  say  upon  the 
subject  had  been  communicated  to  Sir  William  Morrice.3 

The  attempts  to  appease  the  King  by  humble  addresses  and  professions 
of  loyalty  were  now  supplemented  by  a  substantial  gift  to  his  Majesty  of  a 
shipload  of  masts,  the  freight  of  which  cost  the  Colony  sixteen  hundred 
pounds  sterling.  The  gift  was  well  received,  and  was  acknowledged  under 
the  sign-manual  of  the  King,  bearing  date  April  21,  1669. 

Thus  ended  for  a  time  the  contest  with  the  Crown.  England  was  not 
without  her  calamities  at  home — the  London  Fire  and  the  London  Plague  — 
which  were  well  calculated  to  arrest  her  thoughts  for  a  season ;  Lord  Clar- 
endon had  been  dismissed  and  was  in  exile.  For  nearly  ten  years  there  was 
an  almost  entire  suspension  of  political  relations  between  New  England  and 
the  mother  country.  But  the  projects  of  the  home  Government  relating  to 
the  colony  were  never  wholly  abandoned.  The  Council  for  Foreign  Planta- 
tions was  twice  reconstructed.  At  its  first  meeting  under  its  last  organiza- 
tion, in  May,  1671,  a  plan  for  a  circular-letter  to  the  Colony  was  debated, 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  IV.,  ii.  317.  this    controversy.      Cf.     Ilutchinson,    Original 

-  An    interesting    collection    of    "Danforth     Papers,  p.  511. 
Papers"  in  this  volume  throws  much  light  on  3  Palfrey,  New  England,  ii.  628. 


364  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

which  they  finally  agreed  should  be  of  a  conciliatory  nature.  They  then 
considered  the  scheme  of  sending  a  deputy  to  New  England,  "  with  secret 
instructions  to  inform  of  the  condition  of  those  colonies,  and  whether  they 
were  of  such  power  as  to  be  able  to  resist  his  Majesty,  and  declare  for 
themselves  as  independent  of  the  Crown."  l  But  this  scheme  was  allowed 
to  fall  into  neglect.  Soon  afterwards,  in  March,  1675,  the  functions  of  the 
Council  of  Trade  and  the  Council  for  Foreign  Plantations  were  restored 
to  the  Privy  Council,  and  were  exercised  as  formerly  by  a  standing 
committee  of  that  body,  called  "  The  Lords  of  the  Committee  of  Trade 
and  Plantations." 

Ferdinando  Gorges  and  Robert  Mason  had  been  active  since  the  Restora- 
tion, and  had  not  allowed  their  claims  to  sleep ;  though,  after  the  peaceful 
settlement  of  the  towns  in  Maine  and  New  Hampshire  under  the  government 
of  the  Massachusetts,  their  complaints  at  Court  had  received  little  attention.2 
In  1674  they  proposed  to  surrender  to  the  King  their  respective  patents,  on 
condition  of  having  secured  to  them  one-third  part  of  the  customs,  rents, 
&c.  But  nothing  was  effected.  Allegations  were  also  renewed  against 
Massachusetts  by  the  merchants  of  London,  for  a  violation  of  the  Naviga- 
tion Laws.  This  was  a  standing  complaint,  persistently  made,  and  the  occa- 
sion of  it  as  persistently  renewed  by  the  Colony.  In  March,  1675,  the  Lords 
of  the  Committee  of  Trade  and  Plantations  proposed  to  the  King  to  send 
five  commissioners  to  the  colony,  "to  arrange  its  affairs,"  and  to  look  after 
the  violation  of  the  Navigation  Acts.  At  the  same  time  the  Attorney-General 
and  the  Solicitor-General  were  directed  to  examine  the  claims  of  Mason  and 
Gorges  as  presented  in  their  renewed  petition  of  the  previous  January.  To 
inquiries  submitted  to  the  Commissioners  of  Customs  in  England,  they 
replied  that  New  England  was  equally  subject  with  the  rest  of  the  colonies 
to  the  laws  of  trade.  The  law-officers  reported  that  Mason  had  "  a  good 
legal  title  to  the  lands "  in  the  Province  of  New  Hampshire,  and  that 
Gorges  had  "  a  good  title  to  the  Province  of  Maine."  3 

An  earnest  decision  was  now  reached.  The  Privy  Council,  at  a  meeting 
in  December,  1675,  decided  to  recommend  that  copies  of  the  claimants' 
petitions  be  sent  to  Massachusetts,  and  that  the  Government  there  should 
be  required,  within  a  specified  time,  subsequently  fixed  at  "six  months,  to 
send  over  agents  sufficiently  empowered  to  answer  for  the  Colony,  and  to 
receive  the  King's  determination  upon  the  matters  in  issue,  and  this  plan  was 
adopted.  Edward  Randolph,  "  the  evil  genius  of  New  England,"  now  first 

appears  upon  the  stage. 
He  was  .a  supple  tool  of 
arbitrary  power.  He  was 
sent  to  Massachusetts  with 
the  King's  letter,  dated 
March  10,  1675-76,  and 

1  Palfrey,  New  England,  iii.  274.  brought   the   settlements   of    New    Hampshire 

2  The    Massachusetts    Colony    had,  by    an     and  Maine  within  its  own  jurisdiction, 
early  interpretation  of  its  northern  boundary,  a  Palfrey,  as  above,  pp.  280,  281. 


THE   CHARTER   OF    KING   CHARLES    THE   FIRST.  365 

with  copies  of  the  peti- 
tions and  complaints  of 
Mason  and  Gorges.  He 
sailed  about  April  i,and 
landed  in  Boston  June  10, 
1676,  after  a  tedious  pas- 
sage of  ten  weeks.  He 
found  the  colony  involved  in  a  war  with  the  Indians,  contending  with  them 
for  the  possession  of  the  soil.  The  public  distress  was  great,  the  loss  of 
life  was  fearful,  and  the  charge  upon  the  Colony  most  embarrassing.  The 
inquiry  now  set  on  foot,  through  the  instrumentality  of  Randolph,  and  the 
proceedings  under  it,  which  struck  at  the  powers  of  the  Government  of  the 
colony,  were  continued  from  time  to  time,  until  finally,  by  a  judicial  process, 
judgment  was  pronounced  against  the  charter.  A  full  history  of  these 
proceedings  in  detail  through  all  these  years  would  fill  many  pages,  and  the 
same  may  be  said  of  that  part  of  the  narrative  already  told ;  but  it  comes 
only  within  my  province  to  present  the  prominent  features  and  the  results 
of  this  controversy,  so  momentous  to  the  colony.1 

Randolph  presented  his  papers  to  the  Governor  (Leverett),  who  admitted 
him  into  the  presence  of  the  Council.  The  letter  of  the  King,  in  which  he 
acquainted  the  magistrates  with  the  representations  of  Gorges  and  Mason,  the 
Governor  read  aloud.  Randolph  said  that  he  had  the  King's  orders  to 
require  an  answer,  and  to  wait  for  it  one  month.  In  the  mean  time  he  tried 
to  stimulate  a  local  faction  in  the  colony.  He  complained  to  the  Governor 
of  infractions,  which  he  had  himself  observed,  of  the  Acts  of  Navigation. 
He  visited  several  towns  in  New  Hampshire,  and  found  "  the  whole  country 
complaining  of  the  oppression  and  usurpation  of  the  magistrates  of  Boston." 
At  Portsmouth,  several  of  the  principal  inhabitants  of  the  Province  of  Maine 
came  to  him,  making  the  same  complaints.  Returning  to  Boston,  he  em- 
barked for  home  July  30,  1676.  A  full  account  of  his  observations  of  the 
country,  made  during  this  visit,  is  published  in  Hutchinson's  Collection 
of  Papers,  with  which  compare,  for  dates,  his  Narrative  in  Massacliusetts 
Archives,  vol.  cxxvii. 

Soon  after  Randolph  sailed,  the  Governor  summoned  a  special  Court  to 
meet  on  the  9th  of  August.  The  elders  were  consulted,  and  gave  their 
opinion  that  "  the  most  expedient  way"  to  answer  "  the  complaints  of  Mr. 
Gorges  and  Mr.  Mason,  about  the  extent  of  our  patent  line,"  is  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  agents  "  to  appear  and  make  answer  "  for  us ;  and  at  the  next 
session,  in  September,  the  Court  adopted  this  advice,  and  William  Stoughton 
and  Peter  Bulkley  were  chosen  for  the  purpose.  They  sailed  October  30, 
bearing  an  address  to  the  King.  The  agents  also  were  intrusted  with  a  paper, 

1  The  principal  original  sources  to  be  con-  Hist.  Col.,  and  Palfrey's  History  of  Nino  England. 

suited  for  the  history  of  this  contest  are  Chal-  Dr.    Palfrey   used   many   original   unpublished 

niers's  Annals,  Hutchinson's  History  of  Mass,  papers  from  public  and  private  depositories  in 

Bay  and  his  Collection  of  Original  Papers,  the  England  not  elsewhere  printed.   There  are  other 

Mass.    Col.  Records,  the  Mass.  Archives,  Mass,  sources  cited  in  this  paper. 


366 


THE    MEMORIAL    HISTORY    OF   BOSTON. 


entitled  "  A  Brief  Declaration  of  the  Right  and  Claim  of  the  Governor  and 
Company  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  New  England,  to  the  Lands  now  in 
their  Possession,  but  pretended  to  by  Mr.  Gorges  and  Mr.  Mason." 

Randolph  was  already  in  England,  and  lost  no  time  to  report  what  he 
had  done  and  seen;  and  the  agents,  on  their  arrival  three  months  later, 
found  the  minds  of  the  courtiers  prejudiced  against  the  cause  they  repre- 
sented. Randolph  had  urged  that  the  Colony  had  broken  the  laws  of  trade 
and  navigation.  After  some  months  had  passed,  the  Lords  of  the  Com- 
mittee, in  June,  1677,  advised  the  King  that,  in  their  opinion,  this  allegation 
had  been  proved,  and  recommended  that  the  Government  of  the  colony 
should  be  notified  of  his  Majesty's  pleasure  that  said  acts  be  duly  executed  ; 
and  that  the  Lord  Treasurer  should  appoint  officers  of  customs  for  Boston, 
and  elsewhere  in  New  England,  for  the  better  observation  thereof.  The 
Chief  Justices,  Rainsford  and  North,  to  whom  the  claims  of  Mason  and 
Gorges  had  been  referred,  gave  their  opinion  that  the  patent  of  4  Car.  I. 
(that  is,  to  the  Massachusetts  patentees)  was  good,  and  made  the  adven- 
turers a  corporation  upon  the  place,  but  that  neither  Maine  nor  New  Hamp- 
shire was  included  within  its  chartered  limits ;  that  the  government  of  Maine 
belonged  to  the  heir  of  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges ;  and  that  the  government 
of  New  Hampshire  had  never  been  granted  to  John  Mason,  and  was  not 
legally  invested  in  his  heir.  As  to  the  right  of  soil  in  these  territories,  the 
Judges  declared  themselves  not  prepared  to  decide.  This  judgment  was 
adopted  by  the  Lords  of  the  Committee  and  approved  by  the  Privy  Coun- 
cil. At  a  subsequent  hearing  of  the  parties,  the  whole  matter  was  referred 
back  to  the  committee,  who,  having  debated  the  business  again,  and  agreed 
to  several  heads,  summoned  the  agents,  and  informed  them  that  the  Colony 
must  adhere  to  the  rule  concerning  the  northern  boundary  of  their  patent 
as  announced  by  the  Judges;  that  they  must  solicit  his  Majesty's  pardon 
for  presuming  to  coin  money;  that  the  Act  of  Navigation  must  in  future  be 
observed ;  that  their  faulty  laws  must  be  changed,  &c.  On  being  now  dis- 
missed for  a  week,  the  agents  were  informed  "  that  his  Majesty  would  not 
destroy  their  charter,  but  rather,  by  a  supplementary  one  to  be  given  to 
them,  set  things  right  that  were  now  amiss."  At  a  number  of  subsequent 
meetings,  at  which  the  agents  were  present,  the  same  general  ground  was 
gone  over.  The  agents  renewed  their  request  that  the  New  Hampshire 
towns  might  be  allowed  to  retain  their  present  organization,  that  being  the 
wish  of  the  inhabitants  as  well  as  of  the  Government.  Mason  now  in- 
formed their  Lordships  that  he  had  been  approached  with  an  application, 
which  hitherto  he  had  resisted,  to  sell  his  patent  to  the  Massachusetts,  tell- 
ing them  at  the  same  time  that  a  similar  application  to  Gorges  had  been 
successful.  This  was  unwelcome  intelligence  to  the  King,  who  had  in- 
tended to  buy  the  Province  of  Maine  for  his  illegitimate  son  the  Duke 
of  Monmouth,  but  he  had  been  anticipated  by  the  vigilant  Colony.  John 
Usher,  the  Boston  merchant,  was  in  London  at  this  time,  and  he  was  the 
medium  through  whom  the  business  was  conducted  for  the  Colony.  Gorges 


THE   CHARTER   OF   KING   CHARLES    THE   FIRST.  367 

was  paid  the  sum  of  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  for  his  patent,  and  the 
Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay  became  "  lord  paramount  of 
Maine."1  The  transaction  took  place  in  March,  i677~78.2 

This  measure  was  not  at  all  calculated  to  mollify  the  feelings  of  the 
Lords  of  the  Committee  respecting  the  colony.  Randolph  fanned  the 
flame.  In  the  autumn  of  1677  the  General  Court  had  ordered  that  the  oath 
of  fidelity  to  the  country  be  revived  and  put  in  practice  throughout  the 
colony.  Randolph  had  received  notice  of  this,  and  urged  that  an  order 
might  be  taken  for  the  protection  of  persons  loyal  to  the  Crown. 

Several  addresses  were  made  to  the  King  from  the  General  Court  while 
the  agents  were  in  England,  and  several  laws  were  made  to  remove  some  of 
the  exceptions  which  were  taken  in  England,  particularly  an  act  to  punish 
treason  with  death.  Oaths  of  allegiance  to  the  King  were  required.  The 
King's  arms  were  ordered  to  be  carved  and  put  in  the  court-house.  With 
regard  to  the  Acts  of  Trade,  they  confessed  in  a  letter  to  their  agents  that 
they  had  not  conformed  to  them.  They  said  they  "  apprehended  them  to 
be  an  invasion  of  the  rights,  liberties,  and  properties  of  the  subjects  of  his 
Majesty  in  the  colony,  they  not  being  represented  in  Parliament;  and, 
according  to  the  usual  sayings  of  the  learned  in  the  law,  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land were  bounded  within  the  four  seas,  and  did  not  reach  America.  How- 
ever, as  his  Majesty  had  signified  his  pleasure  that  those  acts  should  be 
observed  in  the  Massachusetts,  they  had  made  provision,  by  a  law  of  the 
Colony,  that  they  should  be  strictly  attended  from  time  to  time,  although  it 
greatly  discouraged  trade  and  was  a  great  damage  to  his  Majesty's  planta- 
tion." 3  "  Thus  we  hear  for  the  first  time,"  says  Chalmers,  "  that  the  colo- 
nists, though  in  the  same  breath  swearing  allegiance  to  the  Crown  of 
England,  were  not  bound  by  the  Acts  of  Parliament,  because  they  were  not 
represented  in  it." 

The  agents  continued  to  struggle  against  adverse  influences;  charges  of 
perverseness  and  disloyalty  were  unceasingly  made  against  the  Colony,  and 
doubts  as  to  the  original  validity  of  the  charter  they  held  so  sacred  were 
industriously  propagated.  Resort  was  again  had  to  the  officers  of  the  law, 
to  whom  a  series  of  questions  were  propounded  by  the  Lords  of  the  Com- 
mittee respecting  this  instrument.  The  Crown  lawyers,  Messrs.  Jones  and 
Winnington,  in  May,  1678,  gave  their  opinion,  under  three  heads,  as  fol- 
lows :  i.  That,  as  to  the  patent  of  4  Caroli,  whether  it  were  good  in  point 
of  creation,  it  was  most  proper  that  the  opinion  of  the  Lords  Chief  Justices 
should  be  had  thereupon,  i.  That  neither  the  quo  warrant  o,  mentioned  to 
be  brought  against  them  (in  1635),  nor  the  judgment  thereupon,  was  such 
as  to  cause  a  dissolution  of  the  charter.  3.  That  the  misdemeanors  objected 
against  them  do  contain  sufficient  matter  to  avoid  their  patent* 

The  Lords  of  the  Committee  thereupon  ordered  a  report  to  be  prepared, 

1  Palfrey,  New  England,  293-312.  is  dated  two  days  later.    Both  are  recorded  at  the 

2  The  original  deed  of  conveyance  to  Usher     State  House.    See  Proceed,  for  Jan.  1870,  p.  201. 
is  in  the  Library  of  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.    It  bears  3  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  i.  322. 

date  March  13,  1677.    Usher's  deed  to  the  Colony  4  Chalmers,  Annals,  pp.  439,  440. 


368  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

in  which  all  matters  that  had  passed  since  the  first  settlement  of  New  Eng- 
land should  be  recited;  "the  several  encroachments  and  injuries  which  the 
Colony  of  Massachusetts  had  practised  upon  their  neighbors;  and  their 
contempt  and  neglect  of  his  Majesty's  commands ;  and  will  offer  their 
opinion  that  a  qtio  warranto  be  brought  against  their  charter,  and  new  laws 
framed  instead  of  such  as  were  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England."  And 
"  their  Lordships  agreed  to  recommend  Mr.  Randolph  unto  the  Lord 
Treasurer  for  a  favorable  issue  of  his  pretensions  to  be  employed  as  Collec- 
tor of  his  Majesty's  Customs  in  New  England,  in  consideration  of  his 
zeal  and  capacity  to  serve  his  Majesty  therein ; "  1  and  Randolph  was 
commissioned. 

The  agents  made  a  written  reply  to  Randolph's  Narrative,  in  which  they 
corrected  many  of  his  statistical  errors.  Their  stay  in  England  had  now 
become  very  wearisome,  yet  they  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to  depart  without 
the  King's  leave.  They  were  detained  until  the  fall  of  1679.2  They  arrived 
at  Boston  December  23,  and  brought  with  them  a  letter  from  the  King, 
dated  July  24  preceding.  In  this  he  expressed  disappointment  that  Stough- 
ton  and  Bulkley  had  not  been  furnished  with  fuller  powers,  and  he  made 
the  following  requisitions:  (i)  That  agents  should  be  sent  over  in  six 
months,  fully  instructed  to  answer  and  transact  what  was  undetermined  at 
that  time;  (2)  that  freedom  and  liberty  of  conscience  be  given  to  such  as 
desire  to  worship  God  according  to  the  way  of  the  Church  of  England;  (3) 
that  all  men  of  competent  estates,  ratable  at  icxy.,  be  eligible  to  be  made 
freemen  and  magistrates ;  (4)  that  the  number  of  assistants  hereafter  be 
eighteen,  according  to  the  charter;  (5)  that  the  oath  of  allegiance  be  ad- 
ministered to  all  persons  in  trust  or  office;  (6)  that  all  military  commis- 
sions and  proceedings  of  justice  run  in  his  Majesty's  name;  (7)  that  all  laws 
repugnant  to  trade  be  abolished;  (8)  that  an  assignment  of  the  Province  of 
Maine  be  made  to  the  King  on  the  repayment  of  the  sum  for  which  they 
purchased  it;  (9)  that  Massachusetts  recall  all  commissions  granted  for 
governing  the  Province  of  New  Hampshire.3 

During  the  sharp  controversies  between  Massachusetts  and  the  mother 
country  which  followed  the  Restoration,  two  parties  naturally  sprung  up  in 
the  colony,  both  of  whom  agreed  as  to  the  importance  of  their  charter 
privileges,  but  differed  in  opinion  as  to  the  extent  of  them,  and  as  to  the 
proper  measures  to  preserve  them.  At  the  period  which  we  now  are 
considering,  Mr.  Bradstreet,  who  had  succeeded  Leverett  as  Governor  in 

1  Phillipps  MSS.,  quoted  by   Palfrey,  Nfio  committed   to    our    present    honored    Deputy- 
England,  iii.  317.  Governor    [Thomas    DanforthJ,    Captain   John 

2  On  the  3Oth    of  May,  1679,  *ne  General  Richards,  and  Captain  Daniel  Fisher,  with  Ma- 
Court  adopted   the  following  order :  "  The  se-  jor   Thomas  Clarke,  one  of  the  last  commit- 
curing  of  our  original  patent  being  matter  of  tee,  who  are  to  take  care  of  the  same  ;  to  whose 
great  importance,  and  the  former  provision  in  wisdom  we  refer  it,  to  dispose  of  it  as  may  best 
that  respect,  made  in  the  year  1664,  being  at  an  tend    to    prevent    any   inconvenience    relating 
end  by  the  decease  of  most  of  the  persons  be-  thereto."     Mass.  Col.  AVr.,  v.  237. 

trusted  in  ttait  order,  this  court  doth  therefore  8  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  \.  327;  Papers,  pp. 

order  that  the  patent  be  forthwith  sent  for,  and     519-522. 


THE   CHARTER   OF   KING   CHARLES   THE    FIRST. 


369 


1679,  represented  the  more  moderate  party,  joined  to  whom  were  Mr. 
Stoughton  and  Mr.  Dudley.  At  the  head  of  the  other  party  was  the 
Deputy-Governor,  Mr.  Danforth,  with  whom  were  associated  Daniel  Gookin, 
Elisha  Hutchinson,  and  Elisha  Cooke.  This  latter  party  opposed  the 
sending  over  agents,  or  submitting  to  Acts  of  Trade,  &c.,  advocating  an 
adherence  to  their  charter,  agreeably  to  their  own  construction  of  it,  and 
leaving  the  event. 


Randolph,  who  took  passage  for  New  York 
about  the  time  that  the  agents  embarked,  had 
arrived  a  fortnight  earlier;  but,  being  intrusted 
with  business  relating  to  New  Hampshire,  he  did  not  appear  in  Boston  till 
more  than  a  month  after  them.  On  the  4th  of  February,  1679-80,  the 
Court  convened,  and  the  letter  of  the  King  —  already  referred  to  —  which 
had  been  brought  by  the  agents  was  read.  In  it  the  King  gave  notice  of 
the  appointment  of  Randolph  to  be  "  Collector,  Surveyor,  and  Searcher  " 
for  all  the  colonies  of  New  England. 

The  Deputies  were  inclined  to  be  unyielding,  but  the  Court  proceeded 
to  act  upon  the  King's  instructions.  They  made  provision  for  the  election 
of  eighteen  assistants,  according  to  the  charter;1  and  the  Governor  was 
instructed  to  take  "  the  oath  required  by  his  Majesty  for  the  observation 
and  execution  of  the  statutes  for  the  encouraging  and  increasing  of 
Navigation  and  Trade."  The  long  and  faithful  service  of  their  agents, 
Stoughton  and  Bulkley,  was  acknowledged,  and  a  gratuity  voted  to  them. 
The  claim  to  New  Hampshire  was  relinquished,  and  all  commissions 
granted  to  persons  residing  in  that  territory  were  vacated.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  as  Lord  Proprietor  of  Maine  by  virtue  of  its  purchase  of 
Gorges,  the  Colony  stepped  into  his  place. 

Before  the  next  meeting  of  the  General  Court  in  May,  Bradstreet  wrote 


1  The  reason  why,  originally,  the  number  of 
assistants  had  been  limited  to  eight  or  ten  was 
"to  leave  room  for  persons  of  quality  expected 
from  England.  Those  expectations  had  long 
ceased.  In  a  popular  government,  and  where 
the  magistrates  were  annually  chosen,  increasing 
the  number  would  give  a  better  chance  to  aspir- 
VOL.  I.  —  47. 


ing  men.  On  the  other  hand,  the  greater  the 
number  of  assistants  the  less  the  weight  of  the 
House  of  Deputies,  the  election  of  all  officers 
depending  upon  the  major  vote  of  the  whole 
Court.  This  last  reason  might  cause  the  Deputies 
to  refuse  their  consent  to  an  increase."  Hutch- 
inson,  Mass.  Bay,  i.  326,  note, 


370  THE   MEMORIAL  HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

a  private  letter  in  reply  to  that  of  the  King,  fearing,  perhaps,  that  the 
action  of  the  Court  might  be  more  resolute.  Of  Randolph,  the  Governor 
said  that  the  people  "  generally  looked  upon  him  as  one  that  bore  no 
good-will  to  the  country,  but  sought  its  ruin."  The  Court,  soon  after  it 
met,  dispatched  a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  excusing  themselves  for 
only  partially  replying  to  the  King's  letter,  pleading  as  a  reason  the  small 
attendance  of  members  of  the  General  Assembly  then  convened  (owing  to 
"the  extremity  of  the  season"),  and  the  sudden  departure  of  the  ship  by 
which  the  letter  was  conveyed.  As  to  the  Province  of  Maine,  they  affirmed 
that  instead  of  laying  "  a  severe  hand  "  upon  it,  they  had  saved  it  from 
"  utter  ruin." 

At  a  later  period  of  the  session,  which  continued  into  the  month  of  June, 
the  Court  addressed  a  letter  of  greater  length  to  the  Secretary  of  State, 
going  over  again  the  subject  of  the  requisitions  made  in  the  King's  letter, 
then  under  consideration.  They  informed  Lord  Sunderland,  "  in  order  to 
his  Majesty's  more  full  satisfaction,"  that,  in  addition  to  the  proceedings 
already  reported  of  the  last  Court,  a  committee  had  now  been  raised  for 
the  review  of  the  laws,  "to  the  intent  that,  where  any  should  be  found 
repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England,  or  derogatory  to  his  Majesty's  honor 
and  dignity,  they  might  be  repealed  or  amended."  They  acknowledged 
that  the  chief  design  of  their  predecessors  in  coming  over  and  planting 
this  wilderness  was  that  they  might  enjoy  freedom  in  matters  of  religious 
worship,  but  they  did  not  suppose  his  Majesty  intended  that  the  notorious 
errors  and  blasphemies  of  the  Quakers  should,  with  impunity,  be  openly 
propagated.  As  for  other  Protestant  dissenters  who  carried  themselves 
peaceably,  they  trusted  there  might  be  no  cause  of  complaint  on  their 
behalf.  They  had  extended  the  privilege  of  the  franchise  to  others  besides 
members  of  their  own  churches,  though  they  humbly  conceived  their 
charter  did  expressly  give  them  an  absolute  and  free  choice  of  their  own 
members.  They  humbly  begged  to  be  excused  for  not  having,  as  yet, 
sent  over  other  agents  to  attend  to  their  concerns,  understanding  that  his 
Majesty  and  Privy  Council  were  taken  up  in  matters  of  far  greater  moment. 
They  also  pleaded  their  low  condition,  through  the  vast  charges  of  the 
late  war,  and  inability  to  meet  the  disbursements  attending  such  a  mission ; 
nor  did  they  omit  to  mention  the  hazard  of  the  sea,  and  the  danger  from 
Turkish  pirates,  "  many  of  our  inhabitants  continuing  at  this  day  in  miser- 
able captivity  among  them."  l 

In  the  mean  time,  Randolph,  who  we  have  already  seen  arrived  in 
Boston  in  the  latter  part  of  January,  1679-80,  entered  at  once  upon  the 
duties  with  which  he  was  charged.  He  seized  several  vessels  with  their 
lading,  but  the  courts  and  juries  refused  to  condemn  them.  "  His  Majesty's 
authority,"  he  writes,  summing  up  his  first  experiences,  "  and  the  Acts  of 
Trade  were  disowned  openly  in  the  country,  and  I  was  cast  in  all  these 
causes,  and  damages  given  against  his  Majesty."  He  informs  the  author- 

1  Palfrey,  New  England,  iii.  333-338;  Mass.  Col.  Rec.  v.  270,  271,  £87,  289. 


THE   CHARTER   OF   KING   CHARLES   THE   FIRST.  371 

ities  at  home  that  it  was  now  "  in  every  man's  mouth  that  they  were  not 
subject  to  the  laws  of  England,  neither  were  those  of  any  force  till  con- 
firmed by  their  authority."  He  was  stimulated  by  his  personal  vexations, 
and  sent  home  a  memorial  to  the  King,  urging  a  proceeding  against  the 
charter  by  a  writ  of  quo  wttrrauto.  He  made  a  series  of  charges,  reduced 
to  several  heads ;  the  first  of  which  was  "  that  the  Bostoneers  have  no  right 
either  to  land  or  government  in  any  part  of  New  England,  but  are  usurpers, 
the  inhabitants  yielding  obedience  unto  a  supposition  only  of  a  royal  grant 
from  his  late  Majesty."  1  He  now  left  Boston,  retiring  for  a  season  to  New 
Hampshire.  His  letters  produced  their  natural  effect  on  the  Government 
at  home,  and  stimulated  it  to  renewed  activity  against  the  Colony. 

On  the  3Oth  of  September,  1680,  the  King  addressed  a  letter  to  the 
Colony,  charging  them  with  neglecting  to  send  over  agents  in  the  room  of 
Stoughton  and  Bulkley,  who  obtained  leave  to  return  home ;  and  alleging 
that  in  other  respects  his  directions  to  the  Colony  had  not  been  complied 
with.  He  now  commanded  that  agents  be  sent  over  in  three  months 
after  the  receipt  of  this  letter,  prepared  also  to  answer  a  new  claim  which 
Robert  Mason  had  made  to  lands  between  Naumkeag  and  Merrimack  rivers. 
The  King  expressed  "  care  and  tenderness  "  for  the  Colony,  and  a  desire 
to  remove  "  those  difficulties  and  mistakes  that  have  arisen  by  the  execution 
of  the  powers  of  your  charter  at  such  a  distance  from  us,  which  by  the  first 
intendment  and  present  constitution  thereof  (as  by  the  charter  appears)  has 
its  natural  seat  and  immediate  direction  within  our  kingdom  of  England."2 

On  the  receipt  of  this  letter,  which  was 
brought  by  Robert  Mason  himself,3  who  arrived 
December  17,  a  special  session  of  the  Court  was 
called  to  meet  Jan.  4,  1 680-81.  After  considerable  debate,  two  agents, 
William  Stoughton  and  Samuel  Nowell,  were  chosen.  The  former  declined, 
and  John  Richards  was  chosen  in  his  place.  But  the  popular  party  inter- 
posed delays,  and  the  elected  messengers  still  remained  at  home. 

Randolph  sailed  for  England  before  the  Court  broke  up.4  This  emissary 
kept  a  constant  watch  upon  the  Colony,  going  to  and  fro  continually,  and 
always  returning  home  with  fresh  complaints,  thereby  arming  himself  with 
new  orders  and  powers.  In  a  representation  of  his  services  subsequently 
made  to  the  Committee  of  the  Council  he  says  he  had  made  eight  voyages  to 
New  England  in  nine  years.5  He  now  lost  no  time  in  urging  upon  the  Gov- 
ernment decisive  action  against  the  Colony.  He  said  that  a  "  quo  warranto 
would  unhinge  their  Government,  and  prepare  them  to  receive  his  Majesty's 
further  pleasure.  I  have  often  in  my  papers  pressed  the  necessity  of  a 
General  Governor  as  absolutely*  necessary  for  the  honor  and  service  of  the 
Crown." 

1  These  charges,  substantially  repeated  else-  2  Hutchinson,  Coll.  of  Papers,  pp.  524,  525. 

where  in  this  paper,  are  copied  by  Palfrey,  New          z  The  heir  to  New  Hampshire. 
England,  iii.  339,  from  Colonial  Papers;   with  *  He  sailed  from  Boston,  March  15,  1681. 

which  compare  Hutchinson,  Papers,  p.  525;  also  6  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  \.  329.     He  crossed 

Randolph's  Narrative  in  Mass.  Archives,  cxxvii.  tlu  Atlantic  eight  times  in  nine  years. 


372  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

As  winter  approached,  Randolph  again  appeared  in  Boston.  He  was  now 
armed  with  new  power  for  mischief.  He  arrived  December  17,  1681,  with 
a  commission  as  Deputy-Collector,  or  under  officer,  within  all  the  colonies 
of  New  England,  except  New  Hampshire ;  William  Blathwayt  having  been 
commissioned  Surveyor,  &c.  He  was  coldly  icceived,  as  his  commission 
was  looked  upon  as  an  encroachment  on  the  charter  of  the  Colony.1  He 
brought,  at  the  same  time,  a  long  and  remarkable  letter  from  the  King, 
which  was  well  calculated  to  awaken  serious  apprehensions. 

The  letter  charged  the  colonists  with  having,  "  from  the  very  beginning, 
used  methods  tending  to  the  prejudice  of  the  Sovereign's  rights,  and  their 
natural  dependence  on  the  Crown."  It  recited  the  proceedings  under  the 
quo  warranto  in  the  tenth  year  of  King  Charles  the  First.  It  complained  of 
the  protection  that  had  been  afforded  to  the  fugitive  judges  of  that  monarch  ; 
of  the  hard  treatment  dealt  to  many  of  his  subjects,  who  had  been  denied 
appeals  to  English  courts;  of  the  ousting  of  Gorges  and  Mason  from  their 
estates,  and  the  alleged  usurpation  of  Massachusetts  over  the  Eastern 
country;  of  the  opposition  to  the  commissioners  sent  to  New  England  by 
Lord  Clarendon ;  of  the  offences  more  recently  brought  to  light,  as  illegal 
coining  of  money,  violations  of  the  laws  of  trade  and  navigation,  and  legis- 
lative provisions  "  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England  and  contrary  to  the 
power  of  the  charter;"  of  the  pertinacious  disregard  of  the  royal  command 
for  an  appearance  of  the  Colony  by  agents,  which  continued  to  be  evaded 
under  "some  frivolous  and  insufficient  pretences;"  and,  finally,  of  the 
offensive  obstructions  which  had  been  placed  in  the  way  of  the  Collectors 
of  the  Customs.  The  peremptory  conclusion  of  the  letter  was  as  follows : 

"  These  and  many  other  irregularities,  crimes,  and  misdemeanors  having  been  ob- 
jected against  you  (which  we  hope,  nevertheless,  are  but  the  faults  of  a  few  persons 
in  the  government),  we  find  it  altogether  necessary  for  our  service  and  the  peace  of 
our  Colonies  that  the  grievances  of  our  good  subjects  be  speedily  redressed,  and  our 
authority  acknowledged,  in  pursuance  of  these  our  commands,  and  our  pleasure  at 
divers  times  signified  to  you  by  our  royal  letters  and  otherwise ;  to  which  we  again 
refer  you,  and  once  more  charge  and  require  you  forthwith  to  send  over  your  agents 
fully  empowered  and  instructed  to  attend  the  regulation  of  that  our  Government,  and 
to  answer  the  irregularity  of  your  proceedings  therein.  In  default  whereof,  we  are 
fully  resolved,  in  Trinity  Term  next  ensuing,  to  direct  our  Attorney- General  to  bring  a 
quo  warranto  in  our  Court  of  King's  Bench,  whereby  our  charter  granted  unto  you, 
with  all  the  powers  thereof,  may  be  legally  evicted  and  made  void.  And  so  we  bid 
you  farewell."  * 

The  sending  over  of  agents  could  now  no  longer  be  delayed.  At  a 
Court  called  in  February,  1681—82,  at  which  the  King's  letter  was  read,  after 
several  ballotings,  "  by  papers,"  they  finally  chose  Mr.  Joseph  Dudley  and 
Mr.  John  Richards  as  agents. 

1  He  says  a  law  was  revived  to  try  him  for  2  Chalmers,  Annals,  pp.  443-449 ;    Palfrey, 

his  life  for  acting  by  his  commission  before  it     ATew  England,  iii.  350,351  ;  the  letter  was  dated 
was  allowed  by  them.  Oct.  21,  1681. 


THE   CHARTER   OF   KING   CHARLES   THE   FIRST.  373 

The  design  of  taking  away  the  charter  became  more  and  more  evident. 
The  requisition  of  the  King,  that  agents  should  be  sent  over  empowered  to 
submit  to  regulations  of  government,  meant,  in  other  words,  agents  empow- 
ered to  surrender  the  charter.  The  General  Court,  however,  were  unwilling 
to  place  such  an  interpretation  upon  the  language,  being  contrary  to  the 
King's  repeated  declarations ;  and  they  instructed  their  agents  to  consent  to 
nothing  which  should  violate  or  infringe  the  liberties  and  privileges  granted 
by  charter,  or  the  government  established  by  it.  To  the  charge  of  coining 
money,  now  added  to  the  allegations,  they  excused  themselves,  "  it  having 
been  in  the  times  of  the  late  confusions,  to  prevent  frauds  in  the  pieces  of 
eight  current  among  them,  and  if  they  have  trespassed  upon  his  Majesty's 
prerogative,  it  was  through  ignorance,  and  they  humbly  begged  his  pardon."1 

In  an  address  to  the  King,  the  General  Court  entreated  forbearance. 
They  ordered  the  Acts  of  Trade  and  Navigation  to  be  forthwith  proclaimed 
in  the  market  place  in  Boston.  They  appointed  naval  officers,  repealed  the 
laws  under  the  titles  "  Conspiracy"  and  "  Rebellion,"  and  directed  that  the 
word  "jurisdiction"  should  be  substituted  for  "commonwealth,"  and  revised 
the  law  of  treason. 

But  nothing  could  assuage  the  persevering  hostility  of  Randolph.  He 
had  this  year  exhibited  "Articles  of  high  misdemeanor  against  a  faction  in 
the  General  Court,"  alleging  their  attempt  to  obstruct  him  in  the  business 
of  his  office,  and  refusing  to  admit  his  Majesty's  letters-patent  creating  the 
office  of  Surveyor,  &c.,  in  America.2 

The  agents  arrived  in  England  after  a  long  passage  of  nearly  twelve 
weeks,  and  they  immediately  entered  upon  their  labors  of  defending  the 
Colony  from  the  charges  brought  against  it.3  In  an  elaborate  paper  they 
took  up,  in  their  order,  the  several  allegations  and  requisitions  in  the  King's 
letter  of  July  24,  1679,  and  made  a  full  answer  to  them.4  As  to  the  delay  in 
sending  agents,  they  urged  the  danger  of  the  seas  and  the  extreme  poverty 
of  the  Colony,  having  incurred  a  debt  of  twenty  thousand  pounds  sterling 
for  the  expenses  of  the  Indian  war;  that  there  was  no  law  or  custom  in 
Massachusetts  preventing  the  use  of  the  English  liturgy,  or  the  election  of 
members  of  the  Church  of  England  to  office  ;  that  the  ancient  number  of  eigh- 
teen Assistants  had  been  restored,  agreeably  to  the  royal  command ;  that  all 
official  persons  took  the  oath  of  allegiance ;  that  military  commissions  and 
judicial  proceedings  were  in  the  King's  name;  that  "  all  laws  repugnant  to, 
or  inconsistent  with,  the  laws  of  England  for  trade  were  abolished ;  "  that 
Randolph's  commission  had  been  recognized  and  enrolled,  and  that  he  and 
his  subordinates  had  been  subjected  to  no  penalties  but  such  as  were  need- 
ful "  to  the  providing  damages  for  the  officers'  unjust  vexing  the  subjects ;  " 
and  that  in  Massachusetts  the  Acts  of  Trade  and  Navigation  had  "  been 
fully  put  in  execution  to  the  best  discretion  of  the  Government  there." 

1  Ilutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  \.  334,  335.  <  This  paper, •presented  in  August,  1682,  may 

2  Ilutchinson,  Papers,  p.  526.  be  seen  in  Chalmers's  Annals,  pp.  450-461.   The 

3  They  arrived  about  Aug.  1682.  Their  instruc-  summary  I  give  is  from  Palfrey's  New  England, 
tions  may  lie  seen  in  Mass.  Col.  Rec.  v.  346-349.  iii.  369,  370. 


374  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

They  restated  in  full  the  position  of  their  Colony  in  relation  to  the  claims  of 
Gorges  and  Mason,  and  they  concluded  by  expressing  the  hope  that  the  de- 
mand for  appeals  to  the  King  "  in  matters  of  revenue  "  might  be  reconsidered. 

All  this,  however,  availed  but  little.  The  agents  who  had  submitted  their 
commission  to  Sir  Lionel  Jenkins,  the  Secretary  of  State,  were  soon  told,  as 
the  decision  of  the  Privy  Council,  that  unless  they  obtained  further  powers 
without  delay  the  Colony  would  be  proceeded  against  upon  "  the  first  day 
of  Hilary  Term  next,"  which  fell  upon  the  23d  or  24th  of  January;  and 
"  in  the  mean  time  the  said  agents  were  to  continue  their  attendance  here."  1 

There  was  a  determination  now,  on  the  part  of  the  courtiers,  to  proceed 
to  extremities.  An  order  was  sent  to  Randolph  to  return  to  England  and 
prosecute  a  qtio  warranto.  Letters  were  received  from  the  agents,  dated 
September  28  and  October  3,  representing  the  case  of  the  Colony  as  des- 
perate, leaving  it  to  the  Court  to  determine  whether  it  was  most  advisable  to 
submit  to  the  King's  pleasure,  or  to  suffer  a  quo  warranto  to  issue. 

The  General  Court  of  the  Colony  met  in  March,  1683,  and  after  "due 
consideration  and  debate  "  resolved  on  a  humble  address  to  the  King,  and 
a  new  commission  and  instructions  to  the  agents.  The  agents  were  author- 
ized "  to  accept  of  and  consent  unto  such  proposals  and  demands  as  might 
consist  with  the  main  end  of  their  predecessors  in  their  removing  hither  with 
their  charter,  and  his  Majesty's  Government  here  settled  according  thereto." 
But  these  new  instructions  imposed  also  serious  restrictions  to  their  powers. 
They  were  in  no  wise  to  consent  to  any  infringement  of  their  privileges  of 
religion  and  worship.  In  a  private  letter  the  agents  were  authorized  to 
deliver  up  to  the  King  the  deeds  to  the  Province  of  Maine,  if  such  a  surren- 
der would  help  to  save  their  charter,  &c. 

Randolph  sailed  for  England  soon  after  the  Court,  whose  proceedings 
have  just  been  referred  to,  was  dissolved.  He  was  immediately  closeted 
with  the  Attorney-General,  and  produced  his  proofs  and  charges  against  the 
Government  of  the  Massachusetts.  2  The  whole  matter  had  been  planned 
beforehand,  and  the  proceedings  were  speedy.  "  Before  Randolph  had  been 
a  month  in  England  he  had  virtually  accomplished  the  purpose  of  his  am- 
bition and  revenge.  The  blow  with  which  the  Colony  had  been  so  long 
threatened  was  struck.  The  writ  was  issued  which  summoned  it  to  stand 

1  Orders  in  Council  for  Sept.  2,  1683.  duty  ;  7.  They  have  established  a  Naval  Office, 

2  The    following    abstract    of    Randolph's  with  a  view  to  defraud  the  Customs  ;    8.  No 
charges  is  taken  from  Chalmers's  Annals,  p.  verdicts  are  ever  found  for  the  King  in  relation 
462  :    "  I.  They  assume   powers   that   are   not  to  customs,  and  the  Courts  impose  costs  on  the 
warranted  by  their  charter, which  is  executed  in  prosecutors  in  order   to  discourage   trials;    9. 
another  place  than  was  intended  ;  2.  They  make  They  levy  customs  on  the  importation  of  goods 
laws  repugnant  to  those  of  England  ;  3.  They  from  England ;  10.  They  do  not  administer  the 
levy  money  on  subjects  not  inhabiting  the  colony  oath  of  supremacy  as  required  by  charter  ;  n. 
(and  consequently  not  represented  in  the  Gen-  They  have  erected  a  Court  of  Admiralty,  though 
eral  Court) ;  4.  They  impose  an  oath  of  fidelity  not  empowered  by  charter  ;   12.  They  discoun- 
to  themselves  without   regarding   the   oath    of  tenance  the  Church  of  England  ;   13.  They  per- 
allegiance  to  the  King  ;  5.  They  refuse  justice  sist  in  coining  money,  though  they  had  asked 
by  withholding  appeals  to  the  King  in  Council ;  forgiveness  for  that  offence."      These  articles 
6.  They  oppose  the  Acts  of   Navigation,  and  were  exhibited  in  June,  1683.     He  arrived  in 
imprison    the    King's   officers    for    doing  their  England,  May  28. 


THE   CHARTER   OF    KING   CHARLES    THE   FIRST.  375 

for  the  defence  of  its  political  existence  and  of  the  liberty  and  property  of 
its  people,  at  the  bar  of  a  court  in  London."  J  The  writ  bore  teste  June  27, 
1683,  and  was  returnable  in  October  following. 

The  agents,  Messrs.  Dudley  and  Richards,  now  petitioned  the  authorities, 
"  setting  forth  that  a  quo  warranto  being  issued  against  the  Charter  and 
Government"  of  Massachusetts,  "  they  are  not  willing  to  undertake  the  de- 
fence and  management  thereof,  and  therefore  praying  they  may  be  permitted 
to  return  home  to  take  care  of  their  private  affairs,"  and  leave  was  granted. 
They  arrived  at  Boston  Oct.  23,  1683,  and  the  same  week  Randolph  arrived 
with  the  quo  warranto;  the  Privy  Council  having  ordered,  July  20,  "  that  Mr. 
Edward  Randolph  be  sent  to  New  England  with  the  notification  of  the  said 
quo  warranto,  which  he  was  to  deliver  to  the  said  Governor  and  Company  of 
the  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  thereupon  to  return  to  give  his  Majesty  an  ac- 
count of  his  proceedings  therein."  He  was  furnished  with  two  hundred 
copies  of  all  the  proceedings  at  the  Council  Board  concerning  the  Charter  of 
London,  to  be  dispersed  in  New  England.  A  "  Declaration  "  was  received 
from  the  King,  by  the  same  conveyance,  to  be  spread  among  the  people, 
promising  that  if  the  Colony,  before  prosecution,  would  make  full  submission 
and  entire  resignation  to  his  pleasure,  he  would  regulate  their  charter  for  his 
service  and  their  good,  and  with  no  further  alterations  than  should  be  neces- 
sary for  the  support  of  the  government  there ;  declaring,  at  the  same  time, 
that  all  persons  who  are  questioned  in  or  by  the  said  quo  warranto,  and  shall 
maintain  suit  against  the  King,  shall  make  their  defence  at  their  own  partic- 
ular charge,  and  not  at  the  expense  of  the  Colony,  and  all  persons  who  shall 
submit  to  the  pleasure  of  the  King  shall  be  freed  from  all  rates  levied  as 
contributions  towards  said  suit.2 

The  Governor  and  a  majority  of  the  Assistants,  despairing  of  any  suc- 
cess from  a  defence,  voted  on  the  I5th  November  that  a  humble  address  be 
sent  to  his  Majesty  by  this  ship,  saying  that  they  would  not  contend  with 
his  Majesty  in  a  course  of  law,  as  they  relied  on  his  gracious  intimations 
that  his  purpose  was  only  to  regulate  their  charter,  without  any  other 
alteration  than  what  was  necessary  for  the  support  of  his  government 
here.  After  a  delay  of  fifteen  days  the  deputies  dissented,  and  the  town 
of  Boston,  under  the  lead  of  Increase  Mather,  sustained  them. 

Hutchinson  says  that  if  this  vote  of  the  Assistants  had  "  been  made  an 
act  of  the  General  Court,  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  consequent  administra- 
tion of  government  would  have  been  less  arbitrary  than  it  was  upon  the 
judgment  against  the  charter;  but,  upon  the  Revolution,  they  might  have 
reassumed  their  charter,  as  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  did  their  respec- 
tive charters,  —  there  having  been  no  judgment  against  them."3 

1  Palfrey,  New  England,  iii.  375,  376.  the   nation.     The    Massachusetts  was  decreed 

-  Mass.  Colony  Records,  v.  423.  forfeited  upon  default  of  appearance.     Not  only 

8  Mass.  Bay,  \.  339.      In   a  note,  he   adds :  the  charter  of  London,  but  all  the  charters  in 

"  However   agreeable   to    law    this    distinction  the   King's  dominions,  I  suppose   (unless   Ber- 

might  be,  yet  equity  does  not  seem  to  favor  it.  mudas  is  an  exception),  whether  surrendered  or 

The  charter  of  London  was  adjudged  forfeited  whether  there  had  been  judgment  against  them, 

upon  a  long  argument  of  the  greatest  lawyers  in  were  reassumed,  except  the  Massachusetts.." 


376  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

The  Court  sent  a  letter  of  attorney  to  Robert  Humphreys,  Esq.,  of  Lin- 
coln's Inn,  bearing  date  December  5,  to  appear  and  make  answer  for  the 
Colony ;  and,  in  a  supplementary  letter  to  him,  they  say,  — 

"  We  take  not  this  course  in  law  of  choice,  but  of  mere  necessity,  to  save  a  default 
and  outlawry  for  the  present,  until,  if  it  be  possible,  we  can  find  means,  by  an 
humble  application,  to  satisfy  his  Majesty.  Be  sure  you  entertain  the  best  counsel 
possible,  and  gain  what  time  may  be  had,  cunctando  restituere  rem,  and  that  a  better 
day  may  shine  upon  us." 

In  an  additional  letter  of  advice  to  Humphreys,  of  the  same  date,  the 
General  Court,  through  its  secretary,  suggested  that  there  should  be  a  plea 
made  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  before  whom  their  case  was  to  be 
tried ;  namely,  — 

"  Whether  a  charter  and  privileges  granted  thereby,  being  exercised  in  America, 
can  be  tried  in  a  court  in  England,  or  by  what  authority  the  sheriffs  of  London  serve  a 
writ  on  persons  who  never  were  inhabitants  there,  and  particular  persons  are  only  men- 
tioned in  the  writ,  whereas  we  are  to  sue  and  to  be  sued  by  the  name  of  the  Governor 
and  Company ;  also,  the  writ  was  not  served  on  the  persons  concerned  until  the  time 
of  appearance  was  past,  and  not  served  on  our  agents  in  England,  nor  any  copy  left 
with  them  by  the  secondary."  l 

Randolph  sailed  for  England  soon  after  the  decision  of  the  deputies 
just  narrated,  dissenting  from  their  brethren  of  the  upper  branch  who  had 
voted  to  yield  and  not  to  contend  with  the  King.  He  embarked  Dec.  14, 
1683,  and  arrived  at  Plymouth  after  a  tedious  and  very  dangerous  passage 
of  two  months,  and  lost  no  time  in  laying  before  Sir  Lionel  Jenkins  an 
account  of  his  doings  in  Massachusetts.  His  more  formal  "  Narrative  of 
the  Delivery  of  his  Majesty's  writ  of  quo  warranto  "  was  presented  to  the 
Privy  Council ;  and  by  that  body,  five  days  afterwards,  it  was  referred 
to  the  Lords  of  the  Committee. 

Randolph  at  the  same  time  presented  a  petition,  setting  forth  the  hazards 
and  dangers  he  had  encountered,  both  by  sea  and  land,  in  his  Majesty's 
service  in  the  affairs  of  New  England,  together  with  his  losses,  amounting 
to  two  hundred  and  sixty  pounds;  and  he  asked  for,  money  to  indemnify 
him  for  the  cost  of  having  brought  over  two  witnesses  to  make  out  the 
proof  of  what  he  had  charged  against  the  Colony.2 

The  intelligence  that  followed  Randolph  to  England  indicated  no 
progress,  on  the  part  of  the  friends  of  the  prerogative,  in  obtaining  the 
submission  of  Massachusetts.  Party  spirit  ran  high  in  the  colony.  The 
Assistants  could  not  prevail  upon  the  deputies  to  surrender  the  charter. 
The  General  Court,  May  10,  1684,  sent  another  letter  to  their  attorney, 
Mr.  Humphreys,  saying  that  they  had  not  yet  heard  of  his  receipt  of  their 
former  letters,  and  expressing  the  hope  that  he  will  use  his  endeavor  "  to 
spin  out  the  case  to  the  uttermost." 

1  The  writ,  in  Latin,  is  in  the  Mass.  Co!.  Rec.,  v.  421.        2  Palfrey,  New  England,  iii.  387. 


THE   CHARTER    OF    KING   CHARLES    THE    FIRST.  377 

"We  question  not,"  the  letter  proceeds,  "but  the  counsel  which  you  retain  will 
consult  my  Lord  Coke  —  his  Fourth  Part  —  about  the  Isle  of  Man  and  of  Guernsey, 
Jersey,  and  Gascoine,  while  in  the  possession  of  the  kings  of  England,  where  it  is 
concluded  by  the  Judges  that  these,  being  extra  regnum,  cannot  be  adjudged  at  the 
King's  Bench,  nor  can  appeal  lie  from  them.  Also,  if  there  be  such  a  thing  as  an 
appeal  from  a  judgment  in  the  King's  Bench,  by  a  writ  of  error  to  the  Exchequer 
Chamber,  we  hope  you  will  endeavor  for  us  ...  whatsoever  benefit  the  law  affords." 1 

They  also  sent  another  humble  address  to  the  King,  in  which  they 
supplicate  "that  there  may  not  be  a  farther  prosecution  had  upon  the 
quo  warranto"  This  was  enclosed  in  a  letter  to  their  agent,  submitting  it 
to  his  better  judgment  whether  it  were  advisable  to  present  it  to  his  Majesty 
or  to  withhold  it.2 

Before  these  letters  reached  England,  the  fate  of  the  charter  had  been 
substantially  sealed.  The  proceedings  by  quo  warranto  had  been  dropped, 
and  a  new  suit  by  scire  facias  begun  in  the  Court  of  Chancery.  This  Court 
made  a  decree,  June  18,  1684,  vacating  the  charter,  directing  "that  judg- 
ment be  entered  up  for  his  Majesty  as  of  this  term;  but,  if  defendants 
appear  first  day  of  next  term,  and  plead  to  issue,  so  as  to  take  notice  of  a 
trial  to  be  had  the  same  term,  then  the  said  judgment,  by  Mr.  Attor- 
ney's consent,  to  be  set  aside ;  otherwise  the  same  to  stand  recorded." 
Record  was  made  that  the  Governor  and  Company  did  not  appear,  but 
made  default.  "The  first  day  of  next  term"  (Michaelmas)  was  the  23d 
of  October  of  this  year.3 

The  intelligence  of  this  conditional  judgment  against  the  charter 
reached  Massachusetts  in  a  private  letter  to  Joseph  Dudley  in  September, 
and  by  him  it  was  communicated  to  the  Governor.  A  special  meeting  of 
the  Court  was  called  for  the  tenth  of  the  month ;  but  nothing  was  done 
regarding  this  business  except  hearing  the  letter  read  and  addressing  a 
brief  note  to  their  attorney,  expressing  amazement  at  the  information 
just  received.  An  adjourned  meeting  was  held  five  weeks  later,  —  Octo- 
ber 15,  —  at  which  a  humble  address  was  ordered  to  the  King,  praying  for 
his  "clemency  and  justice,"  acknowledging  "some  unwilling  errors  or 
mistakes,  for  which  we  prostrate  ourselves  at  your  Majesty's  feet,  humbly 
begging  and  imploring  your  Majesty's  pardon  and  forgiveness,  with  the 
continuance  of  our  charter  and  privileges  therein  contained."  A  letter  was 
also  addressed  to  their  attorney,  Mr.  Humphreys,  expressing  indignation  at 
the  proceedings  against  them,  hoping  they  had  not  forfeited  the  privileges 
of  Englishmen,  and  saying  they  are  yet  unwilling  to  despair  of  a  further 
and  a  more  favorable  consideration  of  their  case  by  those  from  whose  jus- 
tice they  implore  relief.  "We  know  not  what  could  be  done  more,  nor 
cannot  direct  for  the  future."  Before  these  papers  had  been  despatched 
from  the  Colony,  the  final  step  was  taken  in  London.  On  the  first  day  of 
Michaelmas  Term  (October  23),  the  counsel  for  the  Colony  moved  in  the 
Court  in  Chancery  for  a  stay  in  the  proceedings,  as  sufficient  time  had  not 

1  Mass.  Colony  Records,  v.  439          2  Ibid.  pp.  440,  441.         3  Ilutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  I   340. 
VOL.   I. — 48. 


378 


THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 


been  given  for  procuring  a  letter  of  attorney  from  New  England  between 
the  issuing  of  the  writ  and  the  day  appointed  for  its  return.  But  the  Lord 
Keeper  replied  that  no  time  ought  to  have  been  given,  as  all  corporations 
ought  at  all  times  to  have  an  attorney  in  court;  and  the  order  for  time  to 
appear  and  plead  was  set  aside,  and  final  judgment  entered  for  vacating  the 
charter.1 

Dr.  Palfrey,  in  his  notes  to  his  history  of 
these  transactions,  discusses  the  reasons  for  the 
change  of  process  from  the  King's  Bench  to 
the  Court  of  Chancery.  The  sheriff's  principal 
objection  why  he  did  not  return  a  summons  was 
that  the  notice  was  given  after  the  return  was 
past.  "  He  did  also  make  it  a  question  whether 
he  could  take  notice  of  New  England  being  out 
of  his  bailiwick."  Mr.  Humphreys,  the  counsel 
of  the  Colony,  had  presented  another  difficulty, 
suggested  in  a  letter  to  him  from  the  General 
Court;  namely,  that  "particular  persons  were 
only  mentioned  in  the  writ,  whereas  they  were 
to  sue  and  be  sued  by  the  name  of  the  Governor 
and  Company."  He  said  he  had  no  authority 
to  appear  in  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  except 
for  the  Governor  and  Company. 

In  answer  to  the  question  why  these  infor- 
malities and  defects  were  not  cured  by  a  new 
writ  of  quo  ivarranto  rightly  drawn  and  served, 
instead  of  transferring  the  case  by  a  scire  facias 
to  the  Court  of  Chancery,  Dr.  Palfrey  cites  a 
letter  from  his  learned  friend,  Mr.  Horace  Gray, 
—  now  Chief-Justice  Gray, —  to  whom  this  whole 
matter  was  submitted,  in  which  Mr.  Gray  sug- 
gests two  answers:  i.  A  decision  of  the  case 
for  the  Crown  in  Chancery  would  be  more  sure 
and  weighty  than  in  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  ; 
and,  2.  It  would  be  more  effectual  and  decis- 
ive ;  and  on  the  latter  head  he  proceeds  :  "  Great 
importance  was  attached  in  those  days  to  the 
actual  possession  of  the  charter.  Now  a  judg- 
ment for  the  Crown  upon  a  quo  ivarranto  would 
have  been  only  for  a  seizure  of  the  franchises 
into  the  King's  hands,  but  the  judgment  upon 
scire  facias  was  not  merely  that  the  charter 
should  be  declared  forfeited,  but  also  that  it 
should  be  cancelled,  vacated,  and  annihilated, 
and  restored  into  Chancery  there  to  be  can- 
celled. Blackstone,  Commentaries,  iii.  260,  262; 
4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  ii.  278.  Indeed,  Lord 
Coke  (4th  Inst.  pp.  79,  88),  in  enumerating 
matters  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Chan- 
cellor, put  this  first,  and  even  derives  his  title 
from  it,  saying  :  '  Hereof  our  Lord  Chancellor 
of  England  is  called  cancdlarins,  a  cancellando, 
i.e.,  a  digniori  parte,  being  the  highest  point  of 
his  jurisdiction  to  cancel  the  King's  letters- pa- 
tents under  the  Great  Seal,  and  damning  the  en- 
rolment thereof  by  drawing  strikes  through  it 
like  a  lettice.'  " 

Professor  Joel  Parker,  who  has  discussed 
this  question  in  the  lecture  above  cited,  says : 


1  Hutchinson,  Mass.  Bay,  i.  339,  340 ;  Mass. 
Col.  Rec.,  v.  449,  451,  456-459 ;  Palfrey, 
New  England,  iii.  393,  394.  "Down  to  the 
time  of  Randolph's  report  to  the  Privy  Coun- 
cil (Feb.  29,  1683-84),  the  proceedings  against 
Massachusetts  were  under  a  writ  of  quo  ivar- 
ranto,  returnable  into  the  Court  of  King's 
Bench.  After  that  time  we  hear  no  more  of 
that  writ,  or  of  proceedings  in  that  court."  What 
vacated  the  charter  was  a  decree  in  Chancery  in 
June  of  this  year,  confirmed  in  October.  See 
Palfrey,  iii.  390,  391,  who  has  called  attention  to 
the  perplexity  in  which  this  action  of  the  au- 
thorities has  been  involved,  and  to  the  fact  that 
Chalmers,  Hutchinson,  and  Grahame,  two  of 
whom  were  bred  lawyers,  and  one  of  whom  was 
a  Chief  Justice,  "  all  slur  the  matter  over." 
Other  writers  have  done  the  same,  some  of 
whom  appear  to  have  been  unaware  that  the 
proceedings  under  the  quo  warranto  were  not 
consummated  by  that  process.  Contemporary 
writers  in  New  England  understood  the  matter 
in  a  general  way,  if  they  did  not  comprehend 
all  its  legal  aspects.  The  author  of  a  "  Brief 
Relation  of  the  State  of  New  England,"  prob- 
ably Increase  Mather,  says  :  "  The  Governor 
and  Company  appointed  an  attorney  to  appear 
and  answer  to  the  quo  ivarranto  in  the  King's 
Bench.  The  prosecutors  not  being  able  to  make 
anything  of  it  there,  a  new  suit  was  commenced 
by  a  scire  facias  in  the  High  Court  of  Chancery. 
But,  though  they  had  not  sufficient  time  given 
them  to  make  their  defence,  yet  judgment  was 
entered  against  them  for  default  in  not  appear- 
ing, when  it  was  impossible,  considering  the 
remote  distance  of  New  England  from  West- 
minster Hall,  that  they  should  appear  in  the 
time  allowed."  Andros  Tracts,  ii.  154,  155. 

The  first  writ  of  scire  facias,  directed  to  the 
Sheriff  of  Middlesex,  bore  teste  i6th  April,  36 
Car.  II.  (1684),  whereupon,  on  the  8th  of  May, 
a  nihil  was  returned.  An  alias  was  directed  to 
the  same  sheriff  on  the  I2th  of  May,  upon  which 
the  same  return  was  made  on  the  2d  of  June. 
The  agent  of  the  Company  now  moved,  by  his 
counsel,  for  time  (until  Michaelmas  Term  next, 
about  the  23d  of  October)  to  send  to  New  Eng- 
land for  a  letter  of  attorney  under  seal  to  plead 
to  these  writs  ;  and,  on  hearing  both  sides,  the 
Court  ordered  the  conditional  judgment  cited 
above,  which  was  finally  confirmed  on  the  first 
day  of  Michaelmas  Term  next.  Hutchinson, 
Mass.  Bay,  \.  340 ;  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  ii.  246-278. 


THE    CHARTER    OF    KING    CHARLES    THE   FIRST. 


379 


"  Thus  ended,"  says  Chalmers,  "  the  ancient  government  of  that  colony 
by  legal  process,  —  the  validity  of  which,  however,  has  been  questioned  by 
very  great  authority." 

After  the  decree  vacating  the  charter,  several  months  passed  before 
intelligence  of  it  reached  the  colony.  A  special  meeting  of  the  Court  was 
called  by  the  Governor  and  Assistants  for  the  28th  of  January,  1684-85,  in 
the  record  of  which  the  following  is  the  first  entry :  — 

"  At  the  opening  of  this  Court  the  Governor  .declared  it,  that  on  the  certain  or 
general  rumors  in  Mr.  Jenner  lately  arrived,  that  our  charter  was  condemned,  and  judg- 


"The  reason  why  the  prosecutors  could  not 
make  anything  of  it  in  the  King's  Bench  may 
have  been  that  suggested  in  relation  to  the 
former  writ  [in  1635],  that,  as  the  process  of 
the  court  did  not  run  into  the  colony,  there 
could  be  no  service  there." 

As  to  the  proceedings  in  the  Court  of  Chan- 
cery, Professor  Parker  says  :  "The  proceedings 
may  have  been  instituted  in  that  court  upon  the 
ground  of  an  ancient  jurisdiction  of  the  chancel- 
lor to  repeal  grants  of  the  King  which  had  been 
issued  improvidently.  But  the  assumption  to 
enter  a  decree  that  a  charter  granting  lands,  and 
corporate  powers,  and  powers  of  government, 
and  which  had  existed  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury, should  'be  vacated,  cancelled,  and  anni- 
hilated '  on  account  of  usurpations,  which  in 
case  of  ordinary  corporations  may  be  a  subject 
for  proceedings  by  writ  of  quo  warranto  in  the 
King's  Bench,  —  and  especially  to  do  this  upon  a 
writ  issued  £o  the  sheriff  of  Middlesex,  in  Eng- 
land, under'such  circumstances  that  there  could 
be  neither  service  nor  notice,  —  would  be  of 
itself  a  usurpation.  And  this  seems  to  be  its 
true  character,  whatever  might  be  the  reason 
alleged.  .  .  . 

"  No  judgment  of  forfeiture  was  entered,  nor 
any  decree  ordering  any  person  to  bring  in  and 
surrender  the  charter,  or  to  do  any  other  act  in 
relation  to  it.  The  Court  adjudged  that  '  the 
letters-patent  and  the  enrolment  thereof  be  va- 
cated, cancelled,  and  annihilated,  and  into  the 
said  court  restored,  there  to  be  cancelled,'  but 
there  was  no  attempt  to  enforce  the  latter  part 
of  the  decree." 

It  is  certain  that  this  parchment  muniment 
of  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts 
Bay  hangs  to-day  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary 
of  State  in  Boston,  never  having  left  the  custody 
of  its  official  guardian,  and  of  course  never  hav- 
ing suffered  the  official  mutilation  decreed  by 
the  Court  of  Chancery  ;  and  the  same  remark 
may  be  made  of  the  parchment  on  which  the 
"  enrolment,"  subject  to  the  same  decree,  is 
preserved,  which  now  slumbers  in  its  original 
entireness  in  her  Majesty's  Public  Record  Office 
in  London,  as  inspected  by  the  writer  a  few 
years  ago. 


"  If  the  colonial  government,"  continues 
Professor  Parker,  "  was  exercising  power  in- 
consistent with  the  charter  or  with  colonial 
dependence,  the  true  remedy  would  at  this  day 
appear  to  have  been,  not  by  process  to  enforce 
a  forfeiture  or  to  vacate  the  charter,  which,  if 
effective,  would  leave  the  inhabitants  without 
any  legal  government,  but  by  an  enforcement 
or  amendment  of  the  charter,  in  regard  to  its 
public  powers  and  character,  by  the  Crown,  from 
which  it  was  derived,  or  by  an  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment making  the  requisite  provision  for  that 
purpose. 

"The  better  opinion  may  be  that,  meeting 
with  technical  difficulties  in  the  court  of  law, 
resort  was  had  to  Chancery  because  of  a  better 
assurance  of  a  speedy  success.  (Palfrey,  New  Eng- 
land, iii.  391-394.)  .  .  . 

"The  proceeding  appears  to  have  been  no 
more  effective  in  its  character  than  might  have 
been  a  judgment  of  seizure  in  a  process  at  law  ; 
and,  in  fact,  little  better  than  would  have  been 
an  order  of  the  King  in  Council,  that  the  char- 
ter was  forfeited,  with  a  revocation  of  its 
powers.  However,  the  decree  answered  its 
purpose.  The  colonists  were  not  in  a  situa- 
tion to  contest  it."  —  Lecture  before  the  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.,  pp.  45-47. 

After  the  Revolution,  on  the  imprisonment 
of  Andros  in  Boston,  a  provisional  government 
was  set  up  on  the  basis  of  the  old  charter,  and 
an  unavailing  effort  was  made  to  procure  its 
restoration.  "  The  House  of  Commons,  in- 
flamed, probably,"  says  Chalmers,  "  by  the  just 
and  general  indignation  against  the  violent  pro- 
ceedings with  regard  to  the  corporations  in 
England,  at  a  subsequent  period  resolved,  '  that 
those  quo  luarrantos  against  the  charters  of  New 
England  were  illegal  and  void.'  But,  when  the 
judgment  before  mentioned  was  reconsidered 
by  those  eminent  lawyers  and  Whigs,  Treby, 
Somers,  and  Holt,  they  gave  it  as  their  opinion 
'that,  were  it  reversed,  and  the  General  Court 
exercised  the  same  powers  that  before  the 
quo  warranto  it  had  done,  a  new  writ  would 
issue  against  it,  and  there  would  be  such  a 
judgment  as  to  leave  no  room  for  a  writ  of 
error.'"  —  Annals,  p.  415. 


380  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

ment  entered  up,  &c,  they  looked  at  it  as  an  incumbent  duty  to  acquaint  the  Court 
with  it,  and  leave  the  consideration  of  what  was  or  might  be  necessary  to  them,  &c."  ' 

They  appointed  a  fast-day,  to  be  held  the  following  month,  and  made 
another  attempt  at  pacifying  the  King,  by  a  humble  address,  in  which  they 
say,  as  to  the  "  scire  facias  late  brought  against  us  in  the  Chancery,  .  .  .  we 
never  had  any  legal  notice  for  our  appearance,  and  making  answer;  neither 
was  it  possible,  in  the  time  allotted,  that  we  could." 

A  committee  was  also  appointed  to  write  a  letter  to  their  attorney, 
Mr.  Humphreys;  and,  in  this  brief  epistle,  they  say  they  have  as  yet 
received  no  particular  information  from  him  concerning  their  affairs, — 
being  as  yet  advised  only  by  rumor  that  their  charter  was  condemned ; 
and  they  enclose  to  him,  for  speedy  presentation  to  his  Majesty,  the  letter 
prepared  for  him.  They  express  a  wish  to  discharge  all  pecuniary  obliga- 
tions to  their  attorney,  whenever  they  shall  learn  the  extent  of  their  indebt- 
edness. For  the  reason  that  "  several  of  our  vessels  yet  behind  in  England, 
and  so  possibly  we  may  yet  hear  further,  either  from  Mr.  Humphreys  or 
some  other,  —  we  having  as  yet  received  no  particular  intelligence  about  the 
entering  up  of  judgment  against  us,  —  it  is  therefore  ordered  and  concluded 
that  this  General  Court  be  adjourned  till  the  i8th  day  of  March  next, 
being  Wednesday,  at  one  of  the  clock  in  the  afternoon." 

Hutchinson  says  that  the  copy  of  the  judgment  against  the  charter  was 
received  by  Secretary  Rawson  on  the  2d  of  July.2  This  must  refer  to  the 
official  notice.  In  the  mean  time  King  Charles  the  Second  had  died 
(Feb.  6,  1684-85) ;  and  Mr.  Blathwait,  one  of  the  principal  Secretaries  of 
State,  had  written  to  Mr.  Bradstreet,  transmitting  a  printed  copy  of  the 
proclamation  of  King  James,  issued  on  the  day  of  his  accession  to  the 

throne,  directing  that  all  persons 
in  authority  in  his  kingdoms  and 
colonies  should  continue  to  ex- 
ercise their  functions  till  further 
order  should  be  taken.  This 
was  accompanied  by  an  order  to  proclaim  the  new  king.  The  Court  met 
on  the  6th  of  May,  1685,  and  registered  the  edict,  and  also  made  a  record 
of  the  fact  that  the  Governor  had  answered  the  letter  of  William  Blathwayt, 
Esq.,  and  informed  him  that  the  Government  of  the  colony  had  already, 
on  the  2Oth  of  April,  proclaimed  the  new  king,  with  all  due  solemnity, 
in  the  high  street  in  Boston,  —  news  of  the  death  of  Charles  the  Second 
and  the  proclaiming  of  his  successor  having  been  already  received  here 
by  the  arrival  of  a  ship  from  Newcastle  as  early  as  the  I4th  of  April. 
The  Court  met  on  the  2ist  of  July,  by  adjournment,  "to  consult  the 

1  Mass.  Colony  Records,  \.  465.  other  engravings  of  it  in  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and 

2  [Rawson,  b.  1615,  d.   1693,  was  for  many  Geneal.  A'eg.,  and   in   Drake's   Boston.      He  is 
years  Secretary  of  the  Colony,  1650-1686.     His  buried    in    the    Granary   burial-ground.      The 
portrait  is  preserved  in  the  gallery  of  the  Amer.  present  Bromfield  Street  bore  his  name,  and  was 
Antiquarian  Society  at  Worcester,  and  there  are  known  as  Rawson's  Lane  up  to  1796.  —  ED  ] 


THE    CHARTER   OF    KING    CHARLES   THE    FIRST.  381 

weighty  concerns  of  this  colony ;  "  and  Mr.  John  Higginson  was  asked  "  to 
seek  the  face  of  God  for  his  special  guidance  and  direction."  Another 
humble  petition  to  the  King  was  written,  substantially  rehearsing  the 
arguments  which  had  already  proved  so  fruitless. 

The  elections  in  the  colony  took  place  this  year  as  usual ;  but  there  were 


all  the  symptoms  of  an  expiring  Constitution.  The  Government  was  now 
regarded  as  only  provisional ;  and  they  awaited  with  anxiety  the  arrival  of 
a  royal  governor,  in  the  person  of  the  noted  Colonel  Kirke,  as  a  much- 
dreaded  infliction.  Several  towns  neglected  to  send  their  deputies  to  the 
General  Court  this  year;  and,  at  the  session  July  10,  they  were  warned  to 
attend  to  their  duty  at  their  peril.  On  the  I2th  of  May,  1686,  the  last 


382 


THE    MEMORIAL    HISTORY    OF    BOSTON. 


election  took  place  according  to  the  provisions  of  the  charter.1  On  the 
1 4th  of  that  month  the  "  Rose"  frigate  arrived  at  Boston,  bringing  the  per- 
sistent Randolph,  with  an  exemplification  of  the  judgment  against  the 
charter,2  and  commissions  for  the  officers  of  a  new  government.  Joseph 
Dudley  was  appointed  President.  News  had  already  been  received  that  a 
new  governor  was  impending ;  and  it  was  a  relief  to  know  that  Kirke  had 
not  received  the  appointment. 

The  General  Court  was  in  session.  On  the  i/th,  a  copy  of  the  commis- 
sion was  presented  and  read,  and  a  reply  made  on  the  2Oth,  complaining  of 
its  arbitrary  character,  and  that  the  people  were  abridged  of  their  liberties. 
A  committee  was  appointed  "  for  a  repository  of  such  papers  on  file  with 
the  secretary  as  refer  to  our  charter  and  negotiations  from  time  to  time  for 
the  security  thereof,  with  such  as  refer,  to  our  title  of  our  land,  by  purchase 
of  Indians  or  othenvise ;  and  the  secretary  is  ordered,  accordingly,  to 
deliver  the  same  unto  them."  The  concluding  entry  is  as  follows:  "This 
day  the  whole  Court  met  at  the  Governor's  house ;  and  there  the  Court 
was  adjourned  to  the  second  Wednesday  in  October  next,  at  eight  of  the 
clock  in  the  morning."  But  it  never  met. 


1  [Professor  Emory  Washburn  has  a  paper, 
"  Did  the  vacating  of  the  Colony  Charter  in 
1684,  or  the  adoption  of  the  1691  charter,  annul 
the  laws  made  under  the  former?"  in  the  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  March,  1875.  —  En.] 

2  By   this   instrument,    printed    in   4    Mass. 
Hist.    Coll.   ii.   246-278,   it    will    be    seen   that 


the  causes  of  forfeiture,  as  set  forth  in  the 
Court  of  Chancery,  were :  the  assuming  by 
the  Governor  and  Company  the  power  to  levy 
money  (by  poll  taxes  and  duties  on  merchan- 
dise and  tonnage) ;  to  coin  money ;  and  to 
require  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  government 
of  the  colony. 


CHAPTER    XL 

CHARLESTOWN   IN  THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 

BY    HENRY    HERBERT   EDES. 

THE  territory  now  designated  as  Charlestown  is  a  peninsula,  lying  be- 
tween the  estuaries  of  the  Mystic  and  the  Charles,  containing  less 
than  a  square  mile  of  land.  This  now  constitutes  the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth 
wards  of  Boston,  to  which  it  was  annexed  in  1873.  The  oldest  town,  except 
Salem,  in  the  Bay  Colony,  it  was,  in  the  year  last  named,  the  smallest 
municipality  in  the  Commonwealth.  At  the  time  of  its  settlement,  however, 
the  area  of  Charlestown  was  much  greater,  including  the  whole  or  portions 
of  the  present  cities  of  Somerville  and  Cambridge,  and  of  the  towns  of 
Woburn,  Burlington,  Wilmington,  Stoneham,  Winchester,  Melrose,  Everett, 
Maiden,  Wakefield,  Medford,  and  Arlington.  Woburn  was  the  first  town  set 
off,  —  in  1642  ;  and  Somerville  was  the  last,  —  exactly  two  centuries  later. 

The  two  Indian  nations  which  occupied  the  region  around  Boston  Harbor 
at  the  time  of  the  settlement  were  the  Massachusetts  and  the  Pawtuckets. 
Chikataubut,  or  House-a-Fire,  was  the  chief  sachem  of  the  former  tribe, 
whose  domain  extended  from  Charles  River  on  the  north  and  west  to  Wey- 
mouth  and  Canton  on  the  south.  Nanepashemit,  or  The  New  Moon,  was  the 
chief  sachem  of  the  Pawtuckets,  whose  territory  reached  as  far  east  as  Pis- 
cataqua,  and  as  far  north  as  Concord,  on  the  Merrimac  River.  These  tribes, 
prior  to  1613,  could  each  bring  into  the  field  three  thousand  warriors,  but 
they  were  soon  after  greatly  reduced  by  pestilence.  Nanepashemit  lived  in 
Lynn,  when  in  1615  he  removed  to  the  banks  of  the  Mystic,  where  he  was 


killed  about  1619.  l  His  queen,  called  The  Squaw  Sachem,  subsequently 
married  Webcowit,  the  medicine-man  of  the  tribe;  and  from  them,  in 
1639,  the  town  received  a  deed  of  a  large  tract  of  land  comprised  within 
the  present  confines  of  Somerville.  The  Indian  name  of  Charlestown  was 
Mishawum. 

1  |Cf.  Mr.  Adams's  chapter  in  this  volume.  —  ED.] 


384  THE    MEMORIAL    HISTORY    OF    BOSTON. 

The  first  eight  pages  of  what  was  until  recently  regarded  as  the  first  vol- 
ume of  the  town  records  have  been  printed  by  Dr.  Young  in  his  Chronicles 
of  Massachusetts  1  While  the  account  of  the  settlement  of  the  town  which 
is  there  given  is  not  a  contemporaneous  record,  it  is  not  to  be  considered  as 
untrustworthy  except  as  regards  the  early  chronology,  —  prior  to  1631  ;  for 

the  order  of  the  selectmen  of  April  18, 

,        -^  s/j^r ?y  /^          1664,  under  which  John  Greene  (son 
*Z>  C^%//V^f  of  the  ruling  elder  of  the  church)  made 

this  compilation,  mentions  that  these 
eight  pages  had  been  engrossed  in  the  new  book  of  records,  and  that  the 
facts  had  been  "  gathered  by  information  of  known,  honest  men  that  lived 
and  were  actors  in  those  times." 
Captain  Richard  Sprague  was 
then  living,  and  from  him, 

without   doubt,    many   of  these  ^  /joO  • 

statements  were  procured.     Mr.  .. 

Everett,  in  his  address  commemorative  of  the  bi-centennial  of  the  arrival 
of  Winthrop  at  Charlestown,  in  speaking  of  the  three  brothers,  Ralph,  Rich- 
ard, and  William  Sprague,  says  they  were  "  the  founders  of  the  settlement 
in  this  place,"  and  "  were  persons  of  character,  substance,  and  enterprise : 
excellent  citizens ;  generous  public  benefactors ;  and  the  heads  of  a  very 
large  and  respectable  family  of  descendants."  They  arrived  in  Salem,  —  in 
1628  says  the  record,  but  probably  1629  is  the  actual  date  of  their  coming,  — 
and  with  three  or  four  others  journeyed  through  the  woods  "  the  same 
summer"  to  a  "  place  situate  and  lying  on  the  north  side  of  Charles  River, 
full  of  Indians,  called  Aberigians,"  whose  chief  at  that  time  was  Wonohaqua- 
ham  (a  son  of  Nanepashemit),  called  by  the  English  Sagamore  John,  who 
lived  either  at  Mystic  Side  or  at  Rumney  Marsh  (Chelsea),  and  owned  land 
near  Powder-Horn  Hill.  He  was  "  a  man  naturally  of  a  gentle  and  good 
disposition,  by  whose  free  consent  they  settled  about  the  hill  of  the  same 
place,  .  .  .  where  they  found  but  one  English  palisadoed  and  thatched 
house,  wherein  lived  Thomas  Walford,  a  smith,  situate  on  the  South  End  of 
the  westermost  hill  of  the  East  Field,  a  little  way  up  from  Charles  River 
side." 

Mention  is  made  of  Thomas  Walford  in  a  previous  chapter2  of  this 
volume,  as  one  of  Robert  Gorges'  company  which  arrived  at  Wessagusset 
(Weymouth)  in  1623,  and  that  he  removed  to  Charlestown  about  1625-1627, 

after  the  abandonment  of  the 
Wessagusset  settlement.  Wral- 
ford  had  a  wife,  Jane ;  and  Sav- 
age mentions  two  sons,  Thomas 
and  Jeremiah,  besides  several 

daughters,  all  of  whom  married.  His  Episcopal  tenets  made  him  an  un- 
desirable neighbor  for  the  Puritan  colonists  of  the  Bay;  and  as  early  as 

1  Pp.  371-387.      '2  [By  Mr.  Adams,  on  "The  Earliest  Explorations  in  Boston  Harbor." — ED.) 


CHARLESTOWN    IN    THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  385 

May  3,  1631,  the  General  Court  fined  him  forty  shillings,  and  enjoined  him 
and  his  wife  "  to  depart  out  of  the  limits  of  this  patent  before  the  twentieth 
day  of  October  next,  under  pain  of  confiscation  of  his  goods,  for  his  con- 
tempt of  authority,  and  confronting  officers."  He  paid  the  fine  by  killing  a 
wolf.  September  3,  1633,  the  Court  ordered  "that  the  goods  of  Thomas 
VValford  shall  be  sequestered  ...  to  satisfy  the  debts  he  owes  in  the  Bay 
to  several  persons."  He  removed  with  his  family  to  Strawberry  Bank 
(Portsmouth),  where  he  was  much  esteemed  ;  had  grants  of  land  ;  was  often 
one  of  the  selectmen,  or  "townsmen;  "  served  on  the  grand  jury;  took  an 
active  interest  in  public  affairs;  and  in  1640  was  one  of  the  church 
wardens  with  Henry  Sherburne.  His  will  is  dated  Nov.  15,  1660, 
and  was  proved  six  days  later.  The  precise  date  of  Walford's  removal 
to  Portsmouth  is  not  known.  In  a  deposition  dated  1682,  Henry  Lang- 
star,  of  Dover,  testified  that  he  knew  Walford,  of  Portsmouth,  fifty  years 
before,  which  would  indicate  that  1632  was  the  year  of  his  removal.  In  the 
Charlestown  records,  however,  his  name  appears  in  a  list  of  inhabitants  on 
"the  9th  of  January,  1633-34,"  —  four  months  after  his  goods  had  been 
sequestered.  Probably  he  went  to  Portsmouth  soon  after  this  latter  date,  as 
his  name  does  not  again  appear  in  our  records. 

On  the  tenth  of  March,  1628-29,  the  Massachusetts  Company  in  England 
engaged  Thomas  Graves,  a  skilful  engineer,  of  Gravesend,  in  Kent,  to  go  to 
New  England  in  their  interest  and  lay 
out  a  town.  Graves  arrived  at  Salem 
in  the  fleet  with  Higginson  in  June, 
1629;  and  during  the  same  month,  or 
early  in  July,  in  company  with  the  Rev. 
Francis  Bright  and  about  one  hundred  other  persons  (among  whom  prob- 
ably were  the  Spragues)  he  removed  from  Salem  to  Charlestown.  Prince 
gives  the  date  of  their  arrival  here  June  24  (or  July  4,  New  Style),  1629, 
which,  says  Mr.  Frothingham,  is  "  the  only  date  for  the  foundation  of 
Charlestown  for  which  good  authority  can  be  adduced." 

The  associates  of  the  Spragues  in  the  settlement  of  the  town,  whose 
names  are  recorded,  were  John  Meech,  Simon  Hoyte,  Abraham  Palmer, 
Walter  Palmer,  Nicholas  Stowers,  John  Stickline,  Thomas  Walford,  "  that 
lived  here  alone  before,"  Thomas  Graves,  and  the  Rev.  Francis  Bright, 
who  "jointly  agreed  and  concluded  that  this  place  .  .  .  shall  henceforth, 
from  the  name  of  the  river,  be  called  Charlestown ;  which  was  also  con- 
firmed by  Mr.  John  Endicott,  Governor."  Mr.  Graves  proceeded  without 
delay  to  "  model  and  lay  out  the  form  of  the  town,  with  streets  about  the 
hill,"  which  described  an  ellipse  of  which  what  are  now  Main  Street  and  Bow 
Street  constituted  the  periphery.  It  was  agreed  that  each  inhabitant  should 
have  a  two-acre  lot  to  plant  upon ;  and  all  were  to  fence  in  common.  These 
lots  were  at  once  measured  off.  Ralph  Sprague  and  others  began  to  build 
their  houses  on  Bow  Street,  and  to  fence  the  field  laid  out  to  them, 

VOL.  i. — 49. 


386  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

which  was  situated  on  the  northwest  side  of  Town  Hill.  "Walter  Palmer 
and  one  or  two  more  shortly  after  began  to  build  in  a  straight  line  upon 
their  two-acre  lots  on  the  east  side  of  the  Town  Hill,  and  set  up  a  slight 
fence  in  common  that  ran  up  to  Thomas  Walford's  fence ;  and  this  was 

the  beginning  of  the  East  Field." 

It:  was  also  the  beginning  of  what 
is  now  the  Main  Street.  Graves, 
with  "  some  of  the  servants  of 
the  Company  of  Patentees  .  .  . 
built  the  Great  House  .  .  .  for 
such  of  the  Said  Company  as  are  shortly  to  come  over,  which  after- 
wards became  the  meeting-house."  That  this  building  was  the  only  one 
deemed  worthy  to  be  called  a  house  at  the  time  of  Winthrop's  arrival  in 
June,  1630,  seems  to  be  proved  by  the  statement  of  Roger  Clap  (who 
visited  the  town  a  few  days  previously)  that  "  we  found  some  wigwams 
and  one  house;"  unless,  as  Dr.  Young1  suggests,  reference  was  intended  to 
Walford's  house. 

The  preliminary  visit  to  the  peninsula,  and  the  final  removal  hither  of 
Winthrop  and  his  company  are  described  in  another  chapter.2 

It  was  intended  to  place  here  the  seat  of  government;  but  that  purpose 
was  speedily  abandoned,  chiefly  on  account  of  the  lack  of  good  water.  The 
town  records  mention  the  arrival  of  Winthrop  and  of — 

"Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Knight,  Mr.  Johnson,  Mr.  Dudley,  Mr.  Ludlow,  Mr. 
Nowell,  Mr.  Pincheon  [and]  Mr.  Bradstreet,  who  brought  along  with  them  the  charter 
or  patent  for  this  jurisdiction  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay ;  with  whom  also  arrived 
Mr.  John  Wilson  and  Mr.  [George]  Phillips,  ministers,  and  a  multitude  of  people 
amounting  to  about  fifteen  hundred,  brought  over  from  England  in  twelve  ships. 
The  Governor  and  several  of  the  patentees  dwelt  in  the  Great  House.  .  .  .  The 
multitude  set  up  cottages,  booths,  and  tents  about  the  Town  Hill.  They  had  long 
passage ;  some  of  the  ships  were  seventeen,  some  eighteen  weeks  a  coming.  Many 
people  arrived  sick  of  the  scurvy,  which  also  increased  much  after  their  arrival,  for 
want  of  houses  and  by  reason  of  wet  lodging  in  their  cottages ;  and  other  distempers 
also  prevailed ;  and  although  [the]  people  were  generally  very  loving  and  pitiful, 
yet  the  sickness  did  so  prevail  that  the  whole  were  not  able  to  tend  the  sick  as  they 
should  be  tended ;  upon  which  many  perished  and  died,  and  were  buried  about  the 
Town  Hill." 

The  weather  was  hot,  sickness  prevailed,  and  a  prejudice  existed  in  the 
minds  of  many  against  water  which  was  not  taken  from  running  springs. 
Only  one  of  these  could  be  found,  and  that  "  a  brackish  spring  in  the  sands 
by  the  water  side,  on  the  west  side  of  the  North-west  Field,  which  could  not 
supply  half  the  necessities  of  the  multitude ;  at  which  time  the  death  of  so 
many  was  concluded  to  be  much  the  more  occasioned  by  this  want  of  good 
water."  This  spring,  generally  referred  to  as  "  The  Great  Spring,"  is  believed 

1  Chronicles  of  Mass.,  p.  349,  note.  2  By  Mr.  Winthrop,  on  "  Boston  Founded." 


CHARLESTOWN    IN    THE   COLONIAL  PERIOD.  387 

to  have  been  near  the  site  of  the  State-prison.1  In  this  season  of  affliction 
Dr.  Samuel  Fuller  came  from  Plymouth  to  minister  to  the  sick;  but  lack 
of  proper  medicines  prevented  his  rendering  much  assistance  :  — 

"  In  the  mean  time,  Mr.  Blackstone,  dwelling  on  the  other  side  [of]  Charles  River 
alone,  at  a  place  called  by  yc  Indians  Shawmut  .  .  .  came  and  acquainted  the  Gov- 
ernor of  an  excellent  spring  there ;  withal  inviting  him  and  soliciting  him  thither. 
Whereupon,  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Johnson  2  and  divers  others,  the  Governor,  with 
Mr.  Wilson  and  the  greatest  part  of  the  Church  [which  had  been  gathered  here 
July  30]  removed  thither  [September  7] ;  whither  also  the  frame  of  the  Governor's 
house,  in  preparation  at  this  town,  was  also  (to  the  discontent  of  some)  carried ; 
where  people  began  to  build  their  houses  against  winter ;  and  this  place  was  called 
Boston." 3 

The  first  three  sessions  of  the  Court  of  Assistants  were  held  in  Charles- 
town:  Aug.  23,  1630,  when  provision  was  made  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
ministers,  and  the  next  session  appointed  at  the  Governor's  house  at  eight 
o'clock  in  the  morning;  also  September  7,  and  again  September  28.  From 
and  after  October  19,  however,  the  Court  convened  in  Boston. 

The  persons  who  came  with  Winthrop,  but  remained  in  Charlestown  after 
his  removal  to  Boston,  were  Increase  Nowell,  Esq.,  Mr.  William  Aspinwall, 
Mr.  Richard  Palsgrave,  physician,  Edward  Converse,  William  Penn,  William 
Hudson,  Mr.  John  Glover,  William  Brackenbury,  Rice  Cole,  Hugh  Garrett, 
Ezekiel  Richardson,  John  Baker,  and  John  Sales.  Besides  these  were  also 
Captain  Francis  Norton,  Mr.  Edward  Gibbons,  Mr.  William  Jennings,  and 
John  Wignall,  who  "  went  and  built  in  the  Main  on  the  north-east  side  of 
the  north-west  creek  of  this  town." 

The  Court  early  ordered  the  following  grants  of  land:  — 

September  6,  1631,  the  General  Court  granted  to  Governor  Winthrop  a  farm  of 
six  hundred  acres  at  Mystic,  where  his  summer  residence  was  located.  Here  he  had 
built  a  bark  of  thirty  tons  called  "  The  Blessing  of  the  Bay,"  which  was  launched 
July  4th  of  the  same  year.  The  farm  was  called  by  the  Governor  "  Ten  Hills,"  from 
the  number  of  elevations  which  could  be  counted  upon  it ;  and  what  remains  of  it  is 
so  designated  at  the  present  day.4 

July  2,  1633,  the  General  Court  ordered  that  "the  ground  lying  betwixt  the  North 
river  and  the  Creek  on  the  North  side  of  Mr.  Maverick's,  and  up  into  the  country, 
shall  belong  to  the  inhabitants  of  Charlestown."  This  was  the  territory  known  as 
Mystic  Side. 

March  3,  1635-36,  the  Court  "ordered  that  Charlestown  bounds  shall  run  eight 
miles  into  the  country  from  their  meeting-house,  if  no  other  bounds  intercept,  reserv- 

1  The  site  of  the  prison  was,  for  more  than  a     "fountains  of  living  water;"  but  a  later  and  better 
century,  known  as  Lynde's  Point.  authority,  Dr.  Trumbull  gives  another  meaning 

2  Mr.  Johnson's  death  did  not  occur  till  Sept.     in  his  chapter  of  the  present  volume. 

30,  1630.  4  By  the   courtesy  of   the    Hon.  Robert  C. 

3  A  writer  in  Mass,  ffist.  Coll.,  xx.  174,  thinks  Winthrop,  a  reduced  heliotype  of  a  plan  of  this 
that  "  Mishawumut  "    means  "a  great  spring,"  estate,  made  in  October,  1637,  is  given  in  another 
and  "  Shawmut "  (the  Indian  name  for  Boston),  place  in  this  volume. 


388  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

ing  the  propriety  of  farms  granted  to  John  Winthrop,  Esq.,  Mr.  Nowell,  Mr.  Cradock, 
and  Mr.  Wilson,  to  the  owners  thereof,  as  also  free  ingress  and  egress  for  the  Servants 
and  Cattle  of  the  said  gentlemen,  and  common  for  their  cattle,  on  the  back  side  of  Mr. 
Cradock's  farm." 

Oct.  28,  1636,  the  Court  granted  LovelFs  Island  to  this  town. 

May  13,  1640,  the  Court  made  another  grant  to  the  town  of  "two  miles  at  their 
head  line,  provided  it  fall  not  within  the  bounds  of  Lynn  Village  [Reading],  and  that 
they  build  within  two  years,"  —  that  is,  begin  the  settlement  of  a  town  which  subse- 
quently was  set  off,  in  1642,  as  Woburn,  or  "Charlestown  Village"  as  it  was  then 
called.  On  the  Seventh  of  October  following,  the  Court  granted  to  Charlestown 
"  the  proportion  of  four  miles  square  with  their  former  last  grant  to  make  a  village, 

whereof  five  hundred  acres  is  granted  to  Mr. 
w^h(*~l 

0  J   Thomas  Coitmore,1  to  be  set  out  by  the  Court." 

By  the  terms  of  this  grant  Cambridge  line 
was  not  to  be  crossed ;  and  the  bounds  of  the  tract  granted  were  not  to  "  come 
within  a  mile  of  Shawshine  River ;  and  the  Great  Swamp  and  Pond  "  were  to  lie  in 
common. 

Nov.  12,  1659,  the  last  considerable  grant  to  the  town  was  made  by  the  General 
Court.  It  comprised  one  thousand  acres  at  Sowheaganucke,  on  the  west  side  of 
Merrimack  River,  and  was  laid  out,  "  for  the  use  of  the  school  of  Charlestown,"  in 
October,  1660. 

The  affairs  of  the  town  were  conducted  by  the  freemen  in  general  town- 
meeting  until  June  13,  1634,  when  "  it  was  agreed  and  concluded  that  Mr. 
Thomas  Beecher,  Mr.  William  Jennings,  and  Ralph  Sprague  be  at  town- 
meetings  to  assist  in  ordering  their  affairs,  and  that  they  present  this  town 
at  the  General  Court  held  at  New  Towne  in  September  next  in  the  quality 
of  Deputies."  A  fine  was  early  imposed  for  non-attendance  upon  town- 
meetings.  Feb.  10,  1634-35,  the  famous  town  order  creating  a  board  of 
selectmen  was  passed.2  It  is  expressed  in  the  following  words :  — 

"  An  ordr  made  by  the  Inhabitants  of  Charlestowne  At  A  ffull  meeting  for  the  Gov- 
ernm't  of  the  Towne  by  Selectmen  : 

"  1 634.  —  In  consideration  of  the  great  trouble  and  chearg  of  the  Inhabitants  of 
Charlestowne  by  reason  of  the  Frequent  meeting  of  the  townsmen  in  general!,  and  y'  by 
reason  of  many  men  meeting  things  were  not  so  easily  brought  unto  a  ioynt  Issue  :  It 
is  therefore  agreed  by  the  sayde  townesmen  ioyntly  that  these  eleuen  men  whose  names 
are  written  one  the  other  syde,  wth  the  advice  of  Pastor  and  teacher,  desired  in  any 
case  of  conscience,  shall  entreat  of  all  such  busines  as  shall  conscerne  the  townsmen, 
The  choise  of  officers  excepted,  And  what  they  or  the  greater  part  of  them  shall  con- 
clude of,  the  rest  of  the  towne  willingly  to  submit  vnto  as  their  owne  pper  act,  and 
these  13  [sit]  to  contineu  in  this  imployment  for  one  yeare  next  ensuing  the  date 
hereof,  being  dated  this  :  ioth  of  February,  1634. 

1  Cf.  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.    Reg.,   xxxiv.  accompanies   this    chapter.      Mr.    Frothingham 
253  ''  scf'  gave   a  lithographed   fac-simile    in    his  History 

2  A  heliotype  of  what  remains  of  the  origi-  of  Charlestyiun.     Cf.  Amer.  Antiq.  Soc.  Proc., 
nal  document  and  the  signatures  attached  to  it  Oct.  21,  1870. 


^ 

x      .,  **^^   */-*o4%«~-,*_ 


KKI:.  io,   1634.     ORDER  CREATING  BOARD  OF  SELECTMEN. 
(Charlcstown  Records.} 


CHARLESTOWN    IN    THE    COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


389 


"In  wittnes  of  this  agreement  wee  whose 
or  hands. 


WILLIAM  LEARNED 
ROBT.  MOULTON 
WILLIAM  JOHNSON 
GEORGE  WHITEHAND 
WILLIAM 
BAKER 

ROBERT  HALE 
NICHOLAS  STOWER 

GEORGE  BUNKER 
JOHN  HALL 


WILIAM.  -f-  GNASH 


RICE  COLES 
THOMAS 
MINOR 

RICHARD  KETLE 
ROBART  BLOT 
EDWARD  STURGES 
GEORGE  FELCH 
THOMAS  LINCOLN 

f ANTHONY  ) 

(      EAMES  j 


names  are  vnder  written  haue  set  to 
JOHN  GREENE 
ABRA  :  MELLOWS 
WILL?  FROTHINGHAM 
THOMAS  GOBEL 
WALTER  ~|  POPE  his  mark 
RICHARD  S  SPRAGUE  [his  mark] 
JAMES  %  PEMBERTON  his  mark 
THOMAS  SQUIRE 
WILLIAM  SPRAGUE 
THOMAS  PIEARCE 
EDWARD  JOHNES 
RICE  MAURIS 
ROBEART  SHORTTAS 
GEAG  HUCHINSON 
RICHARD  PALGRAUE 


The  eleven  selectmen  first  chosen  under  this  order  were  Increase  Nowell, 
Thomas  Beecher,  Ezekiel  Richardson,  Walter  Palmer,  Ralph  Sprague,  Wil- 
liam Brackenbury,  Edward  Con-  -. 
verse,  Thomas  Lynde,  Abraham  — — ~^fl/O  •?&  &^b 
Palmer,  John  Mousall,  and  Rob 
ert  Moulton. 

Mr.  Nowell  was  the  first  Town  Clerk  of  Charlestown.  He  was  succeeded 
by  Sergeant  Abraham  Palmer,  who  was  chosen  March  26,  1638.  Elder 
Greene  was  the  next  incumbent  of  the  office,  upon  which  he  entered  Jan. 

2,  1645-46.  Captain  Samuel 
Adams  was  Greene's  successor ; 
but  I  am  unable  to  determine  the 
precise  date  of  his  first  service. 
He  acted  in  the  capacity  of  Re- 
corder as  early  as  1653  ;  and  a  record  is  preserved  of  his  election  to  office 
Jan.  3,  1658-59.  He  was  a  son  of  Henry  Adams  of  Braintree  ;  married  (i) 

Rebecca  Graves,  eldest  daughter  of 
the  Admiral,  and  (2)  Esther  Spar- 
hawk  of  Cambridge ;  removed,  prior 
to  1668,  to  Chelmsford,  where  also 

he  was  town  clerk;  and  died  Jan.  24,  1688-89,  aged  72.  Edward  Burt  suc- 
ceeded Adams.  He  was  son  of  Hugh  Burt 
of  Lynn ;  came  with  his  father  in  the  "  Ab- 
igail" in  1635,  then  aged  8  years;  had  a 
patent  to  make  salt  granted  him  for  ten 
years  by  the  General  Court,  in  1652;  and 
executed  an  agreement  in  that  year  with 
Governor  Bradstreet,  then  of  Andover,  con- 
cerning salt  works.  He  married  Elizabeth  Bunker  daughter  of  George 


390  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Bunker,  by  whom  he  had  an  only  daughter,  Mary,  born   in   1656.     James 

Gary  was  the  next  Town  Clerk.    He 

was  a  draPer  by  trade  5  came  fro™ 
Bristol,  England,  a  descendant  of 
"William  Gary  of  Bristol,  1546,  of 

the  Devonshire  family."  He  was  here  as  early  as  1640 ;  had  wife  Eleanor  and 
six  children ;  was  chosen  Recorder  Nov.  3,  1662;  and  died  Nov.  2,  1681, 
aged  81.  Captain  Laurence  Hammond  was  elected  to  succeed  Cary,  Jan. 
27,  1672—73 ;  and  he  in  turn  was  succeeded  by  the  Hon.  James  Russell, 
Jan.  14,  1677-78.  John  Newell  was  the 
next  incumbent  of  the  office,  to  which  he  (7 
was  chosen  March  u,  1678-79,  holding  <27^ 
the  position  nearly  twenty  years,  with  /"* 

the  exception  of  a  single  year,  —  from  *' 

June  1688  till  June  1689,  —  when  Samuel  Phipps,  the  Schoolmaster  acted  as 
Recorder.  Newell  was  a  cooper,  but  appears  to  have  been  well  descended. 
His  father,  Andrew  Newell,  was  a  merchant  from  Bristol,  England;  and  his 
mother  was  Mary  Pitt,  daughter  of  William  Pitt,  who  had  been  sheriff  of 
Bristol.  Maud  Pitt,  who  was  the  first  wife  of  the  Hon.  Richard  Russell,  is 
believed  to  have  been  another  daughter  of  the  sheriff.  Mr.  Newell  married 
Hannah  Larkin;  and  he  died  Oct.  14  or  15,  1704,  aged  70  years  and  2 
months. 

One  of  the  earliest  orders  of  the  town  provided  that  "  the  great  Corn- 
field shall  be  on  the  east  side  of  the  Town  Hill,  the  fence  to  range  along  even 
with  those  dwellings  where  Walter  Palmer's  house  stands  and  so  along  to- 
wards the  neck  of  land ;  and  that  every  inhabitant  dwelling  within  the  neck 
be  given  two  acres  of  land  for  an  house-plot  and  two  acres  for  every  male 
that  is  able  to  plant."  This  field  was  subsequently  known  as  the  "  East 
field  within  the  Neck."  It  embraced  all  that  section  of  the  town  lying  be- 
tween Main  Street  and  Charles-River  Avenue  on  the  west  and  the  Mystic 
River  on  the  east,  and  was  sometimes  called  the  Town  Field.  Within  its 
limits  were  three  hills,  —  Bunker's,1  Breed's,  and  Moulton's,  the  last  of 
which  had  formerly  an  elevation  of  thirty-five  or  forty  feet.  Breed's  Hill 
was  about  sixty  feet  high,  while  Bunker's  Hill  —  the  highest  land  in  the 
town — was  one  hundred  and  ten  feet.  In  1677  Moulton's  Point  Field  is 
mentioned.  It  probably  was  the  extreme  easterly  portion  of  the  East  Field. 
There  were  other  "  Fields  "  subsequently  laid  out,  —  East  Field  without  the 
neck,  which  was  sometimes  known  as  Northfield  and  also  as  Highfield, 
was  on  the  north  side  of  Mystic  River  and  extended  to  Penny  Ferry; 
Waterfield,  near  Woburn ;  Menotomy  Field,  contiguous  to  Arlington; 
Mystic-Side  Field,  now  in  the  town  of  Maiden ;  Linefield,  which  included 
the  West  Field,  without  the  neck ;  Northwest  Field,  within  the  peninsula, 

*  George  Bunker,  from  whom  the  hill  takes  He  died  in  Maiden  in  1664.  The  Rev.  Benja- 
its  name,  was  one  of  the  most  wealthy  inhabi-  mm  Bunker  (H.  C.  1658),  who  died  Feb.  3, 
tants,  and  one  of  the  greatest  landed  proprietors.  1669-70,  was  his  son. 


v 


4 


.s 


\ 

i 


CHARLESTOWN    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  391 

and  located  near  Washington  Street;  besides  other  "Fields"  of  less  ex- 
tent and  importance.  There  wa"s  also  the  Stinted  Pasture,  so  called,  —  a 
large  tract  of  common  land  which  lay  between  the  Winter-Hill  road  and 
Cambridge. 

The  first  considerable  division  of  land  among  the  inhabitants  generally 
was  voted  Jan.  9,  1633-34,  when  it  was  ordered  that  ten  acres  be  laid  out  to 
every  inhabitant  at  Mystic  Side.  In  1635  twenty-nine  persons  voluntarily 
surrendered  half  of  their  allotments  for  the  accommodation  of  new  comers. 
This  division  appears  not  to  have  been  recorded  till  1637,  and  the  date  has 
given  rise  to  an  erroneous  impression  that  the  division  was  made  in  that  year. 
In  1635  a  large  tract  of  "  Hayground  ...  on  Mystic  Side"  was  laid  out 
by  a  committee  of  the  town  to  the  inhabitants.  In  1638  there  was  another 
considerable  division  of  land  on  Mystic  Side  which  was  included  in  the  tract 
set  off  to  Maiden  in  1726.  On  the  28th  of  October,  1640,  two  hundred  acres 
were  laid  out  to  thirty-five  persons ;  and  there  was  still  another  division  in 
1641.  March  i,  1657-58,  another  committee  laid  out  "  the  wood  and  com- 
mons" on  Mystic  Side  to  two  hundred  and  two  families.  In  1685  the  Stinted 
Pasture  was  laid  out  to  those  having  propriety  in  it;  and  the  division  of  the 
common  lands  was  thereby  completed." 

The  importance  of  preserving  a  record  of  the  ownership  and  transfer  of 
land  in  the  colony  was  early  recognized  by  the  General  Court,  and  legislation 
to  that  end  was  had.  In  Charlestown  the  compilation  of  the  volume  known 
as  the  "  Book  of  Possessions  "  1  was  begun  in  1638  by  Sergeant  Abraham 
Palmer,  who  was  then  the  Town  . ^  ^->  n  s~i 

Clerk.  Mr.  Palmer  was  a  London  tfyjC.  ^^r^LK\-  2  6  3  <P 
merchant  prior  to  his  coming  to 

New  England.  He  was  a  member  of  the  first  assembly  of  Representatives 
in  1634,  and  was  held  in  high  esteem  in  the  town  which  he  faithfully  served 
in  civil  and  military  capacities.  He  died  in  Barbadoes,  in  1653. 

The  Town  Hill,  upon  which  the  present  meeting-house  of  the  First  Parish 
stands,  is  sometimes  called  Harvard  Hill.  In  early  times  it  was  called  Wind- 
mill Hill,  because  of  the  mill  upon  its  summit  which  William  Tuttle  had 
leave  granted  to  him  to  build  in  1635.  In  1646  it  was  ordered  that  the 
ground  on  the  top  of  this  hill  should  lie  common  to  the  town  forever.  The 
hill  was  originally  much  higher  than  it  is  now,  —  a  great  quantity  of  gravel 
having  been  dug  from  it,  at  different  times,  prior  to  the  Revolution. 

Burial  Hill,  on  the  west  side  of  the  town,  is  first  mentioned  in  the  town 
records  in  1648.  Cobble  Hill  is  the  site  of  the  McLean  Asylum;  Ploughed 
Hill,  known  later  as  Mount  Benedict,  the  site  of  the  Ursuline  Convent  which 
was  destroyed  in  1834;  and  Walnut-Tree  Hill  the  site  of  Tufts  College, — 
all  in  Somerville.  Powder-Horn  Hill,  Prospect  Hill,  and  Winter  Hill,  also 
referred  to  in  the  records,  bear  the  same  designations  at  the  present  day. 

The  Land  of  Nod,  so  called,  was  a  large  tract  now  within  the  limits  of 
Wilmington ;  and  Stoneham  was  at  first  known  as  "  Charlestown  End." 

1  Printed  in  1878  as  the  Third  Report  of  the  Boston  Record  Commissioners. 


392 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 


The  Training  Field,  used  for  military  purposes,  and  now  known  as  Win- 
throp  Square,  is  also  mentioned  in  our  records  for  the  first  time  under  date 
of  1648.  A  diagram  showing  its  shape,  dimensions,  and  principal  abutters 
in  1713,  found  among  the  papers  of  the  late  Mr.  Thomas  Bellows  Wyman, 
is  here  reproduced.  The  figures  indicate  the  dimensions  as  shown  by  the 
surveys  made  in  1713-14  and  1802,  respectively:  - 


John  Edes,  who  was  the  founder  in  New  England  of  the  once  numerous 
family  of  this  name  in  Charlestown,  was  born  in  Lawford,  in  the  county  of 
Essex,  England,  March  31,  1651,  where  his  grandfather,  of  the  same  name, 
had  been  rector  of  the  parish  for  forty  years,  ending  with  his  death  in  1658. 

The  emigrant  was  the  owner  of  the 
estate  on  the  training-field  as  early  as 
1687;  but  the  records  fail  to  show 
his  title.  The  property  remained  in  the  possession  of  his  descendants  till 
1790,  when  Stephen  Edes,  a  great-grandson  of  the  emigrant,  sold  the  estate 
to  the  town.  An  alms-house  was  subsequently  built  upon  a  part  of  the  pur- 
chase ;  but  it  long  since  gave  place  to  brick  dwelling-houses.  Its  location 
may  be  seen  by  reference  to  Peter  Tufts's  plan  of  Charlestown  in  1818,  which 
will  appear  in  a  later  volume  of  this  work. 

"  The  Square  "  was  for  many  years  referred  to  as  the  Market  Place,  where 
"  a  market  was  kept  constantly  on  the  sixth  day  of  every  week."  Wapping, 
or  Wapping  End,  was  the  name  given  to  a  section  of  the  town  now  included, 
for  the  most  part,  within  the  Navy  Yard,  and  in  the  neighborhood  of  Wap- 
ping Street.  Sconce  Point  lay  between  Wapping  Street,  Wapping  Dock, 
the  Town  Dock,  and  Charles  River;  while  Moulton's  Point  is  identical 
with  the  region  now  known  as  "  The  Point,"  contiguous  to  Chelsea 
Bridge. 

The  Great  Ferry  communicated  with  Boston  where  the  Charles-River 


CHARLESTOWN    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  393 

bridge  now  is.      It  was  established   in  1631;    and  Edward  Converse  was 

the   first   ferryman.      In    1640  it  was  granted  to  . 

