Boston City (part 26 of 67)

In the early summer of 1630, therefore, - just prior to the arrival of Governor Winthrop, coming to " Mattachusctts " 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.*'' 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 Boston, William Blackstone, a solitary, bookish recluse, in his thirty-fifth year,

- [All that is known of Thomson is given in lcff*s Description of Bostott^ p. 502. - Ed.] Chas. Deane's notes to an Indenture, printed In - Winthrop, New England, I. 93.

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-treeo.* Thomas VVal-

1 [It is known that Blackstone, in 1634, reserving only six acres, sold out to the colonists his right to the remainder of the peninsula, being tired of the *Mord 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 IIill,*' »itualcd near tlie railroad station in the present village of Lonsdale, Rhode Island, where he became the 6rst white inhabitant of that State. In 1684 Francis Hudson, ferryman, aged sixty-eight ; John Odiin, aged eighty-two; William Lytherland, aged seventy-six ; and Robert Walker, aged seventyeight, - all made deposition as to the purchase of the peninsula from Blackstone. Suffolk Dceds^ xxiv. 406; Shurlleff, Desc. 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 bom. Shurtlefl, Bostoiiy p. 616. 1 le died in Cumberland, R. I., May 26, 1675. Roger Williams records it, June 13: "About a fortnight since your old accpiaintancc Mr. Blackstone* (lc|>;iilcd this life in the fourscore year of his age ; four days before his death he had a great pain \\\ his breast, and back, and bo wells; 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 Mass, Hist, Coll.^ vi. 299; also cf. 2 Mass, Hist. ColL^ x. 170. Two boulders are to this day pointed out as marking his grave. He left among his effects **io paper Ixjoks," 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 Cleaner articles in the Boston Transcript, '855-56 (which will soon l)e reprinted at the cost of the city), traced back the titles of the territory reserved by Blackstone in 1634, and his results would place his house and orchard on a plat stretching on l^acon 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 "Trimountain." His name continued long attached to a bold point of land somewhere near the foot of Pinckney Street, just inside the line of Charles Street. Sewall, Papers, i. 186, notes in August, 1687, "going into the water alone at Blackstone's Point," and again in 1709 he si)eaks of "behind Blackstone's Point." - Ibid. ii. 260. It is thought his famous spring was situated not far from the present Louislx)urg Square. The Burgiss map of 1728 is said to present in Bannister's garden the site of tUackstone'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 Buok of Pasessions, as figured by U. II. Crocker, Esq. The six-acre lot is here bounded by Ueacon 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. Savall Papers, i. 73. It is an area u|>on which many distinguished Bostonians have lived, - Copley, Phillips (the first mayor), Harrison Gray Otis, Channing, Prcscott, David Scars, Charles Francis Adams. John Lolhrop M<»tlcy, Francis Parkiuan, and others. Cf. Shurtlcff's Boston, pp. 106, J95, 383, 391 ; T. C. Aniory's notes to his poem, ford, the blacksmith, with his wife, were his nearest neighbors, living at Mishauwum, or Charlestown, in an "English paiisadoed and thatched house; " while a little further off, at Rast 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 Thomson, 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 Ferdinando 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

Blackslone, Boston^ First Inhabitant; W. W. VVhcil(lon*s Beacon Hill. What information we have of Blackstone can be gleaned from Bliss's Rehohoth^ p. 2; Daggett's AttUhorongh^ p. 29; Cal lender's Hist, Discourse^ app-i S. C. Newman's Address at Study Hill^ July 4, 1855; Arnold's Rhode Island^ i. 99, ii. 568; and particularly of his Boston life in Savage's Winthrop, i. 44, and Geneal. Dictionary; Young's Chronicles 0/ Mass. ; S. Davis, in 2 Mass. Hist. Coll.^ x. 170; Drake's Boston^ P* 95 > ^ M. Sargent, quoted in Hist. Mag.t December, 1870; North American Review^ Ixiii., by G. E. Ellis, and Ixviii., by F. Bowen. Motley the historian, in his early romance. Merry Mounts introduces Blackstone as riding on a bull about his peninsula. He briefly tells Blackstone's story in "The Solitary of Shawmut," in the Boston Book of 1850.

