England in America, 1580-1652 Part 15

[Footnote 16: Ibid., 248.]

[Footnote 17: Hazard, _State Papers_, I., 298.]

[Footnote 18: Bradford, _Letter-Book_ (Ma.s.s. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 1st series, III., 63); _Plimoth Plantation_, 284-292.]

[Footnote 19: Bradford, _Letter-Book_ (Ma.s.s. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 1st series, III., 53).]

[Footnote 20: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_, 350.]

[Footnote 21: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 139.]

[Footnote 22: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_, 395-401.]

[Footnote 23: _Plymouth Col. Records_, I., 133.]

[Footnote 24: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_, 437-444.]

[Footnote 25: Palfrey, _New England_, I., 223, II., 6; Hazard, _State Papers_, I., 300.]

[Footnote 26: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_, 459.]

[Footnote 27: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_, 444.]

[Footnote 28: Ibid., 122.]

[Footnote 29: Ibid., 187.]

[Footnote 30: Palfrey, _New England_, II., 8.]

[Footnote 31: Ibid. In August, 1643, the number of males of military age was 627.]

[Footnote 32: Brigham, _Plymouth Charter and Laws_, 43, 244.]

[Footnote 33: Palfrey, _New England_, II., 7; Howard, _Local Const.i.tutional History_, 50-99.]

[Footnote 34: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_, 314, 418, 419.]

CHAPTER XI

GENESIS OF Ma.s.sACHUSETTS

(1628-1630)

The abandonment, in 1626, of their colony at Cape Ann by the Dorchester adventurers, did not cause connection to be entirely severed either in America or in England. In America, Conant and three of the more industrious settlers remained, but as the fishery was abandoned, they withdrew with the cattle from the exposed promontory at Cape Ann to Naumkeag, afterwards Salem.[1] In England a few of the adventurers, loath to give up entirely, sent over more cattle, and the enterprise, suddenly attracting other support, rose to a greater promise than had ever been antic.i.p.ated.[2]

Among those in England who did not lose hope was the Rev. John White, of Dorchester, a merchant as well as a preacher, and his large figure stands on the threshold of the great commonwealth of Ma.s.sachusetts.

Thomas Fuller says that he had absolute command of two things not easily controlled--"his own pa.s.sions and the purses of his paris.h.i.+oners." White wrote Conant and his a.s.sociates to stick by the work, and promised to obtain for them a patent and fully provide them with means to carry on the fur trade. The matter was discussed in Lincolns.h.i.+re and London, and soon a powerful a.s.sociation came into being and lent its help.

Other men, some of whom are historic personages, began to take a leading part, and there was at first no common religious purpose among the new a.s.sociates. The contemporary literature is curiously free from any special appeal to Puritanic principles, and the arguments put forward are much the same as those urged for the settlement of Virginia. The work of planting a new colony was taken up enthusiastically, and a patent, dated March 19, 1628, was obtained from the Council for New England, conceding to six grantees, Sir Henry Rosewell, Sir John Young, Thomas Southcot, John Humphrey, John Endicott, and Simon Whitcombe, "all that Parte of New England in America aforesaid, which lyes and extendes betweene a greate River there comonlie called Monomack alias Merriemack, and a certen other River there, called Charles River, being in the Bottome of a certayne Bay there, comonlie called Ma.s.sachusetts alias Mattachusetts, ... and ... lyeing within the s.p.a.ce of three English Myles on the South Parte of the said Charles River, ... and also ... within the s.p.a.ce of three English Myles to the Northward of the said River called Monomack, ...

throughout the Mayne Landes there, from the Atlantick and Westerne Sea and Ocean on the East Parte, to the South Sea on the West Parte."

The patent also gave to the company "all Jurisdiccons, Rights, Royalties, Liberties, Freedoms, Ymmunities, Priviledges, Franchises, Preheminences, and Commodities, whatsoever, which they, the said Council established at Plymouth, ... then had, ... within the saide Landes and Premisses."[3] On account of the reckless manner in which the Council for New England granted away its territory, the patent conflicted with several others of an earlier date. In March, 1622, they had granted to John Mason a patent for all the land between Naumkeag and the Merrimac River. Then, in December, 1622, a part of this territory having a front of ten miles "upon the northeast side of Boston Bay," and extending thirty miles into the interior, was granted to Captain Robert Gorges.[4] Next, at the division in June, 1623, the part of New England about Boston Bay fell to Lord Sheffield, the earl of Warwick, and Lord Edward Gorges, a cousin of Sir Ferdinando. The rights under the first and last of these grants were surrendered in 1629,[5] but, according to Ferdinando Gorges, he, as one of the council, only sanctioned the patent to Rosewell and his partners on the understanding that the grant to his son should not be interfered with; and the maintenance of this claim was the occasion of dispute for some years.[6]

June 20, 1628, the new company sent out a party of emigrants under John Endicott, who arrived, September 6, at Naumkeag, where, with the number already on Boston Bay at their coming, they made about fifty or sixty persons. He found the remains of Conant's company disposed to question the claims of the new-comers, but the dispute was amicably arranged, and in commemoration Naumkeag was given the name of Salem, the Hebrew word for "Peaceful."[7]