Harvard    College.      Penny   Ferry    communicated         W^_  \  I  V 

with  Mystic  Side,  where  Maiden  bridge  has  since  ^^^i^^cc  <-*' 

been  built.      It  was  established  April    10,    1640;          — ^  r^ 

and    Philip    Drinker  was   appointed   to    keep    it.        \^^r^^ J-^h^ytj 

Jan.  6,  1672-73,  the  town  ordered  a  bridge  to  be 

built  over  Wapping  Dock,  which  was  at  the  head  of  the  Town  Dock  and 

north  of  Water  Street. 

In  1677  the  first  dry  dock  in  the  country  was  built  in  this  town,  between 
Charles-River  bridge  and  the  Navy  Yard. 

In  1670  the  first  survey  and  record  of  the  streets  and  highways  was  made.1 
The  two  principal  ones  were  Main  Street  (otherwise  known  as  Market  Street, 
the  Country  Road,  the  Town  Street,  Fore  Street,  Street  to  the  Ferry,  and 
Wast  Street)  and  Bow  Street,  also  called  Elbow  Lane  and  Crooked  Lane. 

The  Great  House,  first  used  as  the  official  residence  of  the  Governor, 
was  purchased  in  1633,  by  the  town,  of  John  Winthrop  and  other  gentle- 
men, for  £10,  and  used  as  a  meeting-house  until  it  was  sold,  for  £30,  to 
-  Robert  Long  in  1635,  when  it  became  a  tavern, 

/ofS  or  "ordinary,"  sometimes  known  as  the  "Three 
Cranes,"  from  its  sign.  It  stood  wholly  in  the 
market-place,  in  front  of  the  building,  lately  the  City  Hall,  at  the  corner  of 
Harvard  Street.  The  tavern  was  kept  by  Mr.  Long  and  his  descendants  till 
1711,  when  it  was  sold  to  Eben  Breed,  in  whose  family  it  remained  until  the 
land  was  bought  by  the  town  to  enlarge  the  Square,  after  the  Revolution. 
The  building  is  believed  to  have  been  standing  on  the  I7th  of  June,  1775, 
when  the  town  was  burned.  In  speaking  of  Governor  Winthrop's  discoun- 
tenance of  the  custom  of  the  drinking  or  pledging  of  healths  at  table, 
Mr.  Winthrop,  in  his  charming  biography  of  his  illustrious  ancestor,2 
remarks  that  "there  is  reason  for  thinking  that  'the  Great  House'  in 
Charlestown  was  still  the  Governor's  abode  when  this  reform  was  first  in- 
troduced into  the  social  circles  of  New  England."  March  16,  1 680-81,  the 
General  Court  passed  an  order  regulating  the  number  of  taverns  which 
might  be  lawfully  kept  in  each  town  in  the  colony.  Three  were  permitted 
to  Charlestown,  and  their  keepers  and  one  retailer  of  wine  were  all  to 
be  licensed  annually  by  the  selectmen. 

The  First  Church  of  Boston  was  formed  in  this  town  July  30,  1630,  when 
a  covenant  was  entered  into  and  signed  by  John  Winthrop,  Thomas  Dudley, 
Isaac  Johnson,  and  John  Wilson,  the  last  named  being  chosen  teacher  of 
the  church  August  27th  following.3  This  was  the  third  church  established  in 
the  colony,  Salem  and  Dorchester  only  taking  precedence  of  Boston.4 

1  Printed  in  the   Third  Report  of  the  Boston  the  Spragues  in  the  preceding  year.     He  was 
Record  Commissioners,  pp.  186-188.  from  Rayleigh  in  the  County  of  Essex;  leaned 

2  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop,  ii.  53.  towards  Episcopacy ;  and  Savage  says  he  "  took 

3  The  Covenant  is  given  elsewhere.  some  discouragement  and  went  home  [to  Eng- 

4  A  Rev.  Francis  Bright  had  come  here  with  land]  in  1630,  in  the  '  Lion.' " 

VOL.   I.  —  50. 


394  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

The  congregation  worshipped  under  a  large  tree,  more  than  once  referred 
to  as  "  Charlestown  Oak,"  —  which  Dr.  Bartlett1  located,  from  tradition,  on 
Town  Hill,  —  and  afterwards  in  the  Great  House,  until  the  removal  for  wor- 
ship to  Boston,  which  took  place  in  September.  For  two  years  those 
members  of  the  congregation  who  remained  in  Charlestown  attended  wor- 
ship in  Boston ;  but  this  was  found  inconvenient,  especially  during  the 
winter,  and  on  the  Fourteenth  of  October,  1632,  thirty-five  members  "were 
dismissed  from  the  Congregation  of  Boston,"  at  their  own  request.  These 
persons  chose  the  Rev.  Thomas  James,  then  recently  arrived  from  England, 
as  their  pastor,  and  entered  "  into  church  covenant  the  2d  of  the  9th  month 
1632,"  as  the  First  Church  in  Charlestown,  which  thus  became  the  seventh 
church  established  in  the  colony,  —  the  churches  in  Watertown,  Roxbury, 
and  Lynn  having  been  organized  in  this  order  after  the  founding  of  the 
First  Church  in  Boston. 

The  Great  House  was  first  used  by  the  new  church  as  a  meeting-house. 
About  1636  another  building  appears  to  have  been  occupied  by  the  con- 
gregation ;  but  its  location  —  "  between  the  town  and  the  neck  "  —  cannot 
now  be  determined.  Nov.  26,  1639,  William  Rainsborough  bought  the  old 
meeting-house  for  .£100,  which  was  used  towards  paying  for  "  the  new  meet- 
ing-house newly  built  in  the  town,  on  the  south  side  of  the  Town  Hill."  This 
building  occupied  a  site  on  the  north  side  of  the  Square,  between  the  late 
City  Hall  and  the  entrance  to  Main  Street,  —  about  where  Mr.  Swallow's 
grocery  now  stands,  —  and  was  the  last  house  of  worship  here  built  and 
occupied  during  the  colonial  period. 

Increase  Nowell,  a  man  of  family  and  education,  and  of  exalted  position 

among  the  colonists,  was  the  only 
^7  4~f  i~?  )  ^5-4  one  °f  tne  Assistants  who  continued 
£A./}-  *V&*  a  >l?*~  t°  reside  in  Charlestown  after  the  re- 
moval to  Boston.  He  was  the  first 
ruling  elder  of  the  Boston  church,  but  resigned  the  eldership  upon  a 
question  being  raised  as  to  the  propriety  of  his  holding  it  while  an  incum- 
bent of  a  civil  office.  He  was  for  many  years  secretary  of  the  colony.  Dr. 
Budington  regarded  him  as  "  the  father  of  the  church  and  the  town  "  here ; 
and  in  an  elaborate  note  in  his  History  of  the  First  Clnircli^  he  has  given  a 
sketch  of  Mr.  Nowell's  family  and  his  public  services. 

Mr.  James's  ministry  appears  to  have  been  a  short  and  troubled  one  ;  and 
he   was  dismissed    March    11,    1636.      The    Rev.   Zechariah 
Symmes  was  next  ordained  teacher  of  the  church,  Dec.  22,   ~z.if£:  jy****'- 
1634;   and  during  his  ministry  the  Antinomian  controversy,3 
which  distracted  the  colony  for  some  years,  culminated,  among  other  results, 
in  the  banishment  of  the  Rev.  John  Wheelwright.     A  written  remonstrance 
against  this  act  of  the  General  Court  was  presented  to  it.     The  document, 

1  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  xii.  164.  8  Cf.  Dr.  Ellis's  chapter  on  "  The  Puritan 

2  Pages  190-192.     See  also  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Commonwealth"  in  the  present  volume.      See 
Geneal.  Reg.,  xxxiv.  253  et  seq.     [Cf.  Mr.  Whit-  also  the  same  writer's  Life  of  Anne  Hutchinson, 
more's  chapter  in  the  present  volume.  —  ED.]  published  in  Sparks's  American  Biography. 


CHARLESTOWN    IN    THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


395 


which  bore  the  signatures  of  several  Charlestown  men,  was  held  to  be 
seditious ;  and  the  signers  were  called  to  account  for  having  subscribed 
it.  Ten  of  them  acknowledged  their  "  sin,"  and  requested  to  have  their 
names  erased  from  the  paper.  George  Bunker  and  James  Brown,  how- 
ever, maintained  their  position  and  refused  to  recant;  whereupon  the 
constables  of  Charlestown  were  ordered  to  disarm  them  unless  they  ac- 
knowledged their  error  "  or  give  other  satisfaction  for  their  liberty." 
Deacon  Ralph  Mousall,  another  of  the  signers,  "  for  his  speeches  in  favor 
of  Mr.  Wheelwright"  was  dismissed  from  the  General  Court  Sept.  6,  1638. 
Mr.  Symmes  died  Feb.  4,  1671,  aged  72. 1  The  Rev.  John  Harvard  was  ad- 
mitted an  inhabitant  Aug.  I,  1637,  and  "was  sometimes  minister  of  God's 
word  "  in  this  town  during  Mr.  Symmes's  pastorate ;  but  no  account  of  his 
ordination  has  been  preserved.  He  was  highly  esteemed  for  his  scholarship 
and  piety;  received  grants  of  land  from  the  town;  was  placed  on  an  im- 


HARVARD'S  MONUMENT.S 

portant  committee  "  to  consider  of  some  things  tending  towards  a  body  of 
laws,"  April  26,  1638;  and  before  his  death,  from  consumption,  Sept.  14 
(24,  New  Style),  1638,  he  bequeathed,  by  a  nuncupative  will,  to  the  proposed 
college,  afterwards  named  in  his  honor.'one  half  of  his  estate,  together  with 
his  library.  His  house  occupied  the  site  now  making  the  southerly  corner  of 
Main  Street  and  the  alley,  ascended  by  steps,  formerly  called  Gravel  Lane, 
leading  up  to  Town  Hill.  He  was  graduated  at  Emanuel  College,  Cambridge, 


1  [Cf.  The  Symmes  Memorial.  A  Biographi- 
cal Sketch  of  the  Rev.  Zechariah  Symmes,  with  a 
Genealogy.  By  John  Adams  Vinton,  Boston, 
1873.  For  family  alliances,  see  Mr.  Whitmore's 
chapter  in  the  present  volume.  —  ED.] 

'2  This  monument  was  placed,  not  where  he 


is  supposed  to  have  been  buried  (somewhere 
about  the  foot  of  Town  Hill,  near  the  "  Square  "), 
but  upon  the  highest  ground  on  Burial  Hill, 
which  at  the  time  of  its  erection  commanded  a 
view  of  the  college.  Cf.  note  in  Sewall  Papers, 
i.  447,  and  Budington's  Hist,  of  First  Church. 


396  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

in  1631,  and  proceeded  A.M.  in  1635.  He  was  admitted  to  the  church  in 
Charlestown  Nov.  6,  1637.  His  widow,  Ann,  married  the  Rev.  Thomas  Allen. 
A  monument  to  his  memory  was  erected  in  our  ancient  burial  ground  by 
graduates  of  Harvard  College.  It  was  dedicated  Sept.  26,  1828,  when  an 
address  was  delivered  by  Edward  Everett,  and  prayer  was  offered  by  Presi- 
dent Walker,  who  was  at  that  time  pastor  of  the  Second  (Unitarian) 
Church  here.  The  next  pastor,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Allen,  came  to  New 
England  in  1639 ;  was  installed  the  same  year  as  teacher  of  this  church,  and 
continued  as  such  till  1651,  when  he  was  dismissed  and  returned  to  Eng- 
land, where  he  died  Sept.  21,  1673,  at  the  age  of  65.  During  his  ministry 
occurred  the  troubles  with  the  Baptists,  of  which  there  were  many  in 
the  town.  Stephen  Fosdick  was  among  the  number.  He  was  fined  £20, 
and  May  7,  1643,  was  excommunicated.  But  he  was  restored  to  mem- 
bership Feb.  28,  1663-64.  Thomas  Gould,  who  was  pastor  of  the  First 

-  Baptist   Church   in  Boston 

I '  0*7A        (which    was    organized    in 
i  Charlestown),  was  likewise 

a  member   of  this  church 
and,  like   Fosdick,  was   excommunicated   for   his   heresy  July  30,    1665. 
Thomas  Shepard  (H.  C.  1653)  was  ordained  April   13,  1659,  and  died  of 
small-pox  Dec.  22,  1677,  at  the  age  of  43.     He  was  a  man  of  great  learn- 
ing and  influence.      He  preached  the  Annual 
Election  Sermon  in  1672,  and  after  his  death    ^~  )  Z 
President  Oakes  delivered  a  Latin  oration  and     °^ 
composed  an  elegy  upon  him.     He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son,  Thomas  Shepard  (H.  C.  1676),  who  was  ordained  May 
5,  1680,  when  he  received  the  Right  Hand  of  fellowship  from  President 
Oakes.     He  was  the  last  minister  installed  here  before  the  abrogation  of 
the  colony  charter,  and  died  June  7,  1685,  aged  27.1 

John  Greene  was  the  only  ruling  elder  which  the  Charlestown  church 
ever  had.     He  was  prominent  in  civil  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  affairs,  being 
n    <jrce;t£.  .  Recorder  of  the  town  for  several  years  as 

wel1  as  one  of  tne  selectmen.      His   hand- 
'     writing  was  superlatively  beautiful,  at  a  time 
when  chirography  was  generally  very  bad.    He  died  April  22,  1658,  aged  65. 

Ordinations  were  celebrated  with  great  hospitality,  not  to  say  hilarity; 
and  the  customs  of  the  colonial  peViod  permitted  much  in  the  way  of  gas- 
tronomy and  conviviality  which  in  these  days  would  shock  the  sensibilities 
of  even  the  "  advanced  "  thinkers  among  us. 

"  Lecture  day,"  which  was  observed  for  a  century  or  more,  was  on  Friday. 

1  The   records  of   the  First   Church,   1632-  the  associations  of  the  Church,  which  had  orig- 

1789,  having  been  in  part  issued  serially  in  the  inally  appeared  in  the  Register,  in  July,   1870. 

Ar.  E.  Hist,  and  Cental.  Reg.,  under  the  editing  Dr.  Budington  printed  an  Historical   Discourse 

of    Mr.    James    F.    Hunnewell,  were    printed  on  the  First  Church  in  1852,  besides  his  valuable 

separately   in    1880,   having   in  the  appendix  a  History  of  the  First  Church,  Charlestown,  in  Nine 

paper,    "An     American     Shrine,"    recounting  Lectures,  with  Notes,  which  appeared  in  1845. 


CHARLESTOWN    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  397 

The  schools  were  early  an  object  of  solicitude.  As  early  as  June  3, 
1636,  "  Mr.  William  Witherell  was  agreed  with  to  keep  a  school  for  a  twelve- 
month, to  begin  the  8th  of  the  6th  month,  and  to  have  .£40  for  this  year." 
In  1646  a  rate  was  gathered  for  the  support  of  the  school;  and  another 
was  levied  in  1650  for  the  same  purpose.  Jan.  I,  1648-49,  it  was  agreed  that 
the  selectmen  "  should  see  about  and  order  a  fit  place  for  a  school-house," 
to  be  built  at  the  town's  charge.  May  i,  1650,  a  school-house  and  a  watch 
tower  were  ordered  to  be  built  on  Windmill  Hill.  Jan.  2,  1656—57  it  was 
"  agreed,  that  a  house  be  made  and  set  up  upon  the  Windmill  Hill,  and  the 
bell  sufficiently  hanged  thereon,  and  a  sun-dial  there  to  be  set  up."  This 
building  was  probably  the  one  which  Dr.  Bartlett  refers  to  as  having  been 
built  for  a  Town  House  (and  upon  which  were  the  town  bell  and  clock),  but 
subsequently  was  used  as  a  school-house.  It  stood  on  the  present  site  of 
the  First  Parish  meeting-house. 

In  1652  and  1657  —  and  probably  meanwhile  —  Mr.  John  Morley  was 
the  schoolmaster.  He  came  from  Brain-  /I 

tree,  and  died  Jan.  24,  1660-61,  devising  •  x^J    Q  ri'K-     'TYLoL  L  ^Y 
by  his  will  estate  at  Lucas  and  at  Ches-          / 1  / 

hunt  Leyes  in  the  county  of  Hertford,         (_/ 

England.     Nov.  26,  1661,  the  famous  Ezekiel 

i,\J/.  CKjilAJfA?-  Cheever  took  charge  of  the  school  at  ^30  per 
annum.  In  1670  Cheever  went  to  Boston,  and 
we  find  record  of  a  certificate 1  signed  by  Governor  Leverett,  that  Benjamin 
Tompson2  (H.  C.  1662)  might  accept  the  offer  of  Charlestown  to  take 
charge  of  its  school,  without  giving  offence  to  Boston,  which  had  pre- 
viously asked  him  to  be  an  usher  in  its  grammar  school.  Mr.  Tompson 
accordingly  came  to  our  service,  upon  which  he  entered  in  January,  1670- 
71.  He  resigned  Nov.  7,  1674,  and  was  succeeded,  on  the  eighteenth  of 
the  same  month,  by  Mr.  Samuel  Phipps 

(H.  C.  1671),  who  was  Town  Clerk  for  a  fT/^.^  &%^/7rf  /  6  *& 
single  year  (June  1688  to  June  1689), 
and  subsequently  Register  of  Deeds  for 
Middlesex.3  In  1678  "the  ministers  complained  in  their  sermons  of  the 
general  decay  of  the  schools,  and  an  effort  was  made  to  restore  them."  March 
10,  1678-79,  a  free  school  was  established  by  the  town  voting  £50  per  annum 
for  its  maintenance  "  and  a  convenient  house  for  a  schoolmaster."  March 
30,  1682,  a  school-house  was  arranged  for,  which  was  to  be  twenty  feet 
square  and  "  8  feet  stud  within  joints,"  with  flattish  roof  and  a  turret  for  a 

1  Printed  in  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  8  May  10,  1643,  the  colony  was  divided   into 
xxxiii.  172,  where  also  may  be  read  an  elaborate  four  counties,—  Suffolk,  Middlesex,  Norfolk,  and 
notice   of    Ezekiel   Cheever,  by   Mr.   John   T.  Essex.     Cambridge  has  always  been  the  shire- 
Hassain.  town  of  Middlesex  ;  but  the  judicial  courts  were 

2  Cf.  Kettell's  Specimens  of  American  Poetry,  statedly  held  in  Charlestown  till  the  Revolution, 
i.  xxxvii.,  et  seq.     The  same  who  acquired  repu-  Dr.  Bartlett  says   the   court-house  was  on  the 
tation  as  a  poet.     See  the  chapter  on  "  Colonial  east  side   of   the   Square.       [See   Mr.  Smith's 
Literature,"  in  the  present  volume.  chapter  on  "Boston  and  the  Colony."  — ED.] 


398  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

bell;  also  a  mantletree  twelve  feet  long.  This  building  is  believed  to  have 
occupied  the  site  of  the  Harvard  school-house  on  Harvard  Street.  "July 
17th  1684,  Mr.  Samuel  Miles  did  then  enter  on  the  keeping  of  the  Free 
School  of  this  Towne,"  —  reads  the  record.  He  was  to  have  ^50  per  annum 
for  his  services.  Mr.  Myles  (for  this  was  the  proper  orthography)  had 
graduated  at  Harvard  College  only  a  few  days  before  this  (July  i).  He 
soon  went  to  England,  where  he  took  orders  in  the  Establishment.  Return- 
ing to  Boston,  he  was  inducted  to  the  rectorship  of  King's  Chapel,  June  29, 
1689,  as  the  successor  of  Ratcliffe ;  and  in  1693,  during  a  second  visit  to 
England,  he  received  a  master's  degree  from  the  University  of  Oxford. 
He  died  in  Boston  March  4,  1 728-29:*  Savage  says  he  was  a  son  of  the  Rev. 
John  Myles,  the  Baptist  minister  of  Rehoboth  and  Swansea,  who  came  to 
New  England  from  Swansea  in  Wales  about  1662,  and  died  Feb.  3,  1682-83. 

The  town  evinced  its  interest  in  the  college  as  early  as  1644,  when  "  it 
was  agreed  that  one  peck  of  wheat  or  12  pence  in  money  shall  be  paid  by 
every  family  towards  the  maintenance  of  the  college  at  Cambridge." 

The  fortification  of  the  town  was  begun  as  early  as  1630,  when  a  fort  was 
built  on  the  top  of  Town  Hill,  "  with  palisadoes  and  flankers  made  out, 
which  was  performed  at  the  direction  of  Mr.  Graves,  by  all  hands  of  men, 
women,  and  children,  who  wrought  at  digging  and  building  till  the  work 
was  done."  This  fort  was  maintained  by  the  town  at  large  expense,  and 
was  fostered  by  the  Colony  because  of  its  importance.  In  1670  (Sept.  25), 
it  was  ordered  that  the  guns  mounted  on  Town  Hill  should  not  be  fired  in 
future  "  unless  the  militia  see  just  cause,"  because  of  endangering  "  Mr. 
Shepard's  and  the  Town-House  glass."  The  works  were  soon  afterwards 
abandoned. 

The  Battery2  on  Sconce  Point  was  built  by  order  of  the  General  Court 
in  1634.  In  1631  the  town  voted  to  mount  the  six  guns  left  on  the  beach 
by  Governor  VVinthrop,  on  his  removal  to  Boston,  on  Moulton's  Hill;  but 
the  project  was  abandoned  when  it  was  discovered  that  the  channel  lay  so 
far  off  as  to  be  beyond  range.  The  Battery  was  maintained  till  Septem- 
ber, 1774,  when  its  guns  were  secretly  removed  in  the  night  to  a  place  of 
safety,  by  some  of  the  young  men  in  the  town.  In  May,  1672,  the  town 
bought  of  Benjamin  Moore  "  one  sarsnet  flag  for  the  Battery,  being 
the  King's  Colors.  For  which  he  is  to  be  free  as  to  his  own  proper 
estate  from  the  town  rate  for  five  years  ensuing,  this  year  1672  inclusive. 
The  country,  county,  and  church  rates  are  not  included  in  the  town  rate 
above  named." 

In  1637  Charlestown  furnished  sixteen  men  for  the  Pcquot  war,  twelve 
of  whom,  under  Sergeant  Abraham  Palmer,  rendered  efficient  service  in 
Captain  Mason's  command.  And  in  1675  fifteen  men  were  impressed  from 

1  For  many  interesting  particulars  concern-  by  the  present  minister,  the  Rev.  Henry  Wilder 

ing  him  see  the  Andros   Tracts,  published  by  Foote. 

the   Prince  Society,  1868-74,  ii.  25,  32,  39,72,  *  Gage's  Wharf,  No.  85  Water  Street,  marks 

and  the  forthcoming  History  of  King's  C/iafel,  the  site  at  the  present  day. 


CHARLESTOWN    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  399 

Charlestown  for  service  in  Philip's  war.  In  1676-77  "The  Irish  Donation,"1 
in  aid  of  the  sufferers  by  the  late  Indian  war,  was  received  by  the  colonies. 
The  proportion  of  this  town  was  ,£15  :  6s.  distributed  among  twenty-nine 
families,  consisting  of  one  hundred  and  two  persons. 

Besides  the  train-band,  which  was  divided  March  1 6, 1 680-8 1 ,  into  two  com- 
panies, under  the  command  of  Captain  Laurence  Hammond  and  Captain  Rich- 
ard Sprague,  Charles- 
town  boasted,  about  1649, 
of  a  "  very  gallant  horse 
troop,"  —  the  only  one  in 
the  colony.  On  Friday  of  each  week  there  was  a  general  "  exercise  "  of 

s~y       the  train-band,  "at  a  con- 
fJQ/t/JrVL<2A*A-s ' WQ V^  venient  place  about  the  In- 

J/    s7  /  f    ,.      .  J        „  , .  ,, 

p      f/  dian  \vig\vams,  which  began 

^^^  one  hour  after  noon.     This 

was  in  1631.      Major-General   Robert  Sedgwick,  a  friend  of  Cromwell's, 
and  the  ancestor  of  a  distinguished  family, 
and  Captain  Francis  Norton,  also  a  man  of 
military  ability,  commanded  the  train-band  at 
different  times  during  the  first  twenty  years. 

Sedgwick  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
men  ever  resident  nere-  His  house  occu- 
pjeci  a  site  in  the  Square,  near  the  Bunker- 
Hill  Bank. 

Both  Sedgwick  and  Norton  were  prosperous  merchants.  Deputy-Gover- 
nor Francis  Willoughby2  was  another. 
His  wharves  were  upon  either  side  of 
the  ferry  to  Boston ;  and  his  ship-yard 
was  where  the  Fitchburg  freight-station 
now  stands.  Sedgwick's  wharves  were  near  the  Town  Dock.  The  Hon- 
orable Richard  Russell,  the  progenitor  of  a  very  distinguished  family 

long  resident  here,  was  also  much  en- 

gaged  in  commerce*  which'  with  aSri- 
culture,  chiefly  engaged  the  energies 

of  our  people.  The  trades,  too,  were 
well  represented.  Mr.  Frothingham  says:  "In  1640  there  were  in  town 
tailors,  coopers,  rope-makers,  glaziers,  tile-makers,  anchor-smiths,  collar- 
makers,  charcoal-burners,  joiners,  wheelwrights,  blacksmiths ;  there  was  a 
brew-house,  a  salt-pan,  a  potter's  kiln,  a  saw-pit,  a  wind-mill,  a  water-mill 
near  Spot  Pond,  and  (certainly  in  1645)  the  old  tide-mill  at  the  Middlesex 
canal  landing."  In  1636  five  hundred  acres  of  land  were  "reserved  to 
further  a  flax  trade,"  if  such  should  be  found  useful ;  but  I  find  no  men- 
tion of  the  land  ever  having  been  improved  for  this  purpose. 

1  The  best  account  of  "  The  Irish  Donation,"  a  Cf.  AT.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Keg.,  xxx.  67  et 

written  by  Mr.  Charles  Deane,  was  published  in     sey ,  and  xxxiv.  301,  for  notices  of   the  Wil- 
the  N.  E,  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  ii.  245,  398.          loughby  family. 


400  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Captain  Edward  Johnson,  an  early  inhabitant  of  Charlestown,  and  the 
father  of  Woburn,  thus  describes  this  town  in  his  curious  Wonder-working 
Providence,  about  1650:  "  It  hath  a  large  market-place  near  the  water  side 
built  round  with  houses,  comely  and  fair,  forth  of  which  there  issues  two 
streets  orderly  built  with  some  very  fair  houses,  beautified  with  pleasant 
gardens  and  orchards.  The  whole  town  consists  in  its  extent  of  about  1 50 
dwelling-houses.  Their  meeting-house  for  Sabbath  assembly  stands  in  the 
market-place,  very  comely  built  and  large.  The  officers  of  this  church  are, 
at  this  day,  one  pastor  and  one  teacher,  one  ruling  elder  and  three  deacons. 
The  number  of  souls  are  about  160.  .  .  .  Their  corn-land  in  tillage  in  this 
town  is  about  1,200  acres."  The  same  writer  adds:  "In  the  depth  of 
winter,  1650,"  a  "most  terrible  fire  .  .  .  by  a  violent  wind  blown"  about 
consumed  "  the  fairest  houses  in  the  town,"  notwithstanding  the  stringent 
measures  regulating  the  sweeping  of  chimneys  which  were  adopted  by  the 
town  at  a  very  early  date. 

The  colony  was  prosperous,  and  so  was  the  town.  The  more  wealthy 
inhabitants  kept  one  or  more  slaves,  and  were  enjoying  the  luxuries  as  well 
as  the  comforts  of  life  at  the  time  of  the  vacating  of  the  Charter.  Con- 
siderable wealth  had  been  accumulated,  during  half  a  century,  by  thrift  and 
foreign  commerce.1 

The  small-pox  raged  through  the  winter  of  1677-78  and  many  deaths 
from  it  are  recorded,  —  among  them  that  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Shepard.  The 
disease  was  introduced  from  English  ships.  It  had  previously  prevailed  to 
an  alarming  extent  during  the  winter  of  1633-34  >  but  at  that  time  it  attacked 
only  the  Indians. 

As  early  as  1634  it  was  ordered  "that  none  be  permitted  to  sit  down  and 
dwell  in  this  town  without  consent  of  the  town  first  obtained."  This  law 
was  far  from  being  a  dead  letter.  Even  hospitality  was  an  expensive  vir- 
tue ;  for  the  town  and  colony  laws  alike  prohibited  the  entertainment  of 
strangers  except  upon  stated  conditions;  and  guests  could  not  be  enter- 
tained more  than  one  week,  except  by  permission  of  the  selectmen,  without 
a  fine  being  incurred  by  their  hosts. 


1  A  description  of  the  town  in  1686  is  given  in  John  Duntan'*  Letters  from  New  England,  pp 
149-153,  published  by  the  Prince  Society. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

ROXBURY    IN    THE    COLONIAL    PERIOD. 

BY     FRANCIS    S.    DRAKE. 

THE  settlement  of  Roxbury,  coeval  with,  if  not  anterior  to,  that  of  the 
Boston  peninsula,  was  made  by  some  of  Winthrop's  company,  under 
the  lead  of  William  Pynchon,  as  early  as  the  first  week  in  July,  1630;  its 
first  birth-record,  that  of  John,  son  of  Griffin  Craft,  bearing  date  July  10  of 
that  year.  Untoward  circumstances  compelled  that  company  "  to  plant 
dispersedly,"  says  one  of  their  number,  at  Charlestown,  Boston,  Medford, 
Watertown,  Dorchester,  and  Lynn  ;  "  others  of  us  two  miles  from  Boston,  at 
a  place  we  named  Rocksbury."  Mention  of  the  town  first  occurs  in  the 
records  of  the  third  Court  of  Assistants,  held  Sept.  28,  1630,  as  one  of  the 
plantations  on  which  a  part  of  the  general  tax  of  ^50  was  levied,  and  that 
day  has  therefore  been  fixed  upon  as  the  official  date  of  its  settlement.  Rox- 
bury was  the  sixth  town  incorporated  in  Massachusetts,  and  until  transferred 
to  Norfolk  County,  June  20,  1793,  constituted  a  part  of  the  County  of  Suffolk. 

Its  Dorchester  boundary  was  settled  in  1632;  that  between  Roxbury  and 
Boston  in  1636,  when  it  was  also  ordered  by  the  Court,  "  that  all  the  rest  of 
the  ground  between  Dorchester  bounds  and  Boston  bounds  shall  belong  to 
the  town  of  Roxbury  easterly  of  Charles  River,  except  the  property  of  the 
aforesaid  towns  which  they  have  purchased  of  particular  persons ;  Roxbury 
not  to  extend  above  eight  miles  in  length  from  their  meeting-house."  Re- 
specting the  Dedham  boundary  there  was  much  controversy,  and  it  was  not 
finally  adjusted  till  1697.  For  a  period  of  two  hundred  and  twenty  years 
the  limits  of  Roxbury  remained  essentially  the  same.  It  extended  eight 
miles  from  east  to  west,  and  two  from  north  to  south,  and  contained  an  area 
of  10,686  acres.  On  the  east  was  Boston,  partly  separated  from  her  by  a 
shallow  bay;  Muddy  River  (now  Brookline)  and  Newton  made  her  northern 
boundary ;  Dedham  lay  on  the  west,  and  Dorchester  on  the  south. 

The  first  comers  settled  chiefly  in  the  easterly  part  of  the  town  next  to 
Boston,  with  which  it  was  connected  by  a  narrow  strip  of  land  a  mile  in 
length,  called  the  "Neck,"  —  the  only  avenue  of  communication  between 
Boston  and  the  main-land  for  more  than  a  century  and  a  half.  From  the 
town  street,  subsequently  known  as  Roxbury  Street,  the  settlers  gradually 

VOL.  i.  —  51. 


4O2 


THE    MEMORIAL    HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 


extended  themselves  in  various  directions  towards  the  neighboring  towns. 
Jamaica  Plain  and  West  Roxbury,  the  latter  called  Spring  Street  as  early  as 
1690,  were  settled  later. 

The  natural  surface  of  Roxbury  is  uneven  and  rocky:  hence  its  name, 
which,  in  the  early  records,  is  usually  spelled  Rocksbury  or  Rocksborough. 
Of  its  numerous  elevations  the  highest  are  Muddy-Pond  Hill,  now  called 
Mount  Bellevue,  in  the  west,  and  Parker  Hill  in  the  east.  The  soil  is  rich 
and  productive.  One  of  its  principal  features  is  the  conglomerate  or  pud- 
ding-stone with  which  it  abounds.1  Originally  well  wooded,  the  town  suffered 
from  the  presence  of  the  besieging  army  during  the  winter  of  1775-76,  who 
left  little  that  could  be  used  for  fuel,  sparing  not  even  the  orchards.  Water 
was  plenty.  Besides  Muddy  River,  Stony,  Smelt,  and  Dorchester  brooks, 
Jamaica,  Muddy,  and  other  smaller  ponds,  there  were  also  numerous  springs. 
Stony  Brook,  the  most  considerable  of  its  streams,  took  its  rise  in  Muddy 
Pond,  near  Dedham.  Though  now  insignificant,  its  proportions  were  such 
in  1825  that  it  was  proposed  at  that  time  as  the  source  of  sufficient  water- 
supply  for  Boston.2  Of  Smelt  Brook,  not  now  in  existence,  John  Dane,  who 
was  in  Roxbury  in  1638,  says:  "Weary  and  thurstey  I  came  by  a  spring  in 
Roxbury  street,  and  went  to  it  and  drank  again  and  again  manie  times,  and 
I  never  drank  wine  in  my  life  that  more  refresht  me,  nor  was  more  pleasant 
to  me  as  I  then  absolutely  thout."  Jamaica  Pond,  a  beautiful  sheet  of  water  in 
Jamaica  Plain,  covers  an  area  of  nearly  70  acres,  with  a  depth  in  some  places 
of  from  60  to  70  feet,  and  is  a  principal  source  of  the  ice-supply  of  Boston. 

Although  an  occasional  arrowhead  or  other  relic  has  been  unearthed,  no 
distinct  traces  of  aboriginal  occupation  have  ever  been  observed  in  Roxbury, 
not  even  an  Indian  name  remaining  to  mark  the  locality  of  mountain,  stream- 
let, pond,  or  other  natural  feature  of  the  landscape.  The  English  settlers 
found  their  nearest  Indian  neighbors  at  some  distance  from  their  borders, 
inhabiting  two  small  villages  on  the  Neponset  and  on  the  Charles,  whose 
waters  supplied  them  with  fish.  Vagrant  Indians  infested  the  settlement, 
and  were  occasionally  employed  as  servants,  but  these  aboriginal  tramps 
were  oftener  driven  from  the  town  by  the  constable.  The  chief  sachem  of 
the  territory  embracing  Roxbury  was  Chickatabut,  whose  grandson,  Charles 
Josiah  (Wampatuck),  the  last  of  his  race,  in  1686  deeded3  the  native  right  to 
the  territory  of  Roxbury  to  its  agents,  Joseph  Dudley  and  William  Stoughton, 
for  £\O.  This  purchase,  as  well  as  that  of  Dorchester,  Medfield,  and  other 
places  at  this  time,  shows  the  anxiety  of  the  land-owners  to  strengthen  their 
titles,  which  had  been  placed  in  jeopardy  by  the  abrogation  of  the  Colonial 
charter.  The  slight  esteem  in  which  Indian  signatures  to  land-titles  were 
held  is  seen  in  the  contemptuous  remark  of  Governor  Andros,  that  he  re- 
garded them  as  "  of  no  more  worth  than  the  scratch  of  a  bear's  paw."  The 

1  [The  reader  cannot  fail  to  remember  Dr.  2  [It  will  be  noted  as  a  considerable  stream  in  a 
Holmes's  "  Dorchester  Giant "  and  his  pudding,  "  View  of  the  country  towards  Dorchester,"  given 
flung  over  the  Roxbury  Hills, —  in  the  Revolutionary  period  of  this  work.  —  En.| 

3  [A  similar  deed  of  the  Boston  peninsula  is 
1  lie  suet  is  hard  as  a  marrow-bone, 

And  every  plum  is  turned  to  a  stone,  mentioned  by  Dr.  Ellis  in   his  chapter  on  the 

But  there  the  puddings  lie."  —  ED.]  "  Indians  of  Eastern  Massachusetts."  —  En.] 


ROXBURY    IN    THE    COLONIAL    PERIOD. 


403 


opportune  revolution  of  1688,  and  the  consequent  overthrow  of  Andros, 
happily  averted  what  might  have  been  a  serious  conflict. 

In  Wood's  New  England's  Prospect,  the  earliest  topographical  account  of 
the  Massachusetts  colony,  published  in  1634,  is  this  first  printed  description 
of  Roxbury :  — 

"  A  mile  from  this  town  [Dorchester]  lieth  Roxberry  which  is  a  faire  and  handsome 
countrey  town,  the  inhabitants  of  it  being  all  very  rich.  This  town  lieth  upon  the 
maine  so  that  it  is  well  wooded  and  watered,  having  a  cleare  and  fresh  brooke  running 
through  the  towne  ;  up  which,  although  there  come  no  alewives,  yet  there  is  great  store 
of  smelts,  and  therefore  it  is  called  Smelt  Brooke.  A  quarter  of  a  mile  to  the  north 
side  of  the  town  is  another  river  called  Stony  river  upon  which  is  built  a  water  milne. 
Here  is  good  ground  for  corne  and  meadow  for  cattle.  Up  westward  from  the  town 
4t  is  something  rocky,  whence  it  hath  the  name  of  Roxberry  ;  the  inhabitants  have  faire 
houses,  store  of  cattle,  impaled  corne  fields  and  fruitful  gardens.  Here  is  no  harbor 
for  ships  because  the  town  is  seated  in  the  bottom  of  a  shallow  bay  which  is  made  by 
the  necke  of  land  on  which  Boston  is  built,  so  that  they  can  transport  all  their  goods 
from  the  ships  in  boats  from  Boston,  which  is  the  nearest  harbor." 

Seventeen  years  later  Edward  Johnson  tells  us  Roxbury  was  "  filled  with 
a  very  laborious  people,  whose  labors  the  Lord  hath  blessed,  that  in  the 
room  of  dismall  swampes  and  tearing  bushes  they  have  very  goodly  fruit  trees, 
fruitful  fields  and  gardens,  their  heard  of  cows,  oxen  and  other  young  cattell 
of  that  kind  about  350,  and  dwelling  houses  neere  upon  120.  Their  streets 
are  large  and  some  fayre  houses  yet  they  have  built  their  house  for  church 
assembly  destitute  and  unbeautified  with  other  buildings.  The  Church  of 
Christ  here  is  increased  to  about  120  persons."  According  to  the  Record 
of  "  Houses  and  Lands  in  Roxbury,"  there  were,  in  1654,  between  seventy 
and  eighty  homesteads,  the  owners  of  lands  numbering  ninety.  The 
population  was  about  seven  hundred  souls. 

Generally  speaking  we  find  the  emigrants  to  New  England  originating  in 
various  parts  of  Old  England  and  coming  together  here,  for  the  most  part, 
strangers  to  one  another.  The  Roxbury  pioneers  were  less  heterogeneous, 
many  of  them  belonging  in  Nazing,  a  rural  village  in  Essex  county,  Eng- 
land, situated  on  the  River  Lee,  about  twenty  miles  from  London,  and  forming 
the  northwest  corner  of  Waltham  Half-hundred.  Its  old  parish  church, 
which  may  be  regarded  as  the  parent  of  the  Roxbury  church,  stands  on  the 
side  of  a  hill  overlooking  parts  of  Hertfordshire  and  Middlesex.  Its  parish 
records  contain  the  familiar  names  of  Eliot,  Curtis,  Graves,  Heath,  Payson, 
Peacock,  and  Ruggles.  Some  of  the  Roxbury  men  were  from  London  and 
vicinity,  a  few  were  from  the  West  of  England.  They  were  people  of  sub- 
stance, many  of  them  farmers,  skilled  also  in  some  useful  handicraft,  none, 
it  is  said,  being  "  of  the  poorer  sort."  They  struck  root  in  the  soil  imme- 
diately, and  were  enterprising,  industrious,  and  frugal.  Among  them  are 
found  names  still  borne  in  Roxbury  by  their  descendants,  such  as  Brewer, 
Crafts,  Curtis,  Dudley,  Gore,  Heath,  Payson,  Seaver,  Weld,  and  Williams. 
Outside  of  Boston  no  New  England  town  can  show  such  a  roll  of  distin- 
guished names  as  have  illustrated  the  annals  of  Roxbury. 


404 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 


The  first  Nazing  pilgrims  came  over  in  the  "  Lion,"  William  Peirce, 
master,  in  November,  1631,  after  a  passage  of  ten  weeks.  In  her  came 
John  Eliot,  with  William  Curtis  and  Sarah  his  wife  (Eliot's  sister),  and  their 
children,  in  company  with  the  wife  of  Governor  Winthrop.  William  Heath, 
with  his  family,  and  other  Nazing  worthies  came  in  the  year  following; 
John  Graves,  with  his  wife  and  five  children,  came  in  1633;  and  in  1635  a 
large  number  came  over  in  the  "  Hopewell,"  stimulated  by  the  great 
movement  in  England  among  the  friends  of  religious  liberty,  which  in 
that  year  sent  3,000  persons  to  New  England. 


William  Pynchon,1  the  principal  founder  of  the  church  and  town, 
"  a  gentleman  of  learning  and  religion,"  was  one  of  the  Assistants  or 
magistrates  who  came  oyer  with  Winthrop.  In  1636  he  led  a  party 

1  jThis  likeness  follows  the  steel  engraving  of  Pynchon's  portrait,  given  with  a  memoir  in 
the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Cental.  Reg.,  October,  1859.  Cf.  Drake's  Town  of  Koxbury,  pp.  1 2,  298.  —  ED.  | 


ROXBURY    IN    THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


405 


from  Roxbury  to  the  Connecticut,  and  began  the  settlement  of  Spring- 
field, so  called  from  the  town  in  England  where  he  formerly  resided. 
He  engaged  extensively  in  the  beaver  trade,  and  continued  in  the  magis- 
tracy until,  in  1650,  the  publication  of  his  Meritorious  Price  of  our  Redemp- 
tion, in  opposition  to  the  then  prevalent  view  of  the  atonement,  caused  him 
to  be  deposed  and  his  book  to  be  burned  in  the  market-place  of  Boston 
by  order  of  the  Court,  who  placed  him  under  heavy  bonds.  Having 
condemned  his  book  as  "  false,  heretical,  and  erroneous,"  they  ordered 
Rev.  John  Norton  to  answer  it,  and  declared  their  purpose  "  to  proceed 
with  its  author  according  to  his  demerits  unless  he  retract  the  same,  and 
give  full  satisfaction  both  here  and  by  some  second  writing  to  be 
printed  and  dispersed  in  England."  He  was  forced  to  explain  or  modify 
the  obnoxious  opinions,  and,  as  he  was  supposed  to  be  "  in  a  hopeful  way  to 
give  good  satisfaction,"  the  judgment  of  the  Court  was  deferred  until  its 
next  session  in  May,  1652.  Before  that  time,  Pynchon,  disgusted  with  the 
intolerant  spirit  of  those  in  authority,  returned  to  England,  published  a  new 
edition  of  his  book  with  additions  in  1655,  and  died  there  in  October,  1661, 
aged  72. 

Prominent  among  the  early  inhabitants  of  Roxbury  were :  Griffin  Craft, 
father  of  the  first  white  child  born  in  Roxbury,  and  the  holder  of  many 
offices,  civil  and  military;  John  Johnson,  "Surveyor  Gen.  of  all  ye  armyes," 
the  first  constable  of  the  town,  and  for  fourteen  years  its  representative  to 
the  General  Court;  Captain  Joseph  Weld,  a  wealthy  merchant,  active  in 
military  affairs,  brother  of  Rev.  Thomas  Welde ;  Robert  Williams,  founder 
of  one  of  the  most  prolific  as  well  as  distinguished  families  of  Roxbury, 
where  many  of  his  descendants  still  reside;  John  Pierpont,  who  in  1658 
established  the  first  fulling-mill  in  Roxbury,  ancestor  of  Rev.  John  Pierpont, 
poet  and  clergyman,  and  of  Edwards  Pierrepont,  late  United  States  Minister  to 
England  ;  Elder  Isaac  Heath,  the  assistant  of  Eliot  in  his  Indian  labors,  and 
William  his  brother,  from  whom  General  Heath  of  Revolutionary  fame  was 
descended ;  William  Curtis,  from  whom  most  of  those  bearing  the  name  in 
the  United  States  derive  their  origin,  and  whose  homestead,  a  genuine  relic  of 
colonial  days,  is  still  preserved;  Elder  John  Bowles,  "  prudent,  gracious,  and 
well-deserving,"  as  he  is  called  by  the  apostle  Eliot;  John  Bowles,  his  son, 
Speaker  of  the  House  in  1690,  and  prominent  in  church  and  town  affairs; 
Deacon  William  Parke,  "  a  man  of  pregnant  understanding,"  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  church,  and  a  most  useful  and  honored  citizen;  William 
Denison  and  his  sons  Edward,  Captain  George,  and  Daniel,  the  latter  after- 
wards a  major-general,  and  highly  distinguished  both  in  the  civil  and  mili- 
tary history  of  New  England ;  John  Gore,  many  years  Clerk  of  the  Writs, 
ancestor  of  Governor  Christopher  Gore ;  John  Grosvenor,  the  first  to  intro- 
duce the  tanning  industry  into  Roxbury,  and  whose  coat-of-arms  in  the 
old  cemetery  identifies  him  with  the  noble  family  of  which  the  present 
Duke  of  Westminster  is  the  head;  George  Alcock,  first  deacon  of  the  Rox- 
bury Church,  ancestor  of  the  philosopher  A.  Bronson  Alcott  and  Louisa 


406 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY    OF    BOSTON. 


May  Alcott,  his  gifted  daughter ;  Joshua  Hewes,  a  merchant  of  large  enter- 
prise, and  who  held  many  responsible  trusts,  public  and  private ;  Daniel 
Gookin,  the  friend  and  companion  of  Eliot  in  his  missionary  work,  after- 
wards major-general  and  superintendent  of  the  Massachusetts  Indians ; 
Phillip  Eliot,  brother  of  the  apostle,  "  a  right  godly  and  diligent  person," 
a  deputy  to  the  General  Court,  and  who  held  many  important  offices ; 
Thomas  Bell,  the  munificent  benefactor  of  the  Free  School  in  Roxbury, 


THE   CURTIS   HOMESTEAD. 


afterwards  a  wealthy  merchant  of  London ;  Lieutenant  Richard  Morris, 
second  commander  of  Castle  William,  a  representative  in  1635-36,  and  an- 
cestor of  Commodore  Charles  Morris,  a  distinguished  officer  of  the  United 
States  navy;  and  John  Trumbull,  founder  of  the  prominent  Connecticut 
family  of  that  name.  Such  were  the  men  —  and  the  women  were  of  the 
same  exalted  stamp  —  who  planted  strong  and  deep  the  foundations  of 
the  Puritan  Commonwealth.  Tough  of  fibre,  earnest  of  purpose,  consci- 
entious in  word  and  deed,  and,  above  all,  deeply  religious,  they  wrought 
after  a  new  pattern  a  fabric  which  still  serves  as  a  model,  and  which  will 
ever  remain  an  enduring  monument  of  their  wisdom  and  virtue. 


1  (There  are  other  views  of  the  Curtis  house 
in  the  Life  of  Benjamin  R.  Curtis ;  Whitefield's 
Homes  of  our  Forefathers  ;  Scrilmer's  Monthly, 


Boylston  Station  on  the  Providence  Railroad. 
William  Curtis's  wife  was  a  sister  of  Eliot,  and 
the  apostle  has  doubtless  been  often  sheltered  bv 


February,  1880;  F.S.Drake's  Town  of  Roxbury,     this  roof.     A  pair  of  deer's  antlers  kept  in  the 


p.  399,  &c.     The  house  is  supposed  to  have  been 
built  in  1 639,  and  stands  on  Lamartine  Street,  near 


house  are  said  to  have  belonged  to  an  animal  shot 
from  the  house.  —  ED.] 


ROXBURY    IN    THE    COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


407 


"A  note  of  ye  estates  and  persons"  of  Roxbury  in  1639  —  the 
earliest  list  of  its  inhabitants  extant  —  gives  the  number  of  acres  and 
the  amount  of  tax  of  each  of  the  following  persons.  The  larger 
land-holders  were :  Thomas  Dudley,  Thomas  Welde,  Philip  Eliot,  Joshua 
Hewes,  Joseph  Weld,  William  Denison,  John  Stow,  Elder  Heath,  George 
Alcock,  Isaac  Morell,  John  Gore,  John  Johnson,  William  Parke,  Samuel 
Hagborne,  George  Holmes,  Thomas  Bell.  Those  owning  less  than  forty 
acres  were :  William  Curtis,  John  Eliot,  Thomas  Lamb,  John  Watson, 
Griffin  Craft,  John  Roberts,  John  Miller,  Edward  Porter,  James  Astwood, 
Daniel  Brewer,  John  Evans,  Robert  Williams,  William  Perkins,  Samuel 
Chapin,  William  Cheney,  John  Petit,  Abraham  Smith,  John  Perry,  Robert 
Gamblin,  William  Chandler,  Abraham  Newell,  Samuel  Finch,  Thomas 
Pigge,  Thomas  Waterman,  Arthur  Gary,  John  Curteis,  Ralph  Hemingway, 
Isaac  Johnson,  John  Bowles,  John  Mathew,  Abraham  How,  John  Burwell, 
John  Trumble,  John  Hall,  Thomas  Griggs,  Robert  Seaver,  Thomas  Rug- 
gles,  Edward  Bridge,  William  Webb,  Edward  Rigges,  Richard  Pepper, 
John  Ruggles,  Christopher  Peake,  Gavin  Anderson,  John  Levins,  Edward 
Bugby,  Richard  Peacock,  Laurence  Whittemore,  Giles  Pason,  Martin  Steb- 

bins,  John  Stonnard,  John  Totman,  Edward  Pason, Sheafe,  Thomas 

Freeman,  Edward  Sheffield,  John  Burckly. 

Lands  were  originally  allotted  as  follows :  Each  person  who  came  over  at 
his  own  cost  was  entitled  to  fifty  acres ;  each  adventurer  of  fifty  pounds  in 
the  common  stock  of  the  Company  received  two  hundred  acres,  or  in  that 
proportion ;  and  those  who  brought  over  servants  were  allowed  fifty  acres 
for  each.  Each  of  the  Roxbury  settlers  had  a  piece  of  marsh-land  for  the 
salt  hay,  —  one  acre  of  which  was  equal  in  value  to  ten  of  wood-land,  or 
two  of  corn  or  pasture-land.  "  A  Record  of  Houses  and  Lands,"  the  Rox- 
bury Book  of  Possessions  made  by  Edward  Denison  in  1654  to  replace 
the  original,  destroyed  at  the  same  time  as  the  town  records,  is  still 
preserved. 

Like  other  New  England  towns,  Roxbury  was  a  little  republic  of  itself. 
Its  selectmen  and  other  officers  were  annually  chosen ;  and  all  town  affairs 
were  decided  upon  in  general  meetings  of  the  inhabitants  convened  at 
stated  periods,  or  whenever  a  dozen  of  them  thought  proper  that  one 
should  be  held.  Political  subjects  of  deep  interest,  as  well  as  local  affairs, 
were  openly  discussed,  and  decided  according  to  the  will  of  the  majority. 
The  earliest  town  records  existing  date  from  1647.  Prior  to  1643  Thomas 
Lamb,  Joseph  Weld,  John  Johnson,  William  Perkins,  and  John  Stow  were 
selectmen.  In  1649  it  was  voted  that  "  y*  five  men  shall  have  for  ye  pres- 
ent yere  full  power  to  make  and  execute  such  orders  as  they  in  their  appre- 
hension shall  think  to  be  conducing  to  the  best  good  of  the  town."  They 
were  also  empowered  "  to  order  and  dispose  of  all  single  persons  and  in- 
mates within  the  town  who  lived  an  idle  and  dissolute  life  to  service  or  other- 
wise," —  an  admirable  regulation,  and  one  the  re-enactment  of  which  would 
be  most  salutary.  In  1666  a  "  clarke "  was  first  chosen  to  record  and 


408  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

transcribe  the  doings  of  the  town,  "  unless  such  things  as  either  are  ridiklus 
or  inconvenient."  The  endless  contention  over  the  question  of  cattle,  swine, 
&c.,  running  at  large,  and  the  numerous  warnings  out  of  the  town  of  all 
strangers  and  visitors  unless  they  gave  sureties  for  good  behavior,  are 
among  the  matters  recorded  that  strike  us  of  the  present  day  as  partaking 
strongly  of  both  these  characteristics. 

Careful  regulations  for  preventing  fires  were  made  at  a  very  early  day,  — 
each  householder  being  obliged  to  furnish  ladders  reaching  to  the  house-top. 
Owing  to  the  scarcity  of  money,  the  town  in  1667  voted  that  "  Corn  amongst 
ourselves  shall  pass  current  and  be  paid  and  received  from  man  to  man,  corn 
3  s.  pr  bushel ;  pease  2  s. ;  barley  and  malt  4  s.  6  d. ;  rye  4  s." 

The  following  act,  passed  in  November,  1670,  shows  us  how  jealous  our 
ancestors  were  of  the  purity  of  the  ballot,  and  that  even  in  those  early  days, 
when  church-members  only  were  voters,  "  decaite  and  corrupt  practices " 
had  been  introduced  into  elections :  — 

"  For  the  better  regulating  and  maintaining  order  in  our  town  elections  for  time  to 
come,"  it  was  voted  that  "  none  but  the  selectmen  in  being  and  the  constables  shall 
take  in  voates  for  election  of  town  officers ;  and  they  may  examine  the  persons  that 
bring  in  voates  for  others,  and  if  they  see  need  they  may  look  over  every  man's  per- 
tikuler  voates  that  so  no  decaite  may  be  used  for  corrupting  our  elections." 

Severe  labor  and  great  privations  were  the  lot  of  the  settlers  during  the 
first  year.  Food  was  scarce,  and  the  cold  intense.  There  was  much  sick- 
ness, and  many  died,  —  among  them  Mrs.  Pynchon,  Mrs.  Coddington, 
Mrs.  Phillips,  and  Mrs.  Alcock.  So  great  were  the  discouragements  that 
many  returned ;  and,  says  Dudley,  "  glad  were  we  so  to  be  rid  of  them. 
The  ships  being  gone,  victuals  wasting,  and  mortality  increasing,  we  held 
divers  fasts  in  our  several  congregations,  and  from  April,  1630,  until  Dec. 
following  there  died  200  at  least,  so  low  hath  the  Lord  brought  us."  Few 
emigrants  arrived  in  1631  ;  but  in  1632  and  1635  many  came,  and  a  season 
of  prosperity  ensued. 

Roxbury  is  fortunate  in  the  possession  of  the  diary  and  records  of  Eliot, 
from  which,  and  from  those  of  Sewall,  Winthrop,  Danforth,  and  others,  the 
following  items  of  interest  in  her  annals  have  been  gleaned :  *  — 

1631,  April  14.  —  "We  began  a  court  of  guard  upon  the  Neck  between  Roxbury 
and  Boston,  whereupon  should  be  always  resident  an  officer  and  six  men."  The 
gate  of  this  primitive  barrier  stood  at  the  narrowest  part  of  the  Neck,  near  Dover 
Street.  The  Roxbury  Gate  stood  where  an  upright  stone  marks  the  old  boundary-line 
between  Roxbury  and  Boston. 

1636,  Oct.  7.  —  The  General  Court  met  at  Roxbury,  having  adjourned  from 
Cambridge  on  account  of  the  small-pox. 

1  [The   records  of  the   First  Church,  begun  Danforth,  Eliot's  colleague,  1650-74,  are  begun  in 

by  Eliot,  are  deposited  with  the  New  England  the  Register,  January,  1880.     Some  of  the  early 

Historic,  Genealogical  Society,  and  portions  of  entries  were  printed  by  J.  W.  Thornton  in  1850, 

them  have  been  printed  in  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  in  his  Lives  of  Heath,  Bowles,  and  Eliot.     Cf. 

Geneal.  Register,  January,    1879,  &c  ;    those   of  C.  M.  Ellis's  History  of  Roxbury.  —  En.) 


ROXBURY   IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  409 

1645.  —  "Towards  the  end  of  the  ist  month  (March)  there  happened  by  Gods 
providence   a  very  dreadful   fire   in   Roxbury  street.      None  knoweth  how  it  was 
kindled,  but  being  a  fierce  wind  it  suddenly  prevailed.     And  in  this  mans  house 
(John  Johnson's)  was  a  good  part  of  ye  county  magazine  of  powder  of  17  or  18 
barrels,  which  awed  ye  people  that  none  durst  come  to  save  ye  house  or  goods  till  it 
was  blown  up,  and  by  that  time  the  fire  had  taken  ye  barns  and  outhouses  (which 
were  many  and  great)  so  that  none  were  saved.     In  this  fire  were  strong  observations 
of  God's  providence  to  ye  neighbors  and  towne,  for  ye  wind  at  first  stood  to  carry  ye 
fire  to  other  houses  but  suddenly  turned  it  from  them.     And  it  was  a  fierce  wind  and 
thereby  drave  ye  elements  back  from  ye  neighbors  houses,  which  in  a  calm  time  would 
by  ye  great  heat  have  been  set  on  fire."     Winthrop  says  the  explosion  shook  the 
houses  in  Boston  and  Cambridge,  "  so  as  men  thought  it  had  been  an  earthquake,  and 
carried  great  pieces  of  timber  a  good  way  off."     By  this  fire  the  early  records  of  the 
town  were  destroyed,  —  an  irreparable  loss. 

—  Dec.  —  "The  first  week  in  the  loth  month.     This  was  the  most  mortal  week 
that  ever  Roxbury  saw,  to  have  five  dy  in  one  week  and  many  more  lay  sick  about 
the  towne." 

1646.  —  "This  year  about  the  end  of  the  5th  month,  upon  a  suddaine  innumer- 
able armys  of  caterpillars  filled  the  country  devouring  the  grasse,  oats,  corne,  wheat, 
and  barley.     They  would  crosse  highways  by  thousands.     Much  prayer  was  made  to 
God  about  it,  and  fasting  in  divers  places,  and  the  Lord  heard  and  on  a  suddaine 
took  them  all  away  in  all  parts  of  the  country  to  the  wonderment  of  all  men.     It  was 
the  Lord,  for  it  was  done  suddainly."     Danforth  says :  "  They  marched  thorow  our 
fields  like  armed  men  and  spoyjed  much  corn." 

— "  Capt.  Joseph  Weld  being  dead,  the  young  men  of  the  town  agreed  together 
to  choose  one  George  Denison  a  young  soldier  come  lately  out  of  the  wars  in  Eng- 
land, but  the  ancient  and  chief  men  of  the  town  chose  one  Mr.  Prichard,  whereupon 
much  discontent  and  murmuring  arose  in  the  town."  The  court  decided  against 
Young  America,  and  in  favor  of  Prichard. 

—  Nov.  4.  —  "  John  Scarborrow  was  slaine  charging  a  great  gunne." 

1646-47.  —  "This  winter  was  one  of  the  mildest  that  ever  we  had,  no  snow  all 
winter  long  nor  sharp  weather,  but  they  had  long  floods  at  Connecticut  which  was 
much  spoyle  to  ye  corne  in  ye  meadows.  We  never  had  a  bad  day  to  goe  preach  to 
the  Indians  all  this  winter,  praised  be  the  Lord  ! " 

1647.  —  "A  great  sicknesse  epidemical  did  the  Lord  lay  upon  us  that  the  greatest 
part  of  the  town  was  sick  at  once.     Few  died,  but  of  these  were  the  choycest  flowers 
and  most  gracious  saints." 

1661,  May  28.  —  "Judah  Browne  and  Peter  Pierson,  Quakers,  tied  to  a  carts  tail 
and  whipt  through  the  town  with  10  stripes  after  receiving  20  at  Boston,  and  again 
10  stripes  at  Dedham." 

1667,  March  25. —  "Samuel  Ruggles  going  up  the  meeting  hill  was  struck  by 
lightning,  his  two  oxen  and  horse  killed,  a  chest  in  the  cart  with  goods  in  it  burnt 
in  sundry  places,  himself  coming  off  the  cart  carried  20  feet  from  it,  yet  no  abiding 
hurt." 

1670,  Oct.  —  "An  Indian  was  hanged  for  killing  his  wife,  lodging  at  an  English- 
mans  house  in  Roxbury.  He  threw  her  out  of  a  chamber  window  and  broke  her 
neck." 

1681,  July  12.  —  "  Mr  Lambs  negro  in  a  discontent  set  her  masters  house  on  fire 
.VOL.  i. —  52. 


4io 


THE   MEMORIAL  HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


in  the  dead  of  night  and  also  Mr  Swans.  One  girl  was  burned  and  all  the  rest  had 
much  ado  to  escape  with  their  lives."  Sept.  22d  the  incendiary,  a  woman,  was 
publicly  burned  to  death  in  Boston,  —  the  first  to  suffer  such  a  penalty  in  New 
England. 

The  Indian  war  of  1675-76  —  "Philip's  War,"  as  it  is  called  —  was  the 
severest  ordeal  through  which  New  England  was  ever  called  upon  to  pass. 
Of  Roxbury's  share  in  this  contest,  so  destructive  to  the  colonists,  Eliot 
says,  in  his  diary:  "John  Dresser  dyed  in  the  wars  and  was  there  buryed. 
We  had  many  slaine  in  the  warr,  no  towne  for  bigness  lost  more,  if  any  so 
many."  The  intrepid  Captain  Isaac  Johnson,  of  Roxbury,  with  five  other 
captains,  was  killed  while  storming  the  Narragansett  stronghold,  when  that 
fierce  tribe  was  destroyed  at  the  famous  'Fort  Fight,'  Dec.  19,  1675.  The 
only  entrance  to  the  fort  was  over  a  felled  tree,  bridging  the  swamp,  over 
which  but  one  man  could  pass  at  a  time,  and  this  narrow  pathway  was  pro- 
tected by  a  block-house.  The  brave  Roxbury  captain  —  who  was  the  son 
of  John  Johnson,  the  surveyor-general  —  was  shot  dead  on  this  bridge,  over 
which  he  was  leading  his  men.  The  roll  of  his  company,  which  also  embraces 
men  from  the  adjacent  towns,  includes  these  of  Roxbury:  Onesiphorous 
Stanley,  Henry  Bowen,  Isaac  Morill,  William  Lincolne,  Thomas  Baker,  John 
Watson,  John  Corbin,  Thomas  Cheney,  Joseph  Goad,  Abiel  Lamb,  Samuel 
Gardiner,  John  Scot,  Nathaniel  Wilson,  John  Newell,  John  Hubbard,  William 
Danforth.  Some  who  escaped  from  this  sanguinary  engagement  were  less 
fortunate  in  the  Sudbury  fight,  in  the  following  April,  in  which  Thomas  Baker, 
Jr.,  Samuel  Gardiner,  John  Roberts,  Jr.,  Nathaniel  Seaver,  Thomas  Hawley, 
Sr.,  William  Cleaves,  Joseph  Pepper,  John  Sharpe,  and  Thomas  Hopkins,  of 
Roxbury,  were  slain.  Their  families,  consisting  of  thirty-six  persons,  were 
among  the  recipients  of  the  Irish  charity  sent  to  New  England  in  1676. 
This  timely  donation  —  amounting  to  near  one  thousand  pounds,  which 
was  returned  with  interest  during  the  Irish  famine  of  1848  —  was  secured 
through  the  instrumentality  of  Rev.  Nathaniel  Mather,  of  Dublin,  and  was 
distributed  among  six  hundred  families,  —  sufferers  by  the  Indian  war. 

The  immunity  from  interference  with  its  charter  privileges  by  the  mother 
country  which  New  England  had  so  long  enjoyed  ceased  on  the  accession 
of  Charles  II.  Thenceforth,  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  until  the  abro- 
gation of  the  Charter  in  1684,  there  was  a  constant  struggle  for  the  pres- 
ervation of  that  precious  guaranty  of  colonial  rights.  Among  the  petitions 
to  the  General  Court,  praying  it  to  be  firm  in  its  resolution  "  to  adhere  to 
the  patent  and  the  privileges  thereof,"  is  one  dated  October  28,  1665, 
signed  by  John  Eliot,  John  Bowles,  Philip  Torrey,  Robert  Pepper,  Samuel 
Williams,  Samuel  Scarborrow,  Samuel  May,  William  Lion,  Moses  Craffts, 
Samuel  Ruggles,  Isaac  Curtis,  and  many  other  inhabitants  of  Roxbury, 
requesting  the  honored  Court  to  "  stand  fast  in  our  present  libertys,"  and 
assuring  them  they  will  "  pray  the  Lord  to  assist  them  to  stere  right  in  these 
shaking  times."  The  General  Court  endeavored  to  propitiate  the  English 
government,  by  removing  causes  of  offence.  It  modified  its  severe  laws 


ROXBURY    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  ^n 

against  the  Quakers,  and  condemned  Eliot's  Christian  Commonwealth,  — 
a  book  in  which  he  had  defended  the  principles  of  popular  freedom.  Eliot 
was  forced  to  suppress  the  work  and  make  public  acknowledgment  of 
his  error. 

In  the  summer  of  1632,  the  first  meeting-house  (a  "  rude  and  unbeau- 
tified  "  structure,  with  a  thatched  roof,  destitute  of  shingles  or  plaster,  and 
without  gallery,  pew,  or  spire)  was  built  on  Meeting-house  Hill,  —  the 
site  of  the  present  house  of  worship  of  the  First  Religious  Society.  Here 
town  meetings  were  held,  and  matters  either  secular  or  religious  determined, 
—  town  and  church  being  but  two  names  for  one  and  the  same  constitu- 
ency ;  here,  for  near  a  century,  all  marriages,  baptisms,  and  funerals  were 
solemnized  ;  and  here  the  apostle  Eliot  preached  for  nearly  sixty  years.  It 
is  this  ministry  inseparably  connected  with  his  beneficent  missionary  labors 
for  the  Indians,  which  extended  the  fame  of  the  grand  old  apostle  to  the 
Indians  throughout  Christendom,  that  constitutes  the  crowning  glory  of 
the  Roxbury  Church. 

For  two  years  the  people  of  Roxbury  had  been  assessed  for  the  support 
of  the  Charlestown  Church,  and,  under  the  charge  of  Deacon  George 
Alcock,  had  joined  themselves  to  that  of  Dorchester,  "  until  such  time  as 
God  should  give  them  opportunity  to  be  a  church  among  themselves." 
This  First  Religious  Society  of  Roxbury,  destined  to  become  large  and  influ- 
ential, was  the  sixth  in  the  order  of  time  in  New  England,  —  those  of  Ply- 
mouth (1620),  Salem  (1629),  Dorchester  (1630),  Boston,  and  Watertown 
(1632)  having  alone  preceded  it.  Its  founders  were  William  Pynchon, 
George  Alcock,  William  Parke,  John  Johnson,  Thomas  Lamb,  William 
Denison,  Thomas  Rawlings,  Robert  Cole,  William  Chase,  Thomas  Welde, 
Robert  Gamlin,  Richard  Lyman,  Richard  Bugby,  Jehu  Burr,  Gregorie  Bax- 
ter, Francis  Smith,  John  Perrie,  John  Leavens,  and  Samuel  Wakeman. 
When  the  "  opportunity  "  came,  through  the  large  accessions  made  to  their 
number  in  the  summer  of  1632,  Mr.  Thomas  Welde  was  ordained  teacher, 
and  John  Eliot  pastor,  of  the  church  and  society.  Welde's  engagement  is 
thus  quaintly  described  :  — 

"  After  many  imparlances  and  days  of  humiliation  by  those  of  Roxbury  to  seek  the 
Lord  for  Mr  Welde  his  disposing,  and  the  advice  of  those  of  Plymouth  being  taken, 
he  resolved  to  sit  down  with  those  of  Roxbury,  the  diligent  people  thereof  early 
preventing  their  brethren  of  other  churches  by  calling  him  to  be  their  pastor." 

From  that  day  to  this  uninterrupted  harmony  has  prevailed,  if  we 
except  the  period  of  the  Antinomian  Controversy,  so  called,  which  in 
1637  disturbed  the  community  and  seriously  threatened  the  peace  of  the 
churches.  The  leaders  of  this  movement,  which  was  a  struggle  for  intel- 
lectual freedom  against  the  authority  of  the  clergy,  —  Anne  Hutchinson,  John 
Wheelwright,  and  others,  —  were  exiled,  and  their  adherents  who  had  signed 
a  petition  to  the  Court  affirming  Wheelwright's  innocence,  which  was  stig- 
matized as  a  "  seditious  libel,"  were  disarmed.  "  The  Church  at  Roxbury," 


412  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

says  Winthrop,  "  dealt  with  divers  of  their  members  there  who  had  their 
names  to  the  petition,  and  spent  many  days  in  public  meetings  to  have 
brought  them  to  see  the  sin  in  that,  as  also  in  the  corrupt  opinions  which 
they  held,  but  could  not  prevail  with  them ;  so  they  pronounced  to  two  or 
three  admonitions,  and  when  all  was  in  vain  they  cast  them  out  of  the 
church."  The  Roxbury  men  disarmed  were  William  and  Edward  Denison, 
Richard  Morris,  Richard  Bulgar,  and  Phillip  Sherman.  Of  those  exiled,  two 
—  John  Coggeshall  and  Henry  Bull — were  afterwards  governors  of  Rhode 
^Island,  while  a  third,  Phillip  Sherman,  became  a  founder  and  a  distinguished 
citizen  of  that  Colony. 

So  efficacious  a  method  of  promoting  the  religious  education  of  their 
children,  and  at  the  same  time  of  building  up  their  church,  as  the  establish- 
ment of  Sunday-schools,  was  by  no  means  overlooked  by  the  pious  founders 
of  New  England.  "This  day"  (Dec.  6,  1674,)  says  the  church  record, 
"  we  restored  our  primitive  practice  for  the  training  up  our  youth.  First, 
our  male  youth  in  fitting  season  after  the  evening  services  in  the  public 
meeting-house,  where  the  elders  will  examine  their  remembrance  that  day 
and  any  fit  point  of  catechism.  Second,  that  our  female  youth  should  meet 
in  one  place  where  the  elders  may  examine  their  remembrance  o'f  yester- 
day and  about  catechise,  or  what  else  may  be  convenient." 

When,  in  1658,  the  first  house  was  plastered,  shingled,  and  otherwise 
"  repayred  for  the  warmth  and  comfort  of  the  people,"  the  puritanic  plain- 
ness of  the  old  structure  was  so  far  departed  from  that  a  "  pinakle  "  was  set 
upon  each  of  its  ends.  For  this  improvement  Lieutenant  John  Remington 
was  to  be  paid  £22, —  "  more  if  the  work  deserveth  more,  lesse  if  the  work 
deserveth  lesse." 

In  1674,  "after  much  debate  with  love  and  condescending  one  to  an- 
other," a  new  and  more  comfortable  house  was  built,  the  people  of  Brook- 
line  contributing  and  worshipping  therein,  as  they  had  previously  done, 
until  the  erection  of  their  own  church  in  1715, —  one-fifth  part  of  the  church 
being  allotted  to  them,  they  contributing  in  that  proportion  towards  the 
parish  expenses.  In  1693  liberty  was  given  to  "  meet  persons  to  build  pues 
around  the  meeting-house  eccept  where  the  boys  do  sit,"  the  officers  of  the 
church  and  the  selectmen  to  seat  the  people  in  accordance  with  their  age 
and  estate. 

Before  this  time  the  people  sat  on  plain  benches,  the  men  and  women 
on  opposite  sides  of  the  house,  the  boys  separate  from  both,  with  a  tithing 
man  to  keep  them  in  order.  The  singing,  which  was  congregational  and 
without  accompaniment,  was  from  the  "  Bay  Psalm  Book."  Rising  in  their 
seats,  the  people  stood  facing  the  pastor  and  sung  in  unison  each  line  as  it 
was  "  deaconed  off,"  or  "  lined  out."  Few  congregations  could  sing  more 
than  five  tunes.  The  town  was  taxed  for  the  support  of  the  minister.  The 
dissenter  from  the  Congregational  order  was  not  only  a  heretic  but  was  poli- 
tically an  alien,  members  of  the  church  being  the  only  freemen  and  voters 
until  1685. 


ROXBURY    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  413 

Perhaps  no  people  ever  enjoyed  greater  religious  advantages  than  those 
of  Roxbury  under  the  able,  zealous,  and  faithful  ministrations  of  Eliot,  Welde, 
and  Danforth.  To  this  cause  is  to  be  attributed  the  steadiness  of  their  at- 
tachment to  the  principles  of  the  Puritan  fathers  for  a  period  of  two  hundred 
years.  A  reaction  from  their  too  rigid  principles  was,  however,  inevitable, 
and  that  Roxbury  was  in  some  degree  affected  by  it  is  evident  from  the  fact 
that  both  Eliot  and  Danforth,  in  their  later  days,  recognized  and  publicly 
deplored  the  decline  in  vital  godliness  and  in  the  churches. 

Rev.  Thomas  Welde,  the  first  pastor  of  the  Roxbury  Church,  a  native  of 
Tirling  in  Essex,  England,  was  educated  at  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
and  then  settled  in  the  ministry  in  his  native  place.  Incurring  the  penalties 
of  the  laws  against  Nonconformists,  he  was  obliged  to  fly  for  safety  to  New 
England.  Just  before  his  departure,  and  while  standing  in  jeopardy  from 
the  persecutions  of  Laud,  then  Bishop  of  London,  Welde  and  Rev.  Thomas 
Shepard  "  consulted  together  whether  it  was  best  to  let  such  a  swine  root  up 
God's  plants  in  Essex  and  not  give  him  some  check."  Arriving  at  Boston 
in  the  "William  and  Francis,"  June  5,  1632,  he  was  ordained  pastor  in  July, 
Eliot  being  soon  after  settled  with  him  as  teacher.  In  1639  he  assisted  Eliot 
and  Richard  Mather  in  making  the  New  England  version  of  the  Psalms, 
known  as  the  "  Bay  Psalm  Book,"  which  remained  in  use  for  more  than  a 
century.  Sent  in  1641  to  England  as  agent  for  the  Colony,  he  never  re- 
turned, but  obtained  a  living  at  Gateshead,  near  Newcastle,  and  died  in  Lon- 
don, March  23,  1661. 

"  Valiant  in  the  faith,  a  defender  of  the  truth  and  of  the  churches  in  this 
land,  both  in  the  pulpit  and  with  his  pen,"  Welde  had  great  influence  with 
the  magistrates,  by  whom  he  was  frequently  consulted,  and  was  active  in  the 
persecution  of  Roger  Williams  and  of  Anne  Hutchinson.  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
had  affirmed  that  Welde  and  some  other  ministers  did  not  preach  a  covenant 
of  grace.  The  conspicuous  part  which  Welde  took  in  the  cruel  persecution 
ending  in  the  excommunication  and  banishment  of  this  gifted  woman  and 
her  followers,  places  him  in  the  same  category  with  Laud  and  other  perse- 
cutors for  opinion's  sake.  While  she  was  a  prisoner  in  his  brother's  house  in 
Roxbury,  not  even  her  husband  or  children  being  allowed  to  see  her  except 
with  leave  of  the  Court,  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  exposed  to  the  visitations  of 
this  "  holy  inquisitor,"  whose  efforts  to  convince  her  of  her  error  were 
wholly  futile.  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  the  blood  of  these  bitter  foes  event- 
ually commingled,  a  grandson  of  Welde  having  married  a  grand-daughter 
of  the  woman  he  had  stigmatized  as  "  the  American  Jezebel." 

Nazing  in  Essex,  England,  of  which  we  have  before  spoken,  has  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  the  birth-place  of  the  apostle  Eliot.  He  was  educated  at 
Jesus  College,  Cambridge,  after  which  he  taught  a  while  in  the  grammar- 
school  at  Little  Baddow,  kept  by  that  eminently  pious  and  learned  divine, 
Thomas  Hooker;  and  having  determined  to  become  a  preacher,  and  finding 
little  encouragement  in  England  at  that  day  for  a  Puritan  minister,  he  took 
passage  in  the  "Lion"  for  New  England,  arriving  at  Boston  Nov.  2,  1631. 


414 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


Respecting  the  manner  of  his  settlement  in  Roxbury,  which  took  place  not- 
withstanding Boston  "  labored  all  they  could,  both  with  the  congregation  of 
Roxbury  and  with  Mr.  Eliot  himself,"  to  secure  his  services,  he  tells  us  in 
his  Church  Record, — 

"  Mr.  John  Eliot  came  to  N.  E.  in  the  pth  month,  1631.  He  left  his  intended 
wife  in  England  to  come  the  next  year.  He  adjoyned  to  the  church  at  Boston,  and 
there  exercised  in  the  absence  of  Mr.  Wilson,  the  pastor,  who  was  gone  back  to  Eng- 
land for  his  wife  and  family.  The  next  summer  Mr.  Wilson  returned,  and  by  y'.  time  the 
church  at  Boston  was  intended  to  call  him  to  office,  his  friends  were  come  over  and 
settled  at  Roxborough,  to  whom  he  was  foreingaged  y'  if  he  were  not  called  to  office 
before  they  came  he  was  to  joyne  with  them ;  whereupon  the  church  at  Roxborough 
called  him  to  be  teacher  in  the  end  of  the  summer,  &  soon  after  he  was  ordained  to  y' 
office  in  the  church.  Also  his  wife  came  along  with  the  rest  of  his  friends  the  same 
time,  &  soon  after  their  coming  they  were  married." 

The  special  merit  of  Eliot,  and  that  which  entitled  him  to  be  called  the 
"apostle,"  lay  in  his  zealous  and  unwearied  efforts  to  Christianize  the  Indians. 
This,  in  the  language  of  the  charter  of  the  Massachusetts  Company,  was 
declared  to  be  "  the  principal  cause  of  this  plantation."  Upon  the  colony 
seal  an  Indian  with  extended  hands  raised  the  Macedonian  cry,  "  Come  over 
and  help  us  !  "  "  That  public  engagement,"  wrote  Eliot 
'  to  a  friend  in  1659,  "together  with  pity  for  the  poor 
Indian  and  desire  to  make  the  name  of  Christ  chief 
in  these  dark  ends  of  the  earth,  and  not  the  rewards  of  men,  were  the  very 
first  and  chief  movers,  if  I  know  what  did  first  and  chiefly  move  in 
my  heart,  when  God  was  pleased  to  put  upon  me  that  work  of  preaching 
to  them." 

After  acquiring  the  native  language,  a  two  years'  labor,  he  began  his 
missionary  work  at  Nonantum,  now  Newton,  whither  he  was  accompanied 
by  Rev.  Thomas  Shepard,  of  Cambridge,  and  Elder  Heath  and  Daniel  Goo- 
kin,  of  Roxbury,  Oct.  28,  1646.  He  preached  once  a  week  alternately  at  the 
wigwams  of  Waban,  at  Nonantum,  and  of  Cutshamokin,  near  Dorchester 
Mill,  extending  his  labors  also  to  various  points  on  the  Merrimac  River, 
Martha's  Vineyard,  Lancaster,  Brookfield,  and  the  country  of  the  Nipmuks, 
which  included  parts  of  southwestern  Massachusetts  and  northern  Connec- 
ticut. He  was  violently  opposed  by  the  sachems  and  pow-was,  or  priests, 
and  in  his  frequent  journeys  into  the  wilderness  experienced  many  privations. 
On  one  of  these  expeditions  he  tells  us  "  it  pleased  God  to  exercise  us  with 
such  tedious  rains  and  bad  weather  that  we  were  extreme  wet,  insomuch  that 
I  was  not  dry  night  nor  day  from  the  3rd  day  of  the  week  to  the  sixth,  but 
so  travelled  and  at  night  pull  off  my  boots,  wring  my  stockings,  and  on  with 
them  again."  It  was  his  maxim  that  the  Indians  must  be  civilized  in  order 
to  their  being  Christianized.  One  season  of  hunting,  he  said,  undid  all 
his  missionary  work.  He  drew  up  for  them  a  simple  code  of  laws,  urged 
upon  them  the  necessity  of  industry,  cleanliness,  good  order,  and  good 


ROXBURY   IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


415 


government ;  and  they  soon  began  to  be  neat  and  industrious,  to  put  aside 
their  old  habits,  and  to  assume  the  manners  of  the  whites. 

In  1 66 1,  after  twelve  years'  labor,  Eliot's  translation  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment into  the  Indian  tongue  was  printed,  the  whole  Bible  being  completed 
in  1663.  The  expense  was  principally  borne  by  the  English  Society  for 
the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel, 
at  the  head  of  which  was  the 
excellent  Sir  Robert  Boyle, 
through  whose  influence  £50 
were  annually  paid  to  Eliot  by 
the  Society.  Primers,  gram- 
mars, psalters,  catechisms,  Bax- 
ter's Call,  and  other  books  in 
the  Indian  tongue  followed ;  no 
pains  were  spared  to  teach  the 
natives  to  read  and  write;  and 
soon  there  were  fourteen  places 
of  Praying  Indians,  as  they  were 
called,  and  eleven  hundred  souls 
apparently  converted.  In  1673 
six  Indian  churches  had  been 


gathered.  Then  came  Philip's 
war,  the  death-blow  to  the  work 
upon  which  the  apostle  had  set 
his  heart,  and  in  which  he  had 
been  nearly  spent.  In  the  course  of  the  conflict  some  of  the  Praying 
Indians  joined  their  countrymen,  which  so  exasperated  the  English  that 
those  who  remained  could  with  difficulty  be  preserved  from  their  ven- 
geance, and  a  breach  was  created  between  the  two  races  that  could  never 
be  healed.  In  1684  the  Indian  towns  had  been  reduced  to  four;  the  tribes 
steadily  dwindled  and  finally  disappeared. 

Eliot  was  a  founder  and  principal  promoter  of  the  grammar-school  in 
Roxbury,  and  was  zealous  in  his  efforts  for  the  establishment  of  schools 
throughout  the  colony.  It  is  the  testimony  of  two  intelligent  Dutch  travel- 
lers who  visited  him  in  1679,  when  he  was  seventy-five  years  old,  that  he  was 
the  best  of  the  ministers  they  had  yet  heard.  "  He  that  would  write  of 
Eliot,"  says  Cotton  Mather,  "  must  write  of  charity  or  say  nothing."  Besides 


JOHN   ELIOT'S   CHAIR.1 


1  [This  antique  chair,  having  been  preserved 
in  a  Roxbury  family,  was  given  to  the  late  Rev. 
Dr.  Harris,  and  rests  at  present  in  the  First 
Church  in  Dorchester,  and  bears  this  inscription : 
"This  chair  once  belonged  to  the  Rev.  John 
Eliot,  of  Roxbury,  commonly  called  the  Apostle 
to  the  Indians,  and  was  used  in  his  study.  It 
was  placed  under  the  pulpit  of  this  meeting-house 
(built  in  1816  by  the  first  parish  in  Dorchester) 


by  Rev.  Thaddeus  Mason  Harris,  D.D.,  for 
forty-three  years  its  pastor,  as  a  venerated  me- 
morial." We  are  indebted  to  his  successor,  the 
Rev.  S.  J.  Barrows,  for  a  sketch  of  it.  A  bureau 
with  the  initials  I.  E.  upon  it,  thought  to  have 
been  Eliot's,  belonged  to  the  late  Gen.  \V.  H. 
Sumner,  and  is  figured  and  described  in  the  Ar. 
E.  Hist,  and  Geiieal.  Register,  October,  1855,  and 
January,  1858.  —  ED.] 


416  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

being  the  friend  and  protector  of  the  Indian,  he  was  the  first  to  lift  up  his 
voice  against  the  treatment  accorded  to  the  negro  in  New  England,  and 
offered  to  teach  such  in  his  neighborhood  as  might  once  a  week  be  sent  to 
him. 

Frugal  and  temperate  through  a  long  life,  he  never  indulged  in  the  luxu- 
ries of  the  table.  His  excellent  wife,  who  died  three  years  before  him,  and 
who  skilfully  dispensed  medicines  to  the  sick  in  her  vicinity,  managed  his 
private  affairs,  so  that  he  might  devote  his  whole  time  and  strength  to  his 
public  labors.  The  death  of  this  venerable  and  Christ-like  man  occurred 
May  20,  1690,  at  the  age  of  eighty-six.  Had  he  been  a  Roman  Catholic  he 
would  assuredly  have  been  canonized.  After  the  decease  of  Danforth,  Eliot's 
youngest  son,  Benjamin,  was  for  some  years  his  colleague.  The  church 
record  kept  by  the  apostle  contains  many  curious  and  interesting  particu- 
lars respecting  the  early  inhabitants  of  the  town. 


Rev.  Samuel  Danforth,  a  native  of  Framlingham,  England,  was  brought 
over  by  Nicholas,  his  father,  in  1634,  and  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in 
1643.  In  I(H9  he  became  Eliot's  assistant,  so  continuing  until  ordained  his 
colleague,  Sept.  24,  1650.  Here  he  continued  until  his  decease,  "  neither 
the  incompetency  of  his  salary  nor  the  provocation  which  unworthy  men  in 
the  neighborhood  sometimes  tried  him  withal  could  persuade  him  to  remove 
unto  more  comfortable  •settlement."  Cotton  Mather  also  tells  us  that  he 
was  very  affectionate  in  his  manner  of  preaching,  seldom  leaving  the  pulpit 
without  tears ;  and,  referring  to  his  astronomical  labors,  a  department  of 
knowledge  in  which  he  excelled,  quaintly  adds,  "  several  of  his  astronomical 
composures  have  seen  the  light  of  the  sun." 

"  Non  dubium  est  quin  eo  iverit  quo  Stella  eunt 
Danforthus  qui  stellis  semper  se  associavit." 

He  published  a  particular  account  of  the  comet  of  1664,  and  a  series  of 
almanacs.  In  the  church  records,  under  date  of  Nov.  19,  1674,  Eliot  writes 
this  touching  passage :  "  Our  reverend  pastor  Mr.  Samuel  Danforth  sweetly 


ROXBURY   IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


417 


rested  from  his  labors.  It  pleased  the  Lord  to  brighten  his  passage  to  glory. 
He  greatly  increased  in  the  power  of  his  ministry,  especially  the  last  sum- 
mer. We  consulted  together  about  beautifying  the  house  of  God,  and  to 
order  the  congregation  into  the  primitive  way  of  collections.  My  brother 
Danforth  made  the  most  glorious  end  that  ever  I  saw." 

Benjamin  Thompson,  a  "  learned  schoolmaster  and  physician  and  y6 
renouned  poet  of  New  England,"  was  son  of  Rev.  William  Thompson,  of 
Braintree,  where  he  was  born  in  1642.  Graduating  at  Harvard  in  1662,  he 
taught  school  in  various  places,  and  finally  in  Roxbury,  where  he  died, 
April  13,  1714.  His  principal  poem,  "New  England's  Crisis,"  has  in  it  a 
strong  vein  of  vigorous  satire,  and  contrasts  the  degeneracy  of  his  day  with 
the  good  old  times  when, — 

"  Men  had  better  stomachs  at  religion 
Than  I  to  capon,  turkeycock,  or  pigeon, 
When  honest  sisters  met  to  pray,  not  prate 
About  their  own  and  not  their  neighbor's  state." 

Some  of  Thompson's  verses  are  in  the  Magnalia,  and  in  a  poem  pre- 
fixed to  Hubbard's  Indian  Wars  there  are  some  sprightly  and  character- 
istic lines. 

By  far  the  most  eminent  citizen  of  colonial  Roxbury  was  Thomas  Dud- 
ley, founder  of  a  family  that  furnished  two  governors,  a  chief-justice,  and  a 
speaker  of  the  House,  all  of  whom  played  conspicuous  parts  in  the  affairs 
of  New  England.  Thomas  Dudley,  second  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  and 
one  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  Puritan  pioneers,  was  the  son  of  Captain 
Roger  Dudley,  who  was  "  slain  in  the  wars."  Brought  up  as  a  page  in  the 
family  of  the  Earl  of  Northampton,  he  was  afterward  a  clerk  in  the  office  of 
Judge  Nichols,  where  he  acquired  a  knowledge  of  the 
law  that  was  highly  useful  to  him  in  his  subsequent 
career.  His  intelligence,  courage,  and  prudence, 
already  strongly  developed,  procured  for  him,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-one,  the  captaincy  of  an  English  company  which  he 
led  at  the  siege  of  Amiens  under  Henry  of  Navarre,  and,  later  on,  the  stew- 
ardship of  the  estate  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  which,  by  careful  management, 
he  succeeded  in  freeing  from  a  heavy  load  of  debt.  A  Puritan  of  the  Puri-. 
tans,  and  a  parishioner  of  the  famous  John  Cotton,  he,  with  four  others, 
undertook,  although  he  was  then  fifty  years  of  age,  the  settlement  of  the 
Massachusetts  colony,  and  came  over  with  Winthrop  as  Deputy-Governor 
in  1630.  Dudley  at  first  settled  in  Newtown,  but  removed  to  Roxbury  to 
place  himself  under  the  ministrations  of  Eliot  and  Welde.  In  1644,  at  the 
age  of  sixty-eight,  he  was  chosen  Sergeant-Major-General,  the  highest  mil- 
itary office  in  the  colonies.  He  was  Governor  in  1634,  1640,  1645,  an^  1650, 
and  Deputy-Governor  or  Assistant  in  the  intervening  years,  and  from  the 
time  of  his  arrival  until  his  death,  which  took  place  on  July  31,  1653,  in  his 
seventy-seventh  year. 

VOL.  i.  — 53- 


418  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Dudley  was  a  man  of  sound  judgment,  inflexible  integrity,  great  public 
spirit,  and  exemplary  piety.  No  one  of  his  contemporaries  was  more 
strongly  imbued  with  the  intolerant  spirit  of  his  age,  and  he  took  a  promi- 
nent part  in  the  proceedings  against  Roger  Williams,  Wheelwright,  Anne 
Hutchinson,  and  others.  A  Universalist  church  now  occupies  the  site  of 
the  residence  of  one  of  the  most  intolerant  of  men.  After  his  death  these 
lines  were  found  in  his  pocket:  — 

"  Let  men  of  God  in  courts  and  churches  watch 
O'er  such  as  do  a  toleration  hatch, 
Lest  that  ill  egg  bring  forth  a  cockatrice 
To  poison  all  with  heresy  and  vice. 
If  men  be  left  and  otherwise  combine, 
My  epitaph  's  I  dy'd  no  libertine." 

With  Governor  Winthrop  the  arbitrary  and  hot-tempered  deputy  had  fre- 
quent quarrels.  One  of  these,  described  by  the  former,  terminated  thus :  "  So 
the  deputy  rose  up  in  great  fury  and  passion  and  the  governor  grew  very  hot 
also  so  as  they  both  fell  into  bitterness,  but  by  mediation  of  the  mediators 
they  were  pacified."  Their  differences  were  finally  and  most  appropriately 
ended  at  Concord,  where  each  had  a  grant  of  land,  and  where  the  Governor 
yielded  to  Dudley  the  first  choice.  His  daughter  Ann,  who  married 
Governor  Bradstreet,  was  famed  in  her  day  as  a  poet,  a  volume  from  her 
pen  in  1650  being  the  first  book  of  poetry  published  in  America.  Governor 
Joseph  Dudley,  his  son,  was  a  conspicuous  actor  in  the  later  colonial  and 
earlier  provincial  history  of  New  England. 

A  brief  survey  of  the  town  and  some  of  its  principal  features  at  the  close 
of  the  seventeenth  century  may  not  be  unacceptable  to  the  reader. 

At  the  corner  of  Washington  and  Eustis  streets  is  one  of  the  oldest  burial 
places  in  New  England,  the  first  interment  in  it  having  been  made  in  1633. 
The  oldest  remaining  gravestone  bears  date  1653.  Here,  side  by  side  with 
the  apostle  Eliot  and  Robert  Calef,  were  laid  the  Dudleys,  the  Warrens,  and 
others  of  lesser  note.  Here  Lyon  and  Lamb  lie  down  together  in  fraternal 
harmony,  peacefully  commingling  their  ashes  with  those  of  Pigge  and  Pea- 
cock, while  near  them  reposes  the  dust  of  Pepper  and  Onion, — savory  con- 
junction !  Inseparable  in  life,  even  in  death  they  are  not  divided.1 

On  entering  the  cemetery  the  first  tomb  that  meets  the  eye,  and  the  one 
upon  the  highest  ground,  is  covered  with  an  oval  slab  of  white  marble,  bear- 
ing the  name  of  Dudley.  In  it  were  laid  the  remains  of  Governors  Thomas 
and  Joseph  Dudley,  Chief-Justice  Paul  Dudley,  and  Colonel  William  Dudley, 
a  prominent  political  leader  a  century  and  a  half  ago.  The  original  inscrip- 
tion plate  is  said  to  have  been  of  pewter,  and  to  have  been  taken  out  and 
run  into  bullets  by  the  provincial  soldiers  during  the  siege.  Near  the  centre 

1  So  far  as  is  known,  the  first  instance  of  Adams,  of  Roxbury,  when  Mr.  Wilson,  minister 
prayer  at  a  funeral  in  Massachusetts  occurred  of  Medfield,  prayed  with  the  company  before 
Aug.  19,  1685,  at  the  burial  of  Rev.  William  they  went  to  the  grave. 


ROXBURY   IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


419 


of  the  ground  is  the  PARISH  TOMR,  in  which  are  the  remains  of  the  pastors 
of  the  First  Church,  including  the  apostle  Eliot;  and  upon  a  slab  of  white 
marble  are  inscribed  their  names  and  periods  of  service.1  Among  the  in- 
scriptions in  this  old  burial-place,  one  of  which — that  of  John  Grosvenor — is 
accompanied  with  a  coat-of-arms,  are  the  following :  — 

"  SUB  SPE  IMMORTALI  YE 

HERSE  OF  MR.  BENJ.  THOMSON 

LEARNED  SCHOOLMASTER, 

&  PHYSICIAN  &  YE 
RENOUNED  POET  OF  N.  ENGL. 
OBIIT  APRILIS  13,  ANNO  DOM. 

1714  &  ALTATIS  suae  74. 
MORTUUS  SED  IMMORTALIS. 

HE  THAT  WOULD  TRY 
WHAT  is  TRUE  HAPPINESS  INDEED  MUST  DIE." 


"  Here  lyes  interred  ye  body  of  William  Denison  Master  of  Arts  &  Representative  for 
yc  town  of  Roxbury  about  20  years  who  departed  this  life  March  22d.  1717-18  aetatis  54. 

Integer  alque  Probns  Deus  Patria  quefidelis 
Uixit  nnnc  placide  dormet  in  hoc  tumulo" 


"  Here  lyeth  buried  yc  body  of  Mr.  John  Grosvenor  who  dec'd  Sept.  ye  27th  in  y* 
49th  year  of  his  age,  1691."  a 

"The  Free  Schoole  in  Roxburie  "  originated  in  1642  in  a  bequest  by 
Samuel  Hagburne  of  2os.  per  annum,  "  when  Roxburie  shall  set  up  a  free 
schoole  in  the  towne."  In  August,  1645,  some  sixty  of  the  principal  inhab- 
itants, "  out  of  their  religious  care  of  posteritie,"  and  considering  "  how 
necessary  the  education  of  their  children  in  literature  will  be  to  fit  them  for 
publicke  service  in  succeeding  ages,"  bound  themselves  to  the  payment  of 
certain  sums  yearly  for  the  support  of  a  free  school,  and  in  1646  pledged 
their  houses,  barns,  orchards,  and  homesteads  to  carry  out  their  purpose. 
For  near  a  century  the  school  was  managed  by  seven  feoffees,  £20  to  £2$ 
per  annum  being  allowed  the  teacher.  One  of  these,  Mr.  John  Prudden,  in 
1668,  engaged  at  £25  per  annum  to  instruct  the  children  "  in  all  scholasticall 
morall,  and  theologicall  discipline,  ABCDarians  excepted."  The  standard 
of  admission  must  originally  have  been  of  the  simplest,  since  in  1728  it  was 
so  raised  that  only  such  were  received  as  could  spell  common  easy  English 
words.  The  grammar  school  became  a  Latin  school  when,  in  1674,  the 
legacy  of  Mr.  Bell  became  available,  but  of  eighty-five  scholars  in  1770  but 
nine  were  students  of  that  tongue. 

1  [See  papers  regarding  the  Eliot  tomb  in  given  in  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Gencal.  Kegister, 

N.  E.  Hist,  and  Gencal.  A'eg:,  July,  1860;  F.  S.  vols.  vii.,  viii.,  xiv.  Cf.  Shurtleff's  Description  of 

Drake's  Town  of  Koxbury,  p.  100.  —  ED.J  Boston,  p.  270;  F.  S.  Drake's  Town  of  Koxlnuy, 

-  [Inscriptions  from  this  ancient  ground  arc  p.  95.  —  Eu.j 


420  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Of  John  Eliot's  active  agency  in  the  establishment  of  this  school,  and 
the  high  reputation  it  thus  early  enjoyed,  Rev.  Cotton  Mather  says:  "  God 
so  blessed  his  endeavors,  that  Roxbury  could  not  live  quietly  without  a 
free  school  in  the  town.  And  the  issue  of  it  has  been  one  thing  that  has 
almost  made  me  put  the  title  of  scliola  illustris  upon  that  little  nursery; 
that  is,  that  Roxbury  ha's  afforded  more  scholars  first  for  the  college  and 
then  for  the  public  than  any  other  town  of  its  bigness,  or  if  I  mistake  not 
of  twice  its  bigness,  in  New  England." 

In  1663  the  town  gave  for  the  use  of  the  schoolmaster  "forever,"  and 
"  not  to  be  sold  or  given  away,"  the  wood  and  timber  on  ten  acres  of  its 
common  land.  In  1680  the  parents  were  ordered  to  supply  the  school  with 
fuel,  either  half  a  cord  of  wood  or  4^.  for  each  child,  excepting  those  who 
were  too  poor.  This  custom  continued  down  to  the  close  of  the  last 
century. 

The  liberality  of  its  founders  and  the  generous  gifts  of  Thomas  Bell  and 
others  have  made  the  "  Roxbury  Latin  School,"  as  it  is  now  called,  one  of 
the  best  endowed  institutions  of  learning  in  New  England.  Nine  generations 
of  Roxbury  boys  have  imbibed  freely  at  this  fountain  of  learning,  a  goodly 
number  of  whom  have  reflected  credit  on  their  alma  mater.  "  Father 
Stowe  "  and  Joseph  Hansford  are  the  earliest  mentioned  of  its  teachers. 
Among  those  of  a  later  date  we  find  the  names  of  Benjamin  Thompson, 
"  rcnouned  poet  of  N.  Engl. ;  "  Joseph  Warren,  the  patriot  and  martyr,  and 
Increase  Sumner,  afterwards  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  both  natives  of 
Roxbury;  William  Gushing,  afterwards  a  Justice  of  the  U.  S.  Supreme 
Court ;  Samuel  Parker,  afterwards  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Massachusetts  ; 
and  Ward  Chipman,  subsequently  President  and  Commander-in-Chief  of 
New  Brunswick. 

In  the  early  days  the  highways  were  let  out  by  the  year  for  pasturage, 
and  were  generally  fenced  across  to  keep  in  the  cattle.  In  1652  a  commit- 
tee was  appointed  to  stake  them  out  and  settle  all  questions  respecting  them. 
Among  the  twenty  highways  laid  out  in  1663  were  those  now  known  as 
Washington,  Roxbury,  Tremont,  Dudley,  Perkins,  Centre,  and  Warren 
streets,  and  Walnut  Avenue,  four  rods  wide ;  and  Parker,  School,  Boylston, 
Eustis,  Dennis,  Albany,  Green,  Heath,  and  Ruggles  streets,  two  rods  in  width. 
The  highway  over  the  Neck,  long  known  as  "  the  town  street,"  or  Roxbury 
Street,  now  Washington,  was  frequently  covered  with  water  in  the  spring, 
rendering  it  almost  impassable ;  and  in  it,  during  violent  snow-storms,  travel- 
lers sometimes  lost  their  way  and  perished  with  the  cold.  The  common,  an 
extensive  tract  of  wild  land  near  the  centre  of  the  town,  now  forms  a  portion 
of  the  beautiful  Forest  Hills  Cemetery. 

The  old  Training  Field,  containing  seven  acres,  formed  the  eastern  por- 
tion of  the  triangle  lying  between  Washington,  Eustis,  and  Dudley  streets. 
Captain  John  Underbill's  company,  composed  of  the  freemen  of  Boston  and 
Roxbury,  trained  here  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  every  month.  UnderhiU's 
ensign  was  Richard  Morris,  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Ancient  and  Honor- 


ROXBURY   IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  421 

able  Artillery  Company,  "  a  very  stout  man  and  experienced  soldier."  The 
Roxbury  company,  of  which  Joseph  Weld  was  the  first  captain,  was  in  1636 
included  in  the  regiment,  of  which  Winthrop  was  colonel  and  Dudley  lieut- 
colonel.  There  were  ten  Roxbury  men  in  the  expedition  under  Stoughton 
against  the  Pequods  in  1637.  In  1762  the  old  Training  Field  ceased  to  be 
public  property. 

For  more  than  a  century  the  Greyhound  tavern  was  the  principal  public- 
house  in  Roxbury.  It  stood  on  Washington  Street,  opposite  Vernon,  and 
was  torn  down  during  the  Revolution.  Its  position  on  the  only  road  leading 
out  of  Boston — there  were  then  no  bridges — made  it  a  noted  resort  in  the 
days  when  public  meetings,  festive  gatherings,  and  other  assemblages  of  a 
political,  social,  or  business  character  were  usually  held  in  such  places,  and, 
being  famed  for  the  excellence  of  its  punch,  it  was  much  frequented  by  the 
convivial  spirits  of  Boston  and  vicinity. 

While  tolerating  the  sale  of  wine  and  beer,  drunkenness  was  severely 
dealt  with  by  our  Puritan  fathers,  who  taught  and  practised  the  duty  of 
self-control.  March  4,  1633,  the  Court  orders  that  "  Robert  Coles  for 
drunkenness  by  him  committed  at  Roxbury  shall  be  disfranchised,  weare 
about  his  necke  &  soe  to  hange  upon  his  outward  garment  a  D  made  of 
redd  clothe  &  sette  upon  white ;  to  contynue  this  for  a  yeare  and  not  to 
leave  it  off  at  any  tyme  when  he  comes  amongst  company  under  penalty 
of  XLs.  for  the  first  offence  &  V.  pounds  the  second,  &  after  to  be 
. punished  by  the  court  as  they  think  meet;  also  he  is  to  weare  the  D  out- 
wards and  is  enjoyned  to  appear  at  the  next  General  Court  &  to  contynue 
there  until  it  be  ended."  • 

From  the  earliest  period  leave  was  granted  to  "  draw  "  wine  and  to  brew 
and  sell  "penny  beere."  In  1678,  soon  after  the  close  of  the  Indian  war, 
intemperance  had  grown  so  prevalent  that  the  town  vofed  that  neither  wine 
nor  liquors  should  be  sold  at  any  ordinary,  and  that  there  should  be  but  one 
ordinary  in  the  town.  This  prohibitory  enactment  did  not  long  remain  in 
force. 

The  old  school-house  stood  where  the  brick  edifice,  erected  for  the  school 
in  1742,  still  stands  in  what  is  now  Guild  Row.  The  mansion  built  by 
Governor  Dudley,  famous  in  colonial  and  provincial  days  for  the  number  of 
distinguished  guests  it  had  entertained,  stood  where  the  Universalist  Church 
now  stands,  and  was  taken  down  during  the  siege  of  Boston.  Its  sightly 
and  eligible  location  renders  it  quite  probable  that  it  was  the  spot  selected 
by  Pynchon  for  his  own  residence,  and  the  fact  that  his  departure  occurred 
at  the  same  time  as  Dudley's  settlement  in  Roxbury  serves  to  strengthen 
the  supposition.  Between  it  and  the  old  school-house  ran  Smelt  Brook,  and 
adjoining  it  on  the  west  was  Meeting-house  Hill  and  the  church.  Fronting 
it  on  the  east  was  the  home  of  John  Eliot,  whose  garden  extended  along  the 
north  side  of  Dudley  Street,  across  what  is  now  the  lower  part  of  Warren 
Street,  to  the  Training  Field.  Along  the  town  street  in  the  direction  of 
Boston,  the  earliest  settled  part  of  Roxbury,  were  the  homesteads  of  Weld, 


422  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Heath,  Denison,  Bowles,  Hewes,  Hagborne,  Peacock,  and  Captain  John 
Johnson.  Deacon  Parke  and  the  Williamses  were  on  the  Dorchester  road 
(Dudley  Street) ;  Cheney,  Leavens,  and  Bugbee  on  the  Braintree  road 
(Warren  Street) ;  Lamb,  Gore,  Pierpont,  and  Craft  on  the  road  to  Cam- 
bridge (Roxbury  and  Tremont  streets).  South  of  Meeting-house  Hill 
were  the  homes  of  Alcock,  Newell,  Morrill,  Porter,  and  Dane.  Ruggles, 
William  and  Peleg  Heath,  Philip  Eliot,  Seaver,  and  Bell  were  on  the  Ded- 
ham  road  (Centre  Street) ;  while  at  Jamaica  Plain  and  beyond  were  Curtis, 
Brewer,  May,  Mayo,  Policy,  Thomas,  Davis,  Lion,  and  Bowen. 

At  the  close  of  the  colonial  period  a  change  had  undoubtedly  taken  place 
in  character  and  manners,  owing,  in  part,  to  the  close  connection  of  Rox- 
bury with  the  metropolis.  Everywhere  the  too  rigid  austerity  of  the  social 
and  religious  life  of  the  Puritan  pioneers  had  given  place  to  a  freer  and  more 
unrestrained  play  of  the  social  forces.  Intemperance  had  greatly  increased. 
Attendance  at  church  had  grown  less  constant.  More  costly  dress  and 
equipage,  and  greater  refinement  of  manners  began  to  be  observable.  Other 
changes  of  a  beneficial  character  appeared.  Farming  was  then  and  long 
continued  to  be  the  principal  occupation  of  the  people  ;  but  the  introduction 
of  cloth  manufacture,  of  tanning,  and  other  industries  to  supply  the  wants 
of  Boston,  always  a  ready  market  for  her  agricultural  products,  gave  the 
town  an  additional  impetus,  and  added  materially  to  her  wealth  and  popula- 
tion. With  respect  to  the  latter,  it  must,  however,  be  borne  in  mind  that 
numerous  emigrations,  especially  that  of  thirty  families  to  Woodstock,  Conn., 
in  1686,  had  materially  lessened  her  numbers.  Notwithstanding  this  draw- 
back, Roxbury  at  this  period  was  unquestionably  a  thriving  and  influential 
town. 


CHAPTER     XIII. 

DORCHESTER    IN    THE    COLONIAL    PERIOD. 

BY     REV.     SAMUEL    J.     BARROWS. 

Minister  of  the  First  Parish. 

OF  the  suburban  sections  now  included  in  the  corporate  limits  of  Bos- 
ton, Dorchester  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful.  Its  broad  fields 
and  meadows,  its  ancient  homesteads  the  heritage  of  colonial  estates,  its 
well-kept  lawns  and  fruitful  gardens,  its  noble  bay,  its  numerous  rock-ribbed 
hills,  and  its  general  accessibility  to  the  heart  of  the  city  have  made  it  a 
favorite  place  of  residence  for  many  years.  No  district  is  more  replete  with 
lovely  views  than  are  furnished  from  some  of  these  lofty  hills,  —  command- 
ing the  city,  the  harbor,  the  Blue  Hills,  Brookline,  Cambridge,  Milton,  and 
a  whole  circle  of  neighboring  towns.  And  there  is  no  town  so  near  the  city 
which  so  long  preserved  its  original  simplicity  and  solidity. 

The  town  of  Dorchester  was  annexed  to  Boston  in  1870.  It  is  to  be 
remembered,  however,  that  Dorchester,  Roxbury,  Charlestown,  and  Boston, 
prior  to  the  town  organizations,  were  all  originally  under  the  same  general 
government  in  the  earliest  days  of  the  colony,  and  that  Dorchester  formed 
a  part  of  Suffolk  County  until  1793.  Although  now  a  silent  partner  in  the 
new  firm,  it  can  point  to  a  time  when  Boston  itself  was  a  stripling  of  no 
special  promise,  called  Blackstone's  Neck,  —  a  neck  without  any  body,  so 
far  as  population  is  concerned,  except  that  which  Dorchester  and  Charles- 
town  furnished.  Boston  bears  a  different  relation  to  its  suburbs  from 
that  of  many  large  cities,  where  the  centre  has  been  first  formed  and  the 
periphery  afterwards,  and  the  suburbs  have  been  thrown  off  by  a  force  of 
growth  from  within.  In  Boston  two  segments,  Charlestown  and  Dorchester, 
were  formed  before  the  centre  was  even  attempted. 

Dorchester  was  settled  June  6  (o.  s.),  1630,  some  weeks  before  Boston. 
Had  not  the  waters  of  Dorchester  Bay  been  more  shallow  than  those  on 
the  other  side  of  Dorchester  Heights,  we  should  probably  have  had  to  re- 
cord the  annexation  of  Boston  to  Dorchester  instead  of  the  reverse.  In 
fact  there  are  many  of  the  old  residents  of  the  place  who  prefer  to  consider 
the  annexation  in  that  light. 

The  settlement  of  Dorchester  arose  from  the  same  influences  in  England, 
which,  two  years  before,  had  settled  the  town  of  Salem,  and,  ten  years 


424  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

earlier,  had  planted  the  Leyden  refugees  about  Plymouth  Rock.  The 
conflict  between  Puritanism  and  the  hierarchy  had  assumed  threatening 
proportions.  There  were  two  solutions  for  distressed  England.  One  was 
to  be  found  in  a  Puritan  sea-voyage ;  the  other  was  furnished  by  the  radical 
surgery  of  the  New  Model.  « 

Of  the  active  promoters  of  Puritan  emigration,  Rev.  John  White,  Rector 
of  Trinity  Parish,  Dorchester,  England,  was  the  most  prominent.  The 
colonization  of  Massachusetts  is  a  lasting  memorial  of  his  zeal,  energy,  and 
executive  ability.  It  was  he  who  gathered  the  company  of  emigrants  in 
England  and  organized  the  church  which  settled  Dorchester,  and  the  town 
was  in  all  probability  named  in  his  honor.  Mr.  White  had  early  shown  his 
sympathy  in  the  emigration  movement  by  giving  of  his  heart  and  purse  to 
help  the  settlers  at  Plymouth.  He  had  encouraged  .the  Dorchester  fisher- 
men in  their  voyages  to  the  American  waters.  One  object  of  the  settlement 
which  he  sought  to  make  at  Cape  Ann,  in  1624,  under  Roger  Conant,  was 
to  furnish  a  depot  for  the  fishermen  on  the  coast.  The  practical  failure  of 
this  enterprise  only  stimulated  Mr.  White  to  greater  efforts,  and  the  expedi- 
tions to  Salem  in  1628  and  1629  were  prompted  by  his  active  exertions. 
With  a  persistent  and  contagious  zeal,  Mr.  White  immediately  gathered 
another  company  of  emigrants  from  the  western  counties  of  England,  very 
few  of  whom  had  known  each  other  before.  This  band  assembled  in  the 
New  Hospital,  Plymouth,  England.  John  White  was  present,  and  preached 
in  the  morning.  In  the  afternoon  a  church  was  organized,  and  the  Rev. 
John  Maverick  and  Rev.  John  Warham  were  chosen  ministers.  On  the  2Oth 
of  March  (o.  S.),  1630,  the  company,  numbering  about  one  hundred  and 
forty,  sailed  in  the  ship  "  Mary  and  John,"  a  vessel  of  four  hundred  tons, 
under  command  of  Captain  Squeb. 