The document above referred to is endorsed, -- John Odiin, &c., their depositions ab» Blackston's Sale of his Land in Boston," and is printed by Shurtleff, Dese. 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 l^ytherland, aged about Seventy-six yeares. These Deponents being ancient dwellers and Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, in New England, from the time of the first planting and setling 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*' Town of Boston (of whonic the Hono*»'« John Wlnthrop, Esq'- Governo' of the Colony, was Cheife) did treate and agree with M'- William

Blackstone for the purchase of his Estate and right in any Lands lying within the s** neck of Land called Boston ; and for s** purchase agreed that «very householder should pay Six Shillings, which was accordingly Collected, none paying less, some considerably more than Six Shillings, and the s<* sume* Collected was delivered and paid to M'- Blackstone to his full content and satisfaction ; in consideration whereof hee Sold unto the then Inhabitants of 8<* Town and their heires and assignees for ever his whole right and interest in all and every of the Lands lying within .s«i 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 purpose and for the feeding of Cattell. Robert Walker & W""- Lytherland further testify that M' Blackstone bought a Stock of Cows with the Money he rec** as above, and Removed and dwelt near Providence, where he liv'd till y« day of his death.

" Deposed this loth of June, 16S4, by John Odlin, Robert Walker, Francis Hudson, and William Lytherland, according to their respective Testimonye,

Shurtleflf 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. Lytherland w.is an Antinoniian, who removed to Rhode Island and became town clerk of Newport, and died very old. - Ed.J

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 submerge it as to obliterate through more than two centuries every historical tradition even of its continuity with what followed.

By Samuel Foster Haven, Ll.D.

" Rev. John Cotton is a man still held in some remembrance among our New England 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 particulars 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 occupied 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 sometimes 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." ^

1 Cromweirs Letters and Speeches^ with Elu- came above eight months before." - Prince, Ancidatiom, iii. 197. nals, edition of 1826, p. 249. " Governor Brad-

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. Cotton."^ 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. Young 2 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 country. It was at a Court held at Charlestown, Sept. 7, 1630, that it was simply ordered that Tri-Mountain be called Boston. Mr. Cotton was not mentioned ; and no reason was assigned for selecting that name. It is rather singular that Winthrop, in his very particular diary, does n^t 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 eating 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^ Perhaps a motive may be found in the relations of the several interests that were combined in the organization 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 mingled 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 Dorchusetts." - Ibid. p. 250. Harris, in his edition the charter itself. Mr. Savage says of Hubbard : of Hubbard, tries, we thmk unsuccessfully, to "He seems to have slighted most of the occurgive a different construction to Hubbard's state- rences in which he should have felt the deepest

The Massachusetts Company

Chester emigrants came in a large and well-appointed ship by themselves. They arrived a fortnight sooner than the rest of VVinthrop*s fleet, and fixing upon Mnttnpan (now South Koston), called it "Dorchester," - expecting it to become the principal town ; and there were good reasons for that anticipation. 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 introduction of permanent settlements here.

The situation selected was well supplied with pastures and fields for tillage, possessing also a convenient harbor and facilities for trade; and for a time it took the lead among the new plantations. Wood ' calls Dorchester "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.'** In 1633, when four hundred pounds were assessed upon the colony, Dorchester was called upon for one fifth of the whole, - eighty pounds, - while Boston paid only forty-eight pounds.'

On the other hand, when the Boston men joined the Massachusetts Company, 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 control of the enterprise. They came over holding the power and responsibility 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 associations 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 Plantations 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

- 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.]

The Memorial History Of Boston

appellations.^ Of course the prospective head of the Church did not intend to honor particularly the Non-conformist capital of Lincolnshire, and doubtless, without any special motive, suggested such names as happened to occur to him, - "Berwick," ** Plymouth," ''Oxford," "Falmouth," "Bristol," "Cambridge," " 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.^

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 generations of hardy mariners of different nations, through whom a knowledge of their abundant riches was gradually communicated to European countries.^ A century of familiar acquaintance with the harbors and islands of the sea

> " 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, Dese. of New England, [See Mr. Winsor's chapter in the previous section. - Ed.)