For nearly a year little is known of the settlers except that in the winter some died of the scurvy and others of an "infectious fever."[8]

Endicott wrote to Plymouth for medical a.s.sistance, and Bradford sent Dr. Samuel Fuller, whose services were thankfully acknowledged. One transaction which has come down to us shows that Endicott's government early marked out the lines on which the Ma.s.sachusetts colony travelled for many years afterwards. Endicott made it evident that he would make no compromise with any of the "unG.o.dly" in Ma.s.sachusetts. Morton's settlement fell within Endicott's jurisdiction, and he resolved to finish the work which the Plymouth people began. So, about three months after the first visit, Endicott, with a small party, crossed the bay, hewed down the abominable May-pole, and, solemnly dubbing the place Mount Dago, in memory of the Philistine idol which fell down before the ark of the Lord, "admonished Morton's men to look ther should be better walking."

In the mean time, important events were happening in England. John Oldham, having Thomas Morton in custody, landed at Plymouth, England, not long after Endicott left for America. Morton posed as a martyr to religious persecution, and Oldham, who remembered his own troubles with the Plymouth settlers, soon fraternized with him. They acted in connection with Ferdinando Gorges and his son John Gorges, who, instead of punis.h.i.+ng Morton for illicit trading, made use of him and Oldham to dispute the t.i.tle of the grant to Endicott and his a.s.sociates. Robert Gorges was then dead, and his brother John was heir to his patent for the northeast side of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay.

Accordingly, John Gorges, in January, 1629, executed two deeds--one to John Oldham and the other to Sir William Brereton--for two tracts of land out of the original grant to Robert Gorges. Oldham planted himself on his new rights, and tried to make his patent the means to obtain from the Ma.s.sachusetts Company in England the exclusive management of the colony's fur trade, or the recognition of his rights as an independent trader. But the company had already set aside the profits of the fur trade as a fund for the defence of the colony and the support of the public wors.h.i.+p, and they would make no concession.[9] Instead, they took the best means to strengthen their t.i.tle and suppress such disturbers as Oldham.

A royal charter was solicited, and March 4, 1629, one of liberal powers pa.s.sed the seals, chiefly through the influence of the earl of Warwick.[10] It created a corporation by the name of the "Governor and Company of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay in New England," and confirmed to them all the territory given by the patent from the Council for New England. The administration of its affairs was intrusted to a governor, deputy, and eighteen a.s.sistants, who were annually, on the last Wednesday of Easter term, to be elected by the freemen or members of the corporation, and to meet once a month or oftener "for despatching such business as concerned the company or plantation."

Four times a year the governor, a.s.sistants, and all the freemen were to be summoned to "a greate generall, and solemne a.s.semblie," and these "greate and generall courts" were invested with full power to choose and admit into the company so many as they should think fit, to elect and const.i.tute all requisite subordinate officers, and to make laws and ordinances for the welfare of the company and for the government of the plantation.

The company was given the power to transport to its American territory all persons who should go willingly, but the corporate body alone was to decide what liberties, if any, the emigrants should enjoy. In fact, the only restrictions in the charter upon the company and its court of a.s.sistants were that they should license no man "to rob or spoil,"

hinder no one from fis.h.i.+ng upon the coast of New England, and pa.s.s "no law contrary or repugnant to the lawes and statutes of England."

Matthew Cradock was named in the charter the governor of the company.

One of the first steps taken by the company under the new charter was to organize a temporary local government for the colonists in Ma.s.sachusetts. This was to consist of a governor, a deputy governor, and thirteen councillors, of whom seven were to be named by the company, three were to be chosen by these seven and the governor, and three more were to be appointed by the "old planters" found in Ma.s.sachusetts at the arrival of Endicott. Land was allotted on a plan like that adopted by the London Company: each shareholder was to have two hundred acres for every 50 that he invested, and if he settled in that country, fifty more for himself and fifty more for each member of his family.[11]

A letter of instructions was draughted, April 17, to Governor Endicott, in which mention was made of the negotiations with Oldham, and orders given to effect an occupation of the territory covered by his grant from John Gorges. This letter was sent off by a special s.h.i.+p which reached Salem June 20, 1629, and Endicott promptly despatched three brothers of the name of Sprague, and a few others, who planted themselves at Mishawum, within the disputed territory, where they found but "one English palisadoed and thatched house wherein lived Thomas Walford, a smith." Other emigrants followed, and there, in July, was laid out by Endicott a town which was named Charlestown.

This practically ended the difficulty with Oldham, who was kept in the dark till the s.h.i.+p sailed from England, and was then told by the company that they were determined, on advice of counsel, to treat his grant as void. As for Brereton, he was made a member of the company and did not give any real trouble.[12]

May 11, 1629, sailed from London five s.h.i.+ps carrying about four hundred settlers, most of whom were servants, and one hundred and forty head of cattle and forty goats. They arrived at Salem, June 27, and about four weeks later the ecclesiastical organization of the colony was effected by John Endicott, who had already written to Bradford that the wors.h.i.+p at Plymouth was "no other than is warranted by the evidence of the truth." He set apart July 20 for the work, and, after a portion of the morning spent in prayer, Samuel Skelton and Francis Higginson, two of the four ministers who accompanied the last arrivals, avowed their belief in the doctrines of the Independents, and were elected respectively pastor and teacher. A confession of faith and a church covenant were drawn up, and August 6 thirty persons a.s.sociated themselves in a church.[13]

Two of the gentlemen emigrants, John and Samuel Browne, presumed to hold a separate service with a small company, using the Prayer Book.