Roger  Clap,  one  of  the  passengers,  in  his  quaint  memoirs,  —  the  earliest 
contemporaneous  document  relating  to  Dorchester,  —  thus  refers  to  the 
voyage :  "  So  we  came,  by  the  good  Hand  of  the  Lord,  through  the 
Deeps  comfortably;  having  Preaching  or  Expounding  of  the  Word  of 
God  every  day  for  Ten  Weeks  together,  by  our  ministers." 

It  was  understood  that  the  "  Mary  and  John  "  was  bound  for  the  Charles 
River.  Either  through  an  ignorance  which,  in  the  absence  of  charts  and  maps 
at  that  time,  might  be  considered  pardonable,  or  through  a  perversity  which 
the  indignant  passengers  considered  very  unpardonable,  Captain  Squeb,  says 
Roger  Clap,  "  would  not  bring  us  into  Charles  River,  as  he  was  bound  to 
do;  but  put  us  ashore  and  our  Goods  on  Nantasket  Point,  and  left  us  to 
shift  for  ourselves  in  a  forlorn  place  in  this  Wilderness."  l  The  date  of  the 
arrival  was  May  30  (o.  S.),  1630.  It  is  well  known  that  previous  to  the 
coming  of  the  Winthrop  fleet,  of  which  the  "  Mary  and  John  "  was  the  first 
to  arrive,  a  few  adventurous  planters,  such  as  Tompson,  Blackstone,  and 

1  (It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that  whether  at  Light-house  Channel  or  at  Shawmut. 
there  was  a  diversity  of  opinion  in  those  days  as  See  Mr.  Winsor's  chapter  on  "The  earliest  maps 
to  where  the  mouth  of  the  Charles  River  was,  of  Massachusetts  Bay  and  Boston  Harbor." — Eu.j 


DORCHESTER    IN    THE    COLONIAL   PERIOD.  425 

others,  had  established  themselves  about  the  harbor  for  the  purpose  of  trad- 
ing with  the  Indians.1  From  one  of  these  old  planters  the  newly-landed 
emigrants  at  Nantasket  procured  a  boat,  and  loaded  it  with  goods.  About 
ten  men,  well  armed,  under  command  of  Captain  Southcot,  started  for 
Charles  River.  They  landed  first  at  the  peninsula  afterwards  called 
Charlestown.  Here  they  found  some  Indian  wigwams  and  a  solitary 
Englishman,  who  treated  them  tc  some  boiled  fish  (which  Roger  Clap 
describes  as  bass),  without  bread,  —  afterwards  a  somewhat  familiar  and 
monotonous  diet.  The  scouting  party  moved  up  the  Charles  River  until 
the  stream  grew  narrow  and  narrower,  and  finally  landed  at  the  present  site 
of  Watertown.  The  Indians  quickly  assembled,  upon  their  arrival,  to  the 
number,  as  they  judged,  of  about  three  hundred.  But  the  mediation  of  an 
old  planter  (whom  they  had  probably  brought  from  Charlestown  with  them, 
and  who  could  speak  a  little  of  the  Indian  language)  prevented  any  hos- 
tilities. The  next  morning  an  Indian  appeared,  graciously  holding  out  a 
fish,  which  he  exchanged  for  a  biscuit.  From  the  very  beginning  the  Dor- 
chester settlers  seem  to  have  had  friendly  dealings  with  the  Indians. 

After  spending  a  few  days  at  the  site  of  Watertown,  and  building  a  tem- 
porary shelter  for  their  goods,  the  scouting  party  received  word  to  return, 
as  the  main  company  at  Nantasket  had  found  a  neck  of  land  adjoining  a 
place  called  by  the  Indians  Mattapan,  which  would  serve  both  to  nourish 
their  cattle  and  prevent  them  from  straying.  The  exploring  party  re-em- 
barked for  Dorchester,  and  thus  Watertown  lost  the  honor  which  it  nearly 
achieved  of  being  the  second  settlement  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony.  A 
piece  of  land  at  Watertown,  called  "  Dorchester  Fields,"  long  preserved  the 
memory  of  this  early  expedition. 

A  week  from  the  arrival  of  the  "  Mary  and  John  "  at  Nantasket  the  re- 
moval of  the  passengers'  effects  was  completed,  and  Sunday,  the  6th  of  June, 
was  observed  as  a  day  of  rest  and  thanksgiving.  The  settlement  of  the 
town  is  reckoned  from  that  day.  The  south  side  of  Dorchester  Neck 
(South  Boston)  is  supposed  to  be  the  landing-place  of  the  first  settlers.  A 
week  later  they  were  gladdened  by  the  arrival  at  Salem  of  the  "  Arbella,"  the 
admiral  ship  of  the  fleet,  with  Governor  Winthrop  on  board.  We  are  told 
that  a  few  days  later  Winthrop,  after  exploring  the  Charles  and  Mystic  to  find 
a  good  place  for  settlement,  returned  to  Salem  by  way  of  Nantasket,  and  com- 
posed the  differences  between  Captain  Squeb  and  his  indignant  passengers. 

Dorchester  was  thus  the  first  settled  town  in  Suffolk  County.  It  did  not 
receive  its  final  baptism,  however,  until  the  fall,  when  at  a  meeting  of  the 
Court  of  Assistants,  held  at  Charlestown,  Sept.  7,  1630,  it  was  ordered  that 
"  Trimountaine  shalbe  called  Boston ;  Mattapan,  Dorchester ;  and  the  towne 
vpon  Charles  Ry ver,  Watertown."  2  "  Why  they  called  it  Dorchester," 
says  James  Blake,  next  to  Roger  Clap  the  earliest  annalist  of  the  town,  "  I 
never  heard ;  but  there  was  some  of  Dorset  Shire,  and  some  of  ye  Town  of 

1  [Cf.   Mr.  C.   F.  Adams's   chapter   in   this          '2  [A  fac-simile  of  this  record  is  given  in  Mr. 
volume.  —  ED.]  R.  C.  Winthrop's  chapter.  —  ED.] 

VOL.  I.  —  54. 


426  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Dorchester  that  settled  here,  and  it  is  very  likely  it  might  be  in  honor  of  ye 
aforesaid  Revd.  Mr.  White  of  Dorchester." 

When,  in  the  fall  of  1630,  a  few  months  after  the  landing,  the  Court  of 
Assistants  found  it  necessary  to  define  and  grant  the  privilege  of  freeman- 
ship,  out  of  one  hundred  and  eight  persons  who  made  application  for  this 
right,  twenty-six  were  of  Dorchester. 

"  In  our  beginning,"  says  Roger  Clap,  "  many  were  in  great  Straits  for 
want  of  Provision  for  themselves  and  their  little  Ones.  Oh,  the  Plunger 
that  many  suffered,  and  saw  no  hope  in  an  Eye  of  Reason  to  be  supplyed, 
only  by  Clams,  and  Muscles,  and  Fish.  .  .  .  Bread  was  so  very  scarce  that 
sometimes  I  tho'ht  the  very  Crusts  of  my  Father's  Table  would  have  been 
very  sweet  unto  me.  And  when  I  could  have  Meal  and  Water  and  Salt 
boiled  together,  it  was  so  good  who  could  wish  better?  ...  It  was  not 
accounted  a  strange  thing  in  those  Days  to  drink  Water,  and  to  eat  Samp 
or  Hominie  without  Butter  or  Milk.  Indeed,  it  would  have  been  a  strange 
thing  to  see  a  piece  of  Roast  Beef,  Mutton,  or  Veal;  though  it  was  not 
long  before  there  was  Roast  Goat."  Yet  the  old  Puritan  grit  and  the 
Puritan  faith  did  not  wince  under  the  most  extreme  hardship.  "  I  took 
notice  of  it,  as  a  Favour  of  God  unto  me,"  says  the  philosophical  Captain 
Clap,  "  not  only  to  preserve  my  Life,  but  to  give  me  Contentment  in  all 
these  Straits;  insomuch  that  I  do  not  remember  that  I  ever  did  wish  in 
my  Heart  that  I  had  not  come  unto  this  Country,  or  wish  myself  back 
again  to  my  Father's  House."  In  these  days,  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
later,  when  the  Massachusetts  Indian  has  nearly  disappeared,  and  thou- 
sands of  the  western  tribes  would  starve  to  death  every  winter  if  the  Gov- 
ernment withheld  the  supply  of  food,  it  is  interesting  to  recall  the  fact  that 
the  Massachusetts  Indian  established  the  kindly  precedent  by  dividing  his 
portion  with  the  destitute  white  man.  Roger  Clap  has  embalmed  this  fact 
in  a  pious  pun.  "  In  those  Days,  in  our  Straits,  though  I  cannot  say  God 
sent  a  Raven  to  feed  us,  as  He  did  the  Prophet  Elijah ;  yet  this  I  can  say 
to  the  Praise  of  God's  Glory,  that  He  sent  poor  raven-ous  Indians,  which 
came  with  their  Baskets  of  Corn  on  their  Backs  to  Trade  with  us,  which 
was  a  good  supply  unto  many."  The  relief  ship  which  has  sailed  for  Ireland 
this  year  is  a  reminder  of  the  fact  that  two  centuries  and  a  half  ago  the  dis- 
tressed colonists  welcomed  with  joy  a  ship  which  brought  them  provisions 
from  the  Irish  shore. 

The  priority  of  settlement  in  favor  of  Dorchester,  though  only  of  a  few 
weeks,  was  also  marked  by  a  priority  of  growth.  A  second  ship-load 
arrived  from  Weymouth,  England,  in  July,  1633,  and  brought  eighty  pas- 
sengers, who  settled  at  Dorchester.  In  October  of  this  year,  from  the 
assessments  made  by  the  Court,  it  appears  that  Dorchester  was  the  largest  or 
wealthiest  town  in  Massachusetts.  While  Boston,  Roxbury,  Newton,  Water- 
town,  and  Charlestown  were  each  taxed  ^"48,  and  Salem  £28,  Dorchester  was 
assessed  for  ;£8o.  Prince  says,  "in  all  military  musters  or  civil  assemblies 
where  dignity  is  regarded,  Dorchester  used  to  have  the  precedence." 


DORCHESTER    IN    THE    COLONIAL   PERIOD.  427 

The  distinguished  honor  is  claimed  for  Dorchester  of  having  the  first 
special  town  government  in  New  England.  During  the  early  years  of 
settlement  the  affairs  of  the  colony  were  administered  by  the  Court 
of  Assistants.  Such  local  authority  as  was  needed  beyond  the  orders 
of  the  Court  was  no  doubt  exercised  by  the  clergymen,  deacons,  and 
magistrates.  Meetings  of  the  Dorchester  Plantation  were  occasionally 
held.  In  the  subsequent  records  there  is  reference  to  such  a  meeting  in 
1631,  "to  make  and  confirm  orders  for  the  control  of  their  affairs."  But  no 
special  town  government  existed.  The  necessity  of  some  form  of  represen- 
tative local  regulation  was  soon  felt,  and  at  a  meeting  of  the  "  Dorchester 
Plantation"  held  Oct.  8,  1633,  an  order  was  passed  which  has  become  of 
such  historic  interest  that  we  transcribe  it  in  the  original  form :  — 

"  An  agreement  made  by  the  whole  Consent  and  vote  of  the  Plantation,  made 
Mooneday,  8th  of  October,  1633. 

"  Imprimis,  It  is  ordered,  that  for  the  generall  good  and  well  ordering  of  the 
aflayres  of  the  plantation,  there  shall  be  every  Mooneday  before  the  Court  by  eight  of 
the  clocke  in  the  morning,  and  presently  upon  the  beating  of  the  drum,  a  generall 
meeteing  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  plantation  at  the  Meeting  House,  there  to  settle  and 
sett  downe  such  orders  as  may  tend  to  the  generall  good  as  aforesayd,  and  every  man 
to  be  bound  thereby  without  gainsaying  or  resistance." 

Another  new  feature  was  the  appointment  of  twelve  selectmen,  who  were 
to  hold  monthly  meetings,  and  whose  orders  were  binding  when  confirmed 
by  the  Plantation. 

This  order,  it  will  be  seen,  contains  the  germ  of  the  New  England  town 
government,  which  was  afterwards  adopted  by  the  other  towns,  and,  as  De 
Tocqueville  promptly  recognized,  exercised  "  the  most  prodigious  influence" 
on  the  history  of  New  England. 

In  the  May  of  the  following  year, — 1634, — when  it  was  ordered  that  four 
General  Courts  should  be  kept  every  year,  at  three  of  which  every  town 
should  be  represented  by  deputies,  Dorchester  sent  three  members, — Israel 
Stoughton,  William  Phelps,  and  George  Hull. 

As  we  might  expect  from  its  size  and  importance,  the  town  of  Dor- 
chester figures  very  frequently  in  the  old  colonial  records.  Its  name,  as 
already  noticed,  was  given  at  the  second  Court  of  Assistants,  when  Boston 
was  also  named.  At  the  third  Court,  held  Sept.  28,  1630,  Thomas  Stough- 
ton was  appointed  its  constable,  and  six  months  later  learned  the  limits  and 
responsibilities  of  his  office,  when  he  was  fined  five  pounds  by  the  Court  for 
taking  upon  himself  to  marry  a  couple,  and  was  ordered  to  be  imprisoned 
until  the  fine  was  paid.  Some  years  later  this  fine  was  remitted.  Most  of 
the  orders  of  the  Court  related  to  the  appointment  of  officers,  the  mending 
of  roads,  the  settlement  of  boundaries,  the  adjustment  of  disputes,  &c.,  but 
the  importance  of  Dorchester  to  Boston  is  seen  in  the  order  of  Nov.  7,  1632, 
when  the  inhabitants  of  Boston  were  granted  liberty  to  "  fetch  wood  from 
Dorchester  neck  of  land  for  twenty  years,  the  property  of  the  land  to  re- 


A 

«/  ' 


428  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

main  with  Dorchester."  Its  military  importance  was  recognized  in  1634  by 
an  assignment  of  three  pieces  of  ordnance,  and  leave  was  granted  to  the 
Deputy-Governor  to  have  "  his  Indian  trained  with  the  rest  of  the  company 
at  Dorchester."  The  novel  way  in  which  the  Dorchester  poor-fund  was 
recruited  in  1632  leads  us  to  infer  that  our  early  fathers  considered  that 
intemperance  owed  some  reparation  to  poverty.  It  was  ordered  that  "  y<. 
remainder  of  Mr.  Allen's  Strong-Water,  being  estimated  about  2  Gallandes, 
shall  be  delivered  into  ye  handes  of  the  Deacons  of  Dorchester  for  the 
benefit  of  the  poore  there,  for  his  selling  of  it  dyvers  tymes  to  such  as  were 
drunke  by  it,  he  knowing  thereof." 

In  1645  an  instrument  called  the  "Directory"  was  adopted,  containing 
regulations  which  the  inhabitants  bound  themselves  to  observe  in  conduct- 
ing town  meetings.  The  Directory  provided  that  "  Althings  should  be 
aforehand  prepared  by  ye  Selectmen  ;  that  all  Votes  of  Importance  should 

be  first  drawn  in  writing,  and  have  2  or  3  distinct 
Readings  before  y"  Vote  was  called  for;  that 
every  man  should  haue  libertie  to  speak  his  mind 
meekly  and  without  noise  ;  that  no  man  should 
speak  when  another  was  speaking  ;  that  all  men 
would  Countenance  and  Encourage  all  ye  Town 
Officers  in  ye  due  Execution  of  their  Offices,  and 
not  ^au^  or  ^ev^e  them  for  doing  their  Duty." 
An  order  was  also  published  that  at  all  town 
AUTOGRAPHS  OF  EARLY  meetings  the  selectmen  were  to  appoint  one  of 

themselves  to  be  moderator. 

The  first  Dorchester  record-book  is  the  oldest  town  record  in  Massa- 
chusetts. Its  six  hundred  and  thirty-six  pages  cover  the  period  from 
January,  1632-33,  to  1720,  and  mainly  contain  lists  of  selectmen,  orders 
relating  to  land-grants,  fences,  roads,  &c.,  having  an  interest  for  the  anti- 
quary, though  but  little  for  the  general  reader.2  There  is  one  important 

1  [Roger  Clap  is  the  writer  of  the  account  of  2  [See  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  April, 

their  early  experiences,  already  quoted.     Clap  1867,  &c.     Use  was  of  course  made  of  them  in 

was  for  twenty-one  years  (1665-86)  captain  of  the  the  History  of  Dorchester,  which  was  begun  by 

Castle,  and  he  is  buried  in  King's  Chapel  yard,  a  committee  of  the  Dorchester  Historical  and 

Shurtleff,  Boston,  pp.  195,  478,  490.     He  removed  Antiquarian   Society,  in  1851,  and  completed  in 

to  Boston  in  1686.     He  wrote  his  Memoirs  about  1859.     That  Society,  acting  under  the  impulse 

1676,  and  it  was  first  printed  from  the  original  which  the  late  Rev.  Thaddeus  M.  Harris,  D.D., 

manuscript,  edited  by  Thomas  Prince,  in  1731,  gave  to  antiquarian  study  in  his  account  of  the 

and  various  times  since,  besides  being  printed  by  town  in  the  Mass.  Hist.   Coll.,  \x.,  had  already 

the  Dorchester  Historical  and  Antiquarian  So-  printed  the  Memoirs  of  Clap,  the  journal  which 

ciety,  and  being  included  in  Young's  Chronicles  Richard  Mather  kept  on  his  voyage  over,  May- 

of  Mass.      Humphrey  Atherton   was   a   major-  August,  1635  (also  printed  in  Young's  Chronicles 

general,  and  while  returning  home  in  the  dark  of  Mass.),  and  a  compilation,  chiefly  from  the 

after  reviewing  his  troops  on  Boston  Common,  Town  Records,  made  by  Captain  James  Blake 

his  horse  was  struck  by  a  stray  cow.     In  the  in  the  last  century,  and  called  Annals  of  Dor- 

collision  he  was  thrown   and  killed,  Sept.   16,  Chester.     The   oration  which   Edward   Everett, 

1661.     Shurtleff,  Boston,  p.  283,  records  his  epi-  who  was  a  native  of  the  town,  delivered  in  1855 

taph.     Parker  was  a  lay  preacher  and  trader  be-  (  Works,  iii.  293),  entitled  "Dorchester,  in  1630, 

tween  Barbadoes  and  Boston.     History  of  Dor-  1776,  and  1855,"  is  not  without  interest  in  this 

Chester,  p.  70.  —  ED.]  connection.  —  ED.] 


DORCHESTER    IN    THE    COLONIAL   PERIOD.  429 

order,  however,  which  must  not  be  overlooked.  It  is  referred  to  by  the 
oldest  inhabitants  with  the  greatest  pride.  I  refer  to  the  order  making 
provision  for  a  free  school.  On  the  4th  March,  1634-35,  the  General 
Court  made  a  grant  of  Tompson's  Island  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  of 
Dorchester.  On  the  3<Dth  of  May,  1639,  four  years  after  the  grant,  the  town 
voted  to  lay  a  tax  upon  the  proprietors  of  this  island  "  for  the  maintenance 
of  a  school  in  Dorchester."  From  a  later  instrument  we  learn  that  those 
who  paid  rent  numbered  about  one  hundred  and  twenty,  and  therefore  in- 
cluded the  principal  part  of  the  adult  male  inhabitants  of  the  town.  This 
order,  it  is  claimed,  was  the  first  public  provision  made  for  a  free  school  in 
America  "  by  a  direct  tax  or  assessment  on  the  inhabitants  of  the  town." 
The  rent  imposed  on  the  island  was  £20,  "  to  be  paid  to  such  a  schoole- 
master  as  shall  undertake  to  teach  English,  latine,  and  other  tongues,  and 
also  writing."  It  was  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  elders  and  the  seven  men 
for  the  time  being,  "whether  maydes  shalbe  taught  wth  the  boyes  or  not." 
In  1641,  by  another  instrument,  signed  by  seventy-one  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  town,  it  was  agreed  that  the  island  and  all  profits  and  benefits  thereof 
should  be  forever  bequeathed  and  given  away  from  themselves  and  their 
heirs  unto  the  town  of  Dorchester,  "  for  the  maintenance  of  a  free  schoole  in 
Dorchester,"  with  the  proviso  that  the  income  should  not  be  put  to  any 
other  use.  Rev.  Thomas  Waterhouse  was  the  first  teacher.  In  1645,  wardens 
were  appointed  to  manage  the  affairs  of  the  school,  and  various  rules  were 
adopted  for  its  government.  The  schoolmaster  was  not  to  be  chosen  without 
the  consent  of  the  major  part  of  the  inhabitants.  For  seven  months  of  the 
year  the  hours  were  fixed  from  7  o'clock  to  u,  and  from  I  o'clock  to  5; 
for  the  other  five  months  from  8  o'clock  to  1 1 ,  and  I  o'clock  to  4.  Every 
Monday,  from  12  o'clock  to  I,  scholars  were  called  together  and  questioned 
upon  what  they  had  learned  on  the  Sabbath  day  preceding,  and  on  Satur- 
days, at  2  o'clock,  were  catechised  in  the  principles  of  the  Christian  religion. 
Another  rule  was  that  the  schoolmaster  "  shall  equally  and  impartially  re- 
ceive and  instruct  such  as  shalbe  sent  and  Committed  to  him  for  that  end, 
whither  there  parents  bee  poore  or  rich,  not  refusing  any  who  have  Right 
and  Interest  in  the  Schoole." 

When,  in  1648,  the  claim  of  John  Tompson  to  the  island  already  named, 
by  virtue  of  his  father  David's  occupancy,  was  granted  by  the  Court,  a  thou- 
sand acres  of  land  were  assigned  to  Dorchester  in  lieu  thereof.  Individual 
bequests  attest  the  great  interest  which  the  early  settlers  had  in  their  free 
school.  The  earliest  of  these  was  the  legacy  of  John  Clap  in  1655.  The 
land  he  bequeathed  at  South  Boston  Point  was  sold  in  1835  for  the  sum  of 
$13,590.62.  Another  bequest,  made  in  1674,  by  Christopher  Gibson,  who 
was  one  of  the  first  applicants  for  freemanship  in  Dorchester  in  1630,  now 
amounts  to  $17,575.79,  and  the  £150  given  by  Lieutenant-Governor  Stough- 
ton  towards  the  advancement  of  the  salary  of  the  schoolmaster  has  swelled 
to  $4,140.  When  Dorchester  was  annexed  to  Boston  these  funds  were 
made  over  to  the  city,  but  the  income  of  the  Gibson  fund  is  appropriated 


430  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

for  the  supply  of  the  Dorchester  schools  with  such  library  books  and  appar- 
atus as  are  not  furnished  by  the  city;  and  the  income  of  the  Stoughton  fund 
is  credited  annually  to  the  appropriation  for  salaries  of  school  instructors. 

The  bold  spirit  of  enterprise  which,  in  common  with  an  earnest  religious 
faith,  brought  the  colonists  to  New  England,  was  not  checked  when  they 
had  landed  on  its  shores.  The  people  of  Dorchester  had  hardly  been 
settled  three  years  before  that  westward  movement  began  wtiich  was  to 
result  in  the  immediate  foundation  of  Connecticut,  and,  fed  by  new  and 
still  flowing  streams  from  Europe,  was  eventually  to  spread  across  the  con- 
tinent. We  have  no  space  in  this  article  to  speak  of  that  movement  in 
detail.  It  must  suffice  to  say  that  in  1633  the  glowing  reports  brought  by 
Indians  and  adventurous  scouts  of  the  fertility  of  the  Connecticut  valley, 
heightened  by  seeing  specimens  of  its  valuable  furs,  stimulated  the  enter- 
prise of  the  Dorchester  people,  and  a  Connecticut  fever  set  in  which  was  not 
easily  abated.  The  colonial  government  strongly  opposed  the  movement, 
but  was  finally  obliged  to  consent.  A  trading-house  established  by  the  peo- 
ple of  Plymouth  in  Connecticut  in  1633,  on  or  near  the  site  of  the  present 
town  of  Windsor,  became  the  nucleus  of  the  new  settlement  in  1635.  An 
advance  party  left  in  the  summer  of  that  year,  and  were  followed  in  Novem- 
ber by  sixty  persons,  with  a  large  number  of  cattle.  The  journey  was  one 
of  much  hardship  ;  the  winter  which  followed  was  marked  by  great  suffering. 
Winthrop  tells  us  that  they  lost  near  .£2,000  worth  of  cattle,  and  were 
obliged  to  eat  acorns,  malt,  and  grains.  Having  been  threatened  with 
starvation  in  the  early  months  of  their  settlements  in  Dorchester,  it  may 
seem  strange  that  so  many  of  the  first  planters  should  invite  the  same  peril 
a  second  time.  It  is  another  illustration  of  their  native  pluck  and  deter- 
mination. Though  most  of  the  first  party  were  obliged  to  return  to  Dor- 
chester, in  the  spring  of  1636  they  set  out  again,  with  Mr.  Warham,  the 
junior  pastor  of  the  church,  and  a  large  part  of  its  members.  With  those 
from  Dorchester  were  others  from  Cambridge  and  Watertown.1 

The  departure  of  the  emigrants  was  facilitated  by  the  fact  that  a  vessel 
arrived  in  1635  from  England  with  Richard  Mather  and  a  large  company, 
many  of  whom  were  prepared  to  buy  the  places  of  those  who  were  going 
away.  Notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  the  colonial  government  to  discour- 
age it,  emigration  did  not  finally  cease  till  1637. 

The  original  boundaries  of  Dorchester  were  of  the  most  roving  and  all- 
embracing  nature.  From  various  grants  of  the  Court,  and  the  reports  of 
committees  appointed  to  adjust  boundaries,  we  learn  that  by  the  year  1637 
Dorchester  occupied  not  only  all  the  ground  within  its  present  limits, 
but  also  extended  over  the  present  towns  of  Milton,  Canton,  Stoughton, 
Sharon,  Foxboro,  and  a  part  of  Wrentham,  —  a  district  some  thirty-five 
miles  long,  and  running,  as  computed  by  a  careful  historian,  to  within  one 
hundred  and  sixty  rods  of  the  Rhode  Island  line.  In  the  year  1657,  at  the 
request  of  John  Eliot,  the  town  of  Dorchester,  warmly  supporting  his  mission 

1  [Cf.  George  E.  Ellis's  Life  of  John  Mason.  —  ED.] 


DORCHESTER    IN    THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


431 


to  the  Indians,  set  apart  six  thousand  acres  at  Ponkapog  for  an  Indian  res- 
ervation. In  the  year  1713,  when  a  new  line  was  run,  Dorchester  lost, 
through  the  mistake  of  the  surveyors,  six  thousand  more  acres  of  its  ex- 
tensive territory. 

Johnson  seems  to  have  been  struck  by  the  form  of  the  town,  and  thus 
mentions  it  in  his  Wonder-working  Providence,  published  in  1654:  — 

"  The  form  of  this  town  is  almost  like  a  serpent,  turning  her  head  to  the  northward, 
over  against  Tompson's  Island  and  the  Castle  ;  her  body  and  wings,  being  chiefly  built 
on,  are  filled  somewhat  thick  of  houses,  only  that  one  of  her  wings  is  clipped,  her  tail 
being  of  such  a  large  extent  that  she  can  hardly  draw  it  after  her.  Her  houses  for  dwell- 
ings are  about  one  hundred  and  forty,  orchards  and  gardens  full  of  fruit-trees,  plenty 
of  corn-land,  although  much  of  it  hath  been  long  in  tillage,  yet  hath  it  ordinarily  good 
crops.  The  number  of  trees  are  near  upon  1,500.  Cows  and  other  cattle  of  that  kind 
about  450." 

Wood,  in  1633,  in  his  New  England's  Prospect,  describes  Dorchester  as 
"  the  greatest  town  in  New  England,  well  wooded  and  watered ;  very  good 
arable  grounds  and  hay-ground ;  fair  cornfields  and  pleasant  gardens,  with 


THE    PIERCE    HOUSE.1 

kitchen  gardens.  In  this  plantation  is  a  great  many  cattle,  as  kine,  goats, 
and  swine.  This  plantation  hath  a  reasonable  harbor  for  ships,  but  here  is 
no  alewife  river,  which  is  a  great  inconvenience.  The  inhabitants  of  this 

1  [This  house  was  built  by  Robert  Pierce  in  over  on  the  voyage,  which  were  exhibited  when 

1640.    This  Robert  Pierce  was  the  ancestor  of  Mr.  Everett  delivered  an  oration   in   Dorches- 

the   late    Rev.  Dr.  Pierce  of   Brookline.      The  ter   in   1855.     Edward  Everett,  Works,  iii.  325. 

emigrant    preserved    two   sea-biscuit,   brought  — ED.] 


432 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


town  were  the  first  that  set  upon  the  trade  of  fishing  in  the  Bay,  who  re- 
ceived so  much  fruit  of  their  labors  that  they  encouraged  others  to  the  same 
undertakings." 

The  description  of  Josselyn,  made  in  his  second  voyage  to  New  England, 
in  1663,  confirms  that  of  the  other  writers:  — 

"  Six  miles  beyond  Braintree  lieth  Dorchester,  a  frontier  town  pleasantly  seated,  and 
of  large  extent  into  the  main  land,  well  watered  with  two  small  rivers,  her  body  and 
wings  filled  somewhat  thick  with  houses  to  the  number  of  two  hundred  and  more,  beau- 
tified with  fair  orchards  and  gardens,  having  also  plenty  of  corn-land  and  store  of  catde, 
counted  the  greatest  town  heretofore  in  New  England,  but  now  gives  way  to  Boston. 
It  hath  a  harbor  to  the  north  for  ships." 

Of  the  one  hundred  and  forty  houses  described  by  Josselyn  in  1663  a  few 
are  now  standing.  The  oldest  of  these  is  supposed  to  be  the  Minot  house, 
on  Chickataubut  Street.  The  first  houses  of  the  settlers  were  probably 


THE    MINOT    HOUSE.1 

simple  log  cabins  covered  with  thatch.  As  the  colony  grew,  these  soon 
gave  way  to  more  comfortable  and  pretentious  structures,  but  still  char- 
acterized by  what  we  should  consider  to-day  a  barn-like  simplicity.  The 


1  [This  house  stands  in  that  part  of  the  town 
called  Neponset.  A  cut  showing  its  present 
condition  is  given  in  Bryant  and  Gay's  United 
Slates,  ii.  55.  The  date  of  its  erection  is  put  by 
some  as  far  back  as  1633,  anc'  'l  's  called  the  old- 
est wooden  house  standing  on  the  continent.  Hist. 


Mag.,  September,  1867,  p.  169;  A/>f>leton's  Jour- 
nal, 1874  ;  Harper's  Weekly,  June  26,  1880,  where 
che  view  is  an  erroneous  one.  The  family  cradle, 
which  has  come  down  from  the  days  of  Elder 
George  Minot,  is  in  the  possession  of  Miss  Ra- 
chel Minot,  of  Neponset.  —  En.] 


DORCHESTER    IN    THE    COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


433 


picture  of  the  Minot  house  will  be  recognized  by  all  old  residents  of  Dor- 
chester as  a  faithful  representation  of  this  venerable  building  before  it  took 
fire  in  November,  1874.  The  exact  date  of  its  erection  is  unknown.  It  is 
placed  by  the  descendants  of  the  Minot  family  as  early  as  1640.  Though 
to  all  external  appearance  nothing  but  a  wooden  house,  its  frame  is  filled  in 
solidly  with  brick,  either  for  greater  durability  or  perhaps  to  render  the 
walls  bullet-proof.  The  house  has  undergone  a  few  modifications  since  it 
was  first  built.  At  present  it  is  a  mere  shell,  charred  and  blackened  by  the 
flames ;  but  its  heavy  brick-lined  frame  is  still  an  interesting  memorial  of 
the  early  New  England  architects,  who  in  more  than  one  sense  "  builded 
better  than  they  knew."  Most  conspicuous  in  the  history  of  the  house  is 
the  legend  of  a  maiden's  heroism  during  the  war  with  Philip  in  1675.  One 
Sunday  in  July  of  that  year,  when  the  house  was  occupied  by  the  family  of 
John  Minot,  the  maid-servant  and  two  young  children  were  left  in  the  house 
without  protection.  An  Indian  straggler  from  one  of  Philip's  bands  suddenly 


THE    BLAKE   HOUSE.1 

appeared  and  sought  to  gain  an  entrance.  He  was  promptly  discovered  by 
the  maid,  who  hastily  put  the  children  under  two  brass  kettles,  and  ran  up- 
stairs for  a  musket.  The  Indian  fired  his  gun,  but  without  effect.  The 
courageous  young  woman  returned  the  fire  with  more  success,  wounding 

1  [A  view  of  this  house  is  given  in  A  Geneal-     and  his  Descendants,  by  Samuel  Blake,  Boston, 
ogical  History  of  William  Blake,  of  Dorchester,     1857.  —  ED.J 
VOL.   I.  —  55. 


434 


THE    MEMORIAL    HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 


the  Indian  in  the  shoulder;  and  when,  with  a  desperate  indiscretion,  he  tried 
to  enter  through  the  window,  she  quickly  seized  a  shovel  of  hot  coals  and 
threw  them  in  his  face.  The  assailant  then  beat  a  retreat,  and  was  after- 
wards found  dead  in  the  woods  about  five  miles  away. 

The  Blake  house,  illustrated  on  another  page,  is  said  to  have  been  built 
by  Elder  James  Blake  prior  to  1650.  It  stands  on  Cottage  Street,  near  the 
Five  Corners.  It  remained  in  the  Blake  family  until  1825.  As  in  nearly  all 
of  the  old  houses,  the  rooms  are  very  low. 


THE   TOLMAN   HOUSE. 

The  Bridgham  house,  so  named  from  the  long  occupancy  of  Jonathan 
Bridgham,  who  lived  in  it  his  whole  life  of  ninety-one  years,  stood  on  Cot- 
tage Street,  at  the  junction  of  Humphreys  and  Franklin,  until  May,  1873, 
when  it  was  removed  to  widen  the  street.  It  was  probably  built  prior  to 
1637,  as  Robert  Pond,  who  died  in  that  year,  appears  to  have  been  its 
owner. 

The  Tolman  house  stood  on  Washington  Street,  and  was  also  built  during 
the  colonial  period.  It  was  taken  down  a  few  years  ago. 

Although  special  attention  has  been  paid  in  this  article  to  the  civil  his- 
tory of  the  town,  it  would  not  be  complete  without  some  reference  to  its  early 
religious  history.  In  those  days  church  and  town  were  closely  united,  and 
their  interests  were  identical.  It  is  to  be  remembered,  also,  that  the  Dor- 
chester settlers  laid  so  much  emphasis  upon  the  religious  aims  of  their 
enterprise  that  they  organized  themselves  into  a  church  before  leaving 
England.  The  establishment  of  a  church  in  Dorchester  is  therefore  coin- 


DORCHESTER    IN    THE    COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


435 


cident  with  the  settlement  of  the  town  itself.  Dorchester  had  also  the  first 
meeting-house  in  the  Bay.  It  was  built  in  1631  on  the  plain  near  the  corner 
of  Cottage  and  Pleasant  streets.  The  building  was  palisadoed  and  guarded 
against  Indian  attack,  and  was  used  as  a  depot  for  military  stores.  Its  use  as 
an  arsenal  was  nearly  fatal  to  its  use  as  a  meeting-house.  While  drying  a  little 
powder,  which  took  fire  by  the  heat  of  the  pan  and  set  off  a  small  keg  near 


THE    BRIDGHAM    HOUSE. 

by,  Mr.  Maverick,  the  senior  pastor,  had  his  clothes  singed,  and  the  thatch  of 
the  meeting-house  was  blackened.  Winthrop,  who  relates  this  fact,  has  re- 
corded another  which  shows  that  the  Dorchester  people  were  rather  unfor- 
tunate in  trying  to  keep  their  powder  dry.  "  One  Glover,  of  Dorchester, 
having  laid  60  pounds  of  gunpowder  in  bags  to  dry  in  the  end  of  his 
chimney,  it  took  fire,  and  some  of  it  went  up  the  chimney,  other  of  it  filled 
the  room  and  past  out  at  a  door  into  another  room,  and  blew  up  a  gable 


436  TH£   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

end."     The  house  was  not  destroyed,  but  a  maid  was  badly  burned  and  died 
soon  after,  and  two  men  and  a  child  were  slightly  scorched. 

Though  tried  as  by  fire,  the  first  meeting-house  stood  for  fourteen  years. 
During  the  first  year  of  its  existence  the  people  of  Roxbury,  then  without  a 
church,  joined  with  those  in  Dorchester  in  public  worship.  In  1645  it  was 
agreed,  "  for  peace  and  love's  sake,  that  there  should  be  a  new  meeting-house." 
Two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  were  appropriated  for  this  purpose.  In  1670 
this  building  was  removed  to  Meeting-house  Hill,  which  has  remained  the 
church  site  for  two  hundred  and  ten  years. 

The  first  ministers,  Maverick  and  Warham,  as  already  mentioned,  were 
chosen  pastors  on  the  organization  of  the  church  in  England.  \Yinthrop 
tells  us  that  Maverick  was  "  a  man  of  a  very  humble  spirit,  faithful  in  fur- 
thering the  work  of  the  Lord  here,  both  in  the  churches  and  civil  state."  He 
died  in  February,  1636.  Mr.  Warham,  the  junior  pastor,  a  man  of  strong 
influence  and  ability,  removed  to  Windsor  and  remained  there  as  pastor  for 
thirty-four  years. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Maverick,  the  removal  of  a  large  part  of  the  church 
members  to  Connecticut,  and  the  arrival  of  a  fresh  load  of  emigrants,  occa- 
sioned the  reorganization  of  the  church  in  1636.  A  written  covenant  was 
then  adopted.  Whether  one  had  existed  before  is  not  known.  It  was  the 
good  fortune  of  Dorchester,  among  several  claimants,  to  secure  the  services 
of  Richard  Mather  as  pastor  a  few  months  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Maverick. 
The  influence  in  Boston  and  New  England  of  that  distinguished  family  of  which 
Richard  Mather  was  the  first  is  treated  in  another  chapter  of  this  book  ;  but, 
as  with  John  White,  the  eminent  services  of  this  man  to  Dorchester  deserve 
a  special  recognition  in  the  Dorchester  section.  Mr.  Mather  was  born  at 
Lowton,  in  the  parish  of  Winwick,  county  of  Lancaster,  England,  in  1596. 
He  very  early  displayed  a  great  capacity  for  scholarship,  and  at  fifteen  years 
of  age  was  master  in  a  school  at  Toxteth  Park,  near  Liverpool.  He  subse- 
quently entered  Brazenose  College,  Oxford,  and,  after  receiving  ordination, 
preached  for  sixteen  years  at  Toxteth,  until  suspended  for  non-conformity  in 
1633  and  again  in  1634.  The  increasing  severity  of  the  hierarchy  decided 
him  to  remove  to  New  England.  He  travelled  to  Bristol  in  disguise,  sailed 
for  America,  encountering  a  terrible  gale,  which  he  described  at  length  in 
his  interesting  journal  of  the  voyage,  and  arrived  in  Boston  Harbor  Aug.  17, 
1635.  His  rare  abilities  and  scholarship  were  at  once  recognized  in  the 
colony.  After  his  settlement  in  Dorchester  he  became  a  prominent  leader 
in  all  ecclesiastical  afifairs.  He  was  one  of  a  committee  appointed  by  the 
Cambridge  council  in  1646  to  draft  a  model  of  church  discipline  and  polity. 
Among  the  several  models  proposed,  that  drafted  by  Mr.  Mather  was  sub- 
stantially adopted.  He  was  an  influential  member  of  the  council  which  met 
at  Boston  June  4,  1657,  and  of  nearly  all  other  councils  held  during  his 
ministry.  The  brethren  of  Connecticut  sought  his  personal  aid  in  settling 
the  differences  of  the  church  at  Hartford.  Mr.  Mather's  theological 
and  controversial  writings  in  print  and  manuscript  furnish  additional 


DORCHESTER   IN    THE   COLONIAL    PERIOD. 


437 


evidence  of  his  industry,  ability,  and  zeal.  His  great  interest  in 
the  political  condition  of  England  and  the  colony  appears  in  the  days 
of  thanksgiving  and  prayer  which  were  held  by  the  Dorchester  Church 


RICHARD   MATHER.1 


1  [This  cut  follows  a  photograph  taken  from 
the  original  picture  in  the  collection  of  the 
American  Antiquarian  Society  at  Worcester, 
which,  with  others  of  the  later  Mathers,  was 
given  to  that  Society  by  Mrs.  Hannah  Mather 
Crocker,  of  Boston.  Nathaniel  Paine,  Portraits 
and  Busts  in  Public  Buildings  at  Worcester,  Bos- 
ton, 1876,  reprinted  from  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and 
Geneal.  Reg.,  January,  1876.  A  note  on  Mather's 
English  ancestry  is  given  in  the  Register,  Janu- 
ary, 1879,  p.  102.  The  will  of  Richard  Mather  is 


in  the  same,  July,  1866.  The  Mather  pedigree  is 
followed  in  Drake's  edition  of  Increase  Mather's 
Philip'' s  War.  A  Genealogy  of  the  Mather  Family 
was  printed  at  Hartford  in  1848,  —  quite  inade- 
quate, however.  There  is  an  account  of  Richard 
Mather's  tomb  in  Shurtleff's  Boston,  p.  285.  W. 
B.  Trask  printed  the  inscriptions  from  the  old 
burial-ground  in  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg., 
April,  1850,  &c.  Some  of  the  inscriptions,  with 
the  armorial  bearings,  are  given  in  the  Heraldic 
Journal,  i. —  ED.] 


438  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

at  his  instigation.  The  important  petition  made  by  the  town  of  Dorchester 
to  the  General  Court  in  1664,  signed  by  the  principal  inhabitants  of  the 
town,  and  praying  that  the  liberties  and  privileges  granted  by  the  charter 
might  still  be  continued,  is  in  the  handwriting  of  Mr.  Mather.  His  farewell 
exhortation  to  the  church  and  people  of  Dorchester  was  printed,  and  a  copy 
given  to  each  family.  Mr.  Mather's  death,  in  the  seventy-third  year  of  his 
age,  which  occurred  April  6,  1669,  is  thus  entered  in  the  church  records: 
"  The  Rev.  Richard  Mather,  teacher  of  the  church  of  Dorchester,  rested  from 
his  labors."  The  following  anagram  appears  on  the  church  records :  — 


•y*fc  *»»<*<•  •^•T'        T     7  "Third  in  New  England's  Dorchester 

Y       ."i    xryi^/Lc^-  Was  this  ordained  minister. 

Second  to  none  for  fruitfulness, 
Abilities,  and  usefulness. 

"  Divine  his  charms,  years  seven   times 
seven, 

O      .-^  /L/»*     L^       *  ^  *f ^l  Wise  to  win  souls  from  earth  to  heaven; 

i7o    «^  /         \"                /C£a  s  Prophet's  reward  he  gains  above, 

*/    '£*    ^     2^*^     * J  But  great 's  our  loss  bY  his  remove." 

An  epitaph,  different  from  the  one  inscribed  on  his  tombstone,  is  also 
written  in  the  church  records :  — 

"  Sacred  to  God  his  servant  Richard  Mather, 
Sons  like  him,  good  and  great,  did  call  him  father, 
Hard  to  discern  a  difference  in  degree, 
'Twixt  his  bright  learning  and  high  piety. 
Short  time  his  sleeping  dust  lies  covered  down,         • 
So  can't  his  soul  or  his  deserved  renown. 
From  's  birth  six  lustres  and  a  jubilee 
To  his  repose:  but  laboured  hard  in  thee, 
O  Dorchester !  four  more  than  thirty  years 
His  sacred  dust  with  thee  thine  honour  rears." 

Mr.  Mather  was  assisted  for  a  year  and  a  half  by  Rev.  Jonathan  Burr, 
who  was  installed  as  colleague  in  1640  and  died  in  1641.  Governor  Win- 
throp  has  recorded  his  piety  and  learning,  and  Cotton  Mather  his  charity, 
sympathy,  meekness,  and  humility.  Rev.  John  Wilson,  Jun.,  was  ordained 
as  "  coadjutor  of  Mr.  Mather,  the  Teacher,"  in  1649.  After  serving  for  two 
years  he  removed  to  Medfield,  where  he  was  pastor  for  forty  years. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

BRIGHTON    IN    THE    COLONIAL    PERIOD. 

BY     FRANCIS     S.     DRAKE. 

THAT  part  of  ancient  Cambridge  lying  south  of  Charles  River,  formerly 
bearing  the  various  designations  of  "  The  south  side  of  the  river,"  "  The 
third  parish,"  "  The  third  precinct,"  "  South  Cambridge,"  or  "  Little  Cam- 
bridge," and  afterwards  of  Brighton,  was  set  off  as  a  separate  parish  April 
2,  17/9;  was  incorporated  as  the  town  of  Brighton  Feb.  24,  1807;  and 
was  annexed  to  Boston,  of  which  it  now  constitutes  the  25th  ward,  by  an 
Act  of  the  Legislature  approved  May  21,  1873,  and  which  took  effect  Jan. 
5,  1874. 

It  is  bounded  north  and  east  by  Watertown  and  Cambridge,  from  which 
it  is  separated  by  the  Charles  River;  southeast  and  south  by  Brookline; 
and  west  by  Newton.  The  dividing  line  between  Brighton  and  Newton 
was  established  in  1662  substantially  as  at  present,  in  consequence  of  a 
petition  of  the  inhabitants  of  Cambridge  Village  (Newton)  to  be  released 
from  paying  church  rates  to  Cambridge,  they  having  built  a  house  of 
worship  for  themselves  on  account  of  their,  great  distance  from  that  at 
Cambridge.  In  1688  they  were  set  off  and  made  an  independent  town. 
The  Brookline  boundary  was  settled  in  1640. 

The  eastern  portion  of  Brighton  is  low  and  marshy,  but  towards  the 
south  and  west  it  rises  into  beautiful  eminences  which  command  delightful 
views  of  Boston  and  its  environs.  The  soil  is  naturally  fertile,  much  of  it 
having  of  late  years  been  devoted  to  market-gardening  and  to  extensive 
nurseries.  Its  small  area  comprises  only  2,660^  acres.  The  Charles  River 
is  here  navigable  its  entire  distance  for  sloops  and  schooners  of  several 
hundred  tons  burden.  This  stream,  anciently  called  Quineboquin,  was  the 
natural  boundary  between  two  hostile  tribes  of  Indians.  It  rises  in  Hop- 
kinton  and,  flowing  in  a  circuitous  course,  enters  Boston  Harbor  at 
Charlestown. 

Properly  speaking,  the  history  of  Brighton  dates  from  its  formation  into 
a  parish  in  1779.  Its  earlier  history  is  included  in  the  following  brief 
sketch  of  that  of  Cambridge,  of  which  it  was  for  a  century  and  a  half  a 
mere  outlying  suburb.  Its  settlement  dates  from  1635,  when  the  farm 


.440 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


lands  on  the  south  side  of  the  river  were  granted  to  such  persons  as  desired 
them.  The  early  inhabitants  of  Cambridge  were  clustered  together  in  the 
district  bounded  north  by  Harvard  street  and  square,  west  by  Brattle 
Square  and  Eliot  Street,  south  by  Eliot  and  South  streets,  and  east  by 
Holyoke  Street ;  so  that  their  brethren  across  the  river  were  socially  and 
geographically  an  isolated  and  distinct  community.  Spiritually  and  politi- 
cally they  were  one,  and  for  more  than  a  century  the  same  schoolhouse 
and  the  same  place  of  worship  sufficed  for  both.  So  gradual  was  the 
growth  of  Brighton  that  in  1688,  more  than  half  a  century  after  its  settle- 
ment, it  held  but  twenty-eight  families  and  thirty-five  ratable  polls. 
Farming  was  the  sole  occupation  of  her  people. 

Among  the  pioneers  in  its  settlement  we  find  in  Rev.  Thomas  Shepard's 
company  the  names  of  Champney  and  Sparhawk,  two  of  the  earliest 
families  established  on  the  south  side  of  the  river.  Then  came  Richard 
Dana;  and  before  1639  John  Jackson,  Samuel  Holly,  Randolph  Bush, 
William  Redfen,  and  William  Clements  had  homes  here.  Elder  Richard 
Champney,  who  with  Edward  Oakes  was  in  February,  1669,  appointed  to 
"  catechise  the  youth  of  the  town  on  the  south  side  of  the  bridge," 
died  in  that  year.  Deacon  Nathaniel  Sparhawk,  admitted  a  freeman  in 
1639,  represented  Cambridge  in  the  General  Court  from  1642  until  his 
death,  June  28,  1647.  Sparhawk,  Champney,  and  Dana  are  all  represented 
in  Brighton  by  their  descendants  to-day.  The  descendants  of  Lieutenant 
Edward  Winship,  who  settled  on  the  college  side  in  1635,  were  early  and 
largely  represented  here  also  in  the  succeeding  generations. 

Cambridge,  the  mother  town, — whose  original  limits  included  also 
Brighton,  Newton,  Arlington,  Lexington,  Bradford,  and  Billerica,  —  owes 
her  origin  to  an  agreement  between  Governor  Winthrop  and  most  of  the 
Assistants  and  others,  made  Dec.  6,  1630,  to  build  a  fortified  town  for  the 
seat  of  government  upon  the  neck  between  Roxbury  and  Boston.  Finding 
this  location  unsuitable,  they  resolved  on  the  28th,  after  examining  else- 
where, to  build  "  at  a  place  a  mile  east  from  Watertown,  near  Charles 
River."  Here  they  began  the  "  newe  towne,"  in  the  spring  of  1631,  Deputy- 
Governor  Dudley  and  his  son-in-law  Bradstreet  being  the  only  members 
of  the  Government  to  fulfil  their  agreement  to  build  themselves  houses 
therein.  Governor  Winthrop  did  indeed  build  a  house,  but  very  soon 
removed  it  to  Boston.  A  sharp  controversy  between  Winthrop  and 
Dudley,  growing  out  of  this  apparent  breach  of  faith,  was  decided  by  the 
elders  in  favor  of  the  latter. 

In  pursuance  of  its  original  design,  the  Court,  in  February,  1631-32, 
ordered  a  levy  of  £60,  in  the  several  plantations  "  towards  the  makeing  of 
a  pallysadoe  about  the  newe  towne."  This  defensive  work  was  erected 
and  a  fosse  dug,  enclosing  upwards  of  one  thousand  acres  "  paled  in  with 
one  general  fence  "  about  one  and  one-half  miles  in  length.  It  was  to  the 
opposition  of  Watertown  to  the  tax  levied  for  this  purpose  that  our  House 
of  Representatives  owes  its  origin. 


BRIGHTON    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  441 

Quite  an  accession  was  made  to  the  small  population  of  Newtown  in 
August,  1632,  when,  by  order  of  the  General  Court,  the  Braintree  Company 
(Rev.  Mr.  Hooker's),  which  had  begun  a  settlement  at  Mount  Wollaston, 
removed  hither.  Its  numbers  so  increased  that  one  year  later  it  contained 
nearly  one  hundred  families.  In  May,  1634,  when  Dudley  was  elected  gov- 
ernor, it  was  made  the  seat  of  government  as  was  originally  intended,  and 
the  courts  were  held  here  until  May,  1636,  and  again  from  April,  1637,  un- 
til September,  1638.  When,  in  the  latter  year,  Harvard  College  was  estab- 
lished, the  name  of  Newtown  was  changed  to  Cambridge,  out  of  regard 
for  the  place  where  so  many  of  the  chief  men  of  New  England  had  been 
educated. 

At  the  Court  held  May  14,  1634,  leave  was  granted  to  the  inhabitants 
of  Newtown  who  complained  of  "  straitness  for  want  of  land,"  to  seek  out 
some  "  convenient  place  for  them,  with  promise  that  it  shalbe  confirmed 
unto  them,  to  which  they  may  remove  their  habitations  or  have  as  an 
addition  to  that  which  already  they  have,  provided  they  do  not  take  it  in 
any  place  to  prejudice  a  plantation  already  settled."  After  examining 
several  places,  "  the  congregation  of  Newtown  came  and  accepted  such 
enlargement  as  had  been  formerly  offered  them  by  Boston  and  Watertown." 
This  "  enlargement,"  which  was  on  the  south  side  of  the  Charles  River, 
embraced  the  territory  since  known  as  Brookline,  Brighton,  and  Newton. 
Still  there  was  dissatisfaction,  and  the  inhabitants  continuing  to  have  "  a 
strong  bent  of  their  spirits  to  remove,"  a  large  number  of  them  went  to 
Connecticut  before  Sept.  3,  1635,  anc^  Mr.  Hooker,  with  most  of  his  con- 
gregation, followed  in  May,  1636.  Their  possessions  in  Newtown  were 
purchased  by  Mr.  Shepard  and  his  company,  who  opportunely  arrived  in 
the  autumn  of  1635,  and  early  in  1636.  The  grant  of  Brookline  had  been 
forfeited  in  consequence  of  Mr.  Hooker's  removal ;  that  of  Brighton  and 
Newton  held  good. 

The  few  Indians  in  Cambridge  were  subject  to  the  Squaw-Sachem, 
formerly  the  wife  of  Nanepashemit,  and  maintained  friendly  relations  with 
the  whites.  Those  of  Nonantum,  at  the  western  extremity  of  Brighton, 
were  under  Cutshamokin,  who  resided  at  Neponset.  These,  with  'other 
Indian  rulers,  in  March,  1644,  voluntarily  placed  themselves  under  the 
government  of  Massachusetts,  having  previously  sold  to  her  all  right  and 
title  to  their  land.  This  had  been  done  "to  avoid  the  least  scruple  of 
intrusion,"  in  accordance  with  the  instructions  of  the  Massachusetts  Com- 
pany in  England,  dated  April  17,  1629. 

Cambridge  men  actively  participated  in  the  civil,  military,  and  religious 
events  of  the  colonial  epoch;  in  the  Indian  war  of  1675-76  which  threat- 
ened the  colonists  with  destruction,  and  called  forth  their  utmost  exertions ; 
in  the  fruitless  efforts  of  twenty  years'  duration  to  preserve  the  colonial 
charter  which  the  home  government  sought  to  annul ;  and  finally,  in  the 
revolutionary  movement  by  which  the  obnoxious  government  of  Andros 
was  overturned. 

VOL.  i.  —  56. 


442  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

The  religious  life  of  the  town  was  formally  begun  Oct.  11,  1633,  when 
the  First  Church  was  organized,  over  which  Mr.  Hooker  and  Mr. 
Samuel  Stone,  who  had  accompanied  Hooker  to  New  England,  were 
respectively  ordained  pastor  and  teacher.  A  new  church  was  organized 
Feb.  i,  1635-36,  to  take  the  place  of  Mr.  Hooker's,  which  had  emigrated 
to  Connecticut.  Of  this  congregation,  Rev.  Thomas  Shepard  was  pastor 
until  his  death  August  25,  1649;  RCV-  Jonathan  Mitchell  from  Aug.  21, 
1650,  to  July  9,  1668;  Rev.  Urian  Oakes,  Nov.  8,  1671,  to  July  25,  1681  ; 
and  Rev.  Nathaniel  Gookin  from  Nov.  15,  1682,  to  Aug.  7,  1692. 

Hooker,  Shepard,  and  Mitchell  were  bright  and  shining  lights  of  the  New 
England  pulpit,  and  were  remarkable  alike  for  learning,  eloquence,  and 
piety.  The  notable  events  in  the  annals  of  the  Cambridge  Church  at  this 
period  were,  the  building  of  a  new  house  of  worship  in  1650;  the  perse- 
cution of  the  Quakers  in  1663  ;  the  division  caused  by  the  organization  of 
a  separate  parish  at  Newton  in  1664;  and  the  strong  opposition  of  Rev. 
Mr.  Dunster  to  the  ordinance  of  infant  baptism,  which  caused  his  removal 
from  the  presidency  of  the  college  and  from  Cambridge.  The  inhabitants 
of  Brighton  formed  a  part  of  this  congregation  for  more  than  a  century. 

Prior  to  1643  a  grammar  school,  of  which  the  celebrated  Elijah  Corlet 
was  master,  had  been  established  to  fit  pupils  for  the  college  founded  by 
John  Harvard  in  1638,  the  year  in  which,  in  this  place,  the  first  printing- 
press  was  set  up  in  the  English  American  colonies.  This  first  school-house 
stood  on  the  westerly  side  of  Holyoke  Street,  about  midway  between 
Harvard  and  Mt.  Auburn  streets.  The  earliest  school-house  in  Brighton 
was  erected  in  1722. 

The  establishment  of  highways  was  among  the  first  duties  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  new  town.  As  early  as  June,  1631,  a  canal  was  made  from 
Charles  River  to  what  is  now  South  Street.  In  1635  a  ferry  was  established 
across  the  river  from  the  foot  of  Dunster  Street.  Opposite  this  point  was 
the  road  to  Boston,  called  "  the  highway  to  Roxbury."  This  old  road, 
which  ran  through  the  easterly  portions  of  Brookline  and  Brighton,  is  now 
known  as  Harvard  Avenue.  Another  early  highway  was  "  the  Roxbury 
Path,"  a  portion  of  what  is  now  Washington  Street,  by  which  the  Roxbury 
people  went  to  the  grist-mill  at  Watertown.  The  path,  now  Market  Street, 
laid  out  in  1656  through  the  land  of  Richard  Dana,  was  known,  after  the 
first  meeting-house  was  built  in  1744,  as  Meeting-house  Lane.  The  crooks 
and  curves  of  these  old  thoroughfares  sufficiently  distinguish  them  from 
the  straighter  highways  of  a  more  recent  date. 

To  obviate  the  inconveniences  and  perils  of  a  ferry  over  which  there  was 
a  large  amount  of  travel,  especially  on  lecture  days,  a  bridge  was  built  in 
1662  at  a  cost  of  ^200  at  the  foot  of  Brighton  Street,  also  connecting  with 
the  highway  to  Roxbury,  and  which,  as  it  was  the  largest  and  finest  then 
in  the  colony,  was  called  the  "  Great  Bridge."  This  was  swept  away  by  a 
high  tide  in  September,  1685,  from  which  time  until  it  was  rebuilt  in  1690 
ferriage  was  resumed  here  by  Mr.  Fessenden. 


BRIGHTON    IN    THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  443 

The  heads  of  families  in  Brighton  in  August,  1688,  were  :  Thomas  Brown, 
Samuel  and  Daniel  Champney,  Thomas  Cheeney,  James  Clarke,  Richard 
Jacob,  Benjamin  and  Daniel  Dany,  John  Francis,  Joshua  Fuller,  Richard 
and  John  Haven,  John  Mackoon,  Sr.,  John  Mackoon,  Jr.,  Thomas  Oliver, 
John  and  Samuel  Oldum,  James  Phillips,  Nathaniel  Rohbins,  Ebenezer 
Ston,  David  Stowell,  Samuel  and  Nathaniel  Sparhawke,  John  and  Henry 
Smith,  John  Squire,  and  Isaac  Wilson. 

Samuel  Champney  settled  in  Brighton  about  1667 ;  was  selectman  eleven 
years  between  1681  and  1694;  muster-master  in  1690;  and  representative 
from  1686  to  his  death  in  1695.  Daniel  Champney,  appointed  by  the 
Court  in  1677  to  redeem  Indian  captives  near  Wachusett,  was  selectman 
in  1684-87,  and  died  in  1691.  Francis  Dana,  chief-justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Massachusetts,  member  of  the  Continental  Congress,  and  ambas- 
sador to  Russia,  was  a  grandson  of  Daniel,  son  of  Richard,  one  of  the  first 
settlers.  John  Francis  was  the  grandfather  of  Colonel  Ebenezer,  a  revolu- 
tionary officer  who  fell  at  Hubbardston  July  7,  1777.  Thomas  Oliver,  of 
the  distinguished  family  from  which  sprung  Lieutenant-Governor  Andrew 
and  Chief-Justice  Peter  Oliver,  was  deacon  of  Newton  Church,  selectman 
of  Cambridge  in  1687,  representative  eighteen  years  between  1692  and 
1713,  and  died  Nov.  2,  1715.  Deacon  Nathaniel  Sparhawk,  selectman 
seven  years,  died  in  December,  1686. 

A  few  examples  of  its  laws  and  usages  will  serve  to  convey  a  slight  idea 
of  the  condition  of  a  society  in  which  the  civil  body  and  ecclesiastical 
structure  were  completely  blended.  No  man  could  sell  or  let  house  or 
land  unless  to  a  member  of  the  congregation.  If  a  dog  was  seen  in  the  meet- 
ing-house on  the  Lord's  Day  in  time  of  public  worship,  the  owner  was  fined. 
"  Entertaining  any  stranger  or  family  into  the  town  "  against  the  desire  of 
the  congregation,  after  due  warning,  was  punished  by  a  fine.  Any  man  whose 
dog  is  used  to  pull  off  the  tails  of  any  beasts,  and  who  does  not  effectually 
restrain  him,  shall  pay  for  every  offence  of  that  kind  2OS.  Three  persons 
were  appointed  by  the  selectmen,  "  to  have  inspection  into  families  that 
there  be  no  bye  drinking  or  any  misdemeanor  whereby  sin  is  committed, 
and  persons  from  their  houses  unseasonably." 

No  contemporaneous  description  of  the  town  in  its  primitive  days 
remains  to  us,  but  we  can  easily  picture  to  ourselves  a  small  rural  settle- 
ment of  scattered  farms,  with  a  river  front  of  six  miles  or  more ;  its  prin- 
cipal street  running  diagonally  through  it  in  the  direction  of  the  Watertown 
mill,  and  one  other  much-travelled  highway  connecting  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment of  the  colony  with  its  seat  of  learning.  The  Sparhawk  homestead, 
in  which  seven  generations  have  resided,  was  on  the  corner  of  Washington 
and  Cambridge  Streets.  On  the  opposite  corner  stood  the  Winship  man- 
sion, latterly  a  hotel.  West  of  Sparhawk's  house,  on  what  is  now  Market 
Street,  stood  the  Dana  mansion.  Samuel  Phipps'  residence  was  also  on 
Washington  Street,  where  Allston  Street  now  is.  A  number  of  settlers  were 
clustered  together  in  the  northwest  corner  of  the  town,  near  Watertown 


444  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

mill.  Here  was  Nonantum  Hill,  in  and  around  which  was  an  Indian  village, 
the  scene  of  the  first  missionary  labors  of  the  Apostle  Eliot.  About  on  the 
site  of  the  abattoir  were  "  The  Pines,"  a  forest  of  pine  trees,  the  place 
where  the  Christian  Indians  were  embarked  for  Deer  Island  in  October, 
1675,  as  a  place  of  refuge  from  the  exasperated  colonists,  who,  soon  after 
the  breaking  out  of  Philip's  war,  wished  to  destroy  them.  Excepting  the 
Champney  house  and  the  Dana  house,  each  of  which  are  two  hundred  years 
old,  these  and  all  other  memorials  of  Brighton's  colonial  days  have  long  ago 
ceased  to  exist. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

WINNISIMMET,    RUMNEY    MARSH,   AND    PULLEN    POINT 
IN    THE    COLONIAL    PERIOD. 

BY     MELLEN     CHAMBERLAIN, 
Librarian  of  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

ELSEA,  Revere,  and  Winthrop,  the  present  names  of  towns  which 
were  formerly  parts  of  one  town  called  Chelsea,  at  the  earliest  period 
of  their  known  history  were  severally  called  Winnisimmet,  Rumney  Marsh, 
and  Pullen  Point;  and,  for  some  years  before  they  were  set  off  and 
organized  into  a  town,  they  were  embraced  in  the  general  designation  of 
Rumney  Marsh,  or  Number  Thirteen. 

It  was  not  until  1636  that  towns  were  legally  empowered  to  act  as 
corporations,  with  the  exclusive  right  to  dispose  of  lands  within  their 
limits,  make  by-laws,  and  elect  their  own  officers ;  but  from  a  very  early 
period  they  were  recognized  as  quasi  corporations,  with  the  power  to  hold 
lands,  or  the  use  of  lands,  for  the  general  benefit.  For  in  1632  it  was 
ordered  by  the  General  Court,  "  that  the  necke  of  land  betwixte  Powder 
Home  Hill  and  Pullen  Poynte  shall  belonge  to  Boston,  to  be  enjoyd  by 
the  inhabitants  thereof  foreuer;"1  and  in  May,  1634,  "that  Winetsemet, 
and  the  howses  there  builte  and  to  be  builte,  shall  joyne  themselues  eithr 
to  Charlton  or  Boston,  as  members  of  that  towne,  before  the  nexte 
Genall  Court,  to  be  hoiden  the  first  Wednesday  in  Septembr  nexte,  or 
els  to  be  layde  then  to  one  of  those  two  townes  by  the  Court."2  And 
this  choice  not  having  been  made  when  September  came,  it  was  ordered 
"  that  Wynetsem'  shall  belonge  to  Boston,  and  to  be  accompted  as  pte  of 
that  towne ; " 3  and  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  the  same  month,  "  that  Boston 
shall  haue  inlargem1  att  Mount  Wooliston  and  Rumney  Marshe."  4 

By  these  enactments,  in  which  the  pleasure  of  the  parties  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  consulted,  a  union  was  formed  which  continued  more 
than  a  hundred  years,  or  until  January  8,  1738-39,  when,  on  the  petition 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Rumney  Marsh,  notwithstanding  the  strenuous 
opposition  of  the  inhabitants  of  Boston,  a  new  town  was  erected  under  the 
name  of  Chelsea. 

1  I  Colony  Records,  p.  101.  '2  Ibid.  p.  119.  8  Ibid.  p.  125.  *  Ibid.  p.  130. 


446 


THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 


During  the  period  between  the  settlement  of  the  bay  and  the  incorpora- 
tion of  the  town,  the  inhabitants  of  this  district  had  no  separate  municipal 
existence,  and  therefore  no  municipal  history.  They  were  a  part  of  the 
town  of  Boston,  and  its  history  was  their  history.  But  as  a  community 
dwelling  remote  from  the  centre,  accessible  only  by  a  circuitous  land  route, 
or  by  a  difficult  and  tedious  passage  by  water,  they  came  to  have  a  life  of 
their  own,  differing  in  some  respects  from  that  of  their  fellow-citizens  who 
dwelt  on  the  peninsula.  This  life,  however,  was  marked  by  no  extra- 
ordinary events  or  vicissitudes  of  fortune. 

In  some  respects  they  were  peculiarly  favored.  Their  situation  was 
healthy ;  and  in  later  times  the  genealogist  has  noticed  the  high  average 
duration  of  human  life  within  the  town  limits.  The  soil  also  was  of  the 
best,  though  not  easy  to  cultivate.  On  all  sides  except  the  west  it  was 
washed  by  seas,  creeks,  or  bays,  which  moderated  the  extremes  of  heat 
and  cold,  and  afforded  abundance  of  fish  and  kelp.  And  of  the  entire 
territory  it  may  be  said  that  it  contained  scarcely  a  rod  of  upland  not 
susceptible  of  remunerative  cultivation,  while  its  marshes  were  valuable  for 
salt  grasses. 

With  these  natural  advantages,  and  notwithstanding  its  remoteness  from 
schools  and  churches,  and  with  a  large  proportion  of  its  proprietors  non- 
resident it  compared  favorably,  at  the  end  of  fifty  years  from  its  settlement, 
in  wealth  and  population,  with  Muddy  River,  the  other  outlying  portion 
of  Boston,  now  the  flourishing  town  of  Brookline. 

Nor  did  these  advantages  fail .  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  early 
visitors.  William  Wood,  who  saw  it  as  early  as  1634,  says:  "The  last 
towne  in  the  still  Bay  is  Winnisimet ;  a  very  sweet  place  for  situation,  and 
stands  very  commodiously,  being  fit  to  entertaine  more  planters  than  are 
yet  seated :  it  is  within  a  mile  of  Charles  Towne,  the  River  onely  parting 
them.  The  chiefe  Hands  which  keepe  out  the  Winde  and  the  Sea  from 
disturbing  the  Harbours  are  first  Deare  Hand,  which  lies  within  a  flight-shot 
of  Pullin-point.  This  Hand  is  so  called  because  of  the  Deare  which  often 
swimme  thither  from  the  Maine,  when  they  are  chased  by  the  Woolves: 
Some  have  killed  sixteene  Deare  in  a  day  upon  this  Hand.  The  opposite 
shore  is  called  Pullin-point,  because  that  is  the  usuall  Channel.  Boats  used 
to  passe  thorow  into  the  Bay ;  and  the  Tyde  being  very  strong,  they  are 
constrayned  to  goe  ashore  and  hale  their  Boats  by  the  sealing,  or  roades, 
whereupon  it  was  called  Pullin-point"  1 

While  the  bold  bluffs  of  Winnisimmet  were  untouched  by  the  levelling 
hand  of  man,  and  the  great  hills  of  the  main,  towards  the  north,  and  the 
lesser  heights  to  the  east,  south,  and  west  stood  at  their  original  elevations, 
and  covered  with  primitive  forests,  the  situation  must  have  been  one  of 
scarcely  paralleled  beauty  and  interest. 

Winnisimmet  was  probably  settled  before  the  coming  of  Winthrop,  as 

1  Wood,  New  England'1  s  Prospect,  Prince  Soc.  this  region  can  be  gathered  from  the  fac-simile  of 
ed.,  p.  44.  [Wood's  notion  of  the  topography  of  his  map,  given  in  another  section.  —  ED.] 


WINNISIMMET,    ETC.,    IN    THE    COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


447 


Hutchinson  says  he  found  mention  of  planters  as  early  as  1626—27.  But  who 
those  first  settlers  were,  from  whence  they  came,  or  how  long  they  con- 
tinued, must  remain  the  subject  of  conjecture.  Possibly  they  may  have' 
been  fishermen,  who,  having  sought  shelter  in  the  bay,  concluded  to  remain 
as  husbandmen ;  but  more  probably,  as  Hutchinson  suggests,  they  were 
from  some  of  the  neighboring  plantations,  or  were  some  of  Gorges'  party, 
who  dispersed  after  his  return  to  England. 


r__ 
^JSP*  aflF'^BSr:^  But  whoever  these  planters  may  have 

^  -^T^ST:' ''%?.       |  been,    they  found  the  soil    occupied    by 

Indians,  —  subjects  of  Sagamore  John,  who 
for   some  time  lived,  and    in    1633,  with 

many  of  his  people,  died,  at  Winnisimmet,  and  of  Sagamore  James,  of 
Lynn.  Both  of  these  chiefs  died  the  same  year,  and  were  succeeded  by 
their  brother,  Sagamore  George.  There  is  no  evidence  that  James  ever 
lived  within  the  limits  of  Chelsea,  nor  are  the  limits  of  their  several  jurisdic- 
tions well  defined;  but  the  probabilities  are  that  the  subjects  of  James 
occupied  what  is  now  Revere,  and  those  of  John,  Chelsea.  Nor  can  the 


1  The  age  of  the  Deane  Winthrop  house  is 
not  settled.  It  is  certain  that  there  was  a  house 
on  the  farm  in  1649,  ar|d  probably  some  years 
earlier;  and  a  plan  of  1690  locates  the  farm- 


occupied  "  in  his  father's  days,  more  toward 
Dear  Island,"  where  he  "  was  wont  to  set  up  a 
bush,  when  he  saw  a  ship  coming  in.  He  is 
now,"  he  adds,  "  77  years  old ; "  and  in  record- 


house  as  it  now  stands, — near  the  junction  of     ing   his  death,  Mar.   16,  1703-4,  says,  "he  dies 


the  roads  leading  to  Revere  and  Point  Shirley. 
[It  is  probably  this  house  that  Sewall  (Papers,  \. 
499)  speaks  of  visiting,  July  n,  1699,  when  he 
refers  to  some  older  house  that  Winthrop  had 


upon  his  birth-day,  just  about  the  breaking  of 
it,  81  years  old,  —  the  last  of  Gov.  Winthrop's 
children,  statione  novissimus  exit."  —  Papers,  ii. 
96.  —  ED.] 


44* 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


precise  spot  where  Sagamore  John  lived  at  the  time  of  his  death  be  deter- 
mined. But  the  fact  that  Mount  Washington  was  called  Sagamore  Hill  as 
early  as  1641, l  and  that  the  valley  stretching  northward  to  Woodlawn  Ceme- 
tery formerly  abounded  in  Indian  relics  and  other  indications  of  Indian 
occupation,  seem  to  point  to  these  sites  as  near  the  dwelling-place  of  the 
Sagamore. 

There  is  extant  the  original  deed  from  the  heirs  of  Sagamore  George, 
dated  April  9,  1685,  to  Simon  Lynde,  for  the  use  of  the  heirs  of  John  New- 
gate, of  the  "  Newgate  Farm,"  containing  about  four  hundred  or  five  hundred 
acres;  and  another  is  on  record,  dated  1685,  which  covers  a  large  part  of 


THE   YEAMANS    HOUSE. 


Revere  and  some  part  of  Winthrop,  running  by  way  of  release  to  some  of 
the  principal  proprietors.  In  these  deeds  the  Indians  are  made  to  recite 
earlier  conveyances,  then  lost,  reaching  back  to  the  "  first  coming  of  the 
English ;  "  but  I  know  of  no  foundation  for  these  recitals,  unless  it  may 
be  in  the  order  of  the  General  Court  in  1639,  by  which  Mr.  Gibbons  was 
empowered  to  agree  with  the  Indians  for  the  purchase  of  their  lands  in  Water- 
town,  Cambridge,  and  Boston.3  But  the  Indian  claims  to  lands  gave  the 
white  proprietors  so  much  trouble  before  this  settlement,  that  in  1651  they 
were  required  to  set  off  twenty  acres  for  the  use  of  Sagamore  George.4 


1  I  Colony  Records,  p   340. 


Nathaniel   Newgate,  then  owner   of  the  estate. 


2  This  house,  which  stands  on  Mill  Street  in  At  one  time  it  was  occupied  by  Rev.  Thomas 
Revere,  was  the  farm-house  of  the  estate  called  Cheever,  the  first  settled  minister  of  Chelsea, 
the  Newgate,  Shrimpton,  or  Yeamans  farm,  1715. 


from  its  successive  owners,  and  is  said  to  have 
been  built  about  1680,  —  and,  in  that  case,  for 


8  I  Colony  Records,  p.  254. 
4  3  Ibid.  p.  252. 


WINNISIMMET,    ETC.,    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  449 

There  are  many  facts  preserved  by  Winthrop  and  others,  respecting 
Sagamore  John,  which  could  properly  find  place  in  a  history  of  the  town. 
This  most  interesting  of  the  Pawtucket  Indians  —  the  native  chief  of  Win- 
nisimmet  —  died,  as  has  already  been  stated,  in  1633,  and  was  buried  by 
"  Mr.  Maverick  of  Winnisimmet." 

Who  this  Mr.  Maverick  was  is  by  no  means  clear,  though  he  has  gene- 
rally been  supposed  to  have  been  Samuel  Maverick,  of  Noddle's  Island,  who, 
with  John  Blackleach,  owned  Winnisimmet,  and  sold  the  whole  or  the  greater 
part  of  the  same  to  Richard  Bellingham  in  1634.  But  there  are  circum- 
stances, not  to  be  recited  in  this  brief  sketch,  which  point  to  Elias,  rather 
than  Samuel  Maverick,  as  the  friend  of  the  Indians.1 

When  the  ownership  of  the  soil  was  settled  in  the  inhabitants  of  Boston, 
the  authorities,  in  1637,  proceeded  to  allot  the  lands  on  considerations  not 
made  the  matter  of  record,  unless  we  may  be  referred  to  the  proceedings 
of  the  Company  before  the  patent  was  transferred  to  New  England. 

It  is  noticeable  that  no  part  of  Winnisimmet,  then  owned  by  Belling- 
ham, was  allotted ;  nor  was  there  at  that  time  any  recognition  of  his  title  or 
interest  in  the  Maverick  and  Blackleach  estate.  But,  in  1640,  the  title  which 
he  had  received  from  them  in  1634-35  was  recognized  by  the  town,  so  far 
as  its  entry  in  the  Town  Records  as  his  was  a  recognition,  —  though  there  is 
no  evidence  of  any  grant  to  the  first  recorded  grantors.  Were  they  some 
of  the  old  planters  of  Winnisimmet,  or  owners  under  Gorges'  patent,  whose 
claim  in  this  particular  case  was  allowed  to  stand  undisputed? 

Before  any  recorded  grant  of  any  portion  of  the  soil,  the  General  Court 
passed  an  order  creating  a  preserve  for  game,  in  the  following  terms: 
"  That  noe  pson  w'soeuer  shall  shoote  att  fowle  vpon  Pullen  Poynte  or 
Noddles  Island,  but  the  sd  places  shalbe  reserved  for  John  Perkins  to  take 
fowle  wth  netts.2  "  The  consideration  for  this  unique  grant  does  not  appear. 
John  Perkins  is  said  to  have  come  over  with  Roger  Williams  in  1631,  re- 
moved with  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  to  Ipswich  in  1633,  and  represented  that 
town  in  the  General  Court  in  1636. 

A  few  years  later,  a  portion  of  this  same  territory  was  a  common  for 
pasturage;  for  in  February,  1635,  at  a  general  meeting  upon  public  notice, 
it  was  agreed  that  certain  barren  and  young  cattle  should  be  kept  abroad 
from  the  Neck,  under  penalty,  and  that  there  should  be  a  little  house  built, 
and  a  sufficiently  paled  yard  to  lodge  the  cattle  in  of  nights  at  Pullen  Point 
Neck  before  the  I4th  day  of  the  next  second  month.3 

Nov.  30,  1635,  the  town  made  regulations  respecting  allotments  to  new 
comers,  restricting  them  to  such  as  were  likely  to  be  received  members  of 
the  congregation.4 

Dec.  14.  1635.  "Item:  that  Mr  William  Hutchinson,  Mr  Edmund 
Quinsey,  Mr.  Samuell  Wilbore,  Mr  William  Cheeseborowe  and  John  Olly- 

1  [Sumner,  East  Boston,   p.    162,  gives  the  2  I  Colony  Records,  p.  94. 

Maverick  genealogy,  and  avers  that  Elias  was  a  8  i  Town  Records,  p.  2. 

brother,  probably,  of  Samuel.  —  ED.]  *  Ibid.  p.  3. 

VOL.  I.  —  57. 


450 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


ver,  or  four  of  them,  shall,  by  the  assignments  of  the  Allotters,  lay  out  their 
proportion  of  allotments  for  farmes  att  Rumley  Marsh,  whoe  there  are  to 
have  the  same."  l 

It  was  not,  however,  before  Dec.  18,  1637,  that  the  great  allotments  at 
Rumney  Marsh  and  Pullen  Point  were  assigned,  with  specifications  of 
quantity  and  bounds.  In  some  cases,  apparently,  these  assignments  are 
in  pursuance  of  earlier  special  grants  by  the  General  Court,  but  not 
recorded. 

The  first  name  on  the  list  is  that  of  "  Mr.  Henry  Vane  "  (better  known 
as  Sir  Harry),  who,  though  not  then  in  the  country,  was  set  down  for  two 
hundred  acres,  —  since  well  known  as  the  Fenno  Farm.  How  long  he  held 
this  estate  I  have  not  ascertained,  but  in  1639  it  was  the  property  of 
Nicholas  Parker. 


THE    FLOYD   MANSION. 

The  next  in  order,  northerly,  was  an  allotment  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
acres  to  "Mr.  VVinthrop,  the  elder,"-- which  in  1639,  by  an  unrecorded 
deed,  he  sold  to  John  Newgate.  This,  with  other  land,  constituted  what  has 
been  successively  known  as  the  Newgate,  Shrimpton,  or  Yeamans  farm, 
of  about  four  hundred  acres ;  and  it  includes  the  hill  east  of  Woodlawn 
Cemetery. 

The  tenth  allotment  on  the  list  is  that  of  three  hundred  and  fourteen  acres 
to  "Mr.  Robte  Keine,"-  — which,  with  some  additions,  constituted  the  two 
great  farms  of  Captain  Robert  Keayne,  which  have  a  history. 

1  Town  Records,  p.  4.  not  far  from  the  railroad  bridge,  was  built  about 

2  [This  house,  which  stands  in  Revere  on  the     1670,  and  may  have  been  the  residence  of  Cap- 
most  northerly  road  leading  to  Revere  Beach,     tain  John  Floyd  in  1685.  —  En.] 


WINNISIMMET,   ETC.,    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  451 

Among  the  principal  grantees  of  lands  at  Rumney  Marsh  or  Pullen  Point 
were  William  Stitson,  Major  Edward  Gibbons,  Richard  Tuttle,  William 
Aspinwall,  William  Dyer  (husband  of  the  unfortunate  Mary  Dyer),  John 
Coggeshall,  John  Oliver,  John  Cogan,  Samuel  Cole,  William  Brenton,  and 
Elias  Maverick.  Two  of  these  were  afterwards  Governors  of  Rhode  Island. 
Many  of  them  were  the  friends  of  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  and  shared  the  fortunes  of  J20ffcxl 
the  Antinomians.  For  the  most  part  they 
were  non-resident  proprietors,  and  as  such 
added  little  to  the  wealth  or  prosperity  of 
that  section  of  the  town  ;  and  their  farms 


were  in  the  occupation  of  tenants  or  ser-       —  "7£       •/• 

vants,  and  perhaps  served  occasionally  as   ^^/         ^* 

summer  residences,  —  as  may  be  inferred 

from  an  incident  recorded  by  Winthrop  in 

1643,  of  La  Tour's  meeting  Captain  Gib- 

bons's   wife    and    children  as   they  were          SIGNATURES  OF  PROPRIETORS. 

going  down  the  harbor  in  supposed  se- 

curity on  their  way  to  their  farm  at  Pullen  Point.      For  particulars  of  this 

alarm  see  the  chapter  on  "  Boston  and  the  Neighboring  Jurisdictions." 

The  Winthrop  farm  is  well  known,  as  including  allotments  to  father  and 
son.  This  son  was  Deane  Winthrop  ;  and  his  name  stands  first  among  the 
entries  on  the  Book  of  Possessions  as  owning  "  one  farm  at  Pulling  Point, 
containing  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  acres,"  —  which  in  recent  vears 
has  again  become  the  property  of  Boston. 

During  the  Colonial  period,  and  even  as  late  as  1710,  the  inhabitants  of 
the  three  precincts  sought  the  privileges  of  religious  worship  in  the  neigh- 
boring towns  where  they  had  formed  church  connections  ;  and,  as  this  was 
a  condition  to  citizenship,  this  class  embraced  all  the  leading  inhabitants. 
But,  since  many  of  the  large  estates  were  cultivated  by  the  tenants  or  ser- 
vants of  the  proprietors,  as  early  as  1640,  in  the  church  of  Boston, 
"  a  motion  was  made  by  such  as  have  farms  at  Rumney  Marsh,  that  our 
brother  Oliver  may  be  sent  to  instruct  their  servants,  and  be  a  help  to  them, 
because  they  cannot  many  times  come  hither,  nor  sometimes  to  Lynn,  and 
sometime  nowhere  at  all." 

For  the  same  period,  the  town,  so  far  as  I  can  discover,  made  no  special 
provision  for  the  education  of  youth,  though,  doubtless,  they  had  the  right 
to  repair  to  the  schools  set  up  in  the  peninsula.  But  of  even  such  as 
could  afford  the  expense,  few  could  avail  themselves  of  this  right,  as  the 
schools  were  remote,  and  the  only  practicable  mode  of  access  to  them  by 
ferry  was  uncertain,  difficult,  and  costly. 

The  first  authorized  ferry  in  New  England  —  perhaps  on  the  continent  — 
seems  to  have  been  that  between  Boston,  Charlestown,  and  Winnisimmet. 
As  early  as  November,  1630,  the  General  Court  ordered,  "that  whoever 
shall  first  give  in  his  name  to  Mr.  Governor  that  he  will  undertake  to  set  up  a 


452 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


ferry  between  Boston  and  Charlestovvn,  and  shall  begin  the  same  at  such  time 
as  Mr  Governor  shall  appoint,  shall  have  I'1  for  every  person,  and  id  for  every 
100  weight  of  goods  he  shall  so  transport."  l  Apparently,  this  offer  was  not 
accepted  until  June  14,  1631,  under  which  date  is  the  following  entry: 
"  Edw.  Converse  hath  undertaken  to  set  up  a  ferry  between  Charlestown  and 
Boston,  for  which  he  is  to  have  ijd  for  every  single  person,  and  I'1  a  piece  if 
there  be  2  or  more."2  But,  on  the  i8th  May  previously,  it  is  recorded  that 
"  Thomas  Williams  hath  undertaken  to  set  up  a  ferry  between  Winnisim- 
mett  and  Charlestown,  for  which  he  is  to  have  after  3d  a  person,  and  from 
Winnisimmet  to  Boston  4d  a  person."3  These  dates  seem  to  settle  the 
question  of  priority  in  favor  of  Winnisimmet. 

In  September,  1634,  the  General  Court  granted  the  ferry  to  Samuel 
Maverick,  in  fee,  reserving  the  right  to  determine  the  rates  of  transporta- 
tion ;  and  the  next  year  Maverick  granted  his  interest  to  Richard  Belling- 
ham,  in  whom  it  remained  until  his  death. 

Such  were  the  circumstances  in  which  the  inhabitants  of  this  territory 
found  themselves  for  sixty  years  after  the  settlement  of  the  Bay.  As  agri- 
culturalists, they  were  undoubtedly  prosperous;  but  in  all  other  respects 
less  fortunate  than  those  whose  access  to  the  peninsula  was  more  rapid  and 
less  costly.  Their  relative  wealth  to  Muddy  River  (Brookline)  may  be 
approximately  determined  by  the  following  tax- rates :  In  1674,  Muddy 
River,  £8  15^.;  Rumney  Marsh,  £,12  is.  In  1687,^10  iSs.  3^*/.,as  against 
£15  los.  4*/.,  for  the  other  section;  while  the  male  inhabitants  of  sixteen 
years  and  upwards  were  forty-eight  in  Muddy  River,  and  only  thirty-five  in 
Rumney  Marsh. 


I   Colony  Records,  p.  81.  2  Ibid.  p.  88.  3  Ibid.  p.  87. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE     LITERATURE     OF    THE     COLONIAL    PERIOD. 

BY   JUSTIN   WINSOR. 

Librarian    of  Haward     University. 

A  CCORDING  to  the  best  information  to  be  obtained,1  it  appears  that 
•t~\.  during  the  fifty  years  which  passed  from  the  setting  up  of  the  first 
press  in  New  England  to  the  close  of  the  Colonial  Period,  there  were  is- 
sued in  Boston  and  in  Cambridge  something  over  three  hundred  separate 
publications.  Of  these  nearly  two  thirds  were  expositions  of  religious  be- 
lief, or  writings  in  defence  of  dogmas,  or  aids  to  worship,  —  and  all  in  the 
English  tongue.  If  we  add  a  score  or  more  of  tracts,  or  books  of  similar 
import,  but  printed  in  the  Indian  language,  we  materially  strengthen  the 
proportion  of  theology  and  religion.  It  cannot  be  unnoticed  that  of  the 
remainder  much  the  larger  part  was  a  growth  of  the  same  soil.  Thus 
the  fifty-two  almanacs,  the  thirty  and  more  publications  of  laws  and  official 
documents,  and  the  expositions  of  college  activity,  all  indicated  how  much 
dogma  and  exhortation  ruled  the  day.  During  these  same  years  there 
were  perhaps  a  score  of  issues  that  may  be  classed  as  history,  or  materials 
for  the  history,  of  the  Colony ;  and  these  were  not  without  something  of 
the  same  flavor.  Of  all  this  rather  surprising  fecundity  for  an  infant  settle- 
ment, there  is  perhaps  not  a  single  native  production  that  can  be  held  to  be 
a  memorable  addition  to  the  world's  store  of  literature ;  and  of  such  as 
were  borrowed,  an  edition  of  Bunyan's  Pilgrim  s  Progress,  printed  in  1681, 
is  the  only  one  of  those  books  usually  accounted  famous.2  The  censors 
suppressed  another  when  they  denied  their  imprimatur,  in  1667,  to  a  reprint 
of  Thomas  a  Kempis's  Imitation  of  Christ.  The  same  predominating  spirit 
characterized  most  of  the  works  of  New  England  origin  which  for  many 

1  Cf.  the  Ante-Revolutionary  Bibliography  of  The  only  copy  which  has  been  noted  is  one  de- 
S.  F.  Haven,  Jr.,  appended  to  the  edition  of  scribed  by  Henry  Stevens  as  in  the  Brinley  Col- 
Thomas's   History  of  Printing  issued   by   the  lection  (not  yet,  however,  entered  in  its  catalogue, 
American  Antiquarian  Society.  so  far  as  printed),  with  the  imprint  "Boston  in 

2  Bunyan   himself  speaks    of    this    Boston  New  England,  Printed  by  Samuel  Green,  upon 
edition  when  he  says, —  assignment  of  Samuel    Sewall,  and  are  to  be 

sold  by  John  Usher  of  Boston,  1681."     It  was 
'T  is  in  New  England  under  sucli  advance,  .  .        .  .      .        .      ,      .     . 

Receives  there  so  much  loving  countenance,  sald  to  have  the  last  leaf  '"'SSing.      Contributions 

As  to  be  Trini'd,  new  Cloth'd,  and  Deck't  with  Gems."       to  a  Catalogue  of  the  Lenox  Library,  pt.  iv.  pp.  7,  8. 


454  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

years  after  the  introduction  of  printing  into  the  colony  were  carried  to 
England  for  publication.  When  George  Herbert  wrote,  — 

"  Religion  stands  on  tip-toe  in  our  land, 
Ready  to  pass  to  the  American  strand,"  - 

he  failed  to  comprehend  all  that  this  well-remembered  couplet  meant.1 
Cotton  Mather  indicated  it  when  he  said,  "  The  Gospel  has  evidently  been 
the  making  of  our  towns ;"  and  what  has  sprung  from  the  New  England  town 
all  who  have  studied  the  history  of  our  old  Theocracy  and  of  our  popular 
assemblies  may  very  easily  determine.2  John  Adams  told  a  Virginian  that 
the  Old  Dominion  could  become  what  New  England  is,  when  they  knew 
what  town-meetings  and  training  days  are,  when  they  had  town  schools,  and 
when  they  looked  up  to  an  old  aristocracy,  such  as  the  ministers  were  to  the 
Puritans,  to  speak  ill  of  whom  was  a  crime.  These  olden  traits  may  have 
now  disappeared ;  but  they  have  moulded  a  people. 

It  was  not  because  of  any  insufficiency  of  intellect  and  scholarly  training 
in  the  first  comers  that  a  literature  in  any  true  sense  failed  to  be  developed. 
Their  virility  created  not  so  much  letters  as  empire;  it  contributed  to 
found  a  people  rather  than  to  stamp  a  literature. 

It  has  been  computed3  that  nearly  one  hundred  University  men  came  over 
from  England  to  cast  their  lot  in  the  new  colony  between  1630  and  1647; 
and  of  these  two  thirds  came  from  Cambridge,  particularly  from  Emanuel 
College, — the  Puritan  seed-plot.  This  had  been  the  college  of  John  Cot- 
ton. Wheelwright,  who  sponsored  in  the  new  Boston  the  controversy  of  the 
Antinomians,  had  been  the  contemporary  of  Cromwell  at  Sidney  Sussex. 
John  Harvard,  Thomas  Shepard,  Roger  Williams,  Henry  Dunster,  and  John 
Norton  —  all  with  influence  emanating  from  or  directed  upon  the  settlement 
at  the  Bay — had  trodden  the  banks  of  the  Cam  with  John  Milton  and  Jeremy 
Taylor.  President  Chauncey  had  been  a  Fellow  at  Trinity  with  the  saintly 
George  Herbert.  Richard  Mather,  the  founder  of  an  almost  royal  line  in 
our  theocratic  history,  and  Harry  Vane,  the  champion  of  Anne  Hutchin- 
son,  had  been  students  at  Oxford.  The  memories  of  the  University  were 
likewise  borne  across  the  sea  by  Winthrop,  Saltonstall,  and  Bradstreet,  by 
Wilson  and  Eliot.  Of  the  forty  or  fifty  Cambridge  or  Oxford  men  who 
were  in  Massachusetts  up  to  1639,  Mr.  Dexter  computes  that  one  half  were 
seated  within  five  miles  of  Boston  or  Cambridge.  It  was  this  leaven  that 

1  On  their  familiarity  with  the  writings  of  Her-  381 ;  Baylies,  History  of  Plymouth  Colony,  i.  241 ; 
bert,  see  M  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  October,  W.  C.  Fowler  in  "Local  law  historically  con- 
1873,  p.  347  ;  zndAfass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.  Jan.  1867.  sidered,"  in  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Keg.,  July, 

2  The  relation  of  our  New  England  towns  to  1871  ;  De  Tocqueville,  Democracy  in  America, 
the  growth  and  spirit  of  New  England  has  been  Bowen's  edition,  i. ;  Poole's  edition  of  Johnson's 
of  late  considerably  studied.     Cf.  Joel  Parker,  Wonder-working  Providence,  pp.  xc.,   175,  and 
'•On  the  origin,  organization,  and  influence  of  C.   C.   Smith's   chapter   on   "Boston    and   the 
towns,"  in  Mass.  Hist  Soc.  Proc.,  January,  1866;  Colony"  in  the  present  work. 

Horace   Gray,  in   Mass.  Reports,  1857  ;    Amer.  8  Professor  F.  B.  Dexter  on  "  The  influence 

Antiq.  Soc.  Proc.,  April    27,    1870,  and   by   R.  of  the  English  universities  in  the  development  of 

Frothingham,  Oct.   21,  1870,  and  his  Hist,  of  New  England,"  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  1880.  Cf. 

Charlestown,  p.  49;    Palfrey,  New  England,  i.  also  James  Savage,  in  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,\\\\.  246. 


THE   LITERATURE   OF   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  455 

determined  the  early  New  England  history ;  but  it  ran  little  into  literature 
as  such.  Writing  and  book-making  were  but  means  to  other  ends  than  in- 
tellectual stimulation.  Their  aim  was  to  define  theological  dogma,  and  to 
enforce  observances  rigidly.  The  mental  activity  of  the  time  meant  cogni- 
zance of  error  and  intolerance  of  misbelief.  Where  education  of  that 
sort  did  not  exist,  there  were  no  such  eager  promptings  to  the  study  of 
polemics,  and  the  dead  level  of  intellectual  content  often  enforced  charity. 
The  neighboring  colony  of  Plymouth  had  hardly  any  learned  men.  They 
waited  long  to  set  up  a  schoolmaster,  while  the  Bay  so  promptly  founded  a 
college ;  but  they  gave  Roger  Williams  an  asylum.1  They  had  noble  men, 
if  uneducated,  who  counselled  toleration  of  the  Quakers ;  and  they  hung  no 
witches.  It  was  indeed  fortunate  for  the  Bay  that  the  older  colony  was  what 
she  was.  Her  milder  spirit  in  the  end  permeated  the  stronger  colony, 
and  Massachusetts  Puritanism  took  on  the  hue  of  the  Pilgrims'  nobler  inde- 
pendency. Still  Massachusetts  came  out  the  stronger  for  the  tribulations, 
endured  and  enforced,  of  her  scholarly  divines.  Its  fruit,  however,  Was  in 
character  rather  than  in  letters. 

Nor  were  the  books  they  brought  with  them  more  promising  for  us  than 
those  they  wrote.  A  few  lists  of  such  are  preserved.  One  is  that  bequest  of 
three  hundred  and  twenty  volumes  by  which  John  Harvard,  in  1638,  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  great  library  at  Cambridge.  Another  is  a  list  of  forty 
books  which  Governor  Winthrop  contributed  to  the  same  collection.  Edward 
Everett  could  well  congratulate  his  friend,  the  author  of  the  Life  of  John 
Winthrop,  while  communicating  the  list  from  the  college  archives,  that  the 
honored  magistrate  had  not  transmitted  the  books  to  his  descendant.2 

Whatever  of  production  there  was,  however,  it  was  not  for  a  long  time 
permitted  to  Boston  to  print  her  own  books.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Glover  left  the 
old  country  for  New  England  in  1638,  hav- 
ing with  him  on  shipboard  a  press  and  one 
Stephen  Daye  to  work  it.  Glover  died  on 
the  voyage.  Daye,  with  the  consent  of  the 

Q  magistrates  set  up  the  press  in  Cam- 

7&£^*3~-     bridge,  which  Glover's  widow  continued 
to  own.    In  October,  1638,  Hugh  Peter 

1  They  were  not  sorry,  however,  when  he  left  the  other  list.     A  list  of  books  left  by  Governor 
them.    Williams,  though  an  amiable  man,  was  a  Thomas   Dudley  is  given  in  N.  E.  Hist,  and 
disputatious  one,  and  such  men  are  always  disa-  Cental.  Reg.,  1858,  p.  355.     The  titles  of  ninety 
greeable.     His  defenders  rightly  say  much  in  his  books  borrowed  in  1647  by  Richard  Mather  are 
praise,  and  his  detractors  have  great  grounds  given  in  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  viii.  p.  76.    Palfrey  re- 
for  condemning  his  forward  and  militant  discon-  grets  that  we  are  not  furnished  with  an  invoice 
tent.     He  was  not  a  comfortable  man  to  have  of  the  books  which  Dunton,  the  London  book- 
in  one's  neighborhood.  seller,  brought  to  Boston  on  a  venture  in  1686; 

2  The  list  of  Harvard's  books  is  preserved  in  and  Mr.  Whitmore,  in  his  edition  of  Dunton,  p. 
the  College  Archives.    Quincy,  History  of  Har-  314,  supplies  its  place  as  well  as  he  can  with  the 
vardUniversity,\.  10,  gives  a  few  titles;  they  were  list  of  what  was  another  bookseller's  stock-in- 
all  burned  with  the  College  Library  in  1764,  save  trade  in  1700.     A  catalogue   of    Rev.  Michael 
one  book,  which  is  still  religiously  preserved.  Wigglesworth's  library    is  appended   to  J.  W. 
R.  C.  Winthrop,  Life  of  John  Winthrop,  gives  Dean's  Sketch  of  his  life,  1863. 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


wrote  to  Bermuda,  "Wee  have  a  printery  here  and  thinke  to  goe  to  worke  with 

some  speciall  things."  l    In  March,  1639,  the  press  was  at  work.    An  almanac, 

and   a  broadside  oath 2  for  freemen  to  subscribe  were  the  initial   issues ; 

and  then  followed  the  well  known  Bay  Psalm  Book,  as  it  was  called.3  The 

widow  Glover  now  married  Dun- 
ster,  the  first  president  of  the 
College,  and  the  substantial  con- 
trol of  the  press  passed  into  his 

hands,  the  sanction  of  the  College  being  given  by  implication  to  what  the 

press  brought  forth.    In  1648-49  Samuel  Green4 

succeeded  Daye  as  the  printer.     In  1660  Mar- 

maduke  Johnson  was  sent  over  by  the  Corpora- 

/s   C""""S    d     A  fl  t'on  ^or  ^e  ProPagati°n  °f  ^e  Gospel  among 

OffartflAdUXZ.  Jlffjfa<gvL.  the  Indians.     He  brought  a  new  press,  with 

IS  new  type,  and  was  set  to  work  in  printing  books 

for  the  natives  to  read.  The  government  control  of  production  was  more 
definitely  fixed  when,  in  1662,  licensers  were  named  ;  and  to  keep  the  matter 
still  further  in  control,  it  was  ordered  in  1664  that  no  printing  should  be  al- 
lowed in  any  town  but  Cambridge.  This  order  held  good  for  ten  years  longer, 
till,  May  27,  1674,  the  General  Court  "  granted  that  there  may  be  a  printing 
press  elsewhere  than  at  Cambridge."  Under  this  permission  John  Foster 
set  up  to  be  the  first  Boston  printer.  He  was  a 
Dorchester  boy,  had  graduated  at  the  College 
in  1667,  and  then  for  a  few  years  had  taught 
school  in  his  native  town.  In  December,  1674, 
the  "  Sign  of  a  Dove  "  was  hung  out  for  his  office,  where  he  took  in  work 
for  the  press  which  he  had  just  bought.  It  was  natural  enough,  considering 
the  times,  that  his  first  author  and  his  last  should  be  Increase  Mather,  and  in 
the  short  interval —  1674-81  — during  which  Foster  ran  the  press,  Mather 
furnished  the  copy  for  about  fifteen  of  the  imprints.  This  first  Boston 
printer  was  but  thirty-three  when  he  died ; 5  and  on  his  foot-stone  it 


1  Winthrop   papers   in   4  Mass.  Hist.   Coll. 
vi.  99.     Cf.  the  notice  of  Glover  in  Atiier.  Antiq. 
Soc.  Proc.,  April  28,   1875,  or  N.  E.  Hist  and 
Cental.  Reg.,  January,  1876,  p.  26. 

2  This  was  the  oath  established  in  1634.    No 
copy  of  this  first  broadside  is  known.    The  text 
of  the  oath  can  be  found  in  Childe's  New  Eng- 
land's Jonas  cast  up  in  London,  1647  ;  in  Felt's 
Ipswich;  in  Charters  and  Laws  of  Massachusetts 
Bay ;  in  A''.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Register,  Jan- 
uary, 1849.     This  oath  took   the   place   of  an 
earlier  one,  which,  with  a  list  of  freemen,  is 
given  in  the  Register,  iii.  89. 

3  Winthrop's  Journal,  March,  1639-40. 

4  There  is  a  note  on  Green's  family  in  Snvall 
Papers,  i.  324. 

6  Judge  Sewall,  Diary,  in  5  Mass.  Hist  Coll., 
v.  49,  gives  his  death  Sept.  9,  1681,  as  does  his 


grave-stone  in  the  old  burying-ground  at  Up- 
ham's  Corner,  Dorchester :  "  The  ingenious 
mathematician  and  printer,  Mr.  John  Foster, 
aged  33  years,  dyed  Septr.  9th,  1681."  On  his 
foot-stone  Ovid's  "  Ars  illi  sua  census  erat "  is 
translated  as  in  the  text. — Epitaphs  from  the  Old 
Burying-ground  in  Dorchester,  Boston,  1869, 
p.  n.  The  title  (on  the  opposite  page)  of  the 
first  book  he  printed  is  somewhat  reduced  from 
a  copy  bought  in  1879  from  the  Brinley  Collec- 
tion by  the  Public  Library  of  Boston.  It  was  a 
presentation  copy  from  its  author  to  "yc  Rev'1 
Mr.  Higginson  in  Salem,"  and  is  so  inscribed. 
It  cost  the  library  $92.50;  and  another  copy,  in 
exquisite  binding,  brought  at  the  same  sale,  $140. 
Cf.  Brinley  Catalogue,  No.  1,046 ;  Sibley's  Har- 
vard Graduates,  \.  440 ;  Nathaniel  Paine's  Mather 
Publications,  p.  23. 


THE   LITERATURE   OF   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


457 


mans 


OR 


A  SERMON 


is  quaintly  said  of  him,  "Skill  was  his  cash,"  —  a  very  good  capital  for  a 
printer  in  these  days  as  in  those.1  After  Foster's  death  the  care  of  the 
press  was  committed  by  the  magistrates  to  Samuel  Sewall,  and  it  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  altogether  a  nominal  one.  He  remained  in  charge 
of  it  till  1 684,2  working  himself  at  the  case,  as  it  would  seem. 

Boston,  if  she  did  not 

print,  had  certainly  much  "I   I 

to  do  with  the  production 
of  the  first  Anglo-Amer- 
ican book, — the  Psalms 
turned  into  metre,  as  Gov- 
ernor Winthrop  described 
it ;  the  Bay  Psalm  Book? 
or  the  New  England 
Version  of  the  Psalms,  as 
it  has  been  at  different 
times  called.  The  version 
of  Sternhold  and  Hop- 
kins made  a  part  of  the 
Puritans'  Bible  ;  4  but 
there  seems  to  have  been 
a  feeling  among  them 
that  the  words  of  Scrip- 
ture lost  something  of 
sanctity  in  the  transmu- 
tations of  that  version. 
One  cannot  say  how  far 
this  dissatisfaction  may 
have  arisen  by  an  inci- 
dent which  Josselyn  re- 
cords. That  traveller 

S'    !  3    >     <  TITLE   OF  THE   FIRST   BOOK   PRINTED   IN   BOSTON. 

arrival  in  Boston,  and  of 

his  calling  upon  John  Cotton,  and  of  delivering  to  him  "  from  Mr.  Francis 

Quarles,  the  poet,  the  translation  of  the  i6th,  25th,  5/th,  88th,  Ii3th,  and 


f  Preached  at  the    Lt£l*rt   in  Bc/!o*  in  Kw-f.r.gUnd  the 
i8th     diyofihe  »  Moneth   1674.  when  two  men 
'     were  ix<t*it<(.  *'ho  had  mtirtbtrU 
their  Matter.) 

Wherein  is  fcewed 

yickfdnfft  doth  brin% 
untimely  *Deatb. 


By 


M  AT  HER, 
of  a  Cbnrch  of  Chrift. 


Teacher 


Pror.  10.  »7.    Tit  fmr 


Eph.«.  I,  l.  Hownrtfy  Fttbtr 
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tnttbat  mijft  livt  /«»£  t»tb 

Pxoa  ad  pjucos,  raetui  aJ  onnes. 


irJ  frtl»*[ttk  Jtjtt,  t*t  tht  ]t*n 


ttf 


llltt, 


B  O  S  T  O  N, 
Prime*  by  f«*»  Fofttr.     i  6  7  $ 


1  Sibley,  in  the  second  volume  of  his  Har- 
vard Graduates,  now  in  press,  gives  an  account 
of  Foster.     The  first  type  he  used  was  pica  ; 
but  he  did  his  best  work   with  a  long-primer 
font,  bought  in  1678.    A  list  of  the  works  printed 
by  him  is  given  in  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser, 
May  9,  1875.     Cf.  Brinley  Catalogue,  No.  2669; 
Shurtleff's  Boston,  p.  284;   Hist,  of  Dorchester, 
pp.  244,  492. 

2  N.  E.  Hist,  and  GfHeal.  Keg.,  1855,  p.  287. 
There  is,  unfortunately,  a  gap  in  Sewall 's  Diary 
for  these  years.     Cf.  Colony  Records,  v.  323,  Oct. 
12,  1681.     The  order  appointing  him  printer  is 
given  in  5  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  v.  57,  where  is  also 

VOL.  I.  —  58. 


the  order,  Sept.  12, 1684,  releasing  him  from  the 
charge  of  the  press. 

8  This  designation  seems  to  have  been  cur- 
rently applied  to  this  book,  whose  title  reads 
The  whole  Booke  of  Psalm es  Faithfully  Translated 
into  English  metre.  As  the  Plymouth  people 
used  the  Ainsworth  Psalter,  the  designation 
was  a  natural  one.  Cf.  Palfrey's  New  England, 
ii.  41;  Samuel  E.  Staples  on  "The  Ancient 
Psalmody  and  Hymnology  of  New  England,"  in 
Worcester  Soc.  of  Antiq.  Proc.  1879. 

4  The  first  American  edition  of  Sternhold 
and  Hopkins  was  not  issued  till  1693,  at  Cam- 
bridge. 


458  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

1  37th  Psalms  into  English  metre  for  his  approbation."  What  return  Mr. 
Quarles  got  we  know  not;  but  whatever  it  was  we  may  well  believe  it 
gave  the  key  to  what  others  in  New  England  thought  of  it.  Roger 
Williams  said  that,  in  the  opinion  of  some  people,  "  God  would  not 
suffer  Mr.  Cotton  to  err."  Governor  Bradford  records  of  him  in  his 
level  verse,  — 

"  It  's  hard  another  such  to  find." 

That  John  Cotton  could  be  a  critic  in  the  belief  of  his  contemporaries, 
as  he  could  be  and  was  an  umpire  in  all  else,  admits  of  little  doubt.  We 
also  know  that  if  stirred,  as  he  was  when  Thomas  Hooker  died  in  1647,  he 
could  deliver  himself  of  what  passed  with  our  Puritan  Fathers  for  verse. 

So  in  due  time  the  preparation  of  a  new  version  more  literal  than  melo- 
dious, as  the  versifiers  confessed,  was  entrusted  to  a  committee.     Richard 

Mather,  who  had  arrived  in  1635,  and  was 
settled  over  the  Dorchester  parish,  was  the 
chief  of  them.  He  was  a  man  with  a  "loud  and  big"  voice,  and,  as  Pro- 
fessor Tyler1  well  says  of  him,  possessed  the  "  faculty  of  personal  conspicu- 
ousness,"  —  a  trait  which  descended  to  the  son  and  grandson.  His,  we  may 
infer,  was  the  guiding  spirit;  and  there  exists  to-day  among  the  manuscripts 
of  the  Prince  Library  2  what  appears  to  have  been  his  rough  draft  of  the 
preface  to  the  book,  in  some  memoranda  on  "  The  Singing  of  Psalmes  in 
setting  forth  the  praises  of  the  Lord."  It  seems  likely  from  the  super- 
scription of  the  draft,  "  For  my  reverend  brother,  Thomas  Shepard,"  that 


the  final  plea,  as  it  stands  in  the  printed  preface,  may  have  had  the  revision 

of  that  Cambridge  divine.     The  draft,  as  Mather  leaves  it,  seems  to  indicate 

that  Shepard  would  finish  it  from  some  memoranda 

which  he  had  already  presented.     With  Mather  were 

joined  the  two  ministers  of  the  Roxbury  church,  — 

Eliot,  later  to  be  known  as  the  Apostle,  and  Thomas  Weld,  who  did  not 

remain  long  in  the  Colony. 

As  a  specimen  of  English  verse  it  is  hardly  possible  to  imagine  any- 
thing much  worse  than  this  version.  Grammar  is  tortured  ;  the  ear  is  filled 
with  dissonance  ;  the  sense  confused  ;  and  the  printer  kept  company  with 

1  History  of  American  Literature,  where  will     Literature,   and   Tarbox's    article    in    the   New 
l>e  found  a  good  description  of  the  Bay  Psalm     Englander,  March,  1880. 
Book.      See   also   Duyckinck's    Cyc.   of  Anter.  2  Prince  Library  Catalogue,  p.  1  58. 