* See Winthrop's New England^ I. 102, 103. Before leaving this point I wish to refer to a paper upon "Anthropology, Sociology, and Nationality," by D. Mackintosh, F.G.S., read at the forty-fifth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in August, 1875. ^" ^^^^ portion of his lecture which re- Inted 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. Restless activity, ambition, and commercial speculation 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 proportion of New England surnames are still found in Devon and Dorset, there is a small village called Boston near Totncss.and in its immediate neighborhood a place called Dunkcr Hill I Did some English political dissenter of 1775 at the Devonshire 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 manners, of dialects, and of temfierament are strongly marked in England, and betray diversity of ancestral derivation. It is a suitable task for our New England Historic Genealogical Society to determine whether the southwestern or the northeastern sections of the mother country, or the intermediate point of London and its vicinity, contributed most largely to the numbers that ultimately formed the Massachusetts Colony. Higginson, in the journal of his voyage, written from New England, July 24, 1629, describes the Company of Massachusetts Bay as consisting of many worthy gentlemen in the city of London, Dorchester, 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. Higginson 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 Lincolnshire, and a great company of godly Christians out of I-ondon." Young, Chron, of Mass. p. 26a

* It is claimed that the first French settlements originated from this source, and that the active participation of Holland in the trade drew had passed away without plantations or durable stations on land for settlement or trafTic. 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, furnished materials for *' The Skeleton in Armor," and other supposed relics of the Northmen.* 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 governing 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 tb Prince Charles, on whom they relied for encouragement and assistance.^ 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 partiailar 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 shi})s of the southern ports of Great Britain.

* 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. Proc.y April,* 1880, for remarks of George Dexter. Esq., on communicating a letter of Erasmus Rask to Henry Wheaton. [A chapter by Mr. Dexter in this volume covers this question. - Ed.]

* >/ Brief Reiation of Ihe Disari'ery and Plantation of Nnv England^ London, 1622, reprinted in 2 Mass. 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 oppositions 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.

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 reaction began in 1624, when the war with Spain commenced, and was made complete 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 series of operations under very different auspices. John White, of Dorchester, a Puritan minister, but not a Non-conformist, whose parishioners and friends were actively engaged 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 U 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

' Among the irregular proceedings of the Council for New England was an early attempt to divide the territory embraced in their patent among their meml)ers; a measure which did nut acquire a legal validity. But the Earl of Sheffield, 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 liny and islancls, and free lil>erty 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 statement in his General! Hisfon'e, p. 247, ** that there is a plantation l)eginning by the Dorchester men which they hold of those of New Plymouth." The story is very well told by Mr. Thornton in his Landiui^at Cape Amu\ 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 lx:aring on subsequent events. [The matter of this abortive division of territory above referred to is further 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 Company, see Felt's Salem ; George 1). Phippen in Essex Institute Collections^ i. 97, 145, 185; A\ E. Hist, and Geneal, iV^f., July, 1848; Bradford's Plytnonth Plantation, Deane's note, p. 169. Hubbard's most valuable chapter is that on Conant, and his facts may have l)een derived from Conant himself. It is given in part in Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts. - Kli. J

^ I An account of the seal, with the reasons for lx:lieving this to be the seal, is given by Charles Deane in Mass, Hist. Soc. Proc, March, 1867. Dr. Palfrey adopts Mr. ]>eane's conclusions. The patent creating the Council will be found in Hazard's Collections^ i. 103; in Brigham's Plymouth Laws; in Baylies's Plymouth Colony^ i. 160; in the Popham Memorial, p. no, and in Trumbull's Connecticut, i. 546. The petition for it can lie found in the Colonial History 0/ A^ew York, iii., and the warrant in Gorges' AVw England. - Ed.]

The Massachusetts Company

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 permanent 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 expended with no returns, the settlers quarrelled with those from New Plymouth, 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 Woodbcrry, 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 influence of Conant they were kept to their engagement, and are entitled to the consideration of being among the originators of the Massachusetts Company.^

There are three contemporary statements of what was done at this particular juncture, representing three different points oC view. One of these is that of Mr. White, the leader of the movement in the counties of Dorset 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.

" 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 subsisting 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 London, and being at first approved by some and disliked by others, by argument and disputation 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 procured to go over, inquiry was made whether any would be willing to engage their persons 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 Charter. 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 Roscwcll 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 Whctcomb, perhaps of London, subsequently an Assistant, constant in his attendance at the meetings of the Company in London, and a liberal contributor 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, June 29, 1623, inclusive. The second portion begins the 4th of November, 163 1. The patent to the friends of the Massachusetts Company comes between these periods, and no official account of the circumstances attending the application 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 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 ;(^iio, ** 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 merchants 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 gotten, 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." ^ '

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

^ 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.

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 official 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), conjmence again in November 1631, the Earl of Warwick is president, his predecessor. Gorges, being treasurer. The old names have mostly disappeared 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 associates, 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 Massachusetts 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.* Hereupon there was a grant passed as was thought reasonable ; but the same was afterwards enlarged by His Majesty and confirmed under the great seal of England."