Thereupon the hot-headed Endicott arrested them, put them on s.h.i.+pboard, and sent them back to England. This conduct of Endicott's was a flagrant aggression on vested rights, since the Brownes appear in the charter as original promoters of the colony, and were sent to Ma.s.sachusetts by the company in the high capacity of a.s.sistants or councillors to Endicott himself. The two brothers complained in England, and in October, 1629, the company sent Endicott a warning against "undigested counsels ... which may have any ill construction with the state here and make us obnoxious to an adversary."[14]

In another particular Endicott showed the summary character which distinguished him. When Morton arrived in London a prisoner, in 1628, Isaac Allerton was trying to secure from the Council for New England a new patent for Plymouth colony. In Morton he appears to have recognized a convenient medium for reaching Sir Ferdinando Gorges; at any rate, when Allerton returned to New England in the summer of 1629, he brought Thomas Morton back with him, to the scandal of the Plymouth community.[15] After a few weeks at Plymouth, Morton repaired to Merry Mount and resumed the business of a fur-trader, but, as might have been expected, he was soon brought into conflict with his neighbors.

Endicott, it appears, not long after Morton's return, in pursuance of instructions from England, summoned all the settlers in Ma.s.sachusetts to a general court at Salem. At this meeting, according to Morton, Endicott tendered to all present for signature articles binding them "to follow the rule of G.o.d's word in all causes as well ecclesiasticall as politicall." The alternative was banishment, but Morton says that he declined to subscribe without the words in the Ma.s.sachusetts charter, "so as nothing be done contrary or repugnant to the Lawes of the Kingdome of England." Endicott took fire at the independent claims of Morton and sent a party to arrest him. They found Morton gone, whereupon they broke into his house and appropriated his corn and other property.[16]

Meanwhile, in England, an important determination had been reached by the leaders of the Ma.s.sachusetts Company. At a general court, July 28, 1629, Cradock, the governor, read "certain propositions conceived by himself" for transferring the headquarters of the company to America.[17] The matter was held in abeyance, and the members present were instructed to consider the question "privately and secretely."

August 26 twelve of the most influential members, among whom were John Winthrop, Isaac Johnson, Thomas Dudley, and Richard Saltonstall, bound themselves by a written agreement at Cambridge to emigrate with their families to New England if a transfer of the government could be effected.[18]

Three days later the company held another meeting, when the removal was formally proposed and carried. Accordingly, such of the old officers as did not wish to take part in the emigration resigned their places, and for governor the choice fell upon John Winthrop, a wealthy gentleman of Groton, in Suffolk, and for deputy governor upon Thomas Dudley, who had been steward of the earl of Lincoln. The ultimate effect of this brilliant stroke was to convert the company into a colony.[19]

This change of policy was taken when affairs looked particularly dark in England, for it was about this time that King Charles, provoked at the opposition of Parliament, entered upon his policy of ruling without one. March 10, 1629, Parliament was dissolved, and no other was called for a s.p.a.ce of eleven years. Several of the most eminent members were languis.h.i.+ng in the Tower of London, and the king's proclamation of March 27 announced that he would "account it as a presumption for any to prescribe any time unto us for Parliaments, the calling, continuing, and dissolving of which is always in our power."[20]

The result was a general stir throughout England, and in a few months a thousand persons prepared to leave. They went in several parties in seventeen s.h.i.+ps, and there was probably a greater proportion of men of wealth and solid respectability than ever had left England for America in any one year before. The colonists, though Puritans, were church of England men, and the idea of any separation from their old religious connections was expressly disclaimed in a pamphlet published in 1630, ent.i.tled the "Planters' Plea,"[21] which has been, with good reason, a.s.signed to Rev. John White. In this paper the writer appeals to the address of the colonists at their departure, wherein they termed the church of England "our dear mother."[22] Apparently anxious to repel the imputation of nonconformity against "our New England colony," he adds the confident a.s.sertion that John Winthrop, the chosen governor, has been "in every way regular and conformable in the whole course of his practice"; and that "three parts of four of the men planted in New England are able to justify themselves to have lived in a constant conformity unto our church government and orders."

The party with which Winthrop sailed arrived at Salem June 12, 1630, after a nine weeks' voyage, in which they were exposed to stormy and boisterous weather. They found the colony of Endicott in "a sad and unexpected condition." More than a fourth part had died during the previous winter, and many of the survivors were weak and sick. There was a general scarcity of bread and corn, and the arrival of Winthrop and his emigrants did not improve matters, for many of the new-comers were suffering from scurvy, and a quant.i.ty of supplies which had been bought in England had by some mistake been left behind.[23]