THE   LITERATURE   OF   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


459 


the  authors  in  scattering  his  points  with  utter  disregard  of  propriety. 
Shcpard,  if  he  had  a  hand  in  the  final  fashioning  of  the  preface,  could  not 
wink  at  the  bad  metre  of  the  "  poets,"  as  he  called  them,  and  flung  a  squib 
at  them  in  the  shape  of  a  quatrain,  which  is  well  known :  — 

"  Ye  Roxbury  poets,  keep  clear  of  the  crime 
Of  missing  to  give  us  very  good  rhyme  ; 
And  you  of  Dorchester,  your  verses  lengthen, 
But  with  the  text's  own  words  you  will  them  strengthen." 

Still  the  work  succeeded,  by  dictation  if  not  by  merit,  and  a  second 
edition  followed  without  much  change,  and  Cotton  was  in  due  time  able 
to  write  of  it:  "  Because  the  former  translation  of  the  Psalms  doth  in  many 
things  vary  from  the  original,  and  many  times  paraphraseth  rather  than 
translateth,  besides  divers  other  defects  (which  we  cover  in  silence),  we 
have  endeavored  a  new  translation  of  the  Psalms  into  English  metre,  as  near 
the  original  as  we  could  express  it ;  and  those  Psalms  we  sing  both  in  our 
public  churches  and  in  private."  l  It  gradually,  however,  became  apparent 
that  a  "  little  more  art "  was  necessary  even  in  translating  the  inspired  Word ; 
and  so,  after  ten  years,  the  book  was  committed  for  revision  to  President 
Dunster,  who  had  the  assistance  of  a  young  scholar,  just  from  England, 
Richard  Lyon.  This  edition  —  the  third  —  contains  some  "  spiritual  songs," 
and  was  issued  in  1650.  Cotton  now  prepared  the  way  for  it  by  publishing 
"  Singing  of  Psalms  a  Gospel  ordinance,"  in  which  he  made  a  special  plea 
for  the  "  little  more  art."  Dunster  claimed  that  he  had  added  "  sweetness 
of  the  verse  "  to  the  "  gravity  of  the  phrase  of  sacred  writ."  The  book  after- 
wards went  through  numerous  editions,  and  became  in  later  ones  a  consid- 
erable favorite  in  the  mother  country,  some  of  the  dissenting  churches 
in  England  using  it  as  late  as  1 725,2  while  in  Scotland  traces  of  it  are  found 
as  late  as  the  middle  of  the  last  century.3  In  Boston  and  vicinity  it 

1  Cotton,  Way  of  the  Congregational  Churches,  the  library  of  the  late  E.  A.  Crowninshield,  and 

p.  67.  finally  was  lodged  in  the  Brinley  Collection;  and 

a  Mr.  Charles  Deane  has  a  "  fifteenth  "  edi-  when  this  was  sold,  March,  1879,  it  was  bought  by 

tion.  London,  1725.  Mr.  Vanderbilt  for  $1,200.  A  fifth  (defective) 

8  The  original  edition  of  1640  is  one  of  the  copy  passed  from  the  Prince  Library  into  the 

books  greatly  coveted  by  collectors  of  Ameri-  collection  of  the  late  George  Livermore,  where 

cana.  The  Prince  Library  (Boston  Public  Lib-  it  now  is.  Prince  Catalogue,  p.  7.  A  literal 

rary)  had  originally  five  copies.  Two  are  now  reprint  of  this  edition  was  made  in  1862  under 

in  it.  A  third,  of  peculiar  interest  as  having  the  supervision  of  Dr.  Shurtleff.  Memoir  of 

been  Richard  Mather's  own  copy,  passed  by  an  George  Livermore,  by  Charles  Deane,  Mass. 

understanding  into  the  hands  of  the  late  Dr.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  January,  1869,  p.  460.  Brin- 

Shurtleff.  On  the  scattering  of  his  effects,  the  ley  Catalogue,  No.  848.  It  is  not  quite  certain 

deacons  of  the  Old  South  Church,  who  are  the  whether  the  second  edition,  1647,  was  printed 

owners  in  fee  of  the  Prince  Library,  brought  in  Cambridge  or  in  England.  It  is  somewhat 

suit  to  recover  this  copy;  but  the  statute  of  smaller. in  size,  has  some  changes  in  spelling, 

limitations  prevented  their  getting  it.  It  was  but  is  not  otherwise  different  from  the  1640 

accordingly  sold  in  1876,  and  was  bought  by  edition.  The  only  copy  known  passed  at  the 

Mr.  C.  Fiske  Harris,  of  Providence,  for  $1,025.  Brinley  sale,  1879,  into  the  Carter  Brown  Library 

and  has  become  the  chief  treasure  of  that  gen-  at  Providence,  bringing  $435.  Haven,  Ante- 

tleman's  very  extensive  collection  of  American  Knvlutionary  Publications;  Brinley  Catalogue, 

verse.  A  fourth  copy  passed  similarly  into  No.  850. 


460 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


remained  in  use  quite  as  long.  There  exists  a  letter  of  a  number  of  the 
first  parish  in  Roxbury,  addressed  to  their  pastor  in  1737,  speaking  of 
"  The  New  England  version  of  the  Psalms,  however  useful  it  may  formerly 
have  been,"  as  now  "  become,  through  the  natural  variableness  of  language, 
not  only  very  uncouth,  but  in  many  places  unintelligible."  The  letter  sug- 
gests that  the  version  of  Tate  and  Brady  be  substituted.1  The  change 
in  this  parish  did  not  take  place,  however,  till  1758,  when  Tate  and  Brady 
was  first  put  in  use ;  but  the  Church  Records  add,  "  Some  people  were 
much  offended  at  the  same."2 

There  was,  perhaps,  a  greater  tendency  in  those  days  than  even  now 
to  run  into  verse  the  record  of  daily  occurrences,  the  outpouring  of  senti- 
ment, sympathy,  and  adulation.  Allegory,  anagram,  and  acrostic  took 
everybody  captive.  The  dead,  memorable  or  not,  must  have  their  elegies. 
Every  strange  circumstance  was  a  symbol  of  something  to  happen,  or  an  in- 
terpretation of  what  had  passed.  If  some  credulous  person  reported  to  John 
Cotton  upon  a  battle  which  had  been  witnessed  between  a  snake  and  a 
mouse,  the  latter  prevailing,  the  good  teacher  must  find  in  it  the  conquest 
of  the  devil  by  the  church.  Interpretation,  however,  evinced  the  good 
man's  skill  far  more  than  his  verse;  and  even  Cotton  Mather  found  his 
grandfather's  metrical  lucubrations  more  sanctified  with  piety  than  elevated 
with  poetry. 

The  most  noted  versifier  of  the  Colonial  Period  which  Boston  may  claim 
is  one  whose  grave-stone  at  Roxbury  speaks  of  him  as  a  "  learned  school- 
master and  physician,  and  the  renowned  poet  of  New  England."3  This  was 

Benjamin  Tompson,4 
a  Harvard  graduate  of 

<f  ST  1662,  who  from  1667 

to  1670  kept  a  school 


quently  removed  from 
the  town. 


ually  quoted  as  "  Our 
Forefathers'  Song,"  a 
bit  of  verse  with  a  ra- 
ther lively  swing  to  it, 


picturing  the  privations  of  the  earlier  times,  when 


"The  dainty  Indian  maize 
Was  eat  with  clam  shells  out  of  wooden  trays, 
Under  thatched  hutts  without  the  cry  of  rent, 
And  the  best  sauce  to  every  dish,  Content" 

1  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Gencal.  Reg.  iii.  132.  4  Cf.  his  family  record  in  the  N.  E.  Hist. 

2  Drake,  Roxbury  \  p.  296.  and  Geneal.  Keg.,  xv.  112.     Me  was  also  at  one 
1  Shurtleff,  Boston,  p.  277,  and  F.  S.  Drake's     time  a  teacher  in  Charlestown.     See  Mr.  Henry 

chapter  in  this  volume.  II.  Edes's  chapter  in  the  present  volume. 


THE   LITERATURE   OF   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  461 

Boston  can  hardly  claim  Madam  Anne  Bradstreet,  except  as  a  passing  so- 
journer,  though  Foster's  press  brought  out  the  first  American  edition  of  her 
poems  in  I6/8.1  She  may  have  fol- 
lowed her  husband,  Simon  Bradstreet, 
and  her  father,  Thomas  Dudley,2 
when,  with  Winthrop,  they  passed  over  to  Shawmut  from  Charlestown ;  but 
Cambridge,  Ipswich,  and  Andover  claim  her  as  a  resident,  though  according 
to  Ellis,3  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  her  remains  rest  in  the  Dudley  tomb 
at  Roxbury,  and  John  Norton,  and  Cotton  Mather  were  but  two  of  those 
who  threw  wreaths  upon  it  in  the  shape  of  extravagant  laudations.  To 
the  sulphurous  production  of  Michael  Wigglesworth,  the  Day  of  Doom, 
we  may  well  be  glad  Boston  lays  no  claim.  Ezekiel  Cheever,  who  after- 
wards became  our  famous  schoolmaster,  tutored  the  poet  at  New  Haven ; 
Harvard  educated  him;  Maiden  listened  to  his  ministration,  and  all  New 

England,  with  most  constant  so- 

(f  rtm****-  y*  '£&*&&*£•  /ru>O      licitude,  hung   upon  his   metric 
'  /   J  .  i    r  o   utterances.4 


P 
\-\, 
J 


L*.  y  Tr     ,         n  -    n 

-  ,  /  If  the  Day   of  Doom   stands 

JL  ic-houet  1*Ji.j<jCirij-*t1*^  for  the  theology  of  the  time,  we 

have  the  same  in  a  more  dog- 

matic form   in   the   sermons  and   warnings   of  Cotton,    Norton,   and   the 
Mathers,  of  which  the  press  was  so  prolific. 

"  I  love  to  sweeten  my  mouth  with  a  piece  of  Calvin,"  said  John  Cotton; 
and  when  Laud  drove  him  out  of  Lincolnshire  and  England,  the 

"  Lantern  of  Saint  Botolph  ceased  to  burn 
When  from  the  portals  of  that  church  he  came 
To  be  a  burning  and  a  shining  light 
Here  in  the  wilderness."6 

Cotton's  ascendancy  seems  to  have  been  a  purely  personal  one.  Hub- 
bard  speaks  of  his  "  insinuating  and  melting  way."  There  is  certainly  little 
in  his  writings,  as  left  to  us,  to  fix  our  attention.6  The  "  walking  library," 
as  his  grandson7  called  him,  "the  father  and  glory  of  Boston,"  seems  like 

1  It  purports  to  have  been  corrected  and  en-  that  not  a  copy  is  known,  according  to  Sibley,  of 
larged  by  several  poems  found  among  her  papers  the  first  three  editions.    Cf.  J.  W.  Dean's  Memoir 
after   her    death    (1672).      There   was   a   third  of  Wigglesworth  in  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg., 
edition  in  1758.  April,  1863,  and  separately,  two  editions  ;  Brinley 

2  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  her  father's  Catalogue,  No.  89  ;  Sibley's  Harvard  Graduates  ; 
library  contained  one  poem  at  least  which  may  Tyler's  American  Literature,  &c.    Some  of  Wig- 
have  gladdened  her  youthful  muse,  "  Ye  Vision  glesworth's  verses,  not  elsewhere  printed,  are  in 
of  Piers  Plowman."  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  May,  1871. 

8  John   Harvard  Ellis's  introduction  to  his  5  Longfellow,  New  England  Tragedies,  p.  15. 

edition  of  her  Poems,  Charlestown,   1867.     Cf.  6  There  is  in  the  cabinet  of  the  Massachu- 

also  Professor  M.  C.  Tyler,  Hist,  of  Amer.  Liter-  setts  Historical  Society  a  MS.  volume  made  by 

ature,  i.  278.  Captain   Robert   Keayne,   1639,   entitled,  "  Mr. 

*  The  poem  went  through  eight  American  Cotton  our  Teacher,  his  Sermons  or  expositions 

editions,  beside  some  English  ones.     Its  popu-  upon  the  Bookes  of  the  New  Testament."     Cf. 

larity  is  best  tested  by  the  actual  destruction  of  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  April,  1868. 

the  earlier  issues   in   their  gloomy  service,  so  7  Cotton  Mather,  Magnalia. 


462  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

one  we  would  not  know,  when  we  read  his  defence  of  intolerance  in  his  con- 
troversy with  Roger  Williams.  His  dismal  scouring  of  the  "  Bloody  Ten- 
ent "  is  curious  as  a  study  of  the  times,  and  is  of  some  historical  value,  but 
unprofitable  and  almost  unsupportable  for  all  else.  Of  Hooker  and  Shepard 
Boston  knew  but  little,  except  so  far  as  Cambridge,  so  interlinked  in  all  in- 
tellectual movements  with  the  metropolis,  lent  a  reflected  light.  Hooker 
comes  down  to  us  as  a  presence  of  mystical  sanctity.  What  he  wrote  was 
clearly  earnest,  with  not  a  little  of  the  scholarly  rhetoric  of  the  Univer- 
sity. Shepard  is  a  harsher  and  a  darksome  individuality.1 
^  Norton  came  later,  and  removed  from  Ipswich  to  Boston 
in  1653,  to  make  good,  as  he  might,  the  place  of  Cotton. 
He  signalized  his  reverence  for  his  predecessor  in  a  Life  and  Death  of  tJiat 
deservedly  famous  Man  of  God,  Mr.  Joint  Cotton,  which  he  sent  to  London 
to  be  printed,  in  1658.  The  admirer  of  a  stalwart  kind  of  chastisement  finds 
all  in  him  that  could  be  desired.  The  gloomy  sectary  wonders  at  the  terror 
he  caused  to  the  impenitent.  What  he  wrote  was  as  sulphurous  and  as  dry 
as  a  tinder-box,  but  in  it  dogma  and  conceit,  it  must  be  confessed,  were  at 
times  somewhat  amusingly  jumbled.2 

What  Tyler3  calls  the  Dynasty  of  the  Mathers  began  with  Richard,  of 
Dorchester  (1636-1669),  whom  we  have  already  connected  with  the  Bay 
Psalm  Book.  The  Mather  race  gained  a  craftier  power  in  his  son  Increase, 
who  preached  his  first  sermon  in  1657;  and  when  he  printed  his  first  book, 
twelve  years  later  (1669),  he  began  to  manifest  that  surprising  fecundity 
which  kept  the  presses  of  Boston,  Cambridge,  and  London  busy  for  more 
than  a  lifetime.4  For  nearly  sixty  years  Increase  Mather  well-nigh  ruled 
in  the  Boston,  if  not  in  the  New  England,  theocracy.  He  was  the  first  born 
on  her  soil  to  succeed  to  a  power  even  greater  than  that  of  the  early  fathers. 
Springing  from  the  times,  he  could  never  rise  above  their  level.  The  son, 
Cotton  (who  falls,  as  an  author,  within  the  next  period),  proved  a  less  vital 
force ;  for  the  father  was  the  clearer  and  abler  writer,  and  in  affairs  much  the 
stronger  head.  But  both  were  unfortunately  deficient  in  all  that  makes  men 
able  to  lead  their  fellows  to  a  higher  plane.  When  we  contemplate  the 
power  they  possessed,  we  can  but  regret  it  was  not  spent  to  better  advantage. 
Boston  and  New  England  were  never  lifted  to  any  height,  be  it  intellectual 

1  His  autobiography  is  printed  in  Young's  ii.,  No.  2,659,  &c. ;  Haven's  A nte-Rerolittionarv 
Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  and  had  previously  Bibliography  ;  N.  Paine's  List  of  Mathers  in  the 
been  printed  by  Nehemiah  Adams,  D.D.,  in  a  Amcr.  Antiq.  Soc.  Library.   Cf.  Proceedings  oi  this 
little  volume  in  1832.     Cf.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc\  last  Society,  April  28,  1869,  for  Mather  MSS., 
ii.  493.  and  the  third  part  of  the  Prince  Catalogue.    The 

2  There  is  quite  enough  printed  of  the  ser-  Mather  papers  have  been  printed  by  the  Massa- 
mons  of  the  time  without  going  to  the  common-  chusetts  Historical  Society.     Increase  Mather's 
place  books  of  John  Hull  and   others,  which  first  book  was  The  Mystery  of  Israefs  Salvation  ex- 
have  preserved  abstracts  of  many  more.     Hull's  plained  and  applied;  or  a  Discourse  concerning  the 
notes  are  in  the  Prince  collection.  General  Conversion  of  the  Israelitish  Nation.  .  .  . 

8  History  of  American  Literature.  Being  the  substance  of  several  Strmons  preached  l>y 

*  See   lists   of  his   publications  in    Sibley's  Increase  Mather,  M.A.,  Teacher  of  a  Church  in 

Harvard  Graduates;    Sabin' s  Dictionary  ;    The  Boston  in  New  England.    London,  1669.     Mass. 

Prince  Catalogue ;   The  Brinley  Catalogue,  i.  and  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  November,  1874,  p.  371. 


THE    LITERATURE   OF   THE    COLONIAL   PERIOD.  463 

or  spiritual,  through  the  influence  of  the  Mathers.  So  long  as  their 
influence  prevailed,  this  people  never  saw  the  dawn  of  spiritual  liberty; 
and  never  had  taught  to  them  the  distinction  between  cultivation  and 
pedantry. 

The  only  literature  of  the  Colonial  Period  to  be  contemplated  with  much 
satisfaction  is  that  which  chronicles  the  history  of  its  people,  and  tells  the 
story  of  the  "  Empire  in  their  brains,"  as  Lowell  phrases  it.  The  Journal 
which  Winthrop  began  on  his  embarkation  and  continued  to  his  death,  —  the 
work  of  a  grave,  self-respecting  gentleman,  always  moderate  in  expression, 
sometimes  elevated,  and  not  wholly  free  from  incredible  things  vouched  for 
by  divers  godly  persons,  —  affords  as  noble  a  record  of  the  beginnings  of  a 
people  as  any  State  could  boast.  The  letter1  of  Dudley  to  the  Countess  of 
Lincoln  (March  12,  1630)  is  replete  with  tenderest  interest;  and  the  story 
which  it  tells  of  hope  and  endurance  is  noble  in  its  simplicity,  written  as 
it  was,  "  rudely,  having  yet  no  table  nor  other  room  to  write  in  than  by  the 
fireside,  on  my  knee,  in  this  sharp  winter."  We  may  not  account  the  narra- 
tive which  Roger  Clap  wrote  for  his  children  as  contributing  anything  of 
literary  value,  but  we  should  miss  much  that  we  know  of  the  time  and  its 
trials  were  it  omitted  from  our  inheritance.  Wood,  who  came  over  in  1629, 
and  published  his  New  England's  Prospect  in  1634,  showed  not  a  little 
delicacy  in  his  descriptive  touches,  and  we  cannot  but  recognize  in  his 
pages  something  of  the  flavor  of  literary  book-craft. 

There  came  over  with  Winthrop  a  Mr.  Edward  Johnson,  who,  after  a 

little,  returned  to  England.  Again  com- 
mS>  ne  l'ved  f°r  a  few  years  at  Charles- 
town  (1636-42),  and  then  removed  to 
Woburn,  to  become  its  chief  founder.  Mr.  Poole  argues  that  he  wrote  his 
Wonder-working  Providences  of  S  ion's  Savior"*1  between  1649  and  1651, 
when  he  was  a  resident  of  Woburn  ;  but  he  relies  upon  passages  which 
might  well  have  been  inserted  in  a  manuscript  prepared  as  the  events 
went  on,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the  marginal  dates.  It  is  only  on  this 
supposition  that  we  can  claim  the  book  in  part  at  least  as  a  Boston  emana- 
tion, —  a  book  which,  if  Poole  is  not  over-confident  in  his  estimate,  is 
the  most  important  record  of  New  England's  life  which  the  first  hundred 
years  brought  forth.  As  a  writer  he  is  certainly  not  lovable  ;  he  is  awkward, 

1  This  first  appeared  in  print  in  Massae/nt-  sued  by  the  younger  Ferdinando  Gorges  in  1659, 
setts,  or  the  Hirst  Planters  of  New  England  ,  1696,  under  the  title  "  America  painted  to  the  Life," 
and  is  reprinted  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.\\\\.   Another  purporting  to  be  written  by  the  elder  and  aug- 
manuscript,  somewhat  more  extended,  was  fol-  mented  by  the  younger  Gorges,  is  held  to  be  for 
lowed  by  Farmer  in  Neto  Hampshire  Hist.  Coll.  the  most  part  a  fraudulent  or  ignorant  issue  of 
iv.  ;  in  Force's  Tracts,\\.\  and  in  Young's  C/tron-  the  sheets  of  Johnson's  book,  which  was  reprinted 
teles  of  Massachusetts.  in  2  A  fast.  Hist.  Coll.  ii.,  iii.,  iv.,  vii.,  and  viii.; 

2  Such  is  the  running  title,  but  A  History  of  and  again,  edited,  with  a  valuable  introduction, 
Neiv  England  stands  first  on  the  title,  —  a  sub-  by  W.  F.  Poole,  Andover,    1867.     Cf.  Charles 
stitute  very  likely  of  the  printer.     The  original  Deane  in  Aro.  Amer.  Rei>.,  January,  1868,  p.  319; 
edition  was  published  at  London,  1654.     Tyler,  E.  A.  Park  in  Congregational  Quarterly,  January, 
American  Literature,  i.  137.     What  is  known  as  1868;  J.  D.  Washburn  in  AMI.  Antiq.  Soc.  Pro,., 
the  third  (dated  1658)  of  the  Gorges   Tracts,  is-  April,  1877. 


n 

OL  ~J 
" 


464 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


grim,  militant,  but  sturdy,  and  thoroughly  representative.  The  book  was 
issued  anonymously,  but  there  would  appear  to  be  the  best  reasons  for 
ascribing  it  to  Johnson. 

Of  the  writings  of  Eliot  and  Gookin  there  is  little  need  of  mention  here. 
Eliot,  besides  his  connection  with  the  Bay  Psalm  Book,  and  his  translations 
into  the  Indian  language,  wrote  somewhat  in  explanation  and  furtherance 
of  his  labors  as  a  missionary ;  but  such  writings  belong  for  consideration  to 
other  connections.  Gookin  was  not  a  resident  of  Boston,  but  his  position  as 
superintendent  of  the  Indians,  and  as  a  high  military  officer,  brought  him 
naturally  into  relations  with  the  magistrates,  who  centred  in  Boston.  The 
fate  of  what  he  left  in  manuscript,  however,  has  been  told  elsewhere.1 

It  is  said  that  the  first  Latin  book  ever  written  in  this  country  was  the 
answer  of  John  Norton  to  Appolonius  of  Zealand,  printed  in  i644.2 


1  See  the  chapter  on  "The  Literature  of  the  Indian  Tongue,"  by  Dr.  Trumbull,  and  that  on 
"The  Indians  of  Eastern  Massachusetts,"  by  Dr.  Ellis. 

2  William  Emerson,  History  of  the  First  Church,  94. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

THE     INDIAN    TONGUE     AND     ITS     LITERATURE     AS 
FASHIONED     BY     ELIOT    AND     OTHERS. 

BY  THE   HON.  J.   HAMMOND  TRUMBULL,   LL.D. 

President  of  the  Connecticut  Historical  Socuty. 

THE  Indians  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  Plymouth,  Rhode  Island,  a  great 
part  of  Connecticut,  and  the  islands  near  the  coast,  spoke  the  same 
language,  with  considerable  differences  of  dialect ;  "  yet  so,"  said  the 
Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  in  1660,  "as  the  natives  well  under- 
stand and  converse  with  one  another,  throughout  the  whole  country  where 
the  English  have  to  do."  The  differences  were  no  greater  than  are  heard 
in  provincial  dialects  of  France  or  of  England ;  between  the  popular  speech 
of  Devon  and  Lancashire,  for  instance,  or  between  Somerset  and  Suffolk. 
The  language  was,  in  a  larger  sense,  itself  a  dialect  of  the  Algonkin, — 
a  name  first  given  by  Champlain  to  a  tribe  living  on  the  Ottawa  River  in 
Canada,  and  subsequently  extended  to  a  great  family  of  nations  and 
languages.  In  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  Algonkin  race 
had  spread  over  a  territory  nearly  half  as  large  as  Europe.  Algonkin 
dialects  were  spoken  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  from  Hudson's  Bay  and 
northern  Labrador  to  Cape  Hatteras. 

Rosier,  who  accompanied  Waymouth  to  New  England  in  1605,  and 
wrote  a  True  Relation  of  the  voyage,  appended  to  it  a  brief  list  of  "  words 
which  he  learned  of  the  Savages,  in  their  Languages."  These  words,  some 
of  which  are  clearly  in  the  Abnaki  dialect,  probably  were  obtained  from 
the  natives  whom  Waymouth  kidnapped  on  the  coast  of  Maine  and  carried 
back  with  him  to  England. 

In  1634,  William  Wood  printed,  at  the  end  of  his  New  England's 
Prospect,  "A  small  Nomenclator"  of  the  language  of  the  natives,  "whereby 
such  as  have  in-sight  into  the  Tongues  may  know  to  what  Language  it  is 
most  inclining;  and  such  as  desire  it  as  an  unknowne  Language  onely, 
may  reap  delight,  if  they  can  get  no  profit."  This  Nomenclator  comprises 
more  than  three  hundred  words  and  phrases.  Wood  had  been  living  in 
New  England  about  four  years,  and  in  the  compilation  of  his  vocabulary 
he  may  have  been  assisted  by  Roger  Williams,  who,  before  he  left  Salem, 
had  made  considerable  progress  in  the  Indian  language. 

VOL.  i.  —  59. 


466  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

In  1643,  Williams,  while  in  England,  published  his  Key  into  the  Language 
of  America.  This  was  partly  written  on  his  passage,  and  was  printed  soon 
after  he  reached  London.  "  I  drew  the  materials,  in  a  rude  lump,  at  sea," 
he  says  in  his  prefatory  address,  "  as  a  private  help  to  my  own  memory, 
that  I  might  not  by  my  present  absence  lightly  lose  what  I  had  so  dearly 
bought;"  but,  "  remembering  how  oft  I  have  been  importuned  by  worthy 
friends,  of  all  sorts,  to  afford  them  some  helps  this  way,  I  resolved  (by 
the  assistance  of  the  Most  High)  to  cast  those  materials  into  this  Key, 
pleasant  and  profitable  for  all,  but  specially  for  my  friends  residing  in 
those  parts."  This  Key  has  served,  as  its  author  hoped  it  might  do,  to 
"unlock  some  rarities  concerning  the  Natives  themselves,"  and  many  writers 
have  been  indebted  to  it  for  information  respecting  the  manners  and  customs 
of  the  Indians  of  New  England.  As  a  vocabulary  and  phrase-book  it  is  of 
considerable  value  to  students  of  the  language,  though  it  is  evident  that  the 
author  had  not  penetrated  the  mysteries  of  Algonkin  grammar.1 

Before  Williams's  Key  was  published,  the  Rev.  John  Eliot,  of  Roxbury, 
had  begun  to  study  the  Massachusetts  language,  and  in  October,  1646, 
had  acquired  sufficient  knowledge  of  it  to  be  able  to  preach  to  the  Indians 
without  an  interpreter.2  A  Catechism  which  he  prepared  for  their  instruc- 
tion was  printed  in  Cambridge  in  1654;  and  the  next  year  his  Indian  ver- 
sions of  Genesis  and  the  Gospel  of  Matthew  were  printed  at  the  same  press. 
To  these  he  added,  before  the  end  of  1658,  translations  of  a  few  Psalms  in 
metre.  If  a  copy  of  any  of  these  earliest  works  of  Eliot  is  still  in  being,  no 
American  collector  has  been  fortunate  enough  to  discover  and  secure  it. 

The  dialect  of  Western  Connecticut  (including  all  New  Haven  colony) 
differed  more  widely  than  the  dialects  of  Narragansett  and  Plymouth  from 
the  Massachusetts.  The  Rev.  Abraham  Pierson,  minister  of  Branford,  near 
New  Haven,  after  some  years'  study  of  the  language,  undertook  to  prepare 
an  Indian  Catechism  "  to  suit  these  southwest  parts "  of  New  England. 
His  work  was  ready  for  the  press  in  1657,  and  was  sent  to  England  to  be 
printed  at  the  charge  of  the  Corporation  for  Propagating  the  Gospel.  But 
the  manuscript  was  lost  at  sea,  and  when  Mr.  Pierson  had  prepared  another 

1  The  book  is  a  small  octavo,  containing  lieved  to  be  the  only  one  in  this  country.  Now 
fourteen  sheets,  making  224  pages,  the  title-leaf  there  are  perhaps  twenty,  certainly  fifteen,  copies 
included ;  but  several  mistakes  were  made  in  in  American  libraries.  The  late  Mr.  John  Car- 
numbering  the  pages.  It  was  printed  by  Gregory  ter  Brown,  of  Providence,  had/zr  copies  ;  there 
Dexter,  who  afterwards  came  over  to  settle  in  are  two  in  the  Lenox  Library,  New  York,  and 
the  colony  Williams  had  founded,  and  became  a  two  were  in  the  late  Mr.  George  Brinley's 
prominent  citizen  of  Providence.  It  was  re-  library,  Hartford.  But  as  copies  have  multi- 
printed  by  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  plied  the  price  has  steadily  advanced.  In  1783 
in  the  third  and  fifth  volumes  of  the  first  series  at  the  sale  of  Croft's  library  in  London,  the  Key 
of  their  Collections,  and  by  the  Rhode  Island  brought  four  shillings  and  sixpence;  in  1813 
Historical  Society  in  1827.  A  literal  reprint,  Gossett's  copy  sold  for  only  four  shillings ;  in 
even  to  the  reproduction  of  typographical  inac-  1871  John  Russell  Smith  offered  two  copies, — 
curacies  of  the  original,  was  printed  (with  an  one  at  twelve  guineas,  and  the  other,  newly 
introduction  and  notes)  in  the  first  volume  of  bound,  at  thirteen  guineas;  neither  had  to  wait 
the  Narragansett  Club's  Publications,  Providence,  long  for  buyers,  and  in  1879  one  of  Mr.  Brinley's 
1866.  In  1827  the  Massachusetts  Historical  copies  was  sold  for  $105. 
Society's  copy  of  the  original  edition  was  be-  2  [Cf.  Dr.  Ellis  in  Chap.  VI.  —  Eo.J 


THE    INDIAN   TONGUE   AND    ITS    LITERATURE.  467 

copy,  the  Commissioners,  considering  "  the  hazard  of  sending,  and  difficulty 
of  true  printing  it  without  a  fit  overseer  of  the  press,  skilled  in  the  lan- 
guage," decided  to  have  it  printed  by  Green,  in  Cambridge.  The  first  sheet 
(16  pages)  was  worked  off  before  the  end  of  December,  1658,  and  the 
imprint  of  the  volume  is  of  that  year;  but  it  was  not  all  through  the  press 
before  the  fall  or  winter  of  1659.  It  is  a  small  octavo  of  five  sheets  and  a 
half,  —  68  pages,  including  the  title-leaf  and  a  blank  page  at  the  end.1 

The  book  is  a  curiosity  in  more  respects  than  one.  An  English  transla- 
tion of  the  Catechism  is  interlined  throughout,  and  is  not  undeserving  the 
study  of  missionary  teachers,  home  and  foreign,  as  an  example  of  "  how 
not  to  do  it."  The  author  begins  with  a  demonstration  of  the  existence 
and  unity  of  God,  which  to  the  average  Indian  mind  must  have  been  as 
intelligible  and  satisfactory  as  the  enunciation  of  a  proposition  in  quater- 
nions, or  Hegel's  definition  of  the  Idea.  To  the  third  question :  "  How 
do  you  prove  that  there  is  but  one  true  God?"  the'  Indian  disciple  is 
instructed  to  reply,  inter  alia:  "Because  singular  things  of  the  same  kind 
when  they  are  multiplied  are  differenced  among  themselves  by  their  singular 
properties ;  but  there  cannot  be  found  another  God  differenced  from  this, 
by  any  such  like  properties,"  —  and  so  on.2 

We  come  now  to  the  great  work  of  Eliot  and  of  the  Cambridge  press. 
In  December,  1658,  he  had  completed,  except  final  revision,  his  translation 
of  the  whole  Bible  into  the  Massachusetts  dialect.3  "  Oh,  that  the  Lord 
would  so  move,"  he  prayed,  "  that  by  some  means  or  other  it  may  be 
printed."  The  Corporation  in  London  supplied  the  means,  and  the  first 
sheet  of  the  New  Testament  was  in  type  before  Sept.  7,  1659. 

1  "  Some  HELPS  FOR  THE  INDIANS  Shew-  what  is  known  of  Scot,  it  seems  probable  that 
ing  them  How  to  improve  their  natural  Reason,  he  had  this  title-page  printed  and  prefixed  to 
to  know  the  True  GOD,  and  the  true   Christian  one  or  more  copies  that  he  took  with  him  to  Eng- 
Religion,     i.  By  leading  them  to  see  the  Divine  land,  after  the  restoration  of  Charles  the  Second. 
Authority  of  the  Scriptiires.     2.  By  the   Scrip-  The  first  sheet,  which  was  sent  to  England 
tures  the  Divine  Truths  necessary  to  Eternal  by  the  Commissioners  in  December,  1658,  as  a 
Salvation.     Undertaken  At  the  Motion,  and  pub-  specimen  of  the  work,  was  reprinted  there  by 
lished  by  the  Order  of  the  COMMISSIONERS  of  the  order  of  the  Corporation,  in  the  spring  of  1659, 
United  Colonies.     By  ABRAHAM  PIERSON.     Ex-  at  the  end  of  a  quarto  tract  entitled  A  further 
ammed  and  approved  by  Thomas  Stanton  Inter-  Accompt  of  the  Progresse  of  the  Gospel  amongst 
preter-General  to  the  United  Colonies  for  the  the  Indians,  &c.     This  has,  in  place  of  the  Cam- 
Indian  Language,  and  by  some  of  the  most  able  bridge  imprint :  "  LONDON,  printed  by  M.  Sim- 
Interpreters  amogst  [sic]  us.    Cambridg,  Printed  mons,  1659." 

by  Samuel  Green  1658."  The  Congregational  Library  in  Boston  pos- 

2  Mr.   Pierson's  Some  Helps  must   be  reck-  sessesacopy  —  possibly  unique  —  of  A  Christian 
oned  among  the  rarest  of  American  books.    The  Covenanting  Confession,  printed  on  a  single  page, 
Lenox  Library  in  New  York  possesses  the  only  small  410,  in  two  columns,  Indian  and  English, 
known    copy   with    the    original    title-page    (as  It  is  mentioned  by  Cotton  Mather,  —  who  quotes 
above).      A  copy  in   the    British  Museum   has  a  few  words  from  it  in  the  Magnalia  (bk.  iii.  178), 
a  different  title-page,  on  which  the  author  is  de-  — as  "a  covenant  with  God  which  it  was  Eliot's 
scribed  as  "  Pastor  of  the  Church  at  Branford."  desire  to  bring  the  Indians  into."     Probably  it 
The  work  appears  to  have  been  "Examined  and  was  printed  before  —  but  not  long  before  —  the 
approved  by  that  Experienced  Gentleman    (in  gathering  of  the  first  Indian  church,  at  Natick, 
the    Indian   Language)   Captain    JOHN    SCOT,"  in  1660. 

instead  of  by  the  "  Interpreter-General,"  Thomas  3  [Cf.    Dr.    Trumbull  on   the   difficulties  of 

Stanton;  and"  Printed  for  Samuel  Green  "is  sub-  translating  the  Bible,  Amer.  Antiq.  Soc.  Proc., 
stituted  for  "  Printed  by  Samuel  Green."  From  October,  1873.  — 


468  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

There  were  now  two  presses  in  Cambridge.  One,  purchased  by  the 
Rev.  Josse  Glover  and  brought  over  in  1638,  was  in  the  possession  of  Mr. 
Dunster,  President  of  the  College,  who  married  Mr.  Glover's  widow.  It 
was  managed  till  about  1649  by  Stephen  Daye,  afterwards  by  Samuel 
Green.  The  types  that  came  with  it  were  given  to  the  College,  and  at  the 
instance  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  the  Corporation  in 
London  had  provided  a  new  supply  of  new  type  for  the  Indian  work.  In 
the  winter  of  1657-58,  Mr.  Hezekiah  Usher  went  to  England  as  the  agent  of 
the  Commissioners,  and,  before  his  return,  he  bought,  with  money  furnished 
by  the  Corporation,  a  press,  several  fonts  of  type,  and  other  printing  mate- 
rials. The  new  press  was  set  up  in  1659,  and  was  given  in  charge  to  Green. 

Only  a  few  sheets  of  the  New  Testament  were  worked  off  before  the 
arrival,  in  the  summer  of  1660,  of  Marmaduke  Johnson,  a  printer  sent  from 
London  to  assist  Green  in  printing  the  Bible  and  other  Indian  books.  Both 
presses  were  now  kept  busy,  and  when  the  Commissioners  met  in  1661 
(September  5),  the  New  Testament  was  "  finished,  printed,  and  set  forth," 
and  the  impression  of  the  Old  had  advanced  to  the  end  of  the  Pentateuch. 
The  Commissioners  "thought  meet  to  present  his  Majesty,"  now  happily 
restored,  with  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament ;  and  a  dedication  —  or,  as  they 
styled  it,  a  "preface" — was  drawn  up,  commending  the  work  "To  the 
High  and  Mighty  Prince,  Charles  the  Second,"  &c.  The  edition  was  about 
fifteen  hundred  copies.  Of  these  perhaps  five  hundred  in  all  were  separ- 
ately bound.  Twenty  copies  were  sent  to  England,  of  which  two,  after 
"  being  very  fairly  bound  up,"  were  to  be  presented  to  the  King  and  the 
Lord  Chancellor;  five  others,  to  Dr.  Reynolds,  Mr.  Caryll,  Richard  Baxter, 
and  the  vice-chancellors  of  the  two  universities;  and  the  remaining  thir- 
teen were  left  to  the  disposal  of  Mr.  Ashhurst  and  Richard  Hutchinson 
(members  of  the  Corporation). 

An  English  title-page  precedes  the  dedication,  on  a  sheet  inserted 
between  the  first  blank  leaf  and  the  original  Indian  title :  — 

THE  NEW  |  TESTAMENT  |  of  our  |  Lord  and  Saviour  |  JESUS  CHRIST.  | 
Translated  into  the  |  INDIAN  LANGUAGE,  |  and  Ordered  to  be  Printed  by  the 
Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  \  in  NEW-ENGLAND,  |  At  the  Charge,  and 
with  the  Consent  of  the  |  CORPORATION  IN  ENGLAND  |  For  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  amongst  the  Indians  |  in  New-England.  \  —  |  CAMBRIDG  :  |  Printed  by 
Samuel  Green  and  Marmaduke  Johnson.  \  MDCLXI.  | 

WUSKU     |     WUTTESTAMENTUM     |     NUL-LORDUMUN     |      JESUS    CHRIST     |     Nuppo- 

quohwussuaeneumun.    |    —  [a  lozenge-shaped  ornament  of  printers'  marks.]  —    | 
Cambridge  :    |    Printed  by  Samuel  Green  and  Marmaduke  Johnson.    \    MDCLXI.    j 

Translated  literally,  this  is:  "New  his-Testament  our-Lord  Jesus-Christ 
our-Deliverer."  * 

1  Accurate  collations  of  the  Indian  Testa-  title  and  dedication,  is  a  scarcer  book  than  even 

ment  and  of  both  editions  of  the  Bible  have  been  the  first  edition  of  the  Bible,  though  there  are  per- 

inoi  c  than  once  published,  and  need  not  be  re-  haps  nine  or  ten  copies  of  it  in  American  libraries, 

peated  here.     [Cf.  Hist.  Mag.,  Oct.  1858;  Mar.  — two  in  Cambridge  (in  the  libraries  of  Harvard 

1859,  &c.  —  Eo.J     The  Testament,  with  English  and  the  late  Mr.  George  Livermore),  one  each 


THE   INDIAN    TONGUE   AND    ITS    LITERATURE. 


469 


50 


•Hi 


*>. 


At  A  M  V  S  S  E 

WUNNE-ETUPAiNATAMWE 

UP-BIBLUM    GOD  | 

NA.NEESWE  '!£ 

INUKKONE  TESTAMENT  g 

9O» 

K  A  H     W  O  N  K  j  |S- 

WUSKXl  TESTAMENT,     'g 


The  Old  Testament  was  all  printed  and  the  Indian  Bible  complete 
before  the  Commissioners  met  in  September,  1663.  The  Corporation 
had  ordered  a  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms  to  be  printed,  to  be  bound 
with  the  Bible.  September  18  the  Commissioners  wrote  that  they  had 
directed  Mr.  Usher  to  present  the  Corporation,  "  by  the  next  ship,  with  20 
copies  of  the  Bible,  and  as  many  of  the  Psalms,  if  printed  off  before  the 
ship's  departure  hence."  Simon  Bradstreet  and  Thomas  Danforth  were 
appointed  to  prepare  "  an  epistle  to  the  Indian  Bible,  dedicatory  to  his 
Majesty,  and  to  cause  the  same  to  be  printed." 

An  English  title-page 
was  printed  on  the  same 
sheet  with  the  "  dedica- 
tory epistle,"  to  be  in- 
serted in  the  copies  sent 
to  England,  and  from 
most  of  these  copies  the 
Indian  title  -  leaf  was 
removed.  They  were 
bound  in  London  by 
order  of  the  Corpora- 
tion. The  three  "  dedi- 
cation "  copies  which  I 
have  seen,  in  their  orig- 
inal binding,  —  of  which 
the  Allen  copy,  once  in 
the  library  of  the  late 
Mr.  Brinley,  is  one, — 
are  in  uniform  smooth 
dark-blue  (nearly  black) 
morocco,  with  gilt  backs 
and  sides  and  gilt  leaves, 
and  were  furnished  with 
clasps. 

An  English  binder, 
John  Ratlife  (or  Ratclif- 
fe),  whom  a  prospect  of 
work  on  the  Indian  Bible 
brought  to  New  England,  was  employed  by  Mr.  Usher,  and  paid  two  and 
sixpence  per  Bible,  he  finding  "thread,  glue,  pasteboard,  and  leather  claps," 
for  himself.  In  1664  he  addressed  a  memorial  to  the  Commissioners  of  the 
United  Colonies,  complaining  of  the  insufficiency  of  this  pay.  "  I  finde  by 

in  the  Lenox  Library,  New  York,  and  the  library  l  [This  and  the  other  fac-similes  in  this  sec- 

of  the  late   Mr.  John  Carter  Brown,  of  Provi-  tion  are  taken  from  copies  in  the  Mass.  Hist, 

dence.     Mr.  Brinley's  copy  brought  $700  at  the  Society's    library.      The    present   is   somewhat 

sale  of  the  first  part  of  his  library,  March,  1879.  reduced.  —  ED.] 


•OS 


Ne  tjQofbkinnumul  oafhpe  Wuttinneamob 
i  oa 


JOHN    ELIOT' 


IS 


Prlatcuoop  Oiflbpe  S*mntl  Cirttn  kJl   M*rm*iinks  Johnfn, 
I     4    6     $. 


IS 


TITLE  TO   THE   INDIAN   BIBLE. 


470  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

experience," — he  writes,  from  Boston,  August  30, —  "that  in  things  be- 
longing to  my  trade,  I  here  pay  iSs.  for  that  which  in  England  I  could  buy 
for  four  shillings,  they  being  things  not  formerly  much  used  in  this  country." 
The  Indian  title  is  as  follows:  — 

MAMUSSE   |   WUNNEETUPANATAMWE  |  UP-BIBLUM  GOD   |    NANEESWE  |   NUKKONE 
TESTAMENT  |   KAH  WONK  |  WUSKU  TESTAMENT.  |  —  |   Ne  quoshkinnumuk  nashpe 
Wuttinneumoh    Christ    |    noh   asoowesit    |    JOHN    ELIOT.    |    —    |    CAMBRIDGE  :    | 
Printeuoop  nashpe  Samuel  Green  kah  Marmaduke  Johnson.    \     1663. 

Literally :  "  The-whole  Holy  his-Bible  God,  both  Old  Testament  and 
also  New  Testament.  This  turned  [translated]  by  the-servant-of  Christ, 
who  is-called  John  Eliot,"  &c.  At  the  end  of  the  Old  Testament  are  the 
words,  Wolikukquohsinwog  Qiioshodtumwaenuog,  i.  e.  "The  Prophets  are 
ended." 

The  New  Testament  is  followed  by  Eliot's  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms : 
Wame  KetooJiomae  Uketoohomaongash  David  (i.  e.  All  the-singing  Songs-of 
David)  making  one  hundred  double-column  pages.  They  end  on  the 
second  leaf  of  a  sheet,  and  on  its  third  leaf  follows  what  has  been  called  a 
"  Catechism."  It  contains  some  rules  for  holy  living,  given  as  answers  to 
two  questions:  I.  "How  can  I  walk  all  the  day  long  with  God?"  II. 
"What  should  a  Christian  do,  to  keep  perfectly  holy  the  Sabbath  day?" 

The  paper  used  for  this  Bible  was  of  excellent  quality,  of  the  size  known 
to  old  printers  as  "pot"  (from  its  original  water-mark,  a  tankard),  which 
should  measure  12^  by  15  inches,  giving  6*^  by  7^  for  the  quarto  fold. 
The  type  is  described  by  Mr.  Thomas  as  "  full-faced  bourgeois  on  brevier 
body." 

The  first  edition  was  exhausted  in  less  than  twenty  years  after  its 
publication.  Many  copies  were  destroyed  or  lost  during  the  Indian  war 
of  I675-78.1  With  the  assistance  of  the  Rev.  John  Cotton2  of  Plymouth, 
Eliot  undertook  a  thorough  revision  of  the  translation 
for  a  new  edition.  Green,  with  his  Indian  journeyman 
"James  Printer,"  —  the  only  man,  according  to  Eliot, 
who  was  "  able  to  compose  the  sheets  and  correct  the  press,  with  under- 
standing,"—  began  their  work  on  the  New  Testament  in  1680,  and  finished 
it  about  the  end  of  1681.  The  Old  Testament  followed  slowly.  Beginning 
in  1682,  it  was  not  through  the  press  before  the  autumn  of  1685.  This 
edition  was  2,000  copies.  The  Psalms  in  Metre  (thoroughly  revised)  and 
the  two-page  "  Catechism "  follow  the  New  Testament,  as  in  the  first 
edition.  To  the  general  title  is  added,  after  the  name  of  the  translator, 
"  Nahoht6eu  onchetde  Printeuoomuk,"  i.  e.  "  Second-time  amended  impres- 
sion." Green's  name  stands  alone  in  the  imprint:  "CAMBRIDGE.  Printeuoop 
nashpe  Samuel  Green.  MDCLXXXV." 

1  [There  seems  also  to  have  been  some  trouble  -  [He  was  the  son  of  John  Cotton,  of  Boston 

in  the  printing  office  at  this  time.     See  Green's  Sibley,  Harvard  Graduates,  p.  496,  gives  an  ac- 

letter  in  the  "Winthrop   Papers"  in  5  Mass,  count  of  him,  with  references.  —  ED.] 
Hist.  Coll.  \.  422.  —  ED.] 


THE   INDIAN   TONGUE  AND   ITS   LITERATURE.  471 

At  the  end  of  the  Old  Testament  are  tables  of  the  "  Book-Names  in  the 
Bible  contained,  and  who  many  Chapters  in  each  Book."  At  the  foot  of 
this  page  an  erratum  in  the  impression  of  the  New  Testament  is  pointed 
out:  "James  I.  26.  Asuhkaue  wenan,  ogketash,  qut  asookekodtam 
nehenwonche  wuttah."  Four  words  had  been  omitted  in  printing  the  verse 
referred  to :  "  After  tongue,  read,  but  deceiveth  his-own  heart." 

In  some  few  copies  of  this  edition,  a  dedication  to  Robert  Boyle  and  the 
Company  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Indians,  printed  on  a 
single  page,  was  inserted  between  the  title  and  the  beginning  of  the  text. 
A  few  years  ago  Prince's  copy  (now  in  the  Boston  Public  Library)  was 
the  only  one  in  which  this  dedication  had  been  found.  Since  then,  at  least 
two  others  have  come  to  light :  one  is  in  the  Lenox  Library,  New  York ; 
the  other,  from  the  Marquis  of  Hastings's  library,  purchased  by  Mr.  Brinley 
in  1869,  —  clean  and  fresh  as  when  it  left  the  hands  of  the  Boston  binder, — 
now  belongs  to  the  Hon.  Henry  C.  Murphy  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.1 

An  interesting  paper  might  be  made  by  bringing  together  such  frag- 
ments of  the  history  of  all  known  copies  of  Eliot's  Bible  as  could  be 
gathered  from  the  autograph  names  and  notes  of  their  former  owners. 
One  of  Mr.  Brinley's  copies  of  the  edition  of  1685  belonged  to  the  Rev. 
John  Baily,  of  Watertown,  and  afterwards  assistant  minister  of  the  First 
Church  in  Boston:  "Jo.  Baily,  Jan.  I,  8f.  N.  E."  Secretary  Rawson  was 
its  next  owner,  and  then  it  passed  to  his  son,  Grindall,  the  minister  of 
Mendon,  who  used  to  preach  to  the  Indians  in  their  own  language,  of  which 
(says  Mather)  "  he  was  a  master  that  had  scarce  an  equal."  He  wrote  in 
it:  "  Grindall  Rawson.  His  Indian  Bible,  Given  him  by  his  Father.  1712." 
Another  copy  in  the  same  collection  has  the  autograph  of  Governor 
"  Wm.  Stoughton,"  and  below,  that  of  the  Rev.  "John  Danforth,  1713,"  — 
the  son  of  Eliot's  colleague  in  Roxbury.  A  third  belonged,  in  1759,  to 
Zachariah  Mayhew,  who  succeeded  his  father  (Rev.  Experience  Mayhew) 
as  Indian  missionary  at  Martha's  Vineyard. 

Several  copies  of  the  second  edition — nearly  all  imperfect,  soiled,  and 
worn  by  use  —  bear  the  autographs  of  Indian  owners.  One  of  these  is  in 
Pilgrim  Hall,  Plymouth.  Josiah  Willard  (the  future  Secretary)  gave  it 

1  In  neither  edition  can  Eliot's  Bible  be  re-  Allan's  collection,  mentions  his  copy  of  the 
garded  as  a  "  very  rare "  book.  Mr.  Nathaniel  Indian  Bible,  and  remarks  that  one  "was  re- 
Paine,  in  1873,  printed  a  list  of  fifty-four  copies  cently  sold  at  the  sale  of  Mr.  Corwin's  collection 
owned  in  the  United  States,  —  twenty-six  of  the  for  two  hundred  dollars."  Mr.  Allan's  copy  — 
first  edition  and  twenty-eight  of  the  second.  At  one  of  the  "royal"  twenty  —  was  sold,  a  few 
least  five  or  six  copies  might  now  be  added  to  years  later,  for  $825,  and  was  re-sold  at  a  con- 
that  list.  The  Lenox  Library  and  Mr.  Brinley's  siderable  advance.  Mr.  John  A.  Rice's  copy 
have  each  two  of  the  twenty  "royal  copies"  was  bought  at  auction  for  $1,135,  an<^  sold,  in 
(with  the  dedication  to  Charles  II.)  of  the  first  1870,  for  $1,050.  Mr.  Bernard  Quaritch,  the 
edition.  But  (as  was  observed  of  Roger  Wil-  well-known  London  bookseller,  sold  Mr.  Petit's 
liams's  Key}  in  apparent  violation  of  a  law  of  copy,  a  few  years  ago,  for  .£200,  and  in  his  last 
trade,  as  copies  multiply,  the  price  rises.  Forty  General  Catalogue  (1874)  marks  a  copy  of  the 
years  ago  a  fair  copy  of  "  Eliot's  Bible  "  —  the  first  edition,  with  English  title  and  dedication 
edition  did  not  matter  —  would  sell  in  a  New  (from  the  library  of  Trinity  College),  at  .£225. 
York  or  Boston  auction-room,  perhaps,  for  $40.  If  many  more  copies  are  found,  nobody  can 
In  1860  Dr.  Wynne,  in  an  account  of  Mr.  John  guess  how  high  the  price  will  rise. 


472  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

in  1706  to  John  Wainwright  (probably  the  Harvard  graduate  of  1709,  son 
of  Col.  John,  of  Ipswich),  who  wrote:  "  Joannis  Wainwright  Liber  Donum 
Doin  Josiae  Willard,  Janr  10,  170$."  A  few  years  afterwards  it  came  into 
the  possession  of  "Josiah  Attaunitt,"  alias  "Josiah  Ned,"  who  left  his 
name  on  several  pages  and  scribbled  memoranda  on  the  margins.  He 
seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  Christian  Indians  who  lived  near  Duxbury 
or  at  Mattakesit.  In  one  place  he  wrote,  "Josiah  Ned,  1718;"  in  another, 
"Josiah  Attaunitt  yeu  wutaimun  in  March  18  in  .  .  .  .  "  i.  e.  "J.  A.  this 
belongs  to  him,"  &c.  On  the  margin  of  one  page  is  a  note,  dated  "  ut 
febnuany  7  tay  1715."  (The  Massachusetts  Indians  did  not  pronounce  the 
r,  substituting  «  for  it.)  The  writer  was  "at  this  time  at  the  house  of 
Pammohkauwut,  who  lives  at  Duxbury"  ("  ut  ohquompi  utwekit  Pammoh- 
kauwut  noh  pamontog  ut  Togspane"}.  In  another  place  the  name  of 
Duxbury  is  differently  spelled :  — 

"fevuany  bwitay  20  tay,  1715,  ut  wekit  pamohkauwut  ut  tukspany  kah  yeu 
wutappin  annis  mommehthemmut  unnoowau,  nuttom  nasit  saup  ;  "  (i.  e.  "  February, 
Friday,  aoth  day,  1715,  in  the  house  of  Pammohkauwut  at  Duxbury,  and  here  lodged. 
Annis  Mommehthemmut  said,  I  am  going  to  Nauset  to-morrow.") 

One  of  the  Connecticut  Historical  Society's  copies  — "  Recd  from  the 
Revd  Mr.  Experience  Mayhew  by  Mr.  Ebenezer  Allien,  April,  1719"  —  has 
two  or  three  autographs  of  an  Indian  owner,  probably  of  the  Vineyard : 
"  Nen  elisha  yeu  noosooquohwonk,"  —  i.e.,  "I,  Elisha,  this  my  writing," 
and  once,  "thes  my  piple"  (bible).  In  many  places,  particularly  the  books 
of  Genesis  and  Isaiah  and  the  Psalms,  the  paper  is  fairly  worn  out  by  use. 
A  copy  in  the  library  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society  was  the  prop- 
erty of  an  Indian  named  "  Josiah  Spotsher,"  who  left  some  manuscript 
notes  on  its  margins.  Between  the  leaves  of  one  of  Mr.  Brinley's  copies 
was  found  an  autograph  letter  from  Zachary  Hossueit,  an  Indian  preacher 
at  Gayhead,  Martha's  Vineyard,  to  Solomon  Briant,  the  pastor  of  the 
Indian  church  at  Marshpee  ("Mespeh"),  written  in  1766. 

After  mention  of  Eliot's  version  it  would  be  unpardonable  to  omit  the 
eel-pot  story.  Everybody  knows  it ;  but  then  everybody  expects  either  to 
tell  or  hear  it  again  whenever  the  Indian  Bible  is  talked  of.  When  Eliot  — 
so  the  story  goes  —  was  translating  Judges  v.  28,  —  "The  mother  of  Sisera 
looked  out  at  a  window,  and  cried  through  the  lattice"  &c.,  —  he  had  some 
difficulty  in  finding  the  proper  Indian  word  for  "  lattice."  At  last,  after 
much  questioning  and  describing,  "  a  long,  barbarous,  and  unpronounceable 
word  "  was  given  him,  and  took  its  place  in  the  verse.  Years  afterwards  he 
discovered  that  he  had  used  for  "  lattice  "  the  Indian  name  for  an  eel-pot. 
The  story  is  a  good  one,  and  the  only  fault  to  be  found  with  it  is,  that,  in 
the  verse  referred  to,  Eliot  merely  transferred  the  English  word  "  lattice," 
without  attempting  to  translate  it :  — 

"Ohkasoh  Sisera  sohhooquaeu  ut  kenogkeneganit,  kah  mishontooau  papashpe 
lattice-\\\.r 


THE    INDIAN   TONGUE   AND   ITS    LITERATURE.  473 

Eliot  made,  of  course,  some  mistakes  in  translating,  though  the  "eel-pot" 
lattice  is  not  one  of  them.  On  the  whole,  his  version  was  probably  as  good 
as  any  first  version  that  has  been  made,  from  his  time  to  ours,  in  a  previ- 
ously unwritten  and  so-called  "  barbarous  "  language.  It  is  certainly  much 
better  than  some  modern  specimens  of  mission-translation.  The  most 
curious  mistake  I  have  detected  is  in  the  word  used  for  "  virgin."  Among 
the  Indians  chastity  was  a  masculine  virtue,  and  Eliot's  Natick  interpreter 
did  not  understand  that  the  noun  wanted  was  feminine.  Subsequent  instruc- 
tion doubtless  made  the  matter  clear ;  but  in  the  Indian  Bible  the  parable 
in  Matthew  xxv.  1-12,  is  of  "the  ten  chaste  young  men"  (piukqussuog 
penompaog,  —  the  syllable  omp  marking  the  masculine  gender),  —  and  so  in 
every  place  in  which  "  virgin "  occurs  in  the  English  version,  though  in 
most  cases  the  context  clearly  establishes  the  true  gender.  The  right  word 
was  keegsquau,  which  is  to  be  found  (though  seldom  used)  in  every  Algon- 
kin  language.  Another  little  mistake  occurs  in  2  Kings  ii.  23,  where  the 
bad  boys  say  to  the  prophet,  "  Go  up,  thou  bald  head."  In  the  Indian 
the  last  word  is,  literally,  "  &z//-head,"  pompasuhkonkanontup.  Either  the 
interpreter  mistook  the  word  as  pronounced  by  Eliot,  or  he  thought  it  well 
to  aggravate  the  insult  by  likening  Elisha's  smooth  head  to  a  foot-ball ;  for 
pompasuhkonk  denotes  "  a  ball  to  play  with." 

In  the  summer  of  1663,  before  the  Indian  Bible  was  out  of  press, 
Mr.  Eliot  began  to  translate  Baxter's  Call  to  the  Unconverted.  "The  keen- 
ness of  the  edge  and  liveliness  of  the  spirit  of  that  book,  through  the 
blessing  of  God,  may,"  he  wrote,  "  be  of  great  use  unto  these  Sons  of  this 
our  Morning."  His  translation  was  finished  December  31 ;  and  before  the 
end  of  August,  1664,  a  thousand  copies  were  printed  and  distributed  to 
Indian  scholars.  Perhaps  not  one  of  these  is  now  in  existence.  Of  a  sec- 
ond edition,  printed  in  1688,  in  small  octavo  (pp.  188),  several  copies  are 
preserved  in  American  libraries. 

Mr.  Eliot  next  undertook  the  translation  of  two  treatises  by  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Shepard,  of  Cambridge,  —  The  Sincere  Convert  and  The  Sound 
Believer.  But  before  he  had  these  ready  for  the  press  he  was  requested  by 
the  Corporation  in  London  (of  which  Robert  Boyle  was  now  the  governor) 
to  give  precedence  to  Bishop  Bayly's  Practice  of  Piety.  This  work,  now 
scarcely  known  to  general  readers,  was  for  more  than  a  century  in  high 
repute  with  all  orthodox  Christians  of  the  Church  of  England.  Before  the 
death  of  its  author,  in  1632,  it  had  reached  its  twenty-eighth  edition,  and 
had  been  translated  into  French,  German,  and  Welsh.  Bishop  Bayly  had 
been  one  of  the  domestic  chaplains  of  James  I. ;  and  several  editions  of 
The  Practice  of  Piety  were  dedicated  to  Charles  I.,  when  Prince  of  Wales. 
This  fact,  perhaps,  added  to  the  popularity  of  the  book  after  the  Restora- 
tion, —  a  popularity  which  outlasted  the  century.1 

Boyle  and  the  Corporation  —  whose  charter  had  been  renewed  by  the 

1  I  have  "the  6o.th  edition,"  printed  in  1743,  and  the  seventy-first  edition,  of  1792,  is  in  the 
library  of  Harvard  College. 
VOL.  I.  —  60. 


474 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


favor  of  Charles  II.  —  thought  it  expedient  that  the  work  of  a  loyal  Church- 
man should,  in  preference  to  one  of  Baxter's  or  Shepard's,  have  place  next 
the  Indian  Bible.  Baxter,  in  his  Life  and  Times,  alludes  to  this:  "When 
Mr.  Eliot  had  printed  all  the  Bible  in  the  Indians'  language,  he  next  trans- 
lated this,  my  Call  to  the  Unconverted,  as  he  wrote  to  us  here :  and  though 
it  was  here  thought  prudent  to  begin  with  the  Practice  of  Piety,  because 
of  the  envy  and  distaste  of  the  times  against  me,  he  had  finished  it  before 
that  advice  came  to  him."  It  came,  however,  in  season  to  stop  the  work  on 
Shepard's  treatises.  In  August,  1664,  Eliot  wrote  to  the  Commissioners  of 
the  Colonies:  "I  have  Mr.  Shepard's  Sincere  Convert  and  Sound  Believer 
almost  translated,  .  .  .  yet  by  advertisement  from  the  Hon'ble  Corporation, 
I  must  lay  that  by,  and  fall  upon  the  Practice  of  Piety,  which  I  had  intended 
to  be  the  last,"  &c. 

The  translation  of  the  Practice  of  Piety  —  considerably  abridged — was 
printed  in  1665,  under  the  title,  Manitowompae  Pomantamoonk,  &c.  A  sec- 
ond edition  followed  the  second  edition  of  the  Bible  in  1685. * 

Eliot's  next  work,  undertaken  on  Boyle's  suggestion,  was  The  Indian 
Grammar  Begun,  or  an  Essay  to  bring  the  Indian  Language  into  Rules,  &c. 
"  They  are  pleased  to  put  me  upon  a  Grammar  of  this  language,"  -  -  he 
wrote  to  the  Commissioners  in  August,  1664, —  "which  my  sons  and  I  have 
oft  spoken  of,  but  now  I  must  (if  the  Lord  give  life  and  strength)  be  doing 
about  it.  But  we  are  not  able  to  do  much  in  it,  because  we  know  not  the 
latitudes  and  corners  of  the  language:  some  general  and  useful  collections 
I  hope  the  Lord  will  enable  us  to  produce."  His  eldest  sons,  John  and 
Joseph,  had  for  some  years  been  his  helpers  in  the  Indian  work.2 

In  the  dedication  to  Boyle  and  the  Corporation,  Eliot  puts  a  very  modest 
estimate  on  the  value  of  his  work:  "  I  have  made  an  Essay  unto  this  diffi- 
cult service,  and  laid  together  some  bones  and  ribs  preparatory  at  least  for 
such  a  work.  It  is  not  worthy  the  name  of  a  Grammar"  It  does  not,  it  is 
true,  compass  all  "  the  latitudes  and  corners  "  of  the  language,  and  is  not  to 
be  regarded  as  the  measure  of  Eliot's  mastery  of  it  in  translation ;  for  in  the 
Indian  Bible  he  constantly  uses  forms  of  inflection  and  construction  of  which 
his  Grammar  makes  no  mention ;  but  it  continues  to  be  an  important  "  help 
of  such  as  desire  to  learn  the  same."  3 

1  The^rr/  is  extremely  rare.  The  American  History  of  Printing,  \.  480,  says  that  "  it  accom- 

Anticjuarian  Society  has  a  copy,  and  another  panied  some  editions  of  the  Psalter,  /'.  e.  they 

(formerly  Mr.  Brinley's)  is  in  the  library  of  Yale  were  occasionally  bound  together  in  one  vol- 

College.  ume,  small  octavo"  This  is  obviously  a  mistake, 

-  [Sibley,  Harvard  Graduates,  pp.  476,  530,  since  the  Grammar  is  in  quarto.  I  infer  that  he 

gives  an  account  of  these.  —  ED.]  had  not  seen  a  perfect  copy,  for  he  describes  it 

3  The  Grammar  was  printed  in  1666,  by  as  of  "about  60  pages,"  and  places  it  among 

Marmaduke  Johnson,  in  a  thin  pot-quarto  of  66  books  published  by  S.  Green  in  1664.  Possibly 

pages  and  two  preliminary  leaves.  It  well  de-  some  copies  were  bound  with  the  quarto  Psalter 

served  the  pains  bestowed  by  Pickering  and  of  1663.  One  bound  with  the  New  Testament 

Duponceau  in  editing  a  reprint  of  it  in  2  is  in  the  library  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 

Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  ix  The  original  edition  was,  In  this  country,  the  only  copies  I  have  heard  of 

probably,  of  500  copies.  Of  these  450  were  are  in  the  Lenox  Library,  .the  library  of  the 

bound  separately,  and  a  few  were  bound  with  American  Philosophical  Society,  the  late  Mr.  J. 

copies  of  the  New  Testament  of  1663.  Thomas,  Carter  Brown's,  and  the  writer's. 


THE    INDIAN    TONGUE   AND    ITS    LITERATURE.  475 

The  translation  of  Shepard's  Sincere  Convert —  in  Indian,  Sampwuttcahae 
Quinnuppekompauacnin — was  not  printed  till  1689,  when  Eliot  was  eighty- 
five  years  old.  It  was  revised  for  the  press,  and  "  in  a  few  places  amended," 
by  the  Rev.  Grindall  Rawson  (a  son  of  Secretary  Rawson),  the  minister  of 
Mendon,  who  had  learned  to  preach  to  the  Indians  in  their  own  language,  and 
was  for  many  years  active  in  mission  work  among  them.  In  1691,  the  year 
after  Eliot's  death,  Mr.  Rawson's  translation  of  John  Cotton's  Catechism, 
Spiritual  Milk  for  Babes,  drawn  out  of  the  Breasts  of  Both  Testaments,  for 
tlie  Nourishment  of  their  Souls,  was  printed,  in  a  tract  of  sixteen  pages  (of 
which  three  are  blank),  by  Samuel  and  Bartholomew  Green,  —  the  last 
Indian  book  that  had  the  Cambridge  imprint.  The  next — five  sermons 
of  Increase  Mather's,  translated  by  the  Rev.  Samuel  Danforth  —  was  printed 
in  Boston,  in  1698,  in  a  small  octavo  of  one  hundred  and  sixty-four  pages.1 
The  same  partners  printed,  in  1699,  Grindall  Rawson's  translation  of  the 
Confession  of  Faith  adopted  by  the  Synod  at  Boston  in  1680  (  Wun- 
namptamoe  Sampooaonk,  &c.),  and  in  1700  An  Epistle  to  the  Christian 
Indians,  by  Cotton  Mather,  having  the  Indian  and  English  on  opposite 
pages.  Both  these  books  have  on  their  title-pages  the  Indian  name  for 
Boston,  —  Mushauwomuk,  denoting  a  "  place  to  which  boats  go,"  or  "  the 
boat-landing  place."  The  English  colonists  corrupted  it  to  Shawmut,  and 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Indian  ferry,  in  Charlestown,  to  Mishawum.  In 
Indian  records  at  Martha's  Vineyard  the  same  word  is  found,  without  the 
locative  suffix,  —  as,  mesliawwamiu. 

The  Hatchets,  to  hew  down  the  Tree  of  Sin,  which  bears  the  Fruit  of 
Death,  was  the  odd  title  under  which  were  published,  in  English  and  Indian, 
"  The  Laws,  by  which  the  Magistrates  are  to  punish  Offenders  among  the 
Indians,  as  well  as  among  the  English."  Of  this  tract  (pp.  16,  sm.  8vo) 
I  have  seen  only  two  copies,  —  one  in  the  Antiquarian  Society's  library ; 
the  other  (formerly  Mr.  Brinley's)  is  now  in  the  Lenox  Library,  New  York. 
It  has  no  separate  title-page.  The  colophon  is,  "  Boston :  Printed  by  B. 
Green.  1705."  A  manuscript  note  by  T.  Prince  ascribes  this  tract  to  Cotton 
Mather ;  but  I  am  confident  that  the  translation  was  not  made  by  him. 

Of  several  other  books  added,  after  1700,  to  the  "Indian  Library,"  as 
Mather  terms  it,  two  are  specially  noteworthy,  —  the  Massachusetts  Psalter, 
translated  by  Experience  Mayhew,  and  the  Indian  Primer  of  1 720. 

The  Massachusee  Psalter  was  printed  in  Boston,  "  by  B.  Green  and 
J.  Printer,"  in  1709.  It  has  title-pages  in  Indian  and  English;  and  the 

1  Masukkenukeeg    Matcheseaenvog    weque-  encouraged  to  come  to  Christ  and  that  NOW 

toog  kah  wuttooanatoog  Uppeyaonont  Christoh  quickly.  ...  By  Increase    Mather,  Teacher  of 

kah  ne  YEUYEU  teanuk.  .  .  .  Nashpe  Increase  the  Church  in  Boston.  .  .  .  These  discourses 

Mather.    Kukkootomwehteaenuh  ut  oomoeuweh-  are  turned  into  Indian  language  by  S.  D. — 'In 

komonganit  ut  Bostonut,  ut  Arew  England.  .  .  .  Boston,  it-was-printed   by   Bartholomew   Green 

Yeush  kukkookootomwehteaongash  qushkinnu-  and  John  Allen.     1698.] 

nuinash  en  Indiane  unnontoowaonganit  nashpe  A  copy  of  this  first  book  printed  in  Boston 

S.  D. —  Bostonut,  Printeuoop   nashpe   Bartholo-  in  the  Massachusetts  language  brought  $110  at 

mew  Green,  kah  John  Allen.     1698*"  the  sale  of  the  first  part  of  Mr.  Brinley's  library 

[Translation:    Greatest   Sinners   called  and  1111879. 


476 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


Indian  and  English  versions  of  the  Psalms  and  the  Gospel  of  John  are 
printed  in  columns  side  by  side.  Mr.  Mayhew,  the  translator,  was  a  native 
of  Martha's  Vineyard,  where  he  had  been  preaching  to  the  Indians  since 
1694,  and  carrying  on  the  work  his  grandfather  began  about  1642.  Thomas 
Prince  says  of  him:  "The  Indian  language  has  been  from  his  infancy  natu- 
ral to  him ;  and  he  has  been  all  along  accounted  one  of  the  greatest  masters 
of  it  that  hath  been  known  among  us." 


Maffadvfc*  PSALTER  ; 

ASU  H, 

Uk-kuttoohomaongafh 

DAVID 

Wcche 
WUNNAUNCHBMOOKAONK 

Ne  anfukhogup  JOHN, 

Ut  Imfiane  kah  Etttijbe 
Ncpatuhquonkain. 

"  iS'e  woh  fogkorapagunukhettic    ••- 
Kakokctnhteaekuppannegk,    akctamunnat, 
kali  wohwohtamunat   Wunnctuppantam- 
\vc  WufTokwhongnfti. 


John-v. 


che  utytufi  kuttHHMaatamumtvtf  kuttahtom- 
wtt   michrme  pomantammeooitk    ;  kali  nifit- 


BOSTON,   N.E. 

Upprinthomunheau  B.  Green,  kah  J. 

wutche  quhtiantamwc  CHAPANUKKEG 

wutche  onchckchtouunnac  wuruiauncWm- 

mookaonk  ut  New-Englanef.Sic.     4..  7  o  9 


"/  THS 

*   PSALTER 

PSALMS  of  DAVID 

With  the 


GOSPEL 

According  to  JOHN 


In  Columns  of  Infian  and 

BEING 

An  Inttodudion  for  Training  up  the 
Aboriginal  Natives,  in  Reading  and  Un- 
ttefflanding  thcHOLY  SCRIPTURES. 


John    *.   39. 

Search  tbe^Striptures*  far  in  tbem  je  thinf 
yc  have  eternal  Life^  **d  they  ire  thy 
which  tejlife  ef  Me. 


BOSTON,    tJ.E. 

Printed  by  B.  Green,  and  7.  Printer,  for  die 
Honourable  COMPANY  for  the  Propa- 
gation of  the  Gofpcl  Uitfctv- E*g!aneJt  Sjc. 
i     7  •  o    9« 


THE  MASSACHUSETTS   PSALTER.1 

The  dialect  of  the  Vineyard  had  some  peculiarities;  but  these  were 
gradually  lost  after  the  Indians  learned  to  read  Eliot's  version  of  the  Bible 
and  his  other  translations.  In  1722  Mr.  Mayhew  observed  (in  a  letter  to 
Paul  Dudley)  that  now  "  our  Indians  speak,  but  especially  write,  much  as 
those  of  Natick  do."  The  difference,  however,  was  still  perceptible,  and 
may  be  detected  in  Mr.  Mayhew's  translation  of  the  Psalter.  Josiah  Cotton, 
at  the  end  of  his  Indian  vocabulary,  compiled  about  1727,  gave  a  dialogue 
between  himself  and  one  of  the  Indians  of  Plymouth  Colony,  in  which  the 
latter  says  "  it  is  very  difficult  to  get  the  tone"  of  their  language,  and  that 
when  Cotton  preached  the  Indians  could  not  always  understand  him,  "  be- 
cause he  did  not  put  the  tone  in  the  right  place,"  and  also  "  because  he  had 
1  [The  two  titles,  Indian  and  English,  thus  face  one  another.  —  ED.] 


THE    INDIAN    TONGUE   AND    ITS    LITERATURE.  477 

some  of  his  father's  (the  Rev.  John  Cotton's)  words,  and  he  learned  Indian 
at  Nope  [Martha's  Vineyard],  and  these  Indian's  don't  understand  every  word 
of  them  Indians." 

Mayhew's  version  of  the  Psalms  and  Gospel  of  John  is  founded  upon 
Eliot's  ;  but  every  verse  underwent  revision,  and  scarcely  one  remains  with- 
out some  alteration.  The  spelling  differs  considerably  from  that  of  Eliot 
and  others,  who  had  learned  the  language  among  the  Indians  of  the  main- 
land. In  exploring  "  the  latitudes  and  corners  "  of  Indian  grammar, 
Mr.  Mayhew  probably  went  further  than  Eliot  had  gone  ;  and  the  fact  that 
his  work  passed  through  the  hands  of  "J.  Printer"  gives  it  additional 
value  as  a  monument  of  the  language.  James,  the 
Indian  printer,  learned  his  trade  from  Samuel  Green  Mtx»»^«^  O'U/nC*^. 


in  Cambridge,  and  had  worked  on  both  editions  of 


the  Indian  Bible.1 

The  Massachusee  Psalter,  in  good  condition,  is  rare.  Most  of  the  copies 
I  have  seen  bear  marks  of  much  —  and  not  always  gentle  —  handling,  and 
have  lost  more  or  less  of  their  leaves. 

Several  conveyances,  agreements,  and  other  instruments,  written  by 
Indians  in  their  language,  are  recorded  in  the  land  records  of  Duke's 
County,  at  Edgartown.  Some  English  words  used  in  these  documents  take 
curious  shapes.  The  Vineyard  Indians,  like  those  of  eastern  Massachu- 
setts, changed  the  English  r  to  n  ;  they  pronounced  and  usually  wrote  ake, 
akinneiv,  and  akussoo  for  "acre"  and  "acres,"  noddoo  for  "rods,"  and  in 
one  instance  nummoo  —  which  must,  I  fear,  stand  for  "  rum  "  —is  named  in 
a  deed  of  land  as  part  of  the  consideration. 

Caleb  Cheesahteaumuk,  the  only  Indian  who  has  graduated  from  Har- 
vard, was  a  native  of  the  Vineyard,  son  of  a  petty  sachem  who  lived  near 
Holmes's  Hole  (now  corrupted  to  Vineyard  Haven).  In  Cotton  Mather's 
catalogue  of  alumni  of  Harvard  the  name  is  "  Cheeschaumuk,"  which  bet- 
ter represents  the  pronunciation.  Mayhew,  in  his  Indian  Converts,  wrote 
"  Cheshchaamog  ;  "  and  there  is  on  the  Vineyard  records  a  deed  executed 
in  1685  by  "  Ponit  Cheeschchawmuck  of  Nopnoik,"  one  of  the  same  family. 
Joel,  another  Indian  of  the  Vineyard,  entered  college  with  Caleb,  but  did  not 
live  to  graduate.  In  1659  these  two  boys,  then  in  the  Grammar  School  at 
Cambridge,  "  were  called  forth  upon  trial,  at  the  public  Commencement, 
before  the  Magistrates  and  Elders,  and  in  the  face  of  the  Country,  and 
there  upon  very  little  warning  gave  great  contentment  to  them  that  were 
present,"  as  President  Chauncey  certified  ;  "  they  being  examined  in  turning 
a  part  of  a  chapter  in  Isaiah  into  Latin,  and  showing  the  construction  of  it."  2 

1  He  was   a   Nipmuck,  the   son   of  Naoas,  History  of  Printing,  i.  290,  291  ;  Drake's  History 

and  brother  of  Tukapewillin,  who  was  teacher  of  of  Boston,  p.  422. 

the  Christian  Indians  at  Hassanamisco  (Grafton,          2  An  elegy  in  Latin  verse  and  an  epitaph  in 

Mass.).     When  a  child,  he  was  sent  to  the  In-  Greek  on  the  Rev.  Thomas  Thacher  of  Boston, 

dian  school  in  Cambridge,  and  was  apprenticed  composed  by  Eleazer,  "  Indus  Senior  Sophister  " 

to  Green  in  1659.    His  Indian  name  (subscribed  of  Harvard  College  in  1678,  are  preserved  in 

to  a  deed  in  1682)  was  \Vowaus.     See  Thomas's  Mather's  Magnalia,  bk.  iii.  ch.  xxvi. 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


\  abcchdrfg  h  i  j  klmo  J* 
£    opqrTtt  uv  wxyzj 


Several  catechisms  and  primers  were  printed  before  Eliot's  death,  —  the 
first  in  1653  or  1654,  others  in  1662,  1669,  and  "about  1684."  That  of 

1662  is  mentioned  in  the  records  of  the  Commissioners  as  "  a  new  impres- 
sion "  of  the  Catechism.     No  copy  of  either  of  these  first  two  impressions 
is  known;   and  only  a  single  copy  of  The  Indian  P timer  of  1669,  which  is 
in  the  library  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh.1      One  of  the  catechisms 
translated    by   Eliot — probably  much   abridged  —  was  'the  Rev.  William 
Perkins's  Foundation  of  the  Christian  Religion,  gathered  into  Sixe  Princi- 
ples.    Increase  Mather,  in  his  letter  to  Dr.  Leusden,  in  1687,  mentioned  that 
"  many  of  the  Indian  children  had  learned  by  heart  the  catechism,  either  of 
that  famous  divine,  William  Perkins,  or  that  put  forth  by  the  Assembly  of 
Divines  at  Westminster."     Peirson  borrowed  much  from  the  Six  Principles 
for  his  Quiripi  Catechism,  Some  Helps  for  the  Indians,  printed  in   1658.     In 

1663  Baxter  wrote  to  Eliot:  "  Methinks  the  Assembly's  Catechism  should 
be,  next  the  Holy  Scriptures,  most  worthy  of  your  labours." 

The  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  has  a  copy  (not  quite  perfect)  of 
a  primer,  on  which  is  written,  in  the  hand  of  Thomas  Prince:  "Mr.  B. 
Green  says,  composed  by  Mr.  Eliot,  and  printed  at  Camb:  ab'  1684." 

It  has  no  title-page ;  but  the  first  signa- 
ture (eight  leaves)  is  full.  It  has  a 
text  in  Indian,  Proverbs  xxii.  6,  "  Train 
up  a  child,"  &c.  This  little  book  (it 
measures  about  three  and  one-half  inches 
by  two  and  seven-eighths  inches)  con- 
tains the  alphabet,  in  Roman  and  Italic ; 
spelling  and  reading  lessons ;  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  with  a  catechetical  exposition ; 
"  The  Ancient  Creed,"  English  and  In- 
dian, with  an  exposition ;  "  The  Large 
Catechism"  (fifty-nine  pages);  "A 
Short  Catechism"  (three  pages);  and 
"The  Numeral  Letters  and  Figures." 
The  first  reading  lesson  tells  us  (in 
Indian)  what  was  the  course  of  in- 
struction in  the  Indian  schools.  It 
says:  "  Wise  doing  to  read  Catechism. 
First,  read  Primer.  Next,  read  Re- 
pentance Calling  (i.e.,  Baxter's  Call). 
Then,  read  Bible." 
John  Cotton's  Catechism,  Spiritual  Milk  for  Babes,  translated  by  Grindall 
Rawson,  and  printed  at  Cambridge  in  1691,  has  been  mentioned.  In  1720 

1  "The  Indian  Primer;  or,  The  way  of  train-  printed  (Edinburgh,  1877),  with  an  introduction 

ing  up  of  our  Indian  youth  in  the  good  knowledge  by   John    Small,    M.A.,   librarian   of    the    Uni- 

of  God,  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  and  versity. 

in  an  ability  to  Reade.     Composed  by  J.  E.  .  .  .          *  [This  is  the  full  size  of  the  outer  page  of 

Cambridge,   Printed   1669."      It   has  been    re-  the  little  book.  —  ED.] 


NO  PQ  air  uv  w 


THE   INDIAN   PRIMER/ 


THE    INDIAN    TONGUE   AND    ITS    LITERATURE.  479 

Bartholomew  Green  printed  in  Boston  The  Indian  Primer  or  The  First 
Book.  By  which  children  may  knozv  truely  to  read  the  Indian  Language. 
And  Milk  for  Babes.  This  is  a  small  duodecimo  of  eighty-four  leaves, 
with  English  and  Indian  on  opposite  pages,  the  page-numbers  (1—84) 
being  double.  On  the  verso  of  the  Indian  title  is  a  representation  of 
the  seal  of  Massachusetts,  and  on  the  verso  of  the  last  leaf  a  ship 
bearing  the  name  of  "  Royall  Charles."  Beginning  with  the  alphabet 
and  progressive  spelling  lessons  from  syllables  of  two  letters  to  words  "  of 
fifteen  syllables  or  parts,"  the  volume  comprises  the  Lord's  Prayer  and 
the  Apostles'  Creed,  with  catechetical  expositions;  Cotton's  "Milk  for 
Babes;"  a  series  of  selected  texts,  arranged  under  several  heads, — 
"  General  Duties,"  "  God's  Judgments  against  Disobedient  Children," 
"  The  Promises  of  God  which  the  poor  Indians  may  hope  to  receive," 
"  Against  Idleness,"  &c.,  —  forms  of  Prayer,  and  a  few  Psalms  in  metre.1 

As  an  example  of  the  "  Kuttoowongash  nabo  nishwe  Syllablesooooash 
asuh  Chadchaubenumooongash "  (words  of  thirteen  syllables  or  parts), 
take  this :  - 

Num-meh-quon-tam-wut-te-a-ha-on-ga-nun-no-nash, — 

meaning  "  our  remembrances  "  or  "  recollections."  The  longest  word  (the 
only  one  that  reaches  fifteen  syllables)  is  — 

Nuk-kit-te-a-mon-te-a-nit-te-a-on-ga-nun-no-nash, — 

which  means  "  our  mercies ;  "  but  to  the  Indians  it  meant  a  good  deal  more 
than  this, —  having  an  exactness  of  denotation  to  which  the  English  does 
not  attain:  (i)  it  distinguishes  the  mercies  we  receive  from  mercies  we 
show  or  dispense  to  others;  (2)  it  means  our  peculiar  mercies,  not  shared 
by  those  to  whom  we  speak,  —  "  ours  "  only,  not  those  which  "  you  and  we  " 
enjoy  in  common;  and  (3)  it  designates  these  mercies  as  voluntarily  be- 
stowed,—  the  manifestations  of  a  merciful  disposition.  One  might  find  it 
difficult  to  put  all  this  in  English  in  less  than  fifteen  syllables. 

Cotton  Mather  added  several  tracts  to  "  The  Indian  library."  Perhaps 
he  was  not  unwilling  to  display  his  acquaintance  with  a  language  "  wherein 
words  are,"  he  says,  "  of  sesquipedalian  and  unaccountable  dimensions." 
When  questioning  a  bewitched  girl,  he  discovered  that  the  devils  who  tor- 
mented her  "  understood  his  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew;  "  but  "  the  Indian 
language  they  did  seem  not  well  to  understand."  The  devils  who  found 
Mather's  Indian  too  hard  for  them  were  not  without  excuse.  Judging  from  the 
specimens  he  printed,  he  had  not  mastered  the  rudiments  of  the  grammar, 
and  could  not  construct  an  Indian  sentence  idiomatically.  It  is  not  certain 
how  much  of  these  translations  was  his  own  work,  and  how  much  was  ob- 

1  A  portion  of  this  Primer  (the  spelling  les-  1720  in  the  Prince  Library  (Boston  Public  Li- 
sons,  Lord's  Prayer,  and  Ten  Commandments)  brary),  and  another  in  the  Lenox  Library,  New 
was  reprinted  in  the  second  volume  of  the  Massa-  York.  I  have  two  copies;  and  there  are  two  or 
chusetts  Historical  Collections,  3d  series,  in  Mr.  three  others  in  private  libraries  in  this  country. 
Pickering's  Appendix  to  Cotton's  Indian  Vocal*-  The  British  Museum  has  one  (in  the  Grenville 
ulary.  There  is  a  good  copy  of  this  Primer  of  collection). 


480  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

tained  from  incompetent  interpreters.  His  Epistle  to  the  Christian  Indians, 
Wnssukwhonk  en  Christianeue  asuh  peantamwe  INDIANOG,  &c.,  was  printed 
in  1700,  and  again  in  1706;  Family  Religion  excited  and  assisted,  in  1714; 
A  Monitor  for  Communicants,  in  1716;  and  "a  taste  of  the  language,"  of 
four  pages,  in  his  India  Christiana  (a  discourse  before  the  Commission- 
ers for  Propagating  the  Gospel),  in  1721.  In  all  these  the  English  and 
Indian  are  on  opposite  pages  throughout. 

In  1707  Mather  published  Another  Tongue  brought  in,  to  Confess  the  Great 
Saviour  of  the  World,  &c.,  —  in  "  a  tongue  used  among  the  Iroquois  Indians 
in  America,"  the  first  specimen  of  that  language  printed  in  this  country.1 

In  1735  the  Rev.  John  Sergeant  began  his  mission  work  among  the 
Housatunnuk  Indians  at  Stockbridge.  These  Indians  were  Mohegans,  or 
"  Muhhekanneuk."  Their  language  abounds  in  gutturals;  and  Mr.  Sergeant 
had  great  difficulty  in  learning  to  speak  and  write  it.  In  about  five  years, 
however,  he  succeeded  so  well  that  the  Indians  used  to  say :  "  Our  minister 
speaks  our  language  better  than  we  ourselves  can  do."  About  1737,  by  the 
help  of  interpreters,  he  translated,  first,  some  prayers,  and  afterwards  Dr. 
Watts's  shorter  catechism  into  this  language.  These  were  printed,  though 
whether  before  or  after  Mr.  Sergeant's  death  in  1749  I  cannot  say.  Two 
tracts,  one  of  sixteen  and  the  other  of  twenty-four  pages,  are  stitched  to- 
gether. Neither  has  title-page  or  colophon.  One  contains  "  A  Morning 
Prayer,"  "  An  Evening  Prayer,"  and  "  Catechism ;  "  the  other,  forms  of 
Prayer,  before  and  after  Sermon,  at  the  Sacrament,  for  the  afflicted,  of 
thanksgiving  for  recovery,  &c.  I  do  not  find  these  tracts  noticed  by  any 
bibliographer.  They  are  very  rare.2  In  1 795  The  Assembly's  Catechism  was 
printed  at  Stockbridge,  by  Loring  Andrews,  "  in  the  Moheakunnuk,  or 
Stockbridge  Indian  language,"  in  an  octavo  pamphlet  of  thirty-two  pages, 
which  contains  also  (pp.  27-31)  Dr.  Watts's  Shorter  Catechism  for  Children, 
—  a  revised  reprint,  apparently,  of  Mr.  Sergeant's  translation.  The  edition, 
probably,  was  not  large,  and  copies  are  now  scarce. 


1  Some  account  of  this  very  rare  volume  has  Gospel  among  the  Indians,  1670,  London,  1671. 
been  given  in  the  Catalogue  of  "Books  and  Of  the  series  of  tracts  on  Christianizing  the 
Tracts  in  the  Indian  Language,"  &c.,  in  the  Indians,  most  will  be  found  either  in  Sabine's 
Proceedings  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society,  reprints  or  in  the  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  and  to  them 
No.  61  (October,  1873).  [This  account  is  by  Dr.  may  be  added  the  reprint  by  Marvin.  The  ac- 
Trumbull,  and  is  the  fullest  yet  published,  and  count  which  Mather's  Magnolia  gives  of  Eliot's 
gives  the  libraries  which  contain  them.  There  labors  is  largely  copied  by  Dunton.  A  letter  of 
is  a  list  comprising  only  the  books  printed  by  Eliot's,  1664,  with  a  note  on  his  publications  by 
S.  Green  and  M.  Johnson,  in  Cambridge,  given  Dr.  Trumbull,  will  be  found  in  the  Ar.  £.  Hist. 
in  Thomas's  Hist,  of  Printing,  new  ed.,  i.  65.  Mr.  and  Geneal.  Keg.  April,  1855.  —  ED.] 
Whitmore  gave  a  list  of  Eliot's  publications  in  2  I  know  of  only  two  copies :  one  in  the 
his  edition  of  Dunton's  Letters,  p.  204,  and  it  library  of  the  Essex  Institute,  Salem,  the  other 
is  copied  by  Mr.  Marvin  in  his  reprint,  1868,  of  belonging  to  Hon.  Henry  C.  Murphy,  of  Brook- 
Eliot's  Brief  Narrative  of  the  Progress  of  the  lyn,  N.  Y. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

LIFE   IN   BOSTON   IN  THE   COLONIAL  PERIOD. 

BY     HORACE    E.    SCUDDER. 

T~\URING  the  military  occupation  of  Boston  in  the  winter  of  1775-76, 
•""^  a  two-story,  wooden,  frame  house  which  stood  under  the  shadow  of 
the  Old  South,  and  had  lately  been  the  parsonage  attached  to  it,  was  pulled 
down  by  the  soldiers  for  firewood.  It  was  then  old  and  decayed,  and  there 
is  no  description  of  it  by  which  one  can  accurately  reproduce  it  to  his  mind,1 
but  for  nineteen  years  it  was  the  residence  of  John  Winthrop,  the  foremost 
man  in  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay;  in  it  he  died  in  1649,  and  upon 
its  walls  hung  the  portrait  of  its  owner,  which  is  now  in  the  Senate  Chamber 
at  the  State  House  in  Boston ;  in  its  parlor  gathered  the  chief  men  of  the 
town  to  consult  upon  the  solemnities  of  the  dead  Governor's  funeral ;  and 
here,  during  Winthrop's  lifetime,  was  centred  much  of  the  social  dignity  of 
the  town.  The  house,  then  not  far  from  the  centre  of  the  town,  must  have 
been  considerable  in  size,  for  his  own  household  was  large  and  he  enter- 
tained many  guests.  On  one  occasion,  when  certain  prisoners  were  brought 
to  Boston,  he  "  caused  them  to  be  brought  before  him  in  his  hall,  where 
was  a  great  assembly ;  "  but  that  it  was  plain  to  severity  may  be  inferred 
not  only  from  Winthrop's  conscientious  economy,  but  from  the  reproof 
which  he  administered  to  his  deputy  in  1632,  "  that  he  did  not  well  to  be- 
stow so  much  cost  about  wainscotting  and  adorning  his  house  in  the  begin- 
ning of  a  plantation,  both  in  regard  of  the  public  charges,  and  for  example," 
—  a  reproof,  to  be  sure,  which  should  not  mislead  us  as  to  the  deputy's  ex- 
travagance or  ostentation,  since  the  wainscot  was  affirmed  to  be  only  clap- 
boards nailed  upon  the  inside  of  the  house  to  keep  out  the  cold. 

We  get  a  glimpse  of  the  Governor's  house  and  garden,  and  of  his  cere- 
monious hospitality,  when  we  read  in  his  history,  under  date  of  1646,  — 

1  [It  stood  nearly  opposite  the  foot  of  School  street.  The  estate  passed  from  Winthrop  to  his 
Street,  end  to  the  street;  and  while  the  land  on  son  Stephen,  whose  widow  conveyed  it  to  John 
which  the  Old  South  stands  was  a  garden  attached,  Norton,  pastor  of  the  First  Church;  and  by  his 
the  place  was  called  "  The  Green."  When  the  will  and  his  widow's  consent  it  passed,  in  1677, 
British  pulled  down  the  house,  they  cut  down  to  the  Old  South  Church,  and  the  house  be- 
also  a  row  of  fine  button-woods,  which  skirted  the  came  its  parsonage.  —  ED.] 

VOL.  I.  —  61. 


482  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

"  Being  the  Lord's  Day,  and  the  people  ready  to  go  to  the  assembly  after  dinner, 
Monsieur  Marie  and  Monsieur  Louis,  with  Monsieur  D'Aulnay  his  secretary,  arrived 
at  Boston  in  a  small  pinnace,  and  Major  Gibbons  sent  two  of  his  chief  officers  to 
meet  them  at  the  water  side,  who  conducted  them  to  their  lodgings  sine  strepifu, 
The  public  worship  being  ended,  the  Governour  returned  home,  and  sent  Major  Gib- 
bons, with  other  gentlemen,  with  a  guard  of  musketeers  to  attend  them  to  the  Gover- 
nour's  house,  who,  meeting  them  without  his  door,  carried  them  into  his  house,  where 
they  were  entertained  with  wine  and  sweetmeats,  and  after  a  while  he  accompanied 
them  to  their  lodgings.  .  .  .  The  Lord's  Day  they  were  here,  the  Governour  acquaint- 
ing them  with  our  manner,  that  all  men  either  come  to  our  public  meetings  or  keep 
themselves  quiet  in  their  houses,  and  finding  that  the  place  where  they  lodged  would 
not  be  convenient  for  them  that  day,  invited  them  home  to  his  house,  where  they 
continued  private  all  that  day  until  sunset,  and  made  use  of  such  books,  Latin  and 
French,  as  he  had,  and  the  liberty  of  a  private  walk  in  his  garden,  and  so  gave  no 
offence."  * 

At  the  time  of  his  death,  the  Governor's  house  could  not  have  been  the 
most  substantial  in  the  town.  Already  a  traveller  was  speaking  of  Boston 
as  a  city-like  town  and  calling  attention  to  its  beautiful  and  large  buildings, 
"  some  fairly  set  forth  with  brick,  tile,  stone,  and  slate,  and  orderly  placed 
with  comely  streets,  whose  continual  enlargement  presages  some  sumptuous 
city."  2  The  harbor  was  marked  by  wharves,  and  lanes  ran  up  from  it  past 
houses  whose  gardens  extended  to  the  water's  edge,  while  on  the  streets 
were  houses  of  shopkeepers  who  lived  above  their  shops,  as  London  trades- 
men then  did  almost  universally.  On  either  side  of  the  cove  in  which  the 
chief  part  of  the  town  lay  were  a  fort  and  a  battery,  with  a  second  battery 
beneath  the  fort  a  little  later,  while  a  beacon  rose  from  the  hill  behind, 
and  Castle  Island  in  the  harbor  suggested  the  possibility  of  other  enemies 
than  the  Indians.  There  were  pleasant  farms  at  Brookline;  and  the  neigh- 
boring towns  of  Cambridge,  Roxbury,  Dorchester,  and  Charlestown  had 
their  own  independent  life  and  fortune. 

At  the  time  of  Winthrop's  death  the  great  flow  of  immigrants  had  sub- 
sided. The  occupants  of  Boston  were  Englishmen  in  the  prime  of  life,  and 
a  generation  of  young  people  born  on  the  soil  and  receiving  their  first  im- 
pressions from  the  circumstances  of  an  intense  settlement  where  the  laws, 
customs,  and  opinions  of  the  first  settlers  had  not  only  full  sway  but  all  the 
activity  which  belongs  to  power  at  work  upon  plastic  material.  It  is  pos- 
sible to  give  but  fragmentary  pictures  of  a  life  which  was  restless,  constantly 
changing,  and  mingling  conservative  and  progressive  characteristics,  but  the 
point  of  time  which  we  have  taken  is  perhaps  the  culminating  point  of  col- 
onial life.  After  this,  political,  commercial,  and  social  movements  look  for- 
ward to  the  provincial  period.  Before  this,  the  elements  of  the  colonial  life 
had  been  in  solution,  and  the  immediate  influence  of  England  more  em- 

1  f  See  Mr.  C.  C.  Smith's  chapter  on  "  Boston  2  Johnson,    Wonder-working   Providence,   p. 

and  the  Neighboring  Jurisdictions"  in  this  vol-     43.      [See   Mr.   Bynner's   chapter    in  this  vol- 
ume. —  ED.]  ume.  —  ED.] 


BOSTON    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  483 

phatic ;   but  now  time  had  been  allowed  for  a  tolerably  distinct  community 
to  assert  its  individuality. 

The  town  was  still  thoroughly  English  in  its  social  traditions,  but 
the  democratic  leaven  was  at  work.  The  ampler  scope  for  individual 
energy,  and  the  sudden  accession  of  political  rights  and  commercial  import- 
ance, began  to  tell  upon  manners.  Already,  in  1651,  the  General  Court  was 
enacting  that  if  a  man  was  not  worth  two  hundred  pounds  he  should  not 
wear  gold  or  silver  lace,  or  buttons,  or  points  at  the  knees ;  and,  because  of 
the  scarcity  of  leather,  they  should  not  walk  in  great  boots.  Women  not 
enjoying  property  to  the  value  of  two  hundred  pounds  were  forbidden  to 
wear  silk,  or  tiffany  hoods,  or  scarfs.  The  distinctions  of  dress  were  familiar 
and  accepted  distinctions  both  of  social  rank  and  of  occupation,  and  the  ne- 
cessities of  a  primitive  settlement  emphasized  them ;  while  the  sumptuary 
laws  borrowed  from  English  legislation  were  inspired  by  Puritan  repression, 
and  aimed,  not  at  destroying  distinctions,  but  at  regulating  dress  in  accord- 
ance with  sober  and  decorous  principles.  The  statute-book  shows  the 
constant  study  of  the  magistrates  to  make  the  outward  man  conform  to  what 
was  held  to  be  the  inward  spirit  of  the  community.  As  early  as  1634,  in 
view  of  "  some  new  and  immodest  fashions,"  it  was  *'  ordered  that  no  per- 
son, either  man  or  woman,  shall  hereafter  make  or  buy  any  apparel,  either 
woolen,  silk,  or  linen,  with  any  lace  on  it,  silver,  gold,  silk,  or  thread,  under 
the  penalty  or  forfeiture  of  such  clothes,  &c. ;  also,  that  no  person,  either 
man  or  woman,  shall  make  or  buy  any  slashed  clothes,  other  than  one 
slash  in  each  sleeve,  and  another  in  the  back ;  also,  all  cutworks,  embroid- 
ered or  needlework  caps,  bands  and  rails  are  forbidden  hereafter  to  be 
made  and  worn,  under  the  aforesaid  penalty ;  also,  all  gold  or  silver  girdles, 
hat-bands,  belts,  ruffs,  beaver  hats,  are  prohibited  to  be  bought  and  worn 
hereafter,  under  the  aforesaid  penalty,  &c.  .  .  .  Men  and  women,"  however, 
had  "  liberty  to  wear  out  such  apparel  as  they  are  now  provided  of,  except  the 
immoderate  great  sleeves,  slashed  apparel,  immoderate  great  rails,  long  wings, 
&c."  1  Five  years  later  a  law  was  passed  against  "  short  sleeves,  whereby 
the  nakedness  of  the  arm  may  be  discovered  in  the  wearing  thereof," 
"  sleeves  more  than  half  an  ell  wide  in  the  widest  place  thereof,"  "  immod- 
erate great  breeches,  knots  of  ribbon,  broad  shoulder-bands  and  rails,  silk 
rases,  double  ruffs  and  cuffs,"  reasoning  that  "  the  excessive  wearing  of  lace 
and  other  superfluities  "  tended  "  to  little  use  or  benefit,  but  to  the  nourish- 
ing of  pride  and  exhausting  of  men's  estates,  and  also  of  evil  example  to 
others."2 

The  leaders  of  the  colony,  seeking  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  after  their 
fashion,  took  very  much  to  heart  the  injunction  not  to  be  distracted  for  the 
body  what  it  should  put  on.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  high-spirited 
men  like  Nathanael  Ward  looked  with  indignation  upon  a  petty  regard  for 
dress  when  God  was  "  shaking  the  heavens  over  his  head  and  the  earth  under 
his  feet;  "  but  the  unceasing  agitation  of  these  questions  regarding  dress  in- 

1  Afass.  Col.  Records,  i.  126.  a  Ibid.  i.  274. 


484  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

dicates  the  presence  of  an  element  in  Boston  life  of  that  day  which  rarely 
found  expression  in  literature,  except  in  the  objurgatory  literature  of  its 
opponents.  We  confess  to  a  lively  interest  in  the  men  and  women  of  Ward's 
time,  who  were  obstinately  letting  their  human  nature  skip  about  in  fine 
clothes.  They  made  a  part  of  the  community  as  clearly  as  did  the  Quakers, 
who  wished  to  strip  off  all  obstructions  to  the  exhibition  of  nature,  or  the 
Puritans,  who  vainly  sought  for  a  perfect  correspondence  between  the  outer 
man  and  the  inner  sanctified  spirit.  Ward's  fulminations  were  honest 
enough,  and  in  his  judgment  altogether  righteous ;  but  they  are  serviceable 
now  chiefly  as  revealing  the  presence  of  the  coquette  and  the  fop  in  the 
Boston  of  1645,  as  distinguished  from  the  gentlewoman  and  gentleman.  He 
writes :  — 

"  It  is  known  more  than  enough  that  I  am  neither  niggard  nor  cynic  to  the 
due  bravery  of  the  true  Gentry.  ...  I  honor  the  woman  that  can  honor  herself  with 
her  attire :  a  good  text  always  deserves  a  fair  margent.  I  am  not  much  offended 
if  I  see  a  trim  far  trimmer  than  she  that  wears  it :  in  a  word,  whatever  Christianity  or 
Civility  will  allow,  I  can  afford  with  London  measure.  But  when  I  hear  a  nugiperous 
Gentledame  inquire  what  dress  the  Queen  is  in  this  week ;  what  the  mediustertian 
fashion  of  the  court,  —  I  mean  the  very  newest :  with  egge  to  be  in  it  in  all  haste, 
whatever  it  be,  —  I  look  at  her  as  the  very  gizzard  of  a  trifle,  the  product  of  a  quarter 
of  a  cipher,  the  epitome  of  nothing ;  fitter  to  be  kicked,  if  she  were  of  a  kickable 
substance,  than  either  honored  or  humored.  To  speak  moderately  [a  delicious 
reserve  !],  I  truly  confess  it  is  beyond  the  ken  of  my  understanding  to  conceive  how 
those  women  should  have  any  true  grace  or  valuable  virtue  that  have  so  little  wit  as  to 
disfigure  themselves  with  such  exotic  garbs  as  not  only  dismantles  their  native,  lovely 
lustre,  but  transclouts  them  into  gaunt  bar-geese,  ill-shapen  shotten  shell-fish,  Egyptian 
hieroglyphics,  or  at  the  best  into  French  flirts  of  the  pastry,  which  a  proper  English 
woman  would  scorn  with  her  heels.  It  is  no  marvel  they  wear  drails  on  the  hinder 
part  of  their  heads ;  having  nothing,  it  seems,  in  the  forepart  but  a  few  squirrel's 
brains  to  help  them  frisk  from  one  ill-favored  fashion  to  another.  .  .  .  We  have  about 
five  or  six  of  them  in  our  colony :  if  I  see  any  of  them  accidentally,  I  cannot  cleanse 
my  fancy  of  them  for  a  month  after."  1- 

And  then  he  passes  in  his  contempt  to  the  long-haired  men,  who  also 
were  attacked  in  legislation  at  a  later  period;  for  in  1675  the  grand  jury  was 
empowered  to  present  to  the  county  courts,  at  its  discretion,  men  wearing 
long  hair  like  woman's  hair,  either  their  own  or  others,  and  who  indulge  in 
"  cutting,  curling,  and  immodest  laying  out  their  hair,  which  practice  doth 
prevail  and  increase,  especially  among  the  younger  sort." 

It  is  evident  from  the  terms  of  the  legislation  that  the  Government  was 
solicitous  to  preserve  the  distinctions  of  social  rank,  and  to  check  that 
equality  of  dress  and  custom  which  was  the  outcome  of  a  growing  equality 
of  condition.  The  Court  in  1651,  when  limiting  the  use  of  gold  and  silver 
lace,  put  upon  record,  as  the  occasion  of  its  law,  "  its  utter  detestation  and 
dislike  that  men  or  women  of  mean  condition  should  take  upon  them  the 

1   Tlu  Simple  Cobbler  of  Agawam,  26,  27. 


BOSTON    IN    THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  485 

garb  of  Gentlemen,  by  wearing  gold  or  silver  lace,  or  buttons,  or  points  at 
their  knees,  or  to  walk  in  great  boots ;  or  women  of  the  same  rank  to  wear 
silks,  or  tiffany  hoods,  or  scarfs,  which,  though  allowable  to  persons  of 
greater  Estates  or  more  liberal  Education,  yet  we  cannot  but  judge  it  in- 
tolerable in  persons  of  such  like  condition."  A  proviso,  however,  was  added, 
which  shows  that  the  money  test  was  only  one  convenient  way  of  regulat- 
ing the  dress ;  for  it  is  stated  that  "  this  law  shall  not  extend  to  the  restraint 
of  any  magistrate  or  public  officer  of  this  jurisdiction,  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren, who  are  left  to  their  discretion  in  wearing  of  apparel,  or  any  set- 
tled military  officer  or  soldier  in  the  time  of  military  service,  or  any  other 
whose  education  and  employments  have  been  above  the  ordinary  degree, 
or  whose  estates  have  been  considerable  though  now  decayed." 

A  reference  to  the  same  matter  occurs  in  an  anonymous  letter  to  Gov- 
ernor Winthrop,  written  probably  in  1636-37:  — 

"There  is  another  thing  that  I  have  noted  since  I  wrote  the  enclosed  letter,  that 
many  in  your  plantations  discover  much  pride  as  appeareth  by  the  letters  we  receive 
from  them  ;  wherein  some  of  them  write  over  to  us  for  lace,  though  of  the  smaller  sort, 
going  as  far  as  they  may,  for  we  hear  that  you  prohibit  them  any  other :  and  this  they 
say  hath  very  good  vent  with  you.  Non  bene  ripce  creditur.  They  write  over  likewise 
for  cut-work  coiffes,  and  others  for  deep  stammel  dyes  ;  and  some  of  your  own  men 
tell  us  that  many  with  you  go  finely  clad,  though  they  are  free  from  the  fantasticalness 
of  our  land."  l 

The  repeal  of  the  sumptuary  laws  in  1644,  taken  with  other  legislation, 
indicates  that  the  colony  was  outgrowing  its  time  of  minority. 

The  distinction  of  rank  was  further  preserved  by  the  separation  in  dress  of 
the  servants,  who  were  clad  chiefly  in  leather,  and  by  the  usual  differences  in 
fineness  of  material  in  all  the  parts  of  costume.  The  opportunity,  indeed, 
for  a  separation  of  classes  through  dress  was  more  abundant  than  it  is  to- 
day, inasmuch  as  dress  itself  was  more  elaborate  and  diversified.  When  the 
Massachusetts  colony  was  forming,  provision  was  made  for  the  passage  to 
America  of  emigrants,  and  the  articles  of  dress  allowed  to  each  man  include 
a  somewhat  formidable  list,  —  four  pairs  of  shoes,  three  pairs  of  stockings,  a 
pair  of  Norwich  garters,  four  shirts,  a  suit  of  doublet  and  hose  of  leather, 
lined  with  oilskin  leather,  and  with  hooks  and  eyes,  a  suit  of  Hampshire 
kerseys,  four  bands  and  three  plain  falling  bands,  a  waistcoat  of  green  cot- 
ton bound  with  red  tape,  a  leathern  girdle,  a  Monmouth  cap,  a  black  hat 
lined  in  the  brow  with  leather,  five  red  knit  caps,  two  dozen  hooks  and  eyes, 
and  small  hooks  and  eyes  for  mandilions,  two  pair  of  gloves,  and  handker- 
chiefs. These  articles  were  sometimes  in  form  or  material  exclusively  used 
by  the  servants  or  laborers,  and  as  soon  as  one  begins  upon  the  enumeration 
he  discovers  that  under  one  title  is  included  a  tolerably  wide  range  of  style 
and  service.  The  shoes  of  laborers  were  furnished  with  wooden  heels,  while 
peaked  shoes,  which  made  kneeling  somewhat  difficult,  giving  way  finally  to 

1  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vi.  450. 


486  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

square  toes,  were  the  dress  of  the  better  class  ;  and  high  heels  were  a  part  of 
the  style  of  the  more  fashionable  ladies,  and  large  knots  of  roses  or  ribbons 
were  worn  on  the  instep.  Buckles  were  used,  but  shoe-strings  were  coming 
also  into  service,  though  rare  enough  to  be  mentioned  as  property  in  the 
estate  of  Mrs.  Dillingham,  at  Ipswich,  in  1645.  We  have  already  seen  that 
great  boots  were  not  permitted  except  to  those  who  had  the  wealth  and 
social  position  to  carry  them  off;  but  inventories  of  estates  at  this  time  con- 
tain repeated  reference  to  buskins  or  half-boots.  Hose  was  coupled  with 
doublets,  and  the  two  articles  were  worn  as  a  continuous  dress ;  but  cloth 
and  yarn  stockings  were  common  enough  to  be  part  of  a  laborer's  outfit, 
and  sold  for  thirteen  pence  a  pair.  The  more  expensive  worsted  and 
woollen  stockings  were  described  sometimes  as  roll-up,  sometimes  as  turn- 
down stockings,  —  expressions  which  seem  to  us  to  belong  rather  to  the 
other  end  of  a  man's  dress. 