It might very well happen, in their careless way of conducting such operations, that a vote ojf 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 incapable of accomplishing any successful results by its own efforts, the bold idea of creating an independent proprietorship, of liberal extent, for actual settle-

Bay, was disregarded by subsc(|ucnt grantees will be found in 3 Massachusetts Historical Colas invalid, partly for its uncertainly. Ilutchin- lections, vi., and in Maine Historical Collections^ ment by an earnest body of men, might naturally and honestly appear to the Karl 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 Parliamentary 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 ineflcctual endeavors, from which only two of their members, Gorges and Mason, reaped any permanent 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 deathblow 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.*

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 oflicially secured operations were fairly in progress. Yet it was only at great cost and by means of high influence that the overruling 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 19th of March, 1628.^ 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 engaged in fitting out Endicott's expedition. He sailed on the 20th 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.' On the 23rd of March, letters were received from Isaac

* [The declaration of reasons, &c., will l)e found in Hazard's Collections^ i. A manuscript of this <lccIaralion is in the Nfassachusctts Historical Society's cabinet. - Proceedhii^s^ April, 1868, p. 161. - Id).]

* [It was under this grant that the limits of Massachusetts were fixed three miles north of the Merrimac, - a trace of which remains in the zigzag line of our present northeastern boundary, following a parallel of the river. The southern Ixjunds were three miles south of the Charles, and jravc rise to much dispute with the Plymouth people. The tortuous river, with

' It was just at this point of time that the men from fJncolnshirc and other eastern counties, cnrourngcd by l-julirotl's Icllcrs, presented themselves for admission to the Company "2^ March, 1628-29. Also it being propounded by Mr. Coney in l)ehalf of the Boston men (whereof divers had promised, though not in our book underwritten) to adventure ^^400 for the common stock, that now their desire was that 10 persons of them might underwrite -^25 a man in the joint stock, they wilhal promising

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 Iligginson and Samuel Skclton sign an agreement to that end; and on the 25th the second expedition set sail, carrying those ministers and three hundred passengers with them.*

On the 28th of July Governor Cradock " read certain propositions, conceived by himself," giving reasons for transferring the government to Massachusetts ; but at this point another writer takes up the story in the following 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 mentioned (about one hundred in number), as contributors or associates,' will be found many prominently connected with the revolutionary events which changed the kingdom of Great Britain to a commonwealth.* 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, Cfmipany Records, [The instnictions to Endicott are given in the Mass, Records^ i. 2, ii. 383 ; Amer, Aiitiq, Soc, ColL^ iii. 79; and in Hazard's ColUciionSf 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 original 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, loa Cf. Tyler's American Literature, ii. 94.) Johnson's Wonder-aoorking Providence^ noticed elsewhere in this volume. Higginson's New England Plantation^ July to September, 1629, of which three editions were issued 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 Jifass, Hist. Coll., i. There is a second-hand account 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. V. 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 Winthrop, i. ch. xvii., ii. ch. ii. ; Essex Institute Hist. Coll., V. and v iii. - Ed.]

* 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 termination of both corporations occupies a following 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 Lo^vell Lectures, 1869. by the Massachusetts Historical Society. The Records of the Massachusetts Company are printed in the Afass. Records, \n\\>- lished by the Stale, i. 21, and in Young's Chronicles of Mass. - Ed-I

By The Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, Ll.D.

THE History of The Massachusetts Bay Company has been brought 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 government of the plantation to those that shall inhabit there, and not to continue 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."

This call for " private and serious " consideration ; this demand for particular reasons, on both sides, set down in writing; and this solemn injunction of secrecy, - furnish abundant proof that the Company understooti 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 shadoNvs, 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: -

" 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 discouragements which in all probabilities must be forecast upon the prosecution of this business ; 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 preparation 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 \)OTt 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 ]>ateut for the said Pbntalion, be lirst, by an order of Court, legally transferred anil established to remain with us and others which sliall inliabit upon the said Plantation ; and provideil, 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 api)ointed, to pay for every day's default tlie sum of j£^, to the use of the rest of the company who shall be ready by the same day and time.

" Provided always, that before the last of September next, /A^ 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 prepare 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 : -

I02 The Memorial History Of Boston

" As many of you as desire to have the patent and the government of the Plantation 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."

" Where, by erection of hands, it appeared, by the general consent of the Company, tliat 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 20th 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 retrorsum** On that day, Governor Cradock ''acquainted those present that the especial ^^^ occasion of summoning this Court was for

" 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 Wynthrop,^ 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. S;iltonstall, 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 20th day of October, 1629, old style^ or the 30th, as we should now reckon it, unanimously elected Governor 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 12th day of

* The name of Winthrop is spelled three or four different ways in these Records. This very paragraph uses y in one line, and i in others. And so it is with other names.

Boston Founded. Io3

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 155 1. His third son, Adam, - a lawyer, who had graduated at Magdalen 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 cducatipn; but it has not been ascertained at what schools it was commenced, or how far it was prosecuted beneath the paternal roof. But we learn from his father's Diary that he was admitted into Trinity College, 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 February, 1606, is known to history as the Governor of Connecticut. Nine years afterwards, in 161 5, 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 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 Temple in London, preparing papers for parliamentary committees, and exercising 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, 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 Company. 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, however, 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 despotism. Laud, already Bishop of London, and virtually Primate, was asserting the Divine right of Kings for his Master, and assuming the whole power 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 exactions. 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 tliis 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 coiTiinge upon us : Tlie 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 tribulatio, even unto death. We sawe this, & humbled not ourselves, to tume from our evill wayes, but have provoked him more than all the nations rounde about us : therefore he is tuminge the Cuppe towards us also, & because 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 kindnesse 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.^ 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 Reasons is in terms almost identical with the letter just quoted : -

" 2. All other churches of Europe are brought to desolation, & o' sinnes, for w*^'* the Lord beginnes allreaddy to frowne upon us & to cutte us sliort, doe threatne evill times to be comminge upon us, & whoe knowes, but that God hath provided this place to be a refuge for many whome he meanes to save out of the general! callamity, & seeinge the Church hath noe place lefte to flie into but the wildemesse, what better worke can there be, then to goe & provide tabernacles & foode for her against she conies 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. Religious 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 Consideration, 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 I^rbarians 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."

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 Forstcr says, -* in that evil day for religion ami freedom, had sent their thougiits 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- 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 continues, "that the Compjiny 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." *

Four or five months were now occupied in busy preparations for the great Emigration. Eleven or twelve ships were to be employed in carrying 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 Cowcs, 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 illustrates 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 : -

I08 The Memorial History Of Boston

"Reverend Fathers and Brethren, - The general rumor of this solemn enterprise, 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 intentions, 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 resideih, 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 springing 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 continual 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 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 IIS, when wc conceive thcin to l)c running uncoinrortablc hazards.

" What goodness you shall extend to us in this or any otiicr 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, oversliadowed with the spirit of supplication, through the manifold necessities and tribulations which may not altogether unexpectedly, nor, we hope, unprofitably, befall us. And so commending you to the grace of God in Christ, we shall ever rest

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 Nciv England, furnishes almost all which is known of the first nineteen years of Massachusetts.

The voyage of the *' Arbella " 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

* Doubtless of the family of Fiennes, Lord Say and Scic, one of whose daughters married the young Earl of Lincoln, a brother of the Lady Arbella Johnson.

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 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 probably 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,* 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 Ix)rd shall please to hear us, and bring us in peace to the place wc desire, then hath he ralilicd this (^)vc'nant and scaled (lur ()()nuiiis.si<iu, aiitl will expect a strict performance of the articles contained in it ; but if we shall neglect the observation of these articles which are the ends we have propounded, and, dissembling with our God, shall fall to embrace this present world and prosecute our carnal intentions, seeking pfreat things for ourselves and our posterity, the Ix>rd 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 merc)\ 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 7ve are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways and to keep his Commandments 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 serine 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 Provincial Charter of Oct. 7, 1691. Coming over in a single ship, and counting only about a hundred souls, in all, at their landing from the " May

Flower," their numbers had Increased only threefold during this first decennial 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 Efigland'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 Massathulcts 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 regulation 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 simultaneously from April 30, 1629, or, more correctly, from the time when Endicott*s commission as governor reached Salem, two or three months later, until the 20th (30th) 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 Company 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 ihc same lime, though not in vessels included in the Company's fleet. A second thousand was soon afterwards added under the same influence and example. A precarious Plantation was thus transformed at once into a permanent and prosperous Commonwealth; and henceforth, instead of two or three hundred pioneer planters, thinly scattered 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 12th (22d) day of June, 1630. On that day the transfer was consummated, and the consequences soon began to develop themselves.