The  main  articles  of  dress  were  of  course  brought  from  England  or  sent 
thence  to  the  settlers ;  but  it  was  not  long  before  the  colonists  used  their 
ingenuity  and  enterprise  upon  the  plainer  articles.  In  1643  the  writer  of 
New  England's  First  Fruits  notices  "  that  they  are  making  linen  fustian 
dimities,  and  looking  immediately  to  woolen  goods  from  their  own  sheep." 
Earlier  in  1634,  William  Wood,  in  his  New  England's  Prospect,  advised  those 
who  might  come  to  the  colony  to  lay  in  sufficient  store  before  starting. 
"  Every  man  likewise  must  carry  over  good  store  of  apparrell ;  for  if  he 
come  to  buy  it  there,  he  shall  finde  it  dearer  than  in  England.  Woollen- 
cloth  is  a  very  good  coiiiodity,  and  Linnen  better;  as  Holland,  Lockram, 
flaxen,  Hempen,  Callico  stuffes,  Linsey-woolsies,  and  blew  Callicoe,  greene 
sayes  for  Housewives'  aprons,  Hats,  Bootes,  Shooes,  good  Irish  stockings, 
which  if  they  be  good  are  much  more  serviceable  than  knit-ones."  For 
servants,  as  already  said,  there  was  provided  a  suit  commonly  of  leather ;  but 
for  others  —  indeed  for  all  classes  as  an  ordinary  dress  — the  doublet,  of  what- 
ever material,  served  as  our  coat  now  serves  :  for  laborers,  indeed,  it  took  the 
place  also  of  our  waistcoat.  It  was  the  ordinary  covering  of  the  Boston  man 
at  the  period  we  are  considering,  and  the  color  was  almost  always  red.  A 
buckled  belt  gathered  it  about  the  waist,  and  it  was  fastened  below  to  the 
hose.  Upon  the  doublet  style  set  its  mark  by  causing  the  sleeves  to  grow 
fuller  and  to  be  slashed  for  the  purpose  of  displaying  the  linen  below. 
The  hose  gradually  were  divided  into  small-clothes,  which  developed  later 
into  trousers,  and  stockings  which  shrunk  into  socks.  Beneath  the  doublet 
was  worn  the  waistcoat,  which  in  the  poorer  dress  was  of  cotton,  —  in  the 
richer,  was  frequently  of  silk  and  much  elaborated.  By  the  inventory  of 
dress  furnished  to  emigrants,  shirts  appear  to  have  been  regarded  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course.  The  outermost  covering  of  all  was  the  cloak  or  mandilion. 

The  bands  of  the  working-man,  secured  by  a  cord  and  tassel  about  the 
neck,  became  the  ruffs  of  the  gentry,  and  both  were  starched  to  extreme 
stiffness.  "  Handkerchief"  was  the  name  given  indifferently  to  that  for  the 
pocket  or  the  neck.  The  Monmouth  cap,  of  woollen  or  cotton  probably, 


BOSTON  IN  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD.  487 

and  a  knit  cap,  were  the  common  wear  of  the  poor,  while  worsted,  velvet, 
silk,  or  fur  covered  the  heads  of  the  richer.  The  emigrant  was  also  fur- 
nished with  "  a  black  hat  lined  in  the  brow  with  leather,"  made  of  wool, 
while  his  betters  wore  theirs  frequently  of  beaver,  bound  sometimes  with 
a  black  or  colored,  sometimes  with  a  gold,  band.  The  brims  were  gen- 
erally broad,  and  the  crowns  varied  in  height,  there  being  apparently  two 
distinct  styles,  —  that  of  a  square  low  crown,  not  unlike  what  is  still  seen 
on  the  heads  of  the  beef-eaters  in  London  Tower,  and  that  of  the  sugar- 
loaf  or  high  crown.  The  two  styles  seem  to  have  met  in  the  chimney-pot 
of  the  present  day. 

By  such  random  notes  we  have  tried  to  hint  at  the  appearance  of  Boston 
men  and  gentlemen ;  but  we  retreat  before  the  varying  forms  and  styles  of 
woman's  dress,  only  noting  that  the  authorities  seemed  to  be  foiled  in  their 
vigorous  attempts  to  prevent  women  from  arranging  their  sleeves  in  the  most 
captivating  manner,  slashing  their  gowns  both  in  the  arm  and  on  the  back; 
that  gowns  were  cut  low  in  the  neck  in  spite  of  frowns  and  threats  from  the 
Government,  and  that  ingenuity  was  expended  upon  aprons,  hoods  with 
their  wings,  scarfs,  mantles,  and  mantelets. 

In  social  intercourse  the  distinctions  of  rank  were  preserved  also  by  titles. 
Now  and  then  a  baronet  made  his  home  for  a  time  in  Boston,  but  otherwise 
the  highest  title  was  Mr.  or  Mrs.,  and  this  title  was  applied  only  to  a  few 
persons  of  unquestioned  eminence.  All  ministers  and  their  wives  took  the 
title,  and  the  higher  magistrates ;  but  it  was  not  given  to  deputies  to  the 
General  Court  as  such.  The  great  body  of  respectable  citizens  were  dubbed 
Goodman  and  Goodwife,  but  officers  of  the  church  and  of  the  militia  were 
almost  invariably  called  by  the  title  of  their  rank  or  office.  Below  the  grade 
of  goodman  and  goodwife  were  still  the  servants,  who  had  no  prefix  to  their 
plain  names.  A  loss  of  reputation  was  attended  by  a  loss  of  the  distinctive 
title,  and  a  Mr.  was  degraded  to  the  rank  of  Goodman. 

The  colony  was  from  the  first  well  provided  with  servants,  and  these 
appear  as  an  important  element  in  the  common  life  of  Boston.  Wood 
writes  in  1634:  — 

"  It  is  not  to  be  feared  that  men  of  good  estates  may  doe  well  there ;  always 
provided  that  they  goe  wel  accomodated  with  servants.  In  which  I  would  not  wish 
them  to  take  over-many  :  tenne  or  twelve  lusty  servants  being  able  to  manage  an  estate 
of  two  or  three  thousand  pound.  It  is  not  the  multiplicity  of  many  bad  servants 
(which  presently  eates  a  man  out  of  house  and  harbour,  as  lamentable  experience 
hath  made  manifest),  but  the  industry  of  the  faithfull  and  diligent  labourer,  that  en- 
richeth  the  carefull  Master ;  so  that  he  that  hath  many  dronish  servants  shall  soone 
be  poore ;  and  he  that  hath  an  industrious  family  shall  as  soone  be  rich."  1 

This  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  period.  Fifty  or  more  years  afterward, 
at  the  close  of  the  same  period,  a  French  Protestant  refugee,  writing  back 
to  his  countrymen  a  report  of  his  observation,  says :  — 

1  New  England's  Prospect,  pt.  i.  ch.  xii. 


488  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

"  You  can  bring  with  you  hired  Help  in  any  Vocation  whatever ;  there  is  an  abso- 
lute need  of  them  to  till  the  Land.  You  may  also  own  Negroes  and  Negresses ;  there 
is  not  a  House  in  Boston,  however  small  may  be  its  Means  that  has  not  one  or  two.1 
There  are  those  that  have  five  or  six,  and  all  make  a  good  Living.  You  employ  Sav- 
ages to  work  your  Fields  in  consideration  of  one  Shilling  and  a  half  a  Day- and  Board, 
which  is  eighteen  Pence  ;  it  being  always  understood  that  you  must  provide  them  with 
Beasts  or  Utensils  for  Labor.  It  is  better  to  have  hired  Men  to  till  your  Land.  Ne- 
groes cost  from  twenty  to  forty  Pistoles  [the  pistole  was  then  worth  about  ten 
francs]  according  as  they  are  skilful  or  robust ;  there  is  no  Danger  that  they  will  leave 
you,  nor  hired  Help  likewise,  for  the  Moment  one  is  missing  from  the  Town  you  have 
only  to  notify  the  Savages,  who,  provided  you  promise  them  Something,  and  describe 
the  Man  to  them,  he  is  right  soon  found.  But  it  happens  rarely  that  they  quit  you,  for 
they  would  know  not  where  to  go,  there  being  few  trodden  Roads,  and  those  which  are 
trodden  lead  to  English  Towns  or  Villages,  which,  on  your  writing,  will  immediately 
send  back  your  Men.  There  are  Ship-captains  who  might  take  them  off;  but  that  is 
open  Larceny  and  would  be  rigorously  punished."  2 

A  distinction  must  be  made,  socially,  between  the  farm  and  house  ser- 
vants employed  by  the  colonists,  and  those  denominated  servants,  who  were 
more  properly  stewards  or  agents  for  stockholders  in  the  Company.  It  was 
the  case  that  some  who  invested  in  the  enterprise  of  Massachusetts  Bay  did 
not  themselves  go  thither,  but  placed  their  interests  in  the  hands  of  servants 
who  acted  for  them.  These  servants  often  issued  after  the  term  of  their 
service  as  masters  and  householders,  and  perhaps  there  was  too  great  haste 
sometimes ;  for  it  became  necessary  for  the  selectmen  of  Boston  to  take 
notice  of  the  imprudence  of  some,  and  to  require  that  any  who  bought  the 
time  of  a  servant  and  discharged  him  of  his  obligation  should  be  responsible 
that  he  did  not  speedily  come  upon  the  town.  Winthrop  relates  a  piece  of 
grim  pleasantry  apropos  of  the  high  wages  demanded  by  servants  when  their 
time  was  out  and  their  services  were  greatly  needed.  He  says :  — 

"  The  wars  in  England  kept  servants  from  coming  to  us,  so  as  those  we  had  could 
not  be  hired,  when  their  times  were  out,  but  upon  unreasonable  terms,  and  we  found 
it  very  difficult  to  pay  their  wages  to  their  content  (for  money  was  very  scarce).  I  may 
upon  this  occasion  report  a  passage  between  one  of  Rowley  and  his  servant.  The 

1  [The  subject  of   negro  slavery  in  Massa-  among   the   Puritans.      Theodore    Lyman,    Jr., 

chusetts  has  had  a  somewhat  controversial  treat-  Report  on  free  negroes  and  mulattoes  to  Massa- 

ment.     George  H.  Moore,  Notes  on  the  History  chusetts  House  of  Representatives,  Jan.  16, 1822. 

of  Slavery  in  Massachusetts,  1866.    Emory  Wash-  The  earliest  record  of  negro  slaves  is  that  of 

burn,  in  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  iv. ;  Proc.  May,  1857,  Josselyn's  statement  regarding  three  owned  by 

and  his  lecture  in  the  series,  Massachusetts  and  its  Maverick  of  Noddle's  Island,  in  1638.    A  direct 

Early  History.    Historical  notes  in  the  Hist.  Mag.  importation  seems  to  have  taken  place  in  1645, 

1863,  Nov. ;  1864,  pp.  21,  169,  193 ;   1869,  pp.  52,  when   a    Massachusetts   ship   arrived,   bringing 

135,  329.     Moore's   book  is   reviewed   approv-  two  from  Africa,  which  were  the  occasion  of 

ingly  in  Hist.  Mag.,  1868,  supplement,  p.  47,  and  a  protest  to  the  Court  from  Richard  Saltonstall 

is  replied   to    in   Boston   Daily  Advertiser,   re-  (the  son  of  Sir  Richard),  whereupon  the  Court 

printed  in  same  supplement,  p.  138,  with  Moore's  ordered  their  return.       Winthrop's  New  Eng- 

rejoinder,  p.    186,    also  see   p.    105.      Sargent,  land,  \.  245.  —  ED.] 

Dealings  with  the  Dead,   Nos.  43,   44,    47.     C.  2  Report  of  a  French  Protestant  Refugee  in 

Deane  edited  letters  and  documents  in  5  Mass.  Boston,   1687.      Translated  from  the  French  by 

Hist.    Coll.,  iii.  375.      Moses    Stuart,    Slavery  E.  T.  Fisher,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  1868. 


BOSTON    IN   THE    COLONIAL   PERIOD.  489 

master,  being  forced  to  sell  a  pair  of  his  oxen  to  pay  his  servant  his  wages,  told  his  ser- 
vant he  could  keep  him  no  longer,  not  knowing  how  to  pay  him  the  next  year.  The 
servant  answered,  he  would  serve  him  for  more  of  his  cattle.  '  But  how  shall  I  do  (saith 
the  master)  when  all  my  cattle  are  gone  ? '  The  servant  replied,  '  You  shall  then  serve 
me,  and  so  you  may  have  your  cattle  again.'  " 1 

Probably  the  rejoinder  was  less  amusing  than  insolent  in  Winthrop's 
esteem,  and  more  significant  of  the  freedom  which  the  "  lower  classes  "  were 
beginning  to  feel  than  of  their  advance  in  the  art  of  repartee.  The  relation 
of  master  to  servant  was  still  one  of  distance ;  and  necessary  as  the  ser- 
vants were  in  the  multiform  manual  labor,  there  is  abundant  evidence  in  the 
records  of  the  colony  that  they  were  treated  with  prompt  severity  in  case  of 
disobedience  or  lawlessness.  They  were  repeatedly  whipped  in  public,  and 
if  they  ran  away,  as  many  did,  the  amplest  authority  was  given  for  their  re- 
capture and  punishment.  "  It  is  ordered  [runs  the  record  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Bay,  in  1634,  April  i],  that  if  any  boy  that  hath  been  whipped  for 
running  from  his  master  be  taken  in  any  other  plantation,  not  having  a  note 
from  his  master  to  testify  his  business  there,  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  con- 
stable of  the  said  plantation  to  whip  him  and  send  him  home."  So  one 
whipping  evidently  led  to  another.2 

Very  early  in  the  history  of  the  settlement  the  colonists  undertook  to 
hire  Indians,  who  probably  were  enticingly  cheap ;  but  the  caution  of  the 
Government  is  shown  in  requiring  all  householders  to  get  special  license  for 
having  Indians  in  their  employ,  and  in  1634  Winthrop  and  his  son  were 
licensed  to  keep  an  Indian  apiece.  The  law  made  in  1630-31  was  repealed 
in  1646,  "  there  being  more  use  of  encouragement  thereto  than  otherwise." 

The  immediate  dread  of  the  Indian,  too,  had  disappeared  as  the  colony 
grew  stronger.  Those  taken  in  the  Pequot  war  were  distributed  as  servants 
in  English  families,  "  to  be  taught  and  instructed  in  the  Christian  religion ;  " 
and  in  the  will  which  Winthrop  made  in  1639  he  gave  to  his  son  Adam 
Governor's  Island,  and  with  it  "  also  my  Indians  there  and  my  boat  and 
such  household  as  is  there ;  "  but  he  gave  only  what  he  had,  which  was 
not  absolute  and  arbitrary  ownership.  Of  the  friendly  relation  subsist- 
ing often  between  masters  and  servants  there  are  frequent  intimations, 
which  make  it  easy  to  believe  Wood's  statement  in  his  New  England's 
Prospect : — 

"  There  is  as  much  freedome  and  liberty  for  servants  as  in  England,  and  more  too  ; 
a  wronged  servant  shall  have  right  nolens  volens  from  his  injurious  master,  and  a 
wronged  master  shall  have  right  of  his  injurious  servant,  as  well  as  here  :  therefore  let 
no  servant  be  discouraged  from  the  voyage,  that  intends  it.  And  now  whereas  it  is 

1  Winthrop's  History,  \.  219,  220.  in   the  N.   E.   Hist,   and   Cental.  Reg,   ii.  240, 

2  [There   seems  very  early  to  have   arisen  with  annotations  by  Charles  Deane.     The  orig- 
questions  between  the  magistrates  at  Boston  and  inal  is  in  the  extensive  collection  of  historical 
those  at    Plymouth,  relative  to  apprentices  or  manuscripts  and   autographs   belonging  to  the 
servants  that  passed  from  one    jurisdiction  to  Hon.    Mellen    Chamberlain,    librarian    of    the 
the  other.     One  of  the  letters  upon  this  subject,  Public  Library,  and  is  remarkable  for  its  group 
addressed  to  Winthrop  in  1631  by  Bradford  and  of    signatures   of    the   chief    Pilgrim   worthies, 
others  of  Plymouth,  is  preserved.     It  is  printed  — ED.] 

VOL.  I.  —  62. 


490 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


generally  reported  that  servants  and  poore  men  grow  rich,  and  the  masters  and  Gentrie 
grow  poore,  I  must  needs  confesse  that  the  diligent  hand  makes  rich,  and  that  labour- 
ing men  having  good  store  of  employments,  and  as  good  pay,  live  well  and  content- 
edly ;  but  I  cannot  perceive  that  those  that  set  them  aworke  are  any  way  impoverished 
by  them,  peradventure  they  have  lesse  monie  by  reason  of  them,  but  never  the  lesse 
riches,  —  a  man's  worke  well  done  being  more  beneficiall  than  his  monie,  or  other  dead 
commodities,  which  otherwise  would  lye  by  him  to  no  purpose."  1 

The  furniture  to  be  found  in  the  houses  of  Boston  during  the  colonial 
period  was  at  first,  of  course,  and  largely  afterward,  of  English  make  and 
importation.  When  the  Company  made  provision  for  the  dress  of  the  men 
who  were  to  be  sent  over  at  its  charge  in  1629,  each  couple  was  provided 
with  a  mat  to  lie  under  the  bed  on  shipboard,  a  rug,  a  pair  of  blankets  of 
Welsh  cotton,  two  pairs  of  sheets,  a  bed-tick  and  bolster,  with  wool  to  put  in 
them,  and  Scotch  ticking.  But  well-to-do  persons  in  Boston  held  fast  to  the 
traditional  canopy-bed,  which  indeed  formed  a  tent  in  which  they  could 
shelter  themselves  against  the  inclemency  within  the  house,  and  the  bed  was 
supplied  with  a  great  abundance  of  trappings,  pillows,  pillow-bears  or  cases, 
bed-curtains  and  valance.  The  poor  used  pine-knots,  apparently,  for  their 
lights,2  but  candle-sticks  of  iron,  pewter,  brass,  and  silver  had  their  place. 


I  -Z 


ov  (fyl  prtfet, 
Hj  A|  «n  anPov  in 


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u^ob  ovbev  rtti 


*v  lo  ^i<i  arng**9^}^  ov  l^ew  -pow  itiij 
- 


BILL  OF   LADING,    1632.* 


1  AJrw  England's  Prospect,  pt.  i.  ch.  xii. 

2  "  Out  of  these  Pines  is  gotten  the  candle- 
wood  that  is  so  much  spoken  of,  which  may  serve 
for  a  shift  amongst  poore  folks;  but  I  cannot 
commend   it   for   singular   good,"  because    it   is 
something  sluttish,  dropping  a  pitchie  kind  of 
substance    where     it    stands."  —  Wood,    New 
England's  Prospect,  pt.  i.  ch.  v. 


3  [The  original  of  this  early  commercial 
document  (here  reduced)  is  preserved  in  the 
Mass.  Hist.  Society's  cabinet.  The  indorsement 
of  the  correct  year,  1632,  on  the  back  of  it  shows 
that  the  year  1622  on  the  face  is  a  clerical  error. 
The  shipment  is  mentioned  in  the  Winthrop 
Tapers,  in  4  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vii.  13.  See 
also  Proceedings,  April,  1855,  p.  27.  —  ED  ] 


BOSTON    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


491 


From  the  substantial  character  and  elegance  of  the  furniture  which  to-day, 
with  occasional  obscurity  of  origin,  is  confidently  referred  to  the  Boston  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  our  ancestors  were 
willing  to  let  their  household  belongings  indicate  their  social  position.  In 
the  inventory  of  Governor  Eaton,  of  New  Haven,  who  died  in  1658,  were 
various  articles  of  dignified  luxury  which  helped  him  to  maintain  "  a  post 
in  some  measure  answerable  to  his  place."  We  do  not  know  the  contents  of 
the  "  two  fats  of  goods"  sent  to  Winthrop  from  London  in  1632,  but  in  his 
letters  to  his  wife  before  she  joined  him  in  Boston  he  enumerates  a  great 
variety  of  household  articles,  including  candles,  drinking-horns,  brass  and 
pewter  utensils,  and  leather  bottles.  In  the  library  of  the  American  Anti- 
quarian Society  at  Worcester  there  is  shown  a  stone  pot,  tipped  and  covered 
with  a  silver  lid,  which  was  given  in  1607 
to  Adam  Winthrop,  the  father  of  the  Gov- 
ernor, and  remained  in  the  possession  of 
the  family  for  seven  generations ;  and  E. 
Howes  wrote  to  Winthrop  in  1633  that  he 
had  sent  him  a  case  containing  "  an  Irish 
skeyne,  or  knife,"  two  or  three  delicate  tools, 
"  and  a  fork."  Forks  were  hardly  known 
in  England  before  1650.  "All  manner  of 
household  stufife  is  very  good  trade  there," 
writes  Wood  in  1 634,  "  as  Pewter  and  Brasse ; 
but  great  Iron-pots  be  preferred  before 
Brasse,  for  the  use  of  that  Country.  Warm- 
ing-pannes and  Stewing-pannes  bee  of  nec- 
essary use  and  good  Trafficke  there." 

The  table  which  Bostonians  set,  when 
the  colony  was  well  established,  was  a  gen- 
erous one.  They  had  taken  care  not  to  be 
left  to  the  resources  of  the  wilderness,  and 
had  brought  out  from  England,  or  received 
thence  on  demand,  grains  of  all  kinds,  and 
stores  of  all  sorts  of  fruits,  as  peaches,  plums,  filberts,  cherries,  pears,  apples, 
quinces,  pomegranates.  "  The  ground,"  writes  Wood,  in  1634,  "  affords 
very  good  kitchen-gardens  for  turnips,  parsnips,  carrots,  radishes,  and  pump- 
ions,  mush-melons,  isquonkersquashes,  cucumbers,  onions ;  and  whatsoever 
grows  well  in  England  grows  as  well  there,  many  things  being  better  and 
larger.  There  is  likewise  growing  all  manner  of  herbs  for  meat  and  medicine, 
and  that  not  only  in  planted  gardens,  but  in  the  woods,  without  either  the 
art  or  the  help  of  man,  as  sweet  marjoram,  parsley,  sorrel,  penny-royal, 
yarrow,  myrtle,  saxifarilla,  bayes,  &c.  There  is  likewise  strawberries  in 
abundance,  very  large  ones,  some  being  two  inches  about,  —  one  may  gather 
half  a  bushel  in  a  forenoon ;  in  other  seasons  there  be  gooseberries,  bil- 
berries, raspberries,  treacle  berries,  hurtleberries,  currants,  which  being 


492  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

dried  in  the  sun  are  little  inferior  to  those  that  our  grocers  sell  in  England."  l 
The  orchards  and  gardens  were  the  admiration  of  travellers,  and  the  Boston 
of  that  day  can  easily  be  imagined  by  those  whose  memories  still  remind 
them  of  pleasant  gardens  and  fruit-trees  quite  in  the  centre  of  the  town. 

There  was  abundance  of  fish  and  game,  as  well  as  of  beef,  mutton,  and 
poultry,  at  the  Boston  market  held  every  Thursday.  In  the  early  days  of  the 
colony,  venison,  raccoon-flesh,  moose,  squirrel,  beaver,  otter,  turkeys,  geese, 
and  ducks  were  brought  in  by  the  Indians,  and  the  waters  swarmed  with  fish 
and  shell-fish.  Wood,  in  New  England's  Prospect,  smacks  his  lips  over  the 
abundance  of  them,  and  the  French  Protestant  refugee,  fifty  years  later, 
gives  an  idea  of  the  state  of  the  market  when  he  writes :  — 

"  Beef  costs  twopence  the  pound ;  mutton  twopence ;  pork  from  two  to  three 
pence,  according  to  the  season ;  flour  fourteen  shillings  the  one  hundred  and  twelve 
pound,  all  bolted ;  fish  is  very  cheap,  and  vegetables  also  ;  cabbage,  turnips,  onions, 
and  carrots  abound  here.  Moreover,  there  are  quantities  of  nuts,  chestnuts  and  hazel 
nuts  wild.  These  nuts  are  small,  but  of  wonderful  flavor.  I  have  been  told  that  there 
are  other  sorts  which  we  shall  see  in  the  season.  I  am  assured  that  the  woods  are  full 
of  strawberries  in  their  season.  .  .  .  The  rivers  are  full  of  fish,  and  we  have  so  great  a 
quantity  of  sea  and  river  fish  that  no  account  is  made  of  them.  ...  I  have  been  here 
in  season  to  have  seen  a  prodigious  quantity  of  apples,  from  which  they  make  a  mar- 
vellously good  cider.  One  hundred  and  twenty  pots  cost  only  eight  shillings,  and  at 
the  inn  it  is  sold  twopence  the  pot ;  twopence  the  pot  for  beer." 

Perhaps  the  best  picture  which  we  have  of  the  change  from  early  priva- 
tion to  the  comparative  comfort  in  the  middle  of  the  century  is  contained 
in  this  somewhat  fervid  account  in  Wonder-working  Providence:  — 

"  You  have  heard  in  what  extream  penury  these  people  were  in  at  first,  planting  for 
want  of  food ;  gold,  silver,  rayment,  or  whatsoever  was  precious  in  their  eyes  they 
parted  with  (when  ships  came  in)  for  this  their  beast  that  died ;  some  would  stick  be- 
fore they  were  cold,  and  sell  their  poor  pined  flesh  for  food  at  6d.  per  pound  ;  Indian 
beans  at  i6s.  per  bushel :  when  ships  came  in,  it  grieved  some  master  to  see  the  urging 
of  them  by  people  of  good  rank  and  quality  to  sell  bread  unto  them.  But  now  take 
notice  how  the  right  hand  of  the  Most  High  hath  altered  all,  and  men  of  the  meaner 
rank  are  urging  them  to  buy  bread  of  them,  and  now  good  white  and  wheaten  bread  is 
no  dainty,  but  even  ordinary  man  hath  his  choice,  if  gay  cloathing  and  a  liquerish  tooth 
after  sack,  sugar,  and  plums  lick  not  away  his  bread  too  fast,  all  which  are  but  ordinary 
among  those  that  were  not  able  to  bring  their  owne  persons  over  at  their  first  coming ; 
there  are  not  many  Towns  in  the  Country,  but  the  poorest  person  in  them  hath  a  house 
and  land  of  his  own,  and  bread  of  his  own  growing,  if  not  some  cattel ;  beside,  flesh  is 
now  no  rare  food,  beef,  pork  and  mutton  being  frequent  in  many  houses,  so  that  this 
poor  wilderness  hath  not  onely  equalized  England  in  food,  but  goes  beyond  it  in  some 
places  for  the  great  plenty  of  wine  and  sugar,  which  is  ordinarily  spent ;  apples,  pears, 
and  quince  tarts  instead  of  their  former  Pumpkin  Pies ;  Poultry  they  have  plenty  and 
great  rarity,  and  in  their  feasts  have  not  forgotten  the  English  fashion  of  stirring  up 
their  appetites  with  variety  of  cooking  their  food."  2 

1  New  England 's  Prospect,  pt.  i.  ch.  v. 

2  Wonder-working  Providence  of  Sion's  Saviour  in  New  England,  pp.  173,  174. 


BOSTON    IN    THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


493 


The  public  provision  for  the  supply  of  meat  and  drink  included,  besides 
a  market-place,  licensed  cook-shops  and  ordinaries  or  inns.  The  records  of 
colony  and  town  are  crowded  with  regulations  relating  to  these.1  Not  only 
strong  drink  and  tobacco  came  under  restraint,  but  the  apparently  innocent 
cakes  and  buns.  "  It  is  ordered,"  Nov.  20,  1637,  "  that  no  person  shall  sell 
any  cakes  or  buns  either  in  the  markets  or  victualling  houses  or  elsewhere 
upon  pain  of  ten  shillings  fine ;  provided,  that  this  order  shall  not  extend 
to  such  cakes  as  shall  be  made  for  any  burial  or  marriage,  or  such  like 
special  occasions."  But  the  wisdom  of  the  General  Court  was  exhausted 
then,  as  now,  in  the  attempt  to  control  men's  appetites.  When  Josselyn 
made  his  second  voyage  to  New  England  in  1663,  he  landed  at  Boston,  and 
"  having  gratified  the  men,"  he  writes,  who  rowed  him  ashore,  "  we 
repaired  to  an  ordinary  (for  so  they  call  their  Taverns  there)  where  we  were 
provided  with  a  liberal  cup  of  burnt  Madeira  wine,  and  store  of  plum-cake." 
His  first  voyage  was  undertaken  in  1638,  and  writing  of  Boston  thirty-five 
years  later,  when  the  village  of  his  first  voyage  had  become  a  flourishing 
town,  with  abundant  entertainment  for  strangers  and  a  less  stringent  super- 
vision, he  recalled  the  narrowness  of  earlier  experience  when  he  wrote: 
"In  1637  there  were  not  many  houses  in  the  town  of  Boston,  amongst 
which  were  two  houses  of  entertainment  called  ordinaries,2  into  which  if  a 


i  [The  earliest  record  of  the  town  on  this 
subject,  May  9,  1636,  is  to  the  effect  that  "only 
such  as  are  allowed  thereunto  as  Inkeepers  " 
shall  keep  "any  victuallers'  houses."  —  ED.] 

*  Drake  points  out  that  there  was  at  this 
time  —  1  637  —  but  one  inn  in  Boston,  licensed  in 
1634,  and  that  Josselyn  probably  included  the 
Charlestown  ordinary.  History  of  Boston,  p. 
240.  The  first  inn  in  Boston  was  Samuel  Cole's 


on  the  west  side  of  Merchants  Row,  about  mid- 
way from  State  Street  to  Faneuil  Hall.  Here 
Miantonomoh,  the  Narragansett  chief,  was  enter- 
tained by  Governor  Vane  in  1636;  and  here  the 
next  year  came  Lord  Ley,  Earl  of  Marlborough, 
who  declined  Governor  Winthrop's  hospitality, 
saying,  "  that  he  came  not  to  be  troublesome  to 
any,  and  the  house  where  he  was,  was  so  well 
governed,  that  he  could  be  as  private  there  as 
elsewhere."  See  Drake's  Landmarks  of  Boston, 
p.  108,  and  Winthrop's  History,  i.  229.  [Long- 
fellow makes  Cole  say  in  his  John  Endicott,  — 

"  But  the  '  Three  Mariners  '  is  an  orderly  house, 
Most  orderly,  quiet  and  respectable. 

And  have  I  not 
King  Charles's   Twelve  Good  Rules,  all  framed  and 

glazed, 
Hanging  in  my  best  parlor?" 

Drake  points  out  other  inns  of  the  colonial 
period.  The  "  King's  Head,"  on  the  corner  of 


Fleet  and  North  streets,  near  Scarlett's  wharf ; 
the  "  Ship  Tavern,"  sometimes  styled  "  Noah's 
Ark,"  which  was  a  brick  building  on  the  south- 
west corner  of  North  and  Clark  streets,  built 
probably  before  1650,  and  standing  as  late  as 
1866;  the  "Red  Lyon,"  probably  kept  by 
Nicholas  Upsall,  as  early  as  1654,  on  the  corner 
of  North  and  Richmond  streets,  and  standing 
within  twenty-five  or  thirty  years.  J.  T.  Has- 
sam,  in  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg ,  Jan. 
1880,  gives  an  account  of  the  "  King's  Arms 
Tavern,"  1651,  and  enumerates  the  contents  of 
some  of  the  rooms,  from  an  old  inventory.  It 
stood  at  the  head  of  Dock  Square,  and  its  apart- 
ments were  given  as  "  the  Exchange,"  "  th° 
Chamber  called  London,"  "the  Chamber  over 
London,"  "Court  Chamber,"  "  Starr  Chamber," 
&c  Mr.  Hassam  also  gave  an  account  of  the 
"  Castle  Tavern,"  situated  at  the  corner  of  Dock 
Square  and  Elm  streets,  in  the  Register,  Oct. 
1879,  p.  400;  and  of  another  "Castle  Tavern," 
which  stood  on  the  present  Batterymarch  Street, 
in  the  Register,  July,  1877,  p.  329.  Another 
noted  tavern  was  the  "States  Arms,"  "the  ordi- 
nary where  the  magistrates  used  to  diet,"  which 
stood  on  the  corner  of  State  and  Exchange 
streets.  (Sumner's  East  Boston,  191.)  The  "Blue 
Anchor  Tavern  "  stood  on  Washington  Street, 
near  the  spot  where  the  Transcript  building 
was  built,  now  occupied  by  the  Globe  news- 
paper. Dunton  says,  "  there  was  no  one  house 
in  all  the  town  more  noted,  or  where  a  man 
might  meet  with  better  accommodation;"  and 


494  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

stranger  went,  he  was  presently  followed  by  one  appointed  to  that  office, 
who  would  thrust  himself  into  his  company  uninvited ;  and  if  he  called  for 
more  drink  than  the  officer  thought  in  his  judgment  he  could  soberly  bear 
away,  he  would  presently  countermand  it,  and  appoint  the  proportion  be- 
yond which  he  could  not  get  one  drop."  l 

The  officious  interference  with  Mr.  Josselyn's  liberty  to  get  drunk  was  a 
legal  expression  of  the  conscience  of  the  community.  A  house  of  enter- 
tainment was  a  necessity,  but  it  was  hedged  about  with  a  great  many 
regulations.  None  could  keep  an  inn  except  they  were  licensed,  and  this 
was  made  more  stringent  by  the  order  finally  that  the  license  must  be 
renewed  every  year.  The  price  of  meat  and  drink  was  fixed  by  the  Court. 
Sept.  3,  1634,  it  was  "  ordered  that  no  person  that  keeps  an  ordinary  shall 
take  above  6d.  a  meal  for  a  person  and  not  above  id.  for  an  ale  quart  of 
beer,  out  of  meal  time."  In  1637,  "  in  regard  of  the  great  abuse  in  ordi- 
naries, it  is  ordered  that  no  ordinary  keeper  shall  sell  either  sack  or  strong 
water,"  and  at  the  same  time  the  price  of  any  drink  was  fixed  at  a  penny  a 
quart,  as  if  to  make  the  business  unprofitable.  In  1639,35  a  further  check 
upon  immorality,  the  drinking  of  healths  is  forbidden,  and  the  custom 
stigmatized  as  "  that  abominable  practice  .  .  .  also  an  occasion  of  much 
waste  of  the  good  creatures  and  of  many  other  sins  as  drunkenness,  quarrel- 
ings,  bloodshed,  uncleanness,  mispense  of  precious  time."  Winthrop,  more 
wisely,  had  endeavored  to  meet  the  difficulty  by  his  own  example  as  early 
as  Oct.  25,  1630.  As  Mr.  R.  C.  Winthrop  in  his  chapter  has  cited  from  the 
Governor's  Journal,  the  law  against  the  sale  of  strong  drink  had  probably 
become  a  dead  letter;  for  in  1648  a  new  law  against  harboring  a  drunkard, 
giving  also  authority  to  search  the  premises,  was  passed  with  the  preamble : 

"Whereas  it  is  found  by  experience  that  a  great  quantity  of  wine  is  spent  and  much 
thereof  abused  to  excess  of  drinking  and  unto  drunkenness  itself,  notwithstanding  all 
the  wholesome  laws  provided  and  published  for  the  preventing  thereof,  which  tendeth 
much  to  the  dishonor  of  God,  the  discredit  of  the  gospel,  to  the  shame  of  the  coun- 
try, and  much  offensive  to  all  godly  people  amongst  ourselves  and  such  as  are  in  confed- 
eration with  us,  and  much  to  be  feared  if  not  speedily  prevented  it  will  bring  some 
stroke  of  God's  heavy  hand  upon  us,  —  therefore  ordered,  &c." 

The  next  year,  on  the  I7th  of  October,  the  Court  endeavored  to  fight 
wine  with  beer,  by  ordering  that  good  beer  shall  be  "  kept  by  every  innkeeper, 

of  its  landlord,  George  Monck,  he  says,  "  it  was  — such  as  W'illiam  Hudson  the  elder,  Hugh 
almost  impossible  not  to  be  merry  in  his  com-  Gunnyson,  James  Davis,  Mathew  lans,  Robert 

Turner,  William  Courser,  William  blantan,  Evan 
Thomas,  Robert  Feeld,  William  Whitwell, 
Clement  Gross,  Thomas  Ruck,  and  Goody 
Upsall.  Occasional  revocations  occur.  Isaac 
Groose  "  is  not  to  sell  any  bear  by  the  quart 
pany."  Mr.  Whitmore  has  a  long  note  on  this  within  dors  anymore,"  in  1647.  Martin  Stebins, 
famous  resort.  Dunton's  Letters,  p  85,  and  note,  whose  license  is  for  a  long  while  yearly  re- 
p.  311.  The  early  town  records  make  mention  newed,  was  in  1647  forbidden  "to  brewe  any 
of  various  persons  licensed  to  keep  inns  and  more."  —  ED.] 
cook  shops,  to  draw  beer  and  retail  strong  water,  l  Two  Voyages  to  New  England,  pp.  172,  173. 


BOSTON    IN    THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  495 

as  strangers  for  want  of  it  are  put  to  the  expense  of  wine,"  and  a  forfeit  is 
laid  upon  every  innkeeper  who  fails  to  keep  good  beer.  Alas,  for  the  human 
nature  of  innkeepers!  They  kept  beer  cheerfully,  but  in  1667  it  became 
necessary  to  legislate  upon  the  wretched  condition  of  the  beer,  which  was 
"  brewed  of  or  mingled  with  molasses,  coarse  sugars,  or  other  materials." 
In  1654  another  effort  was  made  to  moderate  the  amount  of  drinking. 
"  Forasmuch  as  notwithstanding  the  great  care  this  Court  hath  had  and  the 
laws  made  to  suppress  that  swinish  sin  of  drunkenness,  and  yet  persons 
addicted  to  that  vice  find  out  ways  to  deceive  the  laws  provided  in  that  case, 
for  the  better  preventing  thereof,  it  is  ordered  .  .  .  that  none  licensed  to 
sell  strong  waters,  nor  any  private  housekeeper,  shall  permit  any  person  to  sit 
drinking  or  tippling;  "  and  the  Court  proceeded  gravely  to  determine  how 
much  a  man  might  drink  and  not  be  regarded  as  drunk.1  As  Boston  grew 
in  importance  the  General  Court  found  it  necessary  to  give  the  town  special 
power  to  regulate  offences  at  inns. 

With  drinking  at  inns  went  other  misdemeanors.  In  1647,  "upon  com- 
plaint of  great  disorder  that  hath  been  observed  and  is  like  further  to 
increase  by  the  use  of  the  game  called  shovel-board  in  houses  of  common 
entertainment,  whereby  much  precious  time  is  spent  unfruitfully  and  much 
waste  of  wine  and  beer  occasioned  thereby,"  the  use  of  it  is  forbidden  at 
inns.  So  too,  four  years  later,  dancing  at  inns  was  prohibited,  "  whether  at 
marriages  or  not;  "  and  in  1664  a  penalty  was  imposed  for  rude  singing  at 
taverns,  "  this  Court  being  sensible  of  the  great  increase  of  profaneness 
amongst  us,  especially  in  the  younger  sort,  taking  their  opportunity  by 
meeting  together  in  places  of  public  entertainment  to  corrupt  one  another 
by  their  uncivil  and  wanton  carriage,  rudely  singing  and  making  a  noise,  to 
the  disturbance  of  the  family  and  other  guests." 

Tobacco  was  battered  at  persistently  and  desperately,  but  at  each  encoun- 
ter the  weed  seemed  to  be  flourishing  more  greenly.  In  1632  the  public  tak- 
ing of  tobacco  was  prohibited ;  in  1634  the  injunction  was  extended  to  inns. 
In  the  same  year  an  effort  was  made  to  stop  the  sale  altogether;  but  the 
thrifty  settlement  added  afterward  the  commentary  that  this  was  not  to  be 
construed  as  forbidding  the  exportation.  Other  countries  might  smoke  if 
they  would  pay  Massachusetts.  The  law  was  repealed  altogether  shortly 
afterward,  and  in  1637  all  former  laws  against  tobacco  were  repealed.  A 
new  law,  indeed,  was  passed  -in  1638,  forbidding  the  use  of  tobacco  in  the 
fields  except  on  a  journey  or  in  meal-time ;  but  this  appeared  to  be  directed 
chiefly  against  the  danger  of  fire.  The  sentiment  of  the  law-makers,  how- 
ever, was  one  of  distrust  and  dislike.  Idlers  and  tobacco-takers  were  con- 
temptuously classed  together.  It  seemed  quite  impossible  to  them  that 
persons  should  work  and  smoke  at  the  same  time,  and  the  statute-book 
showed  conclusively  that  the  community  was  expected  to  work  and  not  to 

1  [Our  neighbors  of  Plymouth  thus  exactly  that  staggers  in  his  going,  or  that  vomitts  by 

define   the   vice :    "  And    by   Drunkennesse    is  reason  of  excessive  drinking,  or  cannot  follow 

understood  a  person  that  either  lisps  or  faulters  his  calling."     Plymouth  Laws,  edited  by  Brig- 

in  his  speech  by  reason  of  overmuch  drink,  or  ham,  p.  84.  —  ED.] 


496  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

idle.  Before  the  town  was  formed  or  the  colony  fairly  organized,  the  Eng- 
lish company  bade  them  take  heed  to  industry.  "We  may  not  omit,  out  of 
zeal  for  the  general  good,  once  more  to  put  you  in  mind  to  be  very  circum- 
spect, in  the  infancy  of  the  plantation,  to  settle  some  good  orders  whereby 
all  persons  resident  upon  our  plantation  may  apply  themselves  to  one  call- 
ing or  other,  and  no  idle  drone  be  permitted  to  live  amongst  us,  which,  if 
you  take  care  now  at  the  first  to  establish,  will  be  an  undoubted  means 
through  God's  assistance,  to  prevent  a  world  of  disorder."  1  And  to  secure 
with  all  the  rigor  of  the  law  a  conformity  to  the  principle  of  industry,  it  is 
ordered,  Oct.  I,  1633,  "  that  no  person,  householder  or  other,  shall  spend  his 
time  idly  or  unprofitably,  under  pain  of  such  punishment  as  the  Court  shall 
think  meet  to  inflict."  At  the  same  session  it  was  "  ordered  that  all  workmen 
shall  work  the  whole  day,  allowing  convenient  time  for  food  and  rest ;  "  but 
this  grim,  unreformed  labor-law  was  repealed  in  1635. 

Winthrop,  who  is  so  often  found  to  have  expressed  in  his  own  character 
and  conduct  the  best  intentions  of  the  General  Court,  is  described  affec- 
tionately by  a  letter-writer  of  the  time,  Thomas  Wiggin,  as  setting  the 
example  of  industry  and  manual  labor.  "  And  for  the  Governor  himself, 
I  have  observed  him  to  be  a  discreet  and  sober  man,  giving  good  example 
to  all  the  planters,  wearing  plain  apparel,  such  as  may  well  beseem  a  mean 
man,  drinking  ordinarily  water,  and  when  he  is  not  conversant  about  matters 
of  justice,  putting  his  hand  to  any  ordinary  labor  with  his  servants."  2  A 
similar  testimony  is  in  another  contemporaneous  narrative,  which  recites : 
"  Now  so  soone  as  Mr.  Winthrop  was  landed,  perceiving  what  misery  was 
like  to  ensewe  through  theire  Idlenes,  he  presently  fell  to  worke  with  his 
owne  hands,  and  thereby  soe  encouradged  the  rest  that  there  was  not  an  Idle 
person  then  to  be  found  in  the  whole  Plantation."  8 

The  Company,  in  settling  the  plantation,  was  at  pains  to  send  out  men  of 
all  useful  trades  and  occupations,  and  the  Colony  was  ready  at  once  to  foster 
its  industries.  Indeed  it  may  be  said  to  have  taken  too  particular  an  interest 
in  the  business  of  its  citizens,  for  it  began  early  to  fix  by  law  the  wages  of 
tradesmen.  Carpenters,  joiners,  bricklayers,  sawyers,  thatchers,  were  all 
provided  with  a  tariff  of  prices.  This  was  in  1630.  The  next  year  the 
restraints  were  removed,  and  the  trades  "  left  free  and  at  liberty  as  men  shall 
reasonably  agree."  But  in  1633  wages  were  again  limited,  and  to  the  above 
classes  were  added  clapboard  ryvers,  tilers,  wheelwrights,  mowers,  and  mer- 
chant tailors.  In  1636  the  General  Court,  finding  the  problem  too  compli- 
cated, turned  over  the  power  of  fixing  wages  to  the  towns.  The  pressure 
for  labor  led  to  higher  prices,  and  another  effort  at  legislation  was  made  in 
1637-38,  when  a  committee  was  appointed  to  consult  on  the  state  of  things, 
not,  be  it  observed,  in  the  interests  of  labor,  but  because  labor  was  getting 

1  Afass.  Coll.  Record,\.  405.  8  z  Coll.    Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  Hi.  p.  129.     See 

2  Savage's    "  Gleanings  for  N.  E.  History,"     also  Mr.  Robert  C.  Winthrop's  Life  and  Leiters 
3  Mass.  Hist.  Co!/.,  viii.  p.  323.  of  John  Wintkrop,  ii. 


BOSTON    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  497 

to  be  tyrannical.  "  Whereas,"  the  resolution  reads,  "  there  hath  been 
divers  complaints  made  concerning  oppression  in  wages,  in  prices  of  com- 
modities, in  smith's  work,  in  excessive  prices  for  the  work  of  draught  and 
teams  and  the  like,  to  the  great  dishonor  of  God,  the  scandal  of  the  gospel, 
and  the  grief  of  divers  of  God's  people  both  here  in  this  land  and  in  the 
land  of  our  nativity,  —  therefore,"  &c.  There  appears  to  have  been  no  re- 
port of  the  committee,  but  in  1641  the  Court  demanded  an  abatement  in 
wages  to  conform  to  the  fall  in  the  price  of  commodities. 

But  not  wages  alone :  the  price  of  goods  also  was  fixed  by  law.  At  the 
same  time  —  in  1633  —  that  a  tariff  of  wages  was  laid,  it  was  ordered  that  no 
person  should  sell  to  any  of  the  inhabitants  any  provision,  clothing,  tools, 
or  other  commodities  above  the  rate  of  fourpence  in  the  shilling  more  than 
the  same  cost,  or  might  be  bought  for  ready  money,  in  England.  An  excep- 
tion was  made  in  the  case  of  cheese,  which  might  be  spoiled  in  transport ; 
wine,  oil,  vinegar,  and  strong  waters,  which  might  suffer  from  leakage. 
These  articles  were  to  be  sold  at  such  rates  as  buyer  and  seller  could  agree 
upon.1 

This  special  legislation  appears  only  to  have  given  trouble,  and  it  is 
not  certain  that  attempts  at  subvention  were  wholly  successful.  In  1640, 
for  the  encouragement  of  the  manufacture  of  linen,  woollen,  and  cotton 
cloth,  it  was  ordered  that  whosoever  should  make  any  sort  of  the  said  cloths 
fit  for  use,  and  should  show  the  same  to  the  proper  authorities,  should  have 
an  allowance  of  three  pence  in  the  shilling  of  the  worth  of  such  cloth, 
according  to  its  valuation.  But  it  was  essential  that  the  work  should  all  be 
done,  including  the  spinning  of  the  yarn,  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
General  Court.  Eight  months  afterward  five  men,  one  of  them  at  least  a 
Bostonian,  appeared  and  received  the  allowance ;  but  the  next  day  the  law 
was  repealed,  with  the  grave  statement  that  it  tended  to  lay  burdens  upon 
the  people.  Fishermen,  ship-carpenters,  and  millers  were  exempt  from 
training,  and  the  importance  of  the  fishing  trade  was  early  recognized  in  the 
appointment  of  a  committee  of  six,  with  power  to  consult,  advise,  and  take 
orders  for  the  "  setting  forward  and  after  managing  of  a  fishing  trade." 
The  business  of  ship-building,  too,  was  becoming,  in  1641,  an  important 
industry,  and  an  interesting  provision  was  made  for  the  appointment  of  a 
specially  trained  overseer.  "  Whereas,"  says  the  resolve,  "  the  country  is 
now  in  hand  with  the  building  of  ships,  which  is  a  business  of  great  import- 
ance for  the  common  good,  and  therefore  suitable  care  is  to  be  taken  that 
it  be  well  performed,  according  to  the  commendable  course  of  England  and 
other  places :  it  is  therefore  ordered  that  when  any  ship  is  to  be  built  within 
this  jurisdiction  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  owner  to  appoint  and  put  in  some 
able  man  to  survey  the  work  and  workmen  from  time  to  time,  as  is  usual  in 

1  [John  Coggan  set  up  the  earliest  shop  in  stands.    Sewall,  Papers,  \.  170,  in  recording  the 

Boston,  on  the  north  corner  of  State  and  Wash-  death  of   Anthony  Stoddard,  the   linen-draper, 

ington  streets,  opposite  what  was  then  the  mar-  March   16,  1686-87,  speaks  of  him  at  that  time 

ket  ground,  where  the   Old  State  House  now  as  "  the  ancientest  shopkeeper  in  town."  —  ED.] 

VOL.   I.  —  63. 


498  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

England,  and  the  same  so  appointed  shall  have  such  liberty  and  power  as 
belongs  to  his  office." 

In  its  further  watch  over  the  trades  the  Court  forbade  tanners  to  carry  on 
the  shoemaker's  trade,  or  shoemakers  that  of  tanners,  to  prevent  deceit  in 
the  tanning  of  leather.  The  business  in  leather  was  a  flourishing  one,  owing 
in  part  to  the  trade  with  the  Indians,  who  brought  in  the  spoils  of  the  forest 
to  the  town.  Bakers  were  required  to  place  a  distinctive  mark  upon  their 
bread. 

The  prosperity  of  trade  when  Boston  was  well  established  appears  from 
the  great  diversity  of  occupations  followed,  and  the  increase  of  shops  and 
trading-houses.  Johnson  notes  that  there  was  even  an  export  of  boots  and 
shoes  to  England,  and  then  gives  an  enumeration  of  the  trades.  "  Carpen- 
ters," he  says,  "joiners,  glaziers,  painters,  follow  their  trades  only;  gun- 
smiths, locksmiths,  blacksmiths,  nailers,  cutlers,  have  left  the  husbandmen 
to  follow  the  plow  and  cart,  and  they  their  trades ;  weavers,  brewers,  bakers, 
costermongers,  feltmakers,  braziers,  pewterers  and  tinkers,  rope  makers, 
masons,  lime,  brick,  and  tile  makers,  card  makers  to  work  and  not  to  play, 
turners,  pump  makers,  and  wheelers,  glovers,  fellmungers,  and  furriers  are 
orderly  turned  to  their  trades,  besides  divers  sorts  of  shopkeepers,  and  some 
who  have  a  mystery  beyond  others,  as  have  the  vintners." l  The  town 
records  of  Boston  give  evidence  of  the  great  number  of  shops  in  it.  The 
town  kept  a  strict  surveillance  of  them,  and  forbade  any  one  to  set  up  a 
shop  or  to  manufacture  goods  unless  he  were  first  made  an  inhabitant  of 
the  town. 

One  of  the  most  important  industries  of  the  day  was  ship-building  and 
its  connected  enterprises.  The  year  after  Winthrop's  arrival  he  built  on  the 
Mystic  a  bark  of  thirty  tons'  burden,  to  which  he  gave  the  pretty  name  of  the 
"  Blessing  of  the  Bay."  Between  1631  and  1640  other  vessels  were  built  on 
the  Mystic,  at  Marblehead,  and  at  Salem.  The  building  of  a  ship  of  three 
hundred  tons'  burden  at  Salem  in  1640,  by  Mr.  Peter,  stirred  up  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Boston,  we  are  told,  to  the  same  business,  and  they  built  one  of  a 
hundred  and  sixty  tons  in  the  ship-yard  of  Mr.  Bourne.2  "  The  work  was 
hard  to  accomplish,"  says  Winthrop,  "  for  want  of  money,  &c.,  but  our 
shipwrights  were  content  to  take  such  pay  as  the  country  could  make."  3 

1   Wonder-working  Providence,  bk.  iii.  ch.  vi.       Mr.  Bworne's  howse  for  a  place  for  building  the 

-  f  See  Boston  Town  Records,  pp.  58,  59.    This     shipp."     Bourne,  as  a  ship-builder,  lived  first  in 

was   most    likely   Captain    Nehemiah    Bourne,     Charlestown    (1638),   and   then    in    Dorchester. 

Admiral  Preble  has  given  some  notes  on  "  Early 
Ship-building  in  Massachusetts,"  in  the  N.  E, 
Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg ,  Jan.  1869,  and  Jan.  1871. 
S.  A.  Drake  recites  "  a  visit  to  the  old  ship-yards," 
in  his  Landmarks,  p.  178.  Walter  Merry  is  ac- 
whose  house,  according  to  the  Book  of  Posses-  counted  one  of  the  earliest  Boston  shipwrights 
sions,  stood  not  far  from  the  spot  now  occupied  He  had  his  house  and  wharf  at  "  Merry's  Point," 
by  Union  Wharf.  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  near  North  Battery  Wharf.  He  was  drowned  in 
Jan.  1873,  p.  28.  "25th  of  nth  moneth,  1640.  the  harbor  in  1657.  Shurtleff's  Description  of 
Mr.  Winthropp,  Mr.  Tinge,  and  Captaine  Gib-  Boston,  107.  —  ED.] 
ones  are  appoynted  to  vue  the  land  adjoyning  8  History,  ii.  24. 


BOSTON    IN   THE    COLONIAL   PERIOD.  499 

In  1642  three  more  ships  were  built  in  Boston,  and  in  the  same  year  the 
author  of  New  England 's  First  Fruits  writes :  "  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  being  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."  1  But  this  account  must  take  in  the  whole  Bay.  The  ships  thus 
built  were  engaged  both  in  the  coasting  trade  and  in  the  Transatlantic. 
The  "  Blessing  of  the  Bay  "  made  its  first  trip  to  Long  Island.  From  Ber- 
muda came  potatoes,  oranges,  and  limes ;  cotton  from  the  West  Indies ; 
and  "  '  the  Trial/  the  first  ship  built  in  Boston,  being  about  a  hundred 
and  sixty  tons,  Mr.  Thomas  Graves,2  an  able  and  a  godly  man,  master 
of  her,  was  sent  to  Bilboa  in  the  fourth  month  last,  with  fish  which  she 
sold  there  at  a  good  rate,  and  from  thence  she  freighted  to  Malaga  and 
arrived  here  this  day  (23  Jan.  1643),  laden  with  wine,  fruit,  oil,  linen,  and 
wool,  which  was  a  great  advantage  to  the  country,  and  gave  encouragement 
to  trade."  3  In  the  October  previous  a  ship  set  sail  from  Boston  for  Lon- 
don "  with  many  passengers,  men  of  chief  rank  in  the  country,  and  great 
store  of  beaver.  Their  adventure  was  very  great,  considering  the  doubtful 
estate  of  the  affairs  of  England,  but  many  prayers  of  the  churches  went 
with  them  and  followed  after  them."  4 

In  the  train  of  ship-building  came  the  making  of  rope.  In  1641,  prob- 
ably in  connection  with  the  building  of  the  "  Trial,"  John  Harrison  was 
invited  to  Boston  from  Salisbury,  and  set  up  his  rope-walk  in  the  field  pre- 
sumably adjoining  his  house,  which  stood  on  Purchase  Street,  at  the  foot  of 
Summer.  He  seems  to  have  had  the  monopoly  of  the  business  in  Boston, 
and  to  have  been  undisturbed  in  possession  until  1663,  when  Mr.  John  Hey- 
man,  of  Charlestown,  had  permission  to  set  up  his  posts  in  Boston,  but 
only  for  making  fishing-lines.  This  was  found  to  interfere  with  Mr.  Harri- 
son's business,  and  the  selectmen  withdrew  his  permit  from  Heyman ;  but 
Harrison  was  then  old,  and  it  is  certain  that  after  his  death  rope-walks  mul- 
tiplied in  number.5 

The  business  of  the  men  of  Boston  was  not  then,  as  it  is  not  now,  con- 
fined within  the  town  limits.  Besides  the  occupation -of  farming  which  the 
open  fields  of  the  town  permitted,  they  had  then  large  farms  outside  of  the 
town,  at  Brookline  (Muddy  Brook),  on  the  Mystic,  and  on  the  islands  in 
the  harbor.6  The  beginning  of  those  enterprises  for  which  Boston  men  have 
been  famous,  in  developing  the  material  resources  of  the  country,  dates 
from  this  period,7  when  the  town  of  Boston  granted  at  a  general  town-meet- 
ing three  thousand  acres  of  the  common  land  at  Braintree  to  John  Win- 

1  Nno  England's  First  Fruits,  22.  5  [Cf.  Drake's  Landmarks,  273,  352.  Drake's 

2  [See   Mr.   H.   H.  Edes's  chapter   in  this     Boston,  381.  —  ED.] 

volume.  —  ED.]  6  [See  Mr.  C.  C.  Smith's  chapter  on  "  Boston 

8  Winthrop,  ii.  154.  and  the  Colony." — ED.] 

4  Ibid.  ii.  150.  1  Nov.  19,  1643. 


500  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

throp,  Jr.,  and  his  partners,  "  for  the  encouragement  of  an  iron  work." 
Winthrop's  father,  in  his  History,1  gives  a  brief  account  of  the  venture. 
"  Mr.  John  Winthrop,  the  younger,  coming  from  England  two  years  since, 
brought  with  him  1,000  pounds  stock  and  divers  workmen  to  begin  an  iron 
work,  and  had  moved  the  Court  for  some  encouragement  to  be  given  the 
undertakers,  and  for  the  Court  to  join  in  carrying  on  the  work,  &c.  The 
business  was  well  approved  by  the  Court,  as  a  thing  much  conducing  to 
the  good  of  the  country;  but  we  had  no  stock  in  the  treasury  to  give  fur- 
therance to  it,2  only  some  two  or  three  private  persons  joined  in  it,  and  the 
Court  granted  the  adventurers  nearly  all  their  demands,  as  a  monopoly  of 
it  for  twenty-one  years,  liberty  to  make  use  of  any  six  places  not  already 
granted,  and  to  have  three  miles  square  in  every  place  to  them  and  their 
heirs,  and  freedom  from  public  charges,  trainings,  &c."  3 

The  great  industry  in  Boston  was  necessarily  manufacturing,  commercial, 
and  agricultural.  But  in  the  colonial  period  it  had  signs  of  the  life  which 
has  since  been  its  pride.  Long  before  John  Fostei;  began  to  print,4  book- 

sellers  and  publishers  were  established  in  Boston. 
Hezekiah  Usher  was  in  business  as  bookseller  in 
1652.  He  was  agent  for  the  society  for  propagat- 
ing the  Gospel  among  the  Indians;  and  it  was  through  him  that  types  and 
paper  were  procured,  by  which  Green,  at  Cambridge,  printed  the  great 
Indian  Bible  in  1660-1663.  Many  books  and  pamphlets  were  printed  at 
Cambridge  for  the  Boston  bookseller,  and  before  Foster  printed,  Usher's 
son  and  successor,  John  Usher,  was  in  business.6 
Thomas,  in  his  History  of  Printing,  mentions  one 
Edmund  Ranger,  a  binder  in  1673;  but  as  early 
as  1637  the  town  records  of  Boston  mention  the 
sale  of  a  shop  to  one  Saunders,  a  book-binder.  Whether  or  not  he  followed 
his  trade  we  have  no  knowledge.  In  1679  there  was  a  bookseller,  William 

Avery,  "  near  the  Blue  Anchor ;  "  and  when 
JL*.         John  Dunton,  the  London  bookseller,  brought 
'    a  venture  to  Boston  in  1686,  he  found  eight 

bookstores  and  no  mean  supply  of  books.6 
Dunton  says  nothing  of  a  public  library,  which  was  in  existence  at  least 
as  early  as  1673.     In  the  Mather  Papers  in  the  Prince  Library  there  is  a 

1  II.  212,  213.  8  Dunton,  in  1686,  speaks  of  him  as  "making 

2  It  did  not  occur  to  the  court  or  the  town  the  best  figure  in  Boston ;  very  rich,  adventures 
to  issue  their  own  bonds.  much  to  sea,  but  has  got  his  estate  by  book- 

3  For  a  further  discussion  of  this  interesting  selling."  [Cf.  also  Dunton's  Letters,  p.  78.  —  ED.] 
subject,  which  is  a  little  foreign  to  our  immediate  6  [He  mentions,  besides    John    Usher,    Mr. 
purpose,  see  Savage's  note  on  the   above  pas-  Phillips  "the  most  beautiful  man  in  the  town  ;  " 
sage  in  Winthrop's  History.     [In  1651,  William  Minheer   Brunning  [or    Browning],  from    Hoi- 
Aubrey   bought  a  water-front  lot  near  the  Mill  land ;    Duncan    Cambel,   a    Scotch   bookseller, 
Creek  "for  the  use  of  the  undertakers  of  the  "very   industrious,   and    I   am   told,"  says   the 
iron  works  in  New  England."  —  ED.]  traveller,  "  a  young  lady  of  great  fortune  is  fallen 

4  [See  the  chapter  on  the  "  Literature  of  the  in  love  with  him."     Andrew  Thorncomb,  whose 
Colonial  Period."  —  ED.]  "  company  was  coveted  by  the  best  gentlemen," 


BOSTON    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  501 

will  of  John  Oxenbridge,  in  which  occurs  the  bequest:  "To  the  Public 
Library  in  Boston  or  elsewhere,  as  my  executors  and  overseers  shall  judge 
best,  Augustine's  Works  in  six  volumes,  the  Century's  in  three  volumes ;  the 
catalogue  of  Oxford  Library."  The  will  is  dated  at  Boston  the  twelfth  day 
of  the  first  month  i67|.  Richard  Chiswell,  an  eminent  bookseller  of 
London,  writing  to  Increase  Mather  at  Boston,  says :  "  I  have  sent  a 
few  books  to  Mr.  Usher  without  order,  which  I  put  in  to  fill  up  the 
cask.  You  may  see  them  at  his  shop,  and  I  hope  may  help  some  of 
them  off  his  hands  by  recommending  them  to  your  Public  Library, 
especially  the  new  ones  which  cannot  be  there  already,  particularly 
Dr.  Cave's  Lives  of  the  Fathers,  and  Dr.  Gary's  Chronological  Account  of 
Ancient  Time,  which  are  both  exceedingly  well  esteemed  by  the  most 
learned  and  ingenious  men  here."  1  So  whether  the  literary  Bostonian  went 
to  Mr.  Usher's  bookstore  for  the  freshest  work  from  Foster's  press,  or  to 
the  Public  Library  for  the  latest  London  book,  he  was  equally  secure  from 
light  and  unwholesome  reading.  As  there  was  a  library  room  in  the  east 
end  of  the  town  house  in  1686,  when  the  Rev.  Robert  Ratcliffe  set  up  an 
Episcopal  church  in  Boston,  it  is  very  likely  that  it  contained  the  Public 
Library  so  rarely  referred  to. 

The  English  Company  took  care  to  send  over  a  barber-surgeon,  Robert 
Morley,  who  was  engaged  to  serve  the  colony  for  three  years ;  and  with  him 
also  appears  to  have  come  Lambert  Wilson,  a  chirurgeon,  sent  for  the  same 
time,  and  instructed  to  cure  also  such  Indians  as  needed  him.2  Besides,  he 
was  charged  to  instruct  in  his  art  one  or  more  youth ;  and  Mr.  Hugesson's 
son  is  especially  commended  to  his  attention  as  a  student,  "  because  he  hath 
been  trained  up  in  literature."  Later,  when  President  Dunster,  of  Harvard, 
propounded  certain  questions  to  the  General  Court  touching  the  affairs  of 
the  college,  one  answer  was :  "  We  conceive  it  very  necessary  that  such  as 
study  physic  or  chirurgery  may  have  liberty  to  read  anatomy  and  to  anato- 
mize once  in  four  years  some  malefactors,  in  case  there  be  such  as  the  Court 
shall  allow  of,"  —  a  permission  which  seems  to  look  to  a  scarcity  of  ana- 
tomical subjects. 

Dr.  Holmes 3  states  that  an  examination  of  Savage's  Genealogical  Dic- 

and  who  is  "  extreamely  charming  to  the  Fair  *  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  viii.  576. 

sex."    Dunton  was  an  English  bookseller,  who          2  [During  the  season  of  sickness  which  fol- 

came  over  with  a  venture  of  books,  and  was  in  lowed  their  arrival,  and  before  the  company  left 

Boston  from    February    to   July    5,    1686.      He  Charlestown,  Aug   1630,  they  seem  to  have  owed 

seems  to  have  written  then  or  later  a  narrative  of  much  to  the   good   offices  of  the  physician  of 

his  experiences  and  the  persons  he  met,  which  is  the  Pilgrims,  Samuel  Fuller,  who  came  among 

preserved  in  the  Bodleian  Library,  and  the  es-  them,  and  ministered  to  their  needs.     Bradford, 

sential   parts  of   it   have   been   printed  by  the  Plymouth,  179.    The 

Prince    Society,   edited   by   W.    H.    Whitmore,  Town  records  in  1652 

in   1867,  as  John  Bunion's   Letters  from   Ntw  note  that  "Mr.  Pig- 

England.     He  borrows  much  in  them  from  Jos-  hogg,  a  Chururgeon, 

selyn  without  credit.     This  narrative  was  made  is   admitted   a  free- 

use  of  in  his  Life  and  Errors,  London,  1705, —  man."  —  ED.] 

a  book  reprinted  by  J.  B.  Nichols  in  London,  in  8  "The    Medical    Profession    in    Massachu- 

1818,  and  that  portion  relating  to  New  England  setts,"  in  the    Lowell    Lectures   on   Massachu- 

is  given  in  2  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  ii.  97-124. —  ED.]  setts  and  its  Early  History. 


502  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

tionary  showed  him  among  the  names  of  the  settlers  who  came  over  before 
1692,  and  their  descendants  to  the  third  generation,  one  hundred  and 
thirty-four  medical  practitioners.  Of  these  twelve,  he  says,  and  probably 
many  more,  practised  surgery;  three  were  barber-surgeons.  Johnson1  has 
preserved  an  account  of  one  of  these  last,  William  Dinely,  whose  life, 
death,  and  succession  form  a  half-pathetic,  half-grotesque  tale.  He  was 
one  of  those  who  in  1637  were  disarmed  for  heresy  in  following  Wheel- 
wright and  Anne  Hutchinson.  As  a  preacher  of  heresy  he  enjoyed,  accord- 
ing to  Johnson,  singular  advantages.  "  This  barber  was  more  than  ordinary 
laborious  to  draw  men  to  those  sinful  errors  that  were  formerly  so  frequent, 
and  now  newly  overthrown  by  the  blessing  of  the  Lord,  upon  the  endeavor 
of  his  faithful  servants  with  the  word  of  truth,  he  having  a  fit  opportunity, 
by  reason  of  his  trade ;  so  soon  as  any  were  set  down  in  his  chair,  he  would 
commonly  be  cutting  off  their  hair  and  the  truth  together :  notwithstanding 
some  report  better  of  the  man,  the  example  is  for  the  living,  the  dead  is 
judged  of  the  Lord  alone."  In  1639,  during  a  violent  storm,  a  Roxbury 
man,  suffering  agonies  from  the  toothache,  sent  his  maid  for  William  Dinely 
to  come  and  draw  it.  Whether  or  aot  Dinely  proposed  at  this  fit  oppor- 
tunity to  draw  also  the  Roxbury  man's  errors  cannot  now  be  said.  Both 
man  and  maid  lost  their  way  in  the  storm,  and  were  frozen  stiff,  and  found 
so  many  days  after.  Poor  Madam  Dinely,  sick  at  home,  gave  birth  shortly 
after  to  a  child,  who  was  named,  with  homely  pathos,  Fathergone  Dinely. 

The  Boston  town  records  report  an  apothecary,  William  Davice,  in  1646, 
to  whom  permission  was  given  to  set  up  a  "  payll"  [fence]  before  his  hall 
window  and  parlor  window,  three  feet  from  his  house.  From  entries  occa- 
sionally in  the  same  records  it  would  seem  that  in  the  earliest  days  the 
doctor's  services  were  more  or  less  at  the  charge  of  the  town.  At  any  rate, 
in  1644,  at  a  meeting  of  the  selectmen  of  Boston,  July  30,  it  was  "  ordered 
that  the  constables  shall  pay  unto  Tho.  Oliver,  Elder  of  the  Church,  seven 
pounds  for  seven  months  attendance  upon  the  cure  of  the  servant  of  Tho. 
Hawkins;  "  and  April  25,  1660,  a  like  order  directed  the  treasurer  to  pay 
Mr.  Snelling2  fifty-four  shillings  for  physic  administered  to  Robert  Higgins. 
Perhaps  these  were  dispensary  doctors,  and  it  should  be  remembered  that 
some  familiarity  with  physic  was  a  part  of  the  education  of  men  like 
Winthrop. 

An  interesting  piece  of  legislation  relating  to  medical  practice  appears  in 
the  Records  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  under  date  of  May  2, 
1649,  beginning:  "Forasmuch  as  the  law  of  God  (Ex.  x.  13)  allows  no 
man  to  touch  the  life  or  limb  of  any  person  except  in  a  judicial  way,  be  it 
hereby  ordered  and  decreed  that  no  person  or  persons  whatsoever  that  are 
employed  about  the  bodies  of  men,  women,  or  children  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  life  and  health,  as  physicians,  chirurgeons,  midwives,  or  others,  pre- 

1  Wonder-working  Providence,  bk.  ii.  ch.  xv.  fortune  is  amusingly  exhumed  from   the  court 

2  It  may  be  that  this  service  was  performed  records  of  that  town  by  Coffin,  in  his  History  of 
on  a  Boston  man  at  Newbury,  for  there  was  a  ATnuhury,  p.  55.     [See  vol.  iv.  for  chapters  by  Dr. 
"William  Snelling,  a  physician  there,  whose  hard  O.  W.  Holmes  and  Dr.  S.  A.  Green.  —  ED.] 


BOSTON    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  503 

sume  to  exercise  or  put  forth  any  act  contrary  to  the  known  rules  of  art, 
nor  exercise  any  force,  violence,  or  cruelty  upon  or  towards  the  bodies  of 
any,  whether  young  or  old  (no,  not  in  the  most  difficult  and  desperate 
cases),  without  the  advice  and  consent  of  such  as  are  skilful  in  the  same  art, 
if  such  may  be  fcad,  or  at  least  of  the  wisest  and  gravest  then  present." 
The  consent  of  the  patient  also,  if  he  was  compos  mentis,  was  essential,  and 
heavy  penalties  were  laid  for  the  infraction  of  the  law.  Whether  or  not 
some  fatal  accident  resulting  from  malpractice  had  frightened  the  General 
Court  into  this  legislation,  which  was  vague  and  apparently  unpractical,  it 
is  to  be  noted  that  the  names  of  seven  deputies  are  given  who  dissented 
from  the  order;  among  them  the  Boston  recorder,  Edward  Rawson,  and 
Robert  Keayne  and  James  Penn,  also  from  Boston. 

There  was  but  one  lawyer  in  colonial  Boston,  and  he  had  a  sorry  time  of 
it.  Thomas  Lechford,  of  Clement's  Inn,  came  to  Boston  in  1637,  willing  to 
cast  in  his  lot  with  the  people  here,  though  not  entirely  at  one  with  them  in 
questions  of  doctrine.  He  brought  with  him  his  knowledge  of  his  profes- 
sion, but  both  doctrinally  and  professionally  he  was  regarded  with  sus- 
picion. The  magistrates,  speaking  through  Winthrop  at  a  little  later  date, 
held  it  objectionable  that  lawyers  should  direct  men  in  their  causes.  No 
advocates  were  allowed ;  but,  what  could  scarcely  have  been  less  prejudicial 
to  justice,  magistrates,  who  were  afterward  to  decide  causes,  were  accus- 
tomed to  give  private  advice  beforehand.1  Several  of  the  magistrates  had 
been  students  of  law  in  England ;  they  had  exercised  also  there  the  func- 
tions of  justices,  and  they  brought  to  the  business  of  legislation  a  certain 
technical  knowledge  of  law.  Attorneys  were  discountenanced,  though  not 
actually  forbidden,  and  a  prisoner  or  suitor  might  plead  his  own  cause,  or  a 
friend  might  appear  in  his  behalf,  but  not  for  a  fee.  Lechford,  for  going  to 
a  jury  and  pleading  with  them  out  of  court,  was  "  debarred  from  pleading 
any  man's  cause  hereafter  unless  his  own,  and  admonished  not  to  presume 
to  meddle  beyond  what  he  shall  be  called  to  by  the  Court."  2  This  one 
solitary  case,  in  which  the  lawyer  was  employed  for  the  prosecution  of  an 
action  to  recover  under  a  will,  snuffed  out  the  advocate  and  left  the  Court  as 
it  had  been.  Lechford  thereafter  tried  to  maintain  himself  as  a  scrivener, 
and  obtained  a  little  employment  from  the  magistrates.  His  doctrinal  posi- 
tion being  equally  prejudicial  to  his  interests,  he  finally  abandoned  Boston 
to  its  lawyerless  fate.  "  I  am  kept,"  he  writes,  "  from  the  Sacrament  and 
all  place  of  preferment  in  the  Commonwealth,  and  forced  to  get  my  living 
by  writing  petty  things  which  scarce  finds  me  bread ;  and  therefore  some- 
times I  look  to  planting  of  corn,  but  have  not  yet  here  an  house  of  my  own 
to  put  my  head  in,  or  any  stock  going." 3  He  stayed  here  about  three 
years,  but  there  was  no  place  for  him. 

1  [Not  quite  so  objectionable  were  the  efforts  twoe  Elders  have  had  the  hearing  and  desyding 

to  keep  people  from  going  to  law.     In  1635,  it  of  the  cause,  if  they  Cann."  —  ED.] 
was  ordered  "  that  none  among  us  shall  sue  at  2  Mass.  Col.  Records,  i.  270. 

the  lawe  before  that  Mr.  Henry  Vane  and  the  8  Plain  Dealing,  69.      [This  book  of  his  was 


504  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

A  town  which  could  get  along  without  advocates  could  not  get  along 
without  courts  and  government.  This  is  not  the  place  in  which  to  sketch 
the  organization  of  the  town  or  commonwealth,  but  it  may  be  permitted  to 
indicate  the  political  duties  and  privileges  of  a  Boston  freeman  at  this  period. 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  only  a  minority  of  the  townsmen  had  any 
voice  in  the  government;  but  the  courts  were  open  to  all,  as  were  the  house 
of  correction  and  the  stocks.  A  standing  rule  required  a  freeman  to  be 
first  a  member  of  the  church ;  and  Lechford  makes  the  statement  that 
"  three  parts  of  the  people  of  the  country  remain  out  of  the  church."  l  It 
is  certain  that  the  franchise  was  not  eagerly  sought,  since  it  carried  with  it 
many  vexations,  and  it  is  fair  to  conclude  that  a  comparatively  small  propor- 
tion of  the  men  of  Boston  engaged  in  its  civil  affairs ;  but  then  those  who 
did  were  very  lively  in  their  interest.  The  freeman  was  called  upon  to 
choose  deputies  to  the  General  Court,  but  was  not  restricted  to  a  choice 
among  his  townsmen.  He  was  called  upon  also  once  a  year  to  cast  his  vote 
for  governor,  deputy-governor,  and  assistants.  The  form  of  election  is  pre- 
served for  us  by  Lechford  :  — 

"  The  manner  of  the  elections  is  this  :  At  first  the  chief  Governor  and  magistrates 
were  chosen  in  London,  by  erection  of  hands,  by  all  the  Freemen  of  this  society. 
Since  the  transmitting  of  the  Patent  into  New  England,  the  election  is  not  by  voices, 
nor  erection  of  hands,  but  by  papers,2  thus  :  The  general  Court  electory  sitting,  where 
are  present  in  the  church,  or  maeting-house  at  Boston,  the  old  Governor,  Deputy,  and 
all  the  magistrates,  and  two  Deputies  or  Burgesses  for  every  town,  or  at  least  one ; 
all  the  Freemen  are  bidden  to  come  in  at  one  door  and  bring  their  votes  in  paper  for 
the  new  Governor,  and  deliver  them  down  upon  the  table  before  the  Court,  and  so  to 
pass  forth  at  another  door.  Those  that  are  absent  send  their  votes  by  proxy.  All 
being  delivered  in,  the  votes  are  counted,  and  according  to  the  major  part  the  old 
Governor  pronounceth  that  such  an  one  is  chosen  Governor  for  the  year  ensuing. 
Then  the  Freemen,  in  like  manner,  bring  their  votes  for  the  Deputy-Governor,  who 
being  also  chosen,  the  Governor  propoundeth  the  Assistants  one  after  the  other.  New 
Assistants  are,  of  late,  put  in  nomination  by  an  order  of  General  Court  beforehand  to 
be  considered  of.8  If  a  Freeman  give  in  a  blank,  that  rejects  the  man  named ;  if  the 
Freeman  makes  any  mark  with  a  pen  upon  the  paper  which  he  brings,  that  elects  the 
man  named ;  then  the  blanks  and  marked  papers 4  are  numbered,  and  according  to 
the  major  part  of  either  the  man  in  nomination  stands  elected  or  rejected.  And  so 
for  all  the  Assistants.  And  after  every  new  election,  which  is  by  their  Patent  to  be 

printed  in   1642,  and  has  been  reprinted  in  3  by   ballot."  —  Palfrey,  /fist,  of  Nnu  England, 

Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  iii.,  and  carefully  edited  since  i.  375. 

by  J.  H.  Trumbull,  who  had  the  advantage  of  8  This  order,  made  in  May,  1640,  was  in  con- 
access  to  a  manuscript  journal  of  Lechford's.  sequence  of  some  jealousy  of  the  magistrates 
The  original  edition  is  rare,  but  is  found  in  and  apprehension  that  they  were  assuming 
several  of  our  libraries.  A  part  of  the  original  greater  power. 

MS.  of  the  book  is  in  the  Historical  Society's  4  In  1643,  ^  was  ordered  "that  for  the  yearly 

cabinet.  —  ED.)  choosing  of  assistants  for  the  time  to  come,  in- 

1  Plain    Dealing,    73.       Cotton,   examining  stead  of  papers  the  freemen   shall  use  Indian 
Lechford,  indignantly  protests  against  the  state-  beans ;  the  white  to  manifest  election,  the  black 
ment.      See   Trumbull's  edition   of    the   Plain  for  blanks."     [Mr.   Whitmore  has  collected  the 
Dealing,  \>.  151.  different  orders  for  conducting  elections  in  his 

2  "This  is  the  first  instance  of  an  election  Mass.  Civil  List,  \>.  12,  Sec.  —  ED.] 


BOSTON    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  505 

upon  the  last  Wednesday  in  every  Easter  term,  the  new  Governor  and  officers  are  all 
newly  sworn.  The  Governor  and  Assistants  choose  the  Secretary.  And  all  the  Court 
consisting  of  Governor,  Deputy,  Assistants,  and  Deputies  of  towns  give  their  votes  as 
well  as  the  rest ;  and  the  Ministers  and  Elders  and  all  church  officers  have  their  votes 
also  in  all  these  elections  of  chief  magistrates.  Constables  and  all  other  inferior  offi- 
cers are  sworn  in  the  general,  quarter,  or  other  courts,  or  before  any  Assistant."  l 

The  magistrates  and  officers  with  whom  the  townsman  of  Boston  would 
have  to  do  bore,  with  one  exception,  well-seasoned  English  names.  The 
name  of  "selectman,"  so  familiar  to  New  England  ears,  appears  to  have  been 
evolved  from  the  exigencies  of  town  life  here.  The  Boston  records  are 
curious  in  illustrating  this  point.  General  meetings  were  warned  from  house 
to  house;  and  once  in  six  months  until  1647,  after  that  once  a  year,  a  num- 
ber of  citizens  were  chosen,  as  the  phrase  generally  ran,  "  for  the  affairs  of 
the  town,"  or  "  for  the  town's  occasions."  The  number  varied,  but  they  are 
called  in  1634  the  "ten  men;  "  in  1641  the  "nine  men;"  again,  the  "over- 
seers ;  "  sometimes  they  are  called  the  "  townsmen."  Indeed,  it  would 
appear  as  if  this  name  may  have  been  the  familiar  title,  for  in  1643  the 
phrase  is  the  "select  townsmen;"  in  1647,  when  the  election  was  made 
annual,  it  becomes  and  remains  "selectmen;"  and  in  1655  we  read  that  a 
certain  question  of  administration  of  a  will,  which  required  the  witness  of 
memory,  was  referred  "  to  the  present  selectmen,  together  with  the  help  of 
the  ancient  townsmen."  2 

The  town  records  of  Boston  include  the  proceedings  of  the  general  town- 
meetings  and  of  the  meetings  of  the  selectmen.  A  large  part  of  the  business 
was  in  allotting  portions  of  the  peninsula  to  inhabitants,  but  cognizance  was 
taken  of  all  matters  of  local  concern,  and  special  officers  were  appointed  as 
occasion  arose,  so  that  the  records  have  great  value  as  containing  the  grad- 
ual evolution  of  that  distinguishing  feature  of  New  England  life,  —  the  self- 
government  of  the  town.3  Almost  from  the  beginning  the  town  of  Boston 
had  its  town-clerk,  its  treasurer,  and  its  constables.  The  surveyor  of  high- 
ways was  an  officer  early  needed,  and  his  appointment  grew  out  of  the  need. 
"It  is  agreed  that  every  one,"  reads  the  record  of  Jan.  4,  1635,  "shall 
have  a  sufficient  way  unto  his  allotment  of  ground,  wherever  it  be,  and  that 
the  Inhabitants  of  the  town  shall  have  liberty  to  appoint  men  for  the  setting 
of  them  out  as  need  shall  require,  and  the  same  course  to  be  taken  for  all 
common  highways,  both  for  the  town  and  country."  The  need  that  cows 
should  be  kept  by  the  inhabitants  of  Boston,  and  the  lack  of  separate  and  de- 
fined pasturage,  led  early  to  the  appointment  of  cow-keepers.  A  fold-keeper 
was  appointed  with  duties  apparently  of  a  pound-keeper,  and  since  there  are 
no  references  to  folding  after  the  use  of  the  term  pound,  pounder,  or  pound- 
keeper,  it  may  be  that  both  the  offices  were  the  same,  called  at  first  by  one 
name,  afterward  by  the  other.  The  regulations  respecting  the  yoking  and 

1  Plain  Dealing,  24,  25.  the  chapters  on  Charlestown  and  Dorchester. — 

2  [A  list  of  the  early  selectmen  is  given  in     Ed.] 

Mr.  Whitmore's  chapter  in  this  volume.      See          8  [See  note  on  page  217.  —  ED.] 
VOL.  I.  —  64. 


506 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


ringing  of  swine  and  the  freedom  of  these  animals  about  town  required  the 
appointment  of  a  hog-reeve.  Water-bailiffs  had  oversight  of  the  shore,  "  to 
see  that  no  annoying  things  either  by  fish,  wood  or  stone,  or  other  such  like 
things  be  left  or  laid  about  the  sea-shore."  There  were  clerks  of  the  market, 
and  later  sealers  of  weights  and  measures,  packers  of  fish  and  meat,  gangers, 
and  sealers  of  leather,  all  elected  in  town-meeting.  There  was  a  town- 
recorder  who  was  sometimes  also  the  treasurer.  In  1659,  for  the  first  time,  a 
moderator  was  chosen  to  hold  office  for  a  year  and  regulate  public  town- 
meetings.  A  clerk  of  the  writs  kept  the  records  of  births,  marriages,  and 
deaths. 

If  the  townsman  or  any  servant  or  Indian  ran  against  the  laws,  —  and 
as  these  met  one  at  every  turn,  chances  for  infraction  were  multiplied, — 
there  was  a  variety  of  punishment  provided.  The  whipping-post  appears  as  a 
land-mark  in  the  Boston  records  in  1639,  and  the  frequent  sentences  to  be 
whipped  must  have  made  the  post  entirely  familiar  to  the  town.  It  stood  in 
front  of  the  First  Church,  and  was  probably  thought  to  be  as  necessary  to  good 
discipline  as  a  police-station  now  is.  A  community  in  which  whipping  was 

freely  used  was  probably  not 
much  surprised  when  Presi- 


dent Dunster,  of  Harvard, 
whipped  two  of  his  students 
for  an  offence,  applying  the 
rod  faithfully  himself. 

The  pillory  and  stocks 
were  easily  moved,  and  could 
be  placed  anywhere  where 
they  might  be  needed.  The 
stocks  stood  sometimes  near 
the  whipping-post;  some- 
times, as  by  an  anticipatory 
sarcasm,  at  the  head  of  State 
Street.  The  builder  of  the 
first  stocks  in  Boston  —  at 
least  the  first  mentioned  in 
the  records  —  had  the  honor  of  being  the  first  to  try  them.  Edward 
Palmer,  in  1639,  was  employed  to  build  stocks  in  Boston,  but  when  he  pre- 
sented his  bill  it  was  held  to  be  extortionate ;  and  by  a  piece  of  grim 
pleasantry  the  Court  fined  him,  and  sentenced  him  to  be  set  an  hour  in  the 
stocks.  Winthrop  tells  an  amusing  story,  not  without  some  sense  of  its 
humor  himself,  of  a  scrape  into  which  one  of  La  Tour's  party  fell.  Writing 
in  1644,  he  says:  — 

"  There  arrived  here  a  Portugal  ship  with  salt,  having  in  it  two  Englishmen  only. 
One  of  these  happened  to  be  drunk,  and  was  carried  to  his  lodging ;  and  the  constable, 
(a  godly  man  and  zealous  against  such  disorders),  hearing  of  it,  found  him  out,  being 
upon  his  bed  asleep ;  so  he  awaked  him,  and  led  him  to  the  stocks,  there  being  no 


THE   STOCKS. 


BOSTON    IN   THE    COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


507 


magistrate  at  home.  He  being  in  the  stocks,  one  of  La  Tour's  gentlemen  lifted  up 
the  stocks  and  let  him  out.  The  constable,  hearing  of  it,  went  to  the  Frenchman 
(being  then  gone  and  quiet) ,  and  would  needs  carry  him  to  the  stocks ;  the  French- 
man offered  to  yield  himself  to  go  to  prison,  but  the  constable,  not  understanding 
his  language,  pressed  him  to  go  to  the  stocks ;  the  Frenchman  resisted  and  drew  his 
sword ;  with  that  company  came  in  and  disarmed  him,  and  carried  him  by  force  to 
the  stocks ;  but  soon  after  the  constable  took  him  out  and  carried  him  to  prison,  and 
presently  after  took  him  forth  again  and  delivered  him  to  La  Tour.  Much  tumult 
there  was  about  this  :  many  Frenchmen  were  in  town,  and  other  strangers,  which  were 
not  satisfied  with  this  dealing  of  the  constable,  yet  were  quiet." 

The  magistrates  looked  into  the  case,  and  decided  that  the  gentleman 
must  go  back  to  prison  till  the  Court  met.  Their  Dogberry  must  be  sus- 
tained. Some  Frenchmen  offered  to  go  bail,  but  their  offer  was  declined  as 
coming  from  strangers  :  — 

"  Upon  this  two  Englishmen,  members  of  the  church  of  Boston,  standing  by,  offered 
to  be  his  sureties,  whereupon  he  was  bailed  till  he  should  be  called  for,  because  La 
Tour  was  not  like  to  stay  till 
the  Court.  This  was  thought 
too  much  favor  for  such  an  of- 
fence by  many  of  the  common 
people,  but  by  our  law  bail  could 
not  be  denied  him ;  and  beside 
the  constable  was  the  occasion 
of  all  this  in  transgressing  the 
bounds  of  his  office,  and  that  in 
six  things  :  i.  In  fetching  a  man 
out  of  his  lodging  that  was 
asleep  upon  his  bed,  and  with- 
out any  warrant  from  author- 
ity. 2.  In  not  putting  a  hook 
upon  the  stocks,  nor  setting 
some  to  guard  them.  3.  In 
laying  hands  upon  the  French- 


man that  had  opened  the  stocks, 
when  he  was  gone  and  quiet,  THE  PILLORY. 

and  no  disturbance  then  ap- 
pearing. 4.  In  carrying  him  to  prison  without  warrant.  5.  In  delivering  him  out 
of  prison  without  warrant.  6.  In  putting  such  a  reproach  upon  a  stranger  and  a 
gentleman  when  there  was  no  need,  for  he  knew  he  would  be  forthcoming,  and  the 
magistrate  would  be  at  home  that  evening ;  but  such  are  the  fruits  of  ignorant  and 
misguided  zeal." 

The  constable  was  evidently  the  most  ubiquitous  representative  of  the 
law,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  should  sometimes  assume  the  office  of  the 
magistrate,  when  he  was  charged  daily  with  so  many  functions.  His  appear- 
ance was  nearly  as  impressive  as  that  of  a  drum-major,  for,  beside  the  stern- 
ness of  countenance  which  his  calling  demanded,  it  was  directed  by  the 


508  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

General  Court  that  he  "shall  have  a  staff  with  some  remarkable  distinction 
provided  by  the  town,  which  may  be  as  a  sign  or  badge  of  his  office,  and  this 
staff  to  take  along  with  him  when  he  shall  go  forth  to  discharge  any  part  of 
his  office ;  which  staff  shall  be  black  and  about  five  feet  or  five  and  a  half 
foot  long,  tipped  at  the  upper  end  about  five  or  six  inches  with  brass." 
The  Tipstaff  thus  was  as  near  an  approach  to  familiar  slang  as  our  ancestors 
seem  to  have  allowed.  Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  the  dignity  of  this  office, 
—  because,  perhaps,  of  its  arduousness,  —  it  became  difficult  after  a  while  to 
secure  constables,  especially  in  Boston  ;  and  in  1653  a  fine  of  ten  pounds  was 
laid  on  any  one  who  refused  to  accept  the  office.1 

The  opportunities  of  the  constable  were  frequent  and  various,  for  the 
laws  were  minute  and  explicit.  The  early  records  of  the  colony  sound  with 
the  swish  of  the  rod,  and  no  picture  of  the  early  Boston  seems  at  all  com- 
plete without  a  well-filled  stocks  and  bilboes.  Robert  Bartlett,  presented 
for  cursing  and  swearing,  was  sentenced  to  have  his  tongue  put  in  a  cleft 
stick.  John  Smith,  for  swearing,  being  penitent,  was  set  in  the  bilboes. 
The  treasury  must  have  been  considerably  augmented  if  all  the  fines  im- 
posed were  paid.  Nor  were  the  graver  modes  of  correction  and  punish- 
ment wanting.  Already,  in  1632,  a  House  of  Correction  was  ordered  for 
Boston,  and  with  it  a  house  for  the  beadle,  who  seems  to  have  acted  as 
sheriff.  The  gallows  stood  ready  to  receive  obdurate  sinners,2  and  while  the 
penalty  of  death  upon  the  statute  book  was  probably  in  many  cases  only  a  sol- 
emn threat,  it  is  certain  that  no  merely  sentimental  dread  of  capital  punish- 
ment stood  in  the  way  of  inflicting  it.  In  one  instance,  at  least,  the  public 
executioner  burned  heretical  books  in  the  market-place,  when,  in  1654,  the 
books  of  John  Reeves  and  Lodowich  Muggleton,  who  pretended  to  be  the 
last  two  witnesses  and  prophets  of  Jesus  Christ,  appeared  in  Boston.  Two 
years  later  some  books  in  defence  of  the  Quaker  doctrine  shared  the  same 
fate. 

The  town  crier  was  another  ancient  officer  whose  voice  has  been  silent  for 
some  years  in  Boston.  His  orders  were  to  cry  three  several  times  for  things 
lost,  and  to  keep  a  book  wherein  he  was  to  write  down  faithfully  all  such 
things  with  their  marks,  the  names  of  parties,  and  the  days  of  crying,  his 
fees  being  twopence  apparently  for  each  article. 

For  protection  against  fire  there  were  laws,  buckets,  and  ladders ;  and  in 
1654,  at  any  rate,  fire-engines  were  offered  to  the  selectmen  by  Joseph 

1  [Savage's  Boston  by  Daylight  and  Gaslight,  him,  one   of  which,  by  Cotton  Mather,  was  the 
1873,  since  enlarged  into  a  History  of  the  Boston  first  of  his  three  hundred  and  eighty-three  publi- 
Watch,  gives  further  details.     Some  particulars  cations.     Dunton   speaks   of    another   of    these 
relating  to  the  setting  of  watches  are  noted  in  sermons  by  Increase  Mather,  as  preached  before 
Sewall  Papers,  i.  53. — ED.]  five  thousand  people  in  Mr.  Willarcl's  meeting- 

2  [The  earliest  executions  took  place  on  the  house,  after  the   "  gallery  had  cracked  "  in  the 
Common.     Shurtleff,  Description  of  Boston,  352.  new  church,  where   the   services   began.      The 
Dunton,  Letters,  p.  118,  describes  with  a  good  place  of   execution  was  "about  a  mile  out  of 
deal  of  particularity  the  execution  of  Morgan,  Boston."  —  ED.] 

a  murderer,  and  the  sermons  preached  before 


BOSTON    IN    THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


509 


Jynks.  The  chief  cause  of  fire  was  held  to  be  in  flaming  chimneys,  and  a 
fine  was  exacted  in  every  case  where  fire  was  seen  to  issue  above  the  top ; 
special  orders  were  given  also  from  time  to  time  to  secure  chimneys  when 
they  appeared  to  be  dangerous.  Chimney-sweepers  were  under  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  selectmen.  At  the  time  of  what  was  known  as  the  Great  Fire, 
in  1653-54,  an  order  of  the  town  required  every  householder  to  provide  for 
his  house  a  ladder  long  enough  to  reach  to  the  ridge,  and  "  a  pole  of  about 
twelve  foot  long,  with  a  good  large  swab  at  the  end  of  it,  to  reach  the  roof  of 
his  house  to  quench  fire,"  while  six  good  and  long  ladders  for  the  use  of  the 
town  were  hung  upon  the  side  of  the  meeting-house.  Further  regulations 
gave  power  to  the  authorities  to  pull  down  houses  if  necessary  to  stop  fire, 
permission  to  construct  a  cistern,  and  restricted  the  building  of  a  fire  within 
certain  limits  after  nine  o'clock  at  night  and  before  five  in  the  morning.  So, 
later  still,  a  regulation  was  made  to  prevent  people  from  carrying  fire  from 
one  house  to  another  in  "  open  fire-pans  or  brands-ends ;  "  and  a  special  order 
forbade  any  person  takingtobacco,  or  bringing  a  lighted  match  or  fire,  under- 
neath or  about  any  part  of  the  town-house,  except  in  case  of  military  exer- 
cise.1 In  1652  there  was  a  water-works  company  incorporated  in  Conduit 
Street,  of  which  an  account  is  given  in  another  chapter.2  One  Captain  Crom- 
well3 had  given  some  bells  to  the  town,  and  in  1650  the  selectmen  were  em- 


1  After  the  second  fire  in  1676,  which  suc- 
ceeded  to   the   name   of    the   Great    Fire,  the 
General    Court  took   action  which   recalls  dis- 
tinctly  enough   the   condition   of    affairs    after 
what  is  now  known  as  the  Boston  Fire.    "  Up- 
on complaint  made   by  the   selectmen  of   Bos- 
ton of  the  inconvenience   of  the   straitness  of 
the    streets    lately   laid    waste    by    fire,    it    is 
ordered  that  no  person  presume  to  build  there 
again  without    the    advice    and  order   of    the 
selectmen,  until  the  next  General  Court,"  24th 
May,  1676. 

2  [By  Mr.   Smith,  on  "  Boston  and  the  Col- 
ony." —  ED.] 

8  [This  Captain  Cromwell  was  a  notorious 
character,  who  might  well  figure  in  a  Boston 
romance.  Winthrop,  Hist,  of  New  England,  ii. 
263,  records  his  being  here  a  common  seaman  in 
1636.  He  was  a  vagabond  of  kindly  nature,  but 
was  then  well  treated  by  one  "  of  the  poorer 
sort,"  and  remembered  it  when  ten  years  later, 
in  1646,  he  came  into  the  harbor  with  a  number 
of  Spanish  prizes  in  his  train,  which  he  had 
captured  in  a  freebooting  way,  under  a  commis- 
sion from  the  Earl  of  Warwick.  Coming  across 
the  bay,  stress  of  weather  had  forced  him  into 
Plymouth,  where  he  and  his  men  "  spent  liberally 
and  gave  freely,"  which  the  Pilgrims,  in  their 
straits,  were  not  averse  to  their  doing.  Here 
one  of  Cromwell's  men  got  drunk,  and  assault- 
ing the  captain  the  fellow  was  killed  by  a  blow 
from  his  rapier.  Cromwell  then  brought  his  fleet 
to  Boston,  and,  as  the  story  goes,  though  he  had 


money  enough  to  hire  the  finest  house  in  town, 
he  contented  himself  with  quarters  under  the 
humble  roof  of  the  poor  man  who  had  earlier 
befriended  him.  Bradford,  recording  his  story, 
PlymouthPlantation,  441,  says  that  "  he  scattered 
a  great  deal  of  money "  in  Boston,  "  and  yet 
more  sin,  I  fear,  than  money."  He  presented  to 
the  Governor  a  rich  sedan  chair  which  he  had 
taken  on  one  of  his  prizes;  and  Winthrop,  a 
little  later,  turned  it  to  good  account  in  giving 
it  to  D'Aulnay  by  way  of  propitiation,  when  he 
settled  terms  of  a  treaty  with  him.  Cromwell 
liked  Boston  well  enough  to  settle  here,  but  he 
was  soon  off  on  another  marauding  expedition, 
and  was  absent  three  years.  Bradford  says  "  he 
tooke  sundry  prises,  and  returned  rich  unto  the 
Massachusets,  and  ther  dyed  the  same  somere, 
having  gott  a  fall  from  his  horse,  in  which  fall 
he  fell  on  his  rapeir  hilts,  and  so  brused  his 
body  as  he  shortly  after  dyed  thereof."  This 
happened  between  August,  1649,  when  he  made 
his  will,  and  October,  when  it  was  probated.  In 
it  he  gave  six  bells  to  the  town,  doubtless  some 
of  his  plunders.  (N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg. 
iii.  268.)  His  widow,  Anne,  married  Robert 
Knight ;  and,  again  a  widow,  married  John  Joy- 
liffe,  in  1657,  whose  death  Sewall  records  in 
1701.  (Sewall  Papers,  ii.  48.)  It  was  one  of  the 
Cromwell  bells,  probably,  referred  to  in  the  fol- 
lowing memorandum  from  the  Town  Record,  in 
1655:  "A  greatt  bell  belonging  to  the  towne 
sent  to  Castle  Island  to  Capt.  Richard  Daven- 
port."—  ED.] 


510  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

powered  to  dispose  of  them  to  the  best  advantage,  and  to  lay  out  the  pro- 
ceeds in  one  bell  for  a  clock ;  but  a  year  or  two  afterward  the  bells  had  not 
been  disposed  of,  for  it  was  ordered  on  March  I,  1652,  "  that  James  Evcrill 
and  the  neighbors  which  set  up  the  Conduit  by  the  Dock  shall  have  one  of 
the  bells  (which  were  given  by  Captain  Cromwell)  for  a  clock,  and  to  enjoy 
it  while  they  make  that  use  of  it  there."  Smaller  bells  were  used  by  bell- 
men, who  went  up  and  down  at  night  as  special  watchmen.1 

The  beacon  on  Sentry  Hill  was  the  great  alarm-tower  of  the  town.  It  was 
ordered  to  be  set  up  in  March,  1634-35,  "  to  give  notice  to  the  country  of  any 
danger,  and  that  there  shall  be  a  ward  of  one  person  kept  there  from  the 
first  of  April  to  the  last  of  September;  and  that  upon  the  discovery  of  any 
danger  the  beacon  shall  be  fired,  an  alarm  given,  as  also  messengers  present- 
ly sent  by  that  town  where  the  danger  is  discovered  to  all  other  towns  within 
the  jurisdiction."  But  the  necessity  of  a  watch  and  of  military  training 
was  coincident  with  the  settling  of  the  town.  In  1631  it  was  ordered  that 
a  watch  of  six  and  an  officer  should  be  kept  in  Boston ;  and  in  the  same 
year  a  training  was  observed  every  Saturday.  The  next  year  the  train- 
ing-day was  made  monthly,  and  in  1637  the  number  of  trainings  in  the 
year  was  reduced  to  eight;  but  every  person  above  eighteen,  except  the 
magistrates  and  elders,  was  compellable  for  service  either  in  person  or 
by  substitute.  The  magistrates  and  teaching  elders  were  also  allowed 
each  a  man  free  from  training.  Absence  from  training  was  fined,  and  a 
little  later,  in  1645,  it  was  ordered  that  all  the  youth  from  ten  to  sixteen 
years  should  be  instructed  by  a  competent  person  in  the  exercise  of  small 
arms,  such  as  small  guns,  half  pikes,  and  bows  and  arrows.2  The  Ancient 
and  Honorable  Artillery  Company  dates  from  this  time,  when  on  the  I3th 
of  March,  1638-39,  it  was  formed  under  its  first  name  of  the  "  Military 
Company  of  the  Massachusetts."  3 

Some  slight  military  pomp  added  to  the  dignity  of  the  Governor's  office. 
It  was  ordered,  in  1634-35,  that  at  every  General  Court  six  men  appointed 
by  the  Governor  from  his  town  should  attend  with  halberds  and  swords 
upon  the  person  of  the  Governor,  —  a  custom  which  has  survived  apparently 
in  the  occasional  attendance  of  the  Lancers,  as  at  Commencement.  This 
custom  of  military  attendance  is  referred  to  by  Winthrop  in  his  Journal, 

1  [The  Town  Records,  under  date  of  "  26th,  Newgate  and  George  Clifford,  who  agreed  to  do 
loth  moneth,"  1653,  say:  "Simon  Rogers  and  "all  common  service  in  drumming  for  the  towne 
Robtt.  Read  hath  engaged  to  serve  the  towne  as  on  Trayning  dayes  and  watches."  Perry  lived 
Bellmen,  to  goe  up  and  downe  throughout  the  on  School  Street,  near  Province  Street.  He 
towne  by  the  space  of  five  howers  in  the  night,  continued  to  drum  for  some  years  after  this,  not- 
beginning  at  eleaven,  and  soe  to  contynue  till  withstanding  the  new  appointments.  —  ED.] 
foure,  and  to  have  twentye  shillings  by  the  week  8  [Z.  G.  Whitman's  History  of  this  company 
for  their  labor."  —  ED.]  has  been  twice  printed,  —  1820  and  1842.  Captain 

-  [The  town  drummer  was  Arthur  Perry,  and  Robert  Keayne,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the 

in  1638  he  was  allowed  yearly  £2  "for  his  drum-  London  Company  of  similar  title,  seems  to  have 

ming  to  the  Company  upon  all  occasions."     His  been  the  chief  promoter  of  the  new  organiza- 

pay  was  increased  to  £\  ios.,  in  1642.     For  his  tion;  and  the  Boston  association  claims  to  be  an 

last  year  and  a  half  he  had  .£9.     In  1643  he  was  offshoot  of  the  older  one,  as  is  allowed  in  G.  A. 

paid  £4  for  teaching  his  successors,  Nathaniel  Raikes's  History  of  the  London  Company. — ED.] 


BOSTON    IN    THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  51  I 

where  he  speaks  of  a  difficulty  which  he  had  with  the  attendants :  "  Upon 
the  election  of  the  new  governor,  the  sergeants  who  had  attended  the  old 
governor  to  the  Court  (being  all  Boston  men,  where  the  new  governor 
also  dwelt)  laid  down  their  halberds  and  went  home ;  and  whereas  they 
had  been  wont  to  attend  the  former  governor  to  and  from  the  meetings  on 
the  Lord's  days,  they  gave  over  now,  so  as  the  new  governor  was  fain  to 
use  his  own  servants  to  carry  two  halberds  before  him ;  whereas  the  for- 
mer governor  had  never  less  than  four."  1 

The  clergy,  however,  were  as  high  in  honor  and  social  position  as  the 
magistrates.  In  the  list  of  things  noted  the  i6th  of  March,  1628-29,  to 
provide  to  send  for  New  England,  the  order  in  which  these  "  things"  stand 
is  (i)  Ministers;  (2)  Patent  under  Seal;  (3)  Seal,  —  and  after  that  seed 
grains  of  various  sort.  The  Company  was  plainly  intent  on  sowing  the  seed 
of  the  Word  first ;  2  and  in  a  subsequent  meeting  for  the  preliminary  arrange- 
ments it  was  decided  that  the  expense  of  ministers  and  churches  should 
be  borne  one  half  by  the  Company,  one  half  by  the  individual  planters. 
The  very  first  order  upon  the  records  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony 
after  reaching  this  country  has  reference  to  the  building  of  houses  for  the 
ministers,  Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr.  Phillips,  and  the  furnishing  them  with  sup- 
plies. They  were  ever  in  the  minds  of  the  Colony.  In  1646  the  supply  was 
giving  out,  and  there  began  to  be  an  opportunity  for  home-bred  ministers. 
We  read  in  the  records  of  the  colony:  "This  Court  being  sensible  of  the 
necessity  and  singular  use  of  good  literature  in  managing  the  things  of 
greatest  concern  in  the  Commonwealth,  as  also  perceiving  the  fewness  of 
persons  accomplished  to  such  employment,  especially  for  future  times,  have 
thought  meet  to  propose  to  all  every  our  reverend  elders  and  brethren 
that  due  care  be  had  from  time  to  time  to  employ  and  exercise  such  stu- 
dents, especially  in  divinity,  so  that  they  may  not  have  to  go  away."  It 
was  added  as  a  practical  suggestion  that  the  younger  students  should 
assist  the  church  officers  in  their  work.  In  1657  other  troubles  arose,  and 
a  committee  was  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  alleged  poverty  of  the  min- 
isters of  the  churches. 

The  well-known  respect  shown  to  the  clergy  was  a  part  of  that  general 
respect  for  religion  and  religious  observances  which  fpund  expression  in  a 
number  of  legislative  acts,  all  looking  toward  conformity  to  the  Puritan 
ideal.3  Absence  from  church  meetings  was  visited  by  fines  and  imprison- 
ment. Should  any  man  reproach  the  Word  or  the  minister  thereof,  he  was 

1  History  of  New    England,  i.    221.  See  unnatural  for  a  right  N.  E.  man  to  live  without 
Savage's    note  there,   as  also    a    passage  and  an  able  Ministery  as  for  a  Smith  to  work  his 
note,  pp.  224,  225.  iron  without  a  fire."  —  Johnson,   Wonder-work- 

2  "  Now  to    declare   how   this   people  pro-  ing  Providence,  bk.  ii.  ch.  22. 

ceeded  in  religious  matters,  and  so  consequently  8  [Dr.  Dexter  has  shown  the  common  notion, 

all  the  Churches  of  Christ  planted  in  New  Eng-  that  such  a  thing  as  the  dismission  of  a  pastor 

land,  when  they  came  once  to  hopes  of  being  scarcely  took  place  in  the  early  days  of  New 

such  a  competent  number  of  people  as  might  be  England,  to  be  an  error,  disproving  it  by  citing 

able   to  maintain-  a  minister,  they  then  surely  numerous  instances.     Congregationalism  as  seen 

seated   themselves,  and  not  before ;  it  being  as  in  its  Literature,  586,  587.  —  ED.] 


512  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

proceeded  against.  For  the  first  offence  he  was  to  be  reproved  by  the 
magistrate.  For  the  second  he  was  to  pay  five  pounds,  or  stand  two  hours 
openly  upon  a  block  four  feet  high,  on  a  lecture  day,  with  a  paper  fixed  on 
his  breast,  with  the  words  "  A  WANTON  GOSPELLER  "  written  in  capital  let- 
ters, that  others  might  "  fear  and  be  ashamed  of  breaking  out  into  the  like 
wickedness."  Indians  were  to  be  taught  religion  and  laws,  and  to  be 
brought  under  the  same  ecclesiastical  discipline.  Blasphemy,  whether  by 
Indian  or  white  man,  was  punishable  by  death.  Notorious  and  obstinate 
heretics  were  fined.  The  Church  was  regarded  as  an  essential  part  of  the 
State,  and  disregard  of  it  was  disregard  of  the  plainest  means  of  knowing 
the  laws.  "Seeing  that  the  Word  is  of  general  and  common  behoof  to  all 
sorts  of  people,  as  being  the  ordinary  means  to  subdue  the  hearts  of  hear- 
ers not  only  to  the  faith  and  obedience  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  but  also  to  civil 
obedience  and  allegiance  unto  magistrates,  and  to  just  and  honest  con- 
versation toward  all  men :  it  is  therefore  ordered  and  declared  that  every 
person  shall  duly  resort  and  attend  upon  the  Lord's  Day,  fasts  and  thanks- 
givings, or  be  fined."  1  The  Lord's  Day  was  guarded  by  stringent  regula- 
tions. "  If  any  young  person  or  others  be  found  without  either  meeting 
house,2  idling  or  playing  during  the  time  of  public  exercise  on  the  Lord's 
day,  it  is  ordered  that  the  constables  or  others  appointed  for  that  end  shall 
take  hold  of  them  and  bring  them  before  authority."  3  Within  the  meeting- 
house boys  were  also  under  watch.  Indeed,  the  Puritan  attitude  towards 
boys  generally  is  one  of  vast  suspicion.  They  were  in  the  eyes  of  the 
law  a  species  of  untamed  beings,  always  bound  for  mischief,  and  capable 
of  developing  into  good  citizens  only  through  a  most  restrictive  process. 
There  were  regular  officers,  the  tithing-men,  employed  to  act  as  special 
police  within  the  meeting-houses.  "  Sergeant  Johnson  and  Walter  Merry 
are  requested  to  take  the  oversight  of  the  boys  in  the  galleries,  and  in  case 
of  unruly  disorders  to  acquaint  the  Magistrates  therewith."4  "  Jno.  Dawes 
is  ordered  to  oversee  the  youth  at  the  new  meeting-house  that  they  behave 
themselves  reverently  in  the  time  of  divine  worship,  and  to  act  according  to 
his  instructions  therein."  5  The  boys  in  the  galleries  were  spectators  of  the 
services  that  went  on  under  their  eyes.  It  is  doubtful  if  they  were  regarded 
as  themselves  a  positive  part  of  the  worshipping  congregation ;  but  long 
before  they  came  to  their  freedom  they  must  have  become  familiar  with  the 
services  on  Sunday,  and  with  the  topics  discussed  from  the  pulpit.  At 
first  there  was  no  bell  to  call  people  together,  but  a  drum  was  beaten.  It 
is  probable  that  the  first  use  of  a  bell  was  at  the  hands  of  the  bellman 
going  about  the  town  as  the  hour  for  worship  drew  near.6  The  families 

1  4th  Nov.  1646.  Dexter,  in  his  Congregationalism  as  seen  in  its  Lit- 

2  There  were  two  at  this  time,  —  1656.  erature,  has  a  note,  p.  452,  on  the  devices  used  in 
8  Boston  Town  Records,  131.  calling  the  people  to  services  on  Sundays.     Ed- 

4  Ibid.,  March  27,  1643.  ward  Tyng,  who  lived  on  the  upper  corner  of 

5  Ibid.,  March  28,  1659.  State  Street  and  Merchants  Row  (which  was  then 
8  [See,   on    early  bells    in    Boston,    N.    E.     the  shore),  where  he  had  a  warehouse  and  brew- 

Hist.  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  April,  1874,  p.  180;  also,  house,  maintained  there  a  dial  as  early  as  1643. 
E.  H.  Goss's  Early  Bells  of  Massachusetts.  Dr.  Record  Commissioners%Second  Rept.,  p.  75.  —  ED.] 


BOSTON    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  513 

were  divided,  as  one  sometimes  now  sees  them  in  New  England  country 
villages, — the  men  on  one  side,  the  women  and  girls  on  the  other,  and  the 
boys,  who  made  a  third  class,  by  themselves,  with  the  tithing-man  to  super- 
vise them.  The  ruling  elders  had  a  seat  immediately  below  the  pulpit, 
facing  the  congregation.  They  were  raised  apparently  upon  a  platform ; 
and  in  front  of  them,  upon  a  lower  plane,  yet  still  often  above  the  people, 
sat  the  deacons  in  similar  position.  The  dignity  and  social  rank  of  the 
families  was  indicated  in  the  places  severally  assigned  to  them.  The  first 
service  was  at  about  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  pastor  began  with 
extemporaneous  prayer,  lasting  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  After  prayer, 
either  the  pastor  or  a  teaching  elder  read  a  chapter  in  the  Bible  and  ex- 
pounded it.  A  psalm  was  then  sung,  lined  out  by  one  of  the  ruling  elders. 
The  Psalms  were  something  of  a  stumbling-block  to  the  people.  The 
Psalter,  as  used  in  the  English  church,  was  adapted  to  chanting,  and  more- 
over the  associations  with  it  were  of  prelacy.  The  Puritans,  by  the  same 
instinct  which  led  them  to  reprehend  the  reading  of  the  Bible  without 
comment  as  savoring  of  idolatry  and  the  surrender  of  reason,  wished  to 
use  the  Psalms  in  a  metrical  version ;  and  in  the  early  years  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay  used  either  that  of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins,  or  that  made  by  Ains- 
worth,  of  Amsterdam.  The  Plymouth  people  used  the  latter,  Priscilla 
Mullins  among  them  :  — 

"  Open  wide  on  her  lap  lay  the  well-worn  psalm-book  of  Ainsworth, 
Printed  in  Amsterdam,  the  words  and  the  music  together." 

The  Bay  Psalm  Book  superseded  these  in  Boston  in  1640.  For  a  long  time 
a  very  small  number  of  tunes —  of  which  York,  Hackney,  Windsor,  St.  Mary's, 
and  Martyrs  were  the  chief —  were  in  use  by  congregations.1  Instrumental 
music  was  proscribed.  There  is  little  reference  to  the  singing  in  churches 
in  the  early  records,  and  the  darkness  is  made  more  dense  by  this  unex- 
plained passage  in  the  records  of  the  General  Court,  under  date  of  June  I, 
1641  :  "Mr.  Edward  Tomlins,  retracting  his  opinions  against  singing  in  the 
churches,  was  discharged."  There  is  nothing  to  enlighten  us  as  to  the  ground 
of  Mr.  Tomlins's  objections ;  he  may  have  murmured  against  the  quality  of 
the  music,  as  people  do  to-day  who  are  not  arrested ;  or  he  may  have  had 
painful  doubts  as  to  the  propriety  of  singing  at  all. 

After  the  singing  came  the  sermon,  which  was  the  piece  de  resistance. 
When  there  was  an  affluence  of  ministry,  one  expounded  the  Word  while 
another  preached.  The  sermon  was  rarely  written  out  in  those  days ;  it  was 
measured,  not  by  the  number  of  pages  upon  which  it  was  written,  but  by 
the  hour-glass  which  stood  at  the  preacher's  side.  The  minimum  or  regu- 
lation length  seems  to  have  been  an  hour,  but  Johnson  2  speaks  of  a  listener 
to  Mr.  Shepard,  of  Cambridge,  seeing  the  glass  turned  up  twice ;  and  on 
a  special  occasion,  —  the  planting  of  a  church  at  Woburn,  —  he  relates  that 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Syms  continued  in  preaching  and  prayer  about  the  space  of  four 

1  See  Coffin's  History  of  Newbury,  185,  186.         2   Wonder-working  Providence,  bk.  i.  ch.  xliiL 
VOL.   I.  —  65. 


514  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

or  five  hours.1  Following  the  sermon  was  a  prayer  by  the  teaching  elder2 
and  the  blessing.  Sometimes  another  psalm  also  was  sung  after  the 
sermon.  A  second  service,  substantially  the  same  in  character,  was  at  two 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

The  mode  of  dispensing  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  did  not 
materially  differ  from  that  still  in  use  in  Congregational  churches.  Baptism 
was  usually  administered  on  Sunday  in  church,  generally  the  Sunday  near- 
est the  birth  of  the  child.  Lechford,  who  is  the  authority  for  the  mode  of 
observances  at  this  time,  seems  to  imply  that  the  rite  was  generally  per- 
formed after  service  in  the  afternoon.  It  is  done,  he  adds,  "  by  either 
Pastor  or  Teacher,  in  the  Deacon's  seat,  the  most  eminent  place  in  the 
church,  next  under  the  Elder's  seat.  The  Pastor  most  commonly  makes  a 
speech  or  exhortation  to  the  church  and  Parents  concerning  Baptism,  and 
then  prayeth  before  and  after.  It  is  done  by  washing  or  sprinkling."  3  The 
same  writer  does  not  fail  to  describe  another  part  of  the  service  which  has 
always  been  conspicuous,  and,  because  of  its  secular  associations,  perhaps 
especially  interesting  to  the  boys  in  the  gallery,  —  "  which  ended,"  he  says, 
directly  after  his  description  of  baptism,  "  follows  the  contribution,  one  of 
the  Deacons  saying,  '  Brethren  of  the  congregation,  now  there  is  time  left 
for  contribution,  whereof  as  God  hath  prospered  you,  so  freely  offer.' 
Upon  some  extraordinary  occasions,  as  building  and  repairing  of  churches 
or  meeting-houses,  or  other  necessities,  the  ministers  press  a  liberal  con- 
tribution, with  effectual  exhortations  out  of  Scripture.  The  Magistrates 
and  chief  Gentlemen  first,  and  then  the  Elders,  and  all  the  congregation 
of  men  and  most  of  them  that  are  not  of  the  church,  all  single  persons, 
widows,  and  women  in  absence  of  their  husbands,  come  up  one  after  an- 
other one  way  and  bring  their  offerings  to  the  Deacon  at  his  seat,  and  put 
it  into  a  box  of  wood  for  the  purpose,  if  it  be  money  or  papers;  if  it  be 
any  other  chattel,  they  set  it  or  lay  it  down  before  the  Deacons,  and  so  pass 
another  way  to  their  seats  again.  This  contribution  is  of  money,  or  papers 
promising  so  much  money :  I  have  seen  a  fair  gilt  cup  with  a  cover  offered 
there  by  one,  which  is  still  used  at  the  communion.  Which  moneys  and 
goods  the  Deacons  dispose  towards  the  maintenance  of  the  Ministers,  and 
the  poor  of  the  church,  and  the  church's  occasions,  without  making  account 
ordinarily."  4  Josselyn  describes  the  scene  even  more  graphically :  "  On 
Sundays  in  the  afternoon,  when  sermon  is  ended,  the  people  in  the  galleries 
come  down  and  march  two  abreast  up  one  aisle  and  down  the  other  until 
they  come  before  the  desk,  for  pulpit  they  have  none ;  before  the  desk  is  a 
long  pew,  where  the  Elders  and  Deacons  sit,  one  of  them  with  a  money-box 
in  his  hand,  into  which  the  people  as  they  pass  put  their  offering,  —  some 

1  Ibid.  bk.  ii.,  ch.  xxii.    [Yonge,  Life  of  Hugh  distinction  of  elders  and  the  "practical  working 
Peters,  gives  a  caricature  of  that  preacher,  turn-  relation  between  the  elders  for  ruling  and  the 
ing  over  his  hour-glass,  saying,  "  I  know  you  are  brotherhood,"  see  Dexter,  Congregationalism  as 
good  fellows ;  stay  and  take  another  glass." — ED.]  seen  in  its  Literature,  p.  238. 

2  This  description  applies  to  a  church  com-  8  Lechford,  Plain  Dealing,  18. 
pletely  officered;  but  all  were  not  so.   Upon  the          4  Ibid.  18,  19. 


BOSTON    IN    THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  515 

a  shilling,  some  two  shillings,  half  a  crown,  five  shillings,  according  to  their 
ability  and  good  will ;  after  this  they  conclude  with  a  psalm."  1 

Inasmuch  as  church  membership  was  coincident  with  the  right  of  suf- 
frage, the  reception  into  the  church  was  invested  with  much  circumstance. 
Johnson  has  given  a  close  account  of  the  customary  proceedings :  — 

"  After  this  manner  the  person  desirous  to  join  with  the  church  cometh  to  the 
Pastor  and  makes  him  acquainted  therewith,  declaring  how  the  Lord  hath  been 
pleased  to  work  his  conversion ;  who  discerning  hopes  of  the  person's  faith  in  Christ, 
although  weak,  yet  if  any  appear,  he  is  propounded  to  the  church  in  general  for  their 
approbation  touching  his  godly  life  and  conversation,  and  then  by  the  Pastor  and 
some  brethren  heard  again,  who  make  report  to  the  church  of  their  charitable  approv- 
ing of  the  person.  But  before  they  come  to  join  with  the  church,  all  persons  within  the 
town  have  public  notice  of  it ;  then  publicly  he  declares  the  manner  of  his  conversion, 
and  how  the  Lord  hath  been  pleased,  by  the  hearing  of  his  Word  preached  and  the 
work  of  his  Spirit  in.  the  inward  parts  of  his  soul,  to  bring  him  out  of  that  natural 
darkness  which  all  men  are  by  nature  in  and  under,  as  also  the  measure  of  knowledge 
the  Lord  hath  been  pleased  to  indue  him  withal.  And  because  some  men  cannot  speak 
publicly  to  edification  through  bashfulness,  the  less  is  required  of  such ;  and  women 
speak  not  publicly  at  all." 2 

The  public  occasions  in  Boston  centred  about  the  church.  Besides  Sun- 
days, the  great  gatherings  were  at  lectures,  thanksgivings,  and  fasts,  attend- 
ance at  which  was  nearly  as  obligatory  as  on  Sunday  services.  Days  of  fasting 
were  not  annual  or  fixed,  but  appointed  from  time  to  time  by  the  General 
Court,  and  by  special  churches,  with  more  or  less  fulness  of  explanation  as 
to  their  occasion.  "  To  entreat  the  help  of  God,"  one  order  reads,  "  in  the 
weighty  matters  that  are  at  hand,  and  to  divert  any  evil  plot  which  may  be 
intended,  and  to  prepare  the  way  of  friends  which  we  hope  may  be  upon 
coming  to  us."  "  For  want  of  rain  and  help  of  brethren  in  distress,  .  .  .  for 
the  sad  condition  of  our  native  country,  ...  for  drought  and  sickness  at 
home  and  trouble  in  England,"  were  others.  Neither  was  Thanksgiving  then 
set  for  annual  observance  at  the  end  of  harvest.  June  13,  1632,  one  was 
ordered  for  "  God's  great  mercy  to  the  church  in  Germany  and  the  Palatin- 
ate; "  in  October,  1633,  "  for  a  bountiful  harvest  and  the  arrival  of  persons 
of  special  use  and  quality,"  -—  that  was  when  Cotton  and  Hooker  and  Haynes 
came  over;  Sept.  8,  1637,  "for  success  and  safe  return  of  the  Pequot  expe- 
dition, especially  the  success  of  the  conference  at  New  Town,  and  good 
news  from  Germany." 

The  Thursday  Lecture  is  an  old  Boston  institution  which  dates  from  this 
time.  "  Upon  the  week  days,"  writes  Lechford,  1638-41,  "there  are  Lec- 
tures in  divers  towns  and  in  Boston  upon  Thursdays,  when  Master  Cotton 
teacheth  out  of  the  Revelation."  8  The  rage  for  lecture-going  led  people  to 

1  Two  Voyages,  180.  Congregationalism  "  in  his  Congregationalism  as 

2  Wonder-working  Providence,  bk.  ii.  ch.  xxii.     seen  in  its  Literature.  —  ED.] 

[Bacon,  Historical  Discourses,  ch.   v.,  describes  8  Plain  Dealing,  19.    [Cf.  Dr.  Frothingham's 

early  ecclesiastical  forms  and  usages.     See  also     discourse  on  the  Second  Centennial  of  the  Thurs- 
Dr.  Dexter's  chapter  on  "  Early  New  England     day  Lecture,  1833,  and  Dr.  Waterston's  on  re- 


516  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

go  from  one  town  to  another  during  the  week,  until  the  matter  came  to  be  so 
serious  that  the  magistrates  were  at  first  disposed  to  interfere,1  but  the  elders 
advised  against  anything  that  looked  like  discouraging  the  people  from  going 
to  meetings.  The  Court  did,  however,  in  1633,  make  a  regulation  that  no  lec- 
ture should  begin  before  one  o'clock,  to  prevent  too  great  interference  with 
business,  but  the  law  was  repealed  in  1640.  There  is  a  single  reference  in 
Winthrop2  to  a  regular  Saturday  evening  service,  and  the  old  New  England 
custom  of  reckoning  Sunday  from  sunset  of  Saturday  to  sunset  of  Sunday, 
has  an  indefinite  origin.3 

The  excitement  of  meetings  and  lectures  stood  to  the  stricter  sort  as  a 
recreation  from  their  work.  They  were  by  the  hard  custom  of  their  own 
minds,  and  by  a  bitter  hostility  to  anything  that  looked  like  license,  per- 
petually endeavoring  to  put  down  all  amusements  in  the  population  outside 
of  their  small  compact  body.  They  boasted  that  none  of  the  holidays  of 
England  had  survived  the  passage  of  the  Atlantic ;  and,  as  Christmas  lifted 
its  head,  they  smote  at  it  with  a  law.  "  For  preventing  disorders,"  reads  the 
Record  of  General  Court,  May  u,  1659,  "arising  in  several  places  within 
this  jurisdiction  by  reason  of  some  still  observing  such  festivals  as  were 
superstitiously  kept  in  other  communities,  to  the  great  dishonor  of  God  and 
offense  of  others :  it  is  therefore  ordered  by  this  Court  and  the  authority 
thereof  that  whosoever  shall  be  found  observing  any  such  day  as  Christmas 
or  the  like,  either  by  forbearing  of  labor,  feasting,  or  any  other  way,  upon 
any  such  account  as  aforesaid,  every  such  person  so  offending  shall  pay  for 
every  such  offence  five  shillings  as  a  fine  to  the  county.  And  whereas  not  only 
at  such  times,  but  at  several  other  times  also,  it  is  a  custom  too  frequent  in 
many  places  to  expend  time  in  unlawful  games,  as  cards,  dice,  &c.,"  a  pen- 
alty is  imposed  for  that.  It  was  plainly  the  intent  of  the  Court  to  disgrace 
Christmas  by  associating  it  with  lawless  proceedings.4  Other  laws  against 
cards  and  dice  were  very  early  passed.  Bowling  about  inns  was  forbidden, 
and  so,  as  we  have  seen,  was  dancing  prohibited.  Football  was  not  forbidden 
except  in  streets,  lanes,  or  enclosures.5  This  regulation,  like  the  one  against 
fast  driving  in  the  streets  of  Boston,  which  the  General  Court  found  it  de- 
sirable to  pass  in  1662,  were  in  the  interest  especially  of  old  people  and 
young  children.  In  that  day  also  the  Common  appeared  on  the  lighter  side 
of  life.  Josselyn,  describing  the  town  as  it  was  between  1660  and  1670,  says : 
"  Their  streets  are  many  and  large,  paved  with  pebble  stone,  and  the  south 
side  adorned  with  Gardens  and  orchards.  The  Town  is  rich  and  very  popu- 
lous, much  frequented  by  strangers ;  here  is  the  dwelling  of  their  Gover- 

suming  it,  in  1844.     It  was  given  up  a  few  years  ing  to  evening,  he  wrote  arguments  before  his 

ago.  —  ED.]  coming  to  New  England  :   and  I  suppose  that 

1  See  Winthrop,  i.  324,  325.  't  was  from  his  reason  and   practice  that   the 

8  Ibid.  i.  109.  Christians  of  New  England  have  generally  done 

3  [Cf.    Savage's   Winthrop's  New  England,  so  too."  —  ED.] 

i.  130.      Cotton  Mather  says  of  John  Cotton:  *  [See  a  curious  instance  in  Bradford's   Ply- 

"The    Sabbath  he  began   the  evening   before;  mouth  Plantation,  p.  112. — ED.| 
for  which   keeping  of  the  Sabbath  from  even-          5  Boston  Town  Records,  141,  157. 


BOSTON    IN   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  517 

nor.  On  the  north-west  and  north-east  two  constant  Fairs  [ferries]  are 
kept  for  daily  Traffick  thereunto.  On  the  south  there  is  a  small  but 
pleasant  common  where  the  Gallants  a  little  before  sunset  walk  with  their 
marmalet  madams,  as  we  do  in  Morefields,  &c.,  till  the  nine  aclock  bell  rings 
them  home  to  their  respective  habitations,1  when  presently  the  Constables 
walk  their  rounds  to  see  good  orders  kept,  and  to  take  up  loose  people."  2 
The  first  positive  enactment  by  which  the  Common  became  a  fixed  tract  of 
land,  substantially  as  we  now  have  it,  was  in  March,  1640,  when  it  was  "  also 
agreed  upon  that  henceforth  there  shall  be  no  land  granted  either  for  house- 
plot  or  garden  to  any  person  out  of  the  open  ground  or  common  field  which 
is  left  between  the  Sentry  Hill  and  Mr.  Colbron's  end;  except  three  or  four 
lots  to  make  up  the  street  from  Bro.  Robert  Walker's  to  the  Round  Marsh."  3 
From  that  time  onward  there  were  frequent  votes  and  orders  in  town-meet- 
ing, all  looking  to  a  cleanly  and  orderly  use  of  the  Common.  It  was  used 
then,  as  now,  for  trainings ;  but  the  picture  which  Josselyn  draws  gives  a 
better  clew  to  the  unfailing  interest  which  the  people  have  always  taken  in 
the  Common. 

It  is  very  clear  that  in  the  judgment  of  the  law-makers  industry  and 
not  amusement  was  the  business  of  the  young.  Long  and  serious  orders 
appear  in  the  records  looking  towards  the  morals  of  young  people,  and 
safeguards  were  found  in  regular  employment  and  in  education ;  perhaps 
it  would  be  accurate  to  say  that  their  idea  of  education  included  work  as 
one  of  the  primary  methods  of  education.  The  state-and-church  refused 
to  delegate  this  instruction  to  families ;  it  conceived  it  to  be  a  part  of  its 
own  business  to  be  a  guardian  of  the  young,  whether  these  were  in  families 
or  not.  A  succession  of  orders,  extending  over  a  series  of  years,  will  best 
illustrate  this  attitude  of  the  government  toward  families  and  children.  On 
the  1 4th  of  June,  1642,  we  read :  — 

"  This  Court,  taking  into  consideration  the  great  neglect  of  many  parents  and 
masters  in  training  up  their  children  in  learning  and  labor  and  other  employments  which 
may  be  profitable  to  the  commonwealth,  do  hereupon  order  and  decree  that  in  every 
town  the  chosen  men  appointed  for  managing  the  prudential  affairs  of  the  same  shall 
henceforth  stand  charged  with  the  care  of  the  redress  of  this  evil,  so  as  they  shall  be 
sufficiently  punished  by  fines  for  the  neglect  thereof,  upon  presentation  of  the  grand 
jury,  or  other  information  or  complaint  in  any  court  within  this  jurisdiction  ;  and  for 
this  end  they  or  the  greater  number  of  them  shall  have  power  to  take  account  from 
time  to  time  of  all  parents  and  masters,  and  of  the  children,  concerning  the  calling 
and  employment  of  the  children,  especially  of  their  ability  to  read  and  understand  the 
principles  of  religion  and  the  capital  laws  of  this  country,  and  to  impose  fines  upon 

1  [The    nine-o'clock  bell   was   instituted   in  2  Josselyn's    Two   Voyages,    162.      [This   ac- 

1649,  and  it  remained  a  custom  of  the  town  till  count   is    also    largely    copied    by   Dunton,   in 

recent  times.     The   morning   bell   at  the  same  his  Letters.  —  ED.] 

time  was  rung  "  half  an   hour  after  four."     In  8  [See    Mr.    Winthrop's    and   Mr.    Bynner's 

1664,  an  eleven-o'clock  bell  was   ordered   "for  chapters  in  this  volume.      These  lots  will   be 

the  more  convenient  and  expeditious  despatch  distinctly   marked    in   the    plans   given   in   the 

of  merchants'  affairs."  —  ED.]  Introduction  to  vol.  ii.  —  ED.] 


518  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

such  as  shall  refuse  to  render  such  account  to  them  when  they  shall  be  required.  .  .  . 
They  are  to  take  care  of  such  as  are  set  to  keep  cattle,  that  they  be  set  to  some  other 
employment  withal  as  spinning  upon  the  rock,  knitting,  weaving  tape,  &c.,  and  that 
boys  and  girls  be  not  suffered  to  converse  together  so  as  may  occasion  any  wanton 
dishonor  or  immodest  behavior ;  and  for  the  better  performance  of  this  trust  commit- 
ted to  them,  they  may  divide  the  town  amongst  them,  appointing  to  every  of  the  said 
townsmen  a  certain  number  of  families  to  have  special  oversight  of.  They  are  also  to 
provide  that  a  sufficient  quantity  of  material  as  hemp,  flax,  &c..  may  be  raised  in  their 
several  towns,  and  tools  and  implements  provided  for  working  out  the  same." 

In  1646:  "  If  any  child  or  children  above  sixteen  years  old,  and  of  suf- 
ficient understanding,  shall  curse  or  smite  their  natural  father  or  mother,  he 
or  she  shall  be  put  to  death,  unless  the  parents  have  been  unchristianly 
negligent  or  provoking  by  extreme  and  cruel  correction."  An  incorrigible 
son  could  be  presented  by  his  parents  and  put  to  death,  but  the  law  re- 
mained, so  far  as  evidence  appears,  a  mere  brutumfulmen.  A  more  genial 
treatment  of  such  cases  is  suggested  by  the  order  of  August  22,  1654: 
"  Magistrates  have  authority  to  whip  divers  children  and  servants  who  be- 
have themselves  disrespectfully,  disobediently,  and  disorderly  toward  their 
parents,  masters,  and  governors."  The  selectmen  again  in  1668  are  "  re- 
quired to  see  that  all  children  and  youth  under  family  government  be 
taught  to  read  perfectly  the  English  tongue,  have  knowledge  in  the  capital 
laws,  and  be  taught  some  orthodox  catechism,  and  that  they  be  brought 
up  to  some  honest  employment." 

Marriage,  as  performed  in  Boston,  was  made  by  the  law  of  1646  an  act 
of  the  civil  magistrate,  "  or  such  other  as  the  General  Court,  or  Court  of 
Assistants,  shall  authorize  in  such  place  where  no  magistrate  is  near." 3 
Mr.  Savage  could  discover  no  "  record  of  a  marriage  performed  by  a 
clergyman  prior  to  1686,  except  in  Gorges'  Province,  by  a  clergyman  of 
the  Church  of  England."  2  The  minister,  if  he  were  present,  was  sometimes 
called  upon  to  "  improve  the  occasion."  The  old  English  custom  of 
announcing  the  banns  was  retained,  and  on  occasion  of  important  pro- 
spective marriages  the  minister  preached  a  sermon.  Trumbull,  in  his  notes 
to  Lechford's  Plain  Dealing,  instances  such  an  occasion  in  1640,  when 
the  minister  gave  a  practical  and  pointed  discourse  from  Ephesians,  vi. 
10,  11,  applying  the  text  "to  teach  us  that  the  state  of  marriage  is  a 
warfaring  condition."  3 

Finally,  when  the  Boston  man  of  the  colonial  period  came  to  be  buried, 
he  went  to  his  grave  with  all  the  uncircumstanced  solemnity  which  he  re- 
garded in  life.  He  had  stripped  life  of  its  decorations,  and  sought  the  solid 
uncompromising  reality ;  he  asked  for  nothing  else  at  death.  There  was  no 

1  Charter  and  General  Laivs  of  Massachusetts     of  marriage  took  place  ;  but  custom  forbade  a 
Bay,  p.  1 52.  sermon  at  the  espousals.     Dr.  Dexter  corrects 

2  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1858-60,  p.  283,  Mr.  Savage  in  his  confounding  these  two  ceie- 
8  [Preaching  was  allowed   at  the  solemnity     monies.  —  Congregationalism  as  seen  in  its  Lit- 

called  a  "  Contraction,"  a  little  before  the  rite     erature,  p.  458.  —  ED.] 


BOSTON    IN    THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


519 


necessity  to  advertise,  "  Friends  are  requested  not  to  send  flowers."  Lech- 
ford's  account  has  a  real  dignity  in  its  brief  statement :  "  At  Burials  nothing 
is  read,  nor  any  funeral  sermon  made ;  but  all  the  neighborhood,  or  a  good 
company  of  them,  come  together  by  tolling  of  the  bell,  and  carry  the  dead 
solemnly  to  his  grave,  and  there  stand  by  him  while  he  is  buried.  The 
ministers  are  most  commonly  present."  l 


REBECCA    RAWSON. 


1  Plain  Dealing,  39. 

3  [Notwithstanding  the  statement  of  the  text 
that  Savage  could  find  no  record  of  a  marriage 
by -a  clergyman  prior  to  1686,  the  accounts  of 
the  sad  romance  connected  with  the  name  of 
Rebecca  Rawson  fix  her  marriage,  July  i,  1679, 
"  by  a  minister  of  the  gospel,  in  the  presence  of 
near  forty  witnesses."  This  lady  was  the  daugh- 
ter of  Secretary  Rawson,  and  was  born  May  23, 
1656,  and  was  brought  up  with  care  in  the 
higher  social  circles  of  the  town  One  Thomas 
Rumsey,  who  came  to  Boston  under  the  pretence 


of  being  a  nephew  of  Lord  Chief-Justice  Hale, 
an.d  calling  himself  Sir  Thomas  Hale,  gained  her 
affections.  Being  married,  the  young  pair  went 
to  England.  Upon  landing,  the  scamp  man- 
aged to  secure  the  contents  of  her  trunks,  and 
escape.  It  was  ascertained  by  the  lady's  friends 
in  England  that  the  fellow  had  already  a  wife  in 
Canterbury.  Pride  kept  the  deserted  woman  in 
England  for  thirteen  years,  where,  declining  the 
assistance  of  her  friends,  she  supported  herself 
and  child  by  painting  on  glass,  and  by  the  exer- 
cise of  her  other  accomplishments.  At  length 


520 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 


We  began  this  chapter  with  a  reference  to  Governor  Winthrop's  death, 
for  it  is  of  Boston  at  that  time  that  we  have  especially  written.  We  may 
properly  close  with  his  funeral.  "  His  body,"  we  are  told,  "  was,  with  great 
solemnity  and  honor  buried  at  Boston,  in  New  England,  the  third  of 
April,  1649."  1  The  only  intimation  of  the  ceremony  above  the  ordinary 
silent  entombment  is  in  the  order  of  the  General  Court  sanctioning  the 
action  of  the  Surveyor  General,  who  lent,  on  his  own  responsibility,  a  barrel 
and  a  half  of  powder  to  the  artillery  company  to  expend  in  solemnizing  the 
funeral. 2 


she  took  passage  in  a  ship  belonging  to  an  uncle, 
to  return  to  Boston  ;  but  the  vessel,  making  the 
voyage  by  way  of  Jamaica,  was  swallowed  up  at 
Port  Royal,  with  passengers  and  crew,  in  the 
earthquake  of  June  9,  1692.  Rebecca  Rawson 
and  her  father,  the  Secretary,  figure  in  Whittier's 
Leaves  from  Margaret  Smith's  Journal.  See 
The  Rawson  Family,  by  Sullivan  S.  Rawson, 
Boston,  1849,  and  N.  £.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg. 
Oct.  1849.  —  ED.] 

1  Davis's  Morton,  p.  243. 


2  [See  Mr.  Winthrop's  chapter.  When,  in 
1670,  Deputy-Governor  Francis  Willoughby  died 
and  was  buried,  we  are  told  there  were  eleven 
full  companies  in  attendance,  and  that  "with 
the  doleful  noise  of  trumpets  and  drums,  in 
their  mourning  posture,  three  thundering  volleys 
of  shot  [were]  discharged,  answered  with  the 
loud  waring  of  the  great  guns,  rending  the 
heavens  with  noise  at  the  loss  of  so  great  a 
man."  —  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal,  Reg.,  xxx 
67-78.  —  ED.] 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

TOPOGRAPHY    AND    LANDMARKS    OF    THE    COLONIAL 

PERIOD. 

« 

BY   EDWIN   L.   BYNNER. 

NO  picture,  map,  or  satisfactory  account  of  the  ancient  peninsula  of 
Shawmut,  as  it  appeared  to  Winthrop  and  his  colonists,  has  been 
discovered ;  but  from  the  abundant  descriptions  of  later  times  there  needs 
no  great  effort  of  the  imagination  to  bring  it  clearly  to  mind. 

From  Captain  John  Smith  we  might  fairly  have  expected  a  chance  word 
of  description,  were  it  not  for  a  reasonable  doubt  as  to  whether  the  great 
navigator  ever  penetrated  our  inner  harbor,  or  otherwise  came  within  view 
of  the  peninsula.1  The  visit  of  Miles  Standish's  exploring  party,  sent  out 
from  Plymouth  in  1621,  was,  as  appears  in  an  earlier  chapter,2  scarcely  more 
fruitful  in  result.  The  man,  moreover,  of  all  others,  who  was  best  fitted 
to  speak  with  authority  upon  this  pre-colonial  period  has  left  us  nothing. 
William  Blaxton,  or  Blackstone,  the  first  white  settler  upon  the  peninsula, 
that  doughty  recluse  who  left  his  retreat  upon  the  sunny  slope  of  Beacon 
Hill,  as  he  boldly  avowed,  to  escape  from  the  intolerant  atmosphere  of 
"  the  Lords  Brethren,"  no  doubt  left  much  interesting  matter  touching  his 
own  history  and  his  wilderness  home  among  the  papers  which  were  de- 
stroyed by  the  burnings  and  ravagings  of  Philip's  war. 

Failing  all  these  sources  of  information,  it  is  curious  that  we  are  left  to 
the  early  impressions  of  "  a  romping  girl "  for  our  first  description  of  the 
peninsula  as  it  looked  in  its  virgin  wildness,  which,  although  but  an  old 
lady's  recollection  of  the  scenes  of  her  youth,  recorded  after  the  lapse  of 
almost  a  century,  is  too  graphic  to  be  forgotten.  Anne  Pollard,3  the 
impulsive  young  woman  who  was  the  foremost  to  leap  ashore  from  the  first 
boat-load  of  colonists  as  they  passed  over  from  Charlestown  and  touched 
at  the  North  End,  has  described  her  girlish  impression  as  of  a  place  "  very 
uneven,  abounding  in  small  hollows  and  swamps,  covered  with  blueberries 
and  other  bushes." 

1  [The  question  of  Smith's  entrance  into  the  8  She  lived  to  the  extraordinary  age  of  one 
harbor  is  examined  in  Mr.  Winsor's  chapter  on     hundred  and  five  years;  her  portrait,  taken  just 
"The  Cartography  of  Massachusetts  Bay." — ED.]     before  she  died  (in  1725),  is  preserved  in  the  gal- 

2  [By  Mr.  C.  F.  Adams,  Jr.  —  ED.]  lery  of  the  Historical  Society. 
VOL.  I.  —  66. 


522  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

This  has  a  characteristic  New  England  flavor,  and  is  undoubtedly  true 
to  life  so  far  as  it  goes ;  but,  topographically,  the  peninsula  in  those  days 
must  have  had  other  and  more  prominent  features  to  distinguish  it  from 
the  surrounding  country  or  the  islands  in  the  harbor,  of  which,  but  for  the 
interposition  of  human  hands,  it  would  doubtless  long  since  have  swelled 
the  number. 

Flung  boldly  out  from  the  mainland,  like  a  restraining  arm  to  hold 
back  the  too  eager  rushing  of  the  rivers  Charles  and  Mystic  to  the  sea,  it 
formed  an  admirable  natural  barrier,  and  commanded  the  entrance  to  the 
rich  and  smiling  country  beyond.  With  no  more  symmetry  of  form  than 
a  splash  of  molten  lead  dropped  into  the  cooling  waters,  it  must  neverthe- 
less have  presented  —  with  its  lofty  hills,  with  its  deep  coves  and  smaller 
inlets,  with  its  bristling  headlands  and  its  bold  unwooded  outline  —  striking 
and  picturesque  features  to  the  eye. 

But  we  are  not  left  long  to  imagination  or  surmise.  The  first  visitor 
to  the  new  colony  who  has  given  us  a  record  of  his  impressions  was 
William  Wood,  an  intelligent  young  Englishman,  who  came  over  before 
1630,  and  was  in  Boston  so  shortly  after  the  settlement  of  the  town 
that  little  or  no  change  could  have  taken  place  in  its  general  features. 
"  Boston,"  he  says,  "  is  two  miles  North-east  from  Roxberry  :  His  situation 
is  very  pleasant,  being  a  Peninsula,  hem'd  in  on  the  South-side  with  the 
Bay  of  Roxberry,  on  the  North-side  with  Charles-river,  the  Marshes  on  the 
backe-side,  being  not  halfe  a  quarter  of  a  mile  over;  so  that  a  little  fencing 
will  secure  their  cattle  from  the  Woolues.  Their  greatest  wants  be  Wood 
and  Medow-ground  which  never  were  in  that  place ;  being  constrayned  to 
fetch  their  building  timber  and  fire-wood  from  the  Hands  in  Boates,  and 
their  Hay  in  Loyters.  It  being  a  Necke  and  bare  of  wood,  they  are  not 
troubled  with  three  great  annoyances  of  Woolves,  Rattlesnakes,  and 
Musketoes." 1 

In  a  note  upon  this  passage  Shaw  disputes  the  statement  that  there 
never  was  any  wood  upon  the  peninsula,  and  asserts  —  upon  what  authority 
does  not  appear — that  it  had  been  cleared  by  the  Indians  for  planting  corn. 
He  adds:  "There  were,  however,  many  large  clumps  left,  sufficient  for  fuel 
and  timber.  The  growth  was  probably  similar  to  that  of  the  islands." 
There  was  undoubtedly  some  wood  growing  upon  the  Neck  proper,  for  we 
find  several  entries  relating  to  it  in  the  early  records ;  but  that  there  never 
was  a  great  deal,  and  by  no  means  "  sufficient  for  fuel  and  timber,"  is 
evident  from  a  passage  in  one  of  Winthrop's  letters  to  his  son  in  1637: 
"  We  at  Boston  were  almost  ready  to  brake  up  for  want  of  wood." 

The  natural  advantages  of  its  position  would  seem  to  have  been  reason 
enough  for  the  selection  of  the  peninsula  for  a  settlement;  but  Roger  Clap, 
who  came  over  shortly  before  Winthrop,  and  was  present  at  the  latter's 
arrival,  intimates  in  his  Memoirs  that  the  spot  was  chosen  because  it  was 
already  cleared.  "  Governor  Winthrop,"  he  says,  "  purposed  to  set  down 

1  Wood,  New  England's  Prospect.     Cf.  Lechford's  Plaine  Dealing,  p.  in. 


TOPOGRAPHY,    ETC.,   OF   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  523 

his  Station  about  Cambridge  or  somewhere  on  the  river;  but  viewing  the 
place  liked  that  PLAIN  neck  which  was  called  then  Blackstone's  Neck''' 

Most  of  the  early  writers,  however,  attribute  the  choice  to  the  abundance 
of  good  water  on  the  peninsula,  and  the  want  of  it  at  Charlestown;  and 
Prince,  following  the  Charlestown  Records,  describes  Mr.  Blackstone  coming 
over  and  informing  "  the  Governor  of  an  excellent  spring  there,  withall 
inviting  and  soliciting  him  thither.  [Upon  which  it  seems  that  Mr.  Johnson, 
with  several  others,  soon  remove  and  begin  to  settle  on  that  side  of  the 
river.]  "  *  Dr.  Snow  adds  plausibility  to  this  theory  by  giving  as  the  mean- 
ing of  the  Indian  name  Shawmut,  —  "  living  fountains,"  which  etymology, 
be  it  said,  is  disputed  by  excellent  authorities.2 

Before  proceeding  to  record  the  rapid  changes  which  took  place  in  the 
outward  aspect  of  the  peninsula,  and  of  the  infant  town  that  lay  nestled 
among  its  hills,  it  may  be  well  to  review  its  physical  characteristics,  by 
which  the  better  to  note  the  effect  of  those  vast  modifications  which  in  the 
course  of  years  have  changed  it  almost  beyond  recognition. 

And  first,  of  its  position  with  regard  to  the  surrounding  country,  we 
have  two  early  pictures,  which  can  hardly  be  improved.  In  his  Two  Voy- 
ages? Josselyn  says :  — 

"  On  the  North-side  of  Boston  flows  Charles-River,  which  is  about  six  fathom 
deep.  Many  small  Islands  lye  to  the  Bayward,  and  hills  on  either  side  the  River ; 
a  very  good  harbour,  here  may  forty  Ships  ride  ;  the  passage  from  Boston  to  Charles- 
town  is  by  a  Ferry,  worth  forty  or  fifty  pounds  a  year,  and  is  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
over." 

Equally  graphic  is  the  description  of  the  harbor  given  in  the  New  Eng- 
land's Prospect,  which  still  remains  good  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  two 
centuries  and  a  half:  — 

"This  Harbour  is  made  by  a  great  company  of  Hands,  whose  high  Cliffes  shoulder 
out  the  boistrous  Seas,  yet  may  easily  deceiue  any  unskilfull  Pilote,  presenting  many 
faire  openings  and  broad  sounds  which  afford  too  shallow  water  for  any  Ships,  though 
navigable  for  Boates  and  small  Pinnaces. 

"  It  is  a  safe  and  pleasant  Harbour  within,  having  but  one  common  and  safe 

1  The  "excellent  spring"  referred  to  was  soon  to  be  mentioned.  [Shurtleff,  Desc.  of  Bos- 
doubtless  the  "great  spring"  in  Spring  Lane,  ton,  ch.  xxix.,  gives  an  account  of  the  springs 
near  which  Governor  Winthrop  built  his  house,  originally  found  in  the  peninsula.  They  are 
It  is  the  best  known  and  oftenest  mentioned  of  marked  by  a  blue  cross  in  the  map  in  this  vol- 
all  the  original  fountains.  It  was  long  ago  filled  ume.  See  Wheildon,  Sentry  or  Beacon  Hill,  ch. 
up  and  a  pump  placed  in  its  stead,  which  was  xi.,  on  "  Beacon  Hill  Springs."  There  seems  to 
standing  within  the  memory  of  people  still  living,  have  been  a  spring  or  other  source  of  water  sup- 
It  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  waters  of  this  ply  on  Cotton  Hill  (Pemberton  Hill),  as  will 
same  spring  that  bubbled  up  when  they  were  appear  from  a  vote  of  the  town  later  quoted  in 
making  excavations  for  the  new  Post  Office  in  the  text.  —  ED.] 

1869,  in  which  building  the  water  is  still  used.  2  [Cf.  Dr.  Trumbull's  comments  in  his  chap- 
Another  noted  spring  was  in  Louisburg  Square,  ter  of  the  present  volume.  —  ED.] 
by  some  thought  to  have  been  Blackstone's  own,  8  [Besides   being    reprinted   separately,  this 
and  still  another  where  the  Howard  Athenaeum  necessary    authority    on    early    Boston    is    re- 
no  w  stands, —  all  these  besides  the  Town  Pump,  printed  in  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  iji.  —  ED.] 


524  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

entrance,  and  that  not  very  broad ;  there  scarce  being  roome  for  three  Ships  to 
come  in  board-and-board  at  a  time,  but  being  once  within  there  is  roome  for  the 
Anchorage  of  500  Ships." 1 

Of  the  general  shape  and  size  of  the  peninsula  we  have  conflicting 
accounts.  Wood  calls  it  "  in  form  almost  square,"  while  Johnson  says 
"the  forme  of  this  Town  is  like  a  heart,"  —  comparisons  which,  as  we  shall 
see,  were  both  rather  fanciful  and  wide  of  the  mark.  As  to  its  dimensions, 
the  most  reliable  estimates  fix  its  original  area  in  1630  at  somewhat  less 
than  one  thousand,  and  probably  about  seven  hundred,  acres,  —  an  area  now 
very  much  increased  by  the  encroachments  upon  the  sea,  made  mostly 
during  the  present  century. 

Chief  among  the  natural  features  of  "  that  plain  neck  "  which  Governor 
Winthrop  so  wisely  chose,  were  its  hills  and  coves.  And  of  these  it  may 
be  said  the  coves  of  Boston  have  swallowed  up  its  hills,  and  this  by  the 
law  of  natural  growth  and  necessity;  and  however  much  the  latter  may 
once  have  added  to  the  beauty  and  picturesqueness  of  the  town,  we  can 
scarcely  regret  their  loss  when  we  consider  how  much  they  have  con- 
tributed to  its  material  splendor  and  prosperity.  The  hills  were  named  at 
first  from  convenience  or  association. 

"  The  building  of  the  Fort,"  says  Wheildon,  in  his  admirable  monograph  upon 
Beacon  Hill,2  "  furnished  a  name  for  one  of  them,  the  Windmill  for  a  time  the  name 
for  another,  and  the  central  hill,  with  its  three  little  hills,  received  the  name  of  Tra- 
mount,  which  it  retained  until  it  was  used  as  a  look-out,  —  a  place  of  observation  and 
watching,  —  when  it  was  called  Sentry  Hill.  After  the  erection  of  the  beacon  in  1635 
it  received  the  name  of  Beacon  Hill,  and  lost  the  name  of  Tra-mount,  or  Tremount, 
which  it  had  conferred  upon  the  town.  So  that  we  have  had  for  this  hill  the  names 
of  Sentry,  Tra-mount,  and  Beacon ;  and  for  the  settlement  those  of  Shawmut,  Tra- 
mountaine,  and  Boston." 

While  Copp's  and  Fort  Hills  were  single  elevations  of  land  standing 
apart,  Beacon  Hill  embraced  the  high  ridge  of  land  which  extended  through 
the  centre  of  the  peninsula,  from  the  head  of  Hanover  Street  south-west  to 
the  River  Charles.  "  It  was  conspicuous,"  says  Wheildon,  "  by  its  height 
and  commanding  prospect,  and  was  made  more  so  by  its  three  peculiar 
summits,  all  of  which  —  whatever  regrets  there  may  be  concerning  them  — 
have  been  made  so  available  in  the  enlargement  and  improvement  of 
the  city." 

1  [Wood's  idea  of  the  configuration  of  the  in  Young's  Chronicles  of  Mass.,  p.  389,  and  in 
harbor  and  the  adjacent  coasts  is  seen  in  the  cu-  Palfrey's  New  England,  i.  360.  It  was  also  re- 
rious  map  which  appeared  in  his  New  England's  produced  in  fac-simile  by  William  B.  Fowle  in 
Prospect,  with  the  title  :  The  South  part  of  New  1846.  Frothingham,  in  his  History  of  Charles- 
England  as  it  is  Planted  this  ycare,  1634.  It  is  the  town,  p.  63,  gives  a  section  showing  Boston 
oldest  map  known  giving  any,  however  inexact,  Harbor.  —  ED.] 

detail  of  the  geography  of  the  vicinity  of  Boston.  '2  [Sentry  or  Beacon  Hill,  by  WT.  W.  Wheil- 

A  portion  of  this  map  is  given  herewith,  in  fac-  don,  Boston,  1877,  —  published  under   the  aus- 

simile,  from  a  copy  of  the  book  owned  by  Mr.  pices  of  the  Bunker-Hill  Monument  Association. 

Charles  Deane.     It  has  been  given  in  fac-simile  —  ED.] 


TOPOGRAPHY,    ETC.,   OF   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  525 

Of  these  three  "  little  rising  hills  "  the  easternmost  was  called  Cotton 
Hill,  from  the  Rev.  John  Cotton,  who  once  lived  upon  its  slope,  —  a  name 
which  we  may  be  pardoned  for  regretting  was  afterwards  changed  to 
Pemberton.  Its  ancient  summit,  which  is  fixed  by  Drake  at  the  southerly 
termination  of  Pemberton  Square,  rose  eighty  feet  above  the  pavement  of 
to-day.  Beacon  Hill,  the  middle  peak,  which  has  been  aptly  likened  to  a 
sugar-loaf,  and  once  soared  to  a  similar  height  above  its  present  level,  or 
about  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  feet  above  the  sea,  was  formerly  flat 
upon  the  top  "  for  the  space  of  six  rods  at  least."  This  plainly  appears 
upon  our  earliest  known  plan  of  the  town,  published  by  Bonner  in  1722, 
a  section  of  which  is  given  herewith. 

The  third  or  westernmost  peak  was  called  at  different  times  West  Hill, 
Copley's  Hill,  Mount  Vernon,  and  other  names  less  generally  known.  This 
hill,  although  wisely  chosen  by  Blackstone  for  his  residence,  seems  afterwards 
to  have  been  of  less  interest  and  importance  than  the  others.  It  was 
occupied  by  the  British  in  1775,  and  has,  in  the  march  of  events,  been  dug 
down  and  thrown  into  Charles  River  to  extend  the  city  in  that  direction. 


The  Tramount  has  been  compared,  not  inaptly,  to  the  head  and  shoulders 
of  a  man ;  and  this  left  shoulder,  as  we  face  the  north,  is  said  to  have  risen 
to  its  highest  point  somewhere  between  Mount  Vernon  and  Pinckney 
streets ;  and  we  are  told  that  "  on  the  top  directly  opposite  Charles  Street 
meeting-house  there  was  a  boiling  spring  open  in  three  places,  at  a  height 
of  not  less  than  eighty  feet  above  the  water." 

Of  Copp's  Hill  and  the  many  associations  clustering  about  it  we  have 
abundant  records.  Less  high  than  Beacon  Hill,  less  regular  in  shape  than 
Fort  Hill,  it  had  an  equal  value  in  the  general  outline  and  configuration  of 
the  town.  Rising  precipitously  from  the  water  on  the  north-east  to  a  height 
of  fifty  feet,  it  swept  away  in  a  long  gentle  slope  toward  the  south  and  west, 
leaving  its  summit  almost  level.  Here  was  set  up  the  first  windmill  used 
in  the  colony,  which  "  was  brought  down  from  Watertown  in  August,  1632, 
because  it  would  not  grind  there  except  with  a  westerly  wind ;  "  hence  the 

1  [This  is  the  outline  of  the  three  summits  from  old  descriptions.     Between  the  two  east- 

of  the  central  ridge  of  the  peninsula  as  given  by  erly  summits,  intersected  or  bounded  by  Somer- 

Snow,  the  point  of  view  being  the  Charlestown  set  and  Bulfinch  streets,  was  a  tract  called"  Valley 

peninsula.     History  of  Boston,  pp.  46,  112.     He  Acre,"  which  stretched  down  the  hill  towards 

calls  it  as  "exact  a  representation  as  we  have  Howard  Street.     Cf.  W.  H.  Whitmore  in  Sewall 

been  able  to  obtain,"  but  it  is  probably  drawn  Papers,  i.  63.  —  ED.] 


526 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


ground  obtained  the  name  of  Windmill  Hill.1  It  is  said  also  to  have  been 
called  Snow  Hill  before  it  received  its  present  name  of  Copp's  Hill.  Of 
William  Copp,  from  whom  its  name  came,  we  read  that  he  was  a  worthy 


SECTION  OF  BONNER'S  MAP, 


1  [The  second  windmill  was  erected  the  next 
year  (1633)  in  Roxbury,  by  Richard  Dummer, 
on  Stoney  Brook,  where  a  dam  existed  till  within 
a  few  years,  not  far  from  the   Roxbury  Station, 
on  the  Providence  Railroad ;  or  it  is  possible  a 
mill  erected  this  same  year  at  Neponset  was  the 
second  within  the  present  municipal  limits. — 
ED.] 

2  [In  Burgiss's  map,  made  a  few  years  later, 


in  1728,  and  reproduced  in  full  in  Shurtleff's 
Desc.  of  Boston,  the  hill  is  given  a  rounder 
outline.  The  late  Dr.  Nathaniel  Bowditch,  who 
remembered  the  hill  before  it  was  cut  down, 
spoke  of  it  as  of  "a  very  peculiar  conical  shape, 
...  a  grassy  hemisphere,"  so  steep  that  the  boys 
could  with  difficulty  mount  the  perfectly  regular 
curve  of  its  side.  Accounts  of  its  cutting  down 
will  be  given  in  a  later  volume.  —  ED.] 


TOPOGRAPHY,  ETC.,  OF  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD. 


527 


THE   SUMMIT   OF   BEACON   HILL.1 


1  [This  cut  shows,  in  the  dotted  line,  the 
bounds  of  the  original  reservation  of  six  rods 
square  made  by  the  town  on  its  summit,  the  bea- 
con occupying  the  portion  later  held  by  the  monu- 
ment. Mr.  N.  I.  Bowditch  traced  the  first  grant 
of  land  about  this  reservation  in  his  "  Gleaner  " 
articles,  published  in  the  Boston  Evening  Tran- 
script, in  1855,  and  is  quoted  in  Wheildon,  p. 
90,  and  in  Sumner's  East  Boston,  p.  194.  Robert 
Turner,  a  shoemaker,  who  is  found  in  the 
colony  as  early  as  1637,  seems  to  have  grad- 
ually extended  his  pasture  up  the  slopes  of  the 
hill,  so  that  he  owned  eight  acres  near  the  sum- 
mit at  his  death,  his  land  stretching  westerly 


nearly  to  Hancock  Street.  The  oldest  deed 
from  the  town  to  him  bears  date  1670.  His 
son  John  sold  to  Samuel  Shrimpton,  in  1673, 
a  gore  of  what  is  now  the  State-House  lot, 
bounded  east  on  the  way  leading  from  the 
Training-field  (Common)  to  the  Sentry  Hill ; 
and  this  way,  then  thirty  feet  wide,  makes 
the  beginning  of  that  part  of  the  present 
Mount  Vernon  Street,  which  on  the  modern 
maps  bends  at  a  right  angle  and  joins  Beacon 
Street.  John  Turner  dying  in  1681,  his  exec- 
utors sold  his  land  to  the  same  Shrimpton, 
who  thus  acquired  "all  Beacon  Hill."  See 
Introduction  to  Vol.  II.  —  ED.] 


528 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


shoemaker,  and  an  elder  in  Dr.  Mather's  church.  His  title  to  the  neigh- 
boring lot  is  sufficiently  shown  in  the  following  extract  from  the  town- 
records  :  — 

"  The  possessions  of  William  Copp  within  the  limits  of  Boston  :  One  house  and 
lott  of  halfe  an  acre  in  the  Mill-field,  bounded  with  Thomas  Buttolph  south-east :  John 
Button  north-east :  a  marsh  on  the  south-west :  and  the  river  on  the  north-west."  1 

The  third  and  last  hill,  of  which  no  trace  is  now  left,  once  formed, 
to  the  stranger  sailing  up  the  harbor,  perhaps  the  most  prominent  feature 
of  the  town ;  placed  as  it  was  in  the  very  foreground,  near  the  shore,  and 
rising  to  a  height  of  eighty  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  First  called 
Corn  Hill  from  having  been  one  of  the  early  planting  grounds  of  the  col- 
onists, it  afterwards  received  the  name  of  Fort  Hill  from  the  defensive 
works  built  upon  it  about  May  24,  1632.  Like  Copp's  Hill  it  was  rough 
and  steep  on  its  northerly  and  easterly  sides,  but  declined  in  an  easy  slope 
towards  the  south  and  west.  The  approaches  to  it  are  shown  on  the  map  in 
this  volume. 


WEST   HILL   FROM    BEACON    HILL,    1775. 


Besides  these  there  was  formerly  a  small  hill  in  the  marshes  at  the  bottom 
of  the  Common,  of  which  we  find  frequent  mention  in  the  early  records 
under  the  name  of  Fox  Hill,  which,  however,  like  its  loftier  brethren,  long 
ago  fell  an  inevitable  prey  to  the  ravenous  maw  of  the  sea,  and  was  dug 
down  and  flung  into  the  marsh.3 


1  [This  puts  his  lot  just  south-east  of  where 
Charles-River  bridge  bends   into   Charlestown 
Street.     See  the  note  on  Copp's  family  in  Sewall 
Papers,  ii.  408.  —  ED.] 

2  [This  cut  follows  a  sketch  made  by  Lieu- 
tenant Williams,  of  the  Royal  Welsh  Fusiliers, 
during  the  siege  of  Boston,  —  a  date  nearly  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  indeed  after  the  settle- 
ment ;  but  during  that  interval  probably  nothing 
had  been  done  by  man  to  change  the  outline  of 
the  eminence.   Beyond  is  seen  the  Back  Bay  and 


the  mouth  of  the  Charles.  The  scarped  char- 
acter of  the  northern  side  of  the  hill  is  shown 
distinctly.  Towards  the  water  it  sloped  sharply 
to  a  bluff,  at  the  foot  of  which  among  boulders 
the  waves  washed,  even  within  the  memory  of 
a  generation  but  just  gone.  —  ED.) 

8  [Leonard  Buttall  burned  lime  upon  it  in 
the  early  days,  and  in  1649  Thomas  Painter 
was  allowed  "  to  erect  a  milne "  there.  Rec- 
ord Commissioners'  Second  Report,  56,  59,  66, 
97.  — ED.] 


TOPOGRAPHY,    ETC.,   OF   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  529 

Only  inferior  in  topographical  value  to  its  hills  were  the  coves  of  Boston. 
These  deep  inlets,  worn  by  the  sea  wherever  the  yielding  nature  of  the  soil 
permitted,  were,  in  1630,  fast  changing  the  character  of  the  place;  and  as  the 
waves  at  high  tide  poured  over  the  lowlands  lying  between  Copp's  Hill  and 
the  Tramount,  and  washed  to  a  thinner  and  thinner  thread  its  frail  hold 
upon  the  continent,  the  peninsula  already  began  to  take  on  the  semblance 
of  two  islands.1  At  this  point  man  steps  in  to  arrest  the  progress  of  natural 
forces ;  modern  enterprise  has  achieved  what  the  vain  words  of  the  old 
Danish  king  were  impotent  to  effect.  The  course  of  the  sea  has  not  only 
been  stayed,  but  turned  back  upon  itself;  and  with  immense  effect.  Noth- 
ing has  so  changed  the  outward  aspect  of  Boston  as  filling  up  its  coves ;  no 
longer  like  two  islands,  no  longer  like  a  peninsula,  Boston  appears  to-day 
firmly  welded  to  the  main  land  as  part  and  parcel  of  the  continent. 

Of  these  coves  the  most  easterly,  and  from  its  position  the  most  impor- 
tant, was  the  Town  Cove ;  stretching  from  a  point  near  the  base  of  Copp's 
Hill  on  the  north  to  Fort  Hill  on  the  south,  it  swept  inward  almost  to  the 
foot  of  Brattle  Street.  The  shape  of  this  inward  sweep,  which  was  first 
known  as  Bendall's  Dock,  and  then  as  Town  Dock,  is  shown  in  the  map 
in  the  present  volume. 

The  North  Cove  or  Mill  Pond,  as  it  was  afterwards  called,  once  covered 
a  large  part  of  the  area  enclosed  between  Copp's  and  the  point  of  upland 
that  extended  north-west  from  Beacon  Hill,  and  is  now  one  of  the  most 
busy  and  thriving  districts  of  the  North  End.  Divided  from  the  sea  on  the 
north-west  by  a  narrow  causeway,  —  said  to  have  been  first  used  by  the  In- 
dians as  a  pathway  across  the  marsh,  —  the  course  of  which  may  in  part  still 
be  traced  in  the  general  direction  of  Causeway  Street,  its  southerly  margin 
ran  some  distance  inside  of  Merrimac  Street ;  on  the  west  it  followed  a  little 
outside  the  line  of  the  lower  part  of  Leverett  Street,  and  on  the  east  it  swept 
somewhat  beyond  the  line  of  Salem  and  Prince  streets.  When  the  Second 
Baptist  Church  was  located  in  Baldwin  Place,  it  stood  in  part  over  the  water, 
and  candidates  for  baptism  are  said  to  have  been  immersed  at  the  rear  of 
the  church.  "  The  station  house  of  the  Boston  and  Maine  Railway,"  says 
Drake,  "  stands  in  the  midst  of  this  Mill  Pond ;  while  the  Lowell,  Eastern, 
and  Fitchburg  occupy  sites  beyond  the  causeway  rescued  from  the  sea." 
Altogether  the  cove  occupied  an  area  a  little  larger  than  the  Common. 

The  third  or  South  Cove,  which,  starting  from  Windmill  Point  very 
nearly  at  the  junction  of  Federal,  Cove,  and  East  streets,  swept  away  towards 
the  South-Boston  bridge  and  washed  the  eastern  sands  of  the  Neck,  was 
of  less  interest  and  importance  than  the  others,  and  has  been  more  slowly 
filled  up. 

Besides  these  large  coves,  there  were  numerous  smaller  inlets  or  creeks 
that  added  greatly  to  the  broken  and  ragged  appearance  which  the  shore- 

1  [It  may  be  inferred  from  an  order  in  the  that  so  late  as  1644  it  was  thought  to  be  easier 
Town  Records,  granting  permission  to  Nathaniel  to  keep  a  channel  for  the  water  which  some- 
Woodward  to  lay  "a  water  channell  of  timber  times  washed  over  the  Neck,  than  to  dyke  it 
in  one  of  the  causewayes  towards  Rocksbury,"  out.  —  ED.] 
VOL.  I.  —  67. 


530  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

line  originally  presented.  One  large  creek  wound  inward  from  Liberty 
Square  along  Water  Street  nearly  to  the  Spring-gate.  A  branch  extended 
across  Congress  Street  and  beyond  Franklin.  An  aged  inhabitant,  quoted 
by  Shaw,  had  seen  a  canoe  sail  at  different  times  over  the  spot  which  now 
makes  the  corner  of  Congress  and  Water  streets,  while  the  same  witness 
"  remembers  having  heard  Dr.  Chauncy  say  that  he  had  taken  smelts  "  at 
the  head  of  the  other  creek  in  Federal  Street. 

These  various  inlets  left,  of  course,  corresponding  headlands,  several  of 
which  received  names  and  were  known  as  landmarks.  We  read  of  Blaxton's 
(or  Blackstone's)  Point  at  the  West  End,  situated  near  West  Cedar  Street, 
between  Pinckney  and  Mount  Vernon,  said  to  have  been  near  the  residence 
and  not  far  from  the  famous  spring  of  William  Blackstone ;  Barton's  Point 
on  the  north-west,  near  Craigie  Bridge,  named  from  James  Barton,  a  well- 
known  rope-maker  in  his  time,  whose  name  is  preserved  in  Barton  Street; 
Hudson's  Point,  where  Winthrop  landed,  and  where  Anne  Pollard  leaped 
ashore,  situated  at  the  extreme  north-east  end  and  named  for  Francis  Hud- 
son, the  Charlestown  ferryman,  but  originally  called  "  Ye  Mylne  Point "  in 
the  grant  of  the  Ferry  to  Thomas  Marshall  in  1635  ;  Merry's  Point,  near  the 
Winnisimmet  ferry,  named  for  Walter  Merry,  a  neighboring  shipwright; 
Fort  Point,  near  Fort  Hill,  or  the  present  Rowe's  Wharf,  and  Windmill 
Point,  before  mentioned.1 

Not  less  important  than  all  these  coves  and  hills  and  headlands  was 
that  long  narrow  strip  of  land  properly  called  "  The  Neck,"  which,  begin- 
ning to  narrow  just  south  of  Eliot  Street,  stretched  away  like  a  ribbon 
of  varying  width  to  the  main  land.  Vastly  different,  however,  to  its  present 
aspect  was  its  condition  in  those  early  days  when  the  road  which  trav- 
ersed it  was  well-nigh  impassable  in  the  spring,  when  the  horses  waded 
knee-deep  in  water  at  full  tides,  when  the  only  timber  upon  the  whole 
peninsula  grew  upon  the  Neck,  and  the  marshes  on  either  hand  were 
the  favorite  hunting-ground  of  the  sportsman. 

With  such  great  unevenness  of  surface,  with  a  coast  line  so  abounding 
in  irregularities,  with  a  territory  so  narrow  and  circumscribed,  it  must  be 
confessed  that  Boston  in  1630  presented  to  the  statesman  founding  a 
colony  destined  in  time  to  extend  its  influence  over  a  continent,  or  even 
to  the  weary  band  of  emigrants  seeking  a  refuge  and  a  home,  a  place 
which  to  our  modern  eyes  seems  rich  chiefly  in  possibilities. 

Although  Blackstone  judiciously  built  his  little  cabin  upon  the  westerly 
declivity  of  Beacon  Hill,  Winthrop  and  his  associates  pitched  their  tem- 
porary tents,  and  afterwards  built  their  log-huts  and  houses,  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  peninsula  around  what  was  called  afterwards  the  Town  Cove. 
"  It  is  difficult,"  says  Shaw,  "  to  assign  a  reason  for  this,  but  the  first 
paragraph  in  the  town  records  establishes  the  fact  that  in  1634  this  was 
'  the  chief  landing-place.'  " 

1  [The  reader  will  find  a  more  extended  account  of  these  natural  landmarks  in  Shurtleff's 
Dcsc.  of  Boston,  ch.  vii.  —  Eo.J 


TOPOGRAPHY,    ETC.,   OF   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  531 

It  was  the  chief  landing-place,  it  may  be  said,  evidently  because  it  was 
the  most  convenient ;  while  its  proximity  to  the  fountain  of  delicious  water 
in  Spring  Lane,  together  with  its  position,  —  hedged  about  as  it  was  by  the 
three  hills,  and  commanding  the  approach  from  the  harbor,  —  would  seem 
to  afford  reason  enough  for  Winthrop's  choice. 

The  first  houses  were  necessarily  of  the  rudest  description,  and  they 
seem  to  have  been  scattered  hither  and  thither  according  to  individual 
need  or  fancy.  The  early  streets,  too,  obedient  to  the  same  law  of  con- 
venience, naturally  followed  the  curves  of  the  hills,  winding  about  their 
bases  by  the  shortest  routes,  and  crossing  their  slopes  at  the  easiest 
angles. 

To  the  pioneer  upon  the  western  prairie  it  is  comparatively  easy  to 
lay  out  his  prospective  city  in  squares  and  streets  of  unvarying  size  and 
shape,  and  oftentimes,  be  it  said,  of  wearying  sameness ;  to  the  colonist 
of  1630  upon  this  'rugged  promontory  of  New  England  it  was  a  different 
matter.  Without  the  power  or  leisure  to  surmount  the  natural  obstacles 
of  his  new  home,  he  was  contented  to  adapt  himself  to  them.  Thus  the 
narrow,  winding  streets,  with  their  curious  twists  and  turns,  the  crooked 
alleys  and  short-cuts  by  which  he  drove  his  cows  to  pasture  up  among 
the  blueberry  bushes  of  Beacon  Hill,  or  carried  his  grist  to  the  windmill 
over  upon  Copp's  steeps,  or  went  to  draw  his  water  at  the  spring-gate, 
or  took  his  sober  Sunday  way  to  the  first  rude  little  church,  —  these  paths 
and  highways,  worn  by  his  feet  and  established  for  his  convenience,  remain 
after  two  centuries  and  a  half  substantially  unchanged,  endeared  to  his 
posterity  by  priceless  associations. 

And  so  the  town,  growing  at  first  after  no  plan  and  with  no  thought  of 
proportion,  but  as  directed  and  shaped  by  the  actual  needs  of  the  inhabi- 
tants, became  a  not  unfitting  exponent  of  their  lives,  —  the  rough  outward 
garb  as  it  were  of  their  hardy  young  civilization.  Convenience  was  the  first 
consideration ;  and  we  accordingly  find  that  starting  from  the  eastern  cove 
the  settlement  gradually  moved  north  and  south,  following  the  ins  and  outs 
of  the  sea-banks,  and  clinging  so  closely  to  the  shore-line  that  for  many  years 
there  was  no  building  upon  the  sides  of  the  hills.  In  all  early  views  of  the 
town,  even  down  to  a  time  long  subsequent  to  the  colonial  period,  this 
is  apparent;  and  the  houses  are  seen  crowded  thickly  along  the  water's 
edge,  while  Beacon  Hill  rises  bare  and  blank  in  the  background. 

To  prove,  however,  that  the  early  settlers  were  not  without  any  care  or 
consideration  for  the  looks  of  their  new  home,  we  find  that  at  a  meeting  of 
the  overseers  held  in  1635  it  was  ordered:  l  — 

"  That  from  this  day  there  shall  noe  house  at  all  be  built  in  this  towne  neere  unto 
any  of  the  streetes  or  laynes  therein  but  with  the  advise  and  consent  of  the  overseers 
of  the  towne's  occasions  for  the  avoyding  of  disorderly  building  to  the  inconvenience 
of  streets  and  laynes,  and  for  the  more  comely  and  Commodious  ordering  of  them, 

1  See  also  other  orders  to  the  like  effect,  made  at  the  same  and  subsequent  meetings  for 
the  year  1636. 


532  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

upon  the  forfeyture,  for  every  house  built  Contrarie  to  this  order,  of  such  sume  as  the 
ouerseers  shall  see  fitting."  At  a  subsequent  meeting  in  the  same  month  it  was  further 
provided  :  "  Item  :  that  John  Gallop  shall  remove  his  payles  at  his  yard's  end  within 
fourteen  days,  and  to  range  them  even  with  the  corner  of  his  house  for  the  preserving 
of  the  way  upon  the  sea-banke." 

Three  public  structures  of  a  peculiar  character,  placed  respectively  upon 
each  of  the  three  hills,  early  combined  to  give  character  and  variety  to  the 
little  settlement.  These  were  the  fort,  the  windmill,  and  the  beacon ;  all 
of  which  gave  names  more  or  less  enduring  to  the  sites  they  occupied.  The 
fort  placed  upon  Cornhill  and  begun  May  24,  1632,  was  a  joint  work, — 
Charlestown,  Roxbury,  and  Dorchester  taking  part  in  its  construction,  each 
town  working  a  day  in  turn.  The  windmill,  as  before  stated,  was  brought 
down  from  Watertown  and  set  up  at  the  North  End,  where  it  will  be  safe 
to  assume  it  soon  found  something  other  than  "  westerly  winds  "  to  set  its 
huge  clumsy  wings  whirling ;  while  the  origin  of  the  beacon  may  be  found 
in  the  following  resolution  of  the  Court  of  Assistants  dated  March  4,  1634 : 

"  It  is  ordered  that  there  shalbe  forth  with  a  beacon  sett  on  the  Gentry  hill  at 
Boston  to  give  notice  to  the  Country  of  any  danger,  and  that  there  shalbe  a  ward  of 
one  pson  kept  there  from  the  first  of  April  to  the  last  of  September ;  and  that  upon  the 
discovery  of  any  danger  the  beacon  shalbe  fired,  an  allarum  given,  as  also  messengers 
presently  sent  by  that  town  where  the  danger  is  discov'ed  to  all  other  townes  within 
this  jurisdiccon." 

The  beacon,  as  seen  in  the  usual  engravings  of  it,  was  simply  a  tall  pole 
furnished  with  wooden  rungs  for  climbing,  with  an  iron  pot  filled  with  tar 
depending  from  a  crane  at  its  top. 

It  is  not  known  that  the  combustibles  were  ever  fired.  Flaming  from  a 
height  of  sixty-five  feet  from  the  ground,  and  over  two  hundred  above  the 
tide,  the  beacon  would  have  furnished  a  conspicuous  signal  in  case  of 
alarm.1 

It  is  unfortunate  that  the  only  description  we  have  of  the  town  in  its  first 
decade  is  that  of  Mr.  John  Josselyn,  a  young  Englishman  who,  although  of 
sufficient  intelligence  and  education,  thought  more  of  telling  strange  and 
curious  things  for  his  readers  at  home  than  of  leaving  reliable  matter  for 
history.  On  his  arrival  here  in  1638  he  says:  "Having  refreshed  myself 
for  a  day  or  two  upon  Noddle  s  Island  I  crossed  the  Bay  in  a  small  Boat  to 
Boston  which  then  was  rather  a  Village  than  a  Town,  there  being  not  above 
twenty  or  thirty  houses."  The  editor  of  Winthrop's  New  England  very 
properly  reflects  upon  this  statement,  and  accuses  the  author  of  having 
omitted  a  cipher  from  the  end  of  his  figures  or  of  scorning  to  count  the 
log-cabins  in  his  estimate.2 

In  the  early  days  before  the  settlement  took  form  we  find  the  different 
districts  of  the  town  called  "  fields,"  —  as  "  The  Neck  Field  "  or  "  The  Field 

1  The  lantern  of  the  State  House  is  about  two  hundred  and  twenty  feet  above  the  sea  level. 

2  [Barry,  Hist,  of  Mass.,  \.  214,  and  others  have  made  similar  comments.  —  ED.] 


TOPOGRAPHY,    ETC.,   OF   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  533 

towards  Roxburie  "  on  the  south,  beyond  Dover  Street;  "Coleborn's  Field," 
lying  about  the  present  Common  Street ;  "  The  Fort  Field  "  on  the  east, 
"The  Mylne  Field"  on  the  north,  and  "The  New  Field"  on  the  west;  to- 
gether with  "The  Gentry  Field,"  which  last  alone  still  remains  to  us  in  substan- 
tially its  ancient  form,  being  in  part  the  land  now  embraced  by  the  Common. 
But  this  was  only  in  the  beginning;  streets  and  highways  were  rapidly 
formed  and  named.  At  the  North  End  there  were  very  soon  three  princi- 
pal thoroughfares,  —  Fore,  Middle,  and  Back  streets,  now  known  as  North, 
Hanover,  and  Salem.  In  June,  1636,  we  find  in  an  order  of  the  Court  which 
provides  for  "  a  sufficient  footway  to  be  made  from  William  Coleborn's 
field,1  and  unto  Samuel  Wilbore's  field  next  Roxbury"  the  origin  of  our 
present  Washington  Street,  in  the  part  south  of  Castle  Street,  not  for  many 
years,  however,  to  be  known  by  its  modern  name.  In  "  ye  Mylne  Street," 
a  highway  laid  out  in  1644  and  conducting  towards  Windmill  Point,  we 
recognize  the  Summer  Street  of  the  present  day.  We  learn  furthermore 
from  the  Town  Records  that  in  March,  1^40,  a  street  was  laid  out  to  lead  up 
over  the  hill,  which  followed  the  line  of  the  present  School  Street.  State 
Street  was  "  a  primitive  highway"  of  very  short  extent,  which  led  into  the 
flats  at  Merchants  Row,  and  was  usually  spoken  of  as  the  Water  Street. 

Considerable  change  in  the  appearance  of  things  at  the  North  End  about 
this  time  resulted  from  a  grant  of  the  town,  July  31,  1643,  to  Henry  Simonds, 
John  Button,  and  others,  of  the  whole  area  of  land  embraced  by  the  North 
Cove,  together  with  the  marshes  beyond.  This  was  upon  condition  that  the 
grantees  should  put  up  on  the  premises  "  one  or  more  corn-mills,  and  main- 
tain the  same  forever."  Leave  was  also  given  to  them  "  to  dig  one  or  more 
trenches  in  the  highways  or  waste  grounds,  so  as  they  may  make  and  main- 
tain sufficient  passable  and  safe  ways  over  the  same  for  horse  and  cart." 
The  grantees  went  speedily  to  work  and  dug  the  ditch,  which  soon  acquired 
and  ever  afterward  retained  the  name  of  the  Mill  Creek ;  bridges  were  thrown 
across  it  at  Hanover  Street,  and  later,  when  they  had  filled  in  the  marsh,  at 
North  Street,  and  mills  were  built  upon  the  margin  of  the  Mill  Pond,  and 
were  called  the  South  and  North  Mills,2  including  in  all  a  grist  mill,  a  saw 
mill,  and  in  later  years  a  chocolate  mill. 

The  Mill  Creek  thus  formed  separated  the  town  into  two  parts,  and  was 
for  a  long  time  considered  the  dividing  line  between  the  North  and  South 
ends.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  there  had  formerly  been  a  small  natural 
watercourse  across  the  marshy  neck,  thus  practically  making  an  island  of  the 
North  End,  which  indeed  has  even  been  called  the  "  Island  of  Boston."  3 

1  [William  Coleborn  was  a  considerable  man  2  [The  position  of  these  mills  is  marked  on 

of  the  early  days,  and  often  conspicuous  in  mat-  the  map  in  this  volume.  —  ED.] 

ters   relating   to   the   south    part   of  the  town.  8  [Johnson,    Wonder-working  Providence,   in 

Coleborn's  field  seems  to  have  had  for  its  centre  1648,  says,  "The  north-east  part  of   the  town 

the   hillock   where    Hollis-Street    church    now  being  separated  from  the  other  with  a  narrow 

stands,  and  to  have  extended  to  the  shore  on  stream,  cut  through  the  neck  of  land  by  industry, 

either  hand,  and  as  far  south  as  Castle  Street,  whereby  that  part  is  become  an  island."     There 

The  road  to  Roxbury  followed  the  easterly  shore  seems  to  have  been  a  passage  for  the  smaller 

through  this  space.  —  ED.]  craft  well  into  the  creek.     Deeds  of  adjoining 


534  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY    OF   BOSTON. 

Besides  these  various  mills,  Winthrop  tells  of  another  windmill  being 
erected  in  1636,  the  location  of  which,  although  not  given,  was  probably  at 
Windmill  Point,  or  perhaps  near  the  spot  now  known  as  Church  Green ; 
while  before  1650  there  were  three  others  stationed  respectively  at  Fox 
Hill,  at  Fort  Hill,  and  upon  one  of  the  elevations  l  in  "  the  New  Field." 
These,  with  that  already  mentioned  upon  Copp's  Hill,  sufficiently  attest  the 
growth  and  prosperity  of  the  colony;  and  we  may  easily  conceive  that, 
perched  thus  upon  their  respective  headlands,  and  all  set  whirling  by  an 
easterly  wind,  they  must  have  given  the  town  a  curious  and  busy  aspect 
to  the  traveller  sailing  up  the  harbor  about  the  year  1650. 

Luckily  we  have  a  graphic  description  of  the  town  at  this  very  time  in  the 
often-quoted  passage  from  Johnson's  Wonder-working  Providence :  — 

"  Invironed  it  [the  peninsula]  is  with  the  Brinish  flouds  saving  one  small  Istmos 
which  gives  free  accesse  to  the  Neighbour  Tovvnes  by  Land  on  the  South  side ;  on  the 
North-west  and  North-east  two  constapt  Faires  [ferries]  are  kept  for  daily  traffique 
thereunto.  The  forme  of  this  Towne  is  like  a  heart  naturally  scituated  for  Fortifica- 
tions, having  two  Hills  on  the  frontice  part  thereof  next  the  Sea ;  the  one  well  fortified 
on  the  superficies  thereof  with  store  of  great  artillery  well  mounted,  the  other  hath  a 
very  strong  battery  built  of  whole  Timber  and  filled  with  Earth  at  the  descent  of  the 
Hill  [Copp's]  in  the  extreme  poynt  thereof;  betwixt  these  two  strong  armes  lies 
a  large  Cove  or  Bay  on  which  the  chiefest  part  of  this  Town  is  built,  overtopped  with 
a  third  Hill ;  all  three  like  overtopping  Towers  keepe  a  constant  watch  to  foresee  the 
approach  of  forrein  dangers,  being  furnished  with  a  Beacon  and  lowd  babling  guns  to 
give  notice  by  their  redoubled  eccho  to  all  their  Sister-townes.  The  chief  Edifice  of 
this  City-like  Towne  is  crowded  on  the  Sea-bankes  and  wharfed  out  with  great 
industry  and  cost,  the  buildings  beautifull  and  large  ;  some  fairely  set  forth  with  Brick, 
Tile,  Stone,  and  Slate,  and  orderly  placed  with  comely  streets." 

This  account  must  appear  somewhat  rose-colored  when  compared 
with  that  of  the  Royal  Commissioners  written  fifteen  years  later,  who 
say  with  less  enthusiasm  that,  "  Their  houses  are  generally  wooden,  their 
streets  crooked,  with  little  decency  and  no  uniformity."  And  this,  al- 
though not  very  flattering,  seems  a  very  natural  first  impression  for  the 
transatlantic  visitor  of  two  centuries  ago,  notwithstanding  Mr.  Josselyn's 
testimony  at  about  the  same  time  that  "  the  Buildings  are  handsome, 
joyning  one  to  the  other,  as  in  London,  with  many  large  streets,  &c. ; " 
that  there  were  "  fair  buildings,2  some  of  stone,"  together  with  the  ac 
count  of  Mr.  Gibbs's  "  stately  edifice,"3  and  the  "  three  fair  Meeting-houses 

land  reserve  "free  liberty  of  egresse  and  regress          2  Cf.  John  Dunton's  Letters  from  New  Eng- 

with  vessells,  not  prejudicing  the  mill  streame,"  land,  p.  67. 

and  a  toll  of  sixpence  was  exacted  "for  such  as  8  Robert  Gibbs's  house  stood  on  Fort  Hill, 

open   the    bridge."      Second  Report  of  Record  and  Josselyn  adds,  it  "will  stand  him  in  little 

Commissioners,  171,    177       The    rapid    current  less  than  .£3,000  before  it  is  fully  finished,"  — 

through  it  caused  it  to  be  the  only  place  (1656)  a  princely  edifice  for  the  young  town,  if  we  take 

into  which  butchers  were  permitted  to  throw  into  consideration  the  difference  in  the  value  of 

their  garbage.  —  ED.]  money.     Cf.  John  Dunton's  Letters,  p.  69,  for  a 

1  [This  was  near  the  spot  where  the  West  similar  description  of   the   Gibbs   House.    [Of 

Church  (Cambridge  and  Lynde  streets)  stands.  Gibbs's  family  connections,  see  Mr.  Whitmore's 

—  ED.)  chapter.  —  ED.] 


TOPOGRAPHY,  ETC.,  OF  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD.      535 

or  Churches  which  hardly  suffice  to  receive  the  Inhabitants  and  Stran- 
gers that  come  in  from  all  parts." 

The  tone  of  this  as  well  as  of  the  previous  extract  from  Johnson  is  mis- 
leading, and  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  a  traveller's  incorrigible  habit  of 
exaggerating.  It  is  evident  enough  from  facts  in  our  possession,  and  from 
early  views  of  the  town,  that  "stone  houses"  and  "stately  edifices"  were 
only  too  rare ;  that  the  buildings  were  chiefly  of  wood ;  l  that  they  were 
generally  small,  unpainted,  and  unimposing,  if  not  mean-looking;  and  that, 
placed  hither  and  thither  in  the  crooked  streets,  they  must  have  very  dimly 
recalled  London  or  any  other  continental  city. 

In  twenty  years,  however,  the  town  -had  no  doubt  grown  greatly,  and 
many  and  striking  changes  had  taken  place  in  its  outward  aspect.  It  was 
beginning  to  have  a  settled,  thriving,  and  prosperous  look ;  its  principal 
streets  had  been  laid  out  and  "  paved  with  pebble,"  docks  and  wharfs  built,2 
ferries  established,  and  prominent  public  buildings  added.  Some  of  these 
deserve  particular  mention.  The  strong  battery  mentioned  in  Johnson's 
description  above  was  that  known  for  many  years  as  the  North  Battery ;  it 
was  built  about  the  year  1646?  on  the  petition  of  the  North-enders,  and  at 
their  own  expense,  they  praying  that  they  might  "  for  the  future  bee  freed 
from  all  rates  and  assessments  to  what  other  fortifications  bee  in  the  towne 
until  such  time  as  the  other  part  of  the  towne,  not  joyning  with  us  herein, 
shall  have  disbursed  and  layed  out  in  equall  proporcion  of  their  estates  with 
ours  as  by  trew  account  may  appear."  Although  made  only  of  strong 
timber  filled  with  earth  it  was  admirably  located  at  Merry's  Point  above 
described,  and  with  its  "  lowd  babling  guns "  commanded  not  only  the 
harbor,  but  the  entrance  to  the  river.  Twenty  years  later,  in  1666,  there 
was  built  at  the  southern  end  of  the  cove  upon  the  site  of  the  present 
Rowe's  Wharf,  and  under  the  shadow  of  Fort  Hill,  a  similar  defensive  work, 
—  the  famous  Sconce  or  South  Battery.4  It  is  quaintly  and  sufficiently  de- 
scribed in  the  Report  of  the  Commissioners  sent  by  the  General  Court  to 
inspect  it  in  1666:  — 

"  Wee  enfed  a  well  contriued  fort,  called  Boston  Sconce ;  the  artillery  therein  is  of 
good  force  and  well  mounted,  the  gunner  attending  the  same  ;  the  former  thereof  suite- 
able  to  the  place,  so  as  to  scower  the  harbour,  to  the  full  length  of  their  shot  euery 

1  See  in  corroboration  of  this  the  Journal  of  ton,  126.    The   Town   Records,   under   date   of 
Jasper  Dankers,  who  came  to  Boston  in   1680.  "8th  of  nth  mo.  1643,"  show  that  a  committee 
He  says:    "All  the  houses  are  made  of  thin  (Captain    Keayne,    Captain    Hawkins,   Ensign 
small  cedar  shingles  nailed  against  frames  and  Savage,  Sergeant  Hutchinson,  Sergeant  Johnson, 
then  filled  in  with  brick  and  other  stuff ;  and  so  and  Sergeant  Oliver)  were  named  "for  the  order- 
are  their  churches."  ing  of  which."     Second  Rept.  of  Record  Commis- 

2  [The  Town  Records  previous  to  1650  show  sioners,  77. —  ED.] 

numerous  permits  given  to  "  wharf  out  "  before  4  [It   was   erected   by   Major-General    John 

shore  lands,  particularly  from  the  town  dock  to  Leverett,  afterwards  Governor,  and  the  report 

Merry's  Point.  —  ED]  of  the   committee   appointed   to   view  it  upon 

8  [The  town  had  had  a  warning  of  the  neces-  completion  is   printed   in    Shurtleff's   Desc.   of 

sity  of  such  protection  a  few  years  earlier,  1644,  Boston,  116.     See  also  Snow,  Boston,  p.  127,  155. 

when  the  project  was  first  mooted.     Snow,  Bos-  —  ED.] 


536  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

way ;  it  is  spacious  wthin,  that  the  trauerse  of  one  gunne  will  not  hinder  the  other's 
course ;  and  for  defence,  the  foundation  is  of  stone  and  well  banked  wth  earth  for  dull- 
ing the  shott  and  hindering  execution ;  ffinally,  wee  app'hend  it  to  be  the  compleatest 
worke  of  that  kind  which  hitherto  hath  been  erected  in  this  country." 

Landward,  a  defensive  work  was  very  early  established  not  far  from  the 
present  Dover  Street.  Shurtleff1  thus  describes  it:  — 

"  It  was  chiefly  of  brick  with  embrasures  in  front  and  places  for  cannon  on  its 
flanks,  and  a  deep  ditch  on  its  south  side ;  and  had  two  gates,  one  for  carriages  and 
teams,  and  another  for  persons  on  foot.  Regular  watches  and  wards  were  kept  near  it. 
A  little  to  the  south  of  this  had  been  placed  in  earlier  times  a  row  of  palisades.  After 
the  disappearance  of  the  hostile  Indians,  the  whole  fortification  fell  into  decay,  and 
was  not  renewed  till  in  to -the  next  century." 

In  the  harbor  there  was  a  fortification  erected  on  Castle  Island,  and 
Johnson  describes  it  as  built  on  the  north-east  end  of  the  island,  "  upon  a 
rising  hill."  Views  of  the  island  taken  in  the  next  century  show  that  in  its 
present  state  it  has  been  considerably  cut  down  from  its  original  height ; 
indeed,  its  name  seems  to  imply  a  commanding  altitude,  for  it  was  called 
Castle  Island  before  a  fortification  was  begun  there,  and  while  it  was  the 
intention  of  the  colonists  to  make  their  seaward  defence  at  Nantasket,  —  a 
scheme  soon  however  abandoned.  In  the  summer  of  1634  Deputy  Roger 
Ludlow  was  chosen  to  oversee  the  erection  of  "  two  platformes  and  one 
small  fortification  to  secure  them  bothe."  In  October  the  General  Court 
confirmed  the  action  of  the  town,  and  directed  a  house  to  be  "  built  on  the 
topp  of  the  hill  to  defend  the  said  plattforme."  In  the  following  March, 
1634-35, tne  Court  ordered  it  to  be  "  fully  perfected,  the  ordnance  mounted." 
A  later  commander,  in  speaking  of  its  early  days,  says  this  primitive  struc- 
ture was  made  "  with  mud  walls,  which  stood  divers  years ;  "  but  Johnson 
assigns  as  a  reason  of  the  decay  into  which  it  soon  fell,  that  the  lime  used  in 
its  construction  was  "  what  is  burnt  of  oyster  shels."  The  earliest  captains 
of  it  were  Nicholas  Simpkins  (to  1635),  Edward  Gibbons  (to  1636),  Rich- 
ard Morris  (to  1637)  '•>  then,  after  an  interval  when  private  parties  undertook 
to  manage  it,  Robert  Sedgwick  in  June,  1641.  Fitful  attempts  were  made 
to  keep  it  in  repair;  it  was  finally  rebuilt  "with  pine  trees  and  earth," 
and  in  1654  Johnson  speaks  of  it  as  under  the  command  of  Captain  Daven- 
port, "  a  man  approved  for  his  faithfulness,  courage,  and  skill."  The  fort 
had  then  cost  about  four  thousand  pounds,  and  the  barricade  construction 
had  given  place  to  one  of  brick,  with  "  three  rooms  in  it,  a  dwelling-room 
below,  a  lodging-room  over  it,  the  gun-room  over  that,  wherein  stood  six 
very  good  Saker  guns,  and  over  it  on  the  top  three  lesser  guns."  In  July, 
1665,  "  God  was  pleased  to  send  a  grievous  storm  of  thunder  and  light- 
ening, which  did  some  hurt  in  Boston,  and  struck  dead  here  that  worthy 
renowned  Captain  Richard  Davenport ;  upon  which  the  General  Court  in 
Aug.  loth  following  appointed  another  Captain."  This  was  the  narrator 

1  Description  of  Boston,  p.  140. 


TOPOGRAPHY,  ETC.,  OF  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD.      537 

we  quote,  Roger  Clap,  who  held  the  office  till  1686;  and  he  adds  that 
"  when  danger  grew  on  us  by  reason  of  the  late  wars  with  Holland,  God 
permitted  our  castle  to  be  burnt  down,  which  was  on  the  twenty-first  day 
of  March,  1672-73."  l 

The  first  town-house  built  in  the  market  place  at  the  head  of  State  Street 
was  undoubtedly  an  imposing  edifice  for  its  day,  and  gave  character  to  the 
street.  It  was  a  wooden  house  "  built  upon  pillars,"  and  there  seems  to 
have  been  a  sort  of  exchange  for  the  merchants  in  the  lower  story  with  cham- 
bers above,  where  the  monthly  court  held  its  sessions.2  It  was  built  largely 
with  money  left  for  the  purpose  by  Captain  Robert  Keayne,  which  was 
supplemented  by  later  subscriptions  from  prominent  and  wealthy  citizens. 

The  fact  that  Josselyn  speaks  of  "  three  fair  meeting-houses "  shows 
that  his  account  must  have  been  written  in  1671—72,  after  his  return  to  Eng- 
land and  not  on  his  arrival  here  in  1663  ;  for  the  "  Old  South,"  or  the 
South  meeting-house  as  it  was  then  called,  the  third  church  in  order  built 
in  the  town,  was  only  just  completed  at  that  date,  having  settled  its  first 
minister  in  1670. 

The  other  churches  included  in  the  account  were  the  "  Old  North,"  the 
church  of  the  Mathers,  and  the  second  in  order  of  time,  —  a  wooden  building 
erected  in  Clark's  Square  (North  Square)  at  the  North  End,  about  the  year 
1650,  and  the  First  Church  before  mentioned,  —  the  rude  little  thatched 
building  on  State  Street  having  been  long  since  taken  down,  when  a  larger 
structure  was  built  in  1640,  on  the  site  now  occupied  by  Joy's  Building  on 
Washington  Street.3 

The  opinion  which  Shaw  advanced,  that  most  of  the  first  settlers  soon 
removed  to  the  North  End,  or  beyond  the  Mill  Creek,  was  questioned  by 
Dr.  Snow,  who  found  the  names  of  only  about  thirty  residents  in  that  part 
of  the  town.  He  very  properly  says,  however,  that  about  1650,  some  twenty 
years  after  the  settlement  of  the  town,  "  An  increase  of  business  began  to 
be  perceived  at  the  North  End,  and  that  removals  began  to  be  made  into  it 
which  resulted  in  its  becoming  '  for  many  years  the  most  populous  and 
elegant  part  of  the  town.'  "  Snow's  view  is  borne  out  by  later  study  of  the 
Book  of  Possessions.  The  maps  which  have  been  made  from  its  descrip- 
tions do  not  show,  however,  that  there  were  many,  if  any,  house-lots  farther 
west  in  the  "  New  Field  "  than  the  line  of  Sudbury  Street  and  the  corner 
of  Howard  Street  and  Tremont  Row.  The  allotments  beyond  were  for 
tillage  and  mowing. 

No  clear  notion  of  the  early  aspect  of  the  town  can  well  be  obtained 
without  an  understanding  of  the  number,  direction,  and  condition  of  its 

1  Shurtleff  traces  the  history  of  the  Castle  inson)  was  named  "to  consider  the  modell  of 

in  his  Desc.  of  Boston,  ch.  xxxvii.      Drake  says  the  towne  house  to  bee  built,  as  concerning  the 

that  the  burning  was  a  year  later,  1673-74,  Hist,  charge  thereof  and  the  most  convenient  place," 

of  Boston,  396.  &c.      Mr.    Whitmore   has    traced    the    subject 

'2  Cf.  Neal's  New  England,   ii.  225.      [The  thoroughly  in  the  Sewall  Papers,  i.  160.  —  En.] 
Town    Records    under    date,    "9:    i:   56-57,"  8  The  first  sermon  was  preached  in  it  Aug. 

show  that  a  committee  (Captain  Savage,  Mr.  23,1640.    No  sketch  of  it,  nor  particular  descrip- 

Stodard,  Mr.  Howchin,  and  Mr.  Edward  Hutch-  tion,  has  been  preserved. 
VOL.  I.  — 68. 


538  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

highways.  Unfortunately,  no  list  of  the  streets  as  they  existed  during 
the  colonial  period  is  on  record ;  indeed,  save  in  a  few  instances,  they  had 
not  then  been  named,  and  we  are  therefore  left  for  our  information  to  such 
chance  mention  as  can  be  gleaned  from  the  Town  Records,  the  Book  of 
Possessions,  and  the  written  accounts  of  travellers.  It  must  always  be  re- 
membered, however,  that  previous  to  1684  only  a  very  few  of  the  principal 
thoroughfares  deserved  the  name  of  streets ;  the  rest  were,  for  the  most  part, 
rather  lanes  and  by-paths  more  or  less  worn  and  frequented  according  to 
their  locality. 

In  May,  1708,  there  appears  for  the  first  time  in  the  Town  Records  a  list  of 
the  existing  streets,  lanes,  and  alleys,  with  their  names  and  boundaries ;  and 
of  these  it  may  be  safe  to  assume  that  certain  of  the  chief  routes  and  thor- 
oughfares, connecting  old  landmarks  and  important  points  of  the  town,  were 
identical  with  those  laid  out  and  in  use  from  the  earliest  days  of  the  colony. 
A  careful  collation  of  the  different  entries  in  the  town  and  county  records 
bearing  upon  the  point  will  help  us  in  the  study.1 

Washington  and  Hanover  streets  were  then  as  now  the  chief  thorough- 
fares of  their  respective  quarters  of  the  town,  —  the  former,  laid  out  along 
the  narrow  stretch  of  level  ground  between  the  foot  of  Beacon  Hill  and  the 
shore,  wound  away  towards  the  south  and  was  gradually  extended  across 
the  Neck  to  Roxbury;  the  latter  starting  from  the  declivity  of  Cotton 
[Pemberton]  Hill  crossed  the  Mill  Creek  by  a  bridge  and  traversed  the 
centre  of  the  northern  peninsula  to  the  sea. 

One  may  easily  conceive  that  in  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury Washington  —  then  called  simply  the  high  or  main  street,  and  later  by 
a  multiplicity  of  names2  —  may  have  justly  deserved  Johnson's  epithet 
"  comely,"  bordered  as  it  was  on  both  sides,  from  the  market  place  to 
Milk  Street,  and  even  farther  south  to  Boylston  and  Essex,  with  substantial 
frame-houses,  many  of  them  large  and  handsome,  surrounded  by  fine  gardens, 
where  dwelt  some  of  the  most  solid  men  of  the  colony.  Here  lived  John 
Winthrop,  the  doughty  first  governor;  here  uprose  the  steeple  of  the  first 
"South  Meeting-House;"  here  upon  the  site  of  the  "old  corner  book- 
store "  dwelt  Mistress  Anne  Hutchinson,  whose  keen  wit  and  sharp  tongue 
set  the  town  at  loggerheads ;  here,  later  in  the  period,  stood  the  famous 
Province  House,  soon  to  be  described  ;  here  farther  north  was  built  the  sec- 
ond house  of  the  First  Church,  as  before  mentioned;  here  at  the  junction 
with  State  Street  stood  the  Town  House  before  noticed  and  undoubtedly 
the  finest  public  building  of  its  day,  while  across  the  way  appeared  the  res- 
idence of  Governor  John  Leverett,  who,  in  a  varied  experience,  directed  the 
war  against  King  Philip,  and  served  under  Cromwell ;  here,  in  fine,  thronged, 

1  See  the  collation  of  extracts  showing  the  it  was  known,  as  far  back  as  1708,  by  four  dis- 
course  of   Washington   Street,   printed   in   the  tinct  names  —  Orange,  Newburv,  Marlborough, 
preface    to    the    Report    of  the   Committee   on  and  Cornhill  —  along  the  successive  sections  of 
Nomenclature    of    Streets.     (City     Documents,  the  way,  until  all  were  at  length  united  under  the 
119,1879.)  present  name,  after  the  visit  of  General  Wash- 

2  Starting  from  the  fortifications  on  the  Neck,  ington  to  the  city  in  1789. 


TOPOGRAPHY,  ETC.,  OF  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD.      539 

as  occasion  served,  the  cream  of  colonial  social  life,  and  for  want  of  side- 
walks, "  except  when  driven  on  one  side  by  carts  and  carriages,  every  one 
walked  in  the  middle  of  the  street  where  the  pavement  was  the  smoothest."  l 
State  Street  early  rivalled  Washington  Street  in  interest,  and  surpassed  it 
in  importance.  In  one  of  the  early  views  of  the  next  century  the  street 
appears  paved  with  pebbles  and  without  sidewalks ;  and  so  we  may  assume 
it  to  have  been  for  some  time  previous  to  1684.  The  buildings  too,  doubtless, 
more  nearly  answered  Josselyn's  description  as  standing  "  close  together  on 
each  side  of  the  street  as  in  London,  and  are  furnished  with  many  fair  shops." 
This  was  the  busy  bustling  part  of  the  town,  the  centre  of  commerce  and 
trade ;  here  at  its  head  was  the  first  market ;  2  here,  in  the  market  place, 
was  subsequently  built  the  Town  House  with  the  Merchants  Exchange  as 
above  mentioned ;  and  not  far  from  here  was  the  first  post-office,  estab- 
lished in  1639  by  the  following  order  of  the  General  Court:  — 

"  For  the  preventing  the  miscarriage  of  letters,  it  is  ordered,  that  notice  bee  given 
that  Richard  Fairbanks,  his  house  in  Boston,  is  the  place  appointed  for  all  letters,  which 
are  brought  from  beyond  seas  or  to  be  sent  thither,  are  to  be  brought  unto  him,  and 
he  is  to  take  care  that  they  bee  delivered  or  sent  according  to  their  directions ;  pro- 
vided that  no  man  shall  be  compelled  to  bring  his  letters  thither  except  hee  please."  3 

Here,  too,  for  nearly  ten  years  succeeding  the  settlement,  was  the  First 
Church  where  Wilson  preached,  and  had  for  a  colleague  the  Rev.  John 
Cotton,  sometime  rector  of  St.  Botolph's  church  in  England,  out  of  com- 
pliment to  whom  Boston  is  said  to  have  been  named,4 —  a  man  of  excellent 
ability  and  unusual  learning.  And  here,  at  last,  before  the  very  door  of  the 
sanctuary,  perhaps  to  show  that  the  Church  and  State  went  hand-in-hand 
in  precept  and  penalty,  stood  the  first  whipping-post,  —  no  unimportant 
adjunct  of  Puritan  life. 

The  early  street  as  thus  described  must  not  be  judged  by  the  present. 
Much  less  in  extent,  not  having  yet  been  fully  quadrupled  in  length  by  the 
building  of  Long  Wharf,  it  was  but  a  short  way  and  by  no  means  entirely 
given  over  to  trade  and  public  affairs.  Many  of  the  merchants  lived  over 
their  shops,  and  it  numbered  among  its  residents  several  names  well  known 
in  the  history  of  the  town.  At  the  head  of  the  street  on  the  south-east  cor- 
ner lived  Captain  Robert  Keayne,  a  rich  merchant  and  public-minded  cit- 
izen, and  the  first  captain  of  the  "  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery,"  -  —  all 
of  which  dignity  however  did  not  save  him  from  being  tried,  convicted,  and 
punished  for  making  what  was  then  thought  an  exorbitant  profit  upon  his 
wares.  The  magnanimous  Captain  took  an  unusual  but  most  worthy  re- 
venge upon  his  busy-body  townsmen,  by  leaving  them  a  handsome  legacy 
wherewith  to  build  their  town  house,  in  a  will  of  nearly  two  hundred  pages,  — 

1  Quincy  Memoir,  —  pertaining  to  a  later,  but  thorities   removed,  granting   her   compensation 

in  this  respect  not  a  different,  period.  therefor.  —  ED.] 

'2  [The   open   space    was    at   first,   we   may  8  Fairbanks  lived  on  Washington  Street, 

judge,   somewhat   encumbered   with   stationary  4  [This  has  often  been  the  reason  assigned ; 

shops;  for  the  Town  Records,  1645,  show  that  but  see   Dr.  Haven's  chapter  on  the  "Massa- 

the  widow  Howin  had  a  shop  here  which  the  au-  chusetts  Company."  —  ED.] 


540  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

a  large  part  of  which  was  devoted  to  an  elaborate  defence  of  his  mercantile 
honor,  whereby  he  may  be  said  to  have  had  the  last  word  in  the  dispute. 
In  which  respect,  we  may  add,  he  came  better  off  than  in  his  famous  con- 
troversy with  the  fair  widow  Shearman  about  the  pig,  which  quarrel  for  a 
while  set  the  whole  town  by  the  ears,  and  curiously  enough  is  said  to  have 
resulted  in  the  division  of  the  General  Court  and  the  establishment  of  the 
Board  of  Deputies  as  a  distinct  body  from  the  Magistrates,  —  the  founda- 
tion of  our  present  double  legislative  body.1 

On  the  opposite  corner  of  the  street  lived  John  Cogan,  who  has  the 
distinction  of  being  the  father  of  Boston  merchants ;  and  below  him  on  the 
same  side  the  Rev.  John  Wilson,  the  first  pastor  of  the  colony.  Crooked 
Lane,  which  ran  through  his  land  from  State  Street  to  Dock  Square,  was 
afterwards  called  Wilson's  Lane  in  his  honor,  and  preserved  its  name  until 
the  street  itself  was  lost  in  the  extension  of  Devonshire  Street. 

Tremont  Street,  which  along  the  southern  part  of  its  course  was  little 
more  than  a  straggling  cart-road  across  the  Common,2  early  became,  north 
of  its  junction  with  School  Street,  a  favorite  place  of  residence. 

On  the  slope  of  the  hill  which  for  a  time  was  called  in  his  honor,  and 
near  the  easterly  entrance  to  Pemberton  Square,  lived  the  Rev.  John  Cot- 
ton in  the  house  previously  occupied  by  that  remarkable  young  man 
Harry  Vane,  and  later  by  Hull  the  mint-master,  who  spoke  of  it  "  as  greatly 
disadvantageous  for  trade,"  but  being  desirous  of  "  a  quiet  life  and  not  too 
much  business,  it  was  always  best  for  me."  After  him  it  became  the 
home  of  his  son-in-law,  who  spoke  of  it  as  "  considerably  distant  from 
other  buildings  and  very  bleake."3  This  was  the  famous  Samuel  Sew- 
all,  the  first  chief-justice  of  the  colony;  the  same  who  sat  in  judgment  upon 
the  witches,  and  afterwards  repented  it;  who  refused  to  sell  an  inch  of  his 
broad  acres  to  the  hated  Episcopalians  to  build  a  church  upon ;  who  was 
one  of  the  richest,  most  astute,  sagacious,  scholarly,  bigoted,  and  influential 
men  of  his  day ;  who  has  left  us  in  his  Diary,  recently  published,4  a  transcript 
almost  vivid  in  its  conscientious  faithfulness  of  that  old-time  life,  where  he 
tells  us  of  the  courts  he  held,  the  drams  he  drank,  the  sermons  he  heard, 
with  the  text  of  each,  the  funerals  he  attended,  at  some  of  which  they  had 
scarfs  and  gloves,  at  some  of  which  they  had  none,  the  squabbles  of  the 
council-board,  the  petty  affairs  of  his  own  household  and  neighborhood, 

1  See,  for  an  account  of  this  absurd  yet  fruit-  the  minute  details  of  history.  There  seems  to 

ful  episode,  Winthrop's  New  England,  ii.  280,  have  been  in  Sewall  a  concentration  of  all  that 

and  Drake's  Hist,  of  Boston,  260.  [Cf.  also  Mr.  there  was  in  his  age  repulsive  to  our  modern 

Winthrop's  chapter  in  the  present  volume.  —  education ;  but  his  measure  is  to  be  taken 

ED.]  more  exactly,  no  doubt,  in  a  following  volume. 

'2  Which  south  of  West  Street  was  bounded  A  discriminating  writer  has,  on  the  contrary, 

by  Mason  Street.  spoken  of  him  as  "  great  by  almost  every  meas- 

8  [See  Mr.  Whitmore's  tracing  of  the  title  of  ure  of  greatness,  —  moral  courage,  honor,  benev- 

this  estate  in  Sewall  Papers,  i.  59.  —  ED.]  olence,  learning,  eloquence,  intellectual  force 

4  [5  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  v.  vi.  vii.  It  must  and  breadth  and  brightness;"  but,  while  one 

be  confessed  that  it  is  not  easy  to  read  this  diary  admits  much  in  his  favor,  the  diary  can  hardly 

without  pity  and  disgust  mingling  with  amuse-  fail  to  show  us  his  pettinesses  See  Tyler's 

ment  and  with  that  interest  which  belongs  to  History  of  American  Literature,  ii.  99. —  ED.] 


TOPOGRAPHY,  ETC.,  OF  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD.      541 

the  occasions  where  he  advised  with  the  governor  touching  matters  of  life 
and  death,  and  where  he  gravely  admonished  a  neighbor's  son  upon  the 
sinfulness  of  cutting  off  his  hair. 

A  little  south  of  the  Cotton-Vane  place  dwelt  Governor  Bellingham  in  a 
house  which  was  standing,  in  a  somewhat  altered  condition,  a  little  more  than 
fifty  years  ago.1 

Two  clergymen  of  note  lived  at  different  times  upon  this  side  of  the 
street,  —  one,  the  Rev.  John  Davenport,  the  founder  of  the  city  of  New 
Haven,  Conn.,  and  subsequently  pastor  of  the  First  Church  here,  lived 
on  an  estate  which  long  remained  the  property  of  his  parish ;  the  other, 
the  Rev.  John  Oxenbridge,  also  a  pastor  of  the  same  church,  and  the 
fifth2  in  the  notable  succession  of  Johns  who  administered  to  that  con- 
gregation within  the  first  half-century  of  its  existence,  lived  farther  south 
near  the  present  corner  of  Beacon  Street,  upon  the  spot  previously  occu- 
pied by  Colonel  Shrimpton. 

High  above  all  these  worthy  and  distinguished  folk,  perched  upon  the  brow 
of  the  hill,  as  it  were  the  presiding  genius  of  the  place,  dwelt  Governor  John 
Endicott,  the  most  stern  and  uncompromising  Puritan  of  them  all,  who,  we 
opine,  never  recovered  from  his  chagrin  that  he  could  not  make  his  darling 
Salem  the  capital  of  the  colony,  although  he  at  length  condescended  to 
come  to  Boston  and  share  the  authority  with  Winthrop.  He  it  was  who 
packed  all  the  Episcopalians  home  to  England ;  who  cut  the  cross  out  of 
the  flag  in  his  insensate  rage  against  the  old  faith ;  who  had  a  heated  dis- 
pute with  the  Rev.  John  Cotton  upon  the  vital  question  as  to  whether 
ladies  should  or  should  not  wear  veils  over  their  faces ;  who  knew  no  fear 
of  prince  or  potentate ;  who  dared  do  anything,  or  take  any  responsibility, 
for  the  good  of  the  colony;  and  who  was  deservedly  one  of  its  most 
esteemed  and  respected  leaders. 

Farther  around  the  northern  base  of  the  hill,  beyond  the  entrance  to 
Pemberton  Square,  lived  Captain  Cyprian  Southack,  who  afterwards  gained 
repute  in  the  Indian  wars  under  Church,  and  in  honor  of  whom  Howard 
Street  was  originally  called  Southack's  Court. 

Of  the  various  cross  streets  leading  between  Tremont  and  Washington, 
beginning  with  Court  Street,  the  northernmost,  we  shall  find  it  known  first 
as  Prison  Lane  before  it  became  Queen  Street  in  the  loyal  provincial 
days.  It  was  notable  for  containing  the  first  prison  of  the  colony,  —  a 
gloomy,  massively-built  old  pile  that  stood  upon  or  close  to  the  spot  now 
occupied  by  the  County  Court  House,  the  sombre  aspect  of  which  latter 
building  might  well  persuade  "an  extravagant  and  erring  spirit"  of  those 
early  days  that  he  had  fallen  upon  the  veritable  old-time  home  of  colonial 
evil-doers.  Here  then,  and  in  later  days,  were  shut  up  the  hapless  witches 
and  the  notorious  Kidd ;  where,  perhaps  with  less  innocent  victims,  they 
may  have  shivered  through  the  freezing  winter  nights  in  dungeon  cells 

1  [See  a  note  to  Mr.  Whitmore's  chapter.  —  ED.] 

2  Wilson,  Cotton,  Norton,  Davenport,  Oxenbridge. 


542  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

"  warmed  only  by  a  pan  of  charcoal."  It  had  a  considerable  yard  about  it, 
as  shown  at  a  later  day  in  Bonner's  map,  and  as  early  as  1642  a  "  salt 
peter  howse"  was  built  in  the  yard,  thirty  by  fourteen  feet,  "  set  upon  posts 
seven  foot  high  above  the  ground,  with  a  covering  of  thatch,  and  the 
wall  clapboarded  tight  from  the  injury  of  rayne  and  snow."  x 

School  Street  was  early  laid  out ;  at  first  known  only  as  "  the  way  lead- 
ing up  Gentry  Hill,"  it  was  soon  called  Latin-School  Street,  from  the  first 
school-house  built  there  during  the  early  years  of  this  period.  This  build- 
ing, as  we  shall  see,  was  subsequently  taken  down  to  make  room  for  the 
enlargement  of  King's  Chapel. 

Beacon  Street  was  at  first  curiously  enough  "  the  way  leading  to  the 
Almshouse,"  that  institution  being  for  a  time  indeed  the  sole  or  principal 
building  it  contained.  Built  in  1662,  it  stood  for  twenty  years  on  the  corner 
of  Beacon  and  Park  streets,  and  having  been  burned  in  1682,  like  so  many 
other  of  the  early  public  buildings,  it  was  replaced  a  few  years  later  by  a 
structure  of  brick.2 

Park,  then  called  Gentry  or  Sentry  Street,  was  at  the  time  of  which  we 
write  but  a  foot-path  over  the  hill.  West  and  Winter  streets,  although 
mentioned  and  defined  in  the  list  of  1708,  thirty  or  forty  years  earlier 
were  nothing  but  grass-grown  by-ways,  the  latter  of  which  was  known 
variously  as  Blott's,  Bannister's,  and  Willis's  Lane;  while  Boylston  Street 
was  a  short  cross-way  ending  abruptly  in  the  marsh,  and  was  called, 
doubtless  with  good  cause,  "  Frog  Lane."  It  was  not,  as  now,  the  south- 
erly limit  of  the  Common,  for  Robert  Walker  had  a  house  and  garden 
on  the  corner  opposite  the  Hotel  Pelham  ;  William  Briscoe,  a  tailor, 
lived  adjoining,  where  the  deer  park  is ;  while  on  the  site  of  the  burial- 
ground  Cotton  Flacke,  a  laborer,  had  a  lot  granted  him  in  1640,  which 
was  occupied  a  few  years  later  by  William  Blantaine;  John  Serch  had  a 
lot  still  further  west. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  main  street,  the  cross-ways  leading  south  from 
State  and  east  from  Washington  streets  were  cut  short  or  turned  aside  from 
"  the  direct  forthright "  in  many  cases  by  the  various  marshes,  creeks,  and 
inlets  there  abounding.  Starting  at  the  southern  end  of  Washington  Street, 
and  taking  them  in  order,  we  find  that  Essex  Street  was  a  path  towards 
the  Windmill.  Bedford,  or  as  then  known  Pond,  Street  turned  and  followed 
nearly  the  line  of  Kingston  Street  to  the  shore,  which  it  reached  a  little  dis- 
tance north-west  of  the  United  States  Hotel.  It  passed  a  small  pond  known 
as  the  town's  "  watering  place,"  almost  opposite  the  old  English  and  High 
School-house,  where  we  may  imagine  the  thirsty  cattle  stopping  to  drink 
at  sundown,  on  their  way  home  from  the  hilly  pastures  of  the  Fort  Field. 
Summer  Street,  which  in  early  times  was  known  as  "  Ye  Mylne  street," 
appears  in  the  list  of  1708  by  its  present  name,  where  it  is  described  as 

1  Second  Report  of  Record  Commissioners^. 70.  gory,  a  separate   House  of  Correction  was  set 

2  Early  in  the  next  century,  when  the  town  up  in  Park   Street,  to  which  later  was  added  a 
fathers  had  discovered  that  poverty  and  vice  do  workhouse.     See    First    Report  of  the    Record 
not  necessarily  belong  to  the  same  moral  cate-  Commissioners,  78. 


TOPOGRAPHY,   ETC.,   OF   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  543 

"  leading  easterly  from  Doctor  Okes  his  corner  in  Newberry  Street,1  passing 
by  the  dwelling-House  of  Cap'  Tim0  Clark  extending  to  y6  sea."  It  was 
one  of  the  earliest  of  the  old  highways,  having  been  laid  out  in  1644; 
but  all  that  distinguishes  the  street,  even  the  reputed  residence  of  Sir 
Edmund  Andros,  belongs  to  a  later  day.  In  the  colonial  period  it  was 
so  near  the  extreme  south  end  of  the  town  as  to  be  socially  out  of  the 
world. 

High  Street  once  led  from  Summer  to  the  top  of  Fort  Hill,  and  as  long 
as  the  grassy  hillside  yielded  abundant  pasturage  its  old  name  of  Cow  Lane 
was  doubtless  a  most  apt  one ;  but  to-day,  when  the  last  vestige  of  the  old 
hill  has  been  swept  into  the  sea,  its  present  has  no  more  significance  than 
its  former  name.2 

One  of  the  most  important  and  interesting  by-ways  branching  off  from 
the  main  street  was  the  ancient  Fort,  now  Milk,  Street,  which  led  from  Gov- 
ernor Winthrop's  green  (Old-South  lot),  and  turning  on  the  line  of  Battery- 
march  Street  led  by  the  shore  to  the  old  Sconce  or  South  Battery ;  but,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  other  South-End  highways  above  mentioned,  the  many 
interesting  associations  to  which  its  name  gives  rise  belong  to  a  later  page, 
and  will  be  noticed  in  due  order. 

Of  Spring  Lane  Drake  has  given  a  delightful  picture.  It  recalls,  he 
says,  "  the  ancient  Spring-gate,  the  natural  fountain  at  which  Winthrop  and 
Johnson  stooped  to  quench  their  thirst,  and  from  which  no  doubt  Madam 
Winthrop  and  Anne  Hutchinson  filled  their  flagons  for  domestic  use.  The 
gentlemen  may  have  paused  here  for  friendly  chat,  if  the  rigor  of  the  Gov- 
ernor's opposition  to  the  schismatic  Anne  did  not  forbid.  The  handmaid 
of  Elder  Thomas  Oliver,  Winthrop's  next  neighbor  on  the  opposite  corner 
of  the  Spring-gate,  fetched  her  pitcher,  like  another  Rebecca,  from  this 
well ;  and  grim  Richard  Brackett,  the  jailer,  may  have  laid  down  his  halberd 
to  quaff  a  morning  draught." 

But  in  our  hasty  march  through  the  street  we  have  passed  the  most 
noted  landmark  of  the  period.  Turning  back  a  few  rods  towards  the  south, 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  way  nearly  fronting  the  head  of  Milk  Street,  we 
come  upon  the  most  interesting  of  all  the  colonial  buildings  which  remained 
standing  down  to  a  very  recent  period,  and  is  still  freshly  remembered  by 
people  now  living,  —  the  famous  Province  House.  This  fine  old  mansion 
was  originally  a  private  residence,  built  by  Peter  Sergeant,  Esq.,  a  wealthy 
merchant  formerly  of  London,  who  bought  the  land  in  October,  1676,  of 
Colonel  Samuel  Shrimpton,  the  great  real-estate  dealer  of  the  day,  for 
the  handsome  sum  of  .£350,  by  which  the  Colonel  doubtless  turned  a 
pretty  penny,  inasmuch  as  the  land  came  into  his  hands  shortly  before 
very  much  encumbered  on  the  death  of  worthy  Thomas  Millard,  its  pre- 
vious owner. 

1  One  of   the  early  names  of    Washington     Gillom  lived  on  the  left,  and  on  the  right  beyond 
Street.  Richard  Gridley  came  John  Harrison,  likewise 

2  [As    you   left   Summer    Street,   Benjamin     with  a  shore  front.  — ED.] 


544  THE  MEMORIAL  HISTORY  OF  BOSTON. 

Withdrawn  from  the  street,  raised  above  the  level  of  the  pavement,  and 
standing  in  the  midst  of  a  well-kept  green,  the  house  formed  a  conspicuous 
feature  of  the  neighborhood.  It  was  built  of  brick  imported  from  Holland, 
three  stories  in  height,  surmounted  by  a  lofty  cupola.  Before  the  door  was 
a  handsome  portico  supported  by  wooden  pillars,  and  crowned  by  a  bal- 
cony formed  by  an  iron  balustrade  of  intricate"  pattern,  into  which,  just  over 
the  entrance,  were  interwoven  the  owner's  initials  and  the  date  of  the 
building:  "  16.  P.  S.  79."  Leading  down  from  the  door  was  a  flight  of 
massive  red  freestone  steps,  while  along  the  front  of  the  lot,  separating  the 
garden  from  the  road,  stood  an  elaborate  iron  fence,  at  either  end  of  which 
were  small  porters'  lodges. 

But  one  house  does  "not  make  a  neighborhood ;  and  despite  his  fine 
walls  and  fences,  his  greensward  and  jealously-guarded  gates,  we  may 
imagine  the  aristocratic  Londoner's  occasional  disgust  at  his  surroundings, 
as  standing  upon  his  stately  balcony  he  gazed  over  at  honest  Francis  Lyle, 
the  barber,  his  next-door  neighbor  on  the  north,  sitting  in  the  midst  of  a 
family  group  upon  the  door-step  in  the  cool  of  the  evening;  or  turned  his 
eyes  southward  and  beheld  Goodman  Grubb,  the  leather-dresser,  his 
nearest  neighbor  in  that  direction,  smoking  an  evening  pipe  in  not  very 
immaculate  shirt-sleeves  at  the  garden  gate ;  or,  fleeing  for  consolation  to 
the  rear,  found  nothing  more  comforting  than  the  cross-legged  figure  of 
Arthur  Perry,  the  town  drummer  and  tailor,  straining  his  eyes  to  put  the 
last  stitches  to  the  waistcoat  or  small-clothes  of  some  impatient  customer, 
by  the  waning  light. 

But  Peter  Sergeant  in  due  time  went  the  wa^  of  all  the  living,  and  was 
gathered  in  1714  to  his  fathers;  his  widow1  married  again  and  sold  the 
grand  old  mansion  to  the  State,  whereupon  it  was  fitted  up  for  an  official 
residence.  These  were  the  days  of  its  glory  and  magnificence.  Fain 
would  we  linger  to  lift  the  curtain  upon  the  busy  scene,  to  have  a  peep  at 
the  household  economy  of  Shute,  Burnet,  Shirley,  Pownall,  Bernard,  and 
the  rest !  But  this,  as  well  as  Hawthorne's  quaint  description  of  the  "  old 
Governor's  house  "  in  its  decay,  belong  to  a  later  chapter. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  way,  a  little  to  the  south,  down  a  narrow 
passage  leading  out  from  the  main  street,  stood,  towards  the  close  of  the 
period,  another  of  the  old  taverns,  —  "The  Blue  Bell  and  Indian  Queen." 
We  may  imagine  its  droll  and  gayly-colored  sign,  which  doubtless  pro- 
truded into  Washington  Street,  and  the  queer  appearance  of  the  inn  itself, 
hemmed  into  the  narrow  passage  on  both  sides  of  which  it  was  built. 

We  have  now  come  again  to  the  Market  Place,  where,  directly  facing  us 
and  standing  in  the  middle  of  the  street,  is  an  old  landmark  not  to  be 

1  The    bewildering    snarl    of    widows    and  third  also   a   widow,  and   even   becoming    his 

widowers  suggested  by  Peter  Sergeant's  name  widow,  and  lastly  the  widow  of  her  third  hus- 

is  thus  clearly  unravelled  by  Shurtleff  :  "  He  was  band."  —  Topog.  and  Hist.  Desc.  of  Boston,  595. 

as  remarkable  in  his  marriages  as  in  his  wealth  ;  [See  also  Mr.  Whitmore's  chapter  in  the  present 

for  he  had  three  wives,  his  second  having  been  volume  and  Mr.  Savage's  Genealogical  Diction- 

a  widow  twice  before  her  third  venture ;  and  his  ary.  —  ED.] 


TOPOGRAPHY,    ETC.,    OF   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  545 

omitted.  This  is  the  Town  Pump,  the  water  of  which  does  not  come  from 
a  natural  fountain  as  at  the  Spring-gate,  but  from  a  well,  the  first  known  to 
have  been  dug  in  the  colony.  The  old  pump  stood  a  great  many  years, 
for  as  late  as  1760  we  find  an  order  leaving  to  the  discretion  of  the  select- 
men the  question  of  repairing  or  discontinuing  it.  We  are  told  that  it 
became  a  nuisance  *  and  gradually  fell  into  disuse.  It  stood  in  the  middle  of 
Washington  Street,  a  little  north  of  the  north-west  corner  of  Court  Street. 

Continuing  now  our  progress  through  the  highways,  and  proceeding 
down  State  Street,  we  find  branching  off  thence  to  the  southward,  instead 
of  the  three  long  streets  lined  with  stately  buildings  of  marble  and  stone  of 
the  present  day,  but  three  insignificant  lanes  which  are  quickly  lost  in  the 
creek  or  marsh.  Devonshire,  Congress,  and  Kilby  streets,  known  in  early 
times  as  Pudding,  Leverett's,  and  Mackerel  lanes,  had  previous  to  1684  no 
features  of  interest.  The  first,  as  has  been  said,  "  is  suggestive  of  good 
cheer;  "  but  it  is  not  clear  to  what  it  owes  its  name,  as  none  of  the  famous 
inns  with  which  the  neighborhood  of  King  Street  afterward  abounded  seem 
to  have  properly  belonged  to  it. 

Congress  Street  was  named  in  the  first  instance  after  Elder  Thomas  Lev- 
erett,  the  father  of  the  governor,  who  owned  the  land  thereabout,  who  was 
from  the  first  one  of  the  solid  men  of  the  colony,  and  had  been  a  civic 
dignitary  in  old  Boston  in  England.  Kilby  Street,  known  first  by  the 
unsavory  name  of  Mackerel  Lane,  was  very  narrow,  and  indeed  little  more 
than  an  alley  along  the  shore  extending  from  State  Street  to  Liberty  Square, 
crossing  the  creek  by  a  bridge. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  State  Street,  branching  off  northward,  there  was, 
besides  Wilson's  Lane  already  noticed,  Exchange  Street,  a  by-way  once  so 
narrow  that  a  cat  could  almost  have  jumped  across  it  in  the  days  when  it  was 
known  as  Shrimpton's  Lane, —  so  called  from  Colonel  Samuel  Shrimpton 
mentioned  above ;  while  below  this  on  the  same  side  ran  Merchants  Row, 
one  of  the  very  few  of  the  old  streets  which  have  retained  their  old-time 
names.  It  was  once  the  front  or  water  street,  and  followed  the  shore-line 
to  the  Town  Dock. 

This  brings  us  to  Dock  Square.  The  very  first  entry  in  the  Town 
Records,  written  in  the  hieroglyphic  hand  of  Governor  Winthrop,  is  an 
order  appointing  an  overseer  of  this  the  town's  chief  landing-place,  and 
directing  the  removal  of  timber,  stones,  and  other  obstructions  about  it.2 
Here  vessels  were  loaded  and  unloaded  ;  here  was  brought  for  awhile  every- 

1  [Cf.  Shurtleff,  Desc.  of  Boston,  ch.    xxix.  cistern,  twelve   feet   deep   or  deeper,   "at   the 

The  statements  in  Shurtleff  regarding  the  early  pumpe  which  standeth  in  the  hie  way  neare  to 

pumps  seem  to  be   erroneous   in  confounding  the  State  armes  Tavern,  for  to  howld  waiter  for 

them.    The  order  of  March,  1649-50,  authorizing  to  be  helpfull  in  case  of  fier  unto  the  towne." 

Mr.  Venner  and  neighbors  to  put  a  pump  near  Now  the  States  Arms  (not  the  King's  Arms,  as 

the  shop  of  William  Davis,  instead  of  referring  Shurtleff  gives  it)  was  on  the  lower  corner  of 

to  the  pump  on  Washington  Street,  opposite  State   and   Exchange   streets,   the   next   lot   to 

Court  Street,  pointed  to  one  in  State  Street,  just  Davis's,  and  the  order  clearly  refers  to  the  pump 

below  Exchange  Street,  where  William  Davis,  already  existing  there.  —  ED.] 
Jr.,  lived;  and  near  this  pump,  in  1653,  William  2  [A  facsimile  of  this  entry  is  given  in  Mr. 

Franklin  and  neighbors  were  allowed  to  make  a  Winthrop's  chapter. — ED.] 
VOL.    I.  —  69. 


546  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

thing  that  came  into  or  went  out  of  the  town,  and  it  at  once  became  one 
of  the  chief  centres  of  interest.  It  is  hard  for  a  modern  citizen  to  realize 
the  appearance  of  the  old  Town  Dock.  We  have  already  described  how 
the  cove  originally  made  in  to  the  foot  of  Brattle  Street  and  covered  nearly 
all  the  district  east  of  Union  Street.  But  this  early  aspect  of  things  soon 
changed  when  a  swing-bridge  was  thrown  across  the  dock,  nearly  in  the  line 
of  Merchants  Row,  wharves  were  built  on  either  side  by  private  parties,  and 
a  market-place  was  set  up. 

In  1657  we  find  a  committee  appointed  "  to  gaine  liberty  in  writing  of 
Mr.  Seaborne  Cotton  and  his  mother  to  bring  water  down  from  their  hill 
to  the  conduit  intended  to  be  erected."  This  conduit  was  a  reservoir  of 
water,  with  raised  and  sloping  sides  and  covered  top,  which  stood  in  the  midst 
of  the  market ;  and  originally  built  for  use  in  case  of  fire,  it  seems  to  have 
served  little  other  purpose  than  to  afford  a  counter  or  trafficking  place  for 
the  merchants  upon  market  days.1  The  building  of  the  conduit  was  doubt- 
less occasioned  by  the  "great  fire"  as  it  is  called  of  1654,  concerning 
which,  strangely  enough,  not  much  is  known  save  that  it  was  very  destruc- 
tive.2 There  had  been  previously  several  small  fires  which  had  caused  no 
great  alarm,  but  the  extensive  damage  done  by  this  first  "  great  fire " 
seems  to  have  created  general  concern,  as  is  evidenced  by  entries  in  the 
Town  Records,  and  precautions  taken  against  the  like  danger  in  the  future. 
Ladders,  swabs,  and  a  fire-engine  were  ordered,  and  measures  taken  to  have 
the  buildings  of  less  combustible  material.3  Two  other  "  great  fires " 
occurred  during  the  colonial  period,  —  one  in  1676,  "which  began  an  hour 
before  day,  continuing  three  or  four;  in  which  time  it  burned  down  to  the 
ground  forty-six  dwelling  houses,  besides  other  buildings,  together  with  a 
meeting-house  of  considerable  bigness."  This  was  the  Mather  church, 
the  Old  North.  It  burned  Mather's  house  as  well  as  his  church,  but  spared 
his  library.  It  would  seem  that  Cotton  Mather  came  naturally  enough  by 
the  "  bee  in  his  bonnet,"  when  we  read  that  the  Rev.  Increase  had  had  a 
premonition  "  that  a  fire  was  coming  which  would  make  a  deplorable 
desolation."  4 

The  other  "great  fire"  in  1679  was  even  more  terrible  in  its  ravage. 
"  It  began,"  says  Hutchinson,  "  at  one  Gross's  house,  the  sign  of  the 
Three  Mariners,  near  the  Dock.  All  the  warehouses  and  a  great  number 
of  dwelling  houses,  with  the  vessels  then  in  the  dock,  were  consumed,  —  the 
most  woful  desolation  that  Boston  had  ever  seen."  "  Fourscore  of  thy 
dwelling-houses  and  seventy  of  thy  warehouses  in  a  ruinous  heap  "  is  the 
estimate  of  loss  made  by  the  Rev.  Cotton  Mather  in  an  apostrophe  to 
Boston  in  the  Magnolia? 

J  Cf.  Shurtleff 's  Desc.  of  Boston,  401,  and  p.  4  [See  also  Shurtleff,  Desc.  of  Boston,  403, 

233  of  this  volume.  640;  Snow,  Boston,  165.  Mr.  William  H.  Whit- 

2  See  Winthrop.  Papers  in  4  Mass.  Hist,  more  printed  in  1872  an  Historical  Summary  of 

Coll.,  vi.  155.  fires  in  Boston.  —  ED.] 

8  [See  Mr.  Scudder's  chapter  in  the  present  6  [See  Snow,  Boston,  164 ;  Drake,  Land- 

volume. — ED.]  marks,  169;  Sciuall  Papers,  \.  28. — ED.] 


TOPOGRAPHY,   ETC.,    OF   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


547 


But  to  return  to  the  conduit;  from  this  point  branched  off  Elm,  Union, 
and  North  streets,  the  latter  of  which  was,  along  a  short  part  of  its  course, 
once  known  as  Conduit  Street.  The  Mill  Creek,  as  before  described,  con- 
nected the  Mill  Cove  with  the  Town  Dock.  From  the  list  of  1708  we 
learn  that  later,  if  not  at  this  time,  the  Fish  Market  was  "  The  way  from 
Mr.  Antram's  corner  nigh  the  sd  Conduit,  leading  from  thence  North-Eastly 
by  y6  side  of  ye  Dock  as  far  as  Mr.  Winsor's  warehouse  ;  "  and  Drake 
says :  "  All  the  north  side  of  the  Dock  seems  to  have  been  known  at  one 
time  as  the  Fish  Market."  Corn  Market  and  Corn  Court  were  on  the 
south  side. 


THE   OLD    FEATHER  STORE.1 

Facing  Dock  Square  at  the  corner  of  North  Street  stood  until  a  few 
years  ago  (1860)  one  of  the  most  remarkable  buildings  in  the  town,  known 
variously  as  the  "Old  Feather  Store,"  the  "  Old  Cocked  Hat,"  &c.  Luckily 
there  was  no  doubt  as  to  its  age,  for  it  bore  the  date  of  its  construction, 
1680,  imprinted  in  the  rough-cast  wall  of  its  western  gable.  The  build- 
ing was  of  wood,  covered  with  a  kind  of  cement  stuck  thickly  with 
coarse  gravel,  bits  of  broken  glass,  old  junk  bottles,  &c.  The  lower  story 
was  rather  contracted  after  a  usual  fashion  of  the  time,  and  it  may  have 
been  owing,  perhaps,  in  this  case  to  the  limitations  of  the  lot,  which  on 
the  south  and  south-west  abutted  upon  the  dock ;  but  above  this  were  jet- 
ties, that  is,  projecting  stories,  and  a  roof  whose  gables  gave  it  the  fancied 
resemblance  to  an  old  cocked  hat.  The  house  was  designed  for  two  tene- 

1  [This  cut  follows  a  picture  painted  in  1817,  ously  represented  by  engravings.  There  is  one 
given  to  the  Historical  Society  by  Mr.  William  in  Snow's  Boston,  and  nearly  all  the  later  books 
H.  Whitmore.  The  old  building  has  been  vari-  describing  Boston  give  it.  —  ED.] 


548  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

merits,  and  had  separate  entrances.  It  was  used  for  many  purposes  in  its 
long  career.1  At  one  time  there  was  kept  here  the  principal  apothecary's 
shop  of  the  town,  while  from  1806  for  a  long  series  of  years  it  was  occu- 
pied as  a  feather  store ;  hence  one  of  its  names. 

These  were  the  principal  streets  in  the  more  southerly  parts  of  the  town ; 
north  of  the  Mill  Creek  we  shall  find  many  others  of  interest  and  importance. 
There  can  be  no  question  that  during  the  last  years  of  this  period  the  North 
End  deserved  for  many  reasons  to  be,  as  Josselyn  calls  it,  "  the  most  elegant 
and  populous  part  of  the  town ;  "  and  it  must  always  be  regretted  that  this 
portion  of  the  peninsula  —  so  beautifully  situated,  so  admirably  adapted  for 
fine  residences,  with  its  easy  slopes,  its  commanding  view  both  seaward  and 
landward,  and  its  naturally-guarded  precincts — should  have  been  the  soon- 
est deserted  by  fashion  and  given  over  in  large  part  to  poverty,  squalor, 
and  decay. 

Hanover  Street,  which  has  been  twice  widened,  until  now  it  forms  one  of 
the  finest  thoroughfares  in  the  city,  was  in  colonial  days  little  more  than 
a  narrow  lane.  It  is  described  in  provincial  times,  in  the  list  of  1708,  as 
"  the  street  from  between  Houchen's  corner  and  ye  Sign  of  ye  Orange-tree, 
Leading  Northerly  to  ye  Mill-bridge."  Houchen's,  or  Houchin's,  was  the 
southerly  corner  of  Hanover  and  Court  streets,  named  for  a  worthy  tanner 
who  had  his  pits  in  the  neighborhood.  The  "  Orange-tree "  was  an  old 
hostelry  on  the  opposite  corner,  where  early  in  the  next  century  the  first 
public  coach  ever  known  in  Boston  was  set  up.  Thence  traversing  the 
narrow  neck  across  which,  as  Johnson  says,  the  Mill  Creek  "  was  cut 
through  by  industry,"  Hanover  Street  extended  northward  to  the  water, 
forming  the  highway  to  the  Winnisimmet  Ferry. 

On  each  side  of  this  main  thoroughfare,  called  from  its  position  Middle 
Street,  Fore  and  Back  streets  branched  off  to  the  right  and  left  like  the  fingers 
upon  a  man's  hand.  All  three  streets  bore  at  different  times  other  names, 
frequently  being  called  variously  along  different  parts  of  their  course. 
Thus  Hanover  was  dubbed  Middle  Street  in  one  place  and  North  in  another; 
Back,  now  Salem,  Street  was  once  known  as  Green  Lane ;  while  Fore  Street, 
which,  as  its  name  signifies,  was  originally  laid  out  along  the  water  front,  and 
was  wharfed  out  as  the  town  grew  and  need  required,  soon  lost  this  early 
name,  and  in  the  list  of  1708  we  find  it  called  as  follows:  Ann  Street  being 
"  the  way  from  the  Conduit  in  Union  Street  Leading  Northerly  over  ye 
Bridge  to  Elliston's  corner  at  ye  lower  end  of  Cross  Street;  "  Fish  Street 
being  "the  street  from  Mountjoy's  corner  at  the  Lower  end  of  Cross  Street 
leading  Northerly  to  ye  sign  of  the  Swan  by  Scarlett's  Wharfe  ;  "  and  Ship 
Street  being  "  the  street  Leading  Northerly  from  Everton's  corner  nigh 
Scarlett's  wharfe  to  the  North  Battry,"  -—  all  together  forming  the  one  con- 
tinuous highway  now  known  to  us  as  North  Street. 

Besides  these  principal  thoroughfares  running  lengthwise  there  were  va- 

4  See  for  a  list  of  its  various  occupants,  and  for  a  more  detailed  account,  Shurtleff,  Desc.  of 
Boston,  ch.  liii;  Drake,  Landmarks,  p.  133. 


TOPOGRAPHY,    ETC.,    OF   THE    COLONIAL   PERIOD.  549 

rious  cross  streets  which  date  back  to  the  earliest  times.  Union  Street,  de- 
scribed later  as  "  the  way  Leading  from  Platt's  Corner  North-westerly  passing 
by  the  Green  Dragon  to  ye  Mill  Pond,"  was  from  the  first  an  important  and 
much-frequented  street ;  the  presence  in  it  of  "  The  Green  Dragon,"  per- 
haps the  most  famous  of  all  the  old-time  taverns,  and  of  Franklin's  boyhood 
home  and  disputed  birthplace  are  enough  to  invest  it  with  lasting  historic 
interest.  Of  these  two  places  we  shall  in  due  order  make  further  mention. 
Cross  Street,  as  its  name  indicates,  was  a  "  way  Leading  from  the  Mill  Pond 
South-easterly  by  ye  late  Deacon  Phillips's  stone  house  extending  down  to 
ye  sea."  This  old  house  alone  seems  to  have  given  the  street  character  and 
importance ;  it  was  a  gloomy,  massive  building  of  rough  stone  undoubtedly 
dating  back  to  the  colonial  period,  as  it  is  estimated  to  have  been  nearly  two 
centuries  old  when  it  was  taken  down  in  1864.  The  singularity  of  its  con- 
struction and  the  uncertainty  as  to  its  origin  and  purpose  have  surrounded 
it  with  peculiar  interest.  There  are  suggestions  that  it  may  have  been  in 
early  times  a  jail  or  a  watch-house,  as  mention  is  made  of  loop-holes  found 
in  the  walls.  It  is  described  as  consisting  "  of  two  wings  of  uniform  size, 
joining  each  other  and  forming  a  right  angle.  Each  wing  was  forty  feet 
long,  twenty  feet  wide,  and  two  stories  high,  the  wings  fronting  the  south  and 
west.  There  was  one  door  in  the  end  of  each  wing  on  the  first  story,  and  a 
single  circular  window  in  the  second  story  over  the  doors ;  there  were  also 
two  circular  windows  in  each  story  of  each  wing  in  front,  but  neither  door 
nor  window  in  either  wing  in  the  rear.  The  foundation  walls  were  four  feet 
thick  or  more ;  the  walls  above  ground  were  two  feet  in  thickness,  and  built 
entirely  of  small  quarried  stones  unlike  anything  to  be  seen  in  this  neighbor- 
hood, and  were  probably  brought  as  ballast  from  some  part  of  Europe."  l 

"  The  Street  Leading  North-westerly  from  Morrell's  corner  in  Middle 
Street  pass-in  by  Mr.  David  Norton's,  Extending  to  ye  salt  water  at  Ferry- 
way,"  was  Prince  Street,  which  with  Hanover  still  curiously  retains  the  name 
once  given  it  out  of  compliment  to  royalty.  It  was  formerly  called  Black 
Horse  Lane  from  the  old  "  Black  Horse  "  inn,  which  was  destined  to  become 
notorious  in  after  years  as  a  refuge  for  British  deserters.  Charter,  Snow- 
Hill,  and  Lynn  streets,  if  existing,  had  attained  no  prominence  in  colonial 
times.  Hull  Street  ran  from  Snow  Hill  to  Salem  Street,  and  formed  the 
southern  boundary  of  the  burying-ground.  It  was  laid  out  through  the 
field  of  old  John  Hull,  whose  name  it  bears,  and  whose  daughter,  wife  of 
Judge  Sewall,  conveyed  it  to  the  town.  This  is  no  other  than  that  Mistress 
Hannah  Hull  who  upon  her  marriage  with  Samuel  Sewall  is  said  to  have  re- 
ceived for  a  dowry  her  own  weight  in  pine-tree  shillings.  It  was  her  father 
who  coined  these  famous  shillings  ;  and  whether  the  story  be  true  or  not,  it  is 
certain  that  worthy  John  Hull,  who  was  a  man  of  substance,  might  easily 
have  indulged  himself  in  the  whim  if  he  had  chosen.2  He  was  a  silversmith, 

1  Savage,   Police  Records  and  Recollections,  2  For  a  delightful  imaginary  account  of  this 

294;  ShurtJeff,  Desc.  of  Boston,  p.  666;  Drake,  famous  wedding,  see  Hawthorne's  Grandfather's 
Landmarks,  p.  155.  Chair,  p.  39. 


550  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

and  set  up  at  his  own  house  in  Sheafe  Street  the  first  mint  in  the  colony, 
where  he  and  his  assistant  bound  themselves  with  an  oath  to  make  all  their 
money  "  of  the  just  alloy  of  the  English  cojne ;  that  every  shilling  should 
be  of  due  weight,  namely,  three-penny  troj  weight,  and  all  other  pieces 
proportionably,  so  neere  as  they  could." 

But  it  was  in  and  around  a  little  open  space  hedged  about  with  substan- 
tial-looking buildings,  lying  upon  the  south-east  declivity  of  Copp's  Hill, 
that  our  interest  with  regard  to  the  North  End  centres  in  these  early  colonial 
days,  and  in  fact  for  a  long  time  subsequent.  Here  was  a  spot  which  rivalled 
the  famous  precincts  of  Washington  and  State  streets  as  a  social  centre. 
This  was  Clark's  Square,  afterwards,  as  we  shall  find,  to  be  known  by  other 
names.  But  before  entering  the  Square  the  early  colonist  beheld,  fronting  him 
on  the  corner  of  North  and  Richmond  streets,  a  substantial  brick  building, 
which  was  a  well  known  resort  of  the  choice  spirits  of  two  centuries  ago. 
This  was  the  old  "  Red  Lyon  Inn,"  kept  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century  by  mine  host  Nicholas  Upsall,  who  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the 
solid  men  of  the  town,  for  he  owned  a  wharf  just  below  his  ordinary,  besides 
considerable  real  estate.  But,  alas !  poor  man,  he  was  a  Quaker,  and  was 
persecuted  along  with  his  fellows,  at  length  dying  a  martyr  to  his  faith  and 
his  philanthropy;  his  first  recorded  offence  was  that  of  trying  to  bribe  the 
jailer  to  feed  a  couple  of  starving  Quakeresses  in  his  custody.1  Here,  facing 
the  square,  stood  the  "Old  North,"  put  up  in  1650,  burned  in  1676,  and  at 
once  replaced.  This  was  the  church  of  the  Mathers,  and  all  three  lived 
hard  by,  —  Increase  in  North  Street,  Cotton  in  Hanover,  and  Samuel  on  the 
corner  of  Moon  Street  Court. 

We  can  scarcely  realize  as  we  look  upon  the  little  circumscribed  tri- 
angular enclosure  now  known  as  North  Square,  with  its  narrow  entrance, 
how  large  a  part  it  once  played  in  colonial  life ;  that  here  and  closely  herea- 
bout lived  the  men  of  wealth  and  consequence  who  directed  public  policy 
and  had  the  conduct  of  affairs.  Yet  it  is  evident  that  even  at  this  day  it 
retains  something  of  its  old  look.  Drake2  has  given  a  graphic  and  spirited 
description  of  the  whole  neighborhood,  from  which  we  make  room  for  a 
short  extract :  — 

"  Standing  before  an  entrance  still  narrow,  the  relics  of  demolished  walls  on  our 
right  show  that  the  original  opening  was  once  even  more  cramped  than  now,  and  scarce 
permitted  the  passage  of  a  vehicle.  The  point  made  by  North  Street  reached  consid- 
erably beyond  the  present  curbstone  some  distance  into  the  street,  both  sides  of  which 
were  cut  off  when  the  widening  took  place.  This  headland  of  brick  and  mortar  jut- 
ting out  into  old  Fish  Street,  as  a  bulwark  to  protect  the  aristocratic  residents  of  the 
square,  was  long  known  as  '  Mountford's  Corner '  from  the  family  owning  and  occu- 
pying it. 

"  Within  the  compass  of  a  few  rods  we  find  buildings  of  undeniable   antiquity, 

1  [See  Dr.  Ellis's  chapter  on  "  The  Puritan     spell  his  name  Upshall,  but  his  own  signature 
Commonwealth  "  and  Mr.  Whittier's  Poem,  in     gives  it  as  in  the  text.  —  ED.] 
the   present   volume.      The    Quaker  -historians  2  Landmarks,  157. 


TOPOGRAPHY,    ETC.,    OF   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 


551 


some  extremely  ruinous,  with  shattered  panes  and  leaky  roofs,  while  others,  improved 
upon  to  suit  more  modern  tenants,  have  the  jaunty  air  of  an  old  beau  in  modern 
habiliments.  One  patriarch  stands  at  the  corner  of  Sun  Court  and  Moon  Street.  Its 
upper  story  projects  after  the  fashion  of  the  last  century ;  the  timbers,  which  tradition 
says  were  cut  in  the  neighborhood,  are  of  prodigious  thickness,  while  the  clapboards 
are  fastened  with  wrought  nails." 

A  visitor  to  the  neighborhood  may  still  find  a  number  of  buildings  and 
parts  of  buildings  of  undoubted  antiquity,  concerning  which,  however,  it 
cannot  now  be  ascertained  which,  if  any,  date  back  to  the  period  we  are 
discussing. 


AN   OLD   HOUSE   IN   SALEM   STREET.1 

One  old  house,  which  until  a  few  years  ago  (1866)  stood  upon  the  corner 
of  North  and  Clark  streets,  happily  does  not  belong  to  this  category :  we 
mean  the  old  Ship  Tavern,  or  "Noah's  Ark,"  as  it  was  often  called  from  the 

1  [This  house  is  still  standing,  and  seems  to  belong  to  the  late  colonial  or  early  provincial 
period.  —  ED.] 


552  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

rough  representation  of  a  ship  over  the  door.  This  old  house  is  supposed 
to  have  been  built  previous  to  1650;  its  first  known  owner  was  Captain 
Thomas  Hawkins,  a  busy,  restless  ship-builder,  who  owned  a  ship-yard 
near  his  house,  made  many  voyages,  was  cast  away  three  times,  and  at 
length,  as  if  determined  to  show  that  he  was  not  born  to  be  hanged,  lost 
his  life  by  shipwreck.  In  the  apportionment  of  his  estate  "  his  brick  house 
and  lands  "  were  set  out  to  his  widow,  from  whom  indirectly  it  passed  to 
one  John  Viall,  or  Vyal,  by  whom  it  was  kept  as  an  inn  or  ordinary  as  far 
back  as  1655.  It  was  in  a  room  in  this  inn  that  Sir  Robert  Carr,  the  royal 
commissioner,  assaulted  the  constable  and  wrote  the  defiant  letter  to  Gover- 
nor Leverett.1  The  house  was  built  of  English  brick,  laid  in  the  English 
bond ;  it  had  deep,  projecting  jetties,  Lutheran  attic  windows,  and  floor 
timbers  of  the  antique  triangular  shape ;  it  was  originally  only  two  stories 
high,  but  a  third  story  had  been  added  by  a  later  occupant.  A  large  crack 
in  the  front  wall  was  supposed  to  have  been  caused  by  the  earthquake  of 
1663,  "which  made  all  New  England  tremble."2 

Besides  these  various  streets  and  highways  there  remain  certain  other  im- 
portant topographical  features  of  Boston  still  to  be  described,  the  first  and 
principal  of  which  is  the  Common.  No  street,  section,  or  neighborhood  of 
the  city  is  so  intimately  connected  with  its  life,  so  closely  associated  with 
all  that  is  most  sacred  and  glorious,  humiliating  and  painful,  in  its  history 
as  this  fifty  acres  of  green-sward  in  its  midst.  While  no  quarter  of  the 
town  has  changed  less  perhaps  in  outward  appearance  (the  same  hills  and 
valleys,  the  same  slopes  and  curves  appearing  now  as  aforetime  upon  its  sur- 
face), there  is  yet  a  vast  difference  between  the  beautiful  park  of  to-day  — 
with  its  arching  elms  and  flowering  lindens,  with  its  fountains,  its  statues,  its 
malls,  and  mimic  lake  —  and  the  uninclosed  waste,  the  stubbly  cow-pasture, 
the  bleak  hill-side  of  two  hundred  years  ago,  when  the  wild  roses  bloomed 
upon  its  summit  and  the  frogs  croaked  in  the  marshes  at  its  base. 

Yet  the  Common  is  the  Common  still.  The  park  of  the  nineteenth  century 
is  as  much  the  heritage  and  property  of  the  people  as  was  the  cow  pasture 
of  the  seventeenth ;  and  though  we  may  no  more  drive  our  cattle  3  to  feed 
upon  its  herbage,  we  may  feast  our  eyes  upon  its  verdure,  we  may  escape 
from  the  hot  and  dusty  streets  and  wander  among  its  shady  and  fragrant 
paths,  and  our  sons  may  still  coast  down  its  glassy  sides  in  winter,  to  the 
imminent  peril  of  their  own  necks  and  to  the  terror  of  every  passer-by. 

Our  title  to  the  Common  is  easily  traced  ;  it  originally  formed  part  of  the 
possessions  of  William  Blackstone,  the  first  white  settler,  whose  ownership 
was  acknowledged  and  confirmed  by  an  entry  in  the  Town  Records  as  early 
as  1633,  by  which  it  was  "  agreed  that  William  Blackstone  shall  have  fifty 
acres  set  out  for  him  near  his  house  in  Boston  to  enjoy  forever."  The  next 

1  [See  the  chapters  in  the  present  volume  by  2  Drake,  Landmarks,  p.  174. 

Mr.   Charles   Deane    and   Colonel    Higginson.  8  Cattle  were  pastured  upon  the  Common  for 

—  ED.]  two  or  three  years  after  the  town  became  a  city. 


TOPOGRAPHY,  ETC.,  OF  THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD.      553 

year,  1634,  Blackstone  sold  the  whole  parcel  of  land  to  the  town,  excepting 
only  six  acres  immediately  adjoining  his  house.1  The  land  thus  coming 
into  the  possession  of  the  town  as  public  property  was  directly  committed 
(Dec.  1 8,  1634)  to  the  care  of  Winthrop  and  others  to  divide,  and  to  leave 
"  such  portions  in  common  for  ye  use  of  newe  comers  and  ye  further  bene- 
fitt  of  ye  towne,  as  in  theire  best  discretions  they  shall  think  fitt;"  and  six 
years  later  we  find  its  alienation  or  appropriation  to  other  purposes  guarded 
against  by  an  order  passed  March  36,  1640,  to  the  following  effect:  — 

"  Also  agreed  upon  y4  henceforth  there  shalbe  no  land  granted  eyther  for  house- 
plott  or  garden  to  any  pson  out  of  ye  open  ground  or  Comon  ffeild  wch  is  left  betweene 
y-  Gentry  Hill  and  Mr.  Colbron's  end ;  except  3  or  4  lotts  to  make  vp  ye  street  from 
bro.  Robt  Walker's  to  ye  Round  Marsh."  2 

Upon  Bonner's  map,  which,  although  published  in  the  next  century, 
affords  the  earliest  satisfactory  view  of  the  town,  there  appear  but  three 
trees  on  the  Common,  —  two  of  medium  size  at  the  upper  or  northern  end, 
and  the  Great  Elm  so  well  remembered  by  all  of  this  generation.3 

Standing  in  the  midst  of  the  "Gentry,"  or  "Century,"  or  "Training 
Field,"  as  the  Common  was  variously  called,  the  Great  Elm  was  unquestion- 
ably the  most  conspicuous  feature  in  the  field,  and  the  rallying  point  upon 
all  occasions  of  public  business  and  pleasure.  Here  Winthrop  may  have 
paused  in  the  shade  that  August  day  in  1630,  when  he  came  over  from 
Charlestown  at  the  bidding  of  Blackstone  to  explore  the  spot ;  here  John 
Wilson  may  have  preached  his  first  sermon  upon  the  peninsula ;  here  the 
dusky  ancestors  of  Obbatinewat  and  the  Squaw  Sachem  may  have  held 
many  a  savage  feast  and  solemn  pow-wow ;  here,  we  have  reason  to  believe, 
swinging  from  the  sturdy  branches,  early  culprits  suffered  the  stern  penalty 
of  the  law,  and  the  hapless  victims  of  bigotry  met  with  a  cruel  martyrdom.4 

The  area  of  the  Common  has  been  both  enlarged  and  curtailed  since  the 
first  purchase  from  Blackstone.  In  June,  1757,  on  the  petition  of  various  cit- 
izens showing  the  need  of  a  place  of  interment  at  the  South  End,  the  town 
bought  the  land  covered  by  the  burying-ground  —  since  diminished  by  tak- 
ing off  the  Boylston  Street  Mall  —  from  Andrew  Oliver,  who  held  it  in  the 
right  of  his  wife,  a  daughter  of  Colonel  Thomes  Fitch.  In  October,  1787, 
one  William  Foster  conveyed  to  the  town  "  a  certain  tract  of  land  contain- 
ing two  acres  and  one  eighth  of  an  acre,  situated,  lying,  and  being  near  the 
Common,  and  bounded  E.  on  the  highway  324  ft. ;  North  on  the  Common 

1  The  price  paid  by  the  town  for  the  land  as  2  These  three  or  four  lots  reserved  were  be- 
well  as  the  fact  of  its  purchase  are  sufficiently  tween  the  Common  and  Frog  Lane  or  Boylston 
shown  by  the  following  extracts  from  the  Town  Street,  as  explained  in -an  earlier  note  to  this 
Records :  "  The  iorh  daye  of  the  9th  mo.  1634.  chapter. 

Item:   yf   Edmund    Quinsey,    Samuel    Wilbore,  8  [Concerning   the    age    of   this  noble  tree, 

\Yill1".  Boston,  Edward   Hutchinson  the  elder,  see  the  note  to  Professor  Gray's  chapter  on  the 

Will111'  Cheesbrough  the  constable,  shall  make  &  "  Flora  of  Boston."  —  ED.] 

assesse  all  these  rates,  viz'1  a  rate  of  ^30  to  Mr.  4  It   is   supposed   that   all   the  early  execu- 

Blackstone,"  &c.      [See   also   the   note   to  Mr.  tions  took  place  upon  the  Common.     In  many 

Adams's  chapter.  —  En.]  cases  it  is  known  that  they  did. 
VOL.    I.  —  70. 


554  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

295  ft.  5  in. ;  W.  on  the  new  burial-ground  302  ft.  3  in ;  S.  on  Pleasant  St. 
281  ft.  9  inches,"  which  embraces  the  land  now  used  for  the  deer-park.1 

On  the  other  hand,  the  ancient  Gentry  Field  once  extended  as  far  north 
as  Beacon  and  as  far  east  as  Mason  Street,  the  Granary  Burying-Ground  and 
Park  Street  having  been  taken  from  it  on  the  one  side,  while  a  goodly  slice 
was  shorn  off  to  form  Tremont  Street  on  the  other.  North-west  of  it  a  high 
ridge  —  the  West  Hill  described  in  the  early  part  of  this  chapter,  subse- 
quently cut  down  to  form  Charles  Street  —  extended  from  near  the  junction 
of  Beacon  and  Spruce  streets,  till  it  sloped  to  the  beach  near  Cambridge 
Street.  The  lower  part  of  the  Common  bordered  upon  the  water;  and  a 
part  of  the  parade  ground  and  all  the  Public  Garden  was  nothing  but  a 
marsh,  where  in  the  next  century  extensive  rope-walks  were  laid  out. 

Other  minor  features  are  necessary  to  complete  our  picture  of  the  early 
Training  Field.  There  was  Flagstaff  Hill,  which  offered  a  vantage  point  to 
the  British  artillery  during  the  Revolution,  now  crowned  by  the  Soldiers' 
Monument;  there  were  the  three  ponds,  Frog,  Cow,  and  Sheehan  ponds, — 
the  last  two,  and  very  likely  the  first,  nothing  but  marshes  which  have  long 
since  disappeared,  which,  however,  were  once  sufficient  to  furnish  a  watering 
place  for  the  cattle;  there,  too,  was  the  Wishing  Stone,  near  the  junction  of 
Beacon- Street  Mall  and  the  path  leading  to  Joy  Street,  and,  we  are  told, 
"  the  young  folks  of  by-gone  days  used  to  walk  nine  times  around  this 
stone,  and  then  standing  or  sitting  upon  it  silently  make  their  wishes."  2 

That  the  town  was,  from  the  first,  jealous  of  any  abuse  of  the  right  of  com- 
monage by  the  inhabitants,  and  watchful  that  the  public  domain  should  be 
kept  in  decent  order  and  condition,  appears  from  several  entries  in  the  Town 
Records.  An  order  was  passed  in  May,  1646,  that  all  the  inhabitants  should 
have  equal  right  of  com/nonage,  while  at  the  same  time  it  was  voted  that 
no  one  coming  into  the  town  subsequently  to  this  date  should  be  entitled  to 
this  privilege.  Milch  kine  to  the  number  of  seventy  were  allowed  pastur- 
age, but  "  no  dry  cattill,  younge  cattill,  or  horse  shalbe  free  to  go  on  ye 
comon  this  year;  but  one  horse  for  Elder  Oliver." 

It  was  also  strictly  forbidden  to  throw  any  stones,  trash,  or  other  offensive 
matter  upon  the  field  ;  and  that  these  various  orders  were  effectual  in  accom- 
plishing the  desired  end  is  evident  from  the  account  of  Josselyn.3 

Other  open  spaces  devoted  to  public  use  were  the  burying-grounds,  of 
which  previous  to  1687  there  were  three,  —  the  "  Chapel,"  the  "  Granary," 
and  "  Copp's  Hill."  The  former  was  the  first  place  of  interment  used  in 
the  town,  and  its  origin  and  history  may  be  called  coeval  with  those  of  Bos- 
ton. Here,  we  are  told  by  Chief-Justice  Sewall,  was  buried  Mr.  Isaac  John- 
son, perhaps  the  most  important  man  in  the  infant  colony.  The  story  goes, 
that,  after  the  peninsula  had  been  determined  upon  as  a  place  of  settlement, 
Mr.  Johnson  selected  for  himself  the  land  now  occupied  by  the  grave-yard ; 

1  Dr.    Shurtleff,   Desc.    of   Bostoti,  ch.   xxi.,  Sewall  (Diary,  i.  377,  ii.  344),  mentions  getting 
gives  a  very  good  history  of  the  Common.  out  building  stones  there  as  late  as  1693.  —  Er>.) 

2  [The  Common  seems  to  have  had  boulders  :J  [See  this  quoted  in   Mr.   Scudder's  chap- 
and  ledges  of  rock  cropping  out  here  and  there,  ter  in  the  present  volume.  —  ED.] 


TOPOGRAPHY,   ETC.,   OF   THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD.  555 

and  on  his  death,  which  took  place  in  Charlestown,  Sept.  30,  1630,  he  was 
naturally  buried  in  his  own  lot.  Others  dying  subsequently  requested  to  be 
buried  near  him;  and  so  the  place  came  to  be  a  common  burying-ground. 

Many  doubts  attach  to  this  story,  inasmuch  as  the  Diary  of  Chief-Justice 
Sevvall,  where  it  is  told,  was  not  written  until  many  years  afterwards,  and 
there  is  no  existing  account  of  the  burial  of  Johnson,  which  in  the  case  of 
so  prominent  a  man  is  somewhat  remarkable,  the  rather  that  on  the  death  in 
the  following  February  of  one  Captain  Weldon,  a  young  and  comparatively 
unimportant  person,  both  Winthrop  and  Dudley  give  particulars  of  his  in- 
terment. However  that  may  be,  there  is  no  doubt  that  this  was  the  earliest, 
and  for  thirty  years  indeed  the  sole,  burying-ground  in  the  town.  After  the 
building  of  the  Chapel  it  was  used  chiefly  for  those  belonging  to  the  faith  of 
the  Church  of  England  ;  but  previous  to  that  some  of  the  sternest  and  most 
noted  of  the  old  Puritans  found  here  their  resting  place.  Here  were  laid  John 
Winthrop,  his  son  and  grandson,  all  governors ;  Parsons  Cotton,  Davenport, 
Oxenbridge,  and  Bridge  of  the  First  Church,  all  buried  in  the  tomb  of  Elder 
Thomas  Oliver,  which  became  afterwards  the  property  of  the  Church ;  Lady 
Andros,  wife  of  the  hated  Sir  Edmund ;  Governor  Shirley,  Captain  Roger 
Clap,  Dr.  Benjamin  Church,  and  a  host  of  others  of  the  early  and  later 
periods  less  known  to  fame. 

"  Copp's  Hill,"  at  first  called  the  "  Old  North  Burying-Ground,"  comes 
next  in  point  of  time,  the  original  parcel  comprising  the  north-eastern  part 
of  the  present  lot  having  been  bought  by  the  town  in  1659-60.  This 
was  the  extent  of  the  ground  in  the  colonial  period ;  other  parcels  have 
since  been  added.  In  1711  Samuel  Sewall  and  his  wife  Hannah  conveyed 
a  part  of  what  had  once  been  the  pasture  of  old  John  Hull  the  mint 
master;  in  their  deed  there  was  a  reservation  of  "  one  rodd  square  in  which 
Mrs.  Mary  Thatcher  now  lyeth  buried,"  which  "  rodd  square "  had  pre- 
viously (in  1708-9)  been  conveyed  by  them  "with  no  right  of  way  except 
across  the  old  burying-place,"  to  Joshua  Gee,  —  so  that  now,  strangely 
enough,  there  exists  a  small  parcel  of  private  estate  in  the  very  midst  of  the 
ground  upon  which  for  all  restrictions  to  the  contrary  the  owners  might 
erect  a  light-house  or  a  cider-mill !  Situated  upon  the  summit  of  one  of 
the  ancient  hills,  this  cemetery  occupies  one  of  the  most  commanding  and 
delightful  spots  in  the  town.  The  oldest  inscription  it  contains  is  dated  Aug. 
15,  1662;  those  purporting  to  commemorate  the  death  of  John  Thwing 
in  1620,  and  of  Grace  Berry  in  1625,  both  some  years  before  the  founding 
of  the  colony,  are  thought  to  have  been  altered  by  a  mischievous  youth  with 
his  jack-knife.  Of  the  many  interesting  associations  that  cluster  around  this 
cemetery  and  of  the  famous  folk,  not  a  few,  buried  within  it,  none  belong  to 
the  colonial  period.  Of  the  humbler  sort  Drake  gives  the  following  droll 
list  in  his  Landmarks  of  Boston :  — 

"The  singular  juxtaposition  of  names  strikes  the  reader  of  the  headstones  in  Copp's 
Hill.  Here  repose  the  ashes  of  Mr.  John  Milk  and  Mr.  William  Beer ;  of  Samuel 
Mower  and  Theodocia  Hay ;  Timothy  Gay  and  Daniel  Graves ;  of  Elizabeth  Tout 


556  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

and  Thomas  Scoot.     Here  lie  Charity  Brown,  Elizabeth  Scarlet,  and  Marcy  White ; 
Ann  Ruby  and  Emily  Stone." 

"  The  Granary,"  1  known  in  colonial  times  as  the  South  Burying-Ground, 
was  nearly  contemporaneous  in  origin  with  the  "  Old  North,"  having  been 
established  in  1660.  It  was  originally,  as  has  been  said,  a  part  of  the  Com- 
mon, from  which  it  was  very  soon  shut  off  by  the  erection  along  the  line  of 
Park  Street  of  a  row  of  public  buildings,  —  the  Bridewell,  the  Almshouse, 
and  House  of  Correction  already  mentioned,  to  which  afterwards  the  Granary 
was  added,  from  which  it  took  its  present  name.  In  early  times  the  ground, 
like  the  Common,  was  bare  of  foliage,  the  trees  within  the  inclosure,  as  well 
as  the  more  celebrated  elms  of  the  Mall,  having  been  set  out  long  years  after- 
ward. The  oldest  stone  in  the  yard  bears  date  1667,  and  like  the  Old  North 
all  its  more  noted  monuments  belong  to  a  later  day.  The  most  distinguished 
persons  buried  there  previous  to  1684  were  John  Hull,  the  mint  master,  and 
Governor  Richard  Bellingham.  An  incident  connected  with  the  Bellingham 
tomb  would  seem  to  prove  that  in  early  times  the  place  was  ill-chosen  for 
a  cemetery.  The  Bellingham  family  having  become  extinct,  the  tomb  was 
given  to  Governor  James  Sullivan,  who,  on  going  to  repair  it,  found  it  partly 
filled  with  water,  "  and  the  coffin  and  remains  of  the  old  governor  floating 
around  in  the  ancient  vault,"  —  and  this  after  being  buried  nearly  a  century. 

Such  in  brief  was  the  outward  physical  aspect  of  the  town  of  Boston  in 
the  colonial  period.  Such  were  its  streets  and  buildings,  in  so  far  as  our 
narrow  limits  give  us  scope  to  set  them  forth.  The  men  were  not  yet  born, 
the  events  had  not  yet  come  to  pass,  by  association  wherewith  many  of  them 
were  to  become  in  after  years  illustrious.  Wanting  all  these  interesting  details, 
which  belong  to  succeeding  epochs,  we  must  rest  content  with  such  meagre 
descriptions  as  are  to  be  found  in  the  earlier  writers,  and  rely  upon  an 
awakened  imagination  to  fill  out  the  picture. 

And  yet  we  trust  enough  has  been  said  to  bring  to  mind  a  tolerably  clear 
impression  of  the  busy,  thriving  town  of  two  hundred  years  ago  with  its 
windmills  and  batteries,  its  crowded  meeting-houses,  its  bustling  dock  and 
market  place,  its  stately  mansions,  its  gloomy  prison,  its  queer  old  taverns, 
its  curious  hanging  signs,  its  crooked  streets  paved  with  pebble,  its  beacon, 
its  whipping-post,  —  all  the  outward  features  of  a  town  "  whose  continuall 
inlargement  presages  some  sumptuous  city :  the  wonder  of  this  moderne 
age  that  a  few  years  should  bring  forth  such  great  matters  by  so  meane  a 
handfull."  2 


/^J^^rt^l^ 


1  It  was  not  called  "The  Granary"  until  nearly  the  middle  of  the  next  century. 

2  Johnson,  Wonder-working  Providence. 


CHAPTER    XX. 

BOSTON    FAMILIES    PRIOR    TO    A.D.    1700. 

BY    WILLIAM    H.    WHITMORE. 

f  Chairman    of  the    Boston    Record    Commissioners. 

IT  will,  of  course,  be  understood  that  the  first  settlers  of  Boston  were 
animated  by  the  current  opinions  of  their  time  in  regard  to  social 
distinctions.  New  England  was  constructed  socially  on  the  same  system 
as  Old  England,  with  the  fortunate  exception  that  it  lacked  both  extremes 
of  the  scale.  We  had  here  neither  royal  personages  nor  members  of  the 
titled  aristocracy  of  England  as  .colonists ;  we  were  equally  free  from  any 
considerable  admixture  of  that  poorest  and  most  ignorant  class  which  then 
tilled  the  fields  of  the  mother  country,  and  which  is  even  yet  but  a  few 
degrees  above  the  serfs  of  other  lands.  The  expense  of  emigration  at  that 
date,  to  say  nothing  of  the  comparative  enterprise  of  mind  and  soul 
required  to  create  a  willingness  to  emigrate,  was  enough  to  prevent  any 
undesirable  elements  from  intermingling.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was  no 
inducement  held  out  for  the  members  of  the  aristocracy  to  come  hither. 
There  were  no  laurels  to  be  gained  by  war,  no  garnered  wealth  to  repay 
the  freebooter,  no  possibility  of  a  life  of  ease  amid  tropical  Edens.  Life 
here  was  to  be  a  constant  toil,  removed  from  the  splendors  of  a  court  or 
the  charms  of  civilization.  The  dangers  were  constant,  but  ignoble;  the 
rewards  scanty  and  prospective. 

We  may,  therefore,  accept  as  a  fact  that  our  colonists  resembled  the 
best  elements  of  the  country  parishes  of  England.  The  squire,  the  minister, 
the  yeomen,  were  the  three  representative  portions  of  society  there  and 
here.  Two  of  these  classes,  removed  from  a  chance  of  a  renewal  here, 
remained  constant  dliring  the  whole  Colonial  period.  Our  gentry  were  the 
descendants  of  the  few  who  came  with  the  first  colonists,  as  our  great  body 
of  citizens  was  of  those  who  were  yeomen  when  they  left  England.  The 
distinction  was  felt,  though  not  offensively;  and  precisely  as  in  England 
the  aristocracy  is  constantly  renewed  from  the  commoners,  while  its  younger 
branches  steadily  revert  to  that  lower  class,  so  here  a  constant  intermingling 
of  these  two  ranks  occurred.  Able  men  here,  in  each  generation,  rose  to 


558  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

the  privileged  positions,  while  poverty  or  decay  removed  the  favored 
families  which  preceded  them. 

It  is  a  strange  fact  that  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  prepare  any  record 
of  the  families  of  the  settlers  at  Boston.  The  first  and  most  flourishing 
genealogical  society  in  the  country  was  founded  here,  and  for  thirty-four 
years  it  has  published  a  magazine  here;  but,  as  yet,  few  Boston  families 
have  been  traced,  even  in  special  histories.  Our  town  records  are,  indeed, 
very  imperfect,  but  an  earnest  and  quite  successful  effort  is  now  making 
to  supply  the  deficiencies  from  church  records.  But  since  the  field  has 
remained  unexplored  so  long,  it  is  very  difficult  for  any  one  to  attempt  to 
select  with  certainty  all  of  the  leading  men  or  leading  families  of  any 
century  of  our  history.  It  can  be  safely  said  that  those  of  our  colonists 
who  were  of  the  gentry  at  home,  kept  to  the  traditions  of  their  class  here, 
in  a  measure.  They  lived  in  better  style  than  the  others,  they  held  most 
of  the  offices,  and  they  intermarried  so  as  to  constitute  an  allied  section 
of  the  community.  The  clergy  and  other  graduates  of  Harvard  were 
generally  admitted  to  the  same  circle,  and  naturally  the  richest  part  of  the 
merchant  class  could  not  be  excluded. 

This  tendency  towards  a  local  aristocracy  increased  during  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  just  prior  to  the  Revolution  social  affairs  here  were  probably 
as  they  are  to-day  in  the  English  colonies.  The  Governor  was  an  English- 
man ;  his  council  was  made  up  from  the  local  gentry,  and  all  eyes  were 
turned  to  the  mother  country  as  the  source  of  honor.  Officers  of  the  army 
and  navy  stationed  here  contracted  marriages  with  our  native  damsels ; 
capital  was  increasing,  and  was  seeking  the  truly  British  form  of  investment 
in  land. 

All  these  developments  were  stopped  by  the  Revolution,  when  the  great 
portion  of  our  leading  citizens,  in  a  social  sense,  emigrated.  That  part  of 
the  story  must  be  postponed  to  another  volume,  but  it  adds  to  the  difficulty 
of  reproducing  the  history  of  the  early  days  of  Boston,  that  its  chief 
personages  have  left  no  descendants  here  to  preserve  the  tradition  of 
ancestral  glories. 

It  is  proposed,  therefore,  to  place  before  the  reader  certain  authentic 
sources  of  information  in  regard  to  the  settlers  here,  with  such  fragmentary 
notes  as  contain  the  writer's  estimate  of  the  more  prominent  families.  As 
it  is  a  first  attempt  by  any  one  to  deal  with  the  subject,  omissions  at  least 
will  not  be  surprising. 

An  important  source  of  information  is  the  Book  of  Possessions,  com- 
piled about  A.D.  1645,  and  containing  the  names  of  the  owners  of  land  at 
the  time.  It  has  been  published  by  the  City,  being  the  second  report  of  the 
Record  Commissioners.  The  following  alphabetical  list  of  the  proprietors 
will  be  sufficient  for  our  present  purpose :  — 


BOSTON    FAMILIES    PRIOR   TO   A.D.    1700. 


559 


LIST    OF    PERSONS    DESCRIBED    AS    OWNERS    OF    LAND    IN    BOSTON    IN    THE    BOOK    OF 

POSSESSIONS. 


Anderson,  John 
Arnold,  John 
Aspinwall,  William 
Baker,  John 
Barrel),  George 
Bates,  George 
Baxter,  Nicholas 
Beamont,  Thomas 
Beamsley,  William 
Beck,  Alexander 
Belchar,  Edward 
Bell,  Thomas 
Bellingham,  Richard 
Bendall,  Edward 
Bennett,  Richard 
Biggs,  John 
Bishop,  Nathaniel 
Blantaine,  William 
Blott,  Robert 
Bosworth,  Zaccheus 
Bourne,  Nehemiah 
Bourne,  Garret 
Bowen,  Griffith 
Brisco,  William 
Browne,  Edward 
Browne,  Henry 
Browne,  William 
Browne,  James 
Burden,  George 
Busbie,  Nicholas 
Buttolph,  Thomas 
Button,  John 
Carter,  Richard 
Chaffie,  Matthew 
Chamberlaine,  William 
Chappell,  Nathaniell 
Cheevers,  Bartholomew 
Clarke,  Arthur 
Clarke,  Christopher 
Clarke,  Thomas 
Coggan,  John 
Cole,  John 
Cole,  Samuel 
Cole,  - 

Coleborn,  William 
Compton,  John 
Cooke,  Richard 
Copp,  William 
Corser,  William 


Cotton,  John 
Cranwell,  John 
Croychley,  Richard 
Cullimer,  Isaac 
Davies,  James 
Davies,  John 
Davies,  William 
Davis,  William,  Sr. 
Davis,  William,  Jr. 
Deming(or  Dening),  William 
Dennis,  Edmund 
Dinsdale,  William 
Douglas,  William 
Douse,  Francis 

Dunster, 

East,  Francis 
Eaton,  Nathaniel 
Eliott,  Jacob 
Everill,  James 
Everill,  James 
Fairbanks,  Richard 
Fanes,  Henry 
Fawer,  Barnabas 
Fish,  Gabriel- 
Fletcher,  Edward 
Fletcher,  Roger 
Flint,  Mr. 
Flint,  Mr. 
Foster,  Thomas 
Fowle,  Thomas 
Foxcroft,  George 
Franklin,  William 
Gallop,  John 
Gibones,  Edward 
Gillom,  Benjamin 
Glover,  John 
Goodwin,  Edward 
Greames,  Samuel 
Gridley,  Richard 
Griggs,  George 
Grosse,  Edmund 
Grosse,  Isaac 
Grubb,  Thomas 
Gunnison,  Hugh 
Hailestone,  William 
Hansett,  John 
Harker,  Anthony 
Harrison,  John 
Haugh  (or  Hough),  Atherton 


Hawkins,  James 
Hawkins,  Thomas 
Hawkins,  Thomas 
Hibbins,  William 
Hill,  John 
Hill,  Valentine 
Hogg,  Richard 
Hollich,  Richard 
Houtchin,  Jeremy 
Howen,  Robert 
Hudson,  Francis 
Hudson,  William 
Hudson,  William,  Jr. 
Hull,  Robert 
Hunne,    Anne,   widow  of 

George 
Hurd,  John 
Hutchinson,  Edward 
Hutchinson,  Richard 
Ingles,  Maudit 
lyons  (otherwise  Irons), 

Mathew 

Jacklin,  Edward 
Jackson,  Edmund 
Jackson,  John 
Jephson,  John 
Johnson,  James 
Joy,  Thomas 
Judkin,  Job 
Keayne,  Robert 
Kenrick,  John 
Kirkby,  William 
Knight,  Sarah 
Lake,  John 
Langdon,  John 
Lavvson,  Christopher 
Leger,  Jacob 
Letherland,  William 
Leverit,  John 
Leverit,  John 
Leverit,  Thomas 
Lippincott,  Richard 
Lowe,  John 
Lugg,  John 
Lyle,  Francis 
Makepeace,  Thomas 
Marshall,  John 
Marshall,  Thomas 
Mason,  Raph 


560 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 


Mattox,  James 

Maud,  Daniel 

Meeres,  Robert 

Mellows,  John 

Merry,  Walter 

Messinger,  Henry 

Mitchell,  George 

Millard,  Thomas 

Milom,  John 

Munt,  Thomas 

Nanney,  Robert 

Nash,  James 

Nash,  Robert 

Negoos,  Benjamin 

Negoos,  Jonathan 

Newgate    (or   Newdigate), 
John 

Odlin,  John 

Offley,  David 

Oliver,  James 

Oliver,  John 

Oliver,  Thomas 

Page,  Abraham 

Painter,  Thomas 

Palmer,  John,  Sr. 

Palmer,  John,  Jr. 

Parker,  Jane 

Parker,  Nicholas 

Parker,  Richard 

Parsons,  William 

Pasmer  (or  Passmore),  Bar- 
tholomew 

Pease,  Henry 

Pell,  William 

Pelton,  John 


Pen  (or  Penn),  James 
Perry,  Arthur 
Phillips,  John 
Phippeni    (or   Phippeny), 

David 

Phippeni,  Joseph 
Pierce,  William 
Pope,  Ephraim 
Rains  ford,  Edward 
Rawlins,  Richard 
Reinolds,  Robert 
Rice,  Joanes 
Rice,  Robert 
Rowe,  Owen 
Richardson,  Amos 
Roote,  Raph 
Salter,  William 
Sanford,  Richard 
Savage,  Thomas 
Scott,  Joshua 
Scott,  Robert 
Scott,  Thomas 
Seaberry,  John 
Sedgwick,  Robert 
Sellick,  David 
Sherman,  Richard 
Shoare,  Sampson 
Shrimpton,  Henry 
Sinet,  Walter 
Smith,  Francis 
Smith,  John 
Spoore,  John 
Stanley,  Christopher 
Stevenson,  John 
Straine,  Richard 


Sweete,  John 
Symons,  Henry 
Synderland,  John 
Talmage,  William 
Tapping,  Richard 
Teft,  William 
Thomas,  Mr. 
Thwing,  Benjamin 
Townsend,  William 
Truesdale,  Richard 
Turner,  Robert 
Tuttle,  Anne 
Tyng,  Edward 
Tyng,  William 
Usher,  Hezekiah 
Vyall,  John 
Waite,  Gamaliel 
Waite,  Richard 
Walker,  Robert 
Ward,  Benjamin 
Webb,  Henry 
Werdall,  William 
Wheeler,  Thomas 
White,  Charity 
Wiborne,  Thomas 
Willis,  Nicholas 
Wicks,  William 
Wilson,  John 
Wilson,  William 
Winge,  Robert 
Winthrop,  Deane 
Woodhouse,  Richard 
Woodward,  Nathaniel 
Woodward,  Nathaniel 
Woodward,  Robert 


We  now  return  to  such  evidence  as  we  can  obtain  in  regard  to  the  social 
standing  of  the  various  persons  named. 

Of  the  GOVERNORS  prior  to  Andros  the  following  lived  in  Boston: 
John  Winthrop,  Richard  Bellingham,  John  Leverett,  and  Simon  Brad- 
street. 

Of  the  ASSISTANTS  we  can  claim  also  Atherton  Hough,  John  Win- 
throp, Jr.,  William  Hibbens,  Edward  Gibbons,  Humphrey  Davy,  John 
Richards,  John  Hull,  Thomas  Savage,  Elisha  Cooke,  Elisha  Hutchinson, 
Samuel  Sewall,  Isaac  Addington,  John  Walley. 

The  Boston  REPRESENTATIVES  to  the  General  Court  were,  during 
1630-40:  William  Hutchinson,  John  Coggeshall,  William  Brenton,  William 
Colbron,  Henry  Vane,  William  Coddington,  Atherton  Hough,  William 
Aspimvall,  John  Oliver,  John  Newdigate,  Robert  Keaync,  Edward  Gib- 
bons, William  Tyng,  Edmund  Quincy,  John  Underhill,  Richard  Bel- 
lingham. 


BOSTON    FAMILIES    PRIOR   TO   A.D.    1700.  561 

During  1640-60:  William  Hibbens,  James  Penn,  Anthony  Stoddard, 
John  Leverett,  Thomas  Clarke,  Thomas  Savage,  Edward  Hutchinson, 
William  Tyng,  Thomas  Hawkins,  Thomas  Marshall. 

During  1660-80:  Edward  Tyng  and  John  Richards,  in  addition  to  those 
before  named. 

During  1680-1700:  The  new  names  are  those  of  Elisha  Hutchinson, 
Elisha  Cooke,  John  Fairweather,  John  Samn,  Isaac  Addington,  Timothy 
Prout,  Adam  Winthrop,  Thomas  Oakes,  Penn  Townsend,  Theophilus  Frary, 
Dr.  John  Clarke,  John  Eyre,  James  Taylor,  Timothy  Thornton,  Edward 
Bromfield,  Nathaniel  Oliver,  Nathaniel  Byfield,  Samuel  Legg,  John  White, 
Andrew  Belcher,  David  Allen,  and  Joseph  Bridgham.1 

The  SELECTMEN  of  the  town,  as  the  uniform  custom  of  New  England 
witnesseth,  were  chosen  from  the  citizens  of  the  highest  repute.  They 
exercised  very  considerable  powers.  They  were  chosen  by  the  free  vote 
of  the  governed,  and  it  is  evident  from  many  sources  that  they  were  the 
recognized  leaders  of  the  community.  As  no  list  of  them  is  elsewhere  avail- 
able, it  seems  judicious  to  print  one  here. 

1  See  2  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  x.  23-29,  for  detailed  possible  to  make  of  all  holding  office  under  the 
lists.  [Mr.  Whitmore?s  Massachusetts  Civil  List,  Charter,  or  local  government,  during  the  Colonial 
Albany,  1870,  is  as  complete  a  record  as  it  is  and  Provincial  periods,  1630-1774.  —  ED.] 

VOL.  L—  71. 


562 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


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BOSTON    FAMILIES    PRIOR   TO   A.D.    1700. 


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564  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

Prior  to  the  date  when  the  seven  selectmen  became  regular  officers,  similar 
officials  had  served.  The  earliest  entry  preserved  in  the  Town  Records  is  dated 
Sept.  i,  1634.  We  cannot,  therefore,  learn  when  the  custom  began  of  choosing 
selectmen,  or  townsmen.  We  find  at  that  date,  however,  a  board  of  ten  citizens 
in  office,  —  John  Winthrop,  William  Coddington,  John  Underhill,  Thomas  Oliver, 
Thomas  Leverett,  Giles  Firmin,  John  Coggeshall,  William  Peirce,  Robert  Harding, 
and  William  Brenton. 

Oct.  6,  1634.  —  Richard  Bellingham  and  John  Coggan  were  chosen  in  place  of 
Firmin,  deceased,  and  Harding,  now  in  Virginia. 

March  i,  1636.  —  Chosen  :  Thomas  Oliver,  Thomas  Leverett,  William  Hutchinson, 
William  Colburn,  John  Coggeshall,  John  Sanford,  Richard  Tuttell,  William  Aspinwall, 
William  Brenton,  William  Balston,  Jacob  Eliot,  and  James  Pen. 

Sept.  1 6,  1636.  —  Hutchinson,  Oliver,  Leverett,  Colborn,  Coggeshall,  Sanford, 
Brenton,  and  Balston  re-elected,  and  two  new  men  added,  —  Robert  Keayne  and 
John  Newgate. 

March  20,  1637.  —  Eight  re-elected;  Eliot  and  Pen  returned  in  place  of  Keayne 
and  Newgate,  and  Robert  Harding  added.  In  all  eleven. 

Oct.  1 6,  1637.  —  Eleven  chosen:  ten  re-elected,  and  William  Aspinwall  in  place 
of  Brenton. 

April  23,  1638.  —  Seven  chosen  :  Oliver,  Leverett,  Keayne,  Colborn,  Newgate,  Pen, 
and  Eliot,  —  all  having  served  before. 

Nov.  5,  1638.  —  Seven  chosen:  six  re-elected,  with  Robert  Harding  in  place  of 
Newgate. 

April  29,  1639.  —  Nine  chosen  :  Oliver,  Leverett,  Keayne,  Colborn,  Harding,  and 
Eliot ;  Pen  dropped ;  Edward  Gibbons,  William  Tyng,  and  John  Cogan  added. 

Dec.  16,  1639.  —  Nine  chosen:  Colborn,  Harding,  Eliot,  Gibbons,  Tyng,  and 
Cogan  re-elected ;  Gov.  John  Winthrop,  Richard  Bellingham,  and  William  Hibbens, 
new  members. 

Sept.  28,  1640.  —  Nine  chosen  for  the  next  six  months  :  Colborn,  Eliot,  Gibbons, 
Tyng,  Winthrop,  Bellingham,  and  Hibbens,  old  members ;  with  John  Newgate  and 
Atherton  Hough  added. 

May  27,  1641.  —  Nine  chosen:  the  seven  old  members,  with  John  Oliver  and 
James  Pen  for  Newgate  and  Hough. 

March  6,  1641-42.  —  Nine  chosen  :  eight  re-elected,  and  Valentine  Hill  in  place 
of  Hibbens. 

Sept.  2,  1642.  —  The  same  nine  re-elected  for  six  months. 

March  20,  1642-43.  —  Winthrop,  Bellingham,  Tyng,  Gibbons,  Colborn,  Eliot, 
Hill,  and  Oliver  re-elected ;  Hibbens  put  in  place  of  Pen. 

Sept.  25,  1643.  —  Same  nine  re-elected. 

May  17,  1644.  —  Eight  re-elected,  with  Pen  for  Bellingham. 

April  10,  1645.  —  Eight  re-elected,  with  Edward  Tyng  for  William  Tyng. 

Dec.  26,  1645.  —  Winthrop,  Hibbens,  Gibbons,  Colborn,  Hill,  Eliot,  and  Pen 
re-elected ;  Oliver  and  E.  Tyng  dropped ;  Robert  Keayne  and  Thomas  Fowle  added. 

No  election  is  recorded  in  1646,  though  all  but  Fowle  were  serving 
Feb.  25,  1646-47.  Probably  some  change  had  taken  place  about  this  time, 
as  March  13,  1646-47,  we  find'a  board  of  seven  acting,  and  the  same  seven 
were  chosen  five  days  later  at  a  "  general  town's  meeting  warned  from 


BOSTON    FAMILIES    PRIOR   TO   A.D.    1700.  565 

house  to  house."     From  this  time  it  seems  to  have  been  a  settled  custom 
to  elect  seven  selectmen  in  March  for  the  year  ensuing.1 

The  following  lists  of  the  clergy  prior  to  A.D.  1700  will  give  us  that 
element  in  our  social  life:  — 

FIRST    CHURCH. 

-  John  Wilson 1630-1667 

John  Cotton 1633-1652 

John  Norton 1656-1663 

John  Davenport 1668-1670 

James  Allen 1668-1710 

John  Oxenbridge 1671-1674 

Joshua  Moody 1684-1692 

John  Bailey 1693-1697 

Benjamin  Wadsworth 1696-1725 

SECOND    CHURCH. 

John  Mayo 1655-1673 

Increase  Mather 1664-1723 

Cotton  Mather 1684-1728 

OLD    SOUTH    CHURCH. 

Thomas  Thatcher 1670-1678 

Samuel  Willard 1678-1707 

KING'S  CHAPEL. 
Samuel  Myles 1689-1728 

The  fact  that  church-membership  was  long  a  necessary  preliminary  to 
recognition  as  a  citizen  makes  it  very  desirable  for  us  to  know  who  were 
the  early  members  of  our  First  Church  in  Boston.  The  list  is  often  referred 
to  by  Savage  and  others,  but  has  not  been  printed.  We  therefore  present 
all  of  the  record  of  admissions  prior  to  A.D.  1640,  believing  that  no  more 
valuable  document  can  be  offered  to  the  genealogist.  We  prefix  numbers 
to  the  names  for  convenience. 

The  first  covenant  is  dated  at  Charlestown,  Aug.  27,  i63O,2  and  is  as 
follows :  — 

"  In  the  Name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  obedience  to  His  Holy  will  and  Divine 
Ordinance  : 

"  Wee  whose  names  are  hereunder  written,  being  by  His  most  wise  and  good 
Providence  brought  together  into  this  part  of  America  in  the  Bay  of  Massachusetts, 
and  desirous  to  unite  ourselves  into  one  Congregation,  or  Church,  under  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  our  Head,  in  such  sort  as  becometh  all  those  whom  He  hath  Redeemed, 
and  Sanctified  to  Himselfe,  doe  hereby  solemnly  and  religiously  (as  in  His  most  holy 

1  [Cf.  Mr.  Scudder's  chapter  in  the  present  which  was  an  original  draft  of  the  document, 

volume.  —  ED.]  signed  by  a  few  of  the  leaders,  before  the  entry 

-  [This  is  the  date  as  given  in  the  Church  was  made  of  it  in  the  Record  book.  See  Mass. 

Records;  but  the  date  differs  from  that  of  a  Hist.  Coll.,  iii.  75;  Bradford,  Plymouth  Planta- 

similar  paper  quoted  in  Mr.  Winthrop's  chapter,  tion,  p.  277.  —  En.] 


566 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


Prcesance)  Promisse  and  bind  or  selves  to  walke  in  all  our  wayes  according  to  the  Rule 
of  the  Gospell,  and  in  all  sincere  Conformity  to  His  holy  Ordinances,  and  in  mutuall 
love  and  respect  each  to  other,  so  neere  as  God  shall  give  us  grace. 


1  John  Winthrop,  Governor 
Thomas  Dudley,  D.  Governor 
Isaack  Johnson  (dead  since) 
John  Wilson 
6  Increase  Nowell 
Thomas  Sharpe  (gone  since) 
Simon  Bradstreete 
Willm.  Gager  (dead  since) 
Willm.  Colborne 
10  Willm.  Aspinall 
Robert  Harding 

Dorothy  Dudley,  ye  wife  of  Tho.  Dudley 
Anne    Bradstreete,    yc    wife    of    Simon 

Bradstreete 
Parnell    Nowell,    ye    wife    of    Increase 

Nowell 
15  Margery    Colborne,   ye  wife   of    Willm. 

Colborne 
Elizabeth   Aspinall,   ye    wife  of  Willm. 

Aspinall 

Christian  Beecher 
Robert  Hayle 
John  Hall 

20  Margarett  Hoames 
John  Sale 
Gregory  Nash 
John  Waters  and  Frances  his  wife  (dead 

since) 
25  Henry  Kingsburyand  Margarett  his  wife 

(dead  since) 
Henry  Harwood  and  Elizabeth  his  wife 

(dead  since) 

Henry  Gosnall  and  (80)  Mary  his  wife 
James  Penne  and  Katherine  his  wife 
John  Milles  and  Susan  his  wife 
85  Willm.  Waterbury  and  Alice  his  wife 
Frances,  ye  wife  of  John  Ruggle 
Willm.  Baulstone  and  Elizabeth  his  wife 

(dead  since) 

40  Phillip  Hammond,  widdow 
John  Haukins,  d. 
Samuell  Cole  and  Anne  his  wife  (dead 

since) 
Willm.  Cheesborough  and  (45)  Anne  his 

wife 

Thomas  Alcocke 

Margarett,  ye  wife  of  Jeffrey  Ruggle 
Henry  Bright 
Edward  Deekes 


60  John  Gage 

Thomas  Howlett 

Thomas  Hutchingson,  d. 

George  Hutchingson 

Francis  Hesseldon,  d. 
66  Richard  Garrett  (dead  since) 

Margarett  Cooke 

John  Underliill 

Sarah  Woolrich 

Willm.  Talmige 
60  Edmund  Belcher 

James  Browne 

Edward  Ransford 

John  Edmunds 

Richard  Maurice  and  (65)  his  wife 

Edward  Converse' 

Wilhn.  Hudson 

Abram  Palmer  and  his  wife 
70  Nicholas  Stowers 

John  Dillingham,  dead 

Raph  Mousall  and  Alice  his  wife 

Willm.    Frothingham   and  |75'  Anne  his 
wife 

Gregory  Taylor 

Edward  Bendall 

Sarah  Cheesborough,  dead 

Richard  Sprage 
80  Ezechiel  Richardson  and  his  wife 

Myles  Reading 

Thomas  Squire 

Sarah  Converse 

85  Thomas  Matson,  received  by  Communion 
of  Churches  from  a  Church  in  London 

Mary  Morton 

Bithea  Joanes,  gone  to  Salem 

Isabell  Brett,  gone  to  Salem,  d. 

Richard  Wright 
90  John  Cranwell 

Elizabeth  Welden,  gone  to  Waterton 

Willm.  Coddington 

Anthony  Chaulby 

John  Boswell,  dead 
95  Joseph  Reading 

Garrett  Haddon 

John  Biggs 

Zacheus  Bosworth 

Margarett  Wright 
100  Anne  Needham 

Thomas  Faireweather 


BOSTON    FAMILIES    PRIOR   TO   A.D.    1700. 


567 


Raph  Sprage  and  Joan  his  wife 

Anne  Peeters,  received  from  ye  Church 

of  Salem 
105  Richard  Palsgrave  and  Anne  his  wife 

John  Perkins  and  Judith  his  wife 

Ryce  Cole 
110  John  Eliott 

Margarett  Winthrop 

Thomas  Beecher 

Edward  Gibbons 

Jacob  Eliott 
115  John  Sampfort 

Margery  Chauner 

James  and  Lydia  Pennyman 

Isaack  Perry 
120  Elizabeth  Webbe 

John  Winthrop,  Junior 

Willm.  Dady 

Susan  Hudson 

Henry  and  (125i  Susan  Peas 

John  Baker  and  Charity  his  wife 

Thomas  French 

John  Ruggle 
130  Martha  Winthrop 

Robert  Walker 

Thomas    Oliver    and    Anne    his    wife, 
dead 

Margarett  Gibbons 
135  John  and  Jane  Willise,  dead  since 

Robert  Roys 

John  Clarke 

John  Audley 
140  Amy  Chambers 

Anna  Swanson 

Alice  French 

Elizabeth  Wing 

Richard  Brackett 
145  Gyles  Firmin,  Junior 

Mary,  ye  wife  of  Samuell  Dudley 

Bridgett  Gyver 

Anne,  ye  wife  of  John  Eliott 

Thomas  and  (150'  Elizabeth  James 

Willm.  Peirce 

Hereafter  followeth  ye  Names  of  those  whoe 
were  further  admitted  and  added  unto 
the  Church  :  — 

Mary  Penne 
John  Pemberton 
John  Oliver 
155  Barnaby  Dorryfall 
Mary  Waters 
Gyles  Firmin,  Senior,  d. 


Mary  Coddington,  y6  wife  of  Willm.  Cod- 

dington 

Anne  Newgate,  ye  wife  of  John  Newgate 
160  Thomas  Grubbe  and 
Anne  his  wife 
Richard  Turner 
Anne  Walden 
Mabell  Marport 

Members  admitted  into  Boston  Church  from 
ye  8'  of  ye  7th  moneth  [1633]  :  — 

165  John  Cotton,  and  on  that  day 
Sarah  his  wife 
Robert  Turnor,  our  brother  Edward  Ben- 

dall's  man-servant 
Grace  Lodge,  our  Pasior.John  Wilson's 

maide-servant 

In  ye  8'  Moneth  [1633] :  — 

Thomas  Leveritt  and 
170  Anne  his  wife 

Richard  Fairebancke 

Willm.  Brenton 

Edward  Hutchinson 

Willm.  Cowlishawe  and 
175  Anne  his  wife  and 

Sarah  Morrice,  the  said  Anne's  daughtr- 

In  the  9th  Moneth  [1633]  :  — 

Elizabeth  Purton,  a  widdowe 

Elizabeth  Fairebancke,  ye  wife  of  our 
brother  Richard  Fairebancke 

Edmund  Ouinsey  and 
180  Judeth  his  wife 

Atherton  Haulgh  and 

Elizabeth  his  wife 

Mary  Downing,  kinswoman  to  our  brother 
John  Winthrop,  Governo1"- 

Frances  Hammond,  our  brother  Thomas 

Leveritt's  maid-servant 
185  Elizabeth  Woodroffe,   our  brother   Ed- 
mund Quinsey's  maid-servant 

Richard  Topping  and 

Judeth  his  wife 

Edward  Baytes  and 

Anthony   Harker,  our  brother   Thomas 

Leveritt's  menservants 
190  George  Ruggell 

Willm.  Letherland,  one  of  Mr  Roe's  men- 
servants,  was  admitted  on  ye  24.  of 
yl  Moneth 


568 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


Members  further  admitted  upon  ye   1st  of 
ye  ioth  Moneth  [1633]  :  — 

Samuell  Wilbore  and 
Anne  his  wife 

The  8'  of  y6  same  Moneth :  — 

Nathaniell  Woodward  and 
195  Anne   Essex,   servants   to   our   brother 
Willm.  Coddington 

The  1 5th-  of  y0  same  Moneth :  — 

Elizabeth  Ransford,  ye  wife  of  our  brother 

Edward  Ransford 
Helena  Underhill,  ye  wife  of  our  brother 

John  Underhill 
Sarah  Hutchinson,  ye  wife  of  our  brother 

Edward  Hutchinson 
Robert  Scott,  late  servant  to  our  brother 

John  Sampford 
200  Gamaliell  Wayte,  servant  to  oar  brother 

Edward  Hutchinson 

The  22th-  of  y*  same  Moneih :  — 

Elizabeth  Wybert,  maid-servant  to  our 

brother  John  Winthrop,  Governor 
John  Button,  mylner,  and 
Grace  his  wife 

The  29th-  of  ye  same  Moneth :  — 

Margery  Hindes,  our  brother  John  Un- 

derhill's  maidservant 
208  Grace  Gridley,  ye  wife   of  our  brother 

Richard  Gridley 
Rebecka  Merry,  ye  wife  of  Waters  Merry, 

Ship-carpenter 
Marie  Lukas,  our  sister  Anne  Newgate's 

maid-servant 

The  5th-  of  y6  I  Ith-  moneth  [1633]:  — 

John  Gallopp,  Fisherman,  and 
Cotton  Flacke,  Laborer 

The  19th-  of  y6  same  moneth:  — 

210  Willm.  Browne  and 

Thomasine    his   wife,   servants    to    our 
brother  John  Winthrop,  Governo'- 

The  26'  of  same  Moneth :  — 

Lettysse    Button,   y°    wife    of    Mathew 
Buttofn] 


Esther  Ward,  our  brother  Atherton 
Haulghe's  maidservant 

The  2d-  of  yc  12"'  or  last  Moneth  [1633]: — 

Elizabeth  Ruggell,  y-  wife  of  our  brother 

George  Ruggell 
215  Thomas  Mekins  and 

Katherine  his  wife,  servants  to  our  brother 

Edmund  Quinsey 
Bridgett  Peirce,  yc  wife  of  our  brother 

Willm.  Peirce 

The  9th-  of  yc  same  Moneth :  — 

Joan  Wilkes,  y-  wife  of  Willm.  Wilkes 
Willm.  Wardall,  one  of  our  brother  Ed- 
mund Quinsey's  servants 
Waters  Merry,  Ship  carpenter 
220  John  Webbe,  a  single  man 

The  9th  of  ye  first  Moneth  [1634]:  — 

Robert  Houlton,  a  Slater 
Robert  Parker,  servant  to  our  brother 
Willm.  Aspinall 

The  i6th-  of  ye  same  Moneth:  — 

Stephen  Winthrop,  of  ye  sonnes  of  our 
brother  John  Winthrop,  Governor 

The  23th  of  yc  same  Moneth:  — 

Willm.  Dennyn,  servant  to  our  brother 
Willm.  Brenton 

The  30th-  of  y«  same  Moneth:  — 

225  Elizabeth    Newgate,   daughter-in-law   to 

our  sister  Anne  Newgate 
Thomas  Mekins,  ye  younger,  servant  to 
our  brother  Edmund  Quinsey 

The  13th-  of  ye  second  Moneth  [1634]:  — 

Richard  Bulgar,  Bricklayer 

Anne  Nidds,  maid-servant  to  our  brother 
Willm.  Brenton 

Mathewe  Innes,  servant  to  our  brother 

Willm.  Coulborne 
280  John  Coggeshall,  Mercer,  and 

Marie  his  wife  and 

Anne  Shelley,  his  maid-servant,  were 
this  day  received  members  upon  letters 
of  dismission  from  our  sister  Church  of 
Rocksburie,  and  upon  their  owne  open 
confessions  and  p'fession  of  faith  in 
ye  Lord  Jesus  Christ 


BOSTON    FAMILIES    PRIOR   TO   A.D.    1700. 


569 


The  22th-  of  ye  fourth  Moneth  [1634]:  — 

Christovell  Gallopp,  ye  wife  of  our  brother 

John  Gallopp 
Edmund  Browne  and 
235  Jerrard  Bourne,  servants  to  our  brother 

Willm.  Coulborne 
Alexander  Becke,  a  Laborer 

The  13th  of  ye  fift.  Moneth  [1634]: — 

John  Handsett,  servant  to  our  Pastor  John 
Wilson 

The  20th-  of  y6  same  Moneth :  — 

James  Everill  and 

Elizabeth  his  wife 

240  Ollyver  Mellowes  and 

Elizabeth  his  wife 

Martha   Blackett,   maid-servant    to  our 
Teacher  John  Cotton 

The  27th-  of  ye  same  Moneth:  — 

Nicholas  Willys,  a  Mercer 
Jonathan  Negoose  and 
245  Grace  Negoose  his  sister 
Richard  Trewsdale  and 
Margarett  Burnes,  servants  to  our  Teacher 

John  Cotton 
Anne  Cogan,  ye  wife  of  John  Cogan 

The  3d-  of  the  sixt  Moneth  [1634]:  — 

Richard  Bellingham  and 
260  Elizabeth  his  wife 
John  Newgate,  Hatter 
Anne    Willys,    ye  wife   of    our   brother 

Nicholis  Willys  and 
Willm.  Townsend,  his  servant 
Joan  Drake,  widdowe 
265  John  Gayle,  servant  to  our  brother  John 

Button,  d. 
Marie      Bonner,     maidservant     to     our 

Teacher  John  Cotton 
Elizabeth  Chalmers,  maidservant  to  our 

brother  Willm.  Baulston 
Edward  Kitchen,  a  single  man 

The  ioth  of  ye  same  Moneth:  — 

Robert  Reynoldes,  Shoomaker 
260  Edward  Hutchinson,  ye-  younger,  a  single 

man 
Dorcas    French,    maid-servant    to    our 

brother  John  Winthrop,  ye  Elder 
VOL.  I. —  72. 


The  28th- of  y6  sixt  Moneth  [1634]:  — 

Philemon  Pormont  and 
Susann  his  wife 
Richard  Scott,  a  Shoomaker 
265  Richard  Cooke,  a  Taylor 

Christofer  Marshall,  a  single  man 
Anne  Ormesbie,  widdow 
Marie  Hudd,  maid-servant  to  our  brother 
John  Winthrop,  ytt  EIdr- 

The  last  of  ye  same  Moneth :  — 

Edmund  Jacklyn,  Glasyer 
270  Thomas  Marshall,  a  widdower 

The  7th  of  yc  seaventh  Moneth  [1634]  :  — 

Willm.  Pell,  Tallowchandlo 
James  Davisse,  a  Marryno 
Judeth  Garnett,  our  brother  John  Cogges- 
hall's  maid-servant 

The  2ith  of  ye  same  Moneth:  — 
Thomasyn  Scottoe,  widdow 

The  2d  of  eight  Moneth  [1634]: — 

275  Richard  Magson,  servant  to  our  brother 

James  Everill 
Nathaniell     Chappell,    servant    to     our 

brother  Atherton  Hatilgh 
Rebekah    Dixon,    our    brother    Richard 

Bellingham's  maidservant 
Judye  Smyth,  our  brother  Edward  Hutch- 

inson's  maid-servant 

The  sth  of  ye  eight  Moneth  [1634]: — 

Zacharie  Simmes  and 
280  Sarah  his  wife 

The  26th  of  y6  same  Moneth :  — 

Willm.  Hutchinson 

Beniamin  Gillam,  Shipcarpenter 

The  2J  of  ye  9th  Moneth  [1634]  :  — 

Anne  Hutchinson,  ye  wife  of  our  brother 

Willm.  Hutchinson 
Allen  Willey,  a  husbandman 
285  Anne  Dorryfall,  our  brother  Willm.  Cod- 

ington's  maidservant 
Nathaniell  Heaton,  Mercer,  and 
Elizabeth  his  wife 


570 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY    OF    BOSTON. 


The  9th  of  ye  same  nyneth  Moneth  [1634]:  — 

Thomas  Wardall,  Shoemaker 
Richard  Hutchinson  and 
290  Francis   Hutchinson,  yc  sonnes  of  our 

brother  Willm.  Hutchinson 
Faith  Hutchinson,  one  of  his  daughters 
Anne  Freiston,  one  of  his  kinswomen 
Henry  Elkin,  a  Taylor 
Alice  Willey,  wife  of  our  brother  Allen 

Willey 
295  Marie  Gibson,  our  brother  Ollyver  Mel- 

lowe's  maid-servant 

The  28th-  of  ye  Tenth  Moneth  [1634]:  — 

Frances  Freiston,  one  of  our  brother 
Willm.  Hutchinson's  kinswomen 

Bridget!  Hutchinson,  one  of  his  daugh- 
ters 

Elizabeth  Woolstone,  our  brother  Nicho- 
lis  Willis  maid-servant 

The  IIth  of  ye  cleave  nth  Moneth  [1634]:  — 

Theodorus  Atkinson,  servant  to  our 
brother  John  Newgate 

The  15th  of  y*  first  Moneth  [1635]:  — 

800  Hanna  Penn,  our  brother  James  Everill's 
maid-servant 

The  22th  of  ye  same  Moneth .  — 

Edward  Buckley,  a  single  man 

Hugh  Gunnyson,  servant  to  our  brother 

Richard  Bellingham 
Dorothie  Brenton,  ye  wife  of  our  brother 

William  Brenton 

The  5th  of  ye  second  Moneth  [1635]:  — 
Willm.  Beamsley,  Labourer 

The  2d-  of  yc  sixt  Moneth  [1635]:  — 

805  Elizabeth    Boanes,   one  of  our  brother 
Richard  Bellingham's  maid-servants 

The  9th  of  ye  same  Moneth :  — 
Willm.  Leveridge,  of  Puscattna 

The  1 6  of  y*  same  Moneth :  — 

Grace  Holbech,  one  of  our  brother  John 

Samford's  family 
Susan   Pease,  our  brother  Henry  Pease 

daughter 


The  6l-  of  y«  seaventh  Moneth  [1635]:  — 

Willm.  Wilson,  Joyner,  and 
810  Patience  his  wife 

The  2oth-  of  ye  same  Moneth :  — 
Willm.  Salter,  a  Shoemaker 

The  25th  of  ye  eight  Moneth  [1635]:  — 

Richard  Mather  and 
Katherine  his  wife 
Danyell  Mawd 

The  Ist   of  ye  nyneth  Moneth  [1635]:  — 
815  Henry  Vane 

The  8'  of  yc  same  Moneth:  — 

Alexander   Winchester,  servant   to  our 

brother  Henry  Vane 
Willm.  Coursar,  a  Coblar 
Racliell  Saunders,  y-  wife  of  one  Martin 

Saunders 
Dennys  Taylor,  widdowe,  one  [of]  our 

Pastor  John  Wilson's  family 
820  Alice  Brockett,  ye  wife  of  our  brother 

Richard  Brockett 

The  15th  of  yc  same  Moneth:  — 

Henry  Flint,  a  sojournor  of  our  Elder 

Thomas  Ollyver's 
Edmund  Jackson,  Shoomaker 

The  6'  of  ye  ioth-  Moneth  [1635]:  — 

Jane  Scarlett,  widdowe,  ye  mother  of  our 

brother  Edward  Bendall 
Marie  Martin,  our  brother  John  Cogges- 

hall's  maid-servant 

The  13th-  of  yc  ioth  Moneth  [1635]:  — 

825  Willm.  Dyer,  Myllinar,  and 
Marie  his  wife 

The  27th-  of  ye  same  Moneth :  — 

James  Fitch,  Taylor,  and 
Abigail  his  wife 

Richard  Tuttell,  husbandman,  and 
880  Anne  his  wife 

The  3d  of  ye  eleaventh  Moneth  [1635]:  — 

John  Mylam,  Cooper,  and 
Christian  his  wife 


BOSTON    FAMILIES    PRIOR   TO   A.D.    1700. 


571 


Members  more  admitted  upon  ye  same  3''  of 
ye  same  eleaventh  Moneth  [1635]:  — 

Thomas  Savidge,  Taylor 
John  Davisse,  Joyner 
885  Anne  Gillam,  ye  wife  of  our  brother  Ben- 

iamyn  Gillam 

Judeth  Lyvars,  our  brother  Robert  Hard- 
ing's  maid-servant 

The  ioth  of  ye  same  Moneth:  — 

Willm.  Dyneley,  Barber 
Anne  Houlton,  ye  wife  of  our   brother 
Robert  Houlton 

The  24th-  of  ye  same  Moneth:  — 
George  Baytes,  Thacker 

The  28th  of  yc  12th  or  last  Moneth  [1635]:  — 

840  Rachaell    Newcombe,   yc    wife    of    one 

Francis  Newcombe 

Margarett  Vernam,  widdow,  one  of  our 
brother  Thomas  Leveritt's  family 

The  20th  of  ye  first  Moneth  [1636]:  — 

Robert  Kaine,  Merchant,  and 
Anne  his  wife 

Elizabeth  Wilson,  ye  wife  of  our  Pastor  John 
Wilson 

The  ioth  of  ye  2d  Moneth  [1636]:  — 
845  James  Johnson,  a  Glover 

The  17th-  of  ye  same  Moneth:  — 

Raph  Hudson,  Woollen-draper 
Isaac  Grosse,  Husbandman 

The  24th-  of  ye  same  Moneth :  — 

Pcenelope   Darloe,   one   of    our   brother 
Robert  Keaines  maidservants 

The  22th-  of  ye  3d  Moneth  [1636]:  — 

George  Hunne,  a  Tanner 
850  Thomas  Hasard,  Ship-carpenter 

The  29th  of  ye  same  Moneth :  — 

Robert  Hull,  blacksmith 
Edward  Dennys,  servant  to  our  brother 
Willyam  Hutchinson 


The  12th-  of  ye  4th-  Moneth  [1636]  :  — 

John  Wheelwright  and 
Marie  his  wife 

855  Susanne  Hutchinson,  widdowe 
Valentyne  Hill,  Mercer 

The  19th-  of  ye  same  4th-  Moneth:  — 

Margarett  Sheele,  one  of  our  Brother  Wil- 
lyam Coddington's  maidservants 

The  17th- of  ye  5th-  Moneth  [1636]:  — 

Thomas  Matson,  formerly  received  by 
Communion  of  Churches,  but  now  as  a 
member  upon  ye  confession  of  his  fayth 
and  repentance  and  pfessed  subiection 
to  ye  Lord  Jesus  Christ  according  to 
ye  Covenant  of  the  Gospell 

The  24th-  of  ye  same  5th-  Moneth :  — 
Robert  Parker 

The  7th-  of  ye  6<-  Moneth  [1-636]:  — 
860  Mathew  Chafey,  Ship-carpenter 

The  14  of  ye  same  6*-  Moneth :  — 

Elizabeth,  ye  wife  of  one  Willm.  Tuttell 

The  4th-  of  ye  7th-  Moneth  [1636]:  — 

Mabell  Andrews,  a  single  woman 
Alice  Pyce,  our  sistar  Judeth  Quinsey's 
maidservant 

The  iith-  of  ye  7th  Moneth  [1636]:  — 
Thomas  Wheelar,  a  Taylor 

The  6l  of  ye  9th  Moneth  [1636]: — 

865  Anne  Burdon,  ye  wife  of  George  Burdon, 
Shoemaker 

The  iith-  of  ye  ioth-  Moneth  [1636]:  — 
Francis  East,  a  Carpenter 

The  8'  of  ye  IIth-  Moneth  [1636]:  — 

George  Burdon,  a  Shoemaker 
Jane,  ye  wife  of  one  John  Parker,  a  Car- 
penter 


572 


THE    MEMORIAL    HISTORY    OF   BOSTON. 


The  30th-  of  ye  ioth-    Moneth  [1638]  [ Ad- 
mis.  ]:  — 

Henry  Sandys,  a  Merchant,  and 
870  Sibill  his  wife 

Margery  Shove,  widdow 

The  6*-  of  y6  IIth-  Moneth  [1638]:  — 

Willyam  Stickney,  a  husbandman,  and 
Elizabeth  his  wife 
Margarett  Crosse,  a  widdowe 
876  Michaell     Hopkinson,    servant    to    our 

brother  Jacob  Elyott,  and 
Richard  Swanne,  a  husbandman 

The  27th-  day  of  ye  same  IIth-  Moneth:  — 
Thomas  Allen,  a  Studyent 

The  3?  of  ye  12th-  Moneth  [1638]:  — 

Mary,  yc  wife  of  Raph  Roote 
Martha  Bushnall,  widdow 

The  6'  of  ye  same  12th-  Moneth:  — 

880  Griffyn  Bowen  and  his  wife 
Margarett 

Henry  Webbe,  a  mercer 
John  Smyth,  a  Taylor,  and 
Katherine,   ye  wife   of   Mr-  Marmaduke 
Mathewes 

The  ioth-  of  ye  same  12th-  Moneth:  — 

885  Temperance,  ye  wife  of  one  John  Sweete, 

a  Ship-carpenter 
Katherine,  ye  wife  of  our  brother  Edward 

Hutchinson,  ye  younger 
Elizabeth,  ye  wife  of  our  brother  Robert 

Scott 
Dosabell,  ye  wife  of  our  brother  Henry 

Webbe,  and 
Jane,  ye  wife  of  one  John  Lugge 

The  24  of  y«  same  12th-  Moneth:  — 
890  James  Mattocke,  a  Cooper 

The  3d  of  y6  Ist-  Moneth  [1639]:  — 

Richard  Hollidge,  a  Labourer 
Willyam  Ting,  Marchant,  and 
Anne,  y6  wife  of  our  brother  George  Hunne 

The  ioth  Day  of  f-  Ist-  Moneth  [1639]:  — 

Anne,  yc  wife  of  our   Brother  Richard 
Hollidge 


895  Elizabeth,  ye  wife  of  our  brother  Willyam 

Tinge,  and 
Mrs  Deliverance  Sheffeilde 


The  24th-  Day  of  ye  same  Ist-  Mo.  [1639]: — 

Mrs-  Elizabeth  Allen 
Mrs-  Penelope  Pelham 
Elizabeth  Storye 

The  3ist-  of  ye  same  Ist-  Moneth:  — 

400  Phoebe  Burley  and 

Marie    Chappell,   maid-servants    to    our 
Teacher  Mr  John  Cotton 

The  7th-  of  ye  2d  Moneth  [1639]  :  — 

Jane  Nicholls,  one  of  our  Teacher's  maid- 
servants 

The  14th  Day  of  yc  same  2d  Moneth:  — 

John  Spoure,  a  Husbandman,  and 
Elizabeth  his  wife 
405  Sarah  Tarne,  ye  wife  of  one  Myles  Tarne, 

a  Letherdresser,  and 

Priscilla    Dause,    maid-servant    to    our 
Elder  Mr  Thomas  Oliver 

The  5th   Day  of  ye  3d  Moneth  [1639]  :  — 
Elizabeth  Hill,  widdowe 

The  12th  of  ye  same  3d  Moneth:  — 

Sarah  Knight,  widdowe 

Joan,  y-   wife   of  our  brother   Willyam 

Coursar,  and 
410  Elizabeth,  ye  wife  of  one  Jacob  Legar 

The  19th  of  yc  same  3''-  Moneth  :  — 

Thomas  Scottowe  and 
Josua  Scottowe,  yc  sonnes  of  our  sister 
Thomasine  Scottowe 

The  26th  Day  of  ye  same  3d  Moneth :  — 

Nathaniell  Willyams,  a  Laborer 
Jane  Leveritt,  one  of  y-"  daughters  of  our 
brother  Thomas  Leveritt 

The  9th  Day  of  y«  4th-  Moneth  [1639]:  — 

416  Beniamin  Keayne,  Marchant,  and 
Sarah  his  wife 


BOSTON    FAMILIES    PRIOR   TO   A.D.    1700. 


573 


The  1 6th-  of  ye  4th-  Moneth  [1639]:  — 

Johanna  King,  maidservant  to  the  Gov- 
ernor, Mr  John  Winthrop 
Arthur  Purye.  a  Taylor 
Phcebe  Wason,  widdowe 

The  23th  of  ye  same  4th  Moneth :  — 

420  Elizabeth  Hull,  wife  of  our  brother  Robert 

Hull 
Susanna  Stanley,  ye  wife  of  one  Christofer 

Stanley,  Taylor 

Peter  Olyvar,  one  of  ye  sonnes  of  Thomas 
Olyvar 

The  7th-  of  ye  5th  Moneth  [1639] :  — 

John  Hurd,  a  Taylor,  and 
Marye  his  wife 

The  14th-  ofye  same  5th-  Moneth:  — 

425  John  Leveritt,  y6  Sonne  of  Thomas  Leveritt 

The  21th-  of  ye  same  5th-  Moneth:  — 
Mr  Edward  Norrys,  a  Minister 

The  4th  day  of  ye  6.  Moneth  [1639] :  — 

George  Curtys,  servant  to  our  Teacher 
Mr-  John  Cotton 

The  I  Ith-  day  of  ye  same  6'  Mon:  — 
John  Kenricke,  a  Laborer 

The  1 8th  day  of  ye  same  6l-  Mon:  — 

Richard  Hogge,  a  Taylor,  and 
430  Joan  his  wife 


M"  Elynor  Norrys,  ye  wife  of  our  brother 

Mr  Edward  Norrys 
Elizabeth,  ye  wife  of  our  brother  John 

Hansett 

The  25th-  of  y6  same  6l-  Mon  :  — 
Mr  John  Knowles,  a  Studyent 

The  15  day  of  ye  same  7th  Mon:  — 

Elizabeth  Gryme,  an  auncient  maid 
485  Henry  Shrimpton,  a  Brasyer 

The  22th  day  of  ye  same  7th  Mon :  — 

Hannah  Leveritt,  ye  wife  of  our  brother 

John  Leveritt 
Sarah   Dennys,  ye   wife  of  our  brother 

Edward  Dennys 
Thomas  Buttall,  a  Glover 

The  28th  day  of  ye  same  7th  :  — 

Anne,  ye  wife  of  y*  sd.  Thomas  Buttall 
440  Anthony  Stoddard,  a  Lynning  Draper 
Willyam  Hibbon,  a  gentleman,  and 
Anne  his  wife 

The  29th  of  ye  same  7th-  Mon :  — 
Francis  Lysle,  a  Barber 

The  15th- of  ye  ioth-  Moneth  [1639]:  — 
Katherine  Pollard,  a  mayd 

The  19th  of  yc  IIth-  Moneth  [1639]:  — 

445  Mrs  Marye  Hudson,  widdowe,  Admitted 
a  Member l 


We  annex  the  following  list  of  the  Founders  of  the  Old  South   Church 
in  1669:  — 


William  Davis 
Hezekiah  Usher 
John  Hull 
Edward  Rainsford 
Peter  Brackett 
Jacob  Eliot 
Peter  Oliver 
Thomas  Brattle 
Edward  Rawson 
Joshua  Scottow 


Benjamin  Gibbs 
Thomas  Savage 
John  Ruck 
Theodore  Atkinson 
John  Wing 
Richard  Truesdale 
Theophiles  Frary 
Robert  Walker 
John  Alden 
Benjamin  Thurston 


William  Salter 
John  Morse 
Josiah  Belcher 
Seth  Perry 
James  Pemberton 
William  Dawes 
Joseph  Davis 
Thomas  Thatcher 
Joseph  Belknap 


1  The  admissions  after  1640  are  not  so  A  copy  of  these  records  will  now  be  found 
frequent  as  before.  The  First  Church  records  at  the  office  of  the  City  Registrar,  City  Hall, 
also  mention  quite  a  number  of  dismissions.  Boston. 


574  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY    OF   BOSTON. 

Many  or  most  of  them  already  belonged  to  the  First  Church,  but  none 
except  substantial  men  would  be  named  in  such  an  enterprise.  Most  of 
them  resided  at  what  was  then  the  South  End.  Our  Essex  and  Boylston 
streets  were  the  limit  of  the  town,  except  such  few  houses  as  were  on  the 
high-road  to  Roxbury,  i.e.  Washington  Street. 

Having  thus  laid  before  our  readers  the  main  facts  upon  which  an 
opinion  is  to  be  based,  we  will  essay  to  point  out  certain  persons  or  families 
as  among  the  most  noteworthy.  The  object  has  been  to  give  an  outline  of 
the  families,  without  specific  dates.  For  most  of  the  births,  deaths,  and 
marriages,  the  reader  is  referred  to  Savage's  Genealogical  Dictionary  of  the 
First  Settlers  of  New  England,  the  scope  of  which  includes  all  of  this 
period.  It  must  also  be  remembered  that  Boston  was  by  no  means  the 
chief  seat  of  our  gentry.  In  all  the  counties  besides  Suffolk  there  were 
gentlemen  of  birth,  education,  and  fortune.  Even  in  our  neighborhood, 
Roxbury,  Charlestown,  Cambridge,  Medford,  Dedham,  and  other  towns 
were  the  homes  of  councillors,  assistants,  and  judges.  Boston  had  a  share 
of  the  dignitaries,  but  not  a  very  large  one ;  and  our  list,  based  on  this 
calculation,  is  not  very  large.  Undoubtedly,  in  the  next  century,  the 
tendency  was  more  towards  centralization,  but  the  capital  never  had  a 
monopoly. 

i.  Governor  John  Winthrop  confessedly  stands  at  the  head  of  the  settle- 
ment at  Boston,  —  by  birth,  fortune,  and  services,  the  leader  of  the  colony.1 
His  son  John  settled  first  at  Ipswich,  but  in  1635  removed  to  Connecticut; 
his  sons  Fitz-John  and  Wait- Still  were  often  connected  with  our  affairs. 
Of  his  daughters,  Elizabeth  married  Antipas  Newman,  and  secondly  Zerub- 
babel  Endecott ;  Martha  married  Richard  Wharton ;  and  Anne  married 
John  Richards. 

Adam  Winthrop,  son  of  the  elder  Governor  John,  married  first  Elizabeth 
Glover,  of  Cambridge,  and  secondly  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Captain  Thomas 
Hawkins.  His  only  son,  Adam,  was  a  representative  from  Boston,  and 
left  a  son,  Adam,  here  (chief-justice  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas)  and  a 
daughter,  Mary,  who  married  Captain  John  Ballentine. 

Deane  Winthrop,  the  sixth  son  of  Governor  John,  lived  at  Rumney 
Marsh,  then  part  of  Boston,  since  called  Chelsea  and  Winthrop.2  His  only 
son,  Jose,  died  s.  p.,  aged  36  years.  His  four  sons-in-law  were  Jotham 
Grover,  Captain  Samuel  Kent,  Eliab  Adams,  and  Atherton  Hough. 

Mary  Winthrop,  only  daughter  of  Governor  John,  married  Rev.  Samuel 
Dudley  of  Exeter,  son  of  Governor  Thomas  Dudley.  This  branch  of  the 
family  seems  never  to  have  resided  in  Boston. 

The  Winthrops  thus  kept  up  a  fitful  connection  with  Boston  for  the 
first  century.  The  descendants  of  Adam  remained  in  Cambridge,  and  the 
Connecticut  branch  flourished  at  New  London.  About  1785  Thomas- 

1  [The  Governor  lived  on  Washington  Street,          2  [See  Judge  Chamberlain's  chapter  in  the 

just  east  of  the  Old  South.     See  the  chapters  in  present  volume  for  a  view  of  the  house  which 

the  present  volume  by  Mr.  Winthrop  and  by  Mr.  is  said   to   have   been   his,  and  which  is  still 

Scudder.  —  ED.]  standing.  —  ED.] 


Lsd<' 
sy 


BOSTON    FAMILIES    PRIOR   TO   A.D.    1700.  575 

Lindall  Winthrop  removed  to  Boston,  where  he  married,  and  his  descend- 
ants have  renewed  the  former  prominence  of  the  name  here.1 

2.  Governor  Richard  Bellingham  was  one  of  the  most  influential  men 
here  from  1634  until  his  death  in  1672.    He  married  here,  for  a  second  wife, 
Penelope   Pelham,  who   long  survived  him.2     The  family,  however,  made 
little  impression  on  our  history.     His  oldest  son,  Samuel,  lived  at  London 
most  of  his  life,  after  graduating  at  Harvard.3     Another  son,  John,  was  of 
Harvard  in  1661,  but  disappears  so  entirely  that  the  time  of  his  death  is 
unrecorded  in  the  College  catalogue. 

3.  Governor  Endicott's  descendants,  through  his  son  Zerubbabel,  re- 
mained in  Essex  County  ;  but  his  son  John  was  of  Boston,  where  he  married 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Jeremy  Houchin  in  1653,  and  died  without  issue  in 
1668.     His  widow  married  Rev.  James  Allen.4 

4.  The  Leveretts  spring  from  Thomas   Leverett,   an   alderman  in  Old 
Boston  before  his  removal  hither,  an  elder  here,  who  died  in  i65O.5     His 
daughter   Jane  married    Isaac  Addington, 

and  his  son  John  became  governor  of  the 

colony.6     Governor  John  Leverett  married    sy  // 

first  Hannah  Hudson,  and  secondly  Sarah 

Sedgwick.     Of  his  children,  Hudson  was  "but  an  indifferent  character;" 

but  he  was  the  father  of  John  Leverett,  President  of  Harvard  College.     Of 

the  Governor's  daughters,  Elizabeth  married       ^ 

Dr.  Elisha  Cooke  ;  Anne  married  John  Hub-          ^ 

bard;    Mary  married  first  Paul  Dudley  (son 

of  Governor  Thomas  Dudley),   and    secondly  Colonel    Penn   Townsend  ; 

Hannah  married    Thomas    Davis  ;     Rebecca   married   James    Lloyd  ;    and 

Sarah  married  Colonel  Nathaniel  Byfield. 

1  [The  pedigree  of  the  Winthrops  is  traced  is  stated  that  the  old  house  on  the  slope  of  Cot- 
by  Mr.  Whitmore  in  the  N.  E.  ///>/.  and  Gcneal.  ton  Hill,  which  stood   till    1828,   described   by 
Register,  April,  1864,  based  chiefly  upon  the  Hon.  Snow,  Boston,  p.  75,  as  "the  oldest  house  in  the 
R.  C.   Winthrop's  Life  of  John    Winthrop,  to  city,"  was  not,  as  Snow  affirms,  the  house  which 
which   it   forms   a   "  genealogical    index."     Cf.  Vane  gave  to  Cotton,  but  the  one  occupied  by 
Drake's  Boston,  p.  72.     There  is  an  account  in  Bellingham.     The   Governor  also  had  a  house 
the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  Feb.  14,  i86i,of  the  and  lot,  according  to  the  Book  of  Possessions, 
discovery  of  a  large  nuniber  of  the  family  papers  about   where    Washington    Street   now  crosses 
at  New  London,  many  of  which  have  since  been  Cornhill  and  Brattle  Street,  and  he  may  at  one 
printed  in  the  Collections  of  that  Society.  —  En.]  time  have  lived  there.     If  we  may  believe  John- 

2  [The   lady,   as    Winthrop    relates    in    his  son's    limping    verse    (  Wonder-working   Prori- 
journal,  Nov.  9,  1641,  was  snatched  from  another,  deuce),   he    was   "slow   of  speech,"  and  had   a 
and  the  Governor  married  himself,  much  to  the  "stern  look."     J.  B.  Moore,   Governors  of  Ne-M 
scandal  of  the  magistrates.     She  was  the  sister  Plymouth  and  Mass.  Bay,  p.  335.     See  the  note 
of  Herbert  Pelham,  a  prominent  citizen  of  whom  to  Mr.  Deane's  chapter.  —  ED.| 

and  his  family  there  are  accounts  in  the  N.  E.  3  [Sibley,  Harvard  Graduates,  i.  63,  gives  but 

Hist,    and    Geneal.    Register,    July,    1879,    and  a  brief  account  of  him.  —  ED.] 

Heraldic  Journal,  iii.  84.     Sewall  (Papers,  ii.  56)  *  [See  note  on  Endicott  and  his  descendants 

records  the  widow's  death  May  28,  1702:   "At  to  Colonel  Higginson's  chapter  in  the  present 

5  P.  M.  Madam  Bellingham  dies,  a  vertuous  Gen-  volume.  —  ED.} 

tlewoman,  antiqitis  moribus,  prisca  fide,  who  has  5  [He   lived   on    State  Street,  about   where 

lived  a  widow  just  about  thirty  years."     The  Congress  Street  enters  it.  —  ED.] 

governor's  will  led  to  some  disputes,  —  Seivall  6  [He  lived  at  the  corner  of  Court  and  Washing- 

Papers,  ii.   197.     In  the  same  work,  i.  58-62,  it  ton  streets,  where  Sears's  building  now  is.  —  ED.] 


576  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

President  John  Leverett  married  Margaret  Rogers,  and  his  only  child 
who  left  issue  was  Mary,  wife  of  Major  John  Denison,  of  Ipswich. 

Knight  Leverett,  son  of  Thomas  Hudson  Leverett,  and  nephew  of 
President  John,  was  a  goldsmith  of  Boston.  He  married,  in  1726,  Abigail 
Buttolph,  and  at  that  date  was  the  only  male  of  the  name  here.  His  great- 
grandson,  Francis  P.  Leverett,  was  the  master  of  the  Boston  Latin  School,  — 
an  admirable  scholar,  who  died  in  I836.1 


ISAAC   ADDINGTON. 

5.  Governor  Simon  Bradstreet,  bred  at  Emanuel  College,  Cambridge, 
came  herewith  Winthrop,  was  chosen  an  Assistant  in  1630,  and  was  annually 
re-chosen  for  forty-eight  years.  He  married  first  Anne  Dudley,  our  first 
poet,  daughter  of  Governor  Thomas  Dudley,  and  had  a  large  family.  His 
second  wife  was  widow  Anne  Gardner,  daughter  of  Emanuel  Downing,  and 
niece  of  Governor  John  Winthrop.  His  children  seem  to  have  dispersed,  but 
1  ISee  note  to  Dr.  Male's  chapter,  on  "Philip's  War,"  in  the  present  volume. —  ED.] 


BOSTON    FAMILIES    PRIOR   TO    A.D.    1700.  577 

their  descendants  are  numerous,  as  are  those  of  Humphrey  Bradstreet.1 
We  may  here  note  the  Downing  connections  of  the  Winthrops.  Emanuel 
Downing  married  Lucy  Winthrop,  sister  of  Governor  John.  His  son  George 
went  to  England,  and  rose  to  great  wealth  and  position ;  his  daughter  Anne 
married  first  Captain  Joseph  Gardner,  and  secondly  Governor  Simon  Brad- 
street  ;  his  daughter  Mary  married  Anthony  Stoddard,  of  Boston. 


\.\i:    ADDINGTOX. 


6.  Atherton  Hough,  or  Haugh,  had  been  an  alderman  in  Old  Boston, 
before  coming  here  with  Rev.  John  Cotton.  His  only  son  was  Rev.  Samuel 
Hough,  of  Reading,  who  married  Sarah,  daughter  of  Rev.  Zechariah 
Symmes,  and  died  at  Boston  in  1662.  His  son  Samuel,  of  Boston,  married 
Ann  Rainsford  about  1675,  and  had  two  sons  who  died  before  middle  age.2 

1  [Drake,  Boston,  p.  512,  gives  the  Bradstreet     lot  and  house  on  the  southerly  corner  of  School 
pedigree.     Cf.    N.   E.   Hist,  and   Geneal.  Keg.,     and    Washington    Streets,   where   he    probably 
1854,  1855. —  En.]  lived;  and  another  on  Milk  Street,  just  below 

2  [The  Book  of  Possessions  gives  Hough  a     Sewall  Place.  —  ED.] 
VOL.   I.  — 73. 


578  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

7.  William  Hibbens,  an  assistant  from  1643  till  his  death  in  1654,  left  a 
widow,  Ann,  who  was  executed  for  witchcraft  in   1656.      There  were  no 
children  to  bear  the  burden  of  the  name.1 

8.  Edward   Gibbons  was  an  assistant   for  four   years,  a  tried   soldier, 
major-general  in  1649.     This  family  seems  to  have  died  out  soon.2 

9.  Humphrey  Davy,  or  Davie,  was  son  of  Sir  John   Davie,  Bart.,   of 
Greedy,  co.  Devon.      He  was  a  leading  man  here,  though  of  the  later  im- 

migration, —  1662.  His  son  by  his  first 
vvas  John,  —  H.  C.  1681,  —  who  went 
to  Hartford  and  married  his  step-sister, 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  James  Richards.  He 
succeeded  to  the  estate  and  title  of  his  grandfather,  and  returned  to  England. 
Humphrey,  the  father,  married,  here,  Sarah,  widow  of  James  Richards,  and 
had  Humphrey  and  William,  the  former  of  whom  moved  to  Hartford. 

10.  John  Richards,  major,  speaker,  assistant,  councillor,  and  judge,  was 
certainly  one  of  the  local  gentry.     He  married  first  Elizabeth  (Hawkins), 
widow  of  Adam  Winthrop ;    secondly  Anne,  daughter  of  Governor  John 
Winthrop  of  Connecticut,  but  had  no  children. 

James  Richards,  presumed  to  be  brother  of  John,  of  Boston  and  Hart- 
ford, was  very  wealthy,  and  held  high  rank  in  Connecticut.  His  wife  was 
Sarah,  only  child  of  William  Gibbons  of  Hartford,  who  married  secondly 
Humphrey  Davie,  and  thirdly  Colonel  Jonathan  Tyng.  James  Richards  had 
an  only  son,  Thomas,  and  the  following  daughters :  Sarah,  wife  of  Captain 
Benjamin  Davis ;  Mary,  married  to  Benjamin  Alford,  both  of  Boston ; 
Jerusha,  wife  of  Rev.  Gurdon  Saltonstall ;  and  Elizabeth,  married  first  to 
John  Davie,  and  secondly  to  Jonathan  Taylor. 

Benjamin  Richards,  of  Boston,  merchant,  a  third  brother,  married 
Hannah,  daughter  of  William  Hudson,  Jr.,  but  died  s.  p.  His  widow 
married  Richard  Crispe. 

1 1.  The  founder  of  the  Savage  family  was  Major  Thomas  Savage,  repre- 
sentative, speaker,  and  assistant,  noted  as  a  stanch  soldier.      He  married 
first  Faith,  daughter  of  William  Hutchinson,  by  whom  he  had  six  children ; 
and  secondly  Mary,  daughter  of  Rev.  Zechariah  Symmes,  by  whom  he  had 
eleven.     His  widow  married  Anthony  Stoddard.     Of  his  children,  Hannah 
married  first  Benjamin  Gillam,  and  secondly  Giles  Sylvester;  Mary  married 
Thomas   Thatcher;     Dyonisia   married    Samuel    Ravenscroft;     and    Sarah 
married  John  Higginson  of  Salem.     Of  his  sons,  Ebenezer  married  Martha, 
daughter  of  Bozoun  Allen,  and  died  s.  p.     Ephraim  married  first  Mary, 
daughter  of  Edmund  Quincy;    second,  Sarah,  daughter  of  Rev.   Samuel 
Hough;   third,  Elizabeth  (Norton),  widow  of  Timothy  Symmes;    fourth, 
Elizabeth,    daughter   of    Peter    Butler,    and   widow   of   Abraham    Brown. 

1  [Hibbens  lived  on  Milk  Street,  on  the  line  Cornhill.     He  had  another  house  and  lot  on  the 
of  the  present  Devonshire  Street.     His  wife  was  west  side  of  Hanover,  on  the  line  of  the  present 
a  sister  of  Governor  Bellingham.  —  ED.]  Friend  Street.    He  died  Dec.  9,  1652.    See  Sav- 

2  [Gibbons  lived  on  the  east  side  of  Wash-  age's    Winthrop,   i.   228,   note,   and   his    Geneal. 
ington  Street,  on  the  corner  opposite  the  foot  of  Diet.,  ii.  245.  —  ED.] 


BOSTON    FAMILIES    PRIOR   TO   A.D.    1700.  579 

Habijah,  son  of  Thomas  Savage,  married  Hannah,  daughter  of  Captain 
Edward  Tyng. 

We  may  note  that  the  daughters  of  Rev.  Zachariah  Symmes l  of  Charles- 
town  married,  respectively,  Rev.  Samuel  Hough,  Thomas  Savage  (Mrs. 
Savage  married  also  Anthony  Stoddard),  Hezekiah  Usher,  William  Davis, 
Humphrey  Booth,  Timothy  Prout,  and  Edward  Willis. 

The  family  has  maintained  its  position  in  Boston  till  the  present 
generation. 

12.  Dr.  Elisha  Cooke,  only  son  of  Richard  Cooke,  a  tailor  of  Boston, 
was  of  H.  C.  i657.2     He  was  prominent  in  politics,  —  speaker,  assistant,  of 
the  Council  of  Safety,  agent  to  England,  and  judge.     He  married  Eliza- 
beth,  daughter  of  Governor  Leverett,   and   had   Elisha,  also   a  leader  in 
politics,  who   married  Jane,  daughter  of  Richard   Middlecot.      The    only 
daughter  of  this  last  was  Mary,  wife  of  Judge  Richard  Saltonstall,  whose 
descendant,  Leverett  Saltonstall,  still  represents  the  family  in  Boston.3 

13.  The  Hutchinsons  have  filled  as  large  a  space  in  popular  estimation 
as  any  family  that  has  resided  here.     The  emigrant  was  William  Hutchin- 
son,  grandson  of  John  H.,  mayor  of  Lincoln,  and  he  had  a  brother  Richard 
of  London,  whose  son,  Eliakim,  settled  at  Boston  also.     His  wife  was  the 
too-famous  Anne  Hutchinson,  exiled  for  her  opinions.     Their  son  Edward, 
of  Boston,  had  a  daughter,  Elizabeth,  married 

to  Edward  Winslow;  and  a  son,  Elisha,  who  >J&u/evi0* s$*  ">** 
became  very  prominent.  He  married  Hannah, 
daughter  of  Captain  Thomas  Hawkins,  and  secondly  Elizabeth,  daughter  of 
Thomas  Clarke,  and  widow  of  John  Freke.  His  sons  were  Thomas  and 
Edward,  who  married  after  1700;  and  his  daughters  married  Dr.  John 
Clarke,  John  Ruck,  and  Colonel  John  Foster. 

Thomas  was  father  of  Governor  Thomas  Hutchinson,  but  this  generation 
belongs  in  the  record  of  the  eighteenth  century.4 

1  [The  Symmes  Genealogy,  by  John  A.  Vin-  investigations  into  the  familyline  both  of  William 

ton,  was  published  in  1873.  —  ED.]  Hutchinson  and  his  famous  wife  Anne,  and  pub- 

'2  [Sibley,  Harvard  Graduates,  p.  525,  gives  lished  them  in  1866  in  Notes  upon  the  Ancestry  of 

an  account  of  Elisha  Cooke,  with  references.  William  Hutchinson  and  Anna  Marbury.  See 

—  ED.]  also  "the  Hutchinson  family  of  England  and 

8  [The  Saltonstalls  were  a  Watertown  family,  New  England,  and  its  connection  with  the  Mar- 

ancl  an  elaborate  memoir  of  the  line  is  in  Bond's  burys  and  Drydens,"  by  Colonel  Chester,  in  N. 

Watertcnvn.  See  Heraldic  Journal,  i.  161,  and  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  Oct.  1866.  Heraldic 

G.  D.  Phippen's  tabular  pedigree,  1857.  —  ED.]  Journal,  ii.  171.  William  Hutchinson  had  grant- 

4  [The  Hutchinson  family  has  been  the  sub-  ed  to  him,  probably  not  long  after  his  arrival  in 
jectof  several  genealogical  essays,  beginning  with  1634,  the  lot  now  known  as  the  "Old  Corner 
a  privately  printed  tract  by  Peter  O.  Hutchinson,  Bookstore,"  but  which  then  extended  up  School 
of  England,  a  descendant  of  Governor  Hutchin-  Street  to  the  City  Hall  lot;  and  here  he  and  his 
son,  who  made  a  Tour  into  the  County  of  Lin-  unfortunate  wife  lived.  After  his  removal  in 
coin  for  the  Purpose  of  Hunting  up  Memorials  Ql  1638  to  Rhode  Island,  his  son  Edward  was  al- 
the  English  ancestry  of  Thomas  Hutchinson,  the  lowed,  in  1639,  to  sell  the  lot  to  Richard  Hutch- 
emigrant  ancestor  of  Boston.  Mr.  William  H.  inson  of  London,  linen-draper.  Shurtleff,  Desc. 
Whitmore  reprinted  from  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  of  Boston,  p.  674.  In  1870  Mr.  Perley  Derby 
Geneal.  Reg.,  1865,  A  Brief  Genealogy  of  the  De-  printed  The  Hutchinson  Family,  giving  1404  de- 
scendants  of  William  Hutchinson  and  Thomas  scendants  of  another  emigrant,  Richard  Hutch- 
Oliver.  Colonel  J.  L.  Chester  made  some  special  inson  of  Salem.  —  ED.] 


58o 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


14.  Elder  Thomas  Oliver  came  here  an  old  man,  with  adult  children.1 
His  son  John  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  John  Newdigate  ;  Peter,  another 
son,  married  her  sister  Sarah;  James,  the  third  son,  was  long  a  selectman. 
John  Oliver,  Jr.,  married  Susanna  Sweet,  and  his  brother  Thomas  married 

and  settled  in  Cambridge.    Peter  Oliver, 

S0n  °f  tlie  em'grant>  nad  tnree  sons»  °f 
whom  Nathaniel  married  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  Thomas  Brattle;  James 
married  Mercy,  daughter  of  Samuel  Bradstreet;  and  Daniel  married 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Andrew  Belcher.  Andrew,  son  of  the  last-named, 
was  lieutenant-governor,  and  brother-in-law  of  Governor  Hutchinson.2 

15.  John  Hull,  the  well-known  mint-master,  deserves  notice  as  an  assist- 
ant, though  he  was  a  trader,  and  not  one  of  the  gentry.     His  only  child 
married  Samuel  Sewall,  the  chief-justice,  who  was  of  a  Newbury  family  of 
similar  social  position.3 

16.  Captain  Thomas  Brattle,  merchant,  of  Boston,  who  died   in   1683, 
was  one  of  the  wealthiest  men  of  his  day.4    He  married  Elizabeth,  daughter 

of  Captain  William  Tyng.  His  son 
Thomas,  who  died  unmarried  in  1713, 
was  treasurer  of  Harvard,  and  judge 
of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  for 
Suffolk.  The  second  son  was  Rev.  William  Brattle,  whose  son  William 
was  the  only  heir  of  the  name.  Edward  Brattle,  third  son,  married  Mary 
Legg,  of  Marblehead,  but  died  s.  p.  Of  the  daughters,  Elizabeth  married 
Nathaniel  Oliver;  Katherine  married,  first,  John  Eyre,  and  had  two 
daughters, —  one  the  wife  of  David  Jeffries,  the  other  of  John  Walley;  and 
the  widow  Eyre  married  secondly  Wait-Still  Winthrop.  Bethiah  Brattle 
married  Joseph  Parsons,  and  her  sister  Mary  married  John  Mico.  The  family 
continued  at  Cambridge,  and  in  female  lines  in  Boston,  in  the  next  century. 

17.  There  were  two  brothers  here  by  the  name  of  Tyng,  William  and 
Edward,  —  wealthy  and  undoubted  leaders.5     Williar     married   Elizabeth, 


1  (He  lived  on  Washington  Street,  his  lot 
extending   north   from    Spring  Lane,  including 
the  head  of  Water  Street.  —  Eo.J 

2  [See  the  Oliver  genealogy  by  Mr.  Whitmore 
in  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  A'tg.,  April,  1865,  and 
a  tabular  pedigree  in  Drake's  Boston,  p.  293. — Ki>.] 

3  [Drake,  Boston,  p.  586,  gives  the   Sewall 
pedigree ;  but  a  much  more  extended  account  is 
prefixed  to  the  first  volume  of  SewalPs  Diary, 
whereof  the  third  volume  is  to  be  issued  in  1880 
by  the  Mass.  Historical  Society.     Hull  himself 
had  married  Judeth,  a  daughter  of  Edmund  Quin- 
cy,  the  emigrant  ancestor  of  that  family,  and  he 
bestowed  his  wife's  name  upon  a  headland  in  the 
Narragansett  country  (where  he  owned   lands) 
which  is  not  of  good  omen   to   passengers   by 
the  Sound  to  New  York  in  these  days.      See 
note  to  Mr.  Deane's  chapter.  —  ED. | 


4  [The    Her  tldic   Journal,   iii.   42,    puts  his 
estate   at  nearly  ^8,000,  —  thought   to   be  the 
largest  in  New  England  at  that  time.     Edward 
D.  Harris  printed,  in  1867,  An  Account  of  some  of 
the    Descendants    of   Captain     Thomas    Brattle. 
-En.J 

5  [William  Tyng  lived  on  Washington  Street, 
where,  a   few  years   ago,  it   turned  into    Dock 
Square,  covering  the  foot  of  Brattle  Street,  now 
Adams    Square.      Here   he   had  what  was   de- 
scribed as  "  one  house,  one  close,  one  garden,  one 
greate  yard,  and  one  little  yard  before  the  hall 
windowe."      Edward  Tyng  lived  on  what  was 
then  the  lower  lot  on  the  north  side  of    State 
Street,  near  the  corner  of  Merchants'  Row,  with 
his  front   "wharfed  out."     Here   he  had  "one 
house  and  yard,  and  warehouse  and  brewhouse." 
He  was  admitted  a  townsman  in  1639.  —  En.j 


BOSTON    FAMILIES    PRIOR   TO   A.D.    1700.  581 

daughter  of  Rowland  Coytemore,  and  had  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Thomas  Brat- 
tle ;  Anne,  wife  of  Rev.  Thomas  Shepard ;  Bethiah,  who  married  Richard 
Wharton ;  and  Mercy,  who  married  Samuel  Bradstreet.  He  had  sons,  — 
Edward  and  Jonathan  ;  and  daughters, —  Hannah, 
who  married  first  Habijah  Savage,  and  secondly 
Major-General  Daniel  Gookin  ;  Deliverance,  wife 
of  Daniel  Searle ;  Rebecca,  wife  of  Governor  Joseph  Dudley ;  and  Eunice, 
who  married  Rev.  Samuel  Willard. 

Jonathan  Tyng,  son  of  the  first  Edward,  was  also  of  Dunstable,  Mass., 
where  he  held  a  large  estate.  He  married  first  Sarah,  daughter  of  Hezekiah 
Usher;  secondly,  Sarah  (Gibbons),  widow  of  Humphrey  Davie ;  thirdly, 
Judith,  daughter  of  Rev.  John  Reyner,  and  widow  of  Rev.  Jabez  Fox.  The 
name  long  remained  at  Dunstable,  and  has  been  revived  in  a  female  branch. 

1 8.  William  Alford,  a  member  of  the  Skinners'  Company,  of  London, 
was  a  merchant  here.     His  daughter  Mary  married  first  Peter  Butler,  and 
secondly    Hezekiah    Usher;     and    Elizabeth    married    Nathaniel    Hudson. 
Benjamin  Alford  —  probably  his  son  —  married  Mary,  daughter  of  James 
Richards,  of  Hartford,  and  had  a  son  John,  who  died  s.  p.,  but  founded  at 
Harvard  the  Professorship  of  Natural  Theology  which  perpetuates  his  name. 

19.  Captain  Samuel  Scarlet,  of  Boston  (from  Kersey,  co.  Suffolk),  died 
s.  p.  in  1675,  leaving  a  good  estate.     His  brother  John  had  two  daughters, 
—  Thomasine  Taylor  and  -     -Fryer. 

20.  John  Joyliffe,  long  in  office  here,  married,  in  1657,  Anne,  widow  of 
Robert  Knight,  as  she  had  been  of  Thomas  Cromwell ;   had  an  only  daugh- 
ter, Hannah,  who  probably  died  unmarried.     This  Cromwell  was  a  reformed 
free-booter,  who  settled  in  Boston,  where  he  made  his  peace  with  the  Church, 
and  died  in  1649. 1     His  widow,  by  her  second  husband  (Knight),  had  an 
only  child,  —  Martha,  wife  of  Jarvis  Ballard.     Cromwell's  only  daughter  and 
heiress,  Elizabeth,  married  first  Richard  Price,  and  secondly  Isaac  Vick- 
ers,  or  Vickery.      By  each  husband  she  had  children,  —  Elizabeth  Price, 
wife  of  Joseph   Lobdell ;    Anna  Vickers,  wife    of  Benjamin  Loring;    and 
Rebecca  Vickers,  wife  of  Samuel  Binney. 

21.  William  Gerrish  belongs  rather  to  Essex  County,  though  he  lived 
in  Boston,  and  married,  in  1645,  Joanna,  widow  of  John  Oliver.     His  son 
John  was  of  Dover,  and  another  son  (Joseph)  was  minister  at  Wenham ; 
but  grandsons  returned  to  Boston,  and  kept  the  name  alive  here. 

22.  Tobias  Payne,  of  Fownhope,  co.  Hereford,  was  a  merchant  in  Ham- 
burg, later  in  Barbados,  and  came  to  Boston  in   1666.     He  married  Sarah 
(Winslow),  widow  of  Captain  Miles  Standish,2  by  whom  he  had  an  only 
child,  Wrilliam.     His  widow  married  Richard  Middlecott.     William  Payne 
married  Mary,  daughter  of  James  Taylor,  in   1694.      The  family  became 
extinct  here  in   i834.3 

1  [See  note  to  Mr.  Scudder's  chapter  in  this          3  [The  Payne  and  Gore  families  have  been 
volume.  —  ED.]  traced  by  Mr.  Whitmore  in  an  article  in  Mass. 

2  [Son   of    the   famous    Plymouth   hero. —     Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  1875,  which  has  been  reprinted 
ED.]  as  a  pamphlet.  —  ED.] 


582  THE    MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF    BOSTON. 

23.  Richard    Middlecott  had  four  children  by  this  wife,  —  Mary,  wife 
of  Henry  Gibbs,  of  Barbados;   Sarah,  wife  of  Lewis  Boucher;  Jane,  wife  of 
Elisha  Cooke;   and  Edward,  who  settled  in  England. 

24.  Hezekiah  Usher,  merchant,  married,   for  a  second  wife,  Elizabeth 
Symmes,  and,  for  a  third,  Mary  (Alford)  Butler.     He  had  two  sons  and  two 
daughters,  of  whom  Rebecca  married  Abraham  Browne,  and  Sarah  mar- 
ried Jonathan  Tyng.     His  son  Hezekiah,  Jr.,  married  Bridget,  widow  of 
Leonard  Hoar,  daughter  of  John  Lisle,  the  regicide.     They  had  no  chil- 
dren.    John,  the  other  son,  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Peter  Lidgett, 
and  had  Elizabeth,  wife  of  David  Jeffries.     His  second  wife  was  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  Samuel  Allen,  the  proprietor  of  New  Hampshire,  by  whom 
he  had  issue,  still  represented  in  Rhode  Island.     John  Usher  fills  a  large 
space  in  our  annals;   and  his  wealth  is  evidenced  by  the  fine  house  he  built 
at  Medford.1 

25.  David   Jeffries,   from  Rhoad,  co.  Wilts,  came   here    in   1677.      By 
his  wife  Elizabeth  (Usher)  he  had  sons,  John  and  David,  of  whom  John  was 
town  treasurer  for  many  years.     The  family  is  still  represented  in  Boston,  — 
being  one  of  the  few  which  have  continued  through  all  the  changes  of  two 
centuries.2 

26.  Peter  Lidgett,  freeman,   1673,  —  a  merchant,  and   partner  of  John 
Hull,  —  married   Elizabeth   Scammon,  and  had,  besides  Elizabeth,  wife  of 
John  Usher,  a  son,  Charles,  who  died  at  London  in   1698.     This  Charles 
married  Mary,  daughter  of  John  Hester,  of  London,  whose  wife  was  prob- 
ably a  daughter  of  Robert  Sedgwick,  as  Mrs.  Lidgett  was  a  great-niece  of 
Madam  Leverett.     Peter's  widow  married  John  Saffin. 

27.  John  Saffin,  speaker,  councillor,  and  judge,  married    first    Martha, 
daughter   of  Captain  Thomas  Willett,  of  Plymouth ;  secondly,  the  widow 
Lidgett;  and  thirdly  Rebecca,  daughter  of  Rev.  Samuel  Lee.     He  left  no 
issue  at  his  death  in  1710. 

28.  Captain  Thomas  Ruck,  or  Rock,  married  Margaret  Clark  in  1656, 
and  had  several  children,  one  of  them  being  Peter,  —  H.  C.  1685.     Savage 
notes  the  difficulty  of  distinguishing  them  from  the  Salem  family  of  the  name. 

29.  William  W'hittingham,  of  Boston,  was  the  son  of  John  Whittingham, 
of  Ipswich,  grandson  of  Dean  Whittingham,  of  Durham.     His  mother  was 
Martha,   daughter  of  William   Hubbard,   sister  of  the  historian.     William 
Whittingham  married  Mary,  daughter  of  John  Lawrence,  and  left  issue. 

30.  Henry  Shrimpton,  a  brazier  of  London,  came  here  by  i639,3  with 
wife  Elinor,  and  had  a  second  wife  Mary,  —  widow,  first,  of  Captain  Thomas 
Hawkins,  and,  secondly,  of  Captain  Robert  Fenn.     His  son  Samuel,  a  coun- 
cillor, married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  widow  Elizabeth  Roberts,  of  London, 

1   [The  Usher  family  is  traced  in  an  article  by          2  [See   an  article   in   the   N.  E.   Hist,  and 

Mr.  Whitmore  in  the  N.  E.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Geneal.  Reg.,  xv.  14,  by  Mr.  Whitmore,  and  in 

Reg.  xxiii.  410,  reprinted  as  a  pamphlet.     Heze-  the  Heraldic  Journal,  ii.  166. —  ED.] 
kiah  Usher  lived  on  the  north  side  of   State          8  [And  bought,  in  1646,  a  house  and  garden 

Street,   opposite   the   market   place   (old  State  on  the   upper   corner   of   State  and  Exchange 

House  lot).  —  ED.]  streets.  —  ED.] 


BOSTON    FAMILIES    PRIOR   TO   A.D.    1700. 


583 


and  left  issue,  hereafter  to  be  noted.  Henry  had  a  nephew,  Jonathan,  of 
Boston,  son  of  Edward  S.,  of  Bednall  Green,  who  married  Mary,  daughter  of 
Peter  Oliver,  and  had  several  children,  of  whom  Sarah  married  John  Clarke. 


SIMEON   STODDARD. 

31.  Anthony  Stoddard,  Recorder  of  Boston,  and  for  nineteen  years  con- 
secutively chosen  a  representative,  had  four  wives.1  His  first  was  Mary 
Downing,  niece  of  Governor  Winthrop ;  his 
second,  Barbara,  widow  of  Captain  Joseph 

Weld  of  Roxbury ;   his  thicd,  Christian ; 

his  fourth,  Mary,  widow  of  Captain  Thomas  Savage.    Of  his  children,  Lydia 

1  [He  is  called  a  linen-draper  when  admitted  Exchange  streets,  and  one  on  the  east  side  of 
a  freeman  in  1639.  He  owned  two  houses  and  Washington  Street,  between  State  Street  and 
gardens,  one  on  the  lower  corner  of  State  and  Adams  Square.  —En.] 


584 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY    OF    BOSTON. 


married  Captain  Samuel  Turell,  and  Christian  married  Nathaniel  Pierce.  Of 
his  sons,  Solomon  was  minister  at  Northampton ;  Samson  lived  at  Boston, 
and  had  a  son  Samson,  H.  C.  1701  ;  and  Simeon  was  of  note  as  a  councillor. 
This  last  married  secondly  Elizabeth,  widow  of  Colonel  Samuel  Shrimp- 


1  [Colonel  Shrimpton  was  among  the  earliest 
to  resist  Andros.     He  bought  Noddle's  Island, 


COLONEL   SAMUEL   SHRIMPTON.1 

ton,  and  thirdly  Mehitable,  daughter  of  James  Minot,  widow  successively 
of  Thomas  Cooper  and  Peter  Sargeant.  The  family  still  flourishes,  though 
not  in  Boston.2 

him:  "Mr.  Shrimpton  has  a  very  stately  house, 
with  a  brass  kettle  atop,  to  show  his  father  was 
not  ashamed  of  his  original."  Duntoifs  Letters, 
p.  68.  A  Shrimpton  pedigree  is  given  in  Sum- 
ner's  East  Boston,  p.  254.  See  also  the  Genealogy 
of  tJu'  Stunner  Family.  —  ED.] 

2  [An  elaborate  Stoddard  genealogy  has  been 
published,  including  Anthony  Stoddard  and  De- 
and  at  one  time  owned  Beacon  Hill.  Sumner,  scendanls,  New  York,  1865;  and  a  pedigree  is 
Hist,  of  East  Boston,  p.  192.  He  died  Feb.  8,  given  in  Sumner's  East  Boston,  p.  226.  Durrie 
1697-98,  —  Scwall  Papers.  \.  470.  Dunton  says  of  gives  various  other  references.  —  En.] 


BOSTON    FAMILIES    PRIOR    TO    A.D.    1700. 


5*5 


32.  Peter  Sargeant,  a  famous  merchant,  married  secondly  Dame  Mary, 
widow  of  Sir  William  Phips,  and   thirdly  widow  Mehitable  Cooper.     He 
died  s.  p.  in  1714.    He  built  the  noble          -  /j 

mansion     afterwards     known    as    the     /2J  jf  -4*     .  xxxZ'Z /£//"" 

Province     House,     where     successive  ^^J^"^^  //^ 

governors  dwelt  and   ruled.  ^ 

33.  Jacob   Sheaffe,  who   died   in    1659,  was   reputed  to  be  one  of  the 
wealthiest    settlers.       He    was    born    at    Cranbrook,    co.    Kent,  —  son    of 


MRS.    SHRIMPTON. 

Edmund  Sheaffe.  His  widow  married  Rev.  Thomas  Thatcher;  and,  of  his 
daughters,  Elizabeth  was  wife  of  Robert  Gibbs,  and  secondly  of  Jonathan 
Curwin ;  and  Mehitable  married  Sampson  Sheaffe.  This  Sampson  was 
son  of  an  Edmund  Sheaffe,  of  Cranbrook  and  Boston,  —  brother  or  cousin 
of  Jacob,  who  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Sampson  Cotton,  of  London. 
Sampson  Sheaffe  went  to  New  Hampshire,  where  he  was  councillor  and 
judge,  but  died  in  Boston  in  1724. 
VOL.  i.  —  74. 


586  THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 

34.  Robert  Gibbs,  of  a  good  family  in  Warwickshire,  was  a  noted  mer- 
chant  here  by   I64O.1     Early  historians  say  that  his  fine  house  on   Fort 
Hill  cost  some  three  thousand   pounds.     He   married  Elizabeth  Sheaffe, 
and    had   sons,  —  Rev.  Henry,  of  Watertown,   and    Robert,  who   married 
Mary    Shrimpton.       The    name     continued    till    recently    in    Middlesex 
County. 

35.  Simon    Lynde,   often    mentioned    in  our   annals,   married    Hannah, 
daughter  of  John  Newgate,  or  Newdigate.     One  of  his  daughters  married 
George    Pordage,    and    another   a   cousin    Newgate.       His    son,   Benjamin 
Lynde,  —  H.   C.    1686,  —  studied    law  in    London,   and   married,   in    1699, 
Mary,  daughter  of  William   Browne,  of  Salem.      There    he  settled,  was 
Chief-Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  had  a  son,  Benjamin,  who  reached 
the  same  dignity.     Nathaniel,  another  son  of  Simon,  went  to  Connecticut, 
and  married  a  daughter  of  Deputy-Governor  Francis  Willoughby. 

36.  Edward  Lyde,  of  Boston,  married,  in  1660,  Mary,  daughter  of  Rev. 
John  Wheelwright,  and  had  Edward,  who  married  Susanna  Curwen,  and 
secondly  Deborah,  daughter  of  Nathaniel  Byfield.2     This  Colonel  Byfield, 
who  came  here  in   1674,  was  the  son  of  Rev.  Richard   Byfield  a  famous 
Puritan,  married  Deborah,  daughter  of  Captain  Thomas  Clark,  and  had  an 
only  daughter,  as  above. 

37.  Dr.  John  Clarke   (1673)   married    Martha  Whittingham,   and   had 
Elizabeth,  wife  of  Richard  Hubbard,  and    then   of  Rev.   Cotton  Mather. 
His  son  John  C.  —  H.  C.  1668  —  was  a  physician,  speaker,  and  councillor. 
He  married,  in   1691,  Sarah    Shrimpton,  then   Elizabeth   Hutchinson,  and 
thirdly  Sarah,  widow  of  President  Leverett. 

Thomas  Clarke,  merchant,  of  Dorchester  and  Boston,  colonel,  speaker, 
and  assistant,  had  several  children,  including  Leah,  wife  of  Thomas  Baker, 
and  Deborah  Byfield.  Thomas,  presumed  to  be  his  son,  was  a  wealthy 
merchant  here,  and  left  two  daughters,  —  Mehitable  Warren,  and  Elizabeth, 
who  married  first  John  Freke,  and  secondly  Elisha  Hutchinson. 

Another  Thomas  Clarke  of  Boston,  son  of  William  and  Anne,  was  born 
at  Salisbury,  co.  Wilts,  in  1645,  and  died  in  1732,  aged  eighty-seven.  His 
first  wife  was  Jane,  by  whom  he  had  Jane,  wife  of  Rev.  Benjamin  Colman. 
His  second  wife  was  Rebecca,  widow  of  Captain  Thomas  Smith,  by  whom 
he  had  Anne,  wife  of  John  Jeffries.  His  third  wife  was  Abigail  Keach.3 

38.  Rev.    John    Cotton,4  as  we   know   now,  was  of  good   family.     He 
married  at  Boston,  co.  Lincoln,  the  widow  of  William  Story.     His  children 
were  Seaborn,  John,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Jeremiah  Egginton,  and  Maria,  wife 
of  Rev.  Increase  Mather.     Rev.  Seaborn  Cotton  married   Dorothy  Brad- 
street,  and  secondly  Prudence  Wade.     The  family,  however,  soon  passed 
from  Boston. 

1  I  See  Heraldic  Journal,  iii.  165.  —  ED.]  and   the    references  in   Whitmore  and   Durrie. 

2  [Ibid.  ii.  126.  — ED.]  —  ED.| 

8  [The  Clarkes  of  New  England  have  ancestors,  4  [For  Cotton's  residence  and  genealogy  see 
not  connected  very  likely;  and  those  interested  this  volume,  pp.  157,  158.  A  portrait  is  given 
may  trace  the  various  branches  through  Savage,  on  p.  157.  —  ED.J 


BOSTON    FAMILIES    PRIOR   TO    A.D.    1700.  587 

39.  Rev.  James  Allen,1  a  graduate  of  Oxford,  married  first  Hannah, 
daughter  of  Richard  Dummer;  secondly  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Jeremiah 
Houchin  and  widow  of  John  Endicott;  and  thirdly  Sarah,  daughter  of 


Thomas   Hawkins  and  widow  of  Robert  Breck.      His  son  Jeremiah  was 
treasurer  of  the  province. 

1  [Allen's  house,  considered  the  oldest  stone  was  occupied  by  his  descendants  till  about  1806. 

house  in  Boston,  stood  where  the  Congregational  It  shows  in  Price's  View  of  Boston,  1743,  and  is 

House  stands,  corner  of  Beacon  and  Somerset  marked  "  59  James  Allen,  Esqr- House."    Durrie 

streets,  and  Drake,  Landmarks,  p.  363,  says  it  gives  many  references  to  Allen  genealogies. — ED.] 


588 


THE    MEMORIAL    HISTORY    OF    BOSTON. 


40.  Rev.  Richard  Mather,  of  Dorchester,  was  the  founder  of  the  line 
here.1  His  second  wife  had  been  the  second  wife  of  Rev.  John  Cotton,  and 
his  son  Increase  Mather  married  Mary  Cotton,  his  step-sister.  Increase 
married  secondly  the  daughter  of  Captain  Thomas  Lake,  widow  of  Rev. 
John  Cotton  of  Hampton,  nephew  of  Mather's  first  wife.  Of  the  daughters 
of  Increase,  Maria  married  Bartholomew  Green  and  Richard  Fifield ; 
Elizabeth  married  William  Greenough  and  Josiah  Byles ;  Sarah  married 
Rev.  Nehemiah  Walter;  Abigail  married  Newcomb  Blake  and  Rev.  John 
White;  Hannah  married  John  Oliver;  and  Jerusha  married  Peter  Oliver. 

Rev.  Cotton  Mather  married  first  Abigail,  daughter  of  John  Phillips,  of 
Charlestown ;  secondly  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Dr.  John  Clark,  widow  of 
Richard  Hubbard ;  thirdly  Lydia,  daughter  of  Rev.  Samuel  Lee  and  widow 
of  John  George.2 

The  name,  however,  was  soon  lost  to  Boston,  though  descendants  in 
Connecticut  still  bear  it. 

I  have  thus  singled  out  some  forty  families  which  seemed  entitled  to 
precedence.  I  do  not  say  that  there  were  not  others  perhaps  of  equal 
rank,  but  these  were  nearly  all  allied  by  marriage,  and  certainly  held  the 
largest  share  of  public  honors  prior  to  A.D.  1700.  I  can  only  say  in  con- 
clusion, as  I  did  at  the  beginning,  that  the  materials  are  not  yet  collected 
to  enable  any  one  to  do  for  our  Boston  families  what  Bond  did  for  Water- 
town,  or  Wyman  for  Charlestown.  That  the  work  is  begun,  and  that  fair 
progress  has  been  made,  is  certainly  some  satisfaction.  I  do  desire  to  put 
on  record  here  that  the  City  Council  of  Boston  for  the  past  two  years  has 
been  willing  to  vote  all  necessary  money  towards  the  completion  of  its 
records,  and  to  say  that  I  think  that  the  desired  end  is  within  sight. 


1  [A  portrait  of  Richard  and  genealogical 
references  will  be  found  in  Mr.  Barrows's  chap- 
ter. A  portrait  of  Cotton  is  given  in  Mr.  Foote's 
chapter.  Other  portraits  can  be  found  in  Drake's 
Boston;  his  edition  of  Mather's  Philip's  War; 
N.  E.  Hist,  and  Cental.  Reg.,  1852,  &c.  The 
signatures  beneath  the  portrait  of  Increase  give, 
besides  his  ordinary  autograph,  the  Latin  form 
often  used  in  his  learned  correspondence.  There 
is  another  portrait  in  the  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Society's  gallery  ;  and  engravings  of  him 
are  numerous.  See  Drake's  Boston  ;  his  edition 
of  Mather's  Philip's  War;  N.  E.  Hist,  and 
Geneal.  Reg.,  Jan.  1848;  Andros  Papers,  &c. 
Mr.  Nathaniel  Paine  printed  in  the  Register, 
Jan.  1876,  and  separately,  Boston,  1876,  a  pam- 


phlet on  the  Portraits  and  Busts  in  the  Public 
Buildings  in  Worcester,  in  which  he  names  the 
following  as  in  the  Amer.  Antiq.  Soc.  Collection, 
all  the  gift  of  Mrs.  Hannah  Mather  Crocker, 
of  Boston  :  Increase,  from  life  (see  preceding 
page) ;  Cotton,  by  Pelham  (see  heliotype,  p.  208) ; 
Richard,  from  life,  engraved  in  Mr.  Barrows's 
chapter;  Samuel,  son  of  Cotton,  from  life; 
Samuel,  son  of  Richard,  born  1626,  died  in 
Dublin,  1671. 

The  seal  of  Increase  attached  to  his  will  is 
not  identified.  Heraldic  Journal,  ii.  7.  The 
Mather  tomb  is  in  the  Copp's  Hill  burial  ground. 
Shurtleff,  Description  of  Boston,  p.  205.  —  ED.] 

2  [Her  connections  are  traced  in  the  Sewall 
Papers,  i.  148.  — ED.] 


INDEX. 


Contributors'  names  are  in  SMALL  CAPITALS,  followed  by  the  titles  of  their  chapters  in  quotation-marks,  and  titles  of 
books  are  in  italics.     The  lists  of  names  in  the  last  chapter  are  not  included  in  this  Index. 


ACADIA,  282. 

ADAMS,  C.  F.  Jr.  "  Earliest  Explora- 
tions of  the  Harbor,"  63.  John 
Quincy,  Address  on  the  Confeder- 
acy, 299.  Samuel,  of  Charlestown, 
389.  Rev.  William,  418. 

Addington,  Isaac,  575  ;  portrait,  576. 
Mrs.  Jane,  her  portrait,  577. 

Agnese,  Baptista,  map,  42. 

Ainsworth  psalter,  457. 

Alcock,  George,  405. 

Alfonce  in  the  bay,  43. 

Alford  family,  581. 

Allen  family,  587.  Bozoeen,  133.  Rev. 
James,  194,  204,  206.  JOEL  A., 
"  Fauna  of  Boston,"  9.  Rev. 
Thomas,  396. 

Allerton,  Isaac,  £o,  82,   no. 

Allerton  point.     See  Point. 

Alexander,  Sir  William  and  his  tracts, 
61. 

Anabaptists.     See  Baptists. 

Anchor  Tavern,  354. 

Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Com- 
pany, 510. 

Andros,  Sir  Edmund,  Governor,  203, 
213  ;  and  Philip's  war,  324.  Lady, 
funeral,  212. 

Antinomianism,  173,  411  ;  authorities 
on  the  controversy,  176. 

Apothecary,  502. 

Appleton,  Samuel,  323. 

Aspinwall,  Peter,  221.  William,  174, 
387 ;  his  autograph,  175 ;  House 
at  Muddy  River,  221. 

Assistants,  Court  of,  156,  235. 

Atherton,  Humphrey,  428. 

Atwater,  Joshua,  324. 

Auk,  the  great,  n,  12. 

Aulnay.     See  D'Aulnay. 

Avery,  John,  500. 

BACON,     LEONARD,    Genesis    of  the 

N.  E.  Churches,  144. 
Baily,  Rev.  John,  471. 
Baker,  John,  387.     William,  389. 
Balch,  John,  93. 
Ballot,  protection  of  the,  408. 
Bankes,  Richard,  201. 
Bannister's  Garden,  84. 
Baptism  denied,  151. 
Baptists,  controversy  with,  177  ,  their 

first  church,  195. 
Barber-surgeon,  501. 


Barberry,  20. 

Barlow,  S   L.  M.,  his  maps,  38. 

Barnam,  Richard,  323. 

Barren,  Peter,  32. 

BARROWS,  SAMUEL  J.  "  Dorchester 
in  the  Colonial  Period,"  423. 

Barton's  Point,  530. 

Bass,  14. 

Bateman,  John,  278. 

Batteries,  535. 

Baxter,  Richard.  Call  to  the  Uncon- 
verted, in  Indian,  473. 

Bay  psalm  book,  456,  457. 

Bayly,  Bishop.  Practice  of  Piety,  in 
Indian,  473. 

Beacon,  223,  510,  532  ;  xxiv,  524,  527  ; 
view  of,  in  1720,  214. 

Beacon  Street,  542. 

Beecher,  Thomas,  388. 

Beer,  William,  555. 

Bell,  Thomas,  406,  420. 

1'ellame  the  pirate,  58. 

Bellingham,  Richard,  449,  452  ;  gov- 
ernor, 128,  194;  his  house,  360, 
541  ;  tomb,  556;  family,  575. 

Bellmen,  510. 

Bells,  508,  507,  517. 

Bendall,  Edward,  228. 

Bendall's  Dock,  529. 

Bennett,  Peter,  323, 

Berry,  Grace,  555. 

Bible,  Indian,  467;  fac-simile  of  title, 
469  ;  copies  of,  471. 

Bigeiow,  Jacob.    Florula  Bait.,  19. 

Bill  of  lading  (1632),  490. 

Birds,  it. 

Bishop,  G.  New  England  Judged, 
,87. 

Black-horse  lane,  549. 

Blackleach,  John,  449. 

Blackstone,  or  Blaxton,  William,  387  ; 
521,  552  ;  in  Gorges'  company,  75  ; 
at  Shawmut,  78,  83  ;  his  dwelling 
and  lot,  84 ;  removal,  84 ;  his  mar- 
riage, 84  ;  his  death,  84 ;  invites 
Winthrop's  Company,  1 16. 

Blackstone  Point,  84.  530. 

Blaeu's  map,  46,  59. 

Blake,  William,  433 ;  his  house,  433, 
434- 

Blandon,  John,  323. 

Blantaine,  William,  494,  542. 

Blathwayt,  372. 

Block,  Adrien,  56. 


Blot,  Robert,  389. 

Blue-anchor  Tavern,  493. 

Blue-bell  and  Indian-queen,  544. 

Blue-fish,  15. 

Blue  Hills,  37  ;  Massachusetts  Mount, 
53  ;  Cheviot  Hills,  53,  61. 

Body  of  Liberties,  128,  145. 

Bogell,  Alex.,  323. 

Bonner's  map,  section  of,  526. 

Book  of  Possessions,  persons  named 
in.  559- 

Booksellers,  500. 

Books  in  vogue,  455 ;  first  printed  in 
Boston,  456,  457. 

Boston,  site  of,  in  a  region  variously 
designated,  51  :  where  Smith  puts 
the  name  on  his  map,  53  ;  where 
subsequently  placed,  56  ;  founded, 
99 ;  called  "  Baston  "  by  the  French, 
282;  named,  87,  116,  217;  early 
movements  for  incorporation,  219; 
settled  by  Winthrop's  Company, 
116,  387;  made  the  capita',  119, 
222  ;  earliest  records,  xx,  122  ; 
early  descriptions,  231,  303,  522, 
534 :  Wood's  map  of  its  vicinity, 
524 ;  Indian  deed  of,  249,  250,  — fac- 
simile of  it,  250  ;  relations  with  the 
Co'ony.  217;  with  the  neighboring 
jurisdictions,  275 ;  map  of  harbor 
(1677).  by  Hubbard,  328;  its  ap- 
pearance, 482 ;  map,  "  old  and 
new,"  xxii ;  first  Church  formed, 
393 ;  sources  of  Boston's  history, 
xiii ;  families,  557. 

Boston  Bay,  or  Mass.  Bay,  38. 

Boston  men  (Lincolnshire,  etc.),  88, 
97.  '74- 

Boston,  England.St.  Botolph's  Church, 
117. 

Bolero's  map,  47. 

Boundary  disputes,  219. 

Bourne,  Nehemiah,  498. 

Bowen,  A.     Picture  of  Boston,  xiv. 

Bowles,  John,  405. 

Brackenbury,  William,  387. 

Bracken,  Richard,  543. 

Bradford,  Gov.  William,  119;  in  Bos- 
ton, 68. 

Bradstreet  family,  577.  Anne,  461. 
Simon,  107,  312,  369,  469  ;  gover- 
nor, 209 ;  portrait,  209  ;  agent  to 
England,  354,  356. 

Braintree,  220,  234. 


590 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


Rrant  Rock,  48. 

Brattle  family,  580.    Thomas,  216,  316, 

580. 

Brazil,  or  Bresil,  island,  30. 
Breed,  Eben,  393. 
Breed's  Hill.  390. 
Breedon,  Thomas,  309. 
Brereton,  Sir  William,  78. 
Brereton's  Relation,  46. 
Br  ck  house,  first  in  Boston,  174. 
Bridgham,  Jonathan,  434 ;   his  house, 

434- 

Bright,  Rev.  Francis,  385. 

Brighton,  account  of,  by  F.  A.  Whit- 
ney, xv  ;  records,  xxi,  xxii  ;  in  the 
Colonial  Period,  439. 

Briscoe,  William,  542. 

Brookline,  220  ;  histories  of,  xv. 

Brown,  James,  394.  John,  300  Judah, 
409.  Kellam,  101.  Thomas,  323. 

Building  stones,  4. 

Bulkley,  Peter,  365. 

Bullivant,  Benjamin,  201,  215. 

Bunker,  George,  389,  395. 

Bunker  Hill,  390. 

Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress,  453. 

Burden,  George,  451. 

Burials,  518. 

Burr,  Rev.  Jonathan,  438. 

Bursley,  John,  75.  76,  78,  83. 

Burt,  Edward,  389. 

Burying  grounds,  554. 

Buttall,  Leonard,  528. 

Buttercups,  20. 

Button,  John,  533. 

BYNNER,  EDWIN  L.  "  Topography 
and  landmarks  of  the  Colonial 
Period,"  521. 

CABOT,  JOHN,  29,  334.  Sebastian,  30, 
35»  39 !  portrait,  39 ;  his  mappe 
monde,  43. 

Cambridge,  early  history  of,  440 ;  first 
church,  442 ;  scho  1,  442  ;  press  of, 
453.  467?  468;  highways  442; 
ferry,  442  ;  bridg  •,  442  ;  Souch  of 
the  Charles,  439. 

Cambridge,  England,  agreement  at, 
100 ;  University,  454. 

Campbell,  Duncan,  500. 

Cape  Ann,  called  by  the  Spaniards 
Cabo  de  S.  Maria,  44 ;  seen  by 
Champlain,  47  ;  Cap  aux  Isles,  49 ; 
Caps  Tragabigsanda,  50,  59  ;  shore 
mapped  by  Gov.  Winthrop,  61  ; 
settlers  at,  79,  92 ;  Thornton's 
Landing  at,  92. 

Cape  Cod,  seen  by  Northmen,  25, 
38  ;  named  by  Gosnold,  36,  46  ;  in 
Cosa's  map,  39;  called  Cabo  de 
Arenas,  41,  44,  46;  C.  des  Sablons, 
43  ;  C.  de  Croix,  43  ;  Cabo  de  Santa 
Maria,  43  ;  C.  de  Trafalgar.  44;  C. 
de  S.  Tiago,  46 ;  called  Modano,  47  ; 
Cap  Blanc,  48 ;  seen  by  Hudson,  49, 
56;  mapped  by  Smith,  51;  called 
Cape  James,  53  ;  Caep.  Bevechier, 
57  ;  called  Nieuw  Hollande,  56 ; 
an  old  passage  through  it,  58. 


Carr,  Robert,  358. 

Cartwright,  George.  358. 

Cary,  James,  390. 

Casey,  John,  323. 

Castle  Island,  222,  286,  536. 

Castle  Tavern,  493. 

Caterpillars,  409. 

Cattle  in  Boston,  10 

Centennial  Celebration  in  1830,  xiii. 

Centry  Hill,  223.  524. 

CHAMBERLAIN,  MELI.EN.  "  Winni- 
simtnel,  Rumney  Marsh,  and  Pu'- 
len  Point,"  445 

Champlain  on  the  coast,  47  ;  in  Boston 
harbor,  4*  ;  his  maps,  48. 

Champney  Daniel,  443  ;  Richard,  440; 
Samuel,  443. 

Charles  I . ,  33 1 .  Charles  II.,  304 ;  gives 
names  to  the  New  England  coast, 
52  ;  proclaimed,  349,  353. 

Charles  Josias,  the  Indian,  249,  402. 

Charles  River,  424,  439  ;  explored,  68  ; 
confounded  with  the  harbor  and 
bay,  37  ;  called  R.  de  la  Tourn^e, 
43  ;  R.  du  Guast,  48,  59  ;  on  Smith's 
maP»  53i  5°  •  called  earlier  Massa- 
chusetts River,  53. 

Charlestewn  in  the  Colonial  period, 
383 ;  founded,  385 ;  training  field, 
392  ;  great  house,  393 ;  called  Charl- 
ton,  56 ;  or  Cherton,  60 ;  settled, 
217;  Winthrop  at,  114;  first  meet- 
ing-house, 314  :  first  church  history, 
396 :  schools,  397 ;  fortifications, 
398 ;  oak,  394  ;  records,  early  nar- 
rative in,  51;  histories  of,  xv; 
records,  xxi,  xxii. 

Charlestown  end  (Stnneham),  391. 

Charlestown  village  (Wobuin),  388. 

Charter     See  Massachusetts. 

Chaves  map,  now  lost,  41. 

C'leems,  John,  323. 

Cheesahteaumuk,  Caleb,  477. 

Cheeseborough,  William,  553. 

Cheever,  Ezekiel,  397,  461. 

Ch.-lsei,  220,  445. 

Chickataubut  or  Chickatabut,  79,  80, 
249,  250,  251.  383.  402. 

Child,  J.,  his  TWry  England  Jcnas, 
171.  Robert,  192. 

Children,  518. 

Christison,  Winlock,  187 ;  and  auto- 
graph recantation,  188. 

Christmas  observances,  196,  516. 

Church,  Col  Benjamin,  319,  327. 
Thomas,  Entertaining  Passages, 

327- 
Churches  in  Boston,  accounts  of,  xvi, 

537- 
Church  government  in  New  England, 

144 ;    members  the  only  freemen, 

118,    150,    156,    163,   187,  192,  359, 

515  ;  the  Puritan,  163. 
Clams,  15. 
Clap,  John,  429.    Roger,  424,  428,  537 ; 

his  Memoirs,  428,  463. 
Clarke     family,     586.       John,     178. 

Thomas,  312,  316,  368 
Clark  Square,  550. 


Clergy,  Puritan,  158,  205,  511. 

Clifford,  George,  510. 

Climate,  changes  of,  277. 

Coal  brought  to  Boston,  288. 

Cobble  Hill,  391. 

Codfish,  14 ;  emblem  of  the,  47. 

Coddington,    William,    107,    174,    185, 

222 

Cogan,  John,  451,  540. 

Coining  of  money,  333,  354. 

Coitmore,  Thomas,  388. 

Co'eborn,  William,  101,  221,  222,  533. 

Co'.eborn's  field,  533. 

Cole,  Rice,  387,  389.  Samuel,  493. 
45'- 

Coles,  Robert.  421 

Collins,  Edward,  305. 

Columbus,  Fernando,  his  map,  41. 

Commerce,  early,  275. 

Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies, 
signatures  of,  300,  301,  314 

Common,  123,  517,  552  ;  the  great  elm 
on,  21. 

Conant  at  Cape  Ann,  92,  93. 

Conduit,  233,  546. 

Confederacy  of  1643,  295  ;  signatures 
of  the  Commissioners,  300,  301,  314 

Connecticut  settled,  430  ;  colony,  28c. 

Converse,  Edward,  387,  393,  452. 

Cook,  Jacob,  323. 

Cooke,  Elisha,  369 ;  family  of,  579. 

Coopers  incorpora  ed,  233. 

Copp's  Hill,  525  ;  burying-ground,  555. 

Copp,  William,  xxiv,  528. 

Corlet,  Elijah,  442. 

Cornhill,  222. 

Corn  market,  547. 

Corser.  William,  494. 

Cortereal,  32,  40. 

Cosa,  de  la,  map,  39. 

Cotton,  John,  222,  458;  arrives,  121  ; 
his  views,  122  ;  his  Moses  his  Ju- 
dicials,  125,  145 ;  his  house,  126, 
157,  214;  his  books,  144;  his  |x>r- 
trait,  157;  his  death,  157;  lives  of 
him,  157  ;  in  Boston,  England,  and 
his  memorial  there,  158;  his  influ- 
ence with  the  magistrates,  159;  his 
Moody  Tenent  Washed,  172  ;  his 
Spiritual  Milk  for  Babes,  in  Indi- 
an, 475  ;  Carlyle  on,  87.  John,  of 
PA  mouth,  470  Josi.ih,  476.  Fam- 
ily, -586. 

Cotton  Hill,  525. 

Council  for  New  England,  91,  92  ; 
arms  of,  55, 92  ;  their  map,  60,  96  ; 
their  records,  94,  97,  98 ;  resign 
their  patent.  341. 

Counties,  234,  397. 

Coves,  529. 

Cow  Lane,  543. 

Cradock,  Matthew,  99,  102. 

Crane,  n. 

Cranfield,  Governor  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, 198,  204. 

Craft,  Griffin,  401,  4°5-     John.  401. 

Creeks,  530. 

Crier,  508. 

Crocker,  U.  H.,  his  map,  84. 


INDEX. 


591 


Cromwell,  12  r  ;  portrait,  348;  intend- 
ed emigration  to  America,  348.  Cap- 
tain Thomas,  509 ;  gift  of  Sedan 
chair,  292. 

Cudworth,  James,  autograph,  301. 

Curtis,  John,  324.  William,  404,  405  ; 
view  of  his  house,  406. 

Cutshamakin,  or  Cutshamokin,  263, 
441. 

DANDELION,  20. 

Danforth,  Rev.  John,  193.  Rev.  Sam- 
uel, 193,  416.  Thomas,  312,  352, 
369,  469.  Papers,  363. 

Dana,  Richard,  440,  443  ;  his  house, 
443- 

D'Aulnay,  132,  282-295,  3°2>  4^2. 

Davenport,  Rev.  John,  193,  541  ;  his 
death,  193  ;  his  family,  194.  Nathan- 
iel, 323  ;  in  command  of  the  castle, 
357.  Richard,  536. 

Davids,  James,  305. 

Davis,  James,  494  William,  324,  357, 
502. 

Davy,  Humphrey,  578 ;  his  orchard, 
84. 

Dawes,  John,  512. 

Day,  Stephen,  455. 

DEANE,  CHARLES,  "The  Struggle  to 
Maintain  the  Charter,"  329. 

Dearborn,  Nathaniel.  Boston  No- 
tions, xiv. 

DeBry's  maps,  46. 

Dedham,  234. 

Deer,  n. 

Dighton  Rock.  26. 

De  Laet's  Nieirwe  Wereldt,  58. 

De  Mont's  Expedition,  47. 

Denison,  Daniel,  292,  301,  313,  317. 
George,  409.  William,  405,  419. 

Deputies,  130,255;  from  Boston,  560. 

Dermer,  Captain,  51,  59. 

DEXTER,  GEORGE.  "  Early  European 
Voyagers  in  Massachusetts  Bay," 
23- 

Dial,  Sun,  512 

Dinely,  William,  502. 

Dippers  Dipt,  178. 

Dissenting  Faiths,  191. 

Dixwell,  John,  305 ;  and  his  descend- 
ants, 305. 

Dobson,  Venner,  293. 

Dock  Square,  545. 

Dorchester,  234;  settled,  88,  217,  423  ; 
in  the  Colonial  Period,  423 ;  Edu- 
cation in,  429  ;  records,  xxi,  xxii, 
428 ;  sources  of  history  of,  428 ; 
Meeting-house,  436 ;  burial-ground, 
437  ;  fields,  425  ;  men  (Dorset,  etc. ), 
88,  217. 

Downing,  Emanuel,  336,  343.  George, 
205.  Family,  577. 

DRAKE,  FRANCIS  S.,  "  Roxbury  in 
the  Colonial  Period,"  401  ;  "  Brigh- 
ton in  the  Colonial  Period,"  439  ; 
Town  of  Roxbury,  xv.  Samuel  A., 
Old  Landmarks,  xiv.  Samuel  G. , 
History  of  Boston,  xiv. 

Drawbridge,  185. 


Dress,  483. 

Dresser,  John,  410. 

Drinker,  Philip,  393. 

Drogeo,  27. 

Druillettes,  Father,  268,  302. 

Drummer,  Town,  510. 

Drunkenness,  494. 

Dry  Dock,  393. 

Dudley,  Joseph,  318,  369;  agent  to 
England,  372  ;  President,  200,  202, 
205,  207,  382.  Robert,  his  maps,  44  ; 
his  A  rcuno  del  Mare,  59.  Thomas, 
101,417;  Letter  to  the  Countess  of 
Lincoln,  87,  113,  463;  autograph, 
114,  417;  controversy  with  Win- 
throp,  120,  418,  440;  governor,  122, 
156 ;  Life  by  Cotton  Mather,  122  ; 
his  library,  455 ;  his  house,  418, 
421;  his  tomb,  418.  Family,  122. 

Dunster,  Henry,  178,  456,  459. 

Dunton,  John,  500. 

Dutch  in  New  Amsterdam,  279. 

Dyer,  Mary,  185.     William,  185. 

EAMES,  ANTHONY,  389. 

East  Boston,  history  of,  by  W.  H. 
Sumner,  xv.  Set  Noddle's  Island. 

Easton,  John,  Narrative  of  Philip* 's 
War,  327. 

Eaton,  Theophilus,  300,  301. 

Ecclesiastical  histories,  xvi. 

EDES,  HENRY  H.,  "  Charlestown  in 
the  Colonial  Period,"  383.  John, 
392. 

Education,  123,  133,  135,  238. 

Elders,  158. 

Elections,  manner  of,  504. 

Eliot,  John,  the  apostle,  413,  458,  464; 
arrives,  118,  404;  autograph,  206, 
263,  414,  416;  missionary  efforts, 
258,259,  271,  414;  studies  of  the 
Indian  language,  270,466-475;  his 
chair,  415  ;  his  bureau,  415  ;  visit- 
ed by  Druillettes,  302  ;  his  career, 
260;  his  family,  2'x) ;  lives  of,  260; 
portrait,  261  ;  his  Indian  Grant- 
mar,  474 ;  his  diary,  408 ;  his 
house,  421  ;  his  Christian  Com- 
monwealth, 411  ;  conduct  in  Phil- 
ip's war,  320-322.  Sir  John,  106, 
140.  Philip,  406. 

Ellis,  C.  M.,  History  of  Roxbury, 
xv.  GEORGE  E.,  "  Indians  of  East- 
ern Massachusetts,"  241;  "The 
Puritan  Commonwealth,"  141. 

Elm,  Aspinwall,  221  ;  the  great,  21,  553. 

Emanuel  College,  454. 

Endicott  at  Salem,  82,  87,  94,  97,  109, 
112,  113,  302  ;  at  Merry  Mount,  82  ; 
portrait,  338,  309  ;  accounts  of,  309  ; 
his  family,  309,  575 ;  his  house, 
541. 

Episcopal  church  founded,  191. 

Erik  the  Red,  23. 

Executions,  508. 

FAIRBANKS,  RICHARD,  232,  539. 
Fall  fight,  324. 
Familists,  171. 


Farmer,  John,  323. 

Farms,  499. 

Fashions,  484. 

Fasts,  515. 

Fast  driving,  laws  against,  218. 

Feather  Store,  Old,  547. 

Feeld,  Robert,  494. 

Felch,  George,  389. 

Fenno  Farm,  450. 

Fenwick,  George,  296. 

Ferries,  228,392,  451. 

Fields,  533. 

Figurative  map,  57,  58. 

Finaeus,  Orontius,  map,  42. 

Fines,  Charles,  109. 

Fires,  230,  234,  508,  546 ;  precautions 
against,  408. 

First  Church,  members  of,  to  1640, 
565;  covenant,  114,  565;  meeting- 
house, 119,  224  ;  Winthropcup,  114. 

Fisher,  Daniel,  368. 

Fish  market,  547. 

Fishing,  rights  of,  334. 

Fisheries,  early,  90. 

Fisher,  14. 

Fitcher,  81. 

Flacke,  Cotton,  542. 

Flora,  17. 

Floyd  house,  450. 

Food,  492. 

Foot-ball,  229. 

FOOTE,  HENRY  W.  "  Rise  of  Dis- 
senting Faiths,"  191. 

Forbes,  Alexander,  323. 

Forefathers'  song,  460. 

Fort,  532;  Hill,  222. 

Fortifications,  222,  340. 

Fosdick,  Stephen,  396. 

Fossils,  none  near  Boston,  8. 

Foster,  John,  printer,  456.  Thomas, 
4.6. 

Foxcroft,  Thomas,  sermon  on  first 
Centennial,  148. 

Foxes,  10. 

Fox  Haven,  57  ;  Hill,  528. 

Frairey,  Deacon,  212. 

Francis,  John,  443. 

Franklin,  William,  545. 

Franquelin's  map,  49,  282. 

Freemen,  limited  to  church  members. 
See  Church  Members.  Duties  of, 
504 ;  oath  of,  456. 

French  visits  to  the  harbor,  69  ;  colo- 
nies, 282. 

Frothingham,  William,  389. 

Fruits,  491. 

Fuller,  Dr.  Samuel,  120,  387,  501. 

Funerals,  prayers  at,  418. 

Furniture,  490. 

GAGER,  DR.  WILLIAM,  116. 

Games,  516. 

Gardiner,   Christopher,   336.       Lyon, 

222,  254,  255.    Thomas,  325. 
Garrett,  Hugh,  387. 
Gary,  Samuel,  416. 
Gastaldi's  map,  43. 
Gates  towards  Roxbury,  408 
Gay,  Timothy,  556. 


592 


THE    MEMORIAL    HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


Gee,  Joshua,  555. 

Geese,  13. 

Geology,  i. 

George,  Captain,  203,  204. 

Gerrish  family,  581. 

Gerritz's  maps,  58 

Gibbins,  Sarah,  184. 

Gibbons,  Edward,  278,  285,  287,  293, 

302,  387,  536,  578. 
Gibbs,  Robert,  534.     Family,  586. 
Gibson,  Christopher,  429. 
Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey,  35. 
Gillom,  Benjamin,  543. 
Gilraan,  Ezekiel,  323. 
Glacial  period,  2. 
Gloucester  harbor,  48. 
Glover,  John,  587.    Jose,  455,  468. 
Gobel,  Thomas,  389. 
Goffe  and  Whalley,  304,  351. 
Goldsmith,  Ralph,  xxiv. 
Gomez  on  the  Coast,  34,  41. 
Goodyear,  Stephen,  autograph,  300. 
Gookin,    Daniel,    277,  307,  369,   406, 

464 ;   agent   for  the   Indians,  267 ; 

his   publications,    272 ;    genealogy, 

272. 

Gore,  John,  405. 
Gorges,    Sir   Ferdinando,  72,  77 ;  his 

autograph,  72  ;   his  family,  72 ;  his 

patent,  73  ;   his  Brief  Relation*  73 ; 

and  the  Council  for  New  England, 

95.  336,  34',   364-     Robert,  72,  75, 

A  96,  342- 
Gorton,   Samuel,  170;  his  autograph, 

170;  his  controversy,  171  ;his  Sim- 

plicitie's  Defence,  171. 
Gosnold  on  the  coast,  36,  46. 
Gould,  Rev.  Thomas,  396. 
Governor's  pomp,  510. 
Granary  burying-ground,  556. 
Gravestones  quarried,  4. 
Graves,  Daniel,  556.  John,  404.  Tho- 
mas, the  admiral,  389,  499.  Thomas, 

engineer,  385. 
GRAY,  ASA,    "  Flora  of  Boston,"  17. 

John,  79.     Thomas,  79,  83. 
Great  elm,  21,  553. 
Green,   John,    Sr.,   396.       John,    Jr. 

384,   389.      Richard,    71.     Samuel, 

456,  468. 

Greenough,  William,  186. 
Greyhound  Tavern,  421. 
Gridley,  Richard,  543. 
Gross,  Clement,  494. 
Groose,  Isaac,  494. 
Grosvenor.  John,  405,  419. 
Grouse,  12. 
Guilds,  232. 
Gunnison,  Hugh,  494. 

HAGBURNE,  SAMUEL,  419. 

Hakluyt,  Richard,  35 ;  his  Divers 
Voyages,  44. 

HALE,  EDWARD  E.,  "  Boston  in  Phil- 
ip's war,"  311.  Robert,  389. 

Hales,  J.  G.    Survey  of  Boston,  xiv. 

Half-way  covenant,  194. 

Hall,  John,  389. 

Halsoll,  George,  228. 


Hamilton,  Captain,  212. 

Hammond,  Lawrence,  390,  399 ;  auto- 
graph, 399. 

Hampden,  John,  106,  121 ;  letter  to  Sir 
John  Eliot,  140. 

Hanover  Street,  548. 

Hansford,  Joseph,  420. 

Hanson,  Captain,  75. 

Harbor,  geological  formation  of,  3  ; 
depth  of  water  diminishing,  7 ;  ear- 
liest explorations  of,  63  —  by  Stand- 
ish,  64;  by  the  French,  69;  old 
planters,  75  ;  early  described,  523  ; 
settlement  by  Weston,  70 ;  by  Gor- 
ges, 76;  called  Massachusetts  Bay, 
37,  38  ;  visited  by  early  fishermen, 
40;  called  Baie  de  S.  Antonio,  41  ; 
how  far  explored  by  Smith,  50 ;  on 
his  map,  53,  55 ;  called  Foxhaven, 
or  Vos-haven  by  the  Dutch,  57,  58, 
59 ;  visited  by  Allerton,  and  other 
Plymouth  men,  60. 

Harris,  boddice-maker,  201. 

Harrison,  John,  499,  543. 

Harvard,  John,  395,  455  ;  his  monu- 
ment, 395. 

Harvard  College,  130,  204,  238 ;  found- 
ed, 441  ;  its  library,  455;  building 
for  the  Indian  scholars,  267;  press 
at,  456. 

Hatherly,  Timothy,  300. 

Hathorne,  William,  292,  312. 

HAVEN,  SAMUEL  F.  "  The  Massa- 
chusetts Company,"  87. 

Hawkins,  Thomas,  287,  552. 

Hawthorne's  Scarlet-Letter,  360. 

Hay,  Theodocia,  556. 

Haynes,  John,  arrives,  121  ;  governor, 
124  ;  autograph,  124,  300. 

Hayward,  John,  232. 

Heath,  Isaac,  405.     William,  404,  405. 

Hellulanci,  23. 

Henchman,  Daniel,  313,  317. 

Herbert,  George,  121,454. 

Hewes,  Joshua,  406. 

Heyman,  John,  499. 

Hibbins,  William,  578. 

Higgins,  Robert,  502. 

Higginson,  Francis,  98,  116;  his  A''. 
E.  Plantation,  55,  98.  THOMAS 
W.,  "  From  the  Death  of  Win- 
throp  to  Philip's  War,"  303. 

Highways,  420. 

Hills,  524;  geological  formation  of,  5. 

Hinckley,  Thomas,  314. 

Hingham,  234. 

Historia  tnundi,  56. 

Homem's  map,  43. 

Hondius's  maps,  46. 

Hood,  Thomas,  his  map,  44. 

Hooker,  Rev.  Thomas,  121,  220,  441, 
462. 

Hopkins,  Edward,  autograph,  300. 

Hore,  Master,  35. 

Hough,  Atherton,  121,  577  ;  his  family, 

577- 
House  of  Representatives,  origin  of, 

440. 
Houses,  531. 


Hoyt,  Simon,  385. 

Hubbard,  William.  History  of  New 
.  England,  xvii ;  Map  of  New  Eng- 
land, 328 ;  Indian  Wars,  255. 

Huckleberries,  18. ' 

Hudson,  Francis,  84,  85.  Henry  on 
the  coast,  56,  59.  William,  316,  387, 
494 

Hudson's  Point,  530. 

Hull,  George,  427.  John,  317,  323, 
354.  462,  540,  549,  555,  580. 

Hull,  town  of,  69,  78,  79,  83. 

Hulsius's  edition  of  Smith's  New 
England,  53. 

Humble  Request,  The,  107. 

Humfrey,  John,  94,  101. 

Humphreys,  Robert,  .376. 

Hutchinson  family,  579.  Mrs.  Anne, 
173,  4"3:  her  home,  174.  Edward, 
312,  318,  320,  553.  Elisha,  369. 
George,  389.  Thomas,  Collection 
of  Papers,  xvii ;  History  of  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay,  xix. 

IANS,  MATTHEW,  494. 
Immigration,  cessation  of,  160,  224. 
Indians,  their  fort  at  Muddy  River, 
220  ;  relations  with  Boston,  275  ;  of 
Eastern  Massachusetts,  241 ;  dis- 
possessed of  their  lands.  241  ;  ex- 
termination of,  243.  256;  missions 
among,  244  257,  265,  266, 268 ;  swept 
off  by  a  plague,  244;  authorities  on 
their  condition,  245;  skulls  found  in 
Boston,  245 ;  their  numbers,  245, 
251  ;  pleas  for,  246  ;  kind  reception 
of  the  English,  247;  inhumanly 
treated,  247,  255,  257 ;  deeds  of  land, 
247  ;  wars  with,  accounts  of,  255  ; 
praying,  264;  tracts  on  their  con- 
version, 265,  480;  at  College,  477; 
in  Roxbury,  402 ;  deeds  of  land, 
402  ;  removed  during  Philip's  war, 
273,  320,  321 ;  as  servants,  123,  489 ; 
primers,  475,478,479;  Bible,  270; 
catechisms,  478. 
Inoculation  for  small-pox,  207. 

nns,  493. 

nsects,  16. 

nvertebrates,  15. 

rish  donation,  326,  399. 

ron  works,  500. 

stands  in  harbor  well  wooded,  18. 

JACOBSZ'S  MAP,  58. 
Jamaica  Pond,  402. 
James  II.  proclaimed  in  Boston,  200, 

380 ;  autograph,  380. 
James,  Rev.  Thomas,  394. 
Jeffery,  the  old  planter,  339. 
Jeffrey,  William,  75,  -,6,  78,  83. 
Jeffries  family,  582. 
Jennings,  William,  387,  388. 
Jesuit  missions  to  the  Indians,  258,  262. 
Johnes,  Edward,  389. 
Johnson,    Edward,    Wonder-working 

Providence,  463.       Isaac,  101,  114, 

116,  410.     Isaac  of  Roxbury,   319. 

John,  405,  407,  409.      Marmaduke, 

456,  46?.    William,  389. 


INDEX. 


593 


Josselyn,  John.    Rarities  Discovered, 

19;   Voyages,  19. 
Joyliffe  family,  581. 

KEAYNE,  ROBERT,  130,  237,  450,  461, 

5'°.  539- 

Keith,  George,  208. 
Kemble,  William,  323. 
Kempis,  Thomas   a.      Imitation    of 

Christ,  453. 
Kettle,  Richard,  389. 
King's    Chapel    founded,    201 ;     first 

building,   213,    214;    burial-ground, 

2M.  555- 

King's-Head  Inn,  493. 
Kirk,  Col.  Piercy,  199. 
Knight,  Robert,  509.  Walter,  79. 

LAMB,  THOMAS,  407. 

Land  of  Nod,  391. 

Langdon,  Benjamin,  323. 

Latin  book,  first  written  in  this  country, 

464. 

La  Tour,  132,  282-215,  302. 
Laud,  Archbishop,  338,  339 
Laws,  early,  145. 
Lawyer,  503. 
Learned,  William,  389. 
Lechf-jrd,  Thomas,  503. 
Leete,  William,  autograph,  301 
Leif,  23 
Leifsbudir,  24. 
Lendall,  James,  323. 
Lenox  globe,  40. 
Lescarbot's  map,  49. 
Letters-patents,  forms  used  in  issuing, 

33'- 
Leverett,  Gov.  John,  209,  314,  349;  his 

house,  312;  portrait.  315.    Thomas, 

222;  family,  315.  575. 
Levett,  Captain  Christopher,  75. 
Library,  public,  501. 
Lidget  or  Lydgett,  Charles,  201.  Peter, 

324 ;  family,  582. 
Life    and    manners    of  the    Colonial 

period,  481. 
Lilly,  212. 

Linckern,  William,  323. 
Lincoln,  Thomas,  389. 
Lions,  9. 

Literature  of  the  Colonial  Period,  453. 
Lok's  map,  44. 
Long,  Robert,  393. 
Lord's  Supper,  514. 
Lovell's  island,  388. 
Ludlow,  Roger,  122. 
Luscomb,  201. 
Lyde  family,  586. 
Lyford,  John,  79. 
Lyle,  Francis,  544. 
Lynde,   Simon,  448.      Thomas,    389 ; 

family,  586. 
Lynxes,  10. 
Lynn  village,  388. 
Lyon,  Richard,  459. 
Lytherland,  William,  84,  85. 

MACCARTY,  201. 
Mackerel,  14. 

VOL.   I.  —  75. 


Mackintosh,  D.,  on  New  England,  90. 

Madoc,  prince,  26. 

Magistrates,  130,  156. 

Maine,  acquired  by  Massachusetts,  367, 
369,  370. 

Manufactures,  497. 

Maps,  Collections  of  early,  and  the 
study  of  them,  38;  of  Massachusetts 
Bay  and  Boston  Harbor,  37. 

Markets,  232. 

Markland,  24. 

Marriage,  196,  418. 

Marshall,  Thomas,  228. 

Martha's  Vineyard,  Indian  dialect  of, 
476. 

Maryland,  relations  with  Boston,  278. 

Mason,  John,  Captain,  242,  253,  255, 
301,  336.  Robert,  364,  371. 

Massachusetts  Company,  87,  99,  329; 
records,  97,  330  ;  removal  to  New 
England,  100,  330,  335,  338;  charter, 
possession  of,  151  ;  struggle  to  main- 
tain, 128,  152,  238,  307,  329,  410; 
heliotype  of,  329 ;  its  intent,  142, 
155,  176,  239,  307,  330 ;  powers  con- 
veyed, 332  ;  its  possession,  344,  347  ; 
rights  under,  352  ;  vacated,  377. 

Massachusetts  Colony  records,  330 ; 
bounds  of,  97,  329 ;  first  governor 
of,  98,  112,  335;  Archives,  xix  ; 
records  of,  xix. 

Massachusetts  Bay,  early  European 
voyagers  in,  23  ;  Cartography,  37  ; 
called  St.  Christoval,  41,  44  ;  St. 
Christoforo,  45  ;  Chesipook  Sinus, 
45  ;  St.  Christofle,  46  ;  fields,  37, 
64,  79;  Indians,  37,  64,  71,  383; 
mount,  37 ;  Psalter,  475  ;  fac-simile 
of  title,  476  :  river,  53  :  seal,  330. 

Masts  sent  to  the  king,  363. 

Matchlock,  66. 

Mather,  Cotton,  207 ;  Magnalia, 
xviii ;  library,  xviii ;  manuscripts, 
xviii  ;  Epistle  to  the  Christian  In- 
dians, etc.,  475,  479,  480.  Rev. 
Increase  Mather,  194,  204,  206,  207, 
375i  45°,  462  ;  house  burned,  230  ; 
portrait,  587  ;  Early  History  of 
New  England,  327  ;  War  with  the 
Indians,  327 ;  his  library,  xviii  ; 
title  of  his  first  book  printed  in 
Boston,  457;  his  sermons  in  Indian, 
475.  Richard,  436,  458  ;  Journal, 
428  ;  portrait,  437 ;  his  family,  437. 

Mathers,  dynasty  of,  462. 

Mattapan,  425. 

Matthews,  Marmaduke,  138. 

Maude,  Daniel,  123. 

Mauris,  Rice,  389. 

Maverick,  Elias,  449.  Rev.  John,  424, 
436.  Samuel,  193,  293,  358,  449, 
452  ;  in  Gorges'  company,  75  ;  at 
Noddle's  Island,  ;8,  85  ;  his  family, 
78  ;  royal  commissioner,  79,  358. 

Mayflower,  18. 

Mayhew,  Experience,  477.  Thomas, 
Indian  missionary,  258. 

Mayo,  Rev.  John,  192. 

Medford,  217. 


Meech,  John,  385. 

Mellows,  Abraham,  389. 

Mercator's  map,  42,  44. 

Merry,  Walter,  498  ;  his  point.  530. 

Merry  or  Mare  Mount,  81 ;  romance 
by  Motley,  85. 

Mercurius  A  ntericanus,  177. 

Metellus's  map,  45. 

Miantonomoh,  122,  253,  299. 

Middlecott  family,  582. 

Military  organization,  234. 

Milk,  John,  555. 

Mill  Creek,  533  ;  cove,  225  ;  pond,  529. 

Mil  lard,  Thomas,  543. 

Mines,  none  near  Boston,  4. 

Ministers,  list  of  Boston,  565  ;  main- 
tenance of,  223 ;  power  of,  240. 

Minor,  Thomas,  389. 

Minot,  Elder  George,  438  ;  his  house, 
432- 

Mint,  354. 

Mishawmut.     See  Shawmut. 

Mohegans,  252. 

Monahco,  325. 

Monatoquot  River,  78,  80. 

Monck,  George,  autograph,  494. 

Moodey,  Rev.  Joshua,  199,  206  ;  auto- 
graph, 206. 

Moore,  Benjamin,  398. 

Moose,  n. 

Moravian  missions,  267. 

Morel,  Rev.  William,  in  Gorges'  com- 
pany, 75,  77,  78. 

Morley,  John,  397  ;  Robert,  501. 

Morris,  Richard,  406,  420,  536. 

Morton,  Thomas,  80;  his  New  Eng- 
lish Canaan,  80 :  at  Merry  Mount, 
81,  83,  336. 

Moses,  his  judicials,  125,  145. 

Mosley,  Samuel,  313,  320. 

Moulton,  Robert,  389. 

Moulton's  Hill,  390. 

Mount  Hope,  325. 

Mount  Wollaston,  settled,  79,  80,  220, 
441. 

Mousall,  John,  389.     Ralph,  394. 

Mower,  Samuel,  556. 

Muddy  River,  220. 

Muggleton,  Lodowich,  508. 

Munster's  Cosmographia  and  Map, 
42 

Myles,  Rev.  Samuel,  216,  398. 

Mystic,  1 18,  217;  river  explored,  67', 
side,  387,  391. 

NAHANT  BAY,  57. 

Nanepashemet,  66,  67,  383. 

Nantasket,  234.     See  Hull. 

Narragansetts,  252,  316,  318,  319. 

Nash,  William,  389. 

Natascot.     See  Hull. 

Natick,  263,  264,  274. 

Navigation  Act,  306,  351,  366,  373. 

Nazing,  England,  403. 

Neck,  the,  530. 

Needham  the  sexton,  211. 

Negative  Voice,  130. 

Nesutan,  Job,  271. 

New  Brick  Church,  192. 


594 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


New  England,  names  borne  by  it  at 
different  times,  34,  51;  named  by 
Smith,  51  ;  called  New  Netherland 
by  the  Dutch,  51,  58  ;  described 
by  Johnson,  303  ;  the  coast  divided 
among  patentees,  74  ;  council  for, 
see  Council ;  confederacy,  131 ;  ge- 
ology of,  i. 

New  England's  First  Fruits,  159. 

New  England  version  of  the  Psalms, 

457- 

New  Field,  533. 
New  Haven  colony,  280. 
Newport  mill,  26. 
Newell,  John,  390. 
Newgate,  John,  451.    Nathaniel,  510; 

farm,  448,  450. 
Newton  (Cambridge),  222. 
Nicolls,  Richard,  autograph,  358. 
Ninigret,  245. 
Nipmucks,  316. 
Noah's  ark,  551. 
Noddle,  William,  78. 
Noddle's  Island,  78. 
Nonantum,  261. 
Norse  ship,  a,  25. 
North  Carolina,  relations  with  Boston, 

277- 

North  church,  192. 

North  End,  537,  548. 

Northmen  in  New  England,  23,  38,  91. 

North  Street,  548. 

North  Square,  550. 

Norton,  Francis,  387,  399.  Hum- 
phrey, 184.  John,  182,  184 ;  his 
pedigree,  182  :  his  Heart  of  New 
England  rent,  187  ;  his  Latin  reply 
to  Appolonius,  464 ;  agent  to  Eng- 
land, 354,  356  ;  answers  Pynchon, 
405  ;  his  widow,  194. 

Nonimbega,  35,  40,  45,  51. 

Nova  Albion,  94. 

Nowell,  Increase,  101,  387,  394; 
Samuel,  250,  371. 

OBBATINEWAT,  64,  66. 

Odlin,  John,  deposes  about  Black- 
stone,  84,  85. 

Oldham,  John,  79,  253. 

Old  planters,  75. 

Old  South  Church,  192,  211 ;  founders 
o',  573- 

Oliver,  James,  316,  357.  Peter,  278, 
580;  Puritan  Commonwealth,  145. 
Thomas,  222,  443,  502.  Family,  580. 

Orange-Tree  Inn,  548. 

Ordinaries,  493. 

Ortelius,  list  of  maps,  42  ;   his  maps, 

44- 

Oviedo's  description  of  the  coast,  41. 
Oysters,  15. 

PAINTER,  THOMAS,  528. 

Palfrey,  Peter,  93- 

Palisades,  251,  440. 

Palmer,    Abraham,     385,    391,     398. 

Walter,  385,  386. 
Palsgrave,  Richard,  387,  389. 
Parke.  William,  405. 
Parker,  James,  428.     Nicholas,  450. 


Parkman,   Francis,  his    collection    of 

manuscript  maps,  38,  49. 
Pasonagesset.     See  Mount  Wollaston. 
Payne  family,  581. 
Pawtucket  Indians,  383. 
Pearce,  Thomas,  389. 
Pecksuot,  72. 

Pelham,  Herbert,  autograph,  300. 
Pemberton,     Rev.      Ebenezer,     208. 

James,  389.     Thomas,  Description 

of  Boston,  xiii. 
Pemberton  Hill,  525. 
Penguin,  13. 

1'enn,  James,  451.     William,  387 
Penny  Ferry,  390,  393. 
Perkins,  John,  449.     William,  407. 
Pequot    War,   225,  253  ;    accounts  of, 

255- 
Perry,  Arthur,   510,  542,  544.     Seth, 

312. 
Peters,  Hugh,  arrives,  124  ;  executed 

305- 

Phelps.  William,  427. 
Philip,  264;  war  with,  230,  271,  311- 
328,  410;   killed,  325;   authorities, 
327  ;  maps  for  the  war,  328. 
Phillips,  Deacon,  his  stone  house,  549. 

George,  107.  Samuel,  206. 
Phipps,  Samuel,  389,  397,  443. 
Physician,  501. 

Pierce,  Robert,  431 ;  his  house,  431. 
Pierpont,  John,  405. 
Pierson,  Abraham,  Some  helps  for  the 

Indians,  466.     Peter,  409. 
Pigeon,  wild,  14. 
Pigghogg,  Mr.,  501. 
Pilgrims  land  at  Plymouth,  60,  in  ;  at 
Cape  Ann,  92  ;  affect  the  churches 
of  the    Bay,   144 ;    more  tolerant, 
455  ;  and  Puritans,  144. 
Pillory,  506. 
Pine-tree  shillings,  354. 
Pines,  18. 

Pines,  The,  273,  444. 
Plancius's  map,  46. 
Planters    Plea.      See   White,    Rev. 

John. 

Ploughed  Hill,  391. 
Plymouth,  its  harbor,  47,  48,  59  ;  called 
Crane  Bay,  57  ;  the  Pilgrims  land 
there,  60;  relations  with  Boston, 
276;  their  trading  station  on  the 
Penobscot,  283,  289;  visited  by 
Winthrop,  119. 

Point  Allerton,  or  Alderton,  seen  by 
the  Northmen,  25,  26,  39 ;  named, 
60,63. 

Pollard,  Anne,  84,  521. 
Pond,  Robert,  434. 
Ponds,  542,  554- 
Ponkapog,  431. 
Pope   Walter,  389. 
Pormont,  or  Pormort,  Philemon,  123. 
Post-office,  232,  539. 
Poutrincourt,  48. 
Powder-Horn  Hill,  391,  445- 
Powder-mill,  317. 
Powell,  Michael,  192. 
Powers,  William,  312. 
Pratt,  Phinehas,  his  autograph,  70. 


Praying  Indians,  272. 

Prence,  Thomas,  301. 

Prenfice,  Thomas,  313. 

Press  of  Cambridge,   453 ;  of  Boston, 

456. 

Price,  216. 
Prices,  497. 
Prichard,  409. 
Prince,    Thomas,    his    Chronological 

History,  xviii. 
Pring  on  the  coast,  47. 
Printer,  James,  470,  477. 
Prison,  541. 
Prospect  Hill,  391. 
Prout,  Timothy,  250. 
Provisions,  491. 
Prudden,  John,  419. 
Psalm-singing,  513. 
Ptolemy's  geographies,  40,  43. 
Pudding  Stone,  402. 
Pullen  Point,  445. 
Pumps,  545. 
Punishments,  508. 
"  Puritan  Commonwealth,"  by  George 

E.    Ellis,    141  ;    by    Peter    Oliver, 

MS- 
Puritans  and  Pilgrims,  144;  and  the 

Church  of  England,  155,  205. 
Pye  Bay,  57. 
Pynchon,   William,  101,  401  ;  portrait, 

404 ,     Meritorious    Price    of  onr 

Redemption,  405. 

QUAKERS,  179,  350, 409 ;  executed,  185; 
buried  on  the  common,  186 ;  litera- 
ture of  the  persecutions,  187  ;  their 
first  church,  195. 

Quarles,  Francis,  457. 

Quincy,  Edmund,  222,  553.  Josiah, 
Municipal  History  of  Boston,  xiii. 

Quincy,  town  of,  79. 

RAINSBOROUGH,  William,  394. 
Rainsford,  Edward,  175. 
Ramusio's  map,  41,  43. 
Randolph,  Edward,  194,  196,  197,  201, 

202,   213,  364,  366,  368,   370,    371, 

372.  373.  374,  37Si  37$,  382. 
Ranger,  Edmund,  500. 
Rank,  Social,  487. 
Ranters,  180 
Rasdell,  81. 

Ratcliffe,  John,  bookbinder,  469. 
Ratcliffe,  Rev.  Robert,  200,  215. 
Ravenscroft,  201. 
Rawson,  Edward,   312,    380:  portrait, 

381.    "Grindall,  471,  475.     Rebecca, 

519;  portrait,  519. 
Read,  Robert,  510. 
Red-Lion  Inn,  493,  550. 
Reeves,  John,  508. 
Regicides  in  New  England,  304. 
Religious  legislation,  145,  151. 
Remington,  John,  412. 
Representative  system,  122. 
Reptiles,  14. 
Revere,  445 
Rhode  Island  Colony,  282 ;  left  out  of 

the  Confederacy,  297  ;  as  a  harbor 

for  heretics,  166. 


INDEX. 


595 


Ribero's  map,  41. 

Richards,  John,  312,  316,  368,  371, 
372  ;  family,  578. 

Richardson,  Ezekiel,  387,  389. 

Robinson,  William,  185. 

Rock-Hill  in  Medfoid,  67. 

Rogers,  Simon,  510. 

Rope-making,  499. 

Rose  frigate,  200,  203. 

Rosewell,  Sir  Henry,  94. 

Rosier's  True  Relation,  47,  465. 

Rounds,  Mark,  323 

Rous,  John,  his  New  England 
a  Degenerate  Plant,  187. 

R  ixbury,  217,  234  ;  in  the  Colonial 
Period,  401  ;  Book  of  Possessions 
and  Town  Records,  407  ;  first  church 
records,  408 ;  first  meeting-house, 
411  ;  first  parish  formed,  411 ;  gram- 
mar school,  415,  419,  421  :  burial- 
ground,  418;  parish  tomb,  419; 
training  field,  420 ;  histories  of,  xv  ; 
records  of,  xxi,  xxii. 

Royal  Commissioners,  307, 357. 

Ruby,  Ann,  556. 

Ruck  family,  582. 

Ruggles,  Samuel.  409. 

Rumney  Marsh,  220,  229,  445. 

Ruscelli's  map,  43. 

Russell,  John,  195.    Richard,  312,  324, 

393- 

Rut,  John,  35,  40. 
Ruysch's  map,  40. 

SABBATH-BREAKING,  218. 

Saffin,  John,  250 ;  family,  582. 

Sagamore,  George,  447.  James,  447. 
John,  384,  447. 

St.  Botolph's  church,  117,  158. 

Salem,  early  settlers,  93,  112  ;  govern- 
ment at,  99,  113  ;  Winthrop  arrives 
at,  109  ;  visits,  118. 

Salem  Street  house,  551. 

Sales,  John,  387. 

Sanderson,  Robert,  354. 

Saltonstall,  Sir  Richard,  101, 129,  284  ; 
his  tolerance,  182  ;  his  portrait  and 
family,  185,  579.  Richard,  Jr.,  129, 
294,  305. 

Sanson's  maps,  61. 

Sassacus,  254. 

Saturday  evening  begins  the  Sabbath, 
5«6. 

Saugus,  217. 

Saunders,  71,  72. 

Savage,  Thomas,  175,  316,^317,  324; 
portrait,  318  ;  family,  318.  Perez, 
'  317  ;  family,  578. 

Scarborough,  John,  409. 

Scarlet,  Elizabeth,  556 ;  family,  581. 

Schoner's  globe,  40. 

Schoolmasters,  123. 

School  Street,  542. 

Sconces,  535. 

Scoot,  Thomas,  556. 

Scotch  prisoners  in  Boston,  304. 

Scott,  Richard,  322. 

Scottow,  Joshua,  his  Narrative,  97. 

SCUDDER,  HORACE  E.  "  Life  in  Bos- 
ton in  the  Colonial  Period,"  481. 


Second  church,  192. 

Sedgwick,  Robert,  399,  536. 

Selectmen,  505  ;  first  chosen,  388 ;  hel- 
iotype  of  the  order  creating,  388; 
list  of  Boston,  562. 

Seller,  John.  Map  of  New  England, 
328. 

Serch,  John,  542. 

Sergeant,  Rev.  John,  480.  Peter,  585  ; 
his  house,  543. 

Sermons,  513. 

Servants,  487. 

Sewall,  Samuel,  354,  540;  his  farm, 
354  ;  the  typical  puritan,  210;  print- 
er, 457- 

SHALER,  N.  S.  "Geology  of  Bos- 
ton," i. 

Sharp,  Robert,  221.    Thomas,  101. 

Shattuck,  Samuel,  xxiv,  187. 

Shaw,  Charles,  Description  of  Bos- 
ton, xiii 

Shawmut,  meaning  of,  78,  387. 

Sheaffe  family,  585. 

Sheffield,  Earl  of,  92. 

Shell-fish,  15. 

Shepard,  Thomas,  440,  458 ;  auto- 
graph, 462  ;  his  Sincere  Convert, 
etc.,  in  Indian,  473.  Rev.  Thomas, 
the  younger,  396,  400. 

Sherburne,  Henry,  385. 

Ships  of  Winthrop's  fleet,  115  ;  size  of 
early,  50  ;  building  of,  497,  498. 

Ship  Tavern,  493,  551. 

Shoemakers  incorporated,  232. 

Shops,  497. 

Short  Story,  etc.,  by  Winthrop,  176. 

Shorttas,  Robert,  389. 

Shrimpton,  Henry,  195.  Samuel,  527  ; 
portrait,  584.  Mrs.,  portrait,  585. 
Family,  582 ;  lane,  545. 

Shurtleff,  N.  B.  Description  of  Bos- 
ton, xiv. 

Simonds,  Henry,  533. 

Simpkins,  Nicholas,  536. 

Skelton,  Samuel,  98. 

Slavery  in  Massachusetts,  488  ;  con- 
troversial literature  of,  488. 

Small-pox,  400,  408. 

Smelt  Brook,  402. 

SMITH,  CHARLES  C,  "Boston  and 
the  Colony,"  217 ;  "  Boston  and  the 
Neighboring  Jurisdictions,"  275. 
John,  on  the  coast,  49 ;  his  map  of 
New  England,  50,  52,  89;  his  writ- 
ings, 50  ;  his  Description  of  Neiu 
England,  52  ;  his  escutcheon,  54. 
his  portrait,  54,  55 ;  his  Generall 
ffistorie,  54  ;  in  Boston  harbor,  67, 
68.  Margaret,  185. 

Snakes,  14. 

Snow,  C.  H.    History  of  Boston,  xiv. 

Snow  Hill,  526. 

Social  characteristics,  557. 

Southack,  Cyprian,  541. 

Southcoat,  Thomas,  94. 

Southcot,  Captain,  425. 

South  Boston,  xv,  425. 

South  Cove,  529. 

Sparkwell,  Nathaniel,  440,  443 ;  his 
house,  443. 


Speer,  John,  323. 

Sprague,  Charles,  Centennial  ode   in 

1830,  facsimile  of,  246.    Ralph,  385, 

388.     Richard,   384,  389.    Richard 

the  younger,  399. 
Springs,  523. 
Spring-gate,  543. 

Spring  Street,  West  Roxbury,  402. 
Squanto,  66,  68. 
Squantum,  37,  63. 
Squaw  rock,  64. 
Squaw  sachem,  66,  68,  383,  441. 
Squeb,  Captain,  424. 
Squire,  Thomas,  389. 
Standish,  Miles,  explores  Boston  har- 
bor, 63  ;  supposed  portrait  of,  65 ; 

his  sword,  66 ;  at  Wessagusset,  7; ; 

arrests   Morton,    82 ;    sent    to  the 

Penobscot,  284. 
State  library  begun,  136. 
State  Street,  539. 
State's-Arms  Inn,  493. 
Stebbins,  Martin,  494. 
Stephanius,  Sigurd,  map  by,  38. 
Stephenson,  John,  84. 
Sternhold   and  Hopkins's  version   of 

the  Psalms,  457. 

Stevenson,  Marmaduke,  185,  186. 
Stickline,  John,  385. 
Stinted  pasture,  391. 
Stobnicza's  map,  40. 
Stock,  Jeremiah,  323. 
Stockbridge  Indians,  480. 
Stocks,  506.      • 
Stoddard,  Anthony,  497,  583.    Simeon, 

portrait,  583  ;  family,  583. 
Stone,  Emily,  556. 
Stoughton,  Israel,  254,  427.     Thomas, 

427.    William,  205,  312,  314,  365, 

369- 

Stow,  John,  407. 
Stowers,  Nicholas,  385,  389. 
Strangers,  harboring  of,  229. 
Stray  sow,  the,  130. 
Streets,  538 ;  care  of,  228. 
Sturgis,  Edward,  389. 
Suffolk  County,  131,  234. 
Sumner,    W.    H.      History  of  East 

Boston,  xv. 

Sumptuary  laws,  123,  483. 
Sunday  Schools,  412. 
Swan,  ii. 

Swansea,  311,  312,  314,  318. 
Swedes  on  the  Delaware,  279. 
Sylvanus's  map,  40. 
Symmes,  Rev.  Zechariah,  394,  579. 
Symonds,   Samue',  312.    Thomas  C., 

History  of  South  Boston,  xv. 
Synods,  164,  193,  194. 

TARRENTINES,  66,  67. 

Tate    and    Brady's    version    of    the 

Psalms,  460. 
Taxes,    early    lists,    325 ;    proportion 

paid  by  Boston,  224,  225. 
Taylor,  Madam,  204. 
Ten  Hills,  387. 

Thacher,  Rev.  Thomas,  194,  208. 
Thanksgiving  day,  118,  515. 
Thatcher,  Mary,  555. 


596 


THE   MEMORIAL   HISTORY   OF   BOSTON. 


Theocracy,   New   England,    144,    146, 

150,  158,  163,  205. 
The  vet,  Andre",  35 
Third  Church,  192. 
Thomas,  Evan,  494.     James,  323. 
Thomson,   Benjamin,    397,   417,    420, 

460;  his  epitaph,  419.     David,  83; 

his  island,  63,  83,  429. 
Thorfinn,  24. 
Thorncomb,  Andrew,  500. 
Thome,  Robert,  his  map,  40. 
Thornton,  J.  W.,  Landing  at  Cape 

Anne,  92. 
Thorvald,  24. 

Three-Cranes  Tavern,  393. 
Thursday  lecture,  515. 
Thwing,  John,  555. 
Timberly,  Sergeant,  323. 
Tithing-men,  512. 
Tobacco,  495;  laws,  123. 
Tolman  house,  434. 
Tomlins,  Edward,  513. 
Tout,  Elizabeth,  556. 
Towns,  origin  of,  443,  454  ,   earliest, 

427;    powers    of,    217;   names  of, 

234  ;  officers,  505. 
Town  house,  xxiv,  237,  537. 
Townsend,  Penn,  575. 
Trades,  498. 

Trask,  Mary,  autograph,  185 
Trevor  Island,  63,  323. 
Trimountain,  116,  525. 
TRUMBULL,     J.    HAMMOND,     "The 

Indian  Tongue  and* its  Literature," 

465.     John,  406. 
Turfery,  201. 
Turkey,  wild,  12. 
Turner,     Davis,     323.      John,     S27- 

Robert,  494,   527.     William,  325. 
Tuttle,  William,  391. 
Tyng,   Edward,  312,  512,  581;  family, 

580. 

UH DEN'S  Gesckickte  der  Congrega- 

tionalisten,  144. 
Ulpius's  globe,  42. 
Underbill,  John,  118,  173,  220,  254, 

255,  420. 

Uncas  and  Miantonomoh,  299. 
University     men     among    the     early 

settlers,  454. 
Updick,  James,  323. 
Upsall,    Nicholas,    186,  493,   550;  his 

family's  petition,  186. 
Usher.  Hezekiah,  324,  468,  500.    John 

211,  366,  453,  500;  family,  582. 

VALLEY  ACRE,  525. 

Vane,  Harry,  124  ;  portrait  and  auto- 
graph, 125 ;  governor,  125 ;  his 
house,  126;  return  to  England,  127  ; 
executed,  305. 

Vassal!,  John,  278.    William,  101,  193. 

Vates,  John,  320. 

Verrazano  Giovanni  de,  32,  35. 

Verrazano,  Hieronimus,  map,  41,  44. 

Vial!,  John,  552. 

Vincent,  Philip,  255. 

Vinci,  Leonardo  da,  map,  40. 

Vinland,  24,  38. 


Virginia,  early  limits  of,  51  :  relations 

with  Boston,  276. 
Vischer's  maps,  46. 

WABAN,  261. 

Wages,  488,  497. 

Walford,  Thomas,  in  Gorges'  com- 
pany, 75,  76,  78 ;  at  Charlestown, 
84,  384,  385- 

Walker,  Robert,  542. 

Wampatuck,  249. 

Wapping,  392. 

Ward,  Nathaniel,  128. 

Warham,  Rev.  John,  424,  436. 

Warner,  John,  323. 

Warwick,  Earl  of,  96. 

Washington  Street,  538. 

Watch,  510. 

Waterhouse,  Rev.  Thomas,  429. 

Water  mills,  225. 

Wateitown,  217,  425. 

Watson,  John,  323. 

Watts,  Solomon,  323. 

Waugh,  Dorothy,  184. 

Webcowit,  383. 

Weld,  Joseph,  405,  407,  409,  421. 
Thomas, -i  76,  411,  413,  458. 

Wessagusset  settled,  65,  76,  78,  83. 

West,  Nicholas,  101.    Francis,  75. 

West  Hill,  525,  528. 

Weston,  Thomas,  69,  70,  72,  76. 

West  Roxbury,  records,  xxi,  xxii. 

Weymouth,  69,  71,  234 

Weymouth  or  Waymouth,  Captain,  47, 
465. 

Whales,  ii. 

Wharves,  225. 

Wheeler,  Thomas,  320,  327. 

Wheelwright,  John,  176. 

Whetcomb,  Simon,  94. 

Whipping-post.  506. 

White,  Rev  John,  89,  92,  93,  424  ; 
his  Planter's  Plea,  93,  149,  153. 
Mercy,  556. 

Whitehand,  George,  389. 

WHITMORE,  WILLIAM  H.  "Boston 
Families,"  557. 

Whittingham  family,  582. 

Whitwell,  William,  494. 

Wiggin,  337- 

Wigglesworth,  Michael,  461  ;  his  lib- 
rary, 455  >  h's  Day  of  Doom,  461. 

Wignall,  John,  387. 

Wilbor,  Samuel,  553. 

Willard,  Rev.  Samuel,  194,  204,  208 ; 
his  Complete  Body  pf  Divinity, 
208  ;  portrait,  208.  Simon," 208, 324. 

Williams,  Robert,  405.  Roger,  his 
character,  455 ;  and  the  Quakers, 
185  ;  and  the  Winthrops,  282  ;  and 
the  Indians,  253, 259, 264,  312,  465  ; 
his  Key,  466;  at  Plymouth,  119; 
escapes  from  Massachusetts,  124  ; 
his  course  in  Massachusetts,  149, 
155,  166,  171;  his  autograph,  171; 
literature  of  the  controversy,  172  ; 
his  Bloitdy  Tenent,  172  ,  lives  of 
him,  173  ;  alleged  portrait,  173. 
Thomas,  452. 

Willoughby,  Francis,  399,  520. 


Wilson,  John,  107,  540;  autograph 
ii  I  ;  his  house.  119;  no  portrait  of, 
120 ;  land  at  Mount  Woiiaston,  220 ; 
makes  a  stump  speech,  126  ;  death, 
193.  Rev.  John,  Jr  ,  438.  Lambert, 
501. 

Windmills,  225,  526,  532,  534. 

Winnisimmet,  445. 

Winship,  Edward,  440;  house,  443. 

Winslow,  Edward,  276  ;  his  Hypocra- 
cie  Unmasked,  171  ;  his  New  Eng- 
land's Salamander,  171.  Josiah, 
3"t  3'4 

WINSOR,  JUSTIN,  editor,  Preface  ;  In- 
troduction ;  "Maps  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay,"  37 ;  "  Literature  of  the 
Colonial  Period,"  453. 

Winsor's  warehouse,  547. 

Winter,  mild,  409. 

Winter  Hill,  391. 

Winthrop,  Adam,  his  pot,  491.  Deane, 
451;  his  house,  447.  John,  101  ; 
at  Charlestown,  114,  386;  auto- 
graph, 114;  his  communion  cup, 
114  ;  his  fleet,  115  ;  his  controversy 
with  Dudley,  120;  his  house,  i?S, 
161,  481 ;  his  farm,  387  ;  his  labors, 
496;  joins  the  Mass.  Co.,  102  ;  his 
ancestry,  103  ;  made  governor,  104 ; 
his  Conclusions  for  New  England, 
105,  140 ;  sails  for  New  England, 
107  ;  his  Journal  or  History  of 
New  England,  xvi,  109,  463  :  his 
Model  of  Christian  Charity,  no, 
142;  his  Short  Story,  176;  his 
map  of  Cape  Ann,  61  ;  impeached, 
133;  his  death,  136,  250;  his  por- 
trait, 136;  his  character,  142;  gives 
books  to  Harvard  College,  455  ;  his 
Arbitrary  Government  described, 
132.  John,  Jr.,  314.  Margaret,  104. 
ROBERT  C  ,  "  Boston  Founded," 
99.  Wait,  314  ;  family,  574. 

Winthrop,  town  of,  445. 

Wishing-stone,  554. 

Witchcraft,  136. 

Witherell,  William,  397. 

Withington,  Henry,  438, 

Witter,  William,  178. 

Wituwamat,  72. 

Woad-waxen,  20. 

Wobble,  13. 

Wollaston's  party,  79. 

Wolves,  10. 

Wonder-working  Providence,  463. 

Wood,  William,  New  England's 
Prospect,  9,  56,  463,  465 ;  map,  524. 

Wood  and  timber,  427,  522. 

Woodberry,  John,  93. 

Woodmansey,  Robert,  317. 

Woodstock,  Conn.,  422. 

Written  tree,  229. 

Wussausman,  311. 

Wytfliet's  map,  45. 

YOUNG,  SIR  JOHN,  94. 
Yeaman  house,  448. 

ZENI,  the,  27  ;  map,  